This is probably the best thing I’ve seen on facebook.

Mike is the author of evepheso. Make sure to check him out if you like avocados.

Immanuel in our Place: Seeing Christ in Israel’s Worship
Tremper Longman III
Paperback: 228 pages
Publisher: P & R Publishing (August 2001)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0875526519
ISBN-13: 978-0875526515
Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
amazon.com

After Jesus had risen from the dead, he met two of his disciples as they were walking on the Emmaus Road. He told them that all of the Scriptures, the Old Testament, pointed to Him as their fulfillment. Since then, Christians have debated exactly to what extent the Old Testament points to Jesus- is it every word? Every part? Certain parts? And in what way? In the book, “Immanuel in our Place: Seeing Christ in Israel’s Worship,” Tremper Longman III seeks to give us an answer to that question– at least in regards to the Israelites’ practices of worship.

The book is part of the “The Gospel According to the Old Testament” series, and is an excellent addition, both to the series and to the Christian’s library. Longman’s writing is theologically penetrating, yet very clear and accessible, and often doxological. He handles the text with great insight, all while keeping a broad audience in view. The book is broken into four units:
Part One: Sacred Space
Part Two: Sacred Acts
Part Three: Sacred People
Part Four: Sacred Time
This review will look at the book according to these units, and not necessarily by chapter.
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Confession time. I haven’t taken a Sabbath day since my semester started in January. Now before I unpack that sentence, and any questions are asked, I will say upfront that I am not a Sabbatarian. I will not be defending that statement in the post or in the comments, so don’t try and start that conversation. I will say that I am an advocate of the Sabbath principle, and think at the very least we should acknowledge the Lord’s day as sacred time. By Sabbath principle, I mean that we should have a full day of rest, but I won’t tell you what that rest looks like, or what day it is on. Certainly, in Exodus, the Sabbath is grounded in creation, so I believe there is some part or idea about it that is to be practiced. I will also say that Sunday appears to have meaning in the New Testament and early Church as the Lord’s Day- a day set apart for the Lord. I won’t tell you what that should look like either, as it depends on you and your context.
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Puritan Lad, author of the blog Covenant Theology, has written an excellent post on the proper celebration of Communion. I highly recommend checking this one out.

This post isn’t about what you might be thinking. In fact, its probably about the opposite of what you’re thinking. Tonight was community group night. I love community group. It’s a place to just dig into each other’s lives and put away the facade, to let others see just how messy things really are, preach the Gospel to each other, rebuke one another, celebrate with one another, weep with one another, encourage one another. To put it another way, it’s an indictment against sinful independency and a movement toward Biblical interdependency. We depend on each other, we depend on the Gospel, we depend on God. It’s a place where walls and barriers are shattered… if you’ll allow them to be.

And each of those things are miraculous.
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The following quote is from the introduction of Geerhardus Vos’ “The Eschatology of the Old Testament,” page 7:

“The biblical redemption aims at a new creation and nothing less than that. Therefore, all the threads of purposeful finality are made to run together in the redemptive revelation of grace; all the rays of original eschatological light and splendor are refocused in it. The dignity of God as Redeemer postulates it and the truly pious soul will not, cannot, conceive of it otherwise. The promise reminds God of and, as it were, confronts him with the fact that he cannot abandon the works of his hands, that he must perfect what he has begun. This is but another way of saying that eschatology is the crown of redemption both from God’s and man’s side.”

Revelation 22:20

Λέγει ὁ μαρτυρῶν ταῦτα· ναί, ἔρχομαι ταχύ. Ἀμήν, ἔρχου κύριε Ἰησοῦ.
The one who testifies to these things says, “Yes! I am coming quickly!” Amen! Come, Lord Jesus!

This blog post is a look at a pervasive theme in American culture that has crept into the Church at large. I am not saying this is true of every church that gathers for worship in the United States, but is something that I have noticed is a particular struggle of ours. By ours, I am placing myself squarely in my own sights.

The idea of individualism permeates American culture, if indeed we can summarize only one collective culture. Many of us dream of being the hero- the person who takes an impossible situation on our own back, beat the odds, and win the acclaim of those we save. We stress self-reliance. We relish independence. We promote our own agenda above that of others. We look out for number one, as they say. Unfortunately, this ideology also permeates the American Church.
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