{"id":461,"date":"2014-12-03T21:09:06","date_gmt":"2014-12-03T21:09:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/?p=461"},"modified":"2014-12-03T21:09:06","modified_gmt":"2014-12-03T21:09:06","slug":"the-life-of-a-believer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/?p=461","title":{"rendered":"The Life of a “Believer”"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Whether you were born within the trappings of a world system with all of its assumptions, or within the trappings of a religious system with all of its self-declared other-worldliness, the life and message of Jesus is your salvation. He is the way out for your soul, the truth that will free your mind, and the life that your heart is longing for.”<\/em> – Yours Truly<\/span><\/p>\n

If you can look at the world and religion and see the the beauty and fraud in them both…<\/span><\/p>\n

If you can look at the atheist and theist and see their common plight…<\/span><\/p>\n

If you can see the good in the bad…<\/span><\/p>\n

If you can look for truth to live by, rather than error to point out, ridicule, or criticize…<\/span><\/p>\n

If you can offer your heart vulnerably, be hurt, attacked, accused, betrayed, or abused, and then offer it once again…<\/span><\/p>\n

If you can have faith when no circumstance in sight justifies it…<\/span><\/p>\n

If you can maintain hope with none agree there is any…<\/span><\/p>\n

If you can persistently love those who will never return it to you…<\/span><\/p>\n

If you can rid yourself of all sarcasm…<\/span><\/p>\n

If you can trust because you\u00a0 value your practice of it more than the reliability of its object…<\/span><\/p>\n

If you can bear with the ones who will never overcome their struggles…<\/span><\/p>\n

If you can see all women as mothers, sisters, and daughters…<\/span><\/p>\n

If you can see all men as fathers, brothers, and sons…<\/span><\/p>\n

If you can see yourself in every sinner and in every saint…<\/span><\/p>\n

If you can face your fears when you have the option not to…<\/span><\/p>\n

If you can choose suffering to relieve others, and boldly ask others to do the same…<\/span><\/p>\n

If you can see both extravagant praise and malicious ridicule as poison for your soul…<\/span><\/p>\n

If you can see the most vile and the most noble of people as equals…<\/span><\/p>\n

If you can exhaust yourself in loving without losing your peace,\u00a0 joy, and rest,<\/span><\/p>\n

And if you can hear the still, small voice of God within you and heed it each time, regardless of where it leads or what it costs…<\/span><\/p>\n

…then eternity has filled your heart, dear one,<\/span><\/p>\n

Spirit has swallowed up Law,<\/span><\/p>\n

the Kingdom has come for you,<\/span><\/p>\n

and you have entered the life that Christ purchased for you,<\/span><\/p>\n

the life Christ lived, and now lives in you,<\/span><\/p>\n

and you, only you, can rightly be called a Believer.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is a life of tears, but not despair.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is a life of sacrifice, but also abundance.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is a life of pain, but with unspeakable joy attached to it.<\/span><\/p>\n

In this life, the life of a believer, <\/span><\/p>\n

All things work for good and therefore are good.<\/span><\/p>\n

All things are redeemed, and therefore valuable and sacred.<\/span><\/p>\n

So in this life, the life of a believer,<\/span><\/p>\n

The whole world is their inheritance,<\/span><\/p>\n

They walk it humbly, but as kings, co-heirs with Christ.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Whether you were born within the trappings of a world system with all of its assumptions, or within the trappings of a religious system with all of its self-declared other-worldliness, the life and message of Jesus is your salvation. He is the way out for your soul, the truth that will free your mind, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11,6,14,4,7,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-beauty","category-christ-vs-church","category-compassion","category-discipleship","category-the-best-life","category-the-holy-spirit"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pO6nf-7r","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=461"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":467,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461\/revisions\/467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}