Hope for Life and the Scent of Water

“For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease. 8Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground; 9Yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant. Job 14:7-9

This morning, in the prayer meeting I was in, this verse was read. I’ve recently started to try to sprout some things hydroponically that I would have normally thought of as dead, done, or incapable of new life. I put an onion, rather mushy, in a cup of water and overnight it sprouted roots so long it took me aback. I did that with shriveled garlic bulbs, and now celery. I transplanted some motherwort yesterday and it drooped hopelessly until I watered it well. There is an important lesson here.

Think about the life that God has put in every living thing. We all need water to survive. We all like watching the sea, we like sitting next to water, we like to drink cold glasses of water on a cold day. Roots of plants gravitate toward water. In these verses from Job it speaks of a tree that is cut down and yet when it catches the scent of water it starts to bud. The scent of water. Not even water itself, but the mere smell of it gives hope.

I keep thinking about the onion though, it had been picked from a field somewhere in America, traveled in a truck or plane, sat at the store, then sat in my storage drawer til it probably almost lost hope, and then I put it in water and it showed its life springing from up from its depths. It’s continuing to put forth green onion shoots-- I don’t know how it makes them, but at night when I trim the shoots, by the next day, they grow back. Profound. Disturbingly, wonderfully profound: the strength of life.

I think I resonate with this because I can identify with the onion. Sometimes it seems like walking across a dry desert with no water in sight, and feeling like any hope of water is gone, but then encountering, first, the scent of Water from heaven, and then the Water of Life itself and suddenly coming back to life and feeling whole again. How powerful an experience! Animals in the desert know the scent of water, they know how to find their way to its life-giving place. We, too, have instincts for God. Jesus said, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink” (John 7:37). The prophet Isaiah also says, “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat!” (Isaiah 55:1). In the Book of Revelation a River of Life flows through the city of God.

There are things that cannot be quenched in our souls until we drink of that water.
And how shall we drink? How is this not just some kind of religious phrase that sounds good but doesn’t connect with reality? Jesus addresses this when the pharisee, Nicodemus comes to him at night to discuss spiritual things (John 3:3-13). Jesus tells him he must be born of water and the Spirit and Nick doesnt get it. He says, “What? Go into my mother’s womb again?” Jesus, he had to be shaking his head, “You are a spiritual leader in Israel and you don’t understand this?” 

We drink of that heavenly water through relationship with Jesus Christ. When we call out to Him, to quench our thirst, something in us is enlivened. Our spirit comes to life, like an onion responding to water, and we smell the scent of water, then drink of it. It is a spiritual process. I can’t explain how it happens just like I can’t explain how plants grow using just water. But the difference between drinking and not drinking is life and death. You know that. So go take a drink. And if you don’t know how, tell God about your thirst and let Him lead you to water. It will be then up to you to drink of it.

Is it I, Lord?

We are approaching the end of Passover and Matthew’s gospel gives us the chilling account of the betrayal of Jesus by Judas. Judas had been out and about making preparations to betray Jesus but he sits down with all the other disciples at the Passover supper. Jesus is aware of what is happening, and I can’t imagine how painful this is to Him.

The text says, “As they were eating, He said, “Assuredly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me” (Matt. 26:21). The disciples are extremely shocked and sad, after all, it's not something you want to hear after living day and night with Jesus for three years. It’s not something you bring up during the middle of a holy meal, yet Jesus did just that. He did it in the middle of His community, because its not just His betrayal, it is the community’s betrayal. He is aware of who the betrayer is, aware of all that will happen later that evening, and yet here He sits in the middle of His family, of which one is the betrayer.

I think Jesus did this prophetic act so that later when the disciples thought of it, they would know that Jesus knew and that His death did not come by chance, but was something that Jesus knew He was headed for and destined for. There is something disconcerting about following a leader who doesn’t see it coming. There is something incredibly inspiring about following a leader who does see it coming and stands up into His destiny despite what it costs.

Jesus does nothing to try and talk Judas out of it, but he does say that it would have been better for HIs betrayer not to have been born. I can only imagine the face of Judas going white then going red with increased blood pressure as he realizes that Jesus knows. I can only imagine. I can’t imagine.

Jesus extends the question to all the disciples and it hangs in the air like a heavy cloud darkening the atmosphere of the celebration of the Lord’s saving act to His people so long ago. But here is my point. As He looks at each of His disciples, they one by one ask, “Lord, is it I?” Each of them had the heart to find out if it was they themselves that would betray Him.

I’m sure their hearts were not completely pure and like a searchlight, this announcement by the Lord would bring up any times when they doubted that Jesus was who He said He was or anytime they had been pushed past their ability to understand and had thought to leave Him. I’m sure they quickly began to wager a guess as to who it was as they pushed aside any sense of their own guilt. Yet in that moment, suspended in some sort of eternal moment of decision, they had the courage to ask “Is it I?”

What a penetrating question that struck deep into their hearts, separating soul and spirit. For whatever reason, even Judas asks this of Him. Perhaps it was to cover his guilt, to appear surprised, even to test Jesus, perhaps all those things. His question springs as a cover for guilt and not as a genuine inquiry.

It is a time to allow the Lord to ask us tough questions. He asks these questions so the deepest things in our hearts can rise to the surface to be helped. He did this from start to finish in His ministry and He was doing it there and then--but He is also doing it here and now. His questions are never because He doesn’t know the answer but because He does know the answer all too well and we do not. Our hearts are expert at hiding the truth, the real reason, the actual cause. Jesus!

Let us let You search our hearts, dear Lord! Look deep, ask us the hard questions, reveal, uncover, expose so that You might make us true and straight as an arrow shot from the quiver of God. Let every pretense, every hiding place, be searched. We needn’t be afraid to admit we need help. So, Lord, Help us! Make us “pure and holy, tried and true.” Please.

The Easter When Everything Changed

I personally think that I will remember this Easter for many years to come. It was the Easter we spent isolated in our houses while the world changed. True story! But it needed to change. So much of life is waiting. The biblical tradition has a long history of waiting in it. Abraham and Sarah waiting for a baby; Noah waiting for the rain to start; Elijah waiting on a mountain; Daniel waiting for the exile to be over; Anna waiting for the Messiah to be born; John waiting on Patmos for Jesus; the list is much longer.

 I’ve been waiting for a long time for what I sense I’m seeing. There are destined times and epochs in the “kairos” time of God. “When the fullness of time had come…” Just when time is about to burst with waiting, it explodes into the purpose of God. The preparation for a servant of God takes a long time, again, I can give you a longlist: Moses, David, Daniel, Jesus, Himself, Paul, Timothy, John the Beloved. God can do what He wants without us, but He has chosen to work with and through us, so He has to polish, temper, and strengthen us so that we don’t snap out of pressure or lose our faith in the process.

Let’s face it, it's been cloudy for a good, long while. The prophet Ezekiel speaks of a “cloudy and dark day” when the sheep are scattered and the Shepherd has to go out and gather them. I have seen that look of fierceness on the Face of the Great Shepherd in these last days, I have seen His determination to gather those that are lost. The clouds of false belief; man-made religion; lethargy induced apathy; confusion, dismay, and inability to endure have clouded the Face of the Living God from those that need most desperately to see Him. So He is going to rise up and go looking for the lost sheep. He is going to blow the hindering clouds away. He is going to go into every last highway and byway looking for those stuck in the thorny bushes of hopelessness, despair, and shame. He asks us to go with Him. He asks us to gather with Him for He has told us, “He who is not with Me is against Me, and who does not gather with Me, scatters” (Matthew 12:30.

 I have seen people who know God and walk with God come back to life in the last week. I have seen hope born, courage arise, purpose return. I’ve seen the glaze disappear from the eyes of the believers who have looked for Him so long, more than they who wait in the cold, dark night for morning. A cloud the size of man’s hand appears overhead. The Lord is standing up to move. Don’t miss it. Prepare your heart, shake off your slumber, fill your lamp with oil, trim your wick. Stand up with Him.

It's Easy to Hear God

Did you know that it's easy to hear God? I'll bet that surprised you since you might not think so. I've encouraged my home group to write down a few things they have been seeking God about but with the expectation and the proclamation that it's easy to hear God and that they will obey when they hear.

A few weeks ago I was praying at the altar at church and God showed me that He clearly speaks to me but that I then take what He says and kind of put it through a test, passing it back and forth between "yes, I think its God" and "no, I'm not sure." I then run it through some kind of spiritual counterfeit machine and then i wait to see how i feel about it! All so that I can be sure I'm "hearing God" and not the voice of my own soul or the voice of the enemy. You could say its me trying to be careful and it is but it really ends up being kind of an insult to God and my relationship with Him.

What if you did that with your closest friends? What if they said something to you and you said, "Be right back, I've got to figure out if its really you saying this. " For the most part we know what our closest friends would say in any given situation, so why don't we feel confident in trusting that we can hear God? Do we know Him that well? If not, His Word is calling to be read and known! "His sheep hear His Voice, the voice of another they will not hearken to!"

Are we trusting the part of us that is flesh and wants its own way more than the part of us that loves God and is born of His Spirit and wants to hear God, indeed lives on every word that God speaks?

What if our daily proclamation was "I easily hear and confidently obey what God speaks to me!" I dare you to try this. You see, what happens is that we get so bogged down into questioning the hearing that we do not end up doing much at all. You would soon find out that if the enemy of our soul knows that you are going to act on what God says then he will no longer be able to use this stalling tactic on you.

Do you think Jesus had a hard time knowing the will of God? He said, "Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing" (John 5:19)... It was easy because it was his first and only priority! Any hindrance was pushed out of the way. He HAD to hear what His Father was saying.

Will you occasionally get it wrong because of your humanity? It is a possibility, but a self-correcting one. Isaiah writes, "If you go the wrong way—to the right or to the left—you will hear a voice behind you saying, “This is the right way. ·You should go this way" (Isaiah 30:21). And the thing is one thing has changed to make it even easier since Isaiah's day: now that Voice is within you if you are a believer! Obviously, the voice of God never tells you to do anything contrary to the Word of God. God is not going to tell us to hurt someone, to hurt ourselves, to go against His commandments, to act against the nature of who God is, etc.

When we live to do the will of God, we will know very quickly when we have gone off the path because the Holy Spirit, in our spirit, will warn us. "Danger! Will Robinson, Danger!" God wants us to tighten up our ability to not only hear God but to obey Him in this hour. Please start to walk in the place where you expect to hear God easily "for as many are led by the Spirit of God are the sons and daughters of God" (Romans 8:14) and "all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory" (2 Corinthians 1:20).

God is speaking clearly today, have a listen! and then obey!

-----------------------------
P.S. I hear God saying that someone will read this and think they are so far away from hearing God. OK, so, no matter where you are at, how far away you feel from being able to hear God's voice, if you will ask Him, you will know the next simple step you must take. That is all you need. Take that step, and the next one will be given to you. Step by step, we can walk out of the darkness into light.

Leadership Lessons from Return of the Jedi

I'm going to post a few notes each day about what I learned about leadership from Return of the Jedi. *Spoiler Alert*

 The first one is this: Good leaders, even if they have fallen out of the saddle, and retreated to sort things out, are willing to get back up on their horse and lead when the time is ready.

 The older Luke Skywalker is found hidden away, far from the madd'ing crowd, on an island far from society. Ironically, in real life, the site where they filmed Skywalker's hermitage is Skellig Michael, one of the earliest monastic locations in Ireland. You had to be brave to live there but you went there to get away from the world and focus on God. It was for extreme seekers. You had to know how to dig deep to make it there. Luke Skywalker had long retreated from the public eye. He's tried to forget that he's gifted. He's tormented by his failure. When Rey comes and starts to feel the Force, she stares at him boldly and says, "but I couldn't feel you in it, you've cut yourself off from it, haven't you!?"

Luke knows that being on the razor edge of fighting for good puts you up close to bad, and that you can lose your balance. But he has cut himself off from the Source of his life. He is trying, like the prophet Jonah, to run from his call and bury his gift. Good leaders deal with the mess of sorting this out in their own lives. Sometimes it takes time. Working through the process of failure is what makes them good at leading when they get back up! Good leaders acknowledge that spiritual battle has real dangers and work through it. It makes them more aware of their need for God. Good leaders don't go forward in their own power, they know when to retreat, but they also know when its time to rise back up.

Sometimes they need help, a mentor like Yoda, or a reason to do it, like the young Jedi warrior Rey showing up on his proverbial stone doorstep asking for help. Rey knows she has a gift, but she needs "someone to show me my place in all this." We all need that methinks. We don't care that you've failed, we want you to use what you have to help us because if we have come asking for help we recognize that you still know more than we do--even when you have failed. If your heart is right, you get past the failure, learn from it and become a better warrior, even a mentor. If it's not, you die on the island alone and let the world fall into the hands of the enemy.

My Christmas thoughts...A Testimony from Bethlehem's Shepherd

A Testimony from Bethlehem’s Shepherd

It feels as if it were yesterday, that wildly unexpected visitation in the fields, when the Angel of the Lord came to us. Now is the time of year, your earth years, not heaven's time, where my story is told again and again, as it should be. But allow me to share it myself as the exact facts are more glorious than you know. And please, I say it is "my story" because it is so precious to me, but it is our story, us shepherds in that field near Bethlehem, and it is your story and it is, most of all, our Jesus' story.

We were sitting around on that dark, brooding night, passing our time by whittling, or chatting, or daydreaming of better days. We did not realize that the most incredible wonder was about to happen. I was not sure if I was dreaming or awake when I first saw the Angel, but one's mind would not have the material to create a dream of such a glorious being. He was majestic, clothed in a great light that seemed to push us back and down to our knees. He was suddenly there, far taller than a man, shining like the sun, staring deeply into my eyes. I was terrified. My heart was beating so loud and fast that I thought to run but could not move my legs. His gaze held us there. His words astounded.

"Don't be afraid," he said, "I am sent from God to bring you some very happy news: In the City of David your Saviour is now born, and not just your Saviour, but the Saviour of all people. The sign you will look for will be in an unlikely but fitting place --for you will find the the Baby from heaven wrapped in lambskin swaddling clothes and placed in a feed trough."

I know that your nativity scenes feature a little wooden stable, or perhaps, your tradition suggests a cave, or perhaps your imagination suggests the backside of a very full country inn, where the donkeys who accompanied the travelers were housed. It was not like that really. You see, I was a special kind of shepherd, still quite looked down on, but less so than the ordinary shepherd who sat keeping sheep safe In the middle of nowhere. You see, that night I was tending the flocks in the shepherd's fields outside Bethlehem watching over the lambs that were born for temple sacrifice. I worked at Migdal Eder, which nurtured and cared especially for the Passover lambs, the ones that must be perfect and without blemish.

Migdal Eder was where Rachel gave birth to little Benjamin "Son of My Right Hand", the youngest son of Jacob (Gen 35:21), you will see the hint that God put in that! Migdal Eder means "the tower of the flock" because there was a tower there and that is where we cared for the newborn lambs. The chosen baby lambs were wrapped in swaddling clothes and placed in a manger so they would not hurt themselves--they had to be perfect for the sacrifice! The prophet Micah was the one that linked Bethlehem with Jesus -- “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah,Yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, From everlasting.” (Micah 5:2) but you missed the hint of the exact spot--Migdal Eder!

The prophet Micah, it seems to me, refers to Migdal Eder when he writes: “And you, O tower of the flock, the stronghold of the daughter of Zion, to you shall it come, even the former dominion shall come, the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem.” (Micah 4:8). From this verse grew up the understanding amongst our people that the Messiah would first be declared here. And so He was!

Oh my! I bow my knee to God when I think that He came to us shepherds, came to us nobodies, to tell us our King had come! Who was I and Who would write such a story? Only God! Blessed be He!

I find it amusing, now, in looking back, that we who earned our living as shepherd's, were not considered trustworthy enough to bear witness in court and yet the High King of Heaven's courts trusted and blessed us with the announcement and the announcing of the Messiah! That is what our God is like though, yes? Always confounding the high and mighty and revealing Himself to the humble of heart.

Please believe me when I tell you that it was sometimes hard to be humble after the events of that night--so privileged did all we shepherds feel! But what mystery is this? the High King of heaven, born of a woman, a baby wrapped safely in lambskin like a sacrificial lamb? and put in the feed trough like those destined to be sacrificed?

Now and forever it is the first duty of the shepherd to keep the flock safe, the little lambs....I cry when I think that He is My Shepherd, just as I, for a few blessed moments, was His shepherd. I cry when I see how He shepherded us in His low estate, giving Himself as the sacrifice for our sins. Who could have thought this story up?

The Angel came and spoke, his voice like a thunderstorm, and then behind him the heaven themselves opened to reveal a great multitude of heavenly beings--more angels and God knows who, singing in the most incredible harmony of love and adoration: "Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth, peace and goodwill toward all people." Do you know what it is like to hear heaven sing?

We ran to the tower to find them--you know it was not December-- and there they were! The same glow that was with the angels was resting on the little One in the manger. My heart turned over within me when I laid eyes on Him--so small and serene yet so full of something so large, so very large.

His parents looked up, startled to see us, we were so bedraggled and bug-eyed, standing before their Baby in awe! We tried to explain, tried a hundred times before it made sense to us or to them--our words tripping out of our mouths...but they would get very used to odd stories and unlikely spokesmen. Mary looked at Joseph, then down at Jesus, for that was His Name, and started to cry. Joseph just looked at us like he had seen a ghost.

We could not contain ourselves, I'm not sure how far we ran that night, telling everyone what had happened, babbling the story out like mad men. Of course you can guess the ones who believed us and the ones who did not. It did not matter--we had seen the Truth! We had heard heaven sing! We knew! God, we knew! The Little Baby, wrapped like a sacrificial Lamb, the angels, the Light, the Glory! We could not really have known completely how it all fit together, but we knew our lives had forever changed!

I tell you all this to remind you that there is always more glory to the Story than you know. I tell you this to remind you that God comes to the lowly and the humble and the forgotten and not to the high of heart. He does this because that is what He is like. So as you celebrate His birth, please remember what I have told you and let your heart kneel before Him....perhaps the heavens will open and you will hear the host and inhabitants of heaven praising Him. Forever praising Him.

Won't you join us?

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my story here is fictionalized but based on some very interesting facts.... if you want to read more about Migdal Eder, check out Alfred Edersheim's, "The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah's" commentary on Migdal Eder, and read various other commentators various takes on the subject. I'm going to love to hear what actually happened from the shepherds themselves one day.

Just One Look

Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.” (Mark 10:21)

It often seems like personal transformation takes a long time, sometimes a lifetime, and in some respectable way it does. We are always journeying deeper into God and thus being transformed by that process. But in God's design there are spiritual wormholes of a sort-- strategic moments that can take you quickly from one place to another, even though the distance traveled is quite vast. If God fixes his eyes upon us, we will be overcome by a mighty interaction that can forever change us, and change us quickly!

 In Mark's gospel we see Jesus gazing upon a spiritual inquirer, with a transformational offer: The rich young man was not seeing the big picture of his life and came to Jesus-- seeking, yes, but seeking in his own small box, for a small answer from a small God. He knew he lacked but couldn't imagine what that lack really was. He thought he wanted to know how much more religious he would have to be to get rid of the dull ache in his quickly emptying soul. Jesus calls him to give up his money, not to Jesus ministry, but to the poor.

Jesus knows he will need a personal gobsmack, and not like what he was getting from the "we'll take your money for God" types, but something truly earth shattering, to ever have hope of being able to fly free. The real bounty here is the gaze of Jesus opening an opportunity to risk it all to get something far better.

 Ponder with me for a moment, these words, " and Jesus, looking at him, loved him"---Can you imagine the power of that look? Can you imagine the compassion pouring forth from the heart of the Father through the eyes of Jesus? Can you sense what Jesus saw as He looked, knowing, understanding, all that stood in this young man's way before He could truly enter the kingdom of God?

Dear ones, one look like that could transform your whole life. Know deeply that God is looking at you with that kind of compassionate gaze. He sees the obstacles, he sees your humanity, he understands all that is clouded and broken. And yet in one instant His look of love has the power to heal and transform.

Gaze upon us, O God!

 And not only that, God wants to impart that same powerful ability to us to gaze compassionately into the eyes and hearts of those around us. There will come a day, and may it be very soon, even today, that we as followers of Jesus are able to gaze into the hearts and souls of men and by one look, bring the opportunity for transformation. May we make the Father's love so apparent to each that we encounter that when they look at us, they see the love of the One who can change impossible situations, the One that can by one look, call us forth and bring that which is dead to life. May we as the corporate people of God look with great compassion on others, and truly love them, so that they find courage to follow Jesus into the life the are meant to lead.

 Can you feel God looking at you in that way?

I can..... and you can, too.

Open your heart. Jesus is looking at you, dear friend, right now.

The Wildness Lies in Wait

The real trouble with this world of ours is not that it is an unreasonable world, nor even that it is a reasonable one. The commonest kind of trouble is that it is nearly reasonable, but not quite. Life is not an illogicality; yet it is a trap for logicians. It looks just a little more mathematical and regular than it is; its exactitude is obvious, but its inexactitude is hidden; its wildness lies in wait.--GK Chesterton, Othodoxy

The Serene Beauty of a Holy Life

Next to the might of God, the serene beauty of a holy life is the most powerful influence for good. ~ Evangelist D. L. Moody (1837-1899) 

photo of pelican in Sebastian, Florida

Letting God Rescue Us : A Lakeside Fish Tale

Recently, I was at the lakeside home of a friend. With the really, really hot and oppressive temperatures we have had here in New England, it was
nice to sit by the lake and just relax, until, well.  What you need to know is
that I have spent a good deal of my adult life doing dog rescue, and had even  
met this particular friend through our many years of saving dogs from unnecessarily premature deaths. I have tried to put the "rescue" part in a much smaller part of my life but somehow it keeps popping up. So now it is  fish rescue.

The tale unfolds thus: 

There is a tiny stream that feeds into the lake on my friend's property. It gradually slopes down from the road into the lake, with little pockets that
fill up with water when it rains or water drains into it. Well, OK, so another
friend and I were relaxing nicely until she saw that some little fish had
been caught in the stream pockets that were rapidly drying up and extremely hot. So on went the rescue hats!  We spent quite awhile trying to rescue the little ones from impending death. The "quite awhile" part came because the small fish were either unaware of their certain doom or were aware of it but still content to stay where they were and hope for the best.

They would do their utmost to hide from us, and with trying to find them, a lot
of silt muddied the water, making it worse for all of us.  We could see the
dead bodies of two fish whose little pondette had already dried up. Too late! 
And we knew time was of the essence for the others.  One by one we captured them and put them in the lake, running quickly lest they jump out of the net
to another kind of demise. They fought us all the way, flipping and jumping
out of the little mesh screen we used to try and scoop them up with. But then, 
as they were put in the large lake, after a few minutes of adjustment and 
gill-full of fresh oxygen, they darted merrily into the depths. 

I started to think about this and suddenly knew God was trying to show me
something.  These little fish had set off in a spirit of adventure and ended
up getting trapped in a stifling pool that was drying up. Yet, they fought
those who would try to help them out and hid from them.  Slowly, they would suffocate if they did not get out.  They were determined but we were also determined because we knew what they did not know.  

How much is this like our life with God? We often set out in search of 
new ground, not knowing its dangers. We end up, off track, trapped in a small pool that will slowly suffocate us. God comes to rescue us, putting His Hands underneath us and scooping us out of the situation back into the expansive and wonderful depths of the Big Lake, and yet we try to evade Him and flip out of His Hands. Our little world has become stifling but there we sit in it, our original sense of adventure drying up with every passing minute because we are getting less and less oxygen to think and act clearly!  Our sense of self-preservation can sometimes work completely against us.

In our lives with God, there is time we must be willing to get out of our stifling, rotting ponds--waters that we may have gotten into because of our own silliness or even our good intentions, but from which God must rescue us or we will die. Let us trust His hands in the changes He brings us to. They are surely meant for our good--to bring life to us.  And let us, too, be aware of the little ones around us who are inches away from death, those who, also, need God's rescue, 'til we all swim happily in that Big Ocean of God in the sky. :)

          
 

The Lord Knoweth Them That Are HIs

Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. (2 Timothy 2:9)

photo taken near Rockaway Beach, Oregon.

Before You Were Born I Loved You!

more cardinal pictures:
this reminds me of the old "balance the bone on the dog's nose" trick....but he's
already enjoying his favorite black sunflower seed. Its amazing how sharp their
beaks are!
_______________________________
On the Love of Christ for us:

Before you were conceived I wanted you


Before you were born I loved you


Before you were here an hour I would die for you


This is the miracle of life.






- Maureen Hawkins

THE CHRISTIAN JOURNEY


Life is a journey, often a short one, and always uncertain.

But there is another journey.

The believer is traveling through a waste howling wilderness, to another and a glorious region,
where ineffable delight and happiness await us.

The road is narrow, the entrance strait, so strait that thousands miss it and perish in the
wilderness. But true believers, under the teaching and convoy of the Holy Spirit, find it
and walk in it.

The King, in His infinite love and compassion, has made a hedge about them, separating
and defending them from the many beasts of prey that lurk around them; and although
they hear their howlings and behold their threatenings, they are safe from their power.


But their strongest foe is within themselves; a heart deceitful above all things and
desperately wicked. From this there is no escape but by constant watchfulness, and
earnest cries to their best Friend and Guide for protection.

Were it not for this faithful Guide, how often, discouraged by reason of the way,
would they turn back!

But He....

watches over them by night and by day,

strengthens them when weak,

upholds them when falling,

encourages them when cast down,

defends them when attacked,

provides for them when in need,

leads them by living streams, and

causes them there to lie down in pleasant

pastures, and on sunny banks.

And as they advance they obtain brighter views of the good land they are nearing, and
they long to see the King in His beauty, and the land that is yet very far off, and to meet
those that have already arrived on that happy shore.


taken from
Grace Gems
 
photo taken near Glencoe, Scotland

The Ability to Be Faithful

Not everyone possesses boundless energy or a conspicuous talent. We are not

equally blessed with great intellect or physical beauty or emotional strength. But we have

all been given the same ability to be faithful.

--Gigi Graham Tchividjian

photo of Mariah, my foster dog, who is blessed with boundless energy!

"Asked about my theology, I take the Bible and speak with all my soul. I believe everything written in this book. Asked to state my confession of faith. I refer them to the 'Apostles Creed'. My model of prayer is the Lord's Prayer, my rules of living the 'Ten Commandments.' But what will the sophisticated people of the world say to that? Perhaps they smile at the childish old man. But I have found Christ and he is everything to me. My whole life has been a pilgrim journey. Nowhere have I found an abiding city. But now my heavenly fatherland, to whose threshold my leader, my light, my savior has lead me, looms up before me. For me the thing necessary is to forget what is behind and to hasten toward the prize of the heavenly call of God." - John Comenius (1650 Moravian Bishop)


photo taken on the Rand Cutoff Road, near Gould, CO

     "It gives me a deep comforting sense that

"things seen are temporal and things unseen are eternal."”

--Helen Keller
photo taken in Garden of the Gods Park, Colorado Springs, Colorado

Now is our chance to choose the right side. God is holding back to give us that chance. It won't last forever. We must take it or leave it."

--C. S. Lewis --The Case for Christianity

photo taken in Gould, Colorado at sunset

Revealing Our True Character

The stresses of high-altitude climbing reveal your true character; they unmask who you really are. You no longer have all the social graces to hide behind, to play roles. You are the essence of what you are." — David Breashears (High Exposure: An Enduring Passion for Everest and Unforgiving Places)

This isnt just about physical high altitudes. The higher we climb toward God, the more who we really are is unmasked, the more our true essence is revealed


photo taken near Gould, Colorado

Spiritual Examen: Is My Worship Reasonable and Spiritual? Part 1

I plead with you therefore, brethren, by the compassionsof God, to present
all your faculties to Him as a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to Him.
This with you will be an act of reasonable worship. 2 And do not follow the
customs of the present age, but be transformed by the entire renewal of your
minds, so that you may learn by experience what God's will is--that will
which is good and beautiful and perfect.... (Romans 12: 1-3, Weymouth translation)

There is so much that is discussed about "worship" that relates to style and form, that often,
the true heart of worship,or its lack, is not talked about or understood. When we think
of "worship" we often think of what happens during a "worship" service in our particular
church. Some churchs are liturgical, some are charismatic, some are seeker--friendly, other
are hell-fire and brimstone (not so common today). In the charismatic/ pentecostal world it
would appear that not a lot of people have a clear understanding of the nature and purpose of worship.
Somtimes churches differ in their style of worship music but this is not the main issue.
Often, people say things, "Oh, wasn't the worship good this morning at church."  Or,
"I could really feel the presence of God."  But this is not really a biblical understanding
or accurate judge of what is "good" worship. 

The apostle Paul uses the words "λογικην λατρειαν"-- logiken latreain" (reasonable,
spiritual worship). It is whole-bodied and whole minded: rational and reasonable.
Reasonable worship is what is proper to give to God (which by our measure might
be unreasonably extravagant!). It is not just worship words, or felt experience, but
the whole of our life presented to God. What would hold more worth for "worthship":
for someone to say, "I love you" with great sentimentality, or for someone to actually
wholeheartedly walk in agape love every minute of every day ?

There is an aspect to worship that we miss at our own peril and which robs God
of what is due Him: not giving God the discipline of a carefully reasoned
offering of our ENTIRE life. This is not something that you can come to accurately without
a carefully reasoned inventory, ( i.e. a spiritual examen that brings us to the action of extreme
worship.)  I must become a living sacrifice offered to God: a conscious decision to
put every detail of my very  life on the altar, something not possible or reasonable
under the Old Covenant.

When we appeal to only the experiential in worship, without reason and discipline
backed up with a fully-converted life, then we soon will end up being steered by
personal agendas, power plays, human whim, cultural preferences, or doctrines
of demons.

In the article, Conformation or Transformation: Toward Reclaiming Meaningful Distinctives in Evangelical Worship Practice    Linda Schwartz writes,

"The New Testament call to identification in the Cross and to abundant
—not easy—life based on kingdom values, is being silenced by worship
practice which refuses to acknowledge the cost of discipleship. Worship
services approximate forms of entertainment that are designed to elicit
only passive response rather than active engagement from participants.
People have been lulled into checking their brains at the door...

It is disturbing, therefore, that evangelicals place so much stock in the
emotional experience or realm of feelings: this is the one area of human
nature that evangelicalism has traditionally regarded as an appropriate
response mechanism; and, for many, it has become an exclusive outlet,
the single gauge by which the validity of faith is measured. In fact,
‘gut feeling’ or the realm of emotion also internalizes and projects
 erogenous emotions, as well as feelings of misery, aggressiveness, and
 guilt; and these often become confused with appropriate spiritual behaviour.
When human feeling or emotion is compartmentalized from cerebral or
sentient experience, the worshipper is no longer able to engage in a balanced
or fully human response to worship.


Reasonable, spiritual worship is the whole of one's life, working in Godly harmony, and  lived
out of  Kingdom values, offered to God. The apostle Paul then proceeds to give us a spiritual
examen that will help us move toward such worship. We will discuss that tomorrow. :)

The Seven Deadly Sins or What I Can't Bear to Face about Myself X7

During the season of  lent, traditionally a time of self-examining and turning to God,
it behooves us to discuss things that one rarely ever hears preached on, usually
because they would make the preacher unpopular, or because the truth is not
something everyone wants to hear.

Human beings are quite predictable. Patterns develop in our lives quite
easily without our recognizing it. Think about how we always gravitate
toward the same seat at church; always seem to pick the same snacks
at the store; always seem to follow a certain series of tasks when we
get out of bed, and when we get ready for bed!

The enemy of our souls takes advantage of our predictability and
once we our enslaved to a bad habit, we are seriously held back
from entering fully into our freedom as sons and daughters of God.
Sin entrenches our direction down a path that we don't want to go,
and those sins start with bad attitudes.

Remember two words: inclination and  repetition. We have underlying
attitudes that incline us toward sin, and once we have gone down
that rode a few times repetitively, we forget that there are holier
and happier routes. We repeat our sins over and over until
they are firmly entrenched.  But how to be rid of them?

Underlying all sin, never mind the seven deadly ones, are
deadly attitudes. When we start to think about this it gets
uncomfortable really quickly and we can say we don't care (?),
we can say that our sins are forgiven (they are); we can say that all this is too
negative and discouraging, (as if denying the problem will make it
go away?) or we can use what we learn to find out where
are souls are leaking righteousness, joy, and peace in the Holy Ghost.
Wise spiritual guides down through the centuries have
recognized that these seven players are what most often
keep us from entering the World Series of  Truly Loving Jesus
on Team "Christ in Us the Hope of Glory."

If we understand where we fall short, we are that much closer to
knowing what we need to put on the altar of God. We are sinners:
not just before we are Christians, but after, also! God is not
surprised by the state of our souls, so seeing our self as He sees
us, and  knowing that His grace is big enough to fix us, should not
be cause for us to want to back away from a deep inward journey.

The point is not to navel-gaze, but to be set free so that
we might more unself-consciously gaze at Him! Sin is a fat
man in a room full of lithe spiritual worshippers! It keeps us
from decreasing and thus makes it harder for Him to increase.
He is a Gentleman and will not evict our sinful "alters" and
altars  unless we allow Him, too. He deserves all our spiritual space.

When we invite Jesus in, we should not make Him live with
the seven deadlies seated on seven thrones within us!

So let us begin by naming the 7 deadly sins: Pride, greed,
envy, anger, lust, gluttony and sloth. Throughout history,
there have been slightly different variations, but these
are ripe to begin with. See how the mention of them,
immediately starts an interesting inner process? :)

Tomorrow we launch in!