Rethinking things

Hey friends, I have been working in another direction as of late.  If you don't know I have been teaching for a Ministerial School started by our new home church.  Right now I am in the process of teaching "The Biblical Theology of Missions" for the second time, while trying to come up with more info on "The Human Condition"  I am trying to decide if an Online classroom is more my style.  I am not the best English student and so sometimes my ideas get a bit muddled in the process of tying to put them into a blog.

So if you are interested I have started an account with WizIQ.com.  You can check on one of my courses at the following link New Life Bible Study Introduction. It is something I have taught before, but never finished, but I hope to have all dozen or so classes online and available in the next few months before I visit Ukraine again.  I hope this will give me the kind of experience I will need to continue teaching this way.

Blessings
Preacher Al

The 5 Modes of the Human Condition

 I am realizing that this topic may be a bit big for just a blog.  So instead I am providing the following table to give you the short version of what I am in the process of writing.  I may have to look into electronic publishing for this topic.  But for those of you interested here is my perspective on the 5 modes of humanness.

The Human Condition

	The Human Animal	The Human Collector	The Human Intellectual	The Person of Faith	The Human Transcendent
Who am I	I am what I want or need	I am what I have or do	I am what I know	I am what believe	I am more than I can imagine
How others are seen	An end to meeting my desires	Someone I must compete with	Someone I must convince I am right	Someone who must believe as I do	Someone to invite on the journey
How possessions are viewed	Bring comfort	A sign of success	Only as valuable as they teach me new things	Temporal or a sign of God’s favor	Only have the value that we ascribe to them
How the future is viewed	Where is my next meal or fix	Something to prepare for	Something to plan for	Something predetermined	Something to embrace
Knowledge	Only as valuable as it helps me meet my needs	Helps me to collect more things and to be more successful in my work	The key to everything	Viewed suspiciously	A step towards wisdom
Right and wrong	Vague ideas – what is best for me is right	Culturally established norms	Something to be renegotiated as   more knowledge is gained	Firmly established moral values	From the greater good
How one feels alive	When the most comfortable	Striving/acquiring	Learning	Worshiping	Communing
How one feels about popular things/people	They are cool	Something to compete for	Something that validates	Viewed with suspicion	Popularity is neither good nor bad in and of itself
How threats are viewed	A threat is anything that makes me uncomfortable	A threat is anything that can take away my accomplishments	A threat is any idea that opposes what I know	A threat is any idea that opposes my faith	Something to rise above
Acts of kindness	Actively seeks them	God helps those who help themselves	Be Good for goodness sake	Something done to show God’s love or a required behavior to earn God’s grace	A way of life
Fear	Fear of the loss of comfort or Fear excites	Fear of the loss of material wealth or status	Fear of contradictory ideas	Fear of the power of sin and evil	Transcends fear
Feelings	Need to feel comfortable	Need to feel secure and/or accepted	Need to feel superior	Need to feel loved	Feelings only tell us how we feel
Control	Need to control others for safety or comfort’s sake	Need to control circumstances or   others for the sake of their goals	The need to control who knows what or has access to what knowledge	The need to control other’s behavior for holiness’ sake	Self-control is the only realistic control
Love	They may profess love for another, but that love is only there as much as that person gives them comfort and pleasure	Love is what you demand of others because you loved them through your gifts and actions	Love is a word found in the dictionary to approximates liking strongly	Love is the greatest commandment	Love is a way of life

Progress

Well so far I think I am on track with my number of blog posts; I have posted 10 thus far between my various blogs , but I have yet to seriously start work on a course yet. I was hoping the School of Ministry that I am teaching at would help provoke me.  I guess I will have to set some goals for which courses I want to write.  I have however started the ground work for a book on "Walking in the Ways of God".  Not sure that I am tied to the title, but I do have and outline and have found a friend to help review some of my writing.

That's all for now....

A few thoughts on Baptism

(Post 9 of  100)

Like so many aspects of Christianity we too often relegate them to the natural man's perspective.  I think we are guilty of that with regard to Baptism.  The party line, as I see it is, "Baptism is and outward sign of and inward change" or maybe "A public acknowledgement of one's faith in the Lord Jesus."  Now I can see that this may be true for many, but I think this perspective fails to fully recognize the divine and supernatural aspect of this "Sacrament."

I really like to think that my faith is a supernatural thing.  By faith I have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, but this it not just a personal decision, like we would like to believe.  We are told in Scripture that we did not choose Him first.  We are told that it is the Holy Spirit that convicts us of sin and righteousness.  We cannot relegate this to mere human choice.  It is God working in us that leads us to repentance.  Through that repentance (a change of heart and direction) we are led to faith in Jesus Christ.  When we come to this point we begin the process of transformation from the old man who is sinful and self-serving in nature to the new creature recreated in the image of almighty God.  Ephesian's 4 is a description of that process of putting off the old corrupted man and his ways and putting on a new persona made in the image of God.

But now to Baptism.  In chapter 6 of Romans, the Apostle Paul tells us that when we are baptized, we participate in Christ's death.  We are buried with Christ (v. 3).  This is the death of the old person.  It is both conscious choice (choosing to leave our old life behind - die to it) and a supernatural act where the Holy Spirit begins a transformative work by killing the old self (we are crucified with Christ v. 6-7).  It doesn't stop there however.  We are also told that in our baptism that we participate in Christ's resurrection.  We are given the opportunity, the choice and ability to walk in the newness of life (v.4).

I believe that choice plays its part in that we each can decide to cooperate with the working of the Holy Spirit or not.  We can allow our old self to perish in the baptistery and cooperate with the transformative work of the Holy Spirit or we can merely go through the motions and deny the transforming power of our participation in the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I would like to add that our Salvation is not the result of some holy formula.  It is a miraculous work as we participate in the divine dance with our Creator.  For each of us this process may look a little different.  My personal experience has been that the process has been long and drawn out.  For others, I have seen such radical transformation that seems to take place in the fraction of a second.  Whatever the case or whomever it is that participates in this miraculous thing we call salvation, we must acknowledge the supernatural aspect of Baptism.  It is not just getting wet, it is not just a public confession.  Baptism is a supernatural participation the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

God in peace