I have a pleasant home, with a pleasant family, yard properly spruced up and everyone has heard me say that I am a Christian.  I go to the well manicured church, possibly spending 4-5 hours per week between, worship, preaching and social events.  I go to work on time, get home on time and pour my glass of wine on time, never hesitating to make sure that I am listening to those around me.  I rest in God’s word, tell people about Jesus and take special care to try and stop when I see people in crisis.  The folks at work know that I go to church and they know that I have a Bible in my briefcase, sometimes they even stop to ask me an elementary question or two then scatter afraid of creating what work may label as an unexceptable conversation.  My wife loves me but here’s the problem she has recently begun chastising me in the Lord, using scripture to point out that my faith really lacks any work at all.

What do you mean?  Was my first retort, I mean didn’t she read the first paragraph?  My concept of holiness is not God’s.  My concept of surrender is very different from God’s.  My idea of service in the authority of God determines to apply the least cost, pressure or investment on my part.  And what of Christ’s imminent return for the Church, she says.  Isn’t imminent tonight and doesn’t faith require demonstration of that belief in certain things which must quickly come to pass?  How many coins did the Lord give you, she says, and that one really hurts, because I am the most blessed man.  God has openly given and given and given in my life and I sit here anxious for that grace as I know that I have absorbed and enjoyed the greatest affect of his investment.  I didn’t plant to adequate measure, water and fertilize sufficiently to produce a banner crop where God might see the increase.  I did not write the books that he put in my hands, take the trips he financed, feed the mouths that he gave me to care for, heal the sick that he wanted me to bless with his healing.  Now I read the first paragraph and weap.

The kids have forgotten Him, why?  Is it something that they have done or something that we have not done?  We know this country is in trouble and we know that Christ’s return is imminent yet we sit here, eating and drinking and being given in marriage, knowing, uncounsciously that this is the environment upon which Christ said the end would come.  We see people leaving the churches in droves yet we stand there holding open the door for them to leave counting ourselves smuggly among the occupied.  We would leave the ninety nine to go get the one but the problem is the 99 has dwindled to 50 and we are afraid to go because there would be 49.  My wife is right.  None of this stuff matters except that which Christ gave us to do in preparation of his return.  If I trust him he will take care of us providing work, clothes or food for the plowing.  Maybe just maybe there is still time for me to preach to gospel to the lost, be father to the fatherless, son to the husbandless, caretaker to the innocent, soldier on the front lines for Christ.  Now my wife has the problem, she has to determine if she is going to follow me as I follow Christ.

I can’t blame anything on anything or anyone.  Some times we look into the dark when we really meant to follow the sun.  But I wander, when I meet my sin there, as I often do, wasn’t it a meaningful rendezvous from the start.  See, I’m filled with lust so I track her bust way beyond the casual admiring auditor pent on artful commentary.  Then I focus on the cash and make repeated dash in attempt to purchase things I don’t need for people I don’t know, feeding some sense of accomplishment I don’t understand, but they like, that is I think they do as long as I am catering to their needs.  All to change reality to dream, some well purchased scheme in order to write the story myself, making myself somehow worthy, when I never was, earning something I could never earn, repaying a debt too large to pay, being forgiven for the sin upon which I have a white knuckled clutch.

Wasn’t all this given to God?  My heart, my soul, my strength, my mind and my bod.  God’s got me thinking that it’s rather odd for a Christian to be entertaining each sin.  See Grace covers and wipes out sin, so if there’s sin on my face then I substituted truth for a lie.  How can I get bye with a beam in my own eye when I’m trying to get everyone’s splinters pulled out?  How is this lust in my dreams as real as it seems when it shouldn’t even enter my mind?  Freedom is a wonderful thing but how do I know, when it doesn’t show that I even know what that word even means.  Counting up beans, and little golden good deeds, removing all the weeds with each bundle.  Earning my way, hoping to pay a price beyond any personal measure.  It was done on the cross why then do I fancy the great albatross of enlightened salvation when we can’t get to there, from here except through the DOOR and His name is Christ.  Where my thoughts, works and plans and worthless demands are shouted down by depth of my sorrow.  Delightful for me, tomorrow I see is going to hold some hopeful reckoning, but what about tonight, isn’t that all I have been given?

I love, but I cannot fit into the church as it is currently structured.  I repent that this puts me in a place of judgment where I have established myself unacceptable or the church insufficient to my determinant declaration.   But we sing without tears then go drink wine and beers, chatting about all of our fears and how we have to try and tolerate, tolerate then tolerate. While God’s Good News lingers on our tongues and our fingers that we refuse to use to muse through it wonderful pages.  I know what’s coming and I can barely get my dumb ass out of the way by remembering what it took to find salvation.  I have forgotten and perhaps you may relate to forgetting my first love.  I used to put God first in everything.  Now it would be a rare day to be in scripture upon waking, be in the Bible before News, be in the street with good shoes quickly leading to the Gospel of Peace, without the slightest worldly intent to swindle.  None of this little stuff should matter, not my tea and certainly not the mad hatter, some wonderland, go no people but those I fund, got no church except the one that I fund, got no family except the one I can tolerate, masking their sins, like ignoring the silver pin in their nose and the bobby pin their chins.  Is this going to work itself out, of that I have no doubt, because it depends not on me but on Christ.  I just thank you once again for loving me and beg your forgiveness for my repeatedly falling down on this well lighted path.

Don’t you know that I wrote it all down.  Not to be a man, looking over your shoulder.  But as he held me I couldn’t get that picture of you suffering out of the back of my mind.  He looked me in the eye and knew I was meant to find you, then you bring you round to the other side of the cross.  I didn’t know that His grasp would be eternal, but I just hoped that He would get us beyond this life.  Where we were hurt, lying crushed our wounds seaping from the wars, but we had won, much more than we expected.  We were cleansed and given a new name.  Now I’ve found that I cannot wait to see you and I know where forever you’ll be found.

I whisper His name and I know you are with Him.  Sitting there honestly bathing in the river of His spoken word.  You’ve found your place giving God the glory.  I will come round when the work at last has done.

Sitting on the cabin floor, with splinters and dust and a breeze between the rafters.  Winter has come again to leave it calming stain.  And as the stocks return to the dirt that bore them, I walk straight north, where the desert meets the sky.  And I look up and wonder how many weeks, how many years I’ve left to await His coming.  It seems so near and then something happens to make it seem wrong.  But this time it’s gotta be close, this time its gotta be close, because it’s all gone so wrong, the tune of their song its no longer about the good of humanity.  The son of the enemy sits in darkness awaiting spirits return to God’s side.  Don’t be sad that you’ve lost my fellow men.  This is the way it was always meant to turn out.  Too many things get in the way of our thinking that God seems to be drummed out, brushed out, drowned out of our thinking to the point where we don’t care what happens to us.

Jesus is readying, to return for His Bride, His Church and to preside over judgment so alarming to some, they’ll beg his forgiveness when it comes.  Too late tomorrow.  Only have tonight.  So before you must sleep become one of His sheep so that heaven awaits you when you die.  There is no alternate scripting.  There is no other way for this to go.  It’s His show and it suddenly turning toward the ending to which we all go.  So don’t wait a breath can be too long now, don’t think just give your heart to God.  Found among the brethren at the wedding supper, served by Him who has loved us and waited and watched and prayed for each of us in intercession.  For God’s timing is impeccable.  God’s timing leaves nothing to doubt.  If you’ve been wondering when I would be silent, I promise one final shout.  And as I go straight away to slumber to be lifted, snatched back to his side my tears even now are all drying as our Groom has returned for His Bride.

I don’t sit here doing the enemy’s work much lately, but believe you me that I know the wretchedness of the man I was, am and soon will not be.  See, to me I don’t deserve condemnation for my wickedness.  You know that I need conviction every moment of the day but condemnation, that’s not my job, even when I am the subject of review.  God has already pronounced me righteous, cleansed of my sins, joint heir to the Kingdom of God and I accept His authority to make that proclamation.  I don’t go around trying to intercede for God, but rather I try to intercede for man as we desperately need help.  God knows what he is doing and I rather leave Him to it than to attempt to assert myself in to the mix and possible risk getting taken to the woodshed.

Let’s not be deluded.  The enemy will pour condemnation on each of us, hoping to bog us down in self-loathing leading to hate.  The enemy knows all the ways under our skin, the Lord rebuke him if He so chooses.  For what reason would I be expected to remain defeated?  Is there any reasoning or good order that would create positive effect if I continued to condemn either myself of other Christians.  No certainly not, God knows the plan He has for each of us and my faith is in His ability to complete that which He has first undertaken for the goodness of our character and His own glory.  Lest we forget, remember that conviction may never be ignored as it is the kind, dear, correct, loving, true and faithful word of God, given for the edification of our churches.

How may I prognosticate regarding my sanctification?  I cannot, it is clearly a work in progress with each of us.  I think that makes sense because it allows us to both be a new creature/person who is neither now facing condemnation of previous sin, having been cleansed by Jesus while facing the shaping conviction and authority of the Potter’s Hand.  Let us remain cognizant of the convicting voice of the Holy Spirit spoken by our family, friends, Christians and time of prayer.  The correct place for my growth is firmly in the hand of God, chastised, taught, chastened into normal behavior, free from condemnation by the same hand protecting me.

What now?  Striving for personal growth, not as a man alone in his learning, but as a son held tightly in his Father’s arms, surrendered, engaged, preparing.  Teaming with my brethren, reminding them of the Shepherd’s voice and that the enemy has no control over our condemnation, usefulness or adoration in God’s eyes.  Locking my shield together in prayer and resilient faith in the Lord’s Promises and ability to provide for all of our needs including protection.  Watching over younger of less equipped believers through prayer, consultation and witness.  Relying on Christ to light the way forward.  It is not time to decline, avoid or minimize the value of the Church in each of our lives, but learn to edify, build, volunteer to and weave ourselves in to the tapestry of God’s preparation.  We love Him and we wait, but not paralyzed but busy, waiting while working, loving, learning and changing for Christ.

Would you be mad at me, if I told you that I didn’t really care if you could feel God’s Presence?  Would you think it a little odd, if I frowned at you?  Confounding you in your desire to make emotive, theatrical, reason the basis for your belief in God.  It ain’t about how you feel, about the electric stimuli in your outer arm of the hair standing up on your neck.  If you never even felt a single touch of his shadow or saw his smiling face as you finished the race, it wouldn’t interrupt a bit of my faith.  Cause it’s not about me and my feelings it’s about God and the fact that he said I AM.  Whether I can see, or I can hear, I understand the voice of the shepherd, none of this matters one bit when it contradicts one ounce of his doctrine.  Though a relationship with God possesses the greatest passion and dedication any life has every felt, you won’t feel one bit until you have given up all doubt about God’s rightful place in your heart.

Shout and dance in some emotional trance brought on by rock guitar and some lasers.  They shake their hair, close their eyes and repair, striking a pose meant to convince you.  Standing outside, awaiting his bride is the sovereign king our Almighty.  Then a well dressed romantic with well-prepared schtick bids you ignore the knocks on the door as he gives you more flashing lights and magical fancy.  Then he ends with a flare leaving the room to declare his preaching the best in the county.  All well and good but the place where he stood is reserved for Lamb who is worthy.

I am not at war with you, I’m not bored with you, nor subdued by your wisdom and knowledge. The enemy would either have us fight about what we think is right or how powerful each of us will be to the master.  None of that matters nor do any of the other deceptive attempts of the enemy to obfuscate, conceal or divert attention from the true subject of conversation, Jesus.  Jesus is the intended focus of all our intention and subsequent willingness to work.  If in fact, I use all of my tact to limit how I react, I will not ever feel backed in the corner.  My focus of this life and the next is Him, God, Jesus, The King, the Spirit, whatever name you wish to call Him.  This world may be just a mist of vibrations determined to test my dedication to concept.  The veil may roll away at some point leaving the true world exposed, but right now I am prone to the deception machinations of the enemies of God.  Knowing this I must refrain from further in depth conversation with you regarding your ego or emotion’s control of your relationship with God.  I pray that you hear his voice, but even if you don’t I pray that your faith extends beyond the natural stimuli you seek to verify your belief.  I would rather choose to believe in faith and be proved wrong then to miss a relationship with him by having everything factually proven to the adequate suspension of my disbelief.

For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.  And they have cast lots for my people; and have given a boy for an harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink.  Yea, and what have ye to do with me, O Tyre, and Zidon, and all the coasts of Palestine? will ye render me a recompence? and if ye recompense me, swiftly and speedily will I return your recompence upon your own head; Because ye have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried into your temples my goodly pleasant things: the children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the Grecians, that ye might remove them far from their border.  Behold, I will raise them out of the place whither ye have sold them, and will return your recompence upon your own head: And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, to a people far off: for the Lord hath spoken it.  Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up: Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruninghooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong.  Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord.  Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about.  Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great.  Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the Lordis near in the valley of decision.  The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.  The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the Lord will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.  So shall ye know that I am the Lord your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more.  And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth out of the house of the Lord, and shall water the valley of Shittim.  Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land.  But Judah shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.  For I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed: for the Lord dwelleth in Zion.  Joel 3

The Lord calls you to war.  Not a war that you ever win, but a destiny through which you will be judged as nations for your treatment of Israel.  It has been given unto Jesus to judge the world and this is your time.  Which side have you chosen for this is a boundary line drawn round the world with only two sides?  Come to the valley with your armies and your anger.  Come to Jehoshaphat where the King awaits with the two-edged sword of His mouth that will speak you into death.

Folks, this is countdown time,  for we have seen the season of God’s Holy return for his church and for judgment.  If you must deny it’s presence then do so knowing that we have warned you for there shall be given no excuse.  And if you stupidly believe to stand against God is an opportunity for victory, abandon such foolishness and repent of your foul thinking.  Every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is King.  I would rather do that now and voluntarily than to be forced to say so after certain defeat.

I say to my brethren who have determined to foster their comfort to the last minute believing themselves capable of turning on a dime to serving God entirely.  He has warned you, His prophets and Apostles have warned you and now I am warning you, that you to will miss his return of which none know the day nor the hour but God.  I beseech, implore, beg, bid argue and cajole you to turn your face toward Jesus, right now.  Remember your first love so that you are not spit from the mouth of God.  The time for action is right now, not tonight, tomorrow or next week, for we may have none of those.  We have today for certain, it is the moment of our choosing.  Select wisely whom you will serve, the Almighty Father of heaven and Earth or will you tend the fires of the lake with your screams, moans and searing agony.

Imagine if you would that you are a genius.  Your memory is photographic, your education irrefutable, your experience unmeasured and your quotient’s off the charts.  When estimating the competition you have no one who can beat you at a game of chess, scrabble, debate or any deductive reasoning games.  You astound everyone, your family included, in fact they often claim that you were adopted because they come no where close to your speculative capacity.  People come to you on a regular basis, seeking your view, because you always present explanation, avenue or possibility that they could not even contemplate.  Now you are confronted with the Bible, a book that is purportedly written by the Holy Spirit of Almighty God through sixty six authors over a fifteen hundred year period.  A Book that states it will confound the wisdom of the wise, describing enemy’s that are exponentially smarter than human beings with powers that rival true miracles.  You, to date have never met someone who is your better, how than do you confront this text?

At first look you dismiss it, including it claims.  Since you cannot imagine someone smarter than you, you decide that there must be a scientific explanation which balances out every truth the Bible presents.  You seek out authors and arguments which have provided any basis for consistent argument against it’s truth and authorship and you join the “disbelieve the Bible train”.  However, your superior intelligence continually confronts you in chastisement, regarding the dominance and fact of your argument.  So, you are forced to go deeper and since you cannot find answers to your arguments that sufficiently dispel the proof of the Bible you begin to mock.  You are forced into the speculative arguments of Dawkins and others where you cannot find proof and that means that the proof must exist so you resort to abstract hypothesis of evolutionary specificity and aliening world seeders.  You decide to keep company with those who are of inferior intelligence so that you easily baffle, out argue or flatly embarrass them in to quickly ending argument.  But in the back of your mind the truth natters your subconscious.

So you go on an assault of Bible believers, easily defeating them in conversation or easily exposing their hypocrisy, you quickly establish yourself as the champion of the unbeliever.  However, you still have yet to come up with evidence of the Bible’s inaccuracy or refute the truth claims it establishes and avoid as you may this line of questioning, someone adept at adequately defending the Christian faith always takes you to the point of no answer.  This angers you, almost as much as having to imagine that there are beings in the universe who make you look stupid and now you plant the seed of anger within your own heart.  Your anger is fostered, watered and fed by a population begging you defend their liberal and lustful pursuits.  They come to you bearing gifts, the gifts of your sinful desire if you will but once silence those who stand in God’s righteousness.  You, not knowing God are left bereft of defense or solid offensive strategy or tactics, so you resort to making them look foolish in the silliness of the salvation story.  You become an socially promoted acceptable bully, but the truth of your continued loss pesters the back of your mind.

Additionally, your life festers.  Your sin and its subsequent impact upon your work, home and social relationships leaves you emotionally incomplete.  Your superior thought processes demand the answer is more, feeding the fire of your own lusts, believing that it must be inadequate provision of your requirements.  So you delve deeper into your sin, promoting those around you to investigate the limits of their perversion wanting to find that place that gives you fulfillment.  You believe that if you become the example of contentment through worldly means that you will effectively eradicate the Bible’s Good Life argument by presenting a alternate truth argument.  You fail miserably when your personal losses, your physical health and your finances begin to spiral downward.  Your pain is magnified when those who used to think you smart begin to avoid your obvious incapacity to remain sinfully, victorious.

So you take a new look at the universe, exclaiming that there must be answers, of course excluding God as an impossibility, cancelling any results which point to the Bible as Truth.  You look at your life as an experiment and go through every possibility, every religion, new age ideal or rationale in the history of man, attempting to  find the one that works.  You join every band wagon, every rising tide, every new fusion complex book club, claiming to have discovered “the answer”.  However, you are left empty, defeated, alone, tired, hungry and naked, realizing what you have never been able deny, that the Bible must be the inherent Truth of a being infinitely smarter than you, outside of time and space, injecting himself into our lives to have relationship with His creation.  You catch your breath, as if it were the last and fall to your knees realizing your debacle, thinking yourself finished, down for the count, out of the race, but then a hand lays lightly upon your bent shoulder.  You look up to see the waiting assistance of the Christian you could never get beyond, welcoming you, beckoning you to fellowship and redemption through faith and belief in the Lord Jesus Christ.  You arise anew, blessed by God with an intellect and experiences specifically designed for your surrender to the fact that you were always meant to defend Christianity before a fallen world of intellectuals, leading them to a truth that they had dedicated their lives to denying, avoiding and defeating.  In this moment you see peace, peace and grace in a purpose that could only have been designed for you by God.  In Jesus’s Name I pray.

We’re leaving for the battlefield Brother, take my hand that you might be with us this day.  As I reach down to you to help you into the leaving truck I see the frantic face of indecision.  You drop your shield and spear in hesitation hoping to somehow delay long enough to miss my hand up.  But you have heard the Lord’s voice this day, bidding this is the time for which you were made, to stand against tyranny and evil as it seeks to swallow defenseless humanity.  By switch, impulse or thought you bound up into the truck, knowing the full measure of this life’s worth is to arrive on time for the divine opportunities written in your ledger of life.

What so moves your heart that you would lay down all for its defenses?  A child, wife, business or home, perhaps the camaraderie of friends, bound by oath, sworn to mutual defense.  Do you see this world, consuming maw that it has become, threatening to eat all in its pathway?  There is no hope of escape but supernatural freedom, no hope of air but protection by heavenly troops, no place we would rather be than on the front line, standing in courage and trust, hope and faith in Jesus Christ the King.

It is now that trumpet sounds calling us to rampart, wall, cannon, supply and defense.  Our world is threatened through the lost innocence of youth and the frailty of elder woman and lost child.  Men have looked long into the swirling wine, losing themselves in hypnotic contemplation or into the supple folds of strange flesh hoping for seconds of satisfaction.  Ought we such be fooled by disinformation and plastic daydreams?  Stand for the purity in your heart, that child I knew who defended everything, only to see this world slowly strip it all away including pride, passion and courage.  We were not made for such frail position but to stand in hope of light even in the midst of absolute darkness.  Let them rage for we know the path to the King’s Hold, where supply never ends and our bastions lay.  Come this day into the fray, fighting for whatever you believe worth defending.  In Jesus’s Holy Name I pray for your courage and strength this important day.

I’ll say it if you won’t.  I see the signs of my Lord’s return for his church and judgment.  I don’t really care what day it is, I just hope that I am found doing his work and I pray that those loved ones, colleagues and friends that I have been attempting to convince toward salvation have determinedly accepted his grace.  I pray that you too my brothers and sisters might be found with his love in your hearts and the oil of the Holy Spirit in your lamps.

You see the World Economic Forum, that hated of God commercial body, lacking dependence upon his sovereignty and supply.  You see the World Ecumenical Forum, where imams, rabbis, priests and pastors have signed a pact to become the One-World Church, condemned by God to the lake of Fire with the false prophet.  We have the World Political Forum or United Nations, the grand party of globalism, headlong into their emperorship by the anti-Christ.  You see the cadres marching, with their leaders in place, all they would need now to have their way is for all Christians and the indwelling Holy Spirit to suddenly disappear.  Oh, I forgot that is what began this segment that Christ will soon pull us out of this place.

What will come that next day when we’ve gone.  How swiftly with these things come to pass.?  The Bible implies that they happen speedily.  Do not be deceived by the happenings on that Great day of the Lord.  Find solace in Jesus Christ right now whilst you might still be saved from tribulation.  This is no place for a man, lost in fleshly pursuits of sinful delight and the empty promises of the devil.  We were meant for eternity with God in peace, ruled with truth, righteousness and plenty.  Turn your face to heaven and cry out to God for salvation through Christ.  The time is so short now.

This world craves calamity.  It approves of the salacious rule of larger than life worldly ministers.  It’s twisted idea of how life should be led has soured to near putrefaction.  We can smell the horses of pestilence, war and death over yonder horizon of  days.  At some point they will cease to listen, fail to hear or care to ponder God’s goodness, but until that moment we ought appeal to them with all that we are, every ounce of Spirit we may muster.  This fight is no longer about us but about them, for we are headed to certain victory.  How then may we delight in our victory when the unprotected still stand in harms direction, awaiting help?  Shall we rise and meet them at the river?  Baptizing saints in the water as Jesus arrives upon the clouds.  yes, for me that is victory’s dance.  In Jesus’ Name.

So, busy trying to witness a miracle you don’t even see the one operating in you.  What is a miracle, proof for your dwindling or germinating faith?  Isn’t a miracle something outside the natural that astounds the senses by suspending disbelief?  Don’t miracles offer those of narrow faith some manner of visible demonstration of those things which cannot be explained yet remain believable?  Why are my instincts insufficient proof, yet I am supposed to trust my eyes, ears or tongue which may equally be reality fooled?  Do I have the right to ask God to show me his wounds, so that I may dab my fingers and in with his blood become convinced?

You want miracles create them.  Feed those that everyone else ignores.  Love them who are too repugnant to be allowed into our ten million dollar worship centers.  Father them who have been ignored by people seeking the right to eternal youth and celebration.  Be son to them who have lost their own yet remain full of years, glory, grace and wisdom.  Be good husband to woman who has never been loved.  Be an obedient son to God, living Holy, seeking wisdom and righteousness and your faith knowing that God will provide for all your need.  Forgive them who will never ever ever deserve such reprieve.  Side with them who have nothing to give you when you champion their outcome.  Believe in Christ who sent you to the point where you are able to love people without reason.  Stand upon the promises of God, believing and being blessed without ever having seen.

The miracle that has always been enough for me is that God puts life within dead shells.  Bringing once dead husks to abundant life, living for a purpose that was never imagined.  I am used of God because I make myself available in a willing manner.  Certainly he could leave me on the bench, that is his prerogative, but why?  I mean he gave me skills to be used for his glory it doesn’t make much sense to then keep me sitting when he has work that I am willing and able to do with his assistance.  Those who say that they are sitting around waiting for God to tell them their purpose are bent upon eternal excuse.  All good things take wading into the water, starting down the path, attempting to scale the mountain, jumping from the precipice.  We are not just automatons as unbelievers or pre-determinists would have us believe.  We have free will and God has designed and equipped us for every good work, it is we who remain catalyst in our own divine successes.  I am not saying that God may have each of us wait for a season, preparing for the appropriate time of action, to which He alone is privy.  It is that most miracles happening within this lifetime didn’t happen all at once, they grew, they emerged as a satisfying and outstanding end to a process begun long before.

Let us each live the miracle of the live Christ has created for each of us born again.  Let us walk into that episode not only joyous and astounding but also expectant and relieved.  The miracle has already begun, it is so much fun imaging what yours will look like when it is fully revealed for all of us to see.  Keep on walking for the Lord.