Every once in a while I run across something that really makes me stop say, “Wow!” You know, the kind of thing Father places in your path that you’ll be mauling over in your brain and heart for a while.  Today I ran across such a thing.  I really enjoy listening to the podcasts put out by The Free Believer’s Network featuring Darrin Hufford, author of The Misunderstood God.  They have great discussions with more of a Gen X flare than typically surrounds out of the box conversations.  This morning I listened to a podcast Darrin Hufford and Robert Ramos recorded titled, “Wading Through Shame.”  In a word…Fantastic!  Darrin and Robert blew up some major sacred cows as they discussed the importance of knowing your own heart.  Religion has taught us our hearts are evil and to be ignored and avoided.  Yet when Christ is in your life your heart is magnificent!  It’s a beauty to behold.  People often confuse their hearts with the actions of their flesh so they overlook the fact that they are indeed fearfully and wonderfully made.  Darrin and Robert made a bold statement that made every religious bone in my body scream.  “To really know God you need to know your own heart.”  I think of what Paul wrote about Christ in us being our hope of glory.  It’s not this little Jesus renting out a room in our evil hearts.  It’s Christ so connected with us that our heart beat is the same as His.  But shame has come in and so messed us up that it has made us afraid of our hearts.  Its made us afraid to see what is really in there.  Yet if we take the time to look, we’d be shocked by what we see!  Who we truly are within is beautiful.

Darrin used the analogy of when he took art classes and the students would work on various projects that came out really nice.  But from time to time the teacher would step up and create one.  He said the whole class would gather with excitement.  “This is going to be truly amazing!”  They would all be thinking.  And sure enough, the project the teacher made was simply awesome.  We so often rag on ourselves and think we’re scum.  Running ourselves down is what religion has trained us to do.  Yet, when we were made, THE ARTIST stepped up and all heaven stopped to see, “What is He going to make?”  He made you.  He made me.  And we’re amazing.

We have been so lied to.  Years of lies have caused us to miss who we truly are in our hearts.  Religion has taught us to be afraid of our hearts.  But there’s a reason for that.  The devil is afraid of our hearts.  He knows that if we lived from our hearts we would be knit so tightly with Christ that His church would be revealing Him to people all over the place.  Why, they may even have to call us Christ – ians.

Loren

http://freebelievers.com/podcast/into-the-wild

BTW – Our movie Jeff’s World that is currently in production takes on this topic.