Tuesday, May 17, 2011

The Hub

Jesus truly is meant to be the end--the goal in life--for all of us. He is the hub, the center, from which all of our life is to emanate and rotate off of. The WWJD logo got it partially right. But, it isn't just "What would Jesus do?" It is "What would Jesus think?" "Who would Jesus BE at the core of His being?"

What Jesus did came from within. It wasn't something tagged on like a fish sticker on a car... or something that He did because that moment or that situation demanded it or made it a necessity or happened to prick His heart. It was who He was all the time--every moment of every day--He couldn't help but do what He did. He couldn't separate Himself out. It was His very being.

In fact, I'll go a step further...He defines it! It wouldn't even exist without Him. He doesn't just exemplify love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, forgiveness, faithfulness, self-control--He is these things in their purest truest form.

Communion and what it means to commune with the Lord took on a whole new meaning for me when the Lord placed the following vision in my mind...

I was with a group of people who were praying for different individuals in a room. They were telling a certain young man that he needed to forgive someone. When they said this, I saw Jesus, in my mind's eye, standing in front of this young man, and he so carefully took a white communion wafer and laid it on the young man's tongue. The wafer began to melt and as it melted it became part of this young man. The Lord then impressed the following thought into my mind. "I am forgiveness" and I got what I like to call "The Download." --There is no TRUE forgiveness without Him. He embodies it. He defines it. It doesn't exist without Him.

It is as we take Him in...as we learn of Him...as we eat His flesh and drink His blood--not in a ritualistic way, but in relationship of fellowship--dining with Him--that we too truly forgive or express any true virtue.

He melts into us, like that communion wafer and who He is becomes our life and our being. As we commune with Him...talk with Him...spend time with Him...listen to Him...meditate on Him...behold Him in worship and word...and He reveals Himself to us...He places who He is on our tongue...He says come eat of me and learn of me...He melts into us...It is then that we become like Him...we become one with Him...as He is one with the Father and He becomes our being...And then all that we do comes from all that we think...all that we truly are becomes as He truly is.

With that in mind, the following excerpt from T. Austin Sparks, which actually sparked (I just caught that!) this whole blog today, is just too good not to share.


We have to continually ask the question: "Is Christ everything in this matter, or am I wanting my own way? Am I allowing my own feelings, desires and likes to dominate or is Christ everything? Is Christ in all here, so far as it is within my power, in the energy of the Holy Spirit, for it to be so?" That has to be reduced to the minutia of daily life. We have to get away when we are upset, annoyed, provoked, irritated, and fight that battle out and say: "Lord, You have to be everything in this matter: it does not matter how my interests are affected." And from those details of everyday life and experience out to the wider ranges, and up to the place where we may be the Lord’s responsible servant, the Word and the Spirit have to govern; and the Word and the Spirit have one object: Christ - everything and in all.

Recognising that, we see that this further thing is necessary, that we are a truly spiritual people. It is very often difficult to define what is meant by spirituality, or a spiritual people. It is one of those things better experienced than explained. But for the moment it can be put quite simply and quite safely and soundly in this way, that a spiritual people is a people who are governed by the Word and the Holy Spirit to this end: that in everything within and without, Christ is all and in all. That is true spirituality. The difference between Israel in the wilderness and Israel in the land, is the difference between Israel carnally and Israel in conquest and victory, because the flesh had been cut off in Jordan and set aside in Gilgal, and now it is a people after the Spirit. There arises upon that ground the very fact of conflict.
By T. Austin-Sparks from: Filled Unto All the Fullness of God - Chapter 3
From: http://www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/002859.html

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