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The Unforgivable Sin..?

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“I’m telling you the truth: people will be forgiven all sins, and all blasphemies of whatever sort. But people who blaspheme the Holy Spirit will never find forgiveness. They will be guilty of an eternal sin.” This was his response to their claim that he had an unclean spirit. ~Mark 3:28-30

Alrighty then, let’s tackle the unpardonable sin, shall we?!

This is that subject which I’m pretty sure we’ve all heard of, at one point fearfully wondered if we committed, and now don’t ever really think about. It is interesting (and significant?) that it is mentioned in all three synoptic Gospels. It’s not a one-and-done mention in the back of the book of Haggai or something. So perhaps it is worth taking a deeper look into.

What the heck is this “Unpardonable Sin”? Is there really an act we can commit which God will never grant us forgiveness for?

Let’s first take a look at what it literally is according to Scripture and context. As you can see in our passage above it is to “blaspheme the Holy Spirit”. And what is “blaspheming the Holy Spirit”? According to the context it is to verbalize that God’s Son Jesus operates by the power of the prince of demons*. So, unless you have audibly uttered in front of other people that Jesus’s power comes from a demon, it is a safe bet that you have not committed the unforgivable sin. As every commentary I read on this subject made clear, if you are worried that you have committed the unpardonable sin, then you have not committed the unpardonable sin; for the commentaries also make clear that Jesus is referring to someone with a conscience so seared, that they would not even realize that they are blaspheming the Holy Spirit, nor would they care one iota that they are working to lead people away from Jesus.

This is the condition we find these “experts” to be in who are accusing Jesus of casting out demons by the power of demons. They cannot even tell good from evil anymore. They are so set in their ways and interpretations which they have given such an abundance of energy to, that when they actually encounter God in the flesh doing the most wonderful and powerful of good works, they call it evil power because it does not fit their paradigm which they have devoted themselves to. And therein lies their major problem. They are devoted to a paradigm itself more than the person God Himself. Here we have a disturbing example of people who were so dedicated to a system that they mistook the real thing for an imposter. (By the way, as scary as this passage can be, bear in mind that Jesus mercifully warns these people about, but does not yet accuse them of, the unpardonable sin.)

What I am seeing here that may be of significance to us today is the sin of closing yourself off to the working of God, to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. God is God and can work through any place and any time and any person. When we start falling in love with our systems and interpretations we shut off avenues to Christ’s working. Before we know it we are down to only four possible ways in which we think Pneuma can operate, and if it doesn’t look like those four ways it must be of the devil. Dangerous territory.

Perhaps another way to say “Blaspheming the Holy Spirit” is “Limiting the Holy Spirit”. Perhaps. Again, dangerous ground. We must guard against and catch ourselves when we start thinking or saying that the Spirit does not work through this certain denomination, or this group of people, or in this way or that. The Wind blows where it will and no one can predict where it will come from next [John 3:8]. This does not mean that every single thing is right and ok (i.e. the Roman government of Jesus’s day which God used to bring about His salvation plan was not exactly pure and righteous), just that God can work in mysterious ways which often blow up our self-imposed boxes.

(And for the record we are not saying that if you have ever limited the Holy Spirit in any way then you have committed the unforgivable sin. These are simply points to ponder and hopefully grow from. There is no record in Scripture of anyone asking forgiveness of God and being denied it!)

Frederick Dale Bruner has a wise word of caution in his commentary on this topic. We must definitely keep from using this passage to clobber those with whom we disagree. This might seem obvious, but it is probably good to speak it since it has been used so many times over the years to condemn without really comprehending the weapon which we are wielding. Always keep in mind who the real enemy is.

At the risk of too many words, here is a summarized take away: Be careful of closing yourself off–to the Spirit of course, but be vigilant of the many ways this may play out. Closing off to an ethnic group, an entire religion…Could Spirit be speaking through them and your heart is closed off? Turn this passage inward, not out of fear of going to hell over a mistaken word spoken, but out of reverence to not blaspheming the Holy Spirit with a shut down, hardened heart. There seems to be a point we can reach which proves extremely difficult to return from (impossible on our own?). Stay open to the Voice, for if you ignore it for too long, you may forget what it sounds like.

Am I ignoring Pneuma nudges?

Have I closed myself off to the Spirit of God in some way?

*Frederick Dale Bruner says in his commentary, “In Mark, saying Jesus has an unclean spirit is the sin against the Holy Spirit. In context, in all three Gospels, the sin against the Holy Spirit is not some arbitrary curse of deity or some foolish remark about either God or the Spirit per se; it is trying to ruin Jesus in the eyes of others.”

*James Edwards in his commentary: “The sin against the Holy Spirit is thus not an indefinable offense against God, but a specific misjudgment that Jesus is motivated by evil rather than by good, that he is empowered by the devil rather than by God…This is an ‘eternal sin’ (v.29) since anyone who, willingly or not, cannot distinguish evil from good and good from evil, darkness from light and light from darkness, is beyond the pale of repentance.”

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Advent Reflection

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And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. Luke 2:1-7

The week leading up to Jesus’s birth was not exactly smooth sailing. His mother Mary and her fiancé Joseph get word that Rome is requiring a census for taxation purposes which, in turn, requires them to travel back to the place of Joseph’s ancestry in order to register–Bethlehem. The trek from their current home in Nazareth all the way to Bethlehem is some 90 miles, and Mary, who is well into her third trimester, gets to do this journey…on a donkey. Pretty much upon their arrival it comes time for Jesus’s arrival. Great timing. Not only that, but there are apparently no guest rooms available anywhere in the vicinity, so she gets to give birth out in the barn area with the animals.

And yet…

Look what came of this not so extravagant event. Look who came from these not very ideal conditions. Only the Person who has changed more lives for the better than all other humans combined.

Isn’t this the way life, and God, work much of the time? Bringing something wonderful out of something so difficult and seemingly pointless? Commentator Luke Timothy Johnson points out that, “Nothing very glorious is suggested by the circumstances of the Messiah’s birth. But that is Luke’s manner, to show how God’s fidelity is worked out in human events when appearances seem to deny his presence or power.“

It was not ideal for Mary and Joseph to travel such a distance for a census required by Rome. It was not ideal to give birth so far from home and family. It was not ideal to lay their baby down in a feeding trough in the barnyard area.

And yet…

Immeasurable good.

It’s almost as if God purposefully chose to bring Jesus into the world under an oppressive occupying government just to show the world that He can bring the greatest gift out of the most horrific human circumstances. Have you ever gone through something terrible only to come out the other side with a new and rewarding friendship?

As the magnet on our refrigerator says, “Life is what happens while you are making other plans.” Much goes the way we would rather it not, but God, who is pure Love, will see to it that your ultimate good will be brought forth from even the worst of experiences as we remain faithful. This does not necessarily mean that God likes every single thing that has happened to you. But He asks for your trust that He will take care of you in the end; that He can and will bring good from ill. I am here reminded of Brennan Manning who always preached that he believed upon meeting God after death He would ask us one question: “Did you believe that I loved you?”

Powerful question indeed.

I have come to experience and know a few foundational truths that I hope you can take away from this reflection. God has loved you for billions of years already–which I find unexplainably comforting. God only wants what is best for you and will bring it about no matter how badly things have gone in the past or how awful circumstances look at present. For God, who knows what is best for you better than you do and who is also perfect love embodied, is ultimately in control. No human has authority over your destiny, in this life or the next.

Always remember that God uses even the twisted decisions and actions of highly imperfect human beings to bring about divine goodness. God can take unfavorable circumstances beyond your control and mill them into glorious blessing.

Daily Meditations

Queen of Sheba

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The queen of Sheba will also stand up against this generation on judgment day and condemn it, for she came from a distant land to hear the wisdom of Solomon. Now someone greater than Solomon is here—but you refuse to listen.  ~Matthew 12:42 [New Living Translation]

Let’s talk about the Queen of Sheba. My first reaction to this passage was, “So the Queen of Sheba is gonna rise from the dead in the final judgment to pass sentence upon these people Jesus is talking to, along with all their buddies who refused to listen to Him??”

In a nutshell: YES!

Context: Jesus is having a conversation with some Pharisees and Scribes, and in their hostile skepticism they ask for some sort of sign to prove Himself. Now “Jesus was a man with an incisive perception of what was transpiring in the human heart”, as Michael Casey puts it (see John 2:24). He knew that one sign is rarely enough for people; they always want more, bigger, flashier. It’s not like Jesus hadn’t done miraculous wonders right in front of them already! So Jesus is like, “Look, the only sign you’re gonna get is the sign of Jonah.” By this He was referring to His upcoming time in the grave followed by His resurrection, just as Jonah was in the fish for a few days then spit out. He then tells His accusers that the Ninevites of Jonah’s day are going to rise up at the last judgment and condemn this generation since the Ninevites repented at Jonah’s preaching. Not only that, but the Queen of Sheba will also rise up at the last judgment to condemn them because she came from the ends of the earth just to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And now someone waaaay greater than Jonah or Solomon is here, performing amazing, life-changing acts in their midst, and they’re not even close to believing in Him. In fact they’re trying to get rid of Him!

Who is this Queen of Sheba Jesus is referring to? Well, her story is found in 1 Kings 10:1-13. Basically, as Jesus said, she heard about the wisdom of Solomon and his Lord from afar, and actually made the very long and no doubt arduous trek from the south to come witness it for herself. She brought Solomon tons of exquisite gifts, he returned the favor, then she went back home. 

Jesus smacks these religious people in the face with the fact that this queen (a Gentile no less) simply heard about Solomon and his God from a distance, and then responsively took physical action, action which could have cost her dearly, for travel was no cakewalk in those days. But these religious people have someone far greater before them, the One who can give them abundant life, yet they miss Him. They miss the opportunity of a lifetime. Of eternity. Therefore, the ones who did seize the opportunity when it was presented to them will be their judges.

I found a comment on this passage by someone named D.A. Hagner that states well the message here: “There is in principle nothing wrong with a desire for a sign from God. The request for a sign only becomes unjustified and intrinsically wrong when one is already surrounded by good and sufficient evidence one chooses not to accept. In that case, unreceptivity and unbelief are the root problem, and it is unlikely that any sign would be sufficient to change such a person’s mind.” 

And then as far as application, my guy William Barclay pointed out that the Pharisees and scribes “were guilty of one fundamental mistake. They desired to see God in the abnormal; they forgot that we are never nearer God, and God never shows himself to us so much and so continually as in the ordinary things of every day.” BOOM. That’s it. I think that is the application point to drive home here. Or at least a significant one.

Consider how Brother Lawrence [1611-1691] was converted by simply observing trees and contemplating the miracle of how they die and come back to life year after year. He was blown away by this when he sat with it for a few minutes, realizing that there is Someone behind it all, Someone beautiful and powerful as all get out.

Do not make the grave mistake of demanding a ridiculous sign of the proof of God to the point of overlooking the miraculous everyday pointers to our benevolent and awesome Creator.

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Carrying Legos

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After the earthquake a fire, but Adonai was not in the fire. After the fire there was a soft whisper of a voice. ~I Kings 19:12 [Tree of Life version]

Let’s say for some interesting reason you needed to transport about 200 Lego pieces to your neighbor across the street. Now trying to carry them all in your arms without dropping one, or twenty, would not only be somewhat stressful, but downright near impossible. But, if you put all the pieces in a box to take over, it would be a thousand times more doable, and much less effort on your part, because you would simply be focused on one task, holding the box, as opposed to desperately trying to keep 200 different items from slipping through your precarious grasp.

This is how it feels when we attempt to juggle too many tasks under the self-imposed pressure of our own efforts. We impossibly try to concentrate on a ridiculous number of responsibilities, all the while worrying that we’re going to drop the ball on one of them because everything in life hangs on our own ability, capacity, and skill set.

But the Kingdom mindset is much different. There is just one effort that matters, and that is following the gentle, affirming voice of the Holy Spirit always guiding us lovingly and clearly-if only we are able to quiet ourselves enough to hear that Divine whisper. This is the “box” for our Legos. We still have tasks given to us, but this is a much more effective way to carry them out.

“Performing for an Audience of One” simplifies efforts and gives a peace which does indeed surpass our mere human comprehension, for all of our scatteredness is brought into a concentrated holy focus on the one Word and approval which matters so much that all other foci are swallowed up in its satisfying goodness.

If you have a lot you’re trying to carry, put it in a box.

Daily Meditations

I love You too

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As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain people not to teach false doctrines any longer or to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. Such things promote controversial speculations rather than advancing God’s work—which is by faith. The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Some have departed from these and have turned to meaningless talk. They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm. 1 Timothy 1:3-7 [NIV]

Some people dedicate themselves to “myths and endless genealogies” which promote controversial speculations rather than God’s training. They miss the point of it all which is love coming from genuine faith in God. Instead of this, they have gone down the path of meaningless talk.

In some ways, I think the evil one has a bit of an easier time with this particular temptation today. I’m thinking of scatteredness. Of our thoughts being shot multiple directions to the point of such diffused focus that nothing is clear. This goes hand in hand with the evil one’s popular strategy of layering hardships upon you so as to overwhelm. It’s usually not just one thing.

This has happened to me a little as I’ve been missing that singular focus upon one lesson or verse or truth or word for a whole day, perhaps even an entire week of simply pondering one thought, drilling down, deeper and deeper. Sometimes my hunger for truth is twisted into “overeating” many different foods, failing to actually taste any one of them. This renders us ineffective, keeps us chasing and never doing, never settling in on one good thing done well.

The Spirit does not confuse or overwhelm. Confusion and being overwhelmed is most likely coming from an evil source, or from our own flesh, or from others like the false teachers mentioned in this passage.

Are you debating? Or doing good?

Are you encouraging others? Or chasing endless, meaningless speculations which go nowhere?

More is not always better.

More is usually not better.

More information.

More tasks.

More choices.

If “variety is the spice of life”, as they say, perhaps we could say that infinite variety is the confusion of life. “Infinite variety” here referring to the ubiquitous information at our fingertips, more than we are designed to ever take in over several lifetimes.

How good and healthy it is to drill down on just one thing. To have some time each day in which God is the only thing on your mind, even if for only five minutes. How restorative! As my friend Miguel says, “Words, words, so many words–only one Word matters.” Ah yes, we have but one crucial task: listen to the Voice, to the Word of God speaking to you and to me.

There is a temptation to be fixed upon external stimuli, neglecting the deeper meaning of experiences, neglecting the ultimate First Cause, neglecting the truth of the universe which is that it was created by Love and is sustained by that Love, and will be brought to completion by Perfect Love.

Another dear brother of mine, Aundre, would consistently ask me, “What’s the Spirit been speaking to you?” What a good reminder to always be listening to the Wind for the Word that matters. And by “Wind” we of course mean Ruach-Pneuma-Spirit-Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ! In case it was unclear.

One of my favorite quotes of all time, and quite befitting of this Ripple, is by Henri Nouwen. It’s just one sentence which I come back to again and again, but here it is within it’s fuller context which is even more meaningful, I believe:

God loved you before you were born, and God will love you after you die. In Scripture God says, “I have loved you with an everlasting love.” This is a very fundamental truth of your identity. This is who you are whether you feel it or not. You belong to God from eternity to eternity. Life is just a little opportunity for you during a few years to say, “I love you too.”

Life is just a little opportunity for you during a few years to say, “I love you too.”

Daily Meditations

The Basis of Life

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I have been reading the latest book by one of my 5 favorite authors of all time, Michael Casey. His new book The Longest Psalm is absolutely fire (like Holy Spirit fire). At 82 years old he is still bringing the thunder, and I am continually inspired and refreshed by his deeper-than-the-Mariana-Trench insights into humanity. The Longest Psalm is, of course, on Psalm 119 which has 176 verses. He offers a meditation on each verse, and so far, they are all gold. I’m on verse 64, in case you were wondering.

There’s a phrase I came across that really struck me and has stayed with me like none other. It is this: “The basis of life is gratitude not accomplishment.”

The simplicity and profundity of this sentence. It goes against much of the world’s ways of thought I suppose. With this pithy thought I have found much freedom. It is a wholly fresh way to engage each day and each experience.

This truth was reinforced a week ago during my time of lectio divina over John 16:31-33 which ends with Jesus saying, “You’ll have trouble in the world. But cheer up! I have defeated the world!” I sat meditating on this for some time, and have often wondered over the years what exactly Jesus meant by this. Then the Michael Casey phrase entered my mind as I was seeking the Lord Spirit’s wisdom, and I realized that this is at least one aspect of the meaning behind Jesus’s defeat of the world.

As He said, we will indeed have troubles in the world; it seems there is just no guarantee against that. But we as believers and partakers of the Divine Life offered by Christ realize that there is a new basis of life which does not follow the stressed out masses of the world. Our motivation and satisfaction come from another place if we have genuinely accepted the truth Jesus brought to us from the Father. As we live in God’s light we live on this basis of gratitude and do not feel we must compete and win and accomplish in order to feel and know that we are someone, that we are valued. We already know that we are of infinite value and are cared for more intensely than we can possibly imagine, and are subsequently free to bask in the smile of our wonderful Creator at the end of the day.

It is this “basking” which is that gratitudinal basis of life that allows us to engage creatively with reality and then, in turn, accomplish exactly what we are meant to do without any unhealthy pressure.

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Reading the NT in 28 Days

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Give reminders of these things, solemnly pledging before God not to engage in verbal battles, which lead to nothing useful, but bring catastrophe to those hearing them. ~II Timothy 2:14

But shun foolish debates and genealogies and strife and battles about Law, for they are unprofitable and vain. ~Titus 3:9

For the month of August I decided it would be a good thing to read through the entire New Testament. I was able to finish it in 28 days which is averaging just over 9 chapters per day. My main purpose with this task was to get a nice bird’s eye view of the New Covenant Canon, and take note of the overarching and repeated themes which I may not notice without a cover to cover timely reading. We tend to drill down on a single chapter or verse or theme, sometimes missing the big picture. It’s great to study a verse or even a word, but we probably do not want to neglect the 30,000 foot view.

[By the way, this is why I didn’t send out anything in August-I was too busy reading the New Testament! Not that anyone was worried about me, I’m just saying…]

So I thought I would be nice to share what stood out to me during this quicker paced reading. Now I realize that I have my own filters, and my antennae are attuned in a certain configuration due to my life’s specific lenses, but I did make a considerable effort to read as open-minded as I could, as if reading it for the first time which is of course impossible, but hey, I tried. To help with this effort, I read the newest translation I own, which is the second edition translation by Eastern Orthodox scholar dude David Bentley Hart. Being new (2023), I’m not terribly familiar with it, so it slowed me down a bit, especially with its “knotty” rougher around the edges style rendering. Mr. Hart attempted to preserve the raw and unpolished style of the original writings.

On to the big standouts:

The first observation I made, which I almost found humorous, was how often in the Gospels Jesus tells someone to tell no one about Himself or what He’s up to. It was way more than I realized! When you read it this quickly, you tend to be like, “OK! We get it.” Or do we..? I’m not sure what to make of this yet, though my friend Miguel made an interesting point that perhaps all these directives are kept in there to teach us something about God’s timing and human timing. Hmmm, I wonder.

Secondly, what leaped off the page, for some reason, was leaving the 99 sheep to go rescue the one. I’m not exactly sure what it was about this that made me take notice other than the fact that it is in the Gospel accounts twice. That second time it came up I was shot through to my innards; I guess it could simply be what the Spirit wanted me to see at this time. I thought of the multi-layered meanings available through this picture of leaving the 99 for the one. What came to memory was the lesson I learned at Outreach, working with homeless high school students, on being careful not to expend all your energy on the “99” who are the loudest yet not ready to move forward, at the neglect of the quieter “one” who craves your assistance and care that will be just the catapult he or she needs to make a life change. There’s also the idea of leaving the 99% way of the world’s thinking and pursuing the 1% Kingdom way of thinking, as Jesus did.

Other repeated and noticeable themes form the Gospels were, not surprisingly, the importance of servanthood, along with its related declaration of what it takes to be great in the Kingdom of God. Spoiler alert: it’s not about being great.

With Paul’s writings I realized anew just how much he was against stringent law-keeping, and all about the person Jesus, and clinging to Him being all that really matters. It’s sort of funny to me how the tradition I grew up in was big on using Paul to write systematic theology books and multitudes of morality rules, not that there’s anything necessarily wrong with that, but the tenor of his letters (more noticeable at this faster paced reading) is obviously about Jesus and His Spirit being the new everything. If you are all about Jesus the Christ, the actual living person who is perfect love, chances are your theology will be just fine, and your morality will be in some sort of check. Don’t get me wrong, Paul had to tell a couple of the early churches to stop whoring around, but hey nobody’s perfect.

Paul was also crystal clear about the message, the Good Tidings, which he and the other apostles proclaim, coming not from human ingenuity or flesh originated eloquence, but rather from God directly. That’s why the words have so much power. You can be as clever as can be with four and five syllable words strung together brilliantly according to human measurements, but unless they are dripping with Spirit, they cannot penetrate into the innermost parts of the human soul, I don’t care how sesquipedalian you are. But Spirit-drenched single syllable words are able to go where others simply cannot reach. Paul admitted to not being the best speaker, but that didn’t really matter due to the supernaturally charged message he was bringing.

Well, speaking of words, I see I’m already nearing 900, so let’s wrap this Ripple up. Last thought I’ll share is that the books which really popped for me on this read-thru were the letters to Timothy and Titus, as well as the two Peter letters and the three from John. I’d love to drill down further on those in the near future. I love how Paul told Timothy and Titus not to get pulled into verbal battles and endless debates which are absolutely pointless-unless you’re looking to do damage and bring catastrophe. Great word for an election year!

I hope this sparks some good thoughts and meditation for you!

Articles, Daily Meditations

Resetting Your Algorithm

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O God, you are my God; I earnestly search for you. ~Psalm 63:1

So I was out with some friends for lunch last Friday, and one of the guys shares how he is trying to “reset his algorithms” on the internet because he is getting so much political news invading his feeds that he doesn’t want.

A little bit of context, which is kind of humorous. My buddy admits that he likes following politics when it is especially ridiculous because he really enjoys train wrecks. The presidential debate he deemed to fall into this category and was therefore blissfully going down the rabbit holes. As we know, the more we click, the more we are fed accordingly. He was having a ball, but then the political climate changed, and the news went back to more seriousness in his opinion and was not fun anymore. That’s when he said that he’s been clicking on as many sports and nonpolitical humorous stories as he can in order to reset his algorithms, but he’s still getting more political news coming at him than he wants. Apparently he’s got a lot of resetting to do to change that algorithm!

Almost immediately the apropos metaphor hit me.

Whatever we search for most earnestly, that is just what our mind will more and more easily feed to us without even trying.

Put differently, what we think about the most shapes our neural pathways in such ways that those thoughts start to come at us more naturally and with less and less effort.

If we have bad thought habits, it is going to take quite a bit of “clicking” on other material to reset those algorithms to make whatever is good, true, and beautiful become the default.

By the way, I also like this metaphor of “clicking” on material. We all have many thoughts entering our minds throughout the day which we do not necessarily want. We are human, and invasive thoughts do happen. We get “pop-ups” as they were called in the earlier internet days. But we do not need to “click” on them. We can choose which thoughts we follow down the rabbit hole. This takes me back to one of my all-time favorite quotes which I never tire of sharing; it is from Dallas Willard:

The ultimate freedom we have as human beings is the power to select what we will allow or require our minds to dwell upon.

Let’s get super practical. One simple way I have found to help in the resetting of my algorithms is that ancient practice of memorizing Scripture. I recently re-memorized Psalm 63, and it is slowly but surely becoming a welcomed invader of my thoughts. Something “radical” I did about a dozen years ago was to read the entire Sermon on the Mount three times a day for thirty days. My goodness, I can’t tell you how good this was to do. It crowded out so much unhealthy thinking simply by taking up more and more neurological real estate. I found myself having significant portions of the sermon memorized without even trying. There’s also the efficacious practice of praying in specifically meaningful ways for those closest to you everyday…

These are just a few ideas out of thousands that we can use to reset our algorithms and rewire our minds in healthier ways. I hope this metaphor is helpful for you as it is for me!

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Revisiting A Testament Of Devotion

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In this my “Year of Review”, I have utterly enjoyed revisiting some readings which have been the most influential on me. There are a few not-so-long books that I have read, digested, and absorbed which are so very pithy that I chose not to even take the cap off my highlighter, for every single word is such gold and worthy of highlighting, that there was no point to do so. One such book which I am re-reading right now is A Testament Of Devotion by the 20th century Quaker Thomas Kelly, published in 1941.

I think I had somewhat forgotten just how much this little work has shaped me. Spending time in it again after several years away from it has gloriously reminded me of the deep resonance I originally felt with it, as well as the beautiful language therein which I adopted as wonderfully accurate descriptions of the Christ life.

Some books come along which present a bare-bones distillation of the Gospel, give the core truth of Christ, and the foundation of our faith so well and with no fluff, that you feel as if you could simply lodge there for many years and be absolutely content and better off for it. A central and repeated message of this particular book is the vital importance of listening to the living, speaking Spirit every moment in all circumstances.

So of course I need to give you an example, and I shall give a somewhat lengthy excerpt which I read last week and have been marinating in. This is from the chapter entitled “The Eternal Now and Social Concern”. For context sake, Kelly has been writing about how our sense of time is shifted after we truly discover that God is present in each moment, how right now holds eternity. Oh how poignantly lovely!

But now let us examine the ordinary experience of time, unrevised by this great discovery of the Eternal Life springing up within it. The ordinary man, busy earning a living, exercises care, caution, foresight. He calculates probabilities. He studies the past in order to predict and control the future. Then when he has weighed all his factors and plotted the outcome, with energy and industry he wills himself into persistent activity along the lines of calculated wisdom.

And much religious work is carried on in just this same way. With shrewd and canny foresight religious people study the past, examine all the factors in the situation which they can foresee, and then decide what is wisest to undertake, or what is most congruous with the Christian life described in the Gospels. Then they breathe a prayer to God to reinforce their wills and keep them strong in executing their resolve.

In this process, time spreads itself out like a ribbon, stretching away from the now into the past, and forward from the now into the future, at the far end of which stands the New Jerusalem. In this ribbon of time we live, anxiously surveying the past in order to learn how to manage the most important part of the ribbon, the future. The now is merely an incidental dividing point, unstable, non-important, except as by its unstaying migration we move ahead into the richer meadows and the greener pastures of the future. This, I fear, is the all-too-familiar world of all too many religious men and women, when a deeper and a richer experience is possible.

The experience of Divine Presence changes all this familiar picture. There come times when the Presence steals upon us, all unexpected, not the product of agonized effort, and we live in a new dimension of life. You who have experienced such plateaus of glory know what I mean….The sense of Presence!

In the immediate experience of the Presence, the Now is no mere nodal point between the past and the future. It is the seat and region of the Divine Presence itself. No longer is the ribbon spread out with equal vividness before one, for the past matters less and the future matters less, for the Now contains all that is needed for the absolute satisfaction of our deepest cravings. Why want, and yearn, and struggle, when the Now contains all one could ever wish for, and more? The present Now is not something from which we hurriedly escape, toward what is hoped will be a better future. Instead of anxiety lest the future never yield all we have hoped, lest we fail to contribute our full stint before the shadows of the evening fall upon our lives, we only breathe a quiet prayer to the Now and say, “Stay, thou art so sweet.” Instead of anxiety lest our past, our past defects, our long-standing deficiencies blight our well-intentioned future efforts, all our past sense of weakness falls away and we stand erect, in this holy Now, joyous, serene, assured, unafraid. Between the relinquished past and the untrodden future stands this holy Now, whose bulk has swelled to cosmic size, for within the Now is the dwelling place of God Himself. In the Now we are at home at last….

Instead of being the active, hurrying church worker and the anxious, careful planner of shrewd moves toward the good life, we become pliant creatures, less brittle, less obstinately rational. The energizing, dynamic center is not in us but in the Divine Presence in which we share. Religion is not our concern; it is God’s concern. The sooner we stop thinking we are the energetic operators of religion and discover that God is at work, as the Aggressor, the Invader, the Initiator, so much the sooner do we discover that our task is to call men to be still and know, listen, hearken in quiet invitation to the subtle promptings of the Divine. Our task is to encourage others first to let go, to cease striving, to give over this fevered effort of the self-sufficient religionist trying to please an external deity. Count on God knocking on the doors of time. God is the seeker, and not we alone; He is anxious to swell out our time-nows into an Eternal Now by filling them with a sense of Presence. I am persuaded that religious people do not with sufficient seriousness count on God as an active factor in the affairs of the world. “Behold I stand at the door and knock,” but too many well-intentioned people are so preoccupied with the clatter of effort to do something for God that they don’t hear Him asking that He might do something through them. We may admire the heaven-scaling desires of the tower-builders on the Plain of Shinar, but they would have done better to listen and not drown out the call from heaven with the clang of the mason’s trowel and the creaking of the scaffolding.

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Point of No Return?

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For once people have been enlightened–when they’ve tasted the heavenly gift and have had a share in the holy spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the coming age–it’s impossible to restore them again to repentance if they fall away, since they are crucifying God’s son all over again, on their own account, and holding him up to contempt. ~HEBREWS 6:4-6

Thankfully, this is not a controversial or particularly complex passage of Scripture in the least bit…

Ok, ok, so it’s one of the most difficult ever. Let’s dive in.

The first point to note is who these verses are specifically written to. This is for those who have tasted of the goodness of Life with God. It’s not for those who have merely dabbled, but those who have fully experienced the abundant life God offers and then turned away from it. The 4-syllable word for this is apostasy.

Instead of getting all controversial and attempting to define precisely what the unpardonable sin is, or just exactly who’s in and who’s out, it seems to me that we can use this passage more effectively for it’s likely intent: to spur us on to keep growing in our relationship with Christ and advance onward into the richer experience of the Spirit-drenched life.

Here, in my observation, is the basic take-away from Luke Timothy Johnson, one of my favorite scholarly commentators [Schommentalor?]:

Not moving forward is the same as falling backward. Failure to grow is tantamount to regression.

That, to me, is our poignant warning.

The old Interpreter’s Bible puts it flatly: “The danger is acute. If they will not advance, they are in danger of apostasy. Once over that cliff, nothing remains but death.” Similarly, Andrew Murray wrote that “Anything like sloth, and resting content in our beginnings, is unspeakably dangerous.”

Are you maturing?

Are you deeper in intimate relationship with God than you were ten years ago?

Are you a more loving person today than when you were a new Christ-follower?

Andrew Murray offers a succinct self-test: “The only sure mark of our being true Christians, of our really loving Christ, is the deep longing and the steady effort to know more of Him.”

Here’s more from schommentalor LTJ to give some deeper context:

The effect of apostasy is so devastating because of the extraordinary character of the gift received and the cost to Christ of its giving…The main point is perfectly straightforward: the enormity of apostasy is measured by the greatness of the experience of God it abandons. That is why it is impossible to “renew to repentance” people who have proven capable of turning away from their own most powerful and transforming experience.

Sitting in extended silence with this passage, here is what rose to the surface, which I trust and hope is from the Holy Spirit, the Great Wind of God:

What is the most offensive offense to Jesus? Not enjoying Him, or His gifts, Presence, life with Him, being Spirit-led. That is the greatest mockery. Behind every sin, every evil act, is the ignoring of Abundant Life offered. You think of what God has done to show us His unfathomable love and care for us: Becoming one of us–human! Serving, learning, dying cruelly, all for breaking down every possible barrier to enjoy being together. You taste of that beautiful life of Spirit-intimacy, and then turn away from it? Pursue other “gods”? It will be most difficult to turn back. Darn near impossible. Literally impossible? As it seems to imply here in Hebrews 6? Oh God, I pray not!