Reflection, Throwbacks

Hey everyone. It's been a while since I've blogged. I've been having a bad case of tunnel vision and complacency stifling me spiritually, so I've had to do catch up with the program the last couple of days.

It seemed only appropriate that Darrell's talk on the 8th commandment started with a reminder of how my impotence and failures make me unable to meet the demands of the law on my own, that I need outside help, the kind God made available through his gift of his Holy Spirit. I've been forgetting that a lot, neglecting to just ASK him to fill me with his presence. Kind of like putting off filling up the gas tank when it's near empty. In a double reference to NT Wright, I've gotten out of tune, not living by the Spirit.

This is because I have a bad habit of putting knowledge above anything else in importance, that once I've seen/heard/read something (like the materials for this program) about God, the knowledge/expanded mindset will somehow magically take care of the rest, make me change for the better. But knowing is no substitute for the Spirit and it's call for doing. Every idea I've come across in this Discipleship program is true and illustrates the beauty of who Jesus is and our relationship with him. But every one of these ideas is a piece of bark---it helps sustain the flame, but not by much. Only intimacy with him, brings the big logs in, which not only sustain the flame, but make it bigger and bigger...till we're on fire for him.

I was re-reading James today, and here's what I found in James 1:22-25 --- "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does."

So I can't just know, I must do---live in the Word, mind, body and soul. And following Jesus is something we can't do without his Spirit: as DJ says, it's our divine resource to live fully alive, and a seal of our forgiveness. Without it, we lose the means for anything else. We become blind to what our reflection in the mirror is supposed to be---a reflection of God and all of his glory.

In another throwback from last week, completely on our own, we fail---but where we do, God will never fail. His power of love is almighty and gives us what we need to be overcomers. His power shines over our failures. Beautiful, beautiful weakness and dependence is followed by beautiful, beautiful glory and intimacy.

So what am I doing not holding out my cup and plate? I need him to fill me if I want the juice to sustain anything else; 57 Words says the fourth layer of my daily bread is the resource of the Holy Spirit, that enables me to live in faith, spirit and love! Abba, I pray that I will not pray for any of my own foolish desires and my non-existing power, but for only my desire for your Spirit. It's suicide to try and fight against all these blazing arrows without armor: I need you and only you. May I cling only to you.