Jarrax Volk

I'm doing really well lately--me and God have been awful close.

True, but this can be minimized by making sure we start to understand the ways we communicate. Also, lots of people trying to understand a given statement will result in more possible meanings than one person doing so alone, most likely. Plus, remember that the Spirit guides all of us. In making us priests under Him, Christ gave us priestly authority under Him. The role of interpreter is not limited to a specific few within the church, whether they're intelligent or of a certain rank or status. The Spirit does not (and is not intended to) serve as a replacement for good hermeneutics, but He does make us aware of nuances and applications which we would otherwise miss. He does so in His own time--the right time--for all of us, if we but ask and listen.

St. Irenaeus stated "The glory of God is man fully alive". At first, this seems to contradict some theological ideas. No, we say, God's glory doesn't stem from man, God's glory involves Himself. However, this simply is inaccurate. Examine the statement first. "The glory of God": "glory" is honor, status, prestige, reverence, given to a worthy person. "Man": this is humanity, you, me, your friends, family, everyone who has ever lived. "Fully alive": to be truly capable of the utmost life--and in that, truly free, joyful, and walking in close companionship and communion with God. Now, we are all alive in a basic sense: we eat, we breath, we have a physical life. Some of us are alive in a spiritual sense: we are saved, we have had our spirits renewed, we have companionship with God. However, very few of us are fully alive: physically, spiritually, emotionally, and mentally. Very few of us are alive in our heart of hearts. Why? Because we have no joy, we don't expect joy, we don't think we're anything special, we're still shackled to our past wounds, our past deeds, trapped by strongholds yet in our minds. This, my friends, is not what the will of God is for us. This is not what Jesus died to accomplish. Joh 10:10 KJV (10) The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. A restatement, instead of "more abundantly", could say "life to the fullest" and be correct. What does this verse say? In the latter part, it confirms Irenaeus' quote: Jesus' mission (one that earns God glory, because of His love for us) is to give us life to the fullest . . . to make us fully alive, in every sense. So, that brings the question: if Jesus' mission is to make man fully alive, then what is the thief up to? What does he want to steal, kill, and destroy? Solomon had the answer: Pro 4:23 GW (23) Guard your heart more than anything else, because the source of your life flows from it. The thief is opposed to Christ's mission. To try and destroy the work of God, the thief (or Satan) tries to remove all sources for that mission. He wants to steal your very heart. He wants to kill your heart. And when he's done with that, he wants to destroy your heart. He must, if he is to succeed, because /your heart/ is what God treasures, and what He acts through. /Your heart/ is what God lives in, if you are saved. /Your heart/ is what you use for belief, for emotion, for the things of the soul and spirit, and for thinking. The mind is a mere faculty, a computer terminal of sorts--an important and necessary one, to be sure, but the heart is the key to a man. Here's one revelation: Eph 3:16-19 NET (16) I pray that according to the wealth of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner person, (17) that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, so that, because you have been rooted and grounded in love, (18) you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, (19) and thus to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. 1. If you are saved, God literally lives in your heart. Psa 5:4 KJV (4) For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee. 2. Evil will not dwell where God is. 3. So, since God is in your heart, evil cannot be there. 4. Therefore: once you are saved . . . you have a good heart. It is all dependent upon God--but you have a good heart. No more of this "I have nothing good in me, I'm just a sinner" mantra. It's destructive. Even Paul only said "There is no good /in my flesh/"--he did not say there was no good in him at all. But, what about Jeremiah 17:9? Look at the context: he's referring to an unsaved person's heart. After salvation, its a whole 'nother story. The human heart, unshackled from defeats, the past, wounds, and strongholds, made aware of its faded glory, is the key to Christ's mission of making us fully alive. More to come in the next post--stay tuned. XD

Wait a minute: I wasn't aware that N.T. Wright was Postmodern. In fact, I keep hearing that he's quite conservative, theologically. How is he Postmodern?

Hmmm . . . hey--go ahead. XD

. . . I'll pray.