Not comparing Love
God cares about people and our relationships. He’s not worried about comparing how much we love this or that. He cares that we do love, that we practice and grow in the fruits of the Spirit.
http://theologyponderings.blogspot.com/2015/04/love-for-god-and-spouse.html
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Rationality
We think of ourselves as very rational. Often the bible feels odd because it points out our irrationality.
We feel quick to object, but with thought the truth often appears.
Often we see ourselves or other presented with a choice. We may be right and miserable or wrong and happy.
So often people chose misery with “being right.” There is a great sickness in our hearts, and we need the message of Christ.
We need the offer of grace and the power that flows from our faith in Christ that changes lives.
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Small Things
Often we forget how God is faithful. We miss the blessings of God.
God is always on our side through good times and bad. Sometimes we miss the good God is doing.
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Authenticity
The church must be authentic to the teaching of scripture when it reaches out to the world. The Christian faith has powers because it is different.
We should always consider how we communicate the gospel to the world. But we should always be concerned that we are authentic to the teaching of scripture.
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Evangelism & Relationships
Evangelism is about relationships. Evangelism without concern for real meaningful relationships is often doomed to fail.
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True Love
True love perseveres through good and bad. Through thick and thin. God loved us even while we where his enemies.
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A Great Need: Faith
A great need of everyone is to feel accepted and loved by God, and to have a sense of love for God and his beauty.
Read more:
http://theologyponderings.blogspot.com/2015/01/a-great-need-faith.html
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Focus
As Christians our focus should be on living out our lives faithfully before God. We should serve in whatever opportunities God brings into our lives.
At times we feel we do not have things to offer. There is a false humility in the Christian life where we feel we are not qualified to serve more because we do not want to serve than because of lack of qualification.
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Grace
Grace should move us to live out our Christian faith. It is our union with Jesus through faith which transforms us.
http://theologyponderings.blogspot.com/2015/01/grace-which-moves.html
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Looking at Particulars instead of Generals
In theology often a large issue is looking at generals instead of particulars. For example often people are judged theologically by their “education” or where they have been “historically” rather than their actual thought. Maybe a thinker from a liberal school is deemed liberal simply because of where they are educated is considered liberal.
I often have had difficulty in conservative denominations because of having a “liberal education.” It is often funny to be deemed “liberal” and judge as “liberal” by people are far more liberal then yourself. Of course it is often not that I fail to explain what I think but poor theologians cannot deal with particulars and result to general ideas.
To be a true theologian one must move past general principles and the opinions of others and look at things in and of themselves. A theologian is not simply a product of their education or background. Of course education and background are not irrelevant but it is how one relates to the events in life that is of most significance.
Gospel as Power
The gospel is the power by which the world is overcome. If you want to make cultures more Christian all that matters is a success of the gospel. All Christian ethic and Christian living flow from the gospel.
Read more: http://theologyponderings.blogspot.com/2014/12/keeping-main-thing-main-thing.html
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Blessings
The blessings of God are new every morning. Sometimes we need to look for the blessings. As we are driving we may be so consumed with difficulties in our lives that we miss the beauty of nature. At time when we feel God is not blessing us it may be that we are too consumed in our issues it to see how God is actively blessing us.
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One Thought
Often we are distracted by too many things. We miss what matters. The one thing which matters is faith in Jesus. And viewing all of life from this perspective. All other ground is sinking sand.
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Our Way
Excerpt:
The gospel is abundantly good news. We are welcomed into eternal fellowship with God. But we first have to accept that God is right about our nature and that we are in need. The good news is only good once we accept the fact of our need.
http://theologyponderings.blogspot.com/2014/10/our-way.html
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Law protecting Joy
The law of God is often criticized as getting in the way of human happiness. Often the reality is that the law of God protects human happiness. We have a tendency to live in the moment at the expense of the future. The law of God often at many points protects us against foolish desires to trade momentary pleasure for long term difficulty.
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When?
Often we feel we do not have time. Lack of time is often the reason for many omissions of good things. At times lack of time is simply an excuse. We often find if we are honest that there may be things which we excuse because of lack of time that may really avoid because of lack of desire. If something is very important to us we make time for it.
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Unity and Truth
The bible always promotes both unity and truth. Unity without truth is not true unity. Truth at all cost is not Christian. We need God’s wisdom about what truth is worth arguing over and what truth is less important than unity.
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The Most Significant Change
Christmas is a time when many people dream about how new items will improve life. A new phone or toy will bring great joy, they think.
Whether or not these new items will bring some change into our lives or not, Christmas is a reminder of what has brought us the most significant change. A life-saving, life-altering change for the better. Toward truth and life. Christ’s work and life.
http://theologyponderings.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-most-significant-change.html
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All Good Gifts
All good gifts come from God. We have God to thank for all the good things in life.
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Theology speaks to all areas of life.
Theology speaks to all areas of life. God has spoken to man and his word has implications of all areas of life.
http://theologyponderings.blogspot.com/2014/11/theology-as-meta-discipline.ht
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Christmas
The Christmas story is a story of God taking on human flesh and entering the world to defeat the power of sin and death. There are many other aspects of the story, but any telling of the story which does not include God and divine redemptive history is not a true Christmas story.
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The Fall
One of the greatest consequences of being part of a fallen race is being a part of a fallen race.
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Where we are going
Where we are is of little importance compared to where we are going. Looking at where someone is at in the moment is of little use compared to understanding the direction a person is actively going.
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Good and Evil
“Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you make every day are of such infinite importance.”–C.S. Lewis
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The Direction of Love
Christian love asks what it can do rather than wondering what it is ethical not to do.
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Order of Being Doing
In the world a person often becomes successful by doing. They are “no one” and then they do something and then they are “someone.”
Read more:
http://theologyponderings.blogspot.com/2014/12/being-before-doing.html
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The guilty conscious
The guilty conscious is an interesting proof for Christianity. All men struggle under the sense that they aren’t who they were meant to be.
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Success
Success is always ultimately in God’s hands. This should free us to live out our faith and trust God with the outcome.
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Fellowship with God
The joy of fellowship with God should be the Christian’s main when thinking of heaven.
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Wary of debt
The bible always teaches us to be wary of debt. More:http://theologyponderings.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-bible-and-debt.html
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Certainty
We should always have place trust in God and take a doubtful view of ourselves and our motives.
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Holiness is Active
A post on my main blog:
Today it often seems that all talk of holiness centers around avoiding this or that. Holiness has become not doing this or that bad thing…
Read more:
http://theologyponderings.blogspot.com/2014/11/holiness-is-active.html
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Faithfulness to God
Faithfulness to God can be lived out in many different ways. It is easy to try to live out our faith by a cookie cutter road map and encourage others to do the same. Authentic faithfulness to God can look very different depending on our gifts and what God places in our lives. Too often we miss opportunities because we have in our mind what God will want us to do rather than being open to possibilities.
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Theological Charity (in communication)
In the current day we often find criticism without listening. Often criticism has no basis in truth. We fine that often criticism of theology or other viewpoints has not understood or engaged with what is being said.
As followers of Christ we should always seek to understand and dialogue and attempt to never criticize or dismiss without first having taken the time to understand.
The Lord's Day
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The Lord’s Day.
As we enter the Lords day let us remember that we speak not be heard but to edify the body of Christ which is the church.
Edifying the body of Christ is always of more importance than receiving praise.
“If God is for us who can be against us?”
The hardest part of this statement is trusting that God is always at every moment for us.
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Faith
The bible is very simple. We often make the bible complex because we do not like what is says.
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