WOVEN IN
20/02/21 14:07
Jesus came to set the captives free. But clearly there are those who prefer an identity in captivity inside their self-made gospels.
‘For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ’
John 1.17 NIV.
DIVERGENT JOURNEYS
There are people you love, who when you see them again, you enjoy their company. You love them but you sense that they have been plodding along in captive mindsets and ideological assumptions - the same ideas they have had for years - routines and beliefs that have made their souls tired and their spirits weak. They have denied themselves eighty percent of what could have been their spiritual inheritance had they followed Christ’s gospel and not gospels of their own making.
Then there are others who are on a journey of exploration - adventurers in Christ. Their spirit is sharp and their soul is fresh. Their manner is fragrant with life and empathy. They have made advances in knowing God and they have explored new territory in themselves and the cosmos of new creation life. They are alive within and they touch the world outside themselves with spirit and life. Those in the first category sense their difference. But they are confused about what it is. They neither see clearly or hear accurately. They have chosen the fog of their own light.
THE LENS OF LIFE
The ability to see and live through Christ as a lens is a great advantage. Far superior to viewing the world through a belief system or an ideology; far opposed to a stagnant view of God who ‘never changes’ or the sterile god who is the Unmoved Mover, or the god contained in boxes of fundamentalism. God is revealed in Jesus Christ and so are you. This is the lens of the Christ who is the Son of Man as well as a member of the trinity.
Rick Joyner in the vision called The Torch and the Sword, describes God as always on the move. Genuinely alive people never stagnate. Neither are they so flaky that they can believe anything. They live in a flexible structure that is personal and secure. Their dwelling is the logos, the living word, the Christ who lives in you and in which all things find their meaning and purpose.
ALIVE IN LIFE
The non-legalist is freed of stagnation and calcification. She perceives the main things as the main things and the lesser things as the lesser things. She grows in ways impossible for the legalist with his dichotomies and binaries, flourishing in diversity and making headway through ambiguity. The sons and daughters of God are part of the divine flow emitting from the trinity. They are at home in the river of life.
‘Christ our life’ relieves us from staleness, keeping our spirit alive, our soul in good health and our mind alert. A ‘Jesus Life’ enables us to know God and ourselves. It Separates us from law and religion, uniting us to life itself. New covenant Believers empathise well with others because they know themselves. Because they and Father are one, they have a facility of oneness in their relationships that is innocent, uncontrived and life-sharing. This new covenant state of being in which we live in fellowship with the trinity in their individuality and glory, places us in the revelation of God. We participate in the level of oneness that is theirs. As a result we become ourselves growing out of the realm of the worker and the slave. We advance into ever more glory as we are nourished by the fellowship of the trinity into our real design.
The law confines us in the realm of the knowledge of good and evil. Oneness with Christ embraced enfolds us in life itself.
ADVENTURE OF LIFE
Charles Ringma speaks of the freshness and the adventure of living that is the natural effect of union with God and an incarnated being. “Nouwen underscores this paradox with the observation that we may gain a new insight, but this will only lead "to many new questions." This means that we need to learn to live without finality and without out closure. We are always on the road. Always in flux. Therefore we are always faced with the possibility of growth and the overcoming of our rigid, secure, but inauthentic self.”
The path to growth can come through the asking of a question. ‘How long ago is it since we died?’
Charles Ringma. Dare to Journey--with Henri Nouwen (Designed for Influence) (Kindle Locations 181-183). Kindle Edition.