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Wiregrass Church

Bystander - Week 2

Bystander - Week 2

In order to demonstrate who he was, Jesus performed a number of miracles—which the apostle John referred to as “signs.” The first of those signs was at a joyous occasion where Jesus turned water into wine. The second sign was in the midst of a heartbreaking circumstance in which a father desperately asks Jesus to heal his dying son.

Locations & Times

Wiregrass Church

900 W Main St, Dothan, AL 36301, USA

Sunday 9:30 AM

Believe in-spite-of people
Dr. Francis Collins
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Director of the Human Genome Project
The genome is an organism's complete set of DNA.
"If faith was a psychological crutch...it must be a very powerful one. If it was nothing more than a veneer of cultural tradition... "

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Dr. Francis Collins - The Language of God
"...why were these people not shaking their fist at God and demanding their friends and family stop all this talk, this nonsense about a loving and benevolent supernatural power."

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Dr. Francis Collins - The Language of God
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Doctor, what do you believe?
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I'm ... I'm not really sure.

The Language of God

Does science necessarily undermine faith in God? Or could it actually support faith? Beyond the flashpoint debates over the teaching of evolution or stem-cell research, most of us struggle with contradictions concerning life's ultimate question. We know that accidents happen, but we believe we are on earth for a reason. Until now, most scientists have argued that science and faith occupy distinct arenas. Francis Collins, a former atheist as a science student who converted to faith as he became a doctor, is about to change that. Collins's faith in God has been confirmed and enhanced by the revolutionary discoveries in biology that he has helped to oversee. He has absorbed the arguments for atheism of many scientists and pundits, and he can refute them. Darwinian evolution occurs, yet, as he explains, it cannot fully explain human nature - evolution can and must be directed by God. He offers an inspiring tour of the human genome to show the miraculous nature of God's instruction book. 
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35506.The_Language_of_God
hey
Christianity is not about "just believing" or "taking it by faith."
John, and Peter, and James, and Bartholomew and all the rest, they did not follow Jesus...

Because of faith.

The followed...

Because of what they saw and heard
The Gospel of John
John is not content to just tell us what happened. John has an agenda. John wants something to happen to you. And John wants something to happen to us, that happened to him based on his interaction with the Son of God.
Seven Signs
The Second Sign

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Healing of the Nobleman's Son
1. Capernaum is about an eight-hour walk from Cana, where Jesus currently is.

2. He's a royal official, which meant he was probably a Jewish Aristocrat.

3. Because he was an aristocrat, that meant he was probably a Sadducee.

Isn't it interesting that all of our intellect, and all of our pride, and all of our
certainty oftentimes gets pushed to the periphery when someone we love is suffering.
Jesus asked him to do what Jesus has been asking people to do ever since.

Jesus asked this nobleman to trust him based on the testimony of other people.

He asked him to entrust his son to him based on the stories told about him.
This is where we live.
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This is a lifetime reduced to a day.
We are asked to take Jesus at his word based on the word of other people.

That we are to go about our days with our unanswered prayers, confident there's something to this man, that he is in fact who he claimed and demonstrated that he was.
He walked home by faith, not by sight.
Walking by faith.
Walking by faith is not walking by hope.

Walking by faith is not walking by wishful thinking.

Walking by faith is living every single day of your life as if Jesus is who Jesus claimed to be.

Walking by faith is living every single day of your life as if what Jesus said is true.
A unique brand of love

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"As I have loved you" love
To walk by faith is to live with the confidence that your faith and your sacrifice and your commitment and your generosity are not in vain because they are anchored to something real and someone real.
"It's not enough to read the notes on the page. At some point, you have to hear the music." - Dr. Francis Collins

HIStory: A Six Week Study of the Gospel of John

HIStory: A Six Week Study of the Gospel of John

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