“The Wages of Sin…” in Context
Romans 6:23 begins, “the wages of sin is death…” and then counters it with “but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus.”
Often, I’ve heard that first part of the verse thrown at people as a threat; completely void of its context. And context is everything. And the context for this verse is incredibly liberating, empowering and truly good news.
If you read Romans 5 and 6, fully, you’ll find there’s zero mention of humanity making some sort of choice or decision. Why? Because the context is the complete works of Christ.
“…the wages of sin is death but God’s free gift is eternal life in Jesus…”
This scripture is often taught as though Paul was giving us a choice; as though we can invite Jesus into our hearts and make Him the Lord of our lives, or we can go to hell, where we will experience eternal conscious torment, and there will be torture and there will be flames.
But that’s not what Paul wrote. There is no such context.
What if “the wages of sin is death” is announcing the inherent consequences to sinful actions and what they will produce in this life, as opposed to saying if we sin we deserve torment?
Remember it says “death;” not “everlasting life while being tortured in fire,” it says “death.”
I challenge you to read Romans 5 and 6. Read what Paul was actually writing. See how he contrasts universal humanity “in Adam” with universal humanity “in Christ” as a result of the complete work of Jesus on behalf of all of humanity
What if there isn’t a judicial system in family?
Let me ask that again.
What if…there isn’t a judicial system…in FAMILY?
What if His name really is Abba and He is a Father and Physician? What if He is not a judge and we are not in some courtroom accused of crimes and misdemeanors. What if He is not a Master and we are we not His subjects and servants. What if we – humanity – are his children, sons and daughters of the living God; sons and daughters of heaven and eternity and glory?
What if the atonement – what happened at the cross – was totally void of violence from the Father altogether? What if it really was a victory over the Satan, sin and death, and an unveiling of His heart; as well as Him healing us of the delusions we’ve created and been deceived by… all of which, manifested death in our lives and in the earth.
What if Jesus came to reverse the trajectory in order to bring on earth as it is in heaven.
What if we’ve been looking at this completely through the wrong lens.
The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God (for all of humanity) is eternal life in Christ.
That is a conclusive statement.
It is finished… behold, I make all things new! (See John 19:30 and Rev 21:5)
He’s better than you’ve been taught.
Michael McElyea is a husband and a father; a guy who left evangelical church leadership to go on a journey with Jesus; just a man trying to follow Jesus. He lives in MD with his family.
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The Uprising
God is Good, Not Just Nice
Sometimes when I say that God is good, people hear “God is nice”.
Then depending on their grid, they often dismiss my thoughts as wrong, even heretical or they imagine the Father as a caricature sugar daddy.
But His goodness is bigger than being nice. Being nice requires someone to be nice to, but being good is, first of all, an internal quality. His goodness includes His holiness, His righteousness, His purity… In other words, His goodness is rooted in Himself not just in His behavior towards us. He acts in ways consistent to His own being, His own character.
Our Father is always unequivocally for us. He never created anyone to be less than a son or daughter. He is never, has never and will never, be against us – period. But being for us doesn’t always look the same and, more to the point, it doesn’t always look the way we want it to.
A nice person might buy an alcoholic a beer. A good person will try to help them become healthier.
We were made to experience His pleasure and His love, not cheap substitutes for them. So, while He wants us to experience pleasure, He will allow certain pleasures to take a back seat to character. His goodness is making us like Himself.
In His goodness, He gets us ready. In His goodness, He addresses our pain. In His goodness, He shapes our character. In His goodness, He makes us whole. In His goodness, He renews our thinking. In His goodness, He restores His own image in us.
He can be nice, but He is better than that. He is good!
Pete Scheller is the pastor of Destiny Christian Fellowship in Madison WI. He and his wife, Alison, lead conferences focused on the heart of the Father, the Mind of the Son, and the Power of the Spirit.
www.heartmindspirit.us
Schellerpete@gmail.com
In Defense of Paraphrase Bibles
A friend of mine posted an anti-paraphrase bible post the other day.
I realized it was an indirect attempt to bring some fear-based correction to me, seeing how over-the-top I was about the Mirror Bible.
Which led me to share some of my thoughts on paraphrasing.
Most every sermon given or Christian book written is an attempt at paraphrasing…
My testimony is a paraphrasing that helps makes truth come alive…
Paraphrasing has been helpful to me over my whole spiritual journey; bringing scripture home, helping it land…
I’m thankful for those who dedicated their lives to paraphrasing…
ie. The Living Bible, The Cotton Patch Version, Message Bible, The Passion Translation to name a few, and my most recent discovery, The Mirror Bible!
Most of my life I pursued a relationship with a “distant” God through scripture, starting with the KJV, then NAS and finally the NIV; that was how we were taught.
Sin, we were told had separated us from God and through a series of spiritual disciplines, one being daily Bible reading, we could have a relationship with that God…
A few years back I grew tired of it all and quit on God. Thankfully He didn’t quit on me.
In recent years, having thrown out much of the theology I’d grown up on (a very freeing experience I might add), I have been discovering in new ways the goodness of God in the Gospel.
During this fresh journey of rediscovering Jesus, the Message was such a refreshing grace filled Paraphrase; which then opened me to the Mirror Bible…
It’s approach to scripture and our identity is through the lens of the incarnation, a God who is nearer to us than the air we breathe.
As a result, I’m re-discovering God afresh, not just in the pages of scripture but all around me, and in my fellow human beings of every description.
I searched the scripture to find life and usually ended up with a theology that didn’t bring life. Through the Mirror I’ve found the invitation to come to the author of life Himself.
If life could have been found in scripture, we wouldn’t have needed the incarnation, God in a human body.
And in the person of Jesus and the finished work of the cross I’m discovering my own completion in Him.
What a joy it has been; daily, with tears flowing down my face, discovering that the good news has always been better than I’d imagined…
A paraphrase recently confirmed God’s pursuit of me in the incarnation. And with it a fresh revelation and confirmation in my spirit of who I’ve always been in Him, my original identity and value by design.
It’s fun when a Paraphrase brings clarity to verses that once left me orphaned and instead affirm who I already am by design.
There is no separation, never has been, except in our minds and in our interpretations.
You Are the Coin
“What woman, if she has ten silver coins and loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search thoroughly until she finds it? Then when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’” – Luke 15:8-9
Do you see?
Humanity is the coin.
No ‘thing’ can be lost if it did not already have a home. No ‘thing,’ and ‘no one’ can be lost if they did not already belong. No ‘thing’ and ‘no one’ can be lost if they did not already get their origin from somewhere.
Coins bear an image. You carry the image and imprint and poetry and signature of the divine, who has engraved you on the palms of His hands. You carry His inscription no matter what your life looks like.
Jesus redeemed the image of God within us and is calling all mankind to awaken to the truth of their origin and blueprint.
The woman is symbolic of The Spirit, whose Greek Word, ‘pneuma,’ is feminine. The Spirit searches and sweeps clean until ultimately the coin, that divine image that was lost, is found and restored to its glory, the house.
We are the temple of the Spirit. We are Bethel. We are the house of God and the Spirit works inside the house, within all of humanity, to point us to the truth of our being, our oneness and our union with God. We are in the divine embrace of the love of the Trinity.
Even while the coin was lost, it never lost its value to its owner. My point, I don’t care how many contradictions you have in your life, you are so valuable. You bear His image regardless. You carry the DNA of heaven regardless. He crossed every chasm, every distance on a seek and find rescue mission, as evidenced in the next parable of the lost sheep and the Good Shepherd.
He shed every drop of His blood to unveil your worth to Him and awaken you to the truth of His love for you as well as your value to him and who you are.
Notice this as well:
Who sought who?
Did the woman (the Spirit) give up or did She continue searching until the lost coin was found?
Tell me how this is not good news!
Michael McElyea is a husband and a father; a guy who left evangelical church leadership to go on a journey with Jesus; just a man trying to follow Jesus. He lives in MD with his family.
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Mark and Julie Appleyard / Rethinking God with Tacos PODCAST / Rethinking Church
Risk, trust, pioneering and a church built upon encounters with the transformative love of God, this podcast is an invitation to rethinking church.
From the traditional to a micro church model, Mark and Julie share their journey of pastoring.
Today, through Anothen Micro Church, they empower believers around the world to become influential spiritual leaders in their homes and communities.
Darkness Is Not A Force, It’s The Absence of Light
I took most of this from Paul’s first letter to the Colossians in The Mirror Bible paraphrase translation. Oh man, I love this paraphrase!
“Darkness is not a force, it is the absence of light.
“A darkened understanding (fallen mind-set) veiled the truth of our redeemed design from Adam and all of the rest of us. What empowered the darkness were the lies that we believed about ourselves! (Some of which we got from religion, some from our parents, some from our behavior and even our circumstances.)
The word sin (hamartia in the Greek), means without form; pointing to a disoriented, distorted, bankrupt identity. Sin is living out of context with the blueprint of one’s design; or behaving out of tune with God‘s original harmony. Sin distorts the life of our design. But Jesus revealed and then redeemed our true identity!” – Mirror Bible
Paul used these two words, sin and redemption in the first chapter…
Let’s go back to Jesus. – Lloyd
“In Jesus the image and likeness of God is made visible in a human form in order that everyone may recognize their true origin in him. He is the first born of every creature. What darkness veiled from us Jesus unveiled. In Jesus we clearly see the mirror reflection of our original life. The son of his love gives accurate evidence of his image in human form. God can never again be invisible!” – Mirror Bible
Are you still with me? – Lloyd
“The full measure of everything God has in mind for mankind indwells Christ. And through the blood of the cross God restored the original harmony. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe, people and things, animals and atoms, get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death.” – Mirror Bible
Haha, this is just too crazy but follow me a little farther… – Lloyd
“Our indifferent ‘mindset’ alienated us from God into a lifestyle of annoyances, hardships, and labors. Yet he has now fully revealed, reconciled and restored you and me and every human on the planet to our original design. (God), accomplish this in dying our death in a human body; Jesus fully represented mankind, (us included) in order to fully present us again in blameless innocence, face to face with God; with no sense of guilt, suspicion, regret, or accusation; all charges against us are officially canceled. Every creature under heaven gets this same message.”
“This mystery of the cross is now fully realized in our redeemed innocence. Within us, God is delighted to exhibit the priceless treasure of this glorious unveiling of Christ’s indwelling in order that every person on the planet, whoever they are, may now come to the greatest discovery of all time and recognize Christ in them as in a mirror! This completes one’s every expectation! He is not hiding in history, or in outer space nor in the future, neither in the pages of Scripture, he is merely mirrored there to be unveiled within you.” – Mirror Bible
Right now! This is huge! – Lloyd
“This is the essence and the focus of Paul’s gospel; to awaken everyone’s mind, instructing every individual by bringing them into full understanding, (flawless clarity), in order that he may present everyone perfect in Christ. Your and my completeness in Christ, is not a remote goal, but our immediate reference!” – Mirror Bible
OK, everything below is my response. – Lloyd
I now see myself and everyone in Christ! Regardless of their seeing it or grasping the significance of the cross! The whole world is redeemed! By the blood of the Lamb! Ha!
I know, complete foolishness from an earthly mindset, but glorious to anyone wanting good news about their true identity!
A few years ago I left the ministry, I left the church, and I left the Bible because the God I served was pretty messed up.
Well not all of the Bible, but 95% of it. The lens that I saw God through distanced me from Him… if there was such a God!
But thankfully I landed on four chapters in John. Chapters 14 through 17, where Jesus promised, prayed for, and then accomplished, Union and Oneness! During that season my prayer every day was “God, this was your promise and this is my life which looks nothing like what you promised.”
A few years later, now…
Through a number of things, people and places, I was set on a new journey of discovery. Religion told me that God was at a distance, that we are not enough, that we are separated from him because of our sin. But if we jumped through enough hoops, read our Bibles more, prayed more, believed more, gave more, loved more, witnessed more, served more etc. etc. that we would somehow be more.
It’s the lie of separation that the business of religion preaches that ensures the paying customers keep returning. And I was done with it, but I’d almost thrown the baby out with the bathwater. But as Bruce Wauchope says, “Don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater, but please throw out the bathwater!” And that’s what I did!
Religion wants more of your talents, treasure, and time with the line that they can help you become more; more like Jesus and less like you! Ha!
As if you are not already made in His image and likeness, like that’s not enough, like you’re not enough?
Can you just laugh with me at that?
Nothing is further from the truth. And His love for us – as we are, not as we should be – is what has led me on this journey of discovery out of religion and into the wonder of grace.
Praying you know grace today.
Love you, Lloyd.
Devotions 101
As I have grown in love, my devotions have changed over the years.
No striving just love, just recognizing His devotion and responding. I thought I’d share them with you as an alternative to what you may know…
Sit in your favorite location, in a comfortable position and soak in his devotion to you.
Soak in your true and real identity, who you are in Him. Loved and accepted.
See yourself the way He sees you. Fill your mind with his thoughts about you. He is well pleased.
Breathe out the fear,
the doubt,
the anxiety,
the lies,
the hate,
the unforgiveness,
the need to impress,
the neediness,
the lack,
the poverty,
the sickness,
the hopelessness and the stress.
Breathe it out and then breathe in the love,
the goodness,
the favor,
and the refreshing breeze of His presence.
Let Him wrap you up in His arms.
Feel His nearness.
Then saturate your mind in the delight of your Heavenly Father.
You are Whole.
You are complete!
You are healthy.
Yeah, you are in Him right now, in union with the One who knows you, who designed you and who believes in you.
Allow your thoughts to ponder on what He thinks about you. The truth about you. The identity that He redeemed. Your unique created value. Your original design.
Abide in His love.
Stay there,
rest in this oneness.
Soak in this goodness.
This is the tree of life!
You are His son/daughter. You are family!
You belong.
Let go of all the lies about you.
You are enough! You are so enough!
You are important!
You are innocent and holy, pure as the wind driven snow!
You are so worthy of his love!
Enjoy your redeemed innocence. This is who you are!
His joy is your joy!
His peace your peace!
His rest your rest!
He is completely satisfied with you and so fond of you!
There are no accusations that can stand against you here.
You are in Him!
This was His promise to you!
You are not abandoned!
You will never be alone!
You belong to the one who created you.
And everything He is, is in you.
You are his temple, the place he has chosen to live in and dwell in.
You are His delight!
You are His heir.
This is a place of bounty and abundance.
Allow your senses to taste and see. Feel the wonder! You can’t imagine how good it is. So go ahead and just try to anyways.
Eye has not seen nor ear heard of everything He stored up and delivered for you.
You can dream double wide or you can dream timber frame palace.
But our Papa created the universe; as He is, so are you, so yeah the universe is the limit.
In fact this union is limitless and it’s a done deal!
You, are your Creators favorite and everything He has is now yours. Not potentially, not some day, now! Yours! All yours!
You are in Him and He is in you.
No-one else can enter this secret place. This is your holy and rightful place in Him!
He chose to live His abundant life in you. You are just what He imagined and dreamed about!
You are his joy and delight!
Allow the laughter to well up!
Allow gratitude to bubble up.
This is faith!
Believe what He believes about you!
Rejoice in what He rejoices in.
You are His finished work!
I know it’s hard to believe it but He likes what He did in you!
He’s so proud of you!
Go ahead and laugh! Laugh out loud but it’s true! It’s really true!
So yeah, Lean back, smile and meditate on this union until you are ready to go about your day!
Then go and be who you are!
Live loved!
You’ve dreamed your whole life about being a somebody, without knowing who you already were! Look in the mirror until you truly see yourself!
It doesn’t get better than this!
You don’t get better than this!
Celebrate you!
Now go and celebrate everything you touch today and every other member of the human race you brush against today!
Celebrate them!
Don’t leave them without letting them know who they are…
at least with a smile!
This is the gospel and we get to live it. This will change your world today! In fact this is the only way the world will be changed!!!
Devotions ha!
Love you,
Lloyd
A Walk with Nova
This afternoon I went for a stroll with my granddaughter, Nova.
As we were walking, I was thinking about the predictable pattern of our relationship. Every time I see her, even while she is living in my house – and I may see her more than once a day – I do more or less the same things, in the same order.
When I first see her, I smile. Then, I move towards her in love. Next, I demonstrate my affection for her with a hug or a kiss or most likely a lot of both of them as I sit her in my lap! I see myself as squeezing as much love into her little body as she can contain.
After that we talk, she babbles something I don’t understand and I speak to her identity, “Hello beautiful! How are you today?” “Hi princess! I love you.” If she’s with me for a little while, we play games or read books, and I try to teach her a few new words and speak blessings over her.
Why am I telling you all this? Because, I’d like to suggest that this is actually the same way our Father relates to us, whenever we draw near to Him.
The first thing He does is smile. Then, He moves towards us in love. Next, He demonstrates His affection for us with a gentle hand on the head or an arm around our shoulders, or even picking us up and sitting us in His lap.
However He shows it, He is squeezing as much love into us as we can handle. After that, we say a few things which are largely incoherent nonsense and then He speaks to our identity as His son or daughter. And, if we stick around for a little while, we might read together with Him and He gently teaches us a few things and He always blesses us.
There is no striving in this place, not for Nova with me, not for us with our Father.
Pete Scheller is the pastor of Destiny Christian Fellowship in Madison WI. He and his wife, Alison, lead conferences focused on the heart of the Father, the Mind of the Son, and the Power of the Spirit.
www.heartmindspirit.us
Schellerpete@gmail.com
A Prayer of Thanksgiving
Oh Heavenly Father,
You have been revamping and rebooting my systems for years, bringing me into more and more awareness of this wonder-filled life which you have offered and accomplished for me! Thank you! thank you! thank you!
And little by little, this experience of your life overwhelms and supersedes every lie and untruth that I have believed about You and myself. Down to the deepest, darkest, and dirtiest deceptions in my awareness.
Day by day I am increasingly enlightened of this potential-filled existence where every cellular and emotional response is impacted by grace and beauty, transformed by grace!
Oh this Christ-life!
Righteousness, peace and joy in Holy Ghost!
Oh love of God, how rich and pure, how measureless and strong!
It shall forever more endure the Saints and angels song!
Praying you know measureless enveloping love of our Father today.
Love you
Lloyd
There is No “Us” and “Them”
The early church, led by Peter and a handful of others, was beautiful—and that’s an understatement.
From the moment Holy Spirit burst onto the scene in the upper room, as depicted in Acts 2, there was an evangelistic explosion. With “many wonders and signs,” folks were added to the church daily, weekly, and monthly. (1)
Unity marked this early church. The phrases “all together” or “of one accord” can be found five times in the first five chapters of Acts. The power of God displayed by leadership was remarkable. Even Peter’s shadow healed people. (2)
Young leaders—most notably, Paul and Timothy, both championed by Barnabas, and later James, championed by Peter—were raised up and commissioned to spread the Good News from village to village and city to city. (3)
Miracles occurred at a rate the world had never seen. Yes, there was persecution, and yet the church grew, and “throughout all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria [they] had peace and richly increased in numbers.” (4)
The presence of Holy Spirit manifested in every aspect of the church. From Pentecost on, Holy Spirit was present and known to fall “on all who heard the word.” (5)
In this beautiful church, sons and daughters grew confident in the love of a good Father! This was a church passionately releasing heaven on earth, the Kingdom within us; a church where righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit were deeply rooted in the soul and every aspect of life. (6)
This was also a generous church where the lost were being found, the sick healed, the sinner forgiven and transformed, the lonely placed in family, all who were thirsty could come and drink, and “where they sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.” (7)
All could be saved.
Except anyone who wasn’t Jewish.
So, not literally all, I guess. Just, well, the Jewish all.
In those first nine years or so of the early church, when I write, all could be saved, what I mean is that a small exclusive group of people could be saved; all of the included us, but none of the excluded them could be saved.
Just like today, the understanding of the Good News of Jesus within the church and her leadership was limited but ever-expanding. In those beautifully formative early church days, the limitation was that only Jews were in.
Imagine a church stunning in fellowship—a church Jesus referenced as “the light of the world, a city set on a hill.” Imagine the revelation of eternal life flowing through their veins. Imagine the power of their evangelism.
Now imagine, because of their tradition, culture, and limited understanding, they only shared this life-transforming Good News with a select few. Imagine meetings like the one I had with those two elders, except it was not just women who weren’t at the table. Most of humanity was excluded, as well.
I know, it’s nearly impossible, but imagine a church interpreting Scripture to reveal Jesus as the Savior of a select group, a people who looked, believed, and acted like them—as though atonement was somehow limited… Imagine they interpreted Scripture in ways that separated Gentiles from Jews, in from out, and women from ministry.
I know it’s difficult, but try to imagine a church experiencing profound revelation, favor, life, joy, and unity while simultaneously living with a heart-breaking limited perspective regarding the all-inclusive nature of our heavenly Father.
You may be picking up some playful sarcasm.
Why? Because it’s actually quite easy to imagine this church. You likely have participated in it. I certainly have.
I don’t mean that as a condemning statement. Rather, it is an invitation to daily repent—to mature in reconciling Love.
The early church and her leadership were authentic, sincere, and growing in revelation. At the same time, the early church had a serious flaw on its God lens, the same dualistic hierarchal flaw the church and her leadership continue to discover and repent of today.
Us and Them
For and Against
In and Out
And I could go on.
The early church knew the transformational revelation of Jesus’ great affection. And this church was led by a man who had experienced mercy, grace, and the all-inclusive love of His friend, Jesus, in a way that few ever have.
And in every day that passed, Peter and the early church grew in the revelation of our Father’s always good, no distance, no separation love. And yet, even in the daily profound manifestation of God’s presence, for the first nine years or so, the early church seemed oblivious to their devastating (especially if you were a Gentile) ‘us and them’ flaw on their God lens.
God didn’t ignore their delusions, nor did He condemn them for their exclusivity. He just kept revealing Himself. He continued to meet them where they were, His presence profoundly known.
Throughout history, God always seems to believe that His love is more powerful than our flawed understanding. God seems to think our hearts will win out in the end.
And it is, and they do…
Along the way, the early church’s fallen ‘us and them’ thinking and their closed hearts began to change. Peter first. Then one day, when the soil was ready to bear good fruit; Peter is given a vision by God that is offensively good. A gospel so expansive as to include the whole world in the finished work of the cross. It even included bacon! (See Acts 10)
Offensively good!
And Peter was willing to be offended by the goodness of God. And that’s a big deal. The willingness to be offended by God’s goodness is the birthplace of revelation and transformation and an absolute requirement for leaders.
Peter rises from that vision and within hours, welcomes me and several billion more into the family. Within hours, the gospel included the whole world. Within hours, every tribe and tongue was a welcomed son or daughter. Within hours, the good news was even better than Peter or the church could think or imagine.
Many of us today long to go back to the early church days, viewing those first few years as the high-water mark of what a church is meant to be. They weren’t. Not even close! As beautifully transformative as She was, the early church was even more beautifully transformative the day She repented, and Cornelius and his family, and my family, and every family was included! And She continues to grow more beautiful each day because Her foundation is firmly laid upon the rock of an all-included finished work of the cross.
One of the reasons I love Peter’s leadership is because the man’s heart was ever-expanding, his mind ever open to rethinking. He was a man who knew how to repent.
Jesus said, “upon this rock,” I will build the expansiveness of my church. Then Jesus gave the reins to a narrow-minded hothead. But a narrow-minded hothead who was continually open to being offended by the all-inclusive goodness of God. And as Peter matured in his faith and leadership, he became way less narrow in his thinking…
I believe a good leader is continually discovering a gospel that is more inclusive than the last time he or she checked. A good leader is one who is daily repenting from ‘us and them,’ ‘for and against,’ ‘in and out’ thinking.
The love of God is all-inclusive, and a good leader is a person who is ever learning not to divorce their heart from their head.
In my 46 years, I have often been surprised by how many leaders divorce their hearts for the sake of their understanding. I know it’s not just leaders, but I expect more humility from them.
I have sat in many rooms and watched love undermine every argument of separation, every case made for ‘us and them,’ only to witness leaders close their hearts and deny love for the sake of their dualistic understanding.
Peter, as a leader, was the gateway for changing the way the church thought regarding the inclusion of Cornelius and his family into the Family. If Peter had been too proud to repent when the goodness of God was revealed to him, he’d have actually stood against God and made a mess of things for those who followed him. So it’s a big deal!
Leadership, the kind Peter revealed, is evidenced by repenting from the exclusivity of ‘us and them’ thinking. Leadership, the kind Peter revealed, is evidenced in the willingness to rethink theologies, systems, methods, traditions, and institutions that undermine the all-inclusive other-centered love of our Father.
But I am encouraged! Lately, and more regularly, I speak with leaders, sons, and daughters, in all walks of life and leadership, who are willing to be offended by His love, then willing to repent, rethink, and re-imagine.
I believe the church is on the cusp of another “Cornelius breakthrough”—a deeper understanding and agreement with the same revelation that Peter was stewarding in the early church; there is no ‘us and them’ in how our Father thinks, no ‘us and them’ in His Kingdom, no ‘us and them’ in our Family.
There is no Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, male or female, no black or white, lost or found, sinner or saint, gay or straight, republican or democrat, capitalist or socialist, Christian or Muslim or Atheist… there is nothing that separates us from His all-inclusive love. “…For you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (See Gal 3:28)
There is no death He hasn’t defeated, no hell He hasn’t invaded, no delusion He hasn’t infiltrated, no darkness He hasn’t illuminated; there is nothing that separates us from the love revealed through His death and resurrection.
As Bono sings, “One love, one life…”
We are one, and we are growing in this ever-expanding revelation; one family discovering our Father’s great desire revealed through the prayer of His Son, Jesus.
“I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.” (John 17:21)
These are not early church days, these are 2020 church days! Isn’t that amazing!? You are the church! And you’re beautiful!
So go find your Cornelius today and reveal the desires of his or her heart: that they are loved and included!
Be the leader Peter was to your spouse, kids, family, neighborhood, shopping mall, and even your local church gathering.
“No other except the impulsive Simon could have been at once the embodiment of the Adversary (get behind me Satan) and the incarnation of the Rock on which the church should rest (Matt 16:16-23).” – Frank Grant Lewis, Peter’s Place in the Early Church, 1909
Cops and Jehovah’s Witnesses
My neighbor, a former Baltimore police officer, came over yesterday and asked me,
“Lloyd, did you just have some visitors?”
I responded “No.”
He said “I did, and I think they were Jehovah’s Witnesses.”
I asked him what gave it away?
He said, “They asked me what God’s name was. And I told them it was ‘God.’ They responded, ‘no, it’s Jehovah!’”
I laughed, “Oh, it’s much better than that. His name is Papa. And he’s your Papa, my Papa and their Papa! And I can’t wait to tell them if they come here.”
He said, “What? I’ve never heard that before!”
I said, “ Oh yes, God became one of us—just a shmuck like one of us—to introduce us to our Papa and show us how included we are in His family! It’s no longer about “us-and-them,” insiders and outsiders. Everyone has the same Papa! Oh it’s such good news!
That’s what love does! It includes everyone! Religion is so confining, stifling, restrictive, regressive, arrogant and disgusting by comparison.
But with love, everyone is in! There are no outsiders! Everyone is included in this family. And that’s downright reckless of Him, but it’s such good news! And we get to include them too, because that’s what love does!”
I think my neighbor just wanted to warn me of a possible solicitation, but he seemed fine, maybe even thankful for my short sermon on the always-good love of Papa. I love my neighbor. I pray he discovers his inclusion in the love of our Papa.
I pray you discover yours as well.
Love you, Lloyd.