God is bigger

I'm a fan of the emergent stuff. I like its willingness to say "I don't know" and to leave room for God to do and be more than we expect. And yet, lately, a lot of the stuff I've been reading by emergent folks tends to have this hint of "who are we to put God in a box, even if that box is Jesus?" Who are we to limit God?

Of course, we're in no position to limit God. And yet, again, this sort of thinking didn't sit right with me. And then I came across P.T. Forsyth. He had this to say about God's "limitations".

'The limitation in God is due to God Himself. Self-limitation is one of the infinite powers of Godhead. If God were not personal, if He did not contain the mighty concentrative lines of personality, He would be less than God. He would be a waste, ineffectual force, without form and void. He could, indeed, hardly be force even, which must work in lines. He would be a dim essence, and empty substance, a gaseous abstraction without contents, without feature, interest, or life. He would be without order, for order is limitation. But surely order is the Divine presence in the world, not its absence. Law is His law, not another’s law laid on Him. And personality is law and order in their highest terms. Limitation is no more undivine or incompatible with infinity in the one case than in the other. Divine law, indeed, when we express it in moral terms, what is it other than God’s self-control?' (PT Forsyth, God the Holy Father, 34)

What's your theological worldview?

I took a quiz and it gave me this. So, now I'm pondering it...

You scored as Neo orthodox. You are neo-orthodox. You reject the human-centredness and scepticism of liberal theology, but neither do you go to the other extreme and make the Bible the central issue for faith. You believe that Christ is God's most important revelation to humanity, and the Trinity is hugely important in your theology. The Bible is also important because it points us to the revelation of Christ. You are influenced by Karl Barth and P T Forsyth. Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 75% Neo orthodox 75% Emergent/Postmodern 64% Reformed Evangelical 50% Fundamentalist 43% Charismatic/Pentecostal 39% Roman Catholic 36% Classical Liberal 32% Modern Liberal 21% What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

Rachel's Psalm

My wife, Rachel, that is.

Why do you despair, O heart?
You know your God is near.
Maker of heaven and earth,
Jehovah Jireh hears your cries.
The One who called will
Provide all your needs.
He desires Salvation to
Sweep over this city.
Feel the refreshing Spirit
Of God fill your heart.
Despair is fading.
There is only hope, peace
In the presence of Christ.

Thoughts On The Bread and The Body

She said that Jesus ain't a cracker
But I was bred to believe
That He might be
A cracker like me
Made in my image
White
American
Puffed up and arrogant

Can it be?
Might He not have been a cracker
But someone slightly blacker
With a pureness that is whiter
Than I could ever be?

Can this brown bread that is His body
Make this whitebread that is my body
Into something or someone that is better than me?

I believe
Out of desperation at first
Out of starvation and thirst
I reach for the cup that is offered to me
I reach for the promise

It is difficult to swallow
I choke down this truth and pray that it kills me
Pray that it fills me with someone other than that fat Pharisee

I consume it
In the hope that it will consume me
Overtake me and destroy me
And make me into something more than food for worms

The bread of life within me
Sustains me
And stains me
Ruins me for any other food I might desire
For any other high to take me higher
I'm a whore and a junkie and a liar
So I eat and I drink and hope
This will fix
My need for a fix
That cannot fix
What is wrong in me

Miracle of miracles
The unleavened bread will not stay dead
It will rise
And fill my soul to bursting

And the lie of repentance is turned into truth
And the lie that is me is perfected in Him
And Joshua says "You cannot serve the Lord"
And he is right
And he is wrong

"Dare I return in the Sundays to come
with a well-worn plea
resting softly on my tongue?"

This is what she asks of me
And I ask in return
"Dare I not return
For the bread of life that rests on my tongue?"

I will return
I will be broken like the bread
So that I can rise like the Son

For The Price of A Music Video