Issue 559
There is a mysterious state of soul so important and amazing that it would be accurate to say it is the point of everything you do and are.
You have already seen (Issue 558) that it is difficult to grasp something in time that is outside of time. Similarly it is difficult to describe something in words which is beyond language. I’ll try.
This soul state I have referred to is not found by hiding away, nor seen by closing your eyes. It will inform every decision you make this week and elevate each action to a higher cause.
The Son of Man uses one word to describe the centre of this mystery. Father. He wants you to “come to the Father” and “know my Father”. Language falls over itself with imagery of “being in the Father”, going to “the Father’s house”, “the Father living in me”.
The imagery itself has limits for when you try to imagine Father you are inevitably confined to your history or role models. Quite deliberately the Bible also gives you imagery of God as a nursing mother, midwife or one who gives birth to help you avoid confining your imagery to any gender.
The fact is the whole of the written word of God points you to this mystery, attempting to capture the uncapturable.
Until the Son of Man steps in.
Consider trying to get somewhere obscure on this planet. You can map read, plan, prepare and budget but everything will change if someone who has already been there offers to get you there.
Now consider some other places you want to be. How about a place of guilt-free love? What about a place of perfect peace? What about freedom? How about a place where love drives out fear? Consider arriving at a place of deep intimacy where you are known and completely accepted? What about a place where you have figured out the meaning of the life you are living? Again consider a place where death is not the end but the beginning and the place where you are never forsaken? Consider how being in these places would impact every single second of your day.
I could fill pages with more descriptions of this place but it would still be contained in one word, “Father”.
So the Son of Man now tells a confused friend called Thomas, I can get you there.
“I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me.”
But before you jump on board, remember this. He is promising to take you to a place that he has come from. As the Son of Man explained, “before Abraham was I Am” he was showing you that he came from the Father. He is explaining that the whole point of his life is to get you to the Father and the whole point of yours is to let him.
After the Son of Man got Saul of Tarsus to the Father, Saul (renamed Paul) wrote “whatever you do work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord . . .” Why? Because you are working for the Lord. It is not an add-on it is the point. It is not a way, it’s the way. It’s not a truth, it’s the truth. It’s not a life, it’s the life. In fact, it’s the only way, truth and life. It’s the route to the Father.
And it’s not an it, it’s an I AM.
Work well.
Geoff Shattock
BIBLE SECTION
John 14:5-7
5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
Colossians 3:23
23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters,
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Work well
Geoff Shattock
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