“Being a kid and the questions they ask”, Ian Stockdale, Thames Valley churches of Christ

What prevents us from asking more questions?

 

1. Religion ought to be a choice not a competition
   • “Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6 NIV11)
   • CS Lewis: 

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

1. • What is your opinion?
   • Have a free choice, but we must make a choice
   • “Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly: “We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles. For this is what the Lord has commanded us: “ ‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’”” (Acts 13:46–47 NIV11) 
   • They had a choice - to reject or accept; worthy or unworthy
   • Facts are facts and cannot be ignored.
   • We may need guidance so as to find the truth.
   • There are consequences to all choices. Better to face the consequences of going with God’s advice, rather than the consequences of going a different way.
2. What questions do you need answering to bring you peace?
   • Can you ask humble questions, like a child? That is what is necessary to find the peace we need.
   • Acts 22.1-21
   • Paul’s humility is inspirational. He stood to lose everything for the sake of new convictions. He took a courageous decision and carried on with the same bravery in sharing his story with others.
   • Romans 10.17

 

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Please add your comments on this week’s topic. We learn best when we learn in community. 

 

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Thanks again for listening. Have a super day.

 

God bless,

 

Malcolm

 

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