Epic

Can God Be Known?

Yesterday was Valentines Day.  Yesterday was also the day on which a lengthy troubling of my soul reached it's zenith.  I find it ironic that on this calendarized "day of love" my own questions about knowing the love of God seemed to consume me.

In a few days it will be 21 years since I accepted Christ and became a Christian.  Recently, and gradually, I have been coming to the realization that for most of those years my "relationship" with God has been strictly academic.  Everything that I know about God, I know about because I read it in a book or heard it preached in a sermon.  Everything that I know about God's love, I know about on a theological level.  Yet I've been startled as I've come to realize that I have never really KNOWN God's love for me. 

Oh, there was the "spiritual honeymoon" that first year or so when I was 18; a honeymoon that quickly faded into nothing more than doctrines and debates and left me wondering "Were did God go?"  There were those moments when I got caught up in the theatrical frenzy of some charismatic church environments.  But for nearly all of these 21 years, my heart has never really been captivated by God.  I have never experienced from Him love like a father would have for his son, or like a groom would have for his bride.

My relationship with God for all of these years has been a utilitarian arrangement.  God did some good stuff for me, like saving me and making sure I have enough food, clothing, and shelter, and bringing my wife safely through cancer.  And in return I have striven to do some good stuff for him; like giving food to the poor, street-preaching at Mardi Gras, and getting ordained so I can plant a church.

Yet in the midst of this my heart has ached for something more.  On too many occassions to count over the years I have pleaded with God to capture and transform my heart.  He has captured and transformed my mind.  I think about God and ministry stuff continuously throughout the day.  The only books I read are books about God, theology, and church.  But my heart remains cold and alone.  The lyrics of my mind are desperately crying out to be accompanied by a melody from my heart; a heart that has been ravaged by the love of a passionate God who claims to love me so much he would endure the cross for me.

Which leads me to another thought.  I've nearly become convinced that God merely tolerates my existence.  It's easy for me to imagine God saying to me, "Yes, I love you because I said it in my word therefore I have to...and yes you'll get to come to Heaven, but I'd rather you just stay over in the corner and be quiet."  I guess it's easy for me to think these thoughts because of the many, many times over the years that I've pleaded with God to let me know His love more intimately...all to no avail.

I don't believe there is anything wrong with God.  I believe that He is everthing the Bible says He is and I believe that He does indeed love people just as He says He does.  I believe the problem rests in the apparent reality that I do not have the capacity to experience love from others.  That part of me is broken.  I know what it is to feel love for other people.  I love my wife very, very much.  But on the receiving end, like I said earlier, It's easy for me to believe that my existence in this world is merely tolerated by God and others.  Which in itself leaves me wondering how much interest God may really have in "fixing" this broken part of me. 

 

Flood

In the spring and summer months of 1993 one of the greatest floods ever recorded in the United States left the Mississippi River Valley forever changed. In early June a deluge of historic proportions began with unusually heavy rainfall across the states of the upper Midwest. For the next two months, continuous summer rains awakened nearly one-hundred and fifty tributaries which then rushed to empty themselves into the two major rivers of the Midwest - the Missouri and the Mississippi. These two mighty rivers joined forces in the heart of the St. Louis region and for hundreds of miles the floodwaters breached over one-thousand man-made levees to submerge homes, farms, even entire towns.

Television images during those months left us all feeling a sense of awe at the power of this river. It's easy to view floods such as this as being terrible and destructive. They are indeed terrible and destructive, but only to those who insist upon capturing the river with man-made constraints, taming it, and imposing our will upon it. What we don't often hear about are the ways in which the land benefits from such floods.

Whenever a river overflows its banks, it dumps sand, silt and debris that it has carried downstream onto the surrounding land. After the flood waters move away, the soil is more fertile, because of the organic matter and minerals in this material.

Farmers since the time of the ancient Egyptians have known about the benefits that a flood can bring. Indeed, the ancient Egyptians planned their farming, and their lives, around the regular flooding of the Nile. They learned over time that, the higher the flood, the better that year's harvest would be.

A certain character from the Bible was once invited to stand in awe of the power of a river. In a vision, the prophet Ezekiel was beckoned by an angel to walk along the bank of the river flowing out of the temple of God. He stopped every fifteen-hundred feet or so to wade in and feel it’s power until finally reaching the point where even swimming was out of the question. At this point, the only interaction he could have with the water was to surrender to it’s power and be carried to wherever it would choose to carry him. As he wrote of this experience he was careful to explain that everywhere the river went, what was once dead, was awakened to new life.

We have said here at Christ Community Church that a river is the metaphor of our life together as followers of Jesus Christ. If a river serves as the metaphor for our life together, then our metaphor for the ways in which we interact with and impact the world around us must be that of a flood. For it is only when the power of our Christ-centered life together overflows into our neighborhoods, schools, and workplaces that people who don't know God are awakened to new life.

The power of Christ in our life floods into the world around us when two mighty streams converge: the stream of our personal intimacy with Jesus Christ and the stream of our relational intimacy with one another.

As the new overseer of “Live” ministries here at Christ Community Church, I am preparing for a flood; a flood that will forever change lives, marriages, and the fruitfulness of future branches on multitudes of family trees - perhaps even a flood that will alter the social fabric of our city.

Just as hundreds of tributaries converge to form rivers powerful enough to submerge a town, God will use people in his body to submerge the Chattahoochee Valley in the love and power of the Kingdom of God. This post is an invitation issued to those who long to be used by God to transform their world. It is an invitation to join our lives together as a new faith community wherein we will devote ourselves to pursuing intimacy with Jesus Christ, relational intimacy with one another, and exploring the unique ways in which God has equipped and called us as individuals to be the floodwaters of the Kingdom of God in our neighborhoods, workplaces, and schools.

Very soon this group will begin meeting every other week at the home of Bill & Lynn Huffhine. Each time we gather we’ll begin our time together by sharing a meal and celebrating communion. From there we’ll move into a time of worship and listening to the voice of God. And out of this a learning time will be built around the theme of finding our personal place in local outreach and global missions. We’ll likely read a book together and discuss it when we gather. We’ll talk about how we are being used by God to touch the lives of those who don’t believe. We’ll encourage one another in an environment of grace out of which the river of God will flow into the dry and thirsty land through which all of us walk every day.

Authentication

One of the most frustrating things for me over the past couple of months in this new job in Columbus is the number of username/password combinations that I have to keep track of in order to do my most basic tasks.  I have eight unique systems that I have to access with these combinations.  I can't remember how many times I got "locked out" due to entering the wrong combinations before I finally set up a notepad file on the computer listing them.

I've finally gotten back into a routine of getting up at 5:30 to connect with God through prayer and scripture.  This week I've been living in 1st John which is really a book about authentication.  How do we "authenticate" those who say that they are Christians?  America is full of people who label themselves as such with their words, yet their lives are desperately inconsistent with their proclamation.

In the book I'm currently reading, The Shaping of Things to Come, the author talks about this at length.  He quotes one person who summed it up by saying, "Your actions are speaking so loudly I can't hear what you're saying."

John offers us a way to authenticate those who would say with their words that they know God and are followers of Christ.  Quite simply, do they live their lives in obedience to the commands of God?  If someone truly knows God, then a pattern of sin cannot continue residence in that person's life.  If a pattern of sin continues, then that person doesn't truly know God and is deceiving himself as well as others.

As I've read the first three chapters I've gotten the sense that this "obedience to the commands of God" isn't centrally focused on a set of moral behaviors.  It's anchored in the command of Jesus Christ, that we love God and love one another.  John focuses on love as the starting point, not behavior.  Genuine Christ-like behavior emerges out of genuine love.  Changed behavior is the product of genuine love.  Genuine love will never be the product of behavioral change.

Therefore the clearest authentication of our proclaimed identity as someone who knows God and follows Christ is made through observing whether or not our lives emit the aroma of love toward those around us.  If we love people, then we know God.  If we do not love, then the love of God is not truly in us.

A Matter Of Pride

Suddenly it hit me while driving down the highway on my way to look at another rental home.  As I've been on this quest to find a place for Lynn and me to live in a couple weeks, I have been more concerned about what other people think about the home we live in than I have been about finding God's provision for our needs.

sigh...

Sanctification is such a slow process.  I'm reminded of a song by Chris Rice called "Clumsy."  The lyrics go something like this:

You think I’d have it down by now
Been practicin’ for thirty years
I should have walked a thousand miles
So what am I still doin’ here
Reachin’ out for that same old piece of forbidden fruit
I slip and fall and I knock my halo loose
Somebody tell me what’s a boy supposed to do?

I get so clumsy
I get so foolish
I get so stupid
And then I feel so useless
But You’re sayin’ You love me
And You’re still gonna hold me
And that You wanna be near me
‘Cause You’re makin’ me holy
You’re still makin’ me holy, yeah

I’m gonna get it right this time
I’ll be strong and I’ll make You proud
I’ve prayed that prayer a thousand times
But the rooster crows and my tears roll down (again)
Then You remind me You made me from the dust
And I can never, no never, be good enough
And that You’re not gonna let that come between us

I get so clumsy
I get so foolish
I get so stupid
And then I feel so useless
But You’re sayin’ You love me
And You’re still gonna hold me
And that You wanna be near me
‘Cause You’re makin’ me holy
You’re still makin’ me holy, yeah

I had to repent of this yesterday.  I realized that in my search for a home I was looking for something that people would look at when they visit and say, "Wow...nice house!"  You see, if people see that I have really nice stuff, then they think I'm really successful.  When people view me as successful through the lens of the quality of my stuff, then they are basing my success as a human being upon stuff that will rust, fall apart, and decay.  They are seeing an outward appearance that may not reflect the true inner me.  I think God would prefer that people judge my value as a person by the righteousness of my character and the purity of my heart, not the quality of my posessions.  And that righteousness and purity isn't something I can take credit for, therefore God must be recognized and praised for any goodness that may be found in me.

So, I repented of this yesterday during my frantic search.  By noon I had found the home for us to rent and am signing the lease today.  God's faithfulness is proven once again.

"For the world offers only the lust for physical pleasure, the lust for everything we see, and pride in our possessions. These are not from the Father. They are from this evil world. And this world is fading away, along with everything it craves. But if you do the will of God, you will live forever."

~ 1 John 2:16,17

Where Are The Gate Crashers?

Their time together was coming to a dramatic point of transition, a point that would leave them all shocked, bewildered, and shaken to the core.  They had been best of friends as they walked countless miles across the countryside and from town to town.  Their experiences together could fill more volumes than the world could contain.  I can almost their voices as they walked together through he rugged hills of Caesarea Philippi talking about the weather or about how they had goofed the other day by forgetting to bring food for the journey.  I wonder if their leader slowed his pace and then stopped to look contemplatively at the horizon as he formed in his mind the words of the question he was about to ask; a question designed to discover if his friends really understood all that they had been a part of for the past three years.

"Who do people say that I am?"

"Well, some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others say Jeremiah or one of the other prophets."

"Who do you say that I am?

Immediately, the one in the group with the reputation of always saying or doing the wrong thing at the wrong time blurted out, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God."

This time he got it right.  I imagine Jesus grinning as he commended Peter.  "You are blessed, Simon son of John, because my Father in Heaven has revealed this to you...  Now I say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it."

With that statement, Jesus laid out our ecclesiology for all time.  It is the Father who opens the hearts of men to believe in and receive Christ.  It is the divine revelation of Jesus Christ being the Son of God upon which the church is built.  Jesus himself is the one building the church, not seminary graduates.  And the church will not be conquered.

Time for some honesty.  Lately I have had to fend off feelings that the gates of Hell are indeed prevailing against us.  Here are some of the things that awaken those thoughts:

Christendom has collapsed in Europe leaving behind very little trace that this particular part of the world was at one time the global epicenter of Christianity.  Europe is now nearly 100 % non-Christian with Islam emerging as the primary religion.

Christendom is rapidly collapsing in America with us being only a step or two behind Europe in the total secularization of our society.  Every year there are more churches that close their doors than there are churches being planted.

The American church is continually being rocked by scandals that leave the unbelieving world more and more convinced that our religion is a sham.  Some examples would be the Catholic child sex scandals, the flourishing of corrupt and heretical Christian television networks, the fall of Ted Haggard, and the conviction of one of our leading apologists (Kent Hovind) for tax fraud.

Islam is flourishing and threatening to consume the world through a global jihad and an openly stated agenda to destroy America and Christianity.

The entire legislative branch is now under the control of the one of our two parties that has the least respect for Judeo/Christian values.  Not to mention that our judicial branch of government is now controlled by activist judges who no longer interpret the constitution but usurp the role of the legislature by creating laws, most of which are designed to remove God from our society and devalue life.

Yes, my friends, these are the days that cause me to wonder about the validity of Jesus statement that the gates of hell would never prevail against the church.  But then I remember something.  Gates are defensive, not offensive.  If it seems as if we are losing the battle, it is not because the kingdom of Satan is overpowering the Kingdom of God.  It is because we the church have stopped storming the gates.

Jesus never promised that the church would remained untouched and unscathed by the evil of the kingdom of darkness.  In fact, he told a man named John to write some letters to seven churches; a couple of which were about to be totally overcome and wiped from the earth.  No, we are not immune from temporary defeat.  Someone once said, "All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing."  And for the most part, the church in America is doing exactly that...nothing.

Here's what Jesus did promise.  The defensive gates of Hell cannot prevail against you as you storm those gates as I have taught you to do.

Church, we are losing the battle in the entire northern hemisphere because we have backed away from the gates and have settled for what we have been deceived into believing can be a peaceful coexistence with us in our warm, cozy, high-tech church campuses on one side and the enemy occupied territory on the other side with a demilitarized zone running down the middle.

We can remain in this posture and watch the enemy covertly consume the lives of those around us, or we can rise up as a new generation of gate crashers who will settle for nothing less than the total annihilation of Satan's kingdom and the fulfillment of Jesus prayer that the Kingdom of God will come upon the earth as it is in heaven.

The Power of Doubt

I recently found myself in a conversation about the subject of doubt.  One of the atheists whom I correspond with from time to time began a online conversation by suggesting that Christian theology preaches that doubt is a bad thing.  This struck a chord with me.

Let's be honest, okay?  Even as a Christian, it is easy for my mind to wander into a place of doubt.  I've been a student of the Bible for over twenty years now and have read over and over again the stories of Adam naming all the animals, talking snakes in the Garden, a giant boat saving all the animals, seas parting, bread falling from heaven, the talking donkey, prophets raising the dead, fire falling from heaven, the guy catching a fiery chariot ride to heaven, floating axe heads, a disembodied hand writing on the wall, the blind and deaf being healed, thousands being fed with just a handful of fish and bread, people being healed by shadows and handkerchiefs, and other fantastic stories too numerous to mention.

As I read these things in the Bible, I confess, it is sometimes difficult to keep doubt at bay; not because of the content of the stories themselves, but because of the lack of such stories happening today.  In other words, it would be far more difficult for me to doubt the veracity of the Biblical stories if I could just see some of that stuff happening now.  Why doesn't it?  Why did God stop doing such cool stuff?  Why did God stop demonstrating the reality of His presence and power in such undeniable ways.  Why are faithful Christians slaughtered or blown up in Humvees today when Daniel escaped the lion's den and the three Hebrew boys escaped the fiery furnace?

I don't have the answers to those questions.  Do I believe that what I read in the Bible is true?  Absolutely.  But I make that statement with honesty by telling you that doubt does indeed invade my space from time to time.

There's another realm of doubt that I deal with.  Sometimes I doubt that God loves and cares for me with the intensity that preachers tell me He does.  There are times when I doubt that God is really paying attention to me, listening to me, caring about my circumstances, and intervening on my behalf.  I have never heard an audible voice from Heaven while praying.  Oh, people in the Bible did, but I never have.  I have never seen God violate the laws of nature on my behalf (except maybe that one time, but I'm not sure).  I've never had angelic visitations in the midst of difficult situations (that I know of).    When I pray, it is quiet...very quiet, and I can seldom pray for more than a few minutes before my mind shifts to other things.  I think I could pray a lot more if God would just show up and do some cool stuff while I'm praying, just to let me know He's there and listening.

Despite all of these things, do I believe that God loves and cares about me and intervenes on my behalf?  Absolutely.  I can't prove it with empirical evidence, but my heart won't let go of that belief.

I've said all of this to make a point.  I don't believe that doubt is a bad thing.  In fact, I believe that any Christian who says they've never had moments of doubt is either lying or severely handicapped in their ability to reason.

In my own life, the moments of doubt have been the greatest catalysts in taking me to even deeper places of faith and trust in God. I can't really explain it, but those moments of doubt have not repelled me from pursuing God.  They have caused me to pursue Him with more passion.  My pursuit of God and His Kingdom is far more passionate and focused than it was twenty years ago.  And that pursuit has grown more passionate and focused because He has met me in those places of doubt; not through miraculous visual or audible demonstrations of his presence, but through ways far more intimate and convincing.

The gospels tell us of a disciple named Thomas who happened to be absent from the group of disciples when the resurrected Jesus appeared to them.  When they told him the story he said that he wouldn't believe what they were saying until he personally touched the wounds in his hand and his side.  A week later they were all together again and Jesus showed up.  The first thing he did was to lock eyes with Thomas and invite him to touch the wounds.

I don't get the sense that Jesus chastised Thomas for his doubt.  Jesus simply met him in that place and invited him into a more intimate place of personally experiencing the resurrection, rather than just hearing about it from others.

I'm sure I will continue to have doubts from time to time.  My prayer is that God will meet me in those places and use my moments of doubt to draw me into more deeply intimate places of relationship with Him as my Father in Heaven instead of wishing for a rerun of the magic tricks of antiquity.

"Then Jesus told Thomas, 'Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.'"
   

God's Plan "A"

"If there is a God, and He is so good, then why is there so much suffering in the world?"

This is a question that I hear all the time, and it really is a legitimate question.  You would think that a all-powerful, all-good God would bring an end to suffering in this world.  Genocide is wiping out hundreds-of-thousands in Sudan.  Soldiers are dying in Iraq.  The African continent is being ravaged by A.I.D.S.  Most of the world's population doesn't have clean drinking water.  Terrorism is wrapping it's icy fingers around the globe.  Evil dictators are coming into power.  Strangers are walking into schools and killing children.  Presidents are sleeping with young interns and congressmen are sexually seducing young boys.  This world is in a mess.  Why doesn't God do something...anything?

Well, the answer to that question is, "God is doing something."  God put His "Plan A" into effect generations ago.  If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, then you are God's "Plan A."  And He doesn't have a "Plan B."

That's right, the church is God's plan to address the suffering in this world.  Two-thousand years ago He reconciled humanity to himself, gave us a mission to accomplish, and then entered into our hearts and minds through His Spirit to empower us to accomplish the task.  He chose a small group of people and told them to multiply themselves all around the world so that thousands, millions, even billions of people would be mobilized and empowered to carry out God's plan of easing the suffering in this world through carrying the message of God's reconciliation in one hand and practical solutions to suffering in the other.

Jesus Christ didn't launch the church so that we could fill buildings, listen to sermons and plead for personal blessings.  He launched the church so that we would bring food to people in famine, treat and heal the suffering and dying, make drinking water available to the thirsty, stand as an advocate for the oppressed, provide homes for the homeless, battle against the forces behind evil dictators and terrorists through acts of prayer, love, truth, and goodness, work for the peace and prosperity of our towns, states, and countries.  Through all of these things we embody the Kingdom, demonstrating the truth and nature of God to the world around us; which is the loudest and clearest sermon that can ever be preached.

So Christians, when you watch the news tonight, remind yourself of this.  Genocide is wiping out hundreds-of-thousands in Sudan.  You are God's plan for easing that suffering.  Soldiers are dying in Iraq.  You are God's plan for easing that suffering. The African continent is being ravaged by A.I.D.S.  You are God's plan for easing that suffering. Most of the world's population doesn't have clean drinking water.  You are God's plan for easing that suffering.  Terrorism is wrapping it's icy fingers around the globe.  You are God's plan for easing that suffering.  Evil dictators are coming into power.  You are God's plan for easing that suffering.  Strangers are walking into schools and killing children.  You are God's plan for easing that suffering.  Presidents are sleeping with young interns and congressmen are sexually seducing young boys.  You are God's plan for easing that suffering.  This world is in a mess.  You are God's plan for easing this suffering.

Look around today.  You don't have to travel far to find unspeakable suffering.  It's right there in your neighborhood, workplace, and school.  You are God's plan for easing that suffering. How will you respond?

 

My First Response To Seacoast

In the previous post I shared Seacoast's queston about how someone can have a relationship with a being that doesn't communicate or reciprocate.  When I explained that God does indeed communicate and reciprocate, he asked me to expound on that.  Here is my feeble attempt at explaining this reality in my life.  It's going to come through a series of posts because this answer involves so many facets of life.  I'll begin by talking about how my relationship with God began.

In many ways, this is a very difficult question to answer in terms that a person who has never really experienced a relationship with God can understand.  I think about the difficulty of explaining to somone who has never eaten fish, what fish tastes like.  Or I think about the difficulty of explaining to a six-year old what romance between lovers is like.  How would you explain the New York skyline to a person blind from birth or the sounds of the rainforest at sunrise to a person who has never heard?  The same difficulty is shared here in attempting to explain what relationship with God is like to a person who has only known empty religious rituals and has come to trust only in that which can be experienced through the five senses.

To begin, I can only liken the genesis of my relationship with God to awakening.  Think about waking up at sunrise after a long night of deep sleep.  As you begin to awaken you struggle for a few minutes to shake off the dulling effects of sleep and orient yourself to the world around you.  You notice the rays of sun coming through the windows.  You hear birds singing outside the window.  You feel the gentle breeze of morning blowing thought the curtains.  You hear a lawnmower start up down the stree, dogs barking in the distance, the voices of children walking to the bus stop.  As you move from being asleep to being awake you begin experiencing a whole new world that you weren't aware of while you slept; a world that always existed, but one that you are reorienting yourself to.

When I was nearly 18 years old, I woke up.  I can't really explain it in terms that make sense to somone who hasn't experienced this, but the curtain was pulled back on a whole new world of spiritual reality.  I knew I was alive in a far greater existence than the smallness of what could be detected by my senses.  As clearly as I knew the existence of oxygen, I knew that there was a God who created me, loved me, and had been orchestrating events throughout my life to draw me to him so I could experience real life.  The words of the Bible came alive to me.  I saw myself in the story in very real ways and I began experiencing God in my story in ways that can only be understood by those who have tasted of this.

The only tangible evidence that I can give for this awakening is the change that began happening in me.  My whole value system changed, not because I was now under the authority of a church telling me what to do and what not to do.  It was an internal change so dramatic that its origin had to be from outside of myself.  Before this awakening I was a self-centered, mostly depressed, alcohol-dependent, sometimes suicidal 17 year old with unhealthy compulsions.  Though I am far from perfect and still in process, almost overnight I began to experience incredible joy, immediate freedom from alcohol, a passion for life, and a desire to selflessly love and care for others.

So I guess my first response to this question as I think about how it all began is that God's communication and reciprocation with me was not like talking with someone over a cup of coffee or through a telephone call.  It was more like a loving father gently placing his hand on my shoulder, nudging me out of my sleep, walking me to the window, and showing me a whole new world and way of life that I had never seen before.

Good Questions From Seacoast

I want to introduce you to a guy I've come to know as "Seacoast."  That is the moniker he uses on a online forum of which we are both members.  "Seacoast" is a 50-something man in the Augusta area who at one time considered himself to be a Christian, but has since determined that the God of the Christians does not exist and Christianity is little more than one among many religious cults.  He considers himself a "free-thinker" and, truth be told, has become one of the people I have most enjoyed conversing with.  In a generally courteous and respectuful way, he asks good questions and seems to be a good thinker.

He began a thread that I want to bring here for discussion.  The dialogue between he and I went something like this:

Seacoast:
Believers say that they have a relationship with God. How can that be?  Relationships require communication and reciprication. How can one have a relationship with a divine being that does not show itself, does not communicate?

Bill:
The God I know DOES communicate and reciprocate in amazing ways...so much so that denying His existence would be as impossible as denying the existence of oxygen. He made us to know Him...not just know OF him. Sadly, the noise of religious activity tends to drown out the true voice of God, causing many to walk away all together convinced that He doesn't exist just because He is so seldom found in our religious structures.

Seacoast:
Sorry for the delayed response, I have been a bit busy lately.

I know about "religious noise" and the drivng away part.

This is not a setup question. You seem like a reasonable person who can give a reasonable response {{ I define that as something other than religous noise}}.
Tell me about the "communicating and recipricating in amazing ways" part.

Did you see that movie "Signs" with Mel Gibson?

Bill:
Hi Seacoast.

Hope you've had a good week. I'm going to quote myself here from another thread in which I was responding to Rad. In that thread I said:

"There are certain things in life that are sacred and should be protected. Me sharing the deepest, most intimate realities of my relationshiip with God in this type of forum (based on what I've observed over the past 12 months of being here) would be like bringing someone I love and cherish out into the town square to be publicly raped.

Unlike most on here, I believe that you are sincerely interested in what you've asked. Tell you what. I'm going to open a new conversation on my blog using your questions here, and then address them from my own personal experience. I'll also ask the other Christians who frequent my blog to post comments sharing their own experiences. When I get it going, I'll PM you an invitation to the blog.

end of thread

In a follow-up post I am going to answer Seacoast's question.  I know that most of you who visit this blog are Christians and most do not choose to comment on blog posts here.  However, I believe Seacoast is sincere in his question.  If you are a Christian viewing this blog and can speak of your own experiences of "communication and reciprocation" in your relationship with God I want to ask you to please post comments here on this thread as a way of sharing your own story with Seacoast.

Thanks everyone!  Seacoast, feel free to post comments and dialogue with us here.  You have my invitation to share and ask whatever you like on this blog.