03.30.09
Glory of Creation
I spent a few hours hiking in the Ocala National Forest today. Among other wildlife, I came across a family of three raccoons, and most interestingly, I spotted a crawfish on the floor of the forest. I thought that a bird had dropped it from its beak as it flew overhead because I wasn’t near a stream. I came home to read up about him online.
His name alone clears it all up; Procambarus clarkii. This is the Latin name for the “Red Swamp Crawfish.” Read the rest of this entry »
Nothing “New” About Jim Bakker
While I was eating a tuna fish sandwich, I scrolled down the channels and found “The New Jim Bakker Show.”
For becoming an Amber Builder’s Club Member (which I figure would set you back about $1000), you will get a stone from a brook on their new 600 acre property. On one side of the stone will be written the word “Jim,” and the word “Legacy” is written on the other side. You will also get TWO–not one, but two–membership cards. They call it their “double partner membership.” With each card, you may shop for 12 gifts from their “Partner’s Shop.” In it are things that belong to the glory days of the Bakker past–items of personal ownership or made to give the impression of ownership by Jim and his family.
Read the rest of this entry »
03.23.09
. . . Where Credit is Due
I don’t intend to label anyone else with any of my personal viewpoints and opinions, however, I want to recognize and acknowledge to the readership my influences. The holy and universal church of God is facing an unprecedented batch of challenges; religious pluralism, the test for absolute truth, moral scandal, & materialism to name a few. [Well, you're right, these aren't unprecedented at all.] Before I list my favorite writers and communicators, I make a disclaimer for the angst and radical nature of my blog posts. Read the rest of this entry »
03.21.09
The Coming Evangelical Collapse
Many of us have read “unChristian” and still maintain the status quo. Many of us have read the Gospel, and maintain the status quo. The status quo is not very Christo-centric. Check this out.
Here are the bullets from Michael Spencer’s Article:
The “Internet Monk” says, “I believe that we are on the verge- within 10 years- of a major collapse of evangelical Christianity . . . “
We are soon going to be living in a very secular and religiously antagonistic 21st century in a culture that will be between 25-30% non-religious.
This collapse, will, I believe, herald the arrival of an anti-Christian chapter of the post-Christian west and will change the way tens of millions of people see the entire realm of religion. Intolerance of Christianity will rise to levels many of us have not believed possible in our lifetimes, and public policy will become particularly hostile towards evangelical Christianity, increasingly seeing it as the opponent of the good of individuals and society.
03.12.09
Amazing Quotes
Fresh from tonight’s class in what I call “Grace Training,” here are some great Steve Brown quotes:
- The people who use the term “Doctrines of Grace” don’t generally have any grace. They are likely the meanest people you’ll know.
- If this is our message, how come we still live in the prison of our mind? Why does religion eat us alive? Why are we so guilty? Why are we so mean?
- A lot of Christians believe that holiness is defined as meanness and that if I can be as mean as God, I too can be holy.
- “Guilty people make others feel guilty. You can always tell how guilty a person is by how guilty you feel in their presence. Free people make people feel free.”
- “God, I am not good, but I’m Yours.”
- “You wouldn’t be so shocked at your sin if you didn’t have such a high opinion of yourself.”
- “The default of a Christian is self-righteousness and the law–thinking that we can add something to the sufficiency of Christ.”
- Q: Why do we stay in our legalistic prisons? A: Pedagogy: there are those who teach holiness in an unbiblical way and sanctification in a way that keeps people in prison.
. . . and that was just hour 1
The Offensive Nature of Yahweh
I don’t want to remove the thing about Scripture that causes you the most trouble. You are wise to see something that counters our human understanding of “good” in the biblical God. Likewise, you are wise to challenge and wrestle with it. I merely caution that the nature of the Unmoved Mover is not likely to bend or break. The person fighting against Him, because he cannot fit the divine into his intellect and his definitions of “good,” is more likely to be bent–or worse yet, broken. My challenge to you is to face the offensive nature of Yahweh head on. Go here and read the last three verses of Isaiah. You will worship Him or hate Him–there is no middle.
03.11.09
Parable of the Spade and the Proper Messiah
As I look back, it seems that I am not the same person that I once was. I’ve heard someone challenge, “People don’t change.” I respond to that challenge, “Nobody stays the same.”
Religions are interesting, I guess, because their nature concerns man’s quest for improvement, a movement inward, outward, or both from a place of trouble to a place of peace.
In my dream last night, several of my friends and I decided to hurry up to see this peace-to see what was next. We decided that we were going to let someone kill us. The plan was that we would deliberately and peacefully lie on our backs in the grass and close our eyes and then the other person would shove a spade shovel through our throats and sever our heads.
Somehow, I was the one holding the spade-and I had no peace. Even after the rest were asleep, I was still awake.
It would only be appropriate that someone should learn of the killings and then kill me too, but that never happened. As it turns out, those who would sentence me had their own friends and they too were looking for peace.
When I woke up from my dream, I wondered about all of this in the back yard. To my relief, there were no severed heads or spade shovels lying on the grass. The moon was the most commanding celestial body that I had ever witnessed. It was exactly 4 a.m. Read the rest of this entry »
03.08.09
The Elect Are 2nd Place
I am not first. I don’t want to be first. If I am elect, I am always second place. The account of my name comes after the account of the non-elect who are always first. Then, Christ trades the first-place people with the last-place people and He becomes first and again I am second.
1. Most noteworthy about the structure of the Genesis is the presence of 11 toledots. It is a toledot narrative. A toledot means “account” or “generation.” For example, the story of x is actually about the descendants of x. i.e. The toledot of Adam actually introduces the descendants of Adam, such as those of Terra, Ishmael, Isaac, Joseph etc. The non-chosen, non-elect, non-covenant line is introduced before those of the chosen line.
2. Jacob comes after Esau, yet it is Jacob that God has chosen. The toledot of Esau comes first in Genesis. That of the elect follows that of the non.
Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad-in order that God’s purpose in election might stand: 12not by works but by him who calls-she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” (Romans 9:11-12, Gen. 25:23)
3. The old earth will be destroyed. There will be a new earth which cannot be destroyed.
4. The account of Christ, the second Adam, follows that of the first Adam.
I Corinthians 15:45-49
The Scriptures tell us, “The first man, Adam, became a living person.” But the last Adam-that is, Christ-is a life-giving Spirit. 46 What comes first is the natural body, then the spiritual body comes later. 47 Adam, the first man, was made from the dust of the earth, while Christ, the second man, came from heaven. 48 Earthly people are like the earthly man, and heavenly people are like the heavenly man. 49 Just as we are now like the earthly man, we will someday be like the heavenly man.
5. From Christ forward, the spiritual family of God are no longer last. He takes the second place persons and calls them first. He takes the first and makes them last. He Himself is now the firstborn among many. His family is introduced last.
Mt. 22:8-10
“Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. 9Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ 10So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
6. In the “Parable of the Sheep and the Goats” the Sheep are addressed before the Goats. The toldot of Christ is now first and not last.
The Supremacy of Christ
15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
