Bear's ramblings

mnphysicist · #61 2nd July 2007, 05:06 AM

My statement of faith has been on the backburner for a while, in that I have a few of the easier topics covered, and now am venturing into the tougher ones.

As of late I've been pondering election a bit, which is anything but simple, especially, if one is not an Arminian or a Calvanist. Us Lutherans taking a middle position, and seeing the scriptural support for both points of view puts us in the uncomfortable position of being right in the middle.

Yet, election was one factor of many which cause numerous church splits in the 1880's... Even though Martin Luther's Bondage of the Will should be clear (and I admittedly find its not), this uncomfortable mysterious middle area cause folks to want to swing towards Calvanism or Arminianism. Then add in social and political issues of that time and place, to say nothing of communication difficulties, and no wonder it was a contentious issue.

Now, in building my statement of faith, I find my personal experience seems to lend a lot of credence towards Calvinism.... yet, Sola scriptura takes me back into the middle.

It is an interesting journey.

mnphysicist · #62 28th July 2007, 06:26 AM

60On hearing it, many of his disciples said, "This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?"

61Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, "Does this offend you? 62What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! 63The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit[a] and they are life. 64Yet there are some of you who do not believe." For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. 65He went on to say, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him."
66From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.
67"You do not want to leave too, do you?" Jesus asked the Twelve.
68Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God."

This passage is interesting.... on the one hand, Jesus talked about eating his body and it freaked folks out. How much more would they be freaked when they saw him ascend?

And what about his other words... go get a sword, then Peter whacks a dudes ear off, and he says put down the sword. That had to be hard to hear.

Peter says he will fight to the death for him.... fully expecting Jesus to have victory, yet, Jesus gets taken prisoner.

We also have Peter's denial of Christ.... again hard to hear.

So whats the deal with everyone tweaking scriptures here and there so stuff isn't hard to hear. If its a sin issue, its a sin issue, even if its hard to hear.... and thats why we live under grace. To yank stuff here and yon to not recognize something is sinful.... egads thats turning back and not following.

I think folks get caught up in the whole repentence thing... they don't want to recognize sin, and avoid the Holy Spirit by convincing themselves its not... rather than going, yep, thats sin, and yep, I'm stuck in it, and by grace, Jesus will carry me through it. Instead, when something is hard or impossible to change, rather than accepting God's grace through Christ... its all too easy to say, ah, well, its not really sin. After all, its so hard to hear, that maybe its not really sin after all.

And if it is sin.... and we are indeed powerless to change it, what then? This is where we must depend upon grace. Repentance just isn't going to go very far. Its the proverbial backed into a corner situation. Option 1, is repent, and that means to cut through 50 meter thick stainless steel walls, only to find an ocean. Option 2 is grace, where Christ says, I will carry you home.

This is not to say of course, that one should never repent, or never try to change, but that in those situations where it is impossible, that grace is there, and we should let Christ carry us, rather than to ignore parts of his word, as they are indeed.... too hard for us to hear.

mnphysicist · #63 31st August 2007, 07:51 PM

Ok, so I live in the rust belt, and the salt takes a toll on cars. However... I've never seen as much rust as I have this week.

Jesus was right on target with the following from Matthew 6:19

19"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Last night, I had to rewire much of my coax, Wednesday, I rewired my phone lines. Last Saturday, I took 3 computers over to the dumpster down the street. All completely rusted. My poor vacuum cleaner has 1/8" thick layer of rust on it.

Its going to the dumpster with probably another couple trailer fulls of junk and drywall tomorrow.

These things are all pretty minor in the overall scheme of things, but the worst was the loss of pretty much my entire theological library. It wasn't due to rust, but more so all the water and sewage. Some of the covers were so massacred, that it was near impossible to determine what they were.

The thing is, despite the headaches of loosing stuff, many of these texts and other items didn't see a high degree of utilization. Although I had read every one, many haven't seen use for years, and instead were references on call so to speak. The convenience was cool, thats for sure. Yet the space and time to keep everything organized, well, now I have lots more space, although cleanup is eating up a ton of time, but it will end (hopefully sooner than later).

Probably the biggest thing is refocusing my priorities. The library was cool, and I was always jazzed to add a new theo text... yet, in hindsight, I have to look back a bit. The aquisition of books, while cool in that the study of them was edifying, was to a large extent storing up treasures here, rather than in heaven. It would have been much better to take the knowledge, and run with it, and give the books away, rather than to store the associated knowledge, as well as the physical texts.

Even better, internet resources such as the CCEL, and other denominational specific reference sites provide a huge wealth of information. Even more convenient, than digging through my library, as google can grab key parts and narrow a topical search much more easily than digging through a number of texts. That is way cooler, than a personal library.

Despite the grumbling of dealing with flood cleanup, and associated headaches, much good has come. I learned humility when I accepted donations and help. I learned patience and will continue to learn patience when dealing with the govt. And I learned about how not to store up treasures in a big way.

Romans 8:28-32
28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him,[b] who[c] have been called according to his purpose. 29For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. 31What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

mnphysicist · #64 21st September 2007, 04:43 AM

Matthew 18:15-17
15 If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over.
16 But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’
17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

I think many folks view treating others as tax collectors and pagans equates to shunning them. While, in the days of Paul, that might well have been an option, and could be what he was getting at, as the community gathering was needed for survival, yet today, if someone is shunned, they simple go to the church down the street, or even to the local bar.

Rather, imho, in treating someone as such, we should dialog, and pray for them. We explain how they are wrong, in love, and pray that they may return to the fold. This would be similar to reaching out to the lost imho, as in referring to tax collectors and pagans.

If we look in Acts 17, Paul talks about walking in a city of idols, and what does he do? He spends time with them, gets to know them, and complements them, and then addresses the problem. He has built a connection with them in love first, and then he tells them of the Truth.