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This Book: Acts – The Gospel Continues (Acts 15 v1-21)

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    To see the full message, scroll to the bottom and click through. Throughout the book of Acts we find names that are familiar if you've read the gospels. You'll see repeats of the names of Peter and John and James and Philip and Mary and John Mark.   Luke also introduces us to a whole bunch of new people, new believers. It's really interesting to read right at the beginning of Acts about two men named Matthias and Justus who Luke says were:   ...men who have accompanied us the whole time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from John’s baptism until the day Jesus was taken up from us. Acts 1 v21-22  Matthias and Justus, among others, had been there the whole time, quietly in the background, following and learning and listening. Besides them, we meet Stephen, Barnabas, Priscilla, Apollos, Dorcas, and Saul. Those people became the Church. They built the Church. They bequeathed to us the Church that Jesus established on Peter's declaratio...
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Women in Ministry - Because Here We Go Again

 I want to stop talking about 'women in ministry' and just get on with being one. - Ruth Wilkinson, private correspondence, 2023 So much for wishful thinking.  I mean, I am getting on with being one. I'm the Pastor of a CBOQ church, affirmed in that role and title by any number of godly people who were part of my education, supervision, interviews, and hiring. Week to week I preach the Bible, and point to Jesus in the real life challenges that my people trust me with.  On the other hand, as tired as I am of being a topic of discussion by people who don't know me, the... (hmm. Choosing words carefully...) conversation continues.  I've done enough reading and listening to understand where my Complementarian (sometimes called Hierarchalist) brothers and sisters stand with regard to the Scriptures. As I've said before, I can work and worship with people who hold that position. I don't always enjoy respecting their boundaries, but I've done it and I'm gla...
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This Book: The Gospels 2 - WDJS? (John 16 v12-16)

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  To see the full message, scroll to the bottom and click through. Our words and our deeds  go  together. You  can't  have one without the other .  The ways we speak  and  the ways we live come together to tell people who we are and ,  by extension ,  who is the  Go d  we worship .  Who is this  Jesus  that we follow.  A ny idiot can be a dictator —g et hold of  power ,  and  start making and enforcing rules.  It  is a lot easier to be a dictator than to be a teacher :  to teach people why rules are worth following.  Any idiot can decide what they  want ,  and  then bully  and  manipulate people until they get it.  It's  a lot easier to  do that  than to teach people why something is worth  doing ,  and  then letting  them  choose to do the right thing.  It is easy enough to tell people what to think...
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