Evangelism Week!

I had the opportunity to share the gospel this week. I went to Panera in Branson, Missouri and talked to a lady named Loraine.  She is an 83 years old married women with 3 living children. Her husband, Ed, was there with her but he let Loraine do all the talking.

Question: Who is God to you?

Answer: He is someone who she believes in, but does not follow closely. She used to go to church regularly but does not anymore as it has gotten harder for her and her husband to get around.

Question: Who is Jesus Christ to you?

Answer: He is the Son of God. He came to this earth as a man, and was sinless. He died on the cross for our sins, and it is because of Him that we all get to go to heaven.

Question: Do you attend a church?

Answer: They used to, haven’t for about 5 years now.

Question: What is your greatest pain in life?

Answer: She lost a child when she was 19 years old. The child was in infant and she does not know why she died.  That was the hardest time in her life. She said that she felt she went into a depression and did not come out of it until the birth of her next child.

Question: When did you become a women?

Answer: She believes that she, mentally, became a women when she was 19 and experienced the birth and death of her first child.  She said that she, spiritually, became a women when she accepted Jesus into her heart at the age of 11. 

After asking this questions, I asked if I could read her scripture, and she said yes.  We read Romans 3:23 (for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God), Romans 6:23 (For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord), Romans 5:8 (But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us), and Romans 10:9-10 (If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved).

She said that she had heard all of those verses before, and that she believed that they were true.  I asked her if she thought she would ever go to church again, and she replied that she had fun talking to me, and that it sparked her interest in going back.  Loraine and I exchanged phone numbers, and we are planning to meet up again after Spring Break.

Romans

This week, we studied Romans with Chad Hampsch. What an amazing teacher! The insight I gained was eye opening. Let me tell you a little bit about it…

Romans is all about he righteousness of God revealed; in the person of Jesus Christ. Paul is writing after his 3^rd missionary journey, somewhere around 57 AD. Written after Christ has died, approximately 2 years later.   Paul does not appear to be correcting false theology; instead, He is sharing the fullness of the gospel.  Chapters1-7 mentions the Holy Spirit twice, while chapter 8 mentions the Holy Spirit 20 times! Chapter 8: AMAZING!

It appears that Paul's primary goal is to take a financial gift back to Jerusalem. The gift is from a group of Jewish believers, being given to a group of Gentile believers. Paul’s mission is to take the gospel to where it has not been preached (10/40 window).

We were able to go verse by verse, digging in to what Paul said and meant.

Simply said, I can't wait for him to teach again.

1 Peter

This week, we studied both 1 Peter and Philippians. Following these discussions, we were given the opportunity to pick one of these two books to write and outline on. I chose 1 Peter. You are probably wondering why…

You see, 1 Peter was so much more real to me. Real in 2 distinct ways.

1- Salvation comes in 3 tenses: Past, Present, and Future. The past tense explaining that was are pronounced innocent. This is justification. The future tense is when we go and be with the Lord. This is Glorification. And the middle, the present tense, is everything in-between. This is sanctification.

2 - Assurance is talked about in 4 different ways in 1 Peter. We see assurance defined in 1 Peter 1:3-12,  assurance lived in 1 Peter 1:13-3:12, assurance tested in 1 Peter 3:13-4:19, and assurance resulted in 1 Peter 5:1-5:14. It simply blows my mind that in 5 chapters, assurance can be discussed in so many different ways.

Signing out, looking forward to next week at The Tute!

Hebrews

This week at The 'Tute… we talked about Hebrews. I learned an immense amount of information, but I will only share a few highlights with you.

1. Hebrews 6 – Warning Against Falling Away

• Warning against walking away from the truth.
•  Falling away makes it impossible to come back to repentance because it subjects Christ once again to open shame.
• We can proceed toward that steadfast hope entering through the veil which Christ has opened to us.

2.  Hebrews 9 – The New and The Old

• Shows how worship in the Old Testament could not perfect the believer.
• When Christ appeared He entered into the heavenly tabernacle and poured out His own blood on the mercy seat.
• The blood of bulls and goats was never able to cleanse the conscience of the worshipper
• The blood of Christ is able to save completely as it cleansed us thoroughly before God.
• Christ appeared to put an end to sin by His sacrifice.

3. Hebrews 13 –Jesus is Unchanging

•  A mixture of warnings, requests and final advice.
•  It is a reminder to the fellowship of Christ, to let love remain, to love each other.
• As well as remembering to pray for leaders in the church.
•  Ends with a reminder that Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever.

The Trinity

This week, at the Tute, Dr. Kreider spoke about the Trinity - as a whole, and as specific parts.  He spoke about how there is only one God as referenced in Mark 12:29, 1 Corinthians 8:4-6, Ephesians 4:4-6, 1 Timothy 1:17, and 1 Timothy 2:5. He spoke of the Son individually, as referenced in John 10:16-23, John 17:1, and Matthew 17:5. In John 1:32, Luke 4:18, John 15:26, and Acts 5:3-4, the Spirit is referenced as an individual part of the Trinity. To wrap all of these parts together: reference Mark 1:9-11 and Luke 2:25-32. Here, the Bible includes all three parts of the Trinity being in one place at the same time.

Needless to say, this week was intense. A good intense. My thoughts were continually challenged, and I was caused to grow. The Trinity is such a tricky thing, right when you think you are getting a slight grasp on it… you realize you are more confused than when you started the process.

Works Cited

Kreider, G. (7 Jan 14 – 9 Jan 14). Trinitarianism. Kanakuk Institute. Branson, Mo.

This week at The Tute...

(You see, I usually start my entry with that saying…. so instead, I titled my post as such.)

Kerby Anderson came and spoke on Apologetics. We learned about religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Mormonism, and Islam. Here are some key points that I learned about each of these…

Hinduism: 3rd largest religion in the world, has many gods and goddesses, incarnations, idol worship, nature worship, spirit worship, sacrifices and offerings


Buddhism: 4th largest religion in the world, suffering is universal. The cause of suffering is desire and attachment. Suffering will cease when desire ceases. The path to cessation of suffering is: The Eightfold Path. The Eightfold Path consist of Right Views, Right Resolve, Right Speech, Right Conduct, Right Occupation, Right Effort, Right Contemplation, and Right Meditation.


Mormonism: There is no qualitative distinction between God and us. We are all the same (God the Father, Jesus, angels, human beings). Intelligences→ spirits→ incarnations→ gods. Mormonism teaches the eternal progression of gods. Jesus becomes a savior and a god. Humans can become gods and rule planets.

Islam: 2nd largest religion in the world, they deny the trinity, deny incarnation, and deny the crucifixion. Muslims teach the though Adam and Eve sinned, God forgave them. They don’t believe in our sin nature. Instead we have the ability to save ourselves through obedience and submission to Allah.

Through all of these religions, I think what hit home the most was the fact that Christianity is the only religion with a loving and person God. Wow! That's crazy.

Information obtained from:

Anderson, K. (19 November 2013 – 22 November 2013). Apologetics. Kanakuk Institute. Branson, Mo.