Posted on August 23, 2009
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“You will really like this. This is very scriptural, it has the Word of God woven all through it.”
I heard this again today. Yet again.
So many books, so little time
There are, it may be, so many Biblical books in the world, and none of them is without significance. Whenever I try to tell someone, as kindly and plainly as I can, that I am not interested in a biblical book, they always assure me that this one is good, really good. It’s really convicting, it will challenge me, perhaps even change my life.
There’ll come a time the prophet would say
At best they tell me that so-and-so does expository preaching, I would like him. They offer me one man who will take the bread and bless it and distribute it among us all–which is exactly what I am looking for. Except they never mean Immanuel. It’s always some other man who will give us this bread.
When the joy of mankind will be withered away
It’s possible to get almost anything you want out of the Bible with a verse here and there; and it’s not that much harder to get it to say whatever you want even when you are going through it verse by verse, if you can spend as much or as little time as you like on any verse, and pull in comparisons and illustrations from whatever suits you.
A want not for water, but a hunger for more
But when you are sitting around on an equal level with other believers, discussing among yourselves what Jesus meant by what he said, it’s not so easy to just turn a phrase till it suits you, or sail on past; someone is going to say, “I ask you, of whom does the prophet say this?”
A famine for hearing the words of the Lord
And when you open your mouth to answer, you will be fed.
Quotes from Michael Card’s “So Many Books“
Posted on March 23, 2008
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It is always an encouraging sign when regular attendees are not afraid to ask questions, and even better when the attendees in general can respond to this question. May the questions people actually have be answered to the fullest ability of those present.
Of course, this never happens in “regular” sermons, to their own harm.
Posted on March 16, 2008
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If, at the end of the service, the pastor rushes to the exit (like any good shepherd trying to head off the flock), and then counts the sheep as they leave with all orderly haste, you will be right to wonder if what transpired was fellowship among friends, or some other less pleasant, if necessary, task; dress rehersal of the troops, perhaps, or a tiresome class in History or Good Citizenship.
Posted on March 16, 2008
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So far, out of three church services I have attended, in three of them we were instructed by the pastor to shake hands with other members of the congregation, or otherwise greet one another.
If you understand “fellowship” as a meeting among peers, and Christian fellowship as a gathering of Christians to discuss life in Christ, then being instructed to greet one another during fellowship has to seem something like being instructed to greet one another at a dinner party (or super bowl party, or what you will). Imagine: