Another gem from Wendy Francisco. Why is it that so often I find myself in tears over a particular song that just makes me feel God’s Grace all over again? In this article, Wendy goes a long way towards explaining it:
“I told Don I needed to do something about his 26,000 person page because there are just SO many haters on there. I love his response, “okay but don’t shoot sacred cows — just tip them”. This makes me laugh though because he wrote on his page that he thinks if you think the bible is infallible you “drank the koolaid”. Talk about nuking a sacred cow!!
“Anyway, here is the bomb, I mean balm, I just put on that page:
“I can’t tell you how many letters and emails I have received in the years of handling the business side of Don’s ministry, that say, “I heard He’s Alive” while I was driving and I had to pull over and cry”. It always made me wonder …why do Christians stop what they are doing and cry? [Emphasis mine]
“Don’s music went all over the world because he sings about love that surpasses our human imperfections like a mountain surpasses a grain of sand. And the surprise and relief among believers is tangible.
“When Jesus said that the world wouldn’t receive the true gospel, He was speaking about a world which sacrificed to angry gods who needed appeasement. Jesus came specifically to free people from a crushing religious system and from what human nature always tends to do to gods — make them angry and bloodthirsty, so that masses of people can be controlled.
“Don has always taken flack for what he sings. In the 80s he wrote I Don’t Care Where You’ve Been Sleeping, and took flack from many believers, including his record company, who left it off of an album it was supposed to go on. Yet Jesus demonstrated time and again, that such things didn’t cause Him to avoid or reject people — and He was the perfect representation of God.
“Jesus was more interested in people, in all our messes, than He was about morality codes. That is why we are supposed to avoid the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil… which we are gorging ourselves on. And in condemning others who don’t think like us, we inadvertently condemn ourselves. That is why reminders of grace cause so many believers to stop and cry.
“God’s love is absolutely pure, there is no darkness in Him. Jesus who did not retaliate, but who forgave us all, is the same today, yesterday, and forever. Jesus did not sacrifice Himself to appease an angry God, He sacrificed Himself to show us a forgiving one. That is who our Abba is. And this threatens us to the core because it frees us from our horrid judgmental religions, just like it freed the people in Israel who were able to see it.
“Jesus didn’t come here to create haters, gossipers, fearful religious captives, trying to enforce their doctrines and trying please god so he won’t stomp on them and curse their nation. That is the way of the world. Jesus came to show us a different way — honor, love, solidarity, forgiveness, reconciliation of enemies, and a truly trustworthy and loving God.
-WF”
And here’s the original FB post that this was taken from: