My Father’s Voice

This is a repost from last year that spoke to my heart in light of His growing intense fondness of the one He chose to call Richard.



The entrance into the Kingdom (or the Kingdoms entrance into you) is through the panging pains of repentance crashing into a man's respectable goodness; then the Holy Ghost, Who produces these agonies, begins the formation of the Son of God in the life.

The above quote is from Oz Chambers.

I woke up this morning with the clear and distinctive sound of my Father's voice saying to me, 'Why do you call me good?' I believe this was Him wanting to further illuminate what I had been pondering on from Oz's quote, and how it was used to speak so deeply to me.
You can read the full account of this (in the bible) dialogue between Jesus and the young rich ruler who came to Jesus and asked the quintessential question, "Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life"? Then Jesus says, "Why do you call me good?" Following this it gets real dicey.

I do not see God the Father coming to lost humanity and saying to those like this young rich ruler, you've managed your life well, and have such admirable and sought after qualities, I'm going to now simply add (grant you your one wish) Me to all of that which has been working so well for you in your life~ha!

I think what Oz says in his quote is most fitting in this unfolding drama, not just with this so called self-made, self-righteous young man but of all humanity.
It is my understanding that this fallen world system, aka, the Matrix is something that far surpasses any form or flavour of religion, but in fact has become a diabolical woven scheme that has all of us firmly believing, we're doing our own thing, living our life. It is the only reality any of us have ever known, and that reality has so tainted, so warped our perception, that apart from the normalcy of who God the Father is, and experiencing His love, no one will convince us that what we are seeing, experience is anything but real.

Maybe David was seeing and coming into a dimension of reality that seems to fly way beyond any radar detection?
From one of the illuminating times in his journey he said, "Behold, I was shaped in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part you shall make me to know wisdom.
I love this saying, "Nothing is as it appears to be".

Was it as Oz said, the Holy Spirit being responsible for these crashing panging pains that were hidden as it were from this noble pursuer of exemplary living that were soon to go off in his life as if stepping on a land mine?
I do not know how any of us can begin to understand this God of love when its through such devastation that He brings into our lives. Yes devastation, why, because we have only known a false reality, a lie that has defined who we think we are.
Again as Oz says, this most needed and necessary crashing intrusion into our lives is the preliminary steps our Father takes in "forming the life of His son in us".
Those whom He foreknew, he predestined them to BE conformed into His likeness and image.

I trust this will be something from His heart to mine, to you that will provoke you to think way beyond what we think is the norm.

Rich

You Can’t Imagine Grace

The Second Coming

William Butler Yeats

TURNING and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

My daughter is home with us from University and in our catching up on life, she delighted me with this rich living nugget of truth.

These scriptures speak of such violence, such wastefulness, His love and grace lavishly offered freely to us.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.
Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself.”

What a wonderful invasion, not just 2,000 years ago in our space, time and history, but He snatched up my dead carcass and invaded me with Life.
Talk about an awakening!

Rich