Is the enemy right when he or his minions remind me of my mistakes, my trespasses, my pledges or my covets?  Of course, he is right, I hurt people in my sin.  That is not the entire story but it is part of the story.  My soul cries out to God in repentance for my sin.  Yes I am forgiven by Christ’s work upon the cross and my faith in what he did as the perfect sacrifice, but there may still be some work left in going to those I’ve hurt in reparation.  You see, I sinned against God and He has forgiven me, but where I’ve sinned against others, they may not have yet come to that point.  Do I forget them or approach when forgiveness may be offered?

I am an awful man, still.  Even after the Lord has begun my sanctification, I remain a wicked man, full of evil thoughts.  Maybe they don’t become action, because the Lord has transformed me into someone other than I was, but I still have the thoughts and am forced to capture them before they become concrete action in reality.  My behavior is without excuse for I know what God wants me to do and yet I continue to do otherwise.  Yes, I agree with Paul that it is the sinful flesh that wants to sin even though I know what is right and attempt to avoid that action.  Have we yet to gather that this thing God wants of us is impossible for us.  We cannot be good in and of ourselves.  We need God’s Holy Spirit to make the changes of which we are incapable.  In fact, I know without a doubt that I will never reach the point He is trying to get me to will not happen in this lifetime, but at the end of it, for this is the proving ground.

I am not a Christian by action but by faith.  My faith in the Lord’s righteousness, understanding my lack therein.  I know what I am doing wrong and thus am directly and explicitly disobedient to God’s direction and intention for my life.  You can monkey with the Greek or the Hebrew and somehow transform the impact or implication of disobedience, but it is after all still an inexcusable willingness to place my will and desired behavior above God’s direction and expectation.  Yes, I am forgiven, but without excuse, for I have studied the Word and know God’s direction for my life.  I can seek a method, path, direction or escape from God’s guidance, but it always leads to the same place, excruciating separation from God.  That is how I know hell is not for me, because even if it were a comfortable place of peace and quiet, it would be unbearable without God.  With Him in this life and the next, without excuse, forgiven, washed clean and ready for the next test.  Glorious days ahead.  In Jesus’ Name.

If I be a man of God then let fire come down from heaven and consume you.  Not the fire that Elijah called upon the captain of the fifty and his men but the fire of the Holy Spirit to baptize you with the refreshing fire of consuming faith.  Hearts are cold or worse even warm, flaccid, placid or indifferent to the things of God.  They smile at me then yell at them all in the same brief moments.  “I don’t care” is their mantra, believing themselves the center of this or any universe, unwilling to listen, see the world from another perspective or totally commit to anything but their own satisfaction.

Lord, I see that time is short.  Not because that is what I want for it most certainly is, but rather indicated by the ripe fields and approaching storms.  We were told that we would know by the circumstances of the season and that exact time is upon us.  Lord it doesn’t matter to me except that they aren’t ready and I weep tears of remorse for those yet forgiven.  Even believers Lord have forgotten the path, chosen the broad boulevard and begun to wish and hope upon gods of wood, metal and paper.  I know that my sympathy for them is not enough I must take to my knees in prayer for their deliverance , knowing from whence salvation comes.

I accept Father my own peculiarity.  It is understandable believing in a God who said that they would hate me for belonging to you.  Your servant I am willingly, fervently, permanently.  Father show me the way to potency for your intent.  Let me call down your Holy Fire to cleanse, bless and baptize to alight the hearts of men for the coming Kingdom.  Let them escape tribulation by committing their hearts to you in faith and hope of your soon return.  Bless your Holy Name.  May it be yelled, spoken, whispered, hollered and cherished by untold millions this very moment seeking and finding relief in their petition.  It is wonderful to be odd for I know what that means.  I am so grateful for your Love.  In Jesus’ Name.

Lord what are you telling us?  Why the signs and symbols?  Am I too daft to comprehend or just too immature to handle it all at once?  Or could it be part and parcel of the patience building exercises you’ve launched me on?  Am I simply to follow and see where it leads?  Well, duh, Esron.

I don’t know because I wasn’t meant to know.  Probably for a whole lot of reason my peanut brain cannot entertain, but most likely just to demonstrate that in order to give up control you must do just that, “give up control”.  I don’t like it, no not one bit.  Isn’t there something I can do that can either make this go faster or that can put me into a favorable circumstance while I am waiting?  You mean waiting means standing around for an amount of time that has nothing to do with my determination?  What surrender you say?  I thought that was just a song that we sang for the sake of sounding Christian.  Apparently God is really serious about this surrender stuff.

Today, I hit another bottom as if there were supposed to be only one.  I cratered, face-planted, nose-dived, road-rashed and jack knifed my way into infamy.  It was epic, charging down the lane with two left feet, shoes tied together, in long pants and fish heads, with a twenty pound bowling ball and a fifty pound pack on my back, determined to do my best MJ impression.  What a fail. News at 5:30 and I have counseled my family to move before it shows to save themselves the insult.  But you know what God not only brought me through he gave me ministry to do while I was sitting their nursing my freshly self-inflicted wounds.

What came of it?  Everyone else was in worse shape than my pitied circumstance, so you know what illogical, completely unreasonable thing God did?  Well, He sent me.  Who would have thought?  The Lord to be specific.  He knows so much better than I do, especially when it comes to removing me from the hole I have recently dug and stumbled head-long into.  Other people need him and praise God that He has accepted my raised hand in volunteer and sent me to get myself out of myself and worry about other people for awhile.  Long enough to forget about my failures, my inadequacies, my pity parties and tell people how much He Loves them.  And I pick my head just in time to see them smile, cry or thank the Lord in humility.  Somehow, at that moment, everything becomes okay.

I don’t get it, cannot explain, cannot figure out why on Earth He sent me, but none of that matters, because He did.  Then on top of it, He knew that I would be very good at it, I mean with His provision, His Words, His Spirit, His Love and my two left feet, I manage okay.  What you know, I might have something here.  Finally found the thing that I am really good at, getting out of the Lord’s way and standing on the battlefield letting Him fight for us.  Is that something you can even claim to be good at?  Well I am claiming it.  I love you folks, let me know if I can help, whenever, whatever, because He is going to send me especially when I know emphatically that what He asks is impossible.  Because that frankly is the point.

Praise God in Jesus Name.

Did I wound anyone today?  If I haven’t that would be a surprise, walking around with these size twenty, steel-toes and this tongue that scars and judges with lasting effect. Was it cowardly or wise to walk away from an argument from which I could have prevailed and left the other party weeping tears of public humiliation?  Isn’t this life about winning?  Why do I feel alone when surrounded by millions of souls?  Did I miss it, that shining light suspended just around the corner, always a fraction further than I might see?  Are these the emotions of God’s intent or the piteous contemplation’s of a foreigner pining for home?

They matter too much for me to screw up.  There is no room left on the door jamb to make marks indicating those who’ve I’ve bested.  No more space for the awards given a man for stripping others of their pride and making them regret their attempt at success.  That will show them, I hope they get over it.  All the time holding closely the realization of the lasting gashes and tears I left them.  Invisible wounds, except to those close enough to suffer from the personality ripples.  In my moment of conquest have I helped create years of struggle for the family members, spouses and children involved.  Forgive my shortsightedness.  Forgive me for living for my own glory.  I will suffer lasting regret and the shame of a man, like Adam, who knew better and just disobeyed.  There is no greater lasting pain than someone who has hurt their generations.

Father, these treasures, these people you’ve trusted to my care or whom I have accepted the emotive responsibility, let me not fail in their edification and encouragement.  If I may not help them then let me walk with them a listening post, hearing and sharing their burdens.  I beg you to allow me, guide me to being innocent of their wounding.  Keep me conscious of this instrument of pain parked so masterfully in the entryway to my life’s breath and consumption.  Let me remain unobstructed by its detrimental influence.  I so desperately do not wish to be reminded of these hateful actions at the moment of our meeting.  Forgive me now and set me free.  The kind eternal freedom of never having committed the sin in the first place.  Keep me from the dangers of being me and those pains that might be inflicted in the process of remaining in my humanity.

I love you and I love them, let that fact guide everything I do or in the case of my acidic tongue, do not do.  Walk with me keep me from harm, either to myself or others.  Let me begin to reflect your characteristics so that I might know I am closer to home than this foreign land.  In Jesus’ Name I pray.

How is contentment possible without content?  Are you ever poor if rich in the Lord’s Blessings?  Do people gravitate to you or avoid you like past plague?  Must I be rich to be happy or was it always simply a pursuit and not a destination?  Why are women flocking to women and men to men?  How is it that the world matches the Bible yet everyone is doing all that can do to discredit, ignore, deny and run from the truth of its predictive perfection?

When I deconstruct words I am often left with inconsistency.  That is precisely how I feel when investigating this word, content.  To me it is a natural conjunction of the words “Con” and acknowledgement of the negative and the word, “tent” a temporary of fabric dwelling.  I know that cannot possibly be the correct etymology because that portends that this word means the stuff that is outside the tent.  When in fact, this word rather points to a happiness with the stuff that is inside the tent, meaning be content without looking over the fence at the greenery beyond.  Apparently is comes from the word contained, but also has the connotation of being at rest, peaceful, satisfied.  So, it does have a dwelling aspect to its construct, meaning that a person is satisfied, at rest, at peace with the things contained within.

Are you at rest with the things contained within?  Do you find yourself unsteady, disquieted, frustrated, dis or un satisfied?  What if this position with which you currently contend is the moment of your rapture?  Are you ready to leave not having the peace that surpasses worldly understanding?  What if, God said to you that he has martyrdom planned for your life?  Could you or would you ever be content with the cup of misfortune God has handed you?  To whose Glory are you committed, yours or His?  Have you found peace and rest in this world?  I know where you can find the satisfaction to be “content” with where you are right now and at every juncture on the road to your . future.  The place is at the cross.  The pathway is through belief in Jesus.  The peace and the power are gifts of His Grace.  Find Him and find contentment in this life and the next.  In Jesus’ Name I pray for you today.

To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding; To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity; To give subtlety to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion.  

What more would a Father lovingly do for his children then leave accurate counsel for maturation and assistance?  We have recently forgotten the art of literary device and totally dismissed the use of punctuation to solidify a passage.  The Holy Spirit missed nothing in this translation.  And for those who have a problem with the King James Version of the Bible, let’s remember briefly the God we serve, please.  Do you think the Holy Spirit has enough power and authority to overcome any alternate agendas or evil machinations on the part of those who translated His Word?  Assuming that is that they have done it incorrectly?  The Power of this Word is unavoidable, unmistakable, absolute and precise in its reading, application and origin.

Wisdom, Webster’s says the following;

the quality or state of being wise; knowledge of what is true or right coupled with just  judgment as to action; sagacity, discernment, or insight.

So much for knowledge is power.  To be wise it appears you need the knowledge, judgment and ACTION to qualify.  Power packed words, that is the Living Word of God.  A Word so potent, so powerful, so intrinsically useful that it helps you weave your way through the intricacies of life.  So much for those who say the King James Version is some attempt to control, conform or transform the Word of God for personnel privilege.

Sapience demands the capacity to inspect, discern and decide.  Knowing something and wakefulness are related but so far away as to not exist on the same page of the dictionary.  One is a single dimension the other multi faceted and storytelling.  To be wakeful I must have action to demonstrate the truth of my circumstance, it includes the dimension of TIME, something with which God contends not.  So why would God make Words that are time dependent?  Because His Living Word is a guidebook for those of us who struggle with the component of Time.  We find it useful to know Him.  The fact that He wrote in a method that is discernible and specifically useful for His Children is another example of His Mercy, Grace and Love.

How is it that Solomon, who is widely accounted as God’s Penman for Proverbs could extend such wonderful advice for his Sons and then not follow those words himself?  Why is it that God’s Word is perfect yet we continue to fail at its application?  Wait I thought you said that the Bible is the word of man.  How can imperfect people create something perfect?  Oh, so we were born with the capacity to produce perfect Word but not the ability to live within that perfect Word?  Curious.

Read the above passage again.  Do you see any error, any indecision anything that needs correction?  No, so how can anyone say that the King James Version were just the machinations of an evil King intent on controlling his subjects?  It cannot be both.  Remember the Holy Spirit is God, a factor that we seem to have forgotten in the Churches.  The Holy Spirit has the authority and the power to select and influence every writer’s hand.  So I might have evil intent and be conformed to the Holy Spirit’s guidance or moved by His authority to do something other than what I had intended?  Curious.

I am the Simple man to whom subtlety is granted through study of this Holy Word.  I am the bull in the china room how is it at all possible that I could ever choose my words wisely, considering the feelings of others?  How could I express concepts beyond my own simple understanding to people who would otherwise dismiss them as the poor attempts of an ungifted man to reach far beyond station?  The Lord uses the weak to express ideas to the strong that they might see God and comprehend their own frailty in the presence of Almighty.  You can dismiss the messenger, but not the message.  Curious

Father, of some things I am curious, but not of you.  I know you, though I will never comprehend you.  How is that possible?  Curious.

In Jesus’ Holy Name.

What is God telling you to do?  Most of the time when I am listening to someone tell their story they claim that they do not know God’s Will for their lives.  They are generally surprised when I challenge this idea and remind them that the Bible says that everyone knows the truth that is God.  I often say that I am willing to bet that they know what the Lord wants them to do they just were holding out for another answer.  Are the voices of your own intention or the world, or perhaps even more nefarious ideas winning over through whispering alternate ideas in your ear?  Are you digging deeper into the relationship with God?  Searching the Bible for indications of his command for your life?  Are you praying and then listening for the answers from the Mouth of God?  Remember prayer is a two way line of communication, sometimes we may be guilty of throwing requests at God and never patiently waiting for His Small Quiet Voice in reply.

Okay, now that you have heard or established that the Lord has spoken to you about what He wants from you, what are you going to do about it?  Ignore the direction, reply with enthusiasm then do nothing or simply comply and take the steps forward necessary to receiving God’s provision for your ministry?  Yes, there are other options some involve begrudgingly doing what he wanted you to do. Or perhaps you are going about your own plan hoping that somehow God will overlook that fact or simply justify your unwillingness to follow directions?  Which one correctly characterizes your walk?

What then of the implications of your choice regarding God’s direction?  If you are going to demonstrate an unwillingness to follow His commands should there be consequence, even to the dissolution of two way communications with the Lord?  You know that often occurs, when you won’t hear the thing God is telling he will stop telling you.  That idea frightens me worse than anything else because then I am left to my own inadequate understanding and power within this world and the spiritual battlefield.  The Lord disciplines those whom he loves.  Do you expect that your name might be in this category for not listening to His direction?  Are you playing the victim in your own plan because God wants something else from you entirely?  The truth cleanses so it’s meant to hurt.

I pray that you continue to reach out to the Lord without doubt without limitation.  I pray that you are inclined to listen and desire that small quiet voice in your heart.  I pray that you immediately respond and demonstrate your enormous love for God by actively participating in His plan for your life by doing what He told you to do.  I pray that this brings you into a new place in your sanctified life where everything begins to take shape and converge.  I pray for you a new and fresh understanding of the authority and sovereignty of Almighty God and the potency of the free will choices He gives us.  I pray that the Lord protect your heart, mind and health this and everyday of this lifetime.  I pray that you are taking advantage to prepare for your coming life in eternity.  In Jesus’ Name.

What do you do with the idea of circumstance?  Do you ponder the statistical and mathematical probability of congruent events, laugh it off as chance occurrence or do you see God’s ordered participation in your lives?  How would it change your walk with God if each time you prayed, you consistently recognized an orderly procession of events leading up to a meeting with the right person, the exact amount of money that you needed arriving or you received confirmation of questions?  Oh, that has been happening all your life.  Has it brought you to greater faith, greater prayer time or a willingness to dig deeper into the mysteries of God’s Word?  If none of these things have occurred then have you perhaps missed the potency that “NO” coincidences has been meant to show you.

What would happen if each time you were delayed it created a circumstance where you were exactly in the right place and time to meet a person who needed your help or had some specific information to give you?  Would it alleviate your frustration at things not going fast enough, losing your keys, driving in traffic or simply waking up a bit late?  Would the panic resolve, the upset go away, would your speech and your treatment of others change significantly?  How would your behavior alter if you knew God “always” heard and not only worked on your prayers but had an orderly procession of events planned to bring you to “His” desired outcomes in this life?  Do you believe God?

I am not a victim but a willing participant in God’s Plan for my life.  I expect Him to show up, in events, in people in signs and symbols.  I have become a child awaiting Christmas morning every day of my life.  The joy of anticipation is addicting.  The people, places and mysteries that show up or unfold in my life are sometimes overwhelming to tears.  I am being used in a huge way for the Kingdom because I have asked the Lord to use me that way and I expect that He will.  The end result is these days I am “ready” for these occurrences and being in a state of wakefulness I don’t missed the Diving Opportunities within.  The Lord is my shepherd I shall not be in want.  In Jesus’ Name.

Pestering and seemingly permanent influences that have rooted themselves within the Mustard Tree must be eradicated.  We know that the Lord will separate the wheat from the chaff at the end of time, but currently we must find a method to filter out, when possible, those demonic or human servant influences intent on destroying our health, wealth and fellowship from within. Your greatest gift in this action is discernment.  The discernment necessary to see what would not be seen.

Have you volunteered your life to the Lord’s Purpose?  If you have and you continue to have negative influences, perhaps you have allowed some infiltration that must be bound, begging God for freedom from the chains put upon us by those evil influences.  Is long-term harassment possible, probable and predictable in families that have been especially surrounded or immersed in sinful practices.  Numbers 14:18 The LORD is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation. 

So the Lord sees instances where we are incapable of escaping the implications of our past sin.  The lasting effects of child birth out of wedlock, imprisonment, extended poverty, damaged reputation, sexually transmitted diseases, drug use, alcoholism, these are all examples of curses that visit the children of the guilty.  What then of those continued influences brought on by infiltration of the Church or demonic influence within your family?  You mean the enemy is going to try and find a way into my family and if I am not vigilant I may see demonic foothold within my life or those of my family members?  How then to dig out this footing?

Now that we are watching we can identify these influence by their incessant nature and desired permanence.  Once identified, what do I do about it?  Next comes the easy part, turn it over to God in prayer and fasting.  Turn your heart from sin and beg God’s forgiveness, even for the sins of ancestry that we might be heard and forgiven of the Lord.  Oh, you think that was the hard part, because you believe that you have to do the work of ridding yourselves of these pestering, destructive influences?  That is not the part you must deal with, you have to deal with the real world impacts of these issues, the social pain, the shame, the damaged relationships, but those must also be brought to the Lord for redemptive healing and repair.  This relationship with God is active and LIVING.  He came so that you may have life and have it in abundance.  Does that describe your life?  If not, is their some spiritual cleansing necessary in your family?  Only you and God know, we may have our suspicions evidenced in the long-term pain we see your family suffer, but after all it is between you and the Lord.

You don’t have to suffer the sins of your forefathers or Mothers.  Take it to the Lord in prayer and fasting.  Forgiveness is available, will you ask for it today?  In Jesus Name I pray.

Present in the moment. Not some new ager in touch with reality to the point of enlightenment and manifestation of the powers of creation. This is a Christian thing, knowing what to say and intimately aware of God’s authority and direction for your life.  I don’t want to be anything more or less than I was designed to be, no power lust for me.  With great power comes all the accountability associated with the realization that all actions have intended and unintended consequences.  I have neither the wisdom, skill nor emotional security to process the fact that someone may starve so that others might eat, or one must die that others may live.  Those are things left for the Master of creation, not good for creation to be making decisions without the requisite Sovereign wisdom or authority.

What am I present for?  My education, sanctification, stripping from me the ecoutrement of a fallen world, poisons of my past pain, affect of a brutality left unrestrained.  Replaced, replaced by those healthy characteristics of a Holy and Righteous King, imbued with understanding and skills beyond previous mean.  Present is to be touched in this world by the shaping and conforming hand of God.  When he gets a hold of your heart and makes it all matter, no step left unimportant, no stone left undisturbed for purpose.  Shaped, remade, disrupted and transformed, a new human designed for heavenly reckoning and instructful intervention on behalf of an unaware and perhaps ungrateful humanity.  Crying tears for disobedient or lost sheep, that belong to my shepherd.  Oh that my watchful eyes see the one person I might encourage, leaving them enough hope to reach out and make the greatest available decision, to cry out to God for succor and relief.

John, Peter and my other Brothers have seen Christ in his glorified body, but how will they react to see Christ the King?  Righteous, on fire with His full Glory.  Brilliance.  I feel for my Brothers for they know something that we will never know, Christ as man.  We will not be confronted with the lamb of God, but the Lion of Judah.  How will I react in that presence?  Ashamed, unworthy, facing firmly the ground upon which His Glorified feet take step.  I don’t know about you folks, but I crave and fear that great day when those eyes look into mine.  With all of my being I wish to be with the Lord, but know fully what being in his presence portends, true humility and the realization of my remaining sin being stripped away.  What are your steps toward Glory?

Are you struggling like me?  Do you find it difficult to control your words, carefully choosing what may be hurtful, replaced by those encouraging utterances?  Lord, I don’t know why you have chosen someone so inept to express ideals through word.  Ideals and principles too grand for this man, the conveyances better left to Sovereignty.  I am frail, frightened, ill equipped, hungry, tired, naked and alone, but the wonder of it all is that is exactly where I am the most powerful.  That moment where my tank is empty is when my only fuel is You.

Fill me Father.  Place me in those predicaments beyond my capability, please.  For only in those moments am I, Truly Present.

How does an unclean things speak of something righteous and pure?  This thing is beyond me.  It is something left for Spirit.  Praise You that you have created a way for me to be cleansed and I am now found made anew, a thing of spirit.  So I eagerly speak that Glorious name of my saviour, my Master, my God and my King.  My spirit speaks, JESUS and I am remade, refreshed and prepared for eternity’s call.