The Dance Of The Marionette

Most have seen at one time or another the charming and harmless stories depicted through puppets or marionettes, all being conducted by a puppeteer secluded in some unobtrusive and hidden vantage point above the stage and its wooden actors.
Is it possible that rather than strings as it were being pulled from above, there is a much more sinister plot engaged and implemented from within our very being, please don't dial 911, at least not yet. I am not for a second alluding to the classic adage of, "The devil made me do it" and how that line became so popular years ago through the antics of the TV actor Flip Wilson.
Yet there is hidden deep within the flesh of all people a hidden entity totally obscured to our so called enlightened minds, that one is in fact pulling the strings and keeping people believing they are a bit of all right, that is until the Truth exposes this infestation of lies, sadly mistaken as that which is REAL.

I have often wondered about why the grace of God appears to be reduced to becoming something that seems complimentary to us, as if there is no power or stinging bite to this expression of His life becoming real in a persons life. Grace with a bite, now that's a brain fart eh?
It never has been an issue or question of giving up sin, but rather a giving up of the 'right to myself'. This is clearly unpacked by OZ Chambers in different thoughts I want to include in my continuing thoughts.

"This is where the battle has to be fought. The things that are right, noble, and good from the natural standpoint are the very things that keep us from being God’s best. Once we come to understand that natural moral excellence opposes or counteracts surrender to God, we bring our soul into the center of its greatest battle. Very few of us would debate over what is filthy, evil, and wrong, but we do debate over what is good. It is the good that opposes the best. The higher up the scale of moral excellence a person goes, the more intense the opposition to Jesus Christ. "Those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh . . . ." The cost to your natural life is not just one or two things, but everything. Jesus said, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself. . ." ( Matthew 16:24 ). That is, he must deny his right to himself, and he must realize who Jesus Christ is before he will bring himself to do it. Beware of refusing to go to the funeral of your own independence".

There is a deliberate, defiant, and hostile battle within the soul of man, every minute of everyday, until we go to be with Him, and believe it or not, that is GOOD news, for once again as in ALL things Father is using these dynamic tensions to free us from what has sadly been mistaken for the real vs the Truth.
I am convinced that what has, and continues to blind Christians from the Truth vs that which we have adopted as being real, is our awareness (from a natural standpoint) of our so called, right, noble, and good qualities, virtues that deliberately spit in the face of our True covering.

"For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that you cannot do the things that you would".

I've said it before, that even a blind man can count the number of seeds in an apple, but only God can count the orchards in one seed. I use this to further illustrate my point, being, it is only the Truth of God's Word that is able to penetrate and expose, make clear what the truth is regarding who we think we are, the 'real us', but not the true us.

"Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account".

Maybe the TRUE rest that is the birthright of the believer is ignored in light (pardon the pun) of what we have been led to believe about ourselves and our virtuous and good qualities? Now picture in this pristine setting of our pompous display of self-righteousness, the father wanting to offer His gift of love to us? We eagerly embrace it only in so doing His Word has brought onto the screen of our understanding something so loathsome, so vial, so wicked it actually gags us, the discovery of our absolute and total depravity.
The kicker is that it was always there, but camouflaged by what we thought was real.

Stay tuned, there's more to come, and once again, please say hi when you visit me, I won't bite.

Rich