*DAILY DEW 4/DECEMBER/2022* *The Church’s Mission to Make Culture* (III) _Key Bible Text:_ *"Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."* (2 Timothy 2:15 (KJV)) _Bible Insight:_ Throughout history some of the most culturally influential Christians have been pastors, planters, and missionaries. They saw that the church is critical in redeeming and creating culture that honors God and blesses the world. For the same reasons, planters and missionaries today must understand the culture around them, promote efforts in cultural renewal, and teach national believers to do the same. To do this, church planters must be three things. _1. Planters Must Be Exegetes of Culture_ Because the gospel is not tied to any earthly culture, it can find a home in any cultural context. Nevertheless, every culture retains elements that the gospel will challenge, transform, or perfect. It is the planter’s job to know which is which. To be an effective missionary, therefore, church planters must understand both the gospel and the cultural values of their context. That is why they dedicate much of their time to learning a new language as well as a new way of life. *The goal is not only to understand the people they hope to evangelize but also to discern what discipleship looks like in this particular context.* _2. Planters Must Be Experts of Culture_ A little over a century ago, pastors were recognized writers, artists, and societal experts. When people sought to understand a particular political philosophy or the underlying message of a specific piece of artwork, most knew they could look to their pastors. The same proved true for many of history’s great missionaries. *Missionaries like William Carey were church planters, pastors, translators, anthropologists, and social reformers.* Today, however, missionaries and planters are saddled with accusations of cultural ignorance, at best, and cultural imperialism, at worst. *To change all this, pastors and planters must again read widely and deeply.* They must listen well and observe closely. But above all, they must learn to love the people they are called to serve. *To be an expert in culture really is to be an expert in the people who live in a certain time and place.* _MEDITATION:_ *“The whole world is a theater for the glory of God, and we should treat it as such.”* *#Dayton_Hartman* *#Daily_Wisdom_for_living* *#Becoming_More_Like_Jesus* *#The_Rise_of_An_Army* *#Daily_Dew_Devotional* *#Guest_Message* *#Hello_DECEMBER* ❤ Links To Visit: *Register4HTP2022:* https://bit.ly/HTP2022_ACTIVATED *FB Pages* https://www.facebook.com/DavidJoshuaEgbochuo/ https://www.facebook.com/thedavidgen/ https://www.facebook.com/THEREVIVALCORPS/ *Telegram Group:* https://t.me/joinchat/NzXQlVc9Hx7LfaRSnh9fHg Feel Free to Share with Friends. God bless you...

*DAILY DEW 3/DECEMBER/2022* *The Church’s Mission to Make Culture* (II) _Key Bible Text:_ *"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth."* (Genesis 1:26 (KJV)) _Bible Insight:_ _Making Culture and the Church’s Mission_ The idea that Christians ought to “redeem” and create culture can be controversial. When so many people still haven’t heard about Christ, why bother with engaging the culture? Isn’t this putting the cart before the horse? In fact, Christ-honoring culture benefits society as a whole, including the people who have not heard the good news about Jesus. Furthermore, Scripture tells us that God commanded human beings to exercise dominion over all creation (Gen. 1:26–28). Thus, creating culture is one of the tasks we were made for. It is one of the main ways we reflect our Creator, who brought order from chaos (Gen. 1:2). Theologians call this “the creation mandate.” It’s a commission that necessitates both a whole-life education—what the Greeks called paideia (cf. Eph. 6:4)—and social action that is rooted in biblical ethics. To ignore this aspect of the church’s mission would be a detriment to all. _The Modern Struggle to Engage_ Unfortunately, evangelicals have often struggled to engage, reform, and create culture. Some have settled for a gospel that redeems worldly people yet fails to redeem the world itself. This relegates the pursuit of peace and prosperity to the personal realm instead of seeing it as a public facet of loving God and loving our neighbor (Jer. 29:7; Mark 12:30–31). Globally, this oversight has contributed to economic hardships, threats to natural resources, and various forms of injustice and oppression. At times it has even hindered the mission of God’s people. We simply can’t ignore the state of the world and expect things to turn out fine for the church. Whether as a beneficiary or a casualty, the church is never insulated from the consequences of cultural reformation or cultural collapse. _MEDITATION:_ *“We simply can’t ignore the state of the world and expect things to turn out fine for the church.”* *#Dayton_Hartman* *#Daily_Wisdom_for_living* *#Becoming_More_Like_Jesus* *#The_Rise_of_An_Army* *#Daily_Dew_Devotional* *#Guest_Message* *#Hello_DECEMBER* ❤ Links To Visit: *Register4HTP2022:* https://bit.ly/HTP2022_ACTIVATED *FB Pages* https://www.facebook.com/DavidJoshuaEgbochuo/ https://www.facebook.com/thedavidgen/ https://www.facebook.com/THEREVIVALCORPS/ *Telegram Group:* https://t.me/joinchat/NzXQlVc9Hx7LfaRSnh9fHg Feel Free to Share with Friends. God bless you...

*DAILY DEW 2/DECEMBER/2022* *The Church’s Mission to Make Culture* _Key Bible Text:_ *"Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen."* (Matthew 28:19-20 (KJV)) _Bible Insight:_ The late founder of one of my alma maters was fond of saying, “If it’s Christian, it ought to be better.” This wasn’t an arrogant claim that Christians possess superior talents or abilities. It was just his way of saying that faith in Jesus should make a positive difference in how we live. After all, the gospel is not a message that rescues sinners from the world yet fails to change the world sinners live in (Acts 17:6). No, Jesus does indeed bring positive change, both personally and culturally. The earliest Christians understood this well. _Learning from the Early Church_ Though they were a persecuted minority for much of the first three centuries, the early church did not abandon the call to engage the culture. Indeed, they viewed themselves as subjects of a king whose kingdom is “not of this world” (John 18:36 CSB) while being very much in the world (Luke 17:21). This makes every church an outpost of an otherworldly kingdom that will one day replace all the kingdoms on the earth (Rev. 11:15). In view of these truths, early Christians knew they could not withdraw from the world around them. Yet neither could they imitate the world’s way of life. There were elements of their societies that needed to be countered while other things were waiting to be created by people who had an entirely different vision for life. In other words, early Christians were neither culturally derivative nor exclusively defensive. Instead, they were culturally creative. They built hospitals because of their belief in the dignity of humanity. They cared for the poor because of their desire to imitate Christ. And they revered God in their private and public lives, often enduring ridicule and persecution because of it. _MEDITATION:_ *“The gospel is not a message that rescues sinners from the world yet fails to change the world sinners live in.”* *#Dayton_Hartman* *#Daily_Wisdom_for_living* *#Becoming_More_Like_Jesus* *#The_Rise_of_An_Army* *#Daily_Dew_Devotional* *#Guest_Message* *#Hello_DECEMBER* ❤ Links To Visit: *Register4HTP2022:* https://bit.ly/HTP2022_ACTIVATED *FB Pages* https://www.facebook.com/DavidJoshuaEgbochuo/ https://www.facebook.com/thedavidgen/ https://www.facebook.com/THEREVIVALCORPS/ *Telegram Group:* https://t.me/joinchat/NzXQlVc9Hx7LfaRSnh9fHg Feel Free to Share with Friends. God bless you...

*DAILY DEW 1/DECEMBER/2022* *THE SPIRIT VS THE SOUL!* _Key Bible Text:_ *"For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."* (Hebrews 4:12 (KJV)) _Bible Insight:_ New Life isn't in the soul of a Christian. It is in his spirit. This is a very important fact which if understood will make a great difference. The spirit and the soul are not the same. One of the most important differences is that the soul is self conscious, but the spirit-man is not. The spirit-man is conscious of God. If there was no music, no singing, no falling under the anointing, but God was in the room; the spirit will know, but the soul won't. The soul needs those other things to be able to discern God's presence. The downside to that is that there can be a wind of prophecy, a fire of tongues, and an earthquake of mighty preaching, and God is not in any of it.🥺 But the spirit will pick up His still small voice. So self-affirmation, self-determination, self-love self-advertisement, self-motivation is primarily soulish or carnal. The soul is powerful, but it is not the spirit. The soul is strengthened in front of a mirror, but the only mirror for the spirit-man is the word of God. But without the help of the Spirit, you could turn the word of God into a physical mirror, into a motivational book, and glean from it only the things you want to hear and things easy to be understood. But should you present yourself before the living Word with meekness and sincerity, it will immediately begin to divide asunder between soul and spirit. It will show you Christ. _MEDITATION:_ *"For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace."* (Romans 8:5-6 (KJV)) *#Ebele_UzoPeters * *#Daily_Wisdom_for_living* *#Becoming_More_Like_Jesus* *#The_Rise_of_An_Army* *#Daily_Dew_Devotional* *#Guest_Message* *#Hello_DECEMBER* ❤ Links To Visit: *Register4HTP2022:* https://bit.ly/HTP2022_ACTIVATED *FB Pages* https://www.facebook.com/DavidJoshuaEgbochuo/ https://www.facebook.com/thedavidgen/ https://www.facebook.com/THEREVIVALCORPS/ *Telegram Group:* https://t.me/joinchat/NzXQlVc9Hx7LfaRSnh9fHg Feel Free to Share with Friends. God bless you...

*DAILY DEW 30/NOVEMBER/2022* *THE POWER OF PRAYER!* _Key Bible Text:_ *"And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren."* (Luke 22:31-32 (KJV)) _Bible Insight:_ When Father Nash learned of a bar owner who was causing a good deal of trouble for the Christians in the community, he wrote the man’s name down on his Prayer list as a “hard case.” The bar owner was known to accost and abuse those he knew to be Christians with the most abusive and foul language. His bar had a reputation for entertaining people who engaged in drunkenness and profane revelry. A few days later, Nash pressed on, being called to another area to pray. Not long afterward, this “hard case” showed up at one of Charles Finney's meetings. His appearance caused considerable commotion, but as he caused no trouble when he entered, Charles left him alone, though he felt obliged to keep an eye on him throughout the service. As the meeting progressed, Charles sensed that the man was uneasy; he fidgeted constantly in his seat. Finally, he arose and asked if he could speak. When Charles gave him permission to do so, he poured himself out in brokenhearted repentance before those who had gathered. It was incredibly moving for everyone there, and many whose hearts had been hardened against what Charles had been preaching found themselves broken before God as well. Within a short time, the man made his peace with God and closed his bar to the debauchery that had formerly been prevalent in it. For the remainder of the time that Finney spent in this town, a prayer meeting took place virtually every night in this bar... _MEDITATION:_ *"SHARE this to encourage those Praying out there. Beloved, If we can Pray more and Pray more effectively consistent, GOD SHALL HEAR US."* (Acts 4:15-16 (KJV)) *#Christian_Nwoke_Mission* *#Daily_Wisdom_for_living* *#Becoming_More_Like_Jesus* *#The_Rise_of_An_Army* *#Daily_Dew_Devotional* *#Guest_Message* *#Hello_DECEMBER* ❤ Links To Visit: *Register4HTP2022:* https://bit.ly/HTP2022_ACTIVATED *FB Pages* https://www.facebook.com/DavidJoshuaEgbochuo/ https://www.facebook.com/thedavidgen/ https://www.facebook.com/THEREVIVALCORPS/ *Telegram Group:* https://t.me/joinchat/NzXQlVc9Hx7LfaRSnh9fHg Feel Free to Share with Friends. God bless you...