Restoring A Passion For The Christ

James reminds me that I am not called to evade (or run from) my culture. I am called to invade (or radically influence) it!

Disciples needed to imitate their Rabbi.

Not only are disciples to know and understand their rabbi’s teachings, they are to imitate their rabbi’s actions. You see, the rabbi’s of Jesus day knew that it wasn’t enough just to know what the Scriptures say. It wasn’t enough to just know what your teacher says. It was only when you put these things into action that they began to hold any real value in life.

For disciples of Jesus time, it was their highest calling to be a reflection of his teacher. What a goal for which to strive towards!

It is the calling of each one of us as Children of God to not only know what He knows, but to live the way He lived. That was the calling of a disciple in Jesus’ day. That is our calling as Christians today, yet often people put in and invest too little to follow Jesus.

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While sitting in bible-college recently, I’ve heard it said in class that God as the creator, can create something from nothing – the term used was Ex-nihilo.

I sort of agree with that statement, but I think it should be worded differently. I know God created the heavens and the earth out of nothing, but I don’t remember seeing that happen anywhere in the scriptures again. God can create something out of nothing, but He rarely does. Instead, I think it would be more accurate to say that God specializes at creating something from very little. When he wanted to make fish, he turned to the sea to do it. When He wanted to make man, He took the dust of the ground and made man. When He wanted to make a woman, He took a rib from Adam’s side. Except for one chapter in Genesis (actually a few verses really), God always took what He had and made something miraculous out of it.

I don’t like math. I barely passed math in high school and failed it in college. I remember in high school using the answers in the back of the text book to answer my math problems. My teacher would always say, “You got the right answer, but I want to see how you got it!” I had the answer, but I didn’t have an explanation!

Anyways, there is not much I remember about math, but there is one rule I remember. One rule that I learned that I think may apply to the church and to your life. Anything times 0 equals 0. Let’s try to see how well you know math.

2 X 0 = 0

3.75 X 0 = 0

2,000,000 X 0 = 0

1 million, billion, trillion, “uku” plenty, X 0 = what? 0.

I wonder if God’s mathematics works like that too. I wonder if what is true in math is true in the spiritual realm too. If anything times zero equals zero, could it be that God times zero equals zero too? Could it be that the biblical formula for the miraculous is me first putting in my part (however small that may be)?

Now I know in the bible, in Genesis, God creates everything out of nothing, but I don’t ever recall seeing that elsewhere in the scriptures. God created something out of nothing in the beginning, but there is no indication that He still does that.