Learning to Hear…

“Now faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God”

To “hear” in the Christian Tradition implies not just mental assent, or cognitive knowledge acquired through listening with my ear, but rather to an encounter experienced because my heart heard!

To “hear” is to encounter the One who spoke. It is to be penetrated with the light, thought, and personhood of another. It is a meeting, an exchange, a signing of the others signature in my soul.

To “hear” God, is to be sufficiently awakened so as to be less aware of myself and more of Him. It is when from His centre, the Creator Being, communicates and His communication is received by one who wanted to hear. “I hear you”, implies “I know your voice, your presence, your being sufficiently to identify it. All human hearts know the voice of God. Few human minds are awakened to it. Often it is our belief or chosen non-belief in God which causes our mind to be our greatest hindrance in hearing.

What I believe God is, what I believe the Bible teaches, what I believe God demands or wants, what I believe I am….these are the idols and illusions which must fall before I am ready to “hear”.

All have the grace to “hear” available to them. All may hear. God is forever communicating Himself, everywhere, to everyone, in every time.

Quantum Physics is discovering that all matter, all that we can perceive, is made up of two key components, energy and information. The Divine, God, is the source of all energy which composes the matter I see. He is the source of the information that defines the nature and form of matters manifestation. “ALL THAT IS” is an emanation of His mind and will. The ancient Hebrews called His energy, The Shekinah Glory. Scripture says, “His Glory fills all the Earth”. It fills all that is, and it fills all He is. For the glory mentioned in the ancient Scriptures is His very Presence. There is nowhere therefore where God is not! “He upholds all things by the Word of His command” may be translated into “His Word is the information that gives energy form and mass. He permeates & indwells all His creation, and is at the same time totally other than His creation. The information and energy is a manifestation of God, but it in itself is also sourced in God. God is more than His Word and His glory, yet His Word & Glory is a clear expression of Him.

The very atoms that today compose my physical body were in another form and mass before my conception. But the same Presence (energy) and Word (information) gave them and maintained them in being. The Koran said that God is closer than the vein on my neck. The Hebrew Genesis Scripture says the God breathes life into Adam and he became a living being. He is closer than the air we breath or the blood which flows in our veins, or the thought that aids us to be aware of our own existence. How can we be separate from the very being and substance which upholds so absolutely our very existence?

Separation from God through sin and fall is a cardinal doctrine of most of western Christianity. How separate was Adam after his fall? Who came to him as he hid in the garden in the genesis account? Whom could he hear calling his name? Who led him out? Who conversed with him? Who clothed Adam and Eve? Who covenanted with them, or promised them the Deliverer who would crush the serpents head?

Who was it who related to all and any of fallen humanity who was willing to listen from Adam to Abraham, from Moses to the Prophets? Jesus, Himself, is The WORD made FLESH. The word heard by whom?

Separation…what is it other than the bondage to our own prideful minds who choose to create gods in our own image? Separation is the fruit of our consciousness of sin. Yet sin in itself is the child of the separated heart. Which came first? The concept of separation came first in the genesis account. The tempter in the ancient story lies to Adam concerning the nature and intention of God, implying that God was withholding something. The only thing Adam lacked in Eden was the knowledge of evil. Evil is the void or absence of good, or the manifestation of the polar opposite to good.

Separation is a state of conscious which births it’s own belief systems, thoughts, religions, sin deeds etc. It is a conscious which divides humanity even within the individual self. We perceive we are separate alone, one ego separated from and threatened by others. We live as individualists and pursue the gratification of our ego self. We live our existence in a dream illusion based upon an ancient lie. “Where can I go from your presence? If I go to the heavens, you are there, if I descend into the pit, you are there too”.

The Christian Scriptures speak of a Lamb slain before the beginning of the world, a God who so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, a plan to awaken mankind devised before the creation of mankind.

The Gospel (Word / information), which is the power (energy) of God for all who believe (hear), is the simple announcement that we ARE reconciled through the cosmic and eternal sacrifice of Jesus on Calvary. The “veil was torn” in time and space, to redeem mankind beyond the realm of time and space. From the first baby to the last baby to enter this Earth, all have the same reconciled relationship provided for them through the atoning sacrifice of Christ. He was not just paying for sin, but through the total kenosis (self-emptying) of God, He was birthing us by His death into Union with the Trinity. The created man and woman now may awaken to total Sonship. To be God’s child, one with Him. Adam and Eve may now enter a greater Paradise, a truer union, a more perfect Creation.

Awakening, is the renunciation of the primordial lie and it’s spawned illusions (repentance – “change of mind, will, & direction”) , and belief (Hearing of the Divine communication) in unity with ourselves, others, and God.

Four qualities that open us to a place of hearing:

1. Awareness.
2. Openness.
3. Humility.
4. Obedience.

AWARENESS

“We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are”. – Anais Nin -

“The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers”. – M. Scott Peck –

Awareness understands that we have been dreaming. It is to become conscious that there is another true self that lives other than the ego self.

Awareness makes you the Watcher who sees the mind creating its own illusions and projecting them outward onto life and others.

Awareness awakens to the savage reality of its own true human need. We have lived in our many masked personalities and know little of our true self. Who will reveal to us who we really are? Who will free us of our phantom gods to show us the One True God? Who will enable us to see, hear, and respond to others for who they really are instead of simply reacting off them due to our damaged ego self? Who will show us how to prosper, live in harmony, and share life & resources equally with all on the planet? Who will speak the wisdom that will enable us to return to Eden and cohabit in peace with nature?

The awareness of the total sleep state illusion of human knowledge is the first step towards seeking both the right questions and the true answers.

I am aware, that I have not been aware, that I have awakened from a sleep of illusion. I am aware of my absolute need, my absolute “not knowing”, a quest and a hunger now purify all intention leading me back to the source of my true self.

I can only hear if I am listening. I will only truly listen if I need to hear and have come to the end of my own answers. I will only truly hear when I am predisposed to obey. I will only obey when I am convinced of the folly of all ways but God’s.

Openness

Openness refers to openness of mind and heart. It is the Poverty of Spirit of the Beatitudes of Jesus. This openness is the beginners mind in Zen. The teachable spirit of the Disciple in Hinduism. The submitted heart in Islam. It is true Childlikeness. “Unless you become as little children, you shall in no way enter the Kingdom”.

Only an open mind can see, hear, and receive.

Humility

When I listen, what do I expect to hear? When God speaks, His Word is absolute Truth. Humility is the disposition to receive without resistance both the positive and negative from His lips. I am what He says I am. He is what He says He is. Life, meaning and purpose are what He reveals them to be. This is humility. It rests upon the surrender of the will and the death of the false self. It liberates the true self to live consciously united to The Divine Other.

Obedience

Obedience is the wisdom which acts on what is heard. To seek the Word, hear it, and then not obey is pure folly! Obedience is the true asceticism of the Christian. “Not everyone who says “Lord, Lord” who enters into the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of my Father”. (Jesus)

Following Jesus means relating back into the Trinity as He did. We learn the Way of Jesus through obediently walking in the footsteps of Jesus.

Conclusion

Through Awareness we come to the knowledge of how great our need is to listen and hear.

Through Openness we do not seek to qualify what will be said.

Through Humility we accept what the Other has to say as Truth.

Through Obedience we walk out what we hear and thus manifest the Word in our lives. This is the original purpose of the Word being spoken in the first place.

Two Key Spiritual Values of our Chosen Way of Life.

Christocentrism:

The journey of the Disciple is to become like the Master.

We understand that we are predestined to be conformed to the Image of The Son.

We understand that this will be a journey of personal Transformation.

We commit to using helpful spiritual practices to realise this end.

We understand that the spiritual journey involves three phases.

Phase One:

We understand that we are not just intelligent animals but that we are sourced in a Creator God, The Divine Other.

Phase Two:

We seek to follow and become like the human incarnation of The Other, who is Jesus.

Phase Three:

We discover that there is no Other living on or in some distant place, but that as the Father and Jesus are One, so are we in Him, and He in us.

This is mystical union. It has always been so, but our awareness and belief system could not cope with it, until our religious illusions fall away, and with them all “feelings” of separateness. We are One by grace (God’s self communication to man) and by Divine Intention. We are One by the blood of Christ. We are One by the Spirit of Christ.

The Word is the window that permits us to gaze into the mystery of The Godhead. It is one of the ways God used to communicate Himself. Jesus is the ultimate revelation of the Father’s heart, the Word’s intent or meaning (Word made flesh), and the prototype Son of the New Creation. His Way is in His life and Word. He is the truth that the Father intends and has always intended for each one of us. What we see in Him, is our vocation to become like Him.

“Follow ME”, He invited, so that we might walk as He walked in the Presence of the Father. “Follow Me”, that we might learn from Him how to dwell in and relate to The Father, The Divine Other. “Follow me”, that we might receive the Divine Infilling as consciously as He did at Jordan, and become another Christ, another anointed one walking the Earth in time and space, speaking the words of the Father for we have listened & heard. Doing the works of the Father, for we have seen and believed. Communicating the love and compassion of the Father for it is the very life force, or sap, of the Vine we are dwelling in.

Community.

Community is the journey to become love through practicing love.

Community is the only real obedient response to the teaching of Jesus or Word of the Father.

Community is Incarnational because only in relationship can the Word become flesh. A spirituality of personal salvation which affects and transforms no relationship with God or man is completely delusional. If I will not love and belong to my brother and sister I have no understanding of the love of Jesus for me! The two love commandments of Jesus are totally dependant on the personal experience of the reality of being loved unconditionally by Him. “As I have loved you”…This is the measuring stick and the source of love and compassion in my human life. If I have no understanding of the GRACE of Agape unconditional love, I have no understanding of God who is Love, or my salvation from the absence of communion with Love. To the measure my own life has contact with the love of God, to that measure I will love others. Love lived out toward others, especially toward a Community on the same conversion walk, is the only authentic measure of my spirituality.

A Eucharistic Community is a Community that understands that Christian Relationship is not only sociological but also mystical. How related can I be to Jesus? As a forgiven sinner? As a Child? As a Brother? As a very member of His living manifesting Body on Earth? How far does union go since the veil of separation is eternally torn by merit of His Sacrifice of Himself on the Cross? The answer is there are no limits. St. Paul struggles to articulate the union. Jesus is the Head we are the Body. Jesus is the Bridegroom we are the Bride. We are the living Temple that the Divine Presence now indwells.

A Eucharistic Community is a Community who believes they can be Body, Temple, Bride, Family, of God. We use the revised Passover Seder given us by Jesus where Word and Spirit make His resurrected Presence manifest and where we again are drawn into the conversion experience of becoming One with the Trinity, each other, and our mandate to love with grace, mercy, and compassion. Just as we have been loved! Every Eucharistic celebration is a conversion experience. We expose & transcend the illusion of the ego/false self/ fear dominated life. We are washed again in the mindset of God through the Word, and then having emptied ourselves of falsehood and illusion we enter the mystic rite of re-uniting experientially with God and each other, becoming again the mystical Body of Christ on Earth. Each Eucharist is a journey into wholeness. A mystical healing experience which reunites us to all that is love and compassion.

Brief study of Shalom

We can better understand the concept of Shalom by approaching it from three different directions.

Shalom as Well-Being in spirit, mind, body. Becoming whole and undivided with ourselves. others. and our God.

Shalom as Justice;

and Shalom as Integrity.

I shall discuss the experience of shalom using these three shades of meaning as a guide.

Shalom as Well-Being and Prosperity

The word shalom appears in the Hebrew several times in the story of Joseph in Genesis. At the beginning of the story, Jacob tells Joseph to '"Go now, see if it is well with your brothers and with the flock; and bring word back to me."' (Gen 37:14 NRSV). Here the bold text indicates the English word used to translate shalom. Later in the story, when Joseph's brothers come to him in Egypt to buy provisions 'he enquired about their welfare, and said, "Is your father well, the old man of whom you spoke? Is he still alive?" They said, "Your servant our father is well; he is still alive."' (Gen 43:27,28). In both passages, the enquiry is after someone's physical well-being: their physical, emotional, psychological and/or material state of affairs. This is echoed, for example, when Jethro travels to meet Moses in the wilderness. As they met, 'each asked after the other's welfare, and they went into the tent' (Ex 18:7). Similarly, in 2 Samuel 11:7, David asks Uriah 'how Joab and the people fared, and how the war was going.' In the latter passage, a complex English phrase is constructed to convey the truest sense of the original Hebrew where both people (Joab and the people fighting against the Ammonites) and events (the battle itself) have a state of shalom.

In each of these passages the word shalom is related to a physical state of existence: is shalom present or not? In this sense, it is comparable to our English phrase 'Is everything all right?' or even, 'Is everything okay?' Note that this is in contrast to the English meaning of peace, which is primarily used as a description of relationships between people or nations, or of an inner state of mind: 'shalom is marked by the presence of physical well-being and by the absence of physical threats like war, disease, and famine.' However, certain passages seem to press the matter further. Psalm 73:3 uses shalom to convey the sense of abundance, where the word is usually translated 'prosperity'. (See also Jer. 33:9; Zec. 8:12, where 'a sowing of peace' and the subsequent agrarian language seem to convey an abundant harvest).
It could hardly be said that those experiencing shalom, such as Jacob in Joseph's brothers' reply in Genesis 43, are undergoing great disruption or fundamental change. However, when contrasted with the experience of the absence of shalom, such as the stress of battle for David's army and the possibility of defeat (cf. Psalm 55:18), or Moses' and Israel's risky existence in the desert, encounters with 'shalom as well-being and prosperity' could well be described as life-changing.

Shalom as Justice

In parallel with peace in English, the Bible talks of war as the absence of shalom between nations. But shalom is used to describe social relationships also: injustice is the absence of shalom in society. In several key passages in the Old Testament shalom is used in tandem with justice and righteousness. For example, at several places the Psalmist cries to God for vindication and liberation from his foes or oppressors, and in Psalm 35 in particular this is tied to shalom.

Vindicate me, O LORD, my God, according to your righteousness, and do not let [my oppressors] rejoice over me … Let all those who rejoice at my calamity be put to shame and confusion; let those who exalt themselves against me be clothed with shame and dishonour. Let those who desire my vindication shout for joy and be glad, and say evermore, "Great is the LORD, who delights in the welfare of his servant." (Ps. 35:24,26-27).

Not only does the Psalmist petition his God for deliverance from oppression for himself, but also appeals for his oppressors to be made accountable for their actions and be subject to the verdict of the righteous judge. The anticipated result is that shalom is established, justice is brought to bear, the oppressed are not only liberated but also brought to an experience of well-being and prosperity, and oppressors are restrained from, condemned by, and held to account for, their repressive acts. The implication is that divine justice, regulated by shalom, is about making right a situation of wrong, rather than the modern judicial connotations of retribution and punishment. This is described elegantly in Psalm 85:10 where 'steadfast love and faithfulness will meet; righteousness and peace will kiss each other' when Israel's God saves them from their oppression and restores their fortunes.

The synergy and synthesis of justice and shalom is a theme that is sustained by the biblical prophets and becomes all the more relevant as they reflect on the predicament of Israel's exile and prophecy of a hope for deliverance and restoration to Yahweh's peaceable kingdom.

Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness abide in the fruitful field. The effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever. My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places. (Is 32:16-18)

Similarly, I will appoint Peace as your overseer and Righteousness as your taskmaster. Violence shall no more be heard in your land, devastation and destruction within your borders (Is 60:17,18).

Note in particular here that the presence of shalom and justice is the absence of violence, devastation and destruction.

Shalom as Integrity or Straightforwardness

Yoder's choice of 'straightforwardness' lacks the bite of what he's trying to convey. This third aspect of shalom deals with the moral and ethical dimension, and 'integrity' might be more fitting. One element of shalom being used ethically is illustrated in 2 Kings 5. Naaman, the Syrian general, having been cured of his leprosy, vows to worship only Yahweh. However, he faces a dilemma: when Naaman accompanies his master as he goes to worship his god, Naaman will be required to bow before the god also, and asks of Elisha that Yahweh might pardon him. Elisha responds '"Go in peace"' (2 Kgs 5:19). Shalom in this context is to do with moral blamelessness and innocence: Naaman will not incur guilt by supporting his master's arm as he worships his god.


A second element in the moral aspect of shalom is illustrated in Psalm 34:13,14 where the people are exhorted to 'Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit. Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.' Here shalom is marked as the opposite of deception, and could be read as equivalent to honesty. Similarly, in Zechariah 8:16 Israel is told to pronounce 'judgements that are true and make for peace.'


As above, the experience of shalom can only be described as life changing or characterised by great disruption when contrasted with experiences where shalom is absent. A trader making business dealings with the person 'speaking deceit' in Psalm 34:13 could expect a fundamental change for the better in their transactions were that person to 'depart from evil' and trade with shalom-integrity and -honesty. Elisha's declaration of Naaman's shalom-innocence before Yahweh was, at that moment, life changing, given the ramifications were he declared guilty or required to not bow before his master's god.


Eirene: Shalom in the New Testament. In the New Testament the Greek word that is usually translated peace is 'eirene.' The New Testament writers clearly chose it carefully, as it conveys much the same depth as we've seen in shalom. The innovation, and indeed subversion , of the New Testament writers is how they take an essentially sociological term and give it a fundamental theological twist: eirene conveys all that shalom conveys but it becomes the 'shalom of God.' The phrases 'the God of peace,' 'the peace of God' and 'the peace of Christ' appear liberally through the New Testament. No equivalent to the last two occurs in the Old Testament.


Of particular note is Ephesians 2:14-17, where eirene occurs 4 times. Paul is writing about the reconciliation of Jews and Gentiles as a result of the 'blood of Christ' (v13). In the first century, Jews considered non-Jews to be something less than truly human but, Paul argues, Christ Jesus who is 'our peace … has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us … that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace … putting to death that hostility through [the cross].' This is truly cataclysmic: two diametrically opposed and openly hostile groups are reconciled and made one through the actions of the 'God of peace.' The trauma of the encounter with shalom-eirene is especially clear given the modern experience of conflict in Israel/Palestine.

My thanks to the Peace Community Network for this study.

Shalom Community Values

Shalom Community Values.

Christocentrism:
“I AM THE WAY - Learning The Way of Jesus, Living life intentionally through The Way of Jesus.”

We consecrate to living with Jesus as Lord of our actual daily lives.

Christocentrism is about being centred on Jesus: utterly committed to Jesus being the centre of our faith, not as a set of theological principles but as a living person, yearning to be in harmony with the character and the person of Jesus “ Jesus at the centre of our faith, our hope, our hermeneutics, our missiology, our ecclesiology, our eschatology, our soteriology, our ethics, our apologetics, our anthropology, our sociology, our politics, our economics, our families and community.”

Community:
“The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us”.

We consecrate to become an incarnational Community. A living expression of God's Word.

There's four aspects of community we're working with...
A hermeneutic Community respecting and revelling in individuals and their wisdom, understanding, and insight, through their communion with the Holy Spirit, but rooting the responsibility of biblical interpretation and application in the judgement of the collective, and the historical patristic Community of Faith (first seven Councils of the Church). Christ, the Good Shepherd, still speaks to and through His children, but He never contradicts what He has already given through Holy Scripture, and His Ecclesia.
A eucharistic Community recognising that the practice of sharing bread and wine as the very Body and Blood of Jesus portrays the paradigm of sharing lives, resources, finances, time, energy, etc. with each other and also the intimate sharing of Eternal Life or Divine Life with the Trinity.
A missional Community where the gospel is good news to the poor, the widows, the orphans and those who experience alienation in society.
A peaceful Community hungering and thirsting for peace, gentleness, inner rest and wholeness, as Jesus was gentle, in every circumstance, toiling tirelessly as “shalom activists”, wholly committed to non-violence and the overcoming of evil with good.

Freedom:
“Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage”. - Gal.5:1 -

We consecrate to the freedom that ensues from walking in communion with love not fear.

FREEDOM from sin, death and hell, yes, but also freedom to love, compassion, mercy, life and the Kingdom of God; committed to continually probing our values and exploring them most deeply so that God may write his words on our hearts, we might walk with him and be his people and he might walk with us and be our God, through the vibrant impact of the Spirit within and between us; and, like Jesus, being so drenched in The Word that our lives are then lived spontaneously of those words written on our hearts, the breath of God that is our breath, not bounded by the pressures of social expectation or rule-keeping as messianic anarchists or Christi-anarchists; and rejecting any sense of coercion from secularized society.

Mission:
“Go make disciples of all nations, teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. I am with you always, even to the end of the age”.

We consecrate to communicating the Father's love, will, and Kingdom, as Jesus did.

Recognising that evangelism is important but not the sum of mission. Community involvement, reconciliation ministries, peace making, social justice, political impact and environmental action are also all vital and need to be held in tension with each other, inspiring, enabling and supporting both the individual and the greater Body.

Shalom:
“Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world gives, give I unto unto you.” - Jn.14:27 -

We consecrate our lives to the Shalom of God through the availability of contemplation and resultant obedient action. We listen with intention to obey.

Exploring what Shalom is:

Shalom is the Hebrew word that is commonly translated into English as 'peace'. Perry B Yoder suggests that there are three 'shades of meaning' of shalom, which may be more helpful in discussing the matter:

The Holy Spirit:
“When the Spirit comes...you shall be my witnesses”.
We consecrate to seeking Communion with the Holy Spirit.

We choose to live lives that are invigorated completely by both the fruit of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit with utter parity, and without measure; recognising the eschatological tension of living in the now-but-not-yet that is the presence of the Spirit; rejecting the contemporary heresy of the “supernatural” because for Jesus there was no barrier between heaven and earth, the spiritual and the temporal, and so there was nothing that God chose to do that was “above nature”.

The Way of Peace

A Definition:

Peace

The Hebrew word shalom has usually been translated into English as “peace.” But the meaning of shalom goes far beyond the narrow attributes Webster gives to this word. He describes peace as a state of tranquility, freedom from civil disturbances and harmony in personal relations. James Metzler’s definition of shalom goes much further:

Saying shalom purposefully means to offer a peace treaty, a pledge to live for the other’s well-being, a covenant to desire and seek the good life of God’s favor together.

So peace, as translated from the biblical shalom, is not merely an absence of civil disturbances but an active pursuit of the well-being of others. It finds its expression in a sharing and caring community.

It's Source or Origin:

The source for Shalom is God (Jehovah Shalom) Himself. It enters human consciousness and experience through our communion or interaction with God Himself. Like love, it must be learned through the experience of receiving it solely on the basis of grace (freely & without merit), and because of the benevolence of the Father and the legal basis of the Son's atoning blood.

You cannot love absolutely until you have experienced unconditional absolute love. Neither can you live in Shalom with yourself or others until peace has been established between your heart and your source of origin, who is God. All sin and injustice is a lack of Shalom. Shalom is harmony, wholeness, completeness, because fear has been surrendered to love.

"He came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near." - Eph.2:17 -

I. In Is.53:4-9 we are given a portrait of the ministry of Christ to realize Shalom on earth in
human hearts.

Isaiah 53:4-9 (New King James Version)

Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

4 Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He opened not His mouth;
He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,
And as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
So He opened not His mouth.
8 He was taken from prison and from judgment,
And who will declare His generation?
For He was cut off from the land of the living;
For the transgressions of My people He was stricken.
9 And they^[a] made His grave with the wicked—
But with the rich at His death,
Because He had done no violence,
Nor was any deceit in His mouth.

Footnotes: Isaiah 53:9 Literally he or He

This parallels the life a believer in Christ is called to.

1 Peter 2:20-22 (New King James Version)

20 For what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God. 21 For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps:
22 “ Who committed no sin, Nor was deceit found in His mouth”.

A) The Believer is called to the same Way or Walk, and to carry the same Cross as Jesus did.
This is the nature of conversion & discipleship. To gain His inner life and quality of
relationship towards the Father, we must embrace the Way of Life that He embraced.
Anything less is self-delusion!

B) The Way of Christ is the Way of Shalom or wholeness through the receiving and giveing of love
as revealed in the Old and New Testaments. We receive love and are commanded to love as
we have been loved. Shalom also communicates the concept of Wholeness, both personal,
relational, and social. It is expressed as interconnectedness or "Body" or Koinonea /
fellowship (Community in communion).

II. What does the Cross mean in the call to Discipleship?

A) There are at least four types of suffering in life.
1. The suffering that results from the violation of the Law of Sowing and Reaping. The
consequence of our actual belief system and actions. We harvest what we sow. If you wish to change the future, you must therefore change what you sow in the present.
2. Suffering is also experienced by all because we live as mortals in a non-utopian or fallen Creation. This suffering
might include sickness, tragedy, natural disasters etc. There is no "blame" or direct responsibility here. However human history and collective experience witnesses to the reality that healing, protection, and provision may be accessed on a far more real level by humanity theough a trusting living relationship with God.
3. Suffering for righteousness sake. Justice, and the voice calling for justice, will always
draw the persecution of those who stand to gain from injustice. Here, especially at the conclusin of the beatitudes in Matt.5, Jesus promises persecution as His people clash with the status quo values and seek to change them.
4. Suffering because of Divine Judgment. Though offensive to our modern sensibilities,
Jesus revealed a God who does judge rightly. Therefore either in this life or the next we
will experience judgment. Such an experience is not always guaranteed to be pleasant.
Even the shattering of our most prized illusions, will cause us sorrow, even though such
action is meant for our enlightenment and healing. One description of Heaven speaks of God drying every tear there. This implies that we will weep as we enter the revelation of all truth and reality. However it is our illusions which most wound us!

B) What the Cross meant for Jesus.
1. It was the cost of obedient love to the Father's will in a rebellious and illusionary world.
2. It meant suffering for doing what is right, for loving where others hated, for representing
in the flesh the forgiveness and righteousness of God in a world less forgiving or righteous.
3. The Cross represents God's method of overcoming evil with good.
4. "Taking up the Cross" implies learning His Way of obedience to the Father.

C) The "Cross" liberates us to become another life yielded to the Father's Word /Will.
1. The True Self can only emerge where the False Self dies.
2. The Cross represents the choice of love over fear.
3. Choice of Brotherhood & Community over individualism.
4. Choice of obedient service over private ambition.
5. Choice of laying down life to cosmically defeat evil. Evil is overcome by the presence of
good Matt.5:39-45.

Matthew 5:39-45 (New King James Version)

39 But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.
40 If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also.
41 And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two.
42 Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away.

Love Your Enemies

43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’

44But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,

45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.

III. Christian Community is the visible sign of the invisible Kingdom in human hearts. It is in the words of Moltman, " The presence of the Future".

1 John 3:16 (New King James Version)

16 By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our

lives for the brethren.