Monday, April 30, 2007

Fullness


I was teaching this week at Ignite (discipleship school in Toronto) on holiness and then helped with some worship at a women's retreat (anything for Jesus!)... where my good friend Denise was sharing about freedom. I was struck by the nature of both of those two concepts and how they connect... freedom and holiness collide in fullness. Denise was talking about how you aren't just 'set free' once and it's a done deal - but you grow into deeper freedom... and I was teaching about holiness being about 'fullness' - infectious Jesus quality at work in you and expanding outward...

Often spiritual freedom and holiness are thought of (or taught) as restrictive... it's odd. Because both are the most expansive things ever... we grow into more freedom and more 'wholeness' - we grow in our capacity for more of Jesus.

Now, Denise said this is a lot like a marriage (and used the analogy of a bride)... real love is expressed in covenant... solid, true promises that we make to love no matter what. After 40 years of marriage (or even 12) that kind of love looks and feels different... because it has deepened... it challenged me though. Am I content to let my love grow cold. Not just with Jesus but in my relationships too... I want to grow deeper into the wholeness of God and have that fullness expand into every possible area of my life and influence... let this fullness verse challenge you as it has me this weekend:

From Ephesians 3: "And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."

5 comments:

Victory of the People said...

thank you.
that cut me like a double edged sword

Anonymous said...

Great post.. we were acuatly studing that passage at the evening service at cariboo....
Good stuff!

Anonymous said...

Great post.. we were acuatly studing that passage at the evening service at cariboo....
Good stuff!

Laura Whispering said...

i heard someone speak on those verses this weekend too. The fact that it describes a four dimensional love ..that's pretty mind-blowing. ♥

(Apologies for the random comment ..stumbled across your blog & am enjoying what i'm reading.)

God bless

Anonymous said...

Hey - thanks for helping out with the worship last Sunday. It was good to see you - are you still in Canada? Cathie