Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Babies/Children who die Bible study from Romans 5 for 11/30/11

Babies, children, and those who haven’t reached moral or spiritual competence; what happens to those who cannot chose and don’t know good and evil (Deut. 1:39)?
Opening Matthew 7:14 “few find it”/ Romans 5:19 “many will be made righteous”

Ownership
Job 10:8-13, Psalm 139:14, Psalm 100:3

Personhood/Soul
Jeremiah 1:5, Galatians 1:15, Luke 1:41-44

Negative contrast/catch chose to sin
Romans 1:18-21, Romans 5:18

God’s wrath against those who harm children
Lamentations 4:10-11, Jeremiah 19:4-5, Ezekiel 16:15-21, 18:3-4 1 Kings 14:9-13

Innocence
Jonah 4:9-11, Isaiah 7:16, Romans 9:10-11, Deuteronomy 1:32-39
In a state such as Adam and Eve before they sinned (Genesis 2:17, 3:5 and 22)

Explicit evidence
Psalm 139:13-18, Job 3
2 Samuel 12:16-23 Hope (Psalm 23:6 “I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever”) contrasted to David to his unsaved son 2 Samuel 18:9-15, 32-33 Hope lost

Implied (Rule of interpretation) Symbolism is always a picture of reality and the reality will be more real than the symbol
Psalm 8:2, Hebrews 2:13-14, Isaiah 8:18, 49:1-2, 14-16, 18, 20-25, 65:23-25, 66:9, 12-13
Matthew 18:1-11 verse 10 (Strong’s 32) an angel also means spirits or ghosts
Matthew 19:13-15/Mark 13-14/Luke 18 (parallel) “such as these” He blessed them”
Matthew 21:14-17 (Psalm 8:2)

20% to 50% miscarried, aborted, or die (up to 9,000,000 a year) over 53,000,000 aborted in USA since 1970. Can you imagine what God sees?

Matthew 28:19-20 how is this accomplished?
Revelation 5:9-10, 7:9-10 (Psalm 8:2 and Matthew 21:16)
Revelation 20:11-15 and 21:8 “the dead are judged for their works”
Galatians 3:10: Infants saved by Grace without works

Oh to be a child, no worries! Matthew 6:25-34
Would John the Baptist have been saved if he died in the womb after jumping for joy? Of course not
What if Jesus had been killed by Herod?
God saves those who are totally unable

Salvation is of the Lord!
Jonah 2:9, Psalm 3:8, 18:2, 46 and 24:5 (over 50 times in the Bible)
1 Corinthians 15:54-55 “O Death where is your victory?”

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Junk Food

We all know an exclusive diet of Big Macs isn’t just a bad idea—it’s more like suicide. But it’s even worse to gobble down the half-eaten burgers and cold rubbery fries you find under the back seat of your car. Repulsive, right? But Christians are doing the very same thing.

It wasn’t that long ago that Bill Hybels stood in front of his church—Willow Creek, one of the early pioneers of church growth theory—with his mea culpa. (I’d link to the video of Hybels saying, “We made a mistake,” but they’ve apparently pulled it from their website. But here’s a link to an early newsflash.) After decades of practicing church growth principles, Hybels said, “Some of the stuff that we have put millions of dollars into thinking it would really help our people grow and develop spiritually, when the data actually came back, it wasn't helping people that much.” Yeah, kinda like fast food.

Today’s church-growth gurus have repackaged the same church-growth theories in cool-sounding, ministry buzzwords like incarnational, missional, and attractional. After a few bites, it becomes apparent that it’s nothing more than half-eaten burgers and cold fries. And it’s not a meal that gets better with age.

One of the more distasteful aspects of the contemporary version of church growth is the franchising, the brand propagation. Cookie-cutter churches are popping up everywhere, powered by church-growth principles, launched with shrewd marketing strategies, legitimized by impressive stats, and stamped with the brand of the celebrity leader and his church franchise. In some cases, you’ll even find the evangelical version of a PlayPlace and a clown. It’s a pattern that works, established by corporate, coming to a church near you.

That’s why John’s last post was so helpful. Like an authoritative label from the FDA, he was able to peel off the wrapper, put the cold fries under the microscope, and tell us what’s lacking. Many of the meals served in the chain-churches lack a high view of Scripture, a high view of God, and a biblical view of the church. Buyer beware.

A generation raised on Happy Meals has a hard time understanding what’s wrong with Big Macs and Quarter Pounders. They need to learn a new diet, which is what we endeavor to teach in the coming months on the GTY blog. Ronald McDonald may not be happy—could cut into his bottom line—but we want Christians to eat well, grow strong, and become mature. We’ll map out the course in the next post.

Travis Allen

GTY.org