Shout Now!

Faith is the Victory that overcomes the world!

Can’t you only imagine, the victory, when we stand with the World as our trophy.  Death, Hell and the grave, behind us to run onward and upward into the arms of our Father and Savior and friend; to know him without the hindrances of pride and sin.

We have run the race, we have spent the fortnight engaged in the conflict, the smell of the can, no longer our motivation, it is behind us.  Can you imagine not having to measure your words and your thoughts by the country and the audience that is in front of you?  

I really can’t imagine that.  I cannot imagine a day of such freedom from the scrutiny of others of my words.  Did you mean this or that?  Was I the villain or the hero in that story?  None of your business.  We are always both, in this world.  Jesus is the only hero in this world, but the day is coming when he will share his victory with his church. In that day the gates of hell will no longer be in the discussion.   I like to imagine that day now.

Don’t wait till the battle is over, SHOUT NOW ! 

More than Words?

 Is the message of the gospel a word thing or a done thing?

We have so many words that have crossed our lips and our paper about the reality of Christ in the world, but how effective are they in changing the trajectory of the culture that we live in.

One godly life lived for the glory of God is of more emphasis to the world of love and peace than so many many words of empty epitaphs.

The older I get, the more I see words as an impotent vehicle to project expression and emotion and reality.  I, perhaps, am the impotent one.  I feel so deeply miniscule, when I look at a man like Burt Bacharach who used words as a kind of whip to make people love him and one another.  He, I would say was the captain of the sexual revolution of the 70’s. Words and great use of them can make you a captain, when you didn’t realize you would be.  I am just learning that Carol Bayer Sager, was Bacharach’s partner in leading us all to love.

Oh, that was their calling and that age has long gone away.  Partly, because words are flooding the world over the internet.  Useful words and useless words are flooding and pouring over.  A picture, worth a thousand words and a bazillion words of inane nonsense can become a slough of despond that you cannot traverse.

The problem is that there are no sign posts to say Quick sand and sloven language will take you where you shouldn’t go.  You must use your own discernment.  Sometimes you swim and the undercurrent takes you down.

I have taken to silence.  I have taken to attempting to limit my speech and writing to when I feel there is a real useful need.

The gospel is a doing thing and not just a verbose expression.  I must be careful of taking one single word and making a raft to try to make it for myself. No man is an island?

NO raft for my transport through this life!  That is a fact.  We must, through the tribulation of learning to traverse the tidal ebbs and flows of our day, grow up in all things.  

At first, the waves give you shudders in your stomach.  You feel as if you will be swallowed up and never learn to surf them to your own travel.  Then after practice and repetition the waves become like a dear and huge friend that you would pet to get from one place to another.  

I think that I feel like this about the internet.  Pulling out my paddle and raft and trying to get a hold of how to learn from it and how to utilize it may come to me one day.  For now,  I am trying to be careful.  

The next revolution should be the revolution toward godliness.  The Lack thereof should propel us in that direction.  As we eat of the fruitful words left behind in our ravenous intellects, may God make it so that our eating of the refuse of past generations of Godliness that we would learn how to eat and live for our own spiritual and cultural profit!

the Silence of AWE!

 The Silence of Awe!

Words can capture many things.  They say that a picture is worth a thousand words.  But there are things that neither pictures nor words can capture.  “The silence of Awe!”

It seems that we have lost the sense of the silence of awe.  People gab incessantly and write incessantly over the wires and wireless systems that we have created.  Do we stop?  Can we stop to observe the awe?  Do we listen for the awesomeness of the silence of God?  God spoke a simple sentence that continues in procession to this day.   We speak many words that fall to the ground in their ineptness.  We listen to words and silliness that has absolutely no value, whatsoever.  God’s word is alive.

God’s Word is worthy to listen to in awe.  The awesomeness of God is amazing and we should spend some time in silence to respect it, at least on occasion.

Syllabus to acquire and establish my own helmet of Salvation!

 Put on the whole armor of God!

How many days do we go out into the battlefield of the Lord with pieces of our armor on and pieces of our armor left at home?

I know that I hate it when I get caught with my pain medication in my pocketbook.  I step on my arthritic knee and it says, "nope". I am not going another step.   I often imagine myself strewn on the floor of the Commons.  Why didn't I anticipate my recurring pain?  Worse yet, is getting hit by the fiery darts of the enemy of our souls.   He targets you with your own knowledge of scripture.  He knows you left your helmet of salvation home today and it will do its most significant damage to your soul, if not catapult you right down to the deepest hell.

Jesus has given you instructions and you ignored them.  Put your coat on!  It is snowing!  Put your earmuffs on you will catch cold and there you are on your deathbed lamenting your own ignorant sad negligence concerning your health.  More sad the condition of the soul in hell who has had a closet full of God's Complete Armor and left it home in the heat of battle.

Eternal, is the sense of lamenting.

I think about it daily concerning myself!

Lest I be a castaway

Happy Easter

 

Will you do that which is GREAT in the eyes of the Lord? Happy Birthday

2 Chronicles 25:1  

Amaziah was twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Jehoaddan of Jerusalem.

2 Chronicles 27:1  

Jotham was twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mother's name also was Jerushah, the daughter of Zadok.

2 Chronicles 29:1  

Hezekiah began to reign when he was five and twenty years old, and he reigned nine and twenty years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah.

2 Chronicles 36:5  

Jehoiakim was twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: and he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD his God.

God is truly the author and finisher of our faith.  Each day and especially each year that God allows us is the beginning of something.  What are you reigning over?

I have just a few meditations to share with you on the celebration of your 25th birthday in the light of scripture where my devotions were during this week and my own experiences. 

We ought to pray with Moses, “Teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”

I was 25 years ld when I found the delight of motherhood.  I had spent much time sharing myself with children but it was at age 25 when I met Elyse. (actually 24.9)  I never thought that I wanted to do this for my entire life, but it became the calling of my life.  

I challenge you to find the thing that delights you to commit to and to reign over.  I challenge you to find the hope and expectation that God has for you in your purpose and shine that light wherever you are.  Be the one that God sees has completed that which was right in the eyes of the Lord.  That is a challenging thing.

The challenge is to take the things that crop up as ungodly and use them for the glory of God.  Sometimes it is our job to cut down the trees of ungodliness and sometimes it is our job to make food out of that which might have ordinarily been discarded.  We have much to dig into for the glory of God to rectify.  I challenge you to find a problem and do what you can to clean it up.  don’t get distracted by all of the messes that are around you.  Find God’s purpose for your life and pursue it, to God’s glory! Run to the end of the Highway and enjoy the marathon of life! 

I really thought I would never dissuade people from the use of headphones!

 I was a headphone maniac as a child.  It was my only privacy, growing up.  I believe that the wonder of learning to listen happened to me as I spent hours and hours borrowing my father's wonderful earphones.  I got homework done and escaped arguments and cooled down from arguments in my wonderland of musical delight.

We didn't each have a device, like people now have.  So all of our music and entertainments were shared.  That is a real loss, I think and trying to find common ground musically and entertainment wise is a real effort now that each person has his or her own device and entertainment playlist.

I have been thinking about how this builds walls of gaps in our communication.  We must try to bridge those gaps and grow together, in spite of the difficulty.  One of my dearest memories of my father, who is long gone are the trips in the car and the long and not always desired speeches about this and that topic.  I didn't really ever want to hear what he had to say.  But these many years later, the memory of them is all I have of him.

I am only saying this to you because you are missing a great amount of delightful providence of having your daddy carrying you to and from work.  You can close your ears and go into your mental prep for work and that is great, but every once in a while stop and smell the roses of a moment with a man who loves you deeply and always has something to say to you that is just for you!  Don't miss it!