9.17.2005
The Making of the Christian - Dallas Willard & Richard Foster
What is the difference between discipleship and spiritual formation?
Here is an intriguing article that will stimulate you to think about the distinctions between the church, the gospel, and social justice. I hope that it compels you to rise above the current language that minimalizes the person of Christ while deifying the actions of main. There is more to our spiritual morphing (2 Cor. 3:18) than the 3 Gospels:
1) Forgiveness of sins
2) Churchmanship
3) Social Action
No Christian is an island. We desperately need the Holy Spirit and one another to achieve the GOAL = Character Formation! Or in other words, God's holiness being embued in us and birthing mission out of us into a needy world.
Otherwise, we will be left with stupid pastors who rant about holiness at staff meetings!!
Wrestle well friends . . .
Here is an intriguing article that will stimulate you to think about the distinctions between the church, the gospel, and social justice. I hope that it compels you to rise above the current language that minimalizes the person of Christ while deifying the actions of main. There is more to our spiritual morphing (2 Cor. 3:18) than the 3 Gospels:
1) Forgiveness of sins
2) Churchmanship
3) Social Action
No Christian is an island. We desperately need the Holy Spirit and one another to achieve the GOAL = Character Formation! Or in other words, God's holiness being embued in us and birthing mission out of us into a needy world.
Otherwise, we will be left with stupid pastors who rant about holiness at staff meetings!!
Wrestle well friends . . .
9.10.2005
The Most Important Question You Will Ever Ask - No Kidding
Life is an amazing journey. The beauty of looking on the face of your child for the first time. The rush of adrenaline into your body as you reach over and kiss the woman of your dreams for the first time. The grip of your whole being as you look out over the ocean for the first time and watch the immensity and power of the sea. There is a grim side to the journey as well. Oh, there are atrocities you will see as well. The horror of seeing the bloated and swollen belly of a starving child in Africa that is afflicted with HIV because she was raped at the age of six. The high school friend who died in a fatal head on wreck. The destruction of a hurricane as it chaotically crushes life and wipes out the memory of a past.
I say all this because this journey requires us, it hastens us, no it compels us to ask the question - Is there a God? and if there is, what can I know about Him? And if we can know Him, will we allow God to define Himself to us? And once we see Him for who He is, will we listen? follow the trend He sets? come low before Him? put Him first in our affections? let all praise flow past us and to Him?
The most important thought you will ever think is what you think about God because it will determine everything else (every other dimension) about your existence.
As you think about who the God of the Bible is, ask yourself these three questions:
1)What is Father-ness? Origin - begetting, origin of all things, end of all things.
2)What is Son-ness? Agent (all things are from the Father through the Son) - submission, obeys the will of the Father, begotten, subordinate. In all of these things he is equal in nature but not in person. Mediates for us.
3)What is Spirit-ness? Means of all things – (Ephesians 2:18) gives us access to the Father by reconciliation of the son through the Spirit. Intercedes for us.
From the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit. For the glory of God, through the glory of the Son, by means of the glory of the Spirit, for our joy - because of what we see as we look out the window of life and gaze into the reality of the mystery and power of God
I say all this because this journey requires us, it hastens us, no it compels us to ask the question - Is there a God? and if there is, what can I know about Him? And if we can know Him, will we allow God to define Himself to us? And once we see Him for who He is, will we listen? follow the trend He sets? come low before Him? put Him first in our affections? let all praise flow past us and to Him?
The most important thought you will ever think is what you think about God because it will determine everything else (every other dimension) about your existence.
As you think about who the God of the Bible is, ask yourself these three questions:
1)What is Father-ness? Origin - begetting, origin of all things, end of all things.
2)What is Son-ness? Agent (all things are from the Father through the Son) - submission, obeys the will of the Father, begotten, subordinate. In all of these things he is equal in nature but not in person. Mediates for us.
3)What is Spirit-ness? Means of all things – (Ephesians 2:18) gives us access to the Father by reconciliation of the son through the Spirit. Intercedes for us.
From the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit. For the glory of God, through the glory of the Son, by means of the glory of the Spirit, for our joy - because of what we see as we look out the window of life and gaze into the reality of the mystery and power of God
9.07.2005
"He is no fool to give that which he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose."
We are still utterly ordinary, so commonplace, while we profess to know a power the 20th-century does not reckon with. But we are harmless, and therefore unharmed. We are spiritual passivists, non-militants, conscientious objectors in this battle to the death with principalities and powers in high places. Meekness must be had for contact with men, but brash, outspoken boldness is required to take part in the comradeship of the cross. The world cannot hate us, we're too much like its own. Oh that God would make us dangerous!
