A Universalist Vision of the Church

God, Inspiration 0

In the church one finds people from every tribe and tongue joined in one body.  One day it will not simply be people called out from every tribe and nation who love the Lord but the totality of every tribe and nation.  Our calling is to act as a prophetic sign to the nations representing the destiny of all humanity.  When people look at the church, God wants them to see a vision of what redeemed humanity can be — what it will be. . . .  The church is called to be a reconciled humanity that in Christ has transcended all the barriers that fracture human communities.  Paul brings out the socio-ethical implications very clearly in his concern that divisions between Jew and Gentile must be transcended in Christ.  They are united in Christ.  It is a very high calling and both a major challenge and inspiration to our practices.  It is a calling rooted in the realized eschatology of the New Testament — the churches experience this reconciliation now as a sign of the fullness in the age to come, when all humanity will be summed up in Christ and reconciled to God and each other.  Sadly, we model this reconciliation in very imperfect ways in our churches, and this is both a major failure on our part and an evidence that the fullness is yet to come, even for the church….

The vision also connects with the theology and practice of worship.  The dream that inspires the universalist is one in which the whole of creation — all creatures great and small — join together in a symphony of worship to their creator.  The day when every knee will bow and every tongue will worship is what we long for.  To the universalist, the worship of the church in the present age is an eschatological act — a foretaste of the age to come.  When we meet together to worship God we are anticipating the day when all creation will love him.  So Christian worship is an act of hope and a prophetic sign on the part of those who live by the power of the coming age even in the midst of this present darkness….

Christian universalists share with non-universalists many of their motivations for gospel proclamation:  to obey Christ’s command, to save people from the coming wrath, to bring them into living fellowship with the triune God and his church.  However, Christian universalists are perhaps more likely to be additionally inspired by a more unusual reason — the vision that in proclaiming the gospel one is playing a part in God’s glorious purpose of reconciling the whole of creation (Col 1:20) and summing all things up in Christ (Eph 1:10).  Working with the Spirit in bringing about this glorious destiny is a strong motive for evangelism and mission in its broader sense also.

— Gregory MacDonald, The Evangelical Universalist, p. 167-168

Pain

God, Inspiration, Joy, Letting Go, Life, Trials 0

And so God must, from time to time, and sometimes very insistently, disrupt our lives so that we release our grasping of life here and now.  Usually through pain.  God is asking us to let go of the things we love and have given our hearts to, so that we can give our hearts even more fully to him.  He thwarts us in our attempts to make life work so that our efforts fail, and we must face the fact that we don’t really look to God for life.  Our first reaction is usually to get angry with him, which only serves to make the point.  Don’t you hear people say, “Why did God let this happen?” far more than you hear them say, “Why aren’t I more fully given over to God?”

We see God as a means to an end rather than the end itself.  God as the assistant to our life versus God as our life.  We don’t see the process of our life as coming to the place where we are fully his and he is our all.  And so we are surprised by the course of events.

It’s not that God doesn’t want us to be happy.  He does.  It’s just that he knows that until we are holy, we cannot really be happy. . . .

We are so committed to arranging for a happy little life that God has to thwart us to bring us back to himself. . . .

Now, I am not suggesting that God causes all the pain in our lives. . . .  But pain does come, and what will we do with it?  What does it reveal?  What might God be up to?  How might he redeem our pain?  those are questions worth asking.

Don’t waste your pain.

— John Eldredge, Walking with God, p. 87-88

Getting It Done

Inspiration, Life, Trials 0

“It’s not about prophecies, boy.  Or magic swords, or any of that nonsense.  It’s about getting it done.  Always is.  You’re going to be king someday.  Seen a lot of kings come and go.  I know what makes them.  What breaks them.  Save your friends and kill the dragon.  Or you won’t be worth a cracked copper to Idris.  Or to yourself.  That’s what it’s really about . . . in the end.  About you.”

— The Prophecy, by Hilari Bell

A Bright Future

Core Value, Healing, Inspiration, Joy, Life 0

You can outgrow the wounds of the past with a deep appreciation of yourself, your courage, sensitivity, resilience, and desire for a better life.  You have enormous power and potential to become the person you were meant to be.  Appreciate your strengths and resilience.  Trust your inner voice — it tells you that you do not need to have value poured into you from outside sources.  Your vessel is full and ready to “runneth over.”  As you feel the light of your core value within, you can make it shine out of you, to illuminate all your days.

— Steven Stosny, You Don’t Have to Take It Anymore, p. 316

Nobler than Suffering

Healing, Inspiration, Life 0

Integrity and honesty are noble.  Suffering is not required.  In fact, when you suffer, it’s easy to forget about the rest of the world.  Personal suffering tends to obscure our vision beyond our own pain and to cut us off from community….

When people rewrite and heal their limiting belief about suffering, they begin to look outward, not inward.  There would be more focus in the world on helping others and being of service rather than on one’s own wounds or suffering.  People’s attention would not be on keeping a good reputation (as one who suffers and is therefore noble), but connecting with the person next door who could use some assistance.

— Christel Nani, Sacred Choices, p. 208

Not Self-improvement

Inspiration, Joy 0

Sure, you may want to change some of the ways you think, feel, eat, breathe, value, choose, or move.  That’s fine.  The point is to make these changes not to make yourself “better” or “different.”  The point is to make such changes because they enhance and nourish, amplify and magnify, illuminate and celebrate who you already are.

— Lisa Sarasohn, The Woman’s Belly Book, p. 5

Vibrancy

Inspiration, Joy 0

When your tribal beliefs conflict with your soul, your vibration drops, your inner light dims, and you open yourself to physical, emotional, and spiritual maladies.

This doesn’t mean you have to give up your tribal heritage and throw away everything you own, but simply the items that cause a conflict or that do not raise your vibration or allow you the life you want and deserve….  You need to consciously and happily — not forcefully — decide what to keep, what will raise your vibration.

— Christel Nani, Sacred Choices, p. 194-195

When You Fail

Healing, Inspiration, Life 0

When you fail (which you will), that doesn’t mean that you are a failure.  It simply means that you don’t do everything right.  We all have to accept the fact that along with strengths we also have weaknesses.  Just let Christ be strong in your weaknesses; let Him be your strength on your weak days.

— Joyce Meier, Battlefield of the Mind, p. 36

Conviction, not Anger

Compassion, Core Value, Inspiration 0

Conviction is for something, like justice and fair treatment, while anger and resentment are against something, like injustice or unfair treatment.  Those who hate injustice want retribution and triumph, not fairness; they fantasize about punishment of their unjust opponents, who must submit to humiliation.  The fantasies of those who love justice are of equality, harmony, and triumphant good.

Being for something generates energy and creates positive feelings and relationships, while being against something depletes energy, creates negative feelings, and usually has deleterious effects on relationships — if you’re resentful about something at work, you won’t be as sweet to your kids when you get home.

— Steven Stosny You Don’t Have to Take It Anymore, p. 117