John 15:9-17

From yesterday (12.16.12 / Direction): “Here is the problem. We cannot give or receive love, which is the essence of God’s greatest commands and kingdom mandates, when there are walls (strongholds) we have built around our hearts that insulate us from God and others. Sadly, with my walls up, my life was more about religion than Life itself. This is sinning against Love, Himself. There is accountability for this.”

This passage provokes me to reflect;
The most scandalous and extravagant action ever taken by any being was that of Jesus Christ over two millennia ago. It was scandalous because the object of the gift (us) was (and is) indifferent to the Giver. It was also scandalous because the “natures” of the beings were different. We, the object of the gift, through our disobedience, had become alien in nature to the Giver.

It was extravagant because of the impossible chasm and immeasurable distance the Giver went to reach us. Prior to Jesus Christ, the distance between God and us was far greater than the light years that astronomers use as a measure. What is the unit of measurement between realms?

The irony is that once upon a time God’s realm and ours overlapped in a place we know as The Garden of Eden and (I propose) in the heart of man (i.e. his spirit). When the first man and woman (who had dominion responsibility for this earth) disobeyed, the realms began to separate leaving this earth (and men’s hearts) separated and subject to death and futility.

Only a being that shared both natures (man’s and God’s) could restore the union between these realms. Driven by His irrational affection for the fallen ones, God satisfied the overarching laws of the eternal realm for justice by coming Himself to earth as the Son of Man. Regardless the distance, He Himself has become the bridge between the realms. (As a highway contractor I am pleased to finally have an infrastructure metaphor.)

“For there is one God, and one mediator (a “bridge” if you will) also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave HImself as a ransom for all….” 1 Tim 2:5-6

This cosmic act of reconciliation and restoration was precipitated and motivated by the driving force of the cosmos, love. I believe that ultimately love will be vindicated as the primary and unrivaled motivation and power in all realms. Some may say, “How can you say this only days after Sandy Hook or less than a century after Auschwitz (events that He could have easily prevented had He chosen). All I can say to that (accusation against God) is that it is unhelpful, unwise and that it will one day seem ludicrous, because we will discover that God has saved the tears of the victims. My deep suspicion is that they were His tears to start with.

The context of this passage in John is “abiding in Christ”, the true vine. The Mediator Himself is restating Love’s intentions that we abide in Him. My best understanding of abiding would be “remaining intentionally conscious and appreciative of His love and His life that is now within us -where the unity of heaven and earth are even now restored in those who have entrusted themselves to the extravagant Giver and His Gift. (This is why I am more inclined to think that our primary and essential identity is a blend of “saint – sons and friends”: something IMMEASURABLY greater than JUST a “sinner – servant and slave” saved by grace. How do you see your primary identity? Back to our passage;

“Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love…These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full…This is my commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you..No longer do I call you slaves; for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things I have heard from the Father I have made known to you…,I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask of the Father in my name, He may give to you.

“THIS I COMMAND YOU, THAT YOU LOVE ONE ANOTHER”

I mentioned that there is accountability where we sin against the Giver and His Gift. I confessed that where I had spoken in His name w/o love as my primary motive, I, at best, was conveying “religion”. Here is my brief definition of that term; conviction w/o compassion; form w/o substance; obedience w/o ABIDING). This is the one thing that set Jesus off like nothing else. (I am thinking of money changers and millstones just now Matt 18:6 & 21:12)

I am aware (as I have confessed previously) of the danger of making doctrines out of our experiences. I earnestly want to avoid adding anything to the scriptures that are not already there. Yet, I also want to avoid a failure to give the Holy Spirit (my Teacher and Counselor) room to speak to my heart – helping me to make sense of the abundance of bible truths I have stored in my head that I used to often to beat myself and others up with over the years.

I believe the Holy Spirit has been restating many of these truths to me in recent years through the filter of the Father’s love and grace. It seems to me (as He has been doing just that) that He delights in helping us understand how the restoration of heaven into our hearts redeems our experiences, making them a part of our stories. Living and abiding with Him makes Truth our own and it equips us in God’s ever-present and ongoing task of reconciling Heaven and earth by transforming the servants into sons. We no longer just know truth. We are truth. As our stories are updated in His grace, we become the compelling message validating the good news with our joy.

“We are a letter (or story)..known and read by all men, not written in ink, but rather by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts.” 2 Cor 3:3.

Having done a better job of watching over my heart – having some healing and change there in the past few years (which has definitely liberated me to love others better) has caused me to speculate that the remaining distance between God and His chosen ones who remain in the earth will only be bridged by His Love as it overthrows the stronghold of religion in all its myriad expressions in the hearts of His people.

Verses 15;7 &16 indicate that He will grant the requests made to Him by His abiding ones. If you were to lay that one request out there before the Lord, right now, knowing it was going to come true, what would it be?

Father, we pray that You would receive the reward of Your suffering – that reciprocation of Your great love from us, your lukewarm and indifferent children; that Your Spirit would prevail within our hearts until every last barrier to your love is overthrown. Over come “religion” and destroy, through Your abiding ones, the lies that have been sown into this earth regarding You, the Giver and Jesus, the Gift. May we live joyfully and boldly out of our new natures (in Christ), bearing the fruit of your love, amending all the damage we have done in Your name where we have failed to abide. In Jesus Name. Amen.

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