Your Spiritual Journey and Mine

I  believe one way or another, our spiritual journeys look very similar to that of the Israelites as recorded in Exodus.

• In Egypt the Israelites were held captive and, although they were God's children, they lived as slaves for 430 years.   We are all created as God's children, but are born slaves to our sinful nature.
• God heard the cry of the Israelites. He sent Moses to rescue them and deliver them from slavery, taking them through the Red Sea and crushing their oppressors and enemies behind them. We cry out to God and by faith in Jesus Christ, we are rescued and delivered from slavery to sin.  We are brought through the water in baptism and God destroys our enemy's authority to rule over us ever again.
• The Israelites were led through the desert by their God and provider to the Promised Land, a place of rest and abundance.  We are invited to experience the abundant life and rest found in and made available to us through Jesus Christ's life.
• The Israelites saw the inhabitants of the promised land as giants and the challenges of occupation insurmountable.  They saw their situation through the eyes of slaves rather than through the eyes of sons and daughters of the God who saved them.  They longed for the life they had in Egypt even though they had been slaves. Although our reality is that we are saved and are co-heirs with Christ, we still do not fully walk into the Promised Land of life and abundance "in Christ."  We still are left with a slave mentality and are often drawn back to the temporal, counterfeit substitutes for true life.
• God took the Israelites back into the wilderness for 40 years where they had no choice but to trust Him as provider. The old, slave mentality was collectively destroyed as He took them through a process of renewing their minds.  The next time the Israelites were invited to occupy the Promised Land, they did exactly what their Father told them  to do, even when it made no sense to them.  We must be taken through a process where our old slave mentality is put away, where we are weaned off of trusting anything but our Father to provide for us, and where we grow in learning how, like Jesus, to rest in doing only what we see our Father doing.

How I hunger for the promised rest of the Promised Land.  I know it's available to me now, because I've gotten a taste of it.  Oh, to eat at that table every meal of every day....

What I Love

In September, I announced to my church that I was taking some time away to connect with my Father in a desire to orient myself to Him and to give Him some time to do a work in my heart.  It has been an incredible journey as I spent October with my family, preparing for Band of Brothers Weekend, and attending a retreat myself focused on uncovering the desires God has placed in my heart.  The journey has been one of peeling back layer after layer to get to the core of who I am and what my life is about.  It seems God has orchestrated so many events and conversations to take me through this process.

Here are some conclusions I have come concerning what I love, what makes me come alive:

I love seeing people who have been hurt of disenfranchised with the church come to realize that their church experience is not a reflection on their Heavenly Father.

I love to see people realize that church is not something we do, it is who we are.

I love to see people discover that God still speaks and that "every word that proceeds from the mouth of God" is the daily bread that gives us life.

I love to see people connect with one another on a heart level, beyond the surface, and experience the thrill of having a "friend that is closer than brother."

I love to see people come to the knowledge that their identity is not defined by what's been done to them, spoken over them, or by their sinful responses to the lies they have believed were true.

I love to see people exchange their lives with Jesus Christ and to realize that He is their new and true identity.

I love to see people set free from what enslaves them, and to realize that they are a growing, "planting of the Lord for the display of His splendor."

I love to see people step across denominational lines and for the body of Christ to realize what binds us together.

I love to see people people realize they can call God, "Father," and not only Father, but "Abba,  Father," or Daddy.

I love to see people minister to Jesus by ministering to others, not out of duty or obligation, but out of an overflow of a ransomed, restored heart filled to the brim with Father's love.

I love seeing people praying for people on the spot, on the phone, in public places, and sometimes with their eyes open.

I love creating a safe place, a room of grace, where people can be real about their struggles, where they can realize that we are all in process and we are all in this together.

I love seeing people discover that Father is always up to something, that He is always ready to show off in any given situation, and that they are God-bringers into those situations.

I love seeing people realize that Jesus' "yoke is easy and His burden is light."

I love freely giving to others what Father has freely given to me. 

I love joining brothers and leading the charge in the battle for the hearts of men.

I love having front row seats to watch Jesus transform lives.

May the process continue, as God reveals what He has put in me and what He wants to release into the world through me....

Do You Know What I See?

Do you know what I see? What a powerful question that set's the stage for a life-altering answer!

I'm thinking this morning about a men's retreat I recently lead called Band of Brothers Weekend.  It's a passion of mine to take men through such an experience because it was a retreat like ours that was a turning point in my life.  On the drive home from that weekend,  I was blessed and blown away as I read story after story of the healing and freedom Jesus brought to the hearts of the men.  My favorite testimony included this line: "For the first time I was able to call God, 'Father.'"  It's what Jesus lived, died and was resurrected for...to reconcile us to our Father so that we may live in and be transformed by His love.

One of the things that is unique about these retreats is we use lots of movie scenes, visual stories really, to illustrate the truths we present.  On the first night, something new stood out in a scene from "Braveheart."  Braveheart is the story of William Wallace, a mythic Christ-figure who gives his life to free Scotland from British oppression.  The scene we show is the first open-field battle at Stirling.  The Scottish Nobles are backed by a rag-tag army of commoners who are overwhelmed by the size of the British army and are ready to go home.  These men are uninspired by the nobles' appeal to their self-preservation:  "Do not flee!  Wait until we've negotiated!"  Then covered in war paint, Wallace rides in and addresses the army calling them "Sons of Scotland."  He reminds them of their identity, their true strength.  (Scotland was such a stubborn country the Roman Empire gave up on overtaking them and just built a wall around them.)  He then identifies himself and conveys to them what he sees when he looks at them: "I am William Wallace, and I see a whole army of my countryman here in defiance of tyranny. You've come to fight as free men and free men you are!  What will you do with that freedom?"

Have you ever considered the power of words spoken by a person of high regard?  As children, we just assume how our parents see us and the messages they convey are true about us.  And then there are teachers and coaches, pastors and bosses, not to mention peers, boyfriends and girlfriends.  I was just telling my wife Michelle the other day that I think our relationship is still affected by a message of rejection conveyed by a girl in high school that I had pined away for, for years...twenty-five years ago.  We elevate some people's voices above others.  And ultimately we all-too-often elevate the voice of a mere human over the voice of our Father and Creator.

Listen to what your true Father says about you and consider this question for each: "Does it ring true?"

You are created in my image. I planted you and redeemed you to be a display of my splendor ( Genesis 1:27/Isaiah 61:3).

Even while you are still steeped in sin, I love you enough to have made the ultimate sacrifice for you. (Romans 5:9)

I chose you even before you were born. (Ephesians 1:11)

You are my treasured possession! (Exodus 19:5)

If those phrases rang true, you are receiving them.  If they don't, what you are doing, in effect, is telling yourself that's not true about you. You are rejecting those statement and, probably unknowingly, are calling God a liar.  These statements are true, however, and they are just a sampling of what your Father and mine sees when he sees us.  What kind of love would overflow from you onto others if you saw yourself as God sees you and loved yourself as God loves you?

May this be a reminder that you have a voice in someone's life especially those who hold you in high regard.  It's your opportunity to see them with God's eyes and to convey what you see.  Words that are true and consistent with Father's voice will bring life.  Words of condemnation will bring death.  May we receive the words of life and love from our Father into our hearts and then pass them on.  May we look someone in the eye and ask, "Do you know what I see when I see you?", and then may we convey the very sentiments of God Himself.