Who Are You ...Really?

When you look at Rembrandt’s painting The Return of the Prodigal— the son with his head shaved, his clothes tattered and torn, no robe, his sandals bare to the sole— you see the picture of one who has been brought to the brink of despair.  Broken and bleeding ...and most of it within.

He makes the long ‘road to return’ with nothing, absolutely empty: his money, his health, his honor, his self-respect, his stellar reputation, everything has been squandered.  The one and only thing he has left in this painting is the short sword hanging at his hips— the “badge of his nobility.”  The sword “is the symbol of his sonship.  Even in the midst of his degeneracy and debasement he had clung to the truth,” the simple, life-bringing truth that he was still the son of his father.

Though he came back a beggar and an outcast, he had not forgotten, like so many of us, the most important thing: he was still the sacred Son of his Father, she was still the beautiful Daughter of her Daddy.  It was when he remembered his sonship, and all the wealth it once held, all the power of this position, that “he came to his senses” {Lk. 15:17a}.

Where are you in this picture?  What is it you’ve forgotten about who you really are?  Can you hear the Father calling, “You belong to Me and always will.  I love you ...more than the Life of My very own Son”?  The farther we run from communion with Christ and fellowship with the Father, the less able we are to hear the Voice of the Spirit which calls us the Beloved.  And the less we listen to the voice of the Spirit, the more entangled we become in cosmic corruption, in the multi-tiered manipulations of the power-mad of this world.

One thing can set us free: the by-faith knowledge, the intimate understanding, that I am still— and always will be— a Son or Daughter of Almighty God, the treasured Child of a perfect Father.  Let the Spirit speak those words into your heart, and let them sink down, deep into the soul.

The Father’s love is passionate and pursuing, listen to me closely; it is powerful and perfect, but it will not force itself into the life of the beloved.  We must choose to respond to Abba’s initiation.  We must decide for ourselves whether to accept it or reject it.  God longs to heal us of all the darkness which resides in the sub-strata of our souls, but we are still free to stay there or step into the Light of His love.  This much we can know for certain.  God’s limitless love is always there, always ready to give and forgive, independent of our response.  His love doesn’t depend on our remorse or repentance, on any change— either internal or external— we might make.  God’s love is as unchanging as it is unending.  So, whether you are the younger son or the older son, the reckless rounder or the self-righteous scoundrel, God’s only desire is to have you Home.  If that’s not the perfect image of fatherhood, then none exists.

You are a Child of God in whom Jesus dwells, and you live in your Father’s Kingdom.  This is who you are and where you are, regardless of what may be raging around you or within you.  Amen?

HJC	Ric Webb  |  Shepherd Heart’s Journey Community 9621 Tall Timber Blvd. |  Little Rock, AR 72204 t +1.501.455.0296
hjcommunity.org
Heart’s Journey – Live Generously and Love Graciously

The Honor Code of the King.

What we have in Romans 12:9-21 is a phenomenal picture of Christianity in action, faith in practice… not just in theory.  For the apostle Paul, just like the apostle Peter, the apostle John and Jesus Himself, theology and practice are never separated!  Which is exactly why you see in the Letter of James the focus on “faith and works;” Paul says precisely the same thing when he uses words like “doctrine and deeds” to demonstrate a life which is harmonious with what it believes, a heart and soul in tune with the Spirit of Christ.  “I believe, therefore, I live.”  It’s a fact of our existence: we will live out of what we believe.  It can’t be any other way.  What you believe, you will live out of; and what you’re living out of, somewhere along the line you’ve believed.  That’s the way the soul works.

The prophets of the Old Testament never separated theory from reality, theology from practice, the Word from the Walk.  Neither did Jesus, or Peter or Paul or John or Luke.  None of the writers of Scripture ever separate theology from practice, righteousness in position from righteousness in reality.  Do you know who loves to separate these, one from another?  We do.  Theologians and scholars and Pharisees down through the centuries have separated the power and authority of the written Word from the way it works itself out in flesh and blood relationships.  In all of our points and principles, facts and figures, history and homiletics, we’ve conveniently excluded any call to a relational righteousness!  And yet this is exactly what we have in this section of Scripture.

So, from a sub-set of Romans 12 {vv. 15-18}, to live by the Honor Code of the King means:

 I.  Choose from the resources of Christ within {His Resurrection Power, His mighty Word at work in the soul} to “rejoice exceedingly” in others’ joy; and to weep with them when they “mourn.”  The word for “mourn” goes all the way back to Homer in the 8^th century BC; it means- ‘weep over someone, mourn for the dead,’ it means- ‘cry bitterly,’ even vehemently.  “Join them,” Paul says, “and take some of their sorrow on your shoulders.  Help lift their burden of pain.”

II.  “Live in harmony” with other believers by not living out of arrogance, condescension, or conceit.  Don’t overestimate yourself and underestimate everyone else.  A horrible way to live; an even worse way to relate.

III  Be willing to live side by side with the most impoverished, unimpressive, and least influential in the local church— {‘the most materially impoverished, the most spiritually unimpressive, and the least and last as far as power and influence’}.

IV.     Honestly evaluate your sins, your struggles, your self and your Savior.  Begin to ask the pertinent questions.  “What are you speaking to, Lord, what do You want to teach me here?  In what arenas do I need further training, in what areas am I proficient?  What words of blessing do you have for me, Abba?”

V. Practice the Law of Love, which means living with a Spirit-empowered attitude of never repaying “evil for evil.”  This only begets more evil.

VI.     Plan out ahead {pronoeo = “be careful”} how to do what is honorable, noble, and good for one who despises you.

VII Never let the lack of peace between people be a result of your arrogance and intransigence— your unwillingness to repent, to confess, correct and continue on the Path of Life.  Amen?

HJC	Ric Webb  |  Shepherd Heart’s Journey Community 9621 Tall Timber Blvd. |  Little Rock, AR 72204 t +1.501.455.0296
hjcommunity.org
Heart’s Journey – Live Generously and Love Graciously

The Distortion of Desire.

If you’ll allow me a moment of your time and some space within your mind, I want to show you four crucial things in the Journey through the battlefield of the human heart.  Which is precisely what Life is: Dostoyevsky said, “Beauty is a dangerous and terrible thing....  It is there that God and Satan strive for mastery in the hearts of men.”  Notice how he recognized, brilliantly, that mastery of the heart is what the Battle is all about, and beauty is at the centre of it.

The first is in every relational exchange you either give Life or take it.  You can offer affirmation or denigration, but it’s your choice.  Proverbs 12:18 says, “Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the Wise brings healing.”  The Hebrew chakam speaks of the ‘spiritually skilled,’ those trained in Truth who live in love.  When you stay in close daily contact with the Author of Life, then you learn how to give Life— just as He gives it to you.

Secondly, you can live with a passionate heart alive to desire, or follow Satan’s path and try to shut it down til it’s dead.  At least for all practical purposes and appearances.  But in the end you cannot kill what Christ has created.  Desire will surface.  And it will drive us in one of two directions: deliverance in the arms of our Savior or destruction at the hands of our enemy.

Author and Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias writes, “Sexuality, greed, fame, and momentary thrills are actually the most precarious attractions in the world.  Pain forces us to accept our finitude.  It can breed cynicism, weariness, and fatigue in just living.  Pain sends us in search of a greater power.  Introspection, superstition, ceremony, and vows can all come as a result of pain.  But disappointment in pleasure is a completely different thing.  While pain can often be seen as a means to a greater end, pleasure is seen as an end in itself.  And when pleasure has run its course, a sense of despondency can creep into one’s soul that may often lead to self-destruction.  Pain can often be temporary; but disappointment in pleasure gives rise to emptiness... not just for a moment, but for life.”

The enemy wants you and he wants you badly.  Because you’re the only way he has to lash out at God— to mar and manipulate, conceal and corrupt, the imago dei, the image of God in Man.  He wages an unceasing warfare for nothing less than your soul.  And if not your soul, then the glory of your life: to rob you of the purpose Abba has for you inside His plan.

Third, the glory of an individual can be soulish and spiritual {i.e., given by His grace} or bodily and temporal.  The world has, as it always has, an abundance of beautiful people without whose souls are diseased within.

Fourth, there is an alluring appeal to a person of glory and grace.  Their openness, their freedom, their honesty are, in a single word, captivating.  The mystery of the uniquely created is still there but the game-playing is gone.

Ladies, a word of wisdom here.  The only men I’ve ever known who enjoy, or at least pretend to, women who play games— mentally, emotionally, spiritually— are those who are busy playing games themselves.  You cannot trust a person who never reveals the self behind the facade.  And whether we admit it or not, in our heart of hearts we all want the same thing: to know and be deeply known, to see and be truly seen, to love and be loved for who we really are ...not the persona we’ve learned to project.  Thankfully, gratefully, incredibly, we have a Friend, a Lover, a King like this.  His name is Jesus of Nazareth.  The author of Hebrews has said, “Be content with what you have...;” arkeo can also mean- ‘be strong, be possessed of unfailing strength’ {as in 2 Cor. 12:9}.  And how?  How can we possibly stand against the hammer-blows of a fallen world with unfailing strength?  Because Jesus has said, “‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’  So we say with confidence [‘with courage, with boldness’], ‘The Lord is my Helper; I will not be afraid.  What can man do to me?’” {13:5b-6}.

HJC	Ric Webb  |  Shepherd Heart’s Journey Community 9621 Tall Timber Blvd. |  Little Rock, AR 72204 t +1.501.455.0296
hjcommunity.org
Heart’s Journey – Live Generously and Love Graciously

The Infinite Value of the Other.

In John 15:12 Jesus said, “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you;” in John 15:17, “This is My command: Love each other.”  Five times in this section of Scripture, in John 13-17, Jesus speaks of what He commands for His Apprentices in the Life of the Spirit, and each time it relates to obedience in the arena of relationships within His Body— John 13:34-35; 14:15; 15:12, 14, and 17.

The question of how we love one another as Sons and Daughters of God, or if we love one another— which is the condition for the world’s recognizing us as His Disciples in John 13:34-35— is nearly identical with what Jesus has said on several other occasions in the Gospels, that we are to love {agapao} the Lord and those around us as ourselves.  There is no fundamental difference between the two in their outworking and application.  Why do I make this point?  Because the theological system I was trained in seems eager on almost every hand to write off the words of Jesus, even concerning the “greatest commandment” {‘loving God and loving others’}.  When the command is given to love one’s neighbor as oneself, the most common viewpoint of said system has been, “Oh, the caveat is if you hate yourself, it’s perfectly acceptable to hate your neighbor.  If you _____ ” then fill in the blank with how one feels about himself {despise yourself, condemn yourself, shame yourself, blame yourself} and under Law one can get away with it because, well, that’s what the Law says.  And Law is Law; it’s immovable, unchangeable, inflexible.

Here’s an historical note which might shed some light in a different direction.  The belief of the ancient Hebrew, intrinsic in Judaism and setting it apart from Hinduism and Buddhism {which actively seek out the dissolution of self and self-awareness and the integration of one’s self into a ‘cosmic consciousness’}, is that the individual is uniquely valued because he or she was uniquely created by God.  I.e., their soul endowed with the ‘breath’ or spark ‘of life’ by His own hand.  Thus, the individual is of great importance to God {which means you are of great importance to God}, enough so that we can boldly say He gave His Life and His Son to save each and every one of us.  Here’s what I’m getting at: the basic and bedrock belief of Judaism was no man in his right mind {the key}, or woman, would mistreat himself, starve himself to death {fasting exempted}, beat himself, steal from himself, abuse himself verbally, mentally, emotionally, etc.  The point is not that we’re not capable of these things, the point is there is value in a single human life created by God …and love respects this, seeks to nourish this, encourage this and doesn’t abuse this.

In The Weight of Glory C.S. Lewis reminds us of something very important: you have never seen an “ordinary person.”  If you were to see this individual as they were meant to be by God {that is, in the glory God intended before the Fall}, or in the case of a believer, as they will be in God, you would be tempted to fall down in either fear or worship.  Whooaahhh.  G.K. Chesterton says the hardest thing to believe in Christianity is the infinite value it places upon the worth of the individual person.  But the magnitude of our eternal destiny depends on this worth, and demonstrates this worth for the Universe— at the Cross.

HJC	Ric Webb  |  Shepherd Heart’s Journey Community 9621 Tall Timber Blvd. |  Little Rock, AR 72204 t +1.501.455.0296
hjcommunity.org
Heart’s Journey – Live Generously and Love Graciously

Living Generously and Loving Graciously

It’s the Holy Spirit alone who can inject into our hearts the love which is essential to generosity.  As Paul said in Romans 5:5, our “hope does not disappoint us [Why?  Because it’s centred in the Son of God and resting on the rock of His promises!  Our souls are confident and secure:], because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.”

Living generously and loving graciously does something amazing for three different sets of individuals.

 I.  For others.  [a] It relieves their need.  [b] It can restore their faith: in God and man, in the Father of mercies and those made in His image.  A gift of graciousness and generosity at precisely the right moment can show another human heart that kindness and compassion are not dead after all.  [c] It can result in thanksgiving; it can move them to gratitude.  “This service ...is not only supplying the needs of God’s People but is overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God,” 2 Corinthians 9:12.  As we bring the love of God to bear on the lives of others, it just might spark the fire of love for God in their souls!

II.  For ourselves.  Here’s what living generously and graciously does for us.  It puts the stamp of authenticity on our apprenticeship to Jesus.  In the case of the Achaians, this was especially important.  No doubt the Jerusalem Church, the mother from which all these congregations had been birthed, was still predominantly Hebrew, and they might still be looking at Gentiles with suspicion, they might still be wondering if they were as solid a part of the Body as themselves.  The “gracious gift” of the Achaians and Macedonians, their “service to the Saints” in Jerusalem, must have been a marvelous thing in the eyes of the Jewish believers.

When men and women are generous it allows others to see their Faith has been translated into action!  This alone may win us the passion and prayer of other believers.  “Because of the service by which you have proven yourselves, your faith, and your love, men will praise God for the obedience which accompanies your confession of the Gospel ...and for your generosity in sharing with them....,” 2 Corinthians 9:13.  There is nothing in this world as valuable as community, and generosity is a major step on the Path to genuine connection between human beings made in Abba’s image.

III  For Abba.  Graciousness and generosity result in prayers of gratitude ascending to Him.  And what a beautiful, beautiful thing!  “In their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you,” 2 Corinthians 9:14.  Others benefit from our good deeds and glorify the God of Heaven.  Those who have benefitted from the riches of God’s grace should not hesitate to benefit others with the blessings of His grace.  Because we’ve received by grace the spiritual, we should give by grace the material.

Paul closes this section of Scripture with a reference to the greatest Gift ever given, the Son of God Himself!  He say’s, “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!,” v. 15.  The word Paul uses here means- ‘unspeakable, unable to recount or to tell fully.’  The Gift of Abba’s only Son, the Gift of Redemption which He purchased by His sacrifice on the Cross, the Gift of Life which He secured by His Resurrection from the grave, the Gift of Authority and Eternity which He offers by His Ascension to the Throne, are unspeakable, “indescribable.”  They are unable to be recounted in their completeness.  No one will ever tell of His glory and greatness fully.  No one.

Jesus Messiah, the Redeemer, Savior of our souls and Lover of our lives, is the Gift whose wonders will never be exhausted and whose Story will take an Eternity to tell.  How can we who have been so generously given by God, who have been so ‘graced’ by God, be anything else but generous and gracious with our fellow Men?

HJC	Ric Webb  |  Shepherd Heart’s Journey Community 9621 Tall Timber Blvd. |  Little Rock, AR 72204 t +1.501.455.0296
hjcommunity.org
Heart’s Journey – Live Generously and Love Graciously

Grace Adds and Love Multiplies.

In 1 Corinthians 9:12 Paul speaks of, “This service that you perform,” saying “not only” is it “supplying the needs of God’s People [Impoverished Hebrew believers in Palestine, the Roman province of Judea.] but” it “is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God.”  And here is the ultimate aim: that the service of His Saints to the world, and especially to one another, would overflow in many forms of gratitude to God!  V. 13, “Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves [‘by which you’ve been put through the fire, tested and tried {from dokime}, and come out purified, proven’], men will praise God [i] for the obedience which accompanies your confession of the Gospel of Christ, and [ii] for your generosity in sharing with them, and with everyone else.  And” what will they do in addition to praising Abba for the obedience and generosity of His Gentile Children?  “In their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you.”  Then he ends with this word, “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!,” vv. 14-15.

Here’s a little lesson on addition vs. multiplication.  Abba provides His Children with a job, a vocation, a trade or a calling as a source of income so He can provide for us and for our families, for the Cause of His Kingdom, and for the needs of the world.  These are not necessarily exclusive of each other, though sometimes they might be.  The vast ocean of need in the world can consume resources which could be multiplied in the Kingdom of Grace, used to magnify the Word of Grace.

My point?  Truth sets the soul free.  And the truth in question here is the difference between addition and multiplication.  Multiplication is what takes place when we provide for others’ needs.  Addition is what takes place when we use our resources for our own needs.  In this case, whether you ‘add’ or whether you ‘multiply’ is not an ethical decision.  It’s neither right nor wrong, it simply is.  Am I going to use this to add in Abba’s plan of grace or am I going to use this to multiply in Abba’s plan of grace?  I will say this though: children and adolescents in the Faith are still self-centred, still ego-centric; adult Sons and Daughters are Jesus-centred, Christo-centric.  The focus of their lives is fixed on Jesus, their hearts, minds, and strengths are riveted on the Son of God {Heb. 12:2}.  Now, let me give you three things here.

 I.  Money spent on self adds things to our care.  As Jesus was explaining to His Apprentices the Parable of the Good Soil in Mark 4, the ‘good soil’ being a willing soul, a humble heart ready to receive the rich seed of the Word, He said: “Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the Word.  But the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things, come in and choke the Word, making it unfruitful,” vv. 18-19.  The apostle Paul, following closely on the heels of Jesus, said in 1 Timothy 6:9, “People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction [This is some pretty powerful language.  ‘Oh, well it’s just figures of speech, poetic imagery.’  Is it?  Cause he follows up with this beauty:].  For the love of money is a root [a fountainhead, the ‘source spring’] of all kinds of evil.  Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the Faith and pierced themselves with many griefs,” v. 10.

II.  Money spent on others multiplies to our joy.  Giving to Abba and to ministry and to Missions multiplies the number of souls saved and Disciples taught.  Buying for ourselves is ‘grace addition;’ giving to or for others is ‘grace multiplication.’

III  The one thing hammered home in 1 Corinthians 9:12-13 is this— Giving is a sacred service in the Cause of Christ.  It’s a privilege and it’s an honor as a believer-priest, a royal priest of the Most High God {1 Pet. 2:5-9}, to have a stake in the outworking of His perfect plan.  May we never forget it.

HJC	Ric Webb  |  Shepherd Heart’s Journey Community 9621 Tall Timber Blvd. |  Little Rock, AR 72204 t +1.501.455.0296
hjcommunity.org
Heart’s Journey – Live Generously and Love Graciously

In Jesus Christ, Truth Is Balanced By Grace.

For those in our culture honest about the existence of a spiritual world, an immaterial realm, the loss of God so eagerly embraced by the West leaves us leaning in one of two directions: legalism or superstition.  Let me begin with the latter.  Superstition, at its core, is the subtle lack of faith— or for some, the loss of faith— in a good and righteous God.  If there is no righteous God, no loving Creator in control of all things, we wind up trying to appease the world of unseen powers.  This is at the heart of all animism, pantheism, and paganism: ‘I must appease the powers to protect my person, no matter how capricious or malicious they may be.’  Whenever Abba is displaced but belief in the spirit realm remains, the placation of superstition will dominate man’s efforts.  We good here?

On the flip side of the coin, but born of a different mother, is legalism.  When grace is evicted from the scene, legalism steps in and dominates.  Ceremony and ritual, without a corresponding reality {this being relationship}, become the focal points.  Do you see what’s happened to Jesus’ generation in the Gospels?  Do you see what’s happened to the Jews— even those from outside Judea— who’ve taken their stand against Stephen in Acts 6-7?  Do you see what’s happened to the ritualists and the legalists today who gnash their teeth and claw their own skin at the ideas of Freedom and Life being exactly what Jesus came to bring, or at those who teach the ‘security of the Saints’ for all Eternity?  There are many, many preachers of insecurity in the bounds of Christendom today.  Where are those who will ground the souls of their sheep in the glory of grace?

What does it say in John 1:17?  “For the Law was given through Moses; grace and Truth came through Jesus Christ.”  My personal and profession opinion is there ought to be a triple exclamation point after this statement.  Grace and Truth— and these in perfect balance— in the Person of Jesus Christ.  TLB says, “For Moses gave us only the Law with its rigid demands and merciless justice, while Jesus Christ brought us loving forgiveness as well.”

When the absolute nature of Truth is not balanced by the forgiving nature of grace, in an individual and especially an institution, power-seekers take over.  Those who profit the most always do the greatest damage to those who can resist them the least: the bruised and battered, the hurting and heart-broken, those in slavery to their sinful selves and dying for freedom!

One of these two dynamics— or some vicious combination of both— will rush in to fill the vacuum of a heart devoid of the God of mercy and grace.  Believe it.

HJC	Ric Webb  |  Shepherd Heart’s Journey Community 9621 Tall Timber Blvd. |  Little Rock, AR 72204 t +1.501.455.0296
hjcommunity.org
Heart’s Journey – Live Generously and Love Graciously