When Dalls Willard was asked: 'How do you do “evangelism-discipleship?”' - He responded: "My short answer: You ravish people with the blessings of the Kingdom. You make them hungry for it. That's why words are so important; we must be wordsmiths. You use words to ravish people with the beauty of the kingdom. It's the beauty of the kingdom that Jesus said was causing people to climb over each other just to get in. People become excited like the pearl-purchaser. They will give everything to get in."
Sounds like all that we seek might be about far more than mere religion or 'church-work' . . .
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Friday, May 15, 2009
A Cornish Bendiction
Re bo Dew ha lowena genes pupprys! (may God and happiness be with you always!)
My maternal ancestor, John Partridge was born ca 1815 at Bodmin, Cornwall. He was a tin miner who came to Devon, where he married Mary Henley (b. ca 1821, Kingsteignton) who was then living in South Bovey, in the parish of Bovey Tracey.
My maternal ancestor, John Partridge was born ca 1815 at Bodmin, Cornwall. He was a tin miner who came to Devon, where he married Mary Henley (b. ca 1821, Kingsteignton) who was then living in South Bovey, in the parish of Bovey Tracey.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Daring to Live THE PRAYER
OUR FATHER, WHO ART IN HEAVEN, HALLOWED BE YOUR NAME.
It is by God that we live and move and have our being. Apart from Him we cannot exist. Our recognition of His Presence, Power, Provision and Protection (in all of life) is essential. Without Him we are nothing - we can do nothing, we will be nothing; indeed, we shall cease to be at all.
YOUR KINGDOM COME; YOUR WILL BE DONE ON EARTH, AS IT IS IN HEAVEN.
God wills to, and will, re-establish all aspects of His rule, in all aspects of life and in all places in the cosmos. Once more the earth is beginning to resound and to resonate with His creation (and re-creation) purposes. Despite all the seeming evidence to the contrary, each day God's people - hopeful, Easter-resurrected people, see evidences of Kingdom coming.
Beginning with Persons and with a People (and all through the One in Christ who redeems, releases, restores, resources them), God reclaims from the Enemy what was willfully submitted over to him, in our early-days Rebellion - resulting in the brokeness, sickness, incompleteness and estrangement of the world - and of so much within it that still reveals sin's taint and stain on the earth. But the flow has been reversed in Christus Victor, through His triumphant life, death, resurrection and ascension and as Christ-followers believe and live out new life in the midst of that flow. As when He was present with us (having pitched His tent for awhile among us - cf. John 1:14), Jesus claimed: 'The Kingdom of God is among you; the Kingdom of God is near you,' - so Kingdom people, Easter-resurrection people also (may now) go into all rooms and spheres of creation, there to announce with boldness that 'the Kingdom is near, the Kingdom is present. This happens daily - or it is supposed to, as we believe, go, act .. .) as an obedient, sent, ruled-over People (persons individually and more so, collectively, together as the Church) shows up among the peoples and places of the earth, showing and telling the Good News of God's reign. Thus, the Church proclaims and reveals (and again makes incarnate) the Presence of God in Christ, begotten anew by His Spirit, as He lives and reveals Himself among and through the 'concrete' and gifted expressions of each member of His Body, and through the Body as a whole.
GIVE US TODAY OUR DAILY BREAD.
Paramount to Kingdom coming and to God's purposes is the Creation Purposes God has had, and continues to have, for this world, for each inhabitant, whether living creature or inanimate object (from macro to micro). The Creation will be restored. Indeed, it groans still, awaiting the full redemption of God's people (though this has begun in Christ and where the Church takes seriously once again, in and through the Second Adam, it's Creation and Re-Creation mandate). O the potential for the More, already, though the fullness of what is longed for is yet to be (revealed). God feeds his people and His world with what is needed for surviving and thriving - for beauty, joy and delight in His purposes. As Calvin put it, God is as interested in sewer-systems as sanctification - i.e. for the health of cities and the restored wholeness of all creation, as for the cleanliness of the soul (and indeed for the whole being of each individual) for whom Christ died and came to release so to be fully Human once more. The context is daily and in the now of our lives. We live in space and time - and we may (and are to), through prayer and prayerful-faithful, living pull down (or into from the dimensions of the spiritual Real) into this space-time continuum, the realities and provisions of the Eternal. We borrow from tomorrow. We receive all that we need for today from the storehouses of the Eternal, which is very near us, had we eyes to see, and faith to believe. Heaven on earth living (or earth lived as permeated by Heaven) is possible as fore-taste even now, because it is filled with and animated by God's Glory and with that Food, both physical and spiritual that daily we need.
AND FORGIVE US OUR DEBTS AS WE FORGIVE OUR DEBTORS.
Not only is our creaturely purpose restored and made possible (albeit incomplete still in its manifestation (but still present in its Reality) and even in our taking seriously the possibilities), so also are our spiritual needs are met through the provision of God in Christ, and as applied by His Spirit to His willing and obedient servants. We seek the forgiveness of our sins, both as individual and as a collective humanity, for we all have and continue to come short of God's glory and purposes, we continually missing the mark, we continually leave undone the things we ought to have done and we keep doing the things we should not do. We have unclean lips (cf. Isaiah 6) and we live among a people of unclean lips. Our only hope is the eternal (and daily) Grace of our Lord Jesus, as typified in Isaiah's temple vision, by the Angel's taking (with tongs) a live coal from off the altar and touching our lips (as he did Isaiah's and, indeed, by purifying all of us - both once for all and daily and continually, through the provision of God in Christ at Calvary).
Yet, it is not enough that we have our own spiritual needs met, and those of our new friends and companions - fellow-travelers in the Way, the Church of the Living God. Indeed we are concerned with both the vertical AND with the horizontal of our personal relationships and accountabilities; so we are to forgive as we are forgiven. We forgive others (and those beyond our own family and friends) as we would ourselves be forgiven. We seek to forgive and to receive forgiveness from the people, within the Body and without, whom we harm and neglect in so many ways - again, by doing things towards them that we should not do, and in not doing things towards and for them that we (brother and sister keepers as we all are) ought to have done.
AND LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION, BUT DELIVER US FROM THE EVIL (ONE).
Our spiritual and physical well-being - our very lives calls for God's protection (and so from Him we humbly ask it) as well as risky, faithful, obedient living with Him. When we dare, we will suffer; where we risk, we will fail; we will get hurt. Our very lives are at stake. And although in some ways we are to take on Satan's Kingdom, plundering it (as He is bound in the sense of no longer 'deceiving' (i.e. having full or primary sway over 'the peoples' as in times of old-covenant living, when otherwise God's primary purposes, light and love was displayed through God's People Israel), we do live in great danger. Christians are involved with Christ in a kind of mopping-up operation (as in post-D-day Second World War motifs - but not yet VE Day). In these times, until the full and final Revelation of Jesus as Lord on the Great Day of His return, we can still be harmed, maimed, even killed - as God wills or permits, for humankind's greater good and His Glory. Whether in attack or defense-mode, believers in pursuit of faithful obedience in the world and realms where the Evil One still retains significant power and influence, still need protective armour (as per Ephesians 6 images and realities). We are still too easily seduced and we succumb easily and readily, sadly still, when we venture forth, or lag behind in our own strength, land when leaning upon our own resources and understanding.
But our Lord said, 'I saw Satan fall . . .'. and He tells us apprentice-disciples that 'all power is given Him (Christ) in Heaven and earth; therefore, as you go - make disciples . . .' So, our missional vocations and tasks for all of life compel us to live so as to lovingly touch the lives of others: intentionally sharing the Good News, attending to our world and others as we go - knowing that Christ is Present always with us and within us, by His eternal, ever-present Spirit. We are subject still to temptation and to serious hurt through the wiles and devices of our Enemy. Yet still we may go in the promise of Christ's Presence and the protection of His Purposes. And after all, no Christian can finally be 'threatened by heaven' but rather live in the faith-full knowledge that not only here and now we may know His Presence but also live daily in the Hope that we shall be with Him, for neither life nor death can separate Him from those He loves.
FOR THE KINGDOM IS YOURS - AND THE POWER, AND THE GLORY.
Like a bracket, God's Kingdom (and with it His attending Presence, Purpose, Power and Shekinah) surround this His world, the universe and all people, places and things within it. Beyond space and beyond time, as well as within space and within time, God alone reigns supreme. His Kingdom shall never end; His purposes will never cease; His promises will never fail. Not ever. So it is - has been from the beginning (as we comprehend space and time) - and before; and so shall it ever be - beyond all time. Amen and Amen.
FOREVER.
AMEN.
It is by God that we live and move and have our being. Apart from Him we cannot exist. Our recognition of His Presence, Power, Provision and Protection (in all of life) is essential. Without Him we are nothing - we can do nothing, we will be nothing; indeed, we shall cease to be at all.
YOUR KINGDOM COME; YOUR WILL BE DONE ON EARTH, AS IT IS IN HEAVEN.
God wills to, and will, re-establish all aspects of His rule, in all aspects of life and in all places in the cosmos. Once more the earth is beginning to resound and to resonate with His creation (and re-creation) purposes. Despite all the seeming evidence to the contrary, each day God's people - hopeful, Easter-resurrected people, see evidences of Kingdom coming.
Beginning with Persons and with a People (and all through the One in Christ who redeems, releases, restores, resources them), God reclaims from the Enemy what was willfully submitted over to him, in our early-days Rebellion - resulting in the brokeness, sickness, incompleteness and estrangement of the world - and of so much within it that still reveals sin's taint and stain on the earth. But the flow has been reversed in Christus Victor, through His triumphant life, death, resurrection and ascension and as Christ-followers believe and live out new life in the midst of that flow. As when He was present with us (having pitched His tent for awhile among us - cf. John 1:14), Jesus claimed: 'The Kingdom of God is among you; the Kingdom of God is near you,' - so Kingdom people, Easter-resurrection people also (may now) go into all rooms and spheres of creation, there to announce with boldness that 'the Kingdom is near, the Kingdom is present. This happens daily - or it is supposed to, as we believe, go, act .. .) as an obedient, sent, ruled-over People (persons individually and more so, collectively, together as the Church) shows up among the peoples and places of the earth, showing and telling the Good News of God's reign. Thus, the Church proclaims and reveals (and again makes incarnate) the Presence of God in Christ, begotten anew by His Spirit, as He lives and reveals Himself among and through the 'concrete' and gifted expressions of each member of His Body, and through the Body as a whole.
GIVE US TODAY OUR DAILY BREAD.
Paramount to Kingdom coming and to God's purposes is the Creation Purposes God has had, and continues to have, for this world, for each inhabitant, whether living creature or inanimate object (from macro to micro). The Creation will be restored. Indeed, it groans still, awaiting the full redemption of God's people (though this has begun in Christ and where the Church takes seriously once again, in and through the Second Adam, it's Creation and Re-Creation mandate). O the potential for the More, already, though the fullness of what is longed for is yet to be (revealed). God feeds his people and His world with what is needed for surviving and thriving - for beauty, joy and delight in His purposes. As Calvin put it, God is as interested in sewer-systems as sanctification - i.e. for the health of cities and the restored wholeness of all creation, as for the cleanliness of the soul (and indeed for the whole being of each individual) for whom Christ died and came to release so to be fully Human once more. The context is daily and in the now of our lives. We live in space and time - and we may (and are to), through prayer and prayerful-faithful, living pull down (or into from the dimensions of the spiritual Real) into this space-time continuum, the realities and provisions of the Eternal. We borrow from tomorrow. We receive all that we need for today from the storehouses of the Eternal, which is very near us, had we eyes to see, and faith to believe. Heaven on earth living (or earth lived as permeated by Heaven) is possible as fore-taste even now, because it is filled with and animated by God's Glory and with that Food, both physical and spiritual that daily we need.
AND FORGIVE US OUR DEBTS AS WE FORGIVE OUR DEBTORS.
Not only is our creaturely purpose restored and made possible (albeit incomplete still in its manifestation (but still present in its Reality) and even in our taking seriously the possibilities), so also are our spiritual needs are met through the provision of God in Christ, and as applied by His Spirit to His willing and obedient servants. We seek the forgiveness of our sins, both as individual and as a collective humanity, for we all have and continue to come short of God's glory and purposes, we continually missing the mark, we continually leave undone the things we ought to have done and we keep doing the things we should not do. We have unclean lips (cf. Isaiah 6) and we live among a people of unclean lips. Our only hope is the eternal (and daily) Grace of our Lord Jesus, as typified in Isaiah's temple vision, by the Angel's taking (with tongs) a live coal from off the altar and touching our lips (as he did Isaiah's and, indeed, by purifying all of us - both once for all and daily and continually, through the provision of God in Christ at Calvary).
Yet, it is not enough that we have our own spiritual needs met, and those of our new friends and companions - fellow-travelers in the Way, the Church of the Living God. Indeed we are concerned with both the vertical AND with the horizontal of our personal relationships and accountabilities; so we are to forgive as we are forgiven. We forgive others (and those beyond our own family and friends) as we would ourselves be forgiven. We seek to forgive and to receive forgiveness from the people, within the Body and without, whom we harm and neglect in so many ways - again, by doing things towards them that we should not do, and in not doing things towards and for them that we (brother and sister keepers as we all are) ought to have done.
AND LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION, BUT DELIVER US FROM THE EVIL (ONE).
Our spiritual and physical well-being - our very lives calls for God's protection (and so from Him we humbly ask it) as well as risky, faithful, obedient living with Him. When we dare, we will suffer; where we risk, we will fail; we will get hurt. Our very lives are at stake. And although in some ways we are to take on Satan's Kingdom, plundering it (as He is bound in the sense of no longer 'deceiving' (i.e. having full or primary sway over 'the peoples' as in times of old-covenant living, when otherwise God's primary purposes, light and love was displayed through God's People Israel), we do live in great danger. Christians are involved with Christ in a kind of mopping-up operation (as in post-D-day Second World War motifs - but not yet VE Day). In these times, until the full and final Revelation of Jesus as Lord on the Great Day of His return, we can still be harmed, maimed, even killed - as God wills or permits, for humankind's greater good and His Glory. Whether in attack or defense-mode, believers in pursuit of faithful obedience in the world and realms where the Evil One still retains significant power and influence, still need protective armour (as per Ephesians 6 images and realities). We are still too easily seduced and we succumb easily and readily, sadly still, when we venture forth, or lag behind in our own strength, land when leaning upon our own resources and understanding.
But our Lord said, 'I saw Satan fall . . .'. and He tells us apprentice-disciples that 'all power is given Him (Christ) in Heaven and earth; therefore, as you go - make disciples . . .' So, our missional vocations and tasks for all of life compel us to live so as to lovingly touch the lives of others: intentionally sharing the Good News, attending to our world and others as we go - knowing that Christ is Present always with us and within us, by His eternal, ever-present Spirit. We are subject still to temptation and to serious hurt through the wiles and devices of our Enemy. Yet still we may go in the promise of Christ's Presence and the protection of His Purposes. And after all, no Christian can finally be 'threatened by heaven' but rather live in the faith-full knowledge that not only here and now we may know His Presence but also live daily in the Hope that we shall be with Him, for neither life nor death can separate Him from those He loves.
FOR THE KINGDOM IS YOURS - AND THE POWER, AND THE GLORY.
Like a bracket, God's Kingdom (and with it His attending Presence, Purpose, Power and Shekinah) surround this His world, the universe and all people, places and things within it. Beyond space and beyond time, as well as within space and within time, God alone reigns supreme. His Kingdom shall never end; His purposes will never cease; His promises will never fail. Not ever. So it is - has been from the beginning (as we comprehend space and time) - and before; and so shall it ever be - beyond all time. Amen and Amen.
FOREVER.
AMEN.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Heaven: What and Where is it?
"Heaven is not a far-off, other-worldly place we go when we die for which we have no context. Heaven is simply the realm in which God works and governs, and he is bringing heaven to earth. When the Jewish people in the time of Jesus thought of God’s future Kingdom, they expected it to be real and tangible. Jesus challenged their political motives and how that Kingdom would come, but he did not discredit the concrete nature of their hopes. God’s Kingdom is flesh-and-blood real. The New Jerusalem that John describes in Revelation is not some fantasy land; an artificial façade like something you would see at Disney World. It is our world, totally renewed and restored to God’s original intent for humankind." (from Michael Fisher's blog: 'The Mustard Seed). I think this is very close to the truth - if not fully so.
Biblical Lenses of Creation
The subtitle of this book is "Biblical Basics for a Reformational Worldview," and as the book develops, the author clearly aligns himself with the Dutch Reformed school of thought. This school of thought is best represented by Abraham Kuyper and there is a real sense in which this book can be viewed as an introduction to Kuyperian thinking.
Wolters begins the book by defining what a worldview is. He distinguishes "worldview" from the academic disciplines of theology and philosophy. He says that one may need specialized education to engage in theology and philosophy, but a worldview is something that everyone has, regardless of education. He defines a worldview as "the comprehensive framework of one's basic beliefs about things."
He goes on to say that a Biblical worldview is to understand the world through the biblical lenses of creation, fall, and redemption. Chuck Colson's book "How Now Shall We Live," takes the same approach.
What is unique about Wolters book, and this is a theme that runs throughout, is his distinction between structure and direction. Structure refers to the way something was created. In other words, everything has a structure - the family, government, labor, etc., all have a structure given to them. Direction refers to their movement toward or away from God.
He shows that many Christians tend to reject the structure of a thing, when they should be dealing with direction. For instance, he speaks of human sexuality. Many Christians view sex in a negative light. However, sexuality has a biblical structure, i.e. it was created by God for a purpose and is to be pursued according to that purpose. To reject sexuality out of hand is to reject God's created order, or structure. It is the direction of human sexuality that we are to engage, not the structure. We are to seek to redeem it, pointing it in a godward direction.
Wolters goes on to develop these themes through looking at how the fall affected the created order (structure) and how redemption affects it. Redemption is concerned with reversing the effects of the fall. Because the scope of redemption is as wide as the scope of the fall, there is nothing in all of creation that is irredeemable.
All of this leads up to an explanation of the Kuyperian notion of sphere sovereignty - which states that no societal institution is subordinate to any other. In other words, the church is not subordinate to the state, nor vice versa. This applies to all institutions - family, education, etc.. If I read him right each institution has a created structure and though they are not subordinate to one another, they are subordinate to God's laws. Hence, all can and must be redeemed - i.e. put in a godward direction.
-- from a review of: "Creation Regained: Biblical Basics for a Reformational Worldview" by Albert Wolters
Wolters begins the book by defining what a worldview is. He distinguishes "worldview" from the academic disciplines of theology and philosophy. He says that one may need specialized education to engage in theology and philosophy, but a worldview is something that everyone has, regardless of education. He defines a worldview as "the comprehensive framework of one's basic beliefs about things."
He goes on to say that a Biblical worldview is to understand the world through the biblical lenses of creation, fall, and redemption. Chuck Colson's book "How Now Shall We Live," takes the same approach.
What is unique about Wolters book, and this is a theme that runs throughout, is his distinction between structure and direction. Structure refers to the way something was created. In other words, everything has a structure - the family, government, labor, etc., all have a structure given to them. Direction refers to their movement toward or away from God.
He shows that many Christians tend to reject the structure of a thing, when they should be dealing with direction. For instance, he speaks of human sexuality. Many Christians view sex in a negative light. However, sexuality has a biblical structure, i.e. it was created by God for a purpose and is to be pursued according to that purpose. To reject sexuality out of hand is to reject God's created order, or structure. It is the direction of human sexuality that we are to engage, not the structure. We are to seek to redeem it, pointing it in a godward direction.
Wolters goes on to develop these themes through looking at how the fall affected the created order (structure) and how redemption affects it. Redemption is concerned with reversing the effects of the fall. Because the scope of redemption is as wide as the scope of the fall, there is nothing in all of creation that is irredeemable.
All of this leads up to an explanation of the Kuyperian notion of sphere sovereignty - which states that no societal institution is subordinate to any other. In other words, the church is not subordinate to the state, nor vice versa. This applies to all institutions - family, education, etc.. If I read him right each institution has a created structure and though they are not subordinate to one another, they are subordinate to God's laws. Hence, all can and must be redeemed - i.e. put in a godward direction.
-- from a review of: "Creation Regained: Biblical Basics for a Reformational Worldview" by Albert Wolters
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