Father's Day is 4 days around the corner. How do you feel about it? What thoughts does the day bring to your mind? Whether the day brings discouragement or it brings your heart to a point of celebration, you may find this short blog a source of good perspective. Thanks to the desiringgod staff sound bites like this one can help us approach Father's Day with a renewed perspective. To read the blog click here. May God encourage you with realistic hope.
Sincerely,
Diego Cuartas
This week I want to draw your attention to a resource Ed Welch, faculty at CCEF, produced a few years ago. In his blog "No More Minimizing Pain", Welch help us consider the dangers of comparing our experience of pain to someone else's, and the implications that such actions can have in terms of our reliance on God. When I read his blog I thought about situations I have encountered where I felt I had to suffer in silence because someone else's pain was greater than mine, or where I felt less than considered because someone did not regard my pain as important. I believe Welche's blog is provocative and very relevant. I recommend you click here and take a few minutes to give your soul a gift.
Sincerely,
Diego Cuartas
(By Thor Knutstad)
Christian man, Christian woman, do you radically risk entry into the journeys of others? Do you walk with people, the sheep of God's Pasture? You see, it is more than listening, asking questions, spending time with, and providing the opinion of counsel. Do you help them imagine God's Dream for them? Do you speak hope, vision, and a future beyond the context of their current struggle? Do you have a wise "heart aim" in their world? Do you know how to love a sheep? Yes - we warn profusely. We beckon with practical wisdom. We admonish with advice. But there's more to it than that. Much more.
If you're willing to touch the dirt and the dirty details of someone else's life, you will get dirty - but do you take that dirt and fashion it like clay? Do you love that person with fascination for God's creation on them and speak with creative imagination into their very hearts? Do you awaken the heart for sunrises and horizon moments? Do you speak TO them and not AT them? Hmmm. Rereading that last full sentence would do us all some good.
As you address the burdens of another's very soul, you will either heavy or lighten that same load. When you lighten the load, you bring clarity of vision to God's calling. You evoke their own imagination. You have loved well. You have cared for a soul. You have saved one sheep. You have been like The Shepherd - and joy abounds --- in you, in that person, in Even The Shepherd Himself. Praise Him.
(By Thor Knutstad)
Many people come to me throughout the day for counsel and advice. They want answers and they desire to be fixed or have their situation and context changed. But what they really want is courage and comfort. They want encouragement and affirmation of what the Spirit of God is already doing inside of them and outside of their situation. They are not looking for answers, though they often would disagree. They want to be known - really known - and understood in their human souls on deeper levels. This craving exists not in weakness but mainly in being an Image Bearer. You are an Image Bearer of God. We all are.
My sons are image bearers of me. They are unlike me yet quite a lot like me in many, many ways. They bear my image and my nature, though they are uniquely designed and created by God. They do resemble me- they look like me and sometimes even act like me- Lord help them. I want my children to KNOW me - to see my faults, my struggles, my strengths, my desires and the very being of my heart. This reveals who I am but also gives them the inner edge of knowing who they are as well. It is the genius of a Father's Grand Design- we are more like Him (yes, God) than unlike Him. Are we sinners? Absolutely. Mini self serving sovereigns? Sometimes. Desperately in need of Christ's saving work? Fully! But also, we are Princes and Princesses of the King. As honored sons and daughters, He is our inheritance and we will reign with Him. We are Royalty. We wear those crowns and robes.
Dear friends, don't condemn or accuse yourself with this biblically assumed fact that is oft overlooked- You are God's Child, His Offspring. Man- His ruddy and handsome son. Woman- His beautiful and decorated daughter. Simply stated and with simple meaning. If you have children or love children or love a child (all of you!), then you know the heart of your Father, our Glorious God. He made you to bear His Image. Why? Because it's really who you are already anyway. You are His Image.
He's just showing you what's already there and will stop at nothing to make you and me look more like His Son, King Jesus. It's right when you think you look just like Him that you hover near legalism and being a Pharisee - one who stands above another sinful Image bearer brother or sister and says, "Thank God I'm not like him (or her)." I'd rather you and I be the chest-beating, honest sinners who crave The Image but daily cower before our great God asking for mercy because we are moving toward His Image; His Image requires and demands it. Shepherd well your ambassadorship, oh dear Princess and Prince. The King is not so interested in you earning a crown but in showing you that you already wear it and resemble Him and bear the mark of His Holy name. Just like my hand holds the one of my son Bryn, so His (my Lord God's) firmly holds mine- and yours, too. Praise Him.
