Church Notes

Today my Sunday School class learned that truth cannot be determined by a vote; the majority can be wrong. To prove that I brought in a jar of liquid and they voted on what they thought it was. The majority guessed Kool-Aid; the truth is that it was apple juice with a little food coloring. I told them that there are people who think that if "most scholars" believe something about God it must be right; in fact, there is a group who votes on which parts of the Gospels are true, which are mostly true, and which are not true. My class was shocked to hear that, and agreed that it was a bad way to determine truth, especially since the Bible is God's Word and is all true.

Later we were talking about God and evil, and I asked them to prove that God isn't evil, even though He is in control of evil and uses evil for good. They talked vaguely about it being "somewhere in the Bible" but I told them that isn't good enough; they need to know what the Bible really says. None of them had an answer. I said, "So as far as any of you know or can prove, God might very well be evil then?" One young man looked very, very concerned and I finally had to reassure him that I did not believe that God is evil and that the Bible was clear on this; I just wanted them to think. Finally we determined that God is love, and if He is characterized by love, he cannot also be evil (He is love in every part of Him, so there is no place for evil).

Today's sermon was about Philippians 1:6, which left my small elf perplexed about what to draw (she usually illustrates the sermon). I showed her in the notes that the pastor was talking about joyful Christians so she drew a row of very happy Christians with their arms raised high. They had very long arms and very long bodies and very short legs!

A hymn for you, one that we sang this morning (although not exactly like this):