Walking With Jesus From Incarnation to Ascension - Day 10 - Free to Be Me Through the Law of Liberty!

Wow, I love the law of liberty! Trying to live under the old law literally killed me in so many ways! I burned myself out trying to keep all the rules and never felt good enough, never felt I’d ever arrived at the destination of being acceptable to God. Instead I spent my time examining myself (and others!) for flaws and living such a defeated life. Finally I gave up. I decided the Christian life was ‘too hard’ and I checked out mentally. I didn’t try anymore. I felt at my lowest. I felt I’d failed to be the Christian I was ‘supposed’ to be. And it was at that point that God began speaking to me about grace! I found out that all I was wanting to be, He had already made me – perfect, acceptable, complete, holy, righteous! I found out that I was under grace (unconditional free acceptance and love from God), not law (you must do things in order to earn acceptance). Now with learning about my original identity in Christ, I feel like God is expanding my mind even more to see just how free I am to be myself. It was like I never realized ‘myself’ was so good already! So complete and whole and loving and trusting! And that I have been that way since before time began, wow! So now I am under the law of liberty, oh what joy! This law simply says, “See yourself in the face of Christ, and be yourself!”

I love the law of liberty, and what a difference it has made to be under it! There is no more obligation or pressure to perform with this law. There is no requirement to be kept or else punishment will come. There is no pointing out of flaws. There is no ‘must’ or ‘should.’ There is no ‘work’ to be done to get the blessing. There is no high standard that I must struggle in my own power to reach. There is nothing I HAVE to do!! The most beautiful activity imaginable is the main focus: just looking into the face of the Beloved, Jesus, and seeing my own face there, that I too am the Beloved! Seeing that love and affection He has for me and realizing I am perfectly celebrated and adored and pleasing, just as He is!

It is like He takes me back to that time before creation, and there is just me and Him, and He is looking at me with such wonder and delight, all smiles and joy, and there is such brightness and innocence and beauty in that place, a place where sin has never been thought of, a place where no bad thing has ever happened or ever will, a place of perfection and pure love and happiness and security! And there I am in the midst of the Trinity’s love party, being looked upon and adored for all eternity! I am innocent! I am beautiful! I am special! I am flawless! I am embraced! I am accepted! I am loved! And I feel this hush of awe and wonder fall over me, and all I want to do is look at Him and just bask in His smile, in His love – all I’ve ever wanted is to be accepted by Him, and He accepts me completely, is completely satisfied and overjoyed with me! I am so overwhelmed with happiness because all my dreams come true in Him, in that gaze of love and adoration that He has for me!

Wow, I see myself mirrored in Him, that is what is happening! I am just like Jesus! I am just as loved, just as worthy, just as perfect, just as accepted, just as amazing, just as beautiful, just as good and kind and wonderful as Jesus is! All I want to do is just love Him and love other people, for I see we are all just like Him, made in the image of God our Father and therefore perfect, good, lovely, and true! He is true and we are in Him who is true, in His Son, Jesus Christ! The law of liberty has that effect on me! It takes away obligation, pressure, strivings, feelings of needing to do more and improve and get better, takes away feelings that I must do something before God will act or bless, feelings that it is all up to me, takes away feelings of failure and shame, feelings of inadequacy and not being good enough, takes away fear of punishment, fear of not measuring up, fear of being a disappointment, fear of losing Him or losing my place with Him…it takes away all that with one look into His eyes!

For I look in His eyes and see all is well between us, that He never had a problem with me, the problem was my perception being off..I never needed to do more or be more, for I was made complete and perfect and so pleasing to Him already, just like Jesus..there is nowhere to try to ‘get to’, some amazing holy state to try to reach and then be able to ‘get’ blessed or loved or accepted, for I am already there in the place of perfect love and blessing and have been since before the world began! I was never shameful, hopeless, rotten or unworthy or unloved, no! I was always just as Jesus is, in God’s image of love, and so good and pure at the core, so valuable and beloved!

This wonderful law of liberty brings me to complete REST in His arms! I find I can simply be myself, for ‘myself’ is pretty wonderful, just like Him! And it is so easy to be yourself, isn’t it? There is no strain in that.

And the wonder of it is that as I am simply being myself, HE is expressing His very life and love through me to this world! And the more that happens, the more He shines forth in love to others, till one day the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, shining out from within us! For we are His glory, wow!

When I shared this post in the class I was taking, another student wrote this comment:  "While reading your post, I see you at about 6 years old in a precious swirly dress, dancing around outside in your yard on a beautiful spring day, without a care in the world!!! You are so free and so happy to be alive and so overflowing with love that every person that passes by, you take by the hand and begin dancing with them, until, soon you have a yard full of people of all ages and races dancing for joy with each other."

How wonderful just exploring the riches of His Presence, His kingdom, His love, His perfection, His freedom -  ALREADY within us!  Not trying to ‘get somewhere’ or ‘get more knowledge’ but a journey of discovery where we explore the depths of what is already within us, isn’t that so? Wow! I feel it is like exploring Aslan’s Country in the Narnia books, isn’t it, the further inward we go the bigger the “heavenly country’ inside us, as big as all eternity, for we are exploring God Himself in all His love, joy, peace, and freedom – inside us, wow!   And this exploration, this inward journey of discovery, is joyful and exuberant and full of inner ease..not stress..it is pure REST!  It is recreation!  It makes our holy vocation - knowing Him - a holy vacation!  Completely invigorating and yet also restful and relaxing!  And the experience of His presence is so wonderful, free and delightful that He just draws the whole world into the dance, the joy, the exuberance, the rest, the glory of His presence and love and life!

What a wonderful law to be under, the law of liberty!  It is the law that takes off the pressure, that has no expectations, that brings no penalties, that causes no shame..instead it frees, validates, encourages, uplifts, invigorates, and brings rest to our souls and joy to our hearts!  His presence, His love, His favor is LIFE, buoying us up and carrying us along without our effort, without our help!  Hallelujah!

Free to BE!

It is so wonderful to find out He is all grace, isn't it, all acceptance and love! There is really no obligation on us, we are loved and accepted for free, taken into His heart and held forever totally by His initiative, without our having to do a thing, just for free, a gift, wow! 

Thank you Papa that we are free from all 'shoulds', free from all pressures, obligations and penalties, free to just BE Your beloved children!  Free to dance, free to sing, free to smile, free to play in the rain, free to love others and love ourselves, free to talk to You anytime, free to relax and rest, free to sleep peacefully, free to dream, free to enjoy each day, free to really open up and be honest, free to be ourselves, free to really live, to live with carefree abandon, knowing that You will always love us, always accept us, always hold us, always take care of us!

We are free to BE!  Free to be who we really are, because who we really are is wonderful! 

Walking with Jesus from Incarnation to Ascension - Day 9 - What the Law Could and Couldn't Do...and What Jesus Did!

God went for the jugular when he sent his own Son. He didn’t deal with the problem as something remote and unimportant. In his Son, Jesus, he personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all. The law code, weakened as it always was by fractured human nature (our distorted mindset confused by lies!), could never have done that.
The law always ended up being used as a Band-Aid on sin instead of a deep healing of it. And now what the law code asked for but we couldn’t deliver is accomplished as we, instead of redoubling our own efforts, simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us.                       (Rom. 8:3-4)

“Why did You send the law, Lord? It seemed to always make me feel so condemned and terrible. It seemed to always just increase sin-consciousness and also condemnation. It seemed to make me feel so bad about myself, that I was just a rotten sinner, making me feel so far from You! Yet the law is good and holy. Help me understand Your purpose with the law!” I feel my heart was saying this to God lately, and I feel that in many ways He answered me, especially through studying Romans 7.

(I put the Romans 7 passage at the end of the post, for easy reference... )

From my study of Romans 7, I learned several things:
- The law is holy and good.
- The law didn’t make me sin, the law didn’t bring me death – sin did that – the lie of separation!
- The law pointed out what sin was and pointed to sin as the source of my problems.

How did it do this? By showing me that deep down I wanted to keep the law and agreed with it, and by showing me that I couldn’t keep the law in my own strength no matter how hard I tried. Thus, if I wanted to keep the law but couldn’t, something else must be present affecting me, another law. It was the presence of sin, the fallen mindset of unbelief, the lie of inferiority and separation, that produced death in me! So when I sinned, it wasn’t me but sin in me doing it, the sin wasn’t coming from my core true self but from the lies and corrupt thinking that said I was evil, separate from God, not like God, not good enough, needing to become better!

- So the law actually showed me I was good inside and wanted to do right.
- And the law showed me I couldn’t do right on my own, thus pointing to the problem being, not me, but sin in me, a fallen mindset, a lie that had taken hold in my consciousness and was destroying me!
- The law showed me that I wasn’t the problem, sin (the fallen mindset, slanderous lies about my identity) was!
- The law showed me the problem was sin, this delusional thinking!
- And the law caused me to see I needed a deliverer and thus look for one, thus pointing me toward Christ!

The law couldn’t free me from sin but it could show me that the source of my problems was sin (the bondage of a lie) in my flesh, like a foreign tyrant brainwashing me into thinking I was a sinful-natured and separated-from-God being who needed to ‘try harder’ to become holy and close to God. And all my trying only produced failure and condemnation and death. Sin used the law to actually kill me, but there was hope! The law was a pointer to Christ!!

What the law couldn’t do, Christ did! He freed me from the tyrant, the lies that had taken hold like a poison in my mind, making me live out of a delusion that I thought was real. He condemned, not me but sin in me!! And He put away sin through the sacrifice of His own life for me, for when He died, I died with Him, and all connection to sin/lies and all delusion/sin’s control over my life from sin was removed!!
He came and redeemed me – I found out one meaning of ‘redeem’ means to come and claim what is one’s own, to come and get something because of a prior claim upon it! Jesus had a prior claim on me going back before creation itself, where I was known by God in a place of innocence and union! He showed the image of God and revealed that I was of the same image, showing Himself to be my kinsman-redeemer and able to free me from servitude to a foreign master, the lie of inferiority and separation. He proved my innocence and belonging in His Father’s family, and He is not ashamed to call me sister!

His law of life superseded the law of sin and death that had a hold on me, and through death He even took me out from under the law of commandments, so that I am now under the jurisdiction of Christ alone! Sin and death are not ruling over me any more; Christ’s life is the rule over me now, and this rule is the law of liberty! Before, no matter how well I did, it wasn’t good enough, and I was condemned to die. But now, no matter how bad I do, I am complete in Him, and I am sentenced to eternal life with Him! Tied to Him forever, there is nowhere to go but up! Hallelujah!

I feel like I am definitely wanting to understand more and am still learning..but right now I am seeing it like this:   I feel the law was God coming in and speaking our language, the language of performance that we’d adopted, and showing us through that very language, (which wasn’t His main way at all – His way is always grace and unconditional love and relationship) that deep down we wanted to do the right thing, but we couldn’t because there was an enemy in the midst – the lie we were believing about being ‘less than God-like” was actually killing us! We were trapped by this lie and couldn’t get out, that’s what the law showed – it showed we needed a Savior.  The law couldn't save us, it only pointed us to the One who could! And so then the beautiful Savior came and rescued us from lies, revealing so perfectly the truth of our identity as ‘good and innocent beings in God’s image, equal to Him, made of Him, compatible with Him, created of divine substance as a unity with Him’ – thus freeing us from the lie that had held us down! Now we are free to fly along enjoying the wonderful union relationship with God that is our right as His children!

[Here is the Romans passage I studied, with the triumphant verses in Romans 8 as well: 
What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” ⁸ But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. ⁹ I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. ¹⁰ The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. ¹¹ For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. ¹² So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
¹³ Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. ¹⁴ For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. ¹⁵ For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. ¹⁶ Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. ¹⁷ So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. ¹⁸ For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. ¹⁹ For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. ²⁰ Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
²¹ So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. ²² For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, ²³ but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. ²⁴ Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? ²⁵ Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. ² For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. ³ For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴ in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.                                       Romans 7:7- 8:4]

I Know by Mary-Anne Rabe

Just reading the lyrics to this song brought me to tears!  He loves us so much!  There are no contradictions or lies stronger than His voice confirming the truth about us!! We are loved, and His voice will prevail over the voices of accusation, condemnation, shame, low self-esteem, unworth and inadequacy!  His voice will win out over those other voices and we'll come to peacefully rest as He whispers in our ear, "I am for you, I am with you, I am holding you....I accept you, I love you, I delight in you....I am in you and you are in Me, we'll always be together, we are forever one!"

Here is a link to the song, if you want to listen: "I Know"


I Know
by Mary-Anne Rabe

Deep within me I know the truth
Though sometimes hidden it's never hard to find
I just listen and I have found Your voice like a whisper
But always so profound

Chorus:
And I know You are with me and I know You are for me
I know, yes I know You are in me

Nothing present nor things to come
No troubles nor trials in this life
No feelings no doubts nor fears
Could ever separate me
From the knowledge of Your love

(Chorus)

There are no contradictions greater than Your confirmations
There are no lies more persuasive than Your truth
There are no voices louder than Yours
Crying within me, Abba Father
I am Yours, I am yours

Grace Is... (by Alan Paul Stevens)

Here is a wonderful quote from Alan Paul Stevens, a fellow blogger and friend - check out his blog, Prism of Grace, where he shares his thoughts, poetry and wonderful quotes on the grace and love of God and the finished work of Christ!

I love pondering the grace of God, a subject so rich and vast that I feel I'll never come to the end of all there is to see, know and enjoy of it!  I feel we'll be feasting on His grace for ages and ages to come!  He'll be continuously lavishing His grace on us for all eternity, as we constantly enjoy just living in His loving and gracious presence!  And we'll just be praising Him for the glory of His grace forever and ever! 

It makes me think of the beautiful verse in Ephesians, where Paul is speaking of how we have been saved by grace:   "Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus."    (Eph. 2:7)

Here is the quote from Alan, a wonderful definition of grace:

"Grace is unmerited, unearned and undeserved favor of God in Christ Jesus, a Person not a doctrine nor a teaching but Someone who died, rose and now seated in the right hand of the Father who continually and consistently praying and advocating for us.
Grace brings freedom, liberty, joy, peace, righteousness and most of all intimacy with our Abba Father, it is not something we possess nor take hold of but Someone who has caught us by His loving arms and warm embrace.
Grace has defeated sin, depicted the curse of the law and destroyed self-condemnation and self righteousness… Grace does not start nor work outside of us but begun and deals inside of us."

                                                                                                 Alan Paul Stevens

Walking with Jesus from Incarnation to Ascension - Day 8 - The Law Was Temporal - More Thoughts..

But when the proper time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born subject to [the regulations of] the Law,

To purchase the freedom of [to redeem, to ransom..] those who were subject to the Law, that we might be adopted and have sonship conferred upon us [and be recognized as God’s sons].

He came and subjected Himself to the law we chose, came into our legal, performance-based situation, and freed us from it, that we might be recognized as what we truly are, God's sons (not slaves having to earn our way by keeping the rules, but beloved sons and heirs by birth)!

Here is another thought I had about the law and why it came about in history..I am realizing that the law way was never, ever God's way or His nature or His preferred way of relating to us.  Yes, perfection describes Him.  But in relating to us, He always relates by love and acceptance, never by perfect standards to measure up to, never by performance.  He is completely self-sharing, self-giving love.  He is Daddy, Lover, and Friend and not Employer, Judge or Punisher!  Back in the garden, there were two trees.  And Adam and Eve chose the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the tree of law, the tree of judging right and wrong, the tree of self-judging (judging oneself deficient or 'not good enough', measuring oneself, passing judgment on oneself).  God was the Life tree all along, the tree of grace, acceptance, unconditional love and life!  But because we chose the tree of judging and self-improvement to try to meet a standard, a way of performance where we earn our way and 'get what we deserve' (either having to earn rewards or getting punished for failures).

God is all love.  God is always with us, for us, on our side.  God knew we had been lied to by the enemy and had believed lies of inferiority, being made to think we were not already 'like God' and thus needed to 'do' something to 'become like God.'  He knew the frustration and sense of unworth, the failure and sense of alienation this would bring.  He knew this path was a dead end, a path that would unravel our lives, bringing decay and death.  He knew this way would distort our understanding of God Himself and cause us to withdraw from Him in fear and shame, thus missing out on the intimate love relationship that was our right as His created children.  He was not going to leave us in such despair, no! He was going to rescue us from this mental death trap of lies and shame!   Yet this was the way we were thinking now, we were infected with this law/performance/self-judgment virus...so He chose to enter into our ways of thinking, enter into our 'good and evil' perspective...He chose to speak our language of rewards and punishment and performance - law - choosing to relate to us on our level, in a way we'd understand..not to validate that way of living but to turn it on its head, show us that it was only ministering death to us, and deliver us out of it!!!

He came down and spoke our law dialect in order to rescue us from its grip!  He related to us by law for a little while because that is what we wanted and that is what we understood, so that He could show us the culprit in our problems was the enemy's lies that made us think we needed law to 'become' or to 'get close' to Him, when the reality was that we already WERE complete and like God, never needing to earn our way but already perfect to Him, accepted and loved and lovable.... and already WERE in union with Him, God being the very deepest part of our very being and our spiritual DNA, our life-source that was holding up our existence and had never left us for a moment!!   Jesus then entered into our way of thinking in an ultimate and radical way...He actually took on flesh and became human!!  He entered into our world in the most radical way, by becoming one of us!  Christ came to show us who the Father is and who we really are - we can see the truth of God's nature and our own by looking into the face of Christ, the God-man!!  He came to remove the lies of inferiority, shame, alienation, and judgment by a 'harsh God' off of us for good so we could be free of this law perspective and enjoy the life tree that was our heritage all along!

God's way was never law, was it!  His way was always love and grace!  We can see everything in history, in scripture, and in our lives from the foundation of love, union, acceptance, and grace!!  It is all about a relationship of just BEING with our Father, not a performance system of earning/being judged by our DOING....It really is all about love, not law!  His wider story has always been a love story with us..the smaller story of the fall, the failure to keep the law, the cross and redemption from sin's hold, that is a wonderful story, but the story it tells - of fallen people being rescued from sin and lies - does not tell the wider truth about us, that we are the perfect and lovely beloveds of God, the sons of God who had rights to the full inheritance all along!  God's reference point has always been something outside of our history here on planet earth.  Our smaller stories have always been wrapped up in His larger story:  the story of a Papa loving His perfect children, a Lover overwhelmed by His beautiful Beloved, A Friend sharing life with His equal!

God has truly and in the deepest way NEVER really related to us through law and performance!  He has ALWAYS related to us from a place of perfect innocence, acceptance, union, and love!  That is where He has had us since before time began, no matter what our smaller stories were saying here on earth!  Nothing we think, say, do or even believe could ever change that!  He has kept us safely in innocence and love in His heart and mind, In Christ Himself, (the logos or original thought/word of God) all along!  His original thought about us has always been love and acceptance,  union and relationship!  We were found in Christ, located in Him before we were ever 'lost' here on earth, and so, to God, we were never really 'lost,' were we?  He always had us in His heart of love, no matter what played out here on earth!  He has ALWAYS been grace and love, not grace sometimes, law sometimes!   God didn't change in character or attitude from one covenant to the other..what changed was our perception of Him and ourselves and our relationship!!  God showed us through Jesus that our relationship has always and ever been based on unconditional love and forgiveness, not ever truly on law and performance!  WOW!  It is blowing my mind and coming real to me in such a new way, a deeper way, that He has always been about love and grace!  It is so good to see everything through the eyes of God’s love! To see it through the lens of relationship and romance and friendship, and not ever performance!

God Heals Our Hearts With His Unconditional Love

There are so many wounded people in this world..perhaps we could say that each of us has wounded places, places where we've felt rejection or loss, pain or loneliness, unworthiness or shame.  I know that in my own life, my shame and low self-worth caused me to have trouble loving both myself and others.  I would sometimes lash out at others as a result of my pain and feelings of loneliness and unlovable-ness.  However, my prickly attitude and sometimes bitter or judgmental ways didn't offend God or put Him off in the least.  He simply kept on loving me, right where I was, never demanding that I change or 'shape up,' never judging or condemning me...in fact, I remember one time I felt I heard God crying with me in my fear and pain!  He just kept loving me, loving me, loving me, washing over me with gentle waves of love and acceptance like endless waves upon the seashore, soothing and sweet, till I started feeling loved, started feeling healed!  His love truly is a healing force, the strongest in the universe!  And being loved by Him in such a real and unconditional way, I was able to love and value myself and others.   People who know that they are accepted and valuable are able to accept and see the value in others!

To me that means that when someone is acting in an unloving, legalistic or judging way, it means that they just don't know yet how loved and accepted and valuable they are! That makes me see myself, my sometimes unloving or self-rightoeus actions, and also others and their sometimes critical actions, in a new way.. God looks beneath the surface actions and sees us all as little children just crying out for love! And He knows that His love will heal our woundedness and give us the acceptance and worth we crave, so that we won't be judging ourselves or comparing ourselves with others and thus, judging them or lashing out in pain and loneliness anymore. But even if we didn't stop doing those things, He would still love and accept us and delight in us just the same! THAT is also such a healing thing! We need to know that we are fine before Him and cherished right now, as we are, in our self-condemnation, in our critical and judgmental attitudes, in our lashing out and coping mechanisms! If we are loved and embraced then, at our lowest, we really are loved unconditionally and forever - that is just what we have been looking for all our lives, that is the only thing that will feel the deep need of our heart, that is what makes us finally and truly feel SAFE!

We are accepted, taken in, included, loved, safe no matter what! This is the gospel!

This good news is the most healing and life-transforming message in the world, for it fills our deepest need to be loved and accepted and valued! Once we find out how loved we are, we can relax, we are okay, we feel the pain start to subside, we are not alone, we are accepted in our mess, we don't have to be perfect, we are embraced, we are special, we are safe..and we can start to see others that way as well and let them off the hook - they don't have to be perfect either, they are okay even in their mess as well, noone has got it all together, we are all special anyway, we are all equally valuable, we are all His dear children, we are all one in Him...judging goes out the window when acceptance flows in! Everything else melts away in the presence of the One who is Perfect, Unconditional LOVE! Thank You, Papa! I love the way You heal our hearts with Your grace and love!

Walking with Jesus from Incarnation to Ascension - Day 7 - The Law Was Temporal

• "Christ is the end of the law.."    (Rom. 10:4)
  
  This is a hard thing for me to write about because I feel I don’t fully understand why the law came about. That is my honest feeling. I can see how God used it to highlight the problem of lies that Satan had trapped us in (which brought about sin - unbelief in who we really were and unbelief in who God really is), that through the law was the knowledge of sin, so we could see the damage sin was doing and how it was so foreign to our nature and needed to be dealt with and eradicated from its hold upon our minds. I can see how it was a protective measure, to keep people from doing tons of harm to others (for example, I think of how a murderer is put in jail and that stops him from killing more people, so it protects those people from the effects of his confused mind). I can see how it was a temporary measure that was only in place till the real solution to the sin problem, Jesus, came! I can see how what the law failed to do – restore the spontaneous and life-giving relationship with God that was always our birthright and always still there, though not accessed or enjoyed by people in their confusion over their identity – that how what the law failed to do, Jesus did, for He wiped away the lie and its effect and we could see the union we’d always had with God again, we could feel comfortable approaching Him, seeing that we really WERE the beloved of the Father all along! I can see all that at least a little bit. But I do feel that there is so much more to understand about the law. At least I am beginning to understand that I am truly free from the law, free from obligation, requirement, penalty for messing up, having to earn my way, etc.!
  Right now I will just focus on the new law, the law of liberty, the law of Christ, knowing that this law tells me I am free, tells me who I really am, never condemns or pressures me, doesn’t highlight sin but instead highlights my innocence, shows me Jesus’ face and makes me realize His face is a mirror and I am reflected there, so I am just like Him! This law tells me I am just like Jesus and can do as I please, for all I really want to do deep down is love people, just like Jesus wants to do! What a relief to find out one’s heart is good and pure and lovely, just like the heart of Jesus!
• I feel so peaceful, and I know it is because of Him teaching me me closeness to Him and identity in Him, that of beloved child, and that He is taking care of everything. I need do nothing and no effort of mine is required, what a relief. I read a post on Facebook recently, “God is going to materialize your new creation identity without your help.” So often in the past I tried to help God and it was just futile and exhausting! How good to know my ‘help’ isn’t needed, and that by simply BE-ing myself, I am naturally living the supernatural life of a new creation – He just oozes out! I realized that God NEVER meant us to be under law and effort, hard work and labor, He designed us humans to function from a position of constant rest! It amazes me that He simply shines forth when I just AM me! He is so wonderful the way He has designed us. Law was never the focus, the tree of knowledge of good and evil (hard work and labor – isn’t what how Francois du Toit says is the meaning) was never our true way to live. We were designed as so ONE with God, with Him being part of our very being, so that He effortlessly shines forth by just us simply being! Didn’t Nelson Mandela say we were made to express the glory of God that is within us – that is so beautiful, all is already within each person, just waiting to be discovered and enjoyed and expressed – Love is a Person, in us, as us, through us! HE is truly ‘who’ we are!!
  :
• Thinking more about why the law was given, I read somewhere an idea that has been percolating within me and wanted to share it here. I thought of how, when a person does wrong to someone else, they can feel guilt and that they ‘owe’ the other person or need to somehow make it up to the other person, they may feel a ‘debt’ to that person, and the one who can release and help them is the person they have wronged – if the victim is able to forgive and sort of ‘let them off the hook’ so that they owe them nothing to make up for the wrong, then the person feels really released from the burden of guilt and is freed.
  
  So maybe God gave those many laws to cover as many sins as He could as officially being against HIM and now it would be that when a person sinned, they sinned against not themselves or others or just vaguely did something wrong (so that it was difficult to find release from the pain and guilt they felt), but they sinned against God Himself. (I think of David saying, “Against You and You only have I done this sin.”) If the sin was against God, then God could be the One to help them and release them from the guilt and feeling of ‘debt’ caused by the sin. Jesus came and even summed up all the law under “love God and others” and thus swept up every sin in a lump under those commands, thus making everything ever done wrong as something done against God, so that God in Christ could take away the feelings of guilt from sin and set men free! It brings to mind the verse “He has shut up all in disobedience that He might have mercy upon all.” He made every single act of inferior identity a sin against HIM through the law so that HE, being the one wronged, would be in the position to forgive and could free us from the guilt and condemnation and shame we’d feel, free us from the feeling of ‘owing a debt’ to make up for the wrong.
  
  I don’t know if I even shared that clearly. But it is a thought I had about why the law might have come about, as an act of mercy to ultimately bring about release and forgiveness – the sacrifices were the shadow of this release that ‘covered over’ the sins till ultimately and finally they were obliterated through Christ as the true release from our sins, feelings of shame, and feelings of needing to ‘owe’ something to make up for sin.
  
  It is like He saw that sin would bring these feelings of separation and inferiority to the extreme and He in love and mercy devised a plan to sum up every sin under the umbrella of being ‘against God’ so that He could take care of them all at the cross! He let Himself be the victim of all our crimes, so that He could take the powerful place of the one who could release us from guilt and set us free! The victim of our cruelty is the one who can set us free by releasing us from any ‘debt’ we feel to him or her. Jesus as the victim of our crime brought total forgiveness! I love the picture Andre gives of Jesus rising from the grave and walking out of the tomb with His arms stretched out to embrace His killers! He said on the cross, “Father forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing.” – Wow! He realized that we had lost track of our identity and didn’t know what we were even doing! He never lost sight of who we were and drew us into His embrace, getting rid of all the shame and unworth and guilt we felt. He didn’t see us as bad and guilty and dirty, but we did, and He came and submitted Himself to our messed up ideas and deeds so that He could show us who we really were and banish the guilt and thoughts of unworth and ‘owing a debt’ forever! We were living by performance, so He kindly entered into a performance based system with us in order to pay off any ‘debt’ we thought we owed and forgive any sin that we felt so guilty of, and he even kept all the performance requirements for us on our behalf so that our need of perfect performance was satisfied by Him on our behalf! And through dying to that law way, He freed us from the performance system and laid it to rest in the process!
  
  

Our Winter Wonderland

Here in the Southern USA we are getting a rare winter snowstorm, and because we get snow so rarely, it always feels magical when it happens!  Everything is turning into a wintry white wonderland!   (To us it's a blizzard, but I know for you that live farther north it must look like only a little snow dusting!)  I thought I would post some photos of the lovely snow, and my dear hubby kindly helped me do so..  Above is a picture of a snow laden oak in our front yard..

Behind the house is the backyard and a wonderful little wood where I love to walk with God and also with our two youngest children.  This picture shows the view in the backyard looking toward our daughter's playhouse (which she received from the Make A Wish foundation, very special to us) and the woods beyond..

Hope you have enjoyed the window into our little world here in South Carolina!  Feel free to share about your location if you so desire...I would love to know where any of you wonderful members our little blog family are located...No matter what , I hope the weather where you are is also beautiful today! 

Walking with Jesus from Incarnation to Ascension - Day 6 - What Went Wrong?

"He has put eternity in our hearts"..."Christ in you, the hope of glory!"   (Ecc. 3:11, Col. 1:27)

I read something humorous on facebook recently: A girl was going through the airport check-in, and she was asked, “Was anything put in your luggage without your knowledge?” Now how would she know it was there if it was done without her knowledge, lol..

I started thinking about this and realized that when God created us He put something (Someone!!) in us without our knowledge! Now the mystery is revealed – Christ is in us, the hope (sure expectation) of glory (God’s presence manifested)! If Adam had known what had been put in his luggage at creation, he would never have eaten of the knowledge tree, because he would already have known that he was full, complete, perfect, and one with God, being made of God Himself and having the dear and precious Christ within as constant companion..but ‘My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” – not knowing everything that he was, and not believing his Daddy that all was well and nothing was lacking in him or in his relationship with Him, Adam partook of the knowledge tree and the rest is history…yet it is truly HIS story, for His story is so much bigger than our messy story! Our story is really a bad dream and HIS story is what’s real! We fell into believing lies about separation and inferiority and lack, but HE always knew the truth…HE was still in the luggage, no matter what terrible turn we took on our journey, no matter what dark alley we ended up in!
And with the incarnation, He sprang forth and revealed Himself and showed us that our story was the dream, His the reality, and we were only ‘going all the wrong places’ in our minds, while our true self was safe at home with Him in eternity all the time!

Oh what a relief to find out what was with me, in me, part of me, making up the real me, all along – Christ Himself! We are so close we are one..I was never lost, never missing anything, never inadequate, never alone, never separated, never inferior, never lacking, never an orphan, never unwanted, never shameful, never a mess…I was always with Him, in His arms, His precious and innocent little child..and Christ had been in me all along as my true nature, as the One I’m made of, as the One I’m united with forever in perfect fellowship and oneness..oh how good to have something put in my luggage way before time began, and to be rescued from those lies and to wake up and find this treasure within, where He had been all along..No matter where our thoughts have taken us, no matter how dark everything seemed to be, the truth was always that we were and are His adorable and perfect children, dwelling constantly in the light of His presence and love…

So what does this tell me about temptation? Adam didn’t completely know what a perfection he was or the fullness he had, the oneness with God and how perfectly he was created with the DNA of God Himself…he didn’t know WHO was in him, and that he already was all he needed to be and had all he needed to live…he didn’t know he was God-like, an expression of God’s very nature and being in an earthly body! And so, he was vulnerable to temptation and to believing a lie of inadequacy, needing more, not being enough, not being close enough to God, not being like God.. As Andre Rabe says, if he had known all this, he never would have eaten of the knowledge tree, it would have been so obvious!

So that means that the only thing that makes temptation attractive is lack of knowledge (ignorance) of what and who we ALREADY have, and what and who we ALREADY are, and the perfection that ALREADY exists in our relationship with Him! Jesus came to show us the truth – we look in His face and see ourselves there, and we realize all that He has, we have; all that He is, we are; all the depth of oneness He has with the Father, we have!! And no ‘sin’ appeals for we are so full of this knowledge that we are just satisfied and drunk with His love and presence in us..so wonderful that HE has brought us to know ourselves in His face..and now we can say we know ALL things in our spirit..and we can look forward with hopeful expectation that one day the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as waters cover the sea…and all flesh will see and remember and return to the Lord, who never left them (short trip!)..Wow, thank You, Daddy, and thank You Jesus for setting us free from the darkness, which was ignorance of the truth..how wonderful to know as we have always been known!!

So how is the darkness dispelled? Not by focusing on the darkness, fighting the darkness, or thinking of the darkness as ‘real’ or ‘strong’, but by turning on the light/opening my eyes in the light that I’m already in! I open my eyes and it’s not dark anymore, and I realize it never really was, the darkness was a nothing, and I’ve been standing in the light with Jesus all the time…so instead of being afraid that the darkness will swallow me or that I’ll give in to temptation, I am able to just sink into the light that I am already in, joyfully finding that the darkness has no substance when He is present, and He is always present in and around me!
No matter what went ‘wrong’ when Adam/I was trapped in lies, something was RIGHT all along: my relationship with Him and my own self, made completely all right in His eyes and kept that way in the spirit realm, in Christ, through it all!.. I feel like God is saying He wants me to just look into His eyes and see that look of complete and perfect love and adoration that is there, with nothing amiss, and to just see that I am – and have always been – his innocent and precious and perfect little daughter, so loved and cherished and held – THAT is reality, THAT is what the light shows to be true, THAT is the story God is telling about me and Him, THAT is eternal truth, THAT is the expression of His heart toward me forever!

Walking with Jesus from Incarnation to Ascension - Day 5 - Who Is Man?

We have been talking about who God is, who He has been since before time began...and way back before creation, we discover that not only is there a truth about who God is, but a truth about who we are, for we were there in God's heart before time began!

'He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.'   Eph. 1:4

"For from him and through him and for him are all things.  To him be the glory forever! Amen."   Rom. 11:36 

From HIM are all things - we are from God!!  Our origin is eternal!  Our origin goes back before Adam...our true and original origin is in the heart and mind and thought (logos or word) of God Himself - in Christ the Word of God!  He has had us in His heart since before time began...we pre-existed in God, in His heart, in His thoughts, in Christ!  Wow, what an origin!  And I've been created in His very image, the image of love, not sin!!  God is my true source, not Satan or even Adam!  God's nature is my true nature, not sin or evil!  God chose us in Him - in Christ, the Eternal Word, God Himself! - before the foundation of the world!  As Francois du Toit says, He found us in Christ before we were 'lost' in Adam!  What does this tell me about man?  Who is Man?

I think I have struggled for a long time with my self-concept. I have ‘felt’ or believed that I was not worth much, just an inert vessel or tool God ‘used’ for His plans, that I was inherently bad, etc. Yet now I find out I am in His image and likeness – I don’t fully understand all that that means, but the biggest thing it means for me right now, the thing that has changed my whole self concept and given me such fresh hope, is that since I am in His image and likeness, I am like Him! HE is loving, good and kind, He is of infinite value, He is a Person worth knowing – so I am the same way! I think the aspect of it all that impacts me the most right now is that as He is good, I am good..I was made very good…everything God does is good and perfect..I am His very good girl! I am not inherently bad or evil at the core, but inherently good..I do not naturally long after selfishness or wrong, I naturally long after loving people and trusting my Daddy! That is who I am by nature, at the core of me – I am a good person, just like my Daddy, made that way by Him…

As I am waking up to this idea of original innocence and being created with a good nature, not a sinful one, I am suddenly finding myself more loving toward others, for I am seeing that there is no ‘good us’ and ‘bad them’ – actually, we are ALL the good guys here, we ALL want God deep down, we ALL want to love, and the bad guy is the enemy/accusation that lies to us to try to get us not to see this truth, trying to suppress the truth of our goodness with some foul lie/delusion of unrighteousness! And Jesus came and set us free from the bondage of these lies, set us free to be ourselves – the glory and expression of God on this earth, enjoying all His fullness and presence within our very being! And flowing out of our being! The earth will be filled with the goodness and glory of the Lord..I see that when people wake up to their goodness and righteousness given through original creation and reclaimed/declared triumphantly through redemption, that glory is going to just glow forth from them and cover this earth, rivers of living water coming not from outside somewhere but from inside, within us, where goodness and love and joy and LIFE has been, all along, for we are made of all that by being made of God Himself! We are made of God, how beautiful, how intimate, how tender, how delightful, how VERY GOOD! It gives me such peace to know I am good deep down and always have been…

My origin was never out of evil but out of goodness, purity, light, God Himself! I heard in a message (by Rudi Louw) a wonderful explanation of this, using the metaphor of the vine and branches. He said it is not that we the branches are foreign entities that are trying to somehow attach ourselves to the vine and work up some kind of ‘connection’ or attempt to feel we belong – NO! He said the way that we are branches of the vine is actually that we GREW OUT OF the vine! I am a branch of the vine because I grew out of Him!! Just as Jesus said He came forth from God the Father, I too came forth from Him, He is my source and the root of my being….and there is no way to tell where He ends and I begin…in fact we are so IN each other that we are ONE here in this body of mine! I am still trying to wrap my mind around these truths, for I have seen myself so separate from Him in the past – but really, I was never separated from Him, I was always connected to Him and in Him, and He in me. I have always been His child, His branch, the expression of His being, the manifestation of His thoughts! It is so wonderful to know I have never been apart from Him and never will be…there is no way anyone or anything could ever separate me from Him or His love, oh what a blessed relief…to know Him in me and me in Him is completion, it is satisfaction, it is joy, it is rest for my soul!

Patrick's Poem: "You Are.."

Here is a wonderful poem our very own Patrick (Woolly) wrote about how God is everything to us..it so wonderfully expresses how much Papa means to us!  I'm calling it "You Are.." for I don't know the title and feel that sums it up so well, as it is filled with thoughts about who He is!  Hope that is okay with you, Patrick!  I'm putting it here for all to enjoy:

"You Are..." 

You are the light that shines within me.
You are the song that soothes my soul.
You are the life that lives within me.
You are the One that makes me whole.

You are the gift that fills my present.
You are the answer to my past.
You are the secret of my future.
You are the Truth that holds me fast.

You are my every inspiration.
You are my courage in the night.
You are the hope that holds my head high.
You are the thought that sets me right.

You are the glory of the sunset.
You are the myst’ry of the stars.
You are my first and last and all between.
You are the peace within my heart.

You are the comfort brought by others.
You are the kind words of a friend.
You are the secret in a stranger’s smile.
You are my rainbow’s end.

You are the Love that burns within me.
You are the Love surrounding me.
You are the Love I can depend on.
You are my Love, Lord, eternally.

by Patrick

Jesus - the Perfect Picture of Who God Is

“Jesus is the most accurate translation of the Bible… Any idea that we could have had of God that is unlike Jesus would not be true about God! In Jesus the forgotten Father of the human race introduces Himself to us again as our only true Father. There is only one true faith…what God believes about us!” (Francois du Toit...from his book, The Logic of His Love, pg 3)

I love this quote because it shows me Jesus came to reveal the face of God, the truth about God, the real nature of God..and He revealed that He is Love! He heals the sick, hugs the children to his heart, feeds the hungry, talks with prostitutes, welcomes cheating tax collectors, raises the dead, forgives his murderers, doesn't retaliate, doesn't judge, freely gives up His life for all, calls us friends and tells us God is our Father who welcomes us always, who throws parties for sinners, who joyfully gives us the kingdom inheritance! Jesus showed us the face of God, and it's a smiling face! He showed us the heart of God, and it's a tender heart! He showed us the nature of God, and it's a kind nature! He showed us who God really is: our loving Father!

Walking with Jesus from Incarnation to Ascension - Day 4 - God is Light, Life and Love!

God is Light"  (1 John 1:5),  "I am the Life"  (John 14:6),  "God is Love"  (1 John  4:8).  

Walking with Jesus, beginning before the beginning, we find that He is the Word and that He is God!  Back before time began, before creation even happened, there was God.  God IS!  He always just IS!  A Present God!  A God who is truly I AM at all times!  The Word Jesus IS God!  Jesus is the perfect expression of God to us and is God!  And who does He express Him/Himself to be?  How can we describe this wonderful God?  I look at scripture and see that God describes Himself so beautifully..."God is Light"  (1 John 1:5),  "I am the Life"  (John 14:6),  "God is Love"  (1 John  4:8). 

I love thinking of how God is defined as Light, Life and Love! There aren’t any bad words used to describe Him, only good ones, only beautiful ones..for He is ONLY beauty and goodness and grace. It just makes my heart sing to know that there is nothing evil or harsh or upsetting in Him, but only attractiveness, loveliness, tenderness, and delight..

God is Light..and that means there is no darkness in Him at all! There are no ulterior motives, no hidden self-centered agenda, no ‘using’ us for His own ends. There is no harsh side of God, no ‘dark side’ of Him; He is ONLY and EVER pure light! To me that speaks of purity of His essence, so pure love, pure goodness, pure truth, with no shadows. He is the Light that dispels all the darkness of lies and delusions of the enemy, showing that they are actually NOTHING, having no substance at all! He is so good to know and His light doesn’t expose us or shame us; rather, it enlightens us and shows us own own beauty and purity, since we are made in His image! Thus, we also are light beings, without dark shadows in us. That tells me I don’t have to worry that I am ‘bad’ or ‘evil’ at the core. At my core is His Spirit of pure light, and that describes me as well!

God is Life…and that means there is no death in Him at all! He is exuberant, joyful, fulfilling, ever-blessing and ever-refreshing life..His very life is our life, sustaining and carrying us along in Life. His Spirit of Life gave us our breath, and as Andre said, His very name ‘Yah-weh’ is the sound of human breathing!! We are truly of His breath and have His life pulsing through us, wow! In Him is no death – this tells me He is never, ever destroying me, hurting me, tearing me down, crushing me, or sucking the joy or vigor from me – NO! He is always building me up, invigorating me, filling and fulfilling me! Jesus said eternal life is knowing Him, and to be part of His very life, eternal and immutable, is to know Him with a depth of intimacy that I can’t even fathom. I feel I am only beginning to even know Him, but He tells me that it will only get better and better as I get to know Him more..I have been so afraid of Him in the past, and it is taking time to recover from years of thinking He was angry or harsh or demanding. I am finding Him so full of pure love, without a bit of harshness or meanness, and also I am finding Him so refreshing and enlivening, never taking away from my quality of life but always making it infinitely better. He is not scary at all, what a relief! Which brings me to the final word to define Him..

God is Love….that means there is nothing to fear in Him! He is perfect Love, the kind I’ve only dreamed about but always longed for, the kind that causes us to just be still in awe and wonder at such pure and beautiful love that holds us all in such tender embrace, in such a place of innocence and sweetness! He is the Perfect Love that truly loves me as I am, understands me, accepts me, never demands that I change but instead celebrates that I am perfect for Him right now! In fact, He is the Perfect Love that never takes from me but instead gives to me constant affection, affirmation, strength, joy and peace, always giving and never asking anything in return. And this love is safe – He isn’t going to hurt me, harm me, wound me, or be against me. He is going to protect me, shelter me, always hold on to me and never let me go! Finally, I have found Someone who will love me unconditionally, with a pure and satisfying love!

Thank You, dear Lord, for just being wonderful YOU and for being so different from who I thought you were. You are so much better than I ever dreamed or imagined. It is a dream come true to not feel afraid of You but instead drawn to rest in Your arms…and what a surprise to find that I have been held in those arms, embraced by You in love, since before time began! I was never lost to You, but always found and cherished in Your heart..what a wonderful Daddy and wonderful God You are..I couldn’t ask for a better God than YOU! I just want to know You more and really enjoy the intimate union fellowship that is mine even now, even in my recovery time from all the lies I had been told about you and about myself. What a relief to know that I am safe at home with You and that my enjoyment of You will only get more and more expansive and satisfying as eternity moves along!

His Gentle Heart

God is so gentle with us!  He never hurts those who are already hurting! He never wounds the wounded!  Instead, He understands us, He tenderly caresses us, He soothes us, heals the wounded places, loves us back to sanity and life!  I write this especially for those with low self-image, for I have been wounded by that and still feel its weight on me!  God is showing me lately that He truly understands and is so gentle with us, and that He is a safe place of complete love and acceptance, that His heart is truly a sheltering, healing place for those with low self-esteem!

He knows why we have felt the way we do, He sees the hurts and wounds that have brought about such thoughts, He truly understands us!  He is so gentle with us and never breaks the bruised reed!  He says and does exactly what is perfect suited for our healing and His touch is always good, uplifting and healing, never harsh or hurtful..

The Gentle Heart of God is our home, and what a safe place He is!  He is a place where all feel completely safe, never judged or shamed, always accepted and included, always made to feel better and not worse...where burdens are lifted, not put on anyone!

I have often felt that with my issues, there was something I needed to 'do' to get better, receive my healing, make things manifest, etc.  But God is, I think, telling me to just forget all that and rest.  When I woke up this morning, there was a verse on my mind from Him - "My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
-  (Ex. 33:14).  How wonderful that He will always go with us, no matter what, always be there for us, and that He will GIVE us rest!  It reminds me of another verse,  "The Spirit of the Lord caused them to rest" (from Is. 63:14).  He will even bring us/cause us to rest!  We don't even have to 'try' to rest!  There is truly nothing to do!  Wow, what a relief.  There is nothing we have to 'do' to recover from low self-esteem.   God is not pressuring us or requiring anything of us..we can completely relax...He is taking care of us!  We are helpless, totally dependent on our dear Father for help and relief, and oh how wonderful that is, for He is absolutely faithful and successful in all He does!  He will drive away the lies, that is HIS department, not our worry at all!  It's HIS department, because HE is the One who is Perfect Love that drives away fear!  His love will continually wash over us and heal us of all shame and low self-esteem, no matter how long it takes!  And we don't even have to worry that we're not 'getting better fast enough' for He has no expectations of us, just expectations of Himself and His love...He knows His love is powerful and stronger than anything, and He is confident and sure that He will eradicate the enemy's lies from our lives!  His love never fails us!  He will always love us, and He is going to convince us of our belovedness!

There is nothing at all wrong with us, He does not think we are 'deficient' or 'messed up,' He isn't wishing we'd just 'get it together,' He doesn't see us as messed up, side-lined, or self-absorbed either...no!  He truly sees us as innocent in the whole matter, sees us as innocent little children who have been lied to, and He is so full of wrath at those lies and will drive them away so that they cannot hurt his little babies anymore!!  He always relates to us from a place of perfect innocence, sees us as innocent and always has!   He knows our hurts, our wounds, our past struggles and confusions, He knows what is in our hearts, sees our pure little hearts that just want Him, that just want love, and that have been denied the full joy of experiencing that love because of the lies that the enemy has attacked us with, the lies we've heard growing up through media, religion, school, work, and other confused people.  His love is for us even when the whole world and even we ourselves sees against us!  He has never had any thought toward us except perfect love and acceptance!

God is really impressing upon me lately that for those of us who struggle with low self-image, or really any struggle, that He doesn't see us as sick, still needing to 'get to a goal,' or 'not yet fixed.'  God is saying we are complete and whole and perfect right now!  That He is happy and pleased with us at this very  moment!  That even if the mess in our brains never gets straightened out, we are a-okay to Him!  He is just fine with us right now, as we are, no changes needed or required..He doesn't even see us as 'people with low self-esteem' for He sees us as WHOLE and FINE!   HE just sees us as HE always has, as we REALLY are - His beautiful, precious, beloved little children!  Perfect!  We are His darlings and the apple of His eye, the light of His world, His delight, His pride and joy!  Each of us is His favorite, and He will convince our hearts of that, and we'll enjoy His loving presence for all eternity! 

Guest Post - On God's Opinion of Us (by Dave of Pure Grace Gospel blog)

My good friend and fellow blogger Dave N. has written a wonderful note on the loving acceptance of God, and how His opinion of us sets us free to live loved..and I wanted to share it here.  These thoughts have encouraged me so much, especially the idea of God praising us and being so well-pleased with us, and the idea of leaving behind old lying voices of shame and enjoying the freedom found in God's acceptance - freedom to be ourselves, to live life with joy, to accept ourselves and others!  Hope you all enjoy this note from Dave:

On God's Opinion of Us
by Dave N.

We just need to be forgetful people.  So many believers are consumed with past mistakes but Paul specifically says:

Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, FORGETTING those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,

Paul says, "This one thing I DO....FORGETTING...."  This is a very important practice we should follow.  We are to forget what is past but never forget what manner of man/woman we are in Christ Jesus.  We are not to walk away from the Law of Liberty forgetting our glorious image we truly are (James 1:24) but we truly have died to the Mosaic Law.  The Mosaic Law will always point a finger to condemn but the Law of Liberty only speaks glorious freedom. 

When we focus on our sins is when are considered "blind" and have "forgotten" that we had been forgiven of past sins (2nd Peter 1:9).  So many believers are consumed with some sin of the past (5 minutes ago or 5 years ago).  This is why the author of Hebrews stated there is "no more conscience (remembrance) of sins" (Hebrews 10:2) because of the once for ALL (behold the Lamb of God which taketh AWAY the sin of the WORLD) sacrifice.  God remembers our sins and iniquities "no more" (Hebrews 10:17).  If God remembers no more then we are to "forget."  We are to forget what we were or what religion claimed we were and behold who we forever are as sin has no room for display in our thinking.  We are what He is and not what we do. 

"God has just been showing me this, how important it is not to pass judgment on myself (or others)"

This is where freedom truly lies. Romans 14:22:

"Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth." 

Paul said this about himself in 1st Corinthians 4:3:

"But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man's judgment: yea, I JUDGE NOT mine own self."

Paul went on to share how the Lord judges in verse 4 but we know that there is no "condemnation" in Christ Jesus and that is why Paul said in verse 5 "...and then shall EVERY MAN have praise of God."

The glorious thing about the gospel of grace is that the verdict was already passed before you or I even committed a single act.  We are justified, sanctified, and washed.  The problem with behavioral modification teaching is that we are constantly looking for approval by our performance.  Every person who says, "I am a good person" is probably telling the truth but such a statement means that they are hoping that God will one day pass the same sentence upon them by their performance.  Performance oriented thinking leads that person to keep assessing themselves before God where they live in a state of condemnation (Oh God, I did that sin again). 

People live backward lives because of religion.  We do not perform to gain God's approval but we perform because of God's approval.  Even when we "think" we are huge failures is to know that we are always "accepted in the Beloved" (accepted = well pleasing).  We can be assured that when we are judged by the Lord that "we shall have praise of God."  Acceptance always precedes behavior.  Love always precedes behavior.  God loved us when we were sinners and Christ died when we were enemies.  We are that special to God.

Remember, we always sin but we are NEVER to associate them to ourselves as they can no longer define us.  People who worry over their sins or performance before God will be a slave to low self esteem.  God highly esteems us and that means that if we never do another good work for God is to know that we remain highly esteemed.  We are and always will be well pleasing to Him.  We shall have praise from God.  We are the trophies of His grace.  He is forever proud of us. 

It's sad that much of our lives are spent trying to gain approval of others.  I cannot tell you how many times I daydreamed making myself into something I was not as I would picture the world around me rolling out the red carpet.  I cannot tell you the freedom of forgetting those things which are behind (either good works or my sins) and simply living in the reality that I have all things in Christ. I no longer strive to gain the worlds approval. 

No believer has it better or worse than us as we all are complete in Christ.  I do not need the world to pat me on the back.  I do not need to esteem myself better before others more than I ought.  This is why pride goes before a self esteem fall. When we seek to live up to a certain worldly or religious standard then experiencing a emotional fall is to be expected.  This is why so many believers hate themselves and call themselves, "A good for nothing Christian."  This is why so many doubt their salvation because of the religious standards (law/bondage) they strive to follow and when they fail is when they experience an emotional fall that wears them out.  It even wears out the legalist who continually performs and seems to be doing a good job at maintaining his/her religious duties but inwardly they are burning out..

We cannot live up to religious or worldly standards or we will ultimately crash.  Depression is often due to failed expectations.  We live trying to be accepted but that acceptance is almost always based on appearance/performance.  It is when we see God's loving hands embracing us is when we can lovingly embrace ourselves and those around us.  We can embrace flaws.  We finally allow chaos to be a part of our lives as we can live without things being perfect.  We can finally relax and simply be ourselves.  We can take off the religious masks and be the very person we are.  We can live life loved. 

I am aware of my flaws but I no longer hold them against myself.  My poor self esteem was due to trying to live up to religious/worldly standards.  I now forget those things that are past and that includes my so-called righteousness as but dung for the excellency of Christ.  I now see myself robed in the excellency of Christ and am satisfied. 

The key to victory is throwing out those religious/worldly expectations and live free.. "Cast out the bondwoman and her son and live free!!!!"  Living free lies outside of religion, law, and this present world.  We cannot be bound to any of those things because they come with expectations/standards that follows with condemnation for failure.  The world, the law, and religion are critical and judgmental of themselves, people, and their environment that will affect us the same way if we follow.  We are not to be conformed to this world (world often refers to the religious system) but be transformed by the renewing of our minds.  Beholding our glorious image in Christ transforms us into that same glory (2nd Corinthians 3:18).

We are to follow Paul's advice and not care what people think of us.  Let's not judge ourselves.  The one thing that we are to do is forgetting what is past.  I like how the New Life Version translates 2nd Timothy 2:15:

"Do your best to know that God is pleased with you. Be as a workman who has nothing to be ashamed of. Teach the words of truth in the right way."

Do your best to know that God is pleased with you but performance, past behavior, or even people's assessment of you has no place in knowing whether or not God is pleased.  

Dave N.

Walking with Jesus from Incarnation to Ascension - Day 3 - The Activity of God Before Creation

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God."        John 1:1 

As I take this walk with Jesus from Incarnation to Ascension, I see that this story of Jesus starts before the Incarnation, even before the creation itself!  For Jesus is the Word, the original thought of God, the perfect expression of Him, existing before creation, before time itself! 

What was God doing before creation and time? I imagine what that was like, that ‘time’ outside time and that ‘space’ outside space, where all just IS, where God is and is I AM, present tense…the God who IS! And I think of how God is Love, love defines Him, He is the definition of love..pure love, infinite love, love with no shadows or dark sides…love with no harsh element..love with nothing withheld, a love that is completely transparent, self-giving, open…And I think of how God is there before creation in a circle of fellowship and love, all the members of the Trinity loving and sharing with each other. And I imagine God thinking of creating beings to share in this love circle, this happy fellowship, and I realize that I am on His mind! When He was in fellowship in that loving Tri-union, I was on His mind..When He was thinking of beings to share love with, I was on His mind..When He was thinking of creating the universe and tangible realm as a gift to them, an environment where His love could be shared and between those beings – us! – and Himself, I was on His mind…When He went ahead and chose and loved us, I was on His mind…When He called us by His own family name, called us His children, I was on His mind…When He knew He would do anything for us, these children of His, even to the point of Jesus’ giving up all for us to rescue us from the trap and ruin of living in a false identity, I was on His mind…When He planned for us to rule with Him, I was on His mind..on His mind, in His heart, and actually existing in Him in that eternal, Spirit realm! Already there in loving union with Him in the eternal heavenly realms! Wow!

Back in the time before time, the space outside space, where everything just IS, where God is I AM, I was there, hidden in Christ, snuggled into my Daddy’s arms! This place is a place of total innocence, where I have never seen what right or wrong is, where I have never been hurt and never will be, where I have never had an evil thought and never will, where there is no battle, no striving, and of course no separation from this Father who is Love..in this place all needs are satisfied and I am full, whole, complete, safe, warm, enjoyed, celebrated, adored, loved by my Daddy! That is the real me, my spirit identity that has existed even from before time and creation, wow! And through all the years on this earth, through all the turmoil and confusion, through all the feelings of aloneness, I have been there in His arms! And that is where I will always be, forever and ever!

God is a unity of Love, and He loved us before there ever was a world! Back before He planned time and creation, He had us in His mind and in His heart, and that’s where we always always ARE, yesterday, today and forever!

Walking with Jesus from Incarnation to Ascension - Day 2 - Understanding the Bible

"....He has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.  The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word."   Heb. 1:2-3

Walking with Jesus through His finished work, I will be looking at different scriptures and know I need to see them in a proper perspective. So what is that perspective?  There is something deeper to understand than just words on a page.  The Word isn't a book, really, is it?  The Bible itself tells us that Jesus is the Word!  What does that mean?  What does it mean to see the scriptures through the lens of Jesus BEING the Word?  I think it means He reveals Himself through the Bible, that He is the ultimate and original Word or thought of God!  Jesus is the perfect expression of God and God's thoughts, "the exact representation of His being!"  We can read the words of scripture and encounter THE Word of God, Jesus, there!

I feel like there is so much about the scriptures I don’t understand. I seem to have interpreted so much of the scriptures through ‘performance’ lenses for so long, that some parts I just have to set aside for now and realize that eventually God will make all clear and show me how to see those passages through His ‘grace’ lenses, which really means seeing all of scripture through Jesus and His finished work! Wow, that gets me excited! Just thinking of how we began, not in our mother’s womb, but in God, in His thoughts, in His mind, in the Word or logic of God, in Christ Himself! We are of Him, and so we are like Him! These truths are so new to me that I can barely grasp them…but how wonderful to rest in His knowledge about me..

A couple of days ago I shared the quote from Francois du Toit with a friend, that it’s all about Jesus, and Jesus is all about us. My friend replied, ‘But that makes us God!’ I didn’t know how to answer at the time, but the more I think about it, the more I realize the powerful truth behind my friend’s reaction, for the statement shows, not that we are God Himself, but at least God-like, for we are in the image of the very God of the universe, and Christ is like a mirror showing us how very God-like we are! It makes my heart sing to think of it!

All my life I have struggled with low self-esteem, feeling unworthy as a person, dealing with lots of shame. But now, I find that the deepest part of me is not bad and sinful as I had learned all my life, but instead in God’s image, like Christ, and thus very good and beautiful, pleasing to God and of infinite worth! Who can put a value on Christ? And yet, the scriptures are all pointing to Him, and to the fact that not only is He IN us but that He is an example OF us! So we, too, are of infinite value…We too are lovely and whole and good…We too are a delight to the Father…We too are wrapped in beauty eternal, wrapped in love, wrapped in God Himself, intertwined with Him in union down in the depths of our being, for that is how we were actually existing long ‘before’ time began, existing as love dreams in the Father’s heart!

That’s my true home, that’s my true essence, and even though I don’t fully understand many scripture passages, He is showing me that the written words point to a much greater reality than I ever imagined: Christ in me, representing me, mirroring my true, good, perfect, in-union-with God identity! It is such a relief to see myself and everyone else as basically good people, children of God who have simply believed a lie about themselves for far too long! The scriptures address that, too, for they not only point to Christ and our beginning in Him, but also to the wonderful way He freed us from the lies of the enemy that have confused us for too long and kept us trapped in a belief that we were inferior, shameful, sinful, ugly and far from God.
I am so glad to wake up in the morning and know that I am complete in Him, I am His very good girl, I am loved and close to Him and don’t need to ‘do’ a thing to make all that so, for it is already so. It has always been so, and Christ came to free my mind to see and believe and live in that reality. (Just writing those words almost seems heretical, because it seems too good to be true, and yet I am finding my heart leaping forth and believing these new ideas!)

So that is my understanding of how to read the scriptures – not as a book of ‘how to’ get to perfection before God but as a book revealing Christ, the perfection of God, who shows me who I am and where I come from and makes me able to live in that reality – that I am His perfect child already, originating in His thoughts of love, ready to share this love with the world so they too can awaken to the truth!

Thank You, Dear Friends..

I just wanted to say a big thank you to you, my dear friends who read my blog..the fact that you are willing to read my humble musings means so much to me..I have had this blog a long time and have never really had a big audience, but that is just fine with me as I am sort of the quiet type anyways, and crowds can intimidate me a little, lol!   Sometimes I have thought of shutting down the blog, because of hard times I went through with depression and such, or not being able to post as much at times, but somehow Under the Waterfall of Grace kept on going and I'm glad for that. 

I have always wanted this to be a place were people could come and read something about God's love and acceptance and grace and be uplifted, a place where people would be safe from any shaming or blaming or demanding messages..and I hope that nothing I write would ever make anyone feel condemned or pressured but instead loved and accepted!  

I just wanted to thank each of you that read my blog and tell you how much I love you, even if we don't know each other face to face, and even if you have never commented or anything.  I am so glad we are all family here.  I am so glad we can all celebrate and bask in the grace of God together. I am so glad we can feel safe and be ourselves and relax together in the gentle acceptance of God.  I feel like we have a cozy little place here on the web where we can chat, a quiet place off the beaten path to just rest and enjoy talking about His love together..

I love to read the comments that some of you share, they uplift me so much..you all teach me new things about Him and His love, just by being yourselves and sharing your beautiful and grace-full thoughts!  So I thank you Alexander, Patrick (Woolly!), Dorothy, Mathew, Dave, Alan, Luke, my Anonymous friend, and anyone else that comments (I hope I am not leaving anyone out!  You are each so important!), for all that you share, and if anyone else who reads would like to introduce yourself, please leave a comment - I'd love to 'meet' you! 

So I want to thank each of you, my dear friends, for being YOU and for sharing of yourselves, for reading my humble thoughts and encouraging me so many times when I have been down or discouraged, and for always pointing us to Him who IS grace and love!  He has made life worth living again for me, and I pray for each of you, for His blessings of grace and love and peace and joy and gifts and everything else to just overflow to you at all times!

Walking with Jesus from Incarnation to Ascension - Day 1 - Meditation on the Truth

I am so excited about this study!  Learning from Jesus all about His finished work of grace for us, all the way from the Incarnation to the Ascension!  I have wanted to understand more about grace, and I am looking forward to all He will teach about this wonderful topic!  There seems so much more I want to know and understand...I really want to have my mind opened to explore new vistas of truth, grace and love with Him!  (I am going to be writing this in first person as I share my personal journey with Jesus...I will just be sharing what He is teaching me as we go along...I hope that type of format is okay!)

Seeking to understand the finished work of Jesus, from the Incarnation to the Ascension, seems like an overwhelming thing..how can I understand something so deep that theologians have studied and pondered and thought about for hundreds of years? 

"But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth."    1 John 2:20-21

These verses in 1 John truly touch my heart, as I feel I have been ‘trying’ to understand some of the new ideas about my original identity and God’s grace for the past 6 months, and at times it has been such a struggle. I think the struggle came partly from resisting new ideas and also from the feeling that I was lacking understanding and had to somehow ‘get it’ by my own effort. I have struggled so much with legalism and living by ‘Christian performance’ in the past, and I’ve often thought it was all up to me and my effort to make growth or understanding ‘happen.’

Yet these verses reassure me so much. We are reassured that we already know all things and already have the riches of understanding within us. The Spirit has anointed us, for God has poured out His Spirit on all flesh to touch our deepest parts and remind us of what it true, of what we inherently know deep within. So I do not have to struggle to ‘get’ some understanding or knowledge – it already resides within me! I do not have to feel lacking in any way – I am full of Him and His wisdom!

So how do I draw this knowledge out? Perhaps that isn’t meant to be an ‘effort’ either. I think of the definition of grace as ‘the influence of God’s love on our hearts and its reflection in our lives.’ I know that I am under grace, not law. So this reassures me that it isn’t up to me to ‘pull’ knowledge out of myself somehow by my struggle. God in His grace, by the Spirit, will draw that knowledge out, and it will be seen in my life, a reflection of His grace. It is not a struggle to pull up one’s reflection in a mirror – it is automatic, as soon as you gaze into the mirror itself, the image of the person, their real self that they truly are, is reflected back immediately and perfectly, without the person having to ‘do’ anything to make it happen! So this helps me relax. All I need to ‘do’ is look to the mirror, the Word, and He will automatically show me the truth of who I am. He is working within me to draw that knowledge out, and it will reflect in my life naturally as I gaze at Him.

I can relax and cease all my ‘trying.’ I do not have to figure everything out. I can be reassured that deep down, I already have an inner knowing. I don’t even have to stress about how to access that inner knowing. I need only look to the One who knows all and rest assured that He will show me what I already know deep down to be true – about God, about my identity in Christ, about the worth of all mankind before God. “By the waters of reflection my soul remembers who I am.” (Mirror Bible) That sounds restful, not stressful!

I like the idea of this study being restful!  I love the fact that it is an easy and light journey, that it is not up to me..that He will draw the truth that is already inside me up to the surface where I can see and understand and experience it!  Wow!  Thank You Jesus!  

"I Believe" by Lewis Smedes

I love this powerful set of statements by Lewis Smedes...from his book "Shame and Grace" - just thought I would share them here, because they touched me so much!  God loves and accepts us more deeply, totally, and unconditionally than we could ever fathom - it's truly a grace beyond our wildest dreams!!

"I believe that I am accepted by the grace of God without regard to my deserving.

"I believe that I am accepted with my shadows [struggles, issues] and the mix of good and bad I breed in them.

"I believe that I am worthy to be accepted.  (!)

"I believe that grace has set me free to accept myself totally, and without conditions.

"I believe that nothing I [am] asahmed of [any past failure or any weakness I perceive in me] will make me unacceptable to God.

"I believe that I can forgive anyone who has ever infected me with shame I do not deserve.

"I believe that I may forgive myself for anything that I have ever done to shame myself or another person.

"I am gratefully proud of being who I am and what I shall [be revealed] to be.

"I believe that grace is the best thing in the world."

Thank You, Papa, for Your grace that accepts us so fully, so completely, so compassionately, so unconditionally, so permanently!  There is nothing we could do that would 'mess up' this grace upon us or make it be withdrawn!   Thank You that we are forever accepted, forever taken into Your arms and held there forever, no matter what!  Thank You for accepted the whole of us, with our mistakes, our struggles, and our 'real life' issues!  Thank You that through Jesus' finished work You banished all the shame the enemy has tried to place upon us!  Thank You that there is no shame on us in being who we are, that we are never shameful or unacceptable to You!  Thank You that we never have to be ashamed in Your presence - we can be honest and naked and real and KNOW that You accept and love us no matter what, and that nothing we do could change Your stance toward us!  You have taken us into Your heart and will never let us go, never be disappointed with us, never have anything but songs of joy to sing over us!!  Thank You that You want us, You see no fault in us, You find us absolutely beautiful and perfect!  Thank You that You love having us near, You wouldn't want to exist without us!  Thank You that we are Your dear little children in whom is all Your delight forever!

Grace Always Comes To Us

God has no expectations on us..
God has no requirements of us..
God has no stipulations for us..

God loves us for free, blesses us for free, sticks with us for free!

There is nothing we need to do, think or even believe in order to 'get' this unconditional companionship, love and help..

It's ALREADY and ALWAYS ours, freely given! That's grace!

Grace is uncaused by us...

 

We don't have to do anything to make it come..

We don't get it going or keep it going..

And we can't 'turn it off' either...

 

That is the whole definition of grace, isn't it? It's freely given, not matter what! 

 

Grace ALWAYS comes to us, the waterfall of His grace ALWAYS pours over us!!

A New Series of Posts Coming Soon...

I recently completed a course given through Andre Rabe's ministry, all about the Person of Jesus, and I am going to post some of the things I learned in the course here on my blog...sort of as a study of Jesus' Person and Work...I thought I'd call it "Walking with Jesus from the Incarnation to the Ascension" -  how does that sound?  It is wonderful to think of how everything He went through, He took us with Him, and how His work really is finished and done and we have the benefits right now!  I love that!  It brings such relief and rest to my heart!  So I think it will be wonderful to walk through this study here on the blog.  Coming soon!!

Who You Are Is Wonderful and Special...

You matter...You are special...You are God's voice in this world, and what you say is important!

You are special...You are a unique light of Christ in this world...nobody shines just like you do!

You are important...you have a special something to share that noone else can...and you share it just by being you!

Who you are is wonderful!

Please never put down what God calls 'His masterpiece' - you!

"For we are God's masterpiece..."  Eph. 2:10a