Over the past few years I have spoken in limited terms the concept of the fact we are found worthy by God to walk in His light, to be called children of God, to be redeemed from the darkness and transferred into the Light.
I want to believe that I have been misunderstood. Due to lack of articulation, I have seen these concepts being violently discarded. At the moment I will place the blame on myself. Perhaps I never was clear enough. So here this goes.
You are worthy.
You are worthy to walk with the Spirit.
You are worthy to be removed from Darkness and place within the Light.
You are worthy of the Grace of God to keep you on the Way of Life.
But that worthiness neither diminishes nor increases on what you do. It rests within you. It is who you are underneath your facades and cloaks and grime and filth.
Everything goes back to the beginning.
Perhaps even before the beginning. God had no need of Earth to be created for himself. It could be argued the creation of the world was done merely because His "very good" creation of Man needed a place and environment in which to live. Day after day God created; and at the end of those days God pronounced things as good. When it came to creating Mankind, He ended the day pronouncing it "very good."
God created us from the dust of the ground. Not by words like all else, but by His own hands. He fashioned man in His likeness by his own efforts. He then knelt down and breathed life into us. The breath of God filled our lungs and we began to live. We were perfect. We were made to live for God. We were made for the Light. We were made for the presence of God. We were inherently worthy to know God and be known by Him.
Then Mankind screwed things up. The command was to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. I choose not to believe the common belief that this was arbitrary. That Man was made with free will and that there must be an alternative way from which to choose by our free will. Therefore God made that rule. To follow that idea leads us to God being evil. For He created Man doomed for He knew disobedience would be the option. Instead, the command was important. Perhaps the only consequence God was trying to prevent man from experiencing was death. Perhaps it was deeper in that knowledge of good and evil introduced the war between the two. If we only knew good (because we knew God) then there would be no war for our hearts. No divide in the Light. But should we partake in that tree's fruit we would cause that great divide. Thus God warned against eating it. In protection. Out of love. Not some conceited ploy to force Mankind to either choose God over pleasure knowing the outcome was their death.
Perhaps, then and again, to protect us He removed us from the Garden of Eden. For within that garden was rooted the tree of life. And if Man could live for endless days but be dead in his mind, then such torture would be the first hell. So Man was removed from the Garden. Not due to being unworthy of walking with God. Not because man lost his right to God. But because God sought our well-being.
In addition to all that, before the worlds were even formed God planned the Way of the Cross to redeem man. He knew that death would befall them, so He created a way to Life. We were not even made to be unworthy. Our worthiness was in God's thoughts and mind. Our worthiness is given to us by God.
We are born, having been fearfully and wonderfully made. We are made just the way God intended. With every passion, every drive, with every personality trait, with every strength, and even every tendencies to weakness. He created us perfect. A masterpiece. A creation worthy to be in His presence. A person with a right to His love and goodness. A soul deserving of His grace to walk through this world plagued by darkness and sin.
As a creation placed in a world plagued by sin and darkness, we will inevitably be infected by such parasite. It will lead us astray. It will add chains to our feet to prevent us from walking towards the Light, but will ever-slowly drag us deeper into the darkness. It will bind our hands so we can't reach out for help, clawing at the dust. It will cloak our once-radiant bodies in stench-filled and damp rags, making our passions quenched and personalities reek. We will lose sense of our true identities. We will begin to look in the mirror and only see the mask of hatred and shame darkness places over us. We will no longer see the Light of God burning in us. We will no longer recognize the image of God beneath the mire of the world. Death will churn within us. We will lose all concept of life. And we sway away in the boat down the river of death.
Until the Light of Christ passes over our eyes. Christ comes to us walking on those waters, taking away everything that kept us so ignorant to the Love and Light of God. He will take our hands and lead us onto the waters. He will guide us through the waters of death and plant us on the shores of grace and life. He will continue to lead us away from the murky waters and the darkness and into the realm of His presence and glory and Love. He will provide us grace as we stumble through the sands of the shore between Light and Darkness. He will provide us grace as guiding light as we grope through the twilight.
We were never given this access or power to the Great Love and Light by what we looked like in that boat of sin. We had nothing to offer in our hands. We had nothing to offer in our weaknesses. We were given redemption because our heart held the fragments of the power of God; our heart held the remnant of the light of God. Our hearts were crying out to Heart of Jehovah, pleading for reunification. As was the Heart of Jehovah calling out to find the shard of His heart that sin and death and darkness had bound and captured.
Furthermore we never lose this grace or this love based on what we become or do. Even should we completely abandon the Light, go back to the murky waters, and clamber into the boat to drift away into the sea of darkness, the grace to find our way back to the Light will never leave us. The further we drift, the further we have to pursue God. But we do not become unworthy or undeserving of the reconciliation between Creator and Creation.
Should we embrace this grace in terms of riding in that boat being led astray from Light? Well, absolutely not. That's ridiculous to think we can become awakened from our deep slumber in Darkness only to continue to take naps in our sin. We were awakened to charge after what we were born to experience: the Light and Life of God. Be careful, also, not to be caught up in the Dream of our Hearts where we imagine the awakening due to the great longings of our hearts to be reunited with the Life and Heart of Jehovah, and yet never awaken to truly experience it.
Allow the Spirit to awaken you and lead you. To say we are not worthy to be called the Children of God is to say God made a foolish choice in sacrificing for our reconciliation. To say we do not deserve to walk in the Light is to say that God created us in His image and by His breath for nothing except to abide in the darkness tortured by death and a longing to be whole. To say we do not deserve the help and grace of God to continue our journey to the Love of Jehovah and stay awake unto His Life means we believe God created us with the intention of letting us remain in the Slumber of Suffering and Death. In essence, we make God an evil God.
You were created to love and be loved. You were created to be awake unto the Life of God. You were created to walk in the Way of Christ. You were created to be swayed by the Spirit of God. Therefore you are worthy to such things. You have a right to run after the presence of God.
The things we have done or will do bear absolutely no weight in whether we deserve God's love. His love isn't anything we can merit. It is by God's own desire to lavish upon us great love. And if He so chooses to lavish that love upon us, who are we to say "You're mistaken God. I've done too much wickedness for you to love me." It is His choice to redeem you! It is the choice He has made to call you His child! And if God so chooses to draw us into a walk with Him, who are we to say "Well, of course God would want to walk with me because I've done such great things." We miss the whole point of it all! God isn't walking with us because He admires us or because we are gods to Him. It is we who are walking with Him. We follow Him as He walks amidst His Garden. We are being led through His light. It isn't meritorious. It is God reuniting our heart with His. Bringing us back to the Light He created us in.
You are worthy. Never believe the lie that you are too evil to be loved by God. Never believe the lie that you must change to be loved. God loves you because He chose so. He removes the darkness so that you may fully experience the Light. He removes your masks and blinders so that you may truly see His Face. He removes your chains so you can jump and dance and walk about in His presence and Light. He remove the ropes around our hands so we may clasp ours within His and be led by His holy love. We can clap and praise.
You are beautiful. God doesn't want you to remain in the dirtiness and darkness you find yourself in. He wants you to embrace the true beauty in the identity He designed in you. Wake up to His Love and make your way back to the presence of God by the Way of Christ through the Grace and Power of the Spirit of God. Don't take naps in sin. Don't return to the boat of darkness. Run after God and don't stop. Throw yourself in His embrace. Be alive in His Life. He chose you. He wants you. He loves you.
I want to believe that I have been misunderstood. Due to lack of articulation, I have seen these concepts being violently discarded. At the moment I will place the blame on myself. Perhaps I never was clear enough. So here this goes.
You are worthy.
You are worthy to walk with the Spirit.
You are worthy to be removed from Darkness and place within the Light.
You are worthy of the Grace of God to keep you on the Way of Life.
But that worthiness neither diminishes nor increases on what you do. It rests within you. It is who you are underneath your facades and cloaks and grime and filth.
Everything goes back to the beginning.
Perhaps even before the beginning. God had no need of Earth to be created for himself. It could be argued the creation of the world was done merely because His "very good" creation of Man needed a place and environment in which to live. Day after day God created; and at the end of those days God pronounced things as good. When it came to creating Mankind, He ended the day pronouncing it "very good."
God created us from the dust of the ground. Not by words like all else, but by His own hands. He fashioned man in His likeness by his own efforts. He then knelt down and breathed life into us. The breath of God filled our lungs and we began to live. We were perfect. We were made to live for God. We were made for the Light. We were made for the presence of God. We were inherently worthy to know God and be known by Him.
Then Mankind screwed things up. The command was to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. I choose not to believe the common belief that this was arbitrary. That Man was made with free will and that there must be an alternative way from which to choose by our free will. Therefore God made that rule. To follow that idea leads us to God being evil. For He created Man doomed for He knew disobedience would be the option. Instead, the command was important. Perhaps the only consequence God was trying to prevent man from experiencing was death. Perhaps it was deeper in that knowledge of good and evil introduced the war between the two. If we only knew good (because we knew God) then there would be no war for our hearts. No divide in the Light. But should we partake in that tree's fruit we would cause that great divide. Thus God warned against eating it. In protection. Out of love. Not some conceited ploy to force Mankind to either choose God over pleasure knowing the outcome was their death.
Perhaps, then and again, to protect us He removed us from the Garden of Eden. For within that garden was rooted the tree of life. And if Man could live for endless days but be dead in his mind, then such torture would be the first hell. So Man was removed from the Garden. Not due to being unworthy of walking with God. Not because man lost his right to God. But because God sought our well-being.
In addition to all that, before the worlds were even formed God planned the Way of the Cross to redeem man. He knew that death would befall them, so He created a way to Life. We were not even made to be unworthy. Our worthiness was in God's thoughts and mind. Our worthiness is given to us by God.
We are born, having been fearfully and wonderfully made. We are made just the way God intended. With every passion, every drive, with every personality trait, with every strength, and even every tendencies to weakness. He created us perfect. A masterpiece. A creation worthy to be in His presence. A person with a right to His love and goodness. A soul deserving of His grace to walk through this world plagued by darkness and sin.
As a creation placed in a world plagued by sin and darkness, we will inevitably be infected by such parasite. It will lead us astray. It will add chains to our feet to prevent us from walking towards the Light, but will ever-slowly drag us deeper into the darkness. It will bind our hands so we can't reach out for help, clawing at the dust. It will cloak our once-radiant bodies in stench-filled and damp rags, making our passions quenched and personalities reek. We will lose sense of our true identities. We will begin to look in the mirror and only see the mask of hatred and shame darkness places over us. We will no longer see the Light of God burning in us. We will no longer recognize the image of God beneath the mire of the world. Death will churn within us. We will lose all concept of life. And we sway away in the boat down the river of death.
Until the Light of Christ passes over our eyes. Christ comes to us walking on those waters, taking away everything that kept us so ignorant to the Love and Light of God. He will take our hands and lead us onto the waters. He will guide us through the waters of death and plant us on the shores of grace and life. He will continue to lead us away from the murky waters and the darkness and into the realm of His presence and glory and Love. He will provide us grace as we stumble through the sands of the shore between Light and Darkness. He will provide us grace as guiding light as we grope through the twilight.
We were never given this access or power to the Great Love and Light by what we looked like in that boat of sin. We had nothing to offer in our hands. We had nothing to offer in our weaknesses. We were given redemption because our heart held the fragments of the power of God; our heart held the remnant of the light of God. Our hearts were crying out to Heart of Jehovah, pleading for reunification. As was the Heart of Jehovah calling out to find the shard of His heart that sin and death and darkness had bound and captured.
Furthermore we never lose this grace or this love based on what we become or do. Even should we completely abandon the Light, go back to the murky waters, and clamber into the boat to drift away into the sea of darkness, the grace to find our way back to the Light will never leave us. The further we drift, the further we have to pursue God. But we do not become unworthy or undeserving of the reconciliation between Creator and Creation.
Should we embrace this grace in terms of riding in that boat being led astray from Light? Well, absolutely not. That's ridiculous to think we can become awakened from our deep slumber in Darkness only to continue to take naps in our sin. We were awakened to charge after what we were born to experience: the Light and Life of God. Be careful, also, not to be caught up in the Dream of our Hearts where we imagine the awakening due to the great longings of our hearts to be reunited with the Life and Heart of Jehovah, and yet never awaken to truly experience it.
Allow the Spirit to awaken you and lead you. To say we are not worthy to be called the Children of God is to say God made a foolish choice in sacrificing for our reconciliation. To say we do not deserve to walk in the Light is to say that God created us in His image and by His breath for nothing except to abide in the darkness tortured by death and a longing to be whole. To say we do not deserve the help and grace of God to continue our journey to the Love of Jehovah and stay awake unto His Life means we believe God created us with the intention of letting us remain in the Slumber of Suffering and Death. In essence, we make God an evil God.
You were created to love and be loved. You were created to be awake unto the Life of God. You were created to walk in the Way of Christ. You were created to be swayed by the Spirit of God. Therefore you are worthy to such things. You have a right to run after the presence of God.
The things we have done or will do bear absolutely no weight in whether we deserve God's love. His love isn't anything we can merit. It is by God's own desire to lavish upon us great love. And if He so chooses to lavish that love upon us, who are we to say "You're mistaken God. I've done too much wickedness for you to love me." It is His choice to redeem you! It is the choice He has made to call you His child! And if God so chooses to draw us into a walk with Him, who are we to say "Well, of course God would want to walk with me because I've done such great things." We miss the whole point of it all! God isn't walking with us because He admires us or because we are gods to Him. It is we who are walking with Him. We follow Him as He walks amidst His Garden. We are being led through His light. It isn't meritorious. It is God reuniting our heart with His. Bringing us back to the Light He created us in.
You are worthy. Never believe the lie that you are too evil to be loved by God. Never believe the lie that you must change to be loved. God loves you because He chose so. He removes the darkness so that you may fully experience the Light. He removes your masks and blinders so that you may truly see His Face. He removes your chains so you can jump and dance and walk about in His presence and Light. He remove the ropes around our hands so we may clasp ours within His and be led by His holy love. We can clap and praise.
You are beautiful. God doesn't want you to remain in the dirtiness and darkness you find yourself in. He wants you to embrace the true beauty in the identity He designed in you. Wake up to His Love and make your way back to the presence of God by the Way of Christ through the Grace and Power of the Spirit of God. Don't take naps in sin. Don't return to the boat of darkness. Run after God and don't stop. Throw yourself in His embrace. Be alive in His Life. He chose you. He wants you. He loves you.
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