Jesus Creed

TV program of all time?

We're talking TV programs in the evening, sit coms or otherwise.

I have to admit that this man is my favorite of all time: Jay North and Dennis the Menace.

AHH has been reading and occasionally commenting on the Jesus Creed blog since Fall 2008.  He lives in Colorado where he works at a government science lab, and he is ordained as an Elder in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).  He is a little publicity-shy, but to find what the initials stand for and other info, you can see his website here. We are looking for more submissions from you for "Friday is for Friends."

The Missional Inigo Montoya

One of my favorite lines from The Princess Bride comes when the swordsman Inigo Montoya, after witnessing several events his boss calls "inconceivable," says, "You keep using that word.  I do not think it means what you think it means."

I had an Inigo Montoya moment at church recently.  In a series of sermons on a new expression of vision that I find promising, one Sunday was devoted to the phrase "Missional Outreach".  The sermon examples, while representing good ministry (how someone had invited the speaker to Fellowship of Christian Athletes long ago, kids being invited to meet Jesus in our High School ministry), included nothing I recognized as "missional." 

In fact, the speaker said something at the start like "serving our neighbors is good, but it's not what I'm talking about today."  This reinforced my feeling that, at many churches, "missional" gets applied to anything directed at non-Christians, including "come inside our structures to meet Jesus" programs that are the antithesis of the ideas in The Missional Church.  I wanted to say "I do not think Missional means what you think it means."

We are discussing marriage by examining the recent book of John Piper's called This Momentary Marriage: A Parable of Permanence. 

In the first chp Piper examines marriage in two respects:

* It is from God.
* It is for God's glory.

Anyone who has read Piper knows he reads everything through the lens of the "glory of God," which is (for me) theologically true yet somehow Piper manages to emphasize a theme far more often than does the Bible. We'll see that a bit later in this post.

First, marriage is from God. He examines Genesis 1-2 and finds four ways in which marriage itself is an act of God:

1. Marriage is God's doing in creating male and female.
2. Marriage is God's doing in that God gives away the first bride (Gen 2:22).
3. Marriage is God's doing because God spoke marriage into existence: become one flesh.
4. Marriage is God's doing because the one-flesh union is established in each marriage.

What, in your view, are the top five mistakes made in marriage by couples?

I got this question from Gretchen Rubin here. Her top five are:

1. Wanting the gold stars of appreciation.
2. Using a snappish tone.
3. Getting angry about a fixed trait.
4. Score keeping.
5. Taking her husband for granted.

Once again, James draws us into the world of Jesus. James 5:6 reads: "You have condemned and murdered innocent men, who were not opposing you." A more literal reading, here quoting from the NASB, tells a different story: "You have condemned and put to death the righteous man; he does not resist you." The NIV generalizes this into humans; the NASB translates as a singular because the Greek is singular.  Perhaps "the righteous man" represents the righteous person and stands for all those who have been oppressed.

The second section of Alister McGrath's new book A Fine-Tuned Universe: The Quest for God in Science and Theology deals with fine-tuning and natural theology in the context of a number of scientific theories and observations. The first of...

We started yesterday, with a post of our own, a series on marriage by examining the recent book of John Piper's called This Momentary Marriage: A Parable of Permanence. Question added at 9:25am CT (find at bottom of post).John...

I'm not keeping up with this commentary list, spending too much of my time doing what Paul seems to be doing to the left, but here goes on Philippians.The first commentary I consult on Philippians is Gordon Fee, and I...

James personifies with a vivid imagination, something he perhaps learned from Jesus or one of the prophets. Here are the words of James, from 5:1-6:Look! The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out...