Charming Appearances

Wouldn’t it be a whole lot easier if somehow those with serious problems were tattooed in a highly visible way (maybe on their foreheads) to denote these unobservable issues?
This goes along well with what I shared here on my other blog, Warning Labels.

Say for example a person was a child molester and tattooed with C M, a rapist R, a crack addict CA, wife beater WB, a religious-moral-ethical-good person R etc, but unfortunately there are no magic solutions to readily being alerted to that hidden deep within the heart of humanity.

What none of us sees apart from the exposing discerning view of God is our total and complete depravity which has permeated all of those born from the loins of the first Adam, we were born in sin and shaped in iniquity!
It is imperative that this be understood from the get go, Jesus did not come into the world to condemn or judge us, but to bring out of his unconditional love for us, a way of escape, but that way would be meaningless unless we owned up to what he exposed in the heart. This was unmistakably presented to those who claimed they could actually see or know what was in their hearts. The story revolves around Jesus healing a blind man, he pushes the envelope in saying, “I have come into the world to bring sight to the blind, but for those who say they ‘can’ see, they will remain in their blindness.”

Another case in point is when Jesus called the religious guys the offspring of Satan, “You are of your father the devil” he said to them. Please keep in mind this description was not pined solely on this demographic.
The flesh Jesus said at best only replicates the flesh, thing is, that hidden impetus within our humanity known as the father of lies and all religion, is a shape shifting lying prince of darkness, masquerading as an angel of light. The overt readily recognizable depiction of what we commonly call the flesh observed as a killer, a drunkard, a prostitute, a thief etc. is quite visible but, the shape shifting one in humanity is equally great at morphing himself through others as he did and continues to do and the recognition of this is much harder to discern.

The story of the two sons in the gospel account in Luke 15 is a classic highly defined picture of what I am saying here. The overt in your face fleshly behaviour of the younger son who runs off into pleasure-vile with his father’s money is not easily mistakable, but the older son who stayed home was seen as righteous, good and a loving son.
The bewitching or our being charmed is as close to that which is hidden within our flesh, thank God he has made a knowable way of escape!

Rich

Appearing to be Real

Impostors in the Spirit prefer appearances to reality. Rationalization begins with a look in the mirror. We don’t like the sight of ourselves as we really are, so we try cosmetics, makeup, the right light, and the proper accessories to develop an acceptable image of ourselves. We rely on the stylish disguise that has made us look good or at least look away from our true self. Self-deception mortgages our sinfulness and prevents us from seeing ourselves as we really are—ragamuffins.

I really don’t know of a better description of how religion in any flavor does what it does best, covers up, masks not a defect, but the defiance within fallen man.
But is it any wonder that it should be any different, meaning, the father of lies-religion is a master of disguise, as it were transforming himself (an angel of darkness) into a angel of light!

The quote was from The Ragamuffin Gospel.

While we were in conference we were infiltrated by spies pretending to be Christians, who slipped in to find out just how free true Christians are. Their ulterior motive was to reduce us to their brand of servitude. We didn't give them the time of day. We were determined to preserve the truth of the Message for you.

Rich

Disturbing Grace

It seems I am stumbling into/upon more and more individuals who are experiencing a reality (like a Son-rise within their soul) that they never thought possible, nor the pain that is coupled with it.

This so reminds me of the scene in the movie, The Wizard Of Oz, when Dorothy's dog Toto begins pulling back on the curtain being used to hide the shenanigans of an old and decrepit man, masquerading as the Great Oz, and with his best trickery, bellows out, 'Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain'.
As an additional thought regarding the Oz story, didn't Dorothy, as well as her three companions already have what they thought only the Great Oz could give them, but were totally blinded from this truth?

If we were hard wired as it were in the re-birthing to be defined by God the Father's love, then anything less than that will continually create a cheap and disturbing placebo within us.

When Love, His love begins to break through in a persons life, it is in my opinion, much like the scene in the Bible where it says that Jesus came to Jericho and then leaving it, there was this blind beggar named Bartimaeus, who began to yell out loudly, 'Jesus Son of David, have mercy upon me'.

It goes on to say, those around Bartimaeus sternly reprimanded him for not exercising more dignity and restraint, and yet in spite of their scorning (chastising) him, he yelled all the louder, what a painful but hilarious scene.

Jesus hears the hub-bub and says to those trying to muffle Bartimaeus, bring him here to me, and he ends up regaining his sight.
In light of one of the quotes below, it is this reality of His love that begins to evoke, penetrate a persons soul which causes in my words, birth pangs, much like the labor pains of a very pregnant woman about to explode if she isn't soon delivered.

In the face of what APPEARS to be real, the looks upon the faces of my fellow Christian brothers who 'appear' to have it all together, are no longer able to stop me from becoming the biggest (fool) horses ass in many counties. (To borrow a line from the movie, Field Of Dreams, where the role Kevin Costner is playing, he decides to plow under his corn field in lue of building a baseball field in its place, which was pure insanity in light of needing the cash from his corn crop to try and offset an impending bankruptcy).

Life is designed to cooperate with what Jesus said would happen as a result of being in this world, 'In the world you will have trouble-pressures, multiplied many times over'. This distress is designed for the purpose of being used in His skillful and loving hands to free us from the lies, you know, those lies we've all bought into, thinking we can live this Christian life, or believing we have the where-with-all to deal with the shit kicking that WILL happen.

Seems to me it is a life long journey of staying in this living, loving orbit, revolving around the Son, and in so doing, the progressive discovery of being extricated from the lies...'you will know the Truth and the Truth will set you free'!

Grace has been given a bad rap especially seen from the eyes and hearts of those 'going through the wringer' of life, maybe for more than just the first or second time.
Seeing what they perceive is the work or fruit of God in another's life whereby whenever they experience life's dumping on them, they seem to bounce back good as new, seemingly with the slightest of ease. Not realizing that what they think is the grace of God operating in their lives, is but them relying solely on what they have by virtue of heredity, and that will never be enough to withstand the storms of life, and in fact will rob them of being intimately acquainted with Him in the fellowship of His sufferings.

Thank God for the tsunami effects of His stubborn love awakening such seemingly out of control desperation in the souls of men and women throughout the earth. So many are desiring to hush them up like a questioning and fidgety child in some mausoleum called a church, asking 'Why, am feeling so empty, why is nothing making any sense no matter how hard I try to serve God'.
I am so grateful that Father has his priorities clearly fixed in His heart regarding those he IS disturbing with His wonderful grace...Just like Peter, we say to those noisy moms with their crying babies, don't call us, we'll call you, BUT, Jesus hears that and says, 'Bring the children unto Me'!

Amazing His Disturbing Grace!

Rich


I can TOTALLY relate to your story. TOTALLY!Thanks for your raw honesty. It makes me feel less "weird". It can be very lonely trying to describe some of those feelings to other christians who appear to have it all together. So thank you!
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Denise, the raw honesty is where it is really at. It is so painful but it is the process that He uses to make Himself known. God accepts us as we really are. We learn to accept Him here as He really is. I think everyone who seeks Him goes through this. It is not as evident because folks try to cover it up like a dirty family secret. That just makes it harder as we feel "weird" and lonely and thinking we’ve done something wrong. But Father also uses that to draw us to Himself.

It really has nothing to do with being Christians who appear to have it all together. After you go through the "wringer" a few times their is very little, if anything, of your civil self left. There is only your real self & raw emotions standing before God. That is what it takes for Him to work on us.

We are all different, so He needs to work on us differently, but it isn’t pleasant or pretty for anyone who is willing to let God work on them. I also can relate to this story. The first part anyway. I haven’t come out the other end. I’m still making more passes through the wringer. But I do have a renewed Faith that He who began a good work in me WILL carry it through to completion.
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This fall I took a 12-week class from the Center for Professional Excellence called the Sage Hill Institute. One of my goals over the holidays has been to compile some of my notes. I thought I’d share some here that spurred further thinking.

God is more concerned with you having you than he is with you having him. It sounds heretical at first. However, if you really think it through, it makes frightening sense. The more we know and have ourselves, the more we realize that we are not enough. So much of our efforts attempt to gain more control over life. If we are honest, though, we’ll grasp the fact that we can’t, and if we ever think we have, we’re in deeper trouble than when we started out. Our authentic lives genuinely get started when we are brought to the end of ourselves. Once at our limit of life that we can handle, we experience a "cry out". A "cry out" is our desperate plea that acknowledges God as the only one capable of satisfying our need.

God loves our "cry out" because it means that we know and have ourselves, and we realize we need more. I am not enough. God wants all of us because we have to have him, not because he is one of our options for life. He wants us because we can go nowhere else. And so God is first concerned with you having you before he is with you having him. Are you willing to travel to the end of yourself to risk finding God?