If You Think Your Devotion To Jesus Makes You Better Than Someone Else, You're Wrong

I’m reading the Nag Hammadi Scriptures, which are Gnostic Scriptures or Scriptures that were widely read and dispersed in the Early Church, but for one reason or another didn’t make it into our Bible’s today. I’m no scholar when it comes to this stuff and although there are some Gnostic Scriptures that are really weird and crazy and bizarre, I find many of them helpful.

Remember: the early church didn’t have a Bible.

Read that again: the early church didn’t have a Bible sitting on their bookshelves that they could read and highlight in and bring to Bible study.

Instead, they had letters and writings that were dispersed and shared among their communities and among those letters and writings were these sacred Gnostic texts and so I find it helpful to read what those early Christians read and see where I hear the voice of the Shepherd.

Because that’s what Jesus said, right? In John 10 he said, “my sheep hear my voice” and this is true because sometimes I hear his voice in my Bible, sometimes I hear his voice in a movie I’m watching, sometimes I hear his voice in a book I’m reading … and sometimes I hear his voice when I’m reading the Nag Hammadi Scriptures.

This morning I was reading from the book of Thunder, which is an interesting book. It’s a monologue of sorts from a female voice, almost like Wisdom in the book of Proverbs and early on she gives us a series of contradictions to ponder …

“For I am the first and the last.

I am the honored and the scorned.

I am the whore and the holy.

I am the wife and the virgin.

I am the mother and the daughter.

I am the limbs of my mother.

I am a barren woman who has many children.

I have had many weddings and have taken no husband.”

… This voice that is speaking, it seems, is able to align with every kind of person, right? Both the FIRST and the LAST, the HONORED and the SCORNED, the WHORE and the VIRGIN; and each one of these statements is preceded with the words, “I AM.”

Like I said, I’m no scholar. But when I read this section I felt a tingle in my spirit because Jesus used a series of “I AM” statements in the book of John and God told Moses to refer to him as “I AM”. And so when I read these statements I immediately think of Jesus and God and the Divine and YAHWEH and I’m reminded of the God …

Who is with all people.

Who is drawing all people to himself.

Who desires all people to be saved.

Who welcomes the outcast.

Who comes to the defense of the marginalized.

When I read these statements in the book of Thunder I hear the voice of the Shepherd whispering, “this is me. I am not speaking in contradictions, but am speaking to remind you that no one is better than another. No one side outweighs the other. No one person or type of person holds the market on Me. The holy person is no better than the whore. The woman with many children is no better than the barren women. The first is no better than the last. The world tells you to draw lines and create dichotomies and to elevate some over others, but that’s not how I work. I am the first and the last, the honored and the scored - I am all things to all people, I am whatever they need me to be, whenever they need me to be it.”

And so I wanted to encourage you today and remind you that no matter who you are or where you are or what your life has looked like up until this very moment - none of it makes the Divine think of you any more or less than he/she does right now at this very moment.

Are you first in life? God is in you.

Are you last in life? God is in you.

Are you honored? God is in you.

Are you scorned? God is in you.

Are you a whore? God is in you.

Are you a virgin? God is in you.

Are you a mother? God is in you.

Are you a daughter? God is in you.

Are you childless? God is in you.

Are you a parent of many children? God is in you.

Are you married? God is in you.

Are you unmarried? God is in you.

Yes - no matter who you are, what your story is about … God is in you and is with you always, now and forever, and nothing you could ever do or have ever done can change that.

Much love,