Reason #1
We are students. We are undergraduate students who hope to attend seminary, and we will be in this season for a few years yet. We are also students of Christ, and will be for the rest of our time on earth, and in eternity. Although we want to be teachers and preachers, the truth is that we aren’t yet, and won’t be for a while. I have seen a lot of young men take up blogging as teachers. They treat a blog as a podium so that they can teach the world and the church all that they know. We hope to blog as students, and feel that it would be dishonest to blog as anything else. We don’t want to enter prematurely into a role for which we are not suited. We want to share, not teach. We want to reflect on what we are learning, and share how it affects us, because it affects us very deeply. See 1 Corinthians 4:7.
Reason #2
In our time as students, both in earthly schools and in the school of Christ, we have learned some things. We have learned that truly loving and fearing God are inextricably linked with truly knowing God. We want to follow after, obey, trust, and worship in accordance with knowledge (Romans 10:2, Philippians 1:9, Colossians 1: 9,10, 2 Peter 1:2). Doctrine, Theology, and clear thinking about God matters. They are vitally important for the joy and worship of the church and the children of God.
Reason #3
We do not want the truths of God’s word to rest lightly on our minds. Rather, we want to think biblically about all of life. The glorious, majestic, infinitely important reality of a Holy God drives us and compels us. In the words of one of our human teachers:
Our concern with truth is an inevitable expression of our concern with God. If God exists, then he is the measure of all things, and what he thinks about all things is the measure of what we should think. Not to care about truth is not to care about God. To love God passionately is to love truth passionately. Being God-centered in life means being truth-driven in ministry. What is not true is not of God. What is false is anti-God. Indifference to the truth is indifference to the mind of God. Pretense is rebellion against reality, and what makes reality reality is God. Our concern with truth is simply an echo of our concern with God. And all this is rooted in God’s concern with God, or God’s passion for the glory of God. – John Piper, God’s Passion for His Glory, 97.
Here are some links which we hope describe us and show why we are blogging: Fire in the Belly, True Manhood
Yours in the Gospel,
Dorian
Dorian
whatup guys. the holy spirit is moving tremendously. our culture is dying, everything that was promised to bring life is proving hollow, and we are watching the anti-truths decay. as we know, the promises of the Gospel are truth and truth abundant. this truth turns us on to new beauty, beauty which is before us everyday. the holy spirit is going before us and after us, above and beneath us, in and through us in an incredibly beautiful and majestic display of power and glory. death has been vanquished, and eternity is upon as is the kingdom of heaven, and it is moving steadily, permeating all things and redefining all things for those who have entered. death and time are no longer relevant, and life and life eternal with he who is most beautfiful and in fact the author of all beauty, is ours. the redemption of all the cosmos and humanity is underway and we have been granted the honor of participating in this divine and indeed, very poetic story, which ends in redemption. the holy spirit is moving and moving violently. as we watch this shift in culture, a void is being created, actually more clearly highlighted, which is entirely spiritual in nature. all this to say, to implore you to come before our God and ask for revolution within the church so that it can be light in a particularly dark time. the church must be reformed in humiliation before God, so that the church can again be the faithful bride, the chosen and eternal partner of Christ, who administers his truth in compassion, love, humility and unity. and this culture, like all inhabitants of all culture need to see the face of Jesus, however, this harvest is ripe and the moment is urgent. the church is broken and has indeed been unfaithful, and Christ is courting her still. and we are the church. let us empty ourselves in the active pursuit of engaging the church and invite, no, expect and work with the Holy Ghost in being the church, and let us be the church, unified in purpose, eternal purpose. it is easy for me to call the church pharisaical, and i have for a long time. but the nature of the pharisee, is my nature, that is to twist truth into self-seeking gain, manifesting in pride and pride run rampant. i say this only to highlight what i feel deeply must happen for the church to be a transforming agent in this culture and i believe this beautiful and honorary task falls on us and this generation, and the generations to follow. the model for revolution is this, to copy exactly what it is that it takes for us as individuals to encounter the grace of Jesus. i will speak only about myself, because i do not know if you are as gross, and indeed pharisaical as i am. the nature of my seperation from my author, is one based entirely in pride. it stems to the deepest part of me, even in this write up, because even in doing what i believe is in alignment with the Holy Spirit, i still deeply covet your respect, and i want you to be seen as high in your eyes, indeed i want to be known as spiritual and one is worthy of recognition and one who loves Jesus. all these thingsare entirely untrue, except that i love Jesus, but even this isn’t worthy of praise, because He loved me first. I even pervert my love for Jesus in my broken heart so that somehow i can feel a power that i do not deserve. Pride Rampant. See, i am a pharisee. The church too, i believe suffers from this same sickness. However, the difference between myself and the church from pharisees of old is that i and the bride is saturated in grace. this grace manifesting in love, reveals my insidiousness, and grants redemption. this redemption, redemption in grace is truly unfathomable, for i am still me, rotten, but in my grace no longer rotten, but constantly the recipient of that grace which redifines me as beautiful.the promise is that we become more like Christ, who was the most beautiful, inherently we become more beautiful, as we become more like Him, it is inevitable. so then this grace, which simply covers, is applied to me, it certainly is applied to the church. for even in my abuse of grace, the Holy Spirit moves through me and the kingdom advances. likewise, even the church has abused grace, indeed been adulterous, it is still saturated in grace, and the Holy Spirit moves and the kingdom advances. so then we are always defined by grace. however, within grace, two things can occur, our pride enters and i believe kills the movement of the Holy Spirit, or we encounter grace and die for it, and we become more gracious. I know that when i elevate myself, my ego edges out the Holy Spirit, and my ability to dialogue with him, and my ability to live in accordance with the will of my God is lessened. i believe that the church has elevated itself and in many ways lost sight of its role and has in very many ways denied the mystical union with and the powerful outpouring of Holy Spirit to occur. Only pride prevents the flowing of powerful holy love in miraculous form via the Holy Spirit. so then the opposite of pride is humility. however humility often is the birth of pride, because for me when i feel humble, feeling humble often is a very sneaky form of pride, even if it only is noticeable to me. but if pure humility before God is necessary in order for transformation and relationship with my savior, then it is my joy to be low. as mentioned above, being low is often a form of being very high, so then this is the very process which i find myself engaged in, and i believe the church must engage in this process as well, constantly covered in grace, which showers upon or lowness and highness. the constant inevitable pull works like anti-gravity, always pulling me up, but when i am up i am rejecting grace and desire to fall, but i cant fall without humility, so then in infinite love and faithfulness brokenness is administered, and i fall, in my pride for a moment is stripped, and i know Christ and his love for me more deeply and in this beautiful process i am transformed. so then the church also needs to know brokenness, deep humility before her bride always, so that she can serve him. so let us abandon ourselves, recklessly, and pursue Christ, and i believe that this pursuit, and at this point in history, will bring revolution, and the church will reemerge as light in darkness. the love lavished will become the love unleashed as we become all sorts of lunatics for Christ and fall into grace, endlessly into grace. the music is loudly playing in beautiful fashion all around us streaming from eternity and defining this moment as an eternal one, indeed all are, and the time for dancing is right now. and the joy and the peace promised are ours as we die to ourselves, and we have alot of dying to do, but much much more living. we are restored to honor, and live and fight as noble warriors bringing violence to this world, violence in love in eternal battle. love is the most violent force in this world, and the same transforming violent love that rips me, will now rip this world. and as we engage this process, combined with the faithfulness from above and the power of the spirit, we will be the bride, suspended in grace and reflecting eternal love and beauty for all to see. lets stand saturated in grace and dance foolishly, we could even wear bluetooths all the time. lets pray for brokeness for ourselves and the church, pray for revolution, and and pray for the flood that comes with submission in love to our love. the bride is beautiful, and we are all the bride.
much love guys
Thanks for that, Phil. I’m pretty sure that’s the longest comment ever on our blog.