Gospel Rant

On this Gospel Rant, we are going to look at God's relationship with the first murderer Cain. What if I told you that it is pretty clear in the story that God's really did love Cain and was offering him a stunning gift? The story is pretty familiar to you, but there's a couple of things that you might have just missed. What happens when God’s love bumps into the first murderer, Cain? Curious?

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What's going to happen when the fierce love of God for the unlovable bumps into someone whose unfortunate disease made them leave family and tribe and live in the shadows as untouchables. Does God's love pursue and embrace lepers?  You'll see. Enjoy.

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Now that we've laid out a more biblical view and understanding of God's love, let's see it in practice. Our first case study is a really good one. It is hard to think of a more unlovable or more unloved woman than this unnamed Samaritan woman. That's where Jesus finds her, but he doesn't leave her there. What happens when this unworthy woman bumps into Jesus' love for the unworthy? You'll see. Enjoy.

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Did you know that the Greek word eros (where we get erotic) is not even in the New Testament? Only used twice in the Green Old Testament. And yet, we modern Christians, like the Ancient Romans are terrified of eros. The Romans even tried to legislate against it. It did not work very well. Our views of love have been widely informed by C.S. Lewis’ Four Loves (agape, eros, phileo and storge). Every Sunday School child knows that agape is “God’s love”, right? Well it turns out that ‘agape’ is actually one of the generic Greek words for love. It has a broad group of meanings. Jesus says that even the tax collectors do it. Just saying.

Instead of seeing love broken into four separate categories, the Biblical writers see love as more holistic (including all four aspects of Lewis’ loves) but on a spectrum from ‘selfish’ to 'selfless.’ God’s love is perfectly selfless agape, phileo, storge, and yes, eros. There is a godly eros. The selfish form of eros (Greek: porneia) is the love that terrified the Romans, that Paul wrote against often, and makes modern Christians uncomfortable. Unfortunately, we have tossed the ‘baby’ (i.e., godly eros) out with the ‘bathwater’ (porneia). We need to adjust our understanding, or drift more into irrelevance.

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I have come to believe, based upon a lot of research that our Western view of love, including our western Christian view of love, has much more in common with the Ancient Romans than Paul. Example? The Ancient Romans truly believed that love is a function of the object (per Plato and of course Pygmalion). Let me unpack a bit. If an object (art, drama, person) is beautiful, they should expect to be lovable and loved. If they do not fit with the cultural norms of beauty (size, personality, skin color, sex, etc.) they should not expect to be loved unless they remove all uglies and stigmas. This is such bad news for the vast majority of the population who don’t fit in the ‘right’ categories. I just finished a video review of the summer’s blockbuster movie Barbie. This is at the very heart of the movie's moral messaging. This is not Jesus’ message at all. Jesus’ love actually loves the unlovable. His is the love that eventually brought the Roman Empire to its knees.

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Welcome to our new series, God’s Love for the Unlovable. It’s the stark wonderful and frightening truth, God’s love is for the unlovable, the unlovely, and the unloved.

That’s all of us on any given day if we were just a little bit honest. 

How has the creator God wonderfully made my brain so that it can love others and be loved, even in trying circumstances? We will get into the fun neuroscience of “falling in love.” It is very interesting and geared toward laypersons. The point? When I experience the “height, width, length and depth of the love of Christ" (Eph 3), the Holy Spirit—no doubt—ignites the very same parts of our brain. We feel like we are "falling in love with Jesus” and that he is “falling in love with us.” Of course we know that he has never stopped loving us—but it sure feels like it. I was preaching on this very topic on Valentine’s Sunday at a church. During the break between services, five men, total strangers, sought me out to tell me that they believe that they were experiencing the love of Christ that day—maybe for the first time in a long while. I think that some were converted. It is a fresh look at how we fall in love with Christ again. Enjoy!

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In this show, Dr. Bill will read Movements 6-Epilogue from his Novella (available on Amazon). 

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The events in the Queen’s life—just like us-- relationships, choices, context had beat her up and sucked substance and identity away from her. Until the King. And the King’s powerful gaze. Now, she makes a splash. She is different.  Her own testimony—don’t take my word for it. From the beginning I said that this was the greatest gospel presentation in the Old Testament. This is the answer to the question, why did Jesus die for me, for you? Was it so that I wouldn’t be punished for my crimes and choices against God? Yes. But he accomplished so much more.  Jesus also died to purchase all of the love in the Universe for me. It is now mine. There is no more that I get later. But, the problem now is that my midbrain is so messed up that I have a hard time getting that love. In fact, so many of us struggle with being lovable or not. Why? Our midbrains are doing a great job at protecting us from being hurt—but as a result, we can’t experience the love of Christ for us. 

We have learned to fake it.  We have learned to deny that we are afraid that that one day when we see Jesus face to face, we will see great disappointment in his eyes. 

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The Song of Songs is ridiculously modern. Have you heard of the female gaze in films and TV projects? These are the projects that present the POV of the woman, not from the lens of a male director or writer, but from the POV of a woman. Some modern feminists think that this revolution started a decade ago. Not so. It's over 2500 years old. She is presented as a person of substance and worth, the beloved of the King. Even more, she represents all followers of God, male and female, all who are in his embrace, though it is a surprise to us all. 

Women, if you have been tracking this series, and saying the SUG a couple of times a day, I need to ask you, in your own words, emotions and thoughts, are you beginning to see changes in you? Do you see what you are worth, your value, your true identity? Are you needing other sources of affirmation less? Are you more free? Are you feeling like you love others a little more? That’s our goal. Well? This has not been just a study to teach about a book. It is to tap into the power behind the book and begin to see frustrated, unloved and unlovable Christians begin to feel glory—all because of what Jesus did and Jesus’ Spirit is now doing?

Give us a testimony. [email protected]. I will put the best on the website. Welcome to Movement 7, part 2 (7:11-8:4) of the Song of Songs. 

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We are about proclaiming God’s love to the unlovable, the unloved and the unlovely.  That’s all of us, if were only a little honest. Are you beginning to see changes in you? Your sense of worth, value, identity? Are you needing other sources of affirmation less? Are you more free? Are you feeling like you love others a little more? That’s our goal. Well? This has not been just a study to teach about a book. It is to tap into the power behind the book and begin to see frustrated, unloved and unlovable Christians begin to feel glory—all because of what Jesus did and Jesus’ Spirit is now doing? 

Are you seeing it? Feeling it? Give us a testimony. [email protected]. I will put the best on the website. 

In the second half of Movement 6 we see a different woman—well she’s the same—but something has changed. She is more inquisitive, more cheerful, more loving, more confident. I will show you five new freedoms that she has. Gone is the paranoid, shame ridden woman who is hiding behind a lattice, carrying old wounds on her sleeve, and running to the city to get affirmation and dope hits. She is more her—excuse the bad grammar. I am guessing that is what you want to be as well. 

This is what the Gospel power can begin to do within us— a little or a lot this side of heaven. It really should be noticeable. 

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