Miscellany

Discuss it.

Legalism versus License

Discuss it.

Jesus & Other Religions

Discuss it.

Let's talk about sex...

Check out this article in today's Globe and Mail:
'God has an interest in our sexuality. God invented it'.

Discuss it.

A New Way of doing things...

To allow for more freedom in discussion, I'm just creating some topic headings with a little intro in the comments section. Hopefully this will make the scope of the discussions broader to include a larger variety of thoughts, topics, etc...let me know if this is any better.

What is eternal life?

I wonder at one point eternal life became all about going to heaven. That is such a reduction of what Jesus preached! Check out John 17:
1 After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: "Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3 Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4 I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. 5And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.

There is a lot in that short prayer of Jesus, but we'll focus on what he says about eternal life. It is knowing God and Jesus. We come back once again to "knowledge" and what exaclty this means. It is an intimate engagement. The amplified Bible provides some more details about what Jesus is saying:

3 And this is eternal life: [it means] to know (to perceive, recognize, become acquainted with, and understand) You, the only true and real God, and [likewise] to know Him, Jesus [as the] Christ (the Anointed One, the Messiah), Whom You have sent.

Clearly, eternal life is not just about going to heaven. How do we come to know God? experience Him?

Experiencing God

"Until the hearers find God in personal experience they are not the better for having heard the truth. The Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men and women to an intimate and satisfying knowledg eof God, that they may enter into him, that they may delight in his presence, may taste and know the inner sweetness of the very God himself in the core and center of their hearts." - A.W. Tozer

The Truth is meaningless unless it brings about knowledge of God. Knowledge of God doesn't simply mean information about. It means an intimate engagement ("Adam knew Eve and begot...").
Any thoughts?

Giving priority to WHO instead of what and how...

From a book I just read: "We can be so preoccupied with the problems of humanity, of society, of individual need or the problems of the self, that we see the Gospel exlusively in terms of these issues. We adopt an anthropological starting point, and then seek to justify religion in terms of its pragmatic value or relevance for our contemporary self-understanding - offering programs, structures, organizations, machinery to deal with these problems and the countless calls for action. It is as though by doing something, becoming more efficient, we will be successful and find solutions. Bonhoeffer's plea to such a world is to give primacy to the question of WHO in theology. He points out that, throughout the Bible, the indicatives of grace always precede the imnperatives of law and obligation. It is only as we know WHO God is and WHAT he has done and is doing that we can find appropriate answers to the question of how, and then see the incredible relvance of the gospel to every area of life."

What do you think?

COMMUNITY

I thought a good starting point for this online discussion would be about what Vocation is all about, even though it doesn't match what we are learning as a group right now. We have four core values at Vocation: community, authenticity, mobilization and creativity. Let's start with community.

Why do we need community? I have many friends who have become disillusioned with church and have thus decided to 'abstain' from community and live their faith out alone. Can we really do this? Whenever I think about going it alone, I harken back to my rowing days. Have you ever tried to train as hard as you could for 18 sessions a week all by yourself? Probably not, and I don't recommend it. It's virtually impossible to push yourself by yourself. We were created to be in community and in fellowship, whether it be in training for sports or in our faith.

Why is there so much disillusionment about the church community? We are never going to get community perfect. We are probably going to be hurt, and our expectations are probably not going to be met. I think we often become disillusioned because the church fails to live up to its calling. That's why we put our faith in Christ, not in the church. And that's also why we seek after God first and try to live out his expectations for the church, not ours.

So what is it all about? A community focuses on what brings it together. It learns from each individual's uniqueness, and honours that uniqueness. A community is not a one-minded enterprise, but a collection of unique people sharing with one another.

Your thoughts are welcome...What is your experience 'in community'? What would a God-given community look like today? How does it act? Where does the church fit in this whole community thing?

So...here's the deal...

We are all busy throughout the week and I had been thinking of doing this for a while and someone encouraged me to do it, so here goes! To stimulate ongoing discussion/reflection/communication, a blog such as this is a wonderful and simple way to talk online. I'll try to regularly post some reflections/thoughts and we can discuss them through comments. So...to add a comment, you simply go to the end of the entry and you will see a hyperlink like "1 comment". Simply click on that link, enter your comment and name and you are done! You'll have to enter a little text code, which prevents automated "spam commenting". Any questions, email me.

This will be a fun, easy way to express our thoughts and I want to emphasize that any and all thoughts are welcome. It goes without saying that we should be respectful and open to what people have to say.