the encounter

no one can give what they have not first received. this principles holds true in relationships as much as it does in any other area of life. I can only pass on the degree of forgiveness, grace, mercy, love, and favor if I have truly experienced them at some point in my life.

in reality though, we all have relational gaps.

no one has experienced every relational grace in their life. we all have experienced hurts, disappointments, and failures at the hands of others. whatever we have experienced negatively we also pass on to others. to those who have experienced great condemnation and rejection in their life, they have a tendency to relate to others in the same way. to those who feel like they never measure up, they pass along to others a nagging sense of never being good enough.

there is a way for the gaps to be filled.

God’s desire is to not just fill the gaps of our heart, but to overwhelm them with His forgiveness, acceptance, favor, and freedom from condemnation. those gaps are filled as I begin to truly experience these in my life. this is something far greater than mental agreement or doctrinal agreement. this is allowing the reality of how God sees me in Christ change who I am.

as I am changed, I will change how I relate to others.

Jesus sent out the men He trained with a basic principle: “freely you have received, freely give.” as I truly receive and experience how God loves me and sees me, I am to turn and then offer the same to others.

all of this brings me to a shocking revelation:

• my greatest relational struggles are not with who people are. my greatest struggle is in receiving how God sees me – my identity.
• the answer to my relationship struggles are not in making others change. the answer lies in being changed by how God sees me.

God, help me to receive all of who you are and how you love me. Then, and only then will my life and my relationships change.

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Do you ever experience something that completely overwhelms you… in a good way? Something that so surprises you and catches you off guard that it brings you to a place of deep gratefulness, humility, and peace? That is exactly what Jesus Christ offered when He walked on this earth and continues to offer today.

He offers something far beyond religious effort, demands, or laws. He offers to those who are tired of the struggle and worn by the journey overwhelming love, acceptance, and grace.

The followers of Jesus in the New Testament were well aware of this overwhelming love. Reading through Ephesians 1:3-12, you begin to understand something of what overwhelmed them.

• awareness they were chosen by God for a purpose
• freedom to share in all that God is
• release from guilt, shame, and failure
• acceptance inside the relationship of God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit
• full forgiveness
• being favored and treasured by God
• ability to know the mind of God
• sharing in the inheritance of God
• being the absolute delight of God
• and all of available now… not some day later

Overwhelming? Difficult to take in? Exactly. That is what it was meant to be – a love so overwhelming that we would never get over it. Something so big that it would change how we saw ourselves, saw others, saw God. Something that would free us. Something that would bring a revolution to the soul. Something that would cause us to be re-made; born-again.

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everyone has a lens through which they see life. like a tinted glass it colors everything they see – their circumstances, their problems, their friends, their family, themselves.

that same lens affects how a person sees God.

some would say, “Well they just need to read the Bible to find out who God is.” while I would agree, I would also know that their lens affects how they read the Bible.

one reads and only finds rules, condemnation, and rejection;

another reads and finds hope, help, acceptance, and grace.

one reads and finds a God who is distant, angry, and guilt inducing;

another reads and finds forgiveness, mercy, and love.

one reads and finds disconnected ancient literature;

another finds personal words of affection and relationship with God.

the lens of your heart will determine who and what you find.

the most religious people in Jesus’ day read the Scriptures. yet what they found was far from life. instead they found rules, laws, condemnation, and ways to oppress people with empty religion. Jesus confronts them with these words…

You diligently studythe Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me,yet you refuse to come to me to have life. john 5:39-40

the same Scriptures that were meant to bring life were tainted by the condition of their heart – their lens.

what lens do you look through when you read the Scriptures? do you only find confusion, rules, and condemnation or do you look for hope, life, forgiveness, and love?

Jesus waits there for those who have a lens to see!

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Recently at encounter, Aaron Lehmann sang the song, “A New Kind of Birthday”. He introduced it with the idea that before a baby is born, there is no way he or she could have any understanding of what their new life will be like. They can’t grasp the depth of colors, tastes, sights, sounds, and joys until they are birthed into this new world.

In the same way, there are sights, sounds, tastes, and joys in Heaven that can never be fully grasped here on earth. They will only be understood the day we are birthed into it. That day will be a new kind of birthday.

Aaron wrote the song several years ago at the passing of his father. It was an expression of hope and comfort for Aaron and the family. Here’s the song, “A New Kind of Birthday”.

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While, thinking about the Gospel of Enough and the Gospel of Generosity lately… this writing from the second century always gets me:

It is the Christians, O Emperor, who have sought and found the truth, for they acknowledge God.
They do not keep for themselves the goods entrusted to them.
They do not covet what belongs to others.
They show love to their neighbors.
They do not do to another what they would not wish to have done to themselves.
They speak gently to those who oppress them, and in this way they make them friends.
It has become their passion to do good to their enemies.
They live in the awareness of their smallness.
Every one of them who has anything gives ungrudgingly to the one who has nothing.
If they see a traveling stranger, they bring him under their roof.
They rejoice over him as over a real brother, for they do not call one another brothers after the flesh, but they know they are brothers in the Spirit and in God.
If they hear that one of them is imprisoned or oppressed for the sake of Christ, they take care of his needs. If possible they set him free.
If anyone among them is poor or comes into want while they themselves have nothing to spare, they fast two or three days for him.
In this way they can supply any poor man with the food he needs.
This, O Emperor is the rule of life of the Christians, this is their manner of life.
– Asistides 137 AD

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