May 7, 2025 • 33 mins
True relationship with God involves intimate knowledge that goes beyond religious activity, illustrated through the powerful metaphor of a spouse's embrace and the Hebrew concept of "yada."
• Experiencing the difference between a physical embrace and the heart-to-heart connection that happens during intimate moments
• Jesus' warning in Matthew 7:21-23 about those who performed religious acts but whom He "never knew"
• The Hebrew word "yada" carries deeper meaning than intellectual knowledge—it implies intimate relationship
• Religious activities without heart connection are like "hugging a board"
• God desires relationship over religion, though systematic good works have their place
• Our heavenly Father enjoys working alongside us, even through our mistakes
• Unlike some earthly fathers, God delights in being with us during mundane moments
• The blood of Jesus continually cleanses our "temple" so the Holy Spirit can fully dwell within us
If you have thoughts or questions, please reach out to us at lifearoundthefire@gmail.com or visit lifearoundthefire.com on the web.
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Feel free to check out our website by typing in lifearoundthefire.com or Life Around The Fire ... We think you'll find some beneficial stuff to look at and apply to your life.
Shalom to you and your home.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
It was just the other day, while I was in my office,
that I heard someone coming upbehind me and it was my wife.
And she walked up behind me andjust quietly put her arms
around my neck and just said Ijust wanted to give you a hug
(00:34):
and I couldn't turn around andhug her back, but I could hug
her from the inside out.
While she was hugging me withher arms, I was hugging her from
(00:55):
my heart and, funny thing, shecould feel that, just like I
could feel her arms, but I couldalso feel her heart, her hug
from the inside, and we huggedeach other and we just hugged
(01:25):
there.
We just stayed there for aminute and actually our
breathing, uniquely enough, ourbreathing kind of changed to.
We kind of breathed the sameand my heart rate, I could
actually feel a calm and awarmth and a love come into me
(01:53):
and flow from me and we joinedtogether.
And I tell you what we kneweach other.
I knew that it was my wife, notjust by the sound of her voice,
(02:13):
not just by my empiricalknowledge of what it is to feel
like when she's around.
But it was more than that.
There was an intimate exchangethat was taking place from the
(02:37):
inside and from the outside.
But from the inside, but fromthe inside, I could feel my wife
, I could feel her love and shecould feel me and she could feel
my love.
And that's what we both wanted.
We wanted to know each other,we wanted to just kind of be
(03:00):
there and hang out for a while,just like that.
And we did.
And you know what, uniquelyagain, uniquely enough, after we
had kind of just hugged therefor a minute or two, whatever
(03:20):
length of time it was, I feltfull on the inside, I felt full
of love, I felt content, I feltlike, ah, you know that feeling
of where everything is right, itwas righteous man and there was
joy and there was peace, and Ifelt her love.
(03:51):
But I also felt the kingdom ofgod, because in the midst of
that was the very presence ofgod himself, holy spirit.
Holy spirit was hovering aroundand in that and reveling in
that together with us, becausehe was delighting in the fact
that we were one.
(04:14):
Now there's an interestingpassage that is on the other end
of that equation, and when Isay passage, I mean from.
The scriptures is on the otherend of that equation, and when I
say passage, I mean from thescriptures, from the Bible, and
it's from John, excuse me, fromMatthew, matthew.
(04:35):
Matthew Matthew's Gospel,chapter 7, verses 21 through 23.
And I just want to read it toyou from the New International
Version.
(04:59):
And Jesus, he's talking to hisdisciples, as well as actually a
large group of people,followers that had come from a
variety of different backgroundsand had traveled some distance
just to hear his voice, to hearthe words that come from him,
(05:22):
words of life, the words thatcome from him, words of life,
but also, perhaps, healingsmiracles.
They came because they needed atouch from God, and so Jesus is
giving to them what has becomeknown as the Sermon on the Mount
(05:43):
, and it is one of the longestrecorded teachings that we have
of Jesus.
And in John, chapter 7, verses21 through 23, jesus says
something really, really potentman, he goes.
(06:06):
Not everyone who says to me,lord, lord, will enter the
kingdom of heaven, but only hewho does the will of my Father,
who is in heaven, will of myFather, who is in heaven.
(06:28):
Many will say to me on that dayLord, lord, did we not prophesy
in your name?
And in your name, drive outdemons and perform many miracles
?
Then I will tell them plainly Inever knew you.
Away from me, you evildoers.
From me, you evildoers.
(06:57):
Now some people have come to saythat that means that Jesus is
really de-emphasizing miracles,signs and wonders and that we
really shouldn't be tooconcerned about those things,
because those things have ceasedto exist in the first century
AD and we no longer see thosethings take place.
We now have the written Word ofGod and we no longer need to
(07:21):
have these things like they didback then, and that argument is
empty.
It is unfortunate, butnonetheless it exists.
And that's exactly not whatJesus is saying.
Right, he's not implying that.
(07:43):
There's something deeper thathe's getting at, and that is
that there's this real aspect ofknowing God.
You see, that's a relationalthing.
The other stuff was justperfunctory, it was religious,
(08:06):
it was like these are thingsthat I've done.
See, look what I've done versushaving a relationship with God
and responding to things that hegives to us from that
relationship, and we act on them, we obey them, because we have
(08:29):
relationship, not a to-do list.
I have a relationship with mywife.
Yes, there are things that needto be done, of course, and I do
them, and she does them for me,sometimes because I ask her,
sometimes she just does thembecause she knows that's what I
(08:51):
would like and we have arelationship, we have that and
God has, or at least wants thatwith us that we would have, that
we have the ability to receivefrom him his embrace, not just
(09:16):
his to-do list or or us beingable to function in these
dynamic things like signs andwonders, but to know us More
than anything.
First and foremost, that wewould know him and to have him
(09:45):
know us.
Now there's a Hebrew wordconcerning to know, or to know
someone, and I use the Hebrewlanguage because it's so rich,
(10:09):
it's so full of meaning, andalso it is the original language
that we have, involving thescriptures, that and Greek and
Aramaic.
But Hebrew carries such a richunderstanding of this concept of
(10:37):
to know, and in Hebrew the wordfor to know is yada, which has
a, and it can even involvesexual intimacy to know.
So let me just break that downa little bit more.
(11:20):
Break that down a little bitmore.
Beyond intellectualunderstanding, while, granted,
yada can denote simpleacknowledgement or comprehension
, it often carries a deepermeaning of personal connection
and intimate experience.
(11:42):
Right, it's not just havingsimple acknowledgement or
comprehension of something, orsome call it mental ascent, but
it has a personal connection andhas an intimate experiential
dynamic to it.
(12:02):
I like that Personal intimacy.
The word yadah is used inGenesis, chapter 4, verse 1,
when describing Adam knowing Eve, implying a physical, intimate
relationship.
Same thing goes on furtherwhere Abraham knew Sarah the
(12:30):
ethic of sexual intimacy, butalso experiential knowledge In
the context of knowing God.
Yadah goes beyond abstractknowledge.
It involves entering into arelationship with God through
obedience and living accordingto his will.
(12:52):
We experience God by enteringinto relationship and then
responding to the things thatare on his heart.
And then responding to thethings that are on his heart,
things that he has writtenalready and things that he
speaks to us now the Logos andthe Rhema Right Logos was
(13:15):
established and written alreadyand the Rhema what he speaks
currently and is alive right nowthe Word of God, right to have
relationship with God throughobedience and living according
to his will.
Interesting.
We're doing it his way.
(13:37):
We're having relationship withGod his way, and him knowing us
involves him giving to us anembrace, him give it to us and
embrace.
Have you ever held someone whoisn't capable of responding back
or doesn't want to respond back?
(13:57):
It's like holding a board likea piece of wood.
There's nothing there, like arock, whereas if there's
something alive, relationallyand healthy, when we receive an
(14:25):
embrace or an encounter likethat, there's a response that's
generated not just to us butalso from us back or an
encounter like that, there's aresponse that's generated not
just to us but also from us back.
That's knowing the giving andthe taking, the interaction
relationship.
That's what God wants with us.
(14:45):
That's what he's called us to.
That's one of the highestplaces for us to live, because
that's eternal, that's not justtemporary.
That's one of the highestplaces for us to live, because
that's eternal, that's not justtemporary, that's eternal.
We're called into eternalrelationship with God, with God
Eternal, secure.
(15:07):
That's significant.
That produces such a peace,that produces such a security to
know that we are eternally inrelationship with God by virtue
(15:27):
of the work that Jesusaccomplished on the cross and
his resurrection from the deadand his ascension to the right
hand of the Father and the factthat he is soon coming again.
The full cycle, the full circle, the full picture of God being
(15:50):
God, fulfilling his word and, inso doing, demonstrating to us
love, not just religion.
Again, now it's good for us todo things systematically.
(16:11):
We've covered that already.
It's good to do things in order.
It's good to do things becausethey need to be done Taking care
of orphans, take care of widowsthere are certain things that
(16:31):
are good for us to do that wouldbe considered religious, good
religion.
But then there are other thingsthat are just not.
That way I don't have areligion with my wife.
I have a relationship.
Now there are some things thatwe do.
We gotta clean the house, dothe dishes, take care of the
(16:57):
yard, all the stuff right, justthe stuff.
Religion, but way more than that, that embrace that intimacy,
that deep intimacy of sexualintimacy.
Embrace that intimacy, thatdeep intimacy of sexual intimacy
(17:24):
, but also the intimacy thatcomes from, just as my wife did
wanted to give me a hug becauseshe wanted to experience that,
and in that there was such arichness, because that's really
what occupies the majority ofthe time, right?
Sexual intimacy is great, butwe can't live there all the time
.
Now, in early portions ofrelationships, it can seem like
(17:49):
that's never-ending.
But eventually things changeand there's other aspects to
relationship that come into playand though they're different,
they're nonetheless rich andfulfilling and sometimes they
actually supersede sexualintimacy, sexual relationships.
(18:15):
There are some things that areactually above and beyond that.
Different, yes, but maybe,perhaps, if we allow ourselves
to think that way, we might evenexperience it that they are
higher than that, moresignificant than that.
(18:35):
Some of them love relationshipwith God, that they supersede
that type of intimacy, but theyhave that picture within them of
relational connection to know.
(19:05):
The Hebrew Bible also uses Yadahto describe God's knowledge of
humans, which is oftenunderstood as a loving and
intimate awareness.
A loving, intimate awareness.
A loving, intimate awareness.
His knowledge, his knowing ofus, his desire for us to have a
relationship in which we knowone another.
We just don't do a relationship, we live a relationship out, so
(19:32):
that those words I never knewyou will never need to be spoken
to us.
There's no need for you to walkin fear or concern about that.
If you are in a livingrelationship with Jesus and if
(19:53):
those thoughts come to you,those are not thoughts that come
to you from God.
Those can be hangovers fromyour former way of living, or
they can actually be things thatcome against you by the powers
of darkness themselves, and theyneed to be addressed
(20:14):
accordingly, because the truthis God has pursued you and he's
pursued me.
He's pursued us.
He has pursued you and he'spursued me.
He's pursued us.
He has pursued us and we haveresponded and made a decision to
(20:40):
repent, to turn and change ourmind and change our ways and to
open ourselves up to receive hiskingdom within us, in which his
kingdom, his life, his life,begins to do within us what we
could not do ourselves in orderfor us to be who he's called us
(21:05):
to be, which we couldn't be onour own without him.
Apart from him, we can donothing, but through him, who
strengthened us, we can do allthings.
Hallelujah, you know what it'slike to have a relationship and
when you have a goodrelationship and that love that
(21:26):
energizes you, where you knowthat you can do anything,
because you are so loved thatyou can do anything, because you
are so loved, I can do anything.
That produces faith.
Love produces faith.
Yes, the word of God, theloving word of God, produces
faith.
Faith, that undeniable knowingthat it's going to happen,
(21:50):
undeniable knowing that it'sgoing to happen.
Hope is that feeling that is ananticipation of something good.
Faith is the knowing that it'sgoing to take place.
All based upon love, allpropelled by love.
(22:14):
We serve a loving God who haspursued us, and because he has
pursued us, he has made a wayfor us.
He has provided for us thatwhich we could not achieve on
our own, and so when we stoptrying and we open ourselves up
to receive the love of God, he'sable to transform us from the
(22:38):
inside, so that we can not justbe that rock that God hugs, but
we can be that one that receivesthe embrace of God and responds
by giving an embrace back.
Hallelujah, by giving theembrace back, not just by
receiving it or not the onewho's just giving it.
(23:00):
Look at what I've done.
No, no, look what we've done.
Look what we're doing.
Look what we're.
Look what we've done.
Look what we're doing.
Look what we're doing.
You know that happened to me nottoo long ago where I was doing
(23:22):
some woodworking in my shop andI was not really achieving what
I wanted to see take place.
I just, it seemed like I wasall thumbs and all left feet.
I just, it was just, it wasn'tworking and I was frustrated.
(23:45):
And I started getting morefrustrated and pretty soon I was
.
I had myself tied up in knotson the inside and I heard in the
midst of all that, I heard theLord speak to me.
You see, we have a relationshipthat is not just okay one hour
(24:08):
in the morning and then I'm offto the races and my relationship
is with God.
One hour in the morning andthen I'm off to the races and my
relationship is with God onehour in the morning.
That's good, that is a goodbeginning.
But to have an ongoingrelationship in which we abide,
which we are dwelling and he'sdwelling and we're dwelling
(24:31):
together and we can dwellingtogether and we can speak to
each other at any point in timein a variety of different ways,
and we have that constantconnection, that continual
awareness that we are connected.
Well, I have that with God inmy relationship, thank God.
That's really, really, reallyavailable.
(24:53):
That's really where it's at.
Yeah, yes, and so.
And then this is that, me beingall twisted up.
God said to me David, stop, hegoes.
First of all, you don't have tobe perfect right away.
In fact, you're not going to bemost of the time.
(25:16):
There's going to be a processright, and he goes.
And I like doing these thingstogether.
I like doing them with you.
I like doing them with you.
In fact, let me show you how,if you just relax and learn to
laugh at your mistakes.
(25:37):
And let me show you and let usdo this together, shall we?
I said you want to do this.
You want to work together withme Because, as your father, I
want to work together with you.
I love doing things togetherwith you.
Wow, to have your father saythat he loves working together
(26:04):
with you, even when you makemistakes.
Because, see, some of us havehad fathers that when we have
worked together with themearthly fathers you know we work
together with them.
We make a mistake, we give themthe wrong wrench, whoa, it's
like all hell broke loose, or itwas just.
(26:25):
We never saw our fathers workwith them.
They were never around, or theytook off before we got to know
them, or they took off, theyabandoned ship, right, or the
list goes on.
They were not quite able to,you know, do things together
(26:52):
with us.
That was comfortable orbeneficial at all, or at least
not on our end.
So we didn't have any example,but we craved it Deep inside.
We've all craved to be affirmedby a father figure and to do
(27:12):
things together with our father.
Everyone, whether you admit itor not, you have that inside.
You just want to have God, tohave God.
My father say that.
The father of fathers say myfather say that.
The father of fathers say Ilike you settle down, man.
(27:34):
I like working with you.
You're all tied up because youcan't enjoy that, but you could
just relax and you laugh atyourself.
And no, I, I'm not puttingpressure on you.
I want to do this together.
He wants to know me.
Yeah, not just in a hug, but inthe things that I do throughout
(27:56):
my day.
He wants to do them together,sometimes as a quiet partner,
sometimes with good advice, buttogether, sometimes with you
know good advice, but together,tied together, we have the
(28:23):
unique ability to enjoy ourrelationship with God.
Because he has given that to uswithin his own life, because he
enjoys having a relationshipwith us continually, on a
regular basis.
He loves looking at us whilewe're sleeping.
(28:47):
He loves looking at you whileyou are doing some of your most
mundane things, like a fatherlooking at a child.
And he is just that Like we attimes have found ourselves
looking at our children and justwanting to look at them, saying
(29:10):
, wow, look at what they'redoing.
It's God with us, that'sEmmanuel, god with us and God in
us, abiding in us.
We are the temple of the HolySpirit, meaning he dwells within
us and he loves it.
He loves it Because the bloodof Jesus has made us clean.
(29:39):
The blood of Jesus continuallymakes our temples clean and we
need to invite the applicationof his blood continually because
we live in a fallen world andsometimes we do.
And we need to invite theapplication of his blood
continually because we live in afallen world and sometimes we
do fallen things still and weneed forgiveness, we need
cleansing, and in that cleansingcomes the indwelling of the
(30:02):
Holy Spirit fully.
And so, as we are fullycleansed, he is fully free to
dwell within us, because hecan't abide with sin, but he can
abide with blood.
He can abide where it's clean.
We're loved, we're known, andhe wants us to know him.
(30:28):
Hallelujah, let's pray.
Father, here we are, we love you.
Thank you For showing us thatyou know us and that you want us
(30:51):
to know you.
Relationally, there is areality that's come as a result
of you, holy Spirit, manifestingJesus.
Hallelujah, hallelujah.
(31:11):
We exalt his name, we lift himhigh, we look to become like him
, because he is our Lord, he isour Messiah, he is the one who
(31:33):
sent to be our Redeemer, lordJesus.
We love you, we honor you andwe look to be like you and to
receive your embrace and toembrace you, to know you and be
known by you, to live and toreceive your embrace and to
embrace you, to know you and beknown by you, to live and dwell
(31:58):
within your kingdom, togetherwith you and one another.
Thank you, thank you, thank you,thank you, thank you, thank you
, thank you, and we just expressthese things in your name, lord
, as you would do amen, amen,amen, lord Jesus Christ, your
(32:26):
name, amen.
Alright, folks, I love you.
If you have any thoughts,questions, concerns, please feel
free to drop us a line atlifearoundthefire, at gmailcom,
or you can type inlifearoundthefire and look us up
on the web.
We would love to hear from youIn the meantime.
God bless you, adios amigos.
It was just the other day, while I was in my office,
that I heard someone coming upbehind me and it was my wife.
And she walked up behind me andjust quietly put her arms
around my neck and just said Ijust wanted to give you a hug
(00:34):
and I couldn't turn around andhug her back, but I could hug
her from the inside out.
While she was hugging me withher arms, I was hugging her from
(00:55):
my heart and, funny thing, shecould feel that, just like I
could feel her arms, but I couldalso feel her heart, her hug
from the inside, and we huggedeach other and we just hugged
(01:25):
there.
We just stayed there for aminute and actually our
breathing, uniquely enough, ourbreathing kind of changed to.
We kind of breathed the sameand my heart rate, I could
actually feel a calm and awarmth and a love come into me
(01:53):
and flow from me and we joinedtogether.
And I tell you what we kneweach other.
I knew that it was my wife, notjust by the sound of her voice,
(02:13):
not just by my empiricalknowledge of what it is to feel
like when she's around.
But it was more than that.
There was an intimate exchangethat was taking place from the
(02:37):
inside and from the outside.
But from the inside, but fromthe inside, I could feel my wife
, I could feel her love and shecould feel me and she could feel
my love.
And that's what we both wanted.
We wanted to know each other,we wanted to just kind of be
(03:00):
there and hang out for a while,just like that.
And we did.
And you know what, uniquelyagain, uniquely enough, after we
had kind of just hugged therefor a minute or two, whatever
(03:20):
length of time it was, I feltfull on the inside, I felt full
of love, I felt content, I feltlike, ah, you know that feeling
of where everything is right, itwas righteous man and there was
joy and there was peace, and Ifelt her love.
(03:51):
But I also felt the kingdom ofgod, because in the midst of
that was the very presence ofgod himself, holy spirit.
Holy spirit was hovering aroundand in that and reveling in
that together with us, becausehe was delighting in the fact
that we were one.
(04:14):
Now there's an interestingpassage that is on the other end
of that equation, and when Isay passage, I mean from.
The scriptures is on the otherend of that equation, and when I
say passage, I mean from thescriptures, from the Bible, and
it's from John, excuse me, fromMatthew, matthew.
(04:35):
Matthew Matthew's Gospel,chapter 7, verses 21 through 23.
And I just want to read it toyou from the New International
Version.
(04:59):
And Jesus, he's talking to hisdisciples, as well as actually a
large group of people,followers that had come from a
variety of different backgroundsand had traveled some distance
just to hear his voice, to hearthe words that come from him,
(05:22):
words of life, the words thatcome from him, words of life,
but also, perhaps, healingsmiracles.
They came because they needed atouch from God, and so Jesus is
giving to them what has becomeknown as the Sermon on the Mount
(05:43):
, and it is one of the longestrecorded teachings that we have
of Jesus.
And in John, chapter 7, verses21 through 23, jesus says
something really, really potentman, he goes.
(06:06):
Not everyone who says to me,lord, lord, will enter the
kingdom of heaven, but only hewho does the will of my Father,
who is in heaven, will of myFather, who is in heaven.
(06:28):
Many will say to me on that dayLord, lord, did we not prophesy
in your name?
And in your name, drive outdemons and perform many miracles
?
Then I will tell them plainly Inever knew you.
Away from me, you evildoers.
From me, you evildoers.
(06:57):
Now some people have come to saythat that means that Jesus is
really de-emphasizing miracles,signs and wonders and that we
really shouldn't be tooconcerned about those things,
because those things have ceasedto exist in the first century
AD and we no longer see thosethings take place.
We now have the written Word ofGod and we no longer need to
(07:21):
have these things like they didback then, and that argument is
empty.
It is unfortunate, butnonetheless it exists.
And that's exactly not whatJesus is saying.
Right, he's not implying that.
(07:43):
There's something deeper thathe's getting at, and that is
that there's this real aspect ofknowing God.
You see, that's a relationalthing.
The other stuff was justperfunctory, it was religious,
(08:06):
it was like these are thingsthat I've done.
See, look what I've done versushaving a relationship with God
and responding to things that hegives to us from that
relationship, and we act on them, we obey them, because we have
(08:29):
relationship, not a to-do list.
I have a relationship with mywife.
Yes, there are things that needto be done, of course, and I do
them, and she does them for me,sometimes because I ask her,
sometimes she just does thembecause she knows that's what I
(08:51):
would like and we have arelationship, we have that and
God has, or at least wants thatwith us that we would have, that
we have the ability to receivefrom him his embrace, not just
(09:16):
his to-do list or or us beingable to function in these
dynamic things like signs andwonders, but to know us More
than anything.
First and foremost, that wewould know him and to have him
(09:45):
know us.
Now there's a Hebrew wordconcerning to know, or to know
someone, and I use the Hebrewlanguage because it's so rich,
(10:09):
it's so full of meaning, andalso it is the original language
that we have, involving thescriptures, that and Greek and
Aramaic.
But Hebrew carries such a richunderstanding of this concept of
(10:37):
to know, and in Hebrew the wordfor to know is yada, which has
a, and it can even involvesexual intimacy to know.
So let me just break that downa little bit more.
(11:20):
Break that down a little bitmore.
Beyond intellectualunderstanding, while, granted,
yada can denote simpleacknowledgement or comprehension
, it often carries a deepermeaning of personal connection
and intimate experience.
(11:42):
Right, it's not just havingsimple acknowledgement or
comprehension of something, orsome call it mental ascent, but
it has a personal connection andhas an intimate experiential
dynamic to it.
(12:02):
I like that Personal intimacy.
The word yadah is used inGenesis, chapter 4, verse 1,
when describing Adam knowing Eve, implying a physical, intimate
relationship.
Same thing goes on furtherwhere Abraham knew Sarah the
(12:30):
ethic of sexual intimacy, butalso experiential knowledge In
the context of knowing God.
Yadah goes beyond abstractknowledge.
It involves entering into arelationship with God through
obedience and living accordingto his will.
(12:52):
We experience God by enteringinto relationship and then
responding to the things thatare on his heart.
And then responding to thethings that are on his heart,
things that he has writtenalready and things that he
speaks to us now the Logos andthe Rhema Right Logos was
(13:15):
established and written alreadyand the Rhema what he speaks
currently and is alive right nowthe Word of God, right to have
relationship with God throughobedience and living according
to his will.
Interesting.
We're doing it his way.
(13:37):
We're having relationship withGod his way, and him knowing us
involves him giving to us anembrace, him give it to us and
embrace.
Have you ever held someone whoisn't capable of responding back
or doesn't want to respond back?
(13:57):
It's like holding a board likea piece of wood.
There's nothing there, like arock, whereas if there's
something alive, relationallyand healthy, when we receive an
(14:25):
embrace or an encounter likethat, there's a response that's
generated not just to us butalso from us back or an
encounter like that, there's aresponse that's generated not
just to us but also from us back.
That's knowing the giving andthe taking, the interaction
relationship.
That's what God wants with us.
(14:45):
That's what he's called us to.
That's one of the highestplaces for us to live, because
that's eternal, that's not justtemporary.
That's one of the highestplaces for us to live, because
that's eternal, that's not justtemporary, that's eternal.
We're called into eternalrelationship with God, with God
Eternal, secure.
(15:07):
That's significant.
That produces such a peace,that produces such a security to
know that we are eternally inrelationship with God by virtue
(15:27):
of the work that Jesusaccomplished on the cross and
his resurrection from the deadand his ascension to the right
hand of the Father and the factthat he is soon coming again.
The full cycle, the full circle, the full picture of God being
(15:50):
God, fulfilling his word and, inso doing, demonstrating to us
love, not just religion.
Again, now it's good for us todo things systematically.
(16:11):
We've covered that already.
It's good to do things in order.
It's good to do things becausethey need to be done Taking care
of orphans, take care of widowsthere are certain things that
(16:31):
are good for us to do that wouldbe considered religious, good
religion.
But then there are other thingsthat are just not.
That way I don't have areligion with my wife.
I have a relationship.
Now there are some things thatwe do.
We gotta clean the house, dothe dishes, take care of the
(16:57):
yard, all the stuff right, justthe stuff.
Religion, but way more than that, that embrace that intimacy,
that deep intimacy of sexualintimacy.
Embrace that intimacy, thatdeep intimacy of sexual intimacy
(17:24):
, but also the intimacy thatcomes from, just as my wife did
wanted to give me a hug becauseshe wanted to experience that,
and in that there was such arichness, because that's really
what occupies the majority ofthe time, right?
Sexual intimacy is great, butwe can't live there all the time
.
Now, in early portions ofrelationships, it can seem like
(17:49):
that's never-ending.
But eventually things changeand there's other aspects to
relationship that come into playand though they're different,
they're nonetheless rich andfulfilling and sometimes they
actually supersede sexualintimacy, sexual relationships.
(18:15):
There are some things that areactually above and beyond that.
Different, yes, but maybe,perhaps, if we allow ourselves
to think that way, we might evenexperience it that they are
higher than that, moresignificant than that.
(18:35):
Some of them love relationshipwith God, that they supersede
that type of intimacy, but theyhave that picture within them of
relational connection to know.
(19:05):
The Hebrew Bible also uses Yadahto describe God's knowledge of
humans, which is oftenunderstood as a loving and
intimate awareness.
A loving, intimate awareness.
A loving, intimate awareness.
His knowledge, his knowing ofus, his desire for us to have a
relationship in which we knowone another.
We just don't do a relationship, we live a relationship out, so
(19:32):
that those words I never knewyou will never need to be spoken
to us.
There's no need for you to walkin fear or concern about that.
If you are in a livingrelationship with Jesus and if
(19:53):
those thoughts come to you,those are not thoughts that come
to you from God.
Those can be hangovers fromyour former way of living, or
they can actually be things thatcome against you by the powers
of darkness themselves, and theyneed to be addressed
(20:14):
accordingly, because the truthis God has pursued you and he's
pursued me.
He's pursued us.
He has pursued you and he'spursued me.
He's pursued us.
He has pursued us and we haveresponded and made a decision to
(20:40):
repent, to turn and change ourmind and change our ways and to
open ourselves up to receive hiskingdom within us, in which his
kingdom, his life, his life,begins to do within us what we
could not do ourselves in orderfor us to be who he's called us
(21:05):
to be, which we couldn't be onour own without him.
Apart from him, we can donothing, but through him, who
strengthened us, we can do allthings.
Hallelujah, you know what it'slike to have a relationship and
when you have a goodrelationship and that love that
(21:26):
energizes you, where you knowthat you can do anything,
because you are so loved thatyou can do anything, because you
are so loved, I can do anything.
That produces faith.
Love produces faith.
Yes, the word of God, theloving word of God, produces
faith.
Faith, that undeniable knowingthat it's going to happen,
(21:50):
undeniable knowing that it'sgoing to happen.
Hope is that feeling that is ananticipation of something good.
Faith is the knowing that it'sgoing to take place.
All based upon love, allpropelled by love.
(22:14):
We serve a loving God who haspursued us, and because he has
pursued us, he has made a wayfor us.
He has provided for us thatwhich we could not achieve on
our own, and so when we stoptrying and we open ourselves up
to receive the love of God, he'sable to transform us from the
(22:38):
inside, so that we can not justbe that rock that God hugs, but
we can be that one that receivesthe embrace of God and responds
by giving an embrace back.
Hallelujah, by giving theembrace back, not just by
receiving it or not the onewho's just giving it.
(23:00):
Look at what I've done.
No, no, look what we've done.
Look what we're doing.
Look what we're.
Look what we've done.
Look what we're doing.
Look what we're doing.
You know that happened to me nottoo long ago where I was doing
(23:22):
some woodworking in my shop andI was not really achieving what
I wanted to see take place.
I just, it seemed like I wasall thumbs and all left feet.
I just, it was just, it wasn'tworking and I was frustrated.
(23:45):
And I started getting morefrustrated and pretty soon I was
.
I had myself tied up in knotson the inside and I heard in the
midst of all that, I heard theLord speak to me.
You see, we have a relationshipthat is not just okay one hour
(24:08):
in the morning and then I'm offto the races and my relationship
is with God.
One hour in the morning andthen I'm off to the races and my
relationship is with God onehour in the morning.
That's good, that is a goodbeginning.
But to have an ongoingrelationship in which we abide,
which we are dwelling and he'sdwelling and we're dwelling
(24:31):
together and we can dwellingtogether and we can speak to
each other at any point in timein a variety of different ways,
and we have that constantconnection, that continual
awareness that we are connected.
Well, I have that with God inmy relationship, thank God.
That's really, really, reallyavailable.
(24:53):
That's really where it's at.
Yeah, yes, and so.
And then this is that, me beingall twisted up.
God said to me David, stop, hegoes.
First of all, you don't have tobe perfect right away.
In fact, you're not going to bemost of the time.
(25:16):
There's going to be a processright, and he goes.
And I like doing these thingstogether.
I like doing them with you.
I like doing them with you.
In fact, let me show you how,if you just relax and learn to
laugh at your mistakes.
(25:37):
And let me show you and let usdo this together, shall we?
I said you want to do this.
You want to work together withme Because, as your father, I
want to work together with you.
I love doing things togetherwith you.
Wow, to have your father saythat he loves working together
(26:04):
with you, even when you makemistakes.
Because, see, some of us havehad fathers that when we have
worked together with themearthly fathers you know we work
together with them.
We make a mistake, we give themthe wrong wrench, whoa, it's
like all hell broke loose, or itwas just.
(26:25):
We never saw our fathers workwith them.
They were never around, or theytook off before we got to know
them, or they took off, theyabandoned ship, right, or the
list goes on.
They were not quite able to,you know, do things together
(26:52):
with us.
That was comfortable orbeneficial at all, or at least
not on our end.
So we didn't have any example,but we craved it Deep inside.
We've all craved to be affirmedby a father figure and to do
(27:12):
things together with our father.
Everyone, whether you admit itor not, you have that inside.
You just want to have God, tohave God.
My father say that.
The father of fathers say myfather say that.
The father of fathers say Ilike you settle down, man.
(27:34):
I like working with you.
You're all tied up because youcan't enjoy that, but you could
just relax and you laugh atyourself.
And no, I, I'm not puttingpressure on you.
I want to do this together.
He wants to know me.
Yeah, not just in a hug, but inthe things that I do throughout
(27:56):
my day.
He wants to do them together,sometimes as a quiet partner,
sometimes with good advice, buttogether, sometimes with you
know good advice, but together,tied together, we have the
(28:23):
unique ability to enjoy ourrelationship with God.
Because he has given that to uswithin his own life, because he
enjoys having a relationshipwith us continually, on a
regular basis.
He loves looking at us whilewe're sleeping.
(28:47):
He loves looking at you whileyou are doing some of your most
mundane things, like a fatherlooking at a child.
And he is just that Like we attimes have found ourselves
looking at our children and justwanting to look at them, saying
(29:10):
, wow, look at what they'redoing.
It's God with us, that'sEmmanuel, god with us and God in
us, abiding in us.
We are the temple of the HolySpirit, meaning he dwells within
us and he loves it.
He loves it Because the bloodof Jesus has made us clean.
(29:39):
The blood of Jesus continuallymakes our temples clean and we
need to invite the applicationof his blood continually because
we live in a fallen world andsometimes we do.
And we need to invite theapplication of his blood
continually because we live in afallen world and sometimes we
do fallen things still and weneed forgiveness, we need
cleansing, and in that cleansingcomes the indwelling of the
(30:02):
Holy Spirit fully.
And so, as we are fullycleansed, he is fully free to
dwell within us, because hecan't abide with sin, but he can
abide with blood.
He can abide where it's clean.
We're loved, we're known, andhe wants us to know him.
(30:28):
Hallelujah, let's pray.
Father, here we are, we love you.
Thank you For showing us thatyou know us and that you want us
(30:51):
to know you.
Relationally, there is areality that's come as a result
of you, holy Spirit, manifestingJesus.
Hallelujah, hallelujah.
(31:11):
We exalt his name, we lift himhigh, we look to become like him
, because he is our Lord, he isour Messiah, he is the one who
(31:33):
sent to be our Redeemer, lordJesus.
We love you, we honor you andwe look to be like you and to
receive your embrace and toembrace you, to know you and be
known by you, to live and toreceive your embrace and to
embrace you, to know you and beknown by you, to live and dwell
(31:58):
within your kingdom, togetherwith you and one another.
Thank you, thank you, thank you,thank you, thank you, thank you
, thank you, and we just expressthese things in your name, lord
, as you would do amen, amen,amen, lord Jesus Christ, your
(32:26):
name, amen.
Alright, folks, I love you.
If you have any thoughts,questions, concerns, please feel
free to drop us a line atlifearoundthefire, at gmailcom,
or you can type inlifearoundthefire and look us up
on the web.
We would love to hear from youIn the meantime.
God bless you, adios amigos.
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