Gratitude Is the Glory of Grace.

If we were to start with a triumvirate of thanksgiving, a trio of God’s glories to be grateful for, it might look like this: the Son of God; the Word of God; and the Grace of God.  From His grace flow the blessings of freedom, of family, of friendship, of food on the table and laughter in the air.  From Abba’s grace come all the things worth living for in this Life {and dying for, if the moment should demand it}.

Count your blessings, my friends, enumerate the gifts and glories of His Kingdom, which have been bestowed on you and I courtesy of His grace, courtesy of Abba’s limitless largesse.  We didn’t earn them and we’ll never deserve them, but they’re ours none-the-less.  How our hearts should soar in gratitude when we reflect on this reality.  If we find our hearts somewhat lacking in appreciation, what’s this really saying?  Maybe we’re in such profound pain psychologically that ‘thank you’ just seems like a million-mile march.  Maybe we’ve lived with such an entitlement / expectant mentality for so long we don’t know any other way to live.  This unholy aspect of arrogance has grooved a rut in our neural pathways and now we expect, even demand, others take care of us, watch over us, feed, clothe and house us, etc.  Ingratitude goes hand in hand with this particular pathology.  Trust me on this one.

Maybe— and in this case, the fault lies in two directions: the shepherd and the sheep— we’ve never been taught the glorious riches which are ours in Christ {Eph. 1:3-23}, the unsearchable wisdom of the treasures of God {Rom. 11:33-36}.  Or ...we just don’t believe it.  Either way, not a good prospect for the Church in the 21st century.  As “Jesus replied” to His opponents in Matthew 22:29, “You do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.”  Precisely where we are today.  And because of this they lived in “unceasing error.”  And so do we.  Because we have not known in such a way that this knowledge gets carried into the present, informing our view of God, the world, others and ourselves, because we’ve not gotten settled in our souls by faith the Scriptures and their implications in reality {like ‘resurrection’}, we have no hope in the “power of God,” no real trust that God will come through in any situation.  We are practicing agnostics at best, and atheistic pagans at worst.

But when we understand something of the nature of Abba, His essence revealed in the “radiance” of His Son {Heb. 1:3}, when we get a glimpse of His glory, a taste of His grace, one drop of His mercy after a lifetime of dying of thirst, the only genuine response of the heart should be, “Thank You....  Thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You.”  Gratitude, appreciation, a groundswell of praise.  Right?  So what’s hindering our hearts from getting caught up in this tide?  What’s keeping us from entering into the joy of our Master?  Whatever it is, and however deep it runs, Abba will remove it in His time and according to His will, if we ask Him to.  Do we have the courage to let Him break our hearts yet again— only this time not to harm, but to heal?

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

Follow Love Like Your Life Depends on It.

1 Corinthians 14 begins with this opening salvo, a heartbeat carried forward from Paul’s declaration in 13:13 that “the greatest” of all the gifts of the Spirit, the greatest of all the fruit He bears within us, “is love.”  The initial command of v. 1 is, “follow the Way of Love,” i.e., ‘keep striving for love, keep seeking after love, keep aspiring to love’ …in the Spirit.  “Follow Love, chase it down, track it to the ends of the Earth” and “passionately desire intimacy with the Holy Spirit, desire your gifting and God’s glory!” {RRExp}.  We’re commanded {each and every one of us} to pursue love, to strive for it in relationships, to seek after it in every encounter with another, to focus on the Father’s love and embrace it as a priority in our lives.  The ultimate aim of Jesus’ Apprentices is to become loving Sons and Daughters, people of strength and wisdom and courage and compassion, fierce and faithful and generous.

And what does love do?  Love sacrifices; love stays; love serves.  It doesn’t demand recognition; it doesn’t assert its rights over the rights of others; it doesn’t abuse its position of power.  It gives and gives and gives in the Cause for which Christ died: “to seek and to save that which was lost” {Lk. 19:10b}, to redeem the ransomed soul, to snatch from the ashes the last ember of a dying faith.  It’s been said, “The world is full of beauty when the heart is full of love.”  Which means we’re going to have to humble ourselves in the presence of the Lord and ask Him for more of His love within us, a fresh outpouring of His love.  And when we do, the love of Jesus will be like “rivers of living water flowing from within us” {Jn. 7:38}.  Love will reach the hearts of the lost and the lonely; it will work!  It’s the only thing that can.

When you boil 1 Corinthians 13 down to its bare essentials, strip everything away, lose the lofty language and idealistic emotions, what does Abba tell us?  “Love never fails” {1 Cor. 13:8a}.  You may fail the love of God but the love of God will never fail you!  We don’t earn His love in our lives anymore than we earn His grace in our redemption.  The Lord of all Life, the King of all Creation, loves each one of us as if there were only one of us to love.  Jesus’ love for me is absolute and unconditional: and nothing I will ever do or not do will ever change this.  What we need, above all else in a faithless Age, is the ‘courage to accept His unconditional acceptance,’ and the joy and wisdom to live from this place!

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

Jesus... Times Seven— Part IV.

There are seven “miraculous signs” of the power and glory of Jesus the Christ in the Gospel of John.  The Greek term semeion is the most frequently used term in the New Testament to signify God was working in and through the Lord Jesus Christ to reveal the glory of both the Father and the Son.

The first of these is His turning well-water into flawless wine— 2:1-11; this occurred, of course, at the wedding in Cana of Galilee.  The second was the healing of the Royal Official’s son— 4:46-54: he is the man who “took” Jesus “at His Word.”  You may want to give serious consideration to the fact that this is the means to unleashing divine power in your life: to take Jesus at His Word, to rest your faith in the Word of God.  The third was Jesus’ healing of the invalid at the Pool of Bethesda— 5:1-9.  If I had to summarize in a single word what these three miracles signify, I would say: community, compassion, and communion.

[iv] The feeding of the 5,000— 6:1-14; this is the sign which sets the stage for Jesus’ offer of Himself as the “Bread of Life.”  In v. 32 of this same ch. “Jesus said to them, ‘I tell you the Truth, it is not Moses who has given you the Bread from Heaven, but it is My Father who gives you [‘who constantly and continually offers you’] the true Bread from Heaven.  For the Bread of God is He who comes down from Heaven and gives Life to the world.’  ‘Sir,’ they said, ‘from now on give us this bread.’  Then Jesus declared, ‘I Am the Bread of Life.  He who comes to Me will never go hungry, and He who believes in Me will never be thirsty,” 6:33-35.

[v] Walking on the surface of the sea— 6:15-21; it represents guidance for the Journey of Life.  After Jesus say’s to the fearful Disciples, “It is I, do not be afraid” {v. 20}, it says, “then they were willing to take Him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading,” v. 21.  When Jesus is welcomed into the boat, when Jesus is welcomed into the life, when Jesus is welcomed into the deepest regions of the human heart, we will always get where He wants us to go.  We always get where God wants us to go.  It won’t necessarily be where we wanted to go, but eventually we come to understand, like everything else we once viewed from a temporal perspective, it’s exactly where we needed to be.

[vi] The blind man given sight— ch. 9; it pictures Jesus as the Light of Life.  In v. 12 of the previous ch. Jesus spoke to the people and said, “I Am the Light of the world.  Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the Light of Life.”

[vii] The raising of Lazarus— 11:1-44; it represents the ultimate Triumph of Life over death.  Remember what Jesus said to Martha?  “I Am the Resurrection and the Life.  He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies [‘will live’ spiritually and eternally ‘even though he dies’ physically]; and whoever lives and believes in Me will never die [‘whoever lives’ temporally and physically ‘and believes in Me will never die’ spiritually].  Do you believe this?,” 11:25-26.

When you boil it all down, when you strip away the scales from our rotten belief-systems and tear down the scaffolding we try to erect to keep Christ the Creator out of our consciousness {‘You’re ruining my god-complex, bruh!’}, to keep Christ the King at a distance from ‘atheism,’ to keep Christ the Savior away from our souls and Christ the Shepherd out of our lives, it all comes down to this simple question.  The Son of the Living God, the Savior of All Mankind, has made His claims in the Scripture.  It’s a fairly simple proposition: “Do you believe this?”  Think long and hard about your answer; search the Gospels for yourself; read the New Testament from cover to cover.  Look at the History of nations who’ve lived in the Light of His shadow versus those who have flailed their way along in the darkness of religion.  Then answer the question upon which your destiny depends: “Do you believe this?”

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

Jesus... Times Seven— Part III.

Jesus’ work at the macro-level, at the cosmic level overshadowing the Earth, is one of subduing the nations, subjecting the nations of the Earth to His rule, His reign, and His Kingdom.  There are a couple of key passages here, one of which is Psalm 110 {cf.}.

This image of Jesus as the coming Judge, the “Lion of the Tribe of Judah” {Rev. 5:5b}, is the central focus of something vital and absolutely non-negotiable to sound, ‘orthodox’ theology: that there is a Day of Wrath approaching, a Day of judgment coming on the nations of the Earth, in which the King and Creator will set His world right once and for all.  This theme, known to the Prophets of Israel as the “Day of the Lord,” is repeated over and over throughout the Old Testament Scriptures, then picked up and clarified further in the New.  In Hebrew prophecy and in the Hebrew mind, there are essentially two Ages: there is the “present Age,” which is utterly and irrevocably evil; and there is the “Age to Come,” which is entirely good, holy, beautiful and abundant.  In between the two is the Day of the Lord, the Day when Yahweh would personally and powerfully intervene for His People on planet Earth, destroying His enemies {and the enemies of the Jewish nation}, setting right all wrongs, and inaugurating His everlasting Kingdom.  This is what the Hebrews thought of in the phrase the ‘Day of the Lord.’

It might be good to remind ourselves that throughout the Scriptures God’s coming judgment is something to be celebrated, longed for, deeply desired by those who belong to Him.  Now think about this, especially in an election year.  In a world of systematic injustice, a world of brutality, violence, and oppression of human freedom, the firmly founded belief that there will come a Day when the wicked are put permanently in their place and the poor and defenseless are given power and protection is grand and glorious news!  Listen carefully.  Faced with a world in rebellion against His rule, a world filled with exploitation and wickedness, a good and righteous God must be a God of judgment and justice— cf. Psalm 2.  Must!

When the image of the “Son of Man” from Daniel 7 who “was given authority, glory, and sovereign power” and “all peoples, nations, and men of every language worshiped Him,” whose “dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and” whose “Kingdom is one that will never be destroyed” {v. 14}, is transposed to the New Testament, we find Jesus fulfilling the role of the Son of Man.  The early Church, in accordance with the revelation they were given, understood full well Jesus is the One through whom God will set the world aright.

“So, how do I play a part in this?”  You can play a part in this, first of all, by offering the Gospel of Grace freely and openly and generously to any who don’t have it.  You can expand the boundaries of the Royal Empire one soul at a time!  And secondly, you can train Disciples to train other Disciples, you can teach other Followers to teach other Followers, and slowly, sometimes imperceptibly, but surely you can lead human hearts to surrender themselves and their lives to His will, His purpose and His plan for them.  That’s how you can help Jesus subdue the nations beneath Him; that’s how we can labor for the Kingdom, both in its present form and its future form.  Two things in closing here.  [i] We are not called in this Age to subject persons or nations violently or militarily to Jesus’ rule and reign.  There’ll be a time for this, but that part comes later: at the Return of the King of Kings to tread down the winepress of Abba’s wrath and judgment {Isa. 63:1-6; Rev. 14:18-20; 19:11-21}.  [ii] The Church’s warfare is spiritual, not national!  Nowhere in Scripture are we told to convert anybody, anywhere, by force.  Nowhere.  And don’t 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