Study to show thyself approved...

Yesterday morning my dad preached a message at church about rightly dividing the word of God. He started out by quoting a few of the "easy amen" verses about God's word. "God is the same yesterday, today, and forever!" and the congregation replied "Amen!" "I believe the Bible says what it means and means what it says!" and the congregation shouted "Amen!" with clapping and hands in the air. Little did they know that they were about to be blasted with some awesome truth that they desperately needed to hear...and I needed them to hear.

If the Bible says what it means and means what it says then Jesus preached cannibalism and women are to keep silent in church. He then broke it down and gave three important keys to studying God's word. More specifically, three questions to ask when trying to understand scripture: why was it written, to whom was it written, and how does it apply to me?

As he preached, there was only a small corner of the church that was shouting "Amen!" with him. It was those of us who are thoroughly annoyed by the judgement coming from religious people who have not studied the scriptures they so quickly throw out to condemn. It was quite entertaining for me, although I know that's not exactly the best attitude to have.

He didn't dive into debunking the religious misunderstandings in Leviticus, which is probably wise since it would have turned a 45 minute message into a 7 day series. However, I sincerely hope that people will follow these three keys when studying God's word. More specifically, I'd really like it if they would follow these three keys when trying to tell other people that they are in sin.

On a different note, Saturday night Alex, my new friend Angel, and myself played worship, and it was surprisingly great. We didn't get to practice much, so I was worried that it was going to suck, but it was actually a lot of fun and I think it turned out pretty great. We had a whole lot of fun...Then Sunday after the morning service we stuck around and had worship practice, and that too went really well. We ironed out 3 songs, 2 of which were brand new, and I think they're going to be a lot of fun to play.

That's all. I know this blog isn't exactly like my typical religious or political rant, but I'm pleased to say that at this moment, I don't really have anything to rant about. So, until something else pisses me off...

Cheers and God Bless!

Hoss