Month: September 2022

Reflection on Hebrews 6:1-6

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Scripture

So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding.

Observation

We have to stop going over the basics and move on to maturity. The fundamental teachings such as repentance from sin, placing faith In God, baptism, and laying on of hands don’t need to be repeated endlessly.

It is impossible to bring back to repentance people who were once walking with the Lord and then turn away from God. They have rejected the Son of God and are effectively nailing him to the cross again.

Application

It seems that many Christians are content to stick with the basics of doctrine. They are happy to hear endless repeat of how get saved, the importance of baptism, and so on.

I believe that we need to have a strong foundation for our faith so that we know why we are saved and where we are going.

In order to be mature in our faith, to be the over comers we are meant to be, we must move on. Preachers need to teach their congregations how to pray and read the Bible, how to tithe, how to move in the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

In Acts we read of numerous occasions where miracles and expulsion of evil spirits caused people to be amazed and to put their trust in the Lord .

Every Christian must be an effective minister in the word of God and the grace of the Holy Spirit.

Prayer

Lord, please help me to become more mature. Show me where I am lacking and where I can improve in my relationship with you. Amen.

Survey Shows Many Pastors Are Teaching Deception

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‘What a Lie’: Franklin Graham Reacts to Shocking Pastoral Survey, Lambastes ‘False Teaching…Leading People & Churches Astray’

Evangelical leader Franklin Graham (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

From faithwire.com

 

Evangelist Franklin Graham reacted this week to shocking survey data showing more than one-third of senior pastors purportedly believe “good people” can earn their way to heaven, with Graham lambasting some of the findings as “false teaching.”

“I don’t know which 1,000 pastors this group surveyed, but the results are concerning,” Graham tweeted Monday. “39% of ‘evangelical’ pastors they asked said there is no absolute moral truth & that ‘each individual must determine their own truth.’”

He added, “What a lie.”

Graham’s strongly-worded response came after pastoral survey results were published by The American Worldview Inventory, an annual report from the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University.

At least one-third of respondents also said they believe the Holy Spirit isn’t a person and is instead a “symbol of God’s power, presence, or purity,” with at least the same proportion preferring socialism over capitalism. At least one-third also believe “having faith matters more than which faith you have.”

Perhaps most stunning, though, is the 39% figure Graham cited, as that’s the percentage of evangelical pastors who reject the idea of absolute morality and believe individuals get to “determine their own truth,” as The Christian Post reported.

In an age of moral chaos and confusion, these statistics are deeply troubling, which is something Graham underscored as he warned of the impact false beliefs have on the body of Christ.

“The survey also said that 30% of evangelical pastors do not believe that their salvation is based on having confessed their sins & accepting Jesus Christ as their Savior,” he continued in another tweet. “This kind of false teaching is what is leading people & churches astray.”

Graham concluded his tweets on the matter with a passionate defense of the Gospel.

“The Bible is God’s Word, from cover to cover,” he wrote. “It is the absolute truth — it is what counts, not our opinion.”

As Faithwire previously reported, alarming data on American pastors’ beliefs is nothing new. Earlier released data from the Cultural Research Center revealed just 37% of U.S.-based pastors hold to a “biblical worldview.”

Car Pooling For Bikes in Car Crazy L.A.

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Car Pooling For Bikes in Car Crazy L.A.

From Bloomberg.com

For 2-Wheel Commuters in LA, ‘Bikepooling’ Brings Safety in Numbers

A UCLA project that uses an app to organize group rides aims to promote car-free transportation for Los Angeles residents.

A bicyclist in downtown Los Angeles. Despite its agreeable climate, LA isn’t known as a welcoming city for bike commuters.

A bicyclist in downtown Los Angeles. Despite its agreeable climate, LA isn’t known as a welcoming city for bike commuters.

On paper, Los Angeles looks like bike commuter country: The sprawling LA basin boasts glorious year-round riding weather and generous expanses of largely flat streetscape.

But only about 1% of LA commuters get to work by bicycle, according to the US Census Bureau, a figure that reflects the challenges that riders face in a freeway-laden city that’s been optimized for the automobile. Protected bike lanes are rare, and the streets of Southern California are among the most dangerous for two-wheeled travelers. Between 2011 and 2020, 276 cyclists were killed in traffic in Los Angeles County — the most of any US county. In 2018, Bicycling Magazine declared LA the “Worst Bike City in America.”

To encourage more Angelenos to take to the streets by bike — and keep them safe there — a demonstration project set to launch this fall will encourage residents from low-income neighborhoods to bike to work in groups.

“It’s not just an informal group of cyclists — it’s a public transportation system based on bicycles,” said Fabian Wagmister, an associate professor at the University of California Los Angeles School of Theater, Film and Television and the founder and principal investigator of the Civic Bicycle Commuting research project, also known as CiBiC.

The concept is simple: Wagmister describes CiBiC as “carpooling, but on bikes.” In the pilot program set to start Oct. 1, users put their destination and arrival time in an app that determines the best route — or “flow” — to bring them to work. The app then pairs bike commuters with each other in groups of up to 12, known as a pod, led by two experts whose job is to prioritize safety on the road over efficiency. 

relates to For 2-Wheel Commuters in LA, ‘Bikepooling’ Brings Safety in Numbers
A group of CiBiC riders road-test a “flow” in Northeast LA in advance of the program’s October launch.
Photo courtesy of CiBiC

Bikepooling, Wagmister hopes, will help participants save money and improve their health and well-being while reducing vehicle emissions in a traditionally car-centric city. Armed with a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation’s Civic Innovation Challenge, researchers at UCLA and community partners will focus on five Northeast Los Angeles neighbourhoods — including Chinatown, Solano Canyon and Lincoln Heights — which are home to lower-income communities of colour. According to a CiBiC survey, 73% of respondents in the area the pilot serves drive for commutes of less than five miles. 

 

Read the full story at bloomberg.com

Britain’s Blind Farmers Are Teaching Others How to Grow

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Britain’s Blind Farmers Are Teaching Others How to Grow

“We’re trying to give people a chance to stop thinking about limitations and start looking at what they really can do.”

By: 
September 6, 2022 4 min read

Farms + Food

Credit: Alexander Turner

Reflection on Hebrews 5:1-6

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Scripture

Every high priest is a man chosen to represent other people in their dealings with God. He presents their gifts to God and offers sacrifices for their sins.

Observation

A high priest stands between other people and God. He represents them by bringing their gifts and sacrifices.

He can deal with sinful people compassionately because he has weaknesses also. That is why the high priest must offer sacrifices for his own sins as well as those of others.

No one gets to choose to be high priest. They must be chosen by God just as Aaron was. Christ did not assume he could be high priest. He was chosen by God.

Application

As our high priest, Christ presents our gifts and sacrifices to God. Unlike the high priests, though, Christ Himself is the sacrifice.

Because Christ is chosen by God the Father for this high priestly role, He is the only way to the Father. There is only one high priest. There is only one sacrifice that is acceptable to God.

People assert there are many roads to reach God. There is only one, and that is through Jesus who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, I declare you are my High Priest who brings me into fellowship with the Father. Amen.