LIVING IN THE LIGHT
This is now the twenty fifth post on this blog site. Hard to say if anyone is listening but I do keep writing. It is my commitment to the Lord in love and in service. As I said in the very first blog, I think that the audience will be mostly Christian and so the topic we begin today. Christians are a much varied group of sects and denominations that in some cases are not united under their true banner at all. Some groups believe that other groups are not Christian at all based on such criteria as they have developed by which they measure another’s level of Christianity. Many differ on insignificant points but they do differ nonetheless. None of this is what the Master wanted to see happen. He wanted unity and the Apostles and other gospel and epistle writers wrote of the same. There is but one Christ but, because of the nature of the human family with their selfishness, and with their quests for power and desire to be the ‘best’, there are thousands of sects and denominations with each preaching their own version of His word while each one claims to be right and to have the truth and. The worst part of all this is that they frequently degrade each other with accusations of not being true or right.
Much today has become rather superficial Christianity. Many church sermons are designed to make one feel good; to feel like progress is being made due to some little thing that is believed or some other thing is done. Other sermons are designed to make one to believe that by doing or believing such and such there will prosperity in this life and in the thereafter. Few teach the full impact of the words of Christ regarding salvation. Most take out of context the words of the epistles to show us salvation through them and to give us the new birth for merely saying or by doing some thing and believing as best one can. None of this is the teaching of the Christ. This is all good in that it does bring people closer to the Lord who may not have listened at all but is it right to have so many differing and competing theologies? Jesus was very specific in telling us what we need to do to see the Kingdom of God and what it is that He said is what we will explore.
Let us start with God. How do we define GOD? HE(GOD) said in the Old Testament that HIS name is I AM THAT I AM. Now this is exactly what and who GOD is; HE simply IS. HE is Boundless, Immutable, Eternal, Infinite and it can be said that there is nothing else but HIM. There can be nothing outside of God because of the attributes listed; nothing before or after and nothing beyond for in infinity there is no beyond. Now we may gasp at this but this is the Truth of GOD and in saying this we must admit that all worldly perspectives of God must fall under this ONE GOD and we must realize that no matter what people may call HIM or how they may see HIM, it is still HIM and this pronoun description fails to show any of HIS MAJESTY for HE is EVERYTHING. Jesus brought the potency of God to us on Earth as is attested to by the Apostle Paul when he tells us that “for in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9).
Some insight into the nature of GOD and the relationship of HIS Son are put forth in John’s Gospel and although is is a writing of much beauty it is limited by language and by translation: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:1:3). These should be familiar words to most but what do they really say? They say simply that the ONE GOD and the ONE Christ are together, and have always been together and all that ALL things that were made were made by HIM. Now for many there is a separation of God and Christ here but there should be none; the phrase says the Word was with God, and the Word was God which should give the understanding that THEY are ONE. Furthering this thought is the idea, or the concept that they are ONE and at the same time separate which can be difficult to understand. To grasp this one needs to understand that “God is a Spirit” (John 4:24) and, because they are ONE, Christ is Spirit as well. One Spirit with two aspects of expression which we will cover in some future post.
There is ONE GOD and Christ is with HIM and is HIM is a difficult saying and one that, as the Apostle tells us is spiritually discerned: “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14). This is to say that today as well as yesterday that one cannot understand spiritual things carnally; if we look at everything in strictly human terms, we cannot understand spiritual things. And I add to this that there are levels and gradations to our spiritual understanding and this concept is intertwined with the idea of revelation. Insight into this is in seeing the Apostle Peter declaring that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God and hearing Jesus reply that “Blessed art thou , Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 16:17). This is a spiritual revelation to one who was, as the bible reads, already living in and using his spiritual discernment.
It is then in spiritual discernment that we have the light and that we can live in the light and in this gives us a bit of understanding of the reasons for the nature of the church through the ages and today. The churches are responding to the people as people and not as they inherently are, as spiritual beings; hence we have the type of teachings that are given out today. Though they acknowledge that the body is the ‘temple of the spirit within’ the don’t acknowledge the true nature of man; they see him in this body here and in the heavenly places. Some churches preach that we are as people ‘little gods’ but in this they still emphasize the carnal human nature as the man and not the Spirit within. Many teach that we are the temple of the Holy Spirit which lives in us when we complete some feat like baptism or some anointing but they still teach that the real man is this carnal human nature. Other churches teach that Christ comes to live in us at some point in our belief or by some baptism or affirmation but they still hold that the real man is this carnal human nature. For us, in this essay series, we are all of the above and none of them.
In past posts we have explored somewhat the constitution of man in that he is a child of God as Jesus is the Son of God. By way of analogy let us go further into this in the context of the nature of God and of man above. God the Father is Spirit and the Christ, the Son, is spirit and is with Him and is Him and Jesus is the Earthly manifestation of this fact. Can we not say then, in likeness to this, that we are as Jesus. We are the manifestation of a spiritual being which is both the spirit as like God the Father and with this the inseparable Son also which is like the Christ, and that this is both the Spirit of God in us and the Christ within this manifestation of flesh.
That we are like unto Jesus should not be disputed. He was the divinity of God made manifest on this Earth and we are made in the image and likeness of God, as divine beings made manifest on this Earth. Speaking of Christ Jesus the Apostle John told us: “as he is , so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17) and this should be enough to convince us of our true spiritual nature.
Note on the Quote of the Day
This daily blog also has a Quote of the Day which may not be in any way related to the essay. Many of these will be from the Bible and some just prayers or meditations that may have an influence on you and are in line with the subject matter of this blog. As the quote will change daily and will not store with the post, it is repeated in this section with the book reference and comment.
Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee (Isaiah 26:3). From today’s quote of the day we should get the understanding that by keeping the Lord in our hearts and minds that we will find perfect peace. Now perfect peace would be the Peace of God and, according to the Apostle Paul, it is the peace that surpasses all understanding.
