An interview on HUGS talk radio with Antiqua Lisha Libbey in Alaska

We were blessed tonight to be featured on HUGS talk radio with Antiqua Lisha Libbey. She asked us how we can all know and experience the intimate love of God as Father. Here’s the one hour show: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/usc-radio-productions-3/2013/12/24/hugs-talk--the-love-of-the-holy-spirit

Beloved Sons and Daughters Bring Justice and Mercy to the Nations

Debbie’s and my journey for the last two years has been to discover and learn to abide in our new identity as sons and daughters of God rather than as servants and slaves who just work hard trying please God. A slave rarely knows his masters approval or affection, all they do is work work work to avoid punishment and maybe get a good meal.  Jesus did not live this way nor should we.

Though indeed Jesus “came not to be served but to serve” He served as a Son, and He lived continually in the experience of His Father's love and delight. His identity and relationship to His Father was υἱός (hious- son) and παῖς (pais-son/daughter, young child, or servant), two words the Biblical writer Matthew uses to describe Jesus' relationship to His Father. 

Today I read Matthew 12:1-21 and saw Jesus once again being accused of breaking the Sabbath because He demonstrated love and compassion by healing a man with a deformed hand on a Saturday. The religious leaders of Jesus' day believed that faithfulness to the Law meant strict observance of regulations that control human behavior more than living the purpose of the Law which addresses the human heart.  "No work on Sabbath," they demanded, even despite the desperate need of the man standing in front of Jesus. But Jesus exercises true love and righteousness and heals the person, the man made in God’s image. A man of far greater value than any tradition or regulation. Jesus’ profound blending of mercy, love, and righteousness confounded the religious leaders of His day and it continues to confound us today.

After healing the man with the shriveled hand Matthew tells us that Jesus is fulfilling the Scripture about Himself from Isaiah 42 “Here is my servant whom I have chosen, the one I love, in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations… a bruised reed he will not break… In his name the nations will put their hope.”

For the word “servant” Matthew uses the Greek παῖς (pais) rather than δοῦλος (doulos). Doulos clearly denotes the non-family member of master/servant relationship- no rights, no love, no approval, no inheritance. Work, work work! And if you don't work hard then you risk the wrath of the master. Pais, though, carries the sense of family, of intimacy and relationship even though you still work hard and serve. But here the one who serves is a wanted child and receives an inheritance from his father, even if he or she is not a blood relative. Jesus abided in His Father's approval, He continually experienced His Father's delight. Not just because He was sinless, which He was, nor because He put in long hours every day, but because He was a son, His Father's Son. 

We too, as God's children, can continually experience the love of our Heavenly Father.  We have the right to this love. Read 1 John 3:1 and John 1:12. We, too, can constantly live in and consequently live out the same mercy, love, justice, and righteousness that Jesus did. But we first need to open our hearts to receive this love. 

Read these words God spoke over Jesus as He speaks them over you, because you also are His daughter and son, also His beloved. You are a child who is called to bring justice and mercy to the nations. Feel His love for you and delight in you. As this flows in you let it flow out of you into the nations.

Behold my son serving me, the one whom I have chosen,

My beloved in whom my soul is well pleased.

I will put my Spirit on Him,

And he will announce justice for the nations.

He will not selfishly quarrel or shout out loud,

Nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets.

A bruised reed He will not crush,

A smoldering wick He will not snuff out.

Until He brings forth justice into victory,

And in His name the nations will hope.

Coming Home For Christmas in Suffern, New York

We were blessed on November 24 to speak at our old church in Suffern, New York, Living Waters Fellowship. It was a tearful reunion laden with sadness and anticipation for where God is leading that church, to merge into a Redeemer Church Plant, All Souls Community Church. Here’s a link to the message I shared with them:
Coming Home For Christmas

Eviction, Typhoons, The Holy Spirit and Father's Justice

Yesterday while running/prayer walking around 30^th St in Newport News I saw a strip of homes partially boarded up, and a couple houses with city stickers on them condemning them. One had an order to vacate by 11/13. Today. The house was clearly occupied, children’s toys on the porch but dark inside. Where will this family go, what has happened to them that they would be living in such destitution? I also ran by the house where a young woman was murdered a month ago, in the front yard, about ½ mile from our home, at Greenbriar and Kecoughtan. Right next to her memorial of flowers and candles and teddy bears was the garbage collection pile, ready to be hauled off and dumped. What is the value of a life? Even as my heart thinks of the Philippines now, so many killed by the typhoon and so many more in grave threat because they have no clean water, shelter or food.

Reading Isaiah 59-60 this morning-

We love the quotes about the Holy Spirit coming upon us in power to speak words of Truth and knowledge. Words that set people free from sin and bondage. We love the power that comes on us to heal, to restore, to bring hope, love, and joy. That’s the privilege of ministry. In Isaiah 59 there is no justice, no righteousness, no truth, no honesty in the land. But God Himself will come with a vengeance, wearing a breastplate of righteousness and a helmet of salvation to restore justice and righteousness in the land.

Is not our call in the ministry of the Holy Spirit to be doers of the Word also in our social systems? One by one people come to know Christ, are set free, empowered and then whole communities are transformed. In Isaiah 60 we see that though the whole world may be covered in darkness, our light has come and that light rises upon us and God’s glory is over us. Because of this we are a light to the nations who will come to us and be made glad. Sons are brought from afar, daughters carried on the hip.

The outpouring of the Holy Spirit is for many to come and experience the joy of the Lord, the joy of love, of righteousness, justice, truth, and honesty. The joy of provision. The joy of God Himself being our Savior. The security of knowing experiencing God as Abba, our Father, our Healer and Protector. Yes, our light has come, may we now be Father’s light, a city on a hill, a beacon of righteousness and justice that shines love, mercy, grace, provision, healing, and salvation.