TRANSFORMED TO SEE GOD'S BEAUTY - by Brent Lokker

Last Saturday we began a journey together to become more aware of the heart of our Father through the book of 2 Corinthians. We will likely be in this book for a good part of 2025. The backdrop to reading this very personal letter written by the Apostle Paul, who was a spiritual father to the dearly loved church he started in Corinth, is that Jesus had to first radically transform his heart. Paul, who was born Saul was a super devout Pharisee (a Jewish law cop) who thought he was doing God a favor by imprisoning and killing Christians who were teaching this grace ‘garbage’ from a Savior who was all about love. Saul was sincere in his devotion to God but had the wrong God in his sights, and sometimes we can fall into the same trap.   What each of us needs and even requires are transformational moments when our beautiful King and Savior reveals himself in a way that is so much better than we ever imagined, so far beyond what we thought grace could deliver, that it opens kingdom dimensions we never saw before and causes us to readjust our lenses of what we thought was true about God, ourselves and others.   This readjusting is a necessary part of our spiritual journey and something that continually takes place as long as we remain humble and teachable to God’s Spirit and keep our hearts open to the possibility that what is written in Paul’s earlier letter to the church of Corinth is actually true, that… “No eye has ever seen and no ear has ever heard     and it has never occurred to the human heart All the things God prepared for those who love Him.” 1 Cor 2:9 (VOICE)   I hope you can join us in person or online on this journey of awakening to how astoundingly good our Father is. As we discovered last week, he is “the Father of compassion and the God in whom everyone is equally esteemed,” and “there is no contradiction of any proportion (trials and suffering) that we can possibly face that has what it takes to exasperate us or distance us from God. Our awareness of his inseparable nearness immediately reinforces us to extend the same tangible closeness to you in your difficult times, and together we snuggle up in the comfort of his intimate embrace.” (2 Cor 1:3-4 in the Mirror Bible)   This is the Father we must know and encounter in the midst of all that’s happening in the world and in our lives. This is the Father who is crazy in love with you and fully committed to you and your well being!