Latest Articles

Please see the links below to read my latest articles. They will take you to my articles on Helium.com or to Remnant Ministries.


What is Truth?

The Devil is the Media

Movie Review: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

The difference between a legal issue and a moral issue

What Heaven Looks Like

Book Review: Dubliners by James Joyce


I hope you enjoy these. Keep checking back for more.

Running the Race

I’ve experienced two special people leaving this world for heaven in less than a month. One had a massive heart failure and the other a rare cancer. Both had numerous people praying for healing and yet both left this life much too young. Both lived lives that influenced hundreds of people and did so with great passion for Jesus. One I knew for only a year and the other for almost two decades.

In their absence we experience loss, grief, questions, desires to speak with them, to see them, to have them experience more life with us. My thoughts flit and float between memories, desires, emotions, and questions. Emerging from all of these is a desire to be proactive in honoring them. I want to pull on the wealth of their contributions to me and live it to the fullest.

A common saying in the Church today is to make one person’s ceiling another person’s floor. To take all that is learned and gained from the life we are honoring, whether they have gone on before us or not, and use it as a launching point to go farther. If they accessed 10% of the treasures of heaven, go for 30% so that the next person can launch from 30% towards 50%. In honoring, we take our spiritual inheritance and we expand it throughout our lifetime so that the inheritance we give is greater than the one we received. This is true stewardship.

This may seem impossible when the life was lived so fully. But I think that those we are missing would want us not to set their level of maturity in Christ as our goal. Instead they would want us to believe that that has already been deposited into us by them so that we could go so much farther. Every father or mother wants their child to go beyond them, and we honor them by doing so.

The key is that we do not do so by our own strength for we will wear ourselves out in a week if not sooner. Our strength comes from the same source as their strength, and that is in Christ. We go farther by resting in Christ. We live by the strength of Christ in us, not by our flesh, but by His Spirit. We find our hope, our joy, and our peace in Christ for this is how we honor those who have gone before us.

In so doing, I want to be careful to not determine truth by experiences, but to view experiences through the lens of truth, which are the eyes of Jesus. Jesus told us we are to pray that the reality of heaven be made present upon the earth. That is the mission of the Christian life to bring heaven to earth. Thus, I want to walk in boldness to not set those experiences as a stopping point, but instead a launching pad to grab hold of those truths of heaven and pull them to earth.

In the spirit of honoring, I want to go after healing more. I don’t have the answers as to why healing doesn't happen sometimes, but I do know that in Jesus I can find the keys to the Kingdom. I will trust in the goodness of God. I will remember that for the believer, death is swallowed up in victory. I will remember the lives lived and the lessons learned, but I will not memorialize them into the past, but pull them with me into my future as I grow in Christ. Those I influence, those I lead, those I teach will be learning also from those I learned from as I honor them by continuing to move forward.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. Hebrews 12:1-2a

  

This post is in honor of:

         Pastor Rob Stevenson of Acts 2 Church

         Sharon Shirrell (Remnant Ministries) 

Links to Helium Articles

Below are some links from my recent Helium articles. These days most of my blogging time is spent on Helium.com.

How Long Can We Live Without Thinking?

Learning to See Like Jesus Sees

Jesus Is Salvation

Dealing with Fear

Breaking Free

Religion hurts people. It is religion that rears its ugly head that leaves such distaste in the hearts of man. It masquerades as truth, righteousness, and love, but it is none of those things. It focuses on morality, justice, and law, but only leaves rebellion in its wake. It’s a chain that most people will not suffer under for long. They will break through and break free. But unto what? What do we break free to?

We may think our freedom lies in a life without religion. We would be right in this estimation, but not usually in the way in which it is meant. We equate spirituality with religion, and yet religion only utilizes spirituality to cover its true nature. It isn’t spirituality that is the problem; it is the law of religion that is the problem.

Does that mean we should shirk all moral precepts? No. Morality is no more the problem than spirituality. But because religion often brings with it moral law and attaches itself to spirituality, when we break the shackles of religion we find ourselves also at odds with anything that we now associate with the chains of religion.

Or we try to find these things in a form that has no God element attached to it. But what if God isn’t the problem either? What if religion isn’t of God at all? What if we have associated something with God that God also disavows?

This religion construct is not only found attached to legalism and religious structure. People can be as religiously against religion as religion can be against the irreligious. It is a meme or construct not confined to theists or members of a world religion. It’s attached to the human race no matter faith or creed.

It’s generally an internal indignation, offense, or reaction to something or someone that sucks the life out of the person being affected by the religious response. It’s a vice grip on the heart that spawns and spews animosity, distrust, fear, and self-righteousness.

Bottom line: Religion hurts people.

Here’s the thing. No one is immune to, at times, responding religiously to people. While I know that I can love Jesus and love people and it not be the aforementioned description of religion, I know I can also be exuding religion anytime I’m allowing fear or animosity to rise in my heart.

It is love that casts away fear. Love is the guard against this religious problem so prevalent in this world. This love comes from the Father. It comes from gaining His heart for people. We want to fight wars He isn’t fighting and we fail to realize that only love wins the war.

Speaking as a follower of Jesus, I’m sorry for the damage religion has done in the name of Christianity. I would be remiss to say I haven’t any religion in me. If I were to say there was none in me, I would be speaking falsely. In fact, to read this and think not of oneself, but of another guilty person shows that there is at least a little of it in us.

Naturally we can all think of extreme cases, but we must remove the plank before removing a speck. The unhealthy stuff in us, is always more harmful to us than the unhealthy stuff in someone else. 

Remembering 9/11

It doesn’t feel like it’s been 11 years since the tragic day known as 9/11. I see the images on television and on Facebook and the emotions of that day come rushing back. I cannot even imagine the emotions of those who experienced loss or who were in closer proximity to the events that unfolded that day. 

For me, the day began like any other. I was on the campus of my community college. I had already attended one or two classes that day and had time to kill before my next and last class of the day. I decided to visit the computer lab in the library. Sitting down in the computer chair, I tossed my book bag at my feet and began to check my e-mail. All of the sudden, I heard a man exclaim rather loudly that we ought to attack them. The exact words are now lost to me. I was surprised and annoyed to hear someone speaking so loudly in a library. He sounded so angry.

I didn’t have much time left before class, so I logged off the computer and hoisted my back pack on one shoulder to exit the library. I stepped into the foyer and drew to a fast stop as I saw a gathering of students to the television mounted to the ceiling in the corner of the lobby. My eyes traveled up and took in the horrific scene of a building consumed in fire crumbling upon itself.

I stood transfixed, alarmed, and confused. I didn’t yet know this was on American soil. I didn’t recognize the structure. Then camera panned and I saw Lady Liberty and I felt the immensity of this --- whatever this was – happening in my home land. I remained there until I learned about the plane crashes and that it was evidently an act of terror.

I realized my class was starting any minute and decided to leave the building and head for class. As I walked I pulled out my cell phone to call my mom. I felt compelled to contact my family even though we were nowhere near the danger. The call didn’t go through. I tried again to no avail. I looked about me and saw students everywhere along the walk ways on campus talking on their cell phones. I realized everyone was trying to get through to somebody. I tried once more and she picked up. She and my grandparents were already aware of the events.

I hung up and continued to class to find a note scrawled on the chalk board that due to the present events the class was cancelled. Somewhat out of sorts and lost amid the unfolding events, I headed for my car as I was to work that afternoon. Arriving at work I found my co-worker concerned about her husband who was in the military as he may not be able to leave the base that day. She had the radio on and hadn’t seen the footage yet.

We ordered lunch from the café down the street where she first viewed the footage on their television. The day passed in this surreal fog of unbelief. I arrived home, ate my dinner, did my homework and then sat before the television. There was nothing to do but continue to watch the news. The local news began to ask people to come to the Red Cross to donate blood. They showed the packed waiting room of local citizens awaiting their opportunity to give. Then the people broke out into song, “God Bless America, land of the free, stand beside her and guide her . . .” The voices rose together poignantly. The emotions of the day finally found relief and I cried. My nation had been brutally attacked, but Americans were rallying together to serve and to humble themselves before God. I heard the hope in those voices of strangers joining together in song while waiting to give their blood for others.

I could take this post further and use it to discuss the current state of America or the need for a return to God in this nation, but to honor 9/11 for 9/11 and not to use it for any purpose of my own I will close this article without any such commentary.

I will never forget 9/11. 

And Now For the Rest of the Story

Christians are often guilty of not telling the full story when it comes to knowing God. First of all, we often start the story at the Fall of man, rather than at the beginning. Second, we jump from Genesis 2 to Jesus crucifixion and conclude with His Resurrection. Then we insert this long wait for the second coming, judgment, and final destination of believers and unbelievers. In reality, we are gipping people of the full Gospel, the Kingdom of God. We do this when we reduce the story to what we think are the essentials – Man sinned, Man needs God to be free from sin, God sent man Jesus to die in our place so we can be forgiven, Jesus saves those who believe, believers go to heaven, unbelievers go to hell. End of story.

This couldn’t be more misleading. I am finding both in Christian circles and in non-Christian circles this is creating quite a misconception. This misconception is a logical misconstruction based on our faulty rendering of the Gospel. 

The story doesn’t start that man sinned and is thus in need of God. The story starts, “in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. . .” He goes on to create the sun, moon, stars, oceans, plants, animals, and finally humans. He says that all that He has created is good. He places the man and woman (Adam and Eve) in the Garden of Eden and He tells them they have dominion over land, vegetation, and animal life. He tells them to have children and multiply humanity in the earth. He gives them only one “don’t” – He tells them not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and warns them doing so will bring death upon them.

God had fellowship with Adam and Eve – walking with them in the cool of the evening. He had relationship with them. I imagine they walked with Jesus through the Garden – as Jesus is as eternal as His Father. Throughout the Old Testament we see instances where Jesus appeared. Remember Jesus said, before Abraham was, I Am.

Here is where the Fall comes into play. Eve, and then also Adam, having been tempted by Satan, succumb to temptation and eat of the forbidden fruit. Now they want to cover themselves and hide from God. They broke relationship with God, and already felt the shame of their first experience with sin.

Mankind was designed to walk with God as we cultivated and multiplied across the globe. Now we had caused a divide between God and man. The curse of sin worked its way into the nature of man – corrupting humanity – and corrupting the earth itself. A world that was designed to flow in harmony with the Kingdom of God was now being ruled by corrupted men rather than holy men who walked with God.

Christians often take the story from the Fall to the Cross and then lack the theology for the story to go beyond getting forgiven by the work of Jesus upon the Cross. Jesus gained back for the world what was lost in the Fall – but we have lost sight of the role of man in this earth. God gave us dominion. Satan took that dominion when sin infected us – but Jesus took it back from Satan and gave it – not back to God – but back to man. We are still the ones who are to cultivate the earth to restore it to the glory of God – to a New Eden. It starts with transformed people – but these transformed people are called to transform everything we have influence over – land, businesses, economy, health care, medicine, food, water.  We can restore healing and life back to everything that was once corrupted.  It’s all back in our hands. The thing is, most of us don’t know it. And even the few that do, don’t take action. We are clueless to our assignments and to our power and authority to carry them out.

Most the Church is still focused on a salvation only Gospel. No wonder the world only asks questions of us regarding heaven and hell because they don’t know that we are supposed to have access to the entire Kingdom of God. They don’t know we have access to far more than salvation – because we don’t know it ourselves.

Even if man never fell – we would have a huge assignment upon this planet that would require continual communion with God. We were designed to thrive on that communion – a symbiotic relationship. Without it we languish never reaching our full potential. We don’t even know it because we are conditioned to accept life without God. In fact, this includes Christians. We have become so accustom to doing things in our own strength we haven’t scratched the surface of what life would be like if we did everything in partnership with His strength.

Heaven – is an extension of living in Christ – that is why it is not a gift of Jesus – but a place in Jesus. It’s not a separate place from Him. So it is not accessed outside of Him. All of the Kingdom of God is in God. We can only access it by knowing Jesus and having His Holy Spirit living inside of us. 

Hell – is an extension of existence outside of Christ – where He is not present. Where we are always thirsty for Him and yet unable to quench our thirst – we may not even know at that point we thirst for Him, but we will know the torment of life without Him. It is tormenting because it was never to be – not because it was the worst punishment God could think up for not loving Him. It is, instead, the place of abject darkness – full of souls perishing without His sustenance we so desperately require. Existence without God is death. When we cross over from our earthly existence without God – all is left is existence without God – that is an eternal perishing existence.

Kingdom of God – is the extension of heaven – of Jesus manifested upon the earth by God’s children accessing heaven and making it available to be experienced by others on earth. This is everything from peace to healing the sick or raising the dead, or causing unfertile land to produce a harvest, or any other number of miracles. 

Everything that has breath is designed to operate within the Kingdom of God – without the King there is no Kingdom.

While brief, hopefully this article helps to create a more accurate rendering of the story of the role of God in the life of humanity regardless of the interruption and corruption of sin. 

Securing a More Stable Future

Reactions to yesterday’s Supreme Court Decision run the gamut. I’ve seen celebration, surprise, relief, anger, fear, animosity, apathy, ignorant bliss, worry, and sorrow. I join the camp of those who disagree with the decision. I understand it is a serious matter, and yet I also am not provoked to anger or fear over the outcome. Neither reaction would change anything. It is almost like we think we are accomplishing our civic responsibility by sounding off on our social mediums such as Facebook or Twitter our particular view on the matter.

I must admit, I turned first to Facebook after hearing the news to see what was being said. But I realized, that it didn’t really matter what I or anyone else was saying, because most of us were not in places of influence to where it made any difference what we said.

It would seem that our perilous times would drive us into our history. We would begin to dig into our heritage and rediscover our civic responsibly to this Republic. I have always admired the Founding Fathers and enjoyed the colonial era of history, but I now have an even greater appreciation of their sacrifice and the people of this nation that lived in those formative years.

Regardless of your political persuasion, I think we can agree that we need men and women with the character and resolve of our founding generation. We all recognize the economic crisis. We all should know that what we have been doing isn’t working.

Some are focused on social security and Medicare needs. Others are concerned about job security. Others are concerned about their investments. Still others are worried about their health insurance premiums. Then you have the matters of liberty, the national debt, the failing businesses, the unsustainability of the government programs, or the state of education in this nation. No matter our particular concern, we all have to unite together, just as they did in the early days when the states had to put aside their fears and unite under one Constitution so that they could secure a more stable future.

They lived for us, and yet we live for ourselves. We don’t live to preserve their sacrifice, or to ensure the freedom of our future generations. Most of us are concerned first and foremost for ourselves and our own generation. We have to think beyond our own needs and the needs of our own generation. It may be necessary to give up temporary comforts, for the future security of a now fledgling nation. It may be necessary to provide for ourselves, regardless of the entitlements available to us, just so that the nation doesn’t incur more debt.

There is a poignant scene in The Pursuit of Happiness with Will Smith. Will’s character approaches a government agency service window with cash and coins in hand to pay back every cent that was given to him while he was in need. What if we thought like this? What if, we the people, took responsibility for our local and national debt?

We have to start thinking about the problems differently. The solutions are simple, but we get too impressed by the complexity of the problem to see them clearly. The same principles that create a happy healthy family, creates a happy health business, and a happy healthy school, and a happy healthy government. It’s all very simple. We have just lost our way so severely that we apply elaborate and expensive band aides to cover the symptoms without ever touching the root issue.

We also have the tendency to declare the whole nation a sinking ship, forgetting we are on board. We then look for ways to provide a life jacket for ourselves, having given up on the ship itself. Or we believe, for spiritual or financial reasons, we will be immune to the sinking of the ship so we figure we might as well sit back and let it sink, because it won’t ultimately affect us. 

Sadly, few see themselves as having any role to play that could make any difference. As long as we think like that, we won’t make a bit of difference. But we will be just as responsible as those who are sacrificing and working to right the ship.

The reality is that every American has a role to play. Not everyone will be in a prominent role directly affecting their city, state, or national officials, but a vital role just the same. It comes in the form of being educated and educating others about our foundational history. It comes from voting. It comes from getting or staying out of debt. It comes from loving our neighbor, our spouse, and our children. It comes from serving our city. It comes from not taking what we don’t need. It comes from giving more than we take. It comes from not wasting what we have. It comes from honest business practices, both as an employer and employee, as a consumer, and as a producer. It comes from keeping our word and honoring our elders.

We cannot take these things too seriously. This is what makes a nation great. Not doing these things is what fills our jails, bogs down our courts, and increases regulations. This is why the Founders lamented that children must receive a good moral education in order to secure this Republic. They, for the most part, did not mandate this by law, but they did promote it in their speeches and writings meticulously preserved for posterity.

America, it is time to wake up. It is time to preserve the sacrifice of our ancestors and secure the stability of our future generations. We can keep or lose this Republic. We will either be the source of the blame or the source of the victory. The choice is ours. I choose victory, for I will not give up on this great Republic. 

Passover to Pentecost

The feast of Pentecost was originally celebrated as commemoration of the day Moses received the law from God on Mount Sinai. It was 50 days after the feast of Passover where the nation of Israel prepared to pull out of Egypt. Fast forward to the New Testament and we have the Passion Week of Jesus coinciding with the feast of Passover. Then, 50 days later, we have the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the 120 waiting in the upper room. 

The seasons of the Lord often mirror the Jewish calendar and feasts. On the anniversary of the day the law was given, the Holy Spirit comes as our guide into all truth. Jesus fulfilled the law, and the Holy Spirit comes to link us to Him, Spirit to spirit.

We are now in the season between Passover and Pentecost. It is especially notable that the year is 2012 because 2012 is chocked full of manifested prophetic destiny. We need to watch carefully for the invitations into the promises of God. May 27, 2012 is the anniversary of Pentecost. The season is prophetically pregnant and we shall see the prophetic is being birthed into the natural. We should be seeing the activity being stored up in heaven finally manifesting upon the earth in the areas in which we have sown faithfully.

God is on the move. He is moving forward. If we are current with Him we are also moving. We are entering new things, new phases of continuing things, and we will have to let go of the old things that are holding us from experiencing this new season. If we keep the old, we cannot embrace the new. If we do not let go, we cannot let God.  At this juncture, we shouldn’t have old things left tying us to last year. We must jettison them if it is in our power.

There are things that remain that the Lord must bring the change for He has positioned us so that only He can bring the deliverance. But there are other things that we know we can leave behind and it is time to do so. We cannot deliver ourselves; we have to let him do that part. But we can prepare for the deliverance by not holding on to anything, but Jesus. The Lord had the Hebrew people pack up and prepare only unleavened bread so that they could move out in an instant with nothing holding them back from obeying the call of the Lord to move forward.

Likewise we need to be ready in every way possible to accept the invitations and deliverance of the Lord. We know 2012 is the year for the beginning of something great. Don’t miss it by being out of season with the Lord. As long as you are current with Him, you will move with Him into the new season. Some have moved into it, some are moving into it portion by portion, and others will suddenly enter it having been fully prepared to move at once. Be ready and wait on the Lord, just as the 120 waited in the upper room from the time the Lord ascended until the Spirit descended so that we could live from ascension. 

The World Doesn't End?

And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark the sacred times, an the days, and years, . .” Genesis 1:14

Doomsday predictions overturned? While I do not ascribe to astrological predictions, even those of ancient civilizations, I did take notice of the 2012 Mayan predictions. I did not do so because of them, but because I felt 2012 marked a significant new season for the world. I saw 2012 as the beginning of a new age and 2013 even more so. It seemed appropriate that a people group dedicated to times and seasons would also make note of a seasonal change, a change of one era to the next.

Most of the time historians do not recognize eras until after they have come and gone. Then terms are ascribed to them such as The Middle Ages, or The Enlightenment era. But with 2012, we have a preformed concept that the world has entered something altogether different, even though we have yet to have the benefit of history to validate the foresight.

Now, the latest news has it that archaeologists  have uncovered a previously hidden Mayan calendar that calculates dates as far out as 3500A.D. I had already felt that the Mayan prediction was for the world to take notice, and now to find new data after the world is already deeply engaged in this mystery is extremely timely. Now we see, from the Mayans' themselves, doomsday was not their prediction, but a something so new they gave clear demarcation of it.

It is too soon to know, but I wonder if there is anything on this newly discovered ancient calendar to indicate a difference between the calendar that ended at 2012 and this one that continues beyond. If they truly were specialist in times and season, I would not be surprised, and yet amazed, to find that there are distinctions between the calendars.

We are in a new age. Many things are changing. Many things are coming into what they have long been built into. Meaning, things that were built on a solid foundation will begin to excel like never before and the things that were built in corruption will begin to be obviously corrupted either by crumbling or by persisting in visible corruption. It won't be life as usual.  

More on 2012: 

Helium: 2012

Helium: Prophetic Insight Into 2012

Helium: America in 2012

Remnant Ministries Article: Moving Forward in 2012

Remnant Ministries Article: 2012

Chaordic

Creative people can look at something chaotic and find order. They can bring unity to diversity without suffocating the diversity. I’ve been watching the new hit series, Touch, with Keifer Sutherland. It is a fascinating show where Sutherland plays the part of an autistic child’s father. The child’s mother died in the towers on 9/11. The young boy never speaks audibly, but begins to communicate through numbers and patterns. His dad quickly discovers that by following the numbers he becomes interweaved into a story that links lives and events the world over to bring help to one or more people with painful problems. Sometimes the scope of the help that comes through the result of his following the numbers remains unbeknownst to Keifer’s character.

Keifer finds help from a doctor who also has this ability to see numerically. The doctor’s controversial research indicates that this boy is picking up on the mathematical order in the cosmos and communicating it to help end the pain of others.

I can’t help but be reminded of the prophetic when I see the boy notice a number and write it down and that number reappear as an address, phone number, apartment number, receipt number, or the number of a bus or taxi. It is exciting to watch seemingly unconnected people and events converge into a unified story.

In doing so, I contemplate the chaordic – the order in chaos. I become fascinated by the unity in diversity. Human nature attempts to unify by removing diversity, but the real artistic beauty of creation comes when order and chaos coalesce without sacrificing one to the other.

I tend to lean towards being neat and orderly at the expense of freedom and yet my way of thinking creates a tension pulling me towards greater and greater freedom. My first instinct is to keep messes from happening by preparing for all the variables in advance. But freedom, messes included, produces much more life than keeping messes at bay. 

I think religion often tries to ignore or protect against the contamination of messy life. Jesus did it so differently. He intentionally placed himself in the thick of the messiness of life. He hung out with the prostitutes and tax collectors. He spent time talking with a Samaritan woman. He was born in a stable, slept in a manger, rode a donkey, and hung out with smelly fishermen. He washed the feet of his disciples and touched lepers.

I was once listening to a couple who pastor overseas. They were amused by how American churches are so bent on keeping clean sanctuaries. They said where they pastor; everyone knows you don’t put carpets in the sanctuary. Here we are concerned about someone spilling coffee, but there people get real messy. When they get healed or delivered things happen that cause big messes. Between bodily functions and tumors falling off, there is no concern for the place getting messy. Sometimes I think we are too focused on keeping things neat and clean that we think clean hands makes a clean heart. Jesus warned against washing the outside of the cup to make the inside clean. It doesn’t work that way. Outward appearances of a saintly community fool no one. 

We often cannot get to the inside because we are focused on the outside. Religion keeps us looking at how good we look. It blinds us to how empty we are. Jesus cleans the inside of us and draws us out into freedom so that we can make messes and learn how to clean them up. Moreover a healthy Jesus culture doesn’t look cookie cutter, but has a beautiful diversity of each person being who he or she is to be in Christ rather than just like the next clone. Religion births clones, Jesus births people.  

Off with the Old and on with the New

"I will look on you with favor and make you fruitful and increase your numbers, and I will keep my covenant with you. You will still be eating last year's harvest when you will have to move it out to make room for the new. I will put my dwelling place among you.  . ." Leviticus 26:9-11a 

This season, begun in 2012, is strikingly different from what we have known prior. In so doing, we need to take inventory of our lives. We need to examine what is to be left behind and what is to carry on into this season. This pertains even to our belongings. What items are marking an old season that we have yet to dispense with? To give an example, I recently went through my collection of books and removed those books that marked an old way of thinking that no longer held relevance for me. I felt strongly compelled to do so. I have also been working to complete projects that were started long ago and need to find completion. I am still looking for those things that I need to not carry with me into the new season. I remove them from my life either by giving away stuff that I don’t need anymore, or by completing something left undone. We need to look at the paying off of bills and debts that have the feel of being something that ought to be repaid already. We need to make a space for the new. If we are living surrounded with a season that has gone by, we cannot fully embrace the season that is now. We need to truly take stock of what should carry over, as there are things that need to, and what needs to be expediently completed, given away, or thrown out. Some things that were begun in an old season will change over into the new season for they are things that have been and continue to be on time with God. We must not abandon the labor that He has called us into.

Then we also need to look at what is to be in this season. It is like we are starting fresh, only retaining the good things learned and acquired in the past in this new day. In what ways do we need to align our thinking to the new? What are the things we are to put our time and energy into? What are the signs of the new season for us? What is God highlighting? Follow the signs of life, the things that are flourishing and advancing. Make space in your life to move forward with God. Let go of the old, and embrace the new. Things that were impossible, and yet God, in 2011, will be possible with God in 2012. Do not let go of His promises, for 2010 and 2011 were preparation for their fruition in 2012. He is always faithful; we can take that to the bank. 

2012 -- Deliverance is Coming

Some are concerned that time is running out. Legend would have it that we are nearing the day of the world’s demise, December 21, 2012. It would seem, regardless of one’s view on the Mayan prediction instigated by a calendar that abruptly ends on this now ominous day, that 2012 is noteworthy year. 

Many in Christendom are filled with expectation for the Lord to show His glory this year in a manner never before experienced in the Church. Some have experienced a foreshadowing of this greater glory, but the fullness is still yet to come.

Many delays, distractions, and destructive forces have been at work in previous years, especially in 2011. Some have been betrayed, trampled, attacked, forsaken, and walked all over by a number of injustices. We strain to see beyond into this new season with hope gently rising forth from its deep seeded burial place. It is like the crocus that peaks its stem above the ground as spring approaches, looking around to see if winter truly has abated. 

It feels unusual to have this hope, as if it ought to have died after such an arid dry season, and yet instead we find it had hibernated and grown strong during our adversity to now rise stronger than we thought possible. This is not yet the experience of everyone in 2012, for some are still struggling with 2011. Just the same, despite what things feel like and look like, a new season has dawned. What would have been a delay last year, will be a deliberate positioning this year. The nature of what is going on has changed even when we feel the effects and fear of more of the same.  It is not the same.

The Lord is doing a new thing, and it starts with us and in us.  When we find that we are stable despite the shaking going on around us, we will find that we have come out into the new season even when it hasn’t manifested into our circumstances yet.  We haven’t much longer to wait. Where the tension is mounting, the Lord is preparing a launching point for victory.  For each this will feel and look different, but at the same time it is the same thing happening in many lives and organizations across the spectrum. 

Everywhere one looks one should see or hear of things changing. Right now it is like things are all aligning from a variety of different points – all transitioning to come to a head. For those following the Lord this is going to be a great deliverance. It is not a far off as it may feel. It is just around the corner. We only have to hold on a little while longer, if we are holding on to Jesus. If we are holding on to something else, that something else will have to be shaken first, because God is not going to harm you by this deliverance, but bring you into the fullness of authority, power, and victory that this season holds for you. If there is still a shaking, rejoice for the Lord will make it all for your good.

For those who are not in Christ, this shaking will look different. It will be different. Things are still coming to a head for those not in Christ – this is happening the world over. This is why this year is so crucial – it is not just a Church thing, it is a world thing. The whole world is shifting into a new season. The old ways cannot remain. Things are going to change. People will be reaping what they have sown and some have not sown well and they will see the fruit of that – so that they will come to repentance.  This shift is good even when it does not look favorable.

2012 is different. There is no going back. There is only going forward. This is a year of advancing into the next season of the journey. Do not despair. The Lord is near and He is drawing nearer. He is our steadfast anchor, our only hope. The bounty of our seed well sown comes from Jesus. It cannot come from any other source and do us any good. This is why we cannot make it happen, we cannot circumnavigate His process. We have to be obedient and steadfast and He will bring His promises about. For first and foremost He is the promise. We have to realize it is all about Jesus. Our only mandate is to do what He is doing and nothing more, and nothing less. He, and He alone, is our deliverance.  

Poetry

Of late I have been compelled to put my words into poetic form.  Here are a few of my latest poems archived at Helium.com.

Army Arising

The Shift

The Promise 

Unbound

A Great Hope

Freedom

Experiencing Heaven

Life lived by the Spirit is an incredible journey full of adventure and intrigue. When you exercise your spirit to connect to His Spirit to hear by spirit or see by spirit or know by spirit you open a whole new world of knowledge. This knowledge takes deep root in one’s soul and the spirit renews the mind to new understanding and paradigms of thinking that produce creative freedom. 

Often times we do not know we are bound until we are unbound. We don’t know we cannot see well until someone offers to clean the lenses of our glasses for us. I was once strolling through a mall with my sister when she saw the jewelry store chain from which her wedding ring was purchased.  She wanted to step inside to have it cleaned. The gentlemen offered to clean my ring as well. I gave it to him, not really thinking it needed it.  When he returned a few minutes later I could not believe the difference. It was stunning to look at how brilliantly it shined. I was taken aback at how dirty it must have truly been to now shine so noticeably. 

Before we first start experiencing the awakening of our spirit-person we do not know that our outlook is inhibited and limited. We think we see quiet clearly, in fact, even more clearly than those contaminated with overly spiritual minded thinking.  That is, until we step through the door and find a wonderful world of color and 3D experience we never knew was behind the door we carefully kept shut. 

Behind the door is a world that makes our natural world have a deeper purpose and meaning. It does not remove meaning, but enhances it.  It does not distort our sight, but removes the distortions. We truly step through the Wardrobe to find a world that looks a lot like our own, but this one has more substance and carries a brighter reality.  It also provides a contrast to show where our world does not line up with what is possible and true, but it also provides the way to bring the true about.

That Door Way to this world is Jesus. When we step into Him we step into a whole new world for this alternate reality of which I speak is found in Him for it is an extension of Jesus. Heaven is its name, or the Kingdom of God. However, heaven has been errantly taught to be a paradise only entered upon death when in reality it is a Kingdom entered first in life.  The reason some go to heaven when they die is because they were born again of heaven in Christ when they lived.  It isn’t the destination decided by God upon our death, but the home chosen while upon the earth. 

When we live by spirit we live from above, rather than from earth. Doing so causes a manifestation of our home upon the earth – every time we prophesy, heal the sick, raise the dead, set the captives free, or release the peace of the Lord.    

The Christian life is a life lived by the spirit in the Spirit and when we do that heaven is released to be tangibly experienced by those who live by their natural five senses so that we can help them find Jesus who will in turn awaken their spirits by His Spirit. 

Yes, Jesus Loves Me . . .

Many are familiar with the popular children’s song “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.  .  .”   I have come to realize that I must take issue with this line in the song, because the way I know Jesus loves me is because I know His love and that is why I also believe the Bible.  The Bible testifies about Him and tells us what He did for us, but the way we truly know He loves us is because we experience His loving us.  We do not need to settle for reading that He loves us. 

It is by His Spirit awakening our spirits that we know He is real.  I hold the Bible in high regard as it is fully inspired by the Living God.  But I think the Church has often elevated the Bible beyond its intended position.  We treat it as if it were Jesus instead of the book that tells all about Him.  It is a book that points beyond itself to the heavenly One who gives it meaning. 

I don’t know that Jesus loves me because the Bible tells me so. I do not know it because I can give reasoned evidences of its veracity. I simply know the Lord loves me because I know the love of the Lord.  My heart is alive to His presence and I hear His voice.  This is why I love His Word, not vice versa.

The way to know His love is to know Him. The Bible is a great place to start learning about Him, but Jesus is the Way and there is no substitute for Him.  The way to Jesus is Jesus.  This is why we are to seek the Lord with all our heart. This is why those that seek truth shall find Him.  It is the heart that seeks and the mind is renewed by what the heart encounters.

Seeking the proof sometimes sends us in the wrong direction because we are looking for intellectual reasons when what we need is a God encounter.  Often no reason will suffice until one experiences Him for him or herself.  I think that is why most reasons only satisfy believers, because unbelief is not a condition of the mind, but of the heart. Only when the heart has found God do the intellectual answers make much sense. It really all boils down to Jesus. 

Internal Hearing of God's Voice

Hearing is not only a matter of receiving physical sound waves that our brains interpret as meaningful communication. You can silently read, forming each word in your mind, as if audibly received and yet there is no sound.  Similarly when God speaks to us in our spirit it is a receiving of knowledge, wisdom, or understanding that is heard from within.  It is still a hearing that is happening, but one that circumvents our physical ears. 


To continue to read this article click here to go to Helium.com where the original article is posted. 

The Day The Earth Shook

It seemed like an ordinary day at the office, albeit slow and quiet. The silence stretched on for hours as I completed my work and then began to read a bit of Chesterton. I recently purchased two Chesterton books from Borders during their going out of business sales.  I have successfully finished one and commenced reading the other.  Interestingly the current read is entitled “Tremendous Trifles” for Chesterton uses the ordinary to expound on the extraordinary, the natural to comment on the supernatural.  His aim is to cause the reader to take note of the ordinary and see what is there more so than what is not there. 

While engrossed in Chesterton, my world begins to shake quiet literally. The room rocked, the walls moved, I shook about, and the 6 story building swayed as if it was no longer a solid stable structure.  The abnormal occurrence passed in seconds, leaving my insides a bit unsettled.  My eyes had to readjust to my surroundings just a bit as I opened my office door to discover from the testimony of others I had just experienced my first earthquake. 

After an expedient Google search I found that there had just been a 5.8 earthquake in Virginia. After some expending some time on Facebook status updates and comments I decided I wished to write, now inspired both by Chesterton and the strange event of the day.  Although I have no profound correlations or postulations to extrapolate from this event I wished to put it to words.  Thus, I will draw this post to a close as it has served its intended purpose—a note of a short moment in time on an otherwise uneventful day.  

Origin of Satan & Evil

God did not create Satan, He created Lucifer.  Lucifer was a mighty archangel who had charge over many other angels.  He dwelt in the glory of God in the realm of the heavenlies. 

Lucifer began to get proud and think He could be better than God. He rebelled against God and caused an uprising of angels to join forces with Him in efforts to go against God.  Due to this, Lucifer and one-third of the heavenly hosts were cast out of heaven.

To continue reading this article please click here to be taken to Helium.com where the original article is posted. 

More on God's Goodness

I was recently asked to expound on the nature of the goodness of God in a manner that describes what is meant by goodness, rather than what is not meant.

There is nothing one can point to other than God to illustrate what is absolutely good.  The reason stating what is not meant is easier than stating what is meant, is that we can point to things that are not God for an example, but to speak of what is meant, I can only point to God. 

Many would dismiss this as circular reasoning. What is good? God.  How do we know God is good? God.  To be true, it is something that cannot be proven by another measure. If God were not the supreme good, then if there is such a thing, something else would have to be that self-referencing standard. 

Humans certainly aren’t absolute references for ultimate good. This is a fact we know too well. And yet, if we know it, how do we explain that we know it? How do we have a sense that we aren’t doing what is right all the time? And yet, we do know this. We know we fail to be good even though most of us want to be good and beat ourselves up internally when we are not.  If we reject the Biblical reason for this conflict between our desire to be good and our failure to be thus, what are we left with?

Of course, there are many postulations by many different belief systems, but all religion puts forth the need for striving to be more moral, better people.  Prayers, petitions, penance, and priest are all a part of our attempt to be better than we are and to somehow qualify for something greater than we deserve.  Christianity is not exempt. In many people, churches, and cultures, Christianity is about doing the same thing – striving to be better on their own merit to earn God’s acceptance. 

It’s not really debatable any longer that across the board we know we fail to be what we feel we ought to be.  But where is this invisible standard that makes it impossible to do whatever we want without any guilt? Why are we guilt ridden?  Why do we call those who cannot distinguish right from wrong, insane?

The Bible says the truth of God is written all around us in nature so that we are without excuse. We all know we have fallen short. We all know there is a good that we do not measure up to.  Jesus came to show us the way out of our sins and guilt.  He came not to condemn us for we were in that place of condemnation already. We knew full well the guilt and He came not to heap more rules and condemnation upon us, but to remove it. He came to do all the “work” to qualify for us, because work would never get us there.  But He can get us there and He who was pure because impure (became sin) for us and took the wages of sin upon Himself.  He took it all to the grave and He rose again leaving it all buried so that we no longer have to strive to burry our sins, for He came to bring life to whosoever will step into Him and experience His life. 

The reason we fail to be good, is because we are separated from the good God.  Jesus dealt with the sin so that we could be transformed in Him and know the Father just as we know Him. For if we have seen Jesus we have seen the Father.  The good life is not something we can work for, but something we can be given by the good Father. 

This is the essence of the goodness of God.  His heart is turned towards us while we were yet sinners. We were unable to make ourselves good, because goodness was not something that is separate from God. So the only way to become good is for God to take us into Himself again and He did this through Jesus.  There is no other name, no other way, and no other life that will do it for us.  We have a full history from the beginning of time of man trying and failing to be good on their own.  We know this full well. 

Goodness is not definable because a definition denotes limitation and His goodness knows no bounds.  Goodness can only be known by personal experiential connection with God directly or indirectly. Sometimes the indirect experience precedes the direct. We see the goodness of God by seeing a supernatural love demonstrated by a follower of Jesus, or we hear testimony of a miracle that opens our heart towards Him.  Sometimes it is a direct experience where God covers us in His presence and we feel and know His amazing goodness and love.  There are many ways to witness the goodness of God, and once our eyes are open to recognize Him we see that He was there all along and His goodness never failed us.  

Worship

I read an interesting article from the June edition of National Geographic.  The article conveyed that there is a new theory which is a major shift from the traditional theory about when religion arose in early civilizations. The traditional theory is that the nomadic hunter-gatherers settled down for purposes of agriculture, developed community, arts, and then religious worship. The religion was believed to be a construct of necessary social development to maintain class structure and the morality of the community.

However, archeologists have discovered a religious temple with no signs that it came after civilization, but before and then the society organized around it.  Worship preceded a society, rather than developing out of a society.  The writer was of the persuasion that a supernatural world was a man-made construct serving man made purposes, but the archeological theory was interesting none-the-less.

It would seem that we could agree that humanity has been poised for worship since the beginning of our existence.  Even those who would see themselves as having no religious or spiritual interests can be found singing with their hands out stretched at a concert.  Others relish the outdoors with a spiritual adoration.

Interestingly, it seems that many (not all) atheists are also very interested in Buddhist spirituality. This way they can have the benefits of spiritualism devoid of the religious tenants and theistic beliefs they disavow.  Most it would seem will allow a place for spirituality as long as Western religious tenants are not interwoven in the package.

Worship is birthed out of our desire to connect with something greater than us whether we direct it to God, a celebrity, nature, or a favorite pass time.  We also thrive on community. We want to connect with people. It’s in our nature to be communal, but we just can’t seem to get close enough to a human to satisfy that desire for meaningful connection.  Often relationships fail to work because people are seeking more than a human can give.  This is why a strand of three cords is not easily broken, but two cords often cannot handle the strain of seeking what can be only found in the missing cord in the other person. 

Worship draws man out of himself into connectivity with God.  The depths of man can connect with God in a way that it is impossible to connect with another human.  When we replace that God connection with a human we have an unhealthy relationship.  We seek intimacy, and we can find temporary fulfillment of that desire, but eventually all that is available to us to find connection fails to fulfill the desire.  We think it is the other person and for a time we reach a new high with a new person, but again we fail to attain because we have worn through the experience and are again in search for something more. 

Worship is the act of man which brings about that spirit to Spirit connection we so desperately need and awakens our being to His Being.  Worship comes in many forms, not all of them are a matter of singing and dancing.  Worship is also giving, and loving, and doing that which God has called you to do.  Obedience to the call of God is an act of worship. But even these things cannot take the place of physically exalting God through some form of expression.  Cry out to Him and He will draw near to you.