A People for His Name

Evangelistic Emphasis on God's Empowering Jesus to Heal People Who Were Oppressed by the Devil

October 23, 2011

The record of Peter’s preaching of the gospel at Caesarea reveals that he included testimony to the miraculous aspects of Jesus’ works: “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with Him” (Acts 10:38). This statement suggests several important points about how we should testify to Jesus’ miraculous works in our evangelism.

First, Peter bore testimony to a specific aspect of Jesus’ miraculous works–healing those who were oppressed of the devil–that probably few people today regularly bear testimony to in their evangelism. Despite the contemporary popularity of emphasizing such miracles as His turning water to wine, raising dead people, walking on water, and feeding multitudes, we should learn from Peter foremost to bear testimony to His delivering Satanically-oppressed people.

Second, this record does not show that Peter stressed this miraculous work by Jesus as a proof of His deity; instead, it shows that he emphasized how God empowered Jesus to do that miraculous work. Our evangelism likewise should emphasize God’s empowering Jesus to deliver those who were oppressed by the devil.

Third, Peter explained Jesus’ healing all those oppressed people by saying, “For God was with Him.” He thus stressed that Jesus did not act alone in delivering those people–the Father was accompanying Him in some manner that Peter did not explain further. Based on this record, we should learn to stress that the Father was with Jesus as He was going about doing this miraculous work.

In Evangelism, Gospel

Evangelistic Trinitarian Testimony to Christ

October 22, 2011

In his seminal message at Caesarea, Peter preached Christ to unsaved Gentiles by declaring “how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: Who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with Him” (Acts 10:38). This statement confronted Cornelius and those who were with him with testimony to God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost. These unsaved Gentiles therefore were put in a position of having to believe an evangelistic message that testified not just to the deity of Jesus, but also to God who anointed Him with the Holy Spirit.

Peter’s evangelistic Trinitarian testimony to Christ did not hinder his hearers from getting saved; in fact, all of them were saved (10:44)! From this account, therefore, we should learn that instead of thinking that we have to keep the message simple by talking only about Jesus, we should witness to people by presenting Him rightly as the Christ by relating Him to both the Father and the Spirit.

Undoubtedly, we would enhance our proclamation of the gospel by doing so!

In Evangelism

Preformatives on Hebrew Verbs Chart

October 21, 2011

From my study of biblical Hebrew in the past and my recent times of intensively tutoring a student in beginning Hebrew, I have found some very helpful patterns with the preformatives on Hebrew verbs. My Verb Forms Preformatives Chart brings out these patterns visually in a way that I think is very helpful!

I would appreciate feedback about any problems or errors in this chart.

In Biblical Hebrew, Biblical Languages

Through the LXX in 2011!

October 20, 2011

The Lord has graciously allowed me to read through the entire Septuagint this year! I praise Him for helping me to finish this project.


Section	Greek	English
OT	929/929	547*/929
NT	20/260	260/260
Bible	949/1189	807/1189

*Includes listening to 129 chapters of the OT from the Bible on MP3

I hope to read through the remaining 240 chapters of the Greek NT by the end of the year. If I am able to do so, this would be my first year to read through the whole Bible in Greek.

As the Lord allows and directs, I hope to read through the Bible in Greek every year for the next 8-10 years. I also plan to read the Hebrew NT next year and perhaps start reading in the Hebrew OT as well.

In Bible reading

Better Learning Languages by Reading through the New Testament in Those Languages

October 19, 2011

Because I have read through all the books that comprise the NT more than twenty times, I probably know the contents of the NT better than I do any other collection of books of comparable size. Based on that fact, I have been thinking that a good way to advance my abilities in other languages would be to read through the NT in them.

Because I have been tutoring Hebrew intensively in recent weeks, I think that this would be a good time to finally start reading through the NT in Hebrew. The New Testament in Hebrew and English by The Society for Distributing Hebrew Scriptures seems like it would be a good tool for doing so.

Besides English, Greek, and Hebrew, I have also studied Hindi, German, French, and Spanish in the past. As God directs, I would also like to read through the NT some day in each of these languages.

I’d appreciate hearing from anyone who has tried this approach to learning a language or improving in it.

In Bible reading

"More Like His Justice"

October 18, 2011

This truth of the ultimate triumph of God’s justice has some vital applications for the Christian. Since we will someday stand at the judgment seat of Christ, we must live our lives with a daily sense of accountability to our just God. Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 bears more than an incidental similarity to II Corinthians 5:10-11. The passage in Ecclesiastes tells us that the whole duty of man is to fear God and keep His commandments, because the Lord is going to judge every overt and covert act—determining what is good and evil. The passage in II Corinthians informs us that what we have done, whether good or bad, will be made manifest at the judgment seat of Christ. Since we know what it is to fear the Lord, we must be serious about proclaiming the truth that God invites people to accept the reconciliation He has already provided in Christ. It is possible for Christians to live selfishly, unconcerned that many around us are headed for an appointment with the God of justice at the judgment of the great white throne (Rev. 20: 11-15). . . . It is our vital task to be ambassadors for Christ, beseeching people to be reconciled to God (v. 20). The justice of God demands that we put away our preoccupation with our own selfish pursuits and labor as witnesses for Christ.

—Randy Jaeggli, “More Like His Justice” in More Like the Master, 147-48.

In Quotes

The Matchless Greatness of the Bible from an Information Science Perspective

October 16, 2011

In his fascinating book, In the Beginning was Information, Werner Gitt “describes a new way of understanding creation and the Bible.” He powerfully argues for the matchless greatness of the Bible from an information science perspective:

— The Bible contains the most important information conceivable. It is divine in essence, and indicates the way to our Father’s house.

— The relevance value of the information of the Bible for every person is r = 1, the highest possible value. It comprises the best advice for this life, and is the only compass that guides us to heaven.

— The information of the Bible is always up-to-date (t = 1). Whereas most scientific publications become outdated after ten years, the Bible can never become outdated.

— We can readily access the information of the Bible (a = 1). It can be obtained all over the world, and the contents are easy to understand.

— The information of the Bible is comprehensive and complete (e = 1).

— No false information is contained in the Bible; it is the only Book of Truth (John 17:17).

— We find the highest semantic density of information in the Bible, as well as the best pragmatic information (commandments, rules of living, and our relationship with God and other people). It comprises the highest possible apobetics, namely an invitation to enter heaven!

— 161; bold text is in italics in the original; (r = relevance; t = timeliness; a = accessibility; e = existence)

Praise God for His goodness in giving us His Word! Let us all read our Bibles with a continuous awe of its matchless greatness.

In Apologetics, Bible reading, Christian Books, Quotes

Ministry Card

October 15, 2011

Thanks to the excellent work of my good friend, Mark Ward, at Forward Design, I now have a ministry card for my itinerant preaching and teaching ministry–praise God!

Please pray with me that God would use this new resource to expand my ministry greatly.

In Ministry, Preaching

Answered Prayer – New Laptop!

October 14, 2011

The Lord recently blessed me with the first new laptop that I have ever had. My Samsung R540-JA08 has already been a tremendous help to me in many ways!

I look forward greatly to how this tool will help me to minister much more effectively in the years ahead, D.V.

Praise God for answering prayer!

In Computers, Prayer

"Using Guitar for Ministry" – first class

October 13, 2011

Tonight, I taught my first Using Guitar for Ministry class at a local Spanish church. Because I had been told by the pastor that many Spanish-speaking people like to use the solfeggio system (do –re –mi –fa –so –la –ti – do) in their music in place of notes, I have been working on incorporating that system in my teaching.

While I was getting ready for the class this afternoon, I rediscovered an excellent way to use the solfeggio system for playing guitar that I had first discovered several years ago. The great advantage of using it is how easy it makes transposing from one key to another.

The next step in learning how to use this system effectively is to teach myself how to read notes from both clefs not with the letter names but with the solfeggio syllable for each note. With consistent practice, I hope I will get to where I can read sheet music so well that I can transpose easily without having to think at all about intervals, etc.

In Music

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