You are blessed,
you are here to live in the blessing and to go out from that blessing to bless.

Empowered to bring about his purpose.
God made you breathed his life into you.
It is given and can only be received as a gift.
We trust the character of the giver.

This is not something you draw out of yourself.

It was planned that way.

He is the I AM, Im the one he made, I’m not him.

The Blessing is the I AM is untied with me the I am not.

I live out of that.

Gal. 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.
The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

I am the collision of heaven on earth.

you are made in the image and likeness of God.

In Christ.

God does not waste words. There are no idol words in God.
The Lord blesses and it is.

From my journal-
We went to a barn for a Jason Upton concert.

During which I wrote the following:
I walked towards the water, there was a small boat dock, Jesus was in the water up to his knees in the water. His robe was wet up to his knee, it switched from red to purple to blue. As I went into the water we walked away from the shore. As we walked out we remained knee deep in the water until we could no longer see the shore. I asked him, “why are we walking at knee level and not on top of the water?” He said, “because I can.”
We dove under the water which became very blue, we swam like fish not coming up for air.

Back to present.

I’ve been fiddling around waiting for circumstances to change and things always seem to stay the same. Then I remembered the above journal entry.

Seems I have been walking along, getting wet but staying safe. God has let me.
I want to dive in deeper but afraid if I do I will drown.

Stupid safety concerns.

Hebrews 13:5 Let your character or moral disposition be free from love of money [including greed, avarice, lust, and craving for earthly possessions] and be satisfied with your present [circumstances and with what you have]; for He [God] Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let [you] down (relax My hold on you)! [Assuredly not!]

There is a teaching predominant among christians that has many variations. The basic premise revolves around eating bread with poison in it. The question is asked would you want to eat from poison bread? It is a caution against faulty doctrine, bad teaching, wrong living, worldly goods, etc etc. The focus becomes a striving for control and understanding. I have even heard smatterings of the forming of Christian Government for Christians by Christians using the 5 fold model. I shudder at this primarily because we loose the most important part of the Kingdom in this process, The Father. I wonder how it will be different from Islamic states? Are floggings next? What are we becoming?

My itunes randomly played this recently…

“Brothers and sisters, I want to see a sea of hands up there! I want to see a sea of hands!
I want everybody to kick up some noise! I want to hear see some revolution out there! …
Brothers and sisters, the time has come for each and every one of you to decide-
whether you are going to be the problem or you are going to be part of the solution …
Brothers, it’s time to testify! … Are you ready to testify? I give you a testimonial…

(yes, the MC5! but the principal is the same.)

The time for a radical change is now here. As I have said before a sort of Christian Anarchy. Savage Grace,

revolution (noun)

1 a forcible overthrow of a government or social order in favor of a new system.

I believe as I reread the bible, this is what Jesus came to do as well.

Matt. 11:12 From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it.

I took a survey for church that somehow ties to our church health. I was scored as “enthusiastic!” My relationship with the Father is much more organic then that. Kind of a Christian myers briggs test I suppose. It feels like we are so busy defining who we are that we might be missing who He is.

Meanwhile:

In the spirit of the poison bread teaching: (in reverse) from the outside.

-The Christmas season is the time when wedding proposals happen, during January and February I meet with couples to plan their weddings. Because of where we live and where I work, I get a majority of the “non-traditional” weddings. Yesterday, I met with a woman who wants a wedding but wants no part of her event to be in or near a church! She was very emphatic on this one point. Even a church building without the church people.

It’s a flipping building!

-In my office we celebrated when the Dali Lama was in town, we rejoice when a new Harry Potter book is released. We knock on wood, don’t talk about good successes for fear they will go away, and never seem to have enough sales. I suppose all companies are like that faster, faster, more more, better better. Never enough. We seem to crave a connection with God but avoid the very avenue to get us there.

-One of my co-workers was raised in a Southern Baptist family and has a real strong sense of right and wrong but is an agnostic. Hoping to God she is going to get to heaven because her Grandfather is a pastor. She thinks the idea of grace is far fetched. Yet her sense of justice and right and wrong permeates much of what she does.

-Then IHOP has a prayer conference in Kansas City. One of the focus’s besides prayer was protecting the church from the Emerging Church movement among other things.

I harp on the same issues over and over again but this time I want to work on the being part of the solution= revolution.

Matt 11: 29 Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you.

Allow me to illustrate:

Re-read this:

Luke 15:11   Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.

Luke 15:13   “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

Luke 15:17   “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father.

He remembers he is a son. We need to remember we are son’s!
Eph. 3:14   For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.
Gal. 3:26   You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus,

 “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

This is God’s reaction to us, filled with compassion, running and kissing. The words translated here as ”threw his arms around“ can also be translated bear hug.
But the son is sure his father will remember what he has done wrong.

Luke 15:21   “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

The father does not even acknowledge the sons wining, and instead says, LET’S EAT.

Luke 15:22   “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.

But the other son get’s disgruntled.

Luke 15:25   “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’

Luke 15:28   “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’

Luke 15:31   “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”

The focus of the father is not the concerns of the sons, but eating. The father is focused on celebration.

As people of the cup and the loaf. Our interactions and decisions must be filtered through the cup and the loaf. EVERYTHING He has is already ours. We get to feast.

My point…

It’s about the celebration and the amazing Father. Not who is out to get you.

Psa. 23:5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

Revolution begins at the table.

Begin with the cup and the loaf. Not the little wafer and watered down grape juice we have settled for.

“Brothers and sisters, I want to see a sea of hands up there! I want to see a sea of hands!
I want everybody to kick up some noise! I want to hear see some revolution out there! …
Brothers and sisters, the time has come for each and every one of you to decide-
whether you are going to be the problem or you are going to be part of the solution …
Brothers, it’s time to testify! … Are you ready to testify? I give you a testimonial…

” Why do we people in churches seem like cheerful, brainless tourists on a packaged tour of the Absolute?

The tourists are having coffee and doughnuts on Deck C. Presumably someone is minding the ship, correcting the course, avoiding icebergs and shoals, fueling the engines, watching the radar screen, noting weather reports radioed in from shore. No one would dream of asking the tourists to do these things. Alas, among the tourists on Deck C, drinking coffee and eating doughnuts, we find the captain, and all the ship’s officers, and all the ship’s crew. The officer’s chat; they swear; they wink. a bit at slightly raw jokes, just like regular people. The crew members have funny accents. The wind seems to be picking up.

On the whole, I do not find Christians, outside of the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of conditions. Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping god may wake someday and take offense, or the waking god may draw us out to where we can never return.” pg. 52
— Annie Dillard

and

“There is always the temptation in life to diddle around making itsy-bitsy friends and meals and journeys for years on end. It is all so self conscience, so apparently moral…But I won’t have it. The world is wilder than that in all directions, more dangerous…more extravagant and bright. We are…raising tomatoes when we should be raising Cain, or Lazarus.”
— Annie Dillard

I am drawn to a much more dangerous religion then I am presently engaged in. I have been lulled into a TV like trance by the cares of the world and like most of the people I know, school has replaced experience.

In High School I took “Family Planning” Class. As a 16 year old I mostly went because the class was primarily populated by girls, including my current wife! Yes, my motivations were not totally pure but they provided the groundwork for what became my primary understanding of God. My subsequent faith and eventually my love of food.

I believe that like what modern pornography is to sex, what passes in some places as the christian religion is often no different in comparison.

During High School “Family planning class” (which was secret code for sex ed.) we watched a movie about the birth of a child. I think I even had to have my mom sign a permission slip because the movie left nothing about the birth to the imagination. After the hour long movie I was sure that I was an expert at human birth. I was just as certain that I was an expert and at the act that made the little humans because of Penthouse.

On January 3, 1979 at midnight my wife began labor and my life changed. I saw, heard, felt, smelled and touched the real thing. Our daughter was born at 3:20 am. From 3:20 until 3:21 am time stood still and I watched the life enter her. Real replaced knowledge.

My life has never been the same.

Do we really realize how dangerous we are? We carry around inside of us the power that breathed the universe into existence. It’s beyond science…

“The Root of Darwinism is Faith

…I ask the academic evolutionist, as I ask the self-proclaimed Christian: do you believe your own ideology enough to act upon it? If you believe that Natural Selection, the laws of Chance, evolved you from an amoeboid to a human being after millions of years, do you think Chance would let you down now? Are you willing to give up control, giving yourself up to Chance that you may witness evolution within your very own being?

“Creationists” often say it takes more faith to believe in evolution than it does to believe in their version of creation. I certainly agree.

So, Darwinist, you say that you do not believe we were zapped into existence by a Big Guy in the sky, but that Chance actually formed us from the dust of the earth?

Yes, it surely does take faith to believe in evolution.

It takes zero faith to believe in the “creationist” version of creation.

Belief is not faith. It takes belief, but it takes no faith whatsoever to believe we were zapped into existence by a Big Guy in the Sky. Faith requires action, a change of heart. Belief does not. The “Creation Science” theory requires no action, no change of heart (no repentance). Belief is a part of faith, but belief is not faith.“

from

Living without money

In our Christian effort to control our input and output we have cheated God out of what he wants to do.

Being dangerous is not being in control. It is free falling without a parachute. It’s floating in a tidal wave. It’s ground control to Major Tom.

Can you hear me?

”Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke?“

Ever thought about this?

Being one does not leave another option.

“one” just is.

Exsistance consists of one choice; life or un-life.

one choice. You get to choose, but, once you do choose, you must live as if that choice is true. Or you have not chosen.

Choose.

One or not? other then one what is there? in math terms the opposite of one, is plus one. Which is no longer one.

It really is quite simple and difficult at the same time because one is one. No need to think too hard, one.

John 8:12   When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

At this point the time for discussion is done. The time for study is completed. It is now time to follow.

one

Today’s Message from Chip Brogden

“Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good” Romans 12:21).

When the Church as a whole fails to maintain the Testimony of Jesus, God selects Overcomers, taking a few parts to represent the whole. God has had His Overcomers in every season and age of the Church. Because of their ministry and service, the Kingdom of God is advancing. It is not losing ground at all. We must understand that God never moves backward in relation to Christ, even when circumstances seem to indicate huge reversals and detours from God’s Ultimate Will. Since the foundation of the world He has moved steadily and patiently FORWARD.
]]> http://studentofjesus.com/2009/12/19/forward/feed/ 0 metler http://studentofjesus.com/2009/12/18/grace/ http://studentofjesus.com/2009/12/18/grace/#comments Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:06:42 +0000 metler http://studentofjesus.wordpress.com/2009/12/02/grace/ ]]> We perceive grace as soft on sin. We manage behavior.

Grace is offensive. It tares us apart, crushes us, pulverizes.
Grace is a raging fire which melts.
Grace is illogical and stubborn. relentless and violent.

It leaves us stripped bare, naked and exposed.

Once we stop fighting it and surrender we can live.
No fig leaves, no shame.

Light leaves no questions. grace leaves no humiliation
Love engulfs us and enflame us until nothing else remains.

Love is not possession, it is being possessed.

grace is the fuel that love burns to consume.

I belong to my lover, and his desire is for me.

NOTHING ELSE MATTERS

Today, I received a call to action for prayer based upon the premise that we might be defeated.

WE ARE CLUELESS!!

The more people I dialogue with the more I am convinced we have been duped into believing that somehow we are to operate in fear and defeat. At the risk of sounding like a name it claim it dude. We operate from a position of abundance.

He prepares a table for us in the presence of our enemies.

“If there is anything that characterizes Christian maturity, it is the willingness to become a beginner again for Jesus Christ. It is the willingness to put your hand in his hand and say, ‘I’m scared to death, but I’ll go with you. You’re the Pearl of great price.’” –John Wimber

I wonder if God created with laughter. Bubbling over with joy and laughter God said, Let there be light. And it was good. Spilling out and splashing across the dark. light.

Psa. 34:8 Taste and see that the LORD is good…

But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart…