Blog
For this months blog I ended up posing the question, “Being thankful in difficult times?“ Originally I was planning to title this blog as, “A Time of Thanksgiving“ but that is not how this months blog landed. I will however talk about thanksgiving, but I realized it is hard to ignore the realities and difficult times of life we all face regardless of identities and cultural backgrounds. So what are my thoughts on Thanksgiving?
For this month’s blog I want write on something I have referenced, used, or taught on in various points throughout my life in ministry and that is “Heart Posture.” Recently Mikaela and I were teaching at a Bible School a part of IMI Church called Acta Bible School where we spoke on calling and living a missional life. During the time together with the students I spoke a little on heart posture during one of the classes and then during our QnA time one of the students asked the following, “Can you explain more on what you mean by heart posture?”
He is talking about the spiritual, not how we handle our finances on earth. Don’t get me wrong, I think investing is a great idea and using verses like this can be beneficial to get your point across. But I love that Jesus wants to explain the Kingdom of Heaven to us. I am such a visual learner; the Kingdom of Heaven can be a difficult concept for me. So, I really need to listen when Jesus is talking about it.
I have had the topic of today’s blog on my mind for the past several months and that come from growing up with the Bible. Over the past year I have felt Scripture take a stronger place in my life when it comes to ministry with a desire to equip others in God’s Word. Particularly so because I am finding and cultivating different ministry settings in which I have seen growth and fruit take place. I found myself reminiscing on my almost life long relationship with God’s Word in asking the question, “When did I feel the Scriptures take deep root in my life?”
For this months blog I would like to share from a sermon I preached on being the Parable of the Good Samaritan in giving part of my testimony of how God worked in my life to love internationals. I preached and shared the following as part of our IMI International Worship Services in May of 2023. With this being said, I have edited the sermon into a blog format.
One of those principles that I want to discuss in this blog is unity in the church. In Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth. He addresses divisions in the church as Corinthian believers were arguing over which of the leading evangelist such as Paul, Apollos, or Peter. With some saying, “I only follow Christ” which we will dig into here shortly. They were divided over forming factions loyal to different Christian leaders in the church and this breaking unity in the Corinthian church. As such, Paul rightly rebukes them for their arguing and worldly comparisons. As my study Bible rightly states, “Christian devotion is to be given to Christ, not to his messengers.”
For this month I (Mikaela) will be writing March’s blog on Mending their Nets. I have been studying the book of Ephesians with my women’s Bible study and something was said that really stood out to me the other day. It was that the word equip originates from a Greek word that meant to mend the nets. I found this quite interesting on many levels.
In this blog I would like to talk more about the significance of this verse and how we came to choosing this verse to be a foundational part of our ministry. One day while working on the missions pamphlet for version 1.0, we wanted there to be a Bible verse on the pamphlet itself, but more importantly a verse that would serve as a unifying message for what we felt God had placed on our hearts in our mission to share the living Gospel in Norway and beyond.
I remember being puzzled by this and quietly reflecting and praying about these two words to “stop hiding.” What does this mean to stop hiding? How have I been hiding? Why have you spoken these Words to me Father? What I felt was that God was and continues to challenge me with these two words to prepare me for the next season of ministry ahead.
Finally, back with another blog! This blog will be on the shorter side, but it is something I feel strongly about that I have been reflecting more on lately. However, this blog will be temporarily stepping outside of the blog series on spiritual warfare. Today I want to talk about going deeper and perhaps you have heard such things in the church before whether it be a sermon series, in a small group or etc. I want to talk about going deeper in a practical sense and that simply being with a Study Bible.
A Roman soldier without his belt was not an effective soldier and was unfit for battle. For a piece of armor that is barely visible it is indeed a vital piece to the whole armor of the Roman soldier. So it is the same for the Christian, a Christian without the belt of truth is not an effective soldier of God and is unable to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. A Christian wearing the belt of truth carries the same vital importance as it did for the Roman soldier. So let us ask ourselves, what does the belt of truth mean for the Christian?
In our IMI International House Church, also known as a small group or life group, we have been reading through Ephesians 6:10-18 for the last several weeks. Studying how God equips Christians to stand firm against the devil’s opposition by protecting ourselves with all of God’s armor. This is a passage in Scripture that I have heard, briefly referenced and taught growing up in the church, but in most cases it lacked addressing the reality of Spiritual Warfare. A battle Christians face everyday that requires putting on the whole armor of God. Let’s take some time to talk more about the armor shall we?
Lately a reoccurring phrase in the Bible has been speaking to me being the faith action to “stand firm.” I first noticed this phrase in Isaiah 7 during my morning reading time and I began to reflect and meditate on this teaching and command to stand firm. I found myself asking, “What does it mean to stand firm? What does this look like? How are we as Christians to stand firm?”
For this month’s blog I wanted to set time aside to focus on the importance of communion. I have been reminiscing lately about my time in ministry at Ball State Christian Campus House and remembered a sermon series we did that was titled “The Wisdom of Christ.” I preached a message on “Worship & The Table of the Lord” in using 1 Corinthians 11:17-34 as the scriptural foundation of the sermon and I want to revisit this sermon with you in this blog.
It was early 2021 and I was taking time in quiet reflection of the past year while at the same time looking ahead to what 2021 might hold. What had I learned the past year and what would I learn this coming year I pondered to myself. This transitioned into a time of prayer and listening and the word that came to me was “Committed.”
In last months blog I wrote on the topic of “What the Church Doesn’t Talk About” that leads us into today’s blog being “Why the Church Doesn’t Talk about Spiritual Warfare.” I believe there can be many reasons for this and I want to look at three reasons why I believe the church does not want to talk about this.
It is our responsibility as the church to go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and that involves teaching about spiritual warfare. No wise platoon leader sends his troops into battle without knowing who the enemy is, their strategy, tactics or what kind of weapons the enemy is expected to have on the battlefield. The same is for the leadership in the church to take the role of preparing, informing, training and equipping members of the church to be able to stand “against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places” as Paul writes in Ephesians 6:12.
