#union with God

[dramoor]

“I am in God, and God is in me. I feel that all creatures, the trees, the flowers belong to God and also to me. I no longer have a will, it belongs to God. And all that is God´s is mine.”

~ St. Mariam of Jesus Crucified, The Lily of Palestine, O.C.D. (1846-1878)

(Art: Resurrection, by Albert Pinkham)

[myremnantarmy]

"𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴..𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘭𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘶𝘱!"

[carmelitequotes]

The Most Blessed Trinity dwells in the soul that loves God and keeps His commandments.

[mattspinksjoyblog]

Union! | Thesis #11

Union with God is certainly the most beautiful and astounding reality of the entire Gospel. Union with the Trinity IS the entire Gospel! And, yet, somehow we’ve missed it almost completely in the western church.

We sing songs asking God to come. We pray asking God to be with our friends and family. We picture God in our minds sitting on some throne in some far away place in the sky. How have we missed such a central transformative reality in the modern western church? We act as if we are separated from God!

“In Christ” is probably the most repeated phrase in the entire new testament. We are literally IN Him!!!

This alone is enough to make us wide-eyed mouths-closed mystics, in awe of everything around us! We are surrounded by God!

Yet, we are not only surrounded, Christ lives in us! We are in the Trinity, and the Trinity is in us!

“In that day, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.” - John 14:20

The early church was not unaware of this, and neither were the reformers.

St. Irenaeus said this:

“This is the reason why the Word of God was made flesh, and the Son of God became Son of Man: so that we would enter into communion with the Word of God, and by receiving adoption would become Sons of God. Indeed we should not be able to share in immortality without a close union with the Immortal.”

St. Athanasius said it this way:

“Naturally also, through this union of the immortal Son of God with our human nature, all men were clothed with incorruption in the promise of the resurrection. For the solidarity of mankind is such that, by virtue of the Word’s indwelling in a single human body, the corruption which goes with death has lost its power over all.”

John Calvin wrote about mystical union with Christ:

“Therefore, that joining together of Head and members, that indwelling of Christ in our hearts – in short, that mystical union – are accorded by us the highest degree of importance, so that Christ, having been made ours, makes us sharers with him in the gifts with which he has been endowed.”

Martin Luther also writes:

“So far as justification is concerned, Christ and I must be so closely attached that He lives in me and I in Him. What a marvelous way of speaking! Because He lives in me, whatever grace, righteousness, life, peace, and salvation there is in me is all Christ's: nevertheless, it is mine as well, by the cementing and attachment that are through faith, by which we become as one body in the Spirit.”

Now, in the writings of the reformers, as you may even see from that Luther quote, they may not have taken it far enough with their understanding that union happened in the Incarnation, through the Person and work of Christ.

However, there is also a distinction between objective union and subjective union. Luther may have been emphasizing the subjective union that is actualized by awakening to the faith that is in Christ Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

I am so thankful that we have gained possibly even greater clarity than ever before through the streams of Karl Barth and the Torrance influence on that objective union with Christ, and therefore the whole Trinity. Through their writings, we are pointed to union with God as something signed, sealed and delivered in Christ, once and for all. Every human ALREADY HAS union with God because of the Person and Work of Jesus!

“The Incarnation means that God Himself condescended to enter into our alienated human existence, to lay hold of it, to bind it in union with Himself…” - Thomas F. Torrance, The School of Faith

Of course, the early church understood the enormity of this too, which is why they took such great pains to clarify in the Nicene Creed and the Chalcedonean definition that Jesus Christ IS the union, fully God and fully man. Jesus is where heaven and earth intermingle fully, all of God and all of man.

The modern western church has almost no revelation of what “homoousia” or “hypostatic union” mean. Yet, these are ESSENTIALS of our faith.

Ask your pastor if Jesus is still a man. Sadly, many pastors and teachers in the church cannot answer that question clearly! Yet, if he’s not still a man, our closeness to God goes back to depending on our own devotion, our own spirituality, our own efforts of some kind.

Eastern Hindu, Buddhist and New Age spiritualities may laugh at us because western Christians rarely even dive deep into mystical experience. Yet, we’ve been given the solid Rock of reality! We have a mystical union that’s instantly accessible and ours right away, because it doesn’t depend on our devotion. Yet, we so rarely know the Truth and take advantage of this free mystical life in Christ.

We need a reformation back to the MAIN THING! Union with the Trinity in Christ will transform our whole worldview and experience of life!

It is here that we will find the sweet satisfaction of our souls with our Bridegroom Lover King, the filling of that “God-shaped hole” of intimate love. As Bernard of Clairveux said, “I have ascended to the highest in me, and look, the Word is towering above that. I have descended to explore my lowest depths, and I found Him deeper still.”

It is here in union that we find the freedom from sin, death and the power of all evil, we pass into an effortless righteousness and love for all, BECAUSE Jesus’ life now flows through us. In being united with the Trinity we have everything. We share Their divine life, right here, right now, in our human existence.

Oh, that we would only wake up to this! And, it’s not difficult, because we have Holy Spirit leading us perfectly into all Truth. This is the subjective salvation that the Orthodox church calls theosis. It’s a lifelong increasing awareness of the union that we already objectively have in Christ.

Let us fill our conversation with this Good News of union! Let us change our song lyrics, and prayers, and sermons, and most of all our actual day to day expectation. Christ has come! We are One with God!

-Matt

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Also, please watch the video version of this thesis where Matt shares more:

[dramoor]

“When God revealed himself, he united himself with our mortal nature in order to deify humanity through this close relation with deity. Since this is so, through his flesh, constituted by bread and wine, he implants himself in all believers.”

~St. Gregory of Nyssa

The Living Flame of Love

(Soul aflame with Love in union with God)

[dcxdpdabbles]

Fright Knight: Seize him!

Dan: Wait, wait, wait. Seize him? Did you really just say that?

Fright Knight: I-

Dan: We are up against THE Batman and you embarrassed me by shouting "seize him" as a battle cry? What is this the 1500s?

Danny: Actually, 1500s wouldn't be correct. See,Halloween can be traced back 2000 years ago in Celtic roots-

Dan: No one cares about the few fun facts you know, Danny.

Danny: Well excuse me for appreciating history!

Fright Knight: My Kings-

Dan: Appreciating history!? You failed your last history test!

Danny: test results aren't accurate representation of subject enjoyment! I'm sorry I don't find wars interesting! Maybe, I like learning about how cute humans are and where certains beliefs develop instead of always reading about battles where thousands perished!

Dan: Wars have a tendency of shaping human history! Usually for the worse but we need to study them as to not forget thier horror and learn from the mistakes commited that led up to them!

Danny: Oh you would know all about mistakes and horrors wouldn't you!

Dan: YOU'RE ADOPTED

Fright Knight: My Kings! Batman has broken though the first line of defense!

Danny: IM NOT ADOPTED! YOU'RE ADOPTED!

Fright Knight: Batman is getting closer! Oh gods, there are more of him! We're surrounded!

Dan: MOM FOUND YOU ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD

Danny: DAD FOUND YOU IN THE DONATION BOX AT A CLOSED DOWN CLOWN FACTORY

Fright Knight: They took out our second and third defenses! NO, THEY GOT LAWRENCE.

Danny: YOU'RE MOTHER WEARS TOO MUCH MAKEUP

Dan: YOUR FATHER DRESSES LIKE THE STREET CORNERS ARE TOO EXPENSIVE

Fright Knight: The Robins! They're everywhere! What are they!? DO THEY NOT FEEL FEAR?!

Dan: YOUR SISTER-

Danny: *gasp* Don't bring Jazz into this.

Dan: You're right. I'm sorry, that was too far. Hey where did Fright Knight go?

Fright Knight: *Screaming as multiple costume wearing humans curb stomp him*

Danny: It looks he could not seize Batman

Dan: It's darn shame when that happens.

[daylerogers]

Unexpected and Unnatural

Kids’ hair is always a delight. Often parents don’t want to cut it because they’re so cute and the curls are feared to be lost forever, cowlicks are loved rather than loathed, and the color is something that often changes as they get older. When our daughter and son-in-law left their three children with the babysitter, they walked out the door recognizing all of them as they normally see them…

[juliaridulaina]

Quan venen les proves….💥When the tests come…💥Cuando llegan las pruebas…

De quina forma podem comprovar que allò que estem aprenent ho estem absorbint bé? Que allò, que durant un llarg període de temps ha format part de la nostra preparació, funciona? Doncs.., evidentment, posant-ho a prova. Però no posant-ho a prova nosaltres mateixos, sinó inesperadament, en un moment donat en que la pressió de l’entorn es fa insuportable i que està fora del nostre control.El Raja…

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Hello Madam. Sorry Madam.

[First] Prev <–-> Next

[eyeoftheheart]

“The Sufis believe that within mankind there is an element activated by love which provides the means of attaining to true reality.”

― Idries Shah, The Sufis, p. 165.

[dramoor]

(Via GMK)

[ar-mage-ddon]

pursuing the unknown

( EPHEMERWEEK 2: curiosity )

[carmelitequotes]

Pope Leo XIV invites us to follow Jesus and rediscover our vocation through His Word.

[3liza]

i mean the truth is that we do not need and should not have all this stupid plastic clutter in or houses. no one should be producing or selling this shit. everyone make your own merchandise and charge a living hourly wage to sell it 🤷 sorry to be so simplistic about this but it's one of the results of the lack of class unity specifically in the means of production-owning creative class, who is not mentioned or dealt with by the core Marxist texts as far as I know (i asked about this earlier on here, did marx ever address in his analysis people like, for example, a professional photographer who owns a camera ans prints his own dagguereotypes? or a portrait painter or idk, independent milliner or seamstress? these people all own the means of production and do not employ anyone, and the answer from better educated people than I was that no, Marx didn't mention them), I'm not well read on this at all, there is just a big void where leftist analysis of what modern economists call "the creative class"

I'm getting off topic. my point is make your own keychains in your kitchen. it's actually not hard. you can even mass produce (on a small scale) little plastic crap if you want, with resin and a UV lamp, or a 3d printer, or a laser cutter and acrylic sheets (or just use balsa wood damn, at least its biodegradable and less tacky).

all this stuff is available to little creators AND there are hundreds of people who already own these machines who will take work for you and produce your designs. you just have to actually find them and know them and email them. that's what I mean about the class unity issue with creatives. we have no large scale union, we have no large scale class consciousness, and we're all sending our orders for little plastic crap to sweatshops instead of emailing a guy with a laser cutter in his garage and saying "hey Keith can I get uhhhhhhhhhhh 50 laser cut keychains of this twerking Diggler design I made, like how much would that cost" and he's like sure here's the work and materials cost and tbh it's always always less than i think it's going to be. you just have to do some basic arithmetic and then order shipping, and I hate order fulfillment with my life but you can actually pay or barter with someone to do that for you too. learn to delegate and then factor that into your unit cost. this is basic shit every commercial creator needs to know. they should teach you this in art school but they dont

don't give me crap about "I can't afford a laser cutter" either because I just told you to email Keith. and all these machines get sold secondhand when a manufacturer or hobbyist needs to upgrade. i got a color laser printer perfect for making zines and wheatpastes and shipping labels from a retired lesbian on capital hill for $75 and it was still full of ink. my friend gave me her 20 year old canon dslr because she just didn't need it and didn't want to bother selling it. it works fine because I spent the time finding the right drivers and shit for my computer. and card readers exist. Craigslist. Facebook marketplace. nextdoor sales section. eBay. everyone always forgets eBay. eBay lets you save searches and will email you when it finds a guy selling his vinyl plotter in your city with local pickup. I'm serious

[idylls-of-the-divine-romance]

There is this trend in a lot of Christian mystic writings I've seen of "purging away all of the self and then having nothing remain so you are all 100% God and 0% you" and while I am exaggerating a little... it's not by much. This is pretty much what it says. Basically this is total depravity bullshit and I hate it.

[gideonisms]

basically this one goes out to anyone who relates a Lot to Jon archivist, I would strongly recommend getting help for your anxiety and switching jobs. perhaps looking into common accommodations for autism as well. Possibly transitioning? it couldn't hurt to try