I'm Telling You for the Last Time

I wrote this for Facebook, but decided it should be a blog post...

If, indeed, your theology progresses as you go from glory to glory on your own personal, spiritual journey, it doesn't necessarily mean that you are disrespectful/unappreciative of, or have abandoned your spiritual heritage or background.

You can embrace the now, and still remember (and love) where you came from.

Most of my friends/followers here on FB are intelligent enough to grasp this concept, but something came up today that made me think I should address the issue again (even though I've already covered this topic extensively in my book and on my blogs).

Bottom line, I thank God for my classical Pentecostal heritage, first in the Church of God, and then in the Assemblies of God. They are both great organizations that I am proud to have been a part of, if for nothing more than out of respect for both of my grandfathers, who were COG pastors and officials.

I graduated from an AG university and started CHURCH IN THE NOW in that denomination. My father pastored churches in both of these denominations for over 56 years.

So, God bless the Pentecostals.

I also appreciate the influence of teachers and preachers from the Charismatic Renewal who were a part of my life for many years, and those with whom I worked in the Word of Faith movement. There are things that I learned in those years from people in both camps that I walk in to this very day...precepts that are forever a part of my consciousness and belief system.

God bless the Charismatics.

And I am grateful, too, for all that was imparted to me from my Uncle Earl about the Kingdom of God, and all that came from the movement that he fathered, which has ended up all these years later to have apparently had a profound influence on the church, regardless of the obvious things that his detractors never fail to bring up about his personal life.

God bless the Word of Faith people and the Kingdom people.

I thank God for every part of my spiritual journey, and have the utmost respect and highest esteem for those who have spoken into my life, whether they claim me now or not.

A few years ago, when I began to publicly preach what I had always really believed from my own studies about the triumph of the Last Adam over the first Adam (some call it Ultimate Reconciliation...others call it Christian Universalism or Inclusion, although none of those labels really define my ministry, in my opinion), there was a huge fallout from it in my church and bishopric that cost me a lot, which I will not elaborate on at this time...or maybe never again, because that's really old news.

But, suffice it to say that for a brief time, regardless of the people in my life who were rejecting me for not preaching that non-believers would be eternally punished, I became the darling of the Ultimate Reconciliation people, who were more than happy to accept me into their ranks.

But that ended rather abruptly as soon as I came out. Turns out, the people in that flow don't think I'm going to hell for being gay because they believe that Jesus is the "Saviour of all men, especially them that believe"...they just don't like gay people.

Ahh, but that's really old news, too...probably won't bring it up again, either...

Oh well...God bless the Ultimate Reconciliation people.

But after coming out, I still couldn't really connect with most gay Christian ministries because they typically brand me as a universalist, and refuse to fellowship with me because they say my theology is too extreme for them.

Let me tell you, it's a trip to preach in a gay church that has an openly gay pastor who is hosting a gay Christian conference, and the whole time you're preaching, the all-gay intercessory prayer group is standing in the back of the sanctuary with their hands outstretched toward you, speaking in tongues and binding the devil and the "spirit of universalism", so that you won't spread your heretical false doctrine of inclusion in their gay church.

Some times I just have to laugh at it all...

...but God bless the religious gay Christians, just the same.

Anyway, something was said in the last few hours that I've actually heard before, and it's what brought all this up. It was something to the effect of  "We still embrace our Pentecostal heritage, and don't believe that stuff that you and D.E. (my cousin) preach"

They are referring, of course, to "Inclusion", or one of the other aforementioned labels that I'm sure they use when referring to me or my cousin (for the record, my cousin would be the first to tell you that he and I don't exactly embrace the very same theology, but we consider any point of disagreement that we may have to be a non-issue, and have been able to preach together on many occasions with no problem...in a word, we're grown-ups.)

But he would also agree with me that neither of us would be here if it were not those who have gone before us. My maternal grandfather was considered radical by his Baptist relatives for preaching on the The Baptism in the Holy Spirit. My uncle was considered radical for re-connecting the Pentecostal church with the historical/liturgical church, and for changing the way many of us viewed the concept of "end-times".

We are who we are and we believe what we believe, but we honor our past and thank God for it.

So, in the immortal words of Tiny Tim, God bless us, every one.

At the risk of sounding smug, I am happy to announce that I have put away the childish things that so many Christians obsess over these days...the thinking that if you have progressed, that you are somehow dishonoring your past.

And let it be known that...

I honor my past.
I honor my heritage.
I honor my ancestry.
I honor the call of God on my life.
I honor the anointing.
I honor and bless the Ministry of Reconciliation.

And I speak into the atmosphere that a new day is dawning, one in which we never have to hear unkind words spoken, or suffer the pain of rejection and division...one in which we see ourselves as one, as Jesus prayed in John 17.

Paul asked the Corinthians "Is Christ divided?"

My answer to Paul is no...a thousand times no!

I love all and forgive all, but I live in the now.

I thank God for the new world that is coming, but I live in the now.

This would be a good place to quote the lyrics here, "You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one...", but that may sound like something a universalist would say...

Ok, ok...no more sarcasm. That's the last time...

Let there be peace on earth!

To Be Absent from the Body...

It probably will seem odd to some to include these two people in the same post. They are two very different individuals who took very different life-paths and died very different types of deaths within days of one another...his was last Thursday and hers was yesterday.

But they both touched my life in important ways and I'm thinking about both of them tonight...

This is a picture taken with Dr. T.L. Osborn (1923 - 2013) from a few years ago. In this shot we are on the plane returning from San Juan, Puerto Rico, where Dr. Osborn had been the featured speaker at the ICCC (International Communion of Charismatic Churches) conference that had just been held there.

At the time I was still on the College of Bishops of the ICCC, and as a result I got to spend a little time with him on that trip. I had always admired him, but I found that he was just as impressive (if not more) in private as he was in public. I remember every single thing he said to me that week in perfect detail.

When you hear about famous, late 20th century healing ministries, you usually hear about Kathryn Kuhlman or Benny Hinn, or the tent preachers who were a part of the great Healing Revival of the late 40's and early 50's, not the least of which was Oral Roberts. But if you really follow Osborn's overseas record, I think it can be argued that nobody did what he did in the realm of healing and the miraculous.

He really was one of a kind.

He spoke a message at the ICCC conference in London, England a year or so later that really was the turning point for me in the way I see and preach ultimate reconciliation...

"Well done, good and faithful servant"...it was an honor to know you!

The other person is country music star, Mindy McCready (1975-2013), who saw a tragic end yesterday to a life filled with a lot of tragedy.

 

I met her at my friend Jeff Ferguson's house a couple of years ago and got to spend some special time with her.

 

She was a very unique and extremely talented individual. We played the piano and sang gospel songs with Jeff and the other people who were there, and she said she wanted to write a song from Isaiah 43:19.

 

And so we did.

 

That night.

 

It was called "Behold I am Doing A New Thing In You", and we sang it over and over again, into the early morning hours. She loved it and said it was going to be her Grammy-winner. The next day Jeff paid for studio time and took us to a place in Nashville where we recorded a little demo of it, with me on the piano and the two of us doing the vocals. She was appearing on 'The View' the following week and wanted me to come to New York and play and sing it with her, but it never worked out for me to go.

 

I was just listening to the song this weekend and was so moved by how strong her cool, country voice sounded on the part where she keeps singing "Now it shall spring forth! Now it shall spring forth!"

I've probably lost as many or more people from my life in the last few years for believing in and preaching universal salvation as I have for coming out, but on days like today, I'm so glad that I believe what I believe. Mindy was obviously troubled, but I have no doubt that she's at peace now and is with the Lord. In the end, the love of God always wins...

 This is for you, Mindy...

"So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God’s chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture: They kill us in cold blood because they hate you. We’re sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one. None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us."

(Romans 8:31-39 - The Message)

 

 

Dr. Osborn...Mindy...I loved you both and I'll miss you both...

 

 

And I will see you both again...