Life audio
 hello Brothers and Sisters in Christ my name is Ellen and I am the host of coffee and Bible Time podcast on the show my guest and I seek to fill your mind with encouragement found in the scriptures as we seek to inspire you to Delight in God's word every day and just surprised and your daily Christian walk here's a short preview of one of my favorite episodes
why do you think there is this fear or suspicion in the Evangelical world over sacramental practices
 I think one concerned that evangelicals have an end that I that I had was that if you if you used it if you were to engage in the sacraments you can make a night a lot of them and that they could be something that you were worshipping instead of Jesus Christ and you know that's that's something that we all have to guard against that we don't replace Jesus with something that is religious that maybe looks like Jesus but actually isn't isn't him and we really want to follow the second commandment we will not set up Idols to to worship and still I think that's one concern and I think another concern that people have is just the physical nature of liturgical worship that it involves your body and really strong the Evangelical world on a North thoughts and our feelings reaching the heart and reaching the head both of which matter to God
 and but involving our bodies as an is another matter and this is this is one way that we can actually just honoring of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ that he can't he became flesh you know he took on a human body and in fact went to the cross and was resurrected in the human body and stood a praise God he sits at God's right hand and intercedes for us in a human body and when were resurrected with him when we rise on that final day boy we will stand before him in in a in a body that has been resurrected so you know the Lord involved the human body in Salvation and what liturgy and sacraments do is it is sort of an honors the bodies that God has given us as a gift and just honors the fact that you no matter matters you can say the matter matters we don't worship the creation but we do honor creation as as our Lord dead
 and along the way we are going to just recognize that sacraments are like those glasses that people put on you know people who are color blind and they have those color correction glasses that are given to them by a family member and if you see there's these videos online of the people who have been colored by their life putting on those corrective glasses with the first time
 and after a few seconds and they just break down weeping because it's so beautiful and so what I found is that rather than an idle what sacraments do in liturgy does is it there like this corrective glasses that helps us see Jesus Christ better help to see that he is closer to us than the baptismal water he's closer to us than even the bread and the juice of the wine and that and that actually his grace is its present for us even when we are facing great doubts and going to that burn out season and in our thoughts and our feelings are not what we want them to be and for me actually what that did is that helped reintegrate my thinking in my feeling
 and help me grieve and I also help me have Greater Joy and worship along the way so for me those those two doubts are really legitimate and significant and I think that scripture shows us that that we need not fear biblical liturgy when biblical celebration of the Lord's supper and baptism
 that's so encouraging to hear could you just tell us there may be people listening that aren't even sure what the sacraments different liturgies are can you maybe just give a brief rundown and what they actually are in case people don't know
 absolutely so liturgy is actually it's anything that we could do with our bodies that shapes our souls it's the work of the people that's the ancient definition of it the work of the people and it works on the people so anything from even you know I'm in a secular sense swiping swiping up on our phones to the next video is Ethel Liturgical Movement and it shapes our days and shapes our attention but so does holding hands with your brothers and sisters in your small group and praying The Lord's Prayer together singing The Lord's Prayer together that's going to shave your soul as well so liturgy is what church is try to do that I'll look surgical is to use scripture to shave your soul and so liturgy is anytime we're singing scripture even in it in a favorite song anytime we're fighting it together anyway that we are participating in the
 the sort of scripture filled worship of Jesus Christ that is liturgical and so the in the reason that you repeat it is not too not for vain repetition but actually it's training just like we would train with piano lessons we would we would remain you know used to train my my my jump shot in basketball I would spend hours trying to get it down because I wanted to be ready for the game and what liturgy does is it's like it's these exercises to help us fight the World the Flesh and the devil and to be faithful representatives of Jesus Christ when when that when we're on the spot
 sacraments are anything that's it's a it's a visible sign of an invisible Grace that's how I Augustine it was early Church Pastor to find sacraments is anything that it's it's the Lord's Supper you know you sometimes called communion or or the Eucharist and baptism and what these what these are there like signposts that points to a greater reality that we can't see so the Lord of his grace shows us that he's still with us but he uses the ordinary things of life that that that communicate that loves to human beings you know water for for for washing and food for nourishment these are everyday realities but the Lord needs to send them and they they Point Beyond of water Point beyond the the the bread though the juice the wine to the grace of God in Christ
 to continue listening to this dip at you just heard and discover other episodes I invite you to click on the link in the show description you could also visit life audio.com or search coffee and Bible time on your favorite podcast app we release new episodes every week but I have more than 100 episodes available for you to listen to for free right now thanks for listening