Seeing God and Being Seen (Monday)—John 1:35-51

by RobertCummins | Mar 21, 2016 | 12. Seeing God and Being Seen

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.

Seeing God and Being Seen (Sunday) – Mark 8:1-26

by RobertCummins | Mar 29, 2015 | 12. Seeing God and Being Seen

Mark 8:1-26

The disciples have just witnessed another stupendous miracle. The feeding of the 4,000 was born out of Christ’s compassion and was driven by practical necessity. The Pharisees grieved Jesus to the core of His being by asking for an encore performance of some miraculous sign. He sighed deeply and said, “Why does this generation seek for a sign? Truly I say to you, no sign will be given to them.”

I have to assume that the leaven Jesus is referring to is that hard and unbelieving heart that demands proof before believing.  Jesus is saying, “Don’t go down that road. That condition, like leaven, will just cause circumstances to grow seemingly more impossible in your imaginations.” Jesus was nurturing the tender and growing faith in these men’s lives and he did not want the religiously correct and their thought processes to serve as a toxic reference point. He had to confront this situation for their faith’s sake. He will once again have to show them how radically different He and The Father thinks than they do….

Why do you discuss the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet see or understand? Do you have a hardened heart? Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember……

What is that Jesus is trying to get across to us? Isn’t it this, that in simple childlike faith we can trust that our daily needs will be met by Him?  If we are tempted toward unbelief can we not remember one occasion after another where God has supplied our needs (and then some)? I believe what Jesus is saying is simply, “Do not discuss in your own minds (or especially with others) the fact that you have no bread (or whatever you perceive you are lacking). Instead remember and discuss the fact that you have Me.”

Everything that goes into a life of pleasing God has been miraculously given to us by getting to know, personally and intimately, the One who invited us to God. 2 Peter 1:3-4 MSG

God can pour on the blessings in astonishing ways so that you’re ready for anything and everything, more than just ready to do what needs to be done. As one psalmist puts it, He throws caution to the winds giving to the needy in reckless abandon. His right-living, right-giving ways never run out, never wear out. 2 Corinthians 9:8-9 MSG

Father, Help us to each see our curriculum here in the school of Christ where we are each enrolled. May we progressively enjoy that deep rest in Christ where we realize that not only are You near to us but that our lives are beautifully interwoven into Your own. Give us this day our daily bread and lead us away from all forms of unbelief. Amen.

Seeing God and Being Seen (Friday) – John 9:1-41

by RobertCummins | Mar 27, 2015 | 12. Seeing God and Being Seen

John 9:1-41

Walking down the street, Jesus saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked, “Rabbi, who sinned: this man or his parents, causing him to be born blind?” Jesus said, “You’re asking the wrong question. You’re looking for someone to blame. There is no such cause-effect here. Look instead for what God can do. We need to be energetically at work for the One who sent me here, working while the sun shines. When night falls, the workday is over. For as long as I am in the world, there is plenty of light. I am the world’s Light. (John 9:1-5 MSG)

I believe discipleship happens in our everyday, ordinary life—our sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around lives as we discover how radically differently God thinks than us. I believe our passage today illustrates this idea.

As Jesus and His disciples were doing their everyday-walking around thing they encountered an impossible situation; a man who had been blind from birth. Here is how discipleship played out in this unscheduled seemingly random encounter….

In the course of their conversation the perceived cause and effect of this man’s circumstance comes up. The disciples, to a man, trace this poor beggar’s curse of blindness to his sins or that of his parents. Jesus chided them and said they were missing it. He informed them that illness was not a sin problem and that there were no humans to blame.  Jesus implied their wrong thinking would lead them to wrong decisions. [If you want to explore this story in greater depth, you can go to the archives of MwM and check out; Listening To God (Saturday) – 2 Chronicles 7:11-22.]

Jesus had brought them to a fork in the road. One sign pointed to the left; it said, “Blame It on Man’s Fallen Nature”. The sign that pointed to the right said, “What God Can Do”. This intersection was further complicated because there was another fork whose signage read “Somebody Else’s Problem”.

We may not always be conscious of it, but I believe, in light of God’s intimate awareness and involvement in our lives, discipleship is always underway, or at least it can be if we have ears to hear. Again, whether we are conscious of it or not, I believe we each are having a conversation with God. I believe that He sees to it that we will always be encountering impossible situations and that in each one of them, we will be asked to make a decision. So let’s review 4 principles  of discipleship our passage has flushed out;

1) God’s is intimately involved in the ordinary every day stuff of our lives.

2) Better listening will permit us to join the conversation.

3) God is inviting us to intentionally engage in our personal Missions Impossible.

4) It is Father’s way to bring us to crossroads where our decisions are our responses to Jesus as Lord (aka; discipleship)

There is another important word from our passage that should greatly impact the choices we make. It is the word “we“.  

We need to be energetically at work for the One who sent me here, working while the sun shines. When night falls, the workday is over. For as long as I am in the world, there is plenty of light. I am the world’s Light. (John 9 MSG)

Jesus’ use of “we” effectively rules out the Somebody-Else’s-Problem trail. He was trying to say that blindness and human suffering are our problems, that dealing with them is the work of Jesus and his disciples. I think it would be fair to say that Jesus’ life was our illustration of what it looks like when “Thy will is being done on earth as it is in heaven”. In other words healing is a work of God that we need to be energetically pursuing while the sun is still shining. Jesus is telling us that He and His disciples (which can include us) are living within a window of opportunity….

  ….while the sun shines. When night falls, the workday is over. For as long as I am in the world, there is plenty of light. I am the world’s Light. (John 9 MSG)

I see many who have taken the trail which limits the Holy Spirit’s contribution to being the interpreter of scripture. This path applies scriptural principles to the fallen nature of man as if this is the primary business of God in the earth. While I love and respect this part of the family, I can’t follow this trail because Jesus said that it would be expedient that He send us a Helper when there was, as yet, no Bible. So the Spirit’s helping must have been in the doing of all the works that Jesus had been demonstrating – not just sitting around waiting until the canon of scripture was formed so he could finally get to work interpreting it.

Is it possible that redemptive-providence is hidden in the seemingly random circumstances of our lives? Is it possible that where evil and impossible circumstances seem to abound that grace and redemption are actually present in the impossibility-potential of the circumstance in some kind of all-the- more capacity?

When will our night fall? Will it be as we draw our last earthly breath or when we are snatched up in to the air in a rapture? We don’t know the answer but Jesus’ point is that as long as we are drawing breath, our window of opportunity to do the works of God is still open. The Holy Spirit who is remaining in the world is the thing that is providing plenty of light for the remaining works we have been called to engage in.  He is the world’s light and He resides in us.  Let the work continue.

Father, help us to see our destinies as Your Kingdom agents called to reconcile this world to Your rule. Help us to expose the bullying administrators of darkness who press their lie upon us that all things are impossible with You instead of possible. Help us to see the lies beneath futility, bad theology and all hopeless circumstances.  Help us to be those who energetically work the works of God. Thank you for sending us the Spirit to work in and through us while the sun is still shining. Amen.

Seeing God and Being Seen (Thursday) – 2 Chronicles 16:7-9

by RobertCummins | Mar 26, 2015 | 12. Seeing God and Being Seen

2 Chronicles 16:7-9

For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His. 

We are not of the kingdom of Judah nor are we Asa their king but their God has become our Father. The things in the old testament were written for our benefit. My ambition is to derive some of that benefit for myself and others. While the covenants are different through which we relate to God, there is a common theme to both. He wants all our hearts. This morning I want to explore all-ness. Let’s get some backstory first….

In Asa’s early reign he did not act foolishly. Listen to his heart, “O Lord, You are our God; let not man prevail against You.” The consequence; there was peace in the Land because the dread of the Lord had fallen on their enemies. As a reminder of God’s ways …..

the Spirit of God came on Azariah the son of Oded, and he went out to meet Asa and said to him, “Listen to me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin: the Lord is with you when you are with Him. And if you seek Him, then He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, then He will forsake you.

There are those old covenant if’s and then’s again. (For more on those check out last Saturday’s post from 2 Chronicles 7:11-22) Listen to this….

They entered into the covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and soul; and whoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel should be put to death, whether small or great, man or woman. 2 Chronicles 15:12-13

There was a significant cost for non-compliance with God’s all-ness commands. Where men failed to give themselves to God there was always trouble and death,  for God troubled them with every kind of distress. Yet when they sought him in the midst of trials the outcome was radically different….

the Lord is with you when you are with Him. And if you seek Him, then He will let you find Him; but (again) if you forsake Him, then He will forsake you…. But you, be strong and do not lose courage, for there is reward for your work.”

In our passage, Asa the king of Judah has displeased God because he had relied on the king of Aram and not on the Lord his God. This gets us back to all-ness. All-ness is all about reliance and trust in God over our other options. However, I believe the concept of all-ness and abandonment need revised to fit our context. What are these concepts to look like to us who live under the new covenant?

Many saved-and-going-to-heaven evangelical christians immediately start backing up when they hear superlatives like all and everything. “Sell all.” “Forsake everything.” They know (or believe) that this condition cannot be met in their fallen nature so they retreat, not wanting to get any where near an alter call or commitment to all-ness. They may think, “Why set myself up for failure? All-ness is simply not possible.” And they are correct if it refers to a completed condition of the heart. But, what if all-ness is more about a child-like orientation to Father and a process and not a perfected work?  I would like to share how I stumbled into what I am calling “all-ness”.

When I came to Christ (or probably more accurately, when he drew me to himself), I did not hear the classic gospel message. In fact, I did not feel any specific convictions of sin. I didn’t invite Jesus into my heart to just save me from my sins or to escape hell. My deepest conviction at that time was that I was utterly alone, lost, and that darkness had a vice-grip on me. The folks standing around me at the alter just wanted me repeat a prayer but I essentially just told Jesus from my heart that He could have my life and do anything He wanted with it. I was wrecking it. To my best understanding I had entered into a new covenant with God on that day and my understanding of it has been unfolding through the years. Today I think of this covenant simply as a relationship but not a contractual one held together by if’s and then’s. It was initiated by and is sustained by Christ alone.

In that moment had I really succeeded in giving God my whole heart? How is that even possible? Can a fallen nature bent on having its own way really abandon itself to another? I believe we can because I did. I was absolutely thunderstruck at the changes Christ made in my life in a very brief span of time. It truly was amazing! Projecting forward with this supernatural trend in mind, I envisioned Christ and I walking hand in hand on a gradually upward grade until that day the trumpet souns from the East and all my tears would be wiped away.  Silly boy.

It was not too long into my walk with Christ that I realized that this world still had a downward pull on me.  The battle was on. What had happened to my surrender?! My temptations made me feel like a traitor to Christ. My sin made me feel like a mutineer. I was not yet married so I thought maybe I need to become a monk. But wait, I am not a Catholic. OK, I’ll just become monk-ish. I will wage a battle of discipline over my flesh and I will prevail. I must! I had surrendered to Him. I had made vows to God that only a fool who did not fear Him would break. Consequently, the broad and secure place of salvation quickly became a narrow path. In fact it would progress into something more akin to a tight-rope -a religious one to be precise.

In my struggle with sin had I broken trust with God? Yes, a thousand times and then some. But here is where we discover the nature of all-ness and see God’s if’s and then’s in the context of grace instead of the Law…..

 ……….If we are faithless, then He remains faithful. 2 Timothy 2:13……If we confess our sins, then He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

The battles I fight with sin do not negate my original and complete abandonment to God. My sin never has separated me from Him. It was always a matter of who was holding the title to my life. I had handed that to God and I have never asked for it back. Why would I want it? Where else was I going to go? When I encountered temptations, when I sinned, when I found deep parts of me dull and unresponsive, I returned to the simple idea that I am His and He is mine.

When I first came to God He had accepted my all as my honest consideration into our covenant.  That my all consisted of less than nothing is what facilitated my stumbling into all-ness. I had inadvertantly placed my entire reliance upon Jesus Christ. When we stumble (or find our way) into all-ness we inevitably meet Christ as Lord. And… when we add to Lordship, His sovereignty, His omniscience and His power, we enter into discipleship. When it dawns upon us that His throne is actually in our hearts and that it is our hearts where we are working out our salvation, we have discovered the kingdom of God. His initial and ongoing work is to secure our reliance and trust for our own benefit. The Father is always inviting us into that place of rest where we truly abide in Christ and bear much fruit for Him.

We don’t have to be perfect to give ourselves totally to God. How many people are failing to know Christ as Lord because they have been intimidated by Christ’s command to take up their cross and follow Him or to love Him with all their beings. Giving ourselves to God is both a one time and all-time ongoing affair. Abiding is abandoning myself to His faithful keeping.  It sounds like a grueling uphill trek when in reality it is just learning how to rest in His tender ongoing mercies. He is faithful to show us where we are behaving contrary to abandonment and He is also faithful to recall and honor our tender honest surrenders. He loves this childlike trust that introduces us to the kingdom of God. Just remember being completely His is a work that He has initiated and that He will sustain as we rest in Him. That is why Paul can say….

For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6

Father, help us to become aware and comfortable that we are never hidden from your sight and that it is with you with whom we have to do. Help us to be strong and to not lose courage. For those of us who have never abandoned ourselves to you, would you give us eyes to see that our surrendered status is actually the safest place in the universe to be. Help us each to discover that You yourself are our reward. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Seeing God and Being Seen (Tuesday) – Mark 9:1-10

by RobertCummins | Mar 24, 2015 | 12. Seeing God and Being Seen

Mark 9:1-10

I would have liked to have been Peter’s biographer. It is that trail I have chosen to take this morning. I will be the “Interviewer” in this exchange. I have been permitted to interview Peter in his prison cell in Rome. We pick up at the tail end of a long afternoon of discussion.

Interviewer; “Peter, you have told me many stories about the Lord but we have not yet talked about the day He took you and the sons of thunder up the mountain. Would you be comfortable telling me that story?”

Peter; “You know… Jesus wouldn’t allow the three of us to breathe a word about this until he arose from the dead, which by the way, we had no idea what he was talking about. We were all so clueless. Yes, I would like to try to tell you this story.”

Interviewer: “Let’s set this up. Where had you just come from?”

Peter; “Hmm, you’re testing me now… give me a minute… well… there was the feeding of the multitude out in the country…. then, in Bethsaida he healed a man blind from birth. Yes, I recall now. We had just come from the Caesarea Philippi district where He had been pressing us about who He really was. He first wanted to know who the multitude said He was. We told him that they thought he was a great prophet like John the Baptist or Elijah.  He then asked us, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ I couldn’t believe what came out of my mouth (as is often the case with me) I said what had been stirring in my heart,  ‘You are the Christ.’

Yes, I remember this as if it were yesterday. It was one of the best and the worst days of my life. I knew He was pleased with my confession but not an hour later He had to say to me, ‘Get behind Me, Satan; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.’ It is almost humorous looking back. I was making suggestions to the Lord on how to be the Lord, and of all things I chose to counsel Him on…’His suffering’. How brilliant! Oh the patience of God!

You really have to understand something. We really were clueless as to where things were headed. Practically every time Jesus opened his mouth He said something we did not grasp. It was always like that. I well recall what He had just told us before this mountain top experience. Let me see if I can’t quote him. He said,

‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? For what will a man give in exchange for his soul?’ 

Interviewer; “That’s pretty good. How did you remember that so well?”

Peter; “We had all been listening very carefully and playing back all his teachings over and over as we travelled, correcting each other until we all pretty well could recite anything he had ever taught us. After all, He had told us that He had words of life. No one had ever spoken like this. We believed Him.”

Interviewer: “Ok, if I am understanding you, Jesus had essentially said if you were going to follow Him it would be costly, even fatal?! Did you think about turning back when you heard Him say things like this?

Peter; “I suppose the thought had crossed our minds but then again…not really. You would have just had to have seen His eyes when he spoke. You couldn’t really doubt Him. Anyway… compared to what we had with Him, nothing was ever going to satisfy us but being with him.  In a very real way He had ruined us for this world. Like sheep with their shepherd, we came to require his presence.”

Interviewer; “Ok, here is a question that has troubled me and I know it troubles others as well. Why did He choose just you three to go up the mountain with him?  Why not all twelve of you?”

Peter (laughing); Excellent question! I honestly have no clue. None of us ever knew why He did the things He did. As I said, we were the company of the clueless. We really had to get used to following Him in the presence of much we would have liked to know but never did. As we have reflected on His teachings, we now have come to think of our vast unknowing as “mystery”; the essential context where we each must work out our salvation, and might I add, with a fair portion of that fear and trembling my brother Paul is so fond of referring to.

Here is an embarrassing confession though. We did speculate as to our status. Even though I was quiet in the debate, I was the chief of speculators. While the others would argue as to who would be the greatest in the Kingdom, I was aloof because I knew, as ‘The Rock’, I was the superior disciple. Oh dear. Am I blushing. It really is humbling to recall how I had thought about myself before I was broken and then restored to Him. Mind you, it did not hurt either that I was filled with the Holy Spirit and power.

As to our hike into the mountains with Jesus… James, John and myself were elated to be invited. Every moment with him was like living in another dimension. We were also feeling special. It did not bother us, as we ascended, watching the other nine getting smaller and smaller in our vision. But then…..”

Interviewer; “Yes, but then…what? Are you alright Peter?

Peter, “Just give me a minute.

Interviewer; “Certainly. Take your time.”

Peter; “Oh dear…. I forget how hard it is to tell this story. I really don’t think my words ever do it justice. He told me it was OK, but since I have had permission to speak of it, I don’t think I ever have adequate words.”

Interviewer; “Peter, your disclaimer is duly noted. We will be grateful for your best stab at this.”

Peter; “OK. Here is how I remember it…. I don’t know how else to say it, He was transfigured before us. His garments became radiant and exceedingly white, as no launderer on earth can whiten them. And I kid you not, Elijah appeared to us along with Moses; and they were talking with Jesus. I said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three tabernacles, one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”

Interviewer; “Are you alright? You are white as ghost.”

Peter; “I’ll be ok in a minute. Just retelling this takes it out of me. Think about it. It was as if we had seen three ghosts! We saw Moses! Elijah! We were seeing into another world! (Or, perhaps it was seeing into us. I really don’t know.) And as I am jabbering away about building some tabernacles for them (as if this service were required?!), an ominous cloud (I suspect from that other world) descended upon us and my little speech was interrupted (thank God) by a voice that absolutely thundered in our ears… “This is My beloved Son, listen to Him!”

Interviewer (holding back tears and some laughter); “Yes, I think I see what you mean. Words don’t quite get us there do they?”

Peter; “Not at all.”

Interviewer; “What happened next?”

Peter; “Bare with me, but your word “next” seems out of place because, whatever had just happened took no time and yet it took all time. We didn’t know if a second or millennium had passed. In one sense it was all over as soon as it began and yet, in that second (if you can call it that) an eternity of impressions and details were imprinted upon our spirits. It seems anticlimactic but…all at once we looked around and saw no one with us anymore, except Jesus alone.”

Interviewer; “I have never heard anything like this! Looking back on this experience what are your reflections today some thirty odd years later?”

Peter; “Well.. we both know what is awaiting me. I am soon going to be absent from this body and once again immediately present to Him. Yes, what stands out to me is how His words have played out in my life. He made it perfectly clear to me and all who wanted to follow him…

“If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? For what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

There have been many false gospels preached these past three decades (and I suppose in light of our enemy’s strategies, there will be many more). One thing they all share in common is the exclusion of the cross. I know this is nearly impossible to comprehend but when He calls us to Life, he bids us, ‘Come and die.’ It has been clear along the way and, in these chains, the cross is abundantly clear today.

Because He did leave us the Holy Spirit, he has been teaching us from within (where He dwells) what this message of the cross means. As painful as it has been to have my will crossed so regularly by Him, I am so so grateful. Because he has been discipling us – birthing his kingdom in us and through us, I can say today, I am not ashamed of Him and His words even in this adulterous and sinful generation. And I know He will not be ashamed of me when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels, one day very soon, to take me to Him.‘”

Father, now that we know what it means that you have risen from the dead, help us to seize and lay claim to your promise that we are some of those who are standing here in this age who have not tasted death and have seen your kingdom come with power. May you confront every false gospel of our age that has cheapened grace by excluding your cross. Teach us what our cross looks like and help us to embrace it as Peter and the disciples did. May Your Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.

Seeing God and Being Seen (Monday) – John 1:35-51

by RobertCummins | Mar 23, 2015 | 12. Seeing God and Being Seen

John 1:35-51

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).

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, and are happening 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 are wanting 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.

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 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 which we know exists in Christ. He offered the following verses to consider in this exercise; Col 2:9-10, 2 Cor 5:17, Col 3:4, Phil 1:21, Gal 2:20, 1 John 4:7, Eph 5:8, Rom 1:7, Ro 8:16, Rom 8:9, Gal 3:25, Gal 4:6.

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