Tag: Faith

Samantha DiBiaso, Rockville MD  Warm-up Questions  What is one of your first memories of Jesus? Caution! Red Letter Bible!   When I was a kid, I didn’t really go to church. But I had a Bible that my grandparents gave me at my baptism that sparked my curiosity. I would open that Bible up from time to time when I played pretend “librarian” with all my stuffed animals. Every time I opened it up, I was startled by the words printed in red. It was one of those red letter edition Bibles that printed all of Jesus’ words in red. As…

Herbert McCabe on the certainty of the Christian reality (contra wishful thinking, so on and so forth): Now there are some people who will admit even this. They will admit that Christianity is reasonable even in this sense, that it is not merely logically coherent, but also a pretty reasonable hypothesis. They will admit that there is a lot of evidence of one kind and another to suggest that Christian beliefs are true, just as there is a lot of evidence of one kind and another to suggest that telepathy is quite common or that Queen Elizabeth I was in…

An abstract notion of saving faith, based on an abstract, or even undefined doctrine of election, always must attempt to make itself concrete. It must seek a way to fill in the gap created by a notion of faith wherein the believer believes out of an idea of faith that is seemingly inherent to them, or individually gifted to THEM. The antidote to this abstract notion of faith is to come to understand that people believe or trust out of Christ’s vicarious faith for us. It is by His poverty for us that we have become rich; that we can…

There is no Faith Lens post this week   “He came to his own home, and his own people received him not. But to all who received him he gave power to become the children of God” (RSV) ELCA Blogs

One of the many ways we live out our faith in action is through volunteering. There are many different ways that this can be done through the Gathering and what better place to do it than in New Orleans with thousands of your best friends! Check out the Gathering’s website for more information on how to get involved as a volunteer.  Learn how Anna went from being participant to volunteer and what that experience has meant to her— Hello! My name is Anna Thompson and I attended the 2009 Gathering in New Orleans as a youth participant. That was the…

Faith Lens will not be published over the summer. But don’t worry, it will be back in the fall.   The next Faith Lens is scheduled to be posted on September 5, 2023 for Sunday, September 10. ELCA Blogs

The Deus absconditus (‘hidden God’) is the Deus revelatus (‘revealed God’) in Jesus Christ. But how do we know this? Because Jesus said so; He demonstrated so. A genuine Christian theologian isn’t given to fits of speculation about godness. A genuine Christian theologian is definitionally such simply by the confession that they are Christian. But much of this has gone by the wayside in the development of dogma in the catholic Church. In Latin theology for example, where Thomas Aquinas has been canonized, for both the Catholic and Protestant theologian alike, the method for developing a doctrine of God is…

I work the graveyard shift at work. I have a work vehicle I drive around in all night. And so, I often will listen to Christian radio. The lineup of pastors they have preaching throughout the night includes John MacArthur’s Grace To You broadcast. The broadcast for January 6th, 2023 was a sermon MacArthur originally delivered back in 1989. The sermon title is: Spiritual Stability, Part 3: Humility and Faith—Phil. 4:5-6a. So, he’s clearly going to be discussing anxiety, and its cure by trusting and resting in Christ. And absolutely, the Lord, as we humbly and boldly come to His…

Faiths4Vaccines are asking its partners to get the word out about federally distributed COVID-19 tests, which began distribution this week. The following message comes from the Network for Religious and Traditional Peacemakers: On January 19th home COVID-19 tests became available through the federal government, we need to ensure that stakeholders, especially the most vulnerable, have access to the testing resources they need in order ensure equitable testing distribution. Help spread the word! We need the support of the faith community to share this critical information at a local level. Please share this information across your networks to ensure proliferation of…