For communities of faith, Covid-19 has upended traditions and placed annual festivities at churches and synagogues on hold, forcing rabbis, pastors and priests to reimagine Christmas and Hanukkah celebrations and rethink their messages to the faithful.
"I think my basic message is that we don't have control," said David Thatcher, a priest at Holy Transfiguration of Christ Orthodox Cathedral. "We have certain delusions as Americans that we have control of all of this stuff. Any catastrophe, any cataclysmic event in our lives, and our hope is in our God."
With cases surging across the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued strict guidelines for gathering in houses of worship. At those still offering in-person services, instead of hundreds of people in sanctuaries, there are only dozens, and they must socially distance and wear masks....
The Quiet Christian wrote: What I've seen is that the pandemic has changed directions for at least some preaching, but any Advent pieces are overshadowed by the larger response. For instance, we know a Church that has focused intently on the Lord's attributes...lifting the gaze of the attendees and viewers from horizontal to vertical in order to fight back wide spread improper fear.
QC, Perhaps a simultaneous teaching/preaching on how to discern deception would also reduce irrational fear. It is always good to focus on the Lord, but we are not called to ignore the wiles of the devil.
What I've seen is that the pandemic has changed directions for at least some preaching, but any Advent pieces are overshadowed by the larger response. For instance, we know a Church that has focused intently on the Lord's attributes...lifting the gaze of the attendees and viewers from horizontal to vertical in order to fight back wide spread improper fear.
If repentance from sin was necessary, you would be in deep trouble Jim. You hate the President, you worship false gods, politics, and you promote murder and homosexuality thru your political party. " Not too many people talking about repentance and faith or they just talk about repenting of all your sins. You don’t even know what all your sins are, because the Bible when it speaks of repentance speaks in a joint manner with faith. He talks about repentance and he talks about faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, but he talks about repentance towards God. Those who call upon the name of the Lord 👉repent of all their false notions, all their false belief concerning God as they once thought he was, as they once believed what religion said he was. It involves repentance toward God👈. And it is to come before him confessing, as the publican did, just exactly what we are as nothing but sinners, absolutely worthy of nothing but the judgment of God, helpless and worthless, unable to save ourselves, appealing and applying to him for mercy and confessing that it is his to give or withhold. " Gary Shepard
'"Faith alone” does not mean that some believers follow Christ in a life of discipleship, while others do not. The concept of the “carnal Christian,” as a separate category of non-spiritual believer, is completely unscriptural....'
This is nonsense of course, and so is the idea that a person doesn't need to repent, which you accepted at one time anyway I hope you got over that Lbug!
Dr. Rugh wrote: Godly sorrow will always bear the fruit of repentance. This sorrow over sin goes beyond mere regret over sin and the resulting consequences. The repentance godly sorrow produces results in a real and actual change of life, ceasing from sin, and turning from sin. Repentance from sin is in effect a change in thinking about sin and that change in thinking results in a change in conduct. The repentance from sin included in initial saving faith then continues ongoing as the believer lives in pursuit of holiness and spiritual growth.
This sermon gives the proper interpretation of the so called 'roman road'. It has nothing to do with laying out a method of salvation, as Jim Lincoln thinks, thus, he trots out Romans 10 as the reason he thinks himself to be saved....https://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=111109213210
I haven't seen any change in Christmas messages and I looked at two on the Internet on Sunday. the media may have changed but the messages didn't ❗👍 They both emphasized: http://tinysa.com/338074 (The Roman Road)
Romans 3:10 As it is written, "There is none righteous, not even one." Romans 3:23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned. Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 10:9 That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved. Romans 10:13 For "Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved."--- https://tinyurl.com/has82mk (NASB)
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