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Bishop T.D. Jakes shares four steps for effective preaching

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How can you more effectively share the word of God in sermon-form? One of the most prolific preachers of our time is sharing his tips with you!

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In mattters Divine, the interplay between the revealed will of God and the submission of man to the same assumes great importance. While the Scriptures strongly assert that God is Sovereign and does all things according to His will, the Bible also strongly teaches on man's exercise of his will either to his benefit or to his detriment.  Unbalanced emphasis of  either aspect of Scriptural will lead to a distorted view of God and man which is fraught with danger.

It is important to understand that God's will for man includes management of resources on earth. Man's original state was one of keen intellect, robust health and vast management capacity. Thus, in God's restorative programme for mankind, God supplements rather than supplants man's will. The crucial difference here is analogous to that waking a man out of a coma and creating a robot. The renewal provided by the Holy Spirit grants a fresh consciousness of God as well as the supply of godly desires which when acted on will produce the fruit of righteousness. While the Holy Spirit works on the inner man, He liberates our will more and more from the evil habits of sinful living. However, we are required to choose daily. If we yield to the Holy Spirit, the end result will be the invigoration of the inner man. If we resist the Holy Spirit, the shadow of death will enervate the inner man and evil desires will rise to the fore.

The design of God for man is distinct from the perversion devised by satan. The activity of evil spirits result in increasing levels of compulsive sinful behaviour in which the will of man is enslaved. In such a state, the decisions of man are made by a power alien to his will, constituting captivity of the mind. While satan desires such a state of mind, God desires no such thing for His people. The people of God must serve Him using the renewed mind. The renewed mind carefully evaluates matters before implementing a course of action. In such an arrangement, God grants revelation of His will and holds us accountable for yielding to His revealed will.

Failure to understand God's design for us can lead to the danger of passivity, in which an individual does nothing unless an internal prompt or a voice is supplied. This goes against the clear teaching of scripture which encourages us to prove things, seek wisdom and ecercise our senses to discern good and evil. God does not need to prompt us to eat, drink or to wear the color green. He has left for us a vast scope for the exercise of freewill. We can trust the comprehensive revelation of Scripture as well as the moral guidance of the Spirit. Beware of spirits that seek to base actions on mere feelings!

The moral teaching of the Holy Spirit will always line up perfectly with New Covenant truth. The Holy Spirit will not lead persons into actions that are clearly fleshy. The teaching of the Spirit is objective truth, not subjective perception. Persons who always hear from God about others but harbour unbridled carnality may not be hearing from God at all!

Selah...

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Why did God allow "difficult scriptures" to be included in the Holy Writ? The task of exegesis is compounded by geographical, cultural and temporal separation from the events described by scriptures. Furthermore, given that some books of the Bible are apocalyptic, the symbols used have been the substratum of diverse eschatological views, some of which contradict each other on major points. If truth is to be known by all, why are certain aspects of it seemingly difficult to know?

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Resistance is futile

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Christians worldwide would agree that story of God's dealings with mankind began with the creation of Adam and Eve as recorded in Genesis 2. The first human beings were to be the microcosm of a collective built on obedience to God. However, such an existence was shattered, leading to the loss of innocence, expulsion from the garden of Eden and the sentence of death.

How could things have spiralled so tragically into a tailspin of woe? Genesis 3 starts out with the telltale declaration that the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. This sets the stage for understanding that there is a wicked being who seeks to thwart God's plans.

The serpent levelled a multi-pronged attack at the goodness of God, the sureness of God's word and Eve's sense of contentment. His perversion resulted in Eve being deceived, Adam being a transgressor and God being the Judge in Eden.

It is important to note that when the man fell, all of humanity died with him. The ground was cursed and man's days were fraught with futility. Whether we believe it or not, God still holds men to a high degree of accountability. When godly men go missing, society is on a collision course towards disaster.

To be continued...

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Human beings tend to emulate persons who they admire and whose values they deem to be worthy of attainment. Many times, characteristic phrases, gestures and mannerisms exhibited by role models are adopted by those who admire them. The question is: What are the key characteristics of Jesus? If righteousness is an intrinsic characteristic of Jesus ( and it is), how should walking with Jesus affect our speech and mannerisms?

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"For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live"

[Romans 8: 13]

The way to freedom from the destructive power of sin is in Christ Jesus. Sin is a problem which cannot be solved by mere human resolve or ingenuity. It is the infusion of life from the Holy Spirit which gives us the grace to withstand evil desires in a world festooned with diverse temptations. How do we consistently overcoming the vile influence of sin's power? It is through putting to death the works of the flesh through the power of the Spirit. If we find that we are beset consistently by evil habits, it is indicative of spiritual sickness. May God help us to accept the fact that we are dead to sin and consequently rely upon the power of the Holy Spirit to subdue the lusts of the flesh.

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The revelation of the Godhead: necessary truth or blessed extra?

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The revelation of the Godhead: necessary truth or blessed extra?

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Here is the crux of the matter... Will persons go to hell because they perceive God as a trinity? Will our understanding and appreciation of salvation be altered if we view God through Sabellian lenses? Does our perception of God's ontology necessarily shape our understanding of human responsibility re salvation? Let us ponder...

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Can you believe that less than 10% of the universe we live in is made of ordinary matter? Find out more from the link below!

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Dark Energy, Dark Matter | Science Mission Directorate

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What is dark energy? More is unknown than is known — we know how much there is, and we know some of its properties; other than that, dark energy is a mystery — but an important one. Roughly 70% of the Universe is made of dark energy. Dark matter makes up about 25%. The rest - everything on Earth, ev…

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God will not disregard the spark of creativity He has deposited within you. The task is yours to fan it into a  blaze. Angels will not  do what you're gifted to do!

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The word "El" in Hebrew and "Theos" in Greek are used in the scriptures to communicate the same idea, that being "mighty one". These are the terms which in addition to the Hebrew word "Elohim" (the plural intensive of El) are translated as "God". If from early in scripture, the term "God" was uniformly applied to a singular Being, then the rule of consistency demands that the term carry the same connotation throughout the Biblical corpus. While in the Hebrew, the term Elohim was used for God, the plurality of the word was never interpreted by the Hebrew sages as a plurality of persons in the Godhead. It was used to denote the plurality of God's power and majesty. Thus, while the New Testament presents us with a picture of the "Father", "Son" and "Holy Spirit" as if they are different persons, we must understand that there are things about God which are presented to man in a figurative form to bridge the gap between man's understanding and a very deep mystery. The Personhood of God thus resides in three "aspects" which are not different persons at all, but different ontological aspects of the One God. How can we know for sure? Well, Paul identifies the One God as the Father. If the Father is the One God, then what can we say about Jesus and the Holy Spirit? The Scriptures repeatedly inform us that Jesus is God and that the Holy Spirit is God. We must then understand that He who is the Father is the same who is the Son. He it is who is also the Holy Spirit. However, while the identity of all three is the same, there are unique roles and functions ascribed to each which makes for significant distinctions. While it is the same God working through each "ontological form" (for want of a better term), the distinction among the ontological forms are so marked that the idea of Personhood is used to delineate them, even though in fact, it is One Divine Person who exists in such disparate ontological forms. So while it is correct to say that the same Being who is the Father is the same Being who is manifested as the Son, the ontological forms of Father and the Son are not equal. While the Father is God existing as He always has, the Son is a seamless blending of Divinity and Humanity. The Divine Being in both cases is one and the same but the "forms" Father and Son are distinct. While we know that He who is the Father is also the Holy Spirit, it is important for us to understand the reason why distinctions exist between the Father and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is depicted in scripture as proceeding from the Father and /or the Lord Jesus Christ. He is also shown to be a Teacher, an Agent of conviction and the guarantee that salvation will be consummated in the saints. He is also described as a "gift". In contrast to the role of the Holy Spirit, The Father is depicted as the Chief Sovereign of the Universe. He is the One to whom humanity is reconciled through Christ Jesus and He is the one to whom prayers are made through the enabling power of the Holy Spirit. Thus, as the Holy Spirit, God helps humanity to commune with Himself. We are instructed in Scripture to yield to the Holy Spirit, which means that God has left space for the exercise of our will. As the Father, however, God has determined from eternity that some events should occur, whether humanity agrees with God's plans or not. The Holy Spirit intercedes for us so as to make our prayers effective while the Son intercedes for us so as to uphold our justification. Both forms of intercession are made to the Father on our behalf. Such is the diversity of operations accomplished by the One God. God be praised!

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Understanding the biblical revelation of God's ontology is admittedly a challenge. The teaching of Jesus concerning the Father, Himself and the Holy Spirit suggest that there are three divine persons working together in seamless unity, a unity which constitutes the Godhead. However, there are aspects to the revelation of the "threeness" of God which work against the ideas of three distinct persons of equal majesty being called God. Pauline theology in particular is generally very consistent in calling the Father theos (Greek for God), Jesus Christ kurios (Greek for Lord) and the Holy Spirit the Pneuma (Greek for Spirit).

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Interested in listening to some gospel musicians straining the limits of creativity? Here is a link for you!

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Listen to GospelMusicians | SoundCloud is an audio platform that lets you listen to what you love and share the sounds you create.. Orlando. 270 Tracks. 7543 Followers. Stream Tracks and Playlists from GospelMusicians on your desktop or mobile device.

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How should we understand God as revealed in the New Testament? Is He one Being playing three roles (Sabellianism), a unity of three distinct persons with the same essence (trinitarinism), or a group of three gods (tritheism)? Is God a who or is He a what?

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Hi All,

Curious to know more about the National Identification System being promoted so stridently by the government? See the link below

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Related Publications - View or Download

The Government of Jamaica is designing and developing a National Identification System (NIDS), that will provide a comprehensive and secure structure to enable the capture and storage of personal identity information for citizens and persons ordinarily resident in Jamaica. The NIDS will become the primary source for identity assurance and verification, and will result in improved governance and management of social, economic and security programmes.

What is NIDS?

The National Identification System, called NIDS, is a unique, reliable and secure way of verifying an individual's identity. It will establish a reliable database of all Jamaican citizens and will involve the issuance of a unique lifelong National Identification Number to every person. In the long term, the NIN may be used alongside a multipurpose card, or be uploaded onto smart phones. The use of biometric (fingerprint or retina) scan is also being explored.

Why a NIDS?

At present, Jamaica does not have a central national database with the accompanying systems to support secure , reliable identity verification and authentication. The various systems issue different numbers based on the diverse standards and are not necessarily able to connect and share information with each other due to logistical or legal barriers. Therefore, individuals can assume multiple identities.

What are the objectives of NIDS?

1. To establish a reliable database of Jamaican citizens and other individuals ordinarily resident in Jamaica, with a unique National Identification Number (NIN) as the primary key identifier of a person in the system.

2. To enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of Government entities, management and delivery of Government services to the public; to include programme benefits such as the National Insurance Scheme (NIS), the National Health Fund (NHF), welfare, E-government (with the use of the NIN, creating the linkages between entities and providing the following services: Citizen to Government C2G, Government to Government G2G services, Government to Business G2B services and Government to Citizen G2c services) among others.

3. To facilitate the growth and development of commerce and economic activity through the provision of a platform of greater security and integrity for public partnerships

4. To enhance the Government's ability to secure compliance with critical obligations to the state to include tax collection, among others

5. Strengthening of immigration, border control management, public safety and national security

What are the benefits of NIDS?

1. Reduce the need to register for each benefit and/or obligation - e.g. Payment of property taxes or receiving PATH benefits. This will, among other things, simplify the government's processes and eliminate costs incurred from paper purchases and other administrative tasks.

2. Assist in the fight against crime by providing the relevant authorities access to a secure database which captures civil and biometric data of citizens and residents in Jamaica.

3. Minimize the capacity for an individual to assume multiple identities which has contributed to illegal activities such as money laundering, tax evasion, and credit card fraud.

Will there be new or amended legislation?

New legislation and regulations related to identity management, verification and data sharing will be enacted. The legislation will ensure the protection of personal data. All existing laws related to identity management and storage will be reviewed and amended f deemed necessary. Data Sharing Agreements will be established among government entities.

How will NIDS be financed?

The initial design and development of NIDS is funded by a Technical Co-operation Grant from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), through the Korean Poverty Reduction Fund in the amount of USD670,000 with GOJ counterpart funding of USD120,000.

The Technical Co-operation Agreement which will last for 24 months was signed in September 2011. The Grant will finance the following technical consultancies:

Develop the Legal Framework

Design the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Architecture

Develop the Communication and Behaviour Change Strategy

Develop the Institutional Framework

Conduct an Economic Assessment (Cost Benefit Analysis) and Audit

Who are the key facilitating Government entities?

Fiscal Services Limited

Registrar General's Department

Passport, Immigration and Citizenship Agency

Electoral Office of Jamaica

National Insurance Scheme

For further Information:

Contact the NIDS Project Team
National Registration Unit
National Identification System (NIDS) Project
Office of the Prime Minister
1 Devon Road, Kingston 10
Jamaica, West Indies

Telephone: ( 876 )-927-9941-3
Email:customercare@nids.gov.jm
Website: https://www.nidsfacts.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nidsfacts
Twitter: https://twitter.com/NIDSfacts
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/NIDSfacts/

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Related Publications - View or Download The Government of Jamaica is designing and developing a National Identification System (NIDS), that will provide a comprehensive and secure structure to enable the capture and storage of personal identity information for citizens and persons ordinarily resident in Jamaica.

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Hi All,

Please fill out the form below.