{"id":21383,"date":"2021-06-08T00:01:16","date_gmt":"2021-06-07T23:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/?p=21383"},"modified":"2021-06-08T08:57:25","modified_gmt":"2021-06-08T07:57:25","slug":"hesed-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/2021\/06\/08\/hesed-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Hesed"},"content":{"rendered":"<!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-21383-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Jun-8.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Jun-8.mp3\">http:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Jun-8.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bible.com\/en-GB\/bible\/2016\/jhn.1.14\"><i>John 1:<\/i><b><i><sup>14<\/sup><\/i><\/b><\/a><i> \u201cAnd the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father\u2019s only son<\/i><b><i>, full of grace and truth<\/i><\/b><i>.\u201d (NRSV, emphasis added)<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">Jesus is full of grace and full of truth. Jesus is not half or fifty percent (50%) grace and half or fifty percent (50%) truth. Jesus is full of grace and full of truth. Jesus is hundred percent (100%) grace and hundred percent (100%) truth.<!--more--> Christians want to have a balance between grace and truth somewhat like the adage, \u201cwhen you use one hand to smack a child, then you use the other hand to pull the child close.\u201d Fortunately for us, Jesus is not like that. With Jesus, grace is one hundred percent (100%) and truth is one hundred percent (100%).<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">The word grace, <i>Charis<\/i> in Greek, is a word that reaches back to the Hebrew word <i>Hesed<\/i>. <i>Hesed<\/i> is such a powerful word. <i>Hesed<\/i> is the defining characteristic of God in the Old Testament. Meaning God defines Himself using the word <i>Hesed<\/i>. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bible.com\/en-GB\/bible\/116\/exo.33\">In Exodus 33<\/a> [please read], Moses was pleading with God because he wanted to see God\u2019s face. God agreed; He chiselled a place in a rock, placed Moses there, and passed before him. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bible.com\/en-GB\/bible\/116\/exo.34.5-6\">Ex.34:<sup>5-6<\/sup><\/a> \u201c<i>Then the Lord came down in a cloud and stood there with him; and he called out his own name, Yahweh.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>The Lord passed in front of Moses, calling out, \u201cYahweh! The Lord! The God of compassion and mercy! I am slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness.<\/i>\u201d That is <i>Hesed<\/i>. But because of how limited the English language is, it is this one word that is translated into so many words in an attempt to capture it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><i>Hesed<\/i> is a very difficult word to understand in English. It is sometimes translated as mercy, and sometimes as love. The King James Version of the Bible translated <i>Hesed<\/i> in fourteen different ways. In fact, the King James Version of the Bible invented a new word <i>loving-kindness<\/i>, putting two words together all in a bit to capture the meaning of the word <i>Hesed<\/i>. But the best working phrase [sentence] that captures <i>Hesed<\/i> is this; \u201c<i>Hesed<\/i> is when The One from whom I have a right to expect nothing gives me everything \u2013<i> Hesed<\/i>\u201d. The essence and character of God is full of grace. When The One from whom I have a right to expect nothing, gives me everything \u2013 profound! No singular word can capture this description. <i>Hesed<\/i> means grace but it is beyond grace. It means favour but it is beyond favour. Even the compound word loving-kindness cannot fully describe what <i>Hesed<\/i> means. Love and mercy are also a subset of <i>Hesed<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">Truth is a Person \u2013 He, Jesus. Not truth as a right or wrong answer, or truth as the correct words, but truth as a <span class=\"s1\"><b>Person<\/b><\/span>. A living, breathing, bleeding, dying, resurrected Person \u2013 Jesus. Truth that you come to know personally and have a relationship with, not between the passages of a textbook. Truth that you come to love and make a part of [integrate with] your life. Knowing the truth is not necessarily about being right. Knowing the truth is about being righteous, having right standing with The Truth, a relationship with the Person of The Truth.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><b>Prayer<\/b>: Father, I ask that You will open the eyes of my understanding to all that You are saying to me. That I may see the glory of the Son, full of grace and truth, in Jesus Name. Amen!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>John 1:14 \u201cAnd the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father\u2019s only son, full of grace and truth.\u201d (NRSV, emphasis added) Jesus is full of grace and full of truth. Jesus is not half or fifty percent (50%) grace and half or fifty [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[146,200,464,161,83,109,8,25,46,97],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-acknowledge-god","category-character","category-christ","category-clarity","category-grace","category-identity","category-jesus","category-love","category-mercy","category-truth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21383"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21383\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21527,"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21383\/revisions\/21527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gfhlive.tv\/freshfire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}