Again the next day John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as He walked, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. And Jesus turned and saw them following, and said to them, “What do you seek?” They said to Him, “Rabbi (which translated means Teacher), where are You staying?” He said to them, “Come, and you will see.” So they came and saw where He was staying; and they stayed with Him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. One of the two who heard John speak and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He found first his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which translated means Christ). John 35-41

In thinking about “Seeing God and Being Seen” I am drawn to an idea that is burning brighter and brighter in my thoughts about Father. The thought is that understanding his backstory and ours is essential in shaping our view of reality. I used the word cosmology in the introduction to Saturday’s MwM post to describe our view of reality; it is simply our explanation of how and why things happen as they do. A Christian’s cosmology is typically embedded in their theology—how they have come to think about seeing God and being seen by him.

In our contemporary Christian culture, many of Jesus’ disciples are experiencing an inner and (I believe) holy dissatisfaction. In their honest and good hearts they want something that their cosmology (or theology) has not provided them—something that, by nature, even the most biblically accurate truths are incapable of providing. Their hunger is of the Romans 8 variety; it is simply the Sprit within them crying, “Abba.” (By all means dive into Romans 8:14-25.)

In a teaching-discussion series at PJ’s, Gene Griffin, my friend and mentor is diving deep into our backstory.  In yesterday’s introductory session Gene hinted at where we are going with this dialogue.  He referred us to Romans 6:5:

 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection. Romans 6:5 NAS

The word united comes from the original Greek sumphotos which means to be congenitally related. If we think our relationship with God is being sustained by our doing this or that or by thinking this or that, what kind of violence have we done to the fundamental nature of our congenital relationship with Father? Is it possible that in all our religious doings we have alienated our hearts from him and that they are naturally crying out for that which they were created?

Gene made the point last night that conditional acceptance is one of the most detrimental burdens that can be placed upon a child. It sets the child up with an identity deficit. It calculates: “I do not qualify to be loved unless I am working to earn it.” Can you see how this could be embedded detrimentally into our belief systems contributing to the formation of many very busy yet deeply unfulfilled children?

Gene is simply asking those who are a part of this dialogue to keep our essential identities in view as we explore the gap between our experience and the life we know exists in Christ. He offered the following verses to consider in this exercise: Col. 2:9-10, II Cor. 5:17, Col. 3:4, Phil. 1:21, Gal. 2:20, 1 John 4:7, Eph. 5:8, Rom. 1:7, Rom. 8:16, Rom. 8:9, Gal. 3:25, Gal. 4:6.

Father, May your life giving Spirit impart to us the revelation of what we even now have in Christ.

 

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