2020

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The Lord himself goes before you

and will be with you;

he will never leave you

nor forsake you.

Do not be afraid;

do not be discouraged.”

~Deuteronomy 31:8

Hello.

It is January 1, 2020.

Who knew we’d make it this far?

Who knew our heart

would still be beating this long?

God. 

God did.

And for that reason we rest.

And for that reason we trust. 

And for that reason we unclench our fists

and let go of control.

(What are we trying to control anyway…?)

During the past 365 days of 2019

How Many Times

did we get our own heart to beat?

Zero.

We did absolutely nothing to cause it to beat…

Yet here we are.

Here we are.

God has already gone before us

into 2020

and prepared our days.

He has prepared our moments

He has prepared our lives.

He took care of us yesterday

He will take care of us today

He will take care of us tomorrow.

So do not fear.

One of His Names is Jehovah El Roi,

The God Who Sees Me…..

even me.

He is that Big. 

He is that Good. 

Hello New Year. 

Hello 2020.

I need not fear.

God Himself has gone before me. 

Sigh…..

(Thank You Precious LORD)

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The Christmas Story…

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“Let the stable still astonish;

Straw, dirt floor, dull eye;

Dusty flanks of donkeys, oxen;

Crumbling, crooked walls;

No bed to carry that pain;

And then, the child;

Rag-wrapped, laid to cry;

In a trough,

Who would have chosen this?

Who would have said:

“Yes,

Let the God of all the Heavens and Earth

Be born here in this place?”

Who but the same God

Who stands in the darker, fouler rooms

of our hearts

and says,

‘Yes.’

Let the God of Heaven and Earth be

Born Here…”

~Jan Karon

The Christmas story makes no sense to human beings.

Here is not just

A god,

but THE GOD

Who Created The Universe,

Choosing to be born in a barn.

Yet the filthy,

foul smelling,

contaminated room

He chose to be birthed in

Compares not

To the depraved,

nefarious rooms

In our hearts

That He wishes to occupy.

He wishes to dwell in our hearts,

So that we may also

Experience a birth as well.

A New birth of our heart.

Who IS this GOD who does this?

Who IS this God that chooses us?

He is TOO GREAT to comprehend,

work out,

grasp,

fathom…

Who is THIS GOD

And What is His Name?

Wonderful.

Counselor.

Ever-Lasting God.

Prince of Peace.

I AM.

Jesus.

His Name is Jesus…

 

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God-Of-Angel-Armies

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God has many names.

Many  names.

He is Jehovah Nissi,

My Victory.

Jehovah Rapha,

My Healer.

Jehovah Shalom,

My Peace.

Jesus called Him Father.

But lately,

We have needed

The God-of-Angel-Armies.

So that is the Name I cry out to.

We’ve needed a

Warrior God,

A Rush-To-Our-Defense-God,

 An I-Will-FIGHT-For-You-God.

And that is the name I call upon.

Whenever I cry out,

‘Oh God-Of-Angel-Armies come to our rescue!’

He Does.

I INSTANTLY feel His Presence.

Instantly.

We’ve felt such a need for a Redeemer,

For an All-Conquering,

All-Powerful,

Fearsome Warrior,

So I cry out and He is near…

I feel Him by my side…

Yes, the Holy Spirit dwells within me

and comforts me,

But He is also the one that quickens me

with the Name of God that we need for the moment.

And recently He has told me

God-Of-Angel-Armies…

Think of that name.

Lord-of-Hosts,

God-Of-Angel-Armies….

Angel ARMIES…

Mighty to Save…

All-Powerful!

CREATOR OF HEAVEN AND EARTH!!!

Who is like Him?

NO ONE!!! 

Not one single person or thing.

He is Great,

And Greatly To Be Praised.

That is the God I’ve been talking with lately.

That is the God I’ve been walking with lately.

That is the God Who has been showing me

situations, people and things around me

to pray about and to pray for.

He is the same God my mother used to pray to

and her mother used to pray to

and her mother’s mother,

and on and on.

With that legacy behind me

how can I not call out to

The Name Above All Names,

Who comes to our rescue?

God-Of-Angel Armies

is right by my side.

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Beautifully Crushed…

I have a choice.

Because I have a voice I have a choice.

I can choose the easy way with little to no pain

and more comfort,

or I can choose a harder way which produces more pain,

but Character Growth.

~If I had the opportunity to choose what kind of life

I would be given before I was born,

I would’ve chosen a life

where the road was smooth.

Where the path was easy…

I would never have chosen heartache and grief.

No,

I would have planned my life

very carefully and purposefully

with little to no suffering involved…

~Good thing I wasn’t in charge...

The heartache I encountered

actually made my heart softer...

The suffering I shivered thru

gave me empathy…

The abandonment I experienced

made me look towards the lonely…

If you think about it,

the sweetest part of a peach

is actually the part that is bruised.

The bruise produced the sugar…

The crushing of the olive

produces the oil,

and the oil heals…

The oil heals.

How would I know what True Love feels like

without knowing rejection?

How would I know what Peace feels like

if I had never touched war?

I am Grateful for my scars.

I am Grateful for the times

my heart quivered inside me from doubt.

How would I know the Deliverer

if I’d never needed delivering?

  ~Am I through being crushed?

I hope not. 

I pray not.

Is it fun?

Absolutely not. 

But the fragrance that comes from a rose

when it’s petals are smashed

is Beautiful.

And one day,

when I am old and gray,

I want to be the most fragrant crushed flower

that produces healing…

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Choices…

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The Bible says that we will cast our crowns at Jesus feet when we get to Heaven.

This act will be done out of gratitude for what He has done for us during our lives.

But here’s a question for you:

“What if our crowns are not made of jewels but instead

Made of our scars we accumulated here on earth?”

What if the crowns are our own Crown-of-Thorns that showed

How we overcame by the Blood of the Lamb

(Our salvation thru Jesus)

And the Word of our Testimony

(What we overcame with the help of Jesus?)

The Bible says that our thoughts are not His thoughts,

And our ways are not His ways,

But His thoughts and ways are higher than ours. Isaiah 58:8-9

~In other words, what we think is important is not what He thinks is important.

We deem cars and houses important and

He thinks human hearts and souls are important.

So the trials and tribulations we go thru here on earth

Are merely precious jewels of testimonies of how He helped us,

And are viewed thru completely

Different lenses in two different places.

In this life scars caused by trials are viewed with disdain,

But in the Heavenly Realm our scars are viewed as

Breathtakingly beautiful.

The difference is the lens.

The difference is the vantage point.

If we can see HOW God sees, then we would have perfect peace in our heart.

(Perfect Peace is the Peace-that-passes-understanding,

NOT the false peace that we get from the world.)

If we view hardships as God punishing us

And not loving us,

And if we view the rich people around us as

God loving them and blessing them because of their wealth

Then we will forever be forlorn,

We will forever feel abandoned

By our Heavenly Father.

And, we will view God as bad, not as loving.

What is Joy?

What is Peace?

Simple.

Joy and Peace equate to choosing the path of God

And trusting Him,

Even when it doesn’t make sense.

Why?

Because God is Good.

God is Good.

Never forget that everyone here on earth is walking towards some destination. Everyone.

No exceptions.

All of us are walking towards our Forever Home.

Our forever home is not earth,

If it was then we could talk to Abraham Lincoln

And all the others who lived before.

But we can’t, cause their dead.

They walked their journey here on earth,

Once-upon-a-time.

They each took their last breath here on earth

And took their next breath Over There,

In their Forever Home.

We each have had a choice to choose as we stood at the crossroads of life.

Just like they did.

The beauty of us,

The ones who are still alive,

Is we can still choose between two roads.

Our predecessors, who have died,

Can no longer choose…

Some sojourners, as they were walking, stepped off of the hard path

And began skating on the easier path of pleasure here on earth.

Nothing is wrong with pleasure,

But there are two types of pleasure, good and bad,

Just like there are two types of eternal homes, good and bad.

God refuses to be our puppet master, and allows us free-will to choose.

(Freedom-To-Choose.)

The choice is ours.

If we choose to go the more difficult way of the more narrow path of God,

Then odds are good, we will suffer scars, here on earth.

But those scars will turn into crowns in Heaven.

However, if we choose to reject God and go for the easier route here on earth,

Our reward will not be a Crown-of-Joy but instead

A Chain-of-Regret.

And both rewards are results of choices.

And both rewards are Forever.

The Bible says, ‘Choose you this day whom you will serve.’

Bob Dillon put it this way, “You gotta serve somebody”…

If you are reading this there is Tremendous Good News.

~It’s not too late for you.

Each day is a crossroad of decision.

As the new year begins and yesterday is but

A memory-vapor in-the-mind;

You can choose your Forever-Home.

You, like Abraham Lincoln,

(And the rest of the people who have gone before us,)

Will definitely live Somewhere

After your time here on earth is gone.

But it’s a choice, that you make today,

And if you are still alive tomorrow,

You will get the Beautiful Gift of another

Day-of-Choices.

The choice may bring scars with it.

But if you view your scars thru the lens of Eternity,

Than the scar might turn into a crown and

Bring you an Everlasting Joy.

(Smile)

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Far be it from me to not believe…

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Far be it from me to not believe,

Even when my eyes can’t see;

And this mountain that’s in front of me,

Will be cast into the midst of the sea.

~So let go my soul, and Trust in Him,

The waves and wind still know His Name…

~It Is Well by Bethel Music

 

This past week I put out my nativity set

And it was as if I was looking at it for the first time.

The words to the above song were playing

And my eyes drifted to Baby Jesus inside the nativity scene.

As I was looking at the figurine of the Baby Jesus the song played,

“Far be it from me to not believe,

even though my eyes can’t see…

So let go my soul and Trust in Him,

the waves and wind still know His Name…”

Why?, I wondered,

Was it so hard for me to believe at times.

Why?  I pondered,

Did doubt and discouragement hang over me like a dark cloud at times?

~God showed me why.

It is because my foundation was mixed.

My foundation was shaky.

My trust was in half me and half Him.

I trusted that He made the stars and the universe and me.

I trusted my life and my next heartbeat to Him.

But He still needed my help for everything else.

He needed me to be good enough,

He needed me to act right,

He needed me to shape up.

~In other words I was not trusting in Him Alone to save me

I was trusting in His Work on the cross + My works in doing good = God accepting me.

No wonder depression would creep in.

Inside myself I knew I wasn’t good enough to keep me from falling.

I was trying to balance on a man made balance beam and I kept falling.

I could never laugh and dance and jump on my balance beam foundation

Cause I just might fall and crash and burn.

No.

I had to be sober minded at all times,

never relax,

never let down my guard,

for if I did I was a goner.

What kind of representative of Christ was I being

If I am walking around nervous and half smiling,

Fearful of trying to measure up so God will be happy with me?

I have FINALLY come to the conclusion

That no matter what I do or do not do,

my salvation is secure. 

It is NOT about me.

Bottom Line.

~”So let go my soul and Trust in Him,

the waves and wind still know His Name.”

~Today I’m gonna laugh

and dance

and Believe

that It Is Well with my soul.

Not because of anything I’ve done,

but TOTALLY because of what He Has Done.

(Smile)

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Undeserved Love…

Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God

Oh, it chases me down, fights ’til I’m found,

Leaves the ninety-nine

I couldn’t earn it,

And I don’t deserve it,

Still, You give Yourself away

 When I was Your foe,

Still Your love fought for me
You have been so, so good to me

When I felt no worth, You paid it all for me

You have been so, so kind to me

There’s no shadow You won’t light up
Mountain You won’t climb up

Coming after me

There’s no wall You won’t kick down

Lie You won’t tear down

Coming after me.

~Reckless Love

By Cory Asbury  

A while back Manny and I ran into someone we hadn’t seen in a while.

As this guy walked by I nudged Manny and said, ‘Isn’t that so-and-so?’

I almost didn’t recognize him because he looked kinda different…

Manny called him over to where we were sitting and he talked to us.

Very quickly it became clear why we didn’t recognize him at first.

His whole countenance had changed.

He walked into the room with his arm around a woman who wasn’t his wife.

Manny and I showed him Love and Manny gave him a hug,

But we both grew quiet.

We both knew what was going on.

  All day long my heart was heavy when I thought of our friend.

My knee-jerk reaction was anger.

But as I prayed about him the song ‘Reckless Love’ came to mind.

Our friend had wandered away.

He left the ninety-nine.

~I remember a day in my life when I too had left.

I was angry, not at God, but at the people that called themselves Christians.

   They spat at me (But God didn’t)

They turned their back on me, (But God didn’t) 

They spoke condemnation over me, (But God didn’t) 

God didn’t.

No,

God showed me such kindness

God showed me such goodness 

 That I had to come back to Him..

He came running, not walking,

But running after me.

I simply had to crumble into His arms..

How then could I show any less love to our friend?

  ‘Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.’ ~John 8:7

Why oh why do we so quickly forget that it is

God’s Kindness that leads us to repentance?  ~Romans 2:4

‘Even if you think you can stand up to temptation,

Be careful lest you fall’, ~1 Corinthians 10:12

Religion tells us to cluck our tongue at those we see in sin.

It tells us; ‘At least you haven’t done that!’

As if our sins are any better than the other guys sin…

In the eyes of God, all of our sins are equal.

His Great Love for us is not based upon our works,

He knew we could never be good enough

So He stepped down into earth

To walk with us,

To commune with us,

To take the punishment for our sins,

 So that we may be with Him.

He longs to be with us!

He leaves the ninety-nine to run after us.

Jesus runs after us

Scoops us into His arms,

Kisses us

And holds us close to His heart.

Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God

Oh, it chases me down, fights ’til I’m found,

Leaves the ninety-nine.

 

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The ONE that never leaves the one behind…

“If a man has a hundred sheep

And one of them wanders away,

What will he do?

Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others…

And go out to search

For the one that is lost?

~Matthew 18:12

(The ONE searches for you…)

~“But while he was still a long way off,

His father saw him

And was filled with compassion for him;

He ran to his son,

Threw his arms around him

And kissed him.

~Luke 15:20

(The ONE watches for you…)

~“He died not for men,

But for each man.

If each man had been the only man made,

He would have done no less.”

~C.S. Lewis

(The ONE cares about you…)

How do I find the word to tell you that GOD LOVES YOU????

 He tells us in Matthew that God LEAVES the ninety-nine

 to go look for the one…

He tells us in Luke that God watches intently for us to come home,

(And then goes on to say)

That God RUNS to us when He sees us returning.

 God runs…

Not just to the Who’s-Who,

But to you…

To you.

God is the ONE who never leaves the one behind.

 

 

 

 

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Freedom

Someone I know was constantly suffering from headaches.

I would pray for the headaches to go but still the headache remained.

 One day, as I was talking with them, they began rubbing their head again and I asked them if they had another headache,

They said yes.

 Wanting to know why they kept getting headaches, I quietly prayed,

And God revealed the reason.

 My dear friend was getting headaches because they were battling within themselves.  This particular headache was the war within their mind.

 It wasn’t a war of good vs. evil,

It was a war of freedom vs. prison.

 Listen.

 ~When you give your heart to Christ, there instantly becomes a Great Transfer.

 There is a penalty to be paid for disobedience

And Christ willing took the penalty of our disobedience and sin on the cross and exchanged our scandalous crimes for His Beautiful Purity.~

 Ok.

That’s fact,

But do we reaaaally believe it?

 Do we?

 No.

We don’t.

Most of us don’t believe it.

 Most of us know deep within our hearts that we are sinners.

 Most of us know that our sin is ugly and putrid and stinks.

 And most of us walk around with a ball and chain of shame attached to our ankles.

 We know we need Christ,

And we say we accept His forgiveness,

But do we?

Do we really?

 Listen.

 Doubt of God was first introduced back in the Garden of Eden,

When the serpent whispered to Eve,

“Did God Really say that…?”

 We continue the lie by whispering in our hearts,

“Did Jesus Really forgive all my sins…?”

Allllll of them?

 ~This is the battle my friend was battling in their mind.

 They truly loved the Lord,

Yet accepting that God truly loved them,

Sins and all,

Was the war that waged within their head.

 Oh the battle inside their head,

 Oh the headaches that followed…

But truthfully, are we any different from my dear friend?

 Honestly, in all of our finite minds it truly doesn’t make sense.

” Surely,”

(We whisper within our minds and hearts,)

“We must do something to atone for the sin we committed an hour ago.

 Certainly, the forgiveness of Christ couldn’t have covered that one.…”

 “No”,

(We say to ourselves,)

“This one is too big,

This one stretched God’s Grace too far,

So, I must atone for this one myself.”

 “Stand back everyone!”

 (We think),

“I am out of the graces of God,

And now I must take the blows,

I must take the woundings,

I must take the penance for my own sin…”

Even though the prison door is swung wide open,

We refuse to believe it.

 Freedom is for people like Billy Graham,

Freedom is for the good guy….

Not for a sinner like me…

~As I shared what I felt God was showing me with my friend,

I took their hand and turned their palm upside down and opened their fingers.

 I told my friend to let go.

 Let go of trying to work your own penance,

Hands down,

Fingers outstretched.

Release the tension in your mind and head

And Truly Believe that God has paid the price.

 You do not have to war within your mind about your standing with God.

 He has you.

 He had you before you sinned,

He had you while you were sinning,

And He has you now.

 Take a deep breath

And rest in the fact that

Because of Him

You are free.

 You have Freedom.

 It is God’s Kindness that leads us to repentance.

 It is His Unimaginable Love

That loosens the cords

Of tight shame

Around our heads and hearts.

Trust Christ’s work on the cross

For your past,

For today,

And for your future.

 Sit back and relax in His Love,

His Amazing, Amazing Love

And your headache will melt away….

Freedom.

 Beautiful, Beautiful Freedom.

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Sovereign God

Sovereign |ˈsäv(ə)rən|

possessing supreme or ultimate power:

Omnipotent |ˌämˈnipəd(ə)nt|

(of a deity) having unlimited power; able to do anything.

(Sometimes I’ve had a hard time believing God loved me…ok, most times…)

I mean really, really truly loved me.

Think about it.

 Why would a Sovereign, Omnipotent GOD

Give me the time of day,

Much less love me?

If He’s Omnipotent and All-Knowing, then He knows me.

 He knows my screw ups, my failures, my trippings

And every time my heart was less-than-pure..

~I am not and have never been ‘important’ in the grand scheme of things.

 In school I was a nerd,

And even after I’d grown up,

I’d made no great impact on the world around me…

In all honesty,

I hadn’t earned a thing…

Much less the Love-of-God.

When I would hear people say that God loved me

It seemed like a kindly pat on the back.

A condolence.

 A thing to say when all else failed,

And everything else had been spoken.

I’ve said it before when I didn’t know what else to say,

 But did I really believe it?

Yes.

 For them I did.

 But for me?

 Well, that seemed to be a different story.

 Why oh why was it hard for me to believe it for myself?

~ One day I will take my last breath here on earth

And simply slip into eternity to be with God.

 Of that one thing I am sure,

 I am sure because of what He did for me on the cross.

 I believe it.

 I do.

I always have.

 My place in Heaven is only because of Him and not because of anything I’ve done.

 ~That proves His Love for me.

 It does.

 So what was up with my questioning heart?

Why did part of my heart tell me that

 I was low on the totem-pole of God’s love…?

(As I am sitting here pondering it, I think I have figured it out…)

 It’s because of God’s face.

 The Bible says that no one has seen the face of God.

 But I had put a face on Him.

 Honestly, I think everyone does.

We paint Him with what is comfortable

And what is known.

After all, who can comprehend an Omniscient, Sovereign God?

 So I painted Him with an image.

A familiar image.

My image of God for so long was of an angry God.

 I believed that He loved me if I obeyed.

 If I was perfect I would earn His approval.

 But since I wasn’t a stand-out person,

One that tended to be more nerdy than not,

One faaaar from perfect,

I was forever disappointing the Sovereign God.

I finally had to grapple with this core belief.

If God is the God of the Bible,

And not the image that I had placed on Him,

Then I knew I had to either believe it

or not.

 I had to trust He is who He says He is,

or not.

I chose to believe.

 I slowly began trusting that God was who the Bible said He was.

 Little-by-little I would spend time with Him.

 As I would drive down the road,

I would look out the window at the clear blue sky

And tell Him, ‘Good morning’,

Knowing that if He was all Sovereign and Omnipotent

Then He could and would hear my tiny whisperings to Him during the day.

 And so it began.

 My developing and trusting that

God hears me,

And pays attention to me,

And loves me.

 Loves me.

Loves me…even me.

 

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