Living Loved

Paul makes it clear that we are always slaves, either to sin or to righteousness, but always slaves. This is a key point. In this we can plainly see that we were never equipped to be the god of our own lives. This is not a statement of failure or shortcoming for the human race. It is rather a clear recognition and concession about how we are made. Look at it another way, my car cannot climb trees. This does not mean that it is a bad car. All this shows is that my automobile was never outfitted as a machine to perform this function. For the function that it was design for, carrying people and things down roads, my car works quite well. The same is true for us. When we function as we were designed to live we do well and we enjoy rest and peace. When we try to do things we are not equipped to do we suffer anxiety and failure.


The above was written by a friend whose book I am now reading. It fits in with some thoughts I have been pondering, 'living loved' as Wayne Jacobsen puts it.

This whole thing of being a 'Christian' encompasses so much more than meets the eye, you know, the tip of the iceberg thing.

This morning it dawned on me that maybe, just maybe, living loved is an inbuilt design that was all part of the package when I became one of His sons. It is a biological part of our physiology that when we wake in the morning we usually eliminate the toxins and other stuff from our bodies, freeing us to maintain the machinery of this temple that is so fearfully and wonderfully made. If this is but a natural operation or law functioning within us, maybe there is a purging, cleansing function of the Father's heart built within our spirits as well. Is it possible that our Father is wanting to wash/purge/cleanse us moment by moment, like when we first wake up in the morning, only this is a continuous flow, or expression of what it might mean to live loved?

As my friend Bill said, 'When we function as we were designed to live we do well and we enjoy rest and peace. When we try to do things we are not equipped to do, we suffer anxiety and failure.'
When we do not 'know' we are unconditionally loved (and that is a continuous knowing), by default I will gravitate towards trying to go through life through performing. Isn't this what Paul speaks of in his epistles, that when we resort to the flesh, we sever, or cut ourselves off from grace?

The miracle of becoming a true son of the Father, displacing our previous state which was 'by nature being children of wrath and sons of disobedience,' we had at our disposal the only life love needed to live loved.

The ongoing miracle of His amazing grace is designed to save our souls, in other words, to have Christ formed within us, but if our perception of His loving correction is in fact is that he rejects us, how can we not but frustrate his grace for us?

Why has there been such morphed expressions of what it means to be a Christian, except for the fact that all of us have been born into a fallen world whose laws of operation governs everything to do with performing or measuring up outwardly?Not too many (those rebirthed ones) would disagree with God being our Father, but because of NOT knowing His love for us at the core of our being, we in fact live as orphans.

I am seeing, sensing His beckoning heart for me to draw ever closer to Him moment by moment, freeing me from pretending about anything I think I know, especially living loved.
Father, all I can say is, "I Love You!"

Rich

Searching For Significance

Maybe significance is defined in coming to know the significant One, Jesus Christ.
The quest in our trying to establish an identity, a sense of significance is foundationally rooted in being born and raised in a world that only knows conditional love.

In coming to know Him and His unconditional love, He meets the need I was born with and couldn't ever seem to fill, no matter how much I achieved or gained.
The growing knowledge of His love frees the grasping one from within and replaces it with a longing to freely receive.

Never have any continued in His initial loving embrace, I dare say all Christan's have grown within various amounts and degrees of knowledge, but not in, (as Peter puts it), 'continue to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ.
There are many who are rich in having experiences and in knowledge, but poor, desperately poor in being intimately acquainted with Him.

It was and always will be the worthy One loving the unworthy. The treasured One coming to live in jars of clay. A value and significance made ours in being joined to Him.

Daily growing in the experiential knowledge of this Father's love will not only save us, but free us to BE the nameless faceless people whose soul purpose is to love the Lover of our soul.

The reason religion in any fashion or form is so palatable is that it temporarily covers the shame we all feel, and allows us to play act much like little children dressing up in adult clothing, pretending to be someone they are not.

Not knowing in an ever increasing way, this Lovers love for us, poisons us into believing this God is one that has to be appeased, and without ardent, diligent effort, will fall dismally short.
In the same manner as you have received the Lord Jesus Christ, continue to walk in Him....how does this line up with all of the pretense and performance seen within churchianity?

Rich