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“Jesus wept.” John 11:35

We will never understand our own suffering until we begin to understand the suffering of God.

See short video here, or read on…

God is not aloof. God is not uncaring. When we hurt, He hurts. Even though Jesus knew full well He would soon raise Lazarus from the dead, He paused and entered into our grief.

Jesus feels our pain.

Dwight

What does peace mean to you?

As I say in this video, for me, it means I can actually relax.

For a long time, that wasn’t possible for me. Years ago, I couldn’t sit at a kitchen table without shaking. Crazy, I know, but that was my experience. Peace means I can relax. I’m no longer tense when I talk to people. I don’t feel the need to drive fast, cut off other drivers, get out in front. It means I can enjoy life, enjoy my family, and the things that once made me blow up or sit up and stew until 3 am no longer bother me. They aren’t issues any more.

All of this is a gift, a gift from God. Because of His work in my life, peace is spreading through my soul. Sure, I’m a work in progress, but I’ve tasted what Jesus offers, and I like it.

What about you? What does peace mean to you?

Dwight

PS. How do we break free of the “try harder” treadmill into the freedom that Jesus promised when He said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free?” What does that look like in the real world, and how do we get it? That’s our topic this week in Inner Wealth.

In fear and amazement they asked one another, “Who is this?” Luke 8:25

As I share in this video, this is a major paradigm shift: You need truth in your gut as well as your head.

For many years I had a cerebral faith. I knew about God. I knew the Bible. In fact, I could probably run circles around most people when it came to knowing the Bible. But all that knowledge wasn’t helping me in some critical ways.

I knew I shouldn’t be bitter. I tried very hard not to be bitter. But, deep inside, I was still bitter. I knew I shouldn’t lust. I tried not to lust. But, in my heart, lust was a continual trap. I knew I shouldn’t fear or worry. But inside, I couldn’t stop shaking, even though I hid it from everyone else.

I know I keep coming back to this story, but it’s a good one, so I’ll do it again. The disciples were learning quite a bit about this Messiah, this Jesus. They had theology. They had scripture. They had knowledge. Then the Lord took them across the Sea of Galilee.

In the storm, when they believed they were about to drown, then the poverty of their “gut-level” knowledge was exposed. They didn’t know who Jesus really was, until He taught them—not in a class, but with a gut-level experience.

Don’t be surprised if God takes you on a roller coaster ride through some gut wrenching experiences. He has a plan. He has a purpose. He’s getting truth in all the right places.

Dwight

PS. How do we break free of the “try harder” treadmill into the freedom that Jesus promised when He said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free?” What does that look like in the real world, and how do we get it? That’s our topic this week in Inner Wealth.

Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” Luke 7:50

Why did Jesus say this? Why didn’t He say, “My love has saved you,” or “My grace has saved you,” or “My atoning sacrificial death on the cross will save you”?

Clearly, without these things, she wouldn’t be saved. But Jesus calls attention not to these things, but rather to her faith.

See short video here, and/or consider these thoughts:

This may have been the first sincere compliment she had ever received. In the place of flattery that just wanted something out of her, here was Someone who found something good.

Or perhaps Jesus was calling attention to her reckless abandon that pursued God at the risk of rejection and embarrassment. She forgot herself and stopped caring if she looked like a fool in front of everyone else. What a refreshing contrast to the religionists who lived in the comfort of their own cliquish snobbery!

Or maybe Jesus wanted to once again let the human race know how much God values this delicate thing we call faith. I don’t know about you, but someday I will be happy to stand in line and honor those who held on to their faith even when the enemy did everything in his power to rip it from their very being. It will be my great privilege to honor them.

I’m not sure if I’ve found the reason or not. But I do know this. God sees your faith; it is not forgotten—it mixes with God’s love and becomes life changing.

Dwight

PS. How do we break free of the “try harder” treadmill into the freedom that Jesus promised when He said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free?” What does that look like in the real world, and how do we get it? That’s our topic this week in Inner Wealth.

What does it mean to follow Jesus? If you were going to boil it down to its core, what’s it all about? The Apostle Paul answers that question in Romans 14:17: “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit…”

Wow!

As I share in this video, following God is 2/3 emotion! Peace and joy are emotions.

This was news to me. I always thought God didn’t care about how we feel. He just wanted to make sure we behave. But that’s not what it says. Yes, righteousness is part of it, but righteousness comes as part of a package. In fact, the implication seens to be that if we don’t have peace and joy, we may not have righteousness either.

Hmm. Once upon a time, I would have been very discouraged about this. I would have thought: Oh, no. Not only do I need to behave, but I also gotta conjure up some kind of peace and joy. How am I going to do that?

But that’s not the idea. Rather this is an invitation. We can do a survey of what’s going on inside. Where am I struggling to feel at peace? Where am I missing joy? Where do I struggle with righteousness? We find those gaps, and then we invite Jesus in.

That’s the idea. God isn’t calling us to some try hard performance. He’s offering what we cannot manufacture on our own. He’s offering freedom. And that will be the subject I’ll be covering with our Inner Wealth subscribers starting 4/13/2019.

Be encouraged. Righteousness, peace, and joy is a gift from God. It’s yours. Just keep inviting Jesus in.

Dwight

Short video here, and/or read on:

A friend of ours was quite frightened by storms. Whenever it would storm, she would gather her children together and huddle in the basement. One day she was processing some of her fears with the Lord, and ended up in a memory where she was at a rest area (my wife says it was a campsite) with her large family of origin when a strong storm came in quite suddenly. It was her job to bring her little brother to the station wagon. As she took his hand, the wind started blowing so violently that it lifted her brother right off his feet. If she had not been holding on to him, he literally would have blown away.

Jesus brought peace, calm, and truth to her in this memory. The next time it stormed, no fear! In fact, she sat out in the yard in a chair enjoying the beauty and the majesty of the storm!

I like this story because it reminds us that who we are today is deeply linked to our past experiences. The present is rooted in the past. If we’re to move forward with God, we can’t ignore the past. Instead, we need to make peace with our past by taking Jesus to those painful places. I discuss this with our Inner Wealth subscribers starting 4/6/2019. Check out the Inner Wealth subscription here if you would like to learn more. 🙂

Have a super day!

Dwight

When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, and as she stood behind Him at His feet weeping, she began to wet His feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. Luke 7:37-38

See short video here, and/or read on:

I don’t think this woman was stupid. I think she knew very well that she would be scorned by the Pharisee. She didn’t expect welcome, but something compelled her to break through the crowd, and risk being thrown out, in order to fall at Jesus’ feet, weeping.

She lived a sinful life. In her flight from pain and her search for happiness, she made choices that offended God, hurt herself and created pain for others. There was no easy road back. The religious leaders had her typecast; she was pariah.

But now Someone arrived with a different message. There is a way back. No, there is something better than a way back. There is a redeemer who can start new and build a whole new life. A life free from shame, from fear, from sin, from alienation.

Was it too good to be true? She had to find out. And there at the feet of Jesus she found her answer. There at the feet of Jesus, she, and you, and I are transformed.

Dwight

PS. What role does the past play in your transformation? How do you overcome a painful past? Should you forget the past? Why doesn’t that work, and what can you do instead? How do you safely process painful memories? We’ll be addressing these questions for Inner Wealth subscribers starting 4/6/2019.

Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so He went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. Luke 7:36

Jesus feasted while others starved. I know that may seem discomforting or even sacrilegious, but it is a truth that must be looked at.

See 4-minute video here, and/or read on:

We know that Jesus is our ultimate example of compassion and love. So we know that His actions did not stem from indifference or disregard. Let’s see if we can unravel what is going on here.

Many people feast while others starve. Most of these people feast because they live a self-centered life. They refuse to allow the needs of others to take them out of their comfort zone. They have trained their emotions to shut out the cries of the needy.

Others have awakened to human need. Something got their attention. It may have been the plight of 10-year-old Christian girls in Sudan who are sold as concubines by captors from the North. It may be the children who die because they lack an antibiotic injection that costs less than an American soft drink.

When we are awakened to need, we want like anything to shake other people out of their deep sleep of complacency.

But God chooses a different route. God calls us out of a guilt-driven, need-centered life just as surely as He calls us out of a complacent, self-centered life. He calls us to Himself—to a love-driven, God-centered life. Our lives are not measured, then, by our depth of sacrifice, but rather by our attachment to the Father. We can feast—even if our finances allow us only the feast of looking at a beautiful sunset, or listening to the song of birds. We can feast, drinking in and celebrating the love of God. And we can sacrifice, giving what we have to spread the love of God.

I suggest that Jesus lived a God-centered life. He met needs, and He left needs unmet. His attachment to the Father enabled Him to know when to give and when to receive. There is joy in both, and God designs for us to experience the full joy of giving and receiving. He also means for us to experience the freedom of letting Him be God. He will concern Himself with the needs He has not called us to meet.

Dwight

PS. What role does the past play in your transformation? How do you overcome a painful past? Should you forget the past? Why doesn’t that work, and what can you do instead? How do you safely process painful memories? We’ll be addressing these questions for Inner Wealth subscribers starting 4/6/2019.

See video here, and/or read on:

Some people seem to think that we shouldn’t ask God for much. If we ask for a lot, we’re being greedy, so God will disapprove and turn down our requests. But that isn’t what the Bible teaches. “Ask of Me,” God says, “and I will give you the nations as your inheritance.” (Psalm 2:8) God is able to do “exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ask or imagine. (Ephesians 3:20)

So … then, we should all ask for a mansion and a fleet of Cadillacs, right?

Not exactly. The key is in 1 John 5:14-15: “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.” (NIV)

Getting what we want from God becomes so much easier when we start wanting what He wants.

Dwight

PS. What role does the past play in your transformation? How do you overcome a painful past? Should you forget the past? Why doesn’t that work, and what can you do instead? How do you safely process painful memories? We’ll be addressing these questions for Inner Wealth subscribers starting 4/6/2019.

I was shopping with my young adult daughters a few weeks ago when one of them started sharing about some difficulties she had experienced at work with her supervisor.

Feeling protective as a dad, I went home and stewed for a while, angry with the supervisor. I knew I needed to forgive her, so I started processing my feelings with God. As I was doing that, I remembered a run in I had with the same supervisor many months earlier. I thought I had dealt with it, and then I realized I was still angry.

Here’s a four-minute video explaining how I processed that, and/or read on…

So I went to God to get His perspective. I knew I would need it in order to forgive. He shared two things with me:

(1) “I am training your daughter.” Anybody else could have said that to me, and it would have made zero difference. But when Jesus said it, it was like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders. I didn’t need to protect my daughter by getting angry with the supervisor. God had everything under control.

(2) About the run in I had with the supervisor, the Spirit of God spoke to me: “She didn’t have the big picture in view.” Okay, I could understand that. Often I do stupid things when I don’t have all the facts or have a handle on the big picture. With this perspective, I was able to release her and forgive her.

In my life, I’ve found it virtually impossible to forgive unless and until I get God’s perspective on things. Once I do, then it becomes easy. How about you?

If you’d like more information on forgiving others, we will be covering this topic with our Inner Wealth subscribers, and I do offer an online course in how to forgive.