This is the Truth Network. We will serve as the guides in what we call The Masculine Journey. The Masculine Journey starts here now.
Hello Greenville Spartanburg! You're listening to The Masculine Journey. We're glad to have you with us on this adventure and we're talking today about what it means for each one of us to be loved by the Trinity. Now you could say Jesus, you could say the Holy Spirit, you could say the Father, right?
You could say all those and Jim you have a word for that. Well, it's not your word, but you know a word for that. No, that's the first word in the Bible about God. It's plural. Right, so it means all inclusive. And so what does it mean to you personally to be loved by God?
And fill in the blank on all of them, one of them, however you want to look at that. And we're all going to try to answer that today as we talk about this topic. And where it came from is my current favorite Christian artist is Nicole Lemons and she has a song that's called Love By You. And so when we come back in after the break, the Bump will be playing these words and it's the chorus and she sings in that, when she's singing what it means to be loved by Jesus, is I am believed in, I am held onto, don't have to wonder who I belong to, I'm always wanted, always known, and always treasured it's true, I am loved by you.
And if I can just hold on to that much of that song on a given day, it's going to be a much better day than it would be any other day. Because a lot of times that's what the enemy's coming after is just stealing that joy in your heart that comes from feeling that truly down deep that I am really loved by the creator of everything. Right, and we'll talk more about that as we unpack this topic. And so we're all going to kind of share some of our own adventures along the way with Jesus and we're going to start with Robby.
Robby, you have the first clip. Welcome back from over across the pond, as they might say in England. Yeah, I was in Israel for the last couple weeks and so my voice is still struggling as a result, but we're here so I'm very grateful for that.
As are we. Yeah, well, originally when you sent out the topic, Sam, you talked about love by the Father, that was the original, and that idea of the Father and you know, one of the amazing ways that we can experience that is any moment we choose to, we can pray. And we can experience the Father, the Trinity in any way you want to and you can do that by just simply, you know, reflecting your heart right back right that moment. And, you know, when I was in Israel I have long been intrigued by Superman, you know, because I knew that the original Superman character was developed by two Jewish young men who were trying to give a reality to what they expected the Messiah to be, Mashiach, if you're going to say it in Hebrew, and so the way that they designed him was to put this red shield on his chest that had the letter Zadie in it, which means righteous, or the righteous one, that would be how you would know it is the Messiah, but of course the closest letter to that Zadie noise I guess they decided would be a red S. And the other thing that is really phenomenal about it is, you know, Superman wears a cape and since we grew up with that we never really thought a lot about it but he has always had it, but the cape was the Jewish prayer shawl. And if you're familiar with the Jewish prayer shawl a little bit, it has these four edges on it that they're called tizitz, which are essentially the fringe that the lady wanted to touch of Jesus' in order to be healed because they're very much connected to God through prayer. So when you picture Superman wearing the shawl, he was never alone because he always, you know, was in prayer with his father in whatever situation that would be, so he had that identity. So I found this clip from a man of steel, which I got to watch again on my flight back, and just intrigued by how his father shows up for Superman in this particular scene to, he's found him now that he's a grown up man, he doesn't know really even what his own name is, where he came from, he has all these questions and his father starts to impart his identity to him and part of his identity is his last name as you'll hear is El and as he just described Elohim, El is the word God and so it's no accident that that's the last name of Superman in both the series or in the movie, however you want to look at that and then as he describes what his purpose was or how he was born into a sense of freedom, right, and for those of you who've had a chance to experience the masculine journey, I hope you have that you'll come to a boot camp and see that, it is all about freedom.
It is all about coming out of the matrix and what they go on to describe here, what Superman's dad explains to him is that there was essentially a matrix on his planet where there was this lie of, you know, everybody had a predetermined purpose by what man thought their purpose was supposed to be but God has got his own purposes and I think it's really cool how Superman's dad shows up for him here through his prayer shawl, he's always connected and go ahead and play it. To see you standing there having grown into an adult, if only Lara could have witnessed this. Who are you? I am your father Cal. My name is Jor-El. I'm Cal, that's my name.
Cal El, it is. I have so many questions. Where do I come from? Why did you send me here?
You came from Krypton. What happened? Artificial population control was established. The outposts and space exploration were abandoned. We wasted our natural resources. As a result our planet's core became unstable.
Eventually our military leader General Zod attempted a coup but by then it was too late. Your mother and I foresaw the coming calamity and we took certain steps to ensure your survival. This is a Genesis chamber. All Kryptonians were conceived in chambers such as this. Every child was designed to fulfill a predetermined role in our society. As a worker, a warrior, a leader, a soul. Your mother and I believed Krypton had lost something precious. The element of choice, of chance. What if a child dreamed of becoming something other than what society had intended for him or her? The child aspired to something greater. You were the embodiment of that belief, Kal.
Krypton's first natural birth in centuries. Yeah, I think it's really cool. He speaks into his identity in all sorts of different ways. But most of all, he speaks to him.
Right? And you have a father that is always right there, you know, available to us at all these particular times. And fascinatingly to me, and I've been processing this for a few days, is I always thought it was kind of me that had the idea of starting prayer.
But I think God calls to you. Just like it wasn't you know, he says, you know, his dad shows up on the scene. He wasn't looking for his dad in that situation.
His dad found him. And so the experience that I had was we did a hotel in Magdala, which is where Mary Magdalene was born. When they went to build that hotel, they had to excavate. And when they did, they found the oldest synagogue that was dated clear back from the time of Jesus. And in that synagogue, there was a rock called the Magdala Stone that has on it an image that would have been the temple curtain that was torn in two when Jesus, you know, died on the cross that opened up us all to the ability to talk to the Father when you think about it. But as God would have it, our room, and I had interviewed these people at the NRB.
I knew exactly what I was looking at. Our room, the terrace was not 20 feet from the synagogue. And so when I get up at my normal prayer time, I'm out there to pray at like 3 o'clock. I'm looking dead into the synagogue that obviously Jesus had been in. And I'm looking straight at the, you know, the Magdala Stone. And that grasped me, but nothing like looking up from where I was.
You could look straight into the valley to know the topography. Nazareth is, you know, maybe 20 miles up the road to the right, but you'd have to go up this valley. And so when Jesus came out of Nazareth, down through that valley, the first place he would have come when he started his ministry was right there in that synagogue. And I am sitting right there, and when he did, the Father just called to my heart, right? And I just began to weep as I was experiencing God, but it wasn't me like reaching out to God. It was like him reaching down to me.
And so it's an interesting thing as I think about that, that you're not alone because He will call to you. And the other thing I think about, that particular experience that night, or morning, whatever you want to call it, is shortly thereafter, the jackals began to howl up on those mountains that are up above that hotel. And if you've ever heard jackals, you know, it's one thing to hear coyotes.
I've never heard jackals. It was quite the chorus. Just to highlight the whole evening of being something that you'll never forget as long as you live. And it's those moments, right, that impact your life. So for you, it's just knowing that you're never alone.
Is that what you were saying? Well, it's not only that, but it's not it's a matter of, I'm not alone. He's calling to me. I am in this identity of I'm the Father's son, and I'm walking through what He has me do. In other words, that's my, the way I'm going to get through life is based on, hopefully, my prayer life more so than what I'm sitting here trying to decide what I'm going to do. Can I ask you a follow-up question?
Please. Okay, so what does that do for you when you face adversity, when you face life's challenges, when you face what the enemy throws at you? Yeah, we've certainly had plenty of that here of late. What that immediately leads you to is you feel like you have someplace to go. Right? Like, you know where to turn, and not only not where to turn, but it may involve some waiting, but realizing that this is where my helps really is coming from.
Yeah. Thank you, Robby. A great place for you to reach out and get closer to God would be a boot camp, and we have one coming up in November. It's November 20th through 23rd. You can go to masculinejourney.org to register for that. If you have financial difficulty getting there, don't let that keep you from going. We will find a way to help you get there. Just reach out to us. You can get any of our first names at masculinejourney.org as our emails.
So it could be Jim or Robby or me, I'm Sam, any of us. We'll talk with you after the break, and we'll talk more about being loved by God. What we have at our boot camp is something that makes you stronger and gives you the strength to go on your regular walk with God.
It's something that will make you be bigger than you were when you got there. I think sometimes as men, we feel like we're on our own, and we've got to do everything ourselves, and the weight of the world is on our shoulders, and it's our job to fix everything and make everything right and have all the answers. And I think when you come here, you just get really honed back in and reminded that God really is for us. That a good Father helps you, and a good Father makes you have all the tools you need, and a good Father comes through for you when you need Him, and you just feel less alone. Register today at masculinejourney.org I am held on to, don't have to wonder who I belong to I'm always wanted, always known, and always treasured It's true I am loved by you Welcome back to Masculine Journey.
That is Riley Clemons singing Loved by You, and that's our topic for this week. It's what does it mean to be loved by Jesus? What does it mean to be loved by the Holy Spirit? What does it mean to be loved by the Father? What does it mean to be loved by the Trinity? You fill in how you want to do that, but what's it mean to be loved by God? And so at a very personal level, not a generic level, not just, oh, you know, makes me feel good.
Well, that's great. It does make you feel good, but what does it really do for your heart? What does it really do when obstacles come at you?
What does it really do when the chips are down? Because that's when it really matters the most It matters all the time, but it matters the most when the enemy is trying to rob you of that And the reason I'm camping on that is, sometimes it feels like the only thing we have to hold onto, but in reality, it's the only thing we need to hold onto, because everything else is fleeting, you know, and it's just here for the moment, and it's gone, which is the definition of that, I guess I just said it again for a second time, it's redundant. But Jim, you actually have the next clip, so you can talk about it, you can play it, whatever you'd like to do I think I'll talk about Robby's and then play mine That's fine.
One thing that just hit me right between the eyes is, and the theme took me back to high school, reading Huxley's I forgot the name of the book Brave New World. I thought it was a great idea to have people designed for specific purposes, and the fact that everybody was happy, and if you weren't, you got to take a drug that made you happy I was on the opposite side of the teacher and pretty much everybody else in class thinking that was a good idea, but I got to thinking about it with God, and God has created each of us uniquely I'm not going to say it, don't you And he has created us for a purpose so finding that purpose is a big part of that walk in love with him I just was wondering if you were okay with having been designed for a specific reason as opposed to having the free choice, which we do, we can reject that purpose. I'm delighted with that idea as well as, I'm one of those both ands people that think yes, we were designed to have a particular purpose, etc.
but also we have complete free choice in the process as well. And for those interested, that is Hebraic logic, and we're stuck in Aristotelian logic so let all those big words sink in It's funny, sometimes we have music as a major thing showing up when we're doing clips, and we do have two, and I'm one of those This is a song, Emmanuel usually related to Christmas, but by Mike Card, and it addresses what I want to talk about with my love of God most of the stuff is right there, so I don't need to set it up. Let her rip. Let her ever separate us from the love of God in Christ Emmanuel our God is with us and if God is with us, who could stand against us our God is with us Emmanuel Emmanuel our God is with us if God is with us who could stand against us our God is with us Emmanuel Everything about God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is an expression of His extreme love for us our creation came out of that love and Jesus taught us that we're supposed to love those that hate us, spitefully use us but it's real easy to love someone who loves you and it is without a doubt God loves me, He's shown me in many ways one of those is music, which is part of why I picked a song. From a very early age, I was singing and most of that singing was in church and He reached me through music. As Sam, you'll elaborate more later, but God, to me, is almost a practical joker.
There are many times that I'm finding humor and when He does talk to me it is often humor and even more often it's questions. He's not telling me what to do, He's asking me things that, thinking about it reminds me of what's important. And that is a loving Father, which I had in a human Father and I see it in my Heavenly Father far more. And the real issue for me is how could I not love someone that loves me so much that He came down and gave up heaven and died so that I could live. God has done that for each of us and the opening of that question or that song, which is actually, it's the last verse but what will be your answer? Are you going to respond to that love with love because you know you're loved or do you reject it and don't see it?
My card, we used to go, He's retired now, unfortunately, but He'd teach at the Cove often. And one of the things He said that really impacted me, I'll share it, I may have before on the radio but that doesn't matter, we'll do it again because it's not the same listeners are here. His definition of chesed which is the Hebrew version of what God's love is, is that the one who owes us nothing gave us everything. And that kind of love is not something you'll ever get in seeking it among humans. Only God can fulfill that.
So Jim, same question for you. What does it mean to you to hold on to that when life's challenges, and the older you get the more challenges come your way. So what does it mean to hold on to those truths that you're talking about?
The more physical challenges, sure. I had a pretty healthy life but I am starting to fall apart. But one of the things that I hold on to that He has shown me is that I'm eternal. I'm not just here. I'm temporal, I'm stuck here for 70, 80, even if it's 140 years which I pray not, but I'll be here as long as God wants me to be here.
But this is temporary. And knowing that I'm going to be with Him and experience what Robby was talking about, I've had those close encounters with God where everything in this world pales in comparison to that encounter. And if you haven't had it, I would pray that you will. Because He loves us that much that He is going to. He won't reverse anything that you decide you're going to do. But He will be very convincing in leading you to Him if you seek Him.
You will find Him. Yeah, I mean He kind of stopped Paul in his tracks on the road to Damascus. Some of us need a two by four. Others are fine with a soft voice.
Yeah, a gentle little nudge or something along those lines. And so part of the reason we talk about coming to a boot camp, you know, to find God there is not because the boot camp is magical from the standpoint God is everywhere. You can find God in your car right next to you. You can find God wherever you look for Him.
He's already there. And so it's not that. It's just that we often, at least for me and most people I know, don't take time to be quiet and let God be God. And to go out and ask Him questions and have time just to sit and listen to what He has to say about those questions or about whatever He has to offer up to you. And that's the power of the boot camp weekend. Yes, we talk about certain topics and there's great movie clips and there's great testimonies and things that God's laid on our hearts.
And those are all impactful. But the magic of the weekend is always when the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit step in and say, this is what I want to do in your heart, Son. This is what I want to do in your life. This is how I've always seen you and it's a positive thing and not what the world's been telling you.
And so that's the difference. Is that you actually take time. And the question I have for you is, maybe you're better at it than I am, but how often do you actually take enough time to truly be quiet and let God just love on you and be God?
And Rodney, how would you describe a boot camp? It's definitely not often enough when you say, well how do you let that happen? I don't let it happen enough. There are times when I'll just take a drive and just turn my stuff off and just try to think about Him and what He's doing with me, where it's going in my life. And next thing you know, my thoughts are like, oh my gosh, why am I thinking about this?
It's just nothing to do with that. And I've got to get back. And then I'm off again and then I'm back.
And that's just the way life goes. But to actually be at a boot camp where you've got some time, because I know like for me, the best boot camps were the first couple boot camps where I'm not a part of the team, I'm not a part of doing anything, I'm not responsible for anything, I'm just there. And it was wonderful.
I loved them. And quite honestly, it would be great to go back to a boot camp and just be there to take in what you guys give, then try to give as a part of everything. And I just think it's just wonderful to sit there and just enjoy the boot camp, take in everybody, take in the things, and just go step by step and let God have control. So if you're interested in that, go to masculinejourney.org and register for the upcoming boot camp, November 20th through 23rd. And this week, let God love on you and then take that love and share it with somebody else. We'll talk with you next week. This is the Truth Network.
