1/24/15

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너희 몸은 너희가 하나님께로부터 받은 바
너희 가운데 계신 성령의 전인줄을 알지 못하느냐
너희는 너희의 것이 아니라 값으로 산 것이 되었으니
그런즉 너희 몸으로 하나님께 영광을 돌리라
(고전 6:19-20)


1/22/15

Oh How he loves

. . . The Son of God was not created but took part in creation and has lived throughout all eternity "in the bosom of the Father" (John 1:18)--that is, in a relationship of absolute intimacy and love. But at the end of his life he was cut off from the Father.
     There may be no greater inner agony than the loss of a relationship we desperately want. If a mild acquaintance turns on you, condemns and criticizes you, and says she never wants to see you again, it is painful. If someone you're dating does the same thing, it is qualitatively more painful. But if your spouse does this to you, or if one of your parents does this to you when you're still a child, the psychological damage is infinitely worse.
     We cannot fathom, however, what it would be like to lose not just spousal love or parental love that has lasted several years, but the infinite love of the Father that Jesus had from all eternity. Jesus' sufferings would have been eternally unbearable. Christian theology has always recognized that Jesus bore, as the substitute in our place, the endless exclusion from God that the human race has merited. In the Garden of Gethsemane, even the beginning and foretaste of this experience began to put Jesus into a state of shock. . . On the cross, Jesus's cry of dereliction--"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"--is a deeply relational statement. [New Testament scholar Bill] Lane writes: "The cry has a ruthless authenticity. . . Jesus did not die renouncing God. Even in the inferno of abandonment he did not surrender his faith in God but expressed his anguished prayer in a cry of affirmation, 'My God, my God,'" Jesus still uses the language of intimacy--"my God"--even as he experiences infinite separation from the Father.

The Reason for God by Timothy Keller, pp. 29-30

And we are His portion and He is our prize
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes
If His grace is an ocean, we're all sinking

And heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest
I don't have time to maintain these regrets
When I think about the way

Oh, how He loves us, oh
Oh, how He loves us, how He loves all
How He loves


How could God allow suffering? 1

     I knew a man in my first parish who had lost most of his eye sight after he was shot in the face during a drug deal gone bad. He told me that he had been an extremely selfish and cruel person, but he had always blamed his constant legal and relational problems on others. The loss of his sight had devastated him, but it had also profoundly humbled him. "As my physical eyes were closed, my spiritual eyes were opened, as it were. I finally saw how I'd been treating people. I changed, and now for the first time in my life I have friends, real friends. It was a terrible price to pay, and yet I must say it was worth it. I finally have what makes life worthwhile."
     Though none of these people are grateful for the tragedies themselves, they would not trade the insight, character, and strength they had gotten from them for anything. With time and perspective most of us can see good reasons for at least some of the tragedy and pain that occurs in life. Why couldn't it be possible that, from God's vantage point, there are good reasons for all of them?
     If you have a God great and transcendent enough to be mad at because he hasn't stopped evil and suffering in the world, then you have (at the same moment) a God great and transcendent enough to  have good reasons for allowing it to continue that you can't know. Indeed, you can't have it both ways.

The Reason for God by Timothy Keller, p. 25

Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2Corinthians 12:7b-10)



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Follow God's example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice for God. . . For you were once in darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. (Ephesians 5:1-2, 8-11)


1 Walk in the way of love
2 Find out what pleases the Lord
3 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness



1/20/15

150120 새벽기도


After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. "Follow me," Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed him. (Luke 5:27-28)

제자로 사는 법

1/19/15

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1John 2:5-6 But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in him: Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.


빈 공간을 자꾸 다른 것으로 채워넣으려 합니다.
어리석인 일을 반복하지 않길
붙잡아 주세요. 채워 주세요.

1/17/15

God is love



Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. . . There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. (1John 4:7, 18)

Lord, I want to know you more this year.
Please fill my heart with your love,
so I may not use others to satisfy my selfish desires
but truly love them and serve them.

1/15/15

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Christians, then, should expect to find nonbelievers who are much nicer, kinder, wiser, and better than they are. Why? Christian believers are not accepted by God because of their moral performance, wisdom, or virtue, but because of Christ's work on their behalf. Most religious and philosophies of life assume that one's spiritual status depends on your religious attainments. This naturally leads adherents to feel superior to those who don't believe and behave as they do. The Christian gospel, in any case, should not have that effect.

The Reason for God by Timothy Keller, p. 20

1/14/15

Faith claims


Skeptics believe that any exclusive claims to a superior knowledge of spiritual reality cannot be true. But this objection is itself a religious belief. It assumes God is unknowable, or that God is loving but not wrathful, or that God is an impersonal force rather than a person who speaks in Scripture. All of these are unprovable faith assumptions. In addition, their proponents believe they have a superior way to view things. They believe the world would be a better place if everyone dropped the traditional religions' views of God and truth and adopted theirs. Therefore, their view is also an "exclusive" claim about the nature of spiritual reality. If all such views are to be discouraged, this one should be as well. If it is not narrow to hold this view, then, there is nothing inherently narrow about holding to traditional religious beliefs.

The Reason for God by Timothy Keller, pp. 12-13

1/9/15

Unattractive churches



Jesus' teaching consistently attracted the irreligious while offending the Bible-believing, religious people of his day. However, in the main, out churches today do not have this effect. The kind of outsiders Jesus attracted are not attracted to contemporary churches, even our most avant-garde ones. We tend to draw conservative, buttoned-down, moralistic people. The licentious and liberated or the broken and marginal avoid church. That can only mean one thing. If the preaching of our ministers and the practice of our parishioners do not have the same effect on people that Jesus had, then we must not be declaring the same message that Jesus did. If your churches aren't appealing to younger brothers, they must be more full of elder brothers than we'd like to think.

The Prodigal God by Timothy Keller, pp. 18-19

The parable of two lost sons

. . . What did the older son most want? If we think about it we realize that he wanted the same thing as his brother. He was just as resentful of the father as was the younger son. He, too, wanted the father's goods rather than the father himself. However, while the younger brother went far away, the elder brother stayed close and "never disobeyed." That was his way to get control. His unspoken demand is, "I have never disobeyed you! Now you have to do things in my life the way I want them to be done."
     The hearts of the two brothers were the same. Both sons resented their father's authority and sought ways of getting out from under it. They each wanted to get into a position in which they could tell the father what to do. Each one, in other words, rebelled--but one did so by being very bad and the other by being extremely good. Both were alienated from the father's heart; both were lost sons.
     Do you realize, then, what Jesus is teaching? Neither son loved the father for himself. They both were  using the father for their own self-centered ends rather than loving, enjoying, and serving him for his own sake.

The Prodigal God by Timothy Keller, pp. 41-42

2015년,
1 나를 높이고자 하는 마음을 내려놓고
  하나님을 깊이 알고 사랑하는 일에 최선을 다하길
2 사람을 섬기는 일이
  의무나 나를 높이기 위함이 아닌
  하나님의 마음에 합함으로,
  예수님의 사랑으로 시작되길
3 나의 삶 전체가
  사랑하는 하나님께 드리는 예배가 되길