Talk:KCU/04/Chupicabra

Instructor's Feedback on First Draft

This is a nicely written first draft. The sentences & paragraphs are well-formed & the article reads like it fits together as a whole. So, good job on that!

If this were the final draft, the grade would be something like a C. The main reason is that you need to add more dialog partners from extra research & you also need to expand your biblical coverage more (though less than with dialog partners).

Things to improve:

1. Incorporate more dialog partners from extra research into your discussion in a smooth way

2. Look at other biblical evidence. Three lines that you can examine more are: (1) Jesus' practice of gathering & traveling with his disciples; (2) Paul's practice of having traveling companions & his expressions of longing & affection for them when they're absent; & (3) the emphases on Christian as a body, a family, etc.

You have a nice start. So, keep up the good work!

Here are some web resources that may be helpful:

http://www.drcloud.com/Articles/CBTCDYC_3_God_alone_not_people.htm

http://www.sing365.com/music/Lyric.nsf/Enough-lyrics-Chris-Tomlin/96C9D29021D30A7148256DF200238A8E

http://www.fullbooks.com/A-Short-History-of-Monks-and-Monasteries1.html

http://www.goarch.org/en/ourfaith/articles/article7103.asp

http://www.suite101.com/lesson.cfm/18869/2691/7

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/september/16.38.html

http://www.incommunion.org/articles/issue-30/monasticism-and-the-way-of-radical-peace

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10464a.htm

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10464a.htm

http://www.intelligentchristian.org/Care%20Files.htm

Here's another useful dialog partner, this time an excellent forum contribution by a student in the online section of Christian Heritage, Missi Balch:

Since we have God, do we really need people? Absolutely. God is all powerful and he can accomplish anything He desires. He could even skip the whole road to Him by not having His Son come to earth to save us. But he doesn’t. He gave us free will and he wants nothing more than for us to have a relationship with Him. The relationship we were supposed to have with Him was broken when Adam and Eve disobeyed God. Now, the only way back is through Jesus Christ. But, we can’t just have the relationship handed to us. It comes when we learn about and understand the message of Jesus and when we accept Him as our Lord and Savior. Therefore, we need people to help us learn.

Some people believe that they don’t need God at all and are self sufficient. That is wrong and left for another discussion. Others think they need God only. That is just as wrong and is the topic of this discussion. On the website titled Christian beliefs that drive you crazy found at www.drcloud.com/articles/cbtcdyc_3_god_alone_not_people.htm, Cloud and Townsend talk about the “me and God syndrome”. Basically people think they don’t need other people for help, only God. They get this from the Bible verse Col. 2:9-10 which says “for in Christ the fullness of God lives in a human body, and you are complete through your union with Christ. He is the Lord over every ruler and authority in the universe”. The meaning behind that verse is not how it is being used in this context. God uses other people to help us. We read in Matthew 19:26 that “all things are possible with God”. It says with God, not by God alone. The “with” implies there is help from us, and/or others and God. In Ecclesiastes 4:12 we read “though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken”. The three strands can refer to the Trinity of God, it also refers to marriage. The husband and wife together with God are powerful. We are to work in partnership with God to accomplish much. Even Jesus as he was hanging on the cross made arrangements for one of His disciples to help His mother Mary. We read in John 19: 26-27 as he sees his mother near along with the disciple he loved and said “dear woman, here is your son and to the disciple, here is your mother. From that time on, this disciple took her into his home”. Jesus didn’t say oh you’ll be ok, all you need is me. No, he knew she needed the help of the disciple to care for her.

And, why would Jesus spend three years teaching his disciples and then tell them to “go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation” (Mark 16:15)? What would have been the purpose of training them if they were not to help others? Then his ministry would be for nothing!

On the intelligent Christian website www.intelligentchristian.org/care%20files.htm there is an article which describes a method of tracking the relationships of the members of a church through care files. The purpose of the files is to assure that each member has a network of people available to help them in any situation. The bottom line is people need other people for help. In Cross Cultural Servanthood by Duane Elmer, the author states “we are not called to help people. We are called to follow Jesus, in whose service we learn who we are and how we are to help and be helped” (p.11). We are to help and be helped by others with the help of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. It is a group effort.

We all have spiritual gifts. Why do we need them? Are we just supposed to figure out what they are and then use them selfishly? In a book I read by Tom Frisky called Solving Church Problems: Verse by verse study of 1 Corinthians, The Apostle Paul is talking in 1 Cor. 12 about the church in Corinth and their problems. He said their problems came “because of the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit were there, not through God’s fault, but because of the misappropriation of the Corinthians” (p.197). Paul goes on in chapter 14 and challenges them to use their gifts properly “so that the church would grow up, and the gifts would be able to achieve their desired objective”. We have been given gifts by God and they are to be used to help others.

One final note. I love Ravi Zacharias. He is an apologetics expert who wrote a book called Is your Church Ready?: Motivating leaders to live an apologetic life. In it he describes another instance where Paul is speaking and he says “when the Holy Spirit filled the early Christians, he not only moved in them to teach the word of God to believers and to perform miracles, but he also moved in them to engage boldly with unbelievers by arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God” (p.56). Why would God work in those people to teach if He didn’t want us to help others? Again, He could just do it Himself. But He doesn’t. He uses us. We need God and we need people.