What’s your source?

August 27, 2009 · Filed Under faith/believe, renewing our mind · 2 Comments 

From Alan Smith’s Blog

Adam and Eve just had one rule to follow. It was a simple rule. Easy to understand. I think it’s good things were so simple because they weren’t designed to live by rules anyway. The only rule was – don’t live by rules.

Humans were designed to live by God’s life and presence, directed moment by moment out of a place of relationship and surrender. We were designed to have God as our source. We were designed to love God and to be loved by God.

Love, in order to be love, must be freely chosen. Love that is not freely chosen is not love. Love that is compelled is not love. Love that is forced is not love. Love that is taken is not love. Love, in its very essence, requires freedom: the freedom to choose love.

If there is a genuine freedom to choose love, there must be a genuine freedom to NOT choose love. There must be an option. There must be an alternative. There must be a way to freely exercise the will to choose that which love is not. If humans are to genuinely have the freedom to choose to live by God’s life and presence in moment by moment surrender with God as their source, there must be the possibility of choosing a different source.

The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was necessary in the Garden of Eden for this reason.  This tree is a different source: the knowledge of good and evil. At its worst this kind of living gravitates towards the experience of all things evil. At its best this kind of living strives to avoid evil and do good in an effort to perform correctly and merit God’s favor. The trap of religion is that often it simply entices us to move from an evil branch to a good branch within the same tree. We give up sinful behaviors and adopt new “good” behaviors. Those that do this poorly feel a great deal of condemnation and a deep compulsion to try harder. Those that do this well feel a great sense of superiority and smugness. They are self-righteous.

In either case, this is no way to live. What’s your source?

Genuine repentance doesn’t just change from evil branches to good within the Tree of Knowledge. Genuine repentance switches trees entirely. Genuine repentance gives up all reliance upon self: my knowledge, my understanding, my effort, my performance. Genuine repentance chooses to live by a new source: God’s life and presence.

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Those aren’t fighting words, Dear

August 23, 2009 · Filed Under freedom, renewing our mind · Comment 

I read this article the other day called “Those aren’t fighting words, dear” and it so moved me.

I found it to be very profound because it touches on a serious issue with our culture today–the inability to address root problems in our soul, those deep, faulty issues that drive us to make serious mistakes.

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Finding freedom through imagination

August 23, 2009 · Filed Under freedom, purpose/destiny · 4 Comments 

Recently, I’ve been listening to a series from Greg Boyd called Animate. In his series, Greg talks about how to find true transformation and freedom through our imagination.  He describes how the church has tried in vain to find freedom.  He describes three common attempts:

1. Try Harder

How often have you heard it said, “If you want to overcome this problem, then just try harder.” It’s so engrained in our culture and now it has permeated into the church.  ”To find freedom, you must try harder.” But, it’s not true. While there may be some elements of truth to working harder, it’s not the end-all path to transformation.

2. Wait on God

This is the pendulum swing the other way from “try harder”–just wait on God. Instead of being actively engaged in transformation, this ideology is just to wait on God, wait for transformation to come, wait for God to move, wait for the Holy Spirit to transform.  Again, there are elements of truth to this, but it’s not the solution.

3. More Information

This is another path that is quite common today.  Knowledge.  And, with the Internet so pervasive, we have information at our fingertips.  But, more information is not the solution.  If it were, then the Pharisees would have been perfect. In their time, they were to the keepers of the Biblical information.  But, information does not lead to transformation.

So, where does transformation come from?

More on that later.

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Information or Revelation

August 16, 2009 · Filed Under faith/believe, spiritual hearing · Comment 

I was hit with a pretty intense revelation the other day. It’s basically this: when God speaks, he’s not just communicating information. When God speaks, he’s often activating a new reality. He’s realizing (making real) something new when he speaks it.

For most of my journaling experience, I would journal with this notion that when God speaks, he’s only communicating information. I’ve realized now that it’s more than just information. When God speaks, he creates. He activates. He “calls those things which do not exist as though they did” (Romans 4:17). He brings into reality something new, something alive, something with purpose when he speaks.

For example, in Genesis, God said, “Let there be life” and life was created. God said, “It is good.” And it was good. It was blessed as good.

When God needed a Savior, he sent his Word (John 1). God’s Word became flesh. When God spoke, his tangible, experiential existence came into being. We could see, taste, hear, touch, smell the Word of God. He became real.

Immediately, I must repent. I must change the way I’ve been thinking. I take time to journal and listen to God, which is not a problem. That’s a good thing. The problem is that when God speaks, I only receive his words as information, not a declaration. I need to receive what God says to me as a new reality, a newly created existence or situation. When God speaks, reality is created.

Something that was not will become when God speaks.

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Divine Whispers of Love

August 6, 2009 · Filed Under spiritual hearing · Comment 

I had  a rough week. Problems were pounding me on every side. Nothing big. Nothing major. Just those little problems that nag and harass and cause you to lie awake at 4 in the morning trying to figure it all out — car repairs, upset clients, business decisions, financial demands — all pestering my typically quiet mind.

As I was driving down the road, my mind spinning with issues, I heard that Divine Whisper of Love speak into my soul, “Russ, what are you worried about? I’m here. I’ll take care of you.”

I just lost it. Right there in the car, I started weeping because deep in my soul, I knew he was there all along, but for him to remind me in such a clear manner was so overwhelming. My immediate response was simply this, Yes, Father, I can trust you. I’m sorry.

The stress, the burden, the racing thoughts all stopped. And I knew that he was there. He had my back. I could trust him.

Immediately, I thought of Matthew 6:25-27,

Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?

Are you struggling through something right now? Is stress continue to pound against your mind and thoughts? If so, I encourage to tune into those Divine Whispers of Love, and let God encourage you.

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