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Imagine that God is Love [Excerpt by Scot McKnight]

 

Excerpt from One.Life: Jesus Calls, We Follow (eBook) by Scot McKnight.

 

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Lots of people say they know that God loves them, but deep inside they don't feel loved and so they feel like impostors with God. Even more, deep inside they are so conflicted about love itself that they cannot become vulnerable enough to embrace this God and know that God embraces back.

It is much easier to say we believe God loves us
than it is to bask and dwell in that God of Love
by receiving and returning love…

 

Until we get our heart connected to God's heart, Jesus' dream kingdom will be neither understood nor embraced. At the core of Jesus' dream kingdom is God, and that God is a God of Love. No, even better, that God is Love the way that God is Life.

 

The only way to be connected to God is to love the God who is Love himself.

We need to think back into Time and Before Time to the time when God was all there was, back to Before this world of ours even existed. What we have learned from Jesus and the New Testament and the Church is that … God was indwelling God. The Father. The Son. The Spirit. One. Three-in-One. Indwelling and interpenetrating One Another in the endless God Dance of love and delight. This dance of love is who God was and is, and this is what God is like and what God will always be like, and that means that the only way to be connected to God is to love the God who is Love himself.

 

To follow Jesus … is to enter into the Divine Dance.

To follow Jesus into this God-who-is-Love God is to enter into the Divine Dance. Jesus' vision of the dream kingdom, then, is a dream about dancing with the God who is Love. It's like Jesus to imagine a world where that kind of God was at work. So we must listen to another of Jesus' stories and…

 

Imagine a World Where God Is Love

Jesus was imagining the kingdom one day when he told a parable we call the Prodigal Son… The story starts at a table where Jesus is dining with the religious experts of Jesus’ day who had serious questions about his table friends [see Luke 15:1-2]. The experts want Jesus to explain himself for doing such an unholy thing like associating with (to the point of sharing a meal with) sinners. Jesus does explain himself, but he does so by telling a fantastic story that takes their question and sabotages it. At the same time, the tax collectors and sinners are listening in to Jesus' response and they discover that he is tossing grace toward them.

 

What Jesus wants us to see in this Kingdom.Life is a Father-God who loves us in ways we never imagined and a table of fellowship that is full of Kingdom.Life joy and love. But this father sabotages the expectations of many listeners (and many today are like them)…

 

We've got to imagine this world to make it happen.

"We've got to imagine this world to make it happen."

 

We've got to imagine this world to make it happen. The dream of reconciliation with God and with the family can only happen if we first believe it can, and then we have to take the first steps to return to the Father.

 

[Read the Parable of the Prodigal Son]

-Scot McKnight

Question: If we already agree that God is Love, does it make a difference when we take time to imagine that God is Love? Imagine that God is Love, then share your thoughts in a comment.

- Adam Forrest, Zondervan

 

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Learn more about One.Life (eBook).



Visit Scot McKnight's blog at www.patheos.com/blogs/jesuscreed.

Image and some styling above are web-exclusive features not included in the text of One.Life. Image: Rembrandt's interpretation of the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons. This post does not represent the views of Zondervan or any of its representatives. The writer's personal opinions are shared only for information purposes. To receive new Zondervan Blog posts in your reader or email inbox, subscribe to Zondervan Blog.)

 

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Use These Outreach Books (5 Zondervan Authors Honored with Outreach 2012 Resources of the Year Awards)

 

The 2012 Outreach Resources of the Year were announced today in a press release from Outreach magazine, honoring twenty evangelism-themed resources from the last year. Five of these resources are by by Zondervan authors.

The Outreach Resources of the Year series celebrates of "the best outreach-oriented books and curricula," says the magazine, which selects titles in "areas such as evangelism, compassion and justice ministries, missional living and cross-cultural ministries." Here is the magazine's Editor, Brian Orme, on the goal of the series:

These resources deserve accolades, but Outreach Resources of the Year is about more than that… We strive to help churches share God's love, reach their communities and change the world. Drawing their attention to the best resources available each year is one way we do that.

 

We at Zondervan couldn't agree more with Orme. Of course we're thrilled for our authors when they receive awards — we love our authors, and it's exciting to see their excellent work honored by others. But the chief reason we celebrate today is this: we're blessed to work with authors who help people share God's love and transform the world.

 

Here's the scoop on these five award-winning Zondervan authors and their books:

USE THESE BOOKS:
Five 2012 Outreach Resources of the Year

1. Evangelism

Learn more about One Thousand Gifts

The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited
by Scot McKnight (@scotmcknight)
Evangelicals have reduced the gospel to the message of personal salvation. This book makes a plea for us to recover the old gospel as that which is still new and still fresh. (From the synopsis)
Read Excerpt
Learn More about The King Jesus Gospel

2. Church & Culture

Learn more about Understanding World Religions

Half the Church: Recapturing God's Global Vision for Women
by Carolyn Custis James (@carolynezer)
James unpacks three transformative themes in the Bible that raise the bar for women and calls them to join their brothers in advancing God's gracious kingdom on earth. (From the synopsis)
Read Excerpt
Learn more about Half the Church
Visit James's Blog

3. Children's Outreach

Learn more about Ocean Adventures Book

The Nature of God: Ocean Adventures Book & DVDs
by Peter Schriemer (Follow @peterschriemer)
With rich and age-appropriate content based on & supplementing the presentations of Peter Schriemer in the DVD collection Nature of God, readers learn more about God's creation of eco-systems, flora, and fauna specifically found in the Hawaiian Islands of the United States. (From the synopsis)
Learn More about Ocean Adventures Book
Visit "The Nature of God" Page on Facebook

4. Youth Outreach

Learn more about Sticky Faith

Sticky Faith: Everyday Ideas to Build Lasting Faith in Your Kids
by Kara Powell (@kpowellfyi & @stickyfaith)
Based on Fuller Youth Institute findings, this easy-to-read guide presents both a compelling rationale and a powerful strategy to show parents how to actively encourage their children's spiritual growth so that it will stick to them into adulthood and empower them to develop a living, lasting faith. (From the synopsis)
Learn More about Sticky Faith
Visit the Sticky Faith Website

5. Small Group Curriculum

Learn more about The Christian Faith

Muslims, Christians, and Jesus DVD: Gaining Understanding and Building Relationships
by Carl Medearis (Follow @carlmedearis)
Medearis, an international expert in the field of Arab-American and Muslim-Christian relations, provides American Christians background info on Islam and tools for sharing Christ with their Muslim neighbors. (From the synopsis)
Learn More about Muslims, Christians, & Jesus DVD

If you would like to send one of these authors congratulations on their achievement, leave your comment on Zondervan's EngagingChurch Blog. My coworker, Andrew Rogers, has graciously volunteered to forward everyone's messages to the authors!

The full list of 20 award winners are featured in the March/April 2012 issue of Outreach. Now we've covered five of Outreach's favorite books on evangelism. What's your favorite?

 

- Adam Forrest, Zondervan. Big tip of the hat to Andrew Rogers.

 

(This post does not represent the views of Zondervan or any of its representatives; the writer's opinions are his own, and are only intended for information purposes. To receive new blogposts in your reader or email inbox, subscribe to Zondervan Blog.)

 

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Interview with a Christian Vampire

 

'Gospels of sin management' presume a Christ with no serious work other than redeeming humankind … [and] they foster 'vampire Christians,' who only want a little blood for their sins but nothing more to do with Jesus until heaven.

-Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy

DOCTOR VANHELSING'S JOURNAL

31 October. On the dark side of twilight, I at last have reached Count Dracula's castle. The Count greeted me eagerly if not warmly, then ushered me into his dining room, where "Our encounter will be most appropriate," whatever that means. I am grateful for the food offered me, but the Count eats naught. From across the table he stares, intently, or almost hungry. Those eyes… I have a creeping feeling this interview was a mistake, but Dracula is the most influential Christian in this region, and I must challenge him with the questions that have seized my psyche over the last three months!

 

Those eyes... more 'undead' than alive...

COUNT: What brings you to my home, Doctor…?

 

ZBLOG: VanHelsing. My name is Zonder VanHelsing. I've come to interview you about the King you serve.

COUNT: I serve no King. I am the sovereign of Transylvania, and you do well to remember that, my good Doctor.

 

ZBLOG: Forgive me, I just mean, it is said you've been a Christian for some time now?

COUNT: Oh. Yes, in my youth I made a decision for Christ.

 

ZBLOG: What did you decide?

COUNT: What do you mean? I decided to believe the gospel.

 

ZBLOG: Please tell me, what is "the gospel"?

COUNT: [He furrows his brow, as if trying to decide whether I'm playing a joke. There are tense moments, but at last he continues.] Everyone knows what the gospel is, but very well, I'll play your game.

We're sinners. If we believe in Jesus, his blood saves us from hell. Jesus died on my behalf so that I do not have to. And that's that.

 

ZBLOG: And how does your decision to accept Christ connect to discipleship?

COUNT: What do you mean?

 

ZBLOG: Well, I've recently read in Dr. Scot McKnight's new book The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited that as many as 75 percent of Americans have made a decision to accept Christ, but only about 25 percent Americans go to church regularly.

McKnight also claims this: "Most of evangelism today is obsessed with getting someone to make a decision; the apostles, however, were obsessed with making disciples." So, tell me about your transition from the Decided to the Discipled.

COUNT: Discipled, what nonsense. I became a disciple when I decided to believe in the power of Jesus' blood! The blood is the life! You cannot let the power of the blood and salvation by faith become eclipsed by discipleship. No, you don't need to do anything if you know and believe the central idea of "justification by faith."

 

ZBLOG: It's interesting you think so, since justification by faith isn't mentioned in the Gospels. And I happen to believe that if we're not growing in our faith, we're, er… undead.

COUNT: You try my patience, Doctor! Why don't you tell me what you think the gospel is!

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Jesus: Favorite Uncle or Uptight Boss? by Scot McKnight

Guest post by Scot McKnight, who blogs at www.patheos.com/community/jesuscreed. Scot's latest book is One.Life: Jesus Calls, We Follow.


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I don’t know about you, but I get tossed between absolute wonder and utter frustration when I read the moral challenges of Jesus. Some days I wonder if we ought not call Jesus a "moral zealot" to chase away our beliefs that he is an avuncular Lord. Consider words like this: "Be perfect as your father in heaven is perfect" or "Let the dead bury the dead," or the always yougottabekiddin’ me! line of Jesus that if we don’t give up our possessions we can’t be his disciple.

 

Sometimes, if I were to confess the deepest truth, I can almost unconsciously dismiss these lines with "that’s just the way Jesus talked," but I can’t for one conscious moment think Jesus said some of the following things and didn’t mean business:

  • If you don’t have surpassing righteousness you can’t enter the kingdom (Matt. 5:20)

  • If you don’t do the will of my Father you can’t enter into life (Matt. 7:21-27)

  • If you don’t become like children you can’t enter the kingdom (Matt. 18:1-4)

It's the "you can’t enter" stuff that disturbs me.


My years of studying these lines (and I teach some of them nearly every semester and encounter them more times a year than I care to count) has convinced me that they are designed at their deepest core to confront us with the singular challenge Jesus gives to us as a daily summons. It goes like this:

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