Free
Before we can be free from we must be free with.
Selah
Geo
See The United Human Race!
I say "See the United Human Race" because I believe we already are united but for some strange and terrible reason we humans prefer a separatist life. Why won’t we BE what we are, and that is UNITED. Our individual beliefs are not what unites us. If that is true then the pray of Jesus would have no possiblity of being real. He prayed that we might be one as He and the Father are one. The reality of our creation is that WE ARE ONE, but we are blinded to this great truth as a result of our desire for the knowledge of good and evil (religion). Every religion that mankind is involved in has one thing in common and that is divisiveness, and Christianity has caused more division then any other.
This divisiveness that is glaring at us (and yet we seem to be blinded by it) is always over a difference of opinion about God. Christians teach everyone is going to hell but them, Muslims teach that all that do not swear allegiance to their God is an infidel, and the same thing follows with all the religions of the world.
This divisiveness is at all levels of human involvement with each other. Recently someone that we here at Boldgrace had been interacting with removed our site from their blogroll. I can only assume that something was said on our site they didn’t agree with so they chose to simply cut us out of their life. This really saddens me, not because they disagreed but because they chose to reject us. This is exactly why we have war, hatred, division, biggotry, discirmination, etc, because someone disagrees and then uses what power they have to reject and even destroy the person they disagree with.
I want so much for the human race to see how beautiful we are to God. He made each of us and placed in our hearts His perfect love. As long as we keep listening to those who would divide us we will never see the beauty that is ours to behold.
Ps 139:13-1713 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,16 your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.17 How precious to b me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!
I choose to see the united human race. I choose to love every human regardless of how much I might disagree with their choices or lifestyle. I choose to believe the process God has placed us all in is PERFECT, just as He is perfect. We can choose to believe the illusions of religion or we can choose to believe God created us to be UNITED. What will you choose?
Just Be Real by Kevin Beck
If you can fake authenticity, you’ve got it made. It may sound like advice given by a shady Hollywood producer, but insincerity pervades everything from marriages to business to religion. (Have you ever sung "Just as I Am" while hoping that God would change the people responding to the altar call?) Disingenuousness eats away at our hearts, but for some odd reason we believe that we have to be someone or something other than whom and what we truly are.
We’ve all attempted to live up to artificial standards that we’ve supposed others have set for us. Perhaps you’ve chosen a career to please your parents. Maybe you’ve accepted a spiritual tradition because someone told you that it would bring you enlightenment or make God happy. Possibly you’ve joined a political movement because you perceive it to be the most influential.
Perhaps the root cause of insincerity involves pride and its cousin, insecurity. We might feel that the only way for someone to really love us is for us to be different. But repressing our heart’s desire and suppressing our true identities causes us to grow bitter, harbor anger, and feel resentment toward ourselves and others.
We see the in frustration for feeling the way we do. Tolerating a system that forces us into being someone other than who we are irritates our inner being. This dissatisfaction manifests itself through our physical, emotion, and spiritual health. Our relationships suffer, and our spirit sags. Living a lie is destructive—always.
Henry David Thoreau wrote. “‘We must have our bread.’ But what is our bread? Is it baker’s bread? Methinks it should be very home-made bread.” Often, people easily accept and adopt the view, philosophy, and religion of others. We may even fool ourselves into believing that their opinion is our opinion. In our blindness, we’ve substituted baker’s bread for homemade.
To transcend dis-integrated living, we must begin with radical truth telling—primarily to ourselves. Sit down and have a heart-to-heart with yourself. You are your own best confessor, counselor, and confidant. Paul said as much when he wrote in 2Corinthians, “Examine yourselves!” Strip away the bogus façade and come to terms with what is truly important to you. Accept you for who you are without judgment and without condemnation. Just be real with yourself.
You may object that this type of self-dialogue is laden with egotism. I agree that it may be. “This is important to me, and to hell with everyone else.” That attitude reflects a greedy heart eager for self-aggrandizement. Martin Buber wrote, “The word ‘I’ is the true shibboleth of humanity.” Yet, expressing even the covetous I allows you the opportunity to transcend it.
Buber redeems the I and illustrates the importance of “the beautiful and legitimate the vivid and emphatic I.” Buber continues by elaborating on the I-saying of Jesus, “For it is the I of the unconditional relation in which a man calls You ‘Father’ in a way that he himself becomes nothing but a son.”
Once you begin to deal candidly with yourself you can begin to engage God and others with transparency and integrity. Acknowledging your true Self empowers you to live openly because you understand who you are in relationship to yourself and to those beyond your individualized identity.
This week, invest some time into getting to know yourself. Throw away the stale store-bought bread, and enter into your own bakery. The appetizing aroma of life-to-life will enliven your spirit and allow you to be present with your own heart, with God, and within your world.
Sum it up
May I suggest that the sum of the Gospel is this…
Include one-another, just as the Father includes you… unconditionally.
What is so great about unconditional inclusion? It creates an incredible sense of belonging… bringing to us a level of security most people have never come close to experiencing. The Father knew this when He revealed His heart to us all. He showed us that we all belonged to Him all along. And now we can know it.
Belonging unconditionally, frees us to believe. And belief leads to salvation, and salvation brings peace.
And it is that peace which permits us to selflessly include others.
The New Atheism by Kevin Beck
Once again I am blessed with wonderful friends that are gifted with words of grace and truth. I am so busy at this time getting my school buses to pass state inspection but my friend Kevin Beck sends me love and wisdom through his writtings each week. The following is worth our time to read.
I’m an Atheist!
This probably isn’t any great new revelation. If you’ve read anything I’ve written or if you’ve talked to me during the past few years you already know this fact. I’ve been professing my atheism for a long time in various venues online and in person.
Right now you might be thinking I’m joking. Let me assure you; this is no joke. Ok, so if it’s not a tall tale, then maybe I’m only exaggerating to make a point? Once again, let me dispel that idea. This is no overstatement. I’m completely serious and have not embellished my beliefs just for the sake of hyperbole.
At this point perhaps you’re asking, “Kevin, have you lost your mind? You write and talk about God every day. You help people find ways to experience a deeper spiritual life as they connect with the divine presence within.” I haven’t lost my mind—at least not that I know of. It’s true that I do write about God in life, and by the grace of God I’ll keep doing that for a long time to come. But—by the grace of God—I’m still an atheist.
You may be wondering: how can an atheist speak with integrity about God, spirituality, and grace? Let me explain my style of atheism.
In his best-seller, The God Delusion, Oxford don Richard Dawkins presents an exacting refutation of the existence of God. He suggests that humanity’s belief in God “teaches us not to change our minds, and not to know exciting things that are available to be known. It subverts science and saps the intellect.”
Dawkins rejects what he calls “fundamentalist religion.” This type of creedalism pictures its god as a cosmic Mafioso who bullies people into kowtowing before him. He vindictively thrashes those who intentionally refuse to acknowledge his majesty and those worship him in an honestly mistaken manner. We all stand under the judgmental gaze of this god who waits to destroy the universe—and he has an itchy trigger finger. This god arbitrarily answers prayers and will eternally reward a few righteous souls while punishing the vast majority of us based on criteria known only to this god and his select few.
I offer a hearty amen to Professor Dawkins’ desire to deconstruct this (mis)understanding of God. I don’t believe in that heartless, distant, command-barking god either. However unlike Dawkins, popular views of a self-absorbed, vindictive, and violent god have not caused me to repudiate God all together. Instead, they have helped me to find new ways of seeing and experiencing God. Because I don’t believe Tony Soprano ought to be a more embraceable figure than God, I’ve come to see God in a different light—one that has been shining all along.
Consider this stirring passage written by the apostle Paul. “Love suffers long and is kind. Love does not envy. Love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil, does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails” (1Corinthians 13:4-8).
Now, go back though those few lines and substitute “God” for Love. Take a few minutes to meditate on each one of those characteristics as divine expressions. Each depiction opens a universe of creative and re-creative possibilities. God does not seek his own. God is not provoked. God bears all things. Does that sound like the short-fused god who sits angrily removed from humanity as he waits for us to make the slightest misstep so he can inflict unspeakable torture?
So, how does all this make me an atheist? Nearly two millennia ago, traditional Roman culture labeled the earliest Christians as atheists because they refused to acknowledge the empire’s conventional deities. In that mode, I count myself amongst a growing number of people who decline to accept the image of God customarily found in our empires. Perhaps this means we’re atheists. If Love makes us atheists, so be it. I’d rather Love and be considered an atheist than to withdraw from humanity or to hate people and be considered a pious believer. Maybe Love is the new atheism. You can call it whatever you wish. But for me, to believe in Love is to believe in God because God is Love. This is the God I know.
And if it seems evil to you to Love, choose this day who you will serve: the tribal god who accepts the exclusive class of people who think the right thoughts and perform the proper rituals at the appointed times. Or the confused god who says he loves everyone, but has a hard time showing it. In the words of Paul, “My beloved, flee from idolatry.”
For me, I will see God in every act of love, every generous deed, every kind word. I will open my heart to the poor and the lonely and the sick—and when I do I will sense the presence of God. I will look through the facade of ethnicity, gender, political persuasion, and even religion to see individuals bearing the divine likeness. I subscribe to the dream of Mother Teresa “that before they die all people will know they are loved.” I will embrace an atheism that celebrates, “god is dead. Long live God. Long live Love.”
We Are All Connected
I am coming to believe more and more in our absolute connectedness and the more I believe it the more I find myself trusting in a perfect God, a perfect universe, and a perfect life.
Let me quote from Gertrude W. van Pelt, M.D. who wrote the following in 1940: You can read her entire article by clicking here.
When man realizes that he is one with all that is, inwards and outwards, high and low; that he is one with them, not merely as members of a community are one, not merely as individuals of an army are one, but like the molecules of our own flesh, like the atoms of the molecule, like the electrons of the atom, composing one unity — not a mere union but a spiritual unity — then he sees truth.
Regardless of how distasteful I might find a fellow human being there is something deep, deep within my being that tells me I am connected. The same is so of someone I really admire. And the same is so of all of creation. As Gertrude says this is a spiritual unity and the more I realize that fact the more I begin to see truth.
I am also realizing that in our connectedness everything that I think, say, and do has an impact on the entire universe I have come to call God. Choosing negative acts, thoughts, and words will have a negative impact on the whole, and choosing positive acts, thoughts, and words will have a positive impact on the whole. Very simple and yet this profound system of connectedness and consequences is perfect and the more we trust it the less we try to be separate and judgemental of others. Unfortunately religion has played a major part in hiding this great truth of our connectedness thus causing extreme division and chaos by the negative energy it continues to spew.
Which ever you choose, negative or positive energy will not change the love that God has for us because it is his love that connects us and we CAN"T undo it. When this body I live in has completed it’s purpose the love that connects me to the whole will continue to connect me.
Where will I be? What will I be? these are age old questions that we may never answer in our limited state of being now, but regardless, all we really need to remember is that it is God’s LOVE that connects us and that will NEVER change.
Rom 8:38-39 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
So, don’t beat yourself up so much. When you do that I hurt and the world hurts along with us. Jesus gave us all some very good advice: Learn to love your self and your neighbor and in so doing you are really loving God whom we have always been CONNECTED TO.
Stories by Jesus
The following is written by our good fried Kevin Beck. You can check out all of his stuff at Transmillenial.
The Extraordinarily Gracious Landowner
Native American author Leslie Marmon Silko writes, “You don’t have anything if you don’t have the stories.” Jesus understood this, and he entrusted everything to his stories about God and the kingdom. Many of them have become familiar—maybe too familiar. We’ve grown so accustomed to them that we might find ourselves dulled to their unlikely twists, alarming language, and staggering conclusions. Yet when we read the stories anew, they will shape and reshape us in God’s likeness.
Take his most famous story, the one normally called “The Prodigal Son.” A son announces his desire to receive his inheritance before his father dies. Instead of kicking him out of the house with nothing, the father writes the check. Are you kidding me? Then as we might guess, the ungrateful son blows it all on sex, drugs, and rock ‘n roll. When he returns home broken and looking for a job, the father welcomes him with open arms and hosts a celebration. Come on! Who would actually do that? But that’s not the end. To top it off, the father’s other son feels cheated because he has been working loyally all along. The father reminds him that he shares in all of the father’s possessions, and he can throw a party for himself and his friends any time he likes.
Dare we really believe that this is the way God treats the wasteful and the unappreciative—the rebellious wayward son and the jealous dutiful son? I don’t know about you, but I’m still trying to get my head around all that.
As fantastic as that story is, it’s not nearly as astonishing as the one inappropriately called “The Story of the Wicked Vinedressers.”
A landowner established a vineyard and leased it to tenants. At the harvest, the landowner’s servants came to collect the produce. The tenants saw an opportunity to seize the land for themselves, so they assaulted and killed the owner’s servants. This happened twice, until the landowner decided to send his son to the vineyard. He assumed that the tenants would show the son proper respect. They, of course, didn’t and subsequently killed the son too.
Jesus concluded the story with a shrewd question. “Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”
Before going any further, what do you think the owner would do? What would you do? Ok, now back to the story.
With his question, Jesus invites the religious leaders to make a judgment. He offers them an occasion to expose their true intentions. Our answers always reveal more about us than they do about God. Jesus recognized that the religious elites desired to sit in the place of God, to restrict access to God, to determine who is in God’s good graces, to pronounce the word of God from on high, to exalt themselves above all that is called God, to take their seat in the temple, and to declare themselves to be God.
They could have refused to answer the question. Or they could have invited Jesus to finish the story on his own, “Go ahead, you tell us. It’s your story. What will he do?” However in their self-confidence, they stepped up to the plate and took a swing. They were more than willing to make a severe judgment. “He will destroy those wicked men miserably, and lease his vineyard to other vinedressers who will render to him the fruits in their seasons.”
With this pronouncement of a death sentence upon the tenants, the religious cohort unveiled their assumptions about God. They imagined a vengeful God, a wrathful God, a God who considered certain unacceptable people to be miserable and worthy of destruction. People behaving badly were beneath their level of righteousness and were less than capable of being forgiven and redeemed. The sinners had brought their demise upon their own heads. They had earned the wages of sin. It was their own fault.
We might read Jesus’ response casually—assuming he concurs with the religious leaders’ judgment. (How did you answer Jesus’ question?) That assumption would cause us to misread what Jesus actually said. In his telling of the story, the owner simply passes the administration of the vineyard to others. However, the owner does not kill the original tenants. Instead, Jesus quotes Isaiah 28 where God promises to annul death. Far from being slaughtered, Jesus suggests that the unfaithful tenants are blessed by the new administration.
Naturally, this infuriated the leaders because they fancied themselves as the favored class through whom God would bless (or curse) others. They couldn’t fathom the possibility of their being at the mercy of anyone.
Now you can see how scandalous this story is. Jesus has God showing compassion to the wicked vinedressers. If that weren’t startling enough, Jesus sees the killing of the son as the means through which death is annulled and forgiveness is extended. Jesus contrasts the leaders’ covetousness for judgment to God’s gift of mercy—and mercy always triumphs over judgment.
This one story contains the power to recast everything we think we may already know about God, ourselves, and others. It tells us that the power of judgment is in God’s hands alone—not in ours. And it indicates that God’s judgment is always followed by his mercy. Paul said it like this, “Who are you to judge another’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand” (Romans 14:4). Did you get that? The servant will stand regardless of what anyone thinks because it is in God’s ability to raise up.
Jesus’ story of an extraordinarily gracious land owner portrays a God whose ways never cease to astound us. Jesus’ God always acts with merciful compassion, and when we finally embrace that kindness we can begin to live compassionately as agents of divine mercy. As Leslie Marmon Silko reminds us, “You don’t have anything if you don’t have the stories.” With this story, we can see that we truly have it all.
A BIG THANKS TO KEVIN FROM BOLDGRACE FOR WONDERFUL WORDS OF GRACE.
Kevin Hits the Bulls Eye.
I hope you will read this awesome post by our friend Kevin. Thank God for thinking men like him.
Sometimes It Only Takes One…
…to give us the motivation to keep going. Yesterday evening, I shared some bible verses with by supervisor. I read to him the 5’th chapter of Romans, 1 Cor 15:22-23, Romans 11:32, 1 Tim 4:10, John 12:31, Isaiah 25:6-67.
We talked about how these and hundreds of other bible verses telling us of this bold grace are never preached on by traditional preachers. But they don’t hesitate to preach on verses that seem to say the opposite.
We talked about what Jesus defined as “scripture”… the law, the psalms and the prophets and how He promised that they would pass when they were all fulfilled. We talked about how He personally, the Word made flesh, had fulfilled them all. And you know what?
HE GETS IT. Hallelujah, there are people out there who are free thinking enough to get it. And yet he is soft hearted enough to get tears in his eyes at the thoughts of how Christ suffered for us. The number of those free thinking people is growing. May we continue to share with them this marvelous bold grace of God….and may we do it boldly and with all of the confidence of the sons of God that the cross has purchased our right to be. May we shout it when given the opportunity? It is finished. We have all been redeemed. Believe it and let the knowledge of our redemption bring salvation to the troubled minds of the rest of our brothers and sisters all over this troubled world, many of who are still having guilt and condemnation heaped on them by the preachers of condemnation.
Speak this good news forth as ambassadors with a wonderful word from the one true King and don’t ever permit the unbelief of traditional thinking to dampen your spirits. Many will refuse to accept your words but when one, such as my supervisor, demonstrates a heart of grace at our words it makes it all worth while.
I am so glad to be the bearer of good news, the tidings of great joy which ARE, not shall be, but ARE right now…to ALL people. The King has come. He rules with the keys of death, hell and the grave firmly in His hands, hands pierced through to grant Him the authority to possess those keys and don’t ever think He will permit His adversaries to take those keys and open those gates for anyone.
The gates of hell are closed and the gates of the New Jerusalem are wide open. They will never close until we all have entered….and we will. We are free from the manipulation of guilt preaching men…accusers of the brethren and no one will ever bring us into captivity again. That is because we have been made kings ourselves and priests of the One Great High Priest and having been seated firmly beside Him, we rule in the affairs of men with love and grace in perfect freedom…..never with accusation.
Grace and peace to all.
Carlton Pearson
I watched 20/20 tonight on the topic of Hell, and I thought Carlton Pearson did a good job in the amount of time he was given.
I realize the one of the biggest obsticles for people believing that God actually loves every person is this strong desire to see what we describe as an evil person getting his just punishment. The problem with that thinking is the same bible that condemns the murderer also condemns the gossip, and according to the bible there is not even one human being who is without sin except Christ.
Jesus Christ is the only human being who truly has the right to judge us because he lived a perfect life, and yet he clearly chose not to.
"As for the person who hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save it.
I also believe that every choice we make has consequences and even when it looks like we have escaped the punishment that others think we should have the consequences are still there. The difference is they are consequences that a Loving Father has designed and the purpose is always for our good, and not for evil.
I can still remember things I did 40 years ago that I am not proud of. Have I been forgiven? Yes, but my loving Father in his full wisdom has allowed me to remember for my good, not to punish me.
Someone who committs murder and is not caught may not suffer the punishment of a human court but that person must still live with their actions every day of their lives. I trust in a loving Father who knows what he is doing and is able to teach every person exactly what they need to know in this life. They might not even know they are being taught, but they will still learn what they need to learn.
To send someone, anyone to HELL is to say God failed and gave up, or was not capable of accomplishing his desire for all mankind. I am sure that in this human form I will never understand some of the horrindous choices that some humans make, but my lack of understanding does not make God a failure. Even when our hearts condemn us, God is greater then our hearts.
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