Shadow of My LOVE
Baby Girl,
When your niece sincerely looked you in your eyes and asked…
“Auntie Donna, do you REALLY think that anything you’ve ever done was bad enough that an amazing man who had never done anything wrong should have to die in the way Jesus did just so God could forgive you?”
…you looked like a deer caught in the headlights. In your spirit, you had an immediate resounding “yes” because you have wholeheartedly come into agreement with My Word but, knowing you were sitting at a table with four people who are attempting to mentally reason their way into or out of faith, your mind searched for a logical way to defend your faith in a way that would make sense to them, and you couldn’t.
All you could think was, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” You knew better than to say that because you love them, and this verse feels like an aggressive and belittling attack on their struggle to believe what you are willing to stake your life on.
As they asked one well-thought-out question after another about the canonization process of the Bible, the number of years the Bible was oral tradition before anyone wrote it down, the discrepancy between different accounts in the gospels, and the number of times and languages the Bible has been translated, you just listened with no defense because you’ve asked all the same questions and cannot in good conscience throw out a Biblical platitude like, “All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work,” because that is using one line from the Book in question to prove the value of the Book in question.
Platitude = a remark or statement that may be true but is boring and has no meaning because it has been said so many times before
I hear you questioning My use of the word platitude. I am not calling this verse a platitude; I am bringing to light that they see it as one.
Faith is not born in the mind; it is born in the spirit. The human mind is incapable of faith. The best the human mind can do is choose to believe and that is called religion. Religion is the relationship between your soul and My Spirit.
Religion tends to be a stepping stone to faith, as it was for you, or a stumbling block to faith as it is for them.
As you sat quietly listening to them launch thought after thought, argument after argument, they commented that you were being quiet because you were silently disagreeing with everything they said. You and I know it was quite the opposite.
You have come into agreement with the Bible as My Word based on your lived experience in relationship with Me. For 39 years, your religion was Christianity. You chose to mentally agree with the Bible whether it all made sense or not.
On August 22, your religion died in a moment and you came alive in faith.
You accurately described Me in your testimony as ineffable: too great or extreme to be expressed or described in words. Trying to explain faith to someone who is reasoning with religion is like you said: trying to explain the colors of the rainbow to a man who was blind from birth. The only way they will see is if I open their eyes as I opened yours.
Those tears are understandable. From the time you were born, My Word has been weaponized in the hands of Christians to condemn people to hell. How many people do you know who are living in hell right now, here on earth?
Even “Christians” are living in a version of hell on earth. You were - and you “knew” the Bible.
The Bible is a shadow. When men pick it apart looking for inaccuracies, it’s like looking down at the concrete on a sunny day and saying the outline of your shadow doesn’t look like you. Of course it doesn’t! Your shadow is distorted by the angle of the sun, the time of day, and your position.
When the sun is directly overhead, you will have a very short stump of a shadow. When it is far behind you, your shadow will look like a long, skinny silhouette in a circus mirror.
Is your shadow proof that you exist? Yes.
Does your shadow tell us anything about your eye color, your hair color, or the look on your face?
Does it tell us how you are clothed, how tall you are, or the color of your skin?
Does your shadow explain your personality or emotional temperament?
Your shadow tells very little about you. The Bible has almost 800,000 words men have compiled by inspiration of My Spirit attempting to provide a shadow of who I Am and what My heart is for mankind. Cover to cover, despite error in translation, change in cultural norms, and the passing of time, My heart echoes throughout the pages.
Teach My Word as accurately as you understand it with the humility of one who understands it is but a shadow. You are opposed to arguing about apologetics and theology because you are more interested in My heart for My people and you are aware that ALL people are My people.
Heaven is to stand in My shadow - hell is to stand exposed. There is protection in My shadow. There is a cool breeze and a rest in My shadow. Encourage people to live in the shadow of My LOVE.
Back to bed. You have a full day ahead of you!
LOVE,
Daddy
1 Corinthians 1:18-21
