I thought this clip with Darin was a good fit for Recycle Your Faith’s one-year birthday (yeah, it’s already been a year!). I think it’s cool how all of us can come to Recycle Your Faith wearing different shirts and still participate in meaningful dialog. Thanks to all of you who have helped make this first year a great success! I’m even more excited about the year ahead of us!
ABOUT THE INTERVIEWEE: Darin Hufford runs The Free Believers Network and is the author of the book The Misunderstood God.
OTHER CLIPS BY: DARIN HUFFORD
OTHER CLIPS ABOUT: Who God is | Outreach
PURCHASE THIS CLIP: RYF Vol. 2 | Individual clip
Thank you, Darin!
I need not say more… ah, simplicity in all its complexity.
THIS is my favorite. Probably to some extent due to chronological proximity or some such =).
Even many of the characters in the Bible have their personal names for God, don’t they?
I also have 5 kids, I’v learned a lot about Gods love for us through loving them. He made all of us different, so our relationship with him must be different.
Benjamin–
Cool thought.
This was refreshing to say the least….. ahhhhhhhhh!
Tami
A really inspiring and reassuring way to look at how we communicate the character of the creator of the universe to others. To claim, this is WHO i follow, this is WHO I worship helps us to allow God to be God, and not feel the need to stuff Him is a theological box of human creation. [Craig, I simply love your editing!]
Right on, Darin!!
Trying to imagine God as being that same for everybody, ie “fair”, creates image of a cold, heartless machine. Vending machine says it perfectly.
Intamacy. Really getting down and dirty with God. Like Jacob, wrestling with Him for a true answer, a genuine blessing and not the pat principles that sound cozy but are only abrasive. There’s a ‘yellow v. green’ moment in the wings just waiting to happen amongst some folk. When they confront you, just try explaining your “Intamcy Quest” with God over following established protocols, jumping through x-number of hoops and, then, coming up with the “big finish” to prove your successful walk/faith in Christ. Sheesh! Like Darin said, when that happens just say, “yeah…ok.” I like Brennan Manning’s statement in “The Ragamuffin Gospel” about coming across the finish line with a ‘glorious limp’. When they wrestled, God actually touched Jaco…and Jacob got a limp from it. When we achieve that intimacy with Him that goes beyond the religious sectarianism, you’ll see it…in our limp.
7waynan7,
Do you have a limp like that? I’d love to hear about it.
It ain’t pretty… nor does it look OR feel glorious, I can vouch for that! :0)
:O)
Tami–are you connected to 7waynan7?
Not until we began our dialogue here! I’m with the Refuge, if that’s a connection you recognize.
Intimacy is an interesting word– Break it down into
“In-to-me-see”
BTW, I’m a mom of 3 teens, one with autism, and the way we describe fair around here is “fair is when everone’s unique NEEDS are met.”
Just thought I’d toss that in. :0)
Very few people know what it is/was like to have genuine unconditional love from our parents. Very few people of any age have experiential knowledge with other humans of being known, understood, and loved through-and-through. No wonder we struggle with believing God can meet each of us in a unique way.
I reckon God has an intimate relationship with each of His children and at the same time does He not back down from the way of the cross that makes us His children. He is so nice He makes us all limp
and He only has one colour for our shirts and it ain’t red or green. Jesus wears the red so we can wear the white. I agree that trying to convince someone of the cross is not needed – stating the truth and knowing God will do something with it is far better.
Tami,
I would so love to get to know you and especially your child with autism. In my experience children with autism are astoundingly beautiful and amazing.
When you say your limp is not pretty, what do you mean?
I have different beliefs around the word “fair” than I used to. To me “fair” is a make believe we create as a justification for getting what we want. But I’ve come to realize I don’t need that justification–that I can freely want, and freely ask for what I want, without having to justify that. To me believing too much in “fair” is what leads to violence–we justify violence against others as a means toward the end called “fair”. people on both sides of the violence very strongly believe in their make believe of “fair”.
Thoughts?
Ben,
I post through Free Believer’s Network. My “limp” (not all are physical) comes from the frustration of always finding myself in what I would call “the uncoolest situations” to serve Him. Example: I wanted to serve by inspiring teens/young adults to serve the Lord, but by doing it as a singer/musician. Instead, I serve in a school cafeteria. Am I making a difference? Most times I seriously doubt it; but then, every once in awhile, some kid comes up and says “thanks”, or, “you’re cooler than I thought you were Mr. H.”, after I got to share with them something God has filled me with. I realized, through time, that what I wanted by being “center stage” was vindication, and revenge, for all the ridicule I took as a kid. It was my self-justification that took the “shot” and then He sent away limping, now knowing, justification is in Him alone.
Hey 7,
Thanks for your gracious reply!
The lady who ran the school cafeteria at the school my daughter went to before we left the states was *the* most amazing lady ever. She was always saying encouraging things, doing little kindnesses. She was my favorite person at that whole school. I never told her.
In fact, now that you said what you said, I’m going to sit down and write a letter to her. Thank you!
What kind of ridicule did you go through as a kid? Tell us a story, if it’s not too painful. I know that ridicule, bullying, and such can be really traumatic for children.
Until I lost my baby teeth, and the big old chompers came in, I was up there in the “cutest kid you’ll ever see” category. As soon as the buckteeth came in though, EVERY friend I had began to ridicule me. I lost EVERY friend. Classmates, yes; friends, no…well, there would be temporary ones, if they could get something from me. Then, my eyes went bad. They got so bad that I ended up with the classic “Coke bottles” which I have to this day. That’s when I lost any hope of “friends”. It wasn’t until we moved from the small town we lived in to the big city that I was able to “start over”, yet, even those “friends”, save one, were fair-weather only. It wasn’t until I came to Christ, through knowledge and faith, that I found friends, mainly Him. But that one other old friend though from my former years, is still tried and true, and he and I, despite the fact that he’s still up north and now I’m here in Florida, we keep in touch about family, old and new friends, work, etc. But I was no saint, mind you. I was what would be known as snide, or sniping, or what the Bible calls “a backbiter”. This was as a result of all the ridicule, a sort of ‘offensive’ defence, if you will. But it didn’t make it right; and only aggravated the situation. We all have our sins, eh?
7,
Wow–thanks so much for sharing so trustingly. That sounds really painful, losing all your friends at a young age because your adult teeth looked different as did your eyeglasses. I know about the offensive defense from personal experience–did that for years–especially with members of the opposite sex.
I’m stoked for you that friendship with Christ has worked out well for you, and that you have that one old friend with whom you stay in touch. That rocks.
Thanks Ben…and you’re right, it does rock.
What’s your story with the girls…why the defense?
Sheesh, when I was young I was just hoping even one girl would actually look at me without laughing. But, some of us are the classic “Ugly Duckling”, as we get older we “come into our own”, even in the physical “image” thing.
Hey 7,
It’s an interesting question. I’ve not thought about it in a while, and I’m thinking my answers to this question may be somewhat different than they were before.
In fact, … I am going to have to rethink the whole thing. I find myself literally unable to answer the question. Isn’t that fascinating? I’m fascinated =). I rarely find myself unable to answer a question =). Let me ponder it for a bit.
No problem, bro. I find myself hashing out a lot of stuff with myself before I can articulate a coherent explaination for what I’m going through. That’s what I like about forums and blogs, you can step back and think things through. Not like being on the Debate Team at all where everything is Now. I’m not witless, but I’m not witty; you know the type, always have a snappy, clever response in 1.2 seconds. Ain’t me, usually.
This is a fantastic video .. thank you!
I believe that God IS the same yesterday, today, and forever .. but man is constantly changing!
Christ stands at the heart of every man and knocks .. whether you live in 200 BC Nordic Europe, 1200 BC Meso America, or 2010 small town America.
He is bigger than the stories about Jesus from 1st Century Palestine .. and He is bigger than any one person’s perspectives or spiritual experiences.
He is an Amazing God indeed.
Jesus’ message was simple: Love God and Love Other People.
I agree with you Bob, God doesnt change. The attributes of God will always be the same, He has encompassed all of humanity from the beginning with His love…that is how Great He is. He knew today we would need a specific type of expression from Him that would be different than what the people in the first century needed. So He in Himself is unchanging, but He in His expression is always adapting.
__So I dont think we can say black and white “God is not the same” I think we can more accurately say “God’s relationship with His people is not the same.”
___To me, knowing that God is the same and yet can have different relationships based on individual needs makes Him that much more omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent.
Everybody has already said it, this IS a great video. And I think it does embody so much of what this website is about. In that spirit, I wanted to share this thought. I tend to hear from God in many abstract ways. For instance, I hear clear-cut messages that I relate to God from music. Not christian music, secular music. Best example, the Foo Fighters “Best of You.” I was listening to it one day and started thinking about who gets the best of me. Not who is aggravating me but where do I yield my all, my best. And is that where I want the best of me to go. It still challenges me. Another example, by way of movies, is the “The Usual Suspects.” There is a point where Verbal Kint says to the detective, “The greatest trick the devil ever played was convincing the world he does not exist.” That hit me like a ton of bricks. I find it relevant in new ways all the time.
I share these things because sometimes I have a hard time sharing these ideas with other christians, as if it might be an inferior process to hear God. Truth is, I believe God will get into my life however he can and I believe he does just that.
Amen Dan!
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God reveals Himself to those that are open to hear Him, in direct ratio to your level of openness .. there is always growth to be had .. God can prevail upon you while reading the sports-page of a newspaper, if you are simply open to Him.
.:.
being aware of His presence .. literally thinking about Him, looking to Him, conversing with Him .. throughout the day, in every situation .. He is there!
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thank you for sharing .. what a blessing
the divine is well… divine..huh… this vid points out to me that we can’t have a vending machine god or goddess.. it’s about relationship.. and we must ask ourselves as he asks here.. “is that intimacy?”… loved it.. to the peep that broke down intimacy.. did you see mike myers love guru.. he went into that too.. funny how we get into words like that.. since the vid brothel make-over i’ve been doing more research into strip church and xxxchurch.. and was particularly taken by the interchange between Craig and Ron Jeremy on YouTube ~ both had good points.. but the messiness of their own issues could have got in the way.. instead they reflected the paranormal grace and effect of love’s light onto souls.. like Darin see’s in his kids, and i see in mine..
Amen Dan!
.:.
God reveals Himself to those that are open to hear Him, in direct ratio to your level of openness .. there is always growth to be had .. God can prevail upon you while reading the sports-page of a newspaper, if you are simply open to Him.
.:.
being aware of His presence .. literally thinking about Him, looking to Him, conversing with Him .. throughout the day, in every situation .. He is there!
.:.
thank you for sharing .. what a blessing