4 questions

A thorough way to do theology and counseling is to walk through these four questions in the current order:

1.  Who is God? 
2.  What has He done? <--Relational identity -->
3.  Who are we? (Who has God made the Church to be?)  <--Functional identity -->
4.  What do we do? (What has God saved and created the Church to do?)

This is the exact opposite of what we normally do - normally we find our identity based on what we do, assume God interacts with us based on who we are and what we do, and therefore see God's identity based on what he does, who we are, and what we do.  That's crazy!  Real theology and counseling should go about it the other way. (Not rocket science, obviously this shouldn't be surprising.)

(also from Soma School training)

more from Soma

reflection of thoughts, not exact quotes, both are classic!

The enemy is the accuser of the brothers; the Spirit is the affirmer of the brothers.  The Spirit will always affirm God's love for you.  He is our comforter and counselor.

The Church is your privilege; it is your family; it is your community.  Too many pastors think their house is their refuge instead of Jesus being their refuge and their house being a place of ministry. This really only works where there is shared leadership so that there is space for the weight of ministry to be shared.

(Also from Vanderstelt's talk)

The Gospel in power and in purpose

My favorite quotes from today's training time at Soma School; they are by Jeff Vanderstelt, as nearly as I could write them down.  Jeff is one of my absolute favorite people to listen to talk about the Gospel, and today was no exception, though these quotes are about how we take that Gospel to the world around us.  Context would reveal more of the details, but unfortunately I can't give that at the moment.

"God will never call you to something you can't do without God's power, but what you've been told is that God will never call you to something you can't do!  Are you kidding me?!?!"

"If you are going to call people to mission..., they are going to have to be confident in the future."

"If the Gospel doesn't include the Spirit, it isn't the Gospel. ... The cross is wasted without the Spirit of God!"

How to deal with Baby's wrong actions...

I'm looking for input on these thoughts; they came up in a conversation tonight, and I think they are valid.  Please respond if you have useful thoughts either for or against.

Presumptions:
  1.  Baby is a sinner by nature (Romans 5:12-19), even at six months old.
  2.  Baby is already a sinner by choice. (She already decides whether she will or won't do many things.  We watch her do it.)

Assessment:
  1.  Baby does not yet know when she chooses right or wrong.  
  2.  Baby probably does not even know that she is choosing yet.

Conclusion:
  1.  As parents, we must first teach Baby what is right and what is wrong.
  2.  Then, we must train her to love and do right and to hate and flee wrong. 
  3.  Teaching and correction are teammates and should get well-managed playing time with preference at this early stage to teaching.

Explanation: 
   Baby is a sinner.  The Bible and experience both support this conclusion.  However, at this point, she seems to have little recognition of her ability to make moral choices.  This does not mean that she is not responsible or that sin is not sin.  But, it does speak to her primary need at this point in her life: teaching, not correction.  Her conscience needs to be formed and informed.  She needs to learn the Law-code, God's righteousness, without which she would develop her own moral code based on culture, surroundings, and/or personality.  This need for instruction versus correction is probably a matter of emphasis, not a sharp distinction.  She needs affirming and correcting instruction, not behavioral correction.  She is rebelling without knowledge, rather than with knowledge.  (A number of Scriptures indicate that ignorance can mitigate penalty, though not guilt: Romans 2:12ff, Acts 17:30; Luke 12:41-48.) All this would indicate that our primary job as parents right now is instruction which should be done with extra patience, gentleness and understanding.

Considerations:
1.  Baby will be able to know right versus wrong within a few more months, at least to the basic level of obeying authority.
2.  There are likely implications to the image of God in her and His law being written on her heart, just as there were implications to her having a sin nature.  There things should be pondered further.
3.  The difference in practice which this makes towards an infant may not be great, but it seems to be a helpful difference in mindset.

The Goodness of God (Sinclair Ferguson)

"... Christians when things are going swimmingly say, 'Isn't God good and gracious?'; and when things go wrong, they question whether God is really good.  Why?  Because they've been looking in the wrong place to be convinced of the truth about God.  The place where you are convinced of the truth about God is not by the providences that are taking place in your life.  The place where you are convinced about the goodness of God is in the cross of Jesus Christ, where He demonstrated His love for us 'in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.'"

- Sinclair Ferguson, "Preaching Christ from the Old Testament", Basics 2010

(There are a number of fascinating insights in this sermon, besides the great value of the overall content.)

Dorothy Carey: a sensitive view

The Church History Blog has a definite value in putting before us believers from around the world, sharing their stories and showing their contributions to the cause of Christ.  Today's post about Mrs. William Carey is such a post, a sensitive and appreciative telling of a story that is usually just a footnote on the life of a giant.  A site worth following, a post worth reading...

Immigration, politics, the Constitution, and two parties

back to politics and immigration:

"Illegal Immigration and the Rule of Law" - a fascinating article with some balancing thoughts on the aspects of the debate that get conveniently ignored by both sides

"Why I'm Leaving the GOP" - an article by a fiscal, constitutional conservative who happens to be Muslim and Coloradan, and also happens to be going to the Democratic party because of his basic conservativeness... fascinating as well.

  I didn't agree with portions of both of these articles obviously, but always good to really listen to what's being said.

Sin

A statement on the devastating consequences of sin by one who gives sin its due weight:

"Everyone is a god to themself.
"Thus no-one chooses in the abstract to go to hell, or even to be the kind of person who belongs there.  But their orientation toward self leads them to become the kind of person for whom away-from-God is the only place for which they are suited.  It is a place which they would, in the end, choose for themselves, rather than humble themselves before God and accept who he is."
- Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart 

Waste Land: the documentary

 I just finished seeing the new documentary Waste Land, the documentary about Vik Muniz, renowned Brazilian artist, and his time in the world's largest landfill outside Rio.  It is a story of enablement and assets in a place where neither would seem to be possible.  Very moving, with a lot of (unintentional) Gospel themes... watch it if you get the chance!

a post on the use of the Old Testament

This post speaks of the need to approach the Old Testament on its own grounds as a true and valuable witness to Jesus, the Christ.  I've thought a fair bit about that topic over the last several years, and I think our relative neglect of the OT is a great detriment.  Here are a couple snippets to encourage you to read the post yourself.

There is no overt discrimination against the OT, just a lack of deep engagement with it as meaningful, relevant revelation in its own right.

We don't have to make the ancient Hebrew Scriptures Christian—they already are!