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Written by William Dicks
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Tuesday, 03 November 2009 05:34 |
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One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.
Romans 14:5 ESV
When we think of convictions, what do we normally have in mind? Is it not true, that when we think of convictions, we think of it in terms of something we hold to be true, but do not necessarily have to stick to them? The convictions I am writing about are those things that reside in the grey areas of life. These are those things which are not specifically commanded or forbidden in the Bible. This could include things like drinking alcohol, smoking, eating of certain foods, keeping of certain days, listening to certain styles of music, Christian music vs secular music, hymns vs contemporary worship music, and many more. None of them is expressly forbidden in the Bible making it sin to practice them and none of them is expressly commanded making it a sin if we refrain from practising them.
So, how do we deal with these convictions? Should we demand everyone to be bound by them, or should we be more lenient with those of different persuasions?
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Written by William Dicks
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Tuesday, 03 November 2009 05:19 |
The church growth gurus have long claimed that what is necessary for the church, is to become relevant to the world. According to them the church should be in the business of discovering the felt needs of the community and ministering to those needs in culturally acceptable modes. This means that if the community is very entertainment oriented, then the church should gear itself to minister to the community through entertainment and that the gospel should be presented in an entertaining way. In this way we can make the gospel more acceptable to the world in order to make it easier for them to accept it. It is said that the church needs to speak to the world in culturally understood language and that the language of the Bible is not easily understood by the world. The question is: “Is it right that we become so relevant to the world and making the gospel so acceptable to the world that we actually take the truth out of the gospel?”
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Written by William Dicks
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Monday, 02 November 2009 06:08 |
When those in high places in the church start denying the need to preach the gospel to all mankind in every situation possible, by all possible means, then we know that the church is in bad shape. I am not even speaking of a church that ordains homosexuals into the bishopric such as the US arm of the Anglican church recently did! When a doctor of the church is so Christophobic that he claims for justice over against the preaching of the gospel, then by all means he has forgotten what the gospel is all about. Such a man is the Rev Dr Giles Fraser. In an article he wrote in the UK based Guardian, which is called Giles Fraser: ‘The evangelicals who like to giftwrap Islamophobia’, he blatantly calls the preaching of the gospel to Islamic kids “a toxic agenda.”
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Last Updated on Tuesday, 03 November 2009 06:13 |
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Written by William Dicks
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Monday, 02 November 2009 06:22 |
 We’re a family that enjoys Christmas. Every year we decorate the house with Christmas trees, tinsel, flashing lights, candles and all kinds of ornaments. This year is no different. The same can be said of my wife’s family. They also love decorating their houses. The only difference this year--in our own home--is that I did not help. I had to work on the day the house had to be decorated.
At the end of my working day I walked into the decorated house and it hit my like a ton of bricks. Where is Christ? Yeah, I know He lives within my heart. I am saved by grace alone through faith alone in the work of Christ alone! Yet, with regard to the decorations in the house, where was He? There is a Santa on the wall unit… Santas on the wall unit. Santas on the Christmas tree…Santas everywhere! But…where is Christ? Is this not the season we celebrate the birth of Christ? Then how is it that we decorate our houses with an incremental amount of Santas, tinsel, lights and other trinkets every year, but Christ is hardly anywhere to be found? Sure, we do have a scene of the birth of Christ; however, it is tiny and lonely in comparison to the rest of the Christmas garb!
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Last Updated on Monday, 02 November 2009 06:50 |
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Written by William Dicks
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Friday, 30 October 2009 06:23 |
I read a recent article in a church newsletter that mentioned how a missions conference motivated the church to "reach out to a hurting world that really need Jesus." This newsletter also claimed that having a "relationship with Jesus" is "not a life style that no person who is happy in the world or his religion would not like to embrace." This approach to the world without Christ has become quite systemic to the modern church. What would have been a definite no-no just fifty years ago has become the norm in the modern church. This "modern church" has taken what the Bible says about this world and started rewriting it in order to soften the blow on unbelievers to make the gospel message a bit more acceptable and non-confrontational. There has been this attempt to make the gospel less offensive to the world.
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Last Updated on Monday, 02 November 2009 08:40 |
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