from January 31st, 2010 CF1 BLOG POST:
There is a joy which is THE NUMBER ONE GREATEST ADDICTION OF MY DAYS, Jesus....
It is the joy of Your presence manifest. I LIVE AND BREATHE, in almost hyper-vigilence, awaiting Your apparent presence. The strict observance of 'the law' and dependence on ritual that so many, and I myself, often struggle with... is less and less a focus in my walk. IF anything, my dependence on Your Spirit's manifestations in my walk has made me err more in the area of license and the corruption of my brothers in You without intending to ! Withholding my freedom with responsibility is far more troublesome than legalism, these days.
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There is a joy which is THE NUMBER ONE GREATEST ADDICTION OF MY DAYS, Jesus....
It is the joy of Your presence manifest. I LIVE AND BREATHE, in almost hyper-vigilence, awaiting Your apparent presence. The strict observance of 'the law' and dependence on ritual that so many, and I myself, often struggle with... is less and less a focus in my walk. IF anything, my dependence on Your Spirit's manifestations in my walk has made me err more in the area of license and the corruption of my brothers in You without intending to ! Withholding my freedom with responsibility is far more troublesome than legalism, these days.
1 Corinthians 8:10-13
The Message (MSG)
10 For instance, say you flaunt your freedom by going to a banquet thrown in honor of idols, where the main course is meat sacrificed to idols. Isn't there great danger if someone still struggling over this issue, someone who looks up to you as knowledgeable and mature, sees you go into that banquet? The danger is that he will become terribly confused—maybe even to the point of getting mixed up himself in what his conscience tells him is wrong.
11-13 Christ gave up his life for that person. Wouldn't you at least be willing to give up going to dinner for him—because, as you say, it doesn't really make any difference? But it does make a difference if you hurt your friend terribly, risking his eternal ruin! When you hurt your friend, you hurt Christ. A free meal here and there isn't worth it at the cost of even one of these "weak ones." So, never go to these idol-tainted meals if there's any chance it will trip up one of your brothers or sisters.
I don't for the life of me know how so much devotion to the law, in the form of legalism, survives among Your kids. I suppose it is a passage that we all travel through. I am confounded as to how some become so stuck in it all and for so many years, too. I guess it is easy to have this perspective on this side of Your SPIRIT, and I don't mean to be flip. It does seem that I starve for the evermore constant company of those less beleaguered with the law's chains, however, as I grow in You.The Message (MSG)
10 For instance, say you flaunt your freedom by going to a banquet thrown in honor of idols, where the main course is meat sacrificed to idols. Isn't there great danger if someone still struggling over this issue, someone who looks up to you as knowledgeable and mature, sees you go into that banquet? The danger is that he will become terribly confused—maybe even to the point of getting mixed up himself in what his conscience tells him is wrong.
11-13 Christ gave up his life for that person. Wouldn't you at least be willing to give up going to dinner for him—because, as you say, it doesn't really make any difference? But it does make a difference if you hurt your friend terribly, risking his eternal ruin! When you hurt your friend, you hurt Christ. A free meal here and there isn't worth it at the cost of even one of these "weak ones." So, never go to these idol-tainted meals if there's any chance it will trip up one of your brothers or sisters.
I also don't know why there is so much purposeful EFFORT to be in Your company in ritualistic ways. There is no life in it all. It's not like You can be drummed up like a rain dance driven diety or something. I am like CONSTANTLY in conversation with You and I LONG ENDLESSLY for the smallest snippets of Your responses and leadings of my heart, mind and spirit in evidence ! To ME, having EVER BEEN IN YOUR MANIFEST PRESENCE, even once, is enough to create in ANY an unquenchable thirst for more of the same. My greatest battle, like that of so many others, is the hope to remain focused on Your Spirit in an ever-demanding and NOISY world full of the sound of appetites expressed, cravings and searchings for release ! I don't need to be reminded to seek You as much as I need to be privy to the evidence of You all around me, begging evermore that I DON'T MISS A THING, in the midst of all of the preoccupation with this world and its responsibilities!
I take so much joy in the way that You do simply beautiful, small and constant, kind things for me through the people You have populated my days with. I walk more and more with Your people, Jesus. I am being seperated from the domain of the mean-spirited and unkind more and more. The better I become at recognizing Your manifestations and seek after it in my days and those around me, the more You are blessing my life with Your manifestations. It's such a long road to here. I think of all that I walked to come this far and I am dwarfed at the size of the tale, myself, Jesus. Yet it seems that You are burning off the 'dross' of unwelcome things. NOT from my life, but from my attentions and focus. Life on this Rock will always be littered with unwelcome things and all the more as I seek Your Face. I am NOT interested in the much that pulls me away from You, and my life is joining paths more and more with those like me.
There REALLY IS no other thing on this Rock worth my attentions but that which You lead me in. I struggle to remain open and yielded, fluent in practice and reception of Your Mercy for my mistakes and resting in fuller trust with You. THANKS for Your endless patient MERCY toward me, Jesus.
Thanks for ever being willing to WAIT for me to lay myself down at Your feet, the biggest obstacle of all,... ME.
Thanks for ever being willing to WAIT for me to lay myself down at Your feet, the biggest obstacle of all,... ME.
I LOVE YOU. I LIVE FOR YOU.
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