Church History

This past week we had the privilege of getting to hear from Chad Hampsch who discussed the topic of History of the Church. He started off in 70 A.D. and lead us through the entire history of the Christian Church until present day. The discussion was very interesting to me. To see where all the different religions and denominations got their origins from was very helpful and eye opening. The point that stuck out to me on all of this was the fact that the Church in the beginning was so very unified in the face that Jesus Christ was the son of God and came to earth, lived a perfect life, died the death we could not die and rose again defeating the grave. The church today, in my opinion, does not have that same passion and vision as the early Church did on this topic. Our responsibility today is to restore this passion and vision to the Church. First, in order to help the church, we must utilize our gifts that God has given us to help serve the church body and local church. God has specifically designed each one of us and we must be proactive to help use these gifts within the body of Belivers. Many people to go to Church and sit every sunday morning, listen to a sermon and then go home and this is the extent of their involvement in the Church. This is not going to restore passion and unification for the Believers. We must use our spiritual gifts, we must serve the Church body and community and we must be proactive about helping others. These are a few things that I believe will help renew a passion and unification for the Church.  The most important thing I garnered from this week though, was to be passionate about Jesus. We truly have been given good news and the good news comes through Jesus Christ dying on the cross for our sins. This statement is used all the time so I believe we have become somewhat numb to it, but the greatest men and women who have made a difference for the Church were the ones who fully understood the good news of the Gospel and the fact the Jesus Christ is our savior! If there is one take away for our responsibility to help the Church today, it is this point. If you are truly loving Jesus and living in an intimate relationship with Him, you will want to serve the Church and make a difference for Christ.

First Post!

Hey everyone!

        So excited for my first of many posts to come! I am attending the Kanakuk Institute in Branson Missouri this year and will be blogging about the many things that I am learning while I am here. This past week we had a man by the name of David Lawson come in and speak on how to Inductively study your Bible. The first question that is raised in this topic is why even study your Bible at all? In Scripture it says "all scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16) If scripture is all these things then it is a must to study. It also is God's letter to us and therefore gives us a guidebook on how to live life the way it was meant to be lived. Mr. Lawson taught us a very simple way to study and get the most out of what the text says in the Bible. There are 3 keys to studying the word of God. 1.) Observation- Look to see what the text says, ask your self who? what? when? where? why? how? 2.) Interpretation-What does the text mean. Look at the context, use cross references and utilize word studies. 3.) Application-How do you apply the text to your life? These 3 steps are very simple but are so extremely important. They will truly help the Bible to come to life and make a difference in the way you read Scripture. Here is a teaching outline, as well, that will hopefully help make things easier to understand:

Teaching Outline

I.               What is Inductive Bible Study?

a.     Reading and Studying the Word of God using 3 main techniques

                                               i.     Observation

                                              ii.     Interpretation

                                            iii.     Application

II.             Why do we study the Bible?

a.     2 Timothy 3:16

b.     Joshua 1:8

III.           Keys to Studying the Bible

a.     Observation

                                               i.     What does the text say?

1.     Who, What When, Where, Why, How?

b.     Interpretation

                                               i.     What does the text mean?

1.     Context

2.     Cross reference

3.     Word Studies

c.      Application

                                               i.     How do you apply the text?

1.     Belief and behavior

IV.            Teaching Others to Study

a.     People

b.     Places

c.      Events

d.     Key Words

e.     Contrasts

f.      Comparisons

V.              Never or add or take away from the Word of God

a.     Deuteronomy 4:2