Wild At Heart Chapter 7

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Wild At Heart Chapter 7

• Healing the Wound
• Lyrics to Desperado
• The deepest desire of our hearts is for union
  with God. God created us for union with Himself.
  This is the original purpose of our lives.
  Brennan Manning
• John favorite time with his boys

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• Boys want someone to guide them into adventure
  and to test their strength against
• but it all takes place in the context of an
  intimate bond of love that is far deeper than
  words can express
• Passage from the Story of a Novel 120-121

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The Source of Real Strength 121

• As we have talked about before guys are
  unanimously embarrassed by their emptiness and
  woundedness, it is for most of us a tremendous
  source of shame
• But it need not be
• From the beginning ours was meant to be a
  desperately dependent existence.
• John 155 tree and branches
• We are made to depend on God, we are made for
  union with Him and nothing about us works right
  without it.

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• A car is made to run on gasoline, and it would
  not run properly on anyhting else. Now God
  designed the human machine to run on Himself. He
  Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to
  burn, or the food our spirits were designed to
  feed on. There is no other. C S Lewis
• This is where our sin and our culture have come
  together to keep us in bondage and brokenness, to
  prevent the healing of our wound.
• Our sin is our fierce determination to be
  independent and to rely on anyone especially God

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• Again look at our movies James Bond and John
  Wayne and all the other real men and what they
  have in common.
• They are loners, they do not need anyone.
• We come to believe deep in our hearts that
  needing anyone for anything is a sort of
  weakness, a handicap.
• That is why most men will never stop to ask for
  directions.
• How did Jesus live His life
• He lived in desperate dependence on His Father

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• I assure you, the Son can do nothing by Himself.
  He does only what he sees the Father doing
• I live by the power of the living Father who
  sent me
• The words I say are not my own, but my Father
  who lives in me does his work through me
• The Father and I are one
• Why is this important?
• Because many men live with a deep
  misunderstanding of Christianity and their
  relationship with Christ

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• Remember that Masculinity is an essence that is
  passed from a father to a son.
• The true essence of strength is passed to us from
  God through our union with Him.
• King Davids words in Psalms (page123)
• King David was a true man that is unashamed to
  admit his desperate dependence on God.
• Men are typically quite harsh with the broken
  places within them. Many report feeling as though
  there is a boy inside and they despise that about
  themselves.
• But that is not how God feels about it
• He is furious about what has happened to you.

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• It would be better to be thrown into a sea with
  a large millstone tied around the neck than to
  face the punishment in store for harming one of
  these little ones Luke 172
• Think of how you would feel if the wounds you
  were given, the blows dealt to you, were dealt to
  a boy you loved- your son or grandson.
• Would you shame him for it?
• Would you feel scorn that he could not rise above
  it all?
• No, you would feel compassion
• Movie clip GWH

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• It is no shame that you need healing, it is no
  shame to look to another for strength, it is no
  shame that you feel young and afraid inside.
• Its not you fault
• Its not your fault

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Entering the Wound 125

• Frederick Buechners story
• The Sacred journey quote
• That is the way we are with our wound, especially
  men. We bury it deep and never take it out again.
  But we must take it out again and enter into it.
• Johns story 126-127
• We fight this part of the journey. Our false self
  is our defense from entering our wounded heart.
  It is a chosen blindness

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• our false self stubbornly blinds each of us to
  the light and the truth of our own emptiness and
  hollowness Brennan Manning
• A wound unfelt is a wound unhealed.
• We must go in
• The door to your wound may be
• Your anger
• Rejection you have experienced
• Maybe failure
• Loss of golden bat
• Gods thwarting your false self
• Or you may still be unsure but in any case you
  should pray this simple prayer.

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• Jesus , take me into my wound
• Behold He says, I stand at the door and
  knock

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Healing the Wound 127

• Movie clip BV
• The Way in which God heals our wound is a deeply
  personal process.
• Look at how He healed the blind, never the same
  way twice
• With spit
• With spit mud
• By speaking
• With touch
• By kicking out a demon

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• There are no formulas with God
• For some of us it may be a divine moment
• For others it takes place over time through the
  help of another or others.
• Johns friend Brent 128
• Masculinity is bestowed by masculinity
• Healing never happens outside of the intimacy
  with Christ.
• The healing of our wound flows out of our union
  with Him.

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• Restoration of your heart begins with surrender-
  yielding your life to the One who is our Life.
• Then invite Jesus into the wound- to meet us at
  our broken and unhealed places of our heart.
• Christ came to redeem us not just forgive
• Isaiah 611
• Christ came to heal the ________ set us _____
  from ________.
• This is the central passage in the bible about
  Jesus and His mission. The one He chooses to
  announce His ministry. Luke 4

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• But you cant do this at a distance, You cant
  ask Christ to come into your wound, while
  remaining far from it.
• You have to go there with Him.
• We must grieve the wound and admit that it
  mattered in our life.
• Grieving is the only honest thing we can do. For
  in grieving we admit that we were hurt by someone
  we loved and/or that we lost something very dear,
  and it hurt us very much.
• Few men are ever so vulnerable as to simply let
  themselves be loved by God.

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• Brads story revisited 130
• Abiding in the love of God is our only hope and
  the true home for our hearts, not just mentally
  acknowledging
• George MacDonald quote. 131
• St John of the Cross quote 131
• Email 131
• The Apostle Paul warns us that unforgiveness and
  bitterness can wreck our lives and the lives of
  others. Eph. 431, Heb 1215
• Forgiveness is setting a prisoner free and later
  discovering the prisoner was you.

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• Robert Bly quote 132
• Forgiveness is a choice
• Dont wait to forgive until you feel like
  forgiving you will never get there. Feelings
  take time to heal after the choice is made
  Neil Anderson
• Forgiveness is not saying
• It didnt really matter
• I probably deserved part of it anyway
• Forgiveness says
• It was wrong
• It mattered
• I release you

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Gods name for us 132

• After we invite Christ into and journey with Him
  into our wound and forgive those who have hurt
  us
• We need to ask God to father us
• And to tell us our true name
• George MacDonald quote 133
• Adam, Abraham, Jacob, and David all learned who
  they were out of their intimacy with God, with
  the Father.
• Who can give a man his own name?
• God alone

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• For no one else really sees what the man is
• We usually sees this with a sense of guilt- yes
  God sees me and what He sees is my sin. This is
  wrong on two counts
• First your sin has been dealt with.. The price
  was paid. He has removed it from you.
• Psalms 10312, 1 Corinthians 611
• God does not have one condemning thought for you
  . Romans 81
• We are promised a new heart Ezekiel 3626-27
• Too many Christians live in the old covenant
  Jeremiah 179

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• They believe their heart is wicked or bad
• But that is not the rest of the story Jeremiah
  3133
• Paul writes in Romans 229
• You have a new heart
• And your heart is GOOD
• What God sees when He sees you is the real you,
  the true you, the man He had in mind when He made
  you.
• Daves story revisited 134
• You must ask God what He thinks of you and you
  must stay with the question until you have the
  answer.

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• This is where the battle will get fierce
• This is the last thing the Evil One wants you to
  know.
• He will play the ventriloquist, he will whisper
  to you as if he is the voice of God.
• He is the accuser of the Brethren Revelations
  1210
• Johns Gladiator story 134-135
• Aarons message 136
• It is a battle to get to this place and once
  words like these have been spoken the Enemy
  rushes in to steal them
• He did it to Christ Matthew 41-6

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• In order to withstand these assaults we must hold
  to these spiritual truths found in scripture.
• We are forgiven
• Our hearts are good
• The Fathers voice is never condemning
• He knows us and knows our true name.

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Out of the wound comes our glory 136

• Until we are broken, our life will be
  self-centered, self-reliant, our strength will be
  our own.
• So as long as you think you are really something
  in and of yourself, what will you need God for?
• Dont trust a man who has not suffered
• Dont trust a man who has not faced his wound
• Who would you call at 200 in the morning when
  your life is crashing down around you?
• One of the posers you know or a man that has
  walked the road with God?

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• Where a mans wound is, that is where his genius
  will be Robert Bly
• It is only when we enter the wound that we will
  discover our true glory. Why?
• First, The wound was given in the place of your
  true strength, in an effort to take you out.
  Until you go there you are still posing, offering
  something more shallow and insubstantial.
• Second it is out of your brokenness that you
  discover what you have to offer the community.
• The false self is never wholly false 138
• That is when we are ready for battle
• Chapter 8 A battle to fight the enemy