Latest thoughts part three - theological growth

Seeking the 'common good' has become central to my thinking and writing for many years now. What is the point of coming to know Jesus, having your life straightened out and gaining a new start, if you don't then seek the common good of all creation?! Don't say to me escaping hell and gaining heaven - I've grown way beyond that sort of trite simplicity ... I've learnt so much about God's grace to ever again accept that argument. I can bever again imagine a duplicitious God that inflicts pointless punishment on people that he cares enough for to sacrifically seek to redeem. 

I feel sorry for those who buy a tied-up package and never open themselves to think beyond it's confines - who never allow their experience and that of others to challenge things they have been taught or heard. As God speaks through Scripture, we can learn to notice the deeper truths about life - what humans do to other created beings and push off the responsibility elsewhere (the great truth of the Garden of Eden narrative). We have been redeemed to partner God in the mission of dispensing grace ... yes, for the common good. This is the essence of discipleship. 

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