Waking Up

Matthew 6:30 (The Message)

"If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving. People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.

Rich

Misunderstood

I love how God is so wanting to engage us, to draw us unto Himself. The following is but one example of that reality, the Word that became flesh, the man Christ Jesus sharing his heart with a very smart man, but still not able to grasp the meaning of such simple words.

"So don't be so surprised when I tell you that you have to be 'born from above'—out of this world, so to speak. You know well enough how the wind blows this way and that. You hear it rustling through the trees, but you have no idea where it comes from or where it's headed next. That's the way it is with everyone 'born from above' by the wind of God, the Spirit of God."

Nicodemus asked, "What do you mean by this? How does this happen?"

Like the blowing of the wind, His ways are a wonder to behold. For instance, I have sensed his direction in picking up a book I've read many years ago from my library and seeing some wonderful insights as I am in the process of reading it again.

Here is but one example from the book Baffled To Fight Better, by Oswald Chambers;
"Eliphaz claimed to know exactly where Job was, and Bildad claims the same thing. Job was hurt, and these men tried to heal him with platitudes. The place for the comforter is not that of one who preaches, but of the comrade who says nothing, but prays to God about the matter. The biggest thing you can do for those who are suffering is not to talk platitudes, not to ask questions, but to get into contact with God, and the "greater works" will be done by prayer." (John 14:12-13)

Rich

Hurt

Hurt and pain is something none of us are able to escape being born into this world.
Some of it is expressed in the poem my daughter shared with me.

Rich


Packs of geese are landing
in the pre-winter river -
flurried graded grey to black
and fluid silver flashes
of the reflected moon.
Crass calls and the ecstatic
anarchic wind of all wings
at once
garners no applause
even though
the magnificent uproar
drowns the sound
of all the town’s
despicable bipeds
tooting their own horns.
I stand watching - awkward,
lonely, lachrymose and obsessing
over recent sins
over truths such as the first plastic
ever made has not yet disintegrated
and all the world’s waste is
piling up somewhere out of sight
and how so many will never know
the fierce staggering degree
to which I love them. Oh well.
The geese will fly in the morning
I will see the v from my window
and hear the phantom voices.
I will begin the day longing
illogically for that height
and horizon.

The Messiness Of Life

The following is a brief excerpt from a daily email I receive, I thought it so overflowed with how amazing Papa's love and grace is!

Rich

Messy Spirituality Anne Lammott

In her book, Traveling Mercies, Anne recounts her conversion to Jesus. Things were not going well in her life: addicted to cocaine and alcohol, involved in an affair that produced a child whom she aborted, helplessly watching her best friend die of cancer. During this time, Anne visited a small church periodically. She would sit in the back to listen to the singing and then leave before the sermon. During the week of her abortion, she spiraled downward. Disgusted with herself, she drowned herself in alcohol and drugs. She had been bleeding for many hours from the abortion and finally fell into bed, shaky and sad, smoked a cigarette, and turned off the light.

''After a while, as I lay there, I became aware of someone with me, hunkered down in the corner, and I just assumed it was my father, whose presence I had felt over the years when I was frightened and alone. The feeling was so strong that I actually turned on the light for a moment to make sure no one was there--of course, there wasn't. But after a while, in the dark again, I knew beyond any doubt that it was Jesus. I felt him as surely as I feel my dog lying nearby as I write this.''

''And I was appalled. . . . I thought about what everyone would think of me if I became a Christian, and it seemed an utterly impossible thing that simply could not be allowed to happen. I turned to the wall and said out loud, ''I would rather die.''

''I felt him just sitting there on his haunches in the corner of my sleeping loft, watching me with patience and love, and I squinched my eyes shut, but that didn't help because that's not what I was seeing him with.''

''Finally I fell asleep, and in the morning, he was gone.''

''This experience spooked me badly, but I thought it was just an apparition, born of fear and self-loathing and booze and loss of blood. But then everywhere I went, I had the feeling that a little cat was following me, wanting me to reach down and pick it up, wanting me to open the door and let it in. But I knew what would happen: you let a cat in one time, give it a little milk, and then it stays forever. . . .''

''And one week later, when I went back to church, I was so hungover that I couldn't stand up for the songs, and this time I stayed for the sermon, which I just thought was so ridiculous, like someone trying to convince me of the existence of extraterrestrials, but the last song was so deep and raw and pure that I could not escape. It was as if the people were singing in between the notes, weeping and joyful at the same time, and I felt like their voices or something was rocking me in its bosom, holding me like a scared kid, and I opened up to that feeling--and it washed over me.''

''I began to cry and left before the benediction, and I raced home and felt the little cat running at my heels, and I walked down the dock past dozens of potted flowers, under a sky as blue as one of God's own dreams, and I opened the door to my houseboat, and I stood there a minute, and then I hung my head and said. . . 'I quit.' I took a long deep breath and said out loud, 'All right. You can come in.'''

''So this was my beautiful moment of conversion.''

Anne Lammott, Traveling Mercies,
as quoted by Michael Yaconelli in Messy Spirituality.

The Freedom Ache

Freedom's just another word for nothing left to loose Nothing, I mean nothing honey if it ain't free, no no Yeah feeling good was easy Lord when he sang the blues You know feeling good was good enough for me Good enough for me and my Bobby McGee.

So said Janis Joplin in her song, 'Me and Bobby McGee'.

I am so enjoying reading Paul Anderson Walsh's book, The Bonsai Conspiracy. Such wonderful confirmation of the spirit's working within my own life.I want to share a few thoughts from his book, hopefully these will be found to be lovingly provoking as I have found them to be.

The insidious battle that goes mostly undetected on our radar screen is the ever working, scheming and conniving self-effort-reliance within us all. To the degree this is not happening, grace has become so much more than a new word along with so many others within our christianese vocabulary.

One thing that stood out to me was a contrast Paul used, for i.e., the 'lost/unsaved' man, believes he can live without god, but is that illusion any less disturbing than the man who has been re-birthed suffering from a very similar illusion, only in this case he is going to 'live for god'. Both have the same unknown problem, self-reliance.
We were created for freedom, but maybe freedom comes at too high a price, lets ponder some additional thoughts here from Paul.

"Now having undergone our period(s) of disillusionment (i.e.Dark Night(s) of the Soul), we emerge on the other side only to discover that we do not like the look of freedom. This is understandably so because freedom is a scary thing. How does one function in a paradigm where there are no alibis, rules, codes of conduct, ethics, structures or law?
How does one function in a world where morality has been surpassed and outclassed by the absurdity of grace? It is up to you to interpret freedom for yourself. Nobody is going to tell you what to do. All this new paradigm will do is to reinforce who you are. So, you can neither control nor be controlled. Freedom is truly frightening as it is alien and implausible structure to a bound guilt-stained soul".

"So, if we are too frightened to go forward but know too much to go back, what are we to do? Well, we will learn that as freed persons, we have a new responsibility and in this new paradigm, responsibility means that we, as freed men and women, have been freed and empowered with the ability to choose our response to the things which have previously caused us so much pain".

I hope these thoughts have stirred up more questions that answers, if so anyone reading this, I would love to hear yours.

Rich

The words on the picture above read as follows.

The true meaning of life cannot be found by strenuous self-effort. All attempts to establish contact with God via religious acts or good deeds are in vain.
Searching for God in nature or philosophy also leads to a dead-end. People can sense that they are hopelessly cut off from God.
This is why they have no inner peace. Consciously or subconsciously they embark upon a quest for him. Tormented by a yearning for paradise lost, they do everything in their power to overcome the separation between themselves and God.
The hand of God the Creator has left its imprint on mankind. We were created for him. The purpose of our life is not self discovery or self realization - it is to be found in God alone.
You cannot ask about the meaning of life without asking about God. It is a question each of us has to ask ... at some time or other.
God has planted eternity in the human heart.
(Ecclesiastes 3,11)

The Focus Of His Love

How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He's the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. Long before he laid down earth's foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.

Living in the moment!

Rich

The Cross Portal

There is no doubt that God was going to be fully identified with man, and apart from embracing the totality of suffering, (the Lamb that was slain [in sacrifice] from the foundation of the world. -God put the wrong on him who never did anything wrong, so we could be put right with God), it would end up as a stalemate.

Because God is intimately acquainted with suffering, maybe it is in fact through our sufferings we are brought as through a portal into a whole new dimension of living.

Luke 9:28-31 talks about many things, but one of the key things that stands out to me regarding the transfiguration of Jesus was that Moses and Elijah appeared in glory with Jesus and were discussing what was about to be opened up because of his suffering and death on the cross.
I love how it clearly says, Jesus himself speaking, ‘I am the one that closes doors no man can open, as well as open doors that no man can close’.
This in fact was about to happen, there was an exodus about to unfold that totally eclipsed what man saw and experienced as Moses was used in the exodus of leading bond slaves out of bondage toward freedom land.

Since the fall in the garden, a ‘door’ was closed that no man could open until the second man, the last Adam came to open a door that no man could shut, and in my opinion this new reality about to unfold, was a big portion of what Moses and Elijah were discussing with Jesus.
Jesus was about to lead captivity captive!!

As I pondered these thoughts this morning, thinking of how the Father used the cross with all of its shame and suffering to become a portal whereby anyone could pass through it and enter into something far greater than simply going to a ‘promised land’, but in fact becoming one with Him who promised to free those who were born prisoners.
Suddenly I saw that experiencing any suffering in being identified with Him was going to be used in opening up whole new dimensions of understanding of what it means to be loved as His son.

These present but momentary light afflictions are nothing in comparison to what is unfolding in our lives right now as we embrace them. (Suffering in our flesh, in filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions).

Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourself with the same way of thinking (mind), for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God.

Rich

I Don't Know What To Think

I am somewhat reticent to even talk about this but, at the present time I have no other conclusion than, God did it.
A few friends know about the ongoing chronic pain I have been experiencing in my knees, not a good thing for a guy who walks twelve to thirteen miles a day delivering the mail.
I have been going on a regular basis to my physio-therapist as well as obtaining custom designed orthotics (this week) as well as having had x-rays taken of my knees only to find out it is an arthritic build up in my knees because of the compounded ponding they have encountered with the many many miles and weight I've had to carry.

Here's the deal, I woke up Thursday morning and slowly it dawned on me that my knees were not hurting me as they normally do, I shrugged it off and proceeded to attend to my early morning necessities before leaving for work.
At work I continued to experience a very pain freeness. I am a relief letter carrier so it encompasses many different duties, and this past week and the upcoming week is no exception. I process the incoming mail at 5:00 am and distribute it to my fellow colleagues as they further segregate it to the specific carriers etc.
I knew when I had completed this job I would then be going out to deliver on a route, this is never something I eagerly look forward to anymore because of the advancing chronic pain in my knees. Again, here I am delivering the mail and I am noticing there is something wrong, no pain.
Friday I wake up, the same thing, went through a duplicate day of Thursday, no pain. When I get home other than a few chores, I usually get involved on the computer and having set there for an extended period of time, when I get up I usually do so hobbling. To my surprise I was stiff, but no pain.
This has continued as well into all day Saturday, Sunday and today, what gives?

I have prayed for myself, as well as a couple of friends who like wise have prayed for me, but when I picked my wife up from work Thursday afternoon I told her about this bazaar experience of having NO pain in my knees.
She informed me that she had felt directed toward praying most specifically that morning for me, for my knees that Father would indeed heal them....wow, I said, is this in fact what has happened?I feel somewhat restrained emotionally to break out the balloons and party hats, and I almost want to pinch myself to make sure I am not dreaming, but these knees for that past four days have not felt so good.

Thank you Jesus!!

Rich

Spontaneous Combustion

Typically, we think that worship is something we do. We sing hymns, praise and worship songs or we pray. But could it be that worship is not something we do, but rather a moment by moment acknowledgment (discovery) of who God is?
By that I mean, if we can know for a certainty that God is IN all things, and that ALL things work together for our good, then we can thank him no matter what life throws at us.
To me, that is true worship - a spontaneous expression of gratitude to our Lord and Saviour, no matter how trying the circumstance, because we know that through it He is intimately concerned and involved with every single aspect of our lives.

The wide eyed, child like wonder that erupts within our soul in discovering what Father has been actively doing in wanting to fulfill the purpose we have been re-birthed, 'to Know Him'!

Everything You Know Is About To Change

So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.

These are the God-begotten, not blood-begotten, not flesh-begotten, not sex-begotten.

You have been regenerated (born again), not from a mortal origin (seed, sperm), but from one that is immortal by the ever living and lasting Word of God.


Rich

Embrace The Cross

Take your share of the hardships and suffering [which you are called to endure] as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.


Rich

Gone Fishing

Rich

Dead Men Walking

Our teachings about the Bible and its purpose in our lives have basically made us a generation of dead people. Since we don't believe we can hear God on our own without the Bible, we find ourselves searching the Scriptures to find out whether something is right or wrong and we don't even stop to look into our own heart and ask ourselves.

I honestly believe that out of this zombie and lifeless belief system, we have no other option but to blindly stumble throughout life clinging to our WWJD bracelet in hopes that we can survive yet another day. It's a very depressing time we live in when we have to stop everything and analyze what Jesus would do in this situation or that before we act. It's fake. It's scripted and from the head.

And we wonder why people today have no real intimacy with the Father. Listening to many Christians witnessing in todays age is perhaps the most grueling experience I can think of. So often it seems that their entire witness is based on what they have read in a book. (Who do men say I am vs Who do you say I AM)? Just because you read about a crime in the paper, doesn't mean that you can go to court during the trial and be a witness. Sadly, that's what our religion has produced in recent years. A bunch of well read people who haven't really witnessed a thing.

Sadly we subscribe to a religion that pretty much encourages people to have a relationship with their Bible over God Himself. It's like there is something within all of us that would rather spend time with an inanimate object then with a living being. This is why so many people don't have a problem making the trade. Real intimacy is intimidating to us.

Imagine if all you were given was a shadow of something. You would have no choice but to study it from every possible angle in hopes that you might find out what was casting that shadow.

We have been given the very One who casts that shadow! Why in the world would we ever be tempted to study the shadow when the one who casts the shadow has made His home within us? Our teachings on the Bible (and what others have said about the bible) have turned us into shadow chasers who refuse to acknowledge the Shadow Maker.

See all of the article written by Darin Hufford

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=108664028&blogID=345110290

Rich

What Will The Neighbors Think

I was watching one of my favorite sitcoms tonight and the episode was about new neighbors moving in next door to Doug and Carrie. In a nut shell the new neighbors were, according to Carrie's perception, everything her and Doug weren't.
So what to do when one sees they are lacking, or inferior to others, you got it, 'Let's pretend'!
One of the scenes was with Doug and Carrie coming to verbal blows which seems to be a regular part of what has been scripted into their TV roles, but not realizing that their bedroom window was open all the time the verbal lambasting was going down.
To Carrie's dismay she went into over drive setting up a totally bogus scenario where she and Doug were acting out the very opposite to their previous behavior, and of course with the window deliberately left open for their new neighbors to hear.
It just went down hill from there, from bad to worse.

I enjoy seeing this vivid contrast within human interactions, usually depicted with a 'normal' family vs a 'so called dysfunctional one'.
To my way of thinking this is but one of a myriad of ways of that which appears to be real vs. knowing the Truth is becoming so concrete to me. For example, using this TV illustration here, let’s say for humor sake all of the characters in this episode were Christians, 'good ones vs bad ones'.
Were the 'good' ones interacting apart from any so called dysfunction solely because of the grace of God, or was it simply an expression of them relying on what they have by virtue of heredity? (A totally corrupted heredity that required God's only begotten Son who knew NO sin, to be MADE the sin of the world)?

Is grace simply available and required for the losers, those short changed in their being born into this world, bankrupt as it were from having a reservoir of virtuous and healthy heredity, I don't think so.There isn't one person born into this world apart from it being a still birth, totally lacking any life whatsoever, otherwise Jesus' good news of coming that we might have life and experiencing it in overflowing measure, was but for a targeted demographic? I Don't Think So!
Have all really sinned and fallen short of His glory, is there NONE that seek Him, is grace really only for the social misfits of society? I thought Jesus said its the sick that need a Doctor? I guess Jesus’ offer for Life and wholeness was just for those who seemed to do nothing but muck of living more and more?

Is it any wonder this whole deal of becoming a new person, (Christian) part of a whole new race (creation) is a frickin nightmare to embrace by those who see NO need for what they seemingly are doing so well at already?
From that perspective, their compassionate retort might be, 'There are those that simply need a crutch'.
Maybe the evil that blinds us all is not the overt blatant 'evil' we so easily seem to recognize in others, but hidden behind the facade, veneer, of so called respectability, manners, ethics, people of integrity, goodness and morality lies hidden the true master of disguise, the fallen angel of light, Lucifer himself?

I am observing first hand the perceived cruelness of His disturbing grace addressing, cutting through the lies (Bull Shit) of our cultural ethnicity, what we do vs what we don't do, what we have vs what we lack, how smart vs how ignorant, how white vs how black we are, bringing man to see their desperate need for the TRUTH!

Jesus and His love for us is not, nor will it ever be doled out for meritorious living, but will be freely offered to all who do NOT deserve it in exchange for what we all rightly deserved. Behold the beauty of glorying and boasting in the Cross and its finished perfect work.

The preaching of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but it is the power of God to those who are being saved.

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?

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

Don't Confuse Me With The Facts, My Mind Is Mucked Up

Is it really mind over mattress? Give me another ten minutes to sleep on it and I'll let you know?

I'm not sure what world others live in, but mine basically starts that way each day, heck, it even started that way this morning, defying the law.
In the re-birthing there was instituted within me a whole new dynamic (law) that previously didn't exist, the Law of the spirit of life. The other Law, the law of sin and death, or as I like to call it, the gravitational pull of sin and death was there, and at the sake of disturbing some erroneous thinking, is still very much there.
It is these two opposing laws, or dynamic tensions that my Father is using in making real to me the one who says, I AM!

We, like water and electricity will always follow the path of least resistance for example, in having been shaped in sin and born in iniquity we were locked into what we have been duped into believing is real, the prison house of human nature, it is all we have ever known, it defines all that we see as being real, until another Law was introduced in us, the Law of Life.
Sin still effective and operational within our flesh has not been obliterated, and its impetus the father of lies still works in and through it as long as we only know what we perceive as being real, vs what (who) the Truth is.

In sharing with a friend yesterday we found it sadly amusing how we almost inevitably resort to a default reaction to what we are experiencing in the confusion, hurt, disorientation of our circumstances and situations that are new each and every day.
I don't know about you, but it still seems the most natural and instinctive thing to DO in life's upheavals is to try and address the issue/s with my ability-resources which is really much like stepping into quicksand, the more you move, the faster you sink, and eventually die.
Is my God-Father someone who was, or someone who will be, or like the Deist see him, from a distance watching us squirm and trying to do our best? Or is He now not only IN me, but in me as me?

For a minute lets look at God's answer to Moses' question when he asked God, when Pharaoh asks, who sent me, God's answer was, "Tell him, I Am that I Am has sent you". Cute answer, but what had that to do with the 'real' circumstances and situations Moses was in, knowing that Pharaoh was just itching for the opportunity to kill Moses, seeing how his forty year stint in the desert didn't accomplish that.
Our perceived understanding regarding the real life stuff that seems to be crashing in on us is not some cruel cosmic joke happening at my expense, but rather my Father's way of making known to me the Truth of that very same I AM, but unlike in Moses' situation this I Am is joined to me.

The Law of the Spirit of Life is there, now, in us and wanting to be set into motion. It will feel at first as if I am trying to produce, manufacture by my own efforts some kind of magic that will extricate me from all of this crap.
Maybe where it says, 'Stand still and see the salvation of your God, or, Be still and Know that I Am God', has much to do with the living God I am now joined to/with.
Wasn't there a time when Jesus' disciples came to him and asked the quintessential question, 'Master, what must we DO to DO the works of God', and Jesus replied, 'This IS the work of God, that you believe in/on Him whom the Father has sent'. But isn't there something for me to DO, other than simply believing? Could this possibly have anything to do with the exhortation of, 'labor (strive) to enter that Rest'?

I look forward to unpacking this even further, stay tuned, and please say high when you visit me here on my blog.
A very Happy New Year to all!!

Rich

Five Fold, Or?

This is one of the best and most succinct articles I've read in a long time regarding the 'Five Fold Ministry'.

The Church That Christ Built
By Darin Hufford

I am coming to the conclusion that the Church that Christ is building is something quite different than what we have been taught.
I can recall studying the "5 fold ministry" while in Bible collage. At the time we were taught that those five ingredients are what make up the Church. Where Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors and Teachers are functioning together; there is Church.
Rather than understand that particular verse to mean that these things will exist in the Body of Christ world wide, we have foolishly interpreted it to mean they must exist "underneath one roof". I've even seen Churches advertise that they have the "5 fold ministry" in an effort to draw a larger congregation. There are articles and books written on whether or not these five things are working in today's Churches. When we build a new Church great time and attention is put into making sure that all the necessary ingredients are present when the doors open. The theory is that if we have an Apostle, a Prophet, an Evangelist, a Pastor and a teacher all within our congregation, we will have everything we need to "do Church". It's very much like opening your own McDonalds or Jack in the Box. Once everyone is in place, it's time for business. You need an owner, a manager, an assistant manager, a fleet of workers and you're good to go.
About two years ago I started taking a close look at my life and the lives of people around me. Everyone I know has their own personal circle of friends they hang out with. It may consist of family members, people from work, school, internet or their neighborhood. Every person I know has their "Inner Circle". It usually consists of between 5 to 10 people. They have other friends as well, but those people wouldn't be considered "Inner Circle" friends.
To be an "Inner Circle" friend, there just has to be something that causes a mutual connection between the two of you. There is no recipe for it, and one can never predict when it's going to happen. You can't force it, plan it, cultivate it or even command it to take place; it literally blooms totally on its own. I have found that only certain people can "jell" together on a level of deepness that is not necessarily shared with others. It's almost as though they were made specifically with the other person in mind. In a realm only known to God Himself, these people fit together like pieces of a puzzle. In fact, I believe that they were brought together by the Holy Spirit. Only He sees the inner structure of each individual soul and then finds another soul to connect snug and tight. It's unexplainable and cannot be manufactured or re-created by human hands in a million years.
I have an "Inner Circle" of about 10 people. These are folks that I'm super close with. Our connection didn't happen in an effort to fulfill some Christian obligation to meet together and perform relationship once a week. We all connect because we fit. We knew it the moment we first met. I have many other friends that I absolutely adore and love spending time with. I'd even die for them. They mean the world to me; however they are not in my "Inner Circle".
My four year old daughter brought out a "Hello Kitty" 100 piece jigsaw puzzle the other day and asked me to help her put it together. The box said that it was for ages 6 and up so I knew it wasn't going to come together without my help. As we were laying out the pieces and turning them all picture side up, my daughter started screaming with excitement. She had found two pieces that fit perfectly. The problem was that though they fit, they didn't go. The picture didn't come together. As I took a closer look at all the puzzle pieces I was surprised to find that many of them were the exact same shape. This is confusing for a four year old girl. All she is thinking about is getting the pieces to fit. She is two young to understand that there is a bigger picture being formed when all the pieces are in their proper place.
When man kind sets out to "build a Church" we are very much like my 4 year old daughter. We think that "fitting pieces together" is what it's all about. It's ironic that man would even set out to build Church when Christ Himself said "I will build my Church". Only He has the blueprints and the final picture. The most we can do to build a Church is snap two pieces together that fit, but have nothing to do with each other when it come to the big picture. That is exactly what I see happening in the Institutional churches across America. They try and try with all their might to dictate and orchestrate relationship on their terms, and they do it all in the Name of Jesus. It's no wonder the Body of Christ today resembles a Mr. Potato Head that was put together by a deaf, dumb, and blind 4 year old. There's an arm sticking out of the eye socket, the lips are where the ears go and the eyes are on top of the head. It's a mess.
If a "men's accountability group" is meeting every Tuesday night at 7:00, YOU NEED TO BE THERE!!!!!! We are told that every man needs to come and connect with all the other men because they need that accountability. The problem is that the pieces don't go together just because they say so. A room full of men does not equal pieces that fit. Even if they are all Christian men who know the Lord well! You can manipulate and obligate these men to "go together" all you want, but it won't work. We have been taught if we are Christians, we should all fit together with that "Inner Circle" type of intimacy. WRONG!!! Jerry and Todd my both love the Lord and be brothers in His Name, but neither of them were made to be put together. YES they are a part of the same picture, but they were never intended to connect with an "Inner Circle" connection.
The sad thing is that Jerry is told over and over by his group leader or his Pastor that he needs to connect with Todd out of Christian love. So Jerry tries with all his heart to make that connection. He secretly beats himself up and feels condemned because it's just not happening. He starts to feel rebellious, and eventually wonders if he has the Love of God in him at all. Each week he reluctantly shows up to the men's meeting and makes small talk while glancing at his watch and wishing he was somewhere else. All the while, his leader keeps complaining to the group because he doesn't see the men connecting and talking as deeply as he thinks they should. (This is the story of almost every men's meeting in America)
I honestly think we try to "build the Church" because when push comes to shove; we really don't believe there is a Jesus Christ at all. We can't see Him with our eyes and we can't hear Him with our ears, so it makes it pretty difficult to just sit back and let Him build the Church. We jump in and do it because we don't believe in Him. Think about it. I am also convinced that this is why we start "Discipleship Groups" in our Churches. We honestly don't believe there is a Jesus. We feel that it's our job to disciple young Christians instead of just turning them over to Christ. I thought He wanted us to make "Disciples of Christ"? Why then are we intent on making people our disciples? Where in the Bible does it say that WE are supposed to disciple people? We do this because we don't believe there IS a Jesus.
If I disciple Jim and Jim disciples Tony and Tony disciples Greg and Greg disciples Brian; who disciples me? Who disciples the guy who disciples me?? Eventually won't it lead to Christ? Can't we just go directly to Him or do we really need another mediator? (More on this subject at another time)
So where is the Church that Christ is building???
It's your "Inner Circle" of friends. He is the one who brought you together. Not only do you "fit" with these people but you "go together" with them. You fit together in the big picture!!! Your close friends ARE the Church that Christ built. If you look within your "Inner Circle" you will find diverse personalities. One has the personality of an Apostle, one is a Prophet, one is an Evangelist, one is a Pastor and one is a Teacher. Everyone I know has the 5 fold ministry built into their "Inner Circle" of friends!
The problem is that we leave that inner circle on Sunday morning and "go to Church". We spend hours trying to pour our hearts into fitting pieces together that have nothing to do with the original blueprints. We focus our time and attention on building the synthetic church while we neglect the actual Church that He as already built into our lives. I hear people say to me that they need to "go to Church" because they need to find Christian people to connect with. My advice to them is that they spend their time deepening the connections they already have in their life. I believe that everything we need exists within our "Inner Circle" of friends. All we need to do is press in even deeper to those people that God has built into our lives. Those are the relationships that came from Heaven. Those are the relationships we need to spend our time and focus on. Those relationships ARE the Church that Christ built!


The picture I used to hang this on, is one of my daughters pictures she recently did.

Rich

Working with the premise that 'God is love', lets try and take a much needed and objective look at what we perceive we're actually seeing.
Did God suddenly have a make-over after Malachi, did He only become LOVE when the Word, his son become flesh, or, was He in fact always Love from before time?

If God has always been Love, then maybe we've adopted a view of love that is totally incongruent with with who He is, and the actions he has taken throughout time.
Would this skewed version of Love be anything different from how we by nature have determined our mores-môraz (morality-ethics) stemming from the nature that permeated all of man kind at the fall, acquiring the knowledge of good and evil independently from God?

Prior to our re-birthing, it says we were alienated from the life of God, by nature children of wrath, sons of disobedience. Though now we are in fact His adopted children, possessing His nature which is Love.
Saying all of that to say simply, because of the Father through his love in re-birthing us and not as an act of rape, we became His, but I still see rampant throughout Christendom, a lingering residual stain within the soul, and that being a powerful perception of a yet existing alienation, or not being Loved.
In most, there is a general knowing it no longer has anything to do with 'trying to be like God', but the trap of doing continues in order to be LIKED by God, is pandemic.

If God IS Love, then what needs to be changed within us to embrace the Truth vs what we have clung to as being real?
As I said, the miracle of His grace taking us, who were alienated from His Love-life and making us his sons and daughters doesn't guarantee that we have yet acquired an understanding of the impetus that initiated that action~ His LOVE!

In writing this, the humorous scenes from the movie, The Princess Bride comes to mind, when the actor playing the role of Vizzini redundantly uses the word, 'INCONCEIVABLE' to every one of the questions posed by the actor playing the role of Inigo Montoya....
You are sure nobody's follow' us?
Vizzini: As I told you, it would be absolutely, totally, and in all other ways inconceivable. No one in Guilder knows what we've done, and no one in Florin could have gotten here so fast. - Out of curiosity, why do you ask?
Inigo Montoya: No reason. It's only... I just happened to look behind us and something is there.
Vizzini: What? Probably some local fisherman, out for a pleasure cruise, at night... in... eel-infested waters...
Vizzini: INCONCEIVABLE.
[In the boat in the morning] Inigo Montoya: He's right on top of us. I wonder if he is using the same wind we are using.
[Vizzini has just cut the rope The Dread Pirate Roberts is climbing up] Vizzini: HE DIDN'T FALL? INCONCEIVABLE. Inigo Montoya: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

Any feedback would be delightful in unpacking this.

Rich

Mary Did You Know

Mary Did You Know

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There is so much not only wrapped up in human flesh and blood, the Word that dwelt among us, but in that Word coming to earth in and through a human body, Mary!

His birth was announced by an angelic choir, he was crowned The Lord by the Magi, King proclaimers.
What should have been a time of shouting and great joy was mysteriously held in caution by Mary.

Did Mary know what awaited her, in her bowing to the Angels words he bore from on high, that she would bear, give birth to the Son of God, did she know what sorrow, what anguish would pierce her heart in saying YES to Him? Do I know?

Christmas time is a very mixed bag for me. I was saying to my wife, its as if something, some part of me shuts down inside at this time, I feel very ambivalent, mixed with a great sense of sadness.
I'm glad I don't have to try and escape this upheaval, but simply embrace Him in the midst of it all. I am looking forward to our time together as a family tonight and tomorrow as well, it will be wonderful celebrating His life in us together.

The Mary body was the first of many to come, Christ in you the hope of glory!

Rich

Is Grace Really All That Amazing

What is the grace of God anyway, yeah, yeah, I know all the right answers, but what is it really in my meanderings here?
Meaning, as my wife and I were talking yesterday we so long for the Lord to do what he does best in bringing realness (restoration-reconciliation) to broken relationships, and we don't have to look any further than our immediate family.

Until the reality of His love for me began to click, I agreed with my wife, it was as if I was going through all of the right motions of trying to be a good dad, but totally missing the key component, His love.
His love is creating within me what was never there before in my life. If you were to ask me as a young man what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would have quickly told you, I want to BE a Dad.
I do not simply boil it all down to having gotten older and maybe mellower, but in fact have just begun to experience His intoxicating and liberating love for ME!

Margi, my wife and I are beginning to see ever so much more clearly the lies that keep trying to keep us as prisoners to that which is 'real vs that which is True'.
Here's the deal in a nut shell, if His finished work on the cross aka his grace, was in fact just for those who like me that see my need of total lack (emptiness), and that grace was not just an add on to an already exemplary life style, then why do we still struggle so much with it all?
Ergo, the illusion between what appears to be real, and what is the Truth.

There's a passage of scripture that continues to speak to me within this conundrum; He sent those who came to Him full, away, empty, but those who came to Him empty, He sent away Full.
Do you think that just maybe that might be pointing to the Truth rather than what appears to be real, meaning, didn't he say that we were to be envied (blessed are you) when you discover your poorness of spirit, when you hunger for Him, when you grieve, when you discover how blind and naked you are?

Could it be that Grace is bringing into being a reality of life that never existed before no matter how much I have seen myself as a looser compared to so many others that seemed to be doing just fine in every area of life without God?
Maybe His grace is NOT a Velcro merit badge for being the best of the best, but maybe much more to the point in how such descriptive language was used in the Old Testament scriptures where it talks of us being like a product of being born but discarded and abandon and thrown into a ditch on the road side, but, discovered by God, who took us to Himself as a cherished treasure. He washed away our filth, the caked on blood from our birth, covered our nakedness, and established us in the security of His never ending love.

Is it possible that grace is viewed by some in this manner, at best this lost and separated-alienated race of human beings was simply missing a couple of parts of being able to get back on the right track?
Or was this race so poisoned so totally corrupted, God had to do away with it and not try and fix-repair it?

Why is it so plainly illustrated that He purposed this for us except we are blinded by that appears to be real, rather than what the Truth is:
Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don't see many of "the brightest and the best" among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn't it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these "nobodies" to expose the hollow pretensions of the "somebodies"? That makes it quite clear that none of you can get by with blowing your own horn before God. Everything that we have—right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start—comes from God by way of Jesus Christ. That's why we have the saying, "If you're going to blow a horn, blow a trumpet for God."

Rich

Blind, Deaf And Mute

There has been for some time a deep churning within me, much like the idiot light that comes on the dash board/panel of the car indicating that there may be a PROBLEM.
The light and in some cases a sound, associated with this warning is merely pointing to a potentially serious issue, and if one so chooses, it can all be ignored.

I have shared on my blog as well as with others over the years of how for the longest time I saw myself (maybe not at the time) very much resembling a prostitute. (One who sells one's abilities, talent, or name for an unworthy purpose.)

Not knowing the reality of God the Father’s love provides a ripe and fertile (hot-bed) environment for this prostitution to take place, and here me, I’m simply speaking for myself.
I said to my wife as we were coming back into town after being gone for the day, ‘I’m making this up as I go along’, meaning, in my wildest dreams could that statement have any relevance to the Father of my spirit, actually guiding and directing me in the moment?
Without this unfolding reality of the Father’s love at best I see myself not just being immobilized, but much more as an spiritual quadriplegic.

His haunting but relentless question of, “Who do you (Richard) say that I Am” will never be answerable apart from His great love for me.
I find it far too safe and easy to cop out by copying and pasting wonderful quotes from this or that person. Of course they are great and wonderful as long as I never know the reality of His love for me!

Lately it’s been as if Father has been putting it to me this way, Son I really want to make myself known to you, but is it first permisable with Oz Chambers, or Jim Palmer, or Wayne Jacobsen, or anyone else that has become a substitute for poor wretched mute Richard?
One of the very first things I see happening as a result of His love opening up and freeing us from the paralysis of fear, is He gives us a voice to speak of Him and His doings in us.
If you look into the account of the blind man from birth in John 9, you will see that as he is being interrogated, he speaks of the One who made it all possible.

My wife got me thinking even more about the paralysis of muteness when she was talking about how God had chosen Moses to be His mouth piece to speak His words to Pharaoh, but what happens is indicative of finding (because of fear) another voice to speak on my behalf, and for Moses it was his brother Aaron.

I’m simply wanting to flesh out (unpack) this churning that He is doing in me, so please bear with me.
I see that in NOT knowing what (who) the Truth is, what appears to be ‘real’ dictates how I live, if one would dare call it living.
Meaning, does my Father need anyone else other than Himself to be the one who unstops my mute and paralyzed heart (tongue)?
Is it possible that my Father is interacting with me, guiding, speaking to me his son, but what if I haven’t published any books, songs, or held any high profile meetings, but simply experienced the ability because of His love to see and speak of His love, with no audience to be wowed over.

In my opinion, isn’t it the lowest form of demoralizing (prostituting) ourselves thinking when we read or hear someone like a present day Aaron speak about God’s interacting in their life without the stammering or stuttering, how dare I imagine that I actually was hearing or sensing Him in my life?

To the extent to which I allow others to speak for me – to use the words God is saying to THEM, not to me – I shortchange myself. Is God not capable of speaking to me uniquely, as an individual? If he is capable, then why am I relying on what others say?

I believe it was Anne Sullivan that signed on Helen Keller’s hand that Jesus loved her, to which Helen replied in sign, ‘I always new there was a God, I just didn’t know his name was Jesus.’

Rich

Is It Here Yet

Christmas time, just about to happen again, just two more working days-whew.
Its been as usual, a pretty busy time for us posties delivering all of those wonderful Christmas cards and parcels to our customers.

I find Christmas time to be a mixed bag emotionally for me, but I do look forward to the time off, even if its just for two days.
Our daughter is coming home for the holidays tomorrow (along with her friend), we haven't seen her since this summer, its been a very busy time for her this semester at University.
We are so proud of this young lady, and seeing how the Lord in His way is guiding her and making Himself known to her.

It may end up being a busier Christmas than we had anticipated, as our son will now be with us as well. Initially he was going to be leaving Christmas day to go to San Francisco, but that fell through. One of his room mates might be coming over as well, since his parents broke up and his father moved back to Poland. Also a co-op high school student that helps my wife with her children at school, was invited by my wife to come over for Christmas as well if she wanted to. She is going through a very rough time in her life, so much family turmoil happening all around her.

It is a magical time of year for sure, a time and a season for all things.

I love finding just the right picture to hang my blog entries on, and the thought hit me, why not take a picture of a recent picture my precious wife painted and use it. In my opinion it is one of her finest she has done yet.

Rich

Playing With My Persona

PERSONA: The word persona means actor's mask (from personare, "to speak through"). The persona belongs more to consciousness than to the unconscious; it denotes the various masks one wears when relating to the world outside oneself, the social roles we all learn to play. It mediates between one's individuality and the expectations of others. The persona is a necessity, but it should be flexible and adaptable; it is important that the ego does not identify with the persona.
The role that one assumes or displays in public or society; one's public image or personality, as distinguished from the inner self.

If man was created to have a nature, and yet when placed in the Garden he was nature-less, does it not stand to reason that in his defiant choice to become someone (to be like God-to be liked by God) apart from God his creator, that it was inevitable that in acquiring a foreign nature, he now lived with a false but permanent persona.
This persona has been stamped as it were on the DNA of all mankind, until the re-birthing, and even then this false persona can still rule in the life of the believer, unless there is revelation of our union with God the Father, 'He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit'. This is the result of Jesus asking his father, "Father I pray that they will be one as we are one".

Religion has become the only tangible persona mankind has ever known, and to speak of a reality outside this Matrix is to invoke sever displeasure. If there is any truth and validity to what scripture has to say, then lets look at the following.
In a definitive cutting to the marrow of our being, we can see that we 'were' (until the re-birthing), by nature, children of wrath, sons of disobedience, alienated from the Life of God. The cloaking lies of this false nature/persona is all that we have ever known.

Doing a word search I found this and it fits in so well.
"This above all: to thine ownself be true, And it must follow, as the night the day,Thou canst not then be false to any man."Most of us are familiar with the above quote taken from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, but how many of us know this verse: "And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou can not then be false to any man." Unless we can be true to ourselves first, we cannot be true to others.To thine own self be true…..how profound.

How many of us have a hard time being true to ourselves? Those of us that gave our life to another at the cost of losing who we are in the process will have a hard time being true to ourselves. Allowing someone else to define who we are, we lose our ability to discover and grow inwardly. We no longer are able to discern a truth from a lie. For many of us, we have accepted lies for so long, that finding out what is true takes time. Having done this very thing, I know how difficult the journey to self-discovery can be.

Truth is also love. The greatest act of love towards another is living a life that is truthful. For those of us who find it difficult to love ourselves, we will find it will come more easily when we walk in truth about who we are. If we walk in truth, we walk in perfect love, and if we walk in perfect love, then we do not walk in fear because perfect love cast out fear. Because we have been honest with ourselves, we are able to love ourselves with all of our imperfections, knowing that we are in "process" and therefore need not have others approval. This is freedom indeed.

I love how David cried out to the Lord in being awakened to the lies that kept him bound to this false persona. I've been out of step with you for a long time, in the wrong since before I was born. What you're after is truth from the inside out. Enter me, then; conceive a new, true life.

This new nature is the essence of God; it is not a persona, and the extent to which we allow His nature to be expressed through us as us is what the world is longing to see.

His kisses are sweeter than wine, and they have the power to release us to BE as He is!

Rich

Somebody/Nobody

"I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me." We preach our own experiences and people are interested, but no sense of need is awakened by it. If once Jesus Christ is lifted up, the Spirit of God will create a conscious need of Him. Behind the preaching of the Gospel is the creative Redemption of God at work in the souls of men. It is never personal testimony that saves men. "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life."

The above quote was from Oz Chambers.

I read things like this and I wonder if in fact the 'Gospel' is simply Him in us and through us as us? Maybe its simply in this fleshed out reality of our union, He awakens within those we meet, a need they never knew they had?

(From Oz) It is God Who creates the need of which no human being is conscious until God manifests Himself.I wonder if that manifestation of God is as i said, simply Him in us as us?

Much the same as God for us, then with us, then IN us, now today? Maybe this is way to mystical/subjective, maybe I should just relax and rub my WWJD bracelet?

Jim Palmer shared this on his blog~quote: "lately i’ve been discovering how words can be obstacles, and the need to focus on the meaning or reality behind the words. for example, i’m discovering that when i use the word "God" that most people have a well-developed concept of "God" based on all sorts of influences, which there mind automatically plugs into the word when they hear it. it’s interesting because i have come across a lot of people who are disinterested in "God," but if i describe the reality of God without using the word, those same people are interested."

Once again, I come back to the simplicity (the mystery of Godliness) of the good news, Christ in us the hope of glory.For thirty years the son of man/God WAS the word made flesh, he wasn't working as an apprentice to get his Saviour~God ticket, he was/IS God in the flesh, but from what I can deduce, there weren't to many able to see that reality.
Has anything changed today, at all?
Meaning, this word that was with God and was God and became fleshed out in a human form, isn't it the same Word now being fleshed out in us as us?

I wonder if Jesus tried to appease his soul (in that thirty year dessert) by chanting, 'Thank you Father for making me a nobody', but in fact He was a somebody that no one could define? And yet the Father was present in everything, in and through this Jewish man.
Maybe this whole unseen, hidden reality of the invisible God that no one has ever seen, was now touchable, approachable, he cried, laughed, got hungry, had to go to the bathroom, wash himself and so much more, just like other humans.
Wow, could this really be a somebody of such great importance?

I see the same story unfolding in my life and in the lives of so many others, simply Being Christ in a Richard form, or Christ in a Dave form etc. etc!
Again from Oz: "If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not. The majority of people have their morality well within their own grasp, they have no sense of need of the Gospel. It is God Who creates the need of which no human being is conscious until God manifests Himself."

I would say that it is Christ in us as us, He is that One who is creating the need, which no human being is conscious of, until our Father manifests Himself to others through us as us in ways that are so totally unobtrusive.
I'm not really sure if it matters, being a nobody vs a somebody, but being One with Him seems to be what has my attention.

Rich

The Struggle Of Delight

The sacrifices the Law demanded could never perfect us, at best those blood sacrifices simply covered our sin.
Jesus is spoken of in Psalm 40, and it says of Him, 'Burt offering and sin offering you have not required. Then I said, "Behold I come; In the scroll of the book it is written of me. I delight to do your will, oh my God".

I can never escape this One who keeps lovingly getting into my face, with the urgency of his heart probing question , "Who do you say that I Am"?
There is nothing simpler or easier than to have a vicarious relationship with God done through and by what others have to say, those who have forged, treaded the wine/olive press alone. Before Jesus asked, "Who do you say I Am, he first asked, Who do men say that I Am"?
Somehow trying to ride on the wave of where others have been brought into an eye witness encounter with the Lord, is not going to cut it in our being processed by Him.

This morning reading Oz Chambers, http://www.heartlight.org/cgi-shl/my_utmost/utm.cgi it so deeply touched me, again the call, being called to Himself, not to some position, status, but simply to Himself, the lover of my soul.
I would say the key word that stood out to me in what Oz shared was the word 'struggle'!
This quote is what I believe defines the journey I have been on and am moving into: You must struggle to get expression experimentally, then there will come a time when that expression will become the very wine of strengthening to someone else; but if you say lazily - "I am not going to struggle to express this thing for myself, I will borrow what I say," the expression will not only be of no use to you, but of no use to anyone. Try to state to yourself what you feel implicitly to be God's truth, and you give God a chance to pass it on to someone else through you.

Getting back to delighting in Him. My wife and I were discussing this very thing over breakfast this morning. My thoughts were as follows. It is my understanding that when Jesus said he came to do the Father's will, and that he delighted in doing it, he saw that His will being done in and through a human heart/body was not possible from extreme suffering.
Suffering is something everyone is exposed to at one level or another, but the true suffering I see the Son of man/God experiencing, is what we are called to embrace no differently than He did.

Scripture speaks of the Son of man in this light: Though he was God's son, he was perfected through suffering, and he learned obedience through his sufferings.
It is these sufferings I am wanting to flesh out here. I am of the opinion that from his earliest times as a child, Jesus was subjected to the barrage of misunderstood reactions from his fellow human beings. In this setting he knew the key to not giving into self-vindication-retaliation, was the growing secure knowledge of His fathers love for him, learning in the thick of these blows to his soul, of giving up over and over again, the 'right to himself'.

I see bondage in its truest expression having its firm hold on all of humanity until love breaks through the lies. For example, look at the multitude of people lead by Moses out of Egypt's bondage. Seemingly it would appear that their bondage was over, or was it? Maybe they would soon discover that bondage still owned them although 'outside the box'.

How is it possible to go on with the Lord as long as I am hanging onto 'my right to myself'?
Maybe Jesus wasn't asking anyone to give up things as much as he was asking us to give up that which is more important than any-things, the right to myself? Much like the young rich ruler, his wealth, his abilities defined who he was, his reputation of looking just right was too much of a price to simply let go and discover who he really was meant to be.

Is this all part of what it means to be 'made of no reputation', learning in the struggle of the lies that I no longer have to convince others that I am not the person others say I am? Maybe there will be no real established identity in the believers life apart from learning what it means to empty ourselves as Jesus did.

Rich