Sudan, Congo, Kenya, Syria, Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Ukraine, Venezuela, Peru, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, El Salvador, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Somalia, Malaysia, Burma, Pakistan, North Korea, Greece, Lebanon, Gaza, Israel.  When does rumor become reality?

Ready your hearts, minds spirit and strength.  Have you studied the Book of Revelation, do you know what shall quickly come to pass when God’s Plan unfolds?  Revelation 1, first line, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him, to shew unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass; and He sent and signified it by His angel unto His servant John”.  This first passage immediately grasps the reader’s attention to the importance of this entire book of scripture.  This book especially Chapter 1 is a “revelation” or revealing of the Lord Jesus Christ to the World, which God showed Jesus so that we may know what is going to happen.  How powerful God’s Word when one single opening line can “Reveal” so much.  So God gave this revelation to Jesus, think on just that idea for a moment.

The majority of Christians I know have never studied Revelation.  Why?  Is there any other interesting book in life that a normal person would read until the last chapter and then put down never venturing to find out what happens to our beloved characters at the end of the book?  NO.  That doesn’t even account for the importance of this One Book to which all of us have surrendered our lives and eternity.  This is the Word of God, Jesus Christ, revealed for the World to see in all His Glory.  Why then have we as Christians never taken the time to investigate the things that God felt it necessary to reveal to Jesus so that He might show us?  Really?  God lays it out there for us to freely question, study and understand and we will not even take the time to do due diligence in investigation of His Revelation.  Would you rejoice at the outcome of a football game if you left before the fourth quarter, never knowing if your team won or lost?  Worse yet if you had a script of the end of the game that recounted in advance your team’s victory would you fail to read that prediction?  NO.  I find this behavior absolutely absurd and indefensible.

Revelation One reveals the Lord for who He is.  Jesus tells us who He is in His Revealed Glory.  Book Two and three are a report card for the Churches, a message to each church and each believer as to what He sees, what He expects and what will happen as consequence of our combined/individual actions.  Oh but book four, that is the blessing for the believer for that is when the Church is no longer on Earth but instead, present with the Lord as evidence by the twenty four elders, the lamp stands, the songs of the redeemed and evidence after evidence.  If a believer goes no further than Book Four they would rejoice at God’s protective hand removing us prior to dispensation of His wrath upon humanity.  But what comes to follow is hard rendering, a clear step by step accounting of tribulation and God’s Love for the world, poured out so that each heart may have a final opportunity to come to Him in repentance and truth.  This Book is essential to Christian maturation and understanding of God’s Plan.  If you are walking about stating that you wish to know God’s Will for your life, yet you have failed to read Revelation and find out, then your prayer is false.  Please stop the falsehood,  Read the Book and be educated to the things of God.  He is revealed to us in His Word so that we are never left guessing.

Praise God for His kindness in telling us in advance of things which shortly must come to pass.  Will we demonstrate our faith, trust and obedience to His promises and Word by reading and preparing for His unfolding plan of Salvation, Wrath and a Rule that never ends?  In Jesus Name.

Why mourn?  Our God Lives.  That is the girdle of Christianity that separates faith in Christ from every belief, relationship.  Promise from a risen King to never leave us, never forsake us and to live inside us, guiding, correctly, counseling.  There is cause for great joy, though we may find times to mourn the status and demise of this Earth, when we look to heavens for hope we rejoice.  Psalm 105:3 Glory in his holy name: Let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.  We have been purchased by a holy price, given the gift of salvation and eternal life with God to His Glory.  What is there for which to be sad?

Are you standing in church, silent?  Believing in some orderly repose that you will receive some reward of manly grandeur through solemnity?  SING, cry out to God, extol his name in public places revealing the joy in your heart for His Grace and Glory.  When I think on this I am reminded of Peter.  This man receives so much slander from the pulpit for falling short and denying Christ.  What a travesty that we should hold an Apostle in such low regard.  Here was a man who would run to Christ, not walk.  A man who knew above any others that Christ was King.  A man who had yet seen the filling of Holy Spirit who continued to struggle, like any of us with trying to assert his own will and wisdom above the Lord’s.  I think of Peter and I think of a man who loved Christ enough to blindly follow, in faith, even to the point of moments set upon the surface of the water or to his eventual death.  I get pictures in my mind of his resounding laughter and loud voice booming out above the throng, attempting to have his voice heard in heaven.  Proclaiming the name of Jesus at the top of his lungs for all to hear.  That is living.

For what shall we mourn?  For loss of freedom, life, sight or limb, when we get to end this life in the arms of Jesus?  How long shall my trial last, eighty years, one-hundred?  Does a poor man who knows he will eventually be wealthy mourn his current standing or rejoice at his coming abundance?  This is the time of abundance for we are ambassadors of Christ, holding the keys to death and Hades in our hearts, we should then hold his peace as well.  SING to God in his Glory so that others may hear your joyous voice.

Christ is coming and though there be cause for mourning the spiral of the Earth.  We are not citizens of this land but of heavenly realms awaiting readiness.  Rejoice at the sound of His beautiful name for when you see Him coming in Power and Great Glory your heart will be filled to overflowing.  Let out the shout that has for so long rested in your bridled heart.

What if I had a whole entire soliloquy to eloquently deliver and God bid me be silent?  Should I doubt Him and preach my own sermon forgetting the only Words worth saying?  It was never me that was going to win this fight. My job is to stand against the overwhelming odds in direct defiance of the scary influences that believe they rule this world.  I cannot continue to become better in hopes of over coming the enemies set against me.  That is either misunderstanding of the Gospel or direct disobedience to God.  If I am anxious for the job that I believe He has set before me then I am already in danger, because I have substituted my own power, authority and talents as adequate to completing the supernatural.  I am not God, nor will I ever be able to do that which He has planned for me.  What I am capable of is prayer, obedience, learning and surrender.  I am a vessel, nothing more.

Being a vehicle for fulfillment of God’s will has to be enough and we must ask ourselves what manner of deception is necessary to making us think otherwise?  Why is it so difficult for a man or woman to accept the fact that there is a God who created everything, rules over everything and loves everyone so much so that He provided a 100% effective method of avoiding the pain of death, slavery to wantonness and eternal separation from those whom we love?

I understand that humanity must come up with alternate explanations for our origin in order to free us from having to of surrender to Absolute Truth, belief and service to a rightful King.  I don’t see that as harder than convincing ourselves we started as apes with no evidence, that we have no purpose, this life is all we’ve got or that somehow we can become gods after some enlightenment graduation ceremony.  To me those alternatives are truly stretching the limits of imagination.  Perhaps they believe that I am fooling myself into following God so that I can save myself from the despair of this dismal ending to which they have committed.  In that event I would ask if we are trying to provide ourselves a collective hallucination resulting in limited bliss and avoidance reality, why then are we not the ones taking drugs by the tons, looking for one more drink, episode, thrill or dollar.  Or why then does this hallucination to which you believe that we have convinced ourselves require that we must suffer the abuses of humanity while loving, forgiving and praying for them as they seek our demise?  Why do committed Christians become better people, right before our noses, even though they should somehow become contorted by some false reality?  The simple truth is the simple truth.  Even Occam agreed.

God is Alive and that is a truly frightening concept, because He Knows everything that we have done and will do.  I cannot escape His review, nor do I wish to, I simply wish to please Him and bring Glory to His Name, because He deserves it.  I love you and pray that You will hear His voice speaking in your heart so that you too may know the Truth that is God.  My work does not depend on me for I have already done all that He requires of me in believing, trusting, surrendering and walking with Him.  He may choose to do great things using me as a vehicle for His will.  I assure you that it will be a greater surprise to me than anyone.  I do not know God’s will for my life, but I pray that it is fulfilled and that I volunteer to every step in patience and in love.  To me this is the best life that could every be lived with an end that surpasses anyone’s imagination, including my own.

Praise God in infinite understanding and glory.  Jesus Christ took away the sins of the world, won’t you step into the light of freedom with me?  I pray that peace for you, in Jesus’ Holy Name.

Courage over fear, repentance over sin, love over bitterness, Christ over death, Hades, this world and evil intent.  Being an over comer, what does that really mean in practical terms?  I look around the room and I see the questioning faces, trying to make sense of something they know will make them powerful, but never quite grasping the intrinsic meaning.  Fear, sin, bitterness, unforgiveness, death, evil and everlasting separation from God for making the wrong life choice.  These are our enemies in this world, not this person or that person but these spirits, these moods, these dire conditions that capture our hearts and our deeds, freezing us, prohibiting us, limiting us from experiencing abundance and joy.  Which one has specific authority in your life?

Afraid of men.  This is a fear of death and lack of reverence for God’s authority.  It demonstrates a lack of wisdom and discernment for it is written that “Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”.  If I walk through life without a full comprehension of God’s authority, sovereignty, majesty and control of this universe which He created then I will always fear the actions of men, never fully comprehending God’s Peace.  If you belong to the Lord and believe His promises then nothing may touch you without first going through His protection.  If you fear men then you need to get to know God and that fear will fade.  Try Proverbs 2, which is a recipe to find and grasp wisdom.  This is a great place to begin the relationship with Almighty God, for to become His friend you must first understand and accept His Lordship over your life.

Unrepentant sin.  When you go into a hospital ICU, surgery room you must first be decontaminated as the microbes, bacteria and filth that have collected on your skin and clothes may kill the individual upon whom the operation is being conducted.  I know this is a simplistic analogy, but still reasonably effective in explaining what must first be done in advance of entering God’s presence.  Isaiah was so ashamed when He saw God and fell to his face proclaiming that he did not deserve to be near God because he was a man of unclean lips.  He understood the contamination of this world, he understood his own sin and overall he revered God’s Holiness to the point where he cried out for cleansing.  We are only made clean through the BLOOD of CHRIST.  We may not enter into relationship with A ENTIRELY HOLY GOD without having been decontaminated of our sin by faith in Jesus.  If you continue to find yourself in the same old sins then you need to go to the cross and throw yourself upon the cornerstone, crying out to be cleansed of unrighteousness or you will never meet God.  Praise God that Jesus Christ provides that cleansing and it is a choice that will change eternity for each of us.

Love over bitterness, unforgiveness and hate.  These are the worlds contaminates, which darken our hearts to the things of God, blinding us to the light and opening the door to fear and misfortune.  Learn Love from God.  If you love Him enough to ask Him for wisdom, He will first teach you of Love.  The Love He holds for this world, for people, for you.  When you see the depth of His Love for you then you will understand your own value and begin to love yourself.  This self valuation and care will allow you to “Love your neighbor as yourself”, for this portends that we must understand how we wish to be loved before we may properly love others.  The Love of Christ as He went to the cross, subjecting Himself to something that He did not deserve, BY CHOICE, shows us how much He loved us.  Accepting that Love of God will cover you to the effects of unforgiveness, bitterness and hate.  Instead of choosing the worlds reactions to circumstance, you will see beyond the pain of the present and choose to forgive, be thankful, nurture, love and care for people, even when they show you their worst.

Choosing Christ and the things of God makes you an over comer.  Loving when there is no visible reason for love is the way of God.  Being at peace when the circumstances show no cause for calm is being impervious to the chaos of this world.  Forgiving those who mean you harm is evidence of Spirit’s presence for this is heavenly behavior that each of us found in Christ.  Over coming this world is a choice when one makes a decision for Christ.  Eternity is the perfect equal-opportunity event for each of us gets to choose.  Praise God for His Fairness and Love.  In Jesus’ Name.

Turn please oh my simple heart.  You know the way to peace, joy, contentment and satisfaction.  Don’t be lured by the sickeningly sweet scent of passionate embrace, followed by an cold, solid emptiness only this concrete world may provide.  Where are the dreams that danced in your head as a child, thoughts of effort, success, dedication and happiness doing something worthy?  That is it my heart, those things of a child that called each of us to glory, in simplicity, neutrality and innocence.  We were made for Kingdom’s Call, each of us purely and wonderfully crafted to do something unique for God, our Creator, our Father, our Lord.  Without that simple understanding and purposeful alignment we are fools striking matches in a rainstorm, while the fire burns brightly outside our peripheral vision.

How can my heart, stomach or willful thoughts lead me away from the prepared table of my God?  What whimsical thinking holds enough sway over human judgment that I might be coerced or convinced by brigand to lay in wait to rob, threaten or cajole bright, savory people?  It is the warnings that I have ignored, thinking myself immune to the deception that plagues mankind for which God sent ample prophetic warning.  This heart of mine may only be shielded from the continual barrage of false prompting by the breastplate of Christ’s Righteousness, seated firmly against my torso.  There is no hope for me in my own capacity to defend, this mind, against wicked thought, but that of Christ’s Helmet of Salvation.  unrighteous angels and demons fear not the grumblings of my false threats and pride, they fear THE WORD of God and that be Christ Jesus the King.  I am not capable of mounting effective defense in this world, increasingly-hostile to the things and people of God.  My only shelter, respite, peace and supply is Almighty God and my only hope being hidden in Christ, the mystery that confounds humanity.

What shall I follow the dim hooded lantern of darkened nightmare or the Bright Morning Star of Spirit sent to mark us for eternity.  Those that turn their heads from the light even for a moment risk being lost in the darkness of wandering paths, broad, illusionary boulevards leading to man’s glory, rotted thrones and sandstone edifices.  My heart, this heart is too weak to discern from that which is false and failing.  It is THE WORD written upon the sinew of my heart that removes the veil and slight of hand from thinking.  My heart, my mind, my gut has been set free through God’s provision of a sacrifice so grand that I still cannot comprehend, only imagine and wonder at my pure dumb luck being chosen by God’s, indefinable Grace.  What is faith?  It is knowledge, turned to belief by dependence on Truth of something greater than self, then that same belief becoming courageous action acknowledging my reliance upon Truth, Promise and Prophecy.  Faith is the Christian report card, for trusting and obeying God are the only measures of success and Love for God, in the Christian life.

I may no longer think as a child, but I pray that my heart believe and follow God in the same innocent, trusting manner of youth.  I may no longer act as a child, but I pray that my dreams be of fresh, Holy and righteous thinking filled with the limitless hope of childhood.  I may no longer have the appetites of a child, but I hope that I may still be finicky in my filling, choosing only what is good, wholesome and true to nourish me into adulthood.  I choose Christ.  Let me follow Him and nothing else.  Jesus, oh that my heart, my mind and my appetite would quest for one answer, You.

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.