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This is a blog established to foster conversations about spiritual topics that are intended to deepen and clairify our understanding of God and foster intentional spiritual formation. Blog posts will contain questions intended to spark spirited, yet respectful, converstation. The ancient rabbis had a tradition of gathering together to discuss and debate the scriptures. The purpose was to expand and deepen thier understanding of those scriptures. This is a 21 century version of that.
9 comments:
I think the following should be basic ground rules;
1) Every point must find a grounding in the word of God. No references to systematic theologies or Christian theologians. Lets not talk about guys (or gals) that talk about Jesus. Lets just talk about Jesus. I admire and respect people like Piper, Driscol, Grudem, C. S. Lewis, Bell, A. W. Tozer, Ortberg, Swindal etc... but this is not about understanding them, but understanding God based on His word. These men I mentioned above may inspire us to deeper understanding, but in the final analysis what their teaching should be rooted in the word. Where they are, that is the starting point.
2) We understand (as much as possible) the word of God from the point of view of the audience it was originally written to and extract the principals of each teaching based on that. This means we will have to understand the culture and anthropology of the time and setting of text being discussed. Sometimes this itself might be the question to be discussed.
3) Be respectful of various points of view. We come from many varied traditions and may be challenged by some of the points of views shared. Rather than replying with a "that's blasphemy", try making the case for why the statement is blasphemous. Avoid make emphatic statements like “that is wrong!”, but make the case based on God's word as to why it is wrong. Ancient Rabbis used the tactic of asking questions. They would also answer questions with questions. Read the discourses between Jesus and the religious leaders, he rarely answers a question directly, but with other questions. It is a cleaver and respectful way of challenging opposing points of view.
I want to challenge everyone to be open minded. Like Andy stated, being completely grounded in the word of God. I believe as followers of Jesus we have only began to scratch the surface of the depth and mystery of God.
I also want to challenge everyone to truly read what the person(s) has written about the topic. Please ask clarifying questions to understand what the person has commented.
Finally, 1 Corinthians 13 says to me that I can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, but if I have not LOVE, I am nothing
test comment
After much whacking of the head with the hammer, I am going to give this a shot.
We need to be honest in what we say. We need to be tactful but at the end of the day I want someone who is going to shoot strait. That leads me to my second thought. We need to be aware of the differance between the leading of the Holy Spirit and the affect that tradition has had on our spiritual development. Maybe this is just expanding what Andy has already said. But if something is said that makes us uneasy we need to be able to seperate the leading of the HS and our desire to hang on to the comfort of tradition.
lastly I just want to say lets make sure that all referance to the Bible is kept is context. We have the privalage to read someone elses mail. Lets make sure that we do historical justice to the writer and the reader of the mail
I'm entering this process a couple days later than everybody else but have read each one's ideas concerning "ground rules". I'm in agreement with all that has been suggested so far.
However, at this point, there seems to be very little ground left to be ruled. So, let me just add a couple of thoughts for consideration,
Colossians 4:6
Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.
Grace--grace fosters a spirit of self-examiniation in which nobody should think of himself more highly than he ought. It also encourages a spirit of openness in which nobody should be made to think lower of himself than he ought.
Salt--An old potato chip commercial used the tag line, "Nobody can eat just one." And they were right. The chip wasn't so great but the SALT was fantastic! We should always present our ideas, questions and comments in a well thought out and "salty" manner that keeps everyone engaged and hungry for just one more chip.
-trw
I wanted to suggest that if someone feels strongly about a topic, or that we should move on from one, that the person post that on the current topic we may be on at the time.
Here goes my first blogging experience. So far it doesn’t hurt much.
My only comment/desire is that all who join this community and post to it do so with a spirit of humility and as was aptly said, “Grace”. Any attempt at spiritual thought must include submission to the teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit and a resolve to remain open minded even when confronted with ideas that are new or contrary to the way we have always believed. No theological system of thought should allow one to have learned so much from the Holy Spirit as to become hardened and un-teachable toward future learning.
Secondly, I don’t know how open this blog will become to others but here at the outset I will clarify my personal position in interpreting and understanding Scripture. Namely that one must agree and submit to two key principals; that God is alive and is who the Bible says He is and that His written word to us contains everything that He intended for us to know in order to follow Him and is our absolute standard of truth, without error. We cannot be certain that what the Bible says about God is true unless we are convinced that the Bible itself is true and appeals to no higher authority for authentication.
That said, I’m looking forward to dancing with whoever shows up here at the ball.
I would suggest our next topic to be ..."What is the Gospel?"
Topic: "What Is The Gospel?" sounds like a good starting point to me.
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