God’s Calling
Here is a post from my Formspring page that I thought might be helpful. I’m no longer using Formspring for questions these days. Head on over to my Tumblr if you have a question that you’d like to see answered on Pop Culture Christ.
I’ve heard a lot of people saying they ‘feel as though God’s calling them’ in a certain direction. How can I ‘hear’ from God about big life decisions, like whether to go to bible college or change careers?
The language of calling to specific roles or directions is not something we find in the Bible. What we do find is a calling to godliness. “But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (2 Thessalonians 2:13-14) God calls you to live a life that brings glory to God. And because we believe that God is in complete control over this world, we know there is nothing we can do to disrupt his plans for salvation in this world. So what decisions should we make in life? Well, in some respects, it doesn’t matter. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, strength and soul. In everything you do, bring glory to God. So make decisions that honour God. If both your choices bring glory to God, then choose the one you like best. Because God will use you no matter what. We are free to choose.
Because God has freed us to choose, we should be careful when it comes to “listening” for God’s call. He doesn’t promise us he will speak to us and direct us in this way. What he has promised is that if we listen to his Word, the Bible, we will know how to be one of his people and how to live like one of his people. As long as we follow this direction, we are free to live and make decisions as we choose.
Ask Me A Question
For a while I’ve been playing around with Formspring, a site where people can ask you questions and you post the answers to your public page. It’s a site I like… in theory. In practice, I’ve found it clogged up with spam and frivolous information. Originally I joined up to Formspring to interact with authors I enjoy. Now many of them have stopped using Formspring. And now they’re using Tumblr. And from now on, that’s what I’m going to do as well. I already use Tumblr for posting random thoughts and links. I check it regularly and interact with it. And they have a function that works the same as Formspring. So if you have a question that you would like to see me ask, you can either go to my Tumblr page or go direct to my question page. Just like Formspring, there is still the ability to ask questions anonymously.
Is there a question you’d like to see answered on Pop Culture Christ? Is there a movie or song that you would like to see me comment on? Head over to Tumblr and ask away!
From Formspring: Names of the Devil
Here is a post from my Formspring page that I thought might be helpful.
Does the Bible have any other names for the devil?
Sure. There’s the Serpent in Genesis 2-3. Satan in passages such as Job 1. Beelzebul in Matthew 12. Prince of the Power of the Air in Ephesians 2. The Evil One in Ephesians 6. The Dragon in Revelation 12. And I’m sure there are many more.
From Formspring: Encouraged To Go To Church
Here is a post from my Formspring page that I thought might be helpful.
What should I do if I’m not feeling encouraged to go back to my church?
Is the problem with you or the church? Is the church preaching the Scriptures? Are they working towards growing in the knowledge and love of God? If the answer is yes, then the problem may lie within your heart. Church is the people of God meeting together to encourage each other and bring glory to God. So there is a heavy emphasis there on you to do the encouraging.
Is church a place where you go to build up others? Is church a place you go to encourage people in their Christian life? Is church a place you go to serve? If you’re not doing these things, then it doesn’t matter where you go to church- the problems will follow you.
Be the encourager. Be an example. And then see, over time, if church is a place where you feel encouraged as well.
From Formspring: The New Apostolic Church
I received this question over at Formspring and wanted to share the answer with you.
Love what you are doing mate. I was Bombarded by someone from the New Apostolic Church… They sort of believe the same thing only they think they are the only way, my insides turned as if rejecting an organ… What is right? Who are they?
I was unaware of the New Apostolic Church until this question was posted. There’s a New Apostolic Church not far from where I live, but I haven’t had any interaction with them. So I did some research. The following is based on my understanding of their beliefs published on their website (specifically in the document Faith in Life – A Life of Faith: Portrait of a Living Denomination ) with a little bit of Wikipedia to fill in the gaps. If I’ve misrepresented their beliefs, I would encourage correction and discussion.
Internet and Evangelism Part 1: The Internet is a Mission Field
I want you to picture the internet not as a place where you go to watch Youtube clips and play Farmville. I want you to picture the internet not as a place where you check the football scores, book airplane tickets or Google the answers to pub trivia questions. I want you to forget about how you use the internet as a tool in your day to day life.
Instead, I want you to think of the internet as a country. A country with billions of citizens who have their own culture, language, customs and currency. A country where people spend their waking hours interacting with each other, sometimes in strange and unusual ways. If you think of the internet as a country, the next logical step is to think of the internet as a mission field – a place where the opportunities to reach previously unreached people with the gospel of Jesus are rampant.
The internet is a mission field. And if you’re reading this, it’s a mission field that you already have access to. There are some countries in the world that won’t let you through the door because you want to tell people about Jesus. There are some countries you can’t get to because the expense of getting there and living there is beyond you. But the internet is a country where you already live. You know the culture and you know the language. So how are you going to approach your mission field?
From Formspring: Is Fishing Biblical?
I’ve been pretty slack with answering questions off my Formspring site. Today that changes. Each week I’m going to try and answer at least one question both here and on Formspring. If you have any questions about Jesus or pop culture that you’d like answered, head on over and ask away!
Today’s question: Is fishing biblical?
Formspring
Formspring is a website that was launched at the end of 2009. The idea is that people will send you questions anonymously to your Formspring account and you will post the answers on your public page. The site also links to Facebook and Twitter, so your followers on these sites will see what questions you are answering.
I first came across Formspring when I saw several comic book professionals that I follow on Twitter using the site to interact with their fans. People would send these pros questions and everyone would get to benefit from the answers. As an Australian comic fan, this was great. It gave me access to these writers and artists that I wouldn’t normally have as I can’t make it to any comic book conventions in the US. I can ask them questions as well as hear the answers to other people’s questions.
It got me thinking. How can Formspring be used for Christian ministry?
Should A Christian Listen To Heavy Metal Music?
I’ve started up a Formspring site. Formspring is a place where people can ask you questions anonymously and you put the answers up on your page. I’m keen to see if it would be useful for ministry purposes. If you’d like to help me out with my experiment, head on over and ask me your Pop Culture Christ related questions.
I had a good question about heavy metal music go up today that I thought I might share with you here.
Pop Culture Christ 
Recent Comments