Jesus' Passion Expose'

What is passion? It is surely the becoming and releasing of one’s authentic self. My passion reveals ‘My’ redemptive, substitutionary desire for you! Are you not, for most of your lives, marking time if not chasing my passion? Most of your being is at rest, un-lived, unless sparked by passion for me. In passion; your body, soul and spirit seeks expression outside of self. What you are ‘passionate’ about reveals the uniqueness that is ‘you’. Passion ignites giftedness and causes you to live out who you are~~ in the ‘image’ and ‘likeness’ of Me.
All passion is measured in “my passion” (read Isaiah 53). Passion called ‘Me’ to earth to live the exemplary life. And it called ‘Me’, the Son of Man to the Cross to make the ultimate sacrifice. Of course ‘My’ expression of passion is the most extreme in history. The more extreme and the more expressed that passion becomes; the more unbearable your life seems without it. It reminds you that if passion dies or is denied, you are partly dead and that soon, come what may, you will be wholly so.
Passion; unlike the major portion of life’s experiences, brings about change. But it is change that seems like a cruel joke apart from the virtue and spiritual fruit of patience. The changes I bring about in passion come about deliberately. Passion; on the one hand hurries you and at the same time makes life a series of deliberate acts.
Passion calls you deeper and deeper into ‘My’ story. The more you attempt to hold on to your confidence in the goodness of the story I am telling while at the same time acknowledging all that is bewildering and maddening and shatteringly disappointing in this life, the more you will be confronted with the ongoing moment of decision, to passionately trust or not to trust. Only in dark nights will hope burn bright enough to sustain your faith and release your love.
Impulse and passion are the very life-blood of all action. The challenge of growth, and ultimately maturity, is to learn to strike the balance between impulse and passion. This challenge will frustrate you to the point of desiring and settling for nothing short of ‘My’ Divine Intervention.
Passion will open your eyes and let what you see drive you to the precipice of unbelief apart from me. It will also let what you feel bring you to the brink of despair apart from me. Passion reminds you that ‘I’ exist, that ‘I’ am good, that ‘My’ story is about how much ‘I’ love, and that ‘My’ passionate plan is on course. ‘My’ Spirit will continually speak into those deep places of your hearts that only terrifying doubt renders you un-accessible. And even in that place, I will anchor you in hope!
Arms Open Wide by Misty Edwards brings Passion in focus!
What does love look like? Is the question I’ve been pondering
What does love look like?
What does love look like? is the question I’ve been asking of You
Once believed that love was romance, just a chance
I even thought that love was for the lucky and the beautiful
I once believed that love was a momentary bliss, but love is more than this
All You ever wanted was my attention
All You ever wanted was love from me
All You ever wanted was my affections to sit here at Your feet and tell me
What does love look like? Is the question I’ve been pondering
What does love look like? If all of life comes down to love then tell me
What does love look like? Is the question I’ve been pondering
What does love look like?
Then I sat down a little frustrated and confused
Your fire of life comes down to love. And love has to be more than sentiment,
More than selfishness and selfish gain
Then I saw Him there
Hanging on a tree, looking at me
I saw Him there
Hanging on a tree, looking at me
He was looking at me looking at Him, staring through me
I could not escape those beautiful eyes
And I began to weep and weep
He had arms wide open, heart exposed
Arms wide open, He was bleeding, bleeding.
Arms wide open, heart exposed
Arms wide open, He was bleeding, bleeding
Loves definition
Loves definition, was looking at me
Looking at Him. Hanging on a tree
I began to weep and weep and weep and weep
This is how I know what love is.
And as I sat there, weeping, crying, those beautiful eyes
Full of desire and love. And He said to me
You shall love Me...You shall love Me.
With arms wide open, heart exposed
With arms wide open, bleeding, sometimes bleeding
You shall love Me… You shall love Me.
If anybody’s looking for love in all the wrong places
If you’ve been searching for love, come to Me. Come to me.
Take up your cross. Deny yourself.
Forget your father’s house and run. Run with Me.
Cause you were made for abandon your heart and listen
Cause you were made for Someone greater, Someone bigger, so follow Me.
And you’ll come alive when you learn to die.
And He said to me
You shall love Me. You shall love Me
With arms wide open, heart exposed
With arms wide open, bleeding, sometimes bleeding
These lyrics touch the heart of "Passion and Spiritual Intimacy"—a passion and intimacy few ever allow their selves to risk. Lose yourself, your religious inhibitions and the worldly filth of gross distortions of your God given ability to relate to ‘Me’ with all of who you are in ‘Me’-we are "Passionate, spiritual beings" together! Worship means to “Kiss toward!”
“Love is invincible facing danger and death. Passion laughs at the terrors of hell. The fire of love stops at nothing - it sweeps everything before it. 7 Flood waters can't drown love; torrents of rain can't put it out. Love can't be bought, love can't be sold - it's not to be found in the marketplace.” (Song of Songs 8:6b-8, Msg)
In the grip of Papa’s passionate love, Ron Ross

The Divine Union

Jesus Christ enters into everything that it is to be human. He lived and still lives the exemplary Christian life-our experience is His as well! Every experience of doubt, fear, and heartbreak-He is there. He is with us at all times in all experiences-good or bad. We are at one, in union with Him. And amazingly, He is at the right hand of The Heavenly Father ever interceding for us!
9 I pray for them. I'm not praying for the God-rejecting world but for those you gave me, for they are yours by right. 10 Everything mine is yours, and yours mine, And my life is on display in them. 11 For I'm no longer going to be visible in the world; they’ll continue in the world while I return to you. Holy Father, guard them as they pursue this life that you conferred as a gift through me, so they can be one heart and mind 12 as we are one heart and mind. As long as I was with them, I guarded them in the pursuit of the life you gave through me; I even posted a night watch. And not one of them got away, Except for the rebel bent on destruction (the exception that proved the rule of Scripture). 13 Now I'm returning to you. I'm saying these things in the world's hearing so my people can experience my joy completed in them. 14 I gave them your word; the godless world hated them because of it, because they didn't join the world's ways, 15 just as I didn't join the world's ways. I'm not asking that you take them out of the world But that you guard them from the Evil One. 16 They are no more defined by the world than I am defined by the world. 17 Make them holy - consecrated - with the truth; your word is consecrating truth. 18 In the same way that you gave me a mission in the world, I give them a mission in the world. 19 I'm consecrating myself for their sakes so they'll be truth-consecrated in their mission. 20 I'm praying not only for them but also for those who will believe in me Because of them and their witness about me. 21 The goal is for all of them to become one heart and mind - Just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, so they might be one heart and mind with us. Then the world might believe that you, in fact, sent me. 22 The same glory you gave me, I gave them, and so they'll be as unified and together as we are - 23 I in them and you in me. Then they'll be mature in this oneness, And give the godless world evidence that you've sent me and loved them in the same way you've loved me.
But He's entered into this human experience, not as a man only, but as very God, and has therefore carried into our circumstances with Him, His loving, intimate union with the Father and the Spirit. What He has shown humanity is that, in those moments and times when we feel that God *must*, in fact, be horrifyingly absent, He's near! For a true human - Jesus Himself - has entered into human darkness while never experiencing a break in His union with His Father and the Spirit.
But beyond just giving us an example, and beyond just showing us what is possible, He has given to us that which belongs to Him. He has not simply been baptized into human darkness and shown us what we can have if we'd only allow ourselves to be enlightened. No, He has come into our darkness bearing gifts - His very own person and experience! Everything He is and has, He has given to us!
“10 But although the world was made through him, the world didn't recognize him when he came. 11 Even in his own land and among his own people, he was not accepted. 12 But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.” (John 1:10-12, NLT)
And so, in truth, we do not merely have an invitation to experience God in the midst of our human experience, but have been given a gift, which is Jesus' and His very own experience of God. We truly do not have a personal relationship with God. But Jesus' imparts His relationship with God to us and we share/live His very life by faith!
"20 I myself no longer live, but Christ lives in me. So I live my life in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2:20, NLT)
What is His is yours.”As it is with Him, so it is with us.” Let this spiritual dynamic take you places you never could dream of going!
Therefore, since we see Jesus, as a man, standing amidst the shadows that haunt humanity, all the while being completely unhindered in His union with Father and Spirit, we can be sure that this experience is ours as well, whether we know it or not, May we faith His life and stop faking His life! Ron Ross

This One Thing

Are you a person of single focus-a person of one thing? "But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ." Paul purposely narrowed his options to become a man of one thing. Let’s consider how he put it…

“Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant - dog dung. I've dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ 9 and be embraced by him. I didn't want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ - God's righteousness. 10 I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally, experience his resurrection power, be a partner in his suffering, and go all the way with him to death itself. 11 If there was any way to get in on the resurrection from the dead, I wanted to do it.” (Phil. 3:8-11, Msg)

Growing up or maturing is partially a process of letting go, of getting rid of, of taking inventory of what is unnecessary baggage and tossing it!  Like Paul; “I’ve dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him.” Maybe, just maybe everything is rubbish if it keeps me from embracing Jesus with the single focus Paul portrayed.

Maybe the best thing we can do for Jesus is to first and only embrace Him? And then the next best thing we can do for Jesus is to embrace what He is doing for us! In so doing we are truly being-we are in fact ‘being’ a human being, not a human doing! And in this posture we receive being embraced by Him. Maybe when we finally (every day) let go of, cast off, throw away and turn from anything and everything that has been before Jesus then we can truly and fully experience what Paul did! Embracing Jesus calls forth trusting him only!

“I didn't want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ - God's righteousness. 10 I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally, experience his resurrection power, be a partner in his suffering, and go all the way with him to death itself. 11 If there was any way to get in on the resurrection from the dead, I wanted to do it.” (Phil. 3: 9-11, Msg)

When we embrace Jesus only; by faith, the prize of our Salvation is realized! “I have not yet received all of those things. I have not yet been made perfect. But I move on to take hold of what Christ Jesus took hold of me for. 13 Brothers and sisters, I don't consider that I have taken hold of it yet. But here is the one thing I do. I forget what is behind me. I push hard toward what is ahead of me. 14 I move on toward the goal to win the prize. God has appointed me to win it. The heavenly prize is Christ Jesus himself.” (Phil. 3:12-14, NIRV)

But here is the one thing I do. If you will allow me to be so bold as to put it this way? This ‘being’ is the summation of our required ‘doing’! Did you get it? Every day, every moment, in every circumstance—He is the prize!

Embrace and embracing, Ron Ross

Quieted in Love

There is nothing in our journey quite like being quieted in His love. Have you been? Is this a normal part of your walk with Jesus? All of hell is against this! Fear assaults us daily while stress, anxiety, nervous tension, constant worry and trauma work there insidious plan in our lives. We cannot quiet in His love if focused on these demons. But we must. It is a non-negotiable daily part of our joy in Him. These demons will flee as we quiet in His love!

“There's nothing to fear from evil ever again! God Is Present among You 16 Jerusalem will be told: Don't be afraid. Dear Zion, don't despair. 17 Your God is present among you, a strong Warrior there to save you. Happy to have you back, he'll calm you with his love and delight you with his songs. 18 The accumulated sorrows of your exile will dissipate. I, your God, will get rid of them for you. You've carried those burdens long enough. 19 At the same time, I'll get rid of all those who've made your life miserable. I'll heal the maimed; I'll bring home the homeless. In the very countries where they were hated they will be venerated.” (Zephaniah 3:15b-19, Msg) Truly, what marvelous news this is!

“The Lord your God is in the midst of you, a Mighty One, a Savior {who saves}! He will rejoice over you with joy; he will rest {in silent satisfaction} and in His love he will be silent and make no mention {of past sins, or even recall them}; he will (instead) exult over you with singing.”  (Zephaniah 3:17, Amp)

If you so much as bring up your failures and sins, He will look at you with a question mark. In the silence of His love he makes no mention of them. What more could he do for us to show his unconditional love. Truly He daily quiets us with His love.

He also daily heals the infirmities in our souls; those wounded places that render us weakened and hopeless. His love shores up those parts of our lives were we have languished in silence.  

14 We have a great high priest. He has gone up into the heavens. He is Jesus the Son of God. So let us hold firmly to what we say we believe. 15 We have a high priest who can feel it when we are weak and hurting. We have a high priest who has been tempted in every way, just as we are. But he did not sin. 16 So let us boldly approach the throne of grace. Then we will receive mercy. We will find grace to help us when we need it. (Hebrews 4:14-16, NIRV) 

 

The words to this great hymn shed more light as to what He has already done and will always do for you and me!

Could we with ink the ocean fill?

And were the skies of parchment made?

Was every stalk on earth a quill?

And every man a scribe by trade,

to write the love of God above

would drain the ocean dry?

Nor could the scroll contain the whole,

Tho stretched from sky to sky.

Your fellowship with God enables you to gain a victory over the Evil One. 15 Don't love the world's ways. Don't love the world's goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. 16 Practically everything that goes on in the world - wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important - has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him.

If you bring up your failures and sins, Jesus will just look at you with a question mark. In the silence of His love he makes no mention of them. What more could he do for us to show his unconditional love. Truly He daily quiets us with His love.  Dive heart first this day into His quieting love!

Quieted in His love, Ron Ross

A Ray of Hope

Lam 3:21-26: Yet there is one ray of hope: his compassion never ends. It is only the Lord's mercies that have kept us from complete destruction.  Great is his faithfulness; his loving-kindness begins afresh each day.  My soul claims the Lord as my inheritance; therefore I will hope in him.  The Lord is wonderfully good to those who wait for him, to those who seek for him.  It is good both to hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. (TLB) 

  

Have you ever felt your life was not reaching its potential?  You know, the feeling that you are running behind the schedule of destiny?  Or perhaps your life is missing your goals and dreams?  You start the morning without a “ray of hope” for the day or the week, or perhaps even for the rest of your life.  I believe most of us experience these emotions and struggles from time to time.  Just as hope is prophetic to our future, so is hopelessness.  Hopelessness is the prophetic voice of the hidden part of the soul.  What is the hidden part of the soul, you might ask?  It is the place where we hide our fears.  We keep this place so hidden we are not even aware that it exists.  We hide all kinds of thoughts here; mainly the thoughts we tell no one.  The thoughts we think are not acceptable to those around us.  The thoughts we believe, if told, would surely come to pass and devour us.  This hidden room in our soul has a door that is always closed, and is never opened. 

  

Come away with me for a moment.  Let’s imagine a room in your house.  This room is hard to see and is almost hidden at the top of the attic stairs.  This room has always seemed a little scary, so you have refused to open the door to take a look.  Days pass and you don’t open the door.  Suddenly, you hear all kinds of creatures moving in the darkness of this hidden room.  A week passes before you venture by this room again.  The door is still closed.  You hear more sounds and now you can even hear a faint voice in the background.  Your imagination begins to give form to this voice; this creature.  It is very scary as you do not know what this creature looks like.  You think you can see this creature in your mind.  It appears to have ten heads and ten eyes.  The scales on its body shine as the reflection of the moon pours into the night window.  Its tail is dangerous and appears to be pointed like a spear.  Surely it could pierce your heart and bring sudden death.  This hidden creature, if exposed, would surely be the end of you. 

  

Now, isn’t it amazing how we can take the imagination that God has given to each of us to speak prophetically into a wonderful future; and then use it to destroy our God given destiny?  This hidden room becomes a breeding ground of the unseen.  When we store our fears and possible failures in this hidden room, they grow into false realities.  We then start to live in these false realities; and even though they are false, they take on the appearance of being true.  They might as well be true, because we live in them just the same.  These false realities produce a painful hopelessness that destroys our very existence. 

  

So how can we escape this place of hopelessness?  The first thing we must do is open the door of the hidden room in our souls.  We must be truthful and honest with ourselves and with God.  There are no creatures in this land of the hidden soul; only our fears.  Fear is the hidden creature.  It is a false reality, and it is not even real.  Let’s open the door to this hidden room and let the light shine in and expose all of the false realities that have been living there.  Let’s see more of what God has to say about hope. 

  

First of all, Lam 3:21says: Yet there is one ray of hope.  This is all it takes to make it today; just one ray of hope, a ray of hope from heaven.  There is one ray for each day, and we must live one day at a time.  Tomorrow is not here so we must trust the Lord for today.  Do not look for a ray of hope for tomorrow, because tomorrow has not yet come.  Tomorrow’s ray of hope will be asked for tomorrow.  You can trust that God will give you this ray of hope for tomorrow because his compassion never ends.  His love for us is unbelievable and endless.  Your fears are only trying to destroy you while it is the Lord's mercies that have kept us from complete destruction.  Great is his faithfulness; his loving-kindness begins afresh each day.  Our ray of hope comes fresh each day as we call upon the Lord.  Why—because of his loving-kindness.  This part of the inheritance we have in Christ must be claimed. 

  

Let’s take another look at the scriptures.  Lam 3:24: My soul claims the Lord as my inheritance; therefore I will hope in him.  The Lord is wonderfully good to those who wait for him, to those who seek for him.  It is good both to hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.   

Let’s make a choice this day to wait upon the Lord and continually seek Him.  Our hope is not in the hidden room of our souls, but in the Lord who willingly sends us a “ray of hope” for each day. Fear will be offered to us in great abundance during the next 12 months.  But we must not allow our souls to agree with this fear and hopelessness. 

 

This is the season to experience freedom from fear, hopelessness, and destruction. The Lord is the One who holds this day and He is the One who issues each of us a “ray of hope”. Let’s embrace His voice and receive His Word as His “ray of hope” warms our hearts with truth and freedom. 

I am hopeful, Ron Ross