Monthly Archives: December 2011

Reflections

28 Wednesday Dec 2011

Posted by in Church, Personal

≈ Leave a Comment

The reason I started this blog was so I had a place to share my thoughts without outright opposing my church in theology, methodology, and without calling out the pastors who failed to proclaim the Gospel in their sermons. tumblr llo54xdhhZ1qdr7cvo1 400 ReflectionsThere must be a fine line between divisive and biblical. Not being sure where that line is, I didn’t really want to cross it.The reason I stayed, rather than departing right away was because I was in a position with responsibility and some leadership, that is, teaching Sunday school to around a dozen youth who may not otherwise hear the Gospel proclaimed. As I stated in the last post, things have changed, and opportunity to depart has arrived.Today I told the students in the Sunday school class that it would be my last day teaching, and that when Sunday school resumes in January they would be under different teachers. It wasn’t as hard as I had expected it to be, and having it over with is definitely a relief. I did, of course, take the opportunity to do everything I could to get the simple message of the Gospel across to the students. We started in Acts chapters 2 and 3 (as we had been in Acts for the last month), and from there I jumped to John 3, followed by Ephesians 2. The clearest and simplest Gospel passages that I could think of to repeatedly state that it is by God’s grace that we are saved, and that we must repent from sin and trust in the Savior.As far as the blog goes, I no longer have a need for this to be so secretive. Though, I kind of like having a semi-anonymous blog, and I love the name. So, I do plan to stick with it, and hopefully post more often.

Now that the Exodus is complete, I hope to not have 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. Instead, I have a friend who is a reformed believing pastor at a local church that I hope will be a good fit for me and that I will be a good fit for them. Prayer is appreciated.

Last thought, I was hoping to somehow name this post Leviticus, given that the other personal posts have had Genesis and Exodus in their names. But, I have no idea how to use Leviticus in a blog title. icon smile Reflections

I didn’t choose her, she chose me

27 Tuesday Dec 2011

Posted by in Funny

≈ Leave a Comment

Tags

,

I know I haven’t posted much lately. There are some things coming up real soon though. An update on the church situation, a book review, and some thoughts on the role of government in capital punishment. For now, I thought I would share this a video, it is called “I think my wife’s a Calvinist.” That isn’t me singing, just thought I would share it.

 

How to be Really Terrible at Interpreting the Bible

17 Saturday Dec 2011

Posted by in Satire

≈ Leave a Comment

Tags

, , ,

I, for one, found this video to be absolutely hilarious. You probably won’t. But, that is okay, so long as you don’t interpret the bible the way the woman on the left does.

It seems all to common that people come with a preconceived notion of who Jesus is and they aren’t willing to learn from what the bible says about Him. Some of them even go on to write books explaining their view with “questions” that are meant to provoke readers to adopt the same views. Why is it that most of the time these people choose a false Jesus who has no wrath or hatred for sin? Maybe it is because they don’t want there to be consequences for sin.

The real, biblical, Jesus hates sin and will return to punish sinners. Thankfully, He first came to set those who would believe free from their sin by dying in their place. Rather than believing God has no wrath, repent and trust in Christ whom He has sent to take your place.

My Exodus

11 Sunday Dec 2011

Posted by in Personal, Youth Ministry

≈ 4 Comments

For a few years now I’ve known that I was different. Well, I’ve known I was different for a long time, but different from the others at my church anyway. But, you can see more on that in my first post here.

The youth pastor at my church announced a couple of weeks ago that he would be leaving for an associate pastor position at a church in the next city over. He was the only person on the church staff that seems to have a firm grasp on what the Gospel is and the need to proclaim it from the pulpit.

Along with this, starting next month the church is cutting back from three services to two, something that has long been needed. Previously we had two hours of Sunday school, I taught the second hour and the youth pastor would teach the other. With the new schedule there would be only one Sunday school hour. When I heard this I thought that may be my chance to leave, since I didn’t want to leave handing over a burden to the church. But, with the youth pastor leaving that wouldn’t be the case, as it seemed like I would be teaching the new combined class.

Today I talked to the departing youth pastor, and he informed me that the church has decided that in the future they would prefer a member of the church faculty be the one to teach the Sunday school classes when youth are involved. Not being part of the faculty, that means it won’t be me.

I’ve prayed about how and when to leave for a few years, but my responsibility to serving the youth has been the one thing holding me back the whole time. As of next Sunday that is no longer an issue. So, now I am free to leave to seek greener pastures and a church that proudly proclaims the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

It is relieving to finally have this happening, but it is also very difficult knowing that I will have to say goodbye to the youth I have had the opportunity to get to know and to teach. Also, the worst of it is, the one who will be replacing me doesn’t teach the Gospel.

I ask for prayer for the youth, that they will remember what I have taught them and that the Holy Spirit would do a work in them to regenerate their hearts and lead them to saving faith. That all would be at peace, myself included, in my departure from this church. Also, that I would find a good church to worship and serve in.

To God Be the Glory.

God told me to Run

10 Saturday Dec 2011

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a Comment

Tags

, , , ,

That’s when I prayed and prayed and prayed. I’m a man of faith — I had to do a lot of praying for this one, more praying than I’ve ever done before in my life. And when I finally realized that it was God saying that this is what I needed to do, I was like Moses. ‘You’ve got the wrong man, Lord. Are you sure?’

These are the words of former presidential candidate Herman Cain. Cain stated, and assuming he is honest, believed that God told him to run for president.

To me that presents a problem. While I won’t go so far as to say that God does not speak to people today, though I do think there is evidence to support that. But, I will say that it seems that most people who think God is speaking to them often say or believe things that contradict a clear reading of Scripture, or otherwise are proven wrong.

Given the recent news of Cain dropping out of the running I think we could question why God wanted Cain to run. If God really wanted Herman Cain to run, was it so he would drop out? Or, maybe he didn’t really hear from God.

I think that often times when people, even well meaning Christians, believe they are hearing God speak to them that it is instead their own emotions and expectations leading them to believe that they are hearing from God. And, when some rather charismatic leaders are involved and the right atmosphere it is even easier for people to be fooled.

With all of that said, seeing as how it is unlikely that I’ll be posting about Herman Cain again, I thought I would share a clip of him singing. The man has an amazing God given talent for music. Enjoy.