Short Blog: POWERED by Cheese

If every one of us decided to live as Jesus lived… there would be far less issues between us. For in the life of Christ is the map by which we all are called to live.

I know I like cheese in an aerosol can, but Jesus tells us that life is far more than Cheese Whiz. For in the suffering of the Christ most of us miss that it was not about the nails and the spire in the side. But it was about “NOT MY WILL BUT THINE”.

When was the last time you felt and lived that way? Seriously?

Call Me a Sock Puppet

Just recently I was thinking about my greatest need in life. It’s not what you might think. You can create your own list of things you think I might need in life, but let me tell you what that need is.

Since it’s possible to go through life without the leading of the Lord, or at least possible to ignore or reject the leading of the Lord, my greatest need is to be led by God. Let me explain.

In John 5:19, Jesus tells us that He always and only does what He sees the Father doing. As a matter of fact He says that He can do nothing nor will He do anything that He first has not seen the Father doing. In other words Jesus is like a Sock Puppet on the hand of the Father.

Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to be irreverent toward Jesus or the Father. But simply put, God in me and animating me IS the only way I truly desire to live (although I fail many times).

Later in John 10:37, Jesus even tells us we are NOT to believe Him whatsoever, unless He is doing exactly what the Father is doing (how might our lives changed if we told the same to those around us). If the Father is acting, Jesus acted. If the Father spoke, Jesus spoke. If the Father rested, Jesus rested.

Now you may think this is kind of robotic, but it’s not. It’s the only way flesh can do the will of God. Flesh left to itself is mindless and lifeless. Oh it may not look that way from the outside, but without God being the hand inside the Sock Puppet; it’s still just a sock.

No matter what analogy you choose, God has planned it in such a way that we and He become one. As a matter of fact Jesus spoke about how the Father was in Him and He will be in us and we can all be one. Check out Jesus’ teaching on the Sock Puppet concept; John 14.

Please understand that albeit we think we’re living, since we get up and go to work, eat and sleep, and spend and use, we are NOT alive unless the Divine Hand of the Father is slipped neatly into the center of our lives. For the greatest deception we can live with is that we are alive when we are not.

The only way that we CAN LIVE is by allowing God to fully and always dwell so deeply within us, that all we ever do is what He is animating from the inside. When we move, it had better be His guiding hand. When we speak, it had better be His voice we are repeating. If not, we are on a collision course with destruction, only to be veiled in bios life, and NOT empowered by zoe life.

The next time you think you want a life of your own, look at your pile of dirty socks. That’s basically what our lives look like without God IN us.

Call Me a Sock Puppet if you want, I’m okay with that.
1 John 5:11-12

The Rule of Law or the Rule of Love?

Over and over in this day and age we hear the cry for judicial leaders to follow the rule of law. And rightly so, we are living in a time when laws are interpreted and misinterpreted according to personal whim and preference, instead of based upon historic precedence and godly wisdom, balance and justice.

I’m no lawyer nor am I a politician, but what I am is a man who loves the law if and when it is based upon the Rule of Love.

Now granted, law cannot always be interpreted in and through the organ of love, but if genuine love is absent, all law will be interpreted on a subjective basis and that’s where we get into trouble.

Since coming to Christ, I am free from the Old Law. I am under a New Covenant that He established in and through Himself by the shed blood and death of His very own Son, Jesus Christ. And that covenant was ratified by the resurrection of the One cut and separated for the sake of the covenant.

Since coming to Christ, I am now bound by a New Covenant. I am under a new rule; the Rule of Love.

The Bible tells us in Psalms 119:165 “Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.” Again, the author was originally speaking of the Torah, but in this New Covenant, this new Rule of Love that we are under, this promise of great peace is predicated upon the New Law that Jesus left us.

This New Law amended the old. This New Law has power over the old. As a matter of fact this last and final Law not only supersedes the old, but completely fulfills the old.

Jesus said; “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” (John 13:34 NIV) The newness of this command has yet to wear off. For in this very single command all of the other Rules of Law are fulfilled.

My question this hour to each of you is this: Which law do you champion? The Rule of Law or the Rule of Love? Your answer will reveal the depth of peace you possess. And the depth of peace that you possess reveals the depth this New Law is planted within.

It’s one thing to give lip service to law; but it’s a whole other thing to obey it. Love as the basis of law in this New Covenant changes everything.

May we let the Rule of Love stand as our daily precedent to follow.