Looking to the Tent

^{I peter 4
2}Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. ¹³But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.

We so desperately want to be like Christ. We so often forget what that entails. To be like Christ means walking the same path..which so often was the path of pain and suffering. This we hate. This is when we shut down and say "ok Jesus....i want to be like you except for the suffering part". That choice is not given. We either completely give ourselves to his same path, or not at all.

We so often are surprised that we have to suffer, that we have to go thru hardships. How could it be that a God who is so GOOD would want us to suffer. It is so that we can be made complete, so that we can be made whole, so that HE can finish the Good work in us that HE started. So that we can be made more and more into the image of Christ.

I'm not saying suffering is easy or we should look at it lightly. It is hard, and it is painful, it often seems like we cant see the light. That's when we trust. We trust in his Goodness, We trust in his Leadership, we trust that he sees and knows exactly what is going on.

Joy is promised beloved, but if we want to be gloried with Christ, and partake in his Glory, than the journey of suffering must be something that is looked at.

The great hope is this. That we have a King. A King that is returning to his people. A King who will bring everything to completion. We will celebrate Beloved. The end of all tears, the end of all sickness, the end of all sorrow, on that Glorious day that he returns will be DONE.

So beloved as we go thru this life, lets not dodge the suffering, lets walk thru it, and look and know what our hope is in.

ISAIAH 33

Now will I arise," says the LORD.
"Now will I be exalted;
now will I be lifted up.

Your eyes will see the king in his beauty
and view a land that stretches afar.

¹⁸ In your thoughts you will ponder the former terror:
"Where is that chief officer?
Where is the one who took the revenue?
Where is the officer in charge of the towers?"

¹⁹ You will see those arrogant people no more,
those people of an obscure speech,
with their strange, incomprehensible tongue.

²⁰ Look upon Zion, the city of our festivals;
your eyes will see Jerusalem,
a peaceful abode, a tent that will not be moved;
its stakes will never be pulled up,
nor any of its ropes broken.

²¹ There the LORD will be our Mighty One.
It will be like a place of broad rivers and streams.
No galley with oars will ride them,
no mighty ship will sail them.

As we journey, lets keep our gaze focused. Not on our problems or circumstances. Lets look towards the Return of the King. The "Tent that will not be moved". Our place in Glory. Our destiny. OUR HOME! This is what we look at when things get dark.....OUR HOME.

What Can a Horse do?

^{Psalms 33
17} A horse is a vain hope for deliverance;
despite all its great strength it cannot save.

¹⁸ But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him,
on those whose hope is in his unfailing love,

¹⁹ to deliver them from death
and keep them alive in famine.

²⁰ We wait in hope for the LORD;
he is our help and our shield.

²¹ In him our hearts rejoice,
for we trust in his holy name.

²² May your unfailing love rest upon us, O LORD,

even as we put our hope in you.

This life is filled with sorrow, pain, and agony. There are so many things to look upon and be depressed over. To look upon with such sorrow that we want to give up. Or their is the polar opposite. Pretending nothing is wrong, going along in life not dealing with hurts and pain that this life does and will bring.

We love to run from pain, we will do anything to anesthetize what we feel. As humans we mostly just want to feel happy, and excitement, anything but pain. So we go forward and fill our lives with lesser gods that we bow down to in hopes that they make it feel better. Be it friends, t.v., entertainment, going out, shopping, sports etc. Now let me say, none of that is wrong, but when used to run it is. We are turning to those and saying " this will make me feel better than God can".

Beloved here is where it is. This pain and hurt that we so often run from well surface over and over again unless dealt with. Whats more, it will only hurt worse once surface, and can destroy marriages, friendships etc. Ok so where am I going with this.

This life offers us no hope, it offers us no real true joy or happiness. We can try to find it thru lesser things, "lesser gods". But in vain will end up right where we began. Beloved "A horse is a vain hope for Deliverance".

Our hope from this world is this. Jesus. His love, His rest, His shadow, His gaze, His touch. He is our HOPE! He is the one to bring us thru the hurt. Not only bring us thru, but bring us thru in love.

Don't run from hurt, turn off the t.v, leave the mall, and pray the same prayer that David prayed. " May your unfailing love Rest upon us even as we put our hope in you".

Learning To Read

We have been talking about the spiritual disciplines. The reason the disciplines are so important is because they help us journey and get to know the heart of God. We have talked so far about prayer, and rest. Today we will talk about learning to really read and meditate on scripture.

So many people take their Bible out in the morning and flip to a passage and hope that it means something to them...than they close their Bible when it doesn't. We have to learn to really understand the Bible...what it is...how we use it.

John 1:1
¹In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was with God in the beginning.

The Bible...the Word of God is literally that. It is God, It is Jesus. It is their story. We read it to learn who the triune God is. We read it to know the Heart of God. We read it because it contains life , hope, salvation, truth. We don't read it to try to get the "lucky verse of the day".

The Bible is a whole...it is one book. We so often take verses out of context and use it because it suits are argument...or we think "oh this verse is totally me". Lets be careful not to take it out of context.

Their are many things, many topics in the Bible, but beloved, it is about One thing; JESUS. His coming to earth, and the his return. It is about JESUS. His humanity, the prophecy's leading up to his coming and his return. It is about the hope of our salvation....JESUS.

When we mediate on scripture, do we realize we are meditating on JESUS.
Their is this fad..this "ONE YEAR BIBLE". I'm not bashing it, but why rush the Bible. Take your time, let it wash over you , let it take you to Jesus, let it transform you, let it be written upon your heart. Their is no reason for you to feel like you have to read a certain amount a day. Just get in the Word...because that is where transformation is, that's where the Journey begins. Beloved the Bible is so rich, but lets learn how to read it. Lets not look at it as a daily horoscope( and again if you have questions on where to start let me know). Lets remember that the Bible is "living and active"

Hebrews 4:12

¹²For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

The Word of God more often than not reads us, not the other way around. The Bible is active it judges. Its the very breath of God. Lets treat it that way.

Rest

Genesis 2:2

2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested [a] from all his work.

We live in a culture where the idea of rest and resting is almost obsolete, work work work. It seems like the more we work, the more respect we gain. Or we think we are worth something if we are constantly working. We are afraid that if we stop to sit and rest that people will view us as lazy, whats more is the idea of rest is foreign to us, we would not even know how to do it. God did not make us machines, he did not make us to be robots. If we ever want those moments of clarity, those moments of peace...we must learn the discipline of rest....and for some of you it is a discipline.

God is drawing us away to come and sit with him, to come and listen. We are to busy living up to what society wants from us that we often do not hear his wooing. We do not hear the invitation to come sit, rest a while. He longs for us to just be still before him, to let peace consume you..and have a moment of clarity.

1Kings 19
^"2 So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, "May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them."

³ Elijah was afraid ^a]">[a] and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, ⁴ while he himself went a day's journey into the desert. He came to a broom tree, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. "I have had enough, LORD," he said. "Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors." ⁵ Then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep.
All at once an angel touched him and said, "Get up and eat." ⁶ He looked around, and there by his head was a cake of bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again.

⁷ The angel of the LORD came back a second time and touched him and said, "Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you." ⁸ So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God."

Alright so must of us our not running for our life...but track with me. Elijah had been on the run for quite a while..without rest. He was so tired and beside himself that he sat under a tree and told God he wanted to die.

Even though we aren't running for our lives, there is a correlation. We go and go and go without stopping. Then we just drop..we get dramatic..life starts falling a part..we forget to eat...and we just want to give up. We want to jump of the life train and hide, its because we are not resting, we are not resting in the Father.

Notice that when Elijah finally did stop running and sat under the tree, God sent angels to minister to him, they brought him food and water, and he rested. Then we was able to continue on his journey for 40 days.

Beloved when we stop, and rest and let the Holy Spirit minister to us we can handle so much more. We can handle the stress of life, and the difficulties. We have to stop...sit under the broom tree, and realize that He has it all under control. So stop what your doing!!! Rest before the Father...let him give you strength, strength that will sustain you...and then go on in strength.

Talking to the Unseen

As I said in yesterdays message, we are going to look at the four major disciplines in ones spiritual journey into the Kingdom..into the Heart of God. We see or hear the word discipline, and if you are anything like me your mind shuts off. But the disciplines are mystical and ancient, and they are things that cannot be skipped over.

Prayer takes on many shapes, their are many ways to pray. There is intercession, waiting on the Lord, silent prayers, prayers of petition, breath prayers, etc. I'm not going to try to explain all the different sort of prayers. Just the purpose of it, and hopefully it will reignite prayer.

Prayer is one major way of Communicating with God. It can be so amazing and full of life, it can be something that truly does spark your walk with God, but we have to look at it differently if we want to fall in love with prayer again. Prayer is not just spouting off a few words before dinner, or saying a few words before we go to bed. It is the way we communicate with our heavenly father, and its the one of the way he communicates with us. It is divine, it is beautiful, is is speaking with our creator. We have to know that prayer is not a one way streak...but it really is us talking, then Holy Spirit responding.

Prayer can be one of the hardest disciplines for some people, because we think their is a technique or a certain way to do it, but beloved, he just wants us to talk to him, he just wants to hear our voice.

We think prayer is just about asking to make things happen, and then seeing them happen, and that's great, but there is so much more to

Richard Foster puts it best "to prayer are wonderful, but they are only secondary to the main function of prayer, which is a growing perpetual communion. To sink down into the light of Christ and become comfortable in that posture, to sing ‘He walks with me and He talks with me and know it as a radiant reality, to discover God in all of the moments of our days and to be pleased rather than perturbed at the discovery – this is the stuff of prayer. It is out of this refreshing life of communion that answered prayer comes as a happy by-product."

Prayer is the invitation to talk to God, to hear his voice, to know his language. He wants a constant flow of communion not just five or ten minute prayers, but he longs for us to always communicate. How can you have a relationship with someone you don't talk to. The same is true with God. If we don't talk, there is no communication.

Like I said, there is no wrong way to pray, but that is just partially true. You don't want to spout of a ton of words, you always want to learn to wait to hear his response, this takes the discipline I spoke of yesterday. Of sitting at his feet.

For this passage I would look at John 17. Look at the way he prays..I'm not going to type it all out...but please look at the way he talks to His father

Rom 12
12Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
Lets take away the notion that we have to pray a certain way, or a certain number or words etc. Let it be a conversation, let it be the same way that you talk to your friend. And believe you are going to hear back. Again He loves you, he loves your voice, and he longs for you to commune with him. You don't have to lock yourself in a room (although at times that is not a bad idea). Just remember to talk to him throughout your day.

You will see more and more whats hidden, the mysteries, whats behind the veil, as you grow your prayer life. Start out simple. Just talking to him about your day...and watch it grow. It does take a level of concentration and focus. Don't believe the lie that he is not listening or that you are talking to the ceiling. He hears you, and he delights in this holy communion. Prayers is a way of seeing what is behind the veil.

The discipline of the Feet

I have gotten a bit of course with these blogs. The purpose of these messages if for us to understand the hidden kingdom, the journey into the heart of God Unto knowing him, knowing his heart for us, knowing his heart for others, knowing his plans and his purposes. So for those of you who know me you know I have a.d.d., but I will try to reel it back in to that specific purpose

The next four days we are going to be talking about the 4 major spiritual disciplines, sounds boring, but it is actually fascinating, and steps we cannot skip when we are on the journey to really know our creator.

God does not "need" anything from us. He does not need for us to minister to thousands, or to go around healing and prophesying, or traveling cross country to feed the needy. He can do it himself, lets not forget, he created the universe with just a few words. He invites us to do this so that we can partner with Him, the end result being we can feel and know his heart more.

Yet so many (and I am including myself in this) think that by serving and doing more, we are knowing God more, which is partially true. If we can serve and minister unto God, unto knowing him, than that is Good, and we will feel the heart beat of our creator more. But, if we do it because we think we should, or because we think God will show us more of him because we are "doing" than we have it backwards.

You see, when done properly. We do these things because we have experienced the heart of God, therefore we want to serve him, but to often, like I said, serving him is done because we think it earns us something.

^{Luke 10
38}As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. ³⁹She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. ⁴⁰But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!"

⁴¹"Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, ⁴²but only one thing is needed.^f]">[f] Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."

The first discipline I want to talk about is that of sitting and silence. We cannot know God if we are running around trying to be busy. Trying to do what we think we "should do", or what we think looks right.

God desires that we first just come and sit. That we sit before him and listen. listen to his words, listen to his heart. Let his Holy Spirit speak to us. We cannot be used in the kingdom and we cannot know his heart unless we do this.

It is hard, that is why it is called a discipline. Sometimes we will sit and hear and feel nothing. Other times we will sit and feel a lot. But it takes a persistence, it takes discipline to be willing to sit and wait at his feet.

Beloved, do we understand how great this is. Yes, he wants us to go and make disciples out of the nations, but before that, its the great invitation to come and sit. To rest at the feet of Christ, to let him speak to us about his heart, about his great love for us and others.

So the question is which one are you. Are you Martha, who is running around doing all sorts of preparations in order to earn something. Or are you Mary, being found at the feet of Christ. Whats more is the last verse of the passage " Mary has chosen the better and it will not be taken from her".Beloved, its where you belong. At the feet of the one who has made you, who has formed you, who longs to share things with you. The one who wants to talk to you. Lets choose the better.

The Axe, The Fruit, and the Fire.

It is not simply enough to call yourself a christian. We would like to believe in the fairy tale of the 5 year old saying the salvation prayer. Unfortunately its not that easy. Just because you say a prayer does not mean you are going to Heaven. We would love to believe in the Golden Ticket, or an easy way to get to heaven, but their is no golden ticket.

The sacrifice that Christ made, so that we could spend eternity in paradise with him was not an easy sacrifice. It was costly, more costly than we will ever understand. That God, a sinless God, made himself a man, came down to earth, and bore the weight of our sin, and was killed as a common criminal.

Now Salvation is not works based. God is not looking for performers. He is looking for voluntary lovers. Ones that will stand up and follow him, that will obey him. Not our of fear, and not our of being afraid that they will go to hell. But because they Love Christ, because they want to follow hard after him.

Again, this is not works. When we begin to know The Triune God, everything we do for him is from a place of love, from a place of knowing him more. The journey into his heart.

Luke 3

⁸Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. ⁹The axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire."

So if salvation is not about works, what does this verse mean. Many people take "fruit" to mean a variety of things.

Some people think it means ministry, doing things for God, going on missions trips. Other people think it means getting as many people saved as they can. Still more people think it means being the best servant. Well the answer to the question of "is this fruit" is both yes and no.

I believe the Fruit he is referring to here is found in Galations 5.

²²But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness and self-control.

This is what I believe he is talking about. Now here is the catch, when we have this fruit in our lives, we will be leading people to Christ, we will me serving, and ministering, but not from a place of should, or from a place of have to, but from a place of Love.

When we truly know Christ, and have been in relationship, this fruit will be an overflow of knowing God, of being in relationship with him. We will love more, we will have more joy, peace, patience, etc. In fact being in true relationship with Him is the only way this FRUIT can be produced.

So the question is, when we examine our lives, are we bearing this sort of fruit. Is their an overflow of love, joy, etc. Or are we striving, are desperately trying to perform, and not at all worried about producing true fruit..fruit that will last.

Imago Dei

Genesis 1:27
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

The very image of God; if we are Christians, that is what we are; THE IMAGE OF GOD!!! Lets pause and let that sink in. Ok...unpause. The very implications of this should blow our mind. That we were made in the image of the all seeing, all knowing, all powerful, creator of the universe. Their are so many aspects to go off about this, but we will focus on just one today.

Do we let the fact that God made us like him blow our minds. Or do we just read over it since we have heard it a lot? (if we grew up in church) When we begin to think about this, this should radically change our lives.

We are image bearers, we are image carriers. To this dead and dying world we are the very "likeness of Christ". Wow...breathtaking. Not only should this be something that makes us feel so honored, but it is also something that we should feel the responsibility of. When the Holy Spirit allows us to understand this, to let it move from our brain to our heart, everything should change.

Do we reflect Christ. Do we reflect his love, do we reflect his mercy, his grace, his forgiveness, his justice, etc. Or do we blend in with the rest of the World.

The catch in this is this. In order for us to walk out the concept of being made in his image...we first have to KNOW his image. Like I say almost in every post. We have to journey into the heart of God to know what his image is, who God is, what he is like, etc. The journey begins with praying, with sitting silently before God, with searching the scriptures to KNOW WHO HE IS. This is how the transformation begins.

Colossians 3

¹Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. ²Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. ³For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. ⁴When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

⁵Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. ⁶Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.^b]">[b] ⁷You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. ⁸But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. ⁹Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices ¹⁰and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

This is the second step in understanding how to step into the fullness of the image of God. When Christ died, our old self, our sinful self also died with him. When HE was raised, so were our spirits ( Eph 2 : 6And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus). Again that fact that we are already seated in the heavenly realm means so much that we will dig into later.

Summing it up. Our old man (who we were before we started seeking Christ) is dead. Our sinful nature was put to death, and we must believe this. That we are not slaves to sin. Thus bringing to life the new man. This is the man made in the image of God. The man who has learned to put to death earthly desires and is living in his new identity in Christ. I am not saying we will never sin again, we will. The difference is, by grace, we repent and keep living in the new man, in the IMAGO DEI.

We must stand out from the crowd. We must look different. We must not blend in. We have the Holy Spirit living inside of us. It is now our responsibility to show the world Christ. This is not always using words. Most of the time it is actions.

So are we doing it, are we looking like Christ. Do people see something different about us. Beloved if you are a believer this is not an option. We must die to our old self, our sinful self, and go on to shine with the image of Christ. This does not mean we will not fall, we will. But we get back up and continue to shine.

The image of the invisible God. This is who we are, this is our identity, this is our design. To get there, you must know the One who made you like him. Know his heart for you beloved, know his cry for you, know why He decided to make YOU like HIM. What an honor.

The way of the noble

The section of scripture that I will be typing about today is one of my favorite. Their are a lot of differnt aspects to this verse, but I am going to just focus on one aspect.

As Christians it can be easy to be under the illusion that we can just watch injustice go by and that God will take care of it and we don't have any role to play in it, but beloved, know that watching and seeing injustice being done, and not doing anything about it is not ok. We will be found just as guilty as the ones partaking in the injustice. It is time for those who follow God, who believe his word to start opening their eyes and truly stand for what they believe. But doing all of this in the way, and in the path of LOVE!!! All fighting, all truth telling, all standing up for what is right must be done in the WAY OF LOVE.

ISAIAH 13

² Raise a banner on a bare hilltop,
shout to them;
beckon to them
to enter the gates of the nobles.

³ I have commanded my holy ones;
I have summoned my warriors to carry out my wrath—
those who rejoice in my triumph.

⁴ Listen, a noise on the mountains,
like that of a great multitude!
Listen, an uproar among the kingdoms,
like nations massing together!
The LORD Almighty is mustering

This is not a time for us to cower back in our beliefs. This is not a time for us to be timid and afraid to proclaim the love that Christ has for us...for everyone that 'Calls on his name". The earth is groaning to know of his love. The homeless man, the drug addict, the prostitute, are all longing to know this man Christ.

But we have opposition and we know this. Their is a war. Nations gather against God, people gather against God. Because Christians, instead of showing love, show intolerance. We are not to look at drug addicts, prostitutes, homosexuals with hate. Now I am not saying that we go ahead and accept sin;but, when Christ came he came with a message of Love. So who are we not to do the same. Lets not forget what state we were in when God called our name.

We are all in sin, we are all just as guilty as the next. Yet for some reason we justify it, because we think that swearing is not as bad as sticking a needle in your vein, or killing a baby, but it is all the same in the eyes of God. So first off, as Christians lets stop thinking we are better than everyone. The only thing that makes us different is that we have received GRACE!!!

We wonder why the secular world looks at Christians with disdain. Its because we are blowing up abortion clinics and killing doctors. Its because we judge those with color, its because we spit on the homosexual.

It is time we make war, it is time we shout from this hills. Not with a message spewing with hate and violence, but with the same message Christ came with, a message of Love, of Grace, and of Mercy. This is calling out to people, this is carrying out Gods will. Its summoning people to his son, with the same eyes of Jesus. EYES OF LOVE!!!!

The Hopeful death in surrendur

We go through life with plans. Constantly making plans...what our life will look like...who we will marry....what we are going to do this weekend...etc. Without even stopping to say...ok what Does God want my future to look like. Mostly because we think he is not involved in the little things...but beloved...HE IS.

Plans. We long to make plans. For you who seek God we usually invite God into those plans...asking him to show us what is the best road to take. The best mate, the best church, etc.

But are we surrendered. We can ask God all we want about our future..but are we really asking him, or telling him. Inviting God into our plans can be very hard. Because deep down, we don't really know if we can trust God. When we journey into his heart. When we start knowing his heart for us we see that we can trust him..but we first must begin by knowing his character. Ok getting sidetracked.

God is a God who is jealous for us, he wants all of us. He wants all of our plans, all of our future, all of our hearts. He is also a God who will not force himself on us. He will not force himself to lay all of us, all or our plans upon the altar. He wants this done voluntarily. This cannot be easy. To go to God and say "alright God, I am putting everything I want into your hands, its up to you." This is a dying to ourselves. Its trusting that God wants the best for us...even if we don't know the best. But we love to be in control..or at least the illusion of thinking we are in control.

I'm not going to type it all out ..but please refer to Genesis 22 for this blog. We see a story of Abraham. God promised Abraham that from him, from his line, his descendants would number the stars. Abraham had a hard time believing this because he and his wife were baron. Nevertheless they had a child...Issac. God made Abraham a promise of a child..even though it was impossible...and boom, theres a child.

So you can imagine now that Abraham is making all these plans. Later on down the road when Issac was a teenager God (a loving G0d). Tells Abraham to sacrifice his son (to literally kill his son). What must Abraham be thinking. God had made all these promises to him...but if he were to kill his son...those promises were gone. But Abraham knew God, knew that he was a Good, kind and loving God. So without seeing the future Abraham went to sacrifice his only son (whom all these promises were supposed to come from and thru). At the last minute God sent a ram to take the place of Issac. Again we know this story but please refer to the whole chapter.

I cant imagine what Abraham was thinking as he was walking up to kill his only son, after he had started making plans. But He knew God, he trusted God, and because of his trust he was willing to go and do this, to surrender his plans and his hopes to God. Why, how could he do this. Because he knew God, because he TRUSTED GOD.

Beloved God calls us to do the same thing. To lay down our plans, our goals, everything we want, to lay it down upon the altar and let it burn. So that God can take our dreams,, and make them even better. God doesn't just want Good for us.... He wants the best. But will we believe it?

Will we take our dreams...our loves....our goals. And truly lay them down before God and say "have your way with them". Or will we hold on so tightly because we truly don't believe that the God we serve is a kind and loving God. And that is plans for us are better that we can imagine.

Its surrender, to a God who is jealous for us, jealous for the whole of us. We might not always see a ram, but can we get to a place where we can say. "NO matter what God, I know you are Good, and even though I cant see them, i will lay everything down before you for something better'.

Beloved, its a death, but a death unto knowing God more, unto be living that he holds the best things for us in his hands, if we will only LET GO. Can we let go. Its a death, its dying to ourselves, dying to our dreams, dying to our loves. Can we trust him. Beloved his love for us is great. Just because we lay it down does not mean He is going to take it away. It just means, we are giving ourselves to him in a place of surrender. So that the God of grace and mercy can truly have his way in our lives.

Beloved its not easy, in fact its hard, its gut wrenching, but in the end its worth it. TO lay down everything and to rest in the arms of the always Loving, always merciful God. Lay it down.

What we Glory In

Why do we care about the trophies on our walls, or the plaques in our office. Or even certificates showing what we have accomplished. We find so much security in what we have accomplished on earth. We find safety in things we have done that has gotten us recognition or attention. At the end of our day where does this recognition get us. Why do we care so much about "all the great things we have done"

We have no vision for eternity. We kind of believe that one day we will be in heaven, but we don't live for heaven now. We don't want to understand that all of our accomplishment, not matter how great they are ....will all come to NOTHING. All of our success...even our failures...will be left here with our body when we die. But we so desperately want to cling on to our meaningless accomplishments, and our trophies...and our plaques.

Jer 9:24
²⁴ But let him who glories glory in this,
That he understands and knows Me,
That I am the LORD, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth.
For in these I delight,” says the LORD.

This is what we will be taking with us. Did we know the King of Glory. Did we experience the depths of his love for us. Did we know his mercy and grace. Did we hear his voice. Did we delight in his law. Did we live for knowing him. Beloved whether we like it or not..this is what it comes down to. Did we KNOW HIM.

Again the great hope about this is two fold. One, all of the things we strive to gain for while we are on earth, will one day be destroyed. So we can stop striving to be number 1, we can stop striving to preform the best. Have the coolest wardrobe, drive the nicest car, etc. Because it will all be destroyed in the End

The second reason that their is such hope in this verse is bc again it is God saying.. YOU CAN KNOW ME. It is an invatation to know this KING OF KINGS. The creator of the universe wants us to know him..wants us to delight in him...wants us to GLORY in him.

At the end of the day...when you go to bed. Do you know God. Do you know him. Knowing the love and the mercy and the voice of our Heavenly Father far out ways anything we can gain here on earth.
Knowing him is knowing Jesus. So the question is, when Jesus comes back to claim us , will you recognize him....will you know him?

Here is the great thing. God is not asking of you the be the BEST OF THE BEST. To accomplish all that you can. To get every certifacate and plaque known to man. He is simply wanting us to get a VISION OF ETERNITY. That we simply know him. This is our destiny beloved....this is our GLORY. Will you know him? Will you say yes?

The Threshing Floor

The Picture of the threshing floor in the Old and New Testament is one of my favorite pictures. This entry is a continuation of yesterdays...so if you did not read that one I would encourage you to go back and read the "irritation of the inner man"

When we allow God to put us thru trials...to take us thru hurts... to show us our wounds. We become more complete....we can really start producing good fruit in our lives. ( Matt 3:8Produce fruit in keeping with repentance) Which is what he commands from us, that we produce lasting fruit. Which only comes from working out our issues... allowing God to come and really enter the deeps places of our heart where hurt and sin lie.

Matt 3:10-12

¹⁰The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

¹¹"I baptize you with^b]">[b] water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. ¹²His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire."

This can be a rather ominous verse for those who don't really know what it means. Or it can look like a verse that is threatening us into repentance. But its not..again...this is a verse of hope.

In the old days there was something called the threshing floor. The workers would go out into the field and gather all the wheat they could. Now when they gathered this wheat, the chaff, or weeds, would get mixed in with the good wheat.

When they were done gathering they would bring all the wheat they had collected down to the "Threshing Floor". This was where the wheat would be separated from the chaff (weeds). When done they would store all the wheat, but then burn up the chaff.

Ok, so lets tie this into our life. Weather we know it or not, God is always putting our heart on the threshing floor....wanting to burn up everything that is not of him, all the sin, all the hurt, everything that does not benefit us he wants to Burn. Whether we realize it or not...as we go thru life...even our life with seeking God, we pick up chaff. Because of the fact that we live in a fallen sinful world.

This can be a painful process, if we fight against it. What we don't realize that this threshing floor process is for our benefit. It is so we can be made more like him, so that everything in our hearts can be purified. Our motives....our sin....our hurts.

For every believer he WILL put our hearts on the threshing floor. The first question is...will we go voluntarily. Will we fight this process out of fear of not wanting to deal with past hurts and presents sins. Our of fear that God will punish us. Or will we see the grace that is offered in the threshing floor. That when we voluntarily put our hearts on the threshing floor he keeps all the wheat (the good stuff in our lives). The love, joy, peace, the way you help others, your inner life with him, that is the wheat that he will keep. Then the others things that hold us down, he will burn away. Don't we want our chains gone...don't we want them burned off of us?

Beloved, this process is such a blessing. That HE wants to take away everything that hinders our walk with him. We only make it hard because we don't trust the process. We don't trust that when we present our heart to God, that HE will actually show us mercy and kindness. That mercy is him doing away with the darkness of our heart.

Do not be afraid of the threshing floor. Go to it...present your hearts to HIM...the only one who can take the impure..and make it pure. Its so worth it, press in, let him do it, then move on and see the beauty of Mercy and of Grace. Its worth it beloved. He loves you...and he desires that you walk in freedom!

The Irratation of the Inner Man

For the next couple days we are going to look at the parables. Too often people either only look on the surface of parables and don't go deep enough to find their true meaning; or they get confused so completely over look them. I'm guilty of both. I want to challenge you though to go deep with the parables..let the Holy Spirit guide you as you meditate on them and search for their meaning. Side not, I also like the parables because most of them start out with " The Kingdom of Heaven is Like..."

Today we will be looking at the parable of the pearl, its short but so much in it.
Matt 13 :45-46
⁴⁵"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. ⁴⁶When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.

So what does this parable have to do with the journey into the heart of God, and knowing him more, and knowing our destiny in him, especially being that this parable is so short.

To know God to journey with God takes discipline, a discipline that so many of us don't have and don't want to gain because its hard...but its also very worth it.

So we see a short story of a man looking for pearls, notice he did not just find one..he found one of "great value". He than leaves and sells everything for this one pearl. What made this pearl so important, and what does this have to do with our journey.

Its all about how the pearl is formed. When sand gets into a oyster any other irritant gets into a oysters mouth it tries to protect itself by forming a sort of nacre or lack of a better word, spit, over this irritant. It keeps doing this until this irritant stops hurting. Than when it stops irritating then we have the pearl. This beautiful expensive rare rock. And it all starting from an irritation in the oyster.

Ok so stay with me, I'm going somewhere with this. We would love to think that God can just form us and make us into something beautiful with the wink of his eye, but that's not always the way it works. Our inner life and our devotion to him usually involves a lot of hardship. Be it trials, temptations, hurts, etc. We have two options when faced with this sort of thing, give up, or let God form in us something he can actually use, a habitation for the Holy Spirit.

Its not only outside trials though that form our inner man and our devotion to God. Its also irritating things like God showing us ourselves. God showing us that without him we are dark, we are full of ugliness. We do not like to see this, we do not like to see ourselves, in fact so many of us run from ourselves. Be it past hurts, us hurting others, wounds etc.

What will we do with this hurt. If we want to know God more, and know his heart more, and his plans for us , we have to stay with this hurt. We have to really allow God to deal with our dark hearts, with our sin, with our wounds. Too many people skip this step. If we stay with this process, than something beautiful is formed. Our inner life with God....something that is a treasure...something that is worth it all. Our inner life with God is priceless, we were made to commune with him. To know the deep things of Him. But beloved, it will never happen until we really deal with these "Irritations". Its worth it. The temporary pain for something beautiful and priceless. Let him do this, let him form the "pearl of great price" with in you. After all, its a great price because of the great cost.

Knowing

I Cor 2: 9-10

"However, as it is written:
"No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him"

For those of you who know me I Cor 2 is one of my favorite chapters in the Bible. It is filled with so much hope and explanation on how and why we can hear the Holy Spirit, how he speaks, leads, and guides on. But for this entry we will just be focusing on these two verses

For those of us brought up in Church we have heard this verse a lot. In the context of " take hope, God has great things for us". That was never enough for me, it was never enough for me to just hear that he has great things...I wanted to know. I knew deep down that he did not want us walking around dumb , def, and blind. Even though this verse above is filled with so much hope...there is more.
So most of us have heard that verse being preached...and I'm guessing a lot of you can recite this, but not a lot of us hear the very next verse that follows.

¹⁰"but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.
The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God"

This is the part that gives me such great hope and strength. He does just want us to hear that he has plans for us...He wants us to know them. It says it right there "He has revealed it to us...even the deep things". How great is that, we can KNOW the plans he has for us, we can KNOW our purpose and our destiny that we have in HIM

For people my age it is like groping in the dark to know our path...to know our destiny. We feel like we have to guess or roll a dice, but its quite the opposite. God does want to reveal what he has for us, he is not a God who wants us to walk around in the dark.

The question is will we sit. Will we sit and learn his voice? Will we sit and wait to hear the answers. People hit the wall with this for many reasons. One, they don't believe they can hear God...or they don't believe he talks. Two, people don't want to take the time to discipline themselves to sit and wait on God. But tell me , whats better, wondering in the dark searching for a solution, or sitting in the light, waiting for the answer.

Again He is a God who loves to reveal things. He is a revealer of mysteries. He is not one who is going to hide the plan (although their are times He does, and we can talk about that later). He is not a God who wants us to walk around guessing about our destiny.

He does have big, huge things for us, for his children; and whats better is that we can know them. The question is... will we respond to this invitation? Will we sit before the King and ask him to speak, and ask him to open our ears to what He has for us. Its your destiny to know the voice of your creator, the voice of your Father. Its your destiny to know his plan for your life. Will you believe it...will you believe he speaks.... will you believe He speaks to you. He just asks that you show up, listen, than trust what he says. Then walking out with boldness knowing that the "Father of Glory" has you, he has your dreams, he has your plans, He is just waiting for you to say Yes. To be drawn away be his voice. Its worth it. To hear the Voice of the one who loves who...the Voice of the one who sees you...the Voice of the one who is desperately devoted to you, and to seeing you being confident in His plans for your life. It is a journey into the depths of he heart, but its a journey that is worth it.

First Kingdom Entry

This is going to be a running blog about my thoughts and interactions on and off the ministry field. Thoughts from my walk with the God. Different meditations, end times, etc. This is more so to be able to express myself...and hopefully to help other people as they embark on the journey into the true Kingdom...the hidden Kingdom.......the Kingdom of God.

To many Christians are living as people who do not see and do not know.
2 Cor 3:12-17

¹²Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. ¹³We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at it while the radiance was fading away. ¹⁴But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. ¹⁵Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. ¹⁶But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. ¹⁷Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. ¹⁸And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect^a]">[a] the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.


With this promise why then are we living behind the veil. Acting like we don't know, acting like we cant know God, like we can know his promises, like we can know his movements and his plans for our lives. God is a God who loves to reveal his mysteries.


My hope is that thru this blog we can journey together to know the mysteries, to know the deep things, to know the very things that moves the Heart of our Heavenly Father.