by

Bible Readings for Monday July 25th, 2011

– The Week of The 6th Sunday After Pentecost *Click on each bible passage to expand the text. Psalm 119:121-128 121. I have done what is just and right; do not leave me to my oppressors.

122. Guarantee your servant’s well-being; do not let the godless oppress me.

123. My eyes fail from watching for your salvation, and for the fulfillment of your righteous promise.

124. Deal with your servant according to your steadfast love, and teach me your statutes.

125. I am your servant; give me understanding, so that I may know your decrees.

126. It is time for the LORD to act, for your law has been broken.

127. Truly I love your commandments more than gold, more than fine gold.

128. Truly I direct my steps by all your precepts; I hate every false way. 1 Kings 3:16-28 16. Later, two women who were prostitutes came to the king and stood before him.

17. The one woman said, “Please, my lord, this woman and I live in the same house; and I gave birth while she was in the house.

18. Then on the third day after I gave birth, this woman also gave birth. We were together; there was no one else with us in the house, only the two of us were in the house.

19. Then this woman’s son died in the night, because she lay on him.

20. She got up in the middle of the night and took my son from beside me while your servant slept. She laid him at her breast, and laid her dead son at my breast.

21. When I rose in the morning to nurse my son, I saw that he was dead; but when I looked at him closely in the morning, clearly it was not the son I had borne.”

22. But the other woman said, “No, the living son is mine, and the dead son is yours.” The first said, “No, the dead son is yours, and the living son is mine.” So they argued before the king.

23. Then the king said, “The one says, ‘This is my son that is alive, and your son is dead’; while the other says, ‘Not so! Your son is dead, and my son is the living one.’”

24. So the king said, “Bring me a sword,” and they brought a sword before the king.

25. The king said, “Divide the living boy in two; then give half to the one, and half to the other.”

26. But the woman whose son was alive said to the king– because compassion for her son burned within her– “Please, my lord, give her the living boy; certainly do not kill him!” The other said, “It shall be neither mine nor yours; divide it.”

27. Then the king responded: “Give the first woman the living boy; do not kill him. She is his mother.”

28. All Israel heard of the judgment that the king had rendered; and they stood in awe of the king, because they perceived that the wisdom of God was in him, to execute justice. James 3:13-18 13. Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom.

14. But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth.

15. Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish.

16. For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind.

17. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy.

18. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.

My eyes fail from watching for your salvation, and for the fulfillment of your righteous promise. – Psalm 119:123

But the woman whose son was alive said to the king– because compassion for her son burned within her– “Please, my lord, give her the living boy; certainly do not kill him!” The other said, “It shall be neither mine nor yours; divide it.” – 1 Kings 3:26

And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace. – James 3:18

The False Parent Named Death and Sin

How have we come this far? If (as I argue) Universal Salvation is not only biblical truth but was once orthodox as well, how have we come to the point that individual salvation is preached from every pulpit, Hell is a myth believed by almost all Christians, and the threat of Hell is lorded over the heads of potential converts every day?

If Universal Salvation is God’s Plan for all of humanity, why has God allowed us to veer so far off course from the divine Will?

Like the compassionate mother in our reading from 1 Kings 3 today, if you really love something, you must be willing to let it go:

1 Kings 3 23. Then the king said, “The one says, ‘This is my son that is alive, and your son is dead’; while the other says, ‘Not so! Your son is dead, and my son is the living one.’”

24. So the king said, “Bring me a sword,” and they brought a sword before the king.25. The king said, “Divide the living boy in two; then give half to the one, and half to the other.”

26. But the woman whose son was alive said to the king– because compassion for her son burned within her– “Please, my lord, give her the living boy; certainly do not kill him!” The other said, “It shall be neither mine nor yours; divide it.”

27. Then the king responded: “Give the first woman the living boy; do not kill him. She is his mother.”

28. All Israel heard of the judgment that the king had rendered; and they stood in awe of the king, because they perceived that the wisdom of God was in him, to execute justice.

Since the dawn of time, God wanted the hope for our salvation to remain whole. God, the divine mother, does not want her child divided into two, one part to sin and death, one part to salvation. And like the compassionate mother in our story, God would rather we all fall, for the time being, under the power of sin and death than to see her child cut apart.

That is until something happened: God came down in the flesh, and walked and talked as a man. No more intermediaries, no more partial revelations, God was going to reveal the Plan to mankind. Like the baby in our story of the compassionate mother, the “child” of humanity had grown up enough to understand the Truth. The truth of who our parent really was. The revelation that we had been under the authority of a false “parent”, sin and death.

Then God, the compassionate mother of all humanity, through the Word incarnate, Yeshua the Anointed, demonstrated for us the Plan. Through love, compassion, mercy, and living for the sake of others, we will begin to recognize our true identity as a child of the divine. However, the false mother is a brutal and unloving tyrant, and she made Yeshua pay dearly for revealing this plan to us. She will not let us go easily. She will do everything in her power to keep a tight grip on us.

Rescuing the Child from Sin and Death

Imagine that humanity is a young teen, perhaps 10 years old, walking with his false mother in the middle of a busy market. The false mother is brutal and unloving, yet she is all he has ever known of love. Suddenly, another woman appears out of the crowd and grabs hold of the boy’s arm, “Adam, I am your real mother! I love you so much. Come flee with me, now!”

The false mother recognizes the strange woman immediately, and lashes out with he nails and fists, striking both the boy and the stranger with furious anger, bellowing, “Adam, you will always be mine! Do not believe this maniac!”

The boy senses something incredibly familiar about this new presence confronting him, but his false mother is all he has ever known. And she seems so powerful, as he watches her thunderous blows crumple the strange woman to the ground. No one in the market dares approach the incensed false mother, and she pounds away in fury until the very last breath shudders from the bloodied lifeless body of the strange new woman.

The boy is terrified. He cannot believe what he has just witnessed. He’d had such an intense experience of hope and love when that woman appeared from out of the crowd and touched his arm, and now she was gone. Forever. He obeyed in crushed silence as his false mother grabbed him roughly and began to stalk off through the crowd of horrified onlookers.

A few nights later, as the boy is getting ready for bed, he’s startled as he hears a voice at his window, “Adam!” He turns and is stunned to see the strange woman sitting on a tree limb in the cool moon-lit night air.

“How?… Mother killed you!”, he stammers.

“It only looked that way, my love,” the strange woman replies, “She has to believe I am defeated. She has to believe that I am gone. Now she will never look for me again, and I can come to you freely now.”

Adam sits in silence for a moment, considering, “But she killed you.”

For the briefest moment, the strange woman seems to almost radiate power, “That woman has no power over me. And because she has no power over me she has no power over you, because you are my son.”

The Dawn of the Divine Plan

Ever since Yeshua was killed at the hands of Empire, the dominion of sin and death, God has been coming to us secretly, subtly, teaching us the truth about who we are and what we must do. Over the millennia, Empire has even adopted the counterfeit likeness of God, to try and stem the tide of truth and pervert it in a vain attempt to maintain control. But God is too subtle now, incarnate within all of us as that quiet voice, the Comforter, the Advocate, the Spirit of God’s Wisdom that now dwells within us all.

Over time, the power of empire has seemingly increased, but we see now that empire is beginning to collapse, crumbling under it’s own weight. Empire is aware of this, and it is lashing out any way it can, attempting to chain us down with all of its tools of fear, death and sin all at once. However, we must remember these are not displays of strength and power, these are acts of desperation and fear. The more Empire begins to lash out, the closer we are to victory, for the night is always darkest before the dawn.

Now the “child” of humanity is entering adulthood, and the time has come for us to act. We must break free from the bounds of sin and death, we must break free from the tyranny of the empire of death and sin, and flee to the our true home, the dwelling of the Lord, the Kingdom of God on Earth.

Revelation 21 3. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.

4.He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

But we cannot break free from Empire through the means of empire: violence, force, brutality, death. We must employ the means of the divine arsenal: love, mercy, patience, compassion and forgiveness.

The Harvest of Righteousness

James 3 17. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy.

18. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.

To overthrow the power of Empire, finally and forever, we must act in completely opposing ways to Empire. Look at the non-violent campaign of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Look at the non-violent revolution of Gandhi. The Harvest of Righteousness was sown in peace… and it worked!

This is the truth of Universal Salvation, this is the truth of our purpose as Christians: we are to be the leaders of this final revolution against Empire.

As possessors of the truth about God’s salvation for all, we are no longer concerned with our own safety or well-being, much less our salvation. Fear has no more dominion on our hearts. Our only purpose is to love recklessly, sow seeds of the Kingdom with abandon, and challenge Empire at every turn.

But we must be careful to never act out of harmony with the Greatest Commandments, otherwise Empire will begin to sow its seeds within our growing ranks, too. Every single last one of our actions must be guided by the following:

Matthew 22 37. And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

38. This is the great and first commandment. 39. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

40. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 7 12. “In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.

As long as we can do this, we will be blameless before God. Let the minions of sin and death rail against us. Let those that see us as a threat throw the very fires of hell at us, we do not care.

We will love even more.

We will keep marching.

We will keep working.

We will even bleed.

We will even die.

For we know that death and sin no longer have dominion over us.

We know who our true parent is, and our God loves us completely.

*If you want to get even more “ramped up”, you should watch this video, “LET US ALL UNITE!“