November 20, 2011

Christianity and the Culture Wars

The Church today has inherited much knowledge about God and the doctrines that have become the essential core of truth which defines what Christianity is. This knowledge has been accompanied by the privileges paid for through human suffering and sacrifice. Privileges such as translations of the Bible in a language you can understand. We have heard of times when the church was persecuted. We have also heard of times where many believed the message of the gospel and were transformed by its power. Unfortunately, the cycle of peace and persecution revolves around the church and its faithfulness with which it accomplishes its mission. The cycles just before great persecution came seem to be times when the church appears to be weak in the eyes of the community it is in. The church today has been struggling with the question of culture and how to approach it. Apparent weakness exists on both sides of the argument. The Church in our country seems divided. One of the several factors splintering the churches is the question of how to approach our American culture. What in our culture is acceptable and what must be rejected?

November 18, 2011

The Gift of Guilt

All people know deep down inside that they have done things that are wrong. People fail morally whether through intentional acts against others or unintentional "mistakes" that result from our own human inadequacies. Sometimes it feels like we can do nothing right. Even worse, sometimes it feels like we have done nothing wrong! This moral failure whether incidental, accidental, or deliberate is what the Bible calls sin. Sin often results in guilty feelings. Some fight hard to hush the cry of a guilty conscience. Could these guilty feelings be a gift from God?

November 17, 2011

The Relevance of the Christian Pulpit

In chapter 9 of a book titled The Integrated Life, Ken Eldred cited Sherman and Hendricks who found that more than 90% out of a group of 2000 people, regular church attenders, said they never had heard a sermon, read a book, listened to a tape, or been to a seminar that applied biblical principles to every day work issues. He then begins his next paragraph by stating that work is mentioned more than 800 times in the Bible.  How many of those who serve the church from a pulpit consider these everyday work issues when crafting their sermons? How many people reading this blog consider the sermons they hear to be out of touch with or completely irrelevant to their life Monday through Saturday?

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