What I’ve wondered about today…

Here are just a few thoughts that pranced through the field of my mind today. To get the proper context you have to; a)imagine thoughts with feet skipping merily with flowers in hand. b)imagine a field of squishy membrane, i.e. my brain, upon which the aforementioned thoughts would have pranced, or squished.

1. We should call “hugs” “squeezes”. It just makes more sense.

2. I bet the reason technology has increased so much in the past 100 years is so Jesus has a head start on renewing the earth, its just good leadership.

3. The book of Romans is like steak, whereas the book of John is like wafers and honey.

4. Prophecy is like intercession in that both are standing in the gap for the good of others.

5. Pit bulls scare me.

6. I really hope I don’t ever get hit in the face with a baseball again. It’s been a few years and I still remember how bad it hurt.

7. I still can’t figure out which is better, gum or mints.

8. I need to stop coveting EVERYBODYS car just cause mine got damaged. Sorry Jesus.

9. If a post is posted in a vacuum of indifference, does it still make a point?

10. I am much better at writing than typing but I still prefer typing. Weird.

Tell me your thought of the day! Random or serious, whatever!

“It is the Spirit who gives life, the flesh profits nothing.”

The reference above is from John 6:63. Jesus tells His peeps in this chapter why He has come; because He is life and He wants to give them life. This truth explains a lot in Romans 7 and 8.

Romans 7 is basically Paul’s thought on the law, its purpose and function, and its work to show the depths of human depravity and lack of moral, intellectual, and spiritual good. In this chapter Paul uses the pronoun “I” 32 times in describing his attempt to fulfill the law in his own strength and zeal for the truth of the law, seeing as how he describes it as being holy, just, and good (v. 12). Paul tells us time and again the importance and goodness of the law and he tells us time and again how he attempted to walk in it. The summation of all this comes to us at the end of this chapter in verse 24, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” The bulk of chapter 7 is depressing.

As he proceeds however, he gives thanks to God for Jesus Christ. Chapter eight then is Paul’s joy and understanding of the person and work of Christ to fulfill the law and to send us help in walking it out. In John 16:13 Jesus tells us that the Spirit of truth, when He comes, will guide us into all truth and help us in it. This is Paul’s realization in chapter 8 of Romans. Previously he had addressed the law as it pertained to him (the pronoun “I” listed 32 times) but in chapter 8 he addresses the law through a different filter, no longer his own self but the Spirit of Christ dwelling within him. There are 20 references to the “Spirit” in chapter 8 with which the chapter progresses into a more optimistic hope and joy in walking out the law that so burdened him when he had set himself up beside it in chapter 7. But now, in chapter 8, he is renewed, refreshed and invigorated by the law of the Spirit of Christ working in him to enable him to walk in the law (8:1). The summation of this chapter, much different from the end of chapter 7, is encouraging and uplifting. Verse 37 states, “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerers through Him who loved us.”

What a wonderful and encouraging thought: the Spirit helps us. In what the law was able to do in showing us our need for it but inable to do in helping us attain it, the Holy Spirit is able to do in us by showing us the truth of it and helping us to walk in it, if indeed we are sons of God and have His Spirit in us. The difference between the law and the Spirit is this; the law, though it is good for life and living, brings death because none can bear its implications while the Spirit, highlighting the work of Jesus to fulfill the law, gives us power to walk in it, if we remain in Him and bear His fruit (John 15).

Therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that He has promised us – eternal life.        1 John 2:24,25

Thank you Holy Spirit for helping me. Thank you for your meekness in teaching me and encouraging me. Thank you for conviction, repentence, and renewal in Jesus Christ, in His body and in His blood. Thank you for revealing to me all things that the Father has in the Son and the Son in the Father. Help me to step into the interaction of the Holy Trinity, the intimacy of three in one and you in me. I love you, I want to know you. Teach me today to walk with you, to know your person and to know your work. Amen.

Invited to walk humbly…

Pain is an invitation into a lifestyle of meekness. When your heart is wounded there are two responses that bear fruit, both good and bad fruit, depending on the response. One of those responses can be to assert yourself, protect your honor, and defend your rights. This is the most common response when pain, disapointment, and frustration crosses paths with us. This response is fleshly, earthly, and natural. It is common. The second response is far less common and usually the result of divine influence and supernatural grace of a believers union with Christ. The second response is meekness, humility, and forgiveness. It is taking what is painful or hurtful and placing it at the feet of Jesus and His cross. Placing it there however, is only half of the fruit of the invitation given us by Christ. The harder, more enduring response is to not only place that foul thing at His feet in humility but to then stare at it with Him and let His love envelope the situation, until your heart becomes knit to His. This is the fellowship of His sufferings. This is a small picture of taking up our cross and following hard after Him. It was the joy set before Him to endure the cross, the joy of having a response in humans that would evoke love, tenderness, and gratitude toward Him. Our invitation to forgive and to embrace meekness is to hopefully evoke the same response out of others by our forgiving them, bearing long with them, and loving them in spite of ill-treatment and discouragement. Our invitation to love Him well is the same invitation to forgive others, knowing how much He has forgiven us. We cannot withhold goodness from others if He did not withhold goodness from us. He loves well that we would love well. He truly has shown us a better way.

“Therefore, if you seek me, let these go their way.”   John 18:8

Hello Mr. Grammar, good to meet you!

Alright my fellow brothers in arms (wordcast buddies not limited to gender or wether or not you have arms) it is time for us to evaluate something, I think. I have read through many a post since my fledgling days back in February when I first began to wordcast and there has been one common thread that has been a constant source of anxiety, humor, frustration, and predictability. What is that common thread you might ask? Bad grammar!

So I would just like to take a few moments and share my opinion on this topic. I will lay out a disclaimer that I really don’t mind reading through an ill-prepared post, grammatically speaking. However, I seek the fruit that abounds to your account when I hi-light little foul ups here and there, not that it is here nor there because it seems to be everywhere. I am jeoulous that you would all pursue excellence in all areas of life, particularly in the area of writing. On a serious note, who knows how many people read your stuff (or decide not to read, depending on the grammer of the post) in a day that is a direct reflection of your life, thoughts, style, convictions and so forth and what not. With that said let us begin our little lesson, shall we?

Here are a few things to work on if you so choose. 1) The difference between to and too. If you can say ”as well” instead of ”to” then you should probably use the other “too”. 2) Commas are good, they break up sentences that are really long. It’s hard to stop a sentence with a period if it is one continual thought, so it is good to break it up with commas. A general rule of thumb is that commas are fun and you can never really have enough of them, unless, of, course, they, are after, every, stinkin, word. 3) Spelling is a must. Spelling is a really good gauge to see where you are with discipline in various areas of life. If a word looks funny then it probably is, look it up please, just fix it. There is nothing worse for me than to be reading through a sentence and stop to look at the mispelling of a word and then try to pick up the flow of thought. 4) Paragraphs help a ton. Any time you start a new train of thought with words it is best to give it its own section, just to respect it. Thoughts like to be catagorized, much like people. They just work better when they are in the proper context with their other sentence buddies. They are more comfortable there. 5) Apostrophy and conjunction are good buds, they don’t like to be seperated. Here is a visual. Its good for them to be together or it’s good to be together. Notice the apostrophy connecting it and is to make a little baby we have just named it’s. Make sense? 5) Lastly, i before e except after c. Recieve, no. Receive, yes. Well done class.

Well, that should just about conclude our lesson today. I hope you enjoyed yourselves. I realize that most people don’t care about the grammer in their lives but if you take the time to do things right it will eventually change things for good. I did have the privilege to go to a private Christian school all through my intellectual years between the ages of 8-16.  So, I am just passing on what I have learned, most of which I never thought I would need. Little did I know that one day I would have my very own wordcast to springboard my teaching of grammer. Thank you Mrs. Turner, you were a wonderful lady and a precious soul indeed, you have taught many well.

Confident in love…

Obedience is the means for men to see the work of God. Jesus was obedient unto death, the fruit of which is the Holy Spirit, the Helper, being sent to the body of believers for union and communion unto transformation and the renewing of the mind and the regeneration of the earth. By faith Abraham was ready to offer up Issac on the altar of obedience, for union with God. The prophets have told us time and again that the desire of the Lord is mercy, not sacrifice. Jesus tells us this, “Whoever keeps my commandments, it is he who loves me.” And again, “To obey is better than sacrifice.”

So what is the point of this post? Here I will sum it up. Confidence in love must be married with obedience in order to give birth to a renewed mind. You are not confident in anything if your conscience bears witness against you. However, when we move by the Spirit’s leadings we are confident that we are in a relationship with Him, bearing the fruit of love. There are things that must happen in us in order for us to be confident in love when it comes to us walking with the Lord in any true contemplative depth. Obedience moves us into the place of confidence, and if not our obedience then it was His perfect obedience to the Father that led us to the place of assurance in salvation.

As we grow in Christ then, it is imperitive for us to engage grace in walking the course of His commandments. The depth of our experience in divine love is proportionate to the measure in which we agree with the Spirit’s jeoulosy within us. If we do not attempt to obey then we cannot expect to delve into the depths of His love! His love looks like perfect sacrifice, obedience unto the end and He will have a bride equally yoked in devotion. Amen.

Grateful for true community…

As many of you know, I have been gone for about a week, raising support in Macon, GA. I had thought, up until my return, that I was going solely to raise support and make connections, etc. etc. Well, that was part of it, a good part but not the whole reason.

Today I have just been thinking about how hard it would be, and is, to go hard after God by yourself for any sustained amount of time. Beloved, it is the wisdom of God to give us to each other and to unite us together in spite of our differences. The truth is just this, we need each other in order to stay steady. The whole time I was in Georgia I was enjoying the change of pace, scenery, and people. However, I longed to be back here in K.C. with a company of people who constantly provoke me into living the 1st commandment, all the time! And oh how good it is to be back.

I have heard a few people say throughout the months that there isn’t any real community here or real way to connect or get plugged in and after being gone a few days I just have this to say…..Where else can you be with people who really love Jesus with all their hearts and are actually engaged in it in a full time way, day in and day out? It might be hard to connect with certain people or find a mentor or whatever but that doesn’t really have anything to do with community. The community here is all about magnifying Jesus, all the time and it’s in that context that you meet people that provoke you, share your heart, and agree with your convictions. That to me is true community and I am grateful for it at IHOP K.C. I know we aren’t doing it perfectly by any means but hey, I know it’s a good place to be when you begin to long for it when it’s not there. You can long for Jesus anywhere and indeed we should long for Him everywhere but it’s deeply moving when Joe Smoe that you don’t know becomes your best friend after you have prayed together for two minutes. That’s community and I am grateful for it, it is the bond of peace and the unity of the Spirit.

I encourage you to think today about how hard it would be to stay engaged in intercession for 4 or more hours if you didn’t have that guy on your prayer room team that always encouraged you or that girl right next to you that gives you a word of encouragement just because you love Jesus and she felt led to do it. Be quick to speak gratefully today, even about the things you don’t like cause those are the things that really move you forward, either in tenderness or in bitterness, the choice is up to us.

This one’s for Rob V!

A few days ago I wrote a post about the Holy Spirit being our teacher. I was asked to share a few practical ways to enter into a life of fellowship with our Teacher and well, not a whole lot has struck me other than: taking time to say thank you to Him. It is a deep conviction of mine that the only way to stay in a deep, abiding place of union with the Spirit of Truth is to engage Him with truth. Let me give an example. “Thank you Holy Spirit for teaching me about Jesus, I love you, teach me more, show me the kingdom, move me into union with Him.” It’s so hard to sit still for two hours a day and make yourself a contemplative with encounters in fire, levatation, and unutterable ecstasy of Jesus. But, it’s not quite so hard to say thanks for the things that strike you in a day about the person and work of Jesus. I think for begginers, the only way for the deeper life of union (especially in our culture) is short, sweet meditative prayers throughout the day to keep our hearts engaged. After doing this for a few years I have found that those short 30 second prayers that have been prayed 10-15 times a day become longings for time alone with Him in deep and sustained ways. The next issue is actually setting everything aside when your heart begins to be moved for time away with Him and to simply agree with those longings by going away to rest in Him. Now it is obvious that not everyone can just drop life and engage in these times of contemplation when the heart is moved towards Him in it, indeed few can but I have found that the best thing I can do is to let the longing reside by still engaging in the short prayers without rushing away for hours. The temptation here is to get frustrated when you can’t steal away with Him and drop everything. Instead it is a good practice to remeber the longing, say a prayer of gratitude to the Spirit for moving your heart in it and then wait until an appropriate time comes, maybe hours later in the day and then call it to rememberance again when you have finally had opportunity to be alone with Him. This is a positive practice in two main ways; firstly it keeps you longing for more of Him in a continual way throughout the course of the day. What many fail to realize here is that the Spirit is working in them as they long for time away with Him. This bears much fruit in that those who come into contact with you may sense the movement of the Spirit on you as you are in a perpetual longing state. Secondly, it keeps your hope in a steady place as you pray briefly through the day until the longing can be fulfilled at the close of the day when you have the appropriate time and silence to fully engage the desire that has been stirring in you all day. These are just a few practical thoughts on the subject and in no way cover the many and various ways to embrace the deeper inner life. However, I hope they might be of some help to you all as you seek to live the first commandment day in and day out. Amen.

Ode to coffee…

Here I sit in what I believe to be the finest coffee shop this side of ever. It’s a little mom and pop kinda place in the heart of Macon, Georgia and it is the best, The Joshua Cup be its name. Of course I am a little biased cause I use to be a barista here (that means a professional coffee maker for those of you who drink tea). Anywho, I thought I would just take a little time to say how much I love coffee and give you a few FYI facts about coffee in general. Did you know?…

-coffee has been around since the 15th century, at least in drink form

-It was first noticed for its high energy effects by a goat herder who noticed that his goats got really hyper when they would eat certain trees, i.e. coffee bushes

-Coffee is now the most traded commodity in the whole world besides oil

-I drink about 3 cups of coffee a day, how many do you drink?

Ora et labora!

And so I am preparing to leave for the heart of the south, good ole Macon, Georgia. I use to live there for a year and its been a couple since I’ve visited. I am really excited about this lil trip cause rumor has it that this little peach of a city is starting a prayer room. Anywho, I’m goin to check it out, help em out, and eat out, a lot. Georgia has some of the best seafood, deep fried fried foods, and bright red hot dogs. MMM, gut rot city. With all that aside I am really looking forward to some good ole r&r and some deep studies in the word. Contemplation looks to be my best friend this next week as I hopefully move a few feet forward in life, love, and the pursuit of the Jesus. You guys might say a quick prayer for me as I try to expand my support base, if not that’s cool too. Adios amigos!

Post script – I’ll try to write at least a couple of posts whilst I am away but I ain’t promisin nothin now y’hear.

The Church, shifting gears…

    Yes, to those who are reading, this post is about the church, the body, the bride of Christ. With that said I would just like to take this minute to intro my thoughts about it. First off, I am not going to slam the church as it now stands. I know it’s kinda popular right now to say how bad the church is doing and point out all the things that are wrong and what all needs to change, etc. etc. We are all guilty, well at least I am, of being a little negative in regards to the present reality of the church. I had a history of complaining about it, until one night the Lord straight up rebuked me for rebuking the church. Basically He just cut my heart in two on this topic and said, “That’s my wife you are talking about, I know what I’m doing with her and I will have my way.” This little encounter led me to a season of repentance and of really getting a burden to help the bride to come into her calling instead of telling her how ugly she is. In other words, I realized that if I’m not prepared to help her then I have no right to criticise her. Remember, the Lord desires mercy, He longs to be merciful. It’s funny how I can encounter the mercy of the Lord in my life in such abundance and yet not extend it with the same abundance. Sure, I’m not as cool as Jesus but He still wants me to give freely of what I have recieved.

    With all that said, I will now proceed to my thoughts on the church and the season I believe the Lord has us in. It’s easy at IHOP to think of what we are doing as normal, just because we do it every day. And yet we forget that the whole rest of the body does it completely different than we do and that is so cool. But I do think there is a shifting of gears ahead, indeed it is already happening. What I am talking about is the shift from mainstream, big building, lots of programs, Sunday morning as usual Christianity to grassroots, low profile, simplistic gospel living. I think we (the body) are gonna start returning to our apostolic roots. Here’s what I am mean by apostolic roots: fasting, prayer, giving, boldness in witnessing, intimacy between our brothers and sisters, and in general, true fellowship. I think the shift away from the present reality into house churches is looming in the horizon. Obviously I am not saying anything somebody else hasn’t already thought of or said but what strikes me is the speed at which it is seeming to happen. The only question is, why is it happening so quickly, why are people abandoning the mega-church model and becoming more intimate when it comes to meeting together with fellow believers? The answer……prayer! God is awakening hunger and desire in His body to encounter Him in the place of prayer. Let’s face it, there are a few churches out there that have managed to flow in prayer corporately without losing members but hey, it’s just easier to pray with 5-20 people than it is with 200-300. Now this isn’t the only reason but I do believe it is the main one. As I already mentioned, we are coming back to our Judeo-Christian roots, the book of Acts model if you will. There is a need for us to engage our hearts in prayer in a real, tangible way, that just can’t happen as practically in bigger churches as it can in smaller settings. There are those who actually desire to see the Lord move in their midst, be it at prayer meetings, lunches, places of business, whatever. The trend to house churches is not just a trend, I believe its an awakening.

So, to wrap up, I think we are in an exciting season as the fellowship of believers is concerned. I know this is on a lot of peoples radar screens and it’s fun to watch. My only hope is that those who seem to be on the cutting edge of the prayer movement would actually engage the bride in a productive way i.e., by pouring out and into her for her destiny instead of tucking tail and running in another direction. We are all one body and He will have ONE pure and spotless bride. I aim to see that I help with the process, in my own life and in the lives of those around me. Moral of the story: encourage each other into holiness, righteousness, and intimacy, its the only way for true unity and love to grow. We have to touch Jesus first and then we have to help others touch Him. Yes, I think it’s just that simple. Read the book of Acts and then do it. Blessings to you all, He knows what He is doing, let’s set our hearts to agree, Amen?