Back to Basics, Part 3

We continue with week 3 of our study of the Apostle's Creed. This week we focus on Living with Jesus as Savior.

Countless books have been written about Jesus. No other life or death has affected history and humanity like Jesus' has. But what are we to do with that? The writers of the Apostle's Creed felt it was important to deal with His life, death, and resurrection as a cornerstone of the Creed. Have you notice the Creed deals with Jesus more than anything else?

It reminds me of one of my favorite passages by C.S. Lewis. I offer to you for your reflection:

"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: “I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.” That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."

Lewis, C.S. The Complete C.S. Lewis Signature Classics. HarperCollins: San Francisco. 2002.

**You'll fin that paragraph in Lewis' Mere Christianity, Book 2, Chapter 3: The Shocking Alternative.

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Back to Basics, Part 2

Back to Basics, Week 2

In our second week of a four-week study of the Apostle’s Creed, we move to “I Believe in God the Father, Creator of Heaven and Earth.” There are quite a few powerful terms in that phrase.

God--Who is God? What is God to you? Who are you to God? What are you to God? What if we started to ask some of those basic questions of our relationship? How would we answer?

Father--Father is a loaded term to many of us. Father can have positive or negative connotations. What would it mean if we could call God our Father? What would He mean to you? What would you mean to Him?

Creator--What does it mean to Create? If you’ve created something, what do you leave in it? What does it do to you?

Heaven--What are your thoughts on Heaven? Is a place? A thing? A concept?

Earth--Is that the opposite of Heaven? The compliment of heaven? Both? Neither?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on these. Post them here or send a message.

Would you explore these questions with me and more this week? This Sunday morning we’ll try to see what it would mean for us to live out this Creed. I hope to see you then.

Our sermons are available online at www.fairhopeumc.org and on iTunes.

Back to Basics, Part 1

Do you have a creed? Better yet, do you know what your creed is? The Oxford English Dictionary says that a creed are “those articles of belief which are regarded as essential.” What are the essentials of your belief? What are the things at your very core? Can you articulate what is at the very foundations of your belief? Have you ever tried?

It is back to school time here. This is a fun time of year of newness and excitement. I remember when school started each year, we started with the basics of our new subject. What do you need to know to learn and use the things you’ll learn?

This week we kick off a new series called “Back to Basics.” We’ll use this back to school time to examine our creed: what are the articles of belief which are essential to us? So we ask one another: what’s your creed? Why not share it with us and begin the discussion? Then let’s look at creed together this Sunday.

Get out of the Boat, Part 4

This week we conclude our four-week series “Get out of the Boat.” We’ve examined how Peter heard Christ call and got out of the boat onto a raging sea. We’ve looked at Jonah’s realization that running from God was hurting him and those around him. We’ve looked at Samuel’s call from God to lead the people of Israel.

One part we haven’t discussed yet is the group that watched Peter step out onto the water that night. What about the other disciples? What were they thinking? What would they have said? We can only speculate. But let me ask you--what would you say if you saw someone get out of the boat and onto the waters in the middle of the night? Would you applaud him? Tell him he’s crazy? Wait for him to fail? Hope you didn’t hear the call too?

Maybe it is time we examined our own lives and find out where we’d fit into that picture. Christ IS calling each and every one of us to follow him. Will we GET OUT OF THE BOAT?

You can hear our messages on our website www.fairhopeumc.org or on iTunes.