TruthTalks Archives - Truth Is The Word

In His great Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gave full meaning to the Law of Moses. In doing this, He exercised His divine prerogative of interpreting scripture by explaining how to properly understand the Old Testament Law.

In this TruthTalks podcast, Dr Christopher Peppler addresses the issue of Jesus, the interpreter of the Bible.

If you missed the original post, “Jesus gave full meaning to the Law of Moses”, please click HERE.

Enjoy the podcast, by clicking the ‘play’ button below, and do like, share, subscribe and interact with us. Your comments are most welcome.

Until next time,

Admin

Dealing with things like the Sabbath, Sticks, Stones, and Sacraments through the Jesus Perspective.

This TruthTalks podcast is based on THIS post and deals with two troublesome passages of scripture by looking at them from the perspective of what Jesus taught. Dr Christopher Peppler talks on the incident of the man stoned to death because he worked on the Sabbath. He also deals with the passage in 1 Corinthians describing the fate of sacrament violators.

Simply click on the play button below to listen to this enlightening talk.

 

Please feel free to comment or subscribe to the podcast feed or the post.

 

 

What happens when we take a Bible verse completely out of context? We get Gateways that go nowhere!

We also get someone else’s philosophy thrust onto us, often convincing, but always based on a verse pulled from the Bible and used to communicate the author’s agenda. But how do we know if what we are reading (or listening to or watching) is true?

In this TruthTalk, Dr Christopher Peppler goes into detail about how to recognise these ‘gateways’. If you would prefer to read the post this is based on, then click HERE, otherwise click on the play button below to listen to this TruthTalk.

Recently, I was challenged to name the four things I am sure of about God. It was an interesting and revealing exercise not only because of what made it into the top four, but because of what did not make it.

I considered some of the attributes of God such as His omnipresence, omnipotence, and omniscience, but did not select any of them. For those folk not familiar with theology-speak, these three divine attributes are that He is everywhere present, all-powerful, and all knowing. So, why didn’t I settle on these three plus, say, His sovereignty? I think it’s because they are too incomprehensible and abstract for me; I cannot grasp them sufficiently to be sure of, and they are too intangible for me to even describe adequately. As the author of Proverbs 30:18 wrote, ‘There are three things that are too amazing for me, four that I do not understand.’

What are the four things?

The first thing I know with absolute certainty about God is that all good and perfect things come from him. James 1:17 ‘Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows’

The second is that He is with us through all the things in life that are neither good nor perfect. Psalms 23:4 ‘Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.’

The third thing I know for certainty about God is that He desires to communicate with us. Hebrews 1:1-2 ‘In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways,  but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.’

And this brings me to the fourth thing I know with certainty about God and that makes sense of everything else I know about God; God is Jesus. John 14:9 “Philip, don’t you even yet know who I am, even after all the time I have been with you? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father!”

If you want to know more about these important attributes of God, then listen to the sermon I preached on this by clicking on the audio link below.

In this third and final part of the Spiritual Gifts mini-series, TruthTalks looks at the differences between Gifts and the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

Please click on the play button below to listen to this podcast:

 

If you have missed the first 2 TruthTalks on this topic then click HERE for part one and then just click on the “NEXT POST” button at the end of the pist to go to the next one. Please do subscribe to the podcast by going to www.truthistheword.com.

Don’t forget, there is also a book on the subject of Gifts and Ministries written by Dr. Christopher Peppler available at Amazon Kindle now. It is in the QuickReads series (designed especially for folk who don’t have time or inclination to read hundreds of pages on a subject) and is well worth the read. You can find it by clicking HERE or on the image of the cover below.

 

Until next time, all the best and thank you for reading this and following us at www.truthistheword.com,  Admin

This podcast briefly explores one of the difficulties we have in appreciating Spiritual Gifts, which is the lack of biblical definitions. The manifestations of the Holy Spirit are listed in 1 Corinthians 12, but nowhere described.

It is important for us to understand what the Spiritual Gifts are, because:

* This affects how we appreciate them. Are they manifestations of the Holy Spirit through the ministry of a believer and therefore directly supernatural in origin and presentation? Or are they expressions of our human giftedness, leading, and experience enhanced perhaps by the gracious help of the Holy Spirit?

* It affects how we respond to them. Do we act only when the Holy Spirit directly motivates us to do so, or do we operate in the gifts as a normal part of our Christian life and ministry?

In this presentation I use just the first of the 9 Gifts of the Spirit as examples of some approaches to the matter at hand.

You can listen to or download this TruthTalk by clicking on the play button below.

What are Spiritual Gifts and do we have them, or give them?

In this and subsequent TruthTalks, I am looking at some of the underlying issues that make the subject important yet problematic to some.

In this podcast, I speak about the common misconception that Spiritual Gifts are supernatural abilities permanently conferred upon Christians. I argue that the key text of 1 Corinthians 12 points rather to The Holy Spirit temporarily entrusting gifts of healing, prophecy, and so on to believers to deliver to those in need of the gift.

You can listen to or download this TruthTalk by clicking on the play button below.

 

As I hit ‘publish’ on this podcast the national elections are just one day away.

So, the best thing we as ordinary citizens can do right now is to pray and ask God to send revival to our nation… then VOTE.

Listen to theTruthTalk podcast based on THIS post plus a Q&A,  by clicking on the play button below.

New Book Published

Revival. It always comes back to this, so I have published a short book titled ‘The 12 Key Aspects of Revival’ that I am making available free to everyone within my circle of influence. All you have to do is CLICK on the link below and you can download your own no-strings-attached copy.

Several weeks ago, I preached a sermon titled, ‘A Time for Prayer and Godly Action’ based on Nehemiah chapters 1 – 9. The purpose of the message was to encourage Christians to think and act positively in this time of national instability leading up to the elections. Simply put, our personal attitude in 2019 can either be ‘doom and gloom’ or bright Godly optimism in what we say and do.

The account of how Nehemiah rebuilt the wall around Jerusalem contains several parallels between Israel then and South Africa now. For instance, the tactics of those who opposed national renewal are echoed today in South Africa, and some of the ways to counter these destructive tactics still apply.

Some of the points made in the sermon are:

* All responses to problems, crisis and the like, must start with a proper awareness of the problem: If we are not aware of the problem at hand then how can we pray, speak and act? However, after awareness must come informed knowledge of the actual conditions

* Nehemiah took the matter to God in prayer. He (a) Mourned – emotional engagement, (b) Fasted – physical response, and (c) Spoke – engaged with God. He also acknowledged to God his own role in the nation’s sorry condition and confessed that they had all offended God. Note particularly how his prayer concluded; Nehemiah 1:11 “O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man.” I was cupbearer to the king’. He asked God to work in the mind and heart of the king, Nehemiah’s primary contact of influence.

We all have Circles of influence of some sort.

* We expect instant responses, but Nehemiah only had the opportunity of speaking to the king three months later – a time of preparation of both the king and Nehemiah and then a Kairos moment when the time was right.

* After speaking to the king, Nehemiah acted; he asked for a letter of authority and resources, but then he ACTED – took his letters, gathered resources and left for Jerusalem

* Some of the principles and dynamics WE need to note and which apply to us today are:

* Become aware, become informed, and give careful thought to our situation.

* Pray before and during the whole process in the assurance that God is favoring us.

* Pray and then act in word and deed – not one or the other, but both. Praying is not a substitute for action and action is not a replacement for dependent prayer.

* We pray and seek God’s wisdom, guidance, and intervention and then we act on His specific response and not just on standard principles or recommendations e.g. in the case of the South African May elections: inform yourself, pray for guidance, vote according to His response and not because of those who say that all Christians must vote for a particular party.

* When Nehemiah arrived in Jerusalem, he first surveyed the situation and then he spoke to the people. Note how he spoke – positively and constructively. Not “Come let us flee” but “come let us build’. Witnessed to God’s favor.

* Immediately the opposition sprang into action but Nehemiah continued to pray, strategise, and work towards the reformation of Jerusalem.

Now, this is how the story of the wall ends: They competed for the wall Nehemiah 6:16 ‘When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence, because they realised that this work had been done with the help of our God.’ But wait, there is more! The exiles started returning And more! The nation publically returned to The Word of God.

Are we not in such a time right now?… A time for Prayer and godly action!

 

Here is the audio of the last in the TruthTalks series: The Church Jesus would Attend.

In this TruthTalk I take you through my final 3 criteria and give an overview and general conclusion.

If you have missed this series and would like to start from the first post, click HERE, or the first audio post, click HERE. Then to follow the series chronologically simply scroll down to under the “Related Posts” section where you will see the NEXT POST button. Click this and it will take you to the next post in the series.

Do let me know your thought on the topic of “The Church Jesus would Attend” and, of course, all questions are welcome.

Click on the “play” button below to listen to the final word on this matter, for now.