Grace Imagination

{Nope, I didn't see the movie, but, daily, I am faced with the floods of negative influences that neutralize the imagination of God's people and that stymie their ability to see God above it all.}

Genesis 6:5 – “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” In the days of Noah (his name means”rest” or “resting place”) Mankind had unshackled their thoughts from the protection of the guardhouse of life, and re-shackled their hearts to rebellion against Heaven's love.. They decided they would forget God and live in any way that momentarily pleased their insatiable lusts. They had opened their minds and opened their hearts, not to God's Grace, but to every imagination that would paint the picture that God was the enemy, the spoil sport, the party pooper, the bummer, the dream hater; they truly believed that God was there to make their lives miserable. Every disappointment and every tragedy was God's fault. They were a generation whose eyelids were lifted up as they closed their eyes and hearts to God. “BUT Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” Genesis 6:8 (Sound familiar?)

"Noah, you imagine way too much about how God has set in motion the events of your life". "You are just not that important." “You make such a big deal over things that really don't matter, and things that you haven't even seen.” “Who do think you are that God would would speak directly to you?”

Even the Psalmist sat back amazed with his head spinning at the goodness of God as he thought out loud ..."What is man that Thou art mindful of him and his offspring (those further down the pecking order) that You even begin to take notice and care for" Psalm 8:4. Finding that God's care for us goes way beyond space and time can capture our hearts in a way that allows us live aware of the Grace entries that encompass our lives.

Let's do a Grace exercise with scripture and find the treasure therein: let's invert Genesis 6:5 – “And God saw that the righteousness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was Godly, God worthy and God-ward only continually”. Listen up! … To those who have been birthed from on-high by Grace through faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ: Your righteousness in the earth is JESUS – there is none greater, there is none higher. You have been unshackled from the chains of sin to allow the imagination of your thoughts to soar high and long in the loving favor of your God. He knew your day even before your were formed in your mothers womb. His plan for you was then, is now and forever shall be ... “Love”.

Is thinking that God loves us enough to truly order our steps, prepare a table before us in the presence of our enemies, and count us as His Beloved ... presumptuous? Our wrestling match with sin and our flesh fed desire has already created a disconnect of major proportions that daily plagues us with a spiritual nearsightedness. Let our God-ward imagination be opened!

Psalm 57:6 - “They have prepared a net for my steps; my soul is bowed down : they have digged a pit before me”, (… And this enemy has a snare to strangle the steps of our dreams, desiring to cause us to fall and bow before a grave prepared for the end of us and any God-ward thoughts of love … BUT ) “into the midst whereof they are fallen themselves. Selah”. (Note to self: Let me not be my own worst enemy with negative self talk.)

We say we believe God loves us but reluctantly (Why?), possibly because we allow the current painful events of our lives or bitter historical scars to paint a blurred picture of God's active love for us. Momentary disappointments and bigoted history can be savage and careless erasers of the Grace moments in our lives. Grace moments should be cherished with prayer and adorned with praise that the storehouse of our imagination never be plundered by the enemy. Psalm 57:11- “Be Thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: let Thy glory be above all the earth”. God's supply of Grace is for us and is unlimited. I have a funny feeling that we can't over exaggerate God's love for us.

O God, please let our imaginations run wild in the extravagance of your love plans for us. And may we have that Childlike stubbornness that stands and cries “My Daddy is Stronger than yours!”

HLFA,

Jeff

Let Him

Can I encourage you today? I saw that look on your face. I felt the tremor of resistance shaking in your soul. What has happened to the beauty of faith that was a seamless part of your life? Why are you wearing ashes day by day and living as if there was no hope, no faith, no eternity, no God? Why do you curse life around you just because it smiles, laughs and seems so free of pain (you know it is only a fading illusion)? What is going on in your soul?

Mark 8:33 – “But when He had turned about and looked on His disciples, He rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me Satan: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men.” Are we treating as “most important” the opinions, the possessions, the plans, the temporal things of men? Peter, like most of us, had an issue with the reality that – “good things on this side of Heaven do come to an end”. He was enjoying the blessing of the moment with Jesus, and when that state of contentment was threatened by Jesus’ announcement of his imminent death, it threw Peter into a position of denial of the words of Jesus.

Luke 22:31 – “And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat:” I am quite sure that Satan’s plan for us is the same as it was for Peter. Satan craves to move us away from where we could be with Christ - right now - so that he can separate us from the fruit of our life with Christ. He wants to rob us of the key ingredients of the Bread of life, and leave us wallowing in the fruitless, left over, inedible, shredded stalks of this temporal life. Why is it that we now hold in disdain some passages of scripture that we once cherished as precious promise? Are we being sifted?

Luke 13:16 – “And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?” The truth is that you will only be encouraged if you desire to be encouraged. There is a strange point in the lives of believers that encouragement may not be desired because we are so worn down by the repeated attacks of Evil, that we are convinced that we are done and we are castaway. We feel, somehow, we have been passed over by the grace of God. We stare so long at the blessings that others appear to have that we lose sight of God’s tender mercies that are “new every morning” and available to us.

GOD KNOWS HOW FRAGILE WE REALLY ARE and HE TRULY CARES FOR US ... LET HIM. Hear the cries of our God in favor of us. Hear the cries of our God who is always on our side. Hear the shouts of our God who wants us loosed and let go. Hear the pleas of our loving Savior, Jesus, saying …”Come unto me, all ye that labour (exhausted from trying and failing), and are heavy laden (loaded down with burdens of care), and I will give you rest (a reason to recover, refresh and bring you back into the patient anticipation of hope).” Jesus is our reason to Recover.

Please do not turn your ears and heart from the desires of Jesus captured above – “AND OUGHT NOT THIS ONE BE LOOSED FROM THIS BOND?” Jesus wants to free you from the oppression that has neutralized your soul… Let Him.

Maybe you won’t let me encourage you today … but please, Let Him.

HLFA,

 Jeff

Activate Kevin

Psalm 119:25 – “My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken thou me according to Thy word.” Come on! I have snow and ice all over my car, and you, a hotel employee standing there idle with a broom in your hand … doing nothing! I started scraping my windshield but turned momentarily to see you catering to a well-dressed individual with a luxury car. (I mutter to myself – “Go figure!”) In that moment I just about wrote you off as another useless gift to mankind and a sorry representative of your Hotel chain … Note to self: I don’t even want to know his name. {I’m thinking under the influence of my scars.} But He knows you by name …Kevin! {Now, I’m thinking under the influence of Jesus’ scars!}

Smack dab in the middle! Caught in the cross fire! Wrong place, wrong time! Call it what you want, but this world’s brokenness is caused by a constant gnawing wicked desire for more power, more possessions, and more preeminence. It is bad enough when the ”simple ones” latch on to this plundering way of life; but when those who are positioned for “greatness” have hearts corrupted by lust. Woe unto anyone getting in the way of their unchecked and uncontrolled desires! Many of us can attest to self-inflicted wounds obtained by our own insatiable thirst for sin and unrighteousness. And without a whole lot of coaching, any one of us can easily tell stories of scars of abuse that we have incurred while being caught in the way of another’s relentless pursuit of self-fulfillment.

In Psalm 36:1-4, Observable characteristics the human condition are listed: 1. No fear of God. 2. A pride fed self-image. 3. Troublesome and deceptive speech. 4. Anger towards wisdom and kindness. 5. No rest, just scheming. 6. Animosity against the goodness of others. 7. Evil is not despised but espoused. Romans 3:23 states: “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God”. THIS IS imbedded in OUR FALLEN HUMAN DNA, and it will surface to our embarrassment at the most inopportune times. Don’t you dare plea ignorance nor purport immunity while connected to this dust! WE will either be problem antagonizers or solution activators. Watch how you push other people’s buttons!

An icy snow flake actually hit me in the eye just as I was about to release a verbal dagger of self fulfilment - PUSH HIS BUTTONS! Then a still small voice said, “Come now let us reason together saith the Lord; though your sin be a scarlet, they shall be as white as snow”. Suddenly, I found myself weaving this verse into the conversation that would take place. This “Word” would activate this man’s faith and bring tears to him and me.

TO MEET KEVIN WAS TO LOVE KEVIN: Broken past but a God-promised future, Graying hair with a youthful praying heart, limping walk with purpose for the King, a castaway in this world but Kingdom cherished; though blind in one eye, he actually had clearer vision than most of us to trust the power of God in everyday living. He prays over every room that he maintains that the next weary travelers will not only find rest for their bodies, but rest for their souls. Psalm 36:10 –“O continue Thy loving kindness unto them that know Thee; and Thy righteousness to the upright in heart”.
I would not have known Kevin had I not spoken the Word, which immediately brought him and me to life. God calls us from the fading and failing rewards of the dust to be activators of faith through His spoken Word.

Rise up in courage, O Faith Activators, live openly and loudly for the sake of our King. Your grateful songs of mercy from the dust of your day will create a believable message to call others to God’s Way.

Speak His Word into the lives of others.

HLFA,

Jeff

Left Behind

I truly hate it when life becomes a blur and a burden. When the aches and pains of living here on this side of Heaven halt and maim our vessels of clay, we are usually expected to manage our affairs as if the affliction didn't exist. If the affliction slows us down and impedes our forward movement, very few will wait for us, and we are soon left behind. Being left behind is a an ever darkening place to be, and the darker it gets it seems that even people close to us willingly withdraw, possibly for fear of a contagion.

In this day of instant information, gratification, and communication; instant access, service, and success; rapid provision, transit, and delivery; fast decisions, energy, and food; virtual meetings,transactions, and relationships; ... AND all sold to us as a way to make our lives better (and in many ways it does but); those who are handicapped by technological disconnect, assumption, time and circumstance will be a constraint to the success of this “get it now”- “Driven to Success” society.

Survival of the fittest is not just an evolutionary theory, it has become a dogma and the rule of thumb for personal and interpersonal valuation. "Can't keep up? Get left behind!" No one has time for the personal pain of another individual unless they are strategically critical to the over-riding success of the masses. For example ...“Who needs unwanted and untimely pregnancies, handicapped children, and the continual drain on normal society's resources caused by the critically ill and the failing health of the elderly” as hissed by Mr. “B”. “And how about the useless, the slow learner, the unproductive laborer, and the hopelessly poor?” "Don't forget the religiously intolerant and non-conformist?"

Psalm 43:5 “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise Him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.”
Years ago, just prior to my Dad's “Home-going”, I tried to carry encouragement to my Dad as he lay in discomfort after surgery to remove cancerous brain tumors. When I walked in the hospital room and heard Dad's quiet but repetitious moans; God's Word took me to the verse above as it calmly washed through my soul to Dad as a song. As I began to sing the song, I watched as Dad tried to hum along with the melody. As little pearl like tears, beaded up and dropped from the corner of his eyes (and mine), my prayer for Dad was that he would know that he was loved, and that he still was of great value to his family, his friends and his God. Just as the message of Christ carried hope to my Dad, the message of Christ is critical to the hope of an individual and a nation. Fear not to carry His hope into your life and live that hope loudly!

Isaiah 61:1 – This was read by Jesus in the synagogue ... “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me; because the LORD hath anointed Me to preach the good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; ...(It continues on through verse 3) … The underlying truth is … Jesus is there for the abandoned and downcast, and we should be too.

I have a sneaking suspicion that God is “in the midst” of the encouragement of the downcast. He draws close to those that we abandon; and to withdraw from them means that we miss the blessing of the fullness of His encouragement. In my years of ministering I have found that God gives special access to the fullness of His Spirit to encourage those who are discounted, marked down and written off.

I truly feel that His spirit is grieved by many of us today, who are in the habit of cursing castaways and throwing away the strangers and misfits, instead of making a viable connection via our own brokenness. Do you realize the obscenity of the broken cursing the broken? {It was there on the Day Christ died. Remember the cursing malefactors on the other two crosses? … The Man in the middle never cursed back, but He was there to bless anyone who decided to see with the heart instead of the eye}.

Have we as believers wandered so far from our broken need for the Cross, that we can transcend to a lifestyle of negligence toward other broken ones for whom Christ died? What if at the end of our days, we received comfort only in proportion to the comfort whereby we comforted the broken ones? Where would our comfort be?

“Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” Matthew 25:40 … Done What? Life in Christ is a constant connecting of our brokenness in Christ to needs of others to bring healing via the message of Christ.

Oh, to Treat the broken as we would treat Jesus ... don't miss the daily opportunity!

HLFA,

Jeff

The Cup and The Owl

There they were once again, gathered around the field of battle. As ravenous wolves, they stood lurching, snarling , salivating, and positioning to pounce; but in a moment they were caught way off guard, as the King appeared at the edge of the battlefield.

He gracefully and wondrously sauntered to the center of the open field with his robe flowing on the wind. The train of it spread out gloriously covering the field around Him. So amazing was the scene that the enemy crouched backward in a death-stance position as they were caught totally off guard by the scene before them. Extremely focused, the King turned and whirled creating such a turbulent movement that the wind thereof began to ripple through the surrounding trees. The wind sent dead branches a flight as arrows spraying in all directions away from the clearing that the King was preparing. With every turn there appeared marvelous provision. All the elements of a royal banquet were miraculously being assembled on a massive golden banquet table. Though the table was seen shadowed by a cross, it was being prepared by the King.

Soon there was the sound of musical voices resounding from the opposing forest toward the far edge of the field. A song was being sung by a procession of unremarkable invalids who began hobbling onto the battlefield. Though maimed, lame, halt, deaf and blind, they sang with amazing resilience and power ...
“Our Lord, The LORD GOD, is our Shepherd, with His pasturing we have no lack, no unfulfilled need, no gnawing hunger … He is our Desire, our Thirst or Hunger and we are satisfied.”
“He causes us to stretch out our lives safely into new fresh green pastures, He carefully guides us into cool, clear, clean and restful refreshment.”
“He always revives us with restored soulful strength. He leads us in the clearly marked way of His Righteousness, for the sake of His Name, His reputation, and His fame.”
“Yes, though we come and go through the deep vale of death's shadow, we will not have our fearful wonder held captive by any malignant, threatening evil. It is only a shadow.”
“You are with us, Your ultimate authority and Your undeniable support, they are an ever constant protective comfort for us.”
“You have prepared this marvelous royal banquet table for us; right in plain view, right under the noses of our most threatening enemies … MY CUP RUNNETH OVER!”

The song stopped here for a moment, the enemy was listlessly still and all but powerless because of these four words - “My cup runneth over!” This language was strange and ancient but it held an allegorical truth that had power to defeat the enemy. What did the enemy hear? – “My Cup and My Owl (Hebrew word – kowc or koce) are ever satisfied to overflowing”. Our life is described in this passage as A cup, a stationary vessel of self-containment; and an Owl, a vessel of flight-risk unclean self-desire. …..................“Application Please!!!”

We all have lives that are seen and unseen. We all have resounding desires that jockey for control for the cup and the owl. On the outside of “The Cup”, we want to appear successful; and to do this control is very important. On the inside of “The Owl”, we constantly hunt for the unclean desires of darkness and the forbidden pleasures that are cloaked by the night; to do this we take unholy risks. Both The Cup and The Owl need to be fed, but the fancies and the fantasies of this present world only bring us momentary pleasures that end in eternal dissatisfaction and ruin. We need to sing out by experience that “My Cup and Owl runneth over!”

The royal banquet prepared by Jesus was not only for our personal salvation from Hell and the enemy, but was to provide a moment by moment satiating, saturating and overflowing relationship through His Word and Spirit. This relationship abundantly adorns the seen, and overwhelming satisfies the wandering desires. We desperately need to come and dine! Then we will finish the song -

-“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.” Psalm 23 ----

My wants and My desires are satisfied to overflowing because of You, Jesus.

HLFA,

Jeff