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Trapped by religion? Motivated by guilt? Immobilized by fear? You think this is God's plan for your life? No way! Join the Shovel and break free from the prison that enslaves you. Dig with me and uncover the joy of life and freedom that's been buried under piles of religious dirt. Discover the true grace of God that most preachers fear and have probably already warned you against. Check out the real Jesus Christ, not the religious icon ... and you just might discover the real you.
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What gives, eh? :) 6/2/2009 3:33:07 PM
I really haven't been keeping up with much around here, have I?
No, I haven't been writing a whole lot lately, but I haven't been posting the stuff I have written. I had hoped by now to have updated the site with the new format I've been working on, but I've had a few drawbacks. After having transferred a good deal of my writing using a particular set up, I ran into a couple of major snags that would end up causing me too many future headaches, which forced me to reluctantly consider another option. Anyhow, I'm now reworking everything with a web site building program that fits me much better.
Jim
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He has made you his pleasure! 3/27/2009 2:02:06 PM
This latest scoop is brought to you by my wife, Sherri ... aka Dignz on the Shovelshack. Her delightful, life-filled post was nominated for this spot by another Shackster. :) It came from this thread - Jim
"taking delight and pleasure in me"
... sounds weird doesn't it? more times than not we tend to view
ourselves only as that which we think we still are in the flesh ...
only always by what is seen in the outward appearances, etc. when we
do that, we come to the same conclusions the law does about the old
dead thing we once
were:
failures, disappointments, disasters, useless, losers, ineffective for
any real good, hopeless, deficient, lacking in all that really counts,
unworthy, 'unspiritual' ... fill in the blanks ... it is endless. how
can any delight and pleasure be found there? it can't. i never
could. it never will. that is why there was a death and a
new creation.
there is peace, relief, rest and contentment known and experienced there.
when
i view myself from the viewpoint of the world as if being 'of' the
world, as if being 'part of it', as if still separated from god and
dead in trespasses and sins, the only conclusion i
can come to, because it
is the conclusion of the law concerning all that is dead to god, is that
i am not worthy.
why do we go there? we have been duped again thinking that we are but
mere flesh of the world that maybe there really is some way we can
produce and/or maintain some kind of righteousness in it, by it and
with it.
when we equate the new that we are with the old that
we once were, and conclude that we are not worthy and can not possibly
be pleasing to the father is to me,
true
blasphemy. it is blasphemy concerning the work of jesus on the cross,
and it is blasphemy concerning his work in us. we are saying basically
that the work of christ was not sufficient and therefore we are not
either. now that is a biggie isn't it?
what set me free BIG time and continues to do so was and is when realizing that the death that christ died was
my co-death with him, revealing it to be even more miraculous than we could ever imagine. all that i
was in adam died
with him that day and was
co-buried with him
.
how can that be explained and accepted to the mind of the world/flesh?
it can not. it is miraculous and only for the mind of christ to know
and recognize and bare witness within.
when i realized that
the new life given me was the very spirit of god in christ jesus and
that i am part in the inheritance of the very life of christ himself
... he in me, i in him, etc., that was another part of the BIG
illumination for me. more of the realization was that i was
not in reality
the same old dead to god, totally insufficient,
hopeless-to-ever-gain-eternal-life, or
hopeless-to-ever-gain-and-be-worthy-of-the-love, acceptance and
pleasure-of-god life, much less an actual familial-relationship life,
but
i was now a totally NEW life found in christ himself. there is peace,
relief, rest and contentment known and experienced there.
early
on in my late teens i believed i had eternal life because i believed
jesus christ was the only way, truth and life. i believed i had
eternal life because i believed in jesus christ and him alone and that
he did all that pleased the father and all that was necessary to secure
me a place in heaven with him one day. but that was the only anemic
thing i knew about him and me. the rest was a very insecure day to day
moment to moment existence full of the stress and mental anxiety to try
to please and impress god so that i could earn whatever i needed to
earn for whatever reason i needed to earn it. i needed to do things to
maintain any kind of 'relationship', and i needed to sustain it by
keeping the maintenance going successfully, etc. we can all fill in
the various blanks as to what those things would be i am sure. most of
what i thought was trying to please god was in reality a lot of
religious pleasing man. i was ignorant to it, but in my heart truly
wanted to be pleasing to god. little did i know i was going to law and
that which was dead to do it. thank god in christ jesus that he has
made us exactly what we so desire to be and yet can not seem to always
accept that we are. peace, relief, rest and contentment are known and
experienced there.
concerning 'spirituality' ... (
seems to be on my mind today)
i used to think that you could only be as spiritual as your 'spiritual'
activities and 'spiritual' attitudes and 'spiritual' talk and
'spiritual' walk and 'spiritual' this and that. yes, you can easily
substitute the word 'religious' for 'spiritual' because that is how the
word spiritual is ignorantly used. i just could never conjure up
enough of the 'spiritual' out of me to satisfy anyone much less my
self. i could never really live up to the 'spiritual' expectations
required to be any where NEAR 'successful' enough, whatever that was.
but
when i realized that god is spirit and can only be worshipped in
spirit, and i realized that the very life of christ given to me was
also the very spirit life required to worship him, a light went off
with MUCH BLING! i realized
that
was the only 'spiritual' anything god has to do with. 'spiritual' took
on a whole new meaning. the miraculous spirit-of-god life provided in
his son. another load lifted, dumped and burnt. peace, relief, rest
and contentment are known and experienced there.
if the son of
god is the pleasure of the father's heart, then the new creation who he
paid the greatest price for is also his and is also the pleasure of his
heart in his son. peace, relief, rest and contentment are known and
experienced there.
it is a wonderful thing to know about god and
me and about god and my siblings, as we all have the same father and we
are all pleasing to him. we all suffer the same insecurities and lack
of confidence when we look at the outward to judge ourselves as being
worthy or not, as if still the dead thing
we once
were.
it feels like we waste our time and our hearts going there. it is a
dead end and always a wearying and painful path. yet, hopefully we
grow weary enough of it to eventually stop going there. the law will
always bring us to the same conclusion and we will always come back to
our true sense in god that our life is only in christ and it is hid
with god in him. there is peace, relief, rest and contentment known
and experienced there.
anything of any value and worth is found in christ alone and it is in christ
we
are. our life is hid with god in christ jesus. how i LOVE those words! there is peace, relief, rest and contentment known and experienced there.
i don't know if that is what you were looking for or not as far as
coming-to-realization is concerned. as usual, i did not condense very well.
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10 Most Recent Q&A 
Confessing to one another - a set up for judging? ( Jan-04-09 ) Jim, Hello there my friend! Seems there are always many questions. So this is what has been on my mind lately. Now we know that anyone in Christ is a new creation, the old has gone and the new has come....
Where does it say that believers are convicted of sin? ( Dec-04-08 )<< Where in the NT does it even say that the believer is "convicted" by the Holy Spirit? I've found or been shown verses that are said to be the same as conviction of the believer...but...
Hebrews: coming before the throne? ( Nov-29-08 ) ----- Original Message -----Sent: Tue Nov 25 08:01:00 2008Hi jim,I was thinking about sin. If God is no longer convicting us of our sin,doesn't bring it to our or His mind, then we don't have...
everyone is forcing his way in ( Nov-16-08 )Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it. Luke 16:14-18 and Mt. 11:12 Jim I was reading you sermon on the mount stuff...what i...
Judging a tree by its fruit? ( Oct-31-08 )Richard,Fear not, the chicken is still clucking! :) Thanks for your follow up.Jim
Judging a tree by its fruit? ( Oct-29-08 ) Good day, Jim and friends, I'm glad you posted my response. a good sign. after all, that's what we're talking about here. 1John3:7-3:24 and Gal 5:13-5:25 Are packed with passages about...
Judging a tree by its fruit? ( Oct-27-08 )Richard, With everything I've posted on the web site over the years why would you suppose I'd be afraid to post your assessment? Judge away, my friend. :)Jim
Judging a tree by its fruit? ( Oct-27-08 ) It is funny how we have to make everything esoteric. You will know them by their fruit. Period. If my neighbor is drinking all the time and screwing his secretary there is a good chance that that...
Judging a tree by its fruit? ( Oct-25-08 )Jim,I know that as new creatures in christ we are no longer seen on the bases of the law with it's measurements. So what my question is, what is the REAL interpretation to judging a tree by it's...
Can we know Christ apart from the written word? ( Sep-14-08 )hello Jim,I'm not satisfied with these answers. As a former christ follower I've grown tired of shrill apologetics and bible thumping. How can one meet christ and know him as a REAL living being?...
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