Paul teaches in his letter to the Ephesians that we are ALL blameless, beloved, and eternally adopted by God through Jesus Christ. Listen to this brief summary of his teaching, and share your thoughts about this revolutionary teaching from Paul.
Category Archives: doctrine
Brennan Manning #1: The Overwhelming Love of God
Brennan Manning spoke at Mariners Church in 1996. I have added this 4 part series to uberlumen for your listening pleasure. It is AMAZING! I have been sharing these lectures with men from my men’s group for years, and they ALL have been AMAZED and changed by his beautiful insights, humor, and stories. If you haven’t heard him speak or read any of his books please start NOW.
Some of my favorites:
What is the Trinity?
There has been much controversy over the concept of the Trinity. It has been tried to be explained in many ways using many analogies that ALL fall short. It has been said that philosophically God is ‘one what’ and ‘three whos’.
It is clear that throughout Scripture God is 3 and 1 at the same time held in a paradoxical tension never to be fully understood this side of heaven.
Much of the recent controversy has been from the depiction of the Trinity by Paul Young in his book The Shack despite the fact that Paul Young has made it very clear that it is a work of fiction and an allegory. In The Shack, Paul Young describes the Trinity as: “I am one God and I am three persons, and each of the three is fully and entirely the one.” God or ‘Papa’ in the story goes on to say: “Love and relationship. All love and relationship is possible for you only because it already exists within Me, within God myself. Love is not the limitation; love is the flying. I am love.”
Here is a pictorial representation of the Trinity:
I don’t think we will every fully grasp nor understand the Trinity this side of heaven. I love what A.W. Tozer has said: “The doctrine of the Trinity…is truth for the heart. The fact that it cannot be satisfactorily explained, instead of being against it, is in its favor. Such a truth had to be revealed; no one could imagine it.” This quote from a GREAT book explaining basic tenets of Christianity: Without a Doubt by Samples
I have added this brief video clip of my 2 cents from a scientific and theoretical perspective to help us get our mind around the concept. (see also Beyond the Cosmos by Hugh Ross) As always please leave your comments!
Purple People
“Now tell me again who is blue and who is red?”
Racist, stupid, bigoted, evil….these are some of the words used to describe ‘us’ by ‘them’.
Intolerant, arrogant, angry, blind….these are some of the words used to describe ‘them’ by ‘us’.
Something has gone terribly wrong here.
We worship a God who is BIGGER than ALL of THAT!
We follow a God who became a man who was beaten, whipped, tortured, mocked by the ruling government of his day.
We cherish the LOVE of a God who was mocked by guards who made him wear a robe that symbolized royalty, KINGSHIP as they laughted and scorned and cried out, “King of the Jews! Ha Ha Ha!”
The robe he wore was PURPLE: The color of KINGSHIP.
We are NOT blue; we are NOT red. We ARE the PURPLE people. We follow and worship the God in the PURPLE robe who loves each of us as if we are the ONLY person in the universe.
Share with us your comments after you listen to Rob Bell’s teaching titled: Beware the Dogs and Greg Boyd’s teaching titled: Defying Tanks. These are 2 of the MOST challenging sermons that I have heard. After you listen, PLEASE share your thoughts on some practical and specific ways that we can transform our world!
Paul Young speaks and preaches AGAIN
This is the 1 of 4 teachings from July 2008 at Mariners Church when the author of the amazing book: The Shack spoke. (There are 4 separate podcasts that you can listen from Mariners Church podcast; these 2 are the best of the 4.)
As always please share with us your thoughts by leaving a comment.
Paul Young SPEAKS about The Shack etc.
This is the 1 of 4 teaching sessions from Mariners Church by Paul Young author of the amazing, must read book: The Shack. In this session he shares some of his life’s experiences and answers some of the common questions people have about the book. (There are 4 separate podcasts that you can listen from Mariners Church podcast; these 2 are the best of the 4.)
Please share your thoughts with us here at UBERLUMEN by posting a comment.