Amazing Grace

amazing grace, how sweet the sound
i once was lost, but now i'm found
was blind, but now i see
it was grace, that taught my heart to fear
and grace my fears relieved
how precious did that grace appear
the hour, i first believed
my chains are gone,
i've been set free and like a flood His mercy rains
unending love, amazing grace

Rich

Did You Know

"Those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever. "But as for you, Daniel, conceal these words and seal up the book until the end of time; many will go back and forth, and knowledge will increase."

Never before in the history of the world has there ever been more of an increasing knowledge, information growing at an exponential rate.
Within the vastness of the super highway called the internet, now at a click of a key stroke, one can instantly download pretty much anything they are looking for.
Some how information has become the new sought after god displacing the one who has called us to be a living part of His heavenly family.

Let me say this, second hand information is nothing but dust blowing in the wind at best, but, impartation, being in a place, attitude of heart whereby we are receiving every word God the Father is speaking to us, we will see an unimaginable display of that same Word that was from before the beginning of the world, once again being fleshed out in those who receive with meekness the engrafted word, saving, transforming the dust of our being into living lights now and throughout eternity!

Rich

Growing In Grace

The following are some thoughts I shared in response to a piece I read over at Lydia’s site, you can read it here.

Lydia,

“So yeah getting revelation and all is great, it's the walking out of our life with God day by day, moment by moment, learning to lean and depend on him that can be VERY HARD. Like I said the concept is simple and glorious, freeing and refreshing, but the actual 'doing' of believing to me can be difficult. I'd saying believing is work.......but when we do get to the point of resting, well yes, it is easy.”

From my perspective, I see it not as being ‘mission hard’ or ‘mission difficult’ but actually ‘mission impossible’. Otherwise grace isn’t at all what it truly is.
I have seen and continue to see ever more clearly how His great love for me is allowing me to discover, as our brother Paul said, “There is nothing good in my flesh”. What before was hidden from my understanding was that any so-called goodness that is not a result of His life in me as me is nothing but total depravity. The chip that was embedded in all of mankind as a result of Adam’s sin operates within the knowledge of good and evil. We, in our cleverness (lol), have segregated one from the other, but in fact they are one and the same.

Here’s a thought - imagine Jesus saying this: “Son, if you continue to abide within this relationship I of which I have called you to be a part, get set for a wild ride. I’ve got this incredible “concept” I want to share with you, and as you focus on the concept, you will know the concept and the concept will set you free.”~HA!

I see our loving father using everything that touches our lives to keep us in a place whereby grace, along with any thing dealing with our continued growth in Him, will become a continual impartation rather than burdensome information!
I love it this verse from James where our Father is directing us, “With meekness [to] receive the engrafted word of God wherein it will continue to save your soul.”

Our brother Paul (who in my opinion was walking experientially in a wonderful measure of grace) beseeched his Father to remove his ‘thorn in the flesh’. It was within the context of this situation that he discovered a whole new dimension of grace of which he previously had no comprehension:
Because of the extravagance of those revelations, and so I wouldn't get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan's angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! At first I didn't think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then he told me,

My grace is enough; it's all you need.
My strength comes into its own in your weakness.
Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ's strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become.

Trust me, what was made known to Paul was much more than conceptual information. It was an impartation, and that impartation is, in my opinion, all part of our birthright.

Many want to “get it” from their heads into their hearts, the reality that is ours in Christ, thing is, it’s completely the opposite. It says the (knowledge) love of God has been shed abroad within our hearts already, but, that is being translated into the warp and woof of our being, i.e. our soul, Christ being fully formed, established in us as us.
This process does not take place without it being contested on every turn, sort of reminds me of the promised land being entered into by the second generation of those led out of Egypt, only to discover within this idyllic piece of real-estate that was theirs, it was occupied by squatters unwilling to be evicted by the owners!

Rich

Divine Ignorance

In being born into a fallen world and if that reality has been hidden from us which it has, is it any wonder we dumbly resist any so called alternate certainty that speaks contrary to its veracity?

The following quotes are from the movie The Matrix, which beautifully express what I am trying to illustrate.

“If real is what you can feel, smell, taste and see, then 'real' is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain.”
“I see it in your eyes. You have the look of a man who accepts what he sees because he is expecting to wake up. Ironically, that's not far from the truth.”
“I know *exactly* what you mean. Let me tell you why you're here. You're here because you know something. What you know you can't explain, but you feel it. You've felt it your entire life, that there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but its there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad. It is this feeling that has brought you to me. Do you know what I'm talking about?”
“The Matrix.” “Do you want to know what it is?” “The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us, even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work... when you go to church... when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.
What truth? That you are a slave, Neo, like everyone else you were born into bondage, born into a prison that you cannot taste or see or touch a prison for your mind.”

“For the god of this world has blinded the unbelievers' minds [that they should not discern the truth], preventing them from seeing the illuminating light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, Who is the Image and Likeness of God.”

God has called us out from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light, but this illumination will not circumvent or usurp our ability to freely and fully choose to trust Him to solidify in us an substance and evidence not founded upon so called outer evidence.
If there is one constant I am learning it is this, nothing is as what it appears to be!

I want to share some thoughts (from Bill Landon’s book, The Devil You Don’t Know) I feel enhance our choosing to go on with the Father in spite of all that would try to keep us safe and lifeless.

“There are times in every Christian’s life when we are offered the opportunity by the Father to go on with Him. These times represent an offer from the father to grow both in our understanding of Him in our relationship with Him. The growth in understanding and the growth in depth of relationship are linked. We cannot increase the depth of our relationship with the father (or with anyone else for that matter) without an increased understanding and vice versa. Ironically, this growth begins with a sort of ignorance. At those times when we choose to accept the Father’s offer for a greater level of understanding we do so without a firm idea of where the journey will lead us. This is not a bad thing and it is certainly nothing to be ashamed of. The Father never gives us the entire story at the beginning of any period of growth because such a revelation would rob us of the opportunity to walk by faith. The operation of faith is both a blessing and an essential element of our spiritual growth. On a darker note, we are not given the whole story at the outset of any opportunity to grow with God because if we knew some of the places we would have to pass through we might well opt not to take the journey.

What I mean by the opportunity to go on with God is this: we are given some revelational insight and are asked by God if we would like to go deeper in that understanding. When we answer “yes” to this offer it is almost always an answer given without having any understanding of where the journey will take us. I use the phrase “almost always” instead of “always” only to shy away from using absolutes.
Nevertheless, you should know that I believe that the Father never gives us a complete revelation at the start of any journey. Our ignorance in these instances is not a subject for judgment or of shame. We cannot possibly know beyond what we are shown. In these cases we are sharing in the experience of Abraham: “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.” (Hebrews 11:8)
It is incumbent to a life that is to be lived primarily by faith that we be able to say yes to God’s proposals without knowing all (or, possibly, any) of the details. This is why I call this kind of lack of information a divine ignorance. As I mentioned before, if we knew some of the places we would have to go through to take the journey we might very likely stay at home. I know that is true for me as I am not by nature a great risk taker.”

Rich

Mad World

All around me are familiar faces
Worn out places, worn out faces
Bright and early for their daily races
Going nowhere, going nowhere
Their tears are filling up their glasses
No expression, no expression
Hide my head I want to drown my sorrow
No tomorrow, no tomorrow

And I find it kinda funny
I find it kinda sad
The dreams in which I'm dying
Are the best I've ever had
I find it hard to tell you
I find it hard to take
When people run in circles
It's a very, very mad world mad world

Children waiting for the day they feel good
Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday
Made to feel the way that every child should
Sit and listen, sit and listen
Went to school and I was very nervous
No one knew me, no one knew me
Hello teacher tell me what's my lesson
Look right through me, look right through me

And I find it kinda funny
I find it kinda sad
The dreams in which I'm dying
Are the best I've ever had
I find it hard to tell you
I find it hard to take
When people run in circles
It's a very, very mad world ... world
Enlarge your world
Mad world