June 26, 2009 by iMonk
Someone significant died yesterday. At least for writers, poets and artists in Kentucky.
James Baker Hall. Poet. Artist. Writer. Teacher. Mentor. Former Poet Laureate of Kentucky, 2001-2003.
Hall has been an inspiration to generations of Kentucky writers and poets. He’s had a deep influence on my son, Clay.
I know that the passing of mentors can be some of life’s most important crossroads. We ask ourselves what we learned from them and how we can keep them alive in our memories and work.
Hall will live on in his wonderful photographs, vivid prose and emotionally adventurous poetry. Take a few moments and discover a little about him. And perhaps share some thoughts about your own mentors and how they have affected you.
Enjoy two of his poems. [Continue reading]
May 18, 2009 by iMonk
NOTE: Many of today’s commenters should go to New Reformation Press and buy that “Weak On Sanctification” shirt. You’d look good in it.
Some texts related to being “connected” to Jesus in salvation by faith and in growing as disciples into Christlikeness.
Justification by grace, Kingdom discipleship and growth following. No “”Jesus disconnect here”:
Colossians 1:9 And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. 11 May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
September 26, 2007 by iMonk
“What Belongs to All of Us” is exactly what it says.
Colossians 1:12 …giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Comments: The work of the Father is the focus of this passage. Paul invites all Christians to worship the Father for what he has done for his family. He has taken the orphans and offscourings of the universe, the disenfranchised, the no-names and the worthless, taken them and qualified them for the inheritance of the saints, God’s holy ones who live in God’s light. An inheritance is always received, in this case from the same Father, and indisputably belonging to all of his children. With his name and his son’s blood on the paperwork, no accuser or enemy can take away this inheritance.
The motif changes, now to deliverance. Here is a Father whose children are captured and held prisoner in a dungeon of darkness. But this Father does not forget them. In their darkness and chains, all men may forget them, but God does not. They may be humiliated, but he is the lifter of their head. He comes and delivers the slave and the captive in free grace. He sets the prisoner free. The Father sends a rescue force captained by the Lord Jesus Christ into the darkness of a spiritual Mordor and delivers us from the forces of spiritual darkness and sin’s captivity.
Now all of those loved, adopted and rescued by the Father are transferred into a new Kingdom. Their chains are replaced with freedom. The Son of God is more than a liberator; he is a King who reigns over the Kingdom of his love. This is the Kingdom of light, the home of the saints made complete in Jesus’ liberation and love. We are triumphantly brought into this new Kingdom, with all the rights and privileges of citizens and sons/daughters. As the children of the Father, gifts and trophies of his Son, Jesus, we have seats of honor at his table.
No matter how we are treated in the Kingdoms and prisons of this world, the Kingdom of the Son is our true home. Our names may be despised and forgotten, but they are known to our Father and our King. He never forgets our faces. We are always before him. In Jesus we have redemption from slavery and forgiveness of the sins that gave the evil one right and power over us in the first place. Our identity, our inheritance and our deliverance are all sure in Jesus.
This belongs, completely, to all of us who trust in Jesus to save.
Prayer: Father, your salvation is a great salvation. It is never just one thing, but reveals itself eternally as gift within gift within gift. I worship you that you would give me a single thought, and kneel in praise and worshipful prayer for the abundance of blessings revealed in your salvation. I especially praise you for the sure and certain promise that this story of redemption, adoption, rescue, delieverance and forgiveness becomes the story of all those who belong to Jesus. He has given to us this salvation by giving us himself. It is all him, and he is ours in his fullness. As he is beloved by you, so we are loved in him, secure in him, forever yours in him. So in Jesus I pray.
September 25, 2007 by iMonk
Isaiah 40:25 To whom then will you compare me,
that I should be like him? says the Holy One.
26 Lift up your eyes on high and see:
who created these?
He who brings out their host by number,
calling them all by name,
by the greatness of his might,
and because he is strong in power [Continue reading]
September 24, 2007 by iMonk
These posts will celebrate the Bible’s descriptions of what belongs to ALL Christians. Christian unity cannot be found in continually debating our differences, but in acknowledging what we all possess through union with Jesus Christ.
Galatians. 3:23 Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. 24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave* nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.
