Posts Tagged ‘Jesus’
There May Be Blood
Monday, May 17th, 2010
Has anyone ever promised you that following Jesus would be easy? Maybe Jesus would fulfill your wildest dreams and make everything in your life go smoothly if you simply asked him into your heart. Though I believe it is true that life with God is the only “life abundantly,” I am also convinced that it can be life’s greatest challenge. Jesus doesn’t promise us ease in life, but he does promise us life. After all, what do we expect becoming disciples of an innocent and executed man?
The early disciples of Christ learned this in dramatic fashion during an extended conversation about the bread of life. Jesus turns the conversation from the topic of eating the bread of life, Him, and receiving eternal life, to eating his flesh and drinking his blood; a shocking and even odd metaphor in any culture. And it isn’t an option.
Tags: Bible Study, Discipleship, Jesus, Spiritual Formation
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Knowing God
Monday, May 10th, 2010
Jesus is a controversial figure. Divisive, even. And I speak of the Jesus of Scripture, of course. The “nice guy” Jesus of our culture is not only uncontroversial, he isn’t even interesting. He wants everyone to get alone, he is OK with other gods, and he loves you just the way you are. But when we come into contact with the Jesus of Scripture he immediately divides the room. And such is the case with the story of John 7. Jesus reenters Jerusalem for another feast of the Jews and even before the people know he is there, they are divided about who he is.
If we put ourselves in the places of the people in Jerusalem trying to figure out who Jesus is, we are presented with a real problem. There are those who say he is a great teacher, those who claim he is a rotten teacher. There are those who go so far as to say he is the Messiah, and those who want to kill him for blasphemy. One way or another, Jesus was not – and is not – a boring figure.
So how are we to decide who Jesus is? Are there better or worse ways to understand who he is? If we put it another way, if our spiritual formation depends on getting Jesus right, how do we get him right? In the course of the conversations in chapter 7, Jesus gives us at least two answers to this question. The first is all about our desires.
Tags: Bible Study, Discipleship, Jesus, Spiritual Formation
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Next Book Club – Anselm’s “Cur Deus Homo”
Tuesday, April 20th, 2010
For our next book club, we are going to read one of the foundational theological texts in the Christian church – Why the God Man? by Anselm. The whole thing is available here if you would like to read it online.
In it, 
Anselm wrestles with the question of why God in his infinite glory had to become human to redeem such a broken race. Or as he puts it, “for what necessity and cause, God, who is omnipotent, should have assumed the littleness and weakness of human nature for the sake of its renewal.”
Why indeed! If God is all powerful, then why didn’t he redeem us from his throne in heaven? Why get the dirt of this world under his fingernails?
Read the text, and join us for the discussion!
Date TBD…
Tags: Book Club, Calendar, Jesus, Theology
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Pastor on Belief in an Age of Skepticism
Tuesday, April 20th, 2010
If you have the time, this is a wonderful and thoughtful talk on belief in God.
A Conversation with Tim Keller: Belief in an Age of Skepticism? from The Veritas Forum on Vimeo.
Tags: Apologetics, Jesus
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An Impossibility, A Question, An Action
Monday, March 29th, 2010
Jesus and his disciples are on the shore of the Sea of Galilee with a large crowd of people who have followed him almost all the way around the lake. On the side of a mountain there, Jesus teaches all day long. As the sun gets low in the sky, the large crowd has grown hungry and there isn’t a convenient way of feeding them quickly. The large crowd has turned into a large need, and in the face of it, Jesus turns to his disciples and asks, What are you going to do?
“Where are we to buy bread so that these people may eat?”
Tags: Bible Study, Jesus, Spiritual Formation
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God Loves the World
Wednesday, January 27th, 2010
How would you finish the phrase, “Love is…”? We could, and we often do, put all kinds of things and people into that sentence. We use “love” to apply to a radical array and variety of items in our lives. I love a well made mocha. I also love my wife. I love hiking in the Colorado Rockies. I also love my friends. Because we use this word to apply to so many different things, we often lose sight of the power and meaning of love. Sometimes, when a word means almost anything, it comes to mean almost nothing.
So, what does it mean that “God so loved the world” that he gave his one and only Son? John uses a powerful word for love here, and we ought to look at it in at least three ways. This love is attention. When we have a deep love for someone or something, it consumes our attention. They are on our minds often if not all the time, and we are interested in their well-being and their condition. To love a thing is to give our attention to a thing.
Tags: Bible Study, Jesus, Spiritual Formation
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Jesus’ Boyhood Home Found
Monday, December 28th, 2009
Skeptics of the historicity of Scripture will often point to a lack of archeological evidence to substantiate their claims. If the Bible says a certain town existed or a certain king ruled, and archeology has not yet uncovered evidence of the town or king, the argument goes that the Bible is inaccurate and unreliable. The problem with this kind of argument is that archeology is a progressive science – they keep on digging stuff up. Over and over, the historical and geographical claims of Scripture are verified.
One such point of contention has been the town of Nazareth. The existence of Nazareth is an important claim, because Scripture says Jesus came from there. In fact, early Christians were called Nazarenes. Though some small items and artifacts existed which hinted at the town Nazareth existing in the time of Christ, until this year no town existed.
But then it got dug up.
This raises some important insights into archeology and the truth of Scripture. So here are some thoughts for you as you watch the news and hear of these kinds of things happening from time to time.
Tags: Apologetics, Jesus, Scriptural Reliability
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