WITH A HUNGER FOR LIFE
30/08/23 14:43
Humans do not always choose what is better or best. Many would rather the inertia that they have come to know as their life. Thus Jesus said that ‘those who have will have more and those who do not have will lose even what they have’. Resolutely seeking the life that is Jesus Himself will fill us with degrees of His Spirit and life that mere religion cannot deliver.
It may seem obvious to us in our later years that the Gospel is Christ and Christ is the Gospel. Or it may not. Some spend their entire lives in a religion rather than in union with Christ. Not that they don’t have any of Him. It’s just that He is the salt rather than the meal.
SUBSTITUTES FOR PRESENCE
Others find themselves congealed in what is more of an ideology than companionship with Christ. Some live their entire lives in an intellectual fabric of belief. Any of these insulations can be avoided simply by agreeing with Jesus that He is in us and with us and more. That by the Spirit He is incarnated into our lives. Anyone who lives in this union will do better as a person than someone who lives in separation – which is a lie. You are not separated from God.
Unless we are into Reality, which is to be into Christ as a person, reality will escape us and we will assume a relationship with Christ that is nothing much at all. Paul said ‘Reality is Christ’ and it is in every way. Dilute this reality with additions of our own and we will see through a glass darkly.
Paul wrote that in Him we live and move and have our being which is true - but only true if we find our being in Christ’s person rather than in a religion about Christ.
LIFELESS GRACES
Some fasten onto elements of the law as though these elements are a messiah or a piece of grace. But circumcision, sabbath keeping* and burka wearing have no more capacity to impart spirituality and wholeness in God than eating pumpkin is the key to good health.
‘On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you’ John 14:20.
That which makes us whole and holy is union with God. This oneness is real by the mediation of Christ who joins God to us in His Person and us to God in Himself. Why? Because God loves us and the world. You have this union. Obedience is agreeing that you do and living from this incarnation.
COMPLETED JOY
John wrote, “And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete. 1 John 1:1‑4 Who or what is John talking about? He is talking about Jesus.
John is declaring to us the things he has “heard,” “seen” and “touched” regarding Jesus. Of all the disciples, John was especially close to Jesus. John knows that God is love because John knows Jesus! John teaches us an important lesson about the right way to begin thinking about God. If we want to know what God is like, we begin with Jesus, because Jesus is the self-revelation of God.” (1)
ONENESS IS YOURS
Oneness with Jesus Christ is not something reserved for super-saints or piety addicts. ‘The mystics’ were people who lived in this oneness that is available to all. There is nothing mysterious about mysticism – other than the mystery of life in the Spirit. Incarnation is mysterious but is as real as you are. It is by incarnation that Christ is the reality in which we live. The effect is that Jesus manifests as us. In perichoresis the cool thing is that we are lost in Christ yet fully revealed as ourselves.
The law will make you immune to truth. Religion will dull people as persons. Incarnation – which is Christ expressing Himself as Mavis and George is God’s love and life realised as you. In this mode – oneness with Christ - you are life in the same way that Jesus is life because Jesus is you by the Spirit of Sonship.
Since you are not Christ you cannot say, ‘I am the way the truth and the life.’ But you can say that in His life, you are life and that you are a messenger of His spirit and life.
*Some make big sacrifices in order to ‘keep the Sabbath’ not realising that such a sacrifice is irrelevant to the belonging in God that is theirs in Christ .
(1) Davis Ph.D., Rev. Martin M.. A Window into the Heart of God (p. 8). AsiAfrica Ministries, Inc.. Kindle Edition.
