Theophanies

Subject: Theophanies
Date: Aug. 30, 2015
Target passage: II Peter 1:12-21

Peter wrote to a prime market.

A vast marketplace of ideas -- theological and philosophical -- latched itself to a new Christian movement hoping to cash in on its dynamism. Many of these competing ideas were subtle and sometimes innocent errors. Others were outright denials of the established truth and even sought to remove Christianity from its Hebrew roots.

Peter, by virtue of walking with and being called by Jesus, makes him an Apostle. That pedigree alone gave him the clout to effectively warn the early churches against the temptation to follow unorthodox teachings that have set up shop (see chapter 2). Note his fatherly tone, especially in v. 19 ("... you will do well to take heed ..."). He spoke with authority.

Peter was up against some destructive ideas creeping in to the young church; young, though as old as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, by being the continuation of Israel. Here, the Apostle lays out the fact that he was not only eye-witness to God the Son and full of the Holy Spirit, but witness to an expression of God the Father.

The radiant glory of God's full presence would kill a mortal man (Exodus 33:20). So the Father has made himself known by various "theophanies."

How our baby broke a megachurch

Sample image of the sticker we received for each child.

We get it. It's an increasingly dangerous world out there when it comes to child custody.

It's even harder when you have a congregation in the thousands of dots in the crowd, and about 10 percent of those in attendance brought their little ones along. The children aren't sitting in a pew with their parents like they did back in the olden days, marking up the offering envelopes with the short pencils and ignoring the sermon. Most large churches have kids areas where the young ones can play Jesus-themed games, sing songs, and learn about the Bible. The nurseries are less instruction-oriented, of course.

John Oliver's call to tax churches would backfire -- badly

A badly photoshopped John Oliver with a laughing hyena. You get the idea.

Disclaimer: I don't intend on addressing politics much on this blog since it's spiritual in nature -- Jesus died for conservatives and liberals alike. But from time-to-time I'd like to show support for our Evangelical friends in institutional churches who are facing unfair criticism and provide House church perspectives on current events.

The short version: taxing American churches as businesses would create a movement that would make the Moral Majority look like a church picnic by comparison. Don't even try it.

The long version: 

The ups and downs of a home-based church

Couldn't have said it any better! (Source: "House Churches Have No Sex Appeal," blog post by Andrew Jones, 2004).

We'll see how this goes.  :)

What kind of church do you have, there?

A rainbow appeared over our Leander, Texas, home during a rainier-than-usual winter in 2014 -- the time of many life-changes for my wife and me. We'll take this as a sign of God's promises. (Credit: me.)


Two roofs on Sunday morning characterized much of our first two years of marriage.

The goal was to get our new family under one roof on the Lord's Day. Little did we know that roof would eventually turn out to be our own.

Test post.

Test post. Please disregard.

What is a terebinth, anyway?