JR. Forasteros - January 5, 2014

Red Sea

Ordinary Phenomenon

How many times have you wrestled with doubt? With the frustration of not having all the answers? Then you hear a story from the Bible - like the parting of the Red Sea - and think, "That must have been nice. If I could see something like that, I'd never doubt." The problem is, according to those same stories, the Big Events don't actually shape anyone's faith. There's something more going on, something small and steady. Something beyond the big events.

From Series: "Ordinary Phenomenon"

How many times have you heard about one of those spectacular events in the Old Testament and thought, "It must be nice!" If only I had seen the Red Sea part, or Elijah's showdown on Mt. Carmel. Then it'd be so easy to trust God! But apparently that's not true. We see again and again that the big events aren't what transform us into God's people. Rather, we find God in the ordinary phenomena we see every day. Join us in January as we explore these Big Events to find what God was calling his people to then - and now: an ordinary, every day relationship that's nothing short of phenomenal.

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When I was in high school, a friend of mine invited me to play Dungeons and Dragons. This was exciting to me for a couple of reasons: first, I am and was a huge nerd, so D&D had always been something I wanted to check out. And second, I didn’t have a lot of friends in high school, so this invite was exciting to me!

There was only one problem: I was a child of the 80s, which means I grew up during the so-called “Satanic panic” when America was convinced there were covens of Satanists behind every rock and tree. D&D was alleged to be one of their primary recruiting tools. So my mom was not thrilled that I would be summoning demons with my friends so that we could sell our souls to the Dark Lord.

I’ll spoil the ending: she eventually relented, and my friends and I played D&D for several months straight and no one ever even saw Satan.

We certainly weren’t interested in selling our souls.

But even today, in many churches, bring up D&D and people who wouldn’t know a d20 from a d10 are convinced that D&D is a tool of Satan, along with rock n roll music, high school dances, and a host of other activities.

Which begs the question: really? And, in light of our last series about asking better questions, “Are those the right places to be looking for the devil?”

Today, we’re going to see the answer to that last question is, “No. Actually, if you want to find Satan, you might want to start by looking at religion. Because according to Jesus, one of Satan’s favorite tools is not D&D, but the kind of religion that shields us from looking closely at ourselves.

There’s a way to be religious that keeps us from being honest about our sin, so it actually keeps us from God.

The good news, though, is that Jesus offers to shine the light of truth on our satanic deception, freeing us to follow him into God’s life!

Join us Sunday as we learn how religion blinds us and how Jesus helps us see.

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