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.