Lent, Day 4: BODY

Recite the Primo Credo Today in the Morning and in the Evening:

Hear, O Israel:
the Lord our God, the Lord is one;
you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.
The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
There is no other commandment greater than these.
~Mark 12:29-31

Today, on the Fourth Day of Lent, we continue to discuss the Primo Credo, the part of the Scripture that Jesus himself told us was the bedrock of our entire belief system. In fact, He said it was so important that “all the law hangs on” it. Since Jesus is the “fulfillment of the law,” then it makes sense for us to pay close attention to this thing that He informed us was at the very foundation of Truth.

At the very beginning of our journey together, on day two, we discussed that we will be meditating on it over the period leading up to Resurrection (Easter) Sunday; and we talked about reciting it every morning and every evening.

Just a reminder here… we talked about the practice of ‘fasting’ and how this exercise is to promote in a a kind of ‘spiritual intentionality’ that will move us away from spiritual sloppiness and provide us with a more disciplined approach to learning about and knowing God. We remember that the mere recitation of any set of words cannot gain us a single inch of territory in God’s Kingdom.

We do believe, though, that focusing on the Word of God intentionally, with great thought and care, rather than practicing hollow repetition, places us in a position of surrender to the Living Word of God, Christ Jesus. Our goal is to let The Word work in us, and hopefully through us, and back out of us.As I mentioned in my earlier post, Lent is the period of forty days before Easter Our goal is that we use this time together to be formed and to grow into more spiritually mature people. Our goal is for us to learn together new ways of following Jesus and to discover the difference that following Him makes.


Today’s Verse~
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly
as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom,
and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs
with gratitude in your hearts to God.
Colossians 3:16

BODY is the second main word of the Primo Credo. Don’t see it? You’re not alone, but allow me some theological and literary latitude, here. I will explain…

You’ve probably already assessed that the second main word here is “Israel,” and you are absolutely correct. But lest we get confused thinking that “Israel” here really means a country or even a historical group of people- I’d like to suggest a different way of looking at it. “Israel” is a BODY of people that transcends time and place. It is the BODY of people who follow God obediently through the "desert" in order to be vessels declaring His great Good News, and vassals who serve and praise Him and serve and encourage others in His Kingdom. You and I are Israel if we follow Christ.

But because nomenclature often gets confusing, we will simplify things a little today and discuss the command of the Primo Credo in terms of BODY.

The command (credo/creed) was given to a group of people. It was intended to be recited individually, yet as a community- communally…corporately. It was therefore not intended to be mere words that penetrated individuals; it was intended to take a shape of its own (as the Word of God invariably does…). It was intended to shape the heart of a Nation.

The Apostle Peter reflects this in his writing to members of the Early Church Body when he writes:
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a people belonging to God,that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light… (1 Peter 2:9)

No doubt, Peter was quoting from the early Hebrew Scriptures, most likely from Exodus 19:6, where God declares to the Israelites, “you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

If you are “In Christ,” you are part of the BODY of Christ and a citizen of a HOLY NATION…a priest, even!

So what does that mean? I think it means we are BLESSED to be included in the Nation of God's People- I means that's one great 'club' to be a member of, right? But that’s not the end of the story…

We’re not blessed as an end in itself- we’re blessed by God TO BE A BLESSING TO OTHERS. Look again above at the verse from 1 Peter. It says: “that you may declare the praises of Him.” Now look at how nicely that verse dovetails with Colossians 3:16. We are to declare, teach, admonish, sing God’s praises, worship and sing hymns to The One who has called us out of darkness.

A People who do that simply cannot be ignored. People that act like that RADIATE and SHINE! When we, as a body, become “bearers of the Light,” we can do nothing other than bless the world. And that is God’s plan and desire for us… that we allow Him to work through us to be conduits of salvation and reconciliation in this broken world.

Our identity is Israel, or The Body of Christ. In Isaiah 58, God told the Israelites that he was not pleased with their fast, that He was not impressed with their ability to discipline their bodies because He wanted a different kind of “fast” from them. He wanted them to be a corporate community, obedient to the stirrings of The Spirit, with a shared vision and a heart for justice and mercy in the world. He wanted the People of Israel (read: Body of Christ) to stop focusing on their individual “holier-than-thou-ness” and to start nurturing a communal “righteousness” that would end up Shining Brightly in the World in such a way that the world would be transformed by it.

Watch the video below and listen to the lyrics of the song:



So, to sum it all up: we “give up” and we “take up” during Lent solely to be formed into the likeness of Christ, so that we can glorify God by becoming His vessels and vassals to a broken world. But we cannot do it alone, we must do it as part of the Body of Christ.

So, this Fourth Day of Lent, continue to let God do His Good Work in you, as He forms and transforms you further into His likeness. P.S. : Shine!




SHINE WE THIS DAY
Obey We the Father,
Obey We Son,
Obey We the Spirit,
Obey We the Three in One.

God, and Spirit, and Jesus,
Help us to Dispel Darkness...
Help us to Shine Your Light…
Bless Our Hearts,
Bless Our Souls,
Bless Our Minds,
That We Would Bless The World
With All Our Might.
©Tracy B. Dickerson, 2010

Lent, Day 3: HEAR

Recite the Primo Credo Today in the Morning and in the Evening:

Hear, O Israel:
the Lord our God, the Lord is one;
you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.
The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
There is no other commandment greater than these.
~Mark 12:29-31

Today, on the Third Day of Lent, we continue to discuss the Primo Credo. Yesterday we discussed that we will be meditating on it over the period leading up to Resurrection (Easter) Sunday; and we talked about reciting it every morning and every evening. Further, we stressed the importance of intentionality; thinking, feeling, and meaning the words as we repeat them- not just hollowly reciting them. Our goal is to let the words work in us, and hopefully through us, and back out of us.

So let’s start teasing apart the many layers to the “onion” that is the Primo Credo. (It’s a pearl onion, if I do say so…small and multi-layered.)

HEAR is the first word. And so, we take heed, for the God of all creation has called out to us through time and space with a command: “HEAR!”

Watch the video below:



God wants us to listen carefully to what he has to teach us in the Primo Credo. There is so much to be gleaned, that I am going to be hard pressed to cover it all in just forty days, but I will at least highlight the highpoints…

What is involved when you really need to hear something? Ever been on the phone in a crowed room? (Dumb question, huh?) Ever been on the phone and someone in the room where you were attempted to get your attention? Two things come to my mind: I need silence, and I need to remove myself from the distractions.

I need to do these two things so that I can hear, but also listen…

I cannot truly love someone (in the active sense of the word love) if I do not give them my time and my full attention.

God instructs us to “Be still, and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10). He who created us and who knows the workings of our neurological system intimately calls us to silence so that we may know Him. He wants us to set aside time for Him and only Him. He wants us to give him our undivided attention. We need to know Him just as much as we need to love Him.

“Be still and know that I am God!” He implores to us through the clamor.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer said it well when he said: “Any study of Christ must begin in silence.”


When we quiet ourselves to contemplate God, we must first slow our pace and the sounds around us to a dull roar. We need things to be quiet enough that we can tune into God, become aware of who He is, and who we are in Him. We need to bask in His very essence, in those things that make Him who He Is.

God is…
Omnipotent (all powerful),
Omniscient (all knowing), and
Omnipresent (everywhere).


When we begin to truly know God and His unique traits, we truly begin to acknowledge the fact that we are not God.

We are not all powerful…

We are not all knowing…

We are limited by space and time.

These are “weaknesses” that we must embrace., and in embracing them, we realize that it is okay to be how we were designed to be…human.

Only in embracing this weakness can we put ourselves in a position of safe vulnerability- a position in which we claim our weakness and claim the strength of a Higher Power.

Doing this actually puts us in a very advantageous position-in the palm of His hand.

Slowing down, becoming tuned in allows us to rediscover these truths about God, and by default- ourselves.

It is good to choose a regular time every day to be quiet. As we shut out all the distractions and false voices that the world throws at us, we become more in tune with God and who we are in Him.

Take time now to BE STILL…

Repeat the SHEMA, slowly, deliberately, and intentionally. Let the words work their way deep within you.


Prayer:
LISTEN I THIS DAY

Listen I this day to the Father,
Listen I this day to the Son,
Listen I to the Holy Spirit,
Listen I to the Three in One.

God, and Spirit, and Jesus,
In Silence Every Morning,
In Silence Every Night…
Listen I with my Heart,
Heed I with my Soul,
Attend I with my Mind;
Hear I with my Might.
©Tracy B. Dickerson, 2010

Lent, Day 2: FAST

As I mentioned in my earlier post, Lent is the period of forty days before Easter that is characterized by prayer, penitence, almsgiving and self-denial. Sometimes these things can be done in a manner that is hollow. My goal for us is that we use this time together to be formed and to grow into more spiritually mature people. My goal is for us to learn together new ways of following Jesus and to discover the difference that following Him makes.

I’m excited about this journey and am looking forward to being transformed “from glory to glory’ (as the apostle Paul described it) with you…

I mentioned in yesterday’s post that we would be focusing on what Scot McKnight refers to as “The Jesus Creed,” and what Mark Batterson refers to a “Primal Christianity.” I will refer to the verses below as the “Jesus Creed,” the “Primo Credo” (in an attempt to coalesce the thoughts of McKnight and Batterson), and also the SHEMA:

Today’s Verse:

Hear, O Israel:
the Lord our God, the Lord is one;
you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
and with all your soul, and with all your mind,
and with all your strength.
The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
There is no other commandment greater than these.
~Mark 12:29-31

Lent is often thought of as a time of “giving up”(fasting). This tradition stretches past the beginnings of Christianity to the Jewish faith itself. But at Lent, there is another (less utilized) practice, known as “taking on” wherein a person begins to something they didn’t do before (it’s the opposite of giving up).

Now before you get any silly ideas about taking on eating chocolate three meals a day or any other such thing- this practice is intended to be utilized in order to discipline ourselves toward doing something good (that we normally would not do)for ourselves, others, and God.

This Lent, I suggest we “take on” the task of reciting the Primo Credo in the morning upon rising and at night upon retiring (at least). As we take on this task, we will still end up “fasting” something. We will be fasting spiritual sloppiness, we will be abstaining from complacency. Get it?

The righteous Jews of Jesus’ day (and Jesus was a righteous Jew) did this. What they recited was know as the SHEMA (that means “hear” in Hebrew) and it is the same as above, minus the last two lines. You can find the SHEMA in the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy. The last two lines come from the book of Leviticus (and other places in the Old Testament, too). It is stressed quite often by God that the Hebrew people were to be a hospitable people who loved the “alien and the stranger”. Jesus co-mingled the two thoughts (loving God and loving others) and told those who asked Him what was the "Greatest Commandment" that all the laws that God had given man could be categorized as falling under one of these two thoughts.

Since we are making a point of setting ourselves apart for the next 38 days in order that God might reveal Himself to us and grow us toward Himself, I think it makes sense that we recite these verses and meditate on them in the days leading up to Resurrection Sunday.

As we begin talking about “taking on” a practice, we must first and foremost be clear in our minds as to our intentions. We do not practice spiritual disciplines with the goal of impressing God, or even with the goal of somehow making ourselves more holy or righteous. The Latin word “disciple” means students and it is the word from which we derive both words- “discipline” and “disciple.” Hence, we call our bodies, minds, hearts and souls away from the unintentional. In other words, we choose to focus our actions, thoughts…our very lives on God in order to learn from Him, and to be changed and formed by Him. In the words of a very wise man: “Work to become, not to acquire.” – Confucius. And so it is with soul work, to…We do it to, by His grace, become like Him, but we don’t do it to acquire salvation or acquire His adulation. So to sum this up: our efforts with regard to spiritual disciplines, at Lent or any other time, to not earn us salvation, they force us to grow. Dallas Willard puts it this way: “Grace is not opposed to effort, it's opposed to earning.”

The effort of reciting the SHEMA does this for us in many ways-but only if we recite it intentionally and not just in wrote fashion. It is the word of God, and because the Word of God is “living and active’ (Hebrews 4:12)-as we say it, think it, and contemplate it takes on a life of its own and burrows down into the deepest part of us and it begins to “form” us. We become students (disciples) to the lessons that the Word wants to teach us.

And so we listen to and learn our lessons….

Prayer:

COME I THIS DAY
Come I this day to the Father,
Come I this day to the Son,
Come I to the Holy Spirit,
Come I to the Three in One.

God, and Spirit, and Jesus,
Come I Every Morning,
Come I Every Night…
Come I with my heart,
Come I with my soul,
Come I with my mind;
Come I with my might.
©Tracy B. Dickerson, 2010

Lent, Day 1 (Ash Wednesday):

Lent is the period of forty days before Easter that is characterized by prayer, penitence, almsgiving and self-denial.

The word is derived from the Anglo-Saxon word lengten meaning ‘Spring’.

The symbolism of Spring is one that we will put to use during our time together. In the Spring, we think about rebirth and New life and these are concepts that are close to the heart of Eastertide.

Look at the lyrics below and listen to the song on the video- link.

Use the time to contemplate where you are in your spiritual walk.

Every Season by Nichole Nordeman

Every evening sky, an invitation
To trace the patterned stars
And early in July, a celebration
For freedom that is ours
And I notice You
In children’s games
In those who watch them from the shade
Every drop of sun is full of fun and wonder
You are summer

And even when the trees have just surrendered
To the harvest time
Forfeiting their leaves in late September
And sending us inside
Still I notice You when change begins
And I am braced for colder winds
I will offer thanks for what has been and was to come
You are autumn

And everything in time and under heaven
Finally falls asleep
Wrapped in blankets white, all creation
Shivers underneath
And still I notice you
When branches crack
And in my breath on frosted glass
Even now in death, You open doors for life to enter
You are winter

And everything that’s new has bravely surfaced
Teaching us to breathe
What was frozen through is newly purposed
Turning all things green
So it is with You
And how You make me new
With every season’s change
And so it will be
As You are re-creating me
Summer, autumn, winter, spring.

As we move from Winter to Spring, we cannot help but think about how the circle of life moves us from life to death to life again.

In what parts of your life are you experiencing spiritual dormancy or death? Have you ever experienced spiritual newness preparing to 'bravely and boldly burst forth'? What does that feel like?

As we enter the Season of Lent, which culminates in Easter, or Resurrection Sunday, we take the time to prepare ourselves to be fully aware of where we are spiritually. Lent is the season for the experience of giving your life over in each moment- heart, soul, mind and strength- to God. This “giving over” involves a deliberate surrender to Christ and to what the Holy Spirit is showing us. As we surrender ourselves to God and let the Spirit work in us, we “die to ourselves.” But this is a good thing, not a bad one, because it is only through dying to ourselves that we gain New Life.

In Lent, we take responsibility for our actions, and passions, and we take our thoughts captive. Because we are eager to lose all those things which separate us from loving God completely, we take this time to learn ways that will form us into more loving and receptive children. Only when we are formed by the Holy Spirit into loving and receptive children can we experience fully a satisfying relationship with God. We don’t learn spiritual practices or perform spiritual disciplines as a way to curry favor with God or try to gain our salvation. We humbly acknowledge that Christ has already done that for us, because we NEVER could achieve salvation through our works. Yet we also recognize the importance of making an intentional effort to do things that are life-enhancing and which will draw our full attention to the New Life offered to us through Christ.

As we travel this journey together, we will be focusing on being followers of Jesus, by looking at what it means to be "formed in his image" and we'll be aking the question:

"So What? What difference does following Jesus make?"

One of the ways in which we will be doing this is by learning about what Scot McKnight refers to as “The Jesus Creed,” and what Mark Batterson refers to a Primal Christianity. We will discuss what it means to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. We will also learn and develop spiritual practices/disciplines (habits) that can heighten our desires for, awareness of, and love of God and which will also strip down the barriers that we put up within ourselves between us and God and us and others.

Come back daily everyday between now and Easter Sunday for more lenten thoughts.

Please visit Christine Sine's inspiring blog, Godspace for more thoughts on Following Jesus, what difference has it made?

Lent, Day 1 Video:

The Unforced Rhythms of Grace

In John 1:16, the writer describes the richness of the newly come Kingdom of God when he states: “We live off his generous bounty, gift after gift, after gift.” (The Message) Another version, The Living Bible says it this way: “We have all benefited from the rich blessings he brought to us- blessing upon blessing heaped upon us!” Still other versions put it this way: “For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.” (New American Standard Bible); “Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given.” (Today's New International Version); and “…and out of his fullness did we all receive, and grace over-against grace;” (Young's Literal Translation).

Listening to these interpretations combined, we can envision grace coming to us in waves: grace upon grace upon grace, grace being replaced by grace already given.

Close your eyes and listen...you can hear these waves lapping gently against the shoreline...

Grace...Grace...Grace...Grace...

In the NIV's version of this beautiful passage we read this description of the way in which God desires to bestow provision, both physical and spiritual, on us in the new regime initiated by his son, the Christ: “16From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. 17For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Briefly, these are my “takeaways” from this:

1) Grace comes in ebbs and flows. We are given blessings and then sometimes they are seemingly taken away, only to be replaced by newer, greater- albeit similar in nature- blessings later on in time. It is a rhythm that cannot be forced.

2) This grace/abundance/blessing comes from Jesus who is full of both grace and truth. It cannot be achieved through purely human effort.

3) The mention of grace and truth together is not accidental- there is a connection. In order to be able to experience fully these waves of grace that are offered to us, and in order to be buoyed through the lulls of grace, we must anchor ourselves to Truth. Not truth with a lowercase “t”-which is the truth of the world as we see it…we must be solidly connected and receiving Truth with a capital “T,” and that kind of truth is not a proposition or a proposal or a set of facts or descriptions about the world- it is a person, the Person of Jesus Christ. We must anchor ourselves "in Christ".

In his paraphrase of Matthew 11:28-30, Eugene Peterson describes “the unforced rhythms of grace.” Here’s this beautiful phrase in context:

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion?

Come to me.
Get away with me and you’ll recover your life.

I’ll show you how to take a real rest.
Walk with me and work with me- watch how I do it.
Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.
I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you.
Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly”

Matthew 11:28-30 (The Message)

Did you ever get caught in a rip-current? I have. One minute you’re happily enjoying swimming in the beautiful vast sea, with the shore safely before you…the next minute you realize that you are not in control, and you can't seem to get to the shoreline. No matter how hard you fight, no matter how strongly you swim, the shoreline’s safety evades you. You begin to become tired, exhausted, and all the effort you are putting forth is doing only one thing-draining you of your ability to keep your head from ecoming completely submeged. I have been there: I call these times in my life the "one nostril above the waterline" times. They are scary.

Do you know the best way to get into shore and keep both nostrils above the waterline when you feel as if you are being pulled out to sea by an undercurrent? It’s to let go, lay back, stop swimming and just float. You let go, always keeping your eyes on the beach, and you let the current push you back in.

And so it is with life. Sometimes we try to force grace. We recognize a promise that God has whispered into our lives, and when that promise doesn’t come into immediate fruition, we panic. We begin a swim toward shore which is nothing more than a lot of thrashing and flailing and we think this will get us into the safety of the sand. But it seems the more we do this, the more exhausted we get, and our efforts begin to feel, surprisingly, counterproductive. That’s because they are. All the effort in the world will not bring about God’s promise of blessing and grace one second earlier than His appointed time.

Learning to "lean into Grace" is one of the most difficult spiritual practices to do, but it is key to being able to experience the authentic trusting life of a Christ-follower.

My mother used to say to me: “God is never late. Always on time- and rarely shows up early.” She was trying to tell me to be patient; to wait upon the Lord; and to not try to force grace’s rhythms. When we attempt to manipulate the rhythms of grace, we end up wrinkling the fabric of time and history. That may sound very esoteric and mystical, but I say this unapologetically. Because Grace is mystical…

Let’s look at some examples of what happens when grace’s rhythm is forced:

~Abraham and Sarah were promised the blessing of becoming a great nation, yet rather than believing in God’s supernatural provision- they worked within their own ‘logic’ and created a ‘solution’ by getting Hagar pregnant. Their ‘solution’ became a big problem.

~Moses was told by God that he would have the blessing of being the one to free the Hebrews from their slavery, yet rather than waiting on God’s perfect timing, Moses lost his temper when seeing a slave being mistreated. He freed one slave by killing an abusive Egyptian, but the Hebrew people languished in Egypt while Moses spent many years in exile in the desert.

~The Hebrew people knew they were promised the blessing of being a great nation, but rather than believing that their God works outside the scope of the ordinary, they disobeyed God and insisted that they needed a king to become powerful. This mistake cost them much.

Granted to us by the efforts of The Truth, grace is a gift that is simply unachievable through human effort. When we try to do so, we are literally setting ourselves up as gods. Not good. Not a gracious way to live. Not living by faith, through grace. Not helpful, and never profitable.

Forced grace is not grace at all. Today, let God’s grace wash over you like a mighty river, let it carry you where God wills. Rest in it. Bask in it. Learn its unforced rhythms…

Changed Into Fire...

A disciple once came to Abba Joseph, saying,

“Father, according as I am able, I keep my little rule, my little fast, and my little prayer.

And according as I am able, I strive to cleanse my mind

of all evil thoughts and my heart of all evil intents.

Now, what more should I do?”

Abba Joseph rose up and stretched out his hands to heaven,

and his fingers became like ten lamps of flame.

He answered,

“Why not be totally changed into fire?”

~from Prayer by Richard Foster

Been thinking a lot lately about the difference between pleasing God with our obedience and appeasing Him with works righteousness.

The two look awefully alike, yet the latter parades itself around as the former and does violence to my relationship with God.

The latter strips me of my ability to humbly accept God's grace.

When I ty to appease God with my fine deeds and good works, I end up being like Peter who balked when Jesus knelt to wash his feet.

I am sending this message: "Thanks. I'm good. I've got this."

When the truth is that: I'm ungrateful, and: No, I'm not good. No, I don't "have it."

Make no mistake, there are things we all need to "do" which are helpful in transforming us into the likeness of Christ. Being a disciple of Jesus has nothing to do with passivity!

It's certainly important to remember that while God is not interested in our attempts at earning, He is not opposed to effort.

The Pharisees were all about earning. Their righteousness was works in action. They did all the right things, read scripture prolifically, prayed (with aplomb on the temple steps, remember?), tithed, behaved correctly, and even participated in (sometimes unsolicited and one-way) "accountability programs" (i.e. told people how to act).

But Jesus repeatedly opposed the Pharisees. In fact, in Matthew 5:20, he said: "For I say to you that unless your rightousnes surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven" (NASB)

Stated succinctly, Jesus makes it clear that our rightousness need to SUPASS that of the pharisees.

Clearly works-righteousness like the Pharisees isn't good enough; He doesn't want our earning.
So, what does He want? What does "righteousness that exceeds that of the Pharisees" (effort in the absence of earning) look like, you might be asking?

Righteousness that surpasses that of the Pharisees has a "secret ingredient" that the Pharisees didn't include in their recipe for righteousness: Grace

So, if you're really a 'concrete operational' thinker- here's an equation that you might find to be helpful:

My Intentionality (Effort)
+ God's Grace (Jesus Does the Earning)
_______________________________
Transformation of Me into Christ-likeness* (*So I can bless the world!)


In other words- He wants us to lean into His Grace...And Yet...
Our Cooperation...Our intentionality...(and yeah)...Our Effort is okay...

This synergistic participation is best described by Paul in his letter to the Philippians (2:12-3) where he admonishes them to: "Continue to work out your salvation wih fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose."

No amount of work on my part can make me a more godly person. And if I misappropriate my efforts into trying to manage my own sin (or that of others), I have succumbed to a combination of blatent arrogance and naivete that is spiritully fatal. Focusing on sin management will actually bind myself to my sin more tightly, as it then becomes the focus of my attention and the locus of my worship.

Without the intervention of God's Supernatural Grace, nothing comes of my efforts but a lot of nice things done and a more altruistic me. I am not changed. No matter what I do, no matter how many prayers I pray, no matter how many chapters of scripture I read in a week, no matter how many sins I confess and repent of...NOTHING CHANGES unless Christ is in the equation...transforming me...changing me...discipling me...re-making me..reconciling me unto Himself.

Without Christ and the Grace that only He can bring to the table, there is No Real Change...

And there's Definitely no "fire"...

And I wanna BURN for God!

So how does one "become totally change into fire"?

A key can be found in Isaiah 58, where we see God resprimanding His people for performing spiritual practices (specifically fasting), but harbouring bitterness, quarelling, strife, and anger and by perpetuating injustice toward others. God makes it clear that He isn't impressed by such fasting- in fact, he asks a poingnant question: "When you fast like that, without being just to others- how do you expect that I would hear your voice?" (my paraphrase of v. 4).

So then, we ask ourselves: Does God want none of this? Is he telling us to not perform spiritual practices? The answer is a resounding "No!"

It is clear he doesn't want rote compliance, a sort of going-through-the-motions spirituality that makes no difference in a person's everyday life. If we fast or pray, or have daily devotions consistently, yet these practices are merely acts that have no effect in shaping our souls, then God wants us to defer from doing them. He's simply not interested in our works centered compliance- what he wants from us is an entirely different thing- grace centered RADIANCE.

So then, I will lean into God's grace...That means that I will believe Him when He tells me that I am His and that I am redeemed. I will choose to lean into His grace and take Him at His word. Next, I will believe that this same truth applies to my neighbor. I will choose to see her through the loving eyes of Christ- the same eyes that lovingly look at me. Because of this new way of "seeing" (a grace-based way) I will begin to have a transformed way of thinking of myself and my neighbor. My intentionality plus God's grace working in me supplants my need to manage my own sin. God's grace changes me completely into a person who desires to see the lives of others redeemed by God's mercy.

That is how one moves beyond sin managment and becomes changed into radiant fire...