For Scripture Sunday”:
Fed Up With Church? Part 1
“To some people the culture and values of the Bible seem bizarre in today’s world. How relevant is the Bible to our culture today? The principles that God teaches us in the scripture transcends cultures.
“To some people the culture and values of the Bible seem bizarre in today’s world. How relevant is the Bible to our culture today? The principles that God teaches us in the scripture transcends cultures.
Video of BT Daily: Fed Up With Church? - Part 1
YouTube: https://youtu.be/tNUBQ6AZP7M
Transcript
[Gary Petty] “I’ve been doing some research on why people become disillusioned or fed up with church. It’s interesting to read why people, you know, they do these surveys, why people say, “Yes, I’m becoming fed up or disillusioned with attending church”. One thing that I thought was very interesting, I’ve been writing down these reasons that people give, is the culture and values of the Bible seem bizarre in today’s world.
And I can understand that, but I want you to think about something. Maybe that’s not really the issue. Maybe our culture is bizarre. Think about the Creator of the universe, think about God. He’s the one who knows how life works. So He’s going to tell us how life is supposed to work. The principles that God teaches us in the scripture transcend cultures. They transcend time. What was wrong for people to do 5000 years ago, to murder, to steal, to hate, to cheat, is just as wrong today. And if you go through all of history and you would find someone following God, if you went through all the Christian history of the New Testament, clear up until today, you would find people asking the same question. How relevant is the Bible in terms of culture to my culture today?
Well, it’s very, very relevant. What I encourage you to do is study up on biblical cultures. Understand why things were said in the Bible and in the context of when it was said to people and then learn how to apply that to your culture. You’ll find that there is something really wrong with our culture, and we need to get in line with God.””
From: https://www.ucg.org/beyond-today/beyond-today-daily/fed-up-with-church-part-1
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Fed Up With Church?: Part 2
“Is the Bible relevant in your daily life? You need to look at the scriptures to see, “What is God telling me? What does God want me to know?”.
Video of BT Daily: Fed Up With Church? - Part 2 https://youtu.be/VuT5XPHe8cc
Transcript:
[Gary Petty] “Today we’re gonna do sort of a part two of a subject I’ve been talking about, “fed up with church.” A lot of people say they’re getting fed up with church, just sort of disillusioned with going to a church, and they give a number of reasons why. And I’ve been looking at different studies and it is interesting why people get disillusioned with church.
One of the reasons that I thought was interesting is, “The Bible has no relevance to my everyday life.” You know, that’s a legitimate reason to look at the Scripture. Is it relevant? Does it have importance to me? You know, when we look at Christianity, everybody accepts the theology that Jesus had to die for your sins and that, because of that death and resurrection, we can be forgiven by God. But they forget something. It’s more than just being forgiven by God. It’s becoming Christlike. We have to grow in our Christianity to act and think and feel more like Jesus Christ did and as he does now with the Father.
So is it relevant? Yes, but here’s the problem we have. We’re intellectually dishonest. What we want and what we define relevancy as, “I want it to fit what I want it to mean. I want the Bible to be what I want it to be.” It’s time that we stop making God in our image and we start thinking about becoming in the image of God. And that means to look at the scripture to see, “What is God telling me? What does God want me to know?”
One of the things that I always tell people to do is go to the Sermon on the Mount, that’s Matthew 5, 6, and 7. Then write it out on a piece of paper or on your computer. Draw a line down the middle and write out every verse. In the other column, write down, “What is Jesus teaching me?” And make it very personal. When you do, you’re gonna find out it is very relevant. But you’re also gonna find that your assumptions about Jesus Christ and about Christianity may not be completely right. I challenge you to do it.” From: https://www.ucg.org/beyond-today/beyond-today-daily/fed-up-with-church-part-2
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Fed Up With Church?: Part 3
Video of BT Daily: Fed Up With Church? - Part 3 https://youtu.be/G_NWli4dmRs
“Just because you have problems in a church where you go doesn’t mean that you should not attend with other Christians. We are expected to attend with each other.
Transcript
[Gary Petty] “This is part three in our series, “Fed Up with Church.” As I mentioned before, I’m going through a study of why people sort of get fed up with church, and it’s not just young people. We usually think of younger people, millennials, and others, who are sort of disillusioned with church. I read something recently where the people older than them in their 30s and their 40s and even early 50s are getting fed up with their churches for an interesting reason. It seems their churches change their style, adding certain kinds of music and certain kinds of teaching to interest them when they were in their teens and their 20s. They’re older now, and they find that, well, sort of shallow. They want something else.
Everybody’s looking for something else, and that has led a lot of people to believe that, “Well, my relationship with God is personal, and I don’t need to go to church because I’m spiritual, not religious.” Well, you know, all relationships with God is to be personal and all of us are to be spiritual. Now, what many people mean by religious is people who act religious, but they’re really hypocrites. And that’s wrong, but I don’t have to go to church because I’m spiritual. There’s a fundamental problem with that. When you look at the Scripture and you read through the New Testament, every place they went and preached the Gospel, they started congregations, people who assembled together and lived together as Christians interacting with each other. And it was messy. It was difficult. They had problems. They had to learn to get along with each other, and they all had sins and weird personalities sometimes.
All the things we face today, you will find in the New Testament church, but they came together, and they didn’t have the choices we have today. There wasn’t a Christian church on every street corner. They were a small minority in the Roman Empire, many times persecuted. Just because you have problems in a church where you go, and maybe you need to change churches, but it doesn’t mean that you should not attend with other Christians. We are expected to attend with each other. In fact, let’s face it. God is creating a family. We are all his children and if the disciples of Jesus Christ, as his brothers and sisters, can’t get along and we can’t work it out, as hard as it is, that is very sad. What kind of example is that to the world?”” From: https://www.ucg.org/beyond-today/beyond-today-daily/fed-up-with-church-part-3 10 comments
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Update:
Suddenly, Spring has sprung and gone, and it’s HOT here. It isn’t so much the heat as it is the humid in the mornings, which makes it feel hotter. Not much done, though one morning we got everything moved out of the bedroom in the mini-house and cut the padding to fit the bedroom. Now to find someone with a kicker and stretcher to get the carpet laid.
One morning, Zack got overheated Kiltzing the fence, even though it is in the shade, and we had to quit early. I was out there, too, clipping the weeds out of his way, but I don’t get so upset by the heat because I have low blood pressure. Two mornings I had to go to the next town, Conroe, which is a lot larger than our town, to go to Lowes and Home Depot there.
Also went to “Kitchen Collection”, as I wanted to look at their ceramic lined copper cookware. I already have the fry pan that I bought on eBay for $15, so I knew I liked them. I don’t want to cook with unhealthy Teflon any more. Got rid of my nasty aluminum pots and pans years ago. They had a 10-piece set on sale for under $50, so then with my senior discount, I had to get them. Tried them out and they are great, even have comfortable handles, not like the one I already had. Now, I am looking for a small pressure cooker without a Teflon or aluminum lining. I hardly ever use my big stainless steel one, but I have been using my little Presto WeeCookerie presure cooker for so much that the Teflon is coming off.
Then, as usual, Fridays are “Preparation Day”, so that was another week gone. The time goes faster the older you get!
Four years ago, I had missed several church services when I was in the hospital, and I wanted to catch up. I had intended to go to both the morning and afternoon churches, and made two Yellow Squash Crustless Pies, one for each church potluck. They were more like quiche though, and even though I don’t often eat eggs or chesse, I thought it was nummy! The first one was scarfed down quickly at the church on FM 1097, and I never did get to the afternoon church on FM 830, as there was so much clean-up to do at the morning church. So I get to eat the second pie!
The Bible readings were Psa. 146, 147, Lev. 26:3-27, Jer. 16:19-17:14, Mat. 21:33-46 and 2 Cor. 6:14-18. The Teaching was about ‘Why The Jews Don’t Believe He is the Messiah’. Too many prophecies in the Old Terstament which came true in the New Testment not to believe that He is the Messiah.
Hope that you all gave thanks to our Veterans and had a happy Memorial Day.
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