Surrounded

Well, I was in one of those crazy situations again. Huddled within the fragile frame of my Earthly existence, I was cowering in the darkest corner of the Kingdom that I could find (which, if I had truly thought this one through, once again I was dabbling in the realm of the impossible). Being in His presence had put all the shadows behind me with the exception of one, the Shadow found in going through the Valley of Death... But that shadow was not the issue at this juncture of my life (though that could change in a blink). I had sinned.

Guilt and shame had chased me down and were threatening to over take me. I was stealthily pearing through the small shattered window of hope for the rescue. What I saw dropped my heart into my stomach... "Judgement had been turned away in the opposite direction, Justice could do nothing but stand his ground at too far a distance to help; because Truth had lost his balance and stumbled in the street, while Equity was completely stripped and powerless to prevail." (Isaiah 59:14) Of all men I was most miserable.

There was a Voice that startled me because it spoke in my direction. Not immediately recognizing it, I slumped deeper into my hiding place and dared not to breathe nor make a sound. With rubble around me, now still as death... I could hear the Voice: "You have no place to hide! Come out with your hands up!"

Something strange but familiar stirred inside of me. It was all but melting me at the core and tugging away at anything that I considered as foundational for strength to resist. I was like a string tangled marionette caught awkwardly in the midst of a critical performance that was soon to be launched into ... The Unknown?

The Voice boomed again, "Come out with your hands lifted up, you are surrounded!" Now the urge to move forward was even stronger, and to surrender seemed the only course of action left... But it could mean suicide because of the trigger happy enemy that would be waiting.

The Voice, louder than before but strangely encouraging ..."Fear not, You are Surrounded!" This was that moment when faith and fear would collide, but potentially they would form the alliance of "AWE"... And then it happened: I arose from the rubble of my futile hiding, raised my arms to the Heaven of Heavens, moved forward towards my "would be" Captors to find an amazing but powerful Glory encapsulating and surrounding every molecule of my humanness ... The Glory radiated and overwhelmed the darkness in every direction.

Even though my sight was captured near blind in the Brightness; at the fringes of my perception, I observed the most hideously insidious creatures fleeing in flames caused by the Brightness of the Glory. They raced frantically from the unavoidable destruction of wickedness. The Enemy was conquered... And there in the midst of the incident ---Stood the Glory of the Bloodied Cross.

Near the Cross, Now, there I stood, with a new found desire to abide forever - Judgement stood smiling next to me locking arms with my soul, Justice was sounding me with praises that were within my reach, Truth and Equity intertwined their essence with every breath of my soul ... With Hands lifted up - and heart surrendered - His Glory Surrounded me, crowning my life with the fullness of His Vested Love. AND I was not alone ... Multitudes of battered but restored children had joined me to hear His Song of Glorious Love over us. (Read Psalm 8 at this juncture of the story -- notice that we are crowned - "Surrounded with Glory" )

Join me in a glorious life with Jesus, who has overcome the world.

Praise Him and walk powerfully in His Kingdom!

HLFA,

Jeff

New Beginning

Morning arrived with the dew as expected. As the sun's lattice like rays extended through the countryside, creation began to stretch and groan from its nocturnal stillness: There He waited, there He stood longing and there He desired a sign of love from His beloved. He watched as the day gently brushed against the cheek of His beloved, as the sounds and smells of promise were diffused with the meandering currents of conflict. He Gently whispered, "Behold, I am yours and you are mine." But an anesthetized stillness provided no reply, no response from His beloved, but He stood there still and He Loved.

Then time slammed its gavel of "urgency calls", and we arose with a heart pounding start. We raced right past the Love of our life, and hastily glanced at His love letter that had boldly pronounced "Wait!" Wait? ... (under our breath as though we would not be heard) "You've got to be kidding". Then piously we declared, "We will set aside some quality time later when we can give full focus to love."

We had barely miss-buttoned our clothing, shimmy-jammed our feet into our shoes, and guzzled down some sustenance when the inrush of concerns for the day slammed into our already unbalanced forward movement. Way out of kilter now, our failure to stop and listen to the Love of our Life would begin to take its toll.

He watched on with no "I told you so!". He now spoke quietly "Come unto me all ye that labor!". We thought we may have heard that still small voice; and just for a moment the thought of the sound lifted us, but the weight of the day must have heard it also for with even more gravity it weighed down on our souls. He still waited, and loved.

The hands of the clock finally aligned in the predetermined manner, and our captors released us to our wind down time. You were waiting at the gate to great us with a love offer to release us of guilt and shame, but for some unintelligent reason we thought we could do the impossible ourselves. So we wrestled the immense package of sensed failure onto our already bending frame, and all but crawled to our evening of "home", our hiding place.

You were with us through every agonizing moment of that movement to an unrequited rest. You once again watched over us as we lowered our senses and slowed our defenses in hope of relief. You watched as we mutely dimmed the lights and slipped back into the welcomed comatose state of sleep. You gazed on at our troubled dreams ... you interjected what fragments of hope that we had caught on the way, and gathered them together in our dreams; ... but there was so little hope to work with because of the literal "Word" deprivation of our hearts, minds, souls and strength that our sleep was without true rest.

You waited once more, O Lover of our Soul. You would once again whisper sweet and precious promises to our almost lifeless forms. You would do this without regret and without hesitation. For perhaps this would be the day that we would reckon ourselves dead to sin, but alive in You. Just per chance our first full breath into the day would be a prayer of re-crucifixion with you.

O to be dead to ourselves but alive to You... Who love us and gave Yourself for us."I am crucified with Christ, never the less I live; yet not I; but life I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. " Galatians 2:20.   This is not a one time deal ... this is a conscious act of the will to "die daily" to myself and to be fully alive with Him.

The Hope for tomorrow: We awoke to Your sweet Voice calling us to walk with You through the Garden, up to Calvary, to be crucified with You and to rise from the tomb with You fully alive and empowering our day for Your Honor and Your Glory, Amen.

Here is the Victory!!!

HLFA,

Jeff

The Variegator

The Variegator -The Swirler of Colors

Just when we thought that we had it down pat, and that we had all of our bases covered...life does what it does best and throws us a monster curve of doubt. That big "NO-ANSWER" question mark clings to us, like a cross borne over the shoulder of our soul, and weighs so heavily on us that now we step into our own worst nightmare. Confusion sets in and we are caught stranded precariously on a handle-less particle that is swept into a larger uncontrollable, faith battering, tidal flow. Why would God allow this to happen... Why wouldn't He stop us from doing this... How in the world can we go on from here?

The Psalmist in the One Hundred Thirty Ninth Psalm explores the fact that our fallen nature is prone to being a flight risk. Our wandering souls are like Dare Devils that are always pushing the boundaries and pushing things to the limit. In Psalm 139 verses 1 though 12 - The writer attempts to describe the "God exposed life" of the believer. He travels off in all the directions from body's basic volitions, to the mind's tapestry, to the roots of the tongue's wagging, to what is in our past and our future... making "all" seen, known and experienced by God being ever present and ever near. He checks out every possible and plausible destination that we could fly; and he exposes every place that we could hide, only to stand in awe of the "too wonderful"... HE IS THERE... FOR US.

In Verses 13-18: The Psalmist places the evidence of His love connection to us front and center; proof positive because His finger prints are all over the minutest details of the fabric of each of our totally unique lives. He desires obvious fellowship with our personality potential. He wants to be evidenced in the way we carry our physical stature. He wants to amaze us with the unfolding miracles of our internally - constantly - forming growth cycles. He has intricately woven and swirled in everything necessary to identify us with Him. We have been "curiously wrought" ... we have been variegated.

Every needed element to face life was colorfully swirled into us in order to give us what is needed to "stay still" during the impossible and keep us close to Him while achieving the possible. Life without the knowledge of the Variegator is a life of futile acquisitions and vain achievements void of eternal focus and purpose. Life without Jesus is a life that is emptied into eternal sorrow in the end.

Jesus is the curiously wrought door, the marvelously fashioned gate, the colorfully woven belt, the adornment of the Daughter ...whom we are "In Him" ... Whom, because of His great love... are made "glorious within".  A Swirler of colors, a Weaver of curious diversity, a Blender of imaginative differences ...mixing in, all that is needed to make the Kingdom complete with intertwined complex simplicity...gold, alabaster, black, purple, scarlet, silver, azure, white, brown, red, blue ... every color, every hue ... all for our good and His Glory.

Some of the swirls are sweet to the taste and satisfying to the soul, though others may be incredibly sour to the stomach. Satisfying or painful, all the swirls are purposeful in the intertwining of our lives with His.

I know how hard it is to take a breath, back away, and see the big picture... when pain, loss, or fear of death ...clamor for our attention. The constraint of emotions and "stressing out" over the temporal can easily cause us to feel that we have been abandoned, or that we have forfeited our authority to be the Kid's of the King; but fear not, for He has planned LOVE for this moment of our sensed "faith devastation" - He has curiously wrought... swirled into our lives all that is needed for Him to see us through.

Realize this: The Devil is a liar! The enemy strives to own God's woven and embroidered things. The enemy desires to claim them for his own. He wants to tout them as trophies and spoil from the battle he thinks he is winning or assumes he has won. His ploy is confusion ... don't give in.

Wait on the LORD, Lay down the doubt, and take up the Cross ... trust Him to see you through this moment of struggle... JESUS, the Variegator, is near.

"Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me and know my thoughts: see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." Psalm 139: 23,24

Bring Your swirls into play for my good and Your glory, amen.

HLFA,

Jeff