Old vs. young in the changing society

Faith & Science Conversation
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There can be a lot of reasons for this. In fact, most often it is because the people of this church have such a narrow sense and understanding of God that they end up repressing the voice of God in everything else which they do not understand, not showing any desire to understand anything outside what THEY have chosen. God is certainly much much much much much bigger than their own comprehension.

I have very little confidence that one sinful human being can correctly say what another person needs.

I would have to hear her side of things to understand anything more about it.

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Heb 5:11-“We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. 12 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! 13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. 6.1 Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God,”

If you believe your above statement, then you may need to edit a multitude of your posts. You consistently judge and condemn church leadership and those who follow it. Though I myself have heard the teachings of many false teachers and along with Jesus and the apostles condemn those teachings. I do this for the sake of those who I know listen to them.

Reevaluate the word of God that I quoted in the previous posts. The truth is everyone needs the peace that comes through knowing Jesus, a person just needs to humble themselves and submit to it to receive God’s wisdom and peace. The teaching of those scriptures and the rest of scripture that calls all to a faithful, loving and obedient submission to the lordship of Jesus were presented to her, as was the freedom, liberty and peace that comes through Jesus. You’re always preaching about doing right for the sake of right and not following the destructive habits of sin, well a person who chooses to reject God’s will and desires to continue in sin needs the salvation and peace that only Jesus can provide. By her words and actions she shows herself to be following the carnal mind and we should all know that the carnal mind is an enemy of God, is not subject to God and can’t be.

John 14:23 "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me. 25 “All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives.” Without the Spirit of Christ living in us, we have no peace.

She declares she is searching for her real self, she looks in the mirror daily and tells herself that she is worthy of love, so she does not see the need for repentance. She worships the false god of self. From that foundation it has lead her into all sorts of sins and also siding with those who continue in sin along the lines of the following Word of God.
Rom 1:21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. 24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator — who is forever praised. Amen. 26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion."
This causes her not to be a part of the body of Christ and not to be any help to those who are still in bondage to sin.

I don’t condemn her, but anyone who stays a slave to sin already stands condemned. That is why the Father sent the Son, to save the lost. To turn the hearts of those who where slaves of sin and the devil and to bring them into the liberty and peace that only comes through Jesus.

So, in line with the topic of this thread, this young woman left God, Jesus and the body of Christ (not just our congregation, the fellowship of all of Christ’s body) to follow after self love. She has chosen at this time to not deny herself, take up her cross and follow Jesus. The wisdom that the Word of God and the Spirit of Christ abiding within his bodies individual members, trains us to judge good from evil, righteousness from sin, and what spirit is motivating others by the continual fruit of sin in their lives. Through the well spring of the Spirit rising in us, we are able to understand, as Jesus did, the woman at the well and speak those words that will bring liberty from the bonds of sin. As long as they are received.

I will end my communication with you on this topic at the moment. Not because I am not willing to speak God’s word of truth on this subject but because the moderators quite often seem to cut of a thread when there are too many posts between two people.

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Don’t worry about that so much … I know - the system will generate auto-recommendations encouraging people to respond to more than just one person. That isn’t coming from us [moderators]. As long as a conversation between two remains in the realm of civility, go for it! Others are always welcome to jump in.

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Thank you for letting me know:)

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The personal nature of the subject and the fact that I repeated myself about needing to hear her side is more than sufficient reason to end communication on the topic.

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Acknowledged and accepted.

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I think this applies to how the gospel is contextualized and presented. A recent CT article about a controversy at the Christian parachurch organization called Cru quoted a Portland area director as saying:

“I think the way that we’ve talked about the gospel for decades is a contextualization of the gospel to the baby boomer generation,” said Chen, who ministers primarily to young postgrads. “And for those who are trying to do the hard work of reimaging the good news for this generation we are being deemed as unbiblical.”

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I don’t know how the majority of churches preach the gospel, but it doesn’t need any reimaging. The call to repent (turn) and place all your trust in Jesus, love Him with all your heart and obey Him, is straight forward and the same to all generations. Jesus died our death for the penalty of our sins and raised up from death to make us righteous. He is Lord, sovereign ruler and the Son of God. That message and all that Jesus taught was good for the Jews, Romans and all nations that have followed.

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In every time and culture, those who share the gospel need to find the best ways to embody and communicate it. This is missions 101.

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How would you teach our young generation about the death and resurrection of Jesus and what it means? I know that could be a lengthy explanation so for your sake make it as short as possible. If you were talking to a college student what would you say?
Don’t feel obligated to respond to this, but I would like to hear your thoughts.

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  1. I don’t think most young or otherwise unchurched people have a context for understanding the meaning of the death and resurrection of Jesus so just starting in with some kind of Romans Road “if you died tonight are you sure you would go to heaven” conversation about sin and justification and the propitiation of Christ’s atoning sacrifice is not productive at all.

  2. I would start not by telling but by listening. I believe the Holy Spirit is working in every heart to convict people of sin and draw people to God, so I would try to figure out what they think is wrong with the world and where the pain is in their own life and try to relate the person of Jesus to the places they sense their own spiritual need. That is how Jesus himself approached people. He heard their story and he tied it into God’s story.

  3. I don’t think that every encounter with a person needs to result in the complete gospel message being laid out and an invitation to pray the sinners prayer. I think that is “boomer gospel” stuff. I trust God to speak through me to communicate whatever kernel of his robust and inexhaustible gospel the person needs to hear in that moment.

I don’t think the gospel is something people “understand” to come to faith, I think it is an invitation to know God through Jesus experientially. So people don’t need “explanations” as much as they need introductions to Jesus the person.

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Indeed. From my non -albeit boomer- perspective, that approach just feels like a pointless and archaic incantation. It also comes off as enormously conceited, as though one spoke for God rather than of Him.

You have the right idea, Christy.

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Thanks for responding.
Re-imaging is the word or concept that stood out to me. The facts of the Kingdom of God and Jesus don’t need a new image.
Your statements appear to me to just be the way you interact with people to talk to them about the gospel. I trust there isn’t any changing of God’s call to turn from sin and to trust, love and obey Jesus.

I present different aspects of Jesus and the ways of His kingdom depending on the situation.
In open air preaching it usually does start out with, “God commands everyone to repent, turn from their sin and submit to His son Jesus.” Then I can state different things Jesus said, one that will affect most everyone is the statement that lusting after someone or having sex outside of marriage is sin. This usually produces a response from someone and then the interactions begin.

With my customers I often ask them what they know about Jesus and then go from there according to what they say. I will bring up things that are sinful so those words can be used to convict of sin.

I do bring up what the death and resurrection does for those who trust in it. Once I bring up what sin is, I want them to have some knowledge of the way to be forgiven and set free from it.

The message of the Kingdom of God and of Jesus doesn’t need a new image, but it does need to be proclaimed. All need to be taught in the ways of the Lord Jesus.

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In any case, I think you are getting hung up on a single word choice and imposing a meaning on it that wasn’t intended. Nothing about “reimage” suggests changing the facts of the gospel to me. I take it to mean rethinking how the message is presented and making sure that presentation connects with changing demographics instead of just assuming what worked well for previous generations will work well for future generations even though the context has changed and people have different concerns that are most pressing to them.

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