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In Acts Paul tells the Ephesians that they will never see him again and that the Spirit has warned him that "imprisonment and persecutions" await him in Jerusalem (20:22-25). When the prophet Agabus warns Paul that imprisonment awaits him in Jerusalem, Paul declares that, if necessary, he is...

With puberty near, I wrote this poem at age 11 to express my unrequited passion for a 6th grade girl. My poem lost when I entered it in a poetry contest at school and that defeat ended my fledgling career as a poet! My heart is broken at the very thought that thou hast spoken of our love as...

This thread is intended to draw attention to the elusive meaning of several ambiguous but spiritually important biblical texts. Please make your case for your interpretation, resisting the temptation to pontificate without evidence on what you think the text should mean. Let me begin the...

1 Corinthians 4:19-20 may be the most important of the neglected texts on spirituality: "I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and will find out not the [God] talk of these arrogant people but their power. For the kingdom of God depends not on [God] talk but on power." Notice what...

If prayer makes a decisive difference and if there is a right and a wrong way to pray, then needy people have paid the price for our failure to pray for them or even for failing to pray for them correctly, following biblical principles. This thread is intended to raise awareness about...

3 points can be inferred from God's initial Self-disclosure to Moses at the Burning Bush: "But Moses said to God: "If I come to the Israelites and say to them, "The God of your ancestors has sent me to you," and they ask me, "What is His name?" what shall I say to them?" God said to Moses: "God...

Jesus teaches, "I have come not to abolish (the Law of Moses), but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17)." What does Jesus mean by "fulfill?" To the degree that the Law's many regulations can be used in the service of the Golden Rule, they remain valid: "In everything do to others as you would have...

At age 16 I was so nagged by doubts about the reliability of Scripture and the authenticity of charismatic manifestations in church that my faith crisis prompted me to spend a week at Manhattan Beach Camp near Ninette, Manitoba with the hope that God would meet me in the Pentecostal camp...

The church's greatest need is for a genuine national revival. Most Christians believe they long for a revival, but they show by their actions that actually don't. If they did, they'd have a passionate longing to know how historical revivals come, but in my experience, very few believers are...

1) I was born and raised in the first Pentecostal church in Canada. I was born with congenital glaucoma in my right eye. My distraught parents were impressed by a famous faith healer named William Branham, who held healing crusades around North America. What set him apart was his...

Sometimes people aren't healed because the right faith-filled person did not pray for the answer to the need in question. This thread will explore several relevant testimonies and then reflect on (a) the biblical basis for this reality and (b) what this means for the church's ministry of prayer...

Let me begin with this disclaimer: I am an evangelical Christian for whom Christ's atoning death and resurrection are the anchor of my faith. But at their best, the verifications inherent in ADCs (=After-Death Contacts) and NDEs (near-death experiences) replicate by their seemingly "physical...

1. THE GOSPEL OF MARK: THE MEMOIR'S OF HIS DAD'S EYWITNESS TESTIMONY There is good reason to embrace the tradition that Mark contains Peter's memoirs. But I recently realized that there are good grounds for taking this one step further and claiming that this Gospel represents the memoirs of...

Most Christians are familiar with Paul's command to "put on the full armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-17)," but are less familiar with this key to doing so: "Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end stay alert and always persevere in supplications for all the...