(3/3?) One For All

From one perspective, God cannot be described enough by words, or cannot be represented properly by anything we see, feel, or touch. No Creation – no precious gem, no strong or wily animal can ever fully represent its Creator. This said, no grand strategy devised by anything in Creation can hope to reach its Creator’s standards, either. Given time perfection only draws out more imperfections, deeper flaws.

These ‘facts’ are tragic. Fortunately, they are facts. In a world where information can be created, removed, and twisted.

Fortunately, it is Truth that endures. Facts fail in time, but Truth is eternal.

Truth and not JUST Truth, but Grace AND Truth came through Jesus Christ. This God, this Author of power, mind, space, time, soul, and reality, completely confounded our preconceived ideas of balance, tipping over the scales.

In a strategy by no means grand by the standards of the world, the unrepresentable Creator stepped into contained Creation, born a baby boy lying on a makeshift bed of straw in a feeding trough.

It’s a Truth for every season. I can stop right there and call this a Christmas message.

Not content to grow up and live among us, Christ lay down His life. Christ was Truth present among us, shining Truth and revealing the true nature of His Father. And, in an ultimate demonstration of love, truth, and true love, He lay down His life.

Christ said ‘It is finished’, and the Son of Man finally lay his head down to rest. Christ shed His blood. The cup of suffering has been drained down to the dregs. Christ paid the ultimate price for a full exchange of righteousness for sin, and a guarantee of reconciliation for the Creation with its Creator.

In His death, we died. But then, Christ rose to life. In the resurrection, Christ broke the final limitation. In His life, we were made new creations. In His ascension, so we were reunited with a Father who I imagine was filled with divine excitement to see His sons and daughters again.

Now, it’s an Easter message. Or, a Valentine message. Or both.

So now because of Christ, we are one with Him, and He is one with us; We carry His glory wherever we go, reflecting His glory in our victories AND presenting His grace in our defeats.

As we have Christ, so we shine Christ on all, and we see Christ in all because He is our literal Life. We join in all creation reconciled to Him in seeing Him in all things. We are free from the bonds of religion which have our eyes focused on our performance! We are free to live the true life, our eyes open to the glory of God the Father evident in ALL Creation, open to the wonder of seeing how each and everything represents His glory!

This is important to see, as by this we understand that Christ does not just give us grand strategy – He Himself is Grand Strategy! We are able to be focused as foxes on the immediate details where Christ is, or we can surely standing on the one important thing, who is Christ!

‘The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.’ – Steve Jobs

I’m pretty excited. I mean, right now, God has just been showing me His faithfulness – and not just that, He has been showing me how He is just so faithful to keep on working on me, effectively transforming me by the renewing of my mind.

I tried to do it myself, but it’s ultimately His grace which mentored me, and His grace which, according to the Word, tutors me, and teaches me the more excellent way, the ways which bring life, and consequently, those that don’t. It’s so significant for me, especially during this time when I only have a few days left before I fly to the Philippines.

For the many other times we’ve been here before, I would recall sitting in front of a screen, writing and literally squeezing my brain for anything significant to pretty much condensing what I’ve been learning in my travels… to the point that I would be struggling, even on the plane.

But it seems this is different during this trip… I mean, it wasn’t about learning something new, more than it was just, really, placing focus on what really mattered. For the longest time I was struggling on that, in particular – determining what ‘deserved’ my focus – and all this time, it was the grace of God that would keep showing up as the one important thing to focus on. To stand on.

The grace of God, known in and through Jesus Christ, is the singular point where every detail – every passion, every desire, every aspiration – Christ is the singular point where every detail of my being comes forth… and Christ is the singular point where every detail of my being returns.

Indeed, as Paul mentions, from Him are all things, and to Him are all things. We live in this cycle of glory. As we are in the body of Christ, and as Christ is surely and fully alive in us (being our LITERAL Life, our resurrection Power), we receive, behold, contain, reflect and/or His glory.

The infinite glory of God could not help but expand to infinite proportions in this finite reality we currently walk in. It is not a question of if, but when the world changes. Yet not by our hand, but by the life and power of Christ in us, through us, with us, together… forever.

All for One, and One for All.

Huzzah!