I can hear the children crying

by: Newbie

I can hear the children crying. They're locked up inside the 20-somethings dying a slow, miserable death from a life called "religion," boring them to tears. Look deep into their eyes and you will see what I mean... We are crying out for a new paradigm of religion that is not stale, dry, and flat. We are crying out for a real relationship that is dynamic, exciting, and full of life...that good ole' abundant life is what we're after. And we want it so desperately that we're willing to give it all up just for one sweet moment. Over sleepless nights, our hearts keep us awake dreaming, hurting, angry, reaching upward, crying. Our hearts are anything but asleep. Religion (though seemingly innocuous) has put one generation into a slumber, and the next one wondering where the heck do we go now? We are leaving religion to wander in a desert in search of relationship. God is a heart man seeking others who, like Himself, desire life in the inner most places. Life coming from within instead of trying to enforce life with external regulations and commitments. God says, "I will write the law (my words) on their hearts. They will no longer have to teach each other to know the Lord, because they will all know me from the greatest to the least." (Jer. 31) We are a generation growing into a place of intuitively knowing that God is after our hearts; our relationship with Him is His highest priority. Religious christianity (as opposed to relational christianity) often replaces knowing and experiencing His love with "knowing He loves us so let's get busy loving Him." His priority is NOT our getting it right, getting out of debt, making sure we tithe, or any other kind of religious activity. We have grown in the past to become very vigilant in hyper-religious activity and we have gotten very good at it. Every stronghold of structure and performance will be razed to the ground by The Lord Almighty just to get to our hearts. He's not afraid! He says, "I didn't build this sucker, but I'll be the one to tear it down!" Sending it right back where it came from. Their blood burns red-hot fire, Their hearts know one desire. They are a people who are tired. They are a people coming out of the mire. Rules and structure are not bad in and of themselves. They're good, for they flow out of a Father's loving heart. The thing is that the rules and structure are preparing us for His love, NOT so that we can be better Christians or somehow earn His favor and blessing. Every blessing is already ours! Hello!? Yeah, it's already there. You want the favor of knowing God as Jesus did --BOOM-- you got it, it's the Spirit of Sonship that cries out "Abba, Father!" Guess what, there are no second class Sons. There is no level that you can perform your way up to. If anything, your performance is a hindrance. (or maybe your thoughts about your performance are the hindrance) The performance of one man mattered and He got it right, gave us His performance, allowing us to enter into His relationship with His (and our) Daddy. It's freakin' awesome. You're freakin' awesome. It's the religious spirit of performance, life-regulating, life-sucking, life-draining performance that is the entire opposite of the Spirit of Righteousness. Performance is the opposite of the Kingdom. The Kingdom is built on Righteousness, Peace, Joy, and Power. Whose righteousness? The Lord's. Whose peace? The Lord's. Whose joy? The Lord's. Whose power? The Lord's. Can I muster it up, grit my teeth and pull myself up by my bootstraps to this Kingdom righteousness, peace, joy, and power? HELL NO! Can I receive it freely from the Father of Lights? HEAVEN YEAH! Of course the Lord prefers righteousness to sin, but guess what? If it's not faith, expressed through obligation and commitment, then it's sin. Wait! Faith is expressed through love! If it's not faith expressed through love (Father's love, not my own conditional, twisted version) then any "righteousness" that comes about might as well be counted as a loss. What is real righteousness? When you know in that good ole' ticker of yours that you are re-created into the Righteousness of Christ (not the righteousness of self), then you will be His Kingdom on earth. Kingdom righteousness can't be performed because it's natural. You don't try to make it happen, it just happens. Yeah, my righteousness is as filth. That's why Jesus has give us His righteousness to be close to His Daddy. His righteousness is freakin' awesome! I can hold my head high, angels applauding, cheering me on, as I shine with His righteousness. Even when I sin. We long to know experientially the transformation of the New Creation. The old has (past tense) been washed away, the new has come (and it's still coming). Yeah, I struggle putting off the old, daily, it kills my heart how much I struggle, how much I fail. At the same time, it's not really me who is sinning, because it's not who I am. I am not a sinner, I'm a son of the Father. We often think the sinner is who we are and then try to change it. We are growing tired of struggling under the weight of religious Pharisaical-Christian paradigms which systematically try to manage our sin. External regulations will never promote real internal transformation. The religious, regulatory, systematic way of Christian culture has asked us to perform so that we can have relationship. God has asked us to have relationship...period. You cannot perform abundant life. No matter how hard you try. There is coming a time, and it's already here, when we will start to believe that we are God's righteousness. We are His happy thought (our sin isn't even part of the equation as far as He's concerned. Why are we so concerned?). We're ready to break forth in beauteous light and be the New Creation that we already are. The Lord is creator and perfector. Our hearts are ready. Father is on the edge of His seat watching, waiting for that first step (and it's subsequent fall). It's His delight to see us, be with us, love us, care for us. We do not bemoan Him, there is no struggle in His heart. Just to spend the day with us, His heart of love says, "the honor is mine." Where is this Kingdom? It's inside. How do we get to it? The work of the Father is to believe. What if I don't know what I'm doing? Don't worry there is a Guide and Helper. and besides, if you don't know, relax, you're not supposed to!
About Author
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Shane Ambro is currently developing a life coaching practice focusing on Quarter-Life Crisis for young adults. I believe that the more we come into the fulness of sonship under the Father, the more we know who we really are. At that point life, direction, and insight on what God is doing becomes much more clear. If you would like more information on the Quarter-Life Crisis please feel free to leave a comment or contact me directly. <br> <br> <br> <!-- AddThis Bookmark Button BEGIN --> <a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php" onclick=" addthis_url = location.href; addthis_title = document.title; return addthis_click(this);" target="_blank"><img src="http://s5.addthis.com/button1-bm.gif" width="125" height="16" border="0" alt="AddThis Social Bookmark Button" /></a> <script type="text/javascript">var addthis_pub = 'YCHXCMQEW2HMO7QX';</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s5.addthis.com/js/widget.php?v=10"></script> <!-- AddThis Bookmark Button END --> <hr> Total views: <b>280</b> <br> Word Count: <b>1418</b> <br> </p> <hr> <form action="/articles/on-church/i-can-hear-the-children-crying.html" method="post"> <select name=vote_rating> <option value=-1>--Choose-- <option value=0>0 <option value=1>1 <option value=2>2 <option value=3>3 <option value=4>4 <option value=5>5 </select> <input type=submit name=vote_submit value="Rate Article"> </form> <br> <h3>Comments</h3> <!-- comments --> No comments posted. <h4>Add Comment</h4> <form action="/articles/on-church/i-can-hear-the-children-crying.html" method="post"> <textarea name="comment_text" style="width:50%">
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