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If you want to be unified - pray with other believers - Malcolm Cox

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I have been contemplating the connection between praying together and unity for a couple of weeks.  It cannot be a coincidence that, right after instructing his disciples how they should resolve a dispute between church people, he tells them this: “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” (Matthew 18:19–20) Why is the most explicit passage on Jesus’ desire for unity part of his prayer in John 17? The disciples were there. I imagine they are praying with him, not just hanging out nearby. We do not have a record of what their prayer-response was, if any, but that incident coupled with the text in Matthew 18, as well as the many examples in Acts leads me to surmise that praying together is an essential part of maintaining true Christian unity. What are your thoughts? Two teaching classes and two devotionals are on the YouTube chann
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Why Don’t Churches Read the Bible? - By Douglas Jacoby

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Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching (1 Timothy 4:13). Reading this passage, I used to assume that Paul encouraged the oral  reading  of Scripture,  teaching , and  preaching —three separate activities. In recent years I’ve come to view the passage quite differently. Timothy is first to  read  the text,  then  preach or teach from it. Biblical integrity  requires that any message claiming to be biblical actually come from the text—and not be imposed on it by the speaker. A “pep talk, with scriptures added” may be motivational, but I suspect the apostle is asking for a message squarely based on the passage read aloud to the congregation. There are obvious advantages to this approach.  Specifying the text keeps the preacher or teacher honest.  The congregation may reasonably expect the message to stick to the passage—and not wander.  It’s also easier to follow the message  and remember what has been taught. In a recently study of
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TN Biblical Interpretation Class

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Dear Brothers and Sisters,  Greetings from Teaching ministry! As we announced earlier about the Biblical interpretation class, we are going to start on Mondays at 8.30 - 9.30pm (60 mins) for 9 weeks from Feb 13th to April 10th 2023. Class 1 Worldview and The Relational Element Class 2 Contexts Class 3 Exegetical Fallacies Class 4 Narrative and OT Law Class 5 Poetry, Wisdom, and Prophecy Class 6 Gospels Acts and Epistles Class 7 Genesis 1-11 and Revelation Class 8 Online Bible Resources and Proper Exegesis All classes will be in Zoom video call 2 Sermon submissions (40 marks) Due date is April 3, 2023 Book review of "How to read the Bible with all its worth" (10 marks) March 27, 2023 We will have exam on April 10th (30 marks)  Attending all the classes (20 marks) Total 100 Marks (You need to get Minimum 70 marks to pass to get the certificate) All assignments has to be sent as pdf to iccthiyagu.1991@gmail.com Please register yourself as soon as
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One Thing You Lack

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    One Thing We Lack Which thing do we lack? Someone local to me lacks neighbourly decency. They left this mess on our lane... Someone in the Watford council signs department lacked either a proper understanding of grammar, or the time to properly proof-read this notice: Our focus today is the man who runs up to Jesus and falls on his knees in front of him. However, it must be noted that this incident comes hard on the heels of the previous scene. Children were brought to Jesus - only for the disciples to rebuke them. Jesus in turn rebukes his disciples and declares that “the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” (v14). Mark is showing us the ideal kingdom-candidates before we encounter the flawed kingdom aspirant. ‘Paradoxically, the least powerful, least wealthy, least influential have a greater prospect of entering the kingdom than do those who are most powerful, wealthy, and influential.’ Word Biblical Commentary receive the kingdom Why are the children able to ‘receive the ki
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Is divine “election” biblical? - By Douglas Jacoby

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Talking with one of my religious friends, I've just heard a new term called "election." Is this biblical? Actually,  election  an  old  term, since it appears in the Bible several times. The question is, "What does the term mean?" In a moment we'll consider three relevant passages: Matthew 22:14, 2 Peter 1:10-11, and 2 Thessalonians 2:13-15. (Please look these up if you don't already know them.) But first let's back up a few centuries. Especially since the 1500s, many Protestants have reasoned that, because God knows the future, including who will be saved and who will be lost, there's nothing we can do to change our status before God. We are either among the "elect" or among the damned, and that has been determined long before we were even born. These Bible readers also read verses containing words like  predestination  and  election  in a very narrow way. Now divine foreknowledge occurs in a different frame of reference than our world
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Tamil Nadu Singles Conference 2022

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God blessed the singles' long waited prayer of meeting together... Finally the wait was over after 2 years...Yes...1st in person Singles conference held on April 9th & 10th  2022 on the cool hills of Yercaud in Salem district.TN.   Around 150 young and energetic Singles participated from all parts of Tamil Nadu along with Chennai and Pondicherry churches added an extra excitement to the conference.  This conference was completely planned and organized by the dynamic Singles coordinators from all over Tamil Nadu who worked very sincerely to make this event colorful.  Day 1, We had Bro.Abraham & Sister.Julie Abraham  from Chennai church as our Guest speakers, who spoke the Word of God to each and every singles to have dream for God.  Singles were split into 12 groups to reflect on the message and able to share their dreams for His kingdom.  Separate Evening sessions were arranged for brothers and sisters to discuss and cater their personal future needs.  The last session was
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“THE MEANING OF THE CROSS OF CHRIST” - By Malcolm Cox

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A teaching class  https://youtu.be/5EczzDmmNjg   “A lion’s story should always end with a kill, but the narrative has warned us that it is the lion who will die.” My atonement series can be found here:  https :// youtube . com / playlist ? list = PLJOhHa _ 2t9jDzIj68ID3lX6BnCXRxdy6p The Greek verb paradidomi, to ‘hand over’ to someone else, is used by Jesus of himself in the second and third Passion predictions (9.31; 10.33), and for the fate of his disciples in the three apocalyptic warnings (13.9, 11, 12). Now it is used about Jesus no less than ten times (14.10, 11, 18, 21, 41, 42, 44; 15.1, 10, 15). To most people in the ancient world, the attempt to see meaning in the death of a crucified criminal would have been pointless. Crucifixion was completely forbidden for Roman citizens, and only used for slaves and aliens; to anyone educated in the Greek philosophical tradition of divine detachment from the world, it would have been utter foolishness to seek theological profit from this
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