For: The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Blue Online Worship Theology course with Dan Wilt.
Who is God? Who are humans? Why are we here? What is the Kingdom of God? How is the Kingdom of God expressed in the world? Where is human history going?
Why all the questions?
Simply put, how you or I answer these questions impacts how we live.
Not easy questions to answer. Another person working through these questions (as a part of essentials*blue) called us God wrestlers. So below is what resulted from my wrestling with these questions.
God, the one true God, Creator. Ruler. Savior. Eternally existing in three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. (These three are co-equal and are one God.)
God created the universe. God created humans in His image. [Genesis 1:26,27] Humans were made for spirituality, joy, relationship, justice and beauty. God created us to be worshippers and as such, humans are designed to receive and respond to God’s love. God entrusted humans with the task of caring for His creation. God saw all that He had created and it was good. [Genesis 1:31]
The Fall of man forever changed creation as sin entered the world. God’s beautiful creation was distorted. The relationship humans had with God was shattered. Humans, still worshippers began to worship other things. The world still had power and beauty, but also sorrow and suffering.
God had a plan to rescue humans and to restore earth.
This finding, saving and giving of new life is found in Jesus.
Jesus lived a sinless human life and offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice for the sins of all people by dying on a cross. When Jesus rose again, the Kingdom of God arrived on earth. Through Jesus, his life, death and resurrection, God’s given humans a way to become a new creation – this is what we call ‘the gift of salvation’. The gift of salvation offers freedom: freedom to experience God’s rescue for ourselves.
Every person who accepts the gift of salvation becomes an agent of the Kingdom, and as such, a part of the Church. Each a part of the whole and in some mysterious way resounding with the wonder and brilliance of God Himself. The Holy Spirit enabling and encouraging each to witness to all the world the promises fulfilled in the redemptive work of Christ.
The places where we see heaven meeting earth, where present meets future gives us a glimpse of what we are looking forward to – when Jesus returns and God finishes what He has started – completing His new creation.
Until then, we continue to work here on earth reflecting God, using creativity, force of will, moral nature, the capacity to love, the capacity to give as we tell and retell the story of creation, new creation and God’s pursuit to rescue us; seek justice for the weak and misused; care the earth and its inhabitants and love and give to those around us.
With the move to this site, I thought I might list out some miscellaneous thoughts rattling around in my head. 
