Category Archives: Worldview
All I Have is Christ-Animated Video
Bless’Ed – Run Away (ft Kristy Marie) Official Music Video
In Light of What’s to Come
I spent the first half of the day on Christmas Eve in the scriptures reading through Paul’s letters. And although they are full with theology, history, doctrine and instruction, there is something common to them that struck me more deeply than anything else: Paul seemed to live in light of what was to come—the return of Jesus in glory and power. It seems he was simply immersed in this reality, and it saturates his letters. At some point in the letters I read, whether introduction, midpoint or close, he made sure that the recipients were aware that all he was doing, enduring, and writing about was cast in the context of the return of Jesus. This is simply powerful!
To Timothy he says:
[K]eep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords (1 Tim. 6:14-15).
To Titus he says that we are
waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ (Titus 2:13).
These are just two examples of Paul’s perspective, a perspective he longed for the fledgling church, and for us, to have…we are to live our lives in constant hope and expectation of the coming of the Lord! This is the joy that binds us as children of God. So go today and live in expectation of the return of the King.
Richard Dawkins View on Intelligent Design
I found this interesting, especially Ben Steins last words. Dawkins isn’t against the concept of there being a designer, just against a certain designer, namely God
The Aims of Idolatry and the Postmodern World
“When men and women engage in idolatry it is an attempt to either; localise God, or in our minds contain the creator, “we can put God in here”; or to domesticate Him, making the Sustainer of life somehow dependent upon us; or to alienate Him, by blaming Him for His distance and His silence, when in reality He actually rules the nations and isn’t far from us; or to dethrone Him by demoting Him to some image of our contrivance or craft or creativity, when in fact He is the Father from whom we derive all of our craft and creativity; there is no logic in idolatry, it’s a perverse expression of our human rebellion against God.”-Stott
Four words in bold stand out in this quote. Four words that I am indeed guilty of….we are all guilty of. Idolatry is a strange and powerful thing, yet subtle in its in working and out working. When we hear the word “idol” we either go to pop cultures definition of someone famous or infamous who we want to be like, with, or a part of their world. Or we run to a more ancient picture that relegates the definition to primitive people worshiping primitive gods in a primitive manner. But the reality is that idolatry is the removing of any of the fullness of God, and His attributes from the place of honor which they do and should hold. this is idolatry in its truest sense, making the One true God any less than He is, and any less than how He has revealed Himself.
I am an idolater. I have tried with great vehemence to localise God, putting Him in a box for which He is not made and can not fit. I have often sought to domesticate Him, believing that somehow His joy was wrapped up in my worship and obedience of Him. I have alienated Him, blaming Him for not doing what I wanted Him to do, and not answering my prayers the way I wanted Him to, though He is omniscient and all-knowing and I am not. And I have dethroned Him, making so many temporal and useless things my God of the moment, and making Him to hold a lesser position in my eyes than that which He holds in the full scope of our reality. Yes I am an idolater, and so are you. But there is an out, and it is the gospel…through it, belief in Christ sacrifice for sin and absorbing of God’s wrath, and the following of His word, will, and way, my idolatry diminishes as my worship, affection and satisfaction in God expands. Thank God for His Christ and His gospel, believe and be free from idolatry.
One Should Die, the Other Submit, but They Both Rebel
When sin entered the world it ruined the harmony of marriage not because it brought headship and submission into existence, but because it twisted man’s humble, loving headship into hostile domination in some men and lazy indifference in others. And it twisted woman’s intelligent, willing submission into manipulative obsequiousness in some women and brazen insubordination in others. Sin didn’t create headship and submission; it ruined them and distorted them and made them ugly and destructive.-John Piper
Ephesians 5:22-33
The Gift of Cancer
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Neutral Jesus
On the 22nd of this month I tweeted, there is no neutrality with God. You either actively pursue Him or actively oppose Him.Though this statement would seem to be divisive, it’s true…but when truth is determined in degree’s and not absolutes, then this “all or nothing” statement becomes the source of religious oppression, war, and international division, according to a good friend of mine. He responded very passionately to this statement, which you can find here if you scroll down to April 22.
The discourse between us got me thinking about his perspective on all or nothing statements being divisive, and there is no argument that they certainly do demand a choice…but that doesn’t make them particularly wrong, does it? In as many lights as Jesus has been cast today, a good teacher, prophet, guru…more than anything, we have tried to neutralize Him, and the church is most guilty of all.
A neutral Jesus is safe, inoffensive, palatable, and easy to digest. A neutral Jesus will allow us to invite people into our churches and allow them to not feel uncomfortable, challenged, or compelled to change. A neutral Jesus is the most acceptable Jesus in our post modern culture and limp wristed churches, because we can gather people without there being a call to commitment or obedience to the scriptures. But did Jesus leave us that?
“Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters”(Luke 11:23)
“Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”(Luke 11:28)
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments”(John 14:15)
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. 37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.”(Matthew 10:34-37)
These are Jesus’ own words. They are not neutral…they are certainly absolute…and clearly all or nothing, but they lead true followers of Jesus to love more, serve more, know their own frailty and share more of who Jesus is and His gospel of grace. And whatever other responses they elicit, war mongering, hate mongering, hate speech, oppression, we can be sure they are not from the heart of Jesus.
Too Glorious to Be Incidental
A high resolution extreme ultraviolet image of the sun taken by Space Dynamics Observatory on March 30, 2010. Reds are relatively cool (about 107,540 Fahrenheit); blues and greens are hotter (greater than 1.8 million Fahrenheit){Image taken from foxnews.com}. How can you not see the glory of a great God in the beauty if this?
