“My Time Has Not Yet Come.”

Posted on January 15, 2013 by LovingLikeGod.com

My Time Has Not Yet ComeJohn 2:1-4

Without a doubt, John Eldridge is a very gifted writer, and more often than not even a very insightful writer, but where the first of Jesus’ miracles is concerned he seems to have missed it on at least two very important counts. The first count has to do with the timing of the wedding wine, and the second has to do with Jesus motivation, which for John Eldridge is “Extravagant Generosity.”

Having just read “Beautiful Outlaw” for the fourth time, I find myself needing to respond to a missing element, a very important missing element in Chapter Six – “Extravagant Generosity.”

Sometime later in the ministry of Jesus, after many miracles, there came a time when some Gentiles wanted to meet Jesus. On that occasion He replied, “Now is the hour for the Son of Man to be glorified,” John 12:20-50.

Not long after that He held up a cup at the end of the last supper – a wedding supper – “This is my blood of the new covenant,” Luke 20:22.

In the Old Testament, this cup is better defined as the “cup of his espousals,” Song of Songs 3:11.

All this to say that Jesus’ first miracle turns out to be a preview of His last and greatest miracle. What was needed was not only more wine, but new wine, and a new and everlasting Spirit – poured out without measure – a cup of life without limit and without end. The Spirit of everlasting life was and is in that Wine – that Blood.

Was it Extravagant? Yes certainly it was extravagant.

Was it Generous? This is a bit more problematic. This is the blood by which He purchased an everlasting Bride of His own choosing. The price was certainly extravagant, but the extravagance was and is the measure of His love for us – His desire for us.  His generosity was the measure of how much He wanted us.

It is that desire for us, that desirability in us with which we must finally come into agreement.  We must agree with His assessment of who we are to Him – how important we are to Him.  This is our new and unshakable identity in and from Him.  In that moment every identity crisis of our lives comes to an end. His “Generous Extravagance” is the eternal end of our every identity crisis!  His love for us is our new and everlasting identity!

It is this miracle of our transformed identity that we will visit in our exploration of the next level.

Love!

Posted in J.Ferris: Intimacy | 3 Comments

Les Mis

Posted on January 5, 2013 by LovingLikeGod.com

Les MisThe musical movie version

Amazing!! I have never experienced anything quite like it.

Having now seen it, it proved something to me that perhaps could not have been proved in any other way – The Power of Music. The acting was monumental, and with it the clarity between the role of roles of acting, emotion, and music in stirring the human heart.

The Non- musical movie was emotionally flat by comparison, and the Musical DVDs – 10th Anniversary, and 25th Anniversary editions soaring in comparison to this newest movie version. This was like being included in a research laboratory – a kind of clinical trial exploring the role of well acted out emotion as distinct from the musical dimension of communication. Man of La Mancha, (the movie with Sophia Loren) comes closest to revealing the same interplay.

To this day, I am brought to tears by both Man of La Mancha and The Dream Cast editions of Les Mis, but was not so moved by this latest musical film version. It is not that I was not powerfully impacted. It is just that I was impacted in another way. Here the point was driven home in ways that exceeded all other versions, but it was more like a musical power point presentation, than riding an emotional tidal wave.

There is a Handel’s Messiah dimension or quality to the Dream Cast editions, perhaps the result of the supplemental choral accompaniment there which was not present here. This is definitely worth seeing from a surgically elaborative and compelling point of view, but not so much from the perspective of an emotional act of Love and Grace experience. The acting, production, and even singing are all amazing, but, for me, not as moving as the big sound choral presentations.

Love!

Posted in J.Ferris: Current Events | 4 Comments

The Part That Shows – Still Another Level

Posted on January 4, 2013 by LovingLikeGod.com

The Part That Shows - Another Level
“Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.”  Proverbs 27:17 (KJV)

As I continued to think about the levels of understanding the post of Dec. 27, 2012 – “The Truth Hurts, at least in the beginning,” this older post was brought back to mind once again.

“Countenance”:… As I look at Strong’s, I would have to say that the meaning is “the part that shows.”  That’s what I am struggling with, “the part of me that shows.”  I only looked this up just now, and that only in relationship to you, to try to explain what I have in mind.  It turns out the passage says what I wanted to say better even than I understood it.  The word is used in association with shewbread.  The word there for bread is translated from the original word meaning something to eat, either bread or grain.  Some years ago now I was working on a book chapter titled “GOOD FOOD BAD FOOD.  “Beware the leaven of the Pharisees.”

What we are on our face, is what we feed to others.  By getting in each others face, it is possible to make each other more edible, more nourishing, more fruitful.

“Also before the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal.”  In the original, the root word from which the word “sea” comes is salt.  Revelation 17:15 tells us that “The waters you saw…. are peoples, multitudes, nations and languages.” ”.  We are the salt of the earth…”.  Our transparency is our savor, “the part that shows”.  Webster puts it this way, “that quality of a thing which acts on the sense of taste or of smell.”

Paul puts it this way, and in this instance, THE MESSAGE translation is really clear – 2 Corinthians 2:12-3:6 – “When I arrived in Troas to proclaim the message of the Messiah, I found the place wide open: God had opened the door; all I had to do was walk through it. But when I didn’t find Titus waiting for me with news of your condition, I couldn’t relax. Worried about you, I left and came on to Macedonia province looking for Titus and a reassuring word on you. And I got it, thank God.

In the Messiah, in Christ, God leads us from place to place in one perpetual victory parade.   Through us, he brings knowledge of Christ.   Everywhere we go, people breath in the exquisite fragrance.   Because of Christ, we give off a sweet scent rising to God, which is recognized by those on the way of salvation-an aroma redolent with life.   But those on the way to destruction treat us more like the stench from a rotting corpse.

This is a terrific responsibility.   Is anyone competent to take it on?  No- but at least we don’t take God’s Word, watered down, and then take it to the streets to sell it cheap.   We stand in Christ’s presence when we speak; God looks us in the face.   We get what we say straight from God and say it as honestly as we can.

Does it sound like we are patting ourselves on the back, insisting on our credentials, asserting our authority? W ell, we’re not.  Neither do we need letters of endorsement, either to you or from you.  You yourselves are all the endorsement we need.  Your very lives are a letter that anyone can read by just looking at you.  Christ himself wrote it- not with ink, but with God’s living Spirit; not chiseled into stone, but carved into human lives- and we publish it.

We couldn’t be more sure of ourselves in this- that you, written by Christ himself for God, are our letter of recommendation.  We wouldn’t think of writing this kind of letter about ourselves.  Only God can write such a letter.  His letter authorizes us to help carry out this new plan of action.  The plan wasn’t written out with ink on paper, with pages and pages of legal footnotes, killing the spirit.  It’s written with the Spirit on spirit, his life on our lives!”

Love!

For more reading, see previous level post, “Healing – Another Level“

Posted in J.Ferris: Miscellaneous | 5 Comments