Fw: [TruthTalk] Fw: Jasc Paint Shop Photo Album 5 images]

[Lance Muir]

----- Original Message ----- From: Debbie Sawczak To: Lance Muir Sent: March 15, 2005 15:02 Subject: Re: [TruthTalk] Fw: Jasc Paint Shop Photo Album 5 images] Since it's March Break, the kids are home. I walked in to hear Caspian playing his guitar, recording his own music upstairs on his computer. That was kind of a neat juxtaposition with the Dylan Chronicles and imagining the young Dylan!   What I like about Dylan's writing is how he describes people, and captures them in a few essential details--but I hope I don't have to try to keep track of all these people he crosses paths with, as there are so many! For me the reading gets in the way, though; I can't quite describe how, but it's distracting. I'm too aware of the voice and tone, it's almost like I have to get behind it or under it to really hear the words. That's kind of ironic, isn't it.    ...Or maybe it was just that hell was distracting me. Hell can be a hell of a distraction. I don't know what to say/think about what Terry wrote, except that I don't believe there are ever times when God doesn't love, or people he doesn't love--whatever other daddies might do. John said on the phone this morning that no theology accounts for everything, and I agree. I am afraid of taming God or flattening him into one dimension, and any theology is capable of doing that, tends towards that. All kinds of things come into my head--Lewis in Till We Have Faces saying that the truth is thick and dark like blood rather than clear and runny like water. The Beavers saying to Lucy in Narnia about Aslan, "Of course he's not safe!" Marina saying at Cagney's that there IS such thing as judgment. I don't think we can figure God out.   But hell IS a distraction! I think that paying too much attention to hell or no-hell is like looking at your back tire to see if it's low while trying to ride your bike. It can't be done. You veer off course or you wobble and fall over. I just think we're not meant to. Perhaps for some of us, when we are in the same place as the Prodigal Son when he "came to himself", an awareness of hell (or our own hell?) can jolt us into a longing to be reunited with our Father. But it should not be the impetus for our evangelism, or what we "use" to goad people into the Kingdom. It is like always turning over the breathtaking painting to look at the back, or something; I don't know how else to describe the perverseness of that focus, when we should be constantly blown away by the desire of God for us. Like in the quote you sent me this morning.   Other stuff later.   Debbie        ----- Original Message ----- From: Lance Muir To: Debbie Sawczak Sent: Tuesday, March 15, 2005 1:54 PM Subject: Fw: [TruthTalk] Fw: Jasc Paint Shop Photo Album 5 images]   ----- Original Message ----- From: Terry Clifton To: TruthTalk@mail.innglory.org Sent: March 15, 2005 11:36 Subject: Re: [TruthTalk] Fw: Jasc Paint Shop Photo Album 5 images] Maybe you both need to do a little more research.  Start with Sodom and Gomorrah, then go to the flood.  Finish up with Annanias and Sapphira.  Sometimes Daddy don't love. Terry Bill Taylor wrote: You have got that soooooooooooooooo RIGHT! Now live in that assurance as you resolve every other tension.   Bill ----- Original Message ----- From: Dave Hansen To: TruthTalk@mail.innglory.org Sent: Tuesday, March 15, 2005 8:12 AM Subject: Re: [TruthTalk] Fw: Jasc Paint Shop Photo Album 5 images] DAVEH:  If I were to fill in the blank G.....I'd say God thinks like a parent.  In my opinion, God is quintessentially the ultimate parent.  For him to do something contrary to what a parent would do....defies my perception of the Lord's love and mercy.