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Reconciliation Outreach,
Paul & Nuala O'Higgins.
paulandnuala@bellsouth.net
www.reconciliationoutreach.net
GOD'S CIRCLE OF LOVE
Jews, Christians and Moslems all believe that
there is one God who is the Creator and Ruler of
the Universe, to whom we owe our existence and to
whom we are accountable.
Though the monotheistic
religions have this great belief in common, they
are divided by their understanding of what the
nature and character of God is. Jews and
Christians have a totally different understanding
of God's nature than Moslems. Moslems believe
that God is totally singular and separate from
us. He does whatever he wills without man's
cooperation. For them an immense and unbridgeable
chasm exists between him and us. If we
submit to him (they believe) there is a good
possibility (but no guarantee) of being promoted
to Paradise after death.
The Bible, and especially the New Testament,
reveals a completely different portrait of God.
Here we see God not as remote and distant, but as
One whose nature is love and who desires
relationship with us. He does not impose His will
on us, but reveals His will to us and gives us
free will to choose. He seeks our cooperation and
partnership with Him. Since God's relationship
with us is based on His gratuitous love for us it
functions in the context of freedom. He does not
force His love on us. He has given us
the freedom to receive or reject His love and
care. 1
If God is love then the
Islamic view of God as being totally singular
cannot be correct. If His nature is love,
He cannot live in isolation and He cannot be
merely singular. He must have an object of His
love, because love cannot exist in isolation. The
Hebrew word for God 'Elohim' gives an intimation
of this because it is always in a plural form.
"Who hath established all the ends of the
earth? What is his name, and what is his son's
name, if you know?" (Pv. 30:4) the Bible is
clear that God is not singular but plural, and He
has a Son. "Hear, O, Israel. The LORD our
God is one LORD." (Deut. 6:4) The word here
does not mean that God is singular, but that He
is perfectly unified. The Hebrew word
"echad" translated here as
"one" is the same word that is used in
Genesis when it says "the two shall become
one." The word here means perfect unity.
(Genesis 2:24)
The Biblical view of God
is as follows: The Father (whose nature is love)
poured out all His love upon His Son in all
eternity. The energy and bond of that Love is the
Holy Spirit, who is God in communicable form. And
so Father, Son and Holy Spirit lived in all
eternity before time began in their wonderful
glory of the bliss of love and total
completeness.
At some point God decided
to extend His love even further. He decided to
create man, so that man too could enjoy the love
and glory of the Father. The creation of man came
about because God in His love (Father, Son and
Holy Spirit) decided to enlarge the family and
include us in the divine family. "Let us
make man in our own image and likeness."
Relationship with God is therefore the defining
thing about God for we were made to be part of
the family of God. We were made to receive and
transmit God's love and to live on earth in the
glory of heaven's bliss and completeness.
"He chose us in him before the foundation of
the world, that we should be holy and blameless
before him. He destined us in love to be his sons
through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of
His will." (Eph. 1:4-5)
The events of the 'Fall' describe how man went
his own way, separated Himself from God's glory
and brought oppression upon himself. The
redemption is the
work of God to
provide a way back for all to come to the love,
blessing and care of God's rule through Jesus.
The purpose of the redemption wasn't just to deal
with sin but to restore us to relationship in the
eternal family of love that existed before time
began.
¥ The humanist tries to
define man apart from reference to God.
¥ The Moslem tries to
define man apart from relationship with God.
¥ The Bible makes
relationship with God the defining thing about
who we are.
Our understanding of who
God is - is the key factor in understanding that
we are. Define life without God and life becomes
meaningless and relative. Present a distorted
view of God and we develop a distorted view of
who we are. Man is not just a rational animal. He
is one who can receive communication and love
from God. He is destined for glory, destined to
participate in the divine nature. Any definition
of God or man that is short of that clouds the
face of God and robs man of His dignity and
destiny.
Our long road upward from
the pit of darkness requires a fuller revelation
of who God is and who we are. The gospel in all
of its richness will be seen not just as a
covering for sin but as a message which invites
all men everywhere back to their destiny in the
family and love of God through the open door -
Jesus. God wanted to enlarge His family and He
made you and me. What a destiny! Neither God nor
man can be defined apart from this family
relationship.
The revelation of the
loving Fatherly God whose care is available to
all through Jesus is the only one that can unite
our fractured world. It is the great unifying
reality - it is the kingdom of God.
Judging & Discerning
Jesus forbids us to judge, and condemn. (Matthew
7: 1) Paul actually says we who judge are guilty
of the same thing we judge in others. (Romans
2:1)
We all stand only because of God's grace. Though
we deserved condemnation Jesus bore it for us and
we have the obligation to extend that same mercy
to others continually
For what have I to do
with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside
the church whom you are to judge? God judges
those outside. (1 Cor 6)
This passage seems to contradict Paul's statement
in Romans and Jesus' statement in Matthew. Here
he is using the word 'judge' in a different way.
He is saying that it is the responsibility of
leaders to deal with immoral behavior in the
church, not to tolerate it in any way and to do
nothing to condone the immorality of the one who
is out of order. He also writes that we ought to
restore the brother who is overtaken in sin.
(Galatians 6:1) So judging is a matter of
maintaining right order not a matter of giving up
on anybody
Putting these two passages together:
¥ We do not judge to
condemn a person.
¥ We do not judge the
people of the world; they need the gospel to
emancipate them from their sin.
¥ We maintain right
order by dealing ruling (judging) sin within the
church.
Today's church often does
exactly the opposite to what Paul suggests. It
judges the immoral of the world instead of
bringing them the good news of the gospel, and
fails to deal with the sin in its own ranks.
Because we are afraid to judge in the wrong way
we fail to judge in the right way.
We have the
responsibility to help the person who has fallen
to get his life back in order. We also have the
responsibility to restrain the leaven of gross
sin and doctrinal error in the church, by
confronting and correcting it.
If a minister is found
with a serious moral problem he should be made to
be the object of the church's compassion but at
the same time he should not be permitted to
function as a representative of Christ's victory
until his life is restored to good order.
We need to avoid the
self-righteous spirit of the heresy hunters on
the one hand while at the same time avoiding the
chaos and permissiveness of ignoring biblical
standards in the name of not being judgmental.
Both are wrong.
-----------------------------------------------
CHRISTIANITY VERSUS
RELIGION
¥ Religion is man's
search for God -
Christianity
is God's search for man.
¥ Religion is based on
what we do for God -
Christianity
is based on what God has
done for us.
¥ Religion is man
working for God -
Christianity
is man working from God.
¥ Religion tries to
reach God by our
Sacrifice -
Christianity
reaches God by His sacrifice.
¥ Religion restrains us
from sin -
Christianity
releases us from sin.
¥ Religion is based on
man's promises -
Christianity
is based on God's promises.
¥ Religion presents
signs instead of gospel -
Christianity presents a powerful gospel
accompanied by signs.
Dear Friends
We pray that all is well
with you since we last wrote . We are happy to be
able to update you on our activities over the
last five months.
Three of those months
were spent in Ireland where we had the privilege
at speaking at about 70 different meetings. Truly
Ireland is breaking out of its religious shell ,
and the gospel of the Kingdom is breaking loose
everywhere. We like to say that we are moving
from a time of denominational competition and
strife to a post- denominational era of the
kingdom of God.
We spoke in every flavor
of church, some as traditional as the Gregorian
chant and some as modern as rap music. There is
one gospel but many cultural expressions,. We are
grateful for the dozens of pastors, church
leaders and friends that hosted and helped us.
Several meetings stand out as
highlights. One of these was speaking at,
Hillhead Christian Fellowship pastored by Seamus
O'Connor, along with his friend Thomas Farrell.
Seamus used to be a leader in a violent
paramilitary organization until the Lord got hold
of Him. He now preaches a message of love,
forgiveness and reconciliation.
Another exceptional
meeting was at the River Of Life fellowship
in Nenagh Co. Tipperary. The coordinator of this
monthly meeting is a Catholic university
professor, Philip O'Regan and the spirit and
message at his meeting is clear, Biblical, pure
and strong.
We also had an
opportunity to speak at Belfast Anglican
Cathedral along with some notable church leaders
on the theme of 'Healing and Reconciliation'.
David Jardine of the Church of Ireland in Belfast
organized the seminar.
We believe that Ireland
(that has stained the face of Christianity with
its horrendous denominational strife) will lead
Europe into a demonstration of real Christianity
again. At all of these meetings there were people
from every possible background. There were
many other great meetings that we could write
about - but space does not allow it. We
really thank God for all the wonderful workers in
every church and fellowship thoughtout Ireland
who are laboring in so many ways to advance His
kingdom. May they increase and multiply
In July thanks, to our
friend and kingdom of God missioner and pioneer
Joe Petree, we had the blessing of speaking for
several days at the southeast retreat of DOC
(Disciplined Order of Christ). We had a
wonderful time of fellowship and sharing in North
Carolina with this group of dedicated
interdenominational believers,
This month we are working
on completing some writing projects as well as
taping video messages for our web site.
In October we leave for
Israel for Feast of Tabernacles conference
sponsored by the ICEJ where we will be speaking.
We also have a tour group made up of people from
about ten nations who will be joining us in
Israel. In November we travel for a series
of meetings in Finland arranged by the ICEJ of
Finland.
With deepest thanks to
all of you who help us with your prayers and
financial support - we need you! Let us know if
we can serve you in any way. One in His great
love and service,
Paul & Nuala
1
The contemporary notion of the 'unconditional
love of God' is not exactly accurate, for it
implies that we can enjoy God's love whether we
respond to it or not. God's love is 'unmerited'
rather than 'unconditional'. He paid an infinite
price to make it available. God's love is
unconditianlly directed towards all but is only
activated in our lives as we deliberately receive
it through the Atonement.
One in His great love and service,
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