{"id":2063,"date":"2015-08-29T16:28:13","date_gmt":"2015-08-29T16:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.faithfellowship.info\/?p=2063"},"modified":"2015-08-29T16:28:13","modified_gmt":"2015-08-29T16:28:13","slug":"study-sheets-for-sunday-august-30-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.faithfellowship.info\/?p=2063","title":{"rendered":"STUDY SHEETS for Sunday August 30, 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"sheep<\/a><\/p>\n

Hello to All,<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have changed my preaching schedule to address a need in our church and in churches in general.<\/strong>\u00a0There is a controversy in our churches today concerning our involvement in government and concerning civil disobedience.<\/p>\n

With more and more legislation and judicial rulings that seemingly oppose our Biblical values, what are we to do? Do we have biblical examples from which God can give us his direction?<\/strong> What should we do if we are brought before the government to answer for our faith? How do we prepare?<\/p>\n

Is it ever okay to disobey our government?<\/strong>\u00a0Can we find acts of civil disobedience in Scripture?\u00a0And if we do find instances of opposition to the government in the Bible, what is the relevance for us? And do these accounts provide a template that is viable in the twenty-first century?<\/p>\n

Out of deference to some who seem to feel that we as a church should address these issues more directly, I have asked God to help me provide clarity from the pulpit of Faith Fellowship Church of Tennessee, IL.<\/p>\n

What we need is …<\/strong>
\n… People do need to see “where we as a church stand” as judges rule in favor of gay legislation and as legislatures cave to the pressures of public sentiment in favor of ungodly lifestyles.
\n… People do need to see us state our beliefs, and our stated beliefs need to be grounded in solid, biblical instruction.<\/p>\n

What we do not need is …<\/strong>
\n\u2026 more knee-jerk reaction and venom and vitriol in the name of God.
\n\u2026 more dishonor to God in the name of honoring God and his word of truth. (See Romans 13).
\n\u2026 more home-cooked Christianity (American style) that has more attachment to the Republican party than to the Bible.<\/p>\n

So I began a journey to find the clearest, most compelling examples in the Bible that would\u00a0provide us with a solid, biblical template from which to pattern our direction.\u00a0With this in mind for the next few weeks we will be examining several\u00a0biblical examples of conflicts of faith.<\/p>\n

I began by searching for any and every instance of relevant biblical texts. And I admit to being dumbfounded by the resulting study. Powerful, amazing and solid-as-a-Rock on the Bible.<\/p>\n