{"id":24559,"date":"2024-12-18T10:31:09","date_gmt":"2024-12-18T15:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=24559"},"modified":"2024-12-18T10:43:27","modified_gmt":"2024-12-18T15:43:27","slug":"24559","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=24559","title":{"rendered":"Holiness Is Our First Nature"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Ben Fuller, Megan Danielle - If I Got Jesus (Lyric Video)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/65ZztyPSb1Y?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in them will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing. \u2014John 15:5\u202f&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Father Richard Rohr understands Jesus\u2019 vine and branches metaphor as an illustration of mutual indwelling: Christ in us and us in Christ.&nbsp;<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The motivation, meaning, and inherent energy of any action comes from its ultimate source, which is the person\u2019s&nbsp;<em>foundational and core vantage point.&nbsp;<\/em>What is their real and honest motivation? What does the seeing? Is it the cut-off branch, the egoic self, trying to work on its own (John 15:5\u20136)? Is it a person needing to be right or is it a person who wants to love?&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A branch that has <strong>remained lovingly and consciously connected to its Source (God, Jesus, our Higher Power) offers a very different perspective.<\/strong> When Jesus spoke of a <strong>cut-off branch, he meant a person who can only see from the small position of&nbsp;<em>me&nbsp;<\/em>and what meets&nbsp;<em>my&nbsp;<\/em>needs.<\/strong> It seems to me our society is largely populated by such disconnected branches, where a commitment to the common good has become a rarity.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Seeing through a lens beyond our own self is what I call&nbsp;<em><strong>participative seeing.<\/strong><\/em>This is the new self that can say excitedly with Paul, \u201cI live no longer, not&nbsp;<em>I,&nbsp;<\/em>but it is Christ now living in me\u201d (Galatians 2:20). This primal communion immediately communicates a spaciousness, a joy, and a quiet contentment. It is not anxious, because the illusion of a gap between me and the world has already been overcome.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>A mature believer knows that it is impossible&nbsp;<em>not&nbsp;<\/em>to be connected to the Source, or to be \u201con the vine,\u201d as Jesus says. But most people are not consciously there yet. They are not \u201csaved\u201d from themselves, which is the only thing we really need to be saved from.<\/strong> They do not yet live out of their objective, totally given, and unearned identity, \u201chidden with Christ in God\u201d (Colossians 3:3).&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For most of us, our own deepest identity is still well hidden from us.&nbsp;<strong><em>Religion\u2019s primary and irreplaceable job is to bring this foundational truth of our shared identity in God to full and grateful consciousness<\/em>. <\/strong>This is the only true meaning of holiness.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The irony is that this holiness is actually our&nbsp;<em>first&nbsp;<\/em>nature, yet we made it so impossible that it didn\u2019t even become our second nature that we could easily wear with dignity. This core Christ identity was made into a worthiness contest, or a moral contest, at which almost no one wins. <strong>This is something we can only fall into and receive\u2014and nothing that we can achieve, which utterly humiliates the ego, the willful, and all overachievers.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>================<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">The Idol of Comfort: A Self-Fulfilling Parable<\/span><\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"auto\" height=\"15\" src=\"https:\/\/mcusercontent.com\/87188c8737bc50c1a2fb8e2c9\/images\/b66516eb-1f2d-8d90-0e02-d4223f78f6f7.png\"><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/withgoddaily.us2.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=87188c8737bc50c1a2fb8e2c9&amp;id=86a77f4602&amp;e=f52fc38132\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/withgoddaily.us2.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=87188c8737bc50c1a2fb8e2c9&amp;id=5fe1068546&amp;e=f52fc38132\" target=\"_blank\">Click Here for Audio<\/a><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/withgoddaily.us2.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=87188c8737bc50c1a2fb8e2c9&amp;id=4886a39741&amp;e=f52fc38132\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"auto\" height=\"35\" src=\"https:\/\/mcusercontent.com\/87188c8737bc50c1a2fb8e2c9\/images\/b66516eb-1f2d-8d90-0e02-d4223f78f6f7.png\"><br><br>    A parable written by Reverend Dr. Theodore O. Wedel in 1953 has become part of the unofficial canon of American Christianity. I\u2019ve heard the story, or some version of it, dozens of times in sermons, at missions conferences, and at retreats. Maybe you have too. Dr. Wedel\u2019s parable compares the church to a life-saving station on a treacherous coastline where shipwrecks are common. \u201cThe building was just a hut, and there was only one boat,\u201d he wrote, \u201cbut the few devoted members kept a constant watch over the sea, and with no thought for themselves, went out day and night tirelessly searching for the lost.\u201dIn Reverend Wedel\u2019s story, the life-saving station had a simple, narrow mission to rescue souls. Frequent storm warnings kept the station on alert and focused on its mission, but when warnings became less urgent, or when fewer shipwrecks occurred, the life-saving station drifted from its only purpose. <br><br>He wrote:\u201cSome of the members of the life-saving station were unhappy that the building was so crude and poorly equipped. They felt that a more comfortable place should be provided as the first refuge for those saved from the sea. They replaced the emergency cots with beds and put better furniture in the enlarged building. Now the life-saving station became a popular gathering place for its members, and they decorated it beautifully because they used it as a sort of club.\u201dEventually, Wedel said, the station became so inwardly focused on its own comfort that it was no longer equipped to save lives. <br><br>His parable concludes, \u201cIf you visit that sea coast today, you will find a number of exclusive clubs along the shore. Shipwrecks are frequent in those waters, but most of the people drown.\u201dThe story is meant as a rebuke of the church\u2019s consumeristic pursuit of comfort. <br><br>But what many miss is a subtle contradiction buried within Wedel\u2019s metaphor. The premise of the parable is that the world is a sinking ship, and the desperate souls lost at sea are in urgent need of rescue to a safe, comfortable place. The story then chastises those same rescued souls for making their place of refuge&nbsp;<em>too<\/em>&nbsp;safe and&nbsp;<em>too<\/em>comfortable. <br><br>As A.W. Tozer observed, \u201cYou win them to what you win them with.\u201dEveryone, it seems, likes to criticize the American church for its self-centered fixation on comfort, and most blame this on the influence of the wider culture. But could the problem actually be rooted in the American church\u2019s own theology? If the implicit core of the church\u2019s message is, \u201cThe world is a dangerous place, so come to Jesus to be safe and comfortable,\u201d should we be surprised when Christians focus on safety and comfort? <br><br><strong>We cannot win converts with a message about comfort and then be appalled when they become Christians focused on comfort.<\/strong> To topple the idol of comfort, we need to recognize how it has infected even the Americanized gospel we preach, and that means returning to the <strong>message of Jesus and his Apostles\u2014a message of sacrifice, self-denial, and the uncomfortable gospel that seeks to engage and redeem the world rather than help souls comfortably escape from it<\/strong>. In other words, maybe the church\u2019s mission isn\u2019t to rescue people off a sinking ship.<strong> Maybe we\u2019re supposed to partner with Jesus to fix the ship.<\/strong><br><br>DAILY SCRIPTURE<br><a href=\"https:\/\/withgoddaily.us2.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=87188c8737bc50c1a2fb8e2c9&amp;id=8b9ec3523b&amp;e=f52fc38132\">2 CORINTHIANS 11:16\u201330<br>MATTHEW 10:16\u201339<\/a><br><a href=\"https:\/\/withgoddaily.us2.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=87188c8737bc50c1a2fb8e2c9&amp;id=8b9ec3523b&amp;e=f52fc38132\"><br><\/a>WEEKLY PRAYERBlaise Pascal (1623\u20131662)<br><br>O Lord, let me not henceforth desire health or life except to spend them for you, with you, and in you. You alone know what is good for me; do therefore what seems best to you. Give to me or take from me; conform my will to yours; and grant that with humble and perfect submission and in holy confidence I may receive the orders of your eternal providence, and may equally adore all that comes to me from you; through Jesus Christ our Lord.<br>Amen<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in them will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing. \u2014John 15:5\u202f&nbsp; Father Richard Rohr understands Jesus\u2019 vine and branches metaphor as an illustration of mutual indwelling: Christ in us and us in Christ.&nbsp;&nbsp; The motivation, meaning, and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24559"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24559"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24559\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24563,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24559\/revisions\/24563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}