The Divine Embrace

The Divine Embrace is a book that was recommended to me by a friend in the ministry. Thanks Bill. I found it to be amazingly helpful in my own journey. There are some quotes that I'd like to think more about and even have some conversation about that will be posted soon. I chose to make any possible conversation part of this blog because I think it has to do with how we need to think about following Christ in this postmodern era... This spurred me on to another Robert Webber work that I had begun and now finished... The Younger Evangelicals...

On Worship

"The current focus on worship originating in self is probably a reaction against truth without passion and is what happened to me as a result of the Enlightenment and what happened to me when my learning of Scripture through the scientific method left me dry." (Embrace p.233)

"Worship needs both truth and passion. Truth without passion is dry. Passion without truth is empty. Where do we go to find both truth and passion? I suggest recovering worship as the proclamation and enactment of God's story. (Robert Webber, Worship Old and New 2nd ed.)" (Embrace p. 233)

On Prayer

"Prayer is a weapon God has given his people in the struggle against those evil impulses that drive a person to focus on self and self- interest." (Embrace p. 208)

The Gospel Affects Our Spiritual Life

"The spiritual life is not an escape from life but an affirmation of God's way of life in the struggles we meet in our personal thoughts, in the relationships we have in the family, among our neighbors, at work, and in our leisure." (Embrace p. 202)

The Gospel Proclaimed in Post-Modernism

"In the pre-modern world and now again in the postmodern world which we live, Christian faith is being presented once again, however; not as mere ideas to be defended by reason or science but as a story to be embodied, that is, to be lived." (Embrace p.202)

The Desert Father's on Sanctification

"The fathers stress the Pauline admonition to 'press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me' (Phil. 3:14). There must be no stopping in the pursuit of virtue. 'Prepare yourself for continual labor; struggle and effort, allowing no thought of alleviation.' Never for a moment imagine that 'the virtue is already gained in its perfection.' (Ibid., 177)
Also, do not assume that you can ascend to your goal quickly. 'Make gradual progress your rule, moving from below upwards.'" (Embrace p. 192)

Rebellion as Self-Love

"The self-love of narcisism is one of the greatest problems we face today. Obviously personal care and appropriate personal attention to self is no sin. But popular culture, especially the media, constantly promotes self-interest. 'it's all about me' is a slogan the Christian needs to replace with, 'It's all about God.'" (Embrace p. 189)

On Community

"God's family pursues God's purposes for the world and participates in God's vision in the world by showing the world what a community of people in union with God is to look like." (Embrace p.163)

Repenting

"Christian spirituality, on the other hand, begins with the day-by-day repentance, a continuous change that takes place in the mind, the heart, and the will. Repentance is to hear God's story...every day." (Embrace p. 151)

3 Steps to Embracing God

"Peter sets forth the three steps it takes to consciously recieve God's embrace: (1) repent, (2) be baptized for the forgiveness of sins, and (3) recieve the gift of the Holy Spirit. Here, then, is how a person responds to the passionate embrace of God." (Embrace p. 147)

On Spirituality

"Spirituality is our union with God through our union with Jesus Christ accomplished by the power of the Spirit....Thus the spiritual life is a calling to become fully human after the likeness of Christ, who, being united to God, has shown us what humanity, united to God, was intended to be." (Embrace p. 103)

On Mystery

"The contemplation of God, of his person, creation, incarnation, and re-creation of the world, is a different kind of knowledge. It is a contemplation on the mysteries, namely, the mystery of God creating, the mystery of God incarnate, the mystery of the cross and empty tomb, the mystery of God's presence in the church, and the mystery of Christ's return to claim his lordship over creation. The contemplation of these mysteries moves us to live into these mysteries, participating in God's life for the world." (Embrace p. 87)

The Younger Evangelicals

The Younger Evangelicals, another volume by Robert Webber, really challenged some of my thinking about the way we should be church instead of doing church... I don't agree with alot of what Webber is saying, or to put it more accurately, my experience isn't exactly what his is, but so much of what he says is really important and is worth conversation.... Thanks J.R. for the reccomendation.

On Church Structure

"When relationships are structured on mutual servanthood and not power, the world sees a glimpse of heavenly reality where the powers have been put away and God's shalom over the entire created order." (Younger p.149)

"He is Lord, not only of personal salvation, but also of all relationships and structures. His lordship of structures calls us to live and work with each other by the servant leadership which Jesus modeled. He was not the CEO of his disciples; he was their servant." (Younger p.149)

Tullian Tchividjian on "Doing vs. Being Church"

"Our focus on doing church has certainly overshadowed the bibilical focus of being church, and this comes at a time when our culture is growing weary of slick production, while growing hungry for authentic prescence...they want engagement by the Church: engagement with historical and cultural solidity that facilitates meaningful interaction with transcendant reality." (Younger p. 129)

Tullian Tchividjian on "Yearning for the other"

"They are desperately reaching not just upwards but backwards. They yearn for a day gone by when things seemed more constant and less shallow. They want to tap into the treasures of the past as they search for staying power that seems unattainable in the present. They are weary of the pressure to become, while they long for the privilege to be. Therefore, they want different music (not just words but style) and different people with their sights set on a different world. They long for someone to speak to them with authority about someone other than themselves and about a time other than their own. They are not as interested in what they can become as in who they are and where they came from, historically speaking." (Younger p. 128)

On Rejecting Modernism

"I found the Enlightenment promise that all things, including satisfaction and contentment, could be found 'this side of the ceiling' was a lie." (Tullian Tchividjian, Younger p. 127)

On the Bible's Relevance

"Frei proposes a radical solution. Suppose we do not start with the modern world. Suppose we start with the bibical world, and let those narratives decide what's real, so that our lives have meaning to the extent that we fit them into the framework. That is, after all, the way a great many Christians- Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin- read the Bible for a long time. If we do that, then the truth of the biblical narratives does not depend on connecting them to some other real world. They describe the real world." (William C. Placher, Unapologetic Theology: A Christian Voice in a Pluralistic Conversation)

On the Gospel in Life

"The salvation story centers on the incarnation and subsequent events. God entered our history and became incarnate in Jesus. In the union of the divine with the human in the person of Jesus Christ came the "lifting up of human nature into an everlasting communication with the divine life."(Ibid., 86)" (Younger p. 86)

On Freedom

"True freedom, which is the choice to be in union with God and with God's will, is now lost." (Younger p.86)

Why Church?

"Today, young people come to church because "it stands for something." But the gospel it stands for is presented as "story," not a noncontradictory, rationally defended, logically consistent fact apprehended by cognitive aquiescence." (Younger p.49)

living to serve among Muslims

"Communicating the truth to Muslims for understanding."

A guy who lives in the Middle East spoke in chapel today. I am not identifying him for security reasons... he spoke about connecting with Muslims. These are the notes I took, they sound exactly like connecting with PMs

You need to be sure that the words are understood.
The speaker must understand what the listener is hearing.

To Muslims the deed weighs as much as the word.

Historical context is important to understanding and communicating the truth.
Collective identity, not individuality is important in understanding context.

Job, life choices and activities are our idenity in the West
verse
family, family heritage and relating to Muhammed in the muslim world.

In the West - choice
In the East - history

Religion is a birth thing not a personal choice.

Muslims are taught that the decline of the islamic empire was the result of straying from correct teaching... [Compare to modern jihadist teachings that are dividing muslim generations in west
how to reach? I need to blog about this]


some steps
1) understand identity
2) importance of language - live in the language
3) respect Islamic culture and history


living in a middle eastern ctiy
1) provide a safe and familiar environmment... Be aware of what is happening around us
2) permanance
3) community - being in community
4) orient our lives toward culture
5) relationships in the language and culture

I think there are amazing parallels to working among PMs

a talk on postmodernism

At a missions conference recently, I was able to hear a speaker who really seemed to understand postmodern folks (like me?).
"A Message from America's Future"

The 'emerging generation' is postmodern (PM) in thought.

There is no return... [hense, we are where we are and we will not go back to modernism]

from the middle ages to the enlightenment
authority was seen in the person [Pope] and changed to knowledge [as authority]

[NOW] the new basis of authority is what I deem so

the European Church bought into values of the enlightenment...

WWI and WWII showed the failure of modernism and the church which emphasized reason was off track and had failed, thus the church died in the UK and elsewhr in Europe

4 tenants of PM

1. rejection of absolute truth

no one really believes this... There is plenty of wrong and everybody knows it... It really is a rejection of the claim of having absolute truth - especially against the church... RESULT: We need to learn to listen... it's not about me being right, it's about Jesus being right for Me... its the church more than the Gospel that PM mocks... we don't give up on truth, we need to be humble to know we do not have a corner on it

2. anti expectation, sorry, I didn't get this

3. cynicism, hopelessness, pessimism

modernism failed, PMs become anti optimistic

PM began in EUR after WWII, WHY? WWI AND WWII shwd modernism failed ...

being not just talking

show Jesus is real

4. rejection of objective and emphasizing of subjective

we cannot explain everything, we must emrace mystical things and realize that we cannot answer all questions, show them how to love Jesus not just the truth about him

The speaker was Alan Waldecker.

evil

I picked up Tom Wright's book Evil and the Justice of God (IVP, 2006). I was struck by this idea:

"This... is a kind of response to the problem of evil. Postmodernism, in recognizing that we are all deeply flawed, aviods any return to a classic doctrine of original sin by claiming that humans have no fixed "identity" and hense no fixed responsibility. You can't escape evil within postmodernity, but you can't find anyone to take the blame either."

Wright goes on to give an example from England when no one was held responsible for a rail accident becuase you can't find anyone to take the blame either...

This seems to match up with the idea of plurality that I think seems to be a "doctrine" of postmodern thought.

Christian Apologetics

"religious pluralism is a normative thesis about diversity..."

"the bad news: no religion is true
the good news: it doesn't matter; it will all turn out okay in the end"

"religious pluralism looks a lot like secularism w/ incense"

if i am beginning to understand this issue... i am understanding that Jesus is a great model for the dialogue needed with postmodern friends, he was a great question asker, he acted with compassion...

another worthwile resource is

this blog called the JesusCreed

a link to a helpful article

by Earl Creps on "Disciplemaking in a Postmodern World" its worth a look...

the blog of Mr. Creps is here

another summary of modernism

as a modernist, i need further clarification of modernism so that i can further comprehend postmodernism... i have found this summary by Erickson helpful...

"In general, modernism was seeking for an explaination that would cover all things. So the great systems of the of the modern period were omniexplanatory. Darwinism accounted for everything in terms of biological evolution. Freudian psycology explained all human behavior in light of sexual repression, and unconscious forces. marxism interpreted all events of history in economic categories, with the forces of dialectical materialism moving history toward the inevitable classess society. These ideologies offered universal diagnoses as well as universal cures." p. 164