Tuesday, April 29

My voice....

"Stop judging so that you will not be judged. Otherwise, you will be judged by the same standard you use to judge others. The standards you use for others will be applied to you. So why do you see the piece of sawdust in another believer's eye and not notice the wooden beam in your own eye? How can you say to another believer, 'Let me take the piece of sawdust out of your eye,' when you have a beam in your own eye? You hypocrite! First remove the beam from your own eye. Then you will see clearly to remove the piece of sawdust from another believer's eye." Matthew 7:1-5 GWT

Long ago, in a place not far from where I now stand, an event happened that would change the lives of two people for twenty years or so. In the tempest of the storms that raged in the lives of these two souls, it was more than the storms that would wound both to the point of separation.

I was one of those who stood in those events of that day and I was the one who spoke in woundedness, bitterness, pain, and anguish against another who's only crime was stepping into the future that was being shaped for him. Accusations of 'selling out' and abandoning the family that had survived many a trial before created a wound that would drive the gap between me and that person for years and years, through the death of a father, the death of a mother, and the death of a grandmother.

That person was my older brother.

And the ensuing silence that has haunted the bond that once stood unbroken never left my ears.

Not realizing the depth of the wounding I had caused with my angry words, regardless of the reasoning that I had behind them (faulty reasoning at best, wounded reaction at the worst), that connection would ripple across the landscape of my life for years. My younger brother, with whom contact was more frequent, was more painful than the silence of the elder. Through the connection of the younger sister, the brothers would stay tenaciously connected to the bond of family broken upon the altar of this world.

There is more than just this one thing that would cause the bond of the unbreakable four to be torn asunder and there is more than I who hold blame, responsibility, and wounded brokenness that ripped the fabric of each of our lives so long ago, and in such painful ways. And maybe what is lost will never be recaptured, never see the blinding light of day.

Almost a year ago today, I stood before a group of godly men and told my story. I had touched, in that painful half-hour or so of tearful recollection, upon this silent relationship of my elder brother and I. The painful traffic-wreck relationship of the younger brother and I. Bearing responsibility for whatever I had done to endure the silence (for much of my life up to seven years ago is borne under wounded bitterness and grief), I spoke to the silent gathering of that which was lost and faded in the annuals of time.

I spoke of being criticized by a father who knew of the painful truth of having a son who looked like him, acted like him, and spoke like him but had none of the qualities that the elder had or the younger showed promise of. Of fighting to find the value under a brother to which life seemed a breeze and accolades fell like rain around his feet. But I never spoke, had forgotten or hidden, the event that would silence the brother who would leave upon an adventure that would take him far away and silence him for what seemed forever.

Four years ago, I stood in the back of a church with a million thoughts racing through my mind. Would the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob finally be found in this warehouse converted into a worship center? Would I get the feeling that once was a Sunday event in the torn world of my past? Or would the silence that even pervaded my brother's relationship with me continue to invade everything else, as it had done since I turned my back on the religiosity of the hypocritical Pharisees that to this day stand on tradition and universal multitudes of ways to the "god" we've designed as a people since the Fall.

God spoke, in a whisper………."Don't you think it's time to come home?"

And my world has never been the same. Can never be the same. And it was then that I began a journey that brought me to this day. And, like that Saturday a year ago, I have been disrupted and brought to a place where the grace of God is displayed and the forgiveness of the Christ permeates the soul, where the strength of my weakness is the glory of God.

Again, I've heard God speak…….but in my brother's voice.

Four years ago, the silence that the brutalness of my words brought upon the heart of my brother was invaded through the mighty hand of the God we both know…four years ago, since the rededication and ignition of the faith that I never realized was visited upon me in that cheap seat in the back of a converted warehouse. And God started to work……….

I turned my brother's silence over to God, giving Him the power and permission to invade the portions of my heart long bricked over and forgotten in the hallways of my past. And there wasn't a total peace that was brought, but patient conviction that in time, when I was ready to face those wounds and painful memories, God would move.

Maybe not towards reconciliation or restoration, but a healing.

I heard that my brother had become a missionary with the Navigators and was in Germany on an Air Force base that most likely he had once stood as a Air Force Officer. He was doing good things and really working to the design and purpose to which God had given and purposed to him.

I sent an email.

And my world exploded yesterday with the reply.

The thing that hit me the most was the ending……………

Love, Larry.

The beam has been removed, and by the strength of the Father we both love, I stand in awe.

The silence is no more.

This time, I will use my voice.....

To say I'm sorry.....

And I love you too...

Wednesday, April 23

State of Fear

“When I am afraid I will trust in You. In God I will praise His Word; in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do to me. (Psa 56:3-4 MKJV)”

Life is full of harrowing experiences, that truly realized, should paralyze each and every one of us. In an blink of an eye, a friend who is the vision of health is felled by a diagnosis of cancer in their sinus. A loved one that spoke with you just moments before has become a victim of a mindless drunk that careened into their car, killing them instantly. A father, increased in age, goes to make coffee in his modest mobile home one morning with the anticipated arrival of a dear friend, who finds him collasped upon the living room floor, dead from a heart that pumps no more.
We make a lifestyle out of fear; fear for an enivronment that we truly cannot control or fix, fear of war, fear of relationships and the fear of being alone. And, Christians aren’t immune to this state of fear that we are constantly bombarded with through the news, friend’s opinions, and a frank lack of understanding of a God that is far beyond anything our human minds can comprehend.
We use it in unhealthy manner, as an excuse not to love those we feel are truly beyond any reasonable assumption of being loved. Fear of listening to a voice we aren’t sure is God’s because the direction it is telling us to travel is so farfetched and abnormal that we don’t want to go. Fear of being truly in relationship with those who can and do hurt us. Fear of letting go of those who aren’t healthy for us in pursuit of a love we feel we can never be worthy of.
We fear, a natural and sometimes helpful response to the chaotic and deadly environment that surrounds us and that we are dependant on for our very survival.
We fear God, a good thing and a healthy response to such a powerful, mighty, and holy Being.
But in everything that we fear, it is how we react in that fear that tells us and the world around us what we believe to be true, what we want to be true, and what we know is true. We put ourselves into a position where we trust the very thing that we should and often fear the most; a righteous and holy God.
If we truly trust in God and the promises made to us in His holy word, why do we agonize over making a stand for our faith? If we truly trust and fear God, why do we continue to allow the minority rule over the majority? We put up leaders like Clinton and Obama, McCain and Guilliani, and then complain over the choice that seem so dim and limiting instead of speaking out in truth and light and stating our faith-based preferences.
If we truly trust in God, why do we allow ourselves to fear what a religious band of terrorists, indoctrinated by the very religious leaders that claim peaceful intentions? Why do we continue to quiet our voices in response to a misquoted, misrepresented, and misinterpeted word called “tolerance”.
If we truly, as children of God, fear God more than we fear man fail to trust in God to fulfill His promiese to us and speak out? Why do we fear what flesh can do to us more than what God can do to us?

Friday, April 18

Honesty and Truth

"The way of the guilty is devious, but the conduct of the innocent is upright." Proverbs 21:8 NIV

We all know the type; those people who are constantly 'up to no good.' Body language is out of control, eyes flirting around the landscape but never directly focused on yours. Nervous energy causing limbs to dart all over as their feet tap a tune that only they can feel. Inconsistencies in what they say, how they say it, and specific vagueness about targeted questions. It is clear that they are trying to hide something from you, and you may not know what it is, but the hairs on your neck are in full bloom because 'it just doesn't feel right.'

If they are a casual acquaintance, then we can guard against their deviousness and take appropriate steps to ensure we're not drawn into their evil intentions, whether they are intentional or subconscious. We can physically separate ourselves from the manipulation that our 'sixth sense' is klaxoning over. We can gently or not so gently tell the person NO. It is easy to do and somewhat harmless in the interaction that takes place within that context.

On the same hand, we are immediately drawn to those people who exude a 'aura of trustiness' in our lives, those who we can automatically tell we'll get a fair shake. We seek advice and wisdom from those wizen 'elders' and seek to implement them in our lives with full assurance that success will happen in the way we've been pointed.

We also know of the deception that always comes upon us when we distort, misinform, or even distract others from sin and lies in our own lives. Eventually it is exposed and the lies on top of lies we are constantly involved in speaking to cover the original sin roll over on us like a boulder. Guilt that we held at bay overwhelms us.

But it is the guilt of those we love, the deception of those near and dear, that causes the most destruction and chaos in our lives. The safe haven we may have come to expect would always be there, suddenly swept away in the distorted sin of adultery, addiction, or a turning away from the Father in Heaven. And we are marooned upon the floating debris of our suddenly corrupted life.

If you live your life hiding things from your loved ones; your spouse, your family, your children, and even friends who are the stability in troubled times, you will take more than yourself with you when the sin is discovered, the guilt felt fully, and the chaos of a life disrupted is revealed. Innocents; friends, spouses, and even children, will all face the challenges that come from ceding to sinful, deceitful ways.

But, if you stand your life openly, with no shadows of shaded sin or hidden guilt, you cannot fall and you cannot destroy anyone or anything. You will be standing; maybe not where you think you should be, and you may not be welcomed everywhere you may want to be, but you will be looked at as that 'wizen' person, who speaks the truth and shows it in their lives, and you will be respected.

Just my thoughts on a verse that God brought upon me today.

Thursday, April 17

Emailed thought for the day....

One day a while back, a man, his heart heavy with grief, was walking in the woods. As he thought about his life this day, he knew many things were not right. He thought about those who had lied about him back when he had a job.

His thoughts turned to those who had stolen his things and cheated him. He remembered family that had passed on. His mind turned to the illness he had, that no one could cure. His very soul was filled with anger, resentment, and frustration.

Standing there this day, searching for answers he could not find, knowing all else had failed him, he knelt at the base of an old oak tree to seek the one he knew would always be there. And with tears in his eyes, he prayed:'Lord- You have done wonderful things for me in this life. You have told me to do many things for you, and I happily obeyed. Today, you have told me to forgive. I am sad, Lord, because I cannot, I don't know how. It is not fair Lord, I didn't deserve these wrongs that were done against me and I shouldn't have to forgive. As perfect as your way is Lord, this one thing I cannot do, for I don't know how to forgive. My anger is so deep Lord, I fear I may not hear you, but I pray you teach me to do the one thing I cannot do: Teach me to forgive.'

As he knelt there in the quiet shade of that old oak tree, he felt something fall onto his shoulder. He opened his eyes. Out of the corner of one eye, he saw something red on his shirt. He could not turn to see what it was because where the oak tree had been was a large square piece of wood in the ground. He raised his head and saw two feet held to the wood with a large spike through them.

He raised his head more, and tears came to his eyes as he saw Jesus hanging on a cross. He saw spikes in His hands, a gash in His side, a torn and battered body, deep thorns sunk into His head. Finally he saw the suffering and pain on His precious face. As their eyes met, the man's tears turned to sobbing, and Jesus began to speak.

'Have you ever told a lie?' He asked?

The man answered - 'Yes, Lord.'

'Have you ever been given too much change and kept it?'

The man answered - 'Yes. Lord.' And the man sobbed more and more.

'Have you ever taken something from work that wasn't yours?' Jesus asked?

And the man answered, 'Yes, Lord.'

Have you ever sworn, using my Father's name in vain?'

The man, crying now, answered - 'Yes, Lord.'

As Jesus asked many more times, 'Have you ever'? The man's crying became uncontrollable, for he could only answer - 'Yes, Lord'.

Then Jesus turned His head from one side to the other, and the man felt something fall on his other shoulder He looked and saw that it was the blood of Jesus. When he looked back up, his eyes met those of Jesus, and there was a look of love the man had never seen or known before.

Jesus said, 'I didn't deserve this either, but I forgive you.'

It may be hard to see how you're going to get through something, but when you look back in life, you realize how true this statement is.

Read the following first line slowly and let it sink in.

If God brings you to it - He will bring you through it.

Shout! Let it all out!

"Ezekiel 33:6 (BEB) But if the watchman sees the sword coming, and does not give a note on the horn, and the people have no word of the danger, and the sword comes and takes any person from among them; he will be taken away in his sin, but I will make the watchman responsible for his blood."
There is a story, recounted in the Worthy News Devotional for yesterday, about a man who tried to save the city of Sodom from destruction.

He shouted and screamed, trying to warn them of their coming judgment if they don't turn away from their sin, but the people ignored him. One day someone asked the man, "Why bother everyone? There's really nothing you can do to change them." "Well, maybe I there isn't," he said, "but I still shout and scream to prevent them from changing me!"

The point being made is simple, as the redeemed warriors of the Kingdom, we have (as our sacred duty) the obligation and honor of shouting loudly from every mountaintop and hillside, in the urban streets of our country and the high rises of our nation's industrial complex that Jesus Christ, the Redeemer, is coming to call us all into accounting for our choice. It isn't good works, it isn't good persons that will be saved, but only those who have claimed the blood.\

Why bother? Why try and proclaim that which no one seems to want to hear? Because if we sleep through the immorality of our nation, our world, we will know that sorrow on the day when we watch those who we didn't speak to fall into the fire. And know we should've spoke.

Too, there is a danger of being lured into false teachings, false prophets, and false hope. These are the days in which our voices can overcome the lure of the world's sinful ways.

The wickedness may be increasing, but so should our voices of triumph and warning.

Tuesday, April 15

We don't live here anymore

"For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." Colossians 1:13-14 NASB

A new friend, who is rapidly becoming a source of direction in this chaotic world, told me somethings last night that touched of God's sweet voice. There is, even in the darkest of times, things that God in His wisdom always can do and He has been faithful to use me in His way for His purpose.

Too many of us have a religious background, i.e. being brought up in a Christian environment, going to Christian schools, or knowing of this Israel God, Jehovah. And we don't get whatever the other 'zealots' get, we don't get to be 'touched' by God. And our faith wavers and dims.

We live in the kingdom and cannot see its beauty.

For, if we have accepted Christ (truly), then we are removed from the hopeless darkness of sin's cost and restored immediately to the kingdom--- Christ's kingdom which He began here on earth and gave us the mission to bring more into its boundaries. But we look around the world we see and nothing has changed. So we miss out on the kingdom's glory that is ours to glean comfort and substance from until full restoration.

Its a daily commitment, not to salvation, but to the subjection of our will to the Counselor Christ left us to help us grow and approach the character of Christ which we are to become. It doesn't happen overnight, or even in days, but can be a process that takes us a lifetime to achieve even a small amount of what we were meant to be. We won't ever fully achieve it until Christ comes back.

But, with the commitment comes change and that is what others look to and see. My friend told me I don't act like a Chaplain. They meant I don't have the 'holier than thou' attitude that seems to premeate the church leadership today. No, I don't, because I am a sinner as everyone else is. I have just been called to grow and be changed by proclaimation of the Gospel.

I serve my fellow man because I want to serve God and this is His request for me to fullfill that purpose.

Instead of looking to our past as an excuse not to experience God's grace and comfort in this world, we should look to our past and realize that God's grace and comfort is sufficient to redeem, restore, or overcome those painful memories. We should look to our past with an appreciation of the power of the God who designed us and calls us to Him.

Then the past no longer has power over us. Oh, it may be still painful or distorted, but we can be free from the clutches that create discord in our souls. We can live with the view of the kingdom to come through our earthly eyes.

Maybe this is just another one of those confusing posts that will just cause the readers to shake their heads and wonder what I am saying. Maybe, though, this will speak to the person or persons that God wants to speak to today.

In peaceful chaos,
Jim

Monday, April 14

A time of testing

The LORD your God is testing you to find out if you really love him with all your heart and with all your soul. Deuteronomy 13:3 GW

Change, that product of our own human desires or God's driven purpose for us, happens in life. It is too often turbulent and often seems like a 'crap shoot' in the scheme of things. Sometimes it is unwished for, sometimes forced, and never without a host of other things that need to change with it.

They say that faith without works is dead and works without faith is nothing. I would add to that, faith without testing will blow like chaff in the wind. And this is where the church is most deficient in its teachings.

In the military, the whole point of bootcamp (at least in my day) was to break the individual down to basics and then rebulid them into an efficent and effective sailor/solider for the rigors of military life. That life where split second decisions can give you the option of living or dying. Everything is changed; from the language used to describe basic objects (bathroom is called the Head, for example), a different way of thinking, and a multitasking ability to handle two or three life or death situations all at once.

In the Christian faith, there are few it seems who are willing to go through this testing, or who fail to dig in full heartily to the changing process. They are too often afraid that they will lose the 'fun' in life, rather than realize that they will learn new ways to have that 'fun'. It is the core that changes, the core that we have sinful and self-serving from birth. When the core becomes salvation proofed, then the outward appearances change. Then we begin to testify without saying a word.

With the windstorms of change that are happening in my life, I am forced more and more to my knees. Not in request mode, where I list the worries and the needs before the White Throne of God, but rather in prayerful consideration of this powerful, holy, and righteous God who has called me His son. What can He do for me doesn't come across my mind as much as how will this testing glorify Him?

I would love to have a peaceful day, rejoined with the dreams of a future gone and a hope lost, but that doesn't seem to be what will happen in this time of trials. So I can be embittered to God, as I have been in the past, or harken to hear His voice proclaiming that He has a plan 'not to harm, but to bless" me.

Change is too often good, but is always hard when undergoing the change. To give oneself willing to another that seems bend to destroy you is a very foolish thing to do. But, when you realize that the One changing you has nothing but the future in mind, you can dig into the process with full hearted expectation.

But it is always someone else who causes change in our life.

Who will you entrust with overseeing such times in your life?

Friday, April 11

My view.....

I posted an article a year ago, which was a repost of an article I wrote for the Republic (I think) magazine, entitled "We have forgotten the face of our Father," which I have copied below:

"You have forgotten the face of your father." is a warning that the main character, Gunslinger Roland of Gilead, gives in the Stephen King series "The Dark Tower."

America is ill. America is in danger of dishonoring her mighty past and bright future. America, the beautiful, is struggling with a cosmetic allergy from the adornment of makeup that she has placed upon her body. The skin deep cosmetics of intolerable tolerance, political incorrectness, misdirection, minority rule over the majority, misspoken truth, and outright liberal lies have caused a cancerous growth to overshadow her natural beauty. Are there medical personnel in the country that can affect treatment and rescue the beautiful health of America? Is there a DOCTOR in the house? Or is it Stage 4 cancer, without hope?

America has forgotten the face of her earthly fathers; those brave and religious figures that stood against the tyranny of the mother country and dared to dream of a republic. We need to "Read up on what happened before you were born; dig into the past, understand your roots. Ask your parents what it was like before you were born; ask the old-ones, they'll tell you a thing or two." Deuteronomy 32:7 (MSG). She has forgotten, too, the face of her Heavenly Father.

But therein lies my reason I stand upon the shore of this country, with my fist raised in American pride. Because I and others have not forgotten the face of My Father. Because we have sought out the old, the reliable paths as the LORD spoke to His people, the Israelites in Jeremiah 6:16 (NET) to do, "Ask where the old, reliable paths are. Ask where the path is that leads to blessing and follow it. Then you will find rest for your souls."

Throughout Israel's history, the people have corporately and nationalistically turned their backs upon the Father of their ancestor Abraham, the God of the faithful. They turned to the Pharisitical religion of works and assumed that as their God. And the God of Love, the God of Abraham, sometimes with wrath and sometimes with grace, instructed and called back His wayward children.

I have faith that this country can once again rise as a beacon in the darkness of despair and shine with the powerful light of the Holy Spirit. Because there is historical proof that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had the power and grace to deliver another nation time and time again if its people looked to Him.

But the ultimate grace that gives me hope that America will once again find her way and seek the God of her ancestors, are the words of Katharine Lee Bates, "O beautiful for pilgrims feet, whose stem impassioned stress a thoroughfare for freedom beat across the wilderness. America! America! God shed His grace on thee till paths be wrought through wilds of thought by pilgrim foot and knee."



It seems that I've drawn the ire of an anonymous poster who found it almost a year later. It amazes me how people will selectively read articles.

"This is not, and has never been, a Christian nation. It was founded on several principles, among which is freedom of religion. Would you really impose your beliefs upon others who disagree. If so, be prepared for a backlash, and not a pretty one, at that. You seem to believe in freedom for only yourself and people like you. If that is true, then you can kindly go off and found your own country, because that view is antithetical to the principals that this nation was founded upon."

The contest was entitled "Why I have hope for America" and was looking for the reason why, if indeed you did, have hope for America's future. I believe that we have gotten so far away from the scope and depth of the 'original experiment' that we are attacking the core of what drove our founding fathers, their faith, and their reasoning behind leaving England for the promise of being able to practice their faith freely.
The notion of "religious freedom" has become distorted, just like the Christian principle of 'tolerance'. I can believe what I believe, and you can disagree. That's tolerance. I tolerate your views as you tolerate mine. Unfortunately, we find that only the Christian faith is being attacked, that traditions and values so often found in the history of America are being removed because they have christian foundations. Shock and horror that we have a society that is in opposition to itself.
But, we seem to feel free to allow our Congress to 'commend' a faith that has extremists who killed thousands of Americans as they worked or tried to rescue those who were hurt in the initial attacks. We feel that 'religious freedom' includes the sounding of a religious bell in a community even if there is several people who don't want to hear it; a)because it bothers them sounding four or five times a day, or b)because they don't believe in that faith. Yet, SEPARATION of CHURCH and STATE (that very distorted comment made by T. Jefferson), seems to only apply to Christians.
Mr (or Mrs) Anonymous didn't read the article, I guess, but assumed that I wish to impose a Christian agenda on my fellow countrymen and women. Funny, I thought that I was engaging in my freedom of speech rights and was stating a view that I believe. I didn't force them to read, accept, and attend my church or get kicked out of America.
History will stand in judgment. And on that day that I believe is coming where we all stand, not before a god but THE God, then that will be the day when my beliefs and my faith are imposed upon everyone. The Bible says it and I believe that it will happen. But, it won't be me imposing my beliefs on anyone, it will be God.
I guess, as I speak out on my beliefs, call out to my countrymen and women to look to the facts, logic, and historical proofs of Jesus Christ, more hate will spew out.

Oh well, it could be worse. I could be killed for being an infidel, as it seems the author would imply. Or I could be the target of more hate mail by anonymous writers who speak in anger.

Who's imposing their beliefs on whom?

"As for me and my house, we will follow the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob who's only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, died upon a cross for the sins of all mankind."

If you don't agree, that is your right as an American.

Free Will wasn't an American invention.

Thursday, April 10

Swindoll devotional from a friend....Moses...

Yesterday Jim Hutson taught about "Moses, the delivering Hero" - thanks Jim! I ran into this devotional today and I thought I would pass it along since it supports what Jim taught.

I pray it blesses you.
Joe

"Exodus 14:15-22 (New International Version)
15 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. 16 Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground. 17 I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them. And I will gain glory through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen. 18 The Egyptians will know that I am the LORD when I gain glory through Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen."
19 Then the angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel's army, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from in front and stood behind them, 20 coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel. Throughout the night the cloud brought darkness to the one side and light to the other side; so neither went near the other all night long.
21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the LORD drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, 22 and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.

"THE HIGHWAY TO THE PROMISED LAND
by Charles R. Swindoll
Read Exodus 14:15--22
Had we been in charge of the Red Sea project, we would have handled it differently. Our group of engineers would have pushed back that water a week in advance. We would have installed great, massive fans to dry out the land. We would have erected huge neon signs. Somebody would have brought in concession stands to handle the hot dogs and drinks. You see, when people do it, the project takes on all the trademarks of market-driven hotshots. The supernatural is easily eclipsed by human ingenuity.
That's not God's plan. When He wants you cornered, outnumbered. And there are no signs. There is no slick ad campaign. There are no great human resources to trust in. There's just an uncrossable Red Sea and an encroaching army of impossibilities. So you wait. And time passes. He will fight His way at His time. Bite your nails all you want to---He's in no hurry.
Do you feel cornered right now? Up against it? Overwhelmed? Listen, child of God, your predicament is by His design. It takes those dark and dreary streets of heartache and those dead-end feelings of intimidation to prepare you for the glorious days of deliverance.
Perhaps you're a single adult. Those can be frustrating, hard years and lonely times. More than anything you'd like to find a spouse.
Or maybe you're married. You can be so involved in making a living that you fail to make a life, and then the time is gone.
Or perhaps you feel backed into some physical cul-de-sac, where you've languished for weeks, months, maybe years . . . still in that wheelchair.
Listen carefully. Read this slowly. Coming to the Red Sea is just as much a part of His plan as crossing it. It may well be that the Lord is breaking a habit born in Egypt, a habit that has no business living in Canaan. Those habits are tough to break. The tears flow as God works in His time. But in the burning of those tears, God becomes very significant and real. And we realize, at last, that a predicament in God's hands finally leads to a highway to the Promised Land."
"knowing that the proving of your faith works endurance" James 1:3 (DB).

"Christianity teaches men to be joyful under troubles: such exercises are sent from God's love; and trials in the way of duty will brighten our graces now, and our crown at last. Let us take care, in times of trial, that patience, and not passion, is set to work in us: whatever is said or done, let patience have the saying and doing of it. When the work of patience is complete, it will furnish all that is necessary for our Christian race and warfare." Matthew Henry says in his commentary on the section of verses (1-11) in James.

With the ravages of tribulation and trials that are being brought to bear upon the faithful in America today, it is far too easy and far too common to wave the white flag in defeat and only wish for a better, more compatiable means in which to survive in this world. We don't want to engage in relationships, because relationships are the bane of happiness, it would seem. We don't want to engage in a slower lifestyle because we must achieve this 'american dream' of financial wealth and independence. We don't want to do what is hard, because life is hard enough.
And we pray for those things, sometimes subconciously and sometimes deliberately. God, we feel, should fix what we deem is broken because we have served and served well. Too often, though, we see the wicked obtaining the very things we feel we should have due to us.

A man who extorts money from his fellow citizens to cover infidelity continues to fill a position of authority. Someone who calls themselves a Christian, yet we know of unchristian lifestyles they are engaged in, continues to stand upon the leadership of a church without condemnation or rebuking. And, we delight in the fall of the apparently mighty when they run smack into the wall of their own sin. We point, murmur, and gossip about who is doing what to whom and when and why, because we aren't getting what seems to be a satisfying life by doing what they aren't.

When we put our faith first and foremost, depending on it more than our stuff, our finances, or our very happiness, we immediately run afoul of the world doctrine of instant and justified fulfillment. But, as Matthew Henry points out, "A mind that has single and prevailing regard to its spiritual and eternal interest, and that keeps steady in its purposes for God, will grow wise by afflictions, will continue fervent in devotion, and rise above trials and oppositions."

There isn't an instant removal of the affliction, but rather a rising above it. We learn how to remove the sting of painful engagement or to endure within it. We come face to face with our own failings within those trials and gain the wisdom to correct them. We remove the ability of our circumstances to control us and live the way God calls us to live despite them. And then, Satan rages and frets against us to no avail, because he knows we have the strength that defies his own wishes. He knows that he has lost yet another soul to the Ultimate Victor, a prelude to the end which he would deny, even to himself.

We should each make a point in our storms to ask for deliverance, yes, but deliverance not at the expense of the wisdom of seeing God's glory and strength. Humbly submitting ourselves to the King, despite the circumstances, teaches us a happiness that will live in any field, any condition, and any place that this world may bring us.

For those things that beset us, trouble us, and sadden us are but "perishing enjoyments" compared to our eternal destination and reward.

Wednesday, April 9

The secret of stability

Worthy Ministry of George, Rivka, Elianna, and Obadiah devotion.

Isaiah 33:6 "And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, and strength of salvation: the fear of the LORD is his treasure."


Have you ever felt uneasy, unsettled or unstable? Or maybe a better question is -- who hasn’t? How do we overcome these feelings? This is what George Muller wrote in His diary on May 9, 1841:

"Now, I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God, and to meditation on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed...by breakfast time, with rare exceptions, I am in a peaceful if not happy state of heart."

The word faith in Hebrew is “emunah” (em-oo-nah). But interestingly, in our Hebrew Bible, the word stability in the verse above is written “emunah”! Faith and stability are linked one to another. How do we become more stable and settled despite the circumstances surrounding our lives? By gaining faith! "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God."

When we search for wisdom and knowledge in His word, we become more stable in our walk! Let’s aim to spend more time in the Word and gain more stability in our lives.

Your family in the Lord with much agape love,

George, Rivka, Elianna & Obadiah


Turbulence has been a hallmark of my times lately; family, friends, church, finances, and even the direction of the Call have all undergone vast and disturbing changes often without my input or regard for my comfort. And yet, I have been 'content', if not downright 'at peace' during the worse of the raging seas. About the only thing that hasn't been affected is my writing, although I don't know what (if any) benefit the few readers I have as regulars are getting from it. But, God has put it on my heart to write what I experience or feel comes from Him and His word, so I'll continue until the moment that changes.

When I set out on this journey over four years ago now; to serve God in the capacity that He has shown me and developed me to, I have spent a majority of my time disturbed. Faced with the desire to know God, live according to His decrees, and do so in the way that He has shown me to do has me constantly uneasy, uncomfortable, and undone. Looking into the past, of who I was that was the root of who I had become prior to God's calling me into the shelter of His loving and grace-filled arms, forced me to look at the disparity of the man God designed me to be and the duality of society's definition coupled with my own developed sense of self.

I fell to my knees, but that wasn't low enough the more I have approached God in relationship. I've fell to my hands and knees, but still the weight of God's glory and holiness were still heavy upon my heart. And I finally found the 'eat carpet' position, where I've tried to defy the laws of matter and become part of the carpet, but still I can feel God's holiness and authority upon my soul. I have cried out in anguish about the heaviness of a relationship with such a glorious and honorable God.

And God showed me that it is not myself that has enabled me to live in relationship with Him, although it is a designed purpose of humanity to be in relationship with God. It isn't my good deeds, helping those who are in need; being a good friend; serving others that has enabled such a beneficial relationship (for me) to exist. It isn't even my faith that has given me a right to declare myself a child of God.

And it is not me who gives me the grace to live in a world that is broken and fractured. A world that has as its' greatest hope that all Christians disappear where they no longer bring such utterance of Truth to the ears of those who thirst for it. No. It isn't me who can live in relationship to God.

It's all part of God's gift of salvation. It's all part of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. It's all the growth and the knowledge imparted of the Holy Spirit that gives me the ability to live under the shadow of my King's glory and belong.

And if He gives me all that, what's a little measly bit of contentment, of peace, in these storms that threaten to tear my world apart? How can the forces of the Evil One trump the mighty hand of the Creator? How can I not help but think that, despite the financial crisis, the relational disconnections, and the failures, that God will make perfect His will for me in all of this? I can't, and it was when I realized that that I was able to embrace the peace despite the raging winds.

It's all part of the gift He started so long ago; redemption, restoration, and re-creation.

Why are most of us too foolish to realize a peace that defies the times?

"My peace I leave with you, My peace I give you."

Perfect peace from a perfect man who is God.

Tuesday, April 8

You have to first choose a intelligent design or a goo-to-zoo-to-you no design approach.

You don't have to believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob to believe that there is intelligent design to the universe, ourselves, and everything else. Though I believe that is the eventual ending, it is not the first tier of our argument of a god (intelligent designer). The identity of the god we find is a second, deeper level of the argument.

Let's assume that we are taking the first tier of the argument; whether or not there is a god and leaving the discussion of who the identity of this God is for another tier. Most atheists want to be given naturalistic evidence of a supernatural being, so we will look at the natural world for such evidence.

Comprehend, if you can, the possibility of complex information not only coming into being out of a random explosion but also the fact this complex massive world of logical information 'ordered' itself into the chemical-based, mathematical, cosmological, planetary, and biological systems that exists in the microscopic levels of everything; whether man-made or otherwise. I don't say, 'if you can', but use that as a point to show that we are too limited in our knowledge to do so. Biochemists and mathematicians have shown that the odds of this coming from a non-life 'universe' to evolve naturally at random into the complex life that exists all around us in the natural world. So, if it is astronomically improbability that life came randomly to exist naturally, where did it come from?

You place the concept of an 'intelligent designer' being at the helm of this process and you find the arguments fitting neatly into a box that something/someone created life with its' complexities. The sheer amount of information encoded into each living thing, at the molecular level and even subatomic level, run thousands upon thousands of irreducibly complex organisms that cannot exist without the preexistence of the other parts that make them up. Darwin himself said that his theory of evolution would be invalid if such a level of existence could be proven. Science has.

That is another less direct hit upon the theory of non-intelligently controlled formation of life. Vast systems in the scientific areas of cosmology, stellar, planetary, chemical and biological realms are continually being reduced to such complexity. Logically, it cannot be recreated in any lab I know of the random chance of such complex engineering in the multitude of designs within each system. You cannot get something from nothing.

Take the system of the DNA. This is the encoding that lives in every living thing which is the wiring diagram to the functions that give it life-capabilities. We had the fastest computers working for years before the DNA strand was actually 'uncoded'. Each human DNA is composed of chemical bases arranged in approximately 3 billion PRECISE sequences. As shown, a simple single cell bacterium called E. coli's information would fill all the books in the largest libraries in the world. What is the logical probability of such programming, ignoring the massive amount of processing/debugging/testing processes that would of had to taken place, coming into existence at random? Again, such programming only points to some kind of intelligently guided creation.

Following this DNA, we find that even science is baffled by the information-transferring system that is connected to those 3 Billion sequences of code. With a vast system as complex as the space shuttles, precise DNA instructions are used to control this. A modern informational system found in the evolutionary process of goo to you? Why did it take us so long to're-discover' it then? And how did it get to a molecular level in the first place? The chemical processes have nothing to do with the origin of the messages that are sent. Evolution claims that the chemical process created the information to send and then how to send it.

Even the infamous Charles Darwin established the foolishness of his own expansion on evolution (it was actually his father and grandfather who first proposed such theory). Darwin, in speaking of the complexity of the eye, had this to say about 'macro evolution':

“To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree.”

No matter whom you are, atheists or religious, you have a concept that things 'began'. To the atheist, the starting point was formless, mindless gobs of goo that adapted and jumped species as they evolved into humanity, animals, plants, and chemical processes that are so balanced that such 'chance' happenings are mathematically impossible. To a religious person, there is an intelligence that is seen through the chemical, structure, and historical evidences in that order that we find. Logically, a leap to an intelligent design is far less of a stretch than chance encounters of atoms to develop an intelligence that is defying logic today.

Logic, itself, stands as a finger pointing towards some kind of intelligent designer, a.k.a. God, as the author of abstract thinking, the ability to question the status quo. This is the hallmark of discovery, this ability to expand beyond the known into the possibilities yet discovered. Human philosophy has pointed towards the human tendency of self-gratification, yet many discoveries were made with the end result being to improve all of humanity. Conscience, that nagging voice or feeling that plagues all of us, is a separate function from the material brain (mind over matter). Morality, the existence of love, emotions, and inherent moral/ethical values that are the same no matter the culture or geographical location, fly into the face of the tendency for self-protection.

If we didn't have a morality at the societal level, then my belief that I have absolute authority in my world would mean that I have the right to decide to drive down the other side of the road unlike another person, who might feel that they have the right to drive down my side of the road in the opposite direction. The incarnation of those that society deems to be a threat stands to reason that there is an intelligent design that triumphs our own preservation that was designed for the preservation of the species.

But anyone who decides that God cannot exist will not believe any evidence given to show otherwise. This is where I say that anyone who believes that there is no God believes that they are god. They are the ultimate and final source of truth in their world, which is an attribute that only a god can have. They might say otherwise, but again logic stands against such claims. Dr. Richard Lewontin, in his book Billions and Billions of Demons, states it this way:

"It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but, on the contrary, that we are forced by our priori adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how counterintuitive, no matter how mystifying to the unitiated. Moreover, that materialism is absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door."

This is why the fact the universe has been proven in astronomical circles to actually have begun, exquisitely designed/balanced/irreducible machines at a molecular level, natural law, objective moral standards, and personal claims of divine interaction with a supernatural 'something' are all thrown into the trash heap by those who don't want to believe in intelligent design.

Beginning with the basics

"Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and encourage ----with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear." 2 Timothy 4:2-3 NIV

I listened to an interview last night as I ran from one crisis to the next with Dr. James Dobson and Ben Stein regarding his new documentary about intelligent design. Again, I am struck by how much science is becoming the tool of man to disprove God and the only way they are doing it is to deny the very evidence that science finds of God's hand. As Oxford professor Richard Dawkins, author of "The God Delusion" states,

"Certainly I see the scientific view of the world as incompatible with religion."

In such efforts to deny God, it seems that man is set on just ignoring the evidence. A friend of mine on an online community I belong to said that we, humanity, aren't flexing our muscles in the realm of science (that was my statement), rather exploring the world known and unknown. But if that is the case, where science is burdened with man's insatiable desire to know the unknown, why do we cut off any discussion regarding theories that challenge the bar?

"Academic freedom is no longer assured in many countries. This is especially true when it involves espousing views contrary to the theory of Darwinian macroevolution. Numerous instances have been documented where scientists and teachers have either been censored or removed from their positions for allowing or facilitating open discussion of the empirical problems of macroevolution." Statement from PSSI (Physicians and Surgeons for Scientific Integrity) website.

If we look to the Genesis account, which refers to God as the intelligent designer of the world and all its creatures, environs, and structures, we find that God started the whole process. "God said" is repeated ten times in the account and shows that a Being spoke what He was going to do and then did it. Much like a scientific theory, where a scientist will propose an uninformed expectation and then endeavor to make it happen. Even Charles Darwin, the father of modern evolutionary thought, claimed this process as his own….

“I was a young man with uninformed ideas. I threw out queries, suggestions, wondering all the time over everything; and to my astonishment the ideas took like wildfire. People made a religion of them.”

One of the tenements of Evolution theory is that natural selection brought us from the primordial ooze to the complex design of the human body we enjoy today. Ignored is the biblical account that God created or actively initiated over twenty five events in the creation account.

According to evolutionists, randomly unsupervised events occur that affect the genetic makeup of an organism in which the fittest (those equipped with the advantageous traits to survive, proliferate, and procreate) are the survivors which beget the species which evolves to repeat this process. This leads to a species developing over time with all the advantageous traits needed to survive. The 'final' species is far different, superior, and adaptable than the original. Eventually, we were formed.

Yet, for some strange reason, the Genesis account has a phrase in it that is so 'duh' in its obviousness that one wonders why it is included in such a powerful and purposeful way. Each species, we are told in the account, brings forth offspring "according to its own kind." I.E. Human gives birth to human, monkey to monkey, finch to finch. This is the observed way of species progeneration throughout known history. And yet, science feels fit to deny evidencal proof.

“To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree.” Charles Darwin.

If intelligent design, which does not promote the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, is such an outrageous theory and only involves quacks and charlatans, why does it invoke such rage and hostility? If creation is such a religious dogma instead of scientific process, why do so many people have a problem with letting those nuts just have their time? If evolution is not just a theory, but mankind's lucky break in the scheme of things, why are so many of the basic tenets faulty and unprovable?

Maybe we should ask our ancestors, the monkey?

Or should we look to the obvious and call it truth?

Monday, April 7

God's inspired Word....

"All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." 2 Timothy 3:16-17 NIV

So, if we realize that there is a God that is beyond our human concept, how do we know Him? What do we know of God, this God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? We have a multitude of commentaries from religious giants of all faiths; whether truthful or with many errors. We have a dissimulation of information from pastors, reverends, and other church officials that we hear traditionally on Wednesdays and Sundays in most church settings. We are undulated with modern day translations, paraphrases, and both anti- and pro- religious literature. A multitude of information that is varied in its authenticity as to make it easy for anyone to find something that they can 'live' with.

What makes a God above human deception become known, when we know that the Bible was written by over 40 authors spanning 1,600 years who claim to have the authority and proper dissimulation of the Truth? After all, most religious movements--even the anti-Christian ones, claim to have the truth. Unique to the Bible, we can see that despite the personalities, cultures, environment, education, and on-going events in each of these authors' lives, there is an overwhelming agreement between each of them. If that isn't enough to convince us that Bible, the Word of God, is inspired and protected from His very lips to our ears, how can we prove it further?

After all, men wrote the books that comprise the Christian bible. And we all know what happens when man decides he knows what God would say; we see it in the religions of man that span the spiritual to the secular. Confusion, disagreement, and rewriting become relevant earmarks as one author's opinion clashes with another.

Soul Quest Ministries, led by Pastor Dave Bauer (www.soulquestministries.com), has started a study series entitled, "Discover Your Bible", on Sundays prior to the usual Sunday service. At the website are the MP3 downloads for the study, as well as other services. But Pastor Dave has sought to illuminate this question (which I won't rehash in its entirety here), although I will reference the material he gave in class on Sunday.

Most Evangelical Christians point to the Bible as the literal Word of God, which means that the story of a man being swallowed by a whale happened, and isn't just an allegorical or poetic waxing of an author's colorful description of the state of man's soul. The grammatical, contextual, and historical imprint that flows through the books as an imprint of the authors who wrote them under such Divine revelation doesn't affect such a view but further support it by showing why apparent 'disagreements' seem to exist as we realize authorial influence that doesn't affect the Truth that forms its structure.

The Divine act of communicating to mankind that which we would not know otherwise is the definition of revelation, which is the belief most Evangelicals have in regards to how the variety of authorship and time brought together such a powerful collection of books. God revealed Himself and His words to these men; through a host of ways that are still alive today.

According to Pastor Dave's notes, there were and are many ways God inspires us today as He did the authors of the Bible books; By the finger of God (Exodus 31:18), the voice of God (Exodus 33:11), dreams (Genesis 40-41), visions (Ezekiel 1:1), direct Holy Spirit movement (2 Peter 1:21), spiritual life experience (Psalm 51), types (Hebrews 7:1-10), history (1 Corinthians 10:6, 11), nature (Romans 1:20-21), and Angels (Daniel 10:1-21).

When we take the inspired Word of God and look at it through the grammatical, contextual, historical and literal viewfinder and seek God's revelation to each of us, we come to illumination….seeing and understanding the revelation that God has directed us to. Then we can apply the age-old question of "What does it mean in my modern world?"

Then the Bible truly comes alive with the inspired, written Word of God and we gain understanding like Job 32:8 "But there is a spirit in man, and the breath of the Almighty gives them understanding. (WEB)"

Friday, April 4

Intentional prayer

"'And -- praying -- ye may not use vain repetitions like the nations, for they think that in their much speaking they shall be heard." Matthew 6:7 YLT

One of the biggest themes in a Christian's life is prayer; the ability to converse with a Being that is so far above us and so beyond our ability to 'tame'. Some utter the 'titled' Lord's Prayer, the one that Jesus taught His disciples to pray like not by. Others akin the prayer like a phone call to home, full of seemingly trivial items that underlie the connection and safety found in their physical ones. Yet others look to prayer as an invoice; listing all the needs, wants, desires, complications, and required items needed to correct those negative things.

But I wonder how often we, as Christians, think of the intentions behind our prayers, regardless of the style of praying that we do. I definitely don't bash any praying that is done, or forgo the necessity or 'requirement' of prayer in the intentional Christian's life, but I wonder how often we look to the Lord's prayer and reflect upon the intentional look Jesus calls us to take when we approach our Heavenly Father with dialogue.

We are to be intentional in our approach, which is what I think Jesus is talking about when He spoke the prayer to His disciples. Praise and adoration, even when we don't feel it, reminds us of God's powerful holiness which deserves, even demands, recognition. Realization of God's authority over us, and the subjection of our free will to the Will of His plan. Confession of sins, to remind us of growth we yet to do and the powerful counselor that enables us to overcome those sins. And the 'final' part of our dialogue, our thoughts and desires for the needs of those we love, those we serve, and even ourselves.

To me, the most awesome prayers that I have heard in a group are the ones that aren't fluid, full of halting and deliberation, that often signal an active awareness of what is being done. Something, that to a Christian is as natural as breathing. Of course, that's not always the sign of a true prayer….sometimes the Spirit has descended upon brothers and sisters and uttered the deeply felt longings of the souls of those present. But more often, it is a humble and awe-struck person that yearns to express their entire gratitude, inspired, and heart-driven prayers to the throne of the Most High God that humble me the most.

But what are our intents behind the praise, the honor, the recognition, and requests? Is it to harness the power of this God? Is it to have the ability to point the accusing finger at Him when our problems aren't fulfilled in the way we want? Is it to gain things that capture our attention, ease our lives beyond the comfort we enjoy at any given moment?

Or is it to draw closer to God, to recommit regardless the outcome to the Will that recognizes one thing; Glory to the Father? Is it to bring ourselves back into submission to the Call, the Commission, or the Conviction of His children?

Is it to bring honor to the One to whom all honor is due?

How do you pray?

Thursday, April 3

A God of Love and so much more.

"This is what the Almighty LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: You can be saved by returning to Me. You can have rest. You can be strong by being quiet and by trusting Me. But you don't want that." Isaiah 30:15 (GWT)

We don't want to hear anymore of the sin of our fathers that has come down through the generations since Adam surrendered his purpose to the serpent's call and thus created the barrier between a righteous and holy God and fallen man. We have excommunicated the thought of original sin from our sermons and our productions within the church walls, instead of opting for a "love" ideology.

A God who loves us wouldn't punish us for the sin of another, would He? He wouldn't allow those who truly benefit and serve their fellow man to be 'cast into the lake of fire', right? He would represent the ultimate 'feel-good' moments of our lives when our parents or another loved one wrapped us in their arms where we felt protected and safe. He would be something that we could point to and say, "See, He is good…..because He loves me through protecting me from harm, death, and sin's punishment." He is good because we are the ones defining what that good is. Or we accept the church doctrine upon which we base our limited religious knowledge.

And then the world steps in. And like chaff separating from the wheat, our religiosity goes flying off on the invisible wind of painful realization.

There is pain in the world, it happens to people we consider 'good' (i.e. good fathers, mothers, sons, daughters who highlight the honorable things we look to as good). A faithful servant, desiring only the assurance of their loved ones' realization of salvation, frantically proclaims the promise of Christ to those dear ones as they lie gasping for the breath that will keep them alive for one more moment is hopelessly lost when they breathe no more, without any positive sign of salvation's acceptance.

A daughter, struggling with the near death experiences of her father, struggles to ensure confidence in herself that "God has a special place in Heaven for givers like you, Dad." But that easiness that she seeks never comes. And her faith blows away as she watches a man she dearly loves come nearer to death, both physically and spiritually.

A man, realizing his sinful and destructive life, fights daily with himself to overcome those tendencies to seek self-protection, self-fulfillment, and self-worth as priorities and continues to imperfectly love. He cries out to the God of Love as he watches his marriage collapse into a broken ruin at his feet.

We don't want to hear of our own destructive nature, and the inherited birthright of death because of the sinful ways we have cultured since the beginning of mankind. We claim to seek God and when that construct fails to appease our sensibilities, we reject it for another easier adaptable one.

We fight against ourselves in our attempt to gain that which we desire most.

Freedom.

We consider ourselves basically good, born into a world that is working against us at every turn. We look to those who seem to enjoy a fruitful, wealthy, and fulfilling life for the answers we cannot discover ourselves, and are frustrated when they don't work for us. We would rather remain in the dark than to realize the Truth is beyond our manipulations.

And we pass by the very thing that would give us our desires.

We look at those in positions of strength and envy them, not realizing that we can have far greater strength in One who is strength. We only have to stop and listen to His voice, and implant within our hearts the desire to know Him.

In serving a greater Truth, we grow in confidence and comfort in the ability to ride out the inconsistencies of a broken world's attempt to harm us. By growing in knowledge of the True God, we realize that despite the best efforts of the sinful nature we were born with, we can sit in quietness, enabling a peace in our minds that defy all outside influences; unaffected by death, disease, or destructive natures.

And we stop seeking self-fulfillment and self-protection because we gain an supernatural peace that there is Someone who can do the job so much better because He is so much more capable.

Then the impact of what was given on that Cross so many years ago impacts us like a ton of bricks, and we realize that there is nothing any man could've done to give us that.

And we realize there is indeed a God.

Not one of manly construction, not one capable of manipulation, and not one who is only made up of love as man defines it but so much more than a simple explanation of love.

And we find love beyond measure, peace above the struggle, and hope that endures any frightening storm.

We find God.

And we realize He's been waiting for us to turn around and look.

Wednesday, April 2

Whitewashing the realization of a broken world.

"In My wrath I will unleash a violent wind, and in My anger hailstones and torrents of rain will fall with destructive fury. I will tear down the wall you have covered with whitewash and will level it to the ground so that its foundation will be laid bare. When it falls, you will be destroyed in it; and you will know that I am the LORD." Ezekiel 13:13-14 (NIV)

God is love. Forget who you were, you are made a new creature and the old has passed away into the forgotten realm of the past. God loves you so much that He wants you to be happy and content, blessed in abundance untold, and overflowing with good tidings. All you have to do is change the way you think and all will be well with life.

Until the first storm comes raging through your world; a child dies from a cancer that suddenly appears, a parent is killed in a building destroyed by terrorists, whole countries abandoned to the rages of war and disease, or (to borrow a phrase) LIFE happens.

And we become embittered, broken, and angry people who once worshipped a God who we thought loved us enough that anything we experienced would be easily deflected by the knowledge that His plans were not to harm us, but to prosper us. We have been told that by mighty and spiritual leaders in those moments that we sat in the comfortable seats in the mega auditorium of the 'local' church. And we believed it, because we don't need to know God any better than that.

But with love, comes wrath. With righteousness, comes indignation. With holiness, comes anger. The incomplete picture that we allow ourselves to have of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob brings us to our knees not in prayerful joy and peace, but in indignation and anger to a God that would allow such events to flatten the world we know and to bring such sorrow into a heart already burdened.

The church has whitewashed the walls of a crumbling theology of "Love, Love, Love" and an immediate gratification world for its members. It promotes the God of Love to the seekers already sorrowed by a world gone mad, by issues and causes that seem empty in their effectiveness, and wars that ravage the population it surrounds. They tone down the heaviness of fighting against our sinful nature, ignore the wrath and judgment of God, and connect with a shallow standoffish attitude to the reality of life with painful experiences, and past conflict.

Then comes a violent wind, a parent who loves God and has brought his children up the same way dies of cancer---- not in a few years, but within days of diagnosis. Then comes hailstones within that wind; a child of three temporarily out of sight of her parents is abducted and killed by a family friend. And in rages the heavy rain; the job that you clung to in an increasingly competitive job market is lost right as you face foreclosure on your home or eviction from your apartment.

And you are destroyed; your faith a joke upon the cosmic landscape of the universe.

You rage against God and the lies that seem so real yesterday.

You turn your back upon God and say 'No thanks, if this is the best You can do.'

The structurally unsound, whitewashed walls of your life collapse on the ground, broken and ruined beyond all repair.

And as you lie strewn across the broken, battered, and utter devastation that once was your life, your heart cries out more loudly, more insistently "There MUST be something more than this!"

If you listen hard to the silence that endures there, you will hear His voice. If you stand still within the once proud example of your faith and listen, He will talk to you.

"I am the LORD." His voice will whisper in the ache of your soul, "Come and feel My comfort; abide in the peace that circumstances cannot control. My love will carry you home, My strength will allow you to endure when you cannot endure."

Beyond all human understanding, our faith will carry us home. Beyond all reasoning by secular means, we have the key to peace in troubled waters.

If we would only truly believe in the complete God, instead of a fashioned idol of our own making.

Tuesday, April 1

Faith, another chapter.

"Behold, you fast for strife and contention, and to strike with the fist of wickedness: you don't fast this day so as to make your voice to be heard on high." Isaiah 58:4 WEB

I spoke with a friend and brother a few days ago about the 'suffering' that I've endured in the last year, what I have 'given up' for the cause of becoming a man, husband, and father of God's making. The personal inspection of the painful past, the accountability of the mistakes of the presents, and the uncertainty of the future. How God seems so silent in these days and how much I miss His instruction.

Or do I? Too often I have had my arguments with the Holy Father of my creating, pointing out the numerous failures and attempts at 'righteousness' that I've endeavoured to be worthy of in these times. And how He seems so quiet, as if content to allow these things to be swept away in the brokenness of the world. Too often I have come to Him in prayerful expectation that things will be different; I will hold on to my job, my family, my residence, and gain the help necessary to replace my car (kept running by God's grace, I claim), the personal growth, and the wisdom of the elders. And then come back to Him the next day with the same discontentment that things aren't different and I have struggled well for long enough.

I expect others to change rather than continue to change myself; after all, I have made the effort, they haven't. I expect things to change rather than find understanding and contentment in the things I have been given; after all, the needs are many and the resources few. I expect God to answer my prayers with the power I know He is capable of; after all, I've served Him well and passionately and He's promised blessings.

I impose my will through my understanding to a God that cannot hear the whine that sounds like a piercing shrill in His ear…..

I come to God with my expectations and fast with the outcome already thought out and outlined. And God doesn't listen.

Eve did it in the Garden when she bit of the forbidden fruit. Adam followed through when he failed to stop Eve, stand firm when she followed through, and then compounded the sin of the generations by biting deeply of the same. Throughout the history of the Israelites, the people continued this tradition of expectation through prayer, fasting, and observance. And the church has taught us the same; if you do this, God will do that.

And it fails, just as it has in the past. We have learned nothing from ourselves and the lessons of the Holy God fall upon deaf ears. Yet, we expect Him to listen to us. After all, He promised.

But God is no respecter of persons. He is above all, beyond all, and the ultimate authority upon which all decisions fall, whether we want them to or not. He does what He wants, when He wants, and how He wants; pretty much what one would expect of a person who has ultimate authority in all things.

And yet we challenge Him, we expect Him to respond in a human way, and when He doesn't, we tell Him that we can't trust Him to commit to us the way we have to Him.

Upon the cross, Jesus' final moments were filled with a petition for us, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do," and a cry of anguish, "Father! Father! Why have You forsaken Me?" A man who was fully man, fully God was crucified by us for the 'sin' of coming to save us. A God, who's crime was that He so loved us that He sent His Son to us to die for the righteous sentence of sinful people that we could be redeemed, dares to tell us that we can't have things our way and explains why; because we don't know what is best or what the experiences in our life might lead to in the future.

More and more I am coming to the realization that faith isn't just what I believe, but how I relate to the Creator. My faith is growing as I realize that I am have to reach beyond my understanding of everything and rely on God's vision of EVERYTHING.

God will as God wills.