I mentioned to a friend I bumped into the other day as I was out for my morning walk around the river, its truly amazing as we continue to be awakened to the incredible reality that God emphatically does love us and really likes and enjoys our company.
The infusion of His love awakens our senses to things of such intense wonder and beauty that were there all of the time but sadly missed. I am finding that I no longer need for God to do something supernatural to make others aware that He does exist. I continue to revel in the sobering and yet intoxicating infusion of his unconditional love, which frees me to be as he was in this world, one more time all over again God touching caring for this world of people living and breathing and loving through me.
I have posted here before on both of my blogs wonderful and encouraging insights my friend Art has shared with me, this is but a continuation on a theme he is still working on. I trust you will enjoy!
Rich
The Necessity of Suffering
“Glory” is a word that seems so amorphous and indescribable. In practical terms and for our purpose it actually means the inherent expression of a life. We can see the matter of glory as the inherent expression of a life by the metaphor of the seeded flower’s life in its full expression as a blossom. The flower’s life, derived from the life in its seed, is ultimately fully expressed in the flower’s full blossoming. Each flower contains seed needed for life to beget life, which is reproduced after “its own kind.” The blossom of the flower is the glory or expression of the life that is in the original flower seed. God the Father in Christ, as the original seed, is the original eternal spirit-life who begets eternal spirit-life in the believer – all believers share His one life.
For the flower’s seed to germinate, it must first suffer death to its outer shell. The life is then released out of that death, to grow to maturity. This is similar to the allegorical description of the life-process Jesus spoke of concerning the release and multiplication of His life. “Verily, verily, I (Jesus) say unto you, Except a corn (seed) of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit” (John 12:24 ). Here Jesus is saying, by His death His life would become germinated, multiplying itself. The Father’s life-plan would bring “many sons to glory” (Heb 2:10) out of Jesus suffering and death. All the believers are the multiplication and enlargement of God’s family that comes by sharing the one life of the “seed, which is Christ” (Galatians 3:16, 1Peter 1:23). We now possess the Christ-seed within our spirit and we thereby have the potential of being the “glorious expression” of the Lord’s life. We contain His life in our spirit, so that His expression may flow through our souls as He wills. Only His life released brings forth the genuine fruit of God.
I have described “glory” in terms of the flower in order to explain the necessity of suffering in the believer’s life. The flower’s seed has a “shell” that must be broken to release the life within. Our shell, which is our independent soul-self, must be broken, in order to release the life of Christ from within our spirit. Thus we see that there is a great connection between suffering and glory (expression).
Suffering deals with our being deceived. With no suffering, there can be no knowledge by realization of who we are NOT. We are Not the gods of our own life. We are wayward souls, separated from God often living waywardly independent from God even after our salvation. Suffering exposes this truth to us. We are NOT adequate within ourselves to live the Christian life overcomingly, as evidenced by our lack of rest and peace.
We may think we can do what we need to do, but we are not really in control of anything. We learn this only by suffering the failure of self-rule and self-effort. To me, the greatest suffering is not necessarily physical, but rather the loss of control. God desires that we give up control to trust Him and His leading, moment by moment. Suffering situations and circumstances that are beyond our control brings us to the realization of that need and His desire.
Satan has inspired the illusion of control in all of us since the day he tempted Eve, saying if you eat of the forbidden tree of knowledge “you shall be as gods” (Gen 3:5). This illusion must be broken before we will turn our hearts to trust Christ in us as our life. Without suffering failure, we cannot come to the knowledge of who we really are – we are the dependent children of God, the Almighty Father who loves us and cares for us. He is fully sufficient to father us, and guide and protect us in love.
The Lord suffered for us, but we also will endure suffering. The cup of suffering (Mark 10:39) is crucial to our being able to realize the truth of our state, as it was for Paul when the Lord denied his three pleadings to remove the thorn Paul suffered in his flesh. The Lord told Paul “my grace is sufficient.” Christ Himself is the very grace of God and His life in us is sufficient for all that we will endure.
The cup we drink from in life is always at the hands of our loving Father. Jesus willingly took the cup of suffering at the hands of His Father, so that His glorious life might be multiplied to us and expressed in us. “…Jesus unto Peter… the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?” John 18:11
Taking the cup revealed Jesus’ true state of utter yieldedness and dependence upon the Father. Paul admonished the Philippians Christians to have the same attitude or mindset of Jesus, who suffered obedience unto death of the cross (Philip 2:5-8). The Father now administers the cup of suffering to us, that we might let go of self-dependence in order to trust Christ in us as our life and innermost guide. Only then may we go from a “Christ in you THE HOPE of glory” to His actually being glorified or expressed in and through our lives?
My wife often says to me after I’ve made her a sandwich, “A sandwich always tastes better when you make it for me.” Well, I don’t know about that, but she seems to know a great taste when she bites into it. There are way two many different kinds of sandwiches to even try to mention here but there is one that caught my attention as I was finishing up reading Brennan Manning’s book, Ruthless Trust.
One of the greatest things that flow out of the Father’s unconditional love is a broadening, expanding clarity in the bigger picture of His direct involvement in our/my daily living.
To deviate for a minute here I want to quote something that Manning said here, “Preferring agony or ecstasy to the ordinary and mundane, I try and pump up each moment with gaudy significance. Aware of my demented tendency to craft every situation into a polished diamond, friends remind me that every day is not a ten.”
Brennan (using my wording here) sites what is in my opinion a capturing of what it means to live in the nowhere, ‘now here.’ In the gospel account of Luke 21:1-2 Jesus heard a beautiful melody the only place it truly exists: Nowhere. It says that this melody caught his attention, “he noticed” a poor widow putting in two small coins into the offering, the music created by the widow’s sacrifice entered deeply into Jesus. The juxtaposition of this encounter is sandwiched between what happened yesterday, the confrontation with the chief priests and the scribes over (a money issue) tribute to Caesar and tomorrow’s betrayal by Judas (another money issue) and the feast of Passover.
“The two words “he noticed” offer profound insight into the person of Jesus, highlighting his full attention to the present moment, his watchfulness, consciousness, sensitivity, perception, and unbridled appreciation for an unobtrusive old woman who tossed in her two coins and scurried away, figuring that if you’ve seen one bag lady, you’ve seen ‘em all.”
It is THROUGH immersion in the ordinary-the apparent empty, trivial, and meaningless experiences of a routine day-that life/Life is encountered and lived. Real living is not about words, (oh I have so many of them) concepts, and abstractions, but about experience of who or what is immediately before us. The self-forgetfulness that such experience requires is the essence of contemplative simplicity.
God sees the little sparrow fall, It meets His tender view; If God so loves the little birds, I know He loves me, too.
Refrain
He loves me, too, He loves me, too, I know He loves me, too; Because He loves the little things, I know He loves me, too.
He paints the lily of the field, Perfumes each lily bell; If He so loves the little flow’rs, I know He loves me well.
Refrain
God made the little birds and flow’rs, And all things large and small; He’ll not forget his little ones, I know He loves them all.
Imagine simply being me, you, no longer attempting to sell anyone on our Jesus? What if there were no more use of words (and mere words are nothing apart from having an impetus to them) such as my ministry, or ministering, or God using me, or I had an opportunity to ‘share Christ’, with someone, and probably so many more? Would it be like sowing up the pockets of a Frenchman, or an Italian man with their hands in their pockets, causing them to hyperventilate in no longer being able to talk?
The extent of the invasive saturation of the religion of the Matrix is mind boggling, and the inner transformation of His grace freeing us from these cheap artistic (according to us) expressions of trying at best to imitate His life is beyond liberating. OH, can’t you just feel how much lighter that even sounds?
This is not intended as an indictment or a mocking of anyone who still finds themselves sounding or acting this way, freedom is a continuous journey of restoration, discovering from the moment we had been adopted in the family of God, we had everything we ever needed to navigate through the happenings of our daily living. Sadly though, through the infinitesimal slow but steady erosion of our being seduced into a religious mindset that subtly drew us from our only source of life and freedom, has brought us to a place of having but a form of godliness, with no power or liberation.
It truly is sheer delight hearing throughout the body of Christ those questioning just about everything they once simply dumbed down without in many cases even giving it a second thought. Viva the revolution!
I watched one more time one of my favourite movies tonight, Pleasantville, there are so many nuances, aromas and pictures that ricocheted in my heart, the manifold multi-coloured expressions of His amazing grace that continues to upset my grey, black and white world of thinking! I would have it no other way.
Yesterday afternoon while we were away after getting my third (I think it was) MRI (CT Scan) my wife and I had some time to share a lot of stuff that was building up inside in both of our lives. It would be more than enough if I was not married and just walked out this relationship I have with Christ, but God has seen fit to bless my life with an incomparable treasure in the person of my wife. What a delight to know that marriage is for healing and not for hurting, saying that to say I love the friendship we have developed and how it continues to deepen as the years go by. Friday afternoon was a day at least for me one that was terribly blurred, out of focus and by being free enough with one another we were each able to just blow off some much needed steam.
When awakening this morning I was very cognizant of the Lord impressing a knowing that I was to encourage my wife, but not fully realizing the extent of it until later after having breakfast with my boss how much distress she was being engulfed in. I’m convinced that what I was able to share with my wife in encouraging her was the spill over from sharing with my boss at breakfast. Biblically my name is rooted in this verse 2Timothy 1:7, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”
The power of His love for me is in a continuous deepened knowing of ‘whose’ I am, the fruit this bears in my life is a growing stability and soundness of mind that is able to motivate me to move forward in the thick of a world that increasingly is becoming so totally unstable. It was only because of His love producing the soundness of mind in me, that I was able to see my wife move from being overwhelmed with fear and stepping out with a newly discovered confidence as I spoke words of spirit and life to here. As the day progressed I was seeing before my eyes what the power off His love is so capable of doing!
As I continue to grow in the grace and knowledge of His great love for me, I see what Oz Chambers pointed out here today to be much more the norm for what it means to be His. http://www.heartlight.org/cgi-shl/my_utmost/utm.cgi?0515 Rich
If knowing answers to life's questions is absolutely necessary to you, then forget the journey. You will never make it, for this is a journey of unknowables - of unanswered questions, enigmas, incomprehensibles, and most of all, things unfair.
We who preach the gospel must not think of ourselves as public relations agents sent to establish good will between Christ and the world. We must not imagine ourselves commissioned to make Christ acceptable to big business, the press, the world of sports or modern education. We are not diplomats but prophets, and our message is not a compromise but an ultimatum.
"So maybe when we "congratulate" one another for our brilliant abilities in sharing Life we should refrain and instead say, "I love seeing Jesus being so real thru you!"
Christianity is not about learning to live within the lines; Christianity is about the joy of coloring.
We must see all the brothers and sisters as equals if we are to grasp the reality of Jesus' statement "My Father and Your Father". There are NO junior and senior kindergarten children in the Father's household.
Knowing Christ is a living, spontaneous knowledge. This is not an understanding that you possess so much as it is a knowing that possesses you.
And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness!
I trust those visiting here will wade out into the waters of the Father's amazing grace, and likewise experience the unfolding reality of His total unconditional acceptance. Upon this unmoveable and secure footing we move on into His higher purposes for our lives.
Sometimes we have to live with some uncertainty and chaos before a new order can take shape.
.JPG)
I mentioned to a friend I bumped into the other day as I was out for my morning walk around the river, its truly amazing as we continue to be awakened to the incredible reality that God emphatically does love us and really likes and enjoys our company.
