Insurance or Assurance?
- Livinginbetweenall-Terry
- Feb 19
- 4 min read
"Am I?" Papa, the question came from the most unusual place. My grandson and I were
watching his favorite tech program,
"Minecraft". Now there's a word that well describes a series of layered and creative adventures into imagination's soul, 'Mine craft'. From my first encounter with the artform through my loved one's innocent eyes I was aware of a world that is as good and as evil as the creators mind, it's craft designed to draw one ever in. And so began our search for "Christian gaming".
Today, February 19, 2025 I am only 838 days spiritually sober; that is living into the "assurance" of Jesus renewal and faithfully so, but keenly aware as never before just how "uninsured" my soul is, if left to my crafty mind. In these days I've come face to face with the living contradiction of the gospel:
1) I cannot be insured of Jesus ever deepening salvation unless I am living into the very assurance that is given in the Spirit, made real in God enabled obedience.
2) I cannot live into the "assurance of The Spirit" were it not for the "insurance—before time—that the Eternal Son of God/human Son of the Father (Word/Jeshua) was the crucified lamb of God before Creations massive burst into reality. A realness that includes me and my times. (Revelation 13: 8b)
"Am I?, Papa.
I am profoundly sorry for what I have done to my wife, children, church, and most especially God. I cannot fix it.. With all the skill God has given when teaching me at Costco how to find and engage the chief executive officers of major corporations on behalf of a member who has been wronged, I cannot even insure the precious relationships, the land and buildings that express the reality of my faith. I am utterly helpless, save Christ.
One of the lessons of this journey has been in the riches of Christ's grace given me in social worship, as I hold my hand open to receive Christ, his very reality in cup and bread. Like most protestants I had been happy to receive the "assurance of the cup" believing that Jesus was spiritually formed in my heart by the Spirit—incidental to the actual sign. It is most assuredly true, but in these two plus years in a wilderness of my own doing, properly separated from every tangible, concrete, incarnate Churchy Presence upon which I hung my 'faith hat'. that explanation—though incredible—seemed shallow.
In these two years God began to reveal that the Eternal Son of God being both the source and sustainer of this mass in time, permeates all reality, every event in the universe, including me. 1 "For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross". And so I began to look for Jesus, the 2nd Person of the Trinity in the event called, quite properly, The Mass, by the ancient Church. Such Assurance. Profound Insurance, reality itself; Made real in my spirit by The Spirit who is charged with forming the life of the Trinity of God in me, in us, between us.
Am I? Papa. As we watched this young adult who has created a sizeable fan base take us through the maze of this imagined universe he almost casually described how he would like to slay his enemy beyond recognition, but alas "cannot for he is a Christian and follows Jesus". On to the next adventure!
"Yes, grandson, you are a Christian in truth." (Thank God I was there and yet walking in integrity of heart as I held my grandson in arm, the blessed waters of the Church doing its work, permeated with Christ, each molecule held literally together by Presence that our best science cannot begin to explain... don't worry I didn't say all that to my grandson.)
I simply added my own rhetorical question. "Yes, you are. Has God yet asked to come inside your heart and have you said yes? ...for one day, if not as yet, God will speak inside you and you will be a Christian made real, even as you are already a Christian in truth." 2
I have no clue how much of that he got and ultimately don't care, cause the Insurance has been paid and "Assurance" will follow.
On this early Wednesday morning as I awoke my heart was crying out for God to really cleanse my life and mind, body and soul so that I love Jesus first as no other, my neighbor as Jesus does. I am so keenly aware of the gap between desire and reality. Yet there was also such sweet assurance, of Jesus reminding me of 'mine craft's secret'. "Terry you cannot do anything unless I AM before you and after you; insuring what you even now feel assured of.
Blessings! Terry
02/19/2025
1 See my blog about the Presence of the Eternal Son in Holy Communion.
2 See the Baptismal Video created at my grandsons baptism
Kommentare