Weekly Talks

Stephen will be returning on 3 Saturday mornings, once in each month March, April, and May to teach on the New Covenant. Join us if you can.

This morning Derek, Simon and I had a great chat about an email I received from a friend. Jeanne’s email included a quote from John Eldredge and we enjoyed chatting about that quote today and we even talked a bit about Whitney Houston’s recent death.

Hope you enjoy the chat…

Sorry to all listeners. The podcasts and weekly talks have been slow to get up for a variety of reasons. If you want excuses… they are the tornadoes here did a small bit of damage to our roof, a car crashed into our sign, our basketball goals crashed and broke, our website was down for weeks with an ugly virus, and it seems that everyone in Catawba and Burke Counties have experienced some type of sickness from the Norovirus – just google norovirus and North Carolina if you don’t know what I’m taking about.

Ok… today’s audio is a merge from two of our Sunday morning hours. I used most of the first hour, but the scripture reading from the second, because I liked hearing different people read instead of just me.

Well, I still don’t know for sure why only John’s gospel recorded the story of the Resurrection of Lazarus… but I do believe and love this sign.

On Sunday January 29th, 2012 we had two great conversations. Here is a recording from the first hour. During this hour we really spend the majority of the time in a very casual chat, but I’m going to try and post the recording from both talks this week because they really took on very different styles. I think you’ll enjoy getting to hear both.

I think we’ll actually be continuing this conversation once more this coming Sunday. If you happened to be with us this past Sunday you know that Homosexuality became a topic of discussion, when one of our very own admitted that while he was not homosexual he didn’t see there being anything wrong with Homosexuality. I was very pleased with the way our ap2t family handled this chat. More than one person publicly praised him for honestly sharing his thoughts and asking the question. In addition, others shared their confusion with this issue. When we sounded judgmental others stepped up to point out the sound, tone, or implication behind our words. I don’t think anyone was offended, but everyone had an opportunity to voice their heart. While most agreed that homosexuality wasn’t the plan of God for anyone’s life, many had friends and loved ones who they continued to care about who struggle with or submit totally to their homosexual urges. This caused us to seek wisdom about how to love, beyond disagreement. Should we love and treat those with different beliefs tenderly careful not to offend or should we “shun the non-believer” as was made popular by the Charlie the Unicorn You Tube videos? I think we sometimes have to treat those who disagree with us just like we would treat anyone who doesn’t believe… with love and grace. Haven’t we learned yet that “..it is the kindness of God that leads man to repentance?” Enjoy the chat and join us Sunday as we continue this conversation.
 

This past Sunday, only during the second hour, our chat became much more a chat than a regular Sunday morning talk. I’m not sure whether to classify this as a Sunday Morning Chat (it was) or a podcast. More on homosexuality to follow, both in tomorrow’s podcast and next Sunday’s chat.