Kruger baxter

Through the work of Jesus, we have been adopted into the Trinitarian life. The concept of perichoresis helps us understand what our adoption means for us. We matter. We are real to the Triune God. Only the Trinity could have union without loss of personal distinction. If you have union without distinction, you tumble into pantheism, and we would be united to God in such a way as to be completely absorbed into him.

If you have distinction without union, you end up with deism, where God is up there watching us from a distance, and we never see our humanity as included in the Trinitarian life. Motherhood and fatherhood, work and play and music then appear to be merely secular, non-divine aspects of our human experience.

Deism leaves us with a Christ-less humanity, and forces us to search beyond our humanity for connection with God. We have union but no loss of personal distinction, which means that we matter and that our humanity, our motherhood and fatherhood, our work and play and music form the arena for our participation in the Trinitarian life of God.

Let me give you a quick story. I like stories better than long and convoluted theological explanations. He and his buddy came in and they were decked out in their camouflage, face paint, plastic guns and knives, the whole nine yards.

My son peers around the corner of the door and looks at me, and the next thing I know, he comes flying through the air and jumps on me. We start wrestling and horsing around and we end up on the floor. Then his buddy flies into us and all three of us are just like a wad of laughter. Right in the middle of that event the Lord spoke to me and said to pay attention.

I had never met him. He had never met me. So I re-wound the story and thought about what would have happened if this little boy would have walked into my den alone. So he looks over and sees me, a complete stranger, sitting on the couch. Would he fly through the air and engage me in play? Would we end up in a pile of laughter on the floor? Of course not. That is the last thing that would have happened. Within himself, that little boy had no freedom to have a relationship with me.

We were strangers. He had no right to that kind of familiarity and fellowship. But my son knows me. So in the knowledge of my love and affection, he did the most natural thing in the world. He dove into my lap. He got to experience it.

Jesus is the one who knows the Father. A thousand hallelujahs to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus. With eager and overflowing joy, He lavished all the family resources of heaven upon us in Christ, just as He planned it when He dreamed of us ages before He called forth the cosmos. Long ago He made us the apple of His eye and dedicated Himself to bring us into the family to be face to face with Him forever in Jesus.

Have you ever wondered why Jesus asked the servants to get the water? Why not skip the water and just make the wine? John tells us that in this event he beheld the glory of Jesus. And he saw Jesus including the servants in his blessing of others. It is the divine way of being. And the Father, Son and Holy Spirit always include us in what they are dreaming and doing and saying, in their lavish love and creativity, in their music and laughter and joy, and redeeming genius.

The excellent caresource wellcare podiatry talk

Read full bio. Most Popular. Back to top. Get to Know Us. Make Money with Us. Amazon Payment Products. Let Us Help You. Amazon Music Stream millions of songs. Amazon Advertising Find, attract, and engage customers. Amazon Drive Cloud storage from Amazon. Sell on Amazon Start a Selling Account. AmazonGlobal Ship Orders Internationally. ComiXology Thousands of Digital Comics. DPReview Digital Photography.

Baxter Kruger. You never really get the staggering meaning of the incarnation. The apostle watched me with delight, which made me proud. Then he cocked his head and raised his eyebrows, as if cheering me to continue. That is what I have always been taught. He was with him, in him, through it all. We all knew it by heart. Read the whole psalm, brother, and you will see. Jesus is a revolution. And so the Word became flesh and entered the darkness in person, and found His way within us.

And we perceived His true identity, His glory as the only begotten out of the Father, an overflowing fountain of grace and truth. It is no more complicated than that. But oh, Lord, there are so many voices. His father does not love him for what he does. His father does not stop loving him because he has rebelled and miserably failed.

His father is his father—no matter what. He is and remains the beloved son because his father is and remains his father. Baxter Kruger, Parable of the Dancing God. Jesus Christ has done that. Faith is not something that we do that moves us from the unforgiven column to the forgiven column. That was done in Jesus. Faith is not something we do that gets us reconciled, justified, included, adopted, redeemed, saved. Jesus Christ has already done all of that.

The fundamental character of Christian faith is that of discovery. Faith, as Luther said somewhere, is like the eye. It does not create what it sees; it sees what is there. This is our hope. As we do, we see people, even the Romans, with new eyes. But that is to assume that the Father was changed by Adam's sin, and that His heart is now divided toward His creatures" p.

This is awful! The deepest darkness, the last broken fragment. Helplessness seized my heart, and I cried, feeling the pitiful sorrow that comes when a prize is again and again just beyond your reach. I have built it, piece by miserable piece, but I cannot tear it down. I heard at last, and all that was within me declared, Amen! I let go, of what I did not know. The fortress burst and vanished in a blast of purest light.

In the light I could see, see beyond my own seeing. Two great eyes appeared, wide open and warm, clear as crystal, deep as a mountain lake and unclouded by any hint of shadow, and trained with affection upon me. In the eyes I saw myself reflected.

I wept and shuddered, convulsing in joy yet still not daring to believe. All was known and accepted, embraced within and without—even, impossibly, delighted in. I felt a comfort and love more tender and beautiful than I ever dreamed could be possible. Moving quietly, St. John, ever in tune with the Holy Spirit, left the room. He was giving me space to know, or as he would say, time for my imagination to expand until it was worthy of its theme.

I could feel him—Jesus—in me. I groaned as I realized that it had been a thousand years since I felt—or allowed myself to feel. The drama caught me off guard, but before I could say anything, he raised his wineskin above his head and poured it out onto the broken pieces of bread.

Like water hitting a flat rock, the splatter was unmistakable. My heart, already raw with emotion and hope, was spellbound by the sight and sound. The apostle soared into prayer: Lord Jesus, only begotten, beloved, and faithful Son of Abba, the living Word of God, anointed of the Holy Spirit, Son of Miriam, humble brother of the human race, Lord of all creation.

Worthy are you of all honor and glory and life, in this age and in all ages to come. We rest in you.