Let Go

I love His work, someone said as they took one last long lingering look at the painting, if it were only possible to have known his heart, what he saw and felt that compels you to drink deeply of its richness.

Well, I’m getting to know an artist that is painting on the canvas of my heart, something that makes the Seven Wonders of the World seem dull and boring in comparison to his skilled and detailed eye.
Today at work it was another colorful day, the wildness of unfettered emotions straining to ride this cowboy into another bout of being so tired and worn out, when from deep within, I hear Him speak, “son, let go, learn in this moment the unforced rhythms of my grace.”
What I discovered in choosing to let go was not a miracle of osmosis, but rather an infusion of life as I choose to allow the unforced rhythms of his grace to invade my soul.

“Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."
“If, when we were at our worst, we were put on friendly terms with God by the sacrificial death of his Son, now that we're at our best, just think of how our lives will expand and deepen by means of his resurrection life! Now that we have actually received this amazing friendship with God, we are no longer content to simply say it in plodding prose. We sing and shout our praises to God through Jesus, the Messiah!”

Rich

What Is That?

Father, you are so patient, so kind, and so loving, my heart leaps for joy in discovering daily how I delight You!

Rich

How Are You? Fine, Thank You!

In response to Barb and her question, “How are you” (I’m more interested in how you are than in what you think about a subject), I’m going to try and share some personal details of our journey. The word “journey” is a most apt word in that it speaks of life and discovering what that encompasses apart from the religious matrix we have all been born into.
To clarify this point, I mean any and everything apart from Christ and His total unconditional love is religion, in any nuance or description.

As Barb pointed out in her blog, A Former Leader’s Journey:
“I pause to read personal stuff. I skim over anything else...basically uninterested. Something has shifted in me this summer. Suddenly the subjects we are talking about no longer interest me. Suddenly they are not important. YOU are. They are not as much.
I want personal details. How are YOU? Your Family? Your finances? What are you doing now? And, how are you feeling about that?
Maybe it is my bent lately to have community. Maybe it is my lack of caring about the topic of Church, Christianity, abuse or anything else.”

How am I? Well, on any given day I am fine, meaning that ‘fine’ can simply be the short and long of a day that encompasses a myriad of thoughts, emotions, from the sublime to the ridiculous in interacting with fellow humans at work and simply living in the real world. If you were to delve deeper, you would know that we struggle with a myriad of issues, some life-altering, and some heart-breaking, others merely frustrating.

Regarding Barb’s question: “How are you?” maybe it’s much more to the point to ask, “Who are you”? The first two questions mentioned in the bible were addressed to all of mankind, as in, “Where are you?” and “Where is your brother?” I see this as a picture of the cross, the vertical beam signifying our being in right relationship to God, and the horizontal beam signifying our right relationship with our brothers and sisters. What I see happening in my life as well as my wife’s life is an on-going discovery of whose we are and out of that, much clarity defining who in fact we truly are!

For further thoughts regarding Barb’s question, please refer to Cynthia’s blog, “A Life Profound”, in her comments.

Prior to being apprehended by Christ, I really didn’t see anything that ever stood out to me as having any facsimile of an identity except that of being a “Christian” (although at the time I had no understanding of any of that; all I knew was that I was a totally changed young man. Everything had suddenly become new to me).
Sadly, within a short time an identity was being fashioned within me that only served to alienate me further from the only true source of knowing and discovering who I really was. From the moment of being re-birthed I arrogantly figured I was destined for greatness because of being told over and over again of my ‘giftedness’, and that fit in with what I perceived as being ‘called to the ministry.’ No, sir, I was not going to be a blind lemming dumbly following some leader - and yet unfortunately that is in fact what did happen.
From my perspective it wasn’t until 1991 after having been, euphemistically speaking, ‘let go’ from the Holy Grail, a.k.a. ‘the ministry’ that my life came to a screeching halt! Slowly, from been buried alive as it were, the real me has been and continues to emerge.
There is so much more that I would like to share, possibly in another blog entry.

Rich

Sniffing out Artificiality

Has our Saviour made us savory?

"Through us, he brings knowledge of Christ. Everywhere we go, people breathe in the exquisite fragrance. Because of Christ, we give off a sweet scent rising to God, which is recognized by those on the way of salvation—an aroma redolent with life. But those on the way to destruction treat us more like the stench from a rotting corpse.
This is a terrific responsibility. Is anyone competent to take it on? No— but at least we don't take God's Word, water it down, and then take it to the streets to sell it cheap. We stand in Christ's presence when we speak; God looks us in the face. We get what we say straight from God and say it as honestly as we can."

This hiddenness we have in Christ (which by the way was the fruit of what Jesus asked the Father for, “that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me),” is way too ethereal for us to grasp, so we have invented numerous things to try and make the Christian life look way more appealing, imitating Christ being but one of them.
As I have often asked, was Christ’s oneness with the Father only relegated to those last three years of his life in what many refer to as “his ministry days”, if so, what a pity that those first thirty years were wasted on such pathetic and humdrum day in and day out stuff?
What I detect is this, as the Father was living his life out through Jesus as Jesus, everyday living took on significance and purpose that didn’t suddenly become something far more thrilling as he stepped into those last three years “of ministry.”

Is it any wonder that so many have sniffed out the hypocrisy of the artificiality that has been masquerading as to what it means to be a Christian and what the Church is really all about?
Without revelation of whose we are and what that encompasses, at best we’re only playing charades, but for those who know and are growing in the truth that Christ is disguised as us, are not fooled as they pick up His sent!

Rich