Life. Faith. Jesus.

With lots and lots of writing.

I just went through a class called “Life of Christ,” but was really an “Introduction to the Gospels.”

We really didn’t get into the life of Christ much, but we covered some amazing topics leading up to the life of Christ and the writing of the Gospel accounts.

We talked a lot about different types of criticism, such as source criticism, form criticism, and comparison. Our text material for this was Jesus and the Gospels by Craig Blomberg. Great book!

We also got to read through The Harmony of the Gospels. But one of my favorite books we read through in that class was The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey. That’s a really good read.

There were lots of good stuff in that class, and I’m surprised I wrote at ALL on this website during that time.

In just six weeks, I wrote 78 pages of assignments and final papers, and 12 pages of notes!

That’s why last week I had three guest writers. Their posts were really, really good. You need to read them. Right now. Go do it. They are the last three posts.

So, as much as I have loved that class, boy am I glad to be finished.

What’s coming up next?

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Popular culture can have a tendency to wear on the Christian so as to fade his or her colorful faith that most evidences itself—I think—in his or her visible moral framework.

Moral Framework and Christian Identity

Please understand that I do not suggest here that moral framework alone constitutes for Christian identity, but a Christian identity necessitates a moral framework.

To be sure, Christians are convicted by and large through their moral framework. This moral framework comes from their Biblical worldview, which states that they are to behave though the filter of a transcendent moral framework because they are children of the transcendent God (Romans 8:12-14).

Being a child of God, though, does not come by observing a moral law, but instead by the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit (John 1:12-13). What is then produced as a result of this regeneration is then the desire for moral obligation.

Therefore, their sense of awe and gratitude of their salvation gives them a continual reminder that their adoptions as sons and daughters of God had nothing to do with their own efforts or “goodness.”

This gratitude then drives them to the humility of their Savior (Phil. 2:7-9) and the desire to honor Him with their lives. Thus, a moral framework is realized and becomes visible to the world.
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Lately I have been thinking about prayer.

I recently was able to do some outreach to a few homes. We gave away Turkey meals from Passage Church. This was cool in many ways. For one, it’s been a while since I’ve done an outreach like this and I was really excited about going. Next, I was praying that God would show up and He did. Also, it was my birthday, so what a gift, eh!

During our outreaching we delivered a meal to an family of 6. It was really neat. To make a long story short, Read more

Okay, I went to an Acts 29 Bootcamp conference that was truly amazing. There were many messages and sessions that I connected with and took notes of. There were a few, though, that really hit home with me. This particular session, “Discipleship and Ambition” by Bob Thune really hit home with me. I’ve always had a passion for discipleship and that is one of the values I will need to continually enforce and be held accountable when planting. I know this because they way you start your church is the way you will have to feed your church, and I don’t want people coming to my church to be fed anything but Jesus. So, that being said, I thought I’d share some of my notes with you Jesus freaks out there about Church planting and Discipleship. Let me know if this helps you, or if it hits home with you.

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Are you hesitant on participating?

Well, I could understand if you are. I have talked to quite a few people who believes that Halloween is of the devil and Christians are participating in the occult if they participate in Halloween. Then there are those who do not necessarily think so. What ever position you take, I would like to say a bit about it all. Just a bit, though.

What power does it hold?

If halloween is the participation of pagan worship, then it must hold some intrinsic power, right? Read more