John Crowder pulls from the different streams of the church to talk about Christilogical Trinitarian theology, grace, union, contemplative practice, intimacy, and mystical Christianity. John and Jason dive into the Cross, Western atonement theories, and the religious industry built upon separation; how Jesus is healing the human race. John describes a relationship with a person, Christ. He invites us to embrace mystery so we might discover that God looks like Jesus.

“The reason you can’t take your own human life seriously is because you’ve never taken my (Christ’s) life seriously.” The incarnation, Jesus as fully human, Jesus and His divinity, grace, cruciform love, leaving Gnosticism, resurrection fearlessness, freedom, and salvation as a human story; in this conversation, Cherith shares a beautiful gospel in which we are discovering how to enter into the life of Jesus!

I prayed. “Father, come make your love known.” Immediately our Father, Ethan’s and mine, filled the room with His love. It’s hard to explain but let me try. For the next ten minutes, while I lay there and held Ethan, my body trembled with God’s presence. I literally shook with His love.

I think Jesus showed up as a stranger, so their limited ideas regarding the goodness of God wouldn’t cut them off from experiencing the goodness of God…so their limited ability to understand friendship with God wouldn’t cut them off from experiencing the friendship with God…so their theology wouldn’t undermine their ability to encounter the nature of Gods kindness…so their understanding of the reconciling love of God could be experienced without their belief in the retributive nature of God getting in the way…so the law would not cut them off from experiencing grace…so their understanding of mercy could bend the knee to mercy…so their thoughts on justice wouldn’t divorce them from experiencing justice

I love the story of the prodigal son. I grew up loving it – it was a favorite.

“Jesus has pitched His tent in our flesh… If I didn’t believe that Jesus, Father and Holy Spirit is inside every person on the whole earth, I would not open my mouth… But we are bearing witness to something that is real.”