The last couple days I've been lichenizing (observing lichen) on the Elk River here in Oregon. I was walking the brooks that feed into Elk River, and watching for various lichen species on the rocks, tree, and shrubs and in gratitude for the inward Life filling my conscious and informing my conscious. To be in that new life ... no longer anchored in the perceptions and sensations all around. I am alive in eternal Presence itself and suddenly these words washed over me:

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.1 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ,provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

ROMANS CHAPTER 8

Oh, how I once knew that groaning in anticipation of adoption as a son of God and for redemption. I stand right in amongst this wonderous creation (as I stand right in amongst my body) and I lift my hands in praise because by the immediacy of the Spirit within me, I live in the adoption. I am in the Spirit even as I move in and along this brook canopied by the trees above. I am not because of these things around me. The Spirit dwells in me and I in the Spirit and the very creation and my body itself is re-born. I am free from the outward forms refracted through the body while I move through the refractions. Meaning, purpose, identity, and consciousness is no longer anchored in the refractions of the body. I am in the Spirit and the Spirit is my meaning, purpose, and consciousness.By the power of the Spirit within me, I am not of the flesh and do not participate in the refractions of the flesh. I have been raised from the death of bondage to the outward refractions of the body and know life in the unrefracted Light of the inward Spirit itself. I participate in the Spirit itself and I know it because the inward Spirit is alive in my conscious and informs my conscience in creation ... and I live peace and live eternity and the Kingdom is come!

Photos by: Keith F. Saylor - Along the Elk River in Oregon.