Sunday, April 30, 2006

Can you feel that?

I listen to my blogs and I see why God didn't permit or gift me for teaching. I need humbling. I am not meek or easy to learn from like natural teachers are. If only I could share what is deeply impacting me without explaining my knowledge. But I think that's impossible.

After I finished those audio blogs (choose the last one to listen to if you want reference for this written entry; 2 Cor 4:4,6; the gospel that unbelievers don't get, is the glorification of Christ) I thought: "WHY/HOW does it make a difference to know the gospel as being, summarily, the glorification of Christ?"

God gave me a passage, and I want to use it as an illustration. I am going to have you read it two times, as God had me do. For those two times as I did I am going to give you two different presuppositions by which to comprehend what is being communicated in that passage.

Read this, first, under the assumption that Jesus is a higher-up or a go-between/mediator or a vessel of God or a prophet of God or an angel or son of God or some other being or person who understands God's point of view, and comes to us to help illuminate heaven and bring us to a point of belief in God:

"Then Jesus told them, 'This very night you will all fall away on account of me....'
Peter replied, 'Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will.'
'I tell you the truth,' Jesus answered, 'this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.'"
matt 26 + lk 22

Okay, that's your typical read.

(Give a moment to next read this to set the new tone, as if it were Jesus descending on Moses in Exodus 19-20:)

"And the LORD said to Moses, 'Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. Have them wash their clothes and be ready by the third day, because on that day the LORD will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. Put limits for the people around the mountain and tell them, "Be careful that you do not go up the mountain or touch the foot of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death."' ... On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled. Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the LORD descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, the whole mountain trembled violently, and the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder. Then Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him. ... And God spoke all these words: 'I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.'" (That was the intro to the ten commandments and I didn't transpose the rest, because you know what it says.)

The typical read: Revere the God of heaven. Follow His rules; keep your distance. Keep up your end of the covenant.... You know, this sense of Him, as all-powerful and perfect.

Now, go back and read about Peter again with the presupposition that the Jesus prophecying to Peter is the same one who keeps himself at bay from us because of his omnipotence and moral perfection... as I assume you saw as I did in exodus.

"Then Jesus told them, 'This very night you will all fall away on account of me....'
Peter replied, 'Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will.'
'I tell you the truth,' Jesus answered, 'this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.'"
matt 26 + lk 22

Did you feel the difference?

The big guy up in the sky knew all this about me and yet prayed, in advance, for me, to recover?

Hooh. I don't look up at the daytime clouds now without feeling the difference. And I was suffering, oh I was, by comparison, laboring under that impression of Jesus just as the go-between. Yeah, the Father loves and accepts Jesus' deeds, and so therefore mine by grace, but what if Jesus wasn't there to stand the gap? I would feel uncomfortable if in a room with just the Father and no Jesus to remind him not to take His wrath out on me.

That Garden of Gesthemane praying man, where Jesus went away from the crowds to let his Father strengthen him, and to intercede for those he made his friends, was also the person who was perfect and moral and pure, never having a weak or unglorious or tempted moment, in heaven, naturally inciting the fear and awe of those who saw His works and heard his voice.

That's why it matters that they're the same being; the one who avenges wrath for wrongdoing, and the one who intercedes for our benefit. It makes the sense of God into everything simotaneously. Jesus reached down to the most immoral and weak and hopeless of men -- it's where he was most welcome, and where his power worked to make them into the image of righteousness. So you see it is Jesus that makes the connection, and takes us there... from the depths, to the greatest of heights. He sets before me a path of a life to walk that is the strict perfection He already prepared by his own cost-to-self.

I hope I was able to express it. I read this over before I post and I wonder if I was effective, or not. Not for the sake of anyone agreeing or whatever, all I want is to show you what I have seen. That's all my goal. We'll see. Could use some feedback on this one, if anyone wouldn't mind. Thank-you.

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