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This seems closely analogous to the selling of indulgences by the Catholic Church in the 15th century. Why would God uniquely authorize grace and forgiveness to boost attendance at a Papal event in Spain this month? Answer: He wouldn’t. This is an example of the will of men (the Pope and Catholic Church leadership, in this case) gone awry.

“The Vatican has given authority to priests who are in Madrid during the pope’s visit there to give absolution to women who confess to having had an abortion – and has empowered priests to lift excommunications for such women…. Lombardi said that the Vatican often extends authority to absolve certain sins and to lift excommunications at big papal events. Any woman who knows that the church considers abortion a sin and goes through with the procedure is automatically excommunicated, Lombardi said.”

Read the entire article:
Church extends authority to absolve sin of abortion for papal visit

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/08/18/authority-to-absolve-sin-of-abortion…

What’s your take on this?

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These are my notes from the parent meeting for Middle and High school youth ministries on August 21, 2011 at our church in Edmond, Oklahoma.
http://www.fpcedmond.org/students

These are out goals for student ministries at FPCE this year.

Growth – youth group double in size
More worship oriented students
Happier, vibrant youth group
Stronger relationships (outside of church)
Know the Word of God and be obedient to it
Consistency in Attendance
Externally focused: Missional
Students Minister to Adults

A huge goal which did not make the list but Brian Lamb added for our meeting today: For every youth to form a deeper and more meaningful personal relationship with Christ

Voting results:

We want to create a culture of expectancy for parents for equipping families, not just focusing directly on students
– ministries are acting in partnership with families

Expectancy steps:

My comment after hearing other parents mention this: Since high school meeting time is Sunday night and not on Wednesdays, there is concern many high school students will choose NOT to help out with ministry in other areas and just go to other churches on Wednesday nights. It will be interesting to see how this develops. The idea of having high schoolers in ministry to others on Wednesday nights is good. It sounds like some will prefer to “be served” rather than serve on Wednesday nights, however.

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These are my notes from Ray Vanderlaan’s video series about Egypt
http://www.followtherabbi.com/

In the east, story is always an invitation to join in
– we are all invited to join in not as observers, but as participants

How Big is Our God?

Western question: How did they build the pyramids?
Eastern question: Why did they build the pyramids.

We are going to look at “The God Story” as it is rooted in Egypt

Now looking at Karnak Temple in city of Thebes
– easterners preferred to experience their stories through pictures

MY THOUGHT: WITH LESS ACCESS TO TEXTS, PICTURES AND SCULPTURES WERE MUCH MORE ACCESSIBLE. ALSO, THEY ARE MORE EFFECTIVE WAYS TO COMMUNICATE WITH AN ILLITERATE POPULOUS.

Pharaoh’s job was to maintain order
– Mat means order
– if Pharaoh does his job, the gods were believed to do what they were expected to do: bring rains, floods, new life through birth, etc.

Shepherds crook and flail are always in Rameses hands in sculptures, shows his roles, authority and power

Now in Hypostyle Hall
134 columns, biggest over 70 feet high

Daily journey of the sun was a key part of the separation between order and chaos

Pharaoh mediated the gods for the ancient Egyptians

MY THOUGHT: I NEED TO GET A DESCRIPTION TO STEVE FOR THE FALL WEDNESDAY NIGHT CLASS I WANT TO LEAD: “DIGITAL WITNESSES FOR CHRIST”

Pharaoh did all the religious rituals in Egypt, to keep the gods happy
– there were thousands of temples in Egypt, so he couldn’t do all of them
– rituals are always carved in stone to represent Pharoah doing them

gold is called “the skin of the gods” in the Egyptian world
– they didn’t think the statue was the god, it was rather a marker to tell go where the god lived/lives
– this is similar to the Israelites who built The Temple in Jerusalem

Exodus Chapter 12: God says he will execute judgement on the gods of the Egyptians
– there was power here, it wasn’t all just story and myth

Deuteronomy 32

Don’t forget there is demonic power behind these rituals, sacrifices, beliefs Te Egyptian story has a price tag – they believed nature was/contained the gods
– that system glorifies and eventually deified the human
– morality is what the human says

That is the opposite of God’s Story

Our culture today has bought into the wrong story

Genesis tells us nature is NOT God

Hang on to the story!

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This morning in our Sunday School class we watched another episode from Ray VanderLaan’s excellent series, “In the Footsteps of the Rabbi.”
http://www.followtherabbi.com/Brix?pageID=20615

The setting was Cappadocia, in modern day Turkey. I visited Cappadocia in 1984, so this was a particularly powerful segment.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cappadocia

Ray used a verse from Paul’s letter to the Colossians to discuss the question of why we suffer as Christ’s body.

Colossians 1:24
“I am glad when I suffer for you in my body, for I am participating in the sufferings of Christ that continue for his body, the church.”

See it at YouVersion.com:
http://bible.us/Col1.24.NLT

Colossians 1:24
“I want you to know how glad I am that it’s me sitting here in this jail and not you. There’s a lot of suffering to be entered into in this world-the kind of suffering Christ takes on. I welcome the chance to take my share in the church’s part of that suffering.”

See it at YouVersion.com:
http://bible.us/Col1.24.MSG

While each of us may not be suffering today for the cause of Christ, we ARE suffering as a Body. We need to not only remember and not forget the suffering of our Christian brothers and sisters in the past, but also pray for those today who suffer.

This series today reminds me of the project, 3 Minutes About Jesus:
http://3minutesaboutjesus.org

It is so important to listen to the testimonies of others and share our own about God’s acts in our lives. Past generations of Christians suffered so they could pass on the faith to us. We need to take up that torch and work intensely to pass on our faith. We must tell our stories. We must listen to the stories of others. We should not “dabble in discipleship,” as Ray exhorted us in this video today.

We need to be full time face-to-face and digital witnesses for Christ.

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