Jesus says I see you!

We all want to be noticed, recognized, and known. 

 There is overwhelming joy in knowing that Jesus sees me and knows me. Because I know He loves me despite my failings. A sovereign joy because I believe His promises to me. They are a sure foundation for my future. This is why I delight in His corrective chastisement as He guides me in the call and plan He created me to fulfill. 

John 10:27 "My sheep hear My voice, I know them, and they follow Me.

There is no Joy outside of God's sovereign Will.

https://www.randolphbrown.com/2014/11/known.html

The Desert

The desert is a place where God “tests” his people. To see if they will obey him or not. Are they trustworthy? 

It is a place where He deals with issues that hinder the true believer from hearing his voice and walking in his ways. As long as we trust in our own understanding as long as we believe we know what to do, God cannot fully (bless) support our activities (the activity isn’t the issue). If we take credit (pride) we prove our untrustworthiness. 

His desire is to fellowship with us intimately. To share His inmost heart, what He thinks and how He feels about everything and everyone around us. If He can’t trust us, He is unable to share as much as He would like to. 

He is the truth, the way, and the life. Can God trust me with great insight and spiritual understanding? Humility – seeing who I am really. Dependence: seeing who God is…savior, Lord. God is the only source of wisdom and understanding. I don’t need principles of life; I need the Author of life. I don’t need things to make me happy. I need the joy that comes from making God happy. Am I committed to the journey? Do I walk according to what I already know? Do I believe that God will hold me accountable?

Are God’s priorities my priorities? (What did Jesus read out loud at the beginning of His earthly ministry Luke 4:18)

We have been given the ministry of reconciliation. Set the captive free. Mend the broken heart. Declare the acceptable year of the Lord. God wants to give me His heart (love) for those I come in contact with. He wants to tell me what He thinks and how He feels about all of those around me. Can He trust me? Lord I want to be trustworthy, Amen.

The vision to travel all over the world and take pictures for you, the promise to give me a wife and family motivated me when I saw them as goals that would fulfill me. Make me happy? Complete me? Activities? Jobs? Careers? What is God’s will? The promise motivates obedience. As we try to obey, God shows us all our weaknesses. All our sin that hinders. 

You purge us of pride, selfish ambition, selfishness, and self-centeredness. As we try to build our own reputations, as we try to secure our own comfort and security as we try to be happy and successful. You show us life. It’s in you, not apart from you. It’s not in acquiring knowledge of life principles that we find all the things we think we need. Apart from you, everything is vain and empty. Life is found at your feet in humble dependence. Eternal treasure is gained in trust and obedience.

"Mindfulness" the latest buzzword for self-actualization.

Usually attributed to Buddhist practice but the Bible calls every believer to be aware of and submit every thought to the Lordship of Christ

https://activechristianity.org/how-do-i-take-every-thought-captive

Remember "truth separated from God becomes deception."

2 Corinthians 10: 3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,

Proverbs 23:7 For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.

https://activechristianity.org/is-it-even-possible-to-keep-my-thoughts-pure

"Discipleship". A term right from the clavis of "Christianese". Rarely defined succinctly.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianese

Here is the best definition I have come across, from Greg Herrick's "Understanding The Meaning of the Term “Disciple”...

Let’s summarize what we’ve been talking about thus far. For our purposes, then, a “disciple of Christ” is someone who has been called first to know Christ, then to follow him, and then to make disciples of all nations. That is, in our knowing Christ we are becoming like him—thinking, feeling, and living as he commands. In this spiritual ambience of personal relationship with him, that is, in light of our experience of the kingdom, he summons us to be his disciples. We are to follow him, through thick and through thin, knowing that he is there and that he will reward us in his time; after all, he is the Master. But discipleship not only involves being with him, being like him, and following him, it also means that we make it our goal to disciple others—indeed, every nation under the sun. The Great Commission is not just another good idea—though it is that—it is the church’s marching order. As far as I know, he never communicated another plan.

Known?

Many people know you. Know the you, that you have created. Created according to what you saw others held in esteem. The herd has a mentality.

Struggle, frustration, and disappointment are not a stranger to you. There lies the clue.

Looking for acceptance, you gave up on your uniqueness and gave in to the demand of conformity. Yes you did.

Then. Your true identity sought differentiation.  To be noticed, recognized and accepted was not enough. The need to be known as a unique, one of a kind person demands no compromise.

Who are you really? There is only One who can answer that question for you. Seek out the Lover of your soul. "Become" the one He created you to be. REPENT.

Let this mind be in you?

The mind of Christ...

Let it be in you...

Think like He thought... Thinks!

How does He think?

He said to the Father "Not my will but yours be done."

The Open View of God and Time

The Open view of God seems to work for me. What I mean, from what I understand of it, and how I view the meaning of certain scriptures, that the Open View of God uses, I kind of think... yeah, that makes sense.

I'm not one that came to Christ because it made a lot of sense. God broke into my situation, made Himself known to me, promised to give me a new life and asked if I would trust Him as my Savior. I was desperate, so I agreed. He then told me He needed to be my Lord to make it happen. I said ok.

Along the way He has transformed my thinking. I had a lot of baggage that I was hanging on to. False idea’s, concepts, attitudes and desires that had been carried over from my old life and the lies I lived by. I'm still in process and it seems God is hopeful, He hasn't given up on me.

Well back to the Open View of God. It put into words what I kind of thought already. I liked how it affirms my free will. How it focuses my responsibility to work with God. It seems that it also says God is in time. I can't imagine anything outside of time but I didn't know what time was. So I set out to understand time.

If you google "the meaning of time", well let's just say there is a lot of opinions. I found some really interesting things when I added "Physics" to the search of "the meaning of time". Then I tried "Time and Quantum Mechanics". After months of investigation I've come up with my own opinion for the meaning of time...

TIME IS AN ILLUSION (DON'T LET THIS BE A DISTRACTION FROM THE GIST OF MY BLOG). Let me explain. How do we know that time passes? Because we remember when things were different and we call it the past. We think of the future because we can anticipate how things will be different. The observer recognizing change brought about by movement is only possible because of memory. Reason can anticipate change and the mind imagines the future.This all happens in the present now which is "Eternity". Eternity is held together by God who allows all the movement.

I don't have to speculate about how long a moment is. They don't exist. I don't have to spend time wondering about time travel. I'm already there.

God said "Let there be Light" and everything began moving. Everything moving in relationship to everything else. The movement is sequential and in one direction. It's a great illusion.