Recognizing Christ

How do you recognize Christ?  He is not a memory or a metaphor.  Christ is a real presence here in 2011 and part of our task each day is to seek Him and introduce others to Him.  


Think about recognition:


Recognition: the identification of something as having been previously seen, heard, known, etc. (from dictionary.com unabridged)

Recognizing Jesus is much more than a mental process, but it is important to pay attention to the role that our minds play in faith formation.  (We are, after all, thinking beings.)  First and foremost we need to set our minds upon God's Word, thereby accessing all that has been previously seen, heard or known by God's people.  We have learned about God by listening to or reading scripture.

Yet, this is much, much more than a thinking process.

The mind absorbs scripture.  It works to interpret and integrate meaning.  When we access the meaning of God's Word it unleashes an understanding of the abiding, compelling presence of God's mysterious Love. In that presence, we identify a place where all that we have heard and all that we long to hear is beating -- in our heart.  In our heart, through the Holy Spirit, God directs us and empowers us to think, speak, and act in His Name.

Your mind can be a source of discovering and implementation of all that you can plan and do. Your mind can unravel details or ingredients of ministry opportunities. However, if you are waiting for a moment when all the testimony of scripture will fall into a tidy intellectual space, you may likely remain in the same spot for the rest of your life.

There comes a point when the breadth and depth of God's powerful love will confound the mind.  Awe kicks in and the mind may say:  Now wait, how can this be?  Scripture stimulates the fire of God's love in our hearts and purifies our intentions so that we may love and serve others more passionately.  We are literally transformed; but the end result often does not make logical sense.  It is, after all, rooted in God's mystery.  

That is where faith takes over.  Faith enables us to recognize Christ.  Faith is God's initiative that moves you where your mind can't go.  Faith is deeper than thought. Faith sprouts from unthinking -- unknowing. 

Faith,uncontained by the limits of mental definition, can erupt as the miraculous, unbounded flow of love that grows exponentially with words and actions that point others to Christ.

When the mind is opened to scripture, the stirring movement of the Holy Spirit fans the flame of faith that resides in the heart. Miraculous actions emerge.  Those actions are how we introduce others to Christ.

Think about it.  How are you experiencing Christ in your midst? Now stop thinking about it.  How can you show by your words, or actions or simply by your presence that Christ is here?