The Web Cam Chronicles... Part 2: Is He or isn't He?

Was He human or divine?

The "Barry and the Boys" from H2oChurch.tv met this past week again on Tokbox.com for some training we are doing as campus pastors. This week on the Tuesday session were the guys from El Dorado, Barry, and myself. The topic of the theological part of session two was about who Jesus really was/is. The conversation quickly moved to whether or not Jesus was divine or human. I believe that He is/was both, and here are a few scriptures to back this up...

Going over our notes, here is what we studied...

Jesus was a Man! Philippians 2:6-8 & Hebrews 4:15

Philippians 2:6-8:6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (English Standard Version)

Verses 7-8 in The Message reads... "When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion."

Since Jesus didn't claim any special privileges, He really did make himself a mere man!

Hebrews 4:15-16 says, "15 This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. 16 So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most."

Jesus knows my hang-ups because he also had those same hang-ups, only he didn't fail like I do. Knowing this, we all have to go to Him for the help we all need!

Jesus was also God! Here are some other scriptures that point to the fact that Jesus was also God! When he was taken into custody and questioned by the high priest Caiaphas, Jesus was bold.
Mark 14:60-62 says,"60 Then the high priest stood up before the others and asked Jesus, “Well, aren’t you going to answer these charges? What do you have to say for yourself?” 61 But Jesus was silent and made no reply. Then the high priest asked him, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?” 62 Jesus said, “I Am. And you will see the Son of Man seated in the place of power at God’s right hand and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

If Jesus were only a man, he would have denied what he was accused of. He, like the rest of us would have saved his own skin! If he were only man, he wouldn't have died on the cross for us, because if He were only man it wouldn't have mattered! But since He was also God, He could pull it off because only God could!

Another of many examples that shows Jesus to be God is in Matthew 26:34. In this verse, "Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, Peter—this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny three times that you even know me.” Again, if Jesus were not also God, how would he know what Peter would say in the future. I mean, he could have made a vague claim like Nostradomus or something, but He specifically said "three times before the morning!" Only God could do that!

Mark 4: 39 -41 gives us another example of how Jesus was proven to be God. "When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Silence! Be still!” Suddenly the wind stopped, and there was a great calm. 40 Then he asked them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” 41 The disciples were absolutely terrified. “Who is this man?” they asked each other. “Even the wind and waves obey him!”

... enough said.
... Jesus was both Man and God!

~Fahring

The Web Cam Chronicles... Part 1

You know, God really moves in ways that I could never even remotely imagine! With our new church plant in Anthony Ks, (Life 180 Church), I have come in contact with so many people that I never would have by staying complacent in our previous church. He also is so cool in how He uses technology to do these things!

Every week, there are at least two to three people that I begin talking to that God has specifically either sent to me as encouragement or sent me to encourage them! Just this past week, we (Jason B. and I) started some campus pastoral training with Barry Worcester from H20church.tv. We used a website called tokbox.com that is similar to Skype and allows us to do video conferencing. We met with another guy from Bartlesville Ok. from Ignite Church. The information we shared was great!

Here is the crux of this posting...So many Christians hide from the world when they (we) should be invading it. If we truly are in a war, then why don't we take the next hill on the battlefield and continue moving forward? We hide in our "Christian Bubbles" and continue on through life with our christian friends watching our christian movies, going to this that and the other bible study that can turn into more of a gossip session instead of a prayer meeting and all the while wonder ... why don't nonchristians come to these things? I think the answer is that we don't let them in our bubble!

In our training with Barry, we began talking about the passage from John Ch. 4 about the woman at the well and how H2oChurch builds it's mission on this chapter. Specifically, Jesus was just outside the village of Sychar at Jacob's well in the middle of the day... noon'ish, hot as hot.. You get the picture! It says in verses 6-7 that he (Jesus) was sitting there next to the well when this woman came to get water.

Here is what I found interesting... the woman only came in the middle of the day because in today's language, she would have been thought of as a "fast woman", "promiscuous", basically she didn't have a good reputation in the community. Anyway, she came to the well at noon because nobody would be there at that time. She wouldn't have to hear the other women's comments, and she wasn't welcomed at that place when people were there. She went to the well to do a chore that nobody wants to do at the worst time of the day to do it and she met God! The creator of our universe sat in the heat and dirt and met with her!

What I learned in our video conference and as I rehash this here is that God has his own bubble, and everything in existence is in it... including us! Why do we as Christians so often try to only go after the affluent or the people that can do things to help our church? How do we know that God won't do amazing things in amazing ways with and through people we find completely unamazing and oftentimes repulsive!

So many of the "Lost" people of this world see Christianity as a religion where rules have to be followed, budgets need to be met, and committees need to meet when in essence Christianity is none of those things. We need to show people that Christianity is a relationship and a series of intimate moments with the Creator of the universe just like the woman at the well had by breaking our "Christian Bubbles"! Barry summed it up when he said, "Remove the bariers that hinder non-Christians from seeing God".

~Fahring

Post Easter

Hope everyone had a great Easter! If you haven't found those eggs yet, KEEP LOOKING! They will probably start smelling pretty bad by tomorrow! A really good blog to check out about Easter Sunday at our church Life180 is ... http://www.stay-at-home-child.com/
Evie kind of hits the nail on the head with this one.
~Jason