Remember Rest?

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”  – Matthew 11:28-30 NIV

Today, rest stops on our interstate highways are a sign of our times. We have to create places to slow down, stretch, nap, relieve the tedium of endless concrete miles—and turn the radio or CD player off and talk. There are no crossroads on the interstate—places where people used to stop and check their progress. There are only multi-level interchanges designed to let us change direction without stopping. They get us where we want to go, but at a pace that is anything but restful. Where travelers used to rest as they traveled—picnicking, napping, playing in a gurgling stream—today’s motorists use interstate rest stops more like pit stops at the Indy 500—how fast can we get in and out and back on the road? Rest is no longer an integral part of the process of travel. Now it is more like a necessary obstacle, something we have to do in order to reach our destination.

Unfortunately, the spiritual life of many people has become like interstate travel. We push, push, push toward the goal and only stop to rest when absolutely necessary—if we rest at all. God’s chosen people found themselves in a similar situation once, and he made a recommendation to them through the prophet Jeremiah. They had been living such fast-paced lives that they were no longer stopping at the crossroads of their faith, the ancient paths laid down by their forefathers. They were not refreshing themselves with the words of God’s covenant. As a result, God told them to stop at the crossroads and ask directions; ask how to get back on the ancient paths where they would find rest for their souls (Jeremiah 6:16); get off the faithless highways and byways that were leading them away from their God.

Jesus Christ quoted Jeremiah when speaking to some unrepentant cities in Israel; home to people on the fast track, people who had no spiritual peace. “Come to me,” he said, “and you will find rest for your souls.” Could he be speaking to you today as well? Make his rest an integral part of your spiritual journey. Why not arrive refreshed?

 God’s Promise to You:

“Your life in me is a rest stop for your soul.”

- Ken Boa

Has God's Grace and Love really Run-a-Muck?

Grace and Love condemning condemners herald the accusation that graceful loving people have gone over the balance line when it comes to God grace and love. However, when it comes to God's grace and love there is no balance line, grace and love stands firm, you cannot go too far to the left or too far to the right because no matter how far you go God's GRACE is already there and His LOVE has already covered the multitude of wrongs.

Grace and Love as taught by "grace buting, love limiters" has reduced God's Amazing Grace and Unconditional Love to a means of being a fire escape from hell...if grace has run-a-muck...it is the muck-pile that the grace-condemners and love-limiters created by discrediting God's Grace and love. Grace that is reduced to being just a fire escape is a false gospel muck-pile of hog-wash and deception that renders God LOVELESS.

God's Grace and Love is clearly a transformative Gospel that goes far beyond being a fire escape from hell, according to Titus 2:11-14: For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

The slingers of the phrases "Grace is the lazy man's Gospel" and "people are better lovers than God" are so uninformed about Grace and Love that their ignorance far overrides the deception they are in. Their idea that "being under grace" and "not under law" is that we are free from moral obligation and can sin without any consequences, but no problem because God is love so there is nothing to worry about. The charge that grace people teach that you do not have to obey the law because we have gotten out of balance is indicative of their deceptional illusion...for not obeying the teachings of Jesus is not due to too much grace and love, rather, it shows a lack of grace and love living,  because to nullify God's commands means we have not understood His Grace or His Love. Grace and love is not only the means of forgiveness, it is also is the POWER for our OBEDIENCE...in fact, without the power of grace and love it is impossible to obey God's commands righteously. Doing it by self-effort is a result of self-righteousness in trying keep the Law as the measurement of obedience is a stench in the nostrils of God!

To preach the Law Keeping Gospel as a means of determining where we are spiritual is utter nonsense. A person cannot keep the Law of God without the Grace and Love of God. It is grace and love that sets you free to "walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit." The Spirit is not given by Law Keeping but to be graceful loving in living. Self-effort never produces righteousness no matter how well meaning it may be.

Live grace and love, speak grace and love, speak it correctly and the people who accept it will receive grace's love and power to live godly lives and fulfill its righteous requirements as they live the truth of what Grace and Love is in that their sin, past...present.and future is forgiven.

To be graceful loving costs me nothing and requires nothing of me. That’s the scandalous part that the law keepers can't get around it is an affront to "religious narrow-mindedness." Does that mean grace loving people have the right to continue to sin? Romans 6:1-2 is the answer; What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?

This idea idea of ‘balance’ by the law keepers gives them the ability to keep God's people in the bondage of legalism.
God's grace and love does not need to be balanced with the Law, it needs to be experienced and lived for what it is! The true ‘Good News Gospel’ will not explain away morality and to live the moral commands, but enable their joyful and effortless fulfillment.

God created you and He loves you and because of His love for people He sent His Son to redeem you. God chose you because He loves you, He did not not choose you to damn you to an eternity of suffering! Don't take the condemnation and damnation of law-keepers as being from God, they are speaking out of ignorance and in need of your prayers for freedom from deception's deception.

Dead Flowers

A lot of people like to get flowers. Fresh cut flowers are so fresh and colorful and can be enjoyed for several days.

The only problem with cut flowers is that they do not last. Cut flowers are outwardly colorful and beautiful but they are actually dead.

The flowers die because they have been separated from the vine. The part that goes into the ground and gives water, nutrients and supplies life to the flower can no longer supply what is necessary for the colorful part to continue living.

Just as cut flowers wither and die because they have been cut off from their life source, so we as followers of Christ can wither and die spiritually if we are cut off from our source of life who is Jesus.

He is the vine, we are the branches. Apart from the vine just as the flowers are in the process of dying, so we too are in the process of dying spiritually.

John 15:5 – I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.

Apart from Christ we can do nothing that brings spiritual life to ourselves and spiritual joy to others. Apart from the vine we cannot bear good fruit. This is why it is so important to be connected to Christ who is our life source.

It is in Him that we live, move and have our being. He supplies all our need. He provides us daily with what we need to truly live for him. We cannot do anything that is of any spiritual worth or that makes a real difference in the life of another apart from Him.

Our main focus should be on Christ. He is our life. We need to give Christ the preeminence in all things. He is the Vine, we are the branches, apart from Him we can do nothing.

To continue showing the love and acceptance of God to others, to bring the good news of the gospel of Christ to those we meet we need to be attached to the vine, our life source who is Jesus, God within us.

Grace - Strongest When We Are at Our Weakest!

Grace comes into its own in weakness, isn't that wonderful?  It works the MOST magically and powerfully when we are bitter, angry, in turmoil, doubting, at our lowest and worst.   It always, ALWAYS flows in us and works its magic most noticeably, strongly and wonderfully JUST at those times when we are 'awfullest' - to others and to ourselves!

Grace is sufficient at all times for us..for His power is made perfect - comes into its own - in weakness..our weakness, failures, bravado, deceitfulness, cowardice, rage and angst!

And we don't have to get rid of confusions, doubts, or 'constrictions' in order to receive grace or get it to flow to us or through us...that's a condition, and there are NO conditions on grace!  Grace itself gets rids of any barriers or constrictions in our thinking or beliefs WITHOUT our help!

Grace is always inside us, flowing in and through and upon and over and out of us..we don't have to do anything to get grace to come or work in our lives..grace ALWAYS comes to us, is ALWAYS with us, and is ALWAYS working in our lives, and Grace ALWAYS wins out in the end over any angst, fear, bitterness, failure, defeat, addiction, pain or turmoil.

Grace us always 'flowing like a river,' always flowing in, to and through us!

Love is with us, Love is living in us..

Love always wins, Grace always prevails!

- Under the Waterfall

Prayer for the Week

Father, we thank you that, we can come before you this morning as your people, as a family, as a body of people that you have called to yourself, and as we contemplate the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, as we contemplate the community, of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and we think about the interaction that must be going on between these three persons in heaven, three persons one entity one essence one in purpose pouring out love to each other and receiving back love, because we know our God that you are love, as we think about all of that and this from all eternity because this is who you are that you because you are love you are giving out of yourself, you are giving it out your pouring out your life eternal life.  And then to think, that you Lord Jesus, became flesh, became a human being, you entered into what we are as creatures, and then as you lived your life and then die, buried and raised, you caught us up within yourself, and you seated us in Heavenly places in yourself into, the very presence, into union with yourself, and in the Godhead. Now your love is poured out, that which was poured out amongst, Father, Son and spirit is now poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, and now we are able to pour out and give ourselves not only to you Heavenly Father, but to those around us.  This is wonderful our God, this is this is beyond our wildest imaginations, this is beyond any human fabrication or any human creativity, who could have thought of such a thing because, it has to come from the very source itself.  Life comes from the source, one source, you our God, love comes from the source because you are love, and so we thank you Father your pouring out yourself into our lives and you've come a you dwelt in us even so, you have dwelt in us, we now are your house your home, thank you so much. We want to praise you this morning. we want to tell you we love you this morning, because of your great plan, the mystery of Christ being revealed to us through the new covenant that you've made with us.  We praise you this morning for that and for the relationship and the intimacy and the communion we can have with you.  Its wonderful and that we could have with each other as we look and see Jesus in each of us here this morning.  We bless you our God wonderful God, how wonderful you are, there is no God like you, everything else is nonsense, nothing can compare to your Majesty, to your creativity, to the very person that you are love, and all of the attributes that come with your person. We bow before you and acknowledge you are God, and you are amazing. We pray our prayers in the name of Jesus. Amen.

ReThinking the Source of Life

Over the next few weeks, we will be exploring the twelve convictions of the ReKnew Manifesto. The first of which focuses on where we get life.

In many of my writings, I speak about the source of “life.” By this I mean one’s core sense of identity, worth, significance and security. Over the years, I’ve observed that many Christians tend to get their “life” from the rightness of their beliefs. They base their identity on whether or not they believe the right things.

A core conviction that shapes the work we do at ReKnew is that “life”—our sense of identity—is founded in the love that God has shown us on Calvary. Because God loved us by paying an unsurpassable price, we each have unsurpassable worth, not because of what we believe, but simply because of God’s love. If we seek to get our “life” from any other source of “life”—including the assumed rightness of our beliefs—we are practicing idolatry.

Admittedly, this is a bit tricky because I am obviously passionate about theology. In addition, the work we do at ReKnew focuses on helping people to “rethink” what they thought they already knew. However, even though what we believe is extremely crucial, God’s concern for the loving way we defend our beliefs outweighs the correctness of those beliefs. We are called to do everything in love (1 Cor 16:14) and this includes how we debate our beliefs.

Our ability to lovingly debate beliefs depends upon getting our “life” from Christ. We are created, even as theologians, to get all of our core identity, worth, significance and security from our relationship with Jesus Christ, and from him alone. Because the cross demonstrated our unsurpassable worth to God, even if our beliefs are inaccurate in some respect, we can be secure in the cross-like love that Jesus has for us.

“Life” cannot be found in believing we are right (or by any other means, such as money, respect, or beauty).

While on the surface, this core conviction might sound basic and to some degree obvious, theological idolatry runs rampant. It is commonplace for those who are most passionate about theology to seek “life” just at this point. This is most clearly demonstrated when Christians become agitated, irrational and unloving when a core belief is challenged. This approach to theology might result in winning the debate, but it fails at love.

Getting all our “life” from Christ means that no aspect of our core identity, worth or security is threatened when what we believe is challenged. In fact, when we find “life” in the love of Christ, we can enter into dialogue with one another in a loving manner.

Even though we are passionate about the importance of the theological vision we feel called to advance through ReKnew, we are even more passionate about presenting these beliefs and engaging others in a manner that displays the love Jesus showed us on the cross.

- Greg Boyd

Nothing but Christ Crucified

One of the most remarkable expressions of the all-encompassing nature of the cross is reflected in an incidental, but extremely important, comment that Paul made in his First Letter to the Corinthians. He noted that when he brought “the testimony of God” to Corinth, he hadn’t come “with eloquence or human wisdom”. He instead “resolved to know nothing…except Jesus Christ and him crucified’ (I Cor. 1:1-2).

While this statement may be somewhat hyperbolic (did Paul really resolve to know absolutely nothing except Christ crucified?), it clearly implies that, for Paul, the entire gospel was found in the message of the cross. It implies that, when we understand what took place through the “foolishness of the cross,” we understand all that we need to know about God and about other humans. When you know the character of God revealed on the cross and what he thinks about us, as revealed on the cross, you’ve got the essence of all you need to know about anyone.

Excerpt from Benefit of the Doubt, pages 233-234 – Greg Boyd