I have not experienced true loss yet I am consistently tempted to claim things are too difficult for me to handle.  Which is challenged directly by the knowledge in my heart that the Lord will bring about whatever He wishes to happen even if it requires that I be given energy or abundance beyond my personal capacity. “If the Lord be for me who than can be against me?”  That so famously quoted line of the Bible clearly depicts the confidence of the “True” believer, filled with the knowledge that no power may surpass the will of God.  If I then doubt my achievement is it perhaps that I have embarked on some mission of personal intention?  Or maybe that I really do not believe this Bible which I clearly state is the inerrant Word of Almighty God written by the Holy Spirit through the pen of select men.

I am not challenged to life and limb, nor the loss of child or even with a absence of food, clean water or shelter from storm.  In fact, I am down right blessed to be sitting at this computer with the freedom to write about the God who shines upon me.  What then is the nature of my false melancholy, forcing me to write about my dispassionate discord, fretting and flirting with shadows and despair of which I have little understanding or regard?  There must then be some perceived loss, or impoverished nature which causes me to pine about a loss which has not occurred.  Or perhaps it is a fleshly ego which wishes that all were about me.  That all things ran the circumference of my orbit and that every path led to my own acquisition of fulfillment.  Maybe there is an interested party who delights in my despair and sponsors my regret and shadowed thinking?  Someone that would personally benefit from my self-destruction, and eagerly awaits, even dispatching soldiers designed to aide me in my failed perception.

You see I am blessed and my eyes are on all the good things, pure, beautiful, righteous and true.  I maintain my gaze upon Jesus, whether on the hill praying, asleep in the confines of the boat or even those tortured hours on the cross.  That is my destiny.  There is no loss here that can deprive me of Glory and eternity with Him.  It may only be limited by my willing or unwitting capitulation to false pride and despair.  I will not give that enemy of my reward and joy at seeing me limit what God has intended.  Give me all that you have planned for me Lord.  Let me be ever conscious of Your protection and continued blessings.  I will not despair, it is simply not a feeling for a man of Christ.  But if I should alight there Lord as an unsuspecting sparrow, please shew me away so that I may fly from Your outstretched hand.  Praise You Lord God my Father in the name of the perfect Son that you gave to free me from the prison of my own sin and despair.  Jesus, Sweet Jesus.  King of Everything.  Amen.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/16/sayeeda-warsi-protection-christians_n_4284804.html  Read what the first Muslim cabinet member to Parliament says about Christianity in the Middle East.  What will persecution spell for the future of the church?  Find the answers by seeing what the Bible says will happen.

If I continue to focus on my self I will never reach them.  So many say that they cannot hear your voice Father, that I know this is Laodicea.  And I understand their predicament, but it is just like a fat man who knows that the weight is killing him.  You have to take the necessary steps to correct the problem, the deficiency, absence or loss. In our case it is opening the door so that Jesus may enter the church.  In this period where we have estranged Him, forgotten Him and excluded Him from our services the strangest thing is that we do not mourn his absence.  We go right on parading as if nothing were out of place, but I see the pain in people’s eyes.  I hear their voices filled with depression, fear, violence and regret.  Most of all I hear, “I do not know God’s will for my life.”  This is the greatest evidence of the largest problem, yet what I hear in response is denial.

Lord I hear your voice and I know that if I remain obedient in the small things that you will show me greater directions.  I ask you Lord, Holy Spirit to come into the churches of this world and show us what we have been missing.  Fill us with the desire to do what you have created and commanded us to do.  I used to pray, Father give me the sensitivity and the sufficient word to break through the ice surrounding their hearts.  But, this was my misunderstanding of the times in which we reside for I am not facing the frozen church but rather, the luke-warm church.  So my prayer is that the fire of the Holy Spirit be sparked where before their was just superficiality and sentimentality.  Let their tears be of joy for their risen Lord.

It burdens me so Father, and I repent that I get discouraged when I cannot reach them to understand their calamity.  If I cannot even get them to admit that there is a problem then I will never be able to describe a visit to the Cross as solution.  Give me that hope and provide me sufficiency where I lack in performing your will.  I hear you Lord in those things that you want me to do and I will get about your business.

What must an obese man do to rid himself of burden.  He must do the logical thing and restrict his eating, consume the right kinds and quantities of food and get some healthy exercise.  Yet the logical steps mean nothing without the commitment and discipline to begin, continue and complete those logical steps.  It is the same with under/unfed Christianity.  We must first be selective in what we eat and consume only the food of God’s word, forgoing the song of the world and the promise of temporary satisfaction.  We must be hungry for righteousness and truth filling our heads and then writing upon our hearts the Spirit of God’s intention.  Then we must exercise our prerogative to tell people about Jesus and help the sick, tired and alone.  Though none of this will happen without first accepting the commitment to do the Lord’s work and the courage to disciple for the distance because His return is imminent and the time is ripe.

Lord without you completion of this work is beyond my ability.  Thank you for being with me and allowing me the opportunity to tell folks about Your Love.  Praise Your name Father through Jesus.

“See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes.  He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and that hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse.”  Malachi 4:5-6

When I read old testament passages like this there is nothing within me that disputes this is with regard to the second coming of Jesus.  Additionally it also makes obvious the mistakes that Jewish believers have made in interpretation of the signs.  They heard this and believed that since Elijah must come before the great day of the Lord that when John the Baptist said he was not Elijah they mistakenly believed that Jesus could not be King.  They unfortunately did not correctly interpret prophets like Isaiah who spoke of the suffering savior who must absorb beatings for our iniquity.  They were unfortunately naive to the scripture identifying two separate “comings” of the messiah.  I mourn for them in their misunderstanding that the savior came and died so that we might be free and will come again to exercise judgment and to collect the faithful.

Faith in the son of God is all that it takes to escape the great day of the Lord of which so many of the prophets foretell.  Missing the entire purpose of the Son of God coming to the earth to rid the world of the sins of mankind invalidates nearly all of the importance of the Gospel message.  Without his sacrifice there is no salvation, without his resurrection there is no escape of death and no access to Glory’s Gate and without the Holy Spirit to seal each believer there is no delivery from God’s mounting wrath.  What great things He has done, but they are all just miracles and intrigue without understanding of the Plan of Grace designed to redeem us and create a new relationship with God free from the stain of original sin.  The angels see the plan and are awestricken.  The Jews don’t see the plan and for this they continue to suffer under the hand of the wicked.  But oh what a glorious God that He shall not forget or withdraw the promises that He gave to their Fathers.  The Jewish people have always been and will continue to be blessed by Almighty God for His Good Pleasure.  Woah to those who plan or execute against them for they shall meet God forthwith.

I do not know the identity of the two faithful witnesses who will come before the Great Day of the Lord our God.  I do think that it is curious that Moses and Elijah are both mentioned in the last two paragraphs of the end of the Old Testament.  Could they perhaps be the witnesses sent to declare the Gospel to a Jewish Nation?  No one knows and do not let them tell you that they do.  This I do know, the stage has been fully set and the actors are either in the wings or taking their positions.  I do not know when the Lord will come or when He plans to enact judgment, but I do know that He said that He would come and on that promise I reside earnestly waiting with my gaze heavenward for the coming of our Lord Jesus, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  Amen.

He made it for us to live out to His Glory.  God breathed life into dirt and called him man.  A simple thing yet more complex than all the science, known or unknown, in the universe.  And in this man God imparted spirit and likeness, goodness, kindness, mercy and love.  Making man a custodian of creation, having grand responsibility for growth, life and charm.  God, loving this man so much, custom designed a helper from one of the man’s ribs, someone who was part of him yet had the power to rescue him from his simplicity.  Ever wonder how someone in paradise, perfectly paired, carrying on direct conversations with God could be susceptible to discontent?

Our dependence cannot be upon self or we open ourselves up the same “Garden” susceptibility.  Our free will is a gift that does not shield us from the opportunity to make disastrous choices.  We may either exercise that gift in pursuit of God and all that is holy or we may choose the things of self and man’s manufactured reality.  God permits this out of a love I still cannot fathom.  What is more He tells us in advance exactly the cost of such decision.

I do not wish to leave the Garden, I would be happy tending creation.  I do not wish to be God or rise above my perceived “station”.  Happiness in my simplicity.  That is not to say that I do not see the machinations within my own spirit yearning to express their independence.  I just choose to find shelter in God and be protected from those disastrous choices that men call “freedom”.  There is no freedom away from God only slavery to thought, lust and hunger for more.

I am happy serving God.  To many this also appears a depth to far to measure.  My freedom is perfectly exercised within the shelter of God’s sovereignty and dominion.  This is a statement that rocks reality, for they perceive surrender to God as loss of personal liberty.  The opposite is truth.  God withholds no good thing from those who walk with Him in righteousness.  It is easy to make good choices when all choices lead to goodness and righteous deed.

We have been framed by this world and its false sense of emancipation.  My lust for more will never fulfill my spirit.  Thankfully, God has provided a door, a single door, set in place to provide transliteration to a new dimension free from the mistakes and temptations which man entered by leaving God’s protection.  This door, this path, this shepherd is in the person of the Lord, Jesus Christ, who gave His life to buy back our vended future.  Again, this is the day and what lay before us another free will choice.  He lays before us this choice, out of complete love, allowing us to decide between freedom and life under the shelter of Almighty God or slavery and suffering under the fool’s gold of humanity and darkness.  Choose well, choose life and freedom.  Choose Jesus Christ the King.  Amen.

Oh wretched man as I look up to the Cross and see the pain I’ve caused Him as He shouldered my wickedness.  Something broke inside of me, cracked, irreparable by worldly surgery.  Then I was forced to look again and realized My God was no longer there, on that tree, that statue raised in remembrance of His sacrifice, His Kingship, Glory and Love.  He had born the sins of the world and taken back our future, purchasing us with His cleansing blood.  You see it is the blood that we cannot withstand, for it represents the gift of life to us and to those who cannot see it is foolishness.

My God is not there on that cross, He has gone home to prepare a place for us so that we may be with Him throughout eternity.  And while we wait we see the brutal misgivings of a world that will not accept the gift of His grace.  A world that refuses purification through repentance, belief and faith.  He is seated bearing witness to the Father, silencing the accuser about those for whom He made an impossible sacrifice.  My name has come up in that Holy place.  To think that I am known to the Maker of this and every universe shatters whatever resolve remained.  I am no longer broken, I have been made anew, built of the stuff that only gets better with age.  He is waiting up there until we are ready and have fulfilled our responsibility so that no one is left without the opportunity to hear and accept the truth.  For that is How much He loves all of us.

On the cross He paid the price, now He waits for all to come to Him.  These gifts are beyond my comprehension.  Creation, abundance, life, sacrifice and the greatest for me to understand, patience.  He waits so that eyes may be opened and hearts made free and alive.  Lord let me love them and have patience for them as You have.  Give me a vision of Your Love for us that would cause You to go to such lengths to preserve each and every one of us.  Let the healing You have done in me give me compassion and understanding for all the other broken souls I encounter on my march to that faithful day.  That faithful day when I get to fall at Your feet and tell You how much I love You.  Glory to You.  King Jesus.

http://www.wnd.com/2013/11/prophecy-scholar-america-at-crossroads/ At the least this requires a short read and a long thought.

How can I help Father?  What particular situation is custom designed for my testimony, my talents, my hand as it is directed by your Spirit?  Is there something that I do particularly well, that I have always been gifted through Spirit to be specifically effective in its accomplishment?  Or am I to guided to a circumstance where you will ask me to take a leap of faith to demonstrate my willingness to serve when it costs the totality of self?  I see that it is less about knowing your will then being watchful and ready to act when your plan confronts me.  Teach me to have greater discernment about your prompting.

What then shall I do in the meantime Father?  Shall I mark time marching in place wearing a path or rut beneath my feet as I wait to be deployed for action?  Shall I ponder my worth until the enemy sponsors thoughts of inadequacy leading to darkness, self-loathing and depression?  Are there actions that I may take now that would put me in a place of preparedness, readiness and position to be especially useful at a time of calling?  I see that there are always people to be fed, loved, clothed, sheltered, taught and encouraged, even when it is not the time of my greatest testing, I must remember that I am not the only saint intertwined with your Will.  Perhaps there is one person I may meet today who has either never heard of Jesus, needs a deeper understanding or is ready to make a decision for eternity.  Teach me to see that one person who may need a kind word.

Why then do we wait so long Father?  Is it so that this travesty may play itself out, consuming, losing its energy through entropy until the entire mechanism teeters to standstill?  Why does evil prevail, and how can deception have so much authority over the minds of men that they are willing to kill and die for foolishness?  How can so many defy reason to torture others in the name of some political or urban campaign?  What hope is there in such faith place in evolution and the survival of the fittest?  I see now that this is the perfect environment for people to realize that the only hope in this world is Jesus.  We have been chosen to lead them to the truth by showing them the light of the world through our own eyes, hearts, love and testimony for You Father.  Teach me shine your light in dark places.

When I begin my critique of our current representatives there is so much valid  information regarding their shortcomings that it is easy for me to justify offering them poor regard.  Then the lump in my throat fights back my words of reprimand as I recall who and how I have represented the Lord as ambassador.  I have no ground upon which to stand and chastise others for their poor service to citizen, flag, country or queen as I have repeatedly failed in a far more important duty to Christ.

Perhaps, my security may be found in statements or justifications that we have both failed therefore it is within my burden that I also point our the frailty of others.  Nope, that doesn’t fly, because the beam in my own eye still remains as I inspect the splinter or fleck in that of my Brother.  Momentarily I perceive freedom from my mental burden and shame as I see the good intent of my own heart, feeling that somehow what makes our leaders wrong is because they are filled with malcontent.  Then of course my remorse increases as I remember that it is not my place to judge the motivations of men but to love them.  And in this instance I must paste myself delinquent in telling them of coming judgment and how to find solace in the Lord.

Is there an excuse which may relieve me of this personally ascribed burden of sin matching?  Unfortunately there is, in that same forgiveness offered to all of mankind, called “grace”.  I myself may avail myself of grace, especially now that I have believed and placed my faith in Christ Jesus.  But I must face facts, whatever I do whether for self or through salvation are both in the Lord’s hands for neither may I rebuke myself for inaction or poor action nor may I reward myself for bringing glory to God through works, word and deed.  It is for Him alone to judge this world and all that is in it, including moi.  Though I think I will give my representatives a bit of a break now that I have seen my own wretched hypocrisy.  The Lord told me to love them and tell them the Gospel truth, beyond that it just isn’t in my area of authority or responsibility.  The burden of working out my own salvation with fear and trembling is more than enough for me.

Praise God in all His Glory, declaring the Mighty Name of Jesus.

Recalling, focusing and remembering where the Lord found me when I cried out.  There is no turning back regardless of mishap or mistake.  I am his for the duration and my faith, security, strength, hope and destiny lay in the Lord’s hands.  The only difference between me and the guy we refer to as lost is that I realize those simple facts.  I serve a sovereign God, who is free to change me, shape me or sit me on the bench if I refuse to follow the game plan.  I am only disposable if I make myself so by kicking against the goads of God’s harvesting.  I have embarrassed him, ignored him, forgotten him and begged his forgiveness more times than are measurable in one conversation, but still he looks at me with those loving eyes of a proud Father.  Especially when I’ve lost the game and figure he will give me nothing but shame, he lifts me up, dusts me off and puts me back in the game reminding me who I am and who I call my Father.

There is no other place for me.  I’ve been excluded, overlooked, mistreated, taken for granted, used up and called by so many pejorative phrases that I ran out of places to attempt acceptance.  I don’t fit in anywhere but in the shadow of God’s wings.  Sure there will be a group of people filled with the spirit who see me for what I am and love me regardless.  Those I call my Brothers and they don’t belong here either.  I refuse to be upset by my lack of popularity, because my sharp edges counter the slick, sultry, spineless tactics of the world.  I will never be able to impress them, nor hide from them, his light shines through my eyes.  So, I have to figure when things get hot and they start looking for sacrifices I will probably be offered up quickly.  Lord knows half of my blood family would sell me to the Ismaelites for a good bowl of porridge.  But thanks be to the Almighty God that whatever they plan for evil he will turn to good.  Not to serve my good pleasure or to somehow make fun of them for my edification, but because he loves them so much whatever he’s got planned will win their hearts for righteousness.  You see I cannot lose.  I get to play an important role as an unknown guy, representing a God that most would give everything to know and from which others run and hide.

But days like today make me think and I know that is what he wants.  That I should encounter circumstances, pain and opportunities which make me turn to him and say, “Lord I really messed this up, and there is no visible path to recovery”.  All the time I know that after the pain, shame and abandonment subsides he will show me something tomorrow I was incapable of seeing today.  This world provides the stimuli and the Holy Spirit guides and teaches based upon the roles we must play.  Sometimes I wish that I were easier to teach though, because it appears that he has to consistently develop new methods and levels of agony to get my limited attention.  Forgive me Father for being such a poor study.  I really am getting tired of my apparent inability to get even the slightest bit smarter/wiser.  He still believes in me which causes me to get up and try again, but this time, perhaps this time I will do it under his power, his strength, his patience and authority, so that something will be done right.  Lord let me succeed in doing what you need done, once.  Praise the name of the Almighty God, the Father of Abraham, Issac and Jacob.  The creator, sustainer and lover or all.  In Jesus name.

Father I am humbled, encouraged and alarmed at all the same time.  The artillery you have sent across the bow of our Christian vehicle has seemingly created rekindling of emotion.  It is all well and good that people “feel” something when they are in a church worshiping your name, but that emotion lacks the requisite Spirit sponsored action following such encounter.  When will we stop being impotent as the Body of Christ?  Have we kept your Holy Spirit at bay for so long that he no longer lives within our vessels?  God help us if this is the case for few shall see eternity through rapture if this stands.

I pray for fire Father, Holy Fire, coming down from on High so that none can doubt your sovereignty.  I don’t want to do great things if the end result of those things fails to bring hearts to you.  I do not want to serve myself and sit back at the end of the day tabulating my accomplishments.  When this life ends I want it to have accounted for something, the only thing worth doing is bringing people to the cross where they may experience relationship with you.  There is no other success.  Father how have we quenched the Spirit in such a way as to effectively eradicate him from the church?  Please show me how to rectify this misgiving.  Without your spirit we are simply flesh.

Father don’t leave us to the non existent mercy of the flesh and some from fallen creation.  Give us Your Holy Spirit so that we may live in abundance, truth and acts of faith that free the lost, heal the sick and banish the fallen.  Father, give us back our hearts of allegiance and commitment to your word and will.  This life is a waste without my purpose and seeing the church in such a weakened state makes me shiver.  Give us hearts of obedience and surrender and let it begin with me Father.  This is the fourth watch when times are cold and dark, let your light shine in our hearts and our eyes so that this forlorn world might find shelter from the pitch of night.  In your precious name we pray Lord Jesus.

Inertia is palpable.  The calm has disappeared replaced by a noticeable race toward crescendo.  Not global warming per-say, but a measurable increase in the impact, severity and rhythm of events.  Passions cluster to prepare for collective efforts against this or that principle, policy or politic.  The warnings came, they were avoided and ignored, now perfectly selected power brokers, indwelt by the powers that would see the world tumble have been placed in positions where they seek to change the course of history.

Some have been monitoring and for their research, observation and factual recount they have been received demagoguery as prize.  Where the line of demarcation from acceptable intelligence have found single points of data socially acceptable but recognizing any trend as paranoia.  Look for yourself.  The earthquake patterns have steadily increased for the last several years both in severity and frequency.  Now they are prevalent and regular along volcanic hotspots and tectonic seams.  Egypt, Syria and Lebanon are now in crisis and the conspicuous power broker is the “Russians”.  Saudi Arabia just announced an alliance with whom, the “Russians”, decidedly backing away from a relationship with the United States.  Ferocious fires rage out of control and man’s ability to lead nations has eroded to the point where a multitude of countries, states and cities are facing financial ruin.  When will it become acceptable and evident that these occurrences all match Bible Prophecy regarding the last days, right down to the recent moves by the Catholic and Southern Baptist leadership to “tone” down the rhetoric.  Which is actually a move away from Biblical Truth as guide replaced by what, politically correct tolerance of what God called abomination.

I feel the heat that accompanies friction as two points in opposition begin to rub against each other.  The world is lining up onto two sides, those who believe and those who refuse to believe.  The Lord is beginning the warnings, birth pangs, to notify us of His intentional intervention in to worldly affairs.  Ignoring them is only a short term option for over time each of us will be involved at some level in the coming events.  The action will begin in Jerusalem, so watch the horizon for news of an assault by Israel on Iran or perhaps an attempted incursion by Israel’s neighbors to capture Jerusalem.  The field is ripe and the tipping point of ignition is coming.  Will you be standing next to the fire or in it.  Your call, come to Jesus and find rest.  Praise Almighty God for His grace, mercy and righteous judgment.