29 - The Rediscovered Treasure (Part 2)
Episode Highlights
The focus of this episode is a recording of a men’s retreat that Chip did in Texas in 1993. The retreat content was edited and put on CDs. The CDs were included with the first edition copies of The Voice of the Heart published in 2001.
You’ve got to get defeated to become rich in this “God world”.
God says that what He is after is our hearts. Our hearts that He made, that He created, that He loves.
“But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him.
They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.” Jeremiah 17:7-8 (NIV)
What is feeding the roots of the tree? Its roots are planted in what feeds it, and it receives emotional and spiritual food.
God feeds our hearts with emotional and spiritual food.
God stamps our hearts with feelings, needs, desire, longings, and hope at birth. This is what God is after. This is what puts us into a relationship with the God of our forefathers.
Through our feelings, needs, desire, longings, and hope we end up growing into a strong person who others can love and trust.
Torment in our lives does not come from exposing the truth about our hearts; torment comes from the energy we take to keep our hearts hidden.
We are as sick as the secrets we keep within us, from the smallest manipulation to the largest secret.
The difference between an unhealthy family and a healthy family is the willingness to seek forgiveness. Healthy families seek forgiveness.
Truths:
Pain of the heart is the teacher.
Love is the lesson.
Life is the result.
Sharing that is the practice.
God loves us so much that He will go to any length to get us back. There is nothing we can do to earn it. God doesn’t need anything we have.
God does not need us:
He craves us.
He wants us.
He wishes to be with us.
Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!” “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.” Luke 19:39-40 (NIV)
God doesn’t need us; We need Him. The price we pay for needing Him is having to go through the excruciating and glorious pain of being loved, without being able to do anything to get it.
What we can do is live out our salvation. He is the way, the truth, and the life. He came to bring life and life abundantly.
“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6 (NIV)
Are you living the abundant life Jesus came to give you? If you’re not, what stops you? Is it your refusal to face your pain?
Surrendering to God means taking your feelings, needs, longings, desire, and hope and putting them in His hands, giving them over to the God Who made us.
If we give Him our feelings, needs, longings, desire, and hope, we begin to grow roots. These roots grow deep into the soil to the water source and find sustenance.
God pours into our feelings, needs, longings, desire, and hope. The roots draw nourishment and the tree begins to grow and flourish.
If we do not deal with our pain, our hearts, and deal with our glory, we remain spindly little bushes that nothing much can crawl under to find shade and rest. We become surly, old, bristly, prickly people who defend their unfruitful, desert spots on the earth. We become defensive.
God can do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.
“Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.” Ephesians 3:20 (NLT)
Healthy families seek forgiveness; Unhealthy families do not. (They seek to justIfy their behavior.)
Parents who seek forgiveness set a pattern for their children that tells them they are free to admit their own mistakes. Parents who do not seek forgiveness are telling their children they better not mess up.
We are all going to make mistakes, and be in need of redemption.
When our roots (feelings, needs, longings, desire, and hope) are planted in the water, they drink deeply and are abundantly satisfied. They are able to produce the abundance of fruit that they were created to produce.
A tree that is gloriously full of fruit is an expression of everything we are made to be like. You have to feed the roots in order to grow the fruits.
Dr. Chip Dodd
Voice of the Heart Center
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