They do not rise for sound doctrine, but for tales of Robots, Magic, Nano Tech and aliens.  What then is time in which we reside?  I will acquiesce to your tolerance, to your excuse to your holy wisdom if you can color it different than that unholy time upon the Earth where God’s Wrath is nye.  They want the worldly king, they will get the saul, but much worse, the messiah they seek.  What if the anti Christ has the power to heal cancer, do you think that those who are not filled with the Spirit will be able to withstand that kind of Sign or Wonder.  You know that is what he has the power to do when he gets here right?  What then would you have me whisper, lullaby’s, Party Tunes, LOL’s and reminders of your beauty, wisdom and longevity.  Well I used to have charm, charisma and good looks but let me tell you clearly all things in life fade with age and time. Will you fade with them.

How may I reach those who are pent on something other than the Lord’s Word of Truth.  I cannot. And in that knowledge I must reside, saddened but educated to the folly of me pursuing fish who cannot ever be caught.  My job is to love you and in so doing I have shared the truth of God’s Word and the Love He has for you as his daughter or son.  I have shared the Truth of His Word that the world has a time limit and is currently ruled by the wrong members of the heavenly realm who deceived its ownership from the rightful leader first assigned, Adam.  I have loved you enough to share the Truth of Christ and how the second Adam, Christ who lived a perfect life will come to take back the title deed of the Earth that was swindled by the enemy.

I cannot reach, preach or teach without an ear to hear, for then they are just words into the darkness.  I will not preach, teach or reach out to those without a hunger or a need to follow and find God.  What a world that has made itself comfortable without Christ.  I am sorry for those choices because I maybe could have done more to make folks aware.  No, that too I have had to accept that you can do all that you can do and still fall short of the mark you set for yourself, because it was never your mark to set in the first place.  He told us to tell them, but there will be a time when our voices are silenced, not because we haven’t done the work, but because time ran out on your opportunity to listen.  I must truly pray for you now because it is clear in Revelation 18, that you will need all the prayer you can get because that king that they want and they will get will not allow you to work, buy or sell if you don’t take his mark and worship him.  What will you do then, perhaps you will wish that you had listened now?  In Jesus’ Name

Why does truth have to hurt, I mean it is just a clear description of what is actually happening, previously occurred or is going to come about?  Why should that have the capacity to mend, bind, erode, clarify, cleanse, sting or convict?  It is not in the truth’s definition that the potency lay.  It is in its comparison to this dimension of reality and the realization that they do not match up that the conviction occurs.  I know there he goes again, the deep thought master, coming at me with ideas and concepts that frankly don’t clean the clothes, do the work, pay the bills or sort out my chaotic cranium. This one folks makes a lot of common sense if you stick with it for a moment.  Follow me if you dare.

Jesus said in John 8, Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.  For example; Re read that statement by Jesus.  Does it say that anyone has the truth or a select few who have met the criteria of the first two requirements within the sentence?  The Truth.  If you aren’t a disciple of Christ and you don’t believe upon Him, then you were never given the Truth.  So What?  You were never set free you are remain in bondage.  In bondage, to What?  To Sin, To death, To the Devil.  The Truth, the painful truth.  Read all of John 8, look at it in context of the entire passage and you will see that the entire Passage is about the TRUTH of Christ being from the Father.  That is the Truth that we are given as disciples, as believers that sets us free.  Without it you have no freedom you only have enslavement to the things of this world and death for your sins have not been cleansed, you have not been forgive, you are not redeemed to God, he does not hear your prayers and you are a servant of the ruler here now, Satan and his minions.  Salty Truth, I think so?

The truth is like the Law, it is not something to control your life for we live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, but the Law is a mirror, demonstrating to us that we are out of synch or in line with God’s requirements.  So the Truth only “hurts” or “stings” when we see in its reflection that we have been living inconsistent with God’s commands.

I do not fear the Truth nor the Law for I have been given the understanding, THE ABSOLUTE TRUTH of freedom from the Law, Sin, Death, Hades and concern by the truth that Jesus Christ is God and came to free me from all of those things through his substitutional death on the Cross for me.  Why subsitutional, because the truth is he took my condemnation, my conviction as a criminal and went to pay the death sentence that I deserved for my sin.  The Truth, Sin, even one little tiny sin, earns us death in God’s System of Living.  Jesus paid the price I couldn’t afford to pay the price if paid would have sent me to hell for all eternity separated from God.

Why does the Truth hurt, because we fear what it says about what we’ve done, what we are doing and what we are thinking of doing in the future.  The only way around that sting is to live right within the Will of God and that is frankly impossible.  Why impossible because none of us can ever undo the sin we have done.  We have earned the conviction for the crimes already committed.  The ONLY way out provided by that Truth is the before stated Truth of Jesus.  I can only live right, cleansed, guided, indwelt and sealed by the Holy Spirit of God living within my heart and mind.  Through Him alone can I do the impossible, through Him alone does the Truth set me free.

If you ain’t got Spirit, You don’t have Truth, because you cannot fathom the Truth without the touch of His Spirit.  Why does the Truth Hurt, because we know we don’t have it, we don’t want it and we cannot be set free without it.  The truth hurts because we must come to the end of ourselves before we can surrender to the SALAVATION provided by the Truth of God.  In Jesus Name I pray for you to come to the Truth today.  Amen.

In your mercies I am embraced, held in time for as long as it takes to wander peacefully back to myself.  In that peace I meet love, friendship and care as I am stripped of concern, self-focus and repaired to the onslaught which confronts each of us.  Missing you is constructive and indicator of the value of belief, acceptance and faith. Where is my place, right here with you, out there on the line wishing I were with you or somewhere in between, because it all is done in confidence that purpose is being fulfilled. How may I best love those you have given me, by extending that same grace and mercy through peace.

None want objectification, none abandonment, none to be used for the temporary needs of those who would be filled by love, admiration, encouragement or consolation. That however is the truth of reality, especially in a world where the light shines on each of us each day, not the Light of God, but the spot light of this world requiring we dance, sing, tell a joke, do a job, finish a sentence to placate the maw of man. Should we take offense that the simple workings of this experiential clock, nip and bite at tender under bellies, disregard our hearts, producing stone where supple leaves were once beheld? Machines consume fuel. This one the fuel of innocence, dreams, sweat and ardor, it don’t care if it eats young, old, sick, healthy or dying, for its omnivoric appetite will never be filled until the clock displays triple zeroes at the helm.

Understanding man is perhaps the easy part. Remaining with God a thing to be done with the mind, heart and feet.  Standing on a prayer and a dream I face tomorrow in the wisdom he would show me, that despite the night the dawn is always there, waiting for simple revolution and geometry to play their part for time.  So come all that are in greatest need for I may not be consumed, but renewed to refresh, rekindle, ignite and repair with the never ending power of the Spirit wish may not be diminished.  But let us stop in our quest for consummation the drives that have grabbed upon our hearts and remember that the King for our service and bid us do the same, for them.

I pray that the Lord reveal that which has been concealed from you each day to be remembered each night giving you the peace of questions answered.  In Jesus’ Name.

The choice.  Viewing the world through the perspective of dichotomy of conquest and loss is a deception of limiting and crippling intent. If I have to win or I lose then if I am handicapped in some way this immediately pronounces me, well a “loser”, when in fact my overcoming my challenges whether physical or mental is the greatest demonstration of a “winner”?  If I must overcome everyone around me to be declared acceptable or be recognized as successful, how then may I stop to allow someone else to achieve victory just to see them smile or to compassionately let them feel that moment of success? And conversely, if I have lost ever time how can I then even understand the concept of what it means to win, having never experienced it?  To me it becomes irrelevant and in fact in this realization I become a winner.  And finally, if my identity is tied to either one of these descriptive terms and I am a winner, what happens to me the first time that I lose?

Let us not be limited by the parameters of another man’s thinking.  What if there were more options than just winning or losing, perhaps sharing victory, or working toward another man’s gain, or losing for the sake of winning by the context of greater understanding?  Or what if there never were a winner or a loser, just participants and outcomes?  Just like the good and the bad that occur in my life, I will invariably have some things that would be viewed as “wins” and some that will be viewed as “losses”, but that is a judgment within my own perspective that categorizes the outcomes based on my expectations.  If I must win then to lose is a bad thing and vise versa.  It is all in how you personally look at it.  Now do not ignore, minimize or discount societies need to put things into categories for that is what societies do, because if you do ignore it you will find the beast of public pressure is in deed alive and well and ready to show you its scales, claws and rows of razor teeth.

We were not made to define ourselves but be defined by the Creator who made us.  He says that each of us was fearfully and wonderfully made for a specific purpose within His Plan for Mankind.  He says that He loves us completely and that when He looks upon us He sees His Son Jesus.  How can someone who has a Father that knew them in the womb and never leaves their side for any reason feel as if this world might be defined by simple gains and losses of the war torn world?  Be at peace and understand that we are already victorious, eternally victorious in Christ Jesus the King.

What is so important about what I was if I am a transformed creature now by the hand of God’s transformation?  I don’t know my friend, let us investigate that question.  If what I was were something for which I have established nostalgia or pride, perhaps confidence of youth and exuberance, then the memories of such will continue to pique at my curiosity, reminding me of a different way to think. If the old me reminds of pain, heart ache or exceptional regret then I may refrain from past contemplation.  If my past is mundane, innocuous, nothing spectacular I may never give it a moments thought.  Well, that review is all fine and good but what does that have to do with my initial question?

Okay, fair enough, but take a breath and let me see if I can piece this together into something resembling something that will fulfill inquiry.  If you loved your past, do you repent of what you’ve done, or do you perceive that nothing ill was perpetrated?  Are you reminiscent of the old you, perhaps to the point of struggle with who you’ve become, reflecting currently on past reward or trophy in comparison to what God has duly promised as slave to righteousness?  Does being called a slave make you squirm a bit? Did you come to Christ in sacrifice or humility or did one day seem like the previous one, it’s just now you call yourself a Christian?  I mean have you seen a transformation?

If you come from painful past, you understand the relief that came with salvation?  Have you let go of your past or do you continue to use it in conversation to produce sympathy with bystanders or has Christ healed those wounds and you now truly feel the result of having been made into someone whole? What then of your pain do you ignore it, forget it, try and avoid the conversation or does the pain of your past become an asset through which you may console those you meet in like need?  What happens when you try and stand up for the things you’ve been commanded of Christ?  Do you still fall pray to the things that world says of you to the point where you are inhibited, stopped or paralyzed by revisited fearfulness?

If you had a mundane past do you understand the gravity of what has occurred?  Are you telling everyone about Christ as the greatest joy you’ve ever known or is it perhaps just another day?  What about that smile on your face, is it fed by the free given joy of the Lord, empowering you to motivate others to seek Christ?  If mundane did you perhaps overlook the gifts that you had in the past and if so, how now do you view the abundance that is provided through relationship with Christ?  Do you feel your cup overflowing or is your perspective still one of nothing unusual happens to you?

Look we may have left our past behind, or carry it as a badge or honor or try really hard to forget all that occurred, but try as we like the past is part of who we are now and who we shall become, because it is the foundation, frame of reference for our comparison against the transformation God promised.  If you don’t remember where you were how can you make a comparison for perspective purposes to where you’ve been brought by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit of Christ?  We ought to be overjoyed at our current position, based upon our cleansing, transformation, filling of the Holy Spirit and progressive resemblance to Christ.  If not then why not?

As to now, we have to see progress in our lives even if we are facing trials, tribulation, enemy assault or growth.  Yes, now may be harder to see than anything because it is held with respect to our judgment of the circumstances in which we currently stand.  Are they bad or good circumstances?  Well that is purely perspective, they may be both, neither or none of the above.  Perhaps they are just the things that God has planned for us to go through in our journey to prepare to be with Him?  Some may be difficult, unpleasing, uncomfortable or difficult and others may be fulfilling, joyful, rewarding and pleasing, but whether they are bad or good is a judgment.  Oh and I thought judgment is the Lord’s job, so perhaps we can just live today with a focus toward simply the enrichment of living it.

An to the future, the future is the basis of hope and faith.  For those are the concepts fed by belief in the ability of God to transform our personage our perspective and yes our circumstances to something resembling victory for the Kingdom and the reward in the Joy of Living.  We look to the future based on our perspective confident that it will provide challenges, difficulties, love, trials, mercies and abundance in our knowledge that Christ told us that we are His ambassadors here until He returns for us.  Does that give you joy, it ought to?

So does that answer suffice?  Do you see why where I was, where I am and where I believe that I am going are all important in my Christian Perspective?  If not, let me know and I will ask the Holy Spirit to tell you and ask forgiveness that I ever used my own words in the first place.  Be blessed in all the things of Almighty God through Christ Jesus.  Amen.

The fact that you view me as an obstacle, an enemy or someone to be overcome for the sake of being right, unfortunately indicates that we are operating from different fundamental perspective.  What you would secure through friendly fire via my public humiliation, capitulation or diminution through verbal castigation, I would freely give you that we might live in harmony.  For man is not my enemy, I contend against forces and principalities of the heavenly variety.  To contend with you I would be disobeying God’s command of loving you in the way that I would be loved.  However, this need be said; I serve no man except voluntarily for I am slave to no man especially those posing as bullies hoping to graduate to despotism, tyrant or Emperor.  I am a slave to the Righteous King of All the Lord God Almighty and He alone do I serve out of lifelong commitment as my Master.  I will concede the loss so that your quest for adoration be fulfilled, in hopeful prayer that you begin to see this lust or desire as it were is exactly the same sin for which God kicked satan and a third of the angels from heaven and the same drive that makes men make slaves of other men in their quest to conquer all.  I love you and in so doing I must remain securely upon the footing of the Rock of Ages a position from whence I may not be moved.  I do request that you approach me as friend, not as a ton of bricks, you approach me as ally not as someone who through verbal domination you somehow gain the glory filled adoration of human’s that feeds and serves nothing but a man’s pride.  To fight evil and preserve freedom is my quest, but that may only be done through sacrifice, the sacrifice of potential loss of assets, rights, freedom or life a sacrifice I have proven ready and willing to commit.  Perhaps instead of trying to cast shadow upon me, vilify me or utilize me as a perch from whence to gain your desired plateau, that you first investigate the powerful friend, colleague or defender a Christian Pastor, Former Marine and staunch friend I could become if for the sake of abandoning your limited and momentarily self-fulfilling agenda.  If you ain’t serving something greater than yourself then it is yourself that you serve and if you haven’t sworn the oath in defense of freedom and a commitment to give all in a fight against evil then you’ve got limited right to lecture those who have.  For comfort and words do not Freedom purchase but the sweat and blood of Patriot’s gone before, giving all that you might taste of its sweet benefits and then secure it yourself for the next generation.  A good day I wish for you and in silence I find that Peace which surpasses worldly understanding, but some things must be said and some ideas are worth giving all to defend.  The people of this great country are worth defending, in God’s Name I stand against all enemies foreign or domestic in your defense, because you are worth it.

My job is to love you and I really don’t view it as a job because I really do love you.  However, it is not my job to argue with you or to adjust the words that God wrote in that book that is somehow justifies, sits well or gives you an electric charge up your spine.  The Word of God says what it says and I simply repeat it.  I didn’t develop it, frankly I am not any where near smart enough to even understand the simple stuff within it.  My job is to sit with you and find in that Word the things that will guide us, rebuke us, teach, guide and defend us from a world that kills everyone it touches.  Now, I happen to have some reasonable understanding of its intention and I am filled with His Spirit so I do have a unique desire to gently but firmly indicate to you some of the things God may have been whispering to you that you have conveniently ignored or excused away.

This is a duty of Love, Love for Him and Love for you.  It does not mean that I have the desire, the authority or God given right to make you feel bullied, threatened, lorded over by someone between you and God or diminished by my personal or well intended comments that are not the Word of God.  I am a man just like any other man.  I do not occupy a position closer to God or higher on the chain of command than any other with regard to God.  In fact, this is an idea that God hates.  Look it up the practice of the Nicolatians.  My greatest desire is to somehow demonstrate the characteristics of God through my actions and example to the point where you feel compelled to investigate a relationship with him yourself.  If I have done anything else then I would be the first to apologize and seek another avenue of approach because what I have done, although well intentioned is absolutely outside of my desired outcome.

Okay now that there have been some ground rules, engagement rules or boundaries defined let us get about the joy of fellowship and sharpening each other to the things of God. Please do not think me harsh, because I am not, but times are coming to the world that are going to shock even the strongest of us, so its best we get about the preparation.  I am not talking simply about spiritual preparation, but also logistical, physical and mental preparation for hardship may wear on all of man’s faculties and assets.  The only way to diminish the possibility that we will panic or fail under the pressure of chaotic times is to practice what we intend to perform in an environment that is conducive to sufficient understanding development, but that allows for the adjustment for mistakes.  Because believe me we are going to make mistakes and it is best to make those in an environment where we can afford and recover from them rather than in an environment where they will cost us dearly.

I don’t want to change you, but I know that He will.  I don’t want to control you, but I know that His Holy Spirit will provide you the gifts to control yourself.  I don’t want to be hard on you, but I do want to convey the real-world likelihood that hard times are ahead for all of humanity.  We would best serve God, our Families and ourselves by being prepared for the worst and hope for the best.  In Jesus’ Name.

Me and you, a thought or two.  Choosing love and feeling too?

Night of stars, the sound of cars.  Through will all the blues can do.

Just believing, not by sight or even in a thought.

Done with grieving, the wars have all been fought.

Here’s a dance, only good alone. A toast to all that soon will become stone.

Feet are crossed, fingers and my toes. Drowning out that stupid ol’ ring tone.

Just keep moving. No distance makes enough into enough.

Here’s the thing.  Not enough whiskey to make me tough.

Down to the floor, couldn’t pull myself up once more.

Giving in, couldn’t live with you and him right next door.

Men aren’t miracles and poets aren’t saints.

An artist isn’t captured by the picture that he paints.

But dreams of you just aren’t free when they cost so much each night

The only freedom comes at dawn when your face fades in the light.

Christ showed me what it means to put the Father’s will above my own.  He demonstrated how to preach the Word of the Father instead of speaking what is convenient for my own requirement.  Jesus, showed obedience, love and purposeful understanding in all that he did so that God’s Will was accomplished and that you and I might learn by example. Can I sit here basking in the accomplishment of the Son’s work without acknowledging that in its completion we find that obedience defined? It really is beyond reasonable expectation to believe that we can take of the daily bread of each day without the requisite work to produce more for the storehouse of God.

My inadequacy is poor excuse and frankly an insult to my specific crafting by the Master Potter. Pursuance of either my feeble skills, lack of charisma, talent or powerful speaking voice or denying that I have what it takes to get the job done sufficiently are nullified in this understanding. I will accomplish that for which God sent me or He will bring to the mountain and perform the task through me, but it will be completed, regardless my perspective or commitment.

What then are my options if God’s Will, can and will be perfectly completed in spite of my commitment level?  One, I can be dragged along like a tired dog by the Dog Sled for miles upon miles never abdicating my own foolishness to the fact that I am in rebellion against an infinitely superior Will.  Two, I can intermittently try and hide, dodge or obfuscate/excuse myself from the tasks lain out before me.  Three, I can take the yoke, willingly, pulling with all my heart and gusto.  Suddenly realizing that He is doing all the work, my job being one of choice, attitude and participation.  Consequently living a life fulfilled in the knowledge and peace of operating voluntarily, powerfully and victoriously in the Mighty Hand of God’s Wielding.

My clarity does not depend upon my ability to see a job finished.  My clarity depends entirely upon realization that the job will be completed in perfect timing with or without my voluntary participation.  What then is rebellion if nothing more than ignorance or my own Self-Worship?  We cannot serve two masters, including ourselves.  Christ showed us the way by giving up his decision making in place of following God’s Teachings, Plans and Directives.  Is there another possible position to operate within His Will without surrendering to that perfect example and understanding?

Sometimes we cannot see because there is nothing there for us to see but the clarity of Space.

What Paul was saying to the Corinthians in Second Corinthians was so radical, so unbelievable so preposterous, yet so simple that they marveled at how much sense he made.  Paul said that you have forgiven him so then have I forgiven him, for we are of the same Spirit.  This was devastating information for it meant that no longer were we separate that although our relationship was singularly, particularly and unconditionally between each believer and God that since we are all filled with the same God then if one feels pain, love, forgiveness or hardship so do all the others.  Symbiosis. There I said, dare I let out some Borgian, some communistic concept that we are all living in effect the same life through Spirit? Well while that one sits there bothering your craw for a bit I, let me get to the next bit of gum irritant.

God  comforts us in all our tribulation so that we can comfort them which are in trouble.  So that comfort that God gives me when I cry out in desperate need is not intended simply to succor my wounds though it will but is best intended for the person that I will able to offer the same when it comes my time to provide consolation.  Oh, you don’t remember reading that either, well it’s right there beginning in 1:3 of II Corinthians.  You’re not going to read it, then how do you expect to withstand satan’s deceptions if you won’t even take due diligence to check out this Brother in Christ?  Oh and bye the way he goes on to say that since we partake in Christ’s suffering that we get the joy of the consolation thrown in for good measure.

Did you know that each of us is an epistle to the testimony of God.  Yep, you are a letter written by God as example of His Glory to this world in entropic dystrophy.  So in honor or dishonor live now as if the Lord were living through you, not unto yourself as the former man.  That’s okay we know it’s hard, in fact impossible that is why we have been given His Spirit that while we are absent from God we might be present in the same Spirit that we might remember where we are headed.  To eternity with God, in Jesus’ Name.