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Thursday, February 16th, 2006

Bible Classes - Part 1, Post 1

Hey everyone. I hope you all are doing well.

I started my second year of Bible classes at my home church, Church on Fire, yesterday. I went last year and the classes were awesome. We have a small church and thus a small class, but it’s actually better because it can be more one on one. I’m going to share what we are learning and my experiences at the classes, so hopefully you’ll enjoy it.

We have three classes. The first is being taught by Mike & Debbie Fox, who are evangelists at our church and sort of serve as secondary pastors. The second class is being taught by Jim & Elaine Dunn, my pastor’s parents, and the last class is during Wed.’s, which is a regular church service, but also doubles as our class, and it’s taught by my pastor, Aaron Dunn.

The first class is on Evangelism and the course is called “Called To Be A Soulwinner”. The 2nd class is “Old Testament Survey” and it’s basically an overview of the Old Testament. The third class is called “Understanding the Authority of God”.

I’ll go ahead and relay the majority of my notes here as well as chime in with other things.

Mrs. Debbie gave us some handouts she typed up (it’s funny, Mike originally was going to just include a bunch of papers in our folder . . . but make them blank! Cause he said you work off the Holy Spirit when you are evangelising, but he went ahead and let his wife type up “real” notes. Which is good cause they are useful! )

The title of the notes is (these are typed up ones. She simply had us fill in the blanks):
“Our Purpose, Mandate (which means assignment), and Calling: To Have A Heart For The Lost”

Mark 16:15-20: “Then He said, “Go into the world. Go everywhere and announce the message of God’s good news to one and all. Whoever believes and is baptized is saved, whoever refuses is damned. These are some of the signs that will accompany believers: They will throw out demons in my name, they will speak in new tongues, they will take snakes in their hands, they will drink poison and not be hurt, they will lay hands on the sick and make them well.” Then the Master Jesus, after briefing them, was taken up to heaven, and He sat down beside God in the place of hono. And the disciples went everywhere preaching, the Master working right with them, validating the Message with indisputable evidence.” (From the Message version)

God has commissioned us to go forth and preach the Gospel. There are people you meet every day that have not experienced the joy of knowing Jesus personally! They are dying, hurting inside and waiting for someone to give them hope for a better tomorrow.

Mrs. Debbie and Mike did a very cool thing in emphasising the fact that we all have our place in the body of Christ. No matter who you are, God has a job and a mission and a purpose for you. Every person is called to some kind of ministry, be it formal or informal. And one reason, one that had never crossed my mind, as to why each and every one of us is needed, is because every one of us knows people that other people do not know. Debbie told us a story about a guy from Romania (who actually came to our church a couple weeks ago. UNFORTUNEATLY I didn’t go. ) who had spent weeks ministering to the gypsies there. But he got really disappointed when no one got saved and he was making no headway, no one seemed to even be listening. So he thought he was just wasting his time or whatnot, and he got ready to pack his bags and leave. He was really sad for the people, obviously, and he asked God, “Why is no one responding? I guess God you are telling me that this just isn’t the right time or the right place for me right now. I’m going to leave.” (I am paraphrasing as I don’t remember exactly what she said). But then God spoke to him loudly and clearly, saying something to the effect of “Ron, you can not go! I have no one left to send. You are the only one who can save these people!”

It was just one of those things that shakes you to the core. To realize that God cannot impose His will on us without us accepting it first, which means there may be no one He has, cause no one has accepted Him, thuse He is powerless to reach the people. Which is why it is so important to preach and tell people about Jesus. Cause, as they also said, you never know when their time might be up. Especially if the Holy Spirit is unctioning, you must take action and open your mouth for THEIR sake. God might not have anybody else, and therefore you have a purpose simply in that.

To go on with my notes . . .

Romans 10: 13-17
“For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!’ Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by The Word of God.”

(The end of this verse, btw, is saying that your own faith grows simply by hearing the Word of God being preached. Which is why it is so important to simply talk about God with others, it helps to build their faith and plant that seed, wherein God can start working in the person. They don’t have to read the Bible to be saved)

According to scripture, five things must happen for one to be saved.
1. Someone must be sent. We’re all commissioned! God has already called you.
2. That person must preach the gospel.
3. Whosoever is being preached to must hear the Word.
4. They must then believe it.
5. Then they must call upon the Lord themselves.

You Are A Soulwinner!
- We must realize that we have the Truth!
- Realize that you are important to God, and He need YOU to share Jesus with the world.
- You have a specific part in the body of Christ and no one can take your place.
1 Cor. 12:12-21
- According to scripture, God expects every believer to bring others to Christ.

(17 Therefore if any person is [ingrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come! 18 But all things are from God, Who through Jesus Christ reconciled us to Himself [received us into favor, brought us into harmony with Himself] and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation [that by word and deed we might aim to bring others into harmony with Him].) II Cor. 5:17-18 - Amplified Bible

- Every believer has a ministry!
- We are the Father’s “sent” ones!
- The Father desires you to bear fruit (fruit=souls)
“You didn’t choose me, remember; I chose you, and put you in the world to bear fruit, fruit that won’t spoil. As fruit bearers, whatever you ask the Father in relation to me, he gives you.”
John 15:16 - The Message

- The heathen are our inheritence! Psalm 2:8 (You have the right to believe God for souls)
- God enables you to be successful in all you do!

Colossians 2:10
10 And you are. in Him, made full and having come to fullness of life [in Christ you too are filled with the Godhead–Father, Son and Holy Spirit–and reach full spiritual stature]. And He is the Head of all rule and authority [of every angelic principality and power]. - Amplified

10 When you come to him, that fullness comes together for you, too. His power extends over everything. - The Message

II Cor. 3:6
6[It is He] Who has qualified us [making us to be fit and worthy and sufficient] as ministers and dispensers of a new covenant [of salvation through Christ], not [ministers] of the letter (of legally written code) but of the Spirit; for the code [of the Law] kills, but the [Holy] Spirit makes alive. - Amplified

Well . . . that’s all I’ll cover today. I’ll get to the rest tomorrow.

There’s also some really cool stories that I’d like to relay, ones that Mike and Mrs. Debbie have told us.

Here is one amazing one that I’ll share tonight:

Mrs. Debbie one time was in Columbia, preaching. One night some thugs jumped her, dragged her into a room, and pointed a gun to her head (there was about four of them), and told her that they’d shoot her if she didn’t renounce Jesus. She replied, “Well then you’ll have to shoot me.” For some reason they didn’t, and they let her go. At a church service later on, those same guys came, with their guns on their belts. Throughout the service they were patting them and taunting her. Now, my memory is a bit fuzzy (I’m getting the classes on a CD soon, so when I do I can fill this in and correct any mistakes) but at least one of those guys, the leader, accepted Christ. He was later assassinated.

Powerful story.

Also, just to let you all know, Mrs. Debbie is one of the sweetest people you will ever meet. She is one of those Christians who is so completely sold out for God, cause they have seen and experienced it all, that she is nothing but pure passion for the Lord and for people (thus her class on being a soulwinner). She is such a gentle and kind person that she was actually brought to tears multiple times when simply talking about saving people and relating stories of her childhood (she remembers looking to her classmates and crying over the fact that she knew they weren’t saved and didn’t know Jesus like she did) and evangelical/missionary experiences to us. She is so genuine that you can’t help but to be moved and to smile when she speaks. She is probably the purest person of love that I know. Someone who LIVES it with their all with no mean bone in her body. And she’s seen so many miracles in her life, and can sing and speaks fluent Spanish to boot.

So anyway, I hope you enjoy and I pray you will get something out of these updates. God bless!

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 16th, 2006 at 3:39 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

3 Responses to “Bible Classes - Part 1, Post 1”

jake Says:
March 11th, 2006 at 7:40 am
wow, you evangelicals believe absolutely everything that’s thrown at you. don’t you think the whole talking in tongues thing is a little pagan? i shouldn’t waste my breath on people like you. as an outside observer, you make all christians look bad.
josh Says:
March 12th, 2006 at 3:28 am
lol. Pagan? “Believe absolutely everything that’s thrown at you” No, what you do is you line up whatever it is with God’s Word, the Bible, and judge it based on that, as to whether it’s actually from God or not. Talking in Tongues is absolutely Biblical, as the Book of Acts can attest. And in regard to miracles and whatnot, having seen and experienced supernatural things, healings and touches from God, first-hand, as well as from people I know, including my parents, I am not about to question their honesty. There’s a certain point with most people where you can tell whether they are genuine and a person of integrity or not, I know these people. You don’t know them, so how can you judge and question them when you’ve never experienced a touch of God yourself, let alone even seen it happen to others? It’s happened in my own living room before so nothing you say can convince me otherwise that these type of things are not real. You may believe that it’s me who’s blind but I know that in actuality it’s you who is blind, as the Bible attests to. And that’s not a diss, it’s simply fact. You are like doubting Thomas, who has to see with his own eyes before he believes, but as Jesus said blessed are those who believe without seeing, as God is not natural but supernatural, of the Spirit, unseen. Not physical.

I personally can relate a story that my entire family and many other people at my church witnessed (I didn’t attend that day unfortuneatly), where my pastor was “frozen” in place for the span of around 15 minutes. Later he told us how he saw an open vision. His daughter was actually pulling at his pant leg, and he didn’t move or flench the entire time, according to my parents and siblings who saw it with their own eyes. You can say whatever you want sir, but just because it hasn’t happened to you doesn’t mean you dismiss everything as false or lies. Apparently what happened to my pastor was a widespread occurence in many church’s around the US that day. As for making Christians look bad. lol. Well, I’m not trying to appeal to you, I’m just stating what goes on in my life, you can decide for yourself, but I could simply state that you make all atheists look bad, but that’d be a miss-charactersation. Matter or fact a good friend of mine helps me with this very site, and he himself is an athiest. Don’t judge so quickly. It’s not good for you.
Bob Says:
August 31st, 2007 at 1:47 am
[…]Hm… interesting…Should think about…
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