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Tom
Registered Member

Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 10353

Posted 9/21/2006 6:13 PM (GMT -6)

Questions a youth (teen) cell group submitted to me last week and asked me to prepare answers to when I am to speak to them next week:

Why is God presented in the Bible as a male?

How do we know Jesus was God before he died on the cross?

Has there ever been another person like Jesus?

How many gods are there?

How old was Jesus when he died?

How could someone pay for the sins people will commit in the future?

How could Jesus heal the sick with only a touch?

Why are there so many religions? How did it get that way?

Why is there an ‘Old’ Testament and a ‘New’ Testament?

How many different Bibles are there?

How do we know the stories described in the Bible took place in the Middle East?

Is there any evidence that Jesus still heals today?

How can I become holy?

How many Christians are there in the world?

Is Sai Baba holy?

Is Mother Theresa holy?

Do we possess any artifacts linked to Jesus; a cup, bowel, or garment of his?

How can I experience God to make me believe there is someone out there?

How many religions are there?

How do we know what God looks like?

Is God a male, female, or both?

How could God create a person and what did he use?

How could Eve be created from a rib of Adam?

What experiences have you had with God?

What part of the earth’s atmosphere is ‘heaven’ in?

Why would God create deadly diseases?

Why does God put people through horrible situations?

Did Jesus have children? How do we know?

Is everything in the Bible true?

Why are there so many different versions of the Bible?

How do people pray?

Why do we pray? It find it selfish because people usually pray about themselves.

Why are Christians so big on getting other people to convert to Christianity?

Why is having sex before marriage sinful?

The student leaders got in trouble and their leaders told us to read the Gospel of Luke. Do you think it’s okay for people to require us to read the Bible?

Is gay marriage wrong? The Bible says, “The only thing that’s necessary to get to heaven is to love the Lord with all your heart, soul, and mind.” Not that it’s all about getting to heaven, but if that’s all it takes, and you’re gay but love God, why are gays so degraded by Christians?

Why is Christianity so similar to other religions? If it is the true religion, why are many parts of it so similar to Islam and Judaism?

How is it Christianity turned into Catholicism until Luther reformed it? How could a ‘true’ religion become corrupted?

A lot of religions and cultures have stories that resemble those found in the Bible (i.e., the flood). Did Christianity come first? If not, how do we know that Christianity is genuine and not based on another religion’s stories?

How did humans become different races?

Can Satan read our thoughts?

How do we know if we’ve found “the one” (to marry)?

In what point in a relationship should you say “I love you”?

If someone has can only survive through artificial means (ventilator, chemo, etc.) is that fighting God’s will?

Why don’t we have prophets today?

Why don’t we talk to God like people did in the Old Testament, like burning bushes?

Do we really have ‘guardian angels’?

Does an aborted child go to heaven?

Hmmmm.

One Love
Registered Member

Date Joined Jan 2003
Total Posts : 13888

Posted 10/10/2006 6:52 AM (GMT -6)

Tom,

Check this out, man.

Testimony to the Power of God.

I've been talking to my 22 year old brother-and-law about God. He'd been raised in the church...but fell away from it all for a while. Too many problems for various reasons. Anyways, as I've been changing, I've been talking to him about everything. about God being love. about the hope for universal reconciliation. about what Christ's Sacrifice actually means. Everything I've been learning.

He rededicated his life to Christ the beginning of the last week.

That would be a blessing, in and of itself. But that's not all.

Last night, he was talking to some of his friends about God. He wasn't preachin' or anything like that. They were just talking about life. And my brother-in-law just decided to share about how God was changing his life. about how God wants them to be beautiful creations of God. about how God is love. All the stuff that I'd shared with him. I was in the shower...and he ran into the apartment. I was like "What's up, man" He was so excited. HIS TWO FRIENDS WANTED TO HOOK UP WITH CHRIST! I immediately threw on some clothes...and went over to talk to them. After sharing a little bit more concretely about the faith, they decided that they wanted to begin following the Way. I lead them in prayer...and there was so much joy on their faces. We are going to start doing discipleship together weekly..and I want to get them plugged into a local church in the area.

Two things to note, for God's glory!

1) It took my brother-in-law only an HOUR to talk to them about God...before they were hungry for God. (God had obviously been working before!) When I came and explained what the Faith meant, I only had to talk for 5 or 10 mins and they became followers of the Way!!

2) One of the homies was stone drunk when my brother-and-law started talking to him. He was kinda tipsy when I was talking to him. After we prayed for their hearts, HE COMPLETELY SOBERED UP! He said that he felt something "tingly" inside of him...and he COMPLETELY didn't even want alcohol. AND, to all of our surprise, he was COMPLETELY SOBER. His eyes were SOOOO wide! He couldn't believe it. I told him it was the power of the Holy Spirit. He was BELIEVING it by that point.

Y'all...

This is the EASIEST, MOST POWERFUL evangelism I've ever been a part of.

THIS is the impact of having a beautiful picture of God and a motif that makes sense. They are eager to get into the Bible and everything!

Remember when I said that God is doing something through our MTV Generation? You've BETTER believe it! The fields are WHITE for the harvest, y'all!!!

Tom...whenever you speak to teens or younger adults again...PLEASE remember this display of God's power.

Peace,

"All is full of love." -- Bjork

"God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them." -- 1 John 4:16b

"God is most glorified in us as we are most satisfied in God's nature." -- the new mantra of the Evangelical Universalist :)

Corey
Five with a Four-wing

Date Joined Feb 2003
Total Posts : 1893

Posted 10/10/2006 7:11 AM (GMT -6)

Beautiful story! Praise God!! (That sounds cliche, but it's not right now!)

Tom
Registered Member

Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 10353

Posted 10/10/2006 7:21 AM (GMT -6)

Sweet! Awesome.

Well, I did the talk with the Teens a week ago (maybe two). Had a good time. Regarding homosexuality I basically shared with them what I posted here a couple weeks ago. They totally got with it. In fact, when I said, "Let's just forget homosexuality for a sec and talk about God being a triune God," and then started talking about relational beauty and sin being anything we choose to affirm or pursue that's less than beautiful, they connected the dots themselves and blurted out, "Oh I see! Gay sex is less than God's intention for us! Now we see WHY it's less, WHY God intends something else." It was freaky.

Tom

One Love
Registered Member

Date Joined Jan 2003
Total Posts : 13888

Posted 10/10/2006 7:25 AM (GMT -6)

Tom:
Well, I did the talk with the Teens a week ago (maybe two). Had a good time. Regarding homosexuality I basically shared with them what I posted here a couple weeks ago. They totally got with it. In fact, when I said, "Let's just forget homosexuality for a sec and talk about God being a triune God," and then started talking about relational beauty and sin being anything we choose to affirm or pursue that's less than beautiful, they connected the dots themselves and blurted out, "Oh I see! Gay sex is less than God's intention for us! Now we see WHY it's less, WHY God intends something else." It was freaky.

Tom!

Do you REALIZE the significance of this???

Homosexuality (heck, SEXUALITY itself) is one of the THORNIEST ISSUES when it comes to teens. (I was in youth ministry for a minute) And God hit it up like THAT???

God is giving us the tools to allow us to be SALT to this emerging/emergent MTV generation!

I am so happy...Lord Jesus...

"All is full of love." -- Bjork

"God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them." -- 1 John 4:16b

"God is most glorified in us as we are most satisfied in God's nature." -- the new mantra of the Evangelical Universalist :)

Tom
Registered Member

Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 10353

Posted 10/10/2006 7:30 AM (GMT -6)

And even the sex-before-marriage question can be best explained from this point of view. To JUSt say "Oh, it's sin" begs the question. What does that MEAN? Why is sex best lived out in the context of a shared commitment that society recognizes?

Tom

One Love
Registered Member

Date Joined Jan 2003
Total Posts : 13888

Posted 10/10/2006 7:35 AM (GMT -6)

Dude!

When you talk about the trinitarian relationship...and the beautiful intimacy therein...how the Father and the Son completely try to love, honor and glorify each other IN their intimacy...and how Christ has given himself to HIS bride...and how the Bride gives herself to Christ.

You have the perfect model for how sexuality is supposed to work.

Man...

"All is full of love." -- Bjork

"God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them." -- 1 John 4:16b

"God is most glorified in us as we are most satisfied in God's nature." -- the new mantra of the Evangelical Universalist :)

Starkman
Registered Member

Date Joined Oct 2001
Total Posts : 1747

Posted 10/10/2006 8:25 AM (GMT -6)

Man, when it rains, it pours!

My teacher used to say that whenever he read Scripture, he would always ask the question, "What does this have to say about the character of God?" Working off his thinking, as I read Scripture, I have come to ask, "What does this have to say about the heart and passion of God's desire for relationship for us?

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