On a side note and then a fore note, we should be ever so careful what we profess. Palms up – confession, palms out – profession. Are you a typical promise maker and promise breaker? If you tend to break your promises, let me suggest you do more and promise less. Better to pledge 2 things and do two things, than to pledge 10 things and do none. If someone is disappointed that you didn’t make a promise, let them be disappointed… it’s better than making a promise you knew you couldn’t keep merely to acquire their approval in the short run. In fact, if we get right down to it, James 5:12 says, “Above all, my brothers, do not swear–not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. Let your “Yes” be yes, and your “No,” be no, or you will be condemned.” Consider this: the more you do NOT keep your promises, the easier it gets to NOT keep your word. The inverse is true also in that the more you DO keep your word, the easier it gets to keep your word.

It’s a matter of character. Remember, it is your personal honor i’m speaking of, additionally you’re representing the Kingdom of God in the eyes of the world. If you tell someone you’re going to call, then call, even if it’s to say you’re not going to call. We can’t live our lives on, what i call, momentary promises. For many, what is true today may not be true tomorrow… that just won’t work. Good old Dan Clay used to say, “If you do, you do, and if you don’t, you don’t.” That may not make much sense to some folks, but think about it… it’s good sound wisdom. i didn’t get it for years, but i think i do now, it means “If you say “yes”, then do “yes”, and if you say “no” then do “no”, and have the grace to say “yes” when it’s appropriate, and how to say “no” when it’s necessary. Think carefully before you commit. Let your yes be yes, and your no be no.

The last word in James 5:12 is the word “condemned”, which is the Greek word for “hypocrite”, which implies deceit, and if anyone in this world needs to be known as honest and reliable, it is the people of God, people of outstanding character.

Our topic is “Pledges and Affirmations”, where it came from and how do our pledges and affirmations impact society today.

           i suppose it could be said, most people live at a slightly erratic tempo, of course some more than others, and most of us might even be slightly out of tune, some more than others. Even at that, everyone wants to be believed and validated in some fashion or another. What lengths are we willing to go to in order to have people believe us? Some folks want others to believe them for criminal reasons, others with the hopes of being validated, and then there are those who tell the truth for the sake of the Lord and it doesn’t matter if any person endorses or validates them because the truth, who is Christ is sufficient for them.

An oath is a promise calling upon something or someone that the oath maker considers sacred, usually God, as a witness to the binding nature of the promise or the truth of the statement of fact. To swear an oath is to make a solemn vow and i fully believe the Lord takes the promises we make to others seriously, that means we should too.

There are those in our society who object to making an oath or a vow, even in court, asserting that their word is their bond, and if they say “yes” or “no” you can bank on it. That, my friends, is righteous and very brave.

When people make an oath or vow, most of the time they also imply that if they fail in the accomplishing of their oath, it somehow invokes some sort of divine displeasure. The ancient Hebrews were really big on oaths and vows, even to the point of it becoming down right ridiculous.

The most usual oath or vow is the explicit “I swear,” meaning to promise something to someone, or to solemnly charge, but any statement or promise that includes “as my witness” or “so help me”, that also is an oath. Many people take an oath by holding in their hand or placing over their head a book of scripture or a sacred object, thus indicating the sacred witness through their action.

When we take an oath or “swear” something, it’s like we have taken on two masters, the Lord AND the oath. In fact, the implication of the Hebrew word “oath” could literally be taken to mean, “to fence yourself in, to limit yourself”, and the root word means, “a boundary line”. So, we’re down to a boundary line being an oath of sorts… which means the property deed you possess which defines what is yours and what is your neighbors is a type of an oath, a sworn agreement; the title to your car is a sworn agreement, an oath and vow. In light of James 5:12, do you think it’s really about a rigorous legality or is it about your character and keeping your word?

We could take James 5:12 to the point of being legalistic and never even say things which would require us to keep our word, but honestly, that makes for some very odd conversation. i knew a man who was so careful about committing himself to anything he would almost never say “yes” or “no”. Instead he said, “probably”, “more than likely”, “pretty much”, or “I think so”. That isn’t someone being careful about their oaths and vows, that’s someone who fears committing to anything. And yes, his life reflected his lack of commitment you couldn’t count on him for anything.

Oaths and vows… very tricky stuff, and our society is rife with them.

“But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King” (Matt. 5:34–35).

Is taking an oath the same as giving your word? Some say yes, some say no. To me, giving your word, as in, “Yes, i will be here every Tuesday to teach the class” isn’t in the same context as taking an oath, but it certainly qualifies as a vow and giving your word to do something. We must rightly divide the truth here without becoming legalistic in the process. Does God mean we should never agree to anything because it is a form of taking an oath? i think, “no”. If you pledged to open your doors on a certain day of the week to hold a home group meeting, i doubt Matt 5:34-35 means for us to not give our word or pledge to open our home. How would anyone follow us in ministry if we only used the phrases, “probably”, or “more than likely”? 1 Corinthians 14:8, “Again, if the trumpet does not sound a clear call, who will get ready for battle?” There is much to be said about giving and keeping your word.

It is sad to say that in the days in which we live, many people fail to keep their word and get downright hostile if we challenge them to do what they say. If you promised you’d show up, then show up, and if you can’t then don’t promise you will. You may mean well, but good intentions don’t count for not showing up. What’d that old saying, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” More and more often, people routinely break the promises they have made with little fear of repercussion. High divorce rates and political corruption testify that many are pretty unconcerned with keeping their vows, like a pledge of office, or even the covenant pledge of marriage. i believe it is apparent, that the solemnity of our sworn promises, simply, is often not taken seriously. Are all vows and oaths a bad idea though? James5:12 says one thing, but what do we do with Deuteronomy 10:20, “You shall fear the LORD your God; you shall serve Him, and to Him you shall hold fast, and take oaths in His name.” Should we throw away making declarations in the name of Jesus just to conform to the law? Everyone, at some point or the other, has made promises they didn’t intend to keep. If your honest about that, you know it’s true. Many of us make vows all the while knowing that we have a way out if we want out.

However, such actions take lightly the word of the Lord. God looks upon the heart and knows whether our intentions conform to the promises that we make. 1 Samuel 16:7, “The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

If you have made a promise that you did not intend to keep, think about it, why did you make it in the first place if you never meant to keep it? Say what you do, and do what you say, if you give your word then keep your word, and if you can’t keep your word, go to the person and explain the difficulty. Friend, work the problem, don’t let the problem work you.

It is unkind and disrespectful to give someone your word and then just let them hang. You know what i mean? You know, telling someone you’ll meet them at such-an-such a time, and on a whim, you decide to just not go… just letting them hang, no phone call or anything to let them know you won’t be coming. Do you believe agreeing to meet someone, although very simple, is an oath of sorts? We are acting ambassadors for the Kingdom of God, and doing what we say and keeping our word is foundational, don’t you think?

 There are so many businesses today which if they find out you are a believer, they don’t want to do business with you. They say Christians aren’t trustworthy, lie, and don’t keep their word. Friends, that is sad to me, because if there is anyone on earth who should be reliable, trustworthy, and honest it is the children of God. We do our God and family a great disservice when we don’t keep our word.

An amazing number of waiters and waitresses actually loath working at their place of employment on Sunday. Why? They say it is when the “church people” come in, and for them, the crowd is often so stingy, condescending, and dishonest, a lot of wait staff won’t work on Sunday. Don’t you think there’s something wrong with that?

i knew a young man who was a waiter at a nice restaurant, he said that one Sunday he had a group of 20 come in, fresh from church. He hustled, was very polite and personable, listened, took their orders correctly, you know, all the things good wait staff should do. They on the other hand, were cold and sneering, and when they got their orders and decided they didn’t want what they ordered, they blamed him and said either he got it wrong or he had purposely switched it just to spite them. One person even asked him why he wasn’t in church that morning. Little did they know he was a believer and had gone to an early service at his church. When the crowd left, they left him a tip of a quarter paper clipped to a salvation track. It was heart breaking.

Since i heard that story, and many other stories since then, i have thought to myself, we are believers, we are supposed to represent the kindness and grace of God, it’s part of our oath to follow Jesus; we are supposed to be generous – listening to others is generous; helping others is generous; kind truth is generous; not exploiting the exploitable is generous; being generous is part of our pledge to follow and live like Jesus; we agree and have sworn to live like Jesus by not being condescending and self-seeking but to be patient and longsuffering. We pray to the Lord to open the eyes of our heart to see Jesus that we would be more like Jesus, but then to treat people like many of us do… c’mon, where is our character? i asked one man, who was especially harsh and tight fisted towards a waitress why he wasn’t more kind towards someone who was working hard to make ends meet, and he told me, “If that woman is stupid enough to work for $5/hour and whatever pitiful tips she gets, she deserves her life.” You know, i cried and thought to myself it’s no wonder some people don’t want to be involved with church people. Do you keep your word?

When we ask God for mercy, do we think He extends it to us because we deserve it so much, because we are sooo worthy? No. He extends it to us because, in His Love, He is committed to us and all mankind, that if anyone will call on His Name asking for forgiveness and help, they shall be saved. God gave mankind an oath and vow of love that is binding, and God keeps His word … He will do it.  The Lord is Faithful. He is faithful and we have pledged to be faithful too.

           The Jews of old, when they were ever so serious about an oath or a vow, they did something called, “Seven Yourself”. Evidently, it wasn’t enough for your “yes” and “no” to be sufficient. What was meant by “seven yourself” was to bind yourself by seven things, to swear by seven planets, seven sacred items, seven sacrifices, or seven oaths – meaning you would swear your oath seven times. Abraham gave seven lambs to Abimelech at the well of Beer-Sheba, or the “well of seven oaths”; the name Bath-sheba means “daughter of an oath”, seven days of creation, seven flames on the menorah, etc, etc… i don’t know what it was, i’m sure it’s a great discussion for another time, but there was really something about the number seven. Anyway.

Doing all that swearing and oath taking and vow making, all that adjuring and charging others with pledges and affirmations really didn’t stop anyone from doing what they wanted to do anyway. And as a result, when we read James 5:12, or Matt5:34-35, the Lord is saying, making a pledge and an affirmation is a serious thing, and if you don’t have to, don’t. Let your “yes” be “yes” and show yourself reliable to do what you agreed to, well representing the honor and righteousness of Heaven lest you be found to have an empty profession of faith. Let your “no” be “no”, having the character to have good solid boundaries, and to keep those boundaries because you are a person of your word, not because you’ve gone to great lengths to make a bunch of oaths swearing on this and that. Let your word, be your word, giving people the opportunity to see that there really are Christians who do what they say in this world. James 2:14-17, “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”

When we give our pledge, we need to do what we say, it is not enough to profess to have faith… even in small things, like keeping your word and exercising good boundaries. That’s exactly what keeping your word is, it is the works of your faith.

As Christians, our word is to be trustworthy so that we need not swear oaths every time we make commitments and promises to one another. God calls each of us to be the kind of people that if we say we’ll do something, we’ll do it and we don’t have to swear an oath in order for the other person to be assured we will do what we say. Our word is our bond, and if we don’t keep our word, why should we be surprised if people don’t particularly believe us. If our speech is untrustworthy so that we feel the need to swear our truthfulness in all of our conversations, then perhaps we have not truly embraced the Gospel. Think about it.

John Calvin wrote that if James’ audience “observed faithfulness as they ought, in their words, there would have been no necessity of so many superfluous oaths.”

How trustworthy is your speech? Would people say you are believable, someone who can be trusted and is faithful?  Do you see no harm in telling “little white lies?” Why are little lies “white” anyway? If you have been guilty of being less than truthful in your speech, making pledges and affirmations which you never really intended to keep, then go make amends with those you’ve wounded. Honesty will go a long way to making us believable, consistent and repeatable in the face of a world which is always shifting.

i’m Social Porter and this has been Outposts, brought to you by Living In His Name Ministries,

The key aspect of an oath is the intent of the heart behind it, for oaths and vows in themselves do not establish truth. Friends, your word, an oath or vow is only as good as the person behind it. Do you get my drift?

This quote from William Shakespeare in All’s Well That Ends Well captures an important insight: “‘Tis not the many oaths that makes the truth, but the plain single vow that is vow’d true.” If our word is our bond, then the promises of our mouth are not to be taken carelessly.

Be strong and courageous this week, be honest, forthright, clear eyed, and keep an ear open for the leading of the Lord. i’ll meet you again on the trail of the lonesome pine. Amen.

My alarm was set for 6:30 A.M. i had been awake off and on during the night but at 6:30am i was absolutely dead to this world asleep. Amazingly, i should have heard the automatic “click” of the alarm kicking in, but in that instant instead of a “click” for the alarm, i heard a man start to speak from the radio, he was telling a story, almost as if it was all prerecorded and at 6:30am was set to play. Exactly at 6:30am, i heard the man began to speak saying:

“There once was a little boy and little girl who lived in town. One day the mother came and said she was going to leave them with their grandparents on their farm for several days while she and dad took a little time for themselves. The children, of course, were ecstatic and thought this to be a wonderful thing, after all, it was always an adventure at the farm.

They stayed the first night and were up by first light. The little girl went with the grandmother and the little boy went with the grandfather. The first thing the grandfather did was to take the little boy out to his workshop where he made an old fashioned sling shot; he used the fork of a tree, some innertube rubber he had cut into strips with his Barlow knife, and a little piece of leather from an old pair of shoes for the sling. The boy was amazed his grandfather was so inventive and imaginative, and couldn’t wait to test it out. That morning the boy went all over the farm finding rocks just the right size and aiming at everything his eye could see. But, unfortunately, he hit absolutely nothing and he wondered at King David and his abilities with a slingshot.

As lunch approached his grandmother called for the children to come in and eat, and as the boy got closer to the back door of the old farm house, there at the back door was granny’s favorite white duck, just – standing there. He figured since he’d not hit anything he’d aimed at all morning he had no worries of even getting close to the duck. As he let the rock fly from the slingshot he saw the rock go straight as an arrow to the duck and killed it dead. It didn’t even twitch. Just dead. Instantly. The little boy went into a panic, quick grabbed the duck and ran behind the wood pile, weeping while piling leaves on the carcass trying to cover over this terrible thing. He felt the pressure of someone looking at him and turned to see his sister, peering at him with a small, smug little smile. He said, “Oh please, please, please don’t tell granny! i’ll do anything but please don’t tell granny!” The sister realized her opportunity and with an air of confidence she agreed.

When they went inside for lunch the grandmother asked the little girl if she would help get lunch together, and the girl said, “Well granny, i think Bobby would rather do that.” The boy enthusiastically agreed and went quick to help with lunch. After lunch the grandmother asked the sister if she would help pick up the lunch stuff and clean up wherewith the girl said, “I think Bobby would much rather do that than go outside and play.” And again, the boy agreed and leapt to help the grandmother. This went on and on through dinner and to bed time.

In the morning the grandmother called the children for breakfast. As they came to the kitchen they could smell the coffee brewing and bacon frying, it was delicious to their senses. The grandmother asked the boys’ sister if she would help with breakfast. And, of course, the girl said, “Oh, I’m sure Bobby would much rather help than me”, but this time the boy, who, by now, was worn to a frazzle with the burden of his secret, broke and wept bitterly saying between sobs, “Oh granny, i’m so, so sorry. Yesterday i went all over shooting at everything with the slingshot Grandpa made me and i didn’t hit anything. When you called us to lunch i saw your favorite white duck at the back door and i was so sure i wouldn’t even come close, but that time i hit what i aimed at and i killed it. i’m so sorry granny! i’m so sorry i killed your favorite duck, i didn’t mean to!”

The grandmother got down in front of the little boy and took his face in her two hands and looked at him with the eyes of kind wisdom and said, “Oh…I know. I was standing at the kitchen window. I saw the whole thing and forgave you the moment it happened. I was only wondering how long you were going to allow your sister to make you a slave to it.””

God sees me. Always. There is nothing about me God doesn’t see. Nothing. There is nothing my eyes see that God’s eyes can’t see, and there is no darkness deep enough for me to cloak my deeds from Him. He sees me in my most nakedness.  He even knows what i think about when i am most vulnerable and exposed behind a closed door. He knows.

The Lord asked me a question once, He said, “You know those things you do in the dark when you think no one can see? Yea, those things. Do you do those things because you don’t believe I can see you, or do you do those things because you don’t care if I see you?”

Underneath it all – is it unbelief or jaw-jutting rebellion? Probably both together. i don’t like this question. Hard question there, but only hard because i don’t like it.

i so didn’t want to answer because all my answers were not good…hmmm, so which is the lesser of two very uncomfortable answers because one of the two, as previously stated, if not both, are true. So, while i stumbled around trying not to answer what must be answered and, in fact, is already answered by my lack of an answer, God makes me to know another question, “If I have forgiven you, cast your sins as far as east is from west and I remember them no more, who is it that keeps reminding you of all the things you ever did? And how long will you allow him to continue to make you a slave to them?”

This day, i’m asking you the same question: If God has forgiven you, who is it that keeps reminding you of all the things you ever did, and how long will you allow yourself to be a slave to them?

Thanks for listening, i’m Social Porter with Living in His Name Ministries.

There was the grandest of all grand parades right down the middle of Glory Land! The endless crowd of the redeemed of the Lord were waving banners, people were jubilant and laughing, confetti of some sort filled the air, horns were blasting in one huge continuous celebration. Somewhere there was a brass band playing parade music. The light was just perfect… there were no shadows anywhere. Marching right down the middle of everything, were these glowing, shining individuals… some walking, some riding, some hovering… many in various types of clothing… everything from togas to 1700’s style jackets, stockings, and trousers, and more.

It was the “Day of Stars” when all the stars of the Heavens which guided sailors and adventurers across continents, and inspired mankind to dream, believe, and imagine where given special notice in Heaven. The “Day Of Stars” was the day all of Heaven gathered to honor the lights in the universe whom God had made and given them their place, gleaming night after night everywhere. The Lord gave it to me to see as a witness of the joy to come when we get home.

The vision happened during worship as i was looking out a window thinking about Jesus… the music had ebbed into a musical interlude, when suddenly i felt myself slip into an “between place” and i saw the scene as previously described. It was beyond words in that glorious moment of watching the Lord parade the stars done the streets of gold. i got to meet the north star, a portly fellow in Dickens’ style coat and tails with mutton chop sideburns and a round face which seemed to always be laughing. He was jolly and gracious and i thanked him for being such a central part of God’s plan. i met Casper, and Leo, the whole Aquarius crew, Rigel and others…all still glowing a ghostly glow with the star light God had given them. The only way to describe their voices is to say it was silver (i know that’s strange but the closest thing i can think of is sound that is a color), and when the bright ones spoke it was like a    rang in my head.

Friends, the canopy over the earth is a sky of wonder, something to be marveled at, which lifts us above the gravity barrier of worldly preoccupation.

When righteousness and faithfulness come together in a summation, there is a God-powered inclination to bring something into being with the consequence that it’s existence is a certainty. The Lord, from the beginning, gave man the stars, born of righteousness and faithfulness, as a certainty that our way was not one of being aimless and lost, but as a sign He would not leave us directionless.

Gen1:16 says… out of God’s infinite imagination, He made the stars, the moon, the planets and all bodies in the heavens above us for our wonder and comfort. He saw the need in man’s heart for celestial beauty, like stars, so in His mercy He created them for us.

Ann Taylor wrote, “Then the trav’ller in the dark, Thanks you for your tiny spark, He could not see which way to go, If you did not twinkle so. In the dark blue sky you keep, And often thro’ my curtains peep, For you never shut your eye, Till the sun is in the sky.”

i’m Social Porter and this is Outposts, a semi-live broadcast from the deck area of a rural cafe overlooking the Ockluhwahhah River, where the trees gently lean over the river’s edge and every evening is pleasant. This evening’s topic is about an amazing vision i call the “Day of Stars”, what God has built into the idea of the stars, and where we are in it all.

On a side note as a companion to this evening’s topic, the general idea of beauty was another one of God’s incredible ideas… He has made beauty all around us if we’re interested enough to grasp it. i’d like to lose myself in God’s imagination and thinking… He is the very essence of beauty. The concept of beauty is studied in art and culture, we experience beauty in our perception of things which can rouse feelings of attraction and emotional well-being. Beauty is in the taste of a favorite food, the texture of silk, the smell of flowers, excellent music, the lingering kiss of a lover on a warm evening somewhere…it is in the sunrise, sunset or in the stars at night. It is all God’s idea in how to meet the needs of the heart of man. It is brilliant… just brilliant.

Dream, believe and imagine…the universe is indeed a vast place just waiting for us to let the Lord invigorate us to see His wonders in the landscape of Heaven. i’ll be right back.

Genesis 1:16-18, “God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good.”

Some of us get stars in our eyes, meaning we are mesmerized, excited or hopeful about the future and we imagine success and fame. To be star or moon struck means to show irrational behavior, especially of a romantic or sentimental nature, or to be made sick as if by the influence of the moon or the stars. In Greek, the word for “epileptic” or “lunatic” is from the word group in Matt 4:24 meaning “moonstruck”, because at that time, there were people who thought moon light and/or star light could influence someone so much they could possibly go crazy. Reading further in Matt4, we see that Jesus healed all those people, and it wasn’t the light of the moon or stars which made them ill after all.

Think about it… when you lie on your back and stare up into the night sky, you can’t help but be amazed.  Hundreds of thousands of tiny pinpricks of light that are millions of miles away speckle the fabric of the canopy of Heaven over our heads. Each one placed in a precise spot by the hand of God… like a field of fragrant flowers given to the one He loves, God gave us the stars. The Big Dipper, The Little Dipper, Pleiades, The Southern Cross, each one at the precise location of His ordaining. The Lord put them there and said “this is your place, stay here until otherwise”, and they did. On the day God made the stars, He flicked His fingers and shook His hair, fire and sparks flew from Him to make the stars and planets… the smoke from His nostrils, more dense than the sun, ignited to help hide new born stars in a stellar nursery, cloaking parts of the Milky Way and Orion’s Belt.

Psalm 8:3-4, “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained, What is man that You are mindful of him….?” Let’s not forget the wonders above us. Scripture gives us a vision of the vastness, variety, and mystery of the universe and the Lord. One writer said the stars and night sky bear down upon our heads with power, calling the stars “God’s faithful splendors at midnight.”

In the book of Sirach, written by a Jewish scribe, Yeshua Ben Eliezer Ben Sira, describing the beauty of the Heavens, he wrote, “Great indeed is the LORD who made it, at whose orders it urges on its steeds. It is the moon that marks the changing seasons, governing the times, their lasting sign. By it we know the sacred seasons and pilgrimage feasts, a light which wanes in its course: The new moon like its name renews itself; how wondrous it is when it changes: A military signal for the waterskins on high, it paves the firmament with its brilliance, The beauty of the heavens and the glory of the stars, a shining ornament in the heights of God. By the LORD’s command the moon keeps its appointed place, and does not fade as the stars keep watch.”

God put the stars in the sky to be beautiful and to please us, his beloved children. In His wisdom, He saw the need in the heart of man for beauty and wonder…. marvelous things He created… imparting Himself into all of them for us to discover. i can’t imagine, nor has God revealed to me the secrets of the Aurora Borealis, but if He appointed me to know and i could get close enough, He would reveal to me the unimaginable wonders of His heart hidden there. i believe He hides His character and intentions in all things He has created. Why? Because the true heart of love desires to be involved with the object of its affection. Many of the hidden things of the Lord aren’t hidden because we’re too small to know, but because it is the hope of the Lord that we will go and search for them, to know Him.

Psalm 19:1-4, “The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, And night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language Where their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth, And their words to the end of the world.”

Here is the word of the Lord, listen: He says, I love you on days when you are perfect in My eyes, and on days when you wonder why you do the things you do. I love you when you are the strong center that calms others, and when you want to rest in the comfort of My embrace. I love you when you are confident and proud of everything you stand for, and when you need Me to remind you how far you’ve come, and that there’s no limit to how far you can go. I love you now and forever, come what may, just as you are.

i am forever amazed at anyone who says there is no God in Heaven. Every night, the Lord hands us an amazing masterpiece called the night sky. It’s dotted with winking stars, glimmering planets, dark clouds moving silently and ominously across the sky, declaring the glory of the Lord… a testimony of not only His existence, but a testimony to us, the object of His affection. Anywhere on earth, we can stare upward into the night sky and see the evidence. i think our personal agendas, bitterness, disappointment, broken promises and crumbled dreams cloud our view, but it doesn’t detract from the evidence.

When i was young, my dad pointed to a deer standing in the edge of the woods. He told me it was there and i believed him. No matter how long my eyes searched those woods though, i could not see the deer. The longer i looked without seeing, the less i believed what i was told was true. In my sheer arrogance, believing only my eyes, i declared there was no deer there and that he was playing a joke on me. As the last words left my lips, the deer walked off… and i saw. Just because we don’t see the Lord in our lives doesn’t mean He isn’t there, and because nothing has changed with our situation yet, doesn’t mean God isn’t working behind the scenes.

Sometimes we need to just wait, “put a pin in it” so to speak, maybe even unplug from the roar in our heads, look up and listen to the voice of God which comes on the whisper of the wind in the tree tops proclaiming the wonder of the night sky.

When the Lord created everything we know of as creation, He imparted His attributes into those things… which says to me that the heart of God is discoverable in all things on this planet and of the universe….in His heart they were all conceived, implemented, and made sure in their place. Sure, sin has corrupted creation and possibly cloaked things, but that doesn’t mean the Lord’s attributes are not findable if we’ll look for Him. The goodness of God cuts through sin like a knife. It is the Lord’s heart that we would know Him and He would be known.

When Jesus came, God gave us His face for the first time, He got eye to eye with the object of His affection. Everything He has done has been for our benefit, the sun, the moon, the stars and all the canopy of Heaven over the earth, which we call the sky….it is for our benefit.

The first letter of Genesis is about God’s house and the family, and the word for stars ends with a reference to His house and family… from the beginning to the end, the Heart of God is about His people. Ancient scholars considered the sky to be like the Palms of God over us, like a cap… Friends, He seeks our heart more than gold and incense.

On a more technical side, stars is a simple word but is created from two other words, one which paints a picture of rolling or heaping up and the other the sense of blazing… when they are put together it brings to mind the idea of rolling fire… or a star. The heavens are like the closed Palms of God which hold the beauty, and when the stars twinkle and spark, they are like the open Palms of God releasing the flashes of His treasures.

Stars are a blaze of glory in the night sky, and if we look to His heart deeply, the gleaming glory in the infinite deep dark blue of the night sky uncovers his face. If we look for Him, He will find us. When the moon and stars are bright after the sun has done its work, the heavenly lights are a brilliant shining sea where living wonders find their footing. My eyes see star after star, some steady, others slowly pulse, holding their ground as our perspective changes on a turning earth.

The same hands that hold those stars in their exact place stretched out on a cross to take your place because he knows your worth. Jesus died for your sins and rose from the dead that you would have life, and have it more abundantly.

Amos 5:8, “He who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns deep darkness into the morning and darkens the day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the surface of the earth, the LORD is his name;” Pleiades is a cluster of stars to our scientific minds, but the Hebrew paints a picture of the the heaped up rolling blaze in the Palms of God connected to waves of purposeful grace, and Orion is the Palms of God leaning on His authority over creation… Orion is “the burly one”.

Exodus 28:2, “And you shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, for glory and for beauty.”

That is the scripture of first mention where glory and beauty are used in the same sentence, it’s important and we need to pay attention to such things. The Lord wants us all to search out His secrets. There is a difference between the two words, and i’m only making mention of that because in some places translators called beauty… glory and inversely so. God makes the distinction of many things which appear similar but truly are different, and many times the distinction is lost in translation. Glory is like the weight of splendor, and we usually associate glory with the presence of God….glory comes with His presence and His presence comes with glory… beauty is a gleaming embellishment, like a well-lit ornament. Glory is a masculine noun and beauty is a feminine noun, and when God uses them together in scripture, i think of them as going together like a husband and wife… they complement each other. The Lord is beautiful and He is glorious… as His glory is revealed the weight and beauty of His presence sets the universe on its knees.

Psalm 29:2, “Give unto the LORD the glory due to His name; Worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.”

His name is due the full weight of honor, and we wear holiness as a gleaming embellishment in our worship of the Lord.

In the same sense, stars and all the heavenly host are beautiful and reflect the glory of God, the weight of His presence and the gleaming brightness of righteousness.

Our galaxy contains over 100 billion stars; the Bible says in Psalms147:4 that God calls them all by their names. Isaiah 40:26, “Lift up your eyes on high, And see who has created these things, Who brings out their host by number; He calls them all by name, By the greatness of His might And the strength of His power; Not one is missing.”

After thinking of that, i’m inclined to look again at how scripture describes the creation of all that’s in the universe. Genesis 1:16 states almost casually, God “also made the stars.” It is astonishing to me that the creation of the entire universe beyond earth is described by such a simple statement. The biblical description makes it sound like the creation of all the hundreds of billions of galaxies was so easy for God that it seems almost like an “oh by the way”. Truly, God is beyond my imagination, and if He did not open my eyes to see Him and what He has done, i would not see.

One time the Lord said to me, “Creating all there is, is one thing, but to change the heart of a man, ahhh, now THAT’S a big deal.”

Who would have thought from a casual glance at the night sky that all that is above the earth would be so majestic and enormous? The Lord our God infused Himself into all He created, not only was it good, but it was God. Take an “o” out of good and you get “God”. Assuredly, the night sky is incredibly beautiful, even to the naked eye. Who could have known that it would contain hundreds of billions of galaxies, each with millions to trillions of stars, along with countless clusters and nebulae of immense size and breathtaking beauty? Stars don’t have weight, they are measured in density.

God has constructed the universe to reflect His character. Romans 1:20 states, “… His invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made, so they are without excuse.” It shouldn’t surprise us that the universe is so incredible. Truly the heavens declare the glory of God and the skies proclaim the work of His hands! Think about it.

When i was much younger, in ignorance, i assumed the world around me was no more than it was, just the physical earth, trees, mountains, rivers, animals, and people… just being what they were, doing what they do. Then one day, the Holy Spirit opened my eyes to see Jesus, glorious, beautiful Jesus… Jesus who ransomed me from death, Jesus, who paid the price for my sin, Jesus who gave me new thinking to strengthen righteous reasoning, Jesus who restored the tenderness of my conscience, Jesus who used death to defeat death that the power of my flesh would no longer rule over my spirit… giving me life, that i would no longer be a slave. In the days to follow, an idea crept into my head… all which my eyes beheld was more than what i saw. It wasn’t a world which only served to entertain me, in all my self-centered ways, but it all reflected the Heart of Love for whom so ever would know Him. He saw in the heart of man the need for beauty, and part of that are the stars and all the heavenly bodies in the night sky. It was for love the Lord made the universe, and we are the object of His never-ending affection.

This production has been brought to you by Living In His Name Ministries, The Mebane Freedom League with Alan, Kevin, and Tommy, the 20/20 Men’s Group for you fellas out there who can’t go to church anywhere else, and Trinity Bakers where there’s always something good in the oven.

You know, the days are going by. That may seem like a silly thing to say, but it means if you don’t take the time to see the beauty God has built into the world around you today, the moments will pass you by, gone forever and you didn’t see it. Take the time to look up, see the stars and dazzling lights in the heavens which the Lord has made, just for you, that you would think on His great name and know His great heart for you. The stars sang together before, and it is a distinct potential they’ll sing again… just imagine it all… we’ll get to sing praise and glory to our wonderful Jesus the Lord and God our Father together.

Be at peace as you go your way, turn your eyes to Heaven and your feet homeward. Be strong and courageous… and i’ll talk to you next time. Amen.

Be authentic, credible, genuine and true.

Titus 2:1 “But as for you, teach what is fitting and becoming to sound wholesome doctrine, possessing the character and right living which identifies true believers.”

Paul instructed Titus to teach good sound doctrine and to teach people to live right, according to God’s Word, that they might be identified as true believers in Christ. One of the greatest needs of the church today is credibility. We, as believers, are most often known by the world more for what we are against than what we are for. i went downtown and did a small survey among young people and was shocked to find that many perceived the church of today as sidewinders, swindlers, liars, manipulators, adulterers, etc, etc.. Yes, those are the words many used. Are we doing “the law” or are we living “on earth as it is in Heaven”? We must each choose an excellent lifestyle that displays the character and attributes of Jesus Christ.

When we put a Christian bumper sticker on our car, wear jewelry with a cross on it, or t-shirts with scriptures, we can rest assured people are watching … they are looking for authenticity.  We need to “be the people” of God, not just “look like” the people of God, we need to reflect Jesus Christ, and BE the people the world wishes so badly that we were.  Let us live a life which makes beautiful the doctrine of the faith.  Maybe we should study to learn what the attributes of God are, then plot a course to make adjustments in our lives which reflect that radiant goodness of God. Let us realize it may take a while of being authentic and transparent before others begin to believe our claim of faith, taking us seriously. It’s not enough to just walk around quoting scripture, the world wants to see results which match our claims.

A beautiful picture in scripture is given in Titus 2:1, where i believe one view of the passage is a picture of a garland around the neck of each believer in Christ Jesus. That garland can represent many things, but for this discussion, let’s call it sound doctrine. The idea of a garland is a wreath, or crown, but is also one of “a beautiful decoration around a window with a view”. Each believer is like a window with a view, and the fruit of the spirit, holiness, and godliness decorate that window, like a garland of grace.  That garland is for every believer, and there is no sideline bench for the incompetent players. Everybody is on the playing field, even if you don’t think you are, listen to the Lord….you are. What does your garland look like?

What good does it do to have a “Jesus Loves You” sticker on your car and practice road rage, or to be foul mouthed with a bad attitude toward people in front of your co-workers, or even when you’re out of sight, around a corner? Our attitudes are contagious, so it would seem to me a couple good questions we should ask ourselves is… what do other people catch from us, and who’s life are we reflecting when we display those sorts of attitudes? The Bible is our bottom line concerning our Conduct, Character, and Conversation. 1 Tim 3:15 “… I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.” How we are IN the house is how we should be OUTSIDE the house. It is a gross misunderstanding of the Love of God when we “go to Heaven on Sunday”, then “live like hell” the rest of the week. In your mind, what does it look like if you were to be the sort of person who is holy and godly in your conduct? Do you see yourself walking around with a glowing hallow, wearing long robes, acting all pious and always looking up? Or maybe just a regular sort of human being who practices > simply being honest and authentic? The Hebrew word used for “holiness” strongly implies being “set apart”, or fitted for a peculiar purpose. Let us not be untrue to God’s design.

i encourage us all to examine our lives and make sure the way we live, as best we can, represents the Lord, and what we say we believe. Be authentic.

Thanks for joining me, i’m Social Porter with Living In His Name Ministries.

Ps147:3 “Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, The Lord mighty in battle.”  Ps68:4 “Extol Him who rides on the clouds, By His name Yah!”   Who is this King?  Isaiah (12:2) said, “I will trust and not be afraid; ‘For YAH, the Lord, is my strength and song; He also has become my salvation.”

Who is Jesus to you? What say you?

In Matthew 16:15, Jesus said, “But who do you say that I am?”  By evidence of all which is made, He is The Lord, He is God, the ultimate reality, The Life who is not the result of another, does not rely on another, nor is determined by another; He is the form and foundation of all manifestations of virtue; the essential nature who makes grass green, the sun to shine, clouds to move, and rain to fall. He is the salve who heals our wounds and rescues us from the chains of chaos which bind us in darkness. He is all-wise, all wisdom, and all-knowing, the fountain and foundation of righteous understanding. Who is this King? Who is this person who is everywhere at once, in the past, the present, and the future, whose eye sees the actions and intentions of every heart and soul?

1John1:5, “God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.”  More than just a light, He is THE light, meaning He is the source and origin. The Lord is The Light Being… Divinity, the one and only who supersedes and eclipses the speed of light, originating and surpassing the theory of relativity, able to be in all places at once without breaking a sweat. He can do anything and everything we can do in righteousness, and anything and everything we cannot. He is everything holy and good and lives forever. The Lord is so big He can hold the speck of eternity in His hand, drop it in His eye and never blink!

He is God who gave us His Son, Jesus, the Christ of God, the everlasting Savior, the Lamb who took the full wrath of God upon Himself on our behalf; God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit and these three are one. He is The One King and Ever Lord who has put all things under His feet and God who has made all things in Psalm8. In Matthew He is the King, the promised Savior, in Mark He is the servant and powerful Savior, in Luke He is the perfect Savior, and Son of Man, and in John He is personal Savior, and Son of God.

Paul declares Jesus as “from Him, of Him, through Him and to Him are all things”. Who is this King the world asks? God is Love,  not love “what”, but love “who” bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.

God is self-evident, self-revelational, self-inspirational, self-sustaining, self-disclosing; He is ever-living and ever-lasting, infinite in that He has no left – right, front – back, nor top and bottom; He is the only person who is self-aware, totally self-assertive, and totally moral, The One who causes everything to be – because He Is, and He calls Himself “I AM.”

The list of who God is, is only limited by our imagination as we try to give identity to the Lord of Hosts who loves us, died for us, and lives forever that we who believe may have life more abundantly… He is our God, an Amazing God who is infinite and walks the paths of infinity, who stands on the horizon of destiny and creates a place for us in eternity. By the Blood of Jesus, He bridged the gap between the finite and infinite; God The King, The One and Only who exists outside the world and the entire celestial cosmos yet is present throughout the universe as Lord, Captain, and King.

Who do you say He is? Do you know about Him or do you know Him? Do you give Him “mental ascent” or is He “Jesus who is always on your mind”, every moment, every hour, every day, even when you sleep? Who do you say He is? Who is this King? What say you?

I’ve asked myself the question, “If I could relay one thing to people, what would I tell them?” I have considered this a good while now, I have walked far, met a lot of people, and witnessed many things, and I think God has finally settled a statement in my heart. The one thing I would tell them is –

There Is Hope

“There” is Hope

There “Is” Hope

There Is “Hope”

For those who despair that their lives are without

meaning and without purpose;

For those who dwell in a loneliness so terrible that

It has withered their hearts and bowed them to

The ground;

For those who hate because they have no recognition

Of the destiny available to all humanity;

For those who would squander their lives in self-pity,

And self-destruction because they have worn the

Disguise of this world so long they have become their disguise;

For those who don’t have a reason enough to comb their

Hair and can’t look themselves in the eye in the mirror;

“There” is Hope

There “Is” Hope

There Is “Hope”

Today –

I bring tidings of comfort and joy!

There Is Hope!

With my finger which aims, i point towards Jesus, saying “there”, meaning in Christ alone is hope and that He alone is the personification of hope. “Is” … always present tense, used in the sense that there is one and only one. It has a certain amount of direction to it, implying something or someone exists. Jesus IS. “Is” as in a statement of fact. Hope, the anticipation of becoming and overcoming, as in everyone everywhere anticipates that something is going to happen which will change their situation for the better. Christ alone is the true source and power of becoming and overcoming.

In Psalm13, David paints us a picture of the pain he was in. We all endure pain of one sort or another. i’ve never met someone who was NOT in pain, whether it is a prognosis of illness, a crashed relationship, or the loss of something or someone from their lives… these conditions easily cause us to feel lost and alone. In the moment, God can appear to be very distant.

As an example to us from Psalm 13, David calls out to God, saying, “Turn and answer me, O Lord my God!” He prays out of desperation, knowing that only the Lord can “restore the sparkle to [his] eyes” and hope to his heart. David points out the source of all hope. Somehow, mysteriously, talking to God plants a seed of hope, and we all know, these days people really, really need hope. Though it isn’t evident David’s circumstances have changed, in the midst of it all he calls to God and trusts who the Lord says He is. Somehow, mysteriously, the psalmists heart is lifted and his lips find praise and singing to break out of his downward spiral. God sent Moses repetitively before Pharaoh to do the impossible that Egypt and the world would know that the Lord is God and He is who He says He is, and sometimes i think maybe that is the basic problem of humanity… we don’t really believe God is who He says He is and that He will do what He says He’ll do.

Today, many stand at a tipping point. We can walk the downward road of despair, or we can go the upper road to the high places by turning to God. He is there, there is hope.

If you have survived but you’ve left your self-esteem behind you

And you have lost the road map back to where you should be;

If you feel frayed and torn, wounded and beaten, waylaid and destroyed by the intrusion of vicious circumstances;

If the twin sisters Mourning and Depression have come to visit at your house and now they won’t leave…

There Is Hope!

“If I could relay one thing to people, what would I tell them?” Yes… that’s what I would say. There Is Hope!

What to do on a sinking ship?

Here is wisdom: If you can’t get out of the storm with Jesus, then be in the storm with Jesus.

Mark 4:35 “On the same day, when evening had come, He said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side.”  Now when they had left the multitude, they took Him along in the boat as He was. And other little boats were also with Him.  And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling.”

i’m sure the disciples were excited to see what would happen on “the other side.”  What they probably did not expect was a raging storm!  When they were in the middle, i sincerely doubt the disciples were nearly as excited about “the other side” as they were at the beginning. The closer they got to their destination, the more foreboding the wind and waves became.

God often calls us to launch out to a new destination, and He rarely gives us a laid out plan of the entire trip.  We leave the security of where we are and start out for “the other side” … most of us don’t have a vision of where we’re going, neither do most of us enjoy where we are on the way to where we’re going.  It is often in the middle where we encounter our storms… the testing place, the proving grounds.

The storm the disciples encountered in Mark 4:37 was no spring storm, it was of hurricane proportions!  It’s important also to know these were fishermen, they spent their life on the water and were not easily shaken by a storm.  But this was not any normal storm! The wind absolutely howled, and the water was filling the boat.  Amazingly, with the storm going full force … Jesus was asleep in the stern (Mark 4:38).   Do you ever feel like that?  Your life feels to be in the middle of terrible circumstances, you’re sure your boat is sinking, and it appears God is asleep … you might even yell at Him and even want to pick a fight, saying, “Don’t you even care that I’m dying here?!”  You spent time with Him trying to feel His presence… and nothing.  You prayed and fasted, threw yourself on the floor screaming and crying, using up an entire box of tissue… and nothing.  You searched for an answer, but no matter how hard you struggled against the wind and waves, the storm raged on and you didn’t know what to do.  Some call it the “dark night of the soul”.

At times like these, when it looks like the boat is sinking and we’re stuck in the middle, it is time for faith.  Easy to say, you say, but carefully consider, what are your options at that point?  Is He God or not?   And when He said, “Let’s go to the other side”, we must employ faith… God expects us to believe Him that if He said it, it will happen. If you spend your hours weeping and lashing out, the storm is the same. If you sit and do nothing, the storm is the same. Even if you did backflips up and down the street while declaring amazing things, it is highly likely the storm would be the same.

Jesus did calm the storm… but He also rebuked the disciples saying “How is it that you have no faith?”  Do you think He didn’t know, or was He asking the question in hopes they would question themselves? Of course, He knew, but they didn’t. It is vital to our future that we grow in faith, and growing in faith doesn’t happen because all things are always well with us.  We must learn to conquer our fear and press on to the other side.  It’s easy to enjoy our present situation when all things are rosey, but we’ve got to learn to enjoy where we are on the way to where we will be, possessing joy and peace in the midst of the storm as well as after it has passed on.

If you can’t get out of the storm with Jesus, then be in the storm with Jesus, and “let her ride” (Acts 27:15)!  Lean into the wind and trust God. Jesus will not forsake us, not now, or later. Let faith do it’s work.