We are a community of believers who come together to experience God in a joyful way, whether we're at a service, a special event, or simply spending time with our small group. We teach biblical truth so that you can understand it, relate to it, and apply it today! Along the way, we sing, and laugh. We teach and pray. We roll up our sleeves and get involved. And sometimes, we just sit quietly in the presence of God.
We noted in the previous column that disciples do the right thing because they desire to be in God’s presence. We are not talking here about doing the right thing in order to be in God’s presence—as if somehow our good behavior merited that place. Instead we are talking about doing the right thing because that is the only way his people can enjoy ongoing fellowship with him.
Those of us who have a few decades behind us are increasingly aware of the “shift” that has been happening in the moral sphere of life. There is a growing ambiguity for most in what is right and wrong. The consensus that existed 50 years or more ago has been eroded so that even within the same family, the gap between the views of parents and their children on a whole range of moral issues has widened. Moral relativism has become full blown in our western culture.
It is “back to school” for our children at the beginning of September and that should prompt us all to want to ramp up our level of learning again. To assist in that, it is time for me to get more regular in offering you some help in your discipleship journey. This week instead of offering some thoughts about discipleship, I thought that I might share with you a few internet sites that you might find helpful for your personal discipleship.
We live in a “now” culture, one that is governed by maximizing life in the present moment. That is reflected, for instance, in the way that we are urged to “buy now and pay later.” The rationale behind this is that we should enjoy life in the moment, without regard to the future. Such marketing lulls us into thinking that there is no future to worry about. But there are consequences to that behavior that show up later such as huge debt loads that can cripple those who have them.
Recently I had the opportunity to teach through the theme of Kingdom and Kingship in the scriptures. Teaching it renewed my understanding of this as truly one of the grand themes of scripture that serves as one of the pillars of biblical revelation. The Bible opens with a description of the actions of the creator King and ends with the Creator king taking his place on the throne in the midst of his people. Graeme Goldsworthy describes this theme in terms of “God’s people in God’s place, under God’s rule.” One can trace the flow of biblical revelation using this description.
This past weekend, Men’s Ministry had as our guest speaker Don Hutchinson. Don, who is trained in both theology and law, serves with the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada as the Director for their Center for Faith and Public Life. He came to talk with us about living purposefully in the public square. In other words, how can we serve the general good of the country? As a result of his input, I felt that there was more that needed to be added to last week’s column.So let me suggest, out of Don’s visit, some further things that we can do to bless our country by engaging with our world.
