We are rejoicing in a praise report from Keysha Taylor, wife of Charles Taylor, lead pastor of one of GCI’s congregations in the Miami, FL area (click here for the earlier prayer request for Keysha). Here is what Keysha wrote earlier this week:
This morning I went to the hospital to have a biopsy performed on a spot in my neck/throat area found during a recent PET scan. The doctors and nurses looked for the spot, but then cancelled the procedure—there was nothing there to biopsy! Glory to God! Thank you for your prayers and support. I love you all dearly.
We were saddened to learn of the recent death of Paul Brice Smith, Assistant Pastor of GCI’s congregation in Big Sandy, Texas.
Born in 1927, Paul enrolled in Ambassador College in 1949, and married Freia A. Friddle in 1954 (they would have celebrated 63 years of marriage next month). Paul taught for many years at Imperial School in Big Sandy, and public school in Gilmer, Texas. He also worked for a time in WCG’s Pasadena radio studio.
A long-time elder in WCG/GCI, Paul served for the last several years as Assistant Pastor in the Big Sandy, TX, congregation where he was also a member of the Church Board and a leader and mentor to the Silver Ambassadors group. For many years, Paul and Freia had a special ministry to the senior citizens of the church.
Paul is survived by his wife Freia, three children and four grandchildren.
Paul and Freia on their wedding day.
Cards and letters may be sent to:
Mrs. Freia A. Smith PO Box 295 Big Sandy, TX 75755-0295
In a recent blog post, small church expert Karl Vaters declared he has stopped reading those “Ten Reasons Why Your Church Isn’t Growing” lists. Instead, he advocates a positive approach that encourages leaders of small churches to pursue achievable strategies. To read his post, click here.
Several of GCI-USA’s newest pastors and pastors-in-training (pastoral residents) were interviewed at the New Pastors Orientation Conference held in February at GCI’s Home Office in Glendora, CA. Here are videos of interviews with Pastors Dennis Elliott and Terry McDonald.
Addressing a group of Jewish leaders who were persecuting him, Jesus made a revealing declaration concerning the Scriptures: “It is these that testify about me” (John 5:39 NASB). This truth was confirmed years later in this proclamation from an angel of the Lord: “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” (Revelation 19:10 NASB).
Unfortunately, the Jewish leaders in Jesus’ day turned a blind eye to these truths concerning Scripture and Jesus’ identity as the Son of God. Instead, they focused on the religious rituals of the Temple of Jerusalem, which they then abused for their own benefit. As a result, they lost sight of the God of Israel and failed to recognize the fulfillment of prophecy in the person and ministry of Jesus, the promised Messiah.
The Temple of Jerusalem was truly magnificent—Jewish historian and scholar Flavius Josephus noted that its shimmering white marble exterior, accented with gold, was awe-inspiring. Imagine then the people’s surprise and shock when they heard Jesus prophesy that this glorious Temple, the center of old covenant worship, would be utterly destroyed—a destruction signaling that God’s plan for the salvation of all humanity, apart from the Temple, was right on schedule.
The Destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem by Hayez (public domain via Wikimedia Commons)
Jesus didn’t seem particularly impressed with Jerusalem’s Temple—and for good reason. First, he knew that God’s glory is far greater than any building of human construction, no matter how grand. Second, Jesus knew that the Temple would be replaced—a fact he shared with his disciples. Third, he saw that the Temple no longer served the purpose for which it had been constructed, saying, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers” (Mark 11:17). Note also what is recorded in Matthew’s Gospel:
Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. “Do you see all these things?” he asked. “I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.” (Matt. 24:2, and see Luke 21:6)
On two occasions Jesus foretold the coming destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple. The first occasion was his triumphal entry into the city as people laid their clothes on the ground before him—a customary way to honor someone of great importance. Note Luke’s account:
As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.” (Luke 19:41-44)
The second occasion was when Jesus predicted Jerusalem’s destruction while being led through the city to the place of his crucifixion. The streets were packed with people—both his enemies and his enthusiastic followers. Jesus foretold what would happen to the city, the Temple and the people as a result of the destruction about to be meted out by the Romans. Note again Luke’s account:
A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ Then they will say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us!’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us!'” (Luke 23:27-30)
Christ Falling on the Way to Calvary by Raphael (public domain via Wikimedia Commons)
History tells us that Jesus’ prophecy was fulfilled some 40 years after he made these statements. In A.D. 66, the Jewish inhabitants of Judea rebelled against the Romans and then in A.D. 70, the Temple was demolished, much of Jerusalem was razed, and the people suffered horribly—all as Jesus had, with great sorrow, predicted.
Crucifixion (after Rembrandt) by Bonnat (public domain via Wikimedia Commons)
When Jesus cried out on the cross, “It is finished,” he not only was referring to the completion of his atoning work of redemption, but also declaring that the old covenant (Israel’s life and worship as defined by the Law of Moses) had served the purpose for which God gave it. With Jesus’ death, resurrection, ascension, and sending of the Spirit, the work that God, in and through Christ and by the Spirit, did to reconcile all humanity to himself was accomplished, thus bringing to pass the fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophecy:
“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds, and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. And no longer will they teach their neighbor or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because all will know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jeremiah 31:31-34)
In saying, “It is finished,” Jesus was declaring the good news of the inauguration of the new covenant. The old had gone, the new had come. Sin had been nailed to the cross, and God’s purposes of grace were fulfilled by the reconciling atonement of Christ that made possible the deeper work of the Holy Spirit to transform our hearts and minds. Such transformation gives us a share in the regenerated human nature renewed in Jesus Christ. What was promised and signified in the old covenant thus now found its fulfillment in the new (renewed) covenant in Christ.
The Outpouring of the Spirit by van Dyck (public domain via Wikimedia Commons)
As the apostle Paul taught, Christ (who is the new covenant) accomplished for us what the Law of Moses (the old covenant) could not do nor was it intended to do:
What then are we to say? Gentiles, who did not strive for righteousness, have attained it, that is, righteousness through faith; but Israel, who did strive for the righteousness that is based on the law, did not succeed in fulfilling that law. Why not? Because they did not strive for it on the basis of faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone…” (Romans 9:30-32)
It was sin and pride that made the Pharisees of Jesus’ day and the Judaizers of Paul’s day think that their own religious efforts could accomplish what only God himself, by grace, in and through Jesus, is able to achieve for us. Approaching the old covenant as they did (on the basis of works-righteousness) was a distortion brought about by the power of sin. Grace and faith were certainly not absent from the old covenant, but as God knew she would, Israel turned her back on that grace. Thus the new (renewed) covenant was, from the beginning, envisioned as the fulfillment of the old covenant—a fulfillment worked out in the person and work of Jesus and through the Spirit, rescuing humankind from pride and the power of sin, and forging a new depth of relationship for all humanity, throughout the world, in a relationship that leads to eternal life in the presence of the Trinity.
So as to mark the magnitude of what was occurring on Calvary’s cross, shortly after Jesus cried out, “It is finished,” an earthquake shook the city of Jerusalem, leading to four events that rocked human existence, and fulfilled the prophecies concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, the Temple and the inauguration of the new covenant:
The veil in the Temple, blocking access to the Holy of Holies, was torn from top to bottom
Tombs were opened and several dead people were raised to life
Jesus was acknowledged by bystanders to be the Son of God
The old covenant gave way to the new covenant
In saying “it is finished,” Jesus was declaring that God’s presence would no longer dwell in a building made with human hands, or in a particular location within that building (the Holy of Holies). Rather, as Paul noted to the church at Corinth, God now dwells in a non-physical temple, formed by the Spirit:
Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple. (1 Cor. 3:16-17, also see 2 Cor. 6:16)
The apostle Peter put it this way:
As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ…. You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. (1 Pet. 2:4-5, 9)
On the basis of Jesus’ earthly ministry, God made a way to live in and among us, making us holy as we, by the Spirit, share in Christ’s own sanctified and regenerated human nature (Titus 3:5-7). Further, all our time is set aside and being made holy as we live under the new covenant, which means participating, by the Spirit, with Jesus in his continuing ministry. Whether we are at our jobs at work or engaged in recreation, we are citizens of heaven—living the new life in Christ—and so we shall live until either our death or Jesus’ return.
Dear ones, the old order is finished—in Christ we are new creations, called and equipped by the Spirit to be on mission with Jesus to live and share the good news. Let us be about our Father’s business!
Sharing in Jesus’ life, by the Spirit, with you, Joseph Tkach
Those who seek to disprove the doctrine of the Trinity use various arguments in making their case—we’ll address two frequently used arguments in this letter. The first goes like this: the Trinity doctrine is not biblical because the Bible does not teach that the Holy Spirit is divine. As evidence, they point to passages in the New Testament (like Rom. 1:7) that mention God the Father and God the Son (Jesus Christ), but omit mention of the Holy Spirit. They then note that if the Holy Spirit is God, this omission is a terrible insult to the Spirit. Is this argument convincing? No, it has several flaws, including these:
The argument falsely assumes that all three Persons of the Trinity would always be mentioned together if they were equally divine. But this assumption has no scriptural merit. Several passages mention the Son without mentioning the Father, and vice versa. Additionally, the book of Acts often mentions the Spirit without also mentioning the Father and/or the Son.
The argument fails to take into account the many passages (about 65 in all) where the Father, Son and Spirit are mentioned together. Among those passages are Matt. 28:19; Luke 1:35; various places in John 14 through 16; Rom. 15:16; Gal. 5:6; Eph. 4:4-6; 2 Thess. 2:13; Titus 3:5-7; and Jude 1:19-21. Note also that any one of the divine Persons can be mentioned first when all three are being named—God the Father is mentioned first in the Matt. 28:19 baptismal formula, God the Son is mentioned first in the benediction in 2 Cor. 13:14, and God the Holy Spirit is mentioned first in the discussion of the Spirit’s work in the church in 1 Cor. 12:4-6.
The argument falsely contends that offense occurs when the Father is mentioned without the Son, the Son without the Father, the Spirit without the Father or the Son, etc. However, the three Persons of the Trinity are one God, which means they exist eternally in perfect union and communion. To attribute to them an immature human reaction like taking offense would be to place them on our level. This part of their argument is not only unwarranted, it is foolish.
The claim that the Spirit is not divine is usually followed by the equally false claim that the Spirit is merely a power God uses. This claim is highly problematic because it implies that God is not omnipotent in that he needs a power outside himself to accomplish his work and will.
A second, and related argument used in trying to disprove the doctrine of the Trinity is that the New Testament does not give a personal “face” to the Holy Spirit in the way it does to the Father and the Son—therefore, the Bible does not teach that the Spirit is divine. Is this argument convincing? No, it requires that one turn a blind eye to the many passages in the Bible that speak of the Holy Spirit’s personal ministry. That work is principally to point people to Jesus who, as God incarnate, is the only Person of the Trinity with a literal face. Concerning the Spirit and his ministry, note this comment from T. F. Torrance:
The Holy Spirit is God himself speaking although he is not himself the Word of God. It was not of course the Spirit but the Word who became incarnate, and so the Spirit does not bring us any revelation other than or independent of the Word who became incarnate in Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit has no “Face”, but it is through the Spirit that we see the Face of Christ and in the Face of Christ we see the Face of the Father. The Holy Spirit does not manifest himself or focus attention upon himself, for it is his mission from the Father to declare the Son and focus attention upon him. It is through the speaking of the Spirit that the Word of God incarnate in Christ is communicated to us in words that are Spirit and Life and not flesh. (The Christian Doctrine of God: One Being Three Persons, p. 63)
Note also these two passages in John’s Gospel where Jesus tells his disciples about the Holy Spirit and his personal ministry:
I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. (John 14:16-17)
When he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears…. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. (John 16:13-14)
Thomas F. Torrance
Though we find throughout Scripture personal references to the Father and the Son, an absence of such references to the Holy Spirit does not negate his divinity. In that regard, note this from Thomas F. Torrance:
While God the Father and God the Son are revealed to us in their distinctive personal subsistences [existence as persons]… God the Holy Spirit is not directly known in his own Person… for he remains hidden behind the very revelation of the Father and the Son which he mediates through himself. He is the invisible Spirit of Truth who is sent from the Father in the name of the Son, but not in his personal name as the Holy Spirit, and thus does not speak of himself, but declares of the Father and the Son what he receives from them, while effacing himself before them…. He is the invisible Light in whose shining we see the uncreated Light of God manifest in Jesus Christ, but he is known himself only in that he lights up for us the Face of God in the Face of Jesus Christ. (The Christian Doctrine of God: One Being Three Persons, p. 51)
Basil of Caesarea
Basil of Caesarea, a prominent theologian of the early church (4th century), makes a similar comment: “Our mind, enlightened by the Spirit, looks towards the Son, and in him as in an image, sees the Father” (Letters of Basil, quoted in Torrance, The Trinitarian Faith, p. 212). The phrase, “enlightened by the Spirit,” brings joy to my soul! The Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of truth, lights up the truth—he shows us Jesus, who then shows us the Father. Here we have God shining upon God, revealing to us a God we can relate to in Jesus. We cannot know Jesus without this illumination from the Holy Spirit.
Praise the Father, praise the Son, praise the Holy Spirit!
I conclude with one of Paul’s Trinitarian benedictions: “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all” (2 Cor. 13:14).
Rejoicing in the reality of relationship with our Triune God, Joseph Tkach
GCI’s congregation in Barranquilla, Colombia, recently met at a hotel in Santa Marta for its Annual Seminar. The group, which included 47 adults and 7 children, was led by Pastor Sonia Orozco, with GCI Mission Developer Hector Barrero serving as featured speaker. The theme of the four-day seminar was “Transforming Lives” with presentations addressing the congregation’s mission, vision, values, ministries, motivations and objectives. Here are pictures:
Congratulations to Jan Flynn, wife of GCI-USA Pastor Ross Flynn. Jan was recently named teacher of the year at Oxford Middle School in Oxford, MI (near Detroit). Here are excerpts from an announcement from the school’s principal.
Jan and Ross Flynn
While her title says “Choir Teacher,” Mrs. Flynn provides students with a multitude of “vehicles” for them to be able to experience the joys of music whether that be through particular genres of drumming and utilization of other musical instruments. Every student is afforded the opportunity to be successful under Mrs. Flynn’s tutelage. She always provides time before, during and after school for students on an individual and group basis to develop their skills and confidence in choir.
Mrs. Flynn shows a lot of compassion and dedication to her community outside of Oxford Middle School. Over the past several years, Mrs. Flynn has created and expanded a choir performance that’s celebrates our nations veterans and active military personnel. This concert is called “The Americana Concert” which is held in the fall every year. This single musical event is the biggest draw of any musical performance in the district. She has been recognized by the local and states veterans associations for her deep patriotism and love for her country not only through this particular performance, but through linking Oxford Middle School to the veterans of our community. As one staff member stated “I have had the privilege to watch and learn from Jan’s patriotic, respectful admiration for the men and women that have protected the United State of America.”
Mrs. Flynn’s key character attribute that is so easy to see is her genuine kindness that she exhibits day in and day out with her students. This characteristic is so important as it creates a safe and happy learning environment in which her students thrive. Several students stated that they think Mrs. Flynn is the nicest teacher ever and that she is so easy to talk to and is a such a great listener.
Thank you Mrs. Flynn for your continued dedication to our staff and students, and for sharing your love and compassion of music with all of us. You are more than deserving of this recognition. We are very lucky to have you as a member of our Oxford Middle School family. Congratulations!
We are pleased to announce that three special classes will be offered prior to GCI’s Denominational Conference in Orlando, Florida.
