Walking the Passage: IMAGE

Thursday, June 27, 2013

IMAGE

I have sat in green rooms and I have stood in hospitality suites, I have heard you speak on how you and your friends talk about this game of who has who in their phone contacts. In my answer I spoke of how that that is a game that I wouldn't win. Once my answer was heard you began to open your heart. You began to share how lonely life had been, how lonely you were and how lonely you and your wife were... and then we really began to just share hearts.

I received a letter the other day. I held the note in my hands and cried. That which was expressed was the person felt like for the first time they could really be a Christian. That this person had seen superstars in the faith and concluded that she would never be such a person, and in that conclusion believed she could never follow Christ in a way that would bring Him glory. In haphazardly coming across my path she had read something I wrote and listened to a morning devotional and had begun to have some of her false conclusions confronted.

I'm going to let you in on a little secret.... THERE ARE NO SUPERSTARS IN THE FAITH!

If there are it is a little old grandma or grandpa sitting in a prayer room somewhere that the world doesn't even know their name... and they certainly would never consider themselves anything but that which they are...

Media helps to paint an image. Photoshop helps even more. And then you are presented with this very clean cut perfect apostle, prophet, teacher, evangelist, pastor who is the perfect guide into whatever their expertise would happen to be....

I love those that I have been surrounded by... in the last years I have sat under amazing men and women of the faith who are who they are and are brilliant. They share from the heart and use the tools of modern day but not to cover up that which they are...

The word, image, kept coming into my heart and mind this morning... I thought of how we are made in the image of God, I thought of how people have images in their mind of who such and such a person is, I thought about image management and I thought about Christ.

Not that I am walking in one iota of it yet, .. But the verse that pulsates within me and penetrates my entire person is where the people express that Jesus isn't like their scribes, that He walks in real authority. I am hungry to walk in a place where the authority of heaven kisses earth and the reality of it affects the places we dwell.

The path to this place I have felt has stirred up a hunger, a passion for discipline and a desire to know truth in the inner most places. A turning towards the kingdom and the reality of it that infuses all things with Him regardless of circumstances or situation.

In this there is NO image that can be maintained or propped up, in this place it is the place to sit and solidly reside as one who bears the image of the Creator... Our Father.. Our God, it is the place to rest in Jesus and reverberate His words when He spoke, as it is written in John 5

Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing;

I can't say I know what it thoroughly looks like.. but I do know this.. I hunger to have my words and deeds in that alignment. The only image I desire to bare is that one of my Father... any other image falls so dramatically short... I hunger to worship Him as He is not as my thoughts, opinions, philosophy, theology, etc, would have Him be....

Again and always seeking the place where the reality of the Kingdom of God dominates my thoughts and my opinions, my actions and the words I would speak.... That I would be mindful of Him and His ways and who He was and who He is and who He will always be... That is the image .. that is the reality that I want .. To be like Him in all things...

To be like Him when the ruler of this world comes,

To be like Him when the thousands are hungry,

To be like Him when the sick are in need,

To be like Him when the lonely need comfort

To be like Him.. simply.. profoundly .. always.. like Him

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One of my Favorite Narnian Quotes...

“One word, Ma’am,” he said, coming back from the fire; limping because of the pain. “One word. All you’ve been saying is quite right, I shouldn’t wonder. I’m a chap who always liked to know the worst and then put the best face I can on it. So I won’t deny any of what you said, even so. Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all those things – trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones. Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one. And that’s a funny thing, when you come to think of it. We’re just babies making up a game, if you’re right. But four babies playing a game can make a play-world that makes you real world hollow. That’s why I’m going to stand by the play-world. I’m on Aslan’s side even if there isn’t any Narnia. So, thanking you kindly for our supper, if these two gentlemen and the young lady are ready, we’re leaving your court at once and setting out in the dark to spend our lives looking for the Overland.

A Brilliant Quote from Marianne Williamson

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate,

but that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, "Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?"

Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world.

There is nothing enlightening about shrinking

so that others won't feel unsure around you.

We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.

It is not just in some of us; it is in every one.

As we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.