The Word Being Fleshed Out

I cam across this artist this morning, and his simple but delightful artistic wonder captured my heart.
If you look closely, you'll see he is using as a back ground/canvas, bible scriptures.
I couldn't help but see in this one expression of his work, the living truth of not only the Word (Christ Jesus) becoming flesh, but how He is being fleshed out in others. (The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us)


Rich

The C & S Chain Gang

A friend use to use that expression all the time, 'The C & S gang, meaning the curcumstances and situations our Father was and is using to drive us to Himself.

I enjoyed what my brother Kent shared on his blog, and I want to share some different thoughts, not better ones.
Thoughts that are much more applicable to me, as well as maybe to many others. Maybe it has much more to do with, freedom in, vs freedom from circumstances (expectations) and situations?

I would love to imagine that the old Negro song, ‘Nobody knows what troubles I’ve seen, nobody knows but Jesus’, was in fact how some within a race of people discovered freedom (in the midst of racial injustice/hardships beyond my imagination) in discovering Him right there in there plight, with no hope other than the Living One in them!

The following is from a friends blog, 'Faithfully Dangerous'

http://nthegarden.blogspot.com/

The Tyranny Of Expectations'

I have never lived more free from the tyranny caused by the life of expectations I had lived. I've never lived more free to be able to see the hope that is waiting to be found living a life of expectancy. To begin the day with the excitement of a child, "Father, what are we doing today?" As I write that I'm left shaking my head still in stunned disbelief. Father had been here all along loving me and those around me. I just couldn't see it through the fog caused by all my expectations. That leads me to believe that freedom is closer than we all might think?
It's already right there inside us.
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Indeed, except this is how I see it unfolding in my life-walk.
It is the very tyranny of life's expectations that Father is using to make Himself known to me. By removing those expectations, its but a shell game, or better yet, shadow boxing.
There is NO freedom from these expectations apart from His grace drawing me to Himself in the very midst/thick of this mind bending crap. It is Him using these dynamic (divine) tensions, a medium at His disposal, to make it even more real in knowing Who's I am!

Sort of like what David said, 'The Lord is my Shepherd, what more do I want.' Learning and experiencing that reality is not, nor will it ever be because He removes that craving-lusting-longing within my flesh for those whacked expectations I seem to perpetually have. It seems to me, freedom in these tensions are spelled out by some in their removal..hmmmm? Is it apart from my circumstances or situations I am learning and growing in the continued grace and true knowledge of Him that is always available.

I wonder if Paul saw it this way, not only him but countless thousands down through time, meaning, if true freedom say for Paul was only defined in being on the other side of the prison bars, beatings, betrayals, then that looks pretty shabby at best to me.
I think he implied something like this...Its the one who is His slave, that is truly FREE!

If peace and joy for example are simply the results of having no antagonistic, annoying, shit kicking disturbances etc., then why is He necessary?
I think too many hear about what the Lord has done in someone’s life, and how they are living in such freedom, and yet seeing in their lives, they are still so full of relentless expectations or whatever and think, wow maybe one day I will be free from all of this stuff.
When in fact maybe its this very stuff that we're trying to escape that God is using to bring us to Himself.

I think as long as we are in these fleshly clay tents, the issue of having expectations will be there, and the freedom we seek is in my opinion not the result of Father putting me in some kind of opiated space, I dub as 'freedom'. But in the moment/s of assault, battering upon my mind, I turn to Him.
Its the very assaults battering us that He is using to reveal what true liberty and freedom is.
Maybe its a revelation of Him in us now, today, and not in having everything outside of me being real comfy-cozy?

Rich

Eye Has Not Seen

I love how my Father is able to use any and everything at His disposal to make known that which appears to be hidden from my sight. I am seeing more and more how Father has hidden things for us, not from us!

I was reading one of my favorite blogs, ‘Jim’s Blog’, and this was used to spark something wonderful from deep within….

“why can’t we approach more of life and all people as students or learners?
also, a friend of mine asked the question: can we choose contentment? if the answer is ‘yes,’ isn’t it insanity that we don’t.”

http://www.divinenobodies.com/blog/?p=294#comments

Is the residual effect of the Matrix still trying to shape, define me/my view of reality? Meaning, if I am in fact a whole new creation at the core of my being, maybe that living reality (the Way, Truth and Life) wants to be expressed in and through me.

In my situations and circumstances of life with its un-nerving, frustrating, perplexing, unsettling feelings happening most days, (didn’t he say, sufficient unto the day is the trouble you’ll face) there is in me a reality that is not trying to disprove what I'm feeling, but wants to truly define who I truly am?

For e.g., everything around me is screaming, if only I had this, or was over there, I would be able to find the ability to BE content!
The lies that seem to bind us, as if seeing and coming to know Him is outside of the very circumstances and situations Father has allowed in my life.

What if I were to right now in that which is pounding mercilessly upon my soul, simply speak out, Lord Jesus, You ARE my contentment!! Is that me choosing to be content, or am I learning to be, simply by experiencing and operating out of the grace available to me to have my mind renewed?( I’m really wondering more and more about the whole thing of, ‘faith without works is dead’ thing.)
Am I trying to make something magically happen, poof, zap, shazam, I'm all better because of what I DID?
Or, am I drawing upon an yet mostly untried, inexperienced, untapped source of power/reality wanting to make Himself known to me, not based upon circumstances or situations, and especially not based upon my efforts to make anything happen.

I’m not coming to any hard, fast conclusions about anything here in my musings, but I sense His spirit probing and prodding me, the real I from deep within and saying things like….

'I ask—ask the God of our Master, Jesus Christ, the God of glory—to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing him personally, your eyes focused and clear, so that you can see exactly what it is he is calling you to do, grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life he has for his followers, oh, the utter extravagance of his work in us who trust him—endless energy, boundless strength!'

I remember hearing or maybe it was even me that said this once, (the adage goes, ‘You can’t teach old dogs new tricks’,) well, I’m not a dog, and the present, working reality of the cross, is no magic trick!

Rich

Christianity: A Better Morality?

I like how Father has expressed these thoughts through one of His sons, Oswald Chambers..

http://www.heartlight.org/cgi-shl/my_utmost/utm.cgi

'Justification By Faith'.
"For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." Romans 5:10

Just one quote from this part of the above entry that Oz wrote, I am so in agreement with.

"I am not saved by believing; I realize I am saved by believing. It is not repentance that saves me, repentance is the sign that I realize what God has done in Christ Jesus. The danger is to put the emphasis on the effect instead of on the cause. It is my obedience that puts me right with God, my consecration. Never! I am put right with God because prior to all, Christ died."

I am simply pondering on some stuff, pertaining to the whole issue of 'living outside the religious box,' rendition of Christianity.

In my opinion, there is no freedom apart from knowing that which we were created for, to BE loved unconditionally, we are prone to fix solid, none fluid, inflexible meanings to words that might be partially true, but fall short in not allowing God to further illuminate and expand our understanding in the needed ongoing renewing our minds.
My ponderings have caused me to wonder as Oz said in the above piece, has there been a dangerous emphasis on the effect, instead of on the cause?

What's essential is that we are constantly aware of the fact - the truth - that without the spirit of Christ indwelling us, we are destitute, worse than dung, irreparable, with no hope. That will keep us from boasting in our accomplishments and spiritual progress ("Look what I have done! I used to be a s.o.b., but look how I've changed!") and instead, giving the glory to the Lord who alone deserves it.

If we are not constantly being reminded of it 'being finished', from before the foundations of the world, God the Father having perfected his plan for us,we'll begin to fall for a dangerous but subtle illusion - and put the emphasis on the effects rather than on what He accomplished from before the foundations of the world.

Maybe because we have attached such firm, solid understandings to grace/freedom etc, we have inadvertently shifted not only our focus, but those seeing us emphasize the effects of His grace and freedom, rather than simply presenting Him?
Is it any wonder in this shifting the focus from Him, the source/cause of all the effects, 'Christianity,' has become nothing more than another religious self-morality? *

* For we are God's [own] handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in Christ Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us [taking paths which He prepared ahead of time], that we should walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live].

I especially like these further quotes from Oz Chambers that I feel tie in so wonderfully here:

"It is a snare to imagine that God wants to make us perfect specimens of what He can do; God's purpose is to make us one with Himself. The emphasis of holiness movements is apt to be that God is producing specimens of holiness to put in His museum. If you go off on this idea of personal holiness, the dead-set of your life will not be for God, but for what you call the manifestation of God in your life."

"Christian perfection is not, and never can be, human perfection. Christian perfection is the perfection of a relationship to God which shows itself amid the irrelevancies of human life. When you obey the call of Jesus Christ, the first thing that strikes you is the irrelevancy of the things you have to do, and the next thing that strikes you is the fact that other people seem to be living perfectly consistent lives. Such lives are apt to leave you with the idea that God is unnecessary, by human effort and devotion we can reach the standard God wants. In a fallen world this can never be done. I am called to live in perfect relation to God so that my life produces a longing after God in other lives, not admiration for myself. Thoughts about myself hinder my usefulness to God. God is not after perfecting me to be a specimen in His show-room; He is getting me to the place where He can use me. Let Him do what He likes."

"The missionary is one in whom the Holy Ghost has wrought this realization - "Ye are not your own." To say, "I am not my own" is to have reached a great point in spiritual nobility. The true nature of the life in the actual whirl is the deliberate giving up of myself to another in sovereign preference, and that other is Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit expounds the nature of Jesus to me in order to make me one with my Lord, not that I might go off as a showroom exhibit. Our Lord never sent any of the disciples out on the ground of what He had done for them. It was not until after the Resurrection, when the disciples had perceived by the power of the Holy Spirit Whom He was, that Jesus said "Go."

"The viewpoint of a worker for God must not be as near the highest as he can get, it must be the highest. Be careful to maintain strenuously God's point of view, it has to be done every day, bit by bit; don't think on the finite. No outside power can touch the viewpoint.

The viewpoint to maintain is that we are here for one purpose only, viz., to be captives in the train of Christ's triumphs. We are not in God's showroom, we are here to exhibit one thing - the absolute captivity of our lives to Jesus Christ."

Somehow I felt this to especially tie in with the last quote from the Oz man;

For he who has once entered [God's] rest also has ceased from [the weariness and pain] of human labors, just as God rested from those labors peculiarly His own.
Let us therefore be zealous and exert ourselves and strive diligently to enter that rest [of God, to know and experience it for ourselves], that no one may fall or perish by the same kind of unbelief and disobedience [into which those in the wilderness fell]. Hebrews 4:10-11

Rich

Seeing God

Matthew 5:8 "You're blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.

This verse of scripture from the Message Bible speaks to me deeply regarding the thoughts I've been pondering today.If my point of reference is not a growing and expanding experiential knowledge of the unconditional love of the Father, then because of the knowledge of good and evil resident within me (as well as in all flesh) my perception of reality (that which is determined to be the truth) will be horribly distorted, no matter how much I say I know about God!

I am being brought back as it were to square one, a deep awareness of although I say I know so much about God, I am truly wondering how much of that knowledge is mixed, contaminated, corrupted with seeing Him through the reality that has been generated simply through the knowledge of good and evil.
Based upon our perceived soulish knowledge it seems one can determine the difference between that which is good vs evil. Maybe it was never the Father's intention for me to evaluate this.As Matthew 5:8 implies, maybe its the unconditional love of God (the Father) that is able to transform my inner world within my soul, (mind-will, and emotions) 'get my inside world-mind and heart-put/set right', and out of that true reality, I am able to see Him in my outside world.

Is it possible there has been generated a world of theology that has attempted to clearly define the difference between that which is of God and that which isn't, that which is good vs that which is evil?Maybe it has nothing to do with having the 'right theology' per se, meaning, it can be perfect theology, but in not knowing, experiencing the Father's unconditional love we have simply attempted to establish something that spells security for us.But maybe any substitute, theology or whatever, will never be able to produce the security we crave and grasp for, and grasp I/we, will do!

I am beginning to wonder that at the core of our unrenewed being, because of not knowing and growing in the (unconditional) love of the Father, that there is today such a bastardized rendition of that which we call, 'Christianity?'
Meaning, if our perceived reality that is simply coming out of our innate ability to reason out of the knowledge of good and evil, won't this try and dictate and over rule what in fact is all being used of the Father in our further needed training, and discipline. The proof of His love for us is His loving correction, and how that is administered to our individual lives can be thwarted in the name of, we think we know best.

These thoughts as I said in the beginning, are being fleshed out, they are far from being clear, no matter how I've tried to make them clear. I continue to look to Father in a fresh knowing, that I know too much based upon that which is generated through a unrenewed soul, aka, the knowledge of good and evil. I hope to pursue additional thoughts in light of His pure love shaping and bringing into greater clarity, that which is truly Real.

Rich

Hope

I'm home today, I had the day off, but not a day of frolicking, no a very painful day (add that to the accumulation of other disturbing issues).
At 7:45 AM I had to be at the hospital to be briefed and prepped for a prostate biopsy, I get the results soon I hope.

I was just using the bathroom, (a most painful experience) and while sitting there, like a pungent stabbing I sensed Papa speaking His loving heart to me, (He so knows all of my fears and doubts I am struggling with) "I am awakening in you a new and living reality of who I Am, and all that you are going through is all part of that reality."

Amazing this unfolding reality of knowing (experiencing) the reality of His endless unconditional love, and how it so freely disarms the lies I have and do believe.

As I previously posted on my blog about the whole issue of 'experiences', maybe this is all part of what it means to move past the outer shadows and entering into this reality of, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth (heart) of the Father!

Rich

Some precious thoughts that I find comforting in the midst of the storm tossings I am in the throes of.
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"If you do not cut the moorings, God will have to break them by a storm and send you out. Launch all on God, go out on the great swelling tide of His purpose, and you will get your eyes open. If you believe in Jesus, you are not to spend all your time in the smooth waters just inside the harbour bar, full of delight, but always moored; you have to get out through the harbour bar into the great deeps of God and begin to know for yourself, begin to have spiritual discernment."

Yet, in mainstream Christianity, many have earnestly attempted to reduce the irrefutable mystery of the life of faith into a safe, predictable, logical, formulaic framework. I believe these attempts overlook the fact that "Too much of our time is spent trying to chart God on a grid, and too little is spent allowing our hearts to feel awe. By reducing Christian spirituality to formula, we deprive our hearts of wonder."

Is it possible that the people would be more attracted to Jesus if those who claim His name became known for what they had discovered diving beneath the present surface of it all, and shared these new discoveries with others? Do you believe that there is any merit to the statement that, "Our modern preoccupation with producing and consuming leads us to live on the surface level of reality and to seek our satisfaction in the finite. But the sacred is known in the depths of reality, not in the manipulation and consumption of the surface."

"Hungering and thirsting for more, disturbs complacency, induces a blessed state of disquiet, and propels our unending exploration into the mystery of God in Jesus Christ."

"When we become aware that we do not have to escape our pains, but that we can mobilize them into a common search for life, those very pains are transformed from expressions of despair into signs of hope."

Look At Me

Apart from a couple of times, the Apostle Paul spoke very little of his blinding encounter with the Lord, but I do see him wanting to share the One who made it all possible.
Its very interesting, down through the centuries, God touches a person, and seemingly over night, a whole movement or eventually a denomination is birthed out of one persons experience.
Maybe as my friend says in this quote from his testimony, "I did not do this so you would have yet another experience… but to show you that I live in you and I am as close as your breath."

I really wonder no mater how real or powerful the experiences are that the Lord permits us to have, was it done so that we could look good, important, having some kind of newly discovered super status?

Let me share an experience I had recently, it is fall here in our neck of the woods, and winter is soon going to pay its long visit to us. We still have the old wooden/glass windows and I had to put on the storm windows in preparation for the colder weather coming.
Here's the deal, before putting the storm windows on, I had to clean not only those windows, but also the outside windows the storms were going on, why, so I could continue to see as clearly as possible through out the winter months. Funny thing, I rarely ever notice the storm windows at all, but I am still able to see clearly through them, the portal to the outside world.

This may not be the best analogy, but somehow I see Jesus being lost in the shuffle of the new experiences we have, being much more focused on it/them, then in Him, the one who simply brought to birth through much anguish, His divine order.

Its interesting how Paul said, when he came to the church, he preached Christ and Him crucified and nothing else! Maybe the experiences He allows us to have is to point out our great need to receive in a deeper ever expanding true knowing of what it means to be loved unconditionally.

Its funny but sad, how its possible to exchange continuing to grow in the grace and knowledge of His love, for ever deeper experiences. So many look upon those gifted ones, anointed ones and become so despondent, thinking, 'If only I too could have that happen to me,' while forgetting His words of truth, "And I will make you witnesses of Me!"

Rich

This is a small portion of my friends testimony.

Permit me now to share my personal experience in such a realization by revelation of Christ in me. I had a most wonderful and remarkable preparatory experience one day in 1975, which was from my Father, to once and for all time deliver me from seeking Him in outward experiences.

At this point in my Christian life I had been saved about 7 years and was a founding teaching elder in a church we and three other couple had founded. Yet, I still had a burning desire to know Him in a deeper way, at any cost.

One weekend I had been reading a little booklet someone had given me six years earlier, but I had not yet read it. It was called "A Simple Way to Touch the Lord". The premise was that if I wanted to touch the Lord in reality I could just call or breathe out His name – "Lord Jesus." The writer cited the many scripture references of the people of God who "called upon the name of the Lord." He said by example, if one wanted to have the presence of their mate elsewhere in the house, they could call, as I do my wife - "Linda". Well, this sounded too simple.

Nevertheless, it was the Monday following that weekend in which I had read the little booklet and I was driving on an overnight business trip from my home in Foxboro, Massachusetts to Connecticut. I recall that it was early morning with the sun rising as I drove past two lakes on either side of US Route 6 in Rhode Island, when I said to myself – "Well I’ve read this booklet long enough – let’s try it."
So then, alone but feeling conspicuous, I simply called upon His name – and breathed out the words from deep within "Lord Jesus."
I immediately sensed an almost liquid presence of the Lord welling up within me. The tears flowed as I pulled my car over to the side of the road. I recall then saying to myself in my head "I can’t wait to get back tomorrow night to tell my fellow elders of this new "experience" – BUT as I was speaking, I heard what seemed to be the audible voice of God speaking to me saying, "I did not do this so you would have yet another experience… but to show you that I live in you and I am as close as your breath."

No More Guess Work

If a picture is worth a thousand words, rather than me trying to sound cute, (although I would love to use this graphic picture to spout off some thoughts) I will leave it as it is, to stand or fall.

Provoking others unto love and good works, yeah, maybe that's a wonderful part of learning to live loved.



Please feel free to share your thoughts.

Rich

A special thanks to my dear friend and brother Dave for this delightful image.

New Clothes, 'Seam'ingly

Some thoughts my wife and I were musing over, in our weekend/day getaway: Most folks are fairly familiar with the children's story, "The Emperor's New Clothes" by Hans Christian Andersen, and if not, here is but a brief snippet from that delightful story:

"Here it is your Highness, the result of our labour," the scoundrels said. "We have worked night and day but, at last, the most beautiful fabric in the world is ready for you. Look at the colors and feel how fine it is." Of course the Emperor did not see any colors and could not feel any cloth between his fingers. He panicked and felt like fainting. But luckily the throne was right behind him and he sat down. But when he realized that no one could know that he did not see the fabric, he felt better. Nobody could find out he was stupid and incompetent. And the Emperor didn't know that everybody else around him thought and did the very same thing."

For those in Christendom who are finding life/love apart from the machinery of the institution, the out-of-the-boxers, the free-rangers, the out-side-the-camp-campers, or whatever other name you might use, maybe there has never been more of a magical and mystical weaving of this new heavenly clothing made out of grace about which so many seem to be pontificating.

Here's what's been gnawing its way into the core of my being: maybe, unlike never before, there is a seemingly endless ability to pontificate on what grace is. By that I mean, so many being able to know about grace, but very few knowing what grace is, about!
Consequently, have we (like the emperor) covered ourselves with this "beautiful fabric" that has, in essence, no substance?

Rich

The Roaring Lamb

My last blog entry was a teaser, wanting to see if I would get any bites/nibbles, and sure enough I did.
The following is a bit more insight to Father's unfailing hurting love for me, and us.

Maybe the extrication taking place in our lives, although meant to be liberating and freeing, will not come to pass without great anguish and suffering.
Think about it, even after becoming a 'Christian', our point of reference almost without any exceptions, is all based upon the outer man, aka, the natural man/woman.

If we were created by God who wants to become a Father to us, making known experientially His unconditional love and acceptance of us, how can we ever establish a secure identity based upon anything that revolves around performance based measuring up?

I want so badly to get a copy of a book, (its title alone grips me) called, 'Jesus Mean and Wild: The Unexpected Love of an Untameable God', by Mark Galli.

Here is an excerpt: "This is what Jesus saw in the Pharisee’s of His day. They had God in a box of rituals, laws and explanations. There was no more to be unearthed, revealed, or discovered. Spiritual fulfillment that led to no questions, no new mystery and no new promise. Jesus rejects all this not just because of the hypocrisy or because of the lack of love, but because you lock people out of the kingdom of heaven."

I'm being stirred afresh in the midst of my Father's relentless bent on forming His Son in me, to look with a new sobriety at that which is more costly than fine gold, a grace and love I barely even know. But this gracious and loving Father is NOT sparing me from any pain in being able to truly know Him, and his heart.

I like this opening greeting from the author, 'God has a most painful plan for your life'!
How many have ever looked upon the Father's invitation into His family and purpose for our lives, prefaced with, 'I have a painful plan for your life'?

This is sweet, and bitter: "One characteristic of the postmodern Christian landscape is to neatly, almost hermetically, divide Bible according to how God interacts with the world. In the Old Testament they exclusively depict a God of wrath, judgment and vengeance in contrast to a New Testament portrait of a saccharin-sweet Jesus who never says an unkind word, never does an unkind thing and is never anything but "nice." The one thing all Christians seem to agree on is that Jesus was a pretty sweet guy who was meek as a lamb and harmless as a dove. However, the New Testament paints a picture far more complex than the current crop of Christians are inclined to accept. It is much easier to reduce Aslan to a tame lion and minimize the inconvenient passages that speak of a Jesus who was anything but nice."

I find the following quote from Jim Palmer, the brother and author of Divine Nobodies, and soon to be released, Wide Open Spaces says what I feel is so very much coming to birth in my own life, and it too is the direct result of the spiritual chemotherapy being lovingly applied to my soul!

"Then it all catastrophically caved in, and the inner suffering of that season of my life was like spiritual chemotherapy, killing off virtually all my religious pretense. Honestly, I wasn’t sure I was going to make it through that dark period, and part of me didn’t want to try. Dying seemed like a better option. Divine Nobodies essentially tells that part of my story, and the unlikely people God sent my way to process it. Another reason I am labeled "radical" is because so many religious people live in pretense and denial, and when you shed it and begin speaking honestly about your journey with God it shocks people. We’re all thinking it, but like we don’t actually say it.

The spiritual chemo during that period killed off the religious Jim, and gave me a new beginning place with God. At the end of my pretense were a slew of questions that pressed hard into matters that previously were not open for discussion. Each chapter of Wide Open Spaces delves into one of those questions. In seminary I constructed an air-tight Christian theology on paper, and had since grown accustomed to doing Christianity from my head or intellect. But the answers I was now seeking were not the sort that could be satisfied by another set of new and improved truth propositions. I was hungry to know God beyond paper and propositions, and experience him along the everyday paths of life and living. The answers I was seeking required living life with a new attentiveness to God, and an openness to new possibilities."

Rich

Aslan is not a tame lion

Has Jesus become for us a celestial Mr. Rogers??

Rich

the rising of the Morning Star in your hearts

It is only as you grow in coming to know HIM and His love, and the facts of your unshakable relationship with Him, that you will be freed – to stand on solid rock.
John 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

Prior to being saved or apprehended by the Father, and even for quite some time after wards, all we have known in terms of our personal identity was solely connected to the outer man, our gender, our ethnicity, our financial standing, our intelligence, our health etc, etc..., and we weighed things by what we saw or experienced.

All of this had/has nothing to do with who we in fact instantly became in being rebirthed by the sperma-word of the Father – Christ.

To live in accord with the new truth, of love, life and liberty there must be a transition – and that transition comes about by God’s work, through the situations and circumstances of life that He orders for our eternal good.
Philip. 2:13 For it is God which works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
Philip. 1:6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

All of what or how we would have defined who we were, was in fact tied inseparably to what we erroneously call “human nature;” but actually, there is no such thing as human nature – it is only the fallen, lien, “sin nature” we gained by Adam, and by which we lived before coming to receive the Lord.

The truth is spoken from the Father by his Spirit through our brother Paul, “If any man be IN Christ, they are a new creation!” I see this being the living picture/reality of who we in fact now ARE; aka, our identity, rooted and found solely in Him.

So much fear is still lodged within the believer’s soul as the Father starts to work. I believe that work starts from the moment we were apprehended of the Father. That glorious work began its loving, but violent assault upon the father of lies in our flesh. The works of the evil one still try to keep his grip/hold on the believer’s life through fear. At that very moment of being apprehended of the Father, I believe the walls of what and how we previously defined who we were, started coming down.

Our freedom from fear is ours as we start to learn the truth, the truth that we can let go and be safe in the Lord.
I love this story about “letting go.”

It’s about the capturing of monkeys. It goes something like this, the ones sent to capture the monkeys use a hollowed out casing and through a hole in the top of it, small enough for the monkey to place his hand through, they insert a special treat that monkeys love. Here's the kicker, the monkey inserts his hand trying to retrieve his luscious treat, the thing is, with the treat in his closed hand, it is now to big to withdraw from the hole in the casing. Just let go of the tasty treat, and your hand is not only freed, but you are free to go and live another day. The monkey is tenaciously stubborn, not willing to let go of his treat, is now easily captured by the hunters.

I liken this story to the reality of learning and becoming intimately acquainted with the unconditional love of the Father, as a matter of fact and truth. As this Love (God) does its procreative and liberating work from deep within, the fears are slowly displaced, and we start becoming intuitively aware of a divine security and enabling, called trust; we learn to yield, let go to abide in union with Him. This is the miraculous result of coming to know and taste the Father's Love. As we let go to trust God we become free. So long as we still grasp at securing ourselves we are still bound to a hopeless state. We must come to know the truth of Him and His love.

As you know, His work of liberating us is a time of great confusion and pain, in the thick of it. We may think “this can't be God,” may resort to unworkable methods like “rebuking the devil and his minions,” but in that we would remain bound.

Rather, be filled with the security of the Father's unconditional love... (The Lord is my shepherd, what more do I want or need). Don’t gravitate like the Jews in the wilderness, lusting again for Egypt (fear) bondage, aka, the fear of loss of control.

We must come to see His unconditional love and His sufficiency, as we begin to view all things from His eternal perspective – He sees you as a person already “complete in Christ.” Only the love of the Father can free us from within, free us from clutching and clinging to what we perceive as some tasty treat, like the monkey; then learning to live loved in the constancy and security of His love, regardless of the outer appearance of our situations.

Rich

Not Them, Just Us

I found this quote from Jim Palmer's book, 'Divine Nobodies' most interesting..

'Maybe "us and them" is an illusionary tactic of the real enemy, and there is no "them" but just "us.

Does criticizing and blaming others serve to cover my own tracks of insult and injury in the world? Have I confused a war of words with rolling up my sleeves and actually doing something about all the issues and problems I claim to care about? Maybe demonizing people out there distracts me from the demons of pride and selfishness within myself.
In the fourth chapter of his New Testament letter, James asks, "What causes fights and quarrels among you?" Answer: "They come about because you want your own way, and fight for it deep inside yourselves."

I'm wondering if set free from that struggle deep within for worth, purpose, significance, meaning, and love, I could see people more through God's eyes. Jesus said that God "sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to set the burdened and battered free."

Maybe there's just one classification of people on planet Earth: imprisoned, empty, unfulfilled, broken people in need of life only Christ can give.

Without a doubt, one of the very best books I've read in years, I can hardly wait until his next book comes out soon...Wide Open Spaces

Rich

The Living Loved Battle

This doesn't have to make any sense to anyone else, including me. I'm not saying this is the only way of viewing what I'm wanting to share here, different is, and can be good, not necessarily better.

When I think of the love of God my Father, I can't think of that without it encompassing His transforming, liberating grace as well.

I wrote a piece a while back, thoughts, on the inconvenient truth of grace. I am seeing not a decreasing, but rather an increasing awareness of this becoming an ever more alarming, but freeing proposition.
Unless I'm really in a fog, it is my understanding, although belonging to Him, there is still within the bent and twisted avenues of my unconverted soul a inclination, a disposition towards my wanting from the moment I awake, to want to follow the interests of me, myself, and I.

Is it that incongruous to think that His love and grace is, an inconvenient truth? Doesn't it talk about this most clearly in one of the communications Paul shared with the church?

Galatians 5:16-18 (The Message)
16-18 My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God's Spirit. Then you won't feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are antithetical, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don't you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence?

Learning to live loved, is only possible in the context of the struggle that goes on continually from within, the outer pressures are simply being used of the father, no matter their complexities, to present us an opportunity to allow, know, what it means to choose Life, in the face of the inconvenience to my self.

This as well from the Message, Romans~1-2

With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ's being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death.

A new law, a new and living dynamic, (the Law of the Spirit of Life) the love of the Father, moment by moment freeing us in this battle where the gravitational pull of sin and death beckons us to live.
I love the thought our brother Peter shares with the church, so very much alive today, in this moment as it was over two thousand years ago, 'Continue to grow in the grace and true knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.'

For me, I cling to the One who is that Living Hope, the one who said, 'I have come to seek and save that which is lost.'
We are all lost, and it is Him seeking us, drawing us in ways that stagger our independent and arrogant ways, whereby in having our eyes opened to the reality of His unconditional love, there is no fleshly boasting permitted.
If I have lost something from birth, how would I ever know I was missing something? Maybe this loving Father has much more (up his sleeve) in his heart and affections towards me than simply saving my lost/dead spirit, but calling forth those lost portions of my soul that were meant to be vibrantly animated with His loving embrace.

Rich

When Love Came To Town

I have been pondering on what Jesus said with regard to saving or loosing our lives,

"Calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, "Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You're not in the driver's seat; I am. Don't run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I'll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to saving yourself, your true self. What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? What could you ever trade your soul for?"

In my opinion, there is no lasting and fulfilling way to deny ourselves, pick up our cross and follow Him apart from one most essential thing, Knowing the present and unconditional love of God the Father, other wise, it might look good, being-living sacrificially, but maybe inwardly bemoaning the fact of having to give up something.

If we were created, all of man kind, to be loved unconditionally, to try and function apart from this reality explains the insanity of what man is doing to his fellow man.It says that in fear there is torment, but perfect love (unconditional love) drives, or casts out fear. The plague of fear and shame that is in the very DNA of mankind is an unavoidable prison house, and no one escapes its clutches unless Love comes to town!

A Marxist leader once said. 'that religion is the opiate of the masses,' and religion goes far beyond what most of us think we know it to be. In my opinion, everything outside of Christ Jesus, not knowing this unconditional love of God the Father is pure, 'religion.'So in other words there is an absolute need to find whatever it takes to anesthetize the insanity of these relentless and tormenting fears within us. This anesthetic comes in many forms, bottom line, it never frees us, but in fact only securely keeps us enslaved.

For every situation you'll ever encounter will offer you two options in prayer: "Father, save me" or "Father, glorify your name." One will only compound the frustration and emptiness, and the other to discovering what it means, when Love comes to town.

Freedom, the way of escape, is only found in the true knowledge of the Father's unconditional love, this true knowledge is a weapon that defies all logic, it is the key that frees us from our self-interests, our self-preservation, and finding a way of facing and dealing with whatever life throws at us.

I like what Wayne Jacobsen says in his book, He loves Me, "It's not the words we use that matters here, but the cry of our heart. Choose to save yourself and you will find yourself resisting God when you don't even mean to. You'll end up praying against the very things God is using to transform you. You'll miss his attempts to help because they won't look like the thing you want."

This insatiable craving for security and completeness is only found in the arms of this loving Father...let His love draw you unto Himself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2M54u5aIGU

U 2 Lyrics....."When Love Comes To Town" (Live From the Kingdom mix)

Don't you know love is the greatest thing that the world has ever known
Love is what everybody loves
We all need just a little love But I did what I did when love came to town
I was a sailor, I was lost at sea
I was under the waves before love rescued me
I was a fighter, I could turn on a thread
But I stand accused of the things I've said

When love comes to town I'm gonna jump that train
When love comes to town I'm gonna catch that flame
Maybe I was wrong to ever let you down
But I did what I did before love came to town

I used to make love under a red sunset
I was making promises I was soon to forget
She was pale as the lace of her wedding gown
But I left her standing before love came to town
I ran into a juke joint when I heard a guitar scream
The notes were turning blue, I was dazing in a dream
As the music played I saw my life turn around
That was the day before love came to town

When love comes to town I'm gonna jump that train
When love comes to town I'm gonna catch that flame
Maybe I was wrong to ever let you down
But I did what I did before love came to town
When love comes to town I'm gonna jump that train
When love comes to town I'm gonna catch that flame
Maybe I was wrong to ever let you down
But I did what I did before love came to town

I did what I did
I did what I did

I was there when they crucified my Lord
I held the scabbard when the soldier drew his sword
I threw the dice when the pierced his side
But I've seen love conquer the great divide

When love comes to town I'm gonna catch that train
When love comes to town I'm gonna catch that flame
Maybe I was wrong to ever let you down
But I did what I did before love came to town

Thank you Madonna I'm calling you to fire it up
And telling everybody everywhere that love is in town
And it's gonna stay around
And you can always, love can always be found
You got to have it
Don't you need it
Everybody need it, everybody
Everybody need it, everybody
I don't care how much money you got
I don't care how many mansions you live in on the hill
You need love
Gotta gotta gotta get it
Gotta gotta gotta get it
We need love
We need love
We need peace
We need joy
We need hope
We need salvation Hallelujah, hallelujah
And we got to catch the glory of our own tree
Do the best you can, God understands
He holds the world in the palm of his hands
And I want you to know that
No more fighting in the gangs
No more killing in the streets
No more fighting each other
No more hunger
No more homeless
No more helpless
It ain't the glory
The spirit isn't selfish

Rich

The Unforced Rhythms Of Grace

Are the unforced rhythms of grace, the ever expanding knowing of God's unconditional love, producing in me a security that is not intimidated, not easily disturbed?

In how the Father 'seems' to be moving in such unconventional ways, ways that seem so foreign, obscure or abstract at best, or as it is put so beautifully in the book, The Shack, when one of the main characters asks, 'Are you saying God that all roads lead to you...and God (Papa) explains most clearly, as in offending the mind, to reveal the heart, His heart..I will go down any road to meet up with whomsoever.'

It talks about Jesus being a rock of offense, a stone of stumbling, and in another place where He himself says, blessed are you if you are not offended in me.

The man (Paul) who wrote the letter to the Romans in the New Testament, talks about it this way..'The next question is, "Are they (the Jews) down for the count? Are they out of this for good?" And the answer is a clear-cut No. Ironically when they walked out, they left the door open and the outsiders walked in. But the next thing you know, the Jews were starting to wonder if perhaps they had walked out on a good thing. Now, if their leaving triggered this worldwide coming of non-Jewish outsiders to God's kingdom, just imagine the effect of their coming back! What a homecoming!

I want to be someone who rejoices in seeing one who has been blind and bound and held prisoner to shames mocking torment, released from this prison house, not by weapons of warfare, but through something far more powerful, the unconditional love of the Father's embrace.Even in Jesus' day, the self-righteous religious leaders were miffed, at what seemed to be blasphemous, exuberant, and highly emotionally charged voices exalting this one coming in the name of the Lord God.

I liked what Jesus says to such ridged and fearful thinkers..'Some Pharisees from the crowd told him, "Teacher, get your disciples under control!" But he said, "If they kept quiet, the stones would do it for them, shouting praise."

He is the way, truth and life, as long as things are unfolding His way, lives coming into a living sobriety, even though I think it violates the 'prescribed' order of it happening, am I able to rejoice and celebrate with Him?
What a friend my elder brother Jesus is, his winning love removing the torment of fear from deep within, making me to BE as he is, willing and able to welcome all of the prodigals He is bringing home to live in His house forever.

Rich

Security

Security is a most ambiguous word with many meanings, particularly when we try to apply a measure of security to our lives.
In a recent conversation with a friend, this whole topic of security was stirred up within me. We were catching up on life after not having been able to talk for some time.

We, along with many, have had the privilege to have read a novel called “The Shack”, written by Paul W. Young. What was originally designed to be a mere story written by a dad for his children has taken an unbelievable turn and launched into something that continues to defy all logic.

This book has and is being used by the Lord to stir up many different thoughts and emotions in readers in unpredictable ways. My friend and I were commenting on and observing how there seems to be a most positive but disturbing awakening coming into the consciousness of so many who have read it.

Without knowing the unconditional love of a Father, we hunt and peck for this proverbial and elusive end of the rainbow, the pot of gold called 'security.'My friend and I were musing about some folk who seem to have very caustic reactions, not only towards this book, but also towards those who seem to be drawn into a growing sense of intimacy and security.

I am discovering how disarming this constant unconditional love is, and yes, it does speak of a security that can't be designed or fashioned by any amount of fleshly efforts on my behalf, but depends totally upon who He is and what He has done for everyone.

As this increased sense of intimacy and security unfolds from within, it is addressing issues of the heart in others, as if penetrating the false walls of security we think are protecting us from the harshness of everyday living.

Rich

Life Finds A Way

Life always seems to find a way to come to the forefront, always alive, but often hidden from sight.

I was out watering the plants, shrubs and other delightful beauties this evening, as the weather has been increasingly getting hotter. As I was watering the side of the house where my wife has done considerable rearranging of the plant life, along with recovering this extended area with a layer of rich top soil, then a healthy blanket of bark chips, I happened to notice that which had been buried in the process, was being brought out into the above ground world.
I couldn't help but delight in the beauty and magical elation I sensed in seeing these tender green plants making their living presence known.

I was instantly reminded of the source of my Life, and being pointed to that life source in a heartbeat, through something almost ignored, a little slip of a green plant...

How loving and caring is this God and Father who is willing to remind me over and over, of His everlasting and invisible presence.

Rich

Taking Shape

I was asked to come and spend part of this weekend with some friends that I met in Stratford in July when Wayne and Sara Jacobsen came for a visit.
It has been a time of getting to know one another even more, such richness this has been.It was a wonderful joy also being a part of their house gathering with so many of their extended family. Being included in they’re working out, sorting out, just what church life might really look like.

It’s wonderful seeing the Father making known to us our intense need to be loved by Him unconditionally, and as this reality is unfolding in our hearts, we are freed to view more pieces of what it just might all be about.
The father’s love is freeing us from so many lies/fears that have dogged us most of our Christian lives, and in the process, becoming relaxed, or at peace with hearing the same Father expanding and opening up piece by piece, of what His church looks like.

Within this home fellowship/meeting, both of my friends have presented to those that regularly attend, of how, without there being a greater knowing of Papa’s unconditional love for us, it will be the same old, same old, clinging to something/one other than Him.
Meaning, I see most clearly, not all of it mind you, but enough to know that He is defining and redefining by His life in us what church is going to look like.
The beauty of this is in my opinion is solely about His life defining what, if any structure is going to look like at any given moment, and for how long.

As my brother Wayne shared recently on a pod cast, ‘Let’s stop talking about IC (institutional church) HC (home/house church) but instead, talking about Jesus.

Many point back to the first century church as a model, pining or lamenting over what was, vs what we now have, as if we have lost something.
If only we could go back…the God who was, or will be? But what about the I AM, who says, I am the same yesterday, today and for evermore, I change not declares the Lord!Is it possible what appears to be a contradiction, is simply an inability, not recognizing how He has dealt with His church in different dispensations?

Back to the home meeting/gathering last night…If it is in fact His life defining/redefining what we are to look like, structure wise, if we are not secure in the knowable reality of His love for us, then like so many repeated times down through the centuries, as soon as He begins to define what Church (relational living) is to look like in a new group of believers, they have been attacked, and in past ages put to death for not doing IT, the right way.

Wasn’t there a moment when a couple of Jesus’ disciples come back to him fully expecting to receive some kind of reward for setting matters straight? They said Lord, we met someone trying to expel Satan out of a person, but we told them they were NOT doing it the right way, our way, or the highway.We know what Jesus said, those who are for me can not be against me.

What His church is going to look like at any given moment just might be His business, him being the Head of the church.The lies and fears that hold us captive will not allow us to let go of what we have believed to be the right way of doing church, apart from His love becoming something far more than a nodding of the head.

I am anticipating hearing further reports from my friends of how this graced flexibleness is freeing this home gathering to allow His love/live, define what it’s supposed to look like for them, as it will be in seeing our Head define what it will look like in each of those He has birthed, and calls His own.

Rich

Copious Amounts Of Grace

I was coming back from the grocery store with some needed items to get ready for our scrumptious feast we're planing on having later, celebrating my brother-in-laws time with us this weekend.
I try to come home going down the street where our son lives, and sure enough, wouldn't you know, there he was, our son talking with his uncle and his mom, having fun connecting in the moment.
It was a flash thought, much like a speeding arrow strategically aimed at my heart, simply seeing my precious wife reveling in the thick of family reconnecting, mom, son, and uncle.
The thought was sobering and unsettling at the same time, or as I am growing increasingly fond of saying, His disturbing grace~ha! I could see such a relaxed and at peace wife, being vividly alive in that moment.

I remember not all that long ago of how I was so much more out of sync with Father's heart and love for me, and as a sad consequence, those destructive ripples, more like a full force gale, so reeked havoc in my precious wife's soul. Today, I love having the joy of saying to friends and new friends, go ahead, make my day, just ask my wife if Papa is working/disturbing Richard with His grace~ha!

So much water under the bridge, so many memories of being a child of God, and yet so bound, so out of control. How amazing His ability is to remove the stinging barbs of those tormenting memories, and yet, remembering those events to this day.
Why, a living testimony of His grace. prodding and provoking me ever deeper into the vast and unexplored territory of His generous heart.

The rippling affects of grace in Father's heart is so infecting not just my life, but my precious wife as well. I am seeing how Father is freeing her in her innermost being with His love, to actually believe I can be trusted with her heart.

Is it any wonder when I watch for the umpteenth time the movie, The Christmas Carol, that I become a babbling crying fool, why, if you know the story, you well know Scrooge, who did NOT ever deserve a second chance, was given just that. Oh how I so relate with such a generousness, so many more extended second chances have rippled into my life from the first encounter with this Living God.

My wife said to me with her heart being freshly disturbed this morning, I am so thankful for Him freeing me from being so religious, making my heart so much more loving like His.
This ongoing journey of learning to live loved, has and is infecting us and I'm so grateful there is no cure~ha!

Rich

Ripples

If I was created to be and live loved, then, if I do not know and experience that love, His love, Papa's love, is it any wonder there is such a wasteland of lostness?

Although 'saved', rebrithed, many years ago now, the reality of God becoming my Father at a knowable level is, and continues to invade my jar of clay.
This unconditional love is greatly, but wonderfully disturbing me, thank God! I remember someone saying once how God comforts the disturbed, but disturbs the comfortable~ha!

On a recent pod cast Wayne and Brad ( http://www.thegodjourney.com/podcast.html ) were discussing the issue of the 'The Relationally Challenged', it was very good, but, and I'm not dickering over words, but, in my opinion, it goes far beyond being relationally challenged, it is being relationally dysfunctional.
The latter description (imo) more clearly paints the truer picture. ALL who have been born from the loins of Adam are dysfunctional, and will continue to be, unless, Love comes to town~ha!

The pervasiveness of the lostness within us is beyond our comprehension, but thank you Papa, that you delight in seeking and finding that which is lost.
Being loved is inseparable from defining who we are, our identity. When man chose to separate himself from his source of true identity, he became lost. You know the deal, hey man waz up, Oh, I'm just trying to 'find myself.'

Somehow being, and living loved is calling all of the lostness within my soul into an order of relational functioning stability I have never known, and I have been walking with Jesus since 1972.

I shared all of this to set a stage for the following thoughts....

The love of money Jesus said, is the root of all evil...both my wife and I have struggled~ha, what a weak word that is, more like being suffocated, drowning, for so long with 'finances.'

This is NOT an obscure far removed nightmare reality from most believers I know, and am getting to know. It is a curse, being a prisoner to this setup, meaning, although so many struggled with this monster, very few freely, openly, admits or talks about it. Why is this?

The 'love of money,' maybe its what money represents at an unconscious level,. security-power-being treated as very special etc. Whatever it is and its appeal to us, it is a horrible lie, and a substitute for the present and abiding security of the Father's love.
This area of lostness is being addressed by Papa's disturbing grace and love, and somehow I sense the beginning ripples of freedom.

Rich

The Ripples Of Grace

Here's a thought I was reflecting on this morning, actually more about Papa's love for me..as I am experiencing the rippling actions/affects of His grace, I am experiencing much more of a calmness, instead of the old knee jerk reacting, it frees me in so many ways..

I am one who has been and is still so indecisive at times, and this rippling affect of love/grace is not causing me see or know why I am that way, as much as it is addressing at the core of my being the reality of what it means to Live Loved, and in so doing, this area of being indecisive along with numerous other areas are being awakened to what it means when Jesus says, If you continue to follow me, you will Know the truth, and the Truth will set you FREE.

This rippling affect of grace/love spills out, much like water when spilled out, it flows into all of the 'low places' first... for example, I was having some minor glitches this morning with my laptop, and yes, within my soul I was sensing/feeling stuff trying to rise up, and in the past, would try to rule me, but I attribute the not reacting to this issue only because of discovering, not only am I loved, but I am learning to live loved!

I love the thought of all of Papa's dealings with me, is in bringing me into a low place, whereby, as in water spilled out, his love and grace will flow into those desperate and needy places within my soul.

Rich

Living Loved

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rich

Trusting

Tonight we had friends over to share about our encounters with the Lord, having read the book, The Shack.

We had a wonderful time tonight, I was the only guy though..I have no problems with that at all.
Three ladies/friends besides us..so cool hearing how our friends are discovering/becoming much more aware of not only His love for us, but also His special fondness as well.

Funny, in coming to experience what it means to live Loved, how effortlessly it becomes to 'trust' Him with our lives. Rather than seeing, according to our warped perceptions, Oh boy, look at how I have to trust Him...as if we can by/through fleshly efforts on our part produce what we think He is demanding from us (trust)..make any sense?
If I know I am loved unconditionally, the trust issue is born out of the knowableness of living loved, (not something I'm trying to impress Him with) and when I screw up, its all about being loved perfectly still, make any sense?
Maybe our capacity to walk by faith, not by sight aka faith/trust, is in fact deepened and continues to flow out of that inner knowing, I am Loved?

Rich

Reveling in the Revelator...

The thought, not very original, but none the less sobering, am I reveling in the revelator, Christ in me the hope of glory, or, am I reveling in the revelation?
I said that to say this, there seems to be so much falling into place (in my life) lately regarding what continues to be shared on the God Journey with Wayne and Brad...An ever expanding conversation of those living outside the box of organized religion... http://www.thegodjourney.com/ http://www.thegodjourney.com/podcast.html

This whole notion of 'friends, and friends of friends' that Wayne and Brad have been discussing is quite exhilarating to say the least. Knowing the propensity within our fleshly thinking to turn our focus away from the revelator onto the revelation, doggedly hounds us.

I like what Wayne says here, 'Remember body life does not produce the life of Jesus, only Jesus does that. The church can never be our source of life, it is the fruit of that life being borne in us. Let your relationship with him grow. If you don’t know any others, just lean in close to him and keep your eyes open. He may just want you to himself for a time so that he is the only one you’ll be dependent on. In time he will begin to connect you in the simple joy of...Twos and Threes.'

Rather than seeing this as a formula, lets look at it being as simple as Him, producing the Life in the context of people, friends and friends of friends. Let's take a peek at how some this might unfold.

I was chatting with a friend this morning on line and he mentioned that Wayne had called him asking if he would be interested in connecting with a woman's son who lived in the same state he lived in. He said, yes, for sure. The details are being worked out now towards the possibility of this happening.

Last evening I received a phone call from a university student asking if she might come over to meet my wife and me regarding her ministry in reaching out to her fellow students.
I said sure thing..this too is being worked out, arranging a time to meet.
How this came about was through meeting someone at a recent gathering here in Stratford when Wayne and Sara Jacobsen came down for a visit.
One of the folks there was a young woman finishing up her education in a near by university. As this young woman shared about her heart for those attending university, it was as if I was looking through the window of her heart at these people I didn't even know.
I said to her how deeply I was touched in seeing and hearing about these students and her having such a heart for them, I said, if there is anything I can do to be a blessing to you or them, please let me know. And that is how this friend of a friend I met is now wanting to meet us.

To sum this up, the quote from the movie, Jurassic Park (1993) comes to mind..Henery Wu: You're implying that a group composed entirely of female animals will... breed?
Dr. Ian Malcolm: No, I'm simply saying that life, uh... finds a way.

http://www.liberatedfilms.com/film-34301-Jurassic%20Park%20-%20US%20Home%20Video%20Trailer

Rich

Seeing, Follow Up

Kent,

Thanks for sharing your thoughts with me.
Here are a few more of mine, I would have posted them on the halo section, but for some reason it was not working?


I guess what I was getting at, although implied but not spelled out, was, imo, I see everything dealing with who we 'think' we are, is, being addressed and revolves in and around His love for us all.
Meaning, it is the de-construction of the false, outer man, vs the real, inner man. The real us, is not, black vs white, rich vs poor, smart vs dumb etc, and it is a demolishing of an identity built upon lies.

I like the analogy although most terrifying in its applications, being used of one of the prophets in the OT, he was being used of God, to tear down, and uproot, before there was any building up taking place. This demolishing is a loving action, although unfathomable to us at the time.
I have often thought of that reality unfolding, especially in my walk with Him, as well as the same violent processing of all that have been received of Him.

I realize it's totally about Him working in us and through us on an individual basis in addressing what I am sharing here, not a formula. In a nut shell, I want to learn in being a recipient of grace to be gracious in dealing with those like myself, still being extricated from the Matrix of religious thinking.

What do you think?

Rich

Do You Really Want To See

Is it saying to folks, 'just stop it' whatever that may be, or, is it being love to them?
Maybe if we shout a little louder, the deaf person will come to hear, or in pointing out to the blind man, how he is not seeing.

If we hear/see anything at all in regards to the reality of knowing God as our Father, what makes us believe it came about because of something we did? Maybe it all flows out of relationship/s, rather than drive by smarten up shootings...what do you think?

Rich

Friends 4-Ever

When Wayne and Sara where with us, in one of our touring the city times, we stopped to smell the roses, and a few other delightful things.
The connections of the heart that were established, I am 4-ever grateful!

Rich