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our web journal for serious Christians who want
more.
God has been revealed ultimately in the
incarnation of the Son with nothing less & no
substitutes than the whole of God. How
well we grasp the who, what and how of God's
action to make known the whole of God for
relationship, the deeper our relational response
can be to involve ourselves with God and thus to
truly know God and live together as the
experiential reality of God's family. For
this relational process to be of functional significance, it must
be without reduction -- that is, nothing less
and no substitutes, just as God responded to us
in Jesus Christ.
As
defined in our statement of purpose above, this
journal is established to get to the heart
of our whole person, to develop intimacy in our
relationships (first with God, then with others)
and to practice church as the family of
God among ourselves and in the world.
Discipleship, when not reduced, brings all of
these together in God's whole, fully
understanding what it means to be true followers
of Jesus Christ -- specifically in the
relational context and process of the relational
progression in which Jesus constitutes his
followers. Thus, authenticity of our
person, in our relationships and as his church
are core issues which will be addressed
ongoingly in this journal. And whether you
have a modernist mindset or worldview or tend
toward postmodernism, you will be stirred by
change as well as challenged to change --
specifically, redemptive change in which old
matters need to be let go and allowed to die
before the new of Christ can be raised up to
experience. Those of you who seriously
want
more in your relationship with Jesus and
seek him particularly for the experiential
elements of your faith and for deeper relational
significance in your journey with God, both
individually and corporately, will benefit from
study in this journal. Additionally, those
seeking further and deeper understanding of how
our faith needs to function in the world will be
challenged, if not confronted, by the
overlapping studies available to engage not only
as an individual but together as the body of
Christ.
Yet, keep clearly in mind:
To be informed about God
is the study of Scripture and theology,
to know, truly know, God
is the work of intimate relationship.
Too much Christian practice has been reduced
to substitutes for the vulnerable
incarnation of Jesus (especially between the
manger and the cross), or to settling for
less than God's intimate presence.
Under these conditions Christian identity
becomes ambiguous or shallow, both among
ourselves and in the world. If we are
to get beyond "simulations" in our
relationship with God and beneath "virtual
realities" in our practice to the root
realities of our faith, we have to engage
God directly in the vulnerable self-revelation
"in the face of Christ" (2 Cor. 4:6) while
in his Word. The following
interrelated and overlapping studies are
provided to help us more clearly perceive
the face of Jesus to be able to be
relationally involved with him directly
(without substitutes and simulations) in
order to truly know him and to experience
God's deepest desires for his people
(without settling for less or virtual
realities).
While these studies overlap, each has its
own emphasis, whether focused more on
practice or theology. Yet, all the
theological discussion is presented to
function in practice. Whatever study
you undertake, we encourage you to engage
each of these studies in sequence because
the chapters are progressive. Pray to
anticipate God's deeper presence in your
life and for the Spirit's further
transformation of your mind and heart.
click here
Authentic spirituality is only about
intimate relationship with the triune God;
intimacy is defined as hearts open to each
other and coming together.
Following Jesus, Knowing Christ:
Engaging the Intimate Relational Process
focuses on developing this relationship with
Jesus whose life, person and words,
particularly between the manger and the
cross, incarnate and thus establish God's
design and purpose for us -- the relational
context, the relational process and
relational progression to the Father.
A Study Guide & Growth Plan is also provided
to assist your involvement.
click here
Discipleship is one of those Christian words
or concepts that has been used loosely,
defined in various ways or simply ignored in
individual and corporate practice.
The Relational Progression: A
Relational Theology of Discipleship
formulates the relational imperative for all
followers of Jesus (both individually and
corporately) and gives coherence to all the
various theological aspects of the
transcendent God vulnerably engaging us for
intimate relationship as his very own in his
eschatological plan. Thus,
discipleship integrates spirituality and
Christian community in God's whole.
click here
The pursuit of wholeness,
or at least the interest in it, can be
observed in different movements of the
global community. How Christians have
perceived of wholeness and practice being
whole have been problematic, notably due to
the influence of reductionism. The
Person, the Trinity, the Church: The Call to
be Whole and the Lure of Reductionism
formulates a theology of wholeness based on
the whole of God constituted in the Trinity
and signified by the triune God's ongoing
response to our condition to be apart from
the whole -- the whole of God in whose image
our design and purpose are created.
God's response was ultimately fulfilled in
the incarnation of Jesus, who is the
hermeneutical key
to the whole of God. In God's call to
us to be whole, Jesus is also the
functional key to intimately bond with
the Father as the whole of God's family,
which the Spirit is bringing to completion
in God's eschatological plan. These
roots form the basis for any discipleship
and thus for all Christian spirituality;
yet, the lure of reductionism has been a
formidable challenge to our practice to be
the whole of God.
click here
The portrait of Jesus we carry around to
give definition to our Christian faith often
does not coincide with the whole of Jesus'
person in the Bible. Yet, we are willing to
make commitment to, build churches with, go
out on missions for and proclaim a gospel
about an identity of Jesus, our perceptions of whom tend
to be incomplete, perhaps even distorted and
ironically overly christocentric.
Such is the common consequence, for example,
when we detach his teachings, examples,
principles and practice from the whole of
his person. This disembodies these aspects
of Jesus and thus fragments their
significance constituted to be whole by the incarnation
of the whole of God and God's thematic
relational response to the human condition.
Sanctified Christology is a
theological and functional study that seeks
to fill or correct the gaps in our understanding of
Jesus (both in churches and the academy) to complete our Christology. This
study overlaps with our other studies, yet
it provides the central theological basis
necessary for all of them and the necessary
base for coherence in the various aspects of
our theology. This is the
integrating nature of a complete
Christology, the grasp of which and whom
requires our involvement in ongoing
reciprocal cooperative effort with the
Spirit.
click
here
Worship is our fundamental relational
response to God and thus is our essential
involvement with God in all we are and
do. The following perspectives and songs can
be helpful to you to go deeper into the
relational context and process of worship --
not as an activity-end in itself but rather
as more intimate response directly to God
with relational clarity and relational
significance.
Copies of these studies are available at
cost. Contact us for more information.
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We want to hear from you! Please
feel free to
contact us, share your thoughts,
questions, feelings. Let us know
if we can support you further. We
hope, we pray that all contained here
will serve to edify, challenge and
encourage Jesus' disciples, in order to
build up Christ's body, God's family,
the church. We are, after all,
sisters and brothers in Christ, but
these truths need to become functional
for our practice. |
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