Long ago, a man named Jacob met a guy. This guy was mysterious. The meeting was so meaningful to Jacob and this man seemed to know a lot about Jacob. He might have been following him on Facebook or something. Jacob asks what his name is. It’s a reasonable question.

But the man said something like this: ‘Why are you asking about my name? No one really knows me. I have a rather amazing name. But what about you, Jacob? Maybe you have the wrong name. Maybe your name should be changed. You are different now. Your name is Israel.’

Now we know the name of this man. The guy knew Jacob’s grandfather. He knew Noah. His name is Jesus. We know a little about him now. We know he was killed. We know he died. We know he returned from death and met with his friends.

Other people met this person later. One guy was Saul. He was trying to stomp out a new Jewish heresy put out by these so-called Christians. He was traveling and he met this person on the road. He was blinded by a light and said, “Who are you, Lord?” He was completely astounded at the answer: “I am Jesus and you are hurting me.”

Once Moses asked God his name. The answer was “I AM.” Is this a name? Yes. It is The Name. The name of One who was not born. The One before the beginning of anything we know.

Now, let us look closer at this wonderful name. God talked with Moses and told him he was going to reveal his name to him. Moses did not know what to expect. In the experience of Moses, he heard these words: I will make my goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim my name…”

There was more. He heard “mercy” “compassion” “grace” “love” “faithfulness” and “forgiveness”. We use these words when we talk about God because, like Moses, we experience these. All love, mercy and goodness come forth from God. This is his name. This is who he is. The aged Apostle, John, writes ‘God is Love.’

He is the Good. I think that maybe “God” is short for ‘Good.’

No one is good, but God. This means that every thought he has towards you is good. He wants only good for you.

He wants you and me to join with him in being good. Will you embrace goodness? Will you dare to approach The Goodness?

You say goodbye to badness as you move towards him. He is all good and all the good there is. Sure, you can do good things, but are you good? Good like God?

You are stamped out in his image. You are made like him. But unless you are connected to him, you remain alone. You are like a beautiful statue that cannot move. You may have heard the story of the statue that comes to life.

This is a metaphor of what can happen with us. The image of God, us, can be filled with the life of God and we can become real people. God, who made us, can do this. He wants to do it, too.

But, and it’s a big ‘but’, he will not use force. His invitation is, “Come, follow me.” If you respond, you will become a real person instead of a shadow of one. You will be defined again by God as one he knows. He will consider you a friend. He will invite you to be an active part of his family. He is The Father, you know.

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What are the desires of your heart? Have you thought about it? Are you pursuing them or ignoring them? If you are pursuing them, how many can you pursue?

Probably only one. But inside of a heart desire is something else. It is a belief that upon obtaining that desire, you would experience a certain satisfaction. When I say ‘a certain satisfaction’, I mean a very definite satisfaction that is related to receiving that desire.

But, what if you get what you desire and it does not give you that expected satisfaction? Then what?  You say to yourself, “This is exactly what I wanted. But the satisfaction I expected to come from it is not there.”

Once again, you pursue a desire. And you have the same experience. It does not satisfy like you thought it would.

The problem is this: Your desire is faulty. What you desire is not what will satisfy you. It seems like it should but it won’t. It can’t. The desire is not related to that deep part within you that wants to be satisfied. You do not know enough about that deep desire. You don’t know how it got there. That is why you think this or that should satisfy it.

You may have assumed because of the way others pursue their desires, fulfilling those desires will give satisfaction. Or your culture tells you that happiness lies in this direction or that direction. You follow those directions and come out with a mismatch.

You are surprised. You wonder why. Why doesn’t this satisfy me? 

The reason is this: these are all that can be offered. These paths are the only ones available. They are attainable in ordinary life.

But your deep desire can’t be fulfilled in this way. You need extraordinary means. Some say you need the Divine. But you also need to give up something valuable to you. And it is the part of you that measures satisfaction!

You have to get rid of your very unit of measure! You find that the fulfilling of your deep desire is beyond all your efforts. It must come from somewhere else entirely. To fulfill this desire involves a dramatic change internally. It involves an activation of a part of you that has been neglected. It is your spirit. Only your spirit can receive what you need to gain the satisfaction you really want.

It’s like you keep using different mixtures of the same kind of fuel but you need your engine converted to take a whole different sort of power. This conversion begins a new kind of life. So much so that you may call your former existence a kind of deadness.

Let’s take a example. You feel love would fulfill your deep desire. You pursue love. You are disappointed a couple times but then you find the one. This is it. This is real love. You love them. They love you.

Everything is right. They want to give you all their love. And they do. You love them with all you have.

But after some time, you find you don’t have enough of this love to endure certain difficulties. Worse yet, you realize that all your love cannot fulfill the desire of your lover. And all their love cannot touch the deep desire of your heart.

This love is great. It is wonderful. But it is not the right kind of love. Another kind is needed from another source.

You are a creature and are created a certain way. You must have this other love to live. You need to find this desire within you that matches to your true satisfaction. You need to cast out all other desires until you only have one desire. Pursue this desire and you will find that which satisfies.

This is what it means to be pure in heart. You only want one thing. And that is what will satisfy you. But in the process, you are changed. All those other desires become useless because they always were useless. They only covered up the true desire of your heart.

And the purity of your heart guarantees it will be satisfied. Blessed are the pure in heart…

You may have heard these words: Ask, seek, knock.

Ask and you will receive. It doesn’t take much to ask. You ask. Maybe you even ask for the wrong thing. That doesn’t matter because when you ask, the right person hears you. And begins to answer. He even knows the right answer to the wrong question.

You receive an answer. Now you know God is there. You begin to seek. You look hard for more. An answer is not enough. You want more. And you find. You find what you seek. But maybe it’s not what you thought. Of course, it is not what you thought because you (and I) thought wrong. We were always wrong in relation to the Right.

Asking and receiving an answer was not enough. Now seeking and finding is not enough. You know where your desire is found. You identify the very door it is behind. You knock. You keep knocking. You won’t stop knocking. And it opens. The door opens.

It opens because you will not be denied what you need by the only one who has the answer to your deepest desire. He made us to live connected to him. He was waiting for your knock. He was not surprised by it. He was on the way to open the door on your first knock.

Now begins the reconstruction of you. You were wrong. You had things wrong within you. No wonder you did wrong. A big important part of you was not working. But now your spirit is alive. You can become that which you were made to be. All the parts of you can be brought into harmony.

But remember, there is one part of you that was performing a function it was not made to do. That is the selfish part. It cannot be improved and it cannot be fixed because it was doing the wrong job. It was running you. And it was incompetent to do that. It was bound to steer you wrong.

Worst of all, you thought that was you. But now this lively spirit version is the real you. It’s a little difficult to be totally re-orientated like this. But the new you is much better than the old you. And the new you has great potential. Really!

The old you had no future. It would drag you down to the worst you possible. Hey, I wasn’t that bad. Maybe not, but you would have become that bad. Given enough time, you would become the worst. 

But that is the reason to reject our past way of living. We must prove it out, too. We must use our free will to do God’s will. That sounds big, doesn’t it? Doing God’s will.

What it means is being a good human. Being exactly what you were meant to be. You are connected to your source. You were disconnected before and could not become what you were intended to be. That wasn’t your fault. But to remain that way would be your fault.

Two things will start us right. Love God with all your heart. Why does God say this? Because he knows nothing else. He loves you wholeheartedly. He knows no other way to love. He knows that you loving him wholeheartedly will give the best results for you. It will purify your heart. You won’t have to waste your time chasing down desires that disappoint. This is a matter of being right.

Then there is doing right. And all the worthwhile doing is summed up as this: To love your neighbor as yourself. This direction enables you and I to go forward on the right path. If you are doing it wrong, he will help you do it the best way. God is an expert at loving and turning it into action.

Now you can do this because you know that God is taking care of you. The best care. You are not your own responsibility any longer. Think of it! You are free to go beyond loving yourself because God is loving you full time. You were never the best one to do that job. He is. Now you can love others. And the supply of love from God is endless. You won’t come up short because this love has no limits.

You have broken through your previous limitations. You will be able to do things you never could before. This is because you are connected to your source. You can become what you were meant to be. And this will be very satisfying.

Your eyes will be opened to see God working. And you take part in his work. That is what doing the will of God means. And his work has eternal value. And he shares his doing with you. On top of this, he will gladly reward you for doing it. Imagine, God himself saying to you, “Well done!”

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Do you think a spiritual person lives in a mystical state that counts this world as unimportant? The world has faded away as he gazes deeply into the spiritual realm. This is not true. The spiritual one has met the Divine and been reconnected to the source of life. How this has happened is not our question now. Just as he has stepped into the spiritual world. He steps back into the present, very much in this world.

Living in this world has meaning now. And he means what God means him to be. He does not make himself bigger but remains the same size as before. He lives life in a simple way. He becomes ordinary.

If you watch to see his spirituality, you will not see it. You will see nothing exceptional. He goes about his work without striving to advance at any cost. He knows the cost of trying to gain the world and has found it too much to pay. He expects little but is grateful when he receives something.

He asks questions rather than gives answers. He claims to know less than he used to. He was sure of many things before and was proud to give his opinion. Now he seeks knowledge and searches out wisdom.

His deep insights are gone. He doesn’t try to be profound but would rather speak simply and be understood. He is reluctant to use a big word when a smaller one will do nicely.

Why is this maddening person spiritual? He seems to do nothing important. He doesn’t stand out in a group but rather fits in without effort. When he says something, he doesn’t look around for approval. His words have weight but are not heavy for effect.

Now, maybe you have heard of Jesus. He was not exceptional. He may have said profound things but in a simple way. He spoke the common language not Hebrew. Yes, he did miracles but like prophets of the past and others of his day. Do you aspire to be like him?

Before he did anything that could be called remarkable, he did something else. He lived 30 years in an ordinary way. His brothers, who observed his life, found nothing exceptional about him. His own mother said as much as, “You are 30 years old and you have done nothing!”

But he turned water into wine, you say. But look at him! He responds as a son to his mother. Then he reconsiders her words and helps out a neighbor. If he could, he might have ordered some wine for express delivery within the hour. That being unavailable, he tells some men to go fill up heavy jugs with water on his mothers authority.

His disciples merely note this was definitely a miracle and the first. But everything else about the story is very normal. That a rabbi calls disciples is not even exceptional. It would be like those going off to a university because of a certain professor.

John the Baptist must receive a sign from heaven before he verifies that this is the One expected for centuries. Later, he wonders if he was right in doing so.

What have we learned here? That Jesus lived for 30 years with only his mother thinking he was exceptional. And your mother always thinks you are exceptional. And the man of great faith does not go around telling trees to toss themselves into the sea. He does nothing for dramatic effect.

The most amazing things about Jesus are footnotes. His virgin birth, his time of testing in the desert, and the physical evidence around his death are noted but may not have been know by many contemporaries.

The spiritual person has a hidden life with Christ in God. His life here is a witness to God’s kindness and love. His focus is on other people. He is like Christ in that he makes friends easily. He is a matchmaker and considers each person as a good match for God. Each one will know something different about the God that he now knows. And he knows that it is best for him to be right here, right now.

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The Holy Spirit filled Jesus at his baptism. This was a great sign to John the Baptizer. The gift of the Father is the greatest gift to man. But what exactly does God change in a person?

The Holy Spirit infuses life in the innermost part of a person. This is deeper than all the person has known. But let us look at some of the ways Jesus talks about the experience.

He says ‘eat my flesh’. We would call that gross.

You need to drink my blood. Now this is disgusting.

Wait a minute! I read the bible and drinking any blood is forbidden since Noah.

Why would Jesus use such vulgar language?

He also took off his clothes and washed his disciples feet. This is outrageous behavior at any time. Only a slave would do this. If you think the disciples were comfortable during this, you are wrong. Only Peter speaks up. Jesus tells him it must be done.

Why this embarrassing demonstration?

If you think you would not have been indignant listening to Jesus use the worst possible language and suggesting that someone drink any blood, let alone human blood, you are wrong.

Why would he do this? In what circumstances would you use strong language? Wouldn’t it have to be really important?

You must be born again. Not only is this impossible, says Nicodemus, but it is also gross. It is yucky.

Even if we try to soften it, no man can completely reinvent himself. But, with God, all things are possible.

Only God can reinvent you. And…only with your permission. And…only with your daily cooperation.

You breathe in the pure air of the Spirit.

Your food is the daily manna from God.

Your drink is the blood (or the life) of Christ.

Can you accept this?

The disciples answered, “Where will we go? You alone have the words of eternal life.” They were thinking about leaving, I can assure you.

Where will you go? There are a lot of paths. Maybe it will end up badly and it may take you a long time to find out. Is it confusing? God makes it simple: This is my beloved son. Listen to him.

There are only two choices. It has to be this or that.

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There is an old book that has some stories in it about people who encounter God. No, it’s not the National Enquirer.

We read in this ancient text that the first man born on Earth was named Cain. He finds himself compared unfavorably to his younger brother, Abel.

Cain finds his younger brother, Abel, to be the favorite of their parents. But something takes place that makes Cain think God is also playing favorites. Cain is mad. The Lord actually warns him to reconsider. He asks Cain why he is so mad. God tells him that it doesn’t have to be this way. But Cain shrugs off this advice from God and decides his brother is the source of all his problems. He decides to get rid of him. He invents murder. Can you believe it? The first two men, brothers, and one decides to kill the other!

He does kill him. But what did he have to do first? He had to harden his heart. Cain has squeezed out any natural love he had for his brother or his parents. After the murder, he begins to think that someone might invent revenge! He takes his wife and begins to wander the earth. He keeps moving from place to place. Eventually, he establishes a home where he keeps his large family close around him, to protect and support him.

Our second story finds Moses leading his people through the desert, away from their lives of slavery under the Egyptians, toward another place where they can live as free people. But the people still think like slaves even though they are under the protection of God himself. They say God will let them die in the desert even though they have experienced his daily care for quite a while.

God tells Moses to speak to a big rock in the desert and water would come forth. Lots of water. Moses is mad at his people for always complaining. He slams his staff on the rock and yells, “Do we have to bring water from this rock?” Water flows and the thirsty people have plenty to drink.

I think God wanted this moment to be forever in their memories. Moses speaking to a rock, God causing water to flow. This ancient rock standing in the desert bursting forth with delicious water showing God using his power over nature to care for his chosen people.

But Moses goofed it up. What Moses said made out like he was standing next to God as an equal. He was no longer the humble servant of God. Oh, no. Moses forgot, in his frustration, that he didn’t have any power over nature. His staff gave him power over sheep. Did water come from the rock? Yes, it did. But God was not pleased with Moses’s conduct.

Moses had a close relationship with God. God had made Moses a man who would stand all through history. But Moses was a servant of God. God was carefully impressing on his chosen people who He was. Moses was not allowed to change the script. If we stand above God, he can’t shower down blessings on us. If we place ourselves next to God, he cannot recognize us as his equal, because we are not.

Let’s look at one more story. The man is called Job. At the beginning of this account, Job is rich; he is blessed by God; he has standing in his community. Job is well aware all his blessings come from God.

But Job loses everything all of a sudden. Soon his health is affected. His friends advise him that he must have done something wrong to get this punishment from God. Job says that he has searched his soul to find this very thing and cannot find anything that would explain his new condition.

Job wants to make his case before God. He says that God has the right to take away what he gave him, but Job would like to know why. He doesn’t like that everyone thinks he has wronged God when Job knows he has not .

The Lord appears to Job and gives him the chance to make his case.

God asks Job a series of questions. He asks where Job was when he created the earth. He inquires if Job knows how things work and who keeps it all working.

He probes Job’s understanding of nature with its power as well as its limitations. He asks if Job understands how nature and God work together.

He wants to know where Job stands to begin to make his case. He says that if Job can show his equality, he will be glad to be cross-examined by Job. But Job withdraws his case. He wisely understands that he has no place to stand to make God explain his actions. He chooses silence before the Lord.

We feel we have the right to judge the actions of God. Imagine yourself a judge in your courtroom. You sit in your robe. Your job is to judge God. Are you ready to do that?

People judge God all the time. “If God is so powerful, why does he allow injustice?” But God knows exactly what he is doing. He shows Job that Job does not have the knowledge it would take to make any judgement against God. Job agrees that he is in way over his head.

Is God against Job? No. He considers Job an great example. Did he ever want to do anything but bless Job? No. But the story shows us a bigger picture than Job sees.

God treated Job to an experience where Job learns how great his God is. He values Job and knows that Job refused to disavow God in his difficult circumstance. He also saw that Job did not accept the evaluation of men. Job had seen himself in a dark place. But God saw him as a shining light among men.

God told Cain that he could find his place before God. All he had to do was choose a different path than what he was thinking of doing. He told Moses to speak to a rock and it would give out many gallons of fresh water. But Moses stepped over the line. He acted like it was him that told rocks to give water, not God. God asked Job how he could demand answers from him. But all the time he was using Job as an example of a godly man who would stand for all time.

Maybe you think God wants you to kneel before him. Men want other men to kneel before them. The ancient ruler of China demanded this sort of thing. Sure, we start out kneeling But God wants you to get up off your knees and to stand before him. He wants each of us to stand in a place where he can bless us.

He wants us to grow up into the great purpose he has for each of us. The place he has given us is the same as Jesus. Can you believe it? He wants us to have this same loving relationship that he has with his son. He wants us to stand before him in right relationship so he can bless us now and forever. It is a place where we can stand securely in the love and mercy he wants to shower on us.

With Cain, Moses and Job, God treats them like adults. He expects them to look around and understand things about God. He expects them to act sensibly.

But when Jesus comes, he calls God “Father”. He does not say, God will judge all you evildoers! Get ready for the Judge to judge you sinners. No, he told us to call God: Our Father. He does not say ‘God is my Father, but he is your Judge!’.

He makes this very clear as he gets ready to leave earth, he says, “I am going to my Father. He is also your Father.”

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In the East, the dragon is much different than in the West. But more than the differences in dragons, is the difference in where people stand. In the West, the knight faces the evil dragon, an enemy of mankind. But in the East, the dragon is a strong protector of the people. So people are behind the dragon who faces their enemies.

Where you stand is very important. Whether the dragon is good or evil is not our subject. But where we stand in relation to the powerful may be important. People who believe in God usually think he is powerful. They are always saying how he should do powerful stuff. Like he’s not doing his job correctly. They say things to help him do better at his job of being God. So, if God exists and is powerful, we should try to get on his good side.

But does God have a good side? Many people think he does not. Think of the sun. Does it have a good side? Does it have a bad side? Does it have any sides? God, like the sun, has no sides. One side is the same as the other. But, as with the sun, exposure may cause problems. It was said long ago that no one could see God and live.

If we got too close to the sun, we would die. Does that make the sun bad? I don’t think so. Do you?

Now, what if? What if a good God made a place for humans to be that was safe for them to live? Safe from being too close to God and too close to the sun.

Why would he do this? Since we are reasonable beings, we would think God reasonable, as well. What was his purpose?

Imagine a creative, reasonable God who creates people to live on this place near a forever blazing star, but not too near. He wants them to grow into something great. He loves freedom. He loves choice. If beings don’t have a choice, they are not free. He uses himself as the pattern for making these humans. Too much to believe? Maybe it is. But we are just imagining, right?

He makes himself available to them. But he is not overbearing. He hopes they will try and discover their benefactor.

He gives people a whole planet to live on with food to eat and air to breathe. They can live on this earth without much regard for him. But he has this idea about them. They have incredible potential. He interacts with some of them.

Three Men Connect with God

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Jesus said, “What I see the Father doing, that is what I do.”

The word “see” seems so simple yet it is profound. We are surprised and  even mystified when we have to admit, “You see things so much differently than I do.”

“Do you see it?”
“I see a house.”
“Yes, you see a house but I see my house.”

So, what does Jesus mean in the phrase “What I see…” He must mean an activity of the Father for the Father is “doing.” Does he mean here on earth or in heaven? Let us say it is here in this world because he speaks to those around him. And let us assume that Jesus speaks to be understood. This is not a prayer where Jesus might say, “No one sees you like I do, Father.”

So, if the “doing” of the Father is happening before our eyes, how do we not see it? There are things to big to see. We cannot see the turning of our world in space. It is too large for us. We move with the earth at an incredible speed, yet we don’t see or feel it happening. We know that actions are taking place in the microscopic universe that are too small for us to see. We also cannot see actions that take place slowly like the eroding of a mountain. So, there are activities too wonderful for us to see. Too big, too small, too slowly.

When we injure our bodies, a process of healing begins very quickly. But that process may take quite a while to complete. But when Jesus heals a man in a moment, we call it “a miracle.” How much healing is going on over the globe? We pay little attention to it. We expect it to happen. Water is turned into wine everyday but we don’t see it happening. It goes too slow for our eyes. When Jesus changes water to wine, we say “miracle.” A man born blind gets new eyes from Jesus. Each one of us gets new eyes at birth. But the process takes months.

So maybe what Jesus means is this: what God is doing over time, he does in a short time. Certainly, Jesus is exhibiting the same care as the Father. The activity is more intensified by being done in a short time but God is always doing these same activities. In the situation of the man born blind, Jesus refuses the argument of this being a punishment for sin. He says this is a way to show the glory of God. Each one of us received new eyes from God that give us the glorious ability to see the beauty of creation and the faces of those around us. We forget this because it happened to us long ago. But when this man “comes back seeing”, we can rejoice with him in this wonderful gift that God has given each one of us.

Now, these miracles show us the power of God. We are always impressed with power and want more of it. But it shows us something more about God. Something more important than his power.

Let us look at a man with leprosy who kneels before Jesus and says, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” He believes in the power of God. But, he wonders at the will of God. Maybe he has wondered, ‘Why has God allowed me to suffer?’

What wonder does Jesus do? He says, “I am willing,” as he reaches out his hand and touches the man. This takes place before Jesus says, “Be clean!” and the man is healed. Jesus show his willingness to heal him and much more.

He touches the man with his hand. Do you think this was a tentative touch? Do you think he touched him carefully with one finger? No, he reached out and took hold of a man whom no one else would touch. He connects himself with the man in his present state.

This is what the Lord longs to do with each of us. He wants to connect with us. That he forgives our sin is only part of it. This terrible disease brought this man to Jesus. But what brings us to Jesus is not what brings Jesus to us. He wants to reconnect us with himself. This man was also reconnected to society. Jesus tells him, “See that you don’t tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.” This is the way to formally rejoin society. But what else did he say? Don’t tell anyone. Maybe Jesus wanted him to reflect on what God had done for him. To remember who first put a hand on him. He wanted him to understand that God restored his relationship with him first, then he healed him and wanted him to rejoin society.

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It says ‘we are partakers in the Divine nature’, yet, in practical terms, how is this so? Adam did not participate in the Divine nature. He became a living soul in his newly created body. His nature was human. At that time, human nature was not corrupted.

Adam was peacefully connected in all of his human relationships. He was in good relations with God and could work with him in tasks such as naming the animals. He was in good relationship with his wife, Eve, whom he called ‘flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone’. He was at peace with nature in a beautiful garden where no fear separated him from the animals. But, he was all human and exhibited all the characteristics of human nature. In no way divine, he and his wife were to choose what human nature would become.

This was a choice of Life or Death. Life is shown as the Tree of Life. Death is not quite so clear so God warned them that Death would be a result from choosing the other named tree. This tree had the awkward name of The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Choosing it would allow them the ability to make choices independent of God.

This would also disconnect them from the harmonious relationships they enjoyed. This would be a death that would end in physical death or ‘dying, you will die’. The warning is clear but they are tempted with lies and make a choice that begins the corruption of human nature.

So, people are not involved in participation in the Divine Nature at the beginning. But as we come to the New Testament, things are different. We have the opportunity to receive the Spirit of God. How, then, do we partake of the Divine nature in a practical way? By leaving off our method of decision making based on our own judgment. And who is our model? Enter Jesus! To partake of the Divine nature , we follow The Method. Jesus said, “I AM The Method (or The Way).

We become like the Son of God. We conform joyfully to his role as the Son of The Father. We say, we have free will. This is the use of it. To freely choose the same position of Jesus toward The Father: Sonship. We must look closer at Jesus and his relationship with His Father. He always freely chooses the will of The Father over his own. Always. And he always has because this is his nature which is so much different than our own self-interest based choosing.

Do you think Jesus only did this on earth, in the flesh? Then it was a sham, a temporary role, an acting done in the worst sense as one acting out of character. He would have been pretending. But, no, he was no fake. He was just doing it all in the context of a life like ours, in the flesh. He accepted the limitations of humanity. Yet, nothing changed in his essential being. The Word became flesh but did not change into something different. He did not change his Divine nature. And this is the Divine nature we can take part in: the Divine nature of the Son of God.

He is the Only Begotten Son but he wants to ‘bring many sons to glory’. Now, we may have missed something important. The relation between Father and Son is Love. Their actions are all In Love. Their motivation to act is Love. In fact, it is the only relationship. No wonder the first commandment was, “Love the Lord, your God, with all…” To love God is enter into the relationship of God. There is no other relationship to God, only Love.

This is what John, the apostle, means by ‘God is Love’. But our human nature has been corrupted.  It is selfish. It is full of self-love. It is not even fixable since we have made it worse with our own choices. But it is replaceable. It can be put aside and a new nature brought in to be our life energy. It comes with the instruction of Jesus and the possibility of real change within us.

Let us take one practical example: Jesus said, “Judge not, lest you be judged”. Not only a command,  but with an explanation, too. You are probably going to be judged if you judge others. You like being judged? Keep judging. Judge everyone by your standards. You know good and evil. This is good. That is evil.

Or do we rather choose to be like him who did not judge. He refused to judge many times. “Who made me judge over your family affairs?” Did he judge Zacchaeus the tax collector? No, he went to his house. Did he judge the woman caught in adultery? He did not.

So, to practically participate in the Divine nature, we do as the Son says and does. We chose not to judge. Do it! If you have difficulty, God will help you. His Spirit will help you. The Spirit of Christ. You act like Jesus. Jesus acts like the Father. By this means, you actually become a son of God. You’re not a child anymore, but growing up to a son or daughter of God.

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