I came across this while listing to a sermon last week. The pastor was speaking on Matthew 8:14-17, the part where Jesus goes to Peter's home and his mother in law was ill with a fever. I'm not going to go through the entire sermon here, but the thing that I took away from the message was this: Our purpose is to know God and love others. We see in verse 14 that Jesus came into Peter's home and saw Peter's mother-in-law laying sick in bed. Then Jesus touches her hand, and the fever left her; and she got up and waited on Him. The pastor then interprets the text for the present day Christian: 1) we are meant to bring Christ to others. 2) We are meant to serve others at His touch. 3) However because of illness, Peter's mother-in-law is not able to serve until Christ touches her. What this means is that we can not carry out what God creates us to be until Christ touches us.
The pastor then goes on to say this: "Mankind is not wired for life without God. The soul of man is Christian. Man is meant to recognize the sovereignty of God and God's presence around him. Man is meant to recognize the fact that he has not been faithful to love others as he himself wants to be loved. He does not do unto others as he would like to do unto him. He is meant to come to the only true God for repentance and forgiveness. He is meant to know who God is solely by His Word that He has made known. He is meant to know that forgiveness and now reborn, began to do what God created him to do, and that is to know God and love others. That is what a human is meant to do." Man can not be what he was meant to be until Christ touches him.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Thursday, November 12, 2009
The Predestination of Monkeys
This blog is predestined for an "Oh yeah, that blog we tried" comment five months from now. But I'm not going to give up on it yet. Oh-ho no I'm not. If you think I proffer China Star a lot, you have no idea what Chris-Cook-A-Lot is . . . hmm. That reads differently than I intended . . .
I really think there's some merit to attempting to insert some of the main discussion points from each Sunday into the online forum. For example, I'm going to be gone this Sunday when Kelly is going to be talking about Biblical interpretation. I would love to be able to be there for this topic in particular, but I'll be out of town so that's that, and that happens. If a short blog post were made and a few comments posted then there would be a decent chance of catching up people who might miss a week here and there.
TONY DANZA cuts in line.
But catching people up is only half of it in my mind. If we're able to actually make this blog into an ongoing discussion then it becomes one more tool to help us keep our faith on our minds throughout the week. One of the things that I personally struggle with is turning spiritual conversations into nothing more than academic discussions. If all we do is talk for an hour and then don't think about it again until the next Sunday when Louis asks, "So who can sum up what we talked about last week?" then we might as well just start going to lunch right at 11.
That being said, I think there were some good discussion points this last Sunday (Nov. 8th) when Louis led us in a discussion about Predestination. I don't remember them. Here are my thoughts.
THE QUESTION: PREDESTINATION?
I don't believe in predestination as it's commonly defined. I do not believe that there are souls brought into existence - to experience the slim shadow of God's love and presence which we call life - simply so that those souls can be subjected to eternal separation from God. I DO believe that there are souls brought into existence, to experience the shadow of God, specifically so that those souls can go on to experience the fullness of God in eternity; I believe all souls are intended to share eternity with God. But I also believe that all souls are required to make that decision themselves, and that many of them choose to focus in on themselves rather than God. I believe that God knows the outcome of each of those decisions because He doesn't progress in Time but exists throughout and at the end and beginning of Time simultaneously. And it's that knowing-aspect that is the basis for the idea behind the common definition of predestination.
Except monkeys. Monkeys go to hell. Unless less you comment differently it means you agree.
I really think there's some merit to attempting to insert some of the main discussion points from each Sunday into the online forum. For example, I'm going to be gone this Sunday when Kelly is going to be talking about Biblical interpretation. I would love to be able to be there for this topic in particular, but I'll be out of town so that's that, and that happens. If a short blog post were made and a few comments posted then there would be a decent chance of catching up people who might miss a week here and there.
TONY DANZA cuts in line.
But catching people up is only half of it in my mind. If we're able to actually make this blog into an ongoing discussion then it becomes one more tool to help us keep our faith on our minds throughout the week. One of the things that I personally struggle with is turning spiritual conversations into nothing more than academic discussions. If all we do is talk for an hour and then don't think about it again until the next Sunday when Louis asks, "So who can sum up what we talked about last week?" then we might as well just start going to lunch right at 11.
That being said, I think there were some good discussion points this last Sunday (Nov. 8th) when Louis led us in a discussion about Predestination. I don't remember them. Here are my thoughts.
THE QUESTION: PREDESTINATION?
I don't believe in predestination as it's commonly defined. I do not believe that there are souls brought into existence - to experience the slim shadow of God's love and presence which we call life - simply so that those souls can be subjected to eternal separation from God. I DO believe that there are souls brought into existence, to experience the shadow of God, specifically so that those souls can go on to experience the fullness of God in eternity; I believe all souls are intended to share eternity with God. But I also believe that all souls are required to make that decision themselves, and that many of them choose to focus in on themselves rather than God. I believe that God knows the outcome of each of those decisions because He doesn't progress in Time but exists throughout and at the end and beginning of Time simultaneously. And it's that knowing-aspect that is the basis for the idea behind the common definition of predestination.
Except monkeys. Monkeys go to hell. Unless less you comment differently it means you agree.
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