Pastor's Notes

Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.) And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the

One of the most fundamental errors in Christian thinking is the idea that God is the author of sickness, suffering, and loss. This error has produced generations of believers who are afraid to pray in faith because they do not know whether their sickness is God's will to heal or God's will to teach them something through the illness. It has produced funerals where grieving people are told, 'The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away.' It has produced a theology of surrender that calls defeat spi

There is a love that does not merely warm the heart but seizes the will. There is a love that does not merely inspire emotion but compels direction. It is the love of Christ — and according to the apostle Paul, this love constrains us. It presses upon us. It leaves us no alternative but to live differently, to value differently, to spend ourselves differently than the world around us does. Until this love takes hold of a person’s spirit, Christianity remains a religious activity. When it does ta