Clay Ambassadors

2 Corinthians 4:5-7 (ESV)

5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

Yesterday the above verses really stuck out to me and I alluded to that in my post.  The idea of a jay or clay was interesting to me and as I thought about it more and broke into more of 2 Corinthians today it continued to stand out to me.  Paul continues in verse 8:

8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.

We are afflicted in every way but never crushed.  We always carry with us the death of Christ that he may manifest in our bodies.  The reason that all of this stood out to me is that Christ suffered the same things that we might be reconciled to him.  Chapter 5 v.15:

15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

And he has given us, those who believe, the ministry of reconciliation (v.18) that all peoples would be reconciled to him.  This brings me to the verse that has really impacted me.

2 Corinthians 5:20,21
20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

We are his ambassadors here on earth.  He is using humans, these jars of clay, to make his appeal to all men that they may be reconciled to him and take joy in the ministry that he accomplished on the cross.  He who never sinned was made to be sin.  Not just a little sin like being mean or grouchy.  But all sin.  The murders and genocides, adultery and rape,  and even theft and lies.  All sin of all time was laid on him that we could be reconciled to God!

Therefore as an ambassador for Christ I will take that message of reconciliation in my little broken clay jar to whom will hear that they too may take part in the joy that Christ accomplished on that dark day over 2000 years ago.

I'll leave you all with this:

“In a favorable time I listened to you,
    and in a day of salvation I have helped you.”

Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. (2 Cor 6:2)

Veil Removed, Freedom Gained

2 Corinthians 3:16-17 (ESV)

16 But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

It's interesting that this verse stood out to me this morning during my quiet time.  It's interesting because it was as if a veil was lifted from my own eyes and I could see clearly again.  As a Christian I often talk about the freedom we experience in Christ.  But today I understood a new level of that freedom.

The Word of God is living and active and pierces through bone and marrow to the very heart of the soul.  Yet when I was an atheist I read the Word of God with a veil over my eyes unable to see the Love and Freedom that were in those words, in Him.

Christians around me helped me to see the love of Christ and brought it to me with their own troubles and afflictions and sufferings.  It was the love that shines as a light in all believers that I saw and that drew me to Christ.  As paul writes "But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us." 2 Cor 4:7. 

So it was by their humility and brokeness that I was drawn to the Lord and my veil removed.  I was pierced and my sin lay open before the Lord.  It was then that I realized I didn't have to keep it all together but I was free.  In the loving embrace of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ I was finally free to be me.  Not the me of the world but the me that God had intended from the beginning.

Now I am being transformed, along with all the saints, into the same image of Christ that beheld when the veil was first removed.  The Lord is working in me daily for His glory and renewing me to my freedom.  It is a joyful thing for the believer.

The question remains: What veils your sight?
 

Living Water

 Psalm 1:1-3

     Blessed is the man who does not walk in the council of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on His law he meditates day and night.  He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and his leaf does not wither.  In all that he does, he prospers.


Ah, to be a tree planted by a stream of water, yielding my fruit in season.  Hello there!  I know it's been some time since I last posted on here.  Sorry about that I've been rather distracted with a few things.  However I'm back now and will try to keep this blog updated at least twice a week.  It will be good for me because of what this summer will bring.  I'll be working on raising support to go on Mission. Next year I'll spend someplace in the 10/40 window and I'm so excited to be going.

Well then, why open with Psalm 1.  The last few weeks I've been lacking on my quite times with the Lord.  And I've experienced the pain of separation that comes along with that.  Blessed is the man that meditates on the law of the Lord.  As I have begun to get back into the word I've felt that relationship grow.

So today, as a reintroduction to the blog, I encourage each of you to take 15min out of your busy day and take some time with the Lord.  Write down questions and thoughts.  Meditate on his word, on his law, and become a tree planted by the stream of water... our Lord Jesus Christ!  Mmm good!

An Empty Tomb...

So we've been talking about reasons to believe.  Up to this point we've talked about the cosmological argument and how it is necessary for God to exist.  Maybe that doesn't convince you though.  That's fine if it convinced everyone the matter would be settled.

Well one of the best reasons to believe, in my opinion, is the empty tomb, the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.  This is not only the symbol that Christians rally to but it's one of the best reasons to believe.

Why though?  Why is the resurrection of Jesus a good reason to believe?  Well at the time of Christ the Jews were waiting on a messiah.  The one who would free them from the tyranny of the Romans, a political and military leader.  Also resurrection was not part of their dogma at the time.  Yet Christianity exploded after the resurrection of Christ!

The Jews were expecting a political leader they got a suffering, dying, servent.  In Matthew 16 Jesus rebukes Peter for this expectation.

²¹  From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. ²² And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord!^[e]This shall never happen to you.” ²³ But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance^[f] to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

Peter did not believe in the dying servent, no one did.  If Jesus had not risen then there would have been no hope.  Their leader would have been dead.  But the tomb was found empty and Christ did rise!  That gave all hope to the early church.  Christ, in his risen form, appeared to his disciples and over 500 other people (Luke 24:13-27, 1 Cor 15:3-6).  If Christ had not risen from the dead Christianity would have never gotten off the ground at all.  It was completely counter cultural for one to believe in a dying, suffering servent.

This is the wonderful bit.  Christ is risen from the dead!  In this we can take hope because this life is not the end.  Check out this awesome song and God Bless!

Kalam bringing it home!

What a wonderful weekend we had up here in Michigan!  Yesterday was pretty fantastic and today is no different.  Well over the past two blogs we've been discussing the Cosmological Argument for the Existence of God.  Today I want to bring that argument home with that last bit which is the Kalam Argument.  This seeks to show that the Universe has a cause.  We'll see how all of these relate in just a moment but first the Kalam argument.







The basic form of the Kalam argument is this:

1. Whatever begins to exist has a cause

2. The universe began to exist

∴  The universe has a cause


Now we have the basic form of the argument.  As you can see the only premis that can be refuted with any plausibility is the second.  The universe may not have began to exist.  However, if you recall my previous blog an eternal universe is impossible because an "Actual Infinity" (the kind involved if the universe had no beginning or end) is impossible.  So if the universe was created then who created it?  


If you remember back to my first blog, if the universe is not necessary by nature then it must exist by some external cause.  That external cause must be grater than the universe to have caused it.  Therefore the creator of the universe must be God, the only being great enough and timeless to have caused the universe to come into existence.  


A question you may be asking yourself is: If the universe cannot be infinit then how can God be?  The answer to that is really quite simple.  The universe exists in time, and in time there cannot be an actual infinity because an infinit regression of temporal events cannot exist (previous blog).  God on the other-hand exists outside of time.  Therefore God can be infinit (eternal) without causing this logical conundrum.

This has been quite a bit of fun to write about and think on.  If any of you have any question please leave your comment.  I would love to engage in scholarly debate.  Next time we're going to look at another proof for God.  But this time the heart and soul will be engaged more so than the mind.




^"He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.  And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together."



Colossians 1:15-17 

And it goes on and on and on... or does it?

So yesterday I talk a little bit about the leibniz Cosmological Argument for the existence of God.  And one of the possible counterexamples for this argument is that the universe is eternal!  As we established eternal means without beginning or end or in other words INFINIT!!!  Which brings us to todays topic!  An Infinitely existing universe.

The counter arguments goes something like this.  What if the brute fact is the universe it's self.  As we stated if you remember Premis (1) was this:

"Everything existing thing has an explanation of its existence, either in the necessity of its own nature or in an external cause."


This could lead one to conclude that the universe is a thing that is necessary by nature.  For us to exist the univers needs to exist so why does God have to come into the picture, why can't the universe exist in it's own right?

For something to be necessary by it's own nature it must be eternal, for if it were not eternal it would not be necessary because there would have been a time without it or a time coming where it no longer is.  So the universe is eternal, no big deal right?  Well actually it is kind of a big deal.  See if the universe is eternal that would mean that it would contain an infinit number of events the preceded and other event, for instance you reading this blog.  This is where our problem resides.

According to set theory if a particular set contains an infinit number of (x) then adding (z) more (x) would not increase the number of (x) in the set.  The same holds true if one were to subtract (z) or (y) from the set.  The problem with the universe having an infinit number of events that precede any one event is that the univers would have to go through an infinit number of events to get there.  What this means is that we would have never gotten to you reading this blog or me writing it or either of us being born for that matter or anything!  Because there would need to be a limitless number of events that precede any other event.

What does all of that mean?  It means that infinity is not possible it is an impossibility.

But wait, not it's not because if you take any two integers you could divide them into 1/2 or 1/4 or 1/8 into infinity, meaning that there are an infinit number of divisions between two integers = Infinity real.  This is a confusion of terms.  It's a confusion between actual infinity and potential infinity.  Actual infinity is impossible and is the kind that we talk about when we talk about the universe being eternal because actual time would have had to pass to get us to this moment.  Potential infinity is any situation where there is a potential amount of answers such as the space between two integers.

Ergo, the universe cannot be infinit which means that is cannot be necessary of it's own nature.  Which means that is must have come to exist through some other means, God.

"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." - Gen 1:1


Next time a look at the Kalam Cosmological Argument and the conclusion of this section of Cosmological arguments.

And 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."

Hello There!

My goal for this blog is to update it every other day or so, especially once I'm on mission.  I want this to be about loving the Lord our God with all of our Hearts with all of our Souls and with all of our Minds.  I'm just going to dive right in.

For the next few weeks I want to focus on our Minds.  If you're like me you've been asked some pretty difficult questions regarding the existence of God.  This morning I want to begin my laying out the Leibnizian Cosmological Argument for God.  But before I do that I want to say this is not so you can go around bashing in Atheists arguments.  My goal is that you be encouraged and know that there are Good reasons for you to believe in God and Jesus Christ who he sent.


Alright, the Leibnizian Cosmological argument is this: Basically the Universe must have a creator and that creator is God.  But this form might not satisfy your Atheist friends!   So Todays post will be about the Leibnizian Cosmological Argument.

Basically it's this:

1: Everything existing thing has an explanation of its existence, either in the necessity of its own nature or in an external cause.

2: If the universe has an explanation of it's existence that explanation is God.

3: The Universe is and existing thing.

∴ The explanation of the existence of the Universe is God


The main problem with this argument is that your Atheist friend will probably refute premis (2)  saying that God doesn't exist. If they do this they are saying that the Universe is a necessary being meaning it must exist there can be no other.  However, it's pretty easy for us to imagine a universe where nothing exists at all (just think of a big black space).

So your friend should come to the conclusion that either the Universe is eternal (without beginning or end), or God exists as the explanation for the Big-Bang!  Either that or the universe magically popped into existence from nothing.  I hope you've been encouraged by this and know that God loves us all even your Atheist friend.

Next time we'll talk about the Kalam Cosmological Argument that supplements this one.  Until then continue to "...love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind."

Source: William Lane Craig & J.P. Moreland, The Kalam Cosmological Argument, Philosophy of Religion: An Anthology, comp. Louis P. Pojman & Michael Rea, (Thomson Wadsworth: Belmont, 2008) p.33-36