It's me, mike hillebrecht

“I’ve got good news and bad news. Which do you what first?”

How many times have you made this claim, or had it made to you? Too many times to count probably. Have you ever considered that the evaluation of good/bad is on the person giving the news? We rely on their, or our, interpretation of what is deemed to be good/bad to and for us.

I recall a time at work when someone came to me with this statement. I said, which I often do, give me the good news first. Their response was, “I don’t have to be here tomorrow.” Now to me, this was not good news because I would then have pick up their load, along with mine, for the day. Begrudgingly I then asked what the bad news was, from which they responded, “I’ve been fired!” At this precise moment I had to make a very important decision: Rejoice that this nut-case was finally out of my life or act solemn in the misery this person was feeling. Perspectives on good/bad news have many twists.

The Gospels, we are told, are the good news of Jesus’s life and death. Okay, I can see the life part being good for him, the disciples and his followers, but for the religious folks who felt threatened by his work, they possibly viewed this as bad news whenever Jesus showed up.

Conversely, the death of Jesus can be registered as bad news for him, the disciples and his followers, while the religious folks rejoiced at squelching a potential rebellion which would exact a terrible toll on their relationship with the Roman government.

However, the resurrection of Jesus from the bounds of death is good news to the disciples and his followers, while it would be bad news for the religious and governing folks who now face the real possibility of being exposed, defamed and publicly accused for the death of an innocent man. This is a real first where the man confirmed to be dead is alive to confronts those who killed him!

Yet, the forgiveness which Jesus displays by not vindicating himself before the religious and governing folks is good news to them since they won’t have to endure any public repercussions for their actions, while it will make it difficult to the disciples and his followers to rightfully standup to attempts to keep them from telling everyone what occurred.

This scenario of good news/bad news can keep playing on and on without ever ending simply because there will always be at least two sides to the narrative which can be told and affect someone’s sense of morality. Duality does that, always.

Over the course of two millennium the church has had to redefine the good news of Jesus to meet the expectations of empire and doctrine. We, the church, still might not have it exact, but maybe we’re not suppose to. Paul claimed that this entire production is a mystery which must be revealed. Generations have had to look into what’s so good about the singular execution of a Hebrew teacher in the midst of a Roman occupation. It certainly confounds the mind, but isn’t that the manner all mysteries follow?

The next time you seek to divulge the Good News from rote, take the time for a moment to consider from whose perspective this news is being told and received. And in this moment also seek to instill the sense of mystery which draws people to inquire for further insight rather than just dismiss the whole thing as an outlandish myth, which makes it bad news in a world already bereft with an abundance of bad news.

Recently my family and I traveled to the Tetons in Wyoming for a camping vacation. It is amazing how being in the presence of such natural grandeur- massive crags of geological projections softened by a carpet of wildflowers scattered among the pines and aspen – causes you to stop and reflect on how your very essence is but a minute part of a much grander scheme. Many were the occasions during this trip where I experienced the fullness of a Creator who wished to express His love through the very matter which surrounded me, and I was emotionally overcome by the offer. It often seemed at times that His presence in the abundance of creation was merely the vehicle to announce my being upon a platform which no other entity could occupy. Deep spiritual stuff, right? Maybe.

There is a passage in the book of Mark where Jesus is dealing with the exorcism of a demon from a young boy which could not be handled by his disciples. The father of the boy asks Jesus, if it was possible, could he help. The response that occurred at this moment from Jesus is, “‘If I possibly can!'” replied Jesus; “why, everything is possible to him who believes.” Immediately the father cried out, “I do believe: strengthen my weak faith.”(Mark 9:23-24)

This is the story of every one of us. We know all things are possible with God, but our life definitely does not portray this. We simply ask for God to supplement our weak faith so that we may believe. What surprises most people is knowing that the word which the bible uses for faith and belief is the same word, Pistis. Most have thought to believe is something different from having faith; however, it is the same thing. Statements like, “I believe less today than I ever have,” or “My faith today is greater than it has ever been,” are using the same word to describe the nature of the exact same things: the hope of things which can’t be seen.

Today, at this stage in my life I have come to believe in really two things found in the Bible: that God is love, and that Jesus died on the cross. Everything else, all the stories, doctrines and dogmas they have subsequently created, they are part of the faith journey I’m on. Yes, I recognize that from the previous paragraph I have employed the same word to describe two very unique conditions.

From my point of view, a belief can be validated, it has real hard material evidence. I know that God is love simple because in the depth of my deepest, darkest moment of despair, when all hope had vanished, when there was no faith to be seen, felt or even considered, He reached down and covered me in His pure golden liquid honey of love. That is my evidence which no one will ever be able to deny or take away from me. That experience has become a vital aspect of my very being, my essence.

The evidence of Jesus dying on the cross is likewise validated by multiple witnesses across a broad spectrum of society from that day. This makes it an important event even though there were a multitude of crucifixions conducted during the life of Jesus. His however, was acknowledge by others who weren’t even his disciples. Therefore, I can believe this event happened; the evidence supports it. This belief too, is a vital aspect of my being.

As I’ve stated the rest, in my opinion, requires faith to apprehend it. Don’t get me wrong here, I’ve taken my long draughts from the well of many a doctrine and dogma. They are, regrettably, in my opinion, too much work to maintain. I haven’t dismissed any of them, yet I feel more confident recognizing that I just can’t see it, so faith is what it must be. When it is revealed to me, then I can fully believe it. Maybe, like the father who came to Jesus, I can proclaim what I strongly believe and accept in some areas my faith is weak. Either way, I know that God is pleased with me – a fact which some of those doctrines and dogmas are hard pressed to accept.

What if the grace message, and its present manifestation as a movement, isn’t for the world? What if it is only for the church? Absurd? Consider before you dismiss.

What do you know about grace? It is the power of a gift which enables us to be in the presence of God despite all that we have done to keep ourselves away from Him. It is what keeps us from the fires of an eternal conscious torment. It is what has bought our very being from the masters of our demise, the tortures of our soul. It is what turned our lives from the curse of a living hell into the eternal blessing of divine love. Grace is the reward of a sacrifice we couldn’t make but were willing to commit to defend our image of a God who punishes any who claim to be in the image and likeness of His glory. It is unmerited, unfathomable, undeniable, unlimited, and unifying.

Stop now, for a moment, drop whatever additional superlatives you might seek to add to my description and ask yourself this: Where did I hear or learn about this?

I am very certain none of this language, metaphorical overtones or symbology originated in the daily world you inhabit. The “world” which the church is so eager to profess they are not part of, that environment which God so loved that He sent his only begotten Son into, quite possibly doesn’t give a care to your thoughts about grace simply because they’ve been living in it a whole lot better than the cloistered folks of the church have.

What if the message of grace is intended to get you off your bigger-than-life ego and into the enormous process of being divine? How would you function in a world which thinks nothing of God and everything of living in the gift of the creation He offers them moment by moment?

Consider the mind set which thinks how we must bring people into our environment to convey to them how they aren’t worthy to be in the presence of God except for the grace He offers them; even still, how now they may be in the presence of people who understand this claim to be true about everyone. How do you handle the type of person who has never felt they weren’t in the presence of God all the while being apart from the people of God?

The church likes to think that they are the only ones who know the secret handshake, the hidden sayings, and the proper protocol to entertain the Creator on a day of rest. In this manner they view themselves as the 1% crowd who possess the riches of the world. Rarely do we realize the poverty of our neglectful interactions with the 99% who are grateful without regard, unencumbered by ceremony and liberated from tradition.

The church has embellished grace as the blessing of God without considering how you only thought it so in the curse of your living. Yet, it took a church to tell you your life was a curse first so you could distinguish the blessing grace offered you. How is it we never understood that grace has always been part and parcel of living? There isn’t a grace for the world which is any different than a grace for the church.

According to God’s way of looking at things, you might say that the world is more in tune with what church should be than what church attempts to portray. And portray is the proper term because it denotes to perform an act or dramatization, that when finished, allows the performers to remove their masks and return to their routines in living until the next performance. Church folks will never agree with Shakespeare that all the world is a stage, simply because they need a break from the masks.

Instead of proclaiming that there is a world out there for grace to affect, why not return to a world in which grace is the effect.

It’s the story of your life, right? Voices. Lots of voices, telling you do this, don’t do that. Who can you trust and who do you put a ten-foot pole in front of before you even get them to say something, anything, remotely nice?

In the Hebrew creation narrative of the man and woman in the garden, there is an interesting thought which pertains to this posting. You might recall how the couple ate the fruit which they had been commanded not to eat and then hid themselves in the garden when the presence of God came on His daily walk. God asks why they were hiding, and the man says it was because they were naked. God’s response to them is, “Who said that you were naked?”

Man, woman, and God. That is all who, according to the story, reside in this world. Let me put this in a different manner: Man is made in the image and likeness of God; woman is crafted from man, therefore, is also in the image and likeness of God. As far as God is concerned, the only being residing in the garden is…

With God there is no other, literally. I’m not say that there is no other god. I’m simply stating a fact: God doesn’t see an “other.” Sure, you can look out your window and see “others” moving in this world, but who said they are “other?” Not God!

Let’s face it, we have an “other” issue which, when boiled down, is narrated in a me-versus-them mentality. Racial, gender, sexual preference, income status, political bias, nationality, and so many supplementary divides permeate our world for what reason? To declare “other?” Or, is it to define our perceived vulnerability?

How many voices daily do you hear correcting your actions, preventing you from expressing your true nature, enflaming your wrath for a past injury to your emotional well-being? How many of these voices are merely from your past, people you don’t even see anymore, voices that only spoke to you once?

Furthermore, how many voices tell you should act now before it’s too late; tell you that you’re not beautiful enough unless you use their (fill in the blank); tell you that you’re not sexy, affluent, mature, carefree, studious, hungry, too hungry, tired, sick, awake, feeling right, or anything else advertising wants you to hear about your lack which only their product can fulfill?

In that garden, God only sees his reflection. There is no other to give voice to that image. Silence. Who broke the silence of being?

Silence is a big deal these days, primary because we can’t seem to find it, or once found, we can’t accept it. Contemplation, the art of shutting up to hear a real voice, confounds most. It’s art simply because it develops mental muscle to recognize all the voices we hear in our head and give priority to. It confounds simply because we’ve been so saturated with stuff which we thought was us, that when the realization of outside influences are exposed, we feel tainted.

Elijah experienced this. After dispatching the prophets of Baal, he high-tailed it to the wilderness to escape the threats of Jezebel. Finding himself in a cave, he hears a voice simply ask, “Why are you here?” Have you ever heard that voice of question in the deep, dark place of your hiding? If you have, you probably did the exact same thing Elijah did – justify your actions. But to what end?

In Elijah’s case it produced first a mighty strong wind which ripped the mountains apart; followed by an earthquake and then a firestorm – manifestations of self-made god. Whenever we try to justify ourselves, the wind of our voice will rip through what we possess tossing everybody into the maelstrom it creates. This will shake the very foundations of the belief people have in us and will cause passions to rise until nothing recognizable remains in the smoldering ashes of our intent. Then, after the carnage and purifying it requires has happened, we will, just as Elijah experienced, hear the still small voice of the gardener call us out of the depths of our self-imposed darkness.

Note to self: self-imposed is the “other” you are not.

Joh 17:22 And the glory which you have given me I have given unto them; that they may be one, even as we are one.

It takes time and humility to turn away the voices of our own discourse in order to reveal the voice of a true calling we been placed upon the planet to complete. We’ve endured many good stories about our successes and failures; rights and their weather-worn glories; injustices and the stale prejudices they promote. There have been stories told of adventures, disappointments, regrets and cherished moments all of which puncture the still mundane routine of life. Each has a voice, a narrator, a director and script writer embellishing the prosaic life we lead. Rarely, are we able to stop with the edits long enough to listen to the voice of the gardener quietly ask, “Who said why are you here?”

Warning! This post is about to make some claims that will be controversial bordering on heretical if you have any national patriotic leanings of a Judeo-Christian mindset.

Some of you reading that warning will immediately leave with a captivated mind. For those of you who decide to read on, I only request that you suspend your binary thinking for a moment and allow a new thought on an old pattern be introduced and considered. There will always be room and time for speculation, yet rarely do we give ourselves time to consider. Let’s begin.

I don’t believe in the Ten Commandments.

I told you it was going to be blistering. My reasons are many, none of which you might have thought of. But this is beside the point. So, let’s start out with the underlying reason: Israel never viewed them as commandments. Throughout the scope of Hebrew thought, the rabbis and greatest teachers of the Law referred to these as the Ten Sayings or Ten Words. Semantics doesn’t have a footing here. These people never associated them to the harsh reality of “Do or Die” which a commandment could produce. To paraphrase the words of Captain Barbossa of the Black Pearl, “The commandments are more guidelines than actual rules.”

My strongest reason however comes from a passage where Jesus claims a very important kingdom principle.

Mar 10:31 But many that are first shall be last; and the last first.

Now I’ll the first to admit that this verse has nothing to do with the sayings, yet as I stated, it does reveal a kingdom principle which I strongly believe has never been considered heretofore, particularly when dealing with a list generated by God Himself. I’m fairly certain that David Letterman is not God, however, it is quite possible that his ability to create and present a top ten list is a divine attribute which many should consider employing.

Here is my offering to you on this subject which, if you consider the sayings to be guidelines, and believe God has the best intentions in mind for all, might reveal to you a grace you never knew existed in these sayings. As a means to implement them together, I will offer this as a narrative which conveys the love Jehovah has for the children of Israel and the world.

Before you lies the Land I have promised as your inheritance. It is occupied by a people who I will give to you. You need to be aware of how you will conduct yourself in this land not only with strangers but with your own kin because there is a trap waiting for you in the very abundance the land offers. To avoid this trap, you need to not desire the house of your neighbor, or desire his wife, or his servants, or his livestock which provide transportation for him, or clothes and feeds his family. If you are able to do this, you will live and prosper mightily in the land.

However, if desire befalls you, beware, for it has a path which will lead you to destruction. It will cause you to lie and bear a false accusation against your neighbor in order to possess what you desire from him. You will steal, even kidnap, that which is not yours. This desire will cause you to commit adultery, even kill the one who holds what is not yours. These actions will not bring honor to your mother or father and will merely shorten your miserable life.

The drive to possess your desire will force you to work incessantly and not take a day of rest to restore yourself. Even I took a break when I created this world out of My desire for you. You, regrettably, will not be so charitable to yourself in creating your own world. In this wearied state you will begin to blame Me for your woes and sorrows which will force you to look toward other gods, images or systems of power who you believe will alleviate your misery simply by offering them tokens of your affection. Ultimately you will become dissatisfied with these and proclaim that you, and you alone, are supreme, thereby refusing to recognize that in your proclamation, you have once again returned to the bondage I just delivered you from.

I am, just saying, the choice is yours.

I don’t believe that God is a top-down deity, sitting on a throne of grace, acting like the great and mighty Oz, reminding people that he is God! The traditional reading of the Sayings would, however, lead you to believe this. No, I believe He is a bottom-up kind of deity who cares mightily about His creation and does all in His power to support its development and progression. He, like no one else, knows what we are like and what drives us. It simply makes sense that He would try to offer us His wisdom on how to navigate into and through unchartered territory. Trouble only arises when we don’t know how to read the map simply because our forefathers never taught us what the symbols meant (often because their’s never did the same to them).

Throughout this land there are monuments to the ten commandments as the de facto basis for all justice. In my opinion, not that you care anyway, this is a blatant disregard for the wisdom they offer simply because they aren’t displayed properly. Far too many do not believe in God, particularly those who are facing prosecution. They have never possibly thought how their desires have placed them in the very condition they are trying desperately to get out of.

You can’t command someone to believe in God. You certain can show them how their actions have led them to believe there isn’t one and they have put themselves into that role of supreme being, even when they are in handcuffs.

No, I don’t believe in the Ten Commandments. I believe in the love and grace of a Creator who cares for me and how I represent His will when I look at my neighbor’s success. Just saying…

You ever wonder why after the resurrection of Jesus, and his forty days teaching the disciples about the kingdom, he tells them to go into Jerusalem and wait ten days for the promise to appear? As the messiah, wasn’t he the promise?

We know of course that by their waiting in the upper room, they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in the tongues, or languages, of the multitude of people who had come into Jerusalem to participate in the second national religious celebration known as Shavout, the festival of weeks, what we call Pentecost. Regrettably, today most of the church doesn’t even have a clue to the importance of this celebration and the significance to which it plays in the birth and formation of the church. What makes this day so important?

You may have heard of the story of the children of Israel, slaves who resided in the land of Egypt, and how their leader, Moses, following the instructions of their God, Jehovah, were led out of the oppressive captivity of Pharaoh’s Egypt toward their own promised land. The night that this deliverance occurred would forever be memorialized as the Passover and later recognized as the first of three yearly national religious celebrations.

Over the course of the next several weeks, Israel would make their journey toward their promised land, eventually stopping at a place in the wilderness known as Mt. Sinai. At this very location the entire congregation of Israel was presented the opportunity to see and hear Jehovah. However, the sheer magnitude of Jehovah’s holiness and awesomeness overwhelmed the senses of the children of Israel and they insisted that Moses be their mediator before Jehovah and convey all that He wanted to tell them.

So, Moses ascended the mountain which was enveloped in rolling clouds which flashed with lightning and bellowed with thunder. Winds blew mightily about the mountain while tongues of flames rose high into the sky from the multiple lightning strikes which lit up the mountain. Many of the people cowered at the horns blasts which sounded in the heavens fearing that Moses could not possibly survive the tumult which they were witnessing and having been led into the wild, they now were without a leader.

Meanwhile, Moses eventually reached a spot where Jehovah had inscribed upon two stone tablets what the people of Israel would call The Ten Sayings. These sayings, which today the church calls commandments, would be the cornerstone to what would become known in Israel as The Law, 613 commandments which the children of Israel were required to observe as they entered the promised land. Two of these commandments were that the children of Israel were to yearly celebrate the Passover, and also the festival of weeks, Shavout, the day that Jehovah gave Israel the Ten Sayings and The Law.

Over the centuries since these events had occurred and leading up to the time of Jesus, stories were told among the teachers of The Law of how on the day of Shavout, Jehovah spoke out to all the people of the world in their own language asking who was worthy to receive the Ten Sayings and The Law. It is told that one by one each nation responded that they were unworthy to carrying such a great responsibility in the world. Finally, when the last nation had relinquished themselves, Israel arose and proclaimed that they would receive the Ten Sayings and The Law of Jehovah and present them throughout the world as a testimony to the goodness of God for all mankind. This would be their lasting and living heritage to humanity.

Take a moment now to reconsider what the narrative of the day of Pentecost is portraying from the book of Acts. Upper room, one accord, mighty rushing wind, tongues of fire, and speaking in multiple languages about the glory of God. This is the fulfillment of The Law by Jesus for the whole world to see. As for the Ten Sayings, well Jesus expounded upon them in his own sermon on the mount; but, it is possible that there exists a wisdom which hasn’t been expounded upon found in these saying, particularly addressing how a nation builds itself in a new land, or how a church operates in the world, or even how one person is to carry the responsibility of being a testimony of the goodness of God for all to see. As you might have guessed I have something to say about this too…

We’ve come back around to that time of the year again where multitudes of people will make one of their two life pilgrimages into the confines of church to acknowledge the Easter season (the other being Christmas). Bunnies, chicks, plastic eggs filled with tooth and gum disease, frilly bonnets and dresses, all leading up to bountiful table of ham, greens and biscuits galore are what earmark the western venture into the thankfulness of Jesus taking our sins away.

I have previously written about the mystery of this season and all the questions which it holds for us to find answers for. But I’m going to go one further in this posting and ask the ultimate question: What sin? Allow me to offer to you two cherry-picked verses to back up my question.

Eph 1:4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:

1Jn 3:9 Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin; for his seed remains in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.

Step away for moment from what western religion has thrust upon the meaning of this season and let me take a moment to open a thought which many have never entertained simply because their doctrine constrains them from doing so. First let’s all agree on one thing: The entire panorama of this pageant takes place 2,000 years ago in a foreign land occupied by an invading army. Anything we bring to the table with an explanation has to take all of this into context. So, if I may?

Jesus died on the cross, a state-sanctioned torture device, because the religious hierarchy demanded him to be killed for allegedly violating one of their tenets but lacked the authority to fulfill this act without the assistance of the governing Roman army. A mob, roused by these same religious zealots, demanded this action be undertaken even though the Roman governor found Jesus to be innocent of any charges which demanded such harsh punishment. Ultimately, the entire process was conducted to prevent any form of uprising of the population which had poured into the city to celebrate the first of three of the commanded religious festivals Israel annually participated in. Herein lays my side of the Easter narrative which many will gloss over.

The fourth gospel tells us how John the Baptist claimed that Jesus was the lamb who takes away the sins of the world. First off, according to this statement you are going to find a problem. Lambs, according to the book of Leviticus, are not the proper sacrifice for sins, goats are. This is Law folks. Sin offerings are made on Yom Kippur, a fall event occurring after the Jewish New Year. Two goats are offered to the High Priest, one is sacrificed on the altar, while the sins of the nation are confessed over the second goat who is subsequently released into the wilderness, taking the sins with it. So, if Jesus is fulfilling the requirements of the Law as a sin offering, he is not the correct type, or doing it in the prescribed manner at the appropriate time. Apparently, he therefore is not fulfilling the Law, which Jesus professed he was here to do.

The fourth gospel goes out its way to tell us that Jesus died at precisely the time when the Passover lamb was slain by the High Priest making Jesus the Passover lamb for the world. Regrettably, western religiosity completely ignores the meaning of this fundamental Hebraic belief in the Passover.

The term “Passover” recalls the story of the last plague Israel witnessed Egypt endure at the hands of Jehovah. Moses had instructed all the children of Israel how they were on a certain night to sacrifice a lamb, take the blood from this lamb and apply it to the lintels and doorposts of their dwelling, which would act as a sign preventing the angel of death from entering their dwelling and taking the first born child. All who were within these dwellings, Jew or foreigner alike, with this prescribed marking, were safe from this fateful outcome. Moses also instructed the children of Israel that they were to eat the lamb and prepare for their departure from the bounds of slavery which Jehovah was going to break and the land of Egypt which Jehovah was going to lead them from on the following morning.

This is the meaning of being a Passover lamb. No sin involved.

Jesus professed that he came to give us life, and that life more abundantly. He spoke about how belief in him would lead to eternal life, something he described as knowing the Father, and his son whom he sent. The entire corpus of Jesus’s message was overwhelmingly about living life than about sin. Even the capstone to his message was being resurrected!

Jesus as our Passover lamb, ushers us into eternal life, his blood as the sign protecting us from the death and slavery which confronts us in this world. We are blameless in the Father’s love and cannot sin because we are born of God and his seed remains in us.

If you have to look for some sin, according to these scriptures, you are not going to find it. So let’s take that thought off the Easter table this year and finally celebrate the works of a divine life.

It’s a cry which many of us have made within the depths of our despair, the tear-stained anguish of our common sufferings, the malcontent boiling of our overwhelming dissatisfaction. “Heaven help me.” How’s that working for you?

Have you ever considered that there is a lesson, or maybe many lessons, which you cannot learn in heaven? As great as heaven is, as much as we long to be there, as glorious as all the worship about it offers us, we are all here on the tiny orbital rock in the vastness of a unimaginable universe to attend to a curriculum which can only be administered here, warts and all.

I know it’s hard to believe. But where do you think you are going to learn patience. Heaven can’t teach you this. It’s a realm where everybody is eternally basking in love. Time has no meaning there. Patience involves working within the restrictions of time.

You can’t have patience without also focusing on compassion. Who needs compassion in heaven when everyone is equal? When time is factored into patience, compassion must be administered when all demand their own schedule be followed. And in spite of how much you say you love people, slow moving folks require a level of compassion others just seem to drain from you particularly when they finally come into your field of vision.

These are just a few examples but there are many more. Most of them operate around the notion of time. Steadfastness, harmony and cooperation, tenderness, trustworthiness, commitment, and yes, even love, are lessons this life throws at you which must be taken over and over again until we pass the test. Heaven can’t help you because it put you in this school in the first place so that you would grow up.

There are far too many people who are trying to skip the tests with a note from home thinking they’ll still graduate the class. They fail to realize how the tests keep being administered but under different conditions. Yes, Virginia, life is a story problem and sometimes, when you least expect it, you’re on one of those two trains moving down the same track at two different speeds, and a quadratic equation is the only thing which is going to help you determine how your three children are going to get to different after-school events while you’re preparing dinner. Heaven has no idea the lessons we deal with sometimes simply because time is irrelevant in eternity. So how is your grade coming in this school called life?

What do you do when everything you’ve ever known or considered about grace suddenly flips itself on its head by a simple revelation? Consider the following:

2Ti 1:9 Who hath saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,

Notice the phrase “…before the world began.” This means exactly what it says, no misinterpretation on the part of the translators. So, everything which comes before this phrase occurred before creation, before anything called earth, sky, sun, moon, stars, plants, mountains, oceans, fish, animals, and yes, humans ever manifested. So, what’s the big deal you’re possibly asking yourself. Look closely at just one of the things which were active during this period of development: His own purpose and (more specifically) grace.

Since the writings of Paul, we have been instructed that grace, and all its multi-faceted nature, has been given to mankind by Jesus Christ as a result of one thing, the fall of Adam. Everything which Christ Jesus accomplished in the finished works is wrapped up as a gift of God’s grace to us. Whatever our failings have been which have kept humanity from being able to be in the presence of the Father, Christ redeemed us by his grace. Notice the logic involved here: Something bad happened which caused separation and a remedy is brought forth to rectify the matter. Christ comes because man fell; or put another way, grace is only associated with doing something wrong.

Grace, the kind which comes from an eternal dimension, existed before there was ever a fall, or a wrong act committed; it existed before there was even a human to commit the act; it existed before there was even a planet for a human to be crafted from it who would then commit a wrong act upon it. Grace preceded every single transgression ever committed by mankind simply because it was fully working prior to the creation of all things.

Now don’t think that I’m trying to diminish the finished works of Christ’s grace because that is the farthest thing from what I’m considering. Since we’ve always associated grace with something bad transpiring, we’ve missed the simple fact that grace is there also when something is good.

In the second Genesis narrative (that is going to trip up a lot of you), God proclaims how the creation event is “good” during certain days. Because we’ve never considered the possibility of grace being there in these moments, we just assume that it had no role in God’s goodness. I know that seems like a rather odd thought since we’re always proclaimed that the grace of God has been a part of his goodness. Yet, this proclamation was founded on something bad. The truth is that grace is there in every condition; you can’t turn it on only when you need it simply because it’s always been on.

This leaves us then with a mystery. If grace has always been on, even before creation needed it, what makes the works of Jesus such a special indulgence of God’s grace? Yup, now we’re cooking with gas!

Life is a process. You know this. Things don’t just miraculously poof out of thin air like some hocus pocus trick. There is time, yes time, which has its hand in the entire operation from the least of things to the greatest of things. With time comes the natural effects of living in a biosphere where the cycle follows a predictable path from beginning to end. Here is Jesus’s take on the matter:

Joh 12:24-25 “Listen carefully: Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over. (25) In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you’ll have it forever, real and eternal.

Everything begins as a seed. That seed must die in order to produce what will be the witness of life, then ultimately become the next generation of fruit and the seeds which continue the cycle. Death produces life.

There resided within the psyche of humanity the willingness to believe in the possibility of being able to live forever. It matters not what culture you come from there is somewhere within its heritage the remote myth of some character representing humanity who having traveled a long harrowing journey filled with a multitude of divine tests and trials captures the golden prize of immortality. Even today, there are many in the religious environs of the west who believe how the story of Jesus, they’re belief in him and his finished works, makes them immortal.

If you, like me, are human, you are mortal. Our life is conducted within the environs of this biosphere with all its constraints. To put it bluntly, from dust we came and to dust we shall return. Immortality is mere fiction, a long sought-after wish of a super-hero in this regard. However…

There is a generation that shall live and not die according to the writings of Paul to the church in Corinth. Upon the return of the Christ, Paul conditions this generations existence not in their mortal form but in a change, which will occur in the twinkling of an eye, where they will become as the Christ is. Recognize that this is for a singularly specific generation, not all generations. The prior remaining generations don’t receive this benefit of not dying simply because they are mortal. However…

The Creator resides in dimension beyond the limits of time as we know and experience it. It is an eternal realm knowing no beginning or end, a perpetual state of Now. We, you and I, plus the person next to you, all at one point resided in this very same domain, being “…in Him before the foundations of the world.” Eternal we have been, still are, and forever will be. The meat sack you occupy will cycle through the processes of youth, maturity, adulthood, to seniority and then death, the final state of all organic matter on this planet. However, you – whatever this means – the consciousness which arises from being, is alive in an eternal Now dimension. Notice how eternal life comes to us on this tiny rock in space.

Joh 17:1-3 Jesus said these things. Then, raising his eyes in prayer, he said: Father, it’s time. Display the bright splendor of your Son so the Son in turn may show your bright splendor. (2) You put him in charge of everything human so he might give real and eternal life to all in his charge. (3) And this is the real and eternal life: That they know you, The one and only true God, And Jesus Christ, whom you sent.

All you need to do is know the Father, and Jesus, in order to have eternal life. But aren’t we already eternal? Yes, but we have been chasing dreams of being immortal for far too long. We need to RE-member ourselves in Him. Knowing is union, a coupling bringing two into one. Put whatever overtones you want onto this description and it still won’t diminish the effect it RE-creates. This is reckless love. This is your life as an eternal.