Freedom

The religionist from organized church have convinced many that if you live free you will fall into uncontrollable sin. The teaching of this view comes down to us from the earliest days of Christianity: “This matter arose because some false brothers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves.” (Galatians 2:4)

The reality of the situation is this: infants and children need care and protection. This is what organized church provides. As you mature into a son, you no longer need this kind of care. Through your growing spiritual maturity, you become more able to operate by the spontaneous leading of Christ’s life in your spirit. This is our living as an individual self. It is here that we become the most effective and useful for doing the will of the Father.

The issue of freedom most not be confused with independence. As we grow in freedom in Christ we are actually growing into a place of greater dependence on the Father. As we depend more on the Father we depend we depend less on the world’s systems, other people and ourselves. The Christians trapped at the infant level are always dependent on themselves, institution and other people. This dependence goes so far as to make these Christians dependent on the institutions of men for their relationship with the Father. This is why many people feel that they cannot break away from and form of organized religion.

What the institutional church sells as “protection” and “guidance” is all too often regulations and the denial of our God-given freedom. The institution’s actions in this area are motivated by the desire to maintain control over its members. The organizational church cannot bring itself to suffer loss of its position and status that would be necessary to allow its members to be free. Institutional church “protection and guidance” is, in reality, slavery. This is slavery to a worldly way of understanding things. From organized religions the “guidance” you often get is really regulation. The “protection” you get is really repression. All of these things are provided by the organization because there is insufficient trust by them in the Father’s ability or desire to provide our resources for effective living directly. Religion works on the fundamental premise that God does not want to have any kind of an ongoing personal relationship with each of us.

Rich

He is More Than Meets the Eye

Is God willy-nilly indiscriminately at random, choosing to protect some and others, well, good luck?

Maybe we need a much broader understanding of His protection, perhaps a broader unearthing of most that we have codified and fossilized into lifeless and meaningless dribble!
Perhaps it was the Father’s protection in the life of his son that was there making sure nothing happened to him, making it possible for Jesus to fully make it to the cross, even intervening in the Garden where it says he sweated great drops of blood. God sent sustaining angels to under gird him so that he might successfully by grace taste death for us all?

I wonder how much definition Father is establishing in our lives as we go hopelessly along believing the lies that somehow His hand of protection is removed from our lives because of our poor performance?


I so appreciate what Darin Hufford says here from his book, The Misunderstood God, “God’s protection is a Father’s promise to always hold us up in the midst of all circumstances no matter how terrible. Love bears up under anything! It is the support beam that will never give way, even in the midst of unimaginable pressure. The pressures and pains of life are not evidence of a lack of protection; they are the things that prove God’s protection.”

"Understated that there is no escape from adversity and hardship as long as we live in this world. Bad things happen not only to bad people but to all people. The good news is, God will never cease to support and grow our hearts regardless of what is thrown at the flesh. God will never override the heart to save the flesh. Everything He does is for the heart because that’s the part of you that lasts forever. Love always thinks this way. It’s all about the heart.”

Somehow I find this section of scripture most fitting in my musings…”I could go on and on, but I've run out of time. There are so many more— Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, the prophets....Through acts of faith, they toppled kingdoms, made justice work, took the promises for themselves. They were protected from lions, fires, and sword thrusts, turned disadvantage to advantage, won battles, routed alien armies. Women received their loved ones back from the dead. There were those who, under torture, refused to give in and go free, preferring something better: resurrection. Others braved abuse and whips, and, yes, chains and dungeons. We have stories of those who were stoned, sawed in two, murdered in cold blood; stories of vagrants wandering the earth in animal skins, homeless, friendless, powerless—the world didn't deserve them!—making their way as best they could on the cruel edges of the world.
Not one of these people, even though their lives of faith were exemplary, got their hands on what was promised. God had a better plan for us: that their faith and our faith would come together to make one completed whole, their lives of faith not complete apart from ours.

Rich

Shattered Illusions

Don’t you find that life has a way of happening and you seem to have no options when it comes to avoiding crises? Why do they occur? Well, all of us live with so many illusions that when life does happen, more often than not these illusions need to be shattered!

Something that came to mind dealing with this shattering of illusions is found in the story about Joseph. He wasn’t too old before some cataclysmic events swallowed him up alive. If you haven’t read the story, it’s worth the read. Long story short, Joseph ends up being transplanted into a very far away, foreign country – Egypt. Wow! Talk about life happening or as the guy in the commercial puts it, “Life can come at you fast.”

Let’s back up just a bit first. After examining the so-called evidence, Joseph’s torn, blood-stained coat of many colors, we read that his father Jacob lived with a dark cloud over his head everyday and was consumed with a great sadness. But his spiral into depression was based upon a lie because his beloved Joseph was not dead as he supposed!

Back to Joseph: I’m sure there were some major illusion-shatterings transpiring in his life, yet two different times we are told that the favour of his God was a discernible, recognizable and tangible reality to Joseph and it was evident to the Egyptians who surrounded him night and day. First, how would godless heathens see or know of such a thing? Whatever this ‘favour of the Lord’ was, somehow I don’t think it was anything apart from an inner transformation that infected and affected his attitude.

I’m sure that every Egyptian fridge had a papyrus copy of “Joseph’s Guide to Success” taped to it as a reminder of how to succeed in life~ha! 
Here’s a question for you: when did God love Joseph more – at his birth, or as a teenager spewing out his prophetic dreams, after he was assaulted and left for dead in a pit, living as a slave in Egypt, or when he was overnight promoted to become the second most powerful man in the world (second only to Pharaoh)?
I’m using all of this to try and paint a picture for any who have not recognized the liberating power of Christ’s total unconditional love FOR us right where we are!

Because of life happening, I see so many siblings in Christ living with innumerable shattered illusions and pining for that which at one time made them feel good, where they use to really (according to them) shine, and even more sadly living with a morbid fixation on some prophetic word that they hope will somehow sustain them while living in their foreign country.

If there was ever anything bang-on, it was in what Joseph was permitted to experience in the dreams God gave him. But Joe’s identity was removed from what was happening in the centrality of his life. What I mean by this is he derived purpose and fulfillment by revolving in orbit around the Son.
To my way of thinking this story (one of my favourites) graphically portrays the needed shattering of illusions, or more to the point, a bringing down of every false god in a person’s life! The kicker is that Joseph was surrounded by a people who had a plethora of gods and the shocker to Joseph’s dismay was in finding he too was worshiping a strange god: the name it and claim it God, the healthy, wealthy and wise God, the God who would never allow bad things happen to good people. Prior to his imprisonment, Joseph had been using God for his personal fulfillment. There’s no doubt Joseph wanted God, but there was a need greater in his life than just having his needs met or in seeing his dreams come to fruition.

Corrie Tenboom, a sister in Christ whose life experiences were borne out of enduring years in a Nazi prison camp, was fond of saying, “Bloom where you’re planted”, but how is that possible when life shattering-events are not exactly conducive to blooming? Without an invasion (no, I’m not talking about the Nazi killing machine type of invasion, but an invasion of the Father’s total 100% unconditional love for us that lays the foundation of our true worth and value)... and as we become more deeply rooted in that infectious, invasive love, it frees us to prosper and be in health even as our soul prospers. This love has the power to free us to live fully in the moment to the extent that life-shattering events no longer shatter us.

Rich

Are You Ready

Last Friday morning giving into my regular coffee fixation; I ventured up town (just minutes away) to one of several Tim Horton’s for my daily extra large double, double, and a fresh pastry, yum. After waiting in line for a bit, Diane one of the regular employees asks, “Are you ready for another exciting day?” I quickly replied. You bet I am!
Funny thing was, there was this nudge in me that this was in fact my heavenly father asking that of me through Diane, yup, right then and there in Tim Horton’s, cool. I went back home as I don’t start work until 10:15, but I pondered on the juxtaposition of this invasive question posed to me.
Little did I know at the time that what sounded like an invitation into a most exciting day was in fact going to be just that, only sandwiched in numerous road blocks, set backs etc.

Isn’t it witty and maybe this is just me, but when we think there is only one way to define adventure, excitement, that when it turns out to be something far removed from a feel good time we can so easily slip into a funk?
The more I am discovering, experiencing, the wonder of his total unconditional love for me, I am witnessing a disarming, a defusing of potential volatile and explosive reactions that had such hair triggers to them.

This isn’t me remotely bragging on any perfection, but it is me whole heartedly bragging on the perfect one in me perfectly loving me, embracing me, accepting me for who I am. This unseen but all invasive infection of his love for me (us) is turning into something far more than being governed by outer rules and regulations or codes, the transformation is simply an overflow of the root source, that God is love in Rich.

The habitual sin habit patterns that were established within my soul are being displaced not by might or by power, but by an increasingly knowable, inviting and consuming love.
What most of humanity has witnessed regarding this entity called Christianity is in fact only a partial real deal, yes having been received of/by God the Father their dead spirit was instantly revitalized in it becoming joined, one with God. But, not allowing Him to invade the other portions of our being has sadly produced a mere religious sentiment; Christian’s aren’t perfect, only forgiven!
The perfection I am emphasizing has nothing to do with us directly, but everything to do with his love freeing us to live loved, openly live before humanity that they might see and hear not just another religious mantra, but experience the invisible God living and breathing in everyday folks standing in line waiting to be served with their Tim Horton’s coffee.

“Here's another way to put it: You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don't think I'm going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I'm putting you on a light stand. Now that I've put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.”

Rich

Sifting Out the Heart's of Men

I have always loved the song, The Battle Hymn of the Republic and for those wanting to know a bit of its history you can read of it here.
As I have often over the years reflected upon the lyrics, recently I have seen these in a whole new light, especially this stanza, “He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat; He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat: Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! Be jubilant, my feet! Our God is marching on.”

It is truly amazing how His grace and love powerfully and silently works deep within the mind shafts of ones heart, as in mine. Seeing and experiencing such awe and wonder of this One who is passionately and compassionately working to sift, and purge my inner being from any and everything that desires to try and destroy me.
As I continue to wade out into the untold and fathomless depths of His total unconditional love the unpronounceable is happening. The very spirit and nature of this God and Father is breathing clarity, sobriety and depth of meaning and purpose to words that formerly scared the hell out of me.

This in particular did just that, “For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energizing, and effective]; it is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the dividing line of the breath of life (soul) and [the immortal] spirit, and of joints and marrow [of the deepest parts of our nature], exposing and sifting and analyzing and judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart.”
This all ties in with the fore mention stanza from the song, “He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat; He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat: Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! Be jubilant, my feet! Our God is marching on.”

Fear being the spirit we were born with in the natural is taking a back set in the rebirthing, it is the residual and collateral carnage being slowly displaced, cast out, as we begin to see and experience the reality of His Son-shinning and branding affirmation of Whose we are. We/I, bear the marks of ownership, the spirit of son-ship and adoption are the blazing and burning awareness of increasing and liberating intensity.
Not always, but more often than ever before am I now wanting to embrace His scrutinizing, purging work of continued salvation, exposing, analyzing, and judging the very thoughts and purposes of my heart.
His motivation is never to destroy man, but in fact His longing is to destroy that which has purposed to seek our destruction.

Rich

Angst Over The Truth

I would love to be able to use this cartoon that Mark Parisi has drawn, but I’m not going to pay $$ for it.
It is in the lower right corner, the original scarier version of Star Wars, I laugh every time I see it!
See it here.


What a melt down discovering the truth of God extending to us his unconditional love, this sharply cuts through the veneer seeing through the believed ‘real world’ I thought I was living in, the one that I used as my unmovable point of reference that defined what life and living were all about.

I have heard many times over the years countless stories of children now grown up as adults discovering for the first time that those two closest people in their lives, mom and dad, where in fact their adopted parents. On the other hand, many adopting parents have made it, the truth of their being adopted known to that child or children as the parents deemed best in its timing.

What I want to share here is the scathing assault upon the blind leading the blind within the religious world so many have and continue to be extricated from.
None of us born into this world have escaped the sad reality of when born; we were by nature children of wrath, sons of disobedience as the scriptures so clearly point out. Within that Matrix and it being our only ‘true’ point of measuring anything and everything about life and relationships, little did we know that it was ALL about performing, measuring up, love if you want to call it such, but filled with little or many conditions!

There are many being brought to a beginning point to see the truth that the religious establishments refereed to as “churches” were not their true authority figures, a father or mother, but in fact a surrogate or adoptive replacement for knowing intimately the one who had Fathered them in the first place.
Why shouldn’t there be a violent crashing into the consciousness in these sons and daughters, an intense sense of rage, angst, out of the truth beginning to dawn on them of whose they really are, but all along having this hidden from them?

Performance (law) based living does what it does best, filling our inner being with something we were never designed for, angst, fear, anxiety, self-analysis, comparing and competing with the constant shifting and changing of the rules by the rule making gurus.

There is so much, so many thoughts I have on this matter, but suffice it to say, as I and so many others are learning by drinking deeply into our lives the reality of being loved so powerfully and unconditionally, that the angst and deep anger of having been duped is displaced by a sobering realization that I didn’t have to go to my grave seeing life and love being based upon what anyone person dictated for me.

Rich

A Change Of Scenery

I’m all for taking a break, a change of scenery, having a holiday, speaking of which I am enjoying right now, the first of mine this year. But is it my change of scenery as in changing my circumstances that is needed as good as that can be to be able to see things with greater clarity, moving out of the blurred zone to become more Zen like?

Or is it a change of heart, you know, as a man thinks in his heart so is he. I’m slowly discovering that when His unconditional love reaches me deep inside and how the fears that have so distorted my outlook are seen for what they are, mere lies, it is a mind blower to see, discover His present and committed involvement in my day to day living.

I was sharing with a friend that has come to spend a couple of days with me on my first week of holidays how Father has arranged appointed times and seasons for all things, a door opens, and a door closes.
God is the one who closes doors no one can open, as well as opens doors that no one can close, and I’m discovering that going through these opened doors, new seasons have all been prepared in advance by Him.

Once again coming back to the necessity of a changed heart verses a change in my circumstances is to be able to embrace this new season only because of the deep assurance of being loved by the Father.
His love opens the eyes of our heart to see such incredible opportunities where as before the heart change, it appeared to be a much more confining and restrictive prison.

I think I’m going to spend some time soaking up the Son, learning every chance I have what it means to live loved.

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

Rich

It’s a Revelation, Not a Seminar

Is it any wonder why, without too many exceptions, those of us who have been received of the Father right from the beginning of our journey ended up in some kind of religious institutional setting? Main line or low profile – it doesn’t matter.

Prior to being received by God our Father, fear was the only impetus that freely operated within us. Being, according to the Scriptures “translated” out of the kingdom of darkness into the marvelous kingdom of the Father, we received a new spirit that had nothing to do with fear. But, without the Father making known to us and real in us what He had done, we simply inclined unto our natural soulish understanding and moved according to the flesh.

In my opinion, the greatest crippling force operating in fellow siblings is condemnation, even though scriptures plainly state, “Therefore there is now NO more condemnation for those who are IN Christ Jesus.” This fear-filled leaven has produced untold numbers of spiritual quadriplegics. And all condemnation produces unhealthy reactions. Modern psychologists have traced stress, anger, panic attacks and anxiety back to guilt and condemnation.

Father’s intention is never going to change regarding the many sons that have been birthed out of His first born son Jesus Christ. It is His ability alone that can make known to us the truth of Whose we are, and who we are in Him!

Abruptly Jesus broke into prayer: "Thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth. You've concealed your ways from sophisticates and know-it-alls, but spelled them out clearly to ordinary people. Yes, Father, that's the way you like to work." Jesus resumed talking to the people, but now tenderly. "The Father has given me all these things to do and say. This is a unique Father-Son operation, coming out of Father and Son intimacies and knowledge. No one knows the Son the way the Father does, nor the Father the way the Son does. But I'm not keeping it to myself; I'm ready to go over it line by line with anyone willing to listen. "Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."
It is only out of discovering the spirit of sonship we have freely received of the Father that we can enter into His rest!

So many are consumed with the religion of Christianity, but so very few are remotely even aware of BEING His son, particularly in today’s world.

Rich

What’s in a Name

I thought rather than leave the following epistle on Jim’s blog, I would share my thoughts on what he was musing on over at, Lord, I Believe; Help My Unbelief. (I just feel real awful about God)

I love your real and honest plea for the Truth Bro, it is most refreshing.

Here's a real kicker to muse on, what you quoted here. “If you only see God as Father, you will balk when He has to render judgment. You'll only want to crawl into His lap, when maybe it's more appropriate at the moment to fall at His feet. (And even your idea of a "father" will be based somewhat on flawed human experiences.)
If you only see Jesus as your Friend (read: "Homeboy"), you are more likely to relate to Him with hi-fives and chest-bumping, and you won't show the proper respect that is due the Creator of the Universe.
If you only see God as a Judge, you will likely be legalistic, inordinately hard on yourself, and even harder on others--and you won't let yourself get emotionally close to God.
If you only see Jesus as the Bridegroom and a Lover--admittedly, that can get just plain weird." I see all of these tags, descriptions, metaphors and so much more in such simple words as Papa and Father!"

Not trying to be wise guy here at all, but without the Spirit making alive the person behind the name to and in me, what the heck does it even matter, what we call Him?

In my opinion so many have the T's crossed and the i's all dotted but without His Spirit bringing revelation to their little heart, of the One hidden within our tagged descriptions of Him, it’s just a name.

Barb,

I so loved what you said here, "but wasn't it God himself that asked to be called Jesus - a common name for a man in the form of a carpenter? Jesus said, if you have seen me, you have seen the Father. It just seems to me that he came to smash some of our preconceptions of a God who is only to be reverenced."

The Almighty had been worshiped, revered, held in great awe etc etc, for a very long time, and here in the fullness of time he sends His Son Jesus to do what, reveal the Father, and to make His name known to us! Once again, we can use whatever name we deem is the 'right one' but along with what Jesus came to do in making His name known was going to mean squat without revelation to our heart.
Jesus was making God the All Mighty more approachable than He had ever been since the Garden, and here He is incognito in Jesus and people are slowly warming up toward this One who says, If you've seem Me, you've seen the Father Himself! I find it strange that there seemed to be NO disrespect or cheapening of who the Father was and is being vividly portrayed through the Son of God!!

I encourage any to feel free to share any additional thoughts you might have.

Rich

Grace is Not a Thorn Remover

What the ingrained, seemingly indelible stain living under law has done to an individual is meant with malicious intent, to keep a person trapped in bondage and fear, even those who have been re-born, received of the Father.

“For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.”

I love this from Hebrews 2; “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.”

Romans 8:15 infers that bondage and fear are removed from born again believers. That is a reality made instantaneously available to each and every person who has been received and adopted into God’s family.
Unfortunately this is not good news as long as it is but great stuff we agree with, but have never ever experienced it in the nasty now and now grindings of every day living.
My understanding is growing with greater clarity, sobriety that grace is not a thorn remover, but is the most powerful force available to us in Christ to address the fear and bondage that once tormented us living under the law.

It says that Paul asked the Lord three times to remove the thorn in his flesh, and the Lord said, “No, my grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in your weakness.”
In my opinion what the Father did for Paul was open the eyes of his heart even further, to see and experience a power so great, and as it was unleashed within him, all bondage and fear was expelled.
Grace did not remove Paul’s thorn in the flesh because it was not a hindrance that would prevent him from preaching Christ in you. But bondage and fear would have been a colossal hindrance to the gospel if allowed to remain in Paul.

As the Father breathes into you, be prepared to know, and experience what true freedom is all about, He is making real in the hearts and minds of His beloved children an experiential participation in the freedom over the slavery and fear of death that has so crippled us in our walk.
I hear it, I sense it, the sound of thunder, the sound of His voice setting free from the inside out, those who have been damned up all their lives.

O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?

Rich

What Was I Thinking

In listening to this weeks God Journey pod cast, I couldn’t help but chuckle hearing Wayne and Brad talking about, “Troublesome Scriptures.” Either one or the other would comment, “I don’t see what is so troublesome about this or that scripture do you?”

That sets things up here for some additional thoughts I started over at ‘And Then Life Happened, (Osmosis).
This life of God that has invaded our spirit has perfectly joined us to God the Father making us one in/with Him. We did NOT study and then take an exam to be re-born, we simply choose to respond to His wooing all possible because of something we didn’t even know we had, a gift ‘of faith.’
We were saved by grace through faith lest we should boast.

There are so many things each and every one of us takes or accepts by faith except for, faith. Meaning, the ‘just shall live (walk) by faith.’ I’m addressing the child of God here folks.
How unfair is it of God to expect me to do something I have never learned or studied for, such as ‘walk in the spirit,’ or, be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect,’ or, ‘put on the new man,’ or, ‘let this mind be in you as it was in Christ Jesus’, and so many other things.

Did gravity cease to exist when we learned to ride a bike, was there never any bumps, scrapes, falls, we simply got on it and viola we were Zen Like?
Did any of us take a six week course on how to ride a bike, or go to an extended weekend retreat/conference of bike riding?
As silly as these questions are, they point to something far more bizarre in my opinion, that being us thinking by cramming enough information into our heads, we will then venture out to do what seems impossible.

Is this walk, journey we have entered, been called into, only possible because of what we know or how little we know, or is this meant to BE a supernatural natural walk, learning to walk out what has BEEN worked into us?
I often wonder if that’s what might have been ricocheting over and over in Peter’s mind that day he chose to step out of the boat, “what was I thinking” that I could walk on water?

Please listen up here, I’m only going to use a couple of names that I am familiar with to further illustrate my point here, you can just as easily insert the names of people you know and or listen to, ok?
Lord, you know I want to follow you all the way, as well as stay in step with your spirit, as well as putting on the new man etc., but I have not finished reading all of Wayne Jacobsen’s materials or listened to all of Darin Hufford’s pod casts yet. Not to mention as you already know, I’m barely into my one hundred week training course on, “Hearing the voice of God.”

Here is the real kicker, how does one implement, put into practice what one has NO knowledge of, such as ‘walking in the spirit, or hearing the voice of God,’ to name few?
Is His life in us as us, in fact the “quintessential” reality that makes any of this supernatural natural living remotely possible?
As always I am brought back to this; unless we have and are continuing to experience the constant abiding reality of the Father’s total unconditional loving acceptance of us, fear will keep us trying to learn what is already ours in us right now.

One of my favourite scenes in the early Star Wars movies was when Obi-Wan Kenobi says to young Luke Sky Walker, “Use the Force Luke, let go, trust me.”
I see this as a metaphor for our letting go of our fears and not trying to trust, but Trusting Him, the Father of our spirit in us as us bringing forth from our lives the very ability to do (what only appears to be insanity) what we were reborn to DO!

Rich

You can watch it here if you want, it's about eight minutes into the video, simply slide the bar along until you hit the eight minute mark.

Teachable Moments

It’s wonderful how thoughts are triggered, and the stimulation of those thoughts having the potential of launching us into further discovering and embracing life and what that encompasses, rather than merely surviving or existing.

What I’m pondering isn't something confined to any particular demographic – just to anyone who has 'flesh'! There are some who would say that those of us who are being awakened to His finished work are speaking against the 'holy place' (the institutional buildings) and the Law (scriptures). But in fact we are not railing against anything; rather, we are addressing the fact that there is a failure to 'recognize' the new thing that God has done and it is this: the geographic location (temple, building) has been replaced with Him being present within us as Life, ‘Do you not recognize that you are the temple of God?’, and the law/scriptures have been fulfilled in Christ-the Word.

There is no shame attached to any of us having limited objective understanding on any matter, especially in regards to those wanting to know the ‘ways’ of the Lord better. But it is a most critical matter when I (we) choose to limit our understanding because of fear of thinking ‘outside the box’ or outside of what is normally accepted as ‘truth’. Without being malleable, teachable, and receptive to further and broadened understanding and insight which is only possible (in my opinion) because of the Father’s love, we will take the posture of being combative, argumentative, and challenging.

Here is an example of what I am considering, and hopefully the setting will further illustrate what I am trying to flesh out.
Two of Paul’s traveling companions on his missionary journey were a couple named Priscilla and Aquila, a husband and wife team that made a living along with Paul in tent-making. For all intents and purposes these were two very ordinary unobtrusive people, but what was operating within them was not ordinary at all. This extraordinary insight and understanding they had regarding a ‘more perfect way of the Lord’ was in my understanding, a byproduct of them learning of the Father’s unconditional love, ergo, living loved. Nothing about this couple indicated they needed an opportunity such as this encounter with the ‘mighty’ Apostle Apollos, to inflate their languishing egos or to be recognized as VIPs in disguise!

These words from Proverbs epitomize the spirit and teachable attitude I sense within this man named Apollos:

If you correct those who care about life, that's different—they'll love you for it!Save your breath for the wise—they'll be wiser for it; tell good people what you know—they'll profit from it. Skilled living gets its start in the Fear-of-God, insight into life from knowing a Holy God. It's through me, Lady Wisdom, that your life deepens, and the years of your life ripen. Live wisely and wisdom will permeate your life; mock life and life will mock you.

The fruit of Apollos’ choosing - to move beyond his limited understanding and not choosing to ‘limit’ his thinking because of fear - had the result that the message of who the Christ is was able to penetrate even deeper into the hearts and minds of many.

With the ever-increasing experiential knowing of the Father’s love, I am beginning to see how totally ludicrous it is for me (due to fear) to pick and choose to listen to only those brethren of my liking who can further expound and deepen my awareness of this awesome God and Father.

It is my opinion that the glue that appears to stick so many of us together is more a fear-based thinking versus faith working through love. First and foremost within my own life, along with any member of the body of Christ, I am longing and eagerly anticipating a time whereby we believers can mutually be open and receptive to the Father’s loving correction, freeing us to come into the ‘fullness’ of all that God the Father has for the church which is His body.

Rich

Vitriolic Grace

Being derailed by life’s happenings is an actuality we all face sooner or later, and the effects are probably very similar to experiencing the shock, trauma of an earthquake or other natural disastrous occurrences.
I am beginning to see that perhaps something far more caustic and penetrating is this whole business of grace. Amazing, yes, but?

The grace of God the Father is breath-taking from and angle or perspective, but its ongoing applications especially perceived coming from a loving Father would not produce anything disagreeable (antagonistic) to the senses, to the mind, or feelings, that have already been assaulted, now would it? Let’s face it, being disillusioned by those unexpected life derailments were already too much.

I remember only too well how I had to use some heavy duty furniture strippers (very caustic) in order to liberate different pieces of furniture I worked on.
One of those being an actual old ‘ice box’, aka a fridge, the kind used at the turn of the century, it is all made out of wood, lined with metal and insulated in-between with cork, at least mine was.
I remember the day I stumbled across this treasure, although not distinguishable at the time, I asked my friend I was helping in clearing the junk out of a house he recently acquired, what is that thing over there, he said, it’s an old ice box I think, and sure enough it was.
I ended up taking it home not really seeing anything of value in its mostly ugly exterior, but was soon to discover a hidden beauty. That’s where the copious amounts of caustic love and my faithful paint strippers brought forth its deliverance!
What was discovered under several layers of dirty paint and lacquers was the most beautiful red oak imaginable, who would have ever thought?

This transformation was done from the outside in, but in the case of us humans, it’s being accomplished from the inside out.
The external circumstances and situations of our lives are being used of the Father to facilitate the necessary on going application of His grace, to those areas in our lives were we are as it were covered in gunk, usually deep seated fears that we are totally unaware of.
Oh we may be cognizant of the symptoms, but the root itself remains hidden to us.

It is in my opinion because of these entrenched bastions of fear, that when our Father begins the work of restoration within us there is only one view and it is through the filter of fear.
I wonder if it is a lot like a blood sucker (leach) that has attached itself to some warm blooded creature sucking the life out of it?
His grace has a bite to it, it is very caustic, it has to be that way in order to free us from the power of that which is sucking the life out of us.

Rich