Friday, February 29

Just thinking

"He who rebukes a man shall afterward find more favor than he who flatters with the tongue." Proverbs 28:23 (Amplified Bible)

In the struggles that seem to flow over me like a tsumami wave, I find no respect being given in even the smallest of ways and I find sorrow in the realization that the battle fought isn't going to be won, because flattery is winning over rebuking sin and redeeming the relationship between me and another.

I have been called too intolerant; of behavior that brings temporary relief to this person's shame, brings joy of the humanistic kind that doesn't last in my presence, and ignorance to the truth that would set them free. I am intolerant of a relationship that doesn't live to the design. Not my wishes, but the wishes of the Father.

I have clung to the promises of God and sought to restore my worship, my praise, and my fellowship with the One who made the skies and the stars. Silence seems to pervade my life and devotionals aren't bringing the peace that those who abide in God's family are entitled to experience.

I wonder, in those times where it seems the weight of the world is steady upon my shoulders, why God would allow things to go so well, yet go so wrong. I question, I argue, and I sorrow.

Sometimes there seems to be a momentary peace, but it is momentary. Sometimes it seems like a turn has taken place in the direction of restoration, but then the relapse occurs. Up and down, like a storm tossed ship, my journey in the pilgrimage is become rocky and uncertain in the progress of the day.

And yet…….

I can do nothing more than to question, argue, sorrow, and then accept that the God of Creation is no respecter of persons that His plan is as unknown and inhumanity unforeseen as an all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-holy God can make it. I feel the isolation of the sin that has broken the relationship between Creator and created……

But I stand upon His strength……

And fall to my knees to pray and praise……….

Thursday, February 28

Refining is a hot and painful process...


Malachi 3:3 says: "He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver." This verse puzzled some women in a Bible study and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God.



One of the women offered to find out the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible Study.

That week, the woman called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn't mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining silver.

As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities.

The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot; then she thought again about the verse that says:” He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver." She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined.

The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed.

The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, "How do you know when the silver is fully refined?" He smiled at her and answered, "Oh, that's easy -- when I see my image in it"

A friend sent this little email to me and the sound of God's gently whispered…."See what mighty things I am doing"….has silenced the droning of my heartfelt sorrows for the time being. I sought forgiveness, not forgetting, from the person I hurt yesterday with my words…..and although it didn't mitigate the damage or the wrongfulness of it, I explained why I had 'blown a gasket' with this person. The heat of the intense sorrow brought on my wounding words would've left me unphazed if I was the man I once was and probably would've been forthcoming sooner as I would've sought to harm as I had been harmed. But, I am not that man anymore.

I am not the man I was last year, struggling to help God help me. I am not the man who let the situations of his past, his present, and the 'common decision' of my future made by others define me. I am not that man.

But he can pop up, just like the impurities of the silver…..and it is only the intense heat that causes his ugly head to come into view………..and God is watching for him; like a hawk watching for its prey. Not for my good, but to bring me closer to the man He designed and wants me to be, regardless of any absence of comfort that I may have to go through.

I sometimes wish I could go back; to ignorance, to blind bliss. Although I know this is not realistic or even productive, some days I long for the contentment that comes from being stupid. To my responsibility, to my design flaws, and to my purpose. But God doesn't take any time off and He doesn't let me.

The hardest thing lately has been to reconcile the circumstances to the spiritual strength I am finding God developed in the circumstances of my past. Praise and awe from friends have nothing to hold next to my own amazement that 'I am enduring so well'. The other day proved to me that I am not 'enduring well,' and even 'enduring badly' because I am relying on my own definition of endurance. I cannot reconcile the call God has placed like a fire brand on my soul with the circumstances I have gone through in the last year. It is unfair, I have done my best and still…….

I've asked God to show me His ways…….

Show me Your ways, O Lord, teach me Your paths; guide me in Your truth and teach me, for You are my God my Savior, and my hope is in You all day long. - Psalm 25:4

I have asked Him to give me discernment and wisdom to be where and who He would have me to be. But I haven't said….."Trusting in You, O Lord, and claiming the patience to wait for Your refining to be done, no questions, no attempts to help. I will wait on You."

Carolyn Baker, who writes the devotional for AllAboutGod.com had this to offer in regards to God's instructional training. "No one but God has the vision and the power to split the veil of counterfeits and deception that is rampant in the world today. Whether we like it or not, He has chosen man to be His vessel of deliverance. This is why many of you are going through struggles right now. God is a generous and loving God - but He also allows testing into our lives. They are allowed to draw us close to Him, give us a deeper understanding of WHO He is - and who we are in Him. That is when true freedom becomes ours. I would encourage you to look at the struggles you are presently in - and spend some time asking God to unwrap His Purposes in You…………………………
Freedom and peace are the rewards – intimacy with Christ our daily goal - and becoming like Christ our lifetime task. It is a process, so you must take a baby step of faith if you want to be set free – otherwise you will stay stuck. Surrender your body, soul, mind and spirit to the full control of the Holy Spirit - and get on with it. You will impact many, and you will save many from the loneliness of isolation as you offer your hand of friendship."

A double whammy from the Lord today….and the wisdom and discernment I had begged for. It is that last statement of Carolyn's that hit me the most…….

You will impact many…..

How has He impacted you today?

Tuesday, February 26

The journey to "Find God"

I have started to read "Finding God" by Dr. Larry Crabb as part of my discipling class that I have been attending. Even the "Inside Out" book that Dr. Crabb wrote that this is a 'lost final chapter' of didn't prepare me for the connection between what he writes and the thirst of my soul. I would probably bring this all under the verse he uses to begin this personal journey of finding God.

Hebrews 11:6 "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him."

We forget too often that the Bible is not some tome of age old wisdom, stagnant in its revealing truths and mind numbing logic. We forget that the writers of the books contained within were real, and were touched by God's own spirit to write His words to the generations to follow. We look to theologians and seminary trained leaders to guide us in the wisdom that lies weeping upon its pages when all we need is to remember what it is to be Christ-followers. Seeking our Abba Father's face, that intimate knowledge to know Him and love Him. The 'traditional' church, expressed in the pages of the New Testament books, taught us that our purpose is to glorify God, to please Him, and to enjoy the blessings that are of Him forever. We have strayed into running the church according to our revelations and forgetting God's.

The modern church is attractive and powerful to the seekers and the developing faithful. We gaze upon our westernized Christianity as an thing to be dressed up and made attractive so that passersby on the street will stop to window shop and potentially come inside to buy into the gospel of love and acceptance of a turnstile God, who is standing still, turning us around as we allow. We don't hear in those 'hallowed' hallways of fine carpet and cushy seats that God is 'no respecter of persons." In the backdrop of hardships, suffering, and extreme distress we are taught to find the 'healing' power of God to make our world more comfortable and pleasant, a recreation of the Garden from whence we were bodily tossed righteously on our butts. We learn that God is there for us, not us for Him.

And, for too many within the Body of Christ, when those hardships and suffering does not pass like a bad dream, our faith lies crushed upon the floor of those same churches and God is grieved by the disservice done. Our church, created for Kingdom purpose, has become a house of our own self-serving gospels of limited passions.

In this intense struggle over the situation ruling my life's focus, I have slowly learned that the passions that are part of my humanity; the desire to be happy and the desire to influence my environment to that pursuit, are going to always be part of who I am as a broken, sinful human being. But there is hope; not a hope that will have to wait until the other side of heaven, but a hope for today. That my passion to know God deeper and more intimately can be realized step by step in the midst of hardship and pain. In fact, it is that pain that I can use to grow closer to the Abba Father.

And I have plenty of pain and hardship in my life that gives me a wellspring to wander into the desert seeking my God.

As I slowly unwrap the gaudy clothing that I have wound around myself in an effort to protect myself from the pain of a sinful world, I find myself not cutting myself off from God but Him drawing nearer as I realize that my comfortable world isn't meant to mean anything if I don't realize that it means nothing to God….He is no respecter of persons. But in that realization that I am nothing before God and He gives me meaning to Himself, I find the sound theology that Christ Himself told of.

I hope that this speaks something to someone. And I hope that you will go and get Crabb's book "Finding God." Although it is but a tool in which to realize the potential and truth of walking with God, it is a great read in which to reflect upon.

In Christ,
JIM

Monday, February 25

Faith

"And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him." Hebrews 11:6 (NIV)

According to the New International Version bible that I have, in the commentary section, faith "needs an object and the proper object of genuine faith is God." Not for the first time, I am left feeling that something different is coming from this verse, not what the theologians in their studies have touched upon. Dr. Larry Crabb talks of this verse being the jumping point of his journey in "Finding God", his book that I am studying with the discipling group.

Faith, according to the American Heritage Dictionary (2nd college edition c1975 rev'd), is "a confident belief in the truth, value, or trustworthiness of a person, idea, or thing. Belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence. Loyalty to a person or thing; allegiance. Belief and Trust in God. Religious conviction. A system of religious beliefs. A set of principles or beliefs." In the Japanese bible, faith is defined as "Believe and look up." While I believe that the first definition captures the essence of what faith is to me, I would narrow it down to a person rather than an idea or thing. But it seems that the church has taught us that God is more of a thing, or even an idea, that a person.

Faith is alluded to, mentioned, or written one-hundred and six times in the reference guide I used. Sure Faith is spoken of in Psalm 34:8, " O taste and see that the Lord [our God] is good! Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) is the man who trusts and takes refuge in Him." (Amplified version). The frailty of human faith is referenced in Luke 22:31-38, "I have prayed especially for you [Peter], that your [own] faith may not fail; and when you yourself have turned again, strengthen and establish your brethren…… When I sent you out with no purse or [provision] bag or sandals, did you lack anything?" (Amplified version).

In 1 Timothy 1:19, Paul speaks of faith being sent to the rocks, leaving hope shipwrecked….." By rejecting and thrusting from them [their conscience], some individuals have made shipwreck of their faith. (AMP)" These are only a few of the references to faith. Faith is a topic that is as widely disagreed upon as it is discussed. Some claim that faith is a work based system brought on by salvation, others a legalistic methodology, and the emergent imagery is faith is personal, unique, and that will get us to heaven.

A friend of mine, Garry, wrote about faithfulness (the act of living faith) on his website: http://men2menministries.blogspot.com/2008/02/faithfulness.html I would check it out. But two verses he referenced stood out to me, for different reasons than what he quoted them for.

"Since we are surrounded by so many examples of faith, we must get rid of everything that slows us down, especially sin that distracts us. We must run the race that lies ahead of us and never give up."(Hebrews 12:1) Version unknown. I can live this verse, being surrounded by the mighty spiritual men that I gather with once a month in a discipling class, and every other month in a men's study class. Faith is not only an individual expression but is bound by noticeable and definable boundaries that are common to all.

But, and I guess this is my point for today, there is a solid, logical, and unmovable expression of what faith is for each of us who call Christ our King. It was sent to me via the Worthy Ministries email/devotion for today:

One day a passerby saw a homeless man on the roadside. He stopped for a moment to hand him some loose change and casually said "God bless you, my friend”.
"I thank God," said the homeless man, "I am never unhappy."
"What do you mean?" the passerby asked.
"Well," he said, "when the sun is out, I thank God -- when it rains, I thank God. When I am full, I thank God and when I am hungry, I thank God. And, since God's will is my will, and whatever pleases Him pleases me, why should I say I am unhappy when I am not?"
The man looked at him in astonishment and asked, “Who are you?”
"I am a King," said he.
"Where, then, is your Kingdom?" asked the man.
"In my heart." The homeless man replied.


Faith is the expectation of what we yet cannot see, the realization of the temporariness of what we have to endure, and the hope that wells within our hearts no matter the raging storms outside. We live, in faith, the realization of God's promise:

"Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand." (Isaiah 40:10 Ver. Unknown)

Sunday, February 24

Digging with a purpose.......

“Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug back in the days of his father Abraham, for the Philistines had stopped them up after Abraham died. Isaac gave these wells the same names his father had given them. When Isaac's servants dug in the valley and discovered a well with fresh flowing water there…” (Genesis 26:18-19 NET.)

At the gathering today, with the other men that have been called to a higher discipling and training, I spend my time wondering again what my purpose and inclusion within this group of giants could possibly give to the group. That is the reason why I sit amongst them, because I don’t feel like I belong. Not because of any indication from the men gathered, but due to my own wounded past and the deep valley that I find myself walking in now.

Dr. Crabb talked today about broken cisterns and the well of living water. And how we, as foolish people, seek to wander away from God’s well to dig our own, which are incapable of handling the water we pour in them. We know where to gain the most sustaining water, yet we rely too often on our own digging ability to try and achieve a quenching on our own. Sounds like foolishness to our ears when we hear it, but not when we’re sweating from our own attempt.

One of the hardest things I’ve had to do is to ‘dig’ into my father’s past. Hard because the people that would give me voice to the parts of his life I do not know are either gone or bitterly opposed to portraying him realistically for the full realization of his story. And harder still, because I have found that I can look into his past by uncovering my own wounds, those broken cisterns of my life. The man I once was is the man my father had become. And as I wander the broken landscape of my life, I hear whispers of the man my father was meant to be.

The same names can be given to those cisterns, the deep holes incapable of giving life-sustaining water poured from the waterskins of my own woundedness, as my father had learned or didn’t ever realize were the results of his wounds his father had unintentionally given him. In reopening the wells that my father had dug, I find the story of his life reawakened. And I find a surprise that I think my father did not realize was even there; a well of fresh flowing water, a deep spring of life affirming water.

Am I to be the man that my father was? Or can I redeem the story that has continued through the generations and understand my past while changing my future?

Will I be a ‘foolish’ son that turns his back upon the very source of answers that I seek or will I dive into the murky and hidden dangers that such water holds, sure of one thing and one thing only: that this is where the source of quenching this uneasy and conflicting thirst lies…just underneath the stagnant surface?


Will I move into the painful experiences of my past that have wrought the realistic hurts of my present with the fear and trepidation that comes from my all too human desire to not know pain? One of the things I have grown weary of hearing is, “It is perfectly understandable to……” act the way I do, respond the way I do, or even sorrow the way I do; given the circumstances that I find myself dealing with. And yet, to commonly respond to common situations isn’t what I want to do. Christ didn’t respond the way that we should think, being well-versed in the responses of fallen, broken human beings should, but in a supernatural and spiritually pure way that is contrary to all we hold dear.

He didn’t dig his own cisterns even though He had more chance of doing it right than we could ever do, but in His fully human form, He responded by relying on the deep spring waters found in His father’s wells…..buried by the Pharisees of the day. And, He didn’t rename them according to His desires but kept the names given by His father, making new the things of old. In His fully human form, He showed us how to rely upon the story told of His father.

I don’t know if I am making sense, or if I am only sounding vague and uncertain in what I feel led to write today. I am conflicted, sorrowed, and weary. But even in the midst of my desert experience that I have seemed to journey on for forty years of my spiritual life, I know that there is a source—seemingly hidden under the ground that will feed the wells that have been dug by my father in his journey before me.

They will sustain me in this dry time, in the search for the quenching of my spiritual thirst. And I cannot know the location of the wells already dug unless I journey into the past of my father’s story and retrace his steps that I have unconsciously walked in blind to its deadly destination.

I will dig………not for a place to put the water of my own substance. That would be to pour what little of my joy into the thirsty sands of a desert bent on my own destruction. For this land is ruled by the one that would have me parched and withered.

No…..

I will dig in the places of my father’s wells, not seeking to uncover temporary water but rather the source of the wells themselves. The sustaining and life-giving spring of my heavenly Father.

I will dig with a purpose.

And a hope............that springs eternal.

Friday, February 22

The reason behind obeying.....

"If you keep My commandments [if you continue to obey My instructions], you will abide in My love and live on in it, just as I have obeyed My Father's commandments and live on in His love." John 15:10 (Amplified Bible)

We deal in today's world with the constant stream of 'loveless' situations; the murdering of a spouse because you think you're better off with them dead, the abused children that walk the hallways of our godless schools, and the wounded families that dot the landscape of the modern church.

We fear relationships because we fear a situation without love and only steeped in pain and suffrage.

We isolate ourselves from the very answer to our woes.

I have come to learn that I cannot love. My spouse, my children, my fellow brethren, or even the lost of this world. I cannot, because I myself am a danger to the cause. I would much rather isolate myself from the societal woes and personal suffering that a relationship with others can pretty much guarantee. And yet, I long for the connection that only true relational living can bring. I live in duality and as Christ tells us, no one can serve two masters. Typically, we express that verse in financial terms, but I would submit that it also applies to the relational needs we deal with.

One master: Protection of Self.

One master: Need for communal relationship.

We are in constant struggle against ourselves if we don't commit to the God-design for relationship, that no-holds-barred kind of relating to our fellows that causes us to reach out--- despite the painfulness of relating and the certainity of disappointment-- to others in community. To deny relational living is to deny your most basic need of being accepted, of being LOVED.

It is everyone's greatest accomplishment and worst fear.....that when the time comes for us to depart this world; either for the golden streets of Heaven or the fiery, pothole littered roadways of Hell, we all want to have mattered...at least a little, to someone other than ourselves. A legacy left behind; someone who will stand at our casket and say, "We will miss them" and mean it.

It is my greatest fear, despite the loving support and relationship I have with my son and my daughter. Despite the relationships I am developing with other men, such as the group from the Men in the Woods and the M3 meetings on bi-monthly Saturdays.

I find I cannot love, unless I relate my love to others. I find that my love is meaningless if it is self-centered and self-serving. To have meaningful love means I have to be relational; relating to God's commands for me to love, relating to others demandingness to be love, and to be relational in the realisation that risking love will be painful and sometimes cause me to suffer for the sake of another; in varying degrees.

If we look at this verse, Christ tells us to be relational to love....which He is and we will abide in love only when we follow His commandments, just as He showed us as He followed the Father's commandments and lived in love with Him. Not only did Christ come to the earth to save all of mankind (excuse me, PC---humankind) but He also came to show us how to live until the restoration of the body to its original design. Live by the commandments of Christ and we will live in love. We are called to live in love and can only do so as we follow the commandments, which enable us to reflect the love we are called to live in. A complete circle, ever rotating on the axis of Christ.

Of all the things that Christ commands us to do; i.e. go out and preach the Gospel to all the nations, be in fellowship, obey the Lord your God......this is the one that underscores it all. Love.

The love of the Creator created Adam and then Eve. The love of His creation caused the rejection from the garden due to sin. The love of the Father sent His only Son to the world to die for the world. The love of the Son taught us the power of living in His love. And the love for one another causes us to seek out each other in relational fellowship.

I don't know if I'm making any sense. Throwing around big words just makes me feel like I'm.......throwing around big words.

All I know is this verse brought home to me the method of my contentment and peace in the struggles of my life. Living for love, seeking God in the obeyance (as much as this broken human can) of His commandments, and then expecting the peaceful contentment of knowing God's love will carry me on.

There is no way to fake love, especially if you believe that your capability for love comes from the empowerment of the Holy Spirit and therefore is dependent on God. You might be able to fool someone a little while, but you will be exposed in short order.

As Matthew Henry said, "The joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment, but the joy of those who abide in Christ's love is a continual feast."

You can always spot the mature Christian, because they look like they are in love...you know, that special look, the certain glow, and that abiding peacefulness. They are in love.......

In love with a Heavenly Father,

In relationship with the Spirit,

because of the loving sacrifice of the Son.

JMT
Jim

Thursday, February 21

We have nothing to fear but fear itself....

"For God did not give us a spirit of timidity (of cowardice, of craven and cringing and fawning fear), but [He has given us a spirit] of power and of love and of calm and well-balanced mind and discipline and self-control." 2 Timothy 1:7 (Amplified Bible)

Over and over in my head is the story of Elijah and his servant, at least I think it was Elijah. I can't seem to locate the story in the Old Testament, but I have heard it spoken during some sermons I have attended. The one where the servant is freaking out because the Egyptian Army is coming to kill both the prophet and his servant, yet the old prophet just sits there and watches them come. The servant wants to run but Elijah won't have anything to do with that.

Finally, Elijah asks God to open the servant's eyes so that he can see. And WHAT a sight he does SEE, the Heavenly Host surrounding both of them….that will not allow the approaching army to harm them. All the protection they need surrounded them unseen, except when you had the veil removed by God.

I have been much like that servant lately, running around like a chicken with its head chopped off (and yes, I have seen such a sight----on a farm), crying like Chicken Little that the sky is falling directly and squarely on my head. And my accountability partner and brother has stood there telling me to calm down and do the things I know to do and pray for the rest.

And I have been immobile, not only physically in regards to transportation…my car is toast and I have no funds for another….but also spiritually. I haven't attended Chapel in over a week, although that was scheduled with Chaplain John, but mostly I haven't spent time with God as I usually do in the mornings. I feel His guidance in my blogs, but most of the rest of the time is spent in rantings and ravings about the dangers and stresses I am facing. I am sleeping less, worrying more, and generally suffering greatly.

I am tired of getting a handle on one crisis and having to deal with another. I am starting to fear solving them because I don't know what else is going to happen……..except on the last day….

Then this verse shows up…..

God hasn't given me fear, doubt, or anguish……that is the direct opposite of what He has given me. I have the spirit of power, love, strength, and wisdom that will carry me through the trials and tribulations that I am facing and will give me the fulfillment of the promise of "nothing to harm but to prosper me" that God has already promised.

I have forgotten what I had read and was believing what I was seeing.

The Gospel has to be, to us as Christians in a fallen and hateful world, not merely a head-nod to the King but a deep abiding love of the value that is contained in the words that were written and inspired and protected by the Heavenly Father.

This is where we have the advantage over the enemy and his dominions. The Word tells us that God is committed to us, and will help us through our struggles. It is when we focus on what we can do by our own strength, financial ability, or charm that gets us into difficultly.

It is only by the power of the Holy Spirit, that dwells in the heart of all believers, that helps us endure and overcome, and even go through. We cannot lean on our own understandings or our own heartfelt desires to gain wisdom that will get us beyond the struggles we face.

We need to return to the Word, abide in God, and weather the storm…….

At least, that's what this verse from nowhere means to me……

Wednesday, February 20

We, the People, in order to form the perfect Union....have failed to exercise our duty

"Pray...for kings and all others who are in authority, so that we can live in peace and quietness, in godliness and dignity." (1 Timothy 2:2 NLT)

There has been much written about the founding fathers and the faith they either had or didn't have, according to whom you believe. God, some claim, isn't the judeo-Christian God, but rather a deity kind of generalized god, which was common in European circles of the time. If so, why would there be so many instances where it was in direct violation of the European culture that the Forefathers stood? The common reference to God was that, "God" singular not plural.

Others would have you believe that they were just reflecting the culture of the times, that is why most were learned and theologically expressive in their commentary. Why would they cross an ocean to reach a land where their religious freedoms could be more expressed? If they were just reflecting the cultural religiosity of the times, there was no need to violate the King's order to worship in the Church of England style. That would've been a foregone conclusion.

Of course, the country that was birth upon the blood of patriots, or traitors (depending on who you talk to), doesn't really reflect the original design, much like humanity doesn't bear the original intent of the Creator anymore.

Is it any surprise that the popular vote, sometimes called the common vote, isn't as effective as it was once?

The power of the electoral vote has destroyed the republic's original design. People were meant to be represented in government, the whole majority, not the minority that controls it now. It is no shock that the minorities of the population seem to gain the upper hand every time over the majority when they are best at enticing the minority that control the republic.

Noah Webster, founding member of this republic and more famous for his dictionary created to ensure proper use of the language of man, seems to also have been a prophet, although he would've disputed the title when he stated in 1832:

"When you become entitled to exercise the right of voting for public officers, let it be impressed on your mind that God commands you to choose for rulers, 'just men who will rule in FEAR of God'. The preservation of government depends on the faithful discharge of this duty; if the citizens neglect their duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted; laws will be made, not for public good as much as for selfish or local purposes; corrupt or incompetent men will be appointed to execute the laws; the public revenues will be squandered on unworthy men; and the RIGHTS of the citizens will be VIOLATED or DISREGARDED. If a republican government fails to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the CITIZENS neglect the DIVINE commands and elect bad men to make and administer the laws."

We have proof of this happening over and over in the history of our country; from the Lyndon Johnson Act that served the self interest of the then-Senator and is still imposed by the government to silence the moral character of the country in its spiritual leadership to the political abuse of the electoral college process of electing public officers such as the President and vice President of the United States. Not many people realize that the House of Representatives was to be a portion of the general public represented in the governing body, rather than the 'rich man's club' that it has become. You have to have over 100,000 in funds to run for Representative today.

It is at the 'lower' levels of government, such as the House of Representatives and the Congress that were designed to protect the integrity of the highest positions of the Republic. And just as the House and Congress were to ensure presidential integrity and representation of our people, so was the electoral college created to preserve the election of such positions.

But, there is no one to blame for the state of our country OTHER than the people. I have grown tired of hearing the comment over and over again that we can only elect the "best of the worst" candidate for office rather than "demand" the government be staffed by the BEST of the populace. We have believed the lies that those politicians would have us believe that our voices no longer have the weight and power that they were designed to have.

"Now more than ever the people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless, and corrupt it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness, and corruption. If it be intelligent, brave, and pure, it is because the people demand these high qualities to represent then in the national legislature." It would seem that our evangelical leaders should have claim to the quotation above, but it isn't the sound bite of the day. James Garfield's article published in The Atlantic in 1877 titled "A Century of Congress" warned us of the course our neglect of government would lead to. Garfield placed the sole responsibility of America's future upon ...."those who represent the enterprise, the culture, and the morality of the nation" who neglect to "aid in controlling the political forces."

If 86% of the population of the United States claim Christianity as their faith, then why do we not have prayer in the schools, the Bible as a primer in the study of culture, morality, and poetic prose?

If that number is the majority, why does Planned Parenthood continue to destroy the fabric of the future generations?

Why do we allow our REPRESENTATIVES in government give formal praise to a religion bent on the destruction of the government?

Why do we insist allowing those who stand in the halls of our state and federal governments ignore the choices we decide in majority?

America has become the land of the many governed by the choices of the few. And WE allowed it.

Instead of living in fear of what our leadership in the Christian community may have us believe, we should be living, as Webster spoke so long ago, in fear of God and under such, elect those to govern us out of those who fear God also. Instead of tolerating the lies, immorality, and corruption of the political experiment, we should revolt.........against the decay that has rotted the fabric of our national image.

On July 4, 1776, in popular tradition, those traitors that would have a country free of the tyranny of a minority that would "enslave the minds, the souls, and the lives of men" from across an ocean of the physical world also 'chained' the foundational impus of this great experiment to the "laws of nature and nature's God.......with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence."

These men did not only declare themselves slaves to the Divine but also committed their lives, fortunes, and "sacred honor" to this pursuit in a document that ensured their destruction if the cause not carried to fruition. It was entitled the Declaration of Independence and inflamed a world.

And it did cost them dearly, with physical and emotional prices claimed through the lost of entire families and fortunes, torture and enslavement, and destruction of personal property and livelihoods. In the tradition of the early church, these traitors-turned-patriots stood upon their pledge, some giving their very lives to the cause of this nation. But not one turned back upon the sacred honor they had so boldly pledged.

Neither should we, as evangelical conservative Christians, turn our back upon their sacrifices to this land and the people within. It is time that we stage another revolution…not of blood and war, but of sense and morality…..that we claim the government designed to be representative of the people to be staffed by those who would represent the people in majority rule. That the abuses and conveyances of the minority who would deny the historicity of our faith and the foundation intents of our Forefathers be overcome by the retaking of our government from their hands. Not as Christians, not as individuals, but as AMERICANS.

Remember what Garfield said regarding our lack of accountability of the governing body from the governed. And remember what God told His people….."There is nothing that God cannot do for those who seek His face and bear His name."

You want America to be great again? Reclaim the government from those who have governed us in the past.

Be the people that our Forefathers told us to be……..and the people our Heavenly Father designed and taught us to be.

How will you pray?

For the continued blessings of those who govern with the fear of God?

Or protection from those who govern without?

It's your vote.

Tuesday, February 19

Learning under the mentoring of God......

"It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes." —Psalm 119:71(NIV)

It seems sometimes, when I look over the vastness of life, that I will never know the rest of the faithful or the peace of the forgiven because of the oscillation that I go through in my struggles. Sometimes I think God rolls His eyes in frustration at me when I argue the point so passionately with Him and still don't see the purpose behind the storm, the trial, the afflictions, and the pain. He merely points to the cross, that symbol of man's greatest shame and greatest salvation, and I fall to my knees again in abject apology for my arrogance and presumption.

"I am tired of God breaking me upon the mantle of this world," I muttered to someone the other day, "To have to constantly deal with heartache, another sorrow, and another pain…..I'm tired. I'm weak and I am useless." Usually, after slamming my poor body against the wall in front of me, I find myself heaving with exhaustion and aches looking at the door encased in the wall that is unlocked and slightly ajar. "Here," God says, "Is what I wanted you to see."

Sometimes the wall remains.

I expressed my frustration to someone regarding their silence and alienation to a friendship that was once held so dear. I told them that I would rather know what caused it, this falling off, than to develop a hatred for the love that I have for them. They spoke, confirming some things and pointing out wrong assumptions on others. And, though the relationship isn't healed by far, I can walk away with my love for them secure and maybe even matured.

All of these things, from the alienation of my old Home Church to the struggles at work, home, and relationally, are for God's glory-----not mine. All of this pain, not my choice, but His. And I find myself at the breaking point over and over again……stretched out over the altar of God, fearing the dropping of the sacrificial knife, and finding myself redeemed, restored, and renewed.

I don't know if I'll ever pastor in a church, but I know I will impact lives wherever God allows me to serve.

I don't know if I'll ever have peace according to the standards of the world, but I know I will have hope.

I don't know if I'll ever have joy according to my desires, but I know I will serve gladly in whatever capacity I am called in the body.

I may never get what I think I want, but I know I will never have what I don't need. I will never know riches, unless it is to richly bless others. I will not gain stature and fame, unless it is for God's glory. And I will stand before the White Throne of Judgment without fear, because I know I will have done my best to know and follow God's decrees.

In the struggles, without me even realizing consciously that it was occurring, I find myself closer and closer to God in understanding that His ways aren't mine and that's a good thing………..

Cause mine only cause me trouble…….

In the dark of night, with danger all around and fear riding upon my shoulders, I shall not be moved.


Because God is there.

Monday, February 18

The drums are beating the call to arms....

2 Timothy 2:3 (Amplified Bible) Take [with me] your share of the hardships and suffering [which you are called to endure] as a good (first-class) soldier of Christ Jesus.

Saturday night, I wanted to write some about the situation and trials that I am facing in this place and time. I had just finished with the M3 meeting (see www.mmmministries.org for information on the group). Scott Engelman had spoken further on the topic of releasing and restoring, which are the two main parts of forgiveness. I focused on the perseverance part of the notes and 'googled' the e-sword program (not that google has anything to do with E-Sword, it's just slang for research to me) for the word perseverance in the Bible. It came up with a 2 Timothy verse and I proceeded to start writing………

And it wouldn't work out.

I had intended to write about the struggle, personally, that I was dealing with right then….and I was typing out another 'complaint' about how we, as a church and community, are failing our children in the wake of another college shooting. How the message has become so distorted that we are giving our children the loaded weapons (figuratively) to destroy themselves. And we wonder why. But I have written about that topic for so long and so loudly that surely someone must be listening…..but it doesn't seem so. Why would they listen to a person like me? I kept erasing and restarting, erasing and restarting. But that was all that came out of that verse and it wasn't smoothly flowing.

So I quit.

And then today, I arrive and work frustrated and depressed. No car, and no money to get a new one (at least to me). I have been forced to beg, borrow, and whimper for a ride. And that will not last too long. But a dear brother in Christ, who works with me, gave me encouragement to endure. To persevere. So I felt the calling to go back to that verse in 2 Timothy and write.

Or so I thought.

I couldn't find the verse in the 'google' program of the website I used; it just isn't as easy as E-Sword's and I once again got frustrated. I put in endurance, what my friend had encouraged me to have, and found what God wanted me to hear today.

A battle is coming. One that will make the historical battles of old and current conflicts between men seem like child's play. And it is a time of training, for the warriors within the Body, to face this battle with honor and endurance. As Matthew Henry says, "We need to grow stronger in that which is good; our faith stronger, our resolution stronger, our love to God and Christ stronger."

To be the warriors that God has called us to be, we must face the regimen of training He is presenting us in this day and time. We must strive for perfection in the correct manner, in a way pleasing to Christ, and must strengthen our faith to be faithful in the battle to our Captain. There will be an unleashing of weapons common and uncommon in the final engagement and we must endure to insure ourselves immune to the betrayer's call.

We must remember who we are fighting for and with…..

2 Timothy 2:10 "Therefore I [am ready to] persevere and stand my ground with patience and endure everything for the sake of the elect [God's chosen], so that they too may obtain [the] salvation which is in Christ Jesus, with [the reward of] eternal glory."

Until the Lord declares, the battle will not be finished. We should strive to make the enemy's forces as unpopulated as we can in pursuit of the Great Commission.

Let's draw our Father's line in the sand and tell the enemy,

YOU SHALL HAVE NOT ONE MORE!!!!

Sunday, February 17

Another article by my friend Steven Coffman

Christianity in America

At the infamous Scopes Trial of 1925 Christianity in America was dealt a serious blow. After the Scopes Trial ended, Christians retreated from American public life with their tails tucked between their legs. Then, over the next 50 years Christian Americans stayed almost silent and allowed Secular Humanism to replace Christianity as the official religion of America .

The result, our cherished freedoms to express our Christian faith eroded before our eyes. Judges began banning nativity scenes, retailers renaming Christmas trees " Holiday trees," public schools forbidding our children from having group prayer or from even singing Christmas carols. The quality of our Christian education also sank to new depths.

It was not until around 1975 and the "born-again" era ignited that Christians began to re-emerge and re-engage the American culture once again. Christian Americans have made progress since 1975. Many Christian American ministries and Christian American organizations have risen out of this "Christian Reawakening" to challenge and debunk the theory of evolution, to challenge the ACLU, and to take on the 14 percent of those that do not believe God exists.

Yet, with all the ground we have taken back from the secular humanists and the non-believers, there is still work to be done. If the 86 percent of Americans who believe in God want America to truly be restored to the Christian American nation it once was, we first need to teach and prepare this generation, and the generations that follow to recapture their Christian American future.

Since 1999 I have also noticed that some Christians seem to be paralyzed by an obsession with life in the "Last Days." Because of this notion some Christians have become so preoccupied that have lost sight of our fight to restore our nation to the same Christian American values it once held in our government institutions and as a way of life demonstrated publically in our culture. These Christians should refocus on what it means to truly be a Christian in America!

Over 200 years ago, our "Constitution" made the following statement:
"We have staked the whole of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."

Should we abandon what are Constitution says for Christian Americans to do? Are we to forsake our heritage? The very first Supreme Court Justice, John Jay, said:

"Americans should select and prefer Christians as their rulers."

He made this statement to reinforce what are Constitution instructs us to do as Americans to help ensure that our Christian heritage, values, and way of life would never be changed.

Are we so preoccupied with our daily lives that we will just stand by and stay silent, as the Christian Americans once did for 50 years following the Scopes Trial, and continue to let our America 's values, heritage, and way of life erode? Remember, in a Democracy the majority rules, but only if each and every person of that majority takes action and speaks out, can we exercise our Democratic rights and truly make a difference.

In his Inaugural Address on Friday, January 20, 1961, John F. Kennedy said, "United, there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures. Divided, there is little we can do—for we dare not meet a powerful challenge at odds and split asunder." Then later in this speech President Kennedy goes on to say, "And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country."

And so my fellow Christian Americans, what are you going to do for your country today?

Thursday, February 14

And as he was speaking......

"One day when Job's sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother's house, a messenger came to Job and said, "The oxen were plowing and the donkeys were grazing nearby, and the Sabeans attacked and carried them off. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!" While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, "The fire of God fell from the sky and burned up the sheep and the servants, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!" While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, "The Chaldeans formed three raiding parties and swept down on your camels and carried them off. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!" While he was still speaking, yet another messenger came and said, "Your sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother's house, when suddenly a mighty wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It collapsed on them and they are dead, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!"" Job 1:13-19 NIV

"And while he was still speaking….." Blam, Blam, Blam……the world that Job knew, the very joys he had in his children, the wealth of his flocks and cattle, and the very buildings that housed all of it……gone. One heartache after another after another…… Job's response was very dignified, even so, as the Israelite who accounts the story tells us in the following verses:

"At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship and said:
"Naked I came from my mother's womb,
and naked I will depart.
The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away;
may the name of the LORD be praised."


All for the desire not to sin against God, even as his world crumbled at his feet. Even the weakest in faith will first turn to God as the rains come, the sorrows flow, and the disasters pile upon them. Even the unsaved turn to the Abba Father in their distress, despite what the atheists would have you believe.

We all cry out for recognition in the storm, for help to draw us to the safe shores.
But, even Job—blameless and upright—eventually falls prey as the weight of the attack batters him and bruises him beyond his endurance. He declares to God that he has a demand to be heard, a case to present before the Most High. And God proceeds to show him how wrong he is to even think that he has that right to demand, to accuse God of wrongdoing in the disasters visiting upon him.

Job survives his trials, because of his faith in God and his understanding of the nature of God.

Today, my car finally 'gave up the ghost' as they say, the brakes giving out (I think master cylinder and rear brake caliper) on the way to work. I was talking to my sister as I traveled to work; to figure out a way home…..I live an hour away. A friend had offered to carpool with me as he works several buildings over from me in the complex here. Tomorrow is another day and another problem to solve as I shift my life from one lifestyle to another and am forced to rely on the goodness of God and His promises as the needs crash over and over upon the eroding soil of my shore.

I lifted my praises up to God in the beginning of all of this mess, but I have found it increasingly hard to do so as the needs pile up and the cries seem to go unheard. Or seem to be heard only to fall upon the rocks exposed in the receding waves…..

I have had my jobian moment of instruction and teaching of God's greatness and His mighty power. I have been humbled, I thought, by the understanding that I am no more stronger than a grain of sand, yet this Creator has called me a Beloved Son and called me to ministry to compassionately serve His family here upon this broken and fallen world.

And I had thought I responded in jobian fashion too, acknowledging this and acknowledging the foolishness of my pleadings and demands to be heard. My friends have not argued against the stand I have made and even the arguments that I have raged against God, but have stood beside me in this struggle to be.

As I wait in fearful expectation, I return over and over again to expectful affirmation of the promises that God has provided me to never harm me, but to prosper me and bless me in abundance.

I thank Him for all He has given me; the ability to safely arrive at work, friends to call upon, and most of all, HOPE.

Pray. Where three or more gather in agreement, so the Lord will grant the request. In His way and His time. Those are the 'burnt offerings' that I need from my friends and family within the body now.

God will as God wills.

Wednesday, February 13

Evangelicals are a "House divided"

Matthew 12: 25: “Every kingdom divided against itself is ruined. And every city or household divided against itself will not last.”

Originally I wrote this as my key verse for the Lenten devotional article that I was assigned for the St. Matthew's Lutheran Church in Walled Lake, Michigan which is featured below this post. The section I was 'assigned' was where Matthew is accounting the accusations made that Jesus was cavorting with demons. This verse, key in it's simplicity, has an echo in the political arena today also. And it is time that the household of conservatives realize and put 'paid' to their faith that God is in the process and will faithfully execute His plan for the governance of this nation that has become a grim and divided caricature of its once great beginnings.

A conservative talk show host on the local FM station I've listened to since 2004, Bob Dutko, has continually spoke of the realization that we have to have in this process…..that we must be committed to the election of anyone but Hillary or Barack for the office of the President of the United States and that means that we'll have to support McCain because Romney is no longer in the fight. I disagree, thinking that we need to realize the power of the community and stop worrying about the effects of the world upon our decisions. Instead of realizing that we must stave off disaster by compromising our principles, we need to realize that our principles must commit our course of action. We will keep defeating ourselves as conservatives because we continue to be divided over what we should or shouldn't do.

Huckabee has his issues, but he also has a historical record of being consistent with his faith and his words. As with any politician, there are enough 'questions' that have caused him to battle uphill against the tide of popularity given to his opponents within his own party and those in the opposition party. The common question on the lips of everyone today isn't is the man who was once a Baptist preacher strong enough to defeat either Hillary or Barack in the election? Now that the Romney has back out of the race, everyone seems to live with the defeated air that only McCain has a viable chance to oppose the 'unacceptable' choice of the Democratic Party. Many have placed the withdrawal of Romney at the feet of Huckabee, saying HE should have left the race a long time ago and given Romney a chance to overcome McCain's curb side appeal. Everyone is complaining of not having a choice but to accept McCain's likely nomination for the Republican choice for President.

"Who are you," I would ask those people, "to declare God inadequate for (as Bob Dutko puts it) a miracle?"

Political pundit Rush Limbaugh believes McCain would give the store away to the Democrats, and seems to be one of only a few leaders in the conservative 'family' that will oppose McCain. According to Newsmax, Limbaugh says: "We are sick and tired of how the people who seem to be triumphing in our party are precisely the people who seem to be selling this party out in terms of its ideology." Dr, James Dobson voices his sadness: "I am deeply disappointed the Republican Party seems poised to select a nominee who did not support a Constitutional amendment to protect the institution of marriage, voted for embryonic stem-cell research to kill nascent human beings, opposed tax cuts that ended the marriage penalty, has little regard for freedom of speech, organized the Gang of 14 to preserve filibusters in judicial hearings, and has a legendary temper, and often uses foul and obscene language."

Brannon Howse of Worldview Network, in an op-ed piece, voice the growing frustration most conservative evangelicals have with the division amongst the leadership:
"The bottom line is, Dr. Dobson, Sekalow, Perkins, Bauer and Robertson should have come out early on and supported the pro-life, pro-family candidacy of Governor Huckabee. After Fred Thompson dropped out, Huckabee was the only 100% pro-life, pro-family candidate. Thanks to a lack of leadership, we now have John McCain picking up speed to the nomination. If McCain is the nominee, true conservatives may vote, but I believe hundreds of thousands will not. In a race of McCain against Hillary/Obama, I think the latter wins. And who can you thank? In my humble opinion, the pro-family, pro-life leaders that were neither leading nor thinking about the main thing being the main thing: A candidate with a 100% pro-life, pro-family record."

"The nation is only as strong as the content of its character. America needs a leader who has it right on the social issues, even when that leader may not be as strong in other areas," ponders the Rev. Mark H. Creech is the executive director of the Christian Action League of North Carolina, Inc. in his guest column piece Don’t forget -- God is sovereign in the political process , "Only a straining of the facts makes John McCain equal to or worse than the godless direction a Clinton or Obama ticket would take the nation." Reverend Creech believes that the strongest issue concerning family values is the protection of Americans from terrorists bent on their destruction as opposed to our own tendency to destroy the generation fighting to be born, which McCain has a strong pro-choice history of voting.

Professor Craig Brians with the political science department at Virginia Tech was surprised to see Senator McCain (R-Arizona) leading Huckabee 55-to-27 percent in the rest of the national polls. Professor Brians is surprised at the data showing most evangelical Christian voters apparently will support McCain. "Now it's possible that a Falwell endorsement has really shifted things, and perhaps people who see different kinds of religious issues as really being key to their vote on the Republican side, have completely forgotten about the 2000 campaign," the Professor remarked in the Newsmax quote.

Instead of sitting back and realizing that "God is sovereign" in all things, as He is, we need to realize that He also calls us to declare to a world lost the values of the Cross and stand for what we believe, not what we believe is possible. Conservative airwaves, newspapers, opinions, and leaders are espousing the need to oppose Clinton and Obama instead of a declaration heard throughout the political and American landscape that we, as a spiritual and faithful people, will NOT stand for the politics as usual process of either party and will only accept the best candidate for the job, regardless of what party he belongs to or the world's opinion of his 'electability' come November. We live in fear of a Clinton or Obama as our President, instead of fearing the message that we have continually sent throughout the history of the United States that we will listen to those voices that would have us voting comprised principles rather than standing our values.

Instead of declaring the candidate who supports and shows the strongest conservative values that the majority of conservative evangelicals hold dear, the leadership is sending the division of their own confused values down through the family……causing even the democratic party to notice. The Democrats will be looking to endorse the candidate most likely to defeat Republican John McCain in the general election for President in November, because they know that is their only fear.

Should that be ours as conservative evangelical Christians? Or should we fear the further decay of our christian morals in the political and societal landscapes?

What do you fear?

First "published" work......for the Lenten observation

Words In Red Lenten Devotional
United We Stand, Divided Promotes A Fall!

Posted: 11 Feb 2008 11:00 PM CST

By Jim Hutson
February 12, 2008

Read: Matthew 12:25-37 ACCUSED OF WORKING WITH DEMONS

THOUGHT STARTER: Do you believe you will be judged by Jesus when he comes again? Does trusting and believing Jesus give you assurance of being with Him for all eternity?

KEY VERSE: vs 25: “Every kingdom divided against itself is ruined. And every city or household divided against itself will not last.”

“A house divided upon itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved – I do not expect the house to fall – but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.” Abraham Lincoln delivered this impassioned speech in 1858.

As a member of a “blended” and “multicultural” family, I can relate to division and the effects upon the whole. As most ‘blended’ families will attest to, this brought clashes in discipline, nurturing, parenting styles, personalities, and the involvement of the other outside influences of the “non-custodial” parents. Two distinct and separate families have been brought together, and common ground is the priority for advancement and survival. The needs of the one outweigh the needs of the few or the many, and it is that focus on the One that makes my family such an effective force for Christ.

Christ gave each of us, regardless of our personality, talent, skill, or passion, the same commission: To proclaim the Good News. Regardless of our denominational titles, we are all a blended family in the body of Christ united by the common truth of Jesus Christ.

“Our cause, then, must be entrusted to, and conducted by, its own undoubted friends – those whose hands are free, whose hearts are in the work, who do care for the result… We gathered from the four winds and formed and fought the battle through, under constant hot fire of a disciplined, proud, and pampered enemy…..We shall not fail--if we stand firm, we shall not fail. Wise counsels may accelerate or mistakes delay it, but, sooner or later, the victory is sure to come.” Wise words from a preacher? No, these are additional thoughts from Abraham Lincoln that we can add to the call for the harvest in the Kingdom work.

What differences in the body of Christ do you come across and how do they keep you from fulfilling the Great Commission?

What are key beliefs that you find are common to true believers regardless of the denominational beliefs that are part of the body of Christ?

Lord Jesus, Heavenly Father, and Holy Spirit, we praise You and give You thanks that You are the common thread of our lives. Dear Father, In all things, we can agree upon who is the Truth, the Light, and the Way: Your son, Jesus Christ. Help each of us to discover the true meaning of “loving our neighbor” seeking to offer the truth and live in loving tolerance with brethren regardless of what denomination they claim, for they are part of Your family. United we stand, divided we fall is the call of our nation. Let us realize the truth in this for ourselves, for the Kingdom. AMEN

Again, if you would like to follow along with the other authors for the lenten period, you can subscribe to the emails at www.st-matthew.org

Tuesday, February 12

A still small voice in my ear.........

"Know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one thing has failed of all the good things which the Lord your God promised concerning you. All have come to pass for you; not one thing of them has failed." Joshua 23:14b AMP

The old adage, "can't see the forest for all of these darn trees", comes to mind when I think of this verse in context with what I am facing in the trials and struggles of the life to which I have been called. Not just as a father, not just a husband, not just as a man, but even as a minister. The costs, when I sit down and list them upon paper, have been high, questionable, and dear. Not just to live the calling as a minister (I am still 'only' a Chaplain), but also to be the example to my two dear children as what a father should be (not having the good, clear example of my own on which to emulate), and struggling to be a man as God designed me to be. I come against so many walls in pursuit of the Kingdom goals, I wonder if I am in pursuit of them after all……..

And then a friend comes alongside, a mentor mentors, and a God speaks through the voices of those He has created and embraced as His own children. And I remember what Joshua told the nation of Israel as they looked at the daunting task of claiming physically a land given to them by God. A daunting task, a scary task, but a task that they were called to, purposed for, and enabled to obtain. God had told them so, and Joshua reminded them that God delivered. Always. On His schedule, but always on time.

In the chaos of the storm, unable to see beyond the battlements of the fortress in which I'm hunkered down in, I can't see God's work or His promise of faithfulness in response to mine. I can't plot the course to that sunny beach upon which I'll be able to rest from the struggles of the day and gain some peace. I can't predict a day where things won't be so weighty upon my mind and heart. I have forgotten that there will be a day when my heart doesn't break anymore.

I have raged against the storm, AND the God to which it is ultimately responsive to. I have argued against the struggle, against the brick walls, against the opinion that this poor boy with no theological or seminary training can ever grace the stage of a church as pastor, as teacher, and as a beloved son. I have cast myself unmercifully against the brick and mortar by which I also seek protection from the elements.

And as I collapse upon the ground in utter exhaustion, battered and bruised from the inflicted doubt, I hear the voice again. That voice that called me back in February of 2004 home (renewal of faith), and October of the same year to ministry. A voice I've heard several times in my life since, always at the times when I am not listening for it……………the voice of my Father……

"Beloved son, I will be your strength. I will be your rest. Why do you cower behind the wall? There is work to be done, will you go?"

The voice that promises much for those who would listen……………….

And the history to back up the faith that the God behind it will deliver upon them……..

Monday, February 11

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer?

"For it is not an enemy who reproaches and taunts me--then I might bear it; nor is it one who has hated me who insolently vaunts himself against me--then I might hide from him. But it was you, a man my equal, my companion and my familiar friend. We had sweet fellowship together and used to walk to the house of God in company." Psalm 55:12-14 AMP

"On the night He was betrayed……"

A phrase that continues to echo in my heart as the storm rages full fury against my tattered and ripped meager fortress, heard above the roar of the mighty wind that beats against all that I hold dear. Christ was betrayed by a friend, a disciple whom He loved and respected. He knew Judas would betray him, yet He treated him as if the knowledge was hidden from His eyes. Until it came time for the final sacrifice to be advanced to the Cross, a sight that Judas never saw.

On the night He was betrayed……

Christ didn't hide or cower behind closed doors frightened and afraid. No, He gave us the communion to remind us of what would be done to redeem us. He spent the night in the garden, anguished and sorrowed to the point where blood dripped from his sweating brow and yet, when the time came for Judas to commit the sin against God's Son, he simply asked, "What is this, Judas? That you would betray the Son of Man with a kiss?" No condemnation, no angry outburst or calling of his disciples to His side. He even admonished Peter for the slicing off of the guard's ear, and healed an unbeliever who had came to take Him to His purpose. All of His disciples, even the one who openly declared death the only thing to hold him from His side, ran into the night and left Christ alone to be beaten, accused, and shamed.

On the night he was betrayed……..

He invoked such humility and such grace that anyone who knew Him and realized who He was surely stood numbed and heartbroken as they watched the events unfold… especially John, the Beloved, who would ultimately face the enduring trials of being the last eyewitness voice to what happened during the three years Christ walked in ministry upon the land. How shocked, stunned, and utterly depressed must all of those who had followed this giant amongst the sheep, to see Him battered, bruised, and betrayed to the most heinous death the Romans knew, crucifixion.

And we can experience that level of betrayal in the body of Christ's church as we watch those who profess to be of the family espouse views and opinions that Christ doesn't support upon the Word. There is nothing that causes greater distress than to be betrayed by a loved one or someone within the close circle of your friends.

But as Matthew Henry said, "The true Christian must expect trials from professed friends [or loved ones], from those with whom he has been united; this will be very painful; but by looking unto Jesus we shall be enabled to bear it. Christ was betrayed by a companion, a disciple, an apostle, who resembled Ahithophel in his crimes and doom. Both were speedily overtaken by Divine vengeance."

As this verse expresses a prophecy about Christ's betrayal, it also contains our warning of betrayals of our own. But we cannot shut off from the light and harshness of the world and its demons, rather face it with the grace that Christ had as He walked down the streets of Jerusalem carrying a wooden cross that He was to be nailed too.

We can look in the face of our betrayers and utter the words that Christ spoke as He hung in utter pain upon a cross not of His making,
"Forgive them for they know not what they do."

Thursday, February 7

I'd rather have a little of heaven than alot of the world......

"For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand [anywhere else]; I would rather be a doorkeeper and stand at the threshold in the house of my God than to dwell [at ease] in the tents of wickedness." Psalm 84:10 (AMP)

The Psalmist must be insane......or brilliant in his understanding of the destination that we all claim to seek after, at least in the pews of the church. All the while seeking those comforts that would make the experience less 'stressful'.

The early church stood when gathered together in a large group, and often times went well beyond the 'hour' mark that makes most churches viable in the fast pace world the congregation lives in today. We MUST be culturally revelant so that those people in the comfortable chairs in the well lit worship hall can see the brilliantly composed powerpoint presentations that help them follow along with the latest christian band that is visiting the church.

The offering goes around twice; once for the Lord's church to help pay for the salaries of the staff that works during the week to present the Gospel in such a culturally relevant way and ensures that we offend no one who might be visiting our church for the first time. The second offering is to pay for the nice carpet, comfortable chairs, and equipment needs that are the burden of any pernanement church home. We leave out in the atrium boxes for the mission field, and handouts for the "thirty-something" get-together at Tiger Stadium, the next gathering of 'core' classes that will help us work towards membership..........

Is there really anything wrong with those things? On the surface, people are probably nodding their heads in tisk, tisk motion thinking of how petty I am being about a few thousand yards of carpet, brick and mortar. Why can't we have nice things? Nice home, nice clothes, nice car, and nice churches.

Deeper, though, I wonder if indeed there is a problem with the luciousness of the churches in the American nation I am graced and blessed to be a part of. Maybe this is because I am a poor boy from a poor family......sorry, let slip a bit of Wayne's world in there......and it is always easier to question what you do not have and don't really need compared to questioning what I do have and don't really need.

I go to churches and look at their parking lots, fully of nice new vehicles that shine in the winter sun. I watch the members (or potiental members) of the congregation walk into the big, impressive building that takes up city blocks in their nice suit and ties, shoes glimming in the mid-morning sunshine with enough brilliance to blind everyone else.

Sometimes I am invited to the homes of friends and congregational members and I marvel at the sheer size and luxury of those so blessed with the financial stewardship and/or strength to afford such a buliding in which to embrace their families.

And then, as most of us do, I compare what I have; a car that is in the mechanical throws of death from old age and abused use. An ranch-style rental unit that is a far cry from the house I used to live in and not even in the neighborhood of the homes of the friends I've been graced to visit. And clothes that have graced another's body before I gleaned them off the racks of the local Salvation Army clothing store.

I wonder, though, how many of those 'blessed' people in the hallways carpeted with the luxurious carpet that just makes you feel like you're floating down the streets of Heaven itself are in secular bondage to the comfortable. And therefore spiritually blinded to the decay within their lives. These are the ones who live in fear of what will happen if they ever reach financial collaspe. These are the ones with the most toys, of the finest quality and best name brands, that have the most to lose and don't realize the devastation they court.

Make no inclusion to my discussion here. If you are blessed and bless others with the blessings of God, then it doesn't matter the year of your car, the size of your house, or the qualitity of your clothes.....it is okay, I guess.

As Christ said to the rich man, "Give up everything you have, sell it all, and then follow me." It is the understanding and realistic answer to that question that may be the difference between a poor man and a rich man, regardless of their financial picture. A rich man, who is willing to lose everything to further the kingdom....sell the car and buy a junker to get some additional funds to help the poor in their neighborhoods, or in a third world country.....I think, that is what Christ was making the point of.....does your money control you or do you control my money well??

To be willing to give up all the comfortable days that we could have, in delusion to our actual needs, for the suffering to gain one day before God's throne.......

To be willing to forego those creature comforts of our luxury car, home, and church seat to stand outside the door of the Almighty God in the cold, wet wintery rain......

"What is grace, but heaven begun below in the knowledge, love, and service of God? What is glory, but the completion of this happiness, in being made like to Him, and in fully enjoying Him forever?"

I would like a car that has more noise coming from the radio than the engine compartment, to carry me to the throughly enjoyable job at the church with the carpeted hallways of floating luxury and from the home where the big screen tv is cooling down from the latest Charles Stanley DVD that I was watching in preparation to addressing the congregation sitting in the plush seats of the main sanctuary that seats 1,000 comfortably than working a job that is trying at best and downright depressing at the least only to have to return to a home that is more chaotic as we strive to live on top of each other and watch the battered, bruised 'ancient but functional' big screen that takes five strong guys to move so you can dust under.........

But not at the expense of a closer relationship with God.

To be content, as Paul says, in all circumstances doesn't mean to be blind to them or that you wouldn't appreciate nicer things. It doesn't mean that you've got to have a positive sign in the 'undue suffering' column of the christian faith....

Whatever our outward circumstances, to be happy in the knowledge that God will give us everything that we need for our good and to trust the Lord of Hosts in the promises He has given us. To prosper us.......

Never to harm us.

Anticipation of the hope...

"Do not love or cherish the world or the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world--the lust of the flesh [craving for sensual gratification] and the lust of the eyes [greedy longings of the mind] and the pride of life [assurance in one's own resources or in the stability of earthly things]--these do not come from the Father but are from the world [itself]. And the world passes away and disappears, and with it the forbidden cravings (the passionate desires, the lust) of it; but he who does the will of God and carries out His purposes in his life abides (remains) forever." 1 John 2:15-17 AMP

The deceit of the enemy is in his ability to convince you that what you think is of God really is. That way, when the things of the flesh (sexual gratification) cause fleshly devastation…you will accuse the Father. When the things of the eyes (greedy mind) are displayed for what they truly are….you will accuse the Creator. And above all else, when the things of life (your own ability and resources) blow away like the dust in a windstorm, you will turn away from the One who is supposed to take care of you. Will you be able to stand on the day when the worldly deception of the enemy is cast aside and the reality of creation is once again exposed and know that you will still be here? Or will your world disintegrate like the flawed creation it lived in?

I wish that I could declare to the world that the way is clear and the burdens light, easily carried. I wish that I could promise upon the evidence of the Word that when we declare ourselves for Christ, the joy and happiness that abound is unlike anything the world will ever give us. I wish that I could declare that we all can find the peace of God in doing what He wants us to do……..

But I can't.

The world is decayed, broken, and immoral. So are we, even as we struggle and fight to live for the Father, our bodies and fleshly desires betray our heart and soul to which we've surrendered to God. The road to anticipation of redemption is harsh, long, bitter, and cruel.

It is also full of growth, peace, contentment and glory. Our Father gives us the hope and the strength to endure the trials ahead and the pain of the moment in anticipation of the renewal of ALL things.

Don't let the temporary things of this world take that contentment of the hope provided for our future.

I preach to myself on this and feel the sorrow of the lost of the temporary things that I've struggled for.....

hoped for...................

and lusted for..............

To live means to die.....and I have watched my old life systematically stripped away and thrown into the lake of fire...

I want to live for something more than this world can give....

and anticipate its arrival………………

Wednesday, February 6

Stop silencing the voice....

I wrote this article in response to the ACLU's continued fight to keep the moral voice of Americans silenced through the continued enactment of a bad law.....The Johnson Act of 1954.

"Let us look forward to the time when we can take the flag of our country and nail it below the Cross, and there let it wave as it waved in the olden times, and let us gather around it and inscribed for our motto: 'Liberty and Union, one and inseparable, now and forever,' and exclaim, 'Christ first, our country next!'." -Andrew Johnson

"Politics do not belong in the Church," the voice proclaims, "But we will ensure the purging from our public life of all those priests who have mistaken their profession and who ought to have been politicians and not pastors."

No, not the words of the ACLU or the Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. Not even the defensive ramblings of Obama, Clinton, Romney, or Thompson in reference to their all too public and all evidently shallow professions of faith. Bryan Fischer, Executive Director of the Idaho Values Alliance points these quotes are attributed to one person and one person only and are the age-old agenda of tyranny and repression. Adolph Hitler uttered those words in December of 1934.

Dan Gilgoff, Senior Editor at U.S. News & World Report, would have us believe that this is clearly evident by the passage of the 1954 legislation that forbids political activity that aims to help, or hurt, candidates for public office for tax-exempt organizations, commonly referred to 501(c) 3 organizations or non-profits. Churches, according to Gilgoff's research or opinion, are forbidden to aid or oppose candidates for elected office.

"Tax exemptions for non-profit groups were never intended to offer tax relief to partisan political advocacy," Gilgoff proclaims should be the impus for concern regarding the IRS enforcement failures of the bill, "....Congress set out to fix in 1954: preventing Uncle Sam from subsidizing [it]."

Gilgoff brushes aside allegations that the bill, originally attached to another, unrelated bill by then-Senate Minority Leader Lyndon Johnson, was nothing more than Johnson's usage of the 'whatever goes' Congressional attitude of the time to derail the support of two non-profit organizations (Facts Forum and the Committee for Constitutional Government--neither church organizations) of his opponent in the coming election as something 'conservative Christians' bring up. No matter, Gilgoff opinions, the courts have upheld the Law.

Patrick O'Daniel, the historian who authored an in-depth study of this legislation, points out that two things are clear; the restriction on electioneering was motivated solely by Senator Johnson's calculated effort to protect his own political skin and the Senator wasn't concerned in the slightest about the activities of churches. The Senator's own staff supported this view, and the actions of the Senator to secure support from churches when it benefitted him show some validitity to such statements.

Gilgoff's declaration of legality by default of the Johnson Amendment of 1954 runs into immediate and constitutional rough waters when applied to the standards of the First Amendment verbage and historical understanding. In an article entitled, Of Politics and Pulpits: A First Amendment analysis of IRS restrictions on the political activities of religious organizations, Steffen N. Johnson explores some of the policy justifications offered in support of restricting the political activities of tax-exempt religious organizations.

"Our nation has demonstrated a 'profound national commitment to the principle that debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide-open'." Johnson points out and cites free exercise as being described as our "first freedom" to which the Supreme Court observes "a free-speech clause without religion would be Hamlet without the prince."

Throughout American history, until the moment in time in 1954 when a person agenda hijacked the American political process, Churches have been free to engage in "public debate over issues, morality, and other matters of conscience." Political and religious speech are at the core of the First Amendment, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech........"

Arguments, like Gilgoff's, that the restrictions imposed by Johnson's amendment is justified "because it is inappropriate or unseemly" for churches to engage in the political process of this country are in direct opposition, Stefan Johnson points out, to historical and societal understanding of traditional roles of such religious organizations. "As long as anyone can remember, churches have raised society's consciousness regarding political issues," Johnson argues, "[by commenting] on the culture, [rebuking] its leaders, and boldly [denoucing] its mores."
Political struggles regarding slavery, taxation, capital punishment, and civil rights are all marked by church involvement and a people's definition of their beliefs being declared upon the political issues. As Johann Baptist Metz is quoted as saying in Johnson's article, "It is impossible to privatize the eschatological promises of biblical tradition; liberty, peace, justice, reconciliation. Again and again, they force us to assume our responsibility towards society."

Candidates are known for their ideals, policy stance, and personal faith, as is clearly evident in the religious declarations echoing across the political landscape of the current crop of political hopefuls. Politicians are taking the Oath of Office upon their personal religious icons rather than the traditional methods. Democratic seekers are often found in front of congregations declaring their commonality of faith in seeking the votes for the political office they desire. The political process is such that the people, if they so choose, can vote against a candidate that doesn't reflect their values, ideology, or theology and give it to one that does. It is ridiculous that the governmental bodies that we elect declare that the very bulwark of our faith, the church, cannot speak about political issues that are affected by the understanding of their faith because it would support or oppose candidates seeking public office.

The Republic, designed to be a government of the people, for the people and accountable to the people governed, has become a government body of dictatorships out of synch with the general public. Politicians who are supposed to represent the people shun traditional nods to the faith of the majority by declaring personal preference in taking the oath that is supposed to show their understanding of the representation they've been entrusted with.

As Johnson points out, "There is a healthy pluralism of approaches to involvement in politics in American churches." Some churches go out of their way in the cultural sensitive style they promote to stay out of political discussions while others jump upon an opportunity to mock the Johnson Amendment of 1954 by running the line between personal endorsement and denominational endorsement of a candidate. Typically, the congregations that pay the salaries of the leadership have the leadership they desire and the political opinions of that leadership reflect the political opinion of the congregational majority. If not, the leadership is replaced or the congregation moves elsewhere.

Isn't it governmental endorsement of religion to silence the viewpoint of those who lead by their religious conscience to take an active role in the politics of the culture they are called to serve, by that same religious conscience. Stephen Carter, quoted by Stefan Johnson, states, "If the state is able to manipulate the content of religious doctrine through its power to extend or deny the favored tax treatment, the religions are already well down the road to compromising their autonomy." The government is allowing the abuse of the First Amendment, which prohibits the exercising of freedom of religion, by silencing the expression of the church leadership's freedom of speech. Sermons are edited of religious convictions because they may endorse one candidate that supports those convictions and oppose another that doesn't.

By affecting the "uninhibited, robust, and wide-open" discussion of public issues, the government is prohibiting the church leadership in guiding their congregations to hold visible and publicly powerful political officials to accountability on moral convictions shared by the faith reflected within the walls of the church. Leadership in the church must be content-neutral while trying to convey biblical or religious views that aren't. The churches of today represent varying religious ideals that range from democratic to republican, conservative to liberal, and even pro-life or pro-choice. To say that such a "political opposite" viewpoints would be homogeneous and thus affect the political process is foolish and insulting to the people who the process was designed to accomodate.

To say that the view that such restrictions of the churches' political activism help to ensure that nondeductable contributions aren't funneled so that they become deductable is a valid concern,but inappropiately applied in this situation. A minister's endorsement of a candidate by speaking of the moral or biblical qualifications of such political officials oppose no threat to governmental oversight of such abuses. There is a clear line between endorsing a candidate due to common religious beliefs and endorsing a candidate because of unfair and unethical campaign contributions.

Congress has effectively silenced through threats the ethical and religious exercise of free speech in churches that bear responsibility to remark on the moral character and responsibility of those in politics who are dependent on the voting public who subscribe to that religious faith. It would cause more alarm, and be more consistent in the understanding of the purpose of the Johnson Amendment of 1954 if churches were making comments upon those officials that had direct effect upon them than officials who make national and international policy that affect the whole populace. And it would be clearly evident in a religious organization's attempt to affect an outcome in such a local setting.

Of course, the process well underway in Senator Johnson's time has developed further and further away from the pure and unadulterated birth began with the giants of the past; Washington, Franklin, Adams, and Jefferson to name a few and the smaller in stature but no less important common citizentry of a fledgling republic.

The politician has developed into an office not of the common people but the uncommon oration of those who can blind the majority into thinking that the politician is the best or, at worse, not the worst person to do the job. But, whereas the system was designed to operate upon the personal honor and patriotic duty of a few to be in service to the All, the few have become a nation unto themselves, where the service is to themselves and the rest of the group rather than the majority of citizens who don't live in Washington and aren't sought after by those with money to pass their own agendas.

The nonpartisan design of the 'loser' of the election becoming the Vice-President of the nation and the 'winner' becoming President, we have a two and three party system that elects their choicest by the electoral college vote instead of the popular vote (except for one time in political history where the reverse happened).

Instead of upholding the Law in accordance with the desires of the representatives of the People, i.e. Congress, the judicial system is made up of those individuals who decide laws and how they will be enforce rather than being the voice of the Law to begin with.

Regardless of whether you believe this nation was founded upon the tenets of the Judeao-Christian faith or simply the luck of a few misguided rebels who were fortunate enough to be able to create such a nation, it doesn't have any weigh upon the unconstitutional havoc that is being perpetrated throughout the national landscape as the Congress has continually used bad legislation like the Johnson Act of 1954 to silence the recognized voice of morality in the nation, the churches.

Its time to end the silence that has muzzled the spiritual voice of Americans throughout the ages and return to a REPRESENTATIVE government.............

OF THE PEOPLE

AND FOR THE PEOPLE.....

UNDIVIDED, INDIVISIBLE, UNDER GOD...............

SO HELP US GOD...........

Self-inflicted wounds

"If I say, 'I will forget my complaint, I will change my expression, and smile,' I still dread all my sufferings, for I know you will not hold me innocent. Since I am already found guilty, why should I struggle in vain?" Job 9:27-29(NIV)

This is Job's reply to his 'best friend', Bildad the Shuhite's "you must've done something wrong to God" reasoning behind the suffering and losses that Job has been afflicted with. I attempted to write something about this section of chapter 9 yesterday, because it seemed so perfectly fitting with the Martina McBride song "Anyway" that I've been hearing a lot lately on the Christian radio I listen to, WMUZ 103.5FM. Especially with Job's emphatic "why should I struggle in vain?" comment………. But the blog, conveniently entitled "Anyway" probably will never be written.

As always, God has His ideas and they usually trump mine. After all, He made everything and knows everything. I think it's a safe bet to think that He'd know what is best when it comes to speaking of His word. It hit me this morning that the 'anyway' flavor of the previous day's effort didn't give voice to God's desire for me in that verse, particularly verse 29……..

A majority of the time, when I wake up in the morning, I turn my thoughts to God and spend a bit of time reflecting on a devotional or a thought for the day. Sometimes it is just a opening of the Bible and snatching a bit of His wisdom before I leave home to begin my day. Sometimes I don't have the time, or force myself to take it, and I don't reflect on His word…..I spend my drive into work discussing real living situations in conversation with my Father. Kinda the "phone home for advice," conversations I think God desires with His children.

All of this is in preparation of the battle that goes on daily. Not just for the souls of those still in darkness and fear. But also for those of us who know the light and know the danger, for the enemy would take us out of the fight as much—if not more so—than those he already gets by default. I girth my armor on, grab up my sword and my shield…….stopping at the door of my home to pray for protection and guidance for me and my family throughout the time we are apart in the thick of it, I step into the fray….sometimes falling, sometimes hitting the mark with the sword of truth….but always a warrior in the battle.

But there are times when I deliberately and with malice thought sabotage myself, taking myself and my skills God has given me out of the battle….claiming wounded status in the fight. Self-inflicted, but a wound none the less. As common as this is on the earthly battlefields of today, where the soldiers are just overwhelmed with fear and a desire for self-preservation, it is too often overlooked upon the spiritual battlefields. Leaders wonder why their mighty and valiant soldiers in the fight suddenly are taken out…..weakening the whole unit.......is it a legitimate wound or has it been self-inflicted?

That is what God wanted me to see in these verses…..just like Job, I've taken to helping the enemy take me out of the fight. Why bother to fight when so much in my world is falling apart? Why struggle when the struggle is still going to result in suffering and grief? Why not wait until that moment in time prior to my death to claim the promise of the salvation gift and live to minimize the pain of being 'of the world but not part?'

I have stabbed myself in the leg and am crying out "Medic! Medic!"

And as I wait for the Spirit to come and heal me, I am silently rejoicing in the fact that today…..today, I don't have to swing the sword or hoist the shield. I can relax in the comfort of the medical tent, and nurse my wounds. I don't have to fight today…..

But my heart doesn't rest, or relax. Because of the Call, because of the knowledge of the fight that rages in the hearts and minds of all humanity, my heart which was given to the Savior cannot rest…….and the wound, self-inflicted and selfish, becomes unbearably painful. More so than the original wounding. And, as my accountability partner said (in what he considered an grossly inappropriate way), I become not the man of God that I am supposed to be…..

But a baby…. Crying out for a bottle of compassion.......

I complain and point out that it doesn't matter what I do to try and overcome those things in my life that aren't in alignment with God's will, purpose, and design for me. It doesn't matter that I know the sin, have worked to defeat the sin, and have obtained somewhat of a victory of the sin…..God will not allow me to escape the consequences of my sinful indiscretions.

As Paul says in the do-do verses, "I know what to do and don't. I know what not to do and do." But when I do the "don't do's" of life, I don't want to have to pay the price of doing them……..

But if I can't stop sinning (and everyone has sin in their life to overcome at anytime), then why bother to try not to? Best to just self-inflict the wound so that I can stop the necessity of battling against the foe for those in darkness and myself…….

And by doing so, I give the enemy a free pass for the day. At what cost and at what loss, I may never know and it is that agony that makes my soul cry out for forgiveness for my sin, my self-protective response to the chaos around me.

In the battles I have to face, the struggle with the automobile repairs, the training and implementing what is learned, the family, the marriage, the job, and just seeking God's place in the Call He's put on my heart.....I have thrown up a flag and formed the "T" with my hands...."timeout", I don't want to play anymore.

Forgetting the valuable lessons God taught me through the agony of His Son Jesus in that garden.....It's not my will but the Will of the Father who made me that is important. It isn't battling and overcoming enormous foes that blesses the Father but the struggle itself.

Have you allowed yourself to self-inflict some 'temporary' wounds to take yourself out of the battle for the souls of those lost in the darkness of sin? Have you been struggling, but (as one of the leaders of Awakened Hearts says) not struggling well?

Let's not give the enemy a free pass in our lives today. Let's bind our wounds and stand upon the battlefield of the soul to draw a line in the sand....

Here, by the grace of the Almighty God, you shall NOT pass Satan.

I'll stand with you. Wounded, bleeding, scarred, and broken.

I will claim the victory for the Father.

Will you?