Why Study

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Imagine your walking down the street and someone just walked up and pushed you from behind.  They would very easily push you over.  But if you were prepared, say you had taken Karate or Gymnastics and your balance was impeccable even if they hit you with a sneak attack you could recover quickly and not fall.  That is what bible study is to our lives.

Bible study prepares us for the journey through life.  When we read the bible on a regular basis we are more capable of withstanding the onslaught of attacks we receive.  Romans 12:1-2 is one of my favorite scriptures.  In these verses Paul reminds us to renew our minds.  Through this renewal we will become less and less like the world we live in and more and more like Christ.  will we become perfect this side of heaven? No.  Will all the bad stuff that happens in life stop? No.  But we will be able to handle it better.  Jesus never promised it would be easy, He just promised to be there for us.

So You Wouldn't Go Astray

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Every few months WordPress.com has a featured article that extols the reasons why a person is leaving the Christian faith and why he or she is now an atheist.  It is not WordPress.com that is featuring these articles, it is just the amount of hits these articles get that puts them on the front page of WordPress.com.   I read these articles and become somewhat disappointed thinking about the view of Christianity this person has seen.  But it is the view of American Christianity that most people have.  We Christians  are self centered, money hungry, two-faced, homophobes, that are trying to force everyone that disagrees with us to bow to our wishes.  Look at the treatment of Liberty University over pulling the liberty name off of the Democrat’s Student Club.  We are made to look bad even when we stand up for what we believe, so when we do slip people pile on like a elephant herd on the last peanut.

In John chapter 16 Jesus says, “All this I have told you so that you will not go astray.”

When I read this it helped me realize that some people will walk away.  They will walk away from Christianity because life happens, or because they have found many reasons to not believe in the God of the bible.  Lets face it, there are reasons given daily on the TV or in new books or every Easter and Christmas in special segment that magazines run.  If you look you can find a reason almost daily to stop believing because the enlightened do not believe in God, and mainly the God of the bible.  In the parable of the sower Jesus calls this cares.  The cares of the world just became so great that the person walks away from their faith.

So how do we overcome this?

The main thing is to stop focusing on the negative.  Yes you should check everything you read, and no you should not check your brain at the door.  But you should ask yourself how much of this is true and how much is false. Take Creationism for example.  You can’t prove creation ex nihilo scientifically, just like abiogenesis can not be proved scientifically.  Now can we see that one or the other is true absolutly because we are here.  Does your Christian faith rest on whether or not God spoke and created everything, absolutly not.  Salvation requires you to take Jesus as your savior and give him control of your life, not believe in creationism.

Don’t put the weight of trying to learn every nuance of the Christian faith on yourself.  We try so hard to obey when we read, “Always have an answer.”  This has made us overly skeptical of people that are not Christians.  We project a mean spirit when we act like we have all the answers or try to have all the answers.  If someone asks you a question its o.k. to say, “I don’t know.”  They want to look smart so let them, and don’t worry about it.

He told them to love each other and serve each other so we need to serve.  Do we serve well?  No, not all the time but we are human.  We are trying to do better serving.  But it is ingrained in our culture to be self serving and expecting the rest of the world to come to us.  Missional churches are learning to be the hands and feet of Jesus.  Not to get people in the door, but to just serve people and let them know God loves them.

If you are struggling with your faith try focusing on the hungry and hurting.  Give back instead of trying to find fault.  I am not saying that this is the cure for those who are seriously doubting their faith.  I am saying this to those that these few things will begin to help those who are seriously trying to resolve issues.

If you have done your due diligence and really tried to examine the Christian faith.  I mean really tried to prove or disprove it, and you  decide Christianity is not right for you, that’s o.k.  But if you have just heard someone say Christianity ain’t cool and you walk away, then you have done a disservice to what you say you believe and need to really examine what you are saying.  Don’t just give up.

Tony Jones Blesses Gay Marriage & Ordination

I’m going to go ahead and walk right out on a limb here and make a stand.  I believe the bible is the absolute inerrant word of God.  I believe it is good for teaching as well as rebuke.  I believe it can teach us about salvation and about living a life that is holy.  I do not believe it changes nor do I believe it need to be reinterpreted.  I believe that there are things in it that we will not understand until we get to Heaven and if I get there and was wrong so be it, but to what I understand now I will not waiver.

In Romans 1 Paul says this:

16I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 17For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

18The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

21For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

24Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

26Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.

28Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

According to the bible, I am going to go ahead and say that I believe Tony Jones got it wrong.  If you read the above and believe that sexual immorality and homosexuality are o.k. I have no argument for you because I can not say it anymore clear than that.  We as Christians are to declare the gospel and according to the parable of the sower some will listen and some won’t its just that simple.

Let me know what you think.

Read the originating article here:

http://blog.christianitytoday.com/outofur/archives/2008/11/tony_jones_bles.html

Urban Exile: Re-discovering Justice? | Out of Ur | Conversations for Ministry Leaders

I receive a weekly newsletter from Leadership Journal and I usually just go through the main articles then file it in my leadership folder for future reference.  Today I scrolled through it and decided to go to their blog called Out of UR.  David Swanson has written a very good article about the new move toward a social justice in our conservative churches.

About four years ago we had a guy come to our church to help us discover our mission and try to figure out how to reach our community.  During one of these session I pointed out that our church does no mission work either in our neighborhood or abroad.  I was met with a resounding what are you talking about our this and we that.  So I knew we were going to get no where.  Yes we give about 13% of our budget to missions but we do no missional work what so ever.  But I digress

This article points out what I was trying to tell our congregation 4 years ago.  We need to see the hurting and get involved.  Unlike the social gospel movement in more liberal churches we are equipped to share the gospel when we do these missional projects.  My point is that we need to get involved.  Read the article I think you will like it.

Urban Exile: Re-discovering Justice? | Out of Ur | Conversations for Ministry Leaders.

It Is The Start of a New Era In America

If you know anything about me you know I did not support President Elect Obama in the election.  However I want to echo Senator McCain’s pledge to support him in his presidency.  Coming from a military background I understand what the cohesiveness of supporting the Commander-in-Chief.  I served under President Clinton and did not agree with many of his decisions. I supported him anyway.  We can not all live the Rush Limbaugh disdain for those who do not agree with us.  We don’t get paid to be that way and Rush does.  We have to live with those around us and as Christians we are called to love not hate.  We need to voice our disagreement when bill are passed on abortion or marriage. We don’t need to hat and let our emotions drive us when we speak on these subjects.

God is sovereign in all this.  There is a reason that our President will be Barak Obama.  Remember that.  No matter if Oprah believes that positive thinking put him in place.  God has a reason for him to be there.  Romans 13 says it this way:

1Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. 3For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. 4For he is God’s servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God’s servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. 5Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience. 6This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. 7Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.

Pray for all of our elected officials.  Pray for our country. Pray for our world.  Serve where you can.

Steve

Another great blog post with perspective on how we should really look at this election.

Prophetic vs. Political: Thoughts on the Day After Obama’s Election

Presidential Prayer Team: so you can pray for the president