Kontakion

“Christ did truly rise again from the dead, and took again his body , with all things appertaining to the perfection of man’s nature, wherewith he ascended into heaven, and there sitteth until he return to judge all men at the last day.” – BOD The question of the resurrection concerning Christ is one of constant debate especially in the company of people with a Jesus Seminar persuasion. I will admit that there are some issues here of time, space, and matter. Such questions like with the vast expanse of space is Jesus still traveling through space to get to heaven are silly but do actually need to be raise because people need to think about what they mean when they say Christ was resurrected and ascended into heave. This doctrine is harder and harder to keep because of the nature of science today. I’m not even going to talk about whether Jesus was actually dead or not when taken down from the cross, because it’s pointless to pursue. The question about time, space, and matter to me ...

It's been a little while since I’ve bloged about what matters most to me, that is my daughter and life straight up. In the past two days Olivia has taken to putting on my wife’s sweat shirts and walking around with them on. Obviously they are way to big for her and what eventually happens is she puts one of her arms through the color that way she can get her drink or a bit to eat. When I watch her I have to smile. Life is sweet, even when finances aren’t what they should be or another friend has passed on life still has happy moments. Part of the reason for this post is several years ago I lost a friend around this time of year and at this time I still feel the grief and remember how life was. I thank God for a daughter who makes me smile.

I am totally against Postmodernism in its many forms, I am also against modernism in many of its form but that is another post for another day. There are several essential reasons why I am against postmodernism. The first is that we are to close to modernity to be able to dub anytime as “postmodern.” My preference here is to refer to the time we are living in as post-industrial, this I have admittedly come to believe as the proper designation due to some long discussions with my Faculty advisor Bud Hartley at Lancaster Theological Seminary. It is obvious to me that we have moved from an industrial society to one that capitalizes on information and the spread of information rather than products. I will hereafter on this blog refer to “Postmodern” as post-industrial, and post-industrialist. With any labels there are always issues but this label satisfies me and hey…it’s my blog. Post-industrialist assume that all voices are equally valid and matter. While this is in essence true i...

My second book of the New Year, and I have to say an excellent read. It certainly isn’t difficult, all 730 pages only took 1.5 days to read, but the plot moves quite well and the story does retain your interest. There are many elements in this book that remind me of Lord of the Rings and the Narnia books the major difference is the dragon. Personally I think this book is well worth reading by any fantasy reader. It really is a book purely for entertainment purposes. I actually read the book at the insistence of my wife, who is not a very big reader. Olivia and I had gotten her this book for Christmas and my wife read it in only 1 week. It interested her enough to go and buy the second book with her Christmas money. Now all that’s left is to take her to see the movie. Hopefully we can do that before it leaves the big screen. In the end I give this book 3.5 out of 5, being that it is purely entertainment but not incredibly original, defiantly take this book for a read on vacati...

My first read for the New Year is over. I had actually begun to re-read “The Brothers Karamazov” but those plans were laid to rest. After reading four hundred pages I noticed the glue on the book binding giving way, and being that I am unwilling to loose a really nice hard back book I put it aside for “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” is a short read that will take any person only a few hours to read. This short novel is only 106 pgs long and really well written. For this book in my opinion the only thing good about it is the writing style. Capote does an excellent job at painting pictures of the 1943 New York landscape. There were however several qualms I had with the book. First it’s about a “loose moral” woman and her fickle nature, in and of itself an okay theme…when the story’s going somewhere. The second problem I had is two fold one of the reoccurring themes is how poor the writer (who tells the story) is. It doesn’t go into depth but frankly I’m a bit ...

“The Son, who is the Word of the Father, the very and eternal God, of one substance with the Father, took man’s nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin; so that two whole and perfect natures, that is to say, the Godhead and Manhood, were joined together in one person, never to be divided; whereof is one Christ, very God and very Man, who truly suffered, was crucified, dead, and buried, to reconcile his Father to us, and to be a sacrifice, not only for original guilt, but also for actual sins of men.” – BOD I personally think it’s significant that Christ is second in order when dealing with the articles of faith. I will acknowledge my ignorance here, I don’t know if theology is in the habit of ordering things in a particular way when it comes to doctrinal statements such as the articles of religion. However like I said, I do feel it’s significant. Here we are, we just started to look at our doctrinal standards and the second statement that we encounter is one that is essential to sa...

“There is but one living and true God, everlasting, without body or parts, of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness; the maker and preserver of all things, both visible and invisible. And in unity of this Godhead there are three persons, of one substance, power, and eternity-the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.” - BOD When I read this initially one particular phrase jumped out at me and this may in fact be the most important item contained within this article and it is contained within the title of this article “Of Faith”. Faith is the most important item when it comes to dealing with the Trinity. There is precious little in scripture about the Trinity and its function and operation together. Because of the general lack of scriptural basis for the Trinity, this doctrine stands as a matter of faith it is a part of faith that has been shared in common with some of the earliest Christians. Even though in the church of Acts we would be hard press to say that those people had an und...

I have decided before I begin to post on United Methodist Doctrine I should layout some ground rules on the nature of these posts. My intent is that the only quotes to be in this writing series will be from the 2004 Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church (BOD). Whatever I write in comment to the articles is not a reflection of the United Methodist Church (UMC). The statements will be wholly my own. The comments that I will be giving will prayerfully reflect several aspects of my self. My intent is for the comments to reflect my previous convictions, my struggle from the past into where I am currently with the particular doctrine being discussed. The current status of these doctrines within me will reflect a momentary snapshot. Being that I am human that translates to, “some days I have more faith than other day’s.” I intend not to say anything that I will regret but you never know what life will throw at you, hence this disclaimer. I reserve the righ...