crossmove 1 .. .

lamb of God
that's what the Baptizer, John, called Jesus when he showed up where John was baptizing ..
lamb ..
that was Jesus first 'public' appearance in his Earth-ministry, somewhere around 30 years old ..

"the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" ..
what's with that ?

`|`

we don't like the Older Covenant much any more; few ever read it, except maybe the Psalms
we see too much 'harsh' there: harsh God, harsh people, harsh life; so we like to move on ..
what we should see is that God is dealing with people at their level of understanding at the time; he accommodates their worldview
so God reveals Godself progressively, as the world advances through time
scripture is a progressive revelation

i say that to context the sacrificial system designed for Israel back in the day
not much fun to watch animals' throats being cut open, blood running free everywhere ..
but back then sacrifice was common among the nations, some even sacrificing their children

but .. the point of sacrifice .. what was the point?

the issue was sin

when sin manifested, the entire cosmos was affected, all of it, all created things everywhere were touched
a cancer was loosed
the rebellion and comeupancy that sparked sin was to spit in the face of the creator God that made all things
even the sin-ner ..
it betrayed an arrogant attempt to displace and replace the God of Glory ..
trust in the goodness of God took a hit

God, being 'holy', is 'set apart' from sin
it antithesises who God is at heart ..
something had to be done
the new damaged cosmosview couldn't simply be allowed to persist, the cancer to spread for ever
something had to be done

`|`

in creating humans, God decided to infuse something of himself - scripture calls it 'in God's image, according to God's likeness' ..
that means a couple things, at least
these creature are direct reflections of God; God has invested Godself in them, therefore they are highly valued
and too they are endowed with some form of independence; that is, they have a right to choose, they're not robots or slaves or puppets; they're people in whom the imago dei resides

`|`

so then, there's a sinned-against God, an injured created-cosmos, a Godpeople under the influence of sin's destructivity

wow .. what's a God to do?

well, first off, these Godpeople must realize that this is quite abnormal; this is not the way things should be
further, they need to see the awfulness of sin
of their sin

something serious has to be used, fitted to their time in history, to drive the point home that sin bears a huge cost
enter sacrifice
God used a familiar system to teach his new nation (Israel) something new: namely that sin brings death; if not yours, then the death of a substitute (animal)
and this is fully consistent with the telling of the early human experience where the sin of the first humans resulted in their being cut off from the tree of Life - death was the outcome of their failure to trust Creator God = sin => death
but unlike some other cultures, there was no human sacrifice (God even presupposed that when Abraham raised his sacrificial knife over Isaac, his son - God belayed that action and pointed out a ram, tangled in a bush, which became the sacrifice)

later on, Abraham's descendants are enslaved in Egypt, and God moves to release them
God sends Moses and proceeds to challenge the gods of Egypt through 'plagues', increasingly horrible manipulations of Earth phenomena, like frogs everywhere, as in everywhere, and the Nile turned into bloody water
the pharaoh stubbornly refuses this God, choosing his god as his god, even as the plagues worsen ..
the final and most horrific plague was the life of the firstborns of Egypt
God reintroduces sacrifice to the Israelites by initiating a particular one we refer to as the Passover Lamb .. as the angel of death descended on Egypt, the Israelites have killed a lamb, pasting it's blood on the doorposts of their dwelling, effectively marking the homes as to be spared from this horror, to be passed over ..
that very ritual is very telling, since God repeatedly identifies as the 'God who led you out of bondage in the land of Egypt'; so it's not a light thing; it's a significant and pointed event in the history of that nation that God built
and the passover lamb played a central role

`|`

the next lesson is typified in the Levitical priesthood and the system of Tabernacle
sacrifice becomes a regular thing in Israel
but although it's regular, it certainly is not normal
the sacrifices were not to engender the pleasure of the gods or to invoke their blessing in terms of rain/crops/fertility etc.; they were instituted as a means whereby the people could have their sin 'covered'
God was willing to overlook the sin of the people, effectively postponing the judgement of sin until the time where the perfect sacrifice could be made ..
that, my friend, is love in grace
the grace of God, effectively releasing people from their sins, while teaching them that sin bears a dire consequence - death

sacrifice portrays a sad and serious consequential phenomena - the dread destructivity of sin must be dealt with

imagine the person seeing an animal lose its life in a bloody ritual, and knowing it was because of their sin ..
my sin
i caused this

`|`

that's why two distinct points are made in scripture
- the life of the flesh is in the blood
- without the shedding of blood there can be no remission of sin
sin is a life-forfeiting phenomena

one other point is made there:
the blood of God's son, Jesus Christ, cleanses us from all sin
he is the perfect sacrifice

`|`

more to come

peace to you

prelude to cross ..

this one's .. touchy
like a sore spot, a recent wound

in recent times, the christian intelligentsia and progressives have called into question much of historic christian thinking
i don't have much of a problem with that: there's much to call into question considering the sad history of the christian faith; also, it provides fertile ground for rethinking what we have perhaps too long accepted as 'gospel' ..
i rather like questioning the 'doctrines of men' ..

that being said, there are certain basics that i treat as hallowed
i tread very carefully when i approach those ..
one of these is the death of the person Jesus of Nazareth

i walk that road barefoot, testing each step, wary of sharp rocks and prickles and snakes, venomous creatures that could bite and cause me to lose life ..
i don't want to lose life
mine is to gain life to the fullest, following that Man

conundrumily, that same man said that if i look to hang-on to my life i will lose it, but if i release my life for him and the sake of the gospel i will find life
.. sooooooo .. i have to lose life to gain life .. .   .

he is a man of conflicting words, confusing comments, seemingly irreconcilable thinking that certainly cause a person to think ..

this week i'm working on a post deliberating why i have chosen a 'cruciform' life, a life in the shape of the cross
why i have a cross tattooed on my wrist, and wear one around my neck
why i have a me-made cross hanging on the wall of my room

..    . .     .

i hang my discipleship, my life, my theology, my praxis on a cross ..
Jesus, my master, told me to deny who i naturally seem to be to me, deny who i think i am, deny my wants and concerns and concepts of life, and pick up my cross .. then i can follow him

i'm trying
i'm not very good at it, but i'm working on it, because i have (finally) come to the place where that is what i want to be defined by, that is who i want to be defined by, that is what i want to be the sole purpose and motivation and pursuit of whatever life i have left to offer him

it seems to me now that anything else is spittin' in the wind

.. . .    ..

this is Holy Week in the christian calendar
while we tend to focus on Easter and the glorious resurrection
let's remember that there is no glorious resurrection apart from the dark forebode that became the horror of the Place of the Skull, Golgotha, where that Man was finally killed

there's a lesson there for us, an example to be followed
for if we would follow Jesus, we too must die our own death
perhaps a horrible soul-rending death that leaves us feeling like we too are forsaken, abandoned, alone and without hope

...  .      .

sometimes
the way up
is down

peace

sheeps and goats and Jesus ..

while reading an article this morning, a scripture reference reminded me of a sobering thought ..
Jesus is speaking:

“But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit upon his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered in his presence, and he will separate the people as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep at his right hand and the goats at his left.

Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’
Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’
And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’

Then the King will turn to those on the left and say, ‘Away with you, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his demons. For I was hungry, and you didn’t feed me. I was thirsty, and you didn’t give me a drink. I was a stranger, and you didn’t invite me into your home. I was naked, and you didn’t give me clothing. I was sick and in prison, and you didn’t visit me.’
Then they will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and not help you?’
And he will answer, ‘I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.’
And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous will go into eternal life."

while we've turned 'christian' into more of a 'belief' system, there are numerous references to 'do' in scripture, as in many; and they are undeniably poignant and urgent ..
perhaps partly in the fear of 'works salvation', we subscribed to knowledge, logic and intellectualism, occupying pews and passive participation .. and there went the baby with the bathwater ..

in this parable (at Matt 25:31ff) the only distinction between those blessed and those cursed by the king is their works

you can go wherever you want with that ..

additionally, the works Jesus refers to are pointed; they are heading somewhere ..
he didn't refer to 'evangelizing'; he didn't mention missionary activities; he didn't talk about preaching, or passing-out tracts, or saying 'grace' in restaurants, or tithing, or following the christian religious calendar, or making the sign of the cross when you make a touchdown, or supporting Israel, or voting republican, or standing on the street corner telling people they're going to hell, or wearing t-shirts with a cross, or dressing-up and 'going to church', or 'joining' a church, or labeling ourself 'baptist' or 'catholic' or 'episcopal' or 'presebyterian' or 'disciples of christ' or 'pentecostal' or 'seventh day adventist' ..

think about it ..

i'm not saying that these things are wrong, or that there's no place for (some of?) them at all, or whatever ..
that's not the point
the thing is Jesus, on this occasion, is making a point, and he couches it in very serious language, like
"Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world."
and "Away with you, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his demons."

question is, was Jesus just using hyperbole, trying to get our attention, startle us ?

you decide ..

tell you this, when i see words like 'inherit the kingdom' and 'eternal fire' i kinda slide a bit lower in my chair and look around a bit, and wonder if i was there which group i would be in .. .     .
'cause that's serious stuff

.. . . .        .

one more thought
i commented on the 'works' Jesus did not include in his parable ..
what did he point at ? what 'works' did Jesus identify that made the difference between the sheep and the goats ?
feeding the hungry
drink for the thirsty
hospitality to strangers
clothing the naked
caring for the sick
visiting the imprisoned

.. ..

“Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”
Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

. .. .       .

now
go
and do


peace

when yuh get nailed ..

somewhere there's this thought: "let not your good be evil spoken-of", methinks kingjames et al ..
in context (apostle paul, romans) it speaks to our responsibility to not allow what we know to be 'cool' to become a stumblingblock to a brother or sister .. they may not have the same take on it at that point in  their spirituality

.. ..     .

in my own way, i suppose, i follow Jesus .. least i'm trying
he's the one that calls the shots for me, even when it's 'eventually' calls the shots 'cause i interpose myself and diss' checking him first - i usually come around

thing is, when you try your 'darnedest' to be his disciple, moving when he says (including across country), shutting-up when he says or speaking when he says, etc., and you still get slammed by this thing or that person ... .
it begs the question .. soooooo .. why?!!
how come i'm trying to be the bestest i can, and i still get nailed to somebody's cross-agenda

. . . .    ........ .


i have no definitive answer to that
zero

i only know this
bring it on!!!!
bring it, 'cause you know what?
it is not my responsibility ..

so .. while you try to wrap your brain around that insane statement, consider ..
if i give my life to God, committing my way to him, denying my self, and picking-up my cross every day, following Jesus as my master, my rabbi
then i have committed myself to God and God is responsible for me, regardless of what happens to me ..
that's part and parcel of the commitment ..

Jesus said stuff like this: "unless you hate your father and mother.. you can't be my disciple"
"if you hang on to your life, you'll end up losing it; but if you're willing to loose (and lose too) your life for my sake and for the sake of the gospel, you will find life .. real life"
"no person that puts their hand to the plow and looks back is worthy of the kingdom"
"there's no-one that gives up the stuff of this life, on this earth, for my sake that will not regain it in the kingdom, repaid many times over"
to a wealthy person, "sell all you have and give it all to the poor; then you can come follow me"
to a woman looking to fill her jar with water, "i can give you living water, water that will bubble-up into fulllife, life to the fullest; you will never thirst again"
to a religious leader, "unless you're born of the spirit, you can't enter the kingdom of God" ..

this is the kind of thinking i've turned to
this is the attitude i have taken-on
this is the sort of life i am chasing .. a life led by my spirit under the authority of Jesus' spirit

i take God at what God says
i believe Jesus when he says '"do this" or "go there"
and i do and i go, with or without the means, seeing or not seeing how it will play out in terms of my food, shelter, wellbeing ..

those things are his responsibility

i say none of this in braggadocio
i'm not flying in the face of God

i'm simply working on the basis of the God i've come to know, who this God is, especially as manifested in the person of Jesus
i believe it when he says he got my back
absolutely

i have to
that's an integral part of my discipling
an integral part of who i am now

for me to follow Jesus means i try to be Jesus

if Jesus was in my position .. would he do anything less ??
nah, mate ..

fact is, the rest is up to God
i am in God's hands .. period
and what God does with that is God's business
not mine

peace

I see you ..

when sleep runs like the gazelle and comfort is my elusive friend
when my bed is a tumbling sea of frustration, rising up rolling down, turns and falls in the dark
I cry out to you

when enemy swoops, black against the blackness
the sound of webbed wing smashing the air, putrid breathstench blasting my face in his pass
I cry out to you

when his demons swarm, some enflashed like me
flaming tongues that would assault my integrity, challenge my good, twisting it to shape evil
I cry out to you

I will not betray you though they threaten my very life
I will not turn my back on you when he screams at me in the dark
accusing, threatening, baring his fangs in fierce anger, pointing his twisted finger
I cry out to you

you are my master and there is none can sway me
you are my Savior even if the saving must wait
you are my lover, the one that holds my heart
it is to you I cry out

my hope is in you
Your Love has overwhelmed me, recreated me
I long to see your face
I see you
I see you

let my sleep run, my bed boil
let my enemy assail, his demons swarm, his hot accusations fly
as long as there is a breath in me I will trust in you
I will cry out to you

I am yours
fail me not
hasten to my aid
I weaken - how much more must I absorb ?
how much longer ?
I cry out to you
..
I see you !
I see you

shadowing Jesus ..

sitting on the porch on a surprisingly springy day, sunfull
wondering how to respond/what to say ..

a blog-reader poses questions about wanting to get deeper with Jesus
wanting to fall-in, head first (belly flop would do too), and just sinking down through the 'living' water
down
down
always down
deeper ..

“you keep stepping on my toes and make me wonder why in the world Christ following is not as easy as you put it down here for the rest of the world to read. There seems to be  a chasm with me trying to leap from one side to the other. So what is stopping me? Why can I not win the reach to the other side? ..
It is as though I am a dry sponge yearning to soak in truth and be truly free.”

and there you have it ..
the reader answered their own question
sorta

.. .     .       .

I don't have the answer
don't look here for the famous list you'll find on the christian net, '10 ways ..' or '8 things ..'
that's the western way to make you think someone has the answer, and maybe make a buck to boot

it's like someone asking 'how do I get so-and-so to notice me?', and buying a book or reading an article that posits flowers or chocolates or changing your hair colour ..
waste of time
if that's what it takes then you need another so-and-so .. move on

I don't have the answer
but maybe I can drop a couple thoughts and something might bite

. . . .    ….. .

thought: someone asked recently about knowing God's will, and there was a big kick about that some years back, with the usual hype - books and sermons and seminars ..
thing is, we hardly 'know' God's will ahead of time, not often
only thing we can really know is God's will in-the-moment
as in “am I doing the right thing here?”/”is this what God wants of me in this situation”/”God .. how do I respond to this?”/”what do I say now?”
God's will is usually more found in-the-doing, in-the-speaking, in-that-listening-moment..
in the pursuit
communicating with God in the moment, listening for an answer as you move

the fact that you actually care what God wants of you is huge
so too, that you care about 'Christ following' and want so much to be there is huge
it says you care, you want
and God notices that big-time
the desire is half the game
as in the asker's use of the term 'yearning' – good word .. God hears that word

…  . .  .     .

so there's the strong desire, “ a dry sponge yearning to soak in truth and be truly free”
and then there's the chase .. the unrelenting going-after, seeking

.. . .    .

be talking to God, as you would to anyone else
in conversation
telling
listening
asking
conversing with God = 'prayer'
it speaks to your understanding that God is a person who communicates
and it tells God you want to relate

read Scripture
God had people write stuff, not only for the people of that day, but also for us today ..
the older Covenant mostly concerned Israel, and we use that today to learn what God was like and what Good was doing in those times
it also presupposes as well as proposes the Messiah, Jesus ..
and he shows up in person in the new Covenant
there we hear his words as he explains God and rebukes religion and encourages the downtrodden and calls-out demons and parables life ..

hang out with other chasers ..
that doesn't necessarily translate into 'church' .. too much of that today is socializing and posturing and funding
find people that actually work at it, looking to serve, to help, to encourage, to relieve the burdens of the oppressed and downtrodden, like Jesus did ..
'birds of a feather' kinda thing ..
and if you don't know where to find them, start doing on your own whenever you see an opportunity – feed that hungry person, give someone your jacket or a sleeping bag, help that older person with their bags, listen to the one that's broken and needs to vent and to be heard, volunteer at a soup kitchen .. .

… .. ..     .

the desire
the chase
scriptures
engage in group
be an actor in the church Jesus meant to build
.. and never give up

..   .     .

consider .. the day you actually arrive, 'win the reach to the other side' as the asker put it, then you're home, travel done, journey completed .. and no further need for faith and trust and perseverance and endurance and serving others ..

(a wise one said once, “these three remain for now: faith and hope and love; but the greatest of these is love”)

for now, there is following Jesus (= loving God and loving others) ..
and as the asker intimates, that is the issue in this life

go there
do that
with all your soul and mind and strength and heart

the chase never ends in this life
but the journey is absolutely unbeatable ..
it is a personal journey, and you are in, all in ...

it's the stuff of life-to-the-fullest

.. better known as 'eternal life'

the power of love ..

most present is the constant short-fall of the water .. rolling, falling a few inches, recovering gleefully and rolling on, as if it's the most natural thing

that sound .. not monotone-ous - there is variation, but regular enough to lull, cooing

the woods barren, save for a few tireless green shrubs and evergreens, and that unrelenting vine .. suffocating, gradually stealing lifebreath from its victims, ever so gradual ..

the one promotes sustains encourages life, energizing

the other leeches, borrowing, never to give back

even in the prelude to Spring, that glorious dance of nature celebrating newlife, birth, resurrection, the longed-for soon-coming revival after winter's death-strike

cycling seasons of life, always repeating, yet ever new

how do you ever get over the majesty of Spring, or Fall

or the surprising bright-white pristine landscape in the midst of that selfsame deathly stroke ? ..

… . . .

yet we too roll and tumble and recover in the seemingly never-ending season of lifejoy ..

and, far too often participate in the kudzuing, stealing life from life in the dastardly hope of somehow prolonging our own, or somehow enriching it

we destroy, blind in our self-ish fool-ish delusion

and Creator cries

an awe-full sobbing, sporadic with mournful bellows that resound in the corridors of the heavenlies ..

sad, mournful echoes, darkening the very soul of the cosmos ..

death, dying, destruction

the horrid stench of it all ..

maddening confounding ruination

.. quite insane

scaringly evil

. . . . .. .

playful squirrels

happy birdcalls

frogsounds celebrating Springevent

young plants reaching out in hope

daffodil's yellow grin ..

a butterfly !

ha !

Somehow .. somehow, in the dark face of the deceitful delusion of humankind, life persists in it's own unrelenting

bound-up as it is in the destiny of the destroyers, it simply will not admit defeat, will not give up

displaying it's astounding colours, dizzying fragrances, gravity defying swoops and glides, races, uphill, downhill, scurrying ..

variety upon unbelieving variety ..

life exults in every breath, dancing wildly in an amazing pursuit of sheer beauty ..

beauty graciously bestowed by Creator, personally designed and formed, leaf by feather, by fin, by tail, by eyelash, ..

.. . .

like us ..

imaginative ingenious expressions of Godself, infused somehow with Godimage, Godlikeness

marvelous manifestations of Godlove ..

when we admit our true self, somehow mine the love within and defy the darkside of life ..

.. .. ' if the Son sets you free, then you are indeed free ', says the Witness of old ..

we are empowered to hope in the face of distress, trust even when we are confused and lost, joy somehow when the light is gone and darkness stifles and troubled waters stir, and there is loss

somehow .. love embraces it all

breathes life and colour and tantalizing fragrance into the dark loss

lives on

dancing even

that is the power of love

christian ? ..

being a christian isn't something you do
it's who you are
in your heart where the real you lives

you aren't a christian like you're a democrat or a skin diver or an accountant

christian is a defining term, describing you
like blue eyes or 27 or 5'10"

a Christ-ian is a follower of Jesus, the Christ
that person has submitted who they are to the authority of another .. Jesus
he now defines who they are
he represents that person before God
he stands in their place in the heavenlies as if that person was right there, in person, right then

so, while a christian 'does' Jesus-things and lives a Jesus-life, because the fruit identifies the tree, the primary issue is that they have been re-created in the image of Jesus, and are new persons

all the dribble about denominations and doctrines and whether you were born in this country or that says absolutely zero about you being a christian ..

thing is, who is your authority ..
who strums your strings
who says 'yea' or 'nay'
who do you turn to when the chips are laid down
who determines your mindset and your behaviour and your attitude

who is your master ..
when you can answer that, you have defined who you are
even if the answer is 'me' ...

peace

what's this life for anyway ..

sometimes
we just don't like life
don't like where i live or my school or the climate or the job or ..
sometimes
we don't like who we are
don't like my height or my weight or my hair or my voice or ..

want to escape
get away
change my life
change me

sometimes we're ok with all that stuff
but we're simply bored with life
same ol' stuff every day
it's all so ..... trite, so repetitive
empty

.. .

so we distract ourselves
adding 'stuff' to our lives like houses and wheels and fancy techy toys and hair colour and ..
or stuff like social clubs and night clubs and church clubs

and all the while we're simply distracting ourselves
from our life

but 'life does not consist of the possessions we accumulate' or the makeovers ..
the distractions

.. . .    .       .

what's this life for anyway ?
what indeed

there probably is no more fundamental question to be answered by each one of us

thing is, if we continue in our escape and distraction we are very likely never going to discover the answer
for the answer calls for pursuit, conscious alert determined dogged going-after
you don't usually bump into it in the grocery or on the tele
   even the 'religious' tele

true life consists in knowing who i really am
and that has nothing to do with where i live or how i 'earn' a living or who i do life with ..
there's a me inside that i need to discover
and that me isn't defined by what i look like, or pretend to look like
not much

.. . . . . .     .

the christian scriptures don't attempt to argue for the existence of God
it's assumed, right from the beginning
' in the beginning God created ' .. the opening and possibly most foundational statement in the entirety of those scriptures

shortly after that affirmation there's this incredible massively rooting thought ..
that same creating god created human in the very image and likeness of God ..

ah? eh? say what?
me?
the me i know?
the same humanity i know?
the humans that hate and kill each other and destroy and ruin even the planet we live on??
the same me that lies to me and hurts people with my words and thinks ruinous hating stuff?
that me?

wild !

it is wild

go there
chase that
at least, consider it
because that just might be the key to finding you
the imago dei in you ..
and the God in whose image you and i were created

start there
you just might find you there ..
and that would be wonder-full

peace

the child in me ..

recently i blogged about Jesus' comments on being like children in order to enter the kingdom of God ..
always concerned me as to what exactly he meant
there I focused on trust
sometime before that I focused on humility
..
i read something this morning that led me down a path with a different view, another window .. sorta

i've been reading the biblical book of Hebrews; we don't know the author, and I think that's very cool – the book references Melchizedek, and we don't know him either, although we know a little, so miscellaneous author fits well, in my mind ..
(it also disallows the intellectuals from categorizing the author and giving him/her 'agendas')
personally, I think this letter to Jewish christians is the entirety of scripture encapsulated ..
I love it

being written to and about God's elect nation, the letter makes numerous references to the 'old testament', the old covenant, in which Israel was supposed to abide by certain legal requirements in order to keep their side of the covenant in-play; as for God's part – God would bless them and watch out for them
they hardly kept their end .. rarely
but God was faithful to it nonetheless

then God says something: God says there's going to be a new covenant with Israel, one in which God will no longer have Law written on stone and scrolls, but on the minds of the people, and in their hearts ..
and there won't be any need for them to admonish one another to pursue God, for they all will know God, from the lowest on the social ruler to the highest
“ .. and I will be to them 'God', and they to me 'my people'.”

wonderful stuff
it's a huge move from having to refer to documented regulations and fall-in with the Law-police (Levites) to meet God's expectations, to having God's desires written on their hearts, their consciences witnessing to it, either approving or disapproving their choices

God removes the burden of the people having to know God's 'law', and internalizes it

one other referent ..
when God covenanted with Abraham, the progenitor of Israel, because there was no-one on God's level to covenant with, God made the covenant with Godself – Abraham was removed from the picture (in fact, he was put to sleep during the ceremony), although he was one of the covenant parties ..
God guarantees the covenant, period

.. . .  .

“unless you become like little children you will not be able to get into the kingdom of God” ..

perhaps one aspect of that is this: we bring nothing to our relationship with God
we have nothing to bring
God does it all
all that's required is our agreement to be 'in'
no bargaining – nothing to bargain with
straight-up “i'm in”
God covers the rest

children in their infancy have 0 to contribute
in fact, they only know how to cry-out
they cry when they need something, and can't even explain it
parents are attentive to their cries, and know rather quickly what to do to satisfy the need
it's not rocket science ..

God says to us, “I got this. Simply fall-in. Trust me. I'm the parent, I got you.”
and God does not expect us to contribute anything to the deal, simply let God do it all

.. . . .     .

maybe that's part of what Jesus meant
it's kind of like .. there's no choice in the matter if I want in; God supplies it all, guarantees it all, and covenants with Godself to fulfill the requirements
we bring nothing to the table
except show-up
and know that Papa God will surely have 'nanas and smashed peas and punkin' and applesauce when i'm hungry, and will feed me
and if I need to potty MamaGod takes care of that too

i simply am
PapaMama takes care of everything

i have no choice, because there's nothing I can do about any of it
nothing I have that God needs ..
except me

we want to estimate ourselves and bring our 'stuff' to the party – the stuff that qualifies us to be in
we are either prophets or priests or kings
we speak in God's name, and walk about judging
we represent God to people - “I know who God is! My God is the true God!”
we bargain with our wealth – money, educated knowledge, status in this world ..

God says we have nothing valuable, nothing to offer to the deal, nothing God needs
except .. us
and he wants all of us
all of me
heart and soul and mind and body and possessions and power and passion
all

God wants me
love drives that
love powers that
PapaGod is love, and love needs a 'loved' ..
i get to be the loved

that's childish
that's the kind of God Jesus points to

simply trust Papa
Mama got you ..

i love you, PapaMamaGod
thanks for parenting me