theology pt. 3

remember:  i am not posting these blog's as fact but as discussion starters to help form and solidify my (and your) theology. i love hearing all points of view and having good healthy discussions (feelings aside).  leave me comments.  molding my theology is my life long process so let's get started.

salvation:

do you think that salvation is for our ultimate benefit or to ultimately benefit God?  i use the word ultimately purposefully because my thought initially fall's under both categories but i think the ultimate purpose of salvation can only fall in one of these categories without contradicting each other.     

3 for 3

Saturday i finished that last wedding that i was officiating this summer...it just so happened to be my mother-in-laws wedding.  it was beautiful.  this was the final thing we had been looking forward to before we focused on our move to the Portland area.  with this down...things are about to get crazy. 6 days till our move. 

here are some picture from this weekends adventures.

Stacy and I at the rehearsal dinner  

Stacy and I "hot stuff" at the rehearsal dinner

Stacy, her mom, her mom's mom

Noelle, her mom, her mom's mom, her mom's mom's mom

(4 generations)

Stacy's brothers and Aunt Sara

Uncle Matt and Aunt Sara with Noelle

Think'n about bust'n into a rap

yeah, my hands on her butt

my amazing family

all the family is gone and it's time to get to packing.  SSU:  i owe you a response to the comment you made on "theology 1"...it's coming soon.  i can now focus on the scriptures that you gave me in response to that entry.    

creating monsters

today felt like the perfect day to introduce the time wasting game of paper football to my boys.  they began to building their skills for when they begin grade school they will be one step ahead of the competition and be able to destroy any one that stands in their way.  

we also decided to bring in one of our neighbor friends.

if your kid will be around my kid...tell them to watch out!!!

(notice that i had to put their first initial on their football so there would be no fighting...and yes that is  a "L" for Landon...not a "V")

theology pt. 2

remember:  i am not posting these blogs as fact but as discussion starters to help form and solidify my (and your) theology.  i love hearing all points of view and having good healthy discussion (feelings aside).  leave me comments.  molding my theology is my life long process so let's get started.

the sinful nature.

in my journey to understand reformed theology the question of our sinful nature kept coming up in my mind.  i know full well what James 1:13-15 says, "Let no one say when he is tempted, 'I am being tempted by God,' for God cannot be tempted with evil, and He Himself tempts no one.  But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.  Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown gives birth to death."  temptation and sin does not come from God.  the question kept raising in my heard, how does this fit in the theology of a sovereign God...a God centered life...a God that has total control over ALL things?

just like every one of you, i know my weaknesses and it seems there is one sin more than any other that i struggle with.  if God has complete control why doesn't He take this from me?  i have begged Him over and over again to rid my life of this filth and i keep coming back to it.  does He allow me to struggle for a purpose?  does He hold me in my filth to keep me humble? 

if this were so, this would contradict every thing i know God to be...a God who HATES sin...a God who turned His sight from His Son because He became sin on our behalf on the cross...when Jesus prepared to go to the cross in the garden of gethsemane, with the knowledge of becoming sin (and its consequences...separation from God) brought Him to blood sweat tears.  it does not make sense that God would keep us in our filth to teach us a lesson (though, for those who love God, all things work together for good...Romans 8:28).

the apostle Paul struggled through this in Romans 7:7-25.  we are able to see his struggle of "understanding his own actions" (v. 15).  he see two opposite worlds at war within him.  good and evil, righteousness and sin (he also talks about this war in Colossians 2:13-15 and the victory we have).  he continues and describes this battle within as "he does what he wants but (what he wants) is the very thing he hates" (v. 15).  he then confesses that nothing good lives in him, in his flesh (his natural state without Christ).  he says that he has the desire to do what's right but not the ability to carry it out  (v. 18).

this is my struggle.  i have the knowledge of what's right but i can not carry it out (in my own power).  i do not have the ability to choose right (apart from the Holy Spirit of God).

in my own struggle and my knowledge of Scripture it seems to make perfect sense that the only ability i have within me...in my own power...is to choose sin.  my flesh fights against (resist) the things of God.  the Holy Spirit then brings me back to repentance.  in a round about way...i can choose to sit in my filth because that is in my ability (in my fleshly state which is constantly at war with God)...but to choose God is outside our will.  

Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ.  It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.  And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me."  

to choose righteousness is Christ (and not our choice at all)...to choose sin is the flesh.  these two will war (even in our hearts) till Christ returns.  But remember...we are not slaves to sin because we have power outside our strength (Romans 6:17-18).           

your thoughts?

 

caption please...

my wife and i were hanging out with some friends last night watching the olympics.  while googling some stuff we found this picture...

leave a caption:

i'm thinking one of these posters...

...with the caption: COMMITMENT: never give up no matter the cost

theology pt. 1

i have not blogged near as much recently because i have been spending a lot of time in my Bible, journaling, praying, and reading.  i have been battling through the southern baptist theology that i was brought up in.  i guess you can call me a recovering baptist.  simply put i am thinking a lot through reformed theology.  

it's hard to struggle through something like this in the sight of the world (on the www) (as someone who has worked in the church for 9 years) but it may be the only way to come to great conclusions.  i formed this blog as a journal for my thoughts so here they are...raw.  please feel free to comment your thoughts on my thoughts and check back to see my response.  

i will try to keep these post simple and clear.

this thought process starts off with the question of how much choice do we have in this world with a supreme and personal God?

i am coming to the conclusion that we less choice than i ever thought before.  we make choices ever day...some good...some could be better and that makes this process hard.  in Romans 3:9-10, the apostle Paul says that no one is righteous, no not one.  he also say is Romans 7:18 that "i know that no good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh."

first, you have to define flesh.  our flesh is our natural state apart from the work of God's Spirit.

to get to the point, i am coming to the realization that the only choice we have as humans is to resist Christ...the sinful nature...our sinful desires.  our natural bent, that no one can argue with (who believes in the Scriptures), that our natural state, from day one, is sinful.  we are born to resist God.  Therefore, our natural state is the only freedom of choice we can possibly have.  The only choice we are capable of making is sin.  

John 6:65 says, "no one can come to (Jesus) unless it is granted him by the Father."  the choice of us "choosing God" is not our choice to begin with.  if we are able to "choose" any good, it's because of God.  John also say in chapter 1:13, "to all who did receive Him, who believe in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.  

conclusion: we have no will to choose God or to choose righteously. 

your thoughts???  

learning to ride a bike

Austen learned how to ride his bike without training wheels...

he's progressing wouldn't you say?

returning to middle school pranks

did you ever go to an overnight camp as a middle schooler? remember all the pranks that were pulled. you had to either be the one initiating the pranks (all you losers out there) or the one receiving the pranks (which we me...as a middle schooler...high school was a different story). there was no middle ground or that person quickly becomes the receiver...which i was always thankful for.

today...at my house...i just entered into the middle school phase of my life again and i will not take it laying down. i was talking a shower (pleasent thought...i know) this morning and my beautiful, lovely, sexy, conniving wife comes from nowhere and dumps a cup of ice cold water on my head. BRING IT...IT'S ON!

i must say that i was shocked. almost 7 years of marriage and never anything so immature...and now she has started a war. oh i can stoop to her level.

this is where you come in.

i need help comming up with the greatest revenge. leave me a comment on what i should do about this. give me your best shot.

most likely she will never read this blog because she never read my blogs...but if she happens to, oh well becasue i want her tremble every time she takes a shower or goes to the restroom or whatever. i want her to fear letting her guard down. but when she does...WHAM!!!!

haha...she is sitting, right now, at the other computer blogging...having no idea what going on 6 feet away.

to be continued.................