Q&A #137 - Pets, God, authenticity, loneliness, true Christians, worthy, sorrowful rejoicing, unforgivable sin and revenge

1. What was your childhood pet?
2. When have you said, "I will never do ____!" And then God is like, "Um, yup. Exactly that."
3. How can we be authentic without oversharing?
4. I'm middle aged, single, and live alone. I have some good friends, but I have a nagging sense of loneliness all the time. My friends say that if I spent enough time with God that I would be fulfilled. But that doesn't help when I'm sitting home alone again after a day of work and all my friends are busy with their families. Can God actually help me feel not lonely or do I just keep suckling it up?
5. I was listening to a sermon recently where the speaker asserted that the evidence of true conversion was a desire for fellowship with Christ.  What do you think is the evidence that a person is truly a Christian?
6.  In Ephesians 4:1 Paul urges the Ephesians to:  “live worthily of the calling with which you have been called”  The KJV says “ walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called”   -  How were the Ephesians (or us for that matter) supposed to know what it is that we have been called to?
7. On a recent Ask Pastor John Podcast, John Piper stated:   "In (our) culture, inside and outside the church, …. Categories, by in-large, do not exist for the Pauline… phrase of the apostle Paul, “sorrowful but always rejoicing”  Other than possibly Johnny Cash who used to frequently talk about why he always wore black, I definitely don’t have a context for the idea:  “sorrowful but always rejoicing”.  Do any of you have a category for this concept/idea?
8. How do I deal with desire for revenge, even small hopes of the "I told you so" feeling?
9. In the article below the author makes a rather convincing argument that the Unforgivable Sin (Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit) is in fact easy to commit, so easy to commit that even a careless word could do it.  And that it is not, as I have always been taught, a stubborn and consistent rejection of Jesus.
Do you see any obvious problems with the author’s methods for interpreting the scriptures in this article?  What are your responses to his conclusions?

Q&A #136 - Ten questions on one episode!

1. What is the most embarrassing thing that has happened to you?
2. Who would you each choose to play yourself in a movie?
3. Regarding Tim Horton’s cups, what is your preference: Dome lids or Normal lids?
4. I say hi to a some people at church on the weekend, but I want to get to know some of them more and don't know how to do that. Ideas?
5. Recently when speaking to another Christian, I was talking about how sad it was that more and more people seem to think how wonderful and kind it is to euthanise old people, I was shocked when he agreed with the idea of euthanasia to end suffering.  What does the bible say about Euthanasia?  How do you think I should have responded to him?
6. our cultural consumerism seems to have tainted many of our thoughts on pleasure and sexuality. How do we separate these ideas and think about pleasure and sexuality without viewing them through a consumerist lens?
7. If women make up 1 out of every 3 visits to pornographic sites, if 17% of women consider themselves addicted to porn, and if half of women in a recent German sex study admit to watching porn, why don't we talk about it? Why are there so few resources? And why is this conversation still so full of shame for both men and women in our church culture?
8. How can we cultivate intimacy in marriage (or other important relationships) when we're in a tough season?
9. I watched the movie "Risen" a few weeks ago and then the initial episodes on the series "A.D" this past week, more out of curiosity than anything. Both are obviously dramatic for screenplay and don't necessarily follow what we see in the Bible (depiction of Mary Magdalene as a woman of the night, for example) but it got me curious about how Pilate and Caiphas felt after the crucifixion - and their actions. Apart from Matthew there is no mention of any action but both films depict complete turmoil and chaos culminating in all the guards at the tomb being "silenced" along with anyone else who was a witness. Is there any other documentation of events or is this all assumption based?
10. How can I earn Salvation?

Q&A #135 - Mass Divorce in Ezra and Is the Trinity Necessary to Believe in?

1. In Ezra 10:2-3, men from Israel realizes they have sinned by taking wives from the nations around them. They then all agree to send away their wives and children. It seems they were willing to destroy the lives of many women and children, just to keep one law of Moses. Does you think God looks favourably on decisions like this?
2. Do you have to believe in the trinity to be a Christian? What if you believe Jesus was created by God like some other faiths?

Q&A #133 - New Group names, New symbol, Holiness, Struggles with Faith

1. What is the new name of the community groups going to be; Mahjong Groups?
2. What is the story behind or the significance of, the new symbol that goes with the new vision statement “Imaging Jesus by becoming Love”?   
3. In a devotional I am reading, it says the word "holy" means set apart. I was always taught it meant pure or perfect. At face value this would seem to totally change the "holiness" movements and ideas the church has had if we are trying to be "set apart" instead of "pure or perfect". Can you learned types explain this more?
4. have any of you struggled with your faith and secretly wondered if you actually believe all this Jesus stuff? Can you share what happened?

Q&A #133 - New Group names, New symbol, Holiness, Struggles with Faith

1. What is the new name of the community groups going to be; Mahjong Groups?
2. What is the story behind or the significance of, the new symbol that goes with the new vision statement “Imaging Jesus by becoming Love”?   
3. In a devotional I am reading, it says the word "holy" means set apart. I was always taught it meant pure or perfect. At face value this would seem to totally change the "holiness" movements and ideas the church has had if we are trying to be "set apart" instead of "pure or perfect". Can you learned types explain this more?
4. have any of you struggled with your faith and secretly wondered if you actually believe all this Jesus stuff? Can you share what happened?

Q&A #132 - Time machine dinner, Women in ministry, trinity, evangelism, and follow up from episode 131

1. if you could have dinner with anyone in the 20th century, who would it be? What would you ask them?
2. I really enjoyed Melissa's sermon last Sunday. However, I grew up believing that women cannot teach or lead, as it seems to teach in 1 Timothy 2:11-15. Is she allowed to teach because she's pregnant, as 1 Timothy says women will be saved by childbearing? Haha :) but seriously, how does our church interpret these verses?
3. I'm just a blue collar dude and need some help. can you explain how the trinity works and where it talks about it in the Bible. I just can't make sense of it.
4. what do you think evangelism needs to look like in our post-Christian culture?
5. In the last episode (#131) Doug said that “you cannot draw theology from the psalms “
Really!!!  Do you really want to go on record with that statement?!  Do you actually want to try defend that statement; or maybe retract it and reword the point you were trying to make?  
I understand that in the context of what you were saying is that people can’t pluck random phrases (like smiting an enemy) out of the context of the entirety of scripture and the new covenant and then go around killing people and say they’re just obeying the bible…. But you can’t pluck random verses from any of the scriptures not just the psalms.
6. In the last episode (#131) Doug said:  “Clearly when God said on the day you eat of the fruit you will surely die, and theologians would all say:  God was referring to a spiritual death not a physical death”
Interestingly enough just about 1/2 an hour before I listened to the Q&A podcast I was listening to an audiobook:  “The Holiness of God” by RC Sproul, here is an excerpt from the part (chapter 6) I had just been listening to:  
“Now the big question: When was the penalty for sin to be meted out in creation? Was the penalty stated like this: “If you sin, then someday you will die”? No! The penalty for sin was clearly stated by God: “The day you eat of it you will surely die.”
In creation the penalty for sin was not only death, but instant death. Death that very day: death as swiftly as it fell upon Nadab and Abihu; death as sudden as it wiped out Uzzah; death as quick as it befell Ananias and Sapphira. “The day that you sin you will surely die.”
Numerous commentators have tried to soften the divine warning by interpreting the “death” of Genesis 2 as a kind of spiritual death. That is not what the text says. The death penalty of which God warned was real death, death in the full sense of the word. To be sure, Adam and Eve did suffer spiritual death that very day, but God granted mercy in terms of the full measure of the penalty. We have a saying that “justice delayed is justice denied.” Not always. In the case of creation and man’s fall, the full measure of justice was delayed so grace would have time to work. Here the delay of justice was not the denial of justice but the establishing of mercy and grace.“

Personally the only time that I had heard of this referring to only “a spiritual death not a physical death” was about 40 years ago which also was several years before I was saved, since I have been saved the only interpretation of this that I have heard, (or that I paid attention to) was something to the effect:  that we were meant to die instantly in the garden and the fact that we didn’t is a demonstration of God’s mercy, and to this day the fact that anyone is alive is further demonstration of God’s mercy.

Q&A #131 - Apostle's Creed, Native Canadians, Discipleship, Psalms, Adam and Eve and Genesis

1. Every once in a while I hear the pastors talk about the apostles creed. What is it?
2. Native Americans make up about 4.1% of the population and account for 28% of the admissions to our prison system (statscan 2018). Since they are seriously over-represented in our justice system, they are among the poorest of the poor in Canada, and the majority of Canadians are frustrated with the native population as a whole ("look, another drunk native on the corner"), that population seems to fit with the poor/imprisoned/lepers that Jesus said we need to reach out and take care of. Any ideas on how we as a church can approach this issue given current cultural attitudes and events?
3. Further to the discipleship discussion from last week, how do you initiate a discipleship relationship, both discipling others and being discipled? What does that look like in daily life? Society is so individualistic I'm having trouble imagining what this practically looks like.
4. When I read the psalms, it seems much of it is more of a poetic, literary book than it is a theological, fact book. But then I read the new testament, and I see the Jews interpreted many of the "poetic" sayings as literal prophecy about the messiah. Then many Christians use it as literal ideas on how the universe and life works. How on earth do I read Psalms given this mish mash of perspectives on it?
5. If we all came from Adam and Eve, how can I explain to a non-Christian why there are so many different languages and colors of people.
6. Science has pretty clearly shown the Earth is millions of years old and there were multiple extinction events before humans came on the scene. Does that mean God made death and suffering before the fall or man? If so, how do we handle the fact that God created this and said it was good?

Q&A #130 - Merging, Difficult relationships, God's goodness, Accidental sin, Eden and more

1. Why do some people seem to think that merging onto Deerfoot Trail at 60 km an hour is an acceptable option? (Of course at that speed “Merging” is not the correct word!)
2. Do you have any advice on how to have a relationship with, (but more importantly share the gospel with,) a person with an extreme victim mentality?  A person who will claim that nobody likes them, and then do their best to make sure that nobody likes them. 
3. Is God’s goodness the reason we are at times spared from suffering? I almost had an accident with my vehicle. It was a near miss. Logically it looks like it should have happened, but it didn’t. This has caused me to wonder if God is the source of ALL the good things that happen. Is He the only reason anything good happens at all?
4. Can you accidentally sin?
5. Where did the Garden of Eden go? Can we find it on a map?
6. Jesus called us to make disciples, not Christians. When did the church decide that we just need to get people into heaven and manage how they behave? Practically, what do you think discipleship in our culture could look like?
7. What do you think a Christians responsibility to our environment should be?

Q&A #129 - Raising daughters, God giving up, High places, Isaac's feelings

1. How do we teach our daughters to be modest without being legalistic?
2. Can God give up on you?
3. What were the "high places" the old testament often mentions when referencing pagan god worship?
4. What do you think Isaac was thinking and feeling when Abraham was going to sacrifice him? Wouldn't this have caused significant father wounding, at the request of God?

Q&A #128 - Hell, Protecting Kids, Multiple wives, Battles and God sending liars

1. In light of this weekend’s message on “Hell” what do make of Luke 16: 19 - 31 The Rich Man and Lazarus?
2. Do you have any suggestions on protecting your kids from evil and pain in the world and yet ensuring they aren't so sheltered, they don't know how to respond well when they encounter evil and pain when they get older?
3. In the summary of people's lives in the old testament, personal success seem to revolve around the number of wives and children a man has?  One of many examples would be Chronicles 13:21.
4. In the old testament, if Israel was winning a military battle, it was attributed to obeying God and He was blessing them. If they lost battles, it was because they were sinning and God was punishing them. In ancient literature, all the other pagan people groups believed the same thing about their gods. If the God of the Bible is the one true God, does that mean when the Israelites sinned and lost a battle, that the God of the Bible was blessing the pagan peoples behaviours because they were winning and thus  proving their gods were more powerful than the one true God? From God's perspective, wouldn't that entrench the pagan nations in their beliefs and prevent them from coming to repentance by proving their beliefs are true?
5. I'm often confused by stories in the Old Testament about choices GOD makes. In 1 Kings 22:19-23 GOD sends a lying spirit to 400 prophets to entice King Ahab to go to war.