Knowing you are saved is a wonderful thing.  Father guide my words, so that I stay on the path of Your intention.  When does the absolute Truth of God’s Word truly matter to each believer?  I would submit, that moment begins when we understand that the Lord is the only Sovereign in the universe.  Without accepting God’s Sovereignty in my life I will continually resist, modify or ignore His Commands, leading to a lingering inability to accept His Word and its guidance for my decisions and walk.  Therefore, I must come to an acceptance of God’s Sovereignty before surrendering to His Word and Will for my life.

This is the path of the worldly Christian.  Having accepted the Truth of God’s intervention in humanity via His corporeal visitation as Christ, the Son of God, they never truly surrender to His Spirit exercising choice to continue on the path of self-determination.  Many, wishing to escape an eternity, separated from God by unrepentant sin, will fearfully say the Sinner’s Prayer, hoping, praying to save themselves from judgement.  Pastor’s will aide them in this half-hearted commitment, failing to mention what it means to become a “slave” to the Hand of Righteousness.  These ill prepared believers will never truly embrace the sanctifying Hand of God’s Holy Word upon their lives, leaving themselves with one foot in eternity and the other constantly slipping in the loam of this finite world.  We must always remember it is by the sealing of the Holy Spirit that we are recognized as citizens of Heaven.  Without Spirit we are simply men and women who have expressed regret for our sin, but never coming fully to the knowledge of the Truth.

God is sovereign in my life.  That means when I am faced with a choice or decision I always depend on His Word instead of my own understanding.  Just as with Love, another principle impossible to understand without relationship with God, obedience demands willing acceptance and surrender to the Absolute Sovereignty of God in each our lives.  Without acceptance of God’s Word as our paramount guide we are left vacillating between what we know to be right and those urges that guide our worldly desires.  In effect, our unwillingness to accept His Sovereignty allows the enemy footholds into our lives through which he and his fellow fallen may exercise authority, given them by our resistance to accept the Truth of God.  We are our worst enemy in this instance for we are acting as double agents to our own demise.  Understandably Christ is praying for us to come to this knowledge and surrender to His Will for our lives, but being a loving and Holy God He cannot simply allow disobedience without consequence.  So, those caught in this dilemma will most likely continue to wonder why calamity and chastisement follow them in life, when it has been their own resistance to God which has brought these unwanted effects.

Praise God for His Mercy and His Judgment.  In Jesus Holy and Righteous Name.

The Lord is sweet.  We’ve been told lies.  Some about boredom, some about judgment, some about the labors of service.  That is the nature of untruth, it seeks to entice, convince or create victims.  Victims, to join in the self construction serving the ego of them who must demonstrate an alternate explanation for the real.  Untruth, must by its very essence and nature deny the existence, correctness, perfection and reliance to which all reason and science conform upon the foundation of an unalterable, absolute Truth.  It must be revised at any cost, even through the recruitment, alienation, indoctrination and even demise of countless victims.  For without victims the lie must die, so by nature the lie must exist by stealing the life of each victim.

God has loved us, in a perfect sense.  He is really the only one who can truly love anyone, for He is the only one who knows our secret faults and our fault filled secrets.  I know them who are unlovable, don’t you?  Even I cannot believe sometimes that people love me, for they know so little of the entirety of my sinfulness, past, future, thought and action.  Yet, some do still, choosing to look past the hurt and pain I have left in my own wake, they still love me.  God, knows all of it.  By right, He alone should also be the one with perfect reason and choice to dislike, distrust even hate me in disgust.  Yet, He has chosen to give a perfect man’s life, voluntarily, for the sake of rescuing me from the nightmare to which I am complicit.  Just for the sake of loving me and allowing me to love Him.  Forget the obvious benefits, which are too lengthy to give proper voice in mere words.  Just look at that unlovable character we all admitted to knowing and then think of how he basks in, is illuminated by,completely transformed and made new by the simple fact of being an active recipient of the love of God, Almighty.  In a perfect sense, this is the stuff of music, poetry and higher thought.  That God who has every reason not to love us still chooses to love us without requirement or measure.

How then can we fall prey to paltry passion, based upon gain, expectation or sensory selection?  When behind it we know that, if they knew we would never have their love.  So it has never been love, but rather a performance based, approval centered, self gratifying dose of attention, momentary intimacy and needs based edification.  They cannot love me without the indwelling of God, telling them to forget and forgive my sin, rectifying my stench and unacceptability.  For I have earned death by my disobedience, idolatry and self service through sin, that is not a thing that humans accept.  Praise God that I have been cleansed and made anew into someone who can accept love without camouflage, veils or acceptable performance.  I may be loved for I am in Christ and so being I am free from the poisonous muck of my sin nature.  Free to be loved for the man I was truly intended to become.  I too, may love them, perfectly, as Christ first loved me.  That is the first taste of sweetness, whetting my soul to never thirst, never hunger, never concern.  In God’s Word and communion with His Spirit I find the sweetness of peace.

God is love.  Therefore to know love we must first know God.  To know God we must humbly accept His absolute truth regarding redemption, salvation and sanctification through Jesus and the indwelling of His Holy Spirit.  Through Jesus Christ we will be reacquainted to God and know true love, only then are we capable of extending that love to ourselves and others.

Praise Him for His Righteous benevolence and love.  In Jesus Name.

It is so easy for me to be mistaken.  It seems to me that I spend more time apologizing for my inappropriate, less than adequate or ineffectual actions than actually getting anything done.  This indicates I have been doing less thinking and praying and more doing, an unfortunate pitfall of trying to fill my life with works instead of faith.  I have been living in a dry spot for a while, waiting for God to determine that it is time for me to enter the next oasis, abundance or steady opportunity.  Most of this has been to allow for investigation of the inherent difficulties associated with my new marriage, that would otherwise remain ticking time bombs if we live complacently for a period.  Although I am grateful and content in this understanding, it unfortunately has allowed the worldly folks around me to batter me about with the fact that I have little financial stability.  I am doing that which God has asked of me yet I am not prospering financially.  According to the prosperity doctrine folks I probably just haven’t sown enough financial tithe via their televangelical ministries.  Or perhaps, there is a time and purpose to all seasons under heaven.  This one I am in currently has produced more reflection, edification and return to the Lord for succor that many of the others combined.  And that is all the prosperity I need.

I do hope that this walk through the desert winds down shortly.  I pray that if it has anything to do with my own resistance to God’s direction, education or counsel, that I quickly give way to His authority, accepting fully the lessons and blessings God has intended.  I do not wish to wander around the desert for 38 years failing in courage to take the high ground of the promised land.  Lord send me against the giants for none may stand against us as you are for us.  Allow me to bring glory to Your Name, through my own walk, through my marriage and through my endeavors/career.  Give me the strength, wisdom and courage to assist appropriately in the edification of others, loving and genuinely/gently assisting them to find you during, before and after each testing/trial.  Let me love them as you love them.  Father thank you for the discipline, thank you for the testing, I appreciate the sparse circumstances as they allow me clarity in my walk and relationship with You.  Everything becomes vivid as all camouflage has been removed.

I love you more each day.  Bless Your Holy Name.  King Jesus.

The Word is entirely useful, beneficial and empirical.  In each of those life-testing moments the Bible provides guidance, defense, assistance and protection.  Why then are there few if any teachers demonstrating its usage to a world gone askance?  Certainly the image of preachers delivering heart felt pulpit messages are widely known and understood, even by unbelievers.  However, where is the television, net or podcast event that demonstrates the effective use and Power of God’s Holy Word for most of the entirely predictable events in human life?  For example, memorizing the Bible is a wonderful artifice for believers concerned with writing God’s Word upon their hearts, but what of those novice or “baby” Christians who may not know that the Word will defend them from the assaults of the enemy?  Why have we ceded victory to the enemies of God with respect to knowledge and training of the effective use of God’s Double Edge Sword? The greatest indisputable examples of Biblical efficacy that readily come to mind are; The Lord’s Prayer, Psalm 23 and Psalm 91.  Each of these when spoken cause direct results and make God’s enemies flee, additionally reconnecting the believer with God.  Prayer is our lifeline to the Father as a direct result of redemption through Christ.  This is why the enemy has attacked the use and understanding of the Bible, because without the Word believers, even with faith remain naive to the indwelling Power of the Holy Spirit and the weaponry of the saints.  The Lord’s Prayer establishes reverence for Almighty God and acceptance by each believer that it is from God that we receive sustenance, aligning lives with His Will, surrendering our own.  Psalm 23, immediately dissolves fear and realigns believers with a clear understanding of God’s provision, protection and direction for their lives, causing the enemy to flee.  Psalm 91 reminds believers that God fights for them and that no one may touch them in battle or in life.  This is the proper use and understanding of God’s Holy Word, so that when confronted by those particularly trying moments of life we immediately draw God’s Sword, evoking His Will, His Spirit and His Sovereignty of all things. We are not alone.  God is always with us.  There is no event, episode, predicament or challenge that we experience into which we may not bring God.  We ought not hide our sin from God, for He already knows, and for each believer this is impossible, as His indwelling Spirit is carried into every sin we commit.  Stop allowing the enemy to guide your thoughts, steps and actions.  Remember God’s Holy Word, study, pray about, memorize and utilize His Word for each of those circumstances which must invariably test our walk.  God’s Word is Holy, it lives, it is Christ and that is why the enemy fears it so.  For Christ has defeated the fallen, holding the key to death and Hades.  Speaking God’s Word commands all things under God’s Sovereign command, including our own behaviors.  Learn the Word, practice the Word and enjoy your salvation in the authority and victory of Christ our King.

Father God, I wept when I thought of seeing your face, laughing in thankfulness, joy and the finality of continual peace.  You have known me but I know so little of You.  I have this great Word, given for my understanding, and each time I review, contemplate and apply its teaching I want to meet its creator.  Have I seen Christ?  Yes, in the center of my mind there is a picture of Him, calling to me, bidding me be silent, learn and do as the Word directs.  So many angry, prideful men, wish that they were Him.  Even brethren, led astray by their own covetousness, try to psychologically thrash those seeking into accepting the love of Christ, without mercy, without understanding and without kindness or gentleness.  We were meant to speak His Word or be given His Word to speak as needed, not develop some robust, sickeningly sweet or bitter utterances that give us the upper hand.  In our wicked state He came to us and set us free as a gesture of His Love.  How then could we offer any thing but that precious example to those who remain in suffering?  What I don’t know may be resolved by getting in the Word and relaying that Word to those who desperately need “its” power and authority.

Your Grace pauses my tongue, as I realize that both vitriol and praise arise from this same throat.  Oh what a sinner I have been, all the more that I should treasure in thankfulness and obedience the gift of my salvation, redemption and sanctification, especially this side of glory.  I am not threatened by my sin anymore, not that I am free of it for I continue to fall daily, but rather because I know that I have been cleansed of unrighteousness by the Blood of Christ.  I have repented and wish that I would soon see the day of my glorification and the final removal of my propensity to humanity and sin.  However, this is God’s plan, a right good one too.  No one of us could have constructed or manufactured this story out of our own imagination, for this world and its progression toward eternity is a thing of God.  We have been set upon the scales and will be measured by our understanding and conformity to God’s Word, His expectations and direction.  Our only Hope is choice, the choice of accepting His lifeline, His salvation, His “Way Out” of our calamity or choosing to close our hearts, minds and spirit to the Truth that we all know to be the truth.

Father, why are kids so great?  They bug you incessantly yet still manage to make you think about the things that you had previously forgotten or dismissed as common sense or boring.  What is it about their spirit that allows them to look passed our hardened humanity to see the right thing?  How may we return to such innocence, excitement and fervor for life?  How might we laugh at the simplest thing and love without expectation or standards?  Teach us to love again anew, especially respecting the pain of those suffering the nightmares of sin and lack of salvation.  Let me speak with Your Love so that they might see past this world’s recrimination.  Let me remember Your Word when there are only a few words that may be uttered, especially in those times when I only have time for a handful or phrase.  Give me hope in such abundance that those to which I speak cannot help but be effected.  Let me show them Christ and not me.  I love You Lord Jesus and I know that You Love me.