If you want me to know, I don’t.  If you want me to do something about it, I cannot.  If you are looking to me for anything other than love, prayer and encouragement, I got nothing.  If you expect me to somehow be filled with answers, guidance, prayers, good feeling, good tidings and cash, guess what you are most likely and most often setting yourself up for disappointment.  I was an empty cup and continue to be an empty cup without the pure water of God’s Holy Gospel and Spirit. Oh how sweet, cool, fulfilling and refreshing.  I cannot give that to you either, but my friend this is your lucky day, because I know how you can get that right now.

Here’s the ticket.  Humble yourself and pray to God that He forgive you of your sins and have Jesus come into your life, filling you with His Everlasting Spirit, cleansing you of unrighteousness, permanently sealing you for eternity spent with a Holy God and setting you firmly on the path to sanctification and glorification.  Oh and here’s the greatest part, you get the Holy Spirit here on earth, to empower, teach, guide, prompt, counsel, convict and grow you to the point where you are ready to spend eternity with a Holy and Righteous Lord.  You did that, Hooray for the Lord and joy to you.  The angels are rejoicing at that news.

What’s next?  Well don’t expect it all to be peaches and pralines, for now some of the tough part begins.  But now you have the hope of Christ living within you to overcome anything that may come your way.  First you’re going to feel a bit odd, not they dressed me in funny clothes and sent me to my first day of school across town odd, but sort of like that.  The Lord is going to begin cleansing you of past pain and unrighteous behavior, setting you free of sin.  He will need to be a participant in this process, because he is going to be asking for the keys to those rooms that you keep hidden and dark, with a big sign that says, “Keep out, Especially You”.  The Lord wants to set you free of the hold of sin and the pain of wickedness done in the dark.  Trust me it’s refreshing and uplifting.  Then the real fun begins, the Lord begins to make of you a new person, the person he meant you to be to fulfill your specific purpose for His plan for humanity.  Yes, that means no more loneliness, no more lack of purpose in your life or feeling like you just don’t matter, because you do.

By the Greatest part of all of this is that you get to have a relationship with Jesus.  That’s right you get to know and spend time with the Creator of this and every planet.  He loves you I hope you know and that is why He made this all possible, so that He could be near you for the rest of time.  That’s right this is an eternal relationship.  Right now, He is calling me to prayer for you and for the other great things or difficulties that others are experiencing.  So I have to go, but remember if you need me, I can offer prayer, love and encouragement, for the rest you have the new benefit of going to Him.  “He will provide for all of your needs according to His riches and glory in Christ Jesus”.  Wow, who can beat that.  In Jesus Name I pray for your blessed moment of salvation this day.  Be at Peace.

The hurricane was a modifying factor driving rain, and wind, lightning, force and fire to clarify my reason and torture the truth to the surface of understanding.  You see, I hide truth within me, carefully compartmentalized that I might obfuscate, conceal or stash it away from my consciousness to be used as excuse for misunderstanding or disobedience.  I am after all accountable for direction handed down to me especially when it came from on High.

What did it provide me this clarifying episode, forcing me from hiding, driving me from my hobby hole where the false security of kings resides?  Dashed my perception, destroyed my efficacy, adequacy and illusory self adaptation.  I was lain bare not only for public viewing but unfortunately naked to self realization.  Fallen on my knees but still holding myself aloft avoiding the glorious humility of destruction.  It was lost, this plan, this failed plan of my own doing.  Thankfully God had once again loved me enough to overwhelm me in the wrestling match I repeatedly picked with him, instead of popping my hip or worse yet casting me down to my own deserved ignorance.

A chance arose.  The opportunity for awareness.  Awareness of a new temperature, a new form and seal.  Sealed with the promise of something beyond my current capacity.  The capacity limited by my own constraints and imagination.  My imagination was surpassed in God’s divine authority and direction.  Choosing not only direction but timing, attitude, progression, provision and reason.  The reasons for it still unveiling.  Lain clear for all to see that they are not of my own making.  That my creative talents failed years prior and now I am a man made solely for the purpose and pleasure of Almighty God. Praise Him for the hurricane, to set me free from my own imaginary prison.

Pray for me Ap Chaterjee

To the God who honors bended knee

Who made every house, hawk and tree

And lives here inside of me

He came to set all men free

Gave his life unreservedly

Just to walk with you and me

That all men might live to be free

What then of you and me

When we fail to see what he’d have us be?

Me choosing whom I ought to be

Refraining from wisdom’s treasury

Again I say to pray for me

Imprisoned with the facts you see

Disguising truth distractedly

To hide among the hill and tree

For better deals purportedly

Of gods and gold and filigree

Fools passion and false pandery

Don’t lie and say it’s good for me

Can’t walk away so easily

From the promise of eternity

My lie is clear as it will be

I’ve left the path where God will be

So pray for me Ap Chaterjee

To know the place that right for me

And I pray for thee as did for me

That You’ll be there with me

On bended knee

How did sin change when you became a Christian?  The answer is, it didn’t, you did.  How then do we view sin now that the relationship has changed?  Should we ignore it?  Make light of it?  Do we have to set up special precautionary measures designed to keep us from sin?  Should we be overly concerned about it such that it rules our existence attempting to cache and avoid sin?  Should we have little preoccupation with sin in the Church, maybe even refraining from teaching on sin awareness and such?  Do we view sin as a problem for other people, that we are somehow immune to its effects, temptations and marring influences?

The consideration or view that “my sin is my problem” is wholly imperfect.  My sin is the world’s problem and the worlds’ my own.  We either get there together or we don’t get there.  This trip is not about me but all mankind, for it was for all men that Christ died.  If I take the central view that if I have my salvation all is determined then I have perhaps enacted my greatest sin of all, not loving those who have yet to answer the call to salvation.  It is for them that I continue to die to self each day not simply for self-edification.  The concept of serving self is a worldly, fleshly perspective and when I see those vestiges of self focus show up I am generally embarked on the broad avenue or a lonely path without God’s direction.

I remain focused upon my sin so that I may repent and then learn from which I hole I must refrain from further foot fall.  It is not about committing and committing and committing the same sin in perpetuity for what then has Christ died and resurrected?  Sanctification is the prerogative of each maturing Christian, we must choose to turn from that which is unrighteous and how may I turn from and opportunity that I have yet to determine or discern is unpleasing to God?  Knowing God’s Word gives us a path to place our feet without snare and though we are prone to tread in the same mud, often times up to our knees and repeatedly, it is the hope of God’s indwelling guidance that directs us to the next step in our maturation for Christ.

Pay attention to your sin, pay attention to the sins of your family, friends and colleagues that you might avoid their impact upon your own life and at the appropriate moment give them the milk or meat of God’s divine intervention to help them avoid the same snare once again.  This is the training ground.  When did anyone ever graduate the training ground without learning the lessons intended by the Plan.  I believe in God’s faithful hand and His promise to complete the work he once began in each of us, but that doesn’t mean that I am unwitting participant.  I love my teacher and try my best to follow his lead and learn from his counseling hand.  Trust God, Know Jesus and Follow the Holy Spirit as guide.

Father, they’ve counseled all my life to adapt my message to the audience, now only now do I see why even as a child I emphatically disagreed.  They wish a customized message designed to tickle their ears and entreat their desire for comfort, pleasure and an agreeable life.  My song is within my heart, not theirs.  My song is for you, to bring Glory to Your Holy Name, never designed to offend, but by nature in this world there are those who will dislike, disagree and attempt control over everything that we do.  I have a message of Christ’s Grace, Mercy, Power, Provision, Intention and Plan.  It is not a message meant to be offered for appreciation, it is a dutiful message of warning and powerful acclaim.  It is a message of hope and fear.  It is wise beyond my abilities for it is His Message and I am merely man.  I am incapable of adjusting it, changing it, conforming it, delivering it in a “better” way, more sensitive to the audience or pandering to the applause of others.  I am God’s Man and if I say anything wrong or incorrect, believe me you that he will discipline me for so doing.  My job is delivery, not talent, not fortitude, not beauty or wondrous entertaining content.  My job is to love you enough to tell you the greatest message that you will ever hear in the time for you to make the most important decision you will ever make.  My job is to love.

Am I constrained by time or does it provide holistic measure of how well I work within it?  Is it my friend, giving me pointers, reminders and limits while I plod headlong toward eternity?  Is it the door waiting to slam shut upon the enemy, ending his divisive reign on the Earth that was meant for man?  Is time holding back the Lord’s Wrath, tick tocking its way toward the end of patience?  Kindly going second by second to give us the moments necessary to make that choice.  Is time my friend? I think so and remember the preciousness of life is wrapped within those moments and memories we’ve spent together.

When time refused to progress it was offering the chance to accept the Holy Spirit’s provision of patience.  When it sped by forcing me to catch my breath and accelerate, it made me learn, listen, test the air with an acuity of mind.  When it stood still it let me bask in the moments of love, life and the whispered love filled instances that last forever.  When it checked me it made me precise, timely and mature.  When it refused to roll back it provided me the essence of humanity, that each moment is golden and may not be recovered only remembered.  It made me love them more and more as they grew, forcing me to change my tune, learn a new dance, run or fly.  Time was my friend in growth.

Time is now again showing its friendship providing the evidence of imminency.  Whispering to pay the price of awareness, tasting, savoring, utilizing the remaining days, hours, weeks and moments to pour out my love and obedience toward God.  After all, at the end, time will have reached 0 and I will have reached Infinity.  My friend time will have run out and I will live forever, it will have launched me in to my real life.

Will I thank God for time, establishing the boundaries of lifetime, forcing us to reality in approaching death?  Yes, I think there is one more asset for which I must offer God praise.  Thank you Lord for making me mortal, that I might taste the breath, food, love, fear and hope of limited existence and pronounce it “glorious”.  Breathe in the deep cool breaths of winter, remembering its chill as we head to the searing heat of an inescapable summer knowing this too shall pass.  Love God and enjoy Life for Time is jogging beside you reminding you that there has never been much of it left.  In Jesus’ Name I pray that you rejoice in contentment at all that you’ve been given and anticipate with excitement the things yet to come.

So many unwilling to step in to the waiting arms of Christ.  Keeping their arms to their sides they fear intimacy’s dangerous implications.  Wounded, forgotten, chastened and changed by an unloving world they deny themselves love, the love necessary to getting over the pain of past loss.  I get it, having suffered the un-indulging grief of a luke-warm world.  But shutting down the sensors is insufficient solution to the need for care, love and the absent embrace of a loving Father.

I am not afraid of needing love.  This requirement makes me human, the knowledge of that need alerts me to my deprived position and the embrace of Almighty God provides solution.  Yes, I care if you love me and if you don’t it does sadden me so, because we were meant for each other and designed to share this life in love and circumstance.

However, without the love of humans I am sustained by the Love of Christ.  I know that is an arduous concept for the human mind because it purports the intangible as answer for a supposed material problem, but love is not material it is ethereal.  How do we know we are loved?  I mean, there is no proof of love, it is simply, like life its own proof.  There are signs of life and signs of love that undeniable, yet we cannot physically touch life or taste love yet they supposedly can “fill” us up.  How then is it possible to be filled by the Love of God?

Explaining the inexplicable, touching the air, packaging thought or seeing nothing.  Must we have proof of all that exists in order for it to exist, or will this undefined componentry somehow compel, pester at the mind until resolved?  How far away is the other side of the universe, if in fact it is not a mobius construct?  We honesty don’t know, but does that mean that it doesn’t exist or that I must go there in order for me to resolve its existence?  Love is real, I need it and God gives unconditionally.  Simple Logic then to go to the source for embrace.  I don’t doubt or need to prove God’s love, I simply embrace it and am filled.

Weird how some things don’t need my definition for them to be real and work just right.  In God I Trust.  May you be embraced by the Loving Mighty Arms of God, today.  Be filled in the Spirit of the Lord.  In Jesus’ Name

I shall not be moved from the Rock of Ages, but I shall be moved off the couch of my complacency into action for the Kingdom Of God.  I shall not be moved if God bid me stand still but when He calls my chocks are up, my engines forward and my wheels up.  What then of solidity, foundation, roots, re-bar and pylons?  These things are mobile and may be quickly removed and replaced in the next appropriate place for battle or refresh.  You see, passing through, means just that.

How have we been trained for this moment in time?  Has the Lord made you ready for action, prepared, mobile, active and rehearsed?  Or has He planted you firmly in the foundation of the village, a buoy for the mooring of those drifting, a lightning rod to reroute the overwhelming assaults of creation?  Has He placed you for the time being to grow so that you might be placed in the field to reap souls aplenty?  Without the question we have no corresponding answer?  What questions are you asking of yourself?  That is strange man you asked me question about a question.  That hurts my brain, please refrain.  Okay, have you been standing still or doing some job just to pay bills or for personal reasons when you know God has been calling you to the Ministry Field?

Can’t put it any clearer.  Oh, that hurts your brain too, but for different reason.  You don’t ask God for His Will for your life because that is the best method of avoiding surrender, to never ask how or what He wants in exchange.  I get it we all have developed effective coping mechanisms, this appears to be your moment for reflection.  Unless of course you would like to ignore or avoid this moment, in which case, go back to sleep, sorry for interrupting your slumber.  Nope, Repent, Make Straight Your Path for the Kingdom of God IS HERE!

I understand my anointing, have you spoken to God about yours?  Don’t you think it is late enough in the game to get off the bench and into the game?  If you don’t know what position you are to play, where are you going to fit into the team when placed on the field, if not today then some quiet afternoon in June?  I love you too much to leave you benched for the biggest game of the final season of the last year of our franchise.  What you say this might be the countdown to eternity?  Of course, and if you feel like ignoring it don’t you want me to love you enough to tase you, throw cold water on you or pound on the door of your chambers bid you be ready for Messiah’s return for the Church?  You matter too much to God for me to be concerned about your upset at my bold intervention.  We both want to see you in God’s presence at rapture, so pick up your helmet and charge the field, giving it your best for our King.

In Jesus’ holy Name.

To all who have made this year as productive as it could be in the Lord, I am so grateful.  Without your help I would not have been capable of spending the minutes I have been graced to use spreading the Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ the King.  I am humbled by your assistance, buoyed by your support and my reach has been significantly extended by your prayers and encouragement.  The words are insufficient though they are the only mechanism beside action to demonstrate my love and appreciation for all of you.  I pray that my actions following these words express my love for you in a greater manner than my speech.

Forgive me for my shortcomings.  We both see them as if they are big red buttons on my forehead.  I appreciate you never mentioning them, or seldom mentioning in the case of those who have kept me honest and aware.  These are the things we do for each other and for those things you have done for me I am truly grateful.  Thank you for loving me, overlooking my foibles and treating with a fair hand.  That is the example of unconditional love that the Lord told us to share.  I thank you for being obedient in your loving me, I know it has not always been easy, so I offer my special gratitude.

What is next for this body we’ve become?  What horizons shall we ponder, what valleys will we harvest and which mountains shall we traverse in our conversations with God?  How many souls will come to Christ this coming year because we are firmly set in that sweet spot of God’s incredible Will for our lives?  How great the well of love within our own hearts for surrendering to that call and being provided a store of that overwhelming Spirit?  What shall our year end review look like in three hundred and sixty five more days?  Do we have that many days left?  I don’t know but what I do know is that I will be truly blessed in the greatest possible fashion to spend each and every one with you.  May the Lord richly bless you in Spirit, Love, Provision, Passion and Safety throughout 2019.  With all my love in the Great Name of Jesus I pray.  Happy New Year.

Once a year we reflect and ponder what has gone and what is to come.  What did you gain this year?  What was lost?  How many wounds were suffered and healed?  How many days spent in laughter, prayer, sickness or remembrance?  Who did you meet?  Who did you send off into the Lord’s Will?  How many new friends came calling?  Where did you move or how did you grow in the place God has planted you?  What was turned on and how many things were removed for lack of productive input or outcome?  How was your walk?  How many miles did you travel for Christ?  Do you remember or wish to forget?  It all matters not just the good stuff for life is a buffet not a plate prepared.  Did you get filled or spend time feeling empty?

Are you ready for tomorrow’s delivery?  What were your prayers?  Did you write them down in expectation of answer or deliverance?  How might love change you in the coming days, weeks, months and year?  How healthy is your heart?  Are you in disrepair from yesteryear?  Have you waited upon God and been renewed, refreshed, filled with hope, potency and potential?  Are you celebrating and if so then what?  How many children smile at the mention of your name, the sound of your voice or the sight of your face?  How many days does the Lord have to wait until you get around to the work He has presented you?  Do you have a resolution?  Do you take your vows seriously or do you need to reinvest toward objectives?  Upon which dreams are you wishing?  Have you built a stockpile of contentment?  It this an end or a beginning?

Who is Christ to you?  Do you act like you believe that statement?  Are you found among those ready, operating and doing the work of harvest or will you be found among those in the darkness, weeping and gnashing teeth?  What is your purpose?  Have you asked or hoped he wouldn’t tell you until you finished your current plan?  Where is the Body of Christ in your itinerary, your priorities and your forgiveness roster?  Who gets your attention God, the back yard, your boss, husband/wife or dog?  Is this going to be your best year yet?  Will you live it like it’s your last or as if it could be?  Where is your focus on the world, the funds, the house, the car or skyward waiting for his return?  Has he given you balance or have you asked?  What would you ask Him for if you only had one prayer remaining?

My prayer is for you to hear and obey His direction for your life and that I might be asked to encourage and support you in its achievement.  In Jesus’ Name