One day with Dr. Laura Hendrickson, three sessions, great food, and awesome fellowship! Session 1: Lev 20:8 “I am the Lord, who makes you holy.”
The first session was my favorite- it reinforced my most recent study on how God wants us to be holy, not religious. Tom Schrader’s equation keeps replaying in my head: a transformed heart + an informed mind = a radical life…
The main point session one was that true change comes from beholding Christ. Second Corinthians 3:5-18, is an awesome metaphor for this point (applying the story of Moses in Ex. 34:29 to us). Verse18 is the theme; “But we all, with unveiled faces, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” The glory of God is, undoubtedly, the most powerful agent of transformation available to mankind. It is so powerful that it transforms those who merely gaze upon it. If you continue reading in 2 Corinthians; 4:6 states: “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” So what is the “light of the knowledge of the glory of God?” I’m glad you asked J….
If we go back to Ex 33, Moses asks of the Lord, “…show me your glory.” The Lord’s answer in 34:5 is amazing, “Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the Lord. And he passed in front of Moses proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness…” Moses asked to see God’s glory and God revealed Himself by revealing the truth of Himself. Unquestionably, God is THE treasure! We need to see Him in his Word and believe it is true; both what it says about us and what it says about Christ! We should ponder God’s love because it changes us; and we desperately need to preach the Gospel to ourselves every day! Love for Christ is the only acceptable motive for obedience. Fear and duty are inadequate.
Session 2 &3 were all about our emotions. Some things that stood out to me:
Emotions are spiritual resources that the Lord has given us. They help us to see what is going on inside of us. They have a purpose.
Our emotions tell us what we really believe about God.
Our hearts are drawn to what we treasure; as Matt 6:21 puts it “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Our emotions can give evidence to our idols. A great test is: what do I want badly enough that I would consider sinning?
We can change our habitual emotions by changing our core beliefs (Rom 12:2 “do not conform to the pattern of the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”)
God is the sanctifier--what works for fighting sin is loving God so much that we don’t want to pursue/entertain the sin. Focusing on the Gospel gives us the power to not sin!
Think about it: What does anxiety (the universal response to stress) tell you about your belief in God? We worry when we trust in our own abilities, rather than in Christ. Furthermore, those things we stress about tend to be the things that we really treasure. Anxiety doesn’t believe Roman’s 8:28 which states that, “in all things God works for the good of those who love him…”
I’ll leave it there… so much good stuff.
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