In The Thick Of It

It’s all about how you host His presence, the presence of God. It ignites the gifts of the Holy Spirit or leaves them dormant. It is sort of like a stem cell treatment. When those things get activated healing comes, but they lie dormant in our fat. There is a lot to compare with the spiritual life here. The point? We can either let life be dormant in fear, but don’t expect His presence there, or we can live it to host Him and be surrounded by His reality, “perfect love drives out fear” 1 John 4:18.

I want to be in the thick of it with Him. In the thick of His action, His presence, His reality, that’s where I want to be. All the rest of life is fading.

The Timing

Do you really think He’s been hiding biding His time? He has kept the Silent Ones who have yet to speak. Those He has ordained for the last hour will rise. Oh no, all this, the timing is not from fear, never that, He is God.

Be prepared for the Spirit to work in wildfire ways. Hold on and watch! For those who for years have been holding on, it will all make sense. Everything. For those holding on to pride and stubbornness, those handholds will disappear. Let go for ones that will endure what is to come.

This is it people. The last days are here and now.

Do we really think we, who follow the Light, are subject to anything from and of this world? Power, the kind that makes Hollywood tremble, is ours. Who needs a stage when He has the universe? When He stands, silence. When He lifts His Hand, mountains melt like wax. The mighty seas, beyond the control of any man, run from Him. There is no place but under His wings, under His wings.

You cry “Justice!” But should it or can it be any other way? You scream “Fairness!” But is He not Just and Fair, the Holy and Righteous One? You want blood to change it all. Has He not given you His Son?

No, time is coming to an end. Prepare yourself, all already bow and kneel to
someone. Whom do you serve?

I serve Jesus, the Risen One.

Spirit Fire, Proverbs 18:20: Whose Lips?

“From the fruit of his mouth a man’s stomach is filled;
with the harvest of his lips he is satisfied.”

Now I know I see Jesus whenever I read the book of Proverbs to my kids, but tonight I was preempted by my daughter. Each night I give my kids the chance to explain the proverb to me before I try, most times Betsy and I have to explain definitions of terms etc. Tonight, however, my daughter dropped this on me that changed/fulfilled the meaning and our direction for the night:

“His” is referring to God.

We then talked about John chapter 1- the Word became flesh and lived among us. Which then lead us to talk about the reason for this next season, Jesus’ birth, and that in the garden of our hearts, souls, and minds, a new tree is growing… A Christmas tree! And this proverb, with my daughter’s saintly explanation, was its first ornament!

Spirit Fire: Proverbs 18:19, “An Offended Brother”

“An offended brother is more unyielding than a fortified city,
and disputes are like the barred gates of a citadel.”

Last night’s Spirit Fire started out a little daunting for me. I read the proverb to my kids and knew right away that it was going to be a difficult one to explain. Like so many other times in my life, I jumped in anyways, and boldly told them Betsy would explain it.

After we got definitions out of the way, Betsy began explaining by using our kids as examples. She sited times when one of my son’s made my daughter so mad from teasing her, (usually from copying her), that when he needed her help, (like going downstairs with him to get something, because that still scares him, but not her), he has to beg her over and over. Sometimes he has to pay for his offense to inspire her to help by giving her whatever works.

I am so thankful that is not how we have to come before God when we pray for help. Because of Jesus, though He suffered the offense of the cross did not use it as an excuse to punish us or shut us out, we can come to the throne of grace with confidence, Hebrews 4:16. He actually turned the “offense” around and made it a cause for joy not fear, because through it Jesus opened the way for us to be with God.

Jesus went downstairs for us all, not because we bribed Him. He suffered the greatest offense of the cross because He first loved us. And we, who follow Him, are called to love through offenses no matter how much we may want to bar the gates.

“Open the gates and love!”

Voting: The Importance of a Choice

If we only knew how many depend on our vote around the globe. We’ve seen the eroding a poor choice can do. I wonder about our moral compass. Are we so
happy to free ourselves of conscience before we even consider how intrinsically it is connected to our freedom? As we look around and remember to value others better than ourselves we see the nations, their economies, their past, and their future. We see them, when left on their own, trample the poor. We watch them destroy history and ravage cultures. We know our own nation’s sordid past and valor.

It is interesting how time changes definitions. What one time considered heroic another considers villainy. How do we know, to what do we compare? Does
anyone even care?

I know when something demands my attention my initial reaction is to ignore. When something tells me the fabric of our reality depends on my choice, I tend to downplay it. Unfortunately the gravity of a situation is only visible from hindsight, because I am woefully immature. I know that there is a higher rock, but there is no higher ground here, not in this life. Greed, greed, greed. It is the way of the world. It is how nations are formed, governed, and defended. Statistics are its study,
theology its ethic.

Every election time I see the world spread its wings like a peacock. The colors
dazzle, the importance overwhelming. Is it any better to close your eyes and flip a coin? So many have died to allow us the choice. Did their lives matter, their
sacrifice, or was it all in vain as we watch machines we’ve made take on a life of their own making our hopes, that have gotten misaligned, into a Grima Wormtongue?

Fading, fading, fading is this world, which makes its grasp all the more desperate. Can you feel it? Do you sense it, the overwhelming presence dominating your thoughts? Concern for your wife, your kids, future generations is how it starts. Then in its grip your vision narrows till finally all you see is you.

Till then comes a Man. We, sinking in the swirling waves of greed and shame, look up to see His feet standing atop it all. He looks down upon our fate as each of our hands bring more of the fetid putrescence to our lips, at once sweet then violently bitter and horrid. We wretch, our own body tosses out what we so willingly put in. Our hands are already busy trying to return this doomed and exiled vomit to our mouths. Tears in our eyes at our helpless state, we see Him reach out His hand to ours.

A choice, stronger than a vote for its binding is eternal, is ours to make. Do we take His hand to pull us from what we can’t let go or do we ignore its importance and swallow another gulp? What do you choose? The kingdom of this world, or the Kingdom of Heaven?

This voting season is important, but lets not confuse its amount. I would rather us see it as a doorway into the Divine. If voting for the presidency is this important, upon which so many in this fading world depend, what about your soul? What about your decisions of each and every moment of the day? Does it really matter that much? People died so we can vote and not live under the oppression of the crown. One Man died to give us His. He alone frees us from the oppression of this fading world, of its greed. Do not turn away, now is the time more than ever because for a moment, we see the value in a choice.

When you vote, think on Him, and know that with Him your decision is secure. Gain your strength follower of Christ. Do not be conformed by the promises you see here. Walk with Jesus, and know that atop the waves with Him is surer ground than any you will find here.

May His Name Be Praised!!!

“Always know that the only higher ground is on top of the waves.”

Spirit Fire: Crushed Spirit- Proverbs 18:14

For Spirit Fire last night we looked at Proverbs 18:14. It got heavy as this “Coin” proverb talked about having a crushed spirit.

“The human spirit can endure in sickness,
but a crushed spirit who can bear?”

I remember wondering as a kid why people become alcoholics. Back then I thought it was merely a consequence of party living. I thought you would just love the flavor so much you’d get addicted to it like candy or something. However, life and actually tasting it, taught me a different tale.

Loss, disease, death of loved ones, shame, regret, these and other burdens can’t be shaken but can be forgotten for a short time in the bottle. These burdens crush the spirit, who can bear it?

We talked about how in the Holy Spirit we meet the Comforter, (greater than the southern kind), John 14:26, and His peace that endures. This life is so hard at times, and yet He meets us there. He lifts us up and gives us renewed strength when we have none, Isaiah 40:31.

Its an honor to teach my children the Book of Proverbs and to show them its fulfillment in Jesus. Who can bear the brokenness and sorrow of this world? Only Jesus, He did it for us and He gives us hope.

Spirit Fire: It Got Real, Proverbs 17:26

Spirit Fire got real tonight, unexpectedly to me, (I didn’t read ahead):

Proverbs 17:26 “It is not good to punish an innocent man, or to flog officials for their integrity.”

We talked about the laws of reason that God placed in our minds to explain why it doesn’t make any sense to punish the innocent. Then we talked about Jesus. If ever there was an innocent man, it was Him. And we spoke of the good that God planned for mankind through His punishment, our salvation.

His ways are higher than ours. Such a glorious mystery!

By Your Word

Thank You Lord!  
 
By Your Word we are protected from heresies, from false teachings that would hijack our faith replacing our confidence in the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ with unsustainable manifestations of fantasy.
 
By Your Word we are reminded of what Rock we are founded upon. It is not some weak sandstone that could crumble at a touch, or shale that would cut and fail those who depend on it. It is not some type of chalk that can be washed away with the tide, but He is Jesus, the Rock of Ages, the Living Stone.
 
He is not shifting, He is immovable. He is our foundation and what He has written has been done so by His blood.  
 
By Your Word we are not mislead by the wolves, we are not like lambs lead to the slaughter. We are lead by Jesus, our Good Shepherd, who was the Lamb slain for us.
 
By Your Word we do not succumb, we overcome. We are not bedazzled by someone’s personal charisma, but we were bought, saved, and redeemed into Your undeserved favor by Your Gift of grace.
 
Upon this Rock we stand, this Rock that is higher than I or any other. A stumbling block for the lost, a stepping stone for the found. By Your Word we are confronted with Jesus, greater than a capstone. He is the stone rejected by men that has become the Chief Cornerstone in the house of God.
 
Thank You Lord!

Day After Easter

This life is crazy loaded with all kinds of pitfalls and traps. How furious is His love to reach us here. How unrelenting is His resolve to deliver and redeem us.

Our minds even now writhe and twist in the mire of pride for gain grabbing at lesser things meant for destruction. They are meant for destruction, not us.

You never tire to tell us You love us. The only way not to know is if we plug our ears and close our eyes. Even then You find a way.

Guide us LORD, like You did for Israel even though every step of the way they looked back to Egypt. It is so tempting and easy to do even while we are in the midst of You. Even while You are moving the seas and making paths where there are none, we look for what our hands can do, for we are so afraid.

Trust? In this life? People are too afraid to get married so instead they play the part. They’ll live together, have kids together, but to make it real when everything falls apart here, the only question is “Why?”

You have so much more for us than we will ever know or be able to see on our own. Give us Your vision.

The deceitfulness of wealth distracts many and gets us to look elsewhere for our hope. We live in the cult of self though we don’t know that the membership dues are our soul. We all live here, we all know how it is here.

Though our acceptance is already assured bought with an eternal covenant in blood, we would trade it for the momentary acceptance of those we can manipulate. Oh, to have a god we can fashion in our own image. One that we can control by committing the necessary acts we determine.

But that god wouldn’t die for us, we wouldn’t die for us. We’d need that god to perform and build confidence in our ability to appease it so that others recognize our importance and our necessity. They need us, or our god will send them to Hell.

But Yours was a different plan, a different path. You made the definition of love, something everyone needs, beyond our grasp. Even Jesus did not grasp it, but He became the fullest form of it. And He gives love’s inheritance to any and all who believe in Him.

No one has the monopoly on Your Love, there is no other mortal man whose favor determines our worth. The Son of God, the only One who is beyond bribing, the only One who can not be persuaded by lies and deceitfulness, the only One who is out of our reach to control looks upon us with Love unconditional.

The only question is “Why?” He died and rose again for what? He fulfilled prophecy, what does that mean to me? He lived a sinless life to become the perfect sacrifice to conquer sin and death’s grip on me. He provided a way through the traps and pitfalls of this life to bless me beyond my days. But “Why?”

That was His plan,
because He is love.

Now there is Hell, but from what I know it is chosen everyday by those who turn away from His free gift of love. In fact it is because of love that allows us the choice.

What do you choose?

No One Knew

No one knew what was going to happen.  They witnessed the incredible for 3 years as they followed Him.  People left their homes and jobs on the spot just because He called or merely walked by.  They knew that whatever they knew about life just didn’t matter or apply to Him.

Oh some were jealous, and they were filled with hatred for the One who with a few words tore down their palaces of oppression.  They worked hard for their positions, they had authority and control over others that was unquestionable, “God ordained” even.  And yet, here was this man who did what no one has ever done.  The miracles He did and the teachings He gave shook everything and everyone to the core.  He questioned them and claimed a position of authority no man ever dared to claim.

Scandalous.  Could it be that the jealousy of the fallen drove them to it?  Having the perfect One in the presence of the twisted only reminded them of their evil?  That the perception of their own inabilities to ever be allowed to taste of the Tree of Life that He said was in reach if they only would stretch out their hands and believe gave birth to the evil that awaited them in their hearts?

They showed Him a different tree and nailed Him to it.  The sheep scattered as the wolves killed their Shepherd.

But no one knew.

No one but the Father.  His plans shattered everything even death itself.  For three days later, Jesus came forth from the tomb and revealed the Father’s plans to those He had chosen.

Scandalous.  Though sin had created the thrones of man, thrones that bound their kings to them and any who would bow before them to the grave, Jesus’ death and resurrection broke every chain and set every captive free.

The power of Sin and Death was broken and the grip of this world could no longer hold those who followed Him.

No one knew the depths of His love, no one knew how great and complete were His plans.  When Jesus came forth from the tomb, He set us free from ours.

His work continues today, will you step away from this world into His embrace?  This ending world with thrones of the grave for His eternal home with crowns that will never fade?

No one knew, but now you do.