mei lan said:
Grey Colson said:
mei lan said:
[quote author=Grey Colson]
The point of this topic really wasn't to bash him. Only that I felt something was amiss about his "sermons". And yes, we watched his broadcasts front to back many times. As deewee mentioned, I never saw him open the Word and preach. I don't believe God gave us his Word as a suggestion, but to speak and preach it. THAT is the only thing that changes hearts and lives. Not what I say, not what you say and not what Joel says.
I do not disagree. But just because he reads a passage off of a typed sheet of paper instead of holding His Bible doesn't mean he isn't basing what he says on Scripture. I have heard a few sermons where I thought he could have given more backup to what he was saying. But he generally has a very good Scriptural basis for what he says, and as I said, I'm picky about that crap. And I say again that I have never heard him say anything in a sermon that was contradictory to what the Bible says.
Deep, no. But theologically unsound? Also no.
I understand and maybe I should have said it's what he doesn't say that seems odd to me. Our pastor is not a stomping around, fire-breathing, hellfire and damnation preacher as some describe other old timers, but he does say without fail that rejecting Christ results in an eternity separated from Him. I just believe it's important to emphasize that to listeners at every opportunity. :dunno
Well, that is a legitimate opinion. But for me personally, I had that thought crammed down my throat to the exclusion of all else when I was growing up. Understanding God's grace and love for me has been incredibly hard for me to do, and esp. on a personal level. So that is one of the things I continue to work on.
I am also reminded of that verse in Romans 2 which says that it is the kindness of the Lord that leads to repentance.
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I really have no idea what the preachers or teachers or my mother said about God and everything when I was young.
I do know what I heard (which is not always the same thing as what was said) and what I heard was that God was a very angry dude with a short temper.
He was quick to put the hurt on those who displeased him and was while he would forgive you, your next sin was just a thought away, cause if you think it, you did it. (so why not go ahead and do it if your getting blamed for it anyway?)
He was a tough old man who had no sense of humor and expected you to walk a fine line and if you didn't, then look out!
A simple turn of the head and you could end up salt. (and these were the people
trying to do right)
I always found it tough to have a personal relationship with a deity who was quick to have those who were big fans of his endure such hardships as their family killed or enslaved, all their possessions destroyed and their body racked by diseases just to prove that the loyal follower was....loyal.
Now that is what I heard, so while I always believed in God, I acted as if there was no God because, like I said, you think it, you did it and even if you tried to do the right thing, who knows what would happen if you screwed up.
I no longer see God anywhere near that way today.
I see God as the ultimate personification of love, pure love.
If you love someone, not only unconditionally, but with a love that is so pure it cannot be put into words, you do not "test" them, you do not deliberately put obstacles in their way or punish them for any reason.
I think God set up a world in which there are consequences to our thoughts and more importantly, our actions.
These consequences are the same for everyone on the planet and some consequences have positive outcomes and some have negative outcomes.
We have free will to choose and (to me this is the best part of all) if we are going down the wrong path, experiencing negative consequences, we can simply just turn around and go down the right path and start experiencing positive consequences.
BUT, a lot of people do not have any clue what the "right" path is.
All they know is the "wrong" path.
So anything that helps someone find their way onto the right path, that to me is a good thing.
And like anything else in the world, when you first start doing something new, you need to be taught the simple basics and as you advance further along, you learn more and more complicated (complicated at least to someone who is new at it) things.
Believe it or not, there are a lot of people to whom a God that actually cares about them and wants them to do good and not punish them is an unknown concept.
And, the idea that if it is not yours, don't take it, is also an unknown concept.
So trying to get these people to immediately understand and believe something new, something that many grew up hearing about and believing for years, is not very likely.
To put it simply, you need to teach them to add and subtract before you start with the algebra.