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