either/or … both/and logic

In recent years, people connected with the church, have made active attempts to change how they think and speak.  Specifically, they advocate for the replacement of “either/or” logic (statements and questions) with “both/and” logic.

This need comes from key motivations

1. To prevent contradictory statements of faith
2. To pay attention to parts of God’s word ignored, overlooked, not focused on enough
3. I am passionate about this, therefore I must be right
4. I am angry about this, therefore I must be right

However, there is a problem with this desire:

• To claim only “both/and” statements exist is bad-logic because to do so we must accept that both “both/and” and “either/or” statements are possibly, while
• To claim only “either/or” statements exist is also bad-logic because to do so is to accept either a “both/and” or  “either/or” statement could be appropriate to a situation

The other problem with this desire is once it is put into practice.  For example:

• You are either male or female.  You cannot be both.
• All living creatures are either alive or dead.  They can never be both.
• God either exists or He doesn't.  We cannot claim God both exists and doesn't.
• Salvation is either by by faith or not.  We cannot claim salvation is both by faith and something else.
• And yet, Jesus is both man and God.
• Also, you can be both a parent and a child.

In other words, it is possible to have “both/and” logic and “either/or” logic depending on the situation.

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equipping the church

These are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.
(Ephesians 4:12-13)

It was Saturday (daytime). I was standing out front of a facility that combined the Australian Institute of Sport (A) and Canberra University (B) (see figure below). Though Sunday church services were still held here, albeit with smaller attendances, already half the seats were full with couples, singles, groups, kids, and older people. Many others continued to arrive, and some by bus. The region people walked through was similar to walking from College Road through the Canberra University car parks onto the campus.

 

Now, while the pastor was preaching, it was unclear as to whether a guest speaker was present or not. In the crowd someone spoke of how many were from the Christian City Church Belconnen; led by Nick at a Pub.  A red haired lady inquired where I was from, to which I responded: “I started at CCC Dickson PM, then CCC Kaleen (night and day), and now this is my home.”

details

• This was indeed the history of my church attendances at the time, but I had never spent time at this location
• There is  a man named Nick who heads the CCC Belconnen group.  It's location is next to door a pub
• Plan is to go speak with this group (date 28 April 2012)

application

Be confident! Being part of the Church of Canberra is a destiny of greatness. God intends that we integrate into a complete body: equipping people in both mind, body and soul, to be mature disciples who can discern and apply the abilities they are given.

• Encourage people to pursue the work God calls them to do
• Release apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers so they would, together, equip people to achieve such work (this is why they exist)
• Persist until there is oneness in faith and knowledge in Jesus
• Persevere until God’s people has attained maturity as measured by Christ

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pediatry

pediatry
A rarely used term for pediatrics, meaning an area of medicine concerned with the health of infants, children and adolescents, their growth and development, and their opportunity to achieve full potential as adults. It is the study of the diagnosis and treatment of diseases and disorders in children.

podiatry
The medical study of the diagnosis and treatment of disorders of the foot.


This was in relation to Michelle (15 year old girl)
seems to be a wordplay
the only reference can think of in relation to this is Ephesians 6 when Paul is speaking of the armour of God, specifically the shoes which are the Gospel of Peace

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who is abraham's seed?

First read Genesis 12 and Genesis 13 to find the section where God is promising Abraham about his descendants.

Next read Galatians 3:15-21: When Abraham was promised the land to be inhabited by his descendants, there is a correction: Scripture doesn’t say “to his children,” as if it meant many descendants. Rather, it says “to his child”—and that, of course, means Christ.

Using the concordance link (left sidebar) read again the parts you found in Genesis, specifically the word descendants (Strong's number 2233).

So what appears to have occurred is the translation has caused the word seed to be read as a plural (more than one item) rather than the single (only one item).  This is similar to how we use the word sheep or fish. According to the correction made in Galatians, who is the seed?

Therefore, if the same word is being used in Genesis 15 and Genesis 22, then their meanings will need to be reexamined.

Perform the same concordance research and look for the sections that speak of God's promises when he uses the analogies of stars and sand.

Now to gain an understanding of what God was really promising Abraham:

1. Write out the following quote from Gen 22:17-18 "indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your descendants as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore ; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice."
2. Replace the word descendants with the answer to who the seed is
3. Reading the sentence like this sounds a bit weird so you will need to discover how a few other Hewbrew words translate (highlighted)
4. Use the meaning which makes sense in the new context
5. Feel free to look at any other words you need to

When I did it, it came out as follows:

"Indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will make  Jesus mighty.  He will be as the stars of the heavens and the sand on the seashore.  He will possess the gate of the enemy.  In Jesus all the nations of the earth will be blessed, because My voice was obeyed."

Now read John 10:1-8 and John 11:52 from the new testament.  Remember to read the surrounding text for context.  Does anything sound familiar about God's promise?

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