Shifting Sands: Recent Episodes
Pastor Brad
Change. Our western culture is changing. It has gone from a generally Christian based culture to a culture that has tolerated Christianity, to now a culture that wants nothing to do with Christianity. All this in my own life time! Why? How shall we respond? This podcast hopes to look at the shifting sands of beliefs that we are experiencing in our culture. And the solid rock of the teachings of Jesus that the Church is to be built on if its going to survive.
What do you do to counter a world that is so fixated on itself? You get back to the sacred, the holy things, the things that put you in touch with the divine.
What ever happened to individual responsibility and group guilt? In this day and age of blame shifting, these concepts are fundamental to us getting along.
What is human is natural, what is natural is good, therefore what is human is good. That sounds good, but its not. Humanitarianism sounds more and more like a religion. Its goal is to make heaven on earth.
Humanitarianism is a mouthful. If its just about helping other humans, that's great! But its more than that, and surprisingly a threat to Christianity in our day and age.
In Christianity, since we are judged by God, we repent of our sin to God. In culture, since we are judged by the mob, we repent of our sin to the mob. So God is replaced by the mob, and life now is all about reputation management. We'll also look at mobs in the Bible. They put Jesus to death, and they are trying to do the same today.
Criticizing seems to be a new mark of our culture. Where does that spirit come from? And what are its new commandments?
God wants us to live as His children and He gives us the grace, the strength, and the wisdom to do that. This chapter of Ecclesiastes gives us simple proverbs that we can remember and live by.
It’s hard to be content. Envy doesn’t help. If Jesus was like us He would have never stepped off His throne to save us.
The Bible is far more concerned about how you received, given, spent, and shared your wealth than how much wealth you have.
Solomon asks us to check our motives and heart when meeting with God. Practically this means sitting in silence to listen to God's Word read and preached. Then we can respond with gratitude in song and petition.
Wisdom is like gold, hard to find. But there are places we find it and where God gives it.
People can drive us crazy. They can hurt us, or use us, or they can love us. We are going to take a crash course in people and also learn about the great gift of family and friends and how important it is to be a family and a friend to the people God has placed in our lives. Two are better than one.
King Solomon is looking over his kingdom and sees the struggle and oppression of his people in a world that is often so unjust. One day God will judge. In the meantime we are encouraged to comfort the oppressed and find opportunities to enjoy the work that God has given us to do.
When you know what season you are in you can act accordingly. God is going to make everything beautiful in it’s time.
We spend the better part of our life learning and working, only to end up accomplishing little and dying. What makes life meaningful? Some One. Would you say that you primarily see God as a teacher who wants you to learn, boss who wants you to work, or Father who wants to enjoy life with you?
I can’t get no satisfaction! That’s so true, from our stuff! But why? Solomon would know. He had everything! Yet none of it satisfied. Do the math. Everything - God = Nothing. Or Nothing + God = everything.
Nothing really matters when life is lived apart from God. But life lived with God makes everything meaningful and valuable.
Solomon is considered one of the wisest men who ever lived. Before picking out his casket he wrote one of the most brutally honest, painfully helpful books ever written on life