God created the universe and heaven and earth out of nothingness. Wow what an ultimate artist!!

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness…..”
Genesis 1:1-4

The Gospel in the Book of John explains that God sent Light in the form of Christ to Earth in order to save Humanity from Darkness and from Eternal Death.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehendeth it not……..
He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth.”

John 1: 1-5, 10-14.

God in his infinite love for us, sent his Son, Jesus, to take the form of a human, to live and dwell among us.

To be born in Bethlehem, to preach the Good News, to die and be crucified between two thieves by Roman Soldiers in Jerusalem and to rise again.

God in his creativity and in His Compassion for us sent Jesus, His only Son, into the world to die for our sins.
Some humans will reject Christ and reject the Truth that God created the universe and the world.

However, All that receive Christ into their hearts and believe in Christ are saved.

Merry Christmas!!

One must worship God for his infinite creativity.

“The love of God is creative to infinity.”
St. Vincent de Paul.

We must recognize that our world and our nation though does not respect the creativity of God. An estimated 125 million orphan children live now on Planet Earth without fathers, mothers or families to love them. In Brazil alone, there are an estimated 7 to 8 million orphan children who live in the streets. In Moscow, orphans live in the subways and sewers.

In our own nation, orphans live in foster care homes or on the street.

One of the greatest creations of God, human babies and children abandoned and neglected.

In the U.S. alone, an estimated 25 million babies have been aborted in the past 20 or so years.

One of the greatest creations of God, a human child destroyed.

The followers of Christ were at the forefront of great human rights causes from the abolition of slavery in the U.S. before and during the Civil War; to the civil rights movement in the Southern U.S. during the 1960’s with Rev. Martin Luther King.

I think there is a call right now,
to the followers of Christ to be creative in solving this nationwide and worldwide problem of orphan children and neglect of babies and children.

Creativity is very important in showing the love of God and communicating the love of God to a world and a nation
increasingly dominated by the values of the “culture of death”.

We must be creative but we must also remain faithful to the essentials of the Christian faith.
Without the essentials and fundamentals of the Christian faith, even the most creative and beautiful house will collapse when a flood comes.
See Luke 6:46-49.

We must remember the words of warning from Jesus himself: “Nevertheless, when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth ?”
Luke 18:8

Blessings and Shalom.

It’s not “dumb” to be concerned about whether or not the name of Jesus is being represented TRUTHfully. Yes, many people come to Christ at our church– but that is the work of the Holy Spirit. He uses us in spite of ourselves at times. God is good.

Tom, creativity IS essential. But not creativity just for the sake of being “creative.” It is essential to be mindful of the TRUTH of the Word in the midst of these elements.

Those churches that you reference, who stopped teaching the name of Jesus in their efforts to “preserve”– that is the antithesis of what our aim should be.

We should aim to teach MORE of the name of Jesus (thus “preserving” His name in His church)– while being “creative.”

The two must co-exist.

No one at all has argued here the use of said elements.

The “argument” is simple: please make sure not to lesson Jesus’ time in the spotlight on Sunday– for the sake of presenting a “cool” element. This is how it’s coming across to many out there.

Real love.

Here is part of Psalm 103:
“Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:
Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;
Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with loving-kindness and tender mercies …..”

My brother, remember the times and instances where the Lord has shown you loving-kindness and tender mercies; do not dwell upon your trials and troubles. If David did that, he would have given up but instead David had faith in God remembering the blessings and mercy of God upon him in the past.

Many a follower of Christ has lost his faith because he thought his fervent prayer to God for mounted Cavalry to rescue him was denied. These followers should have remembered the Cross on Calvary where Jesus died. Christ has already shown his infinite love for us by dying for all of us and our sins at Calvary. Have faith my brother in the tender mercies of God.

From cold (spiritually) New England… Erwin and the team are rockin’ the world. We went to Origins/Ethos this past May and got rocked. I’m a Mosaic Podcast addict.

About all of the comments about sticking to the simple power of the word; you’re missing the point. Erwin, Alex and clan get it in a very deep way. If we’re going to be living letters ourselves, we need to be released to communicate. Every generation has to own the gospel of Jesus Christ and it will only own the message if they are allowed to wrestle with it artistically and creatively and have that process honored by the body. Those “high school videos” are the struggling soul of tomorrows Kingdom.

I serve in New England. If you want a sneak peek into what a church that seeks to preserve, come to my town. You’ll find lots of churches that stopped preaching Jesus because they were too busy preserving. Creativity has never squelched the kingdom. I be willing to risk that error!

Currahee

I think that you are both observant and insightful. As to John’s comment in #71, whenever there is a “disconnect between faith and real life” we can expect a “Falling Away” from the Word of God by the Church here on Earth.

In many places in the New Testament, God warns us of a predicted “Apostasy” or great “Falling Away” by the Church from the Word of God, in the Last Days.

2nd Thessalonians 2:3-4:

“Let no man deceive you by any means: for that Day shall not come, Except there
come a Falling Away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped;
so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showeth himself that he is God.”

The Apostasy or Falling Away from God and God’s Word occurs whenever a Church’s leader(s) and/or a Church’s members oppose the teachings in the Bible
(God’s Word) and exalt themselves above God, that is put their own human/earthly priorities above God; and seek to put their own glory/success before the glorification of God.

The most common form of Apostasy is to twist/misinterpret Scripture from the Bible in order to fit one own’s human interpretation/goals in order to make oneself popular with the crowd or one’s teachings appealing to the crowd.

Christ’s teachings were not popular with the crowd and many of his followers abandoned him. Peter denied him three times. Thomas refused to believe until he felt the actual wounds in Christ’s hands and side. Judas betrayed Christ for thirty pieces of silver. However, St. Paul formerly Saul of Tarsus was faithful to the Word of God despite torture, beatings, threats, starvation, cold, shipwrecks, imprisonment, isolation and even to the point of death.