Greetings in the name of the “King of Israel” (Zephaniah 3:15) and Jesus Christ – THE Crucified and Risen Saviour! What a beautiful winter’s morning in the Kingdom! This is one of those days when you look out over God’s creative touches and say: “God is good all the time…and some days He’s even better!” I trust that you are having a good week…and on this mid-week point, let me encourage you to pray for this coming weekend’s worship gatherings. It will be the second Sunday of Lent–and I believe that it will be significant to us. Today I will be praying for you, asking Father to bless your health and your wealth and your daily activities.
I am still processing ideas and proposals that I gleaned from my recent reading. As part of gaining a clearer understanding, I found myself looking for a working definition for two words that are synonyms and so we interchange them. The first word is “character” , meaning the natural mental and moral qualities, the nature of, the disposition of, the temperament of, or the way something/someone is consistently. The second word is “personality”, meaning how character is revealed in a pattern of thinking-feeling-behaving in a variety of situations. Nearly the same, but very different, and that is what my reading was suggesting to me. There is a great deal of difference between the character of God and his personality as revealed through the life of Jesus.
We understand that God in character is “holy” but when we see that displayed in the personality of Jesus we can be confused because God can be seen in ways that challenge our thinking. So when the personality of Jesus clouds our grasp of God’s holiness we put it aside…and lose Jesus. God’s character is one of holiness and justice and wisdom but when Jesus releases that character through his own personality we see, as I mentioned yesterday, the cunningness of God…and we see the playfulness, wit, irreverence, scandalous freedom, laughter, fierce intention, extravagant generosity, disruptive honesty, exasperation, impatience, beautifulness — of God.
You can dismiss these thoughts if you like…but if your curiosity has been tweaked and you want to explore further – get hold of the book (hard copy or download), “Beautiful Outlaw” by John Eldridge. It is a good read and you will learn about God’s character revealed in the personality of Jesus. One of the key thoughts that I am treasuring in my heart is: the secret of Christianity is the impartation of life, Christ’s life, in us. Just a few thoughts to consider. Be blessed!