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November 8 - FaithFriends
By Pastor Harriman | November 8, 2007
Friends of Faith Baptist of North Chili,
I read this week in Dr. Al Mohler’s blog a quote from a new book by Dinesh D’Souza’s, “What’s So Great About Christianity.” A book written in response to the frontal attack on Christianity by atheistic authors Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Sam Harris. The quote is this: “contrary to popular belief, atheism is not primarily an intellectual revolt, it is a moral revolt. Atheists don’t find God invisible so much as objectionable. They aren’t adjusting their desires to the truth, but rather the truth to fit their desires. This is something we can all identify with. It is a temptation even for believers. We want to be saved as long as we are not saved from our sins. We are quite willing to be saved from a whole host of social evils, from poverty to disease to war. But we want to leave untouched the personal evils, such as selfishness and lechery and pride. We need spiritual healing, but we do not want it. Like a supervisory parent, God gets in our way. This is the perennial appeal of atheism: it gets rid of the stern fellow with the long beard and liberates us for the pleasures of sin and depravity. The atheist seeks to get rid of moral judgment by getting rid of the judge.”
I wonder how much we are affected by the world and this kind of thinking? I suspect it is far more than we actually recognize or care to admit. Give it some thought!
We are now putting our Sunday messages on our website. Last Sunday’s messages, AM - “Your Time Is Always Ready” from John 7:1-9, and PM - “The Pearl of Great Price” from Matthew 13:44-46 are posted and ready for you. You can listen to them or download them at www.fbcnorthchili.org/category/podcasts/
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TIME FOR A SMILE
Don’t follow this man’s example: A woman had gained a few pounds. It was most noticeable to her when she squeezed into a pair of her old blue jeans. Wondering if the added weight was noticeable to everyone else, she asked her husband, “Honey, do these jeans make me look like the side of the house?”
“No, dear, not at all,” he replied, “Our house isn’t blue.”
He is almost over the cold he caught sleeping in the garage for 3 nights.
The telephone solicitor selling basement waterproofing must have thought she’d found a sure sale when she reached a very polite and patient man on the phone. At the end of her long sales pitch, she asked, “Do you mind if we send out someone to give you an estimate?”
“Not at all,” he said.
“When would be a good time?” she asked.
He answered, “Just as soon as I dig a basement.”
Bad pun: A mom put some turnips, the least-favorite vegetable of her eleven-year-old son, on his dinner plate and instructed him to eat everything. He cleaned his plate, except for the turnip.
She pointed out to him that if he’d eaten it earlier, he wouldn’t have been left with its taste in his mouth at the end of the meal.
Thoughtfully, he replied, “I guess I was just trying to delay the inedible.”
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Sunday, November 11, 2007
* Family Bible Classes - 9:30am
* The Adult Class (meeting in the auditorium) will continue the study through II Samuel with chapters 13, which begins to enumerate the tragedies and troubles that befell David and his family after David’s sin of killing Uriah.
* Morning Worship - 10:45am
* Our text for this Sunday is John 7:10-24 and the message is titled, “Judge With Righteous Judgment.” When Jesus got to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Tabernacles, the people were talking about Him - “He is good,” some said; “No, He deceives people,” others said; “[He] never studied,” said those who marveled at His communication skills despite His lack of formal degrees. And finally, when Jesus mentioned that people were seeking to kill Him, they said, “You have a demon.” While Jesus doesn’t respond directly to any of these digs, He does give us an answer to them. And we are exhorted to “judge with righteous judgment” - which is to say, be right in your understanding of Jesus. That is still important today and we will see why as we study this passage together.
* Evening Celebration - 6:00pm
* This Sunday evening we will resume our series on prayer. The message will be, “Praying Like Elijah,” from I Kings 17-18 and James 5:13-18. Elijah prayed some impressive prayers - he implored God to revive the widow’s son and he called down fire from heaven to convince the Israelites that YAHWEH was the only true God, not Baal. Which of those prayers does the New Testament use as an illustration of Elijah’s fervent praying that avails much? Neither. Does that surprise you? Come find out why a different prayer is chosen to be the illustration for our encouragement to pray like Elijah.
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That’s all for this edition of FaithFriends. Pray with me that God’s people will be equipped and encouraged and the lost will hear the good news of the Gospel and trust Christ for their salvation!
Your faithful Minister of the Word,
Pastor Harriman
www.fbcnorthchili.org
Topics: Faith-Friends |
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