Life of Christ 2.14.12

Consider the problems of the world today. What are some pragmatic things that you would expect a messiah to fix?

One of my first thoughts would be to try and clear up the giant mess in the Middle East, but the Jews also expected that of Jesus, and that is simply not what happened, so perhaps that is out until He comes back. I would think that a messiah would focus on the obvious evils of greed and corruption by those leading the most powerful corporations and governments. He or she would rebuke the loose spirituality of the world, in which many believe in all sorts of roads to God. The messiah would also rebuke the idea that humans have the power to have all knowledge through empirical means, as this fallacy ignores many important truths that can not be reached by science.

How would the world respond to Jesus in the flesh if He showed up tomorrow?

The world is so big and messy. I have a feeling that hardly anyone would recognize Jesus. Sure He would be very different, but there are a lot of weirdos with strange ideas, and that's exactly who He was. Only those with a very pure faith would recognize Him for who He was. I'm not even sure that I would recognize Him at first, if at all, without His help. I think a lot of the world would rebuke him. If He caused enough of a ruckus, there would likely be a huge defamatory media stir that would quickly write him off.


Read Romans 8:1-17

Romans 8

Life Through the Spirit

1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you[a] free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh,[b] God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.[c] And so he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
5 Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. 7 The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.

9 You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. 10 But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life[d] because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of[e] his Spirit who lives in you.

12 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.

14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.[f] And by him we cry, “Abba,[g] Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

What is the main idea of this passage?

This passage is talking about our new nature in Christ with the Holy Spirit. Only because of our redemption through Christ are we able to rise above our sin.

What does it mean when Paul states, "There is no condemnation in Christ Jesus"?


We are really good at not being able to follow the law, which means we are condemned. Our human nature, or our flesh, which is that of a sinful being, is tainted and doesn't follow the law. Jesus makes us of the Spirit, which is out of sin.

Why can't those who are in flesh please God?


Our flesh leads us towards sin, which is in violation of God's being. When we sin, we do not show, but reject God's love, and instead serve ourselves. This is not pleasing to God.

In our modern world, what are some things of the flesh and some things of the spirit as mentioned in verse 5?
Things of the flesh could be just about anything. We live in a consumer society. We take and take and take, acquiring pleasures of the flesh. Service to others in God's love would be something of the Spirit.

Why I Love Jesus, and Pray For Redemption of the Church Body

The following video, Why I Hate Religion, and Love Jesus, has become enormously popular (over 19 million views) on the internet. I have heard it brought up a lot, but I hadn't seen it, so I thought I would watch it today to see what I think. Before I watched it, I was thinking that the message might be a little frustrating to me, but also that he may have some good thoughts, as I've seen some of his videos before.




My presumptions turned out to be correct.

The views presented in this video are very timely to the new culture of my generation. We are become decreasingly aligned with religion while, as a whole, we are becoming more spiritual. There is a lot of validity in that movement, in some ways. Religion has failed at integrity over time, as sins have lead to many failures and tragedies, both on a major historical sense, and in an everyday sense in our overal interactions with culture at large. My generation values holisticness and integrity more than ever before, and this means that they just aren't happy with a church that doesn't practice what it preaches.

The problem, of course, it that it does, and this video doesn't acknowledge it. Sure, the millions of people in the church across the world haven't always been perfect individually or corporately, but we aren't God; we are human. The thing is, even in the video, he says he loves the church, the Bible, and Jesus, and doesn't fully separate religion and Jesus. Critics of the video found the same thing, and some were angered by the fact.

A prominent Atheist made an angry response, rightfully pointing out how the two weren't really separated. He quoted a lot of scripture which pointed out how Jesus in fact set the church up to be his hand in the world, spreading the Good News until He comes back. How true that is!

A LACI speaker last night brought up the same thought, in the light of cultural redemption. He argued that God created man to live in culture. We fell, and that culture became imperfect, but Jesus came back to redeem us. This redemption is for all, and so, though accepted individual, the redeemed are here to transform our culture through the Good News and with God's love. Eventually, it will be consummated by the last coming and the new Kingdom on earth. Therefore, all our religion is is a group of people living out what Jesus wanted, and then identified as a group. Sure, our generation could reject the formal church, but they will find living for Jesus too difficult, if not impossible, on their own, and will turn to social groupings instead. What do they have? A church, or a formal religion. I see this as more of a variation on the sectarianism we already have. Some people decide that they are frustrated with the supposed sins or faults of an established church, and go off the bring their own.

I believe that instead, we should be fulfilling Christ's mission by redeeming culture, including the culture of our own churches. We don't need more splits; the church is diluted enough as it is. What we need is to call on peace and wisdom from God, so that we can reconcile our differences and attempt to stand as a united, rather than broken, universal church. As many such efforts are being made today, we continue  to fracture while cultures around the world learn to work together. My opinion is this: our mission today (and throughout history since Jesus) should be redemption within the church, and the redemption of the greater culture we live in.

Many videos, articles, and comments have been made in response to the original video, often by personable and trendy persons from my generation. Here is one that resonates with me, even though it is from the Catholic church. As a Baptist, and a Christion seeking a less broken church, this fresh face from a Catholic is refreshing, and his defense of the church seems spot on and necessary to me.

Guilt

Describe a time when you feel that you disappointed God with sin. What led you to that state? How did it make you feel? What punishment do you think it warranted? Did you ask for forgiveness? Were you forgiven?

There are many things in my daily life that I feel are disappointments. Just one example is all of those little moments of selfishness that come out in quick decisions throughout the day. I should have let this person go before me. I should have done this favor for him. I should have held the door open for her. I should have taken the time to see how he was doing. I shouldn't have avoided her. That kind of thing.

Realizing moments where I choose selfishness over loving and serving someone makes me feel guilty because I feel like I am not using my gifts from God for his glory, but for my comfort. Thankfully, I am covered by grace, and I don't need to hang on to this guilt, but I try and repent, and make an effort to improve myself for Him, so that next time, I can show someone love and be a light rather that being selfish.

One more thing: If you had a group of friends to be in a posse, who would they be and why?

Uhhhhhhhhhhhh, ummmmmmmmm. People who inspire me, so probably a group of some random people at Fox and from home, that are in a similar place in life to me, and demonstrate characteristics of living that life that I want to emulate.

Here comes Mayan Jesus.

Write a story about if John the Baptist showed up on Dec 23, 2012

Dialogue real & relevant, what would be condemned, who would be condemned?

On the 12th of December, in the 2012th year of our Lord 21,

A man appeared in Pioneer Courthouse Square, amongst the drug addled and homeless. Instantly, their hearts were lifted and one stood up. He said "He is here! Hey guys, that's Jesus! He is here!"

Some stoop up and danced, while others doubted and said "Great! Yet another Messiah."
Some men, women, and children, dirty and disheveled decided to follow Him.

He entered the Pioneer Mall, a place of great wealth and trading. Within moments, He and His followers were halted by the security, who asked for Him and his lot to remove themselves immediately.


-----

I've stared at this for 2 weeks, and..... I just don't know how to write it. It feel wrong. I hate to give up, but I can't figure out how to not be sacrilegious.

N.T. Wright: Hero of the Modern Church?

After finally reading some N.T. Wright, I find that I can really appreciate his perspective.

The other day in LACI, we had a speaker discussing the trends that anthropologists and the like were noticing regarding the new generation. One of the big markers of the new generation is a desire for decompartmentalization and holisticness, as well as an increased spiritualism. N.T. Wright's writings on knowing the spiritual and historical Jesus seem to reflect the cries of the new generation. While he is not necessarily speaking to this generation, he is critiquing the typical separation of the historical and spiritual aspects of Jesus.

As our generation moves towards holistic understanding of things, less and less Christians (and non-Christians) are willing to accept Jesus in incompatible roles. What Wright tries to do in this article in the "Knowing Jesus: Faith and History" chapter is to encourage readers not to study Jesus in separate contexts, but to try and see how these contexts fit together to either reconcile discrepancies or to, at the very least (as often is the case with studying God) to wrestle with them.

I do not think that Wright is encouraging Borg's approach, however, as Borg seems to take the different facets of Jesus, and instead of wrestling and reconciling them, he just denies some. As I've previously said, this makes Jesus easier to be comfortable with, but Jesus isn't comfortable and putting him in a box doesn't help anyone.