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re-post > 02-07-2002 > worthiness sites & things i like
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April 14, 2009
> 6:25 PM
re-post > 03-08-2002 > a new kind of guts What are we? I mean, did God create a purposely faulty bunch? Did He intend for us to have a nature that had a propensity to move against Him? Silly God. He would indeed be silly - eternally silly I guess - if He would have done such a thing. But I don’t believe that He did that. I don’t think we were created to be separated from Him. In fact, I believe when He “breathed life into us” that pile of dirt became a being like unto Himself - that that breath was His very life essence. What a noble thing. “Let us make one like us” God said to Himself, and then He did. That is what we’re supposed to be. To be called a human being was not supposed to be an insult to an Angel but something which garnered a response like “I wish it was so.” But we are not that. And as I remember, a few of the Angels quite left their created order as well. What is the Jesus thing all about? Did He simply come to be an example (WWJD)? Are we supposed to look at His life and emulate it? It IS written “be imitators of God...” you know. Well, I think its a bit more involved than that isn’t it. If we were simply able to look at that life and make the choice to do what He did, ironically, we wouldn’t need Him at all really. That all takes place on the outside. We look at something, we imitate it. Ask my friends, I can imitate with great skill just about anybody I pay enough attention to - but that doesn’t make me Hank Hill does it? Or anyone else - because that’s an external thing. It doesn’t change who I am. Too many Christians have ignored the mystical aspects of what we’re all about for too long. Its all in our heads I’m afraid - even with those who talk about the “heart” alot. The Jesus thing is about internal transformation. Its about metaphysics. Its about unseen eternal reality. And no, I’m not a gnostic! He came and did what He did, became what and whom He became so that we could become something and someone else too. Our eternal insides change when we become Christians, and then we begin a journey toward full and holistic transformation. The behavior part follows. We’re waaay too concerned about what we do or don’t do. This concern, again ironically (lots of irony going on here), keeps us in that realm - in the realm where everything is about behavior - about doing and not being. Wow! How did we get here? I know, too long an answer. Being “born again” or better yet “born from above” is not about joining a new club or a new religion. Its about getting our spiritual guts ripped out and then replaced with a new plumbing system. What does that mean for us? It means our new system works differently than the old one. Its not just a shiny new set of guts that are the same kind as the old ones - they’re a NEW KIND OF GUTS ALTOGETHER! Is that gross enough for you? What!? A 6 chamber heart? What’s that? No Liver!? What do you mean no Liver!? I don’t like Liver anyway - good! Obviously I’m speaking in metaphor here, but do you see what I’m saying? Its all different now - when we’ve stepped into His Life on the other side of Jesus. Its not just thinking different thoughts, its thinking in a whole different way. Its not just eating different foods, its that we process food in an entirely new and different way. I think until we begin to understand these things, we will stay cramped up where we are - trying to be good and being frustrated because we always fail at it so miserably. Its not about being good! I mean its not about doing good - doing good things - thinking good thoughts. Its about discovering that at the core of our being, by the Grace of Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, we have been recreated as good people - God kind of people - and letting that radiate outward through our whole selves, letting it transform us in totality. Whhheeeew - I just had a kind of e-mail exchange with someone that sparked all that. I wonder sometimes about whether we really know what it means to be a Christian. Not that I have it all figured out. If I think I have a clue though, I’ll at least be confident about what I think I know until I figure out I’m wrong. Stranger things have happened. Labels: re-post, soteriology, spiritual formation, theology 0 Comments:| permalink | e-mail me | 
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