Theology for the Rest of Us

Latest Episodes:

38: Why is Temptation the Greatest Invitation to Worship? with Casey Cease Mar 10, 2016

Show notes

Many times we see worship as something that is segmented from the rest of our lives. But everything in our lives is a form of worship.

In this episode we are joined by pastor, author, blogger, podcaster, and book publisher Casey Cease. In our conversation, Casey beautifully highlights the importance of seeing temptation as an opportunity to worship God.

Every time we are tempted to sin and disobey God, we have the opportunity to reject that sin, which in-turn honors God. It makes God look good and brings Him joy. Saying no to sin is a form of worship. Whenever we say no to sin, we are telling God that we value what He values. Anytime we say no to sin we are communicating to God, to ourselves, to other people, and to Satan that we see great worth in the words and commands of Scriptures.

Casey reminds us that temptation in and of itself is not at all sinful. The struggle itself isn’t wrong, but sometimes we see temptation as bad. Sometimes when we are tempted, we feel like we have failed. But temptation should bring a different attitude. Temptation isn’t sin, temptation is an invitation to worship God. Temptation is the invitation, the opportunity, to shout to all peoples that we value God above all others.

Casey Cease is the Lead Pastor at Christ Community Church just outside Houston, Texas (in the Magnolia/Woodlands region). He is also the CEO of Lucid Books, a unique Christian book publishing company that focuses on Partnership Publishing. Their unique Partnership Publishing model allows our authors to reap long term benefits while maintaining creative control over their own work.

Get a Copy of Casey’s Book: Tragedy to Truth: A Story of Faith and Transformation

Check out Lucid Books: Lucidbooks.net

Check out Casey’s Website: Caseycease.com

Follow Casey on Twitter: @caseycease

37: Was Jesus Human or God? Mar 09, 2016

Show notes

Orthodox Christianity holds to high Christology, meaning we believe that Christ is “higher” than other beings, not just a good human. We believe that Jesus was both fully human and fully God. Jesus was not half God and have man, but rather He was simultaneously 100% God and 100% human. His divinity and His humanity united together perfectly, this is what we call the “hypostatic union.”

In this episode, Kenny explains how the second member of the Trinity became fully human. Jesus, the second member of the Trinity, stepped into the bounds of time, took on human flesh, and lived among us; we call this the “incarnation” of Christ.

Some critics claim that this isn’t possible so Kenny uses an example from the world of physics, explaining that light exist simultaneously as both a wave and a particle. Physicists never challenge this, although it seems illogical and impossible, because it has become an indisputable fact of science. Just because we cannot explain something doesn’t make it untrue. In the same manner, Jesus’ hypostatic union, while seemingly illogical and impossible, is still indisputable Biblical fact. The hypostatic union of Christ should be embraced and defended by believers.

Highlighted Passages:

John 8:58

John 5

John 10

Mark 14

Luke 5:20

John 1:1

Colossians 2:9

Hebrews 13:8

Hebrews 1

John 20:28

36: How Do We Believe in a God We Don’t Understand? Mar 08, 2016

Show notes

We recognize that in life there are going to be things about the character and nature of God that we simply do not understand. God is complex and infinite, therefore He is beyond our comprehension. We can, however, observe lots of things about God and His attributes, and we ought to seek to understand Him as much as possible, even with the presupposition that we’ll never fully comprehend Him.

In this episode, Kenny highlights God’s infinite nature and compares that with out finite nature, explaining that we are better-off when we relinquish our desire to fully understand God and simply worship Him in light of the attributes that we do already understand. Also, Kenny highlights that there are other things in our lives that we do not understand but we continually embrace. Not fully understanding something is not sufficient grounds to dismiss its existence.

Interview with John Lennox:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcoDM9U39GQ

35: Why Are There So Many Denominations? Mar 07, 2016

Show notes

There are more than 40,000 Christian denominations in the world today. But this wasn’t always the case. For the first several centuries of the church, there was only one branch of Christianity. But in 1054 the Great Schism took place, separating the eastern churches from the western churches. This formed the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church, and the beginning of major factions within Christianity.

In this episode, Kenny gives us a “mini history lesson” about the development of the Roman Catholic Church and its evolution away from quality Christian doctrine. This drift away from orthodoxy eventually causes certain priests and church leaders to rebel against the church, which turns into the Protestant Reformation, ignited mostly by Martin Luther, a German monk and Catholic priest seeking to bring reforms to the Catholic Church.

Kenny outlines Luther’s impact and explains how the launching of the Lutheran Church eventually led to the launching of many other denominations within Christianity.

34: Why Do We Say “In Jesus’ Name” at the End of a Prayer? Mar 05, 2016

Show notes

Praying in the name of Jesus is extremely powerful. Through prayer, we can literally change the course of human history.

Unfortunately, most people do not understand what it means to pray “in Jesus’ name.” Most people just say a prayer and then simply tack on the words “in Jesus’ name” at the end of the prayer, but this is done out of ritual, and becomes a form of legalism.

In this episode, Kenny explains that praying “in the name of Jesus” means to pray in the manner Jesus would pray and to pray for things that Jesus would pray for. If you are asking God for the things that Jesus Himself would have asked for, when He was on planet Earth, and you pray with the same attitudes and sentiments with which Jesus would have prayed, then you are praying “in his name” even if you don’t actually say those words at the end of the prayer.

Highlighted Passages:

John 14:14

1 John 5:14-15

33: Why is it so Hard to Believe that God Loves Me? with Mike Adams Mar 04, 2016

Show notes

Our friend Mike Adams returns to the podcast for a second time to talk about God’s affection for us. In our previous episode with Mike, we talked about “performance based” Christianity. In this episode, Mike talks about our fear of embracing grace and our misunderstanding of God’s love. Mike spends time making clear to us that God’s affection is always “full on” for us.

So often, we as Christians struggle to really believe that God loves us. We struggle to really believe that God is not mad at us. And we often have a very hard time embracing the unconditional grace that God has made available for us. But Mike’s message is very clear: God likes you, God delights in you, God loves spending time with you, God has made unconditional grace available for you.

32: What is Discipleship? Mar 04, 2016

Show notes

Discipleship is the process of becoming a better disciple of Jesus and the process of intentionally building and cultivating relationships with others in order to help them become better disciples of Jesus.

Tragically, discipleship is often misunderstood and simply relegated to a Sunday school class or curriculum, but discipleship is learning how to live a life fully engaged with the God, not just learning information about God.

In this episode, Kenny unpacks the origins of the word disciple, tracing its roots back to the first-century-BC rabbinical system where rabbis recruited disciples to preach and teach their methods, theology, and philosophy. We are to take the principles of the rabbinical system and apply them to our local contemporary context.

In discipleship we do two things:

– We seek to know Jesus well

– We seek to mentor others so that they will know Jesus well

31: Why Does Understanding the Trinity Matter? with Ricky Jones Mar 02, 2016

Show notes

In this episode, guest host Ricky Jones talks about the Trinity being a “spiral of delight” between three distinct Divine persons (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) wherein they are absolutely in love with one another, gushing over one another, crazy about one another. Ricky paints the picture of incredible love between the members of the Trinity.

In addition, Ricky makes clear that God’s mission was to invite us into that spiral of delight, so that we can experience the love and affection God has for us. Furthermore, understanding the depth of this spiral of delight helps us see how much God loves us. God was willing to rupture the spiral of delight for a period of time, sending Jesus to Earth, so that we could be saved.

The members of the Godhead love each other desperately, and hate being separated, but were willing to be separated for a brief moment in history (the time that Jesus was on Earth), to make a way for our sins to be forgiven. God was willing to rupture the perfect harmony that He has been experience for all of eternity past, so that Jesus could accomplish a task on our behalf. God loves us so much, He was willing to break Himself apart, so that we could be rescued. God’s affection for us is so great, He would do anything to bring us into the spiral of delight.

Without understanding the nature of the Trinity, it is impossible to see and understand how much God loves us. Understanding the Trinity gives us insight into understanding just how far God was willing to go to bring us into the spiral of delight.

30: What is “Performance Based” Christianity? with Mike Adams Mar 01, 2016

Show notes

Jesus didn’t say, “It is MOSTLY Finished!” Of course, most Christians know that Jesus actually proclaimed: “It is finished!” while He was hanging on the cross, but so many of us sometimes live as if He didn’t finish the job; like we’ve got to come up with the finishing touches.

Many Christians believe they must “perform” for God. Many of us can accept the fact that we need Jesus to secure our salvation, but we often then move into feeling like we must “do” something to make ourselves into good Christians. However, when we begin to believe or feel this, it always leads us into legalism.

In this episode, our guest host Mike Adams talks about the different forms of legalism, and spends time unpacking the common trend of many Christians falling into a “legalism of do” that is devastating to our lives, our relationships, our spiritual health, and always leads us to being “fake” with other people. Mike says this happens when we jump into sanctification without focusing on our justification. He tells us that performance-based Christianity is “sanctification gone wild.” Mike also talks about the antidote to the problem: Embracing God’s true love and affection for you.

29: What is Sanctification? Feb 27, 2016

Show notes

Sanctification is the process that God takes us through to make us more like Jesus. The goal of sanctification is that we will live and love the way Jesus did. This process is ignited when we place our faith in Christ, which is the moment that God fully justifies us and also fully transforms us and indwells us with the Holy Spirit. The process of sanctification continues in our lives as the Holy Spirit continually works in our hearts and minds.

In this episode, Kenny clearly explains what sanctification actually is, how it works itself out in our lives, and he highlights the promise that God has made to complete the work of sanctification in our lives. Kenny also outlines several different views on sanctification (the traditional Protestant view, the Wesleyan view of achieving Christian perfection, and the “new mystics” view of instant sanctification).

Highlighted Passages:

Romans 8:29-30

Philippians 1:6

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