Our church has asked every small group to adopt an Unreached People Group. This is a People Group that has no Christian evangelical missionary presence. I'm asking that we pray for them, each of us in our individual prayers and in our group prayers. This is new for us so also be in prayer that God will lead us in this endeavor and that we'll be open to His direction.
This past week we unveiled the group that we had adopted. They are the Miao, Guiyang Northern of China. Several in our small group have had personal experiences regarding China so it seemed natural to choose a Chinese People Group.
Here are some of their facts:
For this final installment of our “worldview tour” we will gaze upon the face of God as it is revealed to us in the last of our six social spheres: the sphere of Community and Involvement. Here, perhaps more than in any other sphere or field of inquiry, we will have an opportunity to draw near to the Creator and learn what it is that has compelled Him to draw near to us. We will find that the God of the Scriptures is in fact the Lord of the lonely, the Savior of the outcast, the Defender of the defenseless, and the Sustainer of all who find themselves in need. Our call is to become like Him by discovering what it means to not only love Him, but to love our neighbor.
Involvement in this sphere – the sphere of community outreach, practical service, and active love expressed in Christian charity – has been the distinguishing hallmark of the Church for many centuries. For a number of reasons, says Dr. Tackett, it has fallen into neglect in our day. Not only that, but the general call for involvement in culture at large, in all of the spheres, has actually become a matter of debate in some contemporary Christian circles. And yet a careful examination of Scripture will reveal that believers have a mandate to reclaim their place in this important arena. We dare not, like Jonah, try to escape God’s call to be involved. Over and over again, the Scripture clearly presents the perplexing reality that God entrusts us with carrying out His mission and purpose with the world. We cannot deny the link and dependency God has created between His divine plan and the faithfulness with which His followers embody biblical truth in their behavior and reflect the heart of Jesus in their lives.
What is the heart of Jesus? This is not a difficult question to answer. In Matthew 11:28-29 Christ tells us plainly that He is gentle and humble in heart. The heart of Jesus stands radically opposed to the principle of “survival of the fittest.” It identifies closely with the plight of the weak and disenfranchised. It is a heart that compels Him to wash the feet of others and lay down His life for His friends. In doing these things, Jesus not only becomes our example – He also reveals to us the deepest concerns of His Father in heaven (John 14:9).
In the final analysis, we must realize that this is why Jesus sums up the entire law in two “Great Commandments”: “Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength; and love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:36-40). Here at the end of our tour we come back again to the great fountainhead and source of all truth, the divine nature itself. “God is love,” writes the apostle John, “and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him” (1 John 4:16). And love, in the practical sense, means being a good neighbor to the people around us – like the Samaritan in Christ’s famous parable.
If God cares enough to get involved with the needs of people, we need to care and get involved as well. This is the thrust of Dr. Tackett’s message. So forceful is his presentation of this concept that it is almost certain to impact participants at a deep emotional level. When it does, they will probably ask the question that has been asked so many times before: “What should I do?” At this point it will be important to emphasize the thought that active love is not a matter of following a “to-do checklist” or establishing a system of “rules” or “simple steps.” Instead, it is a question of developing an attitude of humility, openness, sensitivity, and creative compassion. It is a matter of using our God-given gifts and talents in the service of others and pursuing the passions He has instilled in our hearts.
Here is a preview of this weeks lesson:
You can watch the complete lesson here. Contact me (X-trials@BrianBorden.com) if you still need a Username and Password.
I'll see you Thursday!
We now turn our attention to our fifth social sphere: Labor. By the time this tour is finished, we will have made a number of striking discoveries about this system. We will have found that creative labor is a vital element of God’s plan for the social realm; that work is not a “curse,” as it is often represented today, but an essential element of our humanity; that it is, in fact, rooted in the nature of God Himself, the Original Worker. We will also learn that the structure of this sphere parallels that of the others we have already visited in that it also appears triune in design. And we will begin to see that the importance of work is closely related to our divinely given responsibility to care for the poor.
“What is work?” Present that question to a cross-section of the population and you’ll probably receive a wide variety of answers. Unfortunately, within the context of contemporary culture it’s increasingly likely that a preponderance of these responses will be negative in tone. Many people use phrases such as “a bummer,” “what I have to do for money,” or “the only way to get to Friday” to describe their feelings about work. Even Christians sometimes reference the fall as support of their view that labor is nothing but a curse.
In this Lesson, Dr. Tackett makes the case that these disparaging attitudes toward work are completely at odds with the scriptural worldview. He even goes so far as to argue that they can be interpreted as yet another manifestation of the Cosmic Battle – in other words, that they are destructive lies. Far from being a curse, creative labor is a glorious privilege. It flows out of the heart of God Himself, who labored six days to bring the world into existence, stamped His inventive and energetic image upon mankind, and placed Adam in the garden to tend it, beautify it, and increase its productivity. The creativity of man, then, while subject to the effects of the fall, is nevertheless a mirror-image of the creativity of God. It is designed to be a source of joy so fulfilling and wonderful that the Lord deemed it necessary to give us the fourth commandment in order to insure that we would set our work aside and rest at least one day a week!
This sphere, like that of the family, the church, and the state, is founded upon relationships. These relationships, which are ordered according to scriptural principles (see, e.g., Ephesians 6:5-9), fit the general triune pattern we have observed in other areas. God has granted the stewardship of His material goods to owners; and these owners are in turn accountable to Him for the use of His “stuff” and responsible for the welfare and productivity of the workers who operate under their direction and authority. Within this sphere, which Dr. Tackett calls the “engine room of culture,” wealth is generated that has the potential to meet the physical needs of mankind; and the responsibility for the compassionate use of this wealth, he argues, falls primarily upon the shoulders of those who are engaged in the field of Labor.
As a special sub-heading of this topic, we will also consider the implications of this discussion for media and the creative arts. Here, too, says Dr. Tackett, there is a fundamental “truth issue” at stake; for under the sovereignty of God and His eternal ethical standard, beauty in the arts should be consistent with goodness and truth. This is a subject of special concern in a time like ours when, as Dr. Francis Schaeffer averred, “Whoever controls the media controls culture.” Within this context, it is imperative that Christians begin to make their influence felt in the field of creative art.
Participants on this tour may find themselves challenged – in some cases uncomfortably so – in the area of their personal views of work. It may be important to handle the discussion in such a way that they will be gently encouraged to explore the joy of engaging in creative labor rather than made to feel guilty about having a “TGIF” attitude toward the working week. It’s also worth noting that Dr. Tackett’s ideas about compassion and relief for the poor – namely, that labor needs to create job opportunities for the needy rather than leaving this area of concern solely to the state – may become the occasion of some lively political and social debate.
Here is a preview of this weeks lesson:
You can watch the complete lesson here. Contact me (X-trials@BrianBorden.com) if you still need a Username and Password.
Have a great Memorial Day and I'll see you Thursday!
For this tour we will examine a special sub-category of our last topic of discussion: the design of the state. In particular, we want to take a brief look at the question, “What should God’s minister on earth (Romans 13:4) look like? What is a proper form for this agency that is divinely appointed and commissioned to administer justice, punish evil, and encourage goodness among its citizens or subjects?” We will approach this task by considering the American Experiment.
From the beginning, Dr. Tackett lays down three ground rules for this study: first, we will not seek to deify America; and second, we will not seek to deify the Founding Fathers (the third ground rule will be dealt with at the end of the lesson). Having established these guidelines, he hastens to point out that there are compelling reasons for giving special attention to the subject of this tour. The American Experiment has the potential to prove unusually conducive to a deeper understanding of God’s design for the state precisely because it is unique in the history of the world. Here on these shores, and here alone, people with a strong Christian worldview have been afforded an unparalleled opportunity to create from scratch what they considered an ideal system of government – a system designed in careful conformity with the principles outlined in Lesson 9.
We begin by establishing the biblical character of that worldview. The New England Primer, the second best-selling book (after the Bible) of the colonial era, provides an intriguing window into the attitudes of early Americans. In particular, it reveals an outlook and a way of life powerfully shaped by the teachings of Scripture. The pervasiveness of this outlook is further demonstrated in statements made by America’s early political leaders, legal and social architects, and educational pioneers – people like Benjamin Rush, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Adams, Charles Carroll, Noah Webster, and the founders of Harvard, Princeton, and Columbia Universities. In spite of the fact that not all of them were practicing Christians, these luminaries agreed with President John Adams that the success of America’s republican form of government would prove directly dependent upon the virtue and morality of her people, and that virtue and morality are necessarily founded upon religion – by which all meant the Christian religion. All of these early thinkers were convinced that the state must be held accountable to the authority of a higher ethical and spiritual standard – the “Natural Law” or the “Law of Nature’s God” – if the human rights abuses they had observed in Europe and throughout history were to be hopefully avoided on this continent.
Tragically, however, America is quickly turning away from these principles. It is hard to put a finger on the exact reasons, but one clear element came as Darwinian evolutionary theory made its influence felt in the field of law. In 1869, Harvard Law School Dean Christopher Langdell advanced the view that law is not based upon the transcendent standard of “Nature’s God,” but is rather a fluid and constantly mutating body of “doctrine,” a set of purely human ideas that inevitably change “by slow degrees.” In other words, law and ethics, like biological species, are continually “evolving.” Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes expanded on this theme by declaring that the law is “simply an embodiment of the ends and purposes of a society at a given point in its history,” thus effectively granting to the state the power to establish society’s ethical norms. John Dewey implemented these ideas in the realm of public education. “There is no God,” said Dewey (nicknamed “The Architect of Modern Education”), “and there is no soul. Hence, there are no needs for the props of traditional religion.”
These statements, says Dr. Tackett, bring us to the present moment. Today, America has largely forgotten God and denied the validity of her biblically based Christian roots. As a result, we see the power of the state expanding in our time. This, too, is a manifestation of the perennial Cosmic Battle, which is always fought most fiercely in the social realm. Ultimately, we must face the fact that the American Experiment is likely to fail altogether if we do not take intentional and deliberate steps to salvage it. This is a task which falls primarily on the shoulders of Christian people. As believers, we need to remember God’s call to prayer and repentance in 2 Chronicles 7:13-14. There is nothing to be gained, says Dr. Tackett, by casting blame on non-Christians (this is the third ground rule for our study).
This last point should be kept in mind throughout the entire discussion. From beginning to end, Dr. Tackett seeks to communicate the thought that the American Experiment makes sense only when understood as the brainchild of Christians who operated on the basis of a biblical worldview. Just as the experiment was instigated by believers, so it must be carried on by believers – believers who care deeply and passionately about their country – if it is to survive and continue to succeed.
Here is a preview of this weeks lesson:
You can watch the complete lesson here. Contact me (X-trials@BrianBorden.com) if you still need a Username and Password.
See you Thursday!
In the southwest quadrant of our compass lie the spheres of the state, politics, and law. On this, the ninth of twelve worldview tours to be completed during the course of The Truth Project, we will take a close and careful look at how the spheres of state, politics, and law are interconnected and how they relate to other aspects of the social realm: family, church, labor, community, and the relationship between God and man. Special attention will be given to the design, structure, and role of the state, its place in God’s plan for human society, and the rightful extent and limits of its power. The state, as we will see, has the capacity to exert a tremendous power for good in the affairs of mankind as long as it operates within its proper boundaries; but it also has the potential to become the most horrendously pathological and abusive of all the social spheres if not kept in check.
Significantly, Dr. Tackett begins this tour with a look at older ideas about the relationship between the state and the ethical realm. According to Webster’s 1828 Dictionary, law, politics, and the state are, among other things, concerned with the preservation and improvement of a people’s morals. Though few today would be inclined to accept this definition, a moment’s reflection is sufficient to demonstrate how important it really is. For as Dr. Tackett illustrates by considering a very simple question – “Can the state steal?” – human governments are capable of error and transgression and must be held accountable to a higher ethical law if they are to be prevented from wreaking havoc in the lives of the citizens entrusted to their oversight and care.
God’s perspective on the state, as we will discover through a careful examination of the relevant scriptural passages, is that it is strictly subordinate to His sovereign dominion and control. Just as the Son is subject to the Father, the wife to the husband, and the elders of the church to the headship of Christ, so the authority of the state, within the economy of the divine design for the political sphere, is subject to and dependent upon the authority of God Himself. Governors and magistrates hold their power purely as delegates and representatives of the King of all kings. They are appointed and armed with the sword in order that they might 1) punish evil and 2) condone good. Those who forget these principles and become puffed up with a sense of their own importance are, like Ahab (1 Kings 21), Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 4:20-30), Uzziah (2 Chronicles 26), and Herod (Acts 12:21-23), liable to swift and severe judgment.
This last point is worthy of special attention; for, as the Bible and history demonstrate, when human rulers overstep their bounds, deny the sovereignty of the various social spheres, and seek to establish state control over every other area of human life, tyranny, oppression, and violence are sure to follow. The godless expansion of the power of the state has reared its ugly head many times in the past, most notably in the 20th century regimes of rulers like Stalin, Lenin, Hitler, Mao, and Pol Pot. It is raising its head again in our own time, says Dr. Tackett. Without God, truth, or any higher moral standard, people are increasingly looking to the state as savior and the supplier of every human need. In the face of this trend, Bible-believing Christians must have the courage to resist what Dr. Tackett calls “The Rise of the State” – to stand firm, draw a line in the sand, and say, “This far and no more.”
Dr. Tackett warns students at the outset of this tour that some may find themselves “conflicted” as they contemplate the implications of his message. This is because, as a result of the raging of the Cosmic Battle, many people in our day have been taken captive by the lie that the state, and not God, is to “go before us” as our savior and sustainer and the source of all good things. This discussion is calculated from beginning to end to expose and challenge this assumption. There are obvious implications here for the debate between proponents of “liberal” and “conservative” social policy (i.e., the “welfare state” and its opponents).
Here is a preview of this weeks lesson:
You can watch the complete lesson here. Contact me (X-trials@BrianBorden.com) if you still need a Username and Password.
See you Thursday!
Thanks to Eddie for giving us an update on his China Mission trip. It was great hearing it. I think there may be an opportunity for a Small Group Study on applying Global Mission lessons at the Local Community level. Why is it sometimes easier to witness to a stranger in China than it is to go someplace local and witness to a stranger?
Since we didn't finish Lesson 7 of The Truth Project, we'll pick up where we left off and finish it this Thursday. Lesson 8 will start the following Thursday.
We ended the discussion this week on the Westminster Confession of 1646 (Dr. Tackett referenced this Confessions definition of the Trinity.) I encouraged everyone to read it or any of the several Confessions available and then begin working on your own personal Confession along with the Scriptual Proofs. It doesn't have to start off as some long, 40 page Confession. Just write
down what you believe and the Biblical Proofs. In the future, as you Biblically prove a belief, add it to your Confession. Feel free to discuss your Confession with others. In fact, I would encourage you to discuss it with others. Just remember that this is YOUR personal Confession so only add what you have proven for yourself.
Here are two well-known confessions and the latest Southern Baptist Statement:
Westminster Confession of Faith with Scriptural verses (PDF)
Westminster Confession of Faith with Full Scriptural Proofs (PDF)
Baptist Confession of Faith with Scriptural verses (1689) (PDF)
Baptist Faith and Message (2000) (PDF)
They are in PDF format. Let me know (X-trials@BrianBorden.com) if you would prefer them in another format.
There are others available as well. I'm including these as templates or guidelines if you need them. Yours can be a lot like them or nothing like them, as long as it is yours.
Good luck and God bless.
The word “remember” is central to the message of lesson 6. On this tour we take a close look History and the importance of maintaining a firm grip on the past. In the process, we will see that a proper appreciation of historical context – in other words, our place in God’s “larger story” – is fundamental to an accurate understanding of almost every aspect of our lives. History provides us with indispensable insights into the meaning of existence, God’s plan and purpose for the ages, man’s responsibility toward the Creator, and his duty toward his fellow creatures.
Dr. Tackett’s key scripture passage for this discussion is Isaiah 46:9-11: “Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done … Indeed, I have spoken it; I will also bring it to pass … ” Two major thoughts arise from these verses. First, God is sovereign, or absolutely in control. History is in the most literal sense His story. Nothing happens at random or by chance. The hairs of our heads are numbered, and the details of our lives are threads in the great tapestry of His overarching providential plan. Second, we as human beings cannot understand our place in the world without cultivating a vision of ourselves as part of this larger story. This is why the Bible contains so many exhortations to “remember” what God has done in the past, whether through the device of “memorial stones,” annual festivals, tassels, phylacteries, or the discipline of hiding His Word in our hearts. If we do not remember, we run the risk of becoming myopic, proud, self-sufficient, and eventually incurring our own destruction (see Deuteronomy 8) – not necessarily physical destruction, but rather a complete loss of identity, purpose, and meaning, or what Amos refers to as a “famine of hearing the Word of the Lord” (Amos 8:11).
Here too we come face to face with the implications of man’s fallen nature and encounter yet another manifestation of the Cosmic Battle. Man resists the idea of a sovereign God. He wants to control his own destiny, live inside his own “little story,” and free himself from all connections with or references to an all-inclusive divine plan. Thus he devises ways to propagate the “pernicious lie” of self-determination (“I am my own god,” or “I believe in myself”) by taking the larger story of history into his own hands and turning it into a powerful tool for the manipulation of other people and the accomplishment of his own selfish purposes. Historical revisionism, or the agenda-driven re-writing of history, operates on the basis of the premise, “If I can change your historical context, I can determine the way you view the present.”
This strategy is consistent with George Orwell’s observation that “He who controls the past controls the future” and Karl Marx’s dictum, “A people without a heritage are easily persuaded.”
Postmodernism – the contemporary philosophical perspective that rejects both revelation and reason – takes this process to an extreme conclusion by denying the validity of all comprehensive truth systems, or what it calls metanarratives (including Christianity). Stated simply, the postmodern perspective maintains that there is no “larger story.” Instead, everyone must tell his or her own story and invent (if possible) his or her own concept of meaning and significance. In other words, history does not exist at all except as it exists in our own minds, where it can be edited and tailored to further our own goals in the present.
As we have seen so often during the course of our first five tours, the essence of the Cosmic Battle or the conflict between Truth and Lies can be boiled down to a confrontation between the claims of the sovereign God and the claims of the sovereign self. It’s the old story of the Garden of Eden, where the serpent re-wrote the past by asking, “Has God really said …?” and where man became completely caught up in his own “little story.” From beginning to end, Dr. Tackett’s message in lesson 6 is that “It’s not all about you.” As Jesus put it, “He who seeks to save his life will lose it.” Given our current “self-actualizing” cultural climate, it is likely that some group participants will take exception to this idea. Others may have theological objections to Dr. Tackett’s statements about the relationship between God’s sovereignty and human free will; for he states very plainly that if we are only free agents, then we are completely without hope
Here is a preview of this weeks lesson:
You can watch the complete lesson here. Contact me (X-trials@BrianBorden.com) if you still need a Username and Password.
See you Thursday!
It's time for Lesson 4 and it's a big one!
How can one define or describe God? It is like trying to define eternity.
The answer is we can’t completely. The amazing thing is that the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, creator of the
universe has chosen to reveal Himself to us.
Having explored the concept of truth itself and examined the biblical view of human nature – two basic issues that had to be settled before we could move on to the present discussion – Theology, or that branch of study and investigation that grapples with the question, “Who is God?” Knowing God ought to be our passion and our highest goal; for until we look upon His face, we cannot rightly know ourselves or begin to grasp the meaning of our existence in the world.
Here is a preview of this weeks lesson:
You can watch the complete lesson here. Contact me (X-trials@BrianBorden.com)if you still need a Username and Password.
Join us this Thursday at 7pm to discuss (even if you don't watch the video!)
Have a great week everyone!
Lesson 3
The Bible tells us that man was created in God's image but fell from innocence through sin. Modern psychology, on the other hand, asserts that man is inherently good and behaves badly only under the influence of social or institutional pressure. This lesson explores the implications of both views.
Join us this Thursday at 7pm for another night of probing conversation. It's not too late to join in the discussion. Here is the teaser for lesson 3. The full video is available here. Contact me, x-trials@brianborden.com, for the user name and password.
For more information, check out our website at www.X-trials.com.
Have a great week!
Our Thursday Bible study at Starbucks is currently going through The Truth Project. We start lesson 2 this week. Check out the X-Trials website for more information!
A recent study revealed that only 9 percent of professing Christians have a biblical worldview.
Because of this, today's believers live very similarly to non-believers. A personal sense of significance is rarely experienced, we spend our money and time on things that fail to satisfy and we begin to wonder what life's ultimate purpose really is. We are, in short, losing our bearings as a people and a nation.
To counter this slide within the body of Christ, Focus on the Family has launched The Truth Project.
This study is the starting point for looking at life from a biblical perspective. Each lesson discusses in great detail the relevance and importance of living the Christian worldview in daily life.
Join us over the next few weeks as we ask and answer questions such as: What is Truth? Who is Man? Who is God? What is True Science? What should we be learning from history? What is the true nature of social systems? Am I Alone? Whose law do we obey? Where is America in God's plan? God cares, Do I?This Thursday's X-trials class is on the Genealogy of Jesus and how it applies to Messianic prophecies. I know what you're thinking, "We normally just skip over those long, boring genealogies in the Bible and now you are going to devote an entire class to studying one? BORING!" But when are the X-trials ever boring? Besides, the one we are studying is a very special one. It's the genealogy of Jesus and did I say one genealogy? There are actually two, one by Matthew (Matthew 1:1-17) and the other by Luke (Luke 3:23-38).
So why two lists? That's a question many have asked with skeptics asserting that there are contradictions in them that cannot be reconciled. Then there is the reason of showing Christ's decent through David from Abraham and Adam set forth in an unbroken line in both genealogies. And how does this all tie in to Messianic prophecy?
Join us Thursday night at 7pm as we explore this matter...it won' be boring, I promise!
Brian
This weeks Starbucks Bible Study Topic: Prophecies of His Preexistence
What is Messianic prophecy and why do we need to study it?
Our first class will concentrate on the prophecies of Jesus' preexistence.
Was the Son of God born? Or has He always been? Does it even matter?
We will look at Jesus' own words for guidence.
See www.X-trials.com for more info on the class.
The X-Trials Bible Study Group will begin a new Bible study on Thursday, September 25, 2009 at 7pm; we'll be meeting at Starbucks as usual. Don't let the start date scare you off. You can join at anytime!
We've just completed a look at several key figures in the Old Testament which was great! Thank you to everyone. We had some great discussions. I know that I learned a lot. This Fall we are going to be looking at the Messianic Prophecies and how Jesus fulfilled them. We'll be using the book "All the Messianic Prophecies of the Bible" by Herbert Lockyer. We’ll cover how the different prophecies accurately foretell of the coming of Christ including His ancestry, birth, character, and His death and resurrection.
As always, this course is designed to be a "come when you can" class. In other words, each week we cover something different so if you can't make a week...show up for the next one! We welcome everyone. It is a discussion oriented class but if you want to come and listen only...feel free.
Join us for a cup of coffee and a night of fellowship!
See you there,
Brian Borden
OK, its time for a new Bible Study and I'm really excited about this one. Starting May 22, 2008 we'll be covering several Old Testament figures using the book "Following God: Learning Life Principles from the Personalities of the Old Testament" by Wayne Barber as a starting point. Now some of you may cringe at studying these old patriarchs of our faith: I mean haven't we heard their stories over and over? Well, yes...and no. We are going to take a fresh look at these "Righteous Dudes" and learn that they weren't perfect...in fact, they are a lot, and I mean a lot, like us today.
What can they teach us? Plenty!
So join us for an X-trials look at these old dudes of faith. Each week will be someone different, so if you miss a class...show up next time!
Let's not beat around the bush. How about some tough questions? In this course we are going to do just that with "The 10 Most Common Objections to Christianity" by Alex McFarland...plus we'll through in a few of our own tough questions just to show we're serious! Don't believer me...here are some of the questions we'll be asking:
What about all those errors in the Bible?
How can anyone know that God exists?
What about Evolution?
What makes Jesus different?
Aren't there many roads to Heaven?
What about the other religions?
Why does God allow suffering?
Is Hell real?
Aren't most people basically good?
Do babies go to heaven?
Is there a difference between murder and killing?
Told you we weren't going to pull punches. We are going to ask the tough questions. Do we have the answers...well...we'll have to see about that. So join us starting February 21, 2008 and put your two cents in. As always, each week is different so come when you can!
For more info jump to www.X-trials.com.
Brian Borden
This past Thursday was the first of my 13 week Bible Study class. The study is called X-trials and is based on the sermon series by Ed Young. We meet each Thursday at Starbucks. It was quite a class. It is one of the first that our church is having out in the public instead of at the church or in a home. We had 12 people in the class which is quite large and almost too large for the number of chairs that we had available at the coffee shop. As I had hoped we had several people listening to the discussion from other tables. Whether they approved or not I do not know but they were actively listening. We even had one young man pull-up a chair and join us.
We are working our way, verse by verse, through the book of James. Our first session focused on James 1:1-12. It covers God's purpose
for testing us and how we are to respond. We covered Ed Young's formula Eic2=M and how to use it in the trials of our life.
E=Evaluate
Examine the trial, identify it, and take a step-back to examine it. Look at trials through the eyes of faith. Then make a conscious decision on how God wants you to address it.
i=Information
Each trial gives us information on our strengths and weaknesses.
c=Cooperation
We must cooperate with God in these tests by relying on Him, persevering, and learning the lesson He is placing before us.
c=Conversation
Always go back to God. Talk with Him, listen to Him. Ask Him for your needs. Remember the quote from Oz Guinness
“As believers, we cannot always know why,
But can always know why we trust God,
Who knows why and that makes all the
Difference.”
M=spiritual Maturity
Doing all these things is how we grow in our faith.
Pray for our next class this Thursday and if you want a little more information on the class check out my website www.x-trials.com.
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