The Center of My Belief -- February 16, 2012

Popular opinion about Jesus often reduces Him to a highly intelligent teacher--one of many religious figures who offered useful guidelines for living and showed one of many entrances into heaven.  How would you counter the view that Christ was a good man who died a cruel death and belongs to past history?

Researchers report that Bible knowledge in American churches is at an all-time low and that a profound lack of belief in essential doctrines exists.  Our lesson this week is designed to help you keep Christ at the center of your belief, rejecting false teachings that deny His centrality.

I was talking to Brian last night at church.  We were discussing the series this month of "Christ is the center of...".  This series, for a teacher, is tough not because of the material but because I feel like I'm a broken record.  It's not easy teaching essentially the same lesson for four weeks.  And if I'm struggling teaching the same material over and over, I can only imagine how it is for you to listen to it over and over.

Then, God started nudging me a little.  You see, I have a habit of thinking that everyone in our class has about the same background and experience with the Bible as I do.  It's not a good habit to have.  God challenged me to look at the lesson with eyes of someone new to the faith.  My bad habit makes me forget that you are not at the same point of spiritual maturity that I am.  You may be farther ahead; you may be behind. 

The main point of this week's lesson is "Recognize the importance of sound doctrine, and evaluate all spiritual truth claims in light of Biblical truths, which have Christ as their focus and fulfillment".

But you cannot "evaluate spiritual truth claims" if you don't have a thorough grounding in the Bible.  Now, I'm not talking about doctoral-theology-level grounding; I'm talking about the basic fundamentals of Christianity.  So that will be our aim this Sunday.

Our lesson scripture this week is Colossians 2:8-23.  Click here Colossians 2:8-23 to read the text in the NIV version.  If trying to keep up with Paul's writing style makes your head hurt, try this version Colossians 2:8-23 (MSG) from The Message.

I loved the discussion we had last week.  Let's do the same this week.  Remember:  Sunday at 9:50 a.m.

Happy Thursday!

Loyally yours,

Darren Bayne

"The book you don't read won't help." —Jim Rohn