Like a Sponge part 4
There's a song by Sheryl Crow called, "Soak up the Sun." And really, that's my entire thought for the day. Instead of trying to ACT LIKE the Son, we really ought to just soak Him up. Let me say it another way, "And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun..." (Revelation 12:1). We know the woman is the church, right? Us? The corporate body of believers? And we know that when New Jerusalem is pictured in the book of Revelation, "...the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof" (Revelation 21:23). So we know that we're talking about US being clothed with HIM. Just in the same way that God clothed Adam and Eve with coats of skins way back in the garden of Eden. Coats of LAMB skin. There's always been this picture of God clothing us with Himself. And then, through the cross, He doesn't just clothe us, but He transforms us. He doesn't just cover us, He takes up abode IN us. Because even though MY picture of soaking up the sun (the SON) like a sponge looks like something exterior is working it's way into us... the truth of the matter is what's IS us (and has always been in us) is working it's way OUT of us. It's not outside-in. It's inside-out. And I really like the picture of being baptized, or being immersed, in Him. The dry sponge tossed into the ocean of His love and mercy and grace and becoming so saturated that it can't hold in what's it's been filled with. I like that picture. But in the same way that the circumcision of the heart wasn't a heart TRANSPLANT, but a cutting away of the flesh to reveal what was always there... the true picture of how this thing works is a seed being planted. It's already in there, and then it grows. An incorruptible seed named Jesus. Named love. I don't like this idea that we were ever incomplete. I don't think God created us "not good enough." I think we were certainly blind to some aspects. When Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil their natural eyes were opened but their Spiritual eyes were closed. They didn't KNOW they were loved. But that doesn't mean they weren't loved. They simply needed the Holy Spirit--the love receptor--in order to know and believe the love of God. And that's what we were filled with on the cross. That's when the God-shaped void that we felt (again, just because it FELT real doesn't mean it WAS real) was filled with the only thing that could fill it. The only thing that can fill a God-shaped void... is God. The only thing that can fill a love-shaped void... is love. So if I'm not talking about consciously trying to receive and release--trying is another word for not succeeding--and if I'm not talking about getting something we don't have, then what am I talking about? I'm talking about soaking UP the SON! I'm talking about what's deep inside bubbling up out of us. I'm talking about an INTERNAL light, not an external one. The light that we ARE. Shining OUT of us. Not soaking up what's outside and letting it in, but soaking up what's inside and letting it out! And by "letting it out" I mean watchinng it flow out all on it's own. Effortlessly. Naturally. Because love isn't just what we do. Love is who we are. And you can't try to be who you are. You can only BE who you are. You can only REST in who you are! Rest in His love...!