It is by the intense, persistent pursuit of Christ we come into the call
and anointing to heal, prophecy, and raise the dead; not by our incessant surrounding ourselves with people who have something we want. Christ alone is our source, not men. No mere man or woman ever has the power to deliver, save, heal, or change not one hair of their head or yours. Christ alone is the beginning and end, the sole source of power and authority. Christ alone. Anointing is not gotten by holding my mouth right, not by eating the right food or saying the right words like an incantation of sorts, or by much speaking; it’s not gotten by cavorting with the dead like laying on someone’s grave to absorb the attributes of a dead man, or dreaming ourselves into a position of authority; we can’t sneak our way to anointing, cheat our way to it, sublime or smooth talk it into our possession. The anointing to heal the sick, cast out demons and raise the dead are by the power of Christ alone. If your getting your spiritual power somewhere else by another means, it’s the wrong place friends. Christ alone and none other is our source of power, authority, hope, and redemption. It is by the intense, persistent pursuit of Christ that we come into power and anointing.

Psalm 63:8, “My soul follows hard after You Lord: Your right hand upholds me.”

My soul follows hard after Jesus, which, for me, that speaks of a very earnest desire and a serious, vigorous endeavor to keep up my communion with God. If i can’t always have God in an encircling grip, at the very least i’ve got to always have him in close eyesight, my hands always reaching towards Him as my prize.

Are you hard after the Lord, or do you just float along, attending church, listening with half an ear and making sure the kids are occupied? Sometimes maybe you briefly greet a few recognized faces, but maybe the truth is you’re more generally just staying busy with something that’s not bad for you or your house, but really, you’re not involved? Get up off your sick bed and pursue the Lord with all your heart …. you’ll never be bored again, yea, that’s the word, bored, just occupying space waiting for something else to happen.

Come let us go, let’s talk about what we spend our time thinking about, and what it looks like to “be in pursuit of God”.

To “press hard after God” is to follow him closely, like someone who is afraid of losing sight of something very valuable, following  Him in season and out, whether it’s convenient or not. To “press hard after God” means we’re hot on His trail, we’ve got our nose to the ground, ears fully engaged, looking near and far for the indications of His presence and direction.

When David was in the wilderness of Judah, Psalm63 reveals a man who thirsted after the Lord. Psalm63:1, “O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” i believe David was speaking of more than just a physical desert place. He had a choice, he could just lay down and die letting Saul kill him and be done with all that chasing around, or he could set his eyes on the Lord and call to the only one who could actually help. Jesus knows how to help you find your second wind!

If you have stepped, purposefully or mistakenly, if you have stepped into a situation which wounds your conscience and causes you to lose your relish for righteous things, don’t hide yourself away. Run, i said, run to Jesus and tell it all to Him. It’s not like He doesn’t know and can’t see, He’s just waiting on you to bring it all to His healing place. Don’t think for a minute you can just hide it away in your heart … as if in the long run you think it doesn’t make any difference. Everything matters. Hidden sin will eat your lunch…maybe not today, but undealt with junk is just that, undealt with junk. Run to Jesus and tell Him all about it, never let it hide. Reconciling and resolving our wounded conscience and bad choosings should be to God’s glory and our testimony of His delivering power, not a shame to us which drives us indoors to shut our blinds, drawing our curtains, becoming isolated and alone in the dark. i can say from experience, when left to ourselves, alone with secrets, isolated and in the dark with shame to keep us company… we are in bad company.

When vicious circumstances occur in our lives, and they will occur, that is not the time to hide away, that is the time to turn up the heat, pedal to the metal, being in hot pursuit of the Lord, calmly, methodically, with focus and all power… run to Jesus.

What do we really throw ourselves into with passion and zeal? What really makes you fly? What is it, or who is it, we find ourselves able to be a real blood hound about with an incessant persistent pursuit? Is it making money? Now there’s a passion most of corporate America and it’s investors can relate to, making money, lots of money, more and more money. Gotta have it, can’t get it, work harder to find it, manipulate and twist things for more… more money. It is the passion and obsession of many, and if they don’t have any, they dream of getting some, and what they’re going to do once they get it. Money, money, money.

Let’s take the case of the riot in Ephesus in Acts 19. As the story opens, we are presented with a fellow named Demetrius, (Acts 19:24) “A silversmith named Demetrius, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought in no little business for the craftsmen.” In other words, the craftsmen were making r-e-a-l-l-y good money by making idols for people. It was a very good business. They had prestige, recognition, and money. Demetrius and the craftsman were all about the short-term profit goals. According to Acts19:25-27, Demetrius called a meeting, “He called them together, along with the workmen in related trades, and said: “Men, you know we receive a good income from this business. And you see and hear how this fellow Paul has convinced and led astray large numbers of people here in Ephesus and in practically the whole province of Asia. He says that man-made gods are no gods at all. There is danger not only that our trade will lose its good name, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be discredited, and the goddess herself, who is worshiped throughout the province of Asia and the world, will be robbed of her divine majesty.”

The craftsmen were all about money, it was the intense pursuit of their lives. That day, the devil inspired men to rally against God, and due to their intense, and persistent pursuit of money and prestige, with all their heart, they set out to protect their so-called, interests. They created chaos in an effort to regain the possible loss of market shares. They drew the crowds of people into a riot against the Gospel of God. They were furious and started shouting, soon the entire city was in an uproar. Afterall, they had to protect their income, even to the destruction of their own souls.

Who is your god? You know, we can tell alot about people by what they love and what the hate. Who or what is your persistent pursuit? Proverbs 15:9, “The LORD detests the way of the wicked but he loves those who pursue righteousness.”

Is there a persistent pursuit of the Lord in your life? We say we go to church, we say we go to conferences, we say we read Christian books, but how do you live your life when no one can see? We all have our daily face we wear, the visible outward things of our personal presentation, but where is your heart about three inches below the surface of your presentation face?

Many years ago the Lord posed me a question which pierced me through and through. He asked me, “You know those things you do in the dark when you think no one sees you, do you do those things because you don’t CARE if I see you, or because you don’t BELIEVE I see you?” The Lord was confronting me, directly, about the things i spent my time thinking about, plotting over, penciling out to make a plan on how to get what i, yes I, yes the great and mighty me wanted. He was asking me who or what was the real focus of my life?

Like i said, we can tell a lot about people by what they love and what they hate, and what we love and what we hate are indicators of what or who comprises our most intense and persistent pursuits. There is a difference between someone who says they “Love their family” and someone who says they “Love winning at all costs.” The song says, “All you need is love” right? i say love is great and good, but it’s also about who, what and how you love. Most would say the word hate is a bad word. God says there is such thing as righteous hate. Proverbs 8:12-13, “I, wisdom, dwell together with prudence; I possess knowledge and discretion. To fear the LORD is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech.” There is a difference between saying, “I hate my brother.” and saying “I hate evil.” My immune system hates invading and harmful bacteria, so much so, that when the harmful bacteria try to get in, my immune system immediately attacks, quarantines and kills the bad stuff. Crisis averted. Loving the truth and hating lies is righteous. Making a plan for yourself to be honest because you love honesty, and to never let yourself lie or participate in lies again because you hate evil is an intense, persistent pursuit. We can tell a lot about someone by what they love and what they hate. Amos 5:15, “Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts.”

If we think we can just sit in our comfortable lawn chairs, drink our mint juleps and wait on someone or God to show up and dig our wells for us, we are wrong. Is that a picture of someone in hot pursuit of Christ, or is that the appearance of someone who basically wants something for nothing? An intense, persistent pursuit is to exert our strength continually and firmly following after someone or something.

The Lord will help us, but He bids us to dig our own well. Take action and be unswerving to apprehend Christ. He is life, the only life, and there is no other life to be had except Christ. If we do not have Christ, we do not have life, which means, without Christ we are the walking dead. Just because we breath and move doesn’t mean we are alive. To be alive means we are animated. To be dead means to be inanimate. Without Christ we are inanimate and have no other means of life but through Christ.

Jesus is findable and apprehendable. He is not hidden. Jesus is there for those who are willing to reach out a trembling hand in need of rescue. He is ready to save! Are you willing?

Jesus said in Matt13:44, “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field.” The gospel is the field in which the treasure is hidden, hidden in the word of the gospel, both Old and New. We must be interested in apprehending Christ enough to take the time of our lives and do something, go dig it up. If you look for Jesus, He will find you. Here’s a parable: It is hidden, not in a dead man’s grave, not in the universe or stars, not in wealth or pomp and circumstance, but in a field, an open field; whoever will, let him come, and search the scriptures; let him dig in this field, and whatever royal treasure in the treasure vaults of God we find, they are all our own. There my friends is one of several likely answers to what Matt13:44 is about, but i’ve put it in a parable so you will have to ask God to reveal it to you.

Proverbs 2:3-5, “If you call to the Lord for discernment, And pray and chase after God for understanding, If you look for Jesus like some look for silver and gold, And search for Him who is the treasure of Heaven; 5 Then you will understand the fear of the LORD, And will find the knowledge of God.”  Think about it.

Luke 11:9, “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” Heaven can do the work without the earth, but the earth cannot do the work without heaven. God, who has the key of the clouds, opened the doors of heaven to all that by faith and prayer ask, seek, and knock. To those who persistently pursue the Lord, the windows and doors of Heaven will at any time be opened. The Lord our God is rich in mercy to all that call upon him.

i’ll say it again, if you look for Him, He will find you. Set your house in order, set Jesus as your main pursuit, above all things, above all people. Who or what is your intense, persistent pursuit? Think about what you spend your time thinking about.

Do more than just go to church. Do more than just give money. Be involved with God day in and day out. It is a great thing of unspeakable value to discover Jesus hidden in plain sight, in the field, right before your very eyes! God is here!

Be strong and courageous this week, talk to Jesus and He will talk to you. Drive carefully and watch out for your neighbor. Be responsible and hold the line! And a big amen on the end.

Not too long ago, a man called asking me if i thought he was a failure. It was absolutely heart breaking to me, not for my sake, but for his. Through my eyes, i didn’t see a failure, i saw someone with so much potential, so many options, such incredible life and hope…yes, i saw a man who’d gotten his feet tangled in his shorts but was also in the middle of God’s process of restoration…. but from his perspective, he saw only the things he didn’t, he couldn’t, he wouldn’t, should have and never got around to.

In his own eyes, he didn’t see himself as anything of value because he felt so bad about how his life had gone, up to that point… all he could hear was the voice of hell whispering doom, rejection, and pending catastrophe. He said he felt like a man nearly out of breath floating in the ocean just waiting on the next giant wave to crash over him. In his eyes he was no better than a smudge on a white wall, not even as good as dust on the window sill.

Through the eyes of grace we behold each other, and when someone asks us a heartbreaking question like i was asked, or tells us what worthless people they are, we need to see them as Jesus sees them… through the eyes of grace, like they are someone worth dying for, someone worth living for, as someone who has possibilities and options, not as a disposable person just wedged in a dark corner, twisted, broken, and blind.

Because of the Blood of Jesus, God believes in you. Jesus Christ, the son of God thought you, yes you, even if you don’t believe in God, He gave Himself a ransom for you that you would not have to live abandoned, rejected, isolated, and alone…. bound in darkness, chained in chaos. It was the heart of the Father to send the Son to offer freedom to anyone who would have it, and in light of that, i call the gospel of John the book of “whom so ever”. Yes, it requires a choice, sometimes even a repetitive choice when in the face of temptation, but the Lord says in Psalm 50:15, “Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you…”

Even if it sounds too good to be true, it is still true. It is more than a fact, it’s the truth. Facts only state the circumstances, but truth has heart and intent in it, and God’s truth for you is that He believes in you.

After i’ve set in a dark room, with more than a few who feel life is dim, and their breaths are numbered, i want you to know, before you turn out the lights hoping to find some answers, God sees you as so much more than your circumstances have dictated to you. Today’s world isn’t interested in if you are offended or if you even survive. We need something to grip to when we are so sure we’ve lost our anchor point, God believes in you, even when you don’t believe in yourself.

i listened to some old songs this week… across several of them an inspiring theme began to emerge which the Lord used to speak to me about my own life and how i’ve navigated it. i imagined myself driving on the road of life, traveling through beautiful and even some barren places… i have truly driven in the cool of the intoxicating evening, and had some terrible near catastrophes which the Lord, in His mercy, somehow got me past but not unscathed. Some would call them battle scars, i would probably call them the scars of not paying attention, or marks of arrogance when i thought i was uncatchable and immortal. i also realized, the road of life is a beautiful thing, but also a very dangerous road to travel… do you ever think about why, metaphorically, why so many believers look like cars stalled on the side of the road… some with their hood up, some with flat tires, some just off a cliff crashed at the bottom?… others look exhausted from the heat of the day sitting on the shoulder of the road, hot, skinny, and thirsty.

Life can be tough to navigate, and i think there are more than a few believers who are already in the rocks.

The question these days is often, “What do we believe about God?” But I want to turn the issue around and ask: “What does God believe about us?”

That question is more important than we might imagine because what God believes about us, influences how He acts toward us. Belief and action are two sides of the same process and not separate entities. We act as we do because of what we believe. In the same way… how people see us is how they act toward us, and how God acts toward us depends upon what God believes about us. So what does God believe about us as people?
Psalm 8:3-4, “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained, What is man that You are mindful of him…?” That verse is a great place to start the journey of where do we fit into the vastness of creation in God’s eyes.

The genesis of all creation is endless and enormous and the Lord our God made it all. Even so, though God’s handiwork is cosmic and majestic, His attention is wholly on us. That is what so captivated the psalmist. While God’s vastness contrasts with mankind’s seeming insignificance, the clear implication is that God does take the time and effort to look our way – and even be intricately involved in our lives. i suppose many people, somewhere in their heart of hearts, truly feel pretty inconsequential when they view themselves in comparison to the universe.

We have all stood under the stars and wondered about our place in everything? My friends, we are not an accidental by-product of an accidental evolutionary process. And we are not some-thing, we are some-one. We are a deliberate creation by God – however He did that, and He didn’t do it all just to be entertained. God believes in you, even when you don’t believe in yourself, God believes in you.

A million years ago or so i knew a fellow who believed the world around him and everyone in it was a mere projection of his own mind. Yea… he believed that. To him, as he turned his head, whatever went out of his field of vision ceased to exist and only what he could see was what was relevant. To me, that’s incredibly self-centered… talk about a one-world vision, but he actually believed he, personally WAS his own beginning and end, so eventually, the fellow had some real mental challenges because he even doubted if he, himself existed. The very idea of God was very perplexing to Him, and he was constantly bewildered and perplexed by all the evidence. But drip by drip, like water on a stone, the influence of a world without Christ, constantly invaded his thinking, to the point that, one day, he chose to enact a permanent solution to his confusion when, really, his was only a temporary problem.

When you doubt your own existence, God believes in you, and even when you are bewildered and surrounded by all the doubters, God still believes in you.

We are someone in God’s eyes. But in your own eyes, how do you see yourself?

In Luke 22, Jesus said Peter would deny Him three times when the rooster crowed, and that’s exactly what happened. Peter was crushed, just crushed. Scripture doesn’t say this, and again as pertaining to sound doctrine, we can’t create sound doctrine from a platform of silence, but i think in this case we can pretty well guess Peter was very persuaded that his lamp of faith was burning so dim it was unrecognizable. i believe he thought to himself that he was just out, and his chances for redemption were so slim considering he had denied Jesus right in front of all those witnesses. But, regardless of Peter’s view of himself, how God saw Peter was more important.

God went on to call Peter back from his downward spiral, assuring him he was not irredeemable, nor was he un-useable. God did NOT tell Peter he was too damaged to ever be used again. Can you imagine, when you’ve really blown it, and someone in leadership tells you that you’re just too messed up for God to use anymore? That, THAT is one of the cruelest things someone can tell you when you are broken and exhausted. With religious people and many church organizations, isn’t it interesting how quickly others determine someone to be “too damaged” for God to ever use again? What a shame for someone to pass out such brutal counsel. If God didn’t say someone is “too damaged”, who are you do decide such a thing? Show me someone… anyone whom Jesus didn’t die for and i will lay my Bible down. God believes in you….and even when you don’t believe in yourself, just like Peter, God believes in you.

Peter was enthusiastic, strong-willed, impulsive, and, at times, some would say “brash”… i might even call him sort of aggressive too. Peter showed himself to maybe even be abrupt to the point of being indiscrete. It was Peter who left the boat to walk on the water, took his eyes off Jesus and began to sink. It was Peter who presumed it a good idea to take Jesus aside and rebuke Him in Matthew 16:22…in vs 23 Jesus quickly corrected Peter’s attitude. It was Peter who decided he just HAD to talk when Jesus was speaking to Elijah representing the prophets and Moses representing the law…that’s when the Lord spoke from Heaven, my paraphrase here, telling Peter to stop talking and listen. It was Peter who drew his sword and attacked the servant of the high priest, and was immediately told to put the sword away all together.

But for all his strengths, Peter had several failings in his life. Still, the Lord who chose him continued to mold him into exactly who He intended Peter to be. isee so much of myself in Peter. He seemed like a guy with real persistence and was comfortable in his own skin, but on the other hand it seemed as though, every time he got up he just fell again. Even through all his stuff he dealt with, i draw the conclusion, God believed in Peter, therefore my friend, God believes in you.

           i hold that this is true: God believes in us because He believes in Jesus, His son. God is completely able to love us back from the brink of destruction, and He is confident, absolutely confident in His mercy.

Elijah must have felt like the last man standing….it is written in 1 Kings 18:22 “… Elijah said to the people, “I alone am left a prophet of the LORD; but Baal’s prophets are four hundred and fifty men.”

In 1 Kings 19, Jezebel declared she would have Elijah killed by the next day after the death of the prophets of Baal. Verse 3 says, “… he arose and ran for his life, and went to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he prayed that he might die, and said, “It is enough! Now, LORD, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers!”” Notice, God did not go along with Elijah’s request.

When you think you’re all alone in the endeavor God has given you, and even if you’ve come to the end of the road and your own vanishing point is in sight, God believes in you and is on your side.

If we are not sure what to do when we find ourselves in challenging circumstances, God expects us to pray, and ask Him for help and for the wisdom we need. God loves to help, …. James 1:5-6, “If you don’t know what you’re doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You’ll get his help, and won’t be condescended to when you ask for it. Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who “worry their prayers” are like wind-whipped waves.”

By the power of Jesus Christ in our lives, God believes we are capable of trusting him — that he loves to help us, that we can be bold in our asking for assistance and that we can believe — without reservations — God is there for us even when the trouble is not removed from our lives. And speaking of trouble, how many of us feel we are floating along a river and the water has gotten so low, we’re often stuck on the rocks? We pray and pray that the Lord would remove the rocks, yet there we are, still stuck on the rocks. How about rather than pray God would remove the rocks, be creative and ask Him to raise the level of the river. God believes in you, even when you don’t believe in yourself.

God believes in us. He acts with amazing mercy, understanding, and compassion… with generous forgiveness and in constant love toward us. James 1:18, “God brought us to life using the true Word [that is, Jesus the Lord], showing us off as the crown of all his creatures.” You and i are someone, not a something. We were made a little lower than the angels, not a little higher than the animals. There is a precedence set in scripture as how we should see ourselves and how God see us. We are the crown of all He has made and THAT is who we are in God’s eyes! i pray we loosen our religious belts a bit and believe this to be so — in your eyes and mine.

There was a movie named Flatliners that was about a bunch of med students who wanted to know if there was life after death. They were confident they could bring someone back from death, so they medically caused each other to die for a short period of time, resuscitated the person, who then told of their experience after their death. At one point in the movie, the main character is going to flatline himself, one last time in hopes of righting an old wrong. He’s talking to one of the other med students on the phone who begs him to stop, please stop, saying “the old wrongs don’t matter”… wherewith the main character disagrees saying “everything matters.”

That was a secular movie but in the lives of every person everywhere, everything matters if anything matters at all. Our lives are a summation from front to back, and if we are washed in the blood of Jesus we are washed clean of our sin and get to avoid the catastrophic apex of the results of our wrongs.

For so many of us, we have done things in secret of which we are so ashamed of we are afraid we might die, maybe even wish we could die… yet for others we can’t seem to get life right no matter how hard we try… those folks think to themselves they’ve been bad so long, they only know how to be bad, and yes, i’ve met a few like that. There was a man i knew who had been incarcerated so many times, being incarcerated was all he knew. He actually did get out of prison and made a real try at being clean and sober, no longer acting out and being a criminal. He called one day and told me the sky was too big and there was too much air to breath… he said he’d been wrong in all his thinking for so long, he had no other skills to survive other than stealing and doing drugs… he just didn’t know how to be anything other than scandalous and corrupt. Now, honestly, i think that was a total cop out so he could just do what he wanted to do, but on the other hand, i also think there was some real truth in it all. He was ashamed of his life in general, so ashamed of everything he’d done he just couldn’t look himself in the mirror any more. He shaved his head so he didn’t have to see himself, always wore t-shirts so he didn’t have to worry about how he looked…all to avoid seeing the most loathsome person he knew… himself.

i want you, the listener, to hear me… i know many of you have been really hurt and told that you’ll never make it, but God believes in you. You’ve been told you were no good and a nobody by people who were important to you… know that God believes in you. You may have gotten it in your head you are worthless and unsaveable, God believes in you. If you’re that child who ran away from home because of abuse or you feared for your life, God believes in you and is on your side. If your child is on drugs and you feel helpless, the Lord is there, you are not alone, God believes in you. When you can’t go another step, nowhere to live, nothing left to eat, and no one wants you around, God believes in you. When you come to the Lord with your broken heart in your hand, silent tears on your face which is buried in the pillow, it is Jesus who comforts the broken hearted…He will open the door to you and welcome you in to a place of rest in Him….God believes in you. When the enemy has you surrounded, and your chances of survival are oh so thin, God believes in you. And like Jesus who was deceived by Judas, betrayed with a kiss, and your friends have abandoned you only to turn your face to another fist, there is hope in Christ, God believes in you. Think about it.

Regardless of how things went in the garden of Eden, or in the garden of Gethsemane before Jesus was tried and crucified, our God, good God that he is, didn’t wash his hands of us, even though He had every right to. In the end He didn’t say, “What a bunch of sorry people. i don’t want any part of them!” Instead, he made things right, indeed, even better than before, because He believes in us, he still thinks the best of us, and he longs for us to trust him back. For those who find Jesus as Savior and Lord, this is the greatest story ever told. And for those who do not, refusing to come home, God believes in you.

From a worldly perspective, we might say Jesus dying for our sins was a reckless gamble, but i say it was an outrageous act of love and trust, like when a father hands his son the keys to all he’s got, saying “Enjoy yourself!”

Knowing what we would do, and knowing how much it would cost him to repair the damage, God went ahead with His plan of redemption for mankind anyway. Why? Because he loves us and believes in us and calls to us all to stop running and come home. God believes in you!

                   God is bigger and stronger than you or I can imagine and it would be the easiest thing in the world for him to make us do whatever he liked….it would be no trouble at all, but where would the choice be for everyone to choose freedom or choose judgment. Who wants to be a slave or a robot?… that’s not how love works. Love doesn’t seek to control or coerce. Love yields, and the greater the Yielder, the greater the love.1 Corinthians 13:4-8, “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.” God is love, and love believes in you. Weeping may endure for a night, But joy comes in the morning.

Drive carefully this week, take time to listen to people, they all have a story to tell. Be strong and courageous, and i’ll talk to you next time. Amen!

Life, for me, has radically changed over the last 46 years of walking with Jesus. In these years God has taught me so many things. i’ve learned to not be angry about everything and for a guy who was easily angered by everything that’s a big deal. i’ve learned to listen, not only to the Lord but to others and even to myself, and for a guy who never seemed to listen to anyone, again, that is a big deal. Not being angry and frustrated was a biggy for me. i used to doubt everything i thought, everything I said, and everything i hoped for, everything I thought was real… in my mind it was a constant state of chaos and indecision. Rarely could i resolve anything within myself because i fully believed i was a consistent and perpetual failure. i know many people out there might like to advise me saying, “Oh it was your parents”, or “The church failed you,” and, “The school system didn’t really do its job.” But when it was all said and done, it was nobody but me. It wasn’t my parents who made me mad or sad or depressed… it was me and I was choosing. No one had the power to make me angry, in fact, my guess is no one was really interested if I was angry except only as far as it affected them.

The truth is, I was choosing. And the real heart issue, above and beyond anyone and everything else was that at my core I didn’t believe Jesus was who He said He was…yea, I’d say it was a basic sin issue. Of course, i didn’t know i didn’t believe it. Looking back at myself all those years ago i’ve concluded i was a poser and didn’t know i was a poser, just lost in all my well-meaning poserism.

Life is happening out in front of me, like looking out the front windshield of the car. In my rearview mirror though, from where I’m sitting I can see some of what is past, and in that view of history I can easily see God’s footsteps, guide posts, the path of answered prayers, old war zones, and even bountiful places… but through it all is the testimony of change as worked by the Lord. Can you see the footsteps of God in your life? They are there for sure… what do they mean to you? If you can’t see them, ask yourself “Why not?” I can assure you, they are there.

Be patient a moment, take a breath and get comfortable… i’ll be right back.

Many times, in my life, I was like a boat which was tied to a dock, and over time my tether to the secure place slowly came undone… i drifted, not even realizing i was slowly floating away. The drift away from righteousness was so gradual it was virtually indiscernible, almost like watching the tide go out you know. It can’t be seen all at once, it’s a gradual ebbing away until one day, you look up and notice that you’re not at the dock anymore, you’re way out in the middle of the lake, and you wonder to yourself, “How in the world did I get way out here?”

Friends, I understand that many of us pray and read our Bibles to some degree probably… most of us have some sort of core beliefs of the Lord concerning who He is and where we are in our relationship to Jesus. Sincerely speaking though, I just don’t think most of us are very honest with the Lord, ourselves, our spouses or friends. And there is a difference between not lying and being honest. Just because we don’t lie doesn’t mean we are being honest, necessarily. Many believers seem to have sort of stopped participating much, we’re frustrated with our job, spouses, children and friends, and it seems that generally, many of us don’t seem to like who we are, where we are, or what we’re doing. Upon further investigation, i’ve come to believe most who have drifted have no idea how to get back to the dock. Sure, going to church, reading your Bible, and praying is absolutely the big three for re-establishing your relationship with God, but having the courage to be honest, and the diligence to put it all into motion is no small ask. Maybe even hell has figured a way to convince us we deserve our guilt and shame and a right to suffer.

Jeremiah 50:6, “My people have been lost sheep; their shepherds have led them astray and caused them to roam on the mountains. They wandered over mountain and hill and forgot their own resting place.”

Like the boat which went adrift, i believe many people feel as if they have become untethered somehow, having no sense of their joy or peace anymore. Not only do they have the terrible feeling that something is missing, but also seem to have no sense about how to return, and if they do have a desire to return, the fortitude to do it is thin.

Matthew 8:5, “When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help.” Ahhh! There is the starting point…. “Help!” “Help” is a great word to begin the path of returning home.

For most of us, our emotional and mental person is a mess and we’re just generally conflicted. What do you say we go together and get some ideas about how to do a little conflict resolution with ourselves? Yea? Let’s talk about it.

Following our use of the word “Help!”, I suppose the next step is that we’ve got to be honest about what’s going on with ourselves. When asked, “Are you angry,” we must stop kidding ourselves by saying “No”, thereby deflecting the question away from ourselves. Watch people drive, do their work, eat lunch … just watch… there is pensiveness in their motions, a tension running through their faces and shoulders. They seem quick to give a short reply, quick to smile maybe but really not involved, in fact, maybe more involved with their phone or iPad than the world around them… maybe most of us would rather watch TV than be involved with our spouses or children…just detached. Chances are good that your spouse doesn’t hate your job, but more likely is how you obsessively do your job, leaving no room for a healthy relationship with your family or friends. Often, when we inquire as to the well-being of a spouse or our children, we’re often tossed a crumb of a reply which is inconclusive. If you inquire further, there rises a subtle anger and frustration … are you angry and just don’t want to admit it? What’s it about? It’s good to recognize our anger, but what is more important is to understand, in depth, “WHY” we are angry. Be specific. One way of viewing anger is seeing it as unmet needs. There’s something larger going on within ourselves and we’re going to have to start by admitting there is turmoil. Internal turmoil is a powerhouse for generating secrets, and once we start creating secrets, it’s a slippery slope toward creating more secrets. Secrets begat secrets.

Once we start planting those seeds, they will grow, and when they grow they will bear fruit, and take it from me, through my hard earned, bruised and beaten life experience, the fruit of our plantings WILL come to find us like children who go looking for their parents. Is the turmoil in your heart planting seeds for a harvest you really want to put in your pockets? Secrets generate fences which not only wall out prying eyes, but also wall us in. Confession builds bridges, and we need more bridges than fences.

If you’re in a relationship and it’s a secret, something is wrong with that. If you’re not being honest and transparent with your spouse, what’s up with that? We go to conferences, raise our hands in praise and worship and put on our brightest faces, while at the same time the rental of adult entertainment at the hotel where we stay while at the conference, goes up 80 plus percent. To me, that speaks of unresolved conflict and deadly secrets. Something is wrong with that.

I had a dream once, and in that dream,  I went to a garage sale. I wanted to buy something but the man at the sale refused to tell me what the item was I had in my hand. I remember looking at the man in the dream and saying, “You can’t get rid of your stuff unless you’re willing to call it what it is.” If fear is a problem, it won’t just magically go away unless we’re willing to call it what it is, fear … until we dig it up, look at it, and name it, it will always be this cloud of looming, faceless doom which just hovers over us following us around. Anger is the same way, until we call it what it is, it is just a hovering dark cloud that grows the fruit of isolation, chaos, and secrets, none of which is healthy for anyone.

I spoke to a man at jail who had been incarcerated for 18 years and more. His life had all but been stolen from him by his being constantly in jail and prison. I asked him what was going on inside him, and he said, “I’m just angry all the time, angry about anything and everything. ALL my emotions are anger.” I asked him what he was so angry about … you know, he couldn’t tell me, but he could tell me that since he had asked Jesus into his life, up to that point, he had been completely unwilling to even admit he was actually angry.

Proverbs 22:24, “Make no friendship with an angry man, And with a furious man do not go,”

Several years ago, we had a disgruntled and angry man attending our fellowship. He was critical of everything, in fact, he told me it was his calling to point out the things which needed correction in the church. Of course, eventually we had to address the situation because you can’t let things like that stand. The Lord plainly said to me, “Do not contend with a contentious man; do not go to the wrestling mat with this fellow, that is My work.” Eventually, all our controlling and manipulating leads to living a very frustrated life. You can’t control every minute and every penny of another person’s life and expect them to not feel like a captive, eventually despising your presence and even the sound of your voice. Is that really what you want?

The problem isn’t them, the problem is within yourself; and the more we don’t deal with our internal conflicts, the more the conflicts make us bleed. We must call on the name of Jesus and stop the bleeding friends. Be honest and call it what it is. Stop the bleeding friends, stop the bleeding.

Proverbs 30:33, “… as twisting the nose produces blood, so stirring up anger produces strife.”

All through Saul’s life, he couldn’t control his own life, so he controlled and strong armed those around him. How many of us are like that? Can’t control your own life, so you control those around you, putting unkind requirements on them, ones you yourself can’t even keep.

Proverbs 29:22, “An angry man stirs up dissension, and a hot-tempered one commits many sins.”

At some point we must take the words of our God seriously, putting them in motion in our lives. How miserable must we become before we begin to take action towards reconciling with our family, friends, and God? Where is your tipping point?

2 Corinthians 5:14 says, “For the love of Christ compels us…”, and that word “compels” is a Greek word which means “to hold together” or, “to hold fast”. When our life becomes untethered to the rock who is Christ, our hearts become soured and sad. It is Christ, the Love of God who holds us together. To return home we must be honest with ourselves and call our conflicts what they are. We say we love, but love would never advance, aggrandize, nor does it diminish loved ones to exalt itself. Love tempers and restrains our passions, and never leverages the outcome of things in its own favor at the expense of others.

i do what the Lord asks of me because it’s the right thing to do, not because i’m going to get something in return, as if i’m always measuring the return on an investment, and certainly not because i’m always measuring my wellbeing by how obedient i am. i used to do that because i wanted to do well while here in this life. But now i am obedient because i love Jesus, not out of obligation, doing the rules and law, or out of fear of Heaven’s anger and rage – as if God is going to get you if you don’t do right… that’s not true of Him. i do what He asks of me because i love the Lord and His way really is the best way. i heard a woman ask a great question recently, she asked, “If we say we are walking as Christians but we aren’t being obedient, are we actually being Christians?” i thought that was a great question: how do we walk uprightly with the Lord and be disobedient at the same time? At that i want to add, we can’t just “do the rules” either. In Ephesians 4:26, it says, “Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath.” That’s easy to say, but let me say again, having wisdom and doing wisdom can be two very different things. It’s easy to say, “Don’t be angry”, but then learning to have the presence of mind to be reasonable and not allow yourself to be angry is a difficult and fiery trial indeed. It would seem we, ourselves are the prime cause of our misery. Hear this: There are some things which are pleasant in the evening but are dismal in the morning light.

If we who are contentious and conflicted allowing our anger and frustration to continue, blaming others and controlling the very breath of those around us, let me say, as it is true of every sin, contention and unresolved conflict is only bitterness in the end of it all, and it bites like a poisonous snake releasing it’s venom in your soul and body.

In 2Sam13 Absoloam nursed his anger, frustration, and bitterness for two years, and in the end it was isolation and death. Absoloam’s words came out of his mouth smooth as butter, but in his heart there was war.

Let … it … go. Open your hands and let your bitter memories drift into the distance. Some memories truly should not be forgotten, but those things of anger, frustration and bitterness cannot be allowed to keep making front page news on your soul’s newspaper. Put them in their proper place, back on the last page and leave them there. Let Jesus into your heart, accept his forgiveness and then extend it to others, not for their sake for truly most people don’t actually want your forgiveness, it’s not for them, it’s for you. Let … it … go.

We can’t continue to be so angry and unresolved you know. The Lord says there are better things to do. You know what i’m saying? Think about it.

Philippians 4:7-8, “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.”

It’s been another beautiful evening, the sun setting low, as the day ebbs into twilight and all things tend to come to rest for a while. i pray your heart will be at rest, letting your anger and frustration go. Proverbs 3:13, “Happy is the man who finds wisdom, And the man who gains understanding;”

James 1:20, “For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.”

Difficult circumstances are not really the problem … my problem is my reaction to the difficult circumstances. Galatians 5:22-23, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.”

Be strong and courageous this week. Take action digging into what it is which is at the heart of your conflicted heart and DO something about it, take action to resolve the conflict.

Read your Bible, pray without ceasing, be at peace, and be honest with God and yourself. Amen.

i had a dream several years ago. In the dream i had driven through deep woods, up through the mountains, down into the long view of endless flat land, and eventually to a very arid climate when suddenly the road ended as if that was as far as someone had decided the road needed to go. It was about the middle of the day, not hot, not cold, just middle of the day somewhere. Beyond the end of the road was rocky desert covered in low brush… and, just… no more road. As i sat on the front bumper of the car wondering about all that, i had the big idea to survey where i had come from. i stood up, pushed my hat down on my head to block the sun, and looked back at the 2-lane, long, smooth stretch of blacktop highway i had been on for days which, now, had come to an end. Upon turning around to look at the end of the road again, wondering why it had ended in this exact spot, i was filled with dismay and wonder, because now, the road did not end anymore. Where the road had previously ended, there was a place on the asphalt where the old road had joined to the new, greatly improved road which was previously not there. The new road was far superior to the old and continued on, as best i could tell, into the distance toward immense mountains whose tops were lost in the clouds… bigger, and higher mountains than where i had come from. In the dream i thought to myself, “Ahhh, those are the high places.”

         You know, right when you’ve said all the words in your heart, and your mouth is dry because it seems there’s nothing left to say, many times it’s really amazing how, at those moments, God shows up, and you realize He’s not finished.

         If you believe Jesus Christ is who He says He is, then friend, we are the people of God, and we are living restored, reconciled, and redeemed lives that bring honor and glory to the Name of Jesus. Our way is Jesus Christ Himself, the singing light, the dazzling King who rains on us. He is the resplendent benefit who lives in us in majesty, He is our living lyric and composition who lifts our heart, and the light who poured Himself out to make us free.

         Have you ever felt like you’d come to the end of the road, no ideas, no dreams, and no clue what’s next nor how to get a clue? Well here we are then… stick around, and let yourself breathe.

         In the last program, i mentioned that seeing, and understanding God and scripture was like looking at a 3D picture. What is different with 3D pictures as opposed to regular pictures is that 3D pictures have at least 2 focal points, one is at the surface, and the other is just slightly past the surface, giving the impression that we are looking into the picture.

         The entire idea was that if God doesn’t open our eyes to see Him, we aren’t going to see Him, and if He doesn’t open our hearts to understand, we will not understand, nor will we have clarity. How are we supposed to do His ideas without those things? As a result, in order to have vision, to understand what we’re looking at, and know what to do with it… requires that we pursue the Lord, He is the key. Prov 2:6, “For the LORD gives wisdom; From His mouth come knowledge and understanding;” What is the point of having a great dream, vision, or great idea from the Lord, if we only clap our hands like little kids, celebrate what just happened to us, but then do nothing with it?

         i’m wondering how many of us think we’ve run our course, done all that the Lord has asked of us, and we are seemingly at the end of the road? Like a lead guitarist who, at one time had flowing melodies and lots of notes, and suddenly, he’s out of notes to play… or a writer who is used to God giving them lots of words, and then one day the words that come out of their fingertips just aren’t there like they used to be. After we’ve tried all things we can think of to break through that barrier, of course, we think to ourselves, “Alrighty then, what’s next?”, and “How do i find out what the Lord wants to do?” How many of us have even thought this, “What if i’ve done all God has asked of me and He’s just putting me out to pasture like an old horse?” Does the quote/unquote, “spirit of Eeyore” invade your space? Don’t feel alone, he knocks on my door too.

         How far are you willing to go in order to know what is next? … and you KNOW in your heart of hearts your run isn’t over until you’re at your vanishing point and there’s no more breath. We fast and pray, sing, and are silent, read our Bible more, and still, we seem stuck in a waiting room somewhere. How about just being still and stop trying so hard?

         i good friend of mine, after many tries, made an appointment with the chief of the First Nations folks in this state. He made the long drive to the chief’s house and was met at the door by his wife, who told him the man was out in the long house. He walked out past the barn to the long house where the chief had set up two chairs. My friend spoke his greeting to the man… the only indication he got was only a nod… no words, not even a grunt from the chief… As they sat, my friend talked a little bit, the chief just nodded some more…but still no words. An hour went by when my friend said he was pretty well talked out from having a one-sided conversation so he fell silent… and they continued to sit in silence… silence for another hour, and another, then several hours as they sat in dead quiet. Finally, after 5-6 hours, my friend stood up and said that he had to go, thinking to himself that this whole encounter was the strangest thing he’d ever done. Before he could walk away, the chief finally spoke, saying, “You’ve lasted longer than most and that’s a good sign. i figure, if a man isn’t willing to sit with me, then why should i share my wisdom with him?”

         Are we willing to sit with God as long as necessary in order to hear what He’s got to say?

         Many years ago, i had come to a crossroads in life. The former things seemed to have all run their course, and i had no idea what the Lord wanted to do… i didn’t even have any ideas about what to pray or dream about… not even any imaginings of what “might be”… my mind was just a big blank, and for a guy whose mind is virtually NEVER blank, that was a big deal. i went to work, came home, made food, read my Bible, and prayed as i had always done, day after day… and just nothing. Over time i had the idea that what i was looking for was not where i was, yet still had no clue about what to do. The next day while looking at a “Where’s Waldo” picture, there came a spark of a thought like a whisper, “Where’s your appointment? Go find God’s appointment. When you find His presence, you’ll have a direction.” i did what i usually would do, which was my fallback method for discovering the heart of the Lord… praying, fasting, visiting local churches, none of which produced any results. Everywhere i went it was just white noise. On one particular Thursday, i had the idea to just get in my car, Friday after work, and just start driving, looking for Jesus and His appointment. You may think that’s pretty unorthodox, but how far are you willing to go to find out what the Lord wants to do? For weeks and weeks, i would just drive all weekend in ever-widening circles, staying the night in this town, and then in that town. i didn’t know where to go, but i did have the sense i was getting closer. It was my way of pursuing the Lord.

         i parked under a huge oak tree which was in the parking lot of a little church way out in the middle of absolutely nowhere Virginia. It was hot, and i’d stopped to pray and think… there was nobody for miles and no cellphone signal either. i wondered if this was all just stupid and i was just being dumb… suddenly, the radio came on… yes… all by itself, and a guy on the radio, instantly, said these words, “Don’t stop what you’re doing. Keep going, you’ll find what you’re looking for.” Then he went on with whatever else he was saying. i was blown away. Then, right on the heels of that miracle, in the middle of my phone, where the name of the carrier is supposed to be on the screen, appeared the words, instead of the phone name or carrier name, it said, “Jesus is Lord! Don’t stop!” The name of the phone is hard coded into the phone’s circuitry, so i knew it had to be God.

         About the time i thought i had come to the end of all my possibilities… out of directions, vision, dreams, and was even clueless about what to pray, the Lord spoke to me. When i was willing to pursue Him, when i was interested enough in what God had to say that i moved out of my comfortable place… going beyond my usual habit of fasting and praying… going out of my way, and looking for Jesus, He found me. If you will look for Him, He will find you. The Lord says to you today, “Seek and you shall find, find and you shall have, for I am the Lord your God.”

         As we are today, in the course of all our reading, writing, and dreaming, for many at the end of their own pavement, it may seem there’s no one in charge, but if we’ll look a little closer, in fact, someone IS in charge – God is behind it all. In looking back, all our big ideas are not at all random or haphazard, every word from God’s mouth works in harmony with the next. There is nothing accidental about our Big Ideas. When God is in the house, nothing “just happens”, and nothing is merely circumstantial. And with you, as a believer in Jesus Christ as Lord, when you’re at the end of one path, you WILL have ideas while your eyes scan the horizon for the next step… in the moment, you will know they are a “supernatural fortuitous event”. Be willing to sit with the Lord, and not want anything from Him, other than the joy of sitting with Him… and by and by, He will give you His wisdom.

         James 1:17, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”

         Some intend that they’ll implement kingdom ideas by first going to get some person with a title to approve of them, and THEN they can work on it all. Others think maybe they’ll get their God-ideas moving if they buy a 501(c)3 number, becoming a tax-exempt non-profit calling themselves “a ministry”, then, ahhh yes, then, they’ll get busy on what God has given them. What if… no man gives you any answers, and no one approves and validates you? Will you still chase after Jesus? What if you’re never amazing or great, never to stand on a stage somewhere, wowing the audience? Will you still chase after Jesus? What if the miracle doesn’t happen like you hope and the judge doesn’t seriously shorten your sentence? Will you still follow after Jesus? What if that husband or wife doesn’t come back? Will you still pursue Christ? What if you pursue the Lord in prayer and fasting, and He asks you to get creative in your search for Him? Will you get up and go out intent on finding Jesus, the One who holds all the righteous ideas and dreams? Friends, i believe that in the life of every believer, there comes a time when God doesn’t allow us to be validated by others, and He’ll allow no man to give you the advice you want. Instead, He wants us to go forward solely on what He has spoken to us because He has spoken to us and we believe Him… doing what is in front of us because God said so, not because we are approved of, or are well-advised by other people. It is your responsibility to pursue Him, it is your responsibility to find Him, and to be a good steward of what He says to you. True, God gives us good advisors to help us, but in the end, the responsibility is with each of us. i want to be responsible with all of what the Lord says to me and never take His words and direction for granted.

         When we’re out of ideas, rather than do a knee-jerk reaction and figure some dismal thing like, “God doesn’t care about me anymore”, kick it out of gear for a moment, step out of “git ‘er done” mode, and be patient. Yes, i know, easier said than done, but being patient and at peace doesn’t mean doing nothing. It means be at peace where you are, keep going in your work-a-day world until the Lord brightens your imagination. In John 14:18 Jesus said, “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.” … and He didn’t say that just to put you off for a while so He could think of something else to do while keeping you spinning on your hamster wheel. Every word Jesus said meant something. Every little micro-communication God made was for our benefit… every lift of His eyebrow, every smile, every breath, every story, every step is for us was for our benefit. He is NOT just the “man upstairs”, He has a specific name, Jesus. To call Him “the man upstairs” lowers Him down to us rather than us rising, in Christ, to Him. God is very specific. He has a specific name, doing specific things, for specific reasons… there is no approximation with the Lord.

         When you think you’re at the end of the line, it’s not the end of the line… in Christ, there is more, there is always more… even when we’re old and gray, we’ve still got something to say. He is the endlessly faceted revelation, so there is no end of possibilities.

         Evil and wickedness will come to the end of their road and go no more, but those in Christ are continuous because God is never-ending and continuous.

         Rom 10:4, “Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.” Or as stated in another translation, “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”

         My dream, which i first spoke, was more than just about myself and what i was supposed to do next. The dream was indeed about me, but more exactly, was about law and grace. Where the law had come to the end of its road, grace was a much better road, and picked up the path taking me to high places.

         When we move out from the world of legalistic religion, which is a world of do’s and don’t’s, into the Christ-centered life filled with mercy, kindness, and good boundaries, we quickly conclude that Jesus is really really alive, just like He said, just like the word of God states. In our conclusion, we wake up to the fact we are living in a world where, in the end, God calls ALL the shots… has the first and last word on everything, and everything means literally everything… at the end of our old law-road, stepping forward onto the new, greatly improved grace-road, we’ve got tore-center our hearts, re-focus our eyes, re-calibrate our ears… we need to let the Lord show us how to re-imagine and re-think things. We can’t keep being like we are and expect to go forward with God… we can’t expect God-sized-ideas unless we embrace the Lord with a different heart and mind… the old wine skin of our thinking and dreaming will not contain the vision to come which the Lord has for His people. No man who says he does the law actually does the law. Similarly, everyone who does the law will die, and everyone who embraces Christ will live… forever.

         We strain forward to see things clearly like we’re squinting to see in a fog, or peering through a mist. 1 Corinthians 13:12, “… But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!”

         If we want big God-sized ideas, God-dreams, and God-visions… and that is God as Yahweh, Father, Son, Holy Ghost with Christ alone as our path, we’re going to have to step off the page, so to speak, and take a chance with Him. It’s time to walk on water. Get out of your safe place of cruising in your boat or sitting on the porch swing, and go look for the Lord. Sitting at church hoping someone will just come along and magically give you a word, that’s not pursuing Jesus. Don’t get me wrong, those things happen, but for the majority of folks, life doesn’t happen that way. Everyone, and i mean everyone in the Bible who had a breakthrough or miracle… made a move. They left for work, went out to find a donkey, or left where they were to go to a place they didn’t know… they all got up, called out, stood up, or something… but they all made a move. Just because you have great ideas, no matter how creative they are, if you do nothing with them, what are they? Just things you tell other people so they will be impressed? Your amazing dreams are no better than a colorful vision of a circus somewhere unless you take them to heart, and DO something with them. Oh, and quit telling people how qualified you are, and just do it.

         Make a move man! Break out of your place of complacency and move out. You’re not at the end of the road, you’re just waiting for the rest of the road to be opened to you. You’re not done, God is just beginning again! Think about it.

          In Isaiah 38 King Hezekiah was so sick he was going to die, Isaiah the prophet even came and said for him to set his affairs in order because the king was going to leave this place. Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to God saying, basically, he’d done the best he could as best he knew how, and then he wept bitterly. The Lord heard him and gave him 15 more years. Hezekiah thought he was at the end of his road, but God said there was more.

         In Mark 14, Jesus told Peter that before the rooster crowed three times, Peter would deny he knew Jesus. Peter replied, “Never Lord, that’ll never happen!” Sure enough, while Jesus was on trial, being assaulted, and accused, Peter did exactly as Jesus predicted. In vs 72, it says Peter remembered the words of Jesus and wept bitterly. Peter thought he was done for… after all he had been through with Jesus, he was just out. But then in Mark16, at the tomb of the risen Savior, an angel told the three women who discovered Jesus was no longer dead, to go and tell the disciples, and specifically said “… be sure and tell Peter too” that Jesus would meet them all, including Peter in Galilee. Peter wasn’t out… he wasn’t at the end of his road… in fact, where Peter thought the road had ended, there in a dry, desperate place, regardless of how badly he had failed, God had more and suddenly there was a new road which continued on to high places Peter had never imagined.

         Right when you think you are out of ideas, your sleep is empty of dreams, and the musical notes and words from your fingertips are done… relax, breathe, and believe, that God has more. If you only see the end of your path, look again, the Lord has more, there is always more in Christ. You say you have looked and seen, but the Lord says, “Look again!”

         When you think you’ve come to the end of the road and nothing else is apparent, step out of your comfortable place and get adventurous in your pursuit of the Lord. There is always more with God… more love, more beauty, more life, more vision, and more revelation. Take your time and sit awhile with God without wanting anything from Him, and learn to simply enjoy being with Him… the new road in front of you will be there, you’ll see.

         Be strong and courageous this week, trust that God means what He says and that He’ll do exactly what He’s promised. Drive carefully and be kind to your neighbor. Amen!

Some wounds clear up pretty quickly, but there are wounds of the heart and soul which take time, introspection, insight, and understanding to resolve. When a friend is surprisingly brutal or your left with a cruel betrayal, it leaves a contusion of the heart which doesn’t easily fade away, and i don’t know about you, but in my life, things have been said and done which make those hurts and bruises just hard to get past sometimes. When someone, especially a friend of many years, repeatedly scoffs and belittles you, it hard to get past their projected moral superiority sometimes. More than a few people carry those bruises to their grave, nursing their wounded hearts along, sometimes for years, only to show up later in life as bitterness, lack of trust, unbelief, or even in some cases, depression, isolation, and anger. How do we deal with that stuff?

i know a trauma nurse or two who have worked in the ER of the local hospital, and they’ll tell anyone dealing with physical wounds, that the healing process, even for physical wounds requires care, time, and attention.

Wounds require binding, and binding takes time. Wounds require the right kind of salve, the right kind of dressing, maybe even a little surgery, and i want to say that Doctor Jesus is the universal expert on dealing with wounds of the heart, mind, and body. We need God’s healing salve and power like never before.

In 1759, Joseph Hart composed a song that has endured the test of time, even to today it speaks to those who are wounded and need binding, beyond a doctor, they need God’s healing attention.

The words are: “Come, ye sinners, poor and needy, Weak and wounded, sick and sore; Jesus ready stands to save you, Full of pity, love and power. Come, you weary, heavy laden, Lost and ruined by the fall; If you tarry till you’re better, You will never come at all. I will arise and go to Jesus, He will embrace me in His arms; In the arms of my dear Savior, O there are ten thousand charms, yes there are ten thousand charms.”

As an example, let’s take getting over divorce, considering in our nation, it is probably one of the most common yet destructive examples of having a wound which needs binding.

Do we really ever get past divorce? i believe it’s like a living death. In an excellent book titled, “Beyond Betrayal” by Jerry Price, he mentions that when someone dies, it is goodnight, not goodbye, our loved one has become separated from the body. But when relational wounds occur, it is as if the person has died, they have not become separated from their body, and our grief goes deeper. There is the feeling of estrangement because the other person is still alive, even though the relationship is dead. In this case it’s not just goodbye, but now it’s good night. There is a wound there which is difficult to get over, if we ever actually get over it, and, i’m convinced, if God is not involved in our healing, our hearts will not actually mend in a way which is prosperous and promotes health and life.

Psalm 34:18, “The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart…”

When most people are physically wounded, blood rushes to the wound area where platelets cross-link to create a plug called clotting in an attempt to stop the bleeding, if any. Over time i’ve learned grief seems to serve no purpose, but yet it is somehow necessary in our process of living past the sadness in our lives. i believe in the same way, when we are emotionally wounded or spiritually wounded, the Lord sends us friends to be kind to us, speaking help and hope, the friends and family sort of “cross-link” making all efforts to stop the emotional bleeding. When a loved one dies, we often see the family gathering and consoling each other… it appears as a type of clotting in an attempt to begin the process of healing a broken heart or mind. If you’ve ever been grieved, or distressed, isn’t it interesting how the Lord puts the thought of you on the heart of your companions, He sends them to console you in your time of sadness. They cross-link with each other and you begin the process of closing the wound. This is the beginning of God’s healing process.

When our hearts and minds are wounded, after the metaphorical bleeding has slowed down, the wounds of our heart need time to process what’s happened to us. Proverbs 4:26, “Ponder the path of your feet, And let all your ways be established.” That word “ponder” in Prov4:26 means to “roll it around in your mind until you come to a conclusion”. Our bodies react similarly. An assessment of what has happened is made and a course of action to repair the physical wound is decided.

i have another observation – people, and i suppose… most all things, when wounded, are highly inclined to withdraw to, what they think is safety. i call it a time of contracting, which is a self-defense mechanism designed by the Lord. Contracting, as in withdrawing, can be observed when physical wounds as well as emotional and/or spiritual wounds have occurred, real or imagined. Unfortunately, it’s also easy once we’ve entered the time of withdrawal, it’s so very easy to simply become a victim as all of darkness hopes we do, encouraging us to replay the scenario of our getting deeply wounded, and there… we remain withdrawn, thinking, if we just don’t go around anymore then we probably won’t be hurt anymore. Yet, playing the victim doesn’t ever seem to resolve our conflict but seems to serve to perpetuate things. i know a fellow who will tell you all day long that he’s an introvert. You know, i’m not buying it. i believe he’s a wounded soul who’s simply withdrawn and relabeled himself as “introvert” so he can feel better about it all.

Similarly, in our bodies, after we’ve been physically wounded, the cells tend to re-organize, and for a time, the wound literally begins to contract, meaning the surface area gets smaller. Anyone who has ever had a skinned knee should be able to relate to this, remembering that after the bleeding stopped and a scab was formed, the wound area contracted and felt tight. It is highly likely we also may have had to put a softening agent on it to encourage the closed wound to be more elastic so as to not impede our motion as much as possible. Our hearts and minds do the same thing. God puts healing salve on our wounds to keep down scar tissue and to encourage the heart wound to remain elastic.

Isaiah 1:6, “From the sole of your foot to the top of your head there is no soundness– only wounds and welts and open sores, not cleansed or bandaged or soothed with oil.” Wounds require binding, and binding takes time.

The Lord has a process for healing our hearts after the wounds of betrayal, and interestingly, it is the same process for our bodies. The Lord is absolutely brilliant!

In wisdom, our bodies, again by design, take an inventory of traumatized systems and begin to follow God’s protocol of healing. Do we not follow the same processes mentally and spiritually? i believe we can see God’s process of healing simply by observing the systems of healing He, in His wisdom, has built into our bodies. Yes, i realize i previously said that, but i believe it is so important we grasp God’s wisdom.

On a side note, healing takes time unless the Lord intervenes, setting us immediately in order… and He does indeed intervene. Luke 4:40, “When the sun was setting, the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying his hands on each one, he healed them.” Some would say, “Well, that was then and this is now.” but i have personally been witness to very similar events when God directly intervened in that the Lord does not immediately heal us, our emotional and spiritual wounds go through another process where what is disorganized by trauma begins to be re-organized, rearranged, cross-linked, and re-aligned. The problem of wounds being healed though, occurs when we stubbornly refuse to allow the wounds to be closed, denying God’s healing process to happen, and we just circle the memory of hurt and betrayal, crying and moaning, which is like having a physical wound that is trying to heal and we keep picking the scab off and keep digging at it. Friends, we must let the Lord do His work taking us to His healing-place. It simply takes time.

Wounds require binding, and binding takes time. While in the healing process, we often have to wait, and waiting is such a difficult thing. i’ve said it before, but here it is again, as much as we have to wait in this life, you’d think we would be better at it. When we have to wait on the Lord to work healing on our wounded hearts, often i hear people say they feel abandoned, or forgotten. Oh, not true, you are not in exile, we are being alone with the Lord so we can be re-organized, and re-focused, in order that He can personally tend our hurt and contusions.

If you are in leadership and have become entangled in sin, for me, i don’t want you to go away, i only want you to sit down for a while, not because you are bad, but so the Lord can heal the contusions of your heart and conscience. Some may want you to leave, but i don’t think it’s always a wise option. We don’t need to kill the wounded, we need to keep them close enough to us that we can help them get over the wounds of their heart and soul. Galatians 6:1, “Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted.”

When the Lord takes us aside to His healing place, it is not exile …. it is being alone with the Lord. i understand that it feels like exile, and it’s hard to withstand the feelings of exile no matter how wide our shoulders, or how tough our hearts, …. let us remember they are just feelings.

In His mercy, God takes us to His healing place, for all wounded things must wait to heal; detoxification from the world, sin, and the aberrations of church-ianity simply take time … it is wisdom, and distinctly to our advantage to go with God to His place of rest. John, who wrote the gospel of John, first, second, third John and Revelation, he was the victim of Roman persecution, and an exile on Patmos. It might seem a terrible thing for John to be put in exile, but it would also appear it was God preserving John’s life by taking John aside to Himself.

Let us ask the Lord for, Psalm 51:12, “Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.” Restoration takes time, be patient and let the Lord do what He does so well. My friends, God knows exactly where we are… He takes us out, to bring us in, He brings us down to take us up.

The idea is to “go with God” not “get what you want”. With God good idea, without God, bad idea.

True, the time it takes to be healed has hollow hours in the moment, and true, it feels filled with alot of waiting, it would seem … but while we are there, again it is wisdom, for sure, to remember that our God is not mean … be confident He loves us, and everything He does and wants is for our well being … always. Remember, Jesus said in Luke11:10-12, “For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?” If we look for Him, He will find us, but we do have to be interested enough to go and pursue the Lord.

In my own personal experience i’ve learned that in the seemingly hollow hours of waiting, i have also been alone with God where He wisely bound my wounds and healed my heart and mind.

Isaiah 30:26, “… the LORD binds up the bruise of His people And heals the stroke of their wound.”

If you have been wounded, disgracefully uncovered, or have been beguiled and deceived; if you are sick and sore, know that Jesus stands ready, with hands full of pity, love and power. If you are weary, heavy laden, disillusioned and ruined from the grief and trauma of life, Jesus knows exactly what to do. Even before you got to the place where you couldn’t go another step, exhausted from the lack of water in the heat of the day – weary from the battle… before you got to where you are, God was there waiting for you. He knew what He was going to do before you were ever traumatized, He had the salve and gauze ready, the surgical suite was already prepped, He is just waiting on you to call on His name for help. Rise up and go to Jesus, He is truly the only one who can help any of us. Doctor Jesus knows just the right medication to make you better, mind, body, and spirit.

i believe we are living in the days of Exodus 32 and 1Kings12:28, what i call, the days of the “golden calf”, meaning the days of betrayal, the days of treachery and treason. We are living in, what i call, “Judas days” meaning the days of believers re-deciding that Jesus is not Lord and God, going back on their covenant promises with God. It is the affliction of prodigality. For whatever deceives, whatever disappoints, whatever works to make people putrid before the Lord, whatever the enemy can put out there to wound our hearts and convince us there is no reason to continue … those are these days. Don’t lose heart my family, stand up on your weary feet, lift your trembling arms, call on the name of Jesus and God will stand the mountains on their edge to heal your bruised and wounded hearts.

Let the Lord heal your conscience, your heart, mind, and body. He stands, not sits, but stands ready to help. Wounds require binding, and binding simply takes time. Please friends, let God’s process work in your life. Think about it.

Micah 1:3, “For behold, the LORD is coming out of His place; He will come down And tread on the high places of the earth.” Isaiah 35:3-4, “Lift up the feeble hands, and steady the knees that give way; say to those with fearful hearts, Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you.”

Galatians 6:9-10, “And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.”

Share your bread with those around you, let us join the Lord in His work of reconciliation. You know, in 2Cor5 Paul says God reconciled us to Himself and also gave us the job of aiding and assisting others to come to reconciliation also.

On a side note, if we don’t begin to address shame, restoration is very difficult.

Be kind to yourselves if you’re not being healed as fast as you think you should be, or if circumstances and seasons aren’t changing quickly enough. God’s process of healing is thorough and righteous. Wounds require binding, and binding simply takes time.

Be strong and courageous this week, go in peace, and let the Lord’s healing process do as He has designed it to do. Go with God and rejoice, for Jesus knows your name, and that’s a good thing, don’t you think? Amen.

Have you ever tried to find the picture hidden in a picture? It’s like, the more you try and see “in” the picture, the more you only see your first impression.

A picture in a picture is called a stereogram, which is typically, nothing more than a tiled pattern, and it’s not just a play of imagination, the hidden image is very realistic and it is just a matter of seeing it.

Isn’t the Lord and scripture very much like that many times?…often the answer to our prayers is there if we give ourselves time to let God re-focus our eyes, minds, and hearts to grasp His intents and purposes. Scripture is like a 3D picture to me…i read the passage, and re-read it, and then re-re-re-read it, sometimes for many weeks, over and over again…there are parts that are obvious, of course, but as you know by now…with God, there is always more. The parables Jesus told were many-faceted, and as often as we read and understand them one way, over time, the Lord unfolds them in a new way, right before our very eyes.

When the Lord gives us ideas, i see them like looking at a stereogram. It might be just a word, a dream, a snippet of a vision, or a repetitive whisper in our hearts. It may be so faint we’re not sure if we should take it seriously or not…we all think lots of things, and learning what to take seriously is a learned, educated choice. 1Cor1:9 says God is faithful, and we must believe and know He is exactly that. Because He is faithful, even when we aren’t sure that what we saw is really what we saw, He’ll run it past us again, and then a little later He’ll give us another idea to accompany the first idea, a little scripture, a word from a friend or even someone we don’t know bringing a confirming word. But, little by little, He draws us deeper into a relationship with Him, clears our vision, opens our ears, and inch by inch, we start getting God’s big idea…and yes, every single one of His ideas are a big idea, and a big deal.

i’m Social Porter and this is Outposts, a weekly, semi-live broadcast, 30 minutes or so, meant to give everyone a little cool jazz and a bone to chew on as they go their way to the rest of their work-a-day world. This programming isn’t just a run-of-the-mill discussion about the Bible… it would be like everyone else, who all too often, do the easy things to have a little content out there…my intent is to speak to people about 3” below the surface of their presentation face, right down where they live. The contemplative conversation may be challenging, and maybe even a bit irritating at times to some, but the entire purpose is that there are things, we as believers, simply must talk about. i don’t mean we have to agree, but we do need to begin to, more specifically, address the issues that prevent us from coming to a better understanding of the heart of God. Church, we’ve truly got to change if we’re going to go around telling everyone we are world changers…let’s stop sitting where we are, stewing in our own secret mess going nowhere fast.

How do, or did, you get those “big ideas” you have… where’d you get’em or better, who gave’em to you?

There was a man who inherited some property from his uncle. It was quite a bit more than just a few acres. The man had always lived in town and in his youth he’d only gone to visit the uncle once in a while with his folks, and when he had gotten older he continued to stay in town and still only visited the uncle from time to time. When the uncle died he left it all to the nephew who was clueless about what to do with it all… the empty barn, the pasture and woods, not to mention the uncle’s old house. Seeing as how the man was given to prayer in the evening on a regular basis, one evening, he got the bright idea that he should just go out to the old place, sit in the barn, and talk to the Lord. It was a great idea and was easy enough to do… the next evening he went out there and set a spell, praying and thinking. He thought about a lot of things sitting up there in that old barn… he could almost hear his uncle telling him stories about riding horses, barn catfights, kids playing hide & seek after dark, tending cows and chickens… you know, typical farm stuff. He thought it was all so nice, that he decided he’d come back the next evening and pray and think again, and then the next evening, and the next until he had returned every evening for a week. Into his head came another idea that he’d like to make being at the old place a regular occurrence. He started heading out there early on Fridays, staying at the uncle’s house through the weekend, and didn’t come back to town until Sunday evening for church. Eventually, he started staying out there an entire week at a time, then he decided he liked it so much, he just moved from town altogether. It wasn’t long before he had the notion he’d like a barn cat or two and some chickens. It was just delightful. Then he got a cow/calf pair and filled the loft with hay. The months came and went, and as life goes, he met a girl he eventually married, and raised a whole bunch of kids, right there on that farm, the very same one he paid no attention to as a kid… then one day, it all became apparent right in front of him… God had done this thing, and it was beautiful.

One morning as the fellow woke up, he started remembering how God gave him a little idea, and then another idea to go with the first idea, and as he followed the Lord’s leading, it was peaceful and easily entreated and he just followed along with what God was doing. He couldn’t see, at first, where it was all going, and it had never entered his mind in his early life that he would ever live out there in all that green, away from the city. The man saw, with both eyes, in stereoscopic vision, that the Lord had led him out of where he was, to a better place to raise a family. Little by little, God’s big idea became apparent and he had been so clueless all along, in fact, for the most part, he thought all those ideas were his own until the Lord showed him the long view, and then he saw it… everything came into sharp focus… it was the Lord, even before he had inherited the place. God had been planting the seeds of that life, long before he got there.

Seeing the Lord and understanding scripture is like looking at a stereograph… we stare and stare, focus and focus, and then one day, our eyes relax and we stop trying so hard… we might see double a little bit… and then, oddly, things come into view within the picture… and there He is, glorious Jesus.

Don’t you know, God gives us all ideas? Matthew 5:45, “… for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” i believe if God didn’t give man good ideas, he just wouldn’t have any… good ones that is. Mankind left to himself tends to spiral downward, but with the Holy Spirit in our middle, we tend to spiral upward.

But what is it that impairs our having ideas and understanding, with understanding being the mental putting together of ideas, or connecting the dots, so to speak?

For those of us who know the Lord and read the Bible but still struggle with perception and understanding, there may be underlying issues that need to be acknowledged and addressed, like what i call, “spiritual binocular impairment”, which is where our spiritual eyes are unable to align properly, creating two slightly different views of God within ourselves. Some would call this a type of “spiritual cognitive dissonance”, two schools of faith at war with each other in our heads.

Many believers suffer from either being nearsighted or being farsighted, but neither of those seem to actually impair our ability to grasp God’s communications. Aside from that then, what else would impair our ability to hear and see the Lord? i have some ideas, and yes, i do believe the Lord pointed them out to me over a period of time concerning myself. One problem would be to suffer from a “lazy eye”, meaning one part of our spiritual vision is busy focusing on the Lord, but the other component of our stereoscopic view of Him seems to not be in any hurry to participate, it’s just too much trouble. Proverbs 26:14, “As a door turns on its hinges, So does the lazy man on his bed.”

How about having “spiritual wall eyes”, meaning both eyes look away from the point of focus, making balance and navigation a real challenge? Neither eye wants to cooperate, making vision a near impossibility. John 5:39-40, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.”

And then there are those with “wandering eyes”, which do work together, but are easily led astray and have a lack of fidelity… they are not loyal to God or the rest of the body of Christ… they do what they want, when they want, and aren’t committed to anything but their own vision. Jeremiah 2:19, “Your evil ways will get you a sound thrashing, that’s what you’ll get. You’ll pay dearly for your disloyal ways. Take a long, hard look at what you’ve done and its bitter results. Was it worth it to have walked out on your God?”

i had a dream once where i was traveling around town with a couple of angels, and everywhere i looked, there was a large black spot right in the middle of the vision in my left eye. It was a dream of “spiritual macular degeneration”… i was seeing, but not seeing… not that the view was messed up… it was me who wasn’t seeing it. i fully believe that if God doesn’t open our eyes and ears, then we will not see or hear His divine ideas and visions which He gives to us. Luke 24:30-31, “Now it came to pass, as He sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him… ”

All of those are treatable vision problems, but i do think we have to be interested enough to let the Lord repair those conflicts… the first is to admit there is a conflict in our heads and hearts, to begin with.

Being open to the Lord’s ideas, taking a chance on what we see and hear, that it actually might be the Lord… i believe is a learned behavior… it sort of goes against everything our society, and even some churches, tell us. Some say God doesn’t speak to men anymore… well, that’s just stupid…  why not? Personally, i don’t see what the problem is. He has a mouth, we have ears. John 10:27, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” He speaks, we who have ears to hear, know His voice. Three times in the book of John, Jesus said plainly that the sheep hear His voice, comprehend who is speaking, and follow Him… i think that’s pretty straightforward.

Evelyn says, “The Holy Spirit is so close to us, He gives us ideas and we think we thought of it.” How open are we to the Lord’s ideas and visions?

Stereopsis is an aspect of “normal” healthy vision. Here’s how it works. First, both eyes must be accurately aimed at the same target. Then, because the two eyes are located in different positions, each takes in a unique view from its own perspective. The two separate images are sent to the brain for processing. When the two images arrive simultaneously in the back of the brain they are united into one picture. The Lord has given us stereo vision, which is how we have depth perception. If you have stereo vision, then count your blessings!

Ask the Lord for ideas, visions, and imagination. i don’t mean we should do whatever pops in our head, but we can learn what to keep and what to throw out. And sure, we’re all going to get it wrong here and there, but somewhere along the line, we’ve got to step off the page of rules and regulations and walk on water.

In Matthew 14 the boat was in the middle of a turbulent sea in what the writer called, “a contrary wind”, contrary meaning antagonistic, whipping back and forth, creating confusion. It would appear that in the middle of all this, Jesus came walking on the water, scaring the soup out of everyone. Jesus said, “Keep your shirt on fellas, it’s me, don’t be afraid.” Then, in vs28 Peter, good old Peter, got the bright idea to walk on the water like Jesus was doing. The rest of the story is history which any of us can read. My question is, where do we think Peter got the big idea to walk on water? Do we truly think he thought of doing such a preposterous thing all by himself? Scripture is silent about that, and i realize we can’t build sound doctrine from a platform of silence, but i think the Lord gave Him the idea. Vs 29, Jesus says, “Come.” And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus.” i get it that Peter was pretty daring, and, occasionally, i am too, but who was it that persuaded Peter that this was a good idea? i believe it was the Lord. Peter may have considered that he thought of it by himself, but haven’t you ever had daring ideas, and taken action, only to realize later that it was the Lord who gave you that idea, and initially you thought you thought of it all by yourself?

Everyone wants to do exploits with Jesus and go on adventures with God, but you know, it takes trust in God, careful examination of the idea, scriptural alignment, and confirmation. The Lord always confirms His word to us. He gives us what i call, “prophetic markers” along the way… a word from a friend, a confirming dream, scripture to support our motivations and faith. Carefully, we have the big idea to “test the waters” so to speak. James 3:17, “But the wisdom from above is first pure [morally and spiritually undefiled], then peace-loving [courteous, considerate], gentle, reasonable [and willing to listen], full of compassion and good fruits. It is unwavering, without [self-righteous] hypocrisy [and self-serving guile].

i was self-employed for quite a while and loved what i did, but somewhere in my head was the nagging thought that a crossroads was coming up and i was going to need to change direction. One day i had the faint little thought that it would be good for me to go back to school. i ignored it… but like a drifting vapor, the idea came back around several more times, enough so, that i decided not to ignore it any longer. Years earlier, i never was one to enjoy school much, but this time it just seemed like it was the thing to do, and the more i thought about it, the more it was a great idea.

i started looking at local college classes that were available and enrolled in one. i found i really enjoyed college… then enrolled in a few more, with much success, very unlike high school. i began to see that the entire thing was the Lord directing my paths. Of course, over the next few years, there were a few very trying times… there were some really hard classes that i just wanted to quit and go back to the life i had before… but the Lord inspired me to persist… just keep going. In the words of one fellow, i figured i didn’t come that far to only come that far. There was more, and i became determined to finish.

All along, it was God Himself giving me ideas, even helping me understand complex academic concepts. i’ve never been the sharpest knife in the drawer, so i absolutely know it was God who gave me understanding. Eventually, i got a degree and to this day, i still have a sense of incredible accomplishment.

In 1 Sam 27, David was being hunted by Saul. In the opening verse, we read that David “thought to himself” that eventually, Saul was going to nail him, and the best thing he could do was get his men together and go hide out in Philistine country. His big idea to hide out amongst the Philistines saved his life, Saul called off the hunt.

Did David think of such a good idea all by himself? i doubt it. The Lord was with Him and David was available… so he took the idea and ran with it.

In Judges 6 there was this guy named Gideon who was a real scaredy cat. In vs 11 an angel came and sat under a tree while Gideon secretly threshed wheat in a wine press, hiding from the Midianites. The angel told Gideon he was a mighty man of valor, and Gideon basically replied with a big “Yeah right!” Gideon even argued asking if what the angel said was true, then why this, and why that, and even challenged him to prove it. The Lord just kept reassuring Gideon that he was the one to deliver Israel with confirmation after confirmation. He tested the Lord about every way i can imagine, and God met him time after time. Eventually, in one last confirmation, the Lord sent Gideon down to the enemy’s camp where he heard a dream interpretation that caused something to “click” in him. In Judges 7:17, when he heard, he worshipped and set the army in array to liberate Israel. He bought into God’s big idea, regardless of his fears and doubts, he tested the Lord and found God to be true.

Do you have any God-breathed ideas going on with you? What have you done with them? How long do you think you can ignore the Lord, after all, He was the one who birthed those ideas in you, and they aren’t there just for your entertainment? The Lord has an endless line of ideas for your blessing, health, prosperity, and welfare, we simply have to be willing to take a chance and go with the flow of the river. Think about it. Think about it

And now, the biggest idea of all of God’s big ideas… is Jesus, the Christ of God as Savior, Messiah, our salvation and deliverer… literally, the biggest and best idea God ever had, forever. Isaiah 46:9-10, “… For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, And I will do all My pleasure,’”

From before the foundations of the world were laid, the character of the cross was worked in the heart of the Father, so from the beginning, before there was such a thing as sin, God had a plan of salvation for whom so ever would return, coming in the gates of home as a victorious penitent.

Sending the Son to redeem us was an absolutely amazing idea that had been in motion before anything was anything.

God’s idea to raise up Moses to deliver Israel and become a powerful testimony today, was off the charts…  He had the idea to take the Israelites through the Red Sea and make miraculous provision for them was most spectacular. God had the idea to send righteous prophets to tell His story, reflect His heart, and foretell the coming of the Messiah, which was totally unique… it was God’s idea to bring Jesus in by way of a virgin. He had the design to resurrect Jesus, and it was His plan to give us ideas about how to do things, create things, and develop concepts… doing righteous business was His big idea, and even smaller things like the need to bury the dead as a kindness was His idea. It was God’s idea to make flowers, flavors, colors, and scents and to give man the ability to perceive and appreciate all those things. He was the one who put it in the heart of man to need music, dreams, sunrises, and sunsets. The Lord has really big ideas and i’d like to join Him in all He wants to do. Come, go with me! In the meantime, i’m going to ask Him for new ideas, visions, and words… in our bedroom, on the wall above the dresser at the foot of the bed are three large words that i see every morning: dream, believe, imagine… and it’s like every day my God is reminding me to exercise those three in His Name every waking minute, to let go and allow Him to take me into His infinite imagination of restoration and goodness.

i’m Social Porter with Cletus Iaomi and this is Outposts, a semi-live broadcast from the deck area overlooking the beautiful Ockluhwahhah River, where the trees gently lean over the river’s edge and every evening is pleasant.

This production was supported by Living In His Name Ministries, Tommy, Perry, Alan, and Kevin at the Mebane Freedom League, The 20/20 Men’s Group, Sister’s Coffee Company, and of course, the ever-strong and reliable, Jeff and Karen at Trinity Bakers, where there’s always something good in the oven.

.                   What big ideas do you have? Do you think you thought of things all by yourself, or is God at the roots of it all? What are your God dreams, visions, and words? You’ve got them, i guarantee it, you just need a way to make it happen. Let’s pursue the Lord together to release the vision of His heart to the world… afterall, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven.” Think about it, and Amen.