Claimed, gathered and sent

The discipline I chose to practice this week is sometimes referred to as divine hours, the divine office, daily office or fixed hour prayer. It has grown out of the tradition of the Benedictine monastic order and originally had nine different times of prayer. It is now down to seven in most orders and many lay people pray anywhere from three to four. My practice this week has been morning prayer, noon prayer and then evening prayer or vespers. This is a short explanation from the website Explore Faith. People have prayed at fixed hours during the day for centuries. Quietly easing away from the obligations of home or work, they take a few moments to spend time with God. These moments connect them to the Divine, and to the countless others who are also pausing to pray the prayers designated for that hour, on that day. Prayers whispered and chanted, spoken loud and clear or murmured silently within, all join together in a continuous flow, a river...

This post was written in response to several questions posed by my Principles of Theology professor. Those questions are: What role does God play in our sanctification? What responsibility do we have? In what ways will you intentionally foster the development of the fruit of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5) and holiness in your own life in the coming days? My response is below. What do you think? ****************************** God’s role in sanctification is that he does the work. We can do nothing to make ourselves sanctified or holy. God works and we cooperate. Grudem states, “sanctification is primarily a work of God…” [1] The Father disciplines us (see Heb 12:5-11). Christ is “our wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1 Cor1:30) because he earned this for us. He is also our example, “pioneer and perfecter of our faith” (Heb 12:2). The Holy Spirit has the major role in the sanctification of ...

I thought I'd share some posts from my courses at Regent. This was in response to the question of if we were to write a systematic theology book, what would be essential doctrines. Below is my response. In the West, we love to recreate the wheel. In the “three ecumenical creeds,” [1] we have a thorough systematic theology. The most concise being the Apostles’ Creed, followed by the Nicene Creed which fleshes out the Apostles’ Creed and lastly the Athanasian Creed, which gives a detailed defense of the doctrine of the trinity. Focusing on the Apostles’ Creed, it can be divided into three sections: the first concerning God the Father and his role as creator. The second article concerns God the Son and his role as redeemer. The third article is on the Holy Spirit and being made holy. Martin Luther’s Small Catechism provides a simple explanation of each article of the creed. The Small Catechism was written for the teaching o...

My next few posts are going to be on the following passage. I have been meditating on this for a number of days. It is quite rich. For my own devotions, I have broken this passage down by sections/ideas and have concentrated on each. Ephesians 1:17-19 17 I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, 18 so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened , you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe , according to the working of his great power. First, God bookends this passage. he is at the beginning and the end. He is the actor and we are the ones acted upon. Brief overview: loaded with verbs pray give come know enlightened called believe working repeated words know (twice) power (twice) Who-God What-gives spirit of wisdom and re...