On Getting Some Relational Hope

One of Jesus' followers was brave enough to ask Him the question! It went something like this. "Hey Jesus; cut to the chase, bottom line us, what is most important?" His answer? In a word--relationships!

37 "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' 38 This is the greatest and the most important commandment. 39 The second most important commandment is like it: "Love your neighbor as you love yourself.' 40 The whole Law of Moses and the teachings of the prophets depend on these two commandments." (Matthew 22:37-40, GNB)

Most of us don't have a lot of 'relational hope'. I mean; come on--relationships? Don't you think it odd and even frustrating, that the very aspect of our existence that is the most challenging is what He declares the greatest in importance? Everything else; all that Moses and the prophets received as "the absolute how-to manual for living" hinges on loving God and loving other's as we love our-self.

Really? Has God not noticed that relationships bring us the most confusion, pain, and separation anxiety? And yet;  they are also pregnant with the potential of the most fulfillment, meaning, joy, purpose and connectedness? Relationships carry within them great effort, difficulty, mystique, intrigue, potential and passion. And more times than not; all within a span of minutes! Pause for effect. Let that sink in.

But, but--I have even questioned God about attaching His Royal Law of Love to relationships other than the one to him? It is a little bit more realistic too grasp loving Him! After all, He loved us first! And He did it with a lot of flair and panache'! "But here is how God has shown his love for us. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8 NIRV)

But; too suggest that we love our 'near' ones (neighbors) as we love ourselves? Really? Seems like a set-up from the git go. It is! It's a set up for needing large; no, vast ocean filled amounts of forgiveness, mercy and grace every moment of every day! Love does not happen apart from mercy, forgiveness and grace! And He is the only source for all three!

The further I travel this relational journey, the more I'm serendipitously surprised and intrigued by his 'relational' (not to be confused with rational) forgiveness, mercy and grace. It's almost as if he put relationships in our lives as the 'proverbial carrot' to draw us deeper into Him. Ya think?

Here are a few of the life lessons that have helped me clear up this relational 'mystery' we all find ourselves in. Of course, becoming a hermit or a 'poustinik' (A desert Monk who lives totally alone in silence) are two other options-though not highly recommended.

"You can easily enough see how this kind of thing works by looking no further than your own body. Your body has many parts--limbs, organs, cells--but no matter how many parts you can name, you're still one body. It's exactly the same with Christ. By means of his one Spirit, we all said good-bye to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which he has the final say in everything." (1 Corinthians 12: 12-13a, Msg)

Too many of us continue to celebrate our tenacious individualism instead of learning how to flow within Christ's Body. "Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps...be your own man or woman...if I don't do it, no one else will...don't take the risks associated with connecting and trusting others."

These sayings and more form the "mantra" (a mystical formula that helps to shape one's system of belief) and the foundational thinking of a "do it yourself" non-relational lifestyle. The end of this philosophy is emptiness! Or worse; the 'narcissistic' delusion that everyone else exists for you.

I've had to ask myself; "why is it so difficult for me to connect with (and remain connected with) those God has placed around me?" After many years of relational struggles I have come to one key conclusion. Fiercely facing myself in the mirror until I could believe Jesus was looking back at me.

"But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord." (2 Corinthians 3:18 NKJV)

And as a result, I've been enabled to receive some God-sight as to what is going on at the heart of my relational struggles. Getting to that conclusion has tragically required some relational crashes; not un like King David or any number of other prominent Bible characters. The good news; Grace happened in the midst of the crashes. Springing from the tough times a healing journey emerged.

Within the healing has emerged a holy resolve to risk opening the mirror of my heart to God and authentically say like King David, "Investigate my life, O God, find out everything about me; Cross-examine and test me, get a clear picture of what I'm about; See for yourself whether I've done anything wrong--then guide me on the road to eternal life." (Psalm 139: 22-24, Msg)

This has been fruitful, but not easy! But, I can honestly report that I don't regret one second of the relational heart work that has been invested in the process. At the very same time that I  faced me in Him in my heart mirror... (just trust me-don't try to figure it out-it is a part of the mystery of the Gospel).

In those moments He showed me the relational skills and coping mechanisms I had previously relied on. Even though they didn't work the best, they were a function of His Grace to get me too the mirror. Even that helped me face myself with a previously unknown transparency.

Yes, I have suffered much wrong; been abused, let down, disappointed, betrayed and even rejected. Some of it was even imaginary! And I've also been the offender more times than I wanted to believe. We all have to one degree or another. But, in the heart mirror we finally start making peace with our relational past. Then and only then can we move forward into a hope-filled relational future. One where we receive and give his forgiveness, mercy and grace to our-self and our offenders.

Facing yourself with fierce honesty is the harder part of healing and change! Seeing His unique way of love gets easier the more you focus on Him in the mirror! And one day you catch yourself loving him, yourself and others. And then others start catching you relating and loving His way. You and they start really liking His way! His way becomes the easier way! Here-in is relational hope!

Getting Hopeful Relationally, Ron Ross

What Are You Looking For?

by Steve Ferber

What am I looking for? A lot of times I don’t really know….all I really know is that something isn’t quite right. There has to be a reason for feeling this way. Maybe I’ve done something wrong, made somebody mad at me. This is where the blame game starts, first myself then I move on to situations in my life, then blaming others for how I feel. I don’t know about you, but placing blame never brings a lasting inner peace. And isn’t inner peace what we are all looking for?

Re-setting Our Default Heart Drive

‘Open our eyes, to see the things that make your heart cry. To be the church that you would desire-Your light to be seen. Break down our pride and the walls we’ve built up inside.’  (With Everything, words and music by Joel Houston, Hillsong Publishing). The main thing that makes God’s heart cry are His children not living from the heart Jesus makes available to them-condemning them to an ongoing relational dilemma of separation instead of joyful intimacy.

From the beginning of life, our hearts are vulnerable to easily being wounded. Once wounded by early and/or repeated traumas, it becomes ‘next to impossible’ to successfully live from a healthy heart. Instead we tend to live more from “masks” or “false” identities that we create (even without our conscious knowledge) to cover-up and protect ourselves.

Our “masks” and/or “false” identities are shame-based or fear inspired and causes us to live in shadows, corners, caves, deception, delusion or even dissociative un-reality. The deepest tragedy is that with masks we are robbed of genuine acceptance and love. Our masks receive all the loving nurture. We (our true core identity) are left with emptiness and despair. For a Christian; this diminishes our ability to live our life by faith in the innocence and joy of Who/Whose we are in Christ.  Our new heart is the core part of which we were created to be and is the key to our living in freedom.

Our true or original identity is imprinted with the image and likeness of God. We have His DNA in our destiny. Just like a caterpillar has the DNA to grow into awesome ‘Butterfly’ behavior, characteristics and beauty; so we have the potential to grow into our designed destiny. But, not until we give Jesus our heart and allow Him to heal our broken heart. “My son, give me your heart and let your eyes keep to my way” (Proverbs 23:26 NIV). Then we can begin to grow into our God given potential and receive the new heart prophesied by Ezekiel.

“I’ll pour pure water over you and scrub you clean. I’ll give you a new heart; put a new spirit in you. I’ll remove the stone (hardened and wounded) heart from your body and replace it with a heart that’s God-willed, not self-willed. I’ll put my Spirit in you and make it possible for you to do what I tell you and live by my commands. You’ll once again live in the land (the place of fellowship and intimacy with me) I gave your ancestors. You’ll be my people! I’ll be your God!” (Ezekiel 36:24b-28, Msg-parentheses added).  And we can live from the heart Jesus wants to give us, instead of from our hurt and fractured heart and/or ‘masks’.  

Nathaniel Hawthorne, in the Scarlet Letter said, “No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself, and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true.” Too many (like myself) have been bewildered as to our lack of sustained authentic freedom in Christ. Early wounds or traumas that are unresolved or unhealed are ‘sub-cortical’ or below the level of conscious choice or memory. Thus our ability to be all we were designed to be is thwarted at best.

What can we do about this human malady? Especially since it is getting more prevalent as we supposedly climb Darwin’s silly evolutional ladder of natural selection? Or, for those who see themselves as ‘fine’ or ‘less flawed’ than the rest of us humans-how do we keep our religious pretense ‘intact’ or ‘undetected’? Maybe, just maybe-giving our hearts to Jesus and trusting Him in us; (even on our worse or best day) is a reasonable starting place to re-set our default ‘heart’ drive.

Does our true or real condition render the freedom Christ purchased on Calvary’s cross two thousand years ago null and void? Absolutely not! Liberty in Christ is real and readily available to any and all. But there are conditions to walking it out in our everyday life. Paul said to the church at Philippi, “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” He doesn’t say; work to get your salvation (which in the original language means healing and wholeness).

The individual enjoyment of our Christian freedom always carries a personal price tag. It is, first of all, determining to trust that; “Christ has set us free to live a free life, so take your stand (on behalf of your heart). Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.” (Galatians 5:1, Msg, emphasis and parenthesis mine).

Many in the Body of Christ are either; still harnessed to a debilitating legacy of unresolved issues from generational family secrecy, or the unhealed hurts of a lifetime of painful relational failure. Many others are harnessed to a shame-filled secret life of personal moral defeat or even hidden addictive behaviors that are a vain attempt to medicate the pain of a double life.

We experience liberty in Christ as we un-harness from our pain and struggles, and daily slip our neck into the Yoke of His non-shaming, sweet, forgiving, and powerful love. This reality is authenticated by the precious blood of Jesus, not our performance! This will necessitate that the Body of Christ reflect His quality of loving grace in how we treat each other’s real struggles.

We must become safe enough to unmask before each other. Why, and how safe? Because we know we are all in the same process of redemption, we can be totally non-judgmental and safe toward one another.  ”If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another (1 John 1:7 NASB). We can and must become safe and loving enough to walk again in the light with each other.

Next, we re-set our default ‘heart’ drive to our new heart when we live in the truth. “And you shall know the truth, and the truth will make you free” (John 8:32 NASB). Too many have been living the Christian life hiding behind masks of religious pretense. Gordon McDonald, in Pastors at Risk said, ‘We need to face the plain fact that about one inch beneath our Christian skins lives a barbarian who desperately wants to get out and express himself.’

Paul put it this way…”But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can’t keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps me sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize I don’t have what it takes. I can will it, but I can’t do it. I decide to do good, but I don’t really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it any-way. My decisions, such as they are, don’t result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.

It happens so regularly that it’s predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God’s commands, but it’s pretty obvious that not all of me join me in that delight. Parts (my wounded core parts or fractured identity and masks) of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.

I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there anyone who can do anything for me? Isn’t that the real question?

The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind , but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.

With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ’s being here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death.” (Romans 7:17-25 and Romans 8:1-2, Msg, some emphases mine)

Do we dare to “live” this truthfully with our own mirror and become as transparent as Paul? If we don’t we will miss the “joy” of our salvation; which includes daily seeing Christ in the mirror of our soul. And we will miss the “joy” of authentic relational Christianity and the awesome fellowship it brings. We don’t have to do life alienated, isolated; or alone. The answer to re-setting our default heart drive is to trust everything in our hearts into the hands of our Savior?

In the grip of Papa’s Grace, Ron Ross  

http://youtu.be/AZTIkzCbu5Y

 

The Substance of Faith

Faith has substance and it is not our performance! It is guaranteed and backed by one thing and one thing only: the spiritual and historical good news that the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus were, are, and always will be a monumental success! The evidence is indisputable. Jesus is alive and at the Father’s right hand interceding for our every need. Every other so-called ‘god’ is dead or inanimate!

God; in the person of His only begotten Son Jesus, stepped into our dilemma and totally rescued the ‘life of our design’ by redeeming our pre-fallen innocence. We will never again be judged righteous or unrighteous by our own ability to obey moral laws! Our performance (whether good intentioned or not) will never have any bearing on our relationship, fellowship or future with God! Only the finished work and faith of Jesus will ensure our salvation!

Faith is not a reward for personal diligence; it is everyone’s portion; no one’s faith is inferior to another’s because God sees all equally justified in Jesus Christ. Salvation belongs to everyone based on exactly the same merit. God’s righteousness is responsible for our faith (Rom.1:17). The only question that remains to be answered is, ‘are we going to believe the Gospel for ourself everyday’?

“Herein lies the secret of the power of the Gospel; there is no good news in it until the righteousness of God is revealed!” Scripture reminds us the “our righteousness is as filthy rags.” It will never cut the spiritual mustard. Our best falls woefully short of any standard of right living. Therefore, I need constant reminding that it is only and always faith in the finished work of Jesus that pleases God and produces righteousness.

Our measure of faith is purely gift, not merit. And the measure we have reflects the faith of Christ on our behalf.

“Only a con-artist will try to be a law-man and a grace-man at the same time! My co-crucifixion with Christ is valid! I am not making this up. In His death I died to the old system of trying to please God with my own good behaviour! God made me alive together with Christ. How can any human effort improve on this?

The terms, co-crucified and co-alive defines me now. Christ in me and me in Him! His sacrificial love is evidence of His persuasion of my righteousness! (The life that I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God. He believes in my innocence!)

It is an insult to the Grace of God to prefer law, tradition or rule keeping to the Grace of Jesus! (That would reduce your salvation to a ludicrous contest between your obedience and the obedience of Christ! God forbid!) Would you like to be overwhelmed by the multiplied effect of grace and peace in your life?

1:2 With a faith of equal value as our reference, we may now increasingly know ourselves the way God has always known us, (the knowledge of God) realised in Jesus our leader, and be engulfed with grace and peace fully amplified within us. (In this context no one can ever feel ignored or neglected again.)

1:3 God’s powerful intervention gifted us with all that it takes to live life to the full. He has always known us. (Jer. 1:5, 1 Cor. 13:12) He introduced us as it were to ourselves again (kaleo, to surname) through a glorious display of His efficiency (through His own glory and virtue).  

1:4 This is exactly what God always had in mind for us; every one of His abundant and priceless promises pointed to our restored participation in our Godly origin! This is His gift to us! (Had it been a reward for good behaviour, we would never have qualified.)  In this fellowship we have escaped the distorted influence of the corrupt cosmic virus of greed. (Our Godly origin; His image and likeness redeemed and revealed in us. The factory settings are restored; every compatible programme is again installed in the hard-drive of our hearts to facilitate the life of our original design.)  

(But, there is a level of understanding that can only be accessed by faith. Heb.11:3, “by faith we understand that the ages were framed by the Word of God...)

1:6 The one attribute reveals the other, strength of character emerges out of faith-knowledge, in its strength follows the ability to prevail in patient perseverance, and these are the ingredients that reveal depth of devotion;

1:7 out of such devotion and worship flow true friendship, brotherly affection inspires and is found in (agape) divine love. The agape-love of God is at the heart of every virtue that faith reveals.

1:8 While you diligently rehearse the exact qualities of every divine attribute within you; the volume will rise with ever increasing gusto, guarding you from being ineffective and barren in your knowledge of the Christ-life displayed with such authority and eloquence in Jesus.

1:9 If anyone feels that these things are absent in his life, they are not; spiritual blindness and short sightedness only veil them from you. This happens when one loses sight of one’s innocence. (The moment one forgets the tremendous consequence of the fact that we were cleansed from their past sins, one seems to become pre-occupied again with the immediate sense-ruled horizon, which is what short-sightedness is all about; this makes one blind to His blessings. Spiritual realities suddenly seem vague and distant. Practice your innocence!)

1:10 Therefore I would encourage you, my Brothers, to make every immediate effort to become cemented in the knowledge of your original identity revealed and confirmed in the Word (logic) of God. Fully engage these realities in your lifestyle; if you do this you will never falter or fail. (Adapted from Galatians 2:18-21 and 2 Peter 1:2-10, The Mirror)

Wow! Wow! Can you take in and begin to comprehend what you just read? Without the faith of Christ it is sheer silliness and unfathomable fantasy. But with faith in the measure of Christ’s gift of faith within you, it is the power of God unto salvation!

Walking by faith, not by sight! Ron

The Power of Love

Give a helping hand in time of trouble.

by Steve Ferber

Love… that topic brings a variety of responses from people, emotionally and mentally.  There are those that use love to manipulate others so that they have power over them. It seems that in our Western culture we are obsessed with power and love, it is part of how we define who we are and how we react to others. In recent years my journey with God has taken me down paths I would not have imagined. These paths were in areas of my life that I thought I had together. Well, I was wrong! There is an old song that says it pretty good, “I got a new attitude”. It says in that song “I never knew I had such a lesson to learn”.  I’ve been living that for several years now, learning a lesson that affects my outlook on life, that is my attitude towards things. Who knew I was lacking so much… I sure didn’t have a clue.

Anchored in Faith

Is your faith anchored in a greater persuasion and opinion than your present afflictions, sufferings, and/or struggles? That's the "64" dollar question! Even though it sometimes feels like we are trapped in this flesh-suit and its crazy senses; our greater reality is quite the opposite. But that "greater reality" must be seen through the eyes of faith.

Our faith heroes received the testimony of their hope in faith. It was faith that made their hopes tangible. And faith alone explains what is not apparent to the natural eye. Only faith in the finished work of Jesus will carry us all the way home. In the meantime we have some potholes in the road to navigate.

"We are fully engaged in an exceeding superior reality; the extent and weight of this glory makes any degree of suffering vanish into insignificance! The suffering is fleeting and ever so slight by comparison to the weight and enduring effect of this glory we participate in for all eternity.

We are not keeping any score of what seems so obvious to the senses in the natural realm, it is fleeting and irrelevant; it is the unseen eternal realm within us that has our full attention and captivates our gaze! In this present age; “Christ in you,” must have your full attention and captivate your gaze!

Our skin bodies have a "sell by" date; our spirit bodies are eternal. The same God who fashioned these skin bodies in our mother's womb, engineered our spirit bodies to be our permanent dwelling. 

Facing pressure times the way we often do, makes us sigh with longing to exchange the skin-suit with the permanent splendor of the heavenly suit. 

In the meantime, whatever challenges we are facing in this meat-box, we know that we shall never be found naked; since we are already fully clothed with our heavenly identity in Christ in our inner person...God wired us this way; His Spirit already confirms within us the present evidence of eternity. We are eternal beings by design.

We are (therefore) cheerfully courageous; knowing (beyond a shadow of doubt) that our immediate address in our earthly bodies cannot distance us from the Lord, since we originate from Him.

Faith is to our spirit what our senses are to our bodies; while the one engages with the fading and the fragile, the other celebrates (completion) perfection! Our confidence stems from knowing that even though it might feel at times that we are merely reduced to flesh; our greater reality is that we are entwined in the Lord. He is our permanent abode!" (Adapted from 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 and 5:1-8.)

"When we step into eternity and look back on our earthly afflictions, we will view them as “light” and “momentary.” For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory (2 Cor. 4:17). 

When we are finally standing in the glory of eternity, we will realize that the degree of the glory in that age is disproportionate to the severity of the sufferings we endured in this age.

We will wonder", “How could such a small amount of temporary suffering produce such a huge amount of everlasting glory?” We know we will view it that way once we’re in eternity. The thing is, we want this eternal perspective now." (Jim Clanton and Bob Sorge) We have a sufficient down-payment of  grace to carry us all the way through to the Glorious Age to come!

Living with the eyes of faith, Ron