At the speed of light!

We have been on this short journey of the “I am” statements that Jesus made.  We talked about “I am the bread” in “The Great I Am” and we talked about “I am the door” in “Mystic Portal.”  How about we take a look at “I am the light?”

First let me say that this isn’t intended to be tutorial.  Actually I don’t see alancetotheheart as a teaching forum at all but an opportunity for revelation.  I would hope that everyone walks away with as many questions as they have answers (or more questions).  Asking the question is the most important part of a relationship.  Faith is believing and trusting in the one you have a relationship with.  Faith is in God not in concepts or ideas or knowledge or doctrine of dogma or denomination.  Faith is in God.  To trust Him and believe in Him we have to have something (someone) to trust in and believe in.  He wants us to KNOW Him.  He wants us to KNOW Him intimately like a husband and wife.  He wants us to know that we are joined to Him like a husband and wife.  He wants us to know we are an extension of Him as His children.  He wants us to know we are friends of Him like Adam walking in the garden and participating in the creation.  He wants us to know we are His royal, divinely appointed, Kingdom government on this planet as His royal priests and kings.  We have all the resources of Heaven at our disposal to redeem and restore minds and hearts; to remove lies of separation and exclusion.  Jesus is the ministry of reconciliation.  He demonstrated our union on the cross.  God was never separate from us.  We were hiding from Him.  Jesus sheds His blood in a covenant expression that makes God’s intentions, nature and character clear to a deceived and dysfunctional human intellect.  We get to eat from the tree of life and put away our fallen fruit for good.

When Jesus says He is the light He is revealing these truths and more.  God is good.  He is really really good.  To be in His presence is joy and peace and bliss and elation and ecstasy and “heaven.”  The darkness is something we run to so we can hide.  When we live in irrational fear of God we are living in our fallen human nature understanding of a god that doesn’t exist.  The God of Heaven, the God who is Jesus is revealed in Jesus.  The complete and total revelation of God is in Jesus.  The Nation of Israel brought us Jesus so we would know God in Jesus.  Their relationship was not based on a revelation of Jesus.  Their relationship was based on a fallen Adam dysfunction born of a broken judgment mechanism. Law was all they understood so Law is what they got.  Violence was their only language so violent language is what they got.  Force and brutality was all the fallen human mind can  understand so force and brutality was exactly the language God used to bring them to Jesus.  That relationship is not a revelation of God but a revelation of the need for Jesus who is a revelation of God.  This is why Jesus is the light.  We NEEDED the LIGHT!!!  Now we have Him.  Now we can be free from a fallen perspective of an angry God and move into the illumination of a good and loving and kind and graceful and merciful God who doesn’t destroy but restores.  He doesn’t hurt but redeems.  He doesn’t yell but laughs.  He doesn’t punish but teaches.  He is our Father and He is good.

Check out this passage:

Heb 1:1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. (ESV)

Radiance of His glory.  That is just fun.  I like that phrase.  It “feels” like illumination, right?

Want to “see” in the “light” another fun “revelation?”

The “exact imprint of His nature” can be translated as the “exact character of His hypostasis.”  Wow!  Wasn’t that illuminating?

Hypostasis says what?  This is a fun word. It literally means to stand up under.  It is like a foundation under something else.  It also has a “static” feel to it meaning the thing being “held up” is at rest.  OK, in a modern context the word is applied to sediment in a river.  A body of water in motion will keep particulate in “stasis” so they don’t fall to the bottom of the river.  Once the water slows down or comes to rest the sediment falls out of the “suspension” and becomes “hypostasis.”  It also has a medical application to dead bodies. When the blood stops pumping it pools to the lower extremities.  OK, that image I don’t like so much.

Now that I have filled your noggin with information lets stretch that brain.  Jesus used references all the time that included “motion” like rivers of living water and the Spirit moving like the wind.  Jesus is also the perfect “stasis” of Man and God or Spirit and Flesh.  Interesting…

I want to suggest that our existence as a child of God is to be like Jesus.  In that “stasis” we are actually in motion with the Spirit, moving and resting in Him.  We are like rafts floating on a river.  We are like that sediment in perfect suspension with the Spirit of God.  We have our own spirit that is one with His Spirit so not only are we supported from the outside but the inside.  We are in perfect harmony with the Spirit inside and outside.  We are moving with the living waters and releasing the living waters.  We are abiding in Him.  We are resting in Him.  Are you seeing the image now?

OK, check out this verse that is very familiar.

Heb 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. (ESV)

See that word “assurance?”  Can you guess already?  Hypostasis.  Our “assurance” is being in suspension with Him.  Our assurance is Him standing under us and holding us.  Our assurance is being in perfect harmony with the motion of God in our lives.  We are moving with Him and in Him.  We are surrounded by Him and filled with Him.  Come on!  That is a good word.

Alright last mind bender.

Maybe you have heard about the theory of relativity?  Simply stated…light is a constant (we can measure that and know it is constant because it is unaffected by relative motion) and when we (as objects) approach the speed of light then time must slow down.  If we get to the speed of light, time stops.  OK, if Jesus is the “light” and we are traveling with Him…can you see it?  We are in an eternal moment, a timeless moment.  That is exciting.  When I am moving in Knowing Him which is Eternal Life then I am moving with Him at His speed which is illumination itself.

I understand that I just exceeded the allowable threshold of philosophical science but it was fun.  Now you have something to think about today.  You get to travel at the speed of light.  Bet you never thought that would happen.

Yay God!

Lance