Taste of Bethel
For a number of reasons (sicknesses, hunting, etc.), our recent Taste of Bethel class was a small one. While we had good conversations about the Reformed faith and membership at Bethel, the small size means that we got done early. As a result, Taste of Bethel will not be meeting on Sunday.
If you wanted to know more about Bethel Church but were unable to make the class, I’m going to meet individually or in small groups with anyone who is interested in learning more. Please call or email me so that we can set up a time to meet. There will also be another full class in January.
Video link
I came across this video this morning and thought it might prompt some thinking on your part. I especially thought it was interesting when looking back to the sermon on idolatry. Give it a listen, then go to newsletter.bethelprinceton.com to leave your comments.
Help!!!
I’m wondering if there is anyone who would like to tackle a technological ministry for our congregation. Each Monday morning, I pull the sermon out of the worship service recording and upload it to our podcasting site. I’m looking for someone else who would be willing to do this for me. It can be done from home at your leisure, but will work best with a high-speed connection for the upload. I can provide the training and the software is free. If any of this language sounds foreign to you, then this is probably not the ministry for you. If it sounds like something you would like to take on, let me know!
Warning – long post!
Thanks for the link, Pastor Cal. John Piper is so right! My question regarding the health&wealth gospel has always been: how did Jesus live? The example of a life lived in true relationship with the Father is Jesus’ life. One can twist words from the Bible to mean anything we want them to mean, but we have the gospel SHOWN to us in the very life of Jesus – which He chose (Phil 2:5-11)for our sakes. It’s pretty hard to argue with that.
Piper states that the h&w teachers have put the created thing, the visible, above the eternal, invisible Creator. That would certainly be idolatry in my understanding. Jesus’ answer to the devil’s ‘gift’ of prosperity, if only Jesus would worship Him, was, “Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.”(Luke 4:1-13) Jesus would allow neither the devil nor all the prosperity in the world to shift His focus from obedience to the Father,and we know where that obedience led – not to health, wealth and prosperity on this earth, but to death on a cross as a sacrifice for sinners; we are also to “take up our cross daily and follow Him.”(Luke 9:23)
Jesus was hungry,tired and poor in His earthly walk – that doesn’t match up with ‘health, wealth and prosperity’ to me.
I agree. For a while now, I have been feeling that God truly wants us to go through difficult times so that we learn to trust and rely on Him to develop the characteristics that we are to possess in heaven. Humans are dumb. We don’t learn anything unless it hurts. And for us to develop wisdom to be more like God, we need to go through situations that hurt to be able to better align our perspective with God’s perspective. To get ourselves out of our own way in our pursuit of living like Christ. I don’t like pain, suffering, sorrow, etc. but if that’s what will draw us closer to God and in turn He will draw closer to us, “Jesus bring the rain!”