The Pulpiteer

This week we covered Revelation 17 and 18. These may be two of the most challenging chapters in Revelation for me personally, as a Christian living in North America, and this teaching reflects that.   What we have is a picture of Babylon, painted in words by John of Patmos, and the picture should be one that challenges us to define our ultimate allegiance. Here is a sheet that I handed out that contrasts the two cities of Babylon and New Jerusalem (and is covered in lecture). The quote from the Timothy Keller book comes from his newest book, “Counterfeit Gods,” which I am linking below. So, the closing questions for us are, what does it mean for us as Christians today to “come out of Babylon?” and what does it mean for us to have Christ as our point of reference for life? I think these are the very questions John of Patmos would have us ask.

Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters
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We were up late carving Jack-O-Lanterns on Friday night. Anne did the one on the left, and I did the other two.  We have fun with it.  Usually we watch a Halloween movie while carving and this year it was “Monster House,” which is a favorite of ours.  It’s an animated movie and if you haven’t checked it out you really need to.

Last year I wrote a series of posts that had some thoughts about Christians and Halloween.  I thought I would repost them again this year, so here is part 1, part 2, and part 3.  Also, there is an excellent piece about the history of Halloween in regards to its Christian celebration that is a must read for anyone curious about these things.    Also, I’ve added a few pictures to my flickr photostream, so if you want to see some October pics (mostly dealing with pumpkins) check it out.

Finally, we got a new book in the mail today from Amazon.com (which is always exciting). It’s called, “Goodnight Goon” and is a parody of “Goodnight Moon.” It’s hilarious, and Elijah has loved it. I’ll put a link below.

Goodnight Goon: A Petrifying Parody
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Monster House (Widescreen Edition)
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This is the eighth sermon in our series on Revelation, which is called, “Apocalypse: John’s Visions, Our Decisions.” This sermon was on 19:6-9, and it was a part of a combined worship service that followed a wedding theme.  During this worship time we focused on the wedding of the Lamb and the church, and part of our worship time involved welcoming in 2 new members.  The main idea found in the sermon is the grace of God found in Jesus Christ.  We don’t deserve to be dressed in fine white linen, as the bride, but because of Jesus’ sacrifice for us we are offered this as a gift of grace.

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This week we covered Revelation 15 and 16. This is the cycle that includes the bowl judgments, so those of you in the class should have filled out your “seals, trumpets, bowls” sheets.  Here is a sheet that I handed out that has much of the information on the plagues – it will be helpful to look over as you listen to the lecture.  The theme that I really hit on this week in lecture was that there are events or actions that are simultaneously works of judgment and salvation.  The event at the Red Sea with Egypt and Israel is an example.  The same event that brought judgment is the event that was for Israel’s salvation.  As Christians we see this most clearly in Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.
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A Guitar Playing Penguin is a cute and original costume

It’s the middle of October, which means you should be thinking about how you’re going to carve your pumpkins, or if you don’t celebrate Halloween, you need to be putting up that blackout curtain so you can still watch tv and eat Halloween candy without answering the door for trick or treaters.  Either way, I thought I’d put up a few Halloween related posts in the next week or so.  First, here is a link to some thoughts on Christians celebrating Halloween that were written by one of my former professors at Asbury.  Personally, I would love to see more Christians boycott Halloween because of their strong objections to limbo (not the party game, read the article) just because that would liven up the party.

Next, I thought I’d share my Halloween playlist off of the ipod.  These are the spooky tunes we shake and jive to around the Croel household: Continue Reading »

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