Christ I

of how many questions I have. Today I am here with native Sydneysider, Ed Kennedy, to ask a few questions about his journey as the messenger. Ed, now that you know you delivered joy to these people who were lost in their life, what impact does it place on you and others who feel they serve no purpose in life? This journey was definitely a giant whirlwind of emotions and feelings, and it has really changed my perspective on how valuable life is. Just like Ma says that I’m “all promise and no results”. Living in the harsh environment I grew up in, I was convinced I was some dimwit compared to my better siblings. If I did not wanted…

Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning was a challenge; while I agreed with his thoughts and feeling the style in which it was written I found to be very cumbersome. Then this feeling of being critical of the writing made me feel guilty because the subject and the topic is so important and many individuals give the book very high reviews. I much prefer a local Springfield, Missouri author named Jennifer Rothschild; Jennifer is a nationally renowned author and woman’s conference speaker living in…

of gifts? Many are concerned about putting "Christ back into Christmas." Was he ever there? I don't think he was! The Christas tree, Santa, exchanging of gifts, and the 12 days of Christmas (Saturnalia) all have their roots in paganism! And I will do my best to show you why I believe what I believe. Every year after Thanksgiving, people's thoughts turn to Christmas. It is the time when Christians are supposed to focus on Jesus Christ. After all, it is the "Christ-mass" season! Rudolph the…

To place Christ as part of the divine with a singular God was to deny the emperor his power and influence. Facing these tidal headwinds coming from the emperor, the promotion of Christology was viewed as useful propaganda by early Christians. It became a useful guide to explain many of the mysteries surrounding the human nature of Jesus, his good deeds, and his subsequent resurrection into Heaven. While trying to convince an audience couched in Greek philosophy, practitioners of Christology…

Grand Rapids, Michigan. I was a freshman who was taking her first few steps towards independence. And the reason I chose Calvin was because it was a small, Christian school with a Japanese program. During orientation at Calvin I had felt that I had definitely made the right choice on which college to attend because everything during that time seemed to be focused on God. Yet, as time went on, I realized that while the college campus’ population as awhole was somewhat centered around God, it was…

The Lost Letters of Pergamum, a book by Bruce W, Longenecker is a fictional book that gives multiple views of the culture of the first century Church. This book is described as fictional, but it is written in a narrative form. The letters in this novel are not made up letters but they were found and translated into English after being hidden in the city of Pergamum. They also belonged to Antipas, a Roman businessman at the time. These letters were written by Luke, Antipas and other essential…

Romans 3:23 states, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” When I was in elementary school, I thought that Romans 3:23 meant that everyone was bad and we would never be able to see God. However, after Sunday school “clarified” this verse for me, I thought that God gave every person grace no matter what type of sin was committed. As I grew older, I began to think that it did not matter if I sinned or not, and I could do whatever I wanted because God would forgive me. I had this…

One day, the assistant pastor asked me why I did not attend the Men’s group meetings. I replied, “Because, they are at the pizza place and since I am a bit overweight it is not the place for me to be.” I told him, I would go if it were at the church. He replied, “Well no one goes if it is at the church.” I was absolutely, incredulous. I tried to explain to him about the eight-hundred gorilla in the room but it did not reach him. My friends and I organized a prayer meeting for four weeks at…

Our lesson this week starts off with a discussion about a very bad habit we have of not being thankful for the magnificent gift of salvation that we have received from Jesus Christ. If we ever stop and think about being so ungrateful for the great gift of salvation that Jesus made available to us we can review a biblical account that will make us stop and think that we aren’t the only ones who have failed to thank Jesus for some wonderful gift he gave them. Jesus gave ten men that He encountered…

us understand their devotion to their patron saint, the Cristo Aparecido. For the devotees of the Cristo, the crucifix is the cornerstone of their religion, but the missionaries of Mexico used it as an opportunity to create a new, syncretic Christianity for the Indians. In this paper I will look at the conflicting implications between the crucifix as art and religion and argue that the lived religion approach does effectively help us to understand the tension between tradition, contact, and…