Donations for Seminary Tuition

Monday, February 13, 2012

Creation and Covenant, Creature and Election

*These items are not mutually exclusive and this entry is not exhaustive of the content of each notion.*

     What is is what is given to us by God of his own creative power and grace. God was not lonely, not seeking an outlet because he was bursting with creative juices. He simply extended his grace in the creative speech act of saying all things into existence.
Of existence it was apparent that man was enable to remain faithful. God could not have created himself totally in us, but made us a reflection, flawed and dependent on his illustrious grace, discipline and blessing. We find the scripture, at the beginning that we did not die instantly, as though once our parents ate all creation went back to nihilo. Rather perimeters for death were set so that sin could not be immortal (H. Bavinck quoting Irenaeus, Reformed Dogmatics, III, 200 (#343).
     In an increasingly disconcerting time, the Christian needs the work and promise of the covenant all the more preached to him, in love. Against the dogmas of science, philosophy, secularism and radical Islam, the whole of the Christian Worldview is in question. It is in stark opposition to the nothing as something supposed by agnostic/pop-atheistic thinking and the diligent militantism and viol-igion of Radical Islam (Robert Webber's book "Who Gets to Narrate the World" for more). We are also then poised to love our enemy and neighbor more than ever. Let us not fall short of our obedience in and Christ, given to us freely that we may carry on in his spirit of righteousness responsibly.
     That Creation is groaning is of no small coincidence, either. That christians are as if not more highly persecuted since the time of the early church, should not be a surprise. This covenant of grace also is no surprise, but a relief. It allows us to rest fully in the Lordship of the trinitarian God, gives us hope in future glory and equips us with understanding to reach the heathen, lost and weary.
     Grace flows from the fountainhead of Christ. He is our great priest, mediator and sustainer. He is triumphant over sin and death alone, bestowing his riches of life everlasting from his inestimable love and mercy. We sit at a time where right doctrine, right belief, right action and self-control (over emotions) are of the utmost to our witness and testimony.
     I hope this encourages you, perplexes you (but does not lead to despair) and brings understanding to you wherever you are.
Grace and Peace.

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Everything about love, you thought you knew, is wrong.

Love is not what we give. Love is not even from us. Love is for us, by God. "In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." (1 John 4:10). The love that we experience and share is not a chemical, not a manifestation of our will, in fact if it is anything, it is strange to us do to our proclivity for evil, hate and harm. The only way to reconcile our 'dual nature', the old man, is that Christ would come to the world, by the Father's will, through the Spirit (all working equally together) to make us co-heirs of the Father's love and riches of mercy and grace. 
     The three together give us the co-regency of the three-ness of God. God is manifold to us through the work of each of the persons of the trinity. Not in different guises or modes; but each one fully Him.
      To begin this discussion, the look we will take is surveying the Genesis and the book of John. John's rich christ-centric theology is the front runner to much of the reformed or calvinistic tradition. The original synthesis of Old and New Covenant Theology, spouting from the Christ. The love of God, an active state, not a potential for motion, energy, emotion etc. but a supremely active state of being, was the catalyst for God's creation. His own glory, I would say, so overwhelmed the cosmos that creation came from his lips as a song or poem like none of us would ever come up with. In Genesis 1 the act is began in a suspense, a pause or dramatic silence "the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters." The purposefulness of the image shows God's nearness and magnitude (after the void there must have been a considerable amount of water for the spirit to be hovering). We he spoke, there was no hesitation.
"And God said, “Let there be light,' and there was light". The cause and effect nature of creation cannot be painted in a more beautiful picture. From the mouth of our God came creation. His speech caused everything in reality to become what it was. 
     This love, prayed by Christ in his High priestly prayer, recorded by the apostle John, shows of the intimacy and cosmical scope of God's heart. " 'I made known to them your name, I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them'" (John 17:26) 
     The love of Christ is the love of God, because God is in Jesus and Jesus God, both having the same spirit. It is by this love and this grace that men are saved. Faith in this real love is only to 'measure' up to anything. Faith in this real love is submitting the self to the standard of the perfect man-God Jesus Christ in all his glory and terrifying awesomeness. In Christ Alone, by Grace Alone, through Faith Alone, as revealed in Scripture Alone, to Glory of God Alone.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Thankful for an honest pastor.

     I am thankful to be involved with such a loving church, and learning from a pastor who is following Christ. Often we get blindsided by the reality of the human in our heroes. Well, when we talk it's as though Christ is present over our own selves. We are there, in a manner, as we are intended to be. Fully exposed, but unashamed intellectually, spiritually, emotionally. Explaining the dense matters of marriage, relationship, commitment and 'the dance' to me must have been like explaining pre algebra to a toddler.
     However, I am grateful for the love, gentleness, and patience that went into it.
This experience, commitment and accountability through Church and the pastor, is what I have dreamed it would be like and more. The honesty and love never seem far from each other and more importantly are manifest in the actions, not only the words of the pastor. It is my hope, as scholar or pastor, to reflect the same clarity of the gospel to those around through my life, to reflect the love of God through my relationships, and reflect the truth of the Lord through conversation and writing.
                                          Thanks be to God.