Tuesday, December 29, 2009

God In History - New Blog

The other day, Max and I were discussing a calendar that he had brought home from St. Cecilia's Cathedral in Omaha. He attends Catholic mass whenever possible and loves it. I was thrilled to have in my hands something with all of the feasts, saints days, etc., from the Catholic church. What an amazing look at the history of the church.

As we talked, I began to consider that many people are unaware of how the Christian church has developed through the centuries. The Catholic church is denigrated by many evangelicals and the idea of saints is abhorrent. But, in negating all of that, what happens is that we negate a great portion of history. God has been working in great ways through the lives of people all over the world for the last 2000+ years. Most of us have no idea who these people are or what they have done. Though we may not approve of sainthood, the fact remains that these people were working in God's name in our world. There was a reason they were recognized and we should discover what that was.

The way that Christians interact with the world and with each other has changed radically in the last 2000 years. We look at history through the lens of contemporary Christianity and have no concept of why early Christians responded to the world the way that history reports.

What all of these conversations and thought processes made me realize is that I can actually do something about this. On January 1, I will be starting a new blog: "God in History." Each day I will study and write about an event or a day in the history of Christianity following the Resurrection of Jesus.

The earliest days of Christianity are covered in the book of Acts and the letters of the New Testament. I'll begin with the meeting of the disciples found in Acts 15, but immediately after, I will concentrate on things that are not spoken of in the New Testament, but are found in historical records and extra-Biblical books.

If you'd like to receive a copy of this blog in your inbox each day - just let me know. Or, you can follow it or drop the RSS feed into your daily reader. I'd love to have you join me. I'd love to receive feedback and questions as we are going through this. The best way that I learn is through teaching.

The blog frame is up, there is no content yet. You can check it out at http://.godinhistory.blogspot.com.

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