A little plug for Horizon University and going to Bible College.
https://www.calvarychapelmagazine.org/heartland20221115/
Tuesday, February 21, 2023
So I have been working through the theological truth of our "union with Christ", as found in the New Testament. It started quite innocently by our Community Group at church deciding to read a book called "Union With Christ, the way to know and enjoy God" by Rankin Wilbourne. This coincided with teaching a course on Ephesians for Horizon University fall semester 2022. That started me on a path to investigate this idea more fully and has brought me to read several other books on the more academic side of this topic. Let me before I go on ask the question first going through your mind possibly: "should I read this book?"
Short answer: Yes. It is worth your time and investment. Remember that it is a non-academic work and written by a gifted preacher. Nonetheless, it is a worthwhile read.
I will, hopefully, over the next several weeks share some of my thoughts on this topic, and encourage your interaction and questions.
Here is the list of Current books I have read, or am currently reading.
Union With Christ, The way to know and enjoy God, Rankin Wilbourne (David C. Cook Pub) 2016
Living in Union with Christ, Paul's Gospel and Christian Moral Identity, Grant Macaskill (Baker Academic) 2019
Paul and Union with Christ, An Exegetical and Theological Study. Constantine R. Campbell (Zondervan) 2012
One with Christ, an Evangelical Theology of Salvation. Marcus Peter Johnson (Crossway) 2013
Blue: finished reading
Green: currently reading
Red: haven't cracked it open yet!
Here is the first ponderable quote:
"....Similarly, it ought to be unthinkable that preachers could ever see their task as simply explaining the passage before them and showing the moral burdens it places on their congregations, without also feeling compelled to point to the one person in whom those responsibilities could be met. And yet, much of our teaching does precisely this. It seeks to make our people "experts in the Scriptures" so that they will be morally prepared to make the right decisions, but that is all they become: not disciples but scribes." Grant Macaskill , " Living in Union with Christ" pg. 2
Wednesday, August 26, 2020
Corona-virus Update:
- As of today: it is still the number one topic on the news and tv and most conversations!
- As of today: it is still terribly confusing and actually very contradictory. (mask work/ no they don't... we now need goggles and shields???? it is contracted by touch???? NO some say... but we are moving toward "you touch it you buy it!" highly fatal/ no worse than normal flu... etc.)
- As of today: it is still a political issue, a health issue, and a personal ethics issue and an ecclesiastical one.
- As of today: it is still getting more difficult for pastors and church leaders to navigate the troubling waters of divided opinions among church goers, conflicting and contradictory mandates from government agencies, and biblical mandates of honoring God first, and loving people and authorities as a community witness.
- As of today: God is still in control of all things and His will can not be thwarted.
- May HIS wisdom rule!
Thursday, April 2, 2015
The only "Constant" in life is "Change".
Well as it seems I have thought about writing on the blog again after 2 years of absence. If you happen to follow I will be working on a research project into the "Fear of the Lord" understanding. if you would like to participate with me that would be great. So next Blog will begin to show the references that we find in Scripture for our investigation. If you have something that you have read that would be helpful, please send it along.
Monday, September 3, 2012
Let God be God
Do you find it somewhat odd how people seem to think that God needs help? That if He needed they would help Him to order the world or in the least they could sure help God know what is best for themselves!
...Or more likely have you found that at times peoples view of God is actually defined by their understanding.
We know that God is infintely and uniquely different than we are... and that truly we only know anything about God because He chose to reveal Himself to us. Step back from the discussion for just a moment and think, "what would you know about God if he chose to remain silent and un-involved.
However, because our culture has been saturated with all kinds of "God-talk" over the past several decades we have begun by our own motives and agenda to actually put together our own god. Like someone who takes a jig-saw puzzle and creates for themselves a picture that shows no relationship to the original intended picture. We have become adept at forcing pieces together that never were meant to be together and in the end our cardboard picture is our own creation. As spiritual people both Christians and non-Christians we have formed a god of our own, a god that fits what we want, expect or desire. While this god will almost never take physical form it is a form of idolatry nontheless. Where we run into trouble is when this creation of ours fails to live up to our created expectations, or wishes, or it flat just doesn't work. Chances are at this point we give up on any form of god; ours or the True One. We shake our heads and proclaim " that we have had it with anything conceptually or real that resembles deity".
Is this not the hieght of foolishness that Jobs three friends display in their sermons found in the book of Job. If you read well and carefully you will find that they have God figured out and pinned down. But many of their conclusions are in fact in error. In Job 4:7 Eliphaz maintains that God always blesses the righteous and in Job 20:5 Zophar speaks that God always punishes the wicked. However, there are many many instances when God does quite the opposite, at least temporally. Job is in fact a case where the righteous is found to be "afflicted" but not for sin. God just stepped out of Eliphaz's and Zophar's proverbial box. Abraham is a case whereby God bestows tremendous wealth on him while he is dancing about from his lie about his wife Sarai. (Gen. 12:10-20)
Devotional interaction: Read Job 4:7 & 20:5 Here you find Job's 3 "friends" telling him without variation that God punishes the wicked and the innocent are never afflicted. (this world view is not biblical)
Now notice God's view of Jobs 3 friends in Job 38:1-2 and 42:7-9.
Notice finally that God declares that He will not be confined to the simple games of men. That He is in control of all things and administers them as he wishes. Read Job 38:1-41 List the attributes that God reveals about himself to Job.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
...Or more likely have you found that at times peoples view of God is actually defined by their understanding.
We know that God is infintely and uniquely different than we are... and that truly we only know anything about God because He chose to reveal Himself to us. Step back from the discussion for just a moment and think, "what would you know about God if he chose to remain silent and un-involved.
However, because our culture has been saturated with all kinds of "God-talk" over the past several decades we have begun by our own motives and agenda to actually put together our own god. Like someone who takes a jig-saw puzzle and creates for themselves a picture that shows no relationship to the original intended picture. We have become adept at forcing pieces together that never were meant to be together and in the end our cardboard picture is our own creation. As spiritual people both Christians and non-Christians we have formed a god of our own, a god that fits what we want, expect or desire. While this god will almost never take physical form it is a form of idolatry nontheless. Where we run into trouble is when this creation of ours fails to live up to our created expectations, or wishes, or it flat just doesn't work. Chances are at this point we give up on any form of god; ours or the True One. We shake our heads and proclaim " that we have had it with anything conceptually or real that resembles deity".
Is this not the hieght of foolishness that Jobs three friends display in their sermons found in the book of Job. If you read well and carefully you will find that they have God figured out and pinned down. But many of their conclusions are in fact in error. In Job 4:7 Eliphaz maintains that God always blesses the righteous and in Job 20:5 Zophar speaks that God always punishes the wicked. However, there are many many instances when God does quite the opposite, at least temporally. Job is in fact a case where the righteous is found to be "afflicted" but not for sin. God just stepped out of Eliphaz's and Zophar's proverbial box. Abraham is a case whereby God bestows tremendous wealth on him while he is dancing about from his lie about his wife Sarai. (Gen. 12:10-20)
Devotional interaction: Read Job 4:7 & 20:5 Here you find Job's 3 "friends" telling him without variation that God punishes the wicked and the innocent are never afflicted. (this world view is not biblical)
Now notice God's view of Jobs 3 friends in Job 38:1-2 and 42:7-9.
Notice finally that God declares that He will not be confined to the simple games of men. That He is in control of all things and administers them as he wishes. Read Job 38:1-41 List the attributes that God reveals about himself to Job.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
On the blog again....
Wow it has been almost 3 months since my last post... now wonder no one looks at it much. But here is a quick update. We are now living in Centennial (east of Cherry Creek Resevoir, the worst fishing lake I have ever met...). I have started a new semester at Horizon College Denver teaching Theology. Vicki and I are working and planning on a trip to Africa in November so getting ourselves prepared for that. Life in the city is not so bad (but at times I sure miss the mountains.) Send me a note and let me know what is going on and what I can pray for, for you. By the way, we should be grandparents today... Tara and Ryan are at the hospital as I type this.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
response from World Religions Conference ONLY ONE GOD?
Last weekend I attended the World Religions Conference at Horizon Christian Fellowship in Denver. It was a good day and well worth the investment. The speakers included Bill Honsberger of Haven Ministry, Dr. Darrell Ferguson of Summit Ministries Int'l, Bill McKeever of Mormonism Research Ministry and Sammy Tanagho a converted Muslim. Each of these men are worth hearing and well educated in their area of expertise. They detailed for us clearly many of the tenents of the particular religion or belief system. Mark these guys to memory.
However, as I sat there I felt that a basic pre-amble or pre-requisite was missing from the seminar. For in our modern world rift with its post-modern world view and pluralism, what seemed lacking was a discussion of the very nature of divinity, the very basic concepts of any deity that would garner our attention. For any discussion other than atheism, that posits a divine being shouldn't there be some basic principles that are understood for any discussion? Let me clarify, it is my contention that there can be only ONE GOD. There cannot be 2 COMPETING GODS. This immediately smacks against any post-modernist understanding whereby they hold competing views even contradictory opinions as equally valid, thus making my case... can there truly be any discussion about a supreme being without explaining the basic definition of "SUPREME". So let me state for the record and for discussion this precept:
God: the discussion of any eternal being, a supreme being, any being outside of our selves that we must recon with.
by definition: here is the critical juncture, to define God as any of you might, as stated above as something "outside of ourselves" must be defined in terms of greatness. For God to be anything like a God we would define, he must be outside of, greater than, different than, older, wiser etc than us. When you begin to define God with those concepts he/she/it becomes to some degree greater than us. Greater begs the question to be qualified as greatest. An Illustration: If someone where to ask you who is a great something... say Basketball player, the answer wouldn't really matter much because great is nothing unless compared to a lesser or greater But if someone asked you who was the greatest...wouldn't you by natural cause begin to compare attributes of various players until you arrive at an answer you feel is satisfactory? Wouldn't it seem strange to say well "all basketball players are the greatest"? Or even the following five players are the greatest... Wouldn't you ask again that they further define their answer to come up with the greatest? Someone might say well Jordan was the greatest shooter and Abdul Jabar the greatest rebounder, but that changes the question. I did not ask which was the greatest shooter or rebounder. I asked for your opinion of the greatest basketball player ever.
So if we are going to speak of a god, any god, are we not asking which is the greatest? To worship a lesser god knowing that there is a greater, would be foolishness. For sake of argument lets say that there could be more than one god, there are two. We will call them Bill and Bob. In our considerations of these two beings wouldn't we want to worship the one who is greater? but let's say that Bob is good at loving and Bill is the most powerful. Which attribute do you consider more worthy of worship and being called the "supreme" being the "weak lover" or the "unloving power"? Scary to think about isn't it. We desire a God that is greatest at everything and has no limits. Well at least that is what I would worship. More next time. (if there is only one what is He like?) Give me some feed back!
However, as I sat there I felt that a basic pre-amble or pre-requisite was missing from the seminar. For in our modern world rift with its post-modern world view and pluralism, what seemed lacking was a discussion of the very nature of divinity, the very basic concepts of any deity that would garner our attention. For any discussion other than atheism, that posits a divine being shouldn't there be some basic principles that are understood for any discussion? Let me clarify, it is my contention that there can be only ONE GOD. There cannot be 2 COMPETING GODS. This immediately smacks against any post-modernist understanding whereby they hold competing views even contradictory opinions as equally valid, thus making my case... can there truly be any discussion about a supreme being without explaining the basic definition of "SUPREME". So let me state for the record and for discussion this precept:
"GOD BY DEFINITION CAN ONLY BE ONE".
In other words you cannot have a god of one religion and a god of another and both exists in reality. We are not choosing whom to worship by vote of one candidate over another. We are asking whether the God we are choosing to "believe in" or "worship" is truly an existent being at all, and secondly worth our devotion or worship? For a moment let me unpack my statement that God can ONLY BE ONE. God: the discussion of any eternal being, a supreme being, any being outside of our selves that we must recon with.
by definition: here is the critical juncture, to define God as any of you might, as stated above as something "outside of ourselves" must be defined in terms of greatness. For God to be anything like a God we would define, he must be outside of, greater than, different than, older, wiser etc than us. When you begin to define God with those concepts he/she/it becomes to some degree greater than us. Greater begs the question to be qualified as greatest. An Illustration: If someone where to ask you who is a great something... say Basketball player, the answer wouldn't really matter much because great is nothing unless compared to a lesser or greater But if someone asked you who was the greatest...wouldn't you by natural cause begin to compare attributes of various players until you arrive at an answer you feel is satisfactory? Wouldn't it seem strange to say well "all basketball players are the greatest"? Or even the following five players are the greatest... Wouldn't you ask again that they further define their answer to come up with the greatest? Someone might say well Jordan was the greatest shooter and Abdul Jabar the greatest rebounder, but that changes the question. I did not ask which was the greatest shooter or rebounder. I asked for your opinion of the greatest basketball player ever.
So if we are going to speak of a god, any god, are we not asking which is the greatest? To worship a lesser god knowing that there is a greater, would be foolishness. For sake of argument lets say that there could be more than one god, there are two. We will call them Bill and Bob. In our considerations of these two beings wouldn't we want to worship the one who is greater? but let's say that Bob is good at loving and Bill is the most powerful. Which attribute do you consider more worthy of worship and being called the "supreme" being the "weak lover" or the "unloving power"? Scary to think about isn't it. We desire a God that is greatest at everything and has no limits. Well at least that is what I would worship. More next time. (if there is only one what is He like?) Give me some feed back!
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