- Death and Judgment, sounds so ominous and terrible! And yet – since the gospel means ‘good news’ and there is only good news and no bad news in the gospel, then thinking on Death and Judgment and Christ’s finished work is only going to bring GOOD news! I want to take some words that have seemed like such bad news, carried such negative imagery, and see those concepts in light of the good news of grace:
Death – He identified with me even in my death state and even went down to death, letting people kill Him. He took into Himself and absorbed into Himself my ‘death state’ and then He rose again, taking me with Him! I am forever freed from the eternal hold of death, death can’t have me, for He did not allow His holy one to see corruption and didn’t leave His soul in the grave, so the same will be true for me, tied as I am to Him! It’s already true in the eternal realm and my body WILL catch up with this reality, wow!
Judgment – There is a legal verdict of ‘guilty’ that comes upon a lawbreaker. We had put ourselves under law (God never wanted that for us, never put us under it, His language is and has always been grace and not law!!) and so incurred judgment and had a legitimate debt we owed to God. (I love how He let all sin be against Him so He would be in the position of being able to let the debt go, and that is just what He did. It helps me understand the verse saying ‘He shut up all in disobedience so He could have mercy upon all.”…I also love how Andre pointed out that He judged sin in the flesh – He wasn’t judging me myself, my true self; instead He was judging sin that had taken hold of me in my body, judged the fake identity – flesh – that wasn’t the real me at all! It is almost like I felt guilty, I felt deserving of punishment, I felt I needed to die, I was judging myself as evil, but God wasn’t judging me or wanting to punish me! He was seeing the root problem behind my actions – the sin and lies that had ‘infected’ me like a virus! What a relief to find out He is a non-judgmental, non-punishing/punitive God! I am just finding out such wonderful things, and that helps me understand judgment in a better way, a way that brings such relief..but getting back to how Jesus dealt with judgment…I am always too long-winded, lol…) Jesus came and took all that judgment onto Himself when He identified with us in that low place of guilt and judgment and shame! He absorbed all that into Himself, and it is gone! God cancelled the debt against me – that’s forgiveness, wow, it means we don’t have to ‘pay’ for a wrong done, we’re released from owing anything or having to ‘make up’ for our wrong, that’s all cancelled!
Sin – Not only did He absorb my guilt, judgment, feelings of alienation and shame, He also absorbed all the sin/unbelief that caused it, and He eliminated it, wiped it out, expiated it. And with the sin actually taken away and wiped out, absorbed and blotted out by Christ in His body, then my sins and iniquities are not only remembered by God NO MORE, they actually ARE NO MORE! I love how Andre Rabe says if it doesn’t exist in the mind of God, it doesn’t exist at all!
Law – Jesus took away the document stating my guilt – the law – and nailed it to the cross. So I’m not under law anymore, I’m freed from it by going through death with Him! And that pretty much takes care of judgment and punishment all around, for if there is no sin to be judged and no law to do the judging, then I am home free and won’t ever be punished or held liable for any of my wrongs, unbelief, etc.! Where there is no law, there is no transgression..I am not even a transgressor at all anymore! Not a lawbreaker! For you can’t break a law if there is no law there to break! Wow, this good news just keeps getting ‘gooder and gooder’ – smile!
Punishment - I want to say that just using that word ‘punishment’ is so uncomfortable now..I feel it isn’t the most accurate word to use…yet I was raised on such talk, and it is tough to get free of the penal substitutionary ideas I have heard all my life and ‘assumed’ were correct! The more I learn about non-violent atonement, Christus Victor and the healing model of the work of Christ, the more relieved I feel that God never wanted to or needed to ‘punish’ us, Christ, or anybody! Since the debt was owed to Him, He could choose whatever means He wanted to deal with it, and He chose to let it go, to forgive! When you forgive, you don’t demand a punishment/payment first in order to forgive, for that isn’t forgiveness at all but retribution, isn’t it? Forgiveness is when you let the debt go and don’t make the other party pay..they are off the hook, free and clear. It helps people be friends again..it is restorative! So I wanted to say I don’t like using that word ‘punishment’ and I don’t see our dear Papa as a punishing God anymore..love does no harm, and THAT is actually fulfilling the law – to love, to do no harm! How amazing is that! I always thought the law demanded my punishment! But Jesus fulfilled the law not by punishing me or being punished for me so much as by forgiving me even when I/we killed Him, by not retaliating! His love for me/us was the ultimate fulfillment of the law, wasn’t it, the ultimate obedience of loving God and others! He truly fulfilled the law in a way I hadn’t thought of before..oh, how wonderful He is..
My friend Andrea made a statement in response to this post that I want to include here: "So beautiful how you say, “It is almost like I felt guilty, I felt deserving of punishment, I felt I needed to die, I was judging myself as evil, but God wasn’t judging me or wanting to punish me!” Yeah…So our judgment and our punishment were self-imposed, could that be? We hid (in Adam), we ran, we covered up, we accused… wasn’t all that kind of a self-jugdment? Whereas God looked for us, sought our fellowship, called us, clothed us… but we would not be able to bear His glory, His love, His fellowship. Because we had decided to do it our own way, to judge things through our own eyes. We had fallen into perceiving everything “after the flesh”.
Now, could it be that is was our own sinful perception that was nailed to the cross? Wasn’t Jesus – having been made sin (2 Cor 5:21) – nailed to the cross? Could it be that it was our self-imposed VERDICT, judgment and punishment that hung nailed up there? The handwriting with our names on it? The handwriting written in our own names… ?!"
- Andrea's comments blew me away, for she wrote so clearly about self-judgment and how that maybe was what was nailed to the cross, wow! That He never was judging/condemning us as guilty or bad, but we were judging ourselves! I want to really ponder that! That whole perception of ourselves being nailed to the cross, the handwriting we wrote against ourselves, wow! He was never against us! It is so freeing to see just how good He is, better and more loving than I ever imagined. I still have lots of questions about the law and why it was given, etc. But it is slowly coming together in my mind that HE was never about law and judgment, WE were because we were living in that way of thinking (good and evil, trying to become better and stop doing bad, demands and restrictions, rewards and punishments, performance based acceptance, judgment)..but HE was always about grace, acceptance, love and union relationship without regard to good or bad, performance, earning, etc.!
Walking with Jesus from Incarnation to Ascension - Day 20 - Freed from Death, Freed from Judgment
Walking with Jesus from Incarnation to Ascension - Day 19 - Pictures of Redemption
[For] You know that in the past you were living in a ·worthless [meaningless; futile; vain; way, a way passed down from ·the people who lived before you [your ancestors]. But you were saved [ransomed; redeemed] from that useless life. You were ·bought [ransomed; redeemed; like a slave whose freedom was purchased by a payment - not a payment to the devil or to God, but simply what it cost Jesus to enact His rescue plan, what He was willing to do to get us free], not with something that ·ruins [perishes; spoils] like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, who was like ·a pure and perfect lamb [a lamb without defect or blemish.
1 Peter 1:18-9 Expanded Bible
I find it hard to wrap my mind around the meaning of the word “redemption” – when I think of the way the word is used in this world, I think of someone who has ruined others’ opinions of him by doing some wrong act, and how that person may try to ‘redeem’ himself in the others’ eyes by acting in a good way..almost as if he is trying to show he is not all bad, that there is still good in him. I think of the word redeem and how it is made up of a prefix and root – ‘re-deem’ – and I know that to deem something would be to value it, to judge it worth something, so to re-deem must be similar to showing something as valuable again. Perhaps this thing's value has been forgotten, and now it is revealed and seen again, thus it is re-deemed as valuable. I don’t know if my thinking is correct, but it helps me to think that even though we did some very wrong acts when we lost sight of who we truly we (and whose we were!), that there was still inherent value in us, that we were not ‘all bad’ even in the midst of our worst actions, thoughts and words. Jesus redeemed me – maybe that partly means that He still saw value in me when I had lost sight of it, still saw the good nature deep within me (the image of God Himself, His own DNA in my framework!)..He saw me as someone worth rescuing from the lie-trap I had gotten into. He saw me as valuable, worth saving, worth having..He saw me as worth His own precious blood, He deemed me valuable and caused me to be re-deemed – re-valued in this life and world. So I can value myself again, I don’t have to be floundering in shame or guilt! There is something beautiful in me, always has been, always will be – it is the good inner core person that God made me to be from eternity past, the inner child, in union with God in essence, purpose, desire and nature! I am worth having around! I am actually good, a ‘good egg!’ I am even worth dying for, for that is what He was willing to do to ‘redeem’ me…
I am reminded of the verse in the Message Bible in Is 43:
“Don’t be afraid, I’ve redeemed you.
I’ve called your name. You’re mine.
When you’re in over your head, I’ll be there with you.
When you’re in rough waters, you will not go down.
When you’re between a rock and a hard place,
it won’t be a dead end—
Because I am God, your personal God,
The Holy of Israel, your Savior.
I paid a huge price for you:
all of Egypt, with rich Cush and Seba thrown in!
That’s how much you mean to me!
That’s how much I love you!
I’d sell off the whole world to get you back,
trade the creation just for you.
So don’t be afraid, I’m with you…”
He sees me as so valuable He would trade creation itself to get me back to enjoying the fellowship with Him that is my birthright as His child! The fact that He would give up His own life, shed His own precious blood (for that was what it cost Him), to free me from the trap of lies and bondage of sin gives me value and shows my worth to Him – thank You, Jesus! Redemption includes that very act, doesn’t it, that act of Jesus freeing us from bondage to lies, the enemy, sin, etc. He freed us from it all, hallelujah! Slowly I learn what redemption is, and how big and beautiful this word truly is for us!
The picture came to my mind of a little girl who was lured away from her family and taken captive by an evil man, enslaved by him and told over and over that she was an unwanted nothing with no home or family…so after a while she begins to believe and live out of this lie, an empty life of drudgery and hopelessness and shame. But then one day a regal man comes to the evil person’s residence..and the evil slave-owner shrivels in fear and hides from the man’s presence! He is truly royal and great in bearing, yet there is an amazing gentleness about him! He has been on a great journey, perilous and costly to himself, yet he will not stop till he succeeds in his quest..He looks around and suddenly a flash of recognition comes to his face! He points to the young girl in her tattered slave clothes, and with great authority in his voice, says, “This one is not an orphaned slave, she is my Father, the King’s, own child!” The girl looks up into the man’s gentle face and sees that she closely resembles him, with the same mannerisms and features, the same smile and tilt of the head, even! Could it really be true? Her heart leaps at the thought…The kind young man takes her in his arms and carries her safely home and runs up to the throne and puts her right on her royal Father’s lap – and the Father hugs her tightly to Himself as all her fears and anguish from all the lonely years just melts away…and they lived happily ever after! This is redemption to me! Someone comes into my enslaved existence and declares that I belong to and with Him, for He has a prior claim on my life that is before the slave-owner’s claim! He comes and claims me for His own, claims me as His valuable dear one who is related to Him and of the same source, the Father Himself – oh, how much value I am shown to have!! And He frees me from the grip of the slave-owner! And we live happily ever after with the Father!
I can imagine the voice of Jesus saying what I feel is the message of redemption to the trapped young girl, to me: “You’re not forgotten, you’re wanted. You’re not neglected, you’re cared for. You’re not forsaken, you’re embraced. You’re not lost, I’ve found you. You’re not hopeless, I’ve taken up your cause. You’re not alone, I’m with you. You’re not broken, you’re whole. You’re not sinful, you’re good. You’re not wretched, you’re lovable. You’re not vulnerable, you’re safe. You’re not spinning out of control, everything is all right now. You’re not estranged, you’re part of the family. You’re not a nobody, you’re my somebody! You’re not trash, you’re a treasure. You’re not ruined, you’re restored. You’re not bound, I’ve freed you! You’re not an enemy, you’re my friend. You’re not distant from me, I’ve got you in my arms. You’re not cast away, you belong with me! You’re not a misfit, you fit in with me. You’re not unnoticed, you’ve got my full attention. You’re not an orphan slave, you’re a royal daughter! You’re not unimportant, I’d give my life for you! You are delivered, you are safe, you are worthy, you are REDEEMED!
As the old song says, “Redeemed how I love to proclaim it, His child and forever I am!”
1 Peter 1:18-9 Expanded Bible
I find it hard to wrap my mind around the meaning of the word “redemption” – when I think of the way the word is used in this world, I think of someone who has ruined others’ opinions of him by doing some wrong act, and how that person may try to ‘redeem’ himself in the others’ eyes by acting in a good way..almost as if he is trying to show he is not all bad, that there is still good in him. I think of the word redeem and how it is made up of a prefix and root – ‘re-deem’ – and I know that to deem something would be to value it, to judge it worth something, so to re-deem must be similar to showing something as valuable again. Perhaps this thing's value has been forgotten, and now it is revealed and seen again, thus it is re-deemed as valuable. I don’t know if my thinking is correct, but it helps me to think that even though we did some very wrong acts when we lost sight of who we truly we (and whose we were!), that there was still inherent value in us, that we were not ‘all bad’ even in the midst of our worst actions, thoughts and words. Jesus redeemed me – maybe that partly means that He still saw value in me when I had lost sight of it, still saw the good nature deep within me (the image of God Himself, His own DNA in my framework!)..He saw me as someone worth rescuing from the lie-trap I had gotten into. He saw me as valuable, worth saving, worth having..He saw me as worth His own precious blood, He deemed me valuable and caused me to be re-deemed – re-valued in this life and world. So I can value myself again, I don’t have to be floundering in shame or guilt! There is something beautiful in me, always has been, always will be – it is the good inner core person that God made me to be from eternity past, the inner child, in union with God in essence, purpose, desire and nature! I am worth having around! I am actually good, a ‘good egg!’ I am even worth dying for, for that is what He was willing to do to ‘redeem’ me…
I am reminded of the verse in the Message Bible in Is 43:
“Don’t be afraid, I’ve redeemed you.
I’ve called your name. You’re mine.
When you’re in over your head, I’ll be there with you.
When you’re in rough waters, you will not go down.
When you’re between a rock and a hard place,
it won’t be a dead end—
Because I am God, your personal God,
The Holy of Israel, your Savior.
I paid a huge price for you:
all of Egypt, with rich Cush and Seba thrown in!
That’s how much you mean to me!
That’s how much I love you!
I’d sell off the whole world to get you back,
trade the creation just for you.
So don’t be afraid, I’m with you…”
He sees me as so valuable He would trade creation itself to get me back to enjoying the fellowship with Him that is my birthright as His child! The fact that He would give up His own life, shed His own precious blood (for that was what it cost Him), to free me from the trap of lies and bondage of sin gives me value and shows my worth to Him – thank You, Jesus! Redemption includes that very act, doesn’t it, that act of Jesus freeing us from bondage to lies, the enemy, sin, etc. He freed us from it all, hallelujah! Slowly I learn what redemption is, and how big and beautiful this word truly is for us!
The picture came to my mind of a little girl who was lured away from her family and taken captive by an evil man, enslaved by him and told over and over that she was an unwanted nothing with no home or family…so after a while she begins to believe and live out of this lie, an empty life of drudgery and hopelessness and shame. But then one day a regal man comes to the evil person’s residence..and the evil slave-owner shrivels in fear and hides from the man’s presence! He is truly royal and great in bearing, yet there is an amazing gentleness about him! He has been on a great journey, perilous and costly to himself, yet he will not stop till he succeeds in his quest..He looks around and suddenly a flash of recognition comes to his face! He points to the young girl in her tattered slave clothes, and with great authority in his voice, says, “This one is not an orphaned slave, she is my Father, the King’s, own child!” The girl looks up into the man’s gentle face and sees that she closely resembles him, with the same mannerisms and features, the same smile and tilt of the head, even! Could it really be true? Her heart leaps at the thought…The kind young man takes her in his arms and carries her safely home and runs up to the throne and puts her right on her royal Father’s lap – and the Father hugs her tightly to Himself as all her fears and anguish from all the lonely years just melts away…and they lived happily ever after! This is redemption to me! Someone comes into my enslaved existence and declares that I belong to and with Him, for He has a prior claim on my life that is before the slave-owner’s claim! He comes and claims me for His own, claims me as His valuable dear one who is related to Him and of the same source, the Father Himself – oh, how much value I am shown to have!! And He frees me from the grip of the slave-owner! And we live happily ever after with the Father!
I can imagine the voice of Jesus saying what I feel is the message of redemption to the trapped young girl, to me: “You’re not forgotten, you’re wanted. You’re not neglected, you’re cared for. You’re not forsaken, you’re embraced. You’re not lost, I’ve found you. You’re not hopeless, I’ve taken up your cause. You’re not alone, I’m with you. You’re not broken, you’re whole. You’re not sinful, you’re good. You’re not wretched, you’re lovable. You’re not vulnerable, you’re safe. You’re not spinning out of control, everything is all right now. You’re not estranged, you’re part of the family. You’re not a nobody, you’re my somebody! You’re not trash, you’re a treasure. You’re not ruined, you’re restored. You’re not bound, I’ve freed you! You’re not an enemy, you’re my friend. You’re not distant from me, I’ve got you in my arms. You’re not cast away, you belong with me! You’re not a misfit, you fit in with me. You’re not unnoticed, you’ve got my full attention. You’re not an orphan slave, you’re a royal daughter! You’re not unimportant, I’d give my life for you! You are delivered, you are safe, you are worthy, you are REDEEMED!
As the old song says, “Redeemed how I love to proclaim it, His child and forever I am!”
"Happy" by Pharrell Williams
Walking with Jesus from Incarnation to the Ascension - Day 18 - Word Became Flesh
The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14 NKJ
14 The Word became ·a human [flesh] and ·lived [made his home; pitched his tabernacle; God’s glorious presence dwelt in Israel’s tabernacle in the wilderness] among us. We saw his ·glory [majesty]—the glory that belongs to the ·only Son [one and only; only begotten] ·of [who came from] the Father—and he was full of ·grace and truth [God’s gracious love and faithfulness. John 1:14 Expanded Bible
The Word became flesh! Jesus entered into my experience as a human being, with all its ups and downs, all its inconsistencies and confusion, all its struggles and suffering! He entered into my hell, came and joined me in my suffering – the suffering caused by others’ sin against me and the suffering from my own sin that I perpetrated. He understood me, He loved me, He took my side and was in solidarity with me there in the midst of my hurt and pain…He took my side as a victim of sin and lies and the enemy’s ploys, and He even took my side as a perpetrator of wrong actions toward others. He cared about me and understood me, had nothing but non-judgmental love for me there in my pain, frailty, weakness and humanity! I am not alone, He is beside me! I am not forgotten, He remembers me! I am not rejected, He accepts me! I am not judged, I am understood!
He judged and condemned sin in the flesh – He judged sin, not me! He came saying that there was something foreign that had caused havoc in my life, but that thing was not me and not part of my design or true make-up. Oh, what a relief to know that sin isn’t the deepest truth about me! He showed me what human life really is like, showed me what God really did when He made a human, showed me – in Himself – a mirror of my own self! And so in Him I find out that I am not a sinner with a sinful nature, that is not my identity, but that I am God’s child, special, valuable, truly priceless, and I am made in His image and therefore good and loving at the core. I may be sitting in a hell-hole, even one of my own creation, but He is there with me reminding me that I am truly royalty, truly beautiful, truly good deep down inside, truly God’s dear child. I may feel unlovable and unloved, rejected and alone, but He is there with me reminding me I am unconditionally loved, radically accepted, and will never be alone! He is there pointing to the fact that I belong. I belong to God. I am part of His family. I come from Him. I am made of Him. I am therefore good and beautiful and connected with Him always. I find my true self looking in Jesus’ eyes and seeing myself there. He displays for me who I truly am, what humanity really is – the expression of God Himself!
Then there is the cross and resurrection! There He delivers the death blow to sin, eradicating it and taking it away from me. He takes away that which was always foreign to me so that the real, true, authentic me can be revealed and expressed fully in my life! He frees me from the foreign oppressor of lies and legalistic/performance oriented ideas. He frees me to be my true self, my real self. And the resurrection vindicates that true self, that innocent self! He rises from the dead, proving my innocence! It is amazing! I always thought I was a shameful, dirty, rotten-at-the-core, worthless person. Yet through the cross He shows me I am loved just as I am in the mess of my life, I am worth dying for, and He shows me that sin isn’t the deepest part about me, but is actually not me at all. And the resurrection goes and proves that even more, for it vindicates me as innocent! I am revealed to be an innocent little child, pure and sweet, loving and good just like my Papa! Thank You, Jesus, for becoming flesh and taking on my condition, getting rid of the sin/lie was binding me and hurting me. And thank you for showing me, through Your incarnation, who I truly am – not a bad, rejected, rotten person but a good, innocent, loving child, God’s child, God’s beloved child!
14 The Word became ·a human [flesh] and ·lived [made his home; pitched his tabernacle; God’s glorious presence dwelt in Israel’s tabernacle in the wilderness] among us. We saw his ·glory [majesty]—the glory that belongs to the ·only Son [one and only; only begotten] ·of [who came from] the Father—and he was full of ·grace and truth [God’s gracious love and faithfulness. John 1:14 Expanded Bible
The Word became flesh! Jesus entered into my experience as a human being, with all its ups and downs, all its inconsistencies and confusion, all its struggles and suffering! He entered into my hell, came and joined me in my suffering – the suffering caused by others’ sin against me and the suffering from my own sin that I perpetrated. He understood me, He loved me, He took my side and was in solidarity with me there in the midst of my hurt and pain…He took my side as a victim of sin and lies and the enemy’s ploys, and He even took my side as a perpetrator of wrong actions toward others. He cared about me and understood me, had nothing but non-judgmental love for me there in my pain, frailty, weakness and humanity! I am not alone, He is beside me! I am not forgotten, He remembers me! I am not rejected, He accepts me! I am not judged, I am understood!
He judged and condemned sin in the flesh – He judged sin, not me! He came saying that there was something foreign that had caused havoc in my life, but that thing was not me and not part of my design or true make-up. Oh, what a relief to know that sin isn’t the deepest truth about me! He showed me what human life really is like, showed me what God really did when He made a human, showed me – in Himself – a mirror of my own self! And so in Him I find out that I am not a sinner with a sinful nature, that is not my identity, but that I am God’s child, special, valuable, truly priceless, and I am made in His image and therefore good and loving at the core. I may be sitting in a hell-hole, even one of my own creation, but He is there with me reminding me that I am truly royalty, truly beautiful, truly good deep down inside, truly God’s dear child. I may feel unlovable and unloved, rejected and alone, but He is there with me reminding me I am unconditionally loved, radically accepted, and will never be alone! He is there pointing to the fact that I belong. I belong to God. I am part of His family. I come from Him. I am made of Him. I am therefore good and beautiful and connected with Him always. I find my true self looking in Jesus’ eyes and seeing myself there. He displays for me who I truly am, what humanity really is – the expression of God Himself!
Then there is the cross and resurrection! There He delivers the death blow to sin, eradicating it and taking it away from me. He takes away that which was always foreign to me so that the real, true, authentic me can be revealed and expressed fully in my life! He frees me from the foreign oppressor of lies and legalistic/performance oriented ideas. He frees me to be my true self, my real self. And the resurrection vindicates that true self, that innocent self! He rises from the dead, proving my innocence! It is amazing! I always thought I was a shameful, dirty, rotten-at-the-core, worthless person. Yet through the cross He shows me I am loved just as I am in the mess of my life, I am worth dying for, and He shows me that sin isn’t the deepest part about me, but is actually not me at all. And the resurrection goes and proves that even more, for it vindicates me as innocent! I am revealed to be an innocent little child, pure and sweet, loving and good just like my Papa! Thank You, Jesus, for becoming flesh and taking on my condition, getting rid of the sin/lie was binding me and hurting me. And thank you for showing me, through Your incarnation, who I truly am – not a bad, rejected, rotten person but a good, innocent, loving child, God’s child, God’s beloved child!
His Love Cannot Fail - His Love Has Won!
Our Papa's love is a love that leaves no child behind, leaves no child out in the cold, leaves no child to fend for himself, leaves no child unloved or uncared for - His is a love that has every one of us, His children, wrapped securely in His arms, tenderly caressed, cherished and adored, safe and sound for all eternity!
I
am so thankful we are all wrapped up in a love that cannot fail, a love
that brings all the lost and hurting children home, that reveals
that we have always been home in His heart and always will be! No
matter what story plays out in our lives here on this planet, the bigger
story of His love will always be true and will trump every lesser story
of sin, shame, fear, confusion and doubt! What
a relief to be safe in the arms of the One who IS reality itself, Love
Himself, Life Himself! We can't escape Him, hallelujah! In Him we live
and move and have our being! We are in Love and we are never going to
be out of that Love that holds the universe, holds our existence, holds
our end from the beginning, holds our hearts!!
"All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you." Ps. 22:27
For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross. This includes you!" Col. 1:19-21a
As the Waters Cover the Sea
For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.
Hab. 2:14
Walking with Jesus from Incarnation to Ascension - Day 17 - It's Personal: God's Love Embraces Each Individual
That I could personally be the focus of God’s love, and that He
desires the same kind of intimate relationship with me that He has with
His Son Jesus – this baffles me and overwhelms my mind! I really can’t
take it in or grasp it. This is something I have struggled with all my
life – to believe God loves me and is personally intimately with me,
that He is not scary/fearful or distant from me.
Jesus came to show us God's tender heart for us so that we wouldn't be afraid. He came so we would be at ease with Him, comfortable enough to call Him 'Daddy.' His love pushes out fear. This is my hope, because I have a lot of fear buildup from the past, from lies and hurts. I have always struggled with being so afraid of God. My image of Him has been so warped by religion, lies and my own thoughts and feelings. It has been so hard to see Him as loving and safe. Many times when I tried to picture or think of God, I would get an image in my mind of a face darkened or hidden, of someone withdrawing from me or aloof from me, and I would feel this person to be distant, disappointed, a little cold, even demanding. I would say God loved me and I would sometimes feel such love and grace, would sometimes feel that He was smiling and kind, yet at other times have the fearful and dark image come to mind. So I have lived in fear of God, struggling with being able to approach Him without hesitation, struggling with feeling comfortable and safe in His presence.
One night I asked God to give me a dream of heaven. That night I did dream of heaven, dreamed I was standing with Jesus behind my own little house – a sort of English cottage, complete with a little hedged in garden. We were planning the garden together, and He was telling me I could have anything I wanted in this garden. It was so happy and peaceful with Him right there beside me in this beautiful place. And the main feeling I remember having was one of complete safety – that there was nothing to fear, nothing could get to me or harm me! It is interesting to me that the main thing I felt in heaven was safety and freedom from fear!
Perfect Love casts out fear. I feel that is what He is doing in my life right now. Through this class and other readings and such, He is healing my image of Him. More and more I am able to picture Him as loving, inviting, smiling and brightly shining. I am able to picture Him in a way that is open, friendly, kind and – especially – safe!
God has brought us into the fellowship of Christ – the fellowship He has with the Son. He wants me to experience the same intimacy and belonging and security that Jesus Himself experiences in the presence of His Papa. He tells me that this same relationship of love and safety is also mine! Jesus is never afraid of His Father. He never feels a barrier between them. He never feels His Father is angry with Him or disappointed with Him. He never feels His Father is pulling away from Him or hiding His face from Him. There is never anything amiss in that relationship! There is never anything to fear in that relationship! Nothing can go wrong in or spoil that relationship! Nothing can get in between that love flow or stop it. In His relationship with the Father, there is complete safety and security – Jesus knows He is always loved, always delighted in, always approved of, always treated the best way possible, always SAFE! And that is the relationship I am a part of through Christ!
I really want to know and enjoy such a relationship with God as Jesus has, and God shows me I already have it, it is already mine! The old fears tug at me, yet the new freedom of love woos me forward into joy and happy fellowship with my Papa! Even though I have a lot of unlearning and healing that is needed to really see and experience this relationship of safety and love with my Papa, I am more hopeful now than I have been in a long while! He is convincing me steadily and surely that I have nothing to fear with Him, that He really does love and hold me, that I really have a perfect and intimate loving union with Him, that I really am safe in His arms! As Jesus is to the Father, so am I – valued, held, loved, enjoyed, SAFE! Oh, Lord, make me to see and experience this reality that is truly my reality!
Jesus came to show us God's tender heart for us so that we wouldn't be afraid. He came so we would be at ease with Him, comfortable enough to call Him 'Daddy.' His love pushes out fear. This is my hope, because I have a lot of fear buildup from the past, from lies and hurts. I have always struggled with being so afraid of God. My image of Him has been so warped by religion, lies and my own thoughts and feelings. It has been so hard to see Him as loving and safe. Many times when I tried to picture or think of God, I would get an image in my mind of a face darkened or hidden, of someone withdrawing from me or aloof from me, and I would feel this person to be distant, disappointed, a little cold, even demanding. I would say God loved me and I would sometimes feel such love and grace, would sometimes feel that He was smiling and kind, yet at other times have the fearful and dark image come to mind. So I have lived in fear of God, struggling with being able to approach Him without hesitation, struggling with feeling comfortable and safe in His presence.
One night I asked God to give me a dream of heaven. That night I did dream of heaven, dreamed I was standing with Jesus behind my own little house – a sort of English cottage, complete with a little hedged in garden. We were planning the garden together, and He was telling me I could have anything I wanted in this garden. It was so happy and peaceful with Him right there beside me in this beautiful place. And the main feeling I remember having was one of complete safety – that there was nothing to fear, nothing could get to me or harm me! It is interesting to me that the main thing I felt in heaven was safety and freedom from fear!
Perfect Love casts out fear. I feel that is what He is doing in my life right now. Through this class and other readings and such, He is healing my image of Him. More and more I am able to picture Him as loving, inviting, smiling and brightly shining. I am able to picture Him in a way that is open, friendly, kind and – especially – safe!
God has brought us into the fellowship of Christ – the fellowship He has with the Son. He wants me to experience the same intimacy and belonging and security that Jesus Himself experiences in the presence of His Papa. He tells me that this same relationship of love and safety is also mine! Jesus is never afraid of His Father. He never feels a barrier between them. He never feels His Father is angry with Him or disappointed with Him. He never feels His Father is pulling away from Him or hiding His face from Him. There is never anything amiss in that relationship! There is never anything to fear in that relationship! Nothing can go wrong in or spoil that relationship! Nothing can get in between that love flow or stop it. In His relationship with the Father, there is complete safety and security – Jesus knows He is always loved, always delighted in, always approved of, always treated the best way possible, always SAFE! And that is the relationship I am a part of through Christ!
I really want to know and enjoy such a relationship with God as Jesus has, and God shows me I already have it, it is already mine! The old fears tug at me, yet the new freedom of love woos me forward into joy and happy fellowship with my Papa! Even though I have a lot of unlearning and healing that is needed to really see and experience this relationship of safety and love with my Papa, I am more hopeful now than I have been in a long while! He is convincing me steadily and surely that I have nothing to fear with Him, that He really does love and hold me, that I really have a perfect and intimate loving union with Him, that I really am safe in His arms! As Jesus is to the Father, so am I – valued, held, loved, enjoyed, SAFE! Oh, Lord, make me to see and experience this reality that is truly my reality!
His Resurrection Was Our Resurrection!
Happy Resurrection Day! Here is another wonderful post from facebook, by Christian Erickson, on the resurrection and what it means for all of us:
When He became man, He became all men.
When He died, we died.
When He rose, all humanity rose with Him in newness of life.
Jesus didn't just die and resurrect to show off. He died and was resurrected to rebirth humanity in His life! We had become so corrupted with sin and death that humanity was heading towards what the early church called "nonbeing." When we say that Christ saved the world, we really mean it. It was the belief of the early Christians that if Christ hadn't of come, humanity would have eventually destroyed itself and would have become nothing.
But Jesus came! And He rose!
At His resurrection, according to Athanasius:
“All people were clothed with incorruption in the promise of the resurrection. For the solidarity of humanity is such that, by virtue of the Word’s indwelling in a single human body, the corruption which goes with death has lost its power over all.”
You see, when we celebrate resurrection Sunday, we aren't just celebrating Jesus' resurrection, we are celebrating ours too! We are celebrating the birth of a whole new creation!
The old creation was ruled by sin because of the fall of Adam. But Jesus came as the last Adam (1 Cor. 15:45), the last of the Adamic race, mystically crucified humanity with Him on the cross, forever ending the old creation defined by Adams fall and by death (2 Cor. 5:14). Then when Jesus was resurrected, a whole new creation was birthed, a whole new race of people began (Hosea 6:2). We are in a whole new world!
Death no longer has the final say on humanity because Christ defeated and destroyed it through His resurrection life!
Today isn't just Jesus' resurrection. Let's not forget why He did it. Today is humanities birthday! All humanity was born again through His resurrection!
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." - 1 Peter 1:3
"All that is in The Messiah [all humanity] is therefore The New Creation; the old order has passed away to such." - 2 Corinthians 5:17
"We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus." - Romans 6:9-11
"Just as by a man death came, in this way also by a man the dead come to life. For just as by Adam all people die, in this way also by The Messiah they all live." - 1 Corinthians 5:21-22
Happy birthday humanity! He is risen!!!"
Christian Erickson
What the Cross Proves to Us
I would like to share a post I read on facebook by Christian Erickson..it's such a wonderful and meaningful description of what God did in Christ on the cross, and of what God proved to us through that cross! Thank You Father for Your amazing love!
"Today we celebrate that almost two thousand years ago, God Himself proved that He would rather be killed than kill.
He would rather be put on a cross and murdered by His own creation than hold our sins against us. We killed God! And yet, in the greatest display of divine love the world has ever seen, God looked down on His creation stuck in darkness and spoke forgiveness to us through the blood flowing from His broken body.
When humanity committed the worst sin possible (the killing of our creator), God looked down and forgave us. How much more does He forgive us of everything else?
The cross proves that God is dying for us to know that we are accepted. The cross proves that God bleeds forgiveness and love. The cross proves that He never is going to turn His back on us no matter how much we turn our back on Him.
Truly, God was in Christ reconciling the whole cosmos to Himself, not counting our sins against us."
Christian Erickson
"Today we celebrate that almost two thousand years ago, God Himself proved that He would rather be killed than kill.
He would rather be put on a cross and murdered by His own creation than hold our sins against us. We killed God! And yet, in the greatest display of divine love the world has ever seen, God looked down on His creation stuck in darkness and spoke forgiveness to us through the blood flowing from His broken body.
When humanity committed the worst sin possible (the killing of our creator), God looked down and forgave us. How much more does He forgive us of everything else?
The cross proves that God is dying for us to know that we are accepted. The cross proves that God bleeds forgiveness and love. The cross proves that He never is going to turn His back on us no matter how much we turn our back on Him.
Truly, God was in Christ reconciling the whole cosmos to Himself, not counting our sins against us."
Christian Erickson
Walking with Jesus from Incarnation to Ascension - Day 16 - It's Universal: God's Love Includes All People
Though what happened to Adam had a negative effect on all
humanity, what happened with Christ has a much greater positive effect
on all humanity!
Adam believed a lie and became subject to sin, fear and death.
Christ believed the truth for us and freed us who had all our lives been subject to bondage through fear of death!
Through Adam came sin and fear and death.
Through Jesus came grace and truth, and He brought life and immortality to light through the good news of grace (God’s attitude of peace and goodwill toward man).
Adam’s heart was darkened when he believed lies, and these lies trapped and bound him.
Jesus came announcing freedom to the captives and sight to the blind (both spiritually and physically).
Adam ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and became bound in a system of performance and works, thinking he needed to do good to earn God’s favor and that anything less would bring God’s vengeance and curse.
Jesus was and is the tree of life, and He freed us from the law system, showing us God’s way has always been unconditional love and freely given grace (acceptance), and that nothing we do or don’t do could ever change His heart toward us!
Adam’s sin made him feel alienated in his mind from God, and he couldn’t see who God really was – it was like a veil was over his mind, a veil of religious thinking, and he couldn’t see the glory of God within him, couldn’t know who God really was.
Jesus’ righteous act freed our minds, for He redeemed us – He came and claimed what was His own, what He had prior claim to, us! He showed us the glory of God in His own face, that whoever had seen Him had seen the Father – He revealed God as Father!
Adam’s sin deadened or dulled him in some ways from sensing the Spirit’s work in his life, even though the Spirit was always present.
Jesus activated the Spirit’s presence in us in a new way, sending the Spirit into our hearts to assure us of God’s love for us, to echo within us that we truly are God’s children, and heirs!
Adam was of the earth, earthly, and the lies of the enemy made him feel that was all he was at all, someone from below.
Christ was of heaven, heavenly, and He showed us the truth that we are made of God-substance, a part of us is eternal – that we are also from above!
Through one man’s disobedience, sin entered the world, and death through sin.
Through one man’s obedience, there came justification (proving our innocence and likeness to God) and life!
In Adam, all died.
In Christ, all are made alive – we have been raised with Christ and seated in heavenly places with Him!
Because of Adam’s believing a lie, sin ruled in many ways.
Now because of Christ’s believing the truth, grace rules and has the final say!
Because of Adam’s sin, death reigned.
Christ came saying ‘Your God reigns!’ And He has the keys of death and the grave! We reign in eternal life with Him! Life wins, Life reigns!
Because of Adam, everyone forgot their origin in God and their family name.
Because of Christ, all the families of the earth will remember! The sleepers will awaken to God’s glory shining on them! And everyone will turn to the Lord and worship (from Ps. 22).
Because of Adam, everyone feels left out.
Christ shows us noone is left out, all are reconciled! Christ shows us in His forgiving attitude that God is not counting our sins against us, that God’s favor and goodwill is toward all mankind, all are revealed to be included – in!
Because of Adam, all have made themselves into sons of disobedience, though they are truly still God’s own created children.
Because of Christ, God has brought back and redeemed (rescued us from vain thinking) what is His own – His children!
Because of Adam, all were dead in sins (unresponsive to relationship with God). We were made for relationship with Him and we were hurting because we were missing out on enjoying that relationship our hearts longed for, being bound by lies about God and thus afraid to interact with Him, thinking He was mean or distant or demanding.
Yet Christ brought life to the dead and restored the fellowship we were missing, opening our eyes to the fact that God was never against us, He was always right there with us, open and friendly and ready to interact with us. He showed us that God was not scary or distant but safe and embracing us, and we were able to relax and enjoy real intimacy with our Papa!
Adam’s sin affected humanity, because all were from Adam, and we were all ‘lost.’
But Christ’s work affected humanity more, because before we were from Adam, we were formed and found in Christ, chosen in Him and dearly loved as God’s own children, before the world began! We were all found before we were ever lost! God’s prior reference and claim upon us was safely preserved in Christ and we are found in Him, no matter what happened here on this earthly timeline!
Though sin is shown to be great, God’s grace is always shown to be greater still!
Oh, the depth of the riches of God’s foreknowledge and plan!
It saves us all, includes us all, rescues and forgives and frees us all!
As my old pastor used to say, “All means all, and that’s all all means!”
God has consigned all under ‘disobedience’ that He might have mercy on ALL!
ALL humanity was included in His life, death, resurrection and ascension!
Though all creation was subject to futility, corruption and frustration, ALL creation will be freed into life and expansiveness and joy!
Though all became disjointed because of Adam, because of Christ ALL things will be summed up in Him, restored and set right through Christ – there will be the ‘restoration of ALL things’ (Acts 3).
And God will be ALL, and IN ALL!
Hallelujah!
Adam believed a lie and became subject to sin, fear and death.
Christ believed the truth for us and freed us who had all our lives been subject to bondage through fear of death!
Through Adam came sin and fear and death.
Through Jesus came grace and truth, and He brought life and immortality to light through the good news of grace (God’s attitude of peace and goodwill toward man).
Adam’s heart was darkened when he believed lies, and these lies trapped and bound him.
Jesus came announcing freedom to the captives and sight to the blind (both spiritually and physically).
Adam ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and became bound in a system of performance and works, thinking he needed to do good to earn God’s favor and that anything less would bring God’s vengeance and curse.
Jesus was and is the tree of life, and He freed us from the law system, showing us God’s way has always been unconditional love and freely given grace (acceptance), and that nothing we do or don’t do could ever change His heart toward us!
Adam’s sin made him feel alienated in his mind from God, and he couldn’t see who God really was – it was like a veil was over his mind, a veil of religious thinking, and he couldn’t see the glory of God within him, couldn’t know who God really was.
Jesus’ righteous act freed our minds, for He redeemed us – He came and claimed what was His own, what He had prior claim to, us! He showed us the glory of God in His own face, that whoever had seen Him had seen the Father – He revealed God as Father!
Adam’s sin deadened or dulled him in some ways from sensing the Spirit’s work in his life, even though the Spirit was always present.
Jesus activated the Spirit’s presence in us in a new way, sending the Spirit into our hearts to assure us of God’s love for us, to echo within us that we truly are God’s children, and heirs!
Adam was of the earth, earthly, and the lies of the enemy made him feel that was all he was at all, someone from below.
Christ was of heaven, heavenly, and He showed us the truth that we are made of God-substance, a part of us is eternal – that we are also from above!
Through one man’s disobedience, sin entered the world, and death through sin.
Through one man’s obedience, there came justification (proving our innocence and likeness to God) and life!
In Adam, all died.
In Christ, all are made alive – we have been raised with Christ and seated in heavenly places with Him!
Because of Adam’s believing a lie, sin ruled in many ways.
Now because of Christ’s believing the truth, grace rules and has the final say!
Because of Adam’s sin, death reigned.
Christ came saying ‘Your God reigns!’ And He has the keys of death and the grave! We reign in eternal life with Him! Life wins, Life reigns!
Because of Adam, everyone forgot their origin in God and their family name.
Because of Christ, all the families of the earth will remember! The sleepers will awaken to God’s glory shining on them! And everyone will turn to the Lord and worship (from Ps. 22).
Because of Adam, everyone feels left out.
Christ shows us noone is left out, all are reconciled! Christ shows us in His forgiving attitude that God is not counting our sins against us, that God’s favor and goodwill is toward all mankind, all are revealed to be included – in!
Because of Adam, all have made themselves into sons of disobedience, though they are truly still God’s own created children.
Because of Christ, God has brought back and redeemed (rescued us from vain thinking) what is His own – His children!
Because of Adam, all were dead in sins (unresponsive to relationship with God). We were made for relationship with Him and we were hurting because we were missing out on enjoying that relationship our hearts longed for, being bound by lies about God and thus afraid to interact with Him, thinking He was mean or distant or demanding.
Yet Christ brought life to the dead and restored the fellowship we were missing, opening our eyes to the fact that God was never against us, He was always right there with us, open and friendly and ready to interact with us. He showed us that God was not scary or distant but safe and embracing us, and we were able to relax and enjoy real intimacy with our Papa!
Adam’s sin affected humanity, because all were from Adam, and we were all ‘lost.’
But Christ’s work affected humanity more, because before we were from Adam, we were formed and found in Christ, chosen in Him and dearly loved as God’s own children, before the world began! We were all found before we were ever lost! God’s prior reference and claim upon us was safely preserved in Christ and we are found in Him, no matter what happened here on this earthly timeline!
Though sin is shown to be great, God’s grace is always shown to be greater still!
Oh, the depth of the riches of God’s foreknowledge and plan!
It saves us all, includes us all, rescues and forgives and frees us all!
As my old pastor used to say, “All means all, and that’s all all means!”
God has consigned all under ‘disobedience’ that He might have mercy on ALL!
ALL humanity was included in His life, death, resurrection and ascension!
Though all creation was subject to futility, corruption and frustration, ALL creation will be freed into life and expansiveness and joy!
Though all became disjointed because of Adam, because of Christ ALL things will be summed up in Him, restored and set right through Christ – there will be the ‘restoration of ALL things’ (Acts 3).
And God will be ALL, and IN ALL!
Hallelujah!
Fields of Grace
We are His dear little children, walking with our Papa in fields of grace!
"Praise be to God for giving us through Christ every possible spiritual benefit as citizens of Heaven! For consider what he has done—before the foundation of the world he chose us to become, in Christ, his holy and blameless children living within his constant care." Eph. 1:3-4 PHP
"We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand - out in the wide open spaces of God's grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise." Rom. 5:2 MSG
"He stood me up on a wide-open field; I stood there saved - surprised to be loved!" Ps. 18:19 MSG
"Because you’ve always stood up for me, I’m free to run and play." Ps. 63:7 MSG
Innocent Little Children
We are such sweet little innocent children, living constantly in our Papa's tender care! He sings over us constantly, is so delighted in us, we can do no wrong in His eyes! He is so proud of us, and it shows in His beaming face, His smile that's always upon us, the way He brags on us to the whole creation! And we've always been this way to Him, always been His little innocent ones...We called ourselves ugly and unworthy, but our Papa never did! We called ourselves rejected and shameful, but our Papa never did! We called ourselves evil and sinful but our Papa never did!
To Him, we have always been His good little innocent children, His beauties, His cherished ones, the apple of His eye, His pride and joy!
We mess up but He says, "They don't know what they are doing, they are infected with a lie that distorts their perception!" This infection with a lie, this wrong belief, doesn't bring forth His wrath but instead brings forth His compassion!
The things we do wrong are cries for help from a trapped soul! He sees us as wounded little ones needing love, not as rebels or sinners needing condemnation and punishment! Oh what a relief that He always sees me as His little innocent beauty, His cherished little baby who can do no wrong in His eyes! He knows our heart is good, He made us that way, we have His very nature, which is so pure and sweet and good - it's pure love!!
He knows we mean well, we just get confused when we think He doesn't love us..He knows we've been lied to, deceived, tricked, trapped in a false perception , thinking He's against us..He knows we've pulled back from Him in fear and thus aren't experiencing the love that we were meant to enjoy, and He knows without that love we feel empty and in pain and seek wrong ways to deal with that pain and to try to feel okay with ourselves.
He doesn't ever yell, rant or rave at us. He doesn't ever harm or hurt us, doesn't ever lash out at us or punish us. His way is healing and restoration, not punishment and furor! He doesn't want to pull us down, shame us, or wound our hearts. He mends our broken hearts and massages them with the love we need so desperately. He knows we need love, not judgment!
We need His love like we need air!! His soothing presence is pure LOVE and makes the hurt go away, fills the deep need for acceptance and belonging, frees us to look into His face and realize we are safe in His arms and special to Him, makes us see we are His little innocent ones and have been all along! And we blossom and bloom in the atmosphere of His grace and delight over us, as we hear the song He has always sung over us with joy, the love song of the ages, "I've always loved you and always will! You are My beloved child, My innocent one in My image and likeness, in whom I am well-pleased!"
Papa understands! He says everything is okay, I love you, you are mine, you are wanted, I am for you and never against you, never left you, am always here for you..Daddy's got you, you are safe, you are loved, you are home!
Walking with Jesus from Incarnation to Ascension - Day 15 - God's Permanent Commitment to Us in Christ
Religion makes us feel separated from God, on our own, an
independent ‘self’ that must do all the right things in order to get
‘closer’ to God..union with God is seen in religion as the goal to
strive and strain toward..yet within religion this union is an
unattainable goal since noone can meet the supposed ‘requirement’ of
perfection in conduct, words and belief. Religion tells us we must be
perfect in order to be close to God, acceptable to God. But grace, the
good news of Jesus, turns religion on its head! Grace says we already
ARE in union with God and that we can’t get AWAY from Him! Our minds
may be confused, we may be living as if separated and feeling so alone,
yet this is just a lie – we are always with Him and He with us, and that
has always been true! We were made of His very substance, His very DNA
and divine being, so that we can truly say He is in us as the most
real, basic, fundamental part of who we are. And our spirit is of His
Spirit, thus we are always connected with Him spiritually. Also, since
He fills the whole universe and holds all creation in His hand, we exist
in His Presence at all times and there is no part of this whole
creation that is outside or truly ‘separated’ from Him!
Yet religion, with knowledge of good and evil, its requirements and obligations, its system of performance-based acceptance, of ‘you must earn blessings by good works’ and ‘you are cursed for your bad works’, only makes us feel separated and hopeless to ever have union with God. Because of religion we think we don’t have what we have – union – and thus we can’t enjoy this union we have! We pull back from God mentally and emotionally and feel awkward about opening up to Him. We don’t really enjoy real relationship, openness or fellowship because of fear – fear that God is a fair-weather friend who will only be there for us if we behave right, who will desert us or reject us if we fail, fear that He is only nice to us (blessing us) when we behave, and that He’ll turn on us in anger and punishment if we mess up (cursing us). Who can feel close to a god like that? Religion’s god is unapproachable and union relationship with him is unattainable – so religion is a game that is unwinnable!! Yet if religion is a game that is unwinnable, grace is a real love commitment that is unlosable!! For He has permanently shown His commitment to love and be with us forever in Jesus’ incarnation!
Jesus came and tied us to God permanently (I believe we were already tied together and in union in our spirits and now we are tied together even more strongly in human flesh – at least that is the way I understand it right now). Jesus is God and He is man. He is God and man in one body! Jesus shows us what we humans are, that we are in union with God, God compatible – not separate from God but made of Him and existing in Him and even indwelt by and in union with Him! He shows us we aren’t hopelessly alienated from God – that is only in our minds, heaped upon us as we try to live under religion’s demands and perspective. We are actually one with God and He with us! Union with God isn’t an unattainable goal but the starting point of our journey from which we launch out into real life and the pleasure of enjoying friendship with our Father! Our reference turns out, not to be Adam (who felt he was ‘just flesh and dust’, which left him feeling separate from God), but to be Christ (who knew He was in the Father and the Father was in Him)!
Finding out that this is our reference helps us realize that we can actually have a real relationship with our Father and not feel like pulling back in shame or in fear of what He might do to us. For Jesus comes and gives us a different and true picture of the real God! This God is for us and will never leave us, no matter what we do! This God is so committed to relationship with us that He took on our human flesh form, permanently tying Himself to our humanity.
He is the mediator of a new covenant between God and man by being both parties in the covenant at the same time, joining us together in such a deep way in human flesh and cementing our union forever in His body! In Jesus, we (God and people) meet and join hands in intimate relationship! God is saying to us through Jesus, “I’m here with you, always have been and always will be. I am not going anywhere. I am never getting out of this relationship. I am never pushing you away or rejecting you. For I have tied us together forever and there is nothing you could say, think, do or even believe that will break this union we have! I will never leave you or let you go! I will be here for you through thick and thin. You can’t shake me! You can’t get rid of Me! I am in this relationship for keeps, and I will hold you close to My heart forever!” As Robert Capon says, "You can't get away from a love that will not let you go!"
I love thinking of how committed God is to us, so committed that He would become a man and stay that way forever – a permanent commtment to be in union relationship with us, tying us to Him and Him to us forever in such a way that we can never be apart, so that everything that happens to Him happens to us, so that wherever He is there we are also in glory, so that we are hidden forever with Christ in God, so that He is with us always even to the end of the age, so that nothing can ever take us out of Him, nothing can ever come between us, nothing can ever ruin our relationship, nothing can ever separate us from Him or His love!! Cemented together forever! As Kristian Holmes, a facebook friend and mentor, says, God's favorite word is IN!
I have so much to learn and grasp, but isn’t it so wonderful to meet Mr. Grace?! Almost too good to be true, that He would love us and bind Himself to us in such a way, and yet, it is true! It makes me think of the verse in Hos 2 I believe it is, in the Message Bible – “I’ll marry you true and proper, in love and faithfulness, I’ll neither leave you nor let you go.” THAT’S faithful love! THAT’s security! THAT’s grace, THAT’S the real God I’m starting to come to know!
He told me recently in a dream, that basically, “You haven’t really known Me yet..” and I was excited to think He is more wonderful than I have ever believed, known or dreamed! Can’t wait to get to know Him in an ever deepening way…I’ve spent my whole life being afraid of Him, thinking I was shameful and a disappointment to Him..just as many people have probably felt..but how wonderful to find out more and more how accepting and loving He is! And there is infinitely more to encounter in Him, for He is infinitely more loving than we could possibly imagine! Wow!
Yet religion, with knowledge of good and evil, its requirements and obligations, its system of performance-based acceptance, of ‘you must earn blessings by good works’ and ‘you are cursed for your bad works’, only makes us feel separated and hopeless to ever have union with God. Because of religion we think we don’t have what we have – union – and thus we can’t enjoy this union we have! We pull back from God mentally and emotionally and feel awkward about opening up to Him. We don’t really enjoy real relationship, openness or fellowship because of fear – fear that God is a fair-weather friend who will only be there for us if we behave right, who will desert us or reject us if we fail, fear that He is only nice to us (blessing us) when we behave, and that He’ll turn on us in anger and punishment if we mess up (cursing us). Who can feel close to a god like that? Religion’s god is unapproachable and union relationship with him is unattainable – so religion is a game that is unwinnable!! Yet if religion is a game that is unwinnable, grace is a real love commitment that is unlosable!! For He has permanently shown His commitment to love and be with us forever in Jesus’ incarnation!
Jesus came and tied us to God permanently (I believe we were already tied together and in union in our spirits and now we are tied together even more strongly in human flesh – at least that is the way I understand it right now). Jesus is God and He is man. He is God and man in one body! Jesus shows us what we humans are, that we are in union with God, God compatible – not separate from God but made of Him and existing in Him and even indwelt by and in union with Him! He shows us we aren’t hopelessly alienated from God – that is only in our minds, heaped upon us as we try to live under religion’s demands and perspective. We are actually one with God and He with us! Union with God isn’t an unattainable goal but the starting point of our journey from which we launch out into real life and the pleasure of enjoying friendship with our Father! Our reference turns out, not to be Adam (who felt he was ‘just flesh and dust’, which left him feeling separate from God), but to be Christ (who knew He was in the Father and the Father was in Him)!
Finding out that this is our reference helps us realize that we can actually have a real relationship with our Father and not feel like pulling back in shame or in fear of what He might do to us. For Jesus comes and gives us a different and true picture of the real God! This God is for us and will never leave us, no matter what we do! This God is so committed to relationship with us that He took on our human flesh form, permanently tying Himself to our humanity.
He is the mediator of a new covenant between God and man by being both parties in the covenant at the same time, joining us together in such a deep way in human flesh and cementing our union forever in His body! In Jesus, we (God and people) meet and join hands in intimate relationship! God is saying to us through Jesus, “I’m here with you, always have been and always will be. I am not going anywhere. I am never getting out of this relationship. I am never pushing you away or rejecting you. For I have tied us together forever and there is nothing you could say, think, do or even believe that will break this union we have! I will never leave you or let you go! I will be here for you through thick and thin. You can’t shake me! You can’t get rid of Me! I am in this relationship for keeps, and I will hold you close to My heart forever!” As Robert Capon says, "You can't get away from a love that will not let you go!"
I love thinking of how committed God is to us, so committed that He would become a man and stay that way forever – a permanent commtment to be in union relationship with us, tying us to Him and Him to us forever in such a way that we can never be apart, so that everything that happens to Him happens to us, so that wherever He is there we are also in glory, so that we are hidden forever with Christ in God, so that He is with us always even to the end of the age, so that nothing can ever take us out of Him, nothing can ever come between us, nothing can ever ruin our relationship, nothing can ever separate us from Him or His love!! Cemented together forever! As Kristian Holmes, a facebook friend and mentor, says, God's favorite word is IN!
I have so much to learn and grasp, but isn’t it so wonderful to meet Mr. Grace?! Almost too good to be true, that He would love us and bind Himself to us in such a way, and yet, it is true! It makes me think of the verse in Hos 2 I believe it is, in the Message Bible – “I’ll marry you true and proper, in love and faithfulness, I’ll neither leave you nor let you go.” THAT’S faithful love! THAT’s security! THAT’s grace, THAT’S the real God I’m starting to come to know!
He told me recently in a dream, that basically, “You haven’t really known Me yet..” and I was excited to think He is more wonderful than I have ever believed, known or dreamed! Can’t wait to get to know Him in an ever deepening way…I’ve spent my whole life being afraid of Him, thinking I was shameful and a disappointment to Him..just as many people have probably felt..but how wonderful to find out more and more how accepting and loving He is! And there is infinitely more to encounter in Him, for He is infinitely more loving than we could possibly imagine! Wow!
We Are in a Wide Open Space
Mary-Anne Rabe sings a wonderful song called "Wide Open Space" about standing in God's embrace, with 'nothing between us but love and freedom' - ! This song has been going through my mind and heart during my waking hours lately, and what a beautiful message it shares!
How wonderful to be at this place of oneness with our Maker, to be IN Him who is ALL - all love, all beauty, all peace, all joy, all embracing - and to simply BE in His arms. Nothing required of us, nothing demanded of us, nothing expected of us..we can simply relax there in His embrace. Nothing to do, nowhere to get to, nothing to attain, nothing to become, for we are already in a place of wholeness, perfection, harmony, completeness, and delight. We are in a place of unconditional love and total acceptance, and we have never been out of that place, which is His very heart!!
We find ourselves where we always dreamed of being, safe in His arms of love for all eternity, cherished, valued, cared for, celebrated! He has always seen us as His delightful and very good children, innocent and lovely. And we find we have been there all along, for He never let us go, He never abandoned us, He was never apart from us..we have always been His own dear children, covered in His love, gazed upon with tender affection and friendliness. We have never been alone, for He has always been here, always been our friend that sticks closer than a brother, always supported us, always believed in us, always carried us. He has always loved us and always will..He has always been for us and always will be...He has always been our Papa and always will be!
What a wonderful place to be, in His heart, in His love, in His presence, in His tender gaze, in His arms..what a wonderful place of stillness and joy it is...a place of rest and pure satisfaction..a place of sweetness and delight...a place of expansion and freedom...a place of childlike wonder and awe, as we gaze on the face of Him who loves us so, who is PURE LOVE and nothing else! Thank You, Papa, for this union relationship we share with You, this oneness and communion! This LOVE that is better than life, this ACCEPTANCE that fulfills our deepest longings, this PRESENCE that is so gentle, so tender, so invigorating and happy! What a wide open space is Your heart of grace and love for us all!
(You can listen to this song by using the player on the side of my blog, Wide Open Space is in the playlist from the album, No Distance...)
"Wide Open Space"
by Mary-Anne Rabe
Justified by Your faith
I'm at peace
Reconciled to You
You've done everything
Nothing left to add
You gave Yourself
And now I give myself to Your love
Chorus:
Here I stand in this wide open space
In this wonder of Your embrace
Spotless and clean,
There is nothing between us but
Love and freedom
Here I will abide, face to face with You
Here I am alive, face to face with You
Beholding You, I've found grace
The reflection I see
Awakens in me, who I am
My true identity, revealed in You
How wonderful to be at this place of oneness with our Maker, to be IN Him who is ALL - all love, all beauty, all peace, all joy, all embracing - and to simply BE in His arms. Nothing required of us, nothing demanded of us, nothing expected of us..we can simply relax there in His embrace. Nothing to do, nowhere to get to, nothing to attain, nothing to become, for we are already in a place of wholeness, perfection, harmony, completeness, and delight. We are in a place of unconditional love and total acceptance, and we have never been out of that place, which is His very heart!!
We find ourselves where we always dreamed of being, safe in His arms of love for all eternity, cherished, valued, cared for, celebrated! He has always seen us as His delightful and very good children, innocent and lovely. And we find we have been there all along, for He never let us go, He never abandoned us, He was never apart from us..we have always been His own dear children, covered in His love, gazed upon with tender affection and friendliness. We have never been alone, for He has always been here, always been our friend that sticks closer than a brother, always supported us, always believed in us, always carried us. He has always loved us and always will..He has always been for us and always will be...He has always been our Papa and always will be!
What a wonderful place to be, in His heart, in His love, in His presence, in His tender gaze, in His arms..what a wonderful place of stillness and joy it is...a place of rest and pure satisfaction..a place of sweetness and delight...a place of expansion and freedom...a place of childlike wonder and awe, as we gaze on the face of Him who loves us so, who is PURE LOVE and nothing else! Thank You, Papa, for this union relationship we share with You, this oneness and communion! This LOVE that is better than life, this ACCEPTANCE that fulfills our deepest longings, this PRESENCE that is so gentle, so tender, so invigorating and happy! What a wide open space is Your heart of grace and love for us all!
(You can listen to this song by using the player on the side of my blog, Wide Open Space is in the playlist from the album, No Distance...)
"Wide Open Space"
by Mary-Anne Rabe
Justified by Your faith
I'm at peace
Reconciled to You
You've done everything
Nothing left to add
You gave Yourself
And now I give myself to Your love
Chorus:
Here I stand in this wide open space
In this wonder of Your embrace
Spotless and clean,
There is nothing between us but
Love and freedom
Here I will abide, face to face with You
Here I am alive, face to face with You
Beholding You, I've found grace
The reflection I see
Awakens in me, who I am
My true identity, revealed in You
Walking with Jesus from Incarnation to Ascension - Day 14 - Jesus, Fully Man, and thus so Approachable and Non-Threatening!
To think that God became a man and that it was actually a
pleasure for Him, that He loves expressing Himself through human flesh
and that we are compatible with Him – it is so amazing to me! It makes
me realize that He is actually at home in a human, that He and I share
likeness so much that He is comfortable in human skin. Our humanity
isn’t shameful to Him but a delight to Him. Our humanity is not a negative to God but a positive! He likes being in a human body, actually enjoys it - in fact, humanity is His preferred residence and address! His dream home is humanity! It's been His plan all along to become one of us, wow! That is how perfectly compatible we are with God - we fit perfectly together!
It is so amazing to think God is comfortable being a human that it shows me that He is really and actually like us! Since we are truly in His image and likeness, that means that we are like God, and He is like us! He enjoys laughing with His friends, He enjoys feeling the sunshine on His face, He loves to watch children playing together, feels everything we feel and has similar reactions to things here on earth that we have. He cries at funerals, He loves being invited to dinner, He likes telling stories and having kids sit on His lap.
Jesus is just so human! He is so approachable, so knowable, so nice! So non-threatening, so non-judgmental, so kind! He is not scary but inviting. Not boring but intriguing. Not harsh but gentle. Not aloof but knowable. Not irritable but friendly. Not a weakling but strong. Not untouchable but huggable! He is someone that draws people to Him, with His love, His beauty, His kindness, His grace! He shows us the face and nature of God, and we find likeness with what He shows us! It seems that God’s personality is like a human’s, wow! This makes me feel so drawn to Him, so comfortable with Him, even so ‘liked’ by Him! Known and understood! Cared about and valued! Accepted and befriended!
God became flesh and showed that God is somehow like us, which also shows me we are somehow like God! The core of our character, the basic essence of who we are, the nature of man, is God-like! Andre Rabe says in his book, Word Made Flesh, “there is no conflict in God’s design between the nature of man and the nature of God.” Wow! I was made of Him, made of His substance! His nature is my nature! He is pure love and at the deepest level, so am I! I was made by Love, of Love, to live in Love! Therefore a love relationship with Him is going to be the most fulfilling thing in my existence, for experiencing His love and a loving union relationship with Him is going to meet the deepest needs of my heart. This love relationship is what it means to be myself and to live according to my true nature, amazingly.
I read this week that when a person thinks of God as distant and harsh, brain patterns are formed that actually cause degeneration and even sickness. But when the same person meditates on God as loving and kind, new brain pathways are set and the brain is rejuvenated, as well as the body! We are actually healed by love! Jesus came and showed us who God is, that God is love – He was fully God. And He also showed us who we are, that we are love – He was fully man! Just pondering these thoughts about God as love and ourselves as love, too, as mirror images (reflections or expressions) of Him brings healing to our souls, our emotions, our bodies and our lives. Wow! Thank You, Jesus, for being so human and so approachable, and for showing me myself in Your face!
It is so amazing to think God is comfortable being a human that it shows me that He is really and actually like us! Since we are truly in His image and likeness, that means that we are like God, and He is like us! He enjoys laughing with His friends, He enjoys feeling the sunshine on His face, He loves to watch children playing together, feels everything we feel and has similar reactions to things here on earth that we have. He cries at funerals, He loves being invited to dinner, He likes telling stories and having kids sit on His lap.
Jesus is just so human! He is so approachable, so knowable, so nice! So non-threatening, so non-judgmental, so kind! He is not scary but inviting. Not boring but intriguing. Not harsh but gentle. Not aloof but knowable. Not irritable but friendly. Not a weakling but strong. Not untouchable but huggable! He is someone that draws people to Him, with His love, His beauty, His kindness, His grace! He shows us the face and nature of God, and we find likeness with what He shows us! It seems that God’s personality is like a human’s, wow! This makes me feel so drawn to Him, so comfortable with Him, even so ‘liked’ by Him! Known and understood! Cared about and valued! Accepted and befriended!
God became flesh and showed that God is somehow like us, which also shows me we are somehow like God! The core of our character, the basic essence of who we are, the nature of man, is God-like! Andre Rabe says in his book, Word Made Flesh, “there is no conflict in God’s design between the nature of man and the nature of God.” Wow! I was made of Him, made of His substance! His nature is my nature! He is pure love and at the deepest level, so am I! I was made by Love, of Love, to live in Love! Therefore a love relationship with Him is going to be the most fulfilling thing in my existence, for experiencing His love and a loving union relationship with Him is going to meet the deepest needs of my heart. This love relationship is what it means to be myself and to live according to my true nature, amazingly.
I read this week that when a person thinks of God as distant and harsh, brain patterns are formed that actually cause degeneration and even sickness. But when the same person meditates on God as loving and kind, new brain pathways are set and the brain is rejuvenated, as well as the body! We are actually healed by love! Jesus came and showed us who God is, that God is love – He was fully God. And He also showed us who we are, that we are love – He was fully man! Just pondering these thoughts about God as love and ourselves as love, too, as mirror images (reflections or expressions) of Him brings healing to our souls, our emotions, our bodies and our lives. Wow! Thank You, Jesus, for being so human and so approachable, and for showing me myself in Your face!
Walking With Jesus From Incarnation to Ascension - Day 13 - Jesus, Fully God, Who Tied Himself to Me Forever!
God is pure Love.
This wonderful God, who is at the core pure and perfect Love, had a wonderful plan.
He planned to take on human flesh and become a person, a man!
He would still be 100% God, showing that man is compatible with God Himself inside.
He would also be 100% man, one of us, understanding us and knowing our human experience.
He understands me completely, He gets me!
And He is human permanently, He chose to take on and be in this human form forever!
What a commitment, and what a revelation!
I just want to talk to Jesus about it right now, as I feel so touched by what He did:
As I started seeing the commitment You have made to be with me, dear Jesus, something shifted inside me.
Something deep down just fell into place, and a place of deep longing was touched.
I realized that You have tied Yourself to me forever.
And by doing that, You reveal to me that that means You won’t leave me!
You will always be a human, always understand me..
You will always be there for me, always be with me in my humanity!
I realize that at my lowest points, no matter how messed up my thinking or acting may be, You’re there!
You’re the Friend who sticks closer than a brother..
You have tied Yourself to me forever, no matter what..
You are committed to me and to our relationship..
You aren’t going anywhere, won’t leave me or abandon me..
You are in this for the long haul, for good, for ever!
All my life I have been so afraid of being left alone, being abandoned or rejected.
Like many people, I think.
And the way I’ve sometimes acted has pushed people away and has been a big mess, really.
I’ve acted on the lies I believed and brought about some junk in my life, and also depression and fear.
Yet, there in the gutter of my life You find me, You hold me, You bring God Himself to my situation and sit right down with me in the gutter, understanding and loving me right where I am in all my confusion and hurt and pain!
And You don’t leave me there! You bring the divine essence of LOVE to bathe and heal me, to open my eyes to the truth of my belovedness, to bring healing and restoration to the painful places, to give me hope again!
You show me that we are in this together and will never ever be separated, for You’ve disconnected the lies’ hold on me through taking me with You through death, and You’ve raised me up into the fellowship You share in the Trinity in heaven, enjoying Your very life, and so I will live forever with You and cannot fall into the death grip of lies anymore! Lies can’t have me, because Life and Love has got me forever!
You didn’t just tie Yourself to me, You tied me to You!
You didn’t just enter into and understand my problems, You took me into Your perfect loving relationship with the Father!
You didn’t just enter the death trap prison of lies I’d gotten into, You freed me into enjoying Your life!
You brought God, Daddy, Papa, Love Himself to my experience, thank You, Jesus!
And You tied Yourself forever to me in Love, never to leave me or forsake me.
I am understood, I am cared for, I am safe, I am accepted, I am loved!
I love You, Jesus!
This wonderful God, who is at the core pure and perfect Love, had a wonderful plan.
He planned to take on human flesh and become a person, a man!
He would still be 100% God, showing that man is compatible with God Himself inside.
He would also be 100% man, one of us, understanding us and knowing our human experience.
He understands me completely, He gets me!
And He is human permanently, He chose to take on and be in this human form forever!
What a commitment, and what a revelation!
I just want to talk to Jesus about it right now, as I feel so touched by what He did:
As I started seeing the commitment You have made to be with me, dear Jesus, something shifted inside me.
Something deep down just fell into place, and a place of deep longing was touched.
I realized that You have tied Yourself to me forever.
And by doing that, You reveal to me that that means You won’t leave me!
You will always be a human, always understand me..
You will always be there for me, always be with me in my humanity!
I realize that at my lowest points, no matter how messed up my thinking or acting may be, You’re there!
You’re the Friend who sticks closer than a brother..
You have tied Yourself to me forever, no matter what..
You are committed to me and to our relationship..
You aren’t going anywhere, won’t leave me or abandon me..
You are in this for the long haul, for good, for ever!
All my life I have been so afraid of being left alone, being abandoned or rejected.
Like many people, I think.
And the way I’ve sometimes acted has pushed people away and has been a big mess, really.
I’ve acted on the lies I believed and brought about some junk in my life, and also depression and fear.
Yet, there in the gutter of my life You find me, You hold me, You bring God Himself to my situation and sit right down with me in the gutter, understanding and loving me right where I am in all my confusion and hurt and pain!
And You don’t leave me there! You bring the divine essence of LOVE to bathe and heal me, to open my eyes to the truth of my belovedness, to bring healing and restoration to the painful places, to give me hope again!
You show me that we are in this together and will never ever be separated, for You’ve disconnected the lies’ hold on me through taking me with You through death, and You’ve raised me up into the fellowship You share in the Trinity in heaven, enjoying Your very life, and so I will live forever with You and cannot fall into the death grip of lies anymore! Lies can’t have me, because Life and Love has got me forever!
You didn’t just tie Yourself to me, You tied me to You!
You didn’t just enter into and understand my problems, You took me into Your perfect loving relationship with the Father!
You didn’t just enter the death trap prison of lies I’d gotten into, You freed me into enjoying Your life!
You brought God, Daddy, Papa, Love Himself to my experience, thank You, Jesus!
And You tied Yourself forever to me in Love, never to leave me or forsake me.
I am understood, I am cared for, I am safe, I am accepted, I am loved!
I love You, Jesus!
Walking with Jesus from Incarnation to Ascension - Day 12 - Jesus is Our Origin and Our Destiny
"It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for." Eph. 1:11 MSG
God is opening my eyes more to understand more about the Incarnation, and I wanted to write some more thoughts here: The Word is the sum of God’s thought, the expression of His very Being, His sharing of Himself, the outshining of who He is – Jesus Christ is the final and clear Word of God, the express image of His Person and the exact picture of God in a flesh body!
This Word of God became flesh and appeared in tangible form on earth, and looking at Him we saw what we ourselves were made of, saw our design and origin, saw ourselves truly for who we really are, saw our true identity! We saw that we are expressions of God as well, saw that we are like Him and are actually His children, derived from Him as our source and belonging to Him. We saw that we are in Him, connected with Him, for His is our origin and life in whom we exist! We also saw who God is, what the essence of God is, His true nature and identity! Some of the Old Testament accounts may have confused us about who God is, made us wonder if He was mean or demanding or harsh, but we could trust the picture of God that Jesus gave us, being His exact image and likeness, the final word about Him! And what a relief to find out through Jesus what God is really like – loving, caring, non-judgmental, forgiving, healing, kind, generous, non-vindictive, non-retaliatory, approachable, open, welcoming, accepting, inviting, good – full of GRACE! So in Him we see God and ourselves, too!
So what I am seeing so far is wonderful: Jesus showed us our origin in God, that we are from Him and thus truly His children. Jesus showed us God’s true nature was that of a loving, gracious Father and also our own identity was that of beloved children. So He revealed to us our origin in God and our identity as God’s children.
But now God is showing me something even more beautiful…Jesus also showed us not only our origin but also our destiny in God! The Word is our very origin, for through Him we were made and of Him we were made – He is our blueprint, our spiritual DNA and the very fabric of our being! So being our Origin, Creator and Original Design/Blueprint, He has a connection and a claim on us that is prior to and superior to the connection we have with Adam, or Adam’s sin! God is showing me that part of what that means is that when Jesus came, He truly represented man in a bigger and deeper way than Adam, because we came from the Word before we ever came from Adam! So everything Jesus did He did as the true head and origin of our race, and so everything He did applied to us, was passed down to us, became true of us, affected us! He took us into His reality and brought us with Him into everything He did, every choice He made, everything He experienced, all the way through His earthly trust and obedience to the Father, through His death to sin on the cross and to His resurrection in life and ascension to reign in glory by the Father’s side! That’s our history and destiny now, all wrapped up in what Christ did!
I like to walk in the little patch of woods behind our house every morning and see the sun filter through the leafy trees, and it is there that I ponder the things I am learning in the class, and God walks with me and helps me understand things. The other day I was thinking with Him as I walked, thinking about all the mistakes I’d made in life and some of the messed up areas of my experience. I was feeling pretty bad and ashamed of some of these areas. And God started showing me in a new way what Jesus did and is doing for me, that when He came, it was like He went back into the garden (which had become a wilderness because of Adam’s sin) and where Adam had fallen into temptation, HE overcame the temptation! Where Adam had eaten of the knowledge of good and evil tree and made a space for evil to ‘exist’, and thus saw things unravel from their true design, Jesus ate only of the Life tree and didn’t allow evil to ‘exist’, thus things came out just as they were designed to be! Where Adam’s fall had sent creation in a downward spiral toward nothingness, Jesus’ trust in God sent creation on an upward spiral into eternal life in enjoyment of God’s presence in and through all! Jesus entered this mess we humans had made and worked everything backward into life..He rewrote my history and gave me His destiny, for my existence is truly all wrapped up in Him now, not in Adam! Jesus had a prior claim on me that went back farther than Adam, so all He did representing me becomes mine and outweighs anything Adam had done! The grace of the cross and resurrection outweighed the fall into legalism! Life outweighed death! Light eliminated darkness!
It reminded me of a movie we watched with the kids – Meet the Robinson’s. In this movie, two orphan boys share a room in the orphanage, and one boy (Louis) keeps the other little boy (Goob) up late one night because he is working on a science project. Because Goob had not gotten his sleep, he falls asleep during the championship baseball game, missing an important catch, causes his team to lose the game, and suffers the anger and rejection of his teammates. Goob’s life degenerates from there and he never recovers from this terrible day – he turns to a criminal lifestyle and wants to ruin Louis’ life. Through his evil deeds, he the world gets taken over by an evil robot (you’d have to see the movie for this to make sense, but anyway..) Louis, however, becomes an inventor and builds a time machine. He has a chance to go backward in time and save the world from the evil robot..and while he is back there in the past, he goes to the baseball game that fateful day, calls out ‘Goob!’ loudly at just the right moment, awakening Goob, who catches the baseball, causing the team to win the championship game, making him a hero and changing his life into a good and happy one! Louis actually changes Goob’s destiny through his one simple act of kindness! And he saves the whole world too! There is a scene in the movie where the whole world, shrouded in dark colors, all ruined and ugly, suddenly gets transformed into a beautiful world full of color and sunshine, all because of Louis’ going back and fixing history to make it come out right..I love that scene, and it makes me think of what happened when Jesus died and rose, it was like washing the whole creation with grace and life and transforming everything from the decay and degeneration into nothingness into the way it was designed to be all along, full of God’s beautiful and glorious and radiant LIFE, LOVE and LIGHT!
He swallows up evil, sins, shame, guilt, wrong beliefs, lies, false identity, struggles, depression, sickness, decay, accusations, condemnation, violence, suspicion, feelings of separation, hatred, wars, religious thinking, and even death…swallows it all up in Life! He makes His history and destiny mine! He takes all the messes I’ve made in this life and works them into victories..makes sin work backward into innocence…makes nothingness of lies into the substance of His reality…makes darkness into light…makes death into life! He will make everything come out right in the end, right all wrongs, making everyone friends again, healing all hurts, making everything whole and perfect…He has already done it all, already reconciled all to Him, and I really believe that all will come to experience that fully, that it will be fully manifested at last! Heaven on earth, in us and through us, and the future has already started! To me, the Incarnation was the beginning of this wonderful unworking of death into life! Wow, it just gives me such relief and joy that He has made everything okay and will manifest that okay-ness, that completeness, righting all my messes and making everything beautiful again in my life..it gives me such hope and joy…not one of my messes or sin disasters is permanent and beyond fixing…He has already brought harmony again through the cross and will manifest this making everything well between all people, so we are all enjoying our relationship with God and with each other…all will be well..and God will be all in all!
God is opening my eyes more to understand more about the Incarnation, and I wanted to write some more thoughts here: The Word is the sum of God’s thought, the expression of His very Being, His sharing of Himself, the outshining of who He is – Jesus Christ is the final and clear Word of God, the express image of His Person and the exact picture of God in a flesh body!
This Word of God became flesh and appeared in tangible form on earth, and looking at Him we saw what we ourselves were made of, saw our design and origin, saw ourselves truly for who we really are, saw our true identity! We saw that we are expressions of God as well, saw that we are like Him and are actually His children, derived from Him as our source and belonging to Him. We saw that we are in Him, connected with Him, for His is our origin and life in whom we exist! We also saw who God is, what the essence of God is, His true nature and identity! Some of the Old Testament accounts may have confused us about who God is, made us wonder if He was mean or demanding or harsh, but we could trust the picture of God that Jesus gave us, being His exact image and likeness, the final word about Him! And what a relief to find out through Jesus what God is really like – loving, caring, non-judgmental, forgiving, healing, kind, generous, non-vindictive, non-retaliatory, approachable, open, welcoming, accepting, inviting, good – full of GRACE! So in Him we see God and ourselves, too!
So what I am seeing so far is wonderful: Jesus showed us our origin in God, that we are from Him and thus truly His children. Jesus showed us God’s true nature was that of a loving, gracious Father and also our own identity was that of beloved children. So He revealed to us our origin in God and our identity as God’s children.
But now God is showing me something even more beautiful…Jesus also showed us not only our origin but also our destiny in God! The Word is our very origin, for through Him we were made and of Him we were made – He is our blueprint, our spiritual DNA and the very fabric of our being! So being our Origin, Creator and Original Design/Blueprint, He has a connection and a claim on us that is prior to and superior to the connection we have with Adam, or Adam’s sin! God is showing me that part of what that means is that when Jesus came, He truly represented man in a bigger and deeper way than Adam, because we came from the Word before we ever came from Adam! So everything Jesus did He did as the true head and origin of our race, and so everything He did applied to us, was passed down to us, became true of us, affected us! He took us into His reality and brought us with Him into everything He did, every choice He made, everything He experienced, all the way through His earthly trust and obedience to the Father, through His death to sin on the cross and to His resurrection in life and ascension to reign in glory by the Father’s side! That’s our history and destiny now, all wrapped up in what Christ did!
I like to walk in the little patch of woods behind our house every morning and see the sun filter through the leafy trees, and it is there that I ponder the things I am learning in the class, and God walks with me and helps me understand things. The other day I was thinking with Him as I walked, thinking about all the mistakes I’d made in life and some of the messed up areas of my experience. I was feeling pretty bad and ashamed of some of these areas. And God started showing me in a new way what Jesus did and is doing for me, that when He came, it was like He went back into the garden (which had become a wilderness because of Adam’s sin) and where Adam had fallen into temptation, HE overcame the temptation! Where Adam had eaten of the knowledge of good and evil tree and made a space for evil to ‘exist’, and thus saw things unravel from their true design, Jesus ate only of the Life tree and didn’t allow evil to ‘exist’, thus things came out just as they were designed to be! Where Adam’s fall had sent creation in a downward spiral toward nothingness, Jesus’ trust in God sent creation on an upward spiral into eternal life in enjoyment of God’s presence in and through all! Jesus entered this mess we humans had made and worked everything backward into life..He rewrote my history and gave me His destiny, for my existence is truly all wrapped up in Him now, not in Adam! Jesus had a prior claim on me that went back farther than Adam, so all He did representing me becomes mine and outweighs anything Adam had done! The grace of the cross and resurrection outweighed the fall into legalism! Life outweighed death! Light eliminated darkness!
It reminded me of a movie we watched with the kids – Meet the Robinson’s. In this movie, two orphan boys share a room in the orphanage, and one boy (Louis) keeps the other little boy (Goob) up late one night because he is working on a science project. Because Goob had not gotten his sleep, he falls asleep during the championship baseball game, missing an important catch, causes his team to lose the game, and suffers the anger and rejection of his teammates. Goob’s life degenerates from there and he never recovers from this terrible day – he turns to a criminal lifestyle and wants to ruin Louis’ life. Through his evil deeds, he the world gets taken over by an evil robot (you’d have to see the movie for this to make sense, but anyway..) Louis, however, becomes an inventor and builds a time machine. He has a chance to go backward in time and save the world from the evil robot..and while he is back there in the past, he goes to the baseball game that fateful day, calls out ‘Goob!’ loudly at just the right moment, awakening Goob, who catches the baseball, causing the team to win the championship game, making him a hero and changing his life into a good and happy one! Louis actually changes Goob’s destiny through his one simple act of kindness! And he saves the whole world too! There is a scene in the movie where the whole world, shrouded in dark colors, all ruined and ugly, suddenly gets transformed into a beautiful world full of color and sunshine, all because of Louis’ going back and fixing history to make it come out right..I love that scene, and it makes me think of what happened when Jesus died and rose, it was like washing the whole creation with grace and life and transforming everything from the decay and degeneration into nothingness into the way it was designed to be all along, full of God’s beautiful and glorious and radiant LIFE, LOVE and LIGHT!
He swallows up evil, sins, shame, guilt, wrong beliefs, lies, false identity, struggles, depression, sickness, decay, accusations, condemnation, violence, suspicion, feelings of separation, hatred, wars, religious thinking, and even death…swallows it all up in Life! He makes His history and destiny mine! He takes all the messes I’ve made in this life and works them into victories..makes sin work backward into innocence…makes nothingness of lies into the substance of His reality…makes darkness into light…makes death into life! He will make everything come out right in the end, right all wrongs, making everyone friends again, healing all hurts, making everything whole and perfect…He has already done it all, already reconciled all to Him, and I really believe that all will come to experience that fully, that it will be fully manifested at last! Heaven on earth, in us and through us, and the future has already started! To me, the Incarnation was the beginning of this wonderful unworking of death into life! Wow, it just gives me such relief and joy that He has made everything okay and will manifest that okay-ness, that completeness, righting all my messes and making everything beautiful again in my life..it gives me such hope and joy…not one of my messes or sin disasters is permanent and beyond fixing…He has already brought harmony again through the cross and will manifest this making everything well between all people, so we are all enjoying our relationship with God and with each other…all will be well..and God will be all in all!
Walking with Jesus from Incarnation to Ascension - Day 11 - Jesus Reveals God is One - and in Union with Him, so Are We!
- (I wanted to talk about something I am learning about God, how He is single and not a mixture, so I hope that is okay!)
God is showing me something so beautiful! He is single, a singularity, not dual, not a mixture! He is ALL good and ONLY good, PURE love and acceptance without a hint of anything else! He ONLY sees good and NEVER evil, because evil and sin are not things He created, therefore they don’t even have a real existence in His kingdom, and His kingdom is the only real reality! (I am not saying evil acts don’t exist, like murder and abuse. I am still learning about this, but I think I am just saying that the root of those acts is a lie, the lie that we are separated from God and unlovable, and belief in this lie creates a space for us to act out of these lies, but the lie is still a lie, still unreal!)
God has a single eye. He only sees what’s real. He only sees eternal truth. He only sees what He created and what truly exists. He doesn’t believe in lies! He sees only good! He sees only purity, radiance, beauty, joy, peace, light and truth! He sees only Jesus in and through everythng He made, His goodness and love permeated His creation, which He calls ‘very good.’ We fell into living under a lie and lots of wrong actions occurred, there was terrible fallout from these acts, but still God persisted in seeing reality. He held on to what He knew to be true, to the really real – that we are and always will be His very good children, connected to Him by the bonds of love, existing within His presence, breathing His very Spirit, originating from Him who is Pure Love and therefore pure love beings ourselves!
And God’s very thought and view of reality became flesh and blood, showing us tangibly who He is, a oneness of love with no mixture or shadow! Jesus shows us the real God! He shows us God is ONLY Love, Peace, Acceptance, Life:
Jesus showed us He is LOVE! God is single. He is pure. He is only love! He isn’t any mixture of anything else, like hatred, struggle, irritation, or frustration. God is never frustrated or mad with us! He is pure unconditional love, which I am seeing is the absence of blame, condemnation, getting even, making people pay for their wrongs, etc.! God doesn’t ever condemn. He isn’t ever judgmental. He isn’t ever punishing us! He doesn’t even see sin for it doesn’t exist in His realm. His eye is so single! And He sees us, being one with Him, as single too – as ONLY good, ONLY loving, ONLY innocent, ONLY pure, ONLY light, just like Jesus and just like Him! We are in the same image of singleness! Jesus came to show us the truth - that God is love and so are we, and that Jesus is the beloved and so are we!
Jesus demonstrated that He is PEACE! He is pure peacefulness, with no strife, no violence, no harm, no harshness, no rudeness, no force, no pressure, no demands! He isn’t pushing and shoving us. He isn’t a violent God! He doesn’t demand blood in order to get payment for sins so that He’ll be able to forgive – requiring payment is retribution, not forgiveness, isn’t it! Forgiveness is when you let something go without requiring payment, when you release the person from having a debt or having to pay for the wrong! When you think about it, God doesn’t have a need to forgive anyway, because He doesn’t see sin in us, only what He created and what’s really real, His goodness! He sees ONLY Jesus in us, for that’s who we’re made of and one with, He doesn’t see within us any evil at all! It’s not in His reality, the only real reality! So forgiveness and the cross and the blood must have been for US, not GOD!
Jesus showed us He is ACCEPTANCE! God always accepts and affirms us. God never shames! God never condemns! God never punishes! That’s not what Unconditional Love acts like, for Unconditional Love always accepts, affirms, delights, helps and heals! Unconditional Love doesn’t see us as rebellious wrongdoers deserving punishment; Unconditional Love sees us as confused children who need reassurance, care, help and healing! We condemn ourselves, we punish ourselves! We were the ones feeling shame and blaming ourselves and judging ourselves and needing a payment of blood so we would be able to feel free; that was all for us, for God didn’t need those things to be able to be around us. He has been one with us all along, and when Adam and Eve sinned, He didn’t blame or shame or refuse fellowship or require payment, He kept on accepting and loving and delighting in them, kept on wanting to fellowship with them.
Jesus shows us LIFE! He came to rescue us from the effects of sin/believing a lie about Him and ourselves..believing this lie was destroying our lives, as if sin was eating us up within, sucking us down into nonexistence because we weren't enjoying the relationship with God that is our birthright and is truly LIFE to us! We were missing out on that, trapped in confusion and lies, subject to corruption and decay, with things unraveling and falling apart, tending in a downward spiral towards death.. and Jesus came to rescue us from those lies that were eating us up and killing us and bring us into enjoyment of the LIFE and presence of God that has always been within us, for we have always been one with Him and He with us!
When Jesus came, the very oneness and wholeness and purity that is God took on flesh and became visible! Jesus came and showed us who we really are, shattering the illusions and lies of ‘not-like-God’ and ‘separated from God’ and ‘evil, shameful in our humanity’! He showed us what God is like, for when we looked at Him we saw the Father. And He showed us what we were like, for when we looked at Him, we recognized ourselves and saw ourselves! And He showed us what our union with God looks like, for when we looked at Him, we saw Someone living out not out of lies of separation but out of the true reality – UNION with the God of pure love and life! He revealed the truth about us, revealed that we are of God, in God and one with God who is single in goodness and love and light, so we too are single in goodness and love and light!
Jesus reveals the truth about God, ourselves, and our oneness with Him! He is the ultimate message from God to us! God is single, He is ALL love..And we, being one with God, are single, too! We too are ALL love! We are light as God is light, with no darkness in us! We can have a single eye, looking ONLY at how God sees us – as a singularity, as pure wholeness, in simple goodness with no darkness mixed in at all, just as God Himself is pure and whole and only goodness, light, love and life!! And we can enjoy the fact that we live, move and exist in the One who is only love, light and life with no shadow or turning! We can enjoy this union oneness and complete unity with pure LOVE Himself!
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!
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!
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]
[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
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
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