What leads you each day?  What is the voice that guides your path, honestly, ask yourself what is the nature of your pursuit?  Are you working at a job where your sole intention is to someday get ahead far enough, to earn enough so that you can retire “well” enough?  Are you looking forward to some objective happiness, supported by a particular house, a specific car?  Or is it a relationship with the right person to which you aspire, that unique person that makes your every day full, safe, content?  Is it the dreams of your children, making sure that they have everything you never did in order to sponsor and sense of peace within your heart?  Do you champion social justice, equality and fairness, looking for the next project group through which you may right the wrongs of societal norms gone awry?  Do you dream of land, wealth, prosperity, health, community and peace?

God’s Word says to seek Him first, His righteousness and that all these things will be added unto you.  It is not that looking forward to some of these things is wrong, but it is contrary to His Word.  Anything that we place on the guiding mantle of our focus ahead of God’s Will is sin, and thereby viewed by God as adultery.  We are to be wed to the Lord and depend upon His righteousness, prosperity and peace, not seek to fulfill all these public/personal desires and then serve God with our remaining ambition.  We are to look to God and give Him these things so that He may determine what is right for our lives.  Typically He gives us something better than we imagined, but sometimes His plan for our lives involves none of these things.  What if He intended you to be a martyr for His grace and glory, if that is His will for your life how than can you justify pursuit of anything else?  Do you think, like Jonah that you will be able to avoid His will for your life?  Please don’t be that foolish.  God’s Will is unavoidable.  He will get you to where He bids you go even if he has to convince you in the belly of a fish.

To all them that hold fast to determinism.  I fear you have outsmarted yourselves, for you neglect the power of choice, the free will of man to surrender and obey or deny in disobedience.  There must be some parameters by which our rewards are based.  Our free desire to give up our will in place for His, I believe, is that measure.  There is nothing in this world that is better for me, more fulfilling, of greater wealth, stronger regard or more valuable than that which God has planned for me to accomplish for His Kingdom.  By finding, volunteering to and fulfilling God’s Will I shall serve more people than myself.  Since we all know that He will discipline me to that inevitable moment or time line for which He designed me, then is not the rational choice, the choice that represents the strongest faith, volunteering to that which He has placed upon my heart.  Yes I want things, people, peace and contentment, it is just that I want God’s pleasure more than I want those things.  Isn’t that what we pray for in the quiet moments each morn, to be the Christian that He wishes us to be.  Have strength, serve God first and let the leaves fall where they may.

Lord Father God.  Grant us understanding, security and peace in the knowledge of your Holy and desirable Word.  Give us discernment to establish proper motivation, priority and continuous wisdom upon the skinny path to You.  Lord, Bless this nation, to once again become a devoted people serving first Your Will and then receiving the bounty that comes from such service.  We are Your people, forgive us for forgetting that Truth.  Lead us from our service to every temptation, whim or paltry passion.  Grant us peace in You and let all else dim in the periphery of vision.  Lord let me not fear anything but being outside of Your Will when judgment comes.  In Jesus Holy Name.

He bid Elijah to stay by a brook and be fed bread and meat, delivered by Ravens.  Contemplate that for a moment.  Elijah had just spoken God’s judgment upon Israel’s Ahab and stopped the rain, even the dew from falling.  Then the Lord fed His prophet using the blackest birds, typically the servants of the powers and principalities of the air.  Two things, God’s plan is perfect in bringing about His intended result, Revelation of the King, Jesus and He always has a secondary method of taking care of the faithful in times of trouble.  Our Lord never sleeps, never fails to deliver on His promises and never forgets His children.  Sure you may have to walk out into the wilderness per His leading armed with only faith that you will be preserved, but if it is His will You will come back out of that same wilderness, stronger than when you entered.

Did you ever consider the lives of the prophets of God?  Sometimes dedicated to God at birth or as children, following His lead, speaking His Word, doing His Work their entire lives.  Most of the time the prophets were killed, all of the time they were threatened, harangued and pursued not just by evildoers but also by reluctant believers looking for some miracle to bolster there inadequate faith.  Do you need the miracle?  Are you waiting for some sign that will solidify your belief in the God you already know is there?  Or are you the person willing to take the entire Christian belief in faith, with no miracles, no signs, no wonders, resolving to walk on the path of the Almighty strictly based upon His Promised Word?  What if you knew the way of a prophet only arrives through that faith based walk and that the miracles came out of their faith that God would deliver not as evidence of His existence.  You want miracles, you want to do good works the kind of which Jesus spoke.  Then walk in complete faith that God is who He said that He is and that the Spirit resides in those who believe and that Jesus Christ lived, died and rose as King of Kings redeeming all sin for those who will repent and believe.

Please remember that God is on the throne, you are not alone.  Though it is hard to remain peaceful when you’re being tossed about by the world, you stand on an immovable stone.  So peace be among you to gather the flock, regardless the time on that old ticking clock.  Keep your eyes upon Jesus as he sleeps in your boat, and remember who’s with you as the seas start to rock.  It is hard to remember when you’re putting out fires, that Lord sustains the whole universe with no props or wires.  When you can’t understand His ways or His plan, reflect upon the fact that He knows each of your hairs and all your desires.  For Jesus is coming for judgment and peace, the first will end quickly and the other won’t cease.  So don’t be afraid because there is no reason to doubt, He will gather His bride with a trumpet and shout.

Faith is proven in the fires and trials of a life lived for purpose.  Do you have your eyes keenly focused upon Jesus asleep in the storm, looking to hills from whence your help comes or scanning the skies for His imminent return?  This world is a shiny bauble and we the lusty racoons refusing to give up the glittering object.  Object, such a frail, cold and material word devoid of emotion or passion.  No thing may hold your attention unless you posit your emotion upon it.  The thing does not have internal lust it is the lust you put upon it that measures the sin.  Self control so elusive when dependence upon the promises of God is misunderstood or lightly reasoned.  We were made to ponder the mysteries of this and every universe, to find God and know Him.  How misspent the life counting cracks in the impermanent or tossing your head as this world’s bridle controls your turn or cantor.  We were not meant for these things but rather for Glory, a string theory of seven times seventy dimensions, beyond our current comprehension.  A God infinitely more complex than our greatest perception.  The people are the only important component in creation and even that only in how so they resemble God’s Glory.  He loves us and that is all that matters.

Can you even bear to read Matthew 24 without being called to action through conviction?  Try it.  If you are able to stand still after reading Jesus’ Words of Prophecy regarding what must “quickly or swiftly” come to pass, then you are frozen, disobedient, naive or just plain deceived to the coming events and judgment.  The modern term “Tipping Point”, appropriately defines the times in which we currently reside.  The pregnant moment before a storm is birthed, those few seconds when a family may seek shelter armed with the knowledge that what comes our way is “life” threatening.  We should be preparing for the raging winds, rising tides, rage, disillusion and raw emotion headed our direction.  But even having missed such preparedness we should be seeking shelter, hunkered down, alive in Christ our only salvation and peace in the coming world turmoil.  I repeat, “this is not a drill” this is actual emergency and you should refer to the salvation manual at once for directions on how to find safety in chaos.  The Bible is your only guide to safety, unless of course there is a good Christian man or woman near to you, someone to provide clear discernment of God’s prophecy for the coming age.

I do not call to alarm but to peace.  The only available peace in this world that is soon to be broken beyond repair.  The peace of God that surpasses all worldly understanding and gives the hungry, sick, tired, crippled and alone, Hope.  Hope to face the giants, calm the seas, avoid disaster, find food and secure safety in the midst of utter destruction.  If you do not have God through Christ, you will stand against the coming tides of judgment.  You will caught up in the overwhelming force of each crashing wave of war, pestilence, pain, sickness and defeat, a refugee from peace thrown about by the ministrations and machination of chaos.  We have seen whispers, models and demonstrations of the coming unrest throughout humanity.  These are the birth pangs, labor pains and signs to which our Savior counseled, “Prepare”.  Run to the shelter in the Arms of Almighty God, this very moment.  Do not wait until the tipping point has been crossed because what shall come following that transition may not be withstood by human hearts, minds and legs.

Come Lord Jesus, but if it be Your Will wait until each heart that may be brought into Your Kingdom makes that righteous decision to surrender and follow You.  My rest is in You and I shall not be swayed though the mountains descend into the ocean and the fires destroy the tapestry of mankind.  For my hope is not in those things that may be seen and understood by my limited thinking they are instead firmly rooted in Your Promises, Your Strength and Your Provision of safety and rest.  Let me stand in the coming storm and shout the Mighty Name of God, Jesus My King.  Victory is upon us.  The Kingdom is Come.  Amen.

What measure of accursed things have you taken unto yourself after God has given the city into your hands?  Jericho, the walls came down, followed by destruction of everything in that city except for Rahab and all in her household.  A moment’s reflection sees a model for rapture, seven days of the Lord where his power is visibly represented, followed by a mighty trumpet after which only the few were saved, all else utterly destroyed.  But let us concentrate upon the important instruction of warning from God through Joshua to the faithful, bidding them take nothing accursed unto themselves less they become cursed.  This same theme plays throughout the Bible, God’s warning, followed by victory that comes with additional caution to remain pure and holy by not taking anything that belonged to the conquered nation.  This causes me to look at my own life in this light.  As the Lord gives me victory in this life am I possibly picking up accursed trinkets, habits or rituals, inconsistent with God’s Holiness and in so doing saturating myself with impurity.  A truly frightening thought.

Joshua, a man depicting Christ, who had been given victory over everything in order to lead God’s people into assumption of the Holy Land.  A man who through faith had done that which Moses could not accomplish, cross the symbolic river Jordan, into the Promise Land.  A man not fooled by eyes of fear at satan’s deployed giants and unholy hordes, instead believing in the promises of God to overcome all that before them.  Joshua knew that the enemy had four hundred years warning to populate the Holy Land with the worst of mankind.  He also knew that there is nothing, not even a man’s heart which may stand up against the Will of Almighty God.  I may think that I have good ideas but none of them matter an iota if they are in conflict with God’ Plan for this world and my life.  I pray to be like Joshua and march into the fray armed with faith in God’s promises and ever mindful of leaving all evil regard untouched.  Keep me free and pure for Your Glory Lord.  In Jesus Name I pray this glorious day that You have made.