It's me, mike hillebrecht

I want you to read these two statements closely and think about which one you identify with more readily.

God is my Father.

My Father is God.

Yes, at first glance there doesn’t appear to be must difference. Same words, just rearranged. Yet there is a difference. The difference in many ways is you.

The first recorded conversation of Jesus at age twelve had to do with this very matter. It became his entire mission during the last three and a half years of his life. Which one do you think he identified himself with? Is it different from your choice?

God. That is an impressive, commanding, almost breath-taking name. There is a great sense of respect and awe in just releasing that name through your vocal chords. It has a multitude of images associated with it, some contrived by the magic of Hollywood, but more by the oratory of preachers adept in creating the grandeur of His holiness throughout creation. Many of our thoughts of this most-high being immediately place us like Isaiah below His train crying, “Woe is me of unclean lips!” We immediately know that being equal with Him isn’t something you address openly with other believers. He is after all God, and He alone will make that determination.

Father. Warmth exudes from that name to most of us. Yes, it is true that many did not have a father figure that they could hold that kind of regard for, however, deep within everyone of them they’ve crafted an image who is the true picture of a father to them. He is caring and loving, willing to give of himself to encourage his child in all that they do. He is there in every circumstance to protect and be an anchor in times of uncertainty. Foremost, he is the very nature of unconditional love. In the name of father we find peace and security, rest and joy, strength and assurance. There are images that we all cherish when a father is recalled; whether from a childhood adventure to the cautious steps into adulthood, it is the father’s love which overshadows our life’s journey.

Many praise God from a side-line position, watching Him pass in royal dignity. Many embrace the Father as small children eagerly wanting to be lifted up high into the air and then proudly sat upon His shoulder for all to see. It is easy to love the Father but so much for a God who is love. With God, who is all knowing, it’s difficult to be open, but encouraging to know the Father will never leave or forsake you no matter what you do.

Jesus came to reveal the Father not as God but as Father. The revelation of God was already overwhelming the people of Israel. But a union between God and man, as had been the original intent in the garden, was what needed to be known and restored. This is what Jesus pursued for all of us even through the cross and ascension.

We, the church, are called the body of Jesus Christ. Yet we often are more concerned with the workings of God and His kingdom rather than what Jesus pursued for us with the Father. Some may take issue with me claiming that this is all a matter of semantics. No, it’s a matter of relationship. Everyone relates to God, only children know the Father. Bring a number of children together and ask any one of them about their father and they will often proudly proclaim, “My father is…” only to be met with a response of, “Oh yeah, well my father is…” Their relationship super-cedes the role the father is employed within.

In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus taught his disciples what the priorities of the kingdom were. “Our Father, hallowed be your name.” Father first, God second. This is not to diminish the nature of God but to show His importance in the nature of relationship first. This is what Jesus would demonstrate time and time again. So if we truly are His body it becomes vital to our daily walk to meditate on this one thing: My Father is God.

You’re nuts; crazy I tell you!

How many times have you exclaimed that to someone, or worst yet, thought it about yourself? It speaks to the security that many have which is being attacked by a different, often diametrically opposed thought which they cannot possibly believe themselves embracing and adopting. Welcome to the challenge of Grace!

Today, most believers accept a watered-down version of the message of grace. They recognize that they were once a sinner and are now saved by grace. Their joy in getting into heaven by the skin of their teeth is an anchor to an otherwise “normal” lifestyle. They attend church, fellowship with other believers, pray, and read their bibles as regularly as is possible. This is the grace-filled life they have been taught that pleases God.

Yet, miss one of these normal “Christian” routines and there are consequences to pay for the displeasure, and if taken to an extreme, wrath, that God has stored up for you by not doing what He has commanded you to do. Now a whole process of events kicks in to render the believer back into “right-standing” with God because of a sin, a transgression of the covenant. Repentant prayer, confession of sin, washing in the Blood, guilt offerings and a host of other “religious-based” absolution programs flood the guilt-ridden psyche of believers. But whatever it takes to get back to “normal” Christianity.

Paul tells believers in Ephesians to imitate God like good little children. John tells us that God is Love. Both of these passages kick-at-the-goads of believers dealing with guilt issues. There is no possible way that they can be like God and show love when there is a price to pay for the sin they have committed as a believer, which is only a manifestation of a deeper issue of the Adamic nature that they came from. Grace doesn’t help in the matter, its fullest strength only applied at the initial salvation experience; it will only place me into a second-class citizen of the kingdom now.

To all you believers who have or are experiencing these emotions I can only respond with the opening line from this passage, You’re nuts; crazy I tell you! “Well that’s not very God-like, is it?” I’m only mirroring the attitude expressed by your feelings and I hope you’re ready to hear this truth: your feelings are not imitating God one bit. So why is that? The best term I can come up with is that you are a schizophrenic believer. If you want to take that personal, okay, it only adds to the evidence of the term. But let me explain the number one reason for this term.

As I’ve stated, the “New Testament” reality of all believers is to imitate God who is love in all of their activities. However, most of the preaching given today is “Old Testament” types and shadows which shows the wrath of God in a number of ways. The Grace message is presented as a band-aid to the sin issue in man (I know that many will give me a lot of flack for that statement, so just sit still) so that the “old and new” can become one. This paints a “bad-cop, good-cop” scenario between God and Jesus. The underlying theme is that there is a penalty, or price, that justice requires to be paid to balance the scales.

Follow this out and you’ll see that most believers recognize God as the judge, and Jesus as the price. Now extend this thought further so that it crosses the path of Paul’s exhortation to imitate God and what is the natural conclusion? Believers, who judge first, love second. The path I took might seem a bit simplistic to the religious elite but let’s call it the shortest distance between two points, my points being that if you see God as the administrator of a human penal issue, the best way to beat the conviction is to cast your judgment first because God will still love them. Yet notice that under this opera there is no mention of grace, or that it only comes in during one of those moments when the convict throws themselves upon the mercies of the court.

So let’s try to shed a little more light on this “penal” mentality. Paul states that the wages of sin is death. So why did Jesus die on the cross? Was it the judgment of God or was it because Jesus bore all the sins of the world? Before your reflex move to judgment, you better consider that according to Paul, God was in Jesus on the cross reconciling the world to Him. How is it possible that if this is a judicial matter you would have the judge working against the very sentence he pronounced? Hmm, what kind of term would describe this action?

What if we consider that the entire model we have been presented of how God relates to us and we relate to him isn’t from a penal mentality? If we take away the judge and the need for balanced scales of justice requiring a price to be paid, what happens to your theology? What happens to your interactions with people? Impossible! If that is what you’re thinking then realize that your thought has just moved you into the divine nature of God where all things are possible. This is the realm of Grace.

Understand this, while John’s revelation that God is love occurs almost at the end of the bible, it is an eternal revelation that runs from the beginning of the bible to the end. It is His nature and every thought and words that come from His nature are contained within the word grace. “God so loved the world that He gave…” is not a grace act just for believers – it applies for the entire world as a reflection of his nature not as a judge, but as love.

Since Jesus and the Father are one, Jesus going to the cross is a display of His love for the all the world. When the last Adam died on the cross, all died with Him, just as when Christ rose again all rose with Him. (Don’t go and get all bent up here, I did not say all are saved! There is a difference.) If you need to view Jesus’ place on the cross as retribution for sin, then you must also apply it across the board as a final payment for the entire world, past, present, and future. He is the last Adam, the last sacrifice, the last convict in a divine courtroom where the last sentence rendered, at last, the end of all the law. “Where there is no law, there is no transgression (sin).”

So here is the challenge: Do you believe that God’s grace found and expressed in all that Jesus accomplished and finished is greater news to proclaim than the present penal-salvation model you’ve operated from? Until you agree that it is, you are living under a sentence that has already been paid, and you cannot add anything more to it by your actions.

I know that many of your reading this will claim wholeheartedly that you’re saved by grace. You’ve received your “get into heaven free” card from the Father. You’re happy, glad and sassy in this divine truth. Yet how many of you are harboring the hidden thought that a day of judgment is coming where the entire Heavenly court will turn its eyes upon you as your lifetime Blu-ray DVD, complete with Morgan Freeman narration, will be activated showing all the “stuff” you’ve been an accomplice in?

Have you ever considered the shear lunacy of this thinking? Not only for yourself, but for everyone. How can you believe in the nature and power of grace to be so…so…so inadequate – yes that is the word, inadequate – that it would leave you out to dry just when you need it the most? Is this just some kind of hoax that you think the trinity fabricated before creation so that they could catch you off guard at the last possible moment and beat the living daylights out of you?

John tells us that God is love. But does that only apply until some last day when His true vengeful self will finally have a say in how miserably we’ve managed to run things here on earth? But…but what about the verse that claims vengeance is of the Lord? In case you didn’t realize it, you too are a lord on this earth, and while The Lord of the universe has exacted His all of His vengeance upon a cross, you still have to deal with your vengeance.

What! Did I just say that you have a responsibility in this walk of grace? Yup! Until you get your mind renewed to the fact that it is not your mind anymore but Christ’s, you are going to be in a constant state of conflict about the retribution that is due you. Sure people hurt you, some quite severely, but as the writer of the book of Hebrews asks, did you bleed from it like the kind of blood loss Jesus experienced to forgive them, and you too for that matter?

This is where the rubber meets the road. Jesus, a sinless man, takes on the sins of the world and is crucified in one of the most horrific scenes to ever happen in all of eternity in order to pay the full price of death for the entire world. Buried, he then goes to hell, the lowest place for all humanity and beats the snot out of the adversary and his minions, takes the keys of their authority and resurrects, or returns to life. He then ascends to the Father and cleanses the Heavenly temple with his blood which declares that no one will ever have so great an offense that prohibits them from reaching to the Father. Finally, he sits down in an over-sized throne right next to the Father and waits for every single person to realize that their enemy is now a foot cushion in a royal decor sponsored by the trinity.

But wait! Someone doesn’t think that this is enough. No, in their belief of how God should act, He needs to keep His anger pent up, day after day, month after month, years and centuries after years and centuries, until finally some angel blows a horn and it’s “game on” for the home team! Balderdash! (If you will note, in this archaic word is the letter “b” and “s” giving it the same meaning in today’s slang.)

These people have significance issues. Their significance is in beating the hell out of people either here and now or there and later. Why don’t they just accept their truth that the grace of Christ did not fulfill everything that it was intended to do? Or that when Jesus said, “…it is finished!” he really was hallucinating and was just having visions of some northern country where people have blond curly hair and smoke salmon and eat pickled herring!

Am I crazed! Yes! Why are you torturing yourself? What do you gain by not believing that finished is really a completion to an entire saga spanning the past, present and future dynamics of human existence? How can it be so hard to grasp the fullness of grace just for your own self and not realize it has done the same for everyone? Do you really want what you deserve? Then don’t ask for grace, ask for mercy. Maybe then the pain you feel won’t seem so bad in the end. After all, it is what you expected.

But if you asked for grace, it was given to you in a measure you can’t comprehend. It covers, enfolds, wraps and hides you from all manner of discovery. It elevates you, cleanses you, champions you, guides you, enthrones you, worships you from a completed intention of the Father of grace. It will continue to amaze you for the remainder of eternity as wave upon wave of its grandeur crash upon you in total abandonment of love. In it you will discover the extent of “finished” and realize that it’s not a line that you cross but a cross that has aligned you.

But that leaves us with that word: Retribution. It is an interesting word and concept. Let’s look at the definition of the word from the good old boys at dictionary.com

ret·ri·bu·tion
noun
1. requital according to merits or deserts, especially for evil.
2. something given or inflicted in such requital.
3. Theology . the distribution of rewards and punishments in a future life.
Origin:
1350–1400; Middle English retribucioun < Middle French < Late Latin retribūtiōn- (stem of retribūtiō ) punishment, reward as result of judgment, equivalent to Latin retribūt ( us ) (past participle of retribuere to restore, give back; see re-, tribute) + -iōn- -ion

Now I want to pick out something in the origins of this word. Notice the reference to see “re-” and “tribute.” While the definitions at dictionary.com are good for these, I’m going to use the fine folks at Merriam-Webster to supply our understanding of tribute.

trib·ute
noun
1a: a payment by one ruler or nation to another in acknowledgment of submission or as the price of protection; also: the tax levied for such a payment
b(1): an excessive tax, rental, or tariff imposed by a government, sovereign, lord, or landlord
(2): an exorbitant charge levied by a person or group having the power of coercion|
c: the liability to pay tribute
2a: something given or contributed voluntarily as due or deserved; especially: a gift or service showing respect, gratitude, or affection
b: something (as material evidence or a formal attestation) that indicates the worth, virtue, or effectiveness of the one in question Origin:
Middle English tribut, from Latin tributum, from neuter of tributus, past participle of tribuere to allot, bestow, grant, pay, from tribus tribe
First Known Use: 14th century

If you’re not familiar with the prefix “re” it means to return to the original; as an example consider the word “reborn” which means to be returned to the original birth. When you place re- in front of tribute, obviously you get retribute, which leads us to retribution. So let’s go explore something unique in this word that may very well change your entire concept of God’s justice.

The entire world justice system today is based on retribution. We all recognize it in the biblical phrase, “An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.” Do something wrong and a price needs to be exacted to balance the scales of justice. Someone does you wrong and you expect compensation, even to the point of making your future secure from “pain and suffering” that you’ll ruminate on. This manner of “doing” business is evident in all kinds of social discourse, even to the point of “unfriending” someone because they said something you didn’t approve of and the price that they have to pay is not being able to see any more pictures of tortured animals in human clothes.

Under this form of justice a price is always expected either in money or time and in most cases it’s both. Occasionally the ultimate price of life is what must be exacted for the offense. This is the Judeo-Christian ethic after all! Don’t get me wrong here. I’m not saying that this method of justice is…is…that’s all I’m going to say about that.

There is a passage in the book of Matthew where Jesus is dealing with this matter of retribution in the justice system of the day. This is the same passage where Christians learn to turn the other cheek when someone slaps you. At the end of this matter Jesus states that if someone asks you to walk a mile with them then you should go two miles. This sounds “Christian” right, but do you know what law Jesus is referring to? Probably not.

In the Roman occupation of Israel, there was a law that if any centurion told you to carry his gear for him, you were required by law to do it for him or…you get the point, literally! The only restriction to this law was that you could only carry it for him one mile. Any distance longer than this mile would place the centurion in violation of the law! Jesus is promoting insurrection of a governing power by carrying their gear for a greater distance then they want you to do it!

Can you imagine the thoughts running through the head of a centurion who has you carrying his gear? He knows that the mile is coming to an end and you’re not getting yourself ready to drop everything; no, you’re gleefully shifting the weight higher so that you can go further! He’s in a panic, sweat beginning to form on his brow as he takes each cautious step. He knows what will happen to him for forcing you to go further than the mile. But he hasn’t forced you, you willingly gave. It will be his punishment that he’s trying to avoid as he pleads with your to drop his gear. Yes, he pleads with you! How is this for retribution!

If I was successful in giving this description, most of you have been salivating waiting to get this guy for what he did to your freedom. Keep those feelings in mind because what I want you to consider about this concept of retribution now is to examine it from the other side of what “tribute” means. It means a gift or service showing respect or gratitude. (Gratitude=grace) It shows value, virtue or worth. When you place the prefix “re-” onto this meaning of tribute you get a definition that speaks volumes on the grace of God’s justice. It demonstrates that the gift given to you was to show you respect and establish your value and worth to the Father as it was in the beginning of all eternity.

Is God a god of retribution? Before this moment I would have had to say no, emphatically no! However, seeing the evidence placed before me in the various meanings of the root words that this word is derived from, I would have to say that God, by his very nature and the nature of His kingdom, is a God of retribution. His justice has paid the price in such a manner that each one of us has been returned back to our original value, respect and worth of His plan.

Imagine if this form of retribution was what the world’s justice system operated from. What would happen if you went to court only to hear every single time that the price had been already paid and that the defendant was free to go? That is what grace is all about. You can’t go into a court and ask for mercy if grace has already paid the price. If everyone has been restored to their value and worth by the gift of one man, how can the old definition of retribution still be the predominate mindset in the Judeo-Christian ethic?

Aloof. Narcissistic. Judgmental. High and mighty. Homophobic. Moralistic. Child Killer. Bigot.

Those aren’t very flattering terms. These are, regrettably, the titles that have been plastered upon your god. You read that right, your god. Not the God of creation, but the god of your creation, formed in the image and likeness of what and who you believe is a holy being.

I know that by reading this you will deny you’re capable of doing such a thing. You’re a bible-believing, tongue-talking, cleansed-by-the-blood Christian. But don’t worry, I too was confronted by this same reality claiming the same heritage as you. But when God levels the claim against you, there is not much you can do to disagree. So what, or better yet, how did this happen? Let me give you an example.

William and his family did not attend church and except for a grandmother, they weren’t even considered familiar with the tenets of any kind of faith. One day at the age of six, while playing with a few friends at a one of their houses, William repeated exclaimed some words that, well let’s just say were more normal for a travel-hardened sailor. Some adult came out and scolded William for his foul language and quickly stated that God would clearly judge him harshly if William kept speaking in that manner. William sheepishly apologized and promised not to speak those words again.

Some time passed and then one day is a scuffle with a young boy over the ownership of a toy, William once again released a barrage of unsavory language at the lad which not only dismayed the victim but suddenly caused William to abruptly stop what he was doing and anxiously look about in fear.

As William recalled this incident many years later, he said that his fear was not that there were any adults around who would have heard him but that God was about to judge him for speaking like he did. He said that after a few moments when nothing happened to him, he went on about playing. William said that over the course of many following incidences where he would speak in a similar manner there was always a moment that he feared God would judge him but nothing ever occurred. Eventually, he overcame the fear because he came to believe that God must have been too busy with something else to take any concern in his use of language.

Today, William, a believer for more than fifteen years is desperately desiring to develop a deeper relationship with God. Regrettably, William feels that God is too far off, or aloof, when he prays to Him. William also harbors in the recesses of his thoughts this fear that God is going to judge him at a moment’s notice whenever he does something William knows isn’t what God expects of him. As he sees other people in his church grow in their relationship and love of God, William finds it difficult to suppress the feelings that God doesn’t care for him. He often finds it difficult to talk to people about the things of God because of these feelings he has and he feels that what he is experiencing may influence others adversely who might not be as interested in God as he is.

This is the plight of William and his god; not the God of his church, but the god created as a child that followed him into the structure called church. Unfortunately, William’s story is being acted out across the entire community of believers. Unless you just landed on this planet from outer space, every one has a perception of whom and what God is like, believers and unbelievers alike. This perception is developed early in our life by the actions of adults we look to for guidance. I say this with all sincerity, even being raised in church does not guarantee a correct perception of God. How can I make such a bold claim? Again, the experience of others.

Stephen, Andrew and Millie all grew up in church from the day they were born. Their parents, Patrick and Sandy grew up in church too as did their parents before them. When Millie, the baby of the family, was diagnosed with MS at age three, the entire family stood on their faith in God that Millie would be healed by the works of Christ. Stephen and Andrew, seven and five at the time pledged their support for their sister and often were seen in the children’s chapel claiming before the other children that Millie would be made whole by Jesus.

The entire family became a resource in their community for how to endure the testing which comes with pursuing healing. The entire family would travel to the healing meetings which came to town, or other cities if they knew that God had told them to go there. Patrick and Sandy immersed themselves in memorizing and confessing healing scriptures. They would often lead the boys in nightly prayers reciting these verses over Millie, building up their faith in the finished works of Christ. Patrick began leading a men’s healing group at church and would often take the boys with him to see the impact of God’s healing power on people as they prayed and watch people “fall out” under the power of the Spirit. Sandy became Millie’s teacher of prayer and spiritual warfare. They often could be heard securing the healing anointing for Patrick’s ministry as he departed the house each week with the boys in tow.

When Millie turned eighteen and the doctor’s diagnosis again reaffirmed the severity of her disfiguration, certain changes became evident in Stephen and Andrew on how they related to God. Simply put, they were exhausted. They had believed for so long that God would heal their sister and now years later with no hint of improvement, they were questioning just what kind of God would make a promise of healing and not follow through on it like he had done to them and their sister. This question and others weren’t something they could bring up with Patrick and Sandy, but were often overheard on more than one occasion being voiced while they were with friends. Questions were also affecting Sandy who was openly challenging sermons she had been listening to and standing behind for years. Patrick was laboring to field sound answers while feeling the weight of the unanswerable gnawing question, “Why…?”

Whether you believe it or not, God is not obligated to perform to your perception of Him. The events we experience daily form the perception of our god working in our life. The one true God already existed before we came around, however our thoughts about him have been warped by the perceptions of those who have gone on before us. Whole denominations claim to know who God is, but their doctrines dismiss how he operates on the earth today simple because they don’t think that is God! So they have a perception created around a desire to see God which can only be seen in their frame of reference. This is happening around the world in every community, creating an angst within the congregations who are yearning for a move of God. Their god doesn’t move!

How many times have you claimed, “I know what my God can do!” only to carry the burden of all the things your god has never done or seems at least to be taking his own sweet time in getting around to? Some of you are probably shocked that I would even consider saying such a thing. Well don’t get your panties all tied up in a knot, I can assure you that God is mature enough to handle all our childish outbursts, mine and yours included. Our own god, meanwhile, I’m not so sure he is able to. I say this because we are quick to defend our god when someone brings a charge against him. Like we’re going to defend him, right! If our god is the true God, don’t you think that the whole host of heaven is pretty peeved about us doing their job of defending the King of creation? There is a screw that needs tightened in that kind of thinking to make it run right and true.

Let me be blunt with you. The god of our creation has never done anything for us despite what we’ve let other believe. Our god is a judgmental and temperamental cuss who would sooner wish we would stop bothering him than consider our good works, offerings of thanksgiving and sacrifices of praise. Yes, our god is tired of being Santa Claus, the tooth faerie, and the Easter Bunny for adults and kid alike. Yes, our god does think that people are inept at maintaining relationships, even with the same sex, and that is why he doesn’t stop us from doing stupid things on Friday night that we’ll regret on Saturday morning.

It is true that he doesn’t hold you to any promises that you throw at his great white porcelain throne of late night judgment which is pretty sweet. But that is not going to help you when you need cash to get your sorry lower half out of jail after everyone you know has changed their phone number. Our god does care for the little people, little green people on little green slips of paper. We know it but we don’t confess it because of that filthy lucre thing which no holy god in his right mind would ever be around. We know full well that prosperity in our god has nothing to do with riches, but only sorrows. That is why we shudder when someone says, “The Lord bless you,” cause he ain’t done it yet but he sure keeps adding to our sorrows. And don’t even get me started on divine health under our god…insurance says it all.

I trust that maybe you’ve encountered a glimpse at your god who has been hiding in the recesses behind a veil of self-proclaimed holiness. Sure I’ve made some exaggerations in a couple of areas for literary purposes but overall the point is hopefully understood. In reality most of the perceptions we’ve created about our god are subtle, barely noticeable. These are the worst kind simply because they place us in this never-ending cycle of performance-oriented behaviors to gain acceptance.

Paul claims that we need to experience a renewing of the mind. Most preachers exhort people about this when they are trying to get you to believe something new about God. Look, there is nothing new about God. He is the same yesterday, today and forevermore. Or maybe they claim it’s because God is doing a new thing. Well, God did a new thing two thousand years ago and then he claimed it was finished and sat down. So what exactly does Paul want us to renew our mind about? How about the truth that our god sucks in running our life and the lives of those around us? How about the truth that He is the only one who can do what we’re believing to be done, and that He’ll do it when He is the only one who will receive all the praise for it? How about the truth that honestly, it’s not dependent upon our faith, no matter what the size it is, but it really is about His faith and his alone?

Maybe, just this once, we need to renew our mind to the truth that we have created a god in our image and likeness and God, our Father, is not impressed how we have been worshiping it rather than him. It’s time to find out who the real god is and why his grace is so vital to our daily life.

There they sit. Staring intently into each other’s eyes. Smiles radiate a magnitude of sheer joy that can only be expressed by the word, “Awe!” They love each other with a love that cannot be expressed through a cavalcade of word pictures because it pulses and vibrates in a constant stream like waves crashing on a rocky shoal, each crash raising the level of their love and joy to yet another level of magnitude.

Jesus leans in and says, “You know what I’m thinking?” “Yup!” and “Sure do!” exclaim the Father and Holy Spirit. Laughter ensues for a span that time can’t adequately measure. As they compose themselves, the Father speaks. “Have you ever considered…” “I just did!” and “I’m feeling it with you!” chuckle Jesus and Holy Spirit. Again they all break out in laughter.

[The theme from the Twilight Zone begins]

[music dies down]

Evolutionist believe that God said in the deep darkness of an unknown realm, “If I build it, they will come.” Then someone turned on the light to His dream. Somehow they miss the fun and excitement of creating and sharing and giving and expressing and…and Life unspeakable! This is what pulses out of the eternal realm. When God, they or them, the plural known as singular, created, it was bigger than we can possibly imagine. We have dramatically underestimated the singular plural of Him. Paul tried to capture and convey their nature in this verse out of 2 Corinthians.

2 Corinthians 13:14
(14) The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.

This is the most perfect example in scripture of the trinity in operation and Paul tacked an exclamation point of “Amen” to the end of it. The love of God; God is love; God so loved…this is our bedrock, the foundation of our entire belief. It is a nature, a characteristic, a distinction, a perpetual identification void of any difference. As great as we have marginalized the term “love” in this world we too have fractured our perception of God as love and being the fullest expression of love. This has caused us to neglect the very core of love’s purpose to extravagantly give unconditionally.

Herein lies our loss of the grace extended in Jesus who, being one with love, gifts us with unfathomable, inexhaustible spiritual riches that we have perceived through a religious filter of unworthiness. So great is our belief in this unworthiness that we fore go the relationship, the fellowship, the common union eagerly provided to us by Holy Spirit, who also being one with love and its gracious giving, tries to bring us back to our original thought of who we truly are in the eyes of God and not the god of our un-renewed perception.

This is a level of love that many fail to grasp, to move into, to even believe exists for them right this very moment. Before the beginning of the world we were their supreme thought. We are the expression of their love, their gift, their relationship. We are their purpose for creation; your entire world around you, whether you’re experiencing it to the fullest of not. Out of their love for each other, their love-inspired desire was poured out upon those who would be like them. And if they are the same yesterday, today and forever more, that desire, that love expression is still the same for you and me! For crying out loud, Everyone!

God has always…Dang nabit! I hate social attention deficit disorders! This is where I go….

“Keep your hands to yourself. If you break anything, you’re buying it!”

The life of a child is filled with so many joy-packed moments like these, isn’t it?
I recall an instance when these same word were spoken to my grandfather by my grandmother! On that day I found out that age matters little to the those who are inquisitive. One of life’s small ironies I guess.

John 1:3
(3) All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

The desire to expand on the love that they had for each other had created a thought. We can give this love to others, someone who looks like us, someone we can include in our common union. However, this creation they are planning brings with it a multitude of issues which must be addressed, foremost of which is motivation. While they know that love is their motivation, will the creation recognize it?

Colossians 1:16-17
16) For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
17) And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

John and Paul have a revelation of the motivation of Jesus, Father and Holy Spirit that they are trying to communicate to us. Notice in both of these passages that they are establishing the connection of creation to the person of Jesus. Why is this important?

In the eternal realm the Godhead was preeminent to the creation; they existed independent of it. All that surrounds us in the physical and spiritual arena, all that we move around and through, all that we can’t see from the farthest galaxy to the pulsating energy of string matter were created by Jesus and for Jesus. You better take a moment to process that statement.

You were made by Jesus, for Jesus. Your spouse was made by and for Jesus. Your kids; parents; neighbors; boss; coworkers; the panhandler on the street corner; the driver who cut you off today; the collection agent you had to deal with also; the rude grocery clerk; the sweet girl at the crosswalk who that let you drive through before she crossed; and a whole host of people that make up the 7 billion plus lives inhabiting this planet, regardless of their religious and political affiliation, race, creed, color or sex, were made for and by Jesus and without Him they don’t exist.

Read it again. Without Him none of us, and all of our stuff, exists. Poof! Lights turned off and NO ONE home (actually the house goes too). I realize that this might seem like a bit of hyperbole but consider the ramifications my friend. All that has led us up to this precise moment in life exists solely because Jesus desired it and made it. Even 2,000 years after the creation He made hung Him on a cross crafted from a tree He made and buried Him the earth He made, He has still created more of everything. Do you see any motivation why He should be this way?

Something tells me that when the trinity planned this thing out, the Father looked at his Son in the face and said, “When I touch it, you are what I’ve bought it with and we own it.” Holy Spirit quipped, “I dare you not to touch it!” Jesus responded, “Let there be…”

I’ll say it again. What motivates…Wait a minute! Let me finish this one…

“In the beginning…”

How many beginnings do you know that exist in the bible? Okay, Genesis 1:1 is a gimme. What else? Good, John 1:1 is another. Now comes the harder ones. Did you think of the one in Ephesian 1:4 or 1 Peter 1:20. Or how about 2 Timothy 1:9? Surely you thought of that one since I’ve quoted it enough here. Are you done yet? I’ll bet you forgot Revelation 13:8, right? You know there are several more found in the book of Job, Psalms, Colossians, and Proverbs, but I think you might be seeing that the “beginning” isn’t necessarily found at the beginning of the bible. Why is this important in this message of grace?

2 Timothy 1:9 says that we were chosen for God’s purposes and given His grace in Christ Jesus before the world began. This places us in the eternal realm with two members of the trinity. This means that we have an identity that existed before our natural birth, an identity that has always been in Jesus. But there is more here than meets the eye.

John 1:1 and 2 states that in the beginning was the Word. As you read further in John he will tell us that the “Word” is Jesus. (Yeah, I know that you know this but I’m trying to show you something.) So let’s read this verse putting the names in where they properly belong.

John 1:1-2 KJVR
1) In the beginning was Jesus, and Jesus was with God, and Jesus was God.
2) The same [Jesus] was in the beginning with God.

Now I want you to look at something out of the Genesis account.

Genesis 1:1 KJVR
(1) In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

Did you notice that the beginning in Genesis is not the same beginning as in John? As a matter of fact 2 Timothy 1:9 is more in line with John than Genesis. So where am I going with this? To determine the terms “purpose” and “grace” defined in 2 Timothy 1:9 we need to look at John 1:1-2.

John tells us that Jesus was with God, not just once, but twice in these two verses. Do you think that he wants us to understand this point? After all he only claimed that Jesus was God once. So what gives? It has everything to do…get ready…here it comes…the answer is found, with. You’re probably thinking, “With what?” Not what, but with, the word “WITH.”

When most people read this verse they think that Jesus and Father God are standing next to each other, best buds, patting each other on the back and giving high-fives. The reason most often is because they think that John has placed this encounter after the Genesis creation narrative. As I’ve already stated John is before Genesis so obviously the high fives are a little premature. Actually, them even standing next to each other doesn’t fit the description either, because we know that the royal family does not stand when there is a throne.

The word “with” in both of these verses tells us precisely how they were arranged. Simply put, it means that they were face to face. Jesus was looking at the Father and the Father was looking at Jesus. John uses this specific word here so that we can get a picture of how these two related to each other. There is another word for “with” that he could have used and it would be similar to the scene I described above. But this word John used denotes a proximity and familiarity not easy to dismiss. Let’s see what the verses in John look like when you clarify this matter.

John 1:1-2 KJVR
1) In the beginning was Jesus, and Jesus was face to face to God, and Jesus was God.
2) The same [Jesus] was in the beginning face to face to God.

Jesus made the claim, “I only do those things I see my Father do.” Of course! He is looking right at him; he doesn’t have to go find out where the Father is at and then try to decipher what it is that he is doing because he missed something. If God blinks, so does Jesus. If Jesus laughs, I assure you that the Father does too. If one of them yawns, well you get the point.

So what is so important about this? The grace you’re experiencing in Jesus Christ, that identity in Him that you had in the beginning is all being conducted in a face to face manner. You looking at Father God through Jesus, Father God looking at you through Jesus. You’ve never been hidden from Him, He has always been looking right at you.

Maybe now you can understand this claim in Genesis, “Let us make man in our image and likeness.” They are so enraptured with each other that they…Oops! That is going to have to come later to keep this posting within acceptable reading limits. Stay tuned…

Genesis 1:1 KJVR
(1) In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

You’ve read or heard it preached a million (it seems) times. It’s gotten to the point where you ignore the syntax, the linguistic plurality, the hermeneutical nuances (who comes up with these terms), and the root word extractions. Today, in your mind, God created. Big whoop! This big ethereal being with no time on His hands decides to play Betty Crocker, says a few words, waves a wand and poof, life on a big blue orb is thrust into an even bigger black void of nothingness, all of it trying to make some some sense of why…Oh crap! The chicken is burning! Great, just great. Thanks a lot God. There, how did that feel? The bible says to give thanks in all things. Did you feel the love in that one?

Each one of those is centered on one thing: relationship. If you’re like most people when you first read Genesis 1:1 you didn’t see anything resembling relationship. You, like me and most people, see God, a singular entity doing God-type stuff. Generally, as a matter of course, you learned that there was God, the Father, Jesus, the son, and Holy Spirit, three in one. While you recognized that they all existed, their relationship always was kinda murky. Sure you have a relationship with one of them which is maybe stronger than what you have with one of the others but…well, someday this will make sense. And you live your life.

Life is fast and furious and you go to church to get some rest with God because that what you’re told to enter into. But then you’re in the race again and somehow you’ve got to relate the sermon to your life which is traveling at break-neck speed. Some how, some day it will make sense. But it never seems to, week after furious week. Life seems to be a paradox of contradiction, a state of being that no being longs to be long in. So you force yourself to make sense of it all, to rationalize the contradiction. You follow the path that mankind has taken since the beginning, you make a myth.

It seems harmless enough as it eases the stress of having to explain why in your life, in your mess, in your distress, in your pain, in your shame, in your humiliation and embarrassment, in all the matters that seem to matter, God, His peace and security, His love and acceptance, His hope in you…well it just didn’t seem to show up. So in our myth we place God on this throne high and lifted up above us, seeing into every nook and cranny of our lives and we know, we just know that we did something wrong. This is Him judging our actions, our thoughts. He is removing Himself from our unworthiness.

So we plead the blood of Jesus, cleanse us, please, so that we may be back in right standing with GAWWD! Some of our myths wonder if there is even a drop of blood left in his body because we have expended so much of it trying to come back just one more time to GAWWD. There is the great myth of Jesus being the good cop, who will hear our plea and shield us from the wrath of the bad cop, GAWWD. This same myth also features Jesus once again being beaten senselessly on our behalf so that GAWWD can look down from his mighty throne and reach out to embrace us. Curiously, in most every one of our myths Holy Spirit is just a mute, paralyzed bystander.

Myths are weird. Intellectual myths are even weirder yet. However, they have become our means to explain the unexplainable, the contradiction to our perceptions. We create myths to align our perceptions to our beliefs. If you follow this out properly, logically, we create God out of how we believe he relates to us in our mess of a fast and furious life. They help us cope with the lack of life, the lack of love, the lack of God, and more importantly, the lack of a meaningful relationship with the one who allegedly holds the title of Father.

If this seems dark and foreboding, realize this is just the breaking of the dawn compared to some myths believers have created. You, even myself for that matter, would not want to peak into their inner darkness as they lift their hands in praise and shout “hallelujah!” at the pastor. And these are just the myths of the believers. Imagine those who have experienced and act of GAWWD!

This is what the grace of Jesus came into two thousand years ago and still resides in today. He came to reveal the Father, not as a continuation of our Adamic myths but as a truth found in a face-to-face relationship described “in the beginning.” At every point of our mythological journey with GAWWD, Jesus demonstrates the truth of the Father to us to properly align our perceptions to God. Paul calls the process “renewing the mind.” Yet Jesus has a purpose that extends much…DANG! That will have to wait until the next time. Limits of attention span dictate this as the end…

Yes, this is a series. Why? Because I was told that my postings (which average about 500 words) were too long for the average person to follow on any type of social media.

Seriously, I don’t give a tweet what anyone has to say about the lengths of my meanderings. I tend the follow the principle given to me by Mrs. Peterson, my first grade teacher. She had a wonderful knack of inspiring kids. “Mike,” she said to me, “face the book and learn to read. I’m not going to tell you again.” She was so far ahead in her ability to see the future of social media. Imagine if the founding fathers of our nation had social media when drafting the Declaration of Independence. I’m certain that a group selfie extending a hand gesture to the good king George would have sufficed instead of, “We hold these truths to be self evident…” And that is all I’m going to say about that.

In this series I’m going to point out some things that I’ve come across in my studies on this very important topic of grace. It might be familiar to some of you but sometimes familiarity breeds contempt. This is not a subject that we can just pass off as “…Oh, I already know that.” We need to be reminded of our heritage regularly, so that is what I hope this will do. So today here is what I want you to consider in the grace of…

There is a passage in the book of Jeremiah where God tells Jeremiah that He knew him before he was formed in the belly and before Jeremiah came out He set him apart from everyone else. This statement of God’s involvement in the life of a prophet truly applies to all of us. This claim blows the minds of many people who see God as some distant celestial being who cares very little about the goings on of us mere humans. However, this is not what I want you to consider.

Consider this: One day during a teaching in the synagogue a young boy hears the rabbi read this passage out of the book of Jeremiah. He has heard it before typically around the same time of the year, but today, something deep within him suddenly shifts. Looking down at his hands and then to his feet, he begins to sense that feeling that Jeremiah might have felt when God spoke this to him.

As he continues looking at his hands and feet an eerie thought of how these appendages were created begins to run through his mind. He begins to recall bits and pieces of how toes are made and designed to stabilize and secure balance; he remembers why his thumbs are located so far from his fingers; even the reason for the nails…the nails…the nails. What is it about the nails he thought.

Little by little in that moment he regains an insight into the original creation of mankind and how deliberate each movement upon the dust was to insure that the entire package reflected the image of his maker. Then a small voice echoes through him, “Be fruitful and multiply.” Suddenly an image of a child being born wafts through his thoughts. In that instant he recognizes the child as himself and realizes that God knew him before that moment, not only knew him, but determined his purpose.

Scanning the room he could see others patiently attending to the words the rabbi was speaking, but yet, it was his mother that stopped his gaze. She intently was focused on him. Somehow he knew that she understood what he was thinking. Ever so slightly he raised his hand and witnessed her eyes grow wider and the lips of her mouth subtly tighten as she lightly nodded her head in acknowledgment. As he lowered his hand, he watched her relax and a small smile form on her face.

At that moment, a nudge came from his side. “Jesus, pay attention!” came a firm whisper. “This is important.” “Yes,” he responded as he turned his head back towards the rabbi. “What my Father has done is very important,” he whispered as a broad smile crossed his face.

Many people live under the belief that Jesus knew from the moment he was born that he was God and man. However the scriptures tell us that Jesus grew in favor, or grace, with God and man. As a young boy, he had to experience the same revelation of his Father as every born again believer does today. While you may disagree with me in this matter you might want to reconsider based one point: Paul declared that Jesus was the last Adam. This identity clearly makes him the last human born under the lineage of Adam.

This creates a whole series of consequences that bring the grace gift of Jesus to a whole other level. But that is for another post because this one is almost too…

I had a friend relate to me recently a great story about the nature of grace that she never realized until I pointed it out. She was at a basketball game that was being held between two schools in her town. The players on both sides were students that have “special needs” that limit their access to a conventional education environment. There were players of all “skill” levels on both teams playing in this game, and they were “all” playing at the same time.

The one thing she noticed throughout the event was that when one of the very ablest members of a team had the ball and was driving for the basket, he would always pass the ball off to one of his teammates instead of taking the shot for himself. She said that this didn’t happen just on one team but was a regular occurrence on both teams throughout the game. She said that everyone on the team had a chance to handle the ball before a shot was attempted. When a basket was made, she said that the whole court erupted in celebration as each person “from both teams” praised the work of the shooter. By the end of the game, the score didn’t matter because everyone had participated and been appreciated for their efforts by those in the game.

This is the nature of God’s grace being demonstrated before the entire world. Regrettably, most church environments look more like a professional team with your super stars and few bench players who can come in during a clutch situation. We, the church, might just be the “special needs” people who need to be schooled in the nature of our participation in this game called life. We each have a part to play and should be encouraged by our team rather than demoted and scolded for being who we are. Our head coach, team owner and head scout is already cheering for us. They don’t care about the points because they’ve already won the game. They just want us to enjoy having the time of our lives. Go Team!