....In the Reformed church we need to do a better job of emphasizing this spiritual joy in our own lives, in our congregations and in our pulpits. We must remind our people that, just like our righteousness, spiritual joy is not something we can create or produce. It is an alien joy. It comes from our communion with God and it is only made possible through the propitiation of Jesus Christ. We must remind God's people that it is God who sovereignly bestows this gift upon his children. We must tell them that this joy is so powerful that it can be experienced even during our trials (James 1:2) and at all times (Philippians 4:4). We must commit ourselves to proclaiming to God's people the "benefits of the covenant of grace." This is exactly what I plan to do in 2010. I plan on emphasizing this Reformed joy in my preaching in 2010. I hope you will consider joining me in reminding God's people that the joy of the Lord is their strength!
What is the reformed church, and how does it differ from other Christian churches?
If anyone would like to be included on this new pinglist, drop me a FReepmail.
‘Circle the wagons’ is what we perceived when we were still in the Episcopal Church, trying to hold the fort against the liberal heresies. It is NOT a good place to be.
How does someone counter the word of God himself? How does someone or a movement alter the bible the word of God a few centuries ago and eliminate 7 books??
How can a man made church snub the church founded By Jesus Christ himself? other than the sin of pride how can man form his own belief system, thinking they can establish a church better than Christ himself ? altering the bible after 12/16 centuries.. it does not compute.
www.catholic.com maybe ask your questions their! Shalom..
Catholicism is so rich in tradition and understanding thru the holy spirit in following Christ..
One book aside from the Bible has brought me joy is R.C.Sproul’s “Sanctity of God”.
Reformed church of what??? I see later in the article it refers to a Presbyterian Church, but all these seem to be latecomers to the scene.
Catholics, Protestants, and History (the faith of the early church)
To put it more plainly: they're lacking in joy because they're missing the point.
"Appropriately" exhausting one's self on "regulative principle" is the sin of the Pharisees. "Appropriately" focusing on the "forensic nature" of justification is bascially to ignore the fact that justification is simply given to us by God's grace, regardless of how wonderful our logic may be.
Of course there's no joy there: it's sterile. The problem with this article is that the author is proposing to "increase joy" by doing more of the same.
What's missing is not theology; what's missing is relationship. Where, in all those words, do we see any discussion of the fact that we are in a present and on-going relationship with God? Where, in all those words, do we see any discussion of living as part of the Body of Christ, and being in relationship with God by means of our relationships with other people? It's not there.
More importantly, where are the other two Persons of the Trinity? Where is the Holy Spirit, whom God sent to be with us once Jesus was gone? The Holy Spirit is our direct connection with God: why isn't the good pastor talking about that? And was Jesus really nothing more than a vessel for propitiation of sins? Does not Jesus also reflect God's desire to be in actualy, human relationship with us?
The author's dissatisfaction with evangelical non-denominationalism is understandable: from what I can see, it's all about relationship and tends to dismiss formalism. The end result is often a religion that plays to the emotions, and leaves the intellect hungry.
Reformed theology is obviously full of intellectual food. But (IMO) the sterility of Reformed theology stems from the fact that it lives on the opposite extreme: an essential rejection of the idea that humans have an active role in their relationship with God. There is no joy in that.
"Joy" is found in the middle: paying attention to formalism is good, so long as it's not taken too far. Emphasizing relationship is good, too -- so long as we can keep perspective about the nature of the relationship.
If this is what Mr. Selvaggio really thinks, I suspect there will still be no joy in Mudville this year....
soon to be followed by the sequel thread: The Crankiness of the Catholics.