Patrick O'Connell

A Little Ditty About the Atheist

The atheist believes that the Christian has merely deluded herself into believing that Jesus is alive.  The atheist views Christianity as one of many choices and therefore discount it as another misguided attempt to explain the universe. What the atheist doesn't understand is that very few Christians choose to believe in a risen Christ. The Spirit of God convicts her to the reality of Jesus.

The atheist doesn't understand that the Christian has not merely chosen a world-view. For the serious Christian choosing to be a Christian is in-congruent to Biblical teaching. Christianity is not one of many religions.' Christianity claims to explain all of reality. The atheist may offer science as evidence there is no God, but they miss the mark as to why the Christian believes what she does.

I speak as a former atheist. I speak as one convinced that the preposterous stories of a risen Jesus were just that--preposterous. But now I believe Jesus rose from the dead because the Spirit of God has convicted me.

The atheist cannot fathom a God that would convict of his reality.

Wholly Surrendered Today

I ask the same question everyday. "Am I going to live a wholly surrendered life today?" Yep--same question everyday.

As I see it, I have choices to make everyday about how I will live my life.

• Will I holdback parts of my life from God this day?
• Am I willing to follow the lead of the Holy Spirit? 
• Am I willing to place myself in a posture of dependency on the Spirit.

Jesus lived his life dependent on the Holy Spirit. This inspires me. One time he told his disciples:

He (the Holy Spirit) will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you (John 16:14).

Saying yes to surrendering my life to the Holy Spirit is to say yes to His power and presence in my life. It means I am saying yes to glorifying God in the person of Jesus. I want these things.

But some days I don't want to surrender to the Holy Spirit. Some days I want to hold on to all of the little bits of my life. Maybe I am selfish or afraid or both.

I know that whatever I don't surrender will become a burden to me. It will take my focus. It might even become a barrier between me and God. But some days it's just hard.

So tomorrow I will have the choice to make all over again. I am planning on saying yes once again to those questions, yes once again the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in my life.

Repentance--Radically Altering Ourselves

We had a great discussion about conversion and the role of the Holy Spirit during Theology Club this morning.

The highlight for me was our talk about repentance.

Grenz puts it this way, "Repentance, then involves a total, radical alteration within the core of our personal being."1

This was a reminder for all of us that we must be willing to 'radically alter' our being to follow Jesus.

Grenz continues, "Radical repentance is intricately related to conversion. Without recognition of personal need, we cannot receive the provision God has made in Christ."2

Following Jesus is hard for it requires that  we literally alter ourselves. It's impossible to do this Sunday morning. No, much more is required of us if we are to truly repent. But there is hope: the Holy Spirit (the Helper) will provide us with the power to do it.

1. & 2. Grenz, Stanley J., Theology for the Community of God, (Eerdmans 1994), 407 

Unofficial Theology Club of Restore Gets Started

On Tuesday several us from Restore met at a local Starbucks and kicked off the first official meeting of the unofficial Theology Club of Restore.'

Each week our club (there were four of us at the first meeting) we are going to read a chapter or so from our text and meet at the Starbucks at 6:30AM to discuss. We're using Theology for the Community of God by Stanley Grenz as our primary text.

My idea was to meet in a public place and welcome people who might want to know what we're up to. Well it worked. A young woman by the name of Katie spotted stopped by our table and wanted to know all about what we were up to. we explained it to her and she said something like 'cool.'

I am really excited about this. I love theology and the fact that my colleagues are willing to go deep with me is really great. Grenz divides his text into the following six themes:

1. God
2. Humankind
3. Jesus
4. Holy Spirit
5. Church
6. End Times

During our first session we covered the nature and task of theology. Next week we start to tackle the doctrine of God.

I'll keep you posted.

Restore and Restoration

I read this in John Piper's new book, What Jesus Demands of the World. Piper writes in Demand #9 (pg.75), Love God With All Your Heart, Soul, Mind, and Strength:

Jesus came to RESTORE human beings to the kind of relationship with God and each other that we were created for. The most important thing he has to say about that RESTORED relationship with God is that we were meant to love God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength.

This whole concept of RESTORE and RESTORATION is one that I've been praying about the last couple of days. Hopefully I'll be able to tell you why soon.

Piper quotes the following scripture:

...answered Jesus, "is this: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." Mark 12:29-30 (NIV)

"Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rye and all other kind of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone." Luke 11:42 (NIV)

"I know you do not have the love of God in your hearts. I have come in my Father's name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him." John 5:42 (NIV)

Piper's point: Jesus demands that we love God above all else. God will reciprocate and restore us to a right relationship with Him.

The book is vintage Piper and therefore I am learning a ton.

Difficult OT Passages

Last week's 90 Day Bible readings covered Judges. This book has some rather difficult passages that include sacrifice (Japhthah's daughter) and the raising of the dead (the Witch of Ensor).

What was most promising is that we addressed the questions as a group. None of us have degrees in theology or biblical studies and we don't have a commentary on hand. Sure this might be a bit dangerous (especially if we misunderstand the text). But we do try and tackle it as a group. We talk about these stories and these people and although they are very different from us, there is much that is the same.

We have several resources available to us. One of our participants emailed our question about Japhthah's daughter to one of our pastors who was able to run down a response from a OT scholar who attends our church.

The moral of the story: despite these difficult passages, we persevere because we are reading together. Here are some of the things we've learned as a group; perhaps they will help you during your own readings:

1. Understand the context of the passage (context). How does a particular passage fit into the overall story your're reading.
2. Read the passage several times if necessary so that you understand it (exegesis)
3. Keep in mind this was written within a very different culture.
4. So be looking for how God reveals himself. Many times the people get it all wrong. Keep in mind the larger revelation of God.

Simply a Dream of God

Check out the post on Dave Ferguson's blog, Dream of God. It seems that while reading N.T. Wright's, Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense, Dave was reminded of a narrative he and his CCC team had written several years ago called the Dream of God.

Simply Christian is simply one of those must read books for 1) Christ-followers looking for a deeper understanding of their faith, or, 2) someone who may be 'checking out' Christianity. Bishop Wright, using his vast knowledge of 1st-Century Judaism, along with his gifted writing ability, presents a compelling and thought-provoking case for Christianity. It is simply one of the best books I have ever read about my faith.

The Dream of God is inspiring in it's own right so give it a read.

Revelation #4

We covered lesson four of our Revelation in small group last night. The lesson called for us to cover the same chapters (Revelation 2-3) as we did in our last study.

Because these chapters cover the letters to the seven churches, we began by reading some of the notes associated with the various verses. We created a list of the illnesses of the churches and the cures. We agreed that these are applicable to our lives.

1. Ephesus: fell out of love for God; renew, remember, repent
2. Smyrna: facing death; remain faithful
3. Pergamum: compromising their faith; repent
4. Thyatira: false prophets; endure until Jesus comes
5. Sardis: superficial; awake
6. Philadelphia: weak; perseverance
7. Laodicea: lukewarm faith; diligence

We discussed love and purity and why it's important to keep these two together agreeing that purity is required before their is genuine love.

We considered the church in Thyatira and their tolerance of the false prophet Jezebel. One of the questions related to this is why God is so concerned with sexual immorality.  Infidelity was one of the topics that came up as was the fact that our culture is positively drenched in it.  Tammy outlined a metaphor I thought was quite insightful: sex is fire: marriage is like the fireplace. Fire in the fireplace is appropriate: Fire outside the fire place (at least in the home) leads to the house burning down.

All of us present last night have children and therefore we lamented how much more prevalent sexual immorality seems to be in the culture, especially because of the Internet. Brian suggested that he tells his teenage son he must plant his moral flag somewhere to avoid being a chameleon; that is if you don't stand for something you stand for everything and it's then that you lose yourself. I thought this good advice.

We prayed for the following:

1. Praises for a woman's mother who will not in fact need kidney dialysis at present.
2. Prayers for a brother who went into drug rehab.
3. Prayers for a couple undergoing severe marital problems.
4. Prayers for a dying grandmother named No-ey, 89 and suffering a rash of illnesses.
5. Prayed for a couple who once attended our small group but who have since moved away.

Six Thoughts About Jesus

Joe Carter at The Evangelical Outpost recently wrote Six Thoughts about Jesus.  I found Joe's article offered some interesting insights about Jesus.

The Fourth Conversation with Brother Lawrence

The Fourth Conversation Father Joseph de Beaufort had with Brother Lawrence occurred on November 25, 1667. The conversation focused on the monk’s simple dependence on God. Here are the main points:

• We ought to leave behind everything that doesn’t lead to God. In this way we enter into this on-going conversation with God that is essential to our relationship with Him.
• We must recognize how God is present in our lives and focus on Him at all times. Ask for His help when we need it and learn what His will is for us.
• Doing this leads to our ongoing conversation with God. We ought to praise and adore Him and never let our sin discourage us from these conversations.
• Because it’s all about Him--not us--real change will occur in us when our only goal is to please and adore Him. Change will come to us when we do things for God’s sake.
• We achieve this change by doing the everyday business of God. We must not try to please people, but do all things because of our love for God.
• God doesn’t care about the size of the tasks we complete in his name, only the love behind it.
• Our lives ought to be governed by faith, hope and love. These are the elements of real religion. Everything is easier when we believe; easier when we hope, and easier still when we continue to practice all three things.
• God humbles us through trials. We should accept trials for our own good as long as it’s God’s will.
• We must depend on the grace of God if we wish to do deeper with Him.