Teaching Resources International

The Power of the Gospel … (March 2026 Update) 

In 1844, the world was dramatically changed by one message. On May 24, 1844, Samuel Morris sent a message from Washington DC to his partner in Baltimore, Maryland (a distance of just 40 miles). The message, “What hath God wrought [accomplished],” expressed the arrival of an almost miraculous new technology.   

Before the development of the telegraph, information in the 19th century was transmitted across long distances by drumbeats, signal fires, smoke signals, or flags to exchange information between far-flung points. By the early 19th century, it was common knowledge that information could only travel as fast as the fastest horse (or horses, in the case of the Pony Express). The Pony Express made it possible to send a letter from St. Joseph Missouri to Sacramento, California in just 10 days! For example, the greatest American victory in the War of 1812 took place 2 weeks after the end of the war and the signing of the peace treaty. Why? Because information travelled so slowly, neither the British troops nor the American forces knew that the war had ended. With the invention of the telegraph, messages that previously took weeks were delivered in minutes, establishing the first “real-time” information network. This invention truly turned the world upside down in those days! 

But long before the invention of the telegraph, another revolutionary idea swept across the Roman Empire in the 1st century. In Acts 17:6, the people of Thessalonica were confronted by the spread of the gospel and sought to stop it. They cried, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also….”  

That’s quite interesting, isn’t it? A couple of insignificant preachers came to this major city of Thessalonica in the Roman Empire, and they were accused of upsetting the entire world! And it wasn’t just Paul and Silas – this same gospel that they were preaching was being rapidly spread across the Roman Empire by believers at an astonishing rate. And the message they were proclaiming was changing people everywhere. They were truly “turning the world upside down!” 

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Unless They Are Sent … (January 2026 Update) 

On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon. “Buzz” Aldrin, who travelled to the surface of the moon with Armstrong, was the second. Michael Collins piloted the Command Module orbiting above the moon. They were sent to the moon by NASA. But behind these three men were over 400,000 senders! We remember the 3 men who went to the moon but often forget that they would never have made it to the moon without the unknown senders behind them! 

That’s a perfect picture of missions. We are right to put much of our focus on the missionaries who leave jobs and families to travel to foreign countries, to learn a language and establish a church. They are truly heroes in every sense of the word. But we often forget that not one of them could go without senders – people who partner with them and support them so that they can go and share the gospel. This is what Paul is talking about in Romans 10:14-15: “How are they to call on one they have not believed in? And how are they to believe in one they have not heard of? And how are they to hear without someone preaching to them? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written: ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’”  

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The Heavens Declare, Part 3 … (September 2025 Update) 

Over the last 3 updates, we have been looking at General Revelation. We have seen that there are two main ways we can learn about God. The first, is through what is called General Revelation. The other is called Special Revelation. Special revelation is primarily through God’s Word. General Revelation is primarily through creation.  But there are also other ways that God provides “general revelation” for everyone. 

Technically, there are two main Loci or locations where we can see General Revelation. We can divide these into two areas. The first group of locations is External – what we can see outside of ourselves. The second group is Internal – what we can observe from looking at human nature itself, that is, what we can see inside of ourselves. 

The external locations of General Revelation include Creation, History and Anthropology. In Creation, we can look at the cosmos and know many things about the existence of God. We saw this in Psalm 19 that we looked at last month. In History, we can see how God has been at work in history. This is especially true when we are looking at prophecy. In Anthropology, we can see that all cultures everywhere have some belief in the existence of God. 

The Internal locations of General Revelation are seen when we look at humanity and human nature itself. First, we can see that everyone has a Conscience as Paul points out in Romans 2:11-15. Secondly, we can look at aspects of Human Nature. Since man is created in the image and likeness of God, we can see how man is different from the animals, and this gives us clues to some of the attributes and nature of God. For example, when we see the Moral nature of man, we can conclude that the one who created humans must be moral also. This is an internal aspect of General Revelation. 

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