Friday, 23 January 2009
Monday, 12 January 2009
Faith.
‘The way of the heart’
In our Monday training, Josh took me and the others through chapter two of a book I cant quite remember the name of! The chapter was called ‘faith – the way of the heart.’
The chapter spoke about how faith in our generation has become a way of the head. Like we have a set of checkboxes that people have to tick before they are a ‘Christian’. And each church denomination has a different set of checkboxes.
An easy one for example would be that one church denomination would say that you have to believe in child baptism to be a ‘Christian’, whereas another would say that you must believe in adult baptism.
After talking on this, the author comes to the ‘Four meanings of faith’.
Faith as Assensus.
Faith as Fiducia.
Faith as Fidelitas.
Faith as Visio.
Assensus.
This part of faith is to believe that a claim or statement is true. This is what is most thought of when people today think about faith. It is ‘head matter’, not heart matter. To know something is true, or false. Though this in itself is not everything. You can believe all the right things, and yet still be in bondage of all the things that tie you up. You can believe all the right things, and still be miserable. You can believe all the right things, and still be relatively unchanged. So, however important Assensus is, it is not everything in itself, we need the other three meanings of faith.
Fiducia.
Fiducia is faith as trust. It does not mean trusting in the truth of a set of statements about God; it means trusting in God.
Faith as trust is like floating in an ocean. If you thrash about, you will sink, but if you relax, you float. Like peter when he walked on water, he was trusting in Jesus, so he was able to walk on the water. We need to be trusting in the buoyancy of God.
Fidelitas.
Faith is faithfulness. In any relationship, we need to be faithful. We are faithful, or not, to our spouses, and so we also need to be faithful to God. The opposite of this is being unfaithful to God, and to use a biblical metaphor, being unfaithful is adultery. But not within human sexual relationships, rather not following the laws of God. So faith as Fidelitas is to be faithful to all of God’s Laws.
Visio.
This is faith as seeing the ‘whole’. Faith as visio is seeing reality as gracious. The opposite would be to see reality as hostile, threatening, or as indifferent. Trust and visio go together. Trust in God and we see his plans, and the bigger picture of our lives.
Hebrews 11v1 in the NIV says:
‘Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.’
The message version says this:
‘The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It's our handle on what we can't see. The act of faith is what distinguished our ancestors, set them above the crowd.’
We do not just believe, we do not just trust, we are not just faithful and we do not just see the whole.
We have faith.
In our Monday training, Josh took me and the others through chapter two of a book I cant quite remember the name of! The chapter was called ‘faith – the way of the heart.’
The chapter spoke about how faith in our generation has become a way of the head. Like we have a set of checkboxes that people have to tick before they are a ‘Christian’. And each church denomination has a different set of checkboxes.
An easy one for example would be that one church denomination would say that you have to believe in child baptism to be a ‘Christian’, whereas another would say that you must believe in adult baptism.
After talking on this, the author comes to the ‘Four meanings of faith’.
Faith as Assensus.
Faith as Fiducia.
Faith as Fidelitas.
Faith as Visio.
Assensus.
This part of faith is to believe that a claim or statement is true. This is what is most thought of when people today think about faith. It is ‘head matter’, not heart matter. To know something is true, or false. Though this in itself is not everything. You can believe all the right things, and yet still be in bondage of all the things that tie you up. You can believe all the right things, and still be miserable. You can believe all the right things, and still be relatively unchanged. So, however important Assensus is, it is not everything in itself, we need the other three meanings of faith.
Fiducia.
Fiducia is faith as trust. It does not mean trusting in the truth of a set of statements about God; it means trusting in God.
Faith as trust is like floating in an ocean. If you thrash about, you will sink, but if you relax, you float. Like peter when he walked on water, he was trusting in Jesus, so he was able to walk on the water. We need to be trusting in the buoyancy of God.
Fidelitas.
Faith is faithfulness. In any relationship, we need to be faithful. We are faithful, or not, to our spouses, and so we also need to be faithful to God. The opposite of this is being unfaithful to God, and to use a biblical metaphor, being unfaithful is adultery. But not within human sexual relationships, rather not following the laws of God. So faith as Fidelitas is to be faithful to all of God’s Laws.
Visio.
This is faith as seeing the ‘whole’. Faith as visio is seeing reality as gracious. The opposite would be to see reality as hostile, threatening, or as indifferent. Trust and visio go together. Trust in God and we see his plans, and the bigger picture of our lives.
Hebrews 11v1 in the NIV says:
‘Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.’
The message version says this:
‘The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It's our handle on what we can't see. The act of faith is what distinguished our ancestors, set them above the crowd.’
We do not just believe, we do not just trust, we are not just faithful and we do not just see the whole.
We have faith.
The Bible is a metaphor!!!!!
Josh, Jo, Fiona, Sarah and I were taking this morning about the two paradigms of Christian beliefs that are within the world at the moment.
One paradigm is the earlier paradigm as it is the one that was believed first. This paradigm interprets the bible literally. Either everything in the Bible is literal and God did make the earth in exactly seven days, and Jesus was raised from the dead, or the important parts of the bible are literal, but the less important things can be thought of as metaphor, like God made the earth in seven days (time periods), but Jesus was definitely raised from the dead
The other paradigm is the emerging paradigm. This paradigm says that more recently, more and more of the bible is being taken as a metaphor, and not literally, but keeping the truth within it.
So, can the bible still mean the same to me if it is a metaphor, is the truth still there? Would it still change my life?
If the bible is a metaphor, then my core belief that Jesus saved me by dying for me and rising from the dead did not actually happen. Yes, the truth that Jesus has still saved me may still be there, but it does not have the impact to my life as the fact has. The fact that Jesus humbled himself and made himself man and came to this earth and lived in pain to save me means more to me than just the fact that he saved me.
And so, maybe, if the bible was a metaphor, it could still change my life. The truth that is behind what it says is still there, and so my life would not change that much, but I believe that the bible is literal. Because my life has more meaning to me believing in a God that has done everything that is written in the bible.
One paradigm is the earlier paradigm as it is the one that was believed first. This paradigm interprets the bible literally. Either everything in the Bible is literal and God did make the earth in exactly seven days, and Jesus was raised from the dead, or the important parts of the bible are literal, but the less important things can be thought of as metaphor, like God made the earth in seven days (time periods), but Jesus was definitely raised from the dead
The other paradigm is the emerging paradigm. This paradigm says that more recently, more and more of the bible is being taken as a metaphor, and not literally, but keeping the truth within it.
So, can the bible still mean the same to me if it is a metaphor, is the truth still there? Would it still change my life?
If the bible is a metaphor, then my core belief that Jesus saved me by dying for me and rising from the dead did not actually happen. Yes, the truth that Jesus has still saved me may still be there, but it does not have the impact to my life as the fact has. The fact that Jesus humbled himself and made himself man and came to this earth and lived in pain to save me means more to me than just the fact that he saved me.
And so, maybe, if the bible was a metaphor, it could still change my life. The truth that is behind what it says is still there, and so my life would not change that much, but I believe that the bible is literal. Because my life has more meaning to me believing in a God that has done everything that is written in the bible.
Joy........
ok, so my mentor and I were talking about joy last Friday. and it was very interesting how the conversation developed, and our perception of what joy is may have changed. since Friday, many people have used the word joy, and I have carefully noted the way people mean joy, or what they mean by the word joy.
most people use joy in place of happiness. perhaps it is because, they were more happy than they would be normally so they needed that extra word other then happy to describe the feeling.
my mentor and I were talking about where we think joy comes from. is joy an emotion, like happiness or anger, or is it something else? is it something that is given to us?
I asked my sister what she thought joy was, and she said ‘it’s happiness. it’s contentment.’ joy is what you feel when you are content. when you are happy with what you have. but then if joy is only when you are content, then you cannot be joyful all the time.
in 1 Thessalonians 5 it says ‘Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.
the part Im focusing on is ‘be joyful always.’ how can we be joyful always?
I have always thought joy was an emotion that we felt. but I don’t think we can have one constant emotion whilst others emotions change. and so what IS joy, and where does it come from?
is joy something we have? or something we are given?
in nehamiah it says ‘the joy of the lord is our strength.’ which say to me that the joy belongs to the lord and it is that which is our strength. and so is it given to us? do we need to accept the joy from the lord to be able to be joyful always?
as I asked even more people, one person said that they think joy is a discipline. that makes sense to me. there are many disciplines that we need to do as Christians and so joy could be one of them. it makes sense because it takes a lot of work to be able to be joyful always and we have to trust in and rely on God for his help and provision.
This is just the beginning of my interest into what joy is, so please if you have something to add, please comment, i want to know what you think :)
most people use joy in place of happiness. perhaps it is because, they were more happy than they would be normally so they needed that extra word other then happy to describe the feeling.
my mentor and I were talking about where we think joy comes from. is joy an emotion, like happiness or anger, or is it something else? is it something that is given to us?
I asked my sister what she thought joy was, and she said ‘it’s happiness. it’s contentment.’ joy is what you feel when you are content. when you are happy with what you have. but then if joy is only when you are content, then you cannot be joyful all the time.
in 1 Thessalonians 5 it says ‘Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.
the part Im focusing on is ‘be joyful always.’ how can we be joyful always?
I have always thought joy was an emotion that we felt. but I don’t think we can have one constant emotion whilst others emotions change. and so what IS joy, and where does it come from?
is joy something we have? or something we are given?
in nehamiah it says ‘the joy of the lord is our strength.’ which say to me that the joy belongs to the lord and it is that which is our strength. and so is it given to us? do we need to accept the joy from the lord to be able to be joyful always?
as I asked even more people, one person said that they think joy is a discipline. that makes sense to me. there are many disciplines that we need to do as Christians and so joy could be one of them. it makes sense because it takes a lot of work to be able to be joyful always and we have to trust in and rely on God for his help and provision.
This is just the beginning of my interest into what joy is, so please if you have something to add, please comment, i want to know what you think :)
Sunday, 4 January 2009
First post of the new year...
First of all, Happy new year!
Hope you all entered the new year with fun and games and with the people you care about most!
I am leaving Worthing today, in about two hours to go back to London. I woke up this morning nervous as I was talking in church today. That went fine, and i spoke well and clearly which i am happy with :), but the nerves are still there...
i am not sure why i am nervous about going back to london, but for some reason i am.
Perhaps it is because it is a new beginning. A new term. With a new perspective on things.
The term in which all things began is over, the term in which the pain of an ended relationship happened is over. and i have been able to reflect whilst home over christmas.
this is a term of new beginnings. new youth workers, new relationships, renewed friendships, new focuses and new aims.
well, best stop going on....
Here goes term two..!
see you on the other side!
Hope you all entered the new year with fun and games and with the people you care about most!
I am leaving Worthing today, in about two hours to go back to London. I woke up this morning nervous as I was talking in church today. That went fine, and i spoke well and clearly which i am happy with :), but the nerves are still there...
i am not sure why i am nervous about going back to london, but for some reason i am.
Perhaps it is because it is a new beginning. A new term. With a new perspective on things.
The term in which all things began is over, the term in which the pain of an ended relationship happened is over. and i have been able to reflect whilst home over christmas.
this is a term of new beginnings. new youth workers, new relationships, renewed friendships, new focuses and new aims.
well, best stop going on....
Here goes term two..!
see you on the other side!
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