Beer, Blades, and Wesley?

Big Sky Brewing has some good summer beer called Summer Honey Ale. This is the perfect cold, refreshing wheat beer for a warm summer day. I highly recommend it.

In other beer news, Travis and I bottled our hefeweizen last Saturday and it will be ready to drink next Sunday for homegroup! I'm excited to see how it came out. I think we're going to brew a recipe that we make up ourselves this time.













We saw Blades of Glory this weekend and it was fantastic! Great supporting cast and hilarious laughs. If you liked Anchorman I can guarantee you will enjoy this. Jon Heder and Will Ferrell make a great comedy pair. Go see it!


















Other than that, i've had nothing to say lately (as you can see by what I have been posting). I've felt a little stagnant as far as having any thoughts that matter to anyone. I have been thinking through Wesley's idea of Christian Perfectionism lately as I have been reading "Five Views on Sanctification" which is a great book. I can understand the idea that once we have been regenerated by the Spirit, by God's grace we can willfully say no to conscious sin every time. (this doesn't mean however that we will never sin, but that when we are faced with temptation we have the ability by God's grace to say no every time). This sounds a little Pelagian, but it's obviously not since we are talking post-regeneration. It's hard to deny that by the power of God's Spirit we should be able to say no to sin. Plus there is still the idea of sanctification being a process which I assume means that the more we know of God's desires for our lives, the more we will be able to consciously say no to sin and be like Christ. But, doesn't that lead to an "ignorance is bliss" mentality. After all, if I don't KNOW it's a sin!

There is obviously a process in which God changes our hearts and gives us the grace to love Him and love other people, but I guess the big question is, where and in what time frame does that happen? I tend to see it as a gradual process, although you would think that there is something that God changes in our disposition in the beginning to kick the process off.

I do have a few problems with this system however.

One, there are some implications of this theology tends to be a strict legalism which focuses on personal piety rather than the grand scheme of holiness which will include an idea of corporate holiness as well (thanks for that idea Stephen). I think personal piety is a small piece of the holiness pie, but unfortunately since the Wesleyan holiness movement it has devalved into being ONLY personal piety (this might not be the case in reality, but it is what I have seen to be a trend in churches such as the Church of God or Church of the Nazarene). Overall however I am intrigued by the idea of this and if the realm of holiness is enlarged to include what we do rather than simply what we don't do (which Wesley himself may very well have thought as he was such a great advocate of social causes).

Two, John Wesley says that the purpose of salvation is personal holiness. I think there is something to this but I do not think this is a complete picture of the purpose of salvation. If that is the goal, then I guess I would shelter myself from the world and all that could possibly tempt me, I would only spend time with other Christians, I would only listen to Christian music, I would only read the Bible, etc, etc. I think this is where it would lead us (and many times has) . When personal holiness is the purpose of life, then mission gets pushed to the side.

Three, what if we do sin consciously? Does that mean we are not regenerated or "born-again" followers of Jesus? Does this mean that we are frauds? I'm not sure what Wesley would say about this. Anyone?

Four (this isn't really a reaction to Wesley's system), in some ways as a reaction to the legalism that abounds in conservative churches having to do with personal piety I feel the emerging church has reacted against this by not striving for personal piety whatsoever as an overcorrective! "We're going to drink, smoke, and cuss to prove to the world that we're not legalists!" Any thoughts on that?

But then again, this is only the first chapter. I'm interested to hear the other four views! Drew, your thoughts???