We are "kalein." Yay-uh!

In his book The Ragamuffin Gospel, Brennan Manning says that, "The bending of the mind by the powers of this world has twisted the gospel of grace into religious bondage and distorted the image of God into an eternal, small-minded bookkeeper."

How do we break from this idea that our relationship with Jesus is one of great freedom and deep affection rather than one that paints the picture of a business transaction: "Ok,, Jesus. I'm going to make myself perfect, and then we'll hang out. Cuz i'm pretty sure that you wouldn't want anything to do with me otherwise..."  

How do we break from religious bondage into spiritual freedom? We break from bondage by knowing who we are and Whose we are. It seems to always come back to those two truths.

The lies are that we have gone too far, waited too long, or not done enough to receive love. The lies then tell us that we have to make up for lost time, earn rights to or somehow work hard enough to be received and accepted. 

For all the lies that there are,they are countered by one truth: That's just it: we can't do anything. We can only be--be who He has invited us to be. We are His beloved children, honored guests at his banquet table, and heirs of the kingdom. Nothing we do creates distance between ourselves and Jesus. It's our flesh that tells us there's a rift. We have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us...always.

In the New Testament where Jesus was known to dine with sinners and tax collectors, the word kalein is used--the Greek word for invite. The craziest thing about this word is that it implies that these were guests of honor. Honor! Those considered outcasts and scum of their societies in that their time were invited as honored guests in the presence of Jesus.

Let's be honest here. Grasping the depths of this is freakin' hard. We can and will spend our whole lifetimes being blown away at the ginormousness (yes, I just used that) of His grace. 

We are not ostracized from the grace of love of God; we are guilty of ostracizing ourselves when we believe the lie over the truth. Not only does He pursue us, He takes joy in doing so.

"Never confuse your perception of yourself with the mystery that you really are accepted."

-B. Manning

Grace.

Irrevocable: No Take-backs.

True love (and by this, I mean agape love) is unmerited. We do nothing to deserve it. It is beautifully bestowed upon us for no other reason than for the truth that we have been chosen. Agape love is a sacrificial love that demonstrates one's volition to pursue someone, accept someone, and serve someone even though there is nothing that is inherently worthy about the one who is being loved.

Though a beautiful and weighty truth, this is one of the hardest things for human beings to accept. How on earth is love freely given? We live so often by the concepts of earning, buying or having to work really hard for something before we can attain it. Simply put: This is yet another backdrop for the subversiveness of Jesus Christ: His love is just that--unconditional.

My flesh desires to strive, to earn and to make myself good enough to deserve something. The reality is that there is absolutely nothing I can do in the sight of Christ to make me more lovable, more acceptable, more whole, or more ready for His love. It is without condition. Truly, there are no strings attached. This is insanely counter to what we know as humans.

More often than not, our flesh experiences conditional love. We're loved until we do something wrong or don't meet expectations that others have put up for us. The idea that we can be loved less by someone because of our own fault is, in some ways, more believable and more of a reality than the fact that someone could love us despite everything we've done.

The image that paints the best picture for me is the that of adoption (as it is used in its original context). Adoption implies that the child is chosen--for good. Once that child is adopted, he or she cannot be returned (How harsh does that sound?), given over to someone else, or exchanged for someone who is better. He or she is chosen forever--no questions asked. In essence, the parent says, "I choose you--no if's and's or but's."
This choosing is done forever. The parent will always choose the child. It's not a one time thing. If that is true, then not only is it a continual process of being chosen, it's a continual process for the child to to receive that love and to claim his or her identify of being child.

This is what I continue to learn more deeply every day. I am in great need of His grace--the grace that enables me to receive His unmerited love and to claim my true identity in Him. I am a daughter of the King--fully loved, fully received, and given life to be experienced in the fullest.

May His grace abound in us, so that we can really live this out.

Love: Freedom's Catalyst

There is nothing more exhilarating, more freeing and more natural than being able to be yourself. When you can laugh with possibility of snorting, cry with a chance of getting all drippy around the nose, speak freely and openly, express your opinions and expose your deepest heart cries with never once having to filter a single thing because you know that you are fully received--it is then that you are able to experience a huge, integral part of God's heart of love, grace and freedom.

In this place of full exposure and full acceptance, there is no striving, no pushing, no judgment, and no unmet expectations. Rather, there is the most beautiful expression of celebration of one's uniqueness--rejoicing in the insane reality that each individual bears the image of Christ. Here in this place of freedom is where we run free, dance with reckless abandon, and worship without reservation (in this place, there is an ease in seeing and experiencing everything as worship).

Here there are no anxious thoughts, no knots in the stomach, no guilt, or shame. They only filter through which we are seen and see ourselves is that of the Love of Christ. Here we sit next to His throne as sons and daughters of the king--as royalty. We join Him as those deemed part of the royal priesthood, His favorite friends, His most precious treasures.

This is a part of His kingdom. The fact that this can be our reality in greater and greater measure is crazy exciting!! This is present for the here and now, and this is what He desires for His children. We are given each other as community, we are surrounded by fellow royalty, fellow children of the King. He sees us as such and wants us to see ourselves and each other in the same way. I pray that He opens our hearts up and helps us to see the scales that He will continue to remove from our eyes. Let us love each other for who we are and what we're really worth. May our love for each other facilitate a deeper realization in our souls as to how much Abba loves us.

I don't write this as though i've figured it out. I'm just tasting it more and more, and I can't get enough of it. The joy of this type of freedom runs deep, and I pray that it is contagious. Eat up, friends! May we eat this up as it nourishes our inner wo/man!

"Oh taste and see that the Lord is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him! O fear the Lord, you HIs saints' For to those who fear Him there is no want...But they who seek the Lord shall not be in want of any good thing. Come, you children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord."

Where Grace Abounds.

Some notes.
Some of my own thoughts.
A whole lot of God and his gifts and presents to us :).

GRACE- a gift for you completely undeserved, regardless of whether you are in the wrong or in the right.


Grace as tied to pain.
Those pains and experiences as the means to grace.

Grace as tied to strengths.
Our strengths as the means to grace.

Take into consideration Paul's journey-the way that he writes about grace and how one needs it to live parallels our need for food as sustenance. Grace is something that he carried with him, constantly. Though they manifested in Paul's life in various ways, Paul's thorn was a means of great grace in his life.

1 Corinthians 15:10
But by the grace of God I am what I am,
and his grace to me was not without effect.
No, I worked harder than all of them—
yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.

The MSG:
1 Corinthians 15:10
But because God was so gracious, so very generous, here I am. And I'm not about to let his grace go to waste.

2 Corinthians 6:1
As God's fellow workers we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain.

To APPROPRIATE grace:
To take all that is given to you,
take it and weave it into the fabric of your life so
that it becomes the way that you live.
Your life as a result of your acknowledgment of all that God bestows upon you.

What a process, what a beautiful process it is to become aware of God in all things. Through the gift and reception of grace, we are freed people, freed people that can come to know to know His will and cooperate with it.

You.

Lord, help me surrender all.
i cannot change another's heart, another's soul, another's mind.
what i can do is to trust that Your heart is being sought after,
that in the process of striving to know truth,
they would hear your voice as clear as day.
I pray for sensitivity in areas that need to feel to know
I pray for discernment to hear what your Spirit is speaking
I pray for grace and patience as this whole process is one of learning and growing,
And ultimately, knowing you as Maker, as Savior, as Lord, as Abba, as Almighty You.