Wade Poe

What's been the big win?  I would say seeing life from a different point of view.  Doesn't mean it's "blessed" in the traditional sense that a lot of pop culture Christians or churches would say it is.  In fact, it's probably the opposite of that, at times. Deconstruction of where you started with faith or belief can lead to a lot of things, including walking away from faith or belief in God.  But it also can and does include the option of throwing out what wasn't real or grounded in truth and re-sorting what you have kept in ways that align more closely with all that. From a lot of conversations and reading, I see that people who go through big things like divorce, loss from death of someone close, loss of health, lifestyle or identity, or other world-shaking kinds of things seem to grasp the idea most.  Probably because it is "forced" on to you and there's no "going back". Once you are spit out of what is known and comfortable, th...

One of the surprising things about deconstruction and rebuilding has been the impact of what you know, mentally, actually hitting your soul square in the face for the first time. We know a lot of things to be true cognitively - like educationally or what we learn in school or what we memorize for a grade. When those things "hit home" at a deeper level, it is an emotional revelation. You simply don't know until you know and feel in ways that are bigger.  __________ I remember the first time my youngest child had a soda. He wanted to try a Sprite with his meal instead of juice or milk, etc. It wasn't a moment I was expecting to be "a moment". He sipped the cold Sprite and immediately paused, closed his eyes, and audibly, in a whispery voice said, "Aaaaaahhh" for a long time, with a very pleased look on his face. He repeated this several times during the meal, almost as if he couldn't believe it was real the first time. Some things like that for ...

So what is the good news of God in Jesus? It is that the life that was lost in Adam in the garden of Eden and the resulting sin that was brought into the world has been handled.   Jesus came into the world, died for our sins - all of them, past, present, and future - and after the resurrection, sent the Holy Spirit, so the life that was lost has been restored. Anyone who trusts in what God has done in forgiving all sin through Jesus can have him come live in them through the presence of the Holy Spirit and he will, forever. And that's it. ___________________________________________ What does that mean for us?   It means that God has reconciled us to himself.  We can simply acknowledge what he's done, accept it, and live in the peace with God he has provided. For the first Christians, mainly Jewish people by background, it meant they no longer needed to have a priest offer sacrifices on their behalf for forgiveness of sin or anything like that.   Jesus was the final h...

Prayer requests are one of those amazing things that bless people in deeply personal ways. And they're also a way to see where we are in our understanding of God, each other, and life. I used to like taking prayer requests at the beginning of a class time until I realized that, for some, it was feeding into an idea or view of God that wasn't healthy or helping.  That and it took almost half the class time before it was over each week. I'm pretty sure those two paragraphs are probably really offensive to some people.  Like, how dare you speak of prayer and praying for people with such disdain?  And I do understand the offense.  I get it. What strikes me is that through the New Testament, how little of that kind of language or talk exists, relatively speaking.  Their focus is WAY less on getting their personal needs met, to the degree it doesn't exist. When Paul or others actually talk about what they're praying for regarding the people they write, it's often very...

When the Israelites were freshly out of slavery in Egypt, you'd think they were going to be excited about it from that day forward.  But you'd be wrong. It wasn't long before they complained to Moses that he'd brought them out of slavery BUT hadn't made them comfortable or hadn't made it easy. "At least back in Egypt when we were slaves, we had fish and onions and cucumbers and other nice foods we like to eat." In other words, yes, the idea of freedom is appealing and excellent in the abstract IF all my baseline needs that I had met by my slave masters continue to be met while I learn about and figure out my way in my new freedom and get to place where I can manage "on my own". In other, other words - "Yeah, we complained about the slavery, but looking back we'd rather have it than have to figure out what to do 'on our own' - this freedom comes with too much responsibility!" And boy howdy is that true.   A lot of people...