You Must Fight For Your Life.

“Until we come to terms with war as the context of our days, we will not understand life. We will misinterpret 90 percent of what is happening around us and to us. It will be very hard to believe that God’s intentions toward us are Life Abundant; it will be even harder not to feel that somehow we are just blowing it. Worse, we will begin to accept some really awful things about God. That four-year-old little girl being molested by her daddy— that is ‘God’s will’? That ugly divorce that tore your family apart— God wanted that to happen too? And that plane crash that took the lives of so many— this was ordained by God?

Most people get stuck at some point because God appears to have abandoned them. He is not coming through. Speaking about her life with a mixture of disappointment and cynicism, a young woman recently said to me, ‘God is rather silent right now.’ Yes, it’s been awful. I don’t discount that for a moment. She is unloved; she is unemployed; she is under a lot. But her attitude strikes me as deeply naive, on the level of someone caught in a cross-fire who asks, rather shocked and with a sense of betrayal, ‘God why won’t you make them stop firing at me?’ I’m sorry, but that’s not where we are right now. It’s not where we are in the Story. That Day is coming, later, when the lion shall lie down with the lamb and we’ll beat swords into plowshares. For now, it’s bloody battle.

It sure explains a whole heckuva lot.

You won’t understand your life, you won’t see clearly what has happened to you or how to live forward from here, unless you see it as battle. A war against your heart.”

— John Eldredge, Waking the Dead, pp. 17-18

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

What Do We Think When We Think About God?

A.W. Tozer once said, “What comes into our minds when we think about God may be the most important thing about us.” Is it a strong and loving Savior who shows me how to love; is it a forgiving Father whose grace enables me to forgive; is it a Spirit of holiness and honor, purity and power, who leads me in the Everlasting Way, guiding my steps and strengthening my soul?

Or is it the Parental Hangover {dear ‘heavenly version of my earthly father’}, the Eternal Policeman, God the Grandfather {whom I like to call the ‘Senile Philanthropist,’ ever ready with a wad of cash to give us what we want but never what we need}, the Angry Accountant in the Sky, adding up our misteps and mistakes, waiting with hand raised in gleeful anticipation to knock us into yesteryear... slap the sin right out of us?

Well, whatever it is, whatever ‘image’ is burned into your consciousness, seared into your soul by a loving, supportive, protective family of origin {or the lack thereof} or a viciously legalistic and condemnatory church, will be the single greatest factor in how you live or don’t live, what you do or don’t do, say or don’t say, believe or disbelieve ...as well as the why behind it all, the motive which Abba is most concerned with. One more time, just for the sake of our spiritual and emotional health: motive is the deepest level of holiness we have available to us. Period. It is the ‘why’ behind the ‘what.’ Why we do what we do - by way of service to God and sacrifice for others - and why we don’t do what we don’t do - by way of sin and selfishness, arrogance and criminality - is the most critical component in the Life of the human heart.

We neglect it - and the image of Abba, Papa, Daddy which shapes it in Truth and with Grace, in strength and love, with courage and compassion - at our peril....

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