Tag: The Christian Life
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Paul’s Thoughts on the Spirit
I’ve prepared a list of these texts from all of Paul’s Epistles and some from John, with some notes) to make the point that Paul was consumed with the working and power of the Holy Spirit — that it was, in fact, his principal message to his churches.
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Fishers of Men
There is an intriguing connection, as pointed out by my friend and Hebrew Bible teacher, Ross K. Nichols, between some of the Hebrew Bible’s prophecies, describing a regathering set off by phrases placing that regathering in the “latter”/”last”/”days to come”, and Jesus’ statement that He would make His Disciples (the fishermen Simon (Peter) and his brother Andrew while they were in the process of fishing) “fishers of men” (Mt. 4:19). Question: Was Jesus simply using the obvious metaphor that those Disciples were vocationally already fishermen to connect the mission He was inviting them to take up? Or is there some…
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What Is God Waiting For?
About 2000 years ago, Christ rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, prophesied by Zechariah (9:9) of Israel’s long-awaited Messiah, and hailed by His followers with “Hosanna[i]”. In keeping with God’s plan for His Creation, Jesus was murdered, buried, and then arose from death only to reappear to the Disciples and many who knew Him. During His ministry, He repeatedly taught about the immanence of God’s Kingdom on Earth (i.e. “at hand”, “in your midst”, etc.) The Bible says that for His act of sacrificial obedience, Christ was given all authority in Heaven and on Earth. Yet, here we sit, 2000…
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What Is God Waiting For?
About 2000 years ago, Christ rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, prophesied by Zechariah (9.9) of Israel’s long-awaited Messiah, and hailed by His followers with “Hosanna[i]”. In keeping with God’s plan for His Creation, Jesus was murdered, buried, and then arose from death only to reappear to the Disciples and many who knew Him. During His ministry, He repeatedly taught about the immanence of God’s Kingdom on Earth (i.e. “at hand”, “in your midst”, etc.) The Bible says that for His act of sacrificial obedience, Christ was given all authority in Heaven and on Earth. Yet, here we sit, 2000…
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Groaning With the Spirit
Rom 8:26 “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” A recent post on social media mentioned an interview with NT Wright (A Deep-Dive into the Book of Romans: Dr. N.T. Wright – Theology in the Raw) in which he makes a point regarding the above (and other Romans’) passages of Paul that for me was both startling and eye-opening. Let’s look at Wright’s narrative of the Romans story, and unpack his startling point.
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Developing Spiritual Fitness
Most of us think about our spiritual lives (when we think of them at all) as cerebral, passive things: things that just are, likely supported by some “quiet time”, perhaps some Bible reading, and prayer. However, our spiritual strength is only truly developed when, like a muscle in our body, it is stressed, and stressed repeatedly.
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Developing Spiritual Fitness
Most of us think about our spiritual lives (when we think of them at all) as cerebral, passive things: things that just are, likely supported by some “quiet time”, perhaps some Bible reading, and prayer. However, our spiritual strength is only truly developed when, like a muscle in our body, it is stressed, and stressed repeatedly.
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Implementing God’s Kingdom on Earth
The Kingdom of God is the precinct in which its citizens interact with each other and outsiders per God’s will. So, as Christians, how does God want us to act both to model and to implement His Kingdom “on earth as it is in Heaven”? Implementing the Kingdom of God “on earth, as it is in Heaven” is more than an enterprise of personal transformation. It is also an enterprise of transforming the society in which we live to reflect its values. Here we intend to analyze how Christians caring for others and desiring to transmit God’s blessing to as…
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Implementing God’s Kingdom on Earth
The Kingdom of God is the precinct in which its citizens interact with each other and outsiders per God’s will. So, as Christians, how does God want us to act both to model and to implement His Kingdom “on earth as it is in Heaven”? Implementing the Kingdom of God “on earth, as it is in Heaven” is more than an enterprise of personal transformation. It is also an enterprise of transforming the society in which we live to reflect its values. Here we intend to analyze how Christians caring for others and desiring to transmit God’s blessing to as…
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The Parable of the Shrewd Manager
One of the most obscure parables Jesus related to His Disciples is found in Luke 16:1-13. The average Bible reader is left scratching his head as to what on earth Jesus is doing in this parable in which He lauds what seems to be deceitful behavior by the discredited manager of his rich master’s accounts. But once the reader sees the intended lesson, he is convicted by its message. Let’s see if we can’t unpack that message here.
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A Critical Analysis of Eastern Orthodox Beliefs
In way of introduction, I have been forming my Christian beliefs, in some cases based on other’s views, in others personal study, for now some 20+ years. Recently, I have explored some of the beliefs and doctrines of the Eastern Orthodox Church, and, surprisingly perhaps, have found substantial overlap with my own. I say surprisingly, because I have never experienced any teaching of the Orthodox Church, a Church who claims its beliefs to be the authentic beliefs of the very earliest Christians. I would characterize my own beliefs as still shackled in some ways to traditional Western Christian doctrines (e.g.,…
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A Critical Analysis of Eastern Orthodox Beliefs
In way of introduction, I have been forming my Christian beliefs, in some cases based on other’s views, in others personal study, for now some 20+ years. Recently, I have explored some of the beliefs and doctrines of the Eastern Orthodox Church, and, surprisingly perhaps, have found substantial overlap with my own. I say surprisingly, because I have never experienced any teaching of the Orthodox Church, a Church who claims its beliefs to be the authentic beliefs of the very earliest Christians. I would characterize my own beliefs as still shackled in some ways to traditional Western Christian doctrines (e.g.,…
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What is the Christian’s Calling?
There are three polar opposite popular opinions these days as to what it is the Christian is called to do. The first is that the Christian calling is to do essentially nothing. This is the view held, in whole or in part, by the vast majority of those who identify with the Reformed Church tradition, convicted as they are by the doctrine of God’s Grace. These folks’ understanding is that God is in complete control of the outcome of society, and so they are at best incidental to His Sovereign decision. Some who hold this opinion share it only up…
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What is the Christian’s Calling?
When asking the question as to what it is the Christian is called to do, we get three diametrically opposed popular opinions.
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Christ’s Cultural Revolution
Most people including self-professed Christians have no inkling of the enormity of the transformation of their everyday existence Christ prescribed. His prescriptions so thoroughly upended the culture of first-century Jews that they concluded He had to be eliminated.
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New Life in the Kingdom of God
In the second three chapters of Ephesians, Paul casts his revolutionized view of human life and interrelationships that, as much as any portion of his epistles, brings into sharp focus the life transformation that followers of Christ should both expect and strive for.
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Paul’s Apocalypse of Christ
In his letter to the Ephesian church, the Apostle Paul reveals that for millennia God had knowledge kept secret that suddenly, through Christ, had been revealed, first to Christ’s Apostles, and then to those to whom they preached. The revelation of this secret, this μυστήριον mustḗrion, was for Paul the life- and reality-shattering apocalypse of Christ.
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Abandoning the Love of Jesus
Modernity has gradually abandoned the love of Jesus as the key tenet of society with predictably disastrous effects. Ever since the Enlightenment (1650-1900) mankind has committed itself to a mission of analyzing technical and societal problems and, through its own IQ, skills, and determination (you know, “hard work”, etc.), “fixing” them.
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The Inversion of Virtue
The West, I argue, has turned a corner from which it will be impossible, short of a miracle, to un-turn. We’ve become addicts of narcissism, ignorant judgements, and feigned righteousness. We’re continuously fed their messages of “just a little more” so that our impending overdose is all but assured. But, perhaps most depressing is the fact that we don’t even realize it.
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The Inversion of Virtue
The West, I argue, has turned a corner from which it will be impossible, short of a miracle, to un-turn. We’ve become addicts of narcissism, ignorant judgements, and feigned righteousness. We’re continuously fed their messages of “just a little more” so that our impending overdose is all but assured.
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Love Your Neighbor as Yourself
Most will recognize this title as one of the most famous admonitions of Jesus of Nazareth. But most of us don’t have much experience in fulfilling it. How can we turn this around?
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Love Your Neighbor as Yourself
Most will recognize this title as one of the most famous admonitions of Jesus of Nazareth. But most of us don’t have much experience in fulfilling it. How can we turn this around?
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Life Elevated
Much of today’s popular psychological messaging is designed to make us happy and content with ourselves by puffing up our self-esteem. Much of this messaging is commercial, designed to create in us a frame of mind favorable toward purchasing whatever is being sold. This psychology doesn’t have your best interests at heart; it doesn’t want what’s best and most edifying for you. It just wants your money, your time and attention, and your “clicks”.
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Life Elevated
Much of today’s popular psychological messaging is designed to make us happy and content with ourselves by puffing up our self-esteem. Much of this messaging is commercial, designed to create in us a frame of mind favorable toward purchasing whatever is being sold. This psychology doesn’t have your best interests at heart; it doesn’t want what’s best and most edifying for you. It just wants your money, your time and attention, and your “clicks”.
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Needfulness
If you haven’t yet recognized your abject needfulness; haven’t yet plumbed the depths of your prideful self-satisfaction with your comfortable, predictable existence as your greatest and most challenging failure, then you haven’t approached the door of God’s Kingdom, nor, perhaps, do you know where to look for it.
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Needfulness
If you haven’t yet recognized your abject needfulness; haven’t yet plumbed the depths of your prideful self-satisfaction with your comfortable, predictable existence as your greatest and most challenging failure, then you haven’t approached the door of God’s Kingdom, nor, perhaps, do you know where to look for it.
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Don’t Waste God’s Time
Few understand what being called into the life of Christ means to them or requires of them. Fewer still understand, having answered this call, how such a life is even possible, let alone what that life looks like as it is lived out. And very, very few know that answering that call and living that life is what God expects of all of us.
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Don’t Waste God’s Time
Few understand what being called into the life of Christ means to them or requires of them. Fewer still understand, having answered this call, how such a life is even possible, let alone what that life looks like as it is lived out. And very, very few know that answering that call and living that life is what God expects of all of us.
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Man in God is Immortal
Times of uncertainty, like those we find ourselves in in the Spring of 2020, bring stress on both the believer and the unbeliever. For the one who believes in the Son, however, he knows that he has the assurance of God that he will share in His eternal life (1 John 5:11-13, John 6:47, Romans 8:38-39). So the Christ-follower does not share in the culture’s dread of sickness and death.
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Living Christ
This note focuses on the sincere Christian desiring to live the life he has been called to live in Christ — to live your life as Christ would live it if He was you.
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Living Christ
This note focuses on the sincere Christian desiring to live the life he has been called to live in Christ. Here I don’t want to divert into the question of why so few self-professed Christians are sincere in their faith. I want simply to focus on those who are (and all true Christians), and provide them with what little insight I have to aide them in living their lives in the way Christ would have them live.
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Being a Disciple
Not many self-proclaimed Christians these days would claim the mantle of “Disciple”. They think those were the twelve guys who followed Jesus around (or were they Apostles?). Most have no idea what the term means and what is, therefore, involved in actually becoming one.
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Being a Disciple
Not many self-proclaimed Christians these days would claim the mantle of “Disciple”. They think those were the twelve guys who followed Jesus around (or were they Apostles?). Most have no idea what the term means and what is, therefore, involved in actually becoming one.
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Perceiving God
Christians are taught to “know” and love God. And for some, their experience in the faith leads them to moments of perceiving God with them. Here I’m not talking about some strange incursion into your life by some spirit-like presence, perhaps in response to some crisis or loss in your life. The web is full of such event-induced testimonies, and, no doubt some are true, and some are even God. No, I’m referring to times typically of quiet reflection in which you sense the reality of God with you. These episodes are far more intense and immediate than the Spirit-filled…
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Perceiving God
Christians are taught to “know” and love God. And for some, their experience in the faith leads them to moments of perceiving God with them. Here I’m not talking about some strange incursion into your life by some spirit-like presence, perhaps in response to some crisis or loss in your life. The web is full of such event-induced testimonies, and, no doubt some are true, and some are even God. No, I’m referring to times typically of quiet reflection in which you sense the reality of God with you.
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Seek First the Kingdom of God
Not all Christians experience the same quality of spiritual life. For some, their lives are joyful, full of confidence, full of assurance of their acceptance and eventual reward, and full to overflowing with the Spirit of God, to the point that they feel compelled to give it away to those around them. For others, life is more measured, perhaps a bit more stressful, containing more concern, at least to a degree, for some of the things in their lives, resulting in worry. They are somewhat discouraged by the lack of spiritual “fruit” in their lives. They want to love, and…
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Escaping Christian Indolence
Multitudes of Christians today think that they have no obligation to serve their Lord. They seem to be content having, in their mind, obtained their “salvation”, to simply sit by, go through some motions, and wait to go to heaven. Why is this behavior so common today? There are a few reasons that can be fairly easily identified.
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Instructions for Living in the Spirit
Romans 12:2 ESV Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Matthew 7:21-23 ESV “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your…
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“in Christ”?
What does it mean to be “in Christ”? How do I know if I am? The Apostle John tells us this: 1 John 5:20 (ESV) [20] And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. To John, the condition of placing our faith in God and His Son, the Christ, was synonymous with being “in him”.
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Forsake Offense
When many look at what’s going on today they see an attack on their long-held values. Others see sinister forces at work to prevent them from achieving a better society. And let’s just stipulate that both are reacting honestly, in that their feelings are not fake. What’s unusual today is the strength of those feelings. It’s true that the media does its best to stoke the flames of those feelings. But unless you spend your day glued to a media outlet, its hard to believe that you are significantly more agitated by today’s events than, say, those of the 1960’s…
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Forsake Offense
I’d like to offer a little perspective on current events. It’s not for everyone. When many look at what’s going on today they see an attack on their long-held values. Others see sinister forces at work to prevent them from achieving a better society. And let’s just stipulate that both are reacting honestly, in that their feelings are not fake.
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Redeem the Time
I recently watched this message from Dallas Willard delivered to an audience at Westmont College in 2011. Most of what Willard has to say in all of his books and talks rivets my attention. But this one particularly grabbed me. It is definitely worth submitting it to careful review, particularly as we commemorate this Easter week.
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Should I Believe This, and If So, How?
God has endowed us with minds and logic. We look at the assembled evidence concerning a question, and we draw conclusions using them based on the criteria, deep down, of “What’s best for me?”
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Scientific Evidence for God
From our earliest days, we have perceived God through His creation. From the majesty of the Universe to the delicacy of a hummingbird, or the simple beauty of an Orchid, we have equated the exquisite wonder of creation with its even more majestic Creator[1].
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Christianity in the Age of ‘Whatever’
Lots of people write blogs. Very few people actually read them. So why this one? Recently I’ve been absolutely stunned by the power of the delusion our society is suffering regarding truth, good and evil. In this perverse worldview, people who elect to strap on explosives and detonate them, or fire automatic weapons at unsuspecting innocents aren’t really “wrong”. In this worldview they are just reacting to our evil. What is also remarkable is the popularity of this view. We’re all familiar with the phenomena of ‘political correctness’, in which what most people once agreed was simple, honest, common sense…
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Should I Believe This, and If So, How?
God has endowed us with minds and logic. We look at the assembled evidence concerning a question, and we draw conclusions using them based on the criteria, deep down, of “What’s best for me?”