Falling in Love with Grace All Over Again

I feel that lately, I am falling in love with Grace all over again, as it hits me in a new way, that beautiful old message that sounds so fresh and new...that I am accepted, that my life is accepted, that everyone is accepted, that ALL is accepted, unconditionally, eternally, radically accepted!

All is accepted, so I can accept myself and my life as they are right now, in this moment, without any requirement or pressure for change..

I feel like Papa is opening my eyes all over again to see that right now, everything is okay, I am okay, life is okay...everything really is perfect somehow...what a wonderful feeling it gives, don't you think?

And it allows me to actually enjoy this moment without feeling pressured to change.  To just BE!

I feel like I am also realizing my oneness with God in a deeper and more profound way, that we are truly ONE, that I am like a little bit of God in this human body, just feeling so whole and free and expansive knowing that the deepest truest self down deep in me, my real Self, is really one with and somehow part of God my Father - one!

It makes me feel so complete and whole and strong, so good about myself!  If I am really one with Him like that, then at the most fundamental level, I don't really have any problems, do I!?  I don't have any faith problems, love problems, issues to work on, or deficiencies..I don't have any insurmountable difficulties, overwhelming troubles or empty places..for I am one with infinite perfect Love, I am so whole!

And it makes me feel so good about other people..that they are all perfect expressions of God as well!  They don't need changing, fixing, or improving, they simply need to hear, as we all do, the wonderful message of grace - that all is accepted, loved, held, and carried by the One Lover who is the heart of all!  All is whole, complete, perfect and deep-down okay and all right in the One who makes everything all right!

Isn't grace wonderful?  I feel it takes my breath away again and again, like a fresh breeze on a steamy summer day..or a child's bright laughter..or the way the sunlight dances on the glowing leaves of autumn..Thank You Papa for being Grace through and through, a grace that holds us through it all, accepts us through it all, carries us through it all, so that we can know that at the deepest level, everything is alright, and nothing can change that!

Wonderful, magical Grace!

Jesus Dispelled the Lies!

Jesus came to show us the truth, to do away with lies that had confused us for too long, lies of unworthiness, shame and alienation, lies of unlovableness and inherent badness.  He came to dispel the lies we'd believed, to show us those thoughts and feelings of separation were only in our mind!  "You were alienated from God in your MINDS."  The reconciliation Jesus worked was bringing our mind back to seeing reality, wasn't it, because HE never left, and we only thought we did!  It was a reconciliation of the mind, really, for we've always been together in reality. 

Confused thoughts and lies trapped us in a way of life thinking we were far from God, when really He was in us all along, waiting to be known and enjoyed!  Paul spoke of the day he saw the truth of God's presence in him, saying:  "It pleased God to reveal Christ IN me."  IN!  The wonderful truth is that we have always been IN God and He IN us, wow!  The separation was only in our mind all this time, never something real! 

Even when we acted out our deep fears stemming from the mind's belief in being a separated, shameful, unlovable, 'bad' person, even when we acted on those fears and doubts and killed God's own Son, He showed us the truth, didn't He, by forgiving us, saying we didn't know what we were doing! 

That is perfect LOVE, unconditional Love, Love that embraces the worst thing we could do!  At our worst moment, He loved us..He proved His love by the cross..He showed us we were always lovable, always beloved, always cherished by the Father!  We had thought we were unloved, unlovable..and the cross did away with this lie!  The cross proved how loved we were and are, as if He were saying, "You can do your worst and I'll still love you..You can even kill me and I'll still LOVE YOU!"

And He came out of the grave, basically erasing our crime - ! - without a mention of our wrongdoing, as if to say, "I always knew you were innocent, I always knew you were good!" 

He always knew we were God's children, HE was always our core nature, we always had our Father God's DNA of goodness and love, we just didn't know it..we forgot..our minds were deceived and we fell into transgression..in our minds!  But not in reality, for we could never change our DNA, never stop being in God's perfect image and likeness of LOVE!  It was always there inside us all along, the Great Heart of Love was always beating deep within us, loving us, being Pure Love, in us, as our very DNA!  We were encoded with God/Love all along!  Jesus came along and confirmed that even if we acted totally contrary to that nature, that DNA, it was still true deep down! 

He declared us innocent by the resurrection, wow!  And He confirmed our purity by unleashing the Holy Spirit, rivers of living water that had been pent up in us for so long rushed forth 'from within our innermost being!'  Where He had been all along!

I love how Jesus nailed to the cross every belief we ever had in every lie that ever existed..through His death and resurrection He did away with every lie that ever held us back from enjoying what is rightfully ours by birthright - the right of the children to enjoy their Papa's lap, to hear His voice of tenderness, to feel His warm embrace and KNOW Him in joyful relationship..safe at Home in HIM, where we've always belonged!

Safely IN!

IN!  It just doesn't get any closer than IN!  No matter what we are going through, no matter what long and winding side pathways we wander into here on our earth journey, we are safely IN God at all times, no matter what, and our relationship with Him, being so close that we are IN each other - ! - is always perfect, complete, whole, intact, full, perfect and strong!  Never wavering or changing!

We can't get Him out of us, and we can't get ourselves out of Him..we are IN, IN, IN!  There is just no separation with IN..there is no distance, no waiting for some future closer relationship..it is NOW, for we are closer than close, more intimate than 'beside' or 'with' - we are IN!

We never were out of the One who contains the whole universe, were we?  The distance we 'felt' was really only that, a feeling.  The separation we dreamed was between us was really only that, a dream.  The thought of being away from Him was really only that, a thought.  The sense of lostness was really only that, a sense we had and not real at all.  Did we really think our Papa would lose us, or that He would ever leave it up to us to 'find' our way back?  Did we really think He would ever for a moment not have the whole matter of our existence safely in His hand?  Did we ever really think He did not have things safely in His love plan all along, have US safely in His heart all along?  We have always been so safe in Him and His love!  He can't let us go!  He can't let YOU go, can't let ME go..

He cannot get us out of His mind, out of His thoughts, out of His heart!  He cannot imagine a world without us in it!  He wouldn't want to even exist without us!  His heart would break at the thought, for He cannot bear to BE without us even for a moment.  We have always been the objects of His care and keeping and love, and always will be!

We are so safely enveloped in His being, so tenderly held in His heart, so gently embraced in His arms!  The giant, enormous, wonderful God of Love who explodes beyond the bounds of this universe has got all of us so safely enfolded in His loving Being!  We are held against the chest of the Lover who fills the whole of creation, wrapped in eternal Infinite Love that stretches beyond all our past, present and future.  We are uplifted and carried along by a Love big enough to handle all our issues, confusions and doubts, big enough to contain all our fears and troubles and questions, big enough to carry all our pains, sorrows and remorses.  We are surrounded by a Loving Acceptance large enough to accept us with all our failures, inconsistencies and deceits.  A Love big enough to contain ALL!  ALL!

Nothing we do, say, think or feel could ever take us out of Him, make this Love evaporate, cause a breach between us.  This Love is our atmosphere, the space we exist in, the air we breath and the realm our whole life is played out in!  "In Him we live, and move, and have our being."  This Love is the DNA of the universe, the code upon which all existence is based.  We can no more escape this Love than we can escape our own DNA!  It is so true that "God is all, and is in all!"

So how could we ever be out of Him?
And how could we ever get Him out of us?

IN!  IN HIM!  What a wonderful  place to find ourselves, what a wonderful place to live in, what a wonderful home for us, what a wonderful Being to BE IN!

Grace = Rest!

Grace means that we can breathe a sigh of relief, get off the endless merry-go-round of seeking, works and struggle...and rest!

We don't have to do anything..don't have to get anything..don't have to become anything...
We already ARE!

We already are who we have always wanted to be, where we always wanted to be, one with the One who is everything..everything!

We can rest..rest!  Nothing is required of us, nothing is asked of us, nothing is expected of us.  We are perfect just as we are, and our life is perfect just as it is..with any inconsistencies, confusions, lapses, or contradictions..

Just as we are right now, just as it is right now, in this very moment, without changes a thing or ever needing to do so, we are PERFECT!  Perfect to Him, perfect for Him, perfectly with Him!

We don't have to wait for tomorrow to have that special relationship with God we've been longing for and looking for..we don't have to wait for some super spiritual state to come before we can have that deep bonded closeness with Him..we don't have to wait till we've solved all our issues and made our life work perfectly before we can REALLY have the good life with God..the good life with God is NOW!  And we are already all we seek to be, already at the place we long to be - IN HIM!