“Real to Reality”                                                                                                                                                A Ministry of ReCovering All... Mark and Cathy Eaton

               Imagine what you know to be True….One Love

     I have always been a Bible thumper.  I was raised with a sense that God was in control, and the bible was the ultimate roadmap.  I grew constantly redefining what I believe.  I was raised to stand UP for what I believe.  To this day, I have this urge to construct and finalize my belief.  This created a confusion in my life since I always had a since that God’s unfathomable Love was accessible, though it was very distant from me most of the time.

     People have asked my wife “When did you start believing in God?”  For her, it is was awakening to a knowing within, it just was.  A love she began to feel that contradicted every inch of her being.  She has spent many years writing about Belief vs. knowing, and having this experience of Love in the present moment.  She told me early on in her spirituality: “We must be positive, not negative.”  Of course, this was not mind over matter, but Love over all! 

     When we came to embrace the Extravagant beauty of God’s Love, someone asked us “Are you UR?”, which is short for “Universal Reconciliation.”  I’ve always questioned people’s terminology and definitions.  I celebrate them, but they are not always grounded in the presence truth.  I pulled out my Bible, and told them what I believe about Judgment, Wrath, the Atonement.  So, this is how I define “Biblical Reconciliation.”  Cathy replied with a loud voice:” I am not UR, don’t put labels on me, or try to confine me to a box,  I just KNOW I AM THAT I AM.”  In short, Cathy answered from her knowing, I answered from what I believe. 

    Recently, I was in a conversation with a  brother.  He was passionate about the revelation of unconditional Love, and the beauty of Grace.  The emphasis of God’s Goodness.  Then, he proceeded to list biblical data , verse after verse about his belief of judgment, wrath, and life after death. 

“We are all sure about the Promise, but we are not sure about the Process.” - Willie Cripps

     I told him that concerning the biblical text. The translation of biblical words, there are some theories, and biblical translation that are “grey areas.”  But concerning the Love and Grace we share, there are no grey areas.  This is absolute Love that I KNOW is being revealed.  I shared very fervently that it is not the “presence of belief or the absence of it, it is the revealing of God’s fire that purifies.  These grey areas are going to be consumed with a consuming fire of His Love.

     As I pondered in my heart over the truth of this statement.  I found that “Belief” is a English idealogy that is made up of what we mentally assent to, this was my ideal belief.  It is a support system based on information and data.  In our English language, you can have belief with no action or movement.  However, in the Old Testament, when it shares to “believe”, it is a Hebrew word that is best translated “to trust, to persuade.”  This comes largely from experience.  I have seen this, felt this and therefore I trust this.  In the New Testament Koine Greek, it is a series of words….”trust, to persuade, to become convinced of something.”  It is a action word.  Then, there is a word that is more a “movement derived from a knowing, I believe, there I move….”  The words for “Faith” is Pistis which deals with “the union of divinity and humanity in the personhood of Christ.”  Here is the error, This is about His faith, not our faith.  His faith doesn’t need proven….it walks in experience what is already known.  E.W. Kenyon, in his thought provoking book The Two Kinds of Faith suggests that Jesus constantly cried out “…Have God’s Kind of Faith.”(Mark 11:23,24).  Kenyon states the Apostle Paul never demanded and cried out for faith, but what is known is what is already accomplished.  We don’t stand on God’s Promises, they are already Reality or Truth.  The history of theology stands in a complete contrast for those who emphasize “Our faith in God…the Faith of God….”  I find that greatest missing piece to this “Reconciliation” is the revelation of God’s faithfulness realized, not the presence of what we perceive as “faith.”  What the Scholars say about the Greek words for “faith” and what E. W. Kenyon shared about it remains one of the biggest mysteries yet to be unveiled.  The scriptures declares there is “One faith”…. and in another place a “measure” of faith.  Faith worketh or is processed by Love (Galatians 5:6).  There is some debate whether it is first “Love” that finds it expression in faith.  Or Faith that finds its expression in Love.  Leonard Sweet once said it the Faith of God that gives us access to His Love.  What cannot believe this great Love without his faithfulness to reveal it.

     In order to truly move beyond belief, you have to come to a Present Knowing in the Present moment of God’s unfathomable Love.