Make up your mind.  I may not call you fool, nor may I act out of haste or hate when telling you the things, for you, that God has placed upon my heart.  This is no game, toying with Almighty God as He were some common house cat, amused by simple things.  You came to Him, drawn by an urge to be set free from bondage and sin.  Why now, have you so readily forgotten the dilemma, the tragedy and the gravity of the resolution?  God loves you and so do I.  Not just because He commands me so but because you are loveable.  Why now do you ask me to disobey the direction from my Holy God who taught me to love?  You may take lightly obedience to God, but I do not share this folly.  Do not ask me to remain in kinship if you intend upon forsaking those things of God for all that is worldly.  For I must depart from you and allow you travel that broad path.  You will not be alone for many follow the same broad road leading to destruction.  I pray that there is time for you to play out this prodigal pageantry and return to His grace before the coming tribulation and judgment.  If that is the case I will be at my Father’s feet to greet you home with joy in my heart and smile upon my waiting face.

If you doubt that this Holy God with who you joust demands fealty and obedience, look to HIS WORD.  Read the third chapter of any book of John and see how God views belief versus obedience.  Look to the Books of James and Jude, Jesus’ Brothers, as they portray the uselessness of faith without commensurate walk and the tragedy of false faith in the Church as we approach tribulation.  Read what the Lord Jesus says about loving the Father being synonymous with obeying His Word.  Read about the folly of a Church who fully understanding God’s Grace and Sacrifice refuses to accept that gift and be transformed to Heavenly Citizen.  We live in the days preceding judgment.  Should we then be so haphazard or flippant in our regard for the heraldry of God’s Prophets, who gave their lives so that we might avoid destruction?  What light regard you appear to have for the preciousness of God’s commandments and grace.  If I am misinformed please show me the error of my perception.  But if I am correct, then beware!  For you trifle with the Hand of Judgment.

My love for you does not include watching while you step off the cliff of reason, or into the spike filled pit of folly and disrepair.  If you must go then go alone and I pray that your faith is real so that Almighty God will be beside you in your travails.  Know this, although I enjoy your company, I serve a Holy God that I fear enough to step away from you on your current journey.  My reverence for God requires that I work out my own salvation with fear and trembling.  I cannot therefore continue to prattle with you as this puts me in conflict with the only thing I fear in this life or the next, God’s Judgment.  I pray you “KNOW” Jesus, not just know of Jesus.  I pray that you have a relationship with God that transforms your heart, writing His Word upon it for Eternity.  You are not safe unless you have been filled with His Holy Spirit, without it you face the same destiny as all those who call Earth their Eternal Nationality.  Make up your mind to follow God or yourself.  I have already declared and pursue my choice with “ALL” my heart.  I cannot divide off a small part to reside with you in your indecision and disobedience.  I love you and therefore I must let you go and pray to Almighty God that you find your way back to Him, before it is too late.

Praise God in Jesus’ Name.

The weight of my own unrepentant sin is more than I can bear.  Having a relationship with Christ and continuing to sin is almost as impossible as overcoming this world without Him.  This is the purification factory, the place where the dross must be removed in advance of spending ten thousand light years with a Holy God.  None of my good deeds matters a hill of beans if those works are balanced by an unrighteous lifestyle.  None of us is perfect, but harboring sin when it was defeated by Christ is abetting the enemy of God.  Lord I have done nothing to deserve your grace, nothing to remove myself from slavery to sin and nothing to conform to Your likeness through sanctification.  Must I now fail those Blessings by continuing to condone, allow, pursue or co-habitate with the very sin from which You set me free?  Oh that I were finished this life and this sinful flesh was removed from me.

I do not belong to myself, nor this world, nor defeated enemies and principalities.  I belong to God Almighty.  I cannot therefore of my own accord determine to present my body which does not belong to me as sacrifice to other pursuits, desires or ambitions.  That action constitutes unfaithful, adulterous behavior.  I must not just avoid it but never take one toe step toward an action that smells, resembles or aligns itself with such travesty.  My mind shall only be cleansed by the blood of Christ, the Mind of Christ and the Power of the Holy Spirit in His capacity to rid me of the influences of this sinful world and ungodly minions.  I am no great man, but satan would have believe such nonsense leading to arrogance, pride, loss of wisdom, preparedness and departure from my assigned post.  I am a foot soldier in the Army of God.  An army of princes and priests to bring healing, hope and faith to this world awaiting God’s relief.  I am a field medic taking care of the battlefield wounded until they may be delivered to the Surgeon of Truth and Reconfiguration.

This is not my place yet I continue to live out this life in this foreign land as if I were meant to do something good.  A representative of Christ.  A man with a smidgen of God, dependent upon God, serving God in His purposes and planning.  There is nothing else for me here but this.  For this is a story of journey preparation.  A tale of training for a greater event.  An event so grand, so worthy, so priceless that to all that view me I look foolish running up the biggest hill backwards in the heat of the day.  I am preparing to kneel at the footsteps of God and that requires everything I’ve got, for second best will just never work for me.  How about you?

Praise Him in His Infinite Glory, Mercy and Strength.  The Lord God by the name of Jesus Christ the King.

I have played the greatest fool, chasing dreams of my glory

All the while, I knew about wisdom but never her beauty inside

Then came the morn when pride had completely deceived me

And wisdom led me to the cross where my Savior died

There is no Hope apart from Glory of Jesus

All man’s campaigns, simply attempts to hide

But Glory’s Light shines straight through to the darkness

And sets us free to truth and eternal life

I started out a man who didn’t even know that he was in prison

A man so thankfully set free by the sacrifice of the Son of God

The Lord has been faithful to complete the work that He once started

Turning me into a man vaguely resembling Christ

But I never would have lived if it hadn’t been about Jesus

Because by myself all I could ever be was truly alone

But thanks be to God He didn’t leave me there in my folly

He’s chosen me for Glory and I’m headed home

What leads you each day?  What is the voice that guides your path, honestly, ask yourself what is the nature of your pursuit?  Are you working at a job where your sole intention is to someday get ahead far enough, to earn enough so that you can retire “well” enough?  Are you looking forward to some objective happiness, supported by a particular house, a specific car?  Or is it a relationship with the right person to which you aspire, that unique person that makes your every day full, safe, content?  Is it the dreams of your children, making sure that they have everything you never did in order to sponsor and sense of peace within your heart?  Do you champion social justice, equality and fairness, looking for the next project group through which you may right the wrongs of societal norms gone awry?  Do you dream of land, wealth, prosperity, health, community and peace?

God’s Word says to seek Him first, His righteousness and that all these things will be added unto you.  It is not that looking forward to some of these things is wrong, but it is contrary to His Word.  Anything that we place on the guiding mantle of our focus ahead of God’s Will is sin, and thereby viewed by God as adultery.  We are to be wed to the Lord and depend upon His righteousness, prosperity and peace, not seek to fulfill all these public/personal desires and then serve God with our remaining ambition.  We are to look to God and give Him these things so that He may determine what is right for our lives.  Typically He gives us something better than we imagined, but sometimes His plan for our lives involves none of these things.  What if He intended you to be a martyr for His grace and glory, if that is His will for your life how than can you justify pursuit of anything else?  Do you think, like Jonah that you will be able to avoid His will for your life?  Please don’t be that foolish.  God’s Will is unavoidable.  He will get you to where He bids you go even if he has to convince you in the belly of a fish.

To all them that hold fast to determinism.  I fear you have outsmarted yourselves, for you neglect the power of choice, the free will of man to surrender and obey or deny in disobedience.  There must be some parameters by which our rewards are based.  Our free desire to give up our will in place for His, I believe, is that measure.  There is nothing in this world that is better for me, more fulfilling, of greater wealth, stronger regard or more valuable than that which God has planned for me to accomplish for His Kingdom.  By finding, volunteering to and fulfilling God’s Will I shall serve more people than myself.  Since we all know that He will discipline me to that inevitable moment or time line for which He designed me, then is not the rational choice, the choice that represents the strongest faith, volunteering to that which He has placed upon my heart.  Yes I want things, people, peace and contentment, it is just that I want God’s pleasure more than I want those things.  Isn’t that what we pray for in the quiet moments each morn, to be the Christian that He wishes us to be.  Have strength, serve God first and let the leaves fall where they may.

Lord Father God.  Grant us understanding, security and peace in the knowledge of your Holy and desirable Word.  Give us discernment to establish proper motivation, priority and continuous wisdom upon the skinny path to You.  Lord, Bless this nation, to once again become a devoted people serving first Your Will and then receiving the bounty that comes from such service.  We are Your people, forgive us for forgetting that Truth.  Lead us from our service to every temptation, whim or paltry passion.  Grant us peace in You and let all else dim in the periphery of vision.  Lord let me not fear anything but being outside of Your Will when judgment comes.  In Jesus Holy Name.

He bid Elijah to stay by a brook and be fed bread and meat, delivered by Ravens.  Contemplate that for a moment.  Elijah had just spoken God’s judgment upon Israel’s Ahab and stopped the rain, even the dew from falling.  Then the Lord fed His prophet using the blackest birds, typically the servants of the powers and principalities of the air.  Two things, God’s plan is perfect in bringing about His intended result, Revelation of the King, Jesus and He always has a secondary method of taking care of the faithful in times of trouble.  Our Lord never sleeps, never fails to deliver on His promises and never forgets His children.  Sure you may have to walk out into the wilderness per His leading armed with only faith that you will be preserved, but if it is His will You will come back out of that same wilderness, stronger than when you entered.

Did you ever consider the lives of the prophets of God?  Sometimes dedicated to God at birth or as children, following His lead, speaking His Word, doing His Work their entire lives.  Most of the time the prophets were killed, all of the time they were threatened, harangued and pursued not just by evildoers but also by reluctant believers looking for some miracle to bolster there inadequate faith.  Do you need the miracle?  Are you waiting for some sign that will solidify your belief in the God you already know is there?  Or are you the person willing to take the entire Christian belief in faith, with no miracles, no signs, no wonders, resolving to walk on the path of the Almighty strictly based upon His Promised Word?  What if you knew the way of a prophet only arrives through that faith based walk and that the miracles came out of their faith that God would deliver not as evidence of His existence.  You want miracles, you want to do good works the kind of which Jesus spoke.  Then walk in complete faith that God is who He said that He is and that the Spirit resides in those who believe and that Jesus Christ lived, died and rose as King of Kings redeeming all sin for those who will repent and believe.

Please remember that God is on the throne, you are not alone.  Though it is hard to remain peaceful when you’re being tossed about by the world, you stand on an immovable stone.  So peace be among you to gather the flock, regardless the time on that old ticking clock.  Keep your eyes upon Jesus as he sleeps in your boat, and remember who’s with you as the seas start to rock.  It is hard to remember when you’re putting out fires, that Lord sustains the whole universe with no props or wires.  When you can’t understand His ways or His plan, reflect upon the fact that He knows each of your hairs and all your desires.  For Jesus is coming for judgment and peace, the first will end quickly and the other won’t cease.  So don’t be afraid because there is no reason to doubt, He will gather His bride with a trumpet and shout.

Faith is proven in the fires and trials of a life lived for purpose.  Do you have your eyes keenly focused upon Jesus asleep in the storm, looking to hills from whence your help comes or scanning the skies for His imminent return?  This world is a shiny bauble and we the lusty racoons refusing to give up the glittering object.  Object, such a frail, cold and material word devoid of emotion or passion.  No thing may hold your attention unless you posit your emotion upon it.  The thing does not have internal lust it is the lust you put upon it that measures the sin.  Self control so elusive when dependence upon the promises of God is misunderstood or lightly reasoned.  We were made to ponder the mysteries of this and every universe, to find God and know Him.  How misspent the life counting cracks in the impermanent or tossing your head as this world’s bridle controls your turn or cantor.  We were not meant for these things but rather for Glory, a string theory of seven times seventy dimensions, beyond our current comprehension.  A God infinitely more complex than our greatest perception.  The people are the only important component in creation and even that only in how so they resemble God’s Glory.  He loves us and that is all that matters.

Can you even bear to read Matthew 24 without being called to action through conviction?  Try it.  If you are able to stand still after reading Jesus’ Words of Prophecy regarding what must “quickly or swiftly” come to pass, then you are frozen, disobedient, naive or just plain deceived to the coming events and judgment.  The modern term “Tipping Point”, appropriately defines the times in which we currently reside.  The pregnant moment before a storm is birthed, those few seconds when a family may seek shelter armed with the knowledge that what comes our way is “life” threatening.  We should be preparing for the raging winds, rising tides, rage, disillusion and raw emotion headed our direction.  But even having missed such preparedness we should be seeking shelter, hunkered down, alive in Christ our only salvation and peace in the coming world turmoil.  I repeat, “this is not a drill” this is actual emergency and you should refer to the salvation manual at once for directions on how to find safety in chaos.  The Bible is your only guide to safety, unless of course there is a good Christian man or woman near to you, someone to provide clear discernment of God’s prophecy for the coming age.

I do not call to alarm but to peace.  The only available peace in this world that is soon to be broken beyond repair.  The peace of God that surpasses all worldly understanding and gives the hungry, sick, tired, crippled and alone, Hope.  Hope to face the giants, calm the seas, avoid disaster, find food and secure safety in the midst of utter destruction.  If you do not have God through Christ, you will stand against the coming tides of judgment.  You will caught up in the overwhelming force of each crashing wave of war, pestilence, pain, sickness and defeat, a refugee from peace thrown about by the ministrations and machination of chaos.  We have seen whispers, models and demonstrations of the coming unrest throughout humanity.  These are the birth pangs, labor pains and signs to which our Savior counseled, “Prepare”.  Run to the shelter in the Arms of Almighty God, this very moment.  Do not wait until the tipping point has been crossed because what shall come following that transition may not be withstood by human hearts, minds and legs.

Come Lord Jesus, but if it be Your Will wait until each heart that may be brought into Your Kingdom makes that righteous decision to surrender and follow You.  My rest is in You and I shall not be swayed though the mountains descend into the ocean and the fires destroy the tapestry of mankind.  For my hope is not in those things that may be seen and understood by my limited thinking they are instead firmly rooted in Your Promises, Your Strength and Your Provision of safety and rest.  Let me stand in the coming storm and shout the Mighty Name of God, Jesus My King.  Victory is upon us.  The Kingdom is Come.  Amen.

What measure of accursed things have you taken unto yourself after God has given the city into your hands?  Jericho, the walls came down, followed by destruction of everything in that city except for Rahab and all in her household.  A moment’s reflection sees a model for rapture, seven days of the Lord where his power is visibly represented, followed by a mighty trumpet after which only the few were saved, all else utterly destroyed.  But let us concentrate upon the important instruction of warning from God through Joshua to the faithful, bidding them take nothing accursed unto themselves less they become cursed.  This same theme plays throughout the Bible, God’s warning, followed by victory that comes with additional caution to remain pure and holy by not taking anything that belonged to the conquered nation.  This causes me to look at my own life in this light.  As the Lord gives me victory in this life am I possibly picking up accursed trinkets, habits or rituals, inconsistent with God’s Holiness and in so doing saturating myself with impurity.  A truly frightening thought.

Joshua, a man depicting Christ, who had been given victory over everything in order to lead God’s people into assumption of the Holy Land.  A man who through faith had done that which Moses could not accomplish, cross the symbolic river Jordan, into the Promise Land.  A man not fooled by eyes of fear at satan’s deployed giants and unholy hordes, instead believing in the promises of God to overcome all that before them.  Joshua knew that the enemy had four hundred years warning to populate the Holy Land with the worst of mankind.  He also knew that there is nothing, not even a man’s heart which may stand up against the Will of Almighty God.  I may think that I have good ideas but none of them matter an iota if they are in conflict with God’ Plan for this world and my life.  I pray to be like Joshua and march into the fray armed with faith in God’s promises and ever mindful of leaving all evil regard untouched.  Keep me free and pure for Your Glory Lord.  In Jesus Name I pray this glorious day that You have made.

I would love to be counted among the blameless.  This knowledge that I continue to sin no matter how hard I try makes it painstakingly transparent, that if I am ever going to be holy it is not going to be of my own doing.  Perhaps there will be a day where I commit no sin, but I have yet to see one and I am not courageous to pluck out that sinful eye.  The one that always gets me is thought.  No matter how well I police my own actions, behaviors and words I still have thoughts that often I am surprised came from my own soul.  This understanding has gone beyond the initial frustration, discomfort and helplessness as I realized these things were beyond me and now turned into surrender and reliance.  The Lord is the only one who can change me, cleanse me, transform me into something that even slightly resembles Him.  Of my own works I will never be Holy.

That is a damning and a freeing thought all at once.  I weep when I see my sin, but I rejoice in the promises of God which say that He is faithful to complete the work He has begun in me.  I wrestle with my salvation in fear and trembling, knowing God is Holy, Righteous and Resolute.  He will do all that He said He will, including turning His face from those whom He never knew.  That moment in history frightens me for all of us.  When Jesus walks away from the self-righteous who thought themselves saved but never truly believed, that will break my heart.  I pray that my tiny mustard seed of faith will let Him look upon me with those eyes of fire and purge me of all unrighteousness, because I don’t about anyone else but I tire of my own ridiculous propensities.  I am simply amazed that He could love a man like me.

I see the churches that are obviously gone astray and I pray that they hear Jesus knocking upon the door of their church and open up the door so that Jesus may come in and sup with them.  I pray that any vestiges of self-righteousness in my own heart not be used to lead even one person away from God.  I pray that together we embrace the Word of God and become doers of that Word not just reviewers.  This is the hour of our calamity or our Collective Grace in Jesus.  May we know ourselves and surrender to the Potter’s Hand.  In Jesus I find my purpose and place in this world and the next.  Amen to God the Father for being Faithful and True.

My dreams do not matter unless they bring me to Your Word.  You have chosen to give me new information about this world.  Somewhat irrelevant, unless I effectively verify and match that new information against the Word, then discern Your intention and direction for showing me.  This is a dangerous world for those willing to take information from disparate providers without verification.  Thinking new information is of God and never combing through Your Word to verify the source is a recipe for eventual disaster.

Jesus answered enemy interrogatory and prompting utilizing scripture, effectively demonstrating to us the method to handle incoming data, inquiry or temptation.  Verifying that the source is “of God” will determine the appropriate secondary action.  Certainly over time, one becomes accustomed to “the small quiet voice of Almighty God”, but that in and of itself is a gift from God.  However in this world, currently chaired by the devil who is by nature a deceiver, it is imperative that we are certain of the source of information before taking action or developing faith relying upon its accuracy.  If it isn’t in the Word, the Lord is not the source.  I am not saying that God may not reveal something new to His children, but what I am saying is that if He does it will be entirely consistent with the Word.  Nothing which contradicts the Word of God is of God.

The original sin involved deception.  Certainly there was a propensity to sin that allowed Adam and Eve to be deceived, but that is separate from the deception itself.  satan will suffer judgment from God for his participation in deceiving God’s children.  I must be forever vigilant in my memory and awareness that satan seeks to deceive us and destroy us, so that I am mindful to demonstrate the Berean attitude toward incoming data.  God wants us to check, verify, discern and act upon Truth not be easily led astray by fad, misinformation, misdirection or deception.  So many people want so desperately to personally hear God’s voice that sometimes they naively approach new information without verification that it came from God.  This is especially important for new believers who may not have a solid level of discernment available but must remain cautionary to even the most mature Christian.  Our vigilance and reliance upon God is our only protection.  We should never allow false pride, or misplaced confidence in our own abilities to allow us to drop our shield or put down pieces of God’s Spiritual Armor.

It is pretty safe to say that there is no new Word to be delivered to mankind.  We already have every piece of information we are ever going to need embedded in the Living Word of God.  Most revelation is not new information but rather a revealing of Truth already incumbent to the Bible into which God provides new clarity of understanding.  Especially in these last days we are understanding segments of the Bible that were either shrouded in mystery to original believers or have simply become relevant because of the current circumstances in the world.  Frankly some things just didn’t make sense to old testament believers because they were intended to “unfold” at some distant point in their future.  Though the Author of the Bible knew exactly what everything meant, the scribes tasked with putting it down on parchment most certainly wondered about the mysteries they encountered.  We have blessedly been chosen to be alive during a period of time when all is rapidly being revealed to our waiting eyes.  This is great blessing to see the unfolding of God’s Holy Word and should not be taken lightly.

I hear and obey but I also hear promptings, temptations and sirens meant to turn me from God’s Word.  If I do not develop the spiritual understanding, ask for discernment and wisdom to only follow truth it is inevitable that I will eventual follow false doctrine or direction.  I ask that the Lord protect our minds with the helmet of salvation and the Mind of Christ so that the thoughts, tempting and enemy deceptions take none of us captive.  I also however, pray that believers armor themselves against deception by practicing the policy of verifying the origin of each relevant thought.  Trust in God alone, not on your own understanding.  Praise Him for His grand protection of our minds, hearts and faith.  Thank you Father in Jesus’ Name.