The Akedah is one of those chapters of the Bible which reminds us all too well that we don't have a neat and tidy little religion that is country-club respectable in all ways at all times. Sometimes the story comes off the tracks. But, the story somehow finds it's way back onto the tracks. There is always the possibility of redemption.
This isn't a text to absolutize. You can't (or at least shouldn't) attempt to build a theology of the trinity around this...This is Paul invoking the fullness of God in prayer over a community (koinonia) in Corinth that had it's issues.
You may use this Prayer, print it in your bulletin, adapt it as you’d like, etc. Please use common attribution. On this day when we remember fathers, let us offer our prayers to God, who has adopted us as sons and daughters through the waters of baptism. O God, you formed your son Adam from the dust of the ground, and breathed your holy breath into his lungs, giving us all the gift of life; […]
I think it's helpful in this regard to not separate the Resurrection of Jesus and Coming of the Holy Spirit as two wholly separate and different things. They are two different things, but they have lots of overlap - and they are in a fuller sense two actions of the one-and-the-same sweeping act of God: God reconciling all things to Himself, God making all things new.
I’m on the edge of glory And I’m hanging on a moment of truth Out on the edge of glory And I’m hanging on a moment with you – Edge of Glory, Lady Gaga In the fourth chapter of First Samuel Israel suffers a major defeat at the hands of the Philistines. Thousands are slaughtered. Israel is crippled. And the Ark of the Covenant, which had been carried onto the field of battle, was captured. […]
The Grand Story of God is the beautiful story of a God who not only created us out of the dust of the ground, made us in His holy image, and breathed his life into us - but it's also the story of a God who has pursued us to the ends of the earth from the beginning.
Jesus promises to prepare a place in His Father's house for us. And that's where this passage strikes me in the gut: In God's House, where His Name is worshiped, and where He dwells...I have a place. A spot. I am invited in. You're invited in. We're invited in.
First off, let me just say how thrilled I am that the church as a whole, and individual Christians of several stripes, are having the discussion of Matters Eternal. Whatever one may think of Love Wins or Wittmer's response Christ Alone, I think the fact that people who occupy both pulpits and pews are now talking passionately about salvation, and not just bedrooms, bodes well for the Faith.
This little allegory that Jesus gives in the opening verses of the tenth chapter of John is actually an account of the meaning of the Incarnation: Jesus enters the world to lead us out.
On this day when we remember our mothers, let us offer our prayers to Jesus, the son of Mary. Because on this earth we are all sons and daughters of Eve, let us pray for the whole world and the church universal, that we might behold each other as brothers and sisters. Lord in your mercy. Hear our Prayer. As Rebecca gave birth to Jacob, and in so doing she gave birth to a whole […]