……the date is today, and the time is now.

i’m Social Porter and this is Outposts, contemplative conversation, just for you in this season, at this time, where ever you are, be it grieving at home alone, or in the middle of a crowded place, the date is today, and the time is now.

Hey listen, in no way are any of the programs aimed at persuading anyone to one religious faction or another within Christian circles. It isn’t to persuade Catholics or Methodists to be someone else, or, for that matter, any other denomination to become your new denomination, far from it actually. i for one, harbor no appreciation for denominations in the least. The goal is to inspire a reconnection with God, deeper, wider, and longer than before; to cast a vision of where we’re going, as individuals and as a community, how to step into that vision, and for you and God to root out where you’re supposed to be. If we don’t have an idea of where we are going, it’s really difficult to know how to be where we are. As an example, if we don’t know we are going on a trip tomorrow, how can we prepare today if we’re blind to the fact we are leaving the house tomorrow?

But in the meantime, we can learn more about the Ever Lord, the One King, who He is, how He does some of the things He does and why, yea, why, why why. Doesn’t it seem as though God is always digging around through our why?

As we approach an intersection, we are approaching a place of rapid-fire decisions which simply must be made. As we approach, the light is green… green… green… and we know at annnyyyyy second it could suddenly change to red and we’d have to slam on the brakes. The closer we get to the moment an imminent decision must be made as to whether to stop or give it the gas, the more tense everything gets. There is a tension in the deciding that is uncomfortable. How we make decisions is partly done from our inclinations, like, “i am inclined to run a red light at the last moment”, “i am inclined to slow down at intersections”, “i am inclined to be honest no matter what,” or “i am inclined to be honest only when it suits my personal agenda”. How about, “i am inclined to think i need an image management program” as opposed to “i am inclined to play down my titles because i don’t need anyone’s endorsement to do what God has asked me to do, afterall, there are no pastor’s or bishops in Heaven, only the redeemed.”?

Our inclinations and motivations are driven by what we believe, which warrants a very piercing question, if answered with all honesty, “What exactly do you believe, how did you come to that conclusion, and why do you think it’s a good idea?” That’s called, your “epistemology”. Big word with big implications whose defining reaches down to even our smallest, and seemingly innocuous doctrines. If you think your smallest ideas and imaginations don’t really matter, rest assured and settle it in your heart, everything matters.

If we are believers in Christ, underneath all our thinking, the Holy Spirit is changing our impulses from worldly impulse to Godly impulse, from worldly instinctive tendencies, inclinations and motivations, to Godly instinctive tendencies, inclinations and motivations, re-bending them and squeezing them into righteous shape.

It is a general instinctive tendency to run away in the face of difficult trials, thinking only of self-preservation, but in the heart of every believer there grows the inclination or instinctive tendency to not run away from difficult trials, because more and more often, standing for the truth in Christ is more important than preserving our reputation or even our lives. Fear says runaway, but, there are things more important than being afraid.

To reiterate from the last program, a doctrine is a belief or set of beliefs held and taught, it is our internal descriptive theology and ideology from which we operate and continue on. To search out doctrine means to take nuances from words of instruction within the context of how the words are used; to grasp wisdom, take understanding, or to sit under the good sense of a teacher’s persuasion. Titus2:1 says to “teach what is sound and right according to sound doctrine.”

In his sermon titled “Heaven”, Charles Spurgeon spoke of four subtle doctrines which i think are worthy of discussion. Our topic is concerning the doctrine of impulse, our instinctive tendencies, inclinations and motivations. A bit brainy, but i think it’s a worthy discussion to have.

A really bad habit that’s allowed to continue on in its method’s and practices, eventually takes over and molds our entire personality, until we become “self-contentedly dead”, happy with who we have become, not realizing we have become inanimate, or dead. Yea, who are the dead anyway?

The things we’ve done and seen in our lives stick to us, we can’t wash them off so easily, and if allowed to remain we become those things. In my experience, the blood of Jesus is the only hope for those who’ve lost their way, having become, think about this: “self-contentedly dead”; Jesus was wounded for our transgressions, chastised for our peace, and by His stripes we are healed. Jesus is the only hope to wash the things we’ve seen and done off of our heads.

Where do you get your impulses, your inclinations and motivations? Are you a church leader who “gives to get”, in other words you get people to play g-r-e-a-t music at your church so it will expand your church, or is it to bless the people in hopes they wake up and advance their relationship with Christ? Do you get charismatic people to speak for what they can do for you? How that charismatic person will draw more people in, or is it for something greater and higher to advance the congregations pursuit of the Lord? How do you lean in your heart, what is your inclination in those situations?

i agree with Henry Drummond. Let’s assume Adam’s sin was the first of it’s kind, and up until that moment, i believe he was perfectly righteous from the first moment of his existence. From the first he breathed in life, he was capable of right action ….. if he was immediately capable of right action he was also inclined to act right. You get that? Our inclinations motivate our actions. For Adam to do right, i believe he had to be created with a pre-disposition to do right, he had to have had an inclination to righteous action because of the holy disposition of his heart. He had this inclination due to his cognizance and loyalty to God. i believe one of the things lost when sin entered in was Adam’s inclination to right action, being replaced with an inclination to operate without God, and to give power to wrong action. As a result, one definition of sin is losing your relish for righteous things, and giving power to your flesh over your spirit.

Our inclinations spring from our heart posture, how we lean in our hearts toward or away from God. An old definition of attitude is: the pitch and yaw of a boat or airplane; how we lean in our hearts toward God.

Our inclinations and motivations squeeze us into shape, we become the pattern of even the most basic of our beliefs. Without Jesus in our lives we are powerless to follow any other pattern and inclination, other than sin and the world, yet with Jesus alive in our heart, He becomes the power to “re-bend” us away from the world and toward Himself, if we’ll allow it. We all have inclinations and motivations, but let’s think about where we got them…they had to come from somewhere, no one is born with God’s values immediately inclining their heart to right action. Romans 3:23, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”.

The aptitudes and predispositions which lead to death and inspire us to simply be “self-contentedly dead”, those we were born with, again, if we are willing, and allow it to be so, the Lord can and does re-bend our foundational inclinations into patterns of righteousness and goodness, bringing us into right-standing with God, as it was in the beginning.

Exodus 6:6, “Therefore say to the children of Israel: ‘I am the LORD; I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, I will rescue you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm …” The idea of an “outstretched arm” is an idiom, a phrase which isn’t readily obvious just by looking at the individual words. In this particular case, an “outstretched arm” means that the Lord is greatly inclined to deliver His people, His heart is “inclined” towards our deliverance, not “declined” away from us. The Lord is the personification of perfect choosing, and His heart is always, always, always inclined to goodness, without even a shade of anything less.

In 1Kings11:2-4, the Lord is speaking to Solomon about his love of foreign women. Three times the Lord says the foreign women would “turn his heart away” and in vs4 we read that indeed, the foreign women, whom he loved, did turn his heart away, or caused him to incline his heart away from God, thereby becoming disloyal. The idiom “turn his heart away”, speaks of the pitch and yaw of his heart, and he near completely, was no longer inclined to follow after God.

After several years of thought, i believe i can conclude that the desire to make righteous choices requires righteous desires and inclinations, and without a Godly inclination toward goodness, we are not able to do good.

i believe our choices follow our inclinations and motivations. From this comes the idea that what you believe rules you, you don’t rule what you believe. Our inclinations and motivations, as set in the foundations of our heart. They are the fuel driving our decision-making machine, and only the blind, naked, and clueless think they’ve got control over all that. No person is smart enough to run their own life. We need help and should call to the Lord to re-bend our foundations to His will.

Psalm14:1, “The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none who does good.”

Mankind, as a whole, have all fallen short, have all become corrupt, indeed, there is none who do good. We have allowed secular drift to clog our God communications. Doing a good deed doesn’t mean you are good, there is only One who is good, Matthew 19:16-17, “And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good.…” Think about that, the man asking the question was implying that if he were to do that one good thing which was above other good things, somehow, he would be able to get for himself eternal life. Friends, a life of good deeds not only doesn’t make you a good person, neither does it qualify you for entering in the Kingdom of God. Will God let into Heaven those who do not love Him?

i’m gonna put this out here, without Christ in our hearts, even our good deeds are not good deeds. Without Jesus, who is the sole possessor of righteous goodness in the universe, in our heart, good works are called dead works. There i said it. Isaiah 64:6, “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.”

Friends, be brave to ask the Lord to reveal to you what your inclinations and motivations are, and make the necessary adjustments He reveals to you, not so you can “get it right” but that you would draw closer to Jesus who has given you life, hope, and redemption.

Maybe, just maybe, the most important thing is not sorting things out and labeling what is good or not good, but more the underlying inclination and motivation that prompted the need to draw such a distinction, almost as if it’s too scary to listen to the Holy Spirit about what’s right and wrong. Even to this day, people want a list of do’s and don’ts outlined for them, whereas within our life in Christ, the Lord wants us to follow Him, which is more than just keep a bunch of rules. Surely, in the face of the grace of God, you don’t believe that your well-being and prosperity is derived from your ability to get it right. i didn’t say don’t be obedient, of course, that is a fundamental necessity, but i am addressing something far more foundational, and that is our impulses, our inclinations and motivations which we operate from, our basic beliefs, theology and ideology from which we do life. The Lord is very interested in speaking to us about that stuff. From the beginning to the end, one obvious truth is that God is concerned with the total life of his people, and nothing is beyond his concern, in His eyes, everything matters.

i don’t believe we just have the Lord’s likeness upon us, like eyes, mouth, ears, nose, touch, movement and direction, i believe we also have it within us in that we feel, choose, think, relate, love, hurt, etc, etc.. When the Lord said in Genesis 1:26 that He would make man in His own image and likeness, those are two different words there, meaning it is like a father who has a son, the son has a resemblance to his dad, or an image of him. The son can see, hear, taste, feel, smell, walk and talk like his father. He also reflects his dad, he tends to think, and choose, decide, laugh and be sad like the parent. i guess you get the picture of resemblance and reflection.

Those of us who are in Christ don’t simply have a resemblance to the Lord, but we also possess His reflection, but it is more than simply being able to act, decide, have thoughts and inclinations, it is also the reflection of holiness, righteousness, goodness, peace, hope, and joy. We are inclined like our Heavenly Father. From this it’s easy to see why when someone gloriously declares, “We are all just children of God” it holds no water. Just because we all have the power to breath and choose doesn’t mean we are blood relatives, there must be an inner reflection of Christ for us to be blood relatives, and that requires repentance, believing in our heart, and confessing with our mouth according to Romans 10.

When men try and do ministry with the wrong inclinations and motivations, it is like trying to write on paper and the ink dries on your pen before you’ve made the first letters or lines. It’s just a lot of scratching and scraping….it just doesn’t work. God’s work is first set in our heart as inclination and motivation which He has planted there. From the inclination to right action grows right ministry, and if He has given us His endorsement, He will also make the provision. And on a side note, i don’t believe God asks us to do anything we can do ourselves. Following Christ sets in our heart right inclination and motivation … we gain a Holy Spirit leaning towards acting according to God’s values.

In my heart exists all kinds of inclinations, but the longer i lean into Jesus, the more the tendency to act like the world which fades away, dissolving secular drift….in these latter years of life, more often than ever, i think i almost always lean toward the Lord more than the world, even when i sleep.

2 Corinthians 5:14, “For the love of Christ controls and urges and impels us.…” Ahhh, now we’re down to the matter. Henry Drummond writes that when we function under the impulse of the Holy Spirit, we do God’s bidding without having to think to act to force ourselves to feed the hungry, cover the naked, house the homeless, or love the unloveable….it comes to us like an easy wind blowing through our heart and our service and obedience is peaceful and easily entreated. When we allow ourselves to be available and function under the Holy Spirit impulse, being inclined to follow God like a little lamb follows the shepherd, suddenly we see the need of others because the reflection of Christ is at the right angle, the God-angle, suddenly we see people we didn’t have eyes for yesterday, yet they were there, we are righteously compelled without being urged by some religious doctrine which has been legally impinged upon us.

When we live life in the inclination and motivation of the Lord, life seems more like the way it is supposed to be lived. We don’t think to ourselves that we need to give ourselves a medal for living an extraordinary life when we get home this evening. It feels like life is supposed to feel, alive in the presence of God, in the moment, all day long. God gives us a Holy Spirit-natural-leaning to do the missions of His Heart.

Living life in Christ is like that, and not thinking to take credit for the glory we operate in, is like one fellow said, “It’s like when you look at a mirror, you don’t see the mirror, or even think of it, but only of what it reflects. A mirror never calls attention to itself except when there are flaws in it.”

That’s how i want to live my life. i want to be like that mirror, who’s inclination and motivation is to reflect Jesus, never calling attention to myself, but to always be found pointing to Jesus. i want to live as if that’s not some dream or vision but a real experience any person can live.

In Hebrews 12:2 Paul uses a Greek word for “looking to Jesus” that’s not used anywhere else in the Bible, only there. It’s a two part verb, the first part meaning a separation from the whole, and the second part means to see with the eyes, to see with the mind, to stare at and discern clearly. It is not only a physical action but a mental action both. The Hebrew equivalent means to “experience by perception”, and the more i perceive and see Jesus, the more i become like Him, meaning the more we see Him, the more our lives will gain a natural inclination, a natural leaning to follow after Jesus, the more we follow Him, the more we reflect Him, receiving no attention and gathering no medals of honor to ourselves.

Now, that may not seem to make any sense to some listeners, but let me encourage you to not just trot past that, not giving the idea a second glance, but to let it sit on the back of the stove until the Lord brings it forth and reminds you of things He’s said when you need to know them.

Our inclinations and motivations are also called “intentions”, they are a spark, like the flash of a gem stone, which is more than an inkling which is a hint or a slight knowledge. And what is the nature of a spark? It’s humble, it is small like a little light reflecting occasionally on and off in the darkness. Buried in the Hebrew letters for the words “intention” and “inclination”, it is easy to discover they’re origin is in our imagination as a spark, and as we know, a spark is all we need to start a fire, for good or bad.

In Genesis 50:20, where it says, “meant for evil”, the word “meant” speaks of something which began in the imagination as a spark and was woven together into a larger idea that was acted on, but the whole thing began as a spark that started a fire, and had their hearts not been inclined to do evil, the fire would have never caught. What evil was so flammable in the heart of Israel that the spark in their imagination caused a large scale fire to begin with?

One of my favorite verses in the Bible is Malachi 3:16, “Then those who feared the LORD spoke to one another, And the LORD listened and heard them; So a book of remembrance was written before Him For those who fear the LORD And who meditate on His name.” i just love that verse.

There at the end is the word “meditate” or “thought on His name”. It’s a phrase which also means to imagine things about God. In the word is a humble spark, or inclination and motivation to not only imagine but weave together ideas and to execute what is imagined, like weaving together the reflected light caught from gem stones, and if you caught enough gem stone light and wove it together, you could have a coat of many colors. Now wouldn’t that be amazing? A garment of woven together gem stone reflected light, a heavenly garment born from righteous imagination, triggering our inclinations and motivations, to do the works of the Lord, changing the world around us! i like that vision, so let’s stop right there and say, think about it!

           We who are believers in Christ and are in hot pursuit of God have impulses, inclinations, and motivations in us that should not be a surprise. i’ll speak for myself here, so here goes, i am inclined to read my Bible often to see Jesus better; i am inclined and motivated to kindness, even when i, initially, don’t feel very kind; in my heart is a motivation to help, just in general, just to help and aid those in need; i am not inclined to be combative and defensive much anymore; i am inclined to watch the vision of my heart while using my physical eyes to see the world in front of me, motivated to watch for God’s direction; it is my inclination to see as He sees; i am motivated to engage with others to share the goodness of God with them; i am highly inclined to believe God hears my prayers and will answer; i am inclined to not do things which taint and diminish the honor the Lord has given to me, nor to dishonor and bring demise to those around me.

What or who sparks your imagination, inclinations, and motivations? We become the company we keep, meaning they influence the way we dream, believe, and imagine. Who or what do you allow in your life, adding input to how you lean towards or away from the Lord?

i’m Social Porter and this is Outposts, cool jazz and contemplative conversation, broadcast semi-live from the late evening cascading banks of the Ockluhwahhah River, where the trees gently lean over the river’s edge, and every crystal clear, beautiful evening is pleasant.

Deuteronomy 31:21, “For I know what they are inclined to do even today, before I have brought them into the land that I swore to give.” The Lord knows the things we are inclined to before we know what those things are, long before we begin to weave together a plan of action. In His knowing what we will do before we ever do it, He sets such a course of action to lead us to Himself, that even our imagination, inclinations, and motivations are bent to lean in the accomplishing of His purposes. What a wonderful God we serve!

Be strong and courageous this week, listen with all your heart, the Lord is truly speaking to you. Drive carefully, pray diligently for loved ones and your neighbors….i hope we meet again on the trail of the lonesome pine, to sit by the fire and dream of God, whatever dreams may come. Amen!

Let’s get right to the topic this evening – my guess is there are a lot of people who incur offense at the hands of others, mostly from family, friends, and the occasional stranger – probably, the worst of offenses are aroused by someone close enough to us to really get under our skin. The closer the relationship, the more ridiculously easy it is for us to be offended and suddenly be faced with the wonderful opportunity to become a victim. Oooohhh, and haven’t many of us gotten good at playing our victim and martyr card.

Don’t get me wrong, there are millions of people in this world who are real, honest victims, right this very second, like, right now, and all of us, at some point or another, large or small, long or short, will be victims of something which someone else set in motion.  We like to talk about a “culture of honor”, a “culture of reward”, or a “culture of this-or-that”, but it’s almost as if our nation has also become a “culture of offense”, a “culture of fingerpointers”, and a “culture of victims and martyrs”. i think this nation is, generally, depressed. Consider how many people take sleeping pills just to fall asleep, anti-anxiety and anti-depressant medications, and even additional medications to wake up and somehow live life in the drug haze which drives them. It’s a lot.

Friends, it isn’t possible that we are all victims, at least not all the time, not for everything, but yet multitudes use their victim credentials to prosper themselves or their agenda more than mature thinking and intellectual abilities.

It is amazing, that within the rank and file of the Body of Christ, how many are tempted to gain the approval of the people around them by playing our culture’s offense-taking game. Like the medical student in Oregon who was so offended by a joke, she had to take time off, claimed disability, and then began a law suit. Sometimes i think, if that’s all it takes to offend people so much that they crumble to the ground, then maybe they came to the table primed to be offended before they were ever offended. Maybe they were the penultimate victim before they ever got there, just a willing victim on two legs, waiting for the offense to occur, because surely it will come if we wait long enough.

Offense and being a victim will bow us to the ground, and the weight of it all will bend us down so far we can hear our own backs crack under the weight of offense — and we haven’t even begun to talk about the contagiousness of offense or the victimology of holding an offense. Allowing it to continue in our hearts is like allowing rot to remain in our flesh, and doing nothing about it.

i’m Social Porter and this is Outposts, a semi-live broadcast from the late night cascading shores of the Ockluhwahhah River, where the trees gently lean over and every evening is pleasant. Let’s search our hearts as we briefly begin the discussion about offense, in hopes that we’ll grow up and act like adults in the Kingdom of God, as opposed to being offended, acting out as victims and martyrs, whining, complaining, and snurling our lip at each other.

Just because we don’t like something or we disagree with someone doesn’t necessarily cause us to sin, but living with offense does indeed wound our conscience and create distance between ourselves and God. For the remedy I quote Bob Newhart, “Stop It!” i’ll say it again for those who harbor offenses, “Stop it!” Ask yourself, “Why am i so offended? What’s at the heart of it?”

Yes, it’s true, we have the right to be offended and thus be a victim or martyr if we want to, that’s true. But where does all that go, to what end? Did it draw us closer to God? Why are so many of us seemingly so willing to carry a weight which is not ours to carry? Who required you to carry it? Wasn’t God? Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Do we think that’s only about the burdens of life, or about being discouraged or saddened? It’s also about not being offended and letting it settle in our pockets like a little sand that is completely at home right down at the bottom in the seam. At first offense is in the bottom of our pockets like a little lint. But over time, if allowed to remain, it seems to grow like fungus in the dark, and next thing you know your pockets are full of horrible things which were never intended to be there.

Offense sets in the craw of so many fellowships it has driven many to close their doors and terminate fruitful relationships. It is like pride, it will drive the laughter from our hearts, it will cause us to slit our eyes to see only what we want to see, cause our ears to hear only what we want to hear, and will change the song in our hearts to the braying of a donkey.

This is no small thing. We are offended at wrong doctrine, we are offended that someone didn’t take our suggestions, we’re offended that leadership didn’t tell someone to be quiet, we’re offended because our friends tell us their boundaries in the event we are inappropriate, we’re offended if we aren’t given the ministry we think we should have, we’re offended if someone is honest with us, we’re offended if someone isn’t honest with us, we’re offended at what some people wear to church, or don’t wear to church. Often, we are even offended because someone is offended.

One time, i noticed the woman on my left was breathing hard and had a sneer on her face. Being adventurous, i whispered to her asking what was wrong. She whispered back saying with real venom and a sneer, “That woman over there! Just look at her shoes!” i casually looked and what i saw was a young woman wearing open toed high heels with a strap that criss-crossed around up her calves to just under her knee. i whispered to the woman, “What’s wrong with that?” She said with dripping contempt, “They’re hooker shoes! It’s just not right to wear shoes like that to church!!” i mean she was really upset and offended. i had to chuckle, and then i laughed, and then she was offended at me too. Shortly, with contempt on her face, she left in a huff, glaring at the pastor and his wife, like they had anything to do with anything.

What’s really at the heart of offense? Can we be honest, transparent, and vulnerable enough to get to the root of our offense? It takes courage, honesty, and a willingness to resolve. And while we’re at it, why, oh why do we have such a difficult time being honest with ourselves about ourselves? i mean think about it. We tell ourselves all sorts of stuff that is just so complicated in the long run, when the truth would have been so much simpler.

Being offended seems to make it very much all about ourselves you know…it seems like a selfish way to dominate others…. the bottom line being to assert our personal power. If someone “makes” you mad, the truth is YOU are making the choice to be mad. If someone, supposedly, “makes” you feel inadequate, YOU are allowing it. Or if someone “makes” you feel dumb, it’s not them, they aren’t that powerful, YOU doubt yourself. How is it we allow anyone to be so powerful in our lives that they can, with only a few words, “make” us think that way about ourselves?

Here is a quote from David A. Bednar, “Certainly clumsy, embarrassing, unprincipled, and mean-spirited things do occur in our interactions with other people that would allow us to take offense. However, it ultimately is impossible for another person to offend you or to offend me. Indeed, believing that another person offended us is fundamentally, false. To be offended is a choice we make; it is not a condition inflicted or imposed upon us by someone or something else.” We, the church, tell people we are rock solid, but it just seems like we are so available to hold an offense.

Maybe rather than think so much about why so-and-so is so offensive, it would be better to consider what it is within ourselves that causes us to have such resentful displeasure towards that person.

i was asked to do worship at a church once, and the pastor approached me saying, ““Please, just keep it calm and even, nothing over the top. We just don’t want to offend anyone.” Oh, so, that was it, someone, somewhere might be offended. Well, what doesn’t at least offend somebody? Someone, somewhere is going to be offended about something, somehow so there is no point in trying to be so spineless and colorless that no one is offended.

A woman once told me that i breathed too loud and it really bothered her. She said, with all piousness, that she would be happier if i’d stop. i thought to myself, “Does she mean she’s offended if i breath and she’d be happier if i stopped breathing? Why did she feel it was so important that i know about her displeasure?” And that is another point: Why do we feel it is so important that we need to make sure the other person knows we are offended? Do we somehow think the person we have deemed offensive will suddenly say, “Oh, you are so right. i’m being very offensive and i need to stop.”???

Dick Cavet once wrote, “What is our obligation to those who are offended? What? To help them limit their suffering by avoiding all offense? With what advice?” Most of the time the person or persons we’ve taken offense with don’t even know they have done anything which offended anyone.

Mr. Cavet went on to say, “You could stay in the house, watch no TV, read nothing of any kind including potentially upsetting snail mail or e-mail, and you just might manage to glide through an offense-free day. No surly neighbor, no near-misses by unpunished, demented, sidewalk-riding cyclists, no cab driver letting other cabs in ahead of yours while distractedly nattering on his phone in some unknown language. Stay cocooned and you will risk no insults from rude waiters, no pain from gruff clerks, no snarls from any employees of United Airlines.”

Listen, being hurt is actually easier than being right. To prove we’re offended we just have to dig up some moral indignation and then stomp off in a justified indignant huff. But to prove we’re right we actually have to make arguments and use logic and gather evidence. Why debate theology or politics if you can win your audience by making the other person look mean and cruel?

And how has our culture of offense taught us to deal with offense?  When i asked a man this question, he said, “We’ve learned to demand apologies and make snide, belittling remarks attacking the other person. Often we demand apologies just because we can. It’s a way to shame those with whom we disagree. It forces the other person to admit failure or keep looking like a weasel while we figure a different way to make them pay. Even the weakest offense-taker can bully multitudes of intelligent men and women through the emotional manipulation that goes with offendedness.” What is more amazing to me is that when that same offense-taker surfaces to complain to someone in leadership, without doing any real conflict resolution, they join hands with the offense-taker to continue the manipulation of others, and then feel smugly justified they have done the right thing.

If any of us carries an offense and we’re like a cocked gun just waiting to go off, chances are the ease with which we’re offended dates back many years to something totally unrelated to the present offense. Oh bother, what will we do? We won’t get far with Jesus until we allow Him to seriously and consistently address our readiness to be offended.

Taking offense has become something of an unspoken right in our country. One fellow wrote that, “If you see something, anything, that strikes you as unsavory, take it as personally as possible and sound off as loud as you can.”

In John 5 there was a man laying by the pool of Bethesda, who had had a sickness or disease for a long time. It was the Sabbath and Jesus broke the law of the Pharisee’s by healing the man. As a result, the Pharisee’s were so offended that vs 16 says, “…therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to kill him, because he had done these things on the sabbath day.” Not only did they persecute Him, but they looked for a way to kill Him, they were so offended they actually wanted to kill him. When Jesus said in vs 18, “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working”, they became so, SO offended, they worked even harder to kill him.

To “hold an offense” is a purposeful thing, it can be let go of, but somehow the one who is offended feels there is some payoff to not resolving the conflict. Ask yourself, “What is my payoff if i retain my offense?” If you can’t quite bring yourself to resolve it, what is the payoff? Is it personal power? Pride? What is it which constrains you?

In Luke 13:11 there was a woman who had an infirmity and was bent to the ground. Of course, i take it literally that she had a debilitating condition, but “infirmity” is also a word used of “moral imperfection”, but the most common use is translated as “sickness” or “infirmity”. But let’s see it another way. Could it be, as a metaphor for being bent under the weight of offense? There is nothing which actually says what, exactly, the problem was, but i would say regardless, she could possibly be viewed as a picture of how we look when we are willing to carry an offense around. Bowed to the ground, bent and all gnarled up, miserable, and discouraged. Is it really worth the burden? i say, if you don’t have to carry the burden, then lay it down. If you don’t have to go around like a cocked gun looking for ammunition for the purposes of simply needing to draw blood somehow, is it profitable?

i’ve decided over the years of dealing with my own offense-ready attitude that there are often four faces of offense:

1. Number of offenses: We might forgive some, but are not prone to forgive with much repetition.
2. The number of offenders. We may pardon one or a few, but the greater the number of offenders the less inclined we are to forgive.
3. Kind of offense: We limit or control what sort of offenses are forgiven. As long as it doesn’t cost us much and it would be to our advantage, we are mostly willing to forgive.
4. The degree of offense: We’ll forgive an offense if it is small enough to not be of any injury to ourselves, but then that also depends on how sensitive we are and what mood we’re in.

There are even what i call “Friends of Offense”, which are like pride, bitterness, or depression as examples. They come to visit but then won’t leave, and the more they stay, the more entrenched they become. Friends, the four faces of offense is a topic all in itself. The Lord bids us to let offense go, stop holding on to it as if you’re justified, when really, it is a vindictive, controlling spirit we are practicing, and there is no part of the Lord in that.

How have your own hasty actions and sharp words caused offense? Funny how when we act that way we justify to ourselves how the other person deserved what they got. We say, “I am right to complain and be offended!” At that, in the past, the Lord has posed me a question, “Who do you think you are? Who made you Holy Ghost Jr, that you do the very things others do, but yet they are offensive and you are justified?” Ouch! He was right, sometimes i do have that attitude, mercy for me and justice for you.

How have you been offended by peoples actions? Was it really them who did or said something to you that made you react with indignation and offense? Are other’s truly that powerful that they can make you react poorly? And after you react so very poorly, are you going to be responsible for your behavior, or will you do what some do which is “blow it off until it all blows up” and then with further indignation, question “how could this be happening to me?” or loudly say, “How dare you speak to me that way!”

It is my responsibility to not allow offense to find any traction in my heart or mind. It is my responsibility to call it what it is, and not rename my attitude with something a little softer sounding rather than being honest about what is really going on with me. It is my responsibility to work to resolve the issues. If you’re waiting for the other person to chase you down and ask why you’re offended, and have removed yourself to a distance away from them, you might very well be waiting a long time. You know, we can be honest and transparent, but if we’re not also vulnerable, then we’re still the brick wall we wish we weren’t. Without vulnerability, we are unavailable for anyone to speak into our lives.

Friends, there are too many things which have been left to stand which should have never been allowed to stand. If we build a wall to keep out offensive people, not only have we walled them out, but we have also walled ourselves in, and we must be brave to tear our barriers down. We need to be bridge builders, not fence makers. Now that does not supersede good boundaries, nor is it a reason to NOT defend ourselves from those who would harm us. There is a reason we lock our windows and doors, just like there’s a good reason we don’t allow some people in our lives. But if we do have fences, they need to be there for the right reasons, and excluding people because we are offended is NOT a good reason.

Understanding what is in our own heart and owning our attitudes and actions is a key to learning how to NOT be offended, afterall, unresolved conflict could easily lead to losing our direction with God. Look at Absalom, he was offended, he sowed strife and division, and led astray an entire group of people who were of the same mind …. his followers literally fed off of his critical and offended spirit.  It wasn’t long before Absalom led a revolt to try and begin a kingdom which would be built on the foundation of offense. Hmmm, that’s ugly! How many churches have incurred a split born out of offense, and the offended ones went off to start another church, a church built on offense. Do we think that’ll work in the long run? And if it won’t work for a nation or a church, why do we think living with unresolved conflict will work for us? Think about it.

This has been a very pointed discussion, but a necessary one and i hope we’ll all take it to heart and think about how to resolve our offenses, some which seem so dear to us. Yes, that’s right, some of us have pet offenses which we seem to keep well watered and fed. Many of us even tuck our pet offenses in at night to make sure they are comfortable.

Ask yourself though, is God offended? If anyone in the universe ever had all the rights imaginable to be offended, it would have been Jesus. But rather than harbor offense, He died for our sins that we would have the power to cease carrying the burden of offense and the arrogant, self-important, self-justification that comes in the door with it all.

Offense is like pride, it will drive the laughter from our hearts, it will cause us to slit our eyes to see only what we want to see, cause our ears to hear only what we want to hear, and will change the song in our hearts to the braying of a donkey.

Drop your throwing stones and rest in Jesus, it’s much easier than carrying around the weight of offense, and it does have weight you know, an ever-increasing weight. Let go man, resolve it and let it go! Today is a great time to begin the path of resolve! Drive carefully, and pray earnestly for your neighbor, and i’ll talk to you next time. There’s a big amen at the end there. So Amen.

          Wisdom. We won’t get far without it.

          Wisdom is a deep understanding and realization resulting in the ability to choose to produce the optimum results, it is the comprehension of what is true and right coupled with right judgment; wisdom is the foundation of our morals, ethics, principles, reason and knowledge and is the fountain of what determines our actions in life.

We need wisdom in war, wisdom in administrative affairs, wisdom in personnel management, wisdom in spiritual matters, wisdom in moral, ethical, and our principles. If you think you’ve got enough wisdom, then obviously you don’t have enough. Wisdom is like water, it is a vital ingredient in everything on earth. The value of wisdom, according to Proverbs 3:1-6 is above all else. Its value cannot be correlated or matched to anything that any breathing person could own. Wisdom is one of the most needed gifts in the lives of believers as well as non-believers, but yet it is the most difficult gift to find within our nation, and many times, especially even in the Body of Christ. And i use the word “especially” because we, the people, are connected directly to the source of wisdom by the blood of Jesus Christ, but it seems we possess so little of the wisdom of God which is available to us for the asking. Oh yes, “for the asking” is correct. The Lord wants us to join Him in the pursuit of excellence, and we have to be interested enough in a relationship with Him in order to possess it.

Why don’t we respond to God’s offer to give us wisdom? It’s not that it’s in short supply, but maybe it’s more because we don’t search for it, and maybe there’s a lot of folks who don’t have the wisdom to even know they need it. Mankind has always searched for a “quick fix” or a short cut to their problems, settling for a band-aid, of sorts, to resolve their dilemma, but, often, we’re not pursuing God for wisdom which would solve our problems at it’s core.

i believe our answers are frequently right in front of us, but without wisdom, which God alone holds close to His heart, we walk right over our answers, looking everywhere else, finding no help, never realizing, for lack of wisdom, the solution is in front of us. That reminds me of a man searching for gold, and all day long he searches, walking up and down, eyes on the ground and he finds nothing, not realizing that he’s been walking over it all along, not realizing it’s within the grasp of his fingers but he has no clue as to what he’s seeing. Only God can open our eyes to see, and without His gift of seeing and recognizing, we all too easily think, “There’s nothing here” and we go off empty handed.

In our modern society, it appears that wisdom has been replaced by scientific knowledge, and the practice of relying on observation and experiment alone. At what point will mankind realize the value of wisdom rather than living by observation and experiment? When we crash and burn? But by then our lack of wisdom will be a regret as an “after the fact” realization. 1 Corinthians 2:5 “That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.”

Is Godly wisdom a thing to value or devalue, does it depreciate? Is wisdom a set of rules to live by, or a vague ideology? Is it a bias which plays favorites? No, wisdom is first before character and authority. Wisdom is available from God to any, who look for it. James 1:5 “If any lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.” God is the sole source of wisdom in the universe, so the value of wisdom is the value of God Himself and He is of infinite value, as are all His attributes. “Infinite” meaning His attributes have no left, right, no top or bottom, not front or back, they are infinite.

Having wisdom is one of the benefits of knowing God, and without wisdom, how are any of us different than the rocks?  Real wisdom is a living person, not a commodity to get at the store, and who is the personification of wisdom? 1 Cor 1:24 says, “… Christ the power and the wisdom of God.” Colossians 2:2-3 “… and of Christ; In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”

So here is something beautiful to ponder: With every encounter with Jesus Christ, there is a revealing of His life that enables us to be as He is. You cannot see Him without being changed by Him!  Whether it is His divine nature, His truth or His wisdom and counsel or His goodness, power and authority. What is revealed to us is imparted to us. It’s like water, you can’t jump in the river without getting wet, nor can you be in His presence without being changed. It is the giving away of His person that has the power to transform our lives, and one of His leading attributes is wisdom.

Call to God for wisdom, ask Him for wisdom. What have any of us got to lose when the King of the universe offers us, for free, the very thing we need for living today, wisdom. Have you got any? Get more, we need all we can get.

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!

Love

 In a 1985 Grammy award-winning song written by Terry Britten and Lyle Graham, as performed by Tina Turner, took the airwaves by storm… “What’s love got to do, got to do, got to do with it? What’s love but a second-hand emotion.” i can remember when i first heard it on the radio. i was in Charlotte, N.C., riding somewhere in the heat of the day tapping my foot to a tune with a catchy lyric and beat. In my mind jumped the thought, “What do they mean, “what’s love got to do with it? It’s got everything to do with everything.” i remember thinking that surely someone with a bitter and disappointed heart must have written those lyrics in order for them to think love was a secondhand emotion. Maybe that was the point.

If you buy something “second hand” you’re buying used goods. But maybe another angle on what the song is talking about is, feeling something you’ve felt before, nothing went right, and it’s not so special anymore. Or it’s possibly saying, for women who are abused, what does love have to do with letting someone treat you like that? Many women stay in abusive relationships claiming that they “love him”, yet they keep being there where the other person is causing emotional and physical harm. What’s love got to do with the decision to stay in something like that? i wonder, is that really love as God intended it as a fruit of the Spirit, just something which keeps you chained, or only something you felt before and now it’s not so special? Nope, that’s not the Lord’s heart at all.

Today, i think to myself, “second hand emotion? Really?!” Is that all it is to so many, just an emotion, feelings, nothing more than feelings? What a silly idea to think love is just a bystander at a bus stop somewhere and then has to sit at the back like some insignificant thing, a secondhand emotion only worthy of minor mention when nothing else is going on.

Fruit of the Spirit. Love. Is it really a secondhand emotion, and more importantly, is it merely an emotion, a feeling? How can something which is sometimes considered “second hand” according to worldly standards, be a top priority with God and necessary for the repair of the universe?

The three fountains of God’s heart are love, joy, and peace. He oozes all three at a steady rate throughout the universe, consistent and repeatable in a continual outpouring.

We all want love, need love. Always looking for love, and when we find it we drink it in like greedy, hungry souls. We want to talk about love but often can’t find the words to feel as though we’ve expressed ourselves well. For some, “;ove” is a form of money paid for work or service that apparently justifies treating someone unfairly in order to benefit from their work. Love, in our society, is often another English word we’ve used everywhere, so often, it seems to have lost its value.

i want to know what God has to say. i think it’s more important than anything else in the universe and more valuable than all important worldly things combined.

People the world over love all kinds of things. Issac loved savory meats in Genesis 27:4, some love pleasure according to Proverbs 21:17, yet others love silver, money, gifts, and attention. Hollywood has proven, that to many, if people give you their attention it must mean they love you, and all that attention is such an addiction, many will do anything for it. Some even say they love death, but having never been dead, i doubt they know what their talking about.

There are righteous things to love also. As Example, Love the Lord with all your living, breathing, and feeling, love righteousness, justice, the truth, and peace to name a few. In Psalm 45, the writer says God loves righteousness and hates wickedness, and in Psalm 52, David accuses another man of loving evil more than good and loving lying rather than speaking righteousness.

Some say they “love”, what they call “their work” because it pays well, it’s emotionally satisfying, and pleasurable. For others, the goal is not to find work they “love”, but to make enough money to not have to work at all, then, yes then they will love what they do. Maybe.

We love a multitude of things in this world. For me, i love to chew, i just love good food and good conversation. i love the smell of fresh cut grass, cool evenings, sunrise and sunset, the deep woods, the smell of freshly turned soil, fragrant flowers, my wife, giggling children, little girls’ eyes, April showers, and the turning of the seasons. i love them all, but does my use of the word love actually mean the same thing as love in the sense of loving God? It’s just a four-letter word in English, and as i said, we throw it around like we’re fertilizing the lawn, but often, it does not mean the same thing twice.

i must ask myself then, what do i love, and what exactly is this thing God calls “love” and tells us in Galatians 5:22 it is the fruit of our life in Christ, one of the elements of how we know we are in the fellowship of the saints? Is it the same love for the rising sun as it is looking at the sunlight in my wife’s hair. Is it the same as loving Jesus for my salvation?

i believe we must be clear on what love actually is or else we will find ourselves lost in the pursuit of it, thereby losing our resolve. You know, we can pursue something so ardently for so long, we actually lose sight of what we’re doing it all for, if you know what i mean. When we chase after something without an understanding what it is we are chasing, it easily loses substance and effortlessly morphs into other pursuits. Some would call that rabbit trailing. Many times the Lord uses “love” as a verb, but my friends, it is more than a verb. To God, it is also a noun. To only leave it as an action item is a dangerous oversimplification in that if we reduce love to solely something we feel, we will miss love for what it is, at its source. i don’t know this, but i suspect by love only being made a verb, it will likely make us Pharisees, meaning we can talk and act loving without actually loving, like kindness without compassion is duplicitous, love without devotion, mercy, and grace is deceit.

1 John 3:18, “My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.” We can appear to be fulfilling that scripture without actually fulfilling that scripture, that’s what i mean by saying, “It will likely make us Pharisees” if we only see love as a verb.

The kind of love the Lord is and speaks of is glory, the radiant weight of His presence. As Viktor Frankl stated when in the middle of an exceptionally difficult external situation, “…even the angels are lost in the perpetual contemplation of an infinite glory.”

1 Corinthians 13:13, “And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

Love, as the fruit of the Spirit, is the core standard. It is God’s core standard, and all His operating procedures springboard from His love, and if we are in Christ then it must be our core standard also. i realize the world has a pretty different idea of love. i suppose almost everyone has their own tailored version of what they think love is. But let’s be honest, as long as the idea of love is up to us, based on our experience, it’s always going to be just another worldly definition. Friends, we need a better standard than our own self-determined idea of what drives the universe. Romans 5:5, “Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”

That He poured love out on us makes the Lord the right standard. God owned love before anyone else which, to me, makes its very essence exclusively His to give.

1 John 4:10, “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

i don’t believe that we would love anyone or anything if the Lord didn’t love us first. Oh sure, we may have some big-time feelings about someone or something, but the real deal, deep abiding, living love toward God would not have been possible without Jesus Christ. If He didn’t love us, then we wouldn’t be able to love Him. Because He gave it, then we get it, and if He didn’t give it, then we don’t get it. It’s pretty simple i think. Jesus is the answer, He is always the answer, and there’s never a time He’s not the answer, which is why all things come to rest at the feet of the Son. The love of God, as demonstrated by Jesus, is the crown of everything. His love is universe changing, demon defeating, earth re-polarizing, disease healing, and relationship repairing. Jesus is love and love is the answer of all answers, both noun and verb altogether.

The world says love is an intense feeling of deep affection, but oh, how far short that is. Again, the world’s definition is from a worldly point of view and leaves God out of the picture, but when we add the Lord into the picture to get a better view, the world’s idea falls drastically short.

Everything our society does seems to be based on right and wrong, and then, ultimately, someone wants to debate what is right and what is wrong. Just like every other fruit of the Spirit, we must look above our feelings, over the top of the pulpit to see God Almighty as the standard and definition.

i recently heard a man say we need to change our thinking from the basis of right and wrong to being near God or far from God. When we are near the Lord He influences all we say and do, but the farther we get from Him the more the influence of a fallen world inserts itself. Love is not a narrow legal system of right and wrong. All our conduct and decision-making needs to be God-based righteousness, not judgment-based right and wrong. As long as we do all things based on right and wrong we are still doing the Law. Does that make sense? i mean, i get it, but i’m not sure i’m saying it well enough.

Either way, with God in the picture, love, as a noun and verb, is like medicine given or taken to counteract a particular poison, and to me, that poison is iniquity, transgression, sin, and death. Too many seem to think love is contractual, a list of agreements, do’s and don’ts, but once again it is much larger than that.

Let’s look at the actual word itself because we really need to better understand what it is we’re chasing after.

The root Hebrew word for love is a verb and is used 208 times with its first mention in Genesis 22:2 of Abraham’s son “whom he loved”. It means to have affection for someone such that we breathe after the object of our affection, with that breathless devotion and kindness being like fragrant flowers whose bouquet fills the air of every breath we take. That is SO important, here it is again: Love, from God’s perspective is to have affection for someone such that we breathe after the object of our affection, with that breathless devotion and kindness being like fragrant flowers whose bouquet fills the air of every breath we take. Now, you’ve gotta admit, that is a long, long way from Merriam-Webster Dictionary. More than a few times in my life i’ve been in the weighty presence of God and smelled intense flowers, grapes, and vanilla, we all did who were there. Jesus is love – love healed the sick and lame, love raised the dead, love was kind to the desperate and the leprous, and gave His face to mankind, looking us right in the eyes for the first time ever. That says to me, with love as a fruit of the Spirit, we should be a sweet fragrance everywhere we go. It should be the way we are, not just something we do or feel. Like God, we must be both noun AND verb altogether because Love from God’s perspective is both a noun AND a verb, at the same time. The Father gave us the door of the cross to enter into His love. The first three letters of the Hebrew alphabet tell the story of love: The Father (aleph), sent His Son (beit), and by means of the Holy Spirit (gimel), makes an appeal to the poor and needy to receive the Love of God.

Isaiah 38:17, “… But You have lovingly delivered my soul from the pit of corruption, For You have cast all my sins behind Your back.” Interestingly, Isaiah uses a different word for love than in other places.

His word for love literally means that with God-love in our hearts and as expressed to others, it is not bound by law, but is free to walk in and out, filled to running over with divine grace and holiness, and right in the middle, in the belly of the word, is a prayerful rainbow. Love crowns us with the sword of the Spirit and decides it is fitting to be generous to run after the poor; it is uninterrupted and thrives in perpetual faithfulness. Love is more than feelings of affection, it is a covenant word. Love is the sound you make before you make a sound, it is giving of ourselves to others, reflecting kindness, compassion, and grace all through the house. And hidden in the Hebrew word for Love is Mercy, grace, and hope for there is always the opportunity to return.

As a verb, you can see the action is in our heart posture toward God. The action of the verb is to reflect love. As a fruit of the Spirit is about character and action, so is the heart of the Father about character and action. The noun for love is the same spelling except there is the Hebrew letter Hei added at the end, meaning loves’ intent of grace makes opportunity for those who have wandered off to come home. That’s so good i want to say it again, and maybe you could say it with me so your ears can hear what your mouth is saying. Loves’ intent of grace makes opportunity for those who have wandered off, to come home

Do you have real love in your life? If not, remember, the longer we walk with Jesus, the more apparent He becomes, and the more apparent He becomes the more we become like Him. 1 John 4:17, “Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.”

Stop arguing with your lack and turn God’s love loose to flow where it will. As long as we try and control how God applies His love, where and to whom, we will be the encumbrance against revival and renewal we so desperately look for.

Matthew 11:28, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

It is the motivation of Love to lift the burden of those who hoist the white flag of surrender and persuade those who have not yet abdicated their fortifications to come home singing the songs of returning to God. The source of love isn’t dependent on the loveableness of the one loved but on the one doing the loving. God’s love is not performance-based, we can’t be obedient or good enough to deserve it or obtain it. 1 John 5:12, “So, whoever has the Son, has life; whoever rejects the Son, rejects life.”

We can’t “good” our way into Heaven, no more than we can “bad” our way into hell. The position of mankind and eternity is based on our acceptance or rejection of the Love of God. The Lord gives it and it’s up to us to receive it, letting Him live His standard of love right out loud.

Love sets forth a vision of the ideal life which is characterized by mercy, grace, and hope. Did you know that the three elements of hope are direction, goal, and purpose?Well, love possesses the same three attributes, and how is that? Because the word for “hope” is hidden within the word for love. Love visits and heals the sick, gives to the poor, and offers hospitality to strangers. You know, i believe the Lord is the most hospitable person in the universe. He is THE definition of love, He is both noun and verb altogether. i believe, as Christians, we should be the most hospitable people on earth because of who first loved us. Love buries the dead as a mercy, and makes peace between God, ourselves, and others; Love is the ultimate reason for conflict resolution, and man oh man, do we have lots of conflict which needs resolving.

A quote from John Piper’s book “Desiring God”, “Love is the overflow of joy in God that gladly meets the needs of others” Now there, that is something we can get our hands around. An overflow of joy in Christ that gladly meets the needs of others suggests love is so much more than just intense feelings of affection. Everything the Lord does is right— the trademark on all his work is love, and according to Romans 13:10, love IS the fulfillment of the law, not abolished but fulfilled. Here, i’m going to draw a very distinct line, 1 John 4:8, very plainly states that the person who does not love does not know God, for God is love. The Lord our God IS, once again, the very best definition of love.

John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

The key phrase there is “God so loved the world, that”.

Just today i read something along the same lines in my thinking of love as not only a verb, but also a noun, THE noun of all nouns.

Even for those who feel they have no hope, God’s love can enter in and persuade that person to realize their lives are not ones of no consequence, there are no spare people in the Kingdom of God. The Love of God says “You matter, you are important, so much so that Jesus died for you.” If we need to be more important than that, we delude ourselves that we need MORE, that God’s love is somehow not enough, which is never true. The Lord is SO confident in His ability to love us back from the brink of destruction, that He staked the life of Jesus on His confident love. Amen, and think about it.

John 13:34, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”

Ok, so check it out! A little lesson in grammar is to follow. Don’t let it throw you, just roll with it.

Jesus is speaking in John 13:34, as seen in “I give”, which is 1st person singular, present, active, indicative, meaning there is only one person speaking, the time is in the now, the Lord is the one taking the action, and what He’s saying is a fact, so pay attention.

The next important phrase is “you love one another”, which is plural, present, active, subjunctive, meaning not just a few but all of you, the time frame is in the now, you yourselves are the ones taking action, and in your action of love there are possibilities and potentials born. Let’s take the next important phrase, “I have loved”, which is aorist, active, indicative. Aorist, meaning the time frame is without regard to past, present, or future, Jesus is saying He is the one who took action, and again, He’s stating a fact that He Has Loved Us with no regard to the past present or future and it’s a fact, forever. Lastly, we come to “love one another”, which is plural, present, active, subjunctive, meaning not just a few but all of you, it is now, now, now, we are the ones doing the action, and it is filled with possibilities and potential. Do you get it? What Jesus is telling us is that if we will love everyone else as He loves us, giving of ourselves with passionate reckless abandon, breathing after others as He pursued us, if we’ll do it every day in the now, now, now, now … there are windows of endless opportunity, grace rainbows, and fragrant mercy flowers of potential and possibility that will come out of it all, we will be blessed and God will be glorified.

Do you get it? Play that again and get your head around that. It is huge and life-changing.

1 John 4:16-17, “And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.”

i love that, “…as He is so are we in this world”. You know, i think many folks just think that’s too good to be true. We’re so stuck on being no better than just an old sinner, we seem to never rise above being a sinner, and we spend our time thinking and worrying about being a sinner, regardless of what God says about us. Ok, you can be a sinner if you want, but what about the rest of what God says? Sadly, i think most of us know more about what we are not, what we don’t, won’t, and can’t than about who God says we are, what He says we do and will be. i have spent so many years of my life being less than the Lord says i am, and honestly, it hasn’t gone well. Friends, as Cody says, i didn’t come this far to only come this far!

In light of that fact, i’m going to try seeing myself like He does, “as Jesus is, so am i in this world.” If the one who abides in love abides in God, then i’m going to believe i’m abiding in Christ, whether i feel like it or not, after all, Jesus is abiding in the Father, and as He is so am i in this world. Love has been perfected among us, Jesus is love and He is abiding in the Father, then as He is so am i in this world. How would your life be different if you tried not working your way to Heaven and simply took the Lord at His word? God went to a LOT of trouble to make a way for you and i, all the way to the shedding of His blood, maybe it’s high time we take Him up on His love that He’s extended to us. Do you get me? Amen.

This has been one of the nine feathers on one wing of The Dove. The Holy Spirit is seen as a dove in Luke 3:22, and on each wing, there are nine primary feathers, nine fruits of the Spirit on one wing, and nine gifts of the Spirit on the other.

This evening’s topic is love, God’s love that has been shed abroad in our hearts, He is both noun and verb altogether, the breathless passion who pursued us all the way to Calvary. His love is the fragrant fields of singing flowers, the long harmonizing notes of the wind in the tree tops. Whether you believe it or not, God’s love in your life is rising, like the early morning light … at first, it’s barely noticeable, but as it brightens, shadows give shape to the landscape until Love blinds you like a spotlight.

Thanks for joining me, drive carefully, let God’s love do what it does best, truly… love has everything to do with everything since the beginning. Amen.

          i had a dream where i went to a friends house. As i pulled into his driveway the first thing i noticed was that his house was surrounded by a tall wooden fence, high enough that you couldn’t hardly see anything of even the roof except the peak. i went to the gate, which had a buzzer and intercom, pressed the buzzer and told him i was there. In a moment, the gate unlocked. When i stepped through the gate, inside was another gate with a buzzer and intercom. There were many gates in a short space before i got to the front door. When he finally opened the front door he glanced around outside as if he was checking to see if anyone else was watching and let me inside. In the dream, from the front and back windows i could see his yard was a series of fences and gates. i thought why, oh why is there so much fencing, and fencing inside the fencing, mostly hiding nothing? When i asked him why all the extreme fencing, he said it was nobody’s business what was inside. i thought to myself, “But there’s nothing to hide but hiding itself.” As i woke up the Lord gave me a revelation. i realized his ardent fencing was built out of fear, fear that if anyone saw inside his yard they might use it against him, fear of shame, fear someone might “know” something. i thought to myself that truthfully speaking, there was nothing to know, and fear was driving all his constant guarding.

You know, i’ve discovered the hard way that we can be a friend to someone, even if they don’t let you in the gate, but it’s pretty impossible to have a relationship with them. As they sit inside their highly guarded, nearly insurmountable fence or wall, yes, we can talk to them through the boundary, pass notes back and forth, and even toss food and water to them over the top, but in the end, it is very, very limited, and totally controls any real connection, if any connection. We need to connect, meaning we must let God tear down the walls and fences of our own construction. i did NOT say boundaries were NOT good, because they are, they are God’s invention and even God has boundaries, obviously. But our constant walling out of the Lord and the very people we need in order to prosper in our efforts to secure life, and have it more abundantly, is driven by woundedness, and fears of all sorts. All the while, we sit in sustained, abject loneliness while feeling falsely secure behind our fencing, secretly wishing we could be free. We need to connect. Some are so dedicated to their fences, the term “immurement” comes to mind. Immurement literally means “walling in”, and is a form of imprisonment, in which a person is placed within an enclosed space with no exits, and if it’s allowed to persist, the prisoner will simply die from starvation or dehydration. It can be spiritual as well as physical.

Going to church is good, but is it really, truly, enough of a connection? When scripture says, Forsake not the gathering together of yourselves in Heb10:25, it doesn’t mean merely “go to church”, as we’ve been taught… it means to connect, and i mean for more than just 10mins before and after. The Lord didn’t make a law out of going to church in that scripture, we did. We’re the ones who made a law out of it all, yet we don’t make room for the real connections we need …and connecting takes time and maybe even courage. God is telling us to get ourselves to a group of like-minded people where we can freely express ourselves, be open and disclosing, and connect. Maintaining a complex fencing system denies us the connections we so desperately need, and i don’t care how tough you think you are, you can’t successfully do life unto the Lord, hidden behind your fences.

And what if we’ve been hurt by someone’s callous religiousness? Let me say that it’s bound to happen. Some people feel it’s their job to make sure others are compliant with the rules, and boy, do they love to tell people about all their rule breaking. In light of that, here comes the idea of “moral superiority” which inspires others to put up more fencing. “They’ve” been to church every time the doors are open and they really feel the need to ask, “i’ve been noticing you’ve not been here much. Why haven’t you been here?” “i’ve noticed you drink a beer occasionally, don’t you know it’s a s-i-n to drink?” “i’ve noticed you have some worldly music in your car. Where is God in your life?” “i’ve noticed you don’t bring your Bible sometimes. i thought you were a Christian.”

Regardless of those who feel obligated to make sure others are “fixed and complying” with some unspoken rules, we can look past them and address what’s going on with ourselves. We need to connect. Ever hear of stonewalling? It is a persistent refusal to communicate or to express emotions. It is common during conflicts, or when people attempt to avoid uncomfortable conversations out of fear that engaging will result in a fight, or someone will know something and use it against them. When we allow our fences to not only keep other scary people out, they also serve to keep us in. Every fence has two sides you know. Come out of your fenced in area you’ve built. God is calling you to connect. You think you’re gifted? You probably are, but, my friend, you can’t give away what you’ve got unless you are there to give it away. i’ll say it again, we can be a friend to someone, even if they don’t let you across the fence, but it is pretty impossible to have a relationship with them.

What do you think?