Christians-use-the-word-“Allah”-in-place-of-the-Word-“God
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I’d like to get your reaction.
Filed under: Christianity vs. Islam | 51 Comments »
Sometimes I don’t get around to, or forget to go back to (old timers disease) a specific question that someone has asked me during a discussion.
Forgive me when that has happened. You can take it as a victory if we were debating, but please don’t take it as a slight, for my sometimes lack of focus is in no way intentional.
If you you ever want to make sure I get to something, please send me an e-mail at sma9231961@aol.com . (The computer geek kid that came to fix my machine years ago stuck me with that one)
Pastor Bror Erickson is reading the Book of Mormon during Lent and makes some good observations on it in his daily posts on his blog over at Utah Lutheran.
http://utah-lutheran.blogspot.com/
WayneDawg has a good video clip up on Dawg on the Lawn, from Voice of the Martyrs http://dawgonthelawn.blogspot.com/
There is a terrific sermon on Luther’s explanation of The Third Article of the Apsotle’s Creed up here http://lightofthemaster.com/Sermons/Entries/2008/3/4__The_Holy_Spirit.html …that one is by Pastor Mark Anderson.
There are so many good things posted by you good folks here, that I don’t have time to highlight them all this morning. But don’t forget to check out the blogs in the blogroll and also click on the names in the comments of each post to take you to many other terrific sites.
Have a great day, and try and get a good word or two in for Christ Jesus somewhere along the way if you can!
Filed under: Misc. | 4 Comments »
I was (am) involved in a discussion over at ‘The Prodigal’s Knot…Untied’ http://prodigalsknots.wordpress.com/ on wether baptism has to be full immersion in water, or if sprinlkling or pouring of water is also effective, and constitutes a proper baptism.
The discussion at one point turned to inmates in prison, who coud not be baptised because there was “no water available”.
I said, “use some saliva if necessary”,… and then we went on from there.
Is full immersion the only biblical definition of baptism and is that the only way a baptism can be a real baptism?
Filed under: Baptism | 197 Comments »
In my travels in the Christian blogesphere, I have noticed two distinct spheres of thought.
One sphere is focused mainly on the self. All the things 
that we should, or shouldn’t be doing . All the things that we should or shouldn’t be thinking, or feeling…lest we ‘do it wrong’.
A person on one blog was railing about how wine was from the devil and how we not drink anything fermented. Anything fermented was evil. I asked her about penicillin. If that was evil too?
People going back and forth worrying about what ‘we do’. What about this sin or that, what about saying this, or feeling that? All the focus on ‘the self’.
The other sphere was mainly focuse on God and what He has done, is doing, and will yet do… in answer to ‘what we have done’.
This sphere is quite a bit smaller than the other sphere.
People in this sphere seem to be a bit more at ease with themselves and the world around them. They seem to realize that so much of our doing is the problem and that the only real solution was the death on the cross of Christ Jesus and His forgiveness to us.
It was our ‘doing’ that got us into this messy situation that we now find ourselves…bound to sin.
It was ‘His doing’, and is ‘His doing’ that has, and will save us from ourselves, the world and the devil.
In it all, I find precious little grace and mercy given to sinners…real sinners, other than the grace and mercy given out by our Lord.
Can we not show some compassion here? Can we not give out a little bit of what we have received towards those who may not be doing it exactly how we think it ought be done? Would not our Lord want us to also be merciful, and compassionate?
Filed under: Doing, Grace and Mercy | 31 Comments »
“May God grant us the wisdom to know ourselves; the courage to admit our sins; and the grace to receive God’s never failing mercy and forgiveness.”
1) COMPLAINING – there is much to be thankful for.
2) WORRY – there are things to be concerned about, but nothing to worry about.
3) DISCOURAGEMENT – God is for you, not against you.
4) BITTERNESS – it’s like poisoning yourself. How smart is that?
5) HATRED – forgive and watch your future come alive!
6) GOSSIPING – speak well of your neighbor, you might just see him/her return the favor.
7) BLAMING – be part of the solution, not the problem.
8) STAYING AWAY FROM CHURCH – provide your family with a firm foundation of faith, learn about the message of God’s love from the Bible and share problems, make friends, and be renewed in hope and thank God for another week of life. And it’s free!
…and the final thing to ‘Give Up’ during Lent?
9) GIVING UP – hang in there!! Even with all it’s problems, life is a good and gracious gift!
Filed under: Uncategorized | 17 Comments »
…but then live!
That will be our focus this Lenten season in our church. I
t is our focus every Lenten season.
We will have a large wooden cross right behind the altar. We will have dead, dried up branches all around the baptismal font. We will focus on the death of Christ and the reason that there was to be no other outcome for Him. You and me. We are the reason for that death. We had a hand in it. We still have a hand in it.
God’s Law will be there in full force. It will be unforgiving and ruthless and relentless.
It will put us to death, yet once more.
But the gospel will be there, also. Come and die…but then live!
We know that the self actualized, up and coming, independent, success oriented types in the Corona del Mar, Newport Beach area of Southern California are not used to this type of a message from many of their churches.
But we don’t know of any other message that they need to hear more than this one.
We may not pack ’em in…but the ones that do show up during Lent will not be mollycoddled. Their comfort level will not be catered to. Their old sinner will not be given any wiggle room whatsoever. And when they die, the living Christ will once again give them Himself, that they might yet live again…in Him… and Him alone.
Is focusing on death a bit too harsh, or do you agree with us that this is the only way to go?
Filed under: Lent | 15 Comments »
This from the Times Online:
Redundancy could be a blessing in disguise for City workers who have fallen victim to the credit crunch, the Bishop of London said yesterday.
The Right Rev Richard Chartres, speaking in advance of a debate at the Church of England’s General Synod on the financial crisis, said that it was difficult to know whether to sympathise more with those who had lost their jobs, or those who were left carrying even greater loads with higher targets and fewer colleagues.
As clergy and laity on the Synod used their lunch break to make calls and send text messages on their BlackBerry phones, the Bishop, an Anglo-Catholic who favours traditionalist means of communication such as landline telephones, said that redundancy was not necessarily bad news.
“Sometimes, people seem to be relieved to get off the treadmill and to be given an opportunity to reconsider what they really want out of life. One of the great implications of this turbulence for us is to re-boot our sense of what a truly flourishing human life consists of. The ‘CrackBerry’ culture is dangerously addictive and switching off from it is notoriously difficult,” he said.
The Right Rev Richard Chartres said that his diocese had been working hard to respond to the prospect of 150,000 unemployed in London’s financial sector.
“The clergy of the City of London have been in the front line of pastoral care,” he said. This was particularly true of Fiona Stewart Darling, Bishop’s Chaplain at Canary Wharf, where the parish population is about 100,000 during the day.
At least one church in the City has had a poor take-up for its redundancy counselling sessions, however. An evangelical church has had almost no attendees at its lunchtime workshops on the recession. A lay member at the church speculated that this was because redundancy carries a stigma, and that in any case those who had been sacked were back at home with their wives and families in the stockbroker belt.
Can it be good for one to lose their job?
Filed under: Hardship | 21 Comments »
‘Nothing.’
“Oh come on! You just can’t do…nothing!
“
“You need to receive the gift, answer the call, make your decision, accept Jesus…right?!”
Wrong.
We are CALLED and CHOSEN. Anyways that’s what the Bible says.
The words “accept Jesus” “make a decision for Christ” are not in the Bible.
But the words “CALLED” and “CHOSEN”…are.
What does a baby do when it is adopted? Nothing. But drool over itself maybe.
St. Paul goes to great lengths in the Book of Romans to explain this, much to our chagrin.
Romans 9 is not an easy read for us enlightened, actualized, independent, rugged American types. We do want to tell the “Molder” how to shape the clay. We do want to talk back to God. We do want to call the shots and express our wills. But God will have none of it. He actually still does call the shots. All of them.
In his explanation of the third article of the Apostle’s Creed (in his Small Catechism), Luther lays this out quite nicely:
“I believe that by my own understanding or strength I cannot believe in Jesus Christ my Lord, or come to him, but instead the Holy Spirit has called me through the gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, made me holy,and kept me in true faith, just as he calls , gathers, enlightens, and makes holy the whole Christian church on earth…”
You mean we actually do nothing to become a Christian?
That’s right…and the word is NOTHING.
If there was just one thing that we needed to do of our own accord, then we have a new gospel of works.
It might only be ONE WORK…but that is ONE WORK TOO MANY!
I have to admit, the first time I heard this, I didn’t believe it. Maybe I still don’t. But thanks be to God He gives me the faith to believe it.
Do you believe it?
Filed under: Uncategorized | 112 Comments »
Are there any questions about the Christian faith, or about religion in general, that you’d like to ask the good folks here at ‘the old Adam lives? (that’s all of you, by the way)
I may not know the answer, but there are quite a few sharp people that stop by here occasionally that might be able to help out.
67,281
That’s the answer to ‘how many angels can fit on the head of a pin.’ (I was up all night counting)
I’ll start it off…
‘ Does one need to ask God for what they want, over and over and over? Or will asking Him just once do it, if it is in His will for you? Or if it’s in His will for you, do you even need to ask Him for it?’
Filed under: Open Line Tuesday | 14 Comments »
“‘Well, I didn’t. He accepted me.”
No no no…I mean, when were you saved?
“Yesterday. Today. And tomorrow.”
Umm…you’re still not getting it…when did you become a Christian?
“At my baptism…when I was an infant.”
But babies cannot accept Christ!
“Now, you’re starting to get it.”
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Where in the New Testament does it say that one needs to accept Jesus as his or her personal Savior?
Where does it say in the New Testament that we have to make our decision for Christ?
Where in the New Testament does it say that we have “free will” to choose God?
I have been told these things numerous times by Evangelicals but as yet no one has been able to show me biblical texts that say those things. I have, though, seen many passages that state the opposite is true.
Am I missing something? (It wouldn’t be the first time…today even!)
Filed under: Choosing God, Free will | 110 Comments »
The Old Adam Lives! 