Redemption of Identity

My life is lived in tension between my identity that Triune knitted into me and the temporal daily life I experience with it's pressures and uncertainties. In the past I've looked at these two tensions as if they were having a "tug o war" in my life and I was the rope. Sometimes feeling as if I was stretched past my ability to endure. I now see this tension as not pulling, but pushing against each other to see who will establish the best foothold. The tension I experience is the pressure of the push. Spiritual warfare where I am both the battlefield and the prize. I am the spoils of war in the enemy's eyes. I am a son to be redeemed in PapaGod's heart.  When I am intentional to daily read and deeply agree with my identity statement (a statement crafted to state the very essence of who God says I am as a unique son of His) then I find strength to be who I am identified to be.  My life as that identified son will not only push the temporal daily uncertainties ...

Divine Power 2 Peter 1.4 NIV “ His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. “ God's divine power. I see Power that is intentionally redemptive. Divine most times is literally translated as Triune, acknowledging Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the very nature of God as a three corded rope with unparalleled strength. Divine power is seen in Jesus answer to question of what is the greatest commandment. “ love the Lord your God and your neighbor as yourself” A command or commandment is a verbal expression of a power's intent. Jesus answer to the teachers of the law, who asked him what the greatest commandment is, showed the intent of the authority he carried as a mature heir of the Kingdom. This is what I expect my followers to be an then to do.... When Jesus came of age and was baptized by John the Forerunner the Holy Spirit took physical form and came to him an...

The theme at The River Church- Get in love Grow in love Get others in love Addictions and compulsions are rooted in relational brokenness. To love another deeply is to build relationship with them. Those that have addictions and compulsions cannot be intimate. To expose your inward self, being transparent would be too risky for the hidden addictive lifestyle. Intimacy is not possible, because if you really knew who I am you would bee repulsed. But... Embracing that risk of intimacy is the path to healing and freedom. An addict is driven to seek relief from their pain. When the addiction is in control of the relief then it prescribes a mode of relief that only it can control. A mode whose long term side effect is yet deeper addiction. The true prescription for healing addictions and compulsions is counterintuitive to this lifestyle of addictions or compulsions. The lasting relief that leads to healing comes in the form of building deep relationship with one or two others and wit...

For me, if I pursue security and/or comfort by leveraging the promises of God's word for financial success or personal success or success in a ministry position I set myself up for seeking security instead of seeking a transparent, intimate relationship with PapaGod. The drive for security is demanding and grows if pursued. It becomes the placebo placeholder in my life where my hunger for Christ, for Holy Spirit's presence, PapaGod's intimacy should reside. My hunger becomes satiated by this world's success junk food. An active and effective life lived for Triune is lived in the place of hungering for intimate and transparent relationship with PapaGod. Seeking (which means I'm not satisfied with my present place so I'm actively looking) first His kingdom, his righteousness (value and worth that are intrinsically who the "I am that I am" is).

John 1:14NIV  The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. I am unpacking so much from this one verse that I''ll be spending several weeks integrating it into who I am. Here's some first thoughts... Jesus did not meet us half way. He fully became us. He came so we could fully know him and he could fully know the living environment of humanity. He lived in this created world, he lived within the limits of time and space. Eternal Triune Creator God placed limits on himself. He didn't arrive here to make Christians. He arrived here to make relationships. To know us, and for us to know him (as in intimately). God recognizes experiential knowledge as greater than "head knowledge". When I am mentored and learn and then live what I learned it is integrated into me, experienced. The Word made his dwelling here to be integrated into humanity. The W...

The narrow path resides within each believer. This is the season graced to discover this path in partnership with Triune God. The narrow path is hidden in the chaotic brokeness of an inner life that is unhealed. Our brokeness takes many outer forms, forms that allow no one in, forms that intentionally push others away. Forms that manipulate and manage a life that's adrift in chaos but contains a God purpose in it's very core. The narrow path of obedience has, for it's entryway, the path of healing, radical PapaGod, redemptive change that removes brokeness and bestows unsurpassable value and worth into a persons life. To be intrinsically valuable and worthy because of redemptive change is to no longer clamor for recognition or fight to be heard. Self medicating behaviors are seen for what they are. It is the clearing away of a debris filled life to find that His way is just under your feet. Obedience is entered into out of the paradigm of relationship not the enforcement ...

Have you heard what happened on June 24th last year? I was healed of depression. Don’t roll your eyes at me buster, this time it’s for real! Look at the date today, March 3, 2014. Yup, no depression for over nine months; No, I was not “self diagnosed.” My first visits to a psychiatrist started at age 10. There were regular weekly visits and medications for about 3 years. Then a new therapist when I was 14. On and off throughout my life. Diagnosed with various forms of depression, lived with depression. Dysthymia and Bi-polarII are a couple diagnoses I remember. Hey, I have had several times in my life when I swore that I was being healed and I worked myself off of meds. My wife has been amazingly strong and patient as I found that it was not the case time and time again. But my hopes and my reality are now conjoined! I received a fully complete healing! As I’ve walked this out for the past several months it has occurred to me that being “positioned” for healing was a critical compone...