“Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Luke 9:60 italics Mine
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poopemerges
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poopemerges
“The great weakness of moralistic, exemplaristic preaching is its tendency to enlist Old Testament examples in order to lay ethical obligations on hearers without showing how Christ kept covenant faithfulness where the negative examples failed, and how Christ’s perfect righteousness fulfills even the best obedience offered by the Old Testament’s most positive examples. By “cutting the corner” and bypassing the text’s “fulfillment in Christ” …in a desire to show the text’s relevance to hearers’ daily struggles and relationships, moralism excises from the biblical narratives the source of their life-changing power, which is their testimony to the saving mercy of God in the obedience and sacrifice of Jesus. When Christ and his all-fulfilling role as Lord and Servant of the covenant are left out of the “equation” the narratives of Noah, Jacob, Joseph, Samson, David, and Nehemiah are subtly transformed from gospel into law…”-Dennis E. Johnson
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edikaiosen
So I’ve been reading Romans a lot lately, we all have been, and it dawned on me how much I’ve grown up without Gods Word in my life. Yea I went to church, a fundy church at that, and yea I was in youth group; I did all the things I was supposed to do (sort of). As long as I was the favorite of that current leader that I was under everything else could slide. It was about pleasing him or her and putting on a show. Why? you may ask. (Here’s is where my pondering has lead) Because I didn’t know the gospel! I was taught by my spiritual leaders in my church all of the things that I was supposed to do as a “good christian”. “You shouldn’t lie” or “You shouldn’t lust after women, that’s disgusting” (sometimes they threw a judgment in there too, just to mix it up I guess) Sure, those things are true, but where was the gospel in all this judgement? No where to be found by me. It was all tired moralism. Why wasn’t Romans 2:4 quoted to me,
“Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?”
Or
Romans 8:28-31
”And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?”
You see, this is the gospel at the heart, Jesus died for us so that we could be justified and glorfied and changed! If this would have been told to me in place of the judgements and moralism God’s kindness could have led me toward repentance. His word is enough! (imagine that)
So… here I am reading God’s word not for any other reason other than to read it, and guess what? It’s changing my life. You see, when we go to God’s Word with a presupposition about what we’re going to get out of it we’re going to get exactly what we want out of it. We’re going to twist and contort until it fits the asnwer we desire, but when we read and surrender all in humble knowledge of our own inadequacy to understand what we need and when we stop conforming the gospel to our falleness and begin to let the gospel conform us, then the power of God’s written Word is endless.
My suggestion: Pick a book of the Bible and read it. Come to it empty (no specific questions, no attitude, (simply said, don’t be looking for anything)) and you’ll leave full (with exactly what the spirit wanted you to get from it).
K.B.
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poopemerges
So let it be known that I think the concept of being a “red letter ” Christian, while it sounds great, is actually just bad hermeneutics. It also calls into question the inspiration of the rest of the Bible, because if “all scripture is God breathed” then all scripture is “red letters.” I suppose though it is possible that the “RLC’s” are not questioning inspiration…perhaps they are questioning the trinity (in which case Jesus is not God and did not breathe the scripture)…But alas no matter, here we will post a daily reading from the “red letters of Jesus” that are slightly more obscure.
“I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false.” Revelation 2:2
D.
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poopemerges
As long as it is quote day:
“We don’t follow Jesus because he makes life better, We follow Jesus because he is better”-Matt Chandler
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ddonnie
“A dog barks when his master is attacked. I would be a coward if I saw that God’s truth is attacked and yet would remain silent.”
John Calvin
D.C.
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mikevandrie
“If sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies. And if they will perish, let them perish with our arms around their knees, imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for.”
- C.H. Spurgeon.
This is a great quote. What does this mean to us? Are we living with this passion?
-M. VanDrie
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mikevandrie
Soli Deo gloria (“glory to God alone”)
Soli Deo gloria is the teaching that all glory is to be due to God alone, since salvation is accomplished solely through his will and action — not only the gift of the all-sufficient atonement of Jesus on the cross but also the gift of faith in that atonement, created in the heart of the believer by the Holy Spirit.1
The lives we live as Christians are to be for the glory of God alone. We are to live in such a way that we worship Jesus through the way we live. There are so many aspects that I could hit on that I could go on for days but I will stick to the basics.
You see glory is not due to us. In this society and even in our church’s we believe that we deserve the glory. We think that we should be the center of it all. I am guilty of this, most of my day is spent worshiping myself, trying to make situations benefit myself to get others to think highly of myself. In reality I should be laying down my life and living in such a way that the glory is given to God alone. Also we are not to give the glory to others. You might be thinking “I don’t give the glory to others.” I would beg to differ we give the glory to athletes, to singers, movie stars, to pastors, to friends, to bosses, to game developers, to models and there is a long list of other things. My point is that we give the glory to other things, in reality created things.
They are not God, but we treat them like they are. We do not give the glory to Jesus and give it to something that he created. Now there is even a benefit of sorts for us. See we were created to give glory and enjoy things, in other words to seek pleasure. The catch is that the only that we will only be satisfied when we give the glory to Jesus alone. We were made to created God alone. So may our lives be a living sacrifice to Jesus alone. May we live lives of humble worship to God and may we find that we find true pleasure in worshiping Jesus with our lives, through our beliefs and our actions.
The other part of it is that we are to be grateful that God alone and in that give Him the glory. We deserve the results of our sin, yet Jesus in his infinite wisdom, love and grace decided to give us life, to allow us to be in right relationship with him. Who else deserves the glory for that? Us, the church, our pastor. No, God alone does. So may we never forget what Jesus did on the cross, what the Holy Spirit did, does and will continue to do in our lives. To God alone be the glory.
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poopemerges
Welcome to our site. This is a site by five young guys who it would seem should be buying all the hype of the Emerging Church…except we aren’t. We are however big on the five solas:
Sola Scriptura: Scripture alone is the standard
Soli Deo Gloria: For the glory of God alone
Solo Christo! By Christ’s work alone are we saved
Sola Gratia: By grace alone we are saved
Sola Fide: Justification by faith aloneWe are also big on the idea of changing the world! So here is the deal: we really, really believe that orthopraxy is a part of orthodoxy! Those who know Jesus are being conformed to Jesus! We believe in helping the widow, feeding the hungry, and fighting for justice for the poor and disenfranchised. We also believe that racial reconciliation is a sign of the gospel revealed in the church! We think that the people of Jesus should be about redeeming and transforming neighborhoods to communicate and express God’s kingdom rule! We really, really believe and live these things..and not because we have “repainted” our faith but because we believe these to be the historic, orthodox truths of our faith. Not because we have discovered something new about Jesus but Because God in Jesus discovered, called and justified us for a life of good deeds. So you see it kinda ticks us off that a movement that has largely abandoned the Gospel is acting like they are the only ones who want to behave like Jesus!
This is our blog. Welcome to the garage.
BTW: The title of this post is stolen from the excellent (and soon to be reviewed here) book by Ted Kluck and Kevin Deyoung: Why We are Not Emergent.
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