{"id":4161,"date":"2024-11-06T16:12:17","date_gmt":"2024-11-06T21:12:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=4161"},"modified":"2024-11-06T16:12:17","modified_gmt":"2024-11-06T21:12:17","slug":"the-real-story-about-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2024\/11\/06\/the-real-story-about-god\/","title":{"rendered":"The Real Story About God"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>
\u00a0
Pastors sometimes get surprising questions.
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In his book The Good and Beautiful God<\/em>, James Bryan Smith recounts a story he heard from his friend, Pastor Jeff Gannon.
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A young woman called Gannon out of the blue and asked, \u201cMay I come to your church?\u201d
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What a question. \u201cOf course,\u201d said Gannon, who was surprised she even felt the need to ask such a thing. But the woman went on, \u201cFirst you should hear my story.\u201d
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She had become pregnant during her junior year in high school. The baby\u2019s father quickly distanced himself from her and from their child-to-be. She made up her mind to bring this little one into the world, and to take appropriate steps to getting her own life in order.
\u00a0
That meant going back to the church of her childhood. At first things seemed to go well. As the time of delivery drew near, she felt prompted to let the recent events of her life become a teaching opportunity. She asked the pastor if she could talk to the girls in the middle school youth group, speaking frankly about the pressures of dating and sex.
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He was aghast. \u201cNo, I would never allow that. I am afraid that your type of person might rub off on them.\u201d\u00a0
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That hurt. But she hung in there. When her baby daughter was born, she called the pastor to arrange a Sunday for the little girl\u2019s baptism. \u201cThat is not going to happen in my church,\u201d he declared. \u201cI would never baptize an illegitimate baby.\u201d
\u00a0
That\u2019s when this young single mom asked Jeff Gannon: \u201cKnowing what you know about my life, could I still become part of your congregation?\u201d\u00a0
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The sheer insensitivity of this story may seem shocking. But as Smith points out, it\u2019s far more common than you might think. Studies consistently reveal that more than half of American congregations operate as if God loves us only when we are good.
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That means those who fall short are clearly damaged goods \u2013 and we mustn\u2019t let them \u201crub off\u201d on those who have all their spiritual ducks in a row.
\u00a0
The narrative of \u201cGod only loves those who perform\u201d is utterly at odds with the stories of Jesus that we find in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Jesus seems to go out of his way to eat, drink, and share life with the so-called dregs of society \u2013 prostitutes, tax collectors, survivors of failed relationships, and despised half-breed Samaritans. Rabbis may have consigned such individuals to God\u2019s judgment, but Jesus insists that each one is worthy of a personal invitation to the party-like-no-other known as the kingdom of God.
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A performance-based vision for spiritual life, Smith insists, \u201cleaves us in a constant state of uncertainty and anxiety.\u201d We never really know where we stand with God.
\u00a0
The good news is that this is not the story about God that Jesus tells.
\u00a0
In case you need a refresher course on the Bible verse that appears most often on posters in football endzones, John 3:16 is a beloved expression of God\u2019s love and grace: \u201cGod so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.\u201d John 3:17 isn\u2019t too shabby, either: \u201cIndeed, God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.\u201d
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It\u2019s hard to imagine any better news.
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The problem is that so many people can\u2019t bring themselves to believe it.\u00a0
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Smith suggests that a great many of us think the Real Story goes more like this: \u201cFor God was so mad at the world that he sent his Son to come down and tell people to shape up, so that whoever would shape up might have eternal life. Indeed, God sent his Son into the world to condemn the world, so that those who try extra hard to shape up might be saved.\u201d
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Hogwash.\u00a0<\/em>
\u00a0
The New Testament proclaims two unassailable truths:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. You are more lost that you can possibly imagine.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. You are more loved that you can possibly dream. <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Only when we take to heart the truth of Romans 3:23 \u2013 that we all \u201cfall short\u201d \u2013 seriously, dreadfully, cataclysmically short \u2013 of God\u2019s holy expectations, are we able to grasp the reality-bending Good News of Romans 5:8 \u2013 that while we were still hopelessly stuck in the quicksand of our own spiritual failures, \u201cChrist died for us.\u201d

    So what separates us from God?

    In light of what Jesus accomplished on the cross, it doesn\u2019t have to be our sin.

    Instead, it\u2019s our refusal to believe in grace \u2013 that God has forgiven us our sins and rendered meaningless the Performance Plan that so many of us assume is the only way we will ever see God\u2019s smile.

    And that single mom who was rebuffed by her pastor? 

    She went to Pastor Gannon\u2019s church. Her daughter was baptized. She got an education. She devoted her life to sharing the good news. Today, she and her daughter are missionaries in Africa.

    Have you heard a message of rejection? 

    The good news is that the bad news is wrong.

    \u201cGod so loved the world.\u201d That includes you. Believe it<\/em>.

    You are more treasured by the good and beautiful God than you can possibly imagine.
    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here\u00a0Pastors sometimes get surprising questions.\u00a0In his book The Good and Beautiful God, James Bryan Smith recounts a story he heard from his friend, Pastor Jeff Gannon.\u00a0A young woman called Gannon out of the blue and asked, \u201cMay I come to your church?\u201d\u00a0What a question. \u201cOf course,\u201d said Gannon, who was surprised she… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4162,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[76,101,587],"class_list":["post-4161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-forgiveness","tag-grace","tag-rejection"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4161"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4163,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4161\/revisions\/4163"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}