Whatever happened to amazing grace?

Nope, not the song, but the message. The title of this post is plagiarized (but, hey, with credit) from an editorial by Mark Galli, editor of Christianity Today magazine, the leading popular magazine on matters of Evangelical faith. He writes of 3 ways we move from grace to works as the basis of God's embrace.

1. Mental assent
2. Spiritual experience 
3. Moral improvement

Which one do you think those around you are closest to falling into? And yourself?

Check it out at Whatever Happened To Amazing Grace?

NOTE: the link above was broken but was corrected at 10:50 am ct on 10/28/13.

The Kingdom of God for which we pray

On Sunday, October 20, we looked at our understanding of the kingdom of God so we can better understand our prayers. Specifically, what are we praying for when we pray these prayers?

• The Lord's Prayer: "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." 
• The Trinity Prayer: "Our Father, maker of heaven and earth, set up your kingdom in our midst."

This question arises very sharply in the observation of Gordon Fee (long time professor at Regent College in Vancouver, B.C.). He said, "You cannot know anything about Jesus, anything, if you miss the kingdom of God . . . . You are zero on Jesus if you don’t understand this term. I’m sorry to say it that strongly, but this is the great failure of evangelical Christianity. We have had Jesus without the kingdom of God, and therefore have literally done Jesus in.”

Briefly, our Sunday outline was as follows.

1. A kingdom is a sphere of power and rule, not primarily a place
2. God's kingdom has the following 3 features (at least) --
3. Scope: spiritual and material, not just spiritual 
4. Timing: already (now) and not yet (future)
5. Manner: expressed in service not power

Mark D. Roberts,  writes simply and clearly on this topic. He asks the question, "What was the message of Jesus?" and answers it with, "the Kingdom of God." You can read his blog by clicking here. Print it out, read a section (or more) each day. It will give you a great overview of what the Gospel of the Kingdom of God is all about.

-Richard

The Trinity Prayer, Word doc

If you want a Word version of the Trinity Prayer, you can download it here.

Lord's Prayer with Scripture texts

In the Grace Steps ABF last week (Oct 6), I introduced a handout containing the Lord's Prayer with extensive quotes from both the Old and New Testaments as a way to fill out one's understanding of what is being prayed.

Some class members may want to add to this or substitute other passages. With that intent in mind, I'm attaching the Word document here for you to download, Lord's Prayer with Scripture.doc