Kingdom Ready Blog

Hebrews 3:12 & 13 (NASB)
See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.

The Gospel story is so significant because it has real power.  When Paul writes in Rom 1.18 that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation he is right on.  A story, about what God is going to do, about Jesus and what he did, and about you is God’s power.  Why?  Because that Story has the ability to change reality here and now.  More and more I am realizing that God’s salvation is less and less about the future date in which Jesus will separate goats and sheep.  Why is that true?  Because the goats and sheep are already manifesting themselves today.  We should already know, by our actions, which side we are on.  God’s salvation is not an ethereal concept!  Go and tell the Jews who walked across dry land fleeing the Egyptians that God’s salvation is a feeling in your heart.  They would laugh at you.  Tell David who God saved from Saul an seated as the King of Israel about this ethereal salvation.  No salvation is to be found today.  Today is the day of salvation.  We find it when God enters our life and changes us, all the way around, from the power of sin to the power of life.

I’ve been struggling a bit to figure out exactly how to express this idea about Story. I use a capital ‘S’ to denote the concept of Story, not a particular story or stories. Interrelated to this idea of Story is Symbol. Symbols are attached with a huge meaning, a story. For example
This piece of art has become a symbol of an entire time period, artistic and cultural shift in the modern western world. If an image is worth a thousand words, a symbol’s worth cannot be counted in words. Another example is the Crucifix. It stands for Jesus’ death, passion, atoning work, and suffering, in addition to his resurrection, ascenscion, an identity for all Christian peoples of all time and worldwide. I could clearly go on. The Crucifx embodies a very specific and solid story, whereas Warhol’s Campbells soup cans is a little more fluid, but still evokes a meaning, especially to those in the art or cultural studies. So why is story important? Because story is a fundamental building block to how we ‘know’ things.

I came across this quote from Karen’s email list a little while back (she sends quotes each day):

The devout student is the best of all students. There are too many who are devout, but not students. They will not accept the discipline of study and of learning, and they even look with suspicion upon the further knowledge which study brings to men. There are equally too many who are students, but not devout. They are interested too much in intellectual knowledge, and too little in the life of prayer and in the life of service of their fellow men. A man would do well to aim at being not only a student, and not only devout, but at being a devout student.
–William Barclay

I just came across this incredible resource for learning New Testament Greek. The site features an animated guy who teaches Greek using a pretty fancy interactive web interface. I’m not sure how good it is from the perspective of someone who has never had exposure to Greek, but it looks like it starts from the very basics and go right through all of the grammar and vocabulary basics.

Here is the link if you are interested.

Last weekend we held an evangelism conference at Living Hope Community Church in upstate NY. During the conference we focused on what the biblical gospel is and how to speak the gospel of the kingdom and the cross to a world in desperate need. The weekend included teachings, an interactive video workshop, role playing, and an evening out at the park. We wanted to provide an opportunity for those who wanted to try out what they had learned while at the same time not forcing anyone who wasn’t ready to do evangelism. Fortunately a good number of people did speak to people at the park and we had a wonderful time discussing these encounters as well as some related questions regarding evangelism in general Saturday night. The teachings from the conference are now available for free download.

Presented by Ken Westby at the One God Conference, Seattle WA June 1st 2008, commentary by John Obelenus. Click here to listen.

Here is an article that was posted on the Abrahamic Faith around the world msn group. I found it really interesting and thought provoking, so I thought I would share it.

http://inhabitatiodei.wordpress.com/2008/05/01/reflections-on-evangelical-blogs-2/

Check it out.

In Christ
Kyle

It’s very hard to post after a blitzkrieg of sorts involving theological conference papers. I trust that it was fun. Unfortunately I couldn’t go, I was stuck working back at North Hills. 

Hey all, just a word of encouragement to keep the feast of unleavened bread in the spirit (ICOR5:8)..that along with (IIPETER1:1-8) let us partake of that great grace that will always make a way for God’s glory to be revealed.

My good friend called about 1pm Saturday to say he was “a little stressed..” and was looking for a pledge of sorts for a helping hand..he went on to say that while he and his wife were at the grocery store, the two eldest (of six) children were babysitting and a fire had broken out and everyone was safe..but he wouldn’t know the extent of the damages until the fire dept said he was able to go back inside..