I went and reread John 8:12-59, and it got me to thinking of some things. I love the idea that John was an artist, not inconsistent. As an artist that appeals to me, that the Gospel of John is not "wrong" in it's chronology, because God does not subject himself to human time and if John was able to see a chronology thematically and that is why he arranged his gospel story the way he did, it is simply an awareness of just how much outside of time the story of God is. And when I went back and read it, I was also thinking about the prison of religious abuse that I felt like I inhabited for a long time, and thinking about how the church never "closes". We are indeed a body, and yet a body dismembered. Some institutions are getting it more right than others, but the whole institutionalization of the church really has become a form of dismemberment. No matter what institution you go to, you are missing something, and you don't even know that you have been enslaved by that, and that it is truly only in Christ's united body that you can be set free. I don't think Christ sets us free just one time, any more then justification and sanctification can be married into one moment. He will set you free all your life incrementally, if you are willing to acknowledge the enslavement of the self that is at the heart of every form of enslavement. For those of us who have felt enslaved by a dismembered body part, we need to remember the only true slavery comes out of our own hearts, hearts that prone to sin. And make no mistake about it, if you have been a victim of religious abuse, it needs to be addressed. What sin in the state of your heart allowed you to be enslaved? If you did not allow yourself to be enslaved, then there is no way to seek freedom, you are simply a victim. But if you figure out what drew you to the particular dismembered body part you were part of (if you chose it as an adult, I don't really have much to say about children raised in it) you can allow Jesus to cleanse the part of you that needs sanctification to experience true freedom.
Keep up the good work!
I went and reread John 8:12-59, and it got me to thinking of some things. I love the idea that John was an artist, not inconsistent. As an artist that appeals to me, that the Gospel of John is not "wrong" in it's chronology, because God does not subject himself to human time and if John was able to see a chronology thematically and that is why he arranged his gospel story the way he did, it is simply an awareness of just how much outside of time the story of God is. And when I went back and read it, I was also thinking about the prison of religious abuse that I felt like I inhabited for a long time, and thinking about how the church never "closes". We are indeed a body, and yet a body dismembered. Some institutions are getting it more right than others, but the whole institutionalization of the church really has become a form of dismemberment. No matter what institution you go to, you are missing something, and you don't even know that you have been enslaved by that, and that it is truly only in Christ's united body that you can be set free. I don't think Christ sets us free just one time, any more then justification and sanctification can be married into one moment. He will set you free all your life incrementally, if you are willing to acknowledge the enslavement of the self that is at the heart of every form of enslavement. For those of us who have felt enslaved by a dismembered body part, we need to remember the only true slavery comes out of our own hearts, hearts that prone to sin. And make no mistake about it, if you have been a victim of religious abuse, it needs to be addressed. What sin in the state of your heart allowed you to be enslaved? If you did not allow yourself to be enslaved, then there is no way to seek freedom, you are simply a victim. But if you figure out what drew you to the particular dismembered body part you were part of (if you chose it as an adult, I don't really have much to say about children raised in it) you can allow Jesus to cleanse the part of you that needs sanctification to experience true freedom.