JEFF TURNER / THE ATHEISTIC THEIST
In this conversation, Jason and Jeff Turner discuss their experiences with questioning and exploring their faith. They talk about the process of deconstructing their beliefs and the fear and uncertainty that comes with it. In the first half of the conversation, the guys touch on themes from Jeff’s book, Saints in the Arms of a Happy God. They discuss topics such as grace, legalism, pain, leaving and finding Jesus, and the tight-knit community of like-minded individuals.
In the second half of the conversation, they discuss Jeff’s book, The Atheistic Theist: Why There is No God and You Should Follow Him. Jeff shares how atheism was part of Jeff’s journey to a deeper understanding of faith.
The conversation highlights the idea that the journey of faith is not linear, but rather a constant process of discovery, growth, and reawakening. They explore the themes of loss, the discovery of a deeper reality, and the role of love in their spiritual journeys. They emphasize the importance of trust and relational theology in navigating the unnerving process of deconstruction. They also touch on the measureless and timeless reality of love and the significance of language in sharing the journey with others.
For more on Jeff Turner:
Podcast: www.religionless.podbean.com
Website: www.patreon.com/religionless
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Podcast intro and outro music by Wilde Assembly
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Outwitted
Outwitted
He drew a circle that shut me out-
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle and took him In!
— Edwin Markham
Seventeen years ago I found this poem written on a tiny scrap of paper tucked in my grandmother’s well-worn and highlighted bible just after she died at the age of 100. It was one of a few loose notes she had written and kept in the book where she sought to know and discover more of God.
It’s titled Outwitted. I don’t know what it meant to her, I plan to ask her someday, but every time I read it I am overwhelmed with the measureless all transforming nature of the love of God.
This world is full of devastating circles that shut out, the lies of ‘us’ and ‘them,’ separation, distance and delay, offense, retribution; but love doesn’t play by the rules of good and evil. Love outwits our finite death devotion, our laws of good, and evil and evil and evil and evil.
Love is a self-giving circle that takes everyone in; He hung on a cross and gave forgiveness and belonging and union and reconciliation, not counting our circles against us. And we have been invited to become one with this love, so the whole world would know (see John 17:25).
But love and I had the wit to win: We drew a circle and took him In!
That is the gospel of Jesus on a cross; that no matter the circles drawn to shut people out, Love draws bigger circles, Love says, “We all belong!”
Radical Compassion
I recently watched this powerful talk on compassion by Father Greg Boyle. I’d recommend watching it. We belong to each other is a powerful truth that changes how we interact with one another and ultimately the world. Radical compassion requires us to believe there is no “us and them.” There is only us. No one is outside the circle.
Interstellar Love
Interstellar
Imagine, three astronauts’ lightyears from their family and friends, depleted of resources, having already faced devastating loss, emotionally and physically exhausted, and now forced to make a life-or-death decision in which the fate of humanity hangs in the balance.
Now imagine Christopher Nolan is directing.
The film is Interstellar and it’s sci-fi at its very best; and this particular moment in the story is full of fear, sorrow and tension as two of the three remaining astronauts including Brand, a scientist played by Anne Hathaway, and Cooper, an astronaut pilot, played by Matthew McConaughey, argue over what to do next.
They only have the resources to investigate one of two viable planets that might sustain human life. That’s right, the earth is dying and all creation with it, and this mission is the last hope to save humanity.
Brand, Hathaway, the scientist, using all her measurable data and words like hydrocarbons, and mechanics, debates, and intensely so, on behalf of her planet. She is convinced it is the best option.
Cooper, McConaughey, the leader of this mission, based on the data reports of a well-respected scientist, is arguing for the other planet.
And it’s tense.
Now understand, these are scientists, engineers, pragmatists. And they have sacrificed everything for this mission. And they’re alone in space, and they are heart weary, they have already lost so much, and help isn’t coming and failure is not an option.
Can you feel it?
Cooper, says “…We no longer have the fuel to visit both prospects. So, we have to choose.”
Romilly, the third crew member, tiredly states, “We should vote.”
Then Cooper, conflicted, cuts to the heart of his disagreement concerning Brand’s planet choice. “Well, if we’re going to vote, there’s something you should know.” Cooper looks at Brand and with a resigned almost accusing tone, “Brand, he has a right to know.”
Brand glares at Cooper, she’s upset at what he is insinuating and responds defensively, “That has nothing to do with it!”
Romilly looks up curious, he thought he already had all the information, “What are you talking about?”
It’s quiet for a moment and when Brand doesn’t respond Cooper speaks for her, “She’s in love…”
In Love
Years before this pivotal moment, several scientist astronauts had already sacrificed their lives by taking one-way investigative trips to planets which they hoped could sustain human life. Those who landed on viable planets had sent back a positive beacon that included the most basic data.
And the planet Brand was arguing for, well, the scientist-astronaut who had traveled there years before, she loved him.
And now Cooper was suggesting that Brand wasn’t choosing the planet based solely on the data, he was insinuating her judgment was clouded by love.
Remember, these are pragmatic scientists. They look at facts and measurables to determine planet viability. Love never enters the equation.
“She’s in love,” echos like accusation.
The third astronaut, Romilly, looks at Brand with apprehension, “Is that true?”
Brand hesitates and then says something most unscientific, “Yes. And that makes me want to follow my heart. But maybe we’ve spent too long trying to figure all this out with theory-“
Cooper cuts her off, “You’re a scientist brand!”
And Brand responds with a deep conviction, some might even call it faith. And this is the moment where if you’re paying attention, you just might discover the meaning of life, the moment my eyes always seem to fill with tears.
“So, listen to me when I say that love isn’t something we invented; it’s observable, powerful. It has to mean something-“
Cooper cuts her off again, “-Love has meaning, yes; social utility, social bonding, child-rearing.”
Brand defiantly responds, “We love people who have died. Where is the social utility in that?”
Cooper shakes his head acknowledging her point, “None,” he admits.
Brand, quietly at first, but then with greater conviction says, “Maybe it means something more, something we can’t yet understand. Maybe it’s some evidence some artifact of a higher dimension that we can’t consciously perceive… Love is the one thing we’re capable of perceiving that transcends dimensions of time and space. Maybe we should trust that even if we can’t understand it yet…”
Love, An Infinite Origin
I love how at this moment in the film, when the fate of the world hangs in the balance, the conversation turns to the nature of God, recognizes our inability to understand it with the invitation to trust it anyway. Essentially this moment in the film was about faith, and where to place it; in love or in understanding.
Somehow, while watching this film, we know in our hearts, in our spirits, the solution to their problem, the happy ending to this story, is love.
Why?
I think it’s because we are timeless creations. Our beginning is in Love, and Love has no beginning and no end. Love is our infinite origin. And whether we understand it or not, we know love is our salvation.
What if God is love. And what if God created flesh and blood, placed us in the middle of time and space, and then breathed His pneuma, His eternal spirit, His nature, into us?
What if, even while we are acquainted with the limitations of time and space, we are invited to live from a limitless reality, a truer paradigm, love?
In the film, they chose the limitations of their understanding, and they chose wrong.
But of course, through a seemingly miraculous chain of events, humanity was still saved.
Why?
Because a good story is a love story, and every love story is ultimately about salvation, reconciliation, restoration, transformation, and resurrection life.
2000 years ago, but no less so this very moment, and also before the foundations of the earth, Jesus steps into our finite way of thinking with an infinite revelation, love. He expresses this revelation through union with Father and Holy Spirit, but also with you and me.
Because “Love is the one thing we’re capable of perceiving that transcends dimensions of time and space.”
And at this moment, Jesus invites us, by faith, to “trust (love) even if we can’t understand it yet.”
In Ephesians 3 Paul invited us to know a love beyond understanding. To be filled to the measure of a measureless revelation.
Today, you are one with a Love that restores all things.
Adapted from a chapter on the nature of measureless love.
The Faith That Kills You?
Austrian born in 1879, Franz Reichelt ended up in France. He died in 1912.
He was a tailor, a designer, and an inventor. And he had a vision. He was intent on helping aviators survive large falls should they be forced from their aircraft mid-flight.
Franz was a parachuting pioneer and today is occasionally referred to as the ‘flying tailor.’ He designed the first prototype, it was not like what we know today, with no canopy above. It was a wearable parachute.
He worked on the design for years and, “initial experiments conducted with dummies dropped from the fifth floor of his apartment building had been successful, but he was unable to replicate those early successes with any of his subsequent designs.”
Finally, he developed a design he was convinced would work, if only he could test it from a higher platform. “Reichelt repeatedly petitioned the Parisian Prefecture of Police for permission to conduct a test from the Eiffel Tower. He finally received permission in 1912…” Now, finally, he could throw a test dummy from a high enough platform to prove the parachute suit a success.
When the day arrived, he was ready. Convinced in his design, he invited the press with their new black and white moving picture cameras to witness the experiment. You can actually watch it online.
He climbed the tower to the first platform, which had been approved for his experiment; 187 feet from the earth. And, with life-or-death confidence, with absolute conviction, with measurable faith, 187 feet of it, instead of putting the parachute on the dummy, and ignoring the attempts to dissuade him, he put it on himself.
And He jumped.
It’s the first recorded death on film.
It’s grainy black and white images of a man jumping off of the Eiffel Tower to his death. It’s horrifying.
It’s also fascinating. Not his death, his faith.
The measure of his conviction is terrifying and absolutely devastating.
Faith is a crazy thing; if it’s misplaced, it can kill you. And when it comes to misplaced faith, the greater the measure, the great the devastation. And not just to the faithful.
I am fascinated by Franz; he was a pioneer with a vision of what could be possible and believed he was the man to prove it. He had measurable faith and acted upon it.
He was wrong.
His faith was misplaced. Another way to ‘say it,’ he was delusional.
And what’s crazy is, he could have easily learned of his delusions. He had a test dummy, after all. But I think Franz had a perspective on faith that many Christians share today; that somehow the size of the act of faith determines the success of the outcome.
And I know this delusional perspective on faith; the bold ego-centric leaps one takes in order to prove himself right and therefore significant.
I have a good deal of broken experiences because of that ego-driven outcome-based definition of faith. There have been times I’ve hurt those closest to me with my measurable convictions.
Like Peter in the Garden of Gethsemane, in faith, I’ve foolishly swung my sword believing the ends justified the means, thus proving my faith misplaced, false, destructive.
At 47, I’m learning that the size of my faith isn’t what’s important, it’s the purity of my revelation, it’s my conviction that sacrificial love, Jesus’ love, is what’s true.
Franz’s faith was measurable, substantial. Like Peter swinging a sword, Franz put all his metaphorical eggs in his faith basket. And he got it devastatingly wrong. You can put a whole lot of faith in a flawed belief and it will not serve you.
While faith can be witnessed in the boldness of a jump, it’s proved true or false by what’s on the jumper’s back; more to the point, it’s proved powerful and miraculous based on where the faith has been placed. And if it’s well placed, in sacrificial love, we really don’t need much of it, a mustard seed will do.
That’s because faith is about trust and expressed and revealed by those who know God’s love, forgiveness, grace, affection, intimacy, union…
Adapted from a chapter on the nature of measureless love.
Quotes pulled from Wikipedia.org
An Exercise in Union
I was in a service a few years ago and Bill Vanderbush was speaking. Bill, who is a brilliant communicator and has since become a friend, did an exercise with everyone in the room. I have since appropriated and done this same exercise many times, often without even crediting Bill.
I thought I’d do this exercise with you and also, give Bill his due.
Ready?
Normally, Bill and I would ask you to close your eyes. But since you can’t read with your eyes closed, go ahead and keep them open.
Now take a deep breath and imagine a throne room, and in it, a throne. The room can look like anything you want, it’s your imagination.
If you need to close your eyes to imagine this, go ahead, we’ll wait…
OK, got it?
Good.
Now we want you to imagine Jesus is sitting on the throne.
Take your time, we’re in no rush.
Now, we want you to place yourself in the throne room; anywhere you want; there is no wrong or right place.
This is where Bill and I normally have folks open their eyes. And then we ask questions. “How many were able to picture a throne room?”
Nearly every hand goes up and I imagine yours would be among them.
“How many were able to picture themselves in the throne room?” We ask.
Again, nearly every hand goes up.
Then we get more specific, “How many were near the door or in the back, or along a wall; somewhere away from the throne? Again, there’s no wrong place.”
There are always some hands.
Was that you?
We keep going, “How many were at the front, maybe even at the feet of Jesus?”
We wait for more hands before continuing, “How many were sitting right next to Jesus?”
On that fifth question, when Bill did this exercise and I was in the audience, I thought of Ephesians 2:6 “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.”
I had imagined myself sitting next to Jesus. So, I raised my hand and I opened my eyes, I thought Bill was done asking questions.
But it was the perfect setup for the last question that Bill and I love to ask, “How many were sitting on the throne…?”
To be continued…
“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. “I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me. John 17:21-23
…The Kingdom is at hand, it’s within reach. But even better, the Kingdom is within you…
For more information about Bill Vanderbush, or for links to his website and social media, or listen to our Podcast interview, CLICK HERE
How Much Faith Do We Need?
Jesus’ face was fiery, magnificent, His union with His Father on display; and James and John were in awe; Peter too. But Peter was a man of action. So, while the cloud of God’s glorious oneness enveloped them, Peter couldn’t help but throw out ideas regarding things he could build. He was in the middle of suggesting shelters when a thunderous voice interrupted him,
“This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”
This was the second time the Father spoke those beautiful words over Jesus so all in proximity could hear. This time Jesus was atop a mountain with Peter, James, and John, and also Moses and Elijah. And this time Jesus was transfigured, transformed, His face shining like the sun.
Meanwhile, a crowd had gathered around the disciples who’d been left at the base of the mountain. The crowd was comprised of the needy, lost, and desperate; those who hoped that the boys, in the absence of Jesus, could provide some freedom from the oppressions of their cruel sin conscious world.
And the disciples did their best, but they were bewildered, ineffectual, short on power.
We know this because when Jesus came down the mountain, he was met by a distraught father who knelt before him. “Lord, have mercy on my son,” he said. “He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.” (See Matthew 17)
And Jesus, one with the Father, intimate with Holy Spirit, on His way to reconciling the world to Himself, heartbroken with the people’s slave-like devotion to a transactional way of thinking, said,
“You unbelieving and perverse generation…no sense of God, no focus to your lives. How long shall I stay with you? …How many times do I have to go over these things?” (See Matthew 17 NIV & Message)
Then Jesus rebuked the demon and the boy was healed.
And it was simple; like turning on a light.
And it was effective.
Jesus got measurable results in a world desperate for measurable results.
Later, when the disciples were alone with Jesus, they asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” Essentially, “Why couldn’t we do what you did?”
And Jesus answered. “It’s because you have so little faith.”
And at first read, in a world defined by measurements, that statement makes sense.
If you were to ask me why your car stalled a hundred miles from home and I said, “It’s because you have so little gas,” you would think, “OK, so I just need more gas.”
We read, “It’s because you have so little faith,” and our minds naturally form the question, “So, how much faith do we need? What is the measurement?”
Good news, Jesus tells us!
Even better news, it makes no sense.
Jesus continues, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” (See Matthew 17:14-21)
“So, how much gas do I need to drive the hundred miles home,” you ask. “Oh, just a thimble full,” I say. And then, while you look at me confused, I continue with grandiose claims of nonsense, “If you have just a thimble full of gas, you could fly your car to the Dagobah System and back…”
Did you know the Scanning Transmission Electron Holography Microscope stands 15 feet tall and weighs 14,000 pounds? Did you know “it can image at an unprocessed resolution of 35 trillionths of a meter, making it more powerful than any other microscope in the world?”
That’s the size and power of the microscope needed to quantify my faith in comparison with Gods’. Forget moving mountains, I couldn’t even Luke Skywalker a rock with the measure of my faith.
Thankfully, Jesus wasn’t really talking about measurements.
He never really is.
That’s because God is love and love is measureless. We can’t quantify it; we can’t do the math because love has no beginning and no end. We are invited to be filled to the measure of the fullness of love only to discover love’s ability to do immeasurably beyond all we can ask or imagine. (See Eph 3:19)
Love is a relationship. Jesus was addressing a transactional mind with a relational revelation. He was revealing a truth wrapped in the mystery of measureless love.
Jesus wasn’t being difficult; He was not suggesting faith was measurable and we could never have enough, He was saying faith is a measureless revelation and we are invited to become one with Him.
Jesus wasn’t talking about the size of our faith; He was revealing the nature of intimacy. He was speaking to space and time outside of space and time; He was addressing a finite way of thinking from an infinite revelation, love.
Jesus was revealing His intimacy with His Father, His oneness, and union with Holy Spirit. He was using the words of our understanding to invite us to know a love beyond understanding.
By the way, that’s always how God speaks to us, since the very beginning. That’s the nature of love; to communicate at the level of our understanding and ability in order to increase our capacity to understand and experience knowing.
And nothing is impossible for the person that knows this intimacy, this union, this love, this faith.
Nothing.
The impossible is simple, it’s like turning on a light.
Love, sovereignly given and received and given and received and given and received… We love because He first loved we love, because He first loved we love because He first loved, we love…. (See John 4:19)
In love, every impossibility is possible. Jesus lived heaven on earth, the kingdom at hand, but more to the point, the kingdom within. (See Mark 1:15 & Luke 17:20)
Faith, an infinite universe in a mustard seed.
Elmer’s Fortune
Elmer ate Chinese alone in a corner booth of Taste of NY Restaurant; chicken and broccoli with string beans.
Elmer used a plastic fork.
He watched a neighboring table of young people; early twenties. They were hanging all over each other, familiar in the way of youth. One girl, in a yellow sweater, was reading a fortune from her cookie. Elmer couldn’t make it out but heard the last words
“in bed.”
Everyone laughed and Elmer smiled, tiredly.
He knew the game.
Elmer noted the fortune cookie on his table, he hadn’t even realized it was there. And his smile faded. He never ate the cookie, to Elmer they tasted like stale burnt vanilla waffles. But he used to love opening them. Especially with friends, especially with her. He realized it had been years since he’d read his fortune.
Suddenly Elmer felt a deep sadness. The kind you can only experience with age and loss. The young people’s oblivious hope was contagious and he missed that feeling, the sense of wonder and expectation in the simple act of opening and then reading a fortune. The feeling that anything was possible, that the future was going to be, somehow, better.
Elmer reached for his cookie. He worried the cellophane packaging open and cracked his fortune free.
Unfolding the small slip of paper, he read, “You can’t get there from here.”
“In bed” he whispered almost subconsciously and he smiled. Just then the girl in the yellow sweater laughed at some random jest. “There is only here,” he thought, reveling a moment longer in the wonderful stubborn naivete of youth.
His mind turned to the hospital across the street, the future he couldn’t know.
He got up and fumbled a five-dollar bill out of his pocket for the Asian daughter who had brought out his food. He whispered a prayer for her and the kids at the booth; that kindness would find them before life did.
He looked down at his fortune one last time. “You can’t get there from here.”
Elmer nodded.
He had often wondered at the infuriating mystery of a God who puts such longing for “there” within the stubborn heart of the man traveling headlong down the wrong road.
“There is only here,” he thought, “And I can’t stay.”
Elmer walked out of the Chinese restaurant.
Time Travel and The Omnipresent Nature of Love
“While God placed us in a world defined by measurements, He breathed His Spirit, His measureless love, into us. So, while we live in the insecurities of this earth, we have been invited to live from the confidence of heaven.” (From Prone to Love)
In the year 2000, the Department of Medicine at Beilinson Campus in Petah-Tiqva Israel conducted a study “to determine whether remote…intercessory prayer, said for a group of patients with a bloodstream infection, has an effect on outcomes.”
It was a double-blind, parallel-group, randomized controlled trial of remote intervention, and it took place at the Rabin Medical Center, the university hospital.
The subjects were 3393 adult patients whose bloodstream infection was detected at the hospital.
The patients were randomly placed into a control group and an intervention group. Then a remote intercessory prayer was said for the well-being and full recovery of the intervention group members.
No prayers were said for the control group.
Don’t get mad at me, I didn’t set the study up.
There were three “main outcome” measurables for the study; they wanted to know if remote intersensory prayer would have “any effect on mortality in hospital, length of stay in the hospital, and duration of fever.”
After they had prayed for the control group, they compared the control group with the intervention group and discovered that while the mortality rate was only slightly better for the intervention group, “the length of stay in hospital and duration of fever was significantly shorter in the intervention group than in the control group.”
Here is their finding, “Remote…intercessory prayer said for a group is associated with a shorter stay in the hospital and shorter duration of fever in patients with a bloodstream infection and should be considered for use in clinical practice.”
That’s a pretty cool conclusion from a pretty awesome study.
But it’s not really all that surprising, at least, not to me. I mean, essentially, they wanted to know if prayer works.
Turns out it does. Go figure.
But if you were paying close attention, you may have noticed the ellipses…
The three dots I used when describing this study.
That’s because I withheld the most amazing part of this study for emphasis. I wanted to direct your focus to the most profoundly unique aspect of the research.
You see, this wasn’t just a study “to determine whether remote…intercessory prayer” had an impact on sick people. No, this was a study “to determine whether remote, retroactive, intercessory prayer” had any impact on sick people.
The study was done in the year 2000.
But the cases were pulled from the years 1990 through 1996.
That’s right, this study was about time travel. Yeah, you almost need a flux capacitor to understand it.
The scientists wanted to know if prayer said in the year 2000 had an effect on the health of patients 6 to 10 years earlier. This wasn’t just a study to see if a prayer said today transforms the future, this was a study to see if a prayer said today impacted the past.
And it turns out it does. Wow.
Here is the complete finding, “Remote retroactive, intercessory prayer said for a group of patients is associated with a shorter hospital stay and shorter duration of fever in patients with a bloodstream infection, even when the intervention is performed 4-10 years after the infection.”
This was a study in the time travel omnipresent nature of Love, and its findings were an invitation to rethink prayer and also, well, everything else. And for weeks I was giddy with what this study revealed. I would tell anyone who would listen about it, my family, ten times over.
I remember catching my youngest, Eva, in the kitchen one morning a few days after learning about this study and realizing she hadn’t heard yet.
So I presented her the story just as I have done with you and then said excitedly, “Can you believe it?!”
She smiled, “Yeah dad, that’s kinda cool, I guess.”
“You guess?!” I said, sarcastically. “I don’t think you understand.”
She probably did, but she was thirteen, so she couldn’t show too much excitement, that’s an unspoken rule for thirteen-year-olds. And the rule for dads of thirteen-year-olds is to get even more excited and make them stay and listen to your world-transforming explanation.
“So, Eva, God is love, right?”
“Yeah, Dad, I know,” she said rolling her eyes humorously.
I nodded and then started my preach, “Yeah! And LOVE is before the beginning and without end! And everything between! Love is infinite, has always been, and always will be. And Love wins even when Love doesn’t play the winning or losing game. And the width, length, height, and depth of love surpasses knowledge—that means we can’t come up with words or measurements to define or confine it because Love is beyond our best definitions and is immeasurable.” (See Ephesians 3;16-20).
None of this was new to Eva but I had to lay the groundwork. She nodded and gave me the thirteen-year-old ‘that’s great, Dad,’ smile.
I continued, “God, who is Love, created time and space and He is both in and outside of time and space, right?”
Eva nodded again.
“Ok, so this is what happened. There are these sick people between the years 1990 and 1996. And God is with those folks, but also with the researchers who are praying in the year 2000. And, so, God hears their prayers in 2000 and goes, “Yeah, that’s pretty cool” and then applies their prayers to the sick people in 1990-96!” I look at Eva, put both hands to my head, and then made the ‘mind blown’ action with my hands. “It’s time travel, Eva! TIME TRAVEL. That’s crazy! Right?”
Eva nodded with more excitement, my enthusiasm was catching on.
“That IS pretty cool,” she said.
Then my eyes lit up even more. “Hey, let’s try it.”
She looked at me with amusement and confusion.
Then I closed my eyes and said, “Father, I pray over my torn ACL from 5 years ago. I pray for a full recovery. I pray that you would provide both financially and relationally. I pray that event would provide a catalytic and graceful transition season that empowers us to launch A Family Story Ministries. I pray for grace and deeper trust, for provision and time to write my book, God Is Not In Control. I pray that event is reconciled and we, as a family, experience joy and life and wonder as we discoverer more who You are and grow in Your measureless love. In Jesus name, amen!”
Then I opened my eyes, looked at Eva, and did a squat. “My knee feels great!” I said and gleam in my eye. Then I picked up the book that had been on the counter, God Is Not In Control, and held it up to show her, wonder in my eyes. “It worked! I time-traveled, Eva!”
She laughed and shook her head, “Uh-huh, yeah, Dad, it worked.” Then she left the kitchen and it wasn’t just because her cousin was waiting for her to join him in their Mindcraft world, no, I knew it was also so she, like me, would further contemplate the profoundly deep revelation available from the findings of this study.
Like…
What if we have been invited to live from the measureless omnipresent love of God that dwells within us?
What if when Jesus walked the earth He redeemed our narrative so we could live in the finite from the infinite. What if Jesus was the revelation of another way of thinking and perceiving, the re-introduction to our native tongue? What if He made it possible for us to be re-born so we might re-discover?
What if today, while I write, I am also in the “cloud of witnesses” cheering on myself, my family, my friends, and the sons and daughters of God as we awaken to love? What if, while you read this, you are also seated in Christ at the right hand of my Father? (See Heb 12:1 & Eph 2:6)
What if every prayer, every promise, every dream, every hope has its beginning and end in the measureless, retroactive, proactive, reconciling, omnipresent love of God?
When I first read about the impact of remote retroactive pray I was giddy. You see, I was born to be loved and to become love, and another way of saying, I was made for time travel.
And so were you!
I wrote this story to mess with your thinking, to help you recognize your heart is burning, to remind you of your union, to further awaken you to the sacrificial resurrection authority of measureless love, to encourage you regarding what is possible as you become like Jesus.
My heart is that we would trade a finite perspective with an infinite revelation, the good news, Christ in us reconciling and restoring and healing and transforming…
Jesus prayed we would be one, just as He and the Father were one. Then He revealed that there is no darkness light can’t penetrate, no brokenness that cant be made whole, no consequence of sin that justice can’t restore.
I told Eva that day in the kitchen, “We are one with Love! Eva, we are time travelers awakening to Love’s measureless reconciling grace, hope, kindness… yesterday, today, and forever! Isn’t that incredible?”
She nodded and grinned, “Yeah, Dad, it is.”
For more on the study of the effects of remote retroactive prayer CLICK HERE
A RELATIONSHIP WHERE THE SON IS ALWAYS DESPERATE IS DYSFUNCTIONAL
Jason gives one of his foundational messages on living in an awareness of our Father’s measureless love. This message highlights one of the greatest shifts in Jason’s life and faith when He repented from the dysfunction of living desperate for His Father’s affection, love, blessing, promises, and so on.
We have been invited to live confident as sons and daughters in His love on earth as it is in heaven. This message is an invitation to grow sure in His affection and live sure!
This message was given at Newson Church in the spring of 2016.
Love Trumps
“If I could give one hope, new breath to an old song. It’s a yes that births a more that never ends.”
Jesus didn’t come to set us straight on how much we needed Him. That was abundantly clear from the moment Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit. He came to give us access to love—receiving and giving, beholding and becoming.
While the seen world operates around the measurements of need, the unseen world, the one we are invited to live in by faith, is about measureless love. The Kingdom of heaven operates in the context of love. Our Father does not need us nor is it His greatest desire that we need Him. He is not looking for slaves but for sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, friends.
Need is not a reality in the Kingdom of heaven. We are called to live heaven here, now. The Christian life is about knowing and becoming love, and then meeting the needs of those around us with the love we have received from God. It’s a journey into a mature love that has the power of all of heaven at its back.
Need is self-focused. If it’s our foundation, then in every interaction we will protect our right to need. If need is the foundation of our relationship with God, we relegate ourselves to a poverty existence. For those consumed by need, God’s love is a limited resource, heaven is a remote future, and life, hope, and peace are distant realities that must be striven for.
In the measureless generosity of our Father’s love, needs are not just met, they are miraculously redeemed. The reality of heaven transforms the reality on earth. Fear, insecurity, shame, condemnation, every life-taxing fruit of need bends the knee and love trumps. These moments become rally points for revival, testimonies of His nature.
May you know His love and may all your needs bend the knee.
