amethyst
10-09-2009, 05:49 PM
"To go to the heart of the matter, the contemplative life of Jesus helped him to see the world through the eyes of his Abba, Father. Jesus’ favorite and distinctive manner of addressing God was with the Aramaic term Abba, a form of “father” that leans in the direction of “papa.” I didn’t know this at the time, but when I knelt and prayed the Lord’s Prayer at the age of nineteen, asking for more of a God connection than I had known and experiencing that eerie but beautiful feeling that God wanted to be my dad, I was having an Abba, Father moment.
We know this is a primary aspect of the spirituality that Jesus meant to pass on to others, because it’s right there in the prayer he passed on. “When you pray, say: ‘Our Father . . .’” (Luke 11:2 NKJV).
Intimacy is yet another word that’s wearing out through overuse. Instead, let’s call it closeness. Proximity. The nearness of another.
Abba, Father is about that. We know that Jesus had closeness with God. And this closeness affected the way he perceived and experienced reality.
John the Baptist was out in the Jordan River performing baptisms as a sign that it was time for people to start fresh because God was coming close. Jesus submitted to John’s baptism even though John thought Jesus didn’t need it. The Gospels say that after Jesus prayed, “Father, glorify your name!” he heard a voice saying, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.” The bystanders, however, only heard thunder (John 12:28–29). Which was it? It might have been both. As the ancients said it, the heavens opened, it thundered, and in the thunder Jesus heard a voice come to him. We’ll never know for sure, but it may not have been the first time. We know it wasn’t the last.
Often when Jesus prayed, he sensed the nearness of God by hearing something. Before appointing the twelve apostles as his hand-selected messengers, he spent the night in prayer. Listening. Which ones, Abba?
Simon, Andrew . . . We know that when Jesus addressed individuals by name, they sometimes melted. As in the garden on Easter morning when Mary Magdalene saw the Lord and thought at first that he was the gardener. All he had to do was say her name, and she melted. She felt the closeness. Was that because Jesus heard Mary’s name spoken by Abba, Father?
Often it seems that Jesus saw things that others couldn’t make out as easily. When some of the religious leaders were protesting that his healings on the Sabbath day constituted a violation of God’s command, Jesus explained himself by saying, “The Son . . . can do only what he sees his Father doing” (John 5:19). In other words, he didn’t just go around willy-nilly healing people because he had a mind to. Jesus kept his eyes open (the traditional practice of Jewish prayer) so that he could see what the Father was doing and then go do it with him. It’s possible that when Jesus saw the leper and was “moved with compassion” (Mark 1:41 NKJV), he interpreted that movement within his own gut as a sign of Abba, Father’s nearness with him and the leper. Perceiving that, he reached out his hand to touch the man and together with Abba, Father, made him better.
It’s possible that when Jesus got up before everyone else and left the house and went to a solitary place to pray (Mark 1:35), he wasn’t alone. He was alone with Abba, Father.
Does this sound appealing?"
-excerpt from the book "Jesus Brand Spirituality"
http://www.jesusbrandspirituality.com/index.php
We know this is a primary aspect of the spirituality that Jesus meant to pass on to others, because it’s right there in the prayer he passed on. “When you pray, say: ‘Our Father . . .’” (Luke 11:2 NKJV).
Intimacy is yet another word that’s wearing out through overuse. Instead, let’s call it closeness. Proximity. The nearness of another.
Abba, Father is about that. We know that Jesus had closeness with God. And this closeness affected the way he perceived and experienced reality.
John the Baptist was out in the Jordan River performing baptisms as a sign that it was time for people to start fresh because God was coming close. Jesus submitted to John’s baptism even though John thought Jesus didn’t need it. The Gospels say that after Jesus prayed, “Father, glorify your name!” he heard a voice saying, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.” The bystanders, however, only heard thunder (John 12:28–29). Which was it? It might have been both. As the ancients said it, the heavens opened, it thundered, and in the thunder Jesus heard a voice come to him. We’ll never know for sure, but it may not have been the first time. We know it wasn’t the last.
Often when Jesus prayed, he sensed the nearness of God by hearing something. Before appointing the twelve apostles as his hand-selected messengers, he spent the night in prayer. Listening. Which ones, Abba?
Simon, Andrew . . . We know that when Jesus addressed individuals by name, they sometimes melted. As in the garden on Easter morning when Mary Magdalene saw the Lord and thought at first that he was the gardener. All he had to do was say her name, and she melted. She felt the closeness. Was that because Jesus heard Mary’s name spoken by Abba, Father?
Often it seems that Jesus saw things that others couldn’t make out as easily. When some of the religious leaders were protesting that his healings on the Sabbath day constituted a violation of God’s command, Jesus explained himself by saying, “The Son . . . can do only what he sees his Father doing” (John 5:19). In other words, he didn’t just go around willy-nilly healing people because he had a mind to. Jesus kept his eyes open (the traditional practice of Jewish prayer) so that he could see what the Father was doing and then go do it with him. It’s possible that when Jesus saw the leper and was “moved with compassion” (Mark 1:41 NKJV), he interpreted that movement within his own gut as a sign of Abba, Father’s nearness with him and the leper. Perceiving that, he reached out his hand to touch the man and together with Abba, Father, made him better.
It’s possible that when Jesus got up before everyone else and left the house and went to a solitary place to pray (Mark 1:35), he wasn’t alone. He was alone with Abba, Father.
Does this sound appealing?"
-excerpt from the book "Jesus Brand Spirituality"
http://www.jesusbrandspirituality.com/index.php