Passover Seder

It's been great reading all of the posts. They have been very encouraging to me. It seems like the recognition of and struggle with "worm theology" as Phil referred to it as, is something that has been impressed upon a lot of our hearts recently. Would be good to discuss more.

Thanks also, Em for your post. Also very encouraging and very non-worm theology-ish. :)

On another note, Terry and I were wondering if anyone would be interested in participating in a traditional passover seder at our house next Tuesday by a very non-traditional messianic rabbi. Our brother-in-law, Matt Rosenberg (Terry's sister's husband) and his family will be staying with us next Monday and Tuesday night. Terry and I have always wanted to start the tradition of having a passover seder in our family and thought this would be a perfect opportunity to start! As most of you know, Matt is a messianic rabbi and is currently between synagogues. We asked him if he would want to do a seder with our family and any of our small group members who would want to join us and he was really excited about it.

SO...you are all welcome to come to our house next Tuesday! Just let us know if you are planning on coming or not. Maybe I will try and set up child care as well??? What does everyone think? Childcare? Or no childcare? If we do childcare maybe we can meet earlier in the evening, so the sitter does not have to put the kids to bed. And all chip in a few bucks. We might need two sitters because our two nieces will be here too. OK, please let us know your thoughts/opinions about all of this!

Stacy

raised to be shown His kindness

The other morning I had a sweet time meditating on Ephesians 2:4-7. 

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when

we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ-by grace you have been saved-and raised us up with him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

It is a text I have read and heard hundreds of times. But that morning, the Spirit impressed something new upon my heart and mind. I was raised with Christ, SO THAT God could lavish me with His kindness today and for all eternity. He raised me from the dead to show me His kindness! 

Other Thoughs on Worm Theology

This is a great post [Worm Theology], thanks Phil. This is a topic Mel and I have talked quite a bit about, not particularly using the phrase “worm theology,” but just how there is a tendency to beat ourselves up within the theological circles we are currently in. I was really encouraged just yesterday by the message at Jubilee. It was about how Paul planted churches and then went around encouraging and building up the believers at those churches. An illustration was given of Mike Tyson, and how his trainer made him into the great boxer that he was by constantly telling him how great he was, how many talents he had, etc.. Even though there was obviously much work to be done in the training.

There is a word that is used all over the book of Acts (and all over the N.T., for that matter). It is paraklesis, the same word used of the Holy Spirit as Comforter and Counselor. The idea is of one coming alongside to encourage and exhort. It’s the word used when describing Barnabas as the son of encouragement, and even N.T. prophets are spoken of as ones who strengthen and encourage (Acts 15:32).

I heard a ministry leader from North Carolina once say that he thought that there was an incredible spirit of ‘unworthiness’ over this whole area (Minnesota) among many of our churches. That churches tended to beat on their flocks, contributing to this general sense of ‘unworthiness’ and spiritual depression. I believe this was an accurate discernment of some the enemy’s schemes here. We need to move in the opposite spirit, namely that of grace and and of mercy, as Phil mentioned.

Brothers and sisters, you are transformed (1 Cor 3:18), beloved children (John 1:12; Luke 15:20), possesors of a good heart (Ez 36:26; Luke 6:45), and incredibly gifted (Eph 4:8; 1 Cor 12:7) for many works of service that will glorify our Lord Jesus Christ.

Let’s strive to excel in building up the church!! (1 Cor 14:12)

Stinkin English (Language)!

"And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh." Ez 36: 26-27

"My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest." Ex 33:14

"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Matt 11:28

"Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life." Rev 2:10

"And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever..." John 14:16

"Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything." 2 Tim 2:7

"...and he will give you the desires of your heart." Ps 37: 4b

So, do you think the Psalm 37 reference should be taken literally like the above texts, or do you think they should have translated it "fulfill"?

How have you always understood this text? This text has always confused me. I hear people reference it like it means he will "fulfill" the desires you have, but it reads like he will "put the desires in you."

It seems recently that I'm really baffled by the word choices they use in Bible translations. I suppose they just want to be consistent and translate a word the same every time it's used.

Someone should make a translation for white, middle class, 30 year-olds who were raised in a rural setting but now live in the metro as a carpenter.

Thoughts?

Happy Birthday Emily

Happy birthday love, I love you so much!

Worm Theology

Excerpt taken from Wikipedia:

Worm Theology is a term used for the conviction in Christian culture that in light of God's holiness and power an appropriate emotion is a low view of self. Some might suggest that because of this view God is more likely to show mercy and compassion. The name may be attributed to a line in the Isaac Watts hymn Alas! and Did My Saviour Bleed (Pub 1707) [1], which says "Would he devote that sacred head for such a worm as I?" This thinking was prevalent in the days when this hymn was originally written, perhaps because there was also a higher view of God. Furthermore, worm theology can be attributed to a recognition of the ugliness of sin, resulting in contrition.

Some might suggest adherents of worm theology have inner wounds that they are not necessarily aware of, and such a belief just matches what they feel about themselves and sometimes others. On the other hand God detests sin so much because it separates us from Himself; it could then be argued that in our sin we are as worms in God's sight.

C.S. Lewis expresses the view, "Whenever we find that our religious life is making us feel that we are good-above all, that we are better than someone else-I think we may be sure that we are being acted on, not by God, but by the devil. The real test of being in the presence of God is that you either forget about yourself altogether or see yourself as a small, dirty object." (Mere Christianity 1952, P.124)

I have been wrestling with this lately, and been having some discussion with the pastors at BBC. The older I get, and now especially that I have children, I am noticing a "way of speaking" that I don't think gets as the heart of God for us, his children.

For example, the last line of the Lewis quote above, "The real test of being in the presence of God is that you either forget about yourself altogether or see yourself as a small, dirty object." Is this really how God wants me to view myself? If I (me, Phil Carlson in the flesh just as I am) "have been filled with him" (Col 2:10), should I really see myself as a "small, dirty object?" Wouldn't this be to the disgrace of Jesus in me?

For many years I used to think that the concept of Jesus in me was like eating food, that Jesus wasn't really a part of me, he was just inside me. If I have been "transformed" (Rom 12:2), there should be no divorce of Phil Carlson and Jesus Christ. I am NOT saying I am Jesus, but I have been completely transformed into his image, and I'm being made into his likeness as we dwell here in both kingdoms. I'm not solely who I once was, I'm something different.

Perhaps the problems therein lies, we are in two worlds. There is still the venom of the old man in me, yet I have been transformed, decisively forever. If I only view myself as being the old man, and Christ as being something outside me, I fall pray to worm theology, something I think grieves the heart of God.

So, the way of speaking I am getting at is language often heard at BBC. I think it spoken out of a heart of humility before God, and a way of glorifying God.

Here are some examples that I can recall:

• We are nothing, you are everything!
• There is nothing good in us.
• Love isn't you making much of us, it's you allowing us to make much of you.

There is nothing theologically wrong with these phrases, it's just after hearing them for 10 years there are starting to causing me to develop a condition that is unhealthy, namely depression.

God revealed himself as a father, so I think I'm warranted in drawing conclusions like this. When I think about my relationship with Corban, there are a times when he's disobedient and we have a break in the relationship. Once we have been restored, the last thing I want him to think is, "daddy sees me as a disobedient child who screws up all the time, and he wants me to dwell on the fact that I'm a failure." I want him to, and hope he does think, "daddy loves me unconditionally as his son, and he loves me even when I make mistakes, and once we are healed, he forgets about what I did, and wants me to forget about it too"

Just like a diet of too many carbs, with too few proteins and fibers is unhealthy, a spiritual walk that has too much depravity and not enough grace and mercy is unhealthy.

You are not a worm, you are a beloved child of God.

From Faith For Faith

“The righteous shall live by his faith” Habakkuk 2:4

I was reading in Habakkuk this morning and wanted to pass on some encouragement. Paul quotes the verse above twice in his epistles. He writes that in the Gospel the righteousness of God is revealed “from faith for faith." (Rom 1:17) What does this mean?

In Galatians 3:11-14 says “it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law… Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us… so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the nations, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.” No one is justified before God by their own works of righteousness according to the law, because this is not reliant on the faithfulness of God, but on the faithfulness of humans. The life of faith is built upon the faithfulness of God!


Application for me this morning (simple yet hard for me to grasp): the life of faith is NOT based on my own faithfulness to God!! It is based on His faithfulness to me, as one who He has grafted in to the faithful remnant of His people. We are being made faithful because He IS faithful!!

From faith (His faithfulness to us) for faith (the life of faith in Him)

(See also Micah 7:18-20)

-B

Happy Birthday Terry

We love you brother!