Iraq, Afghanistan, Rawanda, Darfur, AIDS, cancer, malaria, starvation, poverty, terrorism, 9/11, Indonesian Tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, three children murdered in Merritt, Bisphenol-A in baby and water bottles, theft, adultery, molestation, rejection, loss, broken relationships, pride, selfishness, greed, suffering, death, the list goes on and on and on and on. Why is the world so messed up? Why are we so messed up? Where is God in all this? I’m sure there isn’t one person who hasn’t asked themselves these questions and wondered about it all.
Renowned new testament scholar and Bishop of Durham in the Church of England, N.T. Wright, recently wrote a book called Evil and the Justice of God where he tackles these very issues head on. He reflects on the reality of evil in our world, how the world has tried to offer theories and solutions in both modernity and post modernity but how ultimately the answer may lie in a Galilean Jew who was crucified on a cross 2,000 years ago.
As a result of the book, N.T. Wright made a short DVD series entitled Evil that we as a church will be using at our Terra Nova group on Sunday nights after we finish our study in the book of Acts. This looks to happen around the end of May or early June and will go over four Sunday nights. So I would like to invite all of you to join us and to think and pray about others you would like to invite who might be looking for some answers to this very real question of evil and suffering in our world.
Did you just say birth control?
So how about that birth control, eh? “What, did he just say birth control?” That’s right. Glenda and I have recently been listening to a sermon by Mark Driscoll (Mars Hill Church) on Birth Control and to be honest, found it quite helpful. This is clearly one of those real life issues that everyone (hopefully just married couples) thinks about but hardly ever wants to talk about. Well, leave it to Mark Driscoll to talk about it, why he’ll talk on just about anything if it will help people learn how to follow Jesus in this world in which we live.
So that being said I would like to pass it on to you, those who choose to connect with The Joshua House. This is just our part of our trying to be a church that helps people live their whole lives in glory to God.
Just click on the link below and listen or go to the church website above and look for it under the recent sermon series “Religion Saves and 9 Other Misconceptions.”
Also a warning, the content might not be suitable for the younger folk, so keep that in mind if you play it with kids listening in.
Sermon
Question and Answer Period
