We have all been invited to meet the Beautiful Friend in the words of Jesus to “repent, believe, follow” from Mark 1:14-16. i don’t know about you, but i think most people can’t resist, in the long run, a divine invitation. When Jesus came walking on the water in Matthew 14:22-33, He bid Peter to get out of the boat and walk with Him. He said, “Come”. That was a personal invitation by God for Peter to participate in that divine moment. You know what i mean when i say “divine invitation”? i think we’ve all got two choices in the matter of meeting our Beautiful Friend, we can either come to meet Him with our dancing clothes on, or we can meet Him from a stretcher as we’re carried into God’s hospital to meet with Doctor Jesus, or meet Jesus while looking up at Him from a hospital bed after recovering from Holy Spirit surgery. Dressed for dancing or on a stretcher, what’s it gonna’ be? Personally, i think i’ll get my dancing clothes on and begin learning some of God’s fancy footwork.
i’m confident the Lord will show us the dance steps. Afterall, dancing was His idea you know, and i don’t mean that nasty stuff the world does, i mean the kind of dancing that requires a relationship and some knowledge of your partner, matching steps, turning with the rhythm, dipping at the lulls, rising at the crescendo’s.
i’m Social Porter and this is Outposts, 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.
This is something special, something beautiful. We’ve got cool jazz and the kind of contemplative conversation that makes you say, “hmmmm…”, something smooth for the late night people, or maybe those on their way to work. i suppose some are sitting up late in their big arm chair, pondering the things which occurred today, or maybe the things which didn’t occur today. Others are just late night people, they just seem to function better after the sun goes down… i have no idea why, your reasons are your own. And then there’re the people who are up late because you can’t sleep. Stuck in that grey place between awake and asleep, the grey place where nothing hides, tossing and turning like a fish out of water.
God gives us beautiful words if we’ll listen closely enough. i want my words to settle into the hearts of the wounded, the beaten down, and for those who dwell in a loneliness so terrible that it has withered their hearts and bowed them to the ground. God will give us pockets full of hope to give away like candy in our pockets and words made beautiful with the anointing of the Lord, the infusion of the Holy Spirit, soaked in the Well Of Heaven, the Radiant One, Jesus. Oh yes He will. Lord overcome us with Your beautiful love.
i’ve listened to many a prayer offered up for other people, from myself and others, and every now and then, i’ll hear the most beautiful words flowing out of the mouth and heart of a believer, and it is a dancing melody that makes me close my eyes to see Jesus. Sometimes the words are like a cleaning woman dusting the shelves of someone’s heart with her emerald green dust cloth, making bright the sweeping purples, and dazzling yellows of that person’s life. Other times the words come like delicious, sparkling water, cold and refreshing, clear and alive with vision, peace, and discernment.
Jesus is the radiant dawn of hope, a gentle yet mighty river of compassion flowing endlessly into dry and weary souls. His presence is like warm sunlight breaking through storm clouds, illuminating every shadowed corner of the human heart with unyielding love. He is literally the personification of perfect kindness. Did you catch that? Not just compassion but a river of compassion, not just hope but the radiant dawn of hope. Jesus is like a tender shepherd whose gaze restores the weary and lifts the fallen with infinite grace. What kind of grace but infinite grace. In His eyes shines the wisdom of eternity, peaceful and profound all together, inviting all to drink their fill of forgiveness where no one is turned away.
i think i’ve grown weary of the words i’ve used as my old standby words and prayers. They just seem tired. All my words and methods, at first, were filled with light and anointing, but when i started using them repetitiously because i couldn’t think of anything else to say, that’s when i should have gone to God and asked Him for the passion and vision of renewed words of praise and prayer. But, instead, i lingered long on being perplexed over why everything seemed to go flat. Why did it take me so long to decide it would be good to ask God for words and inspirational prayers rather than be mired up in repetition? i have no idea. Matthew 6:7, “But when you pray, don’t use vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.” i’d like God to give me beautiful words, words full of His presence, to a world which has lost it’s way, is at a constant loss for words and vision, and is repeatedly driven through a sieve of viscous circumstances. Lord fill our mouths with the prosperity of your goodness. We need you Jesus.
In the hush of the morning when the sun stretches wide,
God whispers soft wonders that tickle the sky!
He sprinkles the mountains with mysterious sparkle and shine,
And dresses the rivers in ribbons of light so fine.
Oh, the colors! The giggles! The breeze soft on my face!
Flowers burst open with joy in a glorious push.
Stars dance and twirl in the deep velvet night,
While clouds puff and float like balloons taking flight.
His beauty is everywhere, wild, free, and grand—
In every small leaf and the warmth of a hand.
It bounces and beams, it sings without words,
A marvelous, marvelous God of the birds!
i remember my younger days, so often my words were toxic, and now looking back i’m pleased no one died from drinking my water. But God has changed my source of water supply, He has caused His poetry to overwhelm me, causing me to become a rhythmic and rhyming life in Him instead of a toxic well of my own making. Fear masquerading as conviction is still fear you know. To me, the Lord is a dazzling, a one of a kind compass who not only points in the right, and righteous direction, but sings a lullaby of peace and hope, a gentle song of rest and the promise of becoming and overcoming through Jesus who is the Radiant Lover of my soul. Jesus causes me to look out upon the world around me with brilliant, clear eyes and to know His dance steps. He is the only one who walks among the broken with healing in His touch and peace in His words.
He leads me through His dance while the stars sing to us as only stars can, they sing between their joy and laughter in unbroken praise.
Ephesians 2:10, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” The Lord sees us as His poetry, and by the blood of Jesus, God planted His glory in our heart for the world to behold. He lives in us, He is singing rain, and dancing light, and because He lives in those who believe, !Yes…. you too can sing and dance.
Many years ago, i had a dream, and in that dream i was broken, filthy, and twisted in a dark so dark it was suffocating. Suddenly from far away, a door opened and Light stepped in the dark. i could see it was a person, strong and straight walking towards me. When He got closer i could see it was someone who emanated their own light and wore a crown. He stopped in front of me and called for me to come to him, He said, “Come”. i abhorred myself in His presence but He called again. i couldn’t resist the divine invitation. As i went towards Him, who was the Beautiful light, my filth fell off, my twist became straight, and my brokenness became whole so that by the time i got to The King, i was beautiful like He was. He leaned down and looked at me closely, and He said, “You can dance!” Then He Smiled so big the universe bent around Him. Music began to play from the light around Him; He pulled me up to stand on His feet, held my hands high, and we waltzed all over the room. The closer He gets to all things, the more all things become like Him.
Yes, you too can dance.
Do you know how beautiful you are? Do we know God sees each of us as the apple of His eye, not the worm in the apple, but as someone beautiful? i think more than a few only see the eyes of Judas the betrayer staring back at them from the reflection in the mirror. Because He lives within our heart, we are empowered to respect life and to abhor murder, loving justice, empowered to ardently honor the covenant of marriage between a man and woman, despising adultery and betrayal in any fashion. We are empowered by God to highly esteem the property of others to overcome our fleshly inclination to steal what is not ours, and enabled and authorized to be like Jesus in that we are honest and transparent, refusing to take a bribe. We are not for sale. Say that with me, we are not for sale.
Psalm 33:1 “Rejoice in the LORD, O you righteous! Praise from the upright is beautiful.” Ecclesiastes 3:11 “He has made everything beautiful in its time.”
1 Peter 3:3-4, “Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear, but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.”
The Lord makes us, His people, to be beautiful, and He gives us the authority to make beautiful the world around us. Don’t you know according to 2 Corinthians 2:15 “… we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.” His reality and substance whispers freedom to captives of fear, offering rest to the burdened and purpose to the wandering. Jesus is the master artist of redemption, weaving back together broken threads into tapestries of glory, turning the ashes of our old ways into breathtaking new life. He has and is boundless generosity, the humble servant-king, and the quiet strength that calms raging seas within.
He gives to us who believe on Him His fragrance, sometimes like the fragrance of rain, sometimes like grapes or flowers, that’s my Heavenly Father’s cologne and i’ve smelled Him many times. Like the little girl who nearly died, and one day, years later, when it was going to rain, she asked her mother, “Mom, can you smell that?” The little girl crossed her arms across her chest, closed her eyes, rocked a little bit and said “That’s what He smells like when you lay your head on His chest.”
There seems to be many who hate because they have no recognition of the destiny available to all humanity. The Beautiful One, Jesus, The One King and EverLord calls us all to His perfectly designed destiny. He says to us, “Come” as an invitation to participate with Him in His divinity. The book of Luke is about Jesus, the son of man, The book of John is about Jesus, the Son of God. i call the Book of John the “book of whomsoever”, because whom so ever can come to Him to be made beautiful, you can do that. You too can dance! If you have two left feet, so to speak, God will redeem the time, and restore what you’ve lost so you can join Him in dance. He says, come, throw off your morgue outfit, your death clothes and put on your dancing clothes!
You can sing beautiful words. Don’t you know God has made in you a perfect music making machine? It is your voice. At best man-made sound systems are 50-60% efficient, but the human voice, ahhh, now there is an amazing instrument. The man made sound system is typically in a tuned box, a box that is fixed size, and the only way it could become more efficient would be for it to be able to change size for each note the speaker must reproduce. But God, that’s right, But God has given it to all men to be able to make perfect music. As our voice rises or falls to sing a note, our sinuses expand and contract to the correct tuning of what our voice is doing. Making it so if a low note requires a lot of air, our sinuses expand to make a long sound chamber so the low note is resonant. If we need to sing a high note, our sinuses change to shorten the amount of air needed to go high. With a little training, it is a perfect sound creating gift God has given to all man kind.
By the grace of God you can sing, you can dance, and you can know beautiful words from the Heart of the Lord to give away. You, Yes You, in Christ are beautiful, and Jesus has made you that way on purpose!
Genesis 49:21 “Naphtali is a deer let loose; He uses beautiful words.” The word beautiful there is Hebrew for “goodly, or glistening”. Start now, looking to the Lord for glistening words for yourself and others. Ask Him, it is His good pleasure to give us good gifts. According to Matthew 7:11 “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!”
There will come a time in Heaven called “The Day of Stars”. It will be a time of singing and rejoicing, when the stars, whom God knows by name, will walk down the streets of Heaven. Banners of praise for the Lord will stream, cheering and singing by the inhabitants of Heaven will roar, music from the Glory of God will bring us all to our feet. That’s the day we’ll meet the stars of Heaven, the ones who caused us all wonder and marvel for all our lives, who guided our paths on open seas, through mountain passages, across deserts, inspired hope and peace, and assisted in guiding the wise men of Matthew 2. What a day that will be when our mouths will never be turned down again, our eyes will have smiles in their corners, hearts will be filled with the presence of God, and the light of the Lord will be our light forever. What a beautiful day, what beautiful people, what an amazing and beautiful Jesus we will dance and sing with. You too can have beautiful words. Put on your dancing shoes, the music has started in you, i can hear it from here. Think about it.
In Genesis12:14, it says when Abraham came into Egypt, they saw Sarah was very beautiful to behold. In Ezekiel 33, the Lord describes the prophet’s ministry as being “like a sensual song by one who has a beautiful voice and plays well on an instrument.” The Lord has called all of us to walk in the world around us similarly, as one who has a beautiful voice and plays an instrument well. Zechariah 9:16 portrays us who are ransomed from death, saying, “And the Lord their God will save them in that day as the flock of his people; for they are as stones of a crown, sparkling in his land. For what comeliness and beauty will be theirs!” Friends, let us be God’s beautiful words, speaking garlands of grace in the ears of the lost and dying.
This has been Outposts, brought to you semi-live from the late evening, cascading banks of the Ockluhwahhah River, where the trees lean gently over the rivers edge, and every evening is oh so pleasant. i’m Social Porter and this production has been brought to you by Living In His Name Ministries, Area 22 Guitars, Clarence Cable at the Sky Line Drive In, the wonderful ladies out at Ruth Originals, Kevin, Perry, and Tommy of the Mebane Freedom League, White Knuckle Studios, and Trinity Bakers, where there’s always something good in the oven.
The Lord has so many beautiful things to say, they always fill me with hope. i need to hear His words, i want to hear them. God’s words change everything. His beautiful words have changed my life.
My friends, the thunder of His coming rages at the edge of the horizon, for He is coming back for what is His, you and i. We are beautiful to the Lord, we may not be perfect but He thinks we’re to die for. The Lord will give us His beautiful words, He’ll teach us His beautiful dance, and He’ll empower our voices to sing with the love and power of our beautiful Savior. If you look for Him, He will find you. Do this with me: Put your thumb and first finger together, rub them around, do you see that little space between the two fingers? If you give Him that much, just that little bit, He will show you how to walk to Heaven to touch His face.
Thank you for listening , amen and amen.