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What Happens When Christians Abandon Politics

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 Pardon the long quote and post, but I received an email today from Preston Sprinkle containing the following quote. Please read to the end for my comments.  The Republican party is hosting their national convention this week. I haven’t followed it too closely (for the same reason why I don’t watch golf on Saturday afternoon), but I’ve noticed that there have been some interesting people to take the stage—people you wouldn’t often expect from Republicans. For instance, model, former stripper, and OnlyFans (porn?) star Amber Rose gave a speech offering her support of Donald Trump at the convention. The conference also featured lawyer Harmeet Kaur Dhillon, who recited the ardas (a Sikh prayer), where she prayer to the god Waheguru, calling him "our one true God" and went on to pray "thank you for creating America as a unique heaven on this Earth, where all people are free to worship according to their faith." I was so thrilled to hear this coming from the GOP! Beyond ...
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Praying the Bible

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“Our prayers should arise out of immersion in the Scripture. [We] speak only to the degree we are spoken to. . .The wedding of the Bible and prayer anchors your life down in the real God.” (Keller 2014, 55, 56) Many books have been written, and many electrons have been rearranged on the internet, about prayer.  And rightly so; prayer is the way we bend our wills to God’s will and influence the things only God can change.  One of the best ways for a Christian to pray is to use the words of the Bible to guide those prayers.  The first place to turn is the Psalms.  The Psalms are often called God’s prayer book.  Luther called them “a Little Bible” because “in it all things that are contained in the whole Bible are given to us in the most wonderfully brief and sweet manner and condensed into a most beautiful manual” (Luther n.d.) . The poems of the Psalms cover the full range of human emotions and allow those emotions to be expressed to God.  Every one of the m...
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Answers to Sunday School Questions, Part 10

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  Last Summer, we took up questions from our Adult Sunday School Class at First Presbyterian Dyersburg, Tennessee.   I have adapted the answers I gave in articles in the church newsletter, and I wanted to share them here.   I hope you find the short essays helpful.     There are many religions.  Why is Christianity right?  Why is it the one?             Christianity is based on historical claims where most religions are not.  Jesus died on a Roman cross in about 33 A. D. under Pontius Pilate.  These are historical facts that can be checked out to see if they are true.  That means that evidence can be used to justify belief in Christianity.  Some of these arguments and evidence are given above, but there are many places to get evidence for Christianity’s claims.  Here are some names to get you started.            ...
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Answers to Sunday School Questions, Part 9

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  Last Summer, we took up questions from our Adult Sunday School Class at First Presbyterian Dyersburg, Tennessee.   I have adapted the answers I gave in articles in the church newsletter, and I wanted to share them here.   I hope you find the short essays helpful.     What do you say to someone who tells you that you don’t need to worry about her soul?  She doesn’t participate in church except through video and said that out of anger because I said that we don’t know when we are going to die.              It might be time to back off a bit, pray for them, and let them come to you next time.  At the very least, let them ask you questions first.  It is probable that you have shared the gospel with this person more than once.  Let any future conversations be natural and not forced.  Asking good questions can also help a person think.  Some questions might include: What ...
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Answers to Sunday School Questions, Part 8

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  Last Summer, we took up questions from our Adult Sunday School Class at First Presbyterian Dyersburg, Tennessee.   I have adapted the answers I gave in articles in the church newsletter, and I wanted to share them here.   I hope you find the short essays helpful.     Why do Presbyterians believe in “predestination?”  All Bible-believing Christians believe in predestination because the word “predestination” is in the Bible.  You must teach about any word that’s in the Bible if you truly claim to believe the Bible.  Presbyterians teach something specific about predestination though, so let’s look at that. It all comes back to what the Bible says.  The Bible says that: “No one is righteous—not even one.  No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God.  All have turned away; all have become useless.  No one does good, not a single one.  Their talk is foul, like the stench from an open grave.  Their tongues are fi...
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Answers to Sunday School Questions, Part 7

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  Last Summer, we took up questions from our Adult Sunday School Class at First Presbyterian Dyersburg, Tennessee.   I have adapted the answers I gave in articles in the church newsletter, and I wanted to share them here.   I hope you find the short essays helpful.   Why would I want to be part of a system that has done so much harm?  Regarding people who have left the church/faith due to injury by broken churches.             Always find out what a person means by their objection.  Ask, “Why do you believe that?”  Ask questions until you understand the real reason.  Listen well.  One answer to personal issues is sympathy, empathy, and shared tears.  This objection is very much like the problem of evil discussed at length above, so the answers given here will be short and to the point.  You don’t usually quit eating out because of a bad meal at one particular restaurant....
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Answers to Sunday School Questions, Part 6

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              Last Summer, we took up questions from our Adult Sunday School Class at First Presbyterian Dyersburg, Tennessee.   I have adapted the answers I gave in articles in the church newsletter, and I wanted to share them here.   I hope you find the short essays helpful.   What do I say when a person says they believe in many gods?             Why do you believe in many gods/religions when those religions contradict each other?  See the essay above for where to go from there.  The point is that logic applies to all of reality.  It must.             To say that all religions are equally true is to say something can be true and not true at the same time and in the same relationship.  That cannot be right.  Some religions agree on some things, but the contradictions are many.     ...
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