One of my favorite drinks is a Route 44 Diet Cherry Limeade from Sonic. And in thinking about why I love this drink so much it occurred to me that it could be used as a metaphor for God. So bear with me because here we go. The Route 44 is something that is known in one form in the beginning, like God the Creator. It is good just the way it is, perfect really. It doesn’t need to change but because this drink (God) is so good it does change. When you finish consuming your Route 44 Limeade you are then left with the ice, a lime wedge and a cherry in the bottom. The ice begins to melt and you get a bonus drink, a new way to experience the drink. You get flavored water (would be like God deciding to dwell on earth in Jesus Christ as a new way for creation to know God). And then when the water is finished you are left with a new way to experience the drink – the consumption of the cherry and sucking on the lime wedge. This drink gives us a third way to experience the goodness just like God gives us the Holy Spirit. Now the drink does end but we do have the lasting memory of its goodness and for some people (like me) you’ll do things differently and try to get the experience over and over again in your life (Sonic happy hour is always a call to me if I’m near a Sonic). God will always be a constant and will always be around us but the next time you’re having your favorite beverage think of God’s
In a conversation with a more conservative Christian then me (take in mind I call myself a bed-wetting liberal and I’m also a big time Process Theologian) the person started rambling off scripture quotes (proof texting really) to make a point. I have never claimed to be a great memorizer of anything. And even though I have read the Bible many times and own many copies of the Bible, I am still not a person who can just pull out scripture references in mid conversation. I do have several verses that I turn to and love dearly but I can’t tell you word for word what John 2:5 or Ruth 1:4 says. This got me thinking, why do Christians really feel the need to qualify their faith based on the amount of scripture that they can recite from memory? While it may be very handy to be able to quote scripture in a variety of situations, I believe that this can be dangerous. Proof texting (pulling scripture, from any religion, to support an argument without careful and learned consideration for its cont
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