Never been able to make it to a Desiring God conference . This year’s conference ended today, and it looked to be an insightful time in God’s Word.
Look forward to perhaps working through the audio recordings and become a better communicator of God’s glorious wonder.
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The DG Blog has some recent posts summarizing the messages, with audio links and some notes either from the speaker or from an attentive listener
“The ultimate reason that suffering exists in the universe is so that Christ might display the greatness of the glory of the grace of God by suffering in himself to overcome our suffering. The suffering of the utterly innocent and infinitely holy Son of God in the place of utterly undeserving sinners to bring us to everlasting joy is the greatest display of the glory of God’s grace that ever was, or ever could be. This was the moment—Good Friday—for which everything in the universe was planned. In conceiving a universe in which to display the glory of his grace, God did not choose Plan B. There could be no greater display of the glory of the Grace of God than what happened at Calvary. Everything leading to it and everything flowing from it is explained by it, including all the suffering in the world.” —John Piper, “The Purposes of God in Suffering,” Suffering and the Sovereignty of God, p. 82
“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. . . . The gravest question before the Church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any [person] is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like. We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God. This is true not only of the individual Christian, but of the company of Christians that comprises the Church. Always the most revealing thing about the Church is her idea of God.”
- A.W. Tozer, Knowledge of the Holy , chapter one, "Why We Must Think Rightly About God," p. 1
Michael Patton has a helpful post on what it means for a Calvinist (like me) to believe in free will, while not believing in it. All depends on what one means by ‘free will.’
Does free will mean:
That a person is not forced from the outside to make a choice?
That a person is responsible for his or her choices?
That a person is the active agent in a choice made?
That a person is free to do whatever they desire?
That a person has the ability to choose contrary to their nature (who they are)?
For the record I agree with the first three statements, and not the forth. Nor do I believe the fifth, since our will cannot act contrary to our nature. Thus, I don’t believe we have libertarian free will . That concept seems to be foreign to Scripture, a presupposition or assumption from philosophy and logic rather that God’s Word (and experience I might add).
Perhaps the most influential voice in America, stakes her claim as a spiritual leader and denies the identity, work and exclusivity of Jesus the Christ. How can millions of so-called Christians in the U.S. watch her every day, read her recommended books, and follow after her so blindly?
I’m not asking for Oprah to affirm the true vision of Jesus (as she’s not a genuine believer, she cannot), but please don’t muddy the waters and consider one’s self a Christian and then say these nonsensical things. Oprah has more influence than she could ever realize.
Last night we continued our series in our Foundations class at Foothills on The Church . We had a great time studying some of the metaphors for the Church in the New Testament, like: the body of Christ (Eph. 1:22-23 ) with Christ as our Head, the flock of God (John 10 ) with Jesus being our Good Shepherd, the family (household) of God, the building of God and temple of the Holy Spirit, and the bride of Christ (2 Cor. 11:2 ; Eph. 5:25-33 ).
As we do each week, I stated our over-arching goal for the lesson:
That we learn to know, love and enjoy God more than we know, love and enjoy anything or anyone else, and that we worship Him as His Church
Our two objectives were to:
Deepen our love for and commitment to the Church, and
Let go of false pictures and expectations of the Church
Last time we looked at the nature of the Church and I pulled in a few common slogans. Perhaps you’ve heard them before:
"Have it your way" (Burger King)
"You can do it; we can help" (Home Depot)
We discussed that we need to repent of our consumerism when it comes to the local church, because it is not about us (!).
So I proposed a better motto/slogan by which we see ourselves:
“WE can do it, you can help”
‘We’ being the church, and ‘you’ being individual believers. Or if we want to keep with the corporate slogans, perhaps this one works:
"Let’s build something together" (Lowe’s)
In this I’m not trying to pit one company as better than the other (i.e., while I like Lowe’s slogan more, the customer service there is inferior to Home Depot, in my humble opinion).
Enough of the corporate nonsense, and let’s talk about how we experience our identity corporately . Much could be said here about our identity and no less than five dozen words and metaphors are used by God to describe who we are in Christ (e.g. chosen, saints, faithful, beloved, redeemed people, royal priesthood, a holy nation, light, salt, etc.). As I mentioned above, last night we considered five metaphors:
The Body of Christ
The flock of God
The family (household) of God
The building of God
The bride of Christ
I love each one of these illustrative metaphors, and they spring forth off the page in full-color, 3-dimensions. It seemed like all my students (which are all older than me by the way) delved into this with full expression of faith. We talked through what it means to forgive, and to seek the betterment of others, to sacrifice and be joined to Christ and one another. How they ideal desriptions of the Church are just that, descriptive and not merely prescriptive. We work and live as an expression of our identity, and not to gain acceptance (and identity) before God. ("We are accepted, therefore we obey.") We have been together for about 6 months now, so many of our conversations are like streams of thought that flow from one week through the next. The trajectory of our learning is to learn how to know, love and enjoy God above all else, and to learn how to do that for the benefit of others all the more.
Some of our time talked about how to relate to those who think they are Christians but are not truly regenerate (and how can one tell, and are we to judge?), that is, how does one become part of the true Church? And that our love for others is directly related to our love for God and we have no claim to being awakened by God if our affections do not overflow in practical ways to others.
I was reminded of a wuote from the 3rd century by Cyprian, bishop of Carthage:
“It is a bad world–-an incredibly bad world. But in the midst of it, I have found a quiet and a holy people who have learned a great secret. They are the despised and the persecuted, but they care not. They have overcome the world. These people are called Christians, and I am one of them.”
As the church, the community initiated by Christ and for Him, this is our job description, according to the Apostle Peter and the Holy Spirit:
As you come to Him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ…. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
[1 Peter 2:4-6, 9-12]
Truly, Christ will build His Church and nothing can successfully stand in His way (Matthew 16:18).
How great the Father’s love for us, how vast beyond all measure. His love and just wrath mingled in the greatest event in history, the death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ, the Son of God.
This is what God did in Christ:
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in His divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show His righteousness at the present time, so that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
[Romans 3:21-26]
The two Greek words de ("but") and Theos ("God") are the first two words of Ephesians 2:4: "But God, who is rich in mercy..."
Because of God's great love and grace extending to us in Jesus Christ, we are forgiven, redeemed and able to know, love + enjoy God more fully, ever-increasing and forever.
This site contains the thoughts and conclusions and journeys of the Patterson family -- Jeff, Kari and Dutch -- who have experienced the front-end of God's amazing grace, and continue to delight in His unfailing love.
Read more about us, and what we hold most precious.
As we do each week, I stated our over-arching goal for the lesson:
