Just once I’d love to hear you take your megaphone and stand up in front of the bar, or outside the rock concert and say something like this:
“Listen to me, oh people! The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands.
“That’s right! God does not live in a church!
“And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. That means, God doesn’t require you and I to do stuff in order to please Him. Instead, God himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else!
“That’s right! God is the one who is serving and blessing us!
“From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands.
“This means we are all related! We’re family! We’re all brothers and sisters!
“God did all of this so that we might search for him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.
“That’s right! God wants to be found! He is not far away. God is not hiding from us. There are no gatekeepers. God is available and accessible to everyone!
“As it says, ‘For in God we all live and move and have our being.’ and… ‘We are all God’s children!’
“That’s right! You and I can call God “Dad,” or “Papa.”
“Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill.
“God is like us. God is alive. God has feelings. God has taken on flesh in the person of Jesus to show us how to be like God, and how to be human.
“In the past God overlooked such ignorance. In fact, God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself and not counting anyone’s sins against them. That’s not who God is! That’s not what God is like. “Love keeps no record of wrongs!”
“But now God invites all people everywhere to think differently about everything: God, spirituality, life, forgiveness and love.
“God will make everything right again. God is working towards Justice and He invites us to join Him in this beautiful work of the Kingdom, reconciling all people to Himself because of His great love for everyone!
“You say, ‘This seems too good to be true!” or maybe you wonder, “What’s the proof that any of this is true?”
“That’s a great response! God invites you to look into this. Jesus is alive today! We can know God through Christ and the proof of all of this is that Christ is alive today and you and I can experience God right here and now!
“So, who’s interested in learning more about Jesus and the great and marvelous God of love who would rather die than live without you?”
[A little remix of Paul’s sermon to the pagan, idol-worshippers in Athens as recorded in Acts 17:16-34; with some additional flavor from his message in 1 Cor. 13 and 2 Cor. 5:19.]**
Keith Giles new book “Jesus Unbound: Liberating the Word of God from the Bible”, is available now on Amazon and features a Foreword by author Brian Zahnd.
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I also co-host the Heretic Happy Hour Podcast on iTunes and Podbean and I live in Orange, CA with my wife of 28 years and our two sons.
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