Have you ever had an encounter with God?

A “religious experience” of any kind?

And if you have, were you afraid to tell anyone for fear they would think you are crazy?

You are about to have a place to share your experiences, if you choose to do so.

And if you have never had such an experience, it will be a place for you to hear the accounts of others.

For everyone, it will be a place to discover that God is real and that God is at work in our lives (whether we are aware of that reality or not).

My last study of my book, Discovering God, before publication will begin on Sunday, Oct. 6, at 9:45.

It will meet weekly at that hour for the rest of this year. (And breakfast will follow the class each Sunday.)

Be prepared for a life-changing study.

We have found, with our recent class on NDEs, that faith is deepened when we talk about the most profound experiences of life.

And our reading of scripture is enriched.

If you have never had a “religious experience,” you may come to see more clearly through this study that God has always been at work in your life.

Your participation in the class will be a big help to me. I will use this class to develop the study guide which will be published along with the book.

It may even add material. Members of the NDE class have shared accounts that will end up in Discovering God.

I’d like to have a skeptic or two show up—even an atheist.

I think no one can resist the evidence. God loves us and works in our lives.

Sunday, Oct. 6, 9:45.

Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, live in fear now. They keep their kids home from school.

Some schools are closed, as are businesses, because of bomb threats.

These immigrants were invited here to fill factory jobs. One boss said they are hard-working and dependable.

Their lives have become a nightmare, and the town is in chaos.

We heard it first at the debate. It sounded funny, indeed, ridiculous: Haitian immigrants are stealing people’s cats and dogs and eating them.

It sounded crazy.

It was crazy.

But they keep repeating the lie. The leaders of the Orange Cult keep the lie going.

They know it’s a lie.

They know it is hurting people—innocent people, including children.

Ah! But these are Black people. Black children.

So, the leaders of the Orange Cult just do not care. Certainly, the Orange Man himself cares about no one but himself.

But what about his followers? What about the many Christians who have gone orange?

It is pure evil to deliberately hurt innocent people, to promote a lie that makes families hide in fear.

Do Christians who have fallen into the cult not care? Can they no longer tell the difference between good and evil?

I think much of the church has failed. It has harbored racism, debased women, and ostracized gay people.

Much of the church does not teach the inclusive love of Jesus Christ. This leaves people vulnerable.

“If we stand for nothing, we will fall for anything.”

The lies must stop.

People are being hurt.

One reader writes to remind me that God is “a God of eternal wrath.”

Sorry—no wrath, eternal or otherwise.

I know Paul talks about the wrath of God. I could try to twist the scripture here to save Paul’s words.

Instead, I’ll just tell the truth: God ain’t mad.

Never has been.

Never will be.

Jesus had a thing against anger. He says being mad at someone demeans that person’s value. It is a serious sin (Matthew 5:21-26).

It can get us into trouble.

But—it won’t make God mad at us.

In spite of our sins, God has only love for us.

Five hundred years ago, the great Julian of Norwich had an extensive near-death experience at the age of 30. She met the Lord face to face.

As a Catholic of the Middle Ages, she was very aware of human sin.

But she was surprised.

She expected some wrath against the sinner. But she found no anger in God.

Just love. Just kindness. Just grace.

And in the millions of experiences people have had of God through the ages, not one person has met a God of wrath.

Yes, some experienced hell, but that was never God’s doing. God is the one who breaks into that torment to pull them out.

Unconditional love is love that is never altered by any situation. It is pure, unmixed with anything.

God IS love.

This has become very clear to us in the St. Matthew class on NDEs.

We are not just loved; we are cherished.

As one NDEer put it, “Each one of us is God’s favorite person.”

Loved—as you are. Loved—forever.

Live with it.

(Sunday at 11:00.)

The truth is neither on the far right nor the far left.

Far-right Christians believe in a God who does bad things (orders the killing of the Amalekites).

Far-left Christians believe in a God who doesn’t do anything. They think God never intervenes in our lives, doesn’t know us, and doesn’t care about us.

Let me challenge the left-leaners today. From Rosemary Thornton:

I was 22, driving on a dark road in light rain. The rain and the fog made visibility poor.

I wasn’t going very fast, but I heard a voice clearly demand that I stop the car. I ignored it at first.

But the second time, the voice was yelling. It said, “Stop the car NOW.”

I didn’t know what was happening, but I slammed on the brakes. The car stopped immediately. I put it in park and exited the vehicle.

Two feet in front of the car stood a tiny toddler.

He was wearing nothing but a diaper and looking very frightened. I wrapped him in my arms and moved to the side of the road in the rain.

In less than 60 seconds, a woman came running out of a nearby house, crying and screaming. She had fallen asleep on the couch and awoke to find her baby gone.

I know hundreds of stories much like this one.

We could find thousands.

They are too numerous to dismiss.

And they tell us of a God who cares about us and knows every move we make.

An impersonal God who does nothing is no more real than the mean God of conservatism.

Neither the religious left nor right is willing to face reality: God is all-loving. And God works personally in our lives.

Just as Jesus said.

By “Conservative,” I mean Christians who read the Bible as though it is inerrant. They see it as accurate cover-to-cover.

But this way of reading the Bible can make people less loving, and less moral.

For example, Deut. 21:18 says that parents with a son who refuses to obey them should haul the kid before the elders at the city gate and have him stoned to death.

You won’t find that in modern parenting manuals.

It’s a horrendous idea.

It is ancient ignorance.

And it’s no way to treat your kid.

But Biblical inerrantists must defend that passage. And since this is part of the Old Testament law, they must even say that killing the child was God’s idea.

If you are in a conservative church, ask your pastor about this. He will defend this passage and say killing the child was God’s will.

Of course, we should all know better. The passage is not Christian.

It does not reflect the teachings of Jesus or even common decency.

But the conservative pastor feels he must defend the passage and must blame it on God.

Because it is in the Bible.

It is important for us to know that there is a Bible within the Bible.

The heart of scripture is Jesus and his teachings.

Anything in the Bible that does not reflect his love cannot be right.

Jesus—IS—the Word!

Biblical inerrancy causes many Christians to be morally indecisive. It is why so many who claim Christ can support “the orange guy.”

They have been taught immorality all their lives sitting in pews on Sundays.

Biblical inerrancy can lead to political evil.

(Worship at 11:00.)