Spiritual anorexia.

22.4.2012 12:53
- "But I am not perfect. I am not mature. I sin all the time!"
Really?
It's like a lot of us have spiritual anorexia - we are super skinny, but when we look in the mirror we see this fat person. And the more we feed our thought life with the lie - about being sinful, ruined, without any good - the more that will become a reality. That's why Paul says to think about whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, worthy of praise...
As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. Prov. 23:7
But John says that the real truth is that as Jesus is, so are we in this world (1 John 4:17). Eat THAT!
Taggar: grace talk
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Upon perfection.

21.4.2012 12:42
Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God Heb. 6:1
I'm pondering perfection lately. The fact that I have been made whole. That I have been justified, made righteous and even perfect. Though it feels so offensive to say that I am perfect. But why should my confession be different than Paul's? It seems as if even the translators (or should I say "the interpretors") of this verse in the ESV found it difficult to use the word perfection. Which is what τελειότητα - here translated "maturity" - actually means. Furthermore, the thought of us not having reached perfection yet has crept into the translation. The preposition is ἐπὶ - meaning "upon".
So I would say that what this verse actually is saying is that the elementary Christian teaching was to repent from works (the Law, sin) and we have to stop that because we are already made perfect. We need to go on upon perfection. That is our identity and that is what we need to live out of.
Taggar: grace talk
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To miss it.

21.4.2012 12:20
Sometimes I wonder if the Christian tradition has ascribed more weight to the concept of sin than was originally intended. Some words have just become so loaded that they are out of this world, out of reach and we can't deal with them. In Thayer's Greek lexicon ἁμαρτάνω (to sin) only means "to miss the mark". Then the definition is broadened to mean "to err", "to make a mistake" and lastly "to wander away from the way of the upright". Even the Hebrew for "sin" is "to miss".
Yes, I know the wages of sin is death. I'm not trying to take away from that. But that's so evident: the Kingdom of God is joy and peace and that is what will be missed - both on a small and a big scale - in this life and in the afterlife.
According to a Jewish Midrash both heaven and hell are described as people sitting at banquet tables piled high with delicious foods, but no one can bend their elbows. In hell everyone starves because they think only of themselves. In heaven, everyone feasts because they feed each other.
Taggar: grace talk
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Mysticism.

18.4.2012 13:45
Throughout history there has been those that endeavored to have experiences outside of the intellectual mind. They wanted to know the Divine in a more intimate way, where the Divine became flesh. They were called mystics.
I was reminded of something today. In the Eastern Orthodox tradition only someone who teaches from his experience of God can be called a theologian. One of the last Orthodox theologians, Symeon the New Theologian (949-1022 AD), taught that every human could and should experience what was called theoria - translated "contemplation", but meaning direct experience of God or even experience of the grace of God.
Direct experience of God. That is the seeing and tasting that the Lord is good. In this mystical meeting with God is where I find complete satisfaction where I hunger and thirst no more. There is no need to pray for more of the Lord, because he is already everything and in everything in all of his fulness. And when I taste the Lord, every other desire falls away. That is my religion.
Taggar: grace talk
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There is something about love.

18.4.2012 10:04
I no longer fear God. I have come to love him,
for perfect love casts out fear.
(Abba Antony, a Coptic Church Father who lived 254-356 AD)
Taggar: grace talk
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Evangelism made easy.

7.4.2012 16:10

I don't know about you, but for me and a lot of people the word evangelism fills us with dread. The thought of having to convince someone that they are a sinner and the truth of Jesus just seems inmountable. This is if you think that we live in a fallen world. Which we don’t. Have a look:


...through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ's blood on the cross. - Col. 1:20 (NLT)


Note the verb tenses in this verse! He already made peace! The verb tense for "reconcile" in the Greek is aorist - indicating a perfective aspect in the past. The act is not ongoing or repeated . The aorist tense describes an action pure and simple. It has nothing to do with the future. Jesus is not "one day" going to reconcile the earth. It is over and done with.


And the beauty of this word reconcile... In this particular passage it should be translated "fully reconciled" because the word used here is apo-katalasso. Just "katalasso" in itself means "reconcile" and is made up of two words: kata - meaning down to an exact point, and alasso - to change. This word was originally used for exchanging money and was later applied to marriage. To reconcile is a complete turn-over. From being an enemy to being a friend. From being two to being one. From being bad to being good. From being ugly to being beautiful.


The world is already reconciled to God! It is no longer under the rule of the enemy, it is not bad and it is not ugly. And really, when I look at the mountains around the place where I live - how could I ever say that it is cursed? Such breathtaking beauty! And when I look at people around me, how could I insult God by saying they are bad when they were created in his image!


So evangelism (which literally means ”sharing the gospel”) is just to tell people they are already in! Or in the words of Benjamin Dunn:


Salvation did not happen when you believed or when you heard the gospel, but when Jesus swallowed the darkness. It becomes REAL to you when someone preaches the gospel. Faith is just the sweet agreement with what has already taken place.

Taggar: grace talk
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Grace talk.

5.4.2012 23:41
Since 2008 I have been on this awesome journey to actually have the gospel making sense and being revealed to me. Well... where it actually does not make sense at all. Not to my intellectual mind, that is, but where my spirit rings out in a sounding YEEEEEEEES! I have been given glasses that helps me unlock every strange verse in the New Testament. Yup. That might sound arrogant, but I always believed that God throughout the Bible wanted communion with people. His whole heart was always to communicate and make himself known. The problem was us, hiding like Adam and Eve. He never went anywhere. He even clothed Adam and Eve - first thing after they turned from him and hid themselves. He was still there - in all of his grace he takes care of them. Without them deserving it at all. And then Christians force this idea of a judging God, a God that judges sin, onto the Hebrew Bible. To me he was Gracious all the way through.
But it still was not until 2008 where I by revelation completely understood that I can't work for God to like me or keep me in grace - nor in salvation. I could go and do every sin in the book and still be saved. But there is so much more to all of this, and me being me, I will not be able to lay it out systematically, but I will share pieces of insight.
Here are some things to think about...
John Crowder writes in Mystical Union, "Religion conveniently gives you a myriad of excuses for bad behavior.
"It's ok. We're all still sinners." No, you're not.
"Well, nobody's perfect." The Bible says you are.
"We'll all struggle this side of heaven." You're already seated in heavenly places.
"I'm only human." Not if you're a Christian.
"Of course, we all sin every day." What Bible verse says that?
Some would criticize us for preaching what they assume to be perfection theology. they would say the gospel is not this simple. That our efforts are still necessary to "kill the flesh" or to overcome the old self.
My answer is this: I am not just preaching perfection - I preach perfect perfection! This is not the old-school "sinless perfection" theology that the early Wesleyans and the holiness movement preachers advocated. Those guys said it is impossible for a Christian to sin. And a lot of that developed into a do-it-yourself, clean-yourself-up legalism. Nor are we preaching self-righteousness. Just the opposite. We are talking about God-given righteousness that manifests in an easy, happy, holy life. We're not saying it is "impossible" for a Christian to sin. But we are saying that you don't have to sin another day in your life because you are now completely evil free living because you are thoroughly cleansed of evil. You are not a sinner."
Taggar: grace talk
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Dr. Nanna Rosengård

. stolt finlandssvensk . missionär tidigare stationerad i Sydafrika, nu i Aten . älskar att möta människor hjärta-mot-hjärta . fascinerad av språk, kultur och identitet . intresserad av en hälsosam livsstil . gräver gärna i rabatter om tillfälle ges . extrem-exalterad över att Jesus har befriat oss för att leva i frihet (t.ex. från fördömelse, förväntningar och synd) . ogillar att stå inför stora grupper men sjunger ändå emellanåt (mindre nu än förr) . doktor i teologi/judaistik . känner skaparglädje tillsammans med min Canon 7D .

Jag lever för att andra ska få känna mer liv. Jag önskar vara mer medveten om Jesus närvaro överallt och i alla och hjälpa andra att erfara Hans befriande närvaro och nåd.

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