The Cascade

The Cascade

you don’t have to tell water to flow
it just does
you don’t have to tell the waterfall to be beautiful
it just is
you don’t have to instruct the trees to praise
they simply do so with no striving at all

you don’t have to tell me to dwell with God
I just do

you don’t have to tell me to be His son
I just am

you don’t have to teach me what to do to please Him
I simply do so

I simply do so by being what He has made me to be
Just like the water
Just like the waterfall
Just like the tree
Just be

K. Duane Carter
12-27-08

Frozen

Frozen
I am always amazed how You speak through creation
Things going on in our natural world
Secrets of the depths now unfurled
That tell of the supernatural One
We have lived long in a dry and thirsty land
Created by our own fleshly hands
Where there is no water, yet
The rains have come, and come hard
The soil is drenched but is hardened by the long dry
The parched earth does now let forth its sigh
So now with water pouring in
You send the frozen
The frost that goes deeply
The frost that goes deeply
It begins to overturn the soil
It begins to divide asunder
Things that have been dormant for years
Now are disturbed and stirred and awakened
Because You have promised they are never forsaken
The soil is fit for growing something now
The ice has crushed our souls, our brow
The soil has been tilled, tilled from the depths
Tilled by the frozen, I hear His steps
The seeds that no one thought would grow
Now have been stirred by the dividing ice
Those buried seeds are now ready to receive
Moisture and nutrient, warmth and light
Get ready for the harvest
Get ready for the harvest
Things you never thought imaginable
Are coming into bloom, so very, very soon
For He is doing His work
His creation is speaking it
So now do we

K. Duane Carter
12-23-08

the mystery

the mystery

there is a cloud of mystery
surrounding everything on earth
it falls today like a misty shroud
yet I know it is much, much more
it is a sign of the coming
a sign of the coming Mystery
He will bathe us in His Water
It will come as we don’t expect
And though all it covers appears lifeless and gone
We will see life spring forth in beauty
He is coming
He is here
I see it in His cloud of mystery

K. Duane Carter
12-18-08

First Snow of Winter

First Snow of Winter
I see the snowflakes falling like the gifts of God
Innumerable but soft
Pure and white
Breathtaking all the while
Bringing to my face a smile
For I see it is a promise of things to come
Now they dance, now they fall
A picture of my worship of the All
The All-powerful, All-knowing, Ever-present One
He lifts the flakes on swirling winds
The Spirit moves just so within
Yes, it never ceases to amaze me
How God can speak in any way He pleases
The sound of the snowflakes falling
Is just like the sound of His voice
You can hear it if you’re listening
You can hear it if you’re listening
I pray we take the time to listen
For His whispers fall like the snowflakes
Innumerable and pure
Secrets and wonders just for you
They cover up the old
Getting ready for the new of spring
He whispers now, but then He sings
And only when we listen in
Will the new begin in us again
You can hear Him if you’re listening
You can hear Him if you’re listening
We see the snowflakes; we hear His voice
We hear them land; we see His love
It does not melt away to nothing, no
It places water where there will be life
Get ready for the new; get ready for the new
The snow does tell of the coming dew
Where the water of His Spirit will cover us every day
His goodness will bring us into His life, His Way
You will see it if you are listening
You will see it if you are listening

Let me see You, Lord, I am listening

K. Duane Carter
12-1-08

Still Life

Still Life
There is something in this image that captivates me
I have looked and looked and looked at it for weeks
Knowing that it says something yet not knowing what it says
There is a message that death brings life
And Light is there to reveal it
There is nourishment for the soil in this death
The leaves speak it with mouths shut
The black walnut bears it with promise of life and abundance
There is life within this covering of God’s feathers
This downy pillow He has made for His new ways to spring forth
This sealing in the earth and of the earth
I know there is a message here
I feel it in my spirit, yet, I cannot speak it in my hands
God is in the places where we just don’t understand
Yet we trust Him just the same
That is where the might of His name
Springs forth
Ah, I understand the message

K. Duane Carter
11-28-08

The Tumbling

Life is so much like this picture
We are smoothly going along and all seems well
And suddenly we are falling precipitously
We run into a rock and that propels us onto another one
We are tumbling this way and that
Feeling like we must be breaking every bone in our body
Then another rapid descent
And a churning, churning, churning
Then there is rest again
And we see that when we conform like the Water
And we become like the Water
We come through not bruised and battered
But cleaner, purer and more wondrous than before
Life is so much like this picture

K. Duane Carter
10-16-08

The Dove

The Dove

I see the Dove
Fire in His wings
In Power He sings
Of eternal dreams
Signs, visions, wonders
He wishes me to behold
Mysteries untold
Mysteries of the presence of God
The wonders of worship in His throne room
The signs of heaven on earth
I say “yes” to You, O Spirit, in my spirit
God Himself dwells in me
The Fire dwells in me
Burning brighter than the sun
Burning, the Fire of the Holy One
Burn brightly and let nothing quench it.
Now the light so bright I cannot see
My eyes go blind
I cannot see with the natural eyes of mine
Open the eyes of my spirit, close the eyes of my mind
So I may see nothing but You,
O Dove with fire in Your wings
In power, in majesty, in loveliness sing
Sing Your dream, sing Your dream
In me

K. Duane Carter
11-23-08

Reality

Reality

I am tired of seeing with these eyes
I am tired of listening with these ears
I am tired of rationalizing with this mind
And coming up empty, wrong and paralyzed
I long to live by the Spirit and in the Spirit
Rise up within me O One that raises the One from the dead
Rise up within me and bring me into the true Life
The life where I know what You say
Not why You say it, not caring why You say it
But simply that You do
Simply that You are
Simply You are Love and Light
And in You is no darkness at all
Let the life within me be Light
And only Light
For I am tired of seeing with these blind eyes
I want to see with the ones You have given me to see with
I want to hear with the ears You gave me to hear with
The ones that are truly me and not what others see
I want to see with Your ears and hear with Your eyes
I want to gaze into the beauty of Your face, forever mesmerized
Let the life within me be Light
Let the light within me be Life
For nothing else matters
Nothing else matters
Nothing else
Nothing

K. Duane Carter
11-26-08

God’s purpose is not to give me answers. God’s purpose is to give me wonder and mystery. God’s purpose is to reveal the One that should be truly worshipped and worship is a response to His wonder, not to mere reasons. But if I constantly seek the reasons and the answers, then He cannot trust me with the deeper wonders because I am too busy asking “Why?” and “What is the meaning of this?” to just sit and listen and dream. I must take the path of childlike trust to enter into His kingdom. Often I will lead my children into places that they don’t understand why we are going there, but they simply follow and they typically enjoy the trip. God please grow in me the childlike wonder. Please restore to me my childhood innocence, my childhood wonder, my child-like trust. I see that You are already doing that. Thank You for Your answers to my prayers, even those where I don’t understand or see the answer. May I be truly loyal and truly trustworthy to share in Your mysteries and wonders.

Practice

I just heard one of the best messages I have heard in a long time. An excellent speaker named Kris Vallotton brought a message in regards to the recent elections. He was asked some questions about if he thought God’s will had been done, and if he thought judgment was coming. He talked about the difference between sowing and reaping and judgment. He showed how God has already judged sin on the cross of Jesus. We don’t want punishment; we want mercy. If God proceeds to punish others then He will have to punish us also. He proceeded to show how we as Christians will have no influence in the world by trashing our leaders and speaking negatively. We will only gain influence by speaking positively into their lives and lifting them up in our prayers. He spoke of the Scriptures Peter and Paul wrote about praying for and respecting the leaders in authority and Kris reminded everyone that it was Nero that Peter and Paul were writing about. He went on to talk about how Abraham Lincoln had an encounter with God before he took the office of President, and how when he took the office he had a relationship with God. One encounter with God can change a person. Then the thought hit me. I was grateful to see people praying and fasting for this election. Many of us are disappointed and feel we have failed. Not so. God was giving us practice so we could pray and fast for our newly elected president. One encounter with God is all it will take. We must quit speaking negatively. We must quit wishing for something bad to happen to show we “were right.” Being right should NEVER take precedent over loving others. I feel that it is time right now, even before President Obama has made a single executive decision, to begin to pray that he will have an encounter with a loving Father, a grace-giving Son, and a powerful Holy Spirit. Why don’t we start praying and fasting for that? Why don’t we start praying and fasting for God to show us how to be an influence in our nation where love changes everything for the better? Why don’t we start praying for Daniel’s and Esther’s to arise, people who love God with all their hearts yet know how to influence kings and find favor with their rulers? Why don’t we do this? Why don’t we let President Obama know that he has our prayerful support and our respect and our encouragement? Don’t’ you think he would respect the opinions of people like that over those that degrade and berate him? I think it is time to live what we know to be right.

Conquering Beauty

The darkened earth has me in its grasp
Held here by gravity
Held here by my own choices
I look at what my feet stand upon and feel the darkness
In the atmosphere the dark clouds hover
They watch over me to keep me in my place
They whisper out, “There is no grace
For the likes of you and your kind.”
I wish I could simply just unwind
The clock and go back to a simpler time
When God abounded in the midst of rhyme
As I reach this point of sorrow
A voice within whispers softly, “There is more…”
I see it there, right in the midst
With brightening clouds, lights in the mist
The sun is about to make its breakthrough
No sky, no earth will hold it back
I must withstand the dark attack
And wait here patiently
To watch the Conquering Beauty do His wonders

kdc 7-13-07

the meeting

there is something here that is a deep and lovely truth
where the water meets the rock
at that place where water, rock and light come together
there is a brightness and purity that wasn’t seen before
there is a source of such intense light and beauty
that I have never seen before
there is something here that is a deep and lovely truth
only if we would take the time to contemplate it
with our hearts and not our minds
with our spirit and not with our eyes
there is something here that is deep and lovely
just like His eyes

kdc 11-1-08

More to Come

Yes, there is beauty here
But there is more to come
We are so often comfortable with what we have
But there is more to come
Let’s not miss the more
Settling for the less
Even though the less is lovely and fragrant
But the more is, well, more
The place where we move into the forevermore
Even though we still move in the present
It is when we move within and in the Presence
When we taste of forevermore today
That our hearts begin to see the reason for today
And incredible tomorrows to follow
Yes, there is beauty here
But there is more to come
Blooms are upon us
Let’s not turn away too soon
Let’s open our heart to make some room
For forevermore kdc 10-27-08

The Bridge

Watch this video clip, and then let's think about it for a bit (If the blog doesn't give you a link then copy and paste the address into your internet window. If you don't watch the video, then the post won't make as much sense):

www.maximumreferrals.com/videos/bridge/bridge

There is a link on the right side of this blogpage where other websites are listed also. Just click on "The Bridge Video" link if your computer doesn't allow the above address to be linked.


God, You had a choice didn’t You? You had a choice to create or not to create. You needed nothing, and You needed no one, yet You made a choice. You knew the choice to create would cost Your Son, and would cause scars and hurt and pain, yet You also knew that those You created would get to enjoy being with You. You thought I was worth it. You thought I was worth the choice. MY GOD!!! May my life be worth the choice!! May my life be worth the choice!!! Don’t let me be one that rides around on this planet for 70 to 80 revolutions around the sun, and I don’t ever even know Who You are nor do I ever realize what it cost You to stand there and cry out for me to be with You. May my life be worth the choice. God let my life be worth the choice! But there is more. You thought each one was worth it. The crack addict, the child molester, the whore, the drug dealer, the gang member, the crooked and lying politician, the womanizer, the abortionist, the prisoner, and the rapist…You thought they were worth it. I pray right now for the release of the prisoners. I pray for release of those bound by sin and deception and terror. I pray for a release of the Spirit of Freedom into this land, because if You think they are worth it, then they really are worth it. Let us all see the cost You bore. Let us all take the time to look at Your face, and see the cost You bore. God, let us see Your face.

Truth and Disaster

One of the Greatest Truths, One of the Greatest Disasters

One statement that I have heard many times is one of the great truths in the modern church, but is also one of the greatest disasters. It is, “You are so heavenly minded, that you are no earthly good.” It is a great truth because the church has gotten to the point that it is so far away from Jesus’ call for it, that we have to look forward to the rapture to save us all. The world is not in a mess because of the rampant power of sin. The world is in a mess because of the rampant powerlessness of the church, and our reaction to that is to pull the “eject” lever and bail out. Thank God He didn’t tell us where that lever is. Instead He has told us where the throttle is, and He has told us where our weapons cache is, and that is what He expects us to do is to go full throttle into the mess and come into agreement with Him to fix it. So we do need to get delivered out of this dreamy state with our heads in the clouds waiting to be delivered from our boring, meaningless, and powerless existence. It is time we became good to this earth. It is time we took our role as the salt and preserve the goodness that God created in this earth.
There is a disaster in this statement though. The question becomes “How do we go full throttle into this mess and work with God to fix it?” We have to become heavenly minded. If we try to be earthly good without being heavenly minded, then we have a disaster. Now before you start to throw rocks at me for contradicting myself I am NOT talking about dreaming about streets of gold and a big house and such. I am talking about getting to the point where we are so intimate with God that we follow His dreams. That is TRUE heavenly-mindedness. His dreams are a world without poverty, a world where every child is loved and nurtured and cared for, a world with no HIV, a world with no violence and hate, and a world that is overwhelmed with His love. I am not talking about “utopia”; I am talking about the kingdom of God. In order to think like the King, we have to know the King. We have to hang out in the presence of the King. We have to obey the King when He says, “Do this.” We have to obey the King when He says, “DON’T do that.” I am not talking about obeying the ten commandments. I am not talking about taking on more activities at the local church. I am not even talking about selling everything and becoming a missionary. I am talking about getting before Him and listening and doing what we are told. To do this, we have to be heavenly minded. Paul puts it this way, “We have the mind of Christ.” Christ did only what He saw the Father do, and He said only what He heard the Father say. If we are true believers, then we have the mind of Christ and it is time to put that heavenly mindset, the mind of Jesus, to work. When we become the body of Christ and we function in the place He has created us to be, then guess what? The body of Christ becomes the living being that it was meant to be. Let’s get heavenly minded so that we can BE earthly good.

Release

Today is a joyous day. I have been having one of my normal Wednesday’s and came home a little early for lunch (which is always a good thing), and as has become normal for me I was simply talking with God about some things that had been going on in the last few days within my family and in my life. I started thinking about some of the things that I knew He had wanted me to pray for recently and He clearly spoke in my spirit and said, “I would never ask you to pray for something that I am not ready to release.” Now, this really got me excited. I know there are those who would go, “OK, this guy has lost it”, and that is OK, but when God has really put the following prayers on my heart to pray, and He just said He is about to release these things, then it is hard not to get excited. Here are some examples:

Lord, let the earth be full of the knowledge of the glory of God as the waters cover the seas.

Lord, let Your kingdom come now and let Your will be done now just as it is being done now in heaven.

Lord, please restore all the spiritual, physical, and emotional treasures that have been stolen from our family lines back to Adam.

Lord, please move in justice toward our enemy and cause him to repay seven times over what he has stolen from all of us.

Lord, You give special gifts called ‘mantles’ to men. Please release those, particularly the mantles of men like John G. Lake onto my family.

Lord, release Your grace and love into us and through us. Make us into who You created us to be.

I could go on, especially with specific prayer requests for my family that He has told me to pray, but here is the point. Yesterday I felt God wanted me to share that it was time to change our thinking about Him and believe in His goodness and Love for this is the message that the King of the Kingdom of God is at hand. Today He shares that He is ready to release what He has told us to ask of Him. It is time to seriously enter into His presence and seek Him diligently. It is time to ask Him, “What do you want me to pray for? Lord, teach me to pray!” It is time. The kingdom is within our reach and He is moving. The question becomes, “Do I want to simply keep on in this existence of mine, or do I want to step into the supernatural lifestyle?” Actually the question is more like, “Do I want mere existence, or do I want to walk in a deeply loving relationship with God?” It is up to you. He will force Himself on no one. He will not force His will on anyone. You choose to join in or just exist. I know I am ready to jump in. Lord, You told me to pray for net loads of fish. I pray that many come into Your kingdom for the sole (no pun intended) purpose of knowing You and how awesome Your love is. Release Yourself into the earth.

Today I discussed with some friends our desire to see the kingdom of God show up. I shared how I felt that God was telling us that it is here, and that He had been sharing with me how so many people missed Jesus when He showed up because they had such a limited idea of what He was supposed to look like. I told them that I felt like God was giving us a “heads up” not to do the same thing. We are so intent that He will show up in a certain way or in certain place that we are going to miss Him if we aren’t looking to the Father for our guidance. As we discussed this, God started revealing some things to me.
When Jesus began His ministry His message was, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand (within your reach).” For so long the word repent has been used for “turn from sin” or “ask forgiveness for your sin.” I don’t think this is what Jesus is saying here. He wasn’t saying, “Turn from your sin and it will be good for you.” What He was saying was “Change the way you think about God, because He is right here within your reach, but you will miss Him if you don’t change your way of thinking.” This is His message for us in this day and age also. He is calling out for us to change our way of thinking about the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is time to quit thinking of the Father as a cruel Taskmaster in heaven who has a big whip just wanting to thrash us with it except that poor, humble Jesus is holding Him back. It is time to quit thinking of the Holy Spirit as a “thing” and realize He is a person and that He is frankly the only God here on this earth, so we might want to have a relationship with Him. It is time to quit looking at God as only the Judge of all things wicked and threatening people with Him and with punishment. See God already unleashed the punishment, and Jesus took it for us, so that is done with. Now He is simply looking to love on all of His children, and I do mean ALL of His children, and that would be every single human being on the planet. Yes, I did say every single human being on the planet. Because here is the deal. If we don’t change our thinking about God and allow it to line up with the truth, then when He does show up at the least we will miss Him and at the worst we will try and kill Him (or those that follow Him). If we don’t change our thinking, then we won’t even be able to recognize Him. Look in Mark 1:15 where Jesus says, “Repent and believe…” We can’t believe something that our mind won’t accept. If we have a mindset of “God would not do this in this way” then when He does it that way we miss Him at the least or at the worst attribute His work to the enemy. It is time we change our thinking by allowing the Holy Spirit to teach us what He says about us and Himself in His word, and not by just holding on to some “doctrine” for the sake of holding on to doctrine. When we allow bitterness and anger and hatred to masquerade for a pursuit of holiness or to masquerade for standing for truth, then we are in the enemy’s camp and we will miss Jesus when He shows up. It is time to change our thinking.
Jesus didn’t come to simply help us cope. What a waste that would have been. He didn’t come to give us another Dr. Phil (no offense to Dr. Phil, by the way) to get us through our lives hanging on until we “fly away into the sweet by-and-by.” That is also a waste. Jesus came to restore us to the Father. He came to reestablish our relationship with the Father. When we walk in that relationship with the Father we move from merely existing in a natural world simply coping and doing the best we can (which is never enough, by the way), to living FROM a supernatural world where by His grace we take our God-given place of dominion. That is called abundant living and it is what Jesus promised us. We are not here to sit around waiting for Him to come to save us from this “cruel world.” JESUS ALREADY CAME AND DID THAT!!! We are to change our thinking and see the kingdom of God come to this earth now (in our time) just as it is in heaven. That is what Jesus told us to pray for. Would He ask us to pray for something He wouldn’t do?
I am ready to repent and believe. The kingdom of God is within our reach.

Reflecting on 2008

Reflecting on 2008

I know it is not the New Year yet for most of us, but the Jewish New Year is upon us and one of my good friends recently sat down and started a list of the things he had learned or was beginning to learn from 2008. It was a great list, but there were two things that really stuck out as being pertinent for so many of us. They were as follows:

Jesus never said, "That's not fair".
He either is who He says He is, or He’s not.

These two points really hit the mark in that they pinpoint some major issues in those of us who name Jesus as our Lord. Let's think about the first one, "Jesus never said, 'That's not fair.'" Do you know why He never said that? Because He allowed the Father to be the judge. He KNEW that the Father loved Him and He KNEW that God would justify all things, so that liberated Him to act in grace and love and mercy. Think about this. He made Judas, a thief, the TREASURER of His group. WHY? Grace and love and mercy. He sowed trust and love into people, and when they turned on Him He just loved them back. He didn't cry out "That is not fair." He just loved them back. When He was being tortured to death He didn't say "That's not fair." He forgave. He ministered. He loved. Why? More importantly, HOW? He released everything He was into the Father's hand. He didn't focus on the evil, He looked for the good gifts His Father placed into people. He still does that by the way. He knows the good that God can be within you. He knows what is awesome about you. He isn't worried about the bad stuff, because He already took care of that. It is time that those of us who say we follow Him to do the same. It is time to start looking at people how God really looks at people.....with love, not justice. Justice is for the enemy of our souls. Humanity cries out for God's love.
That brings us to "Either Jesus is Who He says He is, or He is not." I would even have to add "Either we are who Jesus says we are, or He is a liar." Now that may be harsh, but I am quite tired of a powerless and loveless church. I know the world is tired of it because it is really starting to lash out at us. It is not that people are so horribly evil that they can't see Jesus, it is that no one on this earth is showing Jesus to them because most of us who name Him "Lord" refuse to allow Him to be just that in our lives. I grow weary of those that call Him "Healer" and "Deliverer" and when He does that with someone, those same people say, "God doesn't do that anymore." That stuff must end. Either Jesus is Who He says or He is not. It is time to choose. People are SCREAMING out for the real Jesus to show up, and He is showing up. But we who are the church have got to quit pushing Him out and telling Him what He can and cannot do. We must stop being Pharisees and dictating who He can use and who He cannot. We must stop this nonsense of arguing over petty differences, thus turning us into people more interested in being right than people being forgiving and graceful, living in a loving relationship. It is HIS church, not ours. It is HIS kingdom, not ours. We must get before Him and do exactly what He says. If you don't know how to do that, then just ask Him to show you how and do whatever He says. "How can I know how to do that? How can I know how to hear Him?" Well, either He is who He says He is or He is not. He is God and He is our Shepherd and His sheep hear His voice. If you aren't hearing, it is time to check out with yourself whether He is who He says, or if He is not. Jesus, open our eyes to see You, open our ears to hear You, open our hearts to receive You. Let us dwell in Your presence, for nothing else matters. I know You ARE who You say You are, and I am who You say I am.

I had to write some thoughts about a movie I watched with the family last night. It was called “The Martian Child,” and it was about a man who was widowed and decided to adopt. A social worker at a children’s home matched him with a young boy who told everyone he was from Mars. He stayed inside a box all of the time, refused to get in the sun, and believed that if he released “Martian wishes” they would come true. He was incredibly intelligent and imaginative. The man balks at first but keeps feeling this compulsion to bring the child in. What is interesting is that the man was a science fiction writer and so he deeply appreciated the child’s imagination. The man goes through several trying times where the child steals things in the name of ‘his mission to study Earth’ and the whole child placement system is against them. The man teaches the boy how to play baseball and teaches him some very great lessons and they begin to become attached to each other. The boy then decides it is time to go back home to Mars and he steals away at night to climb to the top of an observatory so that his people can pick him up. The man climbs to the top, and as they are hanging on to the top of this round dome, almost falling from the wind, with the police and emergency crews coming in the boy finally breaks down and begins to ask why his parents abandoned him. The man begins to shout out that they must have been very stupid beings because even an “unintelligent earthling” could see the wonder and imagination and beauty in the boy. The boy sits there crying for the first time in the whole movie and then he jumps into the man’s arms and they embrace. The boy realized love. For the first time in his life he wasn’t rejected anymore, but he was loved just as he was. As I watched this unfold I knew I was watching a picture of the Father. He sees the wonder and imagination and love and goodness in us because He put it there. The people and the things that we put our hope in to make our lives significant and meaningful have abandoned us. God hasn’t abandoned us, but the things that we just knew were better than He was have abandoned us. We make up stories and believe lies that help protect us and keep the hurt out. Then the Father reaches out to us and tells us who we really are, but we can’t believe that. Sounds like weirdness to us, so we cry out for our “real parents, our real loves” to come back. Finally we see our plight and the Father is still there with open arms wanting us desperately to come back to Him so He can show us and tell us who He made us to really be. We have a choice to make whether we step into the arms of Love and Compassion and Understanding and Wisdom and Grace, or we sit on the top of a cold metal building waiting for something or someone that doesn’t really exist to come and help us. I know that this “unintelligent earthling” must make the decision to step into His arms. I pray that you will join me there.

Light Arising

I actually got to go on a date with my wife last night. Now I know that may not be blogworthy, but I had to write about a movie we went to see. We went to see "Fireproof" and anyone that is married or thinking about marriage needs to see this movie with your significant other. The message of the movie is simple but awesome. However, this post isn't about the movie's main message, it is about a statement that was made in the movie that the more I think about, the more profound it becomes. The main character in the movie is struggling with a failing marriage. His wife has all but signed the bottom line of the divorce papers and the young man is struggling very much. His father comes and talks to him and talks about "the love dare" where the young man is given an assignment to love his wife no matter what her responses to him are. He tries for a good period of time, but her persistent rejection wears him out. He is on the verge of giving up and is telling his dad how there is no way that he can love someone after being rejected over and over and over. As he is telling his father this, his father is slowly walking around. They are on some old church camp grounds walking, and as soon as the main character says this about persistent love even in rejection, his dad comes to a stop at the foot of a cross and there is a pause in the conversation. WOW!! Talk about a powerful message. But that is not the best of it. His father then tells the young man, "Son, you cannot give to her what you do not have." Now here is the crux (no pun intended) of the matter. The father in this movie is absolutely right. We cannot give an unconditional love that we do not have within us. A light went off within me when he said this because now I understand why there is pain and suffering and hurt and abuse and divorce and loss and all this other awful stuff: people don't have unconditional love within them. When we don't have unconditional love within us (which is true love, by the way) then our selfish desires overtake us and we hurt people. And if you boil down the TRUE meaning of love, then you could state with a hard and wincing truth that therefore people don't have love at all within them. This is where people really start getting mad. "How can you say I can't love my kids and wife? How can you say I don't love my family?" Well, one cannot UNCONDITIONALLY love them unless that same love resides within them and there is only ONE place where this unconditional love is found. More accurately, there is only one PERSON in which this love is found: Jesus Christ. I am not going to take 20 pages of blogging to explain and answer every question that would respond to this statement, but I am going to present this very simply. God (Jesus) IS love. Everything that He is and does IS love. If I do not know God, then therefore I do not know love. Let that sink in. If I do not KNOW God, then therefore I do not KNOW love. That is a very sobering statement. I spent a lot of time last night asking God to really seek me out inside to see if I really knew Him because my responses to people are often out of selfishness (self-righteousness especially) or convenience. This is NOT unconditional love. So I pray today that we all have a sit-down chat with God and just ask Him, "Do I really KNOW You? Do I have that love within me?" If not He is just jumping with joy to give it to you. He wants you to know Him and to know what real love is. And when that happens it starts spilling out to others and all of a sudden we start seeing heaven on earth. Come on, let's ask Him to show us the reality of His love. All of us want the world to be a better place. His love is the way to really see it happen.

Different Perspective

Different Perspective

Isn’t this how we see the world?
Don’t we seem to get it backwards?
We think the reflection is what we really see
When it is what is reflected which makes our spirits leap
Rather I should say it is WHO is reflected
If He is reflected at all
But no, He is reflected in all of us
But especially those who choose to look into that Mirror and see
That what we see with these human eyes is not the true reality
But the One that we look to with our spirits to find our meaning and our purpose
The One Who shows us who we were really meant to be
The One that gives us His life and sets us eternally free
Isn’t this how we see reality?
There is a world that is much more real than the one we see with these eyes of ours
It is much more real than this mere reflection we call life
For He alone is Life, He alone is Love,
He alone is real and all Truth comes from only Him
Isn’t it funny how we see the world?
Don’t we seem to get it backwards?

K. Duane Carter 8-2-08

I wrote this because I have been very frustrated at the lack of power and presence in modern day Christianity. It really doesn’t look like anything I read about in the Bible. Of course then the next “logical” thought is, “Maybe it doesn’t exist if you don’t see it.” Well, I know who planted that thought and that is when I asked God, “Why aren’t we seeing this real Christianity?” That is when He showed me that we will never see it as long as we look from our perspectives. That is why the people of Jesus’ day missed Him, too. They were looking for grandeur and power and majesty. They were looking for a conqueror who would destroy their enemies and set up an earthly kingdom. Aren’t we guilty of the same? The real kingdom of God begins in loving our neighbor as ourselves. That is it right there. When we start looking at life from this perspective, then we finally begin to see the REAL stuff we have been looking for all along. It is all about relationships. It is all about real relationships based in a real love given out by a real God and a real Savior and Friend and a real Spirit Who ache and long for people to be one with Him. When we enter this place, then that is when we enter into what our true lives are meant to be. Everything else will flow from this.

The Miracle

Hello everyone from the Smoky Mountains! The picture is from the forests of the National Park. My family and I went to see a tremendous show today. It was called "The Miracle" and it was a Broadway-style presentation of the story of Jesus. It was an awesome show, but there were several things in there that really stood out to me. First was how Jesus was not some sort of somber and serious prude. He danced, He laughed, He hung out with the guys. Second was that I was amazed at when the show presented Jesus as healing the deaf and the blind and the leprous and raising the dead, the crowd roared in approval, yet when we see or hear of people doing this today all of a sudden people get really nervous and squeamish, especially people that go to church. What is up with that? Why is it that the One we claim to worship, the One who told us that we would do greater things than He did can be applauded today for the miraculous things He did, but if someone who follows Him completely does the same thing then we disdain that person? Third was the fact that everyone that was with Jesus really missed out on God's purposes because their thinking and their expectations were way too small. Jesus did not just come to rescue the Jewish people; he came to save all of us and give us all what we needed to be restored into a real relationship with God. That's why people just didn't get Him. I am wondering if we are doing the same thing. God has big plans for His people (ALL of His people), but our thinking is so small, I wonder if we are missing Him in the process. We are so focused on getting people "in church" that we miss the fact that God is trying to love them into His kingdom. We are so focused on people's shortcomings and aberrations from us that we miss the fact that God loves them and has a particular call and destiny for them. We are so focused on "doing stuff" that God will smile on and that will get us a better seat in heaven that we forget that Christ already did it all and we simply need to love each other by letting Him live that love out in us. There were several other things but I will have to save those for later. Sorry for the "pounding post" today, but I couldn't help but think of these things today. If you are ever in the Pigeon Forge area then check out "The Miracle." It is really a great show and it is very well done.

The Picture

The Picture

There is a picture of God’s plan for us here
We start in the center with darkness
Then we see glimpses of His glory and majesty
We are then immersed in the crimson of His blood
And as we go outward leaving the darkness far behind
The realities of His resurrection and His glory become far more clear
And the realities of His resurrection power become far more bountiful to us
Than when we first saw those glimpses of His glory
They become so glorious that they overshadow the dimness of death and dying
They become so clear that all of this worlds other alternatives are dull in comparison
There is a picture of God’s plan for us here
He whispers His love for us in all things He has made
We see with our ears and hear with our eyes
When we simply take the time to listen and see
In ways that go beyond our mere reality
That is only a shadow of what is truly there
God places His love in a flower with care
And waits for us to simply kneel down and see it

kdc 9-14-08

Tethered

Tethered

I am here at this place
A place where I feel tethered down
Yet resting in the waters
I have risen above the waters to see Your glory
And though it is so bright no man can look upon it
Yet I rest in the peace of this water
Knowing my chains are loosed
Knowing I am not tethered anymore
Awaiting my moment to fly over those mountains
That were always so large and daunting before
Yet now they are only beautiful things
That I will be able to fly over
To get to that place that is closer to Your brilliance,
Your majesty and Your power
I am here at this place
A place where even though I feel tethered down
The Truth is right there before me
And I choose to believe Him
Over what I feel

kdc 9-14-08

Is being right better than having a relationship?

I don't like posting on things that I am currently wrestling with because I am the type of person who wants to have the answer perfectly in order before writing it down; however, I feel that these thoughts have to be released today. I have just finished "The Shack" by William Young and I am currently reading "Messy Spirituality" by Michael Yaconelli and there is a deep theme in both of those books that speaks of how God is much more interested in our relationship to Him than He is in us getting all the rules right. Now this really cuts against the grain of how I am shaped, but what fascinates me is how God is right now, every day, testing me in this same area. Am I going to yell at my child for breaking something, or am I going to offer forgiveness and love and establish a deeper relationship? Am I going to be determined to be right in front of my wife even if it means a heated argument, or am I going to forfeit that right and establish a deeper relationship? Am I going to condemn someone for falling short of God's law, or am I going to establish a relationship? Am I going to take God's place as judge, or am I going to take my place as a bridge helping people who are standing on one side of the chasm away from God and lead them to Him? Am I going to speak words of criticism and judgment, or am I going to speak words of hope and healing? I am not talking about "tolerance" here and I am not talking about condoning evil. I am talking about living like Jesus amongst evil and REDEEMING it (that word means to free something into life by the way) instead of bashing evil to death and in the process bashing people to death. The choice is simple: life or death? The power and the love it takes to choose life and relationship is the hard part, but only if I try and do that on my own. In fact, it is impossible to do that on my own. Jesus, let Your love flow through me and nothing else. Let Your truth flow, let Your life flow. It is only through Him that we can live this out.
One more thing that I have to say. I read one of the most profound things I have read in a long time last night. Mr. Yaconelli wrote, "People who pretend have pretend relationships." WOW. No wonder our world is full of people who feel hopeless. We live in a society (especially in church society) where we pretend to have it all together. My most hated question in church is "How are you doing" and the response "Fine". It is time for transparency because only in transparency are real relationships built. Only in transparency can the church finally become a people who actually ATTRACT others instead of repel them or, even worse, reject them. It is time. It is time. IT IS TIME.

The Wooden Fence

The Wooden Fence

I see this as me

I have a fence between the green pastures and me

I have a fence between the oceans of God's love and me

I have a fence between His cloud of glory and me

The fence even barricades the color out of my life

Yet, why can't I see the gaps?

Why can't I see that everything holding me back is dead?

It is dead on wood that no man has understood

Without the help of the Spirit of God

I am ready to bend down and go between those gaps

I need to learn how to lie down in the grass anyway

Because that is exactly what I will do on the other side

Everything holding me back from God is dead

I must move this thought right out of my head

And put it into action, so it will come alive in me

I see this as me

K. Duane Carter
9-2-08

I had to write this after a major let-down in my life yesterday. I hate screwing up. Through the night I kept thinking, "Great, now I have to go through all of this again. I am never going to get to my destiny because of my stupid decisions." What is so funny about this is just the day before God had shown me how that everything that holds us back from walking in the kingdom of God had been nailed to the cross and killed with Jesus, and when He rose up from the dead we could now walk in that same power. The kingdom of God is simply stepped into when we step into it by the power that Jesus gives us when we believe in what He did for us. Then I go and use my gift of resurrection power to raise up the dead stuff in my life instead of walking in life. Isn't that funny how we squirm and doubt when the possibility of raising the dead comes up, yet we use our resurrection power to do that everyday with the things that are dead which hold us back? We are constantly raising up our old nature from the dead. The enemy is very good at deception. He is using our very own God-given ability to resurrect the dead to raise up those things that have died in us. We may think they are alive because he deceives us to think that, and once we think they are "unconquerable" we tell them to get up and get on us and that power is released and here they come again. But in truth they are dead. Let's use our God-given authority to proclaim those things dead and call forth those things that God has said are alive in us. Let's put that resurrection power that God has given us in Jesus to good use!

I have to mention Abraham in this. He screwed up yet he walked right into his God-given destiny. Then you read God's view of him in Hebrews 11 and there are no mentions of the screw-ups. He is said to be a man without fault. We look at God and say, "What? Haven't You read Your own book?" I think God laughs at that question because God rewrites stories. Not because He made a mistake but because He has the power and might and love to erase our mistakes and to simply see in us what pleases Him. Then He writes down what He sees: the good stuff. He has the right to remove those mistakes we have made. In fact, He already did that at the cross, and He is just simply waiting for us to become agreeable with Him on that. Wow!

Duane Carter

http://web.mac.com/kdcarter

Postings

8-31-08 Thoughts in the office

If there is anything in the universe that is good, then God made it. Pleasure is created by God. Happiness is created by God. Laughter is created by God. Contentment and peace are created by God. Then I think of the verse, "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you." So if I want these good things then I need to seek first God's kingdom and His righteousness. Seeking the kingdom is seeking God's plan and place for me. There are three phases of this. The first is the actual birthing into the kingdom. The second is where I learn how to walk in the kingdom. The third is where I begin to live abundantly in the kingdom.

All of my life I have had the following "stinky thinky": God allowed Jesus to suffer on the cross so why wouldn't He allow us to suffer? What makes us think we are above pain and suffering if God allowed it to happen to His own son? That sounds real good on the surface, but below the surface it states that God made pain in His kingdom. Therefore pain is "very good" because God proclaimed it to be. That is garbage. Read Isaiah 53. It is NOT God's will that we should suffer and be sick and be afflicted and bound. It was His will that Jesus would take all of this on Himself and that all of that would DIE on the cross. When Jesus rose from the dead, that stuff was conquered. It was DEAD. It was God's will that Jesus would suffer so we wouldn't have to. Jesus took the pain and the suffering, the illness and the punishment, the guilt and the condemnation and even the mindsets that lead to those and KILLED IT. In other words EVERYTHING that is holding us back from the kingdom of God is DEAD.

Now the next typical thought is "how does something that is dead hold us back?" In other words the pain and suffering don't LOOK dead! They look very alive and "well." God then states that we walk by faith and not by sight. The enemy is the great deceiver and the great pretender. In God's kingdom there is no cancer, there is no disease, there is no suffering and there is no death. WE must see things as they REALLY are, NOT as they SEEM. We must speak out the truth and live the truth and allow the Truth to live through us. There are root issues that God is looking to rip up so that we can truly live, but we must be willing to know that He is always good and always love and He is NEVER the maker of evil.

Now everything in my "logical" mind is going, "Now wait a minute. It can't be that straightforward. And how do you say something 'is' when you can't even see it or even worse you see its very opposite before you? How can you say suffering is dead when you can go next door to your neighbor's house and find a person with cancer?" Because Jesus has proclaimed that His kingdom is here. Declarations go out before actions. It is time to declare and believe and then the actions will come forth. My logical mind can stick it, anyway, because it cannot understand what God is up to and I am getting to the point that I don't want to understand; I want to SEE.

Introduction

Hello to all!! My name is Duane Carter and I am a man on a mission to see God's love truly rock our world. Over the years I have really struggled with what most people view as "Christianity" because frankly it was very judgmental and very powerless. Then I met Jesus and that was all it took. I am beginning to learn that if there is hate and discord and malice and jealousy then that ain't Jesus. If that is what you think when you think of "Christianity" then you are not looking in the right place. So I will periodically post poems, photos, and just simple thoughts of my personal walk with the One Who created it all. My intention is that you will see the real God, the real Jesus Who loves us more than anyone can imagine and Who wants us all to walk in all the great things that He has made for us to walk in. More later!