According to God, accomplishment is not good character, accomplishment does not make us “a good person”. Being measurably productive does not constitute high character or being “a good person”. It is not in how many houses we build, how many people we feed, how many ministries we start or how well we do the one we’ve got. Character is not created by the mighty empire we built/build/didn’t build. Character should drive our works, not our works driving our character. Even a serial killer can accomplish good things, consistently, so having good, measurable accomplishments is not a sign of “being a good person”. Always measuring whether we are “a good person” inspires us to lower our eyes below the Lord to man’s weights and scales which influence us to be someone we’re not, re-evaluating ourselves based on measurable production, according to corporate standards.

Godly character, personal holiness in balance with our activated-God-given-gifting re-enforces God’s work of expanding our persistence, competence, and confidence in Christ, empowering through Christ our inner fortitude, developing our social skills, which we are so desperately in need of. Character brings us upgraded self-esteem and a sense of being anchored, all taking us beyond our perceived sense of limitations, limitations which the world and the devil are both so busy re-enforcing.

When we worship the Lord in spirit and truth, there comes the lack of a quantifiable result that allows us to tap a more meaningful place that satisfies core needs and reveals the authentic person behind the masks of job and accomplishment …. Godly conception gives birth to Godly perception! Righteous imagination gives birth to righteous understanding.

Sometimes i feel like this dance we do with God is like a giant waltz, three feet off the ground and it’s a clear, starry sky’d night….stepping and spinning with the Lord, His eyes looking courage into us to follow more closely. Our feet step high over the top of fields of wild flowers, we dance over tree tops, spin under clouds, dip and drop to the rivers edge. There is a warm rain on our faces, the eyes of my Jesus smiling in the ecstasy of dancing with His most beloved, over the hills and far away. It’s going to rain!

i am honored to stand with you, barefaced, looking up to Heaven waiting for the refreshing from the Hand of our God, who will come to us like the rain, watering the earth. In our lives there is the “slip” and “grip” of life. We grip to ourselves, gather to ourselves light and hope, God’s love and peace…. we also let slip from our grasp the seeds of faith and wisdom, kindness and blessing to be planted in righteousness. It is like the rain on the windshield of your car, we start at the top, run down, get a little, give a little, planting, sharing, recieving, doing our part in weeping joy and singing obedience.

Pretense. People seem to love, i say, love personal titles. We love qualifiers and titles which, hopefully, cause the world around us to highly esteem us and think we are worthy of being listened to – maybe even so we will believe we are worthy to be heard in our own ears. We need to hear God more than men. What if God asked you to lose your title and quit telling people your name? Would you still be willing to do what He called you to? Or would the need for the dirty water of men’s praise and being validated in the eyes of other people prevent you from continuing? Let us weigh that one well within our own hearts. When privilege becomes entitlement, when we make the assumption we are more than we are because we “deserve” glory and recognition, then pretense is revealed and our God-given-privilege becomes an aberration. Do we think God owes us something and we deserve favor because we have “the right kind of history”? John 5:31, “If I testify about myself, my testimony is not valid.” Isn’t it enough that God has given us the privilege of exercising His gifts, which are supposed to be used to glorify Him and bring forth the Kingdom of God? His spiritual gifts are a privilege, not used in pretension to create a facade of greatness for ourselves. Where do we get the idea that we deserve benefits and favor because we have the “right kind of history”, as if God somehow owes us power, blessing, honor, wealth, or life with a lack of conflict?

Privilege. God gives us life through His Son Jesus. Life, real life, not life according to the world. It is an exclusive privilege afforded us by God.

Peace is a privilege from God, and we can’t get it because we have declared ourselves or set ourselves up on a podium. Galatians 1:3 (NIV) Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Wisdom is a privilege God gives to all who ask. James 1:5, “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.”

Faith is a privilege. It’s a something that is real and without it we can’t please God. Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please God.” Is the faith in me something i drummed up? No. We can’t go to the store and buy faith.

Justification is a privilege. Romans 5:1, “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Being holy because He is holy is a privilege not to be taken lightly.

Grace is a privilege – it isn’t something we demand from God or manipulate Him into giving. The privilege of grace was not available under the law, but by Jesus Christ as it is written in John 1:17, “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”

Salvation, Redemption and mercy are a privilege; We are afforded the privilege of reconciliation – which means God balanced our books; and probably the highest privilege is the Love of God which abides with us forever.

It isn’t that we have taken, but more that He has given. Psalm 116:12 “What shall I render to the LORD For all His benefits toward me?” Let us be glad and thankful we get the privilege of all His benefits and not stretch our privilege into presumption and pretense. And there’s a big “Selah” right there at the end.

Romans 1:18-21, “For the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.”

God is not hidden and we are still hiding. From the days of Genesis when Adam and Eve hid themselves in the garden because of sin, even though man was hiding from God, God was not hiding from man. His works are visible for anyone who is interested in seeing them, literally, His fingerprints are all over everything.

There is no excuse for not believing in God. He has clearly revealed Himself to the world and to each individual’s conscience, c’mon, His fingerprints are all over everything. Just looking up at the stars at night should convince anyone there is a Creator. In addition, i believe all people know deep inside themselves that there is a God, and everyone is born with a sense of right and wrong. Fly to the corners of the world, God-lovers and God-haters alike, agree stealing is wrong, lying is wrong, adultery is wrong, betrayal is wrong, and especially, when it happens to them. Where did they get that idea of right and wrong? We can’t know what a curved line is unless we first have an idea of a straight line. However, i seems people suppress the truth because they don’t want to believe. A man told me once that “for God to exist, He must meet standards.” He really felt his standards could be high enough to define God. i figure, essentially, what he was saying was, “He must prove Himself according to MY standards.” The Lord is everlasting, does not depend on anyone or thing, nor is He required to meet someone’s standards in order to exist. If the Lord were enslaved and duty-bound to meet with mankind’s requirements, then He wouldn’t hardly be all powerful, and independent, He would be just another god, little “G”, in a sea of man-made gods that would be subject and dependent upon the whim of man to exist. ….and to me, that would be just stupid. So why not believe in God, it’s certainly easier than believing in whirling atoms coming to agreement to, not only get together and create something, but to be intelligent and wise enough to add infinitely deep concepts like, love, hate, responsibility, friendship, blue skies, rain, and all the myriad of physical and non-physical things of existence. Why not believe in God?

i believe a generalized “Don’t want to” is at the core of the matter, a heart full of “don’t want to”. Believing would put unbelievers face-to-face with themselves, their wrongness-of-character, rebellion, and their need to come back to God could be more than most are willing to bear. It appears it’s just too close, and too honest. Maybe the need for Christ isn’t acute enough ….yet.

Therefore, they deny the facts of God’s existence and play little mental games, trying to rationalize away the truth. Because of this, God’s solid boundary against all ungodliness and unrighteousness is revealed from Heaven and is set with unmovable determination by the hand of God Himself. To unbelief, He said, “thus far and no more….you will not bring sin, evil, and unbelief into my house.”

The Lord is the God of truth. The God of the Bible is not a god of myth or legend. Jesus Christ is The Truth. He is the ultimate reality; He is what is really real in the universe, in a world full of deception and lies. Likewise, the Bible is not just some made-up book of religious fantasy; rather it is true spiritually, historically, and scientifically.

God is not hidden. We are. We were hiding in the garden of Eden, and we are still hiding today. The Lord is bidding us to come out of hiding, to humble ourselves and be honest, to throw open the doors of our heart and tear down our fences. What is up with all our resentment and jealousy anyway? Christ is visible and willing to forgive us all our darkest secrets, we’ve simply go to be willing to come out of our hiding places. Come out, come out, where ever you are. God is calling you to come home!