There is a strange stillness and subtle rippling of the Ockluhwahhah River this evening with it’s subtle greens and grays in the twilight of the day, as if time worries no one and the freedom of the water is at your doorstep. This is Outposts, a rural cafe at the end of Old Field Road. Join us this evening for cool jazz and contemplative conversation … words to consider carefully. Dream a little dream this evening with music and words of encouragement as we each go our way, finding our footing towards home with Jesus.

For a side bar this evening, meaning a little topic before we get to the main topic is about when we distance ourselves away from God, our downfall & depredation becomes more probable. After many personal “crash & burns” on my part, i’ve concluded that every time and at all times, it is in our best interest to stay near to and in the company of God.

If God is able, then we must be willing, and in light of that we are blessed among all creatures great and small that God is indeed able, therefore our opportunity to change the course of our lives is great. He is able to deliver us, but we must be willing to be delivered. Many pay money for deliverance, but say it never seems to stick. Sozo is necessary, but the therapy that happens afterwards is just as important to help keep us staying delivered. When you realize God is all you have, you realize, God is all you needed in the first place!

Our main topic is “He Is”. Jesus isn’t just a “was”. He isn’t only “here and now” and soon to fade away like a fair-weather friend, nor is He exclusively just the “future” where He is merely a hope and wishful thinking. He is there in the past as in the “now”, He is here as in the “now”, and “will be” in the future, as in the “now”. i don’t know how, all i can say is “He is God”. He eclipses the speed of light, able to be in the past, the present, and the future all at the same time. He is able to move backwards and forwards in time at will, for He is beyond time and space, He is God.

i’ve realized that the description of who the Lord is changes some from chapter to chapter in the Bible, and i went on a hunt to find all i could which would point me to a greater understanding of all He is. And why would i go on a greater hunt for such a thing, because in all my religiousness and zeal, i’ve realized the real truth is, i don’t know as much about God as i thought i did, and, in my opinion, neither do a lot of other folks either. Sure they’ll tell you they know plenty, but when you get down to really rooting around in what they think they know, it’s often chalk full of errors, twisted thinking, one way streets, and dead end roads. So here follows the results of my quest to know more about the Lord. Some of the following is taken from the words of Jeoffrey Benward & Jeff Silvey who created a poetic vision of Who God is from chapter to chapter in the Bible. In Genesis He’s the breath of life, In Exodus the Passover Lamb, In Leviticus He’s our High Priest, Numbers The fire by night, Deuteronomy He’s Moses’ voice, In Joshua, He is salvation’s choice, Judges, the law giver, In Ruth, the kinsmen-redeemer, First and second Samuel, our trusted prophet, In Kings and Chronicles, He’s sovereign, Ezra, He is the true and faithful scribe, Nehemiah, He’s the rebuilder of broken walls and lives, In Esther, He’s Mordecai’s courage, In Job, the timeless redeemer, In Psalms, He is our morning song, In Proverbs, wisdom’s cry, Ecclesiastes, the time and season, In the Song of Solomon, He is the lover’s dream. Yesterday, He is. Today – He is. Tomorrow – He is.

In Isaiah, He’s Prince of Peace, Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, In Lamentations, the cry for Israel, Ezekiel, He’s the call from sin, In Daniel, the stranger in the fire, Hosea, He is forever faithful, In Joel, He’s the Spirits power, In Amos, the arms that carry us, Obadiah, He’s the Lord our Savior
In Jonah, He’s the great missionary, He is the promise of peace in Micah, He is our strength and our shield in Nahum, In Habakkuk and Zephaniah, He’s pleading for revival, In Haggai, He is the restorer of a lost heritage, In Zechariah, our fountain, In Malachi, He is the son of righteousness rising with healing in His wings.

In Matthew He is the King, in Mark He is the servant, in Luke He is the Son of Man, and John He is the Son of God. Dr. W.H. Griffith Thomas gives the pictures of the Gospels this way: In Matthew, written to the Jews, Jesus is seen as the Promised Savior; In Mark Jesus is the Powerful Savior; In Luke He is the Perfect Savior; and in John, the book of “whom so ever”, Jesus is the Personal Savior, and to summarize who God is in the four Gospels, Jesus is the one glorious theme of them all.

In the book of Acts, He is fire from heaven, In Romans, He’s the grace of God, In Corinthians, the power of love, In Galatians, He is freedom from the curse of sin, Ephesians, our glorious treasure, Philippians, He is the servants heart.
In Colossians, He’s the Godhead Trinity, Thessalonians, our coming King, In Timothy, Titus, and Philemon He’s our mediator and our faithful Pastor, In Hebrews, the everlasting covenant, In James, the one who heals the sick.
In First and Second Peter, he is our Shepherd, In John and in Jude, He is the lover coming for His bride, In the Revelation, He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, The prince of peace, The Son of man, The Lamb of God, He is The great I AM, the alpha and omega, Our God and our Savior, He is Jesus Christ the Lord.

His name is Jesus. He is the tree planted in living water, He is the one who yields fruit in season and out and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever He does, prospers. He is the ultimate seed sower, and the source of rain and sun who offers Himself to the seed which must choose Him to live and grow, or deny Him to it’s own detriment and die. Can there be any dream He gives which He does not frame, build, and bears much fruit? He is the completion of redemption and the balance of reconciliation.

He is the One who gives us images to familiarize us with Himself. If He didn’t extend us visions of Himself, we would not have any, therefore we would be barren and full of despair. He is God who whispers us to sleep when we are restless, then rustles His God-fingers against the earth until it rains love in our lives, making wet parched hearts to sing again, even in the moments when we would have preferred to stop living.

Jesus is the one who knows your stories before you are born, who draws you into the truth to meet yourself, to resolve yourself, and to love Him without fear. He is God who walks without moving, He dreams without sleeping and calls us, each to Himself without speaking. Psalm 32:8 says He guides us with His eyes. He is the One who has been speaking to you before you knew it was Him speaking to you, long before you knew Him as you know Him now. Remember. His intent was calling you, even when you were a child. He is there. It was Jesus all along.

Every time we bump the life of another, Christ is spoken in our moment of connection, He is the One who overcomes our inertia , our “indisposition to  change”, our resistance to a change in direction. He is the picture that is beyond the frame – He knows no limitations of righteousness and is the unfailing brightness of reality which no eye can see and more than words can say, unless He enables us to grasp.

Many times, we don’t need someone to bring us BIG change, we just need a firm foot provided us so we can set our foot against it in order that we can find purchase to change direction.

Ultimately, it is the foot of the Savior, who in His mercy, provides us a  stanchion…even when all our closest, most relied on friends have gone, Jesus gives us the pinion to hold us fast to His Heart, even when we are dangling from a reverse-inclined sheer rock cliff, Jesus is there with us, and He is busy working on our behalf, driving pinions, making pivots, throwing us ropes, pulling us close to His heart, never leaving us or forsaking us. He is there!

From the Journal of the Unknown Prophet:

“Oh, and how long has He sought you, beloved? How many nights, has He stood listening, silently waiting in the shadows unseen by you and those that surround you?

For it was He who wept as He heard your soundless scream in the midnight hour. It was He who watched as you tried in your brokenness to marshal together the fragments of your shattered heart.

And so most beloved of His children, now He comes closer, the fairest of ten thousand. And as He walks out from behind the shadows and you lift up your tear-stained face to Him, half blinded by the radiance from the most beautiful of countenances, He reaches out His hand to you.”

“…’You?’ you mouth soundlessly. And you hear His whisper: “I have sought you all your life. Through all the pain, through the loneliness, I have sought you. Each time your heart broke soundlessly with the agony of not belonging, i sought you. Through each rejection, through each hour of despair, I sought you. I was there, loving you. Reaching out to you. It was Me all along.”

And as your eyelids gently close as you are engulfed in His tender embrace and the tears fall, somewhere through the sands of time in that netherland between sleeping and waking, you recognize that familiar presence and you too know that He was there. It was He all along.”

Jesus is the One who celebrates with us, Luke 15:10 “I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

He Is God who pleads on our behalf, like in Romans 8:26, “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.”

He is the One who weeps with us when we weep, like in John 11:33-35, where it reads, “When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. “Where have you laid him?” he asked. “Come and see, Lord,” they replied. Jesus wept.”

Our God is the One who goes on adventures with us. In both Matt 14 and Mark 8, the disciples were in a storm and Jesus was with them. Jesus was the one who calmed the storm, He is the one who walked on the water, and He is the one who raised the dead.

i am like a blank page, and He is the letters. Imagine yourself standing on a beautiful beach and see the place where blue water touches white shores by the Tree of Life at the Crystal Sea, right there is an intersection. Metaphorically, Jesus is the letters, and at that intersection the Letters stand up like figures at the intersection, like words written all along the horizon as far as you can see to the left and right in one continuous line of words, on the horizon, that amazing place where the sea conspires with the sky. The words are the story and praise for the Son of God. Jesus.

In scripture, silver can also be taken as goodness, generosity, fairness, or having a bountiful eye full of mercy even to transgressors. Jesus is like a shining hand writing shimmering words upon my heart, writing silver thoughts, God thoughts shining. He is God who sparks ideas in me, and God who dreams His dreams upon creation like an open hand offering His hope and salvation. Jesus is the All in All, abundant, and beyond our beyond.

Jesus, our Lord, He is the song of songs who has been sung since before the foundations of the world were laid. He is the one who teaches us how to break the rule of silence imposed on us by sin for us to praise Him with lips pressed tight out of fear and a soiled conscience. Teach us to break the rule of wounded silence Lord! He is … present tense in the past, present tense in the now, and present tense in the future. He is because – He is God and there is none like Him for He truly is the One and Only. Isaiah quotes the Lord saying, “If there were other God’s, I would know them, and I don’t know of any other. I AM.”

The Lord is the One who is near us in mercy and love and at the same time He is high exalted above us, for His Name is the expression of His Being, Yeshua, Hashem, The Name who is sanctified in all creation. Let Your divine rule come.

Romans 6:14, “For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.” By Jesus Christ came grace, and by grace i know Jesus is The One, and there is only One. Before i knew Him i was silent because my master was sin whom i had to obey. i lost my voice to death. But now, because i have known, do know, and will know Jesus, i am free, silent no longer and am only a slave to love, the Christ of God who first loved me.

In scripture silver is a metaphor for generosity, mercy and kindness, turquoise is often sanctification, healing, and jade is for praise, prosperity, and fruitfulness. The Lord will gather us who are His, and oh, what a day that will be. He will call our names, and we will respond like letters with multidimensional value, we’ll respond to the call of God like golden words with syllables of silver, turquoise and jade. 1 Thessalonians 4:17, “After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.” We will tell our stories, He will unlock our mysteries and we will shine with the Light of our resurrected Savior when we all sit down to recline and dine with our Jesus who Forever lives. Jesus, “He is God”. He eclipses the speed of light, able to be in the past, the present, and the future all at the same time. He is able to move backwards and forwards in time at will, for He is beyond time and space, He is God.

i’m Social Porter and this has been Outposts, cool jazz and contemplative conversation. i must admit, i seem to have no problem writing about Jesus, it all just seems to flow off my lips and i find my mouth always ready with words of praise and declaration.

This presentation has been brought to you by Living In His Name Ministries, Area 22 Guitars in beautiful Brevard, White Knuckle studios, Lock, Stock, and Barrel Auction House, my buddy Burley Champion down at Tin Horn Farm Supply, and Trinity Bakers, where there’s always something good in the oven.

As you go your way this week, ask the Lord to reveal Himself to you that you would know Him more, and there is so much more to know of our God than what we’ve previously thought. He is the Lord and He is like an ever expanding, multifaceted diamond, perfect in all His ways, goodness personified, righteousness and hope all in one person – Jesus, Holy, sanctified and true.

Pray for your neighbors, declare the goodness of God over yourself, look for His favor, drive carefully, and i certainly hope to catch up with you again soon. Selah, or think about it. Amen!