Now that's a title that's bound to get some interest! Jim's lost the plot and headed for the fires of hell, yet again.
Well, I'm not broaching the subject of other religions, I'll save that for some time down the line... But I am talking about doctrines, denominations, theology, paradigms, blah, blah.
I had a run in with someone about "sound doctrine" and if you don't have it you're headed for damnation and need to repent immediately! It was their job to publicly determine who was "sound" and who was a heretic. It doesn't take much to imagine what my response would have been, but I was nice about it!
Sooo, let's take a couple of the most currently contentious doctrines floating around, say, "all are in Christ" and maybe "Universal Reconciliation", "Inclusionists" perhaps, subjective vs objective reconciliation, all that sort of stuff. Its a huge battle as people throw scriptures around trying to prove their points. Books and countless articles, videos and posts about it all. Now you probably know my personal views on some of this stuff, but that's not really the issue.
The point is we need to encourage each other to go for it! Yes, that's right, support and help each other in our quest for truth!
We can trust God in us to guide us, its really that simple. All we need is the integrity and honesty about our journey and the humility to be wrong and the willingness to be stretched. He has given us intelligence, reason, common sense, curiosity, passion and a desire for truth. We need to use these faculties to their fullest. And the best part is He's right there with us in that journey.
Now I can hear some of you saying, "well that's fine as long as its based in scripture, otherwise we'll just drift off into spiritual anarchy and deception". Well, I kinda think God's a little bigger than that. If we are truly living in the integrity I described above, then we can totally trust God to guide us.
The thing is, His grace leads us to intimacy with Him - that's the whole purpose of it. In that place, doctrines become a non-issue, its all about Jesus and us, living loved and all that entails. And from that place we have the permission and the ability to freely pursue all that we put our minds to. His universe (physical and spiritual) is so enormously huge that even the bible is quite a limited document.
That's got a few of you going too, I would guess, but I've covered that in a few previous blogs. Suffice it to say, the bible is awesome and definitely something He left for us to cross reference our life in the Holy Spirit with, but its also been the fuel for the worst atrocities in history.
We are made in His image and we are in union with Him. We are free to use all our God given capabilities and character to pursue His truth, in complete trust that He will guide us. Jesus WILL lead us into all truth.
So my original point? All these doctrines aren't either/or, they are expression of God's heart through us, and we have nothing to fear by pursuing these ideas. Lets help each other in this exciting journey into the enormity of Daddy's heart!!
Monday, 1 October 2012
Tuesday, 25 September 2012
Questions
Why does God allow suffering?
Why is there so much pain?
What about innocent children dying?
What about world politics? National politics?
Doomsday? Freedom of speech? Injustice? Poor and homeless? Mental illness?
And all the other questions we have?
We want the answer to why all this happens, when God who IS Love and nothing but Love, lets it happen!
There are thousands of theologically complex answers that require a lot of mental gymnastics to get around. We keep trying to answering this big question by analyzing scripture, and end up with something that doesn't really appease anyone deep down. I mean, really deep in our hearts. Its one of those areas that we end up saying "God's ways are greater than ours" blah, blah...
But these questions will never be answered, and CANNOT be answered by any amount of exegesis, study, whatever. Its RELATIONSHIP! Lame answer isn't it. Well, here it is - we won't see an answer outside of personal intimate relationship with the fullness of the truine God. We have to let go of these questions completely, as overwhelming as they are, and ONLY pursue the reality of our love affair with God.
Only then will the world make sense. Only out of the security of our reciprocal, unconditional, love with God does the world and all these questions make sense. And even more frustrating is we begin to loose the language to communicate any set of tidy answers that we can share. We start to see God's heart for his precious creation, that is way beyond black and white solutions to problems. There is a peace "beyond all understanding" that rests in a greater reality. The answers we crave for cannot be expressed in words, only in love.
We waste our time trying to enter into political discussions, justice, suffering etc, trying to figure out what a "Christian" stand should be on these things. Just look at how well that works!
Its ONLY from intimate relationship with God that we will ever see His heart for the world He created. And that is beyond communication. It can only be expressed in an overflow of His love for us.
Why is there so much pain?
What about innocent children dying?
What about world politics? National politics?
Doomsday? Freedom of speech? Injustice? Poor and homeless? Mental illness?
And all the other questions we have?
We want the answer to why all this happens, when God who IS Love and nothing but Love, lets it happen!
There are thousands of theologically complex answers that require a lot of mental gymnastics to get around. We keep trying to answering this big question by analyzing scripture, and end up with something that doesn't really appease anyone deep down. I mean, really deep in our hearts. Its one of those areas that we end up saying "God's ways are greater than ours" blah, blah...
But these questions will never be answered, and CANNOT be answered by any amount of exegesis, study, whatever. Its RELATIONSHIP! Lame answer isn't it. Well, here it is - we won't see an answer outside of personal intimate relationship with the fullness of the truine God. We have to let go of these questions completely, as overwhelming as they are, and ONLY pursue the reality of our love affair with God.
Only then will the world make sense. Only out of the security of our reciprocal, unconditional, love with God does the world and all these questions make sense. And even more frustrating is we begin to loose the language to communicate any set of tidy answers that we can share. We start to see God's heart for his precious creation, that is way beyond black and white solutions to problems. There is a peace "beyond all understanding" that rests in a greater reality. The answers we crave for cannot be expressed in words, only in love.
We waste our time trying to enter into political discussions, justice, suffering etc, trying to figure out what a "Christian" stand should be on these things. Just look at how well that works!
Its ONLY from intimate relationship with God that we will ever see His heart for the world He created. And that is beyond communication. It can only be expressed in an overflow of His love for us.
Wednesday, 19 September 2012
Perichoresis
"Perichoresis: the mutual inter-penetration and indwelling within the threefold nature of the Trinity, God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit...
The relationship of the Triune God is intensified by the relationship of perichoresis. This indwelling expresses and realizes fellowship between the Father and the Son. It is intimacy. Jesus compares the oneness of this indwelling to the oneness of the fellowship of his church from this indwelling. "That they all may be one; as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us (John 17:21)." ~ Wikipedia
(Perichoresis.org for more info)
A very fine sounding word, and if you flash it around you'll sound highly knowledgeable and people will give you instant credibility, although there is the possibility they will think you are talking about a tropical disease.
But I love this concept. We all give it verbal acknowledgement to some degree, but the full implications seem to completely elude most of us. I'm starting to get my head around it, but I think I'm just flitting around the edges. I mean, "the mutual inter-penetration and indwelling within the threefold nature of the Trinity" is a bit beyond the edge of where our nice safe doctrines usually take us. Sounds a bit like sex to me! That's full intimate hot sex between besotted lovers. And not only that, its a foursome!
Have I just gone too far? Over-stepped the bounds of decency and morality?
Ok, we are made in God's image, so many things about love and intimacy that we understand are definitely God given and mirror part of His image, His character (and remember, God is Love!). We fall in love with someone, become more and more familiar and open to each other, the level of intimacy increases until it is consummated in sex. This must be a shadow of God's love, and, what's more, a dim shadow at that! Very scary!
This opens up a whole can of worms that would take more than this blog to cover. But I keep getting more and more overwhelmed with the revelation that I am loved so much that God wants to be that intimate - He wants our mutual inter-penetration. And not only that, He is already integrally a part of us, all of us, and He's inviting us to be as intimate as the Godhead is. Yes, this is starting to sound pretty cosmic and whacky but as usual, its been something I just can't shake! There really is something to it, and I'm starting to experience it, and I think we have all experienced a degree of it at some time, but the fear of loosing ourselves on that level is real, and we certainly aren't encouraged to pursue beyond a safe church experience.
Now I'm not much for the whole "drunk in the spirit" thing. I understand it, and don't knock the validity of the experience (although I have seen a lot of "faking"), but most of the time its just inappropriate self indulgence, in my opinion anyway. However, the sense of being in love to the degree that perichoresis allows goes way beyond being "drunk", as far as the "shadow", that our earthly experience is, indicates.
And here's another thing that really amazes me. God holds everything together - there is nowhere He isn't, therefore He is in everything - there is no part of us where He isn't, therefore He is intrinsically a part of us or we wouldn't exist, therefore perichoresisis isn't some weird new doctrine. All we have to do is accept it and allow God to gently take us into the awareness of our unity, to help us open our minds to His intimacy. He already knows us completely, but He wants us to enjoy His knowledge of us and our knowledge of him, that we would mutually understand, embrace each other, talk and listen to each other and allow that intimacy its full course, whatever that may look like!
The relationship of the Triune God is intensified by the relationship of perichoresis. This indwelling expresses and realizes fellowship between the Father and the Son. It is intimacy. Jesus compares the oneness of this indwelling to the oneness of the fellowship of his church from this indwelling. "That they all may be one; as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us (John 17:21)." ~ Wikipedia
(Perichoresis.org for more info)
A very fine sounding word, and if you flash it around you'll sound highly knowledgeable and people will give you instant credibility, although there is the possibility they will think you are talking about a tropical disease.
But I love this concept. We all give it verbal acknowledgement to some degree, but the full implications seem to completely elude most of us. I'm starting to get my head around it, but I think I'm just flitting around the edges. I mean, "the mutual inter-penetration and indwelling within the threefold nature of the Trinity" is a bit beyond the edge of where our nice safe doctrines usually take us. Sounds a bit like sex to me! That's full intimate hot sex between besotted lovers. And not only that, its a foursome!
Have I just gone too far? Over-stepped the bounds of decency and morality?
Ok, we are made in God's image, so many things about love and intimacy that we understand are definitely God given and mirror part of His image, His character (and remember, God is Love!). We fall in love with someone, become more and more familiar and open to each other, the level of intimacy increases until it is consummated in sex. This must be a shadow of God's love, and, what's more, a dim shadow at that! Very scary!
This opens up a whole can of worms that would take more than this blog to cover. But I keep getting more and more overwhelmed with the revelation that I am loved so much that God wants to be that intimate - He wants our mutual inter-penetration. And not only that, He is already integrally a part of us, all of us, and He's inviting us to be as intimate as the Godhead is. Yes, this is starting to sound pretty cosmic and whacky but as usual, its been something I just can't shake! There really is something to it, and I'm starting to experience it, and I think we have all experienced a degree of it at some time, but the fear of loosing ourselves on that level is real, and we certainly aren't encouraged to pursue beyond a safe church experience.Now I'm not much for the whole "drunk in the spirit" thing. I understand it, and don't knock the validity of the experience (although I have seen a lot of "faking"), but most of the time its just inappropriate self indulgence, in my opinion anyway. However, the sense of being in love to the degree that perichoresis allows goes way beyond being "drunk", as far as the "shadow", that our earthly experience is, indicates.
And here's another thing that really amazes me. God holds everything together - there is nowhere He isn't, therefore He is in everything - there is no part of us where He isn't, therefore He is intrinsically a part of us or we wouldn't exist, therefore perichoresisis isn't some weird new doctrine. All we have to do is accept it and allow God to gently take us into the awareness of our unity, to help us open our minds to His intimacy. He already knows us completely, but He wants us to enjoy His knowledge of us and our knowledge of him, that we would mutually understand, embrace each other, talk and listen to each other and allow that intimacy its full course, whatever that may look like!
Saturday, 15 September 2012
Singing in the spirit
While writing some content for my book, I was thinking about the first time I heard "singing in the spirit" in a charismatic church in the 70s.
It was an incredible experience. I couldn't really hear much, sitting up the back, and the songs were all a bit tacky, but then they started this “singing in the spirit” thing. This was the most amazing sound I had ever heard as waves of random harmonies
It was an incredible experience. I couldn't really hear much, sitting up the back, and the songs were all a bit tacky, but then they started this “singing in the spirit” thing. This was the most amazing sound I had ever heard as waves of random harmonies
went sweeping over the auditorium. I couldn't believe that this could be so wonderful and spontaneous! I'm not sure if it was just because it was the first time I heard it, but nothing else ever came close. It tweaked my musical creativity and my spirit simultaneously – truly awesome.
As I moved into charismatic/pentecostal worship leading this became common place and was something you did to bring the "anointing". I learned all the tricks, but I could also just feel what to do, how the dynamics worked, and found it was easy to bring that elusive anointing.
There is a unique dynamic that goes on in community singing - in ALL cultures. People are united by singing together about common themes, which can be spiritual or social. When you listen to and watch these other cultures there is the same freedom to express joy and admiration as christians feel, and there is the same sensitivity to the dynamic. From wild happy celebration to mystical solemn song and chanting. Now some would say its a demonic copy of the Holy Spirit. But I would say its something built into our nature.
The music and rhythms can touch subliminal thoughts and emotions, so in a christian context we have Jesus as our common focus. The sounds are culturally based however, so what would bring a state of ecstasy for Mongolians would probably send your average Texan running from the room screaming.
I would now dare to hazard that its nothing to do with "anointings" but with our innate ability to find a state of joy, strength, unity and ecstasy through culturally applicable, focused, community singing.
Now this doesn't negate our "praise and worship" times, but it takes away the illusion that we have to do it right for God to anoint it and for some reason think He suddenly turns up when it "feels" right or some appropriate climax is reached.
God is always 100% there, in us and with us, so He ain't going to turn up any more than He is already. But its our focus and unity we feel when we sing about Him together. We switch off everything else and allow our spirit and emotions to express themselves in the music. This is the same for all cultures and has nothing to do with Christian doctrine as such, we are just tapping into a common human experience and using it for enhancing our experience and relationship with God.
This is actually great news because we can relax, without any expectation of some mystical experience determining whether the "worship and praise" was anointed or not. We are free to accept Gods presence in and with us all the time, and that our singing together is for us, its for our benefit, it makes us feel good, and makes us feel good about God. Its natural and wonderful without any need for hype and super spirituality.
So back to the singing in the spirit... Its like mystical chanting in many cultures. It can drift and swirl with rhythm and harmony relevant to the culture. A uniting expression that unites spirits and focuses emotions. And its beautiful, freeing, and its something we can use to enhance our intimacy with God and each other.
I'll continue to work through this and comment more on the spiritual side another time,
As I moved into charismatic/pentecostal worship leading this became common place and was something you did to bring the "anointing". I learned all the tricks, but I could also just feel what to do, how the dynamics worked, and found it was easy to bring that elusive anointing.
There is a unique dynamic that goes on in community singing - in ALL cultures. People are united by singing together about common themes, which can be spiritual or social. When you listen to and watch these other cultures there is the same freedom to express joy and admiration as christians feel, and there is the same sensitivity to the dynamic. From wild happy celebration to mystical solemn song and chanting. Now some would say its a demonic copy of the Holy Spirit. But I would say its something built into our nature.
The music and rhythms can touch subliminal thoughts and emotions, so in a christian context we have Jesus as our common focus. The sounds are culturally based however, so what would bring a state of ecstasy for Mongolians would probably send your average Texan running from the room screaming.I would now dare to hazard that its nothing to do with "anointings" but with our innate ability to find a state of joy, strength, unity and ecstasy through culturally applicable, focused, community singing.
Now this doesn't negate our "praise and worship" times, but it takes away the illusion that we have to do it right for God to anoint it and for some reason think He suddenly turns up when it "feels" right or some appropriate climax is reached.
God is always 100% there, in us and with us, so He ain't going to turn up any more than He is already. But its our focus and unity we feel when we sing about Him together. We switch off everything else and allow our spirit and emotions to express themselves in the music. This is the same for all cultures and has nothing to do with Christian doctrine as such, we are just tapping into a common human experience and using it for enhancing our experience and relationship with God.
This is actually great news because we can relax, without any expectation of some mystical experience determining whether the "worship and praise" was anointed or not. We are free to accept Gods presence in and with us all the time, and that our singing together is for us, its for our benefit, it makes us feel good, and makes us feel good about God. Its natural and wonderful without any need for hype and super spirituality.
So back to the singing in the spirit... Its like mystical chanting in many cultures. It can drift and swirl with rhythm and harmony relevant to the culture. A uniting expression that unites spirits and focuses emotions. And its beautiful, freeing, and its something we can use to enhance our intimacy with God and each other.
I'll continue to work through this and comment more on the spiritual side another time,
Saturday, 8 September 2012
Further up and further in
The days of grace, shine like new stars
Gasping in silent awe
The rush of revelation, the new peace
Slipping into memory foam padding
Like an astronaut pressed hard and helpless
Breaking free from gravity
The deep processes of neuron fires
Burning new paths
Further up and further in
Embrace of love
Embrace of death
Embrace of life
I didn't know that I didn't know
I love that I don't know
I hate that I don't know
I reluctantly show, I was wrong
I gladly show, its bigger, oh so bigger
The deep changes keep changing
Churning
The deep love keeps burning
The words fade and the passions ignite
The deep processes of neuron fires
Burning new paths
Further up and further in
Gasping in silent awe
The rush of revelation, the new peace
Slipping into memory foam padding
Like an astronaut pressed hard and helpless
Breaking free from gravity
The deep processes of neuron fires
Burning new paths
Further up and further in
Embrace of love
Embrace of death
Embrace of life
I didn't know that I didn't know
I love that I don't know
I hate that I don't know
I reluctantly show, I was wrong
I gladly show, its bigger, oh so bigger
The deep changes keep changing
Churning
The deep love keeps burning
The words fade and the passions ignite
The deep processes of neuron fires
Burning new paths
Further up and further in
Monday, 27 August 2012
Travels in Aus
Well its been 4 weeks in sunny Australia and one more to go! What an amazing time, visiting family and friends (old and new) and some time to chill/sightsee/reminisce.
I have so much to process! I felt it was a time to listen, observe, hear the incredibly diverse stories of the people who have meant a lot to me over the years. Many of them I hadn't seen for 20 or more years, even a couple of old school friends from the 70s. I shared much of my story too, and received all the love that was offered, especially from those who knew Min.
Over the next few weeks I'll be compiling a lot of thoughts from this trip. I knew God wanted to expand my horizons, allow me to see His love in action in so many different lives. To see the application of His grace where it intersects in every person's life. I have been blessed more than I could imagine by how He has revealed His heart of love to me and allowed me to see it in others, even when they can't.
As I'm typing this I feel a weight of solemnity, almost tears (or something), aching to see the world overwhelmed with His passionate love for us all, yet almost a detachment from myself as I also walk the path of journalist/observer, ready to question, inspire, delivering cathartic catalysts, and prizing paradigms loose from their moorings.
He is good beyond our wildest dreams, and so much bigger than our silly little doctrines and dogmas.
"...but the greatest of these is Love" 1 Cor 13
I have so much to process! I felt it was a time to listen, observe, hear the incredibly diverse stories of the people who have meant a lot to me over the years. Many of them I hadn't seen for 20 or more years, even a couple of old school friends from the 70s. I shared much of my story too, and received all the love that was offered, especially from those who knew Min.
Over the next few weeks I'll be compiling a lot of thoughts from this trip. I knew God wanted to expand my horizons, allow me to see His love in action in so many different lives. To see the application of His grace where it intersects in every person's life. I have been blessed more than I could imagine by how He has revealed His heart of love to me and allowed me to see it in others, even when they can't.
As I'm typing this I feel a weight of solemnity, almost tears (or something), aching to see the world overwhelmed with His passionate love for us all, yet almost a detachment from myself as I also walk the path of journalist/observer, ready to question, inspire, delivering cathartic catalysts, and prizing paradigms loose from their moorings.
He is good beyond our wildest dreams, and so much bigger than our silly little doctrines and dogmas.
"...but the greatest of these is Love" 1 Cor 13
Wednesday, 8 August 2012
How does He speak to you - follow up
After my request for comments on how God speaks to you I received a good range of replies (although not anywhere near as much as I hoped - feel free to let me know if you are still interested). My plan was to assemble all the comments anonymously to show the diversity of our interactions with Him, and explore this with my own perspective to provide some clarity on the whole subject, and publish it as a short article.
I'm now working on this (probably to be incorporated into my book as well), and finding it really exciting. There are many questions surrounding how we equate intimacy and unity with God to how we communicate with Him. I have posted a few ideas before on this and discovered its a difficult subject to discuss, as many feel intimidated and inadequate if their relationship/communication isn't as obvious/demonstrative as others.
For me to say I hear His voice and we talk very intimately about many things, will easily be interpreted as I have a special relationship with God that is better than those who only see Him in nature or get revelation from reading the bible etc. But unless we really open up this area for discussion and get past the judgement and preconceptions, we are doing ourselves a disservice.
The bible says many things about this, but its all quite ambiguous. The reality is we have to trust the Holy Spirit in each other and ourselves to bring deeper intimacy in relationship, however that looks.
I encourage us all to explore this in an unashamed open manner, with no criticism, and at the same time, a willingness to learn and change our paradigms. In the end, if we aren't clearly relating to God "one on one" what do we really have?
I'm now working on this (probably to be incorporated into my book as well), and finding it really exciting. There are many questions surrounding how we equate intimacy and unity with God to how we communicate with Him. I have posted a few ideas before on this and discovered its a difficult subject to discuss, as many feel intimidated and inadequate if their relationship/communication isn't as obvious/demonstrative as others.
For me to say I hear His voice and we talk very intimately about many things, will easily be interpreted as I have a special relationship with God that is better than those who only see Him in nature or get revelation from reading the bible etc. But unless we really open up this area for discussion and get past the judgement and preconceptions, we are doing ourselves a disservice.
The bible says many things about this, but its all quite ambiguous. The reality is we have to trust the Holy Spirit in each other and ourselves to bring deeper intimacy in relationship, however that looks.
I encourage us all to explore this in an unashamed open manner, with no criticism, and at the same time, a willingness to learn and change our paradigms. In the end, if we aren't clearly relating to God "one on one" what do we really have?
Tuesday, 24 July 2012
Today...
Early mist, eddies, foggy eyes
Morning light denies
Creeping thinking fingers of why
Today, is the worth of change
Too magnetic to refuse
Or does the warmth of the night
Pull tight
On sheets that fight
For the right, to cover my dreams?
Does the day pass
Too fast to last
The tide of thoughts
Pouring from a cracked mind
Into pools left behind
Moment by minute
Barely mine?
The night space is different somehow
Pull the day together
The thread of peace
Through every neuron
Summarising, ordering,
Creating, regretting
Embracing this jumble
Resting and forgetting
Covering my dreams
Saturday, 14 July 2012
Paradox
Which is better - to stand by scripture and endlessly battle through paradox, or to stand with integrity in your heart?
Are these things mutually exclusive?
What do I mean?
The bible talks a lot about what God does, tells his people to do, describes His character, His relationship with His creation etc. And heaps of it is contradictory. Now before you jump on me and say that His character and ways are so far beyond ours that we could never understand, lets talk about that a little.
There are very clear contradictions about his requirements for love, justice, ethics, anger, fear and many other traits. Most of them are between the old and new covenants, so we happily say the new covenant is a whole new era of His unconditional love poured out on His creation, and the old was about a legal standing and requirements. But that still doesn't cover the problem with the basic character of God which is supposed to be unchanging.
This is basic stuff in some ways, but we either completely ignore it or create very complex theology to get around it, or just throw up our hands and say God is God and its not our place to understand.
But its still there... The God of the Old covenant was pretty bad, His standards were outrageously demanding, but worst were the many things he told the Jews to do, murder of pregnant mothers and children, genocide, so many things that by our standards are absolutely unthinkable, in fact, not too dissimilar to Hitler and other tyrant despots! Any person doing these things today would be stopped by the UN and tried in an international court with crimes against humanity.
So how do we deal with this logic? Is it enough to say our logic is futile compared to His? There's many places in scripture where He lays out in no uncertain terms the nature of love, 1cor 13 being the most obvious. The obvious conclusion is if that's His standard for us then His own standard must be at least the same if not higher. So has that standard of unconditional love always been His standard? He is unchangeable after all!
I have read endless stuff on the subject of Gods immutable character over my life as a christian and know all the theology that tries to reconcile this. But either it's just me, or none of it actually works. I have yet to hear any explanation that really says "YES" to my heart. So I think the problem is either the bible itself, or how I understand it. Perhaps its neither though, or both. I am only left with being able to rely on Holy Spirit in me - the comforter/councilor that Jesus said could only come when He had finished His work on earth. He reveals all truth to us, not any written words, no matter how "holy" we have declared them to be.
I know beyond any doubt that if I'm created in His image, it means that the way I think, process, feel; the way the deepest parts of me understand the truth of unconditional love; the way our hearts yearn for justice based on compassion and understanding, are the same as His. They have to be, or there is nothing left that we can say is "in His image".
What then are the implications of God being nothing but love? That all He is and does comes from that heart? This fact undermines every religious understanding of scripture and our demented acceptance of a tyrant God who we dare not question and blindly accept as unpredictable, unknowable and prone to getting offended big time.
All those great christians who we love and respect the most through history are those who loved the most, who poured out Father's heart of love and compassion. God is in all, holding everything together - there is nowhere in all of creation that He is not. He is love, we are held together by love, the darkness is even filled with his love.
I hope that makes you concerned about what you believe, even about what I believe, that it makes you think just for a minute about God's true nature, and how we respond to that.
Are these things mutually exclusive?
What do I mean?
The bible talks a lot about what God does, tells his people to do, describes His character, His relationship with His creation etc. And heaps of it is contradictory. Now before you jump on me and say that His character and ways are so far beyond ours that we could never understand, lets talk about that a little.
There are very clear contradictions about his requirements for love, justice, ethics, anger, fear and many other traits. Most of them are between the old and new covenants, so we happily say the new covenant is a whole new era of His unconditional love poured out on His creation, and the old was about a legal standing and requirements. But that still doesn't cover the problem with the basic character of God which is supposed to be unchanging.
This is basic stuff in some ways, but we either completely ignore it or create very complex theology to get around it, or just throw up our hands and say God is God and its not our place to understand.
But its still there... The God of the Old covenant was pretty bad, His standards were outrageously demanding, but worst were the many things he told the Jews to do, murder of pregnant mothers and children, genocide, so many things that by our standards are absolutely unthinkable, in fact, not too dissimilar to Hitler and other tyrant despots! Any person doing these things today would be stopped by the UN and tried in an international court with crimes against humanity.
So how do we deal with this logic? Is it enough to say our logic is futile compared to His? There's many places in scripture where He lays out in no uncertain terms the nature of love, 1cor 13 being the most obvious. The obvious conclusion is if that's His standard for us then His own standard must be at least the same if not higher. So has that standard of unconditional love always been His standard? He is unchangeable after all!
I have read endless stuff on the subject of Gods immutable character over my life as a christian and know all the theology that tries to reconcile this. But either it's just me, or none of it actually works. I have yet to hear any explanation that really says "YES" to my heart. So I think the problem is either the bible itself, or how I understand it. Perhaps its neither though, or both. I am only left with being able to rely on Holy Spirit in me - the comforter/councilor that Jesus said could only come when He had finished His work on earth. He reveals all truth to us, not any written words, no matter how "holy" we have declared them to be.
I know beyond any doubt that if I'm created in His image, it means that the way I think, process, feel; the way the deepest parts of me understand the truth of unconditional love; the way our hearts yearn for justice based on compassion and understanding, are the same as His. They have to be, or there is nothing left that we can say is "in His image".
What then are the implications of God being nothing but love? That all He is and does comes from that heart? This fact undermines every religious understanding of scripture and our demented acceptance of a tyrant God who we dare not question and blindly accept as unpredictable, unknowable and prone to getting offended big time.
All those great christians who we love and respect the most through history are those who loved the most, who poured out Father's heart of love and compassion. God is in all, holding everything together - there is nowhere in all of creation that He is not. He is love, we are held together by love, the darkness is even filled with his love.
I hope that makes you concerned about what you believe, even about what I believe, that it makes you think just for a minute about God's true nature, and how we respond to that.
Sunday, 24 June 2012
How does He speak to YOU!
I've always been fascinated by how God speaks to us all, and as I'm doing a lot of writing/reading these days, I've found there is very little on this subject that's of any real use. Lots of "5 Easy Steps" and formulas that just don't cut it. And I find so many christians who say they don't really know.
So what I'd like from every single one of my adoring fans (and even those who only read this to see what heresies I'm currently exploring!) is a description of how God speaks to you - personally.
So what I'd like from every single one of my adoring fans (and even those who only read this to see what heresies I'm currently exploring!) is a description of how God speaks to you - personally.
I don't want biblical answers, scriptures or things the church have told you, I want to know how He speaks to your heart, how you "hear His voice". I'd love to hear whatever it is you want to share.
I won't be quoting anyone anywhere and it will be used purely for my research. You can comment here, Facebook me if you are a friend, or email me on jimarjoram@yahoo.co.nz if you want to be more discreet.
Thanks folks - looking forward to a plethora of diverse communications!
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