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.

Do You Worry About the Future – a Lot? DON’T!!!

I think this is an understated question for most of us, what with rising prices in food and gas combined with the current political season in the U.S., natural disasters around the world, and the clamoring “fearmongers” (especially among the religious ranks) and what not!! YES, we all worry A LOT more than we should! All of this despite the statistics we hear stating that most of the things we fear don’t ever come true, and the evidence of this fact in our own lives (REALLY think about how true it is that most of what we fear does not come true!!!)

I believe we FEAR because most of us aren’t aware of, or trusting deeply in, the Love of the Triune God! I believe that the opposite of love is not hate but fear! And, the opposite of fear is Love. 1 John 4:16-19! In fact, we are assured in the scriptures that perfect love (the Triune God) casts out fear. This tells us a whole lot, if we are willing to listen!

This dynamic is certainly the story of our first parents, Adam and Eve. Trusting the Triune God Who loved them brought them security and peace. Failing to Trust this unfailing Love brought fear and hiding. Anger and hate soon FOLLOWED fear! They had babies in this fear-filled atmosphere, and that explains the fears you and I are now immersed in from head to toe! Romans 3:23, 5:12.

Since fear means not being assured, then love must mean being assured, right? But being assured in what, and what kind of assurance and love? Well, seriously, are we any more assured and secure than when we know we are loved unconditionally by others, and are able to share that kind of love toward others ourselves? C’mon now, who ever REALLY feared Jesus, or even Mother Teresa, besides a few jealous folk whose motives and actions looked bad by comparison?! 🙂

Sounds funny to say, but would we REALLY fear the decisions, presence, race, color, creed, or religion of others if we KNEW they shared in REAL SELF-GIVING LOVE for us and others? If we were “feelin’ the love”, as they say?” Isn’t this where party lines are drawn? From one side you are personally “feelin’ the love” more than from the other side? 🙂  

On another level, it’s not that the other side isn’t necessarily loving, but you can’t “feel the love” because you haven’t been loving yourself, and you project your unloving nature on them because of your own guilt, shame and self-centeredness!  You are tainted and you are tainting everything else! AAAAaaaagggghhhh!!!

This is the kind of complexity and relational problems that FEAR brings!! Isn’t that DEEP? 

Actually, to tell you the Truth, this is the kind of fear and negativity that comes from NOT trusting God for Who He REALLY is: A Good and Relational God Who has included and Adopted you and all of us in His Relationship as Father, Son and Spirit in Jesus Christ!! Ephesians 1:3-6. 

I can’t help but think on this issue at the present time because I am in a graduate course on church history at Grace Communion Seminary, and it is blowing my mind in all kinds of good ways!!! My teacher in this particular course is Jonathan Stepp. You can find out more about him here. I am learning about the early Church fathers and mother’s and how they viewed the world through the Gospel. I noticed that these days we appear to be “living” but are always afraid of dying. Those early believers were literally dying and being martyred, because they were afraid of not “living” (Knowing who they REALLY are in Jesus)!

I notice that I have been taught by religion to fear just about anything and everything and that things are getting “worse and worse” in the “Devil’s world”. Athanasius and gang are embarrassing all of us by saying things (1700 years ago!!) like:

“The substance of what we have said so far may be summarized as follows. Since the Savior came to dwell among us, not only does idolatry no longer increase, but it is getting less and gradually ceasing to be. Similarly, not only does the wisdom of the Greeks no longer make any progress, but that which used to be is disappearing. And demons, so far from continuing to impose on people by their deceits and oracle-givings and sorceries, are routed by the sign of the cross if they so much as try. On the other hand, while idolatry and everything else that opposes the faith of Christ is daily dwindling and weaking and falling, see, the Savior’s teaching is increasing everywhere! Worship, then, the Savior “Who is above all” and mighty, even God the Word, and condemn those who are being defeated and made to disappear by Him.” – St. Athanasius, “On the Incarnation”, Chapter 8, (55). 

Good Gravy!!! That’s the Good News of Jesus that Triune God is talkin’ bout!!! That’s what this godlikesyou blog is all about trying to help you see and experience! Take a look around the site if you haven’t! And, YES, for those of you who need it, there is plenty of talk about Jesus and the scriptures in most articles to back up the Good News biblically! 🙂 

Yes, you have always been loved and liked by this Triune God, and you always will be!!! The quicker you can share in believing it, the better off you will be! Isn’t even a little of the wrong kind of fear and worry a little too much?! Yes, and our too-soon-graying-hair, headaches, and saggy-puffy-eyeballs at 28 years old, prove it! 

Besides the encouragement from Jesus in Matt 6:25-34. the BEST article I have ever read about the subject of fear (so far in my young life) is RIGHT HERE!

So, Why Is My Life HELL….

…if we all live in Heaven already?! That is, I am sure, the question to be answered by many after reading my recent blog posts (check them out here.) Good question, BUT “first things first” as they say! 🙂

To reiterate: we do live in Heaven (actually “the heavens”), because the most basic and fundamental view of heaven is that it is wherever good relationships, peace, joy and happiness are abiding (whether with persons, or creation), and most of us are at least somewhat aware that some of that is going on right here on earth – even if not in our own household, right?!…

…BUT, more importantly, the Revelation of Jesus Christ, the Son of the Triune God, is challenging us at every level to reconsider and take seriously the fact that all things and persons are in Union with the One and Only Relational God in Him! (See my friend, Pastor Jonathan Stepp, and his succinct and clear article about the Union you have with God in Jesus right here, and my friend Dr. Baxter Kruger’s article here). That is what I am on about in almost every one of the posts on this blog, and I do the same on another site called The Adopted Life that you can find right here! The union Christ has with everything is humanity’s Good News and what we Christians are supposed to mean when we say believe and teach the Gospel, or Good News, of Jesus Christ (Col 1:15-20!)

All of this points to why those who embrace the Jesus Christ Who is the Son of the One Relational Triune God in 3 Persons can say with a concrete certainty that,

“Heaven, and “THE HEAVENS”, is the Relationship that the Father shares with the Divine/Human Son in the Spirit EVERYWHERE (and of which humanity and creation are NOW a permanent part in Jesus- 2 Cor 5:14, Eph 2:4!!!)”

So, putting all of these thoughts together in the context of the question we are asking in today’s blog post, one reason your life may be hell is because you ARE in Heaven! In other words, because Heaven and Good are the main things you know deep in your soul (see this article), you know hell ONLY because you know heaven so well! Another way of putting this is the way that writer and theologian C.S. Lewis put it. He wrote in Chapter 7 of his book “Mere Christianity” that “badness, is only spoiled goodness.” Right on Clive Staples Lewis!!!

The Father, Son and Spirit are Good and have only created Good, in line with God’s Eternal Character (Gen 1:1-31, Mark 10: 17-18, Luke 18:18-19!), so if you are experiencing something other than good it can ONLY be because the good permeating your life is being twisted, perverted or misinterpreted. it can’t be that good isn’t in, with or near you!!!

This is why as Christians we MUST, and DO, speak about the subjects of Hell, Sin, Revelation, Prophecy, Reconciliation, Distinction, Faith, Repentance, Evil Creatures, etc. It is important to know that NONE of these teachings (nor our understanding or lack of understanding them) keep us from being adopted and included in the life of Triune God! We are in HIM, permanently, in Jesus by Grace (John 14:20, Eph 2:8-10!) 

However, these teachings DO help us understand that as Good as Triune God is, and as Good as we are in Him, some illusions and lies have crept into our distinct lives and keep us from Experiencing Heaven for what it REALLY is – something that is ours eternally and presently in Jesus, Who does not change (Hebrews 13:5-8!!!)

On future blog posts I will begin trying to help broaden your mind on these important biblical teachings in the Light of Who Jesus Christ is as He is experienced in our personal lives and relationships.

Meanwhile, if you would like to read a more thorough article on why it is possible to experience GREAT hell, right here in heaven on earth, you can find an article I wrote about it here! It is located in the article entitled, “Objections to the Gospel, part 3“.