This morning we were blessed to come together, engage with our Heavenly Father, and learn more about who God is and the refreshment he offers us as we continued our series in Psalm 23. Pastor Dale taught us about nephesh, the Hebrew word for “soul”. In the Bible, people don’t have a nephesh, they are a nephesh--a living, breathing, physical being.
The nephesh we discussed today is connected to our identity - who we are and the battle for that place. Every person experiences moments when they’ve said or reacted to others in ways we wish we hadn’t. While these moments nag at us, the greater issue is when those moments turn into a path, that turn into a way of life. We create these paths for ourselves that can be incredibly difficult to get out of, ways of thinking, ways of behaving, that we think are righteous.
A shepherd is good when they keep moving you to different places, even though it may be a difficult path to get there. Often, fear can grab hold of us as our shepherd seeks to move us from one pasture to another. The fear can hold us emotionally captive where instead of self-confidence and freedom, we experience anxiety and paralysis. Instead of hope and joy, we hold onto an inner emptiness and sadness. Instead of living in the house of love, where God dwells, we live in a house of fear.
Without even noticing, we can build our lives on the opinions of others, and not on the path God leads us on. We ask ourselves questions and tell ourselves stories that can trap us in a spin cycle of emotional poverty. The invitation of Jesus is the invitation to move out of the house of fear and into the house of love. The paths of righteousness The Shepherd leads us on are not just a set of moral thoughts, or modifying our behavior. His path delivers our lives, our souls; it frees our nephesh from being crushed by fear.
The challenge for us is to let go of fear and claim the deeper truth of who we are or could be. When we make space for God in our lives and listen to His loving voice, we can start to realize perfect love and gradually let go of our fears.
Pastor Dale’s encouragement - every time we feel afraid, open ourselves to God’s presence with the community of God’s beloved and with meditative prayer on God. It is by doing these things, our souls can be restored.
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In our generation, introducing Silicon Valley to Jesus is our vision. We believe Jesus is the answer, the hope for the world, and a relationship with Him changes everything. This is a church where you can come as you are and we'd love to meet you. Join our livestream service, Sunday at 9 am (PST). Learn more about who we are as a church at www.calvarylg....
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15 сен 2024
