Be-loved, Be-hold, Be-come

1. Even before Jesus does anything, the Father tell Jesus who he is (my Beloved Son) and expresses his feelings toward Jesus (with whom I am well pleased). 

• As a member of the Trinity, Jesus began his ministry of manifesting the presence of the Father on this earth by being affirmed in who he was and to whom he was valued by. As members of the body of Christ IN him, we stand also affirmed, before stepping a single foot on a houseboat or mission field, that we are Jesus' Beloved and desired by the One who made us.

2. Jesus prays to the Father: "I want them to behold my glory"

• The sheer thought of being able to not only see the glory of God, but also to contribute to it astonishes me. We can behold, we can see, we can observe the glory of the Lord! This should leave us in the fear of the Lord, yet I ask myself how often I shrug off or ignore the creation surrounding me that proclaims the glory of our Creator and Father. The sun, the moon, the stars, the wind, the rain, people around us, the food we eat declares that our God is good and life giving!

3. All of us are the beloved disciple. We are loved in the same as the love existing between the Father and Son because we are IN the Son. 

"When he had finished saying these things, he went forth to make all he prayed for happen." This last line got me. It had the same effect as if I was standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon or staring at the beauty in a sunset over the water: complete awe and wonder, witnessing something that seems too full of goodness to be true.

Discipleship = Automatic Inclusion

First of all, I want to apologize for the tardiness of my posts. But, reading each of your insights has provided much relief and encouragement, more than you know.

Secondly, holy moly!

They in us so that "that they may all be one"

We are given to Jesus by the Father to be in the middle of the Trinitarian love! That is a concept I cannot wrap my mind around at all without it being unraveled all over again. So engraved is my understanding set by culture that every person needs to be individualistic, standing out, unique, or making a name for ourselves, that the truth of our design and privilege to be united is lost. How beautiful is the bride of Christ, together as one body, participating IN the oneness of God.

After listening to DJ's sermon, I have been thinking about how the oneness of us in God shows in my life? Being a mainly kinesthetic learner, I want to understand by application, by acting in oneness. But no matter or works or effort can place me in Christ. Being in, or one with the Lord is a declaration of our being. We are, I am in Christ. Our actions flow out from being united IN Christ who is IN the Father through the Holy Spirit IN us.

To compare, I think of our physical bodies. I have never once woken up in the morning and thought of my oneness in my body. It, for the most part, is always a cohesive mass of skin and bones, organs, nerves, blood vessels, and various systems. Oneness is not something we can created, it is something we are proclaimed to be in and of ourselves when we accept Christ.