Thoughts on human effort and the work of God

Category Theology

Why Christians suffer persecution if Christ victoriously rose from the dead and what we can do about it.

This is a manuscript from a brief missions presentation given at Indonesian Presbyterian Church. Brothers and sisters, as we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, I want to draw your attention to the sufferings of His Body, his… Continue Reading →

A Letter to the Church from a Technologist

Dear Church, We love you, but sometimes we feel like you don’t get us. We’re builders, explorers, inventors. We love making awesome things and sharing them with the world. We love seeing the future and making it real for others to experience. We… Continue Reading →

Walking a tightrope.

Although it can feel like walking on a tight rope, the tension between relying on human ability versus trusting in God’s grace is not resolved by “staying balanced”. Are we praying so much we’ve turned passive? Are we relying on our own strength… Continue Reading →

Link: The City Can’t Be Blessed With The Church Under A Dome.

My friend Pastor Kevin Yoho recently posted some thoughts on the situation in Ferguson and the surprising (mostly) non-response from churches in the area. You can read his thoughts here: Ferguson Hope. Not Wanted: Churches Doomed Under the Dome. I wanted to add two comments from my conversation with him:

Hi Kevin,

Just read your article and I would agree that many churches are trapped by an inverted mindset, which keeps them, as you said it "under the dome". If causes like racial reconciliation are ancillary to their main goal, then the tepid response we see is unsurprising, but if people understood that one sign of the gospel they proclaim is racial reconciliation, because it demonstrates that the Kingdom of God is at hand with Christ as Lord over every people, tribe, tongue and nation then all of a sudden serving our brothers and sisters of other races, ethnicities, languages, etc becomes essential to Christ’s call on our lives, our congregations and our witness for the gospel.

A quick thought on privilege—as I understand it, privilege is not a problem except that people do not realize what privilege is for. It is not meant to be solely for their own good, but to be exercised in love towards those who do not have it in order to lift them up. I think for example of the apostle Paul who had the privileges of being a Roman citizen, but chose to exercise those rights in order to advance the gospel and for the good of the believers he was serving (e.g. demanding a public apology from the high officials after they wrongly beat and jailed him so that the gospel and the church would be vindicated in the sight of everyone). Likewise believers of privilege today are able to use the preferences and status afforded to them to speak for those who have no voice and to defend the rights of the poor and the oppressed. This is precisely what their “kingly” privilege is for (cf Proverbs 31:8-9).

Thanks for sharing your post!

In Jesus,
Chris

 

My friend Pastor Kevin Yoho recently posted some thoughts on the situation in Ferguson and the surprising (mostly) non-response from churches in the area. You can read his thoughts here: Ferguson Hope. Not Wanted: Churches Doomed Under the Dome. I… Continue Reading →

The taunts against Jesus demonstrate the superiority of God’s folly over man’s wisdom

And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads  and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.”  So also… Continue Reading →

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