Simple heart supporting your strength and encouragement.  Mine is not the doctrine of direction.  I am in charge of no one, even struggling with my own voice and obedience. It is unlikely that the Lord has sent me into your life to be the boss of you. That being said, sometimes loving you comes with it the difficult reality that I must at times speak up about the things in either of our lives that are inconsistent with God’s Word or perhaps are self defeating or potentially dangerous.  I will not surpass that responsibility nor will I ignore it, for to do so would make me an enabler or a people pleaser, two positions for which there are dire and unpleasant circumstances for your Brother, a man before God.

What is it that God is leading you to do?  Let’s pray about it and once you’ve heard from Him, let me know or perhaps He will let me know the appropriate way to motivate, support and encourage you to its completion.  But do not expect, knowing me especially, that I will just sit back and allow you to ignore God’s calling, ministry or direction.  That would not be the Brother that I sent to be, for we are made for accountability, to each other and to Almighty God.  How could I answer Him back when He asked me why I didn’t request of you an answer to His Will? We are not meant to do this journey alone and that means that we have to learn a consistent, respectful and responsive manner in through which to support, defend and motivate each other.  Sharpening, I believe was the term used in the Word.

I am your greatest fan, your last critic, because you must remember that I adore you.  This is not a game show or talent competition where we struggle with various envies to out do one another.  This is a team in the family sense.  Neither must you be alone in your trials, burdens or tests, nor rejoice alone in your victories or stand there having done the impossible with no one to thank you for your love for God.  But I want what you are determined and guided to give me for that is the Will of God, the God who sent me to get some work done and rejoice in abundance while doing it.  Know this, I love you and thank the Lord for having saved me not just from my sin but from the one thing He called, “not good”, for man to be alone.  Do your thing and if I can help please tell me where and when to apply pressure, support or a comforting word.  In Jesus’ Name.

In the distance the daylight whispered of tomorrow becoming today.  Shimmering with bright green, luminescent yellow and resounding red, Earth’s floor reflected its pathways to greatness, sadness and joy.  Wasn’t it just yesterday that promised this moment, where possibility and reason collide to produce instant’s becoming?  A hopeful thing this belief in perpetually rising suns, freeing from the binding thoughts of an unimpressive present, delivered anew to a refreshed set of variables and possibility.  A left-nostril breath, lungs filled with scents and pollen of dawn cracked wide open, breaking in the shadows of midnight.

Mysteries only appetizing to the few with passion’s figuring.  Deduction, articulation, triggers and evidences left for each to ponder.  This is the time where question and answer become acquainted leaving that pestering moment of completion, found within package deconstruction.  Peering expectantly the contents, agitated, reflexed, persuaded by toppling dominoes when theory applied became reason leading to law.  What then of men absent wonder, with manifest understanding of simplicity’s relief?  Shall they be faced with joy aplenty at the occasion of king’s reminder, treasures found, secrets unearthed, blessings realized?  Or is splendor lost without residence?

Torches called and carried, leaning out just enough for a glimpse into pitch.  With daydreams, piper’s call held in the breast of siren’s lure, we danced a bit too close to fire and felt the tickling fingers of flame’s inspection.  What then?  Is a dream the waking piece of introspection or the sleeping memory of passion’s plan?  For we are left lonely in those moments few, where tonight becomes tomorrow and memories, yesterday.  Onward toward something barely understood yet seemingly impossible a day defined by implication of passions rendered, conquered ideas and realms remaining untouched by consciousness and rhyme.

Do I value the unexpected or am I the man who wants everything in order, no deviation from plan, nothing spontaneous?  That is not a question dropped lightly for within it resides the answer to my alignment to God’s Will.  How can I ever receive the blessings that God has for me if I must have predictive control of the world before me?

Father, thank you for the difficulties I’ve experienced, especially this week, because as I gave way to your direction I realized each episode that I had originally viewed in negative light, was actually steering me into the Divine Opportunity you had prepared.  Let me reiterate this for my own consumption.  The things that were bothersome, troublesome, disjointed, calamitous or seemingly in my own judgment dysfunctional were designed as jersey barriers to place me at a precise time and place according to your will for my life.  Now I must naturally ask that you take away the heartburn typically associated with my frustration at let’s say losing my keys for that five minutes or being stuck in traffic or having some tech fail in order to lead me into meeting the person who needed prayer, love or counsel.  Thank you for the unexpected event because it is the treasure of my life.

Considering this wisdom, is it now possible for me to release the reins of expectation, allowing the unknown, the mystery of your gifts to instead guide the circumstances of this life?  And for that matter why does a natural conflict reside at the center of this determination?  Am I that pre-programmed to self-determinism that there must be an actual battle for the space within my head of these competing wills?  Why can’t I simply surrender to your Righteous Will for my life instead of fighting this battle each day?  Is there some maturation guaranteed through this repeated scenario?  Why must I force myself to let go every day?

You know best for my life.  You made me and are the only one who knows my true purpose.  Therefore through your guidance is the only path to reaching the pinnacle of my existence.  How on Earth could a logical man, a faithful man kick against that transparent wisdom?  Give me the blessing of letting go of this life that your purposes are served perfectly in my surrender as a tool for your good will.  In Jesus’ Name

How much is too much?  Isn’t that determined by my own internal clock, just as with happiness it is a limitation mechanism defined, maintained and protected by me?  It is just as with the determination of what is a good or bad day that is within my control yet I somehow have been trained to externalize, diminish or victimize every discipline in which I have some manner of control.  Too much is when I fall on the ground and have frankly given all that I can give and got’s no more.  Or too much is when I have surpassed my allotted or experiential capacity to deal with the circumstances and therefore I throw my hands up and shut down.  Or too much is that glorious point at which I reach the end of my time, faculties, talents, treasures, imagination or ideals and finally, albeit finally cry out to God to engage the filling of His Holy Spirit.

Paul was very clear in his teachings through the Holy Spirit that we ought be thankful for that moment when we are at our weakest for that is the point where God is all we got and also the point where God is strongest.  The proverbial point where we are forced to surrender and acknowledge that the thing we are expected to overcome is beyond our capability.  Wouldn’t it be grand if since we have established that too much is a self-determined, self-defined limitation that we adjusted that understanding to allow God to step in and do the impossible from the outset, without having to reach that personal point of exhaustion before surrendering to His Spirit?

God is going to always ask more of me then I was ever capable of giving, for that is the nature of being an ambassador filled with the Holy Spirit of God through which we can do the impossible?  If I knew that I couldn’t do the impossible before I started the impossible but I fully understood that within me resided the Creator of all things the Doer of the Impossible, wouldn’t it make let’s say marginal sense to get out of the way and let him do the impossible before I needed to demonstrate my inability to do the impossible over and over again?  I mean Christianity is quite logical, even if we don’t want to employ the logic or think it simply spiritual.

So how much is too much?  I don’t know, since the Sovereign God lives within each of us and He invented the plans to overcome the impossible, then is there ever going to be something that is “too much” for any Christian?  I know that hurts your brain and I am a horrible beast for causing your contemplation upon realms of the universe outside our own dimension, Too much?  I think not.  In Jesus’ Name I pray for you to ride the road past impossibility to the probability and possibility dictated by a Holy, Righteous and Limitless God living within you.

You know those times when the joy is so overwhelming it is almost popping out of your pores?  You step as if your legs are light, your mind unencumbered and your spirit on overdrive.  How is that possible under so much pressure to be walking as if free of any burden?  Today, I saw a gentleman cry because he saw in my words realization that his life’s work had made a difference.  The epiphany that someone had heard what he had been saying for decades almost broke his stolid demeanor.  Tears were present and I saw in him the eventuality for each of us that have been investing, investing and repeating ourselves, thinking after some time that we have produced next to nothing.  I would imagine it is nice for Pastors to see someone approach the altar to join in prayer or perhaps accept the Lord.

The testimony each of us will give in the next ten years I believe will astound the lot of us. Things are changing at rapid pace.  What previously were iterations so tiny that they were indistinguishable are now visible in limited timing. We can see affect.  What an unusual feeling to achieve consistent gratification of ones efforts.  Not that it fulfills particular instantaneous gratification but it is an unusual feeling to reap and reap and comprehend that there is not end to the crops left to stock ad in fin item.  What a glorious day the Lord has given us to be so productive as something for which we made no preparation, other than our testimony and the joy of studying the Word.  Seeing this time, I am now truly repentant of my impatience.

What have you to add to this day that shall outdo or at rival those wonderful days of memory?  How will your dance change the way we think about dance, your song rekindle the fire in dimmed hearts your dream be the inspiration for them to reach untold horizons?  What brand of joke do you have to make my belly jiggle, my gullet wiggle my smile permanent crease across my shining visage.  What is the message you have to provoke a child’s mind to mastery, avoid disaster, free slaves from the wicked master, suspend the bad weather planned for afternoon?  Without you this mosaic its just slo mo or simply sic without the “a”for your “addition” to the mix. The song will change when you add your rare but strange rendition of ecclesiastical pnemonics, well okay it won’t be enriched by that but at least your smiling face will be in the picture for all to enjoy.  Come join the band, the band of joyful merry men, intent on abundance and peace for all.  In Jesus’ Name

I love you Father.  This is your time.  Friends, the things that are given to you as reminder that this world was never meant to be done alone.  Events, the things meant to present difficulties from which men make history. Days fraught with difficulty, worry and concern closely resembling foretold description.  Breathing in frustration and breathing out courtesy, testimony to changes within machinery.  If patience is going to do it work, then it demands cooperation with this cyclic purification.  Taking in world, giving out spirit, as the flame cleanses. A clean spring, having nothing poisonous at source.

These are the days for men of honor, courage and a clear relationship with You.  Songs whistled together, ticking out in time the faith in the Rock beneath their boots.  Times for either pride and worldly inclusion or quiet separation, tending to flocks and fences.  Excitement seeing these men come forth born in the forge of this moment’s demand. Strength in short supply, arduous work ahead, builds champions.  These are the days when mediocre shall be foreign to sturdy hearts, resistant to bite, burn or darkened days of dreary expectation.  A time when boys will once again turn their hearts back to their Father’s craving to learn the things of manhood absent worldly youth.  Silence, respect the attitude of reason and price paid for gathering grain.  The mooring of sturdy vessels prepared for whatever storm, flame or fire come hither.  Men born for this day, forgetting all others but the sweat, tears, blood and treasure paid to buy time, time of preparation to ensure this victory.  Together they smile and wait.

Make it straight for the crooked arrow flies astray and this skinny path demands accuracy and acuity of mind, heart and hand.  Be alert, for the moments will be twinkling, flinches, whispers of time when reaction must be instantaneous.  Spirit the center of conversation, Mothers leading their sons to grasp the force built in emotion. The strength of reason matched to wisdom, sense and faith, knowing what must be done and never wavering simply marching forward with grand expectation.  Courage built upon the Promises of a Father having never once faltered, never once met with failure, never an inkling of fluctuating prophecy.  A Word Assured in the hearts of the men who have written it upon their hearts, inscribed deeply in the surface of their shields, a Word that does not crumble, shake or shiver in the wicked wind.

These are times for the Faithful to Stand Firm, holding on to God’s Promises, overcoming all with their love, their testimonies and their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ’s certain return.  Oh, these men, I am proud to know them and that they are my kin by adoption into the Kingdom of the Most High forever and ever Amen.

Prayed for you, especially when the wicked drive in your heart forced you to slander her good name, bring suit against a good king and machinate in the dark about how to shed their innocence.  Been kind to you as I wiped the spit from my cheek, thanking you for showing me what it means to love in spite of hate.  Spent time, asking the Lord to step in and break the fallow ground around your heart as you laughed at their dilemma.  Been truly concerned for your apparent journey into hell and the opportunity to help you avoid that eventuality in Christ.

There are many things for which I am ashamed, the greatest of which are the times when I showed you me instead of showing you Him.  See we both live here.  The difficulty is that my flesh has the audacity to step in at all the wrong times and take back control of this life precisely at the times when Christ could demonstrate His love or you and this world.  I continue to be found out for the frail, messed up, insecure, easily angered man from whom I was transformed by God.  Never mind this new creature feels so much better and does the things that the Lord intended, there is a responsibility to comprehend and attend to the direction in my heart.  Lord, my breaths come in wave as I realize how much I need your forgiveness for the man I have not yet become.  Please be with me that I might some day do the things you are praying for me to master.  Thank you for the opportunities that you’ve provided to see the truth of my own behaviors, without that mirror I certainly would be doomed to repeat these issues perpetually.

Lord they are wicked and I know that means they will be having a date with you, where in fairness of judgment you reward their evil with appropriate punishment.  But that is not my cause, business or concern.  I was sent here to warn them and tell them the good news of Christ that they might turn from their wicked ways and be saved, cleansed and renewed.  How come I always want to do your job and neglect my own?  Father, I see that you love them and continue to call them to answer the call of grace, upon that Truth I will make my stand.  For if you continue to call them to repentance then hope remains that some will accept that offer and step away from the waiting abyss.  Let me continue in the logic and belief of that possibility and though my heart or mind tells me to war with them, castigate them or pronounce them beyond hope that the fact that we are still here directly contradicts those ideas.  Let me be free of regret when I sit on that bench at your side and forget what I should have done, remembering only what was done good and faithfully.  Your Servant.  Praise You.  In Jesus’ Name.

Did they just say it is not good for the Government to be too transparent?  Spoken as a true miscreant, hiding your power moves, political reciprocity and acts you need to conceal because you wrongly convinced yourself that the people either do not need to know or they are too ignorant to comprehend what is being done.  Either way, your duty is to explain it to them so that they do understand what is being done in the name of their government.  Transparency, has a pretty clear definition, I know laborious comedy.  However, it really is a word that cannot be misunderstood, unless of course the objective was never transparency but obfuscation, camouflage or opaque understanding.

Do I speak truth or do I beat around the bush hoping to pull the wool over your eyes that I might appear better, stronger, more original or noble?  Ouch that one hurt.  My own desire to tell partial truths, expand upon the truth through exaggeration or just give the part that is consistent with glorifying myself are frankly SIN.  If I see it any other way then I ought not call out any politician for I am the same cat, operating by the same principles, within the same parameters and tool set.  Again what is involved in being honest except just that?

I am sorry for the things I have embellished, concealed or partially delivered for I have sinned against you and God.  I hope that you will forgive me, but better hold me accountable the next time it happens because that is not the man I want to be.  Take time to be honest with me about my dishonesty or attempts to fudge, knowing this that is the man I wish to be, the fellow that is always reliable to give the truth of course in a gentle fashion.  Lord, keep me honest, let me be content with what I have instead of trying to build myself or portray myself as something that I have never been.  It is a joy to be exactly who I am and not have to be concerned about what I lie I told to who at what time.  Too many balls to keep in the air at once for me, I would rather just tell the truth.

Give us the truth that we might be set free, indeed.  Thank you Jesus.

When its eighty degrees there is more emphasis to get to the point, what then if it were one hundred eighty?  The same decisions, contemplation’s and muses become desperate when the variables change in significant degree.  Determining where I will work and for how much becomes an unlikely deliberation if my family is starving, my wife or child sick or there is little work available.  It is in my nature to relax when the pressure is off, but why?  The voice of reason in my head says the same thing that the ant is saying all year long, better do the work now because at some point the weather will change and there won’t be any food stored away.  What is the origin of complacency?

We all know that tough times come and hopefully they go, though that is not always the case.  Why then, firmly tucked in this solid reality, would any of us sit back when the opportunity provides itself to get ahead a little in order to make it through the tough time that are inevitably around the corner?  It makes little if any sense, yet we all do it.  Why do we wish to relax, what is that desire to be comfortable, restful and frankly lazy?  For those of us who live in climates that change drastically between seasons, it is logical to get done the things that we may not attend to when it gets too cold or too hot.  Yet, we leave them until the last minute.  Why have we left all these problems in America until they are nearly past the breaking point?  Why did we have to be shaken from our slumber, instead of developing a cultural context of preparation and forethought.  If you want to see the largest single thing for which we receive disrespect around the globe it is that we are so blessed and yet take it all for granted, living regrettably paycheck to paycheck.  What causes us to adopt this concept that we can just rush and get it all done.  Rushed work is never as good as work that is carefully tended.

What then of our prayer life, our Bible studies ,our preparations for the Lord?  I know we don’t want to talk about it.  Okay, that is the same excuse or beg off that we used for not cleaning our rooms, doing our homework, straightening the garage, keeping up our checkbooks and taking down the Christmas lights.  When do the excuses end and our egos stop being so frail, tender and sensitive that we can actually take a realistic look at our prayer life?  I am no ones minder, no body’s steward, but my own and all these criticisms fit right here in the review of my own behaviors.  Well, I guess the only real way to be a good leader is to live by example.  Enough said.

Lord give us the courage to look at ourselves in truth and mindful reflection that we take accountability for our own walk in preparation to being found ready at your return.  We love you and ask forgiveness for those times we took things for granted, especially your loving kindness in forgiving our sins as an excuse to keep doing the same one time and again.  In Jesus’ Name.

Something consequential to heart, something to keep the soul and the spirit far apart.  What could be written in these simple words that would provoke the world to action?  I don’t have that kind of authority or wordsmithability to evoke something so precious, appealing and entirely encouraging as to capture the attention of all who’ve heard it.  How then do we marshal testimony, provoke action, edify courage and tenacity to stand in winds our senior?

Can it be done by word, well the rappers are reaching millions of our children for their endeavors, perhaps I should learn that sort of word twist?  Or maybe I could spout hate and violence which draws millions to the theaters in a quest for manhood in the spectacle of lost life dominance?  Perhaps I should write fantasy fiction of gods and evil empires, elves, dwarves and hybrid humans, for that seems to attract millions of eager viewers.  Or better yet I should talk of aliens, cannibalistic risen dead or some alternate universe where we can all have our needs provided for by electric flowers and water that fills all your calories requirements without fat?

What is it with me that I am concentrating on the reality of the issues we face when I could easily use some platform far more effective at reaching a much broader spectrum of people?  Am I that daft, that I would rather sing into the farm yard with few friends and chickens pecking then be a spectacle for those to view as something comedic, salacious or chaos provocative?  Adjust for the audience they say, adjust for the audience.

If I become the center of attention and I have to utilize, sex, popularity, fantasm, wizardy or violence to deliver the message I have been given to speak, what then does it say in my resolve, my determination and surety that this message is the righteous truth that should reach all with ears to hear its call?  I am just repeating a wonderful message written by the Creator of the Universe, given me to speak because that is who he chose to say it, in this body, this set of talents or lack there of, this set of circumstances with this limited capacity at delivery.  Do I doubt Him so that I believe His choices ill suited for merchandising this message?

No, this is what I’ve got and if perchance He wants me to have greater breadth, depth or audience, then He will make it happen.  I am content in the Word I’ve been given to read from.  I am overwhelmed at the majesty and kindness of its purpose and content of its story line.  This is the message meant for all, regardless of place, people’s purposes or passion.  This is the Word Smythed before the beginnings of time for each of us to hear, ingest and take that glorious action availed to all to make a choice of whom we serve.  So listen to me, I hope that you do.  Adjust the message looking for a larger crowd, I cannot. For even if He gives me one heart to whom I ought speak, I would give the same message to a million.  God save you all through Jesus Christ the King.