#faith
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I just registered for Secret Church 2018! Check out a location near you. http://secretchurch.radical.net/secret-church-host-list
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Hi Isaac, Thanks for a well thought out thread. You talked about how “God in fact did leave us the Bible so that we may learn and study more”. I think an important aspect of that is the time spent in the Bible. While studying deeply through using study bibles and looking up word definitions can be beneficial, the best way is time. The more time spent, the more we know God. Psalm 119:11 says “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sign against you” (NIV). This is important because something gets in our heart and we know it the best because of time. The things in our hearts are the songs that come to our mind as we drive down the road, or the words of the movie that we can recite line for line. These things happen not just because we thought deeply about it for a short period of time but that we spent extended time listening, watching, reading over and over again. I believe that’s the best way to grow closer to God. This is a practice that is challenging to me and that I have a hard time with, but I believe in the value of it. Here is a quote I really appreciate from a book I’m reading on the topic: “At the end of the day, there is simply no replacement for finding a regular time and place, blocking out distractions, putting your nose in the text, and letting your mind and heart be led and captured and thrilled by God himself communicating to us in his objective written words” (Mathis, 2016, Loc 563). If we can all embrace and engage God’s word like described above, I think we can all have deep relationships with God.
References Mathis, D. (2016). Habits of grace: Enjoying jesus through the spiritual disciplines. Wheaton, IL: Crossway. Kindle Edition.
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My one-year website-versary
Today is the one-year anniversary of my return to blogging and actively using my own personal website. I have owned domains for a long-time off and on, but one year ago, watching and listening to the political climate and especially the overlap of Christianity and the Republican Party, caused me to have an idea for a blog post.
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The Christian's Union with Christ
The idea of the “union with Christ” is used all throughout the New Testament when talking about salvation. In fact, without the ideas behind our union with Christ as believer, we would literally not have salvation. It is both the foundation in which the Christian view of salvation is built on and the key differentiator between Christianity and other world religions.
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🎧 Listened to “My Life Feels Pointless” -
🎧 Listened to Does My Sex Life Affect My Prayer Life?
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Sin and Culture
When looking at society today, it becomes obvious that “sin is an all-but-extinct term in the American vocabulary.” The concept of sin today is interrelated to the view of humanity. Within culture in America today, common thought is that humans are ultimately good at heart and if you could remove the negative external influences, you could have a utopian-like society. -
📺 Watched Introduction to the Doctrine of Humanity
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📺 Watched Introduction to the Theological Method
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The Gospel and Marriage
The gospel radically changes the way that we approach marriage from the way the world approaches it. Through conversations, movies and music we are steeped in a culture that puts marriage rooted in selfishness. For some, the selfishness comes out through looking for "the one" that will make their life change and take away their loneliness. For others, selfishness comes out through waiting until the last possible minute to get married. For them, that means making sure they have made the major milestones in life that are important to them. Often time that includes sleeping around and possibly living with the person for years to make sure the marriage will meet the expectations that you have for the marriage. This rooted in selfish attitude is what leads to so many divorces in our culture and even in the Church. Regardless of what Christians say, the majority of marriages are completely rooted in selfishness. However, when we approach marriage through the lens of the Gospel our entire perspective on marriage changes. -
📖 Currently Reading A Theology For The Church by Daniel L. Akin (30% Done) -
📺 Watched The God Who Acts
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📺 Watched The God Who Is
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Is the Bible inspired or written?
What is the purpose of the Bible? This is the question that must be asked before we can deal with the issue if the Bible is truly inspired by God or just thought of by humans. Ultimately, the Bible’s purpose is to reveal who God is and how we can be made right with Him.
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🎧 Listened to God’s Work in Your Depression
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Short Reflection on Theology
For most of my life I didn’t study theology. I thought that theology was boring and too academic. I, like many Christians, felt that theology was really an enemy of the church being a relevant and effective agent for God's mission in the world. That a large portion of the church, rather than being focused on evangelizing and connecting relationally with people was overly focused on detailing specific theologies about God. A couple of years ago, I took a theology class as part of a continuing education program in the Wesleyan denomination as a pastoral student. It was that class which began to change my perspective on theology. -
Be strong and courageous
Times of transition can be difficult. I know I've been through several in the last couple of years. I've gotten married and transitioned from being single to being a husband. I've changed jobs from being a full-time programming to being a full-time pastor, and now to being a bi-vocational pastor that's helping to start a church. I've moved from living in Hawai'i to living in Southern Maryland to living in Nothern Maryland. Transitions can be hard on everyone, and as I read the book of Joshua today, I saw the difficulty in the transition for Joshua. -
Only faith will put you in right standing with God
There are a lot of thoughts on righteousness and what it means to be righteous and if you are righteous or not. Every religion, and every division of religion often have different ideas on this. When the Bible talks about righteousness, it doesn't mean "good works" or "holy" or any other term that seems to denote that the person is somehow good. In fact, when the Bible talks about righteousness, the word used actually means "To be put in right relationship with God". Ultimately, being righteous isn't about having anything good about you, it just means the fractured relationship between you and God has been restored. The secret is that this relationship is only restored through faith. -
A great message about how to find the balance between where God has you and the plans and dreams that He’s given you. My dad shared it with me and I definitely recommend it.
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🎧 Listened to Ask Pastor John: What's the Last Thing You Would Tweet?
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🎧 Listened to New Churches Q&A Podcast 164: Prayer and Vision Meetings -
The Power to Make or Break...
There is a trend I’ve noticed in the church. It’s a trend of pastors. In the world of pastors, it is often common to focus on preaching, public leading of services and finding ways to get new people plugged in to service. The most often I see pastors engaging with the members and attenders of a service is in response to the church member’s serving in the church. -
The one book that will change your marriage
There are potentially more books on marriage than there are marriages today. Okay, that is a bit hyperbolic, but the point is that there is no shortage of books on marriage tell you what is wrong and how to fix yours. What thing in common with most of these books is that at the end of the book there isn’t a whole lot different. You might try a little tip here or a little tip there, but ultimately, your marriage is the exact same.
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Where Liberalism and Conservatism Meet the Bible
Faith in America is currently at a point of high tension. Whether it’s discussions on if Muslims are being banned or if Christians are trying to reverse political policies that are seen as civil liberties, it currently seems as if faith and politics just can’t mix.
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🎬 Watched Left Behind -
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📺 Watched The Bible Series Finale -
🎬 Watched God's Not Dead -
📺 Watched The Bible Season 1 Episode 4
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📺 Watched The Bible Season 1 Episode 3
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📺 Watched The Bible Season 1 Episode 2
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📺 Watched The Bible Series Premiere
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🎬 Watched Son of God -
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Some Biblical Humor…
So, I’m trying this thing called actually obeying the Sabbath… we always think of the Sabbath as, I have to go to church service on “Sunday” or I’m a sinner. At least that’s how I always felt, when growing up in Southern Illinois. But that’s the religion view, for if there isn’t a service, there isn’t a religion.
![Are You Prepared for a Gospel Conversation? [Gospel Life Series Podcast]](http://www.gospel-life.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/gospel-life-itunes.jpg)
![When Tough Questions Are Really Trust Questions [Gospel Life Podcast Series]](https://d1eedt7bo0oujw.cloudfront.net/art?s=8b880783664e156fcabe7ec6a54d829ec0101ddcfad61333099cd98de1a4f05d&w=840&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gospel-life.net%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2017%2F02%2Fgospel-life-itunes.jpg)
