ELUSIVE FACT republished from 9/2/2014

ELUSIVE  FACT

I was a Christian tied to a sin I could not overcome.  It had become a part of my life.  I knew the answer was in Christ but could not make that answer real until shown the simple key. 

Sin is only a symptom and never the problem. I was trying to fix something that was a part of me and who I was…beyond my control.  The real problem is the illusion resting behind sin (every sin). 

The illusion strikes hardest during moments of frustration (including stress, pain, confusion, and sorry) It happens when we experience a false sense of separated from God.

As Spirit filled Christians we know how ridicules that mis-perception is.  After all it is impossible for an omnipresent God to be absent at any time or anyplace.  His absence is an illusion dating back to the garden. 

The illusion disappears when we are conscious of God’s indwelling presence.  So the question is how do we, humans, become aware of God’s presence?  But because the answer is so simple and so easy it is ignore as trivial.  We have been led to think defeating sin is supposed to be hard.  IT IS NOT! STOP WORKING AT IT! 

The key is prayer. But not prayer to be stronger than your sin…you were never intended to be stronger than sin. If you were Jesus wasted His time dying on the cross.  My friend, that prayer is out of the will of God.

Pray for something we know is the will of God.  Ask for God consciousness.  He wants us to be aware of Him always. It is His will that you recognize His presents within you every moment of every day.  That is a prayer He will always answer when asked in faith believing. 

That is why temptation is so important.  It is our reminder that we have taken our eyes off of Him. Welcome temptation and respond by asking God to give you God consciousness.  Then rejoice at His presents, the God of the universe is in you.  You might even through in a little thanks while you are at it.

UNION WITH GOD

                 UNION WITH GOD

It is human nature to unite with what we love.  It becomes for us the most important thing in life.  If God is Love, and I believe He is, it makes sense that God loves you and me in just that way.  In light of God's love it is reasonable that He chose to become human die in order to do away with what separates us from Him.

Now, what kind of God of love would He be if no one ever loved Him back.  And that is all He wants from you and me...to love Him back.  Our reciprocal love for one another seals our mutual union.  Nothing at all can separate us from the love of God.

However, we can can pull away from Him, sometimes without knowing we have.

We threaten our union with God when the most important thing in life becomes something else...a person, a lifestyle, a cultural viewpoint, a political conviction, or any such thing.  We have pulled away when something else becomes the "object of our affection."

Four separate Christian daily devotional enter-net publishers had something to say about our union with God. They pointed out that often it is painful to recognize and then release things that we have put before the One Who loves us more than anything else.  That is until we deliberately reorder our affections, choosing to love God completely once more.

While it us true, no two Christians see eye to eye on everything.  I close with the comments taken from some of today's Christian daily devotional posts on this topic.

1) We are meant for union with God. Therefore, the soul has to become free from its attachments to finite things so as to be free for communion with God.
 (Robert Barron)

2) The shepherds...Men who didn’t have a reputation to protect or an ax to grind or a ladder to climb. Men who didn’t know enough to tell God that angels don’t sing to sheep and that messiahs aren’t found wrapped in rags and sleeping in a feed trough.
They knelt before the One only the meek will see. They were kneeling in front of Jesus.
 (Max Lucado)

3) Jesus, we worship you as King of Kings and Lord of lords. You are my King. You have rule over my heart and my life, my thoughts and time and goals. I bow to You only and give you full and free reign over my life. Help me not to grip anything so tightly that I am unwilling to release it to You. You are a just King; our Prince of Peace. Help me to desire Your kingdom above that of my own making and bow to Your will above my own.
 (Lisa Appelo)

4) When Jesus taught, “If anyone wants to follow me, let them renounce themselves!” (Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23), Jesus meant a radical surrendering of our will to Another whom we trust more than ourselves.
 (Richard Rohr)