Finding God
Ξ February 27th, 2009 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Life |
"You find God the moment you realize that you don’t need to seek God"
~Eckhart Tolle
Victory!?
Ξ February 26th, 2009 | → 5 Comments | ∇ Life |
A recent estimate states that 98% of the people who have ever lived on earth have either rejected, have never heard of, or are indifferent to Jesus and the message of "salvation". Yet, this message continues to be the core teaching of traditional Christianity. Is this the "victory" spoken of in the Bible?
Persistence of God
Ξ February 25th, 2009 | → 5 Comments | ∇ Life |
I would like to continue talking about the book, If Grace is True, by Gulley & Mulholland. The following is from my review of the book which will be posted in its entirety March 9 on the synchro-blog I mentioned earlier. To read my entire review of Chapter 6 and reviews of the book, chapter by chapter, please follow the link found here. I think you will find If Grace is True to be a most interesting read.
“When I suggest that God’s love, patience, and persistence never end, many become angry.”
One Woman said, “I worked hard to live a good life, and now you tell me everyone is going to get in.”
-from Chapter 6, If Grace is True
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard or read this response to the idea of Universal Reconciliation, God’s infinite grace for all. It, to me, says a lot about the person. Just exactly why is he a follower of “the way”. What is his “raison d’etre”. Like the authors, I have little sympathy for such a response. But, you know, when I think about it, I was exactly where she is. I was “works” oriented for 59 years, even though I claimed to have been “saved by grace through faith”.
Why persistent grace? The authors say that the purpose of his persistence and patience is our “salvation”, a really loaded word in the English (religious) sense. I think I might have put it differently because of my own feelings about the word “salvation”. I think I might have used the word “reconciliation”. Salvation, is a muti-facted word in religion today, and has become a “hot” topic even among those who believe in God’s infinite grace. I particularly like the two verses used in the chapter to describe God’s persistence; “He will NEVER leave nor forsake you” (Deuteronomy 31:6) and “Surely I will be with you ALWAYS, even unto the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20) This last verse is a part of a somewhat controversial section at the end of Matthew’s gospel which many believe was added much later.
These verses plainly exhibit a God of infinite persistence. He’s not giving up on anyone. NEVER & ALWAYS are the words of a persistent God. The New Testament is replete with symbolic language which expresses that God is not interested in just a few chosen people, but wants and desires reconciliation with ALL. Time and again God states he wants ALL of us. Jesus is quoted to have said that he would draw (greek= drag) all men to himself. Sounds to me like a lot of persistence is involved in universal reconciliation.
If Grace is True, then the triumph of grace (God’s infinite persistence to reconcile ALL) is still not complete, and it won’t be until all are reconciled to God. When that will take place I do not know. I do know in my heart it WILL take place and it WILL be for everyone!
Bibliolotry
Ξ February 23rd, 2009 | → 2 Comments | ∇ Life |
Is it just me, or have many elevated the Bible to the status of God, or even above God. Does the devotion to the Bible shown by many Evangelical Christians border on idolatory? Is bible-based Christianity sometimes in danger of reducing God to words on a page? Some have given precedence to love of the Bible, placing love for God second, whether that is admitted or not. I believe, and I have seen, that the Bible has become an idol to many. This is something that these folks would never admit. They cannot see that they have become slaves of concordances, study guides, and commentaries. These things become the sacrifices which these folks lay at the altar of the Bible. The entire person becomes tied to quotes.
I am reminded of a local church that purchased land next door to their building. It was purchased so the members could construct more buildings. After the purchase, a sign was placed up near the street which said:
_______________
We are building!
Phase II
COMETH
I wonder if the members all speak King James English. Do they quote verses to one another in King James English, in common conversation.
That same Bible, which they appear by their actions to worship, says that the Spirit will teach and that no man need be our teacher. Interesting… Be very careful of the importance which you give to the Bible, instead of the one to which the Bible points.
Thinking the Bible alone reveals truth is inane.
.
True Lessons from the “Sermon on the Mount”
Ξ February 20th, 2009 | → 4 Comments | ∇ Life |
Both the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi said Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount provided the foundation for their political protests. Yet the Sermon on the Mount seems to recommend passive acceptance of injustice and oppression. According to Matthew 5:39-41, Jesus says:
If any one strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also.
If anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give him your cloak as well.
If any one forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile.
For much of Christian history, people have heard these verses as affirming political acquiescence, not active resistance. Yet King and Gandhi interpreted Jesus as justifying political action. Which interpretation was right? Recent Jesus scholarship suggests these verses are creative non-violent strategies of protesting oppression. Such is the persuasive argument of New Testament scholar Walter Wink.
In his books "Engaging the Powers" and "The Powers That Be," Wink argues that Jesus rejected two common ways of responding to injustice: violent resistance and passive acceptance. Instead, Jesus advocated a "third way," an assertive but non-violent form of protest.
The key to understanding Wink’s argument is rigorous attention to the social customs of the Jewish homeland in the first century and what these sayings would have meant in that context.
To illustrate with the saying about turning the other cheek: it specifies that the person has been struck on the right cheek. How can you be struck on the right cheek? As Wink emphasizes, you have to act this out in order to get the point: you can be struck on the right cheek only by an overhand blow with the left hand, or with a backhand blow from the right hand. (Try it).
But in that world, people did not use the left hand to strike people. It was reserved for "unseemly" uses. Thus, being struck on the right cheek meant that one had been backhanded with the right hand. Given the social customs of the day, a backhand blow was the way a superior hit an inferior, whereas one fought social equals with fists.
This means the saying presupposes a setting in which a superior is beating a peasant. What should the peasant do? "Turn the other cheek." What would be the effect? The only way the superior could continue the beating would be with an overhand blow with the fist–which would have meant treating the peasant as an equal.
Perhaps the beating would not have been stopped by this. But for the superior, it would at the very least have been disconcerting: he could continue the beating only by treating the peasant as a social peer. As Wink puts it, the peasant was in effect saying, "I am your equal. I refuse to be humiliated anymore." That is not all. The sayings about "going the second mile" and "giving your cloak to one who sues you for your coat" make a similar point: they suggest creative non-violent ways of protesting oppression.
Roman law permitted soldiers to force civilians to carry their gear for one mile, but because of abuses stringently prohibited more than one mile.
If they ask you to do that, Jesus says, go ahead; but then carry their gear a second mile. Put them in a disconcerting situation: either they risk getting in trouble, or they will have to wrestle their gear back from you.
Under civil law, a coat could be confiscated for non-payment of debt. For the poor, the coat often also served as a blanket at night. In that world, the only other garment typically worn by a peasant was an inner garment, a cloak. So if they take your coat, Jesus says, give them your cloak as well. "Strip naked," as Wink puts it. Show them what the system is doing to you. Moreover, in that world, nakedness shamed the person who observed it.
Thus, these sayings from the Sermon on the Mount, these seemingly mild sayings, are actually potent ways of confounding and exposing injustice. King and Gandhi may not have been aware of the finer points of modern Biblical scholarship, but they were no doubt clear that Jesus was counseling a radical new way of empowering the underclass.
And so, those little verses from the Gospel of Matthew are the foundation upon which King and Gandhi built their world-moving campaigns for social justice.
-from Marcus Borg
Follow Your Heart?
Ξ February 18th, 2009 | → 2 Comments | ∇ Life |
Dr. Rollin McCarty has discovered thru experimentation that the heart is the “largest” brain of the body. He and others have discovered neurotransmitters in the heart that signal and influence aspects of higher thought in the brain.
Have you ever been asked: “How do feel about ______ in your heart?” or “What does your heart say?” or has someone ever told you to “Follow your heart.”
This gives us pause to think a little more about the truth of those statements.
We can follow our heart or listen to our hearts. Maybe we have felt that “following our heart” or “listening to our heart” was following our “emotions”. Many of us have been taught by religion, that can be dangerous. I don’t think so. We are one with our Source. We in God; God in us. So, if we truly follow or listen to our heart, we are following or listening to our Source. Many people, unfortunately, believe that God stopped speaking to us with the last verse of The Revelation . Our Source still speaks to us daily; many times through our heart. The question is not if God is still speaking to us, the question is are we listening.
Ego Disconnects Us from All Things
Ξ February 17th, 2009 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Life |
Ego is made up of six primary ingredients that account for how we experience ourselves as disconnected. Disconnected from God, our fellow humans, the whole universe. By allowing ego to determine your life path, you deactivate the experience of being connected to the Source. Here are the six ego beliefs:
1. I am what I have. – My possessions define me.
2. I am what I do. – My achievements define me.
3. I am what others think of me. – My reputation defines me.
4. I am separate from everyone. – My body defines me as alone.
5. I am separate from all that is missing in my life. – My life space is disconnected from my desires.
6. I am separate from God. My life depends on God’s assessment of my worthiness.
When the supremacy of ego is weakened in your life, you will become connected to the Source of life and maximize your potential.”
Ideas from “The Power of Intention”
Also, notice #6, and how damaging it can be not to recognize that we are not separated from God, but connected to Him, and He in us, because our Source is love.
*I have reworked a post from two years ago to better express my feelings today.
LRC – Live!
Ξ February 16th, 2009 | → 3 Comments | ∇ Life |
This past Friday, I had the privilege of attending Friday Nite Church at Ernie Fitzpatrick’s LRC in north Houston. What a great place to be. It’s not every church service where you get to here Eric Clapton, and Rod Stewart songs! They both fit the message so well! Ernie was excellent as usual. I think anyone who visits this website will thoroughly enjoy Ernie’s. You can listen to his messages on the website where he provides them for all of us who don’t live in the Houston area. There are a very friendly group of folks who attend services there. Wish I was closer. Guess I’ll just have to settle for visiting them every once in a while when I visit my son. Thanks for the hospitality, Ernie!
You can find Ernie’ daily posts on the website:
If Grace is True
Ξ February 8th, 2009 | → 8 Comments | ∇ Life |
I have just finished Gulley and Mulholland’s book, "If Grace is True". It is a must read for Christians who have been questioning or wavering on the doctrines of hell and who will be "saved". I don’t want to review it here just yet because I am participating in a "synchroblog on the book with some friends from South Africa. More on that later. I have taken some gems from it for your perusal.:
"Hitler did on earth what many Christians expect God to do in the afterlife."
"When I suggest that God’s love, patience, and persistence never end, many become angry. One woman said, " I’ve worked hard to live a good life, and now you tell me everyone is going to get in (to heaven).
"My fear is that if hell exists it will be populated with people like the man in C.S. Lewis’s book, "The Great Divorce", so convinced of his righteousness that he was literally, a Christian offended by God’s grace" (my paraphrase)
WARNING: EXTREME CONTENT AHEAD "Calvary was not the fulfillment of a diving plan. It was not the final installment on a cosmic debt. It was not necessary to satisfy some bloodthirsty deity. The crucifixion was the cost of proclaiming grace."
"The resurrection of Jesus is one of the most incredible claims of scripture. Any fair reading of the Gospel accounts must admit to uncertainty about the nature of Jesus’ resurrection……………..I believe in the resurrection because it is consistant with what I’ve experienced of God."
I use the word incarnation carefully………….I am not saying Jesus was 100% man and 100% God………God was present in Jesus the way God wants to be present in all of us."
We should weigh scripture…….Weighing scripture is discerning which scriptures accurately reflect God’s character…….Weighing scripture allows for the possibility that some descriptions of God and his behavior (in the Bible) are inaccurate." (Matt. 22:37-39 vs Lev. 20: 9-10, 13 and Joshua 10:40)
"Of the nearly 450 times when scripture speaks of the word of God, only a handful of references imply any written document."
This book and it’s companion, "If God is Love", are well-worth your time and effort.
The Wooden Bowl
Ξ February 6th, 2009 | → 2 Comments | ∇ Life |
*This is a repost from two years ago. I felt it needed to be seen again
A frail old man went to live with his son, daughter-in-law, and four-year old grandson. The old man’s hands trembled, his eyesight was blurred, and his step faltered. The family ate together at the table.
But the elderly grandfather’s shaky hands and failing sight made eating difficult. Peas rolled off his spoon onto the floor. When he grasped the glass, milk spilled on the tablecloth. The son and daughter-in-law became irritated with the mess. “We must do something about father,” said the son. “I’ve had enough of his spilled milk, noisy eating, and food on the floor.”
So the husband and wife set a small table in the corner. Grandfather ate alone while the rest of the family enjoyed dinner. Since Grandfather had broken a dish or two, his food was served in a wooden bowl.
When the family glanced in Grandfather’s direction, sometime he had a tear in his eye as he sat alone. Still, the only words the couple had for him were sharp admonitions when he dropped a fork or spilled food. The four-year-old watched it all in silence.
One evening before supper, the father noticed his son playing with wood scraps on the floor. He asked the child sweetly, “What are you making?” Just as sweetly, the boy responded, “Oh, I am making a little bowl for you and Mama to eat your food in when I grow up.” The four-year-old smiled and went back to work.
The words so struck the parents so that they were speechless. Then tears started to stream down their cheeks. Though no word was spoken, both knew what must be done. That evening the husband took Grandfather’s hand and gently led him back to the family table. For the remainder of his days he ate every meal with the family. And for some reason, neither husband nor wife seemed to care any longer when a fork was dropped, the milk was spilled or the tablecloth soiled.
On a positive note, I’ve learned that, no matter what happens, how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.
I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.
I’ve learned that, regardless of your relationship with your parents, you’ll miss them when they’re gone from your life.
I’ve learned that making a “living” is not the same thing as making a ”life.”
I’ve learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance.
I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands. You need to be able to throw something back.
I’ve learned that if you pursue happiness, it will elude you. But, if you focus on your family, your friends, the needs of others, your work and doing the very best you can, happiness will find you.
I’ve learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision.
I’ve learned that even when I have pains, I don’t have to be one.
I’ve learned that every day, you should reach out and touch someone. People love that human touch — holding hands, a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back.
I’ve learned that I still have a lot to learn!
*This post reminds me so much of my own father in the last fews months of his life. He suffered much as the gentleman in this story. I can remember becoming impatient with him……until God stepped in and reminded me just exactly who the man in front of me was……………
Stumble it!
