Category Archives: Walk with Jesus

Developing Sight, A Pathway To Intimacy With God

Teacher: “Are you ready to go?”

Student: “Yes master.”

Teacher: “Then let’s go. Follow me.”

Go outside and claim a stretch of forest. Develop in yourself a love for your forest. Take care of it. When you see a tree leaning or fallen upon another safely lift it off. Clean it of litter. If you find any bones, bury them. In this way, you will learn holiness.

Be silent and observe how your forest is alive. Listen to the tree branches sway in the breeze. Watch the critters move across the ground or through the trees. Sit in the branches and see the roads birds fly upon. Observe their paths and run with the deer. In this way, you will learn awe and respect.

If you remain silent and motionless long enough you will be awarded views many, save the patient hunter, never see. Deer, turkeys, woodchucks, raccoons, possums, and many such creatures will appear and walk among you. In this way, you will learn the value of patience and stillness.

Let the Lord speak to you in your solitude. Create a space that is your sanctuary. Praise Him there in your thoughts and glorify Him for what He has revealed to you that day. In this way, you will learn worship.

May the Lord bless you with an increased depth of perception. May you become enraptured by the wonders He has made. As you witness life, may it purify your own. In this way, you will learn serenity.

On the path of receiving from the Lord, you may be tempted to prove yourself worthy. In my forest, I was. On its entrance, there was a high gateway of fallen branches. I made jumping it a test of my worthiness. Over time the branches fell lower and lower till I was able to simply walk through to enter. Others would not have been able to enter and follow before, but after the gate was opened, the veil was torn, and the way was made clear. In this way, I learned mercy, but not yet the vast richness of the grace of Christ. It was for me a foretaste.

Also on this path of receiving from the Lord, I made a vow. I swore my allegiance before the earth, sky, and sun, my only witnesses, that I would hold true to the Beauty He showed me there in my forest. Though I know Jesus says to not make them, Matthew 5:34, I found that when made as a response to God, they are a lifelong joy. Much like a marriage, I vowed my adherence and faithfulness to Him. I leave this up to whatever seems right to you and your relationship with God. I am only telling you to make you aware, not as a directive. Such vows make a man, but as in Ecclesiastes 5:5, “It is better not to make a vow than to make one and not fulfill it.”

May the Maker of heaven and earth be ever with you. May you find solace beneath His wings. For surely such joy and peace you find there will be found nowhere else.

Value

Some get their value from making others feel less worthy.
Some get their value from fading things.
Some get their value from always being right.
Some get their value from pleasing the Lord.

Let our value come from the One who knows everything yet still loves us and sent His Son, Who is worthy, to die for us. He alone makes us worthy. Everything else is but rags.

We know our righteousness cannot save us, it was never able to. So why allow it to damn others?

Wealth can be more valuable than genealogies, health may extend your life, a commendable career can give purpose to your days, but all are fading. Live as a light, and draw others to Him. He alone can save from any debt. He alone rescues. Let the light of your virtue shine boldly on Him.

If it wasn’t for Jesus, we would be lost too.

Ephesians 5:8-14
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

Spirit Fire: Proverbs 19:11, The Path of God

“A person’s wisdom yields patience;
it is to one’s glory to overlook an offense.”

It is astounding how on target Scripture is. With this one proverb, thousands of years old, it quickly ascertains the short sighted impetus of today. For my children, politics aside, we spoke of a garden. We discussed seed time and harvest. Wisdom is a seed that when planted firmly and deeply into the gardens of our hearts, souls, and minds, bears much fruit when given time. We saw “an offense” as a weed that, in a mysterious way in our mysterious gardens, can only be pulled by overlooking it.

“Glory” was the doorway we entered to see how Jesus fulfilled this proverb. Because of His sacrifice on the cross God overlooked sin, the greatest offense from the Garden till the End. The highest glory be unto Him, amen.

This proverb revealed the path God took for our salvation.

Spirit Fire – Proverbs 19:9, The Gospel In Reflection

A false witness will not go unpunished,
and he who breathes out lies will perish.

Proverbs 19:9

This was the proverb for our last Spirit Fire. After we discussed what it meant and compared it with 19:5, we came to the question that really opened the night up: How will this happen? We found that this was really about God’s justice and righteousness. He will do it. His justice demands it.

We took a step back and saw the seed of wisdom that the Proverb practically screamed: Don’t be a false witness!! Tell the truth! Which lead perfectly into my favorite question: Where is Jesus, how does He fulfill this proverb? He is the Way, the Truth and the Life! To see Him more fully, we looked at this proverb’s reflection. If perishing awaited a false witness, what awaits those who follow the True Witness: “They will not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16. It got fun as we realized how Jesus fulfilled it by flipping it. We take upon ourselves His righteousness. It enables us to pass through the punishment due us.

In the end we caught a glimpse of the fabric of this reality God’s righteousness demands and we saw how His love through His Son Jesus fulfilled it for our salvation. Amen Lord Jesus, amen.

Spiritfire Proverbs 29:3, “The Path of The Damned”

A person’s own folly leads to their ruin,
yet their heart rages against the Lord.

Proverbs 19:3

This was the Proverb of our last Spirit Fire. The raging heart against God for the person’s own folly IS the folly that leads to ruin. Raging at the only One who can save us only serves to lock us in the dungeon and throw away the key. Repentance is the only path we can take that won’t lead to our destruction.

Repent, lay down your arms against the One who made you. Your anger can’t save you, only Jesus the Son of God can. All the rest is the path of the damned.

Speak Over Me

Speak over me Lord.
For when You speak, things exist
where before there was nothing.

The heavens and earth were made
by Your voice.
By Your call
the sea opened and at the right time
a path for Your people was made.

Speak over my family Lord.
May this reality crumble and melt like wax
before You.

You overflow storehouses
as You let fall the rain upon a farmer’s field,
multiplying the harvest.

Speak over me Lord.
May Your will be done
and Your Name be praised.

It is getting hard to see Lord,
but I know when You speak
things change.

Jesus, when You invited Your disciples to follow,
You showed them a Kingdom not of this world.

Jesus, when You called Lazarus from the tomb,
You revealed a power greater than the grave.

Jesus, when you uttered, “It is finished,”
You opened wide the door of our salvation.

Speak over me Lord.
I trust in You more than these horses.
They threaten to trample me if I don’t succumb.
Their pounding hooves batter against the gates;
they buck and kick at me.
Their intent to oppress and crush falls short
of Your shadow over me.

Your words give Life!
Your words are Life!
Your words give Truth!
Your Word is Truth!

Speak over me.
Deliver and rescue me,
You are mighty to save.

Lift me up out of this mire,
Purify me in Your fire,
Though the times are dark and dire,
I’ll sing Your praise with the choir.

Among Those Who Do

Have you ever stared into the eyes of a lion? I did once at a zoo. Even behind the bars, his glare was fierce. He sat atop his hill truly the king of his now miniaturized domain. I was the only person there. He looked down at me and stared right into my eyes. Within moments I wanted to look away, but I didn’t. I remember the intimidation I felt but suddenly memories of staring into my dog Rex’s eyes soon washed it all away. It was the lion, that only knew the zoo, who looked away first.

I know there are those who don’t know the love of the Master. Leave the zoo of this world and come among those who do.

This Moment

The day comes when you realize you are a terrible and tragic Captain of your
family’s vessel always doomed to crash upon the rocks,

When you’ve done everything, checked and rechecked, only to come up empty and find the rocks are upon you yet again,

You know it shouldn’t be this way, you know the stories, you can picture it easily, the answer is something you’ve memorized but is always out of reach,

When you are there, remember this life is but a moment, but a moment, the sun will rise!

Oh this life is a moment, it rages so,

You can feel its anger and desperation as it tries to overwhelm, listen to its siren call, “You are a sinking ship no matter what you try,” the song echoes over and over, over and over,

What does it want? It wants eternity.

Deceive you it will, it knows, oh it knows, Time will serve its purpose revealing the Truth even a moment cannot deny,

Soon it will all be over, and that is its doom,

There is One who conquered over all, He is the Rock this moment’s ship cannot outmaneuver.

We may crash, we might be perpetual strangers here, but the Son will rise!

This time will end, the sharp edges of this broken life that cut so deep they threaten to puncture hope itself will cease,

It isn’t keen enough to sever us from His Promise signed by His Blood and it knows, Oh it knows,

Be comforted, this moment will end.

Sex and the City

The American community is a very consuming community. Sex is huge over here. It is one of the greatest powers given to us by God through which we, mysteriously, take part in His divine role and create life. The American community has been at work destroying that life confusing the gift of God with its tragic obsession over lesser things.

Sex is a power we can harness in the role God created for it, which blesses a community by establishing a strong foundation of identity: this is a family, here is a father and a mother honoring marriage (the image of God), with boundaries in place that keep order to the chaos of passions and desires. It is by wantonly giving over to such elements of degradation that the erosion of the strength of our vows, our spoken word, by which God created the heavens and the earth, begins.

Think of it like a plot of land or a city with walls built around it. The walls create definition; here is inside a city, here is outside a city. Inside a city, there is protection. Outside its walls there is no authority or agreed state of terms and laws put in place by which to protect against the warring opinions of control. Inside a city there is a government/leader who creates identity- this is who we are and what we do, this is who we are not, and laws are kept in place to solidify that identity by taking away freedoms to those who don’t adhere to them.

Family is a microcosm of the city definition as stated above. The agreed set of terms were stated in the vow ceremony upon which the couple embarks the great adventure of establishing a new city, a new plot of land defining who they are and what they do.

Evangelism is the act of communicating a better way to build. People don’t know by and of themselves that there is a better way. It is foolishness to think a child knows better than a parent before their mind is even awakened. It is by education that we learn, and being educated in the ways of God, the ways set by the Creator, we are made complete in a world that is perpetually fallen and incomplete.