Apply.....

I love James.... He writes in a letter found in the Bible that truly contented people are those who carefully study God's Word and that Word makes people free. They don't forget what they have heard, but they apply what they hear to their lives. Those who do this will be free!

I love freedom. I think God loves freedom. God has, at the very depths of His core, a passion to free each of us to become..... to become a people who are actually growing and morphing into the character and likeness of Himself. It is His goal that we are free to worship... to live for truth.... to grow in compassion.... to see and respond to the needs of others - hungry fed, homeless given a roof, widow nurtured, imprisoned loved..... a plethora of things that are beautiful, wonderful, and amazing about our God actually become in us. We kicked the idea around that change does not happen because a group of us sit around and have wonderful intellectual debates about truth...its veracity.... and develop a few thoughts about truth. Instead, God is inviting us, not merely to truth.. but to truth applied. James says, (James seems to be a pretty smart cookie) that we are not just to hear about God and His Word. We are actually to DO something with it! When we do something with truth, it changes us from the inside out.

I shared with you guys that there have been manifold moments when God has used His truth to change the trajectory of my life. A massive part of my personal spiritual growth has been the process of replacing lies with truth.... of allowing the truth of who I am in Christ to define me..... of finding that I had some pretty nasty definitions of who I am and God has some pretty amazing things to say about me. Because I (we) are totally committed to change (change = being transformed into the character and likeness of Christ), then we must be committed to a deep level of passion for God and His Word. So, as we read His Word we are expecting, and in fact looking for application. It's critical that we write an action step.... an application. That action step could be personal - involving you..... practical - something you can do..... passionate - something new about God. Every application will involve either a relationship to God... to others... or to your character. Honestly, it could become quite amazing, exciting, and world changing (I do not type those words lightly!) when a group of followers of Jesus Christ share deep passion for applying truth..... living in truth.... and allowing truth (the person of Jesus Christ and His character) to shape their impact in this earth. You want to talk about releasing on earth what is happening in heaven...... that happens when we are about change and change is about truth applied!!

Maybe, just maybe Hebrews 11.5 could become a reality. Is it possible that you and I could actually be like Enoch? Enoch walked so passionately with God and the character of God became so one with Enoch's character that the two were indistinguishable. Enoch simply faded into God (or did God pour into Him?) and he just walked off this earth. As we study Paul in Philippians 3.15 and Paul lays this massive gauntlet... "Live to what you currently know.... Live to who you are in Christ!".... He is challenging us to make application of what we currently know about Christ... about you.... and about how to two might mesh. He is also writing this out of his depths of passion to know Christ (v.11) at the deepest levels of intimacy. Like Paul, I want to know Christ... to be so stinkin' inseparable from Christ that you can't distinguish us. I actually want to believe that I could be like Enoch. I want to believe that...... I want to know God... and then apply what I know. Knowledge + Application could be radically "Enochlike". Yeah!

Add to the commentary by clicking on comments below. Enjoy a great week.

Mark (the Enoch wannabe)