We started with a quote (longer than this actually) from The New Man by Thomas Merton - on spiritual identity

"But if my true spiritual identity is found in my identification with Christ, then to know myself fully, I must know Christ. And to know Christ I must know the Father, for Christ is the image of the Father. The "identity" which begins to make itself known and felt within me, under the action of the Holy Spirit, is the identity of a son of the Father: a son who is re-created in the likeness of the only Son, Who is the perfect Image of the Father. The beginning of self-realization in the fullest Christian sense is therefore a sharing in the orientation which directs Christ, as Word, entirely to His Father. And here we truly enter into the deep mystery of God."

"All of us, gazing with unveiled face on the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as from the Lord who is the Spirit." –2 Corinthians 3:18

"Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect." –Romans 12:2

Transformed is same word - metamorphoo - to be changed into another form - to be transfigured.

What form are we being re-made into? According to 2 Cor. 3:18, into the image we are to be looking at - gazing at - with unveiled faces - into that same image - the image of Jesus the Lord. The word "gazing" or "beholding" is "looking at as in a mirror" - has to do with reflection - gazing as into a mirror.

We look at Him and see ourselves in Him - our real selves - who we really are - not the illusion - not what has been stacked up on top of the real. We allow Him to show us who we really are and we become that by His activity in us.

"Glory" has to do with how something seems - it being apparent to those who look at us. I've heard it described as "manifested presence." It does have to do with manifestation for sure - something being brought out in the open for all to see. That's it. the more we look at Him and allow Him to show us and make us into who we really are, the more we will look like Him - the more apparent it will be who we are, who we are a part of.

We've been talking about Romans 12 as a rule of life. A rule of life is something to spend some time on, wouldn't you think? We're going to spend some time getting to know this. If we think we've known it already, we're going to lay that all down and pretend like we're ignorant. Then we're going to allow God to teach us what that all means all over again - in a fresh way, forgetting our presuppositions.

> Talk about how your life has been transformed in some way

> Has your view of how transformation happens changed at all - how?

> What are some things we can do as a community to cultivate a life of "gazing" and transformation?

It was a good conversation - and we will continue to have it until we re-learn some of those things we thought we already knew.

| posted by + Alan | 11:19 PM | |