Bully's Blog

or The New Commandment

1 John 5: 1-12   |   Sermon Notes   |   17 June 2012

Introduction

Jewish Christians were first opposed by unbelieving Jews, then by Jews who said they believed. This latter group are called “Judaizers,” and they were the false teachers whom the apostles condemn in their letters.

Not only did these men pervert the gospel by including adherence to the Law of Moses, they also failed to keep the commandments of Jesus. This was Pharisaism dressed up in Christianity, the old leaven carried into the new age. The Pharisees loved to control people, while they failed to control themselves. This is the context of John’s letters to Jewish Christians: despite their profession, these men would be exposed by their lack of of certain things in their character.

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From Steve Jeffery’s blog:

Don Carson on the Church in Britain

This kind of thoughtful analysis is just one of the many reasons why Don Carson is such a blessing to the church, and one of the many reasons why he will be remembered when the impact of other – perhaps noisier – men has faded.

Here’s one particularly striking extract:
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or His God, is God

When it comes to the miraculous spiritual gifts, I’m a bit of a hybrid.

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or Insanity and Spiritual Songs

Van Gogh’s work has been regarded by some as “hallucinatory,” however his letters show that few artists were as intelligent and rational. His work was not the product of his dark times but of his struggle against them.

“I am feeling well just now… I am not strictly speaking mad, for my mind is absolutely normal in the intervals, and even more so than before. But during the attacks it is terrible—and then I lose consciousness of everything. But that spurs me on to work and to seriousness, as a miner who is always in danger and makes haste in what he does.” [1]

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After a friend pointed out that New Orleans and Haiti are big on voodoo, I read this insightful piece from Rich Bledsoe. It is reproduced here with his permission:

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…She Just Needs the Real Thing

by Bojidar Marinov

“Europeans are eager to hear answers, and when Christian leaders declare they have the answers, people flock to hear them…”

The spiritual condition of Europe has been the focus of attention for American Christians and conservatives for quite a while. The twentieth century did in practice what the Enlightenment thinkers had imagined in theory: The complete removal of Christianity from public life. Christianity has retreated, even from those countries that a century ago were vocally Christian in their public policies. The two world wars helped for short revivals of spiritual activities, and the Cold War—and its end—contributed somewhat for a renewed interest in Europe’s Christian history. But in general, Europe has been on the road to thorough secularism, rejecting Christianity as a moral paradigm, silencing its politicians and public figures who dare speak in the name of the Christian religion, and ridiculing Christianity as a backward religion of her savage past. And with the rise of Islam and the impotence of the European nations to stop its tide, the future looks bleak.

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A Lesson for Modern Evangelicals

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Not being from an oral communication/event-oriented culture, my recollection of the details of the following account might be a bit fluffy. But the story is true nonetheless.

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