The Mark – 22, The Mark of Intimacy

The commands of Jesus are the Mark, the target for the perfect life. To aim for and to hit the Mark is to conform to the image and likeness of God. To ignore, neglect, or miss the Mark is to sin. The commands provide stepping stones through earthly life, upon which the child of God survives tempests and deflects the boomeranging darts of pride. Adhering to the Mark aspiring immortals gain victory.

 

But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Matthew 6:6

These precious, pristine, prayerful moments of heart-to-heart communication with Father God form the bond that guides us through this earthly life. Without computer or smart pad, without email or texting, our thoughts and words, songs and silence like seeds in the depth of dark fertile soil grow to unite an aspiring immortal child with our Father as nothing else can.

Of course the Father who sees you in the secrecy of privacy will reward you for He is love and generosity personified. He rewards, because it is His nature to want to share His wealth and wisdom with His children. How joyous is the Father whose child regularly leaves the chaos of this world to enter their secret place. How magnificent that when you go there you may see the Creator of the universe patiently waiting for you to shut the door behind you.

Precious prayer, time to ask questions, to worship and adore Him, to pour out of your heart the joys and tears life has presented this day. How glorious to hear the voice of the wonderful counselor, mighty God, Prince of peace. How much more dynamic praying with the masses is when each of us is so connected. Thank you for the heads-up, Jesus.

Joy.    

Gee See Us in Christ

I suppose more than anything else in the world I want to know what it feels like to be in Christ. In his 14^th century book, The Life in Christ, Nicholas Cabasilas wrote well developed and Biblically supported explanations of Life in Christ. For example, he started by explaining that when we arrive at Kingdom Come, we will need certain senses that must be formed here and now. Who wants to get there and be deaf and blind? He said that this world of fluid darkness is the womb state for aspiring immortals. I know he is right, and he put it so well. Then he went on to say that union with Christ is described in many different ways in the Bible because each way by itself is inadequate to describe being in Christ. For example being in Christ is more than being in a home, more than being married, more than the relationship of vine to a branch. Life in Christ is like all of these and more so. It’s a mystery. No wonder I don’t know what it feels like.

When Nicholas goes on to explain how baptism and communion make this unity possible I know how that’s true, and when he quotes Paul over and over again, such as when he says’ “in Him we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28) to support the reality of life in Christ and Christ’s life in us, his words are as reliable the sun. And yet I don’t have to try so hard to feel my family genes in me, and me in my neighborhood or me in my country. I can think what it means to be in Christ but I can’t feel it.

Christ really threw us a curve ball when He came back from his trip to Hades and took the form of a different person. His disciples spoke to him for a while before they even realized that it was Jesus they were speaking to because he looked like someone else. Why did He do that? Was it a trick?

Actually you and I probably know Jesus better than we know anyone else, even our closest relatives because His personality is described so specifically and so consistently in the Bible. Maybe Jesus in me is all that is good, all that is compassionate, all that loves to commune with God the Father.  Maybe I can feel Jesus in me loud and clear, even though I don’t recognize Him when I am producing the fruit of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace patience, kindness, goodness, longsuffering, mildness, fidelity, modesty, continence, and chastity. Next time I see a fruit blossom and grow from me, I’ll say hello to Jesus. Maybe He’ll smile and say hello back. 

I wonder which fruit I will need to make when I am in Him on the Cross.