Message of Hope (Guest Post by Cale David Magnuson) Part 2 of 2

Cale David Magnuson is one of the most awesome people I have ever met. Former collage mascot, walk on football player at the University of Central Missouri, juggler (not juggalo, it is a very important distinction)(on a side note, my computer just changed "Juggalo" to "Conjugal". Akward.), world traveler, and all around ruggedly handsome man beast. This year he produced a thought, so profound that we had to have it on here. Enjoy!
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(If you haven't read Part 1 of 2 yet, you can find it HERE.

Ladies, Cale is currently single...

Anyway, the central message from the conference was simply that God loves us so incredibly much, and as our Father he couldn’t possibly be more proud of us!  I really believe this.  And how in the world is that nothing but a positive message??  This world is a pretty messed up place.  Around every corner is some tragedy or heartbreak.  Of course the world doesn’t want to hear about Church and Christianity, because they’ve become a joke.  All people see in them (and unfortunately all many of them have become) is a place where you plaster on a smile, sing some songs, do some praying, listen to a message, and go back to the messed up world none the wiser.  I don’t want any of that just as much as the next guy because it’s so full of negativity.  But because of all that, man I could sure use a positive message; a message of hope, and that’s exactly what the message of Jesus is.  And it’s exactly what the message of true Christianity is.  When we were all at rock bottom, there was a message of hope.  When I was at rock bottom, there was a message of hope.  For whatever reason, which I still have zero way of comprehending, the Father loves me so dearly and is so incredibly proud of me.  In my head I absolutely cannot understand why in the world this would ever be the case, but to my heart it is such a message of hope and life!!  If there’s ever anything any of us (and especially I) needed, it is such a positive message, such a message of hope!

And that’s how I would describe this conference.  People can think I’m a weirdo or a goober, but really they can say nothing against the message because it is only positive!  Because the nature of God is only positive!  Don’t mix that message up with all the clutter and baggage of “church” and “Christianity” because frankly, God doesn’t care about that stuff, at least not in the way that we understand it in our minds, with it’s negativity.  When we hear this message we so frequently marry it with “oh I guess that means I should go to church more and read my Bible more and yada yada yada”.  Again, none of that stuff matters!  None of it’s the point!  The only point is Jesus.  And all Jesus was was Love.  It’s just as silly as trying to understand how a man and woman behave when they are in love with each other if you take the whole love thing out of it.  Man they would look ridiculous.  Same thing with Jesus, all this extra junk that we throw on top of it is just religious clutter, and makes absolutely zero sense when you don’t understand how much Jesus loves us and that that’s the core of who He is.  In fact, if there’s something in you that clicks with this good news that Jesus loves us and is beyond enthralled with us, but you are hesitant because of all this extra stuff, just throw all the extra stuff away.  Take this positive message and receive it and don’t even worry about what all “implications” you think that stuff may bring.  At this point, God doesn’t care about it—all He cares about is you—so you shouldn’t care about it either.  Maybe sometime later you’ll want to pray or to sing, but don’t ever, ever, do those because it’s just part of the package, because there’s some pressure to do that.  God is not a god of pressure; it’s not his nature.  His nature is love, and that’s exactly what we need in this broken world, not more pressure.

Don’t take my word for any of this.  I could just be smoking peyote for all you know.  Ask God himself, he’s dying to talk with you ya know.  Ask him if all of this is BS, or if maybe there is a hope-filled message, one that is only positive, one where He soooo loves us.  I’m just some guy rambling, so none of this has any power coming from me.  The only thing that has power is if God speaks it to you Himself.  And don’t let all the junk that has grown around the centerpiece keep you from seeing the real message.  After all, it’s hard to see any bad in a message that is so good.   

And that’s why I loved the conference.  Because I was able to see that the good news, the message of the gospel, is a positive message of hope, such a good and wonderful message, and one that is nothing more and nothing less than one of ultimate Love.  And that’s exactly what this jaded “Christian” needed.
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Find Cale on Facebook HERE! 

If you enjoyed having Cale on the Blog, let him know in the comments below so we can get him to guest post again in the future!