Glory

This last weekend the core leadership team for the Lisboa Matrix traveled up to Nazare for our yearly leadership retreat. It was a time to gather together for work, fun and healing. We went with the expectation of growing together and looking at the direction we have been headed in as a church. What we discovered was our Glory

This weekend we looked at ourselves through the Father's eye. Who am I in your eye Father. How do you see me? There is a mythic reality that John Eldridge talks about in his book "Waking the Dead" that deals with the deep truth about who we are. It's a truth that sounds to good to be true. It is a truth that sleeps in us. A truth that must be awakened. A truth about our heart. It is a truth that calls us to be transformed from death to life. This truth comes in three parts.

1.Your Heart is Good.

2. You are in a Battle for your Heart the Heart's of others.

3. You have a Glory and that Glory is needed.

We entered into this search for our Glory this weekend. Zac gentlely walked us into the the shadowed waters of our heart. He asked us to listen for the Father's thought's about us. Spoke about Ireanus' quote "The Glory of God is man fully alive" Strectched us to think about how we think about our heart. Think about the fact that scripture says God has given us a new heart. And then he sent us out to listen.

I didn't have an explosive burning bush experiance, but there were things that I heard, felt though about and received. When we returned we shared and listened to how the Father might have shared or spoken to each other. And then I started to enter into my Glory.

Showing your Glory can be unnerving and almost embarassing, but it is how we enter into a full life in/with Jesus. As we processed our Glory and I asked, "Father, how do you see me? What is my Glory?" I remembered two seperate instances where people had spoken to me or had given me verses about a certain way they saw me. This is what they said, (get ready it really is out of this world), you are like David. WHAT!?!

The first time Scott Frazer gave me that Glory I thought, wow cool. Wish I was David. I mean King David rocks! But let's be real I am me. The second time was this summer at our CONNECT time for CAI. I had someone I respect a whole lot tell me. "You worship like David." Boy that felt good, and that's how I feel when I worship, but I know me. I'm a fake. I wish I was David, but let's get real. But it felt good to hear it. Then this weekend I realized that what is needed is my Glory and that my Glory is the new name my Father gave me. DAVID! Warrior, Poet, Lover and King.

Do I sound like I'm over the top here. Is it arrogent to think God would name me David? Is this really my Glory? Am I truley "A man after God's own heart" (I almost typed I don't know) but YES! I am. And I am going to dance, fight, pray, love, and create with the same heart of passion that God put into David. I am going to scream from the roof tops that my Glory, your Glory are needed in this epic battle. I am going to call out the broken hearted, and the chained and set them free from their shadowed hearts. I am going to reveal their Glory so that we can see them transformed. See them transformed like everyone who came into contact with Jesus. For it was not a yolk of slavery that Jesus came to bring, but freedom and life. Abundant life. Transformed life. You might have been Peter the fisherman, but now you are The Rock and I'll build my church on you. You might have been John, but now I call you Son of Thunder. You might have been Saul the murdering one, but now I call you Paul the Apostol. Jacob, you are Isreal. It all sounds so grand, to good to be true, but it's the mythic reality of being a child of God. A friend of Jesus.

Be what you were created to be. Let the Glory of the one who lives in you shine. Let all the world see it, that they might honor the Father who has given you your Glory. Fight for each others Glory, for each ohters hearts.

Be Blessed and Live in Your Glory