I was reading some comments by contemporary theologian Walter Brueggemann (contributing editor to ‘Sojouner’) regarding the season of Pentecost and the collection of lectionary readings. He makes these comments firstly of the church
…. “It is not an institution, but rather a community of folk who are propelled by God’s own spirit, situated in Jesus’ own narrative, and alive in the world in alternative ways.” Continue reading “Imagine the church unrestrained”
“Who we are in Christ changes everything”
It matters that we have a right understanding of who we
are because of whose we are.
“For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus…And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His son into your hearts, crying out, ‘Abba, Father!’ Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son,
then an heir of God through Christ.”
Galatians 3:26; 4:6-7 NKJV
Jesus was not a servant who aspired to be a son, He is the Son who chose to serve. Jesus was not a servant working His way up the ladder. In the incarnation, Jesus is fully God. Pre-existent, eternal, the one by whom and for whom all things were created. He is the King of Glory. Which makes it all the more remarkable that He chose to be a servant. He was not in a position of weakness trying to earn the Father’s favour, it was already His. Continue reading ““Who we are in Christ changes everything””
THE POWER OF OUR WORDS
Our words are more powerful than many of us know. The Bible tells us this over and over. More than eighty Scriptures address the power of the tongue. This is because we are made in the image of God, and God uses His words to create. In fact, the very first thing we see God doing in the Bible is speaking the world into existence (see Gen. 1:1–3). God created the world and every living thing in it with His words. When He spoke in Genesis 1, nothing became something. The word for created in Genesis 1:1 literally means “something from nothing.” God said it, and it was so. It is hard for us to wrap our minds around this reality, but this is the power of God’s voice. When God speaks, He creates. The author of Hebrews describes it like this: “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible” (Heb. 11:3). God created the tangible universe using nothing but the power of His words. Continue reading “THE POWER OF OUR WORDS”