I always get a bit nervous when someone calls me “the minister of Calvary Assembly of God.” I am not the minister; I’m the pastor and a minister.
There’s a big difference!
A pastor is one of the gifts Jesus gives the church to equip lots of ministers (see Ephesians 4:7-13). A pastor is not the minister, but a minister-equipper.
Check out this quote from Oswald Chambers—
“Notice the gifts that the Apostle Paul says Jesus sent after He ascended—viz. apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers—‘for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.’ The test of a preacher or teacher is that as we listen to him we are built up in our faith in Jesus Christ and in our intimacy with Him; otherwise he is not a gift from God. Today we are apt to test the preacher on the ground of his personality and not by his building up of the saints.” (emphasis added)
I don’t want to be put on a pedestal as the minister. I want Jesus to be exalted. This will only happen when all the gifts to the church—apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers—are equipping the entire church to minister.
“The treacherous enemy facing the church of Jesus Christ today is the dictatorship of the routine, when the routine becomes ‘lord’ in the life of the church. Programs are organized and the prevailing conditions are accepted as normal. … That would be perfectly all right and proper for a cemetery. Nobody expects a cemetery to do anything but conform.” —A.W. Tozer
“Father, we fear our deadly fondness for floating toward the falls when we ought to be swimming against the current. Oh, God, have mercy to waken us again and again to the perils of drifting in the Christian life. Help us heed Hebrews 2:1, ‘We must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it.’” —John Piper
“Hamas are terrorists pure and simple. The Egyptians get it. Why doesn’t the Western media get it? Why don’t Western leaders get it? And why don’t Christian leaders get it?” Read more about the Israeli battle against Hamas in Middle-East Meets Middle-Earth.
This is an amazing pro-life, pro-family, pro-Dad story! I love the authenticity of a Dad who wanted a “perfect life” on his terms, but then realized that he was using the wrong metric to know what “perfect” was.
A Dad who shows humility, is a true man. All of us Dads can learn from Heath White’s amazing discovery about true fatherhood … true manhood.
“Avoid relations with unbelievers in which your relation endorses the unbelief or consequent sins, and avoid the kinds of relationships that involve the interweaving of deep personal values (like marriage). On the other side, don’t avoid relationships where you can have clear testimony to the truth and are allowed to stand on Christian principles, even if you are sometimes criticized for getting too close.” —John Piper
On the Biblegateway website, Jacob Edson has taken my chart and added even more details and cross-references to related Scriptures for each of the kings on this chart.
One challenging point in history is the divided kingdoms of Israel (the 10 northern tribes) and Judah (the 2 southern tribes). What makes it challenging when reading straight through the Bible is the history is covered in 1 and 2 Kings and then again in 1 and 2 Chronicles. In the midst of these kingdoms, several prophets are sent by God. Some of these prophets only have their words recorded in Kings or Chronicles, while others have their words recorded elsewhere in the Bible (usually the book name is the prophet’s name).
In trying to keep all of these people and messages clear in my mind, I have put together a list of all the kings and prophets during the period of the divided kingdom (roughly 931-586 BC).
You can click the picture above to get a larger view, or you can download a PDF copy by clicking here → Kings of Israel & Judah ←
I am not a biblical scholar, nor do I have a history degree. This is just a chart I put together to help me in my Bible reading, and I thought it might help someone else too. I would welcome any corrections or clarifications that anyone would offer on this humble work.
Not all of these updates are reflected in the screenshots on this page, but they are all in the PDF version.
**UPDATE 1: several people pointed out some tweaks I needed to make to this chart, and I am grateful for the input! This is the revised copy as of August 28, 2017.
**UPDATE #2: a few more tweaks … this is the revised version as of July 31, 2014.
**UPDATE #3: I have posted a chart zooming in on the chronology of the Old Testament prophets which I recreated from the Archeological Study Bible. You can read it and download it by clicking here.
A couple of notes:
Prophets who also have their words recorded in a book that bears their name are listed in bold italics.
The “start / finish” designation for each of the reign of the kings is clearly my subjective opinion.
Sometimes you will see dates for two kings’ reigns that overlap. These are where there was a co-regency (that is a father and son ruling simultaneously).
The prophets that are listed under the Israel side after Israel had gone into captivity are the prophets that God was using to speak to the Israelites in exile.
**UPDATE #4: I continue to do more research and get feedback from people far wiser than me. The latest version is dated August 28, 2017.
**UPDATE #5:The original chart stopped when Israel and Judah went into captivity. I have now added another line to show the prophets who continued to prophesy to both the exiles in Babylon, as well as to those who returned to Israel later.
**UPDATE #6: Scholars are unsure of the date of Obadiah. We know that it took place after invaders had caused problems in Judah (Obadiah 11)—and Edom responded in a way that angered God. Some scholars place this date after Nebuchadnezzar’s conquest of Judah in 586 BC, but since post-exilic prophets always named Nebuchadnezzar or Babylon, I think it’s more likely to have occurred during the reign of Jehoram around 840 BC (see also 2 Chronicles 21:8-10). Added Huldah as a prophetess during the reign of Judah’s King Josiah.
**UPDATE #7: Thanks to Anthony Wimmer, this chart is now available in French → Rois d’Israel & Juda
**UPDATE 8: I am always appreciative of the interaction with those who have downloaded my chart and are digging into the dates. After a few conversations, I have modified the chart slightly on the lower right quadrant of the last page to show those prophets who were ministering to the Israelites who were in captivity.
“There is, hidden or flaunted, a sword between the sexes till an entire marriage reconciles them. It is arrogance in us to call frankness, fairness, and chivalry ‘masculine’ when we see them in a woman; it is arrogance in them to describe a man’s sensitiveness or tact or tenderness as ‘feminine.’ But also what poor, warped fragments of humanity most mere men and mere women must be to make the implications of that arrogance plausible. Marriage heals this. Jointly the two become fully human. ‘In the image of God created He them.’ Thus, by a paradox, this carnival of sexuality leads us out beyond our sexes.” —C.S. Lewis
“The highest kind of liberality is, to redeem captives, to save them from the hands of their enemies, to snatch men from death, and, most of all, women from shame, to restore children to their parents, parents to their children, and to give back a citizen to his country.” —Ambrose
John Piper says, “We are supposed to let our light shine before others that they give glory to our Father. But in my experience shining with supernatural, divine light from another world is the very essence of non-regular.” Read the rest of his post: I Do Not Aspire To Be A “Regular Guy.”
It nauseates me when I think that my tax dollars are funding this sort of irresponsible, atrocious behavior at Planned Parenthood! Read more about the latest lawsuit against Planned Parenthood.
[VIDEO] Derek Jeter has been a classy baseball player (even if he does play for the Yankees!). This Nike video tribute to The Captain is also very classy and well deserved. #Re2pect
“For real business at the mercy seat give me a homemade prayer, a prayer that comes out of the depths of your heart, not because you invented it, but because the Holy Spirit put it there. Though your words are broken and your sentences disconnected, God will hear you. Perhaps you can pray better without words than with them. There are prayers that break the backs of words; they are too heavy for any human language to carry.” —Charles Spurgeon
“Generous pastors lead generous churches, and generous churches embody the true Spirit of Christ, Who gave Himself a ransom for all.” —T.M. Moore
“Dr. Horton was a giant, not because of his impressive achievements, but because he embodied what it meant to have a servant’s heart. I pray that his legacy of godliness and servanthood live on in future generations of Pentecostal scholars.” Read more about the life of Dr. Stanley Horton.
This is a hard-hitting piece, but it is definitely on-target. Too many churches are selling out on the pro-life message. Read Faith & Forceps.
“…While man and woman are equally valuable in God’s image, and while both of them have essential and satisfying roles to play in the drama of God-exalting human life, nevertheless men bear a primary (not solitary) responsibility for leadership and protection and provision in the human race. Therefore they bear a representative role when it comes to accountability (Genesis 3:9; Romans 5:12-14). This unique calling is a responsibility to bear in sacrificial love, not a right to seize in dominating power. Where it is embraced with servantlike, Christ-honoring courage, and supported by women with faith-filled, fearless, intelligent joy, the best harmony of man and woman prevails.”—John Piper
This is a weekly series with things I’m reading and pondering from Oswald Chambers. You can read the original seed thought here, or type “Thursdays With Oswald” in the search box to read more entries.
What The Spirit Does
The majority of us “hang on” to Jesus Christ, we are thankful for the massive gift of salvation, but we don’t do anything towards working it out. That is the difficult bit, and the bit the majority of us fall in, because we have not been taught that that is what we have to do, consequently there is a gap between our religious profession and our actual practical living. …
The great factor in Christian experience is the one our Lord continually brought out, viz., the reception of the Holy Spirit who does in us what He did for us, and slowly and surely our natural life is transformed into a spiritual life through obedience.
This is how the Spirit forms us into God’s saints. But here’s the key point: we have to let the Spirit do His work. If we say, “No thanks, I’d rather not work on that area of my life,” He will leave you alone.
But, oh, the rewards that we miss out on when we don’t receive all that the Holy Spirit has for us!
“If you want to hear from Heaven you must seek it on your knees.” —D.L. Moody
“Don’t be forced into this false dichotomy. Truth and love are not at odds. Rather, for the sake of love, cherish the truth. Let this love for truth and truth for love govern the use of language….” —John Piper
“Who will grant me to find peace in You? Who will grant me this grace, that You would come into my heart and inebriate it, enabling me to forget the evils that beset me and embrace You my only good?” —Augustine
I always get a bit nervous when someone calls me “the minister of Calvary Assembly of God.” I am not the minister; I’m the pastor and a minister.
Craig T. Owens 