Post details: Table for Two

06/02/09

Permalink 03:05:57 pm, Categories: By Trent, GraceHead counseling, 244 words   English (US)

Table for Two

The more I grow, the more I realize that relationship is the crux of it all.

Often we approach the relationship to God with a systematized forensic understanding of the basis of relationship (ie. the facts of the gospel.) ... but at some point, we begin to realize that the relationship makes true those facts ... not the facts making true the relationship ... and all that stuff, no matter how much we think we have it figured out, is meaningless apart from God, Himself ...

What if there was no Bible (as the past has shown to be the case) and no religion (see Abraham) ... would there not be an essential table set at the heart of man that seats only two? Would there not be a place in the very heart of us to build something of a personal and unique understanding between God and each of us? And wouldn't this fit under the heading of "relationship?"

Then what is all this religious stuff we pile up around this table, so that we can hardly see it?

You are blessed. You are loved. You are building something that religion cannot replace, when it is you and the Lord baring your heart to each other ... crying and shouting, being heard, and understood ...and seeing how the other responds.

I have found the most impressive communication of God's love has come to me after shaking my fist and cursing Him.

This is how we ripen for the harvest ...

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Comment from: Pam [Visitor] · http://meredevotion.com
Hi Trent,

You know there are those who will respond that the correct religion is the Jewish religion that God gave the Jews and that Jesus practiced that religion and if we also practice that religion then we will be right with God. I agree that Jesus did not come to start a new religion but as a Gentile, I feel no compulsion to practice the Jewish religion and I am actually the happiest living each day alike and every day belonging to Jesus. I am a Gentile Chrisitan grafted into Israel and though I am grafted in, I am still a Gentile in much the same way as branches from many different apple trees are grafted into the same stump but each branch bears the fruit after its own kind rather than that which is of the stump naturally. In Jesus, our religion is how we live. It is visiting widows and orphans in their affliction and keeping ourselves unspotted by the world. It is not special days and rituals; (though the Jews should not forsake those because they have accepted Christ neither should I adopt them because I have accepted Christ). It is not special clothes, food, and rules. Serving God may include service in church but it also may not. Serving God is to do all that we do to His glory.

Good post, Trent.

Pam
Permalink 11/12/08 @ 21:11
Comment from: Trent [Member] · http://www.GraceHead.com
Pam,

The best religion is no religion.

Nothing replaces a vital relationship that is deep and instant. Nothing beats walking through life and holding the hand of the Lord Jesus.

Jesus showed what this type of life looks like. Nobody could mistake Him for being religious, infact He tended to do exactly the thing to throw the religious off-balance as if to draw them out for humiliation.

Being nothing less than God He behaved as though He was nothing more than man ... a simple life of love and devotion to the Father. He walked step-by-step in vital intimacy, and then said this: "As the Father sent me, so I send you."

Hallelujah!
Amen.

Ripening,
Trent

PS. Recognizing that the Father gift-wrapped for man 7 holy days a year plus one day each week, Jesus' appreciation for and participation in these "special days" arose from His already intimate "relationship" with the Father, not as a religious attempt to obtain a relationship. For it is seldom "what" and usually "why" that matters most.
Permalink 11/12/08 @ 23:00
Comment from: Pam [Visitor] · http://meredevotion.com
Trent,

That comment is even better than the post.:0)

Just as Jesus practiced the Jewish religion as an outflow of obedience and not an outward burden so too should we be mindful that we not take up religious practices out of peer pressure or guilt that the religious part of our lives also be an expression of our relationship with Him with the intent of glorifying Him and never to bring honor, or glory, or prestige, or approval to ourselves.

Pam

Permalink 11/13/08 @ 10:39
Comment from: Trent [Member] · http://www.GraceHead.com
amen, Pam.
It is a table for only two ... meaning other parties don't have room there to influence and misdirect.

Permalink 11/13/08 @ 11:39
Comment from: saintbennett [Member]
I ran across this site looking for something on spiritual winter. I am blessed to have found you. With just 1 sampling of what you have here I am refreshed.- TASTE & SEE THE LORD IS GOOD
Permalink 11/17/08 @ 17:19

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