No Place Like Home

January 31, 2019

No Place Like Home

Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.

John 14:23

Cheryl and I love our home. I could go on and on about the joy we’ve had in remodeling and decorating our home. Without even a smidgen of hyperbole, at least once per day, one of us will comment on how much we love our home. The mountain ambiance is stunning and contributes greatly to our love affair with our home. However, the core of our love affair with our home is not so much the bricks and mortar, or the setting. We have come to that glorious place where we are at peace with ourselves. We love who we are, and where we are in life. This place of tranquility is made possible because God the Father and Christ Jesus first made their home within us.

The Apostle Paul said this was one of the greatest mysteries of the Christian faith: “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). The very moment you give your life to God through faith in Christ, God moves into your heart. However, it has taken me years to grasp the reality of this truth, and to yield myself to being redecorated and remodeled from within by the Master Architect of the universe, Christ Jesus. More and more, I am realizing the almost incomprehensible magnitude of the psalmist’ simple statement, “Be still, and know that I am God!” (Psalm 46:10). Only by my being still in the presence of Abba can I begin to plumb the depths of what it means to have Christ within me, my hope of glory. The more I allow this reality to take hold of me, the less my soul is troubled by anything.

John 14 is so very rich in blessings from Jesus. For me, where I am now, perhaps the greatest of those blessings is, “and we will come to them and make our home with them.”

My Takeaway: Abba Father at home with me. Christ in me, my hope of glory.

My my.

Sē’lah

Alex

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Doing Justice and Loving Kindness

January 30, 2019

Doing Justice and Loving Kindness

“Let your bearings towards one another arise out of your life in Christ Jesus”

Philippians 2:5 (NEB 1961)

When you are able to make peace with your own paradoxical nature, you can hear the words of a spiritual director, “Give up trying to look like a saint. It’ll be a lot better for everybody.” When we are at peace with God, who is at peace with us, we can lay aside our obsession with projecting the perfect Christian image and get on with living our life in Christ, which is simply a matter of practicing WWJD. (What Would Jesus Do?)

When we lose our preoccupation with ourselves, we are amazed to see that the life in Christ is not rocket science. Whenever Jesus was moved with emotion for the condition of people, he took action. Jesus illustrated how this can work out in our lives in his parable of the Good Samaritan. The priest and the Levite, the ones who knew the most about God, failed to act. The Samaritan, who supposedly knew the least about God, was commended by Jesus because he acted with compassion. Jesus tells us, “Go and do likewise” (Luke 10:37). The Apostle John summarized Jesus’ commendation of the Samaritan when he wrote, “Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth” (1 John 3:18). When we obey Jesus’ imperative, when we say “yes and amen” to John’s teaching, we will grasp the simplicity of Micah’s teaching on doing justice and loving kindness.

My Takeaway: This is the life in Christ in a nutshell. Take a leap of faith, and embrace your right standing with God, and then go and do what the Holy Spirit shows you Jesus would do if he were standing in your shoes. (Which of course he is, since your leap of faith embraces the truth, “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27b NRSV).

The Paradox of Grace

January 29, 2019

The Paradox of Grace

And for their sakes I sanctify myself,

so that they also may be sanctified in truth.

John 17:19 (NRSV)

A paradox is a seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement or proposition. Jesus’ statement in his prayer (John 17) certainly seems to qualify as a paradox. The idea that we are somehow sanctified by the truth of who Jesus is, and what Jesus has done for humankind, is incomprehensible. Yet clearly, Jesus desperately wants us to grasp this truth and to learn to rest in our blessed identity as the children of God. Thomas Merton was very helpful in leading us to this place of rest when he noted, “A saint is not someone who is good but who experiences the goodness of God.”

I think Merton’s observation helps us put into a living context the Prophet Micah’s instructions to the saints of God. We are “to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with (our) God” (Micah 6:8b NRSV). We can think together another day of what Micah means by doing justice and loving kindness. Today, let’s focus on walking humbly with God because we often act in unsaintly ways; even so our Abba keeps reminding us we have been sanctified in the blood of Jesus.

Here is a simple exercise for training to walk humbly. First, make a list of your personal paradoxes. Think of your own contradictions. For instance, I know I believe the Gospels, but I also have doubts. I hope in Christ, yet I get discouraged. I love God’s Kingdom, but sometimes I hate. Sometimes I feel guilty for believing I am so blessed. Sometimes I feel badly for not feeling bad enough about the suffering and oppression of others. I can be trusting, but I am also suspicious and cynical. I know the Gospel of grace, but I still get caught up in performance-based-acceptance issues. Now it is your turn. Take time and ponder your very own paradoxical nature.

Next, imagine Jesus putting one arm around the paradoxical you, and another arm around the sanctified you as he smiles and says, “I love you.” If you respond by singing Amazing Grace as you walk along with Jesus, you are walking humbly with God.

My Takeaway: I know it’s hard to sing while laughing and crying at the same time, but give it a try. J   

Sē’lah

Alex

<><  <><  <><  <><

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Shaking Off The Stunning Befuddlement

January 28, 2019

Shaking Off The Stunning Befuddlement

Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion,

for great is the Holy One of Israel among you.

Isaiah 12:6

This debate has raged for over two thousand years: who gets saved? The responses are extreme. Some say everybody is already saved; some say everybody who simply repeats the right words; and still others say only the few who conform to certain doctrinal beliefs. The longer I live, the more I take the road less traveled. I am with the few who “When (they) discovered a pearl of great value, (they) sold everything (they) owned and bought it!” (Matthew 13:46 NLT).

I believe when Jesus gave that parable, the merchant represented two different identities. The first was a representation of God, who gave everything, even His only begotten son, for the redemption of human kind. Secondly, the merchant represents those who, after shaking off the stunning befuddlement of sheer grace, sell off all that they are and all that they have for the Kingdom of God.

I do not mean this in a literal way. While some saints may in fact have literally disposed of all their material possessions, those saints we know the best, the ones who wrote the New Testament, did not. However, they most assuredly surrendered their rights to their own life to the sovereignty of Jesus Christ. These few are the ones who risked everything on this Gospel of Grace, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10).

My Takeaway: It is my heart’s desire to be counted among their number.

Sē’lah

Alex

<><  <><  <><  <><

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.