In your prayer time, do you practice to plead the case of another? Not hyperventilating with many words, but advocating their cause before the Lord?

Proverbs 23:10-11, “Do not move an ancient landmark or enter the fields of the fatherless, for their Redeemer is strong; he will plead their cause against you.” Another way to see someone who pleads a cause is seen in the word “advocate”. Not “litigate” but “advocate”. The idea of an advocate, as someone who pleads a cause, in Hebrew is a combination of two words, the first is “to grapple with” and the second is to “contend for a cause”. There is wrestling involved. The spirit of the word “advocate” is different than to “litigate” in the sense that to “litigate” means to argue within judicial process implying one person is right and the other is wrong. By no means am i saying we go before the Lord as the one who is right and God is wrong. Never! But what we are doing is more as an intercession, making needs known, and talking to God about why we think our petition before Him is a good idea … arguing with God is not what we do when we advocate.

In 1 John 2:1, John uses the word advocate in the sense of someone who comforts in addition to pleading the cause of another. To intercede might be a bit more aggressive, but it is still a form of advocating. The Greek word in English for “advocate” is in the sense of a “person called in to help, summoned to give assistance,” which gives us the meaning of “helper in court.” Even though there is no clear reference to our advocating in court, the idea is still, more or less, in legal tones. It would seem that being an advocate for another is part of what Paul was writing about in Gal6:2, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”

In Job 16:1-2, when the writer said, “I have heard many such things; miserable comforters are you all.”, the word “comforters”, in Hebrew, is used in the sense of someone who would intercede and plead my cause before the Lord, which obviously the friends of Job were far more negative litigators sitting at a prosecutors bench, than positive advocates.

i have noted of myself, during my prayer time, that i do not want to get stuck in rote repetitiveness, “bless them Lord”, “help us God”, “heal them Lord”, over and over for lack of words. i’m not saying those are not good things to pray, because they are. What i am saying is that i would like to be a better advocate, pleading the cause of others more effectively, using words which make a difference.

When God told Abraham in Genesis 15:1 that He was his shield, the word “shield” is used in the sense of a “protector”, an advocate who contends for the cause of another. In Deuteronomy 33:29, the Lord is declared as the “shield of your help, and the sword of your triumph.” He is the personification of a shield and sword for us, a shield as one who intercedes to help, and as a sword dividing truth from fiction, defining the victory. In the process of sinning, i believe our senses offer to reason with us about the delicate deliciousness of our desire, like a manipulative employee would influence the boss in order for them to get what they want. That is manipulating, not advocating.

Jesus was and is an advocate for sinners before God, and i would like to be better at advocating for those who are locked in a dark prison of their own making, and even for those who are, by consent, in bed with curses they have agreed with, yet wonder why life is not better than it is. In 1 John 2:1-2, the apostle writes, “…we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.  He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” He is our defender and legal counsel, and is sufficient for any who would be in need of a helper and shield. This isn’t universalism, which says He died for everyone, repentant or not, nor is it just “limited atonement”, meaning He only died for an elite, select few. As our advocate He is also our propitiation, meaning by His blood on Calvary, He satisfied God’s righteous requirement of justice. “He who knew no sin became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Jesus is our propitiator, our Defender from the dead, at the right hand of the Father where He intercedes for us before the heavenly throne. Therefore, as our advocate, we are secure in that intercession, in that justification, in that satisfaction.

If Jesus is your advocate, you also, yes YOU, have been empowered to advocate for those around you. If we know God hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions we have asked of him. i think of being an advocate as one who petitions, who appeals to the Highest authority on behalf of another with respect to a particular cause. We can make better use of our prayer time. God will give us words to make a difference if we’re willing to extend ourselves, consistently, on behalf of others. i guarantee it.

What do you think?

i met a young man the other day, covered in tatoos, quiet, life in turmoil and chaos … in trouble. Across his neck he had the words “Expect No Mercy”. The tattoo reminded me of the words of someone who carries a never ending offense; someone who possibly has experienced from someone important in their lives in the past, some sort of condemnation, and it just stuck to him and wouldn’t let go. He learned the “no mercy” lifestyle somewhere. Maybe he learned he should never expect mercy for his life, actions, or reactions, and as a result he should give no mercy. Where do we learn such things?

We treat each other pretty terribly sometimes. i’m thankful, so thankful that God Almighty extends mercy to us. i’ve begun to think that if a man doesn’t know mercy, he probably doesn’t know forgiveness either. The Hebrew word for mercy denotes God’s compassion which spares us from destruction or similar dismal fates. If God did not extend us mercy and forgiveness through Christ, we would all be doomed from before we were born, but because of God’s mercy, there is hope. Jesus Christ gave His life and was resurrected from the dead due to love, and also for mercy’s sake for a dying world with no hope of life. Because of the mercy of God, through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, we “may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly”.

Are you offended? Offended people carry a tit-for-tat posture, they tend to have no mercy for themselves or others. And what is worse, they seem to be good with walking around offended, day and night. They tend to be angry, unfulfilled, sensitive people, generally speaking. Many of them seem to be the most insulting, demeaning, crude, and crass people I’ve ever met. They think nothing of insulting others and putting them down, but say something to them about their attitude, friend you better watch out because offended people seem ready to bite anyone who challenges them. They’ve always got a growl in their throat about something. i believe, in the end, it comes down to ego, selfishness, and a sense of entitlement.

Do you carry the throwing stones of offense in your pockets, those extra handy throwing stones which fit your hands just perfectly? Haven’t you ever wondered exactly who helped you pick out those handy throwing stones? Well, it wasn’t God, i can assure you of that.

Amazing as it sounds, offense has facets, which i call faces and there are four faces of offense:

1. Number of offenses

Men might forgive some, but are not prone to forgive with much repetition.

2. Number of offenders

Men may pardon one or a few, but the greater the number of offenders the less inclined men are to forgive.

3. Kind of offense

Men limit what sort of offenses they forgive, as long as it doesn’t cost them much and it would be to their advantage.

4. Degree of offense

People will forgive an offense if it is small enough to not be of any injury to themselves. Many seem to feel that they don’t mind anything that happens as long as it doesn’t happen to them.

And who are the Friends of Offense: bitterness, anger, confusion, casting shadows, and vilifying others. They come to visit but then won’t leave, and the more they stay, the more entrenched they become. Do they live at your house? Did you invite them in one day when they came to visit but now they won’t leave?

Eph 4:31 “Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.” In the Message Bible translation, Hebrews 12:15 points out that the seeds of offense grow, “weeds of bitter discontent. A thistle or two gone to seed can ruin a whole garden in no time.” How does your garden grow?

People who carry an offense, don’t know forgiveness as God has extended it to them, and as a result there is not much mercy in them for themselves or anyone else. No mercy means a life doomed to condemnation. We can either stand on mercy or stand on condemnation, but you can’t be in both camps at the same time, the bitterness will tear you in half.

i want us all to know that “God is sheer mercy and grace; not easily angered, he’s rich in love. He doesn’t endlessly nag and scold, nor hold grudges forever. He doesn’t treat us as our sins deserve, nor pay us back in full for our wrongs.” “So thank God for his marvelous love, for his miracle mercy to the children he loves.” OH, how he loves you and me.

Mercy … that sounds like something i want. How about you?

Isaiah 61:1-3, “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion— to give them a beautiful garla nd of grace instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified.”

In our season of grief, difficulty, possibly even working through catastrophic circumstances, i believe God has a word for you and you, yes you can be healed everywhere you hurt. If you’re sad and that sadness just invades your waking and sleeping, God can heal your sadness by the Blood of Jesus, and not only can He heal your sadness, but He’ll give you the courage and strength to get up off your sick bed and re-enter the land of the living.

i’ve wondered exactly why many folks think Jesus died for their sins,… it seems many times that’s as far as anyone thinks about it, He died for my sins and it stops there … was it only a salvation thing so we don’t have to go to hell like having fire insurance?  …  just – saved from our sins?. i believe, if we’ll take the Lord seriously, He wants so much more for us than that. He wants us to enjoy the road home and not just be Eyore all the way home. One lady said, God wants us to be whole, not full of holes.

This is Outposts, cool jazz and contemplative conversation that makes you say, “hmmmm…”, something smooth for the late night people, or maybe those on their way to work. i suppose some are sitting up late in their big arm chair, pondering the things which occurred today, or maybe the things which didn’t occur today. Others are just late night people, they seem to function better after the sun goes down… i have no idea why, your reasons are your own. Then there are the people who are up late because you can’t sleep … .stuck in that grey place between awake and asleep, that place …  where nothing hides, tossing and turning like a fish out of water. What’s on your mind that you can’t sleep?

i believe so so many folks are in pain, real pain. We may have learned to live with it, and some truly tolerate pain better than others and have learned to wear a good face, but it doesn’t mean the pain isn’t there. For years, i was in pain and i had no idea why, how it got to be there, or even what it was about … i gave it no identity and as a resulti was always acting out with no thought of questioning any of my actions.

When i had cattle, i grew to know they are usually pretty good down to about -25 … on particularly cold days i would chuckle to myself because their faces looked like they were saying, “Boy it sure is cold” and the other one would say, “Yea, it sure is but i don’t know what to do about it.” They’d munch more hay and just roll their big eyes around, appearing to think about being cold but clueless as to what to do about it. That was me when it came to pain … just clueless what to do about it. Our topic is beauty for ashes like a garland of grace … and the gold the Lord brings out in us when it appears all is burned to the ground.

In my little life, i know something, maybe not much according to some, but this i know, i can’t play hide and seek with my difficulties and expect them to simply go away. Just because we don’t deal with stuff doesn’t mean it’ll just disappear.

The Lord wants us to be more than survivors. In the last program it was mentioned that one day while out for my afternoon walk, the Lord made me to know that i was only surviving when i was supposed to be prospering. He said, “How is it you have fallen to only surviving when you should be prospering?” It was a good question, and at the end of His question there came a feeling like the earth plates in my heart were moving, repositioning themselves to align better with God. You know what i mean?

Here’s a question, if you knew it could happen, would you be willing for your circumstances to be your message and ministry?

John 6:12-13, “And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.” So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten.”

i don’t know about you, but there have been terrible times when i felt like my entire life was just broken little pieces, just fragments. In John 6:12-13 i hear the Lord calling me to bring even my broken fragmented life to Him. He has healed the broken hearted and opened wide the prison doors and has the power to deliver forever more. We’ve all heard that God does more with nothing than we can do with something, and even if we’re sure we are on the negative side of zero, God can do something with even that.

i’ve got a few ideas of who i am, but i’ve got tons of ideas about who i’m not and i reckon it’s good to give Him not only who i am, but also all that i’m not … take it all captive.

2 Corinthians 10:5 says to take our thoughts captive. That word “thoughts” there in Greek means all your perception, purpose, all your academic thinking, and even your disposition, take it all prisoner by the word of God, and that’s not just the negative stuff either, that’s ALL of it, even the good things, take them ALL captive, like holding a prisoner of war at spear point.

We can’t be afraid to reveal to the Lord even the smallest details of our lives, you know, it’s not like He’s surprised. i believe God knew exactly what He was getting into when each one of us came in the door of the house by the Blood of the Lamb.

There is no time the Lord ever regrets forgiving your sins and transgressions. i believe the Lord has more hope for me than i have for me, and certainly more hope for me than any of my friends or relatives. i was the little boy who was never supposed to live past the age of seven, according to our neighbors. i was a dangerous kid, not because i was mean or tough, but i was so vastly ignorant of the repercussions of my actions, it’s the truth, my parents didn’t expect me to survive childhood.

i figure, if you are the meek, poor, wounded, depressed, if you’re the fearful, sad, conflicted, shamed and disqualified, if you’re the bankrupt and blind, one of the lost and unfortunate ones, you are exactly who Jesus came for. You are the very one He came to get eye level with. He was crucified, died and rose from the dead for you. You are the very one God came to rescue.

You and I both know what happens to unprocessed emotions: they get stored. i can’t remember who said it but they said, “What’s buried alive never dies.” That’s the truth. We’ve gotta deal with stuff, we can’t just bury it, or compartmentalize it and stuff it somewhere. Some folks compartmentalize their griefs so well, they can, with all confidence say they are “fine…totally fine”, but below street level all the wounds which have been buried are still active, affecting all they do. Honestly, I don’t see the Lord as someone who just throws “lessons” at us in the form of casualty, catastrophe or suffering as if we are hamsters just running on a wheel. But I do think we are all able to choose to have the power to mine gold from even the darkest of situations.

We need to be honest with ourselves and the Lord. Yea, i know we have to be people of faith, and faith will get us through, and by faith i am healed, but so many in leadership have gotten so they are dealing with other people’s stuff, but they’re not dealing with their own, even to the point of denying they even have woundedness going on. Believe me, if you’re in church leadership long enough, you WILL get hurt, sheep bites are painful. But i don’t think we should be wounded healers. Telling ourselves if we had enough faith we shouldn’t even be going through those things. If we feel like we can’t be honest over things, if we feel like we can’t bring our problems into the light, it’s the truth, everything we hide has power over us. That’s why a couple programs ago i made a call to deal with the hidden things in our backyard where no one can see, which is a metaphor for saying everything we hide has power over us.

That, by no means, says we should just dump all our dirty laundry onto anyone who comes along, we need to be a little more discretionary than that. But you’d be surprised how much help there is in having a safe person to simply verbalize things with. i call it “talk therapy” We need to talk about the things which hinder us so hell can’t continue to hold it over our heads anymore, making us a slave to what is hidden and compartmentalized.

We spend a lot of energy keeping things hidden. It reminds me of having a bicycle which only turns in one direction. Oh, you’re peddling and balancing alright, but you aren’t going anywhere. Every time you hearken back to a former time about the time so-and-so did that, or such-and-such happened, or you remember the disappointment or anger of a past thing that happened, get off that bicycle and deal with what’s holding you back.

Many years ago, i was angry and so disappointed it seemed life was just going in circles. i distinctly remember waking up one day and making a clear decision that i was not going to allow the past to keep dragging me backwards into a dark corner, getting suckered into a fight in the dark, and that from there on out, i was going to look up instead of down, afterall, when you’re always looking down, all you can see is the ground.

i was drawing a line in the sand that enough was enough, that’s it, i’m not looking back, obsessing about the past anymore, sitting in the middle of nowhere wishing i could just get a glimpse of destiny. i believe it’s a fact, we can’t do anything about what’s past, what’s done is done, but we can do a lot about cooperating with God about what’s ahead.

2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away; behold, the new has come.”  Put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life, be renewed in the spirit of your minds, put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Let’s get motivated about that!

Philippians 3:12-14, “…but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Friends, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

“Press” is one of the key words i’m interested in. It means to push forward, pursue, take action, campaign and advance on. It’s not a timid, passive term, it is a verb that is present, active, indicative, meaning it is in the now, we are the ones doing the action, and it’s a statement of fact. Take note of these words also, “make it my own”, which is a now verb, “Forgetting what lies behind” as in the now, and “straining forward” is present tense, meaning now. Do you see it? Now, now, now!  In order to press onward, we’re going to have to learn to do it, even when we’re hurting, even when all odds say we should just quit, even when our closest friends tell us to just give up on our faith. We’re going to have to learn to do the right thing even when the wrong thing seems more just. You know, it’s always the right time to do the right thing, and we need to do it until doing the right thing just becomes second nature to us ‘cause doing the right thing is just the natural inclination of our heart. That’s called enduring and it’s one way of resisting the devil so he’ll run away, screaming into the distance, driven backwards into his own gates.

Friends, we need to know who we are in Christ and stop getting our identity from how we look, who we know, the job we have, what we own, what others say about us, and what spectacular things we may have done or not done. It’s been said before on this program, i don’t believe most of us really know what to make of ourselves, nor do we seem to know how to talk about ourselves. God wants to define us, and if we wait until some religious body defines us, we maybe waiting all our lives. God is our constant defining moment, now, now, now.

i don’t know about you, but i’m not satisfied to merely go to Heaven when i die. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a wonderful thing, of course, but i just don’t believe Jesus Christ, the son of God Almighty, died for me so i can just barely get through, just surviving, (Eeyore voice) “i guess everything will be great when we get to Heaven, but we’re just doing the best we can with what little we’ve got in the mean time, barely scraping through. i’ll probably enter Heaven with the faint smell of brimstone on me, but at least i’ll be in Heaven.”

          Jesus said He came that we would have life and have it more abundantly. Now listen, that doesn’t mean we won’t have problems, it doesn’t mean we won’t struggle, it doesn’t mean we will never weep over situations, or, that everything is just going to be moonbeams and merry-go-rounds either … but it does mean, by the blood of Jesus, we have a right to not be wounded all our lives, to not bleed all over everything over past hurts, we have a blood bought right to not get mired in the clay of what someone did to us.

You wouldn’t believe how often hell has come to me and told me i would never have anything more than a second-rate life, doing second-rate things, for second-rate reasons. It reminds me of the kids in high school who got D’s on their report card. They tended to do D things with D people going D places for D reasons yet were never able to lift up their heads enough to see that there was so much more life than what they had.

i am determined to not let the wounds of my past dictate the steps of my future, and to stop the bleeding of old hurts. The past belongs in the past, which is why it is past. Let … it … go.

Let us be reminded of God’s promise in Isaiah 61:7-8, “Instead of your shame there shall be a double portion; instead of dishonor they shall rejoice in their lot; therefore in their land they shall possess a double portion; they shall have everlasting joy. For I the LORD love justice; I hate robbery and wrong; I will faithfully give them their recompense, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.”

That’s joy, which is rejoicing and gladness with a shout in the middle … and that’s an everlasting joy too. The Lord rewards those who diligently seek Him and i must add that i have sought the Lord at His request for lo, all these years and i believe and am assured i am living in the reward. He didn’t persecute me for my wrongs, He corrected me to a better heading. He didn’t prosecute me as in a court of law, He took me to a place to heal the wounds which drove me off the deep end. So much of my life i’ve had to do things afraid. What is it one preacher says, “If you’re afraid, go forward afraid…go with God anyway. Go forward with Jesus and tell the truth, even if your voice shakes!”

If He did it for me, He’ll do it for you too. We don’t have to be wounded all the days of our lives. There is a choice to be made there. What do you want? Do you just want to make it through the muddle in the middle, merely surviving life? Regardless of all my confidence, i can safely say, from hard won experience, no one, nowhere, is able to run their lives by themselves. We can’t, simply can’t do it alone, as in “are not able”. There is no way anyone can escape the gravity of earth, the pull of this world, on their own. i have been abandoned, rejected, made to be isolated and isolated myself, and felt overwhelmingly alone, but through it all, God has been there, He and i have pressed forward, in the now, every step of the way. Regardless of who doesn’t like me, disagrees with me, won’t return my calls, or feigns to be my friend yet doesn’t speak to me at church or on the street, i have determined i am going on with God no matter what or who.

Check out another of God’s promises, Isaiah 54:4, “Do not fear, for you will not be ashamed; Neither be confounded, for you will not be put to shame; For you will forget the shame of your youth.” i love the part where He says, “neither be confounded” … meaning to not let yourself be insulted, offended, or wounded to the point of nearly bleeding to death. And then He says, “you will not be put to shame or disgraced,” basically meaning the Lord will lead us in a path which we don’t have to suffer the loss of honor due to humiliation, not that we will forget the stupid stuff we did when we were ignorant and young, but the shame of those days will be resolved unto strength, maturity, and faith. Friends, now there’s the word of the Lord to cling to.

i know of a fellow who was reminded by the enemy of all the dumb stuff he did as a young man, reminded so often it just seemed to be a probability that’s the way the rest of his life was going to go. He began to believe he was as terrible as hell would have him believe he was. He called me on the phone and asked me straight out if i thought he was a failure, and with all power i answered, Absolutely not, never, in the name of Jesus. The Lord said in Isaiah 54:17, “no weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed, and you shall refute every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD and their vindication from me, declares the LORD.”

Hell will bring against us all of our don’ts, won’ts, can’ts, and should’ve’s as judgments lodged against us to wound us to death, but God says we have the power, by the blood of Jesus, to refute those accusations because we are the children of light, servants of the most high God who sets our feet on firm footing and leads us beside still waters, meaning He is faithful to bring us to His Shalom. Even if your life is burned to the ground and there’s nothing but ashes and soot left, God knows how to build again, so from the sludge of a burned out life, new life springs forth like gold sticking out of the ground.

Stand up church, it ain’t over till it’s over. You may be down, but you’re not out. i’ve not heard the bell yet, so get up and fight. 1 Timothy 6:12, “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.” Think about it.

Stand up church, get to your feet. Your catastrophic circumstances are not the end of things, it is the beginning of excellence in Christ, it ain’t over till it’s over, and it’s not over yet. i know a man who has struggled with addiction, crime, and incarceration almost all his life, but then when Jesus took hold of him, things begin to change. Yes, he relapsed because that was his best self-medicating coping skills, yes, at first he still played out his criminal habits because that was all he’d ever known. But little by little, he became less and less of an addict, committed fewer and fewer crimes, and every time he got knocked down, he kept getting back up, and getting back up, determined to apprehend Christ, the prize who lay before him. Over time he got good at falling down and even better at getting back up, every time he got back up he was standing longer and more upright. The farther he got from addiction and crime, the less he was inclined to see himself as a failure with no hope. In him grew a hope that in Christ he really could be a son of the Most High, and he really was be an overcomer.

It’s great to be on the path, but we must actually move our feet. C’mon, let’s get on with it. There’s no time to sit and moan about old things that have passed away to the point we become inert. If we’ve nearly fainted in the heat of battle, weary from the pounding of life, Jesus is our refreshment. We don’t have to keep bleeding, we don’t have to keep weeping. There’s a choice there. John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”

Jesus came to give life to us over-the-top, more than we could imagine, better than our idea of good. We are called to do more than merely survive, and notice, Jesus used the word “abundantly” and we should take that seriously. True the devil comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but my Jesus stepped into the middle of all that and said, “I am here, and that ain’t happening to whomsoever will come to me.”

Come go with me, let us press on to know the Lord, for He will come, He will come to us like the rain, like the spring rains watering the earth. Be strong and courageous! Roll on little doggies, roll on happy trails. Amen!

John 8

Jesus was in the temple teaching, as usual, and then came the Pharisees with a woman who was taken in adultery (where was the man? Also, how is it they just “happen” to be there to catch her?). i have read that they brought her to the 1st porch which is at the 6th step, which is the number of man, in order to try her case, but i don’t know if that’s true. But, trying to snare Jesus, they asked Him what He thought. He told them that anyone with no sin should cast the first stones, and from the oldest to the youngest they left.

By law, they were right. By law, they could indeed stone her. By law, they brought her to the temple for judgment and the carrying out of the sentence. The Hebrew word for judgment means “to level the hand at, as in aiming the finger”.

The Lord says to me: “There should be no enemies within the Body. None.”

If our hands are filled with stones to throw, then we can’t have our hands full of what God has for us. As long as we’ve got a throwing stone in our hand, that stone is taking up space where God’s provision should be. Many times, by law, i am right to be angry with someone or i rightly should suspect them of something tricky. By law i am not wrong to aim my finger at that person and “tell it like it is”. By law. My right. Demanding what is fair, by law. Mercy for me, justice for you! But in the Body of Christ, there are NO enemies. None.

Did they keep a special box of stones at the temple in order to mete out justice? A fair sized box on the left and right side of the porch labeled ‘Throwing Stones”?!? A box of stones that someone went out and handpicked … just the right circumference and feel. Hmmmm, how handy. A box labeled “Throwing Stones” that just “happen” to be handy for those that felt an offense toward those “law breakers”. The enemy is sure to help us to know right where the best stones to throw are kept. Let me encourage us all…drop your stones! If your hands have stones to throw in them, you are actively denying yourself the provision you’ve been praying about. Want to know what it is that restrains you? God will be glad to talk to you about that, but one of the first things He’ll ask of you is to…drop the throwing stones. Even if you are right, DROP THE STONES!

That chip on your shoulder is contagious, drop the stones!

Quit being offended and drop the stones. If you feel that you’re always defending the way you feel or why you do what you do, you might not only have stones in your hands, but some extra’s in your pockets … just in case. Drop the Stones!

So there should arise in our minds an excellent question: Who made sure you were able to put your hand on that throwing stone? Got a big fat aught with your church family? Ask the question: Who made sure you knew all about it? Who told you that? And who made sure you could lay your hands on the very best throwing stones? Drop the Stones!

Jesus never defended Himself that i can find. i’ve concluded that a main reason Jesus didn’t defend Himself is because He was not Offended. And if anyone in all creation had a reason to be offended, it was Jesus. But yet He was not offended, therefore He did not defend. If there is no offense, i believe there is no reason for a defense. In meeting people that are always busy with a defense, i find them to be the proud owners of throwing stones … they actively hold an offense. Jesus told Peter to put away his weapon … NOT put it away for now as if it was OK to possibly pick it up later when it more suited his purposes, but “put away your offense”. Jesus told Peter to disarm! Drop the stones!

If you’ve ever had a stone thrown at you and been hit, it hurts. Alot, and it’s hard not to retaliate. Put away your offense, drop the stones in your hand, God would like to fill your hands with something else, and as long as your hands are full of Stones to Throw, they can’t hold anything else. Disarm. Drop the Stones!

Let us take God as our defense, and receive the shelter who has been offered to us. i will,  i will go hide in Jesus.

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

Why do we study God’s word? Is it to gain information so we’ll know about Him? Maybe we do it so we can truly know our Redeemer. Is it so we can say we read the Bible? Is it for the reason to know God, or to understand what He’s got to say? How much study of the Bible is necessary in order that we would understand God’s intentions, taking note of how He uses His words, including verb tenses, the hidden meanings in nouns, adverbs, and adjectives? Do we take note of His use of words like, and, therefore, if, or, but, and “then”?

This broadcast maybe a little prickly, but the truth is i don’t believe we spend enough time studying the word of God for ourselves. We often depend on someone else to dig out the information, and wait for someone else to explain. Maybe we study God’s word for all the reasons above. For better or worse, either way, you’d be surprised at the people who claim to be believers who know so very little about the person who gave them life, who teaches the way to conduct themselves, and gives us a heads up about the days and seasons to come.

All of that “not knowing” makes us vulnerable to the winds of misinformation, susceptible to corrupt doctrine, wavering faith and confused loyalties. And when asked a question about what we believe, how we came to that conclusion, and why it’s a good idea, you’d be surprised at the lack of an answer for the reasons of our faith. Sure, many can give a general answer, but if we dig too much deeper, there comes a peculiar reply i call “white noise”. “White noise” is a product of idleness, slackness, or a general lack of interest maybe, if we were honest. “White noise” is often accompanied by the sound of crickets, blank stares, possibly even a rebuke as to why you ask so many questions, accusing you of being an “interrogator”. That’s called deflecting when we don’t want or can’t answer and we put blame on the other person to shift the focus.

What is behind the “white noise” we often hear from the church? Even people who were once vocal about their faith and practiced what they believed as a testimony to the world of the living Savior, Jesus Christ, many of them seem to have become silent, have simply gone home and are often reluctant to give a good report of their faith in God. What is up with the “white noise” in our mouths?

Colossians 4:6, “Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.”

Why do i take the time to find definitions for scriptural concepts and words? For me, it’s because i find, all too often, i don’t know what God means, and in me is a burning desire to see beyond our English translation, which often uses the same word for many things, and frankly, it’s confusing. i pass them on to you so that you may be drawn into a deeper understanding of the heart of the Father.

Let us not let “idleness” and “slackness” be part of our testimony. Truly, i believe we, often, don’t have a reply and don’t understand God’s heart because it’s simply too much trouble to find out, or we’re convinced we can’t know and we’ll get it wrong.

Proverbs 10:4, “A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich.” To be slack means “not taut or held tightly in position, lack of work or activity,” but in this case it is a word which, majorly, means someone who feigns to do one thing, but is actually doing something else, there’s an element of deception in it … and in a minor sense it is someone who has little and is often hungry because they’re simply not applying themselves.

One view of that scripture is about someone who pretends to give to the poor, but doesn’t, who appears to pursue the Lord, but is only about the show, who loves to make an appearance in the high rooms where big decisions are made and loves to “walk in long robes”, but it’s all only a show. How many of us approach scripture and understanding the heart of God this way? We appear to be pursuing Him, but when no one is looking we would rather sit and stare … we are idle, sometimes nearly comatose on the measure and mechanism of grace, not being all that interested in the Lord or His values. Is our slackness a conscious decision upfront? i don’t know but probably not, but i can say it is a spiritual poverty that comes on those of us in the body of Christ who live this way.

This kind of slackness isn’t just not being motivated … the first letter of the Hebrew word for slack is about our head, it’s the twisted thinking in our head which makes this kind of slackness a purposeful thing. Additionally, due to the way the word is spelled in Hebrew, it is indicative of an element of deception which begins with a choice … what we believe drives the rules we live by, motivating us to make choices, creating life actions. Did you get that, what you believe rules you, you don’t rule what you believe. i’ll say it again: Beliefs create rules to live by which produce choices, and due to our beliefs, our choices make actions, for good or bad. Search it out for yourself, don’t take my word for it.

The kind of slackness of Prov10:4 is driven by what’s in our head, meaning our heart is being led by our head, which opposes the right order of things. When our flesh is given power over our spirit, that to you is sin.

i might be mistaken, but i believe the Laodicean church of Rev3 was like that. In their slackness, initially there was deception. Rev3:14-17, “And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation. “‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Oh, how i wish you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.”

i would imagine if we were able to have a conversation with someone of the Laodicean church, at some point they would run out of anything to say and the words of their mouths would, at some point, turn to white noise. How many of us today, don’t study? Oh sure, we’d like to and we know it’s a good idea but we simply… don’t … we would like to fast but we get no further than just thinking about it, we imagine ourselves to be hot because we go to church at a happening place but we are not honest with ourselves.

In John4:16, when Jesus asked the woman to go get her husband, He wasn’t trying to impress her that He knew stuff, He was asking her to be honest, to simply be honest about her situation. Isn’t the Lord asking the same thing of us today, to be honest about the lives we lead where no one can see? Do you do the things you do in secret, in the dark, because you don’t believe God sees you, or is it because you don’t care if God sees you? And believe me, an honest reply to either question is piercing!

Through our own lukewarmness, born out of reliance on the world to make life bearable, not to prosper in the Lord but to live a bearable life, many have become poor, wretched, blind and naked … and i sorta doubt many folks even know.

As i was walking one day, out for my daily walk, the Lord said to me, “You are to be doing more than surviving, you are to be prospering. Why have you fallen to being satisfied to merely survive?”  He was speaking to my becoming a “ho-hum, low slung basement dweller”, satisfied to have one light, hanging in the middle of the room because it was just too much trouble to do anything else, satisfied to merely survive. Truthfully, sometimes we all just get tired, but we must get up. It is not enough to survive, we are supposed to be prospering. Now there is another great topic to explore: what is your idea of “prospering”?

Deuteronomy 7:10, “He will not be slack with one who hates him. He will repay him to his face.”

This is a different kind of “slackness”. It is spelled different than the word for “slack” in Proverbs 10:4. This word begins with a letter of intent, the sound you make before you make a sound, and ends with a letter which speaks of the head, meaning this kind of slackness is initially a heart issue and our thinking just follows along without challenging our spirits lazy indifference. “Indifference”, now there’s a word we really need to think about. The same word for “slack” in Deuteronomy 7:10 is also used in Isaiah 5:11, but “slackness” as is used in Deuteronomy 7:10 is more about God who does not delay recompense to those who hate Him …  it is the same sense of slackness spoken of in 2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” God is not tardy, slow, or lethargic in His promises to recompense goodness for goodness, or judgment where judgment is necessary. Obviously, some count on God’s good nature to hold back the tsunami of passive, soon to be active, judgment which is to be visited upon people who refuse to repent, despite the longsuffering of the Lord. Do you see it? Not “can not” repent, but “will not” repent.

The same word used in Deuteronomy 7:10 is also used of having slack jawed indifference spoken of in Isaiah 5:11 “Woe to those who rise early in the morning, that they may run after strong drink, who are slack, late into the evening as wine inflames them!”, though they are both the same Hebrew word in Deuteronomy 7:10 and Isaiah 5:11, and it is still laziness, there is an attitude in the word which counts on God to not allow them to suffer the repercussions of their actions, and they’re counting on it. Either way, God is not lazy to keep His word, and for those who are slack, every sin needs another sin to cover it up, and the Lord is not slack to do what He says. To count on the Lord being slack in His promises, i believe, at it’s core, is unbelief that the Lord will really do what He says. It is an encouragement for us to not grow fat and forget our Creator. He is not slack in His intentions toward us and we are not to be slack in our intentions toward Him.

For those who count slackness, somewhere in their heart they believe it’s ok to not be accountable for their actions until they are on their death bed because their life of rebellion is too sweet. They don’t come to the throne of grace too often, they see no problem with not being involved with other believers, and they are rarely seen waiting at Wisdom’s gates …  in their heart is unbelief that God will really allow them to have the results of their actions.

And when their house burns to the ground, they will cry, “Why would God do this to

me?” It is not the active hand of God’s judgment, but the passive judgment of sin. Iniquity, transgression, and sin really do have results, and God really will allow those results to be visited upon us if we absolutely insist on being slack, doing things our way. Simply put: If we insist on being slack, the Lord, at some point, will allow us to have what we want.

A woman asked me once if i thought God would allow her to marry the wrong man … i hesitated because i felt my answer would hurt her feelings nor would it be the answer she wanted to hear … i didn’t want to answer. The Lord’s answer was, “Yes, He will, but He’ll be with you every step of the way and will cause all your situations to work together for good because you are numbered among them who love Him.”

           The rain comes down, and washes all the walls, the roof is leaky, the weather is rough, and loosens the architect’s most skillful work.

Ecclesiastes 10:18, “Because of laziness the building decays, And through idleness of hands the house leaks.” This is the only verse in the Bible where the word for “idleness” occurs in this form. The verse portrays the image of a house which falls into ruin for lack of needful repairs. It speaks of the decay that, we can guarantee will overtake a kingdom whose rulers are given up to avoidance of exertion, and excessive indulgence in pleasantries, or what Paul called “dissipation” in Ephesians 5:18. As to ourselves, when we neglect to attend to maintenance and repairs which require our attention, like prayer, reading the word of God, studying to understand what the Lord is talking about, and participating in theological studies, if we don’t practice these things, our own house, our own heart and mind will soon be revealed as rafters which are sinking, timbers starting to sag, and a leaking roof where the cold drip has a knack of always dripping down your back. We each require maintenance. Some who are idle and slack, might say about their leaky roof, “Oh, it’s raining, i can’t fix it now.” And when it stops raining they say, “Oh, it’s not leaking anymore, there’s no point in fixing it.” When we don’t study the word of the Lord for ourselves, we don’t have our own answers, meaning we mostly have someone else’s answers, and that simply won’t do. If our pockets are full of someone else’s answers, living on someone else’s revelation, when we are pressed to answer a question of our faith, from our mouth will come white noise, confused answers, and muddled replies.

Church, we must do the work ourselves to know God. You can’t get into Heaven based on my relationship with Jesus. Everyone must enter of their own merits based on if they know Jesus, and will receive a reward born of the diligence of your own life. You can not fly with my wings, you must have your own.

i have become pretty convinced, so much of the white noise from the church in America is a result of not having tended to their own spiritual well being.

Amos 6:3-6, “ … Who sing idly to the sound of stringed instruments, And invent for yourselves musical instruments like David; Who drink wine from bowls, And anoint yourselves with the best ointments, But are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.”

When scripture mentions the phrase, “to drink wine from bowls”, it is an idiom meaning, “Those who could typically careless about the troubles of others, who’s ultimate interest is their own pleasures…oh, they make a good face and “ooo” and “ahh” appropriately, but as far as extending themselves to help, it’s just a vacuum, white noise and the faint sound of crickets. Friends, i do believe it is a great offence to God when his church is in affliction and we are not grieved about it, nor do we take it seriously. So many seem more interested in their house in the cul-de-sac, the place at the lake, their comfort and being at ease, possibly at the expense of others. The longer our hearts are at ease, and we lounge on our high-end furniture, anointing ourselves with the best perfumes … the longer we spend time learning to sweep our long robes in the presence of dignitaries, but yet our lives are sagging due to hands which do no maintenance, our mouths become filled with white noise. Where are you oh sleeper, arise from your slumber, wake up and get to your feet. And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.

Those who are slack, practicing idleness, not just a one-time thing, more than just an event, but as a lifestyle, they are glad and celebrate a thing which is nothing. They make themselves happy with an illusion that no real evil is going to happen, though there is no solid ground at all for that sort of confidence. Without Jesus, there is no firm foundation to trust in that would support any weight. Through our lack of maintenance, even the footings of our buildings are brittle. We have said, have we not taken up worthy pursuits? But there is no value in those self-centered trivial pursuits. We who lounge and put on a good religious face, good rule keepers and rule makers, we say we have come to the congregation with great dignity and dominion, we have pushed our enemies down and lifted up our victories, all this by our own strength, our own skill and courage, our own wealth and even our military force. Who should we be afraid of? Surely not God himself.

Prosperity and success seem to often make men secure and haughty; and those that have done much think they can do anything, anything without God, maybe even anything against Him and get away with it. If we trust in our own strength, we sing for gladness in something that is nothing.  More than likely, most have not said this with their lips, totidem verbis – or “in so many words”, but it was the language of their hearts and of their actions, and that’s a language God understands very well.

This is the time in history when it is not enough to simply go to church, listen to someone else tell about Jesus, hand in a tithe and call it good enough.

Again, going to church on Sunday morning is not enough. Did you know, according to a national survey from the Barna Group, it revealed that only 16%  of church goers actually read their Bible every day, and only 32% read their Bibles once each week. Of those who go to church, only 37% agree that reading and studying the Bible have made a significant difference in their lives. i think a really good question is: Could it be that the 37% who believe the Bible makes a difference in their lives are among those who read their Bible every day or at least once a week? Maybe the 63%  who don’t see a difference in their lives are merely going through the motions of attending church and giving a tithe, but may not be reading the Bible or applying the teaching of the Bible to their daily lives throughout the week. Maybe it does NOT mean that the Bible is not effective to change a life, but that it is only effective if you read and study, and that requires time and discipline!

i read a short little story about a little boy who asked, “Dad, did Grandpa make you go to Sunday school and church when you were my age?” His father answered, “He sure did. We went every Sunday.” The boy said sadly, “Well, I bet it won’t do me any good either.” It is not enough to just go to church. We must apply the Bible to our everyday lives, we must ask the Lord to open our eyes to see Jesus, that He would give us understanding, and maybe even ask the Lord to inspire us to even be inspired, to give us the want to to even want to. Friends, we simply must pursue Him. The days we live in are very, very dangerous.

If out of all the people at your church, less than 10%  are tithing enough to do 100% of the work, what is going on with the other 90%? And if the leadership inquires of the remaining 90%’s slack, idleness towards supporting the ministry in time and money, at first it’s white noise, then it’s an angry reply, something about it being nobody’s business what they do with their money, and then comes the deflecting from their own responsibility by then accusing the leadership of being money hungry, then comes white noise again.

We as a people talk a good talk, but when an inquiry is made concerning what others actually like about church, suddenly it’s white noise. There will always be someone to point out what’s wrong with Church, but c’mon then, ask the question: What do you want from church? And be honest. Most all the people at church will say they know and love Jesus, but if they are asked what is it you love about Jesus, they have a very general reply. If you ask a little further about that general reply, suddenly it’s white noise. If you ask people about the foundations of their faith, they’ve got a generalization about how they got where they are, but if you ask further about the details, suddenly it’s white noise. It’s not suppression of the rest of the story, it is a vacuum as to the rest of the story.

i’ve come to a three word conclusion about white noise. Mouths which are filled with white noise, more often than not, it is largely because… they … don’t …  know. i took 2 years to do a survey, gently asking folks those questions. The frequency of “white noise” as an answer was shocking to me.

i love doing social experiments, so for the last few years i’ve been asking people, “How do you know about Jesus?” Not because i’m being nosey or because i think i’m right and you need to know how right i am and how wrong you are, (not at all!), but because i’m making the opportunity to testify of God’s goodness in their lives. Most smile and reply a typical short story. Yet, when i ask the next logical question, “What was it that persuaded you that the gospel was the truth?”, There came white noise, blank stares, shuffling feet, and the look in their eyes that says they need to be somewhere else. White noise. So i’m asking you, is there white noise in your life? Why is it there and what are you gonna do about it, because it ought not to be? Is it too much trouble to know the reason for the white noise, is it inconvenient to discover what we believe, how we came to that conclusion, and why we think it’s a good idea? This would be a good time to … think about it.

Luke 14:6, “And they could not reply to these things.” That means there was white noise, just no reply, not would not reply, but could not reply.

Colossians 4:6 again, “Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.” In order to have speech that is gracious, seasoned with salt, we need to be cognizant of grace in our lives, and do the work necessary to be seasoned with salt, in other words, have a working understanding of the Father’s heart and of scripture. i didn’t say anyone had to memorize miles of scripture, but to have some understanding about where you’re coming from. An old fellow told me once that i needed to look behind me occasionally … i asked him why, and he said so i would always know where i’m coming from. Funny, but serious too.

Jesus answered, Peter and John answered, Simon answered, Ananias answered, Rhoda answered, Paul answered, the tribunal answered, Festus answered, and ultimately God answers, not only has answered, past tense, but will answer, future tense, and once God has spoken it doesn’t stop being said. There is no white noise in the mouth of the Lord. He may hold His peace for a better time to reply, but it is never white noise. What is up with idleness, slackness and white noise from the general population of Christians? What will we as individuals do about our own idleness, slackness, and white noise?

i’m Social Porter and this has been Outposts, every day is a new day, every evening is pleasant, and peace flows abundantly for those who would have it.

Why do we study God’s word? Is it to gain information so we’ll know about Him? Maybe we do it so we can truly know our Redeemer. Is it so we can say we read the Bible? Is it for the reason to know God, or to understand what He’s got to say? How much study of the Bible is necessary in order that we would understand God’s intentions, taking note of how He uses His words?

Let us not be vulnerable to the winds of misinformation, susceptible to corrupt doctrine, wavering faith and confused loyalties by applying ourselves to knowing Jesus through reading our Bible, prayer, and taking the time to sit with God. I say, no more white noise, or idleness, but be diligent to know how to give a good reply to anyone who would ask. Amen?

Take your time this week, breath man breath, we’re almost home. Have a good conversation with your neighbors, and learn to smile when greeting people, even if you don’t like them much.

Drive carefully, and go with God, it’s the best thing you’ll ever do. Amen.

When i was growing up, my mother made almost all of our clothes for the entire family. i saw with my own eyes, that there were times when what she made didn’t work out …  i remember walking into her little sewing area and seeing her unstitching things which didn’t measure up to the pattern. One year all of us kids agreed to do something extra special … we mowed lawns, picked beans and corn, cut tobacco, baled hay, and helped neighbors with projects, all so we could buy her a new sewing machine … a really nice one for the time period. In all of her time of putting together pieces of carefully cut cloth, mending shirts, and making new clothes, what i remember more than anything was the boxes and boxes and stacks of patterns, and on those patterns, somewhere there was always a reference point so the sewer would know how to orient the pattern on the cloth.

How important is a reference point and a pattern? Some very talented people can make clothes or create tailored things, it would appear, without much of a pattern, but we can rest assured, somewhere in their past, they followed a pattern so often, that the reference point and pattern was memorized, and burned into their mind.

The universe was framed from the reference point and pattern of God’s wisdom and character, Proverbs 3:19-20, “By wisdom the LORD laid the earth’s foundations, by understanding he set the heavens in place; by his knowledge the deeps were divided, and the clouds let drop the dew.” The Lord gave the universe a gridwork of divinity and holiness to lean against and to brace upon. He, Jesus, IS the reference point and pattern. He IS Torah.

Without a reference point and pattern to build by, a house could easily turn out to be as crooked as the crooked man who walked a crooked mile, who built a crooked house and had a crooked smile. Jesus is the universal point of definition and the straight line of orientation, by which all things are set straight and the deeds of men and angels are judged.

So, here we go … if you’re on your way somewhere, then steady on my friend, lend me your ears, tap your fingers, and let these words sink down into your heart.

All through scripture, God has made sure we have a reference point and pattern to fashion ourselves, our conduct, character, and conversation. From cover to cover, our Bible is a pattern of how to pray, what to pray about, and how things go when we don’t pray. In Luke 11 Jesus gave us a pattern of how to pray; the Bible has patterns of how to take action and what happens when we take no action; there are patterns of devotion and deceit, fruitfulness and fruitlessness; patterns of what life should and should not look like. A pattern is more than a one-time event, like saying it isn’t the one cookie which makes you fat, it’s the lifestyle, or pattern of cookies that does us in. Our God IS a God of contrasts.

In God’s wisdom, He knew we would need someone and something as a reference point and pattern so we would know when we were going in the right direction and doing the right thing. He gave us many reference points and patterns for us to gauge against for us to be oriented.

Not only did the Lord, who lives forever, give us reference points and patterns in His word for us to live by, but He designed and handed us references in all the heavens and the earth. God is the inventor and perfecter of the concept of a map and compass. An example would be the North Star. For thousands of years, it has been a standard reference point for navigation. The pattern of the rest of the stars in relation to that all important star are all there in order for us to get and keep our bearings. The yellow and white lines on the roads we drive are there as a reference point, indicating what is our side and what is not. Road signs are a pattern and reference point so we know where we are, how fast to go, or not to go. Buoy markers are a reference point and strike a pattern to follow for boats and ships. Here’s one, light houses – now there’s a huge reference point for sea faring folks to know there is danger, or as a shining light in the dark showing the way home. Are we any different than those light houses? Didn’t the Lord give it to us be like a lamp set in a dark place?

Patterns are described as a relationship between objects in which one object acts as a means by which to connect to another object. The first object in this relationship is said to refer to the second object. i figure when it’s just one point, it is a reference point, but when there are two or more reference points in relationship with each other, there is a pattern. That is why i refer to Jesus as the reference point and standard of the universe, and His character, motivations, and actions are the pattern we are to follow.

Recently, my wife ordered a jeweler’s scale which is accurate out to two decimal places. When we put a battery in it and tried to use it, it was wrong, obviously and glaringly incorrect. Sometimes when things don’t go well, it is wise to read the directions you know …  so … after we read the directions, we realized we needed to calibrate the little electronic scale, and to do that, we needed a reference point. In our case, we needed to calibrate the scale with a 500g standard, not 502, not 488, but exactly 500g. In this little exercise, i realized, again, the value of an accurate reference point and the impact of that reference point on all that follows. The quality of our pattern is no better than the quality of our reference point, and if we’ve got a skewed reference point, the patterns are skewed also. Similarly, if your reference point is exact, then your pattern is going to reflect the rightness of your reference point.

With the rise of individualism in America today, it is popular to say that truth is subjective, in other words, it’s the truth according to me and whatever i decide, meaning my opinion (the subjective truth) becomes my reality (my objective truth). From God’s perspective, if we are our own reference point then we are still slaves to sin and death …  in that case all our thinking and living will be no better than our reference point of sin and death.

i don’t know about you, but i need a righteous reference point of someone besides myself. i can not be my own reference point and pattern. That would be like saying “i am my own mother and father, my own beginning and end, and i will pray to myself and answer myself.” That’s absolute madness, but yet the more ungodly our nation gets, the more prevalent that kind of stinking thinking becomes. That lifestyle and thinking is destined to die because of the origins of its birth, meaning it is born of ourselves. If we are our focus and do the Burger King-thing, living out the idea of “Have it your way”, we will die without Christ.

Our nation’s judicial system was founded on the Lord and the Bible as the reference point and pattern for right and wrong and how to righteously divide the two amongst the people. In the end, our God will still be the reference point and pattern, whether anyone likes it or not. Philippians 2:9-11 “Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” We can choose the Lord as our reference point and pattern and live, or we can choose ourselves and die. What’s it gonna be?

Within the Hebrew word used for “pattern”, as seen in Exodus 25:9 there is a reference to inside and outside of the house. Interestingly, it is a word the Lord uses which He has built in the reflection of the family unit, not a reflection of rule keeping, or a reflection of punishment, or judgment, but of the family, and you know, God is allllll about the family, from the beginning. Interestingly, the word also points to the effort of arm and hand in worship. So there it is, God’s primary idea when He uses the word pattern is a picture of three things, the family, the house where the family lives, and worship of God as a lifestyle of the family in the house. Jesus, the Mighty One who first breathed is our living example, our model of how to choose and live.

What or Who is the reference point and pattern in your decision-making machine concerning how to choose and live? What or who governs your appetites? Whoever stands at the helm of your boat has incredible influence concerning where that boat goes, so i must ask, “Who is in your wheelhouse?” We need a reference point and righteous pattern if we are to weigh things properly and come to Godly conclusions. So i’ll ask again, and hopefully, you’ll take it seriously and ask yourself, “Who is in your wheelhouse”.

The reference point for the entire universe and all the living and dead, is the Lord Himself, and He is sufficient and enough. If our best standard by which all standards are calibrated with finite accuracy, how much more the Lord is infinitely more exact. He is the very definition of the definition of the standard of the standard of the reference point, world without end.

We need … the world needs the reference point and pattern of Jesus Christ. We are to reflect Christ for He is our reference point. He is the reference point of first mention when the Lord spoke of the pattern of the Tabernacle in Exodus 25; Jesus is the reference point in the example of the Menorah. The Lord was David’s point of reference, and He gave David the plans, or patterns for how things were supposed to go. 1 Chronicles 28:11-12, “Then David gave his son Solomon the plans for the porch of the temple, its buildings, its storerooms, its upper parts, its inner rooms and the place of atonement. He gave him the plans of all that the Spirit had put in his mind for the courts of the temple of the LORD and all the surrounding rooms, for the treasuries of the temple of God and for the treasuries for the dedicated things.” i mean, the pattern of things listed in 1 Chronicles 28 which the Lord laid out for David is incredible, and i believe all those patterns, with God as our reference point, is for us to build on, not to abandon.

This is amazing. Look at what it says at 1Chron28:19, “All this,” David said, “I have in writing from the hand of the LORD upon me, and he gave me understanding in all the details of the plan.” The Lord not only gave David a vision of it, but David was motivated by the Spirit of the Lord to write it down so the work could be accomplished … not to mention he also understood it.

The same applies today. The Lord is our reference point, pattern and understanding so the work of the Lord can be accomplished.

A business model is a pattern to build after, and there are many business models to create from in this world. A business model, or pattern of doing business, determines the way a company “does business” with its customers, partners and vendors. For us as believers, having Jesus as our reference point and pattern gives us a system of righteous guidelines to build life by which are focused on and directed toward each other and then outwardly toward the world, defining the way we “conduct ourselves” with family, friends, acquaintances, and the world. Without Jesus as our reference point, we have no choice but to accept something or someone else as our standard, or worse, to accept ourselves as our standard, and that is sure death in the end … a total dead end. No man or thing can be a good reference point for us because everything without Christ is under the penalty of death due to sin. When Jesus is NOT our reference point and pattern, it’s like having death as your point of reference … yea, isn’t that attractive?

Jesus is like the north star for us to navigate with … as long as we can see Jesus we’ll never lose our way home. In astronomy, His name is written in the stars. He is our beacon and light house, and all through scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, everything points to Jesus, the Messiah, Savior, Lord and God. Jesus IS Torah. In the O.T. the name of Jesus, “Yeshua”, occurs 78 times as salvation, help, deliverance, health, save, saving, and welfare.

Everything points to Jesus.

One of God’s attributes which He shares with us is the pattern of Himself, and by that pattern we have life, direction, reconciliation, and a justified position.

In Christ and through Christ, we have been supplied the means to satisfy all our needs. Philippians 4:19 “And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”

Having Jesus as our universal reference point and using the pattern as the Lord has described for us through out the Bible, suddenly we find ourselves rich in social, economic, moral, ethical, and cultural value … God-value, and He is more precious than gold and rubies. Revelation 3:18, the Lord says, “I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.”

John 8:12 “When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.””

Without Jesus as our reference point and pattern, we are no better than a boat untethered to a secure place, going where ever the wind and sea will carry us. Without Jesus as our reference point and pattern, we have no anchor, no direction, and no definition.

i’m Social Porter and this has been Outposts, a semi-live broadcast from the deck area overlooking the Ockluhwahhah River, where the trees gently lean over the rivers edge, and every evening is pleasant.

Letters, words, and definitions of all languages were God’s idea. i believe they were given to mankind firstly, in order that we would communicate with God and secondly, so we would communicate with each other. It seems to me if Jesus is our point of reference and pattern, we would want to know Him more intimately. after all, i’m speaking of someone who is so important that we, as people, have divided time according to His birth, B.C. being an abbreviation for “Before Christ,” and A.D. an abbreviation for “anno Domini,” which is Latin for “in the year of our Lord.”

What or Who is the reference point and pattern in your decision making machine concerning how to choose and live? What or Who governs your appetites? We need a reference point and righteous pattern if we are to weigh things properly and come to Godly conclusions. Let Jesus be your north star, your all encompassing reference point and pattern.

Be strong and courageous this week, visit someone in need and let them know they aren’t forgotten. Drive carefully and put into action the compassion of God. Amen!

Ahhh, yea … it’s another of those hypnotic evenings with the sun having settled down to a rosey glow at the horizon and the clouds are parceled out across the sky, looking like the porches at the entrance to Heaven’s gate … This evening the lilacs from down the road a piece are so fragrant, i can smell them all the way over here at the deck, overlooking the Ockluhwahhah River.

The view from here reminds me of part of a poem by Francis Duggan that goes: “A beautiful evening the birds chirp and sing, The wonders of Nature is a magical thing. The sun going down red in the western sky, And the roost bound starlings wheel and turn as they fly.”

The idea of our dialogue here is to speak to our issues about three inches beneath the surface of where we really live, waking up reality and perseverance, encouraging us to stop being compelled by panic and fear, to trust God – to stop and think … think before you act as best you know how. i mean, take a moment and play the entire movie out before you jump off that high place.

i knew a man, many years ago, who, when he was very young and wild (meaning he didn’t think much), was out carousing with some other young buddies late one evening. They stopped at a high bridge and decided to do some bungy jumping … but they didn’t have any bungy cords. Off to the side of the bridge they found an old rope, and being young and foolish they really didn’t realize there is absolutely no bounce or give in a large diameter rope. Without considering the outcome of his actions, the unthinking young man tied the rope to his ankle and jumped … yea, you guessed it, he lost his foot that evening. If he and his pals had simply thought about it, taking a moment to think ahead just a little bit, he would still have his foot today. That certainly was a humiliating and permanent lesson of “look before you leap”, or “play the whole movie” before taking action.

Luke 14:28-30, “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.‘”

A few weeks ago our program topic was “Foresight, Insight, Hindsight”, and tonight’s topic is sort of about those three elements of understanding, but more from another angle maybe. i think most people think of “foresight” in the context of a prophetic gift, by the Power of the Holy Spirit predicting a future outcome, or confirming the Word of the Lord that is already operating in someone’s heart …  but tonight’s focus is more on the practicality and employment of foresight, insight, and hindsight. When we have understanding, putting into motion the wisdom of “look before you leap”, that means we are taking a circumspect view of things to gain insight when the Lord gives it to us.

Dr. Henry Cloud wrote a book in 2004, “Nine Things You simply Must Do” in which he probes the mystery of why some lives really work and others don’t. One of the chapters is labeled, “Play The Movie”. A moment ago, i gave a quote of Luke14:28-30. In the idea presented in that scripture, “… sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it”, that means to “play the movie”, pencil things out to see where they go, find the hidden costs if any, see and perceive, asking ourselves the question, “Is this really what i imagined? Does it look like what i believe the Lord showed me?”

How often do you make a “knee jerk reaction” about something without considering the consequences? i mean, c’mon, we’ve all done crazy stuff in life at some point or another without considering the consequences of our actions; bought a car, spoken rashly, voted without weighing reality, drinking and driving, running with a crowd we know better than to hang with, etc.

A friend of mine and i were at coffee this morning and we were recounting past decisions that we made in a moment of haste without any thought as to the possible outcome … we also remembered the miracles in that we weren’t killed and how the Lord, in His everlasting mercy, protected us from ourselves. The Lord brought to my remembrance the time i needed to load a bull in a trailer, a really big bull, but he didn’t want to get in, of course. i had him corralled in a very small space and he just wouldn’t get in. In my frustration and anger, i grabbed a big stick and just jumped in the pen with the bull and whacked him round and round the little space until he got in the trailer. Only afterwards, only !afterwards! did it dawn on me the complete and utter foolishness of my actions. i didn’t play the movie, i didn’t look before i leapt … it never occurred to me that i was in close quarters with an aggressive animal weighing in excess of 2000Lbs who, at any moment, could have effortlessly crushed me. i think the Lord delivers us from ourselves more often than we comprehend. Ha! Ya’ think? Thank you, Jesus, for your mercy and kindness. Amen?

           Luke 14:31-32, “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace.”

Within that scripture are the ear marks of someone who is looking ahead some, using a sharp pencil to find out the actual cost of performing their idea, has understood the potential outcome, and even made an alternate plan.

The word “circumspect” is an interesting word for us to get a good solid grasp on when employing the idea of “look before you leap”. Webster’s Dictionary simply says, basically, to take all things into account, but the word used for “circumspect” in Exodus 23:13, means so much more than that. The word says, “And in all things that I have said unto you be circumspect.” The Lord means for us to not only take all things into account, but to look at the noted details narrowly, scrutinize the information, and above all, do what the Lord says. We weren’t born being circumspect, so, let me add that if we know Jesus, God !will! teach us to be circumspect.

God’s idea of being circumspect comes into play in other scenarios. How about “think before you speak”. How many times have you spoken quickly, and, OH, didn’t you wish you could just get those words back? It’s sort of like sending someone an unkind remark by email … once you hit “Send”, it is gone baby, gone, and you can’t unring that bell. There is no “unsend” for email, nor is there an “unsay” for words that have hastily come out of our mouths.

The concept of being “circumspectful” is what is meant when i say “play the whole movie”.

Take Judas as an example, who acted so dishonorably by betraying Jesus. i believe he wished so bad he could take back his words and actions. But, in arrogance and blindness, he acted rashly and spoke unwisely. Look at his words, and actions in Matthew 27:3-4, “When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty silver coins to the chief priests and the elders. “I have sinned,” he said, “for I have betrayed innocent blood.” “What is that to us?” they replied in a sneering tone looking down their long judgmental noses at him. “That’s your responsibility.” They got what they wanted, and their attitude towards Judas was like saying, “Too bad, too sad for you buddy!”

i’m not sure, but it appears to me Judas … possibly … thought if he gave the money back and confessed his wrong to the Pharisee’s, that maybe he could somehow undo what he had done. A paraphrase of Psalm32 is that confession is good for the soul, unless, it is confession to the wrong person or group. Judas not only didn’t play the whole movie concerning his actions but he also confessed his error to the wrong people. Need it be said, Judas did not take into account the life and miracles of Jesus, he did not carefully consider the details of what he had witnessed for the years he walked as one of the disciples … Judas was not a very circumspect man, he failed to play the movie beyond the part where he saw himself as having saved the day. There was no “unsend” button, nor was there any “unsay”, or “undo” option. And if anything, the Pharisee’s used his confession against him, were delighted at his brutal mistake, and i believe they were pleased he took his own life. i believe the Pharisee’s found it delicious to close the trap and watch him squirm. He couldn’t un-ring that bell.

How often have we made, on the spur of the moment, spiritually impacting decisions without considering the outcome? A man and his wife bought a car on the premise that if the loan was approved, it must be God. Well, of course the loan was approved. A bankrupt felon could have gotten approval. Six months later they went bust and wondered why God would do this to them. Was it really God who did this to them? Had they played the movie, and scrutinized the details, they would have never suffered the catastrophic outcome.

i knew a man who had a dream that went like this: in his dream he went to the bathroom and looked in the mirror. He only saw the nose and mouth of someone who sort of looked like him, but it wasn’t him. He woke up the next morning sure God gave had given him a vision of his future wife. He went about his day as usual, and that evening he went to a Bible study. There at the Bible study was an attractive young woman whose lower half of her face appeared exactly like the face he saw in the dream in the mirror. Immediately he had the idea he was supposed to marry that woman. Afterall, he was in the market for a wife, she was pretty, and she seemed to like him. He set himself on marrying her. He told her his dream and his intentions of marrying her, she bought into it, and two weeks later they were married. It turned out, after years of misery and struggle, he had done a knee jerk reaction, failing to play the rest of the movie, failing miserably at being circumspect.

When we take what we see in our foresight and give ourselves time to consider the details of what we have observed, getting insight, we’re typically not so quick to readily jump on popular trends and don’t tend to accept common advice as necessarily God’s wisdom. Proverbs 19:21, “There are many plans in a man’s heart, nevertheless it is the LORD’S counsel–that will stand.”

This is not about being cautious but about being wise – and understanding the ramifications of a proposed course of action. While others are ready to quickly decide an issue, looking before we leap often causes us to wait for a period of time, evaluating all sides of the issue, being neither proponents or opponents but simply keeping an open mind so that when a decision is made it is a wise decision. Playing the movie allows us to evaluate with objectivity rather than taking a position. i have a three day rule for buying a car, and what that means is that i figure Jesus rose from the dead in three days, and so in three days i can make a decision to buy or not. So far, it has worked out well. In those following three days, there is time to consider carefully and get a circumspect view.

How about the man and woman who were friends and went to a conference? While at the conference the speaker called them out of the crowd and prophesied that they should be married. They didn’t take into account the myriad of details that should have been carefully weighed before marriage, they didn’t count the cost … they failed to play the movie. They didn’t use a sharp pencil, scrutinizing the details, instead they took the conference speaker at his word, and got married straight away. It was a disaster which grew to super-volcano proportions quickly. How much different was that type of irresponsible behavior than the unthinking young man who went bungee jumping from a bridge with an unyielding rope tied to his foot?

          In a foreign country a priest, a lawyer and an engineer were about to be guillotined. The priest puts his head on the block, they pull the rope and nothing happens. He declared that he’d been saved by divine intervention, so they let him go. The lawyer was put on the block, and again the rope didn’t release the blade. He claimed he couldn’t be executed twice for the same crime and he was set free also. They grabbed the engineer and shoved his head into the guillotine. He looked up at the release mechanism and said, “Wait a minute, I see your problem … ”

Oh, gosh, he just had to open his mouth. Obviously, the engineer didn’t weigh and consider carefully before he spoke, and once his words were out there, he couldn’t unring that bell.

My mother used to tell me that it was better for me to be quiet and only be thought foolish, than it was for me to open my mouth and be known foolish. For much of my life … i didn’t listen.

Ephesians 5:14-17 “Therefore He says: “Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light.” See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”

Mark 4:23-24 “If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear. Consider carefully what you hear.” God’s meaning of “consider carefully” means to take in all the details, scrutinize them, leaving nothing out. And as to the use of the word “consider” in Greek … it means to “ponder to conclusion”, play the whole movie, or “look before you leap”, and we should do it carefully. To summarize that scripture it reads, “after you have taken in the details and, so to speak, penciled it out and perceived, after you’ve been to the Lord about what is in your mind, come to a conclusion and take action.” That is considering your hindsight, getting insight from the Lord, taking note of your foresight, draw it all into a conclusion, and then setting out to accomplish your task.

That method is the way the Lord does things. He is our example of “play the movie”, or being circumspect.

Isaiah 46:9-10 9 “I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning.” Our God is circumspect. He knows the end from the beginning, and takes all facts and intents of the heart into account.

Imitating the Lord, we are called to be wise and to take into account the ramifications of our possible actions ! before ! we jump and run. i’ll ask again, How often do you make a “knee jerk reaction” about something without considering the consequences? Think about that, and after you’ve thought, then think about it all some more.

When we take God seriously and practice the conclusion of our foresight and insight, life gets radically better. We may not be too good at it now, but the more we practice “looking before we leap”, counting the cost before we go to war, the better we get at it. To “play the movie” is one of the things alcoholics learn to do in order to succeed. Like Dr. Henry Cloud said, “Going to the movies can save your life by preventing bad things from happening, and it also enables us to see the good things that can happen also.”

i’m Social Porter and this has been Outposts, a beautiful evening on the deck overlooking the Ockluhwahhah River, where the trees gently lean over and every evening is pleasant.

Pick up your cross this week, afterall, no one can bear it but you. Look before you leap, see your options before hand and be circumspect about what you perceive. As you go your way, take the time to pray for someone with words that make a difference. Be strong and courageous, and i’ll talk to you next time.