When I look truly, i cannot lust or take anything from you. I can only bless you with my sight, and be in wonder of who you truly are. I do not see you in terms of my own needs, i value you for yourself—and am astonished by the poem of who you are! I see you as a thou and not an it! I see you as a friend and family member.

 I look out at your eternal self, and by seeing it, bless it into becoming. This is the role of a good gaze in the healing. I make you whole by staring at you from the spirit of Christ in me. True perception is an underrated healing agent! How else would you even want to use your imagination. How I image you helps you become that.

How we look at one another matters eternally.

The role of how we see one another is bigger than we think. I need to see you more and more as how God sees you. That’s my task of perceptual sanctification! It heals my imagination as it calls your true image forward!

Favorite quotes from Dallas Willard’s book Renovation of the heart, which I keep re-reading this Summer!

Talking about the social dimension of who we are, and why love others:

“When we are lost to God, we are also lost to ourselves: we do not know where we are or how to get where we want to go.”

“Our relationship with others cannot be right unless we see those others in their relationship to God. Through others he comes to us and we only really find others when we see them in Him.

If someone says I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar, John unapologetically said, for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. We only live as we should when we are in a right relation to God and to other human beings—thus, the two greatest commandments!”

 This is one of the reasons people matter and have dignity, for they are a medium through which to encounter God! Just as we ourselves are, when viewed from the correct perspective as we see in Psalm 139, where David celebrates himself as a poem of God. If our camera is in heaven, we can view ourselves and others properly-not egotistically, but with wonder, and love accordingly—i.e. as He loves us.

Jesus came to give us a perfect photo of God; and lives that we can see others and ourselves more as He does. Prayer teaches that much. When we sit with Him as Priest, we start to sense his sight thoughts and feelings about each person and situation. That is the practice of prayer. And is the foundation of any real ministry.

We have to see others backdropped by God in order to really love them. Our ethics is empowered by our vision. Otherwise we are just “trying” to be kind (tree of knowledge, not the tree of His Life!). But if we see the nature of Reality well, we will naturally move into loving all creatures and all of creation.

A tree is rotten if the fruit is hatred of others.

It’s an ontological (how Reality actually is) approach to how and why to live well. If Reality is like this, then we should love one another. Nice section in this great and, i think, wise book. Great Summer read! Wish I’d of had this book in Art Therapy school, as it breaks down human psychology and spirituality in a very practical and useful way without being pretentious. Good teachers are like that.

Teaching religion in our local pub!

I studied religious studies and art in school.

Someone asked me yesterday, “you study religion and art, what is the essence of christianity in three words”.

“Union with Jesus.” were my best summation in three words. Nice challenge. To the degree christians are “in Christ” they are useful and fulfilling their faith, and are useful to the world, bearing the fruits of His Spirit. Otherwise, people get stuck in their own cultural expression or reaction to “the christian tradition”, which is not necessarily the actual Life of Christ, but is often counterfeit christianity (religious spirit).

True Christians have daily encounters with Jesus, so start to act as He did while on earth, and continues to.

 I appreciate when people want to crystallize things. Compared to most religions, Christianity is less about complex practices-following many laws- and more about union and intimacy with it’s Source-it’s a relational religion. It’s a religion of close proximity and intimacy with Jesus. It’s also a religion of constant confession into thanks into praise. One in which you are constantly reminded of your own brokenness and potential excellence. “We are simultaneously very ugly and extremely beautiful”, as one saint put it.

 The actual spirituality of christianity is about daily union with Jesus and what He is up to, not just in us, but in the world. People do this through prayer, study and fellowship. But basically what separates cultural christianity (or mere religion) from His True Friends, is about those who actually know and love Him, hang out with Him. and are allowing themselves to be transformed by and into His Nature.

Everything is fundamentally focused on being “in Him”. It’s primary practices (praxis) are prayer, study and fellowship with others growing in Jesus, and serving those in need.

Jesus own spirituality was prayer, study, fellowship with His Father and then service to others from that communion.

They also asked me, what is the most important practice in Christianity? What was Jesus’ personal spirituality in one word? “Prayer” was my one word answer. He only did what He saw the father doing because He prayed often. Then study, fellowship and serving others. Nice to be challenged on the essences.

 They went on, if He had one sermon, what was it? “Love God, love others”, in that order. I love having to compress a whole religions into three to four word answers. I appreciated my friend’s challenge. It’s like the question, “what is art?” thankfully he didn’t ask me that, as my answer is far too long for one afternoon.

 I love it when you are sitting at a cafe, and people come and ask deep questions suddenly, and you have to be on. Life is cool, it does come at you! When i think about compressing an entire religion into three words, for some reason it makes me happy to try! Fun talking religion at my local pub anyway!

If you take religious practice and immerse it in—doing only what Jesus is doing. We are the ones who take on His spirituality. We don’t really have our own spiritual practices, we have His. Basically true Christians are engulfed and borrowing Jesus’ spirituality. It’s a religion of union. It’s a religion which exist between The Son and the Father. We are caught up in their communion.

What prayer really is: union with Jesus as active Priest over everything! Prayer is not some boring activity, it is communion with the highest aspect of the One we are following and being transformed by! Jesus, The High Priest over humanity!

For Christian’s we can’t get around the practice of prayer! It’s the foundational practice for us who are followers and friends of Jesus Christ.

We are to be ever increasing our intimacy with the actual personhood of Jesus Christ. We want to know as much of Him as possible. One part of Him is clearly His priesthood. He is praying for all constantly—He ever lives to make intercession. So when we pray, we are joining Him in this activity.

Ever increasing union with Jesus through this life into the next is true Christian spirituality. The practice is prayer, study of the word and fellowship with others who are growing in Him and His Nature. It’s not a mysterious system really. We do what Jesus did while on earth, but we do it in His power and nature. Peter taught us to participate in the Divine Nature and that it would empower our ethics and action.

What prayer does? Bring us into union with Jesus as Priest! It also takes us outside our selves and our narrow concerns and places us more in His. It tilts us towards His Concerns rather than ours. Prayer is then an essential practice and central for Christians. We cannot just feed the poor, when we pray we see which poor and when. It opens our heart’s eyes to the specific nuances of His Orientation towards each situation. Prayer then is a way of having much more effective ministry on earth. For in prayer we get imparted to us, part of His Heart for that situation.

I think this practice of seeing yourself and your life from outside yourself—from His Eyes. Rising above yourself in time, and looking back at yourself from His Perspective is a healing act. For then you can return to time and act in wisdom, seeing where you are on your journey of growth in Christ. Seeing what you need now. For me, He is adding knowledge and more godliness and hopefully holiness to my life.

Prayer is part of our own transformation. As we sit with Jesus as Priest, we ourselves are transformed by encountering His Heart for others and for whatever else He is praying for. If we want to become like Christ, we will want to be with Him in prayer. Being with Him in His High Priest role, transforms our own hearts, and informs our actions while here on earth.

There is a daily practice in prayer where we are meant to rise above ourselves into His concerns and thoughts. We are meant to follow Him rather than just our own hearts. This is simple practice of prayer. But it is essential, even fundamental. Part of what prayer is—allowing us to rise above our daily concerns and tune more accurately in to His day.

Of course, prayer involves the imagination. We start to see things as we pray. And this is another way Jesus communicates His Heart into ours. The symbolic is another part of communication. So we keep our imaginations receptive and open while we pray, so He can show us things, and align them with His Feelings and thoughts about them. He is One, and in prayer, we start to sense His Oneness. His imagination, feelings, thoughts and actions are in sync. Prayer helps us practice this oneness of being.

Prayer is the foundation for the prophetic! When we pray, we are getting His Orientation towards each situation. We cannot deliver His Words, without His Orientation of heart. Prayer allows us to have His Heart about the matter, imparted! So then if we are used to bless into that situation, we do so in His Heart and Power. Prayer comes before prophecy. Just as Jesus stopped and prayed each time before acting, so we are to pray before ministering into situations!

Prayer is about putting us in a less self centered place and more in a place of receptivity to His concerns. We have prayer authority the degree we are “in Him”. It is His authority we have as we move in collaboration with Christ. Prayer is collaboration but it begins with listening to Him and His Concerns.

Often we don’t ask why should we pray, or what is prayer? It is a type of practice where we are becoming less so He may be more. We are getting to know Him Priest. So it is part of restoring priesthood down here.

Prayer is the place of vision! We cannot see as He sees until we put ourselves in a prayerful orientation. In order to see, we must be with Him as Priest and Seer. The two are connected in Him–His Prayer life allows Him to see what the Father is doing at all times! It is meant to be the same for us as we union into the prayer life of Our Friend Jesus. We begin to see more of what He is seeing. And that sight transforms and informs us, teaching us how to truly pray!

As we commune with Jesus as Priest, we get to know Him in a unique part of His activities. He makes intercession for us all, and all the nations and peoples, and we get to overhear His intercessions! Prayer is coming into union with Jesus as the High Priest!

If we do not know Him as Priest, we miss out on a big part of what He is currently up to!

Constant union with Christ in His Prophetic, Kingly and Priestly aspects is the ever growing pathway of those in are called into His Name. And ever more deeply baptized into it!

Prayer is the central and most important practice of followers of Christ, because it was and is His central practice. It places us in the orientation of Jesus.

So prayer is a way to transform ourselves, it is a way to rise above our narrow concerns, and it is the foundation for us to be able to move prophetically into the lives of others and situations around us. Our goal is a more perfect union with Christ in all His aspects, but particularly Jesus as our great High Priest! When we pray, we are getting to know this central aspect of the Life of Our Lord!

Prayer changes who we are. It gives us more of His perspective on whatever we are concerned with. It equips us for ministry or acts of service by sharing in His Concerns, Power and Authority as Priest. His Priesthood is on the top of the mountain, then like Samuel halfway down is His Prophetic aspects, then in the valley, His Kingship. That is the order of authority in His Own Being–Priest is highest, then prophet, then king. When we pray we are meeting encountering and being transformed by the highest part of who Jesus actually is! That’s reason enough to pray without ceasing. Let’s!

How to become foolish: don’t give a shit about how other’s see you (start there), but only how God sees you, and what He says about you.

Slowly, becoming fools for Christ sake: the basic paradox of our foolishness and that we are also masterpieces of God through Christ! We are to treat one another as masterpieces of God Himself, at the same time as realizing we are total idiots.

Depending on life experiences, we tend to see ourselves as worthless or overly worthy. Either way, our true worth rest in how God sees us, not how we see ourselves, and project outwards, or how others see us, which is fickle changing seasonally. Our worth and identity come from how God sees us, and who He calls us. He is our Namer. Our freedom comes from receiving and wearing His nuanced names of us. Our best thoughts even about ourselves are terribly flawed, partial and not impartial. We defend ourselves with our own self definitions. But His self definition of us is much more gracious and spacious as well!

Being a failure or success is meaningless apart from how God sees us. We can be both down here repeatdly and still never get a sense of His perspective and value of who we truly are.

True self worth comes from seeing ourselves the way God sees us—messed up but terribly and particularly lovable and worth helping become the true poems we each are. It’s not self esteem, it is God’s esteem of us that makes us worthy and begin to shine in who we really are. We can’t just come to value ourselves, we must do so from and in His valuing of us.

We really cannot minister identity to others, if we have not ourselves moved in this dynamic of knowing we are very unlovable and yet having received His intense love. That’s the start of our own true journey into self. And it is other’s as well. We love Him because we know that He first loved us, and called us by name.

Self love apart from God is a nightmare of narcissism in the end. And really we are never to love others truly from that base. We must first see how unlovable we are, and yet that we are terrifically loved, receive that love and then we may be useful in loving others into their true worth and identities!

How to be fools and heroes simultaneously, how to be idiots and wise men, how to be very broken and yet also radiant eternal poems at the same time, is the dance of human life in Christ while on earth. We are both absolute idiots and total geniuses in Him. Absolute fools apart from Him, and absolute masters in and with Him!

Just as our best thoughts are dust specks compared with God’s, and must be offered on the altar in order to be altered by His, so we must become fools to ourselves and others, in order to become saints in Him.

We must be foolish enough to be useful! But wise enough to love one another despite ourselves. We are nothing, but we are also giants in Him, and have to be wise enough to allow Him to be enormous in us, which makes us look like we are something. On the outside, we may appear wise or stupid, but if He is manifesting, we are properly yielded.

We have to be wise enough to not care if we ourselves look like idiots in order that His actual Wisdom be seen. This is the foolishness of Christ. How we see ourselves depends on where we place the camera. If we place it in heaven, the angle is different. As is the interpretation afterwards.

It is not being a fool for foolishness sake, but it’s being willing to look like one, for the sake of Christ. Paul tried to teach this. But we still all want to look impressive, but none of us is apart from Him.

It is the same contradiction of already been made righteous, but still being idiots simultaneously. I am an unclean man, yet I am also a child of the Living God, as Paul put it.

If we throw out, how we appear to others, and only focus on how we appear to God, our inner motivations shift, as does the radiance of glory we can hold and reflect.

We are both the most amazing poems God has ever made, and one of the ugliest things imaginable. As we progress in Christ, we are displacing disgust with His Glory, and we should be moving from glory to Glory.

The true occupy movement is God occupying us and us then learning to occupy others in His Love and make them more fruitful.

When we get enough of ourselves on His Altar, He can make us famous or nobody and we are content. Our circumstance no longer dictates our worth or impact. That is the way of Christ who made Himself nothings, so He could be our Everything.

Many of us are still afraid to become foolish looking; others are afraid to look like we have it all together for His Sake. In fact, none of us have it all together, but He chooses where to shine His Light, and our job is to be yielded, whether He makes us look impressive or like fools. That’s for His Purposes.

Where we perceive ourselves from matters. If we look at ourself from God’s perspective, we see more clearly. If we try to create and image He will like, or others will accept we misconstrue our true image, and His of us.

I often think about how He uses the seemingly foolish to confound the seemingly wise. It’s one of His Ways. Sometimes it’s hard to be perceived as either. But that’s not our choice. Knowing who we really are—idiots becoming angel like, sons and daughters of God, is the most humbling and best way to interpret all He allows us to collaborate with Him on earth in. We may find fame and fortune down here, or die alone with nothing—that’s not His Point. Would be willing to be a king or a pauper and just stay with Him regardless, that is what Paul’s secret of spiritual contentment was all about.

We can become a famous artist or leader or be a nobody. Either way we must know our “somebody-ness” in Him. Our true worth and names reside in Jesus regardless of our seasons of seeming success or failure. We are those called by our names, according to His Name. We see ourselves because He sees us, and names us. Our worth comes from Him, not by what we accomplish or don’t accomplish down here.

Solomon was made famous, but notoriety was not his worth. His worth was from and in God. John the baptist became very famous. God trusted him with fame, because He said, I must decrease that He may increase. As I decrease, He can make me either nobody or somebody in the world’s eyes, and it matters less.

If we are dead, we will shine in His Life. We become ourselves by being willing to lose ourselves. We become ourselves by being willing to lose ourselves. The path to true identity, is to be lay our version of ourselves down, to find ourselves eternally in His Identity! We offer Him our names of ourselves, so He can whisper our true forever names into us. We give Him our black stones so He can give us our White stones in Him.

Our ambitions are fruitless apart from the ambition to be nothings so that He may become everything. When He is everything in us, we will surely shine like the stars, and He will share that shimmer wherever He chooses!

Many of us are still working to appear successful to ourselves or others. The fact is, we are not on any level despite our gifts. We are only successful as we come in thanks confession and enter into Him. When we do, we realize on another level that we truly are successful as people because He lives, therefore we are. He has given you every good thing which people value about you, and when you give it back to Him it shines on another level.

Success itself is really just this: was I fully found in Him. Did I yield as much of myself as possible into My Source and Lover, so that I could shine in my true radiance and be named in my complete poem. Success has nothing to do with what we accomplished down here, other than how well and quickly did I die into His Being. And be re-born in each area. Not just once, but daily. Success is how much of us, was found in Christ?!

We wrestle with success and failure down here. We are both. But in Him we are more than a success. We are mighty poetic radiant shining majestic statements about our Maker, our Lover, and our Friend. We become by being in Him.

That’s the message of Christ. I came down to help you become friends. You can find yourself in Me, as you are willing to lose yourself into Me. I will show you who you really are—your eternal self, can already start to live out life here. But you must yield your definition of yourself of your own success and failures and take on my interpretation. When you do, I will show you how amazing you really are!

So then, in the end, success is about formation, and how fully formed was I at the end. Was I willing to let Him form as much of Himself in and through me as possible. Did I become spiritually mature in the end, where I was then useful to others. If so, I manifested love and kindness and all the other good fruits to my friends, my neighborhood and my world where I was planted. And there is contentment in that.

What the Shema implies in relation to Identity:

Also thinking today about how the Shema relates to our identities or becoming more whole or integrated. Healing is lodged in understanding the Shema—God is One, therefore wants to make us more one integrated new creation.

The Oneness of God implies moving towards wholeness in our own identities as well. We see that He is One, and therefore wants to make us more one, as we relate to Him in love. As St Augustine said, “Love God and do what you will.” That is to say it is less about the medium, and more about meeting God through your situation.

This is also Paul’s secret of spiritual contentment. We are not our circumstances, they are, instead, mediums through which to encounter the Living God, and be transformed by that ongoing encountering….this is why Paul was content in prison or eating a feast. They were both just places of meeting his God. Whether in sickness health poverty or wealth, season of life etc…

We discover our true identities by staring at His.

We find ourselves by losing ourselves..we gain our names, by seeking to know God’s Name! God is One, and wants to make us one or whole.

My other favorite quote this week: “My heart is broken in two, but God is One. The Shema implies not just God’s integration, but potentially and eventually our own, as we offer our hearts, and naming of ourselves, into His. We become more one, more our true or integrated selves, by staring and encountering His Oneness. Like Peter, we see His True identity, and get our true names. We find ourselves, by losing our self definitions into His naming of us.” Nice

Came across a few more quotes today…about the wisdom of Grace’s pacing…

“Today’s Grace is for today, tomorrow’s will be for then. Give us Lord our daily portion of Grace, and help us to be satisfied with that measure. And trust that You will provide the exact portion we need when the time comes.

 You don’t get the whole loaf of bread at once, but in pieces which are meant to transform us, a day at a time.

That’s how God rolls…(i’m talking challah here, not your regular rolls)! Daily bread stuff.

 We tend to want the whole loaf all at once, and often demand it, but that’s not the Way of the Bread of Life. We are still dawning, still beginners at becoming. Still those who can only handle and ingest, a piece at a time-daily.

 Rather, it is paced and portioned in order to form Wisdom’s Love in us.

  Thankful that the Bread Man passes out daily portions that we need for each day! The Bread of His Presence is enough to sustain the universe forever, and He portions it daily. May each of us receive today what is given for today!” Nice.

Keep me lean in You Lord

keep me nothing, so you can be everything.

Keep me thin, until you become well rounded in Your  expression of Yourself

through me-the one you made as a poem of Yourself.

In the meantime, keep me myself, so others can see Yourself.

Are we growing in spiritual intelligence?

Spiritual intelligence means that we have allowed our minds to be formed and informed by God’s Mind. This happens through His Holy Spirit.

My favorite Paul quote: “The person who thinks they know, does not yet know as they ought to know.” God’s thoughts, feelings and knowings are higher than ours. We are wise to seek His.

 He affirms our intelligence, but spiritual intelligence is another matter. The things of the Spirit are known by the Spirit. Spiritual knowledge is revealed by His Spirit. This holds for our thoughts, feelings and imagination. All of them must die to be reborn. Each area of self must come to the altar and be altered!

We come to discern the difference between His thoughts and feelings and our own. As we do, we grow in spiritual intelligence.

You can tell when people have spiritual intelligence versus just smart people. It’s a different type or level of knowledge. Your very best thought is still so much lower than God’s.

 When we start to get more of God’s thoughts, feelings and imagination into ours, things alter. I once had a priest tell me, you will begin to feel less of your own pain and more of His. We must do this in each area of who we are—our minds, feelings and imagination. Less of me, more of thee.

The smartest people in history were often spiritually unintelligent. Jesus taught, that many knew the letter, but not the spirit. They knew the law, but not the giver of the Law and His Ways.

Revealed knowledge takes time and prayer. The holy spirit must place it in your spirit. Revealed knowledge is another level of knowing, and leads to greater love of God and others.

Have we yielded our best thoughts, feelings and creativity to God, so that He can transform them into His new creature. To alter us on His Altar in every area!

The truly lasting thoughts of man were revealed by God. The greatest spiritual thinkers downloaded some of the thought seeds of God, they were given some of His keys. A tree is known by its fruit. You think of MLK and the seeds from God he carried, and how they still bear fruit. He had spiritual intelligence.

Perhaps it is most hard for the very smart to lay down their best thoughts and allow His thoughts to inform and transform their own. But this is also true in our emotional and creative lives. Jesus desires to transform the entire person, and that requires us to surrender our thoughts, feeling and imaginations to Jesus.

I had an uncle who was uneducated in the world, but was educated by The Spirit. He was one of the most spiritually intelligent men I ever met. God often uses the simple to confound the wise. Whether we are highly educated in the world, or fishermen like many of the disciples were, we must lay down our thoughts to be formed by His. Perhaps this is why Jesus taught that it was hard for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God. Those who are rich in their own thought life, may be very poor in His!

 This does not negate learning and study, as Jesus did both as He grew in wisdom and stature; but it is the nature of our learning. Are we learning, feeling and creating in His Spirit. If so, we will grow in spiritual intelligence. For we are promised that the Holy Spirit will guide us into all truth! We are not anti-intellectual, but rather like St Paul, we have put our best thoughts on the altar, so that we can become wise.

For many this is a matter of laying down and confessing our intellectual pride, in order to find His Intelligence. We must do this in every area of life. One well downloaded thought of God, can change the world, and will certainly transform us as well!