This Acts 2 quote today from http://www.crosswalk.com kinda underlines both the last 2 posts:-
42 They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles.
44 All the believers were together and had everything in common.
45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he
had need.
46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere
hearts,
47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (NIV) Acts 2:42-47
It's like Josh McDowell's last TV comment, urging us to focus on proclaiming the truth in love, in the power of the Spirit, allowing the Holy Spirit to do His work in men's hearts
Just time to add in the latest word..
Live It!
Today's best advice for practical Christian living
http://www.Crosswalk.com
Faith and The Da Vinci Code
Dave Wyrtzen
"Like the murmurs of spirits in the darkness, forgotten words echoed. The
quest for the Holy Grail is the quest to kneel before the bones of Mary
Magdalene. A journey to pray at the feet of the outcast one.
With a sudden upwelling of reverence, Robert Langdon fell to his knees.
For a moment, he thought he heard a woman's voice--the wisdom of the
ages--whispering up from the chasms of the earth." (The Da Vinci Code)
This is the close of Dan Brown's mega selling fictional novel. Here's all
the mystery of dark murmuring spirits, the pride of discovering the ancient
secret, the code that only the initiated know, and all the knightly virtue
of coming to the rescue of an outcast damsel and defending the rights of
abused women everywhere, especially those disenfranchised by the male
dominated, authoritarian Church.
In interviews Brown smiles and simply states that it's fiction-a good
story. His desire is to generate an illuminating debate, but when Charles
Gibson pressed him on Good Morning America in 2003, Brown stated that if he had written the work as a nonfiction book, it would not have been
different. He spoke as a convert. He said he began researching the work as
a skeptic but two years of research in Europe convinced him. He became a
believer.
The author can't duck. He is talking about "faith," and as you read the
book and go to see the movie, according to his official website, he wants
you to join him in the attempt to decipher life's big mysteries and to join
him on the path of enlightenment.
As you walk this path, I want to challenge you to ask where Dan Brown is
taking you, what he wants you to believe, and whether you really want to go
this direction with him.
To help you I want to open the pages of his novel and help you see the plot
and listen to his characters as they express what they believe. At this
Truth Encounter web site I'll give us some basic questions to ask, allow
you to do some work for yourself, and then share with you my own
convictions.
A good place to start our DaVinci Code journey is with Brown's definition
of "faith" and "Christian." On his web site in response to the question,
"Are you a Christian?" he writes,
"Yes. Interestingly, if you ask three people what it means to be a
Christian, you will get three different answers. Some feel being baptized
is sufficient. Others feel you must accept the Bible as absolute historical
fact. Still others require a belief that all those who do not accept Christ
as their personal savior are doomed to hell. Faith is a continuum, and we
each fall on that line where we may. By attempting to rigidly classify
ethereal concepts like faith, we end up debating semantics to the point
where we entirely miss the obvious--that is, that we are all trying to
decipher life's big mysteries, and we're each following our own paths of
enlightenment. I consider myself a student of many religions. The more I
learn, the more questions I have. For me, the spiritual quest will be a
life-long work in progress."
Think about it:
According to this paragraph, how does Dan Brown define "Christian?"
How does he define "faith?"
What does he mean when he says "faith" is "ethereal?"
How do you define "Christian?"
How does the Bible, the original first century source of the Christian
faith, define the term?
Do you agree or disagree with Brown that spiritual faith is a quest "to
decipher life's big mysteries," and that "we're each following our own
paths of enlightenment?"
What did the first century Christians mean when they used the term "faith?"
Take a careful look at Romans 1:8, 16-17, 3:23-28, 1 Corinthians 2:5,
15:14, Hebrews 12:2, 1 Peter 1:1-9 and jot down how these first century
Christians used the word faith.
After you have had a chance to wrestle with these questions, I'll give you
some of my own answers.
Keep checking
http://www.truthencounter.com...for my answers and some more clues on Dan Brown and his "code."
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Reminds me that the way bank clerks train to spot forgeries is to study the originals
Must go!
Ian
