My Desire, God's Will**

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  With only a few days left, this year is rapidly closing and the hopes and dreams for 2019 are starting to come as the cross-over draws near.

For the last few years I have  made it a point to ask the Lord for a  promise out of His word to focus on over the ensuing 12 months on the earth calendar.  God never changes and neither do His promises.  My circumstances, on the other hand, can change rapidly so I find it quite necessary to anchor to His word before my boat starts to rock. 

Thinking of past years, the Holy One reminds me, "I am God of the impossible, able and willing to do and give more than you can think or imagine". 

The classic tradition of the New Year is to make resolutions; self-improvement goals that rarely provide anything more than great frustration within ourselves.  The goals are sound but the ability to achieve them in and of ourselves lags way behind the desire to see them accomplished.

The Holy One takes me back to my anchor, Psalms 37:4,  "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart".

I find that in His presence there is joy, while in the world of humanity there is trouble, heartache and sorrow.  For those of us who have made those resolutions as each New year begins, it seems that we really are revealing a heart desire to make ourselves or our lives better.

We know of this thing called desire but have no way of capturing it, so we settle for the lesser things that lust can provide.  Desire has for so long been associated with our flesh that we assume that it cannot be compatible with God's Will.  It is a mistake in failing to realize that true desire comes from the Creator Himself.

Our human desire and God's Holy Will are not as opposing as we might superficially think or as conflicted as legalism may try to teach us.  The Lord knows our every thought and scheme, and whether we believe it or not, the Lord has X-ray eyes.  Nothing we put on, not even a deceptive attitude can hide us from His penetrating vision. If we let those misgivings go unchallenged, we will be tempted to run away from the Lord and even deny or try to hide our desires. But almost worse than running is trying to fulfill those desires in our own way.

His word to me this morning cuts through all the self-effort I attempt in order to get what I desire for myself.  This promise starts with a directive but unlike  "eat healthy", or "stop smoking" or "run a mile every day", this directive is all about attitude.  "Delight yourself in the Lord' simply means, be happy in your thoughts about the Lord.  Think pleasurable thoughts about Him.  Rejoice in your relationship with Him.

The usual New Year's resolutions involve a pathetic self-focus, and usually some sort of pain, but as we delight in the Lord our attention is turned toward Him in a pleasant way.  I take note that the directive does not require me to go out and do something for God.This promise does not involve an exchange of "works" as in "you do something for me and I will do something for you". 

Getting past the formalities with God and into the Sacred Romance can take some time. We have been fed lies about the Lord God that corrupt our perspective and taint our understanding of Him.  We may believe that God is full of wrath or patently indifferent to His created or even non-existent.  All these lies are part of an antagonistic challenge to the directive:  "Delight yourself in the Lord".

Even a blood washed believer can falter in the call to "Delight" in the Lord and fear of desire can cripple the fulfillment of it.  The Holy One calls to me and as I answer, I find that my fears slowly begin to melt away.  There is peace in transparency and to my great "delight" I find acceptance in spite of all that I fear or hate about myself. 

However, one remaining fear. that my human desires would be at cross purpose to His will and therefore exempt from Holy fulfillment sends me back to the promise.  Is there an exception I have missed? 

As I take a closer look at this verse and re-read the promise, truth presents a new perspective.  When I delight in the Lord, He will not just give me the desires of my heart as in grant them, but He will give me the desires of my heart as in establish and provide them.  His will then is bound together with what I desire and what I desire is bound together with His will. 

With delight in my heart, the joy of the Lord fills me and contrary to the perception that human desire and God's will are polar opposites, I find to my great delight that they actually become one and the same.

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him? 



           . 

   
      

The Divine Set-Up**

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  This time of year and the celebration of the birth of the Savior Christ Jesus,always causes me to look back to the beginning of history and the garden of our origins.

The Holy One stops my nostalgic journey back through time and provides a provoking thought, "The Garden was a divine set-up".  It is easy for me, in all my flesh failure, to look at original sin with frustration for the weak-willed woman and her oh-so-manipulated partner. 

For  those of us on this side of the cross, living in the grace and with the continuous presence of the Holy Spirit, Who convicts and empowers us to step away from temptation, we may find it hard to understand and then forgive what led to our eviction from paradise at the fall. If only the pair had just obeyed that one rule.   However, as I process His statement and retrace my way through God's Word I begin to see the "fall" from a different perspective.

With the story of creation layed out before me, I realize how we usually look at the account and our Creator in one of 2 ways:

A.  We see God taken by surprise, almost wringing His hands at his "perfect pair" gone wild, and severely disappointed by their rebellious actions, Or....

B. We see God as the hard-hearted judge, full of fury at the regrettable but (to our human minds), slightly explainable violation of the rule.

As believers we can walk on the surface of the Divine, refusing to go deeper, but for me, I choose to take the plunge and head for the depths to better understand what Holy Spirit wants to show me.  That's when He points to things in His word that I never noticed before.

In Gen 2:15-16, after the Lord God did all the creating except for Eve, "The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, "you are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for when you eat of it you will surely die."

When I recall that scripture in my mind I did not noticed that God said "when you eat of it", not "IF" you eat of it.  "When" designates an inevitability that "if" leaves as a possibility. 

It is easy to attribute to the Sovereign, the limitation in knowledge that we humans suffer.  But God is all knowing.  God knew all the players in the garden before they met up and He knew in advance what each would do.  Nothing takes God by surprise: not our sinful depravity or our human efforts to please Him and not even the intervention by the serpent called Satan.

We can be assured that if God knew what would happen in the garden, God also had a plan from the beginning that factored in man's rebellion and restoration back to the original love relationship with Himself.  Otherwise an all-powerful Sovereign could have and would have destroyed the disappointing humans.

To see the end from the beginning is God's perspective.  Outside of time and space He awaits this grace period to end when He will gather up all those who desire to be in fellowship and community with Him and with others who feel the same way.  Paradise lost was only the beginning and the call for the created to search for the Creator. 

We are given a little glimpse of Paradise to stimulate our desire for it.  Just as the life of our Lord gave us a little glimpse of the relationship with God to stimulate our desire for it.  From beginning to end, the plan was to make Heaven and the unity with our Creator available to those who would truly desire it.

Desire is made evident by a choice and a decision to pursue it.  Difficulties in pursuing desire make evident the passion for the desire and even test the desire itself.  We can say we desire to know God but not take the time or make the effort to read about Him from His word or talk to Him through prayer and conversation.  Our will must be equal to our passion or our passion will burn out, our desire will chill out and we will lose out on the delightful relationship He offers to all who call upon His Name.

From Genesis to Revelation God's plan is to share eternity with His beloved and the only catch is that we must accept the Kingdom of Heaven as His.  We are invited to come in, not as a right but a privilege. Free will is ours, to make that decision and accept the invite that is sealed by the blood of Jesus given in payment of our debt.  After that, free will ends and our lives become a matter of surrender, privilege replaces right and desire for relationship with the Lord becomes reality. 

The garden really was a set-up, quite necessary in the eternal schemes of things.  Rebellion was exposed and free will tested.  Heaven is a closed community and only those who love the Lord and are willing to surrender to His will and His way will enter His Kingdom. Rebellion brings chaos and will not be tolerated by the God of order.  Heaven is a kingdom and not a democracy. Jesus is a King and not a president.  The road is narrow that leads to life and the map has been given for us to follow. 

Funny how people are willing to accept the toxic fruit hanging on the forbidden tree but  reject God's antidote hanging from the other one.

The Spirit is calling. Can you Hear Him?                   

       

Burdens Made Light

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  Heaven seems to have registered my grievance from last night.   I was inwardly complaining about the duration of life trials and the heaviness of the load the trials represent.

The Holy One knows my every thought, even though they are not directed at His heavenly throne.  I was just complaining to myself and did not expect Him to respond.  My intimate Counselor and friend recognizes the danger if those thoughts go unchallenged.  Grumpiness can lead to the far more toxic things like self-pity, victimization, doubts and ultimately the poison of unbelief.

He relates to me the account of a man born blind found in John 9.  During this encounter between the man and Jesus, along with His disciples, scripture tells us:

"As they went along, He saw a man blind from birth.  His disciples asked Him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind?"
 
"Neither this man nor his parents sinned, said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.  As long as it is day, we must do the work of Him who sent Me.  Night is coming when no one can work.  While I am in the world, I am the Light of the world"

Having said this, He spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva and put it on the man's eyes.  "Go", He told him. "wash in the pool of Siloam".  So the man went and washed and came home seeing."

There is so much to be gleaned from this account of the man born blind who received the gift of  sight and I wonder what point the Holy Spirit has for me to see myself this morning?

Could it be the message that each trial represents an opportunity, "so that the work of God might be displayed" in our lives? 

Could it be the message and reminder that we are to represent the "Light of the world" as we are challenged by the darkness (blindness) in it?

Or could it be the message that we are not to judge others and the reason for their life trials as if they are suffering the direct or indirect consequences of "having sinned"?

Thoughts go deep and traverse many of the principles of Holiness.

But then, pushing past the grumpy mood, my Holy Counselor explains, "This man got up every morning blind with no hope of seeing the light.  His trial was "set" to be life long.  The day he met up with Jesus began the same way as every other day in his life, but ended in a glorious unexpected way.  Imagine the burden he and his family carried then weigh your own".

I really get His point this morning and see the relativity of those whose burdens are far greater than mine.  But my Lord is too compassionate to let that be the only message to my heart.  He goes on to remind me that there is hope for every trial to end with a glorious, miraculous touch of the Hand of the Healer, Jesus my Christ:

"Have you forgotten that He still provides miracles and works resolutions in His perfect time and His perfect way?"

Sometimes the realities of this earth life poison the hope of our heavenly one.  Miracles are the intervention by the supernatural hand of God into the natural world we inhabit.  Miracles are and should be a daily experience for those who have a personal relationship with the Miracle Worker, but are so often overlooked if we focus on the problem itself and not the steps in the process to the resolution. 

The process involves trust in how the Lord is working it out and then obedience if it comes with a directive to enact.  Spit and dirt?  Trust Me!   Go wash in the pool of Siloam?  Obey Me!

The discouragement of yesterday melts with the warm rays of the Son light streaming into my mind.  I confess my impatience and refusal to accept the Lord's timetable for resolutions. He helps me shift the load on my back and I suddenly realize He just took it all. His truth becomes my reality:

"My yoke is easy and My burden is light"

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?     
   

Salvation: God's Incredible Equity***

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  The brilliant sunrise is a very welcome change from the dark clouds that have been hovering over my world.  Winter is my least favorite time of the year but today reminds me of the hope for warmer days to come.

The Holy Spirit often uses the physical to speak of the spiritual.  "Your salvation is as reliable as the sun in winter; always there beyond the clouds that may darken the season or the day." 

While I personally do not question my salvation, there are those who do and yet more heart rending than questioning our own salvation is doubting God's amazing provision for it.

I celebrate my salvation, not because I am anyone special, but I celebrate my salvation knowing that I am not. If there is one thing about our Creator's plan for man's redemption and cause for all the thanksgiving our hearts can muster, it is God's clearly defined equity in salvation.

We live in a world of intense competition.  It seems that we have to vie for everything from a parking place in the mall to the one we find we want to spend our life married to.  In the world and from early on we learn that to excel, we must compete and there is only one 1st place.  The subtle idea of performance and reward takes root and can affect all areas of our lives.

The idea that all men are created equal gets scoffed at as we see the vast array of humanity struggling with handicaps, skin color, and wealth (or lack thereof).  That disparity is not found in God's economy nor in His coveted salvation as the eternal gift that it is.  Man's salvation is dependent on one thing only and it is in the grasp of everyone born.  It is called individual free will. 

Our salvation has been ordained by God the Father, provided for by God the Son, and activated by God the Holy Spirit within.  The only thing we can and must do as an individual beloved by our Creator is "choose".   We must choose Him.  We cannot earn our salvation.  We do not have to compete for it.  We do not have to be perfect to attain it.   But we must choose to receive it. We all must come just as we know (in our hearts) that we are: flawed, imperfect, and helplessly sin-prone.  Being able to confess our need opens the door for the Lord to step in and meet it.

The equity of God's justice leaves me almost speechless and the quality of His unconditional love is truly beyond words.  Where in the world can we go to receive equal treatment for sinful actions?  Sin in God's eyes is sin.  From the most grievous to the least offensive in man's opinion, God's judgment is based on His Holiness not man's relativity. 

In the equity of God's justice, all are condemned.  All of us have the same potential for condemn-able acts.  We humans weigh motives and judge actions according to our personal internal standards, but God's standard is Holiness.  It is absolute and any violation is punishable by death to the soul.

If we kill a man who gets in the way of our agenda, it is called murder.  If we kill a child before they are born, it is called an acceptable right.  There are countless examples of the same act bringing up differing judgements according to the standards of men and society. 

The equity of God's judgement is only exceeded by the equity of His pardon.  His pardon is our salvation and has nothing to do with the depth or weight of our individual sin.  Our salvation is based strictly on and found in His unconditional love and knowledge of His created.   Man (in his fallen nature) cannot rise in and of himself  to the level of atonement that Sovereign Holiness requires.  The standard cannot be changed so the Holy One took the penalty for our sin dominated nature upon Himself.

The equity of God's salvation blows my human mind.  It is a plan so equal to all and available to any, that it must be proclaimed as PERFECT!

The one thing each one of us has and that no one can take is our free will to believe.  Independent from anyone one else whether it be our parental unit or a "master captor", we all have the ability to think about and choose where we will spend our eternity.  (And for those who may have been born without such an ability, no worries, God's equity will make a way.)

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through Him".  John 3:16-17

We love and quote John 3:16 but John 3:17 is equally powerful in understanding the Holy One and His incredible equity.  The world is all of us; each and every human born of woman, and all we have to do to qualify for "salvation" which is an eternal destiny and relationship with the Creator, is to believe in the One that He sent.  Everyone is included in the offer and no one is exempt from the gift. 

This is the season we celebrate the incarnate birth of God into our world.  Jesus is the One sent to save us.  With all the distractions and man's ignorant attempts to despoil the event and minimize the true gift that Christ Jesus is to the world, remember that the choice is yours, personally and individually.

Jesus is the Savior sent by the Father to pay the price for your sin and mine.  All you have to do is choose to believe.  Eternity awaits your personal decision and God will honor what you decide.

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?   

      

Whose Servant Are You?

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  I am in need of grace.   God's grace is sufficient and mine is woefully inadequate.  I wake up confessing a grace-less attitude and the Holy One prepares to give me His.

He begins our conference with a question, "Whose servant are you?"  What sounds like a solid rebuke is delivered in a gentle tone,and I hear the loving reminder that I do, indeed, live and work for Someone else. 

It is hard when flesh is inconvenienced by demands that come from other people's needs but if I am to represent my Lord's interests in others, I will find myself inconvenienced most all of the time. 

Whose Servant Am I?

That simple question drives the point of today's conference deep into my heart.  Jesus modelled a servant's heart throughout His public ministry.  Jesus met the needs of the world of people wherever He found Himself in the temporal circumstances of life. 

Earth life is messy.  Human needs do not come at convenient times and even if they were more regimented, I wonder if there is ever a "convenient" time for our flesh to serve others? 

Jesus had a relatively short public ministry.  Once  He was revealed as the long awaited Messiah, His life became more and more dangerous.  The closer He got to the Cross and His ultimate life purpose, the more inconvenient it must have been to meet the physical needs of the people whose souls He came to save.

There is a very deep message to all of us in that aspect of Jesus's life.  How often do I press to do the more important and "greater" things and lose sight of the lesser things and opportunities that my Lord brings to serve His interests in other people who cross my path?

"Do not despise the day of the small things" in a way speaks to me about the "big" things and the attitude I must maintain as I navigate His highway of Holiness on earth.

On His way to the cross, Jesus fed 5000 people just one meal.   On His way to the cross, He gave a man his sight who had been blind all of his life.  On His way to the cross, He healed a woman who had an issue of blood for years when no one else had been able to help. 

On his way to the cross, Jesus poured out God's love in a myriad of "lesser" ways in meeting humanity's temporal needs even as His more important mission was to meet man's eternal one.

The question by Holiness to me today, pushes me past the circumstances I find need my inconvenient attention.  Selfishly speaking, if I am merely serving other people, my motivation will wane quickly since I have flesh needs of my own. But if I am here to serve the One who saved my soul, I will realize I am His servant and commissioned to serve His purpose in other people's lives. 

Meeting the temporal needs in a world of people who touch my life as a servant of the Lord is not the same thing as serving their flesh by and through mine.  It is a small but important distinction and yet one that provides for the lack of grace in me and then leads to the more important truth:  I simply do not know what other people really need nor do I have a clue about how to meet that need. 

I have been a "people-pleaser" and served in that capacity most all of my life.  It is easy to wake up in bondage to those I tried so hard to please.  That  "rabbit hole" unfortunately ends with self and actually represents forms of human control. 

Being a servant of Christ means I am a bond slave to Him and must be about the business of serving Him and His interests in other people.  In and of myself I can look at another person's life not really knowing what they need at that moment where our lives intersect.  With the help of the Holy Spirit and with eyes and ears trained on Him, I can begin to fulfill my role as a servant of Jesus the Christ.

Acts of love are priceless yet may cost us little more than a few minutes in our otherwise busy day or a few cents out of our otherwise tight budget.  But the small things pave the way for the bigger things as we are found to be trusted servants of the Most High. 

Who among the saved would not want to be a conduit for miracles, doing what the Lord did on His way to the cross?  And who has the Lord Jesus commissioned to do such things?  His servants!  

It is amazing how an adjustment in perspective changes everything.  Where serving man or myself  leads to grace-less internals, realizing that I am in service to my King mysteriously brings back the joy of the mission.

As a mom, I think back on Mary, the mother of our Lord, and her response to the great commission she had been given:

Luke 1:38, "I am the Lord's Servant.  May it be done to me as you have said".  Despite the human questions and even social ramifications, Mary's answer is the one I (and all believers) need to have on my lips. "I am the Lord's servant".

The question of Holiness,  "Whose servant are you?",  was not a rebuke but a reminder, and with that reminder comes the grace.

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?       

One Glorious Translation*

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  The last four years of my earth life were been spent as caregiver for my 95 year old mom..  I  had much time to see a precious soul imprisoned in a worn out tent.  Earth can be a wonderful place to explore and investigate until the earth bound body begins to deteriorate with age or infirmity or is broken by accident or injury. 

Not one of us has the ability to stop the deterioration process.  It is a principle of the flesh just like the principle of gravity is to the things of our material realm.

The Holy One speaks as I wake up pondering the sadness of the hard reality of flesh mortality.  "Your spirit is ageless and one day your body will be too."   For me and all my old friends who share a lifetime of wonderful memories, we still relate to one another as if we are in our 30's.  In our minds we still "feel" that we are at that age even though the mirror tells us a different story.

God's Word exhorts us to live out our lives in light of eternity.  The Holy Spirit reminds me that someday I will experience a glorious translation that involves an immortal body and one that will replace the mortal worn out one I now inhabit.

Old age has its perks.  The body no longer so easily co-operates with things that, in our younger years, would lead to trouble.  We can still sin in our minds throughout our mortal existence but the body is less yielding as we age.  And, there is more time to think and meditate on what lies ahead;   more time to see the danger of youthful folly and the consequences that made for regrettable but profound life lessons.  But the truly best part about the age of "more time to think" is spending it with the Holy one and reflecting on all the wonderful promises in His Word.

Isaiah 46:4, "Even to your old age and gray hairs I am He.  I am He who will sustain you.  I have made you and I will sustain you and I will rescue you."  When I think about my rescue, I cannot help but see that I will need to escape the tent that houses my spirit and is breaking down with time. 

The whole subject of our bodies being made up of the very chemicals of the earth we walk upon is fascinating and supports the Creation story in the book of Genesis.  But the chilling words the Creator spoke to Adam on that fateful day are full of prophetic sorrow.  Gen 3:19, "By the sweat of your brow you will eat of your food until you return to the ground.  From dust you are and to dust you will return."  The indictment was in, the penalty for rebellion was written in the dust from whence man was formed.  

BUT GOD...

Who so loved the world and knew in advance what man would do and how he would fail, provided for the disaster, with the ultimate plan for rescue: kill the body and save the soul.

All that separates us from the Creator is bound up in our flesh.  We have the ability to valiantly protect and justify our carnal life or separate ourselves from its corruption.  We can take the hand of our Savior who promises to rescue us from all that represents death to our soul, and embrace a wild and crazy supernatural life that is eternal, forever, and without end.

For me, it is a no-brainer.   Since the body will die anyway, why not leap into all the possibilities of an endless future with the most incredible Being one could ever imagine? 

The questions flow and while there is not any real answers to satisfy my curiosity about the body I will someday receive, the clues abound if I take the time to investigate scripture. 

I think about creation and the very first man and woman.  I think about the resurrection and Jesus as the first and only example we have of an immortal body translated from a mortal dead one.  What I notice is the age at creation and resurrection.  Adam and Eve were Created as mature adults, in their "prime" if you will. Jesus died and was resurrected at approximately 33 years, again as an adult and in His prime as we might define "prime".   It seems reasonable then, that I will translate into a glorious body that represents my "prime".

As my brain thinks in a mature yet ageless time frame, I delight to hope for a body that would be the same,  If we are to live forever in a place that is timeless, it would make sense that our body be matched up with our soul and spirit that is eternal as well.

For now there is this season of confinement in a flesh body destined to pass away and I cannot help but wonder why we hold onto it so tightly especially as the testimonies of Jesus, (our model and hope) post resurrection are glorious.

Accounts of His life after death tell us that He was visible to all.  He appeared and moved from place to place.  He walked with the Disciples on the road to Emmaus.  He entered the upper room undetected to chat with Thomas and the other Disciples.  He was not ghostly but rather of flesh and bone, (Luke 24:39) and He even told Thomas to touch the holes the spikes of the crucifixion made in His hands and feet. 

Then, in His grand finale, He departed earth as we will one day: 

Acts 1:9, "After He said this, He was taken up before their very eyes and a cloud hid Him from their sight.  They were looking intently into the sky where He was going when suddenly 2 men dressed in white stood beside them.  Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking into the sky?  This same Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven." 

The promise of His return is fascinating subject matter for another day, but today the Holy One has had me focus on His glorious translation and what a glorious translation it was.  One that we, who believe in Jesus and call Him Lord,  are set to experience ourselves one day. 

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?          

       

Love the Lord With All Your Mind?

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  Love for my Lord is the first conscious thought of the day.  And the Holy Spirit picks it up from there.  "Love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind".

This is a continuation of a conversation that began yesterday as I was pondering the Lord's words regarding the 2 greatest commands.   In Matt 22:37, Jesus said this:  "Love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.  This is the first and greatest command and the second is like it:  Love your neighbor as yourself.  All the laws and the prophets hang on these two commandments".

These are the words very familiar to the body of Christ and we know they are the basics for those of us who believe in Jesus as the Savior and Lord of our lives.  But today as I meditate on these verses, I notice something I never really thought about before and I am prompted to ask.   "What is mind love"?

To love the Lord with all our "heart" and even our "soul" is relational as we always assume love is a feeling; an emotional response to someone.  But how are we to love the Lord with all our mind?

I think about the intellectual crowd who can never quite wrap their brain around the truth of our Creator and settle for things like the "theory of evolution" or the religion of atheism. 

I have found through study of the Word of God answers to those deep questions about the origin of life and come to know delightful people who are scientifically geared or wired for logic who share my faith in the Creator God and His Son, Jesus the Christ.

Through the word and knowing these people who have what I consider to be great minds, I know that the Lord doe not want or need for us to check our brains at the door when we enter a church for encouragement or instruction. 

To all those who judge our faith as emotional and think we are helpless romantics at best or the stupid, ignorant mindless followers of a myth at the worst,  Jesus sets the standard and commands the opposite.  He said we are to love the Lord our God with all our mind as well as all our heart and soul.  

The mind is our place of reason, our place of will, and our place of decision making.  We are not told to love the Lord without our will and reason being involved.  I have come to realize that love is a decision, not an emotion.  Emotions factor into our love choices but true love is unconditional and that involves a commitment to a choice and decision that is not whimsical or subject to change when people disappoint my expectations of them.

God's love for us is unconditional.  Whether we throw bouquets or bricks at Him, Jesus in unconditional love gave up His life for all of us.  He is our model in commitment and love as being a decision.  Jesus left Heaven with that decision and commitment and no matter what it took, He was willing to make the sacrifice to love us to the very point of His death on a Cross.

The road to Calvary was lined with people of varying degrees of loyalty and betrayal, yet He walked it with thoughts ahead to the greater joy that was to come.  

To love the Lord with all my mind is to choose to serve Him even when it is hard or inconvenient.  To love the Lord with all my mind is to be thoughtful about every decision and how it will impact our Sacred Romance and His glory on earth.  To love the Lord with all my mind is to grow in the knowledge of Him and trust in the knowledge He provides. 

There is no subject that can be studied that doesn't come back to a logical Creator.   All the scientific principles relate back to the Divine Creator who set them in motion.  All the incredible inventions and advances in our world would not be possible without human minds provided by our incredible Creator God.

We humans are the crowing glory of a Majestic Sovereign Creator and He wants to share life in all it's wonder and mystery with His Beloved Creation..AKA us.

To love the Lord with all my mind is the call to outrageous thinking, creating, learning and growing, not by myself alone, but with the One who made everything for my good pleasure after He made me for His.

The Spirit is calling.  can you hear Him?     

The Day Of The Small Things*

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  In this season of my life, traditional holidays are changing as they should with my children all grown up with families of their own.  I stalled this season for almost an entire generation having raised 2 sets of children 17 years apart, yet nothing stops the advance of time.

The seasons come and the seasons go.  Years pass quickly and memories are like a glue that holds our hearts and our lives together even as some are taken away from our gatherings until a reunion at a point in eternity future. This season is different but holds its own delightful purpose and I long to find and squeeze out all the goodness from each new day and celebration that comes.

This morning the Holy One calls me out of my sleep with His peaceful reminder, "This is your season of observation and growth."    Being an observer involves a lot of remorse for my past flesh mistakes as self analysis exposes the deep chasm between the desire to be Holy and the reality of my own failures to perform.  When He puts together observation and growth I cannot help but be intrigued for what the new season holds.  Thoughts begin to cascade through my mind.

But then, My Holy Counselor enters into my self-conversation and adds more clarity. "Sanctification is hard work isn't it?  But you must always remember I hold the plumb line.  Do not despise the day of the small things".   And with that, He takes me back to His Word in Zechariah.

I have such a fondness for this book written by the prophet, Zechariah because it involves another great conversation in the realm beyond our view.  Zechariah was given a vision like in the book of Job, where in the beginning, there is a  behind the scene look at the spirit realm that is impacting our temporal lives here on earth. 

In the account of Job's life, Satan, the accuser of all of us is taking a shot at Job's integrity and asking God's permission to test it.  In Job's life, God  said confidently to the devil, "Very well then, everything he has in in your hands but on the man himself do not lay a finger". Job 1:12 NIV.

In Zechariah 3:1, a similar scenario is taking place involving the High Priest named Joshua and the ancient accuser Satan.  But in this passage of scripture, God rebuked Satan, effectively denying him permission to assault Joshua who was the focus of his evil agenda.   In Zechariah 3:2, "The Lord said to Satan, "The Lord rebuke you Satan!  The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this man not a burning stick snatched from the fire?"

With that comes a form of hope and comfort knowing that God drew the line around the man/Priest Joshua. The Lord rebuked Satan who stood ready to hurl accusations about this priest at the Lord just like he did hurl them about Job.  I appreciate it when the Lord tells the devil "NO!" 

Zechariah, the prophet, had been given a vision for the people of the day and even the age to come.  I read on in Zechariah 4 and learn about a governor of Israel named Zerubbabel.   Zechariah 4:8 reads, "Then the word of the Lord came to me, (said the prophet) "The hands of Zerubabbel have laid the foundation of this temple.  His hands will also complete it.  Then you will know the Lord almighty has sent me to you.  Who despises the day of the small things?  Men will rejoice when they see the plumb line in the hands of Zerubabbel".   

These words regarding this earthly Governor helps me see the Holy Spirit as my Heavenly one. The Holy Spirit is my Governor, the plumb line is in His hands.  I am the temple He is erecting as the dwelling place of my God and King: Jesus.

It is easy to get impatient in the process of sanctification.  It is easy to despise the day of the small things.  It is easy to forget that the Lord has eternity as His time table.  And it is easy to miss the most important principles in the process.

The conversation deepens as the Holy One calls me to listen:  "Beware of the flesh bricks you are trying to place on My foundation.  All your "good works" mixed out of your flesh are like uncured bricks and will shrink or crumble with time and adversity". 

I see the picture of much of my life but also the church today.  The Holy Spirit layed the foundation who is Christ Himself, then WE set out to build it up in our flesh with "works".  Brick by flesh brick, we erected the church.  We set up programs and classes.  We took in tithes to build great halls and make big parking lots for easy access.  We did good things to build it but strayed from the Master Builder and followed our own blueprint not His. 

When inside the building, it is hard to see that the cosmetic things merely cover the fact that the building is flimsy and the winds of adversity will cause it to collapse.  The personal application of today's conference answers a few of my deepest questions and has to do with all the "great" things I started over my lifetime but found them blown away in the distractions and busy-ness of life here on earth

Most all my "great" ideas of things I wanted to do for my Lord were limited to a flesh ability and human agenda.   It has taken a lot of earth years to realize that what Jesus said is true, "Apart from Me, you can do nothing".  The mystery of the Holy One does not always permit answers but He never fails to provide clues for deeper understanding of our Sacred Romance.

The picture of flesh bricks and uncured mortar explains why in His erection of my temple, He has to undo some of those things I  stacked up on His foundation.  "Do not despise the day of the small things" reminds me to slow my roll.  Building this temple in such a way that will bring glory to the Lord is a slow and pain staking process and I realize now as The Holy One holds the plumb line that each layer of Holiness must be true to Him.. 

And as to the Church of the Living God, I see how my personal progress will affect the corporate Body of Christ.  I am to be a Holy brick in that building and if I am only offering myself as a flesh brick, that too will crumble with time.

Observation has brought remorse and with that comes a greater awareness.  Awareness permits me to change what is out of sync with Holiness.  Today I am convicted to pay close attention to the small things, and to do those things well.  But also to check often with the Holy Spirit who holds the plumb line in me His Holy Temple. 

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?    

. 
         

A Life Of Purpose**

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  Breakthroughs come as welcome rays of sunshine through the dark clouds of adversity.  For me, some of the "whys" of life help me to process the mysterious purpose of Holiness. 

The circumstances in life are critical to gaining the knowledge of the One who has created and ordained life itself.  These are the days and times when, like Job, I just must declare that things too great for me to comprehend are at work through the mysterious ways of Holiness.

The Holy Spirit takes me to His Word where in Isaiah 55:8-13 He reminds me of the deep divide between His infinite mind and my finite one.  I trust and believe in His Word to me, for in each situation that life can throw at me, there is wisdom to navigate what I encounter.

He starts in Isaiah 55:8 with the reality from His Throne:

"My thoughts and ways are not yours; they are so much higher even as the heavens are higher than the earth."

The next sequence of verses explains in symbolic reference to rain and snow the ultimate purpose for the showers we experience:

To make the earth bud and flourish so that it yields what we humans need: "seed for the sower and bread for the eater".  That symbolism is also a picture of Christ Who is referred to as the Bread of Life, and the Manna in the desert that fed the entire Nation of Israel for 40 years.

God's promise follows that his Word (for our life) goes out and will not return empty but will accomplish what He desires and achieve the purpose (our food and provision) for which He sends it out.

The knowledge of His Word is essential for our navigation of life circumstances.  God's Word is available, and His promises are a sure thing for those who read and believe.   Due to the statement the Lord gave in Vs 8 that His thoughts and ways are so much higher than ours, we can assume that there will be a challenge for us to comprehend what His Word says to us and how to interpret and apply it to the conditions we meet on earth.

This portion of God's Word draws my analytical mind into His Presence to ponder His plans and purpose in what I see in my world.  It occurs to me that in all ways for our life here on earth to be rich, we need to become students of His Word.  

It is His Word that speaks of the Will of our Holy God and His Word that empowers His Will in our lives.  To be ignorant of His Word does not nullify His existence or the value of the His Word's power, but it cripples our ability to know how He intersects with us each and every day and prevents us from tapping into His wisdom and strategy for our victory in life's circumstances.

Isaiah 30:18 says, "Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you. He rises to show you compassion."

Our belief or lack thereof does not alter the reality of His Being.  Our belief or lack thereof only alters our personal understanding and perspective of Him: His power, His authority, His love and His intervention in our world.

This earth, we are told, is not all there is to our existence, since eternity has been written into the hearts of man.  God's Word is alive and practically applicable to every generation.  The key is to draw near to Him for insight as to the symbolism and relevance to our lives that is written on every page.

There is no expiration date on God's Word.  And there is no better day than today to start looking for your life story written therein.   God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.

His Word has been given for us to read and realize that while His ways are mysterious and too great for us to comprehend, His love and intervention is personal and specific to us and our individual needs.  Life is not a roll of the dice, but an intricate tapestry of Divine origin and purpose.  But in order to find the life of purpose He created us to live, we must first look for and find Him.

 Isaiah 55:6, "Seek the Lord while He may be found.  Call on Him while He is near".

Regarding the things of the world, ignorance may be bliss, but when it comes to the Word of God, ignorance is lethal to a life of purpose.

The Holy Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?  

 

     

      

The Faith Of Christ***

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  The time for our conference call is like a bell ringing in my head or the sound of an alarm clock but more pleasant.  I hear Him speak from the darkness, "You have faith IN Christ but you need the faith OF Christ". 

The frustrations of what seem to be impossibilities of living a peaceful life here on earth are being experienced by most all of us today.  Great problems to our health and welfare and for some even survival represent life and death on planet earth.  We look to our government with the hope that it would protect us from terrorists, plagues, and abject poverty.  Sadly, to a reasonable mind, it seems that government represents more of a problem than the resolution:  mismanagement, misconduct, and mistakes are a daily reality and fear rules most of our lives. 

For those who are called "Christian", and as followers of Christ, we know that fear and faith are incompatible and that fear is a form of disobedience to our Commander-in-Chief.  We may argue the point that we have faith in Christ and are awaiting His return to rescue us from these dark days and evil threats, but to live in fear while we are waiting is antithetical to our faith.

The words of Holiness this morning draw me deeper into His presence to question what He means when He says, "You need the faith OF Christ".  With that He takes me to Hebrews 11:1, "Now, faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see".

When Jesus came into the natural world that, by the way, He created, He left His Divine privilege at home.  Everything Jesus did, as is recorded in the history books and the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, He did as a flesh man.  He modelled a way of life and impacted the natural world of our humanity by and with a power that had never before been felt or seen.

This morning I am compelled by the Holy One to consider His life, especially since He told His followers (and I am one) that we would do even greater things than He did because He was going to his rightful governing Throne wherein originates all the power and authority of creation.

His connection to His heavenly Father was the guiding relational principle of Jesus's  life here on earth.  He prayed long and often, we are told, and even declared that His mission was to show us the Father and bring glory to His Name.  That glorification of the One who sent Him was completed when He walked out of the tomb as the Resurrection Savior of the world.

Miracles and supernatural intervention into our earthly circumstances are elusive to most of us today,  yet Jesus is alive and has not changed nor withdrawn His word or His promises from His followers throughout all the generations. 

Each one of us could stand to see and experience a miracle of Divine intervention even just one time.  But as I look at the life of my Lord, I know that miracles were part of His full time mission and ministry.  On a daily basis, Jesus met the desperate needs of the people He encountered with compassion and brought miraculous relief. 

If faith, as it is described,  is "Being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see", then Jesus lived out a life of faith here in this temporal world.  The deep question for me to ask is, "Where was Jesus's faith placed?  The ultimate conclusion is that He placed His faith in the One who sent Him.  It was His faith in God, the Father, that provided the miracles that have been recorded.

Many of us today get derailed by a counterfeit and end up having faith in faith and not faith in the One who Rules and governs all things. "Help us in our unbelief (faithlessness) is a prayer of weakness but as Paul has said, in my weakness His power is made perfect. 

Everything Jesus did, up to and including raising Lazarus, the human, from the dead, rested in His faith that the Father God would move in Divine intervention upon His request.  John 11:40-42 NIV, "Then Jesus said, "Did I not tell you that if you believed , you would see the glory of God?  So they took away the stone. (from Lazarus's tomb) Then Jesus looked up and said, "Father I thank you that you have heard Me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here that they may believe that you sent me."

Oh the mystery of the Trinity.  When I ponder the relationship that Jesus had with God the Father and God the Holy Ghost (Spirit), it is apparent that The Son's life on earth was bound up in faith (as in belief) that each would do what was needed to Glorify the others in the Trinity, for the hearts and minds of humanity to be able to see and know God.       

Faith is a believing trust.  Jesus trusted the Father to do what He was asking so that the created would come to see and experience the Creator and in that, the Son brought glory to the Father.  Upon His own death on the cross, Jesus trusted the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit to raise Him up according to the written Word and prophecy about Himself, to bring Him out of the Tomb alive.  The Resurrection of the Son was to the great Glory of all Three in the Trinity.  

I am beginning to grasp what the Holy One is trying to teach me.  It is starting to make sense to me as to why I need the faith OF Christ and not just faith IN Christ.  Faith in Christ as my Savior will be needful on the day I leave planet earth for my eternal destination , but the faith OF Christ, as in His faith operating through me, is important for my days here on earth.

We look at the hard circumstances and resign ourselves their reality.  Jesus looked at the same hard circumstances and worked to change their reality.  He did so with complete trust that the Father would do anything He asked, whether it was to give sight to the blind, feed 5000 people with a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish, change pitchers of water into the best of festive wine, so the celebration of a marriage could continue with joy, or even raise His friend Lazarus from the dead.

Jesus came to bring Glory to the Father by and through alleviating human need or suffering as He lived out His flesh life, and He seized every opportunity to do just that.    

If I am to appropriate His great promise and all it's potential to do what He did in calling down miracles, I must have the faith He had in the One who provides them from Heaven.  "Apart from Me you can do nothing" John 15:8 and "if you have the faith of a mustard seed.....nothing will be impossible for you".  Matt 17:20.  Faith based on inter-dependency and unity with our Triune God, is the baseline for miracles.

Today I find myself in desperate desire and longing for that quality of faith.  I see how the world needs what that depth of faith can provide:  real life experiences that shriek of the love of a Father, and demand the reverent respect for the Son, Jesus, who brought the truth of that great love into the world.

Jesus has said, "Even if you do not believe my words at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves."  John 14:11 NIV  In this passage Jesus points to the miracles so we can believe, rather than shaming His beloved for needing them. 

My commission is to share the Gospel, the Good News of God's love with everyone who crosses my path.  Does it ever occur to me to ask Him to send forth a miracle to punctuate the message I am to share? Miracles all have a purpose bound up in Praise and Glory and Honor due the One who provides them. 

I don't know what is more heartbreaking: that my faithless failure to ask and believe does rob God of the glory He would receive in the answers He would send or the tragedy that my unbelief might seal the world in a place of  unnecessary suffering that the Father awaits to relieve if only I would ask and believe.  We all need the antidote for unbelief.  The faith OF Christ is just what the Dr has ordered.

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?   

The Principle of Binding And Loosing

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  The battle rages and I cannot wait to get up and join my Captain who leads in this war against the evil one.  The earth is under a dark cloud of wickedness that spews out of a hellish place of pain and sorrow targeting God's beloved humanity. 

Every day the "battle" affects us in many ways.  There is no way to escape it and to ignore it just means that we lose ground and never really understand why.  People see life in different ways.  For some it is a race, for others it is a puzzle, but for me it is an epic battle that is to be fought for my Kingdom and my King.

No matter how you view life, there is an antagonist who will provide resistance to you reaching your goals.  If you are a runner, there is a mysterious dark force that will try to make you stumble in the race.  If you are a puzzle working person in life, there is a vicious contender who hides important pieces of your puzzle to frustrate your work.  And for the warrior minded person there is resistance from demonic enemies who oppose our advance of the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth's battlefield.

Understanding this aspect of the unseen world enables us to press on and hopefully will cause us to seek the One who controls the universe He created and the earth He gave us humans to manage. 

Today the Holy Spirit takes me back to a lesson of long ago but to add a deeper level of understanding that I can now comprehend.  As I press in to listen He speaks to my mind, " Binding and loosing involves repentance and forgiveness".   A noticeable silence fills the air.  What is my Lord trying to show me?

Over the course of my life and while being groomed with a warrior mindset, the lessons I have been taught deal with the armour and weapons I have been given with which to fight in the battle I see raging all around me.  I go back to the words of Jesus in the gospel of Matthew, where He was revealing to Peter his up and coming commission to establish the Church of the living God whose foundation is the Lord Himself. 

The Lord gave Peter the commission in part because Peter was the first person to see and acknowledge Jesus for Who He is  Peter said,  "You are Christ, the Son of the living God".  In Matt 16:16, Jesus went on to say to Peter, "I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven".  Interesting that the Lord did not say,  "I will give you the keys TO the Kingdom of Heaven".  Keys "of" suggest a set of principles that unlocks a mystery and provides understanding of the Kingdom and how it operates not just gaining personal entry.

Jesus follows with "whatever you bind on earth will be bound in Heaven, whatever you loose on earth with be loosed in heaven".  Warrior minded people have always applied the principle when dealing with the demonic forces or the "strongman" aka the devil we see active in the temporal world we inhabit.  We set our sights on those dark beings we see impacting the lives and circumstances we meet along the pathways of our life.  We know we have a Divinely delegated authority and we set about to use it to battle against the darkness.

The Lord has given us a sword with which to do battle but we must understand it is "double edged".  While I have used my sword in combat and taken up the side against evil that does bind demonic forces and loose Heavenly mercies,  today the Holy One calls me to understand and use the other side of His sword and let it work on me. 

He has told me that when I repent for the things that are at cross purpose to His Will, those things are effectively bound.  When I choose to forgive those who despitefully use me, God's grace is effectively loosed.  My internal world is then set straight so that my external world can see Holiness, as I go about binding the darkness that has taken up residency on the turf that belongs to me by Divine decree and loosing Heaven's light out over the land.

The keys of the Kingdom of Heaven are those principles that govern it and are so opposite to the ones that rule our flesh.  We know that we must die to live and give to gain and today, I can add that we must repent and forgive to the list of mysterious opposites that enable us to battle in victory, run the race in even stridden power to the goal and get the pieces back from those who have taken some important parts of our puzzle.

The Lord has said that the "meek" shall inherit the earth.  Meek by definition does not mean weak, rather it suggests power under control as in a powerful horse under the control of it's rider.  Meek by definition is a surrender of the innate power within and results in a mild and gentle outward expression. 

The binding and loosing through repentance and forgiveness,  allows the Holy Spirit to harness the real power that lies within us.  That power under His ruling authority enables us to make a stand against the evil in the world, love where we find hate and fulfill God's eternal and sovereign purpose in our lives.

This morning, I am so thankful to the Holy One for giving me a different perspective of an eternal truth.

The Holy Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him? 

 

   

The Darkness and the Storm Light

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  Circumstances can and often do dictate the subject of the conferences we have in the early hours just before dawn.  Personally I like to start the day early.  With my Counselor and friend in charge, the world just seems to be at greater peace when most of humanity is asleep.

Today the temporal circumstances press in and provide a sensory backdrop to our conversation. The weather has called for freezing temperatures and freezing temperatures can snap the power lines.  This morning's freeze is a seasonally premature test that our power lines have failed.  The power is out, the lights are off, and darkness rules.

Fortunately I have a storm light.  This is a small flashlight that when power goes off in the house, it turns on.  The beam it sends out is a comfort and helps me find the things I need to weather the cold darkness.

Rarely, in Calif where I lived the majority of my life, do residents lose power.  Here in the south it happens often and for me it activates a tempting fear.    There is no darkness like a deep forest darkness, where absent a full moon, there is no visibility past the hand.  On days like today when that darkness covers the land I am so thankful that my Lord promised He would never leave me nor forsake me and I rely on His Spirit to talk me through the fear and aloneness of this moment.

The physical darkness is a reminder of an unimaginable threat:  Permanent separation from the Light of life.  While I can self-talk and calm my heart that this darkness is only temporary and the sun will soon rise or the power will be restored, the stark reality is that someday people like me will perish without the One who created light and will be doomed to a forever darkness without Him. 

I say people like me because we were all created for fellowship and community. We were all created to be in a love relationship with our Creator God.  We are all hard wired in such a way that requires His presence in our lives in order for us to be OK . 

Many fail to understand this and find substitutes in life.  We find in the masses of humanity a place of temporal comfort: a human relationship or a series of them, a chemical that eases the pain of longing for something just out of our reach, or a set of goals that fill our minds and serve as distractions to the fears of little or no self worth.

The darkness of this morning symbolizes blindness and the Holy One seizes this situation to speak of the Father's love.  "God is not content than any should perish but that everyone come to repentance". 
2 Peter 3:9   Then He moves on to talk about the storm light; "You can be like that storm light you are holding, in someone else's life and be a comfort in their darkness until the power is turned on".  

His words are an encouragement to my heart and help me define the usefulness of our individual lights in the darkness that covers the land.  Jesus is the Light of the world yet people do not know Him as the Light of life.  John 8:12, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life."  Until a person finds Jesus and gets plugged in, they live in darkness. 

The power is back on and the timing of its restoration is not lost on me.  The lessons taught by the Holy One can be very dramatic at times.  The interesting thing I noticed about the storm light as I put it back in it's place, is that when the power is on it is not noticeable.  But the storm light is bright and very visible in the darkened room when there is otherwise no power. 

This morning the Holy Spirit has shown me the importance and value of one small light in a very dark place.  We, the Lord's people, can be like a storm light in the darkness for those who are otherwise blind.  We emit His light and as people are drawn to ours, we can speak of His.

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?     

The Honing Of A Servant**

The Holy One calls to me this morning. Dreams and visions fill my mind. Out of the depths of a hard slumber, the Holy One shares His light.

I have had many "visions" of ministry, and the hope of a Holy calling over the course of my life. The desire to find my giftings and then to use them is an undercurrent and theme that seems to surface and then disappear from view as life's demands take center stage. Raising children, putting out fires, tending to loved ones sick or helping those in desperate need of encouragement and help as they face devastating losses, supplants all those dreams of doing the "greater" things I see envisioned. There are no regrets but just a sense of all that I might have done in addition to the basics of just living life.

I envy people who seem to have found their spiritual niche. The old attack comes out of the darkness as I look back over a life landscape that is littered with unfulfilled visions and broken dreams. Time and seasons have past into history, opportunities to do great things have come and gone and I find that expectations get adjusted downward the older I get.

I have visions of a better world and deep desire to be part of changing this one. The hope of heaven has been stirred from within my heart and not just for the future but for every day I wake up on planet earth. The Holy One speaks into the oppression of the enemy of my soul and offers a priceless lifeline:

"Your visions and dreams and life experiences are each one, not an end in and of themselves but a means to an even greater end: The honing of a servant".

With that statement, my mind is fueled with hope. Rather than seeing myself as an over-seer of a failed project or an unreliable loser, I realize in simple terms that I am on track with the Lord's vision and that His assessment of me is quite different than my assessment of myself.

Isaiah 55:8-11 reminds me that God's thoughts and ways are higher than mine and that His word will not return void but will accomplish the purpose for which He sent it out into and over each one of our lives.

The personal words of my Lord are spoken gently into my ear: "Apart from Me you can do nothing so do not judge yourself so unkindly".

The compassion of the Holy One is beyond comprehension. At those moments of my harsh self-examination, just when I expect a confirming and justified rebuke, I feel His warm and gracious acceptance, a loving response to the humiliation of my spiritual pride.

My take-away from this morning's conference is critical to all those future dreams and visions that may or may not be fulfilled "my" way. The fulfillment of whatever I may see or dream really belongs to the One who set them up in my mind. His purpose for each and every one may be so different than the purpose I think is there in the end.

The life of my Lord speaks of this truth. We read about His life of miracles and ministry in the gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, yet the overall purpose was greater than the personal suffering He alleviated in the lives of those He touched.

The greater purpose of the Lord's earthly life was to show the true picture and image of God and to do what was necessary to redeem humanity for relationship back with our Creator. His ultimate purpose was to serve all of us and in that role bring Glory to the Father who sent Him. Now we are called to be His servants in each of life's situations that we find ourselves having to deal with each day.

A servant does not get to dictate how or by what terms he serves his master. I can see that dreams and visions motivate me to serve my Master whether they end up being fulfilled my way is not to be my concern. The requirement over every dream and every vision is the same: It must be surrendered back to the One who gives it and I must allow Him to dictate and fulfill the purpose for which He sent it.

If I can trust His assessment of what seems to be personal failure to meet self-established goals, I might just find the greater purpose in His honing of this servant.

The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?  

Let Go Of Your Judgements!*

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  The mystery of His Presence draws me at first light.  What will we talk about today?  I grab my coffee and notebook in anticipation.

He begins our conversation with a known fact, "Salvation saves you from judgement".  But in His gentle insistence He moves on, "Why then, do you use your salvation as an excuse to judge others?  You must let go of your judgements".

It is surely unnerving to realize how the Holy Spirit knows my every thought and the human motive behind every action.  Nothing is hidden no matter how hard I try to cover up or shore up my weaknesses, my internal Counselor nails me every time.  The Holy One cuts through all the chaff and lingering vestiges of legalism I picked up early on in my "religious" life.  

Strongholds are sometimes not so easily broken.  A stronghold is a power grip, usually flesh, that we identify with dark forces and blame for our helplessness when we feel that grip.  A stronghold is a flesh habit but it starts with a mental tendency that controls us and holds us in bondage to the "tendency"  Substance abuse begins with a stronghold, as does immorality, as does legalism. 

The Holy Spirit fulfills His role by helping me identify the strongholds in my life and gives me the ability and strength to break the grip so that I can be set free.  This is critical to the process of "sanctification" since His goal after salvation is to make me more like my Christ. 

Sanctification stalls if I get to the place where I think I have "arrived" and I am beyond indictment with no further need for Holy scrutiny or Divine correction.  For me, the struggle against legalism seems to be endless and the Holy Spirit detects where the tentacles are wrapped around my thoughts.

We all know and love John 3:16 NIV,  "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life".   But then right after that statement in John 3:17,  He said, "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn it but to save the world through Him".   And again in John 12:47, Jesus said, "As for the person who hears my words but does not do them, I do not judge him, for I did not come to judge the world but to save it". 

The base of legalism is judgement and that is completely contrary to the life and mission of my Lord.  Legalism in me has to be obliterated if I am to represent a true picture of my Lord to the world around me.  Legalism assaults the very nature of Christ and can serve as a blockade to any works the Lord might otherwise do through His servant.  Legalism fosters a judgement of the people we seek to help and serve in Jesus name.   By and through legalism, we can look at the weaker vessels and judge their condition rather than call upon the might of our Lord to fix it. 

When the disciples questioned the Lord about the man born blind in John 9:3, "Rabbi. who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind?", they reflected the thinking of the day that suffering was a consequence of personal or generational sin.  Jesus answered their legalistic question and spoke to them from a different perspective,  "Neither this man nor his parents sinned", said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.  As long as it is day, we must do the work of Him who sent Me." Jesus cut through a whole lot of legalistic thinking with His explanation of the man's condition and the reason for it.

Depending upon how deep we want to go in grasping God's sovereignty, Jesus provided a picture of an eternal plan that is set over our lives.  Nothing is random.  God knows the end from the beginning.  There are things God wants to do throughout our lives that reveal His personal love and interest in each one of us,  If we dare trust Him, His intervention will provide the very testimony that speaks of His love and desire to fix what is broken in our lives.

Add to that the privilege Jesus extended to those who call Him Lord and notice, that Jesus did not say, "I" must do the work of Him who sent Me.  Jesus said "WE" must do the work.  Jesus included others in the "work" He was sent to do.  Jesus set about the work of fixing what was, for this man, a debilitating condition in his life having been blind since birth.  Jesus came and in His ministry set up precedents for us to follow as we commit to His Lordship in our lives. 

Connecting more of the dots between my thoughts and His gentle rebuke,  I can see how my human judgements can affect His Divine intervention.  Looking for flesh reasons for for the suffering I see, can stop me from asking my Lord to enter into the places of wounded humanity. I am beginning to see His point: I can devote so much time and thought looking to the cause of human suffering that I fail to just ask for the cure.  Could it be that personal judgements are a link in a chain that end in faithless unbelief?  Jesus said that if we have the faith as small as a mustard seed, we would be able to move mountains.  Forming a personal judgement about why the mountain is there, stalls me in my mission to see it removed.    

We serve the One who God sent to save the world and not judge it.  Jesus spoke that "We must do the work of Him who sent Me".  Jesus wants my participation.  Miraculous solutions are waiting to be asked for and claimed, and it is not for me to let personal judgments get in the way.

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?               
 



     

The Other Garden

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  My garden forest is releasing its grip on summer allowing fall to emerge.  The beginning of the next season in its cycle of life has brought cold mornings and fallen leaves that need to be raked up and burned, making for a natural and delightful remedy for both.

I love springtime and new life, but nature reminds me of the necessity of winter and the symbol of  apparent "death" that it represents.

My thoughts of eternity focus on the original garden paradise I believe I will return to some day.  The winter in my "garden"  reminds me of the death that occurred in the original one and that is most likely why I  hate to see it coming upon the land. 

The Holy One speaks into my thoughts, "There is another important garden experience I want to share with you".    Then He picks up his paints and draws for me, a mental picture of my Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane.

With the Holy Spirit as my instructor, my thoughts follow His lead. He reminds me that He understands the weakness of the human race, for we are His Beloved, and how vulnerable we are to the lies spoken by the enemy of our souls.  The original man and woman who were the ancestral parents of all humanity were deceived by the liar called Satan and fell victim to his misrepresentation of the Creator God. 

His seductive voice and evil suggestions led Eve into rebellion of God's word and warning.  She shared the lie with Adam and the history of the fall tells the story of the consequences that followed  The consequences all of humanity has had to deal with since that fateful day.  The curse of the fall, which is death, prevailed until a Divine representation of our flesh man, Jesus, came to earth and entered another garden to be tempted by the same ancient foe.  That other "Garden" was called Gethsemane.

Matthew 26:36-38 NIV, "Then Jesus went with His disciples to a place called Gethsemane and said to them. "Sit here while I go over there and pray".  He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with Him and He began to be sorrowful and troubled.   Then He said to them, "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death stay here and keep watch with me." 

Jesus was in the darkest hour of His human existence but His disciples were exhausted and offered no support of any kind.  He internal tension rose to the level of breaking capillaries under His skin, "And being in anguish He prayed more earnestly and His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground".  Luke 22:44 NIV.

The Holy One is helping me grasp what caused the tension described in that verse.  The price for sin (rebellion against God) is death.  Contrary to popular belief, Physical death is not the ultimate death that sin caused man to suffer.  The ultimate death is relational death: the eternal separation from the Creator and author of life.

We have the account at the beginning of Jesus's ministry in the wilderness where He was tempted by Satan but drove him away with the Word of God, not unlike we are tempted by the same enemy and with the same Word of God available to use to drive him away from us today.  Luke 4:13 tells us that "When the devil had finished all this tempting he left him (Jesus) until an opportune time.

Having been betrayed and catapulted into the situation that called for His imminent death by crucifixion, I cannot fathom the emotional and mental trauma He must have experienced. Not unlike us, I can only imagine that this moment was the ultimate test of His faith, and I am sure the serpent in that garden was pressing down all of his lies trying to get the One we call Savior to buckle and lose mankind forever.

When we get to that place in our trials where we feel like we have the weight of our small world on our shoulders, that is nothing compared to the weight of the entire world that Jesus saw and bore in that garden that night

The Garden of Gethsemane was the symbolic return to the Garden of Eden where man's rebellion first took place.  The penalty of death was felt yet Adam and Eve were sent out of the garden to inhabit the earth for the remainder of a physical life span.  Generation after generation lived and died with no permanent remedy. By the mercy from God, mankind was accepted into relationship, however distant, through the shed blood and death of an animal as a substitute for their own.  The continuous need for blood sacrifice was to emphasize the Holy point to men that without blood shed there is no remission (removal) of sin.  The penalty for violating Holiness is death and death comes from blood shed because the life of the human and the animal is in the blood.

No man under the curse of sin was found suitable as a Holy substitute or sacrifice for all mankind so God came and took on a flesh body to pay that price Himself.  Since the penalty for sin required  blood to be shed, Jesus took on a flesh body with human life in His blood. 

I am getting the understanding of my Lord, as a flesh man in the Garden of Gethsemane with the weight of the cross on His mind.  I imagine the dark lord came mocking and spinning his lies, pointing out the pain and presenting an alternative to the faithful execution of the Son's Holy mission.  I see how this was that more "opportune" moment for the devil to strike when the ultimate price was about to be paid. 

In the original garden, Adam and Eve chose to cover sin rather that confess it.   Then came the blame shifting and all the wickedness to follow.  Jesus came and remained faithful in the other Garden, the innocent among the guilty, taking the pain and the penalty for all humanity.  By free will and choice, He layed down His human life and shed His innocent Holy blood for our eternal restoration back to our Creator. 

Jesus knew that He was facing  the ultimate death and separation from His Father, yet trusted that this sacrifice was the only way to save the world and redeem man for the eternal love relationship God desires to have with His beloved creation. 

I am overwhelmed yet again by the depth of the love of my Lord even in my limited human understanding of it.  I am thankful that He fulfilled His mission and that I belong to Him.  Thinking about the serpent in both gardens I realize how the temptation by the great Deceiver tries to mock my faith and change the true image of my God.

I am thankful that my Holy Counselor took the time to explain this.  The wrestles that I have are not against flesh and blood but against the dark deception by the ancient tempter.  I am thankful to know that the Holy Spirit provides the discernment I need to recognize the evil for what it is and the strength to reject the enemy's lies.

The other garden is the place where the failures in the original garden were corrected. Christ in the flesh met the requirements of Holiness by offering His blood as atonement for the rebellion that caused the fall.

I am thankful that I am protected and shielded by the mind of the resurrected Christ, so I do not have to suffer the mental barrages like He did in the flesh.  I am thankful, that in exchanging my life for His, I am assured that the plans and purposes God ordained for me at the foundation of the earth will be accomplished. 

But most of all, I am thankful that, by His sacrifice, I have been restored to what can only be described as a Sacred romance with my Creator.  After today, when I think of the original Garden  and look forward to my return, I will look to the other garden and remember the reason I can. 

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?       
 

       

Equal Justice For All

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  The past few weeks have been very hard for me and my family.  The dust from the battlefield here on earth threatened to choke out and smother hope.    The night was short with intervals of interrupted sleep as evil  pressed down his interpretation of my family's life events.

My heart cries out for what my mind cannot comprehend:  "Why did the fervent  prayers of the saints go unanswered?"  His gentle voice comforts my ache, "All is well with your soul and I am in control".  Yesterday was an intense time of processing  all that has happened in a trial of the deepest kind for this momma to have to watch.

I have been through many rough seas and dark waters in my life, but standing on the shore watching my children and grandchildren in the raging storm is by far a greater agony than being in it myself.  I know the personal feeling of the fear, the hopelessness, the power of the waves, the taste of the salt, whether it be from the ocean or the tears running down my face.  I know the sense of abandonment and loss, wondering where is the rescue boat or even the little yellow life preserver: won't anyone come to my aid?

I have walked through the death of a father, brother and husband having to say goodbye at the gateway of eternity but death has always made sense to me.  Death is final here, the time is over and regrets are pointless since they do not change this life with that person.

Hope for a future reunion after death draws me into the sweet mercies of my Lord, but divorce and it's devastating effects is another story, especially when it comes with betrayal, infidelity, lies, and other forms of emotional abuse to include the attempted destruction of the parent child bond and theft of time needed to fulfill that sacred role as a parent in the lives of your children who are God's gift and also responsibility. 

My heart cries out, "Lord how did you emotionally deal with your Judas?  I need to understand so I can deal with mine"

In our society today, we witness such disdain for the institution of marriage.  Those of us who are "old fashioned" enough to believe it to be the very foundation upon which a peaceful society rests and operates in Divine order are mocked and suffer severe forms of character assassination. 

Out of that backdrop comes questions of the deepest sort that vex my mind.  The questions seem to my human mind to be irreverent and disrespectful if they are properly identified.  "You think I am being unfair.  You wonder where is equal justice?  We can talk about this if you like"  His invitation is such a relief.  The questions I do not even want to think about asking,  have answers the Holy Spirit is willing to give.

The questions are many but the biggest one is regarding the matter of "justice".  The courts of men in our "republic" form of government, is the place where we are to have our issues of disagreement resolved.  The foundation and the constitution at the base of our freedom shouts out "equal justice for all".  Unfortunately our family experience has been anything but that. It seems that my fervent prayers for God's equal justice have been rejected or denied. 

I have been told and agree that I must never judge THE Judge of all matters, but the questions roll through my mind and He knows each one.  So I ask, "Where is the "equal justice for all",  that I trust you provide?  You have seen the betrayal, covenant trashing, rebellion of your word and the mercilessness breaking of hearts.  I know you hear our cries for rescue so what can I trust when I see such injustice and the defeat of the "righteous cause" at the hand of those who seem to be so full of evil deeds?

I brace myself for His answer as he takes me to Job 38:1-7  "Then the Lord answered Job out of the storm.  He said, "Who is this that darkens My counsel with words without knowledge?  Brace yourself like a man.  I will question you and you will answer Me.  Where were you when I layed the earth's foundation?  Tell me if you understand who marked off it's dimensions, surely you know!  Who stretched out a measuring line across it?  One what were it's footings set?  Or who layed it's cornerstone while all the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?" 

God's power and Sovereignty can never  be challenged.  Expecting His personal word to echo His written one, I am relieved at the gentleness of His voice to my heart. 

"In the matter of My justice, all humans have sinned and all humans are guilty.  All humans have fallen short of My Holy requirements and are subject to the penalty for their failure:  Death for sin.  I have provided equal justice for all men through the substitutionary  death of the One man:  Jesus, my Only begotten Son.  For all who agree and accept that His death paid their sin debt, all are acquitted.  That is My equal justice."

Jesus was sent to pay the debt owed by everyone ever born.  God's equal justice is in the fact that all have been provided an escape from the penalty for every wicked thing they have ever done. All are guilty but anyone can be set free from the debt of their sin.  That is equal justice for all, and not dependant on where you live, how much money you have, how many good deeds you have or haven't done or any of the other conditions that we might base our idea of temporal justice on.  Jesus came to rescue all "sinners" before and not after they became "saints". 

As I meditate on His words, I realize that He wants me to make a distinction between His Holy Eternal Justice and man's temporal attempt to judge the matters of concern in this life.  The reminder this morning is that I need to first settle the question  in my mind as to God's equal justice for all.  What I see unfolding in the courts of men is not a representation of nor can it every be compared to His.  Having resolved the bigger issue, I have the peace to process the smaller one.

As Christians we may be called into places where evil has been unchallenged and we are to make a stand for a "righteous cause".   The persecution we face in our righteous cause or holy stand, can shake us at the foundation of our faith.  We will do well to remember to make that stand here in the humility of God's Holy equal justice.  We must never lose our connection with the righteous cause Giver or the Holy stand Maker, and come to terms with the persecution that will follow, even if the cause is in the name of social justice. 

God's move through our lives will always find resistance, from dark spirits and fallen men.  That resistance is not to be confused with the Lord's denial of our petitions.  I am so happy that the Holy One draws me in to discuss such things when it would be so easy to turn away discouraged. 

The view from earth is vastly different than the view from Heaven, and I have been privileged to see the higher perspective in this morning's conference.  The matter of my question about equal justice on earth requires a little more time and a little more patience for the Holy One to have His final word even in the corrupt courts of men.  I remember one story of Divine intervention where there was the "handwriting on the wall" spelling out that on the scale of God's Holy standards, the king  was weighed and found wanting. 

Is our Sovereign God in Heaven interested in social justice here?  I am convinced that He is.  Earthly justice is a different matter but still important in the eyes of our Heavenly Judge.  Hope for Divine resolution offsets the painful travesty of my current situation. I am thankful today, not for the right to demand equal justice on earth, but for the grace to trust that it is coming. 

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?