Comments for This is Church

Comment on Reflections on Mark: Affirmation for a Son by mikey

mikey — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 19:24:47 +0000

Awesome insight, Tim. I’d love to hear more from you about that fourth affirmation. I also considered writing about the chronological structure of the affirmations. It seems that the third affirmation becomes more and more important as the son grows and matures. Wanna write a sequel for me on both of those aspects?

Comment on Reflections on Mark: Affirmation for a Son by Tim Courtois

Tim Courtois — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 02:08:56 +0000

Love this stuff. Those affirmations are definitely core stuff. & it’s so true that we play the “father” and the “son” at different times.

I think you could say there are FOUR affirmations here: I would say, “I love you”, and “You are my son” are two different affirmations.

I would summarize the “You are my son” affirmation as something like, “We are intimately and inherently connected to one another. You are a part of me and I am a part of you.” Definitely something I want to hear from God.

Comment on Reflections on Mark: The Bounds of Authority by Tony Wilson

Tony Wilson — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 20:15:14 +0000

I love what Jess says. Its exactly what I was thinking only explained much prettier . Something God has been teaching me through my attempt at being a godly husband and father. I’ve been trying to learn from my father and the husband of the church, and just realized that very lesson just yesterday. I wouldn’t have put it into those words but in many ways I was trying to control peoples actions, and getting frustrated when things didn’t go my way. I love what you said about revealing truth, hope, & love. I know that is what I am to do as well. I also know that everyone has a choice and just as God has been patient with me and gives me the freedom to rebel and make mistakes, I need to do the same for others.

Comment on Reflections on Mark: The Bounds of Authority by Cammie Novara

Cammie Novara — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 22:12:18 +0000

“The Scripture makes it pretty clear that Jesus was incredibly powerful. Meditate on his own words” You’re absolutely correct.

Comment on Doing Accountability Part IV: Getting Practical by Jess

Jess — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 13:47:15 +0000

Read a quote about accountability this morning:

“We are the band with a few mad watchers of the sky [for the Day of the Lord] who know what it means to sip a good drink and send up a burnt offering of smoke as we reflect on today’s spilt blood and tomorrow’s battle. We need to count the day’s losses and gains for glory. Accountability is little more than learning ‘to do math’ with others as our comprehension of life’s complex theorems deepens, and as we learn to figure the numbers we have been dealt” (The Healing Path 245).

Comment on Reflections on Mark: The Bounds of Authority by Aunt Jen and Uncle Dan

Aunt Jen and Uncle Dan — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 19:36:23 +0000

While there is great mystery in God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility we are saved by grace from beginning to end.
God gives us the faith….without God changing our hearts of stone into hearts of flesh we would never turn to Him. He gives us hearts to love Him, obey Him and desire Him.We are dead in our trespasses and sin and would remain that way unless God monergistically gave us life. I do not know for what purpose God allowed the leper to disobey Him in the book of Mark, but it wasn’t because Jesus didn’t have the power over the leper. Providentially the leper’s disobedience was used by God to bring about His sovereign plan of salvation.
In Isiah we are told that God’s plan cannot be thwarted. God may chose many times to allow man to keep on sinning and be disobedient, but a God that doesn’t have control and authority over everything is not really Sovereign. It leads to Open theism among other things.
God has power over human beings. If He doesn’t it makes man sovereign by the very definition of the word and puts into question God’s ability to save completely. Or in other words it might mean His children will not persevere until this end and Satan might win in the end.

Comment on Reflections on Mark: The Bounds of Authority by Jess

Jess — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 17:00:31 +0000

“I was just struck by the immediacy with which I was shown Jesus’ incredible power over disease starkly contrasted with his lack of power to control a human being.”

I love this sentence. It’s a poignant contrast & a great reminder of the sort of “control” (or lack thereof) that the God of the universe employs in His relationships with people, as He models to us how we are to interact with those to whom we long to reveal truth, hope, & love. We can’t control them—which is different from God, Who could control people’s wills, desires, & actions, but chooses not to—and we imitate the One Who loves freely, gives generously, & waits patiently for relationship, maturity, and full redemption.

Thanks for your reflections, which to spur me on in my own – toward love & good deeds & freedom in relationship.

Comment on Reflections on Mark: The Bounds of Authority by Will O.

Will O. — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 15:09:38 +0000

Mikey,

This is an excellent, insightful blog post! I think that you can even find this notion of the bounds of authority in the Fall of Man. Like the passage in Mark you shared, we see God display His incredible power of creation; nature obeying His words. Then we see mankind disobeying God and how that changes our relationship with Him, similar to how Jesus had to interact with people differently after the Leper blabbered.

Anyway, if this is part I, I cannot wait to see where you go from here.

Comment on Strengths and Dangers of the Charismatic Movement: Hearing Voices by mikey

mikey — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 15:02:25 +0000

Femi, I’m sorry that the fundamentalists and evangelicals that you’ve known have lacked the fruit of the Spirit to you. I’m also really glad that the Charismatic leaders you’ve known are dedicated to praying for other believers and “quick to evangelise”. As you probably know, John 17:22-23 shows it’s Jesus’s will that all believers be brought to complete unity. I know that can be hard to do with people who seem hard-hearted, but I wonder if perhaps you put aside some of those negative conceptions of fundamentalists and evangelicals, and made a concerted effort to love them the way Christ does (as you’ve seen modeled by the Charismatic believers in your life), if you might see some of those more negative attributes in them begin to soften and turn around. Maybe they do have the Spirit somewhere in there after all

Comment on Strengths and Dangers of the Charismatic Movement: Hearing Voices by Femi dasilva

Femi dasilva — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 14:34:38 +0000

The evangelical/fundamentalist movement tries to twist scriptures to say what ‘it does not say’. for example that the days of the miracleous and manifestations of the Spirit of God among His people is over by twisting 1 Cor 13:8-12. rather interprete scriptures in the light of scriptures, they quote theologians who had missed it ages ago.

They are also very berbally abusive of anyone who does not see in he same light as themselves. On the other hand the Charismatic/pentecostal leaders continually pray for them and NEVER FIGHT BACK! In as much as good education is admirable, many theologians have gone to the wrong schools and had educated their minds at the expense of their spirit.

Satan is sponsoring so many theological cemetries called seminaries to oppose the move of God in these last days.

I stopped following the evangelical/fundamentalists because they lack the fruit of the spirit.

The average charismatic knows hi/her Bible more than any other section of the universal church, and they are quick to evangelise and stick out their necks for Christ