Last night, I went to a family from my church’s house, and they are hosting a couple of students for the week as part of a short-term exchange program. Both of these students are Mormons. While I was visiting, I talked with them for a while about their beliefs (a while being over 2 hours), trying to throw in questions every now and then comparing what the Bible (which they claim as one of their holy books) says to what they were saying. Throughout the conversation, I had a lot of thoughts come through my head, and I am here compiling some of them as this Thursday’s Thought(s):
• The kids knew their stuff. Every morning before school, they go to “seminary” (think: Bible Study on steroids), which is something that all LDS (Mormon) kids their age do. Because of this, they had a level of knowledge concerning the contents of the Bible and their other sacred texts that had a vast amount more depth to it than the level possessed by most (almost all?) of the kids in my youth group. Almost every question I asked throughout the night, they would have the answer right away, or they could look it up online (on the official LDS website, not through Google or Wikipedia) in a matter of seconds because they knew exactly which words to search for.
• It’s amazing the things people accept as truth when they place other things alongside the Bible as having the same level of authority as the Bible. For the Mormon church, this includes (but is not limited to):
o God was once a man, and all of us are the children of God and his wife.
o Heavenly Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are actually 3 separate gods with 1 unified purpose, which they call “The Godhead” (not to be confused with the Trinity). (I asked them a bunch of questions about this one, such as, “What about when Jesus says, ‘Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father,’ or, ‘I and the Father are one’?” One of them caught on to and pointed out the fact that our beliefs in this area are irreconcilable before I got a definitive answer to that one.)
o We are saved by Christ’s work PLUS baptism, obedience, and a few other things.
• Clever arguments don’t make converts, only Christ can do that. For all the money I’ve spent on being a Bible major at a Christian school, nothing I said and no amount of cleverness on my part could convince these guys that God is eternal, salvation is in Christ alone, etc. This is one that I have known for a while, but it was a humbling reminder.
• We should always be prepared to give a reason for the hope that lies within us. Yesterday morning when I woke up, the one of the last things on earth I would have expected to be doing last night was spending 2+ hours talking to a couple of Mormon kids about what they believe and what I believe, but it happened very unexpectedly. Encounters like this one are why we must constantly be saturating ourselves with the Word so we can be prepared when we need to be.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Sunday, February 20, 2011
My Sermon
Hi,
I preached at my church this morning. If you would like to hear the sermon, it is online at:
http://218.189.225.94:44057/shares/share/20_Feb_2011_Don%27t%20Keep%20Quiet.mp3
I preached at my church this morning. If you would like to hear the sermon, it is online at:
http://218.189.225.94:44057/shares/share/20_Feb_2011_Don%27t%20Keep%20Quiet.mp3
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Thursday's Thought
Well, for those of you who haven’t heard yet, I am preaching at my church this Sunday. As of about midnight Saturday Eastern Time, the podcast should be available at ibc.org.hk (you will have to click the “podcast” button on the right side of the screen) if you would like to hear the sermon.
Due to the fact that I will be preaching this week, this Thursday’s Thought has to do with preaching. It is a direct quote from the book Power Through Prayer by E.M. Bounds, a book which I read last semester. When I was reading the book, this quote stuck out to me so much that I wrote it down on a post-it note and stuck it to the side of my computer screen in the office, which is where it is still located. Bounds said, “A prepared heart is better than a prepared sermon. A prepared heart will make a prepared sermon.” My prayer for this week: a prepared heart.
Due to the fact that I will be preaching this week, this Thursday’s Thought has to do with preaching. It is a direct quote from the book Power Through Prayer by E.M. Bounds, a book which I read last semester. When I was reading the book, this quote stuck out to me so much that I wrote it down on a post-it note and stuck it to the side of my computer screen in the office, which is where it is still located. Bounds said, “A prepared heart is better than a prepared sermon. A prepared heart will make a prepared sermon.” My prayer for this week: a prepared heart.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Third Thursday's Thought
Well, I’m back in Hong Kong, and my time in China has given me a lot to think about. I plan to write more about my trip (and include a few pictures) when I have more time, but for this Thursday’s thought, I have decided to share one of my most impactful thoughts from my trip to China.
On Monday, the day we (my friend Alfred and I) arrived in China, we dropped our luggage off in our room, grabbed lunch, then came back to our room and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. I love to read, so relaxation time for me meant reading time. Although China limits the number of books they allow you to bring into China with you, they do allow you to bring books into China as long as they are for personal use and not for distribution. Because of that, I was able to bring my Bible and my Kindle into China without a problem. At one point during my reading Monday afternoon, I began to read the Bible. About a sentence into my reading, I was struck with the realization that there have been numerous people in China who have been sent to jail—even within my lifetime—for doing the exact thing that I was doing at that moment. I then realized that in all my life, I have never had to worry about reading my Bible. I can bring it with me wherever I want, and I don’t have to fear being arrested for being in possession of it. Really, the biggest “threat” I’ve ever faced from reading my Bible is that someone would see me reading it and think I was weird or a loser for reading it. I also realized that because of this, I have, throughout my life, taken my ability to read the Bible (on every level: from having the ability to read, to having proper translations of the Bible in my language, to having the freedom where I lived to be able to read the Bible with no fear of arrest, etc.) largely for granted. I was humbled by the fact that I possess multiple copies and translations of God’s revelation of Himself to mankind, and rather than treasuring that reality, I treat it as petty and insignificant; I take it for granted. This realization challenged me to view my Bible differently and gave me a whole new perspective on how great the freedoms are that God has given us. I hope it challenges and encourages you as well.
On Monday, the day we (my friend Alfred and I) arrived in China, we dropped our luggage off in our room, grabbed lunch, then came back to our room and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. I love to read, so relaxation time for me meant reading time. Although China limits the number of books they allow you to bring into China with you, they do allow you to bring books into China as long as they are for personal use and not for distribution. Because of that, I was able to bring my Bible and my Kindle into China without a problem. At one point during my reading Monday afternoon, I began to read the Bible. About a sentence into my reading, I was struck with the realization that there have been numerous people in China who have been sent to jail—even within my lifetime—for doing the exact thing that I was doing at that moment. I then realized that in all my life, I have never had to worry about reading my Bible. I can bring it with me wherever I want, and I don’t have to fear being arrested for being in possession of it. Really, the biggest “threat” I’ve ever faced from reading my Bible is that someone would see me reading it and think I was weird or a loser for reading it. I also realized that because of this, I have, throughout my life, taken my ability to read the Bible (on every level: from having the ability to read, to having proper translations of the Bible in my language, to having the freedom where I lived to be able to read the Bible with no fear of arrest, etc.) largely for granted. I was humbled by the fact that I possess multiple copies and translations of God’s revelation of Himself to mankind, and rather than treasuring that reality, I treat it as petty and insignificant; I take it for granted. This realization challenged me to view my Bible differently and gave me a whole new perspective on how great the freedoms are that God has given us. I hope it challenges and encourages you as well.
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