Tag Archives: Love
Good Power vs. Bad: Humility
In this second installment of our lesson on Good Power, we look first at how necessary humility is to exercising good power, and second, how we develop humility in our souls. Continue reading
Soul-Training: Making Peace
At first glance, making peace doesn’t appear to be a discipline for training one’s soul…
Have a listen! Continue reading
A Talk With a Precious 12-Year Old Little Girl
This week I (Doug) had an appointment with one of the 12 year old girls in our community. Her mom brought her by to talk about question she has about God. She’d just been diagnosed with Crohn’s disease and was asking a variation of an ancient trouble spot for Christians: How can God be completely good, and have created a world with such horrendous pain and evil? Continue reading
Thinking About Thinking About Jesus (Appendix)
by Doug Hammack [Download MP3] In the lesson we did before the summer break, there were two Stories about how we think about Jesus “dying to save us,” that we couldn’t fit in. I thouht they were beautiful enough stories … Continue reading
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Tagged Atonement, Love, Moral Influence Theory, Powerful Weakness Theory, Rethinking Religion, salvation
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The Third Way
Jesus’s admonition to love our enemies and turn the other cheek may be mis-interpreted due to the lack of cultural context he placed it in. Find out what Jesus may have intended it to mean by looking for a third way to react to an insult to you. Continue reading
Thinking About Thinking About Jesus (conclusion)
We conclude our lesson on thinking about what the words “Jesus died for our sins” mean. Today we look at other stories that frame our understanding besides the “penal substitution” theory of salvation. We consider the Ransom Theory, the Christus … Continue reading
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Tagged Atonement, Christus Victor, Love, Ransom Theory, repentance, Rethinking Religion, salvation
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Thinking about Thinking about Jesus (part 4)
In this lesson, we look at some of the problems with the most common way Western Christians think about salvation. The “penal substitution” theory of salvation was advocated in the 11th century by a man named Anselm, and while it … Continue reading
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Tagged Atonement, feudalism, Love, penal substitution, Rethinking Religion, salvation
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Thinking About Thinking About Jesus (part 3)
Having laid two weeks of foundational concepts, we turn in this lesson to some introductory remarks about what we think the words “Jesus saves us from our sins” mean. In this lesson, we begin looking at some other ways of thinking about this than the familiar “substitutionary atonement” theory of salvation. This kind of thinking makes some folks a bit uncomfortable. Have a listen. Continue reading
Thinking About Thinking About Jesus (part 2)
Christians say that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus was about more than just a good man, standing up for the downtrodden, and being martyred for his efforts. We believe that Jesus fulfilled something of great historical significance, enacting God’s purposes to save humanity.
To be able to think clearly about what it means that Jesus saves people, in this lesson we think about what sin is (the stuff we believe Jesus saves us from). Continue reading
Thinking About Thinking About Jesus (part 1)
This would be a continuation of the “Two Views” series of lessons, and we would call it “Two Views of Jesus.” However, over the course of this lesson, we’ll encounter at least five historical views of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.
We could have called it “Five Views of Jesus,” but where’s the symmetry in that?
In this introductory message, we do some background thinking about God and love, and retell Jesus’ parable of the workers in the vineyard. Continue reading
Posted in Two Views...
Tagged Love, peace, Rethinking Religion, salvation, value/worth
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