9/27/2008

Grace, Love, Justice of God!

"God heals the wounds of the inflected by his blow. " Is. 30:25

People must be humbled. God must be lifted up. God must punish but even more so God wants to bless. He patiently waits until he can bless even though he is bound to punish sin first. God is amazing.

Trying to contemplate this type of love - this type of patience....is impossible, it is beyond comprehension.

By human standards, it is not even possible to muster up enough both love and justice to punish those we love and then come in with grace and mercy, the way that God does.

9/26/2008

Prophetic art

Prophetic art is not an optional extra to the message, but essential to it!This type of language was designed to shock people out of our complacency!

The people of the day were ignoring the teachings and sermons of the prophet so the only way to get their attention was to use more poetic speech. While we can still see some of these literary devices in the prophets that we read today in the English translations, there are even more play on words, meter, and devices that we cannot see or understand in the original texts!

This is a really cool area of study if you ever have the time or interest in it. Check it out!

9/25/2008

In Daniel

We see human responsibility to rule given in Creation where the whole created order was made subordinate to man.

It can be done properly but high status of humanity can be corrupted into the worse kind of offenses against God.

The sin of pride and Nebuchadnezzar is a great example!

This sin of pride is what we see it in Adam and it has always been a major issue and still continues today.

9/24/2008

In Daniel

The stories of Daniel and friends are so real and exciting to read /hear! These narrative stories are some of my favorite stories in the entire Bible.

Faithfulness of God requires the faithfulness of his people.

Whether God can and will protect his people from the all too visible power of kings who do not recognize the God of Israel depends on the faithfulness and obedience of his people.

God's faithfulness is demonstrated in his deliverance of Daniel and his friends.

Daniel and his friends were faithful to God and God delivered them on several occasions (I will highlight a few):
1. Diet test.
2. The fire
3. Den of lions
4. Visions


Theological points in relation to 'faithfulness':

At Creation we were created In His image. We were to be like God.

Be as I am (holy, faithful, righteous, just, loving)...there is the side of human responsibility.


we have no excuses: With the New Covenant, the law is on our hearts.

9/23/2008

In Daniel

We see a sharp distinction between a distant God in the visions who has simply prescribed all in advancements verses a God who is involved in everyday life in the narrative stories.

It is an interesting difference to note.

I think all through out history we see this and sometimes in our own life we feel this. Times of distance and times of intimacy with God. Out personal God, the Creator, Sustainor, King and Friend.

It is a topic worth pursuing more in thought and in philosophy and Theology.

9/22/2008

Freebie! On a Monday? (Cause it is not Friday!)

I found this really great free resource, online today. It is a free book!

"Why do so many young adults (18 to 22) leave the church, and what will it take to bring them back? This important question is examined and duly answered in Essential Church? : reclaiming a generation of dropouts , a follow-up to Thom S. Rainer’s best-selling Simple Church co-written this time with his son, research expert Sam Rainer."

And the download link is here!

I am excited about reading this book. I just finished UnChristian and think this will carry a similar theme.

Question of the Day

Will we miss those who are not in Heaven when we are in Heaven?

A member of my church mentioned, during a rabbit trail of his sermon, that Christians will not miss those who are not in Heaven, because Heaven is perfect...there is not more tears, pain, suffering, etc...therefore it must be so.

I do not know if that is true. I do not know if it is even something we can know for sure. But at first thought I recall that there is tears in Heaven. Although it is Christ Jesus who wipes away those tears. I am not sure I even like that line of thinking, because an extreme case of this type of thinking will lead to hyper-Calvinism... "I don't need to share the Gospel, cause God is ultimately in control and did not want everyone in Heaven in the first place and I will not miss any one who is not up there any way!"

Albeit, this person was NOT preaching a Calvinistic sermon and he is not a hyper-Calvinist by any means. He did not mean it that way, but when reflecting on this question that thought came to my mind.

To me, it is vital that we think about eternal life while we live in this temporary one. It is vital that we share our faith. And while I do not want to merely give out "get out of jail free cards." I do think that the after life, Heaven and Hell can, will, and should motivate us Christians to share our faith and the unsaved to act upon the Good News. Becuase Hell is real.

We should build relationships of discipleship and not merely save'm and leave'm. Of course. But do not forget about how real and life changing the message of Heaven and Hell really is.

Now back to the question:
"Will we miss those not in Heaven?

I have heard and read some pre-millinalist dispensationalists say that "Yes. We will miss those not Heaven."

So what do you think?

Ohio University

I made a recent visit to Ohio University and I fell in love with Athens all over again.

Why I fell in love...
The buildings, the brick, the beauty.
Atmosphere of learning, of loving, of having fun!
Campus Crusade for Christ.
The nature, the trees, the park areas.

Why I am biased...
I spent my 4 years of ungrad there.
And I lived in Athens for 6 years before my ungrad as well. It is a nice little town.
And I moved to a larger, noisier, busier, more real life town and it is the opposite of Athens.

It is whole another world compared to the rest of Ohio.
Just a small little college town in the middle of no where but yet 20,000 college aged students come together. It is awesome. The weather there too is unlike any of other place in the world too.

9/21/2008

I am impressed by Microsoft Search 4.0

I am impressed by Microsoft Search 4.0.
It is very good.
It searches faster than every before AND
it searches deeper than ever before.

Not only does it search titles but it searches content with in files!
Really nice.

The only annoying thing, but it is reasonable is that fact that it slows down the computer at first, when you first install it, because it indexes all the files for faster and better. I like it!