The Power of the Gospel

the Alpha course may have its merrits.  There may be some people who start out exploring it, and in Gods providence they come to an understanding of who he is.  However  I think such people will be few and far between.

It has been available for some years now and the claims are that it is very successful. It that is the case, why is the church not much larger than it is?  It certainly is successful at persuading people to participate. However that is not the same thing as conversions. 

I think its appeal is that it is a community activity and it is not confrontational.  Strangely enough  thou, Jesus christ was confrontational. He confronted Unbelief at ever opportunity.  The apostles confronted Idol worship.

I also wonder why the Alpha course is set up in such a way that the presenters must stick to a script?  why can they not adjust it to individual personalities or the needs of any location.  Anyone will know their own locality far better than the creators of the Alpha course.  I think it was copywrited in this way with good intentions.  It was probably to help the presentation go well, howver, I think that it has led to slippage.  By Slippage I mean this.  We have to trust in the power of the gospel to save, not in techniques.  Techniques can help, but if a technique does not work in all situations, why not lay it aside? 

I think that what is happening is that slippage has caused us to abandon trust in the power of the gospel and trust in the Alpha course and its presentation..  When I look at alpha news, I can sum all the articles up in a few words which are, "We had a big meeting, we had a wonderful time"  I met someone who can get it down to just one word that he sees. That word is Alpha alpha alph.

it is pity that in doing the Alpha course the presenter is legally bound to follow the script and cannot select the bits that he or she thinks is most relevant.

I say lets trust in the power of the gospel.  when I was saved it had nothing to do with presentation. It was a simple one to one conversation and it I were to create a course where you had to start a conversation that was the same as that one was, it would be doomed to fail as it was not a programme,but God was in it.  God chose that moment to use that conversation.

For some individuals, perhaps something will be said in the Alpha course that for them is just what they need to hear, but people are individuals.  One cannot garantee that it is good for everyone.

Lets trust in the power of the gospel to save. We have been promised by the lord it will, he has not promised to bless the Alpha course, or any other christian course even if he chooses to use them.  He has however promised to bless the preaching of the gospel and this does not neccessarily mean formal preaching as in church or meetings.  It is preaching meaning communicating the gospel and this can be and freqently is a one to one conversation as it was when I was saved and it was the power of the gospel that saved me not the way things were said.

The Genesis account

the Genesis account gives us an overview of life.  As I try to do things for the lord, some things work, some things do not, but it means the lord has given me responsibility and I am not a puppet.  Why are there earthquakes? It is because due to the fall the system does not work in the way God intended. 

We are made in Gods Image.  God created us and we are also creative.  We can make decisions.  We are moral creatures.

These issues came out of a talk MW gave yesterday

I want to learn more about blogging
I want to learn about Drop box
I will start the theology course when the cheque is processed
I intend to learn how to do the lights at the theatre.

I have so much to learn

The bible says redeem the time.  I have given this a lot of thought recently. and my plan is to do just that.  All these things are about making the best use of time.

That said, I still intend to relax.  Right now I am a bit sluggish.  tired

The open days

The open days were fun over the weekend. I went to the light rail that I have only just found out about.  The train looked just like the ones that went between Dunfermline and Edinburgh when I was a child.

I went to the visitors centre and the Guildhall. I looked at the Attfield display and there was a stilt walker / Fire eater in the market square. 

I saw a silent Russian documentary film that had been made in 1929

while watching the fire eater, I saw a young man and a young lady in Victorian Costume.  I spoke to them and it was C W, whom I have seen a couple of times as Mary Poppins.  It was fun to meet them.

Six pints of milk and six packets of crisps

I could not believe my eyes on Friday as I did my round. There it was on the footpath.  a great big bottle containing six pints of milk and a Spar Carrier bag containing six packets of crushed crisps.  Perhaps someone from Forum forgot about them.

Bricks in my life

I have just sent an email to someone I met at university looking back on those days as a reflect on students at forum.  I said to him that there things in my life that did not seem significant at the time, but are very significant now.  They were learning experiences.  They are like bricks God used to build my life. One brick is very small, but it it were missing, I would notice the gap.

I then said that I have no idea how significant conversations I had with students may be to them in later life.  Perhaps for some of them, I am a brick maker.

Quakers

There is a Quaker meeting house in the town. I often park outside it when I am in the co-op round the corner, but in all the years I have lived where I do, I have never had the opportunity to be inside it.  Today they had an open day when I was in the town at lunchtime, and I went in, had a look at their displays and their video.

I have to say that I am not convinced that this is a christian movement.  They read the bible, but the God they seem to believe in if indeed they do believe in God, is not the one who has revealed himself in the bible.  It seems to me that they sit in silence at their meetings and let their minds wander and every now and again someone stands up to say something and God is described in the video as a higher intellegence but if you want to call him the holy spirit that is OK. In other words they use the same words christians do but just because they use the same words, does not mean that they have the same understanding of those words

It also seems to me looking at their displays that they are a peace movement, but not peace with God, peace in the sense of campaigning against war and supporting refugees, which is all very laudible but I cannot see that they have any answers to the problem of sin. In fact no where in their displays or videos was that mentioned.  I took some of their pamphlets, so I will see what I think of them once I have read them, but I am convinced that they are people who think they are spiritual, but are in fact lost.