https://oembed.libsyn.com/embed?item_id=24455313 As with Adam, God exposes Cain’s corruption with a question, “Where is your brother?” The corruption of Adam is evident in Cain’s deceitful, hypocritical, insulting reply, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” The answer is yes, that IS the image of God which Jesus will live out and also teach: “Love your enemy.” As with … Continue reading Podcast: Gen. 4:9-24
Author: brregan
Podcast: Matthew 1:18-23 on marriage
This text from Matthew 1 offers the opportunity to consider marriage in Mary and Joseph's day, and how it compares with relationships and marriage in our time. https://oembed.libsyn.com/embed?item_id=16413644
Beginning the Steady Life and Work of Ambassadors
What is the best word for orienting and acclimating people to a new job? A quick google search suggested the hip and up-to-date term, “onboarding.” Since ambassadorship is sometimes like taking lifeboats out to save drowning people, “onboarding” seems to be a good fit. Podcast episodes so far (1-33) have concentrated on our identity as … Continue reading Beginning the Steady Life and Work of Ambassadors
Podcast #33: Peril and Promise
We have been thinking through the nature of the life of an ambassador and it is the best of all possible lives. The problem is that we live that life within a corrupt human nature that always wants to revert to the way of the world from which we were redeemed. We live with the … Continue reading Podcast #33: Peril and Promise
Podcast #32: Poor in Spirit, and an Easy Yoke
Have you been able to keep Christ in your consciousness since our last post, or have the currents of this world swept you away again? There is no need to be ashamed of that or even afraid because of it. Remember that our human nature remains native to this world even while our regenerate soul … Continue reading Podcast #32: Poor in Spirit, and an Easy Yoke
Podcast #31: Renewal in Scripture: New and Old Wineskins
Can ambassadors be swept up in the currents of thought and busy-ness of the foreign land in which they serve? Of course, and so much more easily when our human nature has its origins in that foreign land. The consciousness of our mind never actually changes and so remains bound up in this world. (Just … Continue reading Podcast #31: Renewal in Scripture: New and Old Wineskins
Podcast #30: Sharing the good news
As ambassadors of the kingdom of heaven, we are called and we desire to share the good news. But it can be a real challenge to communicate it. The gospel that we share is often reduced to forgiveness and faith. What are the limits of that, and what else does the Bible have to say … Continue reading Podcast #30: Sharing the good news
Podcast #29: How to be an ambassador
https://oembed.libsyn.com/embed?item_id=15852143 I’d like to begin to explore the practical, daily significance of the models we have considered so far. As ambassadors of God’s kingdom, we must continually toggle back and forth between understanding and remembering the nature of the people to whom we are ambassadors and understanding and remembering the nature of the kingdom which … Continue reading Podcast #29: How to be an ambassador
Podcast #28: Being Ambassadors for the Kingdom of Heaven
https://oembed.libsyn.com/embed?item_id=15598148 Now that we have seen models for two vastly different worldviews and considered how that affects the meaning of words we use, it is time to take up our work as ambassadors for the kingdom of heaven. First, let us consider the advantages of the kingdom to which we belong and represent as ambassadors. … Continue reading Podcast #28: Being Ambassadors for the Kingdom of Heaven
Podcast #27: Do we really have a free will?
The assumption that each of us has a free will is powerful … but is it true? The idea of a free will is attractive and popular because it promises people happiness in the choices they make. I would like to assert that this notion is deceitful and a trap, and not where true joy … Continue reading Podcast #27: Do we really have a free will?