Y'all Are Influencing My Preaching

The sexual identity is from humans?

Which is, of course, why Jesus taught us to pray saying "Our Father...."

Which is why He taught us to baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit...

Which is why God the Father is referred to by that title easily a hundred times or more in the New Testament, starting with a great number of times by Jesus Himself.

You constantly amaze me with your willingness to change what the Holy Scriptures say to fit with your ideas of what is right. Who is the judge anyway, you or God?

 

Which is why Jesus is a man. He is totally male without any posibility of female attributes. God is male. To call God female is idolatry.

 

Joshua,

I normaly don't agree with what you post, but I want to tell you that reading your sermon was a blessing to me. I appreciate the honesty and humbleness that shines through the words.

Jason

 

Joshua,
Were are the scripture references so I can look them up. I couldn't seem to find them in your written sermon.

 

Praise the Lord that you are able to speak of a positive influence on the preaching. That must be good for any one of us to declare whereever we are theologically. May you continue to blossom under the influence of an Almighty Triune God.
yours in HIM, Jon.

 

I liked your sermon Rev. Josh. It made me want to make sure I'm found on that side that continues to 'do' the Father's will.

To the detractors who pounced on the reference to God being our mother and father, I only have to say that I did not get the feeling Rev. Josh was trying turn God into 'female'.

I took the reference to mean that God, although clearly being Father in scripture, does have characteristics in his revealed 'fatherhood' that we people more often assign to females rather than males.

For example, in Matthew 23:37, Jesus laments over Jerusalem and says he has longed to gather the children as a hen gathers her chicks. The hen is female. Gathering chicks is a nurturing action we often associate more to females. God, although revealed as 'He' and 'Father', can act very motherly. God the 'Father' is a parent, and his characteristics as a parent are not split into male and female. This is how I interpreted Rev. Josh's comments on mother/father in the context of parenting. Should Jesus not have used the female hen as an illustration because some people may have thought he was trying to feminize the 'Father'?

I can understand why people get upset over the use of the word mother in other cases and examples where it can become clear that a revisionist agenda is at work. I get upset as well. However, I do not feel that such is the case in this instance. I think I can tell when someone has a revisionist bitter feminist point to make and I didn't get that from Josh's article.

But I'll stop trying to be an apologist for Rev. Josh now let the Rev. speak about his beliefs in this area if he so chooses. This is simply how I saw his sermon, which I liked.

 

Ya gotta give Joshua credit for at least POSTING his sermons and letting us fire away. How many of us are comfortable with that?

Incidentally Joshua, I'll be at a conference Tuesday with Fred Craddock. I look forward to it. (Now where's my anti-bacterial soap and ear plugs)

 

Thanks for the clarification. I fully agree with your analysis of the dichotomy in the parable. I especially appreciate the emphasis in your clarification on our responsibility to avoid grasping for ourselves the position of final judge of who possesses saving faith.

I sensed no such acrimony or defensiveness. I was actually concerned that I had unjustly hijacked this thread into an exegetical argument it was not intended to be, so thanks for your expression of goodwill.

 

Joshua, I enjoyed reading your sermon. It was very clear and meaningful.

Mark