Receptivity and Gratitude

At the moment of our conception we are what we have received through no merit of our own. We have arrived in this world having decided nothing, sustained nothing and done nothing. All we have done is receive well.

Whatever we are are at that moment of our conception is the biological best we have received from those who conceived us.  From this unique beginning called ‘me’  I move outward into my experience of this world while continuously finding myself supported by things I did not produce and things I do not sustain. I breath air I did not create or sustain. I drink water I did not create or sustain.  I eat food I did not create or sustain.  I live and move among others who were brought to life here and sustained by others as I have been.

To not acknowledge my debt to things and people I did not create and I do not sustain is the most basic of sins against reality. And it is from this lack of gratitude for what we have received that so many evils grow in us and around us.  Where a spirit of ingratitude is strong, so is sin which is the inability to love as one should love.  

Where love stops ingratitude is always in the background.

Regardless of one’s vision of life and reality can anyone truly defend a human spirit that has no gratitude?  Would it be too much to ask all humans to be grateful for the good things they have not created or sustained?

A society that is not thankful wants to die while God wants us to live.

 “…give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God concerning you.” I Thess. 5:18

Bud McCord

Abide International

Conversion

"You must be born again"

John 1:17

The first contact with Jesus always produces an initial conflict.  To be face to face with God's love in flesh and blood has always been like coming out of a darkened room into the blazing sun at noon. It hurts our spiritual eyes!  To be in the presence of Jesus and have Him looking at us for the first time is always a shock. 

Contact with Jesus calls our own existence and behavior into question. When our existence and behavior are called into question, it is normal for us to want to rush back into the dark and shut the door.  We may even want to attack the light which is hurting our own view of ourselves. 

Many people who call themselves Christians have never moved from contact and conflict with Jesus to conversion.  They shade their eyes and say they have given themselves to Christ yet at the center of their spiritual lives the room is still dark and their eyes remain closed.  Until Jesus has access to our center and we let His light in we, will never experience a new birth conversion.  We must invite Him into our darkened center.

 Jesus will only truly have us and we will only truly have Jesus when we meet Him in the light at the very center of our life.  Conversion is a new history lived in the light with Jesus at the center.  Half measures only make us miserable.  Jesus needs to be formed in us over time as we adjust to the light.

A cry from the center that says "Jesus is Lord!"  is a sign of conversion and Holy Spirit revelation.  Conversion belief is more than mental assent to ideas about Jesus.  Conversion belief is to commit to Jesus like one  saying  to the noon day sun, "Come on inside with me. I desperately need you at the center."

Give Him the center and you will be free.

Bud McCord

Abide International

Repentance

"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near."

Matthew 4:17

Repentance is an admission and an adjustment.  When we repent we admit we have personally behaved in a way that offends God and the reality He has prepared for us.  We admit we have been headed away from God and away from reality. When we repent we also make an adjustment in direction. We turn toward God and the reality He created for us and away from the lies about God and reality that we have been living.

When Jesus called His first followers He simply said "Follow Me."  Whether they understood completely or not the disciples were repenting as they followed Jesus. It is impossible to avoid repentance while following and adapting to Jesus.  It is impossible to avoid repentance while following Jesus because Jesus is the reality we have offended with our wrong thinking and actions.

To become a disciple is to admit and adapt to what is true in Jesus.  Jesus is not a new idea. Jesus is the reality of what has always been and will always be best for us. Jesus is what is supernaturally natural in the universe. All true repentance is made possible because Jesus came near to walk among us so we could walk back toward God together.

The longer we walk with Jesus the more we perceive how much admitting and adapting lies ahead for us. As maturing  disciples we settle in for the long walk back to what is supernaturally natural with Jesus.  Being a disciple of Jesus is not boring!  Every day something is shown to us in Jesus and adapting to what we now see keeps us engaged and growing.

There is no going back once we truly see where Jesus is taking us.  In Jesus it is all good up ahead. There is no good reason to go back.

Bud McCord

Abide International

One Greater

Yet I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the temple.

Matthew 12:6

In our search for answers we accept the fact that we must be open to finding something greater than what we now consider great. We understand that one great discovery will probably lead to another great discovery, so we adjust.  When we stop adjusting we run the risk of rigid boredom. Remember typewriters?  They were great, but now...

What we now consider great can, in fact, be great but not the greatest.  To find out that what we think is great is not the greatest does not mean we abandon entirely what we now consider great.  We adjust.

Coming from Miami, where even a small hill seems like a mountain, when I first saw the Smokey Mountains in Tennessee, I thought they were great. Then I saw the mountains of Colorado!  I didn't lose my admiration for the Smokey Mountains.  They are still great, but as mountains go they are put into perspective by the mountains of Colorado.  I am sure there are other greater mountains beyond Colorado so I am prepared to adjust even more when I see them.

Jesus, on the other hand, is the final greatness when it comes to human beings.  There may be many great people we meet along the way.  Jesus, however, is the final demonstration of   what human greatness looks like.  Some of the people of Jesus' day missed His greatness and would not adjust. They preferred the Temple. How sad for them!

I am sure I have not even begun to know just how great Jesus is, but I am happy to know beyond Him there is no greater human greatness. This fact gives me comfort, focus and excitement about continuing to adjust to Him.

I have been adjusting to Jesus' greatness for over 50 years and I feel my admiration of Him growing day by day.  I believe I will never get to the end of greatness no matter how long I adjust.  The Jesus I see is never rigid or boring!

Bud McCord

Abide International