Remember the story of Elijah squaring off with Jezebel’s false prophets, the four hundred fifty prophets of Baal {1 Kgs. 18:22}? 1 Kings 18:21 tells us, “Elijah came near to all the people [Meaning he got right down in the midst of them, face to face, muzzle to muzzle:] and said, ‘How long will you hesitate [Or ‘waver,’ NIV] between two opinions?” The Hebrew verb pasach means- ‘pass, spring, or skip over;’ lit., what it says is, “How long will you hop back and forth between the Lord your God and Baal, how long will you skip from one to the other?” You see, the sin of the Northern Kingdom was religious syncretism, an admixture of allegiances, a sometimes subtle but more often not-so-subtle blending of the worship of Baal with the worship of Yahweh, taking a little bit of the true and adding a whole lot of the false!
Now, here comes some very practical advice. Some of us reading this need to see it and hear it— maybe this moment. “If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.’” Whatever your “god” is out here, whatever you’ve made your god and given your heart to, whatever you’ve placed over, in front of or before the Lord Jesus Christ, follow it whole-heartedly. Give everything you’ve got to it, without reserve. If this is your god, then this is what you believe can make you happy, bring you peace, satisfy your soul. Right? Don’t play these foolish little games and turn to one, then back to the other, then back again. If you’re going to worship this false god, give it your undivided attention, affection, and devotion.
As a shepherd of souls, I happen to agree with this approach wholeheartedly. Go grande or go Home, baby... but don’t monkey around with your idol-worship! Give it everything you’ve got. Cause if you don’t, if you’re just toe-tapping on the dance-floor of America’s false gods, there’s always going to be a little voice in the back of your mind saying, “Maybe you ought to give it one more try.” “As a dog returns to its vomit...,” right? So goes the Proverb.
Scripture then says, “But the people,” wisely I might add, “did not answer him a word.” This is at least some measure of wisdom and discernment: “the people did not answer him a single word.” They were going to wait this one out, see for themselves who wins this battle. In the end, they make their choice... the right one. They choose the Lord of Glory, Jesus Christ {Yahweh Elohiym} over the filth and the falsehood of demonic idolatry. How long, my friends, before we do the same?
Ric Webb, Shepherd
Heart's Journey Community
hjcommunity.org
Sunday, January 12, 2014
Saturday, January 11, 2014
The Emptiness of Arrogance
Let’s begin with a question. Do you want to wage War effectively in the Conflict of Christ? Walking in humility is how we do it, in the opposite of arrogance and anger. Humility is a matter of knowing in the deepest depths of your heart who you are in Christ Jesus, the beloved Child of a perfect and passionate Father; then living from that reality. Humility is the grateful recognition that all we have, all we are, and all we ever will be is courtesy of grace; everything honorable, true, powerful and pure in our lives is a gift from God. Jesus said, and I think it’s as clear a statement as has ever been uttered, that “everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” {Lk. 18:14}.
Understand that history is a story of the defeat of arrogance. History is a story of the inadequacy of arrogance in every endeavor of life. It is a sordid Tale which chronicles on the pages of human lives and written in bloody ink the insufficiency of arrogance as a personal approach to Love and to Life. When you live this way, as practical atheists {some of whom are believers, but obviously not Followers}, rejecting God and His perfect provision in Jesus, there is only judgment left. When you spurn His grace and spit on His mercy that leaves only swift and certain judgment. And sooner or later, arrogance is always judged.
Sir Francis Bacon once said, “It is a sad fate for a man to die too well known to everybody else, and still unknown to himself.” Oh my gosh… wow. What do you say to a sentence like that in a world like ours?
Unfortunately, and it is unfortunate, it is sad beyond description, I’ve known many such men in my life— and women. And so have you. Utterly and incomprehensibly blinded by the arrogance of self-absorption, the pride of self-promotion {yes, even in ‘Christian ministry’}, or the hubris of self-hatred, which is equally as toxic to our lives in the Spirit of Christ. Honesty, openness, transparency and humility would be good places to start, don’t you think? Ruthless honestly concerning our selves, our sin, and our Savior, openness with others, transparency toward those I love, and humility before the God of this Universe, and we just might find ourselves in a very healthy place, well on our way to a whole heart and a holy Life. What do you say?
Ric Webb, Shepherd
Heart's Journey Community
hjcommunity.org
Understand that history is a story of the defeat of arrogance. History is a story of the inadequacy of arrogance in every endeavor of life. It is a sordid Tale which chronicles on the pages of human lives and written in bloody ink the insufficiency of arrogance as a personal approach to Love and to Life. When you live this way, as practical atheists {some of whom are believers, but obviously not Followers}, rejecting God and His perfect provision in Jesus, there is only judgment left. When you spurn His grace and spit on His mercy that leaves only swift and certain judgment. And sooner or later, arrogance is always judged.
Sir Francis Bacon once said, “It is a sad fate for a man to die too well known to everybody else, and still unknown to himself.” Oh my gosh… wow. What do you say to a sentence like that in a world like ours?
Unfortunately, and it is unfortunate, it is sad beyond description, I’ve known many such men in my life— and women. And so have you. Utterly and incomprehensibly blinded by the arrogance of self-absorption, the pride of self-promotion {yes, even in ‘Christian ministry’}, or the hubris of self-hatred, which is equally as toxic to our lives in the Spirit of Christ. Honesty, openness, transparency and humility would be good places to start, don’t you think? Ruthless honestly concerning our selves, our sin, and our Savior, openness with others, transparency toward those I love, and humility before the God of this Universe, and we just might find ourselves in a very healthy place, well on our way to a whole heart and a holy Life. What do you say?
Ric Webb, Shepherd
Heart's Journey Community
hjcommunity.org
Sunday, October 6, 2013
The Greatest and Most Important Command.
The common viewpoint of many scholars to
the latter half of “the greatest”
and “most important” command of any
that exists {loving God with a whole and undivided heart, and loving those
around us as ourselves} has been, “Oh, the caveat here is that if you…” then
fill in the blank with how one feels about herself— despise yourself, condemn
yourself, care less about yourself— under Law one can get away with it because,
well, that’s what the Law says. And Law
is Law, right? 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}, is that the
individual is uniquely valued because
he or she was uniquely created by
God, their soul endowed with the ‘breath of life’ by His very 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 every last one of us— 2 Peter 3:9.
What I’m getting at is this: the basic
and bedrock belief of Judaism was that no man in his right mind would mistreat
himself, starve himself to death, beat himself, steal from himself, abuse
himself verbally, mentally, or emotionally.
The point is not that we’re not capable of these things, the point is
that there is value in a single human
life created by God. And love
respects that, seeks to nourish that, encourage that and doesn’t abuse that.
In The
Weight of Glory C.S. Lewis reminds us that we have never seen an “ordinary
person.” He said, “There are no ordinary
people. You have never talked to a mere
mortal. Nations, cultures, arts,
civilizations— these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a
gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke
with, work with, marry, snub and exploit— immortal horrors or everlasting
splendors. This does not mean that we
are to be perpetually solemn. We must
play. But our merriment must be of that
kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who
have, from the outset, taken each other seriously— no flippancy, no
superiority, no presumption.”
If you were to see this individual as
they were meant to be by God, 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.
G.K. Chesterton says that 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 that worth, and demonstrates that worth for the
Universe— at the Cross of Jesus Christ.
Shepherd
Heart's Journey Community
www.hjcommunity.org
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Choosing to Believe.
For most of this New Year, a significant portion of the first quarter anyway, our little Community of well-worn Saints has been embracing what it means to live with a Warrior-Heart— both men and women alike. And using the infamous Ephesians 6 section {vv. 10-20} and its itemized Armor as a springboard to do it. So, the week prior to Easter and our Celebration of Jesus’ Resurrection, we posed this question. How do we wield the “shield of faith” against the attacks of our enemy? How do we “take up the shield of faith” so as to “extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one”? The initial answer is one of those ‘says easy, does hard’ deals. By faith in the power of Jesus’ promises.
That simple and trite answer also has the benefit of being true. But I couldn’t get this idea of the enemy’s attacks necessitating our wielding the “shield of faith” out of my mind. Because, let’s be honest, he does attack, doesn’t he... through servants both human and demonic? He comes unlooked for and unexpected with the fury of a heart filled with malice and hate, the onslaught surprising us {though we’re told by Peter not to “be surprised by the fiery ordeal” we’re undergoing}, shocking in its intensity. This is Satan’s version of the ‘shock and awe’ America unleashed on Baghdad in Gulf War II {also known as the ‘Neo-con Oil War’}. He loves this type of tactic, this overwhelming attack intended to shatter our souls.
Then I thought about what a horrific slap in the face of a kind and compassionate Creator it is when the enemy is able to use the Children of God to do his dirty work for him— especially against other Children of God, those bought and bound by the blood of the Lamb! Is there any greater disgrace in the Life of the Body of Christ, any deeper disappointment anywhere in Abba’s Kingdom? I doubt it. The “sons of God” at war with one another. Over what? An obscure passage of Scripture, a different theological paradigm, balanced political opinions? How ‘bout just ...their own personality, maybe freer and fuller than yours, more willing to risk, more willing to trust, more willing to give generously and love graciously? How ‘bout those believers who don’t dance to the tune of your dysfunctional drum, who don’t live by your Pharisaical standards, who won’t allow themselves to be manipulated by your subtle condescension and not so subtle condemnation? “Well, we’ve got to wage war on them... uhhmm, for their own good, for the sake of the Gospel! To rescue their souls from perdition; to teach them a lesson; to bring them back into line, bring them into conformity!” Aaaahhhh yes, now we’re getting somewhere. Now we’re getting to the heart of the real issue: control. Arrogance and control, once again.
Isn’t this exactly what the Jesus whose promises we so faithfully claim battled, incessantly, as He sought to fulfill the Mission of His Messiahship? Human nature, inundated by the ‘sin within,’ doesn’t seem to have changed too much in the ‘evolution’ of the last two millennia. No surprise there ...since it can’t change apart from intimacy with the Messiah Himself, a relationship which can only be gained and subsequently grown through “faith.” And so we’re back, once again, to the only “shield” worth wielding, the only protection offered us from a fierce and cunning antagonist, the only thing which can draw us into the Arms of Grace. Faith, trust, belief. It’s our willingness to trust that the strength of our God is greater, the heart of our God is wiser, and the love of our God is deeper than any circumstance surrounding me. I choose to believe.
Ric Webb
Shepherd
Heart's Journey Community
www.hjcommunity.org
That simple and trite answer also has the benefit of being true. But I couldn’t get this idea of the enemy’s attacks necessitating our wielding the “shield of faith” out of my mind. Because, let’s be honest, he does attack, doesn’t he... through servants both human and demonic? He comes unlooked for and unexpected with the fury of a heart filled with malice and hate, the onslaught surprising us {though we’re told by Peter not to “be surprised by the fiery ordeal” we’re undergoing}, shocking in its intensity. This is Satan’s version of the ‘shock and awe’ America unleashed on Baghdad in Gulf War II {also known as the ‘Neo-con Oil War’}. He loves this type of tactic, this overwhelming attack intended to shatter our souls.
Then I thought about what a horrific slap in the face of a kind and compassionate Creator it is when the enemy is able to use the Children of God to do his dirty work for him— especially against other Children of God, those bought and bound by the blood of the Lamb! Is there any greater disgrace in the Life of the Body of Christ, any deeper disappointment anywhere in Abba’s Kingdom? I doubt it. The “sons of God” at war with one another. Over what? An obscure passage of Scripture, a different theological paradigm, balanced political opinions? How ‘bout just ...their own personality, maybe freer and fuller than yours, more willing to risk, more willing to trust, more willing to give generously and love graciously? How ‘bout those believers who don’t dance to the tune of your dysfunctional drum, who don’t live by your Pharisaical standards, who won’t allow themselves to be manipulated by your subtle condescension and not so subtle condemnation? “Well, we’ve got to wage war on them... uhhmm, for their own good, for the sake of the Gospel! To rescue their souls from perdition; to teach them a lesson; to bring them back into line, bring them into conformity!” Aaaahhhh yes, now we’re getting somewhere. Now we’re getting to the heart of the real issue: control. Arrogance and control, once again.
Isn’t this exactly what the Jesus whose promises we so faithfully claim battled, incessantly, as He sought to fulfill the Mission of His Messiahship? Human nature, inundated by the ‘sin within,’ doesn’t seem to have changed too much in the ‘evolution’ of the last two millennia. No surprise there ...since it can’t change apart from intimacy with the Messiah Himself, a relationship which can only be gained and subsequently grown through “faith.” And so we’re back, once again, to the only “shield” worth wielding, the only protection offered us from a fierce and cunning antagonist, the only thing which can draw us into the Arms of Grace. Faith, trust, belief. It’s our willingness to trust that the strength of our God is greater, the heart of our God is wiser, and the love of our God is deeper than any circumstance surrounding me. I choose to believe.
Ric Webb
Shepherd
Heart's Journey Community
www.hjcommunity.org
Thursday, April 4, 2013
A Hard Look at a Hard Life.
There are a multitude of themes in Scripture: some major, some minor. It’s one of the sad realities of modern theology {some of which is dissolving, thankfully, in our post-modern era}, that so many of the ‘professionals’ choose to major in the minors. There are two themes which if we’re honest we can recognize as constants in the course of our lives— those of loss and Life, the place of suffering and of breakthrough. On one side of this fence are the concepts of crucifixion, suffering, darkness and loss. These have become the ‘in’ themes for many in Christendom today. On the other side of the fence is Life, Love, Liberty and Triumph. In a word, Resurrection …and the profound power which flows from it. These, for the most part, have been relegated to an other-worldly status, it’s a ‘we’ll have to wait til we get there to experience it’ mindset.
But is that honestly what Christ intended when He bought us with His blood? For His ransomed and redeemed, the Offspring of the Almighty, to flounder in failure… forever? I don’t believe for a moment that’s what Abba intended. Just as sin fulfills the purpose of pointing us to the Savior, the purpose of suffering is not the suffering itself, but what comes out of it. It’s what we find on the other side by way of Freedom and Life, the wholeness and healing that is our birthright in the Son, as the “Abba of mercies” reaches down to restore one more broken part of the heart, one more shattered piece of the soul. This is the Journey we were made for; this is the Life we were meant to live.
We have two basic paradigms which we’ve operated out of when it comes to suffering in the theological circles in which I was birthed. This is either divine discipline, cause I’ve screwed up royally, cause I’ve blown it big time; or God is testing me. And He’s going to keep on testing me, He’s going to hammer the living Hades out of me until I pass this test. Discipline or testing, one or the other. The truth is, if we’re willing to be brutally honest about it, the testing might as well be discipline, because it all feels about the same as far as the receiving end is concerned. It feels about as caring and kind as a two-by-four to the back of the head. In a way, our response to suffering and heartache reveals a deep and fundamental distrust toward the heart of God. At the deepest level of our beliefs, at the deepest core of our convictions, we don’t really trust that the Father’s heart toward us is one of infinite goodness and unbearable grace. In our minds, a God who could allow this, or for Heaven’s sakes cause it {and happily}, simply could not be as good and perfect and righteous as He say’s He is in the Scriptures.
I would submit to you, and humbly I hope, that many of us have been misdiagnosing the hand of God in our lives and thus misinterpreting the work of God in our hearts for far too long. There is so much more to be revealed in suffering than the surface symptoms we have diagnosed as discipline or testing. Those are two valid options, but two out of a multitude. What Abba is primarily up to in the lives of His Children, especially the masses of uninitiated men and women who live and breathe the ‘spirit of this age,’ is initiation. A Calling up and into a much higher plane than the one we presently inhabit with its small stories and daily dramas. The Spirit is calling us up constantly into the pages of a much Larger Story, into the heat of a glorious Battle, into the path of an Epic Adventure. And for that He must have fellow-travelers who can walk with Him, who can fight beside Him, who can love as He loves and forgive as He forgives. In other words, intimate allies of the Almighty.
Jesus wants men who are Warrior-Kings, valiant and courageous, and women who are Queens of Light, ladies of love and mercy. Thus, the Path He sets us on often looks like this: instruction, initiation, and intimacy. The instruction is easy; the initiation is hard; and the goal of both is always intimacy with Him. The intimacy, once established however, is beautiful beyond belief. It’s here we find, ultimately, the purpose behind the pain we so frequently run from.
Ric Webb
Shepherd
Heart's Journey Community
www.hjcommunity.org
But is that honestly what Christ intended when He bought us with His blood? For His ransomed and redeemed, the Offspring of the Almighty, to flounder in failure… forever? I don’t believe for a moment that’s what Abba intended. Just as sin fulfills the purpose of pointing us to the Savior, the purpose of suffering is not the suffering itself, but what comes out of it. It’s what we find on the other side by way of Freedom and Life, the wholeness and healing that is our birthright in the Son, as the “Abba of mercies” reaches down to restore one more broken part of the heart, one more shattered piece of the soul. This is the Journey we were made for; this is the Life we were meant to live.
We have two basic paradigms which we’ve operated out of when it comes to suffering in the theological circles in which I was birthed. This is either divine discipline, cause I’ve screwed up royally, cause I’ve blown it big time; or God is testing me. And He’s going to keep on testing me, He’s going to hammer the living Hades out of me until I pass this test. Discipline or testing, one or the other. The truth is, if we’re willing to be brutally honest about it, the testing might as well be discipline, because it all feels about the same as far as the receiving end is concerned. It feels about as caring and kind as a two-by-four to the back of the head. In a way, our response to suffering and heartache reveals a deep and fundamental distrust toward the heart of God. At the deepest level of our beliefs, at the deepest core of our convictions, we don’t really trust that the Father’s heart toward us is one of infinite goodness and unbearable grace. In our minds, a God who could allow this, or for Heaven’s sakes cause it {and happily}, simply could not be as good and perfect and righteous as He say’s He is in the Scriptures.
I would submit to you, and humbly I hope, that many of us have been misdiagnosing the hand of God in our lives and thus misinterpreting the work of God in our hearts for far too long. There is so much more to be revealed in suffering than the surface symptoms we have diagnosed as discipline or testing. Those are two valid options, but two out of a multitude. What Abba is primarily up to in the lives of His Children, especially the masses of uninitiated men and women who live and breathe the ‘spirit of this age,’ is initiation. A Calling up and into a much higher plane than the one we presently inhabit with its small stories and daily dramas. The Spirit is calling us up constantly into the pages of a much Larger Story, into the heat of a glorious Battle, into the path of an Epic Adventure. And for that He must have fellow-travelers who can walk with Him, who can fight beside Him, who can love as He loves and forgive as He forgives. In other words, intimate allies of the Almighty.
Jesus wants men who are Warrior-Kings, valiant and courageous, and women who are Queens of Light, ladies of love and mercy. Thus, the Path He sets us on often looks like this: instruction, initiation, and intimacy. The instruction is easy; the initiation is hard; and the goal of both is always intimacy with Him. The intimacy, once established however, is beautiful beyond belief. It’s here we find, ultimately, the purpose behind the pain we so frequently run from.
Ric Webb
Shepherd
Heart's Journey Community
www.hjcommunity.org
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Slow Down... and Soak.
This is your assignment for Life, starting now. Slow down! And allow the presence of Jesus pictured so powerfully on His lips and in His Life to soak deeply into your heart, soul, mind and strength. Slowing down is the way the soul flourishes; it’s the way the heart was made to work. Robert Baron writes, “The deepest part of the soul likes to go slow. Since it seeks to savor rather than to accomplish, it wants to rest in and contemplate the good rather than hurry off to another place.” Your assignment is to, in the words of Dallas Willard, “ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.” It is to slow down, to savor, to rest and contemplate.
Slowing the pace of your light-speed life means, by necessity, eliminating hurry on one hand and intentionally creating ‘margin’ on the other. Get direct, intentional, confrontational with the demands and activities in your day to day life. If it’s not an absolute necessity {follow me closely here}, get rid of it. That’s right, eliminate it! What you’ll discover is there’s more room now for the Spirit to move, for you to breathe the free air of grace every moment, and for others as well. There is space for other hearts to dwell at ease in your own. Make sense?
In the Middle Ages, Christians would engage in some rather extreme ascetic practices like lengthy fasts and self-flagellation to discipline themselves with the purpose, the often unsuccessful intent, of growing toward God. A post-modern society, especially a post-Christian one, needs something entirely different today. Paul Evdokimov wisely observed, “Today, the combat is not the same. We no longer need added pain. Hair shirts, chains, and flagellation would risk uselessly breaking us. Today, mortification would be liberation from every kind of addiction: speed, noise, alcohol, and all kinds of stimulants. Asceticism would be necessary rest. The discipline of regular periods of calm and silence where one could regain the ability to stop for prayer and contemplation even in the heart of all the noise of the world.” As author James Bryan Smith notes, “We are driven by speed and stimulants, and thus the most needed discipline is for us to slow down, to calm down, and to make time for rest and contemplation. We cannot slow down,” however, “until we know how to practice ‘margin.’ ...We have to begin cutting out activities before we can begin to change the pace of our lives.”
This is going to take direct, intentional, confrontational engagement on your part. Like all things good and beautiful and holy and true, it doesn’t happen by accident. Nor in a vacuum. It happens because you’ve sought divine direction on how to slow the pace of a light-speed life, trusted the Truth when Jesus gives it to you, then acted upon it faithfully as one of His Followers. And it won’t happen any other way. The enemy of your heart, the “thief” {Jn. 10:10} of all things good and beautiful and holy and true, does not want you living from a place of rest and joy and faith in the Father’s heart. That I can promise you. His policy today is simple: ‘Keep ‘em running. Move, move, move, move, move. We’ll wear ‘em out... then we’ll take ‘em out.’ And that’s precisely what he does. A heart that is weary and worn from too much time on the Front Lines, emotionally drained and physically exhausted from one school / dance / sport / church / social activity after another, a marriage dying on the vine for lack of nurture and cultivation, is a primed and perfect target for the arrows of the enemy. A weary heart famished for love and desperately needing renewal and restoration is an easy target. And your adversary knows it... well.
Ric Webb
Shepherd
Heart's Journey Community
www.hjcommunity.org
Slowing the pace of your light-speed life means, by necessity, eliminating hurry on one hand and intentionally creating ‘margin’ on the other. Get direct, intentional, confrontational with the demands and activities in your day to day life. If it’s not an absolute necessity {follow me closely here}, get rid of it. That’s right, eliminate it! What you’ll discover is there’s more room now for the Spirit to move, for you to breathe the free air of grace every moment, and for others as well. There is space for other hearts to dwell at ease in your own. Make sense?
In the Middle Ages, Christians would engage in some rather extreme ascetic practices like lengthy fasts and self-flagellation to discipline themselves with the purpose, the often unsuccessful intent, of growing toward God. A post-modern society, especially a post-Christian one, needs something entirely different today. Paul Evdokimov wisely observed, “Today, the combat is not the same. We no longer need added pain. Hair shirts, chains, and flagellation would risk uselessly breaking us. Today, mortification would be liberation from every kind of addiction: speed, noise, alcohol, and all kinds of stimulants. Asceticism would be necessary rest. The discipline of regular periods of calm and silence where one could regain the ability to stop for prayer and contemplation even in the heart of all the noise of the world.” As author James Bryan Smith notes, “We are driven by speed and stimulants, and thus the most needed discipline is for us to slow down, to calm down, and to make time for rest and contemplation. We cannot slow down,” however, “until we know how to practice ‘margin.’ ...We have to begin cutting out activities before we can begin to change the pace of our lives.”
This is going to take direct, intentional, confrontational engagement on your part. Like all things good and beautiful and holy and true, it doesn’t happen by accident. Nor in a vacuum. It happens because you’ve sought divine direction on how to slow the pace of a light-speed life, trusted the Truth when Jesus gives it to you, then acted upon it faithfully as one of His Followers. And it won’t happen any other way. The enemy of your heart, the “thief” {Jn. 10:10} of all things good and beautiful and holy and true, does not want you living from a place of rest and joy and faith in the Father’s heart. That I can promise you. His policy today is simple: ‘Keep ‘em running. Move, move, move, move, move. We’ll wear ‘em out... then we’ll take ‘em out.’ And that’s precisely what he does. A heart that is weary and worn from too much time on the Front Lines, emotionally drained and physically exhausted from one school / dance / sport / church / social activity after another, a marriage dying on the vine for lack of nurture and cultivation, is a primed and perfect target for the arrows of the enemy. A weary heart famished for love and desperately needing renewal and restoration is an easy target. And your adversary knows it... well.
Ric Webb
Shepherd
Heart's Journey Community
www.hjcommunity.org
How God Develops a Warrior-Heart.
Ever seen the movie Friday Night Lights? One of the best football movies ever made, it tells the true story of the 1988 Permian Panthers and their quest for a Texas State Championship. I’ll play the spoiler here: they don’t get it. They get into the playoffs by a coin-toss, grind out victory after victory, only to lose to Dallas-Carter in the Astrodome. About two feet short of the goal-line, less than a yard from paydirt, from victory, triumph, exultation!
You see, and this may come as a surprise, you don’t always win... and what are you going to do when you don’t? Sometimes you fail, sometimes you lose the fight, sometimes fear takes over and faith goes out the window. And this moment slips away, lost forevermore. Sometimes you get beaten, you get bruised, you get bloody, with no discernible difference made in the lives of those you’re fighting for— including your own. What will you do then? What kind of man or woman do you want to be? Because this, my friends, is the ultimate issue at stake in our Story.
How does God develop the heart of a Warrior and Warrior-maiden in His Sons and Daughters— an unyielding heart, a persevering heart, a heart relentless in its pursuit of Jesus, the mighty Warrior in whose image we are made, a heart faithful and fierce to the very End? By fierce I don’t mean unkind, I don’t mean ugly or arrogant or violent necessarily, though there is a time and a place to literally ‘go to War’ for what you love. To protect it and preserve it. I do not mean the stubbornness of the American jackass; what I do mean is aggressive, tenacious, a pit-bull like tenacity. You are going to need something like this, exactly like this, to endure... until the Kingdom comes.
I don’t necessarily like this; that is, the answer I’m about to give you. But it is what it is. Honestly, there’s a part of me which hates this, and another part which loves it. How does God develop the Warrior-heart within us? Hardship. Suffering. The author of Hebrews tells us Jesus “learned obedience from the things which He suffered” {5:8b}; as Peterson puts it, “He learned trusting-obedience by what He suffered, just as we do” {The Message}. Hardship, suffering, trial and battle. What better way than to put us in situation after situation where we are forced to fight for what is right and beautiful and true, where we are forced to become dangerous for good. Forced to depend so utterly and completely upon our Abba that His Cause becomes our Cause, His King our King, His heart for the broken and the bruised ours. Now we’re getting somewhere in the Battle for Freedom and Life.
Once again, this is not a game for little children, or the uninterested and unaware. This is a Battle for the hearts of humanity... and the stakes are no less than eternal in nature. And that is reality.
Ric Webb
Shepherd
Heart's Journey Community
www.hjcommunity.org
You see, and this may come as a surprise, you don’t always win... and what are you going to do when you don’t? Sometimes you fail, sometimes you lose the fight, sometimes fear takes over and faith goes out the window. And this moment slips away, lost forevermore. Sometimes you get beaten, you get bruised, you get bloody, with no discernible difference made in the lives of those you’re fighting for— including your own. What will you do then? What kind of man or woman do you want to be? Because this, my friends, is the ultimate issue at stake in our Story.
How does God develop the heart of a Warrior and Warrior-maiden in His Sons and Daughters— an unyielding heart, a persevering heart, a heart relentless in its pursuit of Jesus, the mighty Warrior in whose image we are made, a heart faithful and fierce to the very End? By fierce I don’t mean unkind, I don’t mean ugly or arrogant or violent necessarily, though there is a time and a place to literally ‘go to War’ for what you love. To protect it and preserve it. I do not mean the stubbornness of the American jackass; what I do mean is aggressive, tenacious, a pit-bull like tenacity. You are going to need something like this, exactly like this, to endure... until the Kingdom comes.
I don’t necessarily like this; that is, the answer I’m about to give you. But it is what it is. Honestly, there’s a part of me which hates this, and another part which loves it. How does God develop the Warrior-heart within us? Hardship. Suffering. The author of Hebrews tells us Jesus “learned obedience from the things which He suffered” {5:8b}; as Peterson puts it, “He learned trusting-obedience by what He suffered, just as we do” {The Message}. Hardship, suffering, trial and battle. What better way than to put us in situation after situation where we are forced to fight for what is right and beautiful and true, where we are forced to become dangerous for good. Forced to depend so utterly and completely upon our Abba that His Cause becomes our Cause, His King our King, His heart for the broken and the bruised ours. Now we’re getting somewhere in the Battle for Freedom and Life.
Once again, this is not a game for little children, or the uninterested and unaware. This is a Battle for the hearts of humanity... and the stakes are no less than eternal in nature. And that is reality.
Ric Webb
Shepherd
Heart's Journey Community
www.hjcommunity.org
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