Tag: Through
Faith through the Storm: Rebuilding Together in Christ’s Strength
By Pastor Rob Rose, Assistant to the Bishop, Florida-Bahamas Synod Republished from the Florida-Bahamas Synod E-Spirit Weekly Newsletter The past week took me on a journey across our synod, from the west coast to the east, meeting with congregations that had been battered by both Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton, along with the tornados that tore through communities in their wake. Each stop was a poignant reminder of the resilience of God’s people in the face of unimaginable loss, and yet a call to remember that none of us faces these struggles alone. We are part of something…
October 27, 2024–Justification by Grace through Faith!
Chris Heavner, Clemson, SC Warm-up Question At what point did you realize that this week is Reformation Sunday? Have you been planning for weeks? Did you make sure your red clothing was washed and ready? Is this devotion your first reminder? Reformation? Renewal? Realignment? Reformatting? “Reformation” is one of those words which can refer to a general reforming of “an institution or practice,” or it can refer to the events which began in Wittenberg, Germany in the 16th century. Which reference is best known in your community? I had opportunity to be in Wittenberg, Germany on Reformation Day in 2022. …
Job’s Dramatic Irony: Getting God Right Through Suffering Rather than Nature
The biblical book of Job, literarily, operates with what is called dramatic irony. Here is how the Oxford Dictionary defines dramatic irony: a literary technique, originally used in Greek tragedy, by which the full significance of a character’s words or actions are clear to the audience or reader although unknown to the character.[1] As a reader, or even movie-watcher, we the audience have the capacity to read or watch with this type of ‘irony.’ We can skip to the end, and then read the beginning to the end, knowing what the final outcome is. Or we can read through a…
God Speaks, but Only Through Men in Christ
It’s better to know God in the way that He has deigned to be known. He has freely chosen to be known through men’s (Prophets and Apostles) voices, and not His voice directly (like audibly per se). Even as He came to us in the Son, He came as a human being; the human being par excellence. But still, He accommodates to speak to us, to reveal Himself to us, in a man’s voice, a human’s voice; albeit the Godman’s voice. The person we finally encounter in the Man, Christ Jesus’ voice, is the person of the triune God; nevertheless,…
A More Responsible Way to Think About Biblical Eschatology: Engaging with Karl Heim Through TF Torrance
The following is a repost from September 25, 2018. It is this kind of thinking that moved me from a premillennial understanding of the last times, to an amillennial perspective (although I still retain the right to a historic premillennial perspective depending on the moment). The following post sounds like I have no interest or time for paying attention to geo-political and theopolitical trends as those might or might not pertain to God’s inbreaking into the world in an end times type of way. I am a futurist, I think you have to be because Jesus was; because the Old…
Getting Deep into Sin: Moving Beyond Our Therapized Sin Through Christ
And Jesus answered and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” So he said, “Teacher, say it.” “There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell Me, therefore, which of them will love him more?” Simon answered and said, “I suppose the one whom he forgave more.” And He said to him, “You have rightly judged.” Then He turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but…