Whew, what a week! Going here, going there. Mrs. Smith fell again but with nothing broken, unlike 7 years ago which put her needing a walker to get around, but i’d also like to add that she lives out an amazing story of life and simplicity in Christ. She grew up in very rural America quitting school in the 3^rd grade because she had to work in the fields growing tomatoes and tobacco, not to mention helping with the general survival of her family of 13.

She grew up in poverty in the rural deep south. She said she caught the mumps when she was a child and the infection ruined her chances for having children. Her first husband died in the Korean war, her second husband died of tuberculosis, and, later in life she took an antibiotic for a sore throat but the drug ended up destroying part of her inner ear in both ears, so since her early 30’s  to her last days she has been completely deaf. After that, till she died, she never heard another bird sing, the wind blow, or person speak and couldn’t even hear herself speak…not another sound for the rest of her life.

Even at 86, she grew an ambitious garden and went to church twice per week, living her life with Jesus and her little dog. Every week she got her walker out and prayed and sang and worked out in the garden wearing a light cotton dress and a big straw hat … with a walker in one hand and a hoe in the other she tended what was hers as unto the Lord. She still kept her little house neat and clean, and was a diligent prayer warrior. Life was simple for Verda Smith…she told me once that the gospel of God was simple, easily accomplished, and the Lord was the core of her life. i like that and i think Mrs. Smith was right.

The gospel is, indeed, very simple, yet we have such a hard time with the Bible, accusing God of being a cruel task master, and all i can wonder is “Why do we think that?”

This is Outposts, a semi-live broadcast from the late night, cascading banks of the Ockluhwahha River, where the trees gently lean over the rivers edge, and every evening is pleasant. Stay with me for cool jazz and contemplative conversation. i shall return.

Living out the gospel of Jesus Christ is understandable, not-complex, but is quiet. It is straightforward, not hidden and God is plain with us. It is easily discernable by reading the Bible how we are supposed to conduct ourselves, how we should have our conversations, and the kind of character befitting the children of God –it is right character, the kind of character which is profitable for everyone, most especially ourselves.

Think about it. God is not asking us to do ridiculous things. He asks us to be honest and kind, people of good character, to be strong on behalf of the weak, do justice, possess high morals, and above all, to acknowledge Him as friend, lover, captain, and King alone. Romans 10:9 is not a stringent request, “confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, and you will be saved.”

God didn’t ask us to use a spoon and move a mountain one scoop at a time. He didn’t ask us to pave every driveway in America one shovel full at a time. He didn’t ask us to sacrifice our children in a fire, instead He asks us to simply love Him and our neighbor as ourselves, love our families, practice kindness and grace, and raise our children to know His love.

Matthew 11:28-30, which is a literal tipping point scripture when it comes to living under the iron manacles of the world or living life God’s way says, “Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” The verse implies the world’s burden is break your back heavy, and the yoke is so hard it will take your mind and life away, then sneer at you as you fall in the dirt and die.

Considering the rules and regulations governments and legislative bodies of men put on us, God’s rules are light, easily received, and peaceful. Man’s rules profit men, and even at that they tend to benefit only a select few, the few who make rules for the many. In fact, i’m convinced, the world never actually changes the rules unless there’s something to be profited. But God has more than just rules of conduct, character, and conversation … according to Jeremiah 29:11-13 God has a destiny for everyone who calls on His name, it says, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.” Now friend, here, right here, you can choose to believe that is meant for someone else, or for yourself. But let me assure you, God means that for you too, and i’d like you to start including yourself in all of God’s promises and stop finding a way to exclude yourself.

The scripture from Jeremiah29 doesn’t sound at all like a hard or bad thing. So why is it people think God and the Bible are antiquated and too “outdated” to take seriously, that God is stringent and living the Christian life is sssooo hard?? Could it be people who think that simply don’t really know what God says nor do they know what the Bible says? Or maybe people have only heard God’s idea of living as it was pulled out of context? Tough questions require brutal honesty, but think about this, truth is only brutal in the face of vague truth. A well defined picture always seems sharp when set next to fuzzy, undefined vision. Can it be that people just don’t want to hear God?

Verda Smith died happy and at rest. She loved Jesus and maintained to the end that the Gospel life was simple. She used to say to me like a mother to her child, “Tell the truth where ever you go, love Jesus with all your heart, He knows your name and He’ll never fail you.” Mrs. Smith used to say that if people couldn’t be honest with themselves they’d never be honest with anyone else, especially God. Hmmm, for someone who only went to the 3^rd grade, she knew a LOT of stuff. i reckon school often doesn’t teach a great deal that we truly need to know.

i saw an incredible child likeness in her. She was like someone in a fire who just clings to the fireman, and trusts to him alone. She raised no question about the strength of God’s arms to carry her, or the zeal of His heart to rescue, she just gripped the Lord. The heat of the fire would be terrible, the smoke blinding, but she clings; and her deliverer quickly carries her to safety. In the same childlike confidence, Mrs. Smith did cling to Jesus, who could and did bear her out of danger from the flames of darkness. i took special note of her life. i can still see her standing in the heat of the day in her garden – walker in one hand a hoe in the other, deaf and living in a broken body, twisted hands, there with her big hat on, smiling and singing as a living testimony.

Jesus invites all those who labor and are heavy laden to come to Him, and He will give them rest. He does not promise this to those who would merely dream about Him. They must come; and they must come to Him, and not simply to the Church, to baptism, or to the orthodox faith, or to anything short of His divine person. We can’t simply dream of better days but continue to lay on our sickbed. We must get up from there and bust a move, or as one guy put it, “i decided to implement a completely unexpected strategy and stop checking Facebook and TV show updates, start meeting with God on regular intervals, and go out and be in the world around me.”

Is it our personal agenda which complicates the gospel? Or is it our heart full of “don’t want to”? Or maybe both. Is it a fear that someone will know our secret thoughts, or the fear of being judged which prevents us? Maybe it’s just general rebellion which started in the garden at the provocation of the serpent, resisting the goodness of God for no good reason other than to resist with jaw jutting rebellion? Consider this…the gospel of Christ is far easier to believe and implement than the modern day idea that the universe and all of life’s incredibly complicated issues spun out of a swirling mass of unintelligent molecules whirling in space somewhere. The odds of that happening are astronomically higher than the probability of carrying, in the rough, the entire Sistine Chapel, with all it’s carved pews, cut stone and tinted glass, in an airplane at 15000 feet, dropping it over the present building sight, and having every last piece fall exactly into place of what we call, today, the Sistine Chapel in all of it’s glory. The odds are about 1 in 10 plus over 100 zeros it could happen, and for life in the universe to spring out of nothing is closer to 1 in 10 with 500 zeroes following. The gospel is much simpler, wouldn’t you agree? What IS our problem with something as simple as the Gospel of Christ? It isn’t hard, it is good for us in all manners and ways, it is eternally prosperous and profitable for ourselves and everyone around us. But yet in our darkest night, when our hearts are seemingly broken in unrepairable pieces, when our bodies are suffering and are nearly dead from self-inflicted diseases and self-loathing, in our final moments, we resist the Love of God, and for what?

It is completely to our advantage to yield our lives to Christ. You’d think for people who are generally incredibly self centered, self-seeking, and self-promoting we would take God up on His offer of help, redemption, and restoration. But nooooo. Many would prefer death on the installment plan as to be engaged with God and my only thought is the world doesn’t comprehend what Jesus is extending them.

As in John1:5, the darkness just doesn’t get it. I have a vision of two on a road, running, racing, but the Light keeps a pace that the arrogant darkness is sweating hard to keep up with, when suddenly the Light picks up the pace again, and then again . . . the darkness breathlessly wonders “How can this be?”

When there is no light in the hearts and eyes of mankind, the goodness of God is mysterious, vague, and hard to focus on, with the face of God obscured from the eyes of the world. The conscience of people is wounded and bruised and has become insensitive to God’s gentle kindness. Mankind has lost their relish of righteous things, and as a result God’s extended hands of hope are unrecognized for many people. They find it easy to say the Bible is outdated. Maybe it’s easier to claim the Bible is outdated than it is to be responsible for what we think, our actions being born out of our twisted thinking.

Ok, well, how outdated is too outdated?  It seems to me mankind spends an inordinate amount of time thinking of reasons why they should NOT listen to God. Even for those of us who are believers, we seem to spend an inordinate amount of time wishing God would do something OTHER than what He’s doing. We groan and moan and complain, find ways to resist Him, coming up with our “good reasons” why we just generally “can’t”. i believe the gospel message is simple and easily understood.

John6:28-29 “Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?”  Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”

That is so very NOT complicated, wouldn’t you agree?

There are many who have tried to take the moral teachings of Christianity and divorce them from the message of the cross. It doesn’t work. Such teachings are meaningless and powerless for there can be no Christianity without the cross and resurrection. The Bible is addressed to everyone, and sound doctrine applies to everyone, not just an elite group. When Jesus sent out the apostles in Mark16:15,  they were sent to take the gospel to every creature of every nation of the whole world. The invitation was extended to everyone. The book of John has a basic theme of “whosoever can come if they will”. Jesus emphasized that anyone who seeks to know the Lord’s will can find it and those who hunger and thirst after the Lord’s righteousness shall be filled with it.

Let’s go back to the Bible. Let’s take the gospel to those who are lost, the unfortunate ones, the bankrupt and blind, “not with eloquent speech but with wisdom, declaring the testimony of God”. Like Paul said in 1Cor2:2, Let us determine “not to know anything among ourselves, except Jesus Christ, and him crucified”. Men can comprehend that God sent His Son to die on Calvary’s cross for the remission of our sins. They can love Him enough to believe in Him and obey Him. Souls will be won to Jesus Christ, the church will grow, and God will be praised.

The gospel of Christ is simple. Let us not complicate what God has made peaceful and easily grasped. Think about it.

We’re at the end of our time here at Outposts. i hope i’ve left you with some things on their way to being resolved, some things to chew or contemplate, and a little music to brighten your path.

i’m Social Porter and this evening’s broadcast is brought to you fresh every morning by the Kingdom of God, Living In His Name Ministries, Area 22 Guitars, Kevin, Perry, and Tommy over at world headquarters for the Mebane Freedom League, and Trinity Bakers, where there’s always something good in the oven.

Music was by the Pete Minger Quartet, Jim Beard, Pepper Adams, Freddie Hubbard, Steve Morse, and Jeff Berlin. All music use is licensed by BMI.

This week, remember the gospel isn’t complicated and God is closer than your next breath. What God asks of us isn’t cruel or stringent, His rules and boundaries are for our own good, He even has a plan and destiny for each one of us.

Be strong and courageous! The Lord knows your name, and that’s a good thing.

It would appear summer has set it’s sights on us with the break out of wild flowers, honey bees, boaters on the river, and my personal favorites, the fireflies, the crickets, and the frogs who make the evening seem surreal and dream like.

i was in the basement of the cafe this afternoon looking for an old music stand i kept stashed down there and i came across some old pictures of myself and to other boys from long ago. The pictures had folded edges, slightly yellowed, but the memory was still there. There we were, three boys standing at the edge of the river, right near here, barefoot, smiling eyes, fishing poles in hand. i remember well that summer day when the mother of one of the boys took that picture. It was the day we made an agreement between ourselves, that someday, we’d meet again, buy this property and put up a cafe here in this very place with a big deck overlooking the river, where people would come, peace could be found, and sometimes we’d talk till the wee hours of the morning. Laughing about silly old times, sad about some of the trails of life, and expounding on the victories of overcoming and being strong. We imagined ourselves as old men, sitting on the deck speaking our adventures, with wives, children and grandchildren, and how God, from the beginning had a destiny for us. Some of us learned a little about destiny in Sunday school, and it was just enough to dream, believe, and imagine that maybe, just maybe we could be part of the amazing stuff God was doing.

How about you? Do you remember anything from your younger years like that?

Do you know that the word “remember” in all it’s variations, is used 651 times in the Bible? That says to me the idea of recalling the days, years, times and seasons of our lives, our times of joy, opportunity, and enjoyment are all a priority according to the Lord……but above all, it is a vital time to remember that our God and King is good and of galactic importance. He has pursued us as a determined lover, even when we didn’t want to be pursued.

Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy–meditate on these things.”

As we’ve said before seeing as how we spend the majority of our lives waiting, how do we spend our time of waiting? What do we allow our minds to dwell on? Like i did when i saw the picture of the three amigos, i allowed myself to dwell on that summer day when we three boys played “Tom Sawyer”. Those boys, who even then, as children, had a dream of fellowship, that the days of our youth would continue and would be as wonderful in our future as that magical day fishing together on the Ockluhwahhah River.

Most everyone, i would imagine, would like to forget the tragedies and terrible times of our lives. There have been overwhelming storms in my life i would love to not remember, because, well, because they were hard, or sad, or cruel, but on the other hand, looking back, remembering even those times, i can see God at work in my life… even then. God at work in my life is more important to see than just remembering the heart break of life. We have to look over the top of those seasons of grief and hand wringing, past the blackened mile stones of vicious circumstances to see God, even if at that time, Jesus was not part of our everyday as we knew it, God was there, speaking, working, and helping.

Regardless of what a person has done, or what kind of abuse one has suffered, God still calls us. We may think our secret is worse than anyone else’s. Rest assured that He knows all about it, and still draws us with an immutable call. No matter how difficult life seems, people with a past need to make their way to Jesus. Regardless of the obstacles within and without, they must reach Him. We don’t have to tell everyone our entire history. Just know that He calls, on purpose, people with a past. He knows our history, but He calls us anyway. The “wounded redeemed” is a good term, and Jesus is setting those captives free…those with burned out, black and white lives that have been reduced to smoldering ashes…and out of the ashes… OUT OF THE ASHES COMES THE WORK OF THE LORD.

Remember God in your life, not your life as it appears in fading memory. Jesus made those broken weary bones to dance again, it’s Jesus who waters our thirsty hearts with a river. Like the song says, Lord we rest our eyes on You, we are waiting…for You are our garland of grace and we worship Your Great Name with songs of praise and a lifestyle of worship.

When David was in the cave hiding from Saul’s thugs, the people that showed up were “desperate, discouraged, and dissatisfied”, and those people ended up becoming the “mighty men of valor”, the people willing to bleed for a cause. They no longer merely appeared to be valiant, but actually BECAME strong men of valor. What an interesting transformation…from the 3 D’s to the 3 R’s… from Desperation, Discouragement, and Dissatisfaction – To Redeemed, Reconciled, and Restored.

That transformation is worth remembering, forever.

Jesus wants us to want Him enough to overcome obstacles and to push in His direction. He doesn’t want to just throw things at us that we don’t have a real conviction to receive. When we see a humped-over person crawling through a crowd, know that that person really does want help, even if they say they don’t, somewhere in their heart they wish they did have some help. That kind of desire is what it takes to change our lives. Jesus is the answer. We may seek help by going from one person to another, but Jesus is the answer. We may be sick in our body, but Jesus is the answer. If my son is dead, insane, on drugs, or is just far away in a distant land, Jesus is the answer. No matter my problems, Jesus is the answer.

God remembers His covenant with people, He said so in Genesis 9:15. Nehemiah 4:14 ^“…Remember the Lord, great and awesome…” Psalm 9:12 says God remembers, or brings to mind, the cry of the poor and does not forget them. Because God remembers them, we should remember them also. In Psalm 42, David gives us a good example of what to do when we are remembering the more unkind times in our lives and we incur turbulence in our emotions and feelings, reliving that hardness. David says he goes to God and pours out his heart, and he remembers the goodness of God which gives Him rest and peace. Notice, David didn’t just dwell on all the injustice and wrongness. He purposely focused on God, and as he rested His eyes on God, his heart came to rest.

Do you remember God in your life before you knew He was in your life? If i set my mind to the task of remembering the times of my youth, knowing Jesus now, i can see Him back then. i can see things God did, things He said to me, things He influenced in other people, long before i thought i knew Him. Interestingly, those memories of God’s working in my life are so alive, even now. and even though all my other memories have lost or begun to lose their luster, the memories of the footsteps of the Lord are as bright now as ever before. It’s also odd to me, i can clearly see that in those moments, it never crossed my mind anything about the Lord whatsoever….and some would say, how can that be? All i can think is that the Lord was there and i simply didn’t have eyes to see Him, and now that i do have eyes to see, He is clearly there in my memories.

In John 5 there is an account of a man who was sick for 38 years whom Jesus met at the pool, Bethesda in Jerusalem. Jesus asked the man if he wanted to be made whole, and even though the man made an excuse for why he hadn’t been healed in the past and never did actually answer the question, Jesus healed the man anyway. Interestingly, the man did not know who it was who healed him. The knowledge nor the recognition of God was not present in his memory, even to the point that when the Pharisee’s asked him who did this, the man said, “i don’t know”. Only after Jesus found the man in the temple later on, and said, “You are well, go and sin no more lest something worse comes upon you”, only then did the man know who Jesus was.

God was working in that man’s life, even when the man did not know it was God who did the work. In the same way, i believe God is at work in our lives, even when we do not know it is God who works in us and in our circumstances.

Now that i know Christ and am much older, i remember times of my wild days as a young man, and i can clearly see God miraculously turning the car from the sure death of going off a mountain road; i can clearly hear God speaking wisdom to me to not go down a certain pathway; i can clearly remember the Lord motivating me to try harder in school to help me not see myself as a complete failure; it is clear to me now, and it is the kindness of God, that today, in my remembering myself as a young man, i see the Lord bringing me into relationships with other people, with some of those friendships continuing to this day, and they are not only good for me, i see the Lord in them also.

Look beyond the stagnant days of your life, think and remember. Can you see the Lord in your life, even before you knew it was the Lord in your life? Can you see Him?

Remember…. the Lord says, “Look and see, it was Jesus all along”. Many, if not most times, we don’t need someone to bring us BIG change, we just need a firm foot provided us so we can set our foot against it in order that we can find purchase to change direction some.

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

From the Journal of the Unknown Prophet:

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

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

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

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

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

Let’s pull this program to a close this evening. The day is done, gone the sun, only the world at rest is left around us.

i’m Social Porter and this evening’s broadcast is brought to you by our good friends on Main Street, Trinity Bakers, where there’s always something good in the oven, Living In His Name Ministries, Area 22 Guitars, Kevin, Perry, and Tommy over at world headquarters for the Mebane Freedom League, and Werner Graphics.

Music was by the Pete Minger Quartet, Andreas Vollenweider, Coleman Hawkins, George Benson, J.J. Johnson, Miles Davis, and Didier Malherbe. All music use is licensed by BMI.

Remember this week as you go your way in your work-a-day world, God has been working in you since before it ever entered your mind He was in your life. The Lord is merciful and kind to us, long past our ever deserving anything as good as His love towards us. Be kind to each other, speak peace to your neighbor, afterall, God is working in them also in order to bring them safely to anchor in a peaceful and restful harbor.

Be strong and courageous. One day soon i’ll meet you under the flag of the Lion of Judah, the ensign of the Son of God and we’ll talk further. Amen.

The church invisible “is made up of the summation of the whole, meaning everyone who belongs to God who ever was, presently is, or in the future shall be gathered into one body under Christ, who is the head.” i think of it as “invisible” because the greater part of those who comprise it are already in heaven or aren’t born yet…. and also “invisible” because its members who are still on earth can’t easily be seen many times. i reckon it’s the truth, not every believer, at first glance, looks like a believer…how are we supposed to look other than how we look? We don’t wear a special badge, or special clothing, live in special houses, or drive special cars so everyone knows us as believers. Regardless of what some negatively think, regardless of the grievances some may have laid at the feet of “the church”, according to scripture, God calls us a holy community, “the church”.

The qualifications of membership in the family of God are internal and are hidden. It is “invisible” or unseen except by Him who “searches the heart.” 2 Timothy 2:19, “The Lord knows those who are His”.

The church to whom the attributes, exclusive rights, power, privileges, and promises as a rightful part to Christ’s kingdom belong, are a spiritual body consisting of all true believers, and again, the church invisible. You may object to the wording there, but that is how God sees it, and truly, my friend, the buck stops with Him, not with us, our prejudices and disagreements. And yes, i realize throughout this entire program i’ve said, “God loves the church”, over and over. It is no mistake of repetitiveness but has a purpose.

God loves His people, He loves the church. The Lord has extended Himself beyond our wildest dreams in order that He would be involved with us, His people. From the beginning, His heart has been that He would be known, and we would be known by Him. Here’s a sticky statement: Right relationship is a two way street with good boundaries. If The King of the Universe didn’t love us, as He most certainly does, He wouldn’t fool with us. Think about it, we have a lot of nerve to declare “God doesn’t care” in light of from before the beginning He had a plan to redeem us, even before we fell to sin…He would not correct us if He didn’t care. Hebrews 12:6 “For the Lord corrects and disciplines everyone whom He loves, and He punishes, even scourges, every son whom He accepts and welcomes to His heart and cherishes.” Hold your place on this page, and i shall return in a moment.

Who are those comprising the visible church? They are all those throughout the world that profess the true faith. i call them “visible” because they are known, for the most part public, and although some are in secret because of murderous gov’ts and brutal societies, they are alive and functioning in the now. In the middle of “the church” is a mixture of “wheat and chaff,” or saints and sinners. One fellow wrote, “God has commanded His people to organize themselves into distinct visible legislative and ruling communities, with constitutions, rules, officers, badges, ordinances, and discipline. The organization is for the purpose, which is a conclusion to a matter for us to take action to accomplish, for the purpose of giving visibility to His kingdom, of making known the gospel of that kingdom, and of gathering in all those who belong to God. Each one of these distinct organized communities which is faithful to the great King, is an essential and indispensable part of the visible church, and they, all together, constitute the visible church.” The Lord gave momentum to the church, and their character and progress are set forward in motion in all the earth. You know, that’s a really big statement. i’ll be awhile thinking about that.

David Wilkerson wrote, “Consider what Paul said of the purity of Christ’s church: Ephesians 5:25-27 “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.”

Mr. Wilkerson continues on saying, “God’s great concern is not about the apostate church. Even apostasies will not be able to kill or destroy the church of Jesus Christ. In spite of these problems, God has everything under control, and his anointed, visible and invisible, overcoming church is not dying. Rather, the river of the Holy Spirit is flowing into the “dead sea” of apostate churches, exposing iniquity and luke warmness. And it’s causing new life to spring up everywhere.”

Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” If you want to do something for God, then love what he loves. It is a way to imitate God without “playing God”.

In Psalm 146:8 we see that the Lord loves the righteous.  God loves the Church.  He loves the people whose lives are hidden in Christ and who obey him. The Lord holds that the church is indeed a big deal. Why? …because God loves the church deeply, and with an everlasting commitment.

The Lord is the very embodiment of loyalty and commitment. With Him it is more than a couple nouns. Because He IS the two nouns, His person gives living substance to them as they are a someone, more than a something. Because He is the personification of loyalty and commitment, He represents his love for the church through the example of marriage. The Church isn’t just a brick and mortar facility…it’s not an empire, or a club, an organization, institution, or a religion. If it was an empire or a club we would only have to agree we are right and everyone else is wrong. Indeed, there are some who act like it’s a club instead of being part of the body of Christ. But in the true Body of Christ we all agree there is only one who is right, and it ain’t us. The focus is the Kingdom of God, not the empire of men. In God’s love, like marriage, there is covenant, promise, and responsibility. A friend recently said something like, “It’s no wonder many people are church surfers with little commitment. If they treat the body of Christ and church like they treat their marriages, with an average divorce rate of 52% or more, we shouldn’t be surprised at the lack of commitment to any church body.”

We are God’s family! Christianity means, not only relating to God, it means relating to other believers. When you become a Christian, you are a part of a family. That means our relationships are more than just passing in the night, but more the continual action of loyalty and commitment, if possible, to stick it out. Romans 12:18, ^“ If possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” If possible is accented here, and i too am stressing the phrase because there truly are situations where it is not possible with people, and that requires an entire set of different choices and decisions, complete with renewed boundaries, and distinct plans of action.

Being part of the church, as in the body of Christ, is not merely being part of a group which meets at a brick and mortar facility, it is not in terms of a boy friend/girl friend relationship, yet, i believe many are subtly doing nothing more than dating God and the church whom He loves, seemingly only hanging around for what they can get from Him. In their hearts they treat the Lord like He’s on a short leash. They are critical of Him, judging what they have imagined Him to do or not do, and ready to terminate their relationship with God at any moment if He doesn’t do what they think He should. Oh, how little those people know God. i’m going to be a little aggressive here according to some, but i think many of us don’t know God nearly as well as we think we do.

Ephesians 2:19 “Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God”.

This verse says the church is God’s family, and every believer needs a home, connected to the legisla  body as well as a family of believers. i didn’t say a brick and mortar facility, but a church home as in.. others with whom we are in fellowship with. The question isn’t, “did you go to church” as in a building somewhere at a certain time, but did you connect with God? And if we think 10mins before and after a meeting is sufficient to call it connecting, we are wrong.

The church is God’s beloved, and it’s about His house, from the start. The very first letter of the Bible is the Hebrew letter, beit, and it’s oversized, emphasizing that from cover to cover it’s about the house of God and His family whom He loves. It’s there in 1 Thess 1:4 where it says, “brothers loved by God.” God loves the church, so let’s not get caught up in letters and miss the point … The male-ness of the terminology here is not meant to exclude women or children. The church is a family of brothers and sisters, the language simply refers to siblings. In 1Peter4 it is mentioned again concerning the church as the ‘household of God.’  The reference is very clear to me. A household is a unit, one comprised of children, mother, and father. God loves the church, and we should be reminded it isn’t right to call the bride of Christ names and we ought not forget this. Neither should we ignore it, doubt it, downplay it, belittle it, or de-emphasize it. Just because the church has problems, doesn’t mean God doesn’t love the church, and just because we may have personal ought with the church, doesn’t mean God doesn’t love the church. That God loves the church, that He set His affections on her, that He set His affections on us, is a truth we must… prize. i’m not saying the church doesn’t have some serious problems to resolve, and by only speaking sweet things made of moon beams, candy canes, and merry-go-rounds is not honest nor does it resolve anything. But… even in light of our difficulties, we are still the church whom He loves.

So then, what does it mean for God to love us, from His perspective? i was amazed when i looked up the word “beloved”. Simply put, it means to cherish, or take pleasure in. God cherishes, He t akes pleasure in the church family as more than a companion! Ahh, truly it is more…. The Hebrew word for beloved in 2Sam, used 208 times in scripture, literally paints a picture which says God leans in His heart towards us, to exercise grace for the return of His people whom He loves. That is what He means when He calls us His beloved. He loves us so passionately, it is said, “He breaths after us and calls us His darling.” Psalm108:6, “That your beloved ones may be delivered”. “Beloved” is used of the desire of ones heart 30 times alone in the Song of Solomon. This is significant and we should take note of God’s attitude toward the church, putting away our snurling lip and aiming finger of judgment.

To be God’s beloved, metaphorically, is like He takes his wallet out, or turns on His smart phone, and says, “Check it out! These are My kids! These are my sons and daughters!”, acting like a proud parent. Like a man prizes his super car, or his son or daughter, just like a woman treasures her diamond engagement ring and wants to show it off to the other girls, God holds the church near and dear.

‘How deep the Father’s love for us
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
To make me, a wretch His treasure’

            i believe that the Love of God is broader than being just about you and i though. It has a broader scope than just loving the church. God the Father loves God the Son. John 3:35 straight out says, “The Father loves the Son…” And John 14:31 says that the Son loves the Father as a perfect love, unblemished by any questionable motive, and untarnished by even the slightest infraction.

That God so loved the world that He gave His Son does not mean He so loved only those who loved Him back. There’s that retributive theology again. There may be those who try to make it say that…but that’s not what it says. That “God SO loved the world” means He loved the object of His affection who was full of wrongness. The world (kosmos) in John refers to a wicked, rebellious, self-centered, God excluding system with a God-hating order of things, which is full of moral darkness. And regardless of all that, God still loved.

In the book, “The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God” by Don Carson he states, “In John 3:16 God’s love in sending the Lord Jesus is to be admired not because it is extended to so big a thing as the world, but to so bad a thing as the world; not just to “so many” people, but more as to such wicked people”. Brennan Manning said the Lord told Him one time, “God expects you to fail far more than you expect yourself to fail.” In other words, the Lord Almighty knows the world is worse than it understands, yet His love and grace do not stagger or waiver.

So, if God’s love is bigger and more complex than his love for the church, what makes his love for the church a big deal? God loves. God is love. In the O.T. God didn’t love all equally and the same. He didn’t love Egypt the way he did Israel; He didn’t love Esau the way he did Jacob. Ahhh, but once we leave the O.T. and cross into the new, Jesus died once, for all, and grace extends His love to small wickedness as well as large. It isn’t in terms of worthiness. A changed heart thoroughly saturated with the tenderness of God passes that tenderness around indiscriminately, making no distinction between the worthy and unworthy. Grace levels the mountains and fills in the valleys, and makes a level playing field for all to receive His love with reckless abandon.

John 3:16 says God loves the world…. that is the world in all it’s moral darkness and wickedness… But the love he has for His people, for the family who are the church, moves the Lord to mark them out, to set them apart from before that chaos which existed in the beginning. He calls that being sanctified.

God loves His people beyond our wildest and most stretched out imagination. Regardless of circumstances, even when our ship is overwhelmed in the storm and the deep is coming over the sides, God’s love for us stands firm. The Lord our God loves us, His church, His bride! Never lose sight of that! Think about it.

Never forget God loves us, the church. Whether we like it or not we are part of the family of God, we who believe on Christ Jesus and exalt the Lord as the One and only God, by whom we relate to each other, and are looking and hoping for unity through Christ who is our means of harmony.

Thank you for joining me here at Outposts for acoustic jazz night accompanied by some contemplative conversation, broadcast semi-live from the late evening, cascading banks of the Ockluhwahhah River, where the trees gently lean over the rivers edge, and every evening is pleasant.

i’m Social Porter and this program has been brought to you by the Kingdom of God, Living In His Name Ministries, Area 22 Guitars, Werner Graphics where the landscape of Heaven comes to life through the art of God’s imagination here on earth, the Mebane Freedom League with Kevin, Tommy, and Perry, and of course, Trinity Bakers, where there’s always something good in the oven.

Music was by Al DiMeola, Billy McLaughlin, Mark O’Conner, Phil Keaggy, Preston Reed, and Andy McKee. All music use is licensed by BMI.

Be strong and courageous, dance before the Lord when no one can see you, speak to the Lord and those around you in holy songs and melodies. Visit someone this week who you wouldn’t normally see, and look to the sky, the return of Christ is near. Amen.

Standing on the deck of a ship in Puerto Rico in 1974, i looked out over the bay area of a literal paradise. It was warm, green trees, blue sky and bright sun, i can still almost smell the amazing ocean breeze with that “salt air” smell. As i stood on the edge of the deck looking down, it seemed the water was so crystal clear…. like no water i had ever seen other than the clear mountain streams of my home ground in North Carolina, maybe even clearer. i got the big idea to see just how clear the water was, so i ran to my locker and got a couple big shiny coins i had kept from another country and hurried back topside. Some other fellas and myself stood still to watch as i dropped the first coin into the clear blue green water, i flipped the coin with a gentle flip and we all watched it dive with a soft arc to the water. There was a plop, and we watched with wonder as the shiny coin, waggled and flipped, and gyrated on it’s way to the bottom, flashing light as it went down. Down, and down, … impossibly we could still see the coin falling and flashing for the longest time. Of course, it eventually stopped is it came to rest on the bottom, or we lost sight of it as the coin got too deep to catch enough light to reflect, either way, we all marveled at the clear water.

In my life, flowing from my heart, is water clearer than any water on earth. It is clear water, like the water from the rock in the desert when Moses asked God for water in Exodus 17:6 and God said, “Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink.” And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.” That’s what i want, God water!

Clear Water! What a beautiful picture God gives us of His heart and Heaven in the simple vision of Clear Water. Can you imagine a never ending stream of God-water coming to you and flowing from you, never running dry?

What is the quality of the water you drink? No, no, no. i don’t mean the kind in a glass or a bottle, i mean the spiritual water you drink. What is in it? How does drinking from “the well which will never run dry” impact your life? Jesus was talking to a Samaritan woman at a well and mentioned “living water”. When she asked Him where to get “living water”, he replied in John4:13, “…anyone who drinks earth water would thirst again, “…but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” Do you see that? He said, “this water”, meaning the earth water drawn from the well which had been dug in the earth. Then in vs.14, “whoever drinks of the water I will give”, which is water she had no idea about, nor did anyone else. Not only will the person who drinks God-water never thirst again, but that person will spring up into a fountain of water of everlasting life. Wow!! According to Jesus, if i drink God-water, i get to be a living well of water for others. Now THAT is some kind of water. In Jeremiah 2:13 God reveals Himself to be that very well spring.

i love to look at the examples in the Bible and see them, not only for what they are, but also look at them as if i’m reading a play script. What are the props and how are they significant? Who are the characters, what were they like, do i identify with them, and what was their driving motivation beneath the surface of their presentation face, not their true face but their presentation face? The woman at the well was a Samaritan, she wasn’t actually committed to any vein of faith, she just had ideas and sort of believed in, well, something ‘er other, although she did have ideas. She was probably pretty uneducated, and more than likely a nobody of sorts living at a lower class status. She was not morally upright like Nicodemus. She had no clue who Jesus was and it wasn’t likely she recognized any of her own merits. i think, and this is just what i think…. she was probably quick to speak and responded emotionally, as opposed to being slow to speak with careful ponderance as to the weight of her words. She didn’t say, “Oh, sir, you look like a Jewish rabbi. i’m hungry to know God. Can you tell me how to do that?” Nooo…she was just doing her regular chores, carefully keeping to herself, and then she meets a stranger who asks her for a drink of water. She wasn’t looking to “know God” on the surface of things. Chances are good she was rejected and isolated by the people of her town due to her live-in boyfriend and failed marriages. It all caused her to justify keeping her distance from God. She wasn’t obviously seeking Him, He was obviously seeking her, and then Jesus drew her into a conversation which opened with a question about a drink of water. Take special note here, Jesus was doing as the Father directed. He didn’t go to the town council first to present the gospel. He didn’t go to the people who wore “I Know” clothes and walked in “important person” shoes. He didn’t make his appeal first and only to the local church leaders, and then did the trickle down method, letting them spread the word as they saw fit. He didn’t have the disciples go before Him putting up posters and sending out email flyers saying He was coming to town. He didn’t hire a marketing committee and do some mass emails. He purposely went to one place when it was not likely anyone would be around, met one uneducated, low class woman who was busy avoiding the likely ridicule of other women, and during the hottest time of the day, made one request for one drink of water. The Lord is drawing each of us into a conversation, specific for each person, and even pursues a conversation with people like myself, who was a most unlikely candidate considering i was uneducated, immoral, quick to speak, and low class….all of us…. and He’d like very much for us to be the ones to ask Him for a drink of water.

Everyone, as far as i know LOVES a good cool, clear, refreshing drink of water. After all, human beings are approximately 60-75% water, so it’s totally understandable that we would have a love affair with water. What about a drink of water for our spiritual person then? The value of Heaven’s refreshment is alluded to in Psalm72:6 where it says, “The Lord shall come down like rain upon the grass before mowing, Like showers watering the earth,” meaning God-water refreshes the soul of man and makes us to grow and be like a lush field. The value of water from Heaven is referenced in another place. In Psalm107:35 the Lord says He will change waterless places in the earth into clear water, or dry and thirsty souls will be refreshed with God’s special blend of Heavenly water.  If we are oh so careful about the earth water we drink, doesn’t it also stand to reason we should be even more careful as to the spiritual water we drink?

It stands to reason we should be just as selective about water for our spirit and soul. Not all water is considered “potable”, meaning suitable for drinking, but i must add that my idea of what “suitable for drinking” means could certainly be different than someone in a third world nation which is left no choice but to drink fouled water because that’s all there is.

God-water has very different properties than earth water. God-water is as constant as God Himself …. it is so much more than earth water. Unlike earth water, i certainly hope i’m “in over my head” in the well which never runs dry. God’s refreshing, clear water comes to us with very high percentages of wisdom, vitality, privilege and promise. It has thirst quenching truth, decision making balance, and over the top emotional and mental stability as seen in 2 Timothy 1:7 “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”

Oh yes, don’t you know the water “from the rock” is VERY consistent and stable, and if we will drink from the well which Jesus offers, we can be consistent and stable too. Unlike earth water, if you compress it, it doesn’t explode, the water Jesus will give you only gets better under pressure, and when we drink it, we get better under pressure too, believe it or not. i don’t know anyone who says they can’t wait to be under pressure, but Jesus did say in this world we will have trouble so we ought not to be surprised when life does pressurize us. When pressure comes, you will get better, for the Lord has given us strength and refreshing we’ve not even tapped into yet. He is bigger than everything we have not imagined yet. We are guaranteed consistent purity and wholesome goodness in every drop of God-water.

What else comes with the water Jesus promised us, if we will let  ourselves drink? In drinking from Heavens fountains, we get patience, fortitude and endurance. God’s Clear Water is imbued and completely permeated with God Himself. With every drink of God-water we get God, and with Him comes all He is. In Him is justice which runs down like water, And righteousness like a mighty stream. In the water Jesus gives us, there is LIFE, and not earth life, but God-life, not just eternal life, but the breath of life Himself … Psalm 63:3 “Because Your lovingkindness is better than life,” and that is better than earth-life. God’s life giving, clear water is real and it comes with vision, provision which is provided to advance the vision, and right-perception.

You might ask, How can water, any water have all this stuff? This is absurd. i say, if you would accept the free drink of water Jesus offers you, your eyes would be opened … your eyes would see beyond the physical, your ears would hear more than your own voice and the dull hum of the world around you, and your mouth would suddenly have the potential and right to become an instrument of goodness. Yes, that’s what i said, The Right, because we can’t speak God-words in power without God at our core. His voice must inhabit our voice. It starts with a long, cool drink of clear water from the well which never runs dry…. Jesus.

i believe mankind, in general, has an overwhelming thirst for earnestness, integrity, openness, real praise and not the dirty water of man’s praise. They long to participate in real worship and not just the worthless worship of imaginary things, man-made things, or ideas. i believe people are leaving church by the droves because the well-meaning church is doing a pattern that sells and fills seats, and the masses need Jesus, not a pattern or a show. Drinking from the fountain of God breaks the illusion of darkness and the dissatisfactory water of the world. Let us become disillusioned with the illusion of the devil. Think carefully here: we can’t become dis-illusioned unless there was an existing illusion to begin with. Do any of God’s benefits sound like anything you would want?

Clear water, God-water, the water which flows from the Fountain of God is the ultimate drink, the utmost of God’s highest. Psalm36:8-10 “They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of Your house, And You give them drink from the river of Your pleasures. For with You is the fountain of life; In Your light we see light. Oh, continue Your lovingkindness to those who know You, And Your righteousness to the upright in heart.” In that scripture the words “fountain of life” means literally, “water that is flowing from the One who is alive, living and flowing, green and vibrantly alive”. “See” means “to have vision, to see and be seen”, the water is a pro-vision, meaning anything which advances the vision, and the word “light” is literally “the bright, clear light of God’s face, Jehovah who is Israel’s light”. So let’s re-read that with those definitions replacing the words with word definitions: “And You, who is Exceedingly God, give them to drink from the abundance of your prosperity and favor. For with you, who is our Exceeding God, is the originating flow of vibrant and streaming life. In the bright, clear light of Your face, we are given the vision of having the bright, clear light of Your presence, and all which advances that vision to the end of the universe.”

Come to the well which never runs dry, drink of Jesus all you can hold, and after you’ve drunk, drink more. In this lost and dying world, the Water of God, the Love of God, the Goodness of God is our one-stop resource which will never run dry. Doesn’t it sound attractive to have your heart and soul never feel like a parched, lonely desert place again? No man, no one in leadership can give you that. Jesus said “Come to me all you who are burdened and I will give you rest, for my burden is light and my yoke is easy.” Friends, that’s because any other yoke is NOT easy, and any other burden is NOT light. When Jesus hands you a glass of God-water, receive it and be glad, you’ll never be the same in Jesus Name! Think about it.

        Thus ends another evening at Outposts, broadcast semi-live from the late in the day, cascading banks of the Ockluhwahhah River, where the trees gently lean over, gently shading the rivers edge, and every evening is pleasant.

This program was brought to you by Living In His Name Ministries, Kevin, Perry, and Tommy of the Mebane Freedom League, Hilltop Boots and Shoes on Main Street, the Candy Cottage in Salmon Idaho, Sisters Coffee Company in Sisters, Oregon, and our beloved friends at Trinity Bakers, where there’s always something good in the oven.

Music was by the Pete Minger Quartet, Billy McLaughlin, Mark Egan, Jeff Titus, Plas Johnson and Trevor Gordon Hall. All music use is licensed by BMI

Let’s set ourselves adrift on the deep, clear water of God’s love for us. Cast off the restraints, untie from the dock of insecurity, and cast off into the beyond of the beyond in an adventure with God. Friends, He’ll never let you down. Be strong and courageous, stand up straight, tell the truth even if it’s to your hurt. Tell it and live the life of Christ like you mean it, i’ll talk to you next time.

This evening is another beautiful evening on the banks of the beautiful Ockluhwahhah River, which flows south from here until it joins the French Broad many miles from the end of Old Field Road. For the sake of trivia, i thought this was interesting: The name, Ockluhwahhah River, is a corruption of ak-low-wah-‘hey, Creek Indian for “muddy creek”. And yes, it’s a real creek.

I’m Social Porter and this is Outposts, a semi-live broadcast of cool jazz and contemplative conversation. Peace is available from God for all who would would ask Him. even those who are awake in the late night hours, some sitting in their big arm chairs pondering the events of the week, looking for a little closure on some of life’s open ended items….others tossing and turning, trying to sleep, looking for rest in a world which offers very little closure or peace.

i was at the jail doing Thursday church a few weeks ago with a friend and he was explaining to the inmates about the extraordinary events which brought him out of his criminal thinking nose dive. It occurred to me that the things which brought my friend to an awakening relationship with God were events spread across many years, it wasn’t simply an overnight thing. While listening to his testimony, a question came to me, “After you believed, in between the times of refreshing from the Lord, what did you do with yourself? While you were waiting, what did you do with your time?” When there was a lull in the room from all the talking, i asked that very question which the Lord had put to me…the room of chatter came to a sudden standstill…i suppose we don’t think about the in-between times much. i realized people, typically, are really bad at waiting. We often speak of events in our lives, but rarely discuss what we do in between those events. If we were to plot a graph showing noteworthy occurrences in our lives, i believe we’d see a lot of flat line, way more flat line than upward blips where relatable events occurred.

The word “wait” is used approximately 148 times in the Bible, so i’m going to assume it’s an important thing to do from God’s perspective, but, considering how much waiting we have to do in life, you would think we would be much better at it than we are. If you need a visual, the Hebrew word comes with the idea of “swirling in a circular pattern”, sometimes used in conjunction with hope, but more often a certain amount of laborious effort and agonizing patience. That’s a pretty good picture of what it means to “wait”…. i’d bet we can all relate to that.

What do you do with your time while you wait? How do you occupy your time when you are in a holding pattern? i’ll be right back.

Acts1:13-14, “And they had entered the city, they went up the stairs to the upper room where they were staying. Peter and John and James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James. All of these with their minds in full agreement devoted themselves steadfastly to prayer, waiting together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.”

According to “The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament”, there is an implication of “indefinitely” in the sentence where it says, “…where they were staying”. The disciples went into the Upper Room with a mind-set that said, “We are not coming out of here until God shows up.”  They did not go in there to wait ten minutes.  They didn’t go in there to wait two days.  They did not go in there to wait three months. Their objective was to connect with the Lord, waiting as long as it took in order to accomplish that goal. They weren’t looking for an experience or to have an “event”, nor did they sell tickets as if they anticipated some spectacle.  No.  They went in there saying, “We cannot do all that God wants us to do without His full power in our lives.”  Like those who entered the Upper Room to wait for the promised outpouring of the Holy Spirit, we should approach God with a similar attitude that says, “I’m waiting on You, Lord, indefinitely, until I receive your authorization to continue and your power to go forward in your name.”

Waiting for God, or anything else for that matter isn’t easy. i have difficulty waiting for a sandwich at a fast food place, much less having to wait on the move of God. Hey, it’s not easy. We have so much energy and such heated passion for the Lord and His cause, or even our own ideas, that if waiting is ever gotten around to, there’s a pause only for short periods before we’re off and running, the energy of all that thinking and wanting just takes over again.  Round and round and round.

        Often, if God does not do something as quickly as we want, then our own bright ideas overtake us again and we’re right back in our own momentum.  It is unbelievable how often the same ground is constantly covered and re-covered, thinking we are really getting somewhere, when really much of it all is just going in circles. i believe we really do make some progress in our waiting, but then we become impatient and lose our place, we gain a little ground then get lost due to our impatience. We have to “capture and hold”, or “Hold the line!”  We must stand fast in the freedom we are given and not allow ourselves to become slaves all over again to the yoke of bondage we have previously been relieved of. Even when we do not “see” something or if we don’t “feel” that God is working…. friends, “capture and hold” the moment, believe and stand fast on His promise that He is working mightily in our behalf, not allowing ourselves to become impatient, missing God’s opportunity. Think! We inherit the promises of God through faith and patience according to Hebrews 10:36.

The mind-set we need to have is … “Lord, i have come to the end of myself. I don’t have what it takes. It is obvious I cannot do what needs to be done by myself. I need you, for only You can do it.  I’m waiting on You.”

Waiting! Oh gosh sometimes that is so difficult. To “wait on God” means “to stay in place with the expectation of His further direction.” If there is one thing i know….The Lord hears me, and He WILL answer, but i do have to wait, which is a good thing yet such a hard thing.

Psalms 62:5 “My soul, wait silently for God alone, For my expectation is from Him. He only is my rock and my salvation; He is my defense; I shall not be moved. In God is my salvation and my glory; The rock of my strength, And my refuge, is in God.”

Be encouraged to be willing to wait on God, as long as it takes. Are you willing to wait on God? i am included in my own question, Am i willing to wait on God? Sure, i say to myself, “Yes”, but i challenge my enthusiastic answer in realizing that saying “yes” and doing “yes” are often very different the same way “having wisdom and doing wisdom are often two different things”. For me, i have learned to be careful what i say “yes” to, and, once i say “yes” i must be prepared to change my agenda, objectives, or priorities in order to accomplish what it is God has asked of me to do. On a side note, i’ll add, if you’re too busy, remember, you’re the one who said yes.

i read a story of Mother Teresa who wanted to go to a distant town to see if God wanted to do something there. She and another sister went, taking their staff and one change of clothes. They slept where they could and ate as God provided, waiting and praying for God to show them what He wanted them to do. As they waited for God under the big tree in the middle of town, they began to encounter the town children who lived on the street, and while they were waiting to find out what God wanted to do, they decided that in the mean time, they would teach the children to read. They put out the word if any children wanted to learn to read and write, for them to come to the big tree. Before long there were many children coming. In the end, while they were waiting to find out what God wanted to do, they raised a school, a mission, and a small medical center. God’s two exemplary servants waited on God, they did what was in front of them in the mean time and the Lord greatly blessed them.

The phrase “killing time” is an idiom, meaning we are engaging in some self-generated busy activity, usually an aimless one, with the goal of making time pass more quickly. Instead of killing time being busy so as to not notice we are waiting on something to happen, maybe we could be more committed to the Lord’s preferences and standards, doing what God has put in front of us, while we are waiting on God,

i went to the doctor’s office a while back, checked in, then was directed to have a seat in a place called “The Waiting Room”, the dreaded Waiting Room. As i sat there i began to notice the overall generic design of this place specifically designed for waiting. There were magazines, restrooms, a water fountain, a stack here and there of well thumbed through magazines, informational pamphlets, somewhat comfortable chairs, and, of course people, quite a few people sitting, all waiting….some staring, others reading, dozing, softly talking….all waiting. The room wasn’t designed for extended stays but obviously someone realized people, in general don’t wait well, and went to work to provide an environment that made waiting less difficult.

We spend time in life waiting far more than anything else we do. Think about it….we wait at traffic lights, wait for food, wait to meet someone, wait for meetings, wait for the weather to change, wait for help, wait for the doctor, wait for justice, wait at the grocery store, wait at restaurants, and wait to get well…all that only to name a few. Sometimes we wait for people to make up their mind, that seems to take extra patience…or so it seems. i’ll say it again, as much as we spend our lives in the process of waiting you’d think we would be much better at it than we are.

An infographic is a quick, clear visual representation of information; we don’t have to read much to get the data we’re looking for. Noah Davis wrote, “One infographic reported that our attention spans have dropped from 12 minutes to five. The rise of infographics in themselves is yet another example of humanity’s inability to read anything for more than a few words at a time without becoming incomprehensibly bored. Another site goes even further, claiming that attention spans have dropped from 12 seconds in 2000 to eight seconds in 2013 — or one second shorter than the attention span of a goldfish.” Honestly i don’t even know how to wrap my head around the idea that goldfish may have a longer attention span than many of us do.

One of the important exhortations of the Bible is the call to “wait on the Lord.” Even though God promises special blessing for waiting, waiting is one of the most difficult exhortations of Scripture. Why is it so hard? i believe it’s partly because we tend to take matters into our own hands, to follow our own schemes. Yet, over and over again we are told in Scripture “wait on the Lord.” Adam and Eve took matters into their own hands and did not wait on God to open their eyes, they decided to open their own eyes. That was not a very good day for them or any of the rest of us.

Israel had to wait to enter the promised land in Numbers 14, but then they decided to take matters into their own hands and tried to enter in anyway. Moses told them “Don’t do that”, but they just couldn’t wait and went anyway. Sadly, they were met by their enemies who drove them all the way back to Hormah. Opposingly, Abraham waited on God, and his waiting paid off, bigtime in that a nation was raised up which covered the earth from east to west who were blessed of God.

Waiting creates time during which we learn to trust God. Lamentations 3:24-26 calls us to hope in and wait on the Lord because God often uses waiting to refresh, renew, and teach us.

Waiting on God prepares us to have our real needs met. In Psalm 40:1-4 David received four benefits from waiting: God lifted him out of his despair; set his feet on a hard, firm path; steadied him as he walked; and put a new song of praise in his mouth.

Waiting gives us the opportunity to work out our faith. Learning to wait builds endurance, and the ability to withstand hardship or adversity. In waiting we learn to believe God, to stand firm on His word, and it also builds persistence –  Persistence and endurance are not a means to gain salvation; they are the by-product of a devoted life. i believe it’s necessary to point out the secret to enduring is trust and obedience. Trust God to give you patience to endure even the small trials you face everyday; do what God says, even when deferring to God’s process is unattractive.

Patience is developed through waiting. i can’t say i know of anyone who can’t wait to learn patience, although i do consider waiting in line at the grocery store an opportunity to practice my patience while waiting on an elderly lady to dig through her special little change purse to find exact change. While we are developing patience through waiting, even though God promises to reward our learning to wait, we sometimes feel the “payoff” is too far away. Be patient. God steps in when it will do the most good. Let Him expand your attention span to be longer than aquarium gold fish. Wait on the Lord my friend, we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. Think about it

Psalm 27:14, “Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD!”

Psalm 37:9, “For evildoers shall be cut off; But those who wait on the LORD, They shall inherit the earth.”

Psalm 37:34, “Wait on the LORD, And keep His way, And He shall lift you up high to inherit the land; When the wicked are cut off, you shall see it.”    Friends, waiting isn’t fun nor easy but learning to wait is a building block of our faith.

It has been another beautiful evening here at Outposts, it’s a semi-live broadcast from the late night, cascading banks of the Ockluhwahhah River, where the trees gently lean over the rivers edge, and every evening is pleasant.

i’m Social Porter, and this production was brought to you by Living In His Name Ministries, Area 22 Guitars the home of excellent service and sales at a righteous price, Quality Tire’s very own Jimmy Payton, Kenny Maxwell at Farm Equipment Company on Chimney Rock Rd., the Mill End Store and Silk Shop out in Clear Creek,  and Trinity Bakers, where there’s always something good in the oven.

Be patient this week, be kind to yourself, tomorrow is another day. Practice your endurance while on the path to where you’re going. Wait on the Lord, be strong and courageous until we meet again.