Parakalein

So many things people do go un-noticed.

One of my alma maters, Nyack College, Nyack NY www.nyack.edu/homecoming elected me "Alumnus of the Year" for "Transformational Ministry".  I am still unsure who nominated me for this honor.  I am sure that it reflects my life long passion to "make a difference in people's life" and "to help people make sense of non-sense".

"Transformational Atonement" a concept I began presenting a year ago fosters the idea that while Jesus died for our sins for we could not atone for our own wronging doing, he did not die because an angry wrathful God needed a blood sacrifice.  Jesus died to transform the way we live by teaching us to "be willing to sacrifice everything to be set free of trying to hold on to things and be free to let go and gain the peace and love that is transformational".  Transformational atonement sees God's working in Christ as leading us to "be not conformed to the way the world lives and thinks but to be transformed by the renewing of your minds" (Romans12:2).  The renewed mind thinks as God originally created us to think:  "it is not only about me it is always about us".

So I trust you do not hear pridefulness in my blogging about this honor for it is the pain and suffering of my life that has led me to believe in "Transformational Atonement" as a parallel concept to "Substitutionary Atonement".

The award will be presented on Saturday October 13th which happens to be my brothers birthday.  He died suddenly three years ago and his loss, the pain and suffering that it brought into my life is part of where the focus of "Transformational Atonement" came from.  God literally transformed the way my mind was thinking into a renewed sense of God's presence in all things.

I thank God for this honor for all the good that I do as a reflection of the goodness of God in all things and in all people.