he counseling school that I was taking has officially finished and I am excited and saddened at the same time. On one hand I am glad to be done with school and free to do more around campus, but at the same time I am going to miss school. Until I started this class I hadn't realized how much I actually had missed school in general and the work that comes with it. While I was in high school I really didn't enjoy it, mostly because of all of the homework that we had. I had envisioned college would be different simply because I would get to choose the classes I would be taking and thus be able to choose what I enjoy. My assumptions turned out to be true. I enjoyed the work we did for the counseling school a lot more than I would any other type of school work, because I wanted to do it. The lectures were something I looked forward to on a daily basis and not something I was dreading each and everyday like I remember doing in my high school days.
Although these past three months have been such a growing time for me I am stoked to start the next season of my life here in Hawaii. For the next two months or so I am planning to work with the campus development department here on base. I have been working with them for the past three months as my work duty (2 hours a day worth of work for student, essentially a job), during that time we did an assortment of construction jobs from framing walls to pouring slabs of cement. During the next two months of work I will be doing whatever is necessary to see the completion of the buildings that are currently under construction on the mission base here. As soon as all of electrical and plumbing is finished we will be dry-walling the whole new two story dormitory, which will probably take around one full month of work.
During this time the members of the Awaken DTS staff will be continuing to meet and prepare for the DTS this summer. We meet a few times a week to bond and build relationship with each other. We are a very dedicated group of people and we expect a lot out of this summer. Among the group there is a deep hunger to see the Kingdom of Heaven invade earth and at the same time relaxing in knowing it’s the Lord who will bring it as we wait on Him. We are all learning about resting in the Lord, gaining new understanding of what it truly means to "be still and know that I am God" and that all we do HAS to be based out of a love for God and a love for others. Without the foundation of those two things all of our efforts will fail. The Lord is doing amazing things among us and we are ready for even more! Pray for us as we long for a deeper understanding of the love and restful relationship with our creator.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Cathedral vs. Temple Thinking
When Ashley presented the topic of cathedral vs. temple thinking last week I realized I had debated over it a little in the past, but when she gave it to the class I was pretty set in temple thinking. The difference between the two types of thinking is still based out of Greek and Hebraic mindsets, cathedral- Greek and temple- Hebraic. Simply explained, the cathedral thinking is we must get out of this world so we can dwell with God and when we die we are going to heaven. Essentially it is an escapism mindset that doesn't care about the earth because we are leaving it anyway. The temple thinking is we are here on earth and this is where God wants to dwell with us and when we die we aren't going anywhere. At the end of the age when Jesus comes back he will create a new earth and we will dwell there with him. Let me go into more detail.
Cathedral thinking was developed by the Greeks and the church adopted it through Greek philosophers who got saved and then started to influence the Christian church. This mindset believes the earth is only a place we are passing through and the treasure lies at the end of your life when you die and go to a giant mansion in Heaven. They display with the physical cathedrals in our cities here on earth, huge roofs, beautiful interior. They were meant to give you an out of this world experience when you entered them. Many churches today are still under this influence, they don't see the earth as a place we should take care of simply because we are going to leave it and God will destroy it.
On the opposite is the temple mindset which is what the Hebraic mindset is oriented towards, it is a biblically based mindset. When God created man He desired to dwell with man here on earth, man was never intended to die. If man was never intended to die, then the earth was never intended to pass away. But after man sinned, death entered the earth and thus the process of destruction started. As you go on through scripture you will see many times how God wants to dwell with man on earth, he lead the Israelites through the desert as a cloud by day and fire by night, He dwelt in the temple that was built for Him in Jerusalem. Of course He is never restrained to any specific roll man places on Him; He just wants to be here with us. Under the new covenant we are the temple of the Holy Spirit and He dwells in every believer, showing again that God wants to be here with us and not waiting for us to die so we can be with Him. At the end of the age Jesus is coming back and He will create a new earth on which the New Jerusalem will be built and we will live there for eternity.
I don't know about you, but I think the Hebraic mindset sounds like a lot more fun and it is way easier to believe because of the fact it is biblically based. Just as last time, if you would like to hear more about this topic you can email me at Cbergus@gmail.com.
Cathedral thinking was developed by the Greeks and the church adopted it through Greek philosophers who got saved and then started to influence the Christian church. This mindset believes the earth is only a place we are passing through and the treasure lies at the end of your life when you die and go to a giant mansion in Heaven. They display with the physical cathedrals in our cities here on earth, huge roofs, beautiful interior. They were meant to give you an out of this world experience when you entered them. Many churches today are still under this influence, they don't see the earth as a place we should take care of simply because we are going to leave it and God will destroy it.
On the opposite is the temple mindset which is what the Hebraic mindset is oriented towards, it is a biblically based mindset. When God created man He desired to dwell with man here on earth, man was never intended to die. If man was never intended to die, then the earth was never intended to pass away. But after man sinned, death entered the earth and thus the process of destruction started. As you go on through scripture you will see many times how God wants to dwell with man on earth, he lead the Israelites through the desert as a cloud by day and fire by night, He dwelt in the temple that was built for Him in Jerusalem. Of course He is never restrained to any specific roll man places on Him; He just wants to be here with us. Under the new covenant we are the temple of the Holy Spirit and He dwells in every believer, showing again that God wants to be here with us and not waiting for us to die so we can be with Him. At the end of the age Jesus is coming back and He will create a new earth on which the New Jerusalem will be built and we will live there for eternity.
I don't know about you, but I think the Hebraic mindset sounds like a lot more fun and it is way easier to believe because of the fact it is biblically based. Just as last time, if you would like to hear more about this topic you can email me at Cbergus@gmail.com.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Greek Vs. Hebraic Mindsets
This past week's teaching was brought by Ashley Little, the older sister of one of my best friends, Chris Little. She started off this week speaking on how our mindset in the American church has been heavily influenced by the Greek philosophers of old.
The most prominent way this is evident is by looking at the way we think opposed to the way of Hebraic thinking (anything related to the culture and/or language of the Hebrews). The Greek thinking pattern is a linear one, A+B=C and so on, but if A+B doesn't =C then it can't equal D, E, etc. Most of the Christian church is in this pattern of thinking; for example, Romans 8 says that we have been predestined by God, but we are told to pray in other passages. All of the apostles and Jesus model prayer as a spiritual discipline and something that moves the heart of God, the Greek thinking looks at this and says that one is wrong because they contradict each other and proceeds to get rid of the one they think is wrong, because it doesn't line up with the linear thinking pattern. Now the Hebraic way of thinking is what is called 'box' thinking, each book of the Bible is divided up as a box and each of the boxes is the inspired word of God and since "it is impossible for God to lie" (Hebrews 6:18) then each of these boxes, no matter how much they contradict the other are 100% truth.
For most of us this is hard to grasp, because as Americans, whether in or out of the church, we have all been taught with a linear thinking pattern and “the teacher is always right”. This is something else that contradicts what was originally designed for the church. The way the Jews would teach in the temple is they would read scripture out loud and then everybody would discuss it, there wasn't one person who knew it all and would be the single person teaching. That design came from Constantine, when he started to Romanize Christianity. Constantine outlawed the Jewish style of teaching and made it like the Roman senate, where one person would get up and teach all of the lay people. This has continued on today and was not the original design for the body of Christ. Our best representation of church is the house church, lead out by a single person and the 'congregation' is open for discussion on the topic that is shared.
This week has been a very challenging week for me and it has tested my thinking on many levels than I had anticipated. I had no idea how much the Greek philosophers had influenced our church and the way we look at scripture these days. I would love to chat more about this if any of you are interested, please email me at Christerbergus@gmail.com. I will be posting another blog very soon including more principles Ashley taught.
The most prominent way this is evident is by looking at the way we think opposed to the way of Hebraic thinking (anything related to the culture and/or language of the Hebrews). The Greek thinking pattern is a linear one, A+B=C and so on, but if A+B doesn't =C then it can't equal D, E, etc. Most of the Christian church is in this pattern of thinking; for example, Romans 8 says that we have been predestined by God, but we are told to pray in other passages. All of the apostles and Jesus model prayer as a spiritual discipline and something that moves the heart of God, the Greek thinking looks at this and says that one is wrong because they contradict each other and proceeds to get rid of the one they think is wrong, because it doesn't line up with the linear thinking pattern. Now the Hebraic way of thinking is what is called 'box' thinking, each book of the Bible is divided up as a box and each of the boxes is the inspired word of God and since "it is impossible for God to lie" (Hebrews 6:18) then each of these boxes, no matter how much they contradict the other are 100% truth.
For most of us this is hard to grasp, because as Americans, whether in or out of the church, we have all been taught with a linear thinking pattern and “the teacher is always right”. This is something else that contradicts what was originally designed for the church. The way the Jews would teach in the temple is they would read scripture out loud and then everybody would discuss it, there wasn't one person who knew it all and would be the single person teaching. That design came from Constantine, when he started to Romanize Christianity. Constantine outlawed the Jewish style of teaching and made it like the Roman senate, where one person would get up and teach all of the lay people. This has continued on today and was not the original design for the body of Christ. Our best representation of church is the house church, lead out by a single person and the 'congregation' is open for discussion on the topic that is shared.
This week has been a very challenging week for me and it has tested my thinking on many levels than I had anticipated. I had no idea how much the Greek philosophers had influenced our church and the way we look at scripture these days. I would love to chat more about this if any of you are interested, please email me at Christerbergus@gmail.com. I will be posting another blog very soon including more principles Ashley taught.
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