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.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
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.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Meyers Briggs
As you can probably guess from the title of this blog we've been studying Meyers Briggs this week. I'd never heard of the Meyers Briggs test, but as I mentioned the topic to others around me they would list letters saying, "I'm an ESFP," or something like that. It wasn't too long before they explained this was a personality test. As the week started I was very skeptical of the topic, mostly because I felt like personality tests put people in boxes that define who they are and then tell them how they should act. Usually they will tell you your strengths and weaknesses, which are very helpful, but I don't think those things should define your identity or how you treat others.
As the week got started it seemed my conclusion was correct, we were slapping a label on every person in our class, with labels such as "ESTJ" (Extroverted, Sensing, Thinking, and Judging). When they would start to explain each letter and what the combinations meant and how certain combinations would act in daily life I thought I had this thing figured out. I started to assume there was a ranking system and each type was better than another, like rock paper scissors. I realized there wasn't a “best” one but they each compliment the other. Just as I thought I had this whole test thing figured out, the speaker said something that will stay with me forever, "Meyers Briggs doesn't put you in a box, but takes you out of one." What?!?! That completely went against everything I ever thought about personality tests.
Let me explain what he meant in this statement. Many people put themselves in boxes because they think others should act the same way as them, make decisions the same way, or look at things the same way. What the Meyers Briggs test is designed to do is to take people out of that box and to show you there are different personality types that look at things differently and makes decisions different, etc. Now many people think when they give the traits of your personality type you must act that way and fit into that paradigm. But our speaker also explained many people operate all over the board in the different personality types and you can fix very few people to one set of letters. We also found out almost all of the letters are split evenly in the USA, meaning half of the people are extrovert and half introvert. This week of class totally changed my view of personality tests and how they help and teach people. I'm very excited to help people come to the same revelation I did about these tests. Most of all, I'm looking forward to using this tool in all the different types of ministry I work in throughout my life. It truly helps me to know how to relate and treat those around me like they should be treated, like Jesus would treat them. If you would like to learn more or chat about this week’s topic you can email me at Christerbergus@gmail.com.
As the week got started it seemed my conclusion was correct, we were slapping a label on every person in our class, with labels such as "ESTJ" (Extroverted, Sensing, Thinking, and Judging). When they would start to explain each letter and what the combinations meant and how certain combinations would act in daily life I thought I had this thing figured out. I started to assume there was a ranking system and each type was better than another, like rock paper scissors. I realized there wasn't a “best” one but they each compliment the other. Just as I thought I had this whole test thing figured out, the speaker said something that will stay with me forever, "Meyers Briggs doesn't put you in a box, but takes you out of one." What?!?! That completely went against everything I ever thought about personality tests.
Let me explain what he meant in this statement. Many people put themselves in boxes because they think others should act the same way as them, make decisions the same way, or look at things the same way. What the Meyers Briggs test is designed to do is to take people out of that box and to show you there are different personality types that look at things differently and makes decisions different, etc. Now many people think when they give the traits of your personality type you must act that way and fit into that paradigm. But our speaker also explained many people operate all over the board in the different personality types and you can fix very few people to one set of letters. We also found out almost all of the letters are split evenly in the USA, meaning half of the people are extrovert and half introvert. This week of class totally changed my view of personality tests and how they help and teach people. I'm very excited to help people come to the same revelation I did about these tests. Most of all, I'm looking forward to using this tool in all the different types of ministry I work in throughout my life. It truly helps me to know how to relate and treat those around me like they should be treated, like Jesus would treat them. If you would like to learn more or chat about this week’s topic you can email me at Christerbergus@gmail.com.
Friday, January 28, 2011
What does freedom feel like?
Over the summer the Lord set me free from so much, For the first time in my life I actually feel like I know who I am and what I was created for, so coming into the FCM (Foundations in Counseling Ministry) I wasn’t sure what the Lord wanted to work on in my life. I knew He called me to do the school and I also knew He wouldn’t tell me to do it without a purpose, because of Romans 8:28 ‘that he has predestined everything to work out for our good.’ I thought I’d dealt with everything over the summer, repenting of my past and truly receiving the forgiveness and freedom from God. We all should know that He wants us to be set free, like Paul says we used to be slaves to sin but we died with Christ and now we are dead to sin. And for freedoms sake we have been set free. It’s obvious that God doesn’t want us to be bound up and be a slave to anything but righteousness. All of this lead me to wondering what else the Lord wanted to set me free from, little did I know I would find out very soon.
The first two weeks of FCM we learned about Plumb line ministry, Amos 7:7. The whole idea is that since we live and have grown up in a fallen world we’ve been raised along a false plumb line. The two false plumb lines fall under the main areas of rejection and rebellion. Everybody will always swing to rejection first and then decide to swing a rebellious plumb line, while some will stay in the rejection plumb line their whole life. The creator of this ministry is Bruce Thompson and we have had the pleasure of Bruce teaching class this week. As the creator, Bruce knows exactly how to work and direct the teaching and ministry, just like a watch maker knows how to disassemble and reassemble a watch. Bruce’s biggest dependence is on the Holy Spirit, which is where all real freedom comes from.
As the week progressed the Lord started to highlight areas of my life I thought I had repented of and given to God. But I came to realize I had only been repenting of the sin and never the root of the sin. Just like a weed, if you want to kill it you must take out the roots so it doesn’t come back. Sin is the same, you must find the root of the sin and repent of that, in essence cut off the root, and that is exactly why God has me doing this course. There were many things I thought I had broken off and was free from, but I realized I had only been cutting off the leaves of the sin and not going after the roots. After the Holy Spirit revealed these roots in my life, I fully repented and received the forgiveness Jesus gave to me and all of us 2000 years ago. Today I feel freer than I have ever felt in my life. But even more than being excited for myself, I am excited to be able to minister to others using this tool of plumb line, to bring them back to God’s original, straight plumb line.
The first two weeks of FCM we learned about Plumb line ministry, Amos 7:7. The whole idea is that since we live and have grown up in a fallen world we’ve been raised along a false plumb line. The two false plumb lines fall under the main areas of rejection and rebellion. Everybody will always swing to rejection first and then decide to swing a rebellious plumb line, while some will stay in the rejection plumb line their whole life. The creator of this ministry is Bruce Thompson and we have had the pleasure of Bruce teaching class this week. As the creator, Bruce knows exactly how to work and direct the teaching and ministry, just like a watch maker knows how to disassemble and reassemble a watch. Bruce’s biggest dependence is on the Holy Spirit, which is where all real freedom comes from.
As the week progressed the Lord started to highlight areas of my life I thought I had repented of and given to God. But I came to realize I had only been repenting of the sin and never the root of the sin. Just like a weed, if you want to kill it you must take out the roots so it doesn’t come back. Sin is the same, you must find the root of the sin and repent of that, in essence cut off the root, and that is exactly why God has me doing this course. There were many things I thought I had broken off and was free from, but I realized I had only been cutting off the leaves of the sin and not going after the roots. After the Holy Spirit revealed these roots in my life, I fully repented and received the forgiveness Jesus gave to me and all of us 2000 years ago. Today I feel freer than I have ever felt in my life. But even more than being excited for myself, I am excited to be able to minister to others using this tool of plumb line, to bring them back to God’s original, straight plumb line.
Monday, January 10, 2011
First Steps of 2011
Stewarding is a calling God places on our lives and should always be one of the greatest desires in our hearts. This is what the Lord has spoken to me many times over the past two weeks. How do we do this? What does stewarding look like? This is where we turn to the universes’ greatest guidance counselor, The Holy Spirit. He will be able to guide us in the correct direction for the calling that He has placed on our lives.
Over the past year God has spoken to me many times that I've been called into leadership in the body of believers. Now I'm at the same place that many of us have been at before. What do I do to steward that calling? As 2010 came to a close the Lord pressed upon me that I need to take steps toward preparing myself for this roll that He's called me into. What He led me to is a school known as FCM (Foundations for Counseling Ministry) which is based here in Kona. I continued to seek Him as to why He had lead me in this direction and He spoke to me that the best way I can ready myself for leadership in this season is to learn to counsel others with scriptural wisdom.
Recently God has highlighted identity to me and how vitally important it is for every Christian to get a firm grasp of who they are in Him. Without this identity we won’t be able to operate in all God has for us. We must come into an understanding of who we are in Jesus. To understand that we don't have to work for a single thing in this kingdom we have been given as sons and daughters. Our identity was given to us when we were created by Him and known by Him since He formed us. We must work from our identity and not for it. Through this course (FCM) I know God will help me to better grasp my own identity and in turn be able to help those I mentor to better grasp their identity.
I am in great expectancy of all the Lord is going to do in this season and what He has planned for us all.
Over the past year God has spoken to me many times that I've been called into leadership in the body of believers. Now I'm at the same place that many of us have been at before. What do I do to steward that calling? As 2010 came to a close the Lord pressed upon me that I need to take steps toward preparing myself for this roll that He's called me into. What He led me to is a school known as FCM (Foundations for Counseling Ministry) which is based here in Kona. I continued to seek Him as to why He had lead me in this direction and He spoke to me that the best way I can ready myself for leadership in this season is to learn to counsel others with scriptural wisdom.
Recently God has highlighted identity to me and how vitally important it is for every Christian to get a firm grasp of who they are in Him. Without this identity we won’t be able to operate in all God has for us. We must come into an understanding of who we are in Jesus. To understand that we don't have to work for a single thing in this kingdom we have been given as sons and daughters. Our identity was given to us when we were created by Him and known by Him since He formed us. We must work from our identity and not for it. Through this course (FCM) I know God will help me to better grasp my own identity and in turn be able to help those I mentor to better grasp their identity.
I am in great expectancy of all the Lord is going to do in this season and what He has planned for us all.
Trip to China
As I have had time to process my outreach in China and think about how the Lord moved, I am awestruck by what He has done and what He has taught me through many stretching situations. We were blessed with the opportunity to see 50 Chinese come to the Lord during our time in China. Through that, I came into the full revelation of what it really means when people say that a salvation is the greatest miracle and why Jesus leaves the 99 and goes out after the one. Being able to personally lead a lost soul to eternal life with our savior has to be one of the biggest highlights of not just my outreach but my entire life!
Watching a person’s face and eyes change as they come into understanding of the One who died to save them and praying with them to be filled with the Holy Spirit was a direct blessing from God.
I also had the pleasure of leading half of the team (by myself) to the country of Hong Kong to get their visas renewed so that we could return to China and finish the work that we'd started. The Lord used this time to grow me in ways that I thought wouldn't have been possible at my age. There was definitely a special grace on me to lead alone, that, if I didn't have I wouldn't have been able to lead by myself. I grew in my dependence on God the most, seeking him in and for everything I did.
Most of our ministry was to university students and it really captivated me that most of them had read at least one book of the Bible. These students were so hungry for the Lord that they were seeking him out even without people telling them to or showing them the way. When those beautiful feet of the ones who bring good news come, there is a ripe harvest waiting around every corner!
This outreach fulfilled and exceeded every expectation that I had for my time in China and for the ways the Lord would move during our time. It gets me even more excited to lead another team next year to a brand new location and see what God is doing in a different part of our globe. He is moving everywhere, He just wants us to join in.
Watching a person’s face and eyes change as they come into understanding of the One who died to save them and praying with them to be filled with the Holy Spirit was a direct blessing from God.
I also had the pleasure of leading half of the team (by myself) to the country of Hong Kong to get their visas renewed so that we could return to China and finish the work that we'd started. The Lord used this time to grow me in ways that I thought wouldn't have been possible at my age. There was definitely a special grace on me to lead alone, that, if I didn't have I wouldn't have been able to lead by myself. I grew in my dependence on God the most, seeking him in and for everything I did.
Most of our ministry was to university students and it really captivated me that most of them had read at least one book of the Bible. These students were so hungry for the Lord that they were seeking him out even without people telling them to or showing them the way. When those beautiful feet of the ones who bring good news come, there is a ripe harvest waiting around every corner!
This outreach fulfilled and exceeded every expectation that I had for my time in China and for the ways the Lord would move during our time. It gets me even more excited to lead another team next year to a brand new location and see what God is doing in a different part of our globe. He is moving everywhere, He just wants us to join in.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
China on the Horizon
The Day has finally arrived and I will be heading off to China with a team of ten other people on Sept. 23rd at 4am. Much preparation has gone into this trip and I know God is going to move in more insane ways then I can even imagine. We are going to be gone for ten weeks, nine of which will be spent in mainland China, the other week will be in Hong Kong for our debrief. It is becoming more and more evident this team has been divinely assembled by God for this season and has been anointed to do the Lord’s will and work in China.
We are going to be doing many different kinds of ministries and I know we are going to see many Chinese come to Jesus. Sadly though, I will not be able to update my blog while I am in China, but you can be sure I will have many stories upon my return to Kona. I would like to ask all of you who read this keep me and the team in your prayers as we are definitely going to need it. China is still a closed nation and Christians are still persecuted in some areas. Please pray for safety, team unity, and the moving of the Holy Spirit; thank you so much for all of your prayers, they do mean so much! If you would like to contact me you can email me securely at cbergus@fastmail.fm
We are going to be doing many different kinds of ministries and I know we are going to see many Chinese come to Jesus. Sadly though, I will not be able to update my blog while I am in China, but you can be sure I will have many stories upon my return to Kona. I would like to ask all of you who read this keep me and the team in your prayers as we are definitely going to need it. China is still a closed nation and Christians are still persecuted in some areas. Please pray for safety, team unity, and the moving of the Holy Spirit; thank you so much for all of your prayers, they do mean so much! If you would like to contact me you can email me securely at cbergus@fastmail.fm
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