a new definition

ok...this one comes to you a little later than i planned...it's about last sunday's sermon and a new(?) definition of eternal life...

"and this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent" (john 17:3)

so eternal life is knowing God...and believing that Jesus was the one whom God sent...and receiving Jesus as that one...

if that is true...we need to rethink our paradigms about eternal life. it is not fire insurance. it is not our free ticket to heaven. it is knowing and being known by the God who created us. and knowing and being known even now...not in some far off place in the future that we reach when we die...it is now.

why would anyone want to know God? why do i? (do i?) why do i want to participate in God? why be part of this life that lasts forever (beginning now)?

i think it's because i believe that all of life is sacred...that life is holy...that we are all connected...that all of life is connected in God. because of the character/nature/economy of God...the love and nature of God...to love and live as Christ loved and lived...among all people...because i believe in that kind of love and that kind of living (though i don't tend to do it myself as much as i would like).

and if the words Christ has spoken will be my judge, how, then, shall i live?

and another thing: if Jesus made everyone accessible to God, who are we to exclude anyone? who are we to deny anyone that access?