Joy in the midst of chaos.  They don’t see, they don’t get it, they only see foolishness because they cannot see the Lord smiling at you through the smoke and sadness.  What have you lost that He cannot replace in triplicate?  What have you gained that He may decide to rust or evaporate?  Where have you gone that He has not been beside you, watching, waiting and praying for “you” to respond to Glory?  The greatest mistake is forgetting that He knew it all before time even began and yet He still chose to love us.  There are no other responses to such treatment but allegiance, sacrifice and obedience.

Yes we are surrounded by mockers, revilers and thieves, even the type who would say they love the King in falsehood.  Tyrants, fools, priests and kings have followed the same road time and again, repeating the same mistakes, seeking glory for sport.  People suffer while others prosper and live for entertainment.  Why do they gather around the chaplain to hear parables of the One?  What lures them to the company of impoverished clergy?  What makes them reach out, even in secrecy to them who know peace?  Because we have seen the face of God, not as they would paint us, claiming to have chatted with the Most High.  But, with our hearts and spirit we know Him when we hear Him or see the impact of His hand in our own lives and those around us.

They want us to explain because to them, science is king and proof is positive.  Taking something on faith appears foreign and idyllic yet seems commonplace when we remind them that they use the same faith in belief that Nothing created Everything.  They have no proof of the non existence of God or disproof of Jesus’ deity yet they still believe.  They have no missing link, providing fossil evidence of their claims of man from monkey, yet they believe.  To them our kind of faith is labeled idiocy if not insanity yet it rivals there own.  Furthermore they know the truth about God and have chosen to deny His glory.  Yet, still they gather about a Holy Spirit filled minister to hear about God, even if their intent is to discredit the Holy Messenger.  Why, because He draws them to the truth which they must deny.

So, have great joy for this is not all that is real.  It is just the real which we can see with current visual capability.  The Bible says that the unseen or heavenly realms are greater than this world.  At some point we will see just as Elisha prayed for his servant to see the Armies of God around us.  It is a charade that we are outnumbered, how much greater a myth that we are alone.  There is no cause for despair as the Lord of Glory lives.  Do not look to the world’s wanton sadness but to Heaven’s endless joy.  Delight in the Father as He delights in you.  Love Him, seek Him, live with Him in this life and the next.  Praise You Lord God my Father in Heaven, thank you for my daily bread.  I love you Jesus.  Amen.

http://www.oneplace.com/ministries/love-worth-finding/player/america-needs-healing-288380.html   America’s Predicament

http://youtu.be/MzkFxm4jsXg  Netanyahu’s Message to America on July 4th.

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/US-Presbyterians-reject-Israel-divestment-3687225.php  One by one the Denominations push for a break with Israel, the enemy’s influence is clear, the war is no longer behind the scenes.

Struggling, for space in an increasingly aggressive world.  Struggling to maintain peace in a mind that urges screaming from deep within a frustrated spirit.  Struggling to remain true to the Lord when everything and everyone around you wants you to forget Him and seek satisfaction or selfish victory.  Struggling to maintain harmony between life in the world and those of your religious family who strive to see you different.  Struggling to not tell them what’s wrong and lay it on the line as if I really knew all the answers.  Struggling to maintain a balance between work, play, service, song, prayer, dreams and sacrifice for those you care about, knowing in the end there’s only so much of “me” to go around.  Struggling not to call the wicked acts of the wicked, well “Wicked”.  Struggling to justify my fat belly when kids somewhere are starving, knowing that if I had to look at them I wouldn’t be so worried about what I need to eat next.  Struggling with myself to do what the Lord commands and stop doing what He prohibits.  Struggling to become more knowledgeable, peaceful, harmonious, patient, kind and self-controlled.  Struggling to hear the Mighty Voice of God over the inglorious din.  Struggling is my strength.  The only victory is through surrender.  To His Will, His Change, His Strength.  Lord God let me struggle no more but hand it all unto Your powerful hands to shape, mold and perfect.  Grant me strength enough to depend on You for all my needs.  Praise Your Name Lord Jesus Christ.

At what price?  Did the Lord die for you?  I see you shaking your head in agreement.  Are you showing Him the love, respect and thankfulness commensurate of a man or woman who has been bought out of slavery, yanked from the hand of the devil, cleansed, mended, healed and headed for eternity?  I ask these questions because, many times I haven’t and it grieves me.  If my own sin pains my heart then it must break the Lord’s?  Have you stopped growing or responding to the voice of the Holy Spirit?  If you still grieve your sin then hope survives.

I look at my brothers Adam, Paul, Job, Joshua, Moses, Jacob, Jonah, Solomon, Luke, Paul and Timothy finding myself in company of my family that struggled with this same predicament.  They all hated their own sin, yet still found themselves time and again doing that which they hated.  None of us has served perfectly, maybe Enoch or Elijah, perhaps.  It is part of being human that we must be reminded of our humanity by the pestering voice of flesh, the world and the enemy.  If the Lord had made us perfect the moment that we accepted Christ then we would no longer be able to be in this world.  For this world is the processing plant, the Potter’s wheel, the crucible, designed to prepare, separate and refine a man’s heart in preparation for Glory or Gehenna.

Have you paused on the path, sat down, thinking that you’ve done enough or will somehow begin again when you have rested?  Don’t let the hands of foolishness pull you to the couch.  Don’t listen to the sirens of self importance or slumber bidding you find peace, tranquility and self-satisfaction.  Finding those things in this world comes with the price of lost peace in the next.  Our peace surpasses all worldly understanding because it is something of God.  Something beyond our comprehension, it makes no sense to men.  To find such peace in this world you must be in constant communion with the Lord.  Do not get weak, weary or willing to sit down on the path to Glory.  You will sin, you will fail, you will fall down, but GET UP, each time knowing that for this God gave His life on a tree.  Don’t let anything dissuade you from the path on which God has set your feet.  Never let go, never give in, never give up, never abandon your post and when you find peace or rest in  this world find it under the shelter of the Lord’s Mighty Wings, not among the things that this world brings.  In Christ Jesus, I pray that you find strength and rest.  God be praised.  Amen.

In full regalia, shining with the Glory of the Lord, ready for battle to come.  Waiting to be cleansed of the last stained vestiges of filth to which our father Adam bid us drink.  Listening for that Voice of thunder, trumpeting the arrival of Lord’s reign upon the earth.  Each moment conscience becoming clearer, wanting instead of avoiding accountability and the day of my own judgment.  Less apprehensive of the day when I shall give an accounting of this life, what I’ve done and even more important what I haven’t done with the breath, health and time I was gifted.  What does being ready look like?

Can we not see the spiraling whirlpool to which the ship has been committed?  Circling the depths, gaining centrifugal speed, gravitational forces gluing us to our positions against the gunwales.  The further we proceed the tougher to escape, but not so for those who’ve chosen eternity.  Reason has escaped it bonds and been replaced by its paltry cousin mockery.  Self concern has taken hold where unity provided the comforts of family.  Leadership has stepped away from the helm, given up the fight against the forces of fate and physics.

Look not to the whirling chasm but to the light at the eye at center of the maelstrom.  Keep your eyes peeled to the light of heaven for from His seat upon the throne He shall stand and come to call us home, escaping the fires, escaping the trials, reaping what we’ve sown through faith.  Yes the price of faith is freedom from the great day of judgment, can we afford such cost.  And if this feathered yoke be granted will we plow, plant, water in preparation of the coming harvesting scythe?  What is more important?  What is possibly as fulfilling?  What other task would a soldier dedicate his pursuits but the the preparation and execution of tactics meant for victory?

Jesus Christ is coming soon with a faithful throng dressed in white.  Before this moment of Glorious appearing we must be judged, fed, prepared and sanctified.  Will I be ready when He calls us from our bunks to join Him in such preparation?  God be praised I will see that day kneeling at the foot of the throne.  In Jesus’ name I pray for all to come to God through the only door of Jesus Christ the Lord of all creation.

Are you willing to climb, weathering thirst, personal hardship, self-control, patience and prayer?  Will you investigate what’s on the mountain calling to you scale its heights?  Will you brave the valley, knowing it’s the only access to get to the peaks?  What amazes you so where you are standing that you will not heed the Voice, Signs and Word of God, Almighty?  Will you wait in the desert at the base of the precipice seeking the moment when He calls you to ascend?

For His Glory, we speak the Word.  For His Glory, we spread the Good News of Christ.  For His Glory, we were born and reborn to redemption.  Willingness is demonstrable Love for the Lord and His Will.  And it is to His Glory that we wish to demonstrate our Love for Him by answering His call to service, prayer and faith.  Are you hearing the Word or are you hearing the world.  There is only one letter difference between them, but they cannot be more different in meaning.  You cannot worship them both.  You cannot love them both.  You cannot live them both.  For His Glory He made this world to demonstrate His love for us.  His undying love which He carried through the grasp of death to Heaven.

What is your Holy Ground?  Where do you prepare to meet God and strike off your shoes to rest your bare feet in the dirt and sand before His presence?  Where are your feet?  Are they wandering the desert in search of any place to call your own, belligerent, ungrateful, unwise, untrue, dissatisfied and bitter?  Are they rooted on the solid rock, immovable when storms seek to dislodge them from a firm foundation?  Do you keep your eyes upon the light, ignoring the glitz and glimmer of false faith, empty epistle and short term salvation?  Seek the Holy Ground and when you’ve found it wait upon the Lord, knowing that in His time He will speak to you of wisdom and purpose.  There is no glory but His, no purpose but His, no peace but His and that will only be found on Holy Ground.  Praise You Almighty Father God in the name of Jesus Christ the Lord of All Creation.  Amen.

If I fashion the words just right I can dissuade you from your just pursuits and lead you into pointless wandering.  These are evil times my friend and we must be on guard.  Careless words given to children can create anti-social or self destructive behavior that outlasts parenthood.  When I reflect back on the “bad” direction I was given, the subsequent missteps and mistakes which may have been completely avoided it compels me to deliver a stark call to all those who would walk the straight and narrow.  What type of salesman am I being to those easily influenced folks in my life, how am I aiding the enemy by leading them “one degree” off course, resulting in altered destination?  That is why the enemies of God love the grey area, they abhor the absolute truth, because in the truth there is no hiding place for self-justification.  I cannot explain away my poor behavior, lusts or personal servitude when there is such an unavoidable, “unchanging” God who has laid down for eternity the words that will never pass away, against which all my thoughts, behaviors and inaction will be measured.

Those caught in apostasy and God denial rationally have no other choice than to ridicule the Lord.  For if God’s standard is true then their destination is determined and a love for “self-determination” forces them to illusion and blindness.  It is eerily similar to Satan’s circumstances, may the Lord rebuke him, who has lost the war yet refuses to turn about and rectify his rebellion.  Having only one purpose now, with no self salvation available but to corrupt every other soul possible leading all those naive hearts astray from their redemption out of spite, jealousy, rage and despair.

Do you measure yourself against the Word or do you go about your own business then look for justification wherever available, perhaps in a Bible verse taken out of context or in the world through “self or worldly” opinion.  Let us briefly look back at the rapid downfall of America as a promised, God fearing nation.  When Darwin published his briefings and hypotheses back in 1859 it was widely received by a population looking for a way out of guilt.  We eagerly embraced the absence of God in our liberal hunt for alternative justification.  By 1865 we were almost torn apart by the Civil War, which some may say was immediate evidence of God’s displeasure with our pursuits.  Then in 1872, Harvard left the Bible basis for Law, inserting instead Law based on the determination of the history of mankind.  Since that time we have been on a decadent spiral, careening from fat to lean, born on the pendulum of self determination.  No longer were we edified by the Providence of God but were as the Lord always does with His children who depart from the path, “left to our own understanding and outcome”.  We have been reaping what we have sown and wickedness, decay and death are entwined.  The current state of affairs in this nation is in direct response to our denial of the truth that is the Lord our God.  We have received the consequences of said action just as Romans 1 predicted for all who go astray.

There are only two sides those for God and those against Him.  There is only one absolute truth and His name is Jesus.  Men who are governed by the law will be judged by the law.  Those who confess, repent and believe on the works of the Lord shall be pardoned and made free for eternity.  Intolerance is a convenient word expressed by the dying to free themselves of the light of truth.  I am no one’s judge, but in truth I must declare the Word of Him who is faithful and true.  His Word is truth, His love and grace sweet, His Justice Swift.  I pray that my words have led no one astray for the Truth that is Christ the Lord of All.  He is Lord after all not because I say it is so but because He Is.  Whether you accept that fact is up to you, but it does not change the fact that He is our Creator and has all the right in this world and the next to make the rules and expect that we live by them.  I implore you to seek the truth and come out of the pitch darkness or shadowed gray.  Stand in the light where all is seen, all revealed, all cleansed and alive.  Praise God in Jesus’ Holy Name.  Amen.

My hands rattled the cage of time, my eyes swelled with tears knowing that I would be trapped inside for ever holding no inkling of hope.  My dreams had been fulfilled, my mind’s eye appeased, I lived and savored momentary conquests and prayed they linger.  The money I made bought me shade, and rest and a broader waistline, but never lasted past the point of gluttony or hangover.  I had achieved Man’s desire, wealth, prestige, fashion, fancy and maintained my polished pride, even at the sake of losing every worthy person I loved.  Yes, I had lived to the fullest, fast lane-success available to man.  Peeling the skin from my fingertips as I grasped for the last magic, elixir drops drying into the concrete under the noonish sun.  Sitting on a curb, I leaned back closed my eyes and prayed that somehow today it would  end.  How could I possibly be begging God to take away something to which I had dedicated my entire existence, time and talent?  Can time be truly wasted if lessons are learned or does regret somehow ruin victory?  All I know is that I was set free and there is nothing that could ever convince me to return to such foolhardy pursuit.

What is time to us?  Do you wish for days to go slower or faster and what does that say about living in this precious moment?  Father I don’t know when you will return to gather your Church.  I do not know if I shall be here or passed beyond the gateway to eternity.  I do not know what awaits me in glory.  I only know that You are at the end of this road and that is enough for me.  Yes, I continue to get this wrong because being right is not so important.  Just being is enough, being and believing in the one thing that is pure, holy, great and untarnished by tyrannical time.  Father let me depend not on my understanding, direct me to the words that I must use today, the wisdom I must demonstrate today to overcome the obstacles that face me today.  Let me not agonize over yesterday or obsess on tomorrow.  Breathe with me Father.  Let my heart be at peace in service, love and prayer.  In Your Holy Name King Jesus I pray this day I have been freely given.  Amen.

Discernment is about listening not seeing.  Listening to the heart of God, the voice of God, the Divine direction of the Lord.  Do not let me speak in Your Holy Presence Father, but listen.  One whispered word from Your Lips is worth all the weight my entire life of speech may bring.  I have spoken for You without hearing, answered for You without consulting, told of You without inquiring.  Redeemed but not set free of the poisonous prison I’ve constructed out of yearning to be acceptable to a dying world.  Please don’t let it be about me, for that would be Unfulfilling to a world that craves release from emptiness.  None of us have what it takes to complete ourselves or anyone else, we can only be made whole in Jesus Christ.  Wisdom is not folly well spoken, but the Lord’s bidding well delivered.

In agony I hear your words, Brother’s and see the mystery revealed.  We share in our frailty, for it matters not one golden word, soaked in honey delivered with angelic pretense.  All that I possess worth anything, God created.  I am a stick figure without His brush stroke, a garbled sentence without His penmanship, a leaky vessel without His shaping hand.  I am made to carry The Living Water.  Nothing I have made is worthy of salvation.  The crafts of my hands, the thoughts of my mind and the words of my throat are folly unless Blessed by His Will.  Do not look to me and say there goes a good man who knows the path for I see only one light in this perpetual darkness and His name is the Lord, Jesus Christ, the Messiah of the Almighty God, The Bringer of Light, Truth and Judgment, the Giver of Spirit, the Redeemer of the World, The Word.  Amen.

I pray that the Lord forgives me for all those things that were done in my own name, not for His glory.  The times that I would be seen in favored light.  The days when I stepped forward to take the reins only to demonstrate how proficient my skill set.  The nights I told stories dedicated to the King of Glory only to accept the accolade of a listening populace.  The priceless moments of testimonial share time that I completely missed because I was too busy making a salient argument.  The chances to forgive and ask pardon of those and for those who would either wise have gone through life with guilt and shame.  The days I sought my own sustenance and not the appetites of the starving, undernourished, unloved and disenfranchised.  The years of using my God-given gifts for my personal edification and not to direct hearts to the Cross.

It is an honor, joy and life fulfilling process to serve You Father.  Let me do so without shame or regret.  Let me cast my whole heart, mind and soul into my efforts for the Kingdom.  Let me leave no consideration for the flesh or worldly position.  Let me live this life and the next for You and Your Will.  In Jesus’ Name I pray.

Willingness, is entirely different than dutifully performing assigned tasks, though one may be willing out of a sense of duty.  Joyously carrying out the works that God designed for each Christian is a state of heart appealing to the Lord.  Think on it.  Even in your worldly work, it is significantly easier to go to a job each day when you “want” to go.  The days don’t seem arduous when you willingly accept the tasks set before you by your earthly authorities.  There are three perspectives, resist the yoke, accept it because you must then gripe and whine or willingly look forward to doing the work set before you.  God is looking for volunteers, not those attempting to hide in the masses hoping to never be picked.

We are the leaders of mankind.  We are the royalty, the salt and light, the holders of God’s wisdom and the world looks to us for direction.  It truly becomes problematic when we have no personal direction.  We should not be standing around saying, “I wish I knew God’s will for my life?”  This and other “excuses” are clear attempts to avoid what we know that God has already told us in His word and what most Christians already have heard from the Holy Spirit whispering in their ears and hearts.  If you don’t know what God wants you to do then how about this, learn His word, pray and go out and spread the Good News of Christ and coming judgment.  Sound familiar?

Everyone wants some special duty but they are unwilling to be obedient to their worldly masters and do the work of evangelism and prayer to which we have all been directed.  This outlook violates reality.  Even in the world you get promoted for special work or more responsibility by demonstrating a unique willingness and capacity to carry out the normal tasking of any job.  In fact I have seen more people be promoted by a willing spirit than by a demonstrated gift to complete their work.  Leaders want to surround themselves with people who want to get the job done.  Just as in material blessings where by the Lord seeks those who make the most of what they have been given before giving them more it is same in work.  Lord take from my heart any rebellion and pride.  Allow me to be the first to step forward and accept your yoke, for I know that it is light.  Let my example cause others to step forward willingly to the plow and never look back.  Give them the willing heart of service to Your Will.  God bless Your Holy Name by Christ Jesus I pray.  Amen.