Abba part 4
Once upon a time, when I was very young, I did something wrong. Hard to believe, I know. And I was going to get punished. So I ran for my life. Literally. I ran around a tree until my dad caught me. And when he did catch me--it honestly didn't take very long--I looked up at him and said, "You're a lot faster than I thought." But that's not the point. The point is... I ran FROM my father instead of running TO him. Because I didn't want to get in trouble. And that's how a lot of the world--especially, unfortunately, the church world--views God. As an angry taskmaster who set down an impossible Law and who is just waiting to punish us every time we inevitably break that Law. Which I always thought was a little bit strange considering A. Even under that Old Covenant God gave a system of animal sacrifice in order to spare us any punishment and B. We aren't under that Old Covenant anymore. The animal sacrifice was fulfilled on the cross with the death of the Lamb. The final sacrifice was made. Jesus gave His life for us, and He gave His life to us. To bring us out of the Old and into the New. And look at the Stone that the New Covenant is built on: "This is the covenant that I will make wtih them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more" (Hebrews 10:16-17). Abba, Father, wants us to call out to Him so that He can SAVE us. But if we think He's out to get us we won't do that. We'll run from Him instead of running to Him. It's not until we understand that we are completely forgiven that we can rest in Daddy's loving arms. If we think we're still guilty of something we're going to try to keep earning His love, and acceptance, and forgiveness, and mercy, and grace. In other words, we'll stay trapped in religion. Man-centered, performance-based religious bondange. If God doesn't remember our sins... why do WE keep bringing them up? Why do we keep trying to make things right when HE already made things right? He wrote His law--the perfect law of liberty--on our heart. So that it works from the inside-out and not the outside-in. It's not about modifying your behavior. It's about letting the mind of Christ that's already in you... BE in you. Letting what's in your heart come out... naturally. Knowing who you are so you can stop trying to be someone you're not. Knowing who you are so you can BE who you are. Which is what 1 John 3:2 says, "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." And notice--we ARE the Son(s) of God. That's a done deal. The trick is SEEING it. Because seeing is believing. So this "appearance" is Jesus appearing TO you, IN you, THROUGH you, and AS you! And when you see Him that way you'll see YOURSELF that way. Because as He is, so are we in this world. Then we'll be like Him, because we'll know what He's like. The best way to learn how to love is to learn how you ARE loved. To receive it and release it. To receive it BY releasing it. To let Daddy love you, instead of always being afraid of Him. Perfect love casts out fear. Daddy's not mad AT you, He's mad ABOUT you!