God Is Love

I've been thinking about this phrase for a few days now.

God Is Love.

...but do we really, truly, honestly believe it?

Think about it.

Not God WAS Love or WILL BE Love, but IS LOVE.

Sometimes, when I hear messages from others, I wonder...Some things they say about God (i.e. how God is, deals with us, thinks of us, etc.) don't sound so...loving.

I think we aren't fully able to accept what love really is - there's too much out there that distracts us, that takes our eyes away from what love really is.

And of course there's the enemy out there trying his (literally) damnedest to make sure we don't fully understand it.

I'm even trying to wrap my head around it and so far I've come up with this: I'm waaaaaaaaaay off. Not even close to TRUE LOVE - in a sense I "fall short" I "miss the mark."

Don't we all.

But I'm not just talking about action, but the thoughts. How I THINK love is, or should be.

Like Jesus said, if I can think of something loving how much MORE does God? Unfortunately, I think we don't give God nearly enough credit for Love.

Friendship With God - some notes.

I am almost half-way through Friendship With God and a few things have caught my eye. I ran across the following quotes from "God" in the book. "God's" words are in red.

(I put "God" in quotes for the moment, because I am not yet addressing the validity of Walsch's conversations. We'll get to that later.)

Regarding God's will vs. ours:
“…I have no agenda for you, other than the agenda you set for yourself.”

God setting stuff in place for us to achieve our goals, or to direct us toward those goals:
“Yes, I will place the tools in your hands…You may choose to use those tool, or not to use them.”

Regarding is God's inspiration still "ours" and using tools:
“..I cannot tell you how many people to whom I have given wonderful words to write, who have never written them…songs to sing, who have never sung them…If {using your gifts that have been given} isn’t something to be thrilled about, I don’t know what is.”

In regards to folks who believe/feel “no-credit-is-to-come-to-me” or “I-am-not-to-feel-good-about-myself”:
“The trick is not to do what you do FOR acknowledgment but rather as an expression of Who You Are.”

As for if it's okay to declare ourselves and our gifts:
“Jesus announced himself and declared himself unequivocally to all who could hear.”

...and:
“In this (creating the best YOU you can envision) will I be glorified, for the glory of God is the glory of you, expressed wondrously indeed.”

Certainly something to think about. I can't say that I disagree. Deep down, I do believe God wants nothing but for us to express ourselves and to be ourselves and to help others do the same - yes, all the while still helping and loving others.

But, as I think I stated before in another post, we can't truly love others until we start to love ourselves.

Do you think Jesus thought ill of himself? Jesus could freely and openly love others without reservations, hesitation, or limitation because he fully loved himself (and God) as well.

DO NOT confuse this with ego. Or one thinking they are better than others.

I did come across some other stuff, which I believe Walsch got some flack about. I will get to those in another post.

All thoughts are welcome...

Accepting Jesus is NOT Biblical!!

Got your attention? Ha!

Seriously though, I have come to loath the word "biblical" especially when someone is trying to prove a point regarding doctrine or how one should live their life...

Is it biblical to_____(fill in the blank.)

"Biblical" is used to say: it's in the Bible. or The Bible teaches.

This is such a slippery slope, because by using some cutting and pasting one can make the Bible say pretty much anything...thus, making it Biblical.

That being said. Is Accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior Biblical?

Well, nowhere in the Bible does it say that.

Not once can you find the phrase: accept(ing) Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Or Accept Jesus into your heart.

You can't find "accept" and "Jesus" right next to each other.

Though, that is what we are told is how to be saved.

Do the search...if you can find it, let me know. I did a search: I couldn't.

The Bible says nothing about accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior.

What does that mean?

Not much. It's nothing radical. People have known since the Bible was written that it isn't in the Bible.

My issue is not with the "Accepting" part....it's with the overuse of Biblical to argue a side, to point out a wrong, to do something other that LOVE someone or show them LOVE.

and, by the way, love IS Biblical.

(in fact, it's mentioned all over the Bible)

Pontius' Puddle

I had gotten a question as to the cartoon at the bottom of the blog.

(If you haven't seen it, it's WAAAAAY down at the bottom)

Well, the cartoon is called Pontius' Puddle. Check it out here: pontius

"Friendship with God"

If you are not familiar with this book, it is one of Neale Donald Walsch's book - he's better known for the "Conversations with God" series.

(it's a book where he has a conversation with God, basically...there's a movie too)

Out of curiosity, I picked up "FWG" at 1/2 Price books.

Why not?

If at the very least it should be an interesting read. I'll let you know.

Any thoughts are welcome...

What's your donkey?

First off - apologies to Max Lucado. I really haven't given him much credit. Of the few books I had read of him, they weren't "deep" thinkers, and because of that I wrote them off. It came to pass, that a couple weeks ago I happened upon a vast collection of his books at the thrift store and they were...well, VERY cheap. So I snagged them up.

I'm glad I did, they have been good reads.

So, as for the donkey.

I'm reading: And The Angels Were Silent.

In one of his chapters he talked about the man with the donkey (the one that Jesus "borrowed" to ride in on). Max went on to ask: what's your donkey? What do YOU have that the Lord could use/needs/wants...

I like that - What's Your Donkey?

It can be anything, any talent, any dream, and object, any action...and I believe that we actually have MANY MANY donkeys in our stable, at our disposal.

Might not be a bad idea if we listed our donkeys...I'm guessing we'll discover that we have a lot more to offer than we give ourselves credit for.

Red Meat a Sin?

Sad but true...no, not that red meat is a sin, wait...let me back up.

The other day I was listening to my "favorite" radio program. Yes, I am being sarcastic. (aside: I think God draws me to the program to help me work on my acceptance of other peoples way of "preaching" and "ministering" to certain people)

Back to the "meat" of the subject - bad pun.

So, while listening to the program, a caller asks if eating meat that is cooked rare (or any other way but well-done) meat is a sin.

It saddened me. Honestly, I felt for the caller. I wondered, what teacher, pastor, friend, leader, you name it, must she have that she would worry about such a thing?

The cynical part of me begins to bubble inside, and sometimes I want to...I don't know what. I get angry, though. I really do.

No doubt, the devil has his hand in some of these things.

A diluted Gospel.

Scaring people about whether or not things are "sinful" or whether or not they are really, truly saved, making them fear that maybe, just maybe they might be "backsliding."

How would they know?

Scolding people because they don't feel that they are getting anything out of church. Hey, maybe the church IS to blame. Maybe the church has it's prior ties wrong. Maybe we do. Maybe it's both.

Most likely it's both.

Worshipping God...I don't think anybody did it better than Jesus...and how did he do it?

I know, we want a comfortable, safe God...I want that too...but that's NOT how God is.

We must get our hands dirty, we must become vulnerable, we must become open, we must LOVE.

Oh, it'll hurt.
We'll be made fun of.
People might take advantage of us.
People will_____hey, put anything you'd like, they'll do it.

But you want to praise God? You want to feel him? You want to get close to God?

He's in the trenches. He's in the muck. He's that homeless guy on the corner. He's that lady you think is fat, ugly, and a terrible parent. He's the person you gossip about. He's the family down the street that you wish would move. He's the guy that hopes today he will get a smile, rather than nasty looks. He's the person who would just like one person to give them a hug rather than accusations. He's the person breaking into a car, to get whatever he can to sell so he can buy drugs/sex/whatever. The person that cut you off in traffic? Guess who that is. That lady with all the coupons in the check out line?

Or as we sometimes like to call them: THOSE people.

It isn't US vs. THEM.

It's just US. All of us. We are in this together. We are all going to fail, do something wrong, cheat, lie, steal, get angry, and on and on.

I'm no better than you, you're no better than me.

God gave you talents and dreams and means...use them. Can you help someone today?

Do it.

Can you help them tomorrow? Or someone else?

Believe me, I am not the best at this either...in fact, I'm still resisting God in many many ways...and while I have my reasons (God knows them, we've talked about it), I also know that my frustrations that I am feeling and anger will only grow...and to be honest - I am scared to take that step of faith, because it sure feels like a leap across a canyon.

(This post is as much if not more FOR and AT me than it is by me)