{"id":35504,"date":"2014-05-30T04:00:16","date_gmt":"2014-05-30T12:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/?p=35504"},"modified":"2014-05-29T22:57:50","modified_gmt":"2014-05-30T06:57:50","slug":"blog-readers-i-love-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/blog-readers-i-love-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Hey Blog Readers… I LOVE YOU!"},"content":{"rendered":"
I want to say several things in this post. Here they are in summary:<\/p>\n
So let me explain each point in more detail.<\/p>\n
I’ve been working for several years on this project of trying to understand the violence of God in the Old Testament<\/a>, especially in light of the self-sacrificial, enemy-loving example of Jesus Christ. <\/p>\n I have come to several realizations about this project: <\/p>\n Despite everything I just wrote, I am going to press on and finish the project anyway.<\/p>\n I know, I know. If I am giving up on it, why finish it? Again, for several reasons: <\/p>\n So… if you think I am wrong in the approach to Scripture I have been arguing so far, your concerns may have been justified… I am throwing in the towel.<\/p>\n Of course, if you are enjoying this current project and like where it is going, have no fear… even though I am quitting, I am not quitting. I am going to push on, with only a few minor adjustments going forward. <\/p>\n And this then leads me to the final thing I want say in this post: <\/p>\n There are two main reasons I blog. The first is because I write to keep myself sane by thinking through writing. I have a brain that requires me to write things out in order to think them through. If I did not write, the ideas and questions would bounce around my head and muddle my brain, and I would quickly go insane. I am not exaggerating. Ask my wife. She knows when I haven’t been writing, because I start acting strangely… <\/p>\n I used to just do this on my own, with college-ruled spiral-bound notebooks. I have stacks of these notebooks sitting around my office from when I used to do this in my early teenage and college years. When I started this website\/blog about 13 years ago, I transitioned from writing in notebooks to writing online. This wasn’t necessarily because I wanted others to read what I wrote, but because I could type faster than I could write, and because I thought the internet was a safer place to store my “thoughts” than on paper in my office or even in files on my computer. <\/p>\n Just in the last week or so, several of you have left comments on some of the posts that made me see things in a whole new light and have come to a realization about some things that I have never seen before. Though I run the risk of leaving someone out, I found some of the comments and insights from Cathy and Lisa to be particularly helpful. Thank you, ladies! <\/p>\n I also had some conversations about this topic with my friends Chuck McKnight<\/a> and Ed Underwood<\/a>. Thanks, guys! (And if you like my blog, you should go read theirs!) <\/p>\n But it’s not just these people I mentioned. I love this community. I love you all! I wish we could all hang out in person some time! <\/strong><\/p>\n This might also be a good time to say that I am opening up a forum<\/a> here on the blog to help develop this online community. It’s a bit of an experiment, and I am a bit nervous about it being taken over by religious nuts, but we’ll see what happens… <\/p>\n If you want to start posting on the forum, read the forum rules here<\/a>, and then register here<\/a>. See you there!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If you are a blog reader, I love you! Thanks for reading my blog, interacting on the posts, and helping me think through ideas. May we meet in person sometime. This post explains why I am both abandoning and finishing my book on the violence of God, and also announces that I am starting a Till He Comes community forum. See you there!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35573,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[6,1250,1957,1523,1213],"class_list":{"0":"post-35504","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"tag-blogging","8":"tag-blogging-2","9":"tag-forum","10":"tag-violence-of-god","11":"tag-when-god-pled-guilty","12":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\n\n
I am Going to Finish the Violence of God Project<\/h2>\n
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I Love you All!<\/h2>\n
This leads to the second reason I write: You. Much to my surprise, as I write, I find that there are others around the world who have similar questions and ideas as the ones I am having. As you have interacted with me on these posts and with this idea, I have learned from you, been taught and instructed by you, and have met many “kindred spirits” along the way. I consider many of you my “online friends.” <\/p>\n