If you’re looking for “Slim Shady,” I think you tuned into the wrong channel. Although I have no desire for his fame (or infamy), I do love his music and I wouldn’t mind having his loot.
How many commandments did I break there?
Seriously, though, for the folks who don’t know me, I’m a full-time husband and father, author, speaker, and software engineer. I am also a former pastor, bishop, and apostle.
But, for the purposes of this space, I’m a full-time religious deconstructionist and part-time curmudgeon.
In 2016, I wrote my first solo book, “Deconstructing Religion.” I had a great time writing it and even more fun sharing it with the world. But that, as it turned out, was merely the entrance to the rabbit hole.
I began to learn what it really meant for Jesus to be the author and the finisher of our faith. I began to peel away the layers of spiritual cataracts caused by religion. I began to feel the circumcision of the heart caused by a lifetime of religious calculus (the dental stuff, not the math — although the math is really hard, too). I began to see what true love really is. And that love is personified in Jesus.
Did I lose you yet? Don’t unbuckle your seatbelt…
Like many of us, I was taught that God was doing this “new thing” through Jesus in the New Covenant. Heck, I even preached that the “new thing” was Jesus and that God wasn’t doing anything new.
Wrong on both accounts.
See, for God, everything is right now. And that means that everything is brand new. God sees everything as fresh as the day he made it. This means there’s no need to stand around hoping-and-a-wishing, fasting-and-a-praying for God to do something.
Because He’s already done it.
That’s right! God has done it all. He created everything and called it good. And here’s the really good part — He called it good even knowing what man would do. Didn’t change his mind. Not. One. Bit.
So all of the calamity that befell mankind had nothing to do with sin. Because if it did, God would have to somewhere acknowledge that He made a mistake. And He didn’t. Pretty much everything was a natural occurrence — it had to be because God is Love and love keeps no record of wrongs and, therefore, has no need for vengeance and retribution.
This is what Jesus came to show humanity — what the Father really looks like. What His true nature and character are. Jesus shows us the convergence of our divinity and our humanity. Jesus is the prototype for humanity and we are his product.
One thing I will not do is get into slugfests based on biblical hubris. That said, I will try to keep my scriptural citations to a bare minimum (my reasoning for this, I will discuss in a later post). But there’s one I want to cite here:
Matthew 5:48 (KJV) Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
I like to turn this one around a bit. Because if God becomes our standard of perfection, it might as well be cast of “unobtainium.” So I render it thusly:
You are perfect as you are because your Father in Heaven is Perfect and created you from His Perfection.
Now, when you look at it that way, you see yourself as you truly are, as God sees you. You’re like Clark Kent discovering he is Kal-El. And now that you’ve recovered your true identity from the ashes of the lies of religion, it will be equally easy to separate your Papa’s identity from the same ash heap.
And you’ll see scripture and the person of God in an entirely new light.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In