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God Designed Us to Need Each Other (1/25/15)
The Gist God Created You to Need Other People We All Need a Suitable Helper Marriage Is a Great Community—But Not the Only One! You Need Community and Community Needs You! Introduction We’ve been trying to understand just what God says about us—who we are, why we’re here—and distance ourselves from what the world says about us. So far we know that we’re made in God’s image, unique in all of creation. But the creation story didn’t end in Genesis 1. There’s another story within that story that needs to be told. And it begins in Genesis 2:18. Then the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man…
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Made in the Image of God…Really! (1/18/15)
Outline Introduction: The Challenge from Evolution Can we be made in God’s image if science says we evolved? Are we misreading the Bible? Not the Whole Debate, Just the Bible The Bible is our authority as the very words of God. We submit to it whether we understand it or not. The first place we go to understand a passage of Scripture is the rest of Scripture. Scripture interprets Scripture! The clash isn’t science vs. Scripture but one interpretation vs. another. What Does the Bible Say about Adam? Three genealogies portray him as the first father, the end of a real lineage. In two long passages, Paul ties Jesus’ work…
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Made in the Image of God (1/11/15)
Note: This is the first entry in a new series of synopsis and notes from our Sunday School classes. Introduction For the next few weeks, we’re going to be dealing with a question that our culture is deeply interested in and deeply confused about. It’s a question we bump into in the news, in school, in politics, in the media, at work, and really there are very few parts of our lives that aren’t touched by this question. We have armies of people working on the answer to this question and its implications: scientists, psychologists, sociologists, historians, even artists. And they’re all dying to know the answer to this question:…
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Manage Your Poop
A couple months ago I saw a blog post going around titled “I Don’t Have My S*** Together.” It’s by a self-professed Christian author who is seriously troubled by the thought of pretending to be good. My response was—and is—visceral, but I was hoping some distance would give me clarity. I’ve seen this line of thought before. I’ve even wandered a little ways down that path myself. It usually comes of rethinking a legalistic background. You work so hard to be good, to appear perfect, and everyone else around you pretends to be perfect when you know they’re not. Then you discover grace. Or maybe you discover it anew. And you…
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Test-Driving an Advent
It’s too early to be blogging about Advent. I know what you’re thinking. Well, ok, I know what you might be thinking. Either a: “what is Advent?” or b: “too early? It’s half over already!” This is my first time giving Advent a try, so I’m kind of fumbling my way through here. I had no plans to observe it coming into the season, but some friends from church invited me to join them for a study and I said yes. I think most of us in the group have never done this before; it’s not a very Baptist thing to do. Advent is the time Christians long ago set aside…