“…The Lord will stay with you as long as you stay with him! Whenever you seek him, you will find him. But if you abandon him, he will abandon you.” 2 Chronicles 15:2 NLT
“Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends.” Revelation 3:20 NLT
“Oh, my dear children! I feel as if I’m going through labour pains for you again, and they will continue until Christ is fully developed in your lives.” Galatians 4:19 NLT
God, in the form of Jesus, became a human.
He was then deformed by becoming sin, so that by His deformation we might find
re-formation into the image of God.
In the incarnation, the beating heart of the universe became a human heart.
God became a participant in the human spillage of resentment, vanity, selfishness and death, so that we might become participants in the divine nature of love and life.
God the Divine became
God in human skin
– living, dying and rising.
He emptied Himself so that He could experience all that we would – and then be reborn again to eternal life so that we could too.
Because Jesus was willing to “empty” himself, He expects the same of us – today.
If we are to be reborn to everlasting life
then we must willingly empty ourselves of:
Our wants,
Our dreams,
Our agendas
We are not in “control” of our lives. HE IS.
In fact here is Gods version of “self”-control, in a nutshell
“Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Col 1:27
Symeon the New Theologian (949 - 1022) wrote:
“We awaken in Christ’s body
as Christ awakens our bodies…
and everything that is hurt,
everything that seemed to us dark,
harsh, shameful, maimed, ugly,
irreparably damaged,
is in Him
transformed,
recognised as whole
as lovely,
and radiant in His light.”
When we surrender, yield, submit to Jesus, we are His for life.
When we are His, we begin to live out of Jesus-love.
When we present ourselves as “living offerings” to Jesus,
then questions of what to do and what not to do taken on a whole new meaning.
It is not the commandments and the laws that control our behaviour.
It is the presence of the indwelling Christ and Jesus-love that both restrains and releases us.
Jesus is living His resurrected life in and through you.
It is the love of Jesus that impels, compels and propels us –
a love that is so captivating we become free to do everything in love, with love and for love.
By the indwelling Christ we are free to live in God’s love -
we have freedom for sacrificial living.
As Jesus said,
“As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” John 13:34
“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13
Based on "Jesus Manifesto" by Frank Viola and Leonard Sweet
Our worship playlist this week is available here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHnJn7EgQjAypgv2gzv_WVg1jTZS-QpvP
Have a blessed week
Jacquey
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