Familiy Camp 2023 - A Relationship With God
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DAY 1
DAY 1
Relationships
Relationships
Last year we talked about loving as Jesus loved us. The journey to loving with an Agape Love.
Love comes through relationship. You have a relationship with someone as you learn to relate to them. I’m not talking about knowing facts, I’m talking about learning what it means as to who they are and who you are and how the two work together. I’m talking about more than simply husbands and wives, mothers and children, etc. When it comes to us and the God of the universe, Yahweh, it gets a bit harder. We understand a lot of information about him. Who he is, what he did, even what he did for us in spite of our sin. But what do we do with that besides repent and ask for salvation?
In human relationships we are attracted to another person, somewhat because of physical or intellectual, or even personality traits. We find what is missing in us as we find it in someone else. If Johanna was just like me our marriage would be pretty dull and boring. We’d forget everything, talk way too long to everyone, and constantly be fishing, which may not be such a bad thing.
When we relate to someone we tell them about ourselves. We share with them what we have in common and what makes us different. The ultimate result is we find a need for the other person. They form a relationship. They figure out that the other person brings something they needed to the situation and they bring something as well. The key here is that in a pure relationship, it’s done with no strings attached. It’s not done for selfish gain, but our genuine love and appreciation for who we are. This is how our relationship with God works. This is not always what we get in our human relationships.
How We Relate to Christ in the Beginning
How We Relate to Christ in the Beginning
One of the first hurtles we have to jump over in our hearts and minds is the fact that we are in need physically, emotionally, relationally, and spiritually. We were created to need! Need God and need others. What happened to us in the garden was we doubted the God who made us to need and traded pure love and trust for power as we sinned against God and started to deny our need for anyone or anything. It’s only when we realize our need for others and God that we start to walk in who were really made to be.
We will be looking at our relationships as seen through the BEATITUDES.
One of the best examples of this is in Luke 7:36-50. Let me read it to you and attempt to see myself in it almost 21-1/2 years ago.
One of the best examples of this is in Luke 7:36-50. Let me read it to you and attempt to see myself in it almost 21-1/2 years ago.
36 One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and reclined at table. 37 And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, 38 and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. 39 Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.” 40 And Jesus answering said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” And he answered, “Say it, Teacher.”
41 “A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?” 43 Simon answered, “The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.” And he said to him, “You have judged rightly.” 44 Then turning toward the woman he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. 46 You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. 47 Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.” 48 And he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” 49 Then those who were at table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this, who even forgives sins?” 50 And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
From The Perfect Loss by Chip Dodd.
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“If all the Beatitudes were summed up into one statement, it would be to exhale to know poor in spirit; inhale to live in gratitude. We crave life like air. Poor in spirit means to be below impoverished, desperate, having no way to go but that of a rescue. It is the absorbed blow of recognition that, “ I cannot...., can’t....make my own life.” Fulfilled or blessed are those who awaken to their neediness and cry out accordingly in their neediness. Jesus said that those who see and feel and surrender to this depth will have God’s domain opened to them.”
“A pauper falls down against a door he cannot open, running form what he cannot defeat. A king opens the door with a lantern in the dark, kneels down beside him and says, “I’m so glad you are here; I have been seeing you. Know I can be with you.” We don’t understand what is happening so much as that we know somehow the hope of home has come again.”
“The simplest way to put the contrast of opposites is to say that what you have no power to do, God has all the power to do.”
How long did it take you to realize your need for Jesus? What was it that finally got your attention and made you realize just how incapable you were or possibly are, if you haven’t come to faith in Jesus, to do anything about your spiritual situation.
It took me 28 years, a friends testimony, another friends tears and the holy spirit to bring me to realize just how poor in spirit I was. I am no longer poor in spirit because i have the Holy Spirit as a seal for my salvation. I have come home again!
When I sat in that living room in April of 2002, I realized the depth of my sin and how badly I needed Jesus to save me. When I got up in front of my small group to relate my story to them, all that came out were my tears, and confession with a repentant heart. I mourned my sin.
“A pauper falls down against a door he cannot open, running from what he cannot defeat. A king opens the door with a lantern in the dark, kneels down beside him and says, “I’m so glad you are here; I have been seeing you. Now I can be with you.” We don’t understand what is happening so much as that we know somehow the hope of home has come again.”
“The simplest way to put the contrast of opposites is to say that what you have no power to do, God has all the power to do.”
Responding to Our Sin
Responding to Our Sin
The bible tells the story of two particular sinners. They were both in relationship with Jesus. They both walked with Him and saw his love, faithfulness, power and believed him to be the Messiah. In the end, both of them found themselves in a dilemma.
They were both guilty of many sins but the biggest seemed to be betrayal. When these two men realized their failure, but they responded in two very different ways. One in mourning which lead to loosing hope and the other in mourning which lead to resignation while still holding on to hope, wishing himself to forget what could not be forgotten.
Judas, one of the 12 disciples betrayed Jesus for the cost of a slave. For what ever reason he had, Judas stopped hoping in this Jesus he’d found and settled for a cheap price. He betrayed Jesus with a kiss and Jesus was condemned. Only after this did Judas realize the error of his ways and come to confess his sins to a counsel of indifferent Chief priests. He even tried to give them the money back. The price of his betrayal was so much more than 30 pieces of silver, yet he ran to the wrong person. He could have run to Jesus, but he ran to people that can only destroy the body but not the soul. He feared them instead of fearing Him who could destroy both body and soul in hell.
Peter on the other hand was warned by Jesus In Matthew 26:31-35
31 Then Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away because of me this night. For it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’ 32 But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.” 33 Peter answered him, “Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away.” 34 Jesus said to him, “Truly, I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” 35 Peter said to him, “Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you!” And all the disciples said the same.
Peter, convinced in the power of his own flesh told Jesus he was wrong. Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you!” he said. After Judas betrayed Jesus Peter even tried to thwart God’s plan by fighting the soldiers that came to take Jesus away. Jesus lovingly rebuked Peter and went with them. Peter followed his savior into the trial and there before the rooster crowed, Peter had denied knowing Jesus three times. Luke 22:60-62
60 But Peter said, “Man, I do not know what you are talking about.” And immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed. 61 And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him, “Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.” 62 And he went out and wept bitterly.
Peter left not knowing what to do. Where to go. He was lost. Upon Jesus resurrection the women, Mary James’ mother and Mary Magdalene and Salome were told by the angel inside the tomb:
6 And he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.”
the disciples and Peter.
Some say He distinguished Peter because he was separate from the rest of the disciples in the sense that he was no longer among them. This was probably not the case. Instead, Jesus distinguished Peter because He had special hope, special forgiveness, special restoration for the one who denied Him the worst.
“If any of you have behaved worse to your Master than others, you are peculiarly called to come to him now. You have grieved him, and you have been grieving because you have grieved him. You have been brought to repentance after having slidden away from him, and now he seals your pardon by inviting you to himself.” (Spurgeon)
When the disciples found themselves fishing in Galilee with their unidentified savior on the shore, their response once they realized it was Him went something like this.
7 That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work, and threw himself into the sea.
Peter’s response to his savior relating to him the way he had when he first called them made Peter jump for joy! Right off the boat as he swam to his savior. His morning had turned to joy when his messiah had pursued him, knowing that he had even specifically asked for Peter. Jesus met Peter where he was at in his relationship to Jesus. He restored his relationship with Peter and called him to feed his sheep.
4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
The Perfect Loss by Chip Dodd:
“After we face our failure and our pain, the process takes us to seeing and feeling the truth of our lives. Peter faced his powerlessness and pain. He mourned and knew the intimacy of finding security in his neediness before the Presence of God.”
“Blessed are those who mourn when they see what their rejection of neediness has cost them, others and God. And fulfilled are those who have faced their lives, know their hunger and feel their pain of living and their need for they will be heard, called by name, invited into security, wrapped in wings and upheld by the Spirit. This beatitude is a promise of security and comfort, and the birthing of God being intimately involved in our lives.”
“The pauper is lifted up, and then introduced to home. Arms of care hold them, and a voice says you can rest now, “I am here and I will not leave. Your’e here with me; we will do the rest together from now on.””
DAY 2
DAY 2
Trusting God
Trusting God
10 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.
Trust is a hard. Trust is earned. We go into life in our relationships at least initially, fully trusting everyone. People say, Kids are gullible, they’ll believe anything you tell them. That is true. We are born into this world with the idea ingrained in our minds that we can trust others, ourselves and God. It’s only when others teach us we can’t trust them that we start to become cynical. Distrust is a learned feeling. The more evil we experience, the more promises that are broken, the more times people go back on their word, the more we are jaded against trusting.
The more evil we see in the world, seemingly unnoticed by God, the more jaded and untrusting we can become against the God who created us, created this world and everything in it. HE holds everything together in his hands. The problem is we see the world as it is today and think, why did you create it this way. That’s the thing. He didn’t. He had a whole other desire, all the while knowing that WE would choose to fail him and turn against him and bring sin into the world. The World is cursed because of us.
SO, as we come to the point were we realize we are poor in spirit, and respond in godly sorrow which leads to repentance, God starts to change us. We can start to believe that he really is good and he can be trusted.
King David didn’t come on the scene ready to trust God with no experience of God proving he could be trusted. The Lord had been with David as he watched over his fathers sheep heard. He killed a lion and a bear with the help of the Lord. By the time he came to fight Goliath, he’d seen God come through for Him to the point that he was convinced that God would empower him to fight God’s enemy.
King David knew two things. He knew who he was, and he knew Whose he was. We see David’s heart cry in the Psalms that give proof to this.
3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
4 what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?
How can this be?
5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
The Perfect Loss by Chip Dodd
“I am made to walk in dignity as a human being, in appreciation of God’s creativity and gifts in making me. He crowns me with this luminescence and substance and giftedness and gifts when i recognize and see that I am only a man. I am a man dependent upon the Creator of Life’s breaths and opportunity. He made me great in His eyes, and in His eyes I needed to find my self in Him.”
In the battle scene with David and Goliath, David is ready and willing to trust the Lord. He states this walking in full meekness as he states:
47 and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give you into our hand.”
Chip Dodd:
“David’s meekness — the surrender of his heart to the submission of his being to the Creator God allowed God to fulfill the Psalm. He crowned David, the human being with glory and honor — God’s glory and honor.
5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Chip Dodd:
“David’s dependence upon the Maker of men let him inherit the earth. He went on to be trusted by others and blessed by God to make Israel into a great kingdom.”
“However, when he forgot his God, his blessings, his heart, and left his meekness behind, harm came to David and those He loved. HE ran from who he was made to be — a little lower than heavenly beings to be crowned with glory and honor — havoc came, even to the point of having one of his own loyal warriors murdered in the battlefields after David betrayed him in an affair with his own warrior’s wife.”
David stopped trusting in God and following God where God wanted him to be and who he wanted David to be.
Meekness is strength under control. In the sense of a follower of Christ, it’s trusting God and waiting on God to act or call us to act. Strength under control, like a war horse trained to do a job instead of running wild.
The other side of meekness is irrational fear, anxiety, or blatant indulgence into whatever we want. Not being under God’s control doesn’t just look like fear and anxiety. There’s a whole other side of evil and debauchery available to us should we choose to take part in it. That’s where King David found himself 2 Samuel 11. He had forgotten who he was, “the king after God’s own heart” and found himself not doing what he was made to do. He raped a friends wife and got her pregnant, then murdered his friend.
When confronted by the prophet Nathan, with his sin, he did repent, but look at what Nathan told him in 2 Samuel 12:8
8 And I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your arms and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were too little, I would add to you as much more.
We step away from meekness when we stop believing that God’s ways, purpose, and plan aren’t as good or important as what we want or desire. God’s heart is “if this were too little, I would add to you as much more.” The God that loves us, even before he created us, sent his son to die for us, wants to bless us, if we will just trust him. Surrender our will to his and trust him. He is SO good! HE can be trusted! No matter what trials and heart ache you’ve faced or are facing, he can be trusted!
Chip Dodd:
“In our surrender, though, we find Him who we have refused because of our distrust and lust for power. When we are rescued, if we will be, the truth of lie begins in our lives. We step into a quest, that we live in His presence and that one day ends in His arms. We will see in His face the love He has always had for us — Like with David. “
“Nathan essentially said, “He would have given even more had you but surrendered your heart to Him who desires you.”
“Meekness grows through gratitude and desire. The gratitude comes from seeing the rescue we have received. Meekness is born in desperation that becomes gratitude, which creates humility. We wish to be with the one who rescues us; even more we have the hunger to serve, and go with the One who has made life and is good. Meekness, then, becomes the awareness of how much we matter to Him, not because we are big, but because we are “big deals”. We cannot fix ourselves; we must be healed by Him. He sets us free to receive. Our willingness to cry out to the One who receives us in our desperation (Blessed are the poor in spirit) and comforts us in our wounds (blessed are those who mourn), makes us available to receive His gifts (blessed are the meek). We receive if we will receive. And we will receive even more if having met Him, we pay heed with our eyes and ears and have our movements based on what He says to us.”
17 The Lord is righteous in all his ways
and kind in all his works.
18 The Lord is near to all who call on him,
to all who call on him in truth.
19 He fulfills the desire of those who fear him;
he also hears their cry and saves them.
8 The Lord is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
9 He will not always chide,
nor will he keep his anger forever.
10 He does not deal with us according to our sins,
nor repay us according to our iniquities.
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west,
so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
13 As a father shows compassion to his children,
so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
14 For he knows our frame;
he remembers that we are dust.
15 As for man, his days are like grass;
he flourishes like a flower of the field;
16 for the wind passes over it, and it is gone,
and its place knows it no more.
17 But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him,
and his righteousness to children’s children,
Chip Dodd:
“God wants us and forms who we are from the inside out. He wants our hearts for our good, so He can crown His creation with honor and glory.”
Hunger and Thirst
Hunger and Thirst
10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
Do you trust that Jesus came so that you would have a full life, an abundant life? Not material things, but the fullness of relationships with yourself, others, and God that He always wanted for you? We often believe that he did all this for our relationship with Him but do we ever think that it also aids our relationship with ourself and others?
As I stated earlier, doubt and distrust are learned. It’s learned by people failing us and maybe even us failing them, and the biggest of all, mis-believing that God has failed us. It’s like Lucy and Charlie Brown.
Lucy would convince Charlie Brown to “trust her” not to move the ball this time, but just when he would be ready to kick the ball, she would move it out of the way, he kicks the air causing him to do a flip in the air and land flat on his back, looking up at the sky. Charlie kept trusting someone who couldn’t be trusted. He was innocent and pure in heart. We will get to that beatitude later. But that’s not how we typically respond to those who hurt us.
That’s the risk in relationships. To open ourselves up to real relationships means we open ourselves up and make ourselves vulnerable. That’s risky. As an untrusting reaction to having our vulnerability taken advantage of and proven foolish, we turn to defiance, resignation, compromise and isolation.
Defiance opposes any hope that renders us vulnerable to needing others or God. Resignation blocks hope and need from affecting our hearts, by risking or believing little. Compromise leads us to use others and God to cut deals to only have some of life instead of openly declaring how much we wish for or need. And isolation pushes us to do anything to keep our selves from being exposed as needy, dependent, trusting, hope-filled creatures. These four forms of refusal of our hearts’ truths eventually imprison us because they keep us from life and love. What begins as protective eventually seduces us into the territory of darkness, destruction, despair and death.
That’s the deception of the “thief”. He comes in, causes doubt, steels our joy, and leaves us in despair. In our Christian life, we often read about what Jesus did on the cross, but we don’t always get a few of him as a person. The depth of his love for us and what that looked like on a human level. Listen to how author Chip Dodd describes Jesus as he was realizing his own need for Him.
Chip Dodd
I read the book. I read a book about The Man. The one who wasn’t for sale. I met the Man: Jesus, Savior and Lord. HE loved and He lived it to the grave. The very love he died for also resurrected Him to conquer all death, all darkness, all despair, and all destruction. HE came to resurrect what we had destroyed. He invited us to join Him in crying out everywhere into the dark for anyone who would cry back. Through Him we would bring light into darkness, hope into despair, creation to destruction, and courage to death, after we ourselves had received life.
He was first up in the morning to see the sunrise and last to sleep at night so He could talk to his friends and his Father. He liked to see them sleeping and dream for them. HE was first to pray, He would stand in the fray; He had no reverse. He would be still or go forward, pressing toward life. He loved His friends, never gave up on them, never wanted to leave them, but gave his life for them. He loved the needy. HE loved his people. He even loved His enemies, and gave His life for them too. He believed all things, walked through all things, and fought beyond all things to get to me and to you. HE sat in grief, mourned our condition, called for us to awaken, reached to gather us in, dared us to reach back from within ourselves with a cry out. He walked with courage, dignity and humility, and He, in agony, begged His Father for help that both knew would not come until His heart’s passion and vision were finished on the cross and beyond. I bet they talked about that part a long time before Jesus came to us, because He was going to have to walk through hell alone for us.
Jesus knew what life felt like, and He did not reject or discard those of us who failed, covered up, or even quit. Quite the opposite. “The Son of Man came to seek and save what was lost.” Luke 19:10. He called us into our wilderness of wandering and rigid self righteousness for our hearts to turn toward our hope and cry out. HE called into our defiance and resignation, our compromise and isolation. HE refused our refusal. He came for us who had hidden truth, lost the way, and were missing our lives while living.
…For most of us, God touches our lives not in a package of an event as much as in transitions, wooings, lurings, and retracing us over and over to bring us to Him and bring us to Ourselves so we can see. Sometimes He brings us slowly, sometimes fast, but mostly slowly to see through the eyes of our hearts clearly. HE longs for us to be who we are made to be so we can do what we were created to do. We are hungry for Him still while filled by Him. More than ever we begin to be hungry for others to know him.
6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
When we find the truth of who Jesus is, we hunger and thirst for more of him. More of what we are finding in Him. God says to us that we, the redeemed, can trust the following words.
Chid Dodd
You are my masterpiece; you are my poetry, my poem, let me do for you what you will never do for yourself. Let me place you in right standing to know that you have been declared good enough, that you are looked at by me as true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy.
The fullness of the life we seek is found in righteousness, being made fit for him, set upright, looked at and found good enough or justified.
He did this for us. Tell me that’s not over whelming at times. Tell me that you don’t feel unworthy at times. Tell me that we don’t look at those around us that He created and that He gave to us, and don’t think they aren’t worthy. When we start to understand just what Jesus did for us and how he sees us, we will start to walk in the truth of who we are in him, hunger and thirst to know him more and start to desire to see others and ourselves that way too.
The love of Christ, if we truly see it and see Him as true, compels us to love Him more, hunger and thirst for Him and His righteousness more. It’s what drives us to be merciful because we have first received mercy
Mercy
Mercy
7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
Genesis 4 and Cain’s relationship with God.
6 The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”
God offers Cain another crisis, another opportunity to answer the question so healing and life can be restored to him .
11 And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 12 When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.” 13 Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear. 14 Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” 15 Then the Lord said to him, “Not so! If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him.
This curse is by no means condemnation or death, for Cain complains. God says to him that he would place a seal of protection on Cain that no physical harm would come to him. HE protected him from death so that condemnation would not happen. He sought Cain even as cain rejected Him but Cain took GOd’s mercy and walked away form His presence.
We can refuse God’s mercy, reject God’s longing for us, snuff out the answer to the moment-to-moment question and wind up missing ours lives.
Cain rejected the first Beatitude of neediness and missed the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven. He refused what was very, very good. Then he missed the second Beatitude, the need to grieve this tragic life, which would bless him with the wings of securing comfort and certain support,. Cain lost the third Beatitude, the opportunity to serve and passionately participate in something greater than himself, leaving a legacy of creation on earth. He rejected the truth that we are created to hunger and thirst for more, even more than what we have already received from the Righteous One, and so he would never be filled. Cain then turned his face away from that which makes life worth living: Passionate Compassion, the gratitude of heart to remember who we are and Whose we are — which allows us to give freely and love deeply. He put up his fist against the grace of mercy. Unfortunately, even Cain’s hope became despair, his fires darkened and his forging destruction led to his own heart’s death.
What God desired for us through mercy
What God desired for us through mercy
I don’t know about you but I remember seeing the Passion of the Christ for the first time. I wanted to go see it because I knew that I wanted to be confronted with a very real, although not 100% accurate, depiction of my saviors death. Not just his death, but the little snap shot of his life leading up to his death. I had watched movies about Him before. They were normally very stale and a little cheesy. My favorite parts of the movie were where Jesus was normal, real, talking with his disciples, laughing with his mother, you know, just being human. But more than that, I was getting a glimpse of what Jesus might have been like.
We get glimpses of who he is through scripture. We get a good understanding of what he went through on the cross from scripture as well. But to have a front row seat to what his torture and death was like broke my heart. It broke my heart 1) because he had to go through that. 2) because he chose to go through that for me. Yes, I said he had to and that he chose. At some level Jesus had to do it because he had prophesied about it through his word. But he also chose to do it. HE chose to do it on Genesis 3 when he offered a solution to man’s new sin problem. He chose to do it when he prophesied about it in the old testament and he chose to do it when he submitted to the will of the father in the garden as well as on the cross.
It is finished were some of his last words. His word for mercy and grace were done. That’s what hit me the most I think. He suffered and died for me. The ultimate sacrifice. You don’t just do that for complete strangers, you do it for people that you know and love, even those that don’t love you. Jesus extended the mercy of God to us in that moment. The price had been paid, now it was just up to whether we were going to trust him. That he’s really good. That he really is faithful. That his gift of salvation comes with no strings attached. It’s not dependent on us being good enough. It’s not even about us being who he wants us to be yet. That comes over time as he walks with us and we walk with him in relationship. Hand in hand in a sense with his Holy Spirit, our comforter and helper. He doesn’t just reveal what we should do, or where we should go, or what we should say. He reveals who Jesus/God is. He confirms God’s word’s truth in our hearts as we hunger and thirst for righteousness and as we embrace and give thanks for the mercy he has shown us, we in turn become merciful, and all of this started with one question.
Where are you? It’s a question he’s been asking us since Genesis 3 and he continues to ask it to this day because he desires relationship with what he created. Who he created.
“Where are you?” is not an accusation, but an opportunity;
not about perfection, but about confession;
not about proving time, but a neediness invitation;
not letting God discover, but about seeing our own character;
not about achievement, but about redemption;
not will sufficiency, but God-made ability;
not about strength, but about trust;
not about power, but about presence;
not about should do, but about get to;
not about seeking explanation, but about recreation
not about subordination, but about submission;
not about determination, but about passion for us.
I have the privilege of surrendering to Him and His character every day.
We are designed to:
Live fully, Love deeply, Lead well.
The merciful live fully because they have been given life; they love deeply because they have been loved completely; they lead well because they listen for, look for, and follow His leading.
The merciful have a passion, a willingness to be in pain for something greater than aversion to pain because He came to do for us, which allows us to see. His compassion becomes our passion. The merciful live in intimacy or “into-me-see” with their own hearts, others, and God because relationship brings fulfillment. They are known and know.
The substance of integrity speaks trustworthiness because God has given us ourselves, to become ourselves, to have the joy of giving ourselves away, and to be a part of creation.
8 He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?
The merciful live the good life. Meekness, craving righteousness, and becoming merciful
Day 3
Day 3
Pure of Heart
Pure of Heart
At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2 And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them 3 and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
How many champions never are discovered because they never risk enough heart to show up in the arena of life?
How many men’s families never receive the fullness of God because of their dammed up hearts that block the flow of GOd’s presence into the hearts of their domain?
How often do we harden the soil of our hearts so we can’t receive GOd’s seeds of life? How often do we keep the roots of our true selves from God’s soil; we stop our inner-selves from being touched by God and grown by God.
8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
The Pure in heart do not refuse the arena of life. They surrendered their hearts sometime ago and now they live a life rooted in God. They grow up into life. Pure speaks to being transformed away from where we were. Pure of heart becomes unadulterated by ego (easing God out) and self will (control).
The pure in heart speaks of a heart transformed from souly focused on self to being undivided, completely devoted and committed to the God who loved them first.
Not only does it mean clear, sincere, or transparent, pure speaks to our character, the character of integrity.
Pure in heart people ask questions like these?
Am I who I say I am?
Am I speaking truth of heart?
Am I truthful with my agenda?
Do I admit my humanity?
Do I want good for others?
Do I seek forgiveness?
Do I offer forgiveness?
Do I Live in confession and courage?
Do I Love?
Is my will placed before the presence of God’s will?
Am I truthful in God’s presence or do I stay distant?
To be pure in heart is to have integrity!
Integrity expresses our purity and what we are being transformed into. One who will live fully because of what God’s done in him to transform his life.
The Pure in heart do not count sins as much as they face themselves, open up to God so they can continue to see who they are made to be and do what they were made to do. They listen for God’s movements in trust and follow God in faith; they will even experience GOd’s silence as love even when they cry out in desperation with questions.
When we realize our spirits poverty, mourn over our sin, trust in God for everything, hunger and thirst for Jesus righteousness, embrace and extend mercy, and allow Him to create in us a pure heart, we can’t help but become peacemakers.
Peacemakers - Emmasaries
Peacemakers - Emmasaries
9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
This does not describe those who live in peace, but those who actually bring about peace, by overcoming evil with good.
God has great passion for us, His Creation. He has great passion for His sons and daughters to have peace. Passion is the willingness to be in pain for something greater than pain. God has clearly shown us who know Him how far He is willing to go to have us, that is to reconcile us to Himself, to others and to ourselves.
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
A peacemaker lives in Jesus gift of peace or shalom. The word shalom, so often used as a simple salutation, is actually a loving desire for someone to drink deeply from the well of God’s living water. Shalom is a word of growth. ITs roots reach into the heart of God and feed on awe and gratitude, mercy and goodness. The beginning of the word means to be safe within mind and body, or made complete from within. The meaning continues by extending into the natural outcome of bearing fruit — the fruit that comes from being who we are made to be and doing what we are made to do, resolved to live a certain way because of this dependence on and certainty in His presence.
Basically, peacemakers know everything is going to be okay even when it is not okay. God is the god of peace, Jehovah Shalom, not the god of disorder and chaos, that’s Satan’s department. This shalom that Jesus gives us is a passionate peace that compels us to be a part of overcoming the world. We are reconcilers, whether in participating in the repairs of physical things, relational things, broke hearts, and especially spiritual things. In evangelism we make peace between man and the God whom they have rejected and offended.
Life is tragic and God is faithful. God created life in the beginning not to be tragic. We took ourselves away from God and each other. We even attempted to hide from ourselves, and still do, so as not to feel and face our condition with all of its’ relational dependence and neediness. We made life tragic by refusing our pre-design and giving ourselves over to our predisposition to grab power. God granted us this predisposition so we would not have to love Him unless we really wanted to. He left us free to choose not to love him and thus tragically free to miss our abiding in peace.
GOd’s love toward us has always been about liberty and faith. We can be free of tyranny by accepting who we are made to be so we can do what we are made to do. We can have the lives we are made for only by faith, not by control, as we walk forward toward a place we do not yet see. This very same liberty, rooted in God’s love, creativity, and relational nature, leaves us able to refuse how we are made. God’s love leaves us able to claim independence from creation and refusal of our heart’s makeup. This grasp for power fractures the multitude of ways that God has designed for us to participate in His passion, purpose, and plan (what we were made for). Refusal makes me miss the presence and the empowerment of the life lived fully.
Jesus the Messiah fought to get us, gave Himself for us, and daily seeks to give us His peace, but peacemakers are also in a war of love against darkness, despair and death. We were not made to survive reality. We were made to live in truth and proclaim that truth. Listen to the charge of our mission and mission giver!
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
The War we are in
The War we are in
The last beatitude Jesus speaks completes a process of growth, closes a circle, and declares the final words of a war of love.
11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
The ministry of reconciliation will take us places of darkness, despair and death. As much as we know that Jesus loved us, reconciled us and has given us mercy, a hunger for his righteousness, and a pure heart, our role as a peacemaker, bringing the hope of the truth of the gospel, is not always welcome in the world we live in. Even in our own families.
Our initial admission of neediness has transformed into our freedom and compelling desire. We surrender our lives daily to Him who is able to do for us what our hearts crave but we cannot gratify without God and others. He gives us life and it to the full.
He grows us from believing to seeing to believing again, from an acorn to an oak tree.
3 to grant to those who mourn in Zion—
to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit;
that they may be called oaks of righteousness,
the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.
We are oaks of righteousness, expressions of what God does with His people in their surrender.
9 you whom I took from the ends of the earth,
and called from its farthest corners,
saying to you, “You are my servant,
I have chosen you and not cast you off”;
10 fear not, for I am with you;
be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. 8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. 10 And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. 11 To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
The life of a follower of Christ who lives in honest, transparent relationships with God, themselves, and others, is one who has truly wrestled through the beatitudes. I pray that each of us has realized who we are, and Whose we are and that we are surrendered to fulfilling what we were truly created to do for the Kingdom of God and for His glory!
