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AUTHENTIC FREEDOM - by Brent Lokker

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This past week, we celebrated 250 th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It begins: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of hapiness.” Though our forefathers stole the land we call America from our First Nations brothers and sisters who originally inhabited and cared for this land, it seems our founding fathers did have an internal compass that drew them back into the direction of the Father’s heart—that all of his children have equal value to him. What a beautiful truth to have founded our part of America’s history upon. Unfortunately, many in our country believe their freedom is in doing whatever they want to do, much to the pain of others. That kind of ‘freedom’ actually imprisons us to the very thing we thought was our freedom. In contrast, Jesus lets us know that our freedom is actually in surren...
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MERCY AND JUSTICE - by Karena Lout

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Last Saturday, we continued our journey through the beatitudes, focusing on Matthew 5:7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.” As we receive the generous mercy of Jesus in our lives, we then begin to see his justice unfold as well. Mercy and justice are so interconnected. Without mercy, justice can be harsh, cruel, revenge seeking. There’s no room for redemption. And without justice, mercy can sometimes be forced, done out of guilt or obligation, reduced to just a nice gesture. There’s often no real transformation. Jesus doesn’t just execute justice. He IS justice. He made all things right on the cross. His kingdom justice looks so different than what we could ask or imagine. In Mark 10, Bartimaeus cries out to Jesus, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” It seemed obvious that Bartimaeus was asking Jesus to heal him of his blindness. But Jesus asks him “what do you want me to do for you?” I believe that Jesus wants us to acknowledge our need and identify what it is we wa...
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OUR ADOPTION IS SWEETER THAN WE KNOW - by Brent Lokker

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This past Friday and Saturday, we had a two day conference with Lonnie Ellis and Tiffany James called, “Strength & Vulnerability: Courage to be Real.” In a casual style all three of us told real stories of the goodness of God meeting us in our messed up, vulnerable places. It would be an understatement to say we went deep and many  expressed to me profound moments of breakthrough in their awareness of Papa’s goodness and tender care. This is always going to be the fruit of choosing to be a family that embraces vulnerability and the courage to invite Jesus into hard or scary places. I strongly encourage you to watch Saturday’s service here:     Saturday’s Service One topic that came up was how we’ve been adopted by our heavenly Father. While I’ve discovered redemptive ways of describing ‘adoption’ through the years, it always still had that ring to it that we weren’t God’s until some point when we were. Yet that didn’t jive with what I know from Scripture, that we...
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THE NEVER-ENDING MERCY OF GOD - by Brent Lokker

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Nothing about God’s love is conditional or transactional. He doesn’t love you because you do or don’t do certain things. God loves you because love is His very nature and He created you for the express purpose of including you in his perfect love.   There is a word in Hebrew, Hesed, that encompasses all that this love is, but it can’t be adequately expressed in any one-word translation into English. Hesed is a blend of love, loyalty, commitment and mercy. It is love that remains even when the other fails. It is love that commits forever, not because the other earns it, but because the one who loves has made a covenant. It is an active love that manifests in tangible acts of compassion, justice and protection.   Hesed is the merciful-steadfast-compassionate-faithful-grace filled-benevolent-covenant-lovingkindness of God!   This love can be visualized as God’s mercy-womb that continuously surrounds you. And how long will God be merciful? Is there an expiration date on the t...
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THE GREAT EXCHANGE - by Dennis Lafayette

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The great exchange begins and ends at the cross when Jesus gave his life for ours. He opened the way for mankind’s surrender as He invites us to give up our lives in order to live forever as, He intended before the very foundation of the earth. And so, it is with Paul’s revelation of love in 1 Cor: 13. This love which cannot be lived in fullness until we exchange our love for His. Our compassion will carry us only so far, until we realize in the face of the great human suffering throughout the world, it’s not enough. We must see the world through His eyes of compassion in order to fulfill His servant’s calling on us and we are asked to exchange our compassion for His. The disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray when they realized their prayers were not enough. He taught them the principles of prayer, which was still not enough until they exchanged their prayer language for the Holy Spirits on the day of Pentecost. Once again, He has a deeper place to call us into when He invite...
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THE MERCY-WOMB OF GOD - by Brent Lokker

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  There’s a deep comfort around the phrase so many of us have relied upon in the Scriptures,  “The Lord’s mercies are new every morning.”  (Lamentations 3:23) Especially when we’re feeling discouraged or entertaining lies that God is disappointed in us, there’s something about the ongoing reality of God’s mercy that brings relief and gives us courage to face and even enjoy another day. If you will embrace what I’m about to share with you, the dots will start to connect why God’s mercy is so comforting. The Hebrew word for mercy and the Hebrew word for womb share the exact same three root letters! God’s mercy is directly connected with his womb-love, surrounding us and providing a secure space to rest in the motherly nurture and protection of God—think of a mama bear protecting her cubs! This mercy-womb of God’s unchanging nature towards us reveals: God’s mercy is as instinctive as a healthy mother’s love. Divine compassion is protective and nurturing. Mercy flows from the...
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SONG OF SONGS - by Todd Benjamin Lout

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This past Saturday night we had worship and prayer based on Song of Solomon. It was quite a sweet, yet powerful time as we contemplated the overwhelming love of the King (Jesus) toward the Shulamite (Us). This morning I woke up with this one passage on my spirit. I mean just look at this poetic, dramatic and powerful instruction from a King to His Bride. When the Bible talks about seals put on something….it means for it to be seriously sealed, not broken! He wants us to have HIM and HIS FIRELY LOVE as a seal on our hearts. WOW! Meditating on Song of Solomon (also called “Song of Songs”) from the POV that He is the King so longing for the gaze of His Bride really changes our hearts. His desire is for us to really know the love of Christ which passes everything else we know! Our true identity as the Beloved realized brings about a shift in how we receive from Him. It causes us to be more confident, more in love, more stabilized in this solid ground that is His passionate love for us. Let...
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