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JAMES' PERSONAL WRITINGS: SLOVING
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2.06.2007

Following Jesus: Judging is the hardest, most important part

No! Contrary to popular teaching by today's Scribes and Pharasese - the "Church" - Judging is not forbidden, it is Jesus greatest requirement of us if we are to follow him:
* "Love as I have loved."
* "Do unto others all that you would have them do unto you."
* "They will know you by how you love one another."
These are NOTHING if not exhortations to scrupulously judge/evaluate ourselves and others.


YES, WE MUST NEVER "JUDGE" IN THE WAY OF PLACING OURSELVES OR OTHERS ABOVE OR BELOW OURSELVES OR OTHERS! But as the MD (Dr.) must "diagnose/judge" the condition of the patient, the disciple of Jesus must judge matters of the Spirit/Soul as a absolute requisite to service. Come on now, let's stop the idiotic, heretical disparagement of all "judging."

The hardest thing I do as a would-be disciple of Jesus is my attempts to adhere to this requirement - this necessary task of Judging. It would have been so much easier in so many ways to avoid judging my own life and how best I could serve and to:
* Stay in my half million dollar house.
* Keep my 20 year career.
* Be a "normal" father.
* Be a "normal" person.
* Stay with my wonderful adopted family in West Chester.
* Keep my comfortable management job.
* Stay with my new Washington DC adopted community....

"If you do not hate family... you cannot love me."

The "good" is the enemy of the "great."

There is no success on my journey of discipleship that has come without my adherence to this requirement to JUDGE. It is way hard. It is indispensable. Want to be "Christian?" JUDGE yourself and others with TOUGH LOVE.

LIP SERVICE, Jesus taught, is the UNFORGIVABLE SIN

No? I just got this! I've hated lip service throughout my adult life, but just within the last 24 hours clarity has come to me that Jesus hated lip service the most! Why? Because when we engage in lip service we are the very least likely to get on the "path!" Why? Because with lip service we release the tension that conscience/good/Father/God exert within us, the TENSION that would otherwise save us!

Think about what He said about:
* The two sons. One said "I'll do it!" and DID NOT. LIP SERVICE. The other son said, "NO WAY!" and DID IT.
* The Unforgivable Sin is to deny the Spirit. LIP SERVICE! Yes, lip service acknowledges the Spirit, but TALK IS CHEAP. ACTION IS DEAR. LIP SERVICE, NON-ACTION IS TO DENY THE SPIRIT!
* Who did Jesus rail against?!??! THE HYPOCRITS! LIP SERVICE.

Lip service is the unforgivable sin, because it is the sin we are least likely to escape. Lip service will KEEP US OFF THE PATH.

THE ROAD TO HELL IS PAVED WITH GOOD INTENSIONS.
THE ROAD TO HELL IS PAVED WITH LIP SERVICE.

Jesus/God/Good DO NOT PUNISH US. EVER!

...They simply WARN US where the PUNISHING CONSEQUENCES OF ERROR ARE! Just like a loving human parent frantically warns a child that a finger in the flame will result in great pain!

Being on the "path" is to be pain free psychologically and in "Heaven" (full joy, peace, love, Life!), although physically crucified/persecuted. Think of the mother bleeding, broken and bruised from a car wreck, running with her injured child in her arms. Is she in pain? Physically, yes. Psychologically? NO!

2.04.2007

Come on in!!!!! or don't :-(

In my youth I craved skiing. I almost always did so alone. With very little time on the slopes (I grew up in NJ!) I became very, very good. It was as though my entire being merged, or was trying to merge with the skis-boots-trails-mountains. It was day-long orgasm after day-long orgasm.... No, it was not specifically sexual in that sense, but it WAS that intense/overwhelming/awesome/excruciating/sacred. Pretty much.

Why did I ski alone? Hmmm. Well, it was not because I told others - GO AWAY! Oh, many moments/seconds I yearned so deeply for others to want to be with me in the experience.

Why did I ski alone? Because no one wanted to/could join me. Almost everyone else wanted to be with someone on the mountain. What I wanted was the reverse - I wanted to be with the mountain and have others experience that with me. No one else could imagine what I was experiencing - they couldn't see it for themselves; they couldn't see it in me. There were brief times when I was lonely, sometimes intensely lonely. But the loneliness never blurred the choice - or obscured the Pearl. No contest. Merging at the cellular level with the mountain - that always won out. Heavenly. Was God/Our Father/Humanity what I was merging with?

I wonder sometimes, idly, amusedly if anyone will be at my funeral (if there is one - CREMATION please, no plot!), whenever that happens in the next 50 years or so. My guess is, probably not. :-) Within any given week for this last month or so this realization comes to me - probably not. People don't stay with me, although they would say/perceive the reverse.

What I want to share this morning is - as absurd and contrary to how others would see it - I feel like my whole life I've been trying to be on or as close the "path" as I can. I've always been closer to the "path" than most. I really experience being ON the "path" now. Yes I am walking it ineptly. But I am walking it. IT IS HEAVEN.

What I want to share this morning is - COME ON IN, THE WATER IS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But if you don't, I'm not coming out to be with you. The invitation will ALWAYS STAND, ALWAYS. I WILL ALWAYS MISS YOU, YEARN FOR YOU. But, if you won't come, I'm ok with that. Now, what I'll do is work as hard as I can to ENJOY the "path," THAT OTHERS MIGHT SEE. But if you don't choose to join, that is up to you. YES I CARE! I ACHE FOR YOU TO BE ON IT, AND WITH ME. But, if you don't, or, until you do, I'm staying in/on. This is a new sense of comfort for me. A new idea. I feel that everyway I can I've been an "invitation" and have spent great time and energy extending the invitation. I don't regret that, but I'm tired of doing it, and maybe it has been a disservice to you.

The Father of the prodigal son never left his estate. He stayed on the estate, building it, keeping it strong, maintianing the access roads so it would be ready! In God's time the son chose to return, and the Father was overjoyed!

2.02.2007

The Cost of Grace

Dietrich Bonhoeffer -

"Through the call of God, men become individuals… Every man is called separately, and must follow alone. But men are frightened of solitude, and try to protect themselves from it by merging themselves in the society of their fellow-men and in their material environment. They become suddenly aware of their responsibilities and duties, and are loath to part with them. But all this is only a cloak to protect them from having to make a decision. They are unwilling to stand alone before Jesus and to be compelled to decide with their eyes fixed on Him alone…. It is Christ’s will that he should be thus isolated, and that he should fix his eyes solely upon him."

"Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the Cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.

"Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods.

"Costly grace is the Gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner.

“It is the characteristic excellence of the strong man that he can bring momentous issues to the fore and make a decision about them. The weak are always forced to decide between alternatives they have not chosen themselves.”

Question: What is the greatest gift we can ge given?
Answer: A relationship with Our Father/God - our "Daily Bread" - His "Will" for us.

Question: How many people, adults, have this gift available to them, really?
Answer: In my experience - very few; they/we just don't hear, are not aware of hearing even a murmer from Him.

Question: What is the greatest tragedy that could befall someone, and befall their loved ones?
Answer: That a person blessed with the ability to hear His Will, even very faintly at first, turn away instead. "But men are frightened of solitude, and try to protect themselves from it by merging themselves in the society of their fellow-men and in their material environment." Thereby they deprive themselves of Life, and deprive their loved ones of the greatest possible hope - Life. A candle goes out.

"If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple." (Luke 14:26)

[Yes, this one I wrote specifically with you in mind. :-) Love, Brother jay]

Action Springs from Readiness for Responsibility

“Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility.”

“To deny oneself is to be aware only of Christ and no more of self, to see only Him who goes before and no more the road which is too hard for us.”

“It is the nature, and the advantage, of strong people that they can bring out the crucial questions and form a clear opinion about them. The weak always have to decide between alternatives that are not their own.”

“One act of obedience is better than one hundred sermons.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer