All Things Seen & Unseen

The question of whether the law plays any part in the lives of Christians today still d ivides the Chri stian community . You would think from the way some Christians preach, write and talk that law should play no part in the Christian life . The 'Grace, Not Law' slogan based presumably on Romans 6.14 and often linked with the facile quote of John 1.17 can certainly suggest this teaching. The scripture, 'For the law came by Moses, g race and truth by Jesus Christ' suggests to some that law has nothing to do with Christians today but this post suggest s otherwise .

Trinity Sunday is the first Sunday after Pentecost. It doesn't have a fixed date because Easter doesn't and therefore nor does Ascension Day (40 days post Easter) and Pentecost (50 days post Easter). I've been told Trinity Sunday, inspires a sense of trepidation in preachers in some Anglican churches who observe the day. That's unfortunate, for Anglicans at least, because the Anglican tradition places the teaching of the Trinity liturgically 1 at the centre of its worship. The scriptures set down to be read at Holy Communion for this Trinity Sunday are: Prov 8.1-4, 22-31; Ps 8.1-9; Rom 5.1-5; Jn 16.12-15. 2 The reader may ponder at this point why these scriptures have been chosen. (Mouse over the references to see the NKJV rendering.) The Trinity teaching is One Holy God revealing himself 3 in three persons: Father, Son, and Spirit. But the revelation of the three persons in the Scriptures is one of different relationships and roles among the three persons. For exampl...

Jesus said to his followers 'you are the light of the world' (Matt 5.14). Note he didn't say, 'should be', 'were to be', 'better be', 'could be' but are .   Christians are now the light of the world (Phil 2.15) because they are in Christ who is The Light of the world (Jn 8.12). The Christ who is within all Christians by the Holy Spirit's presence ensures that Christians everywhere shine as light in the world.

* The denomination that I am a part of seems wedded to the idea that full-time ministers of Christ only exist within the congregational structure. Therefore, it clearly implies that all the work done by the 'laity' (an abominable term btw) is outside the ambit of the Body of Christ. Just to make myself clear: I am NOT talking about involving the non-ordained 'laity' in congregational work such as song-leading, worship-leading, taking up the collection or dispensing the elements for Holy Communion. All of these tasks need to be done but the 'laity' spends most of its time outside the confines of the congregation.

Pentecost Sunday is the day churches celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost as recorded in Acts 2.1-21. Luke, the disciple, mentions the coming of the Holy Spirit first in his gospel account (Lk 24.49) and I particularly appreciate the translation 'clothed with power from on high'. In these words, three ideas are given but I will focus on the aspect of power.

Most of us know how God used the German monk, Dr Martin Luther (1483-1546), to shake to the core the medieval western (Roman) church in the early decades of the 16th century which led to the Protestant Reformation. We know that his views can summarised by: justification by faith alone in Christ alone. Of course, Luther did believe that the sinner is justified by faith in Christ alone without good works. (Nevertheless, faith in Christ, he said, is never without good works [Eph 2.8-10].) Luther's battle with the Roman church was also evidenced in Rome's doctrines surrounding the virgin Mary, its dead 'saints', clergy, bishops and Pope who could be said to be intercede between the Roman church believer and Christ.  Hence, the Roman church was in a powerful, politico-faith position because to be under its curse -an anathema- was to be dammed to eternal torment. Few kings, emperors or any others of the time were prepared to oppose Rome knowing their eternal dest...

I was conf ronted 30 years ago with a different form of the message cont ained in this book by James Thwaites (a Pentecostal), and it still faces me today. Some book titles are arresting and The Church Beyond The Congregation is one of th ese. However , it is more than just arresting because it is very easy to misunderstand what the book is proposing by simply interpreting its title within our normal categories. It's a creational given that we do this and it's das hed difficult to modify or abandon our settled categ ories. I could start by asking, what is the Church? Su ch a simple que stion but it is easy to get the answer wrong according to New Testament (NT) terms. The normal understanding of the Church is that it is only the institutional structure, the congregation that Sunday-by-Sunday meets to hear the scriptures read, to break bread, to pray and fellowship (Act 2.42). If you would like a snap shot of this regular view, Google 'the Body of Christ...

Why is it important to remind ourselves as Christians about the meaning of Ch rist's A scension and furthe r to acknowle dge his Ascen sion on a special day ? Christ's Ascension was/is import ant because Jesus was going to : 1. send the Holy Spirit on his disciples 'not many days hence' (Act 1.5); 2. intercede for his saints (those who believe in Jesus) (Heb 1.3; 7.25); 3. war as the exalted Lord along with the Father until all the Son's enemies are subdued (Acts 2.34-35; 1 Cor 15.24-28 ); 4. come again to exercise compassi onate judgement upon mankind both dead and alive.

Many Christians today don't use Bible versions that have archaic w ords such as ' thou', ' th ee', ' thine', 'th y', 'ye' .   I've heard preachers ridicule such language as if us ing such language is so out of fashion that no church (or person) should be caught dead using it . B efore going on, I sho uld make clear that I'm not trying to argue that we should go back to the King James Version (KJV) as it was in AD1611 or AD1769 . For a number of reasons the Church probably cannot do that.  However, many were brought up on the KJV and its rhythms are still alive for them. In my case, after deserting it for translation after translation I've now come to view it with much more respect. T he p opulist bandwagon of getting rid of the KJV altogether has only led to a succession of translations which makes for reasonable uniformity and a stable text for memorisation almost impossible.  L et's consider a few well-known ...