By Todd Kinde. Read Part 1.

Feminine Activity in the Community of the Redeemed

The New Testament delineates various activities done by certain women. Anna the prophetess gave thanks to God and spoke of Christ (Lk 2:38). Mary sat at Jesus’ feet receiving instruction (Lk 10:39). The Samaritan woman discussed theology with Jesus an 4:7ff.). Women including Mary the mother of Jesus were full members of the community of believers and devoting themselves to prayer (Acts 1:14). Tabitha organized a benevolent ministry to the needy (Acts 9:36). Lydia hosted a church plant (Acts 16:14, 40). The four daughters of Philip prophesied (Acts 28:9). Priscilla alongside her husband...

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The Kingdom to Come in the Lord’s Prayer

We are accustomed to treat the so-called “Lord’s Prayer” within our own “Church” context. And no wonder, for the guidance and hope it supplies are a great boon to the spiritual life. But if we situate it in its setting in the Sermon on the Mount we have to allow that it signified something a little different for the disciples, especially Matthew 6:10:

Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

In circa A.D. 30 Jesus’ references to God’s “kingdom” would, when combined with His messianic claims and miracles, summon up only one idea—the covenanted Davidic Kingdom...

One of the primary ways the church advances the kingdom of God is through corporate prayer. And when God’s people gather at the throne of grace, they shouldn’t limit their prayers to the elect. They should pray for all people. Why? Because there’s a wideness in God’s mercy. While his special grace secures the repentance of some, his common grace solicits the repentance of many.¹ Thus, there’s a real sense in which our heavenly Father desires, provides for, and pursues the salvation of all people. Such a big-hearted God calls for big-hearted prayers.

The Danger of a Narrow Gospel

Paul begins his first letter to Timothy by issuing a warning against false teachers (1:3-7). While scholars debate the...

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
Serve the Lord with gladness! 
Come into his presence with singing! 

Know that the Lord, he is God!
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. 

Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise! 
Give thanks to him; bless his name! 

For the Lord is good;
his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations.

(ESV)

While we are not certain of the exact date, we do know that this year marks the 400th anniversary of the Pilgrims’ first Thanksgiving celebration in Plymouth.¹

In the fall of 1621, “the 53 surviving Pilgrims and Chief Massasoit with his 90 Indian braves”² (of the Wampanoag Tribe) came together to mark the bounty of their harvest and to give praise to God for graciously preserving them and providing for them.

Pilgrim Edward Winslow—signer of the Mayflower Compact, three-time governor of Plymouth, the author of five books, and a most interesting man in his own right—shared the most detailed historical account of that blessed assembly in a work...

The Kingdom of Heaven?

Matthew 3 begins with John the Baptist proclaiming, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” (Matt. 3:1-2). It has him calling Pharisees and Sadducees “a brood of vipers” (Matt. 3:7), which hardly matched the exalted spiritual status they gave themselves. Later in this Gospel we see Jesus calling Pharisees (and scribes) hypocrites and “fools and blind” (Matt. 23:13-19). In Matthew the religious leaders get called all kinds of names. Modern scholarship has tried to correct these Matthean malapropisms, and we do know of Pharisees who became followers of Jesus (Acts 15:5). All in all though, the portrait the Holy Spirit has left us in the first Gospel does them no credit at all.

After the temptation of Jesus, which I shall look at from Matthew...

In his splendid book, How to Preach the Psalms, Kenneth Langley’s burden is not to teach you how to interpret the psalms. Plenty of folks have already done that. Nor is it about exegesis―there are already far too many guides to what Abraham Kuruvilla maligns as a “hermeneutic of excavation.”¹ Instead, Langley’s aim is to help pastors preach the psalms as the literary treasures they are.²

Langley explains that, early in his ministry, he avoided preaching the psalms. They were...

Todd Kinde

A biblical theology of manhood and womanhood within the church can be approached in a couple of ways. One way is to determine from Scripture what a man or a woman can or cannot do in the life and ministry of the local church. A second way is to discern what man and woman are to be within the local church. Who one is determines what one does, while what one does defines who one is. With this premise in mind, this article will begin by gleaning the Scripture for truths regarding our being, then truths regarding our doing.

Bearing the Image of God

The being of man and woman can be viewed in creation and redemption. Man and woman are created in the image of God. The Bible reveals the veracity of the gender binary in the creation accounts (Ge...