Taylor's Bad Theology: Are You Proud of Me

"God, are you proud of me?" We kicked that question around yesterday, but I'm concerned that it became a distraction. I don't really know the answer to that, and I mainly meant to raise it as an attention getter. Now, that looks like a weak choice on my part.

The main thing I hope you carried away is the powerful truth of double imputation. When God sees us, he sees the perfect righteousness of Christ. He sees us just as if we've never sinned, but also just as if we've done everything right. He feels for us the same delight that he feels for Christ. Resting in that give such freedom and joy. We have nothing to prove to God. We have to do nothing to earn his favor. We have his favor! That truth is much more important than the fine distinctions around, "Are you proud of me?".

Please let me know any questions you have about double imputation. You can e-mail me by clicking "View My Complete Profile" on the left, or you can post a comment here. I check for comments during the week. Also, feel free to post a comment about the Is-God-proud-of-us issue. I'd enjoy hearing us kick that around this week.

Kelly Clarkson's Bad Theology of Forgiveness

A couple of things struck me about today's lesson on forgiveness. First, I seemed to see many people in the class connected with the lesson. I guess as we experience more hurts as we go through life, we have many more opportunities to forgive and a deeper need to forgive. Watching the pain register on people's faces was sad and a little hard for me. I wondered what the stories of hurt were that many of us had been through.

Second, I walk away from the lesson pondering the supernatural-ness of forgiveness. Again, my legalism is exposed. I want to be able to forgive in my own strength--I want to find the formula, do it, and move on. Now, thanks to your input, I realize that I can't truly forgive apart from the grace of God. True, Biblical forgiveness is probably beyond me. Perhaps another way to look at it might be, "How is forgiveness possible only when we rest in and feed on Christ?" As some of you pointed out, he forgave deeply and completely. I know that we can trust him to work the same forgiveness in us as we draw near to him.

Forgiveness?

I have a question for you to think about in preparation for this Sunday. What is Biblical forgiveness? When Jesus commands us to forgive others, what does that mean? Are we supposed to forget the harm they did to us ("forgive and forget")? Does it mean that if we forgive, then we trust the person again? What is gospel-centered forgiveness? Ponder these questions as you get ready for Sunday. And please pray for me. I was hurt today by someone, and as I sat down to work on this lesson, I realized that God has sovereignly set me up to be ready to learn. I need to forgive, and I don't want to.

Bad Theology: Jesus Take the Wheel

It was a real treat to get a little extra time on today's lesson. I wanted a chance for you to be able to dig into the reformed confessions in small groups so that you could work with them a little. I'm not sure, though, if that's really what happened. I didn't see and hear the confessions being useful to groups with answering the question, "Does Jesus want the wheel of my life?". Was it because there was too much to digest? Four pages is a lot of material. Please let me know what your thinking is on this.

I was impressed by how willing people were to challenge traditional thinking. (I bet this is another work of grace among us.) I mean, everyone knows that God wants control of our lives, right? And here we were walking around that assumption and seeing if it's Scriptural. I think challenging assumptions is important, too, especially if traditional thinking makes sense, but isn't actually Scriptural. Picture the woman in "Jesus Take the Wheel." How is she going to feel if she keeps waiting for Jesus to take over and he doesn't? If Jesus-takes-the-wheel theology is wrong, then she's set up for disillusionment because she believes true surrender means that Jesus tells her what to say and think and do, but as she tries to walk that belief out, she will continue to face situations where she's not sure what to do, where she has to struggle and think, and where she keeps having to choose. That sounds like my life, and all the choices make me wiser as year adds to year. it surely would be nice at times, though, to have someone who would take the wheel of my life. Sometimes, I get really tired of all of this responsiblity.

Bad Theolgy: Dan Brown's Goddess

I hope today went well for you. The lesson seemed a little disconnected to me, but maybe that's mainly my desire to put a bow nicely on things. I think I saw a lot of people making connections, but I always struggle with the need for more time to really dig in deeply.

I was glad to hear from many of you that you felt overwhelmed by Q. 105 from the Westminster Larger Catechism (for a link, click either the tile of this post or the word "Link" below). I do too! There's a lifetime of repentance there for all of us, I guess. Do you think we could use these kinds of statements from the catechisms devotionally, either by ourselves or with our families or with people we're discipling?

I don't feel like I tie down the lessons with Scripture enough. I'm in the process of learning to teach from the catechims and confessions, and I feel good about that because you're not hearing my thoughts as much as you're hearing trusted interpretation of Scripture. Still, though, we need to get Scripture into our dialog. God's Word is alive and double-edged, not the reformed confessions. Please remind me of this during class when we're too confession-heavy. Even just reading aloud Scripture as we discuss would be profitable.

Reformed Confessions On-Line

Click the title of this post or the word "Link" below to go to a webpage I've written to give you quick access to the reformed confessions and catechisms.

Bad Theology: Martina's Gospel

I enjoyed this lesson. Teaching in the combined CHEERS/Great Expectations was interesting because of all of the faces who were new to me. I wasn't sure how comfortable everyone was with my style of teaching, though.

One of the biggest things I enjoy about teaching Sunday School is how much I learn during a lesson. That may sound a little strange--teachers isn't supposed to learn, right? When the discussion gets going and different people start putting in their ideas, I always learn something. This lesson helped me clarify my understanding of vengeance, especially how hard it is for us not to at least want vengeance. I guess I realized most that vengeance can be a holy desire because God will one day pour out his vengeance on sin. The hard thing for us now, though, is how God calls us to wait for that time and trust that he is in full control even now. My simplistic idea about vengeance got deepened during the lesson.

What surprised me was how many people were moved by this lesson! I thought it was just going to be a good chance to kick around some ideas: Play "Independence Day," ask a few good questions, and ride herd on the discussion. I was surprised by the tears and anger in the room. What's going on here? Is it that some of our brothers and sisters are oppressed under the weight of sin, but we go on as if everything's fine? What would our Christian community look like if we brought out into the open more how we are suffering due to other's sin? Please post your thoughts on this. I'd like to learn some more from what your thinking and feeling.

Anticipating the next level

Today's discussion was really rich! In fact, that's probably why I lost track of time. I was really surprised when I looked down at my watch, it was 10 minutes until noon, and Steve still needed time to talk about next steps. It seemed like you all were really digging into the discussion of entering the waltz through the fight step. (Am I right on that assessment?) I hope it wasn't a purely academic discussion, either. To me, there's a lot of practicality in being able to enter the waltz through either repent, believe, or fight because that just gives me more ways to get to Jesus. Every time I end up at him, I realize that I've gotten my heart's desire.

I'm looking forward to seeing what God does next week during our CHEERS planning lunch. I'm sure almost all of us are busy and therefore timid about taking on another responsibility. Please remember that you can do as much or as little as you would like. The more people that will help, the lighter the load will be on each person. The needs are in the areas of hospitality, mercy/outreach, communication, and leadership.

Remember to let Steve or Paula know if you're coming so we can have enough food on hand. Let's all be praying this week as people have to fight out whether to commit to helping out with CHEERS. We're poised to go to a new level of grace if more people get involved. Do you think we could see God move in such a way that people commit to helping out, not so much from a sense of duty, but more from a sense of joyful anticipation about what God is up to in our class?

What kind of people?

Thought you all might want to see a copy of our thoughts from Sunday. I was moved by the softness and gentleness in the room in response to the question, "What kind of people should we be?". Did anyone else notice that?

Communion reactions?

You guys were kind of quiet today. Was it too much information? Did I miss you? I thought the lesson started off well with the questions about communion and Melany's story. People seemed to be connected to the idea that Jesus feeds us himself in Lord's Supper. After that, though, I couldn't really tell what was going on.

So, I look forward to your comments. Please tell me how the lesson impacted you, even if your post is brief (only a couple of sentences). Did you learn something meaningful? Were you confused? Did you never quite get the point that I was trying to get across?

If you missed the lesson, I just tried to post the handout to the web. Copy and paste the link below into your web browser and see if you can get to it. (Sorry. I'm not sure yet how to make links so that you can just click on them.)

http://homepage.mac.com/lmeadows/LordsSupperHO.pdf

What would Jesus serve?

I'm looking forward to being with you all tomorrow. I have a question for you to think about between now and then: If Jesus were preparing a feast for you and others of his chidren, what would it be like? Picture the kind of preparations he would go through, the kind of evening he would want it to be. We'll talk it out tomorrow in class.

The Lord's Supper: Looking ahead

Just doing some study for this week's lesson as we begin looking at the Lord's supper, and it happened again! There, for a half of a millenium, the answer to one of my questions has been in print. The reformers had it nailed down, but I'm so thoroughly modern that I have ignored the answer until now. Did you realize the Westminster Larger Catechism tells us how to prepare for communion? I didn't. It's been laid out since 1648!

Here's what it says:

Question 171: How are they that receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper to prepare themselves before they come unto it?
Answer: They that receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper are, before they come, to prepare themselves thereunto, by examining themselves of their being in Christ, of their sins and wants; of the truth and measure of their knowledge, faith, repentance; love to God and the brethren, charity to all men, forgiving those that have done them wrong; of their desires after Christ, and of their new obedience; and by renewing the exercise of these graces, by serious meditation, and fervent prayer.

I hope this helps you prepare for communion this Sunday at OMPC.

Baptism: Looking back

We've covered our first topic in this series on sacraments and community. I hope you've learned something, somehow. I don't feel that things went really well--people seem to be all over the place. Maybe it's OK, though. I did see a lot of people thinking at least.

I guess the main point is that brief discussion we had at the end of yesterday's lesson. How does baptism make you love Jesus more? Oh, to think how we've been set apart, loved, cherished, saved, redeemed. To think that I, in all my sin, have been captured by this amazing love. In the midst of all of our (very good!) wrangling over the details of what baptism means, we must not miss the big picture that baptism paints for us. I've mentioned how the sacraments are to assure us. Take a look at the Heidelberg, Question 67: "Are both the Word and the sacraments intended to focus our faith on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross as the only ground of our salvation? Answer. Right! In the gospel the Holy Spirit teaches us, and through the holy sacraments assures us, that our entire salvation rests on Christ's one sacrifice for us on the cross." Pointing us back to Jesus again and again and again. I need that.

I'll be interested to see any thoughts the rest of you have about what you think God was doing among us over the last 3 weeks. So please, comment away. Also, I've started up a webpage giving you links to on-line versions of the confessions (see below). Hope you find it useful.

http://homepage.mac.com/lmeadows/reformedconfessions.htm

Theology shocker

Last Sunday (Jan 29), I was really thrown off balance by how many people really seemed to want to talk about theology. I wasn't prepared for that. Could you tell? I expected people to resist theology. "Well, all I really care about is what the Bible says." Or, I expected them to be bored with the theology of the confessions. Instead, people really seemed to dig into the the theology of baptism.

The more I've thought about what happened Sunday, the more I liked it! First, it reminded me how much I enjoy teaching CHEERS. You guys don't look for the easy answers and then move on. You dig and you think. Also, you want to wrestle together over what God is doing among us. I love that from you! It's a privilege to try to ride herd on you as you talk it out, although often I feel on the verge of losing control. (Am I supposed to be in control as the teacher?)

The other thing I like is the importance we seem to be putting on theology. That's a shift for many of us who grew up in different church traditions, especially American Southern fundamentalism, that discourage deep thought. The discussion challenged my beliefs, though, and it exposed me. Do I really believe that theology is central to who we are as God's people? But, I'm thinking, "Yep!". I was reading Exodus this morning, marveling over God's absolute control over Pharoah and seeing all of these connections between the plagues on Egypt and the plagues in Revelation. Then, I realized I was making sense of what I was reading based on my theology: God is Sovereign, Pharaoh is vessel raised up for ignoble purposes, God was buiding the faith of the Israelites. Then, as I got to the final plague and saw the Passover, it hit me--the point is Jesus. That's the story that God is always telling. He's orchestrating history to exalt his Son! There's so much theology underpinning that, and I will read the Bible through the glasses of my theology, wheether those glasses are good or bad. So, theology is really good, right?

Let the games begin...

I hope this works. Almost every Sunday after teaching CHEERS, I have all of these thoughts in my head: How did the lesson go? What did people learn? Are they getting the gospel? Was I too hard? Was I too soft? I want these thoughts out in a space bigger than just the private conversations in my head. (Lots of voices inside there, if you haven't already figured that out.) A blog seems to be the best way to get my thoughts out there where others can join in so we can better see what God is doing.

I'm curious to see how many people will join in. Probably, for most of us who are 40- and 50-something, interacting via a blog will be a new thing. I can't think of any better way, though, to keep the conversation going during the week. That's one of my biggest goals in this blog--keeping us talking. If you have a question, ask it. If you have a concern, express it. If you see something God is doing in CHEERS, tell us what you're seeing.

It's another way to live out community. The millenial generation knows how to build community on-line (http://www.educause.edu/IsItAgeorIT%3AFirstStepsTowardUnderstandingtheNetGeneration/6058). I guess we should find out what they already know. I look forward to seeing what you have to say.

Oh, want to hear something cool? As I'm typing this about trying new things, Steven Curtis Chapman's "All Things New" comes up randomly on my iTunes and starts playing. The key line is how our God is "making all things new." So, community via a blog, huh? Maybe it's a good idea.