New Hope @ Worship July 20, 2008

We've had a good week. One of our kids became a Christ follower,and another couple took vows of Holy Matrimony yesterday. It's the weekend before another "Movie in the Park" too, so it ought to continue.

This was the second week of the "iLife" series. The message was titled "iDoubt" and my hope was to remove the stigma of doubt and place it within people's concepts of Christian faith. Far too many believers have fallen under the impression that "good Christians" never doubt what God is doing or how He does it. I used the examples from Mark 9 (father of the possessed boy), the woman and the issue of blood, and finally Thomas to hopefully help people through that.

Music

All the Earth Will Sing Your Praises
Blessed Be Your Name
God With Us - new for us but what a great, great song
Come Thou Fount
Just As I Am

There was also a rendition of "Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho" that rocked the house. :)

iDoubt

This detailed look at Carvaggio's painting of Thomas ending his doubts about Christ's resurrection sort of sets the tone for me as I work toward the message for Sunday - "iDoubt"

"There are two ways to slide easily through life; to believe everything or to doubt everything. Both ways save us from thinking."
Alfred Korzybski

There lives more faith in honest doubt,. Believe me, than in half the creeds.
Alfred Tennyson( 1809-1892) English Poet

Our twentieth century, far from being notable for scientific skepticism, is one of the most credulous eras in all history. It is not that people believe in nothing - which would be bad enough - but that they believe in anything - which is really terrible. Malcolm Muggeridge

All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Knowledge and doubt are inseparable to man. The sole alternative to "knowledge-with-doubt" is no knowledge at all. Only God and certain madmen have no doubts!" Martin Luther

"If ours is an examined faith, we should be unafraid to doubt. If doubt is
eventually justified, we were believing what clearly was not worth believing. But if doubt is answered, our faith has grown stronger. It knows God more certainly and it can enjoy God more deeply." C.S. Lewis