Fun Conference and Fun Author

Ceallaigh and just got back from Austin, Texas last week where we went to an amazing conference about Christianity and the arts. I have never thought of myself as an artist, but I think this conference is helping me to seeing myself as something along those lines - creative. Recently I have started to modify my views on what it means to be created in the image of God. In the past I believed this to be simply about loving relationality, the ability to exist lovingly with God, one another, and our planet. However, this conference has helped me to see that being created in the image of God is not simply about relationality… but about loving relationality, gracious influence, and creativity. God is lovingly relational, graciously influential, and exceptionally creative. As beings created in His image, we are created to be these things. Knowing who you are as God’s creation can help you live as God created you to live. I would love to read about your thoughts surrounding what you believe it means to be created in the image of God, and how this relates to God’s desire for humanity to be co-creators with Him. You can take a peak at the conference we went to at the following website:

http://www.transformingculture.org/

While I was at this conference, one of the breakout session teachers got me excited to read a book by an older Christian writer - G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936). I am reading it now, and I LOVE IT!! The book is called “Orthodoxy,” and it is a creatively written apologetic for the Christian frame of thought. I wanted to leave you with a quote from the book that I found beautifully written. The word “mysticism” here should be translated in your mind as Christianity. It might take a minute to digest. Chew it up before you swallow.

” The one created thing which we cannot look at is the one thing in the light of which we look at everything. Like the sun at noonday, mysticism explains everything else by the blaze of its own victorious invisibility. Detached intellectualism is (in the exact sense of a popular phrase) all moonshine; for it is light without heat, and it is secondary light, reflected from a dead world.”

Risking It All

I know…it has been a long time since I last wrote on our blog. Sometimes things get a little crazy in life, and for the past few months, I have been experiencing that craziness. However, the blog is back in action. Last Wednesday we talked about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, and something about that lesson really spoke to me, so I thought that I would write about it. It is so easy to say that we are a disciple of Jesus, but that confession is always tested by the way we live.I have often wondered if I would be able to stand up for Jesus if my life was at stake. I like to think that I would go to my death for Him, or experience torture for His glory, but one can never really know until they are in a situation where the rubber meets the road. Do you think that you would be able to stand for Jesus if your life was at stake? How about if your friend’s life was at stake? What about a family member? These are really hard questions that I would love for you to write about.In the early Church there was a time where persecution became so bad, that people were put to death because of their faith. Like many before him, the Roman Emperor Diocletian persecuted Christians because they refused to worship the Roman gods and goddesses. During his reign, some Christians willingly went to their death for their faith, where others renounced their faith in fear of death and suffering. After this persecution ended, a schism arose in the Church on how to handle people who renounced their faith in the midst of this persecution. Some people thought it was okay to allow people who renounced their faith back into the Church, and there were other people who were adamantly opposed to such a thought (the Donatists). How do you think such a situation should have been handled? How about in light of the following Scripture verses: Matthew 26:34, 26:74-75, Mark 12:35, 14:30, Mark 14:68, 14:72, and John 21:15-25. In closing, I wanted to give you the list of the ways the disciples died for their faith. Let’s give it all this week.

1. James son of Zebedee: Beheaded in A.D. 44
2. Philip: Whipped and crucified in A.D. 54
3. James son of Alphaeus: Beaten and stoned to death
4. Matthew: Killed with a halberd in A.D. 60
5. Matthias: Stoned and decapitated
6. Andrew: Crucified on a “X” shaped cross
7. Simon Peter: Crucified upside down
8. Jude: Crucified in A.D. 72
9. Bartholomew: Crucified
10. Thomas Impaled by a spear
11. Simon the Zealot: Crucified in A.D. 74
12. John: Thrown into a pot of boiling oil then banished to an isolated island.

We interrupt this broadcast…

 

I know that you all are extremely interested in continuing our discussions on kenosis, race, and Kenton’s potential acting career but I thought that I should post a very important announcement.  On December 28th-29th there is something amazing, spectacular, and mind-boggling taking place at Hope Community Church; here are the details:

1. Where: Hope Community Church
2. When: December 28th-29th (8:00am-8:00pm) 
3. What: Our annual lock-in ~ with some twists (SWIMMING // BROOM BALL // GAMES // FOOD) 
4. Cost: $15.00 // person

Be there or be square.  Over and out! 

The Mother Of All

In Genesis 3:20, Adam names his wife “Eve” because she would be the mother of all. Galatians 3:28 states that “in Christ” there is no such thing as Jew or Greek. What does this mean for humanity? What does this mean for our sense of nationality? What does this mean for our understanding of race? I hope that through the next couple of blog entries we can look into this topic a bit further. Attached is a brief video clip I found on Youtube regarding this subject. Watch it, and write what you think.

The Atoning Work of Christ

 

 

I had such a fun time at Trout Lake last weekend, and I hope you all did too.  I still laugh when I think about how Jon got shot during our Civil War game in Paint Ball.  It was classic! However, I am still upset that this is the second year in a row that the staff there have served some sort of evening snack that incorporated beans into the recipe.  Next time I am going to make one of them come and sleep in a guy cabin after such a snack. Yuk.  Micah was really good at preaching though, don’t you think?  I love the idea of seeing Jesus as a revolutionary; and, thus seeing myself as a part of a revolution.  Micah did a great job of explaining this.  In the weeks ahead I hope that you are able to incorporate this into your thinking.

Anyway,  in this entry I really wanted to write about something that has been on my mind lately.  I am trying to understand just what exactly Christ did on the cross for us. Did He die for our personal sins?  Did He die to set us free from the curse?  Did He die for both? These are some of the questions that I have been wrestling with lately, and I would love to hear what your thoughts are on the subject.  

In terms of where I stand, here goes.  God made a covenant agreement with Adam, and Adam failed to live up to that covenant (Hosea 6:7).  I think it is fairly obvious that through Adam’s disobedience a curse was brought upon the world (Genesis 3), and this curse is death (Romans 5:12).  Death is a physical and spiritual separation from God.   Because Adam was our covenant (federal) head, from birth we are all “in Adam” (1 Corinthians 15:22). Because Adam sinned and was subsequently declared guilty for such sin, we too are declared guilty and reckoned as sinners – solely on our relationship to Adam (Romans 5:18).  As a result, no matter who you are or where you live, you are born into this world as a guilty sinner because of your relationship to Adam (Romans 5:14). It sounds kind of bleak and unfair, but if you think that is unfair, just look at the next point.

Jesus was the head of  new covenant (Hebrews 9:15).  Unlike Adam, Jesus lived a completely sinless life (Hebrews 4:15).  However, He experienced death (Romans 5:6)). In this way, Jesus took upon Himself the consequence for Adam’s sin, even though He was not deserving of it. Because of His obedience, then,  God raised Him from the dead (Phillipians 2:8-9).  Now, for those of us who choose to identify ourselves with Jesus, in faith, we are a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17).  By faith we are born again (John 3:3), no longer have a covenantal relationship to Adam (Romans 6:2), and are set free from the curse of death (John 10:10). We can finally live as humans who are not enslaved to sin!!

All of this is great, and makes complete sense.  But what about our personal sin?? If we are already dead in our transgressions before we even sin (Ephesians 2:1), then does Christ’s death on the cross cover our personal sin, too??  If so, how??  I believe the Spirit teaches us all, and through us all (John 14:26), so let’s hear what you have to say. I know this stuff is deep, but I think you are up to it.

The Human Christ

It was wonderful seeing everyone on Wednesday night. I hope you all had a good time, and learned something more about your Creator. We are in a series right now about Jesus Christ, and all of the things that make up who He is — or at least some of the things. Anyway, our first lesson was about Jesus as God. During this teaching we learned that the Gospels record Jesus claiming to be God, the rest of the New Testament proclaims that Jesus as God, and that all of the evidence eventually results in C.S. Lewis’ trilemma. He stated that with all things considered Jesus is either lord, liar, or a lunatic. In our second lesson we talked about how Jesus claimed to be human. Like our first lesson, there were three points that were made. (1) Jesus left his position with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit to become a human, (2) by becoming fully human Jesus exposed Himself to being tempted by worldly things, and (3) although Jesus was tempted He never sinned.

One of you asked a great question about the humanity of Christ during our discussion. I hope to do you justice through the following paraphrase: “The point of your lesson is that Jesus was fully human and therefore experienced temptation, just like us. In this way we are able to feel closer to Him in our times of temptation, because He also experienced temptation. However, Jesus was and is also fully God. If that is also the case, then He could not have really been tempted because there is no way that He can sin. We can sin as the result of temptation, which makes us unable to really relate to Christ on that level.” I told you that I would take some time to think about this, and here is what I think.

First, I want to state at the beginning of this statement that I believe Jesus to be both fully human and fully God. Believing this influences the conclusions I come to about the temptation Jesus experienced, the nature of God, etc… With that out of the way, let’s begin. Temptation is not sin, let’s be clear about that. Jesus was obviously tempted in the desert (Matthew 4:1-11 not John), but Jesus did not give in to that temptation and sin. We also experience temptation, however, more often then not we sin after being tempted. Romans 3:23 claims that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Consequently, everyone has given in to temptation at some point in their lives. Anyway, in my lesson I stated that Jesus could identify with our humanity in the fact that He was tempted to go against God’s will. Just because Jesus was also fully God does not mean He could not experience temptation, for temptation is not the same thing as sin. Jesus just had the power within Him to resist that temptation, which is something we do not inherently have.

He UNDERSTANDS what it feels like to be pulled towards something that you do not really want to do, He knows what it is like to want to go against the grain and try to handle things in the wrong way, and He knows how Satan can speak things to you in an attempt to lead you to destruction. Jesus understands your temptation, because He expereienced it too. Though Jesus did not give in to this temptation, HE KNOWS WHAT IT FEELS LIKE. The God-man, Jesus Christ, was tempted even though he did not and could not sin. In a strictly human sense, you and Christ relate in your ability to feel and experience temptation.

No, Jesus never gave into temptation, so he does not identify with your failure to live as God intended. However, as I have been thinking about this, Jesus does identify with your failure to live as God intended you to live — He went to the cross because of your sin, bearing the consequence and full weight of it. Jesus, therefore, knows what temptation feels like, and He knows what the true consequence of giving in to sin feels like — pain, suffering, and death. In His humanity Jesus can therefore identify with your temptation, and with your sin. To top it off, Jesus does not simply just identify with your temptation and sin, He can also give you the power to overcome the two. The same strength that Jesus has in His ability to resist temptation can now be yours through the power of His Holy Spirit coming to reside within you. Awesome huh?

God’s Story: Creation

What a crowd this Sunday, huh? It was great to have everyone there. Thanks to all of you who invited friends, and also for those of you who just decided to start coming. Sorry that the seating was limited; hopefully we can get some bean bag chairs or something in the future to accomodate everyone. It would be an honor to have you back. We really hope that God speaks to you during these times, and if He does please feel free to share with us on this Blog. It is such an encouragement to hear when God is doing things in people’s lives.

Alright, with the thank you’s out of the way,let’s move on to what we talked about on Sunday. As you can recall we had a wonderful performance put on by two of our youth. They did a great job speaking in robot voices, pirate voices, and high pitch squealing voices. I really think that you two might have potential as future actors. Does anyone remember what the play was about??? That’s right, the creation story. On Sunday we talked about the first “act” of God’s story, which is creation (Genesis 1-2). The rest of the acts include the fall (Genesis 3), redemption (Genesis 4 - The Cross), and recreation (The Ressurection - the Consummation). By understanding the basic components of these acts, you will have an easier time explaining a bare bones narrative of the entire Bible: God’s Story.

After reading through Genesis 1-2 we paused to talk about some of the different ways people read the creation account. Some take it entirely literally, and believe that Moses was writing against a primitative form of Darwinism. Some people take it as completely ficticiously, and believe it is all nonsense. Other people try to avoid the extremes of these methods of reading, and simply try to discover what it meant back then…and how that relates to our time now. In an attempt to discover this “middle ground” we looked at an ancient creation story called the Enuma Elish, which is an old Babylonian creation story. We discovered three basic differences between what Moses wrote in Genesis vs. what the writer(s) of the Enuma Elish thought about creation.

(1) In the Enuma Elish the gods formed the universe out of already created material; in the Bible God creates from nothing — Ex Nihilo (2) In the Enuma Elish there are many “gods”; in the Bible there is only one God, and (3) In the Enuma Elish humanity was created to be a race of slaves to the gods; but in the Bible humanity was created to rule the earth on God’s behalf. We then talked about how this can help us better follow Christ today. By understanding these three basic differences we can (1) know that our God is our creator (2) know that we are created for a purpose (3) know that our God is the only God. Furthermore, creation was created GOOD…which is important to remember.

As you continue on in your week, please do not forget to praise God for being such an awesome and wonderful Creator. Know that whatever situation you are in, He is in control, and there is a purpose for your life! See you on Wednesday.

Lessons From Samaria

We began our discussion on evangelism Sunday morning, and I think this is going to be a good study. Even though I have not recieved my curriculum yet, we will sometime soon. I am in the process of speaking with Amazon, the book company, and USPS about this shipment. Unfortunatly we may have to wait one more week until it gets resolved. Sorry about that everyone.

Anyway, I wanted to remind you all about what we talked about on Sunday so that you can have something to carry with you this week as you go out and do your thang! First, we discussed what comes to mind when you think of the word “evangelism.” One of you made the comment that you hear the word too much, which is kind of interesting in itself. I do not know if this has been the case for all of Church history. Why do you think that there has been this sudden emergence of evagelism and missionality?

I had hoped that by the end of this teaching we would all have reached an understanding that evangelism is just about connecting your story, with their story, and with God’s story. It is that simple. There are no laws to memorize, thereare no doctrines to perfect, there is no theology to memorize… it is just about telling other people how Jesus has made an impact on your life. The rest is up to the Holy Spirit. Do not get me wrong, doctrine and theology are very important things. However, let’s lead people to Jesus first, and then we can begin to hash these other things out as time goes along.

If you are interested in going back to the Scripture verses that we talked about, they can be found in John 4. I would love to hear your comments about this section, if you have the time. Until then, I pray that you all can be found faithful in those times where you have an opportunity just to share what Christ has done in your life, and the lives of those around you. Have a blessed week.

Light It Up

A lot of us are going to have some significant transitions this year. Some of us are switching from a private school to a public school, some of us are switching from public schools to a postsecondary setting, and some of us will be graduating. What a year! I just wanted to encourage you to start this year off on a good foot, being a leader and not a follower.

The way I read God’s story, I see Israel as created with a missional task that she failed to complete. God created Israel to be a holy and missional nation to the world (Genesis 12:1-4, 22:18, Isaiah 42:6). However, Israel lost that light bearing capacity by turning to idols, nationalism, and economic oppression. During His ministry Jesus reignited the mission of God’s covenant people by recentering much of what defined Israel around Himself — which eliminated the possibility of these things continuing on in His name. During one of His sermons JESUS called HIS followers “the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14). This would have been a major blow to the PHARISEES, SADDUCEES, ESSENES, and ZEALOTS who incorrectly saw themselves and THEIR followers as God’s light to the world. These phonies believed that it would be through their ministry that Israel would get back on the right track…they were wrong.

So what does all this have to do with me, a high school student, you ask? Well, let me tell you. There are a lot of other things in your school and life that CLAIM to be a light to the world. However, we know the truth. It is not the world that defines what is light, but it is Jesus Christ who defines what is light (John 1:4). As you start your year at school, turn to the one who will make you a shining beacon of hope for the rest of your peers to see. Be a leader, follow Jesus, and don’t let other people define who you are going to be (Phillipians 2:5-11).

Wii and God

Is there a connection between video games and our Creator? Tonight there was a good comment on the relationship between God and video games. I thought it was a great illustration for the way we live out our relationship with Jesus…maybe I will use it someday?? Anyway, while playing tennis on the Wii one of you said, “playing video games is like having a relationship with God. If you get distracted you are going to mess up.” Even though this comment was said in humor, I thought it was completely true. Paul says in Phillipians 3:12-14:

“12Not that I have already obtained all this [see verse 10 and 11], or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

Paul had times where He was distracted, but he choose to press on; he always regained his focus on the important thing in life - Jesus. Does anyone have any situations where they have been tripped up by the things of this world, but have pressed on? Not on their own power, but because of Christ? Let us know. Thanks for a fun night everyone. I hope you all had fun too.