Friday, January 7, 2005

My ideas of God are not divine, but His ideas of me are.

Posted on this blog Jan 7, 13

My thoughts on Facebook in english.

by Ricardo García Reyes on Monday, January 7, 2013 at 5:30pm ·

Hi, I just want to say before you read this note, which I'm still working on my english, so it is very likely to I have made mistakes in the traslation of my thoughts from spanish to english. But I did the best I could :)

"Why do we do it, we writers? ‘Of making many books there is no end,’ sighed the teacher of Ecclesiastes some three millennia ago, and 50,000 new ones will appear this year alone. Yet we keep at it, cranking out more and more words, with the potential to bring harm as well as comfort. I think we do it because each of us has nothing else to offer than a living point of view that differentiates us from every other person on this planet. We must tell our stories to someone…
…Every writer must overcome a kind of shyness, putting out of mind the fear that we are being arrogant by thrusting ourselves upon you the reader and egotistical by assuming our words are worth your time. Why should you care about what I have to say? What right have I to impose myself on you? In another context, Simone Weil presents a kind of answer: ‘I cannot conceive the necessity for God to love me, when I feel so clearly that even with human beings affection for me must only be a mistake. But I can easily imagine that he loves the perspective of creation which can only be seen from the point where I am.’ That is all any writer can offer, especially a writer of faith: a unique perspective of creation, a point of view visible only from the point where I am…
…We can only write with passion about our own experiences."
- Taken from his chapter about the writer Frederick Buechner of the book ‘Soul Survivor: How My Faith Survived the Church‘ by Philip Yancey.

I'm not a writer by profession, but I agree with Philip Yancey in what he says above. This note is an intent to share my perspective with you.

It is not possible to love if dread is had, because loving implies being vulnerable.

When the apostle Juan wrote the phrase: God is love, he did it knowing for inspiration and revelation of the Holy Spirit that the person of God is the one that gives him meaning to the word love and not upside-down, why not write: Love is God. In other words, the love is not what gives meaning to God, is He who gives meaning to the love. Without Him the love might not exist. He is love. And from Him all the emotions and acts come; are an expression of His love and nature.

Love seen not as an emotion, but as the essence of God has no opposite. There is no fear in love, there is no fear in Him. But that does not mean that fear is the opposite of love, but it has no place in Him.

Religion is for people who are scared to go to hell. Relationship is for people who aren't afraid to go to hell, but that approach boldly before the throne of Grace.

In this new year that almost starts: search and find with the help of the Holy Spirit all the barriers that there is within you and that even yourself have built against the Love of God, and let His love collapse all of them. When you least expect it, you will discover yourself madly in love with God and to love others as yourself and don't do it just because it's the right thing, do it simply because the love flows through you freely, and there's nothing you can do to contain it.

Jesus is the only way to Father and Jesus reveal the Father. I think that all roads do not lead to Jesus, but Jesus can find his followers wherever they are, in any road. Just because He can find followers in the most unlikely places, does not validate those places. An excellent example of this, that comes to mind right now is the apostle Paul and testimony of André Frossard. On the other hand it is also true that He can use the adverse circumstances and spiritual poverty to make a person run to His arms, like the prodigal son. He uses, but He doesn't causes them, they are just the consequences of our decisions.

God's more impressed by your love for Him and for others including your enemies than by your theology, because faith works by love and this means that you trust Him, not because of your belief system, but because you know that He is love and that His love never fails. For me, the greater act of faith is believe that God loves me exactly as He say He loves me and believe that He loves everyone in the same way, with perfect love.

God is nearer than we think. He desires that we sense Him very near to us and not distant. He love us with perfect love and never leave us alone.

Who we really are is revealed under His Presence. We are in Him, our identity is hidden in Him.

Perhaps laughter is an other kind of expression of worship.
I believe that all that we will do in heaven is a worship, regardless of what we will do. And I think one of the things that we will do is laugh a lot.

The ways of communicating the gospel are constantly changing, while the gospel is still the same.

Having an open mind is not bad, just how opening your mouth to eat isn't, as long as we don't eat garbage and not have our mouth open all the time, because a fly might fly in.

To have an open mind without an open heart to God, will soon become a dump of intellectual waste.

Have an open mind for positive thoughts and closed for negative thoughts. Philippians 4:8

Having an open heart to God and His love, is more important than having an open mind. Not everyone has a healthy mind, but everyone has a heart and this last thing doesn't have to be healthy to receive His love, precisely because this is the cure for their disease.

If you close your mind and ears to learn from a place, religion, person, etc... that you previously disqualified, you deprive yourself of knowing God in a way you never imagined.

Not my theology, either my faith, nor my moral, which saved me is the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world who saved me.

Not is my theology that saves me, was Jesus who saved me before I even have a theology.

My ideas of God are not divine, but His ideas of me are.

People who know their identity in Christ do not go around comparing with others. Their joy lies in who they are and not in trying to be better than another.

The world dies by the lack of common sense.

Do not try to put God in the little box of your head, lest it explodes. Rest in the reality that God put you in Christ in His heart even before you had a head so that His love explodes in your heart.

Live in intimacy with God is not the same as living intimidated by Him, as well as live in the grace of God is not the same as living under the law.

Laughter is the key for love. It is the gateway through which love enters. The way of love is full of His joy and His laughter even in the tears.

God in flesh is the God's grace. Jesus is! Grace is just another of His names. Grace is the expression of the love of God assuming humanity in Himself forever.

Laughter is a divine outbreak.

Each human face is a mask of God. Be careful not to overlook none, you can discover Him in ways you never dreamed it could.

He loves you more than you can imagine in your wildest dreams.

As you embrace the revelation of the mystery of His love, - which is Christ in us the hope of glory - you will discover that your theology has been emancipated.

My theology has no salvific effect, it’s only my understanding of my salvation.

Perhaps when God saw that Adam and Eve had fallen He may have been laughing - as a parent might laugh after seeing his child has fallen, in its clumsy attempts to walk without him. For God knew what was to come, and the glory for us in Christ.

We fall in sin when we try to walk outside of His love and joy, when we try to live outside of Him.
After man fell he heard the laughter of God - but as lies against the character and love of God had already penetrated his heart - making him believe that he heard a mocking laugh, when it was the opposite, it was a laugh of joy because He already knew that this would happen and before He created man, all humankind had already been included in Him - in Christ.

In the fall we forget who we are, we forget that we are children of God, we forget His love for us, His Happiness for us, His Joy in us, His laughter. We forget to laugh with Him, through Him and in Him.
After the fall our eyes changed and we could not see the Eden although it is more likely that we are still in it. We start tending to undervalue our environment, to undervalue our happiness, to undervalue ourselves.
He came in flesh to show us His grace - His joy and happines - to share it with us. To show us that He is not angry with us, that in Him resides an eternal joy, His laughter can not be extinguished or contained even by death, He is always happy and in good humor. He came to remind us of our value, how loved we are and how it feels to laugh with Him again.

Often people ask me, are you universalism? are you Calvinist? are you Armenian? etc...
I am not a Calvinist, Armenian, Universalism or any other theological label you want to put me. Although I have learned very good things from all these theological systems, but I'm not encapsulated in any of them, because none of these theological systems is perfect.

I am only a beloved child of God, this is my identity. Do not confuse your identity with your theology. Do not let your theology defines who you are, let your Creator defines who you are in Him, because your real identity is hidden in Him. Do not label others either, watch them as they really are, children of God, loved and accepted.

If you want to label me as something, please do it as a holy, as just, as a chosen, as a child of God, as a accepted and loved in Christ, etc...

Only Jesus Christ is perfect theology and I'm encapsulated in Him before the foundation of the world for the sheer pleasure of his will and all that He is, I am in Him.

Your love shakes the heavens with your laughter.

You laughing of love and you can't stop laughing because you are Love.

The veil was torn by the laughter of Your Love, because behind that cry on the cross where thou called saying: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? The most profound demonstration of your eternal identification with our greatest pain was taking place, driven by the joy of Your eternal and deep Love.

You make the heavens shake with the laughter of His Love upon your life.
Zephaniah 3:17

Maybe God laughs in the face of oppression and meanness? At first the idea sounds irreverent, surprising like a kind of blasphemy and mocking. With all the suffering and evil so rampant in the world, how can a loving God laugh?

... A small and precarious clue, perhaps, but a clue nonetheless. God laughs, it seems, because God knows how it all turns out in the end, and He knows that everything will be fine. He laughs because he knows he has won the victory for us, He laughs because His love wins over the pain, over the sickness and death. Further, the laughter of God, as the passion accounts tell us, does not come from afar, no it's a mocking laugh. It does not emanate from One who can safely chortle, from a safe distance, at another’s pain. It comes from One who has also felt the hunger pangs, the hurt of betrayal by friends and the torturer’s touch.

In His resurrection, His laughter shook the graves of the dead. Neither death failed to silence the laughter of His love. From the beginning to the end, the laughter of His love has been shaking the heavens, but we started to hear from his resurrection.

We can never exaggerate enough the love of God, since it always ends up being greater than any of our exaggerations.

Focus on the heart of the gospel: Your perfect union with God through His love expressed in His Incarnation. And don't look to the storms, lest they begin to sink. Hebrews 12:2

Please pray for me, so I will never be healed, because I'm mortally sick with love, LOL

God assumed in Himself in Christ to all mankind, not just a few select.

Do not be too introspective, that you become your own God.

Do not be too introspective, be more extrospective, see Christ, you are hidden in Him.

The most terrible and horrific of all heresies is thinking that God's love is conditional and limited to a select few.

A grateful heart is the access to hear God's loving laughter.

All the noise of your sins is not to loud enough to turn off the sound of the roar of the laughter from the furious love of God for you.

All (noise of) our sins are not strong enough to turn off the sound of the roar of laughter from the furious love of God for us.

Close your ears! and stop to hear the mocking laughter of the triumph of your sins upon you, because this laughter only chains you to live full of guilt, remorse and fear of being punished by God.

I invite you to listen to the laughter of His love for you, to laugh with the joy of His triumph over your sins, which frees you to be yourself in Him and discover your hidden identity in Him, without fear of being punished. Fill yourself with the explosive joy of His love and fly on laughing as the sky and the earth are shaken by the laughter of His love in you.

The laughter of the love of God shook the foundations of my being, leaving me naked before him, revealing that my identity always had been found hidden in Him.

The Happiness of God resides in His love.
*reside: 1. To live in a place permanently.
2. To be inherently present; exist.

God laughs because he is drunk with love from before the foundation of the world.

In the heart of the Trinity lies an eternal happiness flowing from mutual exchange of His love expansive ... and the good news is that you are included and were chosen to participate in this party - dance of love from before the foundation of the world… so remove that frowning and go to dance!

Do not be afraid to dance!!! You were predestined to participate in this perfect dance of love and eternal unity.

Listen the music of this Eternal Love, just enjoy His Presence and let Jesus in you leads it your dance steps and realizes that there is nothing you could ever do to separate you from His love – you can’t be bad enough to be separate from this dance, don’t be afraid to step wrong, His dance steps are yours.

The Bible is not eternal, Jesus is.

Any interpretation of the Bible that does not have as a frame of reference to Jesus Christ, must be questioned. For He is the Word of God, from beginning to end.

The Bible must be interpreted in light of the revelation of Jesus Christ about how is God (The Father) given by the Holy Spirit in our hearts. We can not interpreted to Jesus Christ in the light of the Bible, because one is eternal and the other not. Nor can we interpret how is God in the light of the Bible, as this in itself does not have the power to self-revelation nor guide us into all truth, just remember the Pharisees. The Bible is inspired by God, not God by the Bible. As well as the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath, in the same way the Bible was made for God and not God for the Bible. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Bible. I love the Bible, but this is not God, and is far from being the fourth member of the Trinity.

If to the Infinite and Eternal Mind of God I can attribute something as human as having a goal, surely I would say that: The creation of the Bible has never been the ultimate goal of God, has always been the Incarnation, the re-creation of a new race of men (of the entire universe); with whom to share His Life itself.

Some folks are so obsessed with demons, who see them even in the face of God.

The most accurate of all translations of the Word of God is the Incarnation.

You can read the Bible, memorize, recite the whole day and still not know the Word of God.

Any dream you have out of Him, runs the risk of becoming a nightmare. Trust me when I tell you... your wildest dreams are hidden in Him.

If you are tired of dreaming is perhaps because it is time to wake up and realize your dreams.

We can not grow apart from the vine, remember that we are the branches.

The Word became flesh, bones and blood, not paper, leather and ink.

Jesus Christ is so far from being a cute kitten, He is a Lion! Never forget that.
Although also He created the kittens, Lol

Intimacy with God is not to approach Him, is to awaken to the reality of how close He has always been.

Beauty born in the shock of the temporary with the eternal. Love break our hearts with his unbearable beauty.

The Scriptures themselves do not save me, not even my faith is the living Word (Jesus Christ - rhema) of God which has the power to produce faith in my heart, which in turn allows me to access my salvation experience. The Bible itself has no effect saving nor meritorious apart from Christ. God has never needed or need the Bible to reveal Himself. Although He can be revealed through it and often does, this does not mean it is an indispensable means for Him to do.

The most special revelation did not come to us through the Bible, but from Jesus.

The Bible has its value and place, but we must never give it a higher value and a place in our heart that God's Presence.

The Bible is not a member of the Trinity nor is sitting on the throne of God.

Faith does not come by reading the Scriptures, but by hearing the Word of God.

Eternal life is not in Scriptures but in Him of whom it testifies.

You're the Baby of the thousand birthdays, we are more younger than the grass.

As you discover how loved you are, to the same extent you discover who you really are.

The fact that you don't know, don't feel, or don't believe that God loves you, not makes it less real. Our knowledge, feelings or beliefs do not override the reality.

Like it or not, accept it or not, believe it or not, God loves you.

Eternal life is not to go somewhere after death, is to know a Person in order to live.

Fear makes us believe that God is far away from us because of our sins, love allows us to see that He always been close to us because of His love even in our sins.

We can be wrong in terms of what we believe is truth but we will never be wrong in loving others.

The theory can never beat in a debate to experience.

The love of the Father is not a theory that must be understood, is a reality that must be experienced.

The first thing we must understand about the love of God is that we will never understand. This surpasses all understanding. It is not something that should be understood, it is something that must be experienced.

The most amazing things in this life does not have to be understood, but experienced. This is the case of God's love. When we realize that the love of God is not something that we can understand, then we will begin to experience it. To experience some things we must resign to understand them. Until we accept that God's love transcends all understanding including our own we can hardly begin to experience it. But don't worry, His love transcends even our ignorance of this principle, that's why I said that it would hardly you'll experience, but it is not impossible. For His love, nothing is impossible.

If God had wanted us to simply understand His love, Why would He inspire the apostle Paul to write that this surpasses knowledge?

Experience is the culmination of knowledge, the end of the theories.

Grace is not about how great are our sins, but how Great is His LOVE.

Grace is not a license to sin, it's a license to sink in His loving justice.

Grace is not a license to sin, is a license to love.

The Incarnation reveals to us that the whole universe is sacred.

Intimacy is not to get closer to God, it is to open our eyes to see that He can not be closer.    

The incarnation is the perfect expression of His own image reflected in the material world. It is the manifestation of the encounter between His world and ours. Is the final proclamation that everything is good, that God is not far away, that He is with us.

His perfect nature of love took the form in which His Spirit assumed the matter and is like a man.

The incarnation is the perfect form assumed by the Holly Spirit in the material world.

In the incarnation Jesus Christ did not make that God come near to us, only came to reveal how close He has always been, that His name has always been Emmanuel - God with us. Jesus did not become man so that God could love us, became man to reveal how much He already loves us.

When God was born all reality made sense.

The Word of God became flesh in order to reveal to us that God is love. God didn't want to be limited to love us from outside. He wanted that his love for us was visible, audible and palpable.

In the incarnation God reveals to us that He does not shy away nor denies anything human. The Gospel is precisely the fact that the Good News broke into our world in human flesh. His Love made flesh is the response to man's drama.

God is love.
Love skin dressed.
The favorite outfit of Love is the human flesh.
His favorite mask is the face of humanity.
Love became visible, audible, palpable... Love became flesh.

Your value is directly proportional to the measure of His love. Immeasurable. His sacrifice for you is not what gives you value, only reveals your value.

Once in our world, in a stable had a being so small and vulnerable that we never imagined that contained within itself the whole universe.

Truth is not stronger just because you say screaming.

The Word became flesh, so we could see God in our flesh. In our flesh shall we see His Spirit materialized.  We are not a separate body of Jesus Christ, we are one with Him in His flesh, we are hiding in Him, we are His body. God became man to reveal us that the most spiritual thing we can do is be fully men.

God chose rest in a human body for all eternity, so that we could rest in a glorified body in Him forever.

The sacrifice of Jesus does not satisfy the wrath of God, it satisfies His holy joy loving. The greatest joy of love is surrender. His surrender on the cross shows us that He is not a deity who is suing our blood, He gave his own for love of us. It was our anger that was satisfied on the cross, not His. On the cross God absorbed all the evil and within Him was destroyed. His Love triumph over hate, anger and violence, His Joy triumph over sadness, pessimism and depression, His Peace triumph over anxiety, despair and impatience, His Forgiveness triumph over resentment, revenge and condemnation , His justice triumph over sin, impurity and injustice ... and His Uncreated Life triumph over sickness, pain and death.

To find the peace that passes all understanding, we need to stop trying to figure out God and just let Him be God.

When awakens our imagination, we can see with new eyes our own world filled with wonder once again.

God never planned that you had a perfect theology, but He always planned that you were perfect in Christ. So rest in Him, not in your theology.

If when you preach the love of God, your message is full of "buts" then you are preaching another form of legalism camouflaged.

It was not the anger of God that was manifested on the cross, was the joy of our Father which is manifest in the cross, because the greatest joy of love is surrender and defeat in the midst of the deepest pain, despair and confusion. On the cross the love triumph over the deepest pain of man, the pain of believing that God had abandoned us, when He showed us with His own life bleeding that He has always been with us. The joy of His love found our sad and angry flesh as the perfect place to rest and exploit saturating it with His invigorating life and transforming it into what is known as a glorified body.

The sin and condemnation are the lenses that make us see God as an evil and angry god.
The law and own justice make us see God as a kind of Pharisee who is always keeping track of each of our mistakes and that constantly is reproaching us that we are not perfect.
Jesus Christ became flesh so that we had never again need to use these or other lenses to see God, since Christ himself is the perfect mirror in which we see without veils to God and to ourselves.

The best version of yourself is hidden in Christ. Enjoy the journey discovering who you are in Him is another of His gifts.

You were not born to be the best at something, you're the best just because you were born. He does not conceive nothing in His mind and imagination that is not the best. You're the best version of yourself in Christ. You were born to be not to do.

Do not compare yourself with others, be yourself. God designed you to be yourself, not someone else, He not mistaken.

Gratitude is a chronic symptom of humility. You cannot be humble without being thankful. Gratitude is the heart of humility.

As we recover a sense of wonder, we will regain a grateful heart.

In the measure that we recover the sense of the astonishment without realizing we cultivate a grateful heart.

The astonishment and gratitude are the ears that allow us to hear the contagious laughter of God's love.

Guilt is the veil that prevents us from seeing that God is always in a good mood.
The sin and damnation hinder us from listen the laughter of His love.
Fear paralyzes us and prevents us from participating in the dance of His eternal love.

You can't hide from Him, because you already are hidden in Him.

It is ironic to try to hide from Him, when we already are hidden in Him.

When we realize that everything is a gift, we begin to comprehend the meaning of grace.

God will not tolerate you, He will celebrate you.

The wonder, humility and gratitude puts us in the perfect position to be surprised by His laughter.

Until we don't awaken and see that His goodness is reflected in everything created and demonstrated in His sacrifice of love, we will remain tone-deaf to the “mysterious laughter” of life.

Laughter certainly does lead to humility and this in turn makes us more aware of God's grace.

God is not frivolous nor is His humor as a mask that he wears, where underneath it sits who really is. He is not dishonest in His humor, His laughter is not mocking, but rather brutal as the outbreak of a dam to burst that bankruptcy with their strength all the molds of the sadness.

Every face on the street is a unexpected mask of God. Keep your eyes wide open because each person is an opportunity to become acquainted with God in ways that you never expected or even imagined. He is hidden in every human being waiting to be discovered, such as a treasure buried in a chest. He is hidden for us, not from us. Be careful not to overlook anyone because you could be losing to know a beautiful facet of the face of God. If you can’t see in every human face a facet of God's face, most likely it's because you have not seen His face in you. Your perception of others is usually a reflection of yourself.

Our faith is built on Him, in His love rather than knowledge, because the last  puffs up but the love builds up.

If you can't smell it on every human being the eternal fragrance of God, most likely it's because your sense of smell is over saturated by the stench of sin, death and damnation spread by the spray of many sermons that promote a sickly elitism from God and distort the image of God in man. If you want to return to smell the original fragrance of God in man, smells to Jesus.

A single whisper of His loving laughter is more powerful than a thousand millions of screams of the fear.

Love awakens us to see our true identity, the fear scare away us of this awakening.

HIS Love For Me......
http://realhealthrealwealth.blogspot.com/2005/03/his-love-for-me.html

REAL Forgiveness.....
http://realhealthrealwealth.blogspot.com/2005/03/real-forgiveness.html

MY Story....as of February 2012
http://realhealthrealwealth.blogspot.com/2005/03/my-storyas-of-february-2012.html