WHY LIVE A POVERTY MENTALITY WHEN YOU ARE RICH
12/11/24 14:13
Knowing ourselves and being able to empathise with others is a great advantage. The riches in Christ that Paul talks of is our union with God, already achieved in the person of Jesus who is our life vicariously and in the everyday. Jesus is our union with God.
It’s a mistake to add to the oneness we have been given as cited in John 17. To add bits of law, lumps of ideology and church distinctives to our raw union with God is to dilute the effect of Christ in us – which is direct – if we have not filtered it by our additions. The legalisation of the Gospel adds layers of flesh that obstructs the Spirit of Christ. Legalism insulates us from the fullness of our union with God in Christ Jesus. This is why some of us drink drops of living water rather than rivers and why some have a poor knowledge of God and a poor knowledge of self. It’s hard to move from the false self to the real self in the law because the true self in Christ is only partially glimpsed by the benighted legalist.
HOLY COMMUNION
The first Holy Communion was not a ceremony. It was a meal. It’s not chance that the Lord’s Table is called holy communion. It’s the celebration of oneness with God. The meaning of the eucharist is that Jesus is one with us just as food becomes indistinguishable from our being.
With a law-based culture there are layers of separation between people and Christ. Legalism insulates us from union with Christ. The law is a function of the adamic- separated tree of knowledge existence. It separates us from God in fragments of the knowledge of good and evil. Contained in the law we are separated from God, from ourselves and from each other. Don’t expect to know yourself and have intimate communion with other Believers if you are still in the law.
In Christ the two are made one – that is one with God, one with self and one with others.
VEILS AND INSULATION REMOVED
We are one with God in Christ. God is mediated to us and we are included in God – in the fellowship of the trinity - in Jesus Christ. This kind of rich, intimate life is ours in knowing God and Jesus Christ whom God has sent. As Paul says, Only in Christ are these veils taken away (2 Cor 3.18 NIV).
ALREADY ONE WITH CHRIST
A friend told me once that he was not able to manage intimacy with God. He did not know that he already had it in Jesus. So he expended himself efforts to earn it – to earn what he already possessed.
In Christ we are one with God positioned to enjoy a similar kind of oneness that the trinity enjoy with each other.’ The incarnation – Christ in us - is there for all who desire Him enough to move from religion to union with God.
INTIMACY BELONGS TO YOU AND IS THE KEY TO YOUR FRUITFULNESS
Richard Rohr remarks on his friend, Henri Nouwen, “Henri longed for in-depth relationship, and I think relationship was, in fact, his real genius. He could spot the authentic from the inauthentic, and longed to be a healer of the inauthentic. Which is exactly how he served us all so well!” (1). This speaks to the issue of genuine life and the issue of good spiritual discernment.
WOVEN IN
Your treasure is more than an authentic relationship with Jesus. It’s a relationship in which you are woven into the being of Christ and hence into the fellowship of the trinity. The community of faith starts in genuine oneness in individuals. Our triune God is the source of belonging, community and empathy. We cannot conjure up community by holding meetings. We do it by finding our belonging in God and being this belonging to others.
Do you need to choose between a lie and a life?
(1) Richard Rohr, Excerpt From: Henri J. M. Nouwen. “Following Jesus.” Apple Books.
It’s a mistake to add to the oneness we have been given as cited in John 17. To add bits of law, lumps of ideology and church distinctives to our raw union with God is to dilute the effect of Christ in us – which is direct – if we have not filtered it by our additions. The legalisation of the Gospel adds layers of flesh that obstructs the Spirit of Christ. Legalism insulates us from the fullness of our union with God in Christ Jesus. This is why some of us drink drops of living water rather than rivers and why some have a poor knowledge of God and a poor knowledge of self. It’s hard to move from the false self to the real self in the law because the true self in Christ is only partially glimpsed by the benighted legalist.
HOLY COMMUNION
The first Holy Communion was not a ceremony. It was a meal. It’s not chance that the Lord’s Table is called holy communion. It’s the celebration of oneness with God. The meaning of the eucharist is that Jesus is one with us just as food becomes indistinguishable from our being.
With a law-based culture there are layers of separation between people and Christ. Legalism insulates us from union with Christ. The law is a function of the adamic- separated tree of knowledge existence. It separates us from God in fragments of the knowledge of good and evil. Contained in the law we are separated from God, from ourselves and from each other. Don’t expect to know yourself and have intimate communion with other Believers if you are still in the law.
In Christ the two are made one – that is one with God, one with self and one with others.
VEILS AND INSULATION REMOVED
We are one with God in Christ. God is mediated to us and we are included in God – in the fellowship of the trinity - in Jesus Christ. This kind of rich, intimate life is ours in knowing God and Jesus Christ whom God has sent. As Paul says, Only in Christ are these veils taken away (2 Cor 3.18 NIV).
ALREADY ONE WITH CHRIST
A friend told me once that he was not able to manage intimacy with God. He did not know that he already had it in Jesus. So he expended himself efforts to earn it – to earn what he already possessed.
In Christ we are one with God positioned to enjoy a similar kind of oneness that the trinity enjoy with each other.’ The incarnation – Christ in us - is there for all who desire Him enough to move from religion to union with God.
INTIMACY BELONGS TO YOU AND IS THE KEY TO YOUR FRUITFULNESS
Richard Rohr remarks on his friend, Henri Nouwen, “Henri longed for in-depth relationship, and I think relationship was, in fact, his real genius. He could spot the authentic from the inauthentic, and longed to be a healer of the inauthentic. Which is exactly how he served us all so well!” (1). This speaks to the issue of genuine life and the issue of good spiritual discernment.
WOVEN IN
Your treasure is more than an authentic relationship with Jesus. It’s a relationship in which you are woven into the being of Christ and hence into the fellowship of the trinity. The community of faith starts in genuine oneness in individuals. Our triune God is the source of belonging, community and empathy. We cannot conjure up community by holding meetings. We do it by finding our belonging in God and being this belonging to others.
Do you need to choose between a lie and a life?
(1) Richard Rohr, Excerpt From: Henri J. M. Nouwen. “Following Jesus.” Apple Books.
