Noisy Bags

We live in a BIZARRE day...

Good is called bad ...bad is good, especially for the News.

Talent is spotlighted even if the gifted are reprobate or rude.

Character is degraded as old fashioned.

Sluggards are rewarded with entitlement and extended handouts.

The loudest whiner gets the attention even if the whiner is totally ignorant.

Credentials can be purchased or bullied instead of being earned.

Actually depraved men have always done their best to do their worst to get the most from those who do the most to do right.

Frito Lay invested a sizable fortune in a green initiative to make their "plastic" bags BIODEGRADABLE....{ After being lambasted for years as the scourge of the country side,(plastic bags blowing everywhere, mostly from people too lazy to dispose of their trash properly)}. They finally developed a bag that will breakdown in a compost pile in 14 weeks ...when it hit the market here is what happened:

SunChips bag proves it not easy being 'green'
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Noisy bag proves it's not easy being 'green'-- What happens when being "green" also means being LOUD?
In April 2009, Frito-Lay, the snack-chip company, announced that all the bags for its SunChips would be made from plant material, meaning the bags would leave no waste behind. The problem was the new bag had an unusual molecular structure that made it noisy. How noisy?
-- So noisy that people compared opening a bag to the sounds of lawnmowers and jet engines.
-- So noisy that SunChips sales have fallen by more than 11 percent in the past year.
-- So noisy that Frito-Lay has decided to go back to the original packaging on most flavors.
-- So noisy "Face Book" protests started
-- So noisy Frito-Lay Canada offered ear plugs
Frito-Lay says it will continue to try to find better ways to create environmentally friendly chip bags.

Not much different than Jesus' DayWhen there was an opportunity to do right.....

Matthew 9
23 And when Jesus came into the ruler's house, and saw the minstrels and the people making a noise,
24 JESUS said unto them, Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn.
25 But when the people were put forth , he went in , and took her by the hand, and the maid arose.

There will always be noisy opposition against those who choose to love Jesus openly ... those who trust Him for the impossible ... those who chose to love others, instead of using and abusing others.

If you must be a NOISY BAG ...let it rip!

HLFA,

Jeff

Big Nose...Or A Beautiful Ornament

Laying down for a few moments, slightly under and near the Christmas tree, I closed my eyes just briefly to reminisce...Oh Christmas moments long ago, wee little crumb grabbers in total excitement and hope of what miracle might be discovered there for Christmas Morning!

I was actually chuckling out loud over the many funny memories...and it kind of bothered the dog...so she did something she rarely does...stuck her cold wet nose on my ear. (I'm not quite sure of the Greek word I used at that moment, possibly Huerisko) Immediately my eyes flew open, and staring me right in the face was a BIG Golden Nose. AAAAAAUGH! "Hey bub, that's your big nose in a golden globe shaped Christmas ornament" ....woe! ..pretty gross, possibly some golden goobers up there!!

But as I moved back just a little to get proper focus ...the nose disappeared and a shiny golden ornament took its purposely arranged place among the rest of the beauty of the Tree. The most beautiful thing about the tree is not its superficial decor but the underlying message of the hope of a more awesome tree, horribly but purposely decorated with the Body of our Lord and Savior, Jesus. DECORATED FOR US!!

Well in a big way, during this heart quickened season ...we are his ornaments. As people look on and see us, do they find a big gaudy blur that takes His love message way out of focus

OR do we concentrate on the ornaments that clarify faith? Like a beautiful woman below is the focus of the ornaments:

1 Peter 3:4 But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.

Oh to be decorated with ornaments that clarify His Love...not just a big golden nose!

Every Christmas is a little rough on me because I constantly bump into those who won't even entertain the thought of going to a church. Almost always it is because of the gross ornaments that have offended them that they have found hanging off of "Christians" ... pride, power, insult, offense, ignorance, and just down-right seperative rudeness.

It might be a good year to re-decorate our lives for Christ -
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

Great place to start. ...get rid of the "big nose!"

Merry Christmas,

HLFA

Jeff 

Christmas Creation

Do you find your heart during this season... Once finding it, is it...longing...hoping...caring...hoping...longing..............sighing from your inner most being?

Once upon a time, an insignificant group of people sat in the darkness of the cold hours of the night. Like most nights, these people were captured in the longing: The longing for that flash on the horizon that announces that "daylight is coming". The longing for the constellations of Heaven fade into the day; the longing for the true light that begins to melt into peace. Peace that can deliver us from the anxiety caused by the unknown, the unseen, and the fears that creep in with the shadows created by the lesser lights of the night.

THIS particular night...an event would bring a change the way they would look at the skys forever. An event with such majesty that it would tenderize their longing hearts for the rest of their earthly lives. These insignificant people would experience the heavens burst open and eternity would spill forth and out, in full innocence and glory right before their very eyes.

A furious army of eternity's defenders ...would pass through the void, appear in the temporal sky, and would joyfully and boldly announce the Healing of the Eden's breech... "Peace due to God's Will and desire, which would be to all who would receive God's Love Gift, Jesus, who would restore the broken relationship with God and Men".

"You shall find" the "New Borne" Babe...the Alpha...bundled in grave clothes...Alive and resting in a feed trough..........WOW! there couldn't be a more appropriate place for Shepherds to find the food for their longing souls but in the common ground of the familiar...a feed trough.

Our God is so surprisingly and appropriately AMAZING!

He is Emanuel - GOD with us. Able to pay for our sins, able to save us from our sins, able to deliver us from death, able to sustain us in eternal life...and all by meeting us in the familiar.

Right where we are ...take a few moments in the media induced hustle and bustle of this season, get out under the star filled sky ...remember, thank, love and long for Jesus' next burst from eternity...that will call us away once and for all (who love His appearing) into Eternal Christmas, New Creation.

O does your heart long for Him?

HLFA,

Jeff

Stay Real???

Superman got his cape caught in a telephone booth as he tried to fly away. It yanked him back and he stepped on his "Clark Kent" glasses while tearing his cape in the process. Two identities marred. Easy fix ? Oh yeah! ...new cape and new glasses...nothing lost but time; but even that he fixed by flying backwards at the speed of light. No one noticed but him.

NO ONE NOTICED BUT HIM ... HE DID WHAT HE NEEDED TO DO TO RETAIN HIS IDENTITY... HOW DO WE RETAIN OUR IDENTITY IN THE MIDST OF A CHANGING WORLD AROUND US.We all experience successes and failures. How we handle these moments actually can define our identities unless we have a way to reset. Don't allow success or failure make you unrecognizable ..."I don't know who you are!" If that phrase comes your way from someone you love ...BETTER LISTEN.

After a miraculous recruitment of disciples in Luke 5 ... Jesus cures a Leper, a most contagiously infected and rejected individual; covered by his disease, controlled by his disease, untouchable because of his disease ...Cured by Jesus after a very tactile embrace from the Savior. The impossible done, He was now on the public broadcast system (though Jesus said go show yourself to the priest and keep it hush-hush) due to human nature's fascination with Miracles. Jesus did one big one and his fame spread like a wildfire. Success ...what does he do so he doesn't lose his identity? Let's take peek ......

Luke 5:15-16
But so much the more went there a fame abroad of him: and great multitudes came together to hear , and to be healed by him of their infirmities. Jesus' response to the overwhelming success and fame ...He lets it go to His head???? And he withdrew himself into the wilderness, and prayed .

Let's look at what this means through the revelation of the words ..."He retreated back to who He was... in a place void of success, and He communed with the Father".

Whether it be success or failure ...the place to go is to "who we are in Him". Don't sacrifice the integrity of your eternal relationship with Him for a few measly, tasty, temporal crumbs in this fading life.

True Success is found in our relationship with Jesus. Sink your energies into cultivating the most amazing GIFT life on this side of Heaven...Knowing Him and the power of His Resurrection.

Love Jesus Openly because you've retreated to Him in the Solitary.

HLFA,

Jeff

Lost in the Mix

One of the most frustrating things about being a musician is hoping the performance matches the heart.
...The music should carry the message.
... The music and the message should work together to convey the soul of the performer to touch the soul of the listener.

One of the most frustrating things about being a teacher is hoping the lesson matches the heart.
... The illustration of truth should reveal the truth.
... The lesson and the truth should work together to convey the soul of the teacher to touch the soul of the student.

One of the most frustrating things about being a lover of Christ is hoping our conversation (way of life) matches His heart.
... Our life should carry His message of life.
... Our walk and our talk should work together to convey the soul of the Spirit to touch the soul of those we come in contact with.

What causes the message to be lost in the mix: is the perception of "the moment" and what to do with the reality we are facing. 


Get a picture of this snip-it from a Biblical story (below) ...70 years the Children of Israel have been in ungodly Babylon ...free at last and in their own land, they stand before a "new" temple structure ... it is being raised from the rubble of the once glorious Solomon's Temple ... there are two groups of people at this dedication service: The Ancient who had seen the FIRST temple and "the People" , those who had never seen the temple because they were born in Babylon. The Ancient are a mixture of those type of people who hang on to the past and those who rejoice in the day ...the People are mixed with those who cling to the NEW and those who rejoice in the day. .........hear the words that recorded the moment: Ezra 3:12 - 13 

"But many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers, who were ancient men, that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice; and many shouted aloud for joy: So that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people: for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the noise was heard afar off." 


Doesn't this sound a little like the gatherings that we call "Church"? Woe is me songs, Woe is me throngs droning Woe is me statements like "it wasn't like this in the olden days".
People weep because of change, not realizing that He who never changes (because He is always relevant), makes all things new! NEW ...what does that mean to you?

HOLD ON - SOMETHING IS BEING LOST IN THE MIX! 


Maybe Jesus has been lost in the mix ... though we've been unfaithful, we've never been disowned ...yet we act either like spoiled brats who scream when we don't get our own way, or orphans begging for moldy bread in the darkened alleys of a faceless city. Get out of your useless pity party and quit coddling your favorite sin ....rise up and take full advantage of this life abundant He has given...this life of Joy unspeakable with Him. 


Do you feel that it was easier before you came to Christ?(this thought may be revealing) Something is wrong ...and you are not wanting to face it ... Jesus has been lost in the mix of you choices in life. Slow down, simplify, focus on the star, the babe wrapped in swaddling cloth, the celebrated life, the cross, the tomb, the sky, the field....
Focus on Jesus ...He's standing right in the middle of the confusion ...calling your name ... 

Matthew 11:28-29  - Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden , and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 


May our lives make a joyful noise that draws others to Jesus.

HLFA,

Jeff

Incredible Security

21st Century Buzz Words often filter into our everyday lives 

...and then the Challenge comes from the air waves, the shop floor, the CEO office and even the Pulpit: 

"Get out of your comfort zone!" and you will find ???????? 

What ever it is that they say you are looking for, that thing you have always wanted. 

And of course since they are the experts they must know what they are talking about. Right? 

NOT ALWAYS! 

Definition: The comfort zone is a behavioral state within which a person operates in an anxiety-neutral condition, using a limited set of behaviors to deliver a steady level of performance, usually without a sense of risk .

Some of us think that reduction of anxiety and minimizing risk is something that happens when we are IN CONTROL ... others think that the reduction of anxiety and risk happens because we put things in HIS CONTROL.

Earth to brain: SORRY to inform you but we are still here ... not home yet!
Here is a truth to consider - Our faith's firmness is not measured by the reduction of anxiety or by increasing or decreasing the risk.

FAITH COMES BY HEARING ... HEARING BY THE WORD OF GOD ... FAITH IS THE SUBSTANCE OF THINGS HOPED FOR.
FAITH IS NOT MEASURED BUT GROWS BY HEARING THE WORD OF GOD AND BECOMES SUBSTANCE AS IT GROWS.

Why is it that the motivation to get out of the comfort zone always seems to carry fear of being forsaken? If we don't do this or if we do this we could be forsaken...maybe even forsaken by God.

Romans 9:29 - And as Esaias said before Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha.(Isaiah 1:9 - Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.)

Matthew 27:46 - And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying , Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

Hebrews 13:5 - Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have : for he hath said , I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.

"LEFT" Romans 9:29, Isaiah 1:9
(Prophesy of Jesus being forsaken, for us)

"FORSAKEN" Matt.27:46
(Jesus crying out, forsaken, for us)
"FORSAKE" Hebrews 13:5
(Promise to His, to us ..never forsaken).

Give your faith a break from fear of being forsaken ...Hear the fact that Jesus was forsaken for you, and He will not forsake you. Get out your comfort zone ???? Not totally sure what they're wanting me to do but maybe I need to get out of my "fear" zone.

HE hath said -- I will never leave you, nor forsake you.

HLFA,

Jeff

Unseen Riches Are Not Useless, But Lint???

I pulled at and pulled out my pockets to see if it were true;
You know what I mean ...just to prove our poverty to someone else we will show them the true emptiness of the "money-less pocket situation"...
AND WE MAY FIND A SURPRISE AWAITING THE REVERSAL OF THE POCKET MATERIAL.
UREEKA ...(that is what it sounds like --but this is how it is spelled)

Eureka!!! LINT! cooooool!
New Jeans can produce a beautiful blue lint after the initial washing and seems to be an endless supply of it as the days go on.

Oh the power of lint ...
1. Always shared with coins...at the point of purchase.
2. Mixed up in bottom pocket paperwork.
3. We create screens for it in dryers.
4. The dryer balls of it are found everywhere in the LAUNDRY room if we are careless in our house cleaning.
5. Creative people have made artwork out of it?
6. Survival people use it to start rescue and camp fires.

FOR THE MOST PART UNSEEN....
But this unseen stuff can reap havoc if a spark ignites it in a home...
But this unseen stuff has aided in burning down homes....................
UNSEEN STUFF CAN RESCUE OR DESTROY --wow, but .....SO??

Romans 9: 20 -23
20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God ? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
22 What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known , endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
23 And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,

God's plan for the most part works behind the doors of the Heavenly Potter Shop, the Heavenly
Laundry and the Heavenly "impossible" Cafe.

2 Corinthians 4:18 - While we look not at the things which are seen , but at the things which are not seen : for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. 

Since the unseen is so important to Him, it ought to be of prime importance to us. 

Hebrews 11:1 - Now faith is the substance of things hoped for , the evidence of things not seen . 

1 Corinthians 2:9 - But as it is written , Eye hath not seen , nor ear heard , neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. 

Cooperation with God's lint operation becomes the biggest blessing in our lives and the lives of those we touch ....SURPRISE, I LOVE YOU! The amazing power behind something so soft and yet hidden in the bottom of a pocket.

OUR LIVES 

HIDDEN IN HIM 

GIVEN TO REACHING THE LOST 

CAN CHANGE ETERNAL DESTINATIONS 

2 Corinthians 4:7 - But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

Be careful ...this power of the unseen can be very disruptive ... hopefully for ever. 

COOOOOOL ...some more lint .....pray in secret, for your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

HLFA,

Jeff

"Oh My Soul! He Dropped the 'F' Bomb!"

Can you believe it? Old news, but in the greatest country on the planet, our second in command thinks there is absolutely nothing wrong with blurting out a totally disgusting and inappropriate word... some news commentators laughingly called it the "F" bomb. 

I call it "heart revealing". What was this man thinking?

Fiduciary ....Food ...Fat ...Friends .....I DON'T THINK SO! .... slip of the tongue ...rebellious phopaux ...??????? Some even thought it was cool!!!

It probably is far more important to know what God is thinking....

Deuteronomy 32:20 - And He said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward ( REBELLIOUSLY PERVERSE) generation, children in whom is no faith.

Below is a partial descriptive resume for the negative attributes necessary to join their "F" Bomb club.
Proverbs 30:11-14 (pleased don't join this club!)
11 There is a generation that curseth their father, and doth not bless their mother. (Parent dis-respecters and dis-owners)
12 There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness. (Personal Sin & Guilt deniers)
13 There is a generation, O how lofty are their eyes! and their eyelids are lifted up . (Idolatrous Self Worshipers)

It is almost embarrassing but members of this club have infiltrated every area of our lives ...music, TV, radio, movies, magazines, the Net, the market place, business, the office, the church and even our Homes (there - the home - is no doubt the root of the problem).

"Oh, you are such prudes, fuddy dud-dies!"
Why because We always drop God's F-word ...FAITH?

Do the math that is to follow .....
1 heart space with only so much room for Jesus.
1 heart space cluttered by acceptable crud space = less room, and even sometimes, no room for Jesus.
1 heart space torn by the struggle to Love Sin or Love Him = war.
1 heart space receiving eternal truth from His Word = growing room for Jesus = Victory.

Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord ...be turned off by the crud (Sin) ...make room for Him.

HLFA,

Jeff

Breaking News: A Tornado Stole the Fire at a Picnic for the Mute

What a beautiful day for a picnic! ...Gray skies, billowing clouds, ominous thundering sounds in the distance, and debris flying everywhere around the picnic site, BUT EVERYONE IS OK, and NO ONE'S TALKING. The perfect setting for their annual Mute Picnic.

In Psalm 58 there is some amazing insight to God's attitude and actions towards those too quick in announcing their own personal righteousness(attained apart from the love of God's righteousness) but mute when it comes to righteous judgment (attained by ignoring God's love for sinners)... Very scary words like -
The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth: Let them melt away as waters let them be as cut in pieces. As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away : like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun. PRETTY SCARY!!!

What is even scarier is that these people blend into the congregation of the Righteous...you know? (The Saved, the Born Again, His Kids) ...these people are found right in the midst of the assembly of God's people. These "Mute" actually have a contagious affect on the congregation as a whole.

As I was reading this I actually stumbled over this verse like one with impaired vision without his glasses trying to walk through a room of blurry obstacles ...Oh I love it when God makes me think about eternal concepts....

Psalm 58:9 Before your pots can feel the thorns, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind , both living, and in His wrath. Here is a loose but devotional translation of this statement ... Before your large cooking pan can begin to sense the start up heat needed to prepare for a much needed meal --a tornado will come in and remove not only those who are under the firey wrath of God but those who have been revived also. QUESTION ... Without a meal we have what???? ..........hunger. Without meals for a long period of time we have ...........starvation. Nothing available to put in the pot may be evidence of a famine.

Sounds alot like the lives of individuals all across this land ...NOTHING IN POT, TRYING TO START THE FIRE ...a whirlwind of useless activitiy all around them carries away their much needed sustenance from Above. Before they are even aware of the Famine, they are right in the middle of it.

Amos 8:11 KJV
Behold, the days come , saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:

Are we in the midst of this famine?

Micah 6:8 KJV
He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

Matthew 5:6 KJV
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled .

Don't go out like the mute assembly who shut their mouths when something is very wrong in the Kingdom.

HLFA,

Jeff

The Other Room - Beyond

I had a dream I could fly ...I would just take a deep breath, hold it and begin to float into the air ...If I did a little run and jump prior to the deep breath, I could put distance on the flight. It was awesome in the dream ...but didn't work at all once I was awake. Somewhat disappointed as a child, but the older I get I realize the power of being human, really human... In Christ.

Do you know something ???....there is a great gift to be found in our limitations as humans... REALLY.

One of Satan's biggest rip-offs is when he nudges us to believe we can magically do the impossible (this is incredibly tempting for some).

Another masterful lie that feeds our need for pity ...is that we have less potential than someone else ...comparisons kill dreams quicker than anything.

LET'S KEEP IT SIMPLE
Do not be something you are not.- that would make you a fake! Do not try to do the truly impossible.. you would have to fake it.
Be grateful for you ...God made you for full fellowship with Him in Christ ...Your limitations keep you trusting and reaching for Him.
BUT ... Use your limitations to the fullest. HUH?
I did not say.. do not dream: For dreams allow for new possibilities....................... but not impossibilities.

The impossible is God's department and He is wise enough to know when it is time to reveal it to us.
Ezekiel 36:26 - A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you:
and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh,
and I will give you an heart of flesh.

Do you have a tough time with perfect people? God does too ... He resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.

The most awesome thing about our God, while on this Earth, he spent time with the unremarkable of this world. He loved the unremarkable of this world.

My prayer is that the most remarkable thing about me would be my devotion to Jesus, and the things that might be considered remarkable about me by others would be one more avenue of service to others in the King most remarkable ... Jesus. Go ahead and fly ... preferably Southwest or some other air line .... and love others while you go!

HLFA,

Jeff

Into The Other Room - After 5:00 PM, October 12th

2 Corinthians 5 (personalized)

For she knew that if her earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, she would have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this she groaned , earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with her house which is from heaven: If so be that being clothed she would not be found naked.

In the Other Room. 
However, her present room was now filled with so many familiar voices ....faces somewhat familiar would float in and out of her field of vision. She tried so hard to focus on the clock on the wall but it seemed an impossible venture. The hands of this naughty clock would either continue a strange whirling dance or disappear into a blur, while alluding any fixed position. From one of the booming voices in the the room there was an anouncement of what day it was; "like this bit of information held some special significance" .... She would close her eyes and rest awhile...hoping to dream ...of the Other Room. Her rest would be deep, but soon interrupted by the smells, the sounds, the touches, hair stroking, forehead kisses, hand pats, hand rubs, vocal assurances, gentle tear wipes, and soft hugs. These expressions of a caring life were a constant barrage in her present room . In her waking moments there was always a flux of this barrage caused by welcome and unwelcome visitors, whose relentless questioning (without a stable resource for answers), made sleep a welcome retreat in which to escape. Too many challenges to remember "then" when she wasn't quite sure what was "now". 

Right there with her at all times was her constant friend called "Pain", and believe me , she knew this friend intimately. On-lookers could sense her pain while visiting, and not that she wanted them to sense it, but this made many of her visitors face their own mortality. She was very aware of this pain and definitiely had not requested nor requisitioned special supplies to ward off Pain's attacks. This friend was was pressing in on every vital organ in her body. As she was growing more feeble day by day, this friend was growing stronger and more in control of her situation. It was unfamiliar to hear her whining and she rarely complained unless this friend was pressing her mercilessly. This friend would continue to help her focus on things that last forever ... where the clutter of life would be gone and the simplicity of loves overwelming care would be known... soon ... in the Other Room.

She had little fear of this friend named "Pain" for she knew this friend would be her ticket to ...the Other Room. As she began to fail, the reality of the impossible began to flow from the comfort of the Other Room into her life. 

Some of her last brief expressions: "Impossible!" --- "Love people!" --- " I want to follow Him." --- "Do you get it now?" --- "I'm dying!" --- "I love you!"

Here is one of the descriptions of this room that she loved to hear in song form ...look at the words and imagine, fill in the blanks ...these are normal things that we face here but will not be present in the Other Room.

Revelation 21:4 - And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; (from their eyes) .....................

A Drastic change of tear wipers and there shall be no more death, ...............SEPERATION no more
neither sorrow, .............................................................................................MOURNING no more 

nor crying, .......................................CLAMOUROUS CRYING WITHOUT ANSWERS no more
neither shall there be any more pain:

..............................GREAT TROUBLE, INTENSE DESIRE, INSCRUTIABLE PAIN never again
for the former things are passed away ...the First things, familiar things ...are evanescent (fading away like a morning mist), gone. Forever.

This OTHER ROOM is nothing like here and now ... praise the One who has prepared this room for ..........Her and those who love Him too.

Theresa Redding/Lambe walked quietly into the Other Room on Tuesday, October 12th around 5:00 PM our time, to find "All things new in Jesus".

Jesus said : Let not your hearts be troubled you believe in God believe also in Me. For in My Fathers house are many mansions, if it were not so I would have told you. And I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am .. you may be... also.
John 14:1,2,3

HLFA,

Jeff

There will be a memorial service for Mom on Sunday November 14th at 3:00 PM at the Brethren Fellowship, Lincoln Way East, Chambersburg, PA 17201

Shib-aw-thah'-yim...Sevenfold...Again

You don't understand what I'm going through!!

You are right, but it is not me whose understanding needs an adjustment...needs focus ...needs to believe the truth not ignore it just because of your grave disappointment.
Or just because you think you have turned your back on God because you have cried "I Hate You!" (What child hasn't said that to his or her parent(s)?)
In fact your dissappointment with the situation actually has you blaming God because "if He really loved you He wouldn't let things like this happen". (Don't be affraid to face this ...face to FACE)
Go ahead and blame Him ...He is big enough to take it .... He is big enough to not let you go...

It's OK ...He was there during the offense , He is here here and totally in touch with the feelings of you're suffering He's not leaving just because you think you have pushed Him away ...GOD loves His kids more than that! Unless you are not His.

R U HIS?.......Listen closely .."He hath said, I will never leave you nor forsake you!" (Heb. 13:5)
We will throw the "NEVERS" around like we really can control that moment ...no one but GOD Himself can promise NEVER....we will always fail in the "NEVERS" and the "ALWAYS".

R U HIS? ....... And "Lo, I am with you ALWAYS even unto the end of the World."(Matt.28:20)

If so ...R U LISTENING? ......
And then comes the tempter pointing you in this direction: "unless ... I'm just to get over it and move on" (just get over it and move on)??? ..
And here is the place we want to quit: .."I don't know where to start"??? ...

Start by ending the act of making your heart sick (by putting off hope ...dragging it behind you ...instead of letting it rise before you)!

here is where we can walk down a familiar path and see what it was that we missed because "We are not healed!"

"shib-aw-thah'-yim"
Proverbs 10:28 The hope of the righteous shall be gladness: but the expectation of the wicked shall perish . "shib-aw-thah'-yim"
Proverbs 11:7 When a wicked man dieth, his expectation shall perish : and the hope of unjust men perisheth . "shib-aw-thah'-yim" ....
Proverbs 13:12 Hope deferred maketh the heart sick : but when the desire cometh , it is a tree of life."shib-aw-thah'-yim"

God deals in the sevenfold ...His love will meet you at the point of the offense and carry you though ...sevenfold.
Quit stacking the odds against you and trust His "Sevenfold" love for you. NEVER against you ...ALWAYS for you.

HLFA,

Jeff

God's Peek-a-boo

Such simple but wonderful entertainment for hours, days, weeks, months 

...for a baby who first becomes aware of his surroundings, "PEEK-A-BOO !"

... for a toddler who is wobbling from point A to point B,  "PEEK-A-BOO !"

... for a pre-schooler who is able to now run and hide,  "Allie -Allie - Home Free!"

... for an elementary schooler through the teen years who have learned to kick the can or get into a Sardine Can - Get's a little scarey when you are the last one searching ...waiting to have the wits scared out of you by the hiding group of quiet fish. "RAAAAAARRRR!"

...Into adulthood, we seem to think we don't need this game anymore, BUT we are the ones who seem to be most affected by "SURPRIZE!!"
Trusting Jesus has not made us immune to the need for this game ... maybe it has intensified the need by causing greater hunger and thirst for the ever aluding "righteousness" - "the presence of God". 

Have you ever said "God never does anything specific for me" ?  Have you ever felt left out from the blessings of God?
 
Isn't it amazing how we are left to ourselves right before a blessing? What????
 
Read what God has used the writer of Ecclesiastes to deliver to our hearts about the end of our lives:
Ecclesiastes 12:1-7

1 Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth,

 while the evil days (scarey days) come not, nor the years draw nigh ,

  when thou shalt say , I have no pleasure in them;

 
2 While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened , nor the clouds return after the rain (some dark days might be ahead):
 
3 In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble (hands get weaker) ,
and the strong men shall bow themselves (legs don't have the same strength),
and the grinders cease because they are few (teeth start having problems),
and those that look out of the windows be darkened (eyesight starts to fail) ,
 
4 And the doors shall be shut in the streets (more time spent inside),
when the sound of the grinding is low (work is not as important),
and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird (small things will startle you),
and all the daughters of musick shall be brought low (hearing begins to fade) ;
 
5 Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high (fear of falling) 
and fears shall be in the way  (fear of life's activities),
and the almond tree shall flourish (harvest passes you by ..time flys),
and the grasshopper shall be a burden (small things wear you out),
and desire shall fail (you may not even want to eat):
because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets:  --GET THE PICTURE?
 
6 Or ever the silver cord be loosed (graying -white hair?),
or the golden bowl be broken (loss of memory or stroke),
or the pitcher be broken at the fountain (loss of bodily functions),
or the wheel broken at the cistern (heart attack).
 
7 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.
 
It may seem to the disconnected observer that old age is a curse ...but to those willing to trust as a child and see ---
it appears that God is preparing us for the greatest , most wonderful game of PEEK-A-BOO that eternity has to offer
.......ABSENT FROM THE BODY, PRESENT WITH THE LORD.
 
Fear not what is ahead ...
"Peek-a-boo"
Jesus loves you!
 
And just as I was squinting... to see the buttons to push... for the password to the exit door ...........
 
HLFA,
 
Jeff

I looked into the eyes of one in grips of the pain of Cancer; glazed but focused eyes. Like one waiting and not wishing to blink for fear of missing what he was waiting for.

His wife said, "George has been like this for 2 1/2 Days, just staring, not eating, not drinking". "You can talk to him but he probably can't hear you."

I was in my 4th year of ministry after Bible college, and this was my first face to face with someone at the door steps of death. In just a few moments I would realize the value of carrying the Word's of life with me. In the darkness of this night (as a family watching ..their husband, father and grandpa), We would realize the power of the Light that God has put as a treasure to be released from these "earthen vessels". George, in his last moments of life, would hear God's Word and give His heart to Jesus. He would be rescued. That early morning when he would breathe his last breath, he would be alive with Jesus in eternity. George was awakened and strengthen by the Spirit long enough to listen, trust, pray and then he left me with a question in his last words .....

His last words ever spoken on this planet ... never said another word ... went back into his coma like stare:
"BUT WHAT CAN I DO FOR JESUS!"
George's Faith was activated and alive for a moment of his need ...what a timely rescue. There was not a moment to lose. What if Faith had perished in my life? ...George might have been lost forever.

Is Faith perishing in your life?.... Are you totally neglecting the Word of God ... Day by Day ... Week by Week?
Are people blindly walking toward Hell all around you ? People you come in contact with every day?

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE? Bible answer ..."a vapor that appears for a short time... and then vanishes away."

While that vapor is here, is it activating life around it ... is it leaving a life giving dew, a moment of beautiful deflection of the Sun, is it carrying a fresh smell of a New day ...

OR is it the smoke of house on fire ...smoke from a burning auto crash or a burning dump. 

What if you were asked this question by a dying man? What advice could you offer? What ministry could you sign him up for? What creative life could you guide him to live that would glorify God?

Are you alive or do you lay dying? 

2 Corinthians 2:15 - For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved , and in them that perish :
2 Peter 3:9 - The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish , but that all should come to repentance.
2 Corinthians 4:16 - For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish , yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

RISE UP!
WHILE YOU HAVE STRENGTH ...ASK THE QUESTION... What can I do for Jesus?
Don't let faith perish...in your life.

HLFA,

Jeff 

Caught Between Two Breaths

"I read the Bible, BUT" ...."I've trusted Christ, BUT" ..."I pray, BUT"
and then comes the statement that is the sly stealthy killer ...
" It just doesn't seem to change anything."
Change ...everybody is looking for ... Change
And We ALL need a change!

And we will continue to be sucker punched by every NEW PERSONALITY that promises change
because the change we normally desire is so shackled to this life (positions, possessions and power),
that we are fearful to commit our life to a God who will not change ...definitely not for us.
God offers Stability ..."He hath said, I AM the LORD, I change not". "Jesus, the same yesterday, today and forever". "that Rock was Christ"

Here comes a Bible diagnosis for most of our failures in our relationship with Jesus and others.
James 1:8 - A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. Huh?

{ Special note for tender hearted student of the Word of God:The word for "double minded" comes from one compound word in the Greek - transliterated - "dipsuchos" (pronounced dip-soo-koss) .It is the smashing together of the word - for "twice" and the word for "breath of life" or "soul". This "twice breath of life" is like having heavenly things and earthly things in opposite corners of a round room with us teathered by a bungee strap trying to run between them.}

Back-n-forth we go ...tasting, touching, testing to see what will profit us the most, what will give us the greatest pleasure, the most awesome experience....and because of this "double-mindedness" we still can't nail down our commitment to eternity. Always double dipping, always spoiling the relationship with doubt based on indecision and faith clouded by our foolish desire to taste sin. Always swaying, moving, tossing and turning .......................
THIS MOVEMENT NEEDS TO STOP - IT NEEDS TO BE BROKEN! WE NEED TO BREAK!

Luke 7:36 - 50 Tells a story that shows three types of brokenness ...
One we don't need (though God will orchestrate everything to reach and remove this brokenness) hint: study Simon the Pharisee.
One we need desperately (offered by the Saviour) hint: Study Jesus.
and the last we need personally....(please read the passage in Luke to get this story of this brokenness in its fullness) hint: study the woman.

Brokenness 1- The double-mindedness of one who will invite Jesus in for a "personal experience"...this is the brokenness not needed???
Brokenness 2- The Single-mindedness of a Saviour who will stop the world to reach even one sinner ... His Brokenness we need desperately.
Brokenness 3- The broken heart of one who sees their SIN DEBT, the SAVIOUR and their NEED to break from Double-mindedness ...this is what we need personally.

Hear the words of Jesus as He lovingly trys to lead us on:
41 There was a certain Creditor which had two debtors:
the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty.
42 And when they had nothing to pay , He frankly forgave them both.
Tell Me therefore, which of them will love Him most?

Have you clearly looked at your sin debt ...
Have you realized His forgiveness ...
you can be the one that LOVES Him most!!!

Break, before Him,
THEN YOUR LIFE CAN BE BROKEN FOR OTHERS... Here is THE CHANGE!

HLFA,

Jeff

My Ache, Your Ache...UNTIL...My Blessing, Your Blessing

Just wait UNTIL your father gets home!!!
Woe ...I was going to get it, time to work on a case for my defense ....Daddy was coming and his belt would be swinging.

UNTIL ...what an ominous or blessed word?

Paul's loving commitment to the believers in the region of Galatia was extremely personal ..... UNTIL meant he was determined to stay beside them with the same determination a mother has to give birth to her long desired child.
Galatians 4:19 - My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,
Restated: My little kids, I will continue to experience an ache and a life battle similiar to labor pains ...again and again... UNTIL you are allowing Jesus to take His fullest position, annointed as King, within the deepest part of You.

Until, a word to keep me still, to know that it is not over ...Until.
until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ: ---said to those who minister to keep them going.
until I make thine enemies thy footstool ---Said to Jesus by the Father
until the time of reformation. ---Said to Israel awaiting the "change" from doing to done....a welcome to a relationship again, instead of a religion.
until He receive the early and latter rain. ---Said to the Church about Jesus Coming ...souls are still coming into the Kingdom...wait.
until the day dawn , and the day star arise in your hearts:---Said about the fullfillment of His Word in us ....IT WILL COME TO PASS.

UNTIL is my curse because my flesh is weakening(I've seen it in my Mother's dying eyes)

UNTIL is my hope because He is ever strengthening even when I can't see it...(I've heard it in my ever-living Father's Words)
1 Corinthians 2:9: But as it is written , Eye hath not seen , nor ear heard , neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

HURTING?
HOPE!
Until.

HLFA,

Jeff

God, Shaken By A Look?

(I tell myself, all I want to do is be left alone ... why can't people just leave me alone.)
AND THERE YOU ARE ...that gaze ..those eyes that reach into my soul and shake my world.
You don't flinch ...you don't bat an eye ... your expression is constant ... I can't quite figure what is really in your heart as you stare ...
Your eyes are beginning to unnerve me ...your look is beginning to unravel me at the seams ... I'm not worth your time ... I'm not worthy of your gaze.
Stop looking at me that way!
Don't you have anything better to do than to just sit there and stare at me?
How many times have we cried from a broken heart in the darkness of the night because we were convinced that no one in the universe was remotely concerned about our fears, pain, and rejection. HOLD ON A MINUTE CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING!!!

One very important Premise: You are God's Child (IF you are one of those who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ, His death, burial and ressurrection to rescue them and protect them from the penalty of their sin. His blood sacrifice is the only acceptable payment for our sins -- the only payment. If you say you believe in God but don't believe in Jesus, your faith is an immence insult to the Father and doesn't count for a thing. Your faith without Christ cannot save you from the wrath of the insulted Father ... John 3:36).

and As His Child ...

He is ravished by the look of your eye, His heart beats faster for you!
Song of Solomon 4:9 - Thou hast ravished my heart , my sister, my spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck.

He is overcome by your eyes,He is captured by your look!
Song of Solomon 6:5 - Turn away thine eyes from me, for they have overcome me: thy hair is as a flock of goats thatappear from Gilead.
He feels your feelings, He is broken by your broken moments!
Hebrews 4:15 - For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in allpoints tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
He has a book of remembrance and a bottle for your tears, He truly cares!
Psalm 56:8 - Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?
When those we love look at us ...you know the looks! Pain, fear, disappointment, love ....WE ARE TOUCHED; aren't we?

So much more is He!

HLFA,
Jeff

Don't Wake Me Unless...

"Don't wake me up! ... unless you can convince me I'm home" ...Theresa Lambe 8/19/2010 (My mom) "or that it is time for lunch."

Walking through a nursing home for the first time can be quite disconcerting .

People sitting in wheel chairs in the hallways with weird frozen expressions on their faces, lost in time.

Voices saying "Hello" from darkened rooms ... people sitting looking at doors that security has been applied to keep them safe

but also locking them in.

Refugees from a familiar world that has become an unfamiliar enemy that is ever trying to harm them or just leave them forgotten and left behind.

More troubling and stressful might be that ...you find that you are one of the members of this increasingly saddened sunset community.

Don't leave me just yet this is not just a rambling diatribe to convince you to have pity on my elderly Mom or other Mom's and Dad's just like her, who find themselves in their last days in a nursing home ..(though not to minimalize your responsibility to love, pray, visit, and care)... But it is a wake up call to ALERT you to a more insidious plot being carried out by the enemy of creation...Satan.

THIS IS NOT A JOKE!! read this: 1 Peter 5:8 - Be sober , be vigilant ; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about , seeking whom he may devour :

I have yet to find people physically mauled and ripped in pieces ..between 2 peices of bread and sliding into the jaws of a fiery red snarling monster ...drooling with the blood of former victims.

BUT I CONTINUALLY MEET PEOPLE WHOSE SOULS HAVE ALL BUT BEEN DEVOURED, RAVAGED, AND EMPTIED.

Their breath of life has to be facilitated by shallow temporary stimulants. Their personal happiness is heavily dependent on temporal pleasures and depreciating possessions. Their hope of a better life is built on nothing less than impossible odds and marketing ploys. When all is said and done ...life gets darker and sadder with no desire to AWAKE ... PLEASE WAKE ME... 

When life narrows down because of age or illness ...it is amazing that the question of "What is next?" Can be simplified and/or clarified by asking ourselves

WHAT HAVE WE DONE WITH JESUS?

He that believeth on the Son has everlasting life, but he that believeth not the Son, shall not see life (not now not ever) ...but the wrath of God abideth on him. John 3:36

For those who Believe ...Hang on for the next one ...this is it.
Psalm 17:15 - As for me,
I will behold Thy face in righteousness:
I shall be satisfied ,
when I awake , with Thy likeness.

The Hebrew word for awake is pronounced "koots - and means: to awake, wake up, to awaken, arouse, show signs of waking, "awake" (like wide-awake) - its primitive root is identical, "koots" but means --- "spend the summer" ... with the thought of waking up and finding it summer. WEIRD? ...not really. Get some potato chips and munch on them for a moment and think about the following final thought: Summer Vacation with Jesus forever!!! My summer home forever ......home forever .....forever home with Him ....forever Summer.

HLFA,

Jeff

Wow You Have Changed!!!

The surprise of finding someone we haven't seen for years ---Sometimes unbelievable --- Sometimes a royal guffaw --- Always brings back memories.

via facebook I received this message (that has been altered so as to disguise the author) with a few verbs left out, not to rob you of a blessing, but to not pat myself on the back:

"You would be surprised how much I've changed. Very much the same stubborn, red head I've always been but my ideas & opinions surprise a lot of people who haven't known me for a while. Lol! When I saw you on here I couldn't believe it was really you.

BAD CHANGE ???? Plow on without any consideration of eternity and the connection to life through Jesus --- making our own way and ignoring that He is the only Way.
Romans 1:23 - And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creepingthings.
Romans 1:25 - Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator , who is blessed for ever. Amen.

SURPRISE CHANGE ????Those who have turned to Him for protection and refuge from Sin and its consequences will be pleasantly surprise in this moment.
1 Corinthians 15:51-52 - Behold , I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep (die) , but we shall all be changed (Raptured) 52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound , and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed .

SPIRITUAL CHANGE ????Letting the Word of God become our daily passion and companion gives us the opportunity to experience His Glory day by day.

2 Corinthians 3:18 - But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, evenas by the Spirit of the Lord.

Meta-morpho --- to change with or because of an influencing form and to an influencing form ....HOW ARE YOU CHANGING??????

You are influenced and you will influence .... is Jesus that main influencer????? HOW? WOW?

HLFA,

Jeff

When Grandma Goes To Court...We All Have A Vantage Point

It is important where you are sitting ...but you will always be missing something, and someone will always see something you've missed, no matter where you sit.

This is an inherited feature of our human life ... the strong desire to have omnivision and thus to be omniscient. .... Satan Qued us to our weakness in his words to Eve "Gen. 3: 5 - For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened , and ye shall be as gods, knowing (Yada) good and evil." (Having the insatiable desire to determine what is right or wrong) . This reveals HOW we more than always miss the mark ...SIN. Since I can't see everything at once and know everything at once than I will selfishly grab on to my conception of "MY SELF" and rely on IT to guide me through this life ...Que Sera Sera(Whatever will be will be). THIS IS BASIC IDOLATRY 101.

This is why the scriptures (by the way ... GOD's WORD ...the Bible -- just in case you have an issue with this, I DON'T) describe us all this way ... Romans 3:10-18,23

10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
11 There is none that understandeth , there is none that seeketh after God.
12 They are all gone out of the way , they are together become unprofitable ; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
13 Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit ; the poison of asps is under their lips:
14 Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:
15 Their feet are swift to shed blood:
16 Destruction and misery are in their ways:
17 And the way of peace have they not known:
18 There is no fear of God before their eyes.
23 For all have sinned , and come short of the glory of God;

God sees, knows and reveals the truth about us ......What we do with His perspective determines not only the way we live but also the way we see others...and ultimately determines our final destination ...not by what we do but whom we have believed ...our "my self" or God, Himself.

Sorry if where He sits, threatens you ... but He did love us first. What do you lose in trusting Him?
Matthew 16:25 - For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

Check out the picture below...laugh...but see how it applies to this subject...what subject?

HLFA,

Jeff

Take 2 - Do We Really Want to Hear God's Answers?

Question 2 in Lamentations ...Lamentations 2:1 How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, and cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel, and remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger!

Does God forget? Does He remember not? Here is the question restated with a little different vantage point ......listen and hear what is being said:

How, O how has the Lord, Adonai ...WHY???????
...beclouded the young daughters of ZION ("the parched place") , beclouding them in his breathing-Anger,
(and How has He)
...hurled down...the glory-beautiful splendour- honor -and renown of Israel ("God Prevails") from all of His Heavens(sky, universe and eternal) to the ground'
(and How has He)
...made no remembrance of the place to rest His feet in the duration of His breathing-anger?

.....FAST FORWARD .... "My God, My God ...Why has thou forsaken me?
The habitual race forward ... ever pushing to get my desire regardless of the consequences ... prone to choose what I want over what He wants. Even when pushing beyond the limits jeapardizes my wellbeing and place me in peril.
"My God, my God ...Why hast thou forsaken me?
While I was writing through these thoughts ... a call from outside came to my ears ...and again it came ... "Jeff, come quick, a small bird has his head caught in the feeder." Pulling on my shoes and gloves (not knowing what I was about to find), I raced outside to answer my wife's call. Sure enough, a small bird had his head stuck in the bird feeder, body limp and bloody on the outside of the feeder and head(unknown condition) on the inside of the fogged cyclinder. I gently wrapped my hand around the small body hoping that was all it would take ...BUT IT COULDN'T BE THAT EASY...stuck to the max. Pulling more would probably end the bird's brief life. Then I thought ... opening the top of the fogged cylinder I could see his little head way down at the bottom of the narrow cylinder, cocked to one side and wedged firmly in the jaw of the "metal" feeder opening. If only I could reach him!! ... unfortunately my hand cannot contort that narrow distance ... SOOO I sat the feeder on the ground, took a long straight stick and gently moved his head into the wider portion of the feeder opening. Immediately he popped out and brokenly fluttered into a nearby bush. Not even a look back to say ...Thanks!

The bird had overextended himself, reaching for what he desired that was not there(the feeder was empty), wedging himself fast ...totally at the mercy of whatever or whoever came along. It could have been a predator but instead it was MERCY. What a great momentary illustration of God's love!

And while we were yet over-extending ourselves into the perilous position of having God as our enemy, CHRIST DIED FOR US.

We should die for our foolish over-extensions, but He died in our place.

Lamantations 2:1 .... How is this happened? read way down in this chapter ... there was a grave mistake by those who should have "discovered or uncovered the iniquity of the nation....and now God was the enemy.

APPLICATION?????? Let me know. Hint: A Parched Place was in much need of a Prevailing God.

HLFA,

Jeff

When God Asks Questions do We Look for His answers?

DO YOU EVEN WANT OR CARE TO KNOW THE ANSWERS WHEN GOD ASKS THE QUESTIONS? Oh, by the way He does't ask the questions to get the answers from us ...He asks the questions to get us to look for the answers from Him. He wants to get answers to us. ...Wierd...That's why many of the questions from Him are in an exclamative form. Look carefully below:

Lamentations1: 1 How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary! DO YOU NOT WANT TO ASK HIM HOW?

woooooooooooooooooe wait a minute, asking "how" will mean you'll have to read on, it may mean you have to dust off that Bible, open never before opened pages, and it may mean you might get touched by His burden....and we wouldn't want that. Poor Mose's!! touched by the burden of God, glowed in such a way that it was almost embarrassing because it made him uniquely different. "Hey Mose's please keep the bag over your head!"

Most people I know don't mind being different if it makes them popular ...but that may not be the case if the difference is a passion for His answers in your life ....You could end up being a little strange in a rebellious world.

LET's look at the questions and see if they cause a holy curiosity for His answers to the questons:

How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people!
(Isolated, seperated, alone ...empty ....facing seperation, isolation and loneliness......HOW ...WHY????)

How is she become as a widow!
(widowed, forsaken as a widow, abandoned by the love of her life ......HOW ...WHY????)

(She that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces,)
How is she become tributary!
(Enslaved, forsed into gang-labor, serfdom, working off an unseemingly, unending debt....HOW ... WHY????)

In racing to Lamantations chapter One to find the answers, the plot will thicken, the picture will grow more broken and heavy ...you must press on with each aweful picture of pain, each embarrassing family portrait, each tear stained word, and continue asking WHY? HOW? ...the answers that are obvious actually have more subtle and dark incidents attached to them. Find them grieve over them and .....

GUARD YOUR HEART!

"There go I and You, but for the Grace of God."

If you get the time see if you can find His answers ... the pictures presented are shockingly are much like our situation today.

Pray for our families, friends, churches, leaders, and Country.

God help us if we don't look for His answers.

HLFA,

Jeff

CONFUSED?????....

"Hello, I'd like to introduce you to my Father and his, well my stepmother... but not really, they aren't married, she is his girl friend but they live together ... sooo, I guess you can call them married??? Right???Can I say she is my step mother???" "My real mother, divorsed my father because they both had affairs and they thought it would be best for me if they didn't fight .....blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah
Daniel 9:8 - O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against Thee.
1 Corinthians 14:33 - For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.
James 3:16 - For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.
Jeremiah 3:25 - We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covereth us: for we have sinned against the LORD our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even unto this day, and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.

NO BIG Story ...NO BIG Song and Dance ... LISTEN!!!

We seem to never think of it this way ....but we have all heard it .....bottom line; when we choose to do anything that GOD says DON'T....We sin (first and foremost) against Him, and until we see this ... true repentance and confession never happen. When will we realize that Sins are not just isolated bad decisions or wrong choices BUT that our SIN is in direct disobedience to God Himself.... Get it and there is a new start ahead, miss it and continue in confusion ...watch confusion multiply, watch confusion spead like an airborne virus.

Family, friends, children and strangers around you will begin the lose their balance and fall into confusion also...while they begin to make excuses for you and then excuses for their sin also.

We can be free from confusion ... by following the next simple instructions:

It has to start somewhere with someone so why not you?

"If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness" I John 1:9

"There has no temptation taken you but such as is common to man, but God is faithful, He will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able, but will with the temptation make a way to excape that ye may be able to bear it." I Cor. 10:13

"And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ". Col. 3:23-24

Spare those you love the confusion you cause by sinning against God.....OBEY RIGHT AWAY!

HLFA

Jeff

What is it With Our God

Micah 7:18
Who is a God like unto thee,
(God, EL, Jehovah, Jesus --- the one true God ... uniquely unlike any other)
that pardoneth iniquity,
(that lifts, bears up, carries away our perversity, depravity, iniquity, and guilt)
and passeth by the transgression
(passing over our rebellious transgression to alienate us from it by carrying us away from it)
of the remnant of his heritage?
(we, though rebellious, are the residue of His possession)
he retaineth not his anger forever,
(He doesn't resolve to strengthen his wrath (though justified to do so) continually)
because he delighteth in mercy.
(because the core of His pleasure is to extend goodness, kindness, and faithfulness)

Do you think we'll ever be able to grasp the heart of this passage? Why do we always seek to discredit God? Why is He the focus of our disappointment? .......quick answer to follow:

Here is standard operating proceedure for 99.999% of those who call themselves believers ...we view God through our circunstances and measure His goodness by our momentary happiness. We rarely treat his word as absolute and His love for us as unfailing and eternal.

WE MISS THE OPPORTUNITY TO ENJOY HIS GOODNESS BECAUSE WE CONTINUE TO QUESTION HIS INTEGRITY.

HLFA,

Jeff ....Trust Him, there.... is life.

So Close and Yet so Far

Pre-story to set the stage. (and the crowd pulls their pillows into position ...Oh Boy, oh Boy a widdo story!)

My awesome brother Jerome, takes part in my devotional life by sending a verse a day to my Blackberry. I stop read, reread or recognize the text from memory . Lately it has been from the book of Proverbs and he sent Proverbs 23:23 (Thursday )and it read strangely on my Blackberry like this:

"But the truth and do not sell it, also wisdom and instruction and understanding," Do you see anything strange here?????

I responded back with this ..."The problem is found in the slip of the text finger ... BUY not but. Check the next HLFA".

So that you are not too awe fully cornfused, the actual verse (which he re-sent today with the correction): "Buy the truth and sell it not." not BUT the truth.

What is cool about the slip up it reveals the basic reason we - don't hear the voice of God, don't see the miracles of God, and don't enjoy the will of God.

WE CONTINUALLY "BUT" THE TRUTH INSTEAD OF BUYING THE TRUTH.

The bottom line meaning of buying the truth is ...to get, acquire, create, buy, possess!!!

to get, acquire, obtain

... like God originating, creating, redeeming His people to be the possessor .......an ultimate price was paid...covered in righteousness... resulted in Life.

... Like Eve desiring to acquire knowledge and wisdom to be the possessor .......an ultimate price was paid...covered in selfishness... resulted in death.

GOD speaks and we don't buy it ..."but He couldn't mean it could He?"

reminiscent of the words of the deceiver in the garden ...but God couldn't have meant you shall surely die... He knows when you eat the fruit of this tree that you will get to be the decision maker just like Him. But He couldn't mean "You shall surely die".

Instead of fervent following after and seriously acquiring all the truth He will pour our way ... we "BUT" in disobedience ...we want to call it disbelief ...BUT really it is disobedience.

O that there were a heart in us ... that we might give all our energy to acquire His truth ...instead of BUT....

"But" is usually followed by "nothing" ...when we respond to BUT WHAT? ...so sad when He wants to give "All things" ...we will "but away" until we have nothing.
2 Corinthians 4:15
For all things are for your sakes,
that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.

2 Corinthians 9:8
And God is able to make all grace abound toward you;
that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:

BUY though, don't BUT,

HLFA,

Jeff

There is Always a Way Out!

"Character" has been defined as: "doing right by reflex".
Don't you just hate those Movies and TV shows where the camera plays the villian, and sneaks up on the hero in the shadows,( while the music is queing you but not the Hero that he is about to GET IT) and then womps him over the head with a gun or weird object that comes out of mid-air?

I just want to rip off the front of the TV screen, reach in, grab the hero and shake the living daylights into him.

"Hey stupid! Can't you see what I see?"

Then I realize this is the way most of my life rolls ...the more independent I grow from fellowship ...the further I move away from a potential rescue by a brother or sister; And the more anemic my personal ministry becomes because I put myself out of reach to rescue.

Have ever noticed that it is so much easier to sin when (you think) no one is watching.

2 Corinthians 6:14: Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? Fellowship with Believers.
Ephesians 5:11: And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.Fellowship in Spiritual ventures.

1 John 1:6-7 :If we say that we have fellowship with him,
and walk in darkness,
we lie , and do not the truth: Fellowship with Him NOT sin.
But if we walk in the light,
as he is in the light,
we have fellowship one with another,
and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. This is the way out!

Remember, Although Character is doing right by reflex ...your fellowship has a big part in developing your character...."Love one another!"

HLFA,

Jeff

DISTORTION - Enigma

SO you think you are smart enough to fly solo?no time to pause to hear from Him, the Bible that was over there on the counter has walked away to an unknown hiding place ... Oh! there it is ... but look at the time??? How time flys and I've got so much to do.

Think you're able to sort through all the "air wave babble"Radio, TV, IPOD, Billboards, People Chatter, Gossip, Stereo "all-a-blaring Ready to rock! and still come away with pure thoughts, pure motives and reasonably pure actions?even though my mind is so cluttered with all the "crap" being jammed into my senses ...NO FILTER ...NO CONTROL ...NO SHUT OFF VALVE ... EYES AND EARS WIDE OPEN.
OPEN TO WHAT ...DEFINITELY NOT HIM ... though possibly willing and longing..... We really don't understand our terminal condition...

We have Spiritual Myopia w/ terminal distortion! 

1 Corinthians 13:12
For now we see through a glass, darkly * ; For at this present, moment by moment, "NOW" ...the perception of our vision is enigma-tized as one staring into a crudely polished steel mirror.... our perception without His Reception only creates more and more unanswered questions.

Web definitions for myopia  

(ophthalmology) eyesight abnormality resulting from the eye's faulty refractive ability; distant objects appear blurred

"DISTANT OBJECTS APPEAR BLURRED" ....this is the reality... we desperately need His lense ...HIS WORD... until the cure is either introduced via a trumpet or a still small voice that says "Come on Home!"

but then face to face:
now I know in part; (at best)
but then shall I know even as also I am known .

I can't do this without Him ... what about you?

HLFA,

Jeff

God Doesn't Throw Away People

Wild day to be alive!!!! ...."Because iniquity shall abound, The love of many shall wax cold" ...this is a strong prophesy... people will use people more and more UNLESS THE WORD OF GOD IS DWELLING IN THEM RICHLY ...we will be caught up in PEOPLE ABUSE too. UNLESS THE WORD DWELLS IN US RICHLY Matthew 24:12 And because iniquity shall abound , the love of many shall wax cold . Babies in garbage cans, Active kids shackled by perscription drugs, many tender minds raped by porn, the family unit stripped of dignity, humanistic dogma being pounded into students, citizens blinded by media that has been ransacked of integrity, anti-faith becoming the new religion ... people are disposable ...people are in the way ... "move over or I'll run you over!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

This is why parents are used by children and children are abandoned by parents and parents are dispised by children and children loath their parents and parents are abandoned by children .......on and on!

GET REAL CHILDREN OF THE LIVING GOD!!

the abuse stops with you ...in His Word? on your knees? before His throne.......daily, moment by moment ....every day a holy day ...wholly His.

WARNING .... the words you are about to read should be taken deeply to heart ...into your heart of hearts.

Those who were to be the ones with spiritual insight, those who were to infuse the truth in a way that would cause God's Love to grow in His people, THE LEADERS, THE FORTH TELLERS, drawing from the Word to draw the people closer.
LIARS
Ezekiel 13:19 KJV
And will ye pollute me among my people
for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread,
to slay the souls that should not die ,
and to save the souls alive that should not live ,
by your lying to my people that hear your lies?

Have you ever been spiritually assaulted??? Spiritually Abused? Wounded by a person representing the Word?

Jesus said,"Offenses would come!"

You may have been hurt, but the offender carries the "Woe of God."

Ezekiel 13:19 teaches that the motive for this type of abuse ... is for gain of things that perish.

1.Rise up and don't let a "crumb grabber" ruin your life.

2.Don't be an offender.

3.Don't be a liar .....

4. BE A PEOPLE LOVER for the sake of the Gospel of Christ.

God's speed to you who will live openly in love with Jesus!

HLFA,

Jeff

From the Beginning it Was Not So

In general, it has been a strange week for friends and family. Stunning medical rescues, families at odds, couples walking different directions, a constant stream of lies like flies ....everywhere a nuisance. Stupid hurtfully selfish decisions everywhere. Just painfully pitiful personal reports (as if it wasn't bad enough in our nation that we had to beat at the very core of our love and strength) one right after another. GOD, WHERE ARE YOU IN THIS?

It keeps coming like a severed artery ----Unfaithfulness ....trust issues....fear of loss....fear of the unknown ....hope started and then thrashed without remorse.... pride puffed to proportions of near explosion ... lies ...lies ...lies.

I think I have it somewhat figured out!!!!Although this story is about questions about divorce ... I'm not necessarily choosing it for that part of the context BUT let the chips fall where they may .....But I chosen it for the last line in this verse, where Jesus risks all and unveils his heart.

Matthew 19:8
"He saith unto them," (Pharisees - from the Hebrew word meaning to make distinct, clarify, distinguish, seperate,to declare ....at one time a sect of the Jews that were dedicated to distinctly declaring the Word of God, declaing it as distinctly true ....but they forgot that there was a distinct HEART behind that Word --- alot like fundamental believers of today)
"Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives:" (our hearts, not seeing His heart, will become like their hearts, "your hearts" HARD
...... HARDNESS - (Greek)Sklerokardia - Skleros: harsh, hard, stiff, rough, violent, offensive, intolerable --and Kardia: heart, seat of the emotions, attitudes, center of motives and decisions. Here is a wierd idiom from this word - "Stiff-legged-heart".
"but from the beginning it was not so." This is our Lord pleading ....you are trying not to listen .... it would be so much easier to give up, give in or what ever to make the pain go away ....even if but for a moment. Stop your ears but now you hear the thump of your impatient heart.

DON'T GIVE IN to the out side pressure that wants you to DO IT YOUR WAY and GET IT OVER WITH.....

Someone is not looking at the heart of God... either by ignorance (and it is not bliss) or by stubborn perception.

If this is getting anywhere near your heart ....fall to your knees(in your mind if that is all you are capable of) ...and listen to HIS HEART in His Word ...quit your wandering, wondering way ...His is the only WAY,

His way is the only Truth, His way is the only LIFE, His way is the only way of peace.

What ever you need ... he can supply ...trust HIM.

He sees your tears.....His heart usually goes against the tide of so-called righteous opinion.

"thy Will(desire) not mine be done".

HLFA,

Jeff

Don't Speak to Me Anymore!

This is a quick lesson in how to be politically correct:

1. Don't listen to Fox News or Talk Radio ...all those people are morons and liars.

2. Vote "party" not conscience...(it's probably defiled anyhow ...both!)

3. Believe everything you hear on CNN, MSN, NBC, CBS, ABC and any other station that is more favorable toward socialism than individual freedom.

4. Think green, buy green, eat green, and believe in Climate change/Global Warming ... stop ozone depleation, hold your breath ...it stinks too.

5. Save the whales, sea slugs, seals, any endangered species ...but kill babies.

6. Free Enterprise and private ownership, is wrong ... taxing the rich, eliminating the Middle class and redistribution of wealth is right.

7. The Social Gospel is right ... the Gospel of Jesus influences hate crimes.

8. Do not be conservative because most conservatives are just uneducated "hicks" and "racists".

9. Whatever you do keep your faith to yourself ...it might offend someone.

10. Ignore History, our founding Fathers, the Constitution, The Bill of Rights and any source of Patriotism...and Christian-Judeo thinking.

ENOUGH!!!
Shift your brain to the right for a moment and pull it out of the mire of the day! Leave the fake utopia for a moment!
HEAR HIS VOICE --- Proverbs 25:5 - Take away the wicked from before the king, and his throne shall be established in righteousness.

Let Him Establish His throne in your heart!
HEAR HIS VOICE --- Proverbs 14:34 - Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.

Let the Exhaltation (promotion) in your life come from the Righteousness of God.

Heb. 12:19 - And the sound of a trumpet, ------------{call to action}

and the voice of words; ----------------------------{specific orders}

which VOICE --------------------------{face the Commander}

they that heard intreated (begged) that

the word should not be spoken to them any more:_____real scarey, dangerous attitude that is so prevalent today.

Don't be like so many in our society today who (if the opportunity arose) would say...

"God, I don't want to hear Your Word..any more!" "What does the Bible got to do with it anyway?"

Selah....

HLFA,

Jeff

Warning: Stolen Identity??

Current Alert: My Identity Was Stolen,

and I hope yours was too....WHAT?

Sounds like a morbid blessing or an obvious curse. In our current state of affairs (in the Land of the Entitled and Home of the Afraid) .... we hear daily news of people's identities stolen via the Internet ...unseen predators via digital stealth, robbing away years of hard-earned livelihoods in a micro-second.

ALTHOUGH this is a travesty,

there is a greater nightmare ..

NOT HAVING MY HELL-BOUND IDENTITY STOLEN ...

Oh! By the way ...your eternity is up for grabs if your Hell-bound, lost identity has not been stolen away via the Cross of Jesus, His empty tomb and His bodily ressurrection that carries that lost identity beyond the reach of Hell's unseen predators. By faith in Christ's finished work on the cross, we have a new identity that is secure in His Eternal identity protection plan(John 3:16 - John 3:36 - John 5:24 etc.). The greatest enemy to God's plan for is PRIDE ...which will manifest itself in the ASSUMPTION that I must be a Christian because ....(then comes the string of frail or flabby reasons that have nothing to do with a turning point in our lives ...where we saw the seriousness of our sin, saw the penalty was Hell forever, saw Him as our only hope, and trusted Him to save us ) Any answer other than JESUS will fail us. I don't have to assume anything if I've taken Jesus at His Word and TRUSTED HIM for my eternity.
Romans 6:6 - Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed , that henceforth we should not serve sin.
2 Corinthians 5:17 - Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away ; behold , all things are become new.
Ephesians 4:22 - That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;

STUFF HAPPENS WHEN MY OLD IDENTITY IS STOLEN AND I BECOME SECURE IN THE NEW ---- Eternity encompasses my living ...I live in light of the vanishing point.

Have you trusted Him to steal your old lost identity?

LIVE LIKE IT!

HLFA,

Jeff

Scrap the Cross...There Has to be Another Way!

You know, the more I stand back and look at the gatherings that are called "church" , the more I wonder if we have set the old rugged cross away in relic container where we pull it out some times as a last resort to ward off evil spirits or to bolster our position. So much comparison ( My cross is bigger than yours!)and so little compassion (Let's kneel together!). So much fellowship is based on common complaints (Whine about the cost) instead of Christ-like companionship (Win the lost). THE CROSS HAS BEEN WHITE WASHED ...GUILDED WITH GOLD ...HUNG ON A CHAIN ... BE-DAZZLED... GLAM-I-FIED ...

...and not just physically.

The cross in this jewelry-like form has been added to the pile of powerless religious objects only to be worn if it is appropriate for the occasion. Similiar to what has happened to the cross in so many of our lives ...to be lived only if there is an obvious gain for our livelihood.

DO YOU TRULY REALIZE THAT

The Cross of Christ was the place where the penalty of sin, demanded by the law, was satisfied once and for all...for ALL who believe?

DO YOU TRULY REALISE THAT

The Cross of Christ was a heinous display of human cruelty and suffering and the participant died? HE DIED FOR AND BECAUSE OF YOUR SINS?

DO YOU TRULY REALISE THAT THROUGH FAITH YOU JOIN HIM THERE?

GALATIANS 2:20 "I am crucified what goes on a cross is not coming back unscarred or alive

....to stake ... drive down stakes ... to fortify with driven stakes ... to palisade .... to crucify ....to crucify one ..... to crucify alone with ... death.

with Christ: nevertheless I live ; I move and breath and have real life ...free from the curse of the law??

yet not I, what in the world am I ??? but Christ liveth in me: from the empty tomb to fill an empty heart ....

and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God Do I?, who loved me, and gave himself for me".

NOW HOW SHOULD THIS AFFECT OUR LIFE and OUR LIVES TOGETHER? IS THERE TRUE JOY AND LIBERTY TO BE FOUND WHEN CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST?

HLFA,

Jeff

Purity You Can See Through...Where We Will Walk

There is a world that is so dead to the following concept. There is a Church that is dying from ignorance of the following subject.

DANGER DON'T READ ANY FURTHER >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>TURN YOUR HEART AWAY!

"Thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven"...Whose will? whose desire? is to be done

You're going a little too far ...stop now while you have the chance!

Revelation 21:21b ...and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.

And the Broad Way of believers' new native city (homeland) was purified gold as it were tansparent, like glass that brings light through it.

Here is a thought to be consumed by ...to control your actions and reactions, your platitudes and attitudes, your emotions, promotions and demotions.

Does the "Broad Way" I walk today ... bring light though my life that let's those around me know that my homeland here... has merged with my Homeland there?

Heaven's Broad Way is increased in its value due to its transparency to light ....

Choice of desire: Allow His light to be brought through you and increase your value

or live like a pulled down blind and shout "closed" for business.

READ God's Word Believe without hesitation JOYFULLY radiating His light through you.

HLFA,

Jeff

What if it Doesn't Work Out the Way I Want it To?

Thy will be done.
Doesn't it make you sick to your soul that most "Christians" live like obnoxious spoiled little brats, holding tightly to what they think they own of the Kingdom ??... (a very disruptive attitude of) it's "mine and don't mess with it!"

We actually touched the following verse briefly in a Wednesday night Bible Study ....didn't stay there very long but I couldn't let it lay dormant until I looked a little closer.

Matthew 11:12 And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom(authority) of heaven(the heavenly realm) suffereth violence , and the violent take it by force .

It ? The Violently forceful carry it off by force just to carry it off by force. "UNTIL NOW"....

There is something out of balance and out of step with a life the uses the Law to rebel against the Grace, Mercy, Love and Forgivenss of Jesus.

Have you faced the NOW? We will use the law to stop loving, to not forgive and to walk away convinced we were just in our Judgement. We will try to be at peace with our choice to HATE, our choice to Reciprocate,our choice to walk away and never look back ....never considering GOD's HEART in the Matter. To destroy because we have been dissappointed ...To anilalate because we feel alienated ...To trash because we have be tainted ... WHAT IF GOD DEALT WITH US LIKE WE DEAL WITH THOSE WE CHOOSE TO HATE? Did you ever wonder why Jesus said to "love your enemies"?

Stop your violent heart in its tracks ...surrender to the

love that pours from one of the most violent scenes in HIStory ...The Cross..."and the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all of our sins". you have no right to "not forgive" ....you have no right to hate someone ...quit robbing yourself of His active presense in and through your life. NOW! And if you haven't until ...turn from your sin and turn to Him.

HLFA,

Jeff

Ps. It is the Kingship Authority of the realm of the God. Gifted to His kids ...use it to storm the gates of Hell and not to damn souls with it.

Deliverance...For Free...Do You Really Want It?

A cry for help arrives via a fragile electronic pathway:

Please beg God to hear my prayers….please beg God to rescue me and my wife….to answer in a powerful and clear way…Please ….I have a very hard time believing the Lord hears me…I need Him to listen….I think God hates me!

THIS IS A PLACE TO TRULY BEGIN ...THIS IS WHERE WE STAND OUTSIDE THE SILENT TOMB WE CALL OUR LIFE...THIS IS WHERE THE VOICE OF HIS BLOOD SPEAKS VOLUMES OF LOVE...THIS IS A CROSSROAD ... THIS IS WHERE PRIDE HAS TO BE STRIPPED OFF FOR WHAT IT REALLY IS - A STENCH FILLED TRASH CAN USED TO COVER OUR FILTH AND SIN (AND WE WEAR IT WELL!!!!)

We are not talking about just feeling lonely or abandoned and in need of a selfish little touch so we can brag that "we have been touched by God"...Possibly the place these words have come from is a devastating crater caused by a selfish choice for the momentary pleasure of sin. Can you sense this in you?

These words may be prompted by His Spirit's conviction of our hidden sin and His call for us to face His Love (that goes way beyond our sin).

Read the words that the Spirit carried to us through King David's devastating crater. Oh please hear the sweet Word of God!
Psalm 51 FACE YOUR SIN THEN TURN TO HIM

1 Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: The measure of His mercy poured through His LOVINGKINDNESS

according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. This multitude of His Tender mercy will fully erase my sinful events.

2 Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. Desire His thorough shower of sin cleansing.

3 For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Face the truth that He knows you at your worst.

4 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned , and done this evil in thy sight: Admit that the real target of your sinful actions is Him.

that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest , and be clear when thou judgest . You are threatened by His His clear and just Words.

5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. He knows you were fallen from the time of your first breath.

6 Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: His deepest desire is for His truth to be "soul-fast",

and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. with the deepest sercret part of you experiencing Him.

7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean : wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. His purging and washing is clean and whiter than snow.

8 Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice . From the crater of brokeness a song will rise.

9 Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. He will no longer see my sins, His blood has me covered.

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. A clean heart and a right spirit are now mine.

11 Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. HE WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU NOR FORSAKE YOU!

12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit. His deliverance restores me so I can fly from the tomb with His joy full Spirit.

Do you really want it??? Do you really want it??? Do you really want it????

Jesus really wants you ...He has written your name on His hands, His feet, His brow, His side ......His scars cry His love for you.

Romans 4:4, 5 Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt ,

But To him that worketh not but believeth on Him who justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.

Look and live!

HLFA

Jeff

Resurrection - Come Away ---NEW BEGINNINGS!

ABOUT TO CRUMBLE? ABOUT TO FALL?
(Song of Solomon 2:11-13) HANG IN THERE IT IS ALMOST OVER!

11 For, lo, the winter is past , In all of our lives there will be a cold, rainy season

the rain is over and gone ; that rain's interruption will quickly shower over and will journey away

12 The flowers appear on the earth; with it leaving ... the new growth will begin to make sense

the time of the singing of birds is come , A new song will rise in our hearts

and the voice of the turtle dove is heard in our land; the song will fill the land before us

13 The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, new fruit of our labors will appear

and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. this new tender fruit will refresh our senses.

Arise , my love, my fair one, and come away . Hear His voice in the changes : "ARISE, MY LOVE, MY FAIR ONE, AND COME AWAY".

So few of us will spend our days with our senses challenged by God's ever drawing Spirit song that eminates from His Word ....come away, to learn to truly walk,

awake amidst the doledrums, invigorated among the discouragements, wise among the desceptions, activated amidst the disqualifications, alive among the dead!

WAKE UP ...SEE WHAT IS REALLY HAPPENING ....Fear is rising ... our foudations being to shake ...our walls begin to quake ...and our life begins to CRUMBLE?

BUT ONLY IF WE DON'T LISTEN FOR HIS VOICE ........COME AWAY!

Liars and lairs will be ever present as we try to rely on our our wisdom and strength "to get through this" ....wrong! wrong! wrong!..... We have done a pretty foul job to date.

Isn't it about time you really .....(for real, no pretending) let go, relinquish control, and TRUST HIM ...

Eph. 3: 20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think , according to the power that worketh in us,

21 Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

HLFA,

Jeff