“Am i ok?” “Will i be alright?” We are often so, so worried about our own welfare. i believe we spend untold hours being concerned if our money will work out, if our health will hold up, if we’ll lose our minds, if the economy will continue to allow us to live such convenient lives, if the car will make it another week, if this, if that, round and round, till you can see the whites of our eyes in the dark.

Our state of well being is constantly attacked by satan and all his buddies, who love to inspire us to run around in terror about what “might” happen. Remember, this is the enemy of our soul, the very ones whose will is fully set against us, thrilling to our demise in anyway it can be devised. Listen to God, not the downward spiral of the world.

Ok, so … what if you die? Well, then i reckon you won’t have to worry about things anymore, trusting God won’t be an issue then, because all things will be said and done. What if you don’t die? That’s an odd one, but i’ve heard it from addicts in jail who have a secret death wish, thinking if they do more dope, maybe they’ll die and won’t have to keep being miserable. i’ve actually heard a frequently incarcerated felon say that. Gosh, what a morbid, ultimate victim thing to think. When i heard that, i thought two things simultaneously. First was a quote from Graham Greene: “We are all of us resigned to death: it’s life we aren’t resigned to.” And the second was how, despairing, this person has bought into the territory of lies without a return ticket, finding themselves, literally, at the freezing-point of knowing absolute failure. All they see is themselves, constantly being an inch from the end, in so much pain, seeing no other way out but to end it can be found. i find it interesting, the person was also a heavy drug users, which i call that level of addiction, “death on the installment plan”, suffering every inch of the way to the end. i take it then, they didn’t actually want to die, which is why they were taking their time getting there, they simply wanted the pain to end.

God says being at the freezing-point of knowing absolute failure isn’t the end. He says there exists, for everyone, the extreme polar opposite…there is life to be had in Christ. Again, let us take to heart that in God’s economy, there is nothing SO dead, He can’t grow life from it.

Everyone must die, one way or another, that’s a given, but God says we don’t also have to die sick and sad. We worry, !worry! over our welfare to the point we make ourselves ill. ?Will i be ok? If we read the myriad of medical advertisements, the implication is if you do what you are told by some medical professional, you’ll be ok, yet, truthfully, it doesn’t always work out like that. i suppose it also depends on our idea of “well-being” too. If your bills were paid, then would you be ok? If you simply weren’t sick, then would you be ok? What will it take to make you “Ok”?

In John 4:42, upon meeting Jesus, the people of Samaria told the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.” Where the English word “believe” is, the Greek word translated as “believe” yields a much more comprehensive meaning, in this case meaning, by implication, they entrusted their spiritual well-being to Christ. They were convinced, gave assent to, and relied on God to take care of them. That is God’s idea of what it is to “believe”. Remember, Faith is a noun, and “believe” is the action verb derivative of Faith. Get it? Action.

In Mark 9:24, when the father of the child cried out, “i believe; help my unbelief!”, he was speaking to Jesus and was confessing openly that, although he gave assent to the Lord and relied on God to take care of them, for his child to be made whole, not just no longer sick, but made whole, was just beyond his capability. i believe the man looked into himself and saw not only trust, but also that he didn’t trust the Lord as much as he thought. He realized his state of cognitive dissonance. The idea his child could be made whole was simply beyond his imagination to grasp. Instead of making a dishonest face, smiling his most pious smile, saying with great benevolence, “Praise God, everything is fine, just fine.”, he told the truth and asked the Lord for help.

Do we only believe God when things are well? Or when things aren’t well with us, do we resign ourselves to suffer and die because somewhere along the line, someone we respected told us the cause of our suffering was because we didn’t have enough faith or there was sin in our lives? That is a performance mentality, and the truth is, God doesn’t work that way. You can’t run fast enough, or be good enough to deserve well being. Sure, if we don’t pray, don’t read the Bible, and don’t actually connect with other believers, the possibilities of our well being are narrowed considerably. But truly, our well being is God’s domain, and to sit around, harboring the secret worry of “Will i be ok?” to the point of validating the saying, “worry yourself sick”, well, it doesn’t have to be that way. Rather than worrying about our well being, it would be more profitable to simply be honest, pursuing the Lord to help our unbelief, regardless of our circumstances. Trust God, regardless of your discomfort and trouble. It CAN be done. Learn to live well where you are until the Lord changes the situation.

Don’t do the “yea, but, yea but” thing. Embrace the Lord’s promise of well being, and let Him do it. i didn’t say now, be slack and do nothing, that is twisting the intent here. Matthew 13:12 says, “For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away”, OR, the more you go right, the more you go right, and the more you go left, the more you go left, OR, cutting to the chase here, the longer you do nothing, the longer you do nothing until nothing is all you do. Take action! Trust Him, tell Him about it, i guarantee He’ll solve the conflicts which prevent you from moving forward. You will indeed be ok.

What do you think?

Shadows

Shadows….soft and rarely detailed and defined. They catch an outline enough to identify a silhouette, but never a lot of detail, at least not like the light. Shadows speak softly, in demure tones, whispering to each other, and to you too if you’ll listen. They try not to, but even the best shadows somewhat envy the light, afterall the light has weight and shadows do not. There is no such thing as “the weight of shadows”, just like there is no such thing as a dark meter, only a light meter, because light has weight and shadow does not.     Shadows are painfully aware they are measured in the sense of an absence of light, which is why they simultaneously love and envy the light. They are defined by the light and they so wish they had their own definition and independence. But, in the long run, they just weren’t made that way when God gave every living creature a faint companion to go with them everywhere. They’re really no trouble, and if anything, they are the constant of companion of everything which stands in the light…they are the most subtle of confirmations we are here and are real. What would you think of something which casts no shadow in day light?

At the fading away of day, they rise up and set up living arrangements, prepare shadow meals, solving shadow problems, discuss shadow news in shades of grey scale, and enjoy singing in shadow voices. it is soft like their edges, always prone to a little down turn in tune and tone, almost like a slight moan and sigh. It is the sound of shadows as they creep down a sleepy street when the sun goes down, peeping at us from behind the trees, cast from children playing in the evening, or from the neighbor’s cat which sits on the step looking bored, waiting for something to happen. Healthy shadows take nurturing and care because some shadows are not healthy in that they are “thin shadows”, and others are more robust being “deep shadows”. Shadows never seem to understand that they are defined by the bright or fading light, it is a wisdom which always seems to escape their shaded mind. They occasionally celebrate themselves because there are creatures which God created who prefer to live in the “company of shadows”, because in His mercy, not even shadows are left friendless and alone.

Some shadows are not kind when people slander one another. As you know the entire idea of slander is to “cast shadows” on others, or, cause them to be seen in a less than kind light, to darken their faces with suspicion, or purposely obstruct clear light in order to cast a shadow on their character, so to speak. Shadows moan at their employment in such a situation, it is a scenario that is the invention of people possessing a twist on the light, and the poor shadow, who wants to live in peace, must comply where ever there are obstacles blocking the light. And everyone knows any time something or someone obsures the path of light, a shadow is required to subtly point out that something is in the way of clarity.

It is such a nice evening out i feel like i’m living in a postcard picture. There’s not a cloud in the sky except over towards the horizon… all those sky colors, singing, as if they were calling to something or someone. The humidity is dissipating while this day comes to a close. The deck overlooking the Ockluhwahhah River faces slightly west, just enough to catch the last of the day when the sun is on its way to brighten some other place on the planet. The world of night sounds is alive and well …. it would seem what lives across the river in the woods won’t be ignored this late afternoon … if you listen carefully, you can faintly hear the conversation going on between the creek and the river at the intersection where the smaller one meets the larger other, singing softly, like someone speaking at a distance and you can’t quite make out what they’re saying, you only know there is a dialogue going on. The greater includes the lesser. When the breeze picks up the old oaks and pines occasionally groan against the inclination to change, but the more they stay the same the more they change, i doubt they care much really. Our owl pair have returned briefly … i heard them earlier calling after each other … they disappeared for a while, maybe they went on vacation or something … our own cricket tribe is calling to us through the cracks under the floor boards of the deck, maybe they’re prophesying of coming rain or maybe just singing because it’s dark and it’s time to sing. i reckon it seemed a safe place to live … everybody’s gotta live somewhere, right, even crickets. Such a beautiful sunset. And for the grand finale of the day, there’s supposed to be a full moon tonight. God is absolutely brilliant, isn’t He?

i’m Social Porter and this is Outposts. Our topic tonight is based on Philippians 3:7-14, all for Jesus, all i am and have, and ever hope to be. We have forgiveness for the sake of Christ’s blood; the Lord hears our prayers for the sake of Jesus, and God no longer remembers my sins for the sake of the reconciling work of Jesus, the Christ of God. All for Jesus, all i am and have and ever hope to be.

 Luke 15:13, “And not many days after the younger son gathered all his stuff together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.” Psalm 53:1, “The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.””

Many years ago there was a young man who grew up in a rural community. At an early age, as a joke to prove there was no God, he prayed the sinner’s prayer with a street preacher, then he jeered in the man’s face and called the man a fool for believing God, threatening the man with violence if he ever spoke the name of Jesus in his presence again. In his foolish youth, he thought he was being tough. How little he knew.

He was not one for deep thinking much, but more known for his living in the moment, often not thinking of the consequences of his actions. He was bright and creative and enjoyed the work of his hands, even as a child. He was a good kid but he sure wreaked havoc on his parents. More than likely he suffered from ADD, and had it been our current day, i’m pretty sure his parents would have given him over to drug therapy … but that’s not what happened, instead they put him to work to keep him busy. Once, his dad was so upset with his son’s inability to focus and a very very active imagination, that he threatened to send him to reform school himself. Eventually, the young man found identity with rebellious people who introduced him to drugs, alcohol, carousing, stealing, and all other late-night mischief. Sometimes the young man took LSD and amphetamines just to slow down enough to do life. You know, in most all places, not much good happens after about 11pm, so the young man took to living his life after 11pm, it seemed exciting.

When he graduated from high school, which was a miracle in itself, straight away he joined the Navy. Of course, there he met other young men comparable to himself, and he sank deeper into a drug and alcohol dependent life of growing loneliness and despair.

While in the Navy, he became heavily involved with LSD and heroin users, gladly becoming one of them, for in his mind he simply wanted to be part of something. Eventually, during a night of partying, he took too much of his drugs of choice, and he died. His friends, if you could call them that, left him out behind the house, gathered all their stuff which would identify themselves and left him. God had a different plan though for the next morning he breathed again after many hours of being a grey-blue corpse. His so-called buddies were frightened upon seeing him but soon they were getting loaded again and all was forgotten.

Eccl4:10, “But woe to him who is alone when he falls, For he has no one to help him up.”

Months later he had a party at his apartment, and once again, he overdosed on heroin. That was Thursday evening. Sunday morning he drew a breath for the first time since Thursday; he woke up pale, cold, hungry, and naked laying on a mattress in the bedroom … his house was cleaned out, everything was gone. His furniture was gone, the pictures were gone … his quote-unquote friends had stolen everything – the stereo, the TV, all the music, the pots & pans & silverware, all his clothes except his military uniform, and all the food from the kitchen; they even took the toilet paper and light bulbs … the house had been swept clean and wiped down. Seeing the large bruises on his chest he thought maybe he’d been beat up. He got dressed in the only clothes he had and walked down the street to see a buddy, who jolted in fright when the door was opened. The buddy told the young man that he had died on Thursday night….no pulse, no breath, just grey-blue, and dead. The man said they had beat on his chest to make his heart pump, but nothing helped, so they cleaned up the house, laid the body on the bed and left. Slowly, it dawned on the young man who was far from home and family, he had been dead for three days. It didn’t even cross his mind that the Lord, in His mercy, prevented his death … again.

Luke 15:17-18, “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.”

 Oddly enough, after that, the young man lost interest in hard drugs, after all he had been dead twice because of drug overdoses and something just clicked in him. Of course though, that didn’t change his drinking habits for he was just carrying on a four generation family tradition of substance abuse and alcoholism. One night, a year later, he had been on another drinking binge, and walked into the military barracks dorm. He staggered into the room, and upon closing the door behind him he noticed he was alone in the room. For the first time in his young life, he became aware of such a sad place in his heart it was unbearable. From over his right shoulder, in the late night, alone in the room in the dark, he heard someone whisper, “Why don’t you give your heart to Jesus and ask Him into your life?” For some reason he didn’t think it was an odd thing to think, it actually seemed reasonable, so he got on his knees, asked Jesus for forgiveness and to please take over. Suddenly, it was as if 1000 pounds was lifted off his back. He got into bed, and for the first time in years, he rested, i mean he really rested.

Now here’s where this testimony gets odd. He woke up in the morning, refreshed and new to the world that was bright and clear, and didn’t remember he prayed that prayer for two years. !BUT!, over the course of the two years following that night, he stopped drinking, he stopped doing any and all drugs, he stopped chasing girls and changed all his friends. He stopped being doggedly rebellious and began speaking without profanity, not because of some legalistic morality, but because he was consciously choosing. Something was different. Before he got out of the Navy, he realized he was a new man, he had come to realize who it was who spared his life and delivered him from death and hell’s gate. It was Jesus.

When the time comes, for many people, many times we just need a firm foot provided so we can set our foot against it in order to find the necessary purchase to change direction … life and destiny can easily change with the turn of our foot to a different direction.

Ultimately, it is the foot of the Savior, who in His mercy, provides us a pivot point…even when all our closest, most relied on friends have gone, Jesus gives us His firm hand to grip to. From the days of the young man’s rebellion to his time of knowing Jesus, he counted all his past as a huge waste. All dreams of possessions and wealth ebbed out of his mind and heart, all dreams of being famous, noteworthy, validated and important he abandoned and chased after Jesus with all his heart. The young man had gone from a prodigal, rebellious, hard-hearted son … from a slave of sin and satan to becoming a brother and servant of Christ! This was another first in his life in that the right person was in control of his life, Jesus first and last, he felt like he had a point and a purpose. Going back to his old life was no longer an option. You know, as long as going back is an option, we are still snared in our addictions.

Philip3:7-10, “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ–the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. i want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.”

i was that young man many years ago, the sorriest lost sheep you ever saw. When Jesus became obvious to me, i was like a homing pigeon and my only instinct was to go home. Those were terrible days of self-loathing, confusion, and chaos, i was chained to the deliciousness of sin. Before Jesus i had no clue what to do, how to act, what to say, or where to go. i just breathed with every day and mindlessly went forward with no plan about tomorrow. But standing here now, many years later, i see the hand of the Lord all through my life. By way of my rear-view mirror, i easily recognize the Lord speaking to me as a child, defending me when i was just so ignorant, and believe me, i was ignorant of most everything, in fact, i was ignorant to the point i died twice. Let me make a note here that the root of the word “ignorance” is the word “ignore” and i completely ignored everything that was wise, honest, and good.

i see the vision of God playing in me even before i ever thought about Jesus, i had God dreams and God ideas even as a child and didn’t know it was the Lord who was working. i remember my cousin telling me the gospel story once, and his voice was like someone murmuring at a distance … i just couldn’t hear it. It is easy to see now that when i prayed with the man to receive Jesus and then made fun of him, i believe God took me seriously and pursued me with all of Heaven in His wake to bring me home. Galatians 6:7, “God is not mocked.” This is to all the desperados and traitors out there …. you can come home, it’s time to come home, Jesus is waiting just for you with open arms. There is always room for the humble repentant to come home, and there is no pit deep enough that the saving hands of Jesus can’t reach you.

Robin Mark wrote a song, the lyrics are “Jesus, all for Jesus, all i am and have and ever hope to be. All of my ambitions, hopes and plans, i surrender these into Your hands. For it’s only in Your will that i am free, Jesus, all for Jesus, All i am and have and ever hope to be.”

Philip3:13-14, “But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

That is the truth – i do not think of myself as having arrived, but like Arthur Burt once said, “i have not arrived, but i can assure you i have left.”

It is not possible that i can sit across the table from everyone and ask, so i’ll ask your conscience to reflect my words, leaving your own heart to answer the question: Do you really serve Christ, or is it more that you merely enjoy hearing, you enjoy singing, and enjoy telling others you go to church and tithe? When you are in the great congregation at your church and you stand to sing, do you know why you stand or is it because that’s what everyone else does, or maybe because it’s what you’re told to do?

What is your story of how you met Jesus? What have you done with the gifts and the fruit of your relationship with the Lord? Inventory is a good idea sometimes, and we must be honest about our inventory, take the truth of ourselves to the Lord, and let Him heal our wounded conscience and make our hearts well again. Think about it.

Some, i fear, do not serve Christ in what they do, they just go about it all as a part of the general routine of their existence, you know, it’s the legitimate thing to go to a place of worship … therefore they go.

Some, i fear, give service in a party spirit. They serve and they think it is Christ they are serving—but in fact it is their own denomination or group. They’re in love with their brand, and the Lord is over on the side somewhere. Many of them would be almost vexed to hear of the Lord being honored among any other sort of Christians! They hope there will be a revival, but they would like it to be pretty nearly confined to the walls of their own church group. That’s called serving a clique, not Christ. Where do you stand? Are you all for Jesus, all you are and have, and ever hope to be?

What is your testimony? Do you have one developed? Can you tell about the time you met Jesus and He changed your life, or is it just a general tale with no definition, no defined beginning? Some say, “oh, i’ve always just been this way.” If you belong to Jesus, then somewhere along the line you had to choose. No one becomes a child of God because their parents were, or that somehow, they’ve defined themselves as a “good person”.  i must admit i find it disturbing when someone says they can’t think of a time they’ve ever repented and asked Jesus into their lives, that they have just always been like they are, however that is. Take the time to write down your testimony; it’s important to know about your life with Christ from it’s beginning.

Drive carefully this week; watch out for your neighbor. Ask the Lord in your prayer time to open your eyes to know Him more, after all, where would you be without Jesus? Have a great and prosperous week. Go with God.

As the day is passing away and the sun fades from the sky, all the regular friends have gathered at the deck area and pulled up a comfortable chair for some cool jazz and contemplative conversation.

Thank you for joining me this evening at Outposts, a rural cafe at the end of Old Field Road, overlooking the beautiful and enduring Ockluhwahhah River, where the trees gently lean over the river’s edge, and every evening is pleasant.

With every program, i try to find a tidbit some may call a side-bar. Tonight’s side-bar is about getting over a sticky place in our thinking, what i call, “What you did to me” attitude. It often sounds like someone saying, “If they hadn’t done such-n-such to me then i wouldn’t have to do what i did!” Hmmm … let’s see, “If They”, the infamous “they”, hadn’t done what “they” did, then i wouldn’t HAVE to do what i did. Just “HAD” to huh? Do you see the twist in it? Can you relate? Some folks live lives which are stuck in all the things someone else did to them. Like a child who disdains the parents to their face, a spouse who was rude, or maybe the person at church who we perceived as being condescending … or how about the ministry which we felt we deserved but the church leadership refused to give us a badge of recognition and a title? i call it the “What they did to me” nail in your tire, with the attitude being like having a nail in your tire, and everything about the car pulls in the direction of that tire that’s going flat. It influences everything about the car…and the “what they did to me” attitude influences everything about your life, causing you to swerve all over the road. Someone is always going to be doing something that affects us. It’s up to us to let it go. By no means do i intend we shouldn’t be responsible for our behavior, but we do have to forgive, and i didn’t say be a door mat either, i said forgive. If we don’t forgive, we stay chained to that person and the circumstances. Jesus had grace for us, and we should have grace for others. And think on this, more than likely, that person who did that “thing” to you, probably doesn’t even realize what they did. i say, A little grace please, practice a little grace.

2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” What are “old things”? Everything born of this world fades away – the flowers, the grass, our clothes, color, daylight, thoughts, interests, even the mountains and rocks will fade and pass away….because of the origins of our beginning, we all fade and pass away. But see it from another perspective, God has extended to us an opportunity to live a life which will never fade.

Job 14:1-2, “Man who is born of woman Is of few days and full of trouble. He comes forth like a flower and fades away; He flees like a shadow and does not continue.”

To say something “fades” and “passes away” says it does not continue, and the word fade is the general idea of becoming weak or dim, ineffective, or colorless and losing solidity. From beginning to end, everything that is created and everything which is born looses form, color, becomes distant and dim and passes away eventually. It is the progression of all things under the sun.  If it is born and breathes, there will come a time when it concludes the journey and all breath will cease.

The world is passing away. For all of us, someday our opportunities will blanch and dim. Beauty fades and our youth is sapped day by day, our life in the flesh never continues forever, and was never meant to. Our eyes get dim and lose color, our strength slips away and our hair turns from dark to gray. i was noticing the other day i’m starting to look like a little old man with skinny legs and skinny arms. i’m not the robust individual i used to be and i won’t be wasting my time lamenting over all that i was. i’m going the path God designed and it’s a good thing. We should endeavor to be as effective as possible as long as possible, however we come to it, in order that we would prosper the Kingdom of Heaven above all things to our last breath.

My mother told me … that one day, if things went well, i would be among the older generation. i didn’t believe her i don’t think. You know, at the time i just couldn’t imagine myself as “older”. But now that i really am “older” i realize my body and mind are fading – i can feel it. The burdens of fear and hope, labor and play, slowly lose their brightness and dissolve. i know my present is destined to fade and pass away because there is this thing called “the past”, meaning my present is fading into remembrance as with everyone, but it seems more noticeable as you get older. As time passes and i realize my gold and silver will rust, a blight and scourge is upon us called death, and for all of us in this life, all our green will become decay at some point in the future. Friends, this is not depression settling around our lives, but a mere understanding this is the way of wearing flesh, and this body will not endure time in its present state. In fact, again, our flesh was never meant to endure time. This is a discussion of our passing out of this life into eternity, and yes, we love talking about things being born, but it seems no one is eager to discuss dying, yet both are inevitable for everyone. We don’t get to practice being born nor will we get to practice dying, in hopes that when the time comes we will do it well.

1 Corinthians 7:31 “ … For this world in its present form is passing away.” i think we should seriously consider the ramifications of that … i mean seriously, where will we be if we highly esteem the things of this world, really set our sights on our possessions or the things we wish so badly we had … if all things of this world are passing away? Gosh what a vanity, what a vanity.

And in light of that question concerning people and all their beloved stuff, i find it mind boggling how Americans have so much stuff.

The fading and passing away of this world and my addiction to all the things which God says not to be in love with really came home to me when i tried to describe to a man in a third world nation how in America we have so much stuff we have to rent storage units to store all our possessions which won’t fit in our houses. The look on his face was one of incredulousness. He thought our addiction to possessions was horrible. He asked me, “If you know this world is passing away, and nothing but what is done in Christ will stand, why do you all devote so much time to owning so much stuff born of this world?” Ummm, well, i had no good answer, after all, i am an American. i have a pocket full of plastic to get more stuff if i want to. And if that wasn’t enough, i can just go to a bank and sign my life away, making payments on stuff, just so i can have more. Then there are the people who keep their stuff, years and years past it’s state of usefulness, and would rather it lay in the barn and rot as to allow anyone in need to have it. Many folks have so much stuff, their houses are piled full, full of all their valuable stuff, so much so, you have to walk through the narrow passages between the piled treasure to get to the next room. It’s an “obsession with possession”, and we can’t take any of it with us. One fellow tried to tell me God intended each of us to be wealthy, having lots of stuff and many possessions. i remember thinking, “why oh why do we need more stuff?” We’ve already got so much of everything, it’s almost as if nothing is special anymore. Indeed, we have “an obsession with possession”, and the Lord wants to change our hearts about that.

1 John 2:8, “Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.”

Regardless of what the world’s activities look like on any given day, no matter what the stock market does, or the promises of our government, according to the work of Christ on the cross and 1John 2:8, the teeth have been pulled out of the jaws of hell, and darkness has lost it’s grip! The light of the world is shining, and shining brightly in a dark place … furthermore, He is getting brighter and getting closer to everything in this sin laden, fallen universe. The universe is groaning under the weight of His growing glory, for the closer Jesus gets to all things the more all things become like Him, therefore the darkness yields all its positions and holdings to the Son of God.

The evening news reports God is fading out and the dominion of darkness is fading in, at least that’s what they’d like us to think; the media service network makes sure all we hear is a biased opinion of the state of the universe, saying “everything is fine, just fine. People have never been happier and we have never been so well off” … and it’s simply not true. Regardless, the fact remains evil has lost it’s mooring and anchor, it is passing away. Darkness acts like it still has strength and the ability to run with the ball, but the truth is Jesus has shoved it back from the line of scrimmage all the way into its own goal line, and then it was the end of the game. The Son of God won it all and there is no more opportunity for darkness to repolarize the universe in sin, ever again. Darkness has lost its loud voice and is only left to manipulating those who are available to be manipulated.

Still, there are things which fade and pass away, and as long as we wear flesh and there is a devil, it’s always going to be a fight. Eventually, all that is made, all things, people and memories will pale and dissolve away over the edge of remembrance into eternity.

Ships fade into the distance as they sail away, the light passes away into the late afternoon – soon fading into the evening. Sooner or later, even the memory of the ship which sailed away into the distance will fade away. We think our friends will remember us when we die, but when the friends who remembers us die, that only leaves the friends of the friends who remember and eventually, no one but God will remember. Flowers fade, and the grass of the field passes into winter. Seasons fade in and out, times come and go, but God, God is the same and is ever enduring, unwavering, and always stable. He never fades or passes away. Ever. The older i get, the more my younger years fade into the dimness of the past. Funny how not only does the Lord never fade, but with time He actually becomes more visible, and comes more sharply into view.

How do you want people to remember you? Many years ago, a young man i knew was pondering the end of life and asked me how i wanted to be remembered. Upon asking him to be more specific in what he meant, the young man went on to ask, “Do you want to be remembered for the big house you built, or the garden you grew, or the mile long wall you built to commemorate the time you were on earth? Or maybe for some great athletic feat, or amazing intellectualism.”

i’d never considered what he was asking, so as i thought about his question, into my mind came a multiplicity of several visions all at once, like one little video after another. i first saw a vision of a great house of massive stones firmly built on great rocks in the earth, all eventually crumbling onto the ground and becoming dust again. Then i saw, in high speed motion, a beautiful garden with flowers and vegetables wither and fade, become overgrown with weeds, then saplings sprouted and became trees and shortly no one ever knew there was ever a garden there. And again, i watched as all things built of men, again in hi-speed motion, were built up, fell apart eventually and came down. i saw myself running as the fastest man on earth and jumping higher than all others until i became old with faded strength, years had gone by and then there was a new fastest man on earth, a new high jumper, and no man remembered my name; at the last of the visions, i saw myself with a bulging forehead, smarter than anyone anywhere, and in a flash i saw all my brilliance fading away into history books, and eventually my name, even in history books, would be replaced with someone else’s, someone younger, someone smarter than i ever thought of being.

i believe God gave me a good reply that day when i answered the question with, “I’d like to be remembered for my kindness, my devotion to God, my honesty and diligence. i’d like to be remembered when i fade and pass away as a Godly man of great integrity, and character. i think i’d like my headstone to say, “Here lies a man who loved Jesus and tried really hard.” i continued saying, “But all that, even the remembrance, will fade and pass away. So, above all, i want to know, when my eyes finally fade to black and all my strength is gone, that God knows my name, for men will soon forget other men and even memories fade regardless of our deeds, but God is the only one who remembers us for who we are in Christ.” What do you say? How do you want to be known?

 In this life, all things fade and pass away, that is how things are ordered in God’s providence. We typically don’t want to think about that and we somehow expect to know in advance when life, times, and people, are going to fade and pass away. We want a predictable decline, a calculatable crisis so we have time enough to gather our wits and change the set of our sails. Fading and passing away is, typically, a one-time event, we don’t get to practice for the end of the line so we look good, or so we’ll have all the witty and deep things to say in those last moments.

We think to ourselves that it is still “early”, there is still time, that seasons will wait for us and won’t change until we are prepared. Ha! Think my friend, think. Out of the millions who have left this place before us, have the seasons ever, ever waited for anyone to “get it right” before the final chapter of their life somehow, closes like they want? Who gets to elect to leave here with a fairy-tale ending? You’re right! Nobody.

Most of the time we don’t notice the fading and passing of this world, but let’s not dwell on the old, but focus on the new. Galatians 6:15, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.” Ephesians 4:22-23, “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds”.

2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, ALL things have become new!” The new has come, and “new” means never been done before, freshness with respect to age. If you and i, through Christ, have become new, repolarized from unrighteousness to righteousness, by the blood of the crucified, resurrected Son of God, and the Lord says we are made a “new creation”, what part of all new do we not get?

The standard of existing under the rules of this fallen world no longer apply to those who are believers in Christ. We are “other”, meaning not like we were before, and the old standard is no longer suitable. The old “standard” meant as under the rules of death, and the new standard meaning, in Christ, under the rules of life.

The Lord made opportunity for reconciliation and redemption, and we have the power to not remain the same. Remaining the same is not an option; change without transformation is entirely unsatisfactory. Some seem to think they can stay the same, but you know, all untilled soil grows briars and weeds quite well…anything can roll downhill, it may appear to be the simplest thing in the world to just keep going the way were, but truthfully, if we don’t get better, we will get worse, for there is no standing still in the presence of God. The word of the Lord says, we are new, meaning we are not the same anymore … no longer slaves to fear, sin, and death.

Peter says in 1 Peter 5:14, “Greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace to you all who are in Christ Jesus.” “In Christ” is “in Christ”…. “in” is “in” and we can’t be anymore “in” than “in”. i like these words, “in Christ”, “new creation”, “old things passed away”. We are a new creation, the old you is gone and Jesus is establishing the new, righteous you who will live forever and has access to all the attributes of the Living God, Almighty. i like that. We are new, and even if this world fades and passes away, who we are, and what we have done in Christ will remain forever, God will remember and will not forget. In Christ, you will never fade and pass away. Ever. And that is worth taking to the bank, amen? Think about it.

 Outwardly, indifference and trusting God can look the same, but at their foundation they are eternally different. Indifference says, “i really don’t care what happens.” It means being unconcerned and having a lack of interest. On the other hand, trusting God says, “i care what’s happening, but i believe God has got this, He will resolve things in His time, and i’m not going to worry anymore.” ‘If any man be in Christ he is a new creature,’ Jesus has put all life under the influence of “new life”. We may have lingering hankerings from the old which fades and passes away, but as the new sap rises in us, it pushes off the old leaves to break out the new for bearing much fruit.

i’m Social Porter and thank you for joining me here at Outposts.

This world has lost it’s grip on us who are in Christ. This world is fading and passing away, satan and hell have been defeated and have no authority over us who are God’s people. When Jesus said, “It is finished”, He meant “finished”, done, accomplished. From that point on, sin, death and dying are fading and passing away and the light is getting brighter and brighter.

Stand up this week, hoist your colors up the flag pole, nail God’s declaration of Hope upon the mast pole of life and let the world hear of His goodness in your life. Pray for your neighbors, be kind to yourself and those around you. Drive carefully, and i hope to talk with you next time.

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.” (chuckle) 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 unmoveable 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!

Jesus, You did it! You changed my regret and overwhelming sorrow, You ripped off my black mourning band.

You didn’t leave.

You gave me room to breathe.

Jesus pulled me out of the ditch, pulled me from deep mud and sent me leaping and whirling, abandoning myself to His love. When i was mobbed by my sins and they were piled up, stinking, and defiling, far past counting, when i was living on a diet of tears, God intervened and made me a poem to Himself.

Who is God? Let’s speak of His invisible attributes: God does not procrastinate; not statistical numbers or written words can properly account for Him. God intervenes. He is really really good at being God and does not quit. His love is absolutely relentless. God is gracious and kind, He loves us all day and sings us songs all night; He clears the name of those who believe in Him. He gives those who love Him His lantern and compass, He makes us a map then gives us wisdom and understanding to follow it with. God’s promises are always, always, always, and yes, yes, yes.

Many years ago, when i was in deep trouble, i k new there was only one place to go: to God. What is it worth to us to be right with God? When all my friends who had promised no matter what, they would be there for me, when they were gone, and i wished i was gone too, God intervened. When i was out of ideas, when i was out of imagination, when i was out of dreams and had come to my end, God intervened. At that time of my life i had no clue where to go, what to do, what to say, or how to act anymore. i had not an inkling of an idea of what to expect or what should happen next. Then Jesus stepped in! When i was in a head-lock of sin, then Jesus tagged in, cut the legs out from under my bondage, and took it down for the pin. i thought it was the end of the line for me, but God stepped in, once again, to resolve my internal and spiritual conflict.

So, does God intervene in the affairs of the world? If so, are there any undeniable examples of this divine intervention? Has God left any fingerprints on His handiwork?

i believe we can confidently point to many examples of God’s intervention. Everything from the defeat of the Spanish Armada to the existence of modern-day Israel as proof that God has intervened in history. Of course, there are also the miracles of the Bible, recorded by eyewitnesses to the events, and creation itself. Of course, on the hyper-spiritualized side of this, there are believers who think everything is God’s intervention, like a good parking spot being open is seen clearly as a miracle from God. A sudden gust of wind or the chance meeting of a friend is clearly a sign from God to move in a different direction. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. While this mindset is more biblical than the approach a determined nay-sayer might take, it does pose some potentially serious problems. Interpreting virtually everything as divine intervention can lead to very subjective conclusions. Many times, when we’re at the end of our rope, you’ve gotta admit, we do tend to read into things what we want. It is tempting to study cloud shapes to find “proof” for what we want God’s will to be instead of truly seeking God’s will in a biblical manner

But back to the topic, i believe God intervenes in the lives of every living thing on earth, whether they believe it or not, or appreciate it or not. If God did not intervene in some fashion, i believe life would immediately digress to destruction, and come to a state of nil in a heartbeat. Genesis 20:1-18 is a good example where Abraham was disobedient and God intervened on his behalf when he sought the Lord for help. God intervenes on behalf of even unbelievers, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…even when mankind didn’t believe in God or hold His love as valuable, God intervened and made salvation available for any who would repent and call on His Name.

God intervenes! He is the Chief Interventionist and is willing to cancel your death sentence. Consider His love carefully, your very life is at stake.

i’m Social Porter for Living In His Name Ministries.

i visit the jail often, often enough over the last years to see patterns among those incarcerated. Most who are incarcerated are not only physically imprisoned, but also mental and spiritual prisoners too, many times, if not most times, in a prison of their own making.

How did they become those people, twisted thinkers, irresponsible with habits of consistently choosing poorly, and not regretting those choices until after they are running and gunning again with the blue lights of law enforcement outside their door?

i know a man who wrote a book which many inmates read… they, the inmates think it was written just for them, and partly it was, but initially, while the man was pastoring a church, the book was also written for his congregation, whom he realized had the same stinking thinking going on as those incarcerated… it’s just that the ones in jail got caught, and the ones in the congregation were still operating in their twisted thinking, not, as of yet, apprehended, neither had it even entered their mind that they were being hindered in their relationship with the Lord by way of their own thinking.

How do we get there? i mean, think about it, no one wakes up one morning and thinks to themselves, “Today is the day i’m going to begin my criminal career.” At least i don’t think so. i doubt people make the decision, on the spur of the moment, to be a drug addict; i don’t believe anyone decides to make a career of sin while drinking a little coffee in the morning and reading the paper, or makes the life decision to not be responsible and accountable for their actions, ignoring who they wound, gleefully going on deflecting any challenges as to their distinct lack of honesty… it’s extremely remote that any of us wake up one day and decides that stuff.

i’m Social Porter and this is Outposts, cool jazz and contemplative conversation, coming to you 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’ve got the lawn chairs set up, coffee is on, God’s handy work of another glowing evening is visible at the horizon… just sitting here, waiting for you to come sit with me a while. We’ll talk and sing, like we might if we were sitting around the Crystal Sea, talking and laughing, reminiscing about the times in our lives about when the Lord did this, and when He said that. Peace my friends, be at peace, you don’t have to cry anymore… those days are done… and you don’t have to cry anymore. Because of Jesus, our wounds don’t need to dictate our actions any longer… being free, we are no longer slaves, and you are not a slave to the sad history of life. We don’t have to cry any more.

Drip by drip, the world and it’s ways influence our lives. Like water dripping on a stone, over time, if allowed to continue to drip, the stone eventually yields to the persistent dripping of water becoming reshaped into something other than what it would normally be. Drip, drip, drip, drip. It is so subtle sometimes we just don’t notice, but it is there. Like watching the tide go out or come in, it is so subtle we only notice when a sizeable difference is evident, only then do we think to ourselves, “Oh, look, the tide has changed.”

Drip by drip, criminal thinking is achieved with all its irresponsibility, unaccountability, and living in a dream where it’s a habit to blow past our actions, and then, neglecting honesty, many tend to hyper-spiritualize things so they, still don’t have to be accountable. Once we are far from shore, no longer tethered to the security of the dock, we wake up and wonder, “How did i get way over here?” Drip, drip, drip. The drip of the world seeps into our thinking and we slowly ebb away only to find ourselves at a very uncomfortable distance from God.

God has found us out, we are not all we thought we were, and we are all God knew we were. Isaiah 46:10 says that the Lord declares the end from the beginning, which means from the beginning He has declared the end. i heard someone say God controls history from the future. i think that is absolutely correct. Before the beginning He knew we would need a savior… before the beginning, the character of the cross was worked in the heart of the Father, so at the appointed time, Jesus, the Christ of God would come to us, get eye level with mankind, allow Himself to suffer and be crucified, and be raised from the dead to rescue the object of His affection.

The Lord was not ignorant that we would be subject to the persistent drip of the world, in all its unbelief, in all its self-declaration, and all it’s destructive and hurtful ways. For those who are no longer slaves, we have shelter from the constant drip on our heads from the world and all its God-excluding habits.

The Lord is far, far kinder and more merciful toward our weaknesses than most of us give Him credit for. Psalm 103:13-14 “As a father pities his children, so the LORD pities those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust“.     He understands our human frailty or susceptibility to worldly ideas completely and so pities us like a loving father toward his children. Now, that doesn’t mean we are suddenly off the hook for our actions and attitudes, absolutely not, and there is indeed a difference between the redeemed and those who are not. Romans 6:14-15, “For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? Absolutely not!”

Being free in Christ doesn’t mean we can do whatever we want without the repercussions of our actions, but more we are free to do the right thing as often as we want. When we were slaves, we had no strength against sin, even when we wanted to resist. Paul mentions in Romans 6:12 that if sin rules in our mortal body, then we are subject to be made to obey it’s passions. Yet in all our messiness, God truly understands us, and because of the passion of Jesus, we who believe in Him are free to obey righteousness over sin.

When a child is first learning to eat, a good parent doesn’t stand over the toddler and scream, “You stupid child! I expected more out of you than that. You should be successfully using a knife, fork, and spoon by now, and not smearing food in your hair with your hands and spilling stuff everywhere!”. (Chuckle) No, the parent knows the child’s weakness, and so has no such delusions about their abilities. So, a good parent will simply pick the child up, clean them off, and try again, even though sometimes they may envision themselves just driving into the distance alone. The Lord never leaves us behind, perfectly understands our weaknesses, and wants to help us overcome.

He understands because He created us. You know, every inventor i’ve ever known has a pretty good idea of how their invention works, having been the very person who dreamed it up and put it together. In a more profound manner, the Lord has total knowledge of all the inner workings of every human being, and is not so offended He abandons us. In Psalm 139:13-15, David wrote, “You have formed my inward parts; you have covered me in my mother’s womb… My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth“.

           2 Corinthians 2:11, “… so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs.”

We forgive others because the Lord forgives us. We forgive others so we are not chained to them in circumstances. Another reason is because we know to hold forgiveness over someone’s head can be a crushing weight… if that is you, deal with it and be done… God does not hold forgiveness over our head, saying, “If you’ll get this next part right, maybe i’ll forgive your sins” which would be back to a retributive theology which says, do good get good, do bad get bad… that is not love. God is faithful to forgive us our sins when we ask and He doesn’t hold our ability to perform over us as a condition of our forgiveness, that’s called holding someone hostage which is not the heart of God.

Leaven in dough is a creeping thing. It doesn’t happen all at once, and once it starts, it doesn’t stop until the whole lump is leavened.

Mark 8:15, “Then He charged them, saying, “Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.””

The leaven of the Pharisees is the law, which says if you get it all right then you’ll be ok, but you won’t… within ourselves, how often are we making a list, checking it twice, always measuring if we’re naughty or nice. 1Cor15:56 says that the law is the strength of sin.

The leaven of Herod is being in the grip of getting more… more money, more recognition, more personal achievement, more prestige, more power, more authority… just… more. That would be like the drip of the world, at first, it may be just a little drip here, and a little drip there. One or two drips are one thing, but the continual drip into our lives from advertising, television, the news and media persuades us away from God. i marvel at the continual drip of the idea that we don’t need God which is constantly presented to us by science, our educational system, government, and the media. Hmmm… i wonder who’s driving their train?

As example, a well-loved international magazine which always has the most amazing photographs and has been in business for almost 100 years is constantly presenting evolution as the truth on the front page, but when you actually read the article it is filled with words like “maybe”, “possibly”, and “we believe it could be”, which are not words of certainty… the article is typically presenting possibilities, but the magazine editors constantly present evolution to us as the truth. Drip, drip, drip.

Matthew 13:33, “Another parable He spoke to them: “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened.“”

Obviously, that means with Jesus in your life, He works to perfect you, to make you more than you ever thought possible… for you to know that you are more than just a low down sinner. He works, pursues, calls, and loves you into surrender, from glory to glory.

Ovid, who’s poetry greatly influenced western art and literature said, ““Dripping water hollows out stone, not through force but through persistence.”

Evidently, there’s two types of leaven, there’s the leaven of the world, and the leaven of the Lord. One wears you down to hell, and the other lifts you up to Heaven. Both are persistent, both endure to the end, both represent a pervasive influence that modifies and transforms… Matthew 12:30, “He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.”  We can’t have both types in the same lump of dough…so either we are leavened toward Heaven, or leavened toward hell, in the same way we can’t be a saint AND a sinner at the same time… is you is or is you ain’t. Now there’s something to get down into our heads.

           The constant drip of the persuasion of the world inspires us toward wrong conclusions about ourselves and the world around us. The slow advancement of worldly corruption impinged upon us inspires young men and women to have serious self-centered and self-image problems… so much so that 70.4% of suicides which succeed are male, yet only 22.6% of women succeed. Women fail to take their own lives 77.4% of the time, men succeed 70.4% of the time. Be on guard my friends, the rotting stench of darkness looks to creep into our thinking, persuading our lives. Take Jesus as your shield.

True story: A mother had a nagging thing going on in the back of her head that something was going on with her son. He seemed successful at his job, made good money, his bosses seemed to have high hopes for his future promotions. But recently, he had stopped talking to her, stopped calling, and only yesterday had said he was taking a break from talking to anyone for a while. That afternoon, being worried as she was, she went to his house, went inside and called his name….no answer. She went upstairs to the bathroom, and there in a tub of cold water was her son with no breath in his body. Written on the mirror, it said, “I am sorry. I am just so tired of trying to be perfect.” His high pressure bosses at work were sad for a couple minutes, then they set about to hire someone else. The drip on our heads of the influence of the world invades our thinking and we desperately need protection.

i fully believe there is nothing wrong with someone telling their story about all the past badness in their lives, as long as they don’t linger, almost gloriously, on the darkness of it all… it is MORE important to tell the redemptive story of Jesus in their lives, how God delivered them and set their feet on solid ground. Jesus is the focus not the badness of our past. i believe it would be a brutal thing to only tell of sad things and not point out the goodness of God which drips like refreshing rain on us. Once we have seen the goodness of the Lord, the downward spiral of the world becomes more apparent.

The Lord is the absolute master of contrasts and comparisons, He constantly is revealing to us the contrast of Himself with the world. The leaven of the Lord pulls us up, the leaven of the world spirals us down; the leaven of the Lord says be free, the leaven of the world says you are a slave forever so don’t even try; the Lord says love endures forever, the leaven of the world convinces us love is only for a night; the Lord says Jesus is sufficient and in Him you are sufficient, the leaven of the world says you will never be good enough so sit down slave!; the love of God improves all it touches, the leaven of the world degrades us then throws us away like trash; the leaven of the world inspires us to loosen our belt of truth, the causation of the Lord inspires us to higher honesty and to own the truth; the steady drip of the world deteriorates all things to rotting and defilement, the steady drip of the Lord makes all things beautiful as a gift to lovers; the Kingdom of Heaven is like leaven that is life giving, the leaven of the self-inclusive world system is only death dealing.

The drip of the world wears us down like water dripping on a stone, wearing us down if it is allowed to continuously do its work. If people receive Christ, putting on the breastplate of faith and love and wearing the helmet of hope of salvation as the defense against the world’s persuasion, the wearing down drip of the world will be deterred. 1 Timothy 6:10-12, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.”

The leaven of the world sees transgressing and lying against the LORD as normal, necessary behavior, subtly persuading us to depart from our God, the Kingdom of Heaven says it is good for us to draw near to God and say I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all His works; the world teaches us how to dream up and speak from our heart words of dishonesty and deceit, and that doing injustice is a good idea in order to further our personal agenda, whereas the entire basic theme of 1John is to hold fast to truth, love, and obedience with an additional focus on what Godly hospitality is all about. The drip of the world upon us teaches us from an early age that secretly thinking you’re better than everyone else is good for your mental health, God is persistent to teach us to let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves, not looking to only our own interests, but also for the interests of others.

i need, not just want, but need You Jesus. i need, not just want, but neeeeed Your strength, mercy and love. Let righteousness draw near to my heart, and that i would have the passion and zeal to be bold and loop my arm under the arm of truth which has fallen in the street, helping truth to its feet, encouraging honesty and integrity to enter every heart, home, city, state, and nation. Because of You Jesus, peace, which we had not known before, now we know…drawing all things into right perspective. By your peace our crooked paths are made straight, righteousness overtakes us in the heat of the day, our souls rejoice and sing of your glorious light, we have brightness on our path. We no longer grope for the wall like the blind any longer, but now we have eyes to see, nor do we stumble at noonday or in the twilight. You Lord, make us alive and animated, even though we walk through desolate places, we are firm in our trust in You and are not moved from our station. We lift up your name and you draw all men unto Yourself, even those who growl like bears and moan sadly like doves for grief, and loneliness, by your blood and redemption, i am no longer that person. You do not know my wrongness of character any longer, and truly, the buck stops with you. Regardless of what men say, all things come to rest at the feet of Jesus, and Your decision is the final word. i need you Jesus, not just want, but neeeed you Jesus, i need your support for in the leaven of the world, i’m weak as water….You build me up, unlike the world which delights in tearing me down, you make me firm and steadfast in a world of mobile boundaries and fuzzy morals, i am permanent and quiet, moral and true, made to be of long continuance, faithful and loyal like You. i am inspired to speak, i no longer hold my peace therefore my tongue does not cleave to the roof of my mouth, neither does the spirit of fear cause all my bones to shake.

The constant drip of the rain of Heaven can rehydrate even the driest heart, the most distant dream, and the faintest hope. He is even able to dry up the most grievous tears, and the saddest soul.

Psalm 68:8, “The earth shook; The heavens also dropped rain at the presence of God; Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel.” Put on Christ who defends us from the subtle dripping upon our heads from the world. It is good to wear the armor of God! Think about it.

           Every day, the world in all it’s self-inclusive, God excluding ways tries to seep into our thinking. There are many who have become persuaded, over time, to allow a little leaven of the world in their lives. They don’t seem to mind wearing the belt of truth a little loose, their breastplate of righteousness is tarnished from lack of attention, and readiness is not as important as it used to be. They look more like faded glory, than ready soldiers for the Lord. The Chinese water torture is a process in which water is slowly dripped onto a person’s forehead, allegedly driving the restrained victim insane. If we allow ourselves to be restrained by the world’s conduct and conscience, and the values of the world are constantly allowed to drip onto our heads, we will find ourselves increasingly indifferent to the very person, Jesus, who died from our sins that we would be free. The subtle influence of violent television, the subtle influence of an immoral society, the subtle and persistent influence of cultural unbelief, pointlessness, and hopelessness (which is despair), overtime, creates people who see no good reason to be honest, to love the truth, to exercise kindness, and courage.

But Jesus, yes Jesus came to not only set us free from those things, He also empowered us to not only resist, but to actually win against grief and despair that we don’t have to sit in a dark corner and cry anymore, we can win by sitting under God’s umbrella of protection. Romans 6:8-11, “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

We, who are in Christ, are dead to the insidious, steady drip on our heads from the world, we live under the shelter of the Almighty. Psalm 143:9, “Deliver me, O LORD, from my enemies; In You I take shelter.” and Joel 3:16, “The heavens and earth will shake; But the LORD will be a shelter for His people…”

i’m Social Porter and this has been Outposts, right next door to Trinity Bakers, that’s right, Trinity Bakers where there’s always something good in the oven.

Psalm 91:1, “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.”

We do not have to sit under the invasive drip of this world which persuades exposed minds and hearts toward criminal thinking. The Lord has already won the battle, we are more than conqueror’s because Jesus is more than a conqueror, we don’t have to sit and cry anymore. Amen!