In the beginning,  God created…

Genesis 1:1a

They path of discipleship is the path of love.  Learning to love, and learning to lay down our lives for Him.

In the process of growing, we have many things to learn.  We begin as babe’s in Christ, and, as we mature, we see gifts, talents, and God’s supernatural power in our life.

As we are being formed into the likeness of the Son, we pass through many trials.  We are learning to be holy, to be righteous, and upright.

It is in the process of this endeavor that we see are also shedding ourselves of everything that hinders.  What appears to be a battle, sometimes,  is merely us holding onto something that God wants us to let go.

But, after that we have become fully committed, and paid the requisite sacrifice to know it’s worth, there is a  ease in the letting go.  While the daily sacrifice is always with us, taking up our cross to follow Him, there is a certain joy in the letting go.

We are mature enough to realize that we can keep nothing.  We are experienced to know that, like honey, we may eat just enough, but if we keep gorging, we will vomit.  We are secure enough in our identity to no longer need to engage our souls to obtain what it is we want.

Rather, simply relying on the Holy Ghost within, we breathe fresh the breath of salvation, and we enter into the joy of the Lord.

That is all there is to it.  While we do wrestle, we struggle against a defeated foe.  While there are lessons,  we are at rest in the Beloved.

The battle comes on the grounds of the lie.  The enemy has presented an image that he calls “holiness”, which is just religion–the world could do it if they put their minds to it.  It looks like church, it looks like evangelism, and it looks like holiness.  And, the young soul, eager to please, may well fall under the sway of the pattern presented by the world as “those religious types”.

But the wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peaceable,  then easily entreated.  It is gentle and humble.  It proceeds with better wisdom,  which,  when receiced, does not take one against a pure heart.

The way is love.  It is not in fear, bullying, or our own strength, but in a constant reliance upon Him.

And, as every aspect of this life dims, so then the glory of the Lord shines that much brighter within.  Even the forms of what “should” and “should not” be become dark reflections of the past, and we are left beholding the one who shines with a brilliance much brighter than the sun.

In His light we see light, and with Him is the fountain of life.

Psalm 36:9

The path of the righteous grows brighter and brighter until the noon day.  All the forms that we either adopted or shunned we now reject, and we walk a life that is called truth, which no flesh can grasp or understand.

This is the way of life; and this is the way of truth.