THE WORK OF A CHRISTIAN

Movements come and movements go.  It is interesting to read about the history of the church and about the many revivals that took place all through the years.  People come and people go.  Some are truly changed by these movements and revivals; some are not.  I ask myself what makes the difference in whether a movement lasts and one that doesn’t; if a person in revived or isn’t. 

Jesus’ parable of the sower comes to mind.  It was a matter of where the seed fell that made the difference.  It was the seed that fell on good soil that produced the grain.  It was the one who’s mind was turned to hear and understand God’s word; the one who was rooted in the things of God and not the cares of the world or the deceitfulness of riches that heard the word; the one whose heart was open, not hard or dull.

Robert Murray M’Cheyne said, “A Christian is one who makes another person want to know God”.  Movements and revivals have their place but the real work is done day by day by those of us who follow Jesus and walk daily with God.  It is done by how we live our lives, how we respond to situations and circumstances that come our way.  It is done in our daily interactions with the people we live with, work with, and simply encounter throughout the day.

I am presenting God’s image to the world in everything I say and do.  Is that image loving, caring, merciful, truthful, and full of grace?  God is all of those things and so should I be.  God invites people to be in a relationship with Him; He never forces it through condemnation, guilt, or fear.  Once people get to know and love God they will be changed, through their own initiative.  Once the Spiritual orientation is correct all else will fall into its perfect place.

God’s work for us is “to believe in Him and in Jesus Christ, whom He has sent”.  Then it is to be people who live in a way that encourages and invites others to want to know them too.

STOP TRYING TO CONTAIN GOD

We run and try to catch the wind of the Spirit

We capture it and contain it

And we are delighted

But the wind of the Spirit once captured and contained

Cannot move about and eventually dies.

We want Jesus to be who we want Him to be

The King who will defeat the enemy government system

The teacher who will teach in line with the religious system

But Jesus doesn’t put Himself into the hands of man

He allows Himself to be captured and contained

For He must die so we can be truly free to live.

It is not man’s place to capture, contain, or control God

God cannot be put into a box and neatly labeled

So let’s stop trying

Let’s stop striving after the wind

Let’s stop trying to catch and contain Someone

Who cannot be caught or contained

We keep trying to hold onto Someone

Who cannot be held onto, but we can only be touched by

We keep trying to form

And end up constantly reforming

Will we ever truly learn the lesson spoken clearly…

“My thoughts are not your thoughts

Neither are My ways your ways

For as the heavens are higher than the earth

So are My ways higher than your ways

And My thoughts higher than your thoughts.”

Let us simply BE Still and know that

GOD is GOD

OUR HOPE & JOY ARE BUILT ON NOTHING LESS

“He has made everything beautiful in its time.

Also, He has put eternity into man’s heart.”

Ecclesiastes 3:11

Throughout the Psalms that are used as songs of praise and worship, there is a crying out to God from those who know and love Him.  They are surrounded by darkness and evil and they feel abandoned by God.  They know He is ever present but the darkness is blinding them to His Presence.  This certainly carries on throughout time, right up through today.

It seems like the world has gone mad.  There is so much evil, so much violence, so much hate, and so much chaos.  The darkness increases and often overcomes the joy and hope that I know exists in God.  It comes as no surprise because Jesus clearly said these days and circumstances would come upon the earth.

The Scriptures confirming this teaching also tell those who follow Him how to be and what to do.  He tells us not to worry or be troubled, but to stay awake, be on guard, remain vigilant, remain faithful, be at peace and take heart in the Truth that He has overcome the world.  The work has been done; the work of redemption, reconciliation, and restoration is complete. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is finished and is to be proclaimed to the world.

Soon all nations, all flesh, and all creation will see and acknowledge that work when Jesus returns in full glory and full control.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is full of the joy and hope that all believers must hold on to and not allow the present, but temporary darkness blind us of.  In His time all will be fulfilled…In His time.

         

WHAT MORE CAN GOD DO?

After all God has done

To restore His relationship with His creation

To redeem us by sending His Son

To die on a cross to take away our sin

In order to restore His image within us

That we were created to be in this world

There are still people who will not accept

This gift of reconciliation.

What more can God do?

His love has been rejected.

His son has been rejected.

Every opportunity to escape God’s wrath

Has been given time and time again,

To all people everywhere.

What more can God do?

NO GOD... NO GRACE

John 1:14

When we see others as inferior to us or we somehow dehumanize them by reducing them to labels, we somehow justify the need to control them.  This often shows up in the history books; Europe’s control of the Ottoman Empire, America’s control of the Native Indians, even in the Civil War the Southerners were seen as ignorant and inferior.  This sense of being entitled to control people and countries because they are inferior to ours is problematic.

Steeped in the law of reason the concept of Lex Talionis (an eye for an eye) speaks to the right to retaliate.  If we operate under that law, the Indians would have the right to reclaim their land; ISIS has every right to reclaim their land…every right to blow up the White House.  It is what we have done to them throughout history.  This law of reason and right is what is left to us once God has been removed from His place of honor and authority in our lives and in our nations.  There is no grace or truth in the world when the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been discredited, disbelieved, or disregarded.

Those of us who believe and live in the light of the Gospel are easily dismissed and are no longer welcome in this world.  It was never our world anyway, but Constantine made an attempt to welcome Christians into what he felt was his world, but even that deception has run its course.

We truly are sojourners in a land that is not our own, while we look to our homeland that God promised He would prepare for us.  So while here we must be hospitable to our host but we must also remain true to who we are, at whatever cost.  We are responsible only to our Master and not allow ourselves to fall under the control of any other.

“In this world you will have tribulation.  But take heed;

I have overcome the world.”

John 16:33

ONE AUTHORITY ONE POWER

It’s all about control and ownership

It makes our hands grasp tightly

And our hearts grow cold

It makes us defend what we think is ours

At the expense of life and limb

It blinds us…money, ambition, legalism, theology

It blinds us to the truth that

We own nothing in this world

We have no right to control anything

We have no authority over anyone

What we have is responsibility

Responsibility to care for everyone and everything

That is owned by the God who created all of it

We are to care for the earth

We are to care for one another

We are to care and not control

We are stewards not owners

We are servants not masters

There is only one Owner, one Master

Only one who has all authority and all power

He operates out of a pure and divine Love

We do best to find our place in Him

And let Him rule and reign.

OPINIONS ARE NOT TRUTHS

Jeremiah 9

There is a whirlwind of opinions filling the airwaves these days.  Everyone wants a voice in matters that they may or may not know anything about.  Some have done their research but the majority is only repeating what they have heard others say.  This is not new to these times.  Jeremiah spoke of his times in similar fashion.

          “For they are all adulterers, a company of treacherous men.  They

           bend their tongue like a bow; falsehood and not truth has grown

           strong in the land; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they do

           not know me, declares the Lord” (9:2,3)

The problems of the world are rooted in one problem that can only produce bad fruit.  “They have forsaken my law that I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice or walked in accord with it, but have stubbornly followed their own hearts and have gone after Baals, as their fathers taught them”

(9:13,14).

The history of human beings is like a broken record with the needle stuck in the groove and playing over and over, and over again.  How bad does it have to get before we realize we have messed up the world and trying to fix it ourselves only results in making bigger messes?

The answer is the same as it was from the beginning:

          “If my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray

           and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear

           from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

II Chronicles 7:14

HIS IMAGE NOT MINE

James 1:23-25

A hearer of the word looks intently at his natural face in the mirror, trying to get the perfect spiritual look, fixing this and adjusting that all according to what image he wants to reproduce.  A doer of the word looks into the perfect law, and sees the image of God.  Looking into a mirror and looking intently at my own natural face, my fleshly face, I can be blinded to God’s image and see the image of the world we live in.  I look at the things that make up worldly success; money, ambition, legalism, relevant theology, need for title and status.  It’s all about me and deserving my place and reward form God.

When I look into the perfect law of God and do those things I am responding to things looking through God’s eyes.  I am acting at producing His image, not mine.  It is all about Him and not me.

Spiritual self absorption in the quest for God is just as bad, if not worse than worldly self absorption.  It still holds Self at the center.  Becoming a better Self is not the goal of a Christian.  Being and reflecting the image of God to the world is what I am to be and do.  It’s all about Him and His glory, to which all praise and worship goes.

MARY GOT IT

He came and did so much

And got so little in return

Only Mary truly saw His needs

And ministered to Him

Anointing Him before

And after His death

She spent time and paid attention

Wanting nothing in return

Except to sit at His feet

She didn’t get so wrapped up

In her own wants and needs

That she didn’t see His.

Mary got it.

THE INCREDIBLE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST

“Tell the world how wonderful God is.

For He is the awe-inspiring God,

The great and glorious in power!

Come and see the incredible things God has done;

It will take your breath away.”

Psalm 66:2,3,5

David was very aware of who he was and who God was.  He continually extols God for who He is and for what He does in his life and in all of the earth.  Is this the message that is being proclaimed by those of us who claim to know Him, love Him, and follow Him?  Or is the message more about the fear of hell, God hates Fags, and we are right, you are wrong, so repent you fool!

Should people fear the wrath of God…yes.  Are those who love and obey God on the right path…yes.  Do people need to repent of their sins…yes.   But are those messages effective in inviting folks into a relationship with God…no.  Fear and negativity are not good motivators and usually end up being deterrents, causing people to want to further themselves even more from God, and certainly from the people who speak these messages.

God loves all the people who inhabit the world He created.  He desires their love so much that He sent His Son to earth to draw them back into the closeness we were created to have with Him.  Human beings abandoned God, leaving the Presence of their Father to follow the enticements of the world at the invitation of Satan, God’s enemy.  God knows the end result of this path and wants to save His children from that end.  He loves all people and desires their affection and their presence.  This should be the message given by those of us who have entered into that most precious relationship with God.

The one incredible thing that God had done that takes my breath away is the Gospel, the good news, of the life and work of Jesus Christ.  It is a continuing source of awe and amazement to me even though I have been living in the life and power of it for forty plus years.  In my wanderings into the works and wonders of God, I always come back to the simplicity of the Gospel.  In my waywardness into other doctrines or beliefs I always come back to the purity of the Gospel.  It is the core of the Christian message.  It is the core of my life as I follow Jesus and walk with God.  It is the one thing necessary that makes all things I seek after possible.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ was the good news to the early Church of Christ in the beginning; it was the good news throughout the centuries from the Dark Ages to the Renaissance; it is the good news for modern men and women.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the good news that should be on the heart and lips of every believer as we walk through this world as salt and light.

“Come and see the incredible thing God has done;

It will take your breath away.”

CHOOSE WHERE YOUR HEART & MIND DWELL

Psalm 27

I have an extraordinary freedom to set my heart and mind on whatever I choose.  These days there seems to be two choices.  I can dwell on the horror of humanity or I can dwell on the celebration of creation.  The horrors of humanity come and go and they bring only stress and anxiety with them.  They are not welcome into the dwelling place of my mind and soul.

I choose the celebration of creation because it brings serenity to my soul enabling me pray for the horrors of humanity. 

As I read the Psalms I can identify with David’s struggle.  On one hand he is surrounded and hemmed in by troubles.  But then he surrounds himself with God’s creation and nature and he is free and he celebrates that freedom with praise and worship.  He is transcended from the horrors of humanity and finds his peace in the greatness of God.  He leaves the temporary and dwells in the eternal.  This is what I choose.

In these days of darkness and despair Jesus tells us to stay awake, watch the signs, and be prepared.  “For there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be”

(Matthew 24:21).  The horrors of humanity, the fruits of the flesh all have a shelf date.  The celebration of creation, the glory of God Almighty is eternal.  In God’s time, “The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken…All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.  The grass grows, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever” (Isaiah 40:3-8).

I have an extraordinary freedom to set my heart and mind on whatever I choose; who ever I want.  I choose to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.  I choose to gaze upon the Lord all the days of my life.  I choose to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to celebrate creation.  I choose to offer in His place of dwelling shouts of joy while I sing and make melody to the Lord.

A CHURCH OF ONE ANOTHERS

The buzz word for these days and times is BUSY.  Almost everyone I talk to tells me how busy they are when I ask how they are.  This seems to be a goal in life…being busy and productive.  It stands out to me because at this point in my life I am anything but busy.  Most of the time I love that status.  Everyone in awhile I feel concerned that I am not productive.  I am old and my body is not functioning the way it did in my youth.  I can’t be busy; but does that mean I am not productive?

Looking back over the 40+ years I have been walking the Christian Journey I realize in my youth I was very busy…busy for God.  Looking back I see some if not most of the busy was really for me and not God.  That’s what maturity does for one…give us wisdom to see the difference.  In my heart I was busy serving God and I am sticking to that story.

I did a lot of work in many different churches.  I loved most of the work I did.  Some of it I recognized as a waste of precious time and energy and stopped doing that.  As an example, I sat at a church board meeting for three hours discussing what the size of the pledge envelopes should be; smaller was better because it was less bulkier in the collection plate; but if people had to fold there money to fit in a smaller envelope would they end up giving less?  That was pretty much it for me and being on the church board.

The work I loved was one on one work with the young people, especially those kids on the fringe that didn’t really want to be at a church function and hung around outside.  Being an ‘outside looking in’ kid I got it, and I got them.  So I would go out and join them, talk with them in their language, and became friends with them.  It made sense to me because I saw that was the way Jesus did most of His ministry.  People were more important than programs and that’s pretty much how I did what I did.

As time went on I found myself spending my time going to Bible College, workshops and conferences, and even seminary, learning how to be a good Christian, learning how to build churches, learning how to preach, teach, and serve.  As I have said before, “When all is said and done there is more said then done”.  Those good things kept me busy and well educated; but something seemed strange to me.  It was like I was sitting on the beach fully engrossed in reading a book all about the beach; it just didn’t make sense to me.  I didn’t have time to simply hang out with people.  I was too busy.

Maybe that works for other people; but it was making me sad.  So I stopped.

I like my life now.  I have a lot of time to spend time with God in my quiet time, read and write about God and the Christian Life; but along with that I have time to simply hang out with people, go out for a meal and just talk, sit for hours in my living room with a friend and share life with her or him.  I am not busy but in my heart of hearts I know I am productive.

Looking back over my church experience I know that there was one time I really experienced church.  It was back in the seventies when a group of high school kids and adults met together in the living room of a family that truly loved God and opened their home.  We would sing songs, read the Bible, share our lives with one another, pray with and for one another, and simply were there for one another.  We used to go on Retreats and have fun with one another.  We were truly a group of people, not busy, but simply being “One Anothers”.

I have been making contact with some of these folks and catching up on their lives.  When we get together after all those years, it is as if we are picking up on a conversation we had just yesterday.  We sit and talk about those evenings in the living room and times on Retreat and we all smile and know how sacred those times were and how much what we are now came from the seeds sown during those times.  I sit and marvel at the good fruit and I know it was God’s Church, the church that Jesus talked about building, the church that the gates of hell would not destroy.  I am eternally grateful for those days and know in my heart of hearts that I experienced the real deal of what church is meant to be…”One Anothers, loving God, loving each other, and inviting others to be a part of all of love.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE...EVERYDAY

God was clear when He designated the days and times to be set apart as holidays.  He was clear about how and why those days were to be set apart and celebrated.  They honored significant events that He wanted His people to remember and honor.  They are the events that make up His Story, about who He was and what He did for His people.  They have survived the sands of time and the moods of men and continue to be celebrated to this day.

I find no such God designated days and times to be set apart as holidays in the New Covenant He made with His people, in His Story about the significant events of His Son, Jesus Christ.  Christmas and Easter are man made holidays, which grows more obvious every year.  The latest insanity is anger at a coffee shop because of the cups they put their coffee in.

The birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus are not days to be celebrated; rather the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus are to be witnessed in the life of each and every believer each and every day.  They are to be proclaimed to the world, to all creation, so that people would know the amazing love God has for all of His creation.  They are His Story to be shown and told and an open invitation to be all to be a part of it.

These events make up the Gospel, the good news to people everywhere, that God so loves this world, the world He created.  That is an everyday life to be lived, not a yearly event to be celebrated by shopping sprees.  It is a time of daily reflection of a reconciled relationship not a time of retail mania.  It is a time of remembrance of Jesus Christ and not everyone on a shopping list.

Coffee cups are for drinking coffee out of.  The Gospel is a life to be lived.

Christmas and Easter are to be daily celebrations in the hearts of every believer and God’s amazing love to everyone will be the everyday gift that comes out of that celebration.  Merry Christmas everyone, everyday.

ODE TO AUTUMN

“To everything there is a season,

A time for every purpose under heaven.”

Ecclesiastes 3:1

Autumn is my favorite season.  There is a special energy that comes and fills the air.  The chilly days and the bright skies get my attention, like something is coming just over the horizon.  Some see this time as an end…and it is.  The crops are done producing and the harvesting of the final fruits of the land is occurring.  The leaves are all down, leaving the trees bare.  The earth is deaccumulating its excess and beginning its time of rest.

For me this end is really a beginning; a clean slate is being presented and draws me into a season of gentle pondering, meditating, and stillness.  The work of the last year is dropped into the compost pile, to be worked into what it wants to become.  Now the new thoughts and ideas have the opportunity to show themselves within the barrenness of the earth and the open sky.

I love the bare trees empty of all of their covering of leaves.  The lack of color, the simple dark limbs reaching into the sky in a posture of prayer and praise to their Creator draws me into a spirit of worship.  There is a beautiful simplicity to this scene that somehow clears my mind and soul, making it easier to focus on that one thing.

Yes, Autumn is my favorite season because it ushers in the season of wintering, where my contemplative soul feels most at home.  Autumn calls me to “Come to the quiet” of the next few months and simply be attuned to the silence of the earth around me. 

Wintering is like a Spiritual Practice for me.  It’s when I find my deepest communion with God.  It’s when I find my deepest communion with who I really am.  I enter this year of wintering having returned to that me I know so well.  That makes this Autumn even more precious to me.

I AM...AND THAT IS ALL I WANT TO BE

I have been on a journey these past few months; one that has taken me back to the beginnings of my Spiritual Journey over forty plus years ago.  I reconnected with folks who knew me at a time I felt I was at my best.  Folks who knew me before many events that proved harmful to me and sent me out into a wilderness alone, a wilderness that I feel I have finally walked out of and have met up with the me that I remember when I really was who I am;  the me I liked and enjoyed being around.

My wilderness experience had some similarities to the original one led by Moses.  In my Egypt I wasn’t enslaved building a city for the Pharos.  In my Egypt I was invited to help build the Church of God.  Eventually I discovered that I had really been ensnared to help build the church of man, actually several men.  After a time of disillusionment, deceit, discouragement and spiritual abuse, I left.  The first leaving was actually being excommunicated and shunned by my church family of seven years.  The two times that followed (2 different groups of church builders) I left on my own accord with the leading and encouragement of God.  I found myself on a journey into and through the wilderness with God as my only companion.  It was a time of disorientation, of grumbling, of anger, of wanting vengeance, of sadness, of distrust, and confusion.  But looking back today I wouldn’t have wanted it any different.

Coming out on the other side I saw how God had loved me and provided for me in spite of all my cantankerousness.  I was fed by Him, given water to quench my thirst, and loved even when I was unlovable.  He truly knew my heart, overlooked my faults and poured out love on my need.  When I wandered away in the wrong direction he let me go but was never far away when I was ready to return.  The time of scorching heat slowly burned away the anger and my desire for vengeance.  With everything stripped away my orientation toward God’s Way, Truth, and Life became certain and clear.  The grace and mercy, the provision and protection that God freely gave me eventually ceased my grumbling and turned my sadness into joy.  He walked every step in the wilderness with me and His Presence became my Promise Land.  I am eternally grateful.

The Egypt I left to go into the wilderness hasn’t changed much.  Some of the issues are still there, being worked out now by others.  But I have changed.  I have changed and remember when I really was who I am.  I am God’s child, “born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor the will of man, but of God.  I am a sinner that Jesus died on a cross for so I could be reconciled to God, and then resurrected from the dead to give me new life forever.  I am indwelt by the Holy Spirit who shows me daily, step by step the way to go as I follow Jesus and walk with God.

No thing, no one, no power or principality can ever take my life in God away.

I am…made in the likeness of my heavenly Father and that is all I ever want to be.

KEEPING FIRST LOVE ALIVE & WELL

In 1973 I experienced an encounter with Jesus Christ that changed my life forever.  A switch went on within me and I felt like I had been newly born again.  Love surrounded my entire being, inside and out; I felt forgiven; I felt grace and mercy poured out on me; I felt His Presence.  After wards I felt excited about every new moment, every new day, and every new thing I learned about God.  It was like falling head over heels in love with someone; only wanting to be with that person all the time; adoring everything about that person.

In a human relationship that intensity rarely, if ever lasts.  The glow of first love fades and reality kicks in.  The fire goes out and the passion fades away.  You get stuck in a rut of routine and keep walking that rut together, but not holding hands and smooching along the way; just walking.

That demise happens in the spiritual life as well, as is seen as Jesus addresses the church in Ephesus.  He appreciates their work, their toil, and their patient endurance. “But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first” (Revelation 2:4).  All the good things they were doing came second to the lost love and put them in danger of losing their lampstand and their light going out.  I find that sobering, along with Jesus’ warning in Matthew 7:21-23.  Without the knowledge and love of God consuming me and being the driving force in everything I am and everything I do, my works have no true significance.  They are just things done with no eternal value.

Keeping that first love, that intensity of God’s Presence dwelling within me and all around me is crucial in my Christian life in order to produce worthy fruit that will have eternal significance and value.  There are many ways to keep that fire and passion going but for me the most effective way is to live a daily life in worship; giving praise and thanksgiving to God for all He is and all He does.  When I actively worship I feel His Presence and the switch within comes on, just like it did that first time.  When I am inactively worshipping I still feel the heat from the embers of that fire.  I am filled with love and adoration of all that God created; of all that Jesus did in His life, death, and resurrection; of all that the Holy Spirit does to keep me on the right path, not because of a developed rut but because He is holding my hand as we walk together.

Worship keeps the embers of the fire and passion of that first love burning brightly within my heart, mind, and soul.  It keeps my lampstand ever lit and in place.

MARANATHA LORD JESUS...COME SOON!

Hebrews 9:28

“So Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many,

will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.”

I watched all the excitement and preparation that went into the Pope’s visit to the US.  People who are not Catholic were looking forward to this man’s visit with great anticipation.  I could feel all the energy around the places he would drive through and stop at.  He came, he left, and soon it was back to business as usual.  So what was the point of it all?

We have been told that Jesus Christ will be coming soon, returning to gather those who received him and believed in him at his first coming and in the years afterwards.  He is coming to take us home to be with him; to be with God.  I do not see the same excitement, time, and energy being put into his return by the world but that is to be expected.  But, is his Church eagerly awaiting him?  Am I eagerly awaiting him?  I can only speak for myself and say, Yes I am!  Sometimes it is because I am wearing out physically and I want to be healed and whole again.  But mostly it’s because I simply want to see his face and fully be in his Presence.  I love him with everything in me and I simply want to be with him, forever. 

Maranatha Lord Jesus!

 Come soon…

WORKS FOR ME XV

IT’S NOT ABOUT ME

“I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills His purpose for me.”

Psalm 57:2

I look back over my life and see how many times I got things backwards.  I worked hard at figuring out who I was and what I wanted to do to serve God.  I looked at my strengths and weaknesses, studied the spiritual gifts to figure out which were mine, and listened to many people tell me what I should to find and fulfill God’s purpose for my life.

I wore myself out many times and learned to withdraw into Retreats to rest and refocus.  Then I would come back and start again at all the same things, only to wear myself out again.  Finally I stopped and realized that the rat race mentality of the world was similar to what I was doing.  That didn’t seem right to me.  The busy for God…fulfilling my call mentality isn’t what it is all about.  According to the above scripture it is getting things backwards.  God fulfills His purpose in me, not the other way around.

Jesus never seemed hurried; he never had that “I’m so busy” look about him.  He didn’t spent time, energy, and money trying to find himself and his call, his purpose in life.  He simply was who he was and moved in unison with His Father’s will, thus allowing God to fulfill His purpose in him.  It wasn’t about him.  It was about reflecting his Father.  Now I get it, and it works for me.

WORKS FOR ME-XIV

THE TRINITY GROUNDS THE WORD

John 5:19-24; John 16:9-15

The Trinity brings a grounding to what is spoken and what is heard.  There are so many loose lines of teaching in the world and in the churches today; a lot of opinions or personal views about God and the things of God.  False teachings and false teachers are all around us giving their pitch on God.  Some have good hearts and good intentions, but eventually their words fall flat because they are lifeless and empty of Truth.

I enjoy reading new ideas and the thoughts of others but I am cautious about whom I follow and commit myself to.  For me that was determined in 1973 when I responded to Jesus’ call to follow Him.  I find that most of the people I read and listen to titillate my brain but do not feed my soul.  I don’t stay with them long.

As the days grow darker and end times grow nearer I find myself weary of wandering in the wilderness of words of others.  I want to stay closer to my heart’s home.  The Bible gives me all the light and life I need; it always has.  It has been the standard by which I test all other books by.  In all of my adventures I have discovered that there truly is nothing new under the sun and there truly is only one Way, Truth, and Life I want to be a part of; only one voice I want to listen to.  My wandering continually brings me back home to the place I began my relationship with God; where my worldview is God my Father, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, His Son, and the Holy Spirit, my Helper.  

All who wander are not lost; just going home the long way.

That works for me.

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FORGIVENESS IS THE KEY PIN

“Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations.

Luke 24:46

Forgiveness is the key pin to the Christian life.  Without it there is no Christian Story.  It was and is God’s greatest act of love towards humanity.  Therefore it is not an option for one who believes in Jesus Christ.

As I spoke with old friends about my life since I had last seen them I felt a new freedom; first from fear of their reactions; then from the fear that I hadn’t completed the work of healing and forgiveness.  There was a peace within me that revealed to me I had.  The healing took forty plus years but it is there, but only through God’s grace.  One thing I have learned is that it is best to do the work of forgiveness as quickly as possible.  Once a grievance harbors itself in one’s heart the more difficult it is to get it to leave.  It just isn’t worth it, no matter how uncomfortable it is.

Receiving the absolute forgiveness of God in my life is the most beautiful and awesome experience I have ever had. It frees me inside out and fills me with joy.  There is nothing else like it.  It is what Jesus commissioned his disciples to spread around the world; the good news that they were now forgiven and reconciled to God.  That is what the Gospel is all about.

The whole of the Gospel is what the Christian life is rooted in and built on.  Anything less is counterfeit and lacks the authority and power of God and it will not bear the proper fruit or last throughout eternity.  This is observable in the world and in many churches today.

The Gospel begins with God and ends with God.  There is nothing human made about it.  The Gospel will draw people to adoration, devotion, love, and obedience to God alone.  This is what the Church of Jesus Christ needs to return to in these days.  This is what the people who follow Jesus Christ and walk with God need to return to in these days.

LOVE IS THE ROOT

John 3:16

It always begins with God’s love for His creation, for His people.  Jesus came into a world hostile to God.  But he loved this world enough to empty himself, making himself nothing, taking the form of a servant so that he was as we were in every way.  While we were yet hostile to God, Jesus died to reconcile us to our rightful place of priests to God the Father.  He taught people to obey God and become a kingdom on earth that would mirror and reflect the Kingdom of God that is eternal, in the heavenlies, where God awaits our return home when Jesus once again will come to earth and take us unto himself.

It always begins with love to all.  That is the pattern we received from God and from Jesus.  Love is the root of all we are to do.  If it isn’t then the fruit will not develop as it should.  When we love God, when we love Jesus, we will love one another and our works will be worthy.  If we lose that love or it fades away from neglect or gets buried under the busyness of the work, then our works are not worthy of His praise and glory.  What is done in the flesh will fade; what is done in the Spirit will shine forth and reflect God to the world.

THE CONSEQUENCES OF BROKEN CISTERNS

Jeremiah 2:13

In the beginning God instilled in human beings something that would enable us to know the difference between doing well and not doing well.  He spoke to Cain about the consequences of listening or not listening to that inner voice of discernment.  “If you do well will you not be accepted?  And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door.  Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it” (Genesis 4:7).

When God is abandoned in a nation or in an individual’s life, the definition of doing well changes.  The standard God put forth is no longer the plumb line.  Doing well is defined by the society of that nation or each individual.  The standard is either personally motivated or legalized by the majority of people within that society.  Once God’s standard has been abandoned that opens everyone to the rule of the enemy of God, and the princes and power of evil that crouch at the door, not to provide a better life but to devour people.

When it is proclaimed that what is wrong is now right, when the concept of sin is done away with, when God’s love is so exalted that His wrath is impossible to see or imagine, we will not do well.  When we have done away with the tenants of the need for salvation and redemption, with the need of a sacrifice, the need of a Savior, we have done away with the Gospel of Jesus Christ on which Jesus’ Church was founded.  Once that is done the empty, futile, and fruitless ways of this world and the worthless works of flesh are all that remains.  Building a foundation of faith on that is like building a foundation on sand. The door is opened and sin will surely enter in as a strong force.  We will not survive the floods and winds of adversity and the fall of mankind will be great and devastating.

The empty words of the doctrines of man, the human cunning, and the deceitful schemes are all the cisterns that are broken and will not hold water.  They will lead to the demise of those churches built on anything other than the solid and indestructible Rock of Jesus Christ and the work he did to save us and to reconcile us to God.