A PASSION FOR LIFE
02/11/22 15:45
There are people who seek life. Others who hide from it or resist and condemn it. We were made to be alive, multiply life and ignite the things we make with life. We are not here merely to exist. There are life-deniers – people who seek a life by avoiding it in its fullness and people who will never allow themselves to be satisfied with anything less than the fullness of life in the moment, the season and the life-time. The latter will often give their lives so that others may have more life.
‘Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends’ John 15.13 NIV.
SANCTIFIED INHIBITION
Others pretend, deny, rationalize and excuse the semi-death that is their existence. They make a life out of non-life. They do this in the name of God, of religion or by seeking refuge in conservativism or what they call progressive social action. Things are not life-giving because they are new or old, because they comfort us with the familiar or capitulate to our carnality. Only Christ is the life of the person and the nations. While such things can be made a pathway to life through the grace of God, know that nothing that is not Christ is fully alive.
LIFE IN CHRIST
‘But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name’ John 20.31 NIV.
Polemical stances will never satisfy the heart with the life that is eternal and infinite. They deplete us and leave us hungry for more life. Jesus was not a conservative. He was not of the left or the right. He simply was. He was radical in that He was life to the full; radical because He was life separated and distinct from sectional interest, self-indulgence and greed. He is life particularly because He was not religious, did not market religion but was freedom and life in person.
RESSURRECTION AND LIFE
Jesus was radical because He was and is love and life in person. The most daring, radical apostolic teachers are those who are the most submerged in the person of our Father. As with Jesus, what counted for Him was giving life and setting captives free from the un-life that they had adopted as their norm. Jesus’ vision was to make dead people and dead things live again.
But this is never possible for those contained in the law and religion. As much as they espouse life with the words of their mouth, when put to the test they settle for conformity in place of life.
TO SET THE CAPTIVES FREE
This is why the freedom Jesus offers is for all captives – particularly those bound in the subtleties of religion. This freedom is found in His person, in Him alone and in no artifice or artifact extraneous to Himself. It is why Believers will depart environments where inmates insist on living from law, from mind-sets where Father once was but has since deserted in favour of the new and better way of life that is in His Son. People leave situations of less life to find more life because the human spirit seeks life without limit.
COMMUNITIES OF THEFT
‘The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.’ John 10.10 NIV.
I write mainly to Christians. Our joy is to see people liberated from religion, from mean concepts of God; from stale and wrong ideas and limited concepts of themselves. We live for people to see themselves as loved and celebrated sons and daughters of God who live by the Spirit in Father’s presence and His heart. The unstated yearning of every heart is for union with God – there to be loved for oneself and to be known as celebrated for who we are. This is already a fact. It was achieved when Jesus demonstrated the Kingdom, certified on the cross, glorified at His resurrection and multiplied into you and you and you at Pentecost.
EXTRAVAGANT RICHES
‘To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory’ Col 1.27 NIV.
That glory is you living as a son and not a slave. God is a Spirit and all life comes by the Spirit from Him. Life is not found in right belief or right behavior. Life is not found in wrong behavior redefined as right. Life is the person of Jesus and this life is found when we agree that God has found and entered us in the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
‘Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends’ John 15.13 NIV.
SANCTIFIED INHIBITION
Others pretend, deny, rationalize and excuse the semi-death that is their existence. They make a life out of non-life. They do this in the name of God, of religion or by seeking refuge in conservativism or what they call progressive social action. Things are not life-giving because they are new or old, because they comfort us with the familiar or capitulate to our carnality. Only Christ is the life of the person and the nations. While such things can be made a pathway to life through the grace of God, know that nothing that is not Christ is fully alive.
LIFE IN CHRIST
‘But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name’ John 20.31 NIV.
Polemical stances will never satisfy the heart with the life that is eternal and infinite. They deplete us and leave us hungry for more life. Jesus was not a conservative. He was not of the left or the right. He simply was. He was radical in that He was life to the full; radical because He was life separated and distinct from sectional interest, self-indulgence and greed. He is life particularly because He was not religious, did not market religion but was freedom and life in person.
RESSURRECTION AND LIFE
Jesus was radical because He was and is love and life in person. The most daring, radical apostolic teachers are those who are the most submerged in the person of our Father. As with Jesus, what counted for Him was giving life and setting captives free from the un-life that they had adopted as their norm. Jesus’ vision was to make dead people and dead things live again.
But this is never possible for those contained in the law and religion. As much as they espouse life with the words of their mouth, when put to the test they settle for conformity in place of life.
TO SET THE CAPTIVES FREE
This is why the freedom Jesus offers is for all captives – particularly those bound in the subtleties of religion. This freedom is found in His person, in Him alone and in no artifice or artifact extraneous to Himself. It is why Believers will depart environments where inmates insist on living from law, from mind-sets where Father once was but has since deserted in favour of the new and better way of life that is in His Son. People leave situations of less life to find more life because the human spirit seeks life without limit.
COMMUNITIES OF THEFT
‘The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.’ John 10.10 NIV.
I write mainly to Christians. Our joy is to see people liberated from religion, from mean concepts of God; from stale and wrong ideas and limited concepts of themselves. We live for people to see themselves as loved and celebrated sons and daughters of God who live by the Spirit in Father’s presence and His heart. The unstated yearning of every heart is for union with God – there to be loved for oneself and to be known as celebrated for who we are. This is already a fact. It was achieved when Jesus demonstrated the Kingdom, certified on the cross, glorified at His resurrection and multiplied into you and you and you at Pentecost.
EXTRAVAGANT RICHES
‘To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory’ Col 1.27 NIV.
That glory is you living as a son and not a slave. God is a Spirit and all life comes by the Spirit from Him. Life is not found in right belief or right behavior. Life is not found in wrong behavior redefined as right. Life is the person of Jesus and this life is found when we agree that God has found and entered us in the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
