"Prepositional Realities: The Church in Relation to Christ" - Part 1a: "IN": Intimacy
We will begin this post with an illustrative story...
Picture for a moment a beautiful stretch of ocean beach in the early morning. It is an inspiring, solitary masterpiece of God's creation. There is one section of this otherwise virgin seascape, however, that spoils the natural beauty. Strewn around in this section are the remnants of a beach party the night before.
Alan Knox has started a new chain-blog, you can find the beginning of this chain at: http://www.alanknox.net/
‘In’ Christ
As we awaken to our true identity ‘in’ Christ we begin to see that our lives are far different that we could have ever imagined. Through His grace and peace we see, or begin to see that we are deeply loved, abundantly cherished, and showered with blessings upon blessing ‘in’ Christ.
The tiny word in begins to take on profound meaning when it is coupled with our true reality. We look around and see the ugliness of this age, and we cannot escape the image that it has projected upon us, guilt, shame, mistrust, separation anxiety, and judgement are ways in which we were caught up in. But this is a smokescreen, an illusion, and disservice to what is real, true, and beautiful, and this is our Life ‘in’ Christ.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing ‘IN’ Christ. For he chose us ‘IN’ him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us ‘IN’ the One he loves. ‘IN’ him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ,to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment – to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.
John 17 and Us, You and Me
We are the Body of Christ are one, ‘in’ and through The One who is Love. As we allow the prayer of Jesus to marinate ‘in’ our spirit, we ‘see’ this as more than words, or even a prayer, we ‘see’ this as our reality.
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be ‘IN’ us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one - I ‘IN’ them and you in me – so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
”Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
”Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me.
I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be ‘IN’ them and that I myself may be ‘IN’ them.”
The Cross we Bare and Unity
Lets face it we are all different, these differences are our stumbling block if we allow them to be, or if we view them with our natural eyesight. Yet with our anointed vision we can ‘see’ one another ‘in’ Christ, and this is the building block of unity. We daily must ‘take up our cross’ and walk ‘in’ the Spirit. We ‘see’ one another ‘in’ the Love from above…’in’ Christ. We allow His Life to become our life by resting ‘in’ Him, trusting His will. His perspective, and His love to be our life. ‘In’ doing so, the false smokescreens of division vanish, and are replaced with the multiplication of unity.
The ‘one another’ references are our guide, we love, submit, forgive, serve, and treasure ‘one another’ through His Life ‘in’ us. The key you see is to treasure The Treasure we ‘see’ ‘in’ one another. To maybe phrase it another way, we lovingly submit to the Jesus we see ‘in’ one another.
Love Your Neighbor as Yourself
Expressing His love to others daily, this is becoming my life, to step back, and to treasure the checkout person who is stressed out due to her workload, and to offer her encouragement. To thank the folks that pick up the garbage each week when possible. To sow as much harmony, and love as possible in conversations that are divisive, or where there is misunderstanding. To daily lay my life down to serve my wife in her battle against cancer. In doing so, by living by His indwelling presence unity is a fruit of His love.
This morning I was contemplating how to respond to Alan’s chain-blog, our dear sister posted this, it seems to say it all.
Real relationship with Christ will overflow into real relationship with others, not because they are perfect or arrived…. but because God loves them and were called to love them too. ….♥
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I’ve discovered how essential it is to keep things in perspective in order to maintain hope when you’re in the midst of a trial. The first and most important lesson I learned was focusing on what I have and not on what I’ve lost.
Our family before I was diagnosed with ALS. (Mary still had BIG hair).
Perspective: the capacity to view things in their true relations or relative importance.
The resurrection of Jesus had and has implications that include the cosmic to the sub atomic, and all in between.
He in His death defining death redeemed all that was corrupted by Lucifer’s rebellion.
When He uttered “it is finished” death and decay were dead.
Light, and Life, Truth, and Hope spring from His ministry of reconciliation.
We see in part, yet one day we will know the ramifications of His resurrection, and we will cast our crowns at His feet.
“The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.
He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.
For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” ~ Paul
Have you ever woken up from a vivid nightmare in a cold sweat, your heart beating out of your chest, and your mind and emotions reeling from the intensity of the ordeal you just "lived" through? I have, and it is one of the worst experiences in life.
For some people who have lived through real traumatic life experiences, this can happen somewhat regularly.
"When God in His eternal counsels, therefore, established His eternal purpose, knowing that it would include the cross, He did so knowing that the sufferings of the cross would be an irrevocable, immutable present reality within Him forever." ~ David Bolton
It was the apostle Paul, under influence of the Holy Spirit, who gave us the word picture of church-life being like the life of a healthy, functioning human body. “The church, which is His Body”, he wrote (Eph. 1:22, 23). If he were alive today Paul would no doubt have great difficulty aligning this prophetic analogy with what passes for church life in the 21st century.
"The key to authentic Body life is Christ in us, His endless resurrection life the light by which we live, connect to one another, grow and become His Body together. When Christ reigns in us, then we will truly know what it means to be part of His corporate Body…..together."
Copyright Cheryl McGrath, Bread for the Bride
As the days dwindle down to a precious few, and now just hours remain before a rather unique and problematic surgery, I find myself daily recalculating the days of my life. These days have been so full, and, so far from the learning curve going flat, it seems to only get closer and closer to vertical. Not only in physics and engineering is this called an exponential curve, but also in history and in life.
"God help us to get over ourselves in all our preoccupations with the flesh, which has us so crippled from living the kind of relational life that was designed in the purposes of God to be the light of the world." ~ Jay Ferris
