All Else is Idolatry

 

Our True Identity is in the Humble Christ

Our true identity is
found in the humble Christ,
and there will we find our rest.

“You should have the same attitude toward one another that Christ Jesus had, who though he existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking on the form of a slave, by looking like other men, and by sharing in human nature. He humbled himself, by becoming obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross! As a result God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow – in heaven and on earth and under the earth – and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:5-11)

The Interpenetration of Heaven and Earth

 

When It Becomes Okay

 

On the Day We Realize Our Own Poverty

 

God in Each Other, Each Other in God

 

Would That Not Be a Disruption in the Incarnation?

 

Kindness is Transformative

 

Faith is Personal Engagement

 

All Creation Groans Together With Us

“For the creation eagerly waits for the revelation of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility – not willingly but because of God who subjected it – in hope that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage of decay into the glorious freedom of God’s children. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers together until now.” (Romans 8:19-22)

Faith is the Result of Our Salvation

 

Through Him We Come to the Father

“And if I go and make ready a place for you, I will come again and take you to be with me, so that where I am you may be too. And you know the way where I am going.”

Thomas said, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going. How can we know the way?”

Jesus replied, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you have known me, you will know my Father too. And from now on you do know him and have seen him.”

Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be content.”

Jesus replied, “Have I been with you for so long, and you have not known me, Philip? The person who has seen me has seen the Father!” (John 14:3-9)

Beauty, Truth, and Goodness Incarnate

 

The Algebra of Being

“Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” (John 14:11)

All in heaven and on earth are created in Christ, through him and for him, and in him all hold together (Colossians 1:16-17).

“Christ is all and in all.” (Colossians 3:11)

No Being Outside of Jesus Christ

“For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” (Colossians 1:16-17)

Our Rightness With God

Christ is the reconciliation of God and humankind — God’s faithfulness to us and our faithfulness to God.

“God made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we would become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)

We are made righteous, not by impartation or by imputation, but by Incarnation. Christ has taken upon himself our substance and made it his own — and that union is our reconciliation with God.

For Whom Nothing is Mystery

“God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” (1 Peter 5:5)

The Father Has Sent the Son to Be the Savior

“And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.” (1 John 4:14)

The Only God the Gospel Knows

Christ is the Image of the Invisible God, in Whom all the Fullness of Divinity dwells in bodily form, and in Whom we are made complete and become partakers of the Divine Nature. God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting our sins against us. (Colossians 1:18; 2:9-10, 2 Peter 2:4; 2 Corinthians 5:19)

The Incarnation is Humankind Born Again

Regeneration, being “born again,” is not an individual decision but is Christ’s union with humankind. It is through the Incarnation that all are chosen in Him.

“For God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before Him in love.” (Ephesians 1:4)

Bringing Salvation to All

“For the grace of God has appeared,
bringing salvation to all people.”
(Titus 2:11)

The grace of God has “appeared,” been made visible (*epiphane*) in Jesus Christ, who is the image of the invisible God, in whom all the fullness of God dwells in bodily form. This is the Incarnation, by which Christ has united divinity with humanity, God with humankind. Through Christ, God has reconciled all in heaven and on earth to Himself, having made peace by the blood of the Cross.

The Heart Coming Alive With Christ

 

The Death and Regeneration of Human Being

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he gave us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” (1 Peter 1:3)

If We Do Not Understand the Incarnationtion

The Incarnation is integral to the Cross and the Resurrection.

“Consequently, just as one trespass [Adam’s] resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act [Christ’s] resulted in justification and life for all people.” (Romans 5:18)

“For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.” (1 Corinthians 15:22)

Death Has Been Swallowed Up In Victory

The Gates of Hell have been destroyed.
The Strong Man has been bound.

“Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death — that is, the devil — and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” (Hebrews 2:14-15)

Jesus is What Happened to the Cross

 

The Moment Awaiting Our “Let It Be”

 

Only What God Wills

God does not will that any perish but that all come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).

Evil is But the Lack of the Good

 

When the Prodigal Son Began to Know Himself

The Nature of Divinity and Humanity

The good news hidden within Romans 3:23, “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God,” is that we were created to bear the glory of God — that is, to bear the image of God and, indeed, to be like God. It is in Christ that we finally become “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4).

Who Finds the Way of Christ

 

The Place of Our Resurrection

 

The Judgment Christ Brings

 “For judgment I have come into this world,
so that those who do not see may gain their sight,
and the ones who see may become blind.” (John 9:39)

Prayer and the Things That Break Our Heart

 

Let Our Stories Be Unravelled

The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has made known to us “the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he purposed in him, for the administration of the fullness of times, to bring together all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth.” (Ephesians 1:9-10)

Only As We Truly Love

Love is the heart coming alive with Christ.

Always Speaking

 

Nature and Grace — Contemplating Our Meaning

The end is in the beginning,
and the beginning is in the end.

Final Judgment and the Outworking of the Cross

 “Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all to myself.” (John 12:31-32)

Faith is Christ at Work in Us

 

Shadow, Image and Reality

All Scripture reveals Christ,
who is the Reality
of All Things.

The Fast God Desires is One That Never Ends

 

Awaking to Self-Giving, Other-Centered Love

Letting the Love of God and
the Cross of Christ do its
work in and through you.

Waking From the Dream That is Our Ego

 

A Season for Listening, Watching, Waiting

 

The Underlying Reality of All Things

 

The Creation and the Consummation of All Things

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.” (Colossians 1:15-20)

In the Beginning was the Coherence

“The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” (Colossians 1:15-17 NIV)

That Body of Which Christ is the Head