The BURGER KING JESUS...Many people have a "version" of Jesus they follow, we will discuss the "Burger King have it your way Jesus" that many have and the BIBLICAL Jesus revealed to us by Scripture and the Holy Spirit. Please join us this evening at 8:00pm CST, feel free to call in or just listen along! Call-in Number: (347) 855-8971
Jesus: "The Word of the Lord", poetic words or a spiritual actuality?
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Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
What is the difference?
Please join us for tonight's biblical discussion title: "What's the difference?". What is being born again? What is the Gospel of the Kingdom of God? What is being Led by God's Spirit? These are questions that have come up in some of the feedback I have recieved regarding our last discussion, questions we will touch upon this evening. We begin at 8:00pm CST and the call in number is (347) 855-8971. Scriptures we will cover today is John 3.1-7 and further from 2 Corinthians chapter 2. You are welcome to listen even if you choose not to call in! Looking forward to this evening!
What is the difference?
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What is the difference?
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Monday, October 5, 2009
What is the difference?
Well folks, we had a great (and a bit long) discussion regarding The LAW (Torah), the Prophets (Nevi'im) and their fulfillment in the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and what that means. We then began to discuss the Holy Spirit and its work in the lives of believers and how we can be Led by Him. We will continue discussing HOW to be Led by the Spirit of God and how to be KINGDOM PEOPLE this week, please join us!
What is the difference?
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What is the difference?
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Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Part II: SEPARATING Religion, Ritual, Routine from Relationship with God through Christ
Today's online study will deal with the various degrees of bondage people try to keep Christians under trying to force the New Wine of the GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD into to Old Wine Skin of the Mosaic Law, we will also talk about what it means to be Led by the Spirit of God! Please listen and feel free to call in tonight at 8:00pm CST. E-mail me at richardgraves@live.com for an outline of the study.
Part II: SEPARATING Religion, Ritual, Routine from Relationship with God through Christ
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Part II: SEPARATING Religion, Ritual, Routine from Relationship with God through Christ
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Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Online Bible Study tonight!
Online Bible Study tonight. The link provided will allow you to listen to our conversation; you can listen and / or call in and participate. Our discussion this evening will center on how we as Christians can value the gifts that God has given us through Jesus and how we can really walk in relationship with Christ and not be side tracked by “religion”. The call in number is (347) 855-8971, study starts tonight 09/22/2009 at 8:00pm CST
Here is the link: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Richard-Graves/2009/09/23/Seperating-Religion-Ritual-Routine-from-Relationship-with-God-through-Christ
looking forward to the study!
Here is the link: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Richard-Graves/2009/09/23/Seperating-Religion-Ritual-Routine-from-Relationship-with-God-through-Christ
looking forward to the study!
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Online Bible Study
A few of the Facebook, Blog and internet Christian friends and I are going to have an online call in Bible "class" on Tuesday evenings from 7:30-8:30pm (CST) starting Sep 22nd. It will cover some of the subjects in my book "Unbelieving Believers", anybody else interested let me know and I'll e-mail you details. Also, if you don't have my book yet, you can purchase it directly from me for $15.00 (s/h included) by PayPal at richardgraves@live.com
Monday, August 17, 2009
The Gospel of the Kingdom in contrast to "philosophy"....
“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” 1st Corinthians 2:14. This scripture often comes to mind when I consider the question of faith and “reason”. In today’s world, there is a clash between “faith” and “reason”, albeit in the observation of this writer the clash is really a false dichotomy. People like Bill Maher and Richard Dawkins posit that if one has faith one cannot be “reasonable”, surprisingly this isn’t a new concept.
Back in the winter of 1619-1620 a philosopher from France by the name of Rene’ Descartes’ developed a new formula for “rationalism” stating in its first principle “Cogito ergo sum” (I think therefore I am) (Dowley 485).
Some Christians, such as Magistar Archbishop William Temple, considered this philosophical movement to be “the most disastrous moment in European history”. This primarily because Descartes started from a presupposition of doubt, whereas the believer starts at a presupposition that God is an actuality that we accept as our starting point (485). These positions are diametrically opposed, however; one does not necessarily exclude the other. It can be expected that the unbeliever is coming from a position of doubt and may want God “proven” to them in a way that they can measure and or accept. In Descartes case his initial presupposition was: “I entirely abandoned the study of letters. Resolving to seek no knowledge other than that of which could be found in myself or else in the great book of the world, I spent the rest of my youth traveling, visiting courts and armies, mixing with people of diverse temperaments and ranks, gathering various experiences, testing myself in the situations which fortune offered me, and at all times reflecting upon whatever came my way so as to derive some profit from it.” (Descartes, Discourse on the Method). This statement reminds me of another popular Latin phrase: “eventus stultorum magister” as events are often the teachers of fools. Not that Mr. Descarte was a fool, however with that statement he had done what others in the rationality of their atheism do even to this day, that is make themselves their own measure in the subjective perceptions, in essence their own god. This Temple found problematic, yet ironically Temple saw the reformation under Luther as problematic as well as Luther bucked the system which was another form of indivualism as far as Temple was concerned (485).
The problem with Temple’s logic was that unlike Descartes, who was his own god, or who was dependent upon his own subjective apprehension of the temporal and spatial world, Luther was subject to the scriptures, which it appears that Temple was unaware or unwilling to acknowledge that the church was not always in line with what scripture was presenting.
We see these two worlds collide in the person of Blaise Pascal (1623-62). He was one of the greatest thinkers the West has given us as he was a “mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and religious thinker.”. This is something that would be best pointed out in this current world we live in where people like Bill Maher and Richard Dawkins continue to present that rationality (science) and Faith (religion) are “mutually exclusive”. This man made incredible contributions to geometry and the calculus and worked out the theory of probability. “In physics ‘Pascal’s law’ stated the principle which makes possible all modern hydraulic operations” (488). Because this great thinker became a Christian as the result of a mystical vision in 1654.
“Pascal wrote that God can be known through Jesus Christ by an act of faith, itself given by God.”, this mirrors Christ own statements, in particular: “All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.” Matthew 11.27. This scientist posited that ours need for God is made clear by our misery because of our separation from Him. Though this great thinker posited that “God may only be known by faith”, he was also clear to acknowledge that there is ample evidence to hold up belief: “fulfilled prophecies, miracles, the witness of history, the self–authentication of Scripture, ‘The heart has its reasons, which the reason does not know,’ wrote Pascal (488).
That is what really it comes down to, and as we see from this bit of history, the more things change the more they stay the same.
Bibliography:
Dowley, Tim ; Briggs, J. H. Y. ; Linder, Robert Dean ; Wright, David F.: Introduction to the History of Christianity. Minneapolis : Fortress Press, 2002
Back in the winter of 1619-1620 a philosopher from France by the name of Rene’ Descartes’ developed a new formula for “rationalism” stating in its first principle “Cogito ergo sum” (I think therefore I am) (Dowley 485).
Some Christians, such as Magistar Archbishop William Temple, considered this philosophical movement to be “the most disastrous moment in European history”. This primarily because Descartes started from a presupposition of doubt, whereas the believer starts at a presupposition that God is an actuality that we accept as our starting point (485). These positions are diametrically opposed, however; one does not necessarily exclude the other. It can be expected that the unbeliever is coming from a position of doubt and may want God “proven” to them in a way that they can measure and or accept. In Descartes case his initial presupposition was: “I entirely abandoned the study of letters. Resolving to seek no knowledge other than that of which could be found in myself or else in the great book of the world, I spent the rest of my youth traveling, visiting courts and armies, mixing with people of diverse temperaments and ranks, gathering various experiences, testing myself in the situations which fortune offered me, and at all times reflecting upon whatever came my way so as to derive some profit from it.” (Descartes, Discourse on the Method). This statement reminds me of another popular Latin phrase: “eventus stultorum magister” as events are often the teachers of fools. Not that Mr. Descarte was a fool, however with that statement he had done what others in the rationality of their atheism do even to this day, that is make themselves their own measure in the subjective perceptions, in essence their own god. This Temple found problematic, yet ironically Temple saw the reformation under Luther as problematic as well as Luther bucked the system which was another form of indivualism as far as Temple was concerned (485).
The problem with Temple’s logic was that unlike Descartes, who was his own god, or who was dependent upon his own subjective apprehension of the temporal and spatial world, Luther was subject to the scriptures, which it appears that Temple was unaware or unwilling to acknowledge that the church was not always in line with what scripture was presenting.
We see these two worlds collide in the person of Blaise Pascal (1623-62). He was one of the greatest thinkers the West has given us as he was a “mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and religious thinker.”. This is something that would be best pointed out in this current world we live in where people like Bill Maher and Richard Dawkins continue to present that rationality (science) and Faith (religion) are “mutually exclusive”. This man made incredible contributions to geometry and the calculus and worked out the theory of probability. “In physics ‘Pascal’s law’ stated the principle which makes possible all modern hydraulic operations” (488). Because this great thinker became a Christian as the result of a mystical vision in 1654.
“Pascal wrote that God can be known through Jesus Christ by an act of faith, itself given by God.”, this mirrors Christ own statements, in particular: “All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.” Matthew 11.27. This scientist posited that ours need for God is made clear by our misery because of our separation from Him. Though this great thinker posited that “God may only be known by faith”, he was also clear to acknowledge that there is ample evidence to hold up belief: “fulfilled prophecies, miracles, the witness of history, the self–authentication of Scripture, ‘The heart has its reasons, which the reason does not know,’ wrote Pascal (488).
That is what really it comes down to, and as we see from this bit of history, the more things change the more they stay the same.
Bibliography:
Dowley, Tim ; Briggs, J. H. Y. ; Linder, Robert Dean ; Wright, David F.: Introduction to the History of Christianity. Minneapolis : Fortress Press, 2002
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