The Bread of Life

Darrell points out that we live in a world which believes in "The myth of Scarcity". This idea that there is nothing that can ever satisfy the world and our human hearts - a total lie. I often seek to fill my heart with bread of this world, and continue to hunger and thirst. I pray that I could continually remember The One who satisfies me, and the rest of the world. Keep coming, keep coming, keep coming!

"When we find ourselves hungry, we can tell we are out of the habit of coming to The Lord Jesus"

This reminder that each day we need to fill up not on things of this world, but on Christ alone, brings me great Joy. The Lord continually provides for us all that we need. Each day, hour minute, may I feast on The Bread of Life. I need You more than I need my next meal, Jesus!!! Amen

Peace

“BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERES, FOR THEY SHALL BE CALLED SONS OF GOD”

Jesus offers us a peace that is different from the peace of this world; it is Shalom. It is the total harmony of all relationships for which we were created for and it is only experienced when we let God be God. We will always feel uneasy and dissatisfied when we have something else sitting in Gods place.

I am someone who absolutely dislikes confrontation or making people upset with me. Some might speculate that I don’t want to disturb the peace, but I think they’re wrong. If I truly wanted to cultivate shalom, I would be okay “stirring the pot” or offending people by the way I follow and proclaim Jesus—of course, not intentionally. The eighth beatitude tells of the consequence that will follow having the first seven. I don’t want to be rejected or criticized, but shalom is experienced through the cross. As I listened, I remembered that a crucifixion is always painful, slow, and public. Jesus has called me, and all of us, to live with self-giving-sacrificial-servant love which requires us to go to the cross. By doing so, we are peacemakers.  

Lord, show me the way to Calvary and help me carry my cross there. Show me where I resist You and put back in to place things that I idol. Would I experience your peace and make peace here on earth.        

seeing God and being seen by God

Seeing God, that's such a cool promise and its so easy for me to just casually read over it without realizing it's weight. DJ pointed out that every other promise of the beatitudes pales in light of the promise of seeing God but it also brings them all into focus. And the way we see God is by seeing Jesus, and we see the face of Jesus in the face of the small child that interrupts us and in the face of the marginalized, but that's not all. We don't even know how else we'll see Jesus, but whatever he's promising I want it.

Pure in heart means unmixed at the center. People that are pure in heart are the ones where there isn't a question of reliability, they aren't hiding anything, and you know they won't be different people in different situations. And the way we become pure in heart isn't by striving for it, but by letting Jesus and his gospel take hold of us. When that happens we can be transparent before God because we know he already sees us and loves us fully.

"Don't be preoccupied with the purity of your heart. Look at Jesus."

"it is enough that Jesus is Lord."

Amen

Peacemaker + Merciful & Pure in Heart

Blessed are the Peacemakers

"Peace is so much more than inner tranquility or absence of war", it is remarkably more than how it is defined by the world. Of course peace is so much more than it seems! It is easy to believe we can create shalom on our own or can obtain it when all is perfectly ordered in the way we desire it to be. But the peace of God is unexplainable and absolutely created by Him alone. He has brought deep peace in my life when all around was chaos, and this peace, this shalom was sufficient. Sufficient not because all was going well, but because God had brought it, and God Himself was the Shalom. 

Lord I pray that I would be in sync with you and your gospel. I want echo DJ’s prayer, “Lord make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is despair, hope. Where there is darkness, light. Where there is sadness, joy. Oh divine master, grant that I may not so much console as to be consoled, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive, it is through pardoning that we are pardoned, and in dying that we are born into eternal life.”

Blessed are the Merciful

God does not call me to bring judgement or what I feel someone deserves upon them. Only the Lord has that authority and I am not God. What a reminder-- you, Kailie are not God. God is God and He is in control. He is the righteous judge who extends mercy upon mercy despite what we do and do not deserve. 

I think my desire to bring judgment rather than mercy is often a distrust that God’s loving mercy is enough and truly the best thing for that person. 

What God does call me to is a heart of surrender to Him, giving Him all resistance within me to withhold mercy. 

Father please meet me in the resistance with a reminder and push to let go of control and forgivingly and genuinely extend mercy to another.

Blessed are the Pure in Heart 

My thoughts on this are a little difficult to communicate, but to look at this beatitude in light of all the others was very helpful. To be pure in heart means much more now than it did. When in the word, I'm beginning to recognize the connections of each of the beatitudes, especially in Proverbs.

After listening, I recalled some moments where Jesus has been seen. Some of the most clear and recent moments were in the days following the past few summers. Why is it that in and after times like these that God is so easily seen? It is here that I have allowed my heart to seek and commune fully in unity with Him and have draw near as He has drawn near. Jesus, I pray that this deep communing and heart focus would be true in all seasons.

A few other things DJ said that caught my attention: 

“Hoard nothing of yourself, surrender it to the Lord.”

“The pure in heart praise Him from sunrise to sun down even when they feel broken, distracted, insecure and uncertain.”

Lord, thank you for these past few weeks of listening and writing together. Please continue to draw us to yourself in all things. 

Blessed are The Peacemakers

What a great way to wrap up this series of Sermons.


The way which we become peacemakers, and which the other qualities that Jesus blesses in His beatitudes is simple - Let God be God. This part of the sermon was a reminder that I needed to hear in these trying times when I am so tempted to let other things take control of my mind and heart. If only I could just let God be God!

Lord would your Gospel grab a hold of my heart and life. Would you shatter my hardened heart and make me an instrument of your peace. Would I submit to being a creature of The Creator. Amen!

Looking forward to the blogs to come!!

What does Jesus, Glock, Smith & Wesson, Sig Sauer, Ruger, and HK have in common?

Answer:  They all have promised making "peace" or making you a "peace-maker" =)  (All the names in the title are gun companies.  Guns are often nick-named "Peacemakers".....for those of you that were scratching your heads from my title)

As DJ preached in his sermon, the things that can happen to a peace maker are:

1.     Receive approval and blessings from God.  That sounds good to me!

2.     Receive blessings but probably SCORN from other people because....."that is just the way it is....SORRY"  - DJ      

Ahhh come again!  Say what?  LOL - The truth plainly preached is funny, refreshing, and at time uncomfortable.  

Jesus - "They are going to hate you because they hated me".......SORRY, THAT IS JUST THE WAY IT IS!  In light of that ....Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God!

    The world's idea of "peacemaking" is not God's.  God's way in found in self-giving-sacrificial-servant-love (see Jesus' life).  As we follow Jesus' example..............we shall be called the children of God. 

   Thanks everyone for the past weeks of listen and sharing together.  I look forward to jumping into the Barnabas and Driver - Trainee blog with you all! 

Reid

Week 7 - Healing the Hearts of the Human Zoo.....One CRUSH at a time.....Blessed are the Peacemakers

Week 7 - Healing the Hearts of the Human Zoo.....One CRUSH at a time.....Blessed are the Peacemakers

Luke 19:41-42 As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes.”

When it comes to being a peace maker this verse has simultaneously haunted me and inspired me. 

Haunted – With minor chord melancholic music filmed in slow motion you see Jesus being lead through Jerusalem as a king while he speaks these words as a narrative over the music and the lauding crowd.

Inspired – Knowing that his descent into hell at the hands of idiot, ignorant punks leads to the soul pounding, exultant, tear-filled, intimate & joy-filled reunions Jesus had in the wake of the resurrection.

Inspired - The absolutely impossible comeback that time and time again brought ecstatic joy and passionate intimacy between bride groom and bride with each glorious appearing. 

U2’s song Always has the lyric, “here today, gone tomorrow. Crack the bone, get to the marrow.” Each sermon of this series has positively focused my attention on what’s good and necessary.

This week’s message "2 x 4’d" my mindset again (as in previous messages) to the marrow of life which is to consider it pure joy to trust that the ludicrous and laughable posture of laying down my life for anyone at anytime is the reason that I exist and the calling on my life each day/moment.

As U2 puts it in their song Zoo Station, when it comes to the high risk/excruciatingly painful/life threatening stakes of making peace in the human zoo  I want my reflex response to be…

I’m ready for the shuffle
I’m ready for the deal
I’m ready to let go of the steering wheel
I’m ready
Ready for the crush

Isaiah 53:9-10 – “though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the Lord’ will to crush him and cause him to suffer….”

(JESUS) -- “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace”…….(My prayer) “I’m ready…..ready for the crush.”

Pure Heart, Clear Eyes

“BLESSED ARE THE PURE IN HEART, FOR THEY SHALL SEE GOD”

To be pure in heart does not mean perfection. It means to live in the new creation with Jesus who sanctifies and aligns our hearts desires with His. Jeremiah says that “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9). But the Lord will search the heart and test the mind. Jesus is the Savior and physician who has come to heal the sick and save the lost.

This beatitude puts all the others into focus. As we draw near to the heart of Jesus, we mourn yet receive comfort, we accept and give mercy, we allow God to be our justifier, we crave right relationship and realize we are dependent on God alone. There is so much freedom that comes in knowing Jesus, for He is holy and deserving of all honor and praise. Jesus tells us to follow Him; He will make us clean and we will see the Lord!

Shalom!

Sometimes when these Sonshine blogs/podcasts align on the same topic of my morning devos I feel like God is really calling me out on something, and that’s exactly what happened today.

Since humanity has turned its back on its maker, we as disciples of Jesus, or shalom makers, are called to bring peace to all the relationships we have with each other, ourselves, God, and the earth. As DJ explained later in his sermon, the things that can happen to a peace maker are:

1.     Receive approval and blessings from God.

2.     Receive blessings or scorn from other people…because if we rejected Him, they might reject us.

This morning I read 1 Corinthians 4:

1 This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. 2 Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful. 3 But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. 4 For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me.

When we bring peace through evangelism or taking up our cross, we will encounter scorn or judgement from others or even ourselves. But in 1 Corinthians, Paul is essentially telling us that a person who is grasped by the gospel and gets criticism, scorn, or judgement will not be devastated. They are far less concerned with themselves or others and way more concerned with the Lord’s judgement.

When we choose to bring shalom on this earth, it is important to ask ourselves, “Am I doing this because I lust for recognition or because I want to make myself feel good? Or am I bringing shalom to this earth because I want to be a steward of Christ, and could care less about who brought the peace in the relationship but are just SO happy to see the joy and peace in the relationship in itself?”

Shalom is a gift and experienced only in relationship with God. Therefore, the more we get to understand the gospel, the more we want to change and bring shalom. 

Lord, make us instruments of your peace! Thank you for letting us be your children!