Kelly Minter: "All Things New" Session 5

Session 5 of "All Things New" is about rethinking generosity.

Kelly mentions the generosity of Macedonia, which was a poor church, and the wealth of the Corinthian church.

In Galatians, Paul mentions to "remember the poor" (the Jewish poor).  This is why he wants the Corinth church to take up a collection for the church in Jerusalem - remember the Jewish poor.  Macedonians, who are poor, gave money to the church in Jerusalem.  So Paul is encouraging the Corinth church, who are wealthy, to follow this pattern as well.

What makes people give who are impoverished? Paul said in verse  1 "I want to tell you about the grace of God which has been evident in the churches in Macedonia." It is the grace of God Kelly says.  Paul wanted the Corinth church to know this.

Three Points About the Grace of God: 

• Only the grace of God can make overflowing joy and extreme poverty equal rich generosity - "gave beyond what they were able"
• Only the grace of God can prompt us to give as much as we're able, and then just a little bit more - "entirely on their own." Wanted the privilege to be a part of giving.
• Only the grace of God can inspire us to give before we've even been asked

Six Things About Biblical Generosity:

• Verse 4 - eager to participate.  Privilege (the word used here is Charis - grace or benefit. Giving is an expression of God's grace.  It was a privilege to share in the service of the saints
• The privilege of giving to our brothers and sisters in Christ is one of the greatest privileges we'll ever have on this earth. In 2 Corinthians 8:7 Paul was saying "step it up Corinthians."
• Sacrifical generosity should be a characteristic of every believers life.  This should be how we live
• Love and generosity are inextricably tied together testing their sincerity not commanding it. (2 Corinthians 8:8-12).  The Macedonians and Corinthians were giving to a people group they didn't know personally.  
• God's definition of giving richly has nothing to do with our wealth.  Macedonians didn't have much.  (verse 12)
• The discipline of giving is for the mutual benefit of the giver and the receiver (8:13-14).  This is where the joy is.

In verse 11, Paul stresses to the Corinthian church "now finish this".  He wanted them to follow through.  We follow through with the things we care about.

Kelly mentioned that if we came into wealth, we probably would not give it away unless we are doing that right now.  Because we only give out of our wealth what we're willing to give out of our leaness.  

We need to believe what God can do with any sum of money. When we give it shows where our heart truly is.

To sum up, Kelly said our desire and ability to give all goes back to the person of Jesus Christ who gave it all.

Session 6: "A Good Kind of Boasting"

What Women Need Most for Better Bible Study

I've learned a few important tips from Bible teacher Jen Wilkins that I would like to share with you.

She gives a few reasons to a better Bible study for women.

We need a better definition of Women's Bible study. We have a tendency, Jen says, to call everything a Bible study.  Not everything in a Christian bookstore is a Bible study.  Devotionals or topical studies (i.e. anxiety, fear etc) are not Bible studies. If we spend time on topical studies or devotional books, we'll only spend time in those few scriptures.  In doing a Bible study, she says, we are reading through scripture and allowing topics to present as they occur in the text.  These are not bad, but they're intended to be layered upon a foundational understanding of scripture.  We need to understand the difference between devotional, topical and those that are building a foundational base (building our Bible literacy and comprehension of scripture).

We need better resources.  We need resources that focus on God first and us second.  Many questions in the studies we do ask questions that reflect on "who I am" first rather than on "who God is". It's a good question, but shouldn't be the first question we ask. The first question should be "what does this passage teach me about God?" After we answer that question, we have the foundational base to ask ourselves "how can I adjust myself to what this passage is teaching?"  We also need resources that target our mind not just our emotions. Jen stated that a lot of books out there for women target only the emotions.  The thought card is never targeted.  We are to love our God with our mind, scripture says.  Our intellect should be engaged in our pursuit of knowing God. We shouldn't be spoon-fed with the answers.  We should be better students of the Bible and be more comfortable with our Bible at the end of a study. 

I found this very helpful.  If you desire to hear the 10 minute talk by Jen Wilkins, you can find it on youtube under "what women need most for Bible study, Jen Wilkins."

Review by Sharon Garner

Kelly Minter "All Things New" - Session 4

Session 4 of Kelly Minter's 2 Corinthians series is called "The New Has Come".  She teaches from 2 Corinthians 6:14 - 7:1.  

In the workbook for the session 4 study, Kelly goes through chapter 5.  She begins the DVD study starting with chapter 6 verse 14.

"Fix on the unseen - eternal, not the temporary" was how Kelly started out session 4.

Because we are in this new covenant, Paul tells the Corinthian church to not be yoked to this world with unbelievers.  Don't be teamed up or mis-matched with an unbeliever.

What Yoke Does Mean
The definition of "yoke" is: teamed together, going in the same direction.  If you're not yoked together correctly or compatibly, you will be going in two different directions, two different mindsets.

This causes:

• Striving
• Fighting and tugging to go in a certain direction

What Yoke Does Not Mean

Look at 1 Corinthians 5:9-10:

• It does't mean to stop relating to the sinner.  If so, we'll just need to leave the world.  It does mean: relationship ties that compromise what God wants to do in our lives.
• It doesn't mean we don't have friendships with unbelievers.

What it does mean is that our values will be markedly different from the culture.

"We don't want to be tied in such a way where another person's direction in life holds power over God's calling in our life" - Kelly Minter

Think About This

Are we yoked to a person (not a marriage partner Kelly emphasized) whose direction is completely different than our direction in life?  Where are we unequally yoked?

Three Promises

Sometimes this verse (v. 14) can appear to be so negative.  It's not a negative at all.  Paul looks back to the OT and gives us three promises that God has given to us.

Look at 2 Corinthians 7:1 where it says "dear friends.....since we have these promises"....

God will dwell with us. Here in 2 Corinthians 6:16b Paul quotes Levitcus 26:11-13.  The context: the Israelites have just come out of Egypt - the land of slavery and bondage.  The Lord had brought them out and said these words to them (v.11-13)

He's making a dwelling place among the Israelites because He delivered them, brought them out, so they were no longer slaves.

Now we are the temple where God dwells. He broke the bars of our yoke.  Why would we want to re-yoke ourselves to bondage?  The reason we do is because of what the Israelites did or said "you know Egypt wasn't so bad."

Remember always the cost of Christ to break that yoke.

God will receive us. Look at 2 Corinthians 6:17.  It sounds conditional, but it's indicative - it's what is true.  As a result of that truth, we now have an imperative - a command.  Because the Lord dwells, we want to come out, be separate.  Because the Lord is going to recieve us, we don't want to touch the "unclean thing".

Verse 17 of 2 Corinthians is found in Isaiah 52:11.  Context: Israelites coming out of bondage from Babylon per King Cyrus. Paul didn't mention "you who carry the vessels of the Lord" which is mentioned in Isaiah but not in 2 Corinthians.  

Meaning: when the Israelites were coming out of Babylon back to Jerusalem, they got to take those vessels that were taken out of the temple with them back to Jerusalem - back to its rightful place.

"Do not touch the unclean things", Kelly said, made more sense: "why would we ever want to touch the unclean things when we are holding the vessels of the Lord? We cannot bear both the sacred and the sacrilegious at the same time.  The God who freed you has given you something very sacred to carry in this life."

He will be a Father to us. We looked at 2 Corinthians 6:18.  Paul is probably pulling from 2 Samuel 7:14 here, Kelly mentioned.  God is telling David He will be a Father to his son Solomon  - fulfilling a covenant with Israel.

Closing

When we unequally yoke, we get someone else's portion, somebody else's share.  It's not a share we want.

This is why we don't want to be unequally yoked because we are holy people under a new covenant.

Why live the old way when we can live new.

Session 5: "Rethinking Generosity"

Kelly Minter "All Things New" - Session 3

Session 3 of this series is called "A New Ministry."  Kelly will focus on 2 Corinthians chapter 3:1-18.

Kelly begins by saying that Paul had a lot of problems with the Corinthian church.  They wanted a letter of recommendation.  They didn't like it that Paul was poor, not popular, beaten up.  They wanted a successful, powerful man.  

• Tension
• Hardship
• Attack

Chapters 3-6 are about what Christian ministry should look like.

Old Versus New Covenant. Look at verse 6.  The old covenant was good but was powerless to change us (Law of Moses/10 commandments).  It showed us what we needed to do but the Law didn't help us get there.  The old law:

• Kills
• Brings death
• Condemns

Paul has a different kind of ministry, much more glorious than the law.  Look at Romans 8:3-4.  God fulfilled the law by sending Jesus Christ, who is the new covenant, and we are part of this new covenant ministry.

Five Characteristics

Kelly mentioned 5 characteristics of what it means to be a new covenant minister:

A ministry about people's hearts. If we've lost sight of people's hearts, we've lost sight of what it means to be in new covenant ministry.  We can be about people, numbers and masses but forget about their hearts. (see 2 Cor. 3:3).

A ministry for which God equips us. Equip: to render one fit, to equip one with adequate power to perform ones duties.  In order for the Lord to make you sufficient, He may have to take you through a season of breaking you down.  He's working out the sufficiency in you. (see 2 Cor. 3:6).

We also looked at 2 Corinthians 3:7-11 and Exodus chapter 34.  The story of the tablets and coming down from the moutain with Moses face shining.  He had to put a veil over his face.  That was glory that would fade.  How much more glorious is that which will last and not fade.  This new covenant ministry will last.

It's a ministry of boldness.  Why?  Because we have a hope (verse 12).  Read 2 Corinthians 3:12-16.  Paul uses the metaphor of a veil two different ways:

• Veil covers the hearts of unbelievers and removed when they come to the Lord
• The veil we put over our faces as believers (verses 12-13)

Kelly commented that the people in the world have a veil over their heart because they haven't turned to Christ.  We also can have a veil over our face because of not telling them the gospel. 

"Others may not get the veil off their heart until we get the veil off our face."

A ministry of freedom (verse 17).

A ministry of unfading glory.  "ever increasing glory" verse 18.

Kelly asked this question "why do we get to be ministers of the new covenant?"

Second Corinthians 5:21 gives us the answer "so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."

Session 4: "The New Has Come"