Queen's Road Cell

 8. Even though chatter leads to foolish teaching and immorality, what confidence can a Christian leader have (2:19)? What is the nature of our confidence? Is it confidence in the fact that false teaching will never prevail? This seems unlikely, both in the light of verse 17 (" their talk will spread like gangrene") and of personal experience. I think the injunction is to encourage us to continue to faithfully teach and preach the Word (v.15) so that we can be "approved" by God. Faithful ministry will bear fruit.  The 2 reasons why we can be confident in doing this are because:   1.  God Himself knows that we belong to Him. He is the one who called and chose us from before the foundation of the world. He will keep us spiritually secure until glory. 2. True faith from God is reflected in holy living, and right teaching. The false teaching spread by some is evidence that they are not truly of the Lord. This may not be initially clear on first contact with people, but...

We considered what it was that made an organization  (like the OCF or VCF) different from a church. Although these gatherings of Christians are also part of the universal church, these organizations are called parachurch organizations. True churches are characterized by 'true preaching' and by administration of the sacraments. Parachurch organizations may have the former, but not the latter. Parachurch organizations also usually make it explicit in their goals that they exist to come alongside and assist the church. We listened to an excerpt from a sermon from a preacher who noted that many OT saints were very rich, said that God gives wealth and happiness ( "The blessing of the Lord makes rich   and he adds no sorrow with it" Pr 10:22) and that poverty is a curse that God does not desire His children to suffer. His thesis was that Jesus was rich. This seems very unlikely from the testimony of scripture: His parents offered 2 birds rather than a lamb at his dedicat...