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God Wouldn’t Fly First-Class: 3 Surprising Reasons the Streets are Gold in Heaven

Imagine a city so loaded with gold and gems they become standard building materials. Add other precious metals and stones to the mix and just marvel. It’d be palatial, decadent, … God-like?

Hmmm.

“Streets of gold” is a phrase probably rooted in a bible passage on heaven: “… The great street of the city was of gold, as pure as transparent glass…” (Revelation 21:21)

But I don’t care if it’s true or not. The real question for me is: What good is all that Gold??

Continue reading “God Wouldn’t Fly First-Class: 3 Surprising Reasons the Streets are Gold in Heaven”

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Love, Law & Christianized Hate: One Bible Verse to Flip the Script

What do you think? Is it possible for a religion claiming inspiration from a humble, foot-washing, dying-on-behalf-of-“haters”- God, to have followers preaching hate, exclusion, and oppression?

Sadly, it’s possible. Continue reading “Love, Law & Christianized Hate: One Bible Verse to Flip the Script”

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God like Lightning & The Path of Least Resistance : Freedom & Love Colliding

Why doesn’t Lightning come down straight? It’s ferocious and 5x hotter than the sun, so shouldn’t it just, literally, charge down? I never gave lightning much thought untill I heard a Capital Kings track, Forever. One lyric line, “I feel Your Lightning in my veins,” touched something in my heart and I was inspired to find lightning for my phone wallpaper. As I admired, I realized how much lightening looks like our veins…

Continue reading “God like Lightning & The Path of Least Resistance : Freedom & Love Colliding”

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Submissive God? 3 Bible Verses Exposing Mankind’s Freedom that May Blow Your Mind

If God really existed, why is the world so wrecked? And if *He is so “good,” how could He let those things happen to me…?
(note: I use He/His as pronouns for God but fully recognize God with male and female ‘identity,’ for lack of a better word, as evidenced throughout the Bible and the human race. 2-pt post here if you like).

Just one look at the suffering and oppression in this world –not just against people, but all creation– and it’s hard not to stumble on belief in a good God. But blaming (or denying) Heaven for all the woe ignores our God-Given freedom to destroy everything just fine on our own.

God is waiting for the miracle-save the world-justice-love-JasNotes-authorunknown

Hands can hurt flesh, and mouths can speak death, yet we rarely see God grab someone mid sentence, or mid swing. And if He did intervene every time we exercised our freedom, would we really be free?

Continue reading “Submissive God? 3 Bible Verses Exposing Mankind’s Freedom that May Blow Your Mind”

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Choosing Law over Love: A Sad Example of Broken Families from Ezra

This post is part of the #GodsOneLines series–breaking hate and/or shame caused by people wielding bible verses. Instead I want to use single bible verses or events to encourage and reveal God’s Heart if possible.

This story starts with Tears– mine as I write, and Heaven’s one fateful day.

It starts with the return of Jews from Babylonian exile. Their repeated offenses, including refusing to set servants free, caught up with them despite divine warnings. Sure, they listened for a time, but soon after changed their minds, re-taking men, women and children into captivity (sounds like the Moses story with Pharaoh, right?)

Continue reading “Choosing Law over Love: A Sad Example of Broken Families from Ezra”

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Save a Planet or Save a Party? What Jesus’s First Miracle Reveals about God’s Heart [#GodsOneLines]

Imagine with me. You have all the power in the world and want to showcase it. What would you do first? I asked this to a group of kids and their answers ranged from world peace and feeding everyone, to jumping out of a plane with no parachute, or bringing a loved one back from the dead. 

How about you? Would you rescue someone? Is there a moment in time you would change?

Jesus, the reported “son of God” faced the same question. He also faced the hatred of God-fearing/revering religious leaders (Pharisees) who considered the “son of God” stuff blasphemy. After all, if you’re the son of God, you yourself must be “God” and thus all powerful (amongst other things). (And now we can all call ourselves sons and daughters of God..).

Continue reading “Save a Planet or Save a Party? What Jesus’s First Miracle Reveals about God’s Heart [#GodsOneLines]”

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Sometimes We Need Mud in Our Eyes to See Straight [#LoveHateCountdown]

Why did Jesus heal blindness two different ways? One man was healed with a word, the other with spit and dirt. It was a mess, it didn’t make sense, but after a rinse a man born blind could see. The religious elite didn’t like it. They held an inquiry, interrogating and frightening the parents. They asked the man: “what did he do to you?” but weren’t satisfied with the answer. They insulted him to the core and then excommunicated him.

But like all freaks, weirdos, outcasts and misfits, Jesus seeks us out…

Continue reading “Sometimes We Need Mud in Our Eyes to See Straight [#LoveHateCountdown]”

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3 Examples of God’s Gentleness to Help Break Our God Hate

Some people associate God with Might and limitless Power. I heard one Pastor say, ‘we don’t need a God of Love, we need a God to be feared.’ #Wt?

But God’s gentleness is easy to miss if you only experience angry voices hating with a bible in the hand. You can catch this in some politics, at some funerals, and even in some churches.

The world can easily question God’s Heart, and rightly so.

But glimpse these 3 examples of *His #Gentleness and repair the breach: Continue reading “3 Examples of God’s Gentleness to Help Break Our God Hate”

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Open Letter to Anyone who ever Viewed, Considered, or Had Sexual Relations with Kids [#Hope, #BreakFree]

You may be a fellow parent at school, or faithful church goer. Maybe a pastor, doctor, teacher, neighbor, police officer, business mogul, bus driver, politician, janitor… You may be friend or family, male or female, greying or young, any race, (anti)religion, sexual orientation, political party affiliation,..

I’m not here to curse or condemn you. This is an honest letter from the heart.

Continue reading “Open Letter to Anyone who ever Viewed, Considered, or Had Sexual Relations with Kids [#Hope, #BreakFree]”

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The Day we Realize our Identity

When did Clark Kent know he was different? In Man of Steel we see little Clark overwhelmed by his X-Ray vision and super hearing during class. He hides in a closet and later asks his mom, “What’s wrong with me?”

How many times did you ask yourself the same thing?

We don’t always “fit” in this world. Some of us have been so badly hurt, we can feel like rejects or outcasts, and the sorrows and pressures of life drain us like a black hole. Is the world supposed to be like this..? Am I made for something more..?

Continue reading “The Day we Realize our Identity”