YOU and I are GOOD with Jesus’ Goodness!

 

How is that for an encouraging and TRUE compliment toward you in Jesus Christ?!

I can imagine that there are some few of us who believe that a statement like that is true of us because we have prayed, gone to church, been baptized, do good works and share in other religious things. However, the bible is clear, no one is good except ONE, the Father, Son and Spirit! Psalm 14:3, Romans 3:12, Mark 10:18!

I can imagine a larger set of you struggling to believe a compliment like this because, in all honesty, you can pile up the evidence (beginning with something you have done or thought in the last hour!), that PROVES beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are NOT good with Jesus’ goodness! For you, I have nothing less than the stunningly beautiful words of the Gospel from the Apostle Paul in Colossians 1:

“27 God wanted everyone, not just Jews, to know this rich and glorious secret inside and out, regardless of their background, regardless of their religious standing. The mystery in a nutshell is just this: Christ is in you [emphasis mine]; therefore you can look forward to sharing in God’s glory. It’s that simple. That is the substance of our Message.”

So, we are all in somewhat of a dilemma, aren’t we? On the one hand, to be embarrassingly honest, no matter how righteous we claim to be, there are bad things we think and do that we want no one else to see or know about!! Good Gravy – I KNOW that is true of me!! Yikes! This is a confirmation on how even our good is still tainted with things that aren’t so good! This is what Paul was wrestling with in his argument in Romans 7:14-25!

On the other hand, we and others CAN observe good things going on with each other and there has to be an explanation for that, too! The explanation for all of this is the Gospel, or the Good News of Jesus Christ!

Because Jesus Christ is good, and he created and sustains everything and everyone, AND he entered our humanity in a special and mysterious way 2000 years ago, whatever happens to him, happens to you! This is why Paul says that when Jesus died, everyone died! 2 Corinthians 5:14! This is also why he says that when Jesus rose, everyone rose with him in the Father’s grace! Ephesians 1:1-10! Do you notice in this passage how everything is given to us soley by God’s grace, for free?! Even the faith to believe this is true is given to us freely through Jesus!!!

SOOOOOOO….Jesus is good, because he is God, and Jesus mysteriously lives in everyone. This is the Gospel! Therefore, everyone has REAL good in them because Jesus, Who is the ONLY source of Good, lives in them and shares his goodness with them! Therefore, YOU and I ARE FUNDAMENTALLY GOOD with the Goodness of Jesus, no matter what we think about it!!!

All of this was brought home to me recently in a powerful way! I was dating my two daughters a few weeks ago. We decided to go out to a local Chili’s restaurant and have at it! I ordered one of my favorites, sizzlin’ fajitas, and both girls ordered their hearts desire – a huge hamburger and some hot, hot, hot wings! Oh how delicious the food AND conversation was!

I asked them of them about their hopes and dreams! I looked them in the eye and told them that I loved and liked them – yet again! I told them that they were good and I was proud of them, and that I was proud to be their father! I told them that I appreciated that they were also good students because I had been a poor one early in life. I prayed before they were born that they would not inherit that poorness from me! The Father was gracious enough to answer that prayer by making sure I married a woman whose genes would have more influence over them in that area! 🙂

 

I told them that the reason we were dating and sharing like we were was because my dad had passed this tradition on to me and my 4 brothers and I had loved every minute of it! I was determined to share this with my wife and children and pass it on (yes, Donna and I still date, too, after 17 years of marriage!) This got us on the subject of my father who had died 4 years ago, in February of 2004.

I asked each of the girls, starting with Jocelyn, the oldest, what they remembered most about him. Jocelyn, my very thoughtful child, searched her memories carefully and then stated, VERY ACCURATELY, “I remember bouncing on a mini-trampoline and paw-paw coming up to me and shadow boxing in front of my face! I also remember that he could quote a bible verse on any subject, at anytime, at will, and always did!!”  Ha-Ha!! How true! He was always known for 2 things: God and Boxing…and he could wear most people out with both!! 🙂 Just “Google”: Rufus Brassell!

I then turned to my youngest daughter, Autumn, and asked the same thing. She thought for a moment and then uttered these words that put me in my personal dilemma on this subject, “I remember that he was as good and loving as you are!” Honest – I could NOT take those words in at first and thought I had misunderstood! I was almost afraid to ask for clarity but finally did. I said, incredulously, “What did you say?!” She then repeated just as firm and sincere, “Paw-Paw was as good and loving as you are!”

Well, I have never ever felt so GOOD and BAD at the same time in all of my entire life!! Ha-Ha! Understatement! Didn’t Autumn know me after all of these 11 years, and how much improvement I needed to be a truly good and loving father? I am SURE she and Jocelyn both could dredge up a negative list a mile long about how truly bad I am, and I would have to agree! Sheeesh! There was no way she could have just said that! I had a hard time receiving it!

BUT, because of the Goodness of the Father, Son and Spirit, and their passion and insistence to share the Gospel with me REGULARLY, and Their helping me to share it with others, I was able to REPENT AND BELIEVE THIS GOOD NEWS quite quickly and say “Thank You!” The Father was so passionate to flood me with His encouragement that he inspired my eldest daughter, Jocelyn, to put an exclamation point on it all by saying “That’s True!!”

We concluded our fellowship in the restaurant by ordering ONE huge dessert that we shared as THREE persons. 🙂 As we ate, I couldn’t help but think again of our One God in Three Persons Who had graciously included me and Jocelyn, and Autumn, (AND DONNA, my wife, and THE WHOLE WORLD), in their Shared Relationship.

God was certainly at Chili’s in a special way that day and, even though the dessert was admittedly good and sweet, I have to admit that receiving the Good News of Jesus’ Goodness and Love in ME was even better and MUCH sweeter!!! I hope you eat plenty, too!! I promise there’s nothing better!!

The Best Prayer I Ever AND Never Heard…

 

…was uttered on a recent visit I had with an older couple from my church, in their home, on a HOT summer day. At the conclusion of the visit, I prayed. Then the wife prayed. The husband then began his concluding prayer, and early in his conversation to the Triune God, uttered these unforgettable words…

“And thank you Father that Pastor Tim wore shorts!!!”

And, YES, we all began to laugh in our communion and talk with God uproariously!! Ha-Ha!! The “white elephant” in the room was revealed and he was not as big, or mean, or as visible a creature as we had all suspected! Someone had whispered a HUGE lie to each of us in that room that it was not possible to REALLY relate with the Father, Son and Spirit, and with each other, without our “religious robes” on, and we “Elephant stomped” him with laughter!!

If you have ever gone to meet with the church, almost anywhere, I am sure you have wrestled with this dilemma, too: “What should I wear? (because of what you believe others will think!)” versus “But here is what I REALLY want to wear so that I can BE ME and be comfortable!”

As much as I am learning to live in the Freedom of the Good News of Jesus, I am also learning to put off religion at the same time, and it is a real struggle! Yes, this story has a back story riddled with struggle, and that is why we all laughed in a very relieving and freeing way after that man’s prayer!

You see, it was HOT in Virginia that day, and it was a Saturday. Not a day of suits and tuxedos, but a day of shorts, pajamas and relationship with family. I got dressed in the spirit of the day and prepared to go and meet these members of my extended local church family! All is well and good, right? Unfortunately no!

What started out as a growing religious whisper soon turned into a condemning SHOUT, “You are a Pastor! These people are older! You can’t wear shorts! You know the Apostle Paul – ‘You are free to do all things but all things are not profitable!’ Those long pants over there are what would be most acceptable for pastors in this situation. AND what if they happen to have family members visiting them who attend other churches?!” I even went so far as to ask my lovely wife what she thought, and she was at least free enough from the Senior Pastor role I play to say “I think you are fine!” Whew! Thank you for a wife filled with freedom from the typical expectations of that Senior Pastor family role, Jesus!!! 🙂

So, off I went, BUT not in complete peace I am sorry to say! Oh how persistent the lie is! All the long highway there, the thought kept creeping back into my mind that I might not have on appropriate clothing (a suit or long pants versus the nice shorts and shirt I was wearing on that hot Virginia day. And, after all, my shorts did come down to my knees! Ha-Ha!! 🙂 ) .

The One good thing about that trip is that it was a struggle BECAUSE Jesus was with me and kept saying that everything was well and for me to stop “Future Trippin!” After all, Jesus whispered in the Gospel, “If I could lower myself to the status of a REAL human being in fallen flesh, and remain fully human forever for your sake (everyone’s sake), couldn’t I help you bear the potential scorn of others that may come from wearing a pair of shorts instead of other more acceptable religious robing?!!” Of course, He could!  And, of course, in His unceasing Grace he DID and DOES!! Hebrews 13:13!

Finally, I arrived at their home. I got out of the car and walked up to the door. I rang the doorbell and heard a friendly shout that said, “come in Pastor Tim, we’re in the back”! I walked in the room where I joyfully, delightfully and in the freedom of Jesus, observed that the couple was WEARING SHORTS, too!!!! On the inside of myself I think I went into every religious tradition I had ever been exposed too, “Hallelujah!!” “Praise you Jesus!” “Thank ya! Thank ya!” “We believe in One God, the Father…”. I think I even spoke a few things in tongues (my mom and dad used to be Pentecostal),”Rondodo seekamathos rrrrondeedeehey nononoko – translation  = Shorts! Shorts!! Shorts!!! Shorts!!!!” Ha-Ha!! 🙂

As happy as I was (and as happy as I found out they were later), the invisible, lying, “elephant” was still hiding behind our good conversation about the Gospel, our families, the Gospel, our challenges, the Gospel, our dreams, the Gospel, our church and denomination, and the Gospel! Finally, before leaving we prayed together and Jesus exposed the lie, shared his freedom with us, and let us off the hook by praying in and through the man: “And thank you God that Pastor Tim wore shorts!!!”

After finishing his prayer we all clapped and tore that lying “elephant” to pieces! We each shared our stories about wanting to participate in the freedom of Jesus and wear shorts but were somewhat hindered by wondering what the others would think! Evil creatures had whispered lies and placed burdens on our souls, saying we could not share in the freedom of godly relationship without a certain type of religious and traditional clothing on, but the lie was exposed and crushed in the prayer and laughter of Jesus!!

So, here is the BIG question: Why is the type and style of clothing we wear such a relational barrier in the light of our forever inclusion and acceptance in the life of the Father, Son and Spirit in Jesus Christ? How is it that humanity has gone all the way from the liberating freedom of fellowshipping with the Father in complete nakedness, and without shame, to being concerned about clothing and hiding at every point? Gen 2:21 – 3:13!

The answer is: we have all sinned and think wrongly about Who God is! Romans 3:9-11! Our perspective about Who Jesus is and Who we are in Him has gotten cloudy and dark! John 1:5! 

Now, don’t get me wrong, I am NOT advocating that we should wear no clothing!! 🙂  I think that clothing is appropriate to wear under our circumstances. Wearing clothing is actually a type of open admission that we REALLY are sinners and personally don’t have a proper perspective of God in and of ourselves! Yet, as we believe the Good News of Jesus, in our clothing (of whatever type), we can know that we are still included and adopted into the life of God, in Jesus, even IN OUR DARKNESS!! Hebrews 2:14-18

One Thing You Should ALWAYS Avoid…

 

…is the lie of believing that you are separated from God and that the Father’s face toward you has changed! Believing that lie has actually done GREAT damage in your life and mine!

We have all believed it for so long, we can hardly believe the Truth. But the truth of the matter is, when we believe lies, we experience lies. When we believe Truth, we experience the Truth (even in the middle of a pack of lies! John 8:32)!

So what do you WANT to experience?!

I can pretty much guarantee that if something in your life is not good and right, it stems from you and others believing lies instead of believing the Good News that you (and we) are, and always have been, secure and adopted in God the Son!! That’s a fact in Jesus!

Sometimes this Good News seems so unbelievable because we human beings think and act so poorly toward one another, and toward God, but the Father, Son and Spirit assure us that His character never changes! Mal 3:6, Heb 13:8!

I urge you, along with the Holy Spirit,  to rethink and believe this Good News! Believing this truth allows you to experience the greatest longing you have in your life….ASSURANCE!! Deep down, you want to KNOW that you are unconditionally loved, liked, accepted, celebrated, and wanted, and that is EXACTLY how God the Trinity thinks and feels about YOU now, and always will!!! Romans 5:6-11, 8:31-39!

Deep inside you already know this, and that is why hope springs up in your heart when things like what I am saying are written or spoken! The Light of Jesus is stronger than everything else and cannot be put out because of our darkness! John 1:3-5! We were all created to know, hear and experience the truth that everything is going to be alright, and in Christ everything IS and WILL BE alright!

So don’t let those harsh attitudes or adamant faces fool you! People often act in harsh ways when they have been enveloped in a world primarily proclaiming their exclusion in one way or another! They are acting this way for one reason: They ARE included – and because the word of exclusion, or the lie, is so painful and unbearable, we must do something to avoid it at all costs – hence the sour, mean and blank expressions that “shield” us from the suffering! You remember (know) what that is like!

I conclude with these encouraging words from Paul’s letter to the Colossians in The Message translation of the Bible by Eugene Peterson:

“26 This mystery has been kept in the dark for a long time, but now it’s out in the open. 27 God wanted everyone, not just Jews, to know this rich and glorious secret inside and out, regardless of their background, regardless of their religious standing. The mystery in a nutshell is just this: Christ is in you, therefore you can look forward to sharing in God’s glory. It’s that simple. That is the substance of our Message. 28 We preach Christ, warning people not to add to the Message. We teach in a spirit of profound common sense so that we can bring each person to maturity. To be mature is to be basic. Christ! No more, no less. 29 That’s what I’m working so hard at day after day, year after year, doing my best with the energy God so generously gives me.”

A Giggling, Neighborly Armful of Jesus’ SHARED Love!

I am sure you can imagine, because of humanity’s inclusion in the life of God the Father, Son and Spirit, that after 8 days of being away from my family I was eagerly “BURNING” with Jesus love to see my immediate family members again! The anticipation only grew and grew as we spoke on the phone daily to express how much we missed, loved and liked each other, and couldn’t wait to see each other again!

I get a special thrill when my youngest daughter, Autumn, calls me “out of the blue” to ask me when I am coming home and has to know the exact time, place and manner so that she can hold me accountable! On this trip, she got a special chuckle out my response that I would be flying home but that it might take a long, long, time because my arms would get plenty tired, and I would need to make many stops! Oh the genuine and spontaneous laughter of the Holy Spirit expressing itself in a young girl at her father’s corny joke! Can there be anything more innocent, refreshing and beautiful?! Hardly! Ha-Ha! 🙂 I KNOW there is a God who laughs!!

Because of plane delays, more stops than usual, or just plain slowness on my part, I don’t always make it home exactly when I say I am going to be there. Autumn will ring my phone often to express her anticipation and sadness, and we are so included in each other in Jesus that I KNOW before looking at the phone that it is her calling me! Talk about being “hooked up”! Even though I am not late on purpose, I have to admit loving her anticipation AND disappointment as both of those emotions scream and shout much love into my soul!! Ha-Ha! Oh, Yes! To be missed and wanted (don’t misunderstand, my wife and other child express the same things, but I am trying to get to a special point in this story about Autumn:-) )

On this particular day, I was right on time. On the last phone call before I got on the return flight home, I had told Autumn that I should be home around 7:30pm. As I pulled the van into my neighborhood I saw that I was going to be right on time as promised, and looking back, boy am I glad I was! Just as I expected, and hoped, Autumn was in the yard and the smiles on her face and mine were beaming as bright as the sun! It was what I DIDN’T expect that really thrilled and overwhelmed me! Three of Autumn’s neighborhood friends were smiling, clapping, jumping and dancing with her at my return home!

No kidding! Autumn’s friends were as happy as she was! They were jumping up and down so excitedly in the driveway that I had to honk the horn for their safety! They were literally swooping on and around the van as I was still driving! They could not contain their excitement! I am not joking when I say that each one of them were looking at me as if I was their personal daddy coming home from a long trip away, and each shouting as gloriously!! There were quite a few people out in the neighborhood and they could all see and HEAR, if not feel, this overwhelming love and welcome!

I couldn’t wait to open the door and especially hug my daughter, but it wasn’t to be! Her three girlfriends had beat Autumn to the door, and as I opened it, I got bumrushed with a giggling, neighborly armful of Jesus love in the warm hugs of those young ladies! They were ALL saying things like “Daddy!!” “We Love You!”, “We Missed You!!”. (Okay. My eyes are watering again – give me  sec. to recoup)! Alright I’m back! 🙂 Three of the girls had so crowded out the other, and I was so caught up in the inclusive love of Jesus, that I shouted aloud in the Spirit, “Okay, we have to get everyone in the circle this hug to be complete!” (wonder where I get talk like that?! Hmmmm?!) Looking back, I realize that Autumn was not sad at all at being on the far side of the circle, but was thrilled to see her friends sharing in it! I remember this same thing occuring with my dad and others but that will be for another blog post!

Believe me when I say, it had to be Autumn’s shared love, COMING FROM JESUS, that was the result of all of this…..because….I hardly know the other three girls at all!!! I mean REALLY KNOW them! They are around often enough for me to know their names, but I honestly do not relate with them even an hour in any given week, and usually I am saying things like, “Time to go home”, “Autumn can’t come out until she finishes her chores!”, “Make sure you all pick up all of those sticks out of the yard when you’re done playing with them!”, or “Ya’ll be quiet down there while I record this commercial, and if you don’t quiet down you’re going to have to go outside!” It really is the sad truth!

But that is what makes this real life story all the more shocking! With that kind of small interaction, and sometimes negative relationship, what can account for those girls expressing the EXACT same love and sentiment toward me, as Autumn showed? There is only one, fundamental and satisfactory explanation to me. The Father, Son and Spirit love and like me, and each of those children and everyone else! And through the special relationship the Father has with Autumn, in Jesus, she shared in his feelings for me in such a mysterious and inclusive way, that it rubbed off on all of her friends, and ended up as a shower of love on me!!

I am sure that while I was gone, Autumn talked to her friends MUCH about how she missed me, and how long it had been since I had been gone, and her fear that I might not come back home (she’s a little RELATIONAL worrier!) She is so in union and open with her friends that I believe they began to feel what she felt until they felt the exact same way after 8 days of my absence. Interestingly, yes, each of these young ladies (except my daughter) lacks a father in the home, so it would have been even easier for them to pick up on and yearn with my daughters exact yearnings for the person they so dearly miss in their own life!

This story has evoked such a permanent and lasting good memory that I long for it to happen again! And right when I began to sit under a cloud of negative thinking, saying, “I’ll bet this kind of awesome thing will probably never happen to me again”, I remember the last words I heard before I entered the house that day after receiving those hugs. It was uttered by one of the girls who was not my daughter, and she said emphatically and seriously:

“Don’t you ever leave us for that long again!!!”

I think she has convinced me that I can look forward to much more of this if I am ever gone that long again! 🙂  Thank you for the hope and reality of an eternity of love with you and everyone Jesus!!

Communion On A SouthWest Airlines Napkin!

“Get There. Get it Done. Get Back.” Those were the words printed on my napkin as I flew on SouthWest Airlines recently, and those were the words for a recent Communion service at New Creation Community Church!

Isn’t that a GREAT shorthand way of proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ?

St. Irenaeus, an early church Father, used a fancy but accurate theological word to describe the Gospel – “Divinization”. By this he meant that the plan of the Father, Son and Spirit was that we become ever more divine. He didn’t meant that we would become God as God is God. He meant that what the Son had become in Jesus Christ, as a human being, was his design for our humanity, too!

St. Athanasius clarified this concept of divinization further by writing, “He deified men by Himself becoming man” (Orat 1.38; Kelly 378). “He deified that which He put on” (Orat 1.42; Robertson 331). “Being God, He [the Son] has taken to Him the flesh, and being in the flesh deifies the flesh” (Orat 3.38; Robertson 414). Athanasius usually includes a qualifier or a conditional tense, but the above three quotes simply state it as fact that all humanity has been deified by the incarnation. Human nature has been altered by the fact that the Son of God was once in union with it. The underlying assumption is that there has been some communication of properties, and this assumption is in accordance with Platonic thought.^25″

The Apostle Paul put it this way in the book of Ephesians (The Message version):

“3 How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He’s the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. 4 Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. 5 Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) 6 He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son. 7 Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, we’re a free people – free of penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds. And not just barely free, either. Abundantly free!”

The SouthWest airline napkin is summarizing this particular scripture passage very well by stating in its own way, “Get there. Get it Done. Get Back.” Paul is letting us know that the Father planned to have us with Him, in and through Jesus Christ, before we could ever sin AND despite our sin. Can’t you see and hear the heart of the Father in these scriptures?:

1.) “Get there!” Humanity is created and cannot become uncreated, therefore, we will need to sacrifice ourselves in a new way and become a part of creation in order to have them relate with us as we really are.

2.) “Get it Done!” Adopt them into our relationship at just the right time, and while you are at it, Son, undo their corrupt way of thinking and living (sin) so that they will not only be adopted but be adopted as we originally intended! I want you to embrace them so tightly that it will be impossible for them to escape our grasp, even if they hurt themselves trying to reject and oppose it!

3.) “Get Back!” I want them with me and I want this done as quickly as possible, Son! 33-45 years will be enough time for you to cut through all the “red tape” of their messy thinking, kill their death, raise them all up to our whole life in you, and ascend with them to the very center of this relationship, forever adopted!

We celebrate communion with this in mind, EVERY WEEK, as Jesus remembers this actual event in His God/Man Life and shares His remembering with us! He reminds us that he is forever human, and we are forever and divinely human in his humanity!

The symbols of bread and wine (or grape juice) that we use are more than mere symbols because Jesus is somehow, mysteriously, present in all things, including the sacraments!!! Ephesians 1:23! As we take these signs of his presence into our bodies, we are reminded of how much Jesus is present and lives, NOW, in all of humanity’s minds and bodies! We remember that Jesus is in his Father, we are in Him, and he is in us and that he is here communing with all of us right now!! John 14:20!

Now do you see why many of us are so enthusiastic to gather around this ceremony as often as we can?! 1 Corinthians 11:23-26! Good Gravy – Communion service is not about religion at all! We are simply participating with Jesus in remembering the truth of our inclusion and adoption into the Life of God, in Him, solely by God’s Grace, and we WANT to celebrate and remember it 24/7!!!

Interestingly enough, the back of the SouthWest napkin said the following: “DING! The only thing better than finding a low fare is a low fare finding you.” That truly rung my Gospel bell and I proclaimed to my congregation during the communion service that “The only thing better than finding grace, is grace finding you, and the only thing better than finding Jesus is knowing that Jesus found you 2000 years ago, and we have all been included in the Life of the Triune God since!”

(Don’t bring up a bunch of silly talk about “cheap grace” either! Grace is actually cheaper than cheap! It’s totally FREE!!! 🙂 )

Well, for those who are willing to see it, there is the proclamation of the Good News of Jesus Christ printed on a SouthWest napkin, in which Jesus is somehow, mysteriously, PRESENT!! 🙂 Ephesians 4:10!

The Miracle of Ordinary Things!

I just returned from a GREAT conference on the Gospel of Jesus Christ! My friend Jonathan has summarized the conference well on a recent blogpost which can be found here! I agree with him wholeheartedly on the term “exciting celebration of the Gospel”, and am proud, yet again, to be a member of the Worldwide Church of God, where focusing on the basics is a GREAT STRENGTH of our denomination – NOW – due to our encouraging and transformational journey with Jesus!

I participated in most things that the conference had to offer and am still a little bleary-eyed from those late night/early morning Gospel Talk sessions 🙂 . However, having a little time to think through my experience at the WCG Gospel conference, and in contrast to another “gospel” conference that many others (including the media and many blogs) have been bringing to my attention lately, I can’t help but be struck by a contrast in presentation.

The “gospel” conference that the media and and many blog posts have been addressing a lot is the somewhat controversial “revival” services happening in Lakeland, Florida under conference speaker Todd Bentley. If you are wanting my basic take on the “revival”, here it is:

1.) Todd (and all of those listening to and following him), is included in the Life the Father shares with the Son, in the Spirit, and in Whom we are all included in Jesus Christ.

2.) To be qualified as a Gospel event I personally think that a Gospel proclamation should actually proclaim the Good News of Humanity’s Inclusion and Adoption into the Relationship of the Father, Son and Spirit in Jesus, in some clear, focused and intentional way to the audience. They should be bombarded with this Proclamation at every turn!!

3.) I sure pray that if people are actually being kicked, punched, and abused in ways that seem strange to me, that the Lord Jesus is indeed healing them, because they need his healing mercy more than ever after such abuse!! 🙂  I also believe that Jesus heals out of his mercy, compassion and love for us and NOT because of what we do or do not do. Jesus heals as he and the Father decide to, NOT simply because we believe in him or not! What human being shares in perfect faith or belief besides Jesus anyway??? NO ONE! Mark 9:24, Gal 2:20 KJV!

That being said, what I appreciated about the WCG conference in contrast to the Lakeland Revival is that it properly emphasized that we don’t have to go around believing that the Father has to be doing dramatic and “miraculous” happenings like healings or resurrections of the dead before we can have assurance in Him and know that we are all already included in His Relationship with Jesus and the Holy Spirit!

In contrast, much of the enthusiasm around the Todd Bentley happenings is centering around the false idea that you can ONLY know FOR SURE that things are TRULY of God because of supernatural and miraculous experiences people are having. Of course, that in turn has a way of making people think that God must not be with them because such miraculous things aren’t happening to them or to their churches. That kind of thinking then leads people to thinking that they don’t have the faith that God “requires” and they begin a herculean effort to muster up more faith through various spiritual disciplines OR, at worst, decide to give up on God entirely because they know they can never have the perfect faith that pleases Him! Yikes! (For more clear thinking on biblical faith in the Light of Who Jesus Christ is, see this post – QUICKLY!!!!!)

Quite frankly, and ironically, too much emphasis on the “miraculous” causes us to miss the miraculous!! Ha-Ha!! 🙂 I suggest that in going to see God in the miraculous, much of the crowd in Lakeland is completely overlooking the miracle of their Inclusion in the Life of the Triune God in Jesus that has been given to them and all of humanity, by grace, before they were born! That is something no one short of Jesus could have ever pulled off – and everyone falls short of Jesus Christ! Rom 3:23!

I am sure that many families are attending the revival, but I bet most parents there are overlooking the miraculous fact they are sharing in the Life of the Triune God in their fatherhood and motherhood. They are wanting to see huge miracles in the healing of a body and forgetting the greater miracle of their children who once were not bodies at all!  Children with bodies who are now relating with mom and dad in the miracle of day-to-day and “ordinary” life! From nothing to something!!! Can ANYONE outside the Triune God create and sustain this “ordinary” LIFE???? No! John 1:3-5, Colossians 1:15-17.

Many Lakeland revival attendees say they can see God in the miracle of a deaf person suddenly being able to hear (and Triune God is the ONLY ONE WHO does heal!), but they miss the miracle of the deaf person being able to walk up to the stage on their own two “ordinary” feet (when was the last time you designed a pair of human feet that were TRULY ALIVE and not prosthetic or drawn on paper??!!!). They may witness a “miracle” punch to the face that appears to heal cancer but miss the miracle of Jesus serving up “ordinary” fruit punch for his thirsty children in and through each other in our everyday, ordinary lives, homes, fairs and amusement parks!! When was the last time you designed and created food and drink with no prior physical or spiritual material to work with???!!!! Ha-Ha! What a laugh, hunh?! 🙂

 

I am sure you see the point by now! THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A TRULY ORDINARY THING!! EVERYTHING IS MIRACULOUS AND EXTRAORDINARY!! Can you create something out of nothing as the Triune God has done?! If not, then you can REALLY only stand with me in the awe that comes along with the utter helplessness of being able to even attempt such a thing, and in the awe that comes with embracing that the Father, Son and Spirit CAN do such a thing!! Wow!!!!!

If human life has become ordinary, it is ONLY because our perspective is distorted and we have lost sight of Who Jesus is and Who we are in Him! And, of course, we have lost our perspective! But thank God that in Jesus Christ humanity has had a proper perspective of God and self restored, and the Holy Spirit is working mraculously in our “ordinary” lives to help us see with Jesus’ exact sight!

I thank God for any truly good and merciful thing he is doing through his people at Lakeland, but I am especially thankful for the Good work he is doing through the people of the Worldwide Church of God in helping me and others to see Jesus everywhere, and in everything, as the Light of the World! John 8:12! There is a deeper and more assuring Truth to be known in the healing that Jesus Christ performed on all of humanity that, in my opinion, beats a kick in the face with a biker boot for healing, anyday!! 🙂

You can check out Todd Bentley here. You can check out a more full picture of the Gospel truth here.

God Likes You and Loves You More Than He Loves Himself!

I am out of the study and studio for a few days, but I wanted to remind you of what this blog is all about, and one of the main purposes behind every post.

1.) God the Father, Son and Spirit likes you! I remind you that God is One Being in three Persons Who created everything, including you out of nothing. Because the Son of God created and Sustains you, and because the plan of God was that the Son would become fully Man, while remaining fully God, you can rest assured that you are liked and not just loved by God. God so loved you He sent His Son, but he so liked you that he was determined to have you as close to Him as His Son is.

Therefore, by becoming human and taking your human life into his, undoing your sin and renewing your life in His, AND then taking that renewed human life into the relationship He has with His Father in the Spirit, Jesus has forever gotten you as close and near to God as you ever will be! You’ll only continue to grow in REALIZING it!

Since the Father, Son and Spirit prepared all of this before you were born and then accomplished it before you were born, how could you truly (in the light of the facts above) not conclude that God REALLY DOES LIKE YOU??? I tell you again, unceasingly, He does like you!! 🙂

2.) The Father Son and Spirit not only love and like you, but God loves you more than He loves Himself! You are created and God is uncreated Yet it was always in God’s plan to stoop and relate to you as you are – as a created human being. He did this by coming as man in Jesus and forever remaining Man in Jesus! For God to forever sacrifice Himself in this way for your sake, in His Freedom, Grace and total Self-Giving, is for you to KNOW that God Loves You MORE than He Loves Himself!

Since He did not ask you to become what he is (an impossibility!), but had always decided to become what you are so that you could share in His exact relationship, even though you are a created being, how could you truly (in the light of the facts above) not conclude that God REALLY DOES LOVE YOU MORE THAN HE LOVES HIMSELF??? I tell you again, unceasingly, He does love you more than he loves himself!! 🙂!

Have fun reviewing previous posts on the Good News that I have written, (and better yet – sharing them with as many others as you possibly can!), and I’ll see you back here with a blast of FRESH and NEW posts on the same OLD GOOD NEWS, in God’s Grace, when I return!!!

How to Read and Understand the Bible!

Someone just asked me for help in this area, so I thought I would share my real life response with you, too!

1.) Remember that some things PRECEDE other things.

Basic math precedes Algebra. Algebra precedes Calculus. The Basic Math of scripture is the Person of Jesus Christ, therefore we should learn to always ask “Who Is Jesus Christ?” BEFORE we try to read too much into what the scriptures mean by what they say! Before the Canon of scripture (the bible as we know it today) was formally canonized, faithful successors to the Apostles agreed on the basics of interpreting the scriptures. Those basics are represented in the Christian creeds known as The Apostles Creed, The Nicene Creed and The Chalcedon Creed.

The last two creeds, in particular, were agreed upon in councils by the Church of its time to fight wrongheaded thoughts about Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit! There were heresies going around that said Jesus Christ was not God, or that he was ONLY God or ONLY a man! People weren’t holding to the Truth that Jesus is Fully God AND Fully Man as Jesus had revealed and the Apostles were witnesses to! Lies were also spreading around that the Holy Spirit was not a Person equal to the Father and the Son within the Relationship of the Triune God! (Here is an EASY TO READ historical resource, if you are interested in learning more about this subject.)

Think of these creeds as a pair of glasses. When we cannot see without glasses, we would not even begin to attempt going through life without them because of the hazard to our very life, health and peace! By analogy, we all have poor spiritual vision (we are all sinners) and yet we find ourselves trying to read and understand the bible (with this admitted blurry vision) without our glasses! This has produced a hazard of horrible doctrines and theology that are hurting most of us in the present day and snatching away life, health and peace!! (John 8:43 – we misinterpret God’s speech because we don’t hear things through the lens of Who Jesus is as THE Word!)!

The creeds are our pair of glasses for the scriptures, fashioned so that we don’t misinterpret everything we read. So many heresies and false doctrines arose in the past from misinterpreting the scriptures that the early Church was forced into developing these creeds so that we could avoid, and would avoid, heresies and false doctrines about God, creation, and ourselves, like the plague! It is HIGHLY IMPORTANT to remember that these creeds were developed and in place BEFORE the scriptures were put together as a complete package known as “The Holy Bible”! The Holy Spirit made sure that we had our glasses BEFORE most of us had availability to the books as a whole!!!

By centering on Jesus Christ, and His relationship with Creation and the Triune God, we can see, through the guidance of the creeds, that scripture is trying to speak to us about a relationship of distinct persons and things bound up in the Person and Being of Jesus Christ! Knowing Who Jesus is tells us that, in His Person and Being, all people and things are included in the Triune life of God by nature of his creating us, sustaining us and his becoming human, permanently, and ascending with us to His Father in the Spirit! We live, move and have our being in the very Person and Being of Jesus Christ!!! (Heb 3:1-13, John 1:1-5, Col 1:15-21)

We must not begin any attempt to understand life or words by defining things outside the Person of Jesus Christ! That is to be anathema (or accursed) for a believer! Attempting to interpret scripture without knowing Who the Person of Jesus Christ is in his relationship with the Father, Spirit and creation, is hazardous to our life, health and peace! 

2.)  Remember that everything in existence is included in the Triune Life of God, in Jesus Christ, because Jesus is Fully Man and Fully God, and the One in Whom all created things live, move and have their being (Acts 17:28)! Jesus is also the Only One Who mediates all things between God and Man (1 Tim 2:5), which is why he is called the God/Man or “God [is] with us” (Matt 1:23)! The life and maintenance of all created things is implicated in Jesus’ Life! 2 Cor 5:14-16!

3.) As you read any scripture, hold to the overarching thought promoted by the creeds, which is that God is One Being in Three Persons and Three Persons in One Being, in Relationship with all things in Jesus! This means that God is a Relationship of Three Distinct Persons Who are so Unified that God can only truly be called One! Mankind, being made in God’s image, is also distinct along with creation WITHIN the Union we have with God and each other in Jesus Christ.

All of scripture is taking this Reality of Life and Relationship in Jesus Christ into account as the main thing (Luke 24:25-27, Col 1:19, 2:9)! This means that, fundamentally, no scripture can EVER be speaking of someone not being in union and included with God in Jesus Christ, no matter how dire or negative it may sound to us!!!! Negative sounding scriptures can ONLY be pointing to the fact that in our personal distinction within creation, we each can either embrace the truth of our union with God and all things in Jesus, OR, we can embrace lies about our union with all things in Jesus. Embracing the Truth about our union is good! Embracing lies about our union is bad! (John 3:36)! 

4.) Now, here is the real zinger for all of us that read the bible: how come our tendency is to take the scriptures that look bad and allow them to question and cast doubt on the ones that look good? J Seriously?! To date, no one has ever demanded that I speak more about the goodness of God when I have overemphasized the bad things mentioned in scripture! However, people ALWAYS demand that I speak about the bad side of things when I overemphasize the good and positive things about God mentioned in scripture! That’s no joke, and believe me, it is NOT funny!! 😦 !

There is something wrong with that, isn’t there?! Now, some would probably argue we shouldn’t overemphasize any of it, but I disagree! We should overemphasize the good! After all, most believers would say that God is Good All the Time (meaning NOT bad at all!), and I agree and say it with them (God – as in the Father, Son and Spirit!!)

Actually, because we are sinners, we too easily allow the negative and bad scriptures to cast doubt on the Goodness of God! I would say that most questions I personally get, even from those receiving and believing hope about our inclusion, primarily come from this perspective. Hey, it is my tendency too! 🙂  But, if God is Good, and ONLY Good (and he is!) – shouldn’t we do the exact opposite and allow God’s goodness to cast doubt on the things which appear bad and negative in scripture?!  St. Athanasius did! Interestingly enough, he was known as Athanasius “Contra Mundum” or “Athanasius Against the World!” Ha-Ha!! Gotta love it! I’m trying to stand with him in the grace of God! 🙂

Athanasius understood, as we are beginning to, that because the starting point of all things is God, and God is GOOD (and nothing less than Good!), then bad is ONLY a twisting and perverting of that which is Good! And, of course, that is just what bad is! As the great Christian apologist, C.S. Lewis, said, “There is no such thing as badness, only spoiled goodness!”

A REAL Life Struggle with Jesus, Scripture, and God’s Good News!!!

 

Do you ever struggle with understanding, let alone believing, the Good News of how the Father, Son and Spirit have included everyone in their Life and Relationship? Well, welcome to the club! You aren’t the only one! But thank God Jesus is with us in the struggle as a human being, sharing his risen human life with us! 1 Timothy 2:5!

This blogpost is primarily a personal testimony of the struggle we all encounter trying to believe God’s Good News and our efforts to see it in scripture with all of the baggage of wretched theology we all have been handed on! It was just sent to me yesterday by a friend, and I couldn’t wait to ask if I could post it for your encouragement! The answer was an enthusiastic “Yes!”. Her story sure encouraged me TREMENDOUSLY! Here it is, verbatim, with the exception of a couple of names omitted for privacy’s sake!

It is a real life experience of Matthew 7:7-8, or as Eugene Peterson says it in The Message, “7 Don’t bargain with God. Be direct. Ask for what you need. 8 This isn’t a cat-and-mouse, hide-and-seek game we’re in. 9 If your child asks for bread, do you trick him with sawdust? 10 If he asks for fish, do you scare him with a live snake on his plate? 11 As bad as you are, you wouldn’t think of such a thing. You’re at least decent to your own children. So don’t you think the God who conceived you in love will be even better?”

Here is the exciting e-mail I received:

“Pastor Tim,

I just wanted to share with you the joy and utter amazement I am experiencing in my dance with our Great Triune God!

I have spent so much of my life reading the word of God with a completely screwed-up and negative bias. Much of the scriptures had fallen into a dulled empty drone of condemnation and frustration for me. In the past few months that has changed completely. This week is a good example.

I have been reading Mark. As I read chapter 4, I knew what I was getting out of the parable of the sower and the seeds (the need for us to be like the good ground and be a fertile place for the word of God to grow in) was somehow fundamentally wrong, but for the life of me I couldn’t understand how, nor could I see any other interpretation of the parable. Even Jesus’ explanation to the disciples seemed to reinforce the old concept. Still I was plagued by a gnawing feeling that “that just can’t be right!”.

I talked to Jesus about it all day. I must have read the chapter six or seven times. The more I read it and talked to Jesus about it the more frustrated I became. I thought about ***** and wondered how I could explain a verse like this to ***** because it seemed to just reinforce their position that people must “produce fruit” to be part of the kingdom. Still I “KNEW” in the depth of me this was wrong. I even wondered if I was just trying to force the scripture to fit this new idea that we are “all included” when it just did not. Yet I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was missing the point of the scripture with the old interpretation. I was frustrated with my own dull hardheadedness.

Last night I was in bed doing as I often do, just winding down by talking to God and thanking him for all the good things the day had brought, kinda like **** does with me before she goes to bed. Then a bolt of light hit me hard! BOOM!!!

The kingdom of God is like….. not JUST the good ground where the seeds grow well, but all the other types of poor soil too! The thoughts just started pouring into my mind like a torrent.

That parable is about what the Kingdom of God is like. It INCLUDED the different types of soil not just the good soil. The farmer is God. God is like a gardener with a garden that has rocky soil, weeds, pathways, and good soil. What does a good gardener do? If some of the soil is rocky and low in nutrients, and weedy he works that soil. I have a yard full of weeds and I am already planning how to weed it, fertilize, and re-seed it so that good grass can grow there. God is at least as smart as I am! All of the soils belong to God. And none of the soil can do anything to make itself better soil. That is the gardener’s job! I remembered other places in the Bible that talks about the low places being raised, the crooked places made straight, and the waste places being made green. WOW! This parable is all about being included in the garden of God!

I popped up in bed and started bending ***** sleepy ears about it all. I was so excited that I felt like a little girl who had just learned to ride a bike for the first time. It was awesome. All the dullness and doubt just vanished in a moment of realization. I finally went to sleep feeling like I was cuddled up next to my Father safe and loved.

This morning I couldn’t wait to get the bible out and read that scripture again. As I read a bit further I came to the part in verse 24 and 25, and verse that has never made the least bit of sense to me ever. How could God take something away that you did not have? Then the light came on again.

This part of the chapter is talking about how we understand the parables Jesus had just given (the sower and the light on the hill), we are told in verse 24 to be careful how we interpret these parables and how we use our interpetation. We can either misinterpret them through human reason and use them to beat others over the head,or we can interpret them in the light of Jesus and the Triune God and share the good news with everyone we meet.

In verse 25 it is still talking about what we understand from the parables. If we allow God to give us the correct understanding of the parables the He will continue to reveal more and more to us. If we try to interpret them through our stinking thinking we will be unable to receive deeper understanding. In fact God will have to take away what we have… that is to say, our incorrect understanding… in order for us to grow. That is exactly what God has done to me this week. He put it into me to feel that what I had always thought I knew was wrong, then He took that away and gave me the correct understanding.

God is sooooooooo! Good! Let everyone know it! I just want to jump up and down and tell everyone that God has us all in his hands and will clean up the mess that we are and complete his will for us to share in the amazing relationship he has made us to be a part of forever. No mater what kind of soil we are right now, we are part of the kingdom and the master gardener will tend to us and make sure we become soil in which the seeds of the word of God can and will grow.

This is an amazingly encouraging passage. It says that God is in control and will do what it takes to make sure everyone sees the truth.

Praise God! Yeeeee! Haw!

Gwin”

 

Isn’t that GREAT?! I thought you would think so! 🙂 ! Continued Peace, Love and Blessings to You in the Struggle!

Grace, Babies, and the Mentally Retarded!!!

It seems that no matter how many debates I have with others around the Universal and Inclusive nature of the Gospel (and I have had many!), we can always come to an agreement that some few people, (namely babies and the mentally retarded!) get into heaven for free, without BELIEVING OR DOING anything!!

I just had it happen again! The debate ends up going something like this (I have shortened the dialogue and summarized the sometimes hours of dialogue for brevity 🙂 ) :

Me Proclaiming God’s Good News: “Isn’t it wonderful that Everyone is given the Relationship of the Triune God and the Life of Jesus by God’s Grace? Even the Faith to believe that this life has been given to all of us in Jesus is ACTUALLY and ONLY Jesus’ faith given to us by grace! Isn’t it tremendous that Everyone is Adopted and Included into the Life of the Triune God in Jesus, and that He has forgiven everyone before they even can think to ask for forgiveness?! Isn’t it great to BE saved?! How have we missed these scriptures that say that Everything in Heaven and on earth is reconciled to God in Jesus, and that God done this for us all while we were still his enemies?! Admittedly, there are scriptures that say things both positive and negative, and we must take them all seriously – but they are only serious within our Adoption and Inclusion NOT apart from it! The word (bible) tells us that Jesus is the Word, and knowing that can help us intepret the word of scripture more clearly! Let’s look at these New Testament passages a little more accurately!”

My Disagreeing Debater: No way! No way! The bible is the word of God, and the word says you have to confess Jesus with your lips to GET saved! You HAVE to believe in him and ask for his forgiveness before you can get into heaven!! ALL unbelievers are going to hell, and they ARE going to a literal burning hell! Aren’t you really just a crazy universalist? Be careful what you are talking about because you actually seem to be saying that even the devil is redeemed? That’s nuts! Jesus has done something FOR us humans, NOT the devil, BUT (in essence), we still have to do something for ourselves to get it, even if it is only to believe! But there are also those good works because even faith without works is dead! I see those good scriptures but we must take more seriously the bad ones! This is the only day of salvation, and if people don’t repent and change their bad ways and works before they die, it’s over – and into hell they go! Let’s look at these passages in the Old Testament and the the Book of Revelation!”

Me Now Debating: “Well what about infants and babies that die before they can believe? And what about mentally retarded people? What happens to them? They can’t believe or change many of their works before they die!

Other Disagreeing Debater: “They get to go to heaven!!!!!”

Me Still Debating: “How is that?! I thought you said a person had to confess Jesus with their lips and repent and ask for forgiveness and change their works BEFORE they could get into heaven! You made it sound like there were no exceptions, and that after death the sentence for violating all of those necessary conditions was being thrown into literal hell fire!”

Other Disagreeing Debater: Well, for babies, there is the age of accountability somewhere around age 12, and if they haven’t gotten to that age yet they get in for free and solely by God’s grace! The mentally retarded couldn’t and didn’t know any better so they get into heaven for free, too!

Me Passionately Debating: I thought you said we were going to go by the word (bible) but now you are cheating! I have never seen that kind of discussion even remotely mentioned in the bible! Can you show me where you have gotten that from? I am a student of the bible who is interested in knowing things like that. At least with the Devil being reconciled I can point to a place in the scriptures where it does say that God has reconciled everything in heaven and on earth in Jesus Christ!

Other Disagreeing Debater: (The sound of Crickets, Crickets and more Crickets.)

My Slightly More Compassionate Debating: “Can’t we agree that you and I are on the same page regarding some things about the Triune God, in some way. That God REALLY is good, and that it REALLY is possible to get into his family relationship PURELY and Solely by His doing it all – by grace? That there is an inclusion and adoption that happens apart from confession, belief, repentance, asking for forgiveness, being baptized, reading the bible etc. Aren’t we ONLY differing on who it is that gets in for free? I am saying that God loves us ALL the same and doesn’t discriminate or condemn the world (as the word says), and gets us all in for free. And you are saying that God does get others in free, but only babies and the mentally retarded?”

Other Disagreeing Debater: “Yes, we can agree on God’s Grace with that difference.”

Me Proclaiming God’s Good News Again: “Well doesn’t our admission that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God confine all human beings to a spiritual state of mental retardation? I mean, REALLY, who in their right mind would sin and reject and/or oppose God? Isn’t that, well, mentally retarded? And aren’t ALL human beings, REALLY, like infants before the Father, Son and Spirit? I mean, even Jesus Himself said from the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing?” Isn’t that as infantile as you can get – to sin against your creator, have a spirit of murder against him, and kill him? Can you possibly lack understanding more? Can you be more ignorant, blind and “babyish” than to throw a temper tantrum on Jesus Christ and put nails in his hand and stab him with a spear?!

Isn’t every Person and Creature that has fallen REALLY, in comparison to God, just a baby or mentally retarded Person who, by definition, can only be and must be saved, included, and adopted totally and wholly by Grace? I mean, REALLY?!“

Other Disagreeing Debater: (The sound of Crickets.) “Yeh, But…” (The sound of Crickets.) “Yeh, But….” (The sound of Crickets.) “Yeh, But….”