In this moment

In this moment you are in
Is the place of encounter God
The past and future can encourage
But you are in this moment
So now, the ever present now
Is your place to encounter God
Unless the past or yet to come
Encourages your encountering God now
It is a distraction
Learn to do all that is good
In the Now
With the power of the Lord

The Last Day - rejoice

Today is the last day before a new year. I thought I would make a list of things I rejoice over. These are not in order, just a random come to mind as they did mode. I will rejoice and be glad.
1. Peace of God in my mind
2. Shirley and a good marriage
3. People who love me and people who pretend to
4. For the health that I do have and ability to work
5. Provision to live on and to share
6. Hope for the future in Christ Jesus
7. Eternity, more yet to come
8. God’s creativity
9. Miracles, signs and wonders
10. Testimony of the Saints
11. Witness of the Martyrs
12. Sincerity of the Youth
13. Always something new to learn
14. Humility as a pathway to freedom
15. Coffee
16. My children knowing God
17. I have a Bible and reading glasses
18. My home is full of peace (especially if I am not home)
19. I have a purpose in daily life
20. I am clothed and well fed
21. I have power to help others
22. I hear God’s voice (others too)
23. I enjoy seeking God, music and prophecy
24. My soul is content
25. God often tells me what is wrong with me so that I don’t need to worry about that part much.

Happy New Year

In this coming year I would like to
1. Write 4 pages every day
2. Spend at least 2 hours in prayer a day
3. Fast every week
4. Start a Video blog for the PPC
5. Improve my web skills
6. Get a video camera and do stuff
7. Stop the pain and glorify God
8. Train 1000 people to be better than I am
9. Play my guitar and other musical stuff before the Lord daily
10. Learn to spell 10 words 5th graders already know how to spell
11. Read 1 Fiction book
12. Discover a way to monitor and capture unseen gamma waves
13. Do out of door stuff with people
14. Do some paint can art work
15. Levitate
16. Do half the stuff I want to do
17. Drink good coffee
18. Decrease my anger
19. Increase my ability to love others
20. Learn to manage better
21. Go on a cruise with my wife
22. Publish one of the hundreds of things I have written
23. Do some nature photo stuff
24. Walk around the city in prayer
25. Heal someone on the streets
26. Laugh more
27. Worry less
28. Be more thankful and let others know how much I love them
29. Make fewer lists

Getting Holy

You can tell that you are becoming more holy if...
the dog pukes on the porch
and then poops in the basement
you misplace $250 in cash
break a gift the same day to purchase it
slip on the ice
get up at 5:30 to pray each day
give your coffee money to someone in need of gas
think good thoughts when you want to be mad
save for a guitar but keep giving the savings away
and still think that you have a very very good like.

There are branches breaking off trees all around us now. The freezing rain and the dormant trees are in battle. It is not a matter of wills, as each one is only doing the very thing it knows to do. Freezing ran falls and trees seek to stand. Conflict. So it is with me. I seek to stand, and the nature of this world just falls. Everything that has not be redeemed to stand, falls. By grace I was redeemed, and by grace I will stand. Understanding this conflict allows me to become more holy, not just react to my fallen world.

All Gone

Turkey
T is for treasure, enjoying each bite
U is for uniting to eat and to delight
R is for relaxing, after eating you must do
K is for keeping a pie from a few (for yourself later)
E is for enjoyment, excitement and email
Y is for wishbone, it is better than the tail.

Thanks + Giving

Had a great time with some of the family this past weekend. Right now I am doing the Global Bridegroom Fast. It is very, very hard to go from feasting to fasting. I love to feast. Fasting is not so enjoyable.

I had to go through some of the scripture on fasting this morning to get my motivation up. I had a little, "why should I go without" attitude and needed to be challenged to make a difference in the world and not just live. It is easy to fall into the "what does it matter" way of thinking. This is especially true for those of us who have been fasting and praying for years. At times you can wonder what difference it is making. Who would know or care if we gave in a little?

It is in moments like these that I need to be reminded that I don't do it for YOU (humanity), I do it for HIM. God will know each sacrifice and broken fast. He will know the cost I have paid in prayer, in service and in loving others. It is enough for HIM to know because HE is the one I am seeking to serve. It is HIS will I am seeking to see actualized on the earth in the first place.

The greatest Mystics taught that what you do matters. They taught that if you pull away from this world, that if you abandon your life to Christ alone, you will find true life. Living beyond the Vail of self-service doesn't mean we do not serve. We serve and labor for HIS will, not our own. Those who are abandoned to Christ are not care-less with life. Those who are abandoned to Christ are the most care-ful with life, and actions, and duty.

God creates so that HE can share HIMSELF.

One more reason to love rednecks.

Smile this Thanks-giving

Q: Why do Pilgrims have trouble keeping their pants up?
A: Because they wear their belts on their hats!

Q: What is the difference between a chicken and a turkey?
A: Chickens celebrate Thanksgiving!!

Q: How many turkeys does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: Just one but it takes 5 hours

Q: What do you get when you cross a turkey, the beach, and Broomhilda?
A: A turkey sand-witch

Q: Why do turkeys eat so little?
A: Because they are always stuffed!

Q: What did the turkey do in the Thanksgiving Day Parade?
A: He played his drumsticks!

The Inner Man and Outward life

The connection between the inner man and the outward life is like a railroad track. Once the track is laid the only way off is through changing connections. Asaph wrote a wonderful revelation of this in Psalm 73.

Psa 73:1-3

A Psalm of Asaph. Surely God is good to Israel, To those who are pure in heart!
But as for me, my feet came close to stumbling, My steps had almost slipped.
For I was envious of the arrogant As I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

The thought life of the man is reflected in His actions and attitude. When we start to fell that God is not just, when God has let us down, we are only a short distance from acting like God does not matter. How often are we attacked by the enemy of God with the thoughts of our value and God's neglect? How many times a day do we think about our desires and God's lack of fulfilling all those desires?

The answer to this issue is to live in the place where all desires are fulfilled. But to enter that place you must die to yourself. The only way to have life is to loose it. The only way to live is to die. Almost sounds like some kind of eastern religion. It is the gospel of the Kingdom.

I am tired of small men using the false light of this world to cast great shadows. Men and women who live their whole lives to be seen and recognized as "something". Do we not daily encounter people who try to make us think more of them than they are? Do we not face endless manipulation to honor the value individuals who do little more than daily striving to get people to honor and value them?

But a strange thing is, when we live in the place of "ever desired fulfilled in Christ", we freely give them honor and value. We give to them freely what they long for as the love of God flows through us because God uses us to give to them the very thing they long for, yet in vain. This too is a reflection of the transformation that occurs when the inner man is full of delight. The one who dwells in the presence of God has actions that demonstrate peace and security. Life flows from the inside out.

I wish the guy that sets in front of me in church would get Ps. 73 tattooed on his neck. It would be great to read it each week.

A Grand View

I have been privileged to see a great many great sights. I have captured the wonders of mountains high and the vastness of the ocean. I have enjoyed the thrill of conflict and the harmony of silence. My heart has been broken by both the pain and suffering of others and the kindness of life lived well. Yet what I observed last night in the prayer room was very near the top of the list for me.

As those who gathered prepared for ministry to the Lord it was as if I could feel His anticipation. There was a delight emanating from the Spirit of God that caught my attention. I am a person very much addicted to enjoyment and the enjoyment of enjoying God as He loves those who come to minister to Him and for Him is extraordinary. The ordinary love of God is good, very good. The extraordinary love of God captures the wholeness of man, it fills sensual places that you did not know exist. The mind, reason and logic seem to be filled with childlike excitement, wonder and fun on the most enjoyable level. All this while at the same time encountering the fear, wonder and awe that encountering another dimension in God brings.

In addition to encountering God in this way, it seems like a doorway is open to you. Once you find Him, or He finds you, in this way; you can enter into His depths over and over again in many and various ways. It is like finding God only to find that He is always near, ever willing to reveal Himself for who He truly is.

I am thankful that I get to run the race with people like this Friday Night Group. I am full with satisfaction of being part of a part of Him.

The Worst Thing

What is the worst thing that can happen to me? Have you ever thought of that question? I did recently. I was wondering what my life would be like if the very worst happened.

The worst for me would not be dying. If I was dead, then my problems would be over. The problems I call the worst are the ones that effect me living. It is pain, suffering, helplessness, fear and agony. If I was to think in my mind the very worst of times (that is, if I were to practice vain imagination) then I would still have the presence of Jesus. The other night as I lay in pain on the floor of the Boiler Room, I thought that I hurt so bad, yet Jesus is hear with me. God has promised me never to leave me. His presence, in all my painful situations, is light and life in my darkest hours. In fact, the more I am aware of Him the less I am aware of the pain, even when it is growing in strength.

"So What" you may say! "Isn't God only valuable if He can change your situation, to make your life better?" No, God is always able to make life better, yet that is not the only value He has to me. His presence makes life worth living (even in pain) simply because He is near. It may be hard to live, but it is worth living.

So how do we transcend out reality and enter into His reality? How do we walk by the Spirit? How do sit in the prisons of life and sing worship songs without the promise that we will escape? How do we face daily trials and temptations and keep a joy burning in us? The truth is that there are so many ways to accomplish this that I could not list them all. While we may only be able to think of one, that is simply not the reality of the situation. God has thousands of ways to transcend our grind and live in His grace.

Here are a few to try. But let me warn you that it takes skill to accomplish these well and you may need to practice for several years before you are skilled at be hidden in Christ through some of these methods. But what is a few years to friends? Remember you are not seeking to avoid your pain but to encounter and be filled with God.
1. Laughter
2. Random outburst of Joy and Gladness
3. Dancing (without a partner and without an audience)
4. Gazing at the clouds or stars
5. Eating very good ice cream in a very big bowl

If desire a more serious method you can try
1. Reading scripture in the original language
2. Quoting Creeds in Latin
3. Using the Bible Code Book to find good chess moves
4. Or making long lists of how unworthy you are to receive mercy and focusing on all your faults and weakness until you hear the Fathers voice telling you to get beyond your pride and enjoy His grace.

Wisdom

If you have ever watched one of the crime scene shows you have observed people who were skilled at acting like people who have the wisdom to solve complicated problems. We as a society entertain ourselves with people who act like other people. That is OK, because it can stir great things in us. It can also stir other things too. We need to know the difference between the actor and the reality. At some point in our lives we must move beyond “acting” in reality.

Knowledge of how to live + skill in living rightly = wise living.

We tend to live in a world where people pretend to know and others pretend to have skill. As believers in Christ Jesus we need to mature in both knowledge and skill. In the past generation we have viewed people who knew about scripture as mature, we did not require them to live what they knew. It is when you know and live well that you enter into the life of maturity.

In Eph 1:17 Paul prays that we would have a “spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him”. Paul understood that we needed skill and ongoing revelation to take the knowledge of God and have it affect our lives and world. Just knowing God is not enough. Satan knows God and it does not result in Godliness, holiness, righteousness or sanctification.

Take the wisdom challenge. Write out one truth you know about God. Now write out 7 ways to live out that truth in everyday living. To see if you are on the right track, see if the perspective is “from above”. God’s wisdom is un-wise by this world’s standard. The book of James will help us see this. Often wisdom is the very opposite of the ways of this world.

Since this is a season of election, you can ponder one thing about the rule and government of God. You may merge the reality of God ruling the nations even if they turn away from Him. What is the result? Not anger or malice! God takes no delight in destroying the wicked. So God’s wisdom leads us to hope and peace in the face of living in a land turning away from God. RE: Check out the China Christian worldview for a picture here.

Well enough said. It is not enough to know. We need to be wise!

Intercessory Prayer Initiative PRAYER ALERT – 10/22/08

If you are an intercessor please take some time and read the letter from Dutch Sheet. If the above link fails, you can find it at www.prayerinitiative.com.

What can you do to change the world? What is God’s calling to His people in this hour?

In Acts 17 we find the story of Iconium, a city that the spreading of the gospel was “not that easy”. Notice that the great and anointed Paul and Barnabus had a few hard places too. You are not the only one that is called to fight against the evil. In this situation racial and religious strife combined with leadership and rulers who were entangled in the conflict between God and anti-god. Men who were the serving the enemy of God stirred up their minds and embittered their spirits to that God’s word, sings and wonders. It was one of those times when the move of God brought as much division as union. People were choosing sides. Emotions were running high.
As you read this passage of Scripture you will observe that this is one of those times when the miracles did not produce a happy ending, not for many years. Barnabus and Paul wanted to make a difference now, but they were willing to pay the price for a life of ministry. In this passage they fled, Paul was stoned and left for dead, and then they later returned and ministered to the disciples that were there. Through years of conflict and turmoil the gospel of the kingdom was presented with power and patience. If we were living in that region at that time we might have called it revival. But we might of also have called it political unrest, religions controversy, false teaching, manipulation and anarchy.
We live in such a time and are in such a conflict. We may long for an immediate solution, nevertheless we should prepare ourselves to pay the full price of a life of ministry. World history and the Bible both teach us that the gospel of the kingdom cannot be stopped as long as the disciples do a few things.
1. Authentic Christian Discipleship. Culture and society is invaded with the gospel of the kingdom when the people of God live authentic Christian lives. By living rightly then effect and influence every area of culture and business. Through community and relationships people witness the power and presence of God in the lives of disciples around them. When the disciples call themselves “Christian” but life just like the world, the power of testimony is lost. When the disciples seek to live in such a way that requires God to be present and visible in their lives, God is faithful to be near then.
2. Dependence on God should increase with maturity not decrease. Just the opposite of being able to handle situations on our own should occur. While from the outside observer it may seem like the mature disciple make more choices bases on personal opinion or responsibility, the reality is that the mature disciple lives a life of ongoing simple devotion to Christ. Their heat is constantly being turned to God, they are seeking direction and guidance moment by moment and have fewer needs to take time out to find God because they live daily life as a seeker.
3. When a group of disciples seek both the power and presence of God, over time they affect culture. The power of God is often described as His outward glory, the signs, wonders and miracles that are fruit of God backing up His disciples. The presence is the power of God working in the inner man, transforming wounded, broken and sinful man into holiness, purity and righteous.
4. Disciples have the privilege to yield every kingdom of their life to the Master. While this smacks against our view of independence, self-reliance and it is also the doorway to never ending fellowship with God. God desires to be with us always. So we can enjoy recreation, entertainment and employment in an atmosphere of fellowship with God. The more we keep kingdoms for ourselves the more we live divided and confused lives. The more we live to glorify God in all we do and think, the more we find peace and power in every area of life.
In our day we can join with God by following a few ideals.
• One Way
• Humble the Heart
• Renewed Mind
• Peaceful Soul
• Industrious Servant
• Obedient Child
• Learning Disciple
• Wounded Healer
• Loving Authority
• Infused Humanity

Super Message

We live in a world where if you are not "feeling good" and "getting things done" you are not living well. IF you are poor or in pain than something is wrong with you. If you are single, uneducated, driving a bus for a living; then something is wrong. Why didn't you make something out of your life?

The trouble is that most of the things that hinder us, we can't do anything about. Do you remember Hagar in Scripture. She was the slave girl that Abram and Sarah took with them out of Egypt. She didn't ask to be Abram's "second wife". She didn't choose to be rejected for doing what she was asked to do? She didn't choose to have her family hate her son.

So we also, have people come against us for the stuff that happens in our lives. We must walk through the times when people dis-like us for living. When we do we live in the space of SUPER MESSAGE. Be a person who enjoys life and God in spite of all the garbage that others throw your way. Smile in the face of criticism, laugh in the space of rejection. WHY?

Why live in the opposite spirit than the spirit of this world? Why walk by faith that you have significance even if others can not see it? Why believe that you life is more that it's conditions or situations? Because.

Living loved by God in a world that hates God is the greatest thing you can do on the earth. It is the daily worship service that few see, yet the Father always beholds. Those who live like Hagar often receive the blessing of Hagar. Tho they were not the first ones chosen, God sends His angle to them to bless them and favor them because they have lived well and are SUPER MESSAGES. God is not like man, He often loves most what we reject most. The very point where others marginalize you is the point of a Divine Embrace.

The fruit of Hagar's life was "God will hear". You and I also stand in the place where what we do not have but love for becomes the testimony, "God will hear". Never give up on being a Super Messenger. Never stop living the life given to you. Don't sink to being jealous, angry, full of pity or bitter. Carry the cross of being a great one for God and do it well.

The Need for Authority

Here is my list of “why I need authority”


1. To deliver me from total self righteousness
2. To learn to follow.
3. To learn to love people I don’t want to follow.
4. To learn how not to complain, grumble and do all those things Israel did in the wilderness.
5. To learn what it feels like to be a kid again.
6. To appreciate it when I get my way.
7. To help me see and know things I don’t want to see and know.
8. To develop a pure heart for people I don’t like but must love.
9. To have someone else to blame.
10. So that I enjoy God’s gift to help me mature and develop into Chrtistlikeness.

If you need to find me

If you need to find me over the next couple of days, look here.  I should have a "little drury" with me too.  Funny thing that I would be in the park of Jubilee just off thousand dollar road.

Looking to find the "big one", and that's not a deer.

 

Living with an OUCH

Be gracious to me, O Lord
for I am in distress
My eye is wasted away from grief
my soul and body also
For my life is spent with sorrow
and my years with sighing
My strength has failed because of my iniquity
and my body has wasted away
(PS 31)
Satan seeks to take my life
All my enemies side with him
They plan ways to bring me down
lies are released to set the snare
My body staggers under the attack
stress and anxiety wear me down
except for the Lord, I would have no hope
I am weary with the thought of living another day
false friends come and preach ease
religious ones say. "be comforted" but no power is in their words
The house of the Spirit cracks
It shivers in pain
life has slipped from living to enduring

Now
In the moment of greater darkness
the smaller light outshines
to be so close to hell and yet to look at God
the thoughts and lessons of Job rush upon
though He slay me, I will love Him
I belong to Him
Un-modern faith must now take the helm
reason is de-throned, illumination must rule
though He slay me, yet I will Praise Him
the resolve beyond reflection

Friends

You are a very rich person if you have friends who help you stay in love with God. We may have very friendly people in our live s that love us and care for us, but if they fail to help us stay in love with God, they can end up hurting us more than helping us. This may seem a little strong, but the main thing in all of life is loving God wholeheartedly. To do that we need friends around us who help.

Friends who help you love God (hylg) are usually not the friends you emotionally connect to. You emotional friends are usually people who support YOU, make YOU feel important and give to YOU some type of reward. There are other friends who don’t give YOU as much support, but in the long run supply to your spirit and life what you actually need, the challenge to love God more. Can these be the same person? Only if we allow from them both their kindness and severity!

HYLG friends come in all packages. Some of those who are the best, are not the people we would choose to be friends with. I am learning to enjoy the Lord more as He brings people into my life, not for my enjoyment or “YOU”ness, but for the development of loving God more. Thank you God for hylg friends.

Friendship with God

God is hard on His friends. Have you ever noticed how someone who is “halfheartedly” seeking God gets just about everything the pray for. Then you look at a guy like Moses, the humblest man who ever lived (God said that) and He can’t get away with slapping a rock with a stick. It wasn’t like he beat someone’s child. Moses had to deal with his friendship with God.

The more you truly know God, the more sever His love for you is. Sever love, that would be a good book title. This is so that you can keep on sharing in His holiness. Holiness is something that is not a part of this earth. All holiness is from another place, like the Kingdom of God, Heaven, the uncreated realm. If you want to eat the best ice-cream (holiness) you need to be able to handle God’s severity – not just His blessings.

I like it that God is complex. I mean if I have lived with my loving wife for almost 30 years and don’t have her figured out, I want God to be more complicated than that. I don’t want God to be reduced down to “God is love”. I like it that God has multiple names and that many of them are in competition. The Prince of Peace and the Lord of Host (ARMIES) is just one example. I like a God who can make a rock so big that He Himself could not pick it up, to wise to make such a rock and so loving that He spends hours of His time talking to people who accuse His of smashing them with that rock that was to big for Him to pick up, let alone throw.

Well, I’m gonna try to be God’s friend. I know it will cost me my life – I just as well spend it on Him as on me. I want to take the friendship with God thing to new levels. I want to find out just how far someone who started in the pit of life can go. I guess I might be motivated by boredom, nothing much here on earth that thrills any more. Of the stuff that I think will thrill, it just leaves you feeling guilty and isolated from the one who loves me the most.

Never Ending Rain and Pain

There are times in life when it seems like the “bad” will never end. This perception in its self is the cause of a great deal of discouragement. How many of us turn to drugs, alcohol, food, entertainment, recreation or whatever, just to get a break from the perception of unending “badness”?
It is hard to turn to the Lord in times of “badness”. This is not my opinion but the testimony of the whole of Scripture. In time you will be better off if you admit how hard it is to turn to the Lord when you are hurting or bailing the flood waters out of your basement. If you pretend that it is not, you are training yourself in deception. No matter how hard the turning to the Lord is, we must also come to see and understand the treasure of that moment. It is when life is the hardest for us that we can offer to God the sacrifice of turning to Him, away from our self love and self life, and into His Lordship (Master).
The simple reality of turning away from our never ending problems and pain to the Lord is acts of intercession as each of us transcends the moments of suffering and with our hearts, cry out for things eternal. This is not a theory for me, it is a practiced reality. It may be an under practiced reality, but one that I have used, none the less. As I write this I am hoping to beat the Devil over the head with my difficulties by using them to glorify God. (Do Devils have heads?) I want to take the very things that would cause me to run from the Lord and use them to draw closer to God.
In the realm of the Spirit there is a veil. This veil is often, if not always, emotional. If you can go through your emotions, the driving emotions of the moment, you can enter the place of the Lord’s rest. Once there you will find that almost immediately your emotions change. The struggle is the love we have for our own emotions, the love we have to be hurt, to be angry, and to be stressed. On the hurting side of life these emotions seem so much more comforting that the thought of losing them and becoming at peace. The un-transformed human nature loves darkness more than light. But we can be transformed by the continuation of beholding Him and drawing near to God. It is not so much about our ability to perform self righteousness as it is about His power as Author and Finisher of the FAITH.
In just a little while, maybe a few more decades, all evil will end.

Home

Home is a good place to live. We have just return from a great time on a lake provided by some wonderful people. I had a time with the two young kids as the two older kids performed in theater in FL and football in MO. My interest are now spread out from the mountains of CAL. to the beaches of FL and from the lakes of MN to the prairies of IO and IL.

Have you ever wondered what it is like for God to always be home. He is never away, never is a strange town or trying to sleep in a new bed. Not that such things would be to difficult for an all powerful one. But God lives in people, and once He is at home in them, He is forever at home in them.

So in some ways I am like an RV for God. I get to take the God who is already there and carry Him with me to a new location. What an assignment, to do what cannot be done. By that I mean I get to move the immovable one. Just like God to make things impossible and necessary both at the same time.

But the best part is that I am a home for God. My holiness is the ongoing cleaning and maintenance that allows God not only the grace to come, but the welcome to stay. I get to be dwelling place of the limitless one. I guess that I can me home in any place just be being a home for Him.

THE Elections

Most of us think we are right. I guess it is natural, a part of mental health to believe we are right, that our ideas are good ideas. If we did not have this we would be full of fear and anxiety. Most of us don’t argue or hold a point of views just to be stupid, but some of us hold a point of view more out of pride, than out of truth.
Since I am a man I know of the “Manness” that causes my types to insist on being right even when they know they are wrong. In “Manness” we hold our course because it would be weak, dependent and humbling to change.
I had an idea of a vertical windmill in the prayer room one time. I was seeking God about an idea that would change the world. I might have been seeking the Lord about a personal idea of free energy for Rod. What I drew in my journal and later talked to a scientist about was a new creation of a vertical windmill. I know this was a creative new expression that would change humanity. You can understand how bummed out I was when I discovered that some engineers in France had built my design. I saw a picture on the internet. It is 50% more efficient than the horizontal based blade design. I was wrong about what I thought was new. It was already created. I thought I was right, but I was wrong. I thought I would build this invention and profit from it. Now I got to purchase it and help someone profit! Bummer!
In regard to the elections I find a great many people who call themselves Christians (followers of Christ) who do not seek the heat of God as to whom He wants to be our leader. Instead I find a great many people who reason from their personal perspective why they should support a leader. It is the foolishness of the human heart to think that we can know who should lead apart from God’s direction. By this I mean if you are not a follower of Christ Jesus, they please be free from the burden of asking God about His heart. But if you call yourself a Christian then you are quite obligated to know the will of God and do it.
If the leadership of America will affect millions of people, will have an impact on the world for a decade, will determine life and death in war, terrorism, violence, abortion, crime, famine and disaster; should we not gladly take a month or more to seek His will on the earth. There is a natural pride and arrogance in human nature that says “I know” what to do, how to vote. Yet God give more grace to the humble and if ever we are in need of more grace, this is that day and hour.

The place called “Peace with God”

There is a place, it is just like a location, that I call the place of peace in God. This place has substance, it takes up space, although that space may not be what we call space. Yet then again what we call space is mainly empty, as in outer space is mostly the void between things. And maybe the place of peace with God is like that, in that He fills the gap. It is like the often quoted verse about God being in the midst of the two or three people gathered in His name. God comes and is between those who gather in His name (in our midst), this provides us what we need in addition to God in us, God between us. But that is another blog.
The dwelling that is “Peace with God” can be entered into. It becomes real to the open hearted. To all who enter this place, a lightness, a glory that comes down and then lifts up, manifests. The human heart is warmed, encourages and satisfied. This has little to do with your morality or maturity. It does affect them in that you have a stronger desire to be mature and moral. You want to be more like Him. Yet being in the place of peace is not obtained through merit. The space is a part of God’s nature and exist no matter what we do or what we are like. It is a part of His loving-kindness to all generations.
Let me try to be honest, the type of honesty that causes discomfort. This “free to all” peace is entered into at a great cost. I could go into a lot of details, but let me simply say that the cost of peace is rejection. Sound to cool to be true, I know. Not what you expected to hear?
The “cost of rejection” is not a price to be paid to enter, but the price to be paid for entering. It is like you get in for free, but being there cost you something, and what the peace with God cost you is rejection from the world. People, all sorts of people, good Christian people will reject you. The church is full of people, just like worldly people, who want you to be a christen as long as it serves them. But if you enter into a place where then cannot manipulate you, lay a guilt trip on you, control you; then they do not like you being in that place. They will call “peace with God” of the Devil.
Jesus told us that if they accused Him, they would accuse us.
The cost is also the easiest method of entrance. Easy being “straightforward”, “unproblematic” not easy as in, “easy”. If you will except rejection without trying to defend yourself, without arguing in your mind, without holding onto thoughts of self-justification and self-worth; you will be at the threshold of a new and amazing place. Once at the door give no thought, literally, to anyone else but God. Even if it is just for a “half moment” be in that place with Him alone. In time the amount of time you have in the place will grow as discipline works in you so that you can share in His holiness.
Oh, sharing the holiness of God. That is amazing. It is like flying through a verity of storms and weather formations, only each one refreshes and encourages. It is like ……
But first let the Peace of God dwell in you fully.

Spoken well of by God

In Eph. 1:3 we read

Eph 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,

Three different root words for blessed are use in this one verse. The second is from the foundation of “spoken well of”, God our Father has spoken well of us. What kind of blessing is that? How does that encourage someone who is needing money, help in restoring a marriage, assist in defeating depression or despair?
What the mystic comes to learn is that what God speaks and what exist in the realm of God are very close. They are not the same, often requiring our agreement or maturity to come into being. God has chosen a divine partnership ever since the garden that allowed mankind to either have the wisdom to name all the animals or the folly to turn our backs on God is disobedience.
So if you are like me, you want your blessing. You want to know what God is saying about you, the good things, right! We want to know what a loving God is thinking about fallen and broken humanity that is trying to serve and obey. We want to know the love of God that invades the darkness and critical spirits of this fallen world and speaks a truth and grace that is beyond our existence. We want a word from the Lord. A word of hope, peace, joy, patience and kindness.
The pathway of knowing what God is saying is through Jesus Christ alone. (You will read that in the rest of the Eph. Passage). It is not a matter of just having a gift or insight. In Christ Jesus all things are summed up and all the mystery of God is concealed and revealed. As we truly come to abide in Christ Jesus we come to know the words of the Lord for us. This is not an intellectual reality, but a reality that encompasses our entire being. We become consumed with Christ Jesus within and our outer man is being transformed to be a dwelling place of His delight. In the end, we ourselves are becoming an expression of the Lord, a living word of the Father on the earth.

Contact

The word “Christ” means “anointed. Something that is anointed has oil smeared or rubbed over it to consecrate it for service. Often in the Bible we read the phrase, “Lord Jesus Christ”. As I break this down I come up with “Master, Controller (lord) Jehovah is salvation (Jesus) smear or rub with oil, that is to consecrate to an office of religious service (Christ “anoint”).
Something or someone that is anointed has to be touched by heaven. You and I, who are called to be Priest to the Lord, need this contact. We need to be anointed. In fact we cannot do our job as a priest until we have something that connects us to God and separates us from the world. Until that happens we are just “talking about God” and are not “testifying about God”.
We, you and I, are also the oil poured out upon this world so that all we contact have the opportunity to be in contact with heaven. In a life that is often focused on getting, we are agents of giving. The calling of priests to the Lord presumes God freely has something to give us to give away. Is it not easy to fall victim to a “need to get” mentality? Today as I live, I am going to try to believe (have faith) that God is going to contact me, so that I have something to smear all over others. I think I’ll take some paper towels along.

Conflict and God’s Government

A conflict can be called a war, a clash of ideas, a struggle with opposing forces or a mental battle within ones self. It seems strange, but God rules through conflict. God, in the beginning created “light” to conflict with the darkness and thus established His method of ruling in our world.
If you are looking for the government or rule of God to be one of just ideas or principles, you are going to miss a great deal of what God is doing in your life and in the world. God does not just come to you with the idea of holiness or justice. God comes and conflicts with your ideas, actions and emotions. God takes some of the weight of eternity and pushes upon your mortal being some of His glorious weight. This conviction is more than just “reason”. God makes us miserable, nervous, perplexed.
We live in a time when the rule of God is reduced to a suggestion from a whippy God. Some would have you believe that you can offend God and all you will get in return is “easy forgiveness” whenever you decide to return to the Lord. God is full of forgiveness just as He is full of justice, truth, discipline and authority. In God, you cannot separate His love from any other of His attributes. The Lord God is one…. which means He is inseparable, having no parts, but that is another section.
The word “holy” has a base meaning of “other”. This “other than we are” sets us up for conflict in the rule of God. We have a leaders, authority, director and guide who is “other” than us. God is not like us. God conflicts with us. Even if we had never sinned, we would conflict with God who is uncreated and never made.
So – if you are not in conflict, you are not in a good place!!!! God disciplines those whom He loves and if your life is “easy” then you should be scared. Yet we all must also know that being in conflict is not a bad thing, it is not having a bad life. Just as the dawning of the morning brings hope for a new day, so does the light of God shining on our darkens release to us the true hope of eternity. Why long for the verbal blessings and praise of men when the conflicting power of God is the doorway to enjoying life eternal now. If you want to mature in Christ Jesus, you will need to get way beyond the emotions connected with conflict and “feeling rejected and unloved”.

Hard Word or Work Hard

Yesterday I was installing electrical conduit and wire. I would call it “hard work” because I am not familiar with all the methods of bending pipe and configuring circuits. Later yesterday I was mowing yards, this is “working hard” but not hard work.
What I was thinking about was those times when we are “working hard” at “hard work”. I know some people who just seem to shut down when one of the “work” and “hard” words come together. Some people just don’t like one of them (like “hard work” or “working hard”). Other people don’t like either of them and start to implode.
Those who work hard at not “working hard” or “hard work”, seem to activate an aggression switch in me. It is like seeing a clay pigeon target fluttering across the sky at a gun range. It seems only natural to shoot at it/them. I seem to quickly judge how hard they are working at figuring out how it cannot be done or how hard it is to do it and if we should not stop doing it until someone finds a better way. Or wait until someone else does it! Like the guy watching me.
So in the desire to deepen my life, I am going to try and understand and appreciate those who are “hard work” and “work hard” allergic. I am going to use my abilities and see if I can learn to ……not I’m not!
Dear God
HELP

In High Demand

I am in one of those seasons of “high demand”. I am right now in the Prayer Room (not praying) but using my blog to sort through several of the voices I hear in my mind. These are not “God speaking to me” voices, but “me speaking to me” voices. If you don’t have these don’t worry, you’re not missing much.
But I have been stressed by all the things that I “could do”, “should do”, “must do”, “ought to do” and “might possible do”. It feels a lot like driving in Chicago traffic, talking on the cell, eating a subway sandwich, listening to Reed’s DVD, praying in the spirit and daydreaming all at the same time. Don’t ask me how I know it feels like that. But it does.
I want to please the Lord in all regards. I want to make my life count, not for something, but for God. I want to stand before the eternal one and have Him smile and give me the redeeming hug of brotherhood. To hear Him say, “Well done, you mystic redneck, you did just want I wanted”! I don’t want others to look at my life and say it was a success, I want my Dad in heaven to approve. So how do I/we do that.
I spent a lot of time trying to sort through the truths of the Scripture and find a list to help me manage my life. Then in the prayer room (while I was praying) I felt the Lord toll me “not to manage my life”. I felt the Lord saying to me that He would manage my life. That my part was to love others and listen to Him closely as to what I was to do or not do. I know that “God wants me to….” Has been misused in the past. But just because it has been abused doesn’t mean it is not the way of life.
We don’t need God to tell us to get out of bed or stop eating ice cream after the second bowl. We have a responsibility to manage life on some level. But the level is always, always subject to the will of God who is in heaven. It is a delightful burden to live in such a way as to bring about on earth as it is in heaven. So the next time you find yourself life me… Trying to help 3 National Prayer Movements and 4 local church prayer events, 4 city wide prayer efforts, help the neighbors roof, 5 lawns to mow, a church to remodel, a home to build for a “dropped” Katarina victim, a son who wants to go fishing and play catch, friends who need help moving, a bathroom that need to be cleaned and a book that calls out to be read; just listen.
My Dad in heaven deals with much more than this on a daily basis and His “never in a panic” way of doing things enables me to do my part – love others. I think I’m gonna pray the prayer of THANKSGIVING FOR AWAILE.

My Hard to Love List

I thought I would make a “hard to love” list of people who are hard for me to love. I would choose the kind of person that is all messed up, so much so that it poses some difficulty for me to love them.
Does God ever mess with you?
So I went to make this list, right. My goal is improvement and Godliness through the observation of faults and weakness in others. Can you see where this is going?
No matter how novel, I can’t seem to get to God through picking apart other people. My Father in heaven simply wants to work in me until His love flows freely through me – no goodness of others required.
I guess true Christlikeness is loving “hard to love” people easily. “Easy” being with restraint, not as “easy” being without effort. Picking up the cross is a labor intensive ordeal, especially if you are large. The measure of the natural man determines the size of the cross.
So I got my list now! The “hard to love” people are me. It’s hard to know what is in your heart and still love or like yourself. I guess I will need to trust God that He too is Christlike, loving those who have issues.
Dear God, I and a few others close to me, were wondering when you would be done transforming me into the image of Christ. We all hope that it would happen any time now.

I don’t want a know

There are a lot of things that I do not want to know. Over the last 3 weeks I have been stressed and pushed in ways that I would never choose. I have faced pain, conditions, emotions and situations in which I would never choose, if there were not chosen for me. Yet God in His goodness chooses to prepare me for life yet to come. I would choose to live a life and not know what it is like to see your Dad suffer, your friends confused or be pressured to perform beyond human possibility. I would choose to live a life where I do not fail to meet the desire of others and thus escape all the negative emotions that failure brings.
But God, that big God of endless wisdom and love, has other plans. He acts upon my life so that in things yet to come I am prepared. My preparation is not just so that I have an easy life, but rather so that I have a glorious life. To achieve “glory” I must transcend the natural and enter into “Kingdom living”. Supernatural living requires a little more pressure and endurance than life in the “easy button” mode.
Let me rant and little more on what I don’t want to know. I don’t want to know that I can be tired, weary, even at the point to exhaustion and still apologize, still be kind and still ask for forgiveness. I tend to like having reasons for misbehavior or ungodly living. I don’t want to know that I can pray when I don’t fell like praying and help others when I have no energy to help myself. I don’t want to know that I can love when I am hated and give to others when I have nothing to give. I don’t want to know these things but God has been doing the “I am your Father” thing and in His love disciplining me into a greater maturity than I desire. He is acting for my good. I don’t feel it is good. I am taking this on faith. I am in a “trust God” mode and trust not yourself mode.
I found myself in a rage today. It was like a fit of anger on “RED BULL”. But then I heard the calm spirit of God in me asking, “why are you mad”. At first this challenge made me madder! “Just look” at …… Then it hit me. I had stuff I could get mad about but it was not worse today than any other day. The stuff was just like “other day stuff”. I was more tired, stressed, perplexed; but the issues were all the same. So I took about 15 min. and cooled off. Then I apologized for being angry. Once I asked for forgiveness, I felt better. In fact obedience with the Lord felt better then the joy of being mad because I was tired. Maybe light is better than darkness, but we men tend to love the dark more.
So.. when filled with life and ready for a fit
Don’t give in
Don’t try to quit
Turn to God who you really what to avoid
And allow His grace to fill your
VOID

If living for Jesus was easy everyone would be doing it.

What to do

Over the last few weeks I have found my life running myself. The things on the “to do” list have become animated and have taken over the “what I should do.” The purpose driven life is more like the “what you need to do next” life. I feel like many, many people know what I am talking about.
When this happens our/my identity can get lost. We can start to feel, even come to believe emotionally that we have no control over our life. We can start to feel like our life is “worthless”, we feel less and less like we are worth anything.
The real answer to this situation is to hang on to the Lord. The word “Lord” means “Master” and when everyone and everything else desires to rule your life, you can turn to the foundation of all life. But just turning to God is not enough. I know that many will tell you that it is, but it is not. You must turn to God and then cling to Him. The clinging is a spiritual, emotional and even physical bound. Clinging to the Master does not mean you get the life you desire back, but you get the one you desire more than life back. Once you have and keep in touch (clinging) with the Lord, everyone and everything else is reduced to everything else. Hanging on to God is a great focus, endeavor and purpose.
Right now in my life I have a Promise Keepers conference to recruit people of prayer for. I think I have 4-5 of the 80 needed. I have the Peoria Prayer Center data base to rebuild, office work to do and newsletters to write. I also have my Dad to look after, two trips to make this week, lawns to mow, a new church remolding space to work on and preparations for the Global Bridegroom Fast and The Call. Added to this is my desire to write and produce prayer helps and others discipleship tools. I have a cartoon prayer manual setting on the shelf as well as 12 children’s lessons to write.
All this stuff, great stuff cannot become my identity or tools of evaluation. Many people, who do not selfishly hide themselves away, find themselves with endless places of help, service and labor. If we truly love our neighbor as our selves we are going to go through times of great labor and exhaustion. If you love others you will encounter some very long, if not unending days. This is a part of “normal Christianity.” Please, please do not surrender to the “take care of yourself”, “protect you time and family”, “you deserve time to yourself” mentality. If you cling to keep this life, you will have no hands to cling to Him, who is all of life. It is true that you must lose your life not to find life eternal. Many who are teaching on this subject have not yet come to know what it truly means. It is not something that you are willing to do. It is in fact something that you must actually do.
What to do? Cling!

The Love of NEW

I love new stuff. Not material stuff. Well maybe some material stuff if it is outdoors related. But I love new (of a different kind) of stuff. I love to see a side of God that I have never seen, to learn something that I have not known before, to think a thought for the first time.

You need to be a little careful when you try to analyze thinking about a thought for the first time. You don’t want to get trapped into thinking wither you “thought of this though” when you were trying to “think that this though” was an original thought or if you thought of this thought prior to thinking about thinking about this thought. You know what I mean.

Things that are new (as in the same kind but just new) are great. I love a new bow, a new dish of ice cream, a new journal. But I love, really love something new.


I was reading John through trying to hear the Lord in the scripture for my children. I wanted to read this old book and hear new things. I wanted to think thought from the heat of God for my family. I was on an adventure. Just about every verse led me to write pages in my journal. Have you ever noticed that God speaks one or two words into our heart and we need a thousand to translate the emotion, spirit, revelation and wonder of what He is saying? No wonder God can talk to us all at the same time, He can express in one word a decade of discovery. Was that a new thought to you?

I think I am gong to take on August with a fresh zeal to replace the worlds entertainment with a quest for new thoughts from and about God. I think I will focus on “loving others as I love myself” because I am weak on the first part and grant on the second. I have thought about this before.

I wonder if I can think new thoughts, have new ideas on what it is like to love others. I wonder how many new things I could encounter in 30 days, if I could be transformed in some way through the new of a different kind.

In This World We Live

We have just gone through the wedding of my oldest son and within a day following, my Dad had a stroke. We are full of joy and suffering at the same time. Life is like that. The remembrance of the cross is both joy and sorrow. Joy for it's full salvation and sorrow at the cost of such redemption.

Nothing feebler than a man does the earth raise up, of all the things which breathe and move on the earth, for he believes that he will never suffer evil in the future, as long as the gods give him success and he flourishes in his strength; but when the blessed gods bring sorrows too to pass, even these he bears, against his will, with steadfast spirit, for the thoughts of earthly men are like the day which the father of gods and men brings upon them.
Homer (800 BC - 700 BC), The Odyssey

Homer expresses the past and future reality of both a "Father God" and the limits of humanity. Even these thousands of years later we find man, still feeble in his ability to control life. We are in desperate need of a Father God.

Over the last hours I have found much in the Father God that I truly love and enjoy. His companionship is real, stable and direct. I love the way that He loves me and trust in His goodness and grace, even with my limited human perception. I have found that His abiding within drives life for me. In the darkest moments of life, there is a way within. This inward way is not "my way" but Christ living in me that brings forth expressions of life and hope that cannot be found in me at those moments. It is very much like a child being cared for my their loving parents. It is like being nursed, held. instructed and lead on some great adventure into the wonder and beauty of what is not yet seen or known.

Not all of life is good. But there we stand with God and the un-good can go no further. We and God in used as limiters of the un-good. We are like the barriers of evil, the guardrails of travel. We and God in us establish limits as to how far un-good can go. We do this in the most simple way, of expressing love.

For in the loving of God, others, our selves and all of creation; the un-good of the un-godly is halted. Love never fails. Love does not stand alone against the tide, but it does stand, often the first. Christ in me and I in Christ will not let the un-good of this life run free. In love we will constrain it and in doing so, live life fully.

We transcend our situation, rise above it, when we live in the perspective of Father God. It is in no way a denial of the suffering of this world, but it is an actual "rising above". All those who have been carried through a death of a loved one, endured chronic pain, or walked through seasons of obsessive fear know about this protective abode of the Lord. It is not a place for a few divinely selected ones who God has chosen to favor with His love. No, it is a place available to all. Yet it cost.

The cost of entrance and abiding is submission. We must enter into Him prior to His entrance into us. God fills what He covers, He protects what is hidden in Him. Now the truth. It is not what you say or even the action that you do that "proclaim" your entrance into the abode of Christ, it is your heart! Even your mind must submit to the leading of the heart if you want to truly dwell in the secret place of the Most High. Yield your heart to God, fully, and you will find a doorway open to you. Follow Him as He leads on this pathway.

The Boiler Room of Prayer

For the past two years I have lived much of my life hidden away in a Boiler Room of Prayer. What’s up with that? Truthfully it is not the most rewarding way to live. That is if you want to be recognized, valued, praised and esteemed. I do not mean by this that people don’t appreciate me living a life of prayer, they do. Many people and religious organizations verbalize value in prayer. I have thanked numerous times for being a person of prayer by people who have never come to any of our prayer events. This is OK. But it is very unrewarding to the flesh / me side of life.
I must admit that when you go to the White House or the Super Dome they do not take you to the maintenance room. In most churches the building is laid out and configured to help people find the podium, not the heating and cooling system. I heard of some world wide denomination which started a prayer room and all they could find for space was a little closet like room back in the dark corridors of the building.
I have lived down the hall from the happening and exciting things for some time now. I love the events, the excitement, the thrill. I love to see people touched and compelled to live for Christ. In fact I like the “outside” stuff so much I ask myself, “What are you doing here is the place of prayer?” Then I remember that this is where my Father has called me. This is not “some place”, this is “my place.
Often I have tried to validate “my place” by telling people how important it is. I try to get their sympathy or praise for what I do by informing them of some great service I am doing for the body of Christ. I’m trying to stop that now. Sometimes I get mad and still “put it on some one.”
I’m in “my place” right now as I write this. No one else is here. No human I mean. I have a choice to make while no one watches. Will I surf the internet, will I try to find something to entertain me in the spirit, will I pretend to pray, will I fall in love again with the Lord? I don’t know - I have two hours to go.

Healed or not healed

I am setting right now in a healing school in Iowa. Last week I was in Lakeland FL at the Florida outpouring. It is a wonderful and awful thing to chase the Lord and His healing power. I have not been healed but have had numerous encounters with the presence and love of God. It is not a simple thing to reconcile outside of our personal relationship with God.

I come to believe that no matter what we "believe in our theology" we live from the reality of our life in God. The more we truly have a daily relationship with God the more we are stable in all the things that life brings to us and through us. Our pain and longing are all filtered through that relationship with God. This is what allows us to pray for others while we ourselves are in a place of need. This is what allows us to suffer while living in hope and love, we can have a need for money to pay our bills and yet be giving to others because we have a security that is not in this world, it is in our heart and in our relationship with God.

My pain sought to be me
Yet I found life coming to me
Not in my situation
But beyond it
The love I needed
Was freely supplied
Not through my labor
But through graces desire
It was not my work to be free that set me free
Even my desire to be like God failed
All that comes from man fails
To bring life eternal, power unfailing
All that we need
Only in Him, from Him, with Him
Grace and love are freely given to me
Through the Son who love through Calvary
Free eternal because His first and always loves me

The Significance of Insignificance

Most of us are aware of times when we try to be noticed, valued and a part of what is happening. I even know of some people who sit and silently listen to others so that they will be noticed as someone who listen to others. I’m not like that. I like to be known right up front. My personal struggle with self-love vibrates from nano-seconds of giving and taking, humility and seeking popularity, the fear of God and the desire to please man.

Lately the Lord has been leading me to the place where it does not matter. Often this is both a physical and spiritual place. It is not a place of care-lessness. It is rather the place of surrender to “things” and joy in being. If the Lord takes you to this place you will find out how little joy you have in being (existing) and how much happiness you have because of stuff, things. It is not bad to be happy because of things, this world and everything in it was made for us to enjoy. We all should be happy people. Yet when the things are the main source of our happiness, we are no longer attached to God as the source. Stuff is out source of joy. So that means our personal joy and happieness is directly tied to things.

What I am trying to point out is that living in such a way that things are insignificant takes you to the Significant One. God stays enthroned upon out hearts and we find that we have a source of joy and peace that transcends doing and having. Now comes the hard part.

At first in our self-love form of Christianity we do not want God, but rather His things, His power, His giftings, His favor, His unlimited grace. These in themselves are so great that we could spend out whole lives enjoying them. Many people do just that. They live in the place of significant things and even will argue that there is no other place. But to the person who has moved beyond significant into that other place, the argument is not just wrong, but deceptive. Do we really what the love of things to keep us from the Love of God? Not the “knowing about” the love of God but the “entering into” the love of God. The hard part is that you have to transition from the “good” to the “best” by faith.

When we voluntary give up the good things in the hope of entering in the love of God, we have taken a risk, or we have exercised our faith. At these moments we must deal with a God who is Lord and deal with our personal selves full of expectations, desires and even judgments as to what God is like. Many people never enjoy the “God who is there” because they labor to know the “God of their personal desires.” The way that God reveals this deception to us or tries to open our hearts toward Him is to offend us. The pathway to entering into the love of God is through the gate of offence and upon the pathway of insignificance of things.

Lost and still lost

If someone finds a XPS computer with hundreds of prayer files and a vast list of intercessors, would you let me know. I had mine st olden from me a couple of weeks ago. I set up the room I was going to minister in at 8 a.m. and returned at 10 and find that my computer was accidental stolen.

I should have eaten breakfast at Hardees and not went home to eat that oatmeal. Doing the right thing always cost doesn't it. Well now I am busy pretending that I actually did back up my data. I especially feel the lose of "Delight yourself in the Lord, a cartoon prayer manual". If you find someone publishing a cartoon prayer manual - let me know.

Dear Lord:
Thanks for helping me not get attached to earthly things.
Thanks for help in learning to love and forgive.
Thanks for the data entry practice.
Thanks for helping me not to even think about it,
whatever it was.

You best friend,
in need of a computer
Rod

Why does God give us what he gives us?

Family, children, friends are given to to love. We need not make a demand upon them that they love us - but we should see each person in our circle of life as someone to love.
By loving each one we ought, we partner with God in allowing His divine love (Holy Spirit) to flow through us. The very spirit of revival is the Spirit of the Holy Spirit flowing through humanity to humanity. It is God having fellowship with others through us.
So why did God give "this one" or "that one" to you to love? Why has God withheld someone from you? Trusting God fully that "no good thing will He withhold from those who love Him" brings us not to the point of disappointment, but highest fulfillment. The lack of mates, children and friends is not a curse, but a stage in the journey to Christlikeness. When we grow in love, we also grow in family, friends and children. Christ guaranteed this in the gospels.
God also gives us unique people to love. When we find ourselves among "difficult to love" people we should ask, "What aspect or need of love does this person have that God has chosen me to supply for Him?" This is easy if we need only love for a moment. It is much more "loving" to be called to love these people for years and decades. :) We will find that most of those we are called to love for God, we are called to all the days of our lives. God has chosen us to live among them as He would.
Usually at the point of frustration in loving others is the point at which we are weak in Christlineness ourselves. The more we are transformed the "easier" it is to love. So our calling to love others is also a blessed tool of transformation!!! Do not be denied your transformation by pride, sloth, insecurity, greed or envy. Do not let the Devil himself to cheat you out of your transformation. Do not be hindered by envy, jealously, anger or foolishness.
When you are overwhelmed with all the need and demand of others for your love - rejoice. It is not "your love" they need or seek. It is God's love dispensed through you. These demands become your blessing as the need for bread for your neighbor leads you often to the dwelling of the Lord. Most always He requires us to "dine" with Him before we run off and do His will. Eph. 3:14-19

Un-American God

Isa 57:15 For thus says the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, "I dwell on a high and holy place, And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit In order to revive the spirit of the lowly And to revive the heart of the contrite.

God appears in this passage to be very un-american. He is the living holy one who dwells (lives, abides and stays) with broken down ones. He is not the God who visits the nursing home, who walks through the depressed neighborhoods, who calls the totally whacked to see how they are doing. He goes and lives with them so that they can be revived or come to life.

If God dwells on high and in holy places, yet he lives with the contrite and lowly, does that mean that they(the broken and depressed) are on height with Him? Are the broken down with God in the elevated dwelling place? Are they dwelling in Him and possessing the Holy Mountain?

What type of God hangs out with and lives with the broken people of the world? Are we not all taught in the American church to be "something special" so that we are blessed, rewarded and valued? Do we not all sing songs of triumph which have us winning the battle, overcoming the enemy and defeating the foe through our faith? Are we only partly educated and equipped?

"Revive" here means to "live". God is a God of life. If you already have a life, if your daily existence is full of stuff, activity, recreation, family, friends, lunches, dinners, sporting events, concerts, theater, biking, eating, singing; then you have no room for God, no room for life. But if you find yourself on the edge of emptiness, if you feel a lack in your heart, a desire for something more, then there is hope.

According to Isaiah 57:15 here is what you do to pull yourself out of the situation and brokenness you are in. First of all you "be". Second you look for the God who said He would be there as you "be". Thirdly you spiritually allow God to descend into your brokenness and lift you to His height and holy places. You can say "no" to both the indwelling presence of God and the revival of your life. Your pain will try to make you say no. Fear and hopelessness will not always yield easily, but God is long suffering and persistent.

Here is my "Crashed, smashed and broken prayer".

HERE I AM, COME AND GET ME!!!!

Even if you are suffering pain, it is actually quite hard to be down cast if you are truly interacting with the presence of God. You can be in so much pain that your mind is numb to everything else. That is another situation with another method of revival. But for those trapped in brokenness there is an method of elevation, and it comes in the form of the dwelling of God.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day is a very unique day. It is holy.

For whatever reason, a women choose to carry us and nurture us. We have life because another person took care of us. When I consider all the things I have enjoyed, all the love I have experienced, all the wonders I have seen; then realize it all depended on my Mother providing for me.

The months of being unborn, what is it like to carry the burden of life? What a mystery it is to own you life to your Mom. Oh, sure I know it takes two, but one bore me. That time in the womb is very spiritual. It is Godlike in the sense that I was helpless, yet alive. I was a being and yet I could not exist without care, nurture and protection. Now that I am an old man, God still "mothers" me. The wonder of God is the wonder of connection and common life.

I owe a debt to my Mom that I can not repay or even express. It is the debt of life. God in His wisdom choose to gift mothers with this great power, privilege and responsibility.

Thank you God for Mothers! Thank you for my Mom. Thank you for life.

The Lord is our Shepherd

Because God is very good we should not waist our past, especially our past failures. The things that we face this today, and tomorrow, are placed into our lives so that we live beyond and above them. To do this God has lead us through our past to our present, so that we might live as Kingdom people.

Make a list of all the miraculous things that have happened in your life. This list comes at the crossroads of desperation and conflict. The things that occurred in these moments are some of our most critical training. But we tend to blow it off and relegate it to "bad experiences" or "miraculous events". They are more. They are a big part of the training of God.

If you have been healed, as I have, then you have been trained in God's power to intervene in our bodies. If you have been given gifts of provision, as I have, you have been trained in God's school of supply. If you have been liberated in your mind, as I have, from negative condemning controlling thoughts then you have been trained by God in the renewing of the mind and the reforming of inner life.

So it is not a matter of just getting through a season of life or of having God get us out of a pickle. We are being trained in the ways of the Lord so that we can deal with the storms and issues of life. Let's not go to school for years and then live as though we have no education, no training.

Take your list and open your heart and mind to the equipping of the Lord. He lead you through these things so that you would not just "know about" the possibility of God's ways but so that you would "experience them". You are a living testimony of God and His ways. Now don't waist them. Boldly live daily life in such a way as to allow the training you have received from God to touch the lives of others. Sure no all people will be touch in the same way God touch you. Sure you can not guarantee the outcome. But you can be just like Jesus and make intercession for others to encounter God in His miracle working manner.

Having Hope

Having hope is so vital to daily life.

One day of being encouraged can make a tremendous difference in how we see things, how we feel about things and how we encounter ourselves. I find that most of my hope is related to my personal happiness and feeling that the things I desire will happen. But with so many people and so many desires, isn't someone bound to be disappointed?

The only way to avoid the big "NO GO" is to be connected with God. When my hope is in Him, I win. I win not because I get what I want more, but because when He is my desire I can always have Him. This may seem basic, and it is. But the more we live with our hope in Him the more we set others free from our con trolls, ruling spirit and expectations.


Here is a recent application

Speeding down I 65
Close behind, close beside
Talking on cell phone at high speed
Feeding my face
Seeing no need
To Slow down

Loving Dad and child
Setting in rear
Seeing the car
Fearing the fear
Wondering if driver, while feeding their face
Sees any danger
Would slower the pace.

Yet God in the heart
Reaches the soul
Helping the Dad
Release his control
Fearing not death or dismemberment
Eats his own fries
And now is content.

"Out on life's Highway, living with God"

Great Guy with Issues

I'm a great guy, with personal issues. I can't hide the greatness or the personal issues. What you see when you see me is what you are looking for. Oh, and sure the "greatness" might not be all that great, but I got what I got.
Each one of us has personal issues. God allowed these into our lives to keep us stirred up. If you want life to be simple and easy going, you might want to try Buddha or some other eastern no conflict religion. Christianity is full of blood, sacrifice, war and those nasty crosses.
But me and my stuff is what makes the cross delightful. At the cross I get an upgrade on life and that makes me excited. At the cross I get to take the me that I am and upgrade to the me I should be. It is like taking the old thing that you purchased at Walmart a year ago, and getting a new one. Walmart is like God in that way. They may give you a nasty look, but you still get to exchange the old for the new. Most of the time God doesn't give us a nasty look, but we feel like He does.
That feeling is a personal issue. We have (living people have) a lot of them. They are what we collect on our soul when we live. Some of us have issues of fear, anger, unforgiveness as well as mercy, love and hope. The personal issue is what grows in your inner life when you, as a person, have something happen to you.
I can recall in college when I was in a snowball fight in the dorm. when you have an indoor snowball fight you are a little more cautious about throwing your snow balls. It is hard to make them out of carpet, hard - but not impossible.
Well something like a carpet ball hit me in the face. It was actually a rock in the snowball thrown by a guy with personal issues. What happened is that His personal issues and mine got all tangled up and life was very exciting for some time. It all worked out though as we got to go to the cross and upgrade. I got more forgiveness and he got some bigger rocks. He needed them because my forgiveness was more progressive and instantanious.
So you can see or imagine that Christianity is more exciting because of personal issues. I suppose that some people think life is all about setting quietly and having perfect peace. But if you take the time to talk to these people who have perfect peace they are worried that people don't like them, or if they are humming to loud or not setting quietly in the right way. They also have issues about who has the greater perfect peace and who's perfect peace is being noticed.
One of my goals is life is to be a project. God loves to create and build, He is always restoring something and if I help Him hang around me, work on me, restore me, that's great.
I once had a prophetic word give to me. It went something like this.... "Rod, God knows that you are screwed up even more than you know, but He likes being with you". Right there is a testimony of a true word. Who but God could love a guy with personal issues.

Broken Rod

In the hand of a King
He intended to be
This twig of an Ash or a Oak
Each living thing has a purpose, has plans
So why not a twig, a staff for a King.

The rings of a tree reflect seasons of growth
Some are grand and others are lean
Each season itself, endured to the end
Brings growth to the twig, for the King.

But what makes one strong
How can nobility be earned
Can greatness come by mere growth
Do the winds of time blow with enough strength
To make a sceptre of twigs?

Could the twig be as nothing
What matters is others, not self
Add gold and silver and all precious stone
Add carvings and leather and oil
Add more to the twig
Hide each and all faults
Make it so the twig is not seen
Please every eye
Fulfill every hope
And pray that the King never leans.

But leading does come and strength is required
Even when covered with glitter and gold
To carry a load is required of all rods
Without this, they are without hope.

So back to the place where glitter is rare
Back to the land of growth
To the hidden, the common, the lonely
It's true
To the endurance of wind and of storm
To the yearning for water, and sun and growth
To collection of mineral and oar.

Strength from within, litte glamore without
Through trial and suffering and pain
A twigs gotta do what a twigs gotta do
And this without glory or fame.

Now in the field of great Ash
In the stand of the Oaks
A million great branches are made
Each one endured time, and seasons and life
Each one was created, then made.

True growth changes things
Deep things
Down within
True growth honors life, not fame
And even the desires of twigs does change
Once matured, once endured
Connection is valued more than praise.

What was once the great goal
Is now viewed as sacrifice
What was glory is now seen as pain
To be cut off, to be removed from your place
Speaks of hardship, displeasure and shame.

To spend all our time growing to be
What in time we do not desire
Is a life that is living and seeing within
A beauty not known without pain
For the hope of some glory
turns into one's duty
When we love "what we are" more
Than what "might be".

So the rod that is chosen to support the great King
Is a rod deeply broken within
In support, never failing
In glory, no thought
In beauty and position - esteemed
Yet humbled by privilege
And mindful of life
To be broken
Held
by the King.

For no matter how glorious the palace may be
The secptue, once a rod, once a branch, once a twig
Knows it's by grace he was chosen for this
And remembers the lessons of change.


Life is only short here on earth, our other life has endless days.

I'm Better because I'm Better

Most every day I get up I try to earn some favor from God that will allow my life to be a little easier or "more blessed". At the end of most of these days I just have depression and disappointment. It is very hard work to try and get God to love you more!

With the help of an unyielding heart, I set out anew most every day. Oh now I pretend that I have my act together, I pretend to walk in grace and to live care fee under the provision of the Lord. What I truly do is act out my desired reality while inside, I live with the real me. I'm waiting for the real me to go away and the me I want to be to live.

Fear plays a major role in my life. Fear of rejection, fear of hurt, fear of failure; all work on me like a roller pin working in yeast. More than that, like a overweight half drunker sailor who is serving time in the galley by getting the bread ready. Driven by anger and filled with bitterness this sailor slaps and punches the bread, using verbal insult to get his job done. At times I feel like my inner life just knocks me around. I feel abused for a purpose. Molded into a small container and heated until I am ready to be eaten by man.

How can I live in grace and favor. I know what this cost. I know who I am. I know what I am in the very deep places of my thoughts, attitudes, emotions. Sure I have some level of the gift of self-control, that is what makes me the least bit socially acceptable. I am gifted at pretending to me a better me. Grace and favor are just to costly a gift to embrace, doing so results in humility, deep unending humility.

One of the places of greatest pain and suffering is the place that I can never earn love from God. My "manness" is empty, broken. I fail at all attempts of earning love. This is a haunting truth. For the immature it is a "so what". "Let's party and fill our lives with selfishness." "Come listen to me, I am favored by the Lord, blessed, loved, and it cost me nothing!" Why do I call them immature? Do I want them to be unhappy with me?

Where is the truth, the truths about right living with God? Where do obedience and grace meet? How can a righteous man live in righteous ways and not feast at the table of irresponsibility? There must be "a way".


Silently now I hear His voice
My unborn brother takes the lead
Like a beam of light
He over shadows me
So on the other side of me is the only dark place
Where will I cast my gaze
What will I choose for focus
The unborn One
Me
The Shadow created

I choose to see them all
To be one
To live for another
To be united in my division
To live in the space between failure and grace
The space I call "me"

Like my brother
Bread for men
That them might eat
And live