A Christmas Message

“I see him, but not in the present time. I perceive him, but far in the distant future. A star will rise from Jacob; a scepter will emerge from Israel….” Numbers 24:17

A scepter is an emblem or sign for authority and when the word scepter was magnified from the other words in this scripture verse, I was reminded of the story Esther in the bible.

Examine these verses with me from Esther:

“The whole world knows that anyone who appears before the king in his inner court without being invited is doomed to die unless the king holds out his golden scepter….” Esther 4:11

“When he saw Queen Esther standing there in the inner court, he welcomed her, holding out the gold scepter to her. So Esther approached and touched its tip.” Esther 5:2

“Now once more Esther came before the king, falling down at his feet and begging him with tears to stop Haman’s evil plot against the Jews. Again the king held out his golden scepter to Esther. So she rose and stood before him and said, ‘If Your Majesty is pleased with me and if he thinks it is right, send out a decree reversing Haman’s orders to destroy the Jews through out the provinces of the king. For how can I endure to see my people and my family slaughtered and destroyed’” Esther 8:3-6

Anyone who appeared before King Xerxes uninvited was doomed to die unless the king held out his golden scepter, which is a great illustration of what it was like with God’s presence in the tabernacle (Exodus 40:34) and the Most Holy Place in the temple (Hebrews 9:7-8). Only priests could enter these places. The “scepter” and “inner court” of the king are great illustrations or parallels of Jesus holding out his life and sacrifice as a scepter so we can have favor with and approach God.

“Now all of us can come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for us.” Ephesians 2:18

Jesus told him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” John 14:6

“A star will rise from Jacob; a scepter will emerge from Israel.”

Jesus is the authority to receive life and receive eternal life in heaven.

The star represents the star that rose above Bethlehem. The scepter is Jesus that “emerged” from Israel. The scepter held out to us was Jesus who offers us life instead of death.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it but to save it.” John 3:16-17

We as common folk cannot get to heaven by own our deeds or accomplishments but only in relying, submitting, trusting, believing and living “in” Christ - a priesthood in God where we can enter into his inner courts. (Very powerful stuff)

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” 1 Peter 2:9

For Jesus, transforms all who come, believe and trust him. Where the ordinary are empowered by God’s love, power, mercy, grace, peace, hope and truth, which grow and live in us as we heed the Holy Spirit.

BUT those who do not want to receive this emblem of the Father’s authority will receive a life of decay, death and eternity in hell.

For just Esther had to make a choice to come to King, her husband, to save her and her people from the plot of Haman- we all have to make a choice to come to the King, Savor and Lord Jesus Christ to be saved.

Like Haman, Satan the accuser wants to destroy you and make your eternal destination hell by encouraging your ignorance of God’s gracious gift. He doesn’t want you to trust, believe, submit to Jesus- for you to be counted innocent of all your sins and find out what true peace, mercy, grace, hope, joy and truth is.

Satan, the same as Haman, hates when Christians don’t bow down to his tricks and strategies of fear, intimidation, love for wealth, money, popularity, lust, power etc and like Haman he will see it is not enough to lay hands on you and seek in all his ways to destroy you but he cannot destroy your soul or faith unless you let him.

Does God allow Satan to have permission to tempt and test his people?

Did Jesus get tempted and tested and didn’t Jesus say when it comes to Satan, the student is no different then the Master? We are not to fret when tempted and tested for when these things come they not only keep us living in the truth. For in our submission to the truth we have the opportunity and gift to see God work in our life. We have the opportunity to see God’s power to work in and through us as simple vessels of his love as we trust and know in the scepter that has been freely given to us daily.

Satan’s plot will backfire just as Haman’s plot did against the Jews.

The bride of Christ, the Christian church, does not just have God’s favor and affection but has been given the king’s signet ring as his representative to speak and share in the Lord’s name. He has given his bride authority “in” his name.

To share the Good News and celebration of the gift of salvation in the birth of the God’s royal scepter, His Son.

We celebrate this gift in the same fashion as the Jews celebrated victory over their enemies and Haman in Esther’s day to today- with rejoicing and giving of gifts to one another. Jesus is the true gift of the season.

These spiritual truths and how they relate to the story of Esther are not new but let them became fresh and new with the prophecy the wise men knew about as they came to Jerusalem asking “Where is the newborn king of the Jews?”

“A star will rise from Jacob; a scepter will emerge from Israel.” This fact and truth of favor should encourage us.

It should tighten the pieces of this empowering message together even more. It should make your net have smaller and smaller openings where the pieces of God’s truth don’t fall through the holes but the pieces of these tasty messages and truths are gathered and shared and eaten by those who are hungry.

Merry Christmas in all its fullness to you and yours.

Jeff

Celebrating the Merciful Scepter of Christmas

I have heard that there are “Christian” churches that have cancelled church on Christmas morning. I am dumb founded. I am in disbelief. This is actually happening on Christmas day? IT is CHRISTMAS. IT is the day in which we celebrate JESUS’ birthday.

How can we celebrate Christmas without celebrating the reason for Christmas? What is the reasoning? You would be going to church on Sunday anyway and what would be even better Sunday is the day in which we Jesus' birth- the entire reason for Christmas. It is his birthday and you are going to celebrate Jesus' birthday without even taking time to worship and praise him in God’s house? It doesn’t make sense.

Christmas is a day to celebrate the true gift of Christmas. It is a day to honor Jesus who came on our behalf to be God’s merciful scepter to give us life and eternal life. Jesus is King, Lord, and Savior. Favor with God came from Him. He is the one who gave us new life and encourages us and gives us strength in his mercy, grace, peace, hope and love.

Celebrate and honor his birth together as his body this Sunday at the church.

“For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6

“I see him, but not in the present time. I perceive him, but far in the distant future. A star will rise from Jacob; a scepter will emerge from Israel. It will crush the foreheads of Moab’s people, cracking the skull of the people of Sheth. Edom will be taken over and Seir, it’s enemy will be conquered, while Israel continues on in triumph.” Numbers 24:17

“But you, O Bethlehem, Ephrathah, are only a small village in Judah. Yet a ruler of Israel will come from you, one whose origins are from the distant past. The people of Israel will be abandoned to their enemies until the time when the woman in labor gives birth to her son. Then at last his fellow countrymen will return from exile to their own land. And he will stand to lead his flock with the LORD’s strength, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. Then his people will live there undisturbed, for he will be highly honored all around the world. And he will be the source of our peace.” Micah 5:2-5

Merry Christmas in all it’s fullness to you and yours.

Don’t Make it Complicated. “God Loves You.”

No I haven’t become lax or negligent on the Good News of Jesus Christ but there is a time to share the Good News in more detail and depth as the Spirit gives and there are other times when we need to feed the people of God’s affection in actions of love and in the simple but powerful truth that God loves them.

We at times would all love to beat people over the head that they need Jesus but in what motive are we doing that in? We want to set people free but the Spirit must guide our actions as well as our words. If not done in love it is worthless. Zeal is great but is the zeal in the humility of God’s love or something else?

I remember my grandmother saying to us grand-kids when we were teenagers, “God loves you.” Our response not really understanding this truth would say, “I know Gram.”

Sometimes loving actions and the simple truth make a bigger impact then trying to stuff the Spiritual steak and potatoes of the message of the Good News through people’s ears. I think we also make “God loves You” into the mentality of a bummer sticker on some old grandma’s car but it is NOT. Think about it. “God loves you” is probably the most powerful statement in thought. And if said in the sincere humble love that has been nurtured and matured and delivered by the Holy Spirit, it is the finest aged wine ever tasted.

I know from personal experience that I often put up walls when I felt preached to and people who already feel like outcasts- feel like greater outcasts because the message isn’t delivered in a real genuine loving manner or their heart has not been prepared to receive the message. Instead of hands helping to them out of the ditch of their robbers throw them in, they are given a swinging banter of religious verbiages instead which are not help at all- good intentioned or not.

Live in God’s love and when God wants you to speak he will guide the your words and the length and depth of the words you will speak.

How did you come to Christ? Think about it. Did God make you feel like you had to jump through hoops to be loved by him or did he make himself approachable to you? Why? How? How did the God make himself approachable to his chosen creation? What made it so you could freely come to him and give your life to him?

Remember Colossians 1:19-

“For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in the Christ, and by him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of his blood on the cross. This includes you who were once so far away from God. You were his enemies separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions, yet now he has brought you back as his friends. He has done this through his death on the cross in his own body. He has brought you into the very presence of God, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault. But you must continue to stand in it firmly. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News…”

God made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of his blood on the cross. Man will never have peace apart from God. Man will fight and wage war against man and cause other men to go to war for them and against them because they don’t have God’s peace in them, which is only born and matured in and from God’s love.

Just because God reconciled everything to himself does not mean men reconciled themselves to him. Humanity will always separate themselves from God by their thoughts and actions… innocent or not… ignorant or not.

God’s heart is for his creation- he is available to the lowest of the low. He made it possible with his love and the evidence of that love was signified in the blood on the cross so it could be seeded and grown in the hearts of men. He healed you and birthed you of his Holy Spirit who now empowers and calls you to live according to his love.

When people’s hearts are stubborn and hardened and far from God -throwing seed on the ground does nothing if loving actions don’t come with or before it. The Holy Spirit guided actions and words that come forth out of the vessel of man are like the warmth of the sun thawing the frozen ground. People may know God by the little measure that he has planted inside them but that little measure of a seed will only grow when they allow God’s love to grow in them. (Know not just “of” God but “know” him and know him more intimately.)

I did not know Christ even though I had a religious tradition of celebrating his birth every Christmas. I would pray to God and still knowing how far I was from him he answered but I did as the bible said, I did not even thank him and continued on my path of ignorance and stupidity.

The Father drew me in by his love and faithfulness and when his cleansing light came into my life with my choice of surrender and submission to him I became a changed man and the realization of my debt to Jesus Christ became very real.

That is way Jesus says, “For people can’t come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them to me, and at the last day I will raise them from the dead. As it is written in the Scriptures, ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who hears and learns from the Father comes to me.” John 6:44-46

The Father gives the Son (Jesus Christ). The Son becomes the Shepherd and the Shepherd gives the Holy Spirit who gives all who trust and believe in the Son (Jesus Christ) have eternal life.

Human effort accomplishes nothing. I have found only by submission, a humility that allows God’s peace to find a seat in our soul, and the growing understanding of God’s love in the depths of our heart- does many powerful things despite the hardness of circumstances, situations, actions and words in this life.

May you as well as I know God’s love greater in our hearts and live in his love so we may have peace, and the power to act graciously and mercifully. May we live and endure spiritually and mindfully in Christ while we are here on this earth. May we let go of ourselves and or own ways of thinking and doing in order for God to able and secure us in his ways of doing things. May we become less and he more. Let us not become arrogant, or blind, or complacent. Let us not become doers by our own means and understanding where the rules of men emerge and God’s love becomes absent in our ways. Let us honor God with our lips and our heart. Let us worship God in Spirit and Truth. –In Jesus Name Amen.

Remember God welcomes the lost. Don’t make it complicated. You and those around you are better off if you remember the simple but powerful message that “God is Love.” Those who trust and believe in this simple message will be productive in the Spirit of the Lord.

Scriptures: Colossians 1:19-23, Romans 1: 19-22, 2 Peter 1:5-9, John 6:44-46, 1 John 4:7

The Message in the Fog

The few mornings ago I was feeling overwhelmed with life as I was driving home when suddenly I drove into this white dense fog. The white fog reminded me of a heavy white snow that blankets everything and gives you that snuggled in feeling. I suddenly imagined the fog in the timbered mountain hills where a modest cabin stands. There, through two of the cabin’s simple grid windows a warm glow was coming from the stone surround fireplace inside. I imagined a warm meal scenting the air and a worn wood rocking chair sitting leg length away from the fire and my journal resting on it waiting for me to scribble down what the Lord would speak to me about.

I drove up my real drive way and came inside and sat and looked outside with appreciation. All the surrounding hills and trees and neighbors were either blanked out or muted of their hardness. The fog quieted my soul. The condensation, the fog had created, dropped off the roof making the metronome inside of me slow to its rhythm. I thanked God for the fog. It was just what I needed to remind me that God is the one who mutes the hardness of life. He quiets my soul, mind and heart.

My "Refuge" had created a temporary refuge for me that morning.

God can take the natural to speak to us in the spiritual.

Listen, Obey, Trust

Recently I had a vision…. And I have got to say sometimes I am just slow at times with what God is showing me.

In the vision I am in a place where it is quiet and still. I am humbled, surrendered and submitted on the floor on my arms and knees - when a person appears before me. This person is wearing a shimmering yellow robe -and with every step a fog like haze perforates from the bottom of this rob. The haze is so thick that I cannot see the person’s feet. The robe mimics one of those essence lanterns you see Catholics holding during their different ceremonies, - that puts out smoke when they wave it back and forth. (I am not a Catholic so I don’t know what the lantern is called but I believe it is supposed to man made way to represent the Holy Spirit.) I look up at the person wearing the rob and it’s a man. He has long white shoulder length hair that is brushed out of his face and a perfectly trimmed white goatee and mustache. He looked as if he was waiting to speak. I call him Father. He looks into my eyes. His eyes are deeper then the depths of space. The man’s face then turns to a sphere of fire and shoots into the sky. A voice says, “He illuminates all the pages.” Then as quickly as the vision began- it ended.

The days following the Holy Spirit led me to the books John, Luke, and Matthew in the bible.

John 12:43 “For they loved human praise more then the praise of God.”

John 5:44 “No wonder you can’t believe! For you gladly honor each other, but you don’t care about the honor that comes from God alone.”

Next verses

Luke 8:15 “But the good soil represents honest, good-hearted people who hear God’s message, cling to it, and steadily produce a huge harvest.”

Luke 8:18 “So be sure to pay attention to what you hear. To those who are open to my teaching, more understanding will be given. But to those who are not listening, even what they think they have will be taken away from them.”

Next verse

Matthew 15:8 “The people honor me with their lips but their hearts are far away.”

Later the Holy Spirit urged me to go and read those verses again and that is when I discovered that the root of Matthew 15:8 came from Isaiah 29:13-14.

So like uncovering a great secret I turned there:

“These people say they are mine. They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far away. And their worship of me amounts to nothing more then human laws learned by rote. Because of this, I will show that human wisdom is foolish and even the most brilliant people lack understanding.”

I was then lead to Isaiah 6: Where it talks about the Lord wearing a rob that had a train that filled the temple and their were seraphim angels that covered their faces and feet and they sang, “Holy, holy holy is the LORD Almighty! The whole earth is filled with his glory!” The glorious singing shook the Temple to its foundation and the entire sanctuary was filled with smoke. After Isaiah’s guilt was removed and his sins were forgiven the Lord asked, “Whom should I send as a messenger to my people? Who will go for us?” Isaiah then answers “Lord, I’ll go! Send me.”

There were not seraphim angels/ or beings in my vision and I did not see the Lord’s train fill the temple but I did see a robe and I did see smoke which is sometimes the evidence of the Holy Spirit. Not just in the spiritual realm but also in how he manifests himself in the realty in which we physically live at this moment.

I have been asking the Lord to send me for sometime. Sometimes we are afraid to ask God to send us because of “where” he might send us. Others ask to be sent hoping to be sent to some foreign land but he sends us to a relative, a neighbor and even the church we attend instead.

Messages to your own church can be difficult especially if the messages doesn’t seem all that encouraging or uplifting but corrective in nature. I have found more often then not a message from the Lord even if it is a corrective one is better received then receiving no message from the Lord at all plus a corrective message given in the Spirit of love in Jesus Christ roots deeper in the mind and heart then not spoken in the Spirit of love in Jesus Christ. And even if they reject what you say by the Spirit- they aren’t rejecting you but God who had you speak it. I find sometimes it’s better if the majority “stays away” after a message I give from the Lord because then I don’t get lured in by human praise and my neutrality stays intact and rooted in the Lord where the Lord esteems me/ not man esteems me. I feel very uneasy when people want to give me praise and not God who gave it to me to say. This last time I even started to quiver after I gave it realizing the mighty source in which it came.

When a message is given usually there are also two or more people to confirm what you say is true. Example: God gave me a message, I obeyed God and spoke it and he confirmed the message was on track because the sermon our pastor followed with had to do with what I shared and then a brother in Christ had gotten the same message as well from the Holy Spirit.

The message had to do with being still and quiet and submitted and surrendered before the Lord and making a greater effort to spend with the Lord because he loves us. We should put no one or anything in front of the Lord in all occasions- good or bad. God puts no one in front of us so we should not allow or put anyone in front of him. Give honor to God. Keep your eyes on the Lord’s love for you and you will be able to love each other, as you should in the unity of Christ's body but if you fail to keep your eyes on the Lord then it will be impossible to have unity in the church body.

Of course this led to our young adult bible study about letting God use us as willing receptacles. God knows if our heart is receptive and willing or not. He knows if we are just giving lip service or if we truly trust him and want him to work his mercy, grace and love through us. For Jesus says “This is what God wants you to do: Believe in the one he sent.” John 6:29

There is where the fullness of Christ is woven into our soul. Believe the Lord is Lord of your life.

Believing in the one he sent (Jesus Christ) not just in your mind but your heart as well helps us to not just listen to the Holy Spirit but to obey and trust him with the task he is going to “partner” with us in doing. Believing is doing. Maturity happens when we begin to understand in our heart. This kind of knowing of Jesus as Lord of our life will surpass even our heart knowledge because God’s love, wisdom and power surpasses anything we could know. And yet this is only possible in Jesus Christ- where can we live and experience God’s love, wisdom, and power that is beyond anything we could understand or imagine as we live in the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Paul says the same thing here:

"I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God's love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen." Ephesians 3:16-21

For we are just the vessels and he does the work through us so we learn to not to depend on ourselves but depend on Him who enables us to do what we thought at first as not possible for us to do or experience.

God (Father, Son -Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit) is our ultimate source of love, encouragement, praise, refuge, strength and certainty. We must listen, obey and trust him in all things.

Switchfoot "Where I belong"

A Love That Surpasses Head Knowledge

Head knowledge of God won't get us "there"- head knowledge will not empower us in the ways of God.

Just as ideas may come from the mind but the passion in the heart for those ideas continues and propels them onward.

The knowledge and wisdom God will just stay in the mind and never mature in the fullness of Christ unless they take root and grow in the heart knowing "in" God. We can know "of" God but "knowing" God and having a passion for God doesn't happen if we don't allow God to work and live in our heart. God must have full excess to our heart. We must know God's love with the "knowing in our heart" and in this maturing faith in the knowing "in" God that we live in, reply on, take refuge in, trust in will even surpass the knowing in our heart. God's love is deeper then the knowing in our heart. We cannot fully understanding how much God loves us but we get a glimpse we when think about Jesus' passion for us and sacrifice on the cross.

God wants us to live NOT in just in head knowledge but in reality of His love that He has placed in our heart when we became a new creation in Christ Jesus. Learning to submit (be still, quiet, before the Lord) and live in God's love is something we all as Christians must continue to do- to "mature" in God's love. This maturity grows in addition to the wisdom God gives us and gives more deeply but if one decides they know it all and have heard it all already they have cut the working power of God off.

Imagine your heart as a glass. How much "God" juice/ Holy Spirit fortified juice did you allow Him to pour into you today? Was it 1%? 10%? 50%? 80% 90%? 100%?

In the hidden but real certainty of God we will not be tossed around by opinions, cleaver arguments, situations, circumstances, etc.

Again this can only happen if Jesus is at home in our heart for weakness is behind the locked doors of the soul where God is not allowed to enter.

Ephesians 3:16-19 (NIV)
"I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have the power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge- that you may filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."

1. "inner being" (your soul) is where the power of God lives.
2. "dwell" (live in your heart/ not the physical heart but the "knowing heart" of the soul )
3. "rooted and established in love" (planted, surrendered, anchored in God's love which has no fear.)
4. "to grasp" (to fully understand)
5. "surpasses knowledge" (head knowledge -and even heart knowledge)

Paul writes in Ephesians 3:19 "May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with fullness of life and power that comes from God." NLT.

We may live in this supernatural love even though we may not even fully understand it. Sort of like when a person is "born-again". It is a supernatural transformation that changes the heart. A person can not necessarily see the inward changes of this transformation from the outward appearance - except through a person's actions/ fruit.

6. "fullness of God" -(whole measure of the fullness of Christ/ maturity of Christ.)

True intimate fellowship with His goodness brings out His goodness in us.

2 Peter 1:3-
"As we know Jesus better, his divine power gives us everything we need for living a godly life. He has called us to receive his own glory and goodness! And by the same mighty power, he has given us all of his rich and wonderful promises. He has promised that you will escape the decadence all around you caused by evil desires and that you will share in his divine nature."

Do we truly understand how much God loves us? Do we truly understand how God's love secures and stabilizes us? Do we truly understand how patient and kind God is? Do we truly know God never gives up, never loses faith in us, is always hopeful and endures so much from us and for us?

He has planted Jesus in our hearts and is waiting for us to let him have full excess to our heart not just our mind. For God's words in which we are taught and feed and speak will not just be God's words but the words will have passionate godly actions to escort them. Mighty is the love of God and his love for us. Give God your heart and you will not regret it but those who hold back will regret much.

For to live in God's love is to be sustained in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

The Hiding Place

Then Moses said, "If you don't go with us personally, don't let us move a step from this place." Exodus 33:15

We live in a very uncertain world so where does the Christian soul find peace to live a Godly life?

The Place of Refuge For the Soul

Does your soul have a hiding place to endure the uncertainty of life? This hiding place is not a place we can find on our own or by our own efforts.

This hiding place is not some physical location but a place in which the soul can take refuge “anytime” -not just in times of difficulty and/or trouble.

Our emotions are tied to our thoughts. Our thoughts can be like winds that power the waves of powerful seas and leaving a trail of destruction within them. Our thoughts must not be cast upon things that are uncertain but on God who is constant and certain.

Psalm 46:1 “God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble.”

Psalm 91:1-2 “Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. This I declare of the LORD: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; he is my God, and I am trusting him. “

Psalm 91:4 “He will shield you with his wings. He will shelter you with his feathers. His faithful promises are your armor and protection.”

Psalm 91:9 “If you make the LORD your refuge, if you make the Most High your shelter, no evil will conquer you; no plague will come near your dwelling.”

Psalm 91:14 “The LORD says, “ I will rescue those who love me. I will protect those who trust in my name. When they call on me, I will answer; I will be with them in trouble. I will rescue them and honor them.”

I don’t pretend to understand the ways of the LORD, I just know He works in mysterious and powerful ways that the human understanding cannot understand.

Ask yourself this question: “Have I allowed God open excess into my life (Your heart and mind and soul) to prepare my soul for what is ahead in “this” life?” Are my thoughts secured upon God and His Love?

Your Real Life

Colossians 3:2-3 “Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth.
For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.”

Take some time to think upon this:

Your real life is “in” Christ Jesus- not “this” life you are currently experiencing.

Example: Though your body maybe suffering from cancer -this is not your soul’s life- this is not your real life. Your real life is hidden in Christ Jesus.

Just as a “handicapped” Christian maybe trapped in a body in which they have little control of – there “real” life is not their body but IN God who nourishes the soul.

Home is Where the Heart Is

I was watching the movie “The Hiding Place” and the more I watched it, the more I started to think about “the hiding place” was not some tiny place to hide Jews from the Nazi’s but it was a spiritual place within a believer’s heart.

God is our hiding place. He is our place of refuge, protection, encouragement, and enlightenment, and SOURCE of faithful, unfailing, unconditional love.

We will experience physical fatigue, loss, pain, sickness, hunger, sexual desire and so on - through our bodies but our bodies are not our home they are only a place that our heaven bound souls temporary reside.

We are in Christ. God is our home. There is where home is. There is where the heart is.

Why This Life?

Why didn’t God just skip this human experience and have us living with Him now?

Well think of it this way. Before you marry someone you become acquainted with him or her. You date and become educated about this special person of the opposite sex before you are joined together in marriage.

God wants us all to become acquainted with Him. God gave us a choice to accept Him or not. This is the place He chose for us to become acquainted with Him.

"So we, like Abraham, begin the journey. There is a longing in our hearts that supersedes our obedience to His will. We yearn to find a place of intimacy with Him. We want to see Him face-to-face! We are not content to worship from afar. Instead, we are desperate for His presence. We are more interested in Him than in the destination to which He is leading us. In fact, we discover on our way that He is our destination! He is drawing us to Himself, and this is exactly what He intended from the beginning. It doesn't take us long to realize how inadequate our resources are for this spiritual journey. We are suddenly cast upon His mercy and faithfulness to guide us along the way. At times our spirits are willing, but our flesh is weak, and we are drawn away from Him. The cars of this life and the things of this world entice and seduce us, but He is persistent. He will not let us go. We wander into His presence for brief moments of divine inspiration, and then wander back out. We settle for occasional encounters with God instead of living in His presence. We are God chasers instead of God-pleasers." Dr. Dale A. Fife "The Secret Place" page 39-40

I believe God created this earthly experience so we could get know his handiwork “his invisible qualities- his eternal power and divine nature.” (Romans 1:20)

I believe God created this human experience so we would seek Him out knowing He put a measure of faith of Himself in us -knowing it would grow as we got to know Him more and more.

I believe God created the earth for a place for His children to learn about His love for us and be empowered by that love to do many wonderful things that we know we could not accomplish by ourselves.

I believe God created this human experience to see that nothing could satisfy the deep heart felt desires and needs but Him.

I believe God created this human experience to bring us up in the obedience of Him and to test our devotion to Him.

If God Loves Us Why Do Things Happen?

So why does God allow suffering, sickness and disease? Probably the same reason why there injustice in this world? We live in a fallen world. Why are some people healed and why are some not? We could go crazy asking these questions but no one really understands why things happen – only God.

I do know sometimes to get to the knowledge of God to go from the head to the heart – sometimes suffering is involved and those involved in such difficult lessons have a greater understanding of God’s love then those who do not go through such experiences.

My friend Janine experienced God’s presence everyday as she suffered and her body wasted away from the cancer. Through her suffering she experienced -a deeper and meaningful relationship with God came. The pain and loss of mobility she suffered was nothing compared to the priceless value and gain of God’s companionship. She was never alone. He was not separated from her even on her darkest days. He was available to her 24/7 because she trusted Him and wanted Him to be with her.

“We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials for we know they are good for us- they help us learn to endure. And endurance develops strength of character in us, and character strengthens our confident expectation of salvation. And this expectation will not disappoint us. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.” Romans 5:3-5

“It is His very presence that distinguishes us and makes us Holy” – John Bevere.

God’s love "active" in our lives separates us from the worldly mindset. Remember your first encounter with God -that changed your life and God became real to you? You surrendered to God’s calling and He changed you but God was not done changing you. He wants us to take refuge in His love. There is where the Christian soul belongs is encouraged and empowered despite trials and challenges.

In the quiet still hiding place of God the soul has life, love, joy, and peace. God lives in us if we have given our life to Jesus Christ. He is our goodness. True intimate fellowship with His goodness brings out His goodness in us.

Your Value in A Reactive Society

Aren’t we all simple vessels? I consider myself a simple person and I am amazed in how God can stir and bring His words into such a message using this simple vessel. I know most definitely it is not I who puts the message together but God’s Holy Spirit.

Yesterday He started this message for His young adult bible study and He has continued this morning as I felt compelled to just sit and write down the words that came to mind and I could not help but get a deeper truth in His words and receive a joy from them as layer upon layer was added upon each preceding layer.

Message.
We have become a “reactive” society. I have seen and heard this and it has become an increasing problem on Christian radio and broadcasts, which has trickled down to some podiums of our churches and into our congregations. Not that we shouldn’t be aware of radical organizations such ACLU wanting to take away our ”religious freedoms” but when the radical issues become so big in our mind– there is no more room for godly thought.

This is one of greatest strategies of the devil - that if a man’s focus is bombard by the injustices and issues at hand, he cannot focus on the solution who is God Himself.

Who should matter most in the Christian mind and heart? God.

No problem or man should stand between another man and God.

The issues maybe problems that need to be addressed but we should not allow the issues of the day come between us and the peace God gives us.

We need to get out of the habit of reacting “largely” in how others value us and value our beliefs and/or how we perceive how others value us or value our beliefs. Throwing more gasoline on a fire has never put out a fire- that goes in our broad ways of communicating and our interpersonal communication.

The way we see our value in relation to God will greatly affect our outlook in life.
It will also affect the way you react to those around us.

Have you ever allowed a circumstance or a person get the best of you? Sure you have- because everyone has in some shape or form.

I don't know what the technical term is but I call it "static" like the static on your radio. Static happens when we are no longer receiving from God because we have allowed our spiritual antenna to be blocked by the way our flesh wants to act in a given situation.

One of the ways to get over that static is seeing the reality of God in our life. He is one we can always go to. God is a merciful and gracious God who empowers us in his grace and mercy but we must know in our heart and mind as well that He is also a loving God who wants to invest Himself in our life.

For the mind can carry the knowledge but it means nothing if that knowledge isn’t incorporated in the heart and directed by Holy Spirit.

God’s Love
We are righteous by faith but faith must encompass God’s love.

Remember what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:2
“…. And if I had the gift of faith so that I could speak to a mountain and make it move without love I would be no good to anybody.”

Spiritual gifts are great but they must be encompassed in God’s love when used or else they are worthless.

God's love is worthless to empower us if we just intellectually know God's love in our mind but not in our heart. You are not "in" love with someone intellectually but you are "in" love with them in your heart. Same with God, we must be “in” God’s love (heart, mind, soul) to receive the benefits of God’s love.

1 John 4:15 says

“We know how much God loves us and we have put our trust in Him. God is love and all who live in love live in God and God lives in them. And as we live in God our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment but we can face him with confidence because we are like Christ here in this world.”

You see John is saying we “know” God’s love. We know it in our head, our heart and our soul. God has shown, directed and proved to us this through His love to us.

Living in the Light or the Shadows?
1 John 1:5 says

“God is light and there is no darkness in Him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go living in spiritual darkness. We are not living in the truth.”

When a person grasps God’s love and stands in God’s light there is a dramatic difference in their life then when they hadn’t understood God’s love and light.

We run into problems spiritually when we choose to stand in other people’s shadows and our circumstances or the injustices- creating "static". For those are not truths to stand in rather Jesus said we would face troubles and trials in life but we overcome those things with understanding and knowing God’s love.

I rather live in God’s light then another person’s unpredictable shadows and my circumstances and the injustices in life. How about you?

If you value your enemy, friends, sweetheart, spouse, children, parents, other family members outlook on you more then God then you are sure to fall into darkness. For you have set their opinions of you above God’s loving opinions of you which are to encourage you and strengthen you to do what is right regardless of how others think and treat you.

Matthew 10:28-31 Jesus says what?

“Don’t be afraid of those who want to kill you. They can only kill your body; they cannot touch your soul. Fear only God, who can destroy both your soul and body in hell. Not even a sparrow, worth only half a penny, can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it. And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to him than a whole flock of sparrows.”

Laugh when such fears come to mind. Don’t be afraid or offended or hurt by those who don’t value you as much as God the Father “loves” you. When we acknowledge our worth in God and trust Him above all other opinions and other things in this “temporary experience” our life changes and is empowered by God’s love.

I know it can be tough lesson but think "childlike faith." A child thinks about things in the simplest terms and isn't concerned with all the details. They know Jesus loves them because the bible tells them so and so they believe.

If we are afraid, offended or hurt by someone let it be a gauge of where we are placing our value in. Are we placing our value in mere people or the situation or God Himself?

1 John 4:18 continues with

“Such love has no fear because perfect love expels all fear. If we fear we are afraid it is for fear of judgment, and this shows that His love has not been perfected in us. We love each other as a result of His loving us first.”

No one likes to be judged or feel like they are being judged but we must continue to live in God’s love so the grace of God can empower us to do what is right. God loves me and so I do.

Sometimes in our personal life we need to take a moment or two and we need to step away from the situation and get our focus on where it needs to be – “Where do I stand with God not this person who seems to have a problem with me?”

Many people hated, misunderstood, judged Jesus and even though Jesus was and is God, He drew his strength while he was down here from the Father’s love. He was “in” the Father's love.

Are you one of Jesus’ disciples?
Jesus prayer for his disciples,

“My prayer for all of them is that they will be one, just as you and I are one, Father- that just as you are in me and I am in you, so they will be in us, and the world will believe you sent me. I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be, as we are- I in them and you in me, all being perfected into one. Then the world will know that you sent me and will understand that you love them as much as you love me.” John 17:21-23

Do you see “and will understand that you love them as much as you love me.” If you know the value of God’s love in your life there is assurance, certainty, and power.

To “know” God’s love is to not just know how to live a godly life “but” to live in God’s love and there in relationship with Him we have assurance of eternal life.

Jesus says in John 17:3

“And this is the way to have eternal life- to know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ the one you sent to earth.”

We must not stand in another person’s shadow, which can be confused as light. Don’t be a child when it comes to this idea for though the moon lights up at night it does not produce it’s own light. God is our source of light....

A Christian needs to stand in God's light - just as they will have to stand and give their account of their life before God. Stand in your Father's light for He loves you.

Understand we only dishonor God when we put someone before God in life and if we have done this and the words and expressions are cast upon us -we can easily trip and fall. Life is messy but let us not make it messier with our ways of thinking.

We all must live in the understanding of our true value is not in people or circumstances or injustices but in God Himself. We are God’s children.

Jesus points me to this scripture in Matthew 6:22

“Your eye is a lamp for your body. A pure eye lets sunshine into your soul. But an evil eye shuts out the light and plunges you into darkness. If the light you think you have is really darkness, how deep this darkness will be.”

We must continually ask ourselves, “Is my eye constantly open to the mighty encouragement of God’s love?”

“Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. Anyone who parts from me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. But if you stay joined to me and my words remain in you, you may ask any request you like, and it will be granted! My true disciples produce much fruit. This brings great glory to my Father. I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. When you obey me, you remain my love, just as I obey my Father and remain in his love. I have told you this so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!” John 15:5-11

Do as Jesus says, “remain in His love and you will be filled with joy” in the midst of unpredictable people, circumstances, and injustices for your value is in Him who created you.

Certainty - God isn’t about Religion

Last Monday I woke and I had no work to go to. Thoughts started to whisper and cast shadows of worth until the Holy Spirit reminded me that my worth was not in a job. I would be encouraged in this thought as God provided me another job.

The things of life have never given a person certainty to not fear, worry, dread, or have concern. Humanity has tried to lessen one’s anxiety through human means such as ignorance, lies, deceit, medication, word usage, by who one surrounds themselves, position, talent, possessions, who they marry, school or college they attend, investments, retirement plans, insurance, credit, their home, their car and all the way down to the house key in their pocket but those are weak certainties because they are all based on things that could be easily taken away or not honored. There is no certainty in any of them. The only certainty a person can have is God.

God is the one who gives us certainty.

Like the things of this world, religion never gave the certainty of hope in one’s salvation nor has it ever empowered a people to live the righteous godly lifestyle but a relationship with God has. For the relationship with God involves not just the mind but the heart and soul as well.

Earning Love and Justification.

Did your parents give you certainty of their love based on your accomplishments? Did you have to prove you were worth loving? If so I am sorry and I am here to tell you the Father of heaven in not like that. For He sent His Son, Jesus Christ to die on the cross for us because he saw worth in us not that we could earn his love or justification.

People try to justify themselves to God by their accomplishments and good deeds. You can’t justify yourself to God for God justifies those who live in the faith of Jesus Christ and His sacrifice. We can’t earn our justification from God but rather live in the justification He gives us. We clothe ourselves with Christ and His sacrifice in mind.

If you had loving parents but felt like you had to earn your parent’s love, you would alienate your parent’s love. Plus in your efforts to earn your parent’s love you would be burdened and driven by some non-existent standard that only made you a slave to that lie.

Same with God, we alienate God when we feel like we have to earn His love and our own salvation. We do not just alienate God but we lose our certainty and the power of God working in our life when we think such things. God made it possible for us to “enter” into His Love through His Son Jesus Christ. God shows His love everyday to us no matter if we realize it or not but only through Jesus Christ we can “enter” into the FREEDOM of His love and have certainty to live empowered by God’s love regardless of the human outlook of our circumstances and situations.

Starting in Galatians 5:2 it says, “Listen! I, Paul, tell you this: if you are counting on circumcision to make you right with God, then Christ cannot help you. I’ll say it again. If you are trying to find favor with God by being circumcised, you must obey all the regulations in the whole law of Moses. For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace. But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive everything promised to us who are right with God through faith. For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, it makes no difference to God whether we are circumcised or not circumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love.”

Romans 4:5 says “But people are counted as righteous, not because of their work, but because of their faith in God who forgives sinners.”

Our deeds and work could never earn God’s love. To say that our deeds and work could earn God’s love is a lie and we are living in spiritual darkness. God’s love is a gift we must accept and receive daily to be set free and be empowered by God’s love and light.

1 John 1:5-7 “…. God is light and there is no darkness in him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness. We are not living in the truth. But if we are living in the light of God’s presence, just as Christ is, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from every sin.”

Love for God that is the amazing key to experiencing God’s love. Adore God, admire God, and hold Him high above all other thoughts. Remember all the good things He had done. Give Him praise for who He is and His unfailing and faithful love. Love your God with all your heart, mind and soul and He will do amazing things in your life because your mind, heart and soul are set upon Him – nothing else.

Surrendering ourselves to God’s love brings FREEDOM in Christ. He gives certainty in a very uncertain world.

Galatians 4:8 “Before you Gentiles knew God, you were slaves to so-called gods that do not even exist. And now that you have found God (or should I say, now that God has found you), why do you want to go back again to become slaves once more to weak and useless spiritual powers of this world? You are trying to find favor with God by what you do or don’t do on certain days or months or seasons or years. I fear for you. I am afraid that all my hard work for you was worth nothing. Dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to live as I do in freedom from these things, for I have become like you Gentiles were- free from the law."

Free yourselves from falsehood securities and what you think that makes you right with God. It is not what you do or your job or what you do and don’t do but your faith in Christ that makes you right with God.

For in Christ there is grace. Not through anything we may do but through Him and Him only. The only way to give grace is to receive grace. And the full measure or understanding of grace and its power only comes with living securely in God’s love. We must live in this real yet mysterious love that brings perfect peace to our soul.

You know the only way to give unconditional love and express unconditional love is to receive it from the LORD. In order to give love you must receive the healing, the new mindset that empowers us in the love from the only God above.

There in a consistent relationship with God, the fullness of God’s love empowers His certainty in our lives -a certainty the world cannot provide.

Jesus says, "I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don't be troubled or afraid. John 14:27

There is a difference between knowing of God and knowing God.

You can’t receive this peace and certainty unless you are “in” Christ. A believer will struggle when they waver back and forth in their certainty in God.

The people who put their certainty in the things of this world will lose their certainty because the things of this world will fail them. Even though the world may be showered by the love of God they cannot appreciate it for they are blind to it since they have put their certainty in the things of this world and not God Himself. They cannot be empowered by God and walk in His Grace and Love for God’s Holy Spirit is needed and the heart and mind need to be receptive to Him. Knowing God means you are surrendered and have invested both in your heart and mind to Jesus Christ who the Prince of Peace.

God wants to confirm His reality to us and empower us in His Son, JESUS CHRIST.

Religion only makes people slaves. Religion makes them lazy and out of touch with God. Comfortable in religion people forget about who God is. Religion only corrupts the soul.

God is not a God of mindless religious repetition or full of notions of God but He is the God who gives us the reality of Himself to those who love Him.

Through our humble and heartfelt surrender to His wondrous love we enter into His secret doorways and courtyards.

Through God’s love we are FREE and FREE from the laws of our mind -of trying to satisfy some impossible qualifications that only bring us down and burden us and throw us into some grudging rut. For only in God’s love do we live, break free, and fulfill the only law – the law of love. Love your God with all your heart, mind and soul and love your neighbor as yourself. (Matthew 22:37-39)

“Have you never heard or understood? Don’t you know that the LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the earth? He never grows faint or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding. He gives power to those who are tired and worn out; he offers strength to the weak. Even youths will become exhausted, young men will give up. But those who wait on the LORD will find new strength. They will fly high on wings like eagle. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40:28-31

We all need to take time to wait and rest upon the LORD’s love. Let Him remind you of all He is and His unfailing and faithful love for you because there we find our CERTAINITY in HIM.

In Him and Him alone is our “Certainity”.

Are You Hungry and Thirsty?

Our societies today doesn’t long for God. Society seems to be far away & estranged from God. Society seems to go only after temporary pleasures and those temporary pleasures never satisfy. That is why we are always hungry and unsatisfied. Money and possessions, power, achievements, conquests, human praise -heck we even make our health problems and negative thoughts have a major throne room in our lives. People even go after "temporary religious" experiences only to find themselves a short time later- that their longing for God is taken up by the cares of life and they again find themselves unsatisfied.

If a person understood their value to God they would value what God has to say not what society has to say but since they value society more then God- society has becomes their "god".

1Peter 2:2 says:

"You must crave pure spiritual milk so that you can grow into the fullness of your salvation. Cry out for this nourishment as a baby cries for milk,"

God should be in his rightful place in our lives. He should be ruler of our hearts but since He is not our focus we stumble constantly and ride this roller coast of our own emotions while we seek for the next greatest thing to satisfy us. Like a drug addict looking for their next hit.

People don’t seem realize that the temporary thoughts and things have become gods in their life. Our selfish evil desires make slaves to them thinking they will somehow satisfy us but all they do is keep us chained to a certain mindset and place where we are not moving forward at all but gaining the world and losing our soul in the process. People are unaware of the evil spiritual world keeping them captive. They are tube fed by temporary pleasure- uncaring about their eternal destination.

Life is temporary. We as Christians are told to "remember that the heavenly Father to whom you pray has no favorites when he judges. He will judge or reward you according to what you do. So you must live in reverent fear of him during your time as foreigners here on earth. For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver. He paid for you with the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God." (1 Peter 1:17-19)

This life is about learning and growing and maturing in God’s love. Life is about seeing our real need for Him and why we need to accept Jesus Christ as LORD and Savior of our lives and being empowered by His grace and His righteousness. Life is about seeing that God has a plan for our life and He wants to walk and empower that important plan and purpose out in our lives despite our everyday challenges and circumstances. God helps a person overcome those challenges and circumstances.

The temporary things only fill up our time and energy until there is no time and energy left for what is truly important. We become easily confused, frustrated, tired, indifferent, depressed, weary, hardhearted, selfish, shortsighted, tunnel visioned, and we ignore what is truly important. Soon we find ourselves only a shell of person who is spiritually empty and we have ignored the important gifts in our life such as relationship with our Creator God our Heavenly Father.

We ignore the needs of ours spouse, our children, our family, our friends and even our neighbors.

Psalm 107:9 says this about God: “For He satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness.” (NKJV)

God wants to fill our longing soul with his love so that just His goodness pours out of our lives.

2 Peter 1:3 says:

"As we know Jesus better, his divine power gives us everything we need to living a godly life. He called us to receive his own glory and goodness"

Does your soul long for the things that are good? (Peace, joy, hope, mercy, grace, love.)

Do you long for more or are you satisfied with just going through the motions. Are you satisfied in your possessions saying I have all I need?

Christians have you forgotten your first love? Have you become lukewarm? Remember what the Lord says about those who forget their first love, become lukewarm and are satisfied with their gain of possessions? Are you going into your church and leaving the same way you came out?

Have you ever seen anyone's possessions follow them to heaven? You can't take them with you. You leave this earth even with less possessions then when you came into it.

Writer G. Walter Hansenin, wrote:

“I am spellbound by the intensity of Jesus’ emotions: not a twinge of pity, but heartbroken compassion; not a passing irritation, but terrifying anger, not a silent tear, but groans and anguish; not a weak smile, but ecstatic celebration. Jesus’ emotions are like a mountain river cascading with clear water. My emotions are more like a muddy foam or a feeble trickle.”

My buddy Geoff and I used to spend many days of our youth in the Cascade Mountains and a mountain river was hard to miss. You can hear a mountain river roar from a long distance away. It is a powerful source to behold. It is fast moving, full of passion. It rumbles and it’s mist sprays high in the air. The fervor warns you that if you slip into it you would be swept away.

Fervor... Do our churches truly have fervor for the LORD as He has for us? Are we swept away in the fervor of the Lord? What would it be like to be in a church filled with fervor for the LORD? Are you thirsty to hear from the Lord?

I firmly believe God doesn't go where He isn't wanted. He will go to the soul who longs for Him and the people who want Him.

Is your passion is as inconstant as the wind? It is what you consider “good” one day and out of sight the next?

Are the works in the church done but have no mindset of the Spirit of Jesus Christ in them? Like everything is regimented to a man-made schedule where God only has a limited amount of time to move.

A child wouldn’t say to their parent- “Well Mom and Dad you only got 10 minutes of my time today because I am going over to Pete’s house to play street football, play video games and spend the night.”

God wants to empower and influence our lives!!!

Your Father God wants you to know Him and what He can do in your life!

Besides there is a time coming and is already here where people will be persecuted because they believe in the One true God who is Father, Son (Jesus Christ) and Holy Spirit.

Are you ready to be persecuted for your faith in Jesus Christ? Are you ready to become outcasts because you will not compromise to the truths in the bible? Are you ready to be considered prejudiced, biased, intolerant, bigoted, narrow-minded and opinionated, by your society because you choose to stand and believe in what bible speaks and says?

Do you really believe God in your heart or do you just know in your head knowledge? Do you have the courage? How is your relationship with the Lord?

These are all questions WE MUST ALL honestly ask ourselves and confront. Are we living in the love of our flesh or the love of Christ? Who’s love must we live in? Head knowledge won't empower us alone... for we must love our God with our HEART and SOUL as well. And God will draw close to us as we draw close to Him.

Society has always grown cold towards God throughout history and has served it’s false gods but when the persecution comes upon us, will we be able remain warm to those who hate and resent us? Where will those searching for warmth find it if we only mirror the same hatred spat at us? God is the only one who enables us to love without condition those who hate us. (Speak up for what is right in love.)

Just think of all those who hate God by their actions yet He still loves them hoping they will turn to Him to be saved through His Son Jesus Christ.

Persecution has always refined the church just as it has done the individual who receives it and turns to God. Persecution sifts the church and helps us get a good look at where we stand spiritually before God.

Are our churches filled with a true atmosphere of praise and thanksgiving towards God? Are the teachers and pastors filled with a passion with the LORD? Is their passion anointed by God or self-ambition? Teachers and Pastors is your level of passion for the Lord washing over your classes and congregations as you teach and preach? Are we crying out to the Lord knowing He is gives power and meaning behind the words given?

Dry bones….. God wants to put muscle and skin on those bones. He wants us to truly know His love and live in His Love where we can be bold in His love. (Bold as lions.)

A passionate church for Jesus Christ is sifted just as quickly. Those passionate for Christ make those less passionate or those lukewarm uncomfortable. I have heard of people escorted out of churches because they “openly” worship at God’s “supposedly” alter.

King David, sobbed at the alter. He tore his clothes and laid flat in front of the alter.

Passion for Christ should NOT be full of religious indifference, strictness, banter or thought the leads into division or focus upon one’s own fleshly desires for attention nor should what be acceptable be decided by societal norms.

Can I judge the way in which someone worships or cries out before the Lord? NO! For only God knows the heart. Does it make you uncomfortable when one of pure transparent faith does this? Where is your compassion? Where is your shared burdens and praises?

Does God not work in mysterious ways at times? So who am I to limit how God chooses to move His people? He is the potter I am only a piece of clay.

A passion of Christ is to be free to express their love for Him with tongues and words of praise, hands lifted up, singing and dancing. David sang and danced did he not? And he was said to have a heart for God. He gloried in the Lord.

Restraint is to be at the discretion of the Holy Spirit’s leading not man’s discretion.

A believer should only be concerned of their own accountability to God for we will all have to stand before God for our own actions and this and this only should put fear into our hearts.

Those who don’t open themselves up to true worship are still slaves to what others think and they are missing the opportunity to experience God’s love. For we enter into his presence through his gates and courtyards of praise and thanksgiving. We pastors, teachers and fellow believers should enter into God’s house with expectation of God and His directing and leave full of encouragement, peace, joy and expectation that God is with us to empower us in His righteousness, grace and love.

That His word and presence confirms He has done and is doing a great work in us as we hold firm and focus upon His great love.

If you are one who appreciates music and a message like this in song, listen to this song by Shawn McDonald called "Something Real"

http://www.myspace.com/shawnmcdonald/music/songs/something-real-80196659