All right friends, as I said Sunday, GREAT THOUGHTS!
I love the context that 1 Corinthians 1:30,31 and 2:2 sets for pastoral ministry. My paraphrase…Jesus is everything; therefore, I tremble at the opportunity to be a pastor.
That base coupled with your thoughts on prophecy and love provides for the pastoral manifesto that I alluded to on Sunday. Now this thought process is a work in progress for me and accordingly I would love your input. Not just on pastoral ministry but the impact of these principles have in your lives.
Teach away, class is in session.
3 comments:
Courtney, great line of thought; we are all part of the Body of Christ. Love the "my heart for them was that they would be hungry for God and that they would come to a place of living in His grace and letting Him live in and through them." approach to small groups. Your "Hmm" moment on 1 Corinthians is exactly what I'm talking about (the link of prophecy and love).
Taking the imagery of baptism in Romans 6 I think the reference to being crucified with Christ is a matter of identification. Our death to sin is IN Jesus, and our resurrection life is IN Jesus. Thus being crucified with Christ is the death of self and to be raised with Christ (mentioned else were in Scripture) is not just a pointing toward resurrection but how to live my life now—dependent on Him!
As you point out Courtney there is a link between the two. Pastorally I’m thinking there is benefit to separate the two, only as far as teaching going. Because the former is a lesson we so need to learn in our culture. Actually this thought of dying to self is represented in the flow of today’s devotion/office on the main page of the blog.
Great thread blogers!
I love Galatians 2:21 “I do not set aside the grace of God, for is righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing” (TNIV). The concept of dying to Jesus and dying to self depend on utter dependence!
Paul, also, talks of these thoughts in Philippians 3. I am starting to appreciate more and more the set up for that argument in Philippians 1:6-11, “being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God” (TNIV).
However, what might be the clearest passage to articulate this position is 2 Peter 1 (which is beneficial if any one was thinking that only Paul holds this argument)! Depending on Jesus grace and peace (vs. 2) Peter acknowledges “His divine power had given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness” (vs. 3). “For if you possess these qualities (that only come from His power) in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (vs. 8). I love it! Not kept unproductive in ministry effectiveness but in our knowledge of Jesus!
I think all of this backs up Ed’s proposition that to know Jesus is to depend on Him.
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