The Way of Our Release

Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame. (Hebrews 12:2)

The passion of the Cross is the way of our release, and if you consider your own spiritual experience, those of you who have any experience of a walk with God, you know quite well that it has been through times of deep and acute suffering that you have found fresh releases; fresh releases in your spiritual life. Is it not true? Yes, we pass into a time of excruciating spiritual and soul suffering. We do not know what the Lord is doing, what He means by this, what He is after, but we know the features of our experience and know what it is that we are suffering, and it goes on. We, of course, ask the Lord to stop it, to bring it to a quick end, to deliver us from it. He takes no notice of us, and it is only those people who get out the other end who say, ‘Thank God, He did not take any notice.’ In the meantime, we think He is anything but kind and good and doing the right thing, but as we get on under His hand, we begin to see and to sense that He is dealing with something. Maybe He is dealing with our pride, our independence, or our irresponsibility, for example. That is the issue that comes up, and we are faced all the time with something about ourselves that is almost devastating. We would not have believed that that was so strong in us.

Oh, of course we were always ready to believe that that is in mankind and in us as a part of mankind in a general way. Yes, we would never have resented being told that there was pride or something like that about us, but we would never have believed how deeply rooted and terribly strong that thing is until it was put to a fiery test and everything was held up, and we saw that everything in our life and work for God was held up on that point.... And we know quite well that what the Lord was after was not the pulverising of us, as we thought, the winding up of us, but to bring about enlargement, to bring about release, and release always lies along the line of the Cross, the passion. Enlargement always lies in that direction.

Living Condemned

Chasing the Wind

Have you ever wondered why so many Christians live condemned, could it be as simple as mistaking the seismic shift of being re-birthed, that glorious event of being saved as something that removes them from the process that it actually is.

I was listening to a couple of guys talking about this the other day; the one went on to say that in spite of his born again experience much if not most of his life seemed pretty much the same, dealing with the same struggles and stuff that was there before his experience, so, does this negate the reality of his, our re-birthing?

Many people suffer in this matter because they try to understand our life in this world in terms of an event rather than the process it actually is. Consequently, it is felt by many people that once we are saved we should be somehow perfect. When this does not occur at all levels of our living we shift to seeking the “right event” to make us perfect. We are deceived into believing that we can be made perfect by the baptism of the Holy Spirit or by attaining the right knowledge or by some other event. This results in Christians chasing after the right seminar, the right healing or the right miracle. However the reality of our living is that as we go from event to event we carry the same root problems along with is.

It is because of the process nature of going on with God that we see uneven behaviour in our lives as Christians. As children grow physically, they display changing levels of maturity. Anyone who has raised children through infancy, childhood and adolescence can tell you that these changes do not happen smoothly. A child in transition will at one moment show a wisdom and maturity beyond their years. In the next instant they show a level of childishness that you thought they were done with. This dynamic is also evident with us in our spiritual growth.

Our spiritual growth differs fundamentally from salvation because our spiritual growth is a process and salvation is an event. In the working of this process we experience an ongoing change. The process we are speaking of here occurs over our entire earthly life. What takes place in this process is the progressive subjection of the independent self and the ever-growing operation of the individual self. Through this dynamic we are brought along from being spiritual infants to become full-grown children of God.

In an age that highly values speed and instant results we find the idea of an immediate transformation very alluring. Our Father is not so enamored with the instant however. It is God’s good will and pleasure to have us mature spiritually by a growth process. This is an ongoing work of the Father that we must voluntarily submit to undergo. That submission is a moment-by-moment series of decisions on our part.

Rich

Fairy Tales

Often new understandings are not entirely new facts but are rather, corrections of previously held errors. This is why going outside the body of traditional, accepted understanding is dangerous and not particularly popular. This brings us face to face with two uncomfortable issues. The first is that there is always a group of people who have built a reputation or livelihood on the existing understandings. These people are not particularly pleased with the prospect of these understandings being shown to be in error or even held up as being incomplete.

The other issue is one of stability and comfort. Inside the established understanding box we know how things are. Inside the box we have the comfort (although it may be a false comfort) of stability and predictability. It may be a limited system but it is our system. This is often one of the founding principles of denominational religion.

Sadly, if we have a true desire to grow we must be willing to receive correction.
This is not nearly so painful if we stop and consider the alternatives to growth. As I am fond of thinking of it, people are like trees in this regard. A tree exists in only one of two states--it is either growing or dying. We too, are either growing or dying. I would rather be corrected and be alive and growing spiritually than to live in a false stability of spiritual death (stagnation).

It is not a mark of shame that we have a set of misconceptions incorporated in our basic understanding. This is not evidence that we are stupid, immoral or slow-witted. Think of where we came from. We all have come out of the world.
This is a world that is awash in misconceptions, ignorance and outright dishonesty. You must always keep in mind that the world is under control of the evil one: “We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.” (1John 5:19) So we all come into the life of Christ with an impressive set of fairy tales about the way things are. This reality is difficult to accept, especially for us who are convinced that we are pretty savvy about how things are. It is, nonetheless, true.

We need to consider some things. What is more important—coming to a deeper understanding of the Father, His world and ourselves or preserving our own foolish pride? To me, there is nothing sweeter than coming to know the truths of God. I am practical enough to realize that this sweetness may be too esoteric for many people. Then consider the pragmatic advantages of growing in the understanding of the truth.

Rich

Pondering

Like a meteor ripping into our hemisphere and lights up the whole sky, this was but a dim flickering light compared to him-Jesus the light of all men, which had been incarnated within the virgin womb of a young Jewish girl.
When the birth of the Christ child happened there was an angelic host that appeared to a group of shepherds proclaiming the promised ones introduction into our space, time and history had come.
The shepherds went and found this child exactly where the angel had said he would be, and after they had seen him, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child, and it says that Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.

Eight days later Mary and Joseph take the child to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, and in the process of doing this, once again this child is singled out and particularly by one Simeon, who says many different things regarding the child but this in particular, is what has captured my thoughts.

“And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary His mother, "Behold, this Child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and for a sign to be opposed-- and a sword will pierce even your own soul--to the end that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed."

Its this sword piercing stuff that I want to think out loud about, you know, the Prince of Peace stuff, only this Prince is wielding (brandishing) a very sharp sword in his hands.

Back in 2002 there was a series on television called ‘Firefly’, I honestly don’t ever remember seeing it at the time, but when the movie Serenity came out I became curious about its roots and then discovered the movie was birthed out of the original series on TV.In the series there was an episode called Objects in Space where this bounty hunter invades the ship the crew is on, (it’s called Serenity) for the purpose of capturing one of the crew a young woman called River, but in the process of this happening there was a slice of dialog between the bounty hunter and River’s brother Doctor Tam that fits in with my pondering here regarding ‘His sword piercing our souls’.

‘Have you (the bounty hunter asking Tam) been shot-No…You ought to be shot…or stabbed, loose a leg. To be a surgeon you know?To know what kind of pain you are dealing with. They make psychiatrists get psychoanalyzed before they can get certified… but they don’t make a surgeon get cut on…does that seem right to you’?

It is so easy to parrot the words, ‘I know what you’re going through’, without having the remotest clue of their pain, I know, I’ve done that.I would imagine there are many folks who have never known the addictions of drugs, sexual permissiveness or other in your face bondages/vices, and I don’t see God the Father requiring us to have experienced drunkenness (or other bondages) so that we can relate to those in slavery to alcohol.
But I do see Him making it very clear that even the Mother of Jesus was not going to be exempted from a sword piercing her very soul, and like wise I am inclined to believe none of us will get away from this soul piercing encounter with the sword brandishing Prince of Peace.

Like with Doctor Tam and the bounty hunter’s remarks regarding Tam’s need to be made aware experientially of the pain most folks walk in every day, there is a much needed soul piercing required in all who have flesh, as it were a heart circumcision that will address these issues.

As I was walking to work this morning, I sensed Papa speaking most clearly to me, and here are some of those thoughts. The sicknesses of sins influence within our flesh resorts to this demented logic, our works or lack thereof either qualify or disqualify us for or from the grace of God. Papa says to both-the religious flesh group-your works do not qualify you for my grace and to the sinful flesh group- your lack of works do NOT disqualify you from my grace. We qualify for his grace based upon His unconditional love, nothing more or less!! And it’s the wonder of this unfolding revelation caused by His sword-word piercing the core of our being bringing us to clearly see our true condition and recognize the total depravity of our flesh. So that we might be led to the place of hearing, ‘Blessed are you, who no longer measure yourself within fleshly means.

This majestic work of grace freeing us from the lies of knowing we are deserving of his grace because of what we have done, and for others, freeing them for all that they have not done to deserve His grace.

Rich

Spring Time

One’s ability to see or recognize the involvement of our Father’s activity in our lives is imperative.
There are so many that grow up either with an absent father that was never a part of the picture or one that was there but still absent, MIA, missing in action.
It is very easy to transfer the hurt, blame (rejection) pain and confusion onto this God that calls himself Father, especially when it says He is taking such an active role in your life.

The devastation that has traumatized the human race having been born separated from God has many repercussions, from the sublime to the ridiculous, but all spelling a lost alienated and separation from the true source of Life.

It is nothing short of a miracle how God is able to cut through, pierce the darkness that has invaded our soul, bringing into the prison house we have been shackled to, the temporal, physical world, the only world we have ever known, the revelation that not only is God love, but of the intensity of His love for us.
It is this truth, unfolding reality of the Father’s intense love for me that continues to open doors that were formerly nailed (spiked) shut.

My job is one that has put me outside daily in the process of delivering the mail, and along with that comes a real mixed bag of good, bad and ugly pertaining the outdoor elements, the weather.
Right now, very slowly spring is trying its best to convince us to believe it really is here, but there continues to be lingering evidence that it has not fully kicked in. Be that as it may because of this very hard, cold very long winter we have experienced here, whenever we have a reprieve from winters relinquishing taunting and the temp’s begin to be somewhat normal and even exceed the norm, people crawl seemingly out of the wood work, outside want to do whatever they can do lawn, yard clean up wise.

It was these actions of many folks that caught my attention the other day who were eagerly and aggressively out raking their lawns, using broom rakes, comb rakes, and even some using brooms to try and squeeze in as much time as possible to make as it were hay while the sun shined.
I saw others busy pruning dead branches from trees, and other lawn cleanup activities. Suddenly seemingly from nowhere, I hear my Father’s loving but firm voice, ‘Son what are you seeing in all of this’, I thought on that for a few seconds and said, Lord I’m not sure other than it is so cool seeing what the sun can do in drawing folks outside when they have been cloistered in their house all winter, and enjoying not only being outside, but being able to be part of seeing the miracle of spring replacing the naked season of winter.’
It was in His question to me that the answer seemed to suddenly appear to me, it was so simple, it always is when He allows us to see isn’t it!
I began to hear His heart afresh for me, ‘Son, these people are doing all they can with what they have, no matter the tools they are using to rake their lawns for the purpose of getting rid of the old dead growth, and to stimulate the new life that is about to turn their dead brown world into a world of vibrant and living colors.’

It was as if He was saying to me, ‘Do you want to bear that which I want to produce within you, because if you do then just like the aggressive and very caustic measures these people are taking to see new growth, life spring forth from their lawns and trees is what is needed and necessary in your life.’
In a moment my mind was recalling so many things that I have been facing lately and beginning to see how it was these seemingly very aggressive and caustic (pain filled) events that had been and are being used of my loving Father to prepare me for a whole new season of Life that is about to spring forth!
In the blink of an eye, it was so humbling to see the lies I had embraced about this Father’s seemingly inactivity, being removed or not actively involved in my continued growth.
The lies were displaced in one quick moment, ushering in such deep appreciation for a Father that uses ALL things to prove, demonstrate His unrestrained commitment of love to me, His son!

Rich