Pastor's Message | Sermon Notes

A Word from the Pastor

Pastor Bruce Cole

The Year Ahead

There are several things I hope to accomplish or see happen this year.

One thing is a study of Apologetics. A few weeks ago, Glenn Carron asked me about Apologetics. He wanted to know more about it. The word comes from the Greek word apologia, which means “defense” or “answer.” When it comes to spiritual matters like God and faith, there are many questions that some believe it impossible to answer. They reason, “There is no way to know,” or they simply conclude, “There is no God.” This year, I am going to include on this page a monthly study on Defending Your Faith In God. It will be reasonably simple. I hope it will help you better understand your own faith, and give you some simple tools for sharing that faith with others.

A second thing I want to accomplish this year is to focus my ministry and preaching on Recognizing and Reflecting the Greatness of Jesus Christ. When we truly know the historical Jesus and the Light he brings into the world, we tend to be a reflection. We become more like him, and those around us begin to see him in us. Hopefully, those who are not saved will be able to come to a saving knowledge of him through us. The goal is stated in Ephesians 4:13: that we may “all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” We will aim for that this year.

A third thing I want to do this year is to conduct a Living in Christ Seminar. I had scheduled it for Saturday, January 2, 2010. That now seems to be a bad date (Da!). I am rescheduling it for Saturday, January 16, 2010. More information will be coming.

The final thing I would like to see happen this year is to begin the initial door-to-door survey in the Shannon Hill area of Louisa County to see if there is interest there to begin a new work, that could possibly lead to a new church plant.

These things I would like to see happen in 2010. They may all happen. Or some of them may happen. But whatever the year does bring, I know it will be an exciting year. I hope you will pray that God will lead our church into His good and perfect and acceptable will in 2010, and that you will join us as we go forward to serve Him.


DEFENDING YOUR FAITH IN GOD

This section contains a defense of the Christian faith.

Keep these monthly notes for reference or use in sharing with others.

(First in the series)

Many of you who know me and have heard my life-story, know that my early years were spent believing there was no God. I based that belief on the experiences of growing up with an alcoholic and abusive father, and on the assumption that if there were a God, He wouldn’t let things like that happen. My response was to just put it all out of my mind and live life the way I wanted to. It was a convenient way to live without accountability.

However, to say as I did, “I know there is no God” was somewhat arrogant, especially considering the amount of knowledge I had. When you consider the combined knowledge of all people who exist today, along with all the knowledge of those who have existed in the past. That amounts to quite a bit. And if you add to that all the future knowledge that can be known but is not yet known (like the next technological breakthrough or the cure for all cancer), the knowledge I had was pretty small. It still is!

Look at the illustration where the circle represents all accumulated knowledge now and in the future. With my little knowledge, for me to say “There is no God” was presumptuous to say the least. Unless a person knows everything there is to know and can ever be known, how can the person honestly say, “I know there is no God”?

Knowledge is not just objective. It is not just about people and things. Knowledge includes thoughts and feelings. It can be subjective as well as objective, spiritual as well as physical. Until a person knows everything, he or she cannot honestly say, “I know there is no God.” How can you know something doesn’t exist if you don’t know everything?

The first step for anyone who claims they know there is no God is to acknowledge that they do not know everything, and to at least accept the fact that it is possible that God could be part of the knowledge they have yet to learn. If that is true, it should at least encourage them to consider the evidence for God’s existence. If not, they should at least begin to say, “I just don’t know,” and honestly admit they don’t want to know.



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