Getting practical is not my strength. I would rather think in big picture terms/ideas. This morning I got to take my post from yesterday to two women in my church (Missio Dei Communities) and ask for their help in "getting practical." In other words, taking these deep, wide, incredibly far-reaching truths of the Gospel of Jesus and finishing the "what if..." question with a "then I would do such and such..." I'm thankful that God is a relational God who made us with the need to live in community with other people and then has provided me with a rich community of people who love him and have shown love to me as well.
We only worked through the first truth I wrote down yesterday, and we talked for over two hours on the implications of that one truth.
What if...
1) the Father has qualified me to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light? (Colossians 1:12)
What is the inheritance?
- the Holy Spirit
- a degree of wholeness now, with full wholeness to come (some healing of brokenness, some satisfaction of loneliness, true enjoyment of good things)
- Freedom to not sin (we are incapable of anything good on our own, so being set free by Jesus' perfect sacrifice allows us to act in a right way)
- God's family (part of our inheritance is that we get to live in community with other adopted sons and daughters of God - we are not alone)
- Knowledge of the hidden mysteries of God - the stuff that angels long to understand.
The word "qualified" hit each of us this morning really hard. The truth of our situation, the "human condition," is that we are all inherently sinful as a result of the Fall. Christians often talk about the love of God - God loving us in spite of our sin. I more rarely talk about God qualifying us in spite of our sin. This morning we talked about that image of being qualified, putting it in the context of an employer/employee relationship. God calls us qualified for the position of his child even though we have no skills, knowledge, or competency for that role. He places the skills, knowledge, competency and identity of his Son on us, covering us with His qualifications, making us fit because we could never get their on our own.
The practical context we discussed this morning was the receiving and enjoying of good gifts. Personally, I often feel guilty when I am enjoying good things in life, like I have to justify the enjoyment in front of God, or hide my enjoyment of a good thing from him so that he won't take it away. At the root of this is a misunderstanding of God's character as perfectly Good and as a giver of Good Gifts. It is also a misunderstanding of my own ability to deserve things, and of my own sinfulness, and of how much God loves me in spite of that sinfulness.
I am sinful
God has qualified me with Christ's perfect qualifications
God loves me as His beloved, qualified daughter
God is great at giving good gifts
When he removes good gifts or declines to give them, it is for our good, because his character as the Good God never changes
I don't need to try to qualify myself for his good gifts, because I have never been able to do so and never will be on my own effort. I can enjoy them freely knowing that God is a good Father, he has qualified me to be his daughter, and good Fathers love to watch their children enjoying something good that they have given them. There is no need for guilt at the enjoyment of a good thing from the hand of a good God. It gives him glory and happiness when we are happy with something good, because he is the author of Good.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment