Re: How Grace through Christ breaks the victim to tyrant cycle of oppression
"A second factor to look at how Christ changes suffering is in terms of grace. The reason that yesterday’s victims become tomorrow’s moral or immoral tyrants is because they transform the suffering...
View ArticleRe: Gospel vs. Religion
"Gospel makes you free. Religion makes you karma’s bitch." ok, you made me smile. :-).
View ArticleRe: Would bringing back the vengeful help us to love our neighbors better?
I think this is helpful not just in extreme examples such as genocide, but also in the much more common relational conflicts we ALL experience at church, at home and at work. If you want people in...
View ArticleRe: Voting and power
I'm powerless over a lot but not unjustly (I don't have any power over your blog posts). Maybe injustice is being powerlessness to counteract violations of life and property. But certainly your post...
View ArticleRe: Voting and power
I wrote this to push back against two assumptions: 1. The definition that powerlessness equals injustice. 2. The hubris behind the assumption that democracy can abolish injustice. Powerlessness may in...
View ArticleRe: How the American Experience enabled the development of World Christianity
A little off topic: In Minnesota being Christian is common and many are self-professing Christians. The same is true across America -- so we have driven Judeo vvalues in the world. However, I have...
View ArticleRe: Can we right injustice?
What about fighting for the dignity and well-being of another? Certainly, God would not have us stand idly, indifferent to suffering, allowing those in power to oppress while we wait for God's ultimate...
View ArticleRe: Can we right injustice?
Passages like Isaiah 58 and many others express what you say. Inaction, lack of concern for the weak, the alien, the powerless is condemnable. Speaking on behalf and lending assistance to the poor and...
View ArticleRe: What’s next for the CRC after the Belhar endorsement?
Thanks for your comments Paul. On so many different levels this is a challenging discussion. My question about the Behlar is actually more about the role of confessions within our church. What do we...
View ArticleRe: Outline of Tim Keller’s Gospel Realizing
I jotted down some related thoughts: http://centralityofthegospel.w...
View ArticleRe: Mark Sanford: This week’s case study in theological anthropology
For what it's worth, in his book "Re-bonding: Preventing and Restoring Damaged Relationships," Donald Joy highlights the difference in scripture between the words traditionally translated "fornication"...
View ArticleRe: Mark Sanford: This week’s case study in theological anthropology
You're quite right. We can do one, the other, or both. Neither are they exclusive. In the Old Testament "adultery" seemed to be mostly an offense against a man's honor and property. David didn't commit...
View ArticleRe: Why are pastors so needy?
That Hybels quote comes from an old "Defining Moments" tape that I listened to a long time ago. It was Volume 73 "The Art of Self-Leadership". It was well worth listening to. Hybels also has a chapter...
View ArticleRe: Liberal churches die, conservative churches lie, where individualism...
Bill Harris responded to me on Voices, especially challenging (and rightly so) some of the points in point 5. This was my response to him that includes other things that never got put in the piece...
View ArticleRe: The Question of Progress
On CRC Voices (where I often post my blog stuff for discussion) the issue of acceptance of same sex relationships on a par with traditional marriage came up. The question I was wrestling with in the...
View ArticleRe: The Question of Progress
Those who wish to advocate for the acceptance of same-sex-sexual partnerships to marriage seem to go two ways: 1. The Bible isn’t authoritative or knowable in any serious way on this matter so what it...
View ArticleRe: The Question of Progress
There are obviously more arguments. Lew Smedes of course sees gay marriage as “the best we can do for a hard situation” along the lines of divorce and remarriage. All of this arose out of the Anglican...
View ArticleRe: The Question of Progress
Like I said before I like it when Bill gets feisty because good things happen. What you’ve stated well is of course the experience that is driving this massive re-evaluation of the subject. What the...
View ArticleRe: The Question of Progress
Henri Nouwen. It’s public knowledge that Henri was gay. I don’t know that Henri could have written and contributed all that he did if it weren’t for the two facts of his homosexuality AND the positions...
View ArticleRe: Keller specs out transition from church to movement
Your prompting tipped the scale to watch this video in its entirety, of Tim Keller speaking to his staff ever so candidly, clearly, and compellingly for the transition of how Redeemer is structured and...
View ArticleRe: “Pastors like people who have problems that are quick to fix”
As someone who has been in chronic pain (from degenerative spine diseases and two unsuccessful back operations, and with several prolapsed discs that haven't been operated on) and suffered from chronic...
View ArticleRe: The Care and Feeding of a Congregation
Paul,I have struggled with this same issue myself. When I do a series based on a topic, I feel this artificial compulsion to split it into four arbitrary sections. Somewhere I'll have an idea what text...
View ArticleRe: Redeemer’s New Birth Portrait Series
Great to see! Here is the official site! http://newbirthportraits.com/
View ArticleRe: The “Mark of the Beast”
You're giving those movies far too much credit. They're not that fun or sexy.
View ArticleRe: The “Mark of the Beast”
I grew up CRC and so they were a mystery to me. Maybe they had the appeal of "forbidden fruit". :) pvk
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