Archive for the ‘unconditional acceptance’ Tag
The Most Important TASK Done For Everyone Everywhere – JESUS CHRIST! (Our Christmas and Biblical Worldview)
Part A:
Part B:
Full Message:
Bible Verse: Luke 2
Introduction:
Can you see from reading this section of the Nicene Creed what would be missing if as Christians we ONLY spoke about Jesus in terms of His birth (Christmas), His suffering, death and resurrection?
Excerpt about Jesus from the Nicence Creed
“We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father. Through Him all things were made. For us and for our salvation He came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit, He became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man. For our sake He was crucified under Pontius Pilate; He suffered death and was buried. On the third day He rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and His kingdom will have no end.”
What happens if we leave out His incarnate life for 33 years? What if after speaking about His Resurrection we stopped and never addressed His human Ascension and Bodily Return?
Theological Theme:
“Christ does not heal us as an ordinary doctor might, by standing over us, diagnosing our sickness, prescribing medicine for us to take and then going away, leaving us to get better as we follow His instructions. No, He becomes the patient. He assumes that very humanity which is in need of redemption, and by being anointed by the Spirit in our humanity, by a life of perfect obedience, by dying and rising again, for us, our humanity is healed in Him, in His person. We are not just healed through Christ, because of the work of Christ, but in and through Christ. Person and work must not be separated.” – James Torrance
Christ Connection:
Christ emptied himself so we may be filled
“The very Son of God, older than the ages, the invisible, the incomprehensible, the incorporeal, the beginning of beginning, the light of light, the fountain of life and immortality, the image of the archetype, the immovable seal, the perfect likeness, the definition and word of the Father: he it is who comes to his own image and takes our nature for the good of our nature, and unites himself to an intelligent soul for the good of my soul, to purify like by like.
He takes to himself all that is human, except for sin. He was conceived by the Virgin Mary, who had been first prepared in soul and body by the Spirit; his coming to birth had to be treated with honor, virginity had to receive new honor. He comes forth as God, in the human nature he has taken, one being, made of two contrary elements, flesh and spirit. Spirit gave divinity, flesh received it.
He who makes rich is made poor; he takes on the poverty of my flesh, that I may gain the riches of his divinity. He who is full is made empty; he is emptied for a brief space of his glory, that I may share in his fullness. What is this wealth of goodness? What is this mystery that surrounds me? I received the likeness of God, but failed to keep it. He takes on my flesh, to bring salvation to the image, immortality to the flesh. He enters into a second union with us, a union far more wonderful than the first.” – St. Gregory The Theologian
Missional Application:
Just as Jesus took on all the parts of our human nature and flesh through the history of a human life to bring us Salvation, as those in union with Jesus in the Spirit we participate with Him in all the parts of His human history and continued Lordship, pointing others to Him as their Salvation also!
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The Most Important PERSON For Everyone Everywhere – JESUS CHRIST! (Our Christmas and Biblical Worldview)
Part A:
Part B:
Full Message:
Bible Verse: Luke 2
Introduction:
Luke 1:26-38
1:26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth,
1:27 to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.
1:28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.”
1:29 But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.
1:30 The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
1:31 And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus.
1:32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David.
1:33 He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
1:34 Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?”
1:35 The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God.
1:36 And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren.
1:37 For nothing will be impossible with God.”
1:38 Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.
Theological Theme:
This story in Luke, noted above, is a good example of how we can preach and witness to others similarly about the Gospel!
vv.26-31 “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” You should start your witnessing with Who God is as Revealed in Jesus and who we are in Him – Favored!
v.31 “And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus.” ONLY AFTER PROCLAIMING WHO GOD IS IN HIS WORDS AND DEEDS do you proclaim our participation with Him!
v.34 “Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be, since I am a virgin?’, 35 The angel said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God.’”
All of this happens by the grace of God – from the Father, through the Son, and in the Holy Spirit!
Christ Connection:
“God loves you so utterly and completely that he has given himself for you in Jesus Christ his beloved Son, and has thereby pledged [promised and given] his very being as God for your salvation. In Jesus Christ God has actualized [made actual and real] his unconditional love for you in your human nature in such a once for all way, that he cannot go back upon it without undoing the Incarnation and the Cross and thereby denying himself. Jesus Christ died for you precisely because you are sinful and utterly unworthy of him, and has thereby already made you his own before and apart from your ever believing in him. He has bound you to himself by his love in a way that he will never let you go, for even if you refuse him and damn yourself in hell his love will never cease. Therefore, repent and believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.”- (T. F. Torrance, “The Mediation of Christ,” 94)
Missional Application:
As we are filled with the Love of the Father and Son Relationship in the Holy Spirit, we participate with God, compelled to go to all and say:
“In and through Jesus, God has included all people everywhere in a particular relationship with himself for just these purposes so that what has been fulfilled for us objectively in Jesus by the Spirit, will then be fulfilled in us personally (subjectively) by the Spirit via our deliberate, purposeful participation (response) as subjects who are moral, spiritual agents. What Christ did for us, he did so that the Holy Spirit could work a response out in us. When we understand that the person and work of Christ establishes or reestablishes a living, vital, personal relationship with all humanity, then the biblical teachings concerning inviting, admonishing, encouraging, directing, commanding and warning in regard to setting forth the fitting or appropriate response make sense.” – Gary Deddo
Becoming An Ethically Responsible Christian Disciple! Part 4 (Our Christian/ Biblical Worldview)
Part 4A:
Part 4B:
Full Message:
Bible Verses: Colossians (various scriptures)
Introduction:
In Jesus, God’s Elect One, you and every other person you know have been elected/chosen to be at the highest place of honor and privilege possible for a human being, participating with Jesus in his union and relationship with His Father, in the Holy Spirit. In fact, all of what it means to be truly and fully human is seated, truly and mysteriously, with the Father, and in Jesus who share in our humanity. Jesus represents and substitutes for each and all of us human beings before the Father not so we don’t have to participate but so that we can, with him!
Theological Theme:
Because of the Reality of Jesus in our humanity, now glorified, we are invited and urged to share more deeply in in the humanity of Christ by the Spirit Christ than in the divided humanity of those who reject God! In the worshipful and relational way of Jesus, we who trust and believe in him, prioritize and live out the Great Command to love God with our all, first, and then, at His direction and lead in the Spirit, to love our neighbors as ourselves.
As the late George MacDonald has written: “God can no more than an earthly parent be content to have only children: he must have sons and daughters—children of his soul, of his spirit, of his love—not merely in the sense that he loves them, or even that they love him, but in the sense that they love like him, love as he loves. For this he does not adopt them; he dies to give them himself, thereby to raise his own to his heart; he gives them a birth from above; they are born again out of himself and into himself.” ― George MacDonald
Christ Connection:
There is a call from the Father for us to be different and to be transformed in Christ in the Holy Spirit; to begin and keep becoming and growing up in Him, right here and right now! To keep sharing in the mind of Christ about our world, that we are forever going to be relating with and oversee with Jesus in a larger more fulfilling way! We’re not in a pretend mode right now just because everything here on earth will one day be transformed! In believers, and by the Holy Spirit, Jesus has an earthly body that still resides in our present history, interacting with his Father and our neighbors in love. Obeying Jesus right now is as vital as it was vital when he actually walked the earth in his distinct human body because he is the Risen Lord and still has an ongoing and present ministry!
Missional Application:
Jesus, being our Great Ethic, has pointed out what it means to participate with him in relation to God and our neighbor:
A lawyer asked [Jesus] a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (Matt. 22:35-40, NRSV)
As Dr. Gary Deddo points out in his article “Theological Ethics”:
“When we love God with all we are and have, there shines forth a reflection of it towards those who are not God. We love God because God first loved us (1 John 4:19). Our love for God is a response, the right and appropriate response, to God’s love for us. We first receive God’s love and we first love God. When we love the neighbor in the way God would have us, then like Jesus, we are passing on to others what we have received from God. Think of the offering of the Lord’s Supper and Paul’s words: “For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you” (1 Cor. 11:23). In God’s economy, we can pass on only what we have first received. First things must remain first, otherwise, as C.S. Lewis reminds us, we will lose both the first and the second things.”
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The Waiting Father
Luke 15: 11-32, for me, is one of the most beautiful passages of Scripture describing our Father’s love for all humanity. It provides each one of us the foundation to stand before our Creator with no fear, no shame, no guilt, and no doubt.
A number of years ago my family and I were flying home from a vacation trip. I entered into a rare moment of deep meditation, lost in my own thoughts. A vision flooded my mind when my mom and I were waiting in the parking lot for my dad. It had been years since I thought about those trips to pick him up from work to take him home. I remembered very clearly, how, as a young boy, I would wait for the doors of the RCA plant to open at the 4 p.m. bell. I eagerly waited to see my dad in the crowd, on his way “home.” I remembered the joy of seeing him. Although it brought a smile to my face, I didn’t know why I was recalling this, until I felt God’s presence speak to me. In that moment, it became clear. I heard God say to me, “that’s how I feel toward you. I get the same joy of seeing you just like you did in seeing your dad come through those doors.” I immediately broke into tears with an awkward hope no one was looking. It became a very touching memory and metaphor of the Love our Father has in seeing and waiting for all of humanity, all of his children, “coming through the doors of life on their way home.” He always smiles with joy at seeing you and me, just as I did, when I saw my dad.
Commentators have called the Parable of the Prodigal Son, many things. The one I love the most is, “The Waiting Father.”
Breaking into the story, when the son requested his inheritance, his father had an amazing reaction. There was no imposition of fear, or shame, or guilt, or doubt. There was no anger, or punishment. He simply gave him what he asked for and let him leave on a trip leading to a life less than zero. The son gathered what he had, left home, and “headed for Hollywood.”
Verse 17 begins with a beautiful line, “When he (the son) came to his senses…” Because of God’s love for His creation He sent His Son to unite us forever and included us (and the entire cosmos) in Union with Him. When Jesus died on the cross, he said, “It is finished.” Our Union in Him is accomplished forever, and is irrevocable. For any one human being to cease to exist, Jesus would have to cease to exist. It is an accomplished fact. Unfortunately, most of humanity is included without a clue, until we come to our senses, believe, and come home. When we do, we find a Waiting Father. A Father who doesn’t wait for a moment, or a few years, or just in this lifetime (as some Christian friends may tell us) but one who will be waiting for eternity, as long as it takes.
In verse 20 we find that Waiting Father (waiting for his son to come home)…”but while he was still a long way off, his father saw him.” The son had worked up a repentance speech to make his way back home into the family just as a hired servant, but his dad didn’t allow him to finish his speech. He restored him to full fellowship in the family as if he never left. His dad didn’t allow sin to separate him from his son. He had been his son, and the relationship with his son had never changed. He had always been his son. But when the son came to his senses and came home, the son’s relationship and fellowship changed toward his Father. His Father never moved, never changed his love for his son, and remained…waiting. For us, just as with the son, it is always our move, because Jesus made the first move toward us when he brought us home.
Just as I would wait with anticipation for my dad, our heavenly Dad waits with anticipation for us. Our loving father waits, and waits, and waits, and will forever wait until all humanity comes to its senses, and comes “home.” While He is waiting, He never loses His sense of joy and feeling toward us, despite what we may think. When humanity comes through those doors, comes home, one by one, our dad will be standing there with open arms.
~by Craig Kuhlman
ILYUF
A few weeks ago, I attended the funeral of my 54-year-old cousin, Rodney Winkle, who was tragically killed in a motorcycle accident. He was an outstanding person who lived a full life, participating in many good and charitable activities and organizations. His oldest daughter gave a moving eulogy, and one of the memories she recounted was that he would always say to her and her sister, “I love you unconditionally forever.” These words soon became so familiar to them that he created an acronym (ILYUF) to use in text messages and on greeting cards. Both of his daughters conveyed the security they felt growing up, knowing that whatever they did (right or wrong), their dad’s love for them would never change.
That feeling of unconditional acceptance and love is one that isn’t often a part of most families. Many go through life believing that they have to perform to earn the love and approval of their peers, their families, and even God.
This idea that we have to do something or behave a certain way to be loved by God makes us almost superstitious, thinking that whenever we happen to suffer, we must have displeased God in some way, and we’re being punished for it. Ancient Greek and Roman religions had a similar view, where sacrifices were made to keep their capricious gods appeased or run the risk of enduring their wrath. These views, unfortunately, have tainted our Christian belief about the Triune God and have needlessly heaped a heavy burden of guilt on us all.
What if God were really like a loving father, one who said and wrote, “ILYUF,” on hearts and cards and text messages? Jesus shares a story in Luke 15:11-24 that illustrates the unconditional love of our Heavenly Father for each one of us. A father had two sons, and the younger son wanted his inheritance right away. He took his inheritance and wasted it in a foreign land. When he was desperately hungry, he decided to go back to his father, ask his forgiveness, and go to work for him as a hired hand. But the father had been watching and waiting for him:
“When he was still a long way off, his father saw him. His heart pounding, he ran out, embraced him, and kissed him. The son started his speech…but the father wasn’t listening. He was calling to the servants, ‘Quick. Bring a clean set of clothes and dress him. Put the family ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Then get a grain-fed heifer and roast it. We’re going to feast! …My son is here- given up for dead and now alive! Given up for lost and now found!'” (Luke 15:20-24, The Message).
The story shows that the son didn’t have to confess, repent, or offer to do anything to be welcomed with open arms by his father. All he had to do was accept the lavish, unconditional love (ILYUF) given to him by his father. That’s true for us, too.
I like this new acronym ILYUF (thank you, Rod Winkle). I plan to use it to remind my family and friends that no matter what, I will always love them. That’s a tall order, given that I’m fallible and so is everyone else. But it’s also a reminder to me that I am accepted and loved by the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and that every day the Triune God is whispering in a myriad of ways, “ILYUF.”
~by Nan Kuhlman