“The heart has arguments with which the logic of mind is not acquainted.” – Blaise Pascal
The greatest argument you must defeat is your indecision, not to decide. Letting your mind win all the arguments against your heart is no way to live – that’s how a coward lives, and you are no coward. Are you?
A brave soul follows their heart. You know, the place where God’s Spirit dwells.
Okay, I get it. It’s so much safer listening only to your mind. Logic and reason may be safe and comfy, but you weren’t made simply for a comfortable life. And I’m sure all your “what if this” and “what if that” are normal …
… Really?
… Are you just normal, or are you just afraid?
After all, your mind can conjure up excuse after excuse — heck, your mind is an excuse factory. But you know you can’t build a life on excuses. You’re beating down your own heart with excuses! Stop bullying yourself and ignoring God’s call to action, obedience, and adventure.
Following after God requires more than your mind; he also wants your body and heart. It’s a joint exercise of body, soul, and heart. Living that way will prepare you for life now and in the hereafter.
But, living a life stalled on “what ifs” will keep you from a life of what could be. You’ll simply be a person without legend, story, or belonging, which would be a tremendous waste of a life.
The mind lives for knowledge, but the heart, well, it soars on faith.
“There’s no end to the publishing of books, and constant study wears you out so that you’re no good for anything else. The last and final word is this: Fear God. Do what he tells you. For this is your whole duty.” — Ecclesiastes 12:12-13
So, don’t! Don’t waste your life. Rather, lose your life with Jesus; your heart will finally win the argument. Oh, and do what He says with all your heart and gusto.
I love the exchange between Rocky Balboa and his son, Robert Balboa Jr., in the film “Rocky Balboa,” released in 2006.
Robert complains to his dad that he’s fed up living under his shadow. Well, in Rocky’s own style, he rocks his son’s world with a fatherly motivational speech:
“Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place, and I don’t care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done! Now, if you know what you’re worth, then go out and get what you’re worth. But ya gotta be willing to take the hits and not pointing fingers saying you ain’t where you wanna be because of him, or her, or anybody! Cowards do that, and that ain’t you! You’re better than that! I’m always gonna love you no matter what. No matter what happens. You’re my son, and you’re my blood. You’re the best thing in my life. But until you start believing in yourself, ya ain’t gonna have a life.“ — Rocky Balboa.
Balboa’s advice is so universal! We all need a motivational “punch to the face” at least once or twice.
Back to reality…
… I’m writing this to you because you’ll need a brave heart and stout mind for what’s coming in the weeks and months ahead. No, it won’t be about you, so don’t worry. Nope, it will be about what you have to offer to others who’ll be confused and afraid. They’ll need your brave heart and clear mind. They’ll also need your motivational speech. So, be prepared.
Decide to be a brave person and lead with your heart and your mind filled with wisdom. Then, you’ll be the person who makes leaders and not followers. Leaders who’ll know how to win the argument and live from their heart.
My wife, Toni, and I had a short but great conversation about the subtlety of compromise.
The story of the wayward prophet, Balaam, son of Beor, came to mind during our conversation from the book of Numbers, Chapters 22-25.
I truly believe this story of how a wayward prophet was able to cause God’s blessing to be removed from the Israelite Nation is so relevant for today.
It is happening right before our eyes!
Some would say, “but that’s Old Testament. There’s no contemporary relevance.”
Well, the unfortunate actions of Balaam, son of Beor, is herald, not only in several other Old Testament books, from Numbers to Psalms, and from Psalms to Micah, but also in the New Testament; in 2 Peter 2:15, Jude 1:11, and the Book of Revelations, 2:14.
When prophets, as they are doing today, align themselves with divination, the occult, etc; when they are touted and listened to; when they cause God’s people to act and worship as the pagans do, God’s blessing is removed from our Churches and Nation. Evil will then run rampant, as it so obviously is today.
When we are reluctant to do what honors God, our reluctance is a dishonor to his Name. It’s a dishonor to Jesus!
When we place the pleasure (feelings) for others above the holiness and righteousness of God, we’ll experience his displeasure and disfavor.
God’s favor is on the one, or the many, whose zealous but humble actions bring honor to his Name, even in the small things.
Take Sydney McLaughlin, for instance. She sets a new world record and wins the gold metal for the USA in the women’s 400-meter hurdles.
“Records come and go, but the glory of God is eternal. And, I no longer run for self-recognition, but to reflect His perfect will that is already set in stone. I don’t deserve anything. But by grace, through faith, Jesus has given me everything.” – Sydney McLaughlin
Do not align yourself to the subtle compromises of others or the rantings of false prophets, If you do, you’ll share their horrible fate. It is a dangerous thing to rob God of his glory and sovereignty.
Haven’t we compromised far too much as individuals, and especially as a nation?
Haven’t far too many Churches lowered their standards of Godliness and righteousness?
Evil runs rampant, but not because evil is powerful but because we lack the zeal of the Lord. God is all powerful, and evil is not. Complacency and passivity however empowers evil by weakening holiness and righteousness. The Church is to be a radiant expression of Christ and not a redundancy of worldly compromise and passivity.
It only took one man, named Balaam, a wayward Prophet, to cause a nation to compromise. It only took one man, Phinehas, son of Eleazar, the grandson of Aaron, whose zealous act turned away God’s wrath.
Where are the Phinehas’ of our day?
Where are the Sydney McLaughlin’s of our time that without compromise, give glory and honor to God?
“Courage, dear, heart…” … defy reluctance! Be zealous and passionate for our Father’s house!
Searching for significance can last a lifetime. Don’t waste another day searching.
The wounds of our past can most often propel us into a fruitless seach for significance. Our search is fruitless because the root of our search lies within our wounded heart. The damage to our hearts was done many years and decades ago, and most likely when we were children.
Being wounded in our hearts and minds as children is an attack on our very identities and creates in us a desperate search for meaning and purpose.
You see, the wounds to our hearts cause us to make a vow or an agreement with the curses spoken over us. The curses were demonically engineered to warp and distort our true identity, forcing us into an endless masquerade of covering and hiding false shame and guilt. Living like this can send us into an endless search for meaning and belonging. This fruitless search for significance can last a lifetime.
The curses may be the distant echoes from our mother or father’s voices, which may have inadvertently or intentionally cursed our future and robbed us of worth and significance as their son or daughter. And this is why so many of us are lost from true living and true loving, or suffer with an inability to bond with others.
An alcoholic father or mother, or your parent’s divorce or an untimely death of a mom or dad can also send messages of abandonedment, rejection, and lostness. Sometimes, we think an affair or love and romance, marriage, or a baby will heal us.
Our failure is searching for significance in people, ministry, talent, sex, and money, which these things are powerless to fill and satisfy our emptiness. Only God can fill the huge hole in our hearts.
True worth and significance come only from the mouth and heart of God. Draw near and listen to Him and allow the only God of yesterday, today, and tomorrow, heal your heart and end your search.
Let God help you do the impossible, which is to forgive those who’ve wounded the very preciousness of your heart and soul.
“The Spirit of the Lord, the Eternal, is on me. The Lord has appointed me for a special purpose. He has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to repair broken hearts and to declare to those who are held captive and bound in prison, “Be free from your imprisonment.”‘ – Isaiah 61:1
The above Scripture was read by Jesus on the day he began his public ministry. The Isaiah passage was fulfilled through him for you.
End your fruitless search for significance by turning your wounded heart and soul to God. With him, you’ll find unspeakable riches and a place of real belonging and a life of true significance.
Breaking the curses spoken over us is not complicated. All curses were nailed to the cross of Jesus Christ, whereby Jesus took upon himself all of our curses and the very death penalty for sin. The punishment of death on a cross inflicted on the innocent Lamb of God has legally broken and nullified all of our agreements with curses.
Put your faith into the finished work of Jesus Christ. Grant forgiveness towards those who have cursed you towards those who’ve wounded your heart and soul. Believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus’ death and resurrection have destroyed the works of the Devil and have canceled all curses against you.
All you must do is to just believe!
Come home to the True and Loving Father; come home, His lost son, and lost daughter.
Do you want to be comfortable, or do you want to be free?
Wow, this past summer was a good reminder at how much Toni and I enjoy being comfortable! The temperature had reached 108, one day when our power suddenly went out! I’m not sure why, but most of Copperopolis had no power for well over six hours. Without air conditioning, our home quickly got very uncomfortable!
We love being comfortable, as I’m sure you do too. But, for many people throughout the world, being uncomfortable is normal, and not just about climate issues either.
The truth is we were not created for a comfortable life. I think that deep within our hearts, many of us are longing to break free from routine and a comfortable life – we’re searching for something more. God’s Word tells of countless stories of risk takers joining Him to do enormous feats of faith. These stories tell us that a freed heart, acting on faith, can do the impossible with God.
Isn’t that what you want also to do the impossible with God?
What I’m talking about here is pushing against the gravitational forces of comfort and guarantees. To do so, it will require us to break the chains of fear. Fear is a weighty force, keeping us from our divine purpose. Fear is the enemy of the heart, and the heart is needed in order to follow God.
It’s always the heart that challenges our mind and body to achieve great things. To listen to your heart is indeed a scary and costly proposition. But, it is absolutely necessary if you truly want to live and to be free!
Proverbs 4:23 instructs us to: “above all, guard your hearts, for from it flows the source of life.”
If we are to be free from the mundane, humdrum life, we must be willing and brave enough to tap into the source of life and follow God into the unknown — into the impossible.
God doesn’t require us to know much, but to simply trust and follow Him. He’ll train the stouthearted during the journey. He’s after our passion and our faith. Neither of these two precious qualities happens while sitting in our offices or on sofas, or for that matter, even while enjoying our Sunday morning service, sitting on our favorite pew or chair.
Pushing against the gravitational forces of comfort and all the niceties of guarantees is where it begins. Do nothing, and neither you nor God are pleased.
What happens when you’re willing to break free from the cozy comforts?
Well, God awakens hidden desires that he put into our hearts long before we were born. He won’t awaken our desire until we’re willing and ready to venture with Him and courageously risk doing His will.
God spoke to Abram and invited him to a new and better land that He would show him along the way. In spite of all that was comfortable and familiar, Abram said, “Yes,” and God began the journey by explaining to this childless 75-year-old man that he would become the father of many nations.
Do you see how God awakens a forgotten and hidden desire in the childless Abram?
Many years later, God changes Abram’s name to Abraham, meaning: “Father of Many,” and tells this old man that his aged wife, Sarah, would bear him a son.
Miracles will only happen when you are willing to risk with God beyond your comforts.
You must be willing to risk the familiar for the unfamiliar. If you want freedom and a true identity, you must break the chains binding you to earth and all its comforts. Free yourself from the gravitational forces of fear, worry, doubt, and all the what ifs holding and weighing you down.
Isn’t that worth the risk of following God with our hearts and to love Him with everything we’ve got?
Do you want to be comfortable, or do you want to be free?
I was at a restaurant with my wife in Pacifica, California, during a summer evening many Sundays ago.
We sat at a beautiful table, ready to enjoy dinner. Our table faced directly towards a floor-to-ceiling plate glass window. On the other side, less than 100 yards, was the Pacific Ocean pounding the surf. The sun finally broke through the coastal fog around 6:00 PM. Beautiful, majestic; our hearts filled with praise and gratitude towards God.
Outside, slightly to our right, were fishermen casting their lines into the surf. Suddenly, one of the fishermen caught what looked like a 30-pound striped bass. Awesome, praise God! What a catch! Several minutes later, another large bass. All this beauty is a gift from God.
The table to our right was seated with two men, one man slightly older than the other. I could tell that it was their first date. As their conversation carried into our booth, I was annoyed, angered, and critical. My wife could sense the tension and change in my attitude.
Suddenly, beauty faded. Gratitude left. Praises ceased. My sense of awe was dwarfed into awfulness.
What are “they” doing here?
God, they’re soaking up and wasting all this beauty. GOD… …the beauty – the ocean – the sunset is lavished on them. Do something!
Judgment rose within me. They are “those people” who bring God’s judgment on us all. I tried to block them, ignore them, wish them gone, hoping they’d finish their meals and leave. Then, it hit me. Yea, it shouted from inside my mind:
I want; no, I can’t wait for God’s judgments on ‘those people,’ they’re destroying our country!
Then a voice inside me said:
“This is my time of grace for the lost…”
His Spirit touched my heart, and immediately He gave me insight and the grace to see my sin.
He continued:
“…My Grace comes for the Lost, even the vilest sinner; yes, even for those two men, who for a moment were, by my choosing, your neighbor.
I lavished them with my glory, the works of my hands, and my breath over the waters that they may see the mighty waves pound the sand. I hooked those great fish to those lines that they might know I provide. I, not you, broke through the clouds and, at just the right moment, displayed my splendor and majesty to the crowd.
And you, my dutiful son, did not lift one finger to welcome or even offer a “good evening, gentlemen.” You, my son, are lost. You’ve quickly forgotten the depth from which I drew you, the vileness of your own sin, which, let me remind you, has been fully pardoned and atoned! Should I not have compassion for those whom I choose?
You’ve forgotten I came not for the righteous but for the sinner. I came not for the well, neither the well-to-do nor the do-gooder. I came for the lost, the vilest, the better. I’m not too weak to save the homosexual or promiscuous heterosexual. I see no degree, no difference between the sins of men.
You’ve questioned my judgment! Do you want me to withhold grace for judgment on those whom you choose? There already exists an appointed time of judgment for the rebellious, the coward, the unbeliever, the faithless, and the murderer, those who love to live a lie. But it is not now. I have my “Grace Agents” all over the world, commissioned to seek and save the lost.
You suffer from Jonahitis!
You think you can sit comfortably beneath my heaven, waiting for judgment to fall on the unrighteous? You are on the wrong team. You’re cheering for judgment! I don’t know you because you don’t know me. You’ve lost touch with my heart. You better draw near; you better search me out, humbling yourself and repent from your wicked bout.
You’re correct about one thing; judgment is coming; it’s nearly here. The world, and yes, even the United States, will get a taste of what’s near. But this judgment is not for the lost, the homosexual or adulterer, not for the murderer or thief, liar, or cheat. It’s coming for you. You, who call yourselves by my Name, refuse to say “good evening, gentlemen” or hello, neighbor. You, who are amazed by my amazing grace, only to keep it hidden and selectively gracing only the attractive and well-dressed, the sinless and smell-good-people.
It’s the people who attend my Sunday worship services, raising their hands in awe, lowering their heads in sweet repose, singing me “love songs” of sweet devotion, and giving such melodic lip service. You can sing and worship all you like. I want your obedience and not just your sweet “I love you, Lord.”
You’ve sat too long in those cushiony pews. You’ve basked in my presence long enough! Now, GET UP. GET OUT. Ask me for my heart and eyes, and I will place them into your hearts and minds.
Then, once again, you will remember. You will feel what I feel and see what I see and cry for the lost sons and lost daughters. You will no longer see homosexuals or prostitutes, murderers, adulterers, liars, and cheats. You will see the lost and hurting, broken and needy.
Let me unveil something new to you, “repentance with action,” yes, righteous deeds will only revert my day of disaster against my Church. Stop your prim and pose services, your judgments, and the stingy hoarding of grace.”
If you recall, Jonah’s sailing companions were fearful and terrified of the sea’s great fury! They feared for their lives and prayed in a hurry. Only finding Jonah asleep in the hull, they shouted and roused the man of God from his slumber, “What have you done, and what god have you angered?”
“I serve the Lord God,” said Jonah; God said I must go to Nineveh and preach all over. But the people of Nineveh are vile and sinful, “said Jonah. They’re undeserved of God’s grace, so I’m off to Tarshish after this nine-day-cruse for some rest and some peace.
I know this God who chases me, churning up the seas and bringing you to your knees. He thinks I’m not smart or wise to his ways; if I go to Nineveh, he’ll forgive, and he’ll save! So why should I bother and upset my vacation plans? If the sinners go unpunished, why save and heal the land?
Your disobedience and running are threatening our lives; you, not we, have brought God’s judgment to light; here cast in your lot, and let’s see if it’s so!
The lot fell to Jonah, and they tossed him over the bow; he hit the water, sinking to depths far below. No prayer could be heard, no pleading was pled, he sternly and steadily held in his head, no confession, and no repentance to bring change to his dread. He hits bottom, surrounded and tangled in seaweed and mire; he offers a faint cry, higher and higher; a great fish appears, swallowing him whole and entire.
The wayward prophet calls out to God;
“When my life ebbed away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple. Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.”
O Church, wake up! You’re asleep in the light God’s anger is coming, but not for the lost. We’ve been headed in the wrong direction! The world cries for a Savior, and we cry for heaven. We spend dollars and hours prettying our sanctuaries, staining our stained glass windows, and tuning our instruments. We Christianize our music, our cars, and our shops. We invent new ways to heavenize everything we touch.
We think we can vote in morality by Christianizing our politics or changing our Nation’s future with “born-again-and-again” candidates. We’ve forgotten that God appoints the rulers we deserve according to our righteousness, and then His judgment will swerve.
You say the homosexual, the transvestite, the tattooed and the pierced; the thief and robber, the liar and cheat have brought us Katrina, Northridge, and Ike. The earth shakes and quakes because the sinners are unrighteous? No. We’ve got it wrong! The earth shakes and quakes, rumbles, and floods; it becomes hotter or colder because we’ve left things undone! Judgment is coming because the righteous practices unrighteousness.
It’s because of the sins of “omission.”
We’ve omitted God’s grace from our neighborhoods and marketplaces. We’ve omitted God’s grace from our downtown, uptown, and the lowdown; from the down-and-outers, underachievers, and meat-eaters; from our dinner tables, family rooms, boardrooms, and horse stables. Grace can’t be found, not because sin abounds, but because we want judgment to fall against the unrighteous!
We yearn for the rapture, “operation exfil.” Christ yearns for a victorious and triumphant bride! Her beauty and rightness are her righteous acts and deeds.
Then God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry because the plant died?”
“Yes,” Jonah retorted, “even angry enough to die!”
Then the LORD said, “You feel sorry about the plant, though you did nothing to put it there. It came quickly and died quickly. But Nineveh has more than 120,000 people living in spiritual darkness, not to mention all the animals. Shouldn’t I feel sorry for such a great city?” Jonah 4:9-11
Should we be angry that sinful people flourish? Or shall we feel what God feels and offer them Christ, in us, their only hope and glory?
Narcissus: “a youth who fell in love with his own image reflected in a pool and wasted away from unsatisfied desire, whereupon he was transformed into the flower.” Greek Mythology
Several months ago, I watched the movie “The Giver,” with my wife, Toni. While this movie was about a futuristic society, it is relevant and a wake-up call for all of us today. We are quickly becoming the society depicted in this film as emotionless, colorless, and vaccinated against thinking and reason. Yes, the film depicts families performing daily and routine vaccinations before leaving their “family units” for predetermined vocations on behalf of the Collective.
I recommend watching the movie trailer before reading on…
We have allowed ourselves to become programmed by the programmers. Whenever we accept “truth” from others without research and discovery we enter into another level of being programmed.
Not only are we losing our critical and analytically thought processes, but we are losing our language, and therefore our ability to communicate clearly and creatively.
In a similar way, we are losing our spirituality. Rather than connecting directly to God, through Jesus Christ (The Word) and the Holy Spirit (Teacher, Comforter, and Guide), we limit our connections to the Godhead by extensions of corporate worship of 15 to 20 minutes per week. Our spirituality is lived vicariously through our spiritual leader’s personal intimacy with God.
We’ve abdicated our inherent rights as sons and daughters of God to personally hear His Voice, not as “new revelation,” but rather a deeper intimacy. We value pastors as to how well they can hold our brief attention, rather than teaching us to feed ourselves on the Word and voice of God. Too many pastors have assumed the role of the Holy Spirit, which further alienates us from the Third Person of the Trinity. Whom, by the way, is the real Gift-Giver.
There is no process to practice ministry, as the ministry has become nothing more than spectating and being ministered to. There is little, to no outlet for functional ministry being practiced by the average believer, and so we remain giftless.
This reminds me of the days long ago when the government removed wood shops, metal shops, mechanic shops as well as home economics from public schools. Children are left with no physical application or the opportunity to learn a trade. The advantage of tactile learning has vanished.
Many churches have done the same thing. They’ve removed all of the application and ministerial outlets for members to exercise their gifts as they learn the truth, therefore becoming perpetual students and not masters of their unique spiritual gifts and service to others.
Many teachers, not all, have become programmers also. They dispense pre-selected and government-approved curricula to the masses. Classrooms are no longer a place of free-thinking of free ideas and ideals. God is not welcomed there, also. Excellence is shunned and replaced with fairness, and high standards are lowered to mediocrity, so no one fails.
Common grammar school literature of the 16th century could not be read, nor comprehended by the average high school student of today.
Progressively, technology and the internet are replacing fundamental human contact and interaction. Technological corporations are sanitizing the meaning of life and are reprogramming the masses to “living” for pleasure and consumerism. Our lives and interests are becoming nothing more than algorithms, measured by impersonal machines, reporting to corporate mongrels who fight for a greater market share of our existence.
Our divine purpose and uniqueness have been replaced by political usefulness; mere polling data for those in power to gain greater control over our individualism until it too vanishes.
Utopianism is impossible in a fallen world. As soon as it is politically achieved, it immediately turns into despotism. But the tyrannical of every generation wants its opportunity to do it better; with utter ignorance of past failures and abandoned hindsight, they press forward with backward thinking and demonic ideology. Their deranged ideology creates a deranged society and a warped and selfish culture.
And so, are there any humans out there? Do you feel anymore? Do you love people, or only the device, which you use to connect yourself to them?
Is your skin stained with enough ink yet? Do you have any more natural skin left? Are you pierced enough? Are you satisfied with all your selfies plastered throughout social media? Are your relationships about what you can get until you can’t get anymore?
We have made our outer bodies into billboards of our own inner selfishness and self-worship. Our self-absorbtion has absorbed most of our humanness.
It would appear that the more technologically we’ve become as a society, the more primitive we’ve become as a culture. It seems that technology, as wonderful and useful as it is, is diminishing our humanity towards one another and to nature.
The number of tattoos, piercings, abortions, and Botox is not an indicator of a progressive technological society, but a society that is regressing into tribalism and primitivism.
Are people, you know, humans; are they disposable, like the unborn, infants, and the elderly? How about relationships? Are you a dumper, or are you a dumpee?
People are challenged to dump ice-cold buckets of water on themselves and others or ingest Tide pods or dance outside their moving vehicles, which are appearing more and more unintelligent. I challenge you to think and act for yourselves so that you may act wisely and think kindly towards others.
Our humanity is at risk, and if it is lost, our humaneness towards one another will end. Our loss of humaneness always starts with a loss of saneness.
Narcissus: “a youth who fell in love with his own image reflected in a pool and wasted away from unsatisfied desire, whereupon he was transformed into the flower.” Greek Mythology
Our culture is fast becoming a collection of “flowers.”
“She looks at herself instead of looking at you and so doesn’t know you.” – Le Rouge et le Noir (The Red and the Black) by Marie-Henri Beyle
As a society, we can not peer into the mirror for too long before we’ve become wasted and unsatisfied. When we spend too much time looking at our own images, we tend to build our lives around ourselves. We merely seek relationships with people who remind ourselves of ourselves and that look and act as selfishly as we do. The over adornment of tattoos, body piercings, self-obsession, and body emphasis is proof that our culture is transforming into nothing more than a bouquet of flowers.
And this is how historians will say America was lost.
The more we look at and emphasize ourselves instead of each other, the less we know one another.
We can only rediscover our original humanity in the Creator and in Jesus Christ. God created us in his image, which time and again we’ve lost, but Jesus Christ is the Image Restorer and the Restorer of Life.
Yes, he humbled you by letting you go hungry and then feeding you with manna, a food previously unknown to you and your ancestors. He did it to teach you that people do not live by bread alone; rather, we live by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. Deuteronomy 8:3 (NLT)
We can do this. We can become less distracted with ourselves and become more attracted to God and to one another.
If we feed ourselves more on what God is saying than on what others are texting or tweeting and preaching, maybe, just maybe we can save America again.
When I get strong, I get lost. When I get busy, I get independent. When I get successful, I get lonely.
I was down and out from October 11th, 2013, through mid-January 2014. Life had been hard and painful, but God has never been closer than he’s been with me through those difficult months. I’ll tell you, my dear friends, I’d rather be laid up and laid out with God by my side than lonely but successful in the world any day.
I had gotten to the point in my suffering that I began to thank God for my injuries and sicknesses. I began to see the blessings and the beautiful breaking to my stubborn heart and the fresh and living water flooding into my dry soul. My pain in a miraculous way allowed God’s voice to become magnified, and the whispers of “I love you son” filled my troubled mind in those long and dark, painful nights.
I truly want God, but he’s not necessarily in my busyness, nor is he in my business. He’s not in my self-imposed deadlines, or in the deadlines of others, which weary my body and mind, and cause me to strain and to force my goals above Gods’. He’s not in the coulda, woulda, or shoulda’s, nor is he in my goals of independence and worldly success. God is definitely not in my confused tantrums, my sulking, or complaining.
God is in the midst of suffering; he’s nearby the crushed and the weary, the sick and the lonely. Our God is with the widowed; he’s with the fatherless and alien. He hears the cries and prayers of the broken, the injured, and the weak.
“He will not crush the weakest reed or put out a flickering candle.” Isaiah 42:3 (NLT)
When I get strong, I get lost. When I get busy, I get independent. When I get successful, I get lonely.
I want God, and therefore, I welcome the pain and suffering so that I might gain all that he has for me through it. This is the process that can get us found in God, which can make us strong in the right things and focus on eternal values, which can bring contentment during our seasons of affliction.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not looking for pain and suffering, only that when it comes, the goodness and presence of God is magnified through it, and therefore, I can revel in it and celebrate because of it. Through it, I have learned that our greatest changes can result from what we suffer. Pain and suffering are powerful for our good!
So, while my body was aching and writhing in pain and anguish, my soul was soaring with God. I worshiped God and thanked him through so much of my illnesses and injuries. The pain still lingers, and the scar, which I now bear on my left leg and knee, will always remind me of God’s faithfulness to me all the way through it.
And so, I thank God for all of it.
One day, I was complaining to my wife, Toni, about a difficult client. I was through and ready to cut the relationship and take a significant loss just to get out of the misery.
Then, Toni pulled the “Book of Job” on me:
“Has not God provided through this person?” she said, and then continued: “Do you really to throw people away because they sometimes cause difficulty?”
Wow! I was called out and convicted. Thank you, Toni!
I had set aside, not only heaven’s provision for me, but I had set aside God’s provision of grace and mercy towards the one whom God set up to bring such needed financial provision.
“Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not also receive evil?” In all this, Job did not sin with his lips. Job 2:10
I am not deformed, but I am being transformed. The more we complain and lay blame, the slower our remaking through our braking goes. In my recent story with my client, God used my wife to get me back on track and with God’s program.
Our complaining always works against God’s transforming work, and so we fail to see how God masters evil for our good. Our complaining and blaming causes us to only see the badness of evil, rather the goodness of God in spite of it and His creative use with it.
“I form the light and create darkness: I make peace and create evil: I The Lord do all these things.” – Isaiah 45:7
Ha, I’ve not heard that verse preached in Church!
So, if God masters light, darkness, peace, and evil, how can we be destroyed in the day of pain, sickness, and disease? How can we lose if what we fear can not keep us from winning? How then shall we live, if even evil and the day of disaster, is under the control of such a loving and caring Heavenly Father?
I’ll tell ya how we should then live – in Total Victory and with an Overcomer’s Spirit!
Hey, there’s power in what we suffer, no matter how miserable or deadly! But you gotta put away the complaining and start the thanksgiving and praising.
I was just a young teenager of 14 years old when I got a hold of a book titled “By What Standard” by the late Dr. Rousas John Rushdoony, the father of Mark Rushdoony.
Like the late Dr. Rushdoony, the life and story of Job, set the standard of who God is and His power over evil. Page 185 through page 205 of By What Standard is what impacted me most in my life as a teenager. The Book of Job established my foundation for all my understanding of the ways of God and the ability of God. The Book of Job became my standard of biblical understanding and godly comfort.
Like Job, it is blind faith and trust in the Almighty, whereby God shall succeed in spite of our lack of understanding and even confusion. Our suffering is not the end of the means, but the means to an end, forewhich Satan’s must comply with God’s will over our lives and our wellbeing.
So, the key is to invest all of your faith and trust into God’s will, and pain and suffering will become allies to your transformation and glorification.
“In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered.” – Hebrews 2:10
Was it not God who invited Satan to consider His servant Job?
Did not God establish the boundaries after he invited Satan to afflict Job?
The Book of Job, chapters one, and two.
God masterfully controlled darkness, sickness, and disease over His servant Job, but He also displayed His power over the Prince of Darkness.
The Book of Job reveals how Satan must obey the very boundaries that God sets up, leaving Satan and all evil under the power of the God of the Universe and Creator of all things. And yes, including all angelic beings, and even those who’ve failed at the Heavenly coup d’état of God’s throne and power, and dare I say, they failed miserably!
‘God spoke to Cain:”Why this tantrum? Why the sulking? If you do well, won’t you be accepted? And if you don’t do well, sin is lying in wait for you, ready to pounce; it’s out to get you; you’ve got to master it.” – Genesis 4:6-7
We can master sin because God has mastered evil, and his Son, Jesus Christ, has vanquished our sin. He destroyed death and conquered the grave! But tantrums and sulking leave you vulnerable, and instead of victory, you’ll end in defeat.
So, we can thrive in pain and suffering, in loss and betrayal, and evil shall not destroy us. Evil becomes a weapon in the hand of God, disarming our enemy and thwarting evil’s plan for our destruction.
Do you want to disarm the Evil One? Then, praise God in the midst of all that hell has unleashed and bask in the suffering with thanksgiving. Trust fully in the God who knows what He is doing and the limits for which evil must obey.
Can we lose?
“No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” Romans 8:37
Put your faith and trust in God and become transformed and not deformed by all that you suffer.
Your pain may be your breakthrough into victory and validation that you are a true son or daughter of God and not a fatherless victim.
As a victor, you, too, will see The Miraculous Power of Pain and Suffering.
God Wants Us As We Are And Not What We Pretend To Be.
It’s been a long season of letting go and stripping down. It’s been a time of pruning and preening, until all the old feathers are removed and the old eagle remains perched, cold, vulnerable, and flightless. It’s a time of humility and powerlessness. It’s a time whereby I’ve become blind, deaf, and mute. I long for even the faintest whisper from the Almighty; a glimpse of his existence, and acknowledgement of my prayers.
It’s a time where others are making my decisions, not because I am a king (my time of reigning has deminised) but, because God’s interest are sonship and not kingship at this time in my life. God must have his way, or I will become too strong, too hardened, and too important. While my flesh yearns for such strength, independence, and self-importance; yet, His Spirit calls me heavenward.
So, I am sent back into the womb; into seclusion; into the hands of God to be reformed, kneaded, and made pliable, until my obedience becomes instinct, and my quality becomes refined. The purest gold is crystal clear and what we call beautiful, God calls dross.
In our human fragility and stubbornness, we cease the process of humility way too early. If it’s our own deconstructing and demolition, we blame it on the devil. If it is a friend or neighbor facing such travails, we jump in to save and to fix, and so short-circuit God’s best work in them. As singer/songwriter, Jill Phillips has so artfully penned into song,
“…God is both the builder and wrecking ball.”
And this truth gives good reason I cling to hope; amazingly, through it all, our God is in control. My deconstructing can be a good thing, if it is God swinging the wrecking ball.
Religious-populace thought, has dwarfed my perception and need for God. The extractible biblical principles and acquirable blessings “by cause and effect,” granted me the promised land of goodies without intimate relationship with Yahweh. I have become an idolater and have joined the ranks of “Christians,” who have reformed and refashioned their gold and silver into objects of worship. We call it “Yahweh,” and have found a way to satisfy our itch for deity worship and maintain our addiction to sin.
We’ve even learned to worship our worship! And crave “the anointing” more than the Anointer.
We’ve convinced ourselves and others that God as “Love,” trumps God as Justice, Holiness, and Righteousness. Oh, but how many of us do cry out for true justice, righteousness, and holiness?
Mainstream Christianity has reinvented God. He’s become a benevolent and tolerant God, full of winks, giggles, and thumbs-up at our sins.
So, I’ve been quiet and introspective. I’ve taken a look under the hood and it’s time for rebuilding and rethinking. Twenty-first Century Christianity is finally equivalent to First Century Phariseeism, only without the dark and flowing robes and phylacteries.
We’ve convinced ourselves that observances and the mastering of principals and rote make us acceptable to God. We are all white on the outside, but dead and dirty on the inside. We shut our ears and mouths to our own inner immorality and conflict; we direct the attention of others to our outward achievements and ministry appointments. We protect our own duplicity at the cost of our own identity.
We prefer to live in the shadows; not too much in the light or too much in the darkness. In the end, it is God we must convince, and He sees through our masks and into our hearts. There are no shadows with the Almighty!
We’ve become the generation who’d see to the arrest of Jesus; treat him as an imposter, a fake and a phony; his presence an annoyance, and his outspokenness a disturber of our traditions. We’d cast him out of our carpeted and high-tech sanctuaries and chase him and his homeless faction back to 73rd and West MacArthur.
We simply would not recognize Jesus of Nazareth, nor agree with his lifestyle and “unsuccessful demeanor” and lack of corporate-ness.
I’m on a quest to find the simplicity of what Jesus taught. To archeologically excavate and rediscover what decades of religious debris has covered over, like the sands of time.
So, that’s what has been going on in the inside. The outside is a different story. It must be mastered, or it will become my master. And this is my battleground. It’s an ancient battle fought by many, and won by so precious few. My prayer is to join the few, by relying on God’s grace and power, through Jesus Christ.
Our Sunday morning masquerading must come to an end. The pretense and fakery must be replaced with humility and honesty, or else we’ll become master Pharisees. We must capture our first love again and shed our sophisticated and false adult-selves and become God’s children again.
God wants us as we are and not what we pretend to be. Jesus didn’t come for fakers or liars, but for the broken and humble.
Pretenders pretend that their sins and shame are covered behind their false personas. Their so-called salvation is their masquerade, which, by the way, only assures them a full dance card outside with sweaty dogs and demons.
“Blessed are those who wash their robes. They will be permitted to enter through the gates of the city and eat the fruit from the tree of life. Outside the city are the dogs—the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idol worshipers, and all who love to live a lie.” – Revelation 22:14-16
I pray, that we as a redeemed people, can leave all the religious fakery behind and get back true redemption and rejoin God in redeeming this world. Because, if you haven’t noticed, this world is headed full speed towards hell.
Blessed are those that remove their masks and cease their love affair with living a lie.
My prayer is that God will also help you fail at your masquerade. Amen
I was asked by a friend what inspires me to write and what resources do I use?
Five things that influence and inspire me:
Lifetime of reading Scripture.
Reading and understanding Church history.
Observation of current events, (watching and listening to reliable men and women, and paying attention).
Observation of the spiritual and political times/climate in which we live.
Application of these fundamentals determines probable outcome, i.e. cause and effect.
These are the five things that impact me everyday. However, there is one other impact in my life, and since it is not a thing, it’s on its own list and category. It is none other than the Holy Spirit, the Voice of Scripture and the Whisperer of God’s heart.
God’s Spirit makes alive the Holy Scriptures, in an almost four-dimensional way. Speaking at times, to the center of my being; awaking my conscience, convicting my mind, easing my worries, and wooing my heart. So, there it is, six areas of impact and influence.
Aside from the Holy Spirit and Scriptures, History is a very reliable teacher. History truly does repeat itself. It’s not hard to look at the past to understand our future. The old saying is true:
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” – George Santayana, The Life of Reason, 1905
This explains the Cancel Cultural. They want to forcibly cancel and erase the past to assure the past will repeat itself. More pointedly, their objective is to implement the Marxist past into our current reality without notice and without resistance. But if the masses knew the past atrocities of Marxism and Communism and the failure of Socialism, we would still be a free nation. I say this with meaning and unfortunate intentionality, as we are no longer a free nation.
Sadly, our “freedom” is a mirage, an illusion. We lost it some time ago. What we perceive as “freedom,” is what “they” tell us. Most of what is broadcasted are lies, misstruths, misstatements, well crafted and expertly produced propaganda.
If Christians knew Church and secular history it wouldn’t be stuck and steeped in Romanism, Hinduism, and paganism. If American Christianity didn’t sell its birthright of light and salt to the nations for the warm stew of a 501(c)(3) tax advantage, Christianity would’ve been an enormous and effective influence over culture and politics. Freedom would still be a reality.
If Christianity would’ve understood the impact of unbiblical eschatology and the recent emergence of premillennial dispensational theory of the late 1800s and early 1900s, the Gospel would have singlehandedly changed our nation and the world.
So I write to inform. To inspire. To alert and to awaken curiosity and hopeful action.
Interestingly, when I write on my favorite topic, matters of the heart, and the Father-heart of God, it gets little attention. But when I write on political issues or commentary, it gets much more notice and conversation.
The truth is being connected to God and deriving our core identity as his beloved children should supercede politics, religion, health, and beauty. But it does not. This is a very sad and unfortunate commentary of 21st Century Christianity. It is being replaced by humanism, the occult, sadosexism, gender disforia, and the sexulization of children, all being done in broad daylight!
The Church is to be about the Father’s business not about Church business. We’re left to expand and preach the Gospel of the Kingdom. But alas, Jesus’ Great Commission to the Church has become the “Great Recommendation,” and so our culture and the world suffers.
There is preaching going on in the world and culture, don’t get me wrong, but it’s the antithetical gospel of heathenism and hedonism. The Kingdom Gospel is to the world and not to the Church. The Kingdom of God is meant to expand into the world and nations from the Church.
So, the opposite happened. Instead the world has entered the Church, taken over its mission, the proclamation the Kingdom’s righteousness to the proclamation of their unrighteousness. Therefore, unrighteousness has entered into and metastasized throughout culture and society more rapidly and deadlier than a virus.
Jesus didn’t leave us behind to simply hold-on or to hold-out until he comes back — quite the opposite!
This word “occupy” means to be busy, it literally means “to carry on business of investing and trading. Jesus’ meaning is not too difficult. He is telling us to “TAKE CARE OF BUSINESS,” TO KEEP BUSY UNTIL HIS RETURN. It means to carry on with his work, his commands, and his commission. He came to save the world not to condemn the world. He showed his disciples (us) how to carry on his plan of redemption. But instead, we’ve condemned the world with our silence and our misunderstanding of occupying.
The Roman army didn’t confuse the concept of occupying when they sacked kingdoms. They knew that to occupy was to culturalize the conquered territory; to make it Roman, to Romanize the people, politics and religion. Roman generals were also called apostles.
Did you know that the term apostle, oringally came from Greece? Jesus borrowed the term “aspostolos” when he declared his twelve disciples as “apostles.”
“And He Himself gave some to be apostles…” — Ephesians 4:11
“During the time of the ancient Greek orator Demosthenes (384-322 BC), the word apostolos was a naval term that described an admiral, the fleet of ships that traveled with him, and the specialized crew who accompanied and assisted the admiral.
The fleet would be sent out to sea on a mission to locate territories where civilization was nonexistent. Once an uncivilized region was identified, the admiral (called the apostolos) — along with his specialized crew and all their cargo and belongings — would disembark, settle down, and work as a team to establish a new community. Then they would begin the process of transforming a strange land into a replica of life as they believed it should be. Their purpose was total colonization of the uncivilized territory.” Source: https://renner.org/article/the-historical-meaning-of-the-word-apostle/
Do you now have a better understanding of the concept of occupying until he returns?
You see, if Christianity does not see itself as a spiritual and cultural occupying force, another force will occupy and it won’t come with “healing in its wings.” It comes with a spirit of devastation and destruction in its horns.
“But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall” (Malachi 4:2, ESV)
I don’t think we, or our neighbors, are “leaping like calves from a stall,” these days.
“But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings.”
“But for you…,” but, who is the you?
“…who reverence my name,” thats the “who!” The “who” can also mean the unsaved. It is our responsibility to bring about reverence of God’s name and rule to the nations, so that they too would have reverence for the Creator-God.
The point is that Christianity has so far, failed its mission, and, among many other things, has disobeyed Jesus’s commands. Christianity is fragmented, into what some are reporting, as many as 44,000 denominations among Evangelicals, Protestant, Pentecostal, and Charismatic churches. Talk about ignoring history, how about Christianity ignoring His Story? Ignoring the power of history has affected the unity of Christianity.
What must we all do?
Repent, believe and obey the Gospel!
Re-engage community and culture with the Kingdom Gospel and stay busy occupying every sector of society in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Call To Courage 