I'm so bad at making post titles

The conference is over... 'twas amazingly wonderful; I think the most powerful message was from Hebrews 12:12-17, focusing on our response to God's discipline; how rejecting it leads progressively to discouragement, dislocation, bitterness, profane living, and disqualification for the prize. It was a very convicting message that really made me think about how I respond when God disciplines me - do I seek with joy what it is He's teaching me? Or do I harden my heart and just try to get through it on my own? I'd like to say the first, but it's not always true of me...

I really really really want classes to start, but I suppose Monday will come quickly enough. Just for the record, reading my econ textbook so far, it looks like this will be pretty easy considering what I already learned in my high school econ class with mom and Mr. G. Yay for easy classes!!!

**end of post proper, the following is for those who would like to read my response to a very good comment brought up on my last post**

Perspicacious onlooker - Thank you for discussing thoughtfully this idea. When you say that Christians are not slaves of Christ, that we have nothing but choices and that our relationship is more characterized by a parent-child relationship, there are a few problems with that. First of all, in Romans 10, one aspect of saving faith is to proclaim that Christ is Lord. The greek for Lord there is kurios, and it means one who has power, ownership, and right to command. It is similar to the word despotes - absolute ruler. Both are used of Jesus in the New Testament many times. Now, no one can be kurios of nothing - a ruler implies there is one ruled over, an owner implies that there is one owned. If Christ is called Lord more than He is called Savior, it implies that He rules over something abosultely - and that would be us. Secondly, used almost 150 times in the New Testament is the word doulos - slave. Now, the speaker who was talking last night pointed out that even though almost all translations translate this word as servant or bond-servant when talking about our relationship to God, when talking about inanimate things (like being slaves of righteousness or slaves of sin) or about specific people who were slaves, they translate it as slave. No Greek scholar will contest that this word means anything but slave; an authoritative dictionary on the greek language says that the word is so unequivically slave that it is unnecessary to even trace the usage. It means slave and nothign else. So lots of the places where we get the idea we're God's servants - the Greek literally says we're His slaves. When Christ says in John 15:15 "No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you," the context indicates that He's not releasing them from slavery - the assumption is that they are slaves, and that doesn't change, but they are made special slaves, companion slaves, who knwo the bigger picture. Romans 6:22 includes a part "Now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God..." No matter how we try to get around it, we are the slaves of Christ.

Yes, we have choices, but we don't have options - a slave can choose whether to obey or disobey his master, but the choice is between doign his master's will and being a slave in rebellion. Yes, we are children of God, but we are slaves who have been called friends who have been adopted as sons. It's a progression starting on the foundation of being Christ's slave, and the privilege God gives us in Christ of relationship with Him builds from there. We may be encouraged to obey God because we know He has our eternal good at heart, but we MUST obey because He is Lord, true surrender to the Lord of all has no true choices besides obedience vs. rebellion, faithfulness vs. idolatry, and because at the bottom line of Christianity is the fact that, redeemed and enabled by grace, we exist to do the will of the Father. If you don't agree with that, take a look at Matthew 7:21, John 14:23, John 14:12 and John 8:28, John 15:10, and Romans chapter 6.
All right, a friend jsut called and needs me, so I suppose this post is over...