while we may mine truths about God
we may not assume presumptuously these truthful propositions to be definitive
God is above and beyond definition to our finitude
God himself has made himself known to us
he became a human
a living breathing touchable relational whipable crucifiable person
even in that
we dare not presume to follow definitions or truths or our understanding of him
we can only crawl somehow towards his space
and be there
in silence mostly
seeking to know him in that presence
for we worship a person
not the definitions of that person
not the dogma surrounding that person
nor the doctrine
selah that
.. . . . .
in like manner
perhaps we should take care as to how we present God and GodMan to others ..
we presume we have answers
like john 3.16, and ' believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved ' ..
we make that the key to open the gates of heaven
the gospel is first and foremost a person
a living person
some one that has the reconciliation of the cosmos at heart
and wants to see all come to repentance .. make that all
forgive my impudence
but the gospel is not a proposition that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God
i am not a jew
that was the approach God took because of his covenant with israel
and he would not relent on his covenant, even though israel repeatedly did
he came to the Jew first, out of respect for that
and then, also to the greek, the gentile
i am a gentile
and the issue of jesus being Messiah has no bearing on me, now, in this day
the gospel consists within the boundaries of a person
he defines 'gospel'
mine is to see him, know him, this man of God, from God,
this one who was in the beginning with God
and was, in fact, God
now Man
mine is to follow his heart
do his deeds
compassion his compassion
heart his heart
walk his walk
pour my life out in favour of his life
in pursuit of ... him
mine is to be him
such that he so overwhelms me, so pervades and saturates my being
that i exist only in him
in him ..
it is, in fact, possession
much like we use the term ' demon possession '
like that
but it is Jesus, incarnated God
original human refound
real humanity in living flesh
this person
who is gospel
the good news of God becoming man and living among humanity
teaching us by his life and words and deeds ...
following that is the gospel ..
and until people recognize Jesus in me
it's all simply so much refuse
spinning wheels, however powerful
like some hamster chasing the rounds on a neverending wheel of using-up-its-life ..
entertaining maybe
but quite inconsequential
gospel = disciple = follow that Man = do what he do + say what he say + think what he think + compassion + love
think on this
the greatest commandment is to love God with all my being
and the next greatest is to love my neighbour as my self
that is the gospel
do that
head there
do this, and then i might entertain some label like ' christian ' or ' disciple '
everything else is pissin' in the wind, my friend
and the only end of that is a face-full
follow that man
live the gospel
may shalom be yours
No comments:
Post a Comment