Adeline's Thoughts on The Spirit of the Disciplines

Thought #1: It really, really bothers me that I can't paste things from a word document into this box ...

There's only room for one thought; and I don't think anyone cares anyway! So enjoy, or don't ... up to you all!

Willard highlighted the face that even our Lord, Jesus, "learned" from His Father ... He was a student of the disciplines. While I long to know a variety of worldly disciplines, I often prefer to skip the learning part of it if at all possible. I always joke that "I hate a challenge;" but, it's not a joke, really ... I do. If it doesn't come naturally, I don't want to try. If practice is what's going to make it perfect, I'd rather find something else I'm "perfect" at immediately than "waste" my time learning the present task at hand. If there are instructions or lengthy practices involved, I don't find it worth my time. Essentially, I am repelled by tasks that require discipline ... and, I think this includes being a Christian. I desire the immediacy, the experience, the promises, the words ... yet without mastering the disciplines that characterize me as a partaker of such things ... without dwelling in the disciplines that are located within the very presence of God, who is, essentially, the very One who will provide the very things I'm seeking. After all, as Willard says, this (a life of discipline) is where that easy yoke is located; this is where our burden becomes light. The spiritual disciplines are gifts; I treat them as burdens ... as items on my spiritual checklist: anamolies to the occurences of daily life; things to be remembered ... things that normally wouldn't cross my mind. Brusing my teeth comes more naturally to me than these disciplines. Brushing my teeth never makes my checklist ... Everything that matters, everything that is important is protected and governed by disciplines. Why do I act as if protecting my teeth with the discipline of brushing them is more important than protecting my life with the spiritual disciplines?

Oops ...

So I accidentally pressed "Publish Post" before I meant to ... so this is actually the end part of my last post: "Week 3 Thoughts on Abide in Christ." I just have a few more quotes to share with you all. I think I'm probably kidding myself that anyone will read this stuff, but I'm writing it anyway ... I was an academic ... that's my excuse for my long posts ... it worked in school ... I did well ... doesn't so much work here ... but y'all will love me anyway ...

ANYWAY

"I would say that the greatest temptation is to be without temptations. The greatest onslaught is to be without any onslaught at all. Therefore be glad when you are assaulted. With resignation, peace and consistency ... ABIDE. There, in internal regions, walk and live." Michael Molinos

"You must be patient in all the suffering that God sends you. If your love for the Lord is pure, you will love Him as much on Calvary as on Mt. Tabor. The Lord Jesus loved His Father on Mt. Tabor where He was transfigured, but He loved Him no less on Calvary where He was crucified. Surely, then, you should love the Lord as much on Calvary, for it was there that He made the greatest display of His love. ... How much do you desire to hunger after God? You will hunger after God, and find Him, in the same proportion that you hunger after the cross." Jeanne Guyon

Week 3 Thoughts on Abide in Christ

Well this week's thoughts are really geared more toward what I read at the end of week two than what I'm reading here in week three, but I wanted to write about it instead; really, I just want to share others' wisdom with y'all again ... oops. But I, personally, never really have any profound thoughts, you know ... one's worth sharing ... things you wouldn't already know ... on the things I read ... BUT, I know of others who do! And so I just like to share with y'all what the Lord shared with them and they shared with me! Sharing is awesome!
So there is this AMAZING book that Kristina Boothe sent me at the beginning of last year (and I read a lot, so for me to say that it is AMAZING ... well, that means it's in my top three or five) when I was going through some really hard, hard times. It is called 100 Days in the Secret Place. It's a compilation (compiled by Gene Edwards) of medieval mystics' writings while they were in hard places or dark days. It's brilliant. I was reminded of it when reading the chapter in Abide in Christ called "The Crucified One." This is another one of those things that I really really understand that I just don't understand if you catch my drift. Another one of those concepts that I know should be a huge deal!
I really do believe that the cross is the place of greatest intimacy ... yet I don't crave it ... I don't even like it ... I have trouble even being thankful for it or finding the good in it. But I believe that that place holds unspeakable intimacy, a type of intimacy that can be experienced nowhere else, a type of intimacy that should I taste it, I would crave that marriage bed of the cross! Not there yet ... ANYWAY
Here are some things I don't get: My old man is LITERALLY dead. I think we treat our salvation as more of a birthday than a literal birth ... and I think we often kindof forget about the death thing that happened along in there. I think I view salvation as a part of my old man's evolution into a better man. ... But that's not it at all ... I mean, WRONG! Literal death; literal birth. I wish I could understand that. Anyway, I don't get this. I also don't get the "fellowship of death." That's pretty deep stuff. I have felt so dead for so many years of my life, and I never sought the fellowship in it. Little did I know, I was given a privleged place: to fellowship with the LIVING GOD in my sufferings. I wished them away. My selfishness made the cross to heavy; I ran from the place of greatest intimacy. I had years - and I mean YEARS - to experience it; I think I missed out ...
Now, for other's words of wisdom on the way of the cross:

"Often, when you suffer, it is the life of your self-nature that causes you pain. When you are dead you do not suffer. If you were completely dead to your old nature you would no longer feel many of the pains that now bother you. ... So while you have the opportunity to experience difficult trials, do not lose the slightest opportunity to embrace the cross. ... Do not waste your suffering. Let suffering accomplish what God wants it to in your life. Never get so hard that you suffer for no reason and for no purpose. " Francois de Fenelon

Week 2 Thoughts on Abide in Christ

So you know how on occassion you have this aha/duh moment? Well, I had one of those ... it's simple, but profound ... for me anyway ... I'm sure it's just "duh" to everyone else. BUT, the Lord once said to me, "My simplicity is so profound;" so there you go, I suppose.
Anyway, in reaching the chapter entitled, "As Your Wisdom" I got super excited. As most of you know, wisdom is one of my strongest desires in life. I want it; I crave it; and, I ask for it really, really often! And maybe it's one of the reasons I leave my hair long ... hey, if there are any strands of wisdom in there, I'm not cutting them off!
Well, it was a nice chapter ... instilled some wisdom within me, if you will ... oh wait, it's already in me because I'm IN Christ who is the wisdom of God! That's what I learned. For years I have been asking for wisdom and seeking it in my own way; and, my own way is reading reading reading. My primary, really only, way of seeking wisdom has been through reading. To gain wisdom I have primarily sought knowledge; I should be primarily seeking Christ. I mean, if Christ is the wisdom of God, abiding within Him would probably be the absolute best way to attain wisdom. If I desire wisdom, and Christ is the wisdom of God, I should strive to be Christlike even more than I strive to be learned.
Like I said, I know it's a duh kind of thing, but I suppose until now I have been guilty of being ignorant of this profound simplicity!

Week 1 Thoughts on Abide in Christ

"And observe especially, it was not that he said, 'Come to me, and abide with me,' but, 'Abide in me.' The intercourse was not only to be unbroken, but most intimate and complete. ... There was a depth of meaning you cannot yet realize in His words: 'Abide in Me.'" (11)

This "in" word has baffled me for about two years now! Being "in Christ" is one of those concepts that I know should be waaaaaaaaay more important than I feel it is ... or act as if it is. I do not live in an experiential knowledge of this; nor is it something that I rest in, count on, or even think about in my everyday life. Consciously, it plays little part in the way that I choose to live.
And so, because my own well of wisdom seems so dry on this matter, I've dipped my bucket into the wells of others because I really think that there is something to this being "in Christ" ... even though I don't know what it is! So just in case anyone else is interested, here are a few quotes about the matter from some of the other books I've read:

- Andrew Murray, Humility "If we feel that this life is too high for us and beyond our reach, this insight must but the more urge us to seek it in Him--for it is the indwelling Christ who will live in us this life, meek and lowly. ... [T]hat [we are] nothing but a vessel, a channel, through which the living God can manifest the riches of His wisdom, power, and goodness. The root of all virtue and grace, of all faith and acceptable worship, is that we know we have nothing but what we receive, and bow in deepest humility to waith upon God for it." (28-29)
- J. Vernon McGee, Thru the Bible Commentary Series: Ephesians "What does it really mean to be saved? It means to be in Christ." (20) Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Ephesians 1:3 "He has blessed you in the heavenlies in Christ, and you are there regardless of your position down here. ... I have everything in Christ; I have been blessed with all spiritual blessings. You can't improve on that, can you?" (22-23)
- Neil Anderson, Victory Over the Darkness "Being spiritually alive is most often portrayed in the New Testament with the prepositional phrases 'in Chirst' and 'in Him.' Being spiritually alive in Christ is the overwhelming theme of the New Testament. For example, in the six chapters of the book of Ephesians alone we find forty references to being 'in Christ' and having Christ in you." (45)
- Neil Anderson, The Bondage Breaker "Since you are alive in Christ and seated with Him in the heavenlies, you no longer need an outside agent to effect authority for you. You now reside 'in Christ' who has all authority. In order to resist the devil, you first need to understand and appropriate your identity, position, and authority in Christ." (26-27) We may have an even greater advantage in spiritual warfare than the first disciples did. They were with Christ (Mark 3:14-15), but we are in Christ." (81)
- There is also an entire chapter on "The Secret of Abiding in Christ" in Secrets of the Secret Place.

This is what I do know:

"In" and "life" cannot be separated. In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. That everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, He will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you." (John)

These are things I presently possess IN Christ:

- through the Father: every spiritual blessing in Christ; holiness; blamelessness; adoption

- through the Son: redemption; forgiveness; knowledge of the mystery of His will ... one head; chosenness

- through the Spirit: marked with a seal, a deposit guaranteeing my inheritance (Ephesians)

Otherwise ... I'm clueless!

I am beginning to figure out that there is a conditional aspect to my experience (not possession) of being "in Christ." ... My experience is conditional upon my persistance in abiding. I love to claim blessings, authority, and rest without abiding. So maybe that's why my experiential knowledge of the concept of being 'in Christ" is so lacking. ... I've ignored the condition of abiding. I really realized this when Murray discussed Matthew 11:28-30: Come to Me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. This was the very first verse I ever memorized four and a half years ago. I've dwelt on it many times. Yet I JUST NOW see the condition in the verse! I will find rest for my soul when and if I take his yoke upon me and learn from Him. Oops ... Maybe I should start abiding there ...

gina and i are leaving the country

so gina and i are leaving the country on sunday for the next two weeks. costa rica. woot woot. but hope everybody's summer is going great. we will be posting as soon as we get back. on june 18. peace.

jim