Christ as Life, in aphorisms

Life = [Christ]. Where does it take us in some of our popular aphorisms, here are two.

Live [Christ] to the fullest.

[Christ] is like a box of chocolates, you'll never know what you're going to get.

Among vs. Over

Leadership in "the church"

Israel in the world

Light in the darkness

Salt in the food

View of God = Your Expression

There is a saying that people become like the God in which they worship.

I think this is true whether you worship a being or not. I think it derives from our view of God. Or rather our imposed view of God, whether we impose it on ourselves or it is imposed upon us. Going deeper down it is perhaps that in which we trust, have faith in, if you will.

If my view of God is a hardnosed punctilious accountant type weighing every action and deriving love and merit based upon the created's performance, then most likely that is how I will treat myself and will be my expectations of others. I will become like the god in which I worship. It is a trust in that which you fear. Your mindset, your viewpoint, your understanding has become your god in which you serve. It is a religion, a self produced god in which you serve in drudgery and fetid, onerous, resigned obedience.

You either become like the god in which you fear or you express the God in which you love. One is the prison of an illusion and the other is freedom of the ultimate reality. We are merely vessels. We either express the vacuous emptiness of a self apart from God and all that is ugly and of sin OR we express the dynamic loving gracious merciful God in Christ in whom we live and move and have our existence.

What if: Privation or Sitcom?

What if our small privation is more on the order of a situation comedy than complete and abject suffering?

What if the telling of our story brings joy in the seeing it from a different perspective?

What if all pain is not only and solely pain, but secret joy and hidden mirth?

What if the line between tragedy and comedy is sometimes like the obverse of a coin?

What if the obverse is revealed through time?

What if the obverse is revealed through eternity?

What if: Being vs Doings = Giftgiver vs. Gifts

What if a focus on God's doings is equivalent to a focus on God's gifts?

What if a love of God solely on His doings is like loving God solely on and because of His gifts?

What if loving God in His being and as the Giftgiver is truly loving Him, because it is independent of what He can do and give?

What if freedom is found in loving Him for Him, rather than loving Him for solely what He can do and give to me?

Doing focus and the boxing in of God

Doings can be listed, categorized, prioritized, concretized, analyzed, proceduralized, externalized, internalized, emphasized, etc... in other words they can be constrained and contained.

If we see God as, and only as, or even primarily as, this great DOER, then we can be seduced into a systematic understanding of and relationship to Him. And therefore God becomes only that which we understand. He is a God in and of our cranial capacity as Jim Fowler is fond of positing.

Being is not a thing that can be categorized and concretely described. Being is something that manifests itself by doing, but is not constrained, contained, and defined by actions. Beings act, but actions are not the comprising and fullness of a being.

An example, the computer. Knowing the sounds it makes and the images that flash upon its screen, the heat it generates, and the subtle vibrations it causes are all actions. But they tell one very little about the insides, the reality, and even the fullness of the capabilities of the computer itself.

It is the same with God. When we approach and think and interact with Him and His children from the foundation of His actions only without going deeply into the Person, the source that manifests those actions, we may be in danger of being seduced into following an idol. Oh this idol is not one that sits still for it smokes and spews fire and makes many noises, but it is a still a nothing. It is a product of our minds, not the reality of the Person.

Yes God acts. Yes He is an actuator, for He is THE Actuator. But we have been ushered into a relationship with THE Actuator, not just and not only spectator and speculator of and on His actions. May we realize that God is God, and let Him be so in the lives we now live, and in His doings we now see.

What if: Criticism

What if our criticisms of the institution are to raise our awareness within the organic community of Christ's life?

What if our criticisms are so we do not trust in these worldly ways as we walk in His fullness and life?

What if our criticisms are a warning for seductions to come in worldliness and religion, just in new forms?

Bass Ackwards

God's Way

Out of death comes life

seed to harvest: seed dies in ground, and produces a harvest
Cross to Resurrection: Christ's death brings on His resurrection

Institution's Way

Out of [the illusion of] life comes death

The institution and its protectors ask for all the accoutrements of vitality and life to be displayed:

• commitment to the institution
• participation
• refer to one another as brother and sister (look like a family)
• many social activities (contrived so we look like we enjoy being with each other)
• many educational commitments (look like you are learning and growing)
• accountability (look like you are open and honest)

The result? More often than not death -- almost guaranteed if you are trusting in the institution, the protectors, and/or your fellow followers rather than Christ. Christ, the resurrection, is life, not potlucks, not bible studies, and not even accountability for quiet times.

But idf you trust in all that and not in Christ, then you'll very likely find yourself drier and drier, deader and deader. But thankfully, God is gracious nonetheless.

RQ: Man, Dwelling Place of God by A.W. Tozer

Chapter 14: God Must Be Loved For Himself

GOD BEING WHO HE is must always be sought for Himself, never as a means toward something else.

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Being who He is, God is to be loved for His own sake. He is the reason for our loving Him, just as He is the reason for His loving us and for every other act He has performed, is performing and will perform world without end.

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Those who have been spiritually enabled to love God for Himself will find a thousand fountains springing up from the rainbowcircled throne and bringing countless treasures which are to be received with reverent thanksgiving as being the overflow of God's love for His children. Each gift is a bonus of grace which because it was not sought for itself may be enjoyed without injury to the soul. These include the simple blessings of life, such as health, a home, a family, congenial friends, food, shelter, the pure joys of nature or the more artificial pleasures of music and art.

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The effort to find these treasures by direct search apart from God has been the major activity of mankind through the centuries; and this has been man's burden and man's woe. The effort to gain them as the ulterior motive back of accepting Christ may be something new under the sun; but new or old it is an evil that can only bring judgment at last.

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God wills that we should love Him for Himself alone with no hidden reasons, trusting Him to be to us all our natures require. Our Lord said all this much better: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matt. 6:33) .

RQs: Man the Dwelling Place of God by A.W. Tozer

Chapter 4: On the Origin and Nature of Things

In their search for facts men have confused truths with truth. The words of Christ, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free," have been wrenched from their context and used to stir people to the pursuit of knowledge of many kinds with the expectation of being made "free" by knowledge. Certainly this is not what Christ had in mind when He uttered the words.

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Such truths as men discover in the earth beneath and in the astronomic heavens above are properly not truths but facts. We call them truths, as I do here, but they are no more than parts of the jigsaw puzzle of the universe, and when correctly fitted together they provide at least a hint of what the vaster picture is like. But I repeat, they are not truth, and more important, they are not the truth. Were every missing piece discovered and laid in place we would still not have the truth, for the truth is not a composite of thoughts and things. The truth should be spelled with a capital T, for it is nothing less than the Son of God, the Second Person of the blessed Godhead.

What if: Community

What if "Community is a gift God gives, not a chore for us to produce"?

What if community has to be received like anything else from God?

What if we are struggling to produce a pattern that is in fact a manifestation of God's work that we receive simply and child-like in faith?

What if the gift of community is not static, boxed in, and fully concrete?

What if community is a great work that is wrought by God over time and is rarely a flash mob?

What if: Mission fields

What if the greatest mission fields are the religious?

Repentance

I doubt I said this, but I don't knwo who did:

It is my resignation to the reality of my moral bankruptcy. The change of mind is accepting His mind. And this engenders, through faith, the receptivity of His activity and His righteousness.

RQs: Continued Ministry in Galilee

The wisdom of God is justified however, for God is shown to be righteous in what He has done both in John and in Jesus, despite the fact that neither met the religious expectation of the day. Despite some misunderstanding of what the other was doing, God was working novelly and uniquely in both men at different times and in different circumstances. We must beware of the religious demands for conformity of methodology and expectation.

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Religious pride and conceit blinds the religionists to spiritual truth, but the humble recognize their spiritual ignorance and need. Religion places great value in education, learning and knowledge, but the truth of the kingdom is often perceived by the uneducated and ignorant, the "have-nots" who in their simplicity recognize their need.

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The yoke of religious activity is indeed heavy and laborious. Religious leaders are high-handed and demanding in their "authority." Religious activity allows for no rest. There is a constant demand for dedication and commitment, to be more involved and active in serving the organization and its leaders. Endless duties and ceremonies, services and rituals, are inculcated; go, go, go and do, do, do; unceasing performance and preservation of the traditions.

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In the Sabbath rest of the Christian covenant (Heb. 4) we can enjoy God's activity, recognizing that Christianity is what God does, and not what we do. Jesus said, "Take MY yoke; learn of ME." The ontological dynamic of Jesus Christ is the essence of Christian activity. Come and receive. Do not settle for the wearisome and burdensome toil and labor of religious performance; accept instead the grace of God's activity in Jesus Christ, resting in His sufficiency.

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"One greater than Solomon is here," Jesus went on to say. Jesus is the wisdom of God personified (I Cor. 1:24,30). The queen of the South, Sheba, had sincerely sought out the wisdom of Solomon, but the Jewish religionists did not know divine wisdom when He stood before them and spoke to them, and would thus be condemned even by the Egyptians which were such enemies of the Israelites in the judgment before God.

Teach us HOW to Pray

We read it as WHAT to pray and repeat this example as liturgy falling into the same error that Christ just talked about not two sentences before.

Reading Quotes: The Sermon on the Mount

As He revealed Himself as the divine Messiah in a completely different kingdom there was an inevitable and constant conflict with religion.

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When Jesus was "proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom" (Matt. 4:23), He was speaking of a spiritual reality that was as different from the Jewish expectation of the kingdom as day and night. Since natural men, religious men, cannot understand spiritual things (I Cor. 2:14), they could not understand that Jesus was not referring to a kingdom that was essentially a physical time and space realm, but to a kingdom that was essentially spiritual and eternal, yet lived out in physical time and space.

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"The kingdom has come" (Matt. 12:28), Jesus said, for it is inherent in My presence and being and action. The kingdom Jesus came to bring was the dynamic and ontological reign of His life as Lord and King in the lives of those who received Him by faith. Wherever Jesus was the spiritual kingdom could function.

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Religion does not have a solution for spiritual poverty, so they emphasize social programs to attempt to alleviate physical and material poverty.

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Those in the kingdom of Christ who are willing to renounce all their rights of self-assertion, who refuse to defend themselves and are patient under attack, will discover that by such a Christian attitude they will "overcome" and "inherit the earth" (Isa. 37:11).

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Religion hungers and thirsts after power and influence, blessings and experiences, knowledge and witnessing skills, and righteousness by meritorious performance, but they seem to know nothing of the intense desire for the character of divine righteousness.

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As the spiritual "Bread of life" (John 6:35) and "living water" (John 4:11-14), Jesus satisfies our spiritual hunger and thirst.

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Those in whom Christ reigns as Lord and King will often stick out like a sore thumb, stand out as the odd-man out, and provide a salty seasoning to a society that does not want to be preserved from its rottenness.

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Although religion sometimes causes its adherents to "stand-out" by their weird expressions of piety, by becoming social nuisances in their evangelistic zeal, or by insistence on engagement in their causes, Christians will stand out by their expression of godly character and activity.

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We are salt and light because Christ in us is the One who preserves the world from rottenness and exposes the darkness of the world by His light (John 8:12).

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In the old covenant God had given the Law to Moses for man's benefit so that he could recognize the character of God and his own inability to enact such.

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Though not wanting to raze the Law, He did want to raise the Law to its eternal and essential purpose by bringing to full fruition all that the Law pointed to pictorially and custodially. Jesus fulfills the Law not only by historically fulfilling the promises and the prophecies thereof, but even more importantly by completing, actualizing and consummating the Law by personally becoming its full intended content.

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If our spiritual identity is united with Jesus Christ and all of our worth is found in Him, then we have nothing to protect or defend. We do not have to react in violent self-defense and retaliatory revenge in order to "save face" and protect our personal rights and personal reputation, even if we are wronged and violated. Bonhoeffer calls this "freedom from the tyranny of our own ego." Kingdom living should evidence a carefree detachment from personal reputation, money, things, and impositions.

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God's kingdom has a radically different modus operandi whereby the total provision for godly and righteous behavior is derived from God in Christ by His grace, as Christ reigns as Lord in our lives.

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Bonhoeffer noted the paradox of how "our activity must be visible, but never be done for the sake of making it visible," and how "we have to take heed that we do not take heed of our own righteousness."3 The concern of kingdom participants should only be what God thinks of us and whether we are available to all that He wants to be and do in us. The effects of His expressions are to be hidden from ourselves and disregarded, so that our behavior continues to be the spontaneous expression of the life of Jesus Christ, "no longer I, but Christ living in me" (Gal. 2:20).

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When the visible expression of the righteous character of God is top priority in our kingdom living, God will take care of all other needs we might have. This is not fatalism or passivism, but the recognition of all sufficiency in Jesus Christ. "My grace is sufficient for you" (II Cor. 12:9).

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Religion is inevitably rampant with judgmentalism which justifies its own behavior while condemning others. They are engaged in the "good and evil" game first played in the garden of Eden when man set himself up as his own center of reference determining that his opinions and actions were the "good" and the "right," and all others were "evil" and "wrong." From that self-centered vantage point self-oriented religion has judged others with a critical spirit attacking dissenters with harsh verdicts for failing to conform.

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Those in the kingdom must realize that they are in no position to chastise and condemn other's faults for God graciously accepts us in the midst of our faults. His love in us does not "keep a record of wrongs" or "delight in evil" (I Cor. 13:5,6). Constantly we must examine ourselves (Gal. 6:4; I Cor. 11:28) and test ourselves in order to recognize that we are who we are only because Jesus Christ is in us (II Cor. 13:5).

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The attitude of kingdom participants must always be that of receptivity. God wants to give everything to us ontologically and dynamically in His Son, Jesus Christ. His grace must be received in faith as we "ask, seek and knock." We do not try to "lay hold" of God by "storming the gates of heaven" as religion has advocated, thinking that we have a right to manipulate God by demanding and commanding what we want.

Satan's Hermeneutics

Although we only get a slight peek through Christ's temptation by Satan in the wilderness, it is interestingly to look at how Satan interprets the scripture.

Does his interpretation smack of religious interpretation?

Does his attempts at manipulating scripture for his purposes seem similar to us, sound like us?

Impossible to Please God Without...

FAITH. Because by faith you receive Him and His actions and His character and His righteousness. It has nothing to do with our own.

Only God is good and only what He does is good. It is only by faith that we can receive Him.

Or presented another way:
God the Father is only pleased by His Son, Jesus Christ. By the Cross (a manifestation of His grace) we've been given His Son. By faith we receive Him and are now IN CHRIST and He is IN US.

Reading Quotes: Jesus Begins to Reveal Himself

The rules and regulations, rites and rituals of their religion blinded them to what God was doing.

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The voice of God declared, "This is My beloved Son (Ps. 2:7), in Whom I am well-pleased." God is well-pleased only when His own Being and character are actively expressed, and "without faith it is impossible to please God" (Heb. 11:6).

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In response to the temptation to presume on God's power to achieve success, Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6:16, "You shall not tempt the Lord your God," indicating that presuming on God is not trusting in God.

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Jesus supernaturally make wine out of water. In this, His first miracle, He confronts and exposes Jewish religion. He took the old clay water-pots of legalistic cleansing and purification in the Jewish religion, and puts into them the celebratory "bubbly" wine that represents the dynamic, living and active life of God in Himself. The symbolism is that the new covenant wine of His own life, full of joy and blessing, replaces the old dirty water of the purification vats of religion. "We have this treasure in earthen vessels" (II Cor. 4:7), writes Paul. The wine provided is superior to that which was before, and is provided in abundance (John 10:10). John calls this "the beginning of Jesus' signs," or actions which signify spiritual realities.

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Religion is always concerned with authority structures and supernatural attestation, desiring sensational demonstrations rather than waiting for God to work out His activity in His way.

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Jesus' perspective of the "kingdom" is a confrontation to all religious concepts of the "kingdom" involving physicality, geographical location and place, a material capital, throne, temple and tangible sacrifices, organizational structure, and the extent and duration of space/time measurement. The kingdom of God brought into being in Jesus Christ has nothing to do with such, contrary to all religious thinking down through the centuries.

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Revelation is caught, not taught! As no man has ascended into heaven to figure out spiritual realities, they can only be revealed by the One who as descended from heaven, Jesus Christ, the Son of Man.

Tangled Conversation: Giving Life

When we talk of giving up our life for another, what does that mean? What life, what aspect of life? Is the fact that we can have a discussion parsing it a sign that we are missing the boat on this?

Yeah, what life can a son of God give? Jesus Christ is all in all, He is our life.

Then what are we to give? What do we have to give? We certainly cannot or should not give OUR life, that is our old life, for that was put out of business at the cross. Or was it, was it just the flesh? What's the difference?

Seriously, what is life? What is the life of Christ? He came to give us life -- what is it? Is it even a what? For He is life, then it is a Who.

Then, if it's a who, approaching it as a what will just lead us away from the Person.

Will it, I mean understanding an aspect, is that wrong? Or rather is it unprofitable?

I don't know. I think it is profitable, but there is this siren call to trust in it, to trust in our eventual understanding rather than trusting in the Person. We trust His strength, power, goodwill, etc... because we trust Him the Person, these things flow out of Who He is.

Back to life. What is it? Well it's a Who. So what is giving a Who? How can we give our life for a friend if our life is another person? Is that even the life we are to give? Is giving our life merely the reprioritization of our desires? Is it the tricking, the methodization, the training , the self-willing of ourselves to change our set of priorities such that they are so effectively overwrought with those of another that they are effectively changed?

Hmmm what I see there is that the flesh can do that. Or better stated, the flesh thinks it can do that, and values that, because ultimately the flesh is still in control and getting the glory.

I can see that, I can see that. But then the question becomes what's the giving of our lives outside this illusion we've mapped out through the flesh? I like the question, is it the giving of a Who? I think the reality of that is not our giving of anything. It is Him giving Himself.

So we giving our lives is in reality just Him giving His? Why the distinction then? Does it go to the spiritual unity we now have in Christ? Or have we missed the boat again?

Knowing us...we've probably missed the boat, but let's continue on in absurdity...because we can. I think possibly part of the problem is that there is an underlying and invisible spiritual reality that manifests itself on the stage of physicality...

I don't know if that's a mixed metaphor but it sounds good. So the Who manifests His life in and through us. We've talked about that before. What does that mean in the realm of us the vessels giving up our lives?

Does giving up our lives mean allowing Him to manifest His life in us? That sounds cliched. No seriously, that does sounds cliched, though its very chic right now.

Well I think it is becoming a slogan and it is the slogan that is mistaken for reality rather than what that statement was originally pointing to. It's the problem with words, language, culture, and fallen humanity. But an overused slogan does not mean that what it is talking about is untrue. Is giving life allowing His life to be expressed in and through us?

Oh so you hand the question right back to me? Well maneuvered. Perhaps it is an issue of faith. It is giving up our abilities shall we say, or better stated, perceived abilities, for His. But is it ALLOWING Him to be expressed? Something about that doesn't sit well.

Oh I agree. Is it an allowing? Seems as if we deign to let God do something, as if we are over Him somehow. Is allowing the reality? Come to think of it I think it's faith again. Faith is not an allowing, it is the receiving of that which has already been given. Trusting, believing, and dependence are not in reality an allowing -- they are the receiving. It would be like going to Niagra Falls with a teacup and stating that the filling of the teacup was "allowing" the falls to fill it.

So it is by faith that we give up our lives?

It would have to be. Because on our own we wouldn't do it. If we could why would He have in our place. We cannot and could not save ourselves, so we must not fall into a Galatian-like error thinking that we can continue on in ANY aspect of Christianity by ourselves or even in and of ourselves. It is only in and of Christ. Period.

Dogmatic much?

True. That's where I am right now. Or better stated, that is where the Lord has either led me or allowed me to rest right now.

A good place? I'm there too.

Anywhere with Him is a good place. It has to be, for nothing is good outside Him.

"Clever girl." True though.

Readings Quotes: An Address to the Clergy by William Law

Address 1 - 44

For Love and Delight in matters of Scriptures, whilst it is only a Delight that is merely human, however Specious and Saintlike it may appear, is but the Self-love of fallen Adam, and can have no better a Nature, till it proceeds from the Inspiration of God, quickening his own Life and Nature within us, which alone can have or give forth a godly Love.

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For if it be an immutable Truth, that "no man can call Jesus, Lord, but by the Holy Ghost," it must be a Truth equally immutable, that no one can have any one Christ-like Temper or Power of Goodness but so far, and in such Degree, as he is immediately led and governed by the Holy Spirit.

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A Religion that is not wholly built upon this Supernatural Ground, but solely stands upon the Powers, Reasonings, and Conclusions of the Natural uninspired Man, has not so much as the Shadow of true Religion in it, but is a mere Nothing, in the same Sense, as an Idol is said to be Nothing, because the Idol has nothing of That in it which is pretended by it.

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No Life can continue in the Goodness of its first created, or redeemed State, but by its continuing under the Influence of, and working with and by that Powerful Root, or Spirit, which at first created, or redeemed it. Every Branch of the Tree, though ever so richly brought forth, must wither and die, as soon as it ceases to have continual Union with, and Virtue from that Root, which first brought it forth.

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And every religious Trust or Confidence in any Thing, but the Divine Operation within us, is but a sort of Image-Worship, which though it may deny the Form, yet retains the Power thereof in the Heart. And he that places any religious Safety in theological Decisions, Scholastic Points, in particular Doctrines and Opinions, that must be held about the scripture Words of Faith, Justification, Sanctification, Election, and Reprobation, so far departs from the true Worship of the Living God within him, and Sets up an Idol of Notions to be worshipped, if not instead of, yet along with him.

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For a letter-learned zeal has but one Nature wherever it is, it can only do that for Christians, which it did for Jews. As it anciently brought forth Scribes, Pharisees, Hypocrites, and Crucifiers of Christ, as it afterwards brought forth Heresies, Schisms, Popes, papal Decrees, Images, Anathemas, Transubstantiations, so in Protestant countries it will be doing the same Thing, only with other materials; Images of wood and Clay, will only be given up for Images of Doctrines; Grace and Works, imputed sin, and imputed Righteousness, Election and Reprobation, will have their Synods of Dort, as truly evangelical, as any Council of Trent.

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For there is no possibility of being like-minded with Christ in anything that he taught, or having the Truth of one Christian Virtue, but by the Nature and Spirit of Christ become essentially living in us. Read all our Savior's Divine Sermon from the Mount, consent to the Goodness of every Part of it, yet the Time of practicing it will never come, till you have a new Nature from Christ, and are as vitally in him, and he in you, as the Vine in the Branch, and the Branch in the Vine.

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For when, or where, or how could everyone of us be in danger of grieving, quenching, or resisting the Spirit, unless his holy Breathings and Inspirations were always within us?

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But Christians, seeking and turning to anything else, but to be led and inspired by the one Spirit of God and Christ, will bring forth a Christendom that in the Sight of God will have no other Name, than a spiritual Babylon, a spiritual Egypt, and Sodom, a scarlet Whore, a devouring Beast, and red Dragon. For all these Names belong to all Men, however learned, and to all Churches, whether greater or less, in which the Spirit of this World has any share of Power.

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Again, Christ, after his Glorification in Heaven, says, "Behold I STAND at the DOOR and KNOCK." He does not say, Behold ye have me in the Scriptures. Now what is the DOOR at which Christ, at the Right-hand of God in Heaven, KNOCKS? Surely it is the Heart, to which Christ is always present. He goes on, IF ANY MAN HEARS MY VOICE; how hears, but by the hearing of the Heart, or what Voice, but that which is the Speaking or Sounding of Christ within Him; He adds, AND OPENS THE DOOR, that is, opens his Heart for me, I WILL COME IN TO HIM, that is, will be a living holy Nature, and Spirit born within him, AND SUP WITH HIM, and HE WITH ME.—Behold the last finishing Work of a Redeeming Jesus, entered into the Heart that opens to him, bringing forth the Joy, the Blessing, and Perfection of that first Life of God in the Soul, which was lost by the Fall, set forth as a Supper, or Feast of the Heavenly Jesus with the Soul, and the Soul with him.

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Now this continual Knocking of Christ at the Door of the Heart, sets forth the Case or Nature of a continual immediate Divine Inspiration within us; it is always with us, but there must be an opening of the Heart to it; and though it is always there, yet it is only felt and found by those, who are attentive to it, depend upon, and humbly wait for it.

What if: Not of this World

My kingdom is not of this world. (John 18:36)

What if it will not operate anything like this world?

What if the world's idea and definition of a kingdom is not His kingdom?

What if using the world's standards for success and advancement doesn't work?

What if the methods are not of this world?

What if the power source is not of this world?

What if the reasonings are not of this world?

What if the love is not of this world?

What if not of this world means works of this world do not work?

What if not of this world means methods of this world won't work?

What if not of this world means the world's great thoughts won't work?

What if not of this world means the authority of this world won't work?

What if flesh cannot produce things of the spirit?

What if flesh cannot understand things of the spirit?

Reading Quotes: Christianity Is Not Problem-Solving, by Jim Fowler

Who tells us anyway that all human problems should or can be solved? Perhaps unsolved problems are more important for God than solutions are...since they remind us of man's sin and the divine redemption.

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His intent was indeed revolutionary, but not in the sense of political insurrection or social transformation, but rather in a radically different concept of "kingdom" wherein He as the divine king would reign and rule as Lord in the lives of the people of God, manifesting His character which is diametrically opposite of that evidenced in the fallen world-order.

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...Christian religion reverts to secondary efforts of problem-solving as their primary mission in the world, they are in effect denying the "finished work" of Christ by focusing on and engaging in "works" that attempt to "finish" God's work on His behalf...

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Robert Capon's remarks are pertinent:

"Christianity is not a religion. Christianity is the proclamation of the end of religion, not of a new religion, or even of the best of all religions. ...If the cross is the sign of anything, it's the sign that God has gone out of the religion business and solved all of the world's problems without requiring a single human being to do a single religious thing. What the cross is actually a sign of is the fact that religion can't do a thing about the world's problems that it never did work and it never will..."

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When Christians think that they are "serving" God by attempting to solve the problems of people and the world, they fail to understand that "God is not served with human hands" (Acts 17:25) and their attempts to help God out in problem-solving is not helpful.

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If it is not His activity, done His way by Him, then it is not worth doing. In addition, problem-solving religion is impatient in its desires to achieve its objectives. It wants to perform, attack, assault, seize the day as it engages in its agenda of activistic resolution. Waiting upon God and allowing Him in His sovereignty to deal with life and the world in His time and in His way can only be conceived as passivistic acquiescence by those who view the Christian purpose as problem-solving.

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The "good news" of Christianity is the living Person of Jesus Christ, rather than a packaged solution to an identifiable social or personal problem. Even if the perceived problem is the spiritual depravity of an unregenerate individual, we do not extend or apply a packaged salvation to fix their spiritual problem, but point them to, and seek to introduce them to the risen Lord Jesus as their Savior.

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When Christianity is regarded as a packaged solution to identifiable social or personal problems, the reality of Christianity becomes objectified as an "it," some "thing" to be applied to a problem as a utilitarian instrument. The message of Christianity is thus static and objectified, linear and causal, historicized and theologized as a personal and social solution. Jesus is not a solution! He is "the way, the truth and the life" (Jn. 14:6), the modality, reality and vitality of God who has invested Himself into the human condition and situation. He is the ontological Being who activates His creation.

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Christianity is Christ's life lived out in Christians in every context of clashing cultures, differing ideologies, and pluralistic perspectives. Such manifestation of Christ's life (cf. II Cor. 4:10,11) may resolve some perceived problems among men, but problem-solving is not the mission objective of Christianity.

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Every tenet of the fallen humanistic perspective posits human productivity and activity as the causal element of the betterment of mankind, so for the Christian to accept the radical modus operandi of faithful receptivity of divine activity in what by all appearances seems to be inutility and uselessness is diametrically different than the way the world operates. Jesus was so right when He said, "My kingdom is not of this world" (Jn. 18:36).

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In explaining The Presence of the Kingdom, Jacques Ellul writes:

"Our world is entirely directed towards action. Everything is interpreted in terms of action. People are always looking for slogans, programmes, ways of action; action for action's sake. Our world is so obsessed by activity that it is in danger of losing its life. A man who spends all his time in action, by that very fact ceases to live.

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The world only desires action, and has no desire for life at all. ...What matters is to live, and not to act. ...What we need to do is to live, and to refuse to accept the methods of action proposed by the world,...(even) the church's 'calls to action' made in miserable imitation of the world.

Men should be alive, instead of being obsessed with action. To be alive means the total situation of man as he is confronted by God...living to the glory of the Creator."

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What, then, is the active responsibility of the Christian individual? We actively make the choice of faith to be receptive and available to all that God wants to be and do in us by the grace-dynamic of the Person and work of Jesus Christ. In obedience we "listen under" the guidance and direction of God's Spirit to discern His course of action; how He desires to enact His Being in our behavior. "He who began a good work in you, will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus" (Phil. 1:6). Herein is the freedom from the performance of problem-solving programs; the individual freedom to be man as God intended man to be.

Importing Fatherly Baggage

We often take the experience with our earthly father and place this construct upon God the Father. It can be very subtle and very poisonous.

But don't we do this with all sorts of other things as well?

It's a case of making God in our image. Or better stated, relating to God based upon the image we've concocted in our head versus who He really is, all of which we only know by what He has revealed to us.

Reading Quotes: Christianity is NOT an ...ism

Christian religion is the sociological movement that is comprised of formulated belief-systems and morality patterns, and is structured into hierarchical political organizations. Christianity, on the other hand, is the vital dynamic of the Spirit of Christ in those who are receptive to Him by faith.

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The theories and concepts of man can, and are, boiled down into ...isms, but how can the ontological dynamic of the infinite Living God be compressed into a humanly manageable package of thought? Impossible, except it be decimated and destroyed, having been reduced to something that no longer represents the reality of the expression of God in Jesus Christ.

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Every such ...ism serves only as a pathetic diminishment of the divine display of Christ's life in Christians. They also serve as bunkers behind which religionists can hide in order to participate in their divisive positioning and posturing, instead of focusing together and being unified in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

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One of the earliest ...isms confronted by nascent Christianity was that of Greek gnosticism, with its emphasis on the necessity of having a special knowledge of spiritual mysteries in order to advance into spiritual elitism. Though the early church rejected this philosophy, they were somewhat unaware of the extent to which the dualism of Hellenism and Platonism was affecting Christian thought. This was evidenced in an arid intellectualism and rationalism, that later led to scholasticism. The theologism of doctrinalism and creedalism soon became pervasive. Christian religion became the advocacy of a belief-system, assented to by easy-believism. This remains the focus of ideological fundamentalism and evangelicalism, defending their epistemological position with the dogmatism of absolutism, often based on a biblicism and literalism borrowed from Judaism. [emphasis mine]

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All ...isms are an attempt to encapsulate or encompass Christianity into an entity (be it ideological, conceptual, behavioral, procedural or sociological) that can in no wise contain the supernatural activity of the Living God. The being and activity of the God of the universe will never be confined in a bottle or box of man's making and understanding.

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Whereas ...isms are fixed and unchanging in their parameters, having been carefully clarified and defined, the life of Jesus Christ expressed in Christians is spontaneous, unique and creative; ever-changing and surprising ­never capable of being stereotyped and regulated. The only pattern is the consistency of the immutable character of Christ in the midst of the multitudinous expressions of His life in Christian behavior.

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Collectively, His life is expressed in the ecclesia of the Body of Christ, the Church (Eph. 1:22,23; Col. 1:18,24). Never intended to be an organizational institution, the Church is a living spiritual organism wherein the life of Jesus Christ is expressed interactively and socially in loving interpersonal relationships.

Reading Quotes: Christianity Is Not Role-Playing, by Jim Fowler

John Calvin refers to such religious actors, noting that "in all ages there have been certain worshippers of God who have worshiped him like stage-players, whose holiness did wholly consist in gestures and vain pomps."

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Sometimes religion casts itself as a lifestyle of role-playing. The convert assumes the identity of a "Christian" on the religious stage. They are expected to play the role and stay "in character." They repeat their lines, parrot their part, and play their role. They "go through the motions" knowing that the rituals are not reality. Religion is just a "bit-part" they play in life. It's not real. They are wearing masks and costumes. It is hypocrisy! Their continuation in such makes them enablers to one another in the fictional drama that they are all play-acting, and they become codependent to one another's sins.

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Activistic religion has encouraged its cast to play various roles in support of chosen causes. Often it is the "crusader role" against abortion, pornography or specified social evils. Other times it may be the "Good Samaritan role," serving in a soup-kitchen or at a rescue mission. The role is played with the utmost of sincerity as it is regarded as the reality of their religion.

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Religion is a simulated reality role-playing. The misnomer of "Christian religion" has long encouraged its cast to play the role of a Christian. People are encouraged to "act like a Christian." The effect upon others is emphasized to the neglect of reality.

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The Christian does not have an assumed identity, but the real identity wherein "Christ lives in me" (Gal. 2:20).

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It is not "make-believe." Christianity is real-believe. Faith involves the receptivity of the activity of the life of Jesus Christ in me. It is the receptivity of divine reality; the Being of Christ expressed in our behavior.

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Trying to "stay in character" throughout the religious "performance" is very difficult and demanding, but Jesus Christ wants to "manifest His life in our mortal bodies" (II Cor. 4:10,11), His character in our behavior. We are not called to the false-persona of an actor or actress, but to the Reality of the Person of Jesus Christ lived out through man.

Childish Question -- Deep Answer

If God were to pass gas, would you blush?

Well the whole premise is ludicrous I know...although I do seem to remember Him walking with men, eating with men, so you never know. I know how base and low a question, but there's a method to this madness.

You know you are comfortable with someone when you feel no compunction to hide, cover, conceal anything. That would include bodily functions. Now it's not to say one goes out of their way to "let one rip" but when one gets past the acquaintance stage into a deep relationship you need not have a mask about yourself. Friends don't need masks, family members don't need masks.

So the question is not so much about God passing gas, but it is about our level of intimacy with Him. Now I don't think if we'd blush it is a bad thing, in any way. It just means we can be excited at the depth of the relationship that we can still look forward to being ushered into.

Querying God

I suppose if God had a search engine it would be called Infinity rather than Google -- I know groaner. Of course the Holy Spirit fulfills that "role" does He not? It is He who searches and knows that mind of God. Anyway, it is a fun concept to play with.

ENTRY: God, how did you begin?
ERROR: Beginning is a temporal concept. God existed before time, He brought time into existence. Illogical question, search REJECTED.

ENTRY: God, where did you come from?
ERROR: Space was created in creation. Illogical question, search REJECTED.

ENTRY: God, what is your job, your purpose?
ERROR: Question assumes job or purpose is above God, rather than job or purpose coming from God. Illogical question, search REJECTED.

ENTRY: Aw man. All the really good questions don't really make any sense in the first place.
ERROR: Only God is good. The created cannot define what is good or not. Illogical statement, search REJECTED.

On second thought, maybe the search engine "construct" is too cold and impersonal.

Tangled Conversation: Mediocrity

What's your greatest fear?

Well one of them is mediocrity.

Huh?

I have a great fear of mediocrity.

Is God mediocre?

What? Are you smoking crack? No, but that has nothing to do with me.

Well what is this mediocrity, how do you define mediocre?

Oh you know, not doing anything special, outstanding, just bumping along. Being unimpressive.

Being unimpressive to whom?

Uh oh, I think I see where you are going. I'll play along though. Being impressive to others.

So you want others to think you're impressive.

Well I want them to appreciate my contribution.

How many do you need? 100 people? 1,000 people? 1 million? When and if you get 100 will you be satisfied, or will it then appear that "you know what, 1000 is what I want."

Okay, true, good point.

Well what if you get the whole world? You want them to value your contribution?

Well yeah, that would be nice.

And which is really the more accurate picture...your contribution will be valued forever or it will be more like a passing fad, that everyone was into then is forgotten?

More like the latter. Okay, you're right. But there is also God. I don't want to be mediocre for God.

But aren't you?

Huh?

Aren't you mediocre, no matter what you do. I mean seriously, mediocrity is a term of comparison. There is what is good, what is mediocre, and what is bad. Mediocrity is just the amount of imperfection in something. If excellent, there is no mediocrity. ANYWAY...compared to God you are a ALWAYS mediocre.

Hmmm good point. What's that mean?

It means that His love and acceptance for you has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO with your performance.

That's right, that's true. But He doesn't want me to be a loser and a failure either.

So it's God's job, because you believe in Him, to make sure the rest of the world values and accepts you? What they think a winner is counts, and therefore God should mold us in such a way that the world is impressed with us?

That does sound a little silly. So we should be losers?

Well that depends on who's defining loserdom wouldn't it? If it's your parents then, yep you might be a loser. If it's society...if it's your alumni class...if it's your friends...if it's your colleagues...if it's your ex-girlfriend from high school...if it's your professor...then you might be a loser -- or heck they might think you're a winner. But that's not the ultimate reality. Only that lies in God. And what does the perfect Father see in us His children? His perfect Son. The ultimate winner.

So my fear of mediocrity?

Probably unfounded.

So I will do great things?

Whose definition of great? Wouldn't it be wonderful if the only definition of great is what God defines as such -- even if it is scoffed at by the world? Also, even if the world thinks it is great, you would be free from its control and fauning because you would have only eyes for Him.

Hmmmmm...

And furthermore. Only God is good. Only what He does is good. So therefore only what HE does through and in us will be good. If what we do apart from Him is considered great, then by definition it isn't, because HE didn't do it. Forget what the experts and critics say.

So I still can do great things that are appreciated by the world!

Sure, but look at what the excitement in such says about us. Say God's approval is X and the world's is Y1. If X + Y1 = X, then we can say that the world didn't approve (Y1 = 0), but God approved (X > 0). But let's say X + Y2 > X + Y1. Here we see that the world's approval makes life better (X + Y2 > X, for Y1 =0). So if given the choice we'd like to have both (X and Y2).

Well that just makes sense. Why not?

Because it's an illusion. What underlies that thought is that GOD IS NOT ENOUGH. God is not capable of fulfilling everything we desire.

Good point. So what would happen is that we would seek after the world's approval, because why have X when you could have X + Y2.

And that would lead to...

Bondage. Control by the world. You would be no different than one who does not know God. The world seeks Y2 over Y1 as well.

And interestingly enough we'd be saying that God is just another individual, of the same value as others. Because say you are valued by q number of people. It would be better to be valued by q + 1 people.

So God is made into just another person to impress. X would then be equal to 1. So it would be 1 + Y2. Ouch it would be X + Y1 = X. And X + Y2> X. If X = 1, then 1 + Y2 > 1. God is just another person we could impress. Fungible, just like everyone else. A commodity.

Yeah. And if we feel we cannot impress Him, then we'd say, "Some will. Some won't. So what. Next!" and just spend time trying to be accepted and impressive to others.

So that means for us in Christ this equation is...

Bunk. An illusion. A lie. The reality is He's our all in all. It begins and ends with Him. And the great thing is we are now free to truly love. As we saw before, when needing others approval and acceptance (Y2) we would either have to manipulate them into thinking something of us they may not. OR even worse appease them, in other words be under their control and whim. There's no love in either case. Either way it's all about what we want and need over the other person. It's bondage, and you don't find love in bondage.

Spontaneous Expression

Christians have often projected the idea that Christianity is a “believe-right religion” – an epistemological exercise in developing a belief-system that aligns with correct historical interpretation, orthodox theological formulation, and accurate doctrines carefully worded in a creedal “statement of faith.” The “believe-right religion” then becomes a “do-right religion,” as moral standards and ethical guidelines are formulated to correspond with the ideological beliefs, and to enforce behavioral conformity “in deed and word.”
by James Fowler

">=>" means spontaneously expresses

Believe right religion >=> Do right religion [legalism]

Faith in Christ (ontological) >=> Christ's doing in and through you [freedom]

Reading Quotes: Christianity Is Not an Ideological Option, by Jim Fowler

Christians have often projected the idea that Christianity is a “believe-right religion” – an epistemological exercise in developing a belief-system that aligns with correct historical interpretation, orthodox theological formulation, and accurate doctrines carefully worded in a creedal “statement of faith.” The “believe-right religion” then becomes a “do-right religion,” as moral standards and ethical guidelines are formulated to correspond with the ideological beliefs, and to enforce behavioral conformity “in deed and word.”

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The message of the Christian gospel is that the singular God (“God is one” – Deut. 6:4) sent His singular (“only begotten” – Jn. 3:16,18; I Jn. 4:9) Son on a singular redemptive mission (cf. Jude 1:3) to earth in incarnational identification with man (cf. Jn. 1:14; Phil. 2:6-8). The Son offered up Himself (cf. Gal. 2:20; Heb. 7:27) as the singular (“once and for all” – Rom. 6:10; Heb. 10:12) sacrifice to take upon Himself the death consequences of man’s sin, and make His singular eternal life (cf. I Jn. 5:12,13) available to all mankind. That is why Jesus says, ‘I AM the way, the truth, and the life; no man comes to the Father but through Me” (Jn. 14:6). This is not exclusivism; but it is a singularity of life option.

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Jesus did not say, “I came that you might have ideological options presented to your human reasoning with the assumed autonomous ability to accept, reject, or merge these in exclusivism or inclusivism, and thus to be contented with your choice.” What He did say was, “I came that you might have life, and have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). “I am that life” (Jn. 14:6). “He who believes in the Son has eternal life, but he who does not obey the Son shall not see life” (Jn. 3:36). “He who believes in Me shall never die” (Jn. 11:26), i.e. shall not experience the “second death” (cf. Rev. 2:11; 20:14). The issue is life or death! “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:23).

Childhood Truth

Ask WHY enough and eventually you'll get to God.

Interestingly enough, once you come to Him in why, you cannot escape Him.

When you get to know Him, you don't want to escape Him.

When you get to love Him, you cannot help but manifest Him.

Christ Is Not a Delivery Boy

Contemporary evangelical thought refers time and again to Jesus "bringing" and "delivering" salvation, as if salvation were the beneficial product which Jesus the "delivery-boy" came to provide.

Christ did not deliver or bring salvation as some item, package, concept, construct, data, creed, etc...but He brought Himself. Or better stated, He gave Himself so that we could receive Him. We didn't receive a package, an it. We received HIM.

No Distinction, No Thing

God does not reveal some "thing" about Himself in order to make available some "thing" (such as holiness, goodness, love, peace, etc.); rather He reveals Himself, His Being, for that which He desires to give is Himself, His Being in action.

Shaq is Shaq. One aspect of him is he is over 7 feet tall. But you cannot separate his dimension from himself, his person. You can even go deeper, perhaps to personality. You cannot separate a unique personality from the person.

Subtle Idolatry II: Construct

When God is made into a construct we tend to worship the construct.

Whether the construct is from the striving hand or from the pridefully presumptuous natural mind -- the construct is nothing more and nothing less than an idol.

Natural theology develops an "idea about God" by logical deduction. "He must be, therefore He is." It is an attempt to know God apart from God.

Deduction is not reality. It is a construct. If it is acceded to, worshipped, and obeyed then it is clearly an idol.

Reading Quotes: Christianity Is Not Epistemology, by Jim Fowler

Writing to Timothy, Paul indicates that "if anyone does not agree with...the teaching conforming to godliness, he is conceited (puffed up) and understands (epistamenos) nothing" (I Tim. 6:3,4). Paul's argument seems to be that the teaching of the Christian life is based on the faith-derivative of God's character expressed in human behavior. To fail to understand and agree with this is to "stand upon" insubstantial understanding. Although such a person may have their epistemological belief-system all systematized and categorized, theologized and dogmatized, he takes his "stand upon" something other than the dynamic person of Jesus Christ.

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Epistemological understanding is inadequate to comprehend the divine reality that is the essence of Christianity. The objective of the Christian message is not to encourage people to receive and accumulate and assent to information, but rather to receive the very Being of God into themselves (John 1:12) and allow Jesus Christ to be their life (Col. 3:4).

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Jesus did not say, "I came that you might have orthodox beliefs and defend them apologetically." He said, "I came that you might have life (the very Being of God) and have such more abundantly (in the abundant expression of God's character in our behavior). (John 10:10)

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When the reason of man is thus deified, it spawns innumerable ideas, concepts, opinions, thoughts, doctrines, prejudices, etc. These mental constructs (such as the "idea of God" or the "idea of salvation") tend to become self-existent entities, autonomous tenets, which develop a history of their own, with a separate self-generative function. Thus they are evaluated, plotted, charted, analyzed, modified, altered and criticized.

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Natural theology develops an "idea about God" by logical deduction. "He must be, therefore He is." It is an attempt to know God apart from God.

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God does not reveal some "thing" about Himself in order to make available some "thing" (such as holiness, goodness, love, peace, etc.); rather He reveals Himself, His Being, for that which He desires to give is Himself, His Being in action.

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Our theology must always commence with who God is, not with His decrees, His will or His laws. God does what He does because He is who He is, not because He has decreed a plan, developed a principle, determined a precept, and set these in motion in deistic detachment.

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Any religious act or idea, viewed apart from what God is doing because He is who He is, operating by His grace, expressing Himself by His Son, Jesus Christ, is necessarily sterile, static and severed from reality, as well as idolatrous, abominable and anathema.

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The "good news" of the gospel is Jesus Christ! The gospel is not logical propositions, but the living Person of God in Christ. It is "good news" indeed that God has made available in His Son the restoration of the vital dynamic of His divine Being, that by the indwelling presence and activity of the risen and living Lord Jesus. Only in such an ontological connection is the divine intent of the gospel preserved. Gerhardt Friedrich explains that "the gospel and its content are one;" "the risen Lord is the auctor evangelii,"the origination and enactment of the gospel.

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Contemporary evangelical thought refers time and again to Jesus "bringing" and "delivering"17 salvation, as if salvation were the beneficial product which Jesus the "delivery-boy" came to provide.

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Grace is indivisible from God Himself. Grace is the self-giving of God in His Son, Jesus Christ. "Grace is realized through Jesus Christ" (John 1:17), and there is no grace apart from Christ. God does not act en dissecio or en partio. He does not act apart from who He is, apart from Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.

Reading Quotes: Christianity Is Not a Belief-System, by Jim Fowler

Jesus did not say, "Just remember My teaching." Jesus said, "I AM the way, the truth and the life." (John 14:6) "I AM the resurrection and the life." (John 11:25). Jesus Himself, the very Person and Life of Jesus Christ, is the essence of everything He came to bring to this world. Christianity is Christ!

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Jesus did not come to bring new information about God, about salvation, about love, about eternal life. Christ came to be Life to all mankind. He came as God, as salvation, as love. He came to restore mankind to what God intended in creation, and that by functioning as God in man, the spiritual dynamic of life.

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To attribute God's attributes to our doctrine and determine that our doctrine is absolute and unchangeable is to deify doctrine, and to engage in the absolutism that is indicative of fundamentalistic religion around the world.

Religion: Hating Grace because...

One loves one's own control. Religion hates grace because it wants its control.

I submit THE quote from Days of Thunder:
Dr. Claire Lewicki: Control is an illusion, you infantile egomaniac. Nobody knows what's gonna happen next: not on a freeway, not in an airplane, not inside our own bodies and certainly not on a racetrack with 40 other infantile egomaniacs.

Religious control is an illusion. But yet religion wants its control. Grace leaves all control to God. Religion hates grace. Religion HATES God.

Freedom's "extremes": The same thing

Freedom in Christ does not mean doing what I want.
The Libertine (X)

Freedom in Christ does not mean adhering to some pattern.
The Legalist (Y)

Freedom in Christ is freedom from the bondage of self whether it be through its lusts (libertine) or through its religious use of law (legalism).

Righteousness is not on the world's line.

In essence the two "extremes" are really the same thing. Satisfying the self, which is finding satisfaction apart from God. Sin is independence and independence is independence no matter how you do it. Whether you invoke the name of God (as a useful tool) or not.

Christ, the righteousness of God isn't on the line and we won't find freedom on that line either. That line is bondage no matter where you go on it. You are in bondage to the self, no matter what end you find yourself at any given moment.

What is the walk?

It is a journey. It is a daily adventure. It is an epic tale. It is an authentic quest.

It is not done alone. It is not done in a vacuum. It is not achieved by one's own power.

Manifestation vs. Imitation

Paul's explanation of Christian behavior is that of "the manifestation of the life of Jesus in our mortal bodies" (II Cor. 4:10,11); not by any human imitation of Christ's behavioral goodness. Christian living is not "monkey see, monkey do," the parrotting or apeing of reproduced external behavior.

Christianity is not imitation.

A light bulb whose outer casing is painted bright yellow is NOT a lit light bulb. The imitation by reflecting external light is not the reality of the inward light of a light bulb with electricity flowing through its filaments. A "bulb" without even a filament, even unconnected to a socket could "look" like a light bulb if outwardly cleverly painted.

We even see this in nature. Monarch butterflies are poisonous. There are other breeds that "mimic" the color scheme of the Monarch, but are not poisonous. Staying within the natural analogy and assuming some anthropomophizing we see that the mimicry is manipulation. It is outwardly presenting something that is inwardly not real so as to induce a beneficial action by one more powerful than the mimicker. In this case it is more akin to appeasement, to dissuading the powerful from doing what their natural inclination would have them do -- eat -- especially since doing so would have no negative repurcussions for the stronger aggressing party.

This is religion, this is mimicry, this is manipulation, this is appeasement, this manipulative investment for blessing, this is appeasement insurance for due curses. This is the fig-leaf reality of any of our efforts to gain closeness with God apart from His singular means -- Christ Jesus.

Remembering the corporate Christ in our "doings"

If you're not "doing" anything right now does that really mean anything in and of itself? Are the quadraceps always engaged/working? Or do they wait and rest and abide until called?

A part's constant activity is usually a sign of distress/illness. There is a time for everything. Trust the Head to designate, operate, and actuate. The Body of Christ is always at work, but does that mean you will ALWAYS perceive the work in what you are doing? Not likely. Faith. He will do, He is the Author and Perfector of our faith. He is our life.

Human [Based] Morality Destroys True Freedom

There's a provocative title!

Morality destroys the freedom to be and do whatever God wants to be and do in us. The rigid chains of moral inflexibility allow for no novelty, newness, no spontaneity of fresh expression of the Spirit.

Why? Because one is trusting in the natural fallen mind and its contraints and tradition rather than the real, true, dynamic, living God in Christ Jesus.

Subtle Idolatry I: God is perceived performance

"It is a subtle form of idolatry to allow the conduct of God to supplant and supersede the character of God; the performance of God to be the basis of the Person of God."

For it is the basing, the worship of God upon the senses and the natural mind. It is religion -- still man-made and worthless at its core. Because it is going from man to God. It is the production of an image of God in our image, in the confines of our mind. God is constrained, boxed in. He is only what we can perceive, interpret, and understand. Any god such as this is NOT the God revealed in the Bible nor in the Person of Christ Jesus.

It is the worship of a god who just does for us, for we only know and acknowledge what it has done. God is an active God but God is not just activity. His activity is His character manifested. Therefore God is not just a force, though He is powerful. He is Who He is. He is the great I AM. His doing comes from His being.

He is GOOD

"Another subtle mistake is to say that "God is good" because He does good. Divine activity then becomes the objective basis of determining God's character. God's goodness would then be based on His performance."

We fall into this trap often. God is good independent of any acts of goodness we perceive or interpret.

Saying Often Belies Thinking

If "God is good" because He serves a purpose, then the purpose is higher than God. If "God is good" because He conforms to a moral standard, then the standard is higher than God.

Looking at how we often talk about God, our experience, the walk, etc... reveals a great deal about what we TRULY believe. We let slip our "theology" in the cliches and habits of the tongue.

We can look at any man-made thing, such as the denominations and see where the above quote resounds with telling accuracy. We have movements where God's purpose is above God. Where His written word is above Him. Where His promises are above Himself.

Notice though that whenever someTHING is placed higher than God Himself, or in other words God is mentally constructed into someTHING He is not, you get an idol. And when you look behind the idol you see Self. Because an idol can be seen and held, and therefore controlled. We've become more sophisticated, our idols are no longer physically crafted by hand, they are mentally crafted. But they are seen in the mind's eye and held in mind's power. If God's promises are "greater" than Him then we can bypass God and manipulate Him into getting us (self) what we (self) want. If it is purpose, then we can align things, such as our activities, such that God is "forced" to propel them forward on His wave of purpose. All are idols, all are of religion, all are means to somehow control or, if feeling guilty, appease, God. It is the creature telling the Creator what to do. It is the creature trying to live independently of God. It is sin.

3 Aspects of Moralism vs. Christianity

Humanist Moralist Tradition (illusion)
(1) "Good" exists in itself.
(2) "Good" is knowable in itself.
(3) "Good" is do-able by oneself.

VS

Christianity (reality)
(1) "Good" exists only in God.
(2) "Good" is knowable only as God reveals Himself.
(3) "Good" is do-able only as the character of God is activated and expressed in human behavior by the grace of God.

Reading Quotes: Christianity Is Not Morality, by Jim Fowler

Christianity asserts that God alone is autonomous, independent and self-existent. Everything and everyone else is dependent and derivative.

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We can only really know what good is by knowing God through Jesus Christ. But, again, knowing God and His goodness is not just cerebral, theoretical or academic; such must be living and personal.

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The knowing of God's goodness is not to be solidified, objectified, codified in law-form (Law) or a static written record (Bible), nor formulated and systematized in a static belief-system which becomes "dead letter" (II Cor. 3:6,7; Rom. 2:29).

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The revealing and the knowing of God's goodness is by an ever-dynamic personal revelation of God as to how He desires to express His goodness in us uniquelly and novelly; a new, fresh, spontaneous and living expression of His goodness which can never be contained or explained. God's goodness is knowable only as He reveals Himself.

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Only God can actively express His goodness. It is not a commodity to be distributed. It is not a moral pattern to be imitated. God's goodness can be expressed within His creation in human behavior, only by His own energizing, empowering and enabling, i.e. His grace.

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The expression of goodness in human behavior is always contingent upon God's generating expression of His own character (grace), and the derivative receptivity of God's activity by man (faith).

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God is essentially, inherently, intrinsically, constitutionally, absolutely, perfectly, ultimately, singularly, autonomously, independently, exclusively, supremely, sovereignly, totally, wholly, uniquely, personally, eternally, really good.

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When we say that "God is good," we do not mean that God belongs to a class of "goodness" or that God conforms to a "standard of goodness." Nor do we mean that God symbolizes "goodness" or is to be classified, categorized or characterized within a category of "goodness."

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If "God is good" because He serves a purpose, then the purpose is higher than God. If "God is good" because He conforms to a moral standard, then the standard is higher than God.

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Another subtle mistake is to say that "God is good" because He does good. Divine activity then becomes the objective basis of determining God's character. God's goodness would then be based on His performance.

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Christian theology must commence with who God is, not with what God does; not His plan, His purposes, His decrees, His sovereignty, His actions. It is a subtle form of idolatry to allow the conduct of God to supplant and supersede the character of God; the performance of God to be the basis of the Person of God.

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Morality destroys the freedom to be and do whatever God wants to be and do in us. The rigid chains of moral inflexibility allow for no novelty, newness, no spontaneity of fresh expression of the Spirit.

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Jacques Ellul notes that

"morality is the means whereby the Christian dodges death in Christ and fashions a living way of his own. It is the worst of all illusions."

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Morality is a religious inevitability. Wherever you find religion you will find morality? They are always "coupled" together. Why? Because religion is a man-made, satan-inspired, social organization that requires morality standards to give it external form, to give it raison d'etre, to cement loyalty and conformity, and to keep the guilt payments coming in. As people perceive their inability to please and appease God by their inadequate moral behavior, they seek to buy off their sin in "indulgences."

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"...the Christian is in a different position from other people who are trying to be good. ...the Christian thinks that any good he does comes from the Christ-life inside him."

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"The container never becomes the contents."

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Paul's explanation of Christian behavior is that of "the manifestation of the life of Jesus in our mortal bodies" (II Cor. 4:10,11); not by any human imitation of Christ's behavioral goodness. Christian living is not "monkey see, monkey do," the parrotting or apeing of reproduced external behavior.

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This gracious personal revelation of His goodness in and through us as Christian is ever-new, novel, unique, fresh and spontaneous. It cannot be explained in ecclesiastical rules and regulations. It cannot be contained in codifications of conduct. It cannot be retained and restrained in repetitive rituals. It cannot be objectified into Biblical blueprints. It cannot be made static. God's expressions of goodness cannot be put in a box!

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Jesus allows us the freedom to express His goodness in our behavior.

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The religionist only understands freedom as freedom from something rather than freedom to God's intent. He seems only to conceive of freedom in the context of law, rather than freedom of function. So there is nothing that frightens the religionist or moralist more than freedom from the legal standards of good behavior that have been posited in place of God. They reason, "If man is free from the law, free from moral codes, free from the religious manipulation thereof, there is no telling what man might do. It would be chaos!" It is thereby revealed that they have not taken God into account; they only understand "goodness" in the idolatrous context of conformity to behavioral law codes.

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Behavioral goodness is a fruit of the Spirit of Christ... It is not that we produce or manufacture goodness or perform goodness, but we bear the fruit of goodness derived from the dynamic of God's divine character. Jesus says, "I am the vine; you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5).

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Most of the New Testament is an exposé of religion; an explanation of the dichotomous difference of Christianity from all religion, especially from the religion of Judaism. Throughout the gospels Jesus exposes and disposes the Pharisees. His parables are poignant pictorial parodies of the religious premises and practices of Pharisaical Judaism. The book of Acts is an historical narrative of nascent Christianity breaking free from the religion of Judaism. Paul's letter to the Romans explains that righteousness is not in religion, but only in Christ. The letter to the Galatians explains the dichotomy of the gospel and religion. The letter to the Hebrews explains that the new covenant in Christ forever obsoletes and abrogates the old covenant of Jewish religion. So with every other book of the New Testament.

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Despite this gloriously liberating reality of the Christian gospel, the natural, religious man does not like "grace" and "freedom;" it takes away all his "control."

Seek ye first Christ...

Matthew 6:33
Seek ye first the kingdom of God...
For the kingdom of God is nigh...
For the kingdom of God is within you...
Hmmmm, it seems to me, post-Cross that all these things point to and ARE one thing, one person, Christ.

...and His righteousness...
Christ the righteousness of God
Hmmmm so His righteousness is Christ AGAIN.

...and all these things shall be added unto you.
What things? Fellowship? Wisdom? Guidance? Acceptance? Or is it ALL things?
For we have been given every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies IN CHRIST JESUS.

Law: given for us to fail

Law was not made to be kept but made such that those (all mankind) attempting to keep it will see their need of a Savior.

Therefore one could say that it was given so we would attempt to keep it, fail, and fall into His loving waiting arms.

The Christian Religion Often Stops at the Cross

It is on the Cross that Jesus gave up His life. And so often that is where we stay, religiously, religion-like. Therefore Christ becomes this concept. This historical figure. This martyr. Christ is simply some uber-political martyr whose namesake we carry into the world these years later. All our acts are in remembrance of our worthy fallen leader. Our service is founded upon the death of our model man.

At least, that's how often we seem to be living this life in our churches. There is little difference in doing something FOR Christ as maybe an athlete doing something for a sibling who met an untimely end. Or maybe a grandparent, or parent, or good friend, or maybe some guru of some sort. Often the doing FOR is more founded upon the memory than the living NOW reality of Christ.

In Christ

God is saying, "You're in my reality now!"

Christ Jesus: Walking a mile in our shoes

Talk about a mediator. God walked THE mile in our shoes. On top of that He translated us to the place in which He's travelled and is travelling. He's washed our feet, given us new shoes, and given us new feet.

Today's Reading & Quotes

The Divine Drama of Love: Act 4
Why did it take so long? Why didn’t God act as soon as man was exiled from the garden of Eden? Mankind needed to see that the devil’s lie about their being able to run their own lives, led only to being “slaves of sin” entrapped in the bondage of religion. Humanity needed to recognize that self-orientation could never lead to any genuine sense of relationship and community. There had to be time for mankind to learn that Law couldn’t work for it made no provision, and that only God’s Grace and Love could allow man to be what he was intended to be, individually and collectively.

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“God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son...” (John 3:16)

NOT ... God begrudgingly considered the plight of mankind, and sent a representative...”

NOT ... God determined to engage in a power-play and make things right by sending His right-hand man.

NOT ... God decided to assert His authority and use His limitless resources to buy man out of his problem.

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He has followed us into our own darkness; there where we thought finally to escape him, we run straight into his arms. So we do not have to erect a false piety for ourselves, to give us the hope of salvation. Our hope is his determination to save us, and he will not give in.

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His cry from the cross was “Tetelestai”, “It is finished!” That was not a cry of defeat, “It’s over! We made a valiant attempt, but we failed!” That was not a cry of resignation, “It’s done. I’m glad that’s over!” NO, it was a declaration of victory. “It’s completed. The battle is won. God’s end objective to overcome Satan, death and sin has been accomplished. God’s restorative love action to draw all men unto Himself has been set in motion. It cannot fail.” The “finished work of Jesus Christ” recognizes that He has done it, and He will do it!

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But the dynamic drama of God’s Love is not just a “message”, a love-note being passed on. The vital Love of God must be experienced in a personal and existential involvement with the Triune God.

What if: Satan's Role

What if Satan has only a cameo in the eternal Divine Drama?

What if Satan is just a plot device for the first chapters of THE story?

The Two Realities, Two Choices

The most powerfully created being is the god of I.

There are only two choices, two realities. One of I and the other of others. Way of evil or way of agape. Darkness or light. Self or love.

Beyond the plans, principles, and laws to the Person of God

Theologians have a tendency to begin, to source, to found, to presuppose from the external of God to the man. Laws, principles, God's plans, and His actions are the center of their theorizing and what often is missed -- because we are human -- is the person of God. As Jim Fowler says, "God does what He does, because He IS Who HE IS."

We can safely say that...

• God is doing what He is doing because He IS Who He is.
• God has planned what He has planned because He IS Who He is.
• God has principled what He has principled because He IS Who He is.

Theology: Study of God

It seems to me that we've placed theology on some pedestal that prehaps it shouldn't be. We are inadvertently making study and "gnosis" the epitome of life and faith.

Studying is a part of life
Life is not a part of a study
Life is to be lived to live, not lived to study, not studied to live.

There is no epignosis in study. You only find it in life. Behaviorists "know" human interaction but many cannot get a date. Economists "know" money but many cannot balance their checkbook nor can they do well investing in the stock market. Doctors "know" the human body and pathogens but far too many die before 60 years old. And theologians. They "know" about God, but how many authentically, intimately, and deeply know Him?

Quotes from Today's Reading

The Divine Drama of Love

In this Divine Drama, God is indeed the playwright and the director, but more importantly He is the lead actor. He is the Hero of the story.

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In fact, Love demands and necessitates the otherness of the Trinity! God could not have been LOVE prior to the creation of others, unless He was plurality, unless there was otherness in the oneness.

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The philosophical discussion of creation ex nihilo, out of nothing,doesn't play well in the drama. All one gets from nothing is nothing. Creation is ek theos, out of God, for He is the source and origin of all things.

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The issue in this first creative stage of the drama is not things anyway. The material realm is just the "stage" for the drama. It becomes a theatre of the absurd when those who are supposed to participate in the drama spend all their time arguing about how the stage was built. It is really a sad phenomena when some choose to deify the stage by seeking to protect and idolize the physical environment.

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John Milton, in his classic of English Literature, Paradise Lost, captures the imagery of the great betrayal of God's Love.

Author of evil, unknown till thy revolt ...
How hast thou disturbed
Heaven's blessed peace, and unto Nature brought
Misery, uncreated till the crime
Of thy rebellion. How hast thou instilled
Thy malice into thousands, once upright
And faithful, now proved false ...
Heaven casts thee out.

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God created Adam and Eve to participate in His love in a manner in which no other part of the created order was capable of participating. As sort of a wedding present, God placed original mankind in a perfect garden, and encouraged them to "Enjoy. Eat freely ... with a singular exception."

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There is such freedom in true love! Genuine love is not controlling or manipulative. It allows the other person to be what they were intended to be. But in that freedom is the risk that love might be rejected.

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God IS Love, and He cannot cease to be God. He cannot cease to be Love, or to act in Love. He had intimated to the first couple in the garden that He would come back for them - a Messianic promise (3:15). A promise He renewed throughout the old covenant.

Today's Readings

The Divine Drama of Love (Acts 1 to 3) by Jim Fowler

What do we focus on...

What do we focus on in our readings of the Word? What is our perspective? My guess, and my personal experience is it is all ME centered. Or in the very least US centered (for a community of believers). Which creates a tendency to gloss over what God is doing and has done, unless we move directly on to what He's done FOR US. We also are focused on what WE have to DO.

Example, this verse.

Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you to will and to do His good will. (Phil. 2:12,13)

We focus on the first part and give lip service to the second part. What if we were to focus on the second part and give lip service to the first. Or what if the first part is the natural and spontaneous expression of the foundational second part?