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Old Wineskins
Author: Ernie Fitzpatrick   | Posted: 06-03-2008 | Comments: 0 | Views: 9 | Rating: (58)  (?) 
Most Christians are afraid to embrace their need for a "Gospel of Conditional Love". I don't think it's a conscious decision but a "knowing" within that to accept the unconditional love that Jesus described of the Father would mean that we'd have to get rid of the old wineskins that are full of dogma and doctrines that no longer work. And to put TRUE unconditonal love in an old wineskin will definitely cause it to burst!
Most people have been fed, dictated, and indoctrinated with the theology that they embrace! And as a Christian it is that Christians have a monopoly on salvation.
Most people can't defend 90% of what they believe because they don't know WHY they believe what they do. They've been taught to not question what they've been told; just embrace it by blind faith! To even question a church doctrine is to move into heresy and open ones self up to all manner of dangerous stuff.
Like what? Like open me up to SEEING the TRUTH and no longer being controlled and conformed? :-(
Like maybe seeing that God is love and that He created ALL for His glory and an eternal retributive hell does not bring glory to God? Like maybe seeing that the concept of "salvation" is not he sole possession of a specific culture, religion, denomination, or person?
When I finally understood the "unconditional love" concept, I realized that God's love was was beyond our comprehension. I cannot accept that MY WILL is stronger than GOD'S WILL. I cannot accept that JUSTICE has a higher ranking than LOVE.
When I was finally able to say "God is most DEFINED in Jesus, but not CONFINED to Jesus", I had to swallow hard. I knew what that meant but I couldn't say it. I felt guilty about even thinking about the consequences of such a statement, so it's no wonder people feel the need to embrace the religious paradigm of "conditional love". Once you accept the truth of UNCONDITIONAL LOVE, your OLD WINESKIN breaks!
It's like the domino theory. When the domino of "conditional love" falls, it takes with it many other dominos of which each of us must come to on our own terms and in our own timing. No one can dictate to another when they will begin the process and in what order the dominos will fall. I love the words of James Mulholland that shout truth, love, and persecution from the rafters when he wrote, "I am committed to living the way of Jesus, though I no longer insist on Acts 4:12 (there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved). I value the cross and the resurrection, though they have new meaning. My understanding of Jesus has changed."
And so has mine and therefore of God. And the term evangelism has a whole new meaning.
Both are greater, deeper, wider, higher, and more magnificant than I ever thought possible. I stand (and bow) in awe and wonder at the love of Jesus and Father. And as I see the wine spilled on the floor before me, I am thankful for it's nourishment, but move on with the new wine (and wineskin) that makes me far more loving than even I thought I could be: enought to even not retaliate to those who say I'm not saved, am going to hell, and who curse me every chance they get.
We are told that w're to not think it strange when the world persecutes us. But, how did we interpret that Scripture to mean only the "unsaved" (however we define that word)?
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About the Author:ernie@lrchouston.com
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