Musings of an Incurable Lover of Jesus Christ

Archive for the 'Christian Living' Category

Christian Living, Church, Israel, Shane Becker, Theological

With God on Our Side

This movie looks interesting.

Link: http://www.withgodonourside.com/index.html

“We as Evangelicals have endorsed an Israeli domestic policy that has placed over 3 million people under military occupation and has created the largest refuge population in the entire world. And you have to ask yourself, “Why is this defended by the Christian church? How is it that we don’t see the suffering of so many people?”  (From the Trailer.)

“This film demonstrates that there is a biblical alternative for Christians who want to love and support the people of Israel, a theology that doesn’t favor one people group over another but instead promotes peace and reconciliation for both Jews and Palestinians.” (From the web site.)

Although I have never been one to get caught up in the details of end times prophesies or Israeli/Palestinian politics, in light of the Ephesians studies I’ve been looking at recently I do find the implications of Christian Zionism disturbing. Especially the branches that are actively against their Palestinian brothers and sisters in Christ for simply living in their own homes.

The Christian Church aught to embrace the work of Jesus and the teaching of Paul in the New Testament:- we are to rejoice over the ‘one new man’ created in Christ, that Christ has destroyed the barrier of the law that once defined the nation of Israel as a special nation before God, there is no longer “Jew or Greeks” but are all one in Christ, and if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise.

“11Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (that done in the body by the hands of men)—12remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.

14For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace,16and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

19Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household,”           Ephesians 2:11-19

“27for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”  Galatians 3:27-29

“12The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. 13For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.” 1 Corinthians 12:12-13

“There have been several UN Resolutions dealing with the Israeli / Palestinian issue. The one we would like to highlight is UN Resolution 242, which was first adapted in 1967 after the 1967 war

• Full Israeli Withdraw from lands occupied in recent conlficts.
• Full recognition from Arab states of the right for Israel to exist.
• Resolution and/or compensation for Palestinians refugees affected by the displacement from war.

The resolution cites the 4th Geneva Convention, article 49. The responsibilities of an occupying power (Israel) have toward peoples living under occupation. The Geneva Convention prohibits the transfer of the occupying powers population into areas that it has occupied.” (From the web site.)

I guess it goes to show all bad teaching ultimately hurts people.  In this case it hurts our brothers and sisters in Christ seeking to live peacefully, it actively promotes the violation of human rights under the UN resolutions and Geneva convention, and also divides the Church unnecessarily.

26 Jan 2010 Shane Becker 3 comments

Books / Reviews, Christian Living, Encourage, Shane Becker, Theological

Aussie Quality Christian Books at Great Prices

To Australian and New Zealand Lovers of Great Theology and Christian Books,

I’m kicking off New Covenant Media (Australia) and am offering a special discounted rate for November.  (Prices are also low at the moment owing to the favorable exchange rate)

Please refer to the book list and prices .

For information on the books see http://www.newcovenantmedia.com (remember that is a US site with US$ prices - but a good source of info on the books). Please email me your request - my email is on the book list.

Also, I still have ESV Study Bibles (Hardcover) left from my bulk order from Crossway - AU$50 each.

And the Mick Porter and Steve Wilson DVD, ‘A Question of Mercy’, is discounted to $10 each at present.

Price assumes pickup in Brisbane - happy to post it to you but you’ll have to add the cost of postage from Brisbane.

Preferred payment via direct deposit.  3% surcharge for credit card payments.

Grace,

Shane.

04 Nov 2009 Shane Becker 0 comments

Audio, Christian Living, Church, Covenant Theology, Encourage, Gospel Sanctification, Shane Becker

Stuff I’ve Said


Sanctification by Grace
or . . . How to Sweat for Jesus with Gospel Power
(Series: Doctrines that make a difference)
Overhead (pdf) (ppt)


What Does Sin Do? (Series: Whiter than Snow)
Overhead (pdf) (ppt)


New Covenant Privileges. (Series: Christ’s Glorious Covenant)


New Covenant Power. (Series: Christ’s Glorious Covenant)

Notes / Overheads for Christ’s Glorious Covenant Series

25 Oct 2009 Shane Becker 0 comments

Article, Christian Living, Church, Encourage, Other

A Vision for Unity in Community from 1 Cor. 12-13

The following is some notes my friend Norm sent me.  They provide an excellent vision of what we are to strive for in gospel based communities which are to form the church of Christ.

_________

Alan Knox was asked to give a lecture on 1 Cor. 12-13  at SEBTS, apart from his own class lectures.

The Assembled Church

I. Introduction and Background

Andrew Chester – “The Pauline Communities” – A Vision for the Church: Studies in Early Christian Ecclesiology (ed. Markus Bockmuehl and Michael B. Thompson; Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1997):

Paul’s vision for the communities that he wrote to can be summed up quite succinctly. He sees them as being a new creation in Christ, filled with the Spirit, possessing gifts of the Spirit and overflowing with the fruit of the Spirit, controlled above all by love; they are communities that should be pure and holy, mutually supportive and interdependent, completely united, transcending the oppositions and tensions between different groups within the community, and with every kind of barrier that would divide them in normal society broken down.

This brief summary may seem over-idealized; it may indeed seem somewhat grandiose and abstract, especially in the light of the occasional letter that Paul wrote to quite different communities, often on very specific and mundane issues… It is also to be said that theory and practice in any case often fail to coincide, and the way that a particular community lives can be very far removed from Paul’s vision of what it should be. Paul himself is made painfully aware of this. Indeed, it is probably true to say that we have a semblance of Paul’s vision for his communities, to a large extent, because of the problems that have arisen in a number of those communities and that Paul feels the need to counter. That is, Paul finds himself faced with what he considers false practice, or even a complete negation of his ideal of the Christian community, and hence has to urge those in these communities that he has founded to become what they know they should be, and not remain as they are. (105)

As Chester points out, we have Paul’s vision for the church because the churches that Paul wrote to were not living according to that vision.

The church in Corinth is a good example of a church that failed to live according to that vision.

Margaret Mitchell (Paul and the Rhetoric of Reconciliation) suggests that Paul’s purpose in writing to the church in Corinth was to reconcile the many factions that had formed. Why? Because division and factions were contrary to what he taught in all the churches.

Continue Reading »

12 Oct 2009 Shane Becker 2 comments

Christian Living, Encourage, Humerous / Interesting, Links, Our Family, Shane Becker, Theological

New Earth Dancing Video!?

I showed this to my girls.  Melanie said, “Is that what the new world is going to be like? With everybody happy everywhere?” Encouraging insight.

Rev 21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

26 Jan 2009 Shane Becker 0 comments

Christian Living, Encourage, Other, Quotes

Lee Irons Quote

I like this quote. It reminds me that the Christian life is more about being consumed with Christ and less about being consumed with me and my struggles. Yes, I fight sin. Yet beyond the the mere realm of an individualistic personal fight I enjoy, wait paitiently for, hope in, rejoice in, and set my eyes upon Jesus.  I need to allow my struggles to carry through to a deeper treasuring of Jesus Christ and all the forgiveness, righteousness and restoration stored up in Him on my behalf. 

It is all about Jesus. I’m in Christ, and the life that I live, I live by faith in Christ.  Oh, come Lord Jesus!

“I was raised in a church group with abusive and cultic tendencies called The Assembly which was deeply influenced by Keswick “higher life” teachings and piety, including its famous hymnody. We were constantly told that we needed to “get out of Romans 7? (defeated and constantly struggling with sin) and “into Romans 8? (the higher Christian life) . . . I think Christ lets us struggle with sin because he doesn’t want to let us get to the point where we think we don’t need him any more. The goal is not sinless perfection, or even reducing our sin quota. The goal is the deepening of our faith in Christ, our love for him, our enjoyment of him, and deep-seated loyalty to him. I say “loyalty” because it is too easy to say “obedience.” You can do all the right behaviors and avoid all the bad behaviors and yet not be loyal to Christ. Conversely, you can struggle with sin and be loyal to Christ. There is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 “righteous persons” who need no repentance (Lk 15:7).”

26 Nov 2008 Shane Becker 2 comments

Christian Living, Encourage, Other, Prayer, Quotes

Prayer Quote

“It was a master stroke of the Devil when he got the church and the ministry so generally to lay aside the mighty weapon of prayer.  The Devil is perfectly willing that the church should multiply its organisations and its deftly-contrived machinery for the conquest of the world for Christ, if it will only give up praying.”
R.A. Torrey

12 Nov 2008 Shane Becker 1 comment

Christian Living, Shane Becker

Gospel Sanctification 11 - Quotes

“*Any* sermon that fails to impress upon its hearers the centrality of Christ to *any* given passage, including those with imperatives, is inherently joyless and legalistic.  In *any* homiletic consideration of an imperative, the Christological-eschatological indicative *must* always be in play.”  Chad Richard Bresson

“Stir up and strengthen yourself to perform the duties of holiness by a firm persuasion of your enjoyment of Jesus Christ, and all spiritual and everlasting benefits through him.” Walter Marshall.

“By nature, you are completely addicted to this legal method of salvation. Even after you become a Christian by believing the gospel, your heart is still addicted to salvation by works. In your heart you still want to make the duties of the law come before the comforts of the gospel…You find it hard to believe that you should get any blessing before you work for it…This is the mindset you tend to fall into: You sincerely do want to obey the law of God. Therefore, to make sure you obey the law of God you make all of God’s blessings depend upon how well you keep his law…Some preachers even tell you that you had better not enjoy the blessings of the gospel! They tell you to diligently obey the law first, and that only by doing this will you will be safe and happy before God. Just keep in mind, however, that if you go this route, you will never enjoy your salvation for as long as you live in this world.” Walter Marshall

“There is such a thing as sanctification by vinegar. It makes a man accurate and hard. When people come being tempted by sin, broken by it, ashamed to confess the mess they made, it is not a Calvinistic pastor who has been sanctified by vinegar they need, but a pastor who has been mastered by the unconditional grace of God, and from whom iron clad orthodoxy has been torn away and the whole armor of a gracious God has been applied; the armor of him who would not break the bruised reed or quench the dimly burning wick.” Alexander Whyte.

Alexander Whyte speaking on John 15: “We receive all our holiness of heart, as well as all our peace of conscience, out of Christ’s fullness of both these things. Our holinesss of heart is a thing already prepared for us and laid up for us in Christ. And thus, even as we are justified by a righteousness that is first wrought out for us by Christ, and which is, from Christ, imputed to us; even so, we are sanctified by a holiness that is first prepared for us in Christ, and is, then, imparted to us out of Christ’s fulness. Every atom of our soul-sanctifying holiness is as truly, and as wholly, derived from Christ as every atom of our conscience-justifying righteousness. . . Many serious-minded men take an infinitude of pains to produce a true holiness for themselves out of their own corrupt hearts; squeezing, all the time, oil out of a flint. Whereas, the true way, and the only possible way for them to get the mastery over the indwelling sin is by receiving into their hearts a new spiritual nature out of the fulness of that new spiritual nature that is in Christ.” (The Spiritual Life, p 146).

“The means or instruments by which the Spirit of God accomplishes our union with Christ, and our fellowship with Him in all holiness, are the gospel, by which Christ enters into our hearts to work faith in us, and faith, by which we actually receive Christ Himself, with all His fullness, into our hearts. And this faith is a grace of the Spirit, by which we heartily believe the gospel and also believe on Christ as He is revealed and freely promised to us in this, for all His salvation.” Walter Marshall

“I am the True Vine, and my Father is the Vine Dresser. Abide in Me, and I in you. For without me you can do nothing.” (Jn 15).

01 Oct 2008 Shane Becker 1 comment

Christian Living, Encourage, Gospel Sanctification, Shane Becker

Gospel Sanctification 8 - Response to Objection, Part 2 - Specific Reply

“Hi Shane, I’m thankful that the Lord has given us many powerful motives in the form of doctrinal truths (indicatives) as reasons why we should obey Him. However, would you agree that the Bible uses an indicative to motivate only some imperatives? But, other imperatives are given with no motives, just sheer duty?Do you believe it’s OK to obey God out of duty, with no conscious motive? (No, that’s not Phariseeism or legalism. Christ rebuked the Pharisees for obeying from sinful motives, not NO motives.)  Can I suggest that much if not most of our obedience is without conscious motives? Every day we obey our Lord from disciplined habits of godliness. And, you know what? That’s not a sin.  Sure, I prefer to stop and think about why I should obey.  But, we often don’t have time to think.  And, God accepts our obedience in Christ, whether from conscious motives or no motives. . .”

This post is a continued response which started by making some general comments to clarify what I believe (last post).  In this post I will interact specifically with the above objection. Continue Reading »

22 Nov 2007 Shane Becker 2 comments

Christian Living, Encourage, Gospel Sanctification, Shane Becker

Gospel Sanctification 7 - Response to Objection, Part 1 - General Comments

“Hi Shane, I’m thankful that the Lord has given us many powerful motives in the form of doctrinal truths (indicatives) as reasons why we should obey Him.However, would you agree that the Bible uses an indicative to motivate only some imperatives? But, other imperatives are given with no motives, just sheer duty?

Do you believe it’s OK to obey God out of duty, with no conscious motive? (No, that’s not Phariseeism or legalism. Christ rebuked the Pharisees for obeying from sinful motives, not NO motives.)

Can I suggest that much if not most of our obedience is without conscious motives? Every day we obey our Lord from disciplined habits of godliness. And, you know what? That’s not a sin.

Sure, I prefer to stop and think about why I should obey. But, we often don’t have time to think. And, God accepts our obedience in Christ, whether from conscious motives or no motives. . .”

I’ll respond by making some general comments to clarify what I believe (this post) and then interact specifically with the above objection (next post).  Continue Reading »

10 Oct 2007 Shane Becker 3 comments

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