THEOparadox - The Biblical Paradox Blog: FYI

Thursday, October 27, 2011

FYI

I'm married to the most awesome woman on the planet!

Just thought I'd mention that.

Marriage is not a sprint. It's a marathon (with high hurdles). We all get weary along the way. We grow tired of putting the interests of others ahead of our own, dying to self, preferring one another in love, considering others more important than ourselves, speaking the truth in love, and bearing one another's burdens. That's not easy stuff, no matter how beautiful, talented or fun your spouse may be.

But here's what I've noticed in 15 years of marriage: when I do love my wife in any measure with our Lord's kind of self-sacrificing, practical love, there comes to my heart an inexpressible joy. Although It's hard to die to self, it's a JOY to live as Christ would live. Marriage is the perfect opportunity for sacrifice, for servanthood, for discipleship, for cross-bearing, for pain, for heartbreak, for perseverance, for suffering . . . and for glorious JOY!

7 comments:

RichieOctober 27, 2011 at 10:43 AM
Amen, brother!

...but I have to correct you. Actually, I'm married to the most awesome woman on the planet :)
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THEOparadoxOctober 27, 2011 at 10:52 AM
Ha ha, well, every married man should believe his wife is the best one. And it's true, of course, that she is the best one for him.
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RichieOctober 27, 2011 at 11:07 AM
That's right. I'm just giving you a bit of a hard time. I appreciate what you do here.
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THEOparadoxOctober 27, 2011 at 11:19 AM
I appreciate the kidding, it gave me a chuckle. :)

Your church website mentions a NANC counseling program. I attended a church in Kentucky that had dozens of NANC certified counselors (in fact, this is part of the reason I'm still married). My pastor and I are currently attending NANC Counseling and Discipleship Training here in Florida. It's been a great experience!

It's always exciting to find a church that practices nouthetic counseling.

Blessings,
Derek
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RichieOctober 27, 2011 at 11:36 AM
I'm glad to hear that you and your pastor are getting NANC training. IMHO, nouthetic counseling is much needed (beginning with pastors and extending to elders and members) and invaluable in ministering to one another in the body of Christ. I have not gone through our program yet, but my wife has, and it truly has been a blessing.

What part of KY were you in? We lived in eastern KY (Paintsville/Prestonsburg) for 6 years prior to moving back to SC.

Richie
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THEOparadoxOctober 27, 2011 at 11:44 AM
We lived in Northern KY, just south of Cincinnati in the town of Florence. Our pastor there is now a NANC instructor who speaks at CDT events around the country, and the church hosts CDT training each year.

I've never been to Eastern KY, other than a few trips to the Red River Gorge area. KY stole my heart and hasn't returned it yet!

Derek
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RichieOctober 27, 2011 at 12:22 PM
I'm familiar with the Florence, KY area--my former pastor moved to Covington several years ago.

We miss KY as well--God worked mightily and profoundly in our lives during our time there, in preparation for where we are now.

Richie
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THEOparadox MISSION Statement:

~To honor God by upholding the authority, inerrancy and sufficiency of His Word, the Bible.
~To help students of the Word to interpret Biblical paradoxes in a way that faithfully reflects God's heart.
~To ignite a devotional flame that will help believers to warm up their theology and burn up their pride.
~To encourage Christian faith by resolving or explaining apparent contradictions in the Scriptures.
~To explore the nature and extent of paradoxes in historically orthodox, Reformed, Biblical theology.

~To provide Biblical resources for those who desire to know God and His Word better.

~To glorify the Lord Jesus Christ, the Friend of sinners and the Savior of the lost.

What is a PARADOX?

A tenet or proposition contrary to received opinion, or seemingly absurd, yet true in fact.

Noah Webster, American Dictionary of the English Language, 1828 Edition

"... it is synonymous with apparent contradiction. A 'paradox' thus amounts to a set of claims which taken in conjunction appear to be logically inconsistent. Note that according to this definition, paradoxicality does not entail logical inconsistency per se, but merely the appearance of logical inconsistency."

James Anderson, Paradox in Christian Theology

Wise Words . . .

"By advocating paradox I don't want to give the impression that I'm giving a carte blanche to not think philosophically, to not think deeply, about these doctrines. Quite the opposite. . . . My position is that with each of these doctrines we reflect on them as hard as we can, we penetrate them as best we can based on the Scriptural data that we do have, but we also recognize that there are going to be limits, and that those limits are actually a positive thing and not a reflection of some inherent problem in the doctrines or in the process of theological reflection. . . . I think we can make progress, we can make

considerable progress, in understanding these doctrines and resolving some of the . . . initial difficulties that we have with them, but at the same time recognizing that we're always only going to get so far and when we bump up against the limits of our capacity to formulate them in certain ways or to resolve certain difficulties in them, we

shouldn't be too concerned about that. We certainly shouldn't say, 'Okay, we need to admit that Christians are ultimately irrationalists.' No. We don't need to say that at all. . . . It's a Biblically constrained rationality. It's a middle way between rationalism, of which I think [Gordon H.] Clark was a representative, and irrationalism, of which, to take an example I think the Neo-Orthodox - Karl Barth - would be an example, where you're saying that there are actual contradictions in there. So I think it's navigating a Biblical middle way between these two extremes: having too high a view of the human intellect, and perhaps too low a view of the intellect, of our ability to know the things

of God."

~Dr. James Anderson

Theological Paradoxes

Below I have listed some of the classic theological paradoxes (and a few interesting ironies, too) . . .

~The Trinity - God is One being revealed in three distinct persons (Father, Son, Holy Spirit)
~God is transcendent (separate from His creation) yet immanent (in His creation)
~Omnipresence - God is always present everywhere, yet He sometimes speaks of Himself as "present" in a special way
~The Incarnation - God became a man
~The Virgin Birth - A Jewish virgin gave birth to the Son of God
~The Two Natures of Christ - Jesus is fully (100%) God and fully (100%) man

~The Atonement is sufficient to save every person, but efficient only for those who believe
~God is completely sovereign (in control of everything, everywhere, all the time) yet He is not the author of sin and he uses human choice to accomplish His purposes
~Inspiration of Scripture - The Bible was written by sinful human beings yet it is the inerrant and flawless Word of God
~Divine Revelation - Sinful man cannot comprehend God, yet God reveals Himself to sinful man
~Sanctification - Christians are sinners by nature, but saints by grace
~Suffering - God brings His joy and comfort into our lives through our experiences of pain, disappointment and suffering

There are many others. Paradox is everywhere when we attempt to understand God's ways in a genuinely Biblical way.

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Thursday, October 27, 2011

FYI

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