THE SHOT ACROSS THE BOW OF RELIGIOUS THINKING

Guess who the shot across the bow of religion is.....God the Father himself. Yep, it starts as much with him as it does with Jesus. I found a new brother this morning. Well, I heard about him on Friday during The God Journey Podcast but this morning I have listened to him speak of the changing of all things through this wonderful transforming power called GRACE. For almost three years now I've been living this life of gambling, trusting in what God the Father through Jesus with the help of the Spirit accomplished for us all. And as John says about himself, I too am right in the middle of it with three daughters 18, 14, and 13 years of age along with myself, my wife, my friends, and thousands of other people that push in on my life on a daily bases. It's been the most healing transforming three years of my life. I had been hearing the music of grace playing in my heart and mind for several years prior but something had kept me from stepping out into the gamble that is the wastefulness of God the Father's grace. Turns out it had been religious and cultural concepts that were also lingering in my mind and heart from all the years of religious and cultural training that were keeping me in a place of fear and unbelief.

The shot across the bow of my life in 05 was the realization and admission that I was exhausted and confused and had never been able to control the things religion and culture had led me to believe was my job to control. And this was when grace finally entered the scene into my mind and heart and began to set me free from the fear that had always been lurking and jerking me around governing my every move...the fear religion and culture all along had just exploited in an attempt at behavior modification and control.

The gamble turns out to only be an acceptance of the reality of the human experience for what it is and the inability of religious self effort to ever change it....it's a floundering and scrambling that can only be set right by coming to rest in the truth that Father Son and Spirit accept us in our brokenness, and in that safe space of love and acceptance they will transform us and set us free from all the mess and damaged caused by sin.

Check out John Lynch here....Truefaced