Lauren Daigle
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King James Bible
I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things
I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things
This is really a misconception! First, give me one example of one example of a street person who knows as much about God as a preacher who has dedicated his life to learning the Bible, and to understanding it, and how to communicate that to God's people.
Our church partners with a church whose mission is to reach the homeless and the street people in our community. I have heard some tremendous testimonies of what God has done in their lives. As testimonies, they are awesome. As preaching to help us grow closer to God, not so much. I love to hear about a woman drug dealer turning her life around. And then reaching out to addicts. But her take on evangelism was never to mention sin. How can anyone get saved without understanding what we are saved from?
The preacher from that church, who lives in a very nice home a few blocks from me, came to preach at our summer camp a few years ago. I was really excited about what he was going to teach. Instead I got a lot of extremely simple and basic stuff. Then I realized that although he is a trained preacher, he has to preach at that level, because that is what his congregation needs. My church is full of ex-missionaries, retired pastors, and lots and lots of Biblical education, but also godly character. Those people I can learn from.
I had the feeling that pastor does not sermon prep at all. He just spoke off the cuff. And made some extremely, identifiable exegetical mistakes, which if he had taken the time to do a bit of research, even in a study Bible would have been easily corrected. But, he is doing something God has called him to do. So, glory to God for that. But no, he is not preaching deep, thinking sermons. Because not one of those street people would have a clue what he was saying. So how did you have somehow come up with the absurd idea that street person can teach us more about God than a preacher?
And for every success in that church, there are terrible failures. People that just walk away. Or people who commit to Christ, seem to be walking the walk, and just kill themselves one day. That happened 2 weeks ago in this church. He overdosed on drugs. Now, I know the ministry is very stressful, and pastors do kill themselves. Mental illness can touch anyone. But, these people were just broken the way it happened, and so unexpected. (I am FB friends with many of the people doing this mission work. I get to hear the stories - good and bad first hand.). They had hoped Christ had made a difference in his life. And maybe there was a difference, but not enough. Because I would hazard a guess that 99% of those street people came from horrible, dysfunctional homes, like the woman drug dealer talked about.
So, one example of a street person who knows more about God than a trained preacher. And not just a testimony, but actual deep knowledge of who God is, based on the Bible.
Our church partners with a church whose mission is to reach the homeless and the street people in our community. I have heard some tremendous testimonies of what God has done in their lives. As testimonies, they are awesome. As preaching to help us grow closer to God, not so much. I love to hear about a woman drug dealer turning her life around. And then reaching out to addicts. But her take on evangelism was never to mention sin. How can anyone get saved without understanding what we are saved from?
The preacher from that church, who lives in a very nice home a few blocks from me, came to preach at our summer camp a few years ago. I was really excited about what he was going to teach. Instead I got a lot of extremely simple and basic stuff. Then I realized that although he is a trained preacher, he has to preach at that level, because that is what his congregation needs. My church is full of ex-missionaries, retired pastors, and lots and lots of Biblical education, but also godly character. Those people I can learn from.
I had the feeling that pastor does not sermon prep at all. He just spoke off the cuff. And made some extremely, identifiable exegetical mistakes, which if he had taken the time to do a bit of research, even in a study Bible would have been easily corrected. But, he is doing something God has called him to do. So, glory to God for that. But no, he is not preaching deep, thinking sermons. Because not one of those street people would have a clue what he was saying. So how did you have somehow come up with the absurd idea that street person can teach us more about God than a preacher?
And for every success in that church, there are terrible failures. People that just walk away. Or people who commit to Christ, seem to be walking the walk, and just kill themselves one day. That happened 2 weeks ago in this church. He overdosed on drugs. Now, I know the ministry is very stressful, and pastors do kill themselves. Mental illness can touch anyone. But, these people were just broken the way it happened, and so unexpected. (I am FB friends with many of the people doing this mission work. I get to hear the stories - good and bad first hand.). They had hoped Christ had made a difference in his life. And maybe there was a difference, but not enough. Because I would hazard a guess that 99% of those street people came from horrible, dysfunctional homes, like the woman drug dealer talked about.
So, one example of a street person who knows more about God than a trained preacher. And not just a testimony, but actual deep knowledge of who God is, based on the Bible.
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Yes, but who wrote the NT? Luke was a doctor, and his Greek is a very high level. I have to read Luke and Acts with my lexicon in one hand. But God used him, despite his education and training, which is what you are essentially saying.
Paul was a highly educated former Pharisee, but he was also well trained in Greek rhetoric, philosophy and other things. And yet, God not only used him, he used him because of his background and training. Matthew had to have had some education to be a tax collector.
And then we come to John, the fisherman. His Greek is so simple, we were reading passages in the first semester of Greek. We had excerpts to translate for our final exam, if we pulled that verse. I didn't bother to read it daily, because it was so simple. I prayed, and God told me to read Mark 1. I spent a lot of time memorizing the new words, the verb forms, and yes, it got pulled first try. My professor said no one had ever said yes to Mark 1. Well, I did, and he stopped me to see if I had the English written into my Greek Bible. It wasn't as hard as Luke, but maybe even harder than Matthew and Paul.
Then there is James, who God used in a great way, as leader of the church in Jerusalem, and to write the book of James. His Greek is harder than John. And his message is very different, in some ways, but very needed. Oh, Hebrews, which is anonymous. Very high level of Greek, but also a tremendous understanding of the law, and how Jesus fulfilled it. I guess an educated Jew was needed for that book.
But of course, it wasn't those men, it was God. But, we get our systematic theology from Paul, mostly, and our history of Jesus and the early church in Acts and Luke, and of course, the other synoptic gospels. John was close to Jesus, his writings are very inspired.
There is no doubt God can use who he wants to preach the gospel. Or write it! But, despite your video, which is not what I was asking for, very few people who live on the streets can preach, teach, counsel, etc., better than a trained pastor.
I wasn't asking for a youtube video, by the way. I was asking for someone YOU know who is homesless, who knows more about God than a preacher. I would imagine though, if you lined up 100 preachers, and 100 homeless people, probably 95-98 of the educated preachers would know more about God and be able to communicate that knowledge than even one homeless person.
The fact is, if they really knew God, would they be homeless? Following Biblical principles in North America doesn't put you on the street.
Anyone can spend hours looking through youtube videos to find something that matches what they believe. And you have no clue whether it was scripted or acted, or really true. That is why I asked for YOU to give me the name of a homeless person that you know and can verify the story is true.
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