Fight The Good Fight

I said to a friend recently, "we're not trying to get a hold of the Truth, the Truth has got a hold of us."
The truth more often than not is seen as something separate from Him, the Truth, Life and Way.
I like where it talks about the flesh waring after the spirit and the spirit waring after the flesh. Without knowing Him as our Rest, we resort to carnal tactics.
The Truth is always wanting to make himself known to us in our daily living, as I like to say, in the nasty-now-in-now.
I'm so grateful for the ongoing and much needed illumination the spirit of God brings to me so that I can face life's challenges rather than trying to escape. Learning to live out of my spirit rather than out of my soul.
I wonder if in fact that was one of the issues Paul addressed at one point when he said, "You are living as mere natural men." Natural in the sense even though rebirthed, they were living as if the spirit of the Lord was not in them.
Nothing is as it appears to be. The natural man is fading away daily, but the inward man is being renewed daily.
His grace is the ability to fight this "good fight" of trusting in His faithfulness.

Rich

It's All His Gig

"Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain"

It's interesting seeing how those who have been so bound under law/rule doing have come to see grace much like this quote from the Wizard of Oz.

Meaning, it does not matter at all how much of an ass hole I can be at times, bottom line, It's a done deal, it's all His gig, just rest, or whatever else one likes to mix in there with no sense of having to address behaviour that does not flow out of Him being my life.
Meaning, just maybe my soul needs to partake of the same salvation my spirit has? Of course if one perceives they are crazy-glued to the permanent ON position, this much ado about nothing.

Like a husband or father, though he is a "Christian", flies off in a tirade, fit, at his kids or wife, and then excuses himself by saying, I'm totally accepted in Him. Too bad you just got slimed by my flesh, but hey, I'm forgiven.
Pay no attention to that outburst, I'm not responsible for that anymore. Why, because I'm in Christ.
Hummmmm?

Rich

Sifting

The Parable of the Lost Son

Is it possible that even though the Father demonstrated in many varied ways his total acceptance of his son on his return home, that the son may have had difficulty in believing it? Is it possible the ending of this story was in fact just a new beginning between Father and son? Is it possible that the Father would have to continue to address issues in the son’s life?
Without a progressive awareness of His unchangeable and unconditional love, it would be easy for the son to believe that the Father was in fact picking on him.
Is it possible that some of these issues were in fact issues of the soul?
The Truth will either be my greatest friend or worst enemy.
Is it Truth you are seeking, then be prepared to have your soul shaken (sifted) to the core.
The proof of Father’s love for us is His continuing correction.

Rich

Prayer?

Inigo Montoya: You are sure nobody's follow' us? Vizzini: As I told you, it would be absolutely, totally, and in all other ways inconceivable. No one in Guilder knows what we've done, and no one in Florin could have gotten here so fast. - Out of curiosity, why do you ask? Inigo Montoya: No reason. It's only... I just happened to look behind us and something is there. Vizzini: What? Probably some local fisherman, out for a pleasure cruise, at night... in... eel-infested waters...
Vizzini: INCONCEIVABLE.

[In the boat in the morning] Inigo Montoya: He's right on top of us. I wonder if he is using the same wind we are using.
[Vizzini has just cut the rope The Dread Pirate Roberts is climbing up] Vizzini: HE DIDN'T FALL? INCONCEIVABLE. Inigo Montoya: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

This dialogue prompts the thought about prayer..
Christian, you keep using that word “prayer." There is much that could be said about this thing called prayer I’m sure, but as in this movie, even though Vizzini kept using this word he was most sure of, maybe prayer does not mean what we think it does.

Rich

Who Do You Say That I AM?

Christ in you!
Apart from the Holy Spirits illumination as to some of the depths of this present reality of Christ being our only Life, are we in fact not much more than mere natural men? Meaning, (1 Corinthians 2:13-15) our point of reference is not Him alone but any number of things, and that can encompass many good things, but the good has a tendency to become the enemy (a substitute) of the best, knowing Him as Life.

Rich

It’s a Process

As Christians we appear worse off than the rest of the world because we sometimes show forth Christ and sometimes our self-centered independent self. This inconsistency is unnerving both to those around us and to ourselves. Again, this is not due to our being inherently worse than anyone else. We are merely suffering under the influence of old habits and ways of living.
We spent a lifetime to the point of our salvation living as the world taught us to live. This was an extensive schooling in the fine art of self-centered existence. We were taught by experts and we learned our lessons well. It is not responsible for us to expect to come out from under this teaching quickly or cleanly.
The Father does not expect our instant transformation and we should not expect it either.
Our progress is further slowed by the fact that we still posses a free will. We will be allowed by the Father to make choices every day that we live this life.
As we exercise the freedom to choose to let God lead us, we grow in God and Christ. As we grow in Christ we are led away from the old understandings and habits. I am not encouraged in this matter by any progress I make away from my old self-centered ways. What does encourage me however is the Father’s patience in leading me away from the old ways of living.

The soul requires training in the ways of God. You can see the results of this training in the increasing facility we gain as the schooling goes on. As we submit to God’s progressive killing of the “independent-self” we find it easier to turn to God. In this process we see more of the individual self coming forth. This is sometimes a painfully slow process. There are areas in our lives that require lessons that are repeated (seemingly) millions of times before we begin to get it.