|
integratedtheology
|
read my profile
sign my guestbook
Interests: so I guess this site is about theology. everybody's got theology- theology is just what you believe about God: theism/atheism, personal/impersonal, loving/uncaring, just/lax, whatever. theology is pretty important, but I think we miss the point in it. I know many that see it as a cause for division, something that separates and divides us. I think it needs to be different: something that gives us meaning and purpose. I like the term integration (despite its mathematical meaning) because it denotes something that is really a part of you. and I want my theology to be a real part of me. hopefully my theology will bring you to a better understanding of God and the fullfillment and meaning that only He can give.
Message: message meEmail: email me
Website: visit my website
Member Since:
1/4/2005
|
|
SubscriptionsSites I Read
|
|
|
|
| In reflection upon my last post...
No coincidence that I accidentally stumbled across Colossians 3... I like the way The Message puts it...
------ ------- ------ ------- -------- ---------
So if you're serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act
like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don't shuffle
along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of
you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ- that's
where the action is! See things from His perspective.
Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life
-even though invisible to spectators- is with Christ in God. He is your
life. When Christ shows up again on this earth, you'll show up, too-
the real you, the glorious you.
-------- -------- ----------- ---------- ----------
Man, that was encouraging.
| | |
|
I’m missing the point again.
I found myself sitting on a picnic table at school today staring
at hundreds of people on campus.
Hundreds of people searching for identities, doing whatever
it takes to find one. Whether it’s cars, girlfriends, degrees…whatever.
I’m so wrapped up in my own identity… it’s amazing how a move can do that. You
feel like you know yourself, then two hours of driving erases almost everything
you knew about yourself.
So I find myself trying to let people know who I am. And of
course when asked to pull a personality out of my hat, it has to be something
that the people will enjoy.
It seems that the
more I search in my hat, the more I forget where the real substance is. Am I
building the kingdom
of God or an image?
So whose approval am I trying to find? What am I groping
for? Man’s approval or God’s? No wonder Paul was so frustrated with the
Galatians.
I want to play for an “Audience of One.”
Always pain before the child is born…
| | |
| Two of my friends got married yesterday.
I knew this one had been coming for awhile. Zane and Stephanie love
each other.... that's actually an understatement. A friend recently
commented that they should be referred to as "Stane" because they were
so intimately and passionately in love.
It's really hard to picture one without the other. They both play a
profound role in the other's lives. Their direct influence on each
other is almost impossible to understand. They are a unit.
And I'm awed when I think that God has the same love, interest, and respect for me.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am the Real Vine and my Father is the Farmer.
He cuts off every branch of me that doesn't bear grapes. And every
branch that is grape-bearing he prunes back so it will bear even more.
You are already pruned back by the message I have spoken.
Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. In the same way
that a branch can't bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to
the vine, you can't bear fruit unless you are joined with me.
I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you're joined with me and I
with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be
abundant. Separated, you can't produce a thing.
Anyone who separates from me is deadwood, gathered up and thrown on the bonfire.
But if you make yourselves at home with me and my words are at home in
you, you can be sure that whatever you ask will be listened to and
acted upon.
This is how my Father shows who he is--when you produce grapes, when you mature as my disciples.
I've loved you the way my Father has loved me. Make yourselves at home in my love.
If you keep my commands, you'll remain intimately at home in my love.
That's what I've done--kept my Father's commands and made myself at
home in his love.
I've told you these things for a purpose: that my joy might be your joy, and your joy wholly mature.
This is my command: Love one another the way I loved you.
(John 15:1-12, taken from The Message)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| | |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From Romans 8:
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.
For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time...
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WHAT IF:
+What if the world was not inherently evil?
+What if my sin is not merely going along with a trend in creation, but going purely against it?
+What if God's creation is literally craving the redemption of my sin?
+Furthermore, what if creation itself is craving my transformation to a Genesis 1 human
being?
Here's what I'm wondering about. I've always been told that the world is rotting, stench-filled, and sinfully hopeless, and that I'd better get my ticket to heaven someday. What if God's picture is bigger than me and my salvation?
"WHAT IF" God is trying to bring salvation to this world as a whole?
+What if He has a specific vision for what He wants to world to look like?
+What if I could personally be involved in this bigger salvation?
Maybe my personal salvation- the time that I was rescued from paying for my sins- is only a starting point.....
What do you think? | | |
| Mastering the art of this Jesus way of life is really tricky.
As I was growing up, the concepts of "Jesus loves me," "love your
neighbor as yourself," and "Love the Lord your God with your heart,
soul, and mind" seemed so simple to learn. But they were too easy.
So I moved on. I mastered eternal security. I got things lined up my brain just right. But it wasn't enough.
Predestination seemed like a great follow up. So I studied it. I was so
determined to understand this one that I sought out youth leaders,
pastors, and wise men of faith to explain this doctrine to me. And I
uploaded it into my brain. But it still wasn't enough.
I learned the classic ABC's of doctrine: Amillennialism, Baptismal
regeneration, and Consubstantiation. And it still wasn't enough.
I wasn't being Jesus. I was learning many abstract principles and
theologies yet becoming more and more unfruitful. Somehow, there was no
love. There was no peace. There was no patience. Still no self-control.
I didn't get it.
Why wasn't "Jesus loves me" good enough? Why didn't "love your neighbor
as yourself" give me enough to struggle with for the year? Wasn't
loving God with every part of me enough of a challange.
Sure, I may have looked very intelligent, but when it came to genuine
content, I was worthless and horribly far from authentic. I was simply
pursuing a life on stage. I was trying to look good and show everyone
that I knew what was going on.
I still try to look good and show everyone that I know what's going on.
But it's worthless. Impressing people doesn't change who I am. And
neither does impressing myself with how much I know.
To be a follower of Jesus, you occasionally have to come to Him as a child, and let a child-like faith be enough.
| | |
|
