Jason Clark's Blog, page 16

RUSTY & ERIN PLEUNE / CREATING A CULTURE OF CONNECTION IN MARRIAGE

Rusty & Erin Pleune Creating A Culture Of Connection In Marriages

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Hope, healing, intimacy, unconditional love, and acceptance; in this conversation, Rusty and Erin Pleune talk about the intentional steps they took to create a culture of connection in their marriage and how they now help couples do the same. They also dove into their journey of discovering community and deeper faith as they lean into the goodness of God.

Please rate, review, share, and subscribe!

For more about Rusty & Erin & Making A Way
Website: www.makingawaymarriage.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/makingawaymarriage

Podcast intro and outro music by Wilde Assembly

Derek Turner Follower of Jesus, in love with @sarahjturner, father to @caro.turn & @kaaatters, owner of Milo, pastor @rivercharlotte. Amazed by Grace
www.rivercharlotte.com

Follow Follow Follow Jason Clark is a writer, speaker, and lead communicator at A Family Story ministries. His mission is to encourage sons and daughters to grow sure in the love of an always-good heavenly Father. He and his wife, Karen, live in North Carolina with their three children.

Follow Follow Follow Follow Follow JOIN OUR MAILING LIST GIVE TO A FAMILY STORY BUY NOW!

YOU ALSO MIGHT LIKE… THOMAS JAY OORD / GOD CAN’T

by A Family Story | January 13, 2021 | Crisis of Identity, Faith, God Is Not In Control, Intimacy, Leadership, Relationship, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season Two, The Fathers Love | 2 Comments

“Given that we start with God’s power…we end up giving God the kind of capabilities that make God culpable; in other words, morally responsible for not only causing but allowing bad things…I think there are good biblical reasons to object to that standard view of Gods power.” Thomas Jay Oord

Read More FAITHFULLY CONNECTED WITH DEREK TURNER & JASON CLARK

by A Family Story | July 20, 2022 | Crisis of Identity, Faith, Intimacy, Leadership, Life, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season three, Sin, The Fathers Love | 5 Comments

Matt Chandler, pastor, and writer, recently used the phrase “a sexy fad” when describing the deconstruction movement. Derek and Jason highlight his statement to dive into the nature of their own de/ and reconstruction. This podcast dives into sin, grace, reconciliation, and God’s love for all His kids, the church deep and wide. Ultimately, the guys kick off season three embracing Rom 8:38-29 That nothing… “will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Read More KAREN SWALLOW PRIOR / LIFE, LITERATURE, & GOD

by A Family Story | April 27, 2022 | Crisis of Identity, Faith, God Is Not In Control, Hell, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season three, Sin, The Fathers Love | 0 Comments

Karen Swallow Prior is a Reader, Writer, and Professor. In that order, which was discussed in this conversation along with the power of language, the Word becoming flesh, the connection of imagination with logic and reason, empathy, trauma, the theodicy of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and love being the center of our conversations. Karen also shares about getting hit by a literal bus and how she grew in her understanding that her life is in God’s hands.

Read More MATTHEW HESTER / GOD WAS PLEASED TO REVEAL HIS SON IN ME

by A Family Story | March 17, 2021 | Faith, Interview, Intimacy, Leadership, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season Two, The Fathers Love | 0 Comments

Mystery, faith, salvation and awaking to Christ’s likeness within us, adoption and sonship, being in the family, discovering the Word in scripture, and living from union, we discuss this and more with Matthew Hester in a passionate conversation around the love of God. Matthew is an author, pastor of Dominion Church (Greer SC), and founder of Hester Ministries and Present Truth Academy.

Read More SETH DAHL / SPIRIT LED FAMILIES

by A Family Story | April 22, 2023 | Faith, Intimacy, Marriage, Miracles, Parenting, Relationship, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season Four, The Fathers Love | 0 Comments

“I tell parents ‘You become the theology your kids believe” Engaging our kid’s imaginations, learning to recognize God’s voice, and encountering His love, life, joy, and friendship; in this conversation, Seth Dahl shares stories of transformation and gives insight into Spirit-led parenting. The guys talk about a good God and the journey into trust, intimacy, and union in the context of parenting.

Read More THE CROSS with DEREK TURNER & JASON CLARK

by A Family Story | January 6, 2021 | Crisis of Identity, Faith, God Is Not In Control, Intimacy, Leadership, Relationship, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season Two, The Fathers Love | 3 Comments

In this first episode of season two, Jason and new host Derek Turner dive into the wonder of what Jesus revealed about our Father and humanity through the cross and resurrection.

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Published on May 09, 2023 23:30

The Slave/Master Paradigm Within The Church

Excerpted from my book, Leaving and Finding Jesus

Maybe the most significant issues in the church today stem from Christian servants who don’t know friendship. I think much of the Deconstruction movement has been birthed in institutions led by Older Brothers who slave down the road of lack.

Many of our leaders are wholly invested in the paradigm of slaves and masters; they approach obedience as a transactional obligation and thus live and preach a hierarchal, controlling, and punishing Father/Master message. Just like the Older Brother, they are convinced they know the heart and motivations of our Father, the thoughts and plans of the Master. But as Jesus told us, “…a servant doesn’t know what his master is thinking or planning,” He only tells that stuff to His friends— “for everything that I learned from my Father, I have made known to you.” (1)

Sadly, much of the church is full of behavior-focused, sin-counting, Older Brothers—slaving servants waxing eloquent on the master’s thoughts and plans while participating in dualism, nationalism, liberalism, moralism, wokeism, and a thousand other obligations outside of friendship.

Sadly, the world has been inundated with slaving Older Brother Christians—diligent servants, calling the master, “dad,” while preaching a punishing message that conflicts with His heart of reconciliation for all our brothers and sisters—slaving servants who interpret Scripture outside of friendship and present the gospel outside of Greater Love.

Dear friends, let’s stop participating in the hierarchal paradigm of masters and slaves; let’s stop giving ear to slaving Older Brothers who don’t know what our Father “is thinking and planning.” That way lies striving, disillusionment, trauma, and broken trust.

How can we recognize when we are participating in the Slave-Master paradigm? Here are five earmarks:

Our interpretation of Love isn’t cruciform—self-giving, other-centered.We leverage Scripture to measure some vast separation between God and humanity.We justify cruelty in the name of righteousness and holiness.We participate in, and propagate, hierarchy and exclusion in the name of love.We perceive and present punishment as justice.

And we can identify slaving Older Brother leaders using the same criteria.

If we want to know our Father’s heart, it can best be discovered on the Emmaus Road with friends as we humbly steward the burning. Jesus’ disciple, John, revealed the measureless depth of this burning heart friendship when, in his gospel, he referenced himself three times as “the one Jesus loved.”(2)

We are all “the one Jesus loves.” That’s how Greater Love works.

The fact is, Jesus calls every one of us “friend”—we are all the one He loves. And the more we surrender to this Greater Love friendship, the more we awaken to our Father’s reconciling heart. In this heart-to-heart connection, serving comes naturally, and obedience is a fruit rather than an obligation.

In friendship, we discover the high-water mark of Christian faith is measureless reconciling love. In friendship, our lives become surrendered expressions of Greater Love, and that’s the definition of Christian maturity.

Servant friends are people moving closer to reconciliation with each step they take. Christian maturity is developed as we revel in our friendship with Jesus.

1 John 15:15 NIV & MSG
2 John 13:23

This article is excerpted from my book, Leaving and Finding Jesus
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Jason Clark is a bestselling storyteller who writes to reveal the transforming kindness of the love of God. He and his wife, Karen, live in North Carolina with their three children, Madeleine, Ethan, and Eva. Follow Follow Follow Follow Follow Follow Follow Follow JOIN OUR MAILING LIST GIVE TO A FAMILY STORY YOU ALSO MIGHT LIKE… Repent! The Kingdom of God is Within You

by Jason Clark | March 25, 2020 | Articles, Faith, Leadership, Life, Popular | 2 Comments

Yes, repent! Change the way you think until “righteousness, peace, and joy” are your reality; until the confidence of “on earth as it is in heaven” is your perspective; until you sense the arms of your kind and loving Father enveloping you and you grow sure in His nature to work all things to our good.

Read More BISHOP JAMIE ENGLEHART / MYTHS AND MISCONCEPTIONS

by A Family Story | March 8, 2023 | Faith, Intimacy, Relationship, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season Four, Sin, The Fathers Love, Writing | 1 Comment

Lucifer and the devil, God, and control, union vs. separation, awakening to Light, Life, and Love, and approaching scripture through sonship; in this conversation, Bishop Jamie Englehart breaks down myths for truth and sheds light on many of our religious misconceptions that have been built upon separation.

Jamie’s understanding of the Kingdom of God, the New Covenant, and the heart of the Father is evident in every word he speaks.

Read More JASON GRIMSLEY / CROSS STITCHED

by A Family Story | November 30, 2022 | Faith, Interview, Life, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season three | 0 Comments

“Whether I’m high or low, in heaven or hell, nothing can ever separate me from God’s love.” Jason dives into a memoir he helped his friend, baseball legend, Jason Grimsley, write. They guys talk about Jason’s wild and unbelievable life. This conversation is part storytelling, part revelation, and all testimony of the love of God.

Jason shares about several hardships he’s faced, including a botched suicide attempt and the near destruction of his marriage. The guys shared insights and wisdom for the highs and lows of life. And all along the way, they highlighted the message of the book. Cross Stitched displays the very real and present love of God and the abundant life He offers us when we surrender to Him.

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Published on May 03, 2023 23:45

SCHLYCE JIMENEZ / THE PATH

Schlyce Jimenez The Path

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God to Schlyce: “You never rebelled from me; you rebelled from a version of me that was never me…” Identity, the illusion of separation, trauma triggers and healing, how to hear the voice of God, experiencing the joy and wonder of continual fellowship with God; in this conversation, Schlyce Jimenez shares about her faith journey and her book, The Path. The Path helps readers discover how their life would be different if they could know the Father like Jesus did. You can learn more about Schlyce at www.schlyce.com

“The meaning of life is to find your gift, and the purpose of life is to give it away.” – Pablo Picasso

Please rate, review, share, and subscribe!

For more on Schlyce
Website: www.schlyce.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/schlycej
Twitter: www.twitter.com/schlyce

Podcast intro and outro music by Wilde Assembly

Derek Turner Follower of Jesus, in love with @sarahjturner, father to @caro.turn & @kaaatters, owner of Milo, pastor @rivercharlotte. Amazed by Grace
www.rivercharlotte.com

Follow Follow Follow Jason Clark is a writer, speaker, and lead communicator at A Family Story ministries. His mission is to encourage sons and daughters to grow sure in the love of an always-good heavenly Father. He and his wife, Karen, live in North Carolina with their three children.

Follow Follow Follow Follow Follow JOIN OUR MAILING LIST GIVE TO A FAMILY STORY BUY NOW!

YOU ALSO MIGHT LIKE… DOUG CREW / WHAT DOES LOVE LOOK LIKE RIGHT NOW?

by A Family Story | March 24, 2021 | Faith, Intimacy, Leadership, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season Two, The Fathers Love | 0 Comments

Navigating through loss with a good God, experiencing the presence of God as a loving Father, loving our neighbor, democrat and republican, and love answering every question that aches in the heart of humanity, Doug Crew shares on these subjects and more with insight and grace. Doug is the executive leader of Shiloh Place Ministries and a good friend of the podcast.

Read More THE CROSS with DEREK TURNER & JASON CLARK

by A Family Story | January 6, 2021 | Crisis of Identity, Faith, God Is Not In Control, Intimacy, Leadership, Relationship, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season Two, The Fathers Love | 3 Comments

In this first episode of season two, Jason and new host Derek Turner dive into the wonder of what Jesus revealed about our Father and humanity through the cross and resurrection.

Read More HAROLD & LINDA EBERLE / THE NEW APOSTOLIC REFORMATION

by A Family Story | March 10, 2021 | Faith, Interview, Intimacy, Leadership, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season Two, Sin, The Fathers Love | 4 Comments

Harold and Linda Eberle share about the catalytic love of God that is transforming our western understanding of the church. They speak on victorious mindsets, kingdom thinking, the myth of separation, reconciliation through the death of Jesus, and salvation through his life; plus old elephants! This is a power packed interview full of profound insight.

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Published on May 03, 2023 23:22

SETH DAHL / SPIRIT LED FAMILIES

Seth Dahl Spirit Led Families

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“I tell parents ‘You become the theology your kids believe” Engaging our kid’s imaginations, learning to recognize God’s voice, and encountering His love, life, joy, and friendship; in this conversation, Seth Dahl shares stories of transformation and gives insight into Spirit-led parenting. The guys talk about a good God and the journey into trust, intimacy, and union in the context of parenting.

Please rate, review, share, and subscribe!

For more on Seth Dahl
Spirit Led Families: www.spiritledfamilies.world
Instagram: www.instagram.com/sethdahl

Podcast intro and outro music by Wilde Assembly

Derek Turner Follower of Jesus, in love with @sarahjturner, father to @caro.turn & @kaaatters, owner of Milo, pastor @rivercharlotte. Amazed by Grace
www.rivercharlotte.com

Follow Follow Follow Jason Clark is a writer, speaker, and lead communicator at A Family Story ministries. His mission is to encourage sons and daughters to grow sure in the love of an always-good heavenly Father. He and his wife, Karen, live in North Carolina with their three children.

Follow Follow Follow Follow Follow JOIN OUR MAILING LIST GIVE TO A FAMILY STORY BUY NOW!

YOU ALSO MIGHT LIKE… ALLEN ARNOLD / CHAOS CAN’T

by A Family Story | January 27, 2021 | Art, Crisis of Identity, Faith, Intimacy, Leadership, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season Two, The Fathers Love | 1 Comment

God creates order from disorder and we have been invited to co-create with Him. In the midst of chaos, “we associate peace with answers. God associates peace with Union.”

Read More LEIF HETLAND / THE LOVE AWAKENING

by A Family Story | July 6, 2022 | Crisis of Identity, Faith, Intimacy, Miracles, Popular, Prayer, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season three, The Fathers Love | 0 Comments

In this conversation Leif, Mark Appleyard, and Jason dive into Leif’s new book, The Love Awakening. Through personal stories, the guys discuss the powerful, supernatural Baptism of Love that breaks off shame, affirms identity, and reveals the unconditional love of the Father. This is a life-giving conversation around union, evangelism, and the miraculous.

Read More THERE IS NO “US OR THEM” AT THE CROSS

by A Family Story | September 15, 2022 | Faith, Interview, Leadership, Life, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season three | 3 Comments

This podcast highlights Jason’s book, Leaving and finding Jesus, where he writes about his deconstructing faith journey. The book is Jason’s Emmaus Road discovery of a love that is reconciling all creation; a journey where he’s awakening to a burning heart while leaving every Jesus who won’t lay His life down for His friends.

Read More SCOTT CROWDER / LEARNING TO BE PRESENT

by A Family Story | April 13, 2022 | Dreaming, Faith, Friends, Leadership, Music, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season three | 2 Comments

Scott Crowder is a pastor, singer-songwriter, and one of Jason’s closest friends. The guys dive into their love for the church, about learning how to be present with God, ourselves, each other, and our community. Scott talks about creating church cultures that practice the fruits of the Spirit, learning to lead ourselves and others in seasons of joy and sorrow, that “success” isn’t about numbers, cool fads, or being ‘front runners,’ it’s discovered in community.

Read More BRIAN SIMMONS / THE PASSION TRANSLATION

by A Family Story | May 19, 2021 | Faith, Interview, Intimacy, Leadership, Life, Popular, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season Two | 2 Comments

“The bible, minus love, equals false teaching, false living, and fosters an anger in the soul of man.” Brian Simmons, author of The Passion Translation, talks about approaching scripture with a love theology, the oppressive impact of hyper literalism, women in ministry, equality, union, Jesus’ humanity inside the Trinity, the finished work of the cross, and the passionate, powerful, transforming love of God.

Read More DALE HOWIE / UNSPOKEN SERMONS ON THE GOOD NEWS OF INCLUSION

by A Family Story | June 23, 2021 | Interview, Intimacy, Life, Prayer, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season Two, The Fathers Love | 3 Comments

Paraphrasing the sermons of George MacDonald, Dale Howie shares his sometimes painful, often beautiful, journey of awakening to the irreducible truth of life discovered in relationship. He speaks to grace, our common Fatherhood, our inclusion in Christ’s life, death and resurrection, our union, and the wonder of our humanity. A humble storyteller and relational theologian, Dale speaks as a father on behalf of Our Father, who loves all His children with a reconciling love.

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Published on April 22, 2023 11:42

A Hard Teaching?

“Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” That visceral word picture capped a message Jesus gave to a large crowd of followers. (10)

On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” “This is the hard stuff,” they thought.

But it wasn’t the hard stuff—just the opposite. It was a prophetic invitation to communion, a description of our participation in union, an invitation to consume and embody Christ within us. The words Jesus spoke, as He went on to explain, were “full of Spirit and life!” (11) The disciples just didn’t understand them—yet.

Jesus’ message revealed how Measureless Love reconciles and restores all humanity to Himself. Jesus’ words contained an invitation for the disciples to leave their limiting certainties and lean into faith. It was an invitation to engage with the Emmaus Road burning that cries out from deep within, “We knew eternal life in our hearts even when our heads heard cannibalism.”

“Does this offend you?” the Emmaus Road Jesus asked His disciples. For many, it did, and understandably so. “From this time, many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed Him.

‘You do not want to leave too, do you?’ Jesus asked the Twelve.

Simon Peter answered, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that You are the Holy One of God.’” (12)

How had Peter and the remaining disciples come to believe that Jesus was the Holy One of God? That’s a good question.

In hindsight, we know their belief wasn’t extra-biblical, but neither, at that moment, could they have referenced chapter and verse. So, they hadn’t “come to believe” based on their current understanding of Scripture—nor was it because Jesus broke down His systematic theology. There was no biblical exegesis, just the Word Who Became Flesh speaking to burning hearts.

This was not an exercise in literal inerrancy. Rather, this was about faith. The disciples had come to believe and know that Jesus was the Holy One of God because, in the context of relationship, they recognized eternal life as the nuclear explosion burning within them when The Word Made Flesh spoke to them.

“You have the words of eternal life,” Peter said, trusting a measureless love that transcends dimensions of time and space, as well as finite understanding. Because they stewarded the burning, the disciples were not put off by their inability to understand Jesus’ offensive words.

They had “come to believe” God was better than their best understanding and current biblical interpretation.

It’s called faith.

This faith is discovered in the One who laid His life down for His friends, and this burning is the only way we can know God and truly interpret Scripture.

When our experiences and understanding seem like hard stuff, cruciform love and resurrection life can be trusted. And where we can trust, we don’t have to understand.

“…Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you….” There was literal error in Jesus’ words, but because the disciples were in a maturing relationship with Greater Love, even though they literally heard Jesus preach cannibalism, their hearts knew Jesus wasn’t preaching cannibalism…

This article is excerpted from my book, Leaving and Finding Jesus
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Jason Clark is a bestselling storyteller who writes to reveal the transforming kindness of the love of God. He and his wife, Karen, live in North Carolina with their three children, Madeleine, Ethan, and Eva. Follow Follow Follow Follow Follow Follow Follow Follow JOIN OUR MAILING LIST GIVE TO A FAMILY STORY YOU ALSO MIGHT LIKE… THOMAS JAY OORD / GOD CAN’T

by A Family Story | January 13, 2021 | Crisis of Identity, Faith, God Is Not In Control, Intimacy, Leadership, Relationship, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season Two, The Fathers Love | 2 Comments

“Given that we start with God’s power…we end up giving God the kind of capabilities that make God culpable; in other words, morally responsible for not only causing but allowing bad things…I think there are good biblical reasons to object to that standard view of Gods power.” Thomas Jay Oord

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Published on April 22, 2023 09:01

Equality As Jesus Revealed It

Excerpted from my book, Leaving and Finding Jesus

When I wrote the book, God Is (Not) In Control, I juxtaposed the broken paradigm of sovereign control with the sovereignty of cruciform love to highlight how the teaching of sovereignty through control has undermined trust and access to intimacy within the church today.

God is love; love is self-giving, others-focused; love is relational. When control is the foundation of a relationship, there is no equality. Without equality, trust cannot exist. Without trust, intimacy becomes impossible. A master-servant hierarchy is a three-foot concrete median theology that cuts us off from knowing oneness and experiencing union.

Equality is God’s idea, revealed perfectly in the incarnation through the Triune relationship between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus revealed equality as fully God and fully human. Greater Love was a walking revelation of equality, and it looked like oneness with Father and Holy Spirit—and with us.

When I write about our equality with God, I write as a created being about my Creator. I am not suggesting equality in the context of measurements. I am not applying that word like a Rich Young Ruler on the road of lack. There are no microscopes powerful enough to make us equal in that paradigm.

Instead, I’m describing equality as Jesus revealed it. It’s not “equals” based on measurements; it has nothing to do with finite thinking or microscopes. I’m writing about an equality revealed by Greater Love laying down His life for His friends. (1)

Self-giving, other-centered love is the birthplace of true equality and is discovered in union.

Jesus included us in this equality when He prayed we would be one, just as He and His Father were one. “And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me…”( 2)

And Jesus revealed the nothing will be impossible power of this equality when He healed that oppressed boy with faith no larger than a mustard seed.

Like the Farmer, Jesus knew the power of seed. He knew measureless love always transforms the soil…

Jesus was a walking revelation of equality as our heavenly Father sees it—self-giving love for His friends, you, and me. And through the cross, Jesus invited us to participate in this equality. He invited us to take up our cross—greater love—and live one with Love, here, now.

Greater love is the truest definition of equality— and it saves us.

The world is hungry for this mountain moving—heaven to earth—equality; where the impossible becomes possible, where friends of God don’t just offer mathematical equations, systematic theology, principles, and disciplines, but also a measureless reconciling love that is powerful and effective and can provide measurable results.

Some might be uncomfortable with my suggestion that God wants equality with us, but when we discover and define equality in the context of Greater love, well, it’s not just possible. It’s the gospel good news, the whole story! There is no separation; we are one and ever awakening to our union!

Jesus prayed that we would be one, that we would know union, and that we would experience the same trust, intimacy, and equality He experienced and shared with our Father and Holy Spirit.

This is the equality of heaven come to earth. It’s about a Love that prefers one another, a love that involves free will, submitted to free will. It’s the equality of husbands and wives submitting one to another because wives and husbands love each other as Christ loved the church. (3) It’s the equality discovered when we lay down our lives.

“Take up your cross and follow me,” Jesus instructed. (4) It was an invitation for us to awaken to oneness with Him, our Father and Holy Spirit—and with each other, just as Jesus modeled.

As we follow Jesus’ example of Greater Love, we will discover true equality, first with God in the form of union and then with each other in the same way.

And all creation waits in eager expectation for this greater love equality to be revealed by sons and daughters, fathers and mothers! All creation longs for racial, cultural, and social equality to be lived out by those in mustard-seed friendships, those who know union and live as expressions of this equality. 5

The whole world is hungry for a church whose prayers are powerful and effective, a people that can speak to a mountain, “Move from here to there,” and nothing will be impossible for us. I’m convinced the world is reconciled through friends living as expressions of greater love equality.

1 John 15:13
2 John 17:21
3 Ephesians 5:22
4 Matthew 16:24
5 Romans 8:19

This article is excerpted from my book, Leaving and Finding Jesus
Order Now At AMAZON.COM

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Jason Clark is a bestselling storyteller who writes to reveal the transforming kindness of the love of God. He and his wife, Karen, live in North Carolina with their three children, Madeleine, Ethan, and Eva. Follow Follow Follow Follow Follow Follow Follow Follow JOIN OUR MAILING LIST GIVE TO A FAMILY STORY YOU ALSO MIGHT LIKE… No Omissions

by Jason Clark | March 2, 2023 | Articles, Books, Faith, God Is Not In Control, Hell, Intimacy, Leaving and Finding Jesus, The Fathers Love | 0 Comments

“Finished” means “ended or completed.” I looked it up. Case closed, settled, resolved. No one was overlooked by Christ at the cross—not even Judas. Paul told us, “…in Adam, all die, so in Christ, all will be made alive.”

“All” means, “everyone.” I looked it up.

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Published on April 11, 2023 10:00

CHERITH FEE NORDLING / A PERMANENTLY HUMAN GOSPEL

Cherith Fee Nordling A Permanently Human Gospel

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“The reason you can’t take your own human life seriously is because you’ve never taken my (Christ’s) life seriously.” The incarnation, Jesus as fully human, Jesus and His divinity, grace, cruciform love, leaving Gnosticism, resurrection fearlessness, freedom, and salvation as a human story; in this conversation, Cherith shares a beautiful gospel in which we are discovering how to enter into the life of Jesus!

Please rate, review, share, and subscribe!

For more on Cherith Fee Nordling
The Open Table: www.opentableconference.com
Regent Website: www.regent-college.edu/faculty

Podcast intro and outro music by Wilde Assembly

Derek Turner Follower of Jesus, in love with @sarahjturner, father to @caro.turn & @kaaatters, owner of Milo, pastor @rivercharlotte. Amazed by Grace
www.rivercharlotte.com

Follow Follow Follow Jason Clark is a writer, speaker, and lead communicator at A Family Story ministries. His mission is to encourage sons and daughters to grow sure in the love of an always-good heavenly Father. He and his wife, Karen, live in North Carolina with their three children.

Follow Follow Follow Follow Follow JOIN OUR MAILING LIST GIVE TO A FAMILY STORY BUY NOW!

YOU ALSO MIGHT LIKE… DON KEATHLEY / THE GOSPEL

by A Family Story | February 3, 2021 | Crisis of Identity, Faith, Interview, Intimacy, Leadership, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season Two, The Fathers Love | 34 Comments

Don Keathley touches on the goodness of our Father, Jesus as perfect theology, grace, our union, our identity, how to approach scripture, and the lie of eternal conscious torment.

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Published on April 11, 2023 09:38

The End Of Hierarchy In The Church

Excerpted from my book, Leaving and Finding Jesus

“I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”

Those are the NIV-translated words of Jesus found in John 15:15.

But the Brian Simmons Passion Translation of that verse is my favorite, and I think it’s infinitely more accurate—not based on my academic prowess but on what I know about love.

It reads, “I have never called you ‘servants’… But I call you my most intimate friends….”

There was no master-slave language before the fall, and there is no slave-master language in heaven. The master-slave paradigm is the fruit of the fall, the dualism of good and evil, the result of hierarchy, the cruel and punishing consequence of our Adamic devotion to separation—the transactional approach to a Father who looks away.

Master-slave language is prevalent in Scripture. The book is chock full of the problem of hierarchy and control. But when we read Scripture through the lens of cruciform love and resurrection life, the punishing master-slave paradigm simply highlights the problem Jesus solved.

Hierarchy was the narrative into which The Word incarnated. In this broken narrative, a Triune God engaged with humanity in the revelation of Family so we might awaken to friendship. Jesus walked the planet as such a powerful revelation of union and friendship that those most invested in a master-slave paradigm killed Him for it.

But thankfully, Jesus is what God has always been like, and He “never called us servants!” On a cross, He set us free from the cruel obligation and injustice of masters and slaves. “It is finished,” He said. And it was true before the very beginning and after the very end, because God is reconciling love—regardless of how we relate to Him.

And yet, today, much of the church still insists on relating to God and each other in the hierarchal paradigm of slaves and masters. We insist on making obedience the high-water mark of Christian maturity. We insist the way to eternal life is down that sin-counting road of lack. And we keep producing arrogant Prodigals and self-righteous Older Brothers—rebels, and slaves.

And there’s a word for that type of family culture—dysfunctional.

Healthy families are free of master-slave interactions, but good Lord, if the church isn’t full of this type of hierarchal dysfunction!

There is no transactional hierarchy between The Trinity. There is no separation. Yet, cruel master-slave theology is woven into the very fabric of our retributive thoughts about God. It’s a fallen narrative to which many within the church have built an altar.

Much of the church won’t leave the lie of separation and is obsessed with punishment. Because of this, the gospel message has often been twisted to propagate the master-slave paradigm Jesus set us free from. And then the church often elevates whoever slaves best to a pulpit so they can tell us what God is like.

And that’s gotta stop! Because slaving servants don’t know the plans, thoughts, motivations, or heart of the Master.

He only tells that stuff to friends!

This article is excerpted from my book, Leaving and Finding Jesus
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Jason Clark is a bestselling storyteller who writes to reveal the transforming kindness of the love of God. He and his wife, Karen, live in North Carolina with their three children, Madeleine, Ethan, and Eva. Follow Follow Follow Follow Follow Follow Follow Follow JOIN OUR MAILING LIST GIVE TO A FAMILY STORY YOU ALSO MIGHT LIKE… We Had Thought He Was the One

by Jason Clark | November 3, 2022 | Articles, Books, Faith, Intimacy, Leadership, Leaving and Finding Jesus, The Fathers Love | 0 Comments

It was also a confession; one every follower of Jesus has or will make at some point in our relationship with God; if we’re being honest. It’s a humble recognition that our certainty can be flawed, our ideology broken, our theology incomplete.

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Published on April 05, 2023 19:58

JONATHAN FOSTER / THEOLOGY OF CONSENT

Jonathan Foster Theology Of Consent

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“Consent is the depth of love…” Jonathan Foster shares about his book, Theology of Consent, where he blends René Girard’s scapegoating theory with open and relational theology. The guys talk about anthropology, mimetic theory, and the nature of love. This is a conversation for those deep in the forest of theopoetics, life, love, the church, and theology.

Please rate, review, share, and subscribe!

For more on Jonathan Foster
Website: www.jonathanfosteronline.com
Twitter: @jonathan_foster
Substack: jonathan_foster
Theology Of Consent: Amazon

Podcast intro and outro music by Wilde Assembly

Derek Turner Follower of Jesus, in love with @sarahjturner, father to @caro.turn & @kaaatters, owner of Milo, pastor @rivercharlotte. Amazed by Grace
www.rivercharlotte.com

Follow Follow Follow Jason Clark is a writer, speaker, and lead communicator at A Family Story ministries. His mission is to encourage sons and daughters to grow sure in the love of an always-good heavenly Father. He and his wife, Karen, live in North Carolina with their three children.

Follow Follow Follow Follow Follow JOIN OUR MAILING LIST GIVE TO A FAMILY STORY BUY NOW!

YOU ALSO MIGHT LIKE… 5Q – THE FIVEFOLD WITH BRANDON KELLY

by A Family Story | September 1, 2022 | Faith, Interview, Leadership, Life, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season three | 0 Comments

Derek and Jason dive into the fivefold (APEST) typology of ministry as articulated in Ephesians 4:1-1 with Brandon Kelly, the co-director at 5Qcollective. APEST stands for the Apostolic, Prophetic, Evangelistic, Shepherding, and Teaching intelligence that Jesus gifted to his body.

The guys discussed the fivefold in connection with the nature of God as non-hierarchal and inclusive, laced throughout creation and culture, reconstituted and perfectly exemplified in the life and ministry of Jesus, embedded into the very foundations of the Church, and subsequently expressed through the lives of the countless saints that make it up.

The post The End Of Hierarchy In The Church appeared first on A Family Story.

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Published on April 05, 2023 08:27

ALLEN ARNOLD / THE EDEN OPTION

Allen Arnold The Eden Option

iTunes Spotify Google YouTube “The world is accelerating in the wrong direction. It feels like all we’re doing is trying to fix what’s broken. And it isn’t working. We’re exhausted, overwhelmed, and losing heart. Where is God in all this? Well, he’s living a different story. A story he’s inviting us into.” That’s the back cover introduction to Allen’s new book, The Eden Option. In this conversation, the guys dive in and explore a homeward journey, not to the Eden of the past, but a new Eden discovered in Christ. Union, rest, community, creativity, miracles, and hope, in this podcast Allen shares his journey into trust and maturing faith.

Please rate, review, share, and subscribe!

For more on Allen Arnold
Website: www.withallen.com
Twitter: @TheStoryofWith
The Eden Option: Amazon

Podcast intro and outro music by Wilde Assembly

Derek Turner Follower of Jesus, in love with @sarahjturner, father to @caro.turn & @kaaatters, owner of Milo, pastor @rivercharlotte. Amazed by Grace
www.rivercharlotte.com

Follow Follow Follow Jason Clark is a writer, speaker, and lead communicator at A Family Story ministries. His mission is to encourage sons and daughters to grow sure in the love of an always-good heavenly Father. He and his wife, Karen, live in North Carolina with their three children.

Follow Follow Follow Follow Follow JOIN OUR MAILING LIST GIVE TO A FAMILY STORY BUY NOW!

YOU ALSO MIGHT LIKE… DAVID TENSEN / YOU ARE NOT ALONE

by A Family Story | May 12, 2021 | Faith, Interview, Intimacy, Leadership, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season Two | 5 Comments

Trauma, pain, empathy like Jesus, and healing for the oppressed, misunderstood, lost, or broken; in this podcast David Tensen shares how we are loved and not alone. Addressing how shame and condemnation are compounded by religion, the guys talked specifically about abortion and the LGBTQ community with an invitation to love like Jesus, through our union with God and reconciliation.

Read More FELICIA MURRELL / EMPATHY; THE TREASURE OF THE INCARNATION

by A Family Story | January 17, 2023 | Faith, Intimacy, Life, Relationship, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season Four, Sin, The Fathers Love, Writing | 1 Comment

“The Spirit said to me, ‘I want you to hand to me everything that you believe to be true about God and let me hand back to you everything that is true.’”

Racism, deconstruction, shame, guilt, certainty, empathy, infinite mercy, grace, healing, and other-centered, self-giving love, in this amazing conversation, Felecia and Jason visit fear and prejudice while leaning into the AND of God’s always present, empathetic, reconciling love.

Read More KRISTIN DU MEZ / JESUS AND JOHN WAYNE

by A Family Story | May 26, 2021 | Faith, Interview, Leadership, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season Two | 1 Comment

Patriarchy, authoritarian rule, the nature of power and privilege in America and the Church, the deconstruction movement, Christians in politics; in this podcast, Professor and Historian Kristin Du Mez, examines the impact of perhaps the most influential subculture in this country, white evangelicalism. This conversation explores how evangelicals have stepped away from the Jesus of the Gospels, from sacrificial love. “But what was once done, can be undone.”