What's Missing

John 15:4, "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me."

Life as a Christian... the walk if you will, is a constant discovery of what's missing. What is missing from our picture of Jesus? How can we know Him more? What is missing from the relationship? Christianity is constantly discovering something new about Christ in a subjective way.

Jesus says , "abide in me." This is our command to pursue Him. To get to know Him on the most intimate of levels. "I in you" is His promise that He will allow us to know Him.

The past couple of months for me have been filled with filling in the missing parts. I in no way have anything but a partial picture of who Christ is, but I wanted to recap some of what I have learned about Him since starting this blog.

I have learned that God loves me in and of myself. He has shown me that I am a one of a kind custom creation. As the Creator and His Son come closer into view I realize that there is so much in me that is not like Him. I have learned that this dross, this ungodliness must die. Though it is painful to lay down everything that makes me who I am it is necessary to allow those characters of Christ to replace it. Training... ever training of my character.

Beyond death of self for character improvement, I have learned that the same death must occur to love unconditionally. Taste, prejudice, predispositions, social upbringing all have to die to love another unconditionally. Hate, fear, hurt have to die in forgiveness to love an enemy and to pray for them.

So death has become a beautiful thing because it creates a joy of what lies ahead. What lies ahead of it is love and closeness to God. But not only my death is beautiful, but watching others die at the hand of God is beautiful as well. It is incredible to see with understanding how trials and challenges are being used in others to bring about the same death and resurrection. With this understanding you can jump in the mire of another's life without needing to rescue, without a plan, without falling to the temptation, only to be a light.

Sight is a major thing God has given me in this improved relationship. He has shown me, by drawing me close what it looks like from inside the Kingdom of God. He has given me glipses of what He sees. All brought about by having the intellectual understanding of Him turn into a subjective, relational, understanding of Him.

I know that baptisim is a symbol of us sharing in the death, burial, and resurection with Christ. I know that the water is symbolic of the water of the womb, and in baptisim we are placed back in the womb to be spiritually reborn. But this increasing relationship with God and His Son lets me see that baptisim is also the door to the kingdom of God and the vision that represents. Relationship tells me that I go into the water as flesh and in the world, but I rise in spirit and in the kingdom, and the kingdom in me. Luke 8:10, "And He said, 'To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is in parables, so that SEEING THEY MAY NOT SEE, AND HEARING THEY MAY NOT UNDERSTAND.'"

I have sought to know God as Provider/Provision, as Jehovah Jira. And what I have discovered is that He is my Provision. If I have only Him and His presense then I have enough. And just yesterday I began to see Him clearly as Provider. In the vine... in Christ... I am attached to and part of God and all that He is and has. I see that He already knows my needs. I see that He has planned already to provide. That the daily bread is already allocated and on its way. I have not laid hold of it, but I am thankful He has a complete abundance for me.

Lastly, for the purpose of the blog, I see God is shifting. God has a big smile on His face for me and is saying, 'you are getting it... now let me show you something else.'

For me personally God is repeating 2 Timothy 4:5, "... fulfill your ministry." A ministry that I know includes preaching, praying, writing, and one on one encounters. God has hundreds of thousands of pulpits across the world. I know that He is opening many of them too me. I know that I will once again pray for the sick and see them healed. I know that this blog, my books, all that I write goes literally across the globe and touches people's lives for the better. And I will never stop finding the individual to love. To jump in the mire with and be a light, to see Christ in them with hopes they will see the Christ in me.

And I almost forgot the greatest personal lesson for me in all of this. The mechanism if you will that has allowed this vision. Shameless surrender that we might know Christ more. I wrote this inspired by the Holy Spirit not even knowing what it meant. I thought the surrender was to people and an act of love. The surrender is to God. A complete and total surrender. A leap off the cliff knowing... trusting fully in God. I am His bond-servant... not by obligation, but by choice.