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Intro: What happens when people want Christian values but don’t want Christianity?
Yesterday I road-tripped to an apologetics gathering where the guest speaker was RZIM’s Nathan Betts. And along the way I spent some time listening to another contemporary thinker I appreciate, Mark Sayers, both by way of his This Cultural Moment podcast (with John Mark Comer, also from my hometown of Portland) and his book Disappearing Church.
Anyway, the day just gave me a lot of time to consider the question, “What of past learning is still useful to how we think about church and evangelism, and what is new or different that we should adjust for?”
Sponsor: (none today)
Bible segment: Obadiah, NASB (New American Standard Bible)
Apologetics segment:
How is Obadiah useful to thinking about today?
Although in some ways Edom is unique (of the surrounding nations only she had blood ties to Israel), yet at another level she stands as an important model for all nations. When we see opponents fall, we had better recognize that God is the One who exacts temporal judgments—and one day all of us will face eternal judgment. Temporal judgments are thus God’s prophetic announcement of what will happen to all…
…The Nazis fell: should we gloat and pat our backs in triumphalistic glee? Shall we not remember that Germany was a country of extraordinary education and technical competence, and it turned toward power, expansionism, and cascading evil—and fell? Should we not fear, and beg God for mercy that we might walk in integrity, honor, and love of virtue? (1)
~ D.A. Carson
Philip Rieff’s “Third culture” (by way of Sayers):
First culture = belief in many Gods
Second culture = Scriptural, rooted in Judeo-Christianity.
Third culture = exist to define themselves as against second culture. (2)
Take action segment:
Pray through Psalm 129
Watch The Bible Project’s video on Obadiah (below) if you haven’t already.
Love you!
-R
Roger Courville, CSP is a globally-recognized expert in digitally-extended communication and connection, an award-winning speaker, award-winning author, and a passionately bad guitarist. Follow him on Twitter -- @RogerCourville and @JoinForTheHope – or his blog: www.forthehope.org.
Sources and resources
(1) D. A. Carson, For the Love of God: A Daily Companion for Discovering the Riches of God’s Word., vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1999), location 7453, Kindle.
(2) Mark Sayers, Disappearing Church: From Cultural Relevance to Gospel Resilience, (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 2016), 42-47, Kindle.