Sign of the Times Squared, Part 4
Look Denis Leary is on fire.
Questioning God is the job of all real followers (no pun intended). As children of God we ask as children. We are still called to obey (not that many of us are very good at it). The God who is more giving than we good parents can bear all our questions. He even gave us the Psalms to give us lessons on how to bitch, question and moan.
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I think Truth is paradoxical. It’s also not static anymore than love is. God is love. God is always on the move.
David ended many a bitch session with “Yet will I praise Thee.”
Not a bad idea. But go ahead and bitch.
My 8 year old daughter is quite articulate. She can have quite a session from time to time. I listen and hear her out. It costs me little but helps her. Now if I, being "evil" know how to give good gifts to my childre, how much more God (that's a Jesus quote about bread, snakes and stones).
That's why I tell God everything...and I mean everything. Every fear, every suspicion, every doubt. I do not feel condemned...quite the opposite. Think of your own friends or children...do you despise those who trust you with everything?
Better, I have a certain faith in Jesus Himself. Actually, like Anne Lamott, Jesus is really the only Being I trust with everything all the time. Even the best of you (and you know who you are) have got to be watched.
Which brings us full circle to the "scandal of particularity".
"Jesus is the Only Way" or so they say and they have verses to proof-text this.
Then we have the "Chosen People" as Tabs has pointed out...then the other "Chosen People". Then Calvin chimes in and before you know it the whole system is an automated mess like when you call for customer service and are never heard from again.
Oh...and also schizophrenic! You're in or out depending on God's choosing, but your works will be judged, but your sins are nailed to the tree if you are one of the Chosen so it really matters what you do but doesn't at all.
WTF? Thats quadrophrenic if you ask me.
The clarity comes with faith. No one who wants God and has faith in God and wants to be with God will be denied.
God isn't nearly as screwed up theologically as we are.
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My girlfriend is not a "believer". She is open but does not experience God as alive at this time.
She would like to. Like I said she is open. She says she is just waiting for a "tap on the shoulder".
I just do not have the authority or pull with either of them to get them on a date. And I won't manipulate or coerce. My God tells me that is improper and dumb (though Yahweh is not above that sort of thing...but God is held to a different standard I suppose). He simply asks me to love the both of them, er...He and she. I try to do both. This is all I know to do.
But I cannot conceive that this woman whom I love, respect, trust and who is one of the finest people I have ever known is simply not "Chosen". Hell? Get out.
I think there must be a whole other way of seeing that we are not using. My only clue is that Truth may be paradoxical. or often paradoxical (God is not so tied to our paradigms...in fact they are His and we simply stumble over them from time to time).
Is God exclusive?
There is too much evidence that God is. But how so?
We use to think that it was impossible to reconcile the period between death and resurrection with "immediately being with the Lord". We know know that simply speeding things up to the speed of light makes everything NOW. It's a simple fix and might actually be true (ha).
I think we are asking the wrong questions.
It's that simple. We have blocked ourselves into a dualistic mindset of in or out. It's not that there is no precedent biblical (what and tares, sheep and goats) but those do not superceed the love and mercy of God for every human whose hairs are numbered by the infiniate mind, heart, grace and love of God.
"Come to Me all you who are weary and heavy-laden, for my budden is light and my yoke is easy".~Jesus
That's a world away from who is in and who is out.
Choose that.
posted by Obi-Mac BakDon @ 9:58 AM
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