Monday night I shared with about fifty men how I had handbags hermes orange come to grow in my understanding and perception of God. In a handbags hermes orange very brief form, let me lay it out for you. From my early childhood to handbags hermes orange the day I gave my life to the Lord (age 17), I saw God as a handbags hermes orange Natural Literalist. I had no other concepts: it was an handbags hermes orange age of innocence, much like Adam and Eve, in the handbags hermes orange Garden Of Eden.
From roughly 17-27, I moved up the handbags hermes orange self-deception feeding chain and became a Conscious Literalist. It began in college where handbags hermes orange I was confronted with other religions, other cultures, and FACTS that handbags hermes orange I could not logically refute. So, in order to interpet the handbags hermes orange Bible LITERALLY, I had to consciously keep telling myself, I am handbags hermes orange a literalist, I am a literalist, I am a literalist. I believe in factual fundamentalism. The Bible is handbags hermes orange inerrant, infallible, and inspired.
And then handbags hermes orange life suddenly became more diffcult to hold together. My wife was killed in a handbags hermes orange plane crash and I had a 3, 4, and 6 year old to handbags hermes orange take care and love. The struggle in this third phase of my life is handbags hermes orange what’s known as Supernatural Theism wherein I knew God existed; however, He was far removed from handbags hermes orange where I was living. Where was He when I needed Him? Maybe He did create the universe: I am sure He did. But, He’s nowhere around when handbags hermes orange a man needs help raising three kids without a mother!
Alas, some time after I was baptized in the Spirit (age 42), I began to handbags hermes orange look at God as not OUT THERE, somewhere separate from handbags hermes orange my world, but He was in fact IN ME! My Baptist denomination never told me about all those Scriptures, or handbags hermes orange I must have been sleeping when those sermons were delivered. All I knew was that handbags hermes orange God was transcendent. But, now I was coming to an understanding that He was immanent gucci horsebit hobo bag as well. I had handbags hermes orange finally arrived at a term never before described- panentheism. I’d heard of pantheism: it was bad though I didn’t know why.
I now had it all together. He was out there and He was in here (my heart).
Marcus Borg breaks it handbags hermes orange down very simply in what he describes as three stages. First comes “Precritical Naivete” where handbags hermes orange in child like faith one believes anything they are told (by the group they are attached). The second stage is called “Critical Thinking” , wherein one is handbags hermes orange allowed to question as ask WHY they believe what they believe without fear of punishment, banishment, or handbags hermes orange being ex-communicated. The third phase he calls “Postcritical Naivete” wherein one mixes a handbags hermes orange pinch of common sense, with a little intelligence, and heaping portion of the handbags hermes orange Spirit of God, and some study and advice from the sages of antiquity.
Sound too complicated?
Well then, try living life in some other fashion. What price is handbags hermes orange too steep to pay for the one who gave His life for handbags hermes orange us. Do you really realize what Jesus Christ did for you? When you do, there’s nothing that handbags hermes orange will get in the way of knowing Him- however difficult the handbags hermes orange search, however long the process!
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