Q&A

Question: Why do we have creeds?

Answer: Heresy was rampant in early church history. The creeds were ways to remind and affirm the church of its biblical truths.

Question: Why do many churches practically never have communion?

Answer: Early Christians reacted to the improper use of the Lord's Supper by having it less frequently, which eventually turned into tradition and common practice down the centuries.

Question: Why do some pastors wear special robes on Sunday (like Pastor Sam)? =D

Answer: These robes are intended to cover the pastor's outward appearance that may suggest poverty or wealth to protect people from distraction and judgment on the pastor.

These are just a few of the questions that I often wondered about. Why does the church do what it does? As I've been going through Leviticus for my devotional time, more questions just seem to muliply with every chapter that I read about why God was so particular about offerings, regulations, unclean animals and conditions, and even punishments.

I think there were many reasons and purposes for the various statutes, but one of them was to distinguish and protect God's people from the ways of the Egyptians/Caananites and false gods. Even with the questions above, many common practices and changes we see today are a response to the various forms of sin that can (and have) entered the church. I think Leviticus similarly gives us strong warnings but also clear exhortations to be set apart.

But like all of scripture, all of the questions and answers that we have point us to a Savior who practiced everything completely and perfectly. Tim Keller points out that God didn't give the Law to His people before He delivered them from Egypt; rather, God delivered them and saved them and then asked them to obey.

Here's one last Q&A from my other favorite thinker:

"Have you ever read the book of Exodus at one sitting? You know, it's alright, it's alright until you get to about chapter 27. And then from chapter 27 to 40...I think it is palatable. I think it can be taken until Moses comes down and says to the people, 'We are going to build a tabernacle.' So long and no longer, so wide and no wider, so high and the whole thing...and I said, 'Lord, there's something going on here that's eluding me for Moses could have solved this whole problem with one sentence: 'Dear reader, what you have just read, so we did. Ditto.' That's all. But Moses didn't seem to do that, did he?'...For God says to Moses, 'There I shall meet with you. There I shall commune with you.' It is vitally important to God how the house is built and how it is maintained where God himself is going to, in some limitation, dwell. Brethren, if God took 14 long chapters to express to these people how He wanted that house built, do you think He is not concerned about how you and I maintain this body now?"

-Ravi Zacharias

Thought of the Day: Loud Kina

Song of the Day: 2NE1-Lonely