It is easy to be a Christian when everything is great, it is easy to worship when we have no opposition, it is easy to give in abundance, and it is easy to be obedient when it costs us nothing; but how do we practice our faith in the face of adversity and loss? Paul challenges the Corinthians, and us, to decide now whom we will serve!

In this final episode on demonology we discuss the establishment of exorcism rites in the Catholic Church starting from 1615. We examine its development and evolution to the final rite published in 1999. 

Our next topic of study for Monday Morning Coffee Study will be "Soteriology" or the theology of salvation. We will examine the theology, mechanics, and answer some of the hard questions surrounding our beliefs of salvation.

Being a disciple of Jesus isn’t easy; in fact, the consistent testimony of Scripture is that when we say “yes” to Jesus we also invite struggle into our lives because we are no longer a part of the world. The hard part for us is not enduring or overcoming, that is a gift of the mercy of God; no, the hard part is resolving that we will be ALL IN through EVERYTHING…even when it will cost us dearly!

Throughout Scripture a common theme appears that is applicable to Paul’s defense of his ministry and pointed teaching of the Corinthians: God uses the broken and weak to demonstrate His power for His glory. Many times we stifle God because of the lies that we accept thinking God cannot use us because of our weakness; in fact, God has already taken your entire person into account and will use you for His purposes and His glory, just as you are!

There are so many lies that permeate our culture and often times they find themselves embedding their claws into our minds. The Apostle Paul reminds us several times that we are not fighting a war against flesh and blood, but against power and principalities....against the lies of this age! We must be able to identify those lies and how to remove them from our lives before we bring harm to ourselves and to our ability to make disciples on a consistent basis.

Today we talk about the development of demonology through the Puritans, which leads us up into colonial North America. We also start off with a little detour into the events that transpired over the weekend when protestors stormed a church service in Minnesota. We discussed the political and social implications of that act and how we as Christians should respond.

Paul is very clear about the evidence of his apostleship…it is grounded in the mercy of God and manifested by the way he lives his life out loud. We ought to follow the same pattern. We ought to be abundantly clear about the evidence of our transformation, which is grounded in the mercy of God and manifested by the way we live our lives out loud.

This week the Supreme Court of the United States will be hearing arguments on two landmark cases, one out of Idaho and the other out of West Virginia, both dealing with the access of transgendered athletes in the sport of their gender identity. Today, we will discuss the legal, cultural, and logical outcomes of the case and talk about how we as the church can speak intelligently into the public square.

One of the key factors of living a faithful Christian life, one that does not give up, is knowing that our Christianity-our faith-our power-our story is a gift of the mercy of God. When we finally get to the place of surrender that we acknowledge that we cannot do this on our own because it was not ours to do on our own in the first place…then we can go ALL IN!

Paul has given the setup to a very poignant argument that forces the Corinthians to examine what they believe to be true and how it impacts their lives. If we as contemporary Christians believe the things we claim, then it ought to make a transformative difference in how we view our relationship with God, how we view our relationship with the church, and how we view our relationship with the world. Since these things are true…THEREFORE…