The Greatest Scandal of all Time

Would you dare characterize your relationship with Jesus as scandalous? Wait a minute before you reject this seeming crazy notion.  We live in a culture that continually tries to pull us down to its level of immaturity. Everyday, world media outlets report on the latest scandalous acts of politicians, entertainers, etc. And yet, Jesus still calls and 'woos' our hearts to an abandoned, seeming 'scandalous' love affair. It would be helpful to define what is meant by scandalous? 

Scandalous: improper display of affection or behavior in public... 

Who gets to establish the 'norm' that defines improper? To be sure, the 'accuser' of the brethren (Satan) and his most devilish minions (religious spirits) will gladly continue to put forth their dark and debilitating definition. Their only agenda is to suppress your affection for Jesus!

Their strategy is to 'steal', 'kill' and 'destroy' the incredible potential of our love affair with Jesus. Robbing you and me of ever grasping the width, length, height and depth of the love of Jesus is their intended target. Satan is the 'father of lies' and his biggest lie is to convince you and me that it is somehow 'improper' to enter the Eternal domain of the passion of Jesus.

"My response is to get down on my knees before the (true and only) Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit--not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength--that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you'll be able to take in with all Christians the extravagant dimensions of Christ's love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its lengths! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God." Ephesians 3:14-19 (Message)

The essence of His 'scandalous' love is about to play out for His disciples in the moments before His ultimate Passion on Calvary! His example becomes the model for all time.  Servitude, sacrifice, and abandoned trust to His Father become the standard for all who will follow Him. 

It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love. (John 13:1)

Do we dare explore the full extent of His love? Open your heart and 'take in with all Christians of all time the extravagant dimensions of Christ's love'!!! "Reach out and experience the breadth! Tests its lengths! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights!" 

To be in love with Jesus is to join Him on the Divine journey to the loving heart of Father. It is to be in love with love...He is love--His very essence is love. It is His 'scandalous' extravagant love that will take all of Eternity to fathom! Be enraptured by His love as you listen to "I'm in Love with You by Kari Jobe...

Kari Jobe - I'm in love with You

In the grip of 'scandalous' passion from Jesus! Ron Ross

Thanksgiving-the Highest Form of Expression

I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder. G. K. Chesterton

Intentional awareness of our countless blessings will always provide fuel for a wildfire of gratitude in our soul! A fitting starting point in our quest for gratitude is to take special note of the Jesus experiences of each day. They will become kindling for that wildfire of thanksgiving. These awesome experiences continually stoke the embers of past experience into the blaze of present blessings and grandeur in Him!

Jesus did not just solve our problems by waving a magic wand from afar. He entered into the middle of the conflict, stepped into the domain of contradiction, entered our hell, faced death itself and from there He conquered. If this doesn’t warm your heart and evoke gratitude, it’s not likely anything will! As we consciously meditate each day upon the wonder and grandeur of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus our hearts will remain ‘strangely warmed’.

Then, as we live from that place of gratitude, we also become enraptured by the moment by moment revelation of Father that Jesus brings. The masses of the world will never be converted by a second rate Christian version of itself. And neither will you or I! They will however, flock to places that give them what nothing else can; a life that won’t leave them fatherless and thus thankless.

This perspective of shared Father Intimacy with Jesus gives rise to the following startling revelation. You're never too late. You can't outrun grace and mercy doesn't care what you've done wrong. So prodigals come home and find that God's goodness and his affection for you in the brutal realities of this age is how you plumb the depths of gratitude. This reality will always evoke untold gratitude!

Isn’t it strange? We understand how storms are created. We map solar systems and transplant hearts.  We measure the depths of the ocean and send signals to distant planets.  We’re learning how it all works!  This causes a knowing that is disjointed from wonder! And for some, the loss of mystery has led to the loss of majesty and authentic gratitude!  The more we know, the less we believe in the majesty of mystery and the more thankless we tend to become.
“And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Colossians 3:17, NIV

Your gratitude will become happiness doubled by wonder! Ron Ross

A Love Without Agendas

Everything in your life is dependent upon my boundless love. Indecisive faith and wavering hope concerning my love will dilute your experience and expression of my abundant life. As a direct result your walk in my Spirit’s fire, power and giftedness will also wane.

As you believe the absolute truth of my unconditional love your world becomes an exciting place! A place of romance and adventure, a place of promise and possibilities, a place of confidence and joyous expectation!

In my love your world will also be a secure place. A place where you can live loved and you can love intentionally! My unending unconditional love empowers you to daily run the risk of loving and being loved.

Remember, I didn’t say, maybe God is love ----or that it would be nice if God were love. I said: God is love---period. But there is even more to my love message. My Father is crazy with love for you and He can’t bear to be without you. His love crowns you with kindness and compassion.

“Lord, I want to sing, I want to dance, I want to celebrate! I want to send up a sky full of red balloons. I want to scatter the roads with smiling daisies: Crash the cymbals, Beat the drums, Jingle the tambourines, Clang the bells, shake the trees and splash the fountains, kiss the roses, and overwhelm the world with your Love! Your love is like new wine. I feel drunk with it!

Your love is like gentle waves of peace washing over us. It causes us to proclaim: “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all your benefits. You love pardon all of our iniquities, heals all our ills. By your great love you redeem our lives from destruction! Your love crowns all of us with kindness and compassion and evokes a deep worshipful sense of gratitude for the many times you have rescued us.

Because of his incredible love, Father does not deal with you according to your sins, nor does He require of you according to your crimes. He puts you in touch with His presence and you begin to Praise Him for His greatness and goodness, His unbearable forgiveness, His boundless patience, and His tender love.

“For as the heavens are high above the earth, so surpassing is His Kindness toward those who fear Him…As a Father has compassion on His children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.”

What else can we say in response to your awesome love? Lord it’s almost too good to be true. But you are the truth and you said it, so I know it is real.

Today I asked you to speak to my heart, a word I could hear and understand. And you said, very clearly, “I want you to be with me where I am.” Lord, even the people who love me most need a vacation from me now and then. But you don’t want one! You want me with you where you are forever. As a result, we can love without any agenda, tenderly caring for one another with fondness and affection; esteeming one another’s unique value. We are the product of your love…we wear your love like a uniform; completing the picture of our oneness in you.”

The scriptures are explicit as to our mutual journey into the depths of your love. The Cross forever displays the enormity of your great love. “In your Son, you continually open new and exciting ways to encounter you without hesitation or restrictions. Your boundless love kindles our faith and faith opens the horizon to explore love’s mystery all the more.”

Not only is my love real, it is the crowning truth of your search for purpose! To be loved and to learn how to love back may be the biggest and best challenge of our union!  

Live Overwhelmed by Papa's Love! Ron Ross

Unwrap Daily

Please listen before opening: http://youtu.be/ifCWN5pJGIE

A child will be born to us. A son will be given to us. He will rule over us. And he will be called Wonderful Adviser and Mighty God. He will also be called Father Who Lives Forever and Prince Who Brings Peace. 6 For a child has been born - for us! the gift of a son - for us! He'll take over the running of the world. His names will be: Amazing Counselor, Strong God, Eternal Father, and Prince of Wholeness. Isaiah 9:6 (Msg)

For a child is born to us; a son is given to us. And the government will rest on his shoulders. These will be his royal titles: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6 (NLT)

For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6 (NKJV)

A Child and a Son will be born and given to all of us! Wow! Lord Jesus Christ; Son of God, willingly became Son of Man, and has no problem or issue with being born and given to every part of who we are. Even more amazingly awesome is that He loves every part of our true self. Unwrap that!

When we receive and unwrap Him as the greatest of all gifts, He willingly moves into our neighborhood. While in our ‘hood’; our new heart, everything (and I do mean everything) rests on His shoulder! And He becomes; as we unwrap who He is, our Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace. Just think; we will be unwrapping who He is and whose we are for all eternity!

In the grip of the Greatest of all gifts! Ron Ross

Rule Free Grace

“Not all religion is good. In fact, Jesus said He came to destroy religion. Religion is basically a set of rules used by churches to force men into a posture which they feel pleases God. If you obey certain rules, act in certain ways, perform various disciplines you are religious. The Pharisees were very religious.
There’s nothing wrong with obeying rules, acting right, and living a disciplined, external life. Jesus said that was good — as long as we majored on the inner life and minored on the externals.
Religion does strange things to people. It often causes them to get puffed up, stuffy, sometimes even self-righteous. In fact, the more “religious” a person becomes, the more he thinks himself right — and others wrong.
Jesus loved to poke holes in the balloons of religious people who were puffed-up on the hot air of their own piousness”. – JB (Jamie Buckingham)

What is really going on with us-we who believe Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior? Are we confident about this work of saving grace he is up to? Or do you still find yourself attempting to be justified and freed by being more obedient to rules, behaving right and doing life well externally? Pray more and harder, read your Bible more, share your witness of Christ every day, ‘do’ penance for your sin…the list seems endless. It is not that most of these aren’t good things for a Christian to do—much more could be added to the list.

Is it do, do, do—or is it doing out of being? Of course, when pressed, we know the correct answer. Do we? Then why does ‘doing’ seem to trump ‘being’ in our spiritual gut? I’ve been a believer and follower of Jesus Christ for forty-three years and I still catch myself chasing my spiritual ‘doing’ tail. Papa wants me to rest in being in Christ and doing as he leads me by his spirit.

Paul told the believers in Galatia to stop redoubling their work efforts and put all that energy into faith. He said this to the Ephesians’ church, “it is by grace you have been saved…in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” Ephesians 2:5b-9, NIV, emphasis mine.

Jesus does the saving, Holy Spirit does the doing, and we rest in being Papa’s adopted beloved children. “So, my friends, this is something like what has taken place with you. When Christ died he took that entire rule-dominated way of life down with him and left it in the tomb, leaving you free to “marry” a resurrection life and bear “offspring” of faith for God.” Romans 7:4, (Msg) Jesus left the tail chasing ‘doing’ in the grave-- and instead, he offers us a sweet marriage to resurrection life in Him, bearing children of faith by pure grace!

But, but, but—that means “I” can’t get my significance by doing great things for God! Do you really mean, “I” can’t…correct, we can’t? ”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 do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing.” Galatians 2:20-21, NIV. So let’s be grateful for grace today by resting in Papa’s love; not working to get his love.

In the grip of Papa’s grace! Ron Ross

http://youtu.be/hwSHoT1FIvw