Wednesday, July 26, 2006
"Does not our preaching contain too much of our own opinions and convictions, and too little of Jesus Christ?"
The above is a quote from Bonhoeffer.
I am going to try and get through 'The Cost of Discipleship', this will be my third attempt but I think I have the commitment this time.
Today I had someone comment that they check my blog. I was taken aback, because it wasn't someone who I would ever have thought would check my blog. It also made me consider why it is I took up blogging in the first place.
I started my final subject in my Bachelor of Theology degree today. Sitting and listening to the lecturers discuss their life experiences that have led them to teach this subject as well as watching the movie 'Jesus of Montreal' got me to thinking.
I need to think.
I need my brain to be stimulated.
I need a question, a challenge for my brain to churn over.
Today I realised that when I don't think, when I don't have that question burning in my brain, that is when I stagnate.
That is when I loose sight of God.
It occurred to me today that in 14 or so weeks time I will have completed my degree and the questions won't come so easily.
It occurred to me today that my blogging has lost its purpose.
I began blogging as a way for me to outlet my mental stimulation.
An outlet where my thinking would not just be internal rumblings, but would be concise thoughts published somewhere.
Not saying they were to be answers, far from it, just a space where I was forced to put my thoughts down.
To grapple with the complexities of the questions.
Just as assignments are outlets for the learning and pondering that has occurred in a semester,
so my blog was to be the outlet for my musing and questioning.
Today, the biggest question I heard was "how do we preach it?"
I hope that question will guide my future blogging.
The questions, the challenges, the learning, the pondering, the complexity.
How will I preach it? How will I blog it?
Is it possible to boil down the complexities of life and faith into simple statements for all to read on a blog?
Is it the 'right' thing to do?
Melissa's blog post yesterday quoted the book she is reading at the moment which says that the drop out rate of our young people from church can't be blamed on the fact we make Christianity too hard. It is because we make it too easy.
Another quote from Bonhoeffer:
"Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession, absolution without personal confession.
Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate."
I am going to try and get through 'The Cost of Discipleship', this will be my third attempt but I think I have the commitment this time.
Today I had someone comment that they check my blog. I was taken aback, because it wasn't someone who I would ever have thought would check my blog. It also made me consider why it is I took up blogging in the first place.
I started my final subject in my Bachelor of Theology degree today. Sitting and listening to the lecturers discuss their life experiences that have led them to teach this subject as well as watching the movie 'Jesus of Montreal' got me to thinking.
I need to think.
I need my brain to be stimulated.
I need a question, a challenge for my brain to churn over.
Today I realised that when I don't think, when I don't have that question burning in my brain, that is when I stagnate.
That is when I loose sight of God.
It occurred to me today that in 14 or so weeks time I will have completed my degree and the questions won't come so easily.
It occurred to me today that my blogging has lost its purpose.
I began blogging as a way for me to outlet my mental stimulation.
An outlet where my thinking would not just be internal rumblings, but would be concise thoughts published somewhere.
Not saying they were to be answers, far from it, just a space where I was forced to put my thoughts down.
To grapple with the complexities of the questions.
Just as assignments are outlets for the learning and pondering that has occurred in a semester,
so my blog was to be the outlet for my musing and questioning.
Today, the biggest question I heard was "how do we preach it?"
I hope that question will guide my future blogging.
The questions, the challenges, the learning, the pondering, the complexity.
How will I preach it? How will I blog it?
Is it possible to boil down the complexities of life and faith into simple statements for all to read on a blog?
Is it the 'right' thing to do?
Melissa's blog post yesterday quoted the book she is reading at the moment which says that the drop out rate of our young people from church can't be blamed on the fact we make Christianity too hard. It is because we make it too easy.
Another quote from Bonhoeffer:
"Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession, absolution without personal confession.
Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate."
Comments:
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hey! completely agree! heres a quote from william booth
“In answer to your inquiry, I consider that the chief dangers which confront the coming century will be religion without the Holy Ghost, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God, and heaven without hell.”
i think we make it too easy these days
james
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“In answer to your inquiry, I consider that the chief dangers which confront the coming century will be religion without the Holy Ghost, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God, and heaven without hell.”
i think we make it too easy these days
james
# posted by 
: 9:32 am
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