Christ is Life

This is a blog about life.

This is a blog about Life, that abundant LIFE which Christ promised His followers, the real message of Christ. This blog is fed by and found in all the other blogs for which I write. Life is the most important subject matter of all, to everyone. We are all most interested in Life -- What is it? Where does it come from? How does it improve or diminish? My goal here is not to induce deep complicated theology but to explore God's simple definition of Life found in scripture and in a shared church life, particularly where HIS LIFE has fed us and sustained us and ultimately given us a place of real Life right here on planet earth. I hope you enjoy, think, cry, comment and find yourself coming closer to Him every day. He is the Way, the Truth, and the LIFE!

We Always Have a Choice

“I have chosen the way of truth; I have set my heart on your laws.”- Psalm 119:30

Ever think about the amazing opposition which David must have felt many times in his life? If anyone in history would have an excuse to blame his circumstances and declare, "I don't have a choice" it was the great author of the Psalms we all love. But his courage in light of pending doom or tempting despair was a clear demonstration of his total faith in God. I am not saying his choosing was easy; he might have forced his hand to write these words; or maybe he could only whisper them under his breath. Never the less he did say them... and he did mean them. "I have chosed the way of truth; I have set my heart on your laws." In those times when we think our options are used up, or our path is blocked, there is always a choice. Regardless of the struggle, the circumstance, the person in your way; the lack of money, time, energy, direction, understanding, or even heartfelt confiction, we can always utter these words to a God who understands. The choice is not to have the right answers or the right "next move." The choice is "a way." It is "the way" of Truth which we choose. We do not simply choose truth. We choose a new way of living and proceeding in Christ. It is a change in direction or a different path of peace in God. "The truth" is Christ. The way of truth is a spiritual place which is a permanent fixture in our heart of hearts; a perfect place which transends our immediate rhelm of existence. I choose "the way of truth" because it is the only real "way" in all the universe. Of the thousands of "ways" available to me today I choose the only one which makes sense of Life in God.

This blog is getting lovey-dovey

Let me pause a moment; this blog is getting very "lovey dovey." However, I've said I would talk opening about lovey dovey stuff the rest of my life, especially after an experience I had working for a church in Nashville in my 20s. I figure at this point you might be thinking one of three things:

1. You are interested: You are searching for something more and are either not a believer/follower of Jesus or you have been a “Christian” all your life but do not really know the Father and His Son.
   
2. You are encouraged: You yourself are currently on a path of discovering a real relationship with God and this is one blog in a string of revelations about how God just wants your heart and love.
   
3. You are threatened: You are already very uncomfortable with my choice of words, like "love, “passion,” and “intimacy” because everything you have been taught (either directly or indirectly) about GOD does not allow you to even consider such words in the same sentence with His Holy Name.             
   

Well, whichever of these three you fall into, I hope you will keep reading this blog because I think the idea of having a deep love for Christ, His Church, and His message is deeply rooted in scripture. And I do especially hope if you are number three you will continue reading because there is Truth, and that Truth is not a set of doctrines or ideas, it’s not a futile pursuit of correct thinking or right actions. Truth is Christ. And He wants to show you the Father and welcome you into a dynamic love relationship with Him and other Christians, one that will set your whole life aflame with Joy! That's exactly why he said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father but by me.... I have come that you might have LIFE, and have it to the fullest."

It's lovey-dovey, I know. But God is the real author of lovey-dovey. Not me.

Passion for Jesus

Have you ever heard the phrase "Passion for Jesus?" The first time I heard this it really stopped me right in my tracks. 'What does that mean?' I thought. Well, there are lots of "sayings" out there but there is only one Truth. That is Christ. Truth is Christ. My experience is you can say "Jesus" and you can say "Christ," and those two can mean something quite different. But that's a topic for another post.

Right now, I just want to address this "passion" for Jesus. Quite honestly I never thought of passion outside of a passion for my wife. I desire her presence and her person in every way; I am one with her and continue to grow in this one-ness the more we grow to know one another. When I think of “passion” I think of all four kinds of love – eros, storge, philoeo, and especially, agape. It’s a whole and complete love which is deep and full. This is the sort of love I long to have for my first love, God the Father, whom I often call Abba. I call Him Abba sometimes in prayer because His son and my Messiah also called Him Abba. By His example He showed me I too can know the creator of the universe with the same intimacy.

That's pretty passionate.

Passion for Jesus is not some phrase to be used lightly, or because it's popular. Phrases like this one can create a spiritual smoke screen which can fool us and others into thinking we are really spiritual people. But only God knows. He is not interested in what is popular or what has a good ring to it. He is, always was, and always will be, most interested in one thing -- that our entire lives be given over to Him. He doesn't want our passion. He wants our ALL. If I only give my feelings of love and passion to my wife our marriage still falls short of its true potential. But when I seek to die for my spouse, giving up everything in my life to make her happy, willing to change for her, lay down my dreams for her, and give her everything within me, my marriage goes deeper than mere passion.

The same is true of our relationship with God. Honestly, I don't even think we can have a passion for Jesus. I think it's impossible. "I" cannot have a passion for Jesus because "I" am a fleshly, weak, and fallen creature. If there is to be any passion within me that passion must come from God's Spirit, not from my own. There is only one job truly before me, that is, "I" must die. I need a "Passion for Death to Self." Then maybe there will be some shred of hope for love toward God.

We must die to our dreams, our desires for our own lives, or pursuits and ideas of what it means to be a Christian. We must truly surrender all, not just say it. Really, we must have a passion to die for Jesus, and to die for our brothers, to become a life dead to self but alive to God. It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. Then the passion for Jesus is not really my own but that of the Spirit of God within me, teaching me to love Abba Father.

I do not carry the capacity for such a deep love as this divine love. I only carry the flesh. So my flesh must die so that I might live a new life in Christ my Lord; that He might receive the glory and praise for the passion within me for it comes from His Spirit. The passion for Jesus is a new life, once distant and unknown to me, but now made real by the Spirit, and by the Church, which possesses His Spirit, and calls me even deeper into a love which goes beyond mere passion for Jesus. It goes to my very core; to the fabric of my being and it calls me to complete desolation of self. Then.....Once dead, now made alive.

That's pretty passionate.