Catching up with October
I’ve got quite a bit of catching up to do in the next week. Last I checked, it was still September. I seem to be missing a week. The apologetics conference at North Graham Baptist Church went well, despite being sick most of the week. I ended up being out of work and laid around the house with a fever for most of the last half of the week. I head back to work night shift tomorrow. I’m sure there’s a pile of work waiting on me. A few things have really caught my attention this weekend. I received a much needed kick in the pants to concentrate on some academic pursuits. I also stumbled upon some really interesting discussions over at Michael Spencer’s Internet Monk website. Internet Monk is one of my favorites, but today was my first visit to the site in a couple of weeks. Check out some recent discussions (here, here, and here) on evangelical views of creationism and evolution. On a personal note, I could use your prayers as I’ve sent out resumes to some ministry positions. And, last but not least for the evening…How could I have missed this? The Screwtape Letters Audio Drama
Technorati Tags: Screwtape Letters, Creationism, Evolution, North Graham Baptist Church, Apologetics, Internet Monk
October 12th, 2009 at 4:26 am
Sorry you’ve been sick. The apologetics conference sounds very interesting! What kinds of topics did you discuss? I hope God leads you to the right ministry opportunity soon.
October 12th, 2009 at 11:02 am
The conference was very interesting. It was unlike anything I’ve done before. It was at North Graham Baptist Church. North Graham is a small church, so there weren’t many folks there (probably around 15-20 each night). But the folks that came seemed very interested and interacted well. Throughout the conference, I used this passage:
Act 17:1-4
(1) Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews:
(2) And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures,
(3) Opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ.
(4) And some of them believed, and consorted with Paul and Silas; and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few.
The first night focused on the uniqueness of the Bible, especially in its continuity and consistency pointing to the messiah. The point being that, if we want to be able to reason with someone from the Scripture like Paul, we need to know and trust in Scripture. The second night focused on understanding how Paul would have reasoned and explained from Scripture that Jesus is the prophesied Christ. (I considered naming that night’s topic: “Christ wasn’t his last name”). We covered a ton of Scripture that night. With powerpoint, I was able to pull up the Old Testament prophesies to compare with the New Testament fulfillments. The third night was one of my favorite nights. Earlier in the week, some of the folks shared that they wanted to know more about sharing their faith through discussion with folks from other religions. We contrasted how Paul’s presentation differed when interacting with Jews in the synagogue in Acts 17:1-4 with how he presented to the Epicurean and Stoic Philosophers in Acts 17:16-34. In the latter account, Paul demonstrates a thorough knowledge of, not only their religion, but also their culture and arts (Paul quotes the poem Cretica written by Epimenides c. 600 b.c. in vs 28). We talked about understanding the cultures around us to improve our witness. I wrapped up the last night with a video I posted on this site before. If you haven’t seen it, it’s worth a look…Penn Gillette’s (a confessed atheist) account of a Christian’s witness and how he perceives Christians who do not proselytize. Link: http://www.marcusorr.com/a-gift-for-penn-jillette