The most beautiful song I've ever heard! (1 Viewer)

Sloppy vs Wet is a fun, lighthearted subject to engage upon. I like to tease conservative Christians that unforeseen seems kinda date rapey. But the larger, more important points are 1) don’t major in minors; if we agree on major theological points, don’t get hung up on cultural preferences, and 2) don’t make Jesus weird, people.

By the latter I mean simply that the desire to have a relationship with our Creator is something that is innate and natural. We have shrouded it in religion and ritual, things which are often anything but instinctual.

The writer of Ecclesiastes says “...He has put eternity into man’s heart.” (3:11) There’s not a person on the planet who does not at some point in their life ask the same questions: why am I here? what is meaning of my life? what’s the point of all this?

Everyone resolves those questions, in one fashion or another. It informs how we conduct every aspect of our lives. We always tend to focus on our differences, but in reality we all have so much in common. We are all on a journey.

The very next verse in Ecclesiastes (3:12) says “I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live;” Augustine wrote “Once for all, then, a short precept is given thee: Love, and do what thou wilt.” In some theological circles today that is stylized Love God and do what you want. The Westminster catechism begins ”The chief aim of man is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.” Jesus himself said everything in the entire Torah (our Old Testament) could be summed up: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

In America much of our understanding of God derives from Jonathon Edwards 1741 sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” Edwards has had an enormous impact on how modern theology was taught in America and widely held evangelical belief systems developed. My life’s experience has been through a completely different prism. God loves us and is relentless in His pursuit of us. He doesn’t wish for any to perish, His default is to leave the 99 to go after the 1.