Most Christians are okay with not really understanding how the different books of the Bible fit together. But it really is a big problem. To miss it can end up being to miss the gospel, or to radically change it in extremely unhelpful ways. Recently someone in my church gave me the book The First Idiot in Heaven. The basic premise of the book is that only Paul’s 13 epistles are really for non-Jewish Christians, Paul preaches a gospel of absolutely pure grace, and that leads to ultimate reconciliation for everyone – ultimate universalism. I don’t think that misrepresents book, though I didn’t read very much of it – 50 pages or so.
No doubt many people in ministries and leading small groups are wondering what’s coming next after missions month. For several months we have been planning to do a series called, “The Gospel Through The Bible.” The point of this series is twofold:
We want people to understand how to put their Bibles together.
We want people to see Jesus and the gospel in all of Scripture, which will also help us accomplish #1.
Are you ready to lead a discussion on Genesis 1? The answer to that question should depend on your goals. If you are prepared to integrate the best scientific knowledge concerning origins and the best biblical interpretation of the early chapters of Genesis, please come teach at my house. I have been studying that myself for more than a decade and only sort of now feel like I have a basic knowledge that might be able to keep me from immediately embarrassing myself. But, the meaning and purpose of Genesis 1 in the unfolding revelation of God in the Scriptures is not particularly difficult.
Searches are funny things. They are like jobs, or marriage, or where you’re planning to live, or anything else – picturing it is both clarifying and confusing. In all these things, picturing what will be motivates you toward your goal. However, the goal is never like the picture, and at some point you realize, the picture was always too general to be real. The picture never existed. There is only the real job, actual man or woman, physical location, and best candidate. They are never what you pictured because the thing you pictured never was. And this is why real decision about big things are never easy to make, and even harder to live out.
High Point Church has always been a missions church. We have never been afraid to believe the gospel is for all people. And there have always been people within our movements who have risen up to answer the call to foreign fields. High Point is just over 50 years old, and over 50 years global missions has changed a lot. Very few new missionaries hear what John Paton (sailed from Scotland to the New Hebrides April 16, 1858) was told, “You will be eaten by Cannibals!” (He almost was.) Missions looks a lot different, even though we are often doing many of the same things we have always done. We are translating the Bible into new tongues. We are helping people and economic squalor apply basic technologies for better lives. We are teaching indigenous missionaries to preach the gospel. We are sending Western missionaries into countries with no indigenous witness – especially in Muslim lands.
Engage & Equip 