The Ministry Of The Unveiled Face

Jesus told His followers to go into the world and preach the Good News. However, many Christians aren’t fulfilling this Great Commission. The call to “evangelize” conjures up uncomfortable images of walking inner city streets with a megaphone. We don’t relish facing possible ridicule so prevalent in society today, so we hesitate to reach out. But we are called to witness. And it isn’t that difficult. When we anchor in the goodness of Christ, we realize that sharing the Gospel is a profound honor. The Ministry of the Unveiled Face grounds us in the simplicity of sharing Christ in the everyday. The meekness of the call lies in our being responsive and obedient to God’s prompting as we interact with others. Anchored in persevering prayer, we speak scriptural truths into the lives of others as the Holy Spirit leads. Like the unveiling of a beautiful bride at her wedding, the spiritual veil is removed and Christ’s truth and goodness are revealed.

Somewhere along the way the "American Dream" replaced the biblical expectations of life following Christ. We insist that a loving God will provide a trouble-free life. When this does not happen, we blame God for not keeping His side of the bargain. But...God never promises a rose garden! He promised us eternal life. He promised us forgiveness of sins. He promised us He will never leave us or forsake us. Isn't it time we got real with the real God of the bible? We are being led to publish this work to help Christians unveil themselves before God! And, 100% of book royalties from sales of With Unveiled Face are designated for the building fund of ClearView Ministries as we are currently without a church building. Learn about ClearView Church at http: //clearviewministries.org.

Two verses about Moses in the Bible have been the subject of debate since the first century. In Exodus 33:20, God tells Moses that no one can see God and live, but Numbers 12:8 says that Moses sees the form of the Lord. How does one reconcile these two opposing statements? Did Moses see God, and who gets to decide? The Christian Moses investigates how ancient Christians from the New Testament to Augustine of Hippo resolved questions of who can see God, how one can see God, and what precisely one sees. Jaeda Calaway explains that the decision about whether and how Moses saw God was not a neutral exercise for an early Christian. Rather, it established the interpreter's authority to determine what was possible in divine-human relations and set the parameters for the nature of humanity. As a result, Calaway argues, interpretations of Moses' visions became a means for Jews and Christians to jockey for power, allowing them to justify particular social arrangements, relations, and identities, to assert the limits of humans in the face of divinity, and to create an Other. Seeing early Christians with new eyes, The Christian Moses reassesses how debates on Moses' visions from the first through the fifth centuries were, in reality, debates on the boundaries of humanity.

This issue of The Ministry of the Word contains the final eight messages given during the fall 2017 term of the full-time training in Anaheim, California. The general subject of this series of messages is "The Crucial Revelation of Life in the Scriptures." God's ultimate intention is to gain a corporate God-man for His corporate manifestation. The intrinsic element of God's eternal economy is that the Triune God in humanity, the wonderful Christ as the Spirit of the glorified Jesus, is sown into God's chosen people as the seed of life, the seed of God, so that He might grow in them, live in them, develop in them, and be expressed from within them as the farm of God for the building up of the church as the house of God and the kingdom of God. The seed of life is actually God in Christ as the Spirit through His word sown into us. This seed contains everything related to God's economy, to the divine life, and to the growth, development, and function of that life. The seed of life is not only a substance, a reproductive element, or an essence but also a person--the all-inclusive Christ. The seed of life sown into us needs to grow to maturity so that we may be the kingdom of God. In resurrection Christ became a life-giving Spirit for imparting life. The life-giving Spirit is the extract, the essence, the concentrated form of the all-inclusive Christ. The totality of all that the all-inclusive Christ is as the life-giving Spirit is for our experience and enjoyment. Without the experience of Christ as the life-giving Spirit, the Lord cannot have His Body. If we never have any experience or enjoyment, we will never grow. There is always a spiritual war related to the growth in life. If the enemy cannot stop the sowing of the seed, then he will do everything he can with every believer to prevent the seed from growing to maturity. However, there is a fighting element in this seed. The only way to enter into the coming kingdom is to grow into the kingdom. Second Peter 1:5-11 reveals that our growth in life to maturity becomes an entrance into the kingdom richly supplied to us. The law of the Spirit of life is the subject of Romans 8. God's life is the highest life, and the law of this life is the highest law. The law of the Spirit of life is not a thing but a person--the processed and consummated Triune God embodied in Christ and realized as a living law in our spirit. This law of life is the spontaneous power, the natural characteristic, and the innate, automatic function of the divine life. While we remain in touch with the Lord, staying in contact with Him, the law of the Spirit of life works automatically, spontaneously, and effortlessly to dispense God as life into our being and to overcome the law of sin and of death (vv. 10, 6, 11). We activate the law of the Spirit of life by remaining in touch with the Lord. We need to cooperate with the indwelling, installed, automatic, and inner-operating God by prayer and by having a spirit of dependence, thus maintaining our fellowship with the Lord of life and the Lord of work. Romans 8 reveals that the processed Triune God as the law of the Spirit of life gives the divine life to the believers for their living. There are four laws in Romans 7 and 8. One law is outside of us, and the other three correspond to the three lives that are within us as regenerated persons. Outside of us is the law of God, the law of moral commandments, which is a portrait of God. Within us is the law of sin and of death in our flesh, the law of good in our soul, and the law of the Spirit of life in our spirit. The only way we can match and become the living portrait of God is by living according to the law of the Spirit of life in our spirit. God's desire and goal are that we live by the divine life and minister life to others for the building up of the church. The all-inclusive, indwelling Spirit is constantly transmitting this life into each one of us to build up the church, edify the saints, and minister the riches of Christ to everyone who contacts us. In Romans 8 we also see that the desire of God's heart is to have many sons for His corporate expression (v. 29). The Father sent His Son--who was born under the law and born through a woman--to redeem us out from under the law. Having redeemed us, He "sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba, Father!'" (Gal. 4:6). Now our spirit has become a spirit of sonship. As the divine life grows within us and transforms us, it spontaneously shapes us into the form, the image, of the firstborn Son of God. We are to be conformed to the image of God's firstborn Son, Christ as the first God-man, that we may be a group of God-men who are exactly like Him. Paul's Epistle to the Romans reveals God's complete salvation in two aspects. God's judicial redemption is the procedure of God's complete salvation for the believers to participate in God's organic salvation as the purpose of the complete salvation of God. Redemption entails the forgiveness of all our sins, reconciliation, positional sanctification, and justification. God's organic salvation is the organic aspect of God's complete salvation through the life of God (Rom. 1:17b; Acts 11:18; Rom. 5:10b, 17b, 18b, 21b) as the purpose of God's salvation, accomplishing all that God wants to achieve in the believers in His economy through His divine life (Gen. 2:9; Rev. 22:14). Organic salvation entails regeneration with God's life, sanctification with God's holy nature, renewing with God's element, transformation with God's being, conformation into God's image, and glorification, which is our full sonship. Glorification sonizes our whole being, from spirit to soul to body. All the items of God's organic salvation are carried out by Christ as the life-giving Spirit in His heavenly ministry organically and subjectively. Being saved in His life is actually the process of resurrection, with the resurrection life of Christ as the element, increasingly taking place in our inner being so that we are sanctified, which is to be saturated with God's holy nature. It is in resurrection that we are renewed, we walk in newness of life, and we serve in newness of spirit (Rom. 6:4; 7:6). The experience of God's organic salvation equals reigning in Christ's life. The issue of our reigning in life, living under the ruling of the divine life, is the real and practical Body life expressed in the church life (12:1-4, 9-12, 15, 18). The Announcements section at the end of this issue contains a list of upcoming conferences and trainings hosted by Living Stream Ministry and a website link for information related to similar events in Europe.

In this passage-by-passage commentary on 2 Corinthians, Linda Belleville shows how Paul's response to the commercial and hedonistic hotbed of Corinth can serve as model for all disciples who are confronted with a culture of individualism and materialism.

With Unveiled Face offers an exploration of the concept of shame in today's culture, and how its negative effects can be countered both pastorally and theologically. While some forms of shame are appropriate indeed essential, for successful functioning in society, shame can also become a destructive, imprisoning condition which controls our ability to be true to ourselves. The person experiencing acute shame wants to hide away, or at least to hide their face. If these feelings become chronic, they can lead to self-destructive behaviours, self-harming and even suicide. Our propensity to feel shame leaves us open to exploitation for the purposes of power and control. And whereas guilt will be felt by the perpetrator, shame is also felt by the innocent, indeed it can spread and infect whole communities. Here Paul Goodliff explores shame in all these guises. Using analyses of scripture and myth alongside theological and psychological insights, he contends that there is a need to both reinforce the protective purpose of shame, while finding ways of healing destructive shame. With Unveiled Face will be invaluable for all those working or studying in the fields of pastoral care and counselling, as well as anyone seeking a better understanding of this debilitating condition and its effects.

Take Your Theological Education to the Next Level Deepen your biblical and theological knowledge without the time, expense, and formality of seminary. In this extensively updated book, discover all the major topics in a typical seminary master's program authoritatively taught by respected professors, authors, and leaders. This introduction to a biblical studies degree is ideal for the layperson or anyone in vocational ministry who lacks the time or finances to attend classes, who lives where formal training is unavailable, or whose previous education is primarily secular. Study what you want, when you want. Subjects include: · systematic theology · surveys of the Old and New Testaments · apologetics · world religions · church history · homiletics · leadership · Christian education · and more

Paul stresses that authentic Christian ministry is characterized by weakness and suffering, specifically the weakness and paradigmatic sufferings endured by the crucified Jesus.