Three in a Row

I read an interesting quote in Leonard Sweet’s book, Out of the Question…Into the Mystery. The book is arresting, and if a little glib, it certainly is provocative… Listen to these words…
“Biblical faith is not about living a moral life. That’s religion. Biblical faith is not about living the “good life.” That’s capitalism. Biblical faith is about living the GodLife. An abundant life with the living God is living in a GodLife relationship. Obedience in the biblical sense, is not “doing what you are told.” Obedience is living relationally, even “indivisibly,” with the holy One so that we honour, uphold, receive, and follow all that God is and all that God is calling us to become.”
I really don’t like it when people come up with cutsie little phrases like that (“GodLife”) but I think he kinda has a point here. This is interesting based on some conversation Mark and I have had over his up coming message on the sermon on the mount and freedom versus rules…
In the book he also quotes Conrad Gempf in his book Jesus Asked.: What He Wanted to Know. I found this intriguing…
“The God of the Jews and Christians is unlike any other god. Dispute with Jupiter and you’ll have one of those yellow-painted wooden lightening bolts shoved down your throat. Talking back to Allah is likely to get you into even more trouble than talking back to my sixth grade teacher, Mr. Davidovitch. Try arguing with Buddha and he’ll laugh at you derisively for treating any conversation as if it referred to something real. But when you start arguing with Yahweh, he smiles, rolls up his anthropocentric sleeves, and starts to look interested. The strangest thing is that he likes losing the arguments even more than he likes winning them. Jacob, the trickster, is beloved of God. And Abraham didn’t just et away with asking, “What about if there are only twenty righteous men in the city?” The God of the Jews and Christians is the only God that allows his followers to hear him say, “Oh all right, you win.” " (hmmm)