Recent Posts
John 1:4,5 – Life and Light
In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. John 1:4 Everyone who is alive at all has the breath of life in them. Even microbes are alive. In a different sense all people are alive. However, there is a unique sense of the word “life” that was in Him that was […]
John 1:3 – the Word Who Creates
All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. All things came into being through Him. Now we have added the notion of creation. The word who is to become flesh (v.14) is the Creator. However, His activity as creator is not His identity. […]
John 1:2 – The Logos as Person
He was in the beginning with God – John 1:2 NASB “He” indicates that the Word is not just a force, but a Person. He was in the beginning, not “it”. If you have an impersonal force operating on a rock, it drops straight towards the center of gravity. If you have the rock in […]
John 1:1 – The Logos which was and was with God
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:1 NASB Beginning. The word “beginning” is the Greek word “arche” – meaning the start of time, and beginning as in the origin. Gen 1:1 – “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”. Clearly […]
Outline of 1 John – Grace in Community Style
Christian Community Communal Attribute Reference Christian Manifestation Antichrist Manifestation Defined Fellowship 1:1-4 fellowship with apostles – Light 1:5-2:2 light/authenticity/fellowship/confession dark/pretense/isolation Commandment 2:3-11 keep commandments/loves hates Generation 2:12-14 children/youth/fathers – Distinguished What you Love 2:15-17 tempted, but incompatible compatible Spiritual Affiliation 2:18-29 of apostolic faith antichrist Hope 3:1-3 called children of God – Practice 3:4-10 practices […]
Cain and Abel – a Deeper Look
“Someone died for this slightly off-base irritating brother. He is Abel offering his blood sacrifice, and love says I count his offering as sufficient.” From the book Grace in Community by Jim McNeely I wanted to return to the very powerful and fruitful story of Cain and Abel as it pertains to the idea of […]
Remembering and Forgetting
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mi8rBkdHfvI&w=560&h=315] I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake, And I will not remember your sins. Isaiah 43:25 For I will be merciful to their iniquities, And I will remember their sins no more. Hebrews 8:12 He will again have compassion on us; He will tread our […]
Is Christianity harder than than we pretend it is?
We, as a group, are a community of sinners who have mercy and grace in His blood. We are new creatures in Christ, but sin still lives on in us as a kind of living dead zombie presence. We should be very very clear that the heart of the gospel is not that we are personally transformed. It is that we are justified. We are redeemed. We are reconciled.