503 results for tag: blog
I must confess – Ed Dunn
I must confess I enjoy a special tradition on the morning of each new New Year’s Day. With my college Sophomore, Lauren, upstairs and still fast-asleep, I like to bundle up, coffee up with a large “to-go” thermos and sneak quietly out of the house. The sun is rarely up as I do.
What could be my destination so early on the first day of each new year? That’s simple. I like to make my way with the crowds of excitable spectators hurriedly streaming southward towards a world-famous piece of real estate. I like to join in with one million or so other fans on their way to the narrow sidewalks of Colorado Boulevard.&...
The Light has won, is winning & will win – Brad Jersak with Kenneth Tanner
The Light is Winning
Passover is coming. A time to remember how the people of God were quarantined in their homes behind blood-marked lintils, praying for deliverance from a deadly pestilence and quietly sharing what they thought might be their last supper. A time to remember Christ's final passover meal, his Last Supper with friends and anticipating the great exodus his own death would achieve. A time to remember that the shroud of death was removed from all people through the victory of his resurrection.
For some, these days are understandably a time of darkness, death and fear. Once again, we hunker down in our homes, wondering when this ...
Why the Father Didn’t Seek the Prodigal (because he did) Brad Jersak
“The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which is lost” (Luke 19:10).
There it is. The gospel of grace distilled perfectly through Jesus’ own words. That statement encapsulates the reason for Christ’s Incarnation, his earthly ministry and his final Passion, in which he pursues humanity even into death. Even hades could not separate us from the relentless love of the “hound of heaven.”
Christ describes his “seeking and saving” mission in the three great parables of Luke 15: the lost coin, the lost sheep and the lost son. In each of the parables, the obvious punchline is how heaven rejoices when what was lost has been found. This ...
The Virgin Birth is a Christological Faith-Claim – Brad Jersak
"For us men and for our salvation,
came down from heaven and was Incarnate
of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary."
The Gospel claims to Mary's virgin birth (or conception) of Christ is far more than borrowed mythology co-opted from a host of earlier hybrid god myths. The historic Christian faith received it as a revelation delivered through the Gospels of Luke (1:26-38) and Matthew (1:18-25).
Yes, we know that the original Hebrew prophecy in Isaiah 7:14 was not about an actual virgin (and can be rendered "young woman") nor even, initially, about Mary or her Son. But the Gospel accounts are very specific on this point: in the story, both ...
Pain, Belief & the Suffering of Children – Brad Jersak
PAIN.Has it crushed your faith or made you a believer?
Nativity & Massacre of the Innocents
As Christ-followers celebrate the Feast of the Nativity, we also anticipate the tragedy in Bethlehem known as "the massacre of the innocents," when King Herod sought to cut short the Messiah's life. The story is recounted in Matthew 2.
13 When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”
14 So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for ...
Our Final Authority: Bible or Jesus? Brad Jersak
Our final authority
It was one of my classic last-minute cancellations. A church whose pastor and elders had invited me to speak on prayer found themselves awkwardly withdrawing their invitation. The pastor had moved on and the interim minister had done some digging. He was offended that my church (Fresh Wind at the time) had nothing in our statement(s) of faith about the Bible. That was because our doctrinal statements were the Nicene Creed and the Apostles' Creed. I told him that I was not comfortable with creating statements of faith or redacting the great creeds. In the end, what he explicitly demanded was this confession, similar to many confes...
The Logic (and limits) of “Christus Victor” – Brad Jersak
The Logic of Penal Substitution
As a young, gungho Calvinist in the 1980s, I composed a 180+ page M.A. thesis / apologetic for penal substitutionary atonement, titled "The Nature of Christ's Suffering and Substitution." In retrospect, I'm embarrassed by my anachronistic reading of the early church, my inability to distinguish the difference between "exchange" and "substitution," and my assumptions about the necessity of wrath-appeasement. If that's all gobbledygook to you, the reader, no worries. We'll get to the good stuff momentarily. I will say in my defense that at least I knew the Cross was central to Christian faith, whatever it might mean.
D...
“Be Perfect”? A Fragile Faithfulness, Fraught & Freighted Brad Jersak
Question:
In light of Christ’s revelation of God’s saving grace, how are we to understand his statement, “Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect”? (Matthew 5:48)
Response:
Imagine trying to be the perfect human! Imagine striving to be perfect like Jesus was perfect! Imagine trying to be as perfect as God himself! If we were to take Jesus literally there, we’d either be deluded in our perfectionism or exhausted all the time. It’s just not possible and even seems completely pointless.
Religious or moral perfectionism makes for a fragile faithfulness … fraught with peril and freighted with crushing ...
Christ or Crake? Mortality is the Fear of Death – Brad Jersak
In Oryx and Crake, the first novel of Margaret Atwood's dystopic Maddaddam trilogy, a character nicknamed Crake argues that mortality is not merely death, but also the anxiety-inducing and violence-producing foreknowledge and fear of death. Crake's solution to mortality is profoundly catastrophic, but his diagnosis is in some ways, spot on.
Two great thinkers who've shed important light on the phenomenon of "death-anxiety" are Ernest Becker, in his 1973 work, The Denial of Death, and more recently, Richard Beck in The Slavery of Death. Both writers think about the ways we live in denial of death and how this creates deep-seated neurotic ...
Inter-faith Dialogue with Christian Atheists – Brad Jersak
In October, 2019, Paul Young and I were fielding a Q&R time at the Grand Embrace retreat in Aldergrove, Canada. It was the first time I've been asked for a response to "Jesus-following Atheists" (aka "Christian atheists"). The question was raised by another dear friend, musician Kevin Boese. He's a huge fan of the Canadian rock band, RUSH, and an avid listener of the Liturgists Podcast, which might be where Kevin first became familiar with this idea of Christian Atheists. I did my best to respond in the moment, but left unsatisfied. I feel that to engage them, I'd want to assume far less about what they believe and practice, and I'd like to ask ...
The Finished Work (before, during & after the Cross) – Brad Jersak
INTRO – “The Finished Work”
“The finished work” has become a popular catch-phrase among those who faithfully teach God’s unconditional grace. This reassuring phrase comes to us from Christ’s dying declaration of divine love’s great victory. “It is finished!” he cries with his final breath (John 19:30).
Although Christ’s last words were likely spoken in Aramaic or Hebrew, the Greek word John the Beloved uses to translate Jesus’ words in his eyewitness account is tetelestai (from teleo, the verb form of the noun telos). This bit of linguistic trivia matters because to John, Jesus was saying something far more than “it’s ...
Of Heretics, Kings and Foxes – Brad Jersak
The [heretics] act just like someone who finds a beautiful image of a king that has been constructed by a skillful artist out of precious jewels, and then breaks down this statue of the king into pieces and rearranges the gems into the form of a dog or a fox, and even then, does a poor job of it. And then they maintain and declare that this was the beautiful image of the king which the skillful artist had constructed. They point to the jewels that had been beautifully assembled by the original artist in the image of the king, but have now tragically transposed the king into the shape of a dog. And exhibiting the jewels, they deceive the ignorant who ...
Christian Polytheism – Brad Jersak
This article is an excerpt from A More Christlike Way (CWR press, 2019).
It was risky business for early Christians to hold up Christ as the image of the one true God. Their gospel confession demanded a rejection of Rome’s pantheon of pagan gods and the emperors’ demand for worship. And that meant persecution. But at least the choice was straightforward: Jesus is Lord and Jupiter is not. Jesus is Lord and Diana is not. Jesus is Lord and Caesar is not.
But today, how are we to navigate the problem of polytheism (the belief in many gods) within Christianity? Let’s say there’s still a militaristic god of war, a patriotic god of ...
Struggling with Moral Superiority – Brad Jersak
SELF-REFLECTION: Have you ever been tempted to think yourself morally superior in any way?
I feel morally superior to people who come off as morally superior. This is a big problem. I'm like a third party in the parable of the Publican and the Tax Collector praying in the Temple, and I'm saying, "Thank God I'm not like the Pharisee!" thus becoming one myself.
So ironic and similar to actor Michael Cain's line from one of the Austin Powers movies: There are two types of people I can't stand: "Those who are intolerant of other cultures ... and the Dutch."
Just as I'm becoming less intolerant of my Evangelical backstory (less shame at ...
When did the ‘Finished Work’ start? Brad Jersak
"It is finished!"
One of the beautiful catchphrases in the Christian tradition is "the finished work of Christ." We typically associated the phrase with Christ's decisive declaration from the Cross, "It is finished!" In this post, I'd like to ask what is finished and when it started.
The words, "It is finished," in Gospel context are found only in John 19:30. The full verse says, "When Jesus had received the drink, Jesus said, 'It is finished.' With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit."
What was finished?
First, the word we usually translate "finished" (Τετέλεσται) is rich in meaning. It could be accurately ...
Why Ask? Why pray for gifts God has already given? Brad Jersak
“Forgive us our trespasses…”
“Lord, have mercy.”
“Come, Holy Spirit.”
The prayers of God’s people are replete with requests for that which God has already graciously and abundantly provided. So why bother? Is praying for the gifts God has already given an act of unbelief, a confusion of theology or an offense to God? Some seem to think so and in a sense, may be right. But both the question and answer are important and far more nuanced than an either/or knee-jerk reaction. What are the perils and what is the point of asking for what we’ve already been given?
THE PERILS
Two obvious perils accompany requests for ...
LOCKED IN! (Who’s Really In Charge?) Cliff Redanz
Amusement parks are not on my list of favorite activities! I decided to go that night mainly to be with other family members. (Plus - one of our daughters had reduced-rate tickets from her employer!)
Among park rides, there are those I could NEVER go on! I'm certainly not alone with such 'hang-ups'. No matter our age, gender, family background, education, etc., various situations lead us to think: “I’d die if I had to do that!” Inventing "comfort zones" for ourselves is not the answer either! We humans aren't even aware of the thought patterns which course through our minds and make us 'tick' as ...
Generosity Without Expectations – Greg Albrecht
A youth group from a prosperous North American suburb volunteered to help a pastor serve meals in an inner-city soup kitchen. Before this experience, most of these young people had only seen homeless people through their car windows as they and their family happened to drive through a poor part of town.
It was just before Thanksgiving, and the young people served a hot meal of beans, turkey, mashed potatoes and yams to a long line of people. As they filed past these young people filling empty plates with generous servings, few of the homeless people made any eye contact with the young people who were serving the free meal, and only a few ...
See How He Loves You – Greg Albrecht
There's a great story about a little boy who was trying to learn the Lord's Prayer. One night he was kneeling down by his bed, and he prayed: "Our Father who are in heaven, how do you know my name?"
St. Augustine, revered as one of the great theologians of the Christian faith, once said that Jesus loves each of us as if there was no one else to love.
Time after time we read in the four Gospels about people Jesus met who felt and experienced his radically personalized, individual affection—no one they had ever known had talked to them, treated them and spent time with them the way Jesus did.
The eyes out of which Jesus saw and ...
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