An Eden Project Podcast
Waking us up to the width, length, height, and depth of God’s love.
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As we bring this series to a close, it is imperative we address what is for many the elephant in the room, so to speak. Inevitably, when talking about the love of God, the issue of divine wrath is raised, and rightly so, it can be difficult to square the central Christian claim “God is love” with the multitude of passages that seem to suggest anything but. As has already been established, love is not sentimentality attempting to meet some “felt need,” or an unconditional acceptance of all behavior. Quite the opposite, it is the constant pursuit of the greatest . . .
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As we bring this series to a close, it is imperative we address what is for many the elephant in the room, so to speak. . . .
As we’ve seen in this series, love as the controlling center of theology traditionally has either been neglected or ignored.1 But it hasn’t always been . . .
I have had twelve years of formal theological training. For the vast majority of those years, I considered the love of God as a moral . . .
As we saw in part one of this series, not every theologian begins from the same theological starting point.1 Different historical and cultural contexts have . . .
Waking us up to the width, length, height, and depth of God’s love.
Discipleship at the intersection of neurobiology, psychology, and attachment.
Because we are loved by God, we cultivate environments conducive to deep and meaningful relationships.
“Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well.”
We have been created as embodied beings with an innate capacity for relationship. Because emotion is the language of relationship, we champion the courage required to examine our emotion and the honesty and vulnerability necessary to admit what is true about ourselves in the presence of God and others. As our emotional quotient grows, our capacity for relationship deepens and enables us to create spacious environments for others to experience deeper relationships themselves. The more we have of ourselves, the more we are able to give to others, and vice versa. This relational flourishing bears witness of the reality of the kingdom of God in a relationally fractured, isolated world. We reject any desire or attempt to live out of an artificial, false self, and work hard to maintain and grow authentic environments with meaningful relationships.
Because we are loved by God, we sit in unresolved tension with others, curious about how God is at work for our good in his time and his way.
“Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”
Because we are settled in the joy that comes from experiencing an identity as God’s beloved with an integrous life, we are naturally able to sit with others in the unresolved tensions of their lives. We reject any attempt to fix others apart from the leading and empowerment of the Spirit. Rather, we patiently wait with others, continually pointing them to the presence and work of God in their lives. This allows us to be relationally present, instead of pushing an agenda on God and others to behave in ways we assume is right. We reject any attempt to coerce transformation or “hurry” someone along in their journey toward maturity, instead holding a posture of dependence on God in the lives of others.
