Passionate Depravity***

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  As things are heating up in this, our "One nation under God", I am shocked as to what is being revealed in our days.  The personal principles of our lives and our Godly character are being challenged at the deepest levels.  The body of believers known as the Church is experiencing attack, both from without and even more sadly, from within.  

We have been told emphatically by one who claims to be a "christian" that if we have a problem with the person, and the lifestyle that person has chosen, then we need to take it up with our Creator God.

This morning as I do just that, and enter into the place of His counsel, the Holy One minces no words, "Don't be confused by their "passionate depravity".  My Word stands." 

The situation that has gained so much media attention is not just a cultural or social disagreement with a given lifestyle, it has been injected into the "Body of Christ", the Church of the Living God as a point of debate and even a place of division. 

As I accept the challenge and bring this issue to our Creator God, who by His Holy Spirit leads me into all truth, He confirms what those who follow Him and know what His word reveals about humanity's "passionate depravity". 

Humanity has been given the unique ability to choose good or evil by our Creator God, and to use our free will to decide our lifestyle here on earth and our ultimate eternal destination point.

As we set about pursuing a lifestyle apart from God and His Word, the confusion sets in and we begin to stray way from the most basic truth about ourselves and the One who created us; Male and Female. 

Romans 1:24-31 gives a clear understanding of the slide into passionate depravity, the scriptures refer to as a "debased mind".

As for the Body of Christ, Jesus warned us in Matt 13:24-30 that an enemy has and will "sow tares" in the wheat field.  Tares look like wheat but are toxic to humans.  Then, remarkably (according to the parable) when asked if these tares should be uprooted when they are recognized, the owner of the wheat field said "No", lest you uproot the wheat with the tares, but leave them together until the final harvest.

The wheat field is said to be the world, but as the body of Christ gets infiltrated by ungodly people who act as agents of the enemy, we must be on guard.  As they come in to challenge the Lord our God and His Word, I see how that warning can apply to the church, and in that warning, the Church must be ready.  We must be ready to refuse the temptation to capitulate to such error and what is a classic attempt to assassinate the Divine character of our Creator God, which will invariably lead to error. 

Apart from the reality of free will in choosing a depraved lifestyle it might be argued that God is cruel in creating us one way then forbidding us to act according to the "way" we were created.  Therein lies the character assassination of our God.  Do not be deceived, it is the created and not the Creator, it is the human and not God who promotes the confusion and chaos in passionate depravity and rebellion of our design.  

The adversary of truth exhorts us to take our questions to the One Who is Truth and there is the exact place where Truth is confirmed.  My only question is have they done the same?

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?   

Seeing The End From The Beginning***

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  Life on planet earth can be so confusing as there is so much to the vast unknown of time and space and the human soul.

For the Christian the struggle is real but so is the good outcome since for us the ultimate judgment has been rendered and we possess the pardon for all we have done that represents sin.  Once we fully understand and embrace our salvation, and what salvation actually provides, our life trials don’t seem so dark and foreboding.

The Holy One speaks into my wrestles from out of darkness and sheds His light:

“I know the end from the beginning: trust yourself and my love”.

The mystery of Holiness draws me in.  The Word says that the Holy Spirit will lead me into all truth.  When He speaks I try to listen and then try to follow where His Holy thoughts lead.

The exquisite revelation of my Lord as the Sovereign Creator of the universe, the earth and all things that exist is found in His word and today He takes me to the book of Job.  We find in the beginning that Satan was given permission to test Job’s loyalty to God. What unfolds is the account of a desperate time in Job’s life and horrific trials that were brought by Satan in an effort to break the man and humiliate the Creator.

Human assessments and limited understanding are unearthed as Job and his friends try to make sense of what has transpired in the earth realm.  But then beginning in chapter 38 God entered the discussion and the word says,

“God spoke from out of the whirlwind and said, “Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?  Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you and you will answer Me.”

Thus begins the personal lesson that the Sovereign God of all Creation is about to teach poor Job.

“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?”

“Have you commanded the morning since your days began and caused the dawn to know its place?”

“Have you entered the springs of the sea or have you walked in search of the depths?”

“Who has put wisdom in the mind or who has given understanding to the heart?”

Chapter 39:

“Does the hawk fly by your wisdom?”

“Does the eagle mount up by your command?”

Chapter 40:

“Would you condemn Me that you may be justified?”

“Have you an arm like God or can you thunder with a voice like His?”

“Look now at the Behemoth (a dinosaur like beast) which I made along with you-He is the first of the ways of God.  Only He who made him can bring near His sword.”

Chapter 41:

“Can you draw out Leviathan with a hook? Or snare his tongue with a line that you lower?”

“Lay your hand on him; remember the battle-never do it again!”

“Who then is able to stand against Me?  Who has preceded Me that I should pay him?”

“Everything under Heaven is Mine.”

Talk about facing the reality of our own smallness and God’s great Sovereignty! Evolutionists would do well to read what the Lord had to say to Job.  I wonder if the Lord would not be asking them about the “newly discovered” black holes in the universe He created or the mystery of DNA scientists have finally tracked and that God used to create man in His image?

Today and with the help of my indwelling Counselor, I move through this account of Job’s encounter with our Sovereign Creator to the issue of trusting in His love and my own understanding of myself. 

Jesus came and at His incarnation, God the Son, wrapped Himself in a flesh body and walked among His created.  His voice did not thunder out of Heaven but spoke gently to those willing to listen. 

The Holy Spirit speaks in the same gentle tone to me today. And what He has enabled me to understand is the Truth:

Before Job was put through the fire, God saw and knew the end from the beginning.   God knew what Satan would do even before he asked permission to test Job.  And God knew what Job would do before that permission was even granted in the first place.  That is, after all, what Sovereignty is all about.

God knows the end of my trial from the beginning.  God knows the value and impact of the fire and how I will handle it in the process.  God knows what I do not and just as in Joseph’s life where the  pit, the dungeon and the prison were necessary stops on his way to greatness, (2^nd in command under the Pharaoh of Egypt) God’s Divine purpose is in what I am facing in these temporal trials.

Job’s trial ended in compete victory because he was drawn into a greater understanding of God Himself.  Today I can glean from what Job experienced.  God’s love for Job and confidence in his loyalty framed the trial.  And I am compelled to believe that God knew how it would end. Before He gave Satan permission to test His child, God knew what his child would do.

This insight gives me confidence not only in God’s love for me but in my ultimate victory in the test/trials that are permitted to touch my life.  My Heavenly Father/Creator knows my frame and has calibrated the weight I can bear.  God, the Sovereign One knows the end from the beginning of your story and mine. 

May the Lord be glorified as we trust in His love and find our self-confidence and courage for His victory growing in the process.

The Spirit is calling Can you hear Him?           

I Lost Not One***

On my personal journey with Jesus, I count on the wisdom I gain from the Holy Spirit. He is my cherished counselor, friend and guide on this crazy ever changing earthly journey as we are Heaven Bound.

With the sudden death of one of my Beloved children, I have been wondering why I had no clue of this impending separation.  In my personal relationship with Him,  I have been allowed to know beforehand and process other losses so close to my heart. I don't ask "why" but I do ask what I missed that might have prepared me for this devastating arrow to my heart?  

I live my life knowing this world is not our home, and that we are just passing through. I have taught all my kids and grand kids that same understanding of eternal life that follows for those of us who believe.

As a praying parent, and now as a grieving one, I have always prayed that when I see my Lord face to face I can say like He did, "I lost not one of those you have entrusted to me". I count it my spiritual  responsibility and privilege to see to their spiritual care and keeping all their days here and on into eternity.

Today the Lord reminded me of a conversation we had in Dec 2018 when I was thinking about how much I cherish all my children and their children. My thoughts were all about our eternal relationship and how vital it is for all my beloveds to translate into the Presence of the Lord when their days here are over and to be reunited together on the other side. I was prompted to offer my thanksgiving that as the mom of 6 kids, I have been spared the heartache of losing any one of them here on earth.  I remember my Lord saying at the time, "If you lost all you have here, will I be enough?"  Of course.  Lord where would I go from here?  You have the words and promise of eternal life.   I believe everything I experience here is preparation for there.

That said, what followed was the beginning of a blog started on that day along the lines of our conversation that morning.  Looking back I realize how my Lord was indeed preparing my heart for what He was about to do in taking my son home.  He brought me back to the blog in answer to my heart question and to reinforce His promise to never leave me nor forsake me.
  

Here is that blog:     

I Lost Not One

"The Holy One calls to me this morning. As a parent, I have always seen it as my responsibility to pray for my kids and now for their kids and extended family. This responsibility has been life-long and while all my kids are grownups I am still burdened to pray them through all that life serves up as challenges to them. In fact, just when I think I can take a sigh of relief something else seems to come undone and a faithful prayer becomes necessary.

I hear all the enemy’s arguments in my mind that “it’s their life, their walk, their Red Sea to cross and your time to let go. While the direct intrusion of my maternal protectiveness is out of date, my prayers for their wisdom, discernment, discretion, or faith never loses its shelf life.

Today the Holy One takes me to the Prayer of Jesus as He was about to leave planet earth. As I pray for my family and friends, the Lords speaks of His ordained will. “I gave these people and relationships to you… never forsake praying for them”.

The voice of the Holy One drives out all the words of the enemy that I should relax and disengage from my prayer privilege and responsibility. The Lord’s parting prayer for His disciples and BTW over all of us who come to believe is written in John 17. His heart desire is for us to be with Him eternally. My heart desires that ALL my beloveds be with Him and me eternally. That desire forms the basis of the burden that drives me to pray.

The words of the Holy One give the sense of ownership that Jesus reflected in His prayer.

“Holy Father, keep through Your Name those whom You have given Me".  As a parent my prayer is the same."

The hole that my son left here in our earth life and journey is huge yet to wish him back here to face all the challenges on this fallen planet and battle all the attacks by the enemy is never a consideration.  My wounded warrior has been air lifted off the battle field and taken home. I celebrate what Jesus died to provide and look froward to seeing my beloved healthy and strong and living the best time of his life.

Grief is an emotion that most likely never ends here.  We miss those we love.  But the knowledge that we will see them again is the reason for our hope and peace in the process.

 Even as I weather the separation and loss of one of my kids here on earth, I must continue to pray for the ones who remain and the next generation of grands and coming great-grand littles who have yet to make that vital decision about their future destiny and eternal life through Jesus, the One and Only Savior of the world. I will continue to pray for each and all of them so that when my journey here is over I can joyfully say, "Lord I lost not one of those You have entrusted to me!"

 

The Spirit is Calling.  Can you hear Him?  

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Temporal Life: A Proving Ground**

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  Events are unfolding rapidly and bringing out things I never thought I would ever live to see in the good old USA.

Biblical prophecies speak of end times persecution and a fading faith but it always seemed too far in the future for me to really worry about.  I never thought I would see this nation fall to such a depth of depravity that our Christian heritage would be not only rejected but mocked and denigrated and despised by so many.

The Holy One speaks an important truth and reminder to me today, “Look to eternity for your hope.  Your temporal life is just a proving ground”.

If prophecy teaches me nothing else, it teaches me that God knows everything about life from beginning to end.  His conversations of late have been more about eternity and I wonder if that is an indicator as to how close we are to the end of life here.

The Great I AM is eternal.  He WAS before the creation of the earth, and the solar system that the earth is a part of.  And He WILL BE after this earth and all it contains is gone.  

God created man in His image and with the intent that humanity would live in relationship with Himself (The Trinity) for eternity (forever).  The intimate relationship that began in a protected garden by Divine intent had to move into a place of testing so that the eternal relationship with the Creator could be determined by a free will decision on the part of the created.

God desires a relationship with His created but does His created desire a relationship with Him? 

The Sovereignty of God is surely mysterious and while we cannot fully grasp the entirety of it, we can trust that God was not surprised by what happened in the Garden of Eden or anything that has transpired since.  The fallen temporal earth is that proving ground where all humanity is given a choice and is then tested for the choice we have made.

James 1:2, “Brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.  But let patience have its perfect work that you may be perfect and complete lacking nothing.”

By age 18 all of us should be well acquainted with the process of education.  We have a course, we are provided lessons and then comes a test to see what we have learned. Failing the test requires another pass through the course or having the help of a tutor for the part we have failed to learn.   Our faith life with our Creator is no different.  

I relate to this part of my faith journey as “going around the mountain one more time”.  This is a personal application to what the children of Israel went through in the wilderness back when they made countless trips around Mount Sinai due to the hardness of their hearts and in rebellion of Holiness. 

As a child on earth our parent’s job was to prepare us for life in this world. As a child of eternity our Heavenly Father is preparing us for life out of this world and the lessons are clearly different.  All the whys and wherefores go unanswered as a child until we mature enough to see how it all relates to the adult world that we will enter at a certain point in time.

Even Jesus was put to the test in the wilderness. When I look at the life of our Savior I can see my trials here for what they are.

Satan is the enemy of our Kingdom and our King.  He is on the loose to test our loyalty.  When Jesus encountered him in the wilderness, Satan used pleasure and perks to temp Jesus to betray His mission and separate Him from the Father He was sent to glorify.

At the end of Jesus’s life, Satan used the pain of crucifixion and heartbreak to sever that relationship of the Father-Son.  Perks and persecution are both tools in the enemy’s arsenal to test our loyalty to God.  Jesus was moved by neither the rocks nor the bouquets thrown at Him.  He never wavered in His mission or His loyalty to the One who sent Him.

The fallen earth is a proving ground where our faith and loyalty to our Lord Jesus is on the line. Once we choose to follow Him all the way through the cross into eternity, that decision will be put to the test. 

When we meet the One who died for us face to face, will we look back and laugh at the enemy who tried and failed to divide us?  Or will we look back ashamed that we failed to stand firm in the testing of our faith? 

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?