Sunday

We are home from church today because Brenna is recovering from being sick. She's held down jello and tea this morning so I think we are definitely on the upside of this!

My brother-in-law likes Andy Stanley, of North Point Community Church, almost as much as Michael and I like Ed Young, of Fellowship Church. So this morning, I decided to check out a sermon from North Point. Brenna sat up here beside me in the chair and I told her we were going to church. I started to click on last week's sermon, but it was about Sodom and Gomorrah. I thought the better of that and picked one from last year.

The nice thing about North Point's website is that you can watch the sermon's online. We used to be able to do that with Fellowship Church, too, but they've since taken that feature down. Anyway, the sermon we picked today was called All Is Not As It Seems. It started with a dramatization of the way the devil twists truths just enough to cause pain. It was very powerful and eye opening. The sermon was then about the unseen world and how it affects our world.

I learned not too long ago that lots of churches are not addressing certain Biblical concepts and truths in order to make people feel more comfortable. I think that's another trick and deception of the enemy. If we don't talk about him, he somehow doesn't really exist. I have never doubted the existence of the devil and, much like Andy Stanley said today, if you just look around a little you'll be hard pressed to disagree. The devil is a liar and a schemer. How else do you explain 9/11? How else do you explain Darfur? How else do you explain the Holocaust? How else do you explain the Amish schoolhouse shootings? How else do you explain slavery? How else do you explain Jim Crowe laws? How else do you explain the Harvey family murders in Richmond last year? There are so many. It's just plain evil and the devil schemes and lies and twists the truth. People become blinded and deceived and confused and twisted. Churches must not pick and choose what they will teach from the Bible. They need to teach it all so that we learn to put on our armor and fight against the devil and his schemes. Church is not about being comfortable all the time!