How things have changed !

I haven't logged in to this blog in 6 years. I am surprised I even rembered it. Alot has change for me theologically. I can see alot of growth from where I started my journey in college to now. I pondered erasing some of the old posts but decided it was of more value to remember where I started and to see the development of Gods work in my life. Its pretty cool to have written down my views and to have physical markers showing the growth and maturity I have experienced in the Lord. I'm going to continue to look for these markers as I move forward in life.

Ignore the little things

I find myself overly critical of church, tonight my wife and I tried out a new church that has saterday night services, this works great for us because of me working sunday mornings. As we left we had many of the same thoughts on the strengths and weakness of the service or maybe better labeled things we enjoyed and things we could have done with out. We both came to the conlusion to give it a couple more weeks and see how things turned out. I cant speak for her but my own thoughts were I guess we should settle and suck it up, we are never going to find a church like ( insert former church). As we made our way home I wondered if it was really fair to compare the two, and if it really did any good. When I really think about it I can remeber having some dislikes in the begining about some little things in churches that I came to love. So I am going to try and ignore the little things and search for the passion and love that I have had before, in this new place with new people. I have made alot of changes in this new year and this is one more I need to add to the list, being willing to ignore the little things that happen and look for the heart and joy in the church.

weak prayer

I recently watched a documentary called Father of Lights, the documentary was pretty amazing. It show cases different people from all over the world and the amazing things they are doing for the kingdom of God. One of the people in the documentary is a man named Todd White, he travels all over the world and basically walks around praying for people to be healed. There are some pretty amazing videos on YouTube of this guy healing people he meets on the street. The other people in the video are doing some pretty amazing things also, and it all lead me to wonder if the majority of Christians (my self included) are offering up weak prayer. I find myself praying in safe ways, not praying for specific things to happen right then (at least not out loud) out of fear of them not happening. We might pray for healing for some one but it sounds like "God please heal ____ from his/her sickness" and then we wait and hope over the next few months _____ gets better. After watching Todd pray for healing, I feel we are doing it all wrong. Todd prays for specific healing right then and will continue to do so until the person is better. He seems to have no fear of failure, he is not worried about his prayers not being answered. God says he will never abandon us, and Jesus said we would do even greater things then He did. I don't think praying with fear of God failing to come through is what Jesus thought of when he said "greater things".

Imagine what could happen if even half of the Christians in the world prayed like Todd White, or had the confidence in God that any of the men and women did in the documentary. The world would be permanently changed if half of Christians took Jesus at His words of "greater things".

Calmenian

I have recently been listening to podcasts and reading books/articles discussing Armenianism/Calvinism. I feel that the best solution is something in between them both, or maybe better put including major aspects from both. I am going to use this blog to flesh out some of the concepts, ideas and most importantly questions I have from this exploration.

8-2-12 I have found a view known as molinisim, I am waiting to buy a book discussing this view but some of the articles I have read on it are very intriging.

Sections from a paper I am writing for graduate school about creation.

There are six popular views on the interpretation of the Genesis creation story. The views are Historic Creationism, Young-Earth Creationism, The Gap Theory, Literary Framework, Day-Age View, and Theistic Evolution. All of these views have some great God-fearing Christians holding to them. The main thing to remember is not to let this issue divide the church, but being comfortable with discussing and disagreeing on these views, yet not letting this lead to division.

The literary framework view of creation is the view that I hold to be true. Some of the reasons I hold to this view are: Genesis 1:14-19, 14 Then God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years;15 and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth"; and it was so.16 God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also.17 God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth,18 and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good.19 There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.¹

This takes place on the fourth “day” of creation. The two key points this brings to my mind in a literal twenty-four hour day interpretation are; Firstly, how was there evening and morning on “days prior to the sun and moon being created? Secondly, Gods sets in place at this time the days, years, and so on to be calculated off of the lights created at this time. This leads me to ask prior to the fourth “day” what was the unit of measure used for “days” one through three? The Hebrew word for day is the word “yom”, often this term is referencing a period of time longer then twenty-four hours.²

I read Genesis 1-3 in a more figurative sense. Some of the key verses that lead me to this type of reading are, Genesis 1:14-19, Genesis 2: 2-3, Genesis 2:9, Genesis 3: 1-6. Genesis 2:2-3 By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. I do not believe this verse is telling us that God literally needs sleep or a break from His work. Genesis 2:9 Out of the ground the LORD God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If we take this verse literally then there is a tree somewhere on the planet that if we eat the fruit of it, we gain immortal life. Genesis 3:1-6 Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Indeed, has God said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?"2 The woman said to the serpent, "From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat;3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.'"4 The serpent said to the woman, "You surely will not die!5 For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.

In these verses if taken literally we must believe that at least serpents if not all animals can communicate with people. Verse 8 says God walked in the garden, if taken literally this leads us to the Mormon view of God in which He has an actual physical body.³

1The New American Standard Bible (Oregon, Harvest House Publishers)

2 Mark Driscoll What are the Various Christian Views of Creation? 2005

Thoughts from this morning: as christians do we try and "sell" Jesus.

Its ironic how we treat Jesus as a ugly duckiling who only has a few things going His way, and we highlight what we think people want and try and package the rest up for later. How did man ever think God wasn't good enough and that we had to hide things we think are His flaws so other men would like Him?

Were clay in the potters hands, when did we look down at His shadow and think "o man" look at that, the rest of the clay is never going to accept that. So we thought it best only tell the others the things we thought they would like and hope its alright. When really if we ever looked at the face of the potter, the glory alone would dry us out and turn us back to dust before we even knew it.

? What Now ?

I have really struggled latley with what the next step of my life (Career/Job) would look like; over the past few weeks I have heard alot on this topic. Through talking to friends and chapel speakers I have pieced together some very helpful advice for myself. One thing I have learned is it is not about where you are going as much as it is about who you are going to be when you get there. Another thing I have picked up in the last week is that you never know what day will be our last so why waste them worring about making money and fitting our lives into the "American Dream". Lastly and this goes hand in hand with the comment before, is what we are going to do today worth the price of one of our of days? Meaning we only get so many to cash in, so are we willing to spend them on what we did today?