The Feat, His Divine Fiat

There is way too much to try and copy and paste here, so for those wanting to read (Keeping Christ In View) further, bon appetite.

These will be some more thoughts on what I shared earlier, also for those interested in another’s thoughts, Ruth over at Come Away My Beloved, has also shared some wonderful thoughts as well.

Here are a couple of quotes: There is everywhere today an immense amount of definite or tacit admission of the failure of Christianity; the asking of the question: 'What is wrong with Christianity or the "churches"?' The would-be doctors seeking to diagnose the malady and prescribe the remedy are a growing multitude. Not all are mistaken, and if we seem to have joined their ranks, we do not think that we are speculating when we assert that that which is preached and taught has become - although largely unwittingly - detached from the personal significance of Christ Himself. The business of the Church and its ministry is not to propagate a system of Christian truth, but to bring Christ Himself, in the power of the Holy Spirit, wherever it goes and is. The Gospel as such saves nobody. Salvation is a vital personal contact and union with Christ Himself. Hence, and this is the crucial point, Christ must have a living organism in which and by which to make that contact and that union.”

“Christianity has become something almost entirely apart from the Person of Christ. It is a religion, a system, a philosophy of life, a set of ways, practices, and ideas. It is something that people enter into, take up, join, and choose. They come to Christ through the Christian system, but the Christ they come to is a denominational, sectarian, ritualistic, or evangelical Christ. The Christ that they know and believe in is the Christ of this or that connection and interpretation. Christ rarely now creates Christianity; it is Christianity that creates Christ.”

Maybe as a wise master builder, the Apostle Paul was unwilling to deviate from the DNA design that constituted what His church was to BE? In other words, he didn’t resort to clowning or cloning around with that which was entrusted to him. You know, somebody who say is very skilled (talented) at painting assuming they can take one of the recognized great masters paintings and make it even better with the magical brush strokes.

Flesh and blood humanity has not evolved nor will it ever become a shinning pinnacle of man’s doings, never! And yet it is within man the miracle of the re-birthing is to be established.
Maybe that’s why Paul could see first hand out of having been translated (caught up) into the heavenly realms wherein it says ‘he both saw and heard things he could not speak of’ regarding the coming together of His church, which IS His body.
And just maybe that’s why he prayed for His church that although there were such wonderful expressions of His life flowing through it, he was privy to the Father’s design, and asked of the Father to give unto His church a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the true knowledge of Him.

Within man, long before the technology was discovered regarding the ability to ‘clone’ was very much a reality that was set into motion from the church’s inception. Whenever the individual/s moved away from their only Life, Christ in them, it devolved into a form of godliness, but lacking any power.
It seems without fail every time God the Father makes himself known to someone in the uniqueness of what that constitutes, man only seeing at best the external results of these holy encounters begins sooner or later to manipulate it and turn it into a movement and ultimately a denomination, and of course the only one who HAS the truth!

I will most likely come back to this conversation many different times regarding His church which is His body, as so many are being awakened to the reality of who He really is and the loving but probing question he seems to delight in asking; “Who do you say I AM?”

Rich

Papal or Paper Worship, No Bull

Papal or Paper Worship, No Bull

Did Jesus say of the coming Spirit: "He shall guide you into all the truth"? Surely to be guided into all the truth is something more than having the truth presented, conveyed, and written down!

Did Paul pray for believers that they might be given "a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him" (i.e. Christ)? Surely that is an imparted faculty, ability, in the believer, and more than natural equipment!

For anyone who may not listen to the God Journey, the last pod cast (The Doctrine Police) certainly fits in well with the thoughts expressed here by Austin Sparks.

It seems man at his best will inevitably wrongly (try to) separate, divorce what God has perfectly joined together, the letter of the scriptures with His quickening spirit, ergo, “And so we could repeat the story in numerous instances. That 'The Lord has yet more light and truth to break forth from His Word' is not disputed by many, but sometimes the breaking forth may prove revolutionary for one whose apprehension has been quite mistaken.”

Whether it’s the misguided worship of that chiseled into stone, or that printed onto paper, the end result is anything but a living expression of the One claiming to BE the Way, Truth and Life.
The need today is no less than it was 2,000 years ago when Jesus in his post resurrected body (it says He appeared to his disciples in another form) joined in the conversation of those who claimed to know the scriptures and yet were barely alive carrying within their souls such grievous dashed hopes of Jesus actually really being who he said he was. (For anyone interested, the words of Sheryl Crow~If it makes you happy, sure fit in here) It goes on to say, after drawing their hurt hearts out into the open that he opened their minds to import the hidden weight and truth that the mere letter knowledge failed to rescue them from.

Rich

A few additional words from A Sparks flow nicely into this picture.

One of the greatest needs of our time is to plough our way down through the heavy and tangled growth of Christian doctrines to the virgin soil of spiritual life and reality. A master-stroke of the great subverter, in his purpose to neutralize spiritual effectiveness against his kingdom, has been the resolving of Christianity into an endless system or series of doctrines, most of them in conflict with each other. By these Christianity has been crippled and frustrated, turned in on itself, and a state of civil (or uncivil) war has been created.
The Church cannot move, as an integrated and single-fronted body, against a very powerful and wily foe, because it does not believe together; its mind is divided into so many conflicting interpretations.
This means that authority has almost entirely disappeared. Men have repeatedly tried to correct this by forming creeds, confessions of faith, principles and practice, etc., but these only serve to form groups, widen breaches, harden antagonisms, create superiorities, and foster complacencies; they never solve the problem of spiritual dividedness. They engender suspicion, breathe an atmosphere of fear, and stimulate a mentality of heresy.

One Size Fits All?

Is it possible for grace to be talked about, but in reality it being nothing more than a law in disguise (A wolf in sheep’s clothing)?

Here’s the deal, I have no problem extending ‘grace’ to anyone with regards to their seeing (say for example) one day being more important than another day, such as today Easter Sunday, or two days ago, Good Friday.
Really it can touch on just about anything for that matter, home schooling vs kids going to the public schools, in vs out of an institutional setting, eating meat, vs being a vegan, but does ‘one size (really) fit all’?

If grace is being extended to those (as it talks about in the New Testament) that are ‘weak in the faith’, wouldn’t it stand to reason that grace might be graciously reciprocated back?
There are a whole slew of thoughts that would appear to be incongruent or at odds with one another, for example, the following; especially verses, 4, 8, 16-23, and; pretty much all of chapter 14 of Romans.

I love how chapter 14 ends with this encouraging word: So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.

Rich

What’s Your Name: Who’s Your Daddy?

The best any of us can do, is judge by what we see, judging a book by its cover sort of thing. It is a very easy thing to mistakenly come to a wrong conclusion about some book based upon its cover, but it’s a whole different and much more serious issue when it comes to misreading (wrongly judging) a person.
The word ‘judgment’ is a word that conjures up some very negative, caustic and painful reactions from a lot of people, especially those who have been falsely accused (judged). Read part 1

The scriptures are full of seemingly blatant contradictions, (judge not lest you be judged) but maybe it’s these apparent in-congruencies that need to be held in tension to see for sure what we do NOT fully see yet, ergo the word ‘judgment’?

Simply because a word that points to a real and literal action such as judgment, has been so terribly misused and abused by so many, of course we should simply stop trying to do what we were never designed to do-right, wrong?!
The judging we are told to do is one of righteous judging, not according to our natural senses, why, well, as Jesus pointed out how he operated in and with judging there will be a redemptive conclusion rather than a smug look on the face of the one who blew out the flickering light of the one only to make themselves look better.
“I can do nothing on My own initiative As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.”
For what its worth in matters where judgment is required it would appear that we aren’t doing this to make ourselves look good.

I’m not sure the ‘ways of God’ are going to ever be made known to a person who has crossed the line of merely asking God to further explain and help to understand, to becoming someone who stands in the place of an interrogator of God sitting Him in the hot seat and demanding from Him, ANSWERS!!!

The placing or giving of a name to our children and the name given to us is something of utmost importance in my opinion. I see it tying in with our spiritual birth-right in coming to know our true father (the father of our spirit), not just our biological parents.It is too long of a story to unload here, but suffice it to say in naming our daughter Laura, (victorious spirit-overcoming spirit) the grit, the embedded, hidden as it were dynamics within her recreated spirit would facilitate her becoming what her name pointed to. Like wise with our son Matthew (gift of God).
As I said in part one of, What’s Your Name , because of sin entering the world through the human agent of man, everyone has been stamped, imprinted in their DNA aka, the sin-matrix-imprinting, and that dictates every thought and action we take.
I find it sadly amusing remembering from the original Matrix movie, # 1, how when Neo was being awakened from the Matrix it showed a scene where he was cocooned in a pod-like container along with additional humans too numerous to count.
Although the pod-like cocoon was the same for all of the imprisoned humans, each person according to the sin-matrix-imprinting was scripting for them a so called reality that they were living out a fully productive life somewhere in the ‘real world.’
Is this not in fact what sin has done in all of humanity?

I want to try and bring this together in concluding here, and in so doing, I think what I read this morning about Jacob and his wrestling match with the angle of the Lord just might fit in. Especially that later part of the chapter vs. 24-32,
In the wrestling altercation Jacob is crippled, but is about to discover what he has never know, and it begins to unfold in one penetrating, explosive question, ‘What’s Your name?’ Jacob was determined to not let go until he was blessed, but little did he know what that really encompassed, nor do we~ha!
All his life he saw himself shaped, cemented in an escapable merciless taskmaster mind set, (the sin-matrix-imprinting) but suddenly bursting in upon his consciousness a whole new vista was about to be implemented.

True judging based upon the love of the Father frees us to see and know at a distinct and intuitive level what is required, and in my opinion, it will always unbind that which has been bound all its life.

What a far out thought, by His grace being made free to BE the person He called us to BE, living out of our true identity (DNA) embracing and encountering all that awaits us without fear.

Rich

The Great Escape

It’s interesting, using that title, how it brings back memories of that classic war movie called by the same name, The Great Escape with Steve McQueen in the lead role.
Within that setting, captured soldiers from different countries who were subjected to the same imprisonment, sought diligently discovering ways and means of finally escaping from their Nazi German jailers. Freedom was a costly option for so many of these men that ended up in the loss of many lives, but then again, is freedom just another word for, fill in the blank _ _ _ _ _ _?

We are encouraged (admonished) to stand fast in the freedom wherein we stand, no longer subjecting ourselves to our former slavery. Truthfully and wonderfully said, but, the working out of this is where the rub comes in, and especially when our minds are still under the subversive influence of the old sin matrix imprinting, that continues its attempt to make null and void what God has done within us.
None of us can manufacture or produce this growing ability to stand fast apart from a continued discovery of who our Freedom is.
In taking my wife to work this morning, we continued talking more about this and as she was voicing her insights to me, and I turned to her and said, in everything you just said which I totally agreed with, there was one word that was pivotal, (fulcrum-apex) and that was, we are learning! Additional thoughts.

In the out workings of grace and its powerful tsunami effects upon us I see not only in my own life but in others the terribly seductive ensnarement of thinking; simply because we are ‘set free’ from fears influence aka trying to control others, or whatever the wonderful spin offs of grace’s redesigning is accomplishing in us, we think have LEARNED something, and there is never any chance of a relapse, why because we’re ‘free’ of course.
To that I say balderdash! Any ability to no longer get irritated, pissed off, or fearful or whatever is only because of the miracle of His present grace working from deep within, and the fruit it produces is NOT designed to make us look like some self-righteous prick….oh, look at me, I use to be this, but NO longer, and what the hell is wrong with those poor bastards that seem to keep crawling back into their fear cages??
In my opinion I see it is very easy to exchange one form of bondage for another, oh we may not be tripped up as easily as we once were, and maybe we no longer get stuck in (the muck) what so many still seem to be doing, but is it possible we have forgotten Who it was that set into motion our liberation?
Is it possible that in forgetting, not only was it grace, but it continues to be grace that keeps us free, and one of the biggest snares I see grace wants to keep us free from is becoming an arrogant self-righteous prick shaking our heads in disbelief as to why folks seems to love living in fear or whatever bondage.

Two men went into the holy place, one a self-righteous prick, smugly intoxicated in his own importance, high on himself, looking to see if God was thankful to have such a catch as him. While not far from him was another man, who somehow recognized that he was not only in a holy place, but it was only because of a holy God. The story goes on to say, this one saw his true worth, value only as a result of being loved, having nothing to do with his performance.
Jesus summed it up by asking, ‘Which of these two men went home justified?’

I love this beautiful picture of the Son saying to the Father, ‘Father I thank you, that you have hidden this mystery from the smart asses, and made it known unto the children.’Maybe there is SO MUCH more yet to discover about this amazing word called, Grace!

Rich

The Purpose

The Purpose - The Expression of a Testimony

(a) Life in the Midst of Death

"The testimony of Jesus" is a phrase that sums up a very great deal in the book of the Revelation. Indeed, it sums up the whole Bible. Now supposing, for argument's sake, that the object of the Church's calling is a testimony to Divine life. (It is no supposition, though, but a reality. "In him was life" (John 1:4): "I came that they may have life" (John 10:10): that is the testimony of Jesus.) Supposing then the testimony of Jesus is the testimony of Divine life: what is necessary in order that our experience and history should tally with Divine purpose? It is that we should have a setting in which we are assailed continually by death. Life becomes a very real thing when death is all around and very active. So, if the purpose is the manifestation of Divine life, then those who are called according to that purpose will have to have a history of conflict with death. That is simple and obvious. If, therefore, you and I have such a history and such an experience, are we to stand back and say, 'Oh, this is all wrong! Would that we could get out of this!'? We should rather say, 'This is in accordance with the object in view, there is a consistency about God's ways with us.'

The mystery of life is one of the supreme features, if not the supreme feature, of the whole record in Scripture. I am not attempting to deal with it exhaustively here, but only to bring out the point that immediately concerns us. What is the mystery of Christ? Many men besides Jesus Christ were brought up in Nazareth. Stand them all in a row. Can you discriminate between them other than by purely natural features? No. And yet there is a difference between Jesus and the rest. What is the difference? While outwardly He looks like the rest, there is a mystery about Him, there is something there, He is not the same. People tried to deal with Him as they dealt with other men, but they found they were dealing with someone unique, in whom there was something different. "The mystery of Christ" (Eph. 3:4), who Christ really was!

The mystery of life. "Called according to his purpose." Supposing then that the Church is to be a manifestation of the life, a testimony to Divine life, then the Church will be set all through its history in scenes of death, with the forces of death raging against it.

(b) Light in the Midst of Darkness

The same is true of light. "I am the light of the world" (John 8:12). But there was no glow about Him, no halo round His head, nothing outward that said to men, 'This is the light of the world'. But vital union with Him by the Spirit later meant that those in union had a wonderful illumination in their own spirits. In that way, not physically, they became luminaries for those who were seeking the light. There was a mystery still about it. No one could discern it except in a spiritual way. Supposing then the calling is this - to manifest the light. Then we shall be placed in darkness again and again for the testimony's sake.

"He is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings, and the children of Israel: for I will show him how many things he must suffer for my name's sake". He must suffer in order that the Name may come out in all its glory. The cause of all is to be found in the calling and election, and the effect of the calling is to be seen in suffering, a setting that brings out the reality of this calling. "...to this end..." Have you yourself a sense of this? Then check up as you go along and see if the ways of the Lord with you are not after all perfectly consistent with the thing that He is after.

For further reading

There is so much that I love about this article, so rich and full are its contrasts, and in my opinion clearly showing that perhaps so many believers are trying to get out of what He has designed for our lives, being surrounded by death that His Life might become evident to us and to the world around us.As well as with Light, again more often than not finding ourselves seemingly entrenched in times of darkness, why, so that His light might be seen?????

Rich

Open My Eyes

Unless you are born again, you can NOT see the kingdom of God.

Jesus said, "You're absolutely right. Take it from me: Unless a person is born from above, it's not possible to see what I'm pointing to—to God's kingdom." "How can anyone," said Nicodemus, "be born who has already been born and grown up? You can't re-enter your mother's womb and be born again. What are you saying with this 'born-from-above' talk?" Jesus said, "You're not listening. Let me say it again. Unless a person submits to this original creation—the 'wind-hovering-over-the-water' creation, the invisible moving the visible, a baptism into a new life—it's not possible to enter God's kingdom. When you look at a baby, it's just that: a body you can look at and touch. But the person who takes shape within is formed by something you can't see and touch—the Spirit—and becomes a living spirit. "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?" Jesus said, "You're a respected teacher of Israel and you don't know these basics? Listen carefully. I'm speaking sober truth to you. I speak only of what I know by experience; I give witness only to what I have seen with my own eyes. There is nothing secondhand here, no hearsay. Yet instead of facing the evidence and accepting it, you procrastinate with questions. If I tell you things that are plain as the hand before your face and you don't believe me, what use is there in telling you of things you can't see, the things of God?

Why not? Because of the matrix, of having been born in sin and shaped (formed) in iniquity. An imprinting of complete and total grotesque invasiveness.
The nature of sin in its imprinting is the only basis we have in relating to our world as we think we see and know it.

There is NO ability within us to sort out, sift through, or distinguish the difference between what is real and the false. He, God alone in the person of his son Jesus, is the fullness of all that is true and real, and by definition is able to sift or separate within us that which is of the spirit and that which is but Flesh, and oh how terribly deceived we all are by the many chameleon shape shifting forms our flesh can take. Maybe thats why David saw his need because it was loving pointed out to him....You desire truth in my inward parts: and in the hidden parts of me You shall make me to know wisdom.' (The word of God is sharper than any laser, distinguishing-separating-rightly dividing between the flesh and the spirit)

It was long before the finished work of the cross that David the King of Israel spoke those words I quoted in my opening sentence; 'Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.'
Sure sounds an awful lot like what Jesus said, "Those who worship the Father, it must be in spirit and truth, for God is a spirit." As well as this, 'The Father himself is seeking such true worshipers.'

Apart from an internal invasion from the Spirit of the living God, we will remain dead in our sin-iniquity-matrix imprinting, that's a given. The thing is no one has to be excluded or exempted from receiving Life, its there for the receiving.

The kicker in my opinion goes way beyond this though. It is in not seeing or knowing the depth of this imprinting and its collateral and residual damaging influence within us that we as re-birthed believers more often than not exchange one form of bondage for another, of course in our eyes it is NOT seen as bondage.
In fact simply because we have experienced a measure of release from fear, and its hold upon us and its influence which more often than not exhibited itself in us trying to control life and people around us, is no guarantee that there are no more areas of hidden undetected bondage in our lives.

Sort of like the man who said he was the humblest person in the world, but was secretly proud of that fact. Hmm?

Rich

Freedom, Moment by Moment

The mystery and miracle of the Father’s love invading my soul is beyond my ability to articulate well, but as in the record of the blind man healed by Jesus, he confidently stated, ‘I once was blind, but now I see.’

I too am being drawn out from my prison house of fear, shame, and prolonged atrophy of the heart.
One of my favorite sayings is; ‘Even a blind man can count the seeds in an apple, but only God can count the orchards in one seed.’
I trust in His grace and love to set into motion those rippling effects to undo in the lives of those dear to me what has caused such hurt and pain, He indeed has my attention.

The following is but a few snippets of life’s derailing, and learning in and through it all I can BE set free from being one of the many soulishly trained dogs of Pavlov.

I’m jumping way down the road in this even with our daughter, there was so much more that preceded this.

We got home this afternoon and we each got on our PC's to find a email from our daughter stating how after having to wait for over 3 hours to get her Mac back (the hard drive crashed on it) she took it home and had to locate the reinstall Cd's she needed to finish up the new hard drive that was put in under warranty. She had made a cup of tea and was coming over to work on her Mac when I guess she tripped and spilled her cup of tea all over the keyboard, she immediately turned it upside down to get rid of the water, she said it instantly shut down, her friend that was there helping her with the reinstall Cd's said that, that had happened to him once as well, and after letting it dry for some time, it seemed to work ok. We contacted apple for her to see if this kind of thing was covered under any of her extended coverage, it wasn't, so she is pretty bummed out right now to say the least, and we aren't able to contact her yet as she went over to a friends place to chill out because of all of this.

Even though this is her problem the Lord is using it to enlighten me, let me tell you...the mind set of not long ago is there in the throws of this situation to come down hard on her for what I saw as her carelessness, instead of responding to her hurt, and frustration in loving compassion. I am slowly recognizing only because of seeing my need for his loving care and patience for me, to respond in love vs reacting and throwing gas on an already blazing fire.
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As Margi and I were coming home from supper last night, we were talking about the issue of God opposing-resisting the proud but giving grace to the humble. I got looking into those scriptures said or inferred in others saying pretty much the same thing and I was led into a very disturbing but needed x-ray of my own soulish attitudes that were not embracing the humble One in me, not sure this will make sense as I feel I am stumbling over me words here, but I began to see how just such annoying derailment's in life, being inconvenienced, put upon, etc was His way of wanting to grace me, or to bring forth His Son in me as me and introduce Him to a suffering world who only knows how to react to life's assaults.
I said to Margi there was no condemnation in my heart attitudes and motives being exposed, just a sense of it being such a deep and penetrating gift of his love for me, (Caustic Grace) wanting to bring in deeper assurance to my hurting and troubled soul, that He could be trusted.
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I have been and probably am still so very much in a hurray to get to where I want to Be, and do what I want to do, and maybe missing out on a lot of good stuff because of it?
Friday I was inside all day at work as I was for most of the week instead of going out on a route, because of trying to avoid antagonizing this cold I was trying to see to its end. In the many different things I had to do yesterday I found myself in a reflective mood, musing, as I was running here and there doing designated work assignments for my boss I found myself actually looking, thinking, asking myself why I always seemed to be in such a hurray?
For whatever reason/s, I started slowing down, not racing-driving like a mad man to get to the next point, for what?
As I am now looking back at this I trust it will become a more solid (natural) and definite expression of Him in me as me in my newly chosen route I will commence on Monday, as it will be one of traveling all over the city in the process of delivering many more parcels than I have ever done before. I sure hope I'm making some sense here bro, maybe when we get the chance to talk, I can further elucidate.
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There were (Today) as there will always be until I go to be forever with my heavenly Father other wonderful insights of experiencing His amazing grace, setting into motion dynamics of loving and living in the moment that have so not been a part of my life.

Papa, I so love you!

Rich

Your Door is Ajar

Sharing with a friend today, talking about the ongoing workings of the cross and its applications in our progressive transformation; I see it to be what catapults us as it were through the faith portal.
Man’s ingenuity in devising tools of torture such as the cross Jesus died upon, was designed to put an end to the life of Jesus, but God the Father used it to infuse us with Life that flowed out of its hellish work, talk about using the foolishness of preaching to confound the so called wise.

Yes the door is ajar, it’s been a door previously closed, you know where it talks about the One, (and no, I’m not talking about Neo from the movie The Matrix,) it is written about, ‘I am the one who closes a door no man can open, as well as He that opens a door no man can close.’ As a matter of fact Jesus referred to Himself as being the door we are to pass through, cool.

In this world we are going to experience troubles with a capitol T, and those trouble are meant and designed by God be the tools to exercise their powerful effects in the inner transformation of our barren (womb) soul.
Further in our sharing today with my friend, these thoughts flowed together; in my opinion if pouring out our heart propels us forward, rather than simply being HONEST, (and using our honesty to justify not moving forward) then I see that as real growth.

David was just like us, with sin and Satan in the flesh, yes he was more real-raw than most, but he somehow found-discovered the wherewithal to be propelled into so much more of what the father had for him, maybe this speaks of why God called him a man after his own heart, just a thought!
Am I, are you being catapulted forward, or hiding behind being honest and using it as an excuse to stay a spiritual quadriplegic?

I am sensing the sufferings we are allotted to experience may not come gift wrapped in shinny, or pretty paper, but none the less a treasure in disguise.
Is complaining allowed, sure, its optional, but to resist His grace brings in total paralysis.
I wonder if this comes close to what so many have said before; ‘Either shit, or get off the pot’?
Could it be that God is using these shitty, chaffing and painful irritations to bring forth the needed changes in my heart and mind?

There are things happening in my life work-relationally related, that are hard to put into words, but I know no matter how difficult they are He will not allow me to wallow too long in any of it, he has made and is making Himself more attractive to me than wanting to settle for cheap grace tricks.
Somebody said once, ‘You can’t teach an old dog new tricks’, well the reality of the finished work of the cross and its applications to our lives isn’t a magic show nor about trickery, plus I ain't no dog.

I really wonder about Love, meaning in a relationship between a man and a woman or vise versa, maybe its much more to do with being in love with our loving feelings, and bring that over into the spiritual realm in our so called relationship with God; are we just in love with our feelings of love?
Maybe that’s a huge part of us being diss-illusioned, cause He just don't seem to want to keep making ME feel good!
Through the caustic applications of His grace the kicker in my opinion of growing in the knowledge of His love is that it transcends our soulish emotional highs and lows, and that in and of itself is a huge thing to process.

Wrapping this up I want to share this from Amy over at

http://firstcomeslove.wordpress.com/ “How Are Ya Ralph”

See, it’s so simple in her illustration, we can acknowledge and be honest, but not get morbid about it, that’s what I am sensing. How amazing is that!

Rich

Grace or Gimmicks

Before I get carried away, today’s thoughts from Oz Chambers in my opinion fits in well here.

http://www.rbc.org/utmost/index.php

It's a journey not for the faint of heart... but there's grace enough for the fainters to catch up. (Quote by Dave Aldrich)

Don't you know anything? Haven't you been listening?
God doesn't come and go. God lasts.
He's Creator of all you can see or imagine.
He doesn't get tired out, doesn't pause to catch his breath.
And he knows everything, inside and out.
He energizes those who get tired,
gives fresh strength to dropouts.
For even young people tire and drop out,
young folk in their prime stumble and fall.
But those who wait upon God get fresh strength.
They spread their wings and soar like eagles,
They run and don't get tired, they walk and don't lag behind.

Am I a pain freak, (a sadist) delighting in the pain I am experiencing along with a world of people experiencing so much of it as well?
I know it might appear that way especially when one of my friends hears me say, I am so excited for you, this is wonderful, what incredible beauty, and its usually in the thick dark and painful times in their lives.

So much seemed to pour out of our conversation last night, connecting with my Brutha Dave is always a rich treat. I am so delighted in seeing (sensing) and hearing (and by that I don’t mean by the natural senses) of the Father’s handy work materializing in his life.
It was out of that time shared together last night I am attempting to place some of our mutual understandings of the scriptures used above.

From the Father’s perspective the journey and the destination has been totally consummated, it’s a done deal. According to scripture, it says, ‘Seated in Christ’

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians%202:5-7;&version=65;

‘He is your Life’
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Colossians%203:1-3;&version=65;

None of us is seeing clearly enough to become the fourth part of trinity, so lets just cool our jets a bit and be open to the ongoing Amazing grace mosaic Father is unfolding before our very eyes.
The one word that seemed to jump out at me was, ‘But those who wait upon God’! Forget for a moment that it continues to say, ‘get fresh strength’.

What I think I see in this first of all is, waiting like any other thing we think we are to DO, or try to DO in and of ourselves is us still missing the point all together.
Food for thought on this, I believe we are the femaleness to His maleness, all of us included. We were re-birthed to bear (because of our spirit-union) only that which He alone is capable of producing within the life of the child of God.
So, maybe this whole issue of waiting is not us resorting to some cheap grace trickery.
Maybe it’s all about us basically being brought there as a result of Him using all things in our lives to indelibly etch into our hearts the true knowledge that we are LOVED!

I am seeing (sensing) that it all flows out of His love, us being loved that frees us to be, the femaleness to Him alone, knowing from deep within, nothing of our fleshly efforts can manufacture real authentic fruit, which when you think about it, the fruit of the Spirit is LOVE, and all of the other colors and flavors that are exhibited are further delights of that LOVE.

I am most pregnant and rejoice in my absolute and total barrenness, knowing there is a most fruitful one I am joined to, and I'm discovering that rest is but one more expression of His divine love making.

Rich

It's Not Happening

Where there is a will, there is a way.
That adage has many spin offs attached to it, good and bad. I do believe there is a will and a way, not my way or your way (the right vs. the wrong way) but His way, aka Jesus~the Way! His will and Way work harmoniously together and needs none of my suggestions or assistance. He may indeed be the Ancient of Days, and it may appear that He has not put me on hold but in fact, has He forgotten all about me.
I love overhearing my boss (friend) saying from time to time while on the phone, 'you can put me on hold, but please don't put me on forget'!

Getting back to His 'way', there will never be a harmonious marriage between that which is born of the flesh and that born of the spirit. This is clearly highlighted in different places by the apostle Paul. Loosely paraphrased; 'even though one may be re-birthed, as long as the mind-set is on/of the flesh, the things of God will be utter foolishness to them, and to all intent and purposes could be perceived as merely a natural man without the Spirit.'

The foolishness of God causing the so called wisdom of man to be seen for what it is, an illusion. For i.g. 'The Prince of Peace says, "I have NOT come to bring peace but a sword, and I will BE the source of division and that reality will be visibly seen within the family unit."
"I've come to start a fire on this earth—how I wish it were blazing right now! I've come to change everything, turn everything right side up—how I long for it to be finished! Do you think I came to smooth things over and make everything nice? Not so. I've come to disrupt and confront! From now on, when you find five in a house, it will be— Three against two, and two against three; Father against son, and son against father; Mother against daughter, and daughter against mother; Mother-in-law against bride, and bride against mother-in-law."

I wanted to jot down a few of my own thoughts and tie them in hopefully with what Tina shared on her blog dealing with a very similar thought.

Rich

And then God had Abram waiting. A long time. And Sarai, his wife, started thinking maybe it was time to make something happen. So she told Abram in Genesis 16, "The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her."

Do you see how we take God’s promise of connection with fellow believers, and if we don’t see it happening, we take matters into our own hands? Perhaps I can build a family through…. my own works.

"And God let them go ahead with that plan, but it didn’t work too well. Ishmael, the child of the slave girl, became the father of descendants "too numerous to count," but they were not God’s chosen people. Finally when Abram was NINETY-NINE YEARS OLD, God said it was time. And Sarai laughed at God. Oh, now you’re going to tell me that it’s time for me to bear a child? Now? Do you know how long it’s been since…

Sometimes we might have to wait for our expression of God’s promise, in this case fellowship. Don’t be nervous. Don’t be concerned what they say about you. Don’t settle for the slave child, for Pete’s sake. Let’s keep reminding ourselves that a real move of God is worth waiting for".

We are in Jesus

Just A Concept

I'm curious about something regarding the Truth, and by that I mean, truth being synonymous with the only one who said, I Am the Truth-Life and Way.
It is a very curious thing to me in hearing so many (this is not a cheep shot at anyone) speaking of truth purely as a 'concept' (conceptual thing).
One of the meanings of the word 'concept' is; Something formed in the mind; a thought or notion.

Is Christ as the Truth, simple giving us greater and bigger heads, sharper minds, purely nothing more than warm fuzzy God concepts?
Or, His the transformational workings of the same grace that apprehended (re-birthed) us now working to establish, fully form Christ IN us?
Is this merely some wild acid trip concept man? Or is the reality of Him (Christ) not only being in us, but Him becoming fully formed within us, the reality that is to facilitate the needed transformation of our soul (mind, will, and emotions)?

Hammering out my thoughts with a brother yesterday (its Hammer time) this was some of what I was processing.
Does the Truth not become the truth as long as say you or I can not grasp the 'concept'? Or does the Truth exceed and transcend intellectual prowess? In my opinion conceptual thinking speaks of me finally getting a handle on something vs the Truth making Himself known to me because of the intuitive flow of the Life of the Father in me? click here
That imo transcends all barriers! If its all about clever sharp mindedness, then maybe it isn't level and equal ground we all stand upon in Him. (Except you becoming like a child, Jesus said)
From what I am beginning to see its that intuitive flow of His life in us that scares the B-Jesus out of us, why, because its so far beyond our ability to establish control.

Is truth merely an academic expose on conceptual thinking?
How does conceptual fit in with, All I know is once I was blind, and now I see,such a concept... far out, this Jesus guy is.
Or, how about this one; I did not receive this concept from man, nor did man teach me this concept, it was a revelation from the conceptual Jesus Himself?
My faith? Sure, let me tell you about my relationship with my concept of God that I have.

Is he merely the God who was or perhaps, maybe the God of who will be, but in the mean time, hopefully my conceptual Jesus will keep me happy.

Rich

fellowship on the magic bus

The means of transportation may vary, train-bus-car-ferry, but simply traversing with the collective heard doesn't (imo) constitute 'fellowship.'


Reading from the following blog greatly encouraged me to launch out with a few of my own thoughts on this subject.

"We Are in Jesus" by Tina

Is it any different taking the magic church bus ride?
Whether in the established box or living free-range, 'true fellowship' is only possible through its primary connection, and out of that overflow, we DO have fellowship with one another.

What we have seen and [ourselves] heard, we are also telling you, so that you too may realize and enjoy fellowship as partners and partakers with us. And [this] fellowship that we have [which is a distinguishing mark of Christians] is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.

Resistance to the collective good (the joint belief system) is futile, but maybe as this frustrating futility works its work into the life of the believer, as in so many other irritating-chafing ways, true life and fellowship is entered into?


Any thoughts?

Rich

Life's Illusions

"The first man to see an illusion by which men have flourished for centuries surely stands in a lonely place."

In light of moving from Christ being in us to having Christ fully formed within us, I see at no time when there will be no more illusions that need to be dissed!

Being known for who we are vs. who we aren't, must allow for this unfolding reality no mater who you are or how long you have been seen as one that is recognized (and heard) as some great white bwana-guru.

I don't care what or how great any truth has been made to you, it will never this side of glory, be made a moot point (null and voided out) of the just having to, 'walk by faith.'

In my opinion one of the greatest areas of being awakened from a dream world where, especially Christians have been asleep most of their lives is in regards to the Love issue,you know, God is love stuff, and how perfect love casts out all fear.
The kicker is, I see 'God is love', being something many have nailed down pat as a wonderful belief system, but in fact, have experienced so very little of it themselves.
If in fact I am experiencing how much God does love me (unconditionally) does it not stand to reason, I like wise will love others unconditionally?

The unfolding process of being awakened to the real world (be transformed by the renewing of your mind) is a glorious reality shaped like very sharp-pointed pins pricking our illusion balloons.

Rich

Morpheus: 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 it's 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?

Morpheus: 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.

Neo: What truth?

Morpheus: That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else you were born into bondage. Into a prison that you cannot taste or see or touch. A prison for your mind.

Morpheus: What is "real"? How do you define "real"?

Agent Smith: Did you know that the first Matrix was designed to be a perfect human world? Where none suffered, where everyone would be happy. It was a disaster. No one would accept the program. Entire crops were lost. Some believed we lacked the programming language to describe your perfect world. But I believe that, as a species, human beings define their reality through suffering and misery. The perfect world was a dream that your primitive cerebrum kept trying to wake up from. Which is why the Matrix was redesigned to this: the peak of your civilization.

Letting Go Of The Old Ways

Not sure about you, but for me if possible I'd like to travel the path of NO resistance, Nada.
When our mind set (a mind set upon the flesh) is steeped in lameness, is it any wonder we come up with lame excuses?

I love the story in the Gospel of John when Jesus steps into this scene; it says there is a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving (stirring) of the water.
Tradition has it that at a certain season an angel went down and troubled the water; the first one into the waters after this angelic aquatic feat was made whole, and stepping right into the center of it all, is Jesus. As usual, He stirs things up real good.

Here is an example of the old passing away because the new is being ushered in.

Going through a long line of prophets, God has been addressing our ancestors in different ways for centuries. Recently he spoke to us directly through his Son. By his Son, God created the world in the beginning, and it will all belong to the Son at the end. This Son perfectly mirrors God, and is stamped with God's nature. He holds everything together by what he says—powerful words!

This isn't an angel speaking to this infirm (impotent) man and asking him if he wants to BE made whole.
What does this man say;The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steps down before me.
Jesus said, "Get up, take your bedroll, start walking." The man was healed on the spot. He picked up his bedroll and walked off.

I think it is a whole lot easier to remain as it were spiritually retarded, then to step out in faith knowing I am loved.The enemy of our soul will certainly assist in fueling the mindset that sees nothing but our lameness. The thing is, His grace is ever present to Be made whole.I love what Oswald Chambers has said; 'He doesn't give us overcoming life, but life as we overcome.'

Rich

The Essential Spirit

Part 10 of 14 – The Essential Spirit - The Christian’s Basis of Victory Over Sin

God has provided a great 3-fold salvation for us from Sin and its effects.

1. As Christians, we’re free from the "penalty" of our sins, since Christ paid the penalty for us. (Gal 1:4)

2. Then also as Christians who are "in Christ," we already are freed from the "power" of Sin’s domination over us; by our co-death with and in Christ at the cross. (Gal 2:20, Rom 6:2, 6-7, 7:4)

3. Upon death we’ll be freed from the "presence’ of Sin, when we exchange these Sin-laden bodies for new spirit-bodies, just as the resurrected Jesus demonstrated when He appeared on earth after His resurrection.

First we need to note again, as we saw in Part 9, exactly where the Sin nature is located in mankind, including in the saved Christian, – it is within his flesh body members (Rom 7:17-23). In Romans 6:12 we see that sin is located in the flesh, "your mortal body"; where "sin reigns" by manifesting "its lusts." We also may note that in fact "sin is condemned in the flesh" Romans 8:3b.

Scripture tells us, we as believers are now "dead to sin" (Rom 6:2, 11) and free from its dominion. Romans 6:7 For he that is dead is freed from sin. Yet, we know that Christians still sin. So, how then does the Serpent’s Sin-spirit, in man’s flesh body, still have influence over the saved and regenerated Christian?

In the Old Testament we have an account of the very real experience of the children of Israel , which also is figurative of God’s remedy for Sin. It confirms the Christian’s dilemma of being dead to Sin, but still infected with the Sin nature. In Numbers 21 the children of Israel were in the Sinai wilderness, on their way to the Promised Land. Serpents bit them, injecting deadly venom and causing death. The children of Israel asked Moses to ask God to "take away the serpents" (v7). We should note that God did not answer their prayer in that way. The serpents bite and poison remained as a problem. But God did make the serpent’s bite "of no effect" if the poisoned victim looked to a brazen serpent lifted up on Moses staff, fashioned as God had instructed. To look to "behold" the brazen Serpent on the pole was a demonstration of ones faith in what God said. We must believe God, that the Sin in our flesh is "deprived of its power" when we look to Christ’s cross.

Jesus, in John 3:14, spoke referring to this allegory "as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up." Jesus speaks of Himself being the real "brazen serpent," the one "lifted up" on the cross, bodily. Jesus, in the humanity of His human body, had to be lifted up on the cross both for "the sins of the world," and also as our Sin-laden old man. Christ’s Sin-laden body was offered as our serpentine old man’s death, freeing us from Sin’s dominion. By us being now dead with Christ, the tyrannical Sin nature is deprived of us as its subject, "condemned in the flesh." Romans 8:3 …God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. Jesus’ death is our death "to sin." Now Sin in our flesh sits "condemned," sentenced, but not yet executed. Our serpentine-self died to Sin at the cross; and even more the cross is the source of the resurrection life of Christ now in us, as us.

We are to look away (Num 21:9) to behold the cross, trusting Christ’s death as our death; thus putting the Sin nature in our flesh out of a job. Sin’s poison remains in our flesh; but since we are crucified with Christ, Sin has no power over us. This has been so for us since the day we believed to receive Christ; now we must believe we died with Christ. From Numbers 21 we can see that it is by looking to Christ on the cross, that we see Him "as us" crucified on the cross. We identify with Christ death as our death. By Christ’s death as us, He destroyed not the Devil, but rather He "destroyed the works of the devil." 1 John 3:8b … For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy (Greek, luo, loose us from) the works of the devil.

2 Corinthians 5:7 "we walk by faith, not by sight." Our "death to Sin" is only effectual "by faith" in the finished work of the cross. We depend upon Christ as our indwelling new man. Jesus said we’re set apart from sin and the world, sanctified, "by faith in Him" (Acts 26:18). We’re all tempted by the spontaneous impulses of our Sinful flesh. Our faith response should be turn our heart to trust Him within us as our new and overcoming life-source; then our death to Sin is found to be effective. That one turning to abide in His life within us is the reckoning of our old self dead. We’re now alive by Christ’s "Spirit of life" in us; over whom Sin has no power.

This by my good friend Art.

Rich

He Lives

I am sure that what we are suffering now cannot compare with the glory that will be shown to us. In fact, all creation is eagerly waiting for God to show who his children are. Meanwhile, creation is confused, but not because it wants to be confused. God made it this way in the hope that creation would be set free from decay and would share in the glorious freedom of his children. We know that all creation is still groaning and is in pain, like a woman about to give birth.

What can we say about all this? If God is on our side, can anyone be against us? God did not keep back his own Son, but he gave him for us. If God did this, won't he freely give us everything else? If God says his chosen ones are acceptable to him, can anyone bring charges against them? Or can anyone condemn them? No indeed! Christ died and was raised to life, and now he is at God's right side, speaking to him for us. Can anything separate us from the love of Christ? Can trouble, suffering, and hard times, or hunger and nakedness, or danger and death? It is exactly as the Scriptures say, "For you we face death
all day long.
We are like sheep
on their way
to be butchered."
In everything we have won more than a victory because of Christ who loves us. I am sure that nothing can separate us from God's love--not life or death, not angels or spirits, not the present or the future, and not powers above or powers below. Nothing in all creation can separate us from God's love for us in Christ Jesus our Lord!

Rich

You can, we can

Mr curiosity here.
Is this simply the Home Depot jingle set into motion (You can do it, and we can help) in such literature as, A New Earth: Awakening To Your Life's Purpose, and, The Secret?

Rich

Dance To The Music

Thirty four years ago, suddenly the black and white world I was use to, abruptly became alive with colour. All because of meeting the girl that would (rock) turn my world upside down.
I found it so intoxicating as I was browsing through some of the pictures of my wife, when I came across the one I am using here, like a shot to the heart all I wanted to do was not just celebrate, but, Dance to the Music!

Happy Anniversary to the Treasure of my life, my wife Margi!

Rich

For those (Kent and Jon) who posted comments on this entry, sorry for them not being here now.
I was not satisfied with how the video was being presented, so I tinkered with it until it was better.
Thanks to both of you for your kind best wishes, they are much appreciated.


Dance to the Music, Charlie Brown

Check Up

It's not that I haven't had stuff to share here on my blog of late, but it has been submerged beneath a relentless barrage of soul agony.
I've been here before and experienced His goodness in the land of death, I know that Life will always be available to the dead, not for the weak!

Test yourselves to make sure you are solid in the faith. Don't drift along taking everything for granted. Give yourselves regular checkups. You need firsthand evidence, not mere hearsay, that Jesus Christ is in you. Test it out. If you fail the test, do something about it. I hope the test won't show that we have failed. But if it comes to that, we'd rather the test showed our failure than yours. We're rooting for the truth to win out in you. We couldn't possibly do otherwise.

Rich

We have heard Him ourselves

Staying afloat on second hand information!


John:4:42
'And they told the woman, Now we no longer believe (trust, have faith) just because of what you said; for we have heard Him ourselves [personally], and we know that He truly is the Savior of the world, the Christ.'

For those interested in additional thoughts touching on this same theme, there are some great musings over at, http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=108664028&blogID=354372627
by, Darin Hufford re: 'The Jesus Circus'.

Some thoughts I was pondering on and later shared with a friend this morning.

This may not be the best time to be thinking or asking this question re: my state of mind, but what the heck...the thought occurred to me this morning after looking at some emails.. in my opinion, it seems as good as things are via the high tech age we live in, aka the www/net, is the faith of Joe ordinary Christian, simply the by product of what others are saying, seeing, for i.e. 'I hope to see you at the IN CHRIST/Exchanged Life (or whatever) Conference this year', or many many other similar settings???

Don't get me wrong, its wonderful to be able to freely share, build one another up, but the thought occurred to me as I was struck with what I'm asking you is this...the story where Jesus meets up with the Samaritan woman, you know what follows, she comes to 'believe'' right, but then after blabbing it all about/around how this man Jesus told her such wonderful news, it says the whole town went out to see what was what.

I guess what I'm getting at/to, is this, if our faith lies in or on what others have seen, said etc, is it really real at all if all we have is a banking on others' experiences?
But I have been pondering on this issue for a while within the body, there seems to be such an emptiness, that seems to be met by what others are seeing/saying vs getting to KNOW Him alone, personally, with no shortcuts.

Regarding the Jn 4 passage, I was thinking of this as well... 'That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.

In my opinion I do not see this declaration to have been a substitute for those believers then, or now of being able to know Him, NOT simple because of what, or who others say He is!

Rich

Cool Shadows!!

Cool Shadows!!
Originally uploaded by adrians_art

I loved this picture and thought it might illustrate a little further (especially of all days, this being Ground Hog day) what my friend Art shared in the following.

This is but a slice of what it was sandwiched in.

Rich

The angels were created as spirits, separate from God Himself. Adam was created in God’s image (Gen 1:26) by God’s own breath (spirit) as man’s human spirit. Man is created in the image of God; man looks like Jesus of Nazareth, but man lacks the content of the Christ; just as a shadow of a man is similar to the man, but lacks the life-substance of the man. Every man is born of Adam; but then, by receiving “spirit of life in Christ Jesus,” God’s “only begotten Son” (John 1:14) into his human spirit, a man is reborn. Each of us as, as the individual members of “the body of Christ,” has become a partaker of the life and substance of God’s” only begotten Son.” A man becomes completed only when He has received God’s substance and reality by receiving the essential “spirit of life in Christ Jesus.” Colossians 2:10 And ye are complete in (by) him (Christ)… Coming to know the presence of the indwelling “spirit of life in Christ Jesus,” subjectively, is our realization and personal experience of Christ alive within our regenerated human spirit as our new essential spirit. Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me… Rom 8:16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

Crippled Inside

I was looking for a quote from the book the Shack by Paul Young, I couldn't fine it but discovered something I need to hear afresh, He is so good.


"Tell me what you are afraid of, Mack. Well, I am afraid of looking like an idiot. I am afraid that you are making fun of me and that I will sink like a rock. I imagine that-------Exactly, Jesus interrupted. You imagine. Such a powerful ability, the imagination! That power alone makes you so like us. But without wisdom, imagination is a cruel taskmaster. If I may prove my case, do you think humans were designed to live in the present or the past or the future? Well, said Mack, hesitating, I think the most obvious answer is that we were designed to live in the present. Is that wrong? Jesus chuckled.
Relax, Mack; this is NOT a test, it's a conversation. You are exactly correct, by the way. But now tell me, where do you spend most of your time in your mind, in your imagination, in the present, in the past, or in the future? Mack thought for a moment before answering. I suppose I would have to say that I spend very little time in the present. For me, I spend a big piece in the past, but most of the rest of the time, I am trying to figure out the future. Not unlike most people. When I dwell with you, I do so in the present-I live in the present. Not the past, although much can be remembered and learned by looking back, but only for a visit, not an extended stay. And for sure, I do not dwell in the future you visualize or imagine.
Mack, do you realize that your imagination of the future, which is almost always dictated by fear of some kind, rarely, if ever, pictures me there with you? Again Mack stopped and thought. It was true. He spent a lot of time fretting and worrying about the future, and in his imaginations it was usually pretty gloomy and depressing, if not outright horrible. And Jesus was also correct in saying that in Mack's imaginations of the future, God was always absent.
Why do I do that? asked Mack.
It is your desperate attempt to get some control over something you can't. It is impossible for you to take power over the future because it isn't even real, nor will it ever be real. You try and play God, imagining the evil that you fear becoming reality, and then you try and make plans and contingencies to avoid what you fear.Yeah, that's basically what Sarayu was saying, responded Mack. So why do I have so much fear in my life? Because you don't believe. You don't know that we love you. The person who lives by their fears will not find freedom in my love.
I am not talking about rational fears regarding legitimate dangers, but imagined fears, and especially the projection of those into the future. To the degree that those fears have a place in your life, you neither believe I am good nor know how deep in your heart that I love you. You sing about it; you talk about it, but you don't know it."


you can shine you're shoes
and wear a suit
you can comb your hair
and look quite cute
you can hide your face behind a smile
one thing you can't hide
is when you're crippled inside
you wear a mask
and paint your face
you can call yourself
the human race
you can wear a collar
and a tie
but the one thing you
can't hide is when you're
crippled inside
well now you know that your
cat has nine lives babe
nine loves to itself
but you only got one
and a dog life ain't no fun
mamma take a look outside.
you can go to church
and sing a hymn
judge me by the color
of my skin
you can live a lie until you die
one thing you can't hide
is when you're crippled inside.

The words from above are by John Lennon from the song, 'Crippled Inside'. This so illustrates this quote from the Shack.

I am finding as I am discovering how dangerous His grace is, that true lasting freedom is not just a hope for one day, but I'm experiencing it's reality today!

Rich

Follow Up

I tried to post this in response to what Dave had said in his comments, but for some unknown reason it wouldn't do it, so here it is.
In light of what Art is sharing here, I thought I would ask him about something that has troubled me re: the whole issue of man bearing His image, as if we are ALL His children etc, here are his thoughts.

Rich

Hi Richard:

I consider the matter of man being in the "image of God" as follows:
The word image speaks of an "empty representation" of the "real thing" - such as a shadow may be of our body. Man is an empty vessel.

Man is like a well suited Ferrari, but lacking fuel and a proper driver to drive (guide) him. Christ as the proper driver in man fits the drivers seat perfectly - Spirit to spirit.

The Bible figures for this are the words such as Temple, and branch, etc. I like the vine because it relates to bearing a life, it has the capacity to receive the life of the vine-tree. Even the branch fits the tree, but it can do nothing of itself - it must have the flow of life from the vine-tree, which is Christ. Man was created as a "yet to be completed" being. By creation man had the proper organ (his spirit) to take in the content that he was missing - Christ's life; and man has and faculties of soul (mind emotion and will) to give expression to that innermost life. By receiving Christ the "image" is then filled with the "real thing."

The word "likeness" on Romans goes even further in this analogy. Where image speaks of the empty container suited to receive Christ. The word likeness means much more. Some time ago I discovered that the word "likeness" is from the Greek word root "homoioo." It means the ability to "assimilate," (<<<
Strongs) "take in," like a sponge may "absorb" or take in water. Man's empty spirit is the precise container in man having the ability to "assimilate" Christ's Spirit of like.
Here are a couple of "likeness' verse to consider:
In Rom 6:5 we as believers have "assimilated Christ's death and life as our death and new life".
In Rom 8:3 Jesus "assimilated man's sinful flesh", so as to be able to condemn it.
That's my view on image and likeness.
Art

The Created Man & The Reborn Man

The following is from a 14 part article my friend Art has written, I wanted to share this here with my friends.

Rich


Part 6 of 14 - The Essential Spirit - The Created Man & The Reborn Man

As stated earlier, God’s spirit is in every created man. This occurred by God breathing His “breath of life” (Genesis 2:7) into Adam’s body of clay, resulting in the total animation of Adam and all his human lineage. God’s breath (spirit) was to give the created man spirit-life on-loan. When God breathed His “breath of life” into Adam, Adam also immediately “became a living soul.” Adam’s body and soul thereby became lively and animated by God’s one “breath of life.”

Here, in Gen 2:7 “breath of life,” the word “breath” is the Hebrew word “neshamah,” meaning “spirit”; and the word “life” here is the Hebrew word “chay,” meaning “lives.” The KJV translates “chay” as “life,” but it more correctly is “lives.” God’s one “breath of life” gave man three kinds of life; in spirit, in soul and in body. The English transliteration of the Greek for “physical life” is “bios,” as being the biological life; and for the “soul life” it is “psuche,” as being man’s metaphysical organ, having the faculties of mind, emotion, and will. The Greek word for “spirit-life” is “Zoë.” These three are the sum of the parts of man.

God’s breath breathed into man is called “the spirit of man” and the “the spirit in man” in the Old Testament Scripture. Apart from God’s breath (spirit-life) in man there is no life at all in the created man. Adam’s physical body creation was as his outer clothing. Man’s body and soul derive their life from man’s spirit that was given by God’s spirit-breath. The core of men then, is their human spirit. This spirit is man’s human life source – the core of man’s whole created living being. 2 Corinthians 3:6b …the spirit giveth life. James 2:26a …the body without the spirit is dead…

The humanist and religious liberals, those who may admit to there being a God at all, often erroneously refer to God as the Father of all mankind, but this is not accurate. Actually, God is only “a father of sorts” to the original created man. Adam and Eve were only created by God; they were not born of God’s Seed (sperma). Only a birth father is a genuine father. As creator of man, God is not man’s birth father. A father is one whose seed (sperma) births His own child to life. Thus, God only “sort of fathered” humanity, when He created humanity and imparted His breath (spirit) to be the “spirit of man.” God did NOT impart His Seed.

Nevertheless, the human spirit that God gave man is the source of man’s human life, and that spirit is “on-loan.” This is not what it is to be born-again of God, by His “Seed.” 1 John 3:9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his (God’s) seed (sperma) remaineth in him... Each believer, now in “the body of Christ,” has been conceived of God the Father's Seed (Greek, sperma), which is Christ (1Pet 1:23, Gal 3:16). By that Christ-Seed we bear His very life and nature.

The human spirit “on loan” in the created man has need to become regenerated (Titus 3:5) by Christ’s resurrected “spirit of life” in order to become a genuine, eternal, birthed child of God the Father – born of God’s Seed (Greek, sperma). The believer is regenerated because he has additionally received the resurrected “spirit of life in Christ Jesus.” Jesus Christ is God’s One Seed that became available via Jesus’ incarnation in Abraham’s lineage (see Jesus’ genealogy in Luke), then dying, to rise as “the life-giving spirit” (1Cor 15:45). Now a man may simply receive Christ's resurrected Spirit into his human spirit, to be born of God. John 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. John 1:13 ...born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

Jesus prayed that each believer would be one with God the Father and Him. John 17:21a That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us… And so it is. Receiving Christ’s resurrected “spirit of life,” makes a man eternally justified, righteous, and one with the Godhead. Colossians 2:9 For in him (Christ) dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. The Father and the Son are of One Spirit (Eph 4:4). Romans 8:9 But ye are … in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. We participate in this oneness by a once and for all spirit-union between our “human spirit” and Christ’s “Spirit of life.” The believer thus is one with both the Father and the Son by the addition of the all-inclusive “Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” into his human spirit.

Renaissance

A quick note to those who have been visiting my blog, I will continue to keep this blog going, but at the same time with the wonderful assistance of my good friend Dave Aldrich from Rhode Island, I/we have put together a new blog I got up and running this morning.

http://unfoldingmystery.blogspot.com/

I look forward to seeing and hearing from any who wish to make themselves known as well as to how Father is making Himself known to them.

Peace,
Rich