Are You Normal?

In His book, The Indwelling Life Of Christ, Major Ian Thomas has a chapter entitled, Are You Normal.  Does this sound familiar in relation to the name of the blog?

Eph. 4:23-24 - Be renewed in the spirit of your mind and . . .  put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.

"God Himself, as our Creator, always intended that He should indwell us; His cherished ambition was to be seen and heard in those He created. That is normality for a human being, when God Himself is behaving in and through a man or woman. This is the purpose for which He created us, that we might be a physical, visible expression on this earth of the God who is otherwise invisible, as John tells us: "No one has seen God at any time" (John 1:18).

. . . He must be within us the origin of His own image, the source of His own activity, the dynamic of His own demands, and the cause of His own effect.

Therefore if any human being is truly normal in his or her behavior, there is only One Person to be congratulated, and that is God Himself.  Normality for a human being is when God can be seen by anything and everything which that person does and says and is."  Pages 17-18

May we all strive to be normal humans and let Him permeate us moment by moment.

Grace and Peace

The "Much More" of your salvation

One of my father's (Lewis) favorite verses was Romans 5:10, "For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled shall we be saved through His life." I remember Dad getting real excited about the words 'much more' and the life we receive from the Father through the Son by the Spirit. I thought of him as I read this quote from Ian Thomas in the book I have been reading, The Indwelling Life of Christ.
     "Are you being saved by Christ's life? . . . this is the 'much more' of your salvation.
     Reconciled to God by Christ's death . . . and saved by His life - the one is a crisis of the moment; and the other is the process of a lifetime and on into eternity.
     . . . the crisis involves an initial act of faith that accepts Christ for what He did; the process involves an attitude of faith that continues to enjoy all that Christ is! For He not only died for what you have done; He rose again from the dead to take the place of what you are, which He does by His Holy Spirit indwelling you.
     This is the gospel, the whole of it. Anything less than this falls short of the gospel as revealed in the Word of God."
Amen and Amen.

Any Old Bush Will Do

A few months ago I stated that I would share a passage from a book by Thomas about how God can use any old bush. Let this truth permeate your being and bring you closer to Christ in you step by step.  Amen
Here is a possible monologue from the Father to Moses.

Ian Thomas, The Saving Life of Christ  p.68-69

 “Do you see that bush over there? That scruffy, scaggy looking thing – that bush would have done! Do you see this beautiful bush, so shapely and fine – this bush would have done! For you see, Moses, any old bush will do – any bush – if only God is in the bush!

   . . . it is not the bush that sustains the flame, it is God in the bush; any old bush will do!
(end of monologue)

   Did you ever make this discovery? Have you ever come to the place where you realized that all you can produce, at your best, is ashes? Did you ever come to the place where you presented yourself for what you are – nothing – to be filled with what He is – everything – and to step out into every new day, conscience that the eternal I AM is all you need, for all His will!

   This is the forgotten tense of the church of Jesus Christ today. We live either in the past tense or in the future tense. . . .  But we forget that He is the eternal I AM, the eternal present tense, adequate right now for every need!

   If you are born again, all you need is what you have and what you have is what He is! He does not give you strength – He is your strength! He does not give you victory – He is your victory!

   Do you understand the principle? Christ is in you – nothing less than that! You cannot have more, and you do not need to have less. Every day can be the glorious fulfillment of the divine end – “proving what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God,” as you present your body a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service (Rom. 12:1-2)

   Only remember this – any old bush will do!”

Indwelling Life of Christ, Ian Thomas

From his book, The Indwelling Life of Christ, All of Him In All of Me, Major Ian Thomas states,
     "The human spirit is that part of us where God lives within us in the person of the Holy Spirit, so that with our moral consent (and never without it), God gains access to our human soul. This is where He Himself, as the Creator within the creature, can teach our minds, control our emotions, and direct our wills, so that He, as God from within, governs our behavior as we let God be God.
     "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit" (Galations 5:25), and this is what it means to walk in the Holy Spirit; to take one step at a time, and for every new situation into which every new step takes you, no matter what it may be, to hear Christ saying to your heart, "I AM," then to look up into His face in faith and say. "You are! That is all I need to know, Lord, and I thank You, for You are never less than adequate."   Page 22
     The Lord is the strength of my life.  Psalm 27:1

What is Eternal Life?

I picked up an old book I have not read in a while and met some old quotes which brought back great memories such as "Any Old Bush Will Do" (will share it on a future blog). I found a new one on Eternal Life and it was good.

Ian Thomas The Saving Life of Christ p 139-140
What it eternal life? Is it a place that you are going to when you are dead? Is it a peculiar feeling inside? If you were to ask a normal congregation or any sort of Bible class or Sunday school in an evangelical church to define eternal life you would be amazed at the strange answers you would get.
What is eternal life? 1 John 5:11-12 "And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life."
Jesus Christ and eternal life are synonymous terms, and eternal life is none other than Jesus Christ Himself, of whom it is written in John 1:4: “In him was life; and this life was the light of men.” If you have eternal life at all, it simply means that you have the Son, Jesus Christ – now! Jesus said, “I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life” (John 14:6, emphasis added).
Eternal life is not a peculiar feeling inside! It is not your ultimate destination, to which you will go when you are dead. If you are born again, eternal life is that quality of life that you possess right now, at this moment, in you own physical body, with your own two feet on the ground, and in the world today! And where does this life come from? Of Him! He is that life!

Grace and Peace, mike