So I jumped out of the box - and there He was!

Musing on where I am at and how I got here, I realised that my christian life has been traced out by a series of self-applied labels, just like an old piece of luggage that has been round the world - battered, still recognisable, but only just holding together.

I believed like an 'Evangelical', I was immersed as a 'Baptist', I was topped up as a 'Charismatic', and I am now living as an 'Experiential Calvinist'. These labels have been applied by myself and have become so worn with age (except perhaps, the last one), that their meaning has been lost in the darkness of the past.

So a couple of weeks ago, I decided to tear the labels off and jump out of the box!

And just like that, I found Jesus waiting for me on the outside!

Amazing! You should try it!

Where am I in the Flood?

Here I am dreaming on.

A dry river bed waiting for the rains to come and to become alive again. Rains come and the flood of water surges down.

Have you ever watched water as is runs down a slope? How it seeks the shortest path and the following stream flows in behind?  There must be, at the ever-changing equilibrium point of the thrusting stream, just a few drops that become the pioneers of the surge, while the rest become part of the in-flowing flood.  Some get left behind and form edges and stationary pools.

There are leaders and there are those that follow, both being the necessities of the flood.

Leaders without followers soon dry up.

Followers without leaders become stagnant pools.

Leaders that beget only leaders become an elite.

Followers that beget only followers weaken the gene pool.

I resolve to live my life with God existentially - at the ever-changing equilibrium point of the thrusting stream.

What is my Primary Relationship?

Two weeks ago I had what I would like to call an epiphany! We were visiting some long-standing friends at a remote old vicarage in Norfolk. The host and I were discussing The Glass Bead Game by Hermann Hesse, and I was comparing my host's life-style to that of the Game Masters in the book, and how intellectualism had become more important than relationships. That truth was somehow at loggerheads with love.

Suddenly, during the conversation, I had the feeling that I was at the still point of the turning world, and I realised that my primary relationship had really always been with myself, not with God!  From my first excitement of being becoming a Christian some 38 years ago, I had slowly drifted, with ups and downs, to the state of shadowy spiritual evanescence that I now found myself in.

Co-incidentally with that moment was the instant enlightenment of being transposed to accept and apply a new primary relationship with God! It was an amazing existential experience that released my whole being into a new freedom under the mercy and grace of God.

Not only that, but I now find that my personal relationships fit into place in the pattern of my life. No more do I feel the need to control or cajole. By choosing to make my primary relationship with God, I have broken unhealthy bonds. This means I can now love all my family, friends and neighbours with a new freedom - without trying to impress or striving to be liked.

Truth and love are one in Christ Jesus!

Hopefully I can maintain the freshness of this new primary relationship with God.  I will blog again on this, so that I can check my progress!

Go.........>

Here I intend to write some new thoughts (new to me, that is). So maybe it will turn out all right!