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.