Marty Friend’s Blog

Sometimes those you deeply love crush you to the core. When that happens, the effects can be like a boulder thrown into a still pond. The resulting waves roll out from us, impacting everything and everyone in their wake. Then, the impact of our wounding others rolls out from them and slams into more people, and on and on it goes. Author Sandra Wilson framed it like this: “Hurt people hurt people”. This has been the story of mankind from the beginning. It is my story, and it is probably your story too.

This may be one reason God has a disposition of mercy toward mankind. We have all been both the injured and the injurer. When Jesus was hanging on the cross, he cried “Father forgive them because they have no idea what they are doing.” He had perfect clarity about this because he knows everyone’s heart and has witnessed humanity’s harm for each other ripple through the centuries. Those who have wronged us literally have no idea what they are doing or, for the most part, why they are doing it. Ripples of brokenness as old as creation wash like waves into our own brokenness and ultimately ripple through us and into others.

Jesus asks us to forgive those who have done evil us in the same way we he has forgiven us (Matt. 6:12). His position is that although every one of us deserves condemnation, we get a free pass. Forgiving is the mechanism that allows us to give what we have been given. In this way, God’s ripples of mercy fan out from us, short-circuiting the unjust cruelty that has washed into us. And, in the process, the buck stops here.

Oddly enough, when we give his great gift away, we get to keep it. But when we fail to give it to others, we lose it. “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins” (Matt 6:14-15). In our upside-down way of thinking, we must hoard to acquire. It makes no natural sense to give anything away, especially to those who don’t deserve it. Forgiveness is an extremely expensive process. It involves absorbing evil rather than passing it on. It was unbelievably costly for Jesus. It is very costly for us.

All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever.
1 Peter 1:24

From the teacher comes the disciple, and from the disciple comes the teacher. It is the way of life…and the way of God. Whatever you have received from God, you must give to others. If you have been loved, you must love. And if you’ve been loved without having deserved that love, then you must love those who don’t deserve your love. If you’ve been given joy, your life must bring joy to others. If you’ve been saved, then you must save others. And if you’ve been blessed, then your life must bring blessing to the lives of others. And therefore, if you’ve received Yeshua, then your life must become Yeshua and Yeshua must become your life. Life begets life. Love begets love. So he made his life a gift to you, that your life would become a gift to the world. Only then is the circle complete…when your life becomes love.
– Jonathan Cahn

Adam was created in God’s image. Adam was appointed to be the first human gardener. That makes the Father THE gardener. The universe is His garden which He is constantly tending. The resurrection happened in a garden. Mary even mistook Jesus for the gardener.

When planting a garden, the ground must first be be broken. This is key for us. It shows that the condition a person is in is paramount to receive what we have to sow. Paul speaks of he and Timothy being planters and waterers. Their job was not to break the ground. Neither did they generate sunshine. God handles all the big stuff. We must simply be aware of broken ground, be faithful to plant and careful to water. Not enough water will starve the plant. Too much water will oversaturate the plant.

The main point of our life is to live continually in the Father’s circle (Father, Son, Spirit) as He escorts us on His journey to perform His exploits. The point is NOT the exploits themselves. If we remain in Him, God sets up our life appointments and encounters. But sometimes we like to tally up these life-changing events up as if they are some sort of Kingdom brownie points. As if somehow we, in our own magnificence, have orchestrated the events and the results. In reality, these success stories are simply a result of the collateral life that springs from living in connection with Him. Living in Him is the true success story!

In John 15:1-8, Jesus used the metaphor of a vine to describe what remaining in Him is like.

“I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener. He takes away every branch that does not bear fruit in me. He prunes every branch that bears fruit so that it will bear more fruit. You are clean already because of the word that I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me—and I in him—bears much fruit, because apart from me you can accomplish nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown out like a branch, and dries up; and such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire, and are burned up. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want, and it will be done for you. My Father is honored by this, that you bear much fruit and show that you are my disciples.

The vine is life. It’s where the life flows from the Father, Son and Spirit. Fruit is merely a natural result of receiving the life flow that comes through the vine. The branch has no life in itself. It has no power to produce fruit by itself. Remove it from the vine and it withers and dies.

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation…” (1 Peter 2:9). That which is holy is that which is separate, set apart for the purposes of God. So, if you belong to God, you are a priest, one of His cohanim. And every priest and holy vessel must be separated from everything else, set apart to God.  He will use everything to separate you from everything else to bring you to Himself, and separate you from the rest of the world, the rejection od men, disappointment, heartbreak, crisis, hurt, sorrow, disillusionment, unfulfillment, discontentment, trouble, abandonment, failure, whatever it takes to separate His priest from the world and to Himself. – Jonathan Cahn

The scriptures declare that all creation is undergoing the pains of childbirth. So too it is for the child of God. Whatever pains and tears you know in this life become the birth pangs of new life. We are born again through the birth pangs of emptiness, of disillusionment, of frustration, of disappointment, of broken dreams, of unanswered longings, of wounding, and of tears. So don’t despise the tears, but know that in God, every tear will bring forth birth, and every sorrow, new life…And the pains of this world will be forgotten when we experience the joy of birth into the new life to come. (“massaged” thoughts from Jonathan Cahn)

“I am convinced that even out of the most broken places in our lives, and the ashes of grief and sadness, (God) will bring some of the most breathtaking beauty… and in fact, we will dance on top of the ruins of what was intended for evil by the enemy.” -Steven Curtis Chapman

Rev. 7:17 pictures Jesus as a lamb who will be the shepherd who leads us to fountains of living water.

“In the world, it is the strong and fierce who rule. But in the kingdom of God, it is the Lamb that rules. So in the kingdom of the Lamb, the weak are strong, and the strong are weak. In the kingdom, if you would have, you must let go. If you would receive, you must give. If you lower yourself, you will be lifted up. If you become little, you will become great. If you lose yourself, you will find yourself. If you surrender, you will prevail. And if you die to yourself, you will find life.” – Jonathan Cahn