November 2016

Women Leaders in the Church

When Paul docked in Samonthrace and reached the city of Philippi, he did as always before: he sought out the Jews in the city. Learning there was no synagogue, he found a group of God-fearing women down by the riverside. Lydia, a merchant woman in the city known as the seller of crimson cloths, and the women of her household met the apostle that day. They received the gospel and were baptized.

Holiness in Flesh and Blood

What hope did the young woman sprawled in the dust have? None from the law. The holiness codes of her people were clear: she was guilty, and the crowd around her was prepared to administer the required death penalty.

But on that day, holiness wasn't contained in a code but a flesh-and-blood person. Holiness bent down near the woman, using His finger to write on the ground. “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her,” Jesus said to those who brought the adulterous woman to Him. At those words the crowd dispersed.

God’s Deepest Shalom

This year something unusual happened for the first time at the Olympics, and I found it imaginative and moving. The International Olympic Committee, in response to the current realities faced by people displaced by war and without a homeland, created a team for “refugees.” What a representation of hope.

What struck me was that the crowds of spectators seemed to embrace these runners, swimmers, and judokas. Cheering for these landless athletes, they added them seamlessly to their own national interest.

Let Love Overflow From Our Hearts

The year of missionary home assignment ended and my husband and I, along with our four young children, headed back to Israel with heavy suitcases and hearts. It was not just the farewells that made leaving difficult, but we were moving from Nazareth to Jerusalem as soon as we arrived. We didn’t know what was ahead. Earlier that summer of 1990 a ruler named Saddam Hussein began to rant and rave, but that was not unusual. After all, anger and bullying were common place in the global neighborhood where we lived.

On Ordinary Ground

Mountains have a special place in our emotional and spiritual vocabularies. We associate them with grandeur, and majesty. We sing, write, and dream about them.

We often describe a moving religious experience—such as a great service where there is lively singing, sweet reverence, tears flowing, and people drawing close to God—as a “mountaintop experience.”

A God Who Heals

XIV. Divine Healing

14. We believe in the Bible doctrine of divine healing and urge our people to offer the prayer of faith for the healing of the sick. We also believe God heals through the means of medical science.

(2 Kings 5:1-19; Psalm 103:1-5; Matthew 4:23-24; 9:18-35; John 4:46-54; Acts 5:12-16; 9:32-42; 14:8-15; 1 Corinthians 12:4-11; 2 Corinthians 12:7-10; James 5:13-16)

A Global Family

The Church of the Nazarene is a global church. Consequently, every district, local congregation, and member forms a fragment of that global structure. Together more than 2 million Nazarenes all over the world shape who we are as a global body. That is a beautiful thought—and at the same time a frightening one.

It’s beautiful because it reflects in so many ways the kingdom of God and gives us a glimpse of heaven. It’s frightening because here on earth it seems to mainly cause aggravation with the potential for undesirable consequences.

Q&A: Decisions and elections

Q: How should we approach decision-making and "God's will" when it involves local church and district level elections?

A: Decision-making conducted through a voting process can be difficult to analyze and critique. It is made even more difficult when the element of “God’s will” is invoked prior to the elective process, or used afterwards as a “stamp of approval.”

Intentional Confession

John Wesley defined sin as a willful transgression against the known law of God. The Church of the Nazarene teaches that if we sin unintentionally or unknowingly, we are not responsible for that sin. Should we still confess it?

Before we tackle that question, let’s note that by discriminating between intentional sin and unintentional sin, Wesley affirmed the Apostle John’s teaching that we do not commit intentional “sin every day in word, thought, and deed” (1 John 5:18).