I think last night's bible study was very good. Great discussions, great praise music, great questions etc. I would like to suggest some things that may or may not help us. Either way, I think they are worth saying and I hope that they are taken in love.
I would like to try to steer away from such indepth analyis of all the denominations. As interesting as I think this is and I personally feel I could talk an endless amount of time about them, I enjoyed it as much as anyone, but found myself wanting to get back more to the study questions at hand.
This should probably be considered also on the fact that we should also keep in mind this type of fellowship as being an outreach as well. There may be others attend later that are from other denominations or are coming from other denominations and we do not want to be a stumbling block to them. I just do not want a person coming from another denomination to the bible study and walking away confused about their beliefs, plan of salvation, etc. I feel we need to be the mechanism for simply providing the WORD and its blessings.
All of us will have some difference on our interpretation of Scripture and denominational creed, and that is fine, but lets not focus on that. For instance, Wendy and I come from the Baptist church. There are things I agree with them on, there are things I do not. Now we belong to the Methodist church. There are things I agree with them on, there are things I do not. There are things I agree with the Catholic Church on, but there are things I do not.
I just do not want us to go down a road where we start to break down denominations and then inadvertantly start taking that mentality to each other in regards to how we interpret things in the bible, etc. Because, let's be honest, the fact is that we do not have it all figured out and the other denominations do not either. I would encourage us to stick to the questions more and analyze/examine the scriptures more in detail as it relates to the context in which it was written and how it applies to our lives now.
I hope this helps and is taken in love. This is a great group and a great bunch of committed Christians. Again, I just don't want us to go down a road of criticism that could lead us down other roads unintentionally. Again, I thought last night was great, but I just felt it on my heart to share with you all something that might help us grow more and focus more on life application bible study.
Love,
Marc
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Insights (maybe helpful, maybe not)
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2 comments:
You may be right Marc but remember that we would never do this on a Sunday night. Sunday night is for others. For now I think Tuesday night is more to feed us and to help us grow in faith and trust with one another. Outreach is an important thing but you gotta get fed in order to have something to give. If someone within our group was hurt then we need to address that but there were some good things happening last night too and I am so grateful for learning about and getting to know all of you. I would love to see Tuesday night grow but even more I would like to see more small groups come out of this. Sooo.... sorry if I hurt anyone and hopefully you will all learn that my inability to shut up is one of my major faults and love me anyway.
Let me qualify what I said. There was not anyone hurt from the discussion that I know of. I am just simply trying to call attention to the trying to attempt to try to stay more focused on the study, because it is possible that when we start to digress that we can go down roads of disagreement. And unfortunately when people start to disagree on theology, that is where splits start to happen. There were definetely good discussions last night and the fellowship is tremendous. I am grateful for all of it. I am just putting forth a point of view that might keep us more focused. I guess I approach things too much sometimes the way I approach my occupation. I deal with human dynamics all day long during my job but within that context I have to sift thru and focus in on the objective data that presents itself so I can communicate that effectively to physicians, patients and nurses, etc. So sometimes I approach my study of the Bible the same way. And when I find myself digressing, which is not necessarily a bad thing, I lose my focus. And as far as your faults. I see none. Love Marc.
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