Monday, February 21, 2011

Love & Evangelism

What if love is really the only way to spread Jesus' beautiful news of the Fathers' love (to evangelise)?  What if there is some measure of love, some measure of the Father's image,  hidden in every person, burried under all that other junk, like hurt, shame and rejection?  What if real evangelism is like going on a treasure hunt, seeking that measure of love in someone, and calling it forth with the love that I receive from Father?  What if any other agenda (like winning souls for Christ etc.) is only doing injustice to the pure motive of love building up love?

"The true lover always believes that love is present; precisely in this way he builds up.  In this way he only entices forth the good; he 'loves up' love; he builds up what is already there.  For love can and will be treated in only one way - by being loved forth."       -Kierkegaard-

One II

What if every one of us is really made in the image of God?  What if His DNA is flowing through every person?  What if we have never left oneness with our creator?  What if the problem of humanity is not that God, because of our sin, is distant from us, but that our sense of shame and focus on our selves has convinced us of this lie (I have to hide; I'm not good enough, not worthy)?  What if this perceived distance is what kills us spiritually, unplugging us from the source of life?  What if Jesus' message is that of the loving Father who just wants to share everything with us, and not that of the untouchable, highly exalted king, way up there on the throne, somewhere in heaven, wherever that is...?  What if Jesus' life-giving spirit is awakening/bringing back to life our spirit, dealing with our shame, and opening our eyes to the truth that we're one with the one who created us to be one with Him (not seperate; not up there and down here; not servant and king; not big God and little human)?  What if so many of our 'worship songs' are full with lies about God being distant?

Friday, February 18, 2011

OT Hell

What if there is no mention of eternal punishment in the whole of the Old Testament?  What if the word Hades (the only word sometimes translated hell in the OT) was never meant to convey the meaning of eternal punishment?  Wouldn't God, when He talked to Moses on the mountain, have told him of such a place, if such a place existed? (Something like:  Oh, by the way, if you don't keep my commandments you'll end up in a place of eternal punishment.  And the people you'll be killing on the way to the promised land, they'll end up there, too.)

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Born again

What if being 'born again' (or 'born from above') is only mentioned twice in the bible?  Yet it has become the central doctrine of modern day Christianity. 
What if Jesus was using this term to show Nicodemus that he had to die to his religious ways and become spiritually alive?  What if this term is no where used in the bible for a heathen repenting of their sin?
What if today Jesus would talk most likely to a 'born again Christian' about the need of really being born again?

Sunday, February 13, 2011

The last days

What if most of the prophecies in the bible have already been fulfilled?  What if all of them have already been fulfilled?  What if 'the last days' the NT authors wrote about were really as close as they thought them to be?  What if all the things predicted by Jesus in the 'Mount Olivet Discourse' (Mat.24) were really, as he himself said, to be witnessed by the generation of his day?  What if the book of Revelation really contains pictures of things which, back then, were shortly to come to pass (Rev.1)? 
What if 'the last days' (and the end of the world/age) refer to the last days of the old covenant between God and Israel?  What if the king has already delivered up the kingdom to God, and now there is a new covenant: God being father of all, God being all in all? (1Cor.15)