God Is A Kooky God Who Can

Let Us Be Bold Enough To Ask Ourselves As Christians Whether The Church Of The Lord Jesus In The United States Has Anything To Say To Our Nation And Its Ideologies Of Materialism, Possessiveness, And The Worship Of Financial Security. Are We Courageous Enough To Be A Sign Of Contradiction To Consumerism Through Our Living Faith In Jesus Christ? Are We Committed Enough To His Gospel To Become A Countercurrent To The Drift?

Put Bluntly, The American Church Today Accepts Grace In Theory But Denies It In Practice. We Say We Believe That The Fundamental Structure Of Reality Is Grace, Not Works - But Our Lives Refute Our Faith.

The Engaged Mind, Illuminated By Truth, Awakens Awareness; The Engaged Heart, Affected By Love, Awakens Passion. May I Say Once More - This Essential Energy Of The Soul Is Not An Ecstatic Trance, High Emotion Or A Sanguine Stance Toward Life: It Is A Fierce Longing For God, An Unyielding Resolve To Live In And Out Of Our Belovedness. - Pg. 152

The Confessing Church Of American Ragamuffins Needs To Join Magdalene And Peter In Witnessing That Christianity Is Not Primarily A Moral Code But A Grace-laden Mystery; It Is Not Essentially A Philosophy Of Love But A Love Affair; It Is Not Keeping Rules With Clenched Fists But Receiving A Gift With Open Hands.

In Explaining The Growth Of His Faith, Psychiatrist Gerald May Writes, "i Know That God Is Loving And That God’s Loving Is Trustworthy. I Know This Directly, Through The Experience Of My Life. There Have Been Plenty Of Times Of Doubt, Especially When I Used To Believe That Trusting God's Goodness Meant I Would Not Be Hurt. But Having Been Hurt Quite A Bit, I Know God's Goodness Goes Deeper Than All Pleasure And Pain It Embraces Them Both." Ruthless Trust, Pg 22