13 July 2014 — 10 AM Worship

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

13 July 2014 — 3 PM Worship

Kirsty Birkett writes:

There’s an article going around, available here, in which a woman writes about her fall away from conservative Christianity. Once a keen teen, she came to grief when studying religion at Yale – grief, literally, it seems; though she no longer believes in Christianity, she genuinely misses the relationship she once had with Jesus. But, she says, that’s where her study of the Bible led her. Her academic education in the Bible convinced her that it was anything but the Word of God. How sad.

However, I think there are a number of things we could comment on about Jessica’s account of the journey to her current view: that the Jesus she once knew is, basically, imaginary, and the Bible not true.

Read more »

R. Scott Clark writes:

Something I heard recently led to me think about the claim that is frequently made about the three great Western religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. We are all frequently said to be “people of the book” and just as frequently said to be “Abraham’s children.” It is sometimes said that, on the basis of these two points of commonality, we should accept one another as equally valid religious traditions with common roots and resources.

Read more »

Wes Bredenhof writes:

I recently finished reading a book entitled Creature of the Word: The Jesus-Centred Church.  Authored by Matt Chandler, Josh Patterson, and Eric Geiger, this book could be considered a popular introduction to ecclesiology (the doctrine of the church).  The authors are associated with New Calvinism (a.k.a. Young, Restless, and Reformed) and even might want to describe themselves as being ‘Reformed.’

There are many good things to say about this book.  Chief among them would be the way in which the authors argue that biblical churches need to be focussed on the Saviour in every aspect of their existence.  The authors have a high view of Scripture and that leads them to see rightly many aspects of the doctrine of the church.  For example, they argue for the centrality of preaching and the necessity of biblical church discipline.  As I was reading Creature of the Word, there were several times where I had to stop and share with my Facebook friends some of its excellent insights.

And yet this book also highlighted for me some significant differences between confessionally Reformed churches and the New Calvinism.  While there are many things we can appreciate about this movement, there are also points of departure.  They call themselves Calvinists, and in terms of the doctrine of salvation they are.  However, I’m quite confident that Calvin would not want his name associated with this book.  Let me highlight the main problems under three headings.

Read more »

In Proverbs 9:8, God says

“A scoffer who is rebuked will only hate you;
the wise, when rebuked, will love you”

In that light, consider what David Murray writes:

There is one characteristic that separates the successful from the unsuccessful in every walk of life: teachability.

Those who are teachable, and remain so, usually succeed. The unteachable usually fail. I’ve seen that in business, I’ve seen it in the ministry, I’ve seen it among students, and I’ve seen it in my children.

Read more »