Linkathon!
What the saints say about drinking…
Small religious colleges struggling to survive…
The problem of suicide;how is the church caring for those impacted?
When ministry leaders grow weary…
Time for the church to stop living in the 1500’s…
What does the Lord require of you?
Is the opioid crisis a spiritual crisis?
How your faith can withstand intellectual assault…
Public legacies of the Reformation…
Democrats must regain the trust of religious voters…
The new celibacy of our secular monastery….
Evangelicals and Orthodox together…
On the development of doctrine…
Wenatchee on the arrest of a man for threatening the former Mars Hill Ballard…
The many faces of Martin Luther…
Does God wake you up at 3 in the morning?
Huge thanks to EricL for the link help…support him at top right…
Alcoholic beverages are in my past. I still have no stones to cast at those who partake. The ravages upon my own family by addiction made abstinence a moral necessity. I usually say, “I stopped,” rather than, “I quit.” Somehow that seems more apt and less absolute. Either way, I don’t actually miss it once the social and personal adjustments were made.
BD,
I don’t drink very often anymore myself.
I take too many meds already…
Regarding the article: “Time for the church to stop living in the 1500’s…” It’s another story on how we have to change church to reach people today. The author decries the “proclamation method’ in historical Protestant church services.
There’s nothing wrong with his so-called “proclamation church” for today. It seems to be closest to the Biblical call to proclaim the gospel to all creation. During the Reformation, they didn’t gauge the culture to decide what’s the best way to reach them. They recognized the power and necessity of the Scriptures and merely proclaimed and taught them to the people. Very effective at winning souls and discipling people for 500 years.
And why is it that most of these new forms of church that we are told in articles like this that we need to implement today seem to be one form of another of socialism? I think there is a political motivation to much of this, not a religious one.
I really don’t get the fundamentalist issue with alcohol. Its such a shallow and uninformed view. Soda such as pepsi and coke consumption is a much greater health problem in my opinion. Obesity and diabetes is in epidemic proportions among young folks but you will never hear a sermon about that. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is a much greater threat than the alcoholic version from my understanding. But some how abstaining from alcohol makes you more pious.
Very weird. Found out this morning a good friend of mine lost a family member last night to suicide.
Like so many times, more the older I get, I have no words to share, but will go if just to bear his burden.
I wonder if my lack is due to also being afflicted by several of the “sins” ruining so many brothers/sisters – I used to start and end with judgement till the Spirit (I think) kept reminding me about who shouldn’t be throwing stones. The church (official) wasn’t nor will be of any help.
I’d appreciate prayers. I really don’t have any “answer.”
Yes, the person was a believer.
Praying for you,UnCCed.
Few situations are more difficult to bring comfort to…
Thanks.
Do YOU (only asking Michael) have any words? I literally don’t know what to say, only have a couple hours.
I’m really hoping I’m not asked if I have experience, it wasn’t “good.”
UnCCed,
Don’t look for any words except expressing your sorrow for them and your desire to care for them in the moment for them.
Being there is 99% of what is needed…sometimes 100%
Your presence will speak all that is needed.
Thanks, and I’m relieved, not that that’s what important right now.
I didn’t want to be phony just to appear to have the “answer.”
Phoniness made my times worse (and devastated my walk), I don’t want him to feel like others did to me, especially now.
Thanks again, your words will help me authenticate.
Sorry, “your words will help me be authentic.”
BD,
And BBQ?! :-0
The Boston Declaration, church in the wildernrss, the new celibacy… .Uncced’s sorrowful report… make me more certain that Michael’s website is doing God’s work… I pray that more and more folk living in despair and wanting life to have some solidity and depth find their way here…I
Life does have a real and eternal meaning – the human race is far more important to the universe than we know, I suspect…
God keep all of His who come here close and comforted and give hope to the searching and despairing tonight
I suspect that God is about to the judge the world globally as He did before. Not with water, but fire. Revelation does a great job to give “up front” evidence! Revelation 6 thru 19 give us a sneak preview! The final curtain is about to rise with all it’s players in perfect alignment. Meanwhile we swim in a cesspool of sexual innuendoes, financial corruption, and fights over matters that the Bible has already given us clear instruction on. Perhaps we need to focus our message on giving the “Good News” and getting it back to the streets! Maranatha!
Pastor Lew/Lee
Pastor Lew, “suspect” is the key word in your #13… Never quit praying for souls… it isn’t the end of the world men fear, it is the journey that leads up to it
#4 Steve
I actually heard a CC Asst. Pastor tell the congregation he didn’t understand the hulabaloo around smoking and drinking: “Everyone in here eats cheeseburgers. Do we think we’re better because we choose our early graves by a different poison?”
Steve (4) and descended (15)…agree. Funny how we poo-poo even those Christians who partake in limited quantities of alcohol (i.e., don’t get drunk), and then we go out of our way to consume mass quantities of fast foods and soda pop. Even eating out frequently at sit-down restaurants leads to weight gain. And Christians are horrible tippers to, btw, especially on Sundays.
It seems as though the past Fundamentalist ideas of not smoking/drinking/playing cards/going to the theater, etc are so infused in our Christian culture that it shows up in our moral codes we impose on others (e.g., Christian colleges and ministries to this all the time…you have to sign moral behavior contracts). Ev
In fairness to some of these extreme fundamentalist pastors that come from broken homes where a relative or father suffered from alcoholism, I can understand their aversions and even sympathize with them to a degree. However to speak with such universal condemnation of alcohol that pastors like Joe Focht do is nothing short of full fledged LEGALISM. LEGALISTIC pastors are blinded to their own LEGALISM! They are completed blinded to it and you can never reason with them. Jesus said that is not what goes into a man that makes him unclean but rather what comes out of his mouth.
Thank you for the linking to my site in : Does God Wake You Up At 3 in the Morning
Agree Steve. Many people have had alcoholism in their family and it’s totally understandable that they would have a zero-tolerance towards alcohol. BDs comment (#1) is refreshing in that there is no blanket condemnation. Many people have the “alcohol wrecked my uncle therefore God doesn’t want anyone drinking alcohol” attitude. BD doesn’t see it this way and I think BD has the right attitude.