Recharged

"He gives strength to the weary
    and increases the power of the weak."
Is. 40:29

"As the deer pants for streams of water,
    so my soul pants for you, my God."
Ps. 42:1

As I go through my life, moment by moment, day by day,
I am reminded by my own weaknesses and inabilities...
that I am desperate for Jesus, thirsty for His Holy Spirit, and starved for my Father's love.
It is more important even than the air I breathe. 
I deserve nothing, but on this broken and flawed vessel 
He lavishes His mercy, grace, unmerited favor, and extravagant love.
Moments of pride, idolatry and unfaithfulness leave me stumbling parched, over the desert dunes,
but even as I croak out a cry for His mercy,
it comes-suddenly- waves of refreshment, 
His joy falls, cascading and washing my spirit...
His love billows over me, deep calls unto deep,
and I am renewed, recharged

 ¹⁵ For this is what the high and exalted One says—
    he who lives forever, whose name is holy:
“I live in a high and holy place,
    but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit,
to revive the spirit of the lowly
    and to revive the heart of the contrite.
Is. 57:15

The Help 268

“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.
 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.
He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears,
and he will tell you what is yet to come.
He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.
All that belongs to the Father is mine.
That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.
“In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.”
John 16: 2-16

Jesus tells His grief stricken disciples that they can expect the Helper, referred to in this translation as the "Spirit of Truth", who will help embed in them what is currently bouncing off their hearts and minds. They can't begin to grasp all that Jesus wants to share and say to them. Jesus knew what lay ahead for them, the temporary disappointment, the shattering of messianic hopes, the brokenness and fear. He knew that only then would they be able to receive the infilling of the Holy Spirit, and the vastness of what that will mean to them.
Once filled with the Holy Spirit these simple men went on to set the world on fire, filled with supernatural revelation and power. They loved the Lord with the same intensity that He loved them (and loves us), and they loved not their lives even unto death, understanding that in Yeshua/Jesus, physical death is just a gateway to eternal life.
A key difference between knowing about God and actually knowing Him, is the filling of the Holy Spirit. Christ in you...the Hope of glory...
He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.
All that belongs to the Father is mine.
That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.

To only know facts about Him without being filled with the Holy Spirit is like standing outside the palace window, looking in on the banquet taking place...you are there, but not participating.
Beloved, if today you recognize that the presence and habitation of the Holy Spirit is long overdue in your life, invite Him in.
Remember the words of our Lord:
 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.
He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears,
and he will tell you what is yet to come.
John 16:13

Paying Attention

A feast for a special guest is underway, but the guest has been delayed in arriving. The noise of the gathering is loud; there is eating, drinking, and celebrating, and in fact the participants are so caught up that when the guest for whom the whole event was created for arrives and stands knocking on the door those inside cannot hear him.

Behold! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.
Rev. 3:20

The table has been set, the guests invited.
Jesus is the special guest, He is the reason for everything, in Him belongs all preemininence...
 in our lives, purpose, and plans, and even now He knocks at the door of our hearts.
Do you hear Him, or is there too much noise?
Is our own selfishness screaming louder, or perhaps the noise of a very temporary world along with glittery but meaningless baubles, distracting us?
Today beloved, turn down the volume and listen, and answer...He is knocking.
Don't dare miss it.

Time is Money 220

The rich rules over the poor, And the borrower becomes the lender's slave.
Proverbs 22:7

And Jacob said, "First swear to me"; so he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob.
Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew; and he ate and drank, and rose and went on his way.
Thus Esau despised his birthright.
Genesis 25:33, 34

"You cannot serve both God and money"
-Jesus

This is a practical message.
There are many scriptures that mention how we are to deal with finances.
Why is it important that we pay for goods and services with actual money, not borrowing?
We live in the most indebted, debt shackled culture in the history of mankind, where people's propensity to borrow on credit and pay back is valued and tracked by those who lend, expressed as a credit score, and a new system of slavery has emerged.
In the "old" system, the system under which many of us, including me, was raised,
I was told by my father:
Buy something only when you have the money in hand to pay for it.
When things are purchased on credit, the borrower makes an oath to pay, and we are indenturing ourselves...the old maxim, time is money is absolutely true.
When we use a lender's money, we become slaves,
owing a piece of our lives,  willfully shackling ourselves for nothing more than the equivalent of a "bowl of stew".

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.
Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
Gal. 5:1

Shades of Grace

"Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, That saved a wretch like me.... I once was lost but now am found, Was blind, but now, I see. T'was Grace that taught... my heart to fear. And Grace, my fears relieved. How precious did that Grace appear... the hour I first believed. "

 This morning as we sang Amazing Grace in our worship, the power of the Lord's truly amazing grace hit home to me, again. This grace causes both a fear of Him...and a calming, a relief from other fears, that He will deliver me from, at the same time. This fear, and His ever lovingkindness, causes me to repent from wickedness...how dare I abuse such grace, that I would willfully pursue desperate or dark things! Knowing that He would forgive me, nonetheless...how dare I grieve my Father/ My Bridegroom, who has lavished His love, mercy-and this amazing grace-on me? Is this any way to treat the One who loves me so furiously? So I am mindful of Him, I desire to move forward, to apprehend the One who has apprehended me, I am thankful for His grace, which draws me to stay faithful, and not to take undue advantage of such a forgiving and loving Father. His hurricane-force furious love causes us to want to respond in kind, how could we not? Today beloved, dwell on this Grace, and don't take it for granted.

Finishing 294

"Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now He has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation– if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel.
Colossians 1:21-22
"If you continue in your faith..." There it is, brother and sisters.
 The choice.
Will we finish the race or not? It will not be finished for us, or without our participation, it's up to us; there are two choices set before us: the way of Life or the way of death. The Father, Son, and the Spirit all call to us, sometimes in whispers, sometimes shouting: COME!! Don't quit or lose heart! Keep at it! Be bold, be strong! Choose LIFE!
But They won't make us, won't drag us across that finish line, so we must grasp tightly to the hope of things we know are true that are yet unseen, for this is the very definition, the very essence of faith. Let us consider who, what, and where we were before He reconciled us, and presented us holy, and let us remember that this is not about us, it's all about a preeminent Jesus.
 He made a way for us, He will be faithful to complete what was begun in us...
Keep your faith, beloved, and finish what He began in you.

Diagnosis/Cure

Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? Isaiah 53:1 Recently my beautiful wife had been afflicted with a number of physical ailments: pain and swelling in her knee, a mysterious swelling in her wrist that manifested a huge painful lump, and other ailments that have attacked her. The doctors reports were negative (big surprise there... Not really!). A doctor even diagnosed her with a condition for which there is no cure. She said there was no reason for a blood test, but Lisa demanded it. Finally she determined that she was going to trust the Lord, who both created her, and is her great Physician, not believing the negative reports ... she started proclaiming her health and healing over these conditions, and just a short time later, these "conditions" are all but gone! That blood test came back negative...the doctor was wrong! There are many who have believed the Lord, not the negative reports; our loving Father has the whole world, every situation in His Hands. There are also many who sadly cling to the negative reports, believing men instead of God. There is a more excellent way though, and God's plan is always the best plan. Today beloved, stand on His Word that goes forth and never returns void...proclaim His goodness, grace, and mercy. Believe His report.

Hindrances

"We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."
2 Corinthians 10:5

The "knowledge of God" spoken of here is love, and all that the holy concept of love entails.
The Word tells us that God Himself is love, and once again, I'm reminded, provoked, encouraged, and challenged to imitate the Ultimate Lover.
My greatest hurdles and hindrances to loving others as Yeshua loves me comes in the form of arguments, pretensions, suppositions, traps, that pop up if I'm not vigilant, right from my own cold heart, and a mind that can suffer from a lack of renewal, only the Holy Spirit and the Word can "melt me, and fan the flames."*

 "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind.
It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
It is not rude, it is not self‑seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails.
But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.
When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.
Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face.
Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.
But the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13:1-13 NIV84


*Thanks Misty Edwards/ What Only You Can Do

All Sufficient

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
2 Corinthians 12:8-10

"My grace is sufficient for you...fear not...look up and focus...do not look to the left or right, lock your gaze on Me.."
There is not denying the obvious, that I am just human, flawed and broken, a mere mortal.
Day by day I find myself challenged by my own weaknesses, my own circumstances; through it all if I am listening as I should be, I hear the voice of the shepherd calling to me:
" My grace is more than sufficient for you..."
Thank you, my Father, for your amazing grace.
It's sufficiency, and the cascading revelations it brings to my spirit, is the sweetest sound I have ever heard.

Back To Basics/ Garden Life

"As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God."
Psalm 42:1

In the busy hustle and bustle of life, I find that there are so many things that compete for my time and attention. Some days I find myself frankly so tired that my morning devotional time is lost to sheer fatigue, and I pay a heavy price for not having face time with my Father.
As I find myself missing that critical element, my soul becoming so parched,
I feel myself desperately searching for the one thing, desiring to go to the one place,
the only thing that restores in my soul... fellowship with God.
I find myself longing to sit at my Master/Bridegroom/Father's feet, casting myself on His great love, grace, and mercy, I  desperately seek to apprehend the One who has apprehended me.
The length, width, depth, and heighth of His love, and how it washes over in billows is incomprehensible, inexplicable, and vital.
Made for this "garden life", I find there is no substitute...
So it's back to basics, yet again, abiding in Yeshua alone.
Beloved, satisfy the inner longing, that hunger that only Jesus can satisfy,
get that vital one-on-one with Him today.

Intentions and Plans 223

"You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives." Genesis 50:20

It's 1981...a young unmarried couple, involved  out of wedlock, discover that they are pregnant.
They are anxious, confused, without resources...Roe v. Wade is in force, abortion is legal, and they are considering doing again what they have already done before, in fact, twice before…
but this time is different, this time they make a decision to keep this baby, and in October, 1981,
became the proud parents of a healthy, beautiful baby girl.
The couple's marriage soon dissolved, but the girl flourished...

Recently my oldest  daughter, born in 1981,who resides in New York,
along with our son-in-law, and our two beautiful grand-daughters came to visit us.
This daughter is that baby girl... and a new legacy of life was begun.
In the classic movie, It's A Wonderful Life, a despondent George Bailey gets to see what his world would've looked like without the impact of his life...and I am moved to repeatedly consider the many lives that would've been impacted without this young lady, not to mention there would be no grand daughters...

When I look at them and take in all the blessings of these two generations, both now and the future,
I hear the voice of the Lord: ...for I know the plans I have for them, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans for a hope and a future..."  Jer. 29:11
Beloved,  God's plans are crafted with eternity in His mind, and are far better than even the best laid intentions of men... Seek first His kingdom, surrender your intentions to Him.

Immanuel 221

The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.
Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”
Deuteronomy 31:8

She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet:
“The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”–which means, “God with us.”
Matthew 1:21-23

Im-anu-El...is really three words, not one...the literal translation is : with-us-God.
This powerful declaration, proclaiming: GOD WITH US is all around us, our magnificent Master filling His creation with it, reminding us, reassuring us:
DO NOT FEAR!
DO NOT BE DISCOURAGED!
I AM WITH YOU!
I WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU NOR WILL I EVER FORSAKE YOU!
Yesterday afternoon my gaze was drawn to the skies as my Father put on a display in the heavenlies,
I was awestruck, recording some pictures on instagram, His glory shouted to me:
"Look up, I am your Redeemer!
Is anything too hard for Me? Trust in me alone, I am...Immanuel."
Beloved, the Lord who loves us is with us!
Go out today, praising and rejoicing in Him.
Tell someone today- IMMANUEL

Mammon and the Heart

Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, and he blessed Abram, saying, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. And blessed be God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand.” Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything. Genesis 14:18-20 “Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask, ‘How do we rob you?’ “In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse—the whole nation of you—because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit,” says the Lord Almighty. “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the Lord Almighty. Malachi 3:8-12 “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. Matthew 6:24 Tithing: it's not about the money, folks, and never has been. There is a long standing debate about whether we should pay tithes on net or on everything, the gross income. It's not about God needing our money because He owns everything, including what you might think is yours. It's all about the condition of our hearts, and the level of real faith, the actual measure of who is really first in our hearts, and our lives. It's about learning to get ourselves out of the way, crucifying our selfish desires and making the Lord preeminent in all things. We can't serve two masters. We aren't fooling anyone, not ourselves, and especially not the Master/Father/ Creator by splitting hairs, by paying tithes on what's left after taxes, and payroll deductions, reasoning that "God understands because I have all these bills". I will tell you that everytime I've done this in my walk I could not escape the voice of the Holy Spirit, way down deep, letting me know I was robbing my God- and more than that-myself. We serve a mighty God who knows every situation, every needs, and meets them, always to a greater measure in accordance with our faith. I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread. Psalm 37:25 Beloved, He asks us the question, often, and in many different ways: "Do you love me?" Consider today what He has done for us, never short changing us, or throwing us leftovers. Our Bridegroom is an extravagant lover, who has withheld nothing from us, not even His only begotten Son. How can we do any less?

Voices 292

Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is My way, walk in it.” Isaiah 30:21

God has planted in each of us a heart that is capable of supernaturally both seeing and hearing.
In our heart there is a special area, created for God's dwelling place in us.
It is the helm from which His Holy Spirit speaks to us...His word to us is penned here in Isaiah 30:21:
"This is My way, walk in it."
Everyone who is absolutely honest will have to admit deep down inside that they hear and recognize this voice of guiding truth from our loving Master. When the voice is heard there are only two possible responses: to either obey the voice of the Uncreated Loving God who has our best interests in mind, or we listen to another voice, the illegitimate lying voice that comes from the one who comes to destroy, steal, and kill.
The voice of truth, the voice of the Good Shepherd is always heard first, and cannot be extinguished, but the heart can become calloused and desensitized. Just as a driver who ignores the instructional voice of a GPS navigation system, the ultimate destination of ignoring the Good Shepherd's call is a place of disastrous consequence.
But the voice of the Lord keeps calling, never relenting:
"Come back, this is My way for you, the way to My plan for your life, 
turn away from evil, and follow Me."
Beloved, make wise choices, incline your ear to Him, be still and listen to the voice of our Magnificent Obsession.

25

 Place me like a seal over your heart,
   like a seal on your arm;
for love is as strong as death,
   its jealousy unyielding as the grave.
It burns like blazing fire,
   like a mighty flame


Today, April 21, 2012, is the 25th anniversary of my saying "YES" to Jesus, it's  my spiritual birthday, the day I made the decison that moved me from death and eternal damnation to life eternal.
Looking back there have been many trials, tribulations, this path has taken me through storms, valleys, and mountain tops.
I expect that prunings, and His blessings, will continue as He refines and polishes me, removing spot and wrinkle as He prepares a place for me at the Wedding Feast.
Moving forward through this journey I am assured and re-asssured that God is faithful, even when I am not.
He carries me and covers me, in all of my weaknesses and my flawed sinful humanity, on the wings of His faithfulness.
My confidence and dependence is in Him alone, and my goal is that I will decrease while He increases...
He is so faithful, graceful, merciful, so good to me who is so unworthy, and His love endures forever.

He Promises

Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me?
The words I say to you are not just my own.
Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.
Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.
I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing.
He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.
And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.
You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
“If you love me, you will obey what I command.
John 14:10-15

Sometimes faith becomes weak. Perhaps we only look at the natural empirical evidence of what the circumstances appear to be. We can be overtaken with worries and fear, where our response (to praise God, who is more than able to deliver!) is impeded.
In this place Jesus asks, as He had asked Peter: "Do you love me?
To which the response comes..."Lord, you know I love you...", and part of His response is the above passage.
He is the God of miracles.
He has all authority.
He has given it to us to glorify the Father.
Greater things than these are we able to do.
We have only to love Him, obey Him, keep our gazes locked on His, with faith like a child.
Beloved, Love Him, and take Him at His word.

Learning to Live/Dying 295

"I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me."
John 12:24-26

"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
Galatians 2:20

In the desert the children of Israel wandered forty years on what could have been a two week journey, but there was this problem that had much to do with what is perhaps the greatest of stumbling blocks: unbelief, and along with it, a stubborn inclination to hang on to things and habits that are of no real value, and in fact, are usually detrimental to our maturation as believers. The Lord kept the children of Israel out there in the desert until the unbelievers, who couldn't see God past themselves, had died, and those remaining, who had seen God's mighty hand move so often, were ready to move forward as they trusted and praised the almighty magnificent God, not themselves.
Many of us, I daresay, all, have travelled through the desert...some are in that place even now.
At the beginning of the journey, we are heavily laden with "things" and plans of our own, with eyes focused on preserving control over this stuff, giving them idolatrous attention, rather than focusing on the Master and His plans, unable to see how He furiously and wonderfully He desires relationship with us.
The "Promised Land" lies on the 'other side of the Jordan", the place in our hearts where we leave behind our unbelief, fear, unforgiveness, and our other fleshly desires, when we die to ourselves.
When that seed falls to the ground, an incredible new bounty can sprout out of it, producing a life we may have never thought possible, because it runs counter to everything the natural mind considered. The proclamation has to be made by us: Not my will, Lord, but Yours.
Real life, the abundant life, only comes from really knowing Jesus, and that revelation knowledge and ability to hear the voice of the Good Shepherd that comes only as we surrender totally to Him, His perfect will, and His amazing plan for each of us.

All Things Possible (No Impossibilities) 219

For with God nothing shall be impossible.
Luke 1:37

The children of Israel had fled Egypt, men, women, children, livestock, and everything that they owned, plus all the valuables that the Egyptians had given them for the asking. Pharaoh's heart had once again become hardened, and so the Jews raced towards the Red Sea, with Pharoah's army chasing after them, and they had no clue how they would be delivered from this situation, but they followed Moses, and they watched as God did the "impossible"- parting the Red Sea for them, but as the Egyptian Army gave chase the seas closed up on Phariah and his men, destroying Israel's enemies, while delivering His people Israel.

Against "impossible" odds, a huge lawsuit against my wife and I has been overturned,
forgiven and cancelled by the plaintiff!

In 2008, we were financially devastated as the result of a failed business that happened during the worst economic moment of modern history. We then became embroiled in a legal struggle with our would-be landlords from that business.

This loomed over us for more than a year and a half, overshadowing everything, driving us even to consider bankruptcy. We were told that those who were bringing the lawsuit were ruthless, heartless, caring only about business, with no regard for people. I was told by someone familiar with these businessmen, to prepare for the worst, wishing me "good luck" as we struggled. But my wife and I believed that deliverance would come, we knew that our God was bigger than our circumstances,
we just didn't know how or when. Our prayer was: God, touch the hearts of these men, give them hearts of flesh and compassion, instead of cold stone. We began to hear the spirit of the Lord instructing us to write the plaintiffs a letter, explaining our dire situation, and ultimately asking for them to exercise grace and mercy with us, asking them for a mitzvah (grant us a good deed, a blessing to them and us).
Our attorney told us that such a request was irregular and dangerous, but we still felt to write this letter, which we forwarded through legal channels. We heard nothing for weeks-but then suddenly on the last day of Pesach (Passover), we received an email from my attorney with a forwarded response  from the plaintiff, dismissing the lawsuit, with us taking care of a relatively small amount of legal fees!
Delivered on the last day of the celebration of deliverance from adversaries…
Another breath-taking blessing from our Father! His ways and thoughts are so much higher than ours.
I am reminded of what faith is: things that are hoped for that are yet unseen,
and the Word tells us that without faith it is impossible to please the Lord.
I see this image in my spirit: my Father standing with His arms open, laughing, asking me the question: "Once again I say to you, is anything too difficult for Me? With Me nothing is impossible!"
Beloved, today whatever your situation is-Believe.
Our amazing God is in the business of exchanging beauty for ashes.
He makes everything beautiful...just in time.

Busy 224

"I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.
Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God."
Revelation 2:2-5, 7

We are busy.
Busy with school, busy with our careers, busy raising families, busy with children's activities, busy with social responsibilities, sports, busy being entertained, busy with church events, just plain downright busy.
Sometimes we are busy doing "God" things, His work, lots of good things in His name, which is all wonderful, but if we are not vigilant, if we are not careful we will find ourselves distant, estranged, from our First Love.
The Lord says: "Yet I have this against you."
Do you feel, or have you felt the sting of the Lord's rebuke? I know I have, because in those words lay a truth, a searing indictment that I really didn't want to own up to: in my heart He was no longer first, which was why so much time was spent doing other things, meaningless idolatrous things.
We can become so busy, our schedules so packed, that we can forget our beginnings, where we started and how it was in the "Garden", when we were first saved, our hearts and spirits so fresh and tender, when we were so in love with Jesus that all we wanted to do was be with Him, sit before Him, feast on His Word, listen to His voice as He whispered: "This is my way, walk in it."
Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, He was there at the beginning for us, and in the end it will be us and Him, and most of what we spent our time on will have absolutely zero eternal benefit.
Beloved, return to your First Love...only He can satisfy the deepest longings of your heart.

Rolling the Stone Away #167

When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.”
John 19:30a

On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ”
Then they remembered his words.
Luke 24:1-8

Jesus had paid the paid for each of us in full. A horrible death on the cross, laid in the tomb for three days, just as He said, and He rose from the dead, conquering sin and death, just as He had said, the huge disc-shaped stone was rolled away.
Yet in the hearts and minds of the disciples who had lived with Jesus, Immanuel, God with us, who had seen the miracles, heard His words, seen what real Love is, claiming to believe Him when things were going well, but now had fled from Him.

When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles.
But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. 
Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.
Luke 24:9-12

Their faith had been stolen from them momentarily, their natural minds not being able to move past His death and burial and was still locked up in tombs of their own, their stones not yest rolled back-until they saw Him in His resurrected body.
In each of us, the stone must be rolled away from our hearts by faith in the finished work of Jesus on the Cross, and His resurrection..."for it is by faith you have been saved, not of yourselves, but it's a gift of God, lest any man should boast.
Sin, shame, pain, sickness, anger, unforgiveness, vain and empty thoughts, dysfunction, every dark thing, death has been crucified for us when we walk in the newness of abundant life that has been provided for us all.
Today beloved, see Jesus for who He really is, in all His resurrected glory, in all His magnificence and majesty.
He is risen indeed!

A Good Kind Of Poverty

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:3

As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God?
Psalm 42:1, 2

I need the Lord in my life desperately. Without His Holy Spirit is indwelling Me, rising up inside me, filling and refilling me, there is only emptiness, hunger, arid. I am desperately poor and I know it. My most important and essential activities that feed my soul: reading and meditating on the Word, spending time with my Abba, striving to be wrapped in a lover's embrace with a locked gaze on Jesus alone, are never enough. Only He can satisfy, His love is better than wine, and without His presence there is no real joy, no contentment. Those who are poor in spirit are acutely aware of their need and where the only real Life comes from, and they must pursue it, relentlessly persevering and reaching ahead to apprehend the fullness that comes from abiding in Him alone.

If 293

“If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever– the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?”
Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
John 14:15-17, 22

"Peter, do you love me?"

Like Peter, I can hear the Lord saying to me: Do you love me?
Then get out of your comfort zone, follow my commandments,
obey my teachings, feed my sheep, love your brothers and sisters.
When we truly love the Lord, a rule book is not needed because heaven's laws are written on our hearts. Everything we do is directed out of love for the beloved, the object of our affection, and so it is with Jesus. We are to live directed by love, not fear of breaking rules. Jesus said that the total of all the Laws and the Prophets hangs on the commandments to love God and our neighbors furiously, the way He did-and still does.
There are many around us today who are dead in their sins even though they walk- dead men walking- we are to take advantage of these "Godincendences" and share His love and our testimonies with them, just as Jesus did, just as we did when we fell in love with our "First Love", when we couldn't stop talking about Him.
So today beloved, remember who you are, who your First Love is...pay attention to divine appointments...
How beautiful are the feet of those who share the Good News...

153/A Testimony 84

“I'm going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We'll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.
Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.
He called out to them, “Friends, haven't you any fish?”
“No,” they answered.
He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish.
Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, “It is the Lord,” he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water. The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards. When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread.
Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you have just caught.”
Simon Peter climbed aboard and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn.
John 21:3-11

"Restore our fortunes, Lord, like streams in the Negev..."

Paul had to make tents for a living, and I have a day job, too...
My vocation is a car salesman, let me add, a salesman who gets paid commission only, no salary, no hourly wage.
Like Peter, and the other fishermen colleagues of his, if there are no "fish", there is no income. On the 15th of this month, after toiling for 2 weeks, 10 hours per day, my "nets" were empty, I had only one car sold, and no real prospects, and I must confess that I had real pangs of worry, even though in 25 years, the Lord had never left me unprovided for, provision often coming at 11:59.
This area regarding our finances is my weakest link, the thing that I struggle the most is believing all of His promises as my Ultimate Provider.
Yet the Lord in all His mercy, met and meets our needs, giving me nine more sales, "out of the blue", just as He did for Peter and company on the Kinneret early that morning, provision coming swiftly and abundantly, suddenly, as they obeyed His direction, and just as He does for all those who trust on Him, even when things look bleak in the natural.


Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Matthew 6:26, 31-33

God is so faithful.

Forget Me Nots 222

When the Lord your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you—a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant—then when you eat and are satisfied, be careful that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
Deuteronomy 6:10-12

And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, 
“This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”
Luke 22:19

"Be careful that you do not forget about the Lord...do this in remembrance of me..."
These words are ringing in my spirit today.
How quick our natural fleshly desires can lead us away…
"all us of like sheep, have gone astray" Isaiah wrote, but our real lives are hidden in Him, He is the Constant.
Fishermen use lures that are shining and glittery,
and likewise our gaze can be averted by shiny and glittery junk.
Creation shouts with the glory of God,
all intended to be reminders of the Uncreated Creator Lover of our Souls.
Everything begins and ends with Him.
Today beloved don't just remember Him-
praise Him, worship Him, adore Him, love Him with all that you are.
He alone is worthy!

Sight (Blessings and Curses)

They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village.
When he had spit on the man's eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?”
He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.”
Once more Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes.
Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.
Mark 8:22-25

This is what the Lord says:
“Cursed is the one who trusts in man,
who depends on flesh for his strength
and whose heart turns away from the Lord...
“But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
whose confidence is in him.
Jeremiah 17:5, 7

In the above passage in the book of Mark, the Lord Jesus restores sight to a blind man.
This person had never encountered Jesus before, but when he did, his life was changed in a moment, his eyes opened, and he saw everything clearly.

There are many who are "blind" and "deaf" today.
They go through the routine of daily life but they are in darkness.
They have heard about Jesus, some even attending church, but they have never had that life changing face-to-face encounter with Him, never met Him.
Jesus responded to the request to come give sight to this man, and in the same way we can call on Him today, and he will move at the sound of the voices of those who believe and trust in Him.
But cursed is the one who trusts in man; there is no counselor, no therapist, no doctor that can give us what we long for in our soul's cry: the abundant life that comes from trusting and believing in the Lord alone.

Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress.
In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,
but in the future he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles,
by the way of the sea, along the Jordan—
The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death
a light has dawned.
Isaiah 9:1, 2

Five Hundred 225

“By perseverance the snail reached the ark.”
― Charles H. Spurgeon

This post is number 500, my five hundredth since I was given this assignment to start writing by my Father.
This personal lesson has been all about perserverance and endurance.
It is hard for me to believe that I have come this far, and if at the beginning, October 2010, if He would've told me I'd still be at it, I would've questioned that statement.
Vince Lombardi said, "Once a person gets used to quitting it becomes a habit."
The farther I go into this journey pursuing the task I have been given the more that is revealed to me, mostly about myself-my own heart, and also about the heart of the Lord.
It has always been too easy, too convenient, for me to just "throw in the towel" when things get tough, or I am in an uncomfortable place.
On a recent day that I felt weak and tired- incapable of going forward with this blog, I asked my Dad, "why should I continue? It takes time, energy, and what's the point?"
Immediately I heard the response in my spirit from Him: "Hugh, I know your heart, every detail, strength and weakness, and I desire to show you what you are capable of as you move forward in obedience to me! Why do you think I directed you to do this? I assigned you to this task to show you that you can persevere, finishing what you started, with divine direction and help."
The Lord knows us intimately, and sees what is possible, even when we doubt ourselves and our abilities, when we only see ashes... He sees the completed work and the fullness of His plans for each of us.

Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
Psalm 139:23, 24

He began a good work in us and He is faithful to finish it.

Realignment

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”
Joshua 1:9

The Children of Israel had been in the desert for nearly 40 years, those who had doubted the Lord had died off, while those who believed and trusted the Lord survived and thrived, and now finally was the fulfillment: it was time to enter the Promised Land.
Joshua was faithful to do what God had spoken to him, but here I catch a glimpse of hesitation...not doubting God, but perhaps battling fear, fatigue, the whispers of naysayers that were gnawing at his confidence.
Here I see in my spirit the Lord of the Armies of Israel (Adonai Tva'ot), meeting and facing Joshua, the Lord Almighty looks into his eyes, places His hands on Joshua's shoulders and pronounces this verse over him:
Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”
Likewise, I receive and believe this word over my life.
He has commanded me to be strong and courageous, jettisoning fear and discouragement.
He will be with me, wherever I go, wherever I am.
He promised.

Forward

Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it.
But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,
I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:13, 14

This is the day the Lord has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Psalm 118:24

I cannot change yesterday, the events of the day are behind me, but in front of me lies my destiny, a day that the Word tells me to rejoice in, even in moments of trials, when the Lord is stretching me, refining me, all for my ultimate good. I will trust Him; I am a middle aged lovesick-for-Jesus man, and throughout my decades He has never forsaken me or left me begging for bread.
Trials are to be considered opportunities for joy, as I persevere, strain forward, eyes of faith fixed on Him.
He is my defense and I shall not be moved, and I will not ever quit, until that finish line is crossed.

Staying In Tune

Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Ephesians 5:1, 2

Recently, we were blessed with a tremendous gift: a 40 year old Kimball upright piano.
The previous owner of the piano had been ill with a progressively debillitating disease, and consequently the piano had not been played or tuned in more than fourteen years.
As I tinkled on the keys it really didn't sound too bad,
nonetheless my wife made arrangements for a piano tuner to come and tune the piano.
When the tuner, a young man of about 20 or so, arrived and set up his tuning machine.
He started measuring the tone of each key of the piano against the standard of the tuning machine,
so even my untrained ear could hear how off-key, flat, the sound of the piano had become. After the piano had been tuned perfectly, this young man sat down and played a magnificent piece, and then he gave me a piece of advice about piano tuning and ongoing maintenance-inaverdently and supernaturally about life in the Lord: because the piano had sat for so long out of tune, some of the keys had naturally developed a memory that was off-key, and they would gravitate towards that familiar place. It would have to be retuned relatively frequently over the next couple years, until the piano had developed a new, in-tune memory.

To be honest, it is my fleshly nature to be cynical and negative, and I struggle with losing my joy when things become difficult. Unless I constantly strive to measure my self; my heart, my thoughts, my joy, the measure of my love, against the Standard of Jesus my Messiah and Savior, and imitate Him, and choose to stay in-tune, I will return to my "off-key" soul memory where I spent so many years, where the sounds I make are not those of "joyful noise" and praise, which He is always worthy of-amen!
Today, let us remember to measure ourselves frequently, imitating Jesus as our Standard,
persevering and enduring with joy, keeping our eyes fixed on the One we desire to emulate.

For Us 226

"What, then, shall we say in response to this? 
If God is for us, who can be against us? 
He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all–
how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?"
Romans 8:31, 32

Are you feeling oppressed, weary, had about all you can take today?
This word is for you, for all who call on the name of the Lord.
If God is for us, who can be against us?
The majestic, Uncreated, Father God is for us,
and although we may have troubles and difficulties in this life,
we are not forgotten, our troubles are seen and known,
He is our deliverer and redeemer.
We can take God at His word, and He is not a man that He should lie.
No weapon formed against us will prosper, He has overcome the world.
So today, I will remember: God is for us, no one, no thing can be against us.
Testimonies are being written, the same God who helped David slay Goliath,
shut the mouths of lions and protected Daniel,
turned back the sun as Joshua battled, and so much more,
has us hidden in His strong tower, under the pinions of His wings.
Beloved! GOD IS FOR US.

Moving The Cheese/ Another Paradigm Shift

While Jesus was having dinner at Levi's house, many tax collectors and “sinners” were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the “sinners” and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?”
On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Mark 2:15-17

The last couple days the Holy Spirit has been working on me, turning me inside out yet again, and so I wanted to throw out there a few rhetorical questions about relating to others that He has been asking me:
When we say, "WHAT WOULD JESUS DO?", how does that impact how and who you interact with?

Does someone drinking wine a stumbling block to you, offend you?
How then do you feel about Jesus' first miracle where at the wedding in Cana He turned enough water into wine to fill 4,000 glasses?

What is your perception, your definition of holiness, and how do you perceive yourself?
Are you "too holy", too "different" to associate with different groups of people, whatever those exclusionary qualifiers are? Conversely, is your self esteem so low that you feel that you have nothing to offer, that no one wants to associate with you, or get to know you?
Are there unspoken qualifiers that keep you from others? Are they too young, too old, wrong neighborhood, watch the "wrong" movies or TV programs, those who still curse, over educated, under educated, smell bad, different political parties or views, or anything else a reason might be found that keeps us from relationships with many others?

If we are truly called to be imitators of Jesus, how can we act like Jesus, without interacting with others-all kinds of others, not just those who are just like us- like Jesus did? What does it mean to fellowship?
When Jesus said,"Greater love than this has no man but to lay down his life for his friends"... This means even unto death, but doesn't it also mean the actions of life and the relationships we establish, who we impact and who impacts us, in this life?
He went to the lost, the broken, the downtrodden, the forgotten, the different.
He did not forget.
In Heaven there are many mansions, but only one neighborhood-regardless of economics, race, tenure, denomination, nationality, or anything else.
Jesus draws us, considers us all the same in one most crucial regard: we all are in desperate need of a savior, the price is the same for each of us.
We are to love- God first and foremost, and then, those around us, each one and every one, who comprise our neighbors, brothers, sisters, friends.

Purposes of Fruitfulness

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self‑control. Against such things there is no law."
Galatians 5:22, 23

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled."
Matthew 5:6

I recently have been reflecting on the things that Paul refers to as "fruit", and how it is meant to be handled.
Why do the Holy Scriptures call these things fruit?
Fruit can be both food and drink, satisfying hunger and thirst, but not just for us...the ones where fruit is produced. If we keep it piled up for ourselves and do not use it to nourish and feed others who hunger and thirst it will rot, and accomplish nothing.
We are to give...everything that we have and are is to be invested in the Kingdom.
What is the Kingdom of God, and who populates it?
Our brothers, sisters, neighbors, whom we are called to love.
Just a simple word here today...
Take the fruit that is in your baskets and spread it around, there is more hunger and thirst around us than we may realize.

Simplicity/Like A Child

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, "Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, and said, "Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me; but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.
Matthew 18:1-6

Then some children were brought to Him so that He might lay His hands on them and pray; and the disciples rebuked them. But Jesus said, "Let the children alone, and do not hinder them from coming to Me; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."
Matthew 19:13, 14

But Jesus called for them, saying, "Permit the children to come to Me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all."
Luke 18:16, 17

Recently I watched a video interview of Heidi Baker in Mozambique. She was asked why she asked the children to pray for the sick, blind, deaf, and lame- and why so many received healing.
Her answer was simple: the children had believed in Jesus, taken Him at His word, they hadn't been ruined by the world, they did not doubt, their faith was pure, and their lives unspoiled by sin.
So are Jesus' instructions to us: Come to me like a child, simply and unencumbered.
No "buts", no irrelevant questions, no excuses...put another harsher way in Luke 18:17:
"Whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all."
So there it is- no degrees, no earned entry, nothing except the faith of a child.

Chasing

"What does the worker gain from his toil?
I have seen the burden God has laid on men.
He has made everything beautiful in its time.
He has also set eternity in the hearts of men;
yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end."
Ecclesiastes 3:9-11

This sense of eternity, a certain mortality is in my heart.
The sense that I must work, while there is daylight, resonates with me.
I recall some of the things my mother reflected on during the last days of her life. She was sick and knew that time was short, and she asked me questions, wanting affirmation of her life, and I remember her saying, "Where did the years go? I was just a young woman, with my life in front of me..." there were many "I wishes", and " I did the best I could's..."

We are to be good stewards of what God gives us, which is everything, especially our time. Eternity ...is set in our hearts by our Maker, our heavenly Father. He gives each of us our own talents to invest for Him...so short is this life, even what we consider a "long" life, that we turn around, blink, once, twice, and that's all folks! we are not to spend it, waste it, chasing worthless and meaningless things and activities that will rust and decay, or not remembered a day, a week, a year from now.
The Word describes this earthly life as a "vapor", and then we stand before a holy God who will want an account for what He gave us to invest for Him: our talents and our very lives.
So how while you spend, rather invest, whatever the balance of this life remains for you?
Consider it soberly yes, but joyfully, let your light shine, let your life reflect Jesus...it's not about us...it's all about Him.

24/7 or 1/1 (No Part Time Positions Available)

"Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may apprehend that for which also I was apprehended by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you; however, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained."
Philippians 3:12-16

Being a Christian is a full time endeavor.
We may compartmentalize other areas of our lives: our vocations, our past times, etc., but the Lord wants every bit of us, our hearts first and foremost, and He wants our full time affection, love, and attention, 24/7.
He wants us cativated, surrendered totally to Him and Him alone, our only King/Bridegroom/Master, there is only room for One in our hearts, one Master, one Lover, on King.
Our real identities are found only in the Lord, the Uncreated Holy Alpha and Omega.
He wants us totally filled with the knowledge of who He is, totally filled By the Holy Spirit and controlled by our love for Him...so jealous and furious is His love for us, and He desires, requires the same love from us, His Bride, his Children.
This Christian life, meaning an all-consuming relationship with God the Father first and foremost-is a full time occupation-call it a preoccupation, an obsession even...
This preoccupation answers and solves ten thousand other lesser issues of flawed humanity.
We are not called to be 45, 60, and 90 minute one-day-a-week Christians, attending a man-scheduled service of 4 songs, a pleasant message, announcements, gotta-get-in-and-out for the next more of the same, sandwiched between breakfast and brunch, throwing crumbs at a holy and magnificent God who spared nothing, even His own Son, for us!
He wants all of us, our whole heart, all the time, and nothing less.
Whether you are affirming this in your heart or this is stirring or perhaps agitating or breaking your heart, whether He is calling you-or calling you back, make Him and keep Him your 24/7 Magnificent burning obsession.
It's what we all have been created for.

Reminders

Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us
Ephesians 3:20

In myself I find weakness, dysfunction, inability.
Apart from Christ in me, the hope of glory, there is no good thing, but I know, I'm reminded that with Christ...all things are possible!
He drapes a royal robe of unmerited favor around stooped shoulders, exchanges a spirit of heaviness for a yoke that is easy and light, He moves at the sound of cries of desperation, lifting downcast faces and spirits.
He is able, ready, and willing to do more than all I could think of asking and imagining, so today...today I'm asking, seeking, knocking, and I will keep at it, thanking Him, right up until He returns or calls me home.

Victorious 227

Where shall our identities, our confidence, our contentment (or lack thereof) be found?
Immobilized by pain, sin, shame, dashed hopes, and broken dreams? Should we sit amid the rubble of broken plans and shattered lives, dwelling on "should'ves, could'ves, would'ves?
Do you consider yourself a victim?

"I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.
I can do all things through Him who strengthens me."
Philippians 4:12, 13

Our identities are found in our lineage, who we belong to.
We have all received the spirit of adoption by our heavenly Father,
we are the King's children, co-heirs to the New Jesusalem,
and all that is contained there.
Everyone who has been born-again has a future that exceeds anything we can begin to even imagine.
We are victors, overcoming by the Blood of the Lamb, and the word of our testimonies.
Troubles? Yes, but they are all light and momentary when kept in proper perspective.
With Jesus, in Jesus, everything else pales in comparison to His Glory,
His majesty, and the revelation that comes when we realize that we are always on His mind,
our names engraved-tattooed-on the palms of His nail scarred hands, so special are each of us to the Lord of all creation.
Give Him all your praise and thanks today.
Victorious.!

Listening

Purim is the celebration of the deliverance of the Jewish people in ancient Persia from near certain destruction at the hand of the Jews arch-enemy, Haman (the king's chief advisor) when the nation was ruled by Ahasuerus(aka Artaxerxes). The aspect of Purim that escapes many is that it could've been avoided if only the first king of Israel, Saul, had only been totally obedient to the Lord's instructions, long before . *
You see, hundreds of years before this threat had developed in Persia, God told Saul to wage war against the Amelekites and totally destroy everything and everyone, but Saul was disobedient, keeping Agag, their king, alive, (for a short time, Samuel took care of that!) and apparently others, because Haman was a descendant of these sworn enemies of the Jews:

Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’"
But Saul and the army spared Agag and the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves and lambs—everything that was good. These they were unwilling to destroy completely, but everything that was despised and weak they totally destroyed.
But Samuel replied:
“Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord?
To obey is better than sacrifice,
and to heed is better than the fat of rams.
1 Samuel 15:3, 9, 22

"After these events, King Xerxes honored Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, elevating him and giving him a seat of honor higher than that of all the other nobles. Yet having learned who Mordecai's people were, he scorned the idea of killing only Mordecai. Instead Haman looked for a way to destroy all Mordecai's people, the Jews, throughout the whole kingdom of Xerxes."
Esther 3:1, 6

Deliverance for His people came because of the obedience of Mordechai, the intended original target of Haman's wrath, and Esther, divinely positioned for that exact time.

But there is another part to this story that we need to take to heart about hearing and obeying Godly direction. His Word is hidden in our hearts, administrated by the Holy Spirit, and if we listen to His still small voice, and not to our own fleshly way of thinking, we can avert the consequences of disobedience, which sometimes manifest disastrously many years later.
Beloved, listen to the voice of the Good Shepherd and follow Him.
Blessed is the person who puts their trust wholeheartedly in the Lord.

118

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
his love endures forever.
Let Israel say:
“His love endures forever.”
Let the house of Aaron say:
“His love endures forever.”
Let those who fear the Lord say:
“His love endures forever.”
In my anguish I cried to the Lord,
and he answered by setting me free.
The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid.
What can man do to me?
The Lord is with me; he is my helper.
I will look in triumph on my enemies.
It is better to take refuge in the Lord
than to trust in man.
It is better to take refuge in the Lord
than to trust in princes.
All the nations surrounded me,
but in the name of the Lord I cut them off.
They surrounded me on every side,
but in the name of the Lord I cut them off.
They swarmed around me like bees,
but they died out as quickly as burning thorns;
in the name of the Lord I cut them off.
I was pushed back and about to fall,
but the Lord helped me.
The Lord is my strength and my song;
he has become my salvation.
Shouts of joy and victory
resound in the tents of the righteous:
“The Lord's right hand has done mighty things!
The Lord's right hand is lifted high;
the Lord's right hand has done mighty things!”
I will not die but live,
and will proclaim what the Lord has done.
The Lord has chastened me severely,
but he has not given me over to death.
Open for me the gates of righteousness;
I will enter and give thanks to the Lord.
This is the gate of the Lord
through which the righteous may enter.
I will give you thanks, for you answered me;
you have become my salvation.
The stone the builders rejected
has become the capstone;
the Lord has done this,
and it is marvelous in our eyes.
This is the day the Lord has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it.
O Lord, save us;
O Lord, grant us success.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
From the house of the Lord we bless you.
The Lord is God,
and he has made his light shine upon us.
With boughs in hand, join in the festal procession
up to the horns of the altar.
You are my God, and I will give you thanks;
you are my God, and I will exalt you.
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
his love endures forever.
Psalm 118:1-29

Two-Way Streets

Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. (Ephesians 5:1-2

The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’There is no commandment greater than these.”
“Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
Mark 12:31-33

What is life without relationship?
There is no such thing as a one-way relationship. By very definition, the term relationship denotes a back and forth, giving and taking, loving and being loved.
It can be said that we get back what we give, which is why Jesus said, "It is better to give than to receive." - it's what we invest into establishing and maintaining anything that really matters..
It takes effort and investment, we all have commitments and demands on our time and energy, but all things in life that are valuable, especially building relationships require effort...they just don't happen. We deal with constraints- there is only a certain number of hours in each day, days in each week.
We are vessels of sorts, which I envision in the supernatural as a sort of teapot, with a spout and a lid. Both the lid and the spout have to be kept open though to operate properly.
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled..." there are forces, emotions, that can slam the lid shut and choke off the spout - selfishness and the spirit of offense, are two of these forces.
I have a heightened sense of awareness in these interesting times we are living in;
of my talents-and my deficencies. This is a season for introspection for me, a time to take a good look in the mirror, and I can't say that I am altogether satisfied with how I've invested into relationships that should matter.
If Jesus asked me the questions, "Who is your neighbor?" and "what does "loving your neighbor actually look like?", how would I answer him?
If it's not I who live, but Christ in me, then I need to let Him establish and manage my relationships.

Real Men Do Weep

Jesus wept.
John 11:35

Since Jesus had all power and authority from His Father, and could heal the sick, give sight to the blind, and raise the dead, have you ever wondered why then he wept here?

Lazarus had been dead for four days. Jesus had traveled quickly to get to his dear friend, and some that had made that trip with Him blamed Him, including even Lazarus' sisters, who wanted to know why it took so long to arrive, their expectations so high, feeling that Jesus could have saved Lazarus, saved them from their grief, saved them from doubting the ability of the Messiah to heal their gravely ill brother, that came as a result.
Jesus is one hundred percent God, and one percent man, and as a man who loved his friends greatly, the pain and loss, even knowing that Lazarus would soon be brought back, brought him grief also, and so he wept right along with the others.
Death can be compared to night, when the tears come, but our Bible tells us that joy comes in the morning-as a new day, life renewed and resurrected, and come it did, as Jesus called Lazarus by name, crushing death, despair, and doubt.
What joy must've come as the group looked on incredulously as a risen and restored Lazarus answered the call of the Creator, and what conviction must've come over the hearts of the doubters! One thing I am certain of: never again did Mary and Martha, ever doubt the Lord, never could they leave His presence, recognizing Him for all that He is and deserves.

Hiccups

Then Elijah commanded them, “Seize the prophets of Baal. Don't let anyone get away!” They seized them, and Elijah had them brought down to the Kishon Valley and slaughtered there.
And Elijah said to Ahab, “Go, eat and drink, for there is the sound of a heavy rain.” So Ahab went off to eat and drink, but Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel, bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees.
“Go and look toward the sea,” he told his servant. And he went up and looked.
“There is nothing there,” he said.
Seven times Elijah said, “Go back.”
The seventh time the servant reported, “A cloud as small as a man's hand is rising from the sea.”So Elijah said, “Go and tell Ahab, ‘Hitch up your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.’ ”
Meanwhile, the sky grew black with clouds, the wind rose, a heavy rain came on and Ahab rode off to Jezreel. The power of the Lord came upon Elijah and, tucking his cloak into his belt, he ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel.
1 Kings 18:40-46

Fresh from an amazing day in the Lord-the conquest of 450 false prophets, being instrumental in the breaking of a major drought in Israel, and running on foot in the power of the Spirit of the Lord, beating Ahab's chariot, he now gets some very scary and threatening news: Jezebel is fuming mad and she wants him dead. Elijah does what most anyone would do. He ran away and hid down in Beersheva:

Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.”
Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, while he himself went a day's journey into the desert. He came to a broom tree, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” Then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep.
All at once an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.” He looked around, and there by his head was a cake of bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again.
The angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.” So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God.
1 Kings 19:1-8

Elijah had a hiccup... He was moving in power and strength as he believed, obeyed and trusted God. But Elijah was just a man, yes,a prophet of the Lord , but flesh and blood nonetheless, so when Jezebel's messenger showed up with that threatening message, fear and doubt came in, and his knee-jerk reaction was to get as far away, as fast as he could. The Lord sent an angel to him, bringing refreshment and nourishment, enabling him to travel forty days and nights to Horeb- to place where Moses saw and heard the Lord in the burning bush, and where waters gushed from the rock to hydrate a million and a half plus people. Horeb is a place of revelation, restoration, and revival, and Elijah had to travel 40 days and nights to get there.

I have encountered similar experiences in my own life. I have struggled as I continue to write this little blog, God is teaching me a lesson in obedience, and re-enforcing perseverance in me. I have been attacked, been unsubscribed, which is hurtful to my pride, which in the end has to be crucified anyways so I can move forward doing what my Master wants-not what I want.
I would've given in to discouragement and stopped writing already, because I have no idea who reads these, if anyone at all. In the end, if the Word is planted in one person and grows 20,30, 100 fold it is worth it all.
My obedience has been better than sacrifice.
So we move from mountain top to valleys, but then, back to mountain tops, with plenty of travel and process between. I have found that regardless of the reports, God requires I must have purity of faith, because without faith it is impossible to please my Creator/Master/God who is able to move the heavens and the earth, a Bridegroom who inclines His ear to us, and who will move at the sound of our voices.

Created for Holiness 295

In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for noble purposes and some for ignoble. If a man cleanses himself from the latter, he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work. Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
2 Timothy 2:20-22

The driver pulls up to the fuel pump with his brand new Ferrari.
He opens the fuel door and the label inside declares: PREMIUM HIGH TEST FUEL ONLY
Surely this driver, who has spent a great deal of money on this special vehicle,
who prizes it greatly, will heed this instruction, putting the best and highest purity fuel available in.

For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Ephesians 2:10

We are vessels created for holy purposes, in God's image; the price that was paid for us was the highest price, Jesus our Messiah taking our sin, shame, punishment, and pain on Himself, for His and the Father's great love for us.
The seal we bear, as did vessels created for holy purposes in the temple of the Lord:
HOLY TO THE LORD.
Let us guard ourselves, our bodies, minds, spirits, and souls that we have stewardship over, zealously and vigilantly. Strive to filter out polluted and corrupted influences, do not allow them to enter your ears, eyes, or heart.
You are a holy and chosen vessel.

Weaponizing Saints/The Forceful

We ardently desire peace, but we are at war. We didn't start this action against us, no....satan, the accuser did, but the Lord Jesus will finish it, and we right there with Him, His soldiers. We are soldiers, but not like natural soldiers...we are highly specialized. We have been equipped by the Holy Spirit, given eyes to see things no night vision goggles can see, ears to hear things no super sensitive microphones can detect, a shield of faith that deflects missiles, wielding a sword of the spirit, the living and active Word of God, that slices through demonic onslaught with greater ease and power than a light saber in a Star Wars flick. We can launch prayers that are like guided missiles, going forth and not returning void, finding their designated targets in perfect timing.

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
2 Corinthians 10:3-5

Led by the Holy Spirit, we can identify, take captive, and destroy every pretense, breech and tear down every stronghold, and demolish every argument that tries to turn loose the "little foxes" (fear, hatred, misunderstandings, unforgiveness, and everything that hinders love) in our vineyards attempting to destroy the abiding vines (trust, hope, faith, belief on Christ alone)that we must have.

He trains my hands for battle;
my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
You give me your shield of victory,
and your right hand sustains me;
you stoop down to make me great.
JYou broaden the path beneath me,
so that my ankles do not turn.
I pursued my enemies and overtook them;
I did not turn back till they were destroyed.
I crushed them so that they could not rise;
they fell beneath my feet.
You armed me with strength for battle;
you made my adversaries bow at my feet.
Psalm 18:34-39

Beloved, love ferociously, advance forcefully...use the tremendous power we have at our disposal.
From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it.
Matthew 11:12
We are the forceful.

Focal Point

"And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."
Colossians 3:17

We live in a culture of mediocrity, where excellence is a rarity. So often so many want to do so little-as little as possible-of what they must do, so they can move on to things that they want to do. Most people are dissatisfied with their jobs-what they do and who they work for, as well as being dissatisfied with other various aspects of their lives.
The reason?
It's human nature to naturally focus on ourselves-what makes us happy, feeding fleshly desires, and conversely, we also focus on that which makes us unhappy.
The Bible tells us that the pursuit of happiness and excellence in life-job performance and satisfaction, personal life and relationships, happens when Jesus is the center of everything we have, do, are. When we do it all, live for Him we exude and demonstrate excellence and the pursuit of happiness and excellence is found in focusing only on Jesus.
He is the Focal Point.

Return of the King/ Coronation Day

“Say to the Daughter of Zion,
‘See, your king comes to you,
gentle and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’ ”
They brought the donkey and the colt, placed their cloaks on them, and Jesus sat on them. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,
“Hosanna to the Son of David!”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Hosanna in the highest!”
Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. “It is written,” he said to them, “ ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it a ‘den of robbers.’”
The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple area, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant.
“Do you hear what these children are saying?” they asked him.
“Yes,” replied Jesus, “have you never read,
“ ‘From the lips of children and infants
you have ordained praise’?” (Matthew 21:5, 7-9, 12-16 NIV84)

Most people will agree that God's plans are better than our own, but there is the question of who sits on the throne on our own lives- who is the real King?
When we surrender our hearts to the the Lord Jesus, He doesn't just come in and "occupy" us, He is ascending the Throne room that he created solely for His dwelling place; inside the Temple, in the Holy of Holies-deep within our hearts.  
The term "occupy" has a flavor of temporarily taking control over something that doesn't rightfully belong to the occupier. This is the place that belongs to Him, this is the return of the King to his rightful throne. In my spirit lately I have been seeing Jesus storming into His house, His Temple(s), overturning everything that is unholy, out of order; everything that hinders love for Him and for others.
When Jesus came, He burned furiously with holy zeal and in the same way, Jesus also burns with zeal to be Lord of our lives-what's inside of our hearts. He doesn't just come in and turn over the tables, leaving wreckage behind, no, He rearranges everything -and that changes everything.
Beloved, is today Coronation Day?

Thoughts/ Ascribing Glory

What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us."
A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of The Holy

“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
~Jesus the Messiah, Mark 8:29a

What place in your thought life, your deepest places, does the Lord occupy? I'm not talking about what you say, but rather, does the Most High God occupy the highest place, front and center, in your heart, mind, soul, and spirit?

Ascribe to the Lord, O mighty ones,
ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness.
The voice of the Lord is over the waters;
the God of glory thunders,
the Lord thunders over the mighty waters.
The voice of the Lord is powerful;
the voice of the Lord is majestic.
The voice of the Lord shakes the desert;
the Lord shakes the Desert of Kadesh.
The voice of the Lord twists the oaks
and strips the forests bare.
And in his temple all cry, “Glory!”
Psalm 29:1-4, 8, 9

Beloved, give the Lord His dues, He is our first and greatest, love Him furiously, be consumed with Zeal for Him- the same way that He burns with love for each of us.

Refreshment 159

"He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
Isaiah 40:25-31

In times of weariness, weakness, and dryness, refreshing and strengthening comes as we call on Him, and are reminded of the nature of our Lord. God, who is our Rock, our Help, our everything, as He comes in power, He makes it possible for us, those who believe and trust Him,
to dance on the heights, envigorated and refreshed.
Not only can we run this race, beloved, as we stay on course, but we will finish strong,
as we trust and hope in God alone.

Potential 296

"Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother”–which is the first commandment with a promise– “that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.” Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord."
Ephesians 6:1-4

In Eden, God warned Adam and Eve to stay away from the Trees of Knowledge and Life,
but He blessed them with everything else. All provisions, perfect health, ideal environment, even relationship face to face with God their Father. They were in a perfect world,and all they needed to do was to listen to the instruction of their Father and all would be well, but what happened?
At the first suggestion of the serpent/devil they gravitated to the only thing that was withheld from them, and it brought their perfect world crashing down. As a result they brought down on themselves and all mankind, hardship, corruption, separation from their Father and death.
Parenthood is daunting. We see reflections of Eden in the willful defiance of our children even from infancy. As parents we are charged with training up our kids in the "way they should go", but to do it with encouragement and discipline, the scriptures tell us "not to exasperate" our children- there is tremendous power in what we say to them. Our Father draws us with lovingkindness, the Holy Spirit will convict us when we fall, but who hears Him say things like: "you are dumb, ugly, stupid, lazy, worthless...you'll never amount to anything good"...?
No, God deals with us in love, He calls things into being that may yet to be manifested, our potential have not been brought into fruition yet.
As children, which we all have been and in a sense will always be with our heavenly Father, we must practice obedience,  even if we don't always agree. Children tend to think that they are invincible, that nothing bad can happen to them...but this word is a commandment, not a suggestion. The following verse reads "so that it will go well with you", meaning that if we do not obey, things may not go well, and our very lives are at stake, in much the same way that Adam and Eve's futures were changed dramatically for the worst.
Today in whatever roles in our lives this word applies to, let us listen to the voice of the Father as well as our own fathers and mothers.
Our very lives may depend on it.