Never forget, my servant prince,
The world from which you came;
A world of shepherds and their sheep,
Of gentle mountain rains.
As then once faithful, so today,
With tender hearts and minds;
Shepherd them with that same heart,
But remember, they are Mine.
Bill Blomquist
©2007 Blomquistian Music, Ltd. ARR
Friday, April 27, 2007
Optimistic Ease
Let us regard no one in terms of their past, where they have been, the notorious sins they so ignorantly committed.
Rather, seek to know them as nothing less than Prince and Princesses, and that, with a glorious future. Commune with potential, nurture dreams, celebrate grace. Judge not where they have been (God has already done that), as it does nothing but dwarf the potential for growth and fellowship that God is offering you through them.
Resolve yourself to a posture of optimistic ease for where they are today. Open your heart to Christ in them and stand in wonder at yet another miracle, boasting of His redeeming grace.
2 Corinthians 5:16,17
Rather, seek to know them as nothing less than Prince and Princesses, and that, with a glorious future. Commune with potential, nurture dreams, celebrate grace. Judge not where they have been (God has already done that), as it does nothing but dwarf the potential for growth and fellowship that God is offering you through them.
Resolve yourself to a posture of optimistic ease for where they are today. Open your heart to Christ in them and stand in wonder at yet another miracle, boasting of His redeeming grace.
2 Corinthians 5:16,17
Monday, April 9, 2007
Jesus Snoopy Crop-duster
The poison of the Resurrection is final. By rising from the dead, Jesus established himself as the Power above all powers, the Lord above all lords, and the King above all kings - both physical and spiritual. All creation bows in his eternal shadow. Yet, with regard to getting rid of the sin in our life, many of us go about the whole process in ways that are substandard to the glorious work of the Resurrection.
Think of the heart as a landscape, acreage that spreads out for miles in all directions. From season to season, various crops burst through the soil. Some of the crops are fruitful – love, joy, peace, for example. Others are remnants of the “old soil”: lying, cheating, stealing, etc. When these crops appear our knee-jerk reation is to immediately implore Christ to put on his snoopy head-gear, get into his yellow biplane, and spray down the thistles of thievery, the stickers of stealing, or the distant 40 acres of adultery with his resurrection poison – much like you or I would do when working in our yards with Weed Kill.
But that type of praxis - that mentality – runs completely contrary to the work of the resurrection. When Christ died and rose again from the grave he plummeted far below the toxic soil of our hearts and got to the root of it all. By rising to life Jesus conquered death. And death lies at the root of every sin.
(I know it’s hard to see that death lies behind something as non-threatening as a couple of people gossiping about another. But, that gossip, when matured and refined and in full bloom, will turn to death, on some level, to some body. Believe me.)
When Jesus captured and destroyed death he rooted out our sin. We no longer have to call upon Jesus Snoopy Crop-duster to poison the weeds. That has already been done (and that, on a much deeper, more permanent level). We rather turn our faith to Jesus, knowing his death has already covered our crops, seek his forgiveness and rise to live in continued freedom and forgiveness.
How does this work out in real life? Well, Instead of constantly examining our fields for crops of weeds and then – when finding them – running to Snoopy Jesus Snoopy Crop-duster to spray his magic resurrection dust we simply spray praise upwards to Christ for his remarkable work on the Cross. We become much less preoccupied with spiritual navel-gazing and much more preoccupied with living out our freedom in Christ out to the fullest, and that, through praise and thanksgiving to the Wellspring of our souls.
Christ died to give us life and a specific purpose. Yet too many of us get sidetracked with too much internal examination. We figure we can't be about God's business until we are fully healed, fully forgiven, or fully Christianised. But that will never happen. You are healed as you go. Here's my adivice on it: Deal with your bad crops appropriately in faith, knowing that God has both rendered your sin powerless and has also forgiven you. Then, and get on with your life, carry on with your God-given created purpose and destiny. You don't have time to be the internal control over the issues of your heart. That's the Holy Spirit's job. You have a job to do!
Bad crops will always arise. And, oddly enough, they will arise in the same soil as the good crops. Jesus, when speaking of the judgment of the nations, indicated that the thistles would grow with the wheat up to the Final Day (Matthew 8:36-43). No big shakes.
While we need to monitor the condition of our gardens and control the thorns of flesh through spiritual discipline, we also need to keep perspective. The real power behind the crops of covetness, acreage of adultery, and lawns of lust has already been eternally rooted out by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Therefore, we no longer need to run around like fumbling farmers, obsessed with spraying resurrection poison on the tiniest sprouts and forgetting about the other stuff (like loving our neighbor as ourselves, for instance). No, our job is to show the crop of concern to Christ, thank him for taking care of “that one too” at Easter, and rise up [once again] in faith, pressing on in the freedom and forgiveness of Easter.
Think of the heart as a landscape, acreage that spreads out for miles in all directions. From season to season, various crops burst through the soil. Some of the crops are fruitful – love, joy, peace, for example. Others are remnants of the “old soil”: lying, cheating, stealing, etc. When these crops appear our knee-jerk reation is to immediately implore Christ to put on his snoopy head-gear, get into his yellow biplane, and spray down the thistles of thievery, the stickers of stealing, or the distant 40 acres of adultery with his resurrection poison – much like you or I would do when working in our yards with Weed Kill.
But that type of praxis - that mentality – runs completely contrary to the work of the resurrection. When Christ died and rose again from the grave he plummeted far below the toxic soil of our hearts and got to the root of it all. By rising to life Jesus conquered death. And death lies at the root of every sin.
(I know it’s hard to see that death lies behind something as non-threatening as a couple of people gossiping about another. But, that gossip, when matured and refined and in full bloom, will turn to death, on some level, to some body. Believe me.)
When Jesus captured and destroyed death he rooted out our sin. We no longer have to call upon Jesus Snoopy Crop-duster to poison the weeds. That has already been done (and that, on a much deeper, more permanent level). We rather turn our faith to Jesus, knowing his death has already covered our crops, seek his forgiveness and rise to live in continued freedom and forgiveness.
How does this work out in real life? Well, Instead of constantly examining our fields for crops of weeds and then – when finding them – running to Snoopy Jesus Snoopy Crop-duster to spray his magic resurrection dust we simply spray praise upwards to Christ for his remarkable work on the Cross. We become much less preoccupied with spiritual navel-gazing and much more preoccupied with living out our freedom in Christ out to the fullest, and that, through praise and thanksgiving to the Wellspring of our souls.
Christ died to give us life and a specific purpose. Yet too many of us get sidetracked with too much internal examination. We figure we can't be about God's business until we are fully healed, fully forgiven, or fully Christianised. But that will never happen. You are healed as you go. Here's my adivice on it: Deal with your bad crops appropriately in faith, knowing that God has both rendered your sin powerless and has also forgiven you. Then, and get on with your life, carry on with your God-given created purpose and destiny. You don't have time to be the internal control over the issues of your heart. That's the Holy Spirit's job. You have a job to do!
Bad crops will always arise. And, oddly enough, they will arise in the same soil as the good crops. Jesus, when speaking of the judgment of the nations, indicated that the thistles would grow with the wheat up to the Final Day (Matthew 8:36-43). No big shakes.
While we need to monitor the condition of our gardens and control the thorns of flesh through spiritual discipline, we also need to keep perspective. The real power behind the crops of covetness, acreage of adultery, and lawns of lust has already been eternally rooted out by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Therefore, we no longer need to run around like fumbling farmers, obsessed with spraying resurrection poison on the tiniest sprouts and forgetting about the other stuff (like loving our neighbor as ourselves, for instance). No, our job is to show the crop of concern to Christ, thank him for taking care of “that one too” at Easter, and rise up [once again] in faith, pressing on in the freedom and forgiveness of Easter.
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