{"id":16478,"date":"2014-08-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-08-21T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leithart.level2d.com\/?p=1374"},"modified":"2014-08-21T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-08-21T00:00:00","slug":"agents-of-new-creation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2014\/08\/agents-of-new-creation\/","title":{"rendered":"Agents of New Creation"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\">\n<\/head><body><p>There are, James Jordan has argues, three \u201cproblems\u201d to solve in Genesis 1:1-2: Formlessness, emptiness, and darkness. Yahweh forms the earth with light, by giving form, and by filling.<\/p>\n<p>This is also the pattern of new creation. Jesus comes as the light of the world to dispel the darkness. He comes as the Word to give form to the world. He is exalted to fill all things. He is the Creator who comes to make new creation.<\/p>\n<p>When He sends His Spirit, He makes the church into the agents of new creation. We are lights in the world. We speak His word to give form. We are sent out to fill all things.<\/p>\n<p>And this applies especially to pastoral ministry. Pastors shine the light of the gospel into dark places. By preaching and teaching the Word, pastors give form to formless lives. At the table, pastors feed the flock and send out the people under the blessing of God to fill the earth.<\/p>\n<p>Filled with the Spirit, pastors become agents of new creation.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are, James Jordan has argues, three \u201cproblems\u201d to solve in Genesis 1:1-2: Formlessness, emptiness, and darkness. Yahweh forms the earth with light, by giving form, and by filling. This is also the pattern of new creation. Jesus comes as the light of the world to dispel the darkness. He comes as the Word to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3021,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-ot-genesis"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Agents of New Creation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There are, James Jordan has argues, three &ldquo;problems&rdquo; to solve in Genesis 1:1-2: Formlessness, emptiness, and darkness. Yahweh forms the earth\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2014\/08\/agents-of-new-creation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Agents of New Creation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There are, James Jordan has argues, three &ldquo;problems&rdquo; to solve in Genesis 1:1-2: Formlessness, emptiness, and darkness. 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