Post by bluejay on May 28, 2006 16:49:00 GMT -5
Ever since I began attending church on Sunday mornings, I've noticed something that I honestly don't remember from my Gospel mtg. days. The few meetings & funerals I've attended in the past couple of years are as I remember from my youth also.
The sermons I hear preached now are always relevant to our day and time. The pastors take great care to explain the circumstances and culture surrounding whatever particular Biblical passage they're teaching from. They "bring the story to life" so to speak as it would have occurred in real time. Then they're able to easily bring those truths forward to our present day culture, and our every day lives. Often they back up the "lesson" with facts, statistics & quotes from news sources, current day authors, etc.
All of this ties everything together and makes God's Word alive and just as relevant to me today as it would have been back in the time of Nehemiah (as we've been studying).
I know that is one of the connections I totally missed in my youth. I heard loud and clear the legalistic preaching, but what I don't remember hearing were the obvious ramifications in our daily lives of following (or not) God's will, other than the end result of going to a 'lost eternity'.
Everything spoken of was through the filter of professing vs. non-professing. For instance, if the speaker was talking about "fruits of the Spirit", it would have been said that "God's people" (meaning professing) show these fruits and those "in the world" don't.
What I would hear today would be more along the line of how is that "fruit" lived out in our daily lives - at work - with our neighbor - with our family. No mention of comparison between Protestant & Catholic, Mormon, LDS, etc. No church bashing. Just encouragement to be a light to those we rub shoulders with.
For me, it was a huge gap in my spiritual upbringing. I was taught that any "witnessing" would come through my outward appearance, denial of "worldly pleasures", being different and God's spirit in me (with no explanation of what that meant). People would notice I was different and ask questions .... at which point I would invite them to Gospel meetings.
Why would it be detrimental to the f&w's to preach/teach in a more accessible way?
The sermons I hear preached now are always relevant to our day and time. The pastors take great care to explain the circumstances and culture surrounding whatever particular Biblical passage they're teaching from. They "bring the story to life" so to speak as it would have occurred in real time. Then they're able to easily bring those truths forward to our present day culture, and our every day lives. Often they back up the "lesson" with facts, statistics & quotes from news sources, current day authors, etc.
All of this ties everything together and makes God's Word alive and just as relevant to me today as it would have been back in the time of Nehemiah (as we've been studying).
I know that is one of the connections I totally missed in my youth. I heard loud and clear the legalistic preaching, but what I don't remember hearing were the obvious ramifications in our daily lives of following (or not) God's will, other than the end result of going to a 'lost eternity'.
Everything spoken of was through the filter of professing vs. non-professing. For instance, if the speaker was talking about "fruits of the Spirit", it would have been said that "God's people" (meaning professing) show these fruits and those "in the world" don't.
What I would hear today would be more along the line of how is that "fruit" lived out in our daily lives - at work - with our neighbor - with our family. No mention of comparison between Protestant & Catholic, Mormon, LDS, etc. No church bashing. Just encouragement to be a light to those we rub shoulders with.
For me, it was a huge gap in my spiritual upbringing. I was taught that any "witnessing" would come through my outward appearance, denial of "worldly pleasures", being different and God's spirit in me (with no explanation of what that meant). People would notice I was different and ask questions .... at which point I would invite them to Gospel meetings.
Why would it be detrimental to the f&w's to preach/teach in a more accessible way?