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_____________________________________________ August 2012 10 Edition that they distract us from Evangelical Lutheran Church in Malaysia
Internal Circulation
August 2015
19th Edition th
living the Christian life. The history of Christianity is dotted with utter cruelty committed in the name of dogma. The word “dogma” means required belief prescribed by the Church authority.
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_____________________________________________ The Pharisees kept the law very piously but oppressed the poor. The truth of the matter is that dogma often lies at the margins of Christian life. They are important but they should not distract us from living the truth. When we live the truth we become part of a system that originates from heaven.
_____________________________________________ On one occasion, an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”He answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, “Love your neighbour as yourself.” “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” (Luke 10:25-37)
_____________________________________________ In the above text, the expert in Law asked Jesus what he must do to “inherit eternal life?” I am sure the expert knew all about inheritance but it is uncertain what he meant by “eternal life.” The most commonly thought of belief in those days was that ”life can be lived forever in time.” Yet the expert and many like him fear death and see in God a way to cheat death. But Jesus did not
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Very often we think that to be a Christian is only _____________________________________________ to believe in a set of ideas. Sometimes even evangelism is thought to be convincing others of an ideology. This notion is often perpetuated in some seminaries where students go to study the doctrines of the Church. Despite the fact that doctrines are important, we cannot allow ourselves to be consumed by them to the extent
“In most churches, we consume our time and will-power in our own internal affairs as if there is nothing else left to look in the world.”
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