Perfect, But Incomplete

Like most things, I think we see just about everything incomplete, especially that hidden within the scriptures. I can just hear those saying, “But it says were complete in Him.”
I see it much the same way only different in respect to the creation of Man, God saying of his handiwork,” This is very good,” but as good as this was, man, was incomplete.

What is the reasoning that most of us have that seems to negate the ongoing needed transformation of that part of who we are, e.g. our soul, it is yet very incomplete, but His grace that in a instant perfected our spiritual union with God becoming our loving, caring Father is the same grace wanting to bring that perfection into this part of who’s we are!

“Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection.”

An apple in the middle of the summer is perfectly right for where it is in its growth (transformation), but I sincerely doubt you would enjoy eating it, but wait until it is fully processed in its continued maturation, and then, wow, what a delicious treat.
How much more so us in our continued maturation, moving, being changed from ‘glory to glory’, we’re either settling for a form of godliness or we’re pondering on the Mystery of Godliness and our being intertwined in this forward, onward God journey.

I’ll have more to share on this soon.

Rich

I Relinquish

I am so grateful for the deepness of His love for me speaking into those unknown, unrecognizable places within me, bring forth an undeniable definition to who’s I am!
Father in his most perfect way was messing with my heart the other day, Saturday morning, as I took my over the speed limit excitable Breaded Collie for walk out into the winter wonderland of over a foot of freshly fallen snow.

I guess at a heart level I have been secretly harboring a real loathing/resentment toward winter, the coldness, ice etc, especially having to work out IN it every year.

As I was walking Atticus, my treasured friend and pup, I was awestruck in the pristine splendor and beauty that captured my heart. I stopped and saw Him right there in the midst of something that has never been a friend to me, Mr. Winter. It was like breathing what then came forth from my heart, “Father I relinquish this dislike/hatred for winter, I choose to let it go, I no longer want to miss seeing/knowing you in any season that I must go through.

In a heart beat, I was instantly freed to further experience His abiding closeness in and to me as I breathed in the cold morning winter air, knowing that a door had just been opened up to me to dive even further into experiencing His love for me, even within, “Winter.”

Rich

Broken Dreams

I have been reading the story of Joseph lately and wanted to share the following.

Joseph is entering God’s rock tumbling machine. He’s going to be between a Rock and hard place for many years.
When God’s purpose is at work, you can expect others to be jealous. In reading the story of Joseph it is clearly visible that he was insensitive and not without sin, and we see the wickedness of his brothers. But in all of this, God’s higher purposes were set into motion.

Often we have no idea what God has in mind for us, but his purposes will be fulfilled. Where sin abounds grace does much more abound (Romans 5:20). God’s eternal purpose is at work whether we consciously feel it or not. Sometimes when we don’t fell something we wonder if God is working. But the fact that you don’t feel something proves nothing. God works silently behind the scenes.
At the bottom of the brother’s motivation (regarding Joseph) was: “We shall see what will become of his dreams.”

Rich

Discovering His Love

A situation occurred last week wherein my attention was drawn to discovering something that happened after the fact.
I’m not even sure now looking back on it as to what it was; all I know is Father pointed it out to me. “Do you know why you didn’t react in that particular situation; it was because of my love freeing you.”

The weird thing about it was in pondering this situation it seemed perfectly natural for me to simply respond the way I did, and had it not been for Father pointing this out to me I would have totally missed it.

What I saw in this was a wonderful sense that He was doing far more than any of my senses were able to detect from deep within me.
It became startling clear to me if this most natural response came forth from me as a result of His love freeing me, then I could continue to rest in the security of this same love to bring forth all He desired in my life.
Wow, what a discovery!

I found what Darrin and Amy where sharing over at the Free Believers Network so illustrated even further what Father was making real to and in me. Take a listen to, "The Essence of Christianity."
In my opinion Father is so wanting to bring further revelation and understanding into my/our lives regarding the fact that we are alive only because of the life of another living in us as us.

Rich

Preoccupied

Don’t you just love it when you get past the clouded symptoms and begin to see what might be causing them?
Such is the case with me, in further reading from Brennan Manning’s book, The Signature of Jesus; Father put His finger on a real nerve.
The following is but a quick quote from much more I want to share possibly later, bottom line, this unveiling from within me was and is so liberating.

Rich

“In my personal life the greater part of each year is devoted to writing, thinking, and speaking about God, Jesus, faith, contemplative prayer, the gospel lifestyle, and so forth. It is a curious phenomenon that such noble Christian enterprises distance me from God. (I assume that this is true for all Christian writers, preachers and teachers, as well as songwriters, musicians, and singers). Constantly holding forth about God does not of itself lead to being with God. Writing about God somehow takes me away from directly responding to God in the present moment. Preaching about Jesus somehow clouds my presence to the Reality I am proclaiming. In both situations what is missing is any sense of felt intimacy with God through faith. Yet my beliefs remain vigorous and rooted.”

“Seek first the kingdom of God.” This requires taking time out from family, friends, career, ministry, even ‘doing good’ to enter into the great silence of God.
Alone in that silence, the noise within will subside and the Voice of Love will be heard. Without such silence we will drown in the inner cacophony of dialogues, encounters, meetings, discussions, and conferences where there is much speaking and little listening.”

Myth-Understood

These lines from The Signature of Jesus speak of His doings in my life-that you Father!!

The pernicious myth “once converted, fully converted” creates the impression that in one blinding bolt of salvation Christ expects our lives to be freed from contradictions and perplexities. The curse of perfectionism triggers episodes of depression and anxiety.
Who will acquit us of guilt? Who will deliver us from the bondage of perfectionism and failures? Once again, it is the signature of Jesus that rescues us from ourselves.

The crucified Christ reminds us that despair and disillusionment are not terminal but signs of impending resurrection. What lives beyond the Cross is the liberating power of Love, freeing us from the ego-centeredness that says, “All I am is what I think I am and nothing more.”

Mature Christians are those who have failed and learned to live gracefully with their failure.

I love how Father spoke this to Brennan: “I expect more failure from you than you expect from yourself.”

Rich

"A little child shall lead them....."

“For an answer Jesus called over a child, whom he stood in the middle of the room, and said, "I'm telling you, once and for all, that unless you return to square one and start over like children, you're not even going to get a look at the kingdom, let alone get in. Whoever becomes simple and elemental again, like this child, will rank high in God's kingdom. What's more, when you receive the childlike on my account, it's the same as receiving me.”

When the disciples were discussing who should be thew greatest, Jesus took a little child in His arms and said, ‘Unless you become like that, you will never see the kingdom of heaven.’ He did not put up a little child as an ideal; if he had, he would have destroyed the whole principle of His teaching. If humility were put up as an ideal, it would serve only to increase pride. Humility is not an ideal, it is the unconscious result of the life being rightly related to God and centered in Him.
Our Lord is dealing with ambition, and had He put up a little child as a standard, it would simply have altered the manifestation of ambition. What is a little child? We all know what a child is until we are asked, and then we find we do not know. We can mention his extra-goodness, or his extra-badness, but none of this is the child himself. We know implicitly what a child is, and we know implicitly what Jesus Christ means, but as soon as we try to put it into words it is escapes.
A child works from an unconscious principle within, and if we are born again and are obeying the Holy Spirit, we shall consciously manifest humility all along the line. We shall easily be the servant of all men, not because it is our ideal, but because we cannot help it. Our eye is not consciously on our service, but on our Saviour. There is nothing more awful than conscious humility, it is the most Satanic type of pride.

Rich

Trouble and Peace

“Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you.” (John 14:27)

As sure as the sun is coming up today, we will experience what Jesus said, “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”
We are surrounded on all sides by distress, trouble, seen and unseen forces but, in the midst of all of this He the Prince of Peace is there IN us wanting, desiring to awaken within us a knowing though these things are actually touching our lives, they are not the final reality.

At no point are we kissing our brains good by pretending that what I see, feel, sense, is but an illusion, but in the very midst of all of this there is a way of escape, and that is in knowing something! This something is the overflow of being called by God the Father himself into an eternal ever lasting relationship that begins now. It is in this secret place He shares the secrets of His love for us. Perfect love is His prescribed medicine.

Here is something to ponder on where you are at, what you are facing, going through. “Your life is hid with Christ in God.” Have we allowed the wonder of it to enwrap us round and soak us through until we begin to realize the ample room there is to grow there? Let’s live in the secret place of the Most High, absolutely secure and safe.

Let Him the Father of your spirit speak peace to your heart this day!

Rich

Blinded By Truth

The caption that came with this image was; “we are often blinded by the truth, even when it is right before our eyes.”

I find the Truth defined in the person of God the Father’s son, Jesus Christ is most relevant no matter how many years have gone by or will pass.
“Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever.”
The quotes I’m using here are from about ten years ago or so from the book, The Signature of Jesus, by Brennan Manning.

“There has never been a time in Christian history when the name of Jesus Christ so frequently is mentioned and the content of his life and teaching so frequently ignored. The seduction of counterfeit discipleship has made it easy to be a Christian. In a climate of mutual admiration, the radical demands of the gospel have dissolved into verbal Alka-Seltzer, and prophetic preaching has become virtually impossible. By and large, American (and please know that this is not relegated to just the USA) Christians today are spoon-fed on the pablum of popular religion.”

“The gospel of Jesus Christ is no Pollyanna tale for the neutral: It is a cutting knife, rolling thunder, and convulsive earthquake in the human spirit. The Word lives. But in the words of Bonhoeffer, many Christians “have gathered like ravens around the carcass of the cheap grace and there have drunk the poison which has killed the following of Christ.”

“If the gospel were proclaimed without compromise, the roster of card-carrying Christians in this country would shrink. Most televangelist distorts the gospel. Therein lies the Cross except as a theological relic, no clarion call to the body of Christ that we are crucified to the world and the world to us. In half an hour the electronic evangelist has to convert you, heal you, and guarantee your success. Everybody is a winner; nobody loses his business, fails in marriage, or lives in poverty.
If you are an attractive nineteen-year-old and accept Jesus, you become Miss America; if you have a drinking problem, you conquer alcoholism; if you are in the National Football League, you automatically go to the Pro Bowl.”

Incredible as it may sound, the Word itself has become a source of division and self-righteousness. Jesus said that the foremost sign of discipleship would be our love for one another. “A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:34-35). His teaching is unequivocal here. We would be known as his followers not because we are chaste, celibate, honest, sober, or respectable; not because we are church-going, Bible-toting, or Psalm-singing: We would be recognized as disciples primarily by our deep and delicate respect for one another, our cordial love impregnated with reverence for the sacred dimension of the human personality.”

“We have come a long, sad journey from the first century, when pagans exclaimed with awe and wonder, ‘see how these Christians love one another!’ to the twentieth century, when all over the world nonbelievers dismiss us with contempt; ‘see how these Christians hate one another!’
We have deprived the world of the only witness the Son of God asked for during the supper of His love. Our present disunity cannot be God’s will for us; it is a scandal to angels in heaven and human beings on earth.”

Rich

Hidden With Christ

The caption under this picture reads as following; "A woman's heart should be so hidden in Christ that a man should have to seek Him to find her."
This spoke powerfully to me of Him hiding as it were Himself, not from me but for me, to seek Him with all that is within me!

"I remind every follower of Jesus that discipleship means nothing less than being ready to obey Christ as unconditionally as the first disciples. Only he who believes is obedient, and only he who is obedient believes. Never confuse success in ministry or knowledge of the Bible or mastery of Christian principles and ideas with Holiness and authentic discipleship. They may well be the corruption of discipleship if your life is not hidden with Christ in God."

Rich

An Opened Door

For this is the love of God that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.
Yikes, commandments, what’s that got to do with grace and living outside of a yoke, is there something I’m missing here?

Every prayer the Son of God prayed is going to come true, not one word will fall to the ground; it will accomplish that which it was sent to do!

The Father has opened a door for any and all to fully experience his offer of life in its abundance all revolving out of His heart of desire and intimacy with us.
I so appreciate how Father was making his heart more real to me from what I read here in Brennan Manning’s book, “The Signature of Jesus.”

“Further along in his ministry, Jesus would say: “The Father and I are one,” indicating an intimacy of life and love that defy description. To Phillip he would say, “He who sees me sees the Father.” And again, “It is the Father living in me who is doing this work.”
Jesus is the human face of God, with all the attitudes, attributes, and characteristics of the Father.
So many Christians I know stop at Jesus. They remain on the Way without going where the Way leads them-to the Father. They want to be brothers and sisters without being sons and daughters. In them, the lament of Jesus in John 17 is fulfilled: “Father of all goodness, the world has not known you.”
As the Father loved him, so Jesus would love us and invite us to do the same. “Love one another as I have loved you.”

Rich

The Secret Things

The secret things belong to the Lord and unto those he chooses to reveal them to.
Our true identities will forever at least this side of heaven remain a well kept and guarded secret, as it were a secret identity, and no one apart from God the Father is able to share this secret with us.
Who we are will only be defined in and through His heart of love for us, a love that knows no short cuts in going the distance to win our trust and affection.
Although the lies we may still believe are designed to bring havoc and destruction into our daily living, it is His nature to destroy that which is trying to destroy us.
What a Saviour this one who calls me Brother and his friend, who whispers in my ear. "You Are Loved!

Rich

Celebrate the Darkness

“The contemplative is not the man or woman who has fiery visions of the cherubim…but simply he who has risked his mind in the deepest desert beyond language and beyond ideas where God is encountered in the nakedness of pure trust, that is to say, in the surrender of our poverty and incompleteness, in order no longer to clench our minds in a cramp upon themselves, as if thinking made us exist. The message the contemplative offers is not that you need to find your way through the language and problems that today surround God, but whether you understand or not, God loves you, is present to you, lives in you, dwells in you, calls you, saves you, and offers you an understanding and light which are like nothing you have ever found in books or heard in sermons.”

Rich

Now Faith Is

In our words and deeds we give shape and form to our faith every day. We make people a little better or leave them a little worse. We either affirm or deprive, enlarge or diminish the lives of others.

Rich

Fire

I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled?

When disciples surrender to the mystery of the fire of the Spirit that burns within, when we submit to the truth that we reach life only through death, when we acknowledge that the grain of wheat must vanish into the ground, that Jonah must be buried in the belly of the whale, that the alabaster jar of self must be broken if others are to perceive the sweet fragrance of Christ, when we respond to the call of Jesus, which is not come to a church meeting but “Come to me,” then the limitless power of the Holy Spirit will be unleashed with astounding force. The discipline of the secret will be a compelling sign to the Church and the culture. The body of Christ will be plunged into a revolution.

Our God is a consuming fire!

The rule of His reign is not a matter of words but of power, a source of transformation and information. The spiritual life is simply life itself lived with the vision of faith.

From the book, Storytelling, Imagination and Faith, William Bausch shares this.

“An old Mississippi country preacher believed in his bones that the Word of God is a two –edged sword. One Sunday morning he mounted the pulpit and prayed: ‘Oh Lord, give thy servant this mornin’ the eyes of the eagle and the wisdom of the owl; connect his soul with the gospel telephone in the central skies; illuminate his brow with the Sun of Heaven; possess his mind with love for the people; turpentine his imagination; grease his lips with possum oil; electrify his brain with lightning’ of the Word; put perpetual motion in his arms; fill him plumb full of dynamite of The glory; anoint him all over with the kerosene of salvation, and set him on fire.”

Rich

Though He Slay Me

This is going to be brief, my good friend Ron who had spent some time with us coming all the way here (to Ontario) from the Maritimes back a few weeks ago has been back home trying to walk out what Father has been bringing to light regarding his circumstances and situations within his family/marriage.
I spoke with him three times over this past weekend, the last call from him yesterday was from all human perspective very heart crushing news.

When there is more to share, and with his permission I will continue with updates, in the mean time I am asking for Father to continue to comfort him, and trusting Him to touch Ron in any way he chooses to do this.
If Father is speaking to your heart regarding this situation without knowing any of the facts, please embrace His nudges.

Rich

Finding our Place

The unobtrusive and unbreakable connection that is happening through out the earth is one of the heart, and the designer and choreographer is no less than God the Father. Scripture talks about, “A three fold cord is not easily broken.” I see that three fold cord being Father, Son and Holy Spirit, (faith, hope-love) intertwined with me and with so many others that I am slowly meeting this side of heaven, wow, talk about God having a very big house.

I was out this morning walking my dog Atticus (a Bearded Collie) communing with Father, basking in the unseasonable warmth for the 2nd of November, but also savouring the warm and deep affection of his heart for me. Aren’t you glad that He is the one that defines what it means and how it looks to have a spirit-soul and body connection with Him? The kicker is that each and every day it could look just a tad different if in fact a relating, connecting with Him in a way/s that you’ve not yet experienced.

As I continued with my walk it was still resonating within my heart something I read the other day while waiting for Margi to come back from her shopping.
I am slowly but surely becoming more and more a ruined and broken man as Father continues to invade my soul.
Here a few of the things that lovingly wrecked my day.

“The following year, Dominique, a lean, muscular six-foot, two inches, always wearing a navy blue beret, learned at fifty-four that he was dying of inoperable cancer. With the community’s permission he moved to a poor neighbourhood in Paris and took a job as night watchman at a factory. Returning home every morning at 8:00 A.M. he would go directly to a little park were the marginal people, drifters, winos, “has-beens,” dirty old men who ogled the girls passing by.

Dominique never criticized, scolded, or reprimanded them. He laughed, told stories, shared his candy, accepted them just as they were. From living so long out of the inner sanctuary, he gave off a peace, a serene sense of self-possession and hospitality of heart that caused cynical young men and defeated old men to gravitate toward him like bacon toward eggs.
His simple witness lay in accepting others as they were without questions and allowing them to make themselves at home in his heart. Dominique was the most non-judgemental person I have ever known. He loved with the heart of Jesus Christ.
One day, when the ragtag group of rejects asked him to talk about himself, Dominique gave them a thumbnail description of his life. Then he told them with quiet conviction that God loved them tenderly and stubbornly, that Jesus had come for rejects and outcasts just like themselves. His witness was credible because the Word was enfleshed on his bones. Later one old-timer said, “The dirty jokes, vulgar language, and leering at girls just stopped.”

One morning Dominique failed to appear on his park bench. The men grew concerned. A few hours later, he was found dead on the floor of his cold-water flat. He died in the obscurity of a Parisian slum.
Dominique Voillaume never tried to impress anybody, never wondered if his life was useful or his witness meaningful. He never felt he had to do something great for God. He did keep a journal. It was found shortly after his death in a drawer of the nightstand by his bed. His last entry read: “All that is not the love of God has no meaning for me. I can truthfully say that I have no interest in anything but the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. If God wants it to, my life will be useful through my word and witness. If he wants it to, my life will bear fruit through my prayers and sacrifices. But the usefulness of my life is his concern, not mine. It would be indecent of me to worry about that.”

In Dominique Voillaume I saw the reality of a life lived entirely for God and for others. After an all-night prayer vigil by his friends, he was buried in an unadorned pine box in the backyard of the Little Brother’s house in Saint-Remy. A simple wooden cross over his grave with the inscription “Dominique Voillaume, a witness to Jesus Christ” said it all. More than seven thousand people gathered from all over Europe to attend his funeral.

Any spirituality that does not lead from a self-centered to an other-centered mode of existence is bankrupt. For many of us the journey out of preoccupation with self begins with self-acceptance. In order to live for others I must be able to live with myself.
Years ago the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung asked:
What if I should discover that the least of the brothers Jesus, the one crying out most desperately for reconciliation , forgiveness, and acceptance, is myself? That I myself stand in need of the alms of my own kindness, that I myself am the enemy who must be loved, what then? Will I do for myself what I do for others?

Rich

A Passion for Truth

Do you share in this same passion of desiring with all of your heart, a longing to know what/who the truth is. Remember that there is no ability to know the ‘truth’ apart from the person who declares he IS the ‘truth,’ God’s son Jesus Christ.
It’s out of the generosity of his spirit we are invited to pursue the one who has been pursuing us from before the foundations of the world. Hopefully we can be as generous with one another as we share our experiences of how the truth of who’s we are and what it means to be loved and to live loved. What an opportunity to see so much more of who He is, the Truth.

There’s a couple of things I want to point out here in a way of trying to see things a bit more objectively in our journey of discovering the truth, take a peak at this from Barb over at ‘A Former Leader’s Journey’-Same God-New Covenant: Speaking to the Church, and over at The Free Believers Network with Darin Hufford in the pod cast, “Tradition.”


The traditions and teachings of men have according to Jesus made the word of God of none affect.
As Barb so clearly pointed out in her thoughts, there was a time when God spoke to people within a group, or as a nation, it was a uniform blanket, and one size fits all sort of thing. The door that Jesus opened up to us within this dispensation of grace, has moved us away from the group dynamic speak. It is a personal one on one engagement between Him the Father of our spirit and the individual believer, knowing and experiencing Him personally.

To borrow a quote from Albert Camus, “The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that our very act of existence is an act of rebellion.”
It was and is for freedom that Christ set us free. The offer he extends is totally available to us in this hour no more or less than it was 2000 years ago, “If you continue in this relationship I have called you to be engaged in, you will know the truth, and the truth will make/set you free.

Father I pray you will apply the saving, keeping, delivering caustic grace and love we stand in need of to strip away from within us those traditions that are lifeless and have stolen our heart affections from you our living Hope!

Rich