In chapter five what really caught my attention was the section on community of the church. Personally, I believe the church communities are failing to reach out to others, and reach the full potential of what the church can be. I believe many churches are slowly becoming a social club that merely mimics what Christianity should be. Many people go to church for the popularity and inspirational quotes. “The church as a community does not require conformity. Christians are not meant to be cookie-cutter copies of one another” (90). I have been told by friends about the hurt their family member has felt because the church rejected them due to he or she being gay. Hearing these stories broke a piece of me because this is not how a Christian community should behave. God does not reject us for our unworthiness, however, he loves us. Which in my eyes means we are not to reject anyone from attending the church, yet, show them love. “The church is the place where the story of our personal redemption branches out and intertwines with the stories of other persons seeking redemption on the road towards full salvation” (91). As a community, we are not to reject
Christians today need to grow in love and to show that love through concern and service for the well-being of others. We need to put the care and well-being of others above our care and concern for ourselves. We need to love all people, not just the ones that are like us, or that are nice, or that can help us get what we want. This love for people will reflect God’s love for all people which He made clear by His laws in the Old Testament and the sacrificial death of Christ for our sins in the New Testament.
The religion my group is covering is Christianity. Christianity is one of the biggest and widest spread religions in the world. It was founded by Jesus Christ and his 12 Apostles. Jesus taught his Apostles the word of God and spread the belief that he was the messiah by performing miracles such as healing the sick, feeding thousands with only enough food for one person, and expelling demons from the souls of people he encountered. After Jesus had many followers, people started to worry about the change in the community and the Romans didn’t want to think about what might happen if people started changing their ways so they sentenced Jesus to death. Jesus told his Apostles that he would come back after his death and
— It is Christianity To Do Good always — even to those who do evil to us. It is Christianity to love our neighbour as ourself, and to do to all men as we would have them Do to us. It is Christianity to be gentle, merciful, and forgiving, and to keep those qualities quiet in our own hearts, and never make a boast of them, or of our prayers or of our love of God, but always to shew that we love Him by humbly trying to do right in everything. If we do this, and remember the life and lessons of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and try to act up to them, we may confidently hope that God will forgive us our sins and mistakes, and enable us to live and die in Peace. [The Life of Our Lord, Ch. 11, p. 474 of The Everyman
Christian gospel in many ways is perceived in this day and age are a lost word. People have the art of praying and staying faithful to the word of God. God provided us with all kinds of blessings and opportunities in life so that we can flourish and prosper. Also God took all our sin to the cross and forgave us for everything we done that was not right in his eyes. We need to also understand that there is only one God and we need to cherish it every day of our lives. Today’s culture perceives the Gospel almost the same was as old days but how man tries to rewrite the word to fits our society today, people believe that s God except so of things that are going on today
It is during a time of great trepidation that I am writing this letter to our Salt River Valley General Baptist Fellowship churches. As we observe the condition of our churches, and the moral corruption of the world we live in, it is apparent this conference is well overdue. We are doing ministry in a time when the world no longer wants to hear our message let alone believe in our God. In this day people attend church but no longer see the need to make a commitment to the church.
To properly label a Christian an evangelical Protestant, one must ask four basic questions and receive an answer that as a whole, evangelical Protestants accept as “correct”. The questions are: “[W]hat must a person do to be saved?[, W]here does religious authority lie?[, W]hat is the church?[,] and [W]hat is the essence of Christian living?” (“Evangelicalism”, Dictionary of Christianity in America) Through answering and receiving the “correct” responses, one should be able to define an evangelical Protestant.
Kinnaman’s assessment of how Christians are perceived by non-Christians should motivate us to go back to the drawing board, analyze ourselves, and put a new plan of action together. Christians should care what outsiders think about them because we are Christ’s ambassadors (Kinnaman, 2007). As noted by Kinnaman (2007), “when outsiders question our motives, it neutralizes their interest in Christianity” (p. 69). Christians should embody love, compassion, patience, forgiveness, and service, among other things and if this is not the case, then, we are clearly misrepresenting the love and the grace of the Father (Kinnaman, 2007). Therefore, we cannot stand aloof from these negative perceptions and pretend there’s nothing wrong.
Philippians The book of Philippians deals with praise, confidence and rejoicing. The book of Philippians was a letter written in prison by Paul in 62 A.D. The key personalities are the Apostle Paul, Timothy, Epaphroditus, Euodia, and Syntyche ( Philippians). Paul is known for his prison epistles ( letter written in jail) there are four and Paul had written Philippians last.
Throughout the early history of Christianity, disputes broke out over mosaic law, particularly in the mid first century when the issue of circumcision, cutting off the foreskin of a man’s penis, was a heavily debated and a recurring issue among different churches and members of the church. Many Christians believed that following the mosaic law, which included the act of circumcision, was no longer required for salvation as having faith and accepting Jesus as the messiah would be enough. Others, on the other hand, believed that requirements set forth in the mosaic law were still necessary to be saved. These people were negatively branded with the name Judaizers (those who believed that all Christians should follow the Law of Moses), and were often criticized for being discriminatory and elitist. A meeting was then held to discuss the whether the application of the mosaic law to new members of the Christian community, particularly focusing on if those trying to convert, were obliged undergo circumcision to be accepted into, and become part of, the Christian community. The apostolic decree of the council of Jerusalem moved away from its
To understand the meaning of Galatians 5: 16-18 we must understand the purpose of the letter. Galatians is an occasional letter (Duvall, Hayes 2008, 100) meant to address a congregation who is faced with the dilemma of Judaizers. The Judaizers were teaching that in order for a Gentile to be truly saved he must convert to Judaism; he must be circumcised. They preached salvation by works of the flesh, putting the Gentiles under the law (5: 9-15). But the flesh; circumcision or no circumcision, following the Judaic laws or not following the Judaic laws, makes no difference in salvation. Righteousness is found through faith and shown in love (5:6). Insistence that Gentiles convert to Judaism “distorts salvation by grace alone” and causes dissension in the body of Christ (Wilson 2013, Gal. 5:15). Paul argues that Christians should rely on the Holy Spirit for the power to overcome the flesh and walk in love and faith (5:16– 18). There is clearly a distinction between the fruit of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit (5:19-26). Paul
We must understand different worldviews in order to defend our faith against other worldviews so that our faith is not shaken by other worldviews, by understanding the mayor worldviews we, as Christians, can stand strong in our faith and tell others about Christ. Having a Christian worldview means that we do not follow the flesh but we follow those things that God has commanded us to do. It means that Christians think about their actions and do their best to treat others with love and respect as God has loved us no matter our gender, race, or sexual orientation. We must follow the Golden Rule stated in John 13:34 – “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” Doug, you must feel in your heart that you are saved, you feel happy and all the sins you struggled before in the past are now a lot easier to avoid. Being a Christian is no easy task at all; you face persecution and testing from
Let me say at once, that I do believe the Church will revive, by keeping commandments to the full, and the teaching of Jesus. Nor, in my Letter is there a lack of belief in God's love, but it indicated a lack of our love of His word in divine law
Religion has existed for countless centuries. Christianity is one of the major religions in this world, which had people be criticized, battle in wars, and killed for, but it still survived to this day. The purpose of this paper is to study the source of the religion, recognize the teachings, observe its spread throughout the world, and to identify how it stands among people today. Approaching this paper by a factual report I will explain these major points and why we need to know about this religion and other religions that existed before our generation.
A similar conflict between the Gentiles and Jews took place during the early establishment of the Church. The Jews demanded that the Gentiles adhere to their laws as established by Moses, wherein they were forbidden from eating certain foods and required that all males be circumcised. McRay states, “During that time some men came from Jerusalem and tried to lay upon the Gentiles an even more stringent requirement than the earlier Jerusalem emissaries had done. It was no longer simply a matter of requiring the Gentiles to observe Jewish food laws in order to maintain fellowship with Jewish Christians. They were now demanding that Gentiles males be circumcised in order to be saved” (McRay, 2003, p. 127). Similar to today, these disagreements are presented to the Church Leadership conflict for resolution. In advising the leadership council of Saint Elizabeth Catholic church on how to resolve and maintain the fellowship between these believers, I will use Romans 14 as the fundamental basis for handling conflict resolutions.