Sorry to interrupt the discussion but I had to post some pics.
Thursday, January 20, 2005
Wednesday, January 12, 2005
Psalm 1
As we have continued in our series on Psalm 1 we have focused on what it means to be blessed. Our working definition of “blessed” is living God toward us. That means resting in the fact that all that God is He will be toward us. An application of this concept was seeing the parallelism between rest for the Israelites entering into the land parallels our rest in salvation and we have just barely scratched the surface.
Regarding the movement of sin in verse 1 we saw how one can walk toward sin, stand among it and then sit in the midst of the wicked.
The antithesis of this is too delight and mediate on God’s revelation of Himself; mainly, Jesus as the Word. To this point of staying focused on Jesus PostPaganBaby had a great line of thought, which I do not want to get lost in our last series of posts “Excursion Into Hebrews”.
PostPaganBaby said...
OK, Psalm 1, "Happy the man..." What is striking about this psalm is that Jesus fulfills it. He does not walk in the ways of the wicked and yet he keeps company with the wicked (namely you and me).
This is at times an overwhelming paradox. There are moments in my life when I don't consider myself "Christian" because of what I do or fail to do -- things that I once that were mandated by the Gospel but were in fact merely mandated by the dominant (i.e., pagan) culture.
Then I reflect on the ways in which Christ has permeated my life. I know of his presence through my wife, friends, and the "falling away" of certain evils that once threatened to destroy me.
Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger says somewhere in "Introduction to Christianity" that our faith is not about ETHICS but about ONTOLOGY. That is, faith in Christ is not centered on simply (?) keeping the 10 commandments but allowing the grace of Christ to permeate all quarters of our lives.
So at times I feel I am "no better" with Christ than without him, but then I recall that it his presence that would allow me to think such a crazy thought (were I living without him, I would KNOW the disaster that ensues).
Sorry if I got a little Buddhistic on this, my first post to your blog, Dustin! Peace!
I don’t think that these comments are within the realm of a Buddhist reality; for if they were they would deny passion for the blain nothingness of nirvana. Instead, by being real about our human condition, they affirm that Jesus came to replace our passion for sin with a passion for Him! At this realization we follow Jesus’ way for our life not out of legalism to earn His favor, but by His grace.
Regarding the movement of sin in verse 1 we saw how one can walk toward sin, stand among it and then sit in the midst of the wicked.
The antithesis of this is too delight and mediate on God’s revelation of Himself; mainly, Jesus as the Word. To this point of staying focused on Jesus PostPaganBaby had a great line of thought, which I do not want to get lost in our last series of posts “Excursion Into Hebrews”.
PostPaganBaby said...
OK, Psalm 1, "Happy the man..." What is striking about this psalm is that Jesus fulfills it. He does not walk in the ways of the wicked and yet he keeps company with the wicked (namely you and me).
This is at times an overwhelming paradox. There are moments in my life when I don't consider myself "Christian" because of what I do or fail to do -- things that I once that were mandated by the Gospel but were in fact merely mandated by the dominant (i.e., pagan) culture.
Then I reflect on the ways in which Christ has permeated my life. I know of his presence through my wife, friends, and the "falling away" of certain evils that once threatened to destroy me.
Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger says somewhere in "Introduction to Christianity" that our faith is not about ETHICS but about ONTOLOGY. That is, faith in Christ is not centered on simply (?) keeping the 10 commandments but allowing the grace of Christ to permeate all quarters of our lives.
So at times I feel I am "no better" with Christ than without him, but then I recall that it his presence that would allow me to think such a crazy thought (were I living without him, I would KNOW the disaster that ensues).
Sorry if I got a little Buddhistic on this, my first post to your blog, Dustin! Peace!
I don’t think that these comments are within the realm of a Buddhist reality; for if they were they would deny passion for the blain nothingness of nirvana. Instead, by being real about our human condition, they affirm that Jesus came to replace our passion for sin with a passion for Him! At this realization we follow Jesus’ way for our life not out of legalism to earn His favor, but by His grace.
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