sermon Notes on Mark 1:29-39

Life of Peter: Jesus in Peter's house. In this passage we see Jesus heal Peter's mother-in-law.(This was a good text for mother's day...) Jesus is going throughout the region and preaching: The kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe! In this section Jesus Declares this message andDemonstrates this message. The healing and the deliverence from demonic oppression demonstrate the nature and validity of the message. Jesus' popularity and fame grow because the crowds experience his teaching and healing and tell others. This is instrumental to Peter's own discipleship. Last week in Luke we heard the call of Peter to be a disciple and Peter's initial response was, "Depart from me, I am a sinner, Lord!" Jesus does not depart from him but brings him in closer. Peter observes and experiences the healing in his house and in his boat(workplace). The response to a miracle in your house is to tell others about it. We also observed that in the Mark passage as well as the Luke passage Jesus is proclaiming and inviting people into his kingdom. There are only two options. Kingdom of darkness represented by the sickness and demonic and the kingdom of Christ. There aren't any other options given in the passages. Consider this: If your life has been transformed and healed by Jesus, will you tell others. I'm not talking about what most evangelicles think of as "witnessing" which most practically act upon in a way that says- you must believe what I believe. But, are you a whole person who has been made whole by the truth about Jesus- his covenantal atoning work. Do you or will you tell others of what has gone on in your life? If you don't consider yourself a follower of Jesus, while you consider Jesus' teaching? Not what other people have told you that Jesus says. Not what you may think about organized religion or the rules that you think Christians follow. But the teaching of Jesus- The kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe.

Pastor's Page

We've got a Pastor's page at DPC's website that makes this a bit redundant- other than maybe the occasional embedded video.
Go here to read!

upload a video on biblical theology

wikipedia PCA

Went on a pastoral visit not long ago and heard a reference to this Wikipedia article. It never even crossed my mind that we would be on this site. Who knew? And the list of names too... not that the PCA culture is given to name dropping- but name posting? That's a new one.

Here's the denominations official web page.

It funny how much a part of our lives technology has become- blogs- wikis and all.


Maybe we need a DPC vidblog...

Miroslav Volf- Exclusion and Embrace

My thesis is that the practice of non-violence requires a belief in divine vengeance...My thesis will be unpopular with many in the West... But imagine speaking to people (as I have) whose cities and villages have been first plundered, then burned, and leveled to the ground, whose daughter and sisters have been raped, whose fathers and brothers have had their throats slit... Your point to them--- we should not retaliate? Why not? I say-- the only means of prohibiting violence by us is to insist that violence is only legitimate when it comes from god... Violence thrives today, secretly nourished by the belief that god refuses to take the sword... It takes the quiet of a suburb for the birth of the thesis that human nonviolence is a result of a God who refuses to judge. In a scorched land-- soaked in the blood of the innocent, the idea will invariably die, like other pleasant captivities of the liberal mind... if God were NOT angry at injustice and deception and did NOT make a final end of violence, that God would not be worthy of our worship.

Yes, it does take the quiet of a suburb for the birth of the thesis that human nonviolence is a result of a God who refuses to judge.

missionary preaching

Mike Pettengill will be preaching this coming Sunday, January 4th. I can't wait to hear an update and also to hear how God's kingdom is growing in Honduras. I get really jazzed about the growth of the church worldwide. I love to hear the continued story of redemption in peoples lives and how God changes the ones he sends and the ones that are served. I also like to hear about the work of missions and evangelism from full time missions workers like Mike and his family because it reminds me (and us) of that same call to love and serve wherever God places us.

The Covenant, grace and mercy

In Genesis, God looks at mankind and he is wrathful, his heart is grieved. He destroys all of mankind but for Noah and then promises Noah he wont do it again. He makes the Noahic Covenant and establishes the sign of the rainbow to forestall his wrath.
In Mark 3 Jesus enters the synagogue and sees the inclinations of mans heart. He is wrathful, he is grieved over their hardness of heart, yet instead of destroying them he heals a man and by indication of his teaching heals to the innermost being (psueche in Greek). I'm glad for the covenant, glad for the rainbow, glad for the intensity of Jesus' emotion (world destroying anger?!), glad for his mercy.

Ignatious

Ignatius of Antioch

Ignatius was an apostolic father. He was bishop of Antioch in the
first decades of the second century. He was arrested and sent to Rome
for martyrdom. Ignatius' main fear was that doctrinal divergence
would destroy the churches unity.
He wrote about the incarnation. He used the strickimg term "the Christ
God". Christ on every sense was an authentic man and he was the "new
man". There was a lot of controversy and heresy floating about
centered om Christ's humanity, so Ignatious' writing on the subject
was important for the church at that time.

An Atheist on Evangelism

I found this very interesting- thoughts?