Archive for the ‘Resurrection’ Category:
Confessions of A Christian
2 Peter 1:3-11
“Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ”
This short confessional statement makes it clear that the realization that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior produces a life change. So when this confession is made, what does it mean? Most Christians hear these words so often that we can repeat them without considering their implications. As a result, I am going to attempt to define each of these loaded terms with regard to their Biblical context and describe which aspects we as a culture tend to omit or elaborate. Read more »
Where is the Hope?
I despise news documentaries.
All the 20/20’s and Dateline’s of television “infotainment” get on my nerves. Give me a sitcom and I can forget about reality for 30 minutes (20 minutes after commercials). But with a documentary, I am forced to think about the real world.
My wife and I were watching one of those shows a few weeks ago, and I learned an amazing truth that I never knew. Somewhere in southern California, there is a facility that could freeze and store my body after I die until science discovers a way to bring me back from the dead. The cost for this process is about $75,000.
Now I recognize this might be a medical advance to defeat “premature” death. Isn’t death life’s greatest enemy? Death will claim us all, and we are correct to resist it as much as possible. On the other hand we forget that it has already been defeated.
During the program, they interviewed a particular family. This family of five had already paid so that they could all be frozen at death. Their children were all interviewed; the 12-year-old girl said that being frozen and preserved was “better than no hope at all“.
Please understand that nothing was wrong with this little girl. She does not have some other tragic illness. She just knows that one day she will become sick and die, and the hope of being brought back to life by a medical professional is the only hope she has.
I was horrified to hear this.
Even if this little girl gets cancer in her mid-forties and 70 years later is thawed out and cured, will she not then face Alzheimer’s or heart disease? No, this is a tragic viewpoint that fails to recognize that no advance in medicine will ever make this world right again.
Death is a result of sin.
Thank God for the resurrection of Jesus! Death will be with us until the day we follow Jesus in his resurrection. In 1 Corinthians 15:19 Paul wrote that if Christ did not rise from the dead we (Christians) are to be pitied above all others. One version says “we are a pretty sorry lot”
Maybe you read that and you pity me because you do not believe in the historicity of the resurrection. Maybe you read that and you think I am insane. Maybe you have neither of those reactions. But the reality is that death will take you. If you freeze yourself, death might delay, but it will take you. We all have no hope of defeating death.
Those who believe in the resurrection know specifically that there is more life to be had than here on earth. At the very end of the Bible we are told that one day God will make things right. There will be no more pain, death, or tears.
This is the hope of a Christian. We trust in a future when death will die and things will once again be the way we always knew they should be.
Jesus Christ!!!
There has been a lot of talk about whether or not Jesus viewed Himself as divine, and whether or not the early church viewed Him as divine. In response to these questions, I had asked for permission from Dr. Dan Doriani to post his lecture notes specifically on the implicit divinity claims throughout scripture. As I said, these are in note form and as such dont read that fluidly. If you are interested in reading a scholarly article by him that has been published on this topic, you may go here. If anyone simply wants a point on the notes clarified, please ask a question and I will do my best to answer. The PDF of his lecture notes is in our resource page as well. Enjoy:)
How Ironic
This Red vs Blue clip emphasizes how sometimes we use words that carry different meanings to different people. When we discuss heavy topics, we are often doing so with some very loaded terms. What are some terms that you have frequently seen misunderstood?
Oh Lordy, Lordy
[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=tOf6rMGytH4]
This is gonna be the last YouTube video in the series on the general biblical storyline. I realize that I am leaving out the material at the end of the story referring to the Consummation, but that is because I havent read enough on the topic at this point to feel qualified to speak on it. Eventually I do hope to post on that, especially since there are some pretty nutty views on it, but not yet. In the mean time, enjoy this video that is a follow up and clarifier to last week’s. I do present some new information that is gonna be on the less popular side, so that may end up being the focus for our discussion. As always, let me know if there are any suggestions, questions, and/or discrepancies.
The Value of Risk in a Risk-Averse Culture
When I was in high school, my Dad encouraged me to pursue a career in financial planning. I really did like the idea of helping people get out of debt, invest wisely, and build wealth. But the career I really wanted was in law enforcement. While my Dad wanted me safely behind a desk from 8-5, I wanted the freedom of keeping the peace in a roaming patrol car at all hours of the night.
I’ve learned over the last several years that I’m a bit of a closet adrenaline junky, and thrive in stressful or risk-inherent environments. But I’ve also learned that this is not necessarily the norm for our culture.
Read more »
God’s Story: An Artistic Representation (Panel 1)
You may have seen the header for this site change once again, this time showing a four stage depiction of a tree. This is the digital print of a massive painting done by David Arms, an artist from Franklin, TN. The painting was commissioned by Pastor Scotty Smith of Christ Community Church, as a fulfillment of seeing a dream of his come true. That dream was to have a single painting depicting the whole of “God’s Story, as it progressively unfolds in the Bible, history and in broken hearts.” We have thumb-nailed the picture (above) to be displayed on a new page because it is too large to fit here without losing important details.
This next multi-part series will divide Scotty Smith’s explanation of this incredible work of art. The full explanation and article can be found here, but for the sake of introducing this work of art to commentary and discussion, I will divide it up into 4 parts. Each part will be dedicated to a separate panel in the painting.
