Tag Archives: stephencrosby.soarlms.com

Sep 20 2021

Escape and Assurance: 'Monday Morning Musings - September 20, 2021'

In many common presentations of the Gospel in modern evangelicalism, the themes of escape and assurance have had a dominant presence. If we are pursuing Christian community with those two values as primary motivators, we will assure ourselves of unnecessary relationship difficulties. A local community is not something we should hope to escape at the first whiff of an unpleasant experience. A local community is the laboratory of relational life where the ethics of what we say we believe gets tested.  I am not saying there are never good reasons to leave a group. There are. But “I am not enjoying myself” or “it is too hard,” or “it hurts,” are not among the legitimate reasons. 

 

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Copyright 2021. Dr. Stephen R. Crosby. www.stevecrosby.org. For video and audio resources, sign up as a student here. You will find a mix of both free resources and those with cost. This ministry is sustained by the freewill offerings of those believe in the message of a radical grace in a new covenant understanding. If this blog article has been a blessing to you, would you prayerfully consider making a contribution through our Paypal button to help? Stephanos Ministries is NOT a 501-c-3 corporation Click here to understand why. Thank you and God bless you.

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Sep 13 2021

The Dream versus The Reality – Dealing with “Unpleasantness”: 'Monday Morning Musings - September 13, 2021'

 

“The person who loves their dream of community will destroy community, but the person who loves those around them will create community.” – D. Bonhoeffer

 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer coined the phrase the “Dream Wish” in the context of the search for Christian community. He makes the point that the Dream Wish will destroy any Christian Community because it is idealistic and unattainable. It is intolerant of weakness and defect. We must be open to the possibility that “God’s wonderful plan for our lives” might include an assignment to unpleasant people and places. Life can be hard. When it so, it does not mean we have missed God in any way.

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Copyright 2021. Dr. Stephen R. Crosby. www.stevecrosby.org. For video and audio resources, sign up as a student here. You will find a mix of both free resources and those with cost. This ministry is sustained by the freewill offerings of those believe in the message of a radical grace in a new covenant understanding. If this blog article has been a blessing to you, would you prayerfully consider making a contribution through our Paypal button to help? Stephanos Ministries is NOT a 501-c-3 corporation Click here to understand why. Thank you and God bless you.

 

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Aug 23 2021

Knit Together in Love: 'Monday Morning Musings - August 23, 2021'

Ask an average Evangelical or Charismatic about how to grow in grace and the knowledge of God and you will get answers like: study the Bible, listen to anointed preaching and teaching, get a “download” from the “Holy Ghost,” pray regularly. Few, if any would say “by being knit together in love.” Yet that is exactly what Paul itemizes as critical for unfolding the deep things of God.

 

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Copyright 2021. Dr. Stephen R. Crosby. www.stevecrosby.org. For video and audio resources, sign up as a student here. You will find a mix of both free resources and those with cost. This ministry is sustained by the freewill offerings of those believe in the message of a radical grace in a new covenant understanding. If this blog article has been a blessing to you, would you prayerfully consider making a contribution through our Paypal button to help? Stephanos Ministries is NOT a 501-c-3 corporation Click here to understand why. Thank you and God bless you.

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Aug 16 2021

Relationship and Community: 'Monday Morning Musings August 16, 2021'

Many folks are yearning and looking for authentic community together in Christ. It is a great goal, but if we hold some “isms” emotionally or intellectually in our heart, we are headed for disappointment. The “isms” that need to go if we would experience a vibrant (not perfect) Christian community are: Romanticism, perfectionism, idealism, and individualism. 

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Copyright 2021. Dr. Stephen R. Crosby. www.stevecrosby.org. For video and audio resources, sign up as a student here. You will find a mix of both free resources and those with cost. This ministry is sustained by the freewill offerings of those believe in the message of a radical grace in a new covenant understanding. If this blog article has been a blessing to you, would you prayerfully consider making a contribution through our Paypal button to help? Stephanos Ministries is NOT a 501-c-3 corporation Click here to understand why. Thank you and God bless you.

 

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Aug 9 2021

The Just Shall Live by Relational Trust: 'Monday Morning Musings August 9, 2021'

 

Faith is more than a private intellectual posture of assent toward biblical propositions of truth. Faith, defined as a first-century Jew would define it, is relational trust. It is social. By definition it speaks of relationship with another be they God or human beings.

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Copyright 2021. Dr. Stephen R. Crosby. www.stevecrosby.org. For video and audio resources, sign up as a student here. You will find a mix of both free resources and those with cost. This ministry is sustained by the freewill offerings of those believe in the message of a radical grace in a new covenant understanding. If this blog article has been a blessing to you, would you prayerfully consider making a contribution through our Paypal button to help? Stephanos Ministries is NOT a 501-c-3 corporation Click here to understand why. Thank you and God bless you.

 

 

 

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Jul 27 2021

The Wrath of God: 'Monday Morning Musing July 26, 2021'

How we define wrath is going to shape our theology and our God-image. The ancient church fathers rightly taught that God is not moved by the same kinds of passions that we are as humans. So, whatever concept of wrath we may hold, it cannot be just a bigger, badder, and more vindictive version of our own anger at sin and injustice.

 

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Copyright 2021. Dr. Stephen R. Crosby. www.stevecrosby.org. For video and audio resources, sign up as a student here. You will find a mix of both free resources and those with cost. This ministry is sustained by the freewill offerings of those believe in the message of a radical grace in a new covenant understanding. If this blog article has been a blessing to you, would you prayerfully consider making a contribution through our Paypal button to help? Stephanos Ministries is NOT a 501-c-3 corporation Click here to understand why. Thank you and God bless you.

 

 

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Jul 19 2021

Vengeance or Justice?: 'Monday Morning Musings - July 19, 2021'

Vengeance is based on a self-need for vindication, or satisfaction. It is rooted in desires of having experienced a personal wrong that requires some sort of “equilibrating” payment. There is no self-need in God, of any kind, period. Therefore, our human understanding of vengeance, including that which supposedly belongs to God, needs to be abandoned and a more scripturally sound concept, faithful to both the nature of God and Scripture needs to be embraced. Vindictive retribution is an insult to the nature of God in Christ.

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Copyright 2021. Dr. Stephen R. Crosby. www.stevecrosby.org. For video and audio resources, sign up as a student here. You will find a mix of both free resources and those with cost. This ministry is sustained by the freewill offerings of those believe in the message of a radical grace in a new covenant understanding. If this blog article has been a blessing to you, would you prayerfully consider making a contribution through our Paypal button to help? Stephanos Ministries is NOT a 501-c-3 corporation Click here to understand why. Thank you and God bless you.

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Jul 12 2021

His Justice is Not Like Ours: 'Monday Morning Musings - July 12, 2021'

 

In our world justice is static and inflexible. Our image of justice is a blind woman with a balance and a sword. This speaks of something precisely balanced, evened out, equal, proportional–implemented by force and the threat of violence if necessary. The prophets had a different idea. Amos says that God’s justice flows like a mighty river. It is something dynamic and full of surging life and power. It is not precise. It is uncontainable, fluid and brings CLEANSING, HEALING and LIFE wherever it goes, not PUNISHMENT and DEATH. God’s ways are not like our ways and this applies to our understanding of divine justice.

 

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Copyright 2021. Dr. Stephen R. Crosby. www.stevecrosby.org. For video and audio resources, sign up as a student here. You will find a mix of both free resources and those with cost. This ministry is sustained by the freewill offerings of those believe in the message of a radical grace in a new covenant understanding. If this blog article has been a blessing to you, would you prayerfully consider making a contribution through our Paypal button to help? Stephanos Ministries is NOT a 501-c-3 corporation Click here to understand why. Thank you and God bless you.

 

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Jun 28 2021

Love’s Price Tag: 'Monday Morning Musings - June 28, 2021'

The rhetoric of love is cheap. The living of love is costly.

 

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Copyright 2021. Dr. Stephen R. Crosby. www.stevecrosby.org. For video and audio resources, sign up as a student here. You will find a mix of both free resources and those with cost. This ministry is sustained by the freewill offerings of those believe in the message of a radical grace in a new covenant understanding. If this blog article has been a blessing to you, would you prayerfully consider making a contribution through our Paypal button to help? Stephanos Ministries is NOT a 501-c-3 corporation Click here to understand why. Thank you and God bless you.

Jun 21 2021

Signs and Wonders: 'Monday Morning Musings - June 21, 2021'

Signs and wonders are normal features of a full-spectrum Gospel of Jesus. However, they are not center stage. They are not to be commercialized, systematized nor reduced to “supernatural techniques” and methods. They also do not guarantee that those experiencing or seeing signs and wonders will inevitably accept the claims of Jesus as Savior and Lord. Jesus and the apostles did miracles and it did not make them popular nor successful. They were still martyred. Miracles do not guarantee conversion–or anything for that matter.

 

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Copyright 2021. Dr. Stephen R. Crosby. www.stevecrosby.org. For video and audio resources, sign up as a student here. You will find a mix of both free resources and those with cost. This ministry is sustained by the freewill offerings of those believe in the message of a radical grace in a new covenant understanding. If this blog article has been a blessing to you, would you prayerfully consider making a contribution through our Paypal button to help? Stephanos Ministries is NOT a 501-c-3 corporation Click here to understand why. Thank you and God bless you.

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