What’s in your heart?  Is it conquest, a desire to see everything in your sphere reduced to its position under your thumb set in orderly splendor of how you’ve seen the world?  Is it entertainment such that each subject, thing, person or place is measured in importance by how it captures or fails to ignite your passions or attention?  Is it anger, unhealed wounds, putrefaction, judgment and a resolution to withhold forgiveness unless offered at the dying breath of your enemies at the tip of your sword?  Is it hypocrisy demanding that the world conform to a vision and standards that do not apply to your own behaviors?  Is it all of these or some or are you driven by love, because they cannot exist within the same heart, escape from the same well spring or remain housed in the same bank vault.  For they are in direct opposition and will eventually brawl until there remains one true defining influence governed by God or received of the fallen.

We must qualify that we are not discussing intentions or what I commonly refer to as, “Was gonna”.  The best intentioned people have created the some of the most appalling historical disasters, via the tool of unintended consequence.  And history is also ridden with people who meant to do good but were led astray or simply never defeated the torque and friction of their own laziness.  Love is not a philosophy a romantic novelique daydreamed in its bucolic excellence.  Love requires, demands and is defined by action not thought.

Yes, there is a natural relationship between thought and action but let its normal function never be interrupted by a failure to understand that kinship.  Thought precedes every action, but each thought does not have to result in a subsequent action, it may be undone, ignored or die in the dust bin of good intention.  As well, evil thoughts may be brought under the subjection of the Spirit so that they never become sin, captured and never realized.  Good intentions may also go undone, remain inactive within an imagination or avoided by the paralysis suggested of enemy voice or fleshly weakness.  Is withheld action for good, LOVE?  No withheld good action is sin, as stated clearly early in the Book of James.

So back to my heart.  What do my actions indicate resides within, for my actions are the novella of my Kinship with Almighty God?  What I have done, or Not done for the Kingdom of God is the story of my own heart and the answer to the mystery of what lived within it.  Let me never fool you and certainly deceive myself by equating the “story” I tell about what is in my heart with the reality of the same indicated by my actions.  I am not my intentions, I am my actions based upon the driving influence and the purity or poison of my belief.  If I believe in God and trust His Plan and Promise then my actions can only be those of a man committed to obedience and active demonstration of my Love for that Holy God, my Father.  If my actions do not match that “proof” of love statement, then I can safely determine that my heart is not directed by love but by the voice or voices of other gods.

Christianity is not a self-help faith, but it is a faith that demands self-reflective action.  My failure does not demand nor should it sponsor paralytic inaction, rather my failures should be reviewed, submitted to God in prayer, repented of and lead to consequential redirected action consistent with my Love for God.  If it doesn’t smell right then something is stale or worse yet gangrenous.  How’s your heart?  Does it pass the smell test or do you see influences other than Love reflected in your thoughts and actions?  Be honest, if not with me with yourself and certainly with God.  Be led by the Spirit of God’s Love and rejoice in the powerful results of your actions commensurate with the guiding principle of Love.  In Jesus’ Mighty name I pray for you today.

Lord why does it hurt so to watch your perfect plan unfold?  I can barely stand watching the devout churches being emptied while those that offer entertainment, child care and robust services are filled with the worldly.  Watching women carry the burden of reaching out because Christian men have abandoned their role within the Body.  Father, am I to remain silent or shall the pain in my heart be shared with those who would listen?  Should I even care, just as with the wicked, should I mourn their decision to ignore your call?  Father my heart breaks and you alone are the salve to heal my wounds.  Be with me, provide me the understanding, wipe away these tears, for I cry for this world Lord.  It really hurts to watch this decay, this unraveling of creation, especially with the knowledge that there is a time limit to your patience.

This morning I saw another church with a woman pastor, weak, departed from doctrine, dwindling, teetering, soon to topple.  I am without excuse, yet in my audacity may I ask your forgiveness?  How may I be forgiven for standing by and doing nothing to delay or resolve these difficulties, to stand in the gap.  Oh, but prayer my Father, it is you who can and has overcome this world.  Father I ask that you step in and stop this deformation, heal us, scream at us so that we awaken.  Don’t let us slumber throughout the single most important time of our faith.  I left their door in pain, disappointment and exasperation taking my cries to you Father.  I thank you for directing to someone who needed my help.  Thank you for letting me watch over him and get him through that dangerous time.  I praise your name for sending me when everyone else had departed.  I am grateful for the demonstration of your love and desire to use me for your good work.  I continue to be humbled.

Righteousness stings.  Salt permeates and preserves the wounded flesh.  This world continues to soften, sadden and age my heart.  They will not listen to your small, quiet voice beckoning them away from the abyss.  Shall I shout at them as if would have greater affect?  Shall I smack the rock with my staff expressing my anguish in their humanity?  No, Lord.  I am to wait upon you and pray in my spirit continuously.  Knowing, believing, hoping and faithfully waiting for the time when you will intervene, setting all things right.  Until then Lord I will love them and speak your truth, for just as your word never returns void, it also cleanses, burns and compels.  I hope that something I say brings them to the cross for that wondrous meeting with Your Grace and Salvation.  I pray they meet you and I get to stand back and watch the introduction.  In Jesus’ Precious name I pray.

What measure do you use when you’ve failed to live up to every one presented?  Are you forced to develop your own gradient, with some reasonable expectation of excusing yourself or justifying your particular behavior?  May you simply ignore the imploring voices of self, satan, the world and your once remembered shepherd to maintain your self-sustaining universe?  Are you convinced of the surety and safety of your position, beyond the advice and consent of those who knew better even when I didn’t, or are you saving up the remorse for an upcoming day of humility born of tragic episode?  Or have you regretfully, steeled your conscience to the Word of God such that it no longer tugs at your heart or inflames your sensibilities?  What’s to become of you, if this backslidden state is norm?

I am a failure to man.  I cannot explain it nor escape the impacts of my tenuous human position.  I have no rational explanation to give my friends, family or interviewers when asked for discussion regarding my circumstance, poverty or apparent propensity to supposed aimless wandering.  Yet, they avoid me not from poverty or frustration at inability to assist but to avoid the inexplicable joy present within my life in spite of situational implication.  How can they sustain their concrete understanding in light of factual in-congruence?  I am a winner by God’s guidelines and therefore must be castigated, excluded or condemned in order to protect man’s self-confidence.  I get it, I love them even more for they are truly in danger of eternal separation from the Lord.  They are piteous at best, yet they muse about their concern for my unfortunate predicament, excusing of course the facts of my utter peace, comfort and happiness.

How then shall I react each time they clamor for attention and sympathetic understanding for their regular, timely, worldly predicament?  Shall I, in response, ignore their cries for assistance, turn my ear away from the listening they would be accorded in love?  May I avoid their criticism as they feel indebted by my care to “help” me find my way from my apparent ignorance, to wake me from my Christian insanity.  I thank them and dry their tears, praying that God will intervene, sending his Holy Spirit to break the spell of their slumber.  So in effect we each believe ourselves the assisting party.  How then do we determine who is right and who wrong?

The joy of the Lord is my strength.  Their joy is found in the comfort of their things and security of money.  My hope is found in the work of Jesus Christ the King.  Their hope is faith in their ability to overcome the world around them.  I am living for my real life which begins when I pass the veil of this world.  They live to elongate or squeeze every ounce of return available in this life.  I surrender, they fight to conquer.  I love they barter for attention or improved position.  Is there a right position or a wrong position?  No there is only perspective and belief.  Ours are simply different, nonetheless one will prove a better choice in eternity.  The choice has always been yours.

What are your thoughts on Jesus?  In the Book of Hebrews, the Holy Spirit through Paul acquaints us with the person, the majesty and the deity of Christ.  It begins;

God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things by whom also he made the worlds;

God spoke through the Son, the heir of all things by whom he made the worlds.  What a statement.  God made the worlds through his Son who is the heir of all things.  Then it goes on to say;

Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

Remember this is talking about Jesus.  He is the brightness of God’s Glory the express image of God’s person upholding “all” things by his Word of Power.  So Jesus was a man, certainly but no ordinary carpenter is the express image of Father God and upholds “all” things through the power of the Word.  Jesus is clearly God and being God he is the only one capable of purging the sins of man and sitting in his rightful place in Majesty and Glory of God’s throne room.

Now remember the last two passages both end with semi colons indicating that the following verse is linked, dependent upon the previous passage for definition and comprehension.  It continues;

Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.  

In this verse we see that he is the rightful heir of God’s Kingdom and higher than the angels.  So for those who would preach false religion by equating Jesus with arch angels or other wise are entirely mistaken having completely overlooked this passages clear declaration of his unique and express DEITY.

The Holy Spirit makes this argument for all to understand.  Even them who would try and design their own truth or deny the truth that Jesus is God.

For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father and he shall be to me a Son?  And again, when he bringeth in he firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him.  And of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, And his minsters a flame of fire.  But unto the Son he saith, Thy Throne O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.

Okay, those who have been denying his deity, just stop.  Stop equating a Holy and Righteous God with the angels that he created.  God tells the angels to worship him, He refers to Jesus as God with a throne and sceptre that shall reign forever and ever.  If you read this in the Bible and continue with your prattle and false teaching, I will pray for you but you are serious danger of being judged by God.

God continues; Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.  And, thou, Lord in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands: They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou are the same, and thy years shall not fail.  But to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand ,until I make thine enemies thy footstool?  Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to ministers for them who shall be heirs of salvation.

Had you any doubt of Jesus’ absolute Deity, it should be relinquished after this passage as the Holy Spirit clearly indicates that Jesus laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the works of his hands. This passage clearly states that Jesus shall never change even as the rest of the world grows old and is put away he remains.  Then the Holy Spirit makes the separation between Jesus and the angels crystal when he says that the angels are ministering messengers regarding the salvation that Jesus is bringing to humanity.

As we go into chapter 2 verse one we are cautioned by the Holy Spirit to reflect upon these things and give them “earnest” consideration lest they slip from our understanding.  It is no coincidence that the word “earnest” is only used several times in the Bible, one of them here and another to describe the Holy Spirit as the “earnest” of our salvation, the down payment, the seal of eternity.  Again this passage equates the Trinity.  Father, Son and Holy Spirit as being part of the Triune God.

Let us reflect upon these things that they don’t slip and we don’t err in our discernment and discipleship of the Holy Gospel.  Jesus is God there is no mistaking it, no avoiding it and no ignoring that fact.  Continue in Hebrews to understand man’s relationship to this Holy God and further understand God’s mercy and grace toward humanity.  Jesus be praised.

If I knew then I wouldn’t need to come to the Lord and ask.  As men, we fight, fuss, lie and avoid telling those around us that we simply don’t know.  Our egos are so fragile that it is potentially hazardous to reputation or self-image to admit that we are not prepared or are in the need of education.  This is absolutely ridiculous because by its nature we are ignorant of a thing until we have learned it.

Children know that they don’t know and so they approach a circumstance with that eager mind, accepting that they don’t know and are ready to learn.  Then the world gets a hold of them and threatens them with constant criticism, bullying or shame for not knowing and they become adults like me who are basically ruined innocents, unwilling, afraid, terrified of admitting that they might not know and thus in need of assistance.  As tragic as this is in isolation it is tremendously compounded when it begins to interfere with our Lord relationship.

Coming to the Lord in humility is essential to reverent fellowship.  If I know everything or cannot admit when I don’t know for fear of worldly admonishment then I will never fall at the foot of the throne for merciful assistance.  I cannot nor would I tell other people how to approach the Lord, but for me I just admit my ignorance up front and let him know how desperate I am for his helping hand.  I simply don’t know and want to learn.  I mean he knows I don’t know anyway, right?

I am going to tell people when I don’t know something.  No more deception no more unintentional prevarication, that’s “lying” as a note to self, who doesn’t want to admit that he not only doesn’t know but also covers up that fact with lies.  Father, there is so much in this life for which I am unprepared, ill-equipped or awaiting your intervention.  Lord, I simply don’t know.  Let me be free of my desire to be seen as complete by this world.  Let me be seen for the man I truly want to be which is a man who is fully and happily dependent upon his loving Father.  Lord, let me not be an example of a worldly man, who is independent and self-sufficient of the relationship with you.  I want you to have the glory so don’t let me “put on airs” that I have some how overcome every problem or have some grand revelation about things that allows me to overcome the things, by nature, that I do not yet know.  Let me be okay with not knowing and express a childlike willingness to learn.

In Jesus’ Holy Name I pray.  Amen

We have been taught, we have been instructed, we have been led and we have warned of those consequences associated with ignoring, disobeying your commands.  Father your Word says that we are without excuse.  Let us remain accountable for our actions Father never seeking to blame you or others for our own failures or committed sin.  Father keep us close as the blessed children we are, don’t let us stray from the protections accorded us by our kinship to the King.

Lord forgive me for my deliberate disregard for your direction.  I knew better so I am left with no other recourse then to beg your forgiveness, knowing that Father you have promised forgiveness for my repentant heart.  I walk away from my sin Lord, please keep me safe from its tempting cry.  Let me walk in righteousness and truth, saving myself for a marriage in faith and commitment.  I am the one responsible for my behavior, please hold only me responsible and wherever possible Lord overcome those external influences seeking to have comport with my flesh.

Lord Let me walk in the Spirit of Holiness and communion with you.  Keep my eyes and heart in laser focus of your loving eyes.  Father fill me to overflowing, draw them to you using the light of my smile and walk.  Let me participate in their introduction to you Father that I might rejoice at their salvation.  Take from me any desires to serve other gods or idols.  I want only you.  Keep my family, friends, colleagues and even my enemy’s conscious in the knowledge of your grace, so that we all might be saved by your loving Kindness expressed to all men.  We thank you and praise you, in the precious name of Jesus I pray.

What in the world has continuous improvement got to do with Christianity.  I thought it was a get out of jail free card, I accepted Jesus as my Saviour and that was that, neat and tidy.  What is this about being filled with the Holy Spirit, is that really necessary, it just seems too complicated?  I thought that once I earned my way into heaven by believing that my part had been done and God would do the rest.  Now your telling me that it is a journey and not a destination.  How do I keep up with all the effort I need to put out?  I mean is there a pamphlet, a class or a youtube segment I can complete that shows me the requirements, perhaps list of action steps?

How do I continue to be filled with the Holy Spirit, isn’t it a one time indwelling where I receive the Spirit and I am filled to the brim, wabam!!  You mean I have to remain in a surrendered state, that’s frankly just too much to ask, don’t you know that I have a life to live here?  That is the rub, I died on the cross two thousand years ago so that Christ might live this life through me now.  If I continue to wrestle with the Lord for the steering wheel or the reins to control this life then he will let me take the control.  The problem is when I do that I quench the Holy Spirit and again am left to my own designs.  That frightens the heck out of me, because every time I do gain the control back from God I proceed to run the bus into the nearest tree or end up in a sin calamity following my own wicked heart.  The Greek form of the verb in the Bible is actually to “Keep being filled” with the Spirit of God. Meaning that it is a process not a plateau.

Recently I have been asking God to step in and remove the expectations and frustrations associated with my human impatience in this life.  When I do this and continue to be filled with the Spirit, I am no longer limited by the parameters of my own limited capacity and thinking.  I am freed to let the Spirit live through me and use His Power, His Plan, His ability, authority and love to change the world around me.  I am just a vessel for the Spirit.  That makes you mad that he expects us to give way and lose our lives so that He might live instead of us?  I am sorry thems the rules of God.  I have made a mess of everything, Sure I have achieved treasure and glory consistent with worldly success but it pales in comparison to the victories I have experienced in Christ.

Will you continue to be sanctified and continue to keep being filled with the Spirit of God to overflowing?  I don’t know for that is your choice, but I am praying for you to do so, because that is my responsibility and my choice.  I choose victory, I choose the things He has planned for this life and forgo my own plans.  Lord continue to fill me with your Spirit, make me a magnet for those you would have me help, love and journey alongside.  In your precious name I pray.  King Jesus.

He leads, I follow, you call that complicated.  I understand the only way to avoid the absolute Truth of God’s enduring Word is to develop radical excuses and justifications for your defiance to His Commands.  You see, I get it that you believe that you should be able to determine if you are good enough to go to heaven and you cannot imagine a God who would punish his creation for not following his rules.  That position makes sense for a person who is self-determined, self-sovereign, self-actualized or serving the gaping maw of self indulgence.  I see you do it till your satisfied, just do it, do whatever you want when you want for how long you want and you want to never have anyone tell you different.  Unfortunately that position places you smack dab in the middle of the broad boulevard of those who are in defiance to God’s Will for Mankind.  I wish I could tell you a fairy tale that would somehow relieve this conflict in which you find yourself, but He Leads, I follow. Seems simple enough to me.

I don’t make the rules, I don’t enforce the rules, I don’t change the rules, I don’t explain the rules, my job is to simply let everyone know that God loves them so much that he provided a way to comply with the rules through belief and faith in him.  I don’t even have to live up to the rules, sure I want to because I love my Father and I want to show him my love by following his commands, as well I don’t want my Father to discipline me.  See the freeing part of my faith is that I realize that I never can and never could live up the standards of God’s Perfection.  That is why, out of his unequivocal love for me he came and fulfilled all the rules so that if I simply put my faith hope in trust in that completed work, I am viewed as wearing Christ’s righteousness.  Yes, I said it, God looks upon me, this simple, inadequate man and he sees the characteristics of Christ “covering” my sinful existence.  He sees me washed clean by the payment of his sacrifice on the cross, he has forgiven me simply for my faith in his plan for my redemption and return to good standing in his kingdom.

This is not complicated, you are using that as an excuse to avoid, ignore, defy or justify your anger that God gets to make the rules in the world he created.  Don’t you get to make the rules in your home?  If you are the boss at work don’t you expect those who you employ to follow your rules.  Certainly they may choose to ignore them at their own detriment, but the rules are still the rules, right?  It is not complex to imagine a Holy and Righteous God who sets a standard for his creation and then enforces those directives.  The amazing thing about our God, and frankly the thing that astounds even his angels, is that he cared enough to provide a way to escape the penalty of our disobedience.  How is that complicated, how is that possible that God would love me that much that he would give me a way out of my own wickedness?  How could he possibly look past my own disobedience, my own failures, if I would simply own them, confess them and receive the forgiveness accorded those children who accept the simple gift of God’s Grace and Mercy?  Praise Him because of who He is.  Praise him for the simplicity of an escape plan that frees me from the poison of my own sin.  Praise Him because He is “Simply God and I am simply not.”  In Jesus Name.

I am not the keeper of all wisdom, God is.  Go to him or to his word if you want the whole truth and nothing but the truth.  Try as I might part of me always gets in the way of my perfect dissemination of that truth.  That does not mean that I am being willfully disobedient, just that this humanity clings to me in such a way that I can feel its weight upon my thinking and conversation.  If that is the case that my humanity gets in the way of my spiritual works in spreading the Gospel, then it is by definition an enemy to my walk.  Prepared with this understanding how then do I say to anyone with confidence that my advice is better than their own conclusive decision making or discernment from the Voice of God

It isn’t.  Face it self, if you could have done this the Lord never had to travel from heaven to become a man and finish that to which I was ill intended.  Self help, self actualization, higher self, supreme self are all the same descriptive phrase that bid us win the battle with our own will.  My self is not capable of achieving what my spirit calls me toward.  If you are recommending I go into spiritual battle armed with the weapons of self-actualization, you are sending a sheep to slaughter, unarmed, ill-equipped, destined for failure and un-fulfillment.  I will not be led by satan’s siren called to try to win a spiritual battle with my worldly resolve, power or will.  This is the greatest fool’s errand, perpetrated by fool’s or those who have you be one.

I will not recommend, lead you into or direct you toward a spiritual battle unless you are armed, prepared and educated as to the weaponry of the battlefield upon which you will capture victory.  Go first with God, the knowledge of God, a relationship with God for it is HE that wins any spiritual battle engaged by believers.  If you think you are going to win with your own powers then you are a witch, sorcerer or worse yet completely misinformed.  Only satan’s minions utilize personal power on the spiritual battlefield for they are using his power given them for a short while until he consumes everyone and everything out his lust for power and dominion over all.  The Lord Jesus rebuke him and send him to the abyss if he so chooses.  If you are looking to be powerful know this you are setting yourself up as an enemy of God, for satan shares nothing but pain, deception and destruction.

That is all the attention need given the enemy for even evil serves the Lord’s Good Plan.You want victory, find Christ.  You want salvation and forgiveness, honor your relationship with Jesus.  You want power to overcome this world and everything in it, go to Christ who has already done so.  This is not an exercise, a feel good pep rally designed to give you chills until they wear off by Wednesday.  This is the Word of God and the Word of God is Jesus, the spoken Power of Creation and the rightful King of All.  Stay away from self-help if you truly want healing go to the Master Physician himself who died so that we might be healed of “ALL” our ills.  Stay away from self-help, do the greatest thing any one of us can to help ourselves and that is surrender control over our lives to the Mighty, Caring, Deft and Divine hand of God.  All wisdom comes from God so the people writing those books, pushing those seminars and showing examples of the Golden Calf to which you may dedicate your passions have either taken their knowledge from the Bible or from the enemy.  Do you want the copy or the King.

Be cautious, be careful but live in the abundant Joy that only comes from Christ.

What are you chasing?  I mean what feeds your passions?  What consumes your day?  Are you pursuing; worries, things, conquest, a burgeoning 401K or do you seek a lasting relaxation period? Someone reminded me this morning that we all look through our own lens and typically my perspective is always right.  Sorry that leaves you in a position less than right, notably wrong or misguided so that I may lead you to the light of my greater understanding.  Frankly, I don’t know any better than the next guy, but the Lord’s Word is Righteous, Perfect, Immovable and the only trusted source upon which we may establish a reflection for our lives.  So go to the Word when you seek correction, justification or understanding, unlike me it is never wrong.

Where does God fit in your list of priorities?  Please be honest for there were few things that upset Jesus more than hypocrisy.  I mean he gave us the law as a mirror so that we might see that it is impossible to live up to God’s standards, and though we should try out of love for him, it is only the Work of Christ through which any of have or will be saved.  I didn’t do that, that work on Calvary, Christ did.  He came that I might be redeemed to him and be free of the spiritual and real prisons associated with sinful man.  Does that just sound like good philosophical writing or do you truly believe that you have been set free?  If you truly believe that, then you must turn to God for direction in all things, believing as the Bible teaches that he has purchased you back from your slavemaster with Righteous Blood given freely as propitiation.  I know that is a big word, but it is just a complicated way of saying, he paid your slave master’s fee and now you belong to him for he took the death each of us deserved and gave us “LIFE”.

Are you living that abundant life he died for or are you merely existing, waiting until the next thing comes along?  This life is awesome if you believe that it is, for all things are found in faith.  If you are faithful that your life sucks then suck it will.  Free will is the power to make up your own mind and own those decisions.  God gave us free will so that we might choose him freely.  Make the free will choice you have been empowered through creation to make for yourself.  Choose life, choose eternity, choose joy in Christ in this life and the next.  In Jesus’ Mighty Name.  Amen.