John Nuttall: Response to 'Washing With Wine'

John Nuttall: Response to 'Washing With Wine"

Thank you, John, for opening the debate. Here are my main musings.

fI heard the other day that there are many fingers pointing to what is wrong and not enough signposts to the way forward. I was glad, therefore to read that you offered some ways forward – one of which I am taking up by writing this.

My premise is that the motivating power for anything we do and are, the wind in the sails for our vertical and horizontal love, has got to start and end with a knowing, a deep experience of and a full to overflowing filling of how much we are loved by Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is not enough to say that God is love – we need to know, experience and dwell in this love; we need to smell of it, be marinated in it, and exude it.

If we try to love God and others because we are told to, or feel we are supposed to, it is likely to be a  graceless facsimile of real love.

If we try to squeeze love out of our poor impoverished selves, we become empty – the squeezed grape soon shrivels up and dries

If we manage to force ourselves out of addiction or some oft repeated sin we will often then become judgmental of others who couldn’t do it, prideful at what we achieved , making the second sins worse than the addiction itself……..

If we try to ‘evangelise others’ (sounds like something we do to them like castration or pulling their teeth out) because we feel we have to

then that sharing of the good news is likely to become tractful and tactless, slick and easy, simplistic and dogmatic (the Jesus I see met people where they were at and had a personalised revelatory word or action for each – as per you comments on Living water and being Born again)

I may speak with the tongues of men and angels but if I have not love then I am a clanging gong……..

If, however we love God and others because we have grasped and experienced and been filled with the fullness of the fact that ‘He first loved us and gave Himself for us’ then the door has been opened for us to operate with grace and truth

‘Your love and kindness leads me to repentance’ thrills me more because it leads to real lasting change and humility

You quote Ephesians oft and Paul’s prayer for them in chapter 2 is that they might

         grasp and understand God’s love

            know and experience God’s unfathomable love

            be filled with the fullness  of God’s love

If the well from which we draw is a continual source of God’s love then that is what will spill over from us and we will work from rest and overflow – it is interesting that the first thing we are told about the Good Samaritan on seeing the man at the side of the road was that he had ‘ compassion’ for him.

My own experience makes me aware that the most effective and positive times of my life are when I know I am loved and that knowledge leads me to being different; so that

With the comfort you have received you will be able to comfort others

Equally, I believe that:

With the rejection you have received you will be able to reject others

With the condemnation you have received you will be able to condemn others

With the legalism you have received you will be able to be legalistic with others

With the abuse you have received…………………… etc etc

With the love you receive you will be able to love others

So grasping, understanding, receiving and being filled with God’s love is pretty important for how we will operate with fellow Christians and non- believers.

If you want to get wet you get into the rain

If you want a tan you go into the sun

If you want to reflect Jesus and His sonship you need to come to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and bask in the light of their presence.

So gatherings of Christians (ecclesia) or individuals (save the world and start with me Lord)  should first and foremost be characterised by love.

You make a very important point when you say that

truth can only be understood if it is based in relationship,

and worked out through relationship

God is my Father – I am his son          is mutual relationship

Jesus is my friend – and I am his    is mutual relationship

Jesus is my lover -  and I am His …………………..

I am my beloved’s and He is mine…………………   

And in all the above relationships the initiative is with God and the response is with us          

I enjoy and love THE CHURCH – the body of people that I meet in Holland, CZ, Malawi, Soul Survivor friends, my own children, Canada and throughout the UK, and locally in the various communities  I am privileged to be part of.

I struggle much more with and am also re-assessing GOING TO CHURCH and DOING CHURCH because so much of what we do is not real, is an ACT of worship, is an ACT of faith, is a COMFORT ZONE or even a NO GO AREA in which so often we have our own songs, our own language, our own weird ways into which we RETREAT away from the harsh world.  

But if the first thing we do is to change structures of what we do and how we do it, then we have started from the wrong place – in fact it could be argued that any structure overarched by the fullness of God’s love could work !!

My family unit works quite well and there are some things others might learn from – but to try and duplicate or ‘bottle’ what we have is impossible and also undesirable.

The first and most fundamental thing to make sure of is  that the ‘church’

            Understands and grasps what it means that God is Love and He loves us

            To know that Love through relationship

            To overflow with the fullness of His love

So I think we are saying the same thing, really!!   

I pray for the explosive power of God’s love to sweep through His body

I pray the expulsive power of God’s love to cleanse His body

I pray for the expressive power of God’s love to spill over into the world.