"Religion" (or Hopefully Not)

In the beginning, it wasn't about creation, it wasn't about the stars and the moon, it wasn't about Adam and Eve, it wasn't even about their choices, it was more about God's undivided Expression. Even when God created the Angels, He was expressing Himself. So when sin entered in, then there was a break in God's free expression and His expression then through Adam and Eve where He had created other autonomous beings that were also sovereigns of what He had freely given them, but even in this God was expressing Himself in Love, also began the courtship between Adam and Eve (the would be church or Bride of Christ) and Jesus i believe. That hadn't completed itself yet, but i believe that courtship was beginning but not yet completed. And so it would seem that possibly Jesus didn't show up the day after making Adam and Eve where Jesus pops in and says..., "I'm God, marry Me!" so began what i believe to be a courtship where God was revealing slowly Who He was to a new fully formed Adam and Eve. They had potentially only known Him in a provisional kind of way up to the partaking of the one forbidden tree.

Me trying to cage the beast, even if i'm using God tools, if i'm in charge and if it's not God on the inside doing the work, then it's just me trying to cage the beast so to speak. But Jesus comes into the cage by permission, changes the nature of the beast, then He opens the cage. That's NOT religion, that's Jesus by Himself for Himself, doing for us what we could never have done for ourselves. And yet because He Loves us, He wants to be with us and He wants us to be with Him, so when He comes in, He doesn't leave us where we were or the way we were, because He Loves us too much to leave us clothed in burial clothes sitting in the cemetery with worn out shoes, heavy burden(s) we could never bare, debts too large to ever be able to repay..., But the reason He came wasn't to clean us up or make us better, but to make dead people alive, to redeem us "from" (not Himself) "to" Himself! Again, He Loves us too much to leave us the way we were.

Personally, i believe that God is Undefinable or cannot be defined by any attribute, at least not in the Whole. For instance God IS LOVE, but that doesn't define Him as if to say that's all that He is, but that God is so vast that He can define Himself and He can represent Himself but He is unsearchable and beyond full understanding by any and all of His Creation etc. So too we were created in His Image, which means that He can define us but i don't believe we are capable of defining ourselves. Rather we are defined by Jesus and He's The One that introduces us to who we really are. He also brings the faith to believe Him, He draws us by The Holy Spirit, He gives us Grace to be able to be aware of our condition and our need for Him, He draws us to Himself, He calls us, He has prepared works for us to do since from before the foundations of the world, He gives us the freedom to choose, He not only provides the faith but grows it, and He gives us the gift of or ability to repent or turn to Him, He provides us with these bodies to use, He provides the oxygen that we need to breath, He provides the Sun, Moon, Stars, the Earth, it's seasons, and all the systems that are working together to maintain all of this even in it's fallen state. We also aren't in the habit of knowing how to proceed in this life in any meaningful way or the ability to perform even that which we know to be good or right. So it would be presumptuous at best to think that we somehow have the ability to choose or even know what or how to choose of ourselves, yet we are certainly not robots..., so that leads me to believe that God really has given us free will to either agree with Him and let Him have His way or we can reject Him Who IS LOVE and be resigned to the alternative. But this much is clear, that like Paul, we eventually if not sooner realize that we can affect very little in and of ourselves and we really do need Jesus to do things for us, in us, through us. So i'm not really doing something with God, He's doing something with me, i'm not doing something with LOVE, LOVE's doing something with me, i'm not doing something with faith, (i didn't come up with it, it's not from me, it's not grown by me, i didn't give myself ears to hear, i'm not even doing something with patience, but rather patience is doing something with me. So God has given me His Life through Jesus The Door The Way The Truth The Life, by The Holy Spirit, and i've been given to Jesus by The Father for His Own Good Pleasure. And yes, God did not force this decision, but rather gave me the ability to see and choose Him and consequently He has given me the power to become one of His children. And yes i could have rejected His offer, but that would have only left me with only me in the end and that just doesn't seem very fun to me. So rather than trying to define ourselves by some combination of two other created beings, i think it rather wise that we are defined by Jesus and to try to define ourselves by Calvin or Armenian seems like that would be rather limited in scope and purpose, so i'm pretty much camped out on the side of God pretty much does it all by Grace that He has afforded me freely, so Grace is the door by which Jesus can take my place, and Jesus IS The Door by which He has given me The Only Legal way of entry into His Sheepfold to which i continue to be amazed and very much honored that He has let me in having nothing to offer in and of myself, only debt and need, but no longer, as Jesus paid my debt and He set me free to be with Him forever. For this i am grateful and for this purpose i was brought into this world. So my part per say is pretty much as small or as little as possible, and as far as i'm concerned, i get the privilege of and the ability by His Spirit to have the opportunity and ability to agree with Him in my redemption, development, and disposition.