Trinity question?

So I was thinking the other day. . . .

Do you think that when God created the Heavens and the Earth in Genesis 1:1. . . was there a Trinity or was it just God? I wonder if the Trinity was created only because of man. . . Jesus to be our savior and the Holy Spirit to be with us once Jesus ascended back to Heaven. Please avoid the really lame answer of "God had that planned out the whole time because He knew what would happen with man." I am not asking if God had this planned out. In the words of our President, "lets be clear" was there a Trinity when God first created man or was it just God. Also, don't give me the lame answer of "God is the Trinity and the Trinity is God" or any other lame answers you can think of so that we can be vague and not have to think about the tough and sometimes uncomfortable stuff. I just wonder if God had to create the Trinity because man screwed up worse than He thought we would.. . . . .

Born into sin?

I listened to a sermon last night and the preacher talked about how we are born into sin, which I understand. Here is my thought, if we are born into sin and each must come to a relationship with Christ as He is the only one who can save us (save being a process that we go through til we die, not a one time event [just my belief anyways]). Where does the idea of babies go to Heaven come from? Is this just something we tell ourselves so we feel good about a very tragic event? Is there really such a thing as "an age of accountability"? Do we think that since God is a loving God, He wouldn't let young babies go to Hell? HUMMMMM,

thoughts, questions, concerns?

What do we look for in leaders?

Just a thought here. . . .maybe you would like to respond? What are qualities that you look for in a good leader? What are some of your biggest turn offs from a leader or a person in a leadership position? Any Comments?

Spiritual Disciplines

I just thought I would open a blog to continue on the discussion from class on Sunday (2/15/09). I really enjoyed the lesson Brad taught and thought there was a lot of good stuff to take away from class. Just open this one up??? Thoughts, concerns, or just any comments?

Reading Scripture

Another topic we discussed this past Sunday: How do we read scripture?

Yeah, you might notice that you missed a lot if you were not in class this past Sunday. I will try to recap real quick for you to bring you up to speed and then back to the blog. Cindi called her mom old. Tom revealed to us that he does in fact have a doctoral degree in Old Testament Scripture with a focus on exegetical writings. Last but not least, I drank a Mountain Dew (it was good).

Back to the blog topic: How do we read Scripture?
A couple discussion points from Sunday or ideas we began to dive in to.
-Does Sripture have different meanings for different people?
-How does the whole "time and context" argument play into how we read Scripture?
-Do we read the Bible and take it literally or is much of it metaphors and figurative
language?
-We can read the same piece of Scripture and find a different meaning each time we read it?
- Obviously, Scripture is cut up and used in pieces to make arguments or sermons or points
in a discussion quite often. Is this right? Can you take a pieces of scripture out to use to
prove beliefs?
-Can Scripture be taken apart for beliefs sake or must we accept the totality of the
Scriptures?

Once again, WOW! How cool is it to be a follower of Jesus and to be involved in discussions like this? I love the fact that Christ is alive and not only that but my faith, my beliefs, my Scriptures are alive and can meet me where I am at even though He died on a cross over 2000 years ago and parts of the Bible are even older than that. How cool? How can you not have unexplainable JOY knowing that you can have relationship with this kind of God? Praise the Lord for who he is!

A side note: if you are in class this Sunday and we find any definite answers to these questions, Dr. John C. Bowling from Olivet Nazarene University will be there to provide Honorary Doctoral Degrees of Letters to those who are responsible for such knowledge.

Old Testament

I will try to summarize a bit of the discussion from this past Sunday and open it up to more discussion. We discussed the Old Testament and what it means to us as Christians today.
A couple discussion points from Sunday:(O.T. will stand for Old Testament, I apologize if anyone is offended by my shorthand)
-the O.T. is not really a "Christian" writing?
-the O.T. is more an account of history than anything?
-the O.T. is more a story of the people of the time?
-Does the O.T. relate to Christians after Jesus' life/death/resurrection?
-the O.T. discusses more details of people's lives and the process of their faith?
-what does the O.T. mean for present day follower's of Jesus?

Wow! Is anyone working on a dissertation right now and need some talking points? As always, looking forward to some good discussion and insight.

Best Question Ever?

On our way to Bourbonnais last night, I listened to the Andy Stanley sermon of the best question. Afterwards, Cassie said she doesn't know if it is full proof like he says and I am not sure either. ..his question, if you don't remember is "Is it wise in light of my past experiences, current situation, and future hopes and dreams?" I think this is a great question so don't get me wrong on that, but not sure if it is full proof????