Thinking about the journey that many of us or on: having a daily, intimate, joyful relationship with the Father. I've given some thought about how I, and others, have arrived here.

One of the common threads, strangely enough, is that our participation in the institutional church has brought us to this point. I haven't read one person's story that said they were born with this innate love for Jesus and just naturally learned to love the Father on their own (I'm sure there is someone, somewhere, but it's not common.).

In my experience the Holy Spirit was wooing me long before I went to an IC. But, at the same time, I am able to admit that the IC was a type of tutor while I was growing in faith (as it is right now for many others I know). I have outgrown my tutor now, and it's time to move on...

In my study I came across this the other day:

Gal 3:23-27 (The Message)
Until the time when we were mature enough to respond freely in faith to the living God, we were carefully surrounded and protected by the Mosaic law. The law was like those Greek tutors, with which you are familiar, who escort children to school and protect them from danger or distraction, making sure the children will really get to the place they set out for. But now you have arrived at your destination:
By faith in Christ you are in direct relationship with God. Your baptism in Christ was not just washing you up for a fresh start. It also involved dressing you in an adult faith wardrobe--Christ's life, the fulfillment of God's original promise.

In those days, the children of wealthy Greeks and Romans were given babysitters who were responsible for watching over them until they became of age. I wonder if the IC is for some of us, how Paul viewed the Law? A tutor to "carefully surround and protect" us until we are able to hear and respond to the call of the Father on our own. Not the end all, be all, but one stop on the journey toward full sonship.

For many people I know, while they confess Jesus as their Lord, they are not at a place to understand all of the implications of having a direct relationship with God. It's not that they don't want it, they are just ignorant of it.

It's like the Emancipation Proclamation: Even though the slaves were legally freed by the proclamation, those who were ignorant of it remained slaves. Some slaves who knew about the proclamation chose to remain slaves because they didn't believe it. The slaves who knew and understood the proclamation were the ones in a position to be truely free. There were many, many slaves who went through each of the steps just mentioned on their path to real freedom...

Gal 5:1
Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.