Posted in Experience on September 19, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his own fatherland, and in his own house.” And He did not do many works of power there because of their unbelief. – Matthew 13:57-58
It has been said that an “expert” is someone from out of town with a briefcase.
God could do a lot more in our lives if we recognize him, his power, messages, and miraculous presence in the lives familiar to us.
– fritz
Posted in Experience, Taste, tagged Psalm 034 on September 11, 2010| Leave a Comment »
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“Taste and see that the LORD is good” – Psalm 34:8a
Why does the Bible use Taste in its call to experience God?
Taste can change opinions. I was in my 30’s before I tasted broccoli because I could not stand its look and smell. My opinion changed when I actually tasted it with a little cheese. I still don’t like the smell, but the taste is worth it.
Similarly, I don’t always like the presentation of God or religion by some of its proponents, but the firsthand experience God in Christ has made the rest of little consequence.
Taste is different than sight – watching can be done from a distance but taste is up close and personal. Like John Wesley, Anglican priest and founder of the Methodist movement, said after his “Aldersgate experience”,
I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.1
Taste requires a sense of adventure and a willingness to try something new. Experiencing Christ, especially as an adult, happens by a willingness to experience something new and taking a chance without really knowing what the experience will be like.
And taste, while it can be described to anyone, can’t be known without personal experience. Once someone experiences the living Christ, all the contrary chatter in the world is just that, chatter.
– Fritz
1 – Wesley’s Aldersgate Experience
Posted in Experience on July 20, 2010| Leave a Comment »
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“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. – 2nd Corinthians 5:17
The Bible takes our bodily connection to Christ1 more literally than we realize. The biblical position is that what you do, Christ is doing.2
This may be hard to grasp when we only see ourselves in the mirror, but we’ve had something similar in our business community for years – its called a corporation. In a corporation the activity of the President, factory worker, and everyone in between is all viewed as the activity of that corporation, and the corporation bears the liability.
Like a corporation, when we give our lives to Christ we are viewed as one with him and our actions reflect upon the whole, not just ourselves. To this new “corporation-like” creation both Jesus and we have contributed all we had and what we now have is shared by both. I contributed my body and my sins, he contributed his body, his payment for sin, his grace, his love, his mercy.
Now, in a very real sense, when I go to work it is the new creation sitting in the chair typing on the keyboard. When I go to prayer, it is me and Jesus as a unit standing before God with all debts paid. When I misbehave, it is both Jesus and I who bare the liability in the eyes of the world.
Unlike a corporation, he actually begins to move on us physically, mentally, and spiritually to actually become more like him.
We need to adopt the viewpoint God has already ascribed to us, it will help us understand God’s word and help us cooperate better with what he is doing with us.
– fritz
1 – Related Post: July 18, 2010 “Members of His Body“
2 – 1st Corinthians 5:16
Patrikin - Kinship through The Father 