Finding Hope Through Discovery in Bible Study

    Larry R Evans September 25, 2021   Introduction   Last week in our Vancouver church, Pastor Bryson shared an excellent sermon about rest.  His key text was Matthew 11:28, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you  rest . (NIV) The  Message  paraphrased it this way, "Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me.  Get away with me   and you'll recover your life . I'll show you how to take  a real rest . The words of Jesus were in contrast with the prevailing thoughts of the Romans then and Secularism today. Stoicism, for example, taught that thoughts mattered most while feelings should not be expressed.  Epicureanism taught that  the purpose of life was to experience tranquility.  This was accomplished by making sure that a person had more pleasure than pain. The purpose of life was then to have fun, to have pleasure.  What mattered most with this approach was self and doing whatever would bring personal satisfaction and pleasure

Called to Be Restless and The Sabbath of the Soul   September 11, 2021   Larry R Evans   Introduction   We live in a time of anxiety, a time of unrest.  Every wind of doctrine (religious and political) is blowing in the wind. One headline on the Internet reads:  “The Covid Vaccine has 666 Written All Over It…and Why that Doesn’t Matter According to Revelation.”    In the Washington Post is this headline:  “ On social media, vaccine misinformation mixes with extreme faith .”   It then says, “ In an insular world on the social media app TikTok, young Christians act out biblically inspired scenes in which they are forced to take a vaccine for the  coronavirus , only to end up splattered in fake blood and on the brink of death.”   But the spread of disease is only one trauma facing us today. Other countries are concerned too.  One headline stated: “Deutsche Bank Warns of Inflation”   Of course, 20 years ago today the US was attacked in New York and at the Pentagon and likely a fourth plane