What a delight to contemplate such a deep concept of Honored, especially as it (and all that God declares upon us) is in God’s sight.  Here’s the link to our discussion. We hope you are as encouraged as we have been, even this week lingering on God’s declaration upon us.

You only are a people holy to GOD, your God;
GOD chose you out of all the people on Earth
as his cherished personal treasure.
Deuteronomy 14:2 (MSG)

And the song for this week from our Spotify playlist:

Precious is an adjective meaning of high price or great value; very valuable or costly; highly esteemed for some spiritual, nonmaterial, or moral quality. Segullah, the Hebrew word translated as “treasured possession” refers to a royal treasure of gold and silver, but most of the time it is used in reference to God’s people. So beautiful. God determines our identity (“redeemed”) and declares our worth (“precious,” “treasured”).

First of all, you have to keep unmasking the world about you for what it is: manipulative, controlling, power-hungry, and, in the long run, destructive. The world tells you many lies about who you are, and you simply have to be realistic enough to remind yourself of this. Every time you feel hurt, offended, or rejected, you have to dare to say to yourself: ‘These feelings, strong as they may be, are not telling me the truth about myself. The truth, even though I cannot feel it right now, is that I am the chosen child of God, precious in God’s eyes, called the Beloved from all eternity, and held safe in an everlasting belief.

― Henri J.M. Nouwen[

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In Hebrew, shalom is translated as completeness, soundness, welfare, peace, perfect, full, harmony, wholeness and the joining together of opposites. In part, this is why shalom is used as a greeting and farewell – the epitome of opposites brought together to make endless ends meet as only God can. Dare we take it to the deepest, most significant place where the shalom of Christ: light in darkness, life over death.

God gave everything because to God we are worth it. Dare we allow that to inform our worth? And to inform the undeniable worth of the people walking next to you – today and every day.

Here’s the link to Lesson 5 in which we discussed our identity and worth PRECIOUS/TREASURED says JEHOVAH SHALOM (Peace). I hope you are as encouraged as we have been, even this week lingering on God’s declaration upon us.

Okay – so here are the links to this week’s audio/video on our lesson considering our identity as SAFE says the LORD Most High (Jehovah-Sabaoth). The Prophet Amos said it so well:

For behold, he who forms the mountains
and creates the wind,
    and declares to man what is his thought,
who makes the morning darkness,
    and treads on the heights of the earth—
    the Lord, the God of hosts, is his name!
Amos 4:13

Today we considered our belonging by looking at Isaiah 51, Exodus 3 and John 20. Then moved to Isaiah 49, John 10 and Psalm 23 to see who says so – Jehoah Raah, our Shepherd. The One who declares, “You are mine”, “I have engraved you on the palms of my hands”, “I call you by name.” As we pray that the Lord will help us in our unbelief and move our hearts to be anchored in the fullness of his provision, protection and steadfast love – that we may “never be in want” since we aren’t.

But, rather than go into it all, here is a link to our chat.

Song: Whole Heart (Hold me now) – Hillsong Worship

Another fun & enlightening chat on our identity and worth – this week on Redeemed says Yahweh. We hope you will catch up via the recording. (password: redeemed)

“Do you know what it means that you are God’s workmanship? What is art? Art is beautiful, art is valuable, and art is an expression of the inner being of the maker, of the artist. Imagine what that means. You’re beautiful, you’re valuable, and you’re an expression of the very inner being of the Artist, the divine Artist, God Himself” – Tim Keller

We are God’s masterpiece, “poiema”, word only used at creation and in Ephesians 2. We are a new creation “kainos” – Greek for “new, of a whole new kind; never seen before, uncommon, unprecedented, unheard of, novel.”

God, Elohim (Creator) says of us: “I have chosen you,” “I am with you”, “I am your God,” “I will strengthen you,” I will help you.” “You are mine,” “I formed you.”

Isaiah 40:31, “But those who wait upon the LORD will renew their strength” or another translation “those who entwine their hearts with Yahweh will experience divine strength.”

Somehow our recording failed to upload – so sorry about that. But here’s song from the our Spotify Who You Are, Says Who playlist to go with this week’s lesson: Elohim from Hillsong.

Check out the Who You Are, Says Who playlist on Spotify

Paul & Silas have left Athens and headed to Corinth where he will connect with his new friends and fellow compatriots Aquilla & Priscilla. But rather than go into everything, here’s our chat:

This week we catch up with Saul just after he and Barnabas have gone their separate ways after a disagreement over John Mark. Their first journey presented the Gospel to the Jews (Acts 13) and to the Gentiles (Acts 14 – the Greeks) as they had been tasked. They also sought wisdom from the Council at Jerusalem to smooth some inevitable issues as the freedom for which Jesus set us free bumps into the Law (those who had banked their lives on melding with those who looked to everything other than it.)

Which is where we ourselves in Acts 16. We are invited us to travel along with Paul, Silas and their new addition to the crew, Timothy – “a disciple” “whose mother was Jewish and a believer but whose father was a Greek” on the second missionary journey.

We get to see prayer, faith, trust and utter obedience in action – in tough situations dealing with broken relationship, mis-use of power, persecution alongside power and peace in the midst.

But rather than go into it all, here’s a link to our chat:

In Acts 11 we find Peter facing some critics of his communing and dining with sinners – which is a bit of an understatement of the enormity of this shift God had gently urged Peter into through and with Cornelius in Chapter 10. Peter offers us a brief case study of dealing with conflict. He never tried to prove himself or set himself up as “right – he didn’t argue or put down those coming after him. He humbly (which might be the operative word) and simply presented the facts, took it to God and let His word (Scripture) stand (or not stand) for itself with the statement, “Who was I that I could stand in God’s way?”

But rather than go into it all, here’s a link to our chat:

And this week, we circled back to Peter as he leaned into his front row seat not only to see, but to experience even more freedom for which he (we!) had (have) been set free. Through Aeneas, Tabitha & Cornelius God reveals his power to breathe life into bodies and souls. He hears our prayers, sees our need, meets our needs (even those we didn’t know we had) and displays his faithfulness in ways exceedingly, abundantly more than we can ask or imagine. Which He continues to do today – every day.