"He must increase, but I must decrease."---John the Baptist
I've heard more than my share of religious sermons based on this text. Sermons that convey the message, "You dirty no-good sinner, you better decrease and get your unworthy self out of the way so Jesus can replace you with Himself."
If you're ever trapped in a church when that sermon is being preached, do yourself a favor and take a nap until it's over.
I see something different in those words. I see Jesus looking at a weary Christian who is struggling to keep all the rules, and I see a little grin begin on His face as He says, "I think I'll increase in this precious life."
And Jesus begins to expand His life into the heart and mind of the Christian who has been beaten down by religion. But at first it's a shock and a distress to the object of His workings........
Because as Jesus increases His scope of life, He crowds out the Christian's cherished rules and sacred cow beliefs and "I've always done it this way" thinking. Life shoves against dead religion.........and stirs up the dust in places the Christian never knew existed.
"I've lost my faith!", we cry! "I USED to believe (fill in the blank) and now I can't believe that anymore! What's happening to me? I can't feel God. I don't want to DO all the religious things I used to perform religiously. Woe is me, I am undone!"
Oh no, YOU aren't undone. In fact, you are coming alive, maybe for the first time in your Christian life. Alive with His life. No longer pretending that keeping rules can impart life to you. No longer satisfied with anything less than Jesus Himself.
His life is increasing........and your legalistic beliefs are decreasing. His light is overcoming the darkness that has bound you for years. His glory is breaking forth in you.
The real you, complete in Christ, is beginning to arise and shine. Sure, it's scary......but can I give you a word of hope?
Don't get stuck in the "decrease" aspect, grieving lost religious beliefs. No, experience instead the joy and freedom of increase. His life, Christ in you, one with you.
Now just live........ love........ rejoice........... soar.......... and don't be afraid of falling. OK?
Love in Christ,
Mickey
September 27, 2004
September 25, 2004
The Relational Nature of Grace
The miraculous, relational nature of grace is what is responsible for transporting you from the world you see with these eyes, to the world you can only see through the eyes of God.
I'm told by several people that I live somewhere else. Sometimes, I dunno if that was meant as an observation, a compliment, or otherwise. Of course, I live right here. Right here where my body is, where every night I lay my head down and every day I get up to go about my daily routines. But if you know me, that's not where I LIVE. It's not where my heart is, it's not where my mind is. So, I guess in a lot of ways they're right. Call it "head in the clouds", "living in a fantasy world", "out of this world", whatever you will; for some reason, I can no longer see myself existing apart from the context of my relationship with God. Out of it comes this amazing transformation of everything around me. What had appeared to be dead and dying before is suddenly filled with evidence of life and growth.
Contradictions for sure, but then, that's the miraculous part of it.
I'm told by several people that I live somewhere else. Sometimes, I dunno if that was meant as an observation, a compliment, or otherwise. Of course, I live right here. Right here where my body is, where every night I lay my head down and every day I get up to go about my daily routines. But if you know me, that's not where I LIVE. It's not where my heart is, it's not where my mind is. So, I guess in a lot of ways they're right. Call it "head in the clouds", "living in a fantasy world", "out of this world", whatever you will; for some reason, I can no longer see myself existing apart from the context of my relationship with God. Out of it comes this amazing transformation of everything around me. What had appeared to be dead and dying before is suddenly filled with evidence of life and growth.
Contradictions for sure, but then, that's the miraculous part of it.
What is Grace?
(This was originally published at the Grace Pages.)
It surprises me how often, when I write about grace, people respond with the question, What is grace, anyway? It's a word that is a major part of my day-to-day spiritual vocabulary, and yet, I expect in common with other Christians, it's a word I've never thought much to actually define.
Grace isn't just another word for forgiveness or acceptance, even though it encompasses for me both those things. It isn't as if all grace is good for is getting us forgiven, and then something else takes over from there. Grace is the source of action, too. It's what empowers us to do good, to follow Jesus, to walk in the Spirit. We don't use up God's grace right at the beginning and then live under our own steam from then on.
I suppose I'm just pussy-footing around here, describing the effects of grace, but still not defining what it actually is. So let me plump for a definition that's been circling round in my head for the last five minutes: Grace is God's unreserved self-giving. It's God freely giving himself to us, the Almighty sharing with us all that he is.
"Unreserved" is the part most people struggle with, especially when we read about judgment and condemnation and that sort of thing. Traditionally, the thought of judgment has been considered the opposite of grace, the proof that God's grace is limited, conditional, unavailable to some. So, let me add two thoughts that might sometime come in useful in grappling with these matters: Firstly, judgment as an expression of God's unreserved self-giving, part and parcel of his love and grace rather than antithetical to it (perhaps what the writer to the Hebrews calls the discipline of sons); secondly, maybe judgment is a matter not of God withholding himself, but of us moving out of the way, placing ourselves outside the flow of grace.
Grace: God's unreserved self-giving.
-Dave
It surprises me how often, when I write about grace, people respond with the question, What is grace, anyway? It's a word that is a major part of my day-to-day spiritual vocabulary, and yet, I expect in common with other Christians, it's a word I've never thought much to actually define.
Grace isn't just another word for forgiveness or acceptance, even though it encompasses for me both those things. It isn't as if all grace is good for is getting us forgiven, and then something else takes over from there. Grace is the source of action, too. It's what empowers us to do good, to follow Jesus, to walk in the Spirit. We don't use up God's grace right at the beginning and then live under our own steam from then on.
I suppose I'm just pussy-footing around here, describing the effects of grace, but still not defining what it actually is. So let me plump for a definition that's been circling round in my head for the last five minutes: Grace is God's unreserved self-giving. It's God freely giving himself to us, the Almighty sharing with us all that he is.
"Unreserved" is the part most people struggle with, especially when we read about judgment and condemnation and that sort of thing. Traditionally, the thought of judgment has been considered the opposite of grace, the proof that God's grace is limited, conditional, unavailable to some. So, let me add two thoughts that might sometime come in useful in grappling with these matters: Firstly, judgment as an expression of God's unreserved self-giving, part and parcel of his love and grace rather than antithetical to it (perhaps what the writer to the Hebrews calls the discipline of sons); secondly, maybe judgment is a matter not of God withholding himself, but of us moving out of the way, placing ourselves outside the flow of grace.
Grace: God's unreserved self-giving.
-Dave
September 23, 2004
I Should Do WHAT?
Earlier today I wrote to Bill and asked, "How do I do smilies here?"
He sent me these instructions: "You can post the images using html
(no space between the "<" and "img")."
Notice I don't have smilies in my entries yet? I don't have a clue how to do what he said to do.
Eventually, about four emails from now, my mind will grasp his instructions. Until then, I'll be aggravated every time I fail to make a smiley appear !
But I'm laughing because last year, I spent several months asking Bill "How do I do GRACE?"
Oh, I didn't come right out and ask him to give me THE formula for grace, but all my questions were geared towards, "Tell me how to DO this. I need to get this grace stuff, I WANT to get this grace stuff. Bill, give me instructions!"
No matter how cleverly I phrased my questions, in hopes of prying the grace formula out of him, Bill's answers tended to be along the lines of "Just believe" and "It's a miracle."
Talk about aggravation! I'm struggling to figure this out with my mind and he's telling me it's impossible to do. Since at that point I barely believed in miracles anyway, I resigned myself to the probability that I was never going to "get this grace stuff." Bummer.
Then this .........uh........really miraculous thing happened. I got it! In my heart. My heart caught what my mind could not touch.......Christ in me. One spirit. Union with Him. His life through my life. Just believe and live out of that union with Christ.
No rules, no struggle, no striving. God simply opened my eyes to the reality that was already present in Christ and in me. And it is glorious!
Bill wisely refused to pretend he had the grace formula. But I sure do hope he has a better smiley formula than the one he just sent me!
-Mickey
He sent me these instructions: "You can post the images using html
(no space between the "<" and "img")." Notice I don't have smilies in my entries yet? I don't have a clue how to do what he said to do.
Eventually, about four emails from now, my mind will grasp his instructions. Until then, I'll be aggravated every time I fail to make a smiley appear !
But I'm laughing because last year, I spent several months asking Bill "How do I do GRACE?"
Oh, I didn't come right out and ask him to give me THE formula for grace, but all my questions were geared towards, "Tell me how to DO this. I need to get this grace stuff, I WANT to get this grace stuff. Bill, give me instructions!"
No matter how cleverly I phrased my questions, in hopes of prying the grace formula out of him, Bill's answers tended to be along the lines of "Just believe" and "It's a miracle."
Talk about aggravation! I'm struggling to figure this out with my mind and he's telling me it's impossible to do. Since at that point I barely believed in miracles anyway, I resigned myself to the probability that I was never going to "get this grace stuff." Bummer.
Then this .........uh........really miraculous thing happened. I got it! In my heart. My heart caught what my mind could not touch.......Christ in me. One spirit. Union with Him. His life through my life. Just believe and live out of that union with Christ.
No rules, no struggle, no striving. God simply opened my eyes to the reality that was already present in Christ and in me. And it is glorious!
Bill wisely refused to pretend he had the grace formula. But I sure do hope he has a better smiley formula than the one he just sent me!
-Mickey
images of grace
i was thinking just now...well, actually i seem to be thinking all the time...what i mean is, i was thinking about something in particular just now...and it was this, "images of grace." iow, when i hear the word "grace" what images spring to mind? just this moment i thought of grace as a safety net like the kind you see under the flying trapeze at the circus - that "catch you when you fall" sort of net that allows for high flying. and then i thought of grace as needing no net at all.
-grannymac
-grannymac
a window into my soul
this past march i was introduced to something called a vision board. my friend carol and i went to beverly's house to be coached through the process of creating one. picture us, three grown women sitting crossed legged on beverly's living room floor, pouring over magazines, ripping out pages containing anything - anything! - that caught our eye, appealed to us, spoke to us in some way. it could be a picture, a word, a face, a symbol, a phrase, anything. we worked in comfortable silence through a box of magazines that beverly dumped out in our midst. i put my left brain to sleep and grabbed magazines at random...whatever was within easy reach. when all the magazines had been rifled through, we moved on to the next phase of our project...sorting through the pile of images and words lying in heaps by our sides, cutting out specific things, paring them down to precisely what we wanted to use on our boards. then came time to bring out the white poster board and begin assembling - collage style - all our clippings. still working in silence, we began the lay out. once we were satisfied we began to glue things in place. when we were done, the silence lifted and we revealed our masterpieces to each other - explaining our choices - revealing scraps of ourselves - questioning - answering - listening - evaluating - sharing - offering observations - possible interpretations. it was an eye opening, inspiring, watershed day for me. i wish i could show you my vision board here. i keep it up on my bedroom window and look at it several times a day - sort of a window into my soul...a roadmap of where i found myself that march day. since then i've made another board, which i also keep in view...it hangs on the window directly above my computer screen. i wish you could see this one, too...this window into my soul...if you could, you would ask me, "tell me about why you chose this." or "what does this mean to you?" and i would tell you about "this side of heaven"...and sand castles and lanterns...seashells and baby booties...a roll of toilet paper and "amy's cottage"...and beach chairs...about the woman in white standing on a seaside rock, back arched, arms stretched wide, face lifted to the sky...and above her, one word: FREEDOM!
-grannymac
-grannymac
Thanks for sharing my gracious moment of joy
When I got my job yesterday, after five or six months of applications, interviews and the ensuing disappointments, I was elated, frantically emailing around, texting friends and phoning family to let them know. And it was great to get so many enthusiastic responses back. I even got a phone call from Mississippi, and she sounded more excited than I did.
It's great to have friends with whom to share those "gracious moments of joy".
-Dave
It's great to have friends with whom to share those "gracious moments of joy".
-Dave
Want to Dance?
On my first flight to California, I packed eight pair of shoes for a three-day trip. Just in case I needed them, which of course I didn't.
I might have enjoyed the trip more if my arm hadn't been sore from hauling that heavy suitcase.
On my next trip, I only took five pair of shoes. Still too many, still too heavy.
When God started me on a journey out of legalism, I tried to pack as many religious doctrines as possible. Just in case I needed them. I kept them tucked into every corner of my mind, my precious rules, ready to accessorize my life on any occasion.
No reason not to keep carrying the load of legalism, maybe add a bit of grace. Almost everybody I knew lived like that. We called it Christianity.
Barefoot is better. It's easier to dance.
-Mickey
I might have enjoyed the trip more if my arm hadn't been sore from hauling that heavy suitcase.
On my next trip, I only took five pair of shoes. Still too many, still too heavy.
When God started me on a journey out of legalism, I tried to pack as many religious doctrines as possible. Just in case I needed them. I kept them tucked into every corner of my mind, my precious rules, ready to accessorize my life on any occasion.
No reason not to keep carrying the load of legalism, maybe add a bit of grace. Almost everybody I knew lived like that. We called it Christianity.
Barefoot is better. It's easier to dance.
-Mickey
September 22, 2004
a gracious moment of joy
a good friend got a long awaited, much desired job today...and i am thrilled for him. that feeling of happiness and elation i experienced upon hearing the news of another's good fortune is, to me, evidence of and illustrative of the grace of god. our ability, as well as our longing, to enter into the highs and lows of someone else...to share in their joys as well as their sorrows (and to invite them to share in ours) is, to my way of thinking, a direct result (an "out-working" so to speak) of our inclusion in the triune life of god...which is another way of saying god exists in gracious community...a community of tremendous passion, creativity and "other"-centeredness...the gracious community in which we all live and move and have our being.
-grannymac
-grannymac
Grace
Hello All:
Had a thought the other day about the definition of grace. And it has to do with the distinction between Creator and created. It was commonly said that grace is "unmerited favor". God gives us something; namely salvation, forgiveness, eternity in heaven, etc.; that we don't deserve. However, in keeping with the distinction between God and humanity, creator and created as mentioned above, and in keeping with the idea of adoption; that God's eternal purpose has always been to include us in the Father, Son and Spirit's self giving and abounding life of love, passion, excitement and joy; I have had a new thought about grace.
That is grace is, in the simplest terms, God being Creator (His by nature, having life in Himself, self-existent) shares with us that which is not ours by nature, (in that we were created ex nihlo from nothing). Along with that comes the entire idea of God sharing His joy, acceptance, desire, overflowing love, etc. with us.
-ragman
Had a thought the other day about the definition of grace. And it has to do with the distinction between Creator and created. It was commonly said that grace is "unmerited favor". God gives us something; namely salvation, forgiveness, eternity in heaven, etc.; that we don't deserve. However, in keeping with the distinction between God and humanity, creator and created as mentioned above, and in keeping with the idea of adoption; that God's eternal purpose has always been to include us in the Father, Son and Spirit's self giving and abounding life of love, passion, excitement and joy; I have had a new thought about grace.
That is grace is, in the simplest terms, God being Creator (His by nature, having life in Himself, self-existent) shares with us that which is not ours by nature, (in that we were created ex nihlo from nothing). Along with that comes the entire idea of God sharing His joy, acceptance, desire, overflowing love, etc. with us.
-ragman
September 21, 2004
"You Are Mine"
(I originally posted this on "Walking the Dogma" forum. )
I've been reading the books by C. Baxter Kruger that Grannymac and Ragman recommended........and the timing in my life for those books has been just perfect.
More than ever, I'm seeing the reality of God's plan to adopt us into his family, to share his life and love with us, and to bring everything under the authority of Christ. So often we tend to see man's fall as the center of the universe, with God somehow caught off guard and scrambling for a solution...and coming up with Jesus.
But the reality is that God chose us for ADOPTION long before he created this world..........and his plan has not been thwarted in the least. How strange that we've gotten the idea that our actions could defeat God's purposes!
Jesus was ALWAYS part of the Father's plan to share his own life with us. And we have been drawn into God's circle of life and love in Christ, and that is a reality far greater than the "sin problem" that Christians tend to obsess over.
The sin problem is solved, over, finished.....and the Father says, "You are Mine." Period.
We can simply believe and experience that love and life, secure in God's circle of "family." Or we can continue to make an issue of the sin that is NO LONGER AN ISSUE with God, and allow ourselves to be shredded internally with lies.....and establish a separation from God that exists only in our minds, never in his.
Read Ephesians 1, and then go over to Romans 8, (try the New Living Translation) with an eye for God's plan for adoption, his heart to share his love and life with us.........I'm so grateful to Kruger for pointing this out!
In my heart, the Spirit just took it and ran with it.
I've been reading the books by C. Baxter Kruger that Grannymac and Ragman recommended........and the timing in my life for those books has been just perfect.
More than ever, I'm seeing the reality of God's plan to adopt us into his family, to share his life and love with us, and to bring everything under the authority of Christ. So often we tend to see man's fall as the center of the universe, with God somehow caught off guard and scrambling for a solution...and coming up with Jesus.
But the reality is that God chose us for ADOPTION long before he created this world..........and his plan has not been thwarted in the least. How strange that we've gotten the idea that our actions could defeat God's purposes!
Jesus was ALWAYS part of the Father's plan to share his own life with us. And we have been drawn into God's circle of life and love in Christ, and that is a reality far greater than the "sin problem" that Christians tend to obsess over.
The sin problem is solved, over, finished.....and the Father says, "You are Mine." Period.
We can simply believe and experience that love and life, secure in God's circle of "family." Or we can continue to make an issue of the sin that is NO LONGER AN ISSUE with God, and allow ourselves to be shredded internally with lies.....and establish a separation from God that exists only in our minds, never in his.
Read Ephesians 1, and then go over to Romans 8, (try the New Living Translation) with an eye for God's plan for adoption, his heart to share his love and life with us.........I'm so grateful to Kruger for pointing this out!
In my heart, the Spirit just took it and ran with it.
testing one...two...three
hi, i'm granny mac...heretic and technophobe. this is my first attempt at contributing. how am i doing guys and gals?
-grannymac
-grannymac
This is reprinted from the Grace Pages. It's relevant to the theme of grace, and I thought it might set the ball rolling a bit here.
I wonder whether what we have traditionally called the parable of the Prodigal Son isn't really a parable about a foolish father?-Dave
God always seems to be doing foolish things like forgiving sinners and welcoming good-for-nothings into the kingdom while the truly deserving are left only to stomp off and pout because their efforts haven't been recognized. Perhaps most foolishly he let himself be humiliated upon a cross, forgiving his executioners even while he hung there, and inviting a common criminal into Paradise as one of his final, dying acts.
If we were there with that foolish father after he'd let his son get away with robbery and making an unholy show of the entire family, I wonder what we'd say? We'd probably be warning him not to let himself be taken for a ride again. We'd probably be rolling our eyes at what just happened, and cautioning him against welcoming the ungrateful bastard back. I wonder what we'd do when we saw that idiot running out to fetch his son the moment he glimpsed him? Frankly, I think we'd just write him off as one hell of an idiot to put himself back in the same situation as if he hadn't learned his lesson the first time.
It was even worse back in ancient times. Upholding the honour of the family was everything, and the minute the father allowed himself to be walked all over by his sons, he'd made an utter clown of himself, bringing shame upon his family. As if it weren't fiasco enough that he'd lost face in front of the entire community when his son absconded with the family fortune, he risked everything again by running out to greet his son when he ran out of funds and returned home. What a hundred-percent bona fide sucker. What a fool.
It's rather strange that against all our religious instincts, God doesn't mind making an idiot of himself. That's actually quite good news, because the chances of making it in the kingdom with a God who doesn't mind looking a total clown aren't altogether bad. I consider myself pretty fortunate I serve a foolish God.
September 20, 2004
About
Heretics "R" Us is meant to be a conglomeration of different views towards the grace of God. Like the description says, everyone is somebody else's heretic, so the views may not always agree and are likely to be very different. All attempting to point to the grace of God that is ours in Jesus.
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