Matt Brammer

Micah Taylor, Taylor Cash and myself have been working on this site.

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Grace and Peace.

Not only does this send a message to unbelievers that Christians are ridiculous…it also is bad theology. I know this is just a fairy tale, but the story draws away from the point of the holiday. So once the child finds out that the easter bunny is just a story, what will your child think the Gospel then? It just opens way too many doors for doubts. Christ rose and conquered death to pay for the world’s sin, not to hide eggs.

Grace and Peace

A common misconception that occurs within a lot of Christian teachings is that we have to fix ourselves before Christ saves us.  The Pharisees  had this problem.

Matthew 9:10-13

¹⁰And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. ¹¹And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” ¹²But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. ¹³Go and learn what this means,’I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Christ came and died for the ungodly.

⁶For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— ⁸but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

In a previous post I mentioned throwing off the old self.  This does not mean we do that before Christ saves us.  It is our response to His grace and mercy.  It means dying to ourselves daily.

*side point*

In verse 10 in the first passage I quoted, isn’t cool to think that Jesus, our Lord and Savior, was reclining.  You know, just chilling at dinner.  Our God is personal.

A little taste of a soild view on homosexuality.

 To become more like Christ involves sacrifice, which is ourselves. I cannot be okay with someone who is an openly practicing homosexual to be leaders in our churches. I cannot be okay with a porn-addict who is a pastor. Being a Christian requires us to sacrifice because we must love Christ more than ourselves and especially more than our sin.

Seriously, check it out.

I never said I was sorry.

Applying culture to the Church is a big downfall for a Church, some will argue it is paganism. But that is for another day*. Christians can’t apologize to culture, unless you have seriously hurt them with words or actions (and even then that would be a case by case basis, not a universal ’sorry’). Christians, myself included, need to repent for not living to the image of Christ.

2 Corinthians 3:16-18

But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. ¹⁷Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. ¹⁸And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

And it does matter how people see us. Jesus even prayed for it.

John 17:20-26

20 ‘I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, ²¹that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²²The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, ²³I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. ²⁴Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25 ‘Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. ²⁶I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.’

It doesn’t matter how cool your band is.

It doesn’t matter if your pastor wears bootcut jeans, with cool button-down shirts.

It doesn’t matter if you have a coffee shop.

None of those will draw in people (for the right reasons).

Our love for one another will draw people to the knowledge of Christ and His love.

If we are not loving, the world doesn’t see Christ in believers.

If we are loving, and don’t turn from the flesh, the world doesn’t see Christ in us (Eph 4:17 and 5:1-2).

So how is it working out? It’s called sanctification.

Wayne Grudem on why theology is important to believers.

Dr. Wayne Grudem Addresses the Advance 09 Crowd from The Resurgence on Vimeo.

It seems I’ve gotten some attention from Duncan.

He has a point, Christ was the only person who has and ever will live exactly like Christ.

As believers in Christ’s redeeming grace, our response should be to throw off the old self and walk in the new (Eph. 4: 22-24 and Col 3:12-16). It is about image. We are salt and light to the world and what culture mainly hates Christians for is the hypocrisy and malice that the overgeneralized term comes with. What culture did to Christ is because he claimed that He was already good with God and that all can access God through Him (John 10:25-30). The Jews interpreted that as heresy and ultimately crucified Him. When we live as Christ did the world hates us because we claim Christ and what He has done for us.

Christians are not perfect. Christ is.

When we live as Christ the world does not hate us for our actions, but rather our proclamation of the Kingdom of Heaven and Christ’s sacrifice.

“The beauty of Grace is that it makes life not fair”

Grace and Peace

James Duncan recently posted a commentary on what the new term “Christ-Follower” means.

So, in all fairness I disagree with some points.

Point number 1: “It rejects Christianity.”

Duncan firsts overgeneralized that only emergents label themselves with this term.  I am a Christ-Follower, but much more.  Yes, I agree that it is the “trendy” thing to say now and a good majority of Christians have abandoned the term because they have a warped view that it will change how people perceive them.  Well, I’ve got some bad news, until we live as Christ, the Christian or Christ-Follower image will not change. If we are going to go biblical, then we should go by what the early apostles addressed the first people of the faith as, “believers” or “those who believed.”(Acts 1: 15, 2:44, 4:32 15:23, 2 Corinth. 6:15, John 4:41, 1 Peter 2:17  James 2:1 *note references were taken from ESV and NIV translations).  Upon believing in His name, the believer would become a follower of Christ (Mat 16:24, 8:22).

Point number 3: “It rejects God’s family”

God does use family terminology to describe the Church.  God is our Father, we are Christ’s bride and all believers are brothers and sisters. So lets call each other as God views us as–a family, full of brothers and sisters.

Point number 4:  “It rejects grace”

Yes, the term does when it stands alone.  When the term is precedes  belief it absolutely creates a work-based salvation.  When “Christ-Follower” proceeds the statement of faith, it is living out that faith–not attributing your salvation to yourself.

So what am I?

All equivocation aside, I am a believer and follower in my Lord Jesus Christ who is changing me in mind and actions.

Grace and Peace.

Oprah is now a new member of the trinity?

I’ve been involved with a current discussion on Emerging Women.  I’ll give you a little taste of what is going on over there.

I think we appoint ourselves The Judge,when we see only two options: judging or condoning. In good faith, if find we cannot condone a sexual behavior, or a couple engaged in a non-condonable (from our viewpoint,) behavior — then we feel integrity-bound to judge. Which is ironic. Because we have only one judge. And he didn’t come to judge. Go figure that.

Go check it out.

Grace and Peace.