Living Springs Q&a

1. It seems most modern evangelical churches only believe in adult baptism, but the Catholic church has been doing it for centuries. Are we missing something? Does it matter if infants are baptized or not? 2. Does God make expendable people? People that don't gever get to realize dreams of their own so God can make a point? 3. If God told you to do something, and you know you would die if you did it, would you still do it. Because God told Abraham to kill his son and he obeyed. 4. What are the regular spiritual disciplines you practice and why do you do them? 5.  (from a child) How can we become better Christians? 6. (from a child) how was Jesus made?

Q&A #141 - Love, just war, pastors, God overriding free will, Kanye West's new album and colonizing mars 1. A couple of weeks ago Blake taught from the gospel of John chapter 21, where Jesus asks Peter 3 times if he Loves Him.  All translations that I am aware of except for one use the word “love” for both sides of the conversation.  But in the original Greek that it was written in there are 2 words used here, Agape and Philia.  According to CS Lewis’s book, “The Four Loves” Agape (ἀγάπη) means unconditional "God" love, and Philia (φιλία) means a friend bond.  I have read translation notes and commentaries that defend the normal translation of using the word “love” for both words; however the fact remains that the original author did in fact use different words. 2. In a previous podcast you talked about Jesus and how he seemed to advocate non violence. Do you think there is ever a case for a just war then? What about warring against organizations like Joseph Koney's "Lords Resistance Army"? How should we as

Q&A #140 - A Boat load of questions! 1. Question to the musicians - do you have to adjust your timing to the lead singer; or do you expect the lead singer to follow your timing? 2. I have observed over the years that there are some christians that will be sympathetic and loving to a person that the meet who has gone bankrupt in the past, but those same christians will often be judgemental and condemning of someone that they know who is thinking of going bankrupt.  Do you have any comments on this observation? 3. Did Christians who hid Jews and lied to the Nazis during the holocaust sin because they lied and disrespected the authority that God put in place over them? 4. Why does the Bible say that some behaviours like gluttony or lust or envy are wrong even though they don't hurt anyone else and as long as they don't control your life, don't really effect an individual much either. 5. What is the point of prophecy when even a ton of prophecy in the Bible seems to be wrong. I had someone give me a "word" at c

Q&A #139 - I Lost respect for one of my pastors, and would you rather.... 1. I just found out that someone I respect, and works at this church in leadership, does not like cheese. How do I continue to hold any respect for this person as a human being, and would it be off side to eat poutine, nachos, cheeseburgers, and cheese dip in front of them until they change their mind? 2. Would you rather lose all digital messaging ability (including text and email) or have to use dial-up internet forever?

Q&A #138 - Spouses in church, mental illness in leaders, was Jesus racist? and Best Books of the Year 1. My spouse of almost 30 years recently confessed to me their faith is hanging on my a thread and they just don't know if they believe in God and the church anymore. We have both attended church our whole lives. What do I do? 2. If a church leader is diagnosed with a mental illness, should their leadership be brought into question? 3. In Mark 7:25-30 a foreign woman came to Jesus asking for help regarding her demon possessed daughter, and Jesus' response seemed very racist about her people group. She pushed a bit and Jesus granted her request. But this story seemed to portray Jesus as racist toward people groups, but loving toward individuals. How do you think this should be interpreted? 4. What's the best book of any category you have read this last year? Book Links 1. Irresistible by Andy Stanley ( https://www.amazon.ca/Irresistible-Reclaiming-Jesus-Unleashed-World/dp/0310536987/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3I9H0MI3T

Q&A #137 - Pets, God, authenticity, loneliness, true Christians, worthy, sorrowful rejoicing, unforgivable sin and revenge 1. What was your childhood pet? 2. When have you said, "I will never do ____!" And then God is like, "Um, yup. Exactly that." 3. How can we be authentic without oversharing? 4. I'm middle aged, single, and live alone. I have some good friends, but I have a nagging sense of loneliness all the time. My friends say that if I spent enough time with God that I would be fulfilled. But that doesn't help when I'm sitting home alone again after a day of work and all my friends are busy with their families. Can God actually help me feel not lonely or do I just keep suckling it up? 5. I was listening to a sermon recently where the speaker asserted that the evidence of true conversion was a desire for fellowship with Christ.  What do you think is the evidence that a person is truly a Christian? 6.  In Ephesians 4:1 Paul urges the Ephesians to:  “live worthily of the calling with which you have been

Q&A #136 - Ten questions on one episode! 1. What is the most embarrassing thing that has happened to you? 2. Who would you each choose to play yourself in a movie? 3. Regarding Tim Horton’s cups, what is your preference: Dome lids or Normal lids? 4. I say hi to a some people at church on the weekend, but I want to get to know some of them more and don't know how to do that. Ideas? 5. Recently when speaking to another Christian, I was talking about how sad it was that more and more people seem to think how wonderful and kind it is to euthanise old people, I was shocked when he agreed with the idea of euthanasia to end suffering.  What does the bible say about Euthanasia?  How do you think I should have responded to him? 6. our cultural consumerism seems to have tainted many of our thoughts on pleasure and sexuality. How do we separate these ideas and think about pleasure and sexuality without viewing them through a consumerist lens? 7. If women make up 1 out of every 3 visits to pornographic sites, if 17% of

Q&A #135 - Mass Divorce in Ezra and Is the Trinity Necessary to Believe in? 1. In Ezra 10:2-3, men from Israel realizes they have sinned by taking wives from the nations around them. They then all agree to send away their wives and children. It seems they were willing to destroy the lives of many women and children, just to keep one law of Moses. Does you think God looks favourably on decisions like this? 2. Do you have to believe in the trinity to be a Christian? What if you believe Jesus was created by God like some other faiths?

Q&A #133 - New Group names, New symbol, Holiness, Struggles with Faith 1. What is the new name of the community groups going to be; Mahjong Groups? 2. What is the story behind or the significance of, the new symbol that goes with the new vision statement “Imaging Jesus by becoming Love”?    3. In a devotional I am reading, it says the word "holy" means set apart. I was always taught it meant pure or perfect. At face value this would seem to totally change the "holiness" movements and ideas the church has had if we are trying to be "set apart" instead of "pure or perfect". Can you learned types explain this more? 4. have any of you struggled with your faith and secretly wondered if you actually believe all this Jesus stuff? Can you share what happened?

Q&A #133 - New Group names, New symbol, Holiness, Struggles with Faith 1. What is the new name of the community groups going to be; Mahjong Groups? 2. What is the story behind or the significance of, the new symbol that goes with the new vision statement “Imaging Jesus by becoming Love”?    3. In a devotional I am reading, it says the word "holy" means set apart. I was always taught it meant pure or perfect. At face value this would seem to totally change the "holiness" movements and ideas the church has had if we are trying to be "set apart" instead of "pure or perfect". Can you learned types explain this more? 4. have any of you struggled with your faith and secretly wondered if you actually believe all this Jesus stuff? Can you share what happened?

Q&A #132 - Time machine dinner, Women in ministry, trinity, evangelism, and follow up from episode 131 1. if you could have dinner with anyone in the 20th century, who would it be? What would you ask them? 2. I really enjoyed Melissa's sermon last Sunday. However, I grew up believing that women cannot teach or lead, as it seems to teach in 1 Timothy 2:11-15. Is she allowed to teach because she's pregnant, as 1 Timothy says women will be saved by childbearing? Haha :) but seriously, how does our church interpret these verses? 3. I'm just a blue collar dude and need some help. can you explain how the trinity works and where it talks about it in the Bible. I just can't make sense of it. 4. what do you think evangelism needs to look like in our post-Christian culture? 5. In the last episode (#131) Doug said that “you cannot draw theology from the psalms “ Really!!!  Do you really want to go on record with that statement?!  Do you actually want to try defend that statement; or maybe retract it and reword the poi

Q&A #131 - Apostle's Creed, Native Canadians, Discipleship, Psalms, Adam and Eve and Genesis 1. Every once in a while I hear the pastors talk about the apostles creed. What is it? 2. Native Americans make up about 4.1% of the population and account for 28% of the admissions to our prison system (statscan 2018). Since they are seriously over-represented in our justice system, they are among the poorest of the poor in Canada, and the majority of Canadians are frustrated with the native population as a whole ("look, another drunk native on the corner"), that population seems to fit with the poor/imprisoned/lepers that Jesus said we need to reach out and take care of. Any ideas on how we as a church can approach this issue given current cultural attitudes and events? 3. Further to the discipleship discussion from last week, how do you initiate a discipleship relationship, both discipling others and being discipled? What does that look like in daily life? Society is so individualistic I'm having trouble imagining

Q&A #130 - Merging, Difficult relationships, God's goodness, Accidental sin, Eden and more 1. Why do some people seem to think that merging onto Deerfoot Trail at 60 km an hour is an acceptable option? (Of course at that speed “Merging” is not the correct word!) 2. Do you have any advice on how to have a relationship with, (but more importantly share the gospel with,) a person with an extreme victim mentality?  A person who will claim that nobody likes them, and then do their best to make sure that nobody likes them.  3. Is God’s goodness the reason we are at times spared from suffering? I almost had an accident with my vehicle. It was a near miss. Logically it looks like it should have happened, but it didn’t. This has caused me to wonder if God is the source of ALL the good things that happen. Is He the only reason anything good happens at all? 4. Can you accidentally sin? 5. Where did the Garden of Eden go? Can we find it on a map? 6. Jesus called us to make disciples, not Christians. When did the church

Q&A #129 - Raising daughters, God giving up, High places, Isaac's feelings 1. How do we teach our daughters to be modest without being legalistic? 2. Can God give up on you? 3. What were the "high places" the old testament often mentions when referencing pagan god worship? 4. What do you think Isaac was thinking and feeling when Abraham was going to sacrifice him? Wouldn't this have caused significant father wounding, at the request of God?

Q&A #128 - Hell, Protecting Kids, Multiple wives, Battles and God sending liars 1. In light of this weekend’s message on “Hell” what do make of Luke 16: 19 - 31 The Rich Man and Lazarus? 2. Do you have any suggestions on protecting your kids from evil and pain in the world and yet ensuring they aren't so sheltered, they don't know how to respond well when they encounter evil and pain when they get older? 3. In the summary of people's lives in the old testament, personal success seem to revolve around the number of wives and children a man has?  One of many examples would be Chronicles 13:21. 4. In the old testament, if Israel was winning a military battle, it was attributed to obeying God and He was blessing them. If they lost battles, it was because they were sinning and God was punishing them. In ancient literature, all the other pagan people groups believed the same thing about their gods. If the God of the Bible is the one true God, does that mean when the Israelites sinned and lost a battle, that the Go

Q&A #127 - When was the church built & is speeding a sin? 1. What year was this church built? 2. Is speeding 10 kilometres on the highway over the speed limit still breaking the law even though you will probably never get a ticket for it....If so, is it Okay for people who call themselves christians to break the law? What year was this church built?

Q&A #126 - Righteousness, Gender identity, Jr High awkward moments, Revelation follow up, group prayer and powerpoint 1. In 2 Samuel 22:21-25 as part of a song David wrote to GOD he is saying that GOD saved him from his enemies because of his own blamelessness and cleanliness before the LORD. Am I misunderstanding the text? I don’t understand how a man with multiple wives and concubines could consider himself blameless before the LORD. What are your thoughts on this part of his song? 2. My elementary school child is coming home saying that they are being taught that they can be boys, girls, or anything if they feel like it. How do I talk to my kids about this? 3. My junior high aged son got asked out by a friend in his class who is a boy. My son didn't really know how to respond and thinks he may have unintentionally hurt the boys feelings. Any suggestions for my son on how to mend a friendship without making the friend feel judged for being gay, but still making it clear that he's not interested? 4. In t

Q&A #125 - Donating kidneys, sin leading to death, Revelation on drugs and is God a man or woman? 1. Hi, I’m sure everyone has noticed the sign at the side of the road here in Airdrie that is asking for a kidney donation.  I remember a few years back there was a campaign started trying to get the general public to consider donating a kidney, there was a doctor who was in the news for donating one of his to a total stranger.   What are your thoughts about encouraging followers of Christ to donate a kidney?   What are your thoughts on the leadership of the church setting an example, maybe by requiring all the single male staff members to donate a kidney?? (Just Kidding!) However this makes me think of how christians in the early centuries of the church were known for there sacrificial love in caring for people who were dying with the plague, when even the families of the plague victims would throw their very own out into the streets.  Often the christians caring for these sick would get the plague themselves! 

Q&A #124 - Punishing Brock, Fights, Floating rocks, Profanity, Exploring sex in marriage & 12 step programs 1. In the last episode everyone sounded really clear except for Brock, he sounded like you had him inside a tin can or an echo chamber! Were you punishing him? What was he being disciplined for? 2. Who would win in a fight, batman or superman 3. What year was Jesus born? 4. Years ago when I was a little boy I asked the girl next door to marry me. She picked up a rock and told me that if she threw it in the pond and it floated that she would marry me. I prayed REALLY hard but it sank. :-( Theologically speaking, what do you think went wrong here? Thanks in advance. 5. For some reason I’ve become increasingly aware of how frequently “Jesus Christ” is said as people exhale in frustration.  : A kid saying it on the playground when his play is interrupted. A grandmother saying it in frustration toward her granddaughter after she says she has to go pee. A coworker saying it every single time they are pre

Q&A #123 - Trials, Israel, sermons, judging, divorce, poor, IVF and Brock's Tattoo 1. Can you have just tribulations? Or do they always have to come with trials? Cause you only here about people having trials and tribulations, but never one or the other. 2. What is the church's stance on Israel? Does the church stand behind Israel or support it's boycotting? Is this a topic that is important to Living Springs? 3. Do you prefer topical vs expository sermons? Do you feel one style connects better with people than the other? 4. I heard that Rachel Held Evans died at the beginning of May and my initial reaction was that God must have been judging her for leading people astray. But now I kind of feel bad about thinking that way. What do I do with those feelings? What do you guys think about her ministry? 5. You mentioned a few weeks ago that we can forgive someone and still put up boundaries to prevent abuse in our relationships, and Jesus said that the only reason someone should get a divorce is because of infid