LIFE VERSE

Published February 17, 2012 by sdunnpastor

Some of us speak of having LIFE VERSES.  These are passages of scripture that reflect our personal spiritual modus operandi.  It is an anchor to hold us fast to the Rock in the tides and torrents of life or a beacon that keeps drawing us towards a closer look at God as we navigate the seas of life engagement.  Mine is Romans 8:28.

What is your life verse?  What is the scriptural taproot through which you draw the Spirit’s daily sustenance?

CAN GOD MAKE A ROCK SO HEAVY THAT EVEN HE CAN’T LIFT IT?

Published August 4, 2011 by sdunnpastor

From Jared Wilson’s blog THE GOSPEL-DRIVEN CHURCH comes this important reminder on communicating the Gospel. – Steve

Can God Make a Rock So Heavy Even He Can’t Lift It?

I remember when I first heard this bit of immature atheistic reductio ad absurdum. I was in high school, and I didn’t respond to it because the Nirvana-shirted, long-banged drama stud who said it didn’t say it to me. He was laying it on his friend like it was theist’s kryptonite.

My answer then, steeped in C.S. Lewis as I was, would have been along the lines of the nonsense of the question as framed. It is a rhetorical and hypothetical “gotcha” with no sincerity behind it, and in any event, it is sort of like asking, “Does the number nine smell red or yellow?”

My answer today is different. My answer today would not be to skewer the nature of the question but to inject its insincerity with the sincerity of God and all the weight of the gospel.

The truth is that God did make a weight so heavy he couldn’t lift it. He did so not by building an immovable force — we did that with our sin — but by incarnating the frailty of humanity and willingly subjecting himself to the force. As one of us, yet still himself, he created the conundrum of the incarnate God, bearing a cross he both ordained yet could not carry by himself, becoming condemned in death and also victorious. And God was crushed according to the plan he himself projected from the foundation of the world.

So, can God make a rock so heavy even he can’t lift it?

Yes. And he did. For three days only. And then he drop kicked it out of the mouth of the tomb.

DOUBT AND FAITH

Published May 30, 2011 by sdunnpastor

1 To you I call, O LORD my Rock;
do not turn a deaf ear to me.
For if you remain silent,
I will be like those who have gone down to the pit. 2 Hear my cry for mercy
as I call to you for help,
as I lift up my hands
toward your Most Holy Place.- Psalm 28:1-2

Have you ever had a moment of doubt? I’m not speaking of sudden and utter disbelief about something you had previously affirmed. I’m speaking of that wave of uncertainty or that gnawing thought that robs you of your peace and makes you want to pause and get your bearings.

Some Christians believe that any expression of doubt, any entertained question about their foundations for believing will cut them off from God. I always thought that was a little extreme. Yes, they can pull out a text or two that standing all by itself on the platform of examination affirms their need for blind faith. But against the whole backdrop of scripture and what scripture affirms about the nature and intentions of God, such a position crumbles.

I appreciate this quote from John Ortberg:

“Theologian Lesslie Newbigin writes that we live in an age that favors doubt over faith. We often speak of “blind faith” and “honest doubt.” Both faith and doubt can be honest or blind, but we rarely speak of “honest faith” or “blind doubt.” Both faith and doubt are needed, yet it is faith that is more fundamental…I must believe something before I can doubt anything. Doubt is to belief what darkness is to light, what sickness is to health. It is an absence. Sickness may be the absence of health, but health is more than the absence of sickness. So it is with doubt and faith. Doubt is a good servant but a poor master.”
–John Ortberg, Faith and Doubt

Doubt enters into the mind of every person – both seeker and true believer. Doubt may disturb those around us who want to remain undisturbed; but moments of doubt–honest doubt–often drive us back to the foundations of what we believe. It reminds us that we do not and will not have answers to every question of our mind but we cannot stop living while we sort it all out.

A good friend of mine, Doug Nolt, used to have a sign on his door during his days as a campus minister:

I do not know all the answers
but I know the One who does.

For ultimately our faith is not rooted and grounded in our intellectual abilities or our prowess at securing unassailable answers. Our faith is rooted and grounded in a person.

And that person is Jesus Christ.

PS – I love this quote from Eleanor Roosevelt “Never doubt in the dark what you have seen in the light.”

(C) 2010 by Stephen L Dunn

This post originally appeared in another blog of mine

THRIVING IN CHRIST October 2010

THE TRUTH BEHIND “IT IS FINISHED”

Published April 24, 2011 by sdunnpastor

The Truth Behind “It is finished.”
21 04 2011 BY BLAKE COFFEE

For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. Matthew 6:14-15

Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Ephesians 4:32

This is the time of year when we, as Christ followers, remember the three events which all happened within a few weeks of each other and which changed our world forever: the crucifixion, the resurrection, and Pentecost. Within the Christian world, different groups have tended to focus more on one of these events or another. In my particular flavor of Christianity, we tend to focus more on the resurrection than on the other two; so much so, in fact, that I sometimes lose the practical significance of either the crucifixion or of Pentecost. This week, as an exercise to help me balance this, I have been thinking a lot about the crucifixion.

In The Gathering this past Sunday, I challenged everyone to consider their daily routine, their life and their world without the crucifixion. What would it look like? What would it be like? It made for some interesting discussion, as we each began to come to grips with what the crucifixion means to us individually.

So, I have also been asking the same question with regard to the entire church. What does the crucifixion mean for us corporately? What would “church” look like without it? For me (so far) the picture is both simple and scary: there would be little forgiveness and there would be little grace. I believe that because, over and over again, scripture draws a clear and convincing connection between God’s forgiveness of us and our forgiveness of each other. Don’t ask me to explain it theologically–I cannot–but I strongly suspect that the parable of the unmerciful servant in Matthew 18 was intended to provide that explanation. Through the crucifixion, we have each been forgiven SO VERY MUCH. Who are we, then, to ever be unforgiving of a brother?

Establishing forgiveness is the very reason Christ came in the first place. Unconditional, unreasonable, unbelievable forgiveness is the very hallmark of this entire revolution we call Christianity. It is our mantra, i.e., the identifying characteristic by which Christ followers are known. The crucifixion gave us that…the resurrection did not and Pentecost did not (they gave us some other very important things).

So, when I read Christ’s words, “It is finished”, I can have confidence that, with the crucifixion, He really did accomplish the complete forgiveness of all sin which He set out to accomplish. There is no way I can enhance it and there is no way I can diminish it. Forgiveness really was accomplished once and for all with the crucifixion. And that single event ushered in the very forgiveness which we must extend to one another as well. They are inextricably intertwined. The church without the crucifixion is a church without forgiveness…any forgiveness at all…for anyone and by anyone…because our forgiveness of one another is absolutely connected to Christ’s forgiveness of us as accomplished on the cross.

I like that it is like that.

It is finished.
© Blake Coffee
Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. For web posting, a link to this document on this website is preferred. Any exceptions to the above must be approved by Blake Coffee. Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: © Blake Coffee. Website: churchwhisperer.com

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.