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 Ah, the joys of a muscle car. =)
I received a call from a friend a few months ago (before the “Great Blog Outage of ’09″) asking me what I was doing after work. He had borrowed a 1968 Stingray Corvette and was looking to take it out for a spin.
Needless to say, I cleared my schedule! =D
One look at the bright yellow Stingray and I melted…wow…boy did they make beautiful cars back then!
It’s enough to wonder why, in a day of fiberglass, car manufacturing companies don’t make similar cars… =/ If they could build cars with fins and smooth ‘humps’ out of steel 40 years ago, why not today?! Continue reading 1968 Stingray Corvette
Irish Saints by Robert T. Reilly
My love for the ancient Celtic church started about six years ago when I first read Bede’s The Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Since then I have strove to learn more about these men and women of God who flourished on the edge of the world.
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 I was browsing a news website when I saw an article about a Louisville, KY, church ordaining a past sex offender as a worship pastor. Intrigued on what the world would say about such an act, I clicked the link and started reading.
Summary:
Long before Mark joined the City of Refuge Worship Center church, he was convicted of sexually abusing an 11-year-old boy (convicted in 1998 for acts done in ’93-94). He served a five-year prison sentence, completed his parole term (ended June 2008), and registered his name on the Kentucky’s sex offender registry (for life). In a nutshell, Mark has fulfilled every legal obligation placed on him since the conviction.
On a moral level, it seems that Mark has given his life to Jesus and has subjected himself to the moral authority of the church and the pastor. I say “seems” because I do not know Mark – I only know that his senior pastor has vouched for him.
The Supposed Issue
However, in reading the article there are some folks who seem to think that once a person as committed a sex crime, they are doomed forever. In the words of a former leader at church (as reported in the article): Continue reading Reformed Sex Offender Ordained As A Pastor
 The Apocalypse: In The Teachings of Ancient Christianity A few months ago I mentioned that I was trying to find a commentary on the Book of Revelation from the Eastern Orthodox Church. Well, I found one – The Apocalypse: In The Teachings of Ancient Christianity. Originally written in Russian by Archbishop Averky Taushev, it was translated into English by Father Seraphim Rose in 1985.
In a nutshell – it was the best book on Revelations I have ever read.
Yeah. It was that good.
Why?
Well, for starters the book wasn’t about trying to map out the “end times”, find out what everything John means and how it plays together in the 21st century. Instead, the commentary was written with the knowledge that Revelation is a book of mysteries:
The deep things bound up with the beginning and end of all things, the ultimate purpose of the world and man, the opening of the eternal Kingdom of Heaven; and so we must read it with fear of God, and with a humble distrust of our own wisdom.
Continue reading The Apocalypse: In The Teachings of Ancient Christianity
I recently stumbled upon an article entitled “Organized Religion’s ‘Management Problem’” by management author and consultant Gary Hamel.
Apparently, Hamel was recently a guest speaker at Willow Creek Community Church “Leadership Summit”. The article I stumbled upon was a summary of his talk…
Anyway, a few things jumped out at me while I was reading Hamel’s article. The first item cam pretty quick as it was his hypothesis:
The problem with organized religion isn’t that it’s too religious, but that it’s too organized.
Wow! Talk about a bomb shell – especially concerning he was speaking at Willow Creek, which, as you probably know, has been America’s poster child for church management.
From that bombshell onward the article just kept getting better: Continue reading Organized Religion’s ‘Management Problem’
We are almost done – let us push on through and see what the last few phrase have to tell us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
We know that God does not tempt us. This is a petition to the Lord to keep us safe through out the great battle of this world. We are in a war!!! We have an enemy who is going about like a “lion looking for someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8)
We pray for our protection:
Lead us not into the final hour of testing / Deliver us from Satan.
In Revelation 3:10 Jesus tells the church:
Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come upon the whole world to test those who live on the earth.
Jesus Himself prayed for us in John 17:15 Continue reading The Lord’s Prayer: A Battle Cry (Part 7 of 7)
 Thirsting for God in a Land of Shallow Wells The book Thirsting for God in a Land of Shallow Wells tells the journey of Matthew Gallatin from his Seven Day Adventist youth through fundamental evangelicalism and the Jesus Movement (he was a Cavalry Chapel pastor) to Eastern Orthodoxy.
As you can imagine, Gallatin has had quite the spiritual journey.
In fact, it was this spiritual journey that made the book so interesting and readable. One could see themselves taking the same journey and asking the same questions. I know it made me stop and think about my beliefs and traditions…. more so then any other book in recent times…
A major strengthen of the book is its honest look at Protestantism. Gallatin questions the underlining worldview of the Protestant faith – namely the reliance of Scripture alone and the right of the individual to interpret Scripture.
Most Protestants would fight to the death on the principle of Sola Scripture – yet, in reality, no one can stand on just the Scripture. Everyone who reads the Scriptures brings something to the table – the writings of Calvin, Luther, Dobson, or those of the first century. The real question is how you interpret Scripture – not whether you stand on Scripture alone. Continue reading Thirsting for God in a Land of Shallow Wells by Matthew Gallatin
Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors
Luke 11:4 reads:
Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us
Who can tell me what happens tonight? Yom Kippur starts at sunset (This talk was originally given as a sermon on Sept 27, 2009). It is the Day of Atonement – the time when the High Priest enters into the Holy of Hollies and offers a sacrifice for the sins of the people. Leviticus 16
18 “Then he shall come out to the altar that is before the LORD and make atonement for it. He shall take some of the bull’s blood and some of the goat’s blood and put it on all the horns of the altar. 19 He shall sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times to cleanse it and to consecrate it from the uncleanness of the Israelites.
34 “This is to be a lasting ordinance for you: Atonement is to be made once a year for all the sins of the Israelites.”
Every year the High Priest had to do this. year in and year out… The Israelites look forward to the Day when the Lord would live among them and all sin would be destroyed. This is what happened with the birth, death, and resurrection of Christ Jesus: Romans 3:21-25 Continue reading The Lord’s Prayer: A Battle Cry (Part 6 of 7)
Give us today our daily bread….
While this is how most Bibles read, I think a better translation of the Greek text would be, “Give us tomorrow’s bread today.”
You see, Jesus was not just telling us to pray for our daily needs – granted, there’s nothing wrong with praying for our daily food.
It’s just that it is not everything.
Jesus was telling his followers to pray for the Messianic Bread. The bread that will be served during the Wedding Feast of the End. This is a reference to the manna which God used to support the Israelites in the desert during the Exodus. Jesus called himself the “Bread of Life” in John 6:35-40 Continue reading The Lord’s Prayer: A Battle Cry (Part 5 of 7)
At the heart of Biblical redemptive truth is the Blessed hope of the personal, glorious second advent of Jesus Christ. Salvation has to do both with the redemption of men as individuals and as a society. Salvation of individual believers includes the “redemption of the body” (Rom. 8:23). We must not only be saved from the guilt of sin, and delivered from the power of sin. Redemption is not completed until we are delivered from the very effects of sin in our moral bodies. The Biblical doctrine of the resurrection is a redemptive truth: it means the salvation of the body. This salvation will be realized only by the personal second coming of Christ.
So begins the introduction of George Ladd’s book The Blessed Hope: A Biblical Study of the Second Advent and the Rapture.
 The Blessed Hope by George Ladd A fairly easy read, this book tackles a very important issue into today’s church: the substitution of the rapture in place of the Second Coming of Christ.
Think for a minute – if you were to stop your average every-day Christian on the street and ask them what they are looking forward to when Christ comes back, what would they say? I guess that most of them would tell you that they are looking forward to the rapture when they will be taken out of this world.
Yet, Biblical the rapture is not our hope.
Our hope, our Blessed Hope – as Ladd would say – is with the return of the King of Kings. That we may dwell with Him on a renewed earth. That is what we need to be looking forward too – not a pre-tribulation rapture that takes us out of the world like a cosmic escape hatch. Continue reading The Blessed Hope: A Biblical Study of the Second Advent and the Rapture
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Who Writes This Mess? My name is Joshua Hopping and I am a Son of the Most High journeying through a foreign land following the Wild Goose (i.e. the Holy Spirit) one step at a time.
As I journey along the Way, I have the privilege of serving as the bi-vocational pastor of the Payette River Vineyard Christian Fellowship. I am also a voracious reader who loves studying church history, theology, and world missions.
This blog, "Requisite Danger", is a record of what God is teaching and showing me as I try to follow Him wherever He leads as well as occasional random thoughts. I pray that you will join me in this journey through online/offline interaction as this life is lived in community.
May His grace and peace be upon you.
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