Thursday, July 7, 2011

Re-post from The Cheek Family Mission blog

Below is a post from Jeff Cheek's blog. Jeff & Jonni and their two girls Darian & Jaydon are two of our best friends from Indy. They have been partners with us growing DEFENDER since the beginning. They've also been spiritual mentors to us over the years. Now we are sharing another amazing experience together.

Jeff's post does a great job of summarizing the lecture phase we just concluded.

ENJOY :)

(That's Jessica in her morning ritual of coffee & Bible in our prayer room)


Dave

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From: Cheek Family Mission <noreply@blogger.com>
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Date: Thu, 07 Jul 2011 19:08:52 +0000
To: <dlindsey2020@gmail.com>
Subject: Cheek Family Mission

Cheek Family Mission

Wrapping Up The Lecture Phase

Posted: 06 Jul 2011 10:42 PM PDT

We completed the lecture phase of our DTS last week.  I'm so thankful for the amount of time I got with Jonni and the kids.  It was a blessing to learn alongside of our friends and to develop some new friendships with our classmates and staff.  The speakers we heard from were world class and our staff and class leaders were wonderful Godly men and women with a passion for helping people experience God.  I can't say enough about the experience and I know I'll never be the same. 
What impacted me most from the teaching was coming to terms with what the Bible says about who I am in Christ and what God thinks about me.  A couple speakers shared about our identity in Christ early on and it impacted me deeply.  I continue to try and get my head around who I am in God based on my reading of scripture.  I've come to understand how God sees and I wanted to share a couple thoughts in the next couple of blogs.
God wants us to see ourselves as He sees us and it's absolutely foundational to living for Him.  I'm completely convinced that every person who has a dynamic and growing relationship with God has a clear understanding of who they are in Him.  I believe God really wants us to "get it".  Look at Jesus' baptism for example.  (All four gospels detail how John baptized Jesus in the Jordan – Matt 3, Mark 1, Luke 3, John 1)  After Jesus was baptized God said to Jesus "You are my son, whom I love, with you I am well pleased." 
I love how God told Jesus you are my son, I love you, and I'm so pleased with you BEFORE he ever performed a single miracle.  Before Jesus began preaching, before he raised the dead, healed the sick, or showed His compassion for the poor; God said you're my son, I love you, and I'm pleased with you.  God didn't wait to see how Jesus would turn out anymore than He waits to see how you and I will turn out; He just loves us because we are his sons and daughters.  You may feel like you've disappointed God but don't focus on what you've done INSTEAD focus on who you are.  You are completely loved, completely forgiven, a full heir in Christ not because of anything you've done but because of who God is and because of His love for you.  When God looks at you and me He doesn't see what we've done He sees who we are.  The Bible is loaded with examples of people who really screwed up yet God loved them and used them in a mighty way.  David was an adulterer yet He was a 'man after God's own heart', Moses was a murderer, Jacob was a disaster, Noah was a drunk, etc.  Think about your sin, your failures, addictions, etc., these mistakes are what you did, they are not who you are.  If God doesn't see you and me as a sinner and a screw up then we shouldn't either.  I praise God that when He looks at me He doesn't see my faults, He sees me is who I am because of His son.
The second thing I love about Jesus' baptism and the words God spoke to him was the timing.  Right after Jesus' baptism, the Bible says the Holy Spirit led Jesus to the desert to be tempted.  Although it wasn't probably necessary for Jesus, God was careful to remind Jesus of who He was and how He saw him just before God allowed him to be tempted.  He wanted Jesus to know that he didn't have to strive to be holy or pure but that He already saw him as holy and pure.  God wanted His son to know he was loved, because of God's grace and not because of what Jesus was going to do.  We need to remember who we are when as we go throughout our day.  When we're tempted, or feeling convicted about some screw up we just made; remember who you are.  You are a child of the King, and He sees you for you who are not for what you've done.
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