River of Life



Find yourself a comfortable place beside a flowing stream. Listen to the myriad of sounds the water makes. Now let your mind marvel that a singular component of water can sing such a song of variety.   


Water is silent until it encounters and obstacle. The sound you hear is the water speaking of its encounter.  
Sit quietly in your chair and listen to the sound of the Holy Spirit. He is a river of truth. Just like the stream, he makes sounds when he encounters creation. Answer for yourself, what causes the greatest noises from the Holy Spirit?

Loyalty Supreme!


For reasons only known in heaven, God began a creation.  He spun with Invisible thread, creating something from absolutely nothing.

A Blackness was born in The Kingdom of Light.  He speckled the Blackness with fiery balls.  Appearing from nothing were little places of special interest.  They were darkened little globes that we’re not like the fires at all.

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Imagine, if you can, the wonder of the angels as they did the bidding of their Father.  And their wonder kept expanding.  The work went on for a very long time. 

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Every item in the darkness was placed precisely where The Father said to put it.  Joy and wonderment filled all Heaven as the creation took shape before their very eyes.  It was an intricate dance of tiny objects, all floating in the blackness.  A precise ballet of love.  Every item spun precisely around another.

Then, amazement upon amazement, God spoke a word unheard before.  “Let us create Man in our image”.  Adam, he was called.  The meaning of the word is “First Blood”.

In his hands, The Holy Word of God began the work of The Father.  A handful of dust took shape.  An unspeakable perfect work of art lay on the ground.  “Let the Breath of Life enter.”  The man’s breath began.  His eyes opened.  And from a perspective only capable in this creature of dust, he saw his surroundings for the first time.

Love and joy filled the servants of God as they were Witnesses to this amazing Work.  Unquestioning, innocent obedience bore the fruit the Living God intended.  And now they would watch that same obedience flow through the blood of this creation.

Blood!  The first of its kind.  Never before was there a creature with such exquisite limitation.  How unspeakably beautiful was the work of The Father.  What great tender care was given to their new brother.

But press forward in time with me.  Witness the history of decay.  See the frustrated Beauty become ragged edged and hideously vile.  Read the history of man in the Bible and weep.

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Look at the horror which we have become.  Not only have we murdered the love of God, we joyfully toss him in the cesspool of unbelief.  And the people despise anyone who speaks His Holy Name.

Dare to tell me that God has no right to destroy his enemies of this filthy place! 

But this is not the end of the story, for amazement fills the servants of God still.  As by that same innocent obedience, they reach into the Blackness of sin and create a people of light. 

For now, the tiny lights glow in the Darkness.  But the day will surely come when the darkness will be swallowed up by the place from which it was created.  That which is abhorrent to man will rule with Christ for eternity. 

Something from nothing became blackness.  But something from Blackness will become dazzling, bright and brilliant Lights of Life.

Join in the building celebration; the Symphony of redemption is a beautiful song, being played by those who love Him.  And the Beautiful song is played against the backdrop of hisses, boos jeers, wailings, screams, and violent intent.  Make all the noise you want, you hideous creatures of hatred.  Your silence is moving toward you now.

I will love the God who made me!  I will adore the one who fashioned me from nothing!  Stand with me or not, what difference can it possibly make?

By His Grace.

The Ultimate Object Lesson


Are you ready to get your brain full this morning?

I keep saying that we should “think eternity”.  And I promise that the more you do, the more you will be ready on the spur of the moment to speak about Christ your Lord.  More and more, you will replace the fear of evangelism with an excited desire.

Here’s the ticket for the ride of your life:

Absolutely everything in creation speaks to us of the Son of God.  From a pencil and eraser to the depths of the sea.  Every conversation people have.  Every single thought that goes through our minds.  Everything we love and everything we hate.  Everything we use and everything we are willing to destroy.

If you make it a habit to think about it, the association between the common and the Holy will come to you in a split-second.  The real plus here is that it takes almost no discipline at all.  I guarantee you the Lord is willing to help us understand.

Today. . .


O Man!

What have you done, that you wake every morning to consume without thanks?  What have you commanded to be built for your pleasure?  All the while forgetting the history that brought you TODAY.

It is God who supplies all the materials you misuse.  Stop and consider.

Yet, I perceive you will change nothing.  Today will be the same as all which came before; all praise to Man and disrespect to God.

Your greedy eye is focused on the possibilities of tomorrow.  With violence you gather.  With violence you retain.  With selfish ambition you laugh and dance with joy.  Yet the day will come when the One you have spurned appears to claim what is His.

You know what is required of you.

And shouldn’t someone speak on behalf of the One who owns all these things?  Shouldn’t the light blaze as the darkness pervades?

Home?


The Lord, The Sovereign Lord, the Source of life, ever-present Righteousness, Glorious mercy and justice.  He has all things, doesn’t he?  He lacks nothing, how true.  That’s what Sovereign means.

But let me speak to the rich man.  Let me speak to the perverted drunk.  Let me speak to the beautiful woman.  Let me speak to the greasy whore.  Let me speak to all those who have a place among Man, whether glorified or horrified; those with clean hands and those whose hands are covered with blood.

God has all things for he is all things.  Yet what he does not have, he has poured out his life to gain.  He does not have your love.  He does not take first place in all your days, though he is first in all eternity.  All creation honors His Holy Name, except here.  His name is Jesus the Christ, look into it.

“You ask too much of us!  You sit in your religious Chapel, carved of pure Ivory, and judge us.  You have forgotten the demands of life that are far more then we can bear.  We cannot put God first we must defend our home!”

Your home?  Your home is a soleless pair of old shoes.  Your home is a worn-out pair of jeans filled with holes, and leaving your buttocks bare.  Your home is an umbrella missing it’s purposed fabric.  Your home is a cave filled with Wolverines and poisonous snakes.   The floor of your home cannot be cleaned!   Why can’t you smell the stench of your household enemy’s feces, which lay in the crags you can’t reach?  Precious place, isn’t it, this place you call your home.  The place where you fear even in what you call solace.  You light a lamp, but still darkness pervades.

8 “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.”  (Micah 6)

He is your potential friend.  He is your potential Guardian.  Already he provides what you call your home. 

Who causes the lava to harden?  Who plants the seed of a tree in its craggy niches?  Who brings the beautiful erosion to cause a paradise?  Who gave you this place?  Who dressed you with skin?  Yet you would fear and keep him far from you?

Trust him and do the things that belong to him.  Then you will have a home that is not filled with stench and death.  Your home provides you no pact with death.

These Days, Your Days


God made the Sun.
God made the rain.

God made the joy
AND
God made the pain.

God made the snow
And the ice
And the cold.

And isn’t the reflection
Found in your soul?

Give praise in the Sun!
Give praise in the rain!
Give praise in the joy,
And all throughout the pain!

One moment passed unveiling,
All will become clear.
Only let the Love of the Sovereign God.
Become your heart’s desire
DEAR!

Even, Jesus!