As I have explained in more detail in the last blog, the devil makes it his business to be sure that we distance ourselves from our God, the destined superhero in our life's story as Christians. As a result, the superhero oftentimes stands alone...no superhero descendants...no mini-superheroes...ergo: no threat for the opponent?....
....many times; sadly so! But there is something the story's villain seems to neglect to take into account, and that is the fact that God placed hope, faith, love and limitlessness (eternity - "on earth as it is in heaven") deeply into the depth of who we are. We are wired and programmed that way, respectively - and note on the side: as brutal as this might sound, this is the very sad and tragic reason why some people take the most desperate measures by ending their own lives (even Christians), because the yearning that they sense doesn't match the reality that slowly, almost unrecognizably, creeps in, resulting in a slow fading away under the experienced tension between these two spritual extremes (of death and life and its various manifestations) that cannot coexist.
So, as God placed this yearning for hope, faith and most importantly, love into our inner most being, the story, obviously, can't be over yet.
Particularly within this last decade, this cry for a change of narrative became very much apparent within the Christian landscape. Mainly due to the fact that a new discourse started to emerge (most visibly with the rise of the internet and media pastors) at the beginning of the new millenial. Namely, a discourse of grace and a (re)centering on the believer's authority.
While 'freshman believers' perceive this 'unpreserved' take on the gospel as 'common sense', those who have been seniors (growing up in church in the eighties and nineties) were brought up with a different view of what a Christian should identify themselves with: namely, being first and foremost a SERVANT of God. DOING things for Christ and for the church. And while I am not saying that this was the only message that was preached, the bitter sweet taste of mixing religion and grace backfired in maaaany cases.
The idea of "YOU must EARN your way to Heaven" by various acts of sacrifices and services provided, allowed the infiltration of an image of a controlling God, who mainly takes pleasure by enforcing rules and regulations on his people. And just like the Israelites who were used to their mere slavery right to exist, as outlined in Exodus 1:11 (KJV), which states, "Therefore they did set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens", so has a sufficient amount of Christians become used to being suppressed, rather than being partakers of the realm of this divine persona.
What remains is a heart that is divided and heardened towards our source of identification, as our judgement of that source has been obscured. And I guess there is a reason why the heardened heart is being mention about 100 times in the Bible. And, for me personally, the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25:14-30 became a real eye-opener, particularly towards the end of the story, when the servant ,who had been entrusted with one talent by his master, justifies his action of burrying the one talent instead of multiplying it:
"Adoni, I knew that you are a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering from that which you did not scatter seed. (verse 24) And having been afraid and having gone away, I hid your talent by burying it in the ground. Here, see, you have that which belongs to you." (verse 25)'*
Bingo!!
This analogy clearly shows the servant's subjective profiling of his master' character. A perception he had built up in his mind, as part of what he believed in his heart. Harshness, constriction, fear, death and no sense of partnership have ultimately become the reality that formed as a result of the image he had carried of his lord.
So what's the solution?! How do we get from our constricted and disillusioned understanding of who God is to (once again) experiencing "the truth that sets us free"?
Guessed?
It's all about the KNOWING that will lead to CONNECTION and ultimately to ASSOCIATION and IDENTIFICATION, respectively.
"If you REALLY KNOW me, you WILL KNOW my father". (John 14:7, NIV)
*https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2025%3A14-30&version=OJB
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