Who is Ray Vander Laan?

Our upcoming study, In the Dust of the Rabbi, is by Ray Vander Laan:

Since receiving his Master’s of Divinity from Westminster Theological Seminary in 1976, Ray Vander Laan has been actively involved in studying and teaching Jewish culture using the methods of Jewish education. He has continued graduate studies in Jewish Studies in the United States, Israel, Turkey and Egypt. He has been a teacher for 35 years and is an ordained minister with the Christian Reformed Church. He has also authored a book entitled Echoes of His Presence, published by Focus on the Family. Vander Laan founded That the World May Know Ministries in 1998. Ray has taken over 10,000 people with him on his study tours of Israel, Turkey and Egypt.

For more information on Ray Vander Laan, including podcasts of his teachings and discussion forums, visit his website at: http://www.rvl-on.com/about/

In the Dust of the Rabbi

What's brewing at Morning Blend? Starting April 8th, we will be studying In the Dust of the Rabbi, a 5-session series by Ray Vander Laan. A synopsis from the website says this,

Sixth in the Faith Lessons series. “Follow the rabbi, drink in his words, and be covered with the dust of his feet,” says the ancient Jewish proverb. Disciples followed so closely that they would be covered with the dust kicked up by the rabbi’s feet. Come, discover how to follow Jesus as you walk with teacher and historian Ray Vander Laan through the breathtaking terrain of Israel and Turkey and explore what it really means to be a disciple.

 We look forward to a new study and to new growth and learning together!

Fresh Perspective on the Fruit of the Spirit

An email from Julie with some words to share about the fruits of the spirit...

Hello Everyone, 

I read a letter written by Charles Stanley and I want to share part of it with you.

"Galatians 5:22-23 lists nine aspects of the 'fruit of the Spirit', the first of which is love. In essence, we could say that all the others are descriptions of it: Joy is love delighting, peace is love resting, patience is love waiting, kindness is love reacting, goodness is love choosing, faithfulness is love keeping its word, gentleness is love empathizing, and self-control is love resisting temptation. And as we grow in faith, love becomes more deeply ingrained in us. 

No matter how gifted, strong, or successful we are, without this essential emotion, life is empty and meaningless. If we never give it, we'll become self-centered and demanding. If we never receive it, we'll constantly strive for acceptance and approval. But when God's love flows in and through us, we become more like His Son. And when others observe us, they will be drawn to the Savior, because God's love never fails."

I just had to share this with you because it's another beautiful way to talk about the fruit of the Spirit. Have a wonderful evening. 

Julie

The Fruit of the Spirit is...Joy

I can't get it out of my head how the sermon on Sunday pushed up against the materials we're studying at Morning Blend...without even trying. This happens all the time. And, perhaps, it's because the story of redemption has themes that just match up all the time. Or, perhaps, it's because are ears are tuned to hear things when we're paying attention. Or, perhaps, the Creator is just making sure that we hear it over and over again in all kinds of places so that the message will stick.

Pastor Healy spoke on Sunday about keeping our oil lamps full...about paying attention to what fills the lamp so that, at a moment's notice, we are ready for the Bridegroom. So that, in fact, we never let it run empty. We don't leave the house without it. We don't put it off until later. And he mentioned the fruit that flows from a lamp full of oil - the fruit of the Spirit, of course. This is the very thing we're studying.

I was reminded of last year's study of One Thousand Gifts. And, it seems to me anyway, one of the ways that we receive oil for our lamps is through gratitude, which, in turn, brings joy. When we remember to be thankful our cup overflows with joy..."the oil of joy" (Isaiah 61).

This part of our study is so timely, also, as the season of Thanksgiving is upon us. If you haven't been over to Ann Voskamp's site in a while, it's worth checking out her thoughts on Thanksgiving: Why Thanksgiving is Radically Subversive {And Everything You Need to Have the Best Thanksgiving Yet}. I stumbled completely astonished upon these words in her post, which fit right in with Pastor Healy's sermon about the women waiting for the Bridegroom in Matthew 25, as though it was planned. Wow.

You can live your life as the bride married to Hurry, having affairs with Not Enough, Always Stress, and Easy Cynicism.

When it’s over, I want to say: all my life I was a bride married to amazement, vowed to Awe Himself, covenanted to Christ –and I took the whole of everything He gave in this gloried world into my open arms with thanks.

And here's something we do at our house to remember to give thanks and to allow our lamps to fill with the oil of joy: Last year we started the tradition of writing gifts/gratitudes on decorated squares of paper throughout the month of November and dropping them in a jar. At the end of the season, we hole-punched the papers and put them on a ring. We hung it from a hook on our mantle all year. We've got the jar back out this month again, and we're counting our gifts again.

 

If you want to read more on our previous studies of joy, gifts, and gratitude, click the "Joy" or "One Thousand Gifts" labels on the sidebar. 

If You Can't Say It About Jesus...

Beth shared a link to this article with me today: If You Can't Say It About Jesus, Don't Say It About God. Jason Micheli brings some fresh thoughts and new perspective to the theology of trinity:

Think about how many people you’ve heard, after a natural disaster or a tragic death or the diagnosis of disease, say something like: ‘It’s God’s will.’

     Trinity means that for that to be a true statement you have to be able to remove ‘God’ and replace it with ‘Jesus.’

     Trinity means that it’s not a true statement unless you’re able to say:

 ‘My mom’s cancer was Jesus’ will.’

 ‘Hurricane Katrina was Jesus’ will.’

 ‘9/11 was Jesus’ will.’

     For Paul, Trinity functions not as a philosophical concept but as a grammatical rule. Trinity binds us to the character and story of Jesus.

     We can’t say or think or act like God hates ‘sinners’ because we know Jesus didn’t.

     We can’t say or think or act like God doesn’t care about the poor because we know Jesus did.

    We can’t say or think or act as if God is against our enemies because we know Jesus loved them.

Click the link above to read the entire article. It tells a great story...one that also relates to the "fruit" of love that we've been discussing most recently.

The fruit of the Spirit is...Love

Last week we discussed the various words for love in the Greek language, and I made mention of C.S. Lewis' book, The Four Loves. It turns out you can find the book online here: The Four Loves PDF. As always, Lewis is humorous, straightforward, and thoughtful. I've put off reading this book for a long time because I thought it would be overly academic. I was pleasantly surprised.

For a "Reader's Digest" overview of the book, I recommend this article: Reflections on Great Literature: C.S. Lewis The Four Loves. From the article:

Our natural loves ... can be likened to a garden that needs tending. They cannot be their beautiful selves without allegiance to God.  Contrary to Augustine, who exhorted apathy to everything except God (in a fit of grief), Lewis sticks to the recommendation of Jesus and Paul that we love others, even if it means suffering for it.  We should accept all loves, and offer them to God.  Our loves can be inordinate, or out of proportion; they need ordering.  The way to order them is to relate them to the Love that is God.

God transforms all of our natural loves towards perfection or the ideal.  This results in their unification.

We have discussed love, especially as it relates to grace and action, in previous Morning Blend studies, and I thought it would add to the discussion to link back to some previous posts:

Jesus: The Revolution of Love
Grace: Love is the Bottom Line

For similar posts, find the labels in the right sidebar and click, "Love."

Confession & Repentence

In Week 2, Day 3 of Living Beyond Yourself, Beth Moore discusses some elements of confession and repentance. Interestingly, as we've found so many times before in our group, the discoveries and practices happening in the field of human psychology closely mirror what we already know is healthy from our studies and practices of scripture. Moore suggests that confession and repentance involve being specific about whatever it is we're confessing, experiencing and expressing sorrow, and turning from our behavior.

I believe it was Tesha, who pointed out how very similar this is to some recent articles that have been circulating the internet about how to apologize. (For example, A Better Way to Say Sorry.)

Is it so strange that God, who created us, knows our need to come clean, examine our actions, and take active steps to do something different? Isn't it amazing?

Trinity and Monotheism

Check out Hebrew For Christians for some Messianic Jewish/Christian thoughts on the trinity. This follows up our discussion on how sometimes Jews and Muslims, those who also hold to a strong belief in monotheism, struggle with the idea of the trinity. From John Parsons article, The Trinity: Multiplicity in Oneness:

The idea of the "Trinity," however, is clearly implied in the Scriptures. From the first letter of Torah (i.e., the Bet in the word "Bereshit") through the last letter of the New Testament (i.e., the Nun in the word "Amen") -- the letters of which spell the word בּן ("Son") -- we see God as defined as One yet expressing Himself in different Persons. God the Son is "First and Last" (Isa. 48:12, 44:6, Rev. 1:17, 2:8; 22:13).

And this article here: Hebrew Names of God: Hashilush Hakadosh - Is the Trinity Biblical?

Although the word "Trinity" (Ha-shilush Ha-kadosh) does not directly appear in the Scriptures, it is an entirely Jewish concept, derived from both the Tanakh and the Brit Chadashah.

And from the same article comes this lovely quote...

Monotheistic systems that attempt to reduce God to absolute monism are not unlike the ancient Greek pagan philosophers who said things like, "Everything is Water" or "Everything is Number." These systems attempt to be "rational" but end up limiting the power of God Himself... God is LORD over all possible worlds - the great cosmos as well as the subatomic realms - and He can surely do whatever He wills with creation. The triune nature of the Godhead implies that what is most real and true about ultimate reality is community and love.

Take some time to read the whole articles when you have the chance! They're dense, but totally worth the read!!

Other analogies for the Trinity

The previous post contains a video of the children's book, 3 in 1: A Picture of God, describing the trinity as a an apple. In our last discussion, we mentioned several other analogies for the trinity, and I thought I would search some of them out and post them here in our blog. The trinity is a difficult concept to understand, one that the church has been wrestling with for generations. These are some ways that the trinity has been conceptualized:

Water:

This analogy has a couple of variations. Some say that the trinity is like a molecule of water: H2O (two hydrogens, one oxygen). These are three atoms but they make up one molecule.

The second variation is that there are three states of water, solid, liquid & gas, but they are all water.

Egg:

The egg is made up of the shell, the white, and the yolk. Together they form an egg.(The following illustration is from a great article about how God is like an egg, but not like an egg; like water, but not like water: God is like...)

Three Leaf Clover:

3 Dimensions:

From Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis, Chapter 23:

You know that in space you can move in three ways - to left or right, backwards or forwards, up or down. Every direction is either one of these three or a compromise between them. They are called the three Dimensions. Now notice this. If you are using only one dimension, you could draw only a straight line. If you are using two; you could draw a figure: say, a square. And a square is made up of four straight lines. Now a step further. If you have three dimensions, you can then build what we call a solid body: say, a cube - a thing like a dice or a lump of sugar. And a cube is made up of six squares.

And...

In God's dimension, so to speak, you find a being who is three Persons while remaining one Being, just as a cube is six squares while remaining one cube.

  The Points of a Triangle:

A Pretzel?

This is actually kind of cute, from a page about teaching kids the Bible: Jesus Did It All.

3 in 1: A Picture of God

The subject of our last discussion was the Holy Spirit, and, by extension, the doctrine and meaning of "trinity." Last week Nora mentioned a children's picture book that describes the trinity like an apple. It looks to me like the book is 3 in 1: A Picture of God by Joanne Marxhausen. I was so excited to find a youtube reading of the book! Check it out: