I Think That Grace And Love Always

You Can Be Very Religious And Invoke The Name Of God And Be Able To Quote Lots Of Verses And Be Well Versed In Complicated Theological Systems And Yet Not Be A Person Who Sees. It’s One Thing To Sing About God And Recite Quotes About God And Invoke God’s Name; It’s Another Be Aware Of The Presence In Every Taste, Touch, Sound, And Embrace. With Jesus, What We See Again And Again Is That It’s Never Just A Person, Or Just A Meal, Or Just An Event, Because There’s Always More Going On Just Below The Surface.

Suffering Is Traumatic And Awful And We Get Angry And We Shake Our Fists At The Heavens And We Vent And Rage And Weep. But In The Process We Discover A New Tomorrow, One We Never Would Have Imagined Otherwise.

So This Is Reality, This Forgiveness, This Reconciliation, Is True For Everybody. Paul Insisted That When Jesus Died On The Cross, He Was Reconciling "all Things, In Heaven And On Earth, To God." All Things, Everywhere. ...this Reality Then Isn't Something We Make Come True About Ourselves By Doing Something. It Is Already True. Our Choice Is To Live In This New Reality Or Cling To A Reality Of Our Own Making.

My Experience As A Pastor Is Lots Of People Have Really Toxic, Dangerous, Psychologically Devastating Images Of God In Their Head, Images Of A God Who's Not Good.

For A Lot Of People In Our World Today, God Has Become About Believing The Right Stuff So You Don't Get In Trouble.