Actively Passive to God

"Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes; and I will keep it to the end.
Give me understanding, that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart.
Lead me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it.
Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain!
Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways.
Confirm to your servant your promise, that you may be feared.
Turn away the reproach that I dread, for your rules are good.
Behold, I long for your precepts; in your righteousness give me life!"

(Psalm 119:33-40, ESV)

This Psalm is an example here of being "actively passive" towards God when praying. I call it "actively passive" because it takes a literal God given desire that His Spirit resuscitates in us to (actively) come to Him with longings for Him teach us, lead us and give us life in the freedom-giving slavery to His Word. It is when He does these things in our life that we are completely passive (not retaliative) to His teachings, wisdom giving and life in His Word.

Look at all the requests! "Teach me!" "Give me!" "Lead me!" "Turn my eyes!" "Give me life!" These are all things that, without God's doing, we cannot have. So even in actively comming to Him, it is ultimately God's drawing us to Him in the first place and our passivity. Either way, there's no room for anyone to get the heavenly kudos but God Himself! Any desire in us to seek Him, to learn from Him and to obey Him is all to His credit.

Let us be a paralytic in the hands of the One who holds us into motion. Let us live in the life His righteousness gives us! (v.40)

Declaration of Dependence

So 4th of July is comming here! Woo! So with that I'm also studying as a Greek minor right now and as I was doing some exercises just now trying to keep my chops up over the summer, I was translating Matthew 17:1-5. Here's how it reads...

"And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. And Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” (ESV)

I was looking back on it and I couldn't help but ask God, "How could you love me and call ME your son? I'm not perfect! I'm not good 100% I am BAD in my heart of hearts! There's selfishness, moments where my life doesn't match what I say, pride, impurity..." As I was on this rant to God, it was in an instant that the obvious was made obvious to my dense brain and really Savior-needy heart.

When God said to Peter, James and his brother John, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased," and yet (as they would see with their own eyes) a few pages later allowed Him to be crushed and killed through the most shameful of all deaths in the Roman world, a cross there seems to be some SERIOUS contradiction going on here!

Merinading in this and thinking about a few more pages later, this vocal loving-on-Jesus by God showed that the beloved and well-pleasing Son was treated and punished by God, just through humans, as an enemy, unpleasing, sinful object of God's wrath so that those who were not beloved and were not pleasing to God would now be beloved and well-pleasing.

What's even more is that in the sight of God, no one can earn their way to be in a beloved well-pleasing relationship to God. We're not judged by God based on what we do or do not do because one way or another, we just are sinners. It is NOT by our own efforts, or our own charity fund-raisers or own being a good person but by the only man who God ever called, "my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased" yet killed him and slaughtered him like a lamb at the butcher shop.

So with amazed gratitude I believe this and will continue to declare with the grace God gives me my declaration of independence from myself and pethetic desperation and dependence on Jesus the Messiah alone for my true freedom. Through Him alone are we made beloved and well pleasing...it is finished :)