Our Position on Earth

I find it interesting in following along here with what my friend Art is sharing regarding the 'Mystery of the Gospel' and how it proved to be a catalyst that launched Paul into a prison ministry, by being incarcerated himself for making it known...now what is that all about, why such bent out of shape reactions from folks??
Is this mystery of Christ in us, just an elaborate disguise, a new improved rendition of Dale Carnegie's, 'How to Win Friend's and Influence People'?

Is this mystery and its unveiling alloted to only those as in some religious settings that have reached a 'higher frequency'? Interesting this is!

AMBASSADORS for CHRIST - by Cornelius Stam
Part 2 of 5 - OUR POSITION ON EARTH

Twice in Paul’s letters we find the word ambassador. In II Corinthians 5:20 the apostle tells us whom He represents: “We are ambassadors for Christ,” while in Ephesians 6:19, 20 he gives us the burden of his message: “the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds.”

Paul rejoiced in his position in the heavenlies, in Christ, but he realized that he also held an important position on earth. As Christ had once suffered and died in Paul’s stead, Paul now rejoiced in his commission to stand before the world in Christ’s stead, pleading with men to be reconciled to God. 2 Corinthians 5:20 (KJV) Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.

The world would not have Christ, so Paul, who had once so bitterly persecuted Him, went forth in His stead, with an offer of grace and peace. If Christ was willing to delay the judgment of the nations and remain an exile from the world which was His by right, Paul was more than willing to represent Him here. He counted it all joy to suffer in the flesh and fill up that which remained of the afflictions of Christ. He considered “the fellowship of His sufferings” a great privilege and a great honor (Col. 1:24; Phil. 3:10).

Yes, Paul was in Christ, but Christ was in Paul too, pleading with sinners to be reconciled to God through His merits. And the position that was Paul’s as the ambassador of Christ is our position too.

In fathomless love and mercy our blessed Lord has delayed the judgment of His enemies for more than 1900 years while He still remains an exile. As the world’s rebellion continues He still leaves us, His ambassadors, here to offer terms of peace to all who will accept them. And what terms! “The forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace!” “Peace through the blood of His Cross!”

Still the world blasphemes and despises this wonderful Savior, but He no longer bears the suffering. The time of His sufferings is past. It is given to us, His ambassadors, to fill up that which still remains of His afflictions. Thus the apostle declares: “For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake” (Phil. 1:29). And notice what Paul adds to these words: “Having the same conflict which ye saw in me, and now hear to be in me” (Verse 30).

Rich

Ambassadors

The following is from my friend Art, this is just too good not to post here.
Enjoy!

Rich

Introduction to: AMBASSADORS for CHRIST - by Cornelius Stam

Part 1 of 5 - AN IMPORTANT DISTINCTION

Those who seek to “rightly divide the Word of Truth” (2 Timothy 2:15) and “test the things that differ” (Philippians 1:10) soon discover that “the kingdom of heaven” must be distinguished from “the body of Christ.”

Concerning the former God had “spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began,” whereas the latter had been “kept secret since the world began” (Cf. Acts 3:21 with Rom. 16:25). Or, to put it in another way: The former was the subject of Prophecy, whereas the latter was a Mystery (Greek, musterion, secret), hid in God, until He revealed it through the Apostle Paul (Cf. Dan. 2:44 with Col. 1:24-26).

Or, to put it in still another way: “The kingdom” will be the fulfillment of covenants God made with Abraham, David and Israel, whereas “the Body of Christ,” the Church of this age, is the product of “the dispensation of the grace of God” (Cf. Luke 1:68-75 with Eph. 3:1-11).

We are convinced that the most important division in the Bible is not that between “The Old Testament” and “The New Testament,” but that between “prophecy” and “the mystery,” between that which concerns “the Kingdom of Heaven ” (for the believing of Israel as Abraham's seed) and that which concerns “the Body of Christ.”

Those who see this one distinction hold in their hands the key to an ever clearer understanding and an ever growing appreciation of the wonderful Word of God.

A WORD OF CAUTION

In making this distinction, however, we must be careful not to make the mistake of supposing that members of the Body of Christ have no connection whatever with “the kingdom,” or with Christ as King.

A few simple questions and answers will prove that there is a very vital connection: Where is the King today? He is in heaven, a Royal Exile, unwanted by the world. And where is the kingdom today?

That too, like many a government since, is in exile. It is vested in the King Himself. It remains in heaven while its earthly establishment is held in abeyance. And where is the believer’s spiritual citizenship today?

It is in heaven! Paul tells us distinctly that “our conversation [citizenship] is in heaven” (Phil. 3:20) and that God “hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son” (Col. 1:13).

Why then are we left here in the flesh?

For just one purpose: To represent Christ—and the very title Christ means “the Anointed One,” the King.

“Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ” (II Cor. 5:20).

Misplaced Anger: Self-Deception

I’m curious about something. When Jesus advised the disciples that they were to beware of the leaven (or the teaching) of the Pharisees, what was that all about? Why was Jesus so insistent about this issue that he would take the time to warn them?

Later, Paul had to address a very similar situation with some other followers of Christ: You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion is not from him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view than mine, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed. I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves!

A lot of believers who have made the exodus from organized religion are angry, hurt and wounded at the institution and its leaders. But could it be their anger is misplaced? Note that Jesus did NOT say to beware of the religious leaders - but to beware of their 'leaven' (a type of yeast that caused fermentation in bread or liquid). Could it be that He knew how easily we would fall for this well-disguised, baited hook of corruption masquerading as truth? I mean, is it possible that Jesus initially gave this warning to ‘beware of the leaven' of the religious leaders because He knew that in our very flesh exists an innate liking, appetite or desire for this very leaven? Could it be that at one point in our lives leaven, or religion, was mighty attractive to us? Maybe our heavenly Father wants those who are still blaming their former religious leaders to take a sobering look at the possibility of the real fact - that hidden within their very own flesh is the very same spirit that was working in and through those they now blame for all of the religion-induced pain they are grappling with today. Why, then, should those who have left the institution be so angry at its hierarchy? Have those leaders not been duped by religion as well?

Here in my opinion is a real brain freeze! All of this misplaced anger is amounting to nothing but keeping believers locked up even further and longer in their own self-made prison. "But" many would argue, "I was but an innocent lamb, a pawn, duped into this entrapment! And the leaders were the ones who kept me enslaved!" Seems to me, if you read the biblical account of the fall in Paradise, that after Adam and Eve's moment of supposed enlightenment proposed by the father of lies (the serpent) Adam, speaking to God, retorts, 'I would have never been deceived or wouldn't have disobeyed you, had it not been for this darn woman!'. Then the woman goes straight for the jugular: 'I too am not responsible! It's all that darn snake's fault! He made me do it!'

I know of no greater lie or deception than being SELF-deceived, and then passing the buck and blaming everyone else rather than seeing all that we have gone through as a wonderful wake-up call from our loving heavenly Father. Maybe He is bringing us to the place of recognizing for the first time the depth of the utter and total depravity of our fleshly thinking and the hidden inclination within US, to turn our lives over to somebody or something other than the Father of our spirit? Could it be that religion was instituted by Satan himself in the Garden for the sole purpose of enticing humanity with a substitute for the real thing (freedom) - and from that point on ALL humanity has fallen for the lie?

Jesus once said to his disciples that there were many things he would like to have told them but that they weren't able comprehend it (like Jack Nicholson's character says in "A Few Good Men": "You can't handle the truth!). Maybe coming to grips with the fact that it's not the religious leaders, but the pervasive world-system of religious thinking, which is the leavening agent within our corrupt flesh - that is to blame for our deception. However, it is necessary to note that this covert and subtle suducing away from Christ as our only Life is totally impotent as long as we don't give a 'mind' to it (see Galatians 3:1-3).

Rich

No Short Cuts

In response to my friend Dave and his quick wit demonstrated over here, I wanted to share the following.

A popular movement in Christianity in the past few years has been the attempt to live our lives by applying the question, “What would Jesus do?” to the situations in our lives.
This sounds good but it completely misses the point. What we commonly look for in asking this question is some kind of specific guidance such as, “Would Jesus buy a Ford or a Chevy?” It pains me to inform you that Jesus didn’t know what a “Ford” is. The object of seeking specific guidance is really to allow us to live independently instead of living through the moment by moment operation of the Father’s life in us. The Father’s life is spontaneous and operating in that spontaneity requires the walk of faith. Being told what to do, even by God, is not faith. It may be obedience but it is not faith.And obedience apart from faith is dead obedience.

I don’t mean to imply here that we cannot expect to get guidance for our living from the Father. We can expect to be led by the Father in our daily living. This is not the prescriptive “go and do” type of guidance we are often taught to seek. Rather, when we live by the Father’s life leading from our spirit we are guided moment by moment. This is most often the leading of “God’s unspoken yes.” We have God’s leading from our reborn human spirit continually. The life of Christ in us is continually operating. We go through our days confronted by a series of choices. As long as we are making choices that are acceptable to the Father we feel no hesitation. If we consider a course that is harmful (to ourselves or others) we will experience a “check” or sense to not go there. We can heed the check or we can ignore that check and live with the consequences of walking in our own way. These consequences need not be dire but we will see our plans fail and our expectations not be met.This is not a BIG deal. We learn to follow the Lord’s leading by our mistakes as well as our successes. The Father knows this is part of the process---this is why Christ died for ALL our sins everywhere; past, present and future. (1Peter 3:18)

As we gain experience in listening to the Father’s leading we will make fewer mistakes. We will learn to listen better and turn more quickly. In the end there is NO substitute for dependence on the Father’s life as our only life and resource for living: (John 15:5)
Living independently from the Father is bankrupt living. There is no legitimate reason for walking apart from the moment by moment resting in dependence on the Father for all things. This is the way we were meant to live. This is the ONLY way we can live effectively.

Once again this is taken from Bill Landon’s book, ‘My Father and Your Father’.


I am so thrilled that NO man can teach us this operation of the Law of the spirit of Life in Christ Jesus and its unfolding work of grace within us, liberating us daily from the gravitational pull from the Law of sin and death!!There are NO short cuts for any of us. In being awakened to the depths of His matchless grace and unconditional love, we are freed to join Him in discovering just how deep the rabbit hole really is.
Yahoo!!!!

Rich

Askew Reality

Was it fruit from a dream tree that Adam and Eve imbibed from, only because of the promise of enlightenment, only to enter a world of virtual reality?

I enjoyed this quote from my friend Bill Landon in his book, ‘My Father and Your Father’ page 81.

‘Our life reality in this world is this: there is a part of us that will never submit to God. This is not an indictment of our weakness and failure. Rather, it is the legacy of the fall. (The residual-collateral effects of the fall). When we opted for knowledge of good and evil, we gave up a God-given knowledge of reality. We now must spend the rest of our lives learning from the Father how to be submitted to Him. Through this process of submitting we regain that God-knowledge we originally had. This comes back to us, in pieces, from the Father by revelation. As we progress through and submit to this teaching, we die to the influence of that independent-self.’

Is it because we have yet to recognize, have revelation with regards to the total depravity within our flesh that grace has and is most lop sided within Christianity? Meaning, one of the most persistent themes in our Lord’s teaching was his submission to his Father.

Like a water mark on paper, has the embedded mark of independent living stained even those of us who have been embraced by His grace? Didn’t Jesus address this mark/stain that had permeated all flesh, ‘people going where they choose, when they choose and do what they choose.

This operation of submission within Jesus’ life was clearly made evident to his disciples as he said to them, they could go where the chose because they were the gods of their own lives. But the Lord could only do the things of the Father. The enlightenment that spread like a cancer and permeated all flesh prevented man from seeing or knowing anything related to submission to another, see here.

In the near future I want to share my thoughts on something I am putting together called, ‘The Vulgar Message of Grace’.
Stay tuned!

Rich

The Father's Love

Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it 4-ever.



Rich

Knowing About

I don’t know about anyone else but for me I find it very easy to accumulate much knowledge about God and yet still be barren and living in a most impoverished state.

I know it must sound so trite, a mere wrangling of words talking about ‘knowing about verses knowing Him’, but one will keep me a prisoner to the past while the other not only touches my past, but present and all of my tomorrows.

"Then Jesus said, "God's kingdom is like seed thrown on a field by a man who then goes to bed and forgets about it. The seed sprouts and grows—he has no idea how it happens. The earth does it all without his help: first a green stem of grass, then a bud, then the ripened grain. When the grain is fully formed, he reaps—harvest time!"

Love, real love, His love is what I was created for, and in receiving His love the mystery of the incarnation is happening all over again, the Word (Christ Jesus) being fleshed out in and through me.
So many have heard ‘about’ God-Jesus, but the prompting in my heart seems to be in the direction of showing Jesus to the world I live in, rather than just telling them about Him.

Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God,
But only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit around it and pluck blackberries.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Rich

Moving Forward

I’m following the on going series my friend Art is writing and I wanted to post these two portions that spoke to my heart as I continue to move forward in experiencing His overall unconditional love.

Rich

Is Confession of Sins Necessary in the Ongoing Life of the Christian?

As noted in Part 7, the believer’s confession of sins occurring after salvation is not necessary for forgiveness of sins under Paul’s “gift of the grace of God” (Eph 3:7). This is because ALL sin was forgiven at the moment of salvation – past sins, present sin, and future sins; thus, we were accepted in Christ. The requirement for Christians to practice confession of sins for forgiveness is a false doctrine, as if to say a believer “can fall out of grace”; with the result that one minute you’re saved by grace, and then next you’re not. The grace of God’s forgiveness of our sins is freely given and unconditional, covering ALL our sins for all time.

However, there are a few cases that require our confession of sin(s), but not for forgiveness; rather it is that we might come to “the light” of a restored union and fellowship with the Lord, as well as with those around us. These are serious matters of understanding because they affect our daily walk, not to mention the sanity of our mind.

1) There is a place of confession that is not confession to gain forgiveness of sins. It is confession to God concerning sin toward another, such as forgiveness that we may hold against another. Such an acknowledgment before God releases us from the burden of sin.

2) There’s also a place of confession before another believer that is admission guilt before God for past sin. Such an admission releases us from the choking burden of past sin that we may have long cloaked in the darkness of our hidden self-life for many years. We’ve perhaps been locked into a jail of our own making by some sin(s) that we may think of as unforgivable. Sin makes us fear exposure. Sin wants each of us alone. Sin wants to draw me into myself, and away from God and others. The more isolated I am the more control the Sin nature can have over me. Sin seeks the shadows. Sin holds me in the dark, robbing me of complete fellowship with God and others. Others may sense the wall that keeps me from being genuine with them.

Under such darkness, we are easy prey for the accusations of the Devil, whose goal is to literally destroy us. Though the Devil cannot touch God, he tries to destroy God’s image in us.

Jesus said believers are to be lovers of the light. Jn 12:36 While ye have light, believe (pisteuo, trust in, cling to, and rely upon) in the light, that ye may be the children of light… We have these words from the Apostle James to point us to the remedy. James 5:16 Confess (exomologeo, acknowledge, admit) your faults (paratomah, side slips) one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed (iaomai, cured, made whole). The effectual fervent prayer (deesis, petition) of a righteous man availeth much.

Sin toward others brings pain to our own self. Bringing our hidden life into the light of God is not so we may gain forgiveness, but to heal us of sin’s pain. We may be a Christian who is forgiven of ALL sins, and yet be self-condemned due to our supposed unforgivable sin. We may think we were not lovable, not loved of God or by those who we think should love us – all because we don’t accept our self; so we can’t and don’t accept God’s forgiveness.

The problem is our view of our self because we’ve not accepted God’s forgiveness. Since we don’t believe we are forgiven by God, the pain of this is self-inflicted; it’s due to our own forgiveness of ourselves for some sin(s) in our past. The fact is God has long ago forgiven us of ALL our sins, but we have held ourselves as reprehensible.

We are locked into what is a hopeless and helpless condition unless God intervenes. This condition must be brought into the light; therefore God our Father may force the real us to become exposed to our self and/or to others…that we might be healed.

How does the Lord expose us to the light?

The pain rooted in our unacceptance of our self may manifest itself in mental instability and/or physical illness. This may be the end of the road approaching, since our sickness may do for us what we could not do for ourselves, forcing us to be exposed. God does this because He loves us and wants us free of the power of our supposed unforgivable sin(s). The answer is for our self to become exposed, brought under the curative power of the divine radium of God’s light, where it may be confirmed that we are totally forgiven and loved of God, standing blameless before Him in His love.

In the next installment, Part 8B, I will offer my personal testimony of God’s forced exposure of His light upon my needy soul.

Guard Your Heart

I think Jesus once said, ‘Guard your heart, for out of it flows the issues of life.’

I am thankful and grateful that I have a heavenly Father that continues to make known His compassionate and loving heart toward me that I might show the same love to all.

Religion, any religion has defined defilement basically on outward stuff, do’s and don’ts, but as Jesus said, true defilement is not what goes into a man, but what proceeds from within.

In learning what it encompasses to BE loved and to live loved by the God and Father of love is a living freedom beyond measure, but, this freedom will never be a license for me to act unloving toward anyone else, ever. This inevitably spells impossibility in our own strength, but all things are possible with God!
Regarding this freedom in Christ my heart reflects upon the beauty, wisdom and sobriety of these words from Paul, ‘It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don't use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that's how freedom grows. For everything we know about God's Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That's an act of true freedom. If you bite and ravage each other, watch out—in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then?

One of the liberating traits of His unconditional love is it frees us from the oppressiveness of sin and its torturous assaults.

I found this quote from Kathleen Norris’s book Amazing Grace unpleasantly sobering.
“But oppression is a slippery thing, and labeling a tricky business: the twentieth century has given us plenty of evidence to suggest that the quicker we are to accuse others of oppression, the more we risk becoming oppressors ourselves. The past hundred years has forced us to look straight into the murderous heart of oppression, alerting us to its presence in our most cherished ideals. Over and over, we have seen patriotism turn into fascism, liberation movements solidify into totalitarian regimes, struggles for religious freedom translate into intolerance of the faith of others.”

Father I want to learn what it means to know no person after the flesh, but to receive every person as Christ.

Rich

Motive and Intent

The intent and focus of our Father's heart and affections are addressed toward our need, and that need above all and everything else is to KNOW-EXPERIENCE His love, that is what we were recreated for.
To this end He ever works. His focus is pure, it is focused without any distractions. Its not our fears, our sense of shame or anything else that detour's Him from ever moving forward in this divine romance, wooing our cold lost hearts into the security and warmth of His forever loving heart.

His gaze is intense, it looks far past my faults/sins and sees my need, and that need is to KNOW some of the depth and intensity of His jealous love 4-me!!
This is the only thing that matters, coming to see that even my ability to respond to all and anything related to His love for me is but His grace actively working in me.

I am seeing ever more clearly that without Papa and His love for me, my life will be defined by something, I was created to be complete in having worth, value, significance, but that will only be possible as a result of experiencing His pure intense jealous love for me.
There are no vacuums, without knowing, experiencing daily His love, I will be either conformed to this worlds currency, performance based living, or I will be transformed into His likeness and image, and that option is totally possible only because of BEING Loved.

Rich

Impoverished but Enriched

The increased knowledge of the grace and love of the Father at least for me is spelling an intensified awareness of a noticeable limp. You know much like Jacob of old encountered in his wrestling match with an angle.
In the process of this struggle Jacob is adamant; I will not let you go until you bless me.
The blessing was all about a change of identity, removing his past, formerly known as Jacob, and bringing him into the present, now to be known as Israel!

Here’s the kicker, this transformational wrestling match of identity marked him for the rest of his days in his body, he walked with a limp!

For sure you say that you are craving to see Him in an even greater clarity, why not, go ahead, heck just think of the wonder of it all.
Remember Paul and those out of the body heavenly God encounters, things he saw and heard that he wasn’t permitted to share with anyone, oh, and don’t forget about this, as a result of those close encounters of the most holy kind, his receiving of a most wonderful gift~a messenger of Satan to buffet him lest he become a pontificating peacock.
Interesting how a deepened insight into His love and grace not only frees us, but enslaves us as well.

A question for you, what the heck good is it in being permitted to have these glorious spectacular encounters with the Father, and you can’t say a word (brag about it) about it to anyone?

Rich

Status Quo Turbulence

Morpheus: The pill you took is part of a trace program. It's designed to disrupt your input/output carrier signal so we can pinpoint your location.
Neo: What does that mean?
Cypher: It means fasten your seat belt Dorothy, 'cause Kansas is going bye-bye.’
Have I ever mentioned that I love the movie, The Matrix~ha!

Luke 1:52-53 these words echo the song of Hannah in First Samuel, as well as the anguish of the prophets. They are a poetic rendering of a theme that pervades the entire narrative---when God comes into our midst; it is to upset the status quo.

Rich

It's a Darn Shame

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

It’s pithy how such little words as ‘in’ can have such a powerful momentum/impetus. Kind of like my classic illustration of, ‘Even a blind man can count the number of seeds in an apple, but only God can count the number of orchards in a single seed.’

Because there are NO vacuums, if we are not deriving our true identity based completely upon the love of God the Father, then we are going to establish it another way, interesting when you consider that He is the only Way…hmmm?

From the fall of man there has been an indelible stain that his sin has permeated him with, and that is shame. Sin and its fruit sins, are specifics things we have done, but shame, well this is a twisted monster for sure. It has manifested itself in blatant overt ways, and in just as hideous covert ways. Shame is that which has defined all of man kind, and the only hope for man is pointing to that illuminating word ‘IN’ Christ!

None of us know what real love is until it is experienced in a face to face encounter with the God that IS Love, and even then it can take a very long time as the soul is being transformed, weaned from its strangle hold on us, hidden yet within us the under current of sin still trying to dictate-define who we still are, no matter what we say we believe God has said/done.

I am experiencing along with so many others, the slow day in day out transformational workings of the grace and love of this Father who has promised to finish in my life what He alone started.There is NO healthiness or well being outside of His love and its power freeing us from the vicious lies that keep multitudes endlessly trapped in the unnecessary cycle of either seeing themselves as unfit, unworthy, or, ‘hey, look at me I’m mister wonderful.’
If we have (in the natural) come from ‘poor stock-pedigree’ we are always trying to cover up our shame, but those who see themselves coming from ‘good stock-pedigree’ do not as easily recognize their hidden shame. Funny thing is all stock according to the flesh, good and bad has had a collision course encounter at the cross in the person of Gods son Jesus Christ.

The wonder of His love is invading so many hearts and lives and with it bringing in a living message of hope and freedom. In experiencing His love, we are learning to NO longer define our worth, value or significance based on our color of skin, our education, our sex, our financial status, the neighborhood, the car we drive or don’t drive, having friends or no friends, go to church or outside the church, etc!

Rich

Confounded by the Mystery of Grace

Human wisdom is so tinny, so impotent, next to the seeming absurdity of God. Human strength can't begin to compete with God's "weakness." 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."

I haven’t really delved into many books in a long time, as I do most of my reading on line, but having discovered Kathleen Norris’s books thanks to Jim over at, Lord, I believe; Help My Unbelief! I am feasting on sheer ecstasy. This book, Amazing Grace; A Vocabulary Of Faith is almost magical with such wonder filling each page, sometimes to the extent I have to close the book and shut my eyes and just reflect, soak it in, but more often than not I feel like I’m being impaled, rendered helpless with mere words.The abiding under current of humility and profound but simple wisdom and insight in each chapter is enthralling.

The unfolding mystery of grace is most confounding, especially to us humans who have been so deeply discolored within with the stark and haughty insignia of smugness.It seems to be an often repeated event in our lives whereby the Lord seems to deliberately offend the mind, in order to reveal our heart condition, not to shame us, but to expose, make known to us our desperate need for the only one who can heal and make whole our devastated hearts.The following is such a picture, as a matter of fact the content of this quote is something my wife and I were discussing just last week, only this brought so much more insight and clarity with what I tried to think out loud.

“We all need to be told that God loves us, and the mystery of the Annunciation reveals an aspect of that love. But it also suggests that our response to this love is critical. A few verses before the angel appears to Mary in the first chapter of Luke’s Gospel, another annunciation occurs; an angel announces to an old man, Zachariah, that his equally aged wife is to bear a son who will “make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” The couple are to name him John; he is known to us as John the Baptist. Zechariah says to the angel, “How will I know this is so?” which is a radically different response from the one Mary makes. She says, “How can this be?”

I interpret this to mean that while Zechariah is seeking knowledge and information, Mary contents herself with wisdom, with pondering a state of being. God’s response to Zechariah is to strike him dumb during the entire term of his son’s gestation, giving him a pregnancy of his own. He does not speak again until after the child is born, and he has written on a tablet what the angel has said to him: “His name is John.” This confounds his relatives, who had expected that the child would be named after his father. I read Zachariah’s punishment as a grace, in that he could not say anything to further compound his initial arrogance when confronted with mystery.When he speaks again, it is to praise God; he’s had nine months to think it over.

Mary’s “How can this be?” is a simpler response than Zachariah’s, and also more profound. She does not lose her voice but finds it. Like any of the prophets, she asserts herself before God, saying, “Here am I.”There is no arrogance, however, but only holy fear and wonder. Mary proceeds---as we must do in life---making her commitment without knowing much about what it will entail or where it will lead.

I treasure the story because it forces me to ask: When the mystery of God’s love breaks through into my consciousness, do I run from it? Do I ask of it what it can not answer? Shrugging, do I retreat into facile clichés, the popular but false wisdom of what “we all know”? Or am I virgin enough to respond from my deepest, truest self, and say something new, a “yes” that will change me forever?

Amazing Grace!



Rich

Amazing Grace Thoughts

I am enthralled with this book, definitely one that has snuck up on me, meaning there was a time i would not have gotten to far into it without thinking, nope, its not for me-ha, does Papa have a wonderful sense of humour and timing.

I so appreciated this passage from the chapter entitled 'Exorcism'.

"When I think of the demons I need to exorcise, I have to look elsewhere; inward, to my heart and soul. Anger is my best demon, useful whenever I have to go into a Woman Warrior mode, harmful when I use it to gratify myself, either in self-justification, or to deny my fears. My husband, who has a much sweeter nature than I, once told me that my mean streak grieved him not just because of the pain it caused him but because it was doing me harm. His remark, as wise as that of any desert abba, felt like an exorcism. Not that my temptation to anger was magically gone, but I was called to pay close attention to something that badly needed my attention, and that was hurting our marriage. It confirmed my understanding of marriage as a holy act: one can no more hide one's true faults from a spouse than from God, and in exorcising the demon of anger, that which could kill is converted, transformed into that which can heal."

It's this kind of reality that so draws me ever deeper into knowing, experiencing even greater depths of Father love for me.

I love the image that comes to mind in reading this quote, as it were rolling up my sleeves and availing myself of His abundant grace and simply moving forward in working out my own salvation, or working out what He has miraculously worked into me.
So very often I have the mind set that is waiting for some angelic messenger to come and pay me a visit that will either vaporize my demons-problems, or energize me, funny how a lazy mind thinks. But as a brother once said, and I love this in its daily applications, "God doesn't give us over coming Life, but gives us Life as we over come"!

Rich

Am I Sick?

This past winter has been one of the hardest on me personally health wise that I can ever remember, maybe it has something to do with getting older, I don’t know.
Lets take an inventory shall we.
First there was the prostate biopsy that was needed because of the PSA levels being a bit higher than they should be for a man my age, which was a delightful experience to say the least.
The results from that showed to be very good except for a couple of minor anomalies that caused some minor concerns by the specialist I went to, and the need to follow up every six months for two years just to make sure all is and remains well.

Following this was a succession of colds that lasted and lasted only in getting over one to be followed by yet another, four in all.
The last one turned into an extreme case of bronchitis then into pneumonia accompanied with the bonus of the flu just for good behaviour.
Because of the seriousness of this I had to have two different sets of x-rays taken along with a cat scan. The first set of x-rays showed a spot on my left lung, and following that, the cat scan showed nothing at all on the left lung, but something (a spot) on the right lung, as well as some anomaly showing up in the lymph glands in the right lung area as well.
Last Thursday I had to go into a neighbouring larger city to see a lung specialist, as my family Dr was stumped as to why there were these incongruence's showing up?
There’s more to this story but I will cut it short for now.

My point being, health wise, it was and is most apparent to me that in being sick, really sick, a physician or Doctor is hopefully someone that can do me some real good rather than additional harm.

I am pondering on the fact that Jesus himself said, ‘I have come for the sick-needy, for it’s the sick that are in need of a doctor/physician, not the healthy.’Is it any wonder that so many that have never been shattered/broken/devastated by their own sin look upon the biblical words such as ‘grace-love-forgiveness-healing-life’ as just concepts?
I wonder if God’s grace-love-mercy-life-forgiveness remains only for the needy ones, but not for those believing they are not sick, unhealthy.Also in this vain of thought didn’t Jesus say, ‘Those who love much are those that realize-know they have been forgiven much?’

So long as a person is duped into believing they have the right stuff and never seem to have a rendezvous with disaster why would His love-grace-forgiveness be anything but merit badges worn on their self-righteous vests?

Rich

Amazing Grace

His grace is truly amazing isn't it!

Going through this maze of grace, there is this constant offer of His unconditional loving acceptance, without it (the oxygen of His Love) I would suffocate.

Through a series of twists and turns I was lead to read about Kathleen Norris and some of what she has written, the picture of the book I have here is the one I am just starting to read.
Funny how after looking and searching for this book along with others that caught my interest, it was at our local library I was able to obtain two of them~go figure.

This alone captured my attention: "Struggling with her return to the Christian church after many years away, Kathleen Norris found it was the language of Christianity that most distanced her from faith. Words like "judgment", "faith", "dogma", "salvation", "sinner" - become so codified or abstract that their meanings were all but impenetrable. She found she had to wrestle with them and make them her own before they could confer their blessings and their grace. Blending history, theology, story-telling, etymology, and memoir, Norris uses these words as a starting point for reflection, and offers a moving account of her own gradual conversion. She evokes a rich spirituality rooted firmly in the chaos of everyday life - and offers believers and doubters alike an illuminating perspective on how we can embrace ancient traditions and find faith in the contemporary world."

I'm sure you will be hearing more from me as I dive into these living streams.

Rich

Breathe Deep the Breath of God

The wonder of His Love, oh the wonder of being Loved!



Rich

God’s Daily Grind

It is within the crucible of life, daily living that the fashioning and the forging of the Life of God in Christ is either becoming fully formed within us, or we try to go the path of little or no resistance and settle for having a form of Godliness, knowing all about Him, but experiencing NO power. (Knowing about God’s love and not experiencing it is far to much of a serious issue to dismiss).

In a recent episode on the Oprah Winfrey show, four out of five people quizzed in a CareerBuilder.com survey are unhappy at work—that's 84 percent of the nation's workforce!

It is not enough to simply be re-birthed, but the re-birthing is that which was meant to facilitate what the scriptures point to, Jesus being the first born of many sons.

Before the fall of man within the garden there was effort, but there was no sin, no sweating or strain. All of that suddenly changed when man committed high treason in willful and defiant rebellion by declaring he was in control of his own life. . As Dave Coleman, (Wayne Jacobsen’s friend) so succinctly put it on the most recent pod cast; (Why Religion Doesn’t Work) that sin is simply us wanting to have control.
Funny how pride blinds us, in thinking that we can obtain control over our own lives without seeing the inevitable and devastating consequences that turn our lives into a forgery.

It was into this arena of death and grinding devastation that the Word (Jesus Christ) became flesh and lived here with us on planet earth. The mortar and pestle of everyday circumstances and situations were used of the Father in the perfecting (forging) of His Son. It says, though he (Jesus) was the Father’s only begotten, yet he was made perfect (fully forged) through that which he suffered, or, he learned obedience through that which he suffered.

I need to touch upon what I said earlier re: the episode on Oprah about 84% of (the nations work force in the USA) people being unhappy at work.

In my opinion there is so much ambiguity regarding, ‘I love my job, I am unhappy with my job, I love my kids, my marriage etc’, without qualifying (elucidating) the adjectives being used, it all becomes a blurred generic smear.
I for one love my job, but to qualify this, it has to be understood that mixed into this love of my job is a grinding, a forging, straining as it were.

In my opinion, simply stating, “I love my job…I am unhappy with my job…I love my kids…I love ice cream…I hate broccoli” etc. isn’t clear. How does the speaker define the words ‘love’, ‘unhappy’ and ‘hate’? One may love one’s job – but intermixed with all that a person’s job entails has to be a certain amount of strain. To elaborate: Jesus said that but for the joy set before him, he endured the shame of the cross. It wasn’t easy sailing, by any stretch. In the same way, when believers declare they love something – it’s important that they qualify the word ‘love’. For example: I love my dog, but when my wife and I have to spend hours de-matting his 10 inch long hair, or clean the yard of his excrement, or suffer the pain of his puppy nails raking down our bare legs in his exuberant excitement of seeing us…the word ‘love’ takes on a bit of a different meaning.

I am seeing that by either omission or intent, without elucidating with as much clarity as possible, (which encompasses both positive and negative, chaffing, grinding factors) regarding, ‘I love my job, marriage, kids, co-workers, the street I live on etc,’ will leave those struggling with the notion that if they are beset with anything less than warm, fuzzy, happy feelings, there must be something radically wrong with them.

It was through Jesus that a door was opened up for all of humanity to clearly see how the Son of God/Son of Man was going to attain perfection…and that it was not going to be achieved by his Father removing the grinding, chaffing, forging circumstances and situations needed to accomplish this perfection.

Rich

Grace:Panacea or Placebo

‘I pity the fool’, a phrase that became synonymous with Laurence Tureaud aka, Mr. T, I guess this somewhat dates me, eh?

Somehow that catch phrase seems to be my jumping off point here this morning, ‘I pity the fool’ that thinks that the grace and unconditional loving acceptance of God the Father is but a placebo or maybe better yet some kind of opiate that anesthetizes (neutralizes) us and gives us a sense of euphoric bliss? Seems to me if I remember correctly, that was how the first Matrix was designed by the architect in the first Matrix movie.

The intelligence of His love is indeed totally freeing, for a laugh, click on to YouTube - Mr. T: The "T" in I.T.

One doesn’t have to look too long or hard at the miracle of spring and its powerful invasion within nature all around us to realize there is a huge battle, struggle and straining taking place.
Funny how our present senses are so limited especially in seeing and in hearing, because I’m sure if we really had ears and eyes to see and hear, maybe what appears to be but in bud form regarding the buried bulbs bursting forth in our gardens and the buds becoming ever so much more pregnant on the trees, the silence would be eclipsed with the cacophony of the sounds of Life and its liberating beauty displacing death, and all of this beauty coming forth into the ‘visible’ world through great consternation.

Actually this is but a continuation of my thoughts from over here.

I want to say that in experiencing the love and grace of the Father, it is not nor was it ever meant to be an escape from having to face and go through the stuff as Jesus mentioned; ‘Sufficient unto the day are the struggles we will all have to face,’ or something close to that, and yes, there is grace for all of this and more!

It truly is amazing how those (and that includes a vast populace) who simply want to give the impression or keeping some kind of religious veneer/appearance of never having to sweat it, struggle anymore since being set free from their fear/control issues. If they were ever to admit to experiencing the gravitational pull of sin and having to rely upon His grace in the throes of this daily struggle/battle would somehow tarnish their new found testimony of what it means to live loved.
Two words come to mind when thinking on this crock of crap-bull shit!!

If grace (love) is the power to be known for who we are (and who we are becoming), then pride must be that which chooses to try and pull the wool over the eyes of others to be seen for who we’re NOT? Sure sounds a lot like the religious self-righteous dicks Jesus bumped into a lot of the time.
In my opinion, who we are and are becoming is not really real apart from His grace (love) bringing forth His son being fully formed within us apart from the strained struggle of Life displacing, overcoming the ‘true lies’ we have all believed.

‘If you continue to follow Me (Jesus), you will Know the Truth, and the Truth will set/make you free.’

Rich