FBC Neches: On Demand

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.

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.

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.

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!

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!

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.

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!

We are very tempted to define our life by what is immediately present and right in front of us. This approach to how we live produces instability, fatigue, and has the propensity to introduce habits into our life that are exceptionally hard to reprogram. Christians are called to set our eyes not on the conditions of this present life but to, “walk by faith,” with our worldview, purpose, and priorities defined by eternity.

In this introductory episode to our new subject, soteriology, we examine the breadth and depth of the theology that seeks to understand the purpose, mechanics, and necessity of our salvation. We begin our conversation today with examination of a classical philosophical problem in theology: "theodicy" or the problem of evil. We examine the ultimate, proximal, and effective causes of evil which brings us to some uncomfortable conclusions.

The statement to “walk by faith” is not born from a vacuum but is instead the fingerprint of a faith that is informed by the nature and character of God. Our faith is informed not ignorant.