Posts by nick batzig
Perspective is key. As I consider the many discontent and complaining spirits of both ministers and people alike in the church in America, I wish that I could take these words and etch them on the hearts of us all.
At the end of an unusually exhausting or challenging week I sometimes find myself saying, "This has been the hardest week of my life." This is often simply a sophisticated way of complaining. We want others to know how hard we have worked or want them to feel sorry for how much we have been through. In reality, there was only one person who could truly say, "This was the hardest week of my life" without it involving any sinful self-pity--and, He said it in a multiplicity of ways as He pressed through it for our redemption.
The restoration of Eden moves from the Garden of Eden to the Land of Israel to the Temple to the incarnate Jesus to His eternal dwelling with His Bride, the Church. The Scriptures move through all of these "dwelling places" from the Garden-Temple (Gen. 2-3) to the Garden-Bride (Rev. 21-22). All of this is built upon the fact that man was made out of the "ground." A biblical-theological consideration of the "ground" will help us better tie all of this together from creation to the new creation in Christ.
In order to understand a biblical theology of clothing we have to go back to Genesis 3 and understand the problem of spiritual nakedness and the correlation that it holds to physical nakedness...The biblical teaching about the first and last Adam helps us understand a biblical theology of clothing. The first Adam disobediently ate from, self-righteously sought covering from and shamefully hid behind a tree. The second Adam hung naked and shamed on a tree in order to heal, cover and accept us as righteous in His sight. In the last Adam we have our glorious dress renewed and restored forever.
What can be done to foster a spiritual friendliness and a welcoming culture in our churches?
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