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Who Gets To Be Called An Apostle?

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  There is a question that has to be settled before anyone accepts the title “apostle”: Who gets to choose an apostle? The answer is not found in the ambition of a man, the decision of an organization, or the approval of other people. The answer is found in the Word of God. Jesus Christ chooses whom He appoints , and Scripture gives us witness after witness so that we can recognize what God has established. Jesus Himself told us where to look when He said, “If you believed Moses, you would believe Me, because he wrote about Me.” , John 5:46. After His resurrection, Jesus met two disciples on the road to Emmaus and, beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, explained to them the things concerning Himself throughout the Scriptures, Luke 24:27 . We therefore have Jesus' own authority to go back into Moses and look for what God was showing about Christ. We are not forcing Jesus into the Old Testament after the fact. Jesus told us that Moses wrote about Him. The Old Testament i...

The Evidence Of Christ In You

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Back in 1979, I wrote a little ditty while I was at a Christian weekend Bible study. It went like this, in short: Christ in me, the hope of Glory. Christ in you, the hope of Glory. Christ in us, the hope of Glory. WE ARE MORE THAN CONQUERORS. I still sing it today. That that little tune has gone around the world by believers is exciting to me. Those words came from Colossians 1:27 , which speaks of “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” There is something powerful about those three little phrases: Christ in me. Christ in you. Christ in us. But there is a question that naturally follows them. If Christ is in us, what is the evidence? It is easy to say, “Christ is in me.” It is easy to sing it, talk about it, teach it, and rejoice in it. But if it is a living reality, it should eventually become visible in the way we live. “Christ in you” is not merely knowing about Jesus Christ or saying His name. Scripture speaks of a living relationship with Him. Jesus said, John 14:20 , ...

Words, Influence, and Example

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We use words every day. We talk to our families, our friends, our neighbors, people at work, people at church, and sometimes complete strangers. We talk when we are happy, when we are angry, when we are frustrated, when we are tired, and when we are trying to make a point. Sometimes we speak without thinking because we are so used to talking a certain way that the words simply come out. But Scripture shows us that our words are not something we should treat as meaningless. What comes out of our mouths can reveal what is truly inside us, affect the people listening to us, and teach other people what we believe is acceptable. David understood that controlling our speech requires more than simply deciding not to say certain words. He asked God to help him watch what came out of his mouth: “Set a guard over my mouth, LORD; keep watch over the door of my lips!” Psalm 141:3 . David was asking God to help him put a guard over his own mouth because he understood that he was responsible for wh...

If They Had Known

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There is a sentence Paul wrote that can easily be read over without realizing just how much is packed inside it. He said, “None of the rulers of this age understood it. If they had, they would not havecrucified the Lord of glory,” 1 Corinthians 2:8. That is an astonishing statement. Paul was not saying that nobody had ever heard the Scriptures. He was not saying that nobody had ever spoken about the coming Messiah. He was saying that the people who were involved in what happened to Jesus did not truly understand or even know who He actually was. They had the Scriptures, yes. They had the Law. They had the Prophets. They had the promises. They had generations of people who had been waiting for the One God would send. They had all that. Yet when He stood in front of them, they just did not recognize Him. Paul's actual Greek words make this even clearer. He wrote ἔγνωκεν, egnōken, has known or recognized , and then ἔγνωσαν, egnōsan, they knew or recognized . He then used ἐσταύρωσ...