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