Thoughts Through A Sermon

The following are notes I made whilst listening to a sermon at church this morning. The church and the speaker shall remain nameless. They are literally as I wrote them in church, so excuse the 'note' form they come in. As such, they are also unfinished thoughts.

Let me know what you think about the issues raised.

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That was the week that was: A reflection on the weeks news.

26 July 2009

Begins by pointing out the various inconsistencies that are in what we expect from the government, i.e. they can't always spend money - they must also make cuts if they are to spend money.

"What would Jesus do?" is not useful to us speaker says... because Jesus didn't have to deal with the issues. BUT: is this a correct analysis? Did not Jesus give us enough teaching that we could therefore make proper decisions about issues we face today?

ESSENTIALLY SPEAKER IS TALKING ABOUT ISSUES SURROUNDING HERMENEUTICS.

Speaker seems to be switching between "what we believe" and "what the Bible says" a bit to frequently and easily - blurring the distinctions.

The speaker is essentially asking what parts of the Bible are "true" and which are not; how much of the Law do we keep and how much do we get rid of?

He seems to be focussing specifically on homosexuality and the potential of a church leader being homosexual (i.e. the next church leader being a homosexual...).

He uses the Levitical Laws to prove that we don't obey all of the Bible - but he neglects other parts of the Bible... like Paul's mention of homosexuality in Romans - there is no raising of the questions that the Romans passage must raise.

How do we deal with the way Jesus used the Law? How can we follow this? Should we? What is our hermeneutic?

"We can't live by a rule book; we have to live by a story." By doing this do we leave ourselves open to too much misinterpretation? Does it matter if we do? Surely we must remember that even stories have their unpleasant and difficult parts?

"My Song Is Love"

Calvin is 500.

Over the past few days, the Reformed Evangelical community has been celebrating the birthday that has been anticipated since the beginning of 2009.

John Calvin turned 500.

No matter what you think of him, Calvin has had a huge effect on the Christian world over the last 500 years. And in the glut of books, speeches, papers, articles, blog entries and comments, the one I most enjoyed reading (though it's I've not read many, by all means!) is this one by Kevin DeYoung: How to be Relevant 500 Years from Now.

It's good to be reminded that our confidence should be focussed in God's Word, and God's Word alone... not in our own thoughts, ideas, skills, gifts, possessions.