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Our Sunday Roundtable- Week 10

Every generation is a guinea pig being experimented on by the generation passing away.  New ideas and innovations, brimming with optimism and goodwill seek immediate and widespread application.  Processed food, commercial banking, electricity, aqueducts, birth control, television, and the internal combustion engine – these innovations and many, many more have all been gifted from one age to the next.  Wrapped in pretty paper, bound with shiny ribbon, and topped with a bow; each generation opened these presents with wide-eyed wonder.  While some of these gifts proved to be golden geese, many turned out to be white elephants.  Most didn’t come with batteries, some assembly was always required, and there seemed to be lots of missing parts.  But a gift’s a gift and we try to be thankful.

One of the shiny new toys given to us in the twenty-first century by our not-so-ancient ancestors is, of course, the internet.  The parallel universe of the World Wide Web is an ever-expanding, almost exploding thicket of extensively linked hypertexts that is fast finding a foothold in every aspect of modern day life.  Media, commerce, communication, entertainment, industry, and society are all moving from brick and mortar to byte and modem; from face to face to screen to screen.  It seems of late that our new toy is losing some of its luster and it might be time to check the cage and see how the guinea pigs are doing.  In Unfriending Convenience, Christina Crook gives a thoughtful assessment of some of the adverse effects of the internet on the fabric of our society and, for us as Christians, on our mission to be ambassadors and evangelists.  Should be a great discussion – hope you can join us this Sunday morning at 8:30 for the Roundtable!

 

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Unhitch the Wagons

July 22, 2018

Titus 1:15

15 To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled.

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Proofing the Dough

July 1, 2018

Genesis 3:8-9

8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”

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Our Sunday Roundtable- Week 9

Do you remember climbing trees as a kid? The big maple in the backyard, the tall oak in the far corner of the corn field, the quiet pine standing as a second steeple next to the church; each offering a new world to explore. It could sometimes be a little scary, was often exciting, but always a lot of fun. As we scaled the trunk, hand over hand, foot in notch; we’d soon find ourselves having achieved a dangerous height.  Should we misstep or lose our grip now, our fall could be deadly. Nearer the top of the tree and at the end of our climb, we began testing the limb we thought of stepping out on. Before we put all our weight on a branch, we inspected it the best we could.

For those in the Christian faith, climbing the old, lovely tree planted by the water has us also ascending to some fearful heights. Not every branch we’re asked to believe in seems as sturdy as we’d like. One limb we’re particularly shy about putting all our weight on is the promise of God’s healing power meeting an immediate need in our lives. As we examine this belief, we discover that the limb comes off  the trunk and is rooted, is alive with foliage and fruit, and looks strong enough. But just how strong and full of life is it? Can it handle the load of the things burdening my life? We shouldn’t live out our faith bear-hugging the trunk; but we shouldn’t wager our peace by taking fliers on the unfounded either. To help us think through this struggle, Andrew Wilson has written a wonderful article for an old issue of Christianity Today. In God Always Heals we learn a helpful perspective from a theological Tarzan. It should offer us a good hand-up for this Sunday’s climb. See you then!

 

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Zombies, Ciphers, and Sleepwalkers

June 24, 2018

2 Thessalonians 2:1-12

Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, 2 not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. 3 Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, 4 who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. 5 Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? 6 And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, 10 and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, 12 in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

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