{"id":4963,"date":"2011-07-12T05:14:07","date_gmt":"2011-07-12T13:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wordpress\/?p=4963"},"modified":"2011-07-12T07:48:59","modified_gmt":"2011-07-12T15:48:59","slug":"the-spiritually-self-seeking-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=4963","title":{"rendered":"The Spiritually Self-Seeking Church"},"content":{"rendered":"

July 12, 2011<\/h2>\n
till we all come . . . to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ . . . \u2014Ephesians 4:13<\/div>\n
<\/embed><\/object><\/a><\/div>\n

Reconciliation means the restoring of the relationship between the entire human race and God, putting it back to what God designed it to be. This is what Jesus Christ did in redemption. The church ceases to be spiritual when it becomes self-seeking, only interested in the development of its own organization. The reconciliation of the human race according to His plan means realizing Him not only in our lives individually, but also in our lives collectively. Jesus Christ sent apostles and teachers for this very purpose\u2014 that the corporate Person of Christ and His church, made up of many members, might be brought into being and made known. We are not here to develop a spiritual life of our own, or to enjoy a quiet spiritual retreat. We are here to have the full realization of Jesus Christ, for the purpose of building His body.<\/p>\n

Am I building up the body of Christ, or am I only concerned about my own personal development? The essential thing is my personal relationship with Jesus Christ\u2014 \u201c. . . that\u00a0I<\/em> may know\u00a0Him<\/em>. . .\u201d (Philippians 3:10<\/a>). To fulfill God\u2019s perfect design for me requires my total surrender\u2014 complete abandonment of myself to Him. Whenever I only want things for myself, the relationship is distorted. And I will suffer great humiliation once I come to acknowledge and understand that I have not really been concerned about realizing Jesus Christ Himself, but only concerned with knowing what He has done for me.<\/p>\n

My goal is God Himself, not joy nor peace, Nor even blessing, but Himself, my God.<\/p>\n

Am I measuring my life by this standard or by something less?<\/p>\n

__________________________________________________<\/p>\n

July 12, 2011<\/p>\n

Journal Entry for Today-JDV<\/p>\n

Thank you Lord that You have been steadfast in this teaching, in this lesson above and beyond all other lessons; that You are the One. Over the years I struggled to do the right things, be the right kind of person, as I struggled with the conflicts between what is spiritual and what is not; as I struggled with the what, why and how of living out my salvation. And then You began teaching us that the only lesson is You, and being connected to You in all that we are and do. Everything else then falls into place, regardless of our circumstances.<\/p>\n

And God says\u2026\u201dSeek first the kingdom of heaven\u2026love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul; acknowledge Me in all your ways and I will make all your paths straight. I came that you might have life and life more abundantly. You have this life, with the accompanying \u00a0joy and peace within when you are connected to Me.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

July 12, Journal, DJR
\nGood Morning Lord,
\nToday Oswald summarized it well at the end, \u201cMy goal is God Himself, not joy nor peace, Nor even blessing, but Himself, my God.\u201d You have given us the \u201cpeace meter\u201d to indicate that we are getting off track \u2026 but its just a meter \u2026 not the goal. Another thing I noticed yesterday is that I was \u201cnoticing\u201d not wanting to do a particular thing \u2026 but realizing that it was your will and deciding to do it \u2026 \u00a0not even that cheerfully … then having it turn into a blessing at the end.
\nYes, that is the way it works. You are beginning to understand the way Heaven works, The way Love works. It can happen on Earth but, since the Fall, humans are so wired to self preservation and pursuit of pleasure that many times you miss my Voice and my Plan \u2026 which as you are seeing, will work out better in the end.<\/strong><\/em>
\nSo using the Peace Meter, and suspecting that if I dont want to do a particular thing, that I\u2019d better take a second look \u2026 is that what you are saying is the way to maximize \u201cgetting it\u201d and minimize missing it?
\n There\u2019s more. But those are good starters.
\n<\/em><\/strong> Thanks, Thanks for CO2 & my brother, Thanks for my family, Thanks for all the blessings, Thanks for your Love, Thanks for your plans and thanks for talking to me. Thanks for everything. I love you. It\u2019s hard, initially, but even thanks for that Laura Story song \u2026 what if your blessings come as raindrops…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

July 12, 2011 till we all come . . . to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ . . . \u2014Ephesians 4:13 Reconciliation means the restoring of the relationship between the entire human race and God, putting it back to what God designed it to be. This is what Jesus Christ […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4963"}],"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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4963"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4974,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4963\/revisions\/4974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}