Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Chapter 5 - In One Sentence - To Truly Reveal the Heart, Someone has to Bleed

“He is not trying to squeeze us into an alien mold.”  I Peter 2:11 says, “Dear friends I urge you as aliens and strangers in this world to abstain from sinful desires.” 

This chapter reminded me that the heart of Christ expressed in His body, me and you, actually appears alien and perhaps feels alien or weird at times.  I like Peter's matter of fact approach to this tension -- To live in God's mold as you were intended categorizes you as strange and alien.  

I felt convicted while reading.  I felt convicted that the “alien-ness” I feel is a revealing to me of my selfish heart that seeks its own glory and seeks to self-preserve (ALIEN) instead of self-give (NATURAL).

God’s pushing me today to see dying for my enemies with no strings attached as the “non-alien” and thus natural impulse of God’s heart in me.  

In other words, God is pushing me today to be His church, His body, poured out in unconditional, sacrificial love. 

My prayer is that my the eyes of my heart would be opened such that I would not see crucifixion (metaphorically and literally) as the end of life but instead as the very beginning of life.  For my crucifixion reveals the heart of God.  My crucifixion reveals life.  For Jesus, from the bosom/heart of the Father bleeding from a cursed tree, is Life.   


In one sentence – “To truly reveal the heart ….. someone has to bleed.” 

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