Because Heaven is important, but it's not the End of the World
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In due time, this main website--http://www.sixsteps.org/--will become the "landing page" for me, myself, and my ministry.
(Why? I don't have the time or energy to maintain and continually update the WordPress software that runs this website. The Posterous micro-blogging platform is much more versatile for multimedia, with built in plugins for audio & pdf, as well as a built-in mobile version of the blog.)George Eldon Ladd, concerning the challenge of arguing against the dispensationalist position:
It is easy to accept an inherited position uncritically and to espouse it dogmatically; but scholarship, even though it may achieve theological positions which are maintained dogmatically, must continually purify itself by the criticisms of others and criticize itself in the light of all the findings of theological studies.
I'll start with the freedom that we have in Christ, and then I'll move to the position that I operate in. The New Testament isn't explicit on forbidding using a screen to put the lyrics up, or to put the scene of a waterfall behind it, or to make the waterfall actually move behind it, or to show a picture of your fishing trip to illustrate the big fish that you caught and how your people should now go out and be "fishers of men." The Bible doesn't forbid it. I'll be gone in a few years and you can do whatever you want to do, but I believe profoundly in the power and the till-Jesus-comes-validity of preaching. And by that I mean the spirit-anointed exposition of the Scripture through clear explanations and applications of what's there. There's something God-appointed about that. I think the use of video and drama largely is a token of unbelief in the power of preaching. And I think that, to the degree that pastors begin to supplement their preaching with this entertaining spice to help people stay with them and be moved and get helped, it's going to backfire. It's going to backfire. It's going to communicate that preaching is weak, preaching doesn't save, preaching doesn't hold, but entertainment does. And we'll just go further and further. So we don't do video clips during the sermon. We don't do skits. I went to a drama at our church four days ago. I believe in drama. I believe in the power of drama. But let drama be drama! And let preaching be preaching! Let's have the arts in our churches, but don't try to squash it all into Sunday morning. So I get worked up about these things. That's where I am on that. Free. Nobody is going to go to hell because of this, in the short run.--Pastor John Piper, What are your thoughts on drama, movie clips, and the like in a church service? I'll be honest: I agree wholeheartedly with Piper's stance and embrace it fully.
This sermon, “Thank Goodness: Gratefully Acknowledging our Good God” (Psalm 136) , was originally preached on Sunday, January 16, 2011 at Bridle Trail Baptist Church in Unionville, ON.
1. Give Thanks to God for Who He is
2. Give Thanks to God for What He Has Done
a) For His goodness in Creation
b) For His goodness in Israel’s Redemption
c) For His goodness to all creation
