The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions

Behavior! It’s all about behavior to God. The White Throne Judgment for sinners condemned to Hell, the Judgment Seat of Christ for the saints rewards:

Behavior!

Jesus said upon His return His main objective was to bring Rewards. He promises to reward everyone ACCORDING to their works. He warned us not to judge others lest we be judged. What or Who motivates YOUR Behavior?

Sowing and Reaping – good actions or bad actions – this law of return is based on behavior. What we DO! God offers us a new heart and a new spirit SO THAT WE CAN BEHAVE OURSELVES in a way that pleases Him. In a way that is acceptable to Him.The fruit of His Spirit in our lives all plays out in our behavior.

The fruit of our flesh in our lives also plays out in our behavior. It’s all about how we ACT. Jesus warned us. He taught us about a place called Hell. He warned us not to fear the one’s who could kill the body, rather we are to fear the One who can cast the body and soul into an eternal, never ending torment, a world without end: HELL.

As one so aptly stated, “Don’t Piss God Off”! Rather crude, but you can’t say you don’t get the message. Some fool said it’s all about the Hoky Poky – wrong! Pleasing God is what it’s ALL about. Thank God He is willing to work with us to bring us into the image of His Son, the Son who pleases Him because He only did and does God’s will.

We really need to get it straight: God does NOT owe any of us anything! That’s why we call Him GOD! We owe our Creator what ever He requires – or have Hell to Pay.Fact is God is LOVE!

Love?

What’s that? We have our opinions, but what is real love? Real love lays down its life for its ENEMIES. The Bible teaches us that while we were yet enemies God sent His own Son to die in our place so that we could be brought back into the a right relationship with our Creator. That's what He designed us for in the first place: RELATIONSHIP.

However, before we could do anything about any of this, back in the garden, our original father committed high treason against God for us! From this original act by our father Adam, the cancer of rebellion and SELF-will against our Creator spread through all of mankind. It required our Creator to DEMONSTRATE what true love was in order to buy back a corrupted human race.

HOLY !

We have not even got a clue what HOLY means! We somehow think it’s some kind of religious word. Some of us might even picture stained glass windows in a stone cathedral with strange off key chanting in the background by a bunch of depressed looking guys wearing white robes. But the opposite is true. The Bible says all of heaven REJOICES in His presence and commands the earth to do the same!

The Bible goes on to say God HUMBLES Himself to even look on the things of heaven and earth. Wow! We have no point of reference without a REVEALING from God himself enlightening our darkened mind. God has to bring light to our darkness or we continue to define black as white, defend evil as good and argue our opinions as truth.

Only God’s ways and words are truth. Our thoughts are lies without this HOLY light from His very Self showing us His pure Truth. Pure Truth is a Person. That Person is God Himself as shown in the face of His Son Jesus Christ.

Jesus came to earth to put an end to lies. He showed up to put a face on God. He came to BEHAVE before us and demonstrate how God expects us to live the life He has breathed into our bodies of clay.

Are we interested in changing our opinions? Can we consider there is a greater truth than our own?

The Bible teaches us that it’s appointed once for every man to die and then the JUDGMENT! Judgment is the measuring of you at the end of the road of life. It’s the accounting of our time on earth so we can receive our just dues, our reward.

For obedience to the demands of a Holy God it will be the reward of eternal life and pleasures forever more. For a life of SELF-WILL, self obedience and personal opinions it will be a reward of eternal punishments.

But that doesn’t seem fair. But who are You or I to judge God? Who are you or I to say to the Potter who formed us anything but “YES SIR”!

God knew we could not pull it off by our selves and yet He can not stop being God, Holy God. So in His LOVE He sent Jesus to solve the impossible for us.

Are we crazy? How dare we neglect so great an offer of salvation and still expect to escape the WRATH of an angry God? Why and who is He angry with? He is angry with those who REJECT His best offer to fix our failure - our failure is our trying to offer our best efforts to a Holy God. How did we do that? We rejected His Son’s blood to pay for our blood, His Son’s perfection to pay for our failure. We insulted his GIFT of Jesus blood and tried to be good without God, for God, better than God, on our own.

Thank God He IS true love. Thank God He already chose us BEFORE time ever began. Thank the only true God that He is HOLY and JUST. This Holy God, this JUST God spells His name L-O-V-E.

LOVE is unreasonable! Love is never subject to reason. Love is always right when it is God’s love. Love will send the rebel to a real fire and brimstone Hell. Love will do the right thing every time. Love will offer His only Son as a Paycheck to fully meet the demand for our judgment. Love already came and took our place on a cruel cross until the full payment for every man, woman, boy and girl’s requirement for missing God’s demand for behavior was fully paid. Love found a way to buy us back from our high treason. Love is Jesus Christ - the very FACE of God.

They call this Gospel the good news. It’s only good when we realize we are hopelessly doomed because of our behavior. Our behavior comes out of a heart that is hopelessly at odds with it’s own Creator. Without Someone taking our place and paying the price we could not and can not pay – there’s Hell to pay. Without Jesus as our Lord and King WE will pay the bill with our very soul and body.

GOOD NEWS: Because of Jesus’ behavior our bill is paid in full.

Question is: What are YOU and I going to do with Him? The answer is we’re going to CRY OUT NOW! "God please have mercy on me – you are right about everything and I am wrong about so many things! HELP ME NOW, I’M BLIND AND I AM LOST!" Will we humble our protected and highly esteemed SELF and accept His perfect Love TODAY?

(The key thoughts are HUMBLE OUR SELVES, CHANGE OUR MINDS, ACCEPT GOD’S MERCY AND LOVE, ACCEPT JESUS AS OUR LORD AND SAVIOR – NOW!)

[see Matthew Chapter 24 and 25 - Holy Bible, New Testament]


THINK ABOUT IT!

A Royal Flush?

Last night I had a dream. It was of a group of people - all in prison. A secret command has come to all of them in their cells. Most are in cells with small groups of 3, 4 or more. The command is to dig out a place under the cell by getting into the toilet. It is tight, narrow and difficult to get into this small space and be out of sight - even when the enemy looks down into the toilet, the captive people must push themselves into the side of the hollowed out space so they are not seen.

Next scene, after all the people have dug their hiding places out in the deep wall of the toilets suddenly every one is told to run for their lives but to be ready at any point to go down into the nearest toilet, because all the people have prepared the hiding places in their own toilets. So the great escape begins and all the people are running out of what seems to be a huge prison complex.

Without warning the troops are upon them. They must get into hiding NOW or die! One individual won't go into the nearest toilet because it requires more than one to go into a toilet at the same time and they are not familiar with this particular toilet. They freak because it looks too small and they are sure they will suffocate.

I awake. The toilet is clearly a symbol of humility and humbling oneself - REPENTING. The message is clear to me: CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST - HUMBLE YOURSELVES, ONE BY ONE OR ...! Judgment is on the way and will suddenly appear. If you are sticking out in your sins and iniquities you are caught short....

I have a flash back of yesterday... I know what I, personally, must change before God. Its one on ONE time. Pay attention or just pay!

Enough said?

THINK ABOUT IT!

The Lost Generation...

Never in the history of the world has there been a need to love and be loved like the day we live in. When referring to the lost generation, I'm not referring to the confused mass of my own 'ME' generation. No, I'm referring to the masses denied the right to experience their own birth – their life. The millions who were destined to love us in our old age, give us the joy of our middle years and teach us the beauty of a selfless life in our young adult years.

Instead, we served ourselves and lost an entire generation. Not all of us, but the rest of us didn't speak up, protest and stop the genocide. We didn't just lose many of the greatest minds the world had ever hoped to see; but, we lost, perhaps the cure to cancer, diabetes, and heart disease and who will ever know what else? We lost the breakthroughs God had planned to bless us with as we terminated and exterminated the greatest generation the world ever hoped to see: THE LOST GENERATION.



Yet there is good news to this sorrow. Sorrow to the many awakening to realize what a deception has been played on them - to give up the treasures of their life for convenience sake, or to hide the shame of a mistake or a passion. The good news is that each life, each precious life has been found and held dear for eternity to cradle and keep. The Creator looses none that are His, only we lose our greatest blessings - and yet their is a redemptive hope in even this greatest of sorrows.

If what Jesus said is true, and it is, then not even one sparrow falls to the ground unnoticed by the Heavenly Father. Then how can such a travesty happen to the innocent, unborn helpless life, pleading for their right to enter our troubled world, to be loved and protected by us?

When God gave the whole world to the first man, Adam, He put that first man in charge and told him to keep and care for the planet. But, that man chose to act independently of His God and ever since he traded THE God of heaven and earth for the god of this world system (with the hope of becoming his own god) man has fallen to depths to low to even speak.

But each man and each woman, for it takes both to make a new life, still has opportunity to acknowledge their own independent act of treason against their Creator and in so doing to change their mindset. The God of heaven is full of mercy and kindness and even though we must reap from our independent actions - we still have His forgiveness available if we are willing to ask Him for it.

The lost lives, perhaps as many as 40 million or more in the last 40 years, cry out before God Almighty Himself, asking Him to forgive us for allowing such selfishness and horrors to exist. God Himself put this loving forgiveness in the hearts of all children towards their own parents so we can find a way to forgive ourselves.

I can speak strong on this wretched topic because my wife and I almost gave in to the fears of what looked like a less than normal child being born to us - our forth child was ebbing away in what looked like a miscarriage. But then it passed the miscarriage point to likely be born with horrible handicaps. When asked if we wanted to terminate the pregnancy, we thought, perhaps that would be best. But we were ignorant of what 'terminating' a pregnancy actually meant. Fortunately, we mentioned this to our closest friends and they knew what 'terminating' meant and rocked us to reality saying, "how dare you!"

How dare we? How dare we what? Once we realized what the Planned Parenthood nurse was offering we were in shock! We were naive! ignorant! foolish! Today, that 4th child, our first son is a wonderful young man, husband and father. Thank God we were stopped before it was too late.

But what about those who were deceived and lost their opportunity to stop? More good news! God forgives and God has their babies with Him even now! Question is, 'can and will they forgive themselves and change their minds and trust their God for the peace and joy that only comes when one trusts the shed blood of the Savior to wash away all the guilt and pain of their sin?

Its not too late for anyone in this great land we call America. Its time America goes back on her knees and seeks the One, the only One, Who can save us and assure us that this lost generation has never left His sight.

Its really us in the final analysis who are lost, its our generation that has lost its way and our God. Our Creator is saying - "America, don't cover your sins, come home to Father, I'll forgive if you'll but acknowledge your sin, humble yourself and exchange your rebellion for trust - I love you America, return home while there still time for restoration."

THINK ABOUT IT!

POW Man...

Today I met myself coming back from Viet Nam. He was more than lean, he was emaciated. Tattooed and scared. Bald and bearded. His walking stick was lanky and bent, carved with strange markings and he used it to steady himself as he entered my office. His wife told me he'd been in a coma and that when he awoke it was a miracle he was alive today.

I noticed a patch on his black leather vest, the vest covered the leather like tan on his skeletal frame. The patch said POW/MIA. Being a Viet Nam vet I immediately recognized it for what it was: Prisoner of War/Missing in Action.

Upon asking him when he was in Nam he told me this story. His best friend Bill had been there the same time I was - helicopters. He asked me what I did in the war. I told him river duty: bringing in marines and supplying river boats. He suddenly began to hail my experiences with an awe and reverence I'd never thought about - not then or since.

When I was in the war, the nation resented us. When I came home they rejected us. Many of the vets were either injured, wounded or mentally scared for life. His friend Bill was one of those who survived the bullet wounds but lost his entire company of trusted friends only to come home and mentally collapse under the guilt of being left alive.

Suddenly, a flash back hit me. I began to quickly lose my composure. I had to get up and fiddle with some papers just to keep back the tears. I remembered the many times my own life had been spared. I remembered the many times my guilt's and confusions caved me in - countless times over the decades since the war.

I was blessed. I was spared. I was set free and the freedom continues to unfold for me day after day. My life has been given back to me. It was such an overwhelming feeling to be honored by someone instead of resented because of the war. My generation didn't receive the thanks only the shame of a war that made no sense then - but looking back it was for freedom we fought. Not so much the American freedom, rather a freedom for people - a strange people to us then - but a people who were and are worth the fight.

At this very moment I have friends who are the children of parents my own age who were those people we fought to make free. Another freedom fighter fought and won a freedom that will never end for whoever is willing to receive it.

Today I felt the appreciation that He must feel when one accepts his gift of freedom and turns their life over to Him. That freedom fighter is Jesus Christ. It was for freedom we were set free by a Savior - the Savior of the World...for whosoever WILL...

...because people everywhere are worth the fight!

THINK ABOUT IT!

Love At First Sight!

When we first met, I could think of nothing but that encounter. It was the bliss of my life! Unwavering, Unrelenting and Undefined was this new love experience. I was 9 years old and had been in love, so to speak, a few times already.

But this! Nothing could compare. . .

I was at camp for two weeks when it all happened. I was swept off my feet. It was what I had been looking for all my short lived little life. But could it hold me for the next 52 years? That's right - it would have to hold me for the next half century!

Good news: It has held. Oh, I dropped the ball many times over the years, but my true love never let me go. I had only heard of this one who would be my soul mate and my truest friend. I can still remember asking my mother, at age 4 about this one who would one day be my true love. She described this person to me and yet I could hardly believe such a one could exist, even at 4 years old I had my doubts such a one could exist for me.

But there I was at camp. I had caught a glimpse of the one who would never leave me or forsake me. It was during a short movie that my heart was captured. The film showed thousands in India who had just heard about my lover and friend. They too wanted to know this man: Jesus Christ.

Yes, at age 9 I cried out to the One Who could change my miserable little life. Miserable? Yes, very unhappy and very lonely at age 9. I had already been ignored by my parents to the degree that I was a problem child. A BIG problem. The school teachers already determined to throw me out because I caused so much trouble everyday. I was even suicidal at 9 years old. This dark life had covered me when I was kidnapped off the streets at just 7 years of age - pulled right off the streets of Detroit one Sunday afternoon.

The court trial put the man behind bars, but his effect on my young life and what he did to me were to leave deep scars for many confusing years as I searched for meaning and peace. So that day at camp, when the movie ended, I found myself crying and even weeping - longing for this Jesus to save me.

He did save me, but the years that followed were still filled with pain and confusion because no one taught me about His LOVE - only about man made rules of do's and don'ts. But one day at age 29 a little lady came to town and she told me Jesus could untie all the knots in my life and set me free from all the tangles I had tripped into over the years. She told me about the kidnapping and even how I had lost the ability to trust anyone anymore. I was in shock! How could this stranger know all about my deepest secrets?

She told me Jesus showed her these things and that He had sent her to me to let me go free from the prison my life had become. She told me Jesus had heard the groanings of my deepest heart and then she asked me if I was ready to be free and give my life back to Jesus as I had done as a little boy of 9 years old.

I was weary, I was ready, I gave my life back to Jesus.

Now as the Apostle Paul, I too was "determined not to know anything but Jesus Christ and Him crucified". No attraction would ever be able to hold my mind and soul captive ever again and I knew it this time.

To be worthy of this crucified and risen from the dead Savior we must learn to maintain an unbroken focus on the One Who has promised to keep us to the end. We must never allow anything to deflect us from the intimacy of our one true love affair with Jesus Christ.

As one once said, "the true test of a spiritual person is their unbroken focus on Jesus in the midst of life's best efforts to throw us off balance. To lose focus is the mark of an nonspiritual person. It means 'other things' have a growing fascination for us... "

But thank God, His Son, Jesus Christ has promised to keep us from falling and present us holy and blameless to His father on THAT DAY!

Have you met my lover and best friend? He's able to be your EVERYTHING and meet every need you will ever have in this short struggle called life! Only He understands your confussion and only He is waiting for you to call out ... Why not? Life, real life is your's for the asking...

THINK ABOUT IT!

Go Deep!

Most of us have been devastated at some time in our lives. Perhaps it was a loved one passing suddenly, a sickness that stole our future or a loss that never gave us a full recovery. No matter how devastating the impact or trauma, we found we must go on with our day to day.

Fortunately we are engineered in such a way that when the upper springs of life dry up we somehow go deep. We may not always recognize our inner drilling skills kicking into action. For most of us it seems we won't make it through this crucial moment, but somehow we move into a new gear called survival and on to what's more like existing than living. Yet something supernatural takes place, something few recognize at the time. A deep well is sunk into the abyss of our horrifying experience, our loss or sorrow, and another tunnel in the network of our pain is drilled to one day be the making of us.

As I look back into my own experiences and can see the broken heart, the loneliness, the pain was actually good for me. Of course I hated it at the time. The loss, the crush, the sorrow seemed to jar my very existence, to block my future and to rob me of my dreams.

The losses were real, the pain was felt and the sorrow cut deep leaving me spinning and wondering how I could survive until morning.

The first BIG devastation was at age 9 when the most beautiful girl I had ever seen came to visit her grandmother. She was tan and blond and somehow attracted to me. I couldn't eat or sleep. I was in ecstasy. She was better than anything my young life had ever experienced to that moment. Without warning, the end of the this bliss came when she left on that dark Saturday morning to go back to Florida. I never saw her again! I never forgot that week of heaven on earth. Some how I survived the loss and something almost magic happen inside me. I tunneled a memory, a feeling and a loss deep into my being at that young age.

Oh, many pressures, sorrows and loses occured over the years, mom and dad passing, my first grandson dying and the beat goes on. Yet each one burrowed a deep furrow into my subconsciousness leaving me the richer in experience but I didn't realize the wealth of it at the time.

One trauma that stands out in my memory is my loss of family and country as I left for Viet Nam. Larry, the 19 year old guy across the street had just been brought home in a box. The war had claimed a kid from my neighborhood. I didn't know him well, but seeing his family mourn was enough to shake me to my foundations. Off I went into the wild blue yonder. Off to face the most alone moments of my lonely life to date. And yet this loneliness was one of the greatest gifts of my young life.

I was faced with the stark reality that the strings had been cut and I was in orbit - free flying half way around the world with no one seemingly caring about me. As this loneliness settled in like darkness shrouding a black forest - I felt another deep well being punched down into my soul. I experienced the hot tears of anger and fear suffocate me as I tried to get my bearings.

It was then the revelation of His presence flooded me. It was at that moment of despair I cried out. He was there and I was no longer alone. In that far away land He was at my side in every assault of loneliness and fear. When the outer enemy fired on us in the jungle rivers or when my inner enemy crushed me - I could hold steady because He was there to comfort and guide me to sanity and safety.

That's been 40 plus years and yet the battle still rages on. A different battle, each crisis a new opportunity to seek Him and faithfully He is still at my side. He promised to NEVER leave me or forsake me.

I have had to privilege to dig deep and have found a network, a honey comb of tunnels with each flowing into rich memories of His abiding presence. How about you? Do your deepest pains link up with hope and does it leave you with Him watching over you? Why not ask Him to make sense of the confusion and the pain - He can you know, as a matter of fact that's why you're reading this right now...

THINK ABOUT IT!

Amazed!!!

When I survey the ponderousness of life itself and the fact that I have one - I am amazed! Did you choose to be? Did you choose when and where to exist? Either did I and yet here I am as well as there you are...

How do we explain such a miracle? How do we appreciate such an opportunity? Pain, sorrow, losses these are but experiences of being. Joy, happiness and ecstasy - again opportunities to experience this thing called life.

The other day I had some incredible chest pain and could not swallow. At first I panicked because I could not catch my next breath. Then a strange thing began to unfold in my MIND. I realized this unwelcome and alarming jolt was happening to me and that it might last for a long time. As I contemplated this unwelcome thought, I realized how time suddenly was moving in slow motion. The pain and starkness of this reality was taking over all my senses and I was pin-point focused on the event.

Now what?

I had a choice. I could dread this moment, a moment that seemed like a life time. Or I could settle into this experience. I decided to savor the journey instead of freaking out. I chose to take on this challenge with all the confidence my personal relationship to this point in my life with a sovereign God could afford. This was dangerous, after all, I might see HIM in a few minutes if this breathing thing stopped permanently.

I called out from inside my spirit - that part of me that's deeper than my mind of fears and dreads. I found my spirit calm and ready to respond to this God I needed more than my next breath.

As my wife nervously asked me if I wanted her to drive me to the hospital, I reflected back on my experiences with well meaning doctors and their best guesses and decided I would trust my Helper in the here and now instead. I hunkered down for the long haul, just in case.

Was it foolish male ego? Was it ignorant pride? Perhaps, one might wonder if it was just fear itself or denial.

No!

It was the calm only experience can bring. My experience's were rock solid. My experiences held stronger than even the pain and panic of the moment. My resolve was to walk it out confidently trusting in the One who has, in the words of John Newton from his world famous song, brought me "though many dangers, toils and snares - I have already come - tiz grace that brought me safe thus far and grace will bring me home.

"I especially like the Apostle Paul's famous insight on such troubles it goes like this, "We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they are good for us—they help us learn to endure. And endurance develops strength of character in us, and character strengthens our confident expectation of salvation. And this expectation will not disappoint us. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love. When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners."

I was amazed! I was not in fear but by the grace of my Father, I was experiencing an opportunity to develop a stronger resolve and endure this moment because I was suddenly aware that no matter how long this moment lasted - I would not be disappointed with God's love. Soon I was breathing normal again, Thank God!

How about your darkest moment? Trusting God isn't just for sissies or weaklings - some of the smartest and toughest have found Him there when they needed Him too. So take a deep breath and ....

THINK ABOUT IT!

Like a String Pulling You Up into the Sky

I woke up at 4:15 am again. Of course it was not all that surprising to be awake this early because a little after eight last night I snuck off to take a little rest for a few minutes in one of the spare bedrooms. Everyone was paired off and talking and I knew no one would miss me for a few minutes. Well our company has been long gone and as I try to straighten up, I feel stiff from lying down so long: but, I have no regrets. Those 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep left me more rested than I’ve felt in months.

As I sat my sore body down in my study, I heard this thought in the back of my mind, ‘just pretend there’s a string pulling you up into the sky’. So with out thinking, I straightened up my back and neck and aligned myself with the sky.

Suddenly I realized that was my mothers voice from my childhood. Mom’s been gone for 20 years, but her voice came back to serve me in my moment of need. How many times do we act out of our past? No doubt a lot more than we know.

Our belief systems seem to just float around in side but are they really just floating or are we on some kind of automatic pilot system that runs our lives more than we realize?

As I pondered I decided to fire up my lap-top and lay some thoughts down. I thought to myself, ‘I should talk to God for a while since I’m up early’. Now was that religious guilt or was that Godly inspiration? I wasn’t sure. Was this a part of my mothers input or was this a call past the sky to the heavens?

How free are we in our choices? Are we programmed from the past or are we freewheeling into our futures? What if Mom forgot to plant a thought or a belief into us? What if there was no Mom, or Dad or teacher to plant the seeds of our future? What would we reap? Where would our life aims be pointing us?

Of course nature and the universe have no voids. Someone or something has been programming each of us with every thought we think and every action we take. But is it accurate to the reality of life and eternity? That’s a question that comes to challenge me in a thousand different ways, in a million different flavors.

Is there really a free thinker among us? I doubt it. We’ve all been influenced by EVERYTHING. What if my input has placed me on the wrong road or leaned my ladder on the wrong wall? What if when life is over I’ve missed my destiny, my calling? What if I was deceived into wandering down the wrong path only to find I’d missed my purpose?

Purpose? "Come on don’t flatter yourself", you may say. Aren’t we just a speck of dust on the cosmic drawing board of time and space? Do we really think our few breaths and a couple million movements in time really matter in the light of eternity?

They better or else what’s the point of being here! What’s the point of living? Is it just to take up space, breath a while and leave? Are we no better than a moth that hatches in the morning and flutters throughout the millions of micro-seconds of one day only to fizzle out and die trying to escape the blackness of the night into the seemingly magic of a back porch light?

No! A thousand times no!Life without a purpose is more than pointless – it’s cruel. But the real question must be asked: Whose purpose? In the scheme of EVERYTHING don’t our lives have to fit some master plan? Shouldn’t we find a role to play? Our role? Our pre-destined role? If not a predestined plan, then everything plays out random and random eventually leads to either boredom or torment.

There’s too much rhyme and reason to everything to buy into random. Too many things fit patterns that flow together and make sense. Too many things lead to conclusions. Too many things lead to a Creator. This Creator we all seek, knowingly or unknowingly, has a purpose and plan for each of our lives. Stars don’t collide, people want to love and be loved, we want more than experiences - we want answers. We care about making sense of things. No! random doesn’t make any sense.

I want more than a Great Someone in the Great Somewhere. I want a Great SomeONE who cares about me and wants to live inside me – with me! I want a Great Someone who is greater than me. Some one who can lead me out of this not so great an ending I see happening to everything, to a happily-ever-after in more than just a fairy tale.

I want a Savior, a King, the one true God. God makes more sense than no god. Jesus is far beyond logic. He’s more than a prince charming for the ladies or a super hero for the little boys. He's the reflection of the face of the Creator. The reflection of the One who cared enough to come down here and show us purpose: His purpose. It’s more than that string my Mother told me to pretend was pulling me upward. It’s the rope from the sky that offers me an escape from a broken and confused world.

THINK ABOUT IT!

Are You Awake Yet?

I woke up again at 4:45am this morning and realized I had been asleep for 9 years! I was again drawn to my study and turned on my computer and looked at an entry I had made long before blogs were even heard of.... here it is...

(October 4th 1998 at 2am I awoke to the electric power off - got up to pray - HE said write by the light of the moon - as I finished the power came back on)

The New Day

“That which has been shall be no more. Do not try to go back - instead press into Me! For I am winding up the ages - the day of my terrible wrath has come full circle upon the earth. Fear not for this is the day of your destiny! I am fully able to complete that which I have called you to accomplish in My day.

This is the day the Lord has made - the key is to rejoice and be glad in it - for the day will require much strength, so, rejoice - for the joy of the Lord shall be your strength.Call upon me while I may be found - for I am ready to close out the age.

The time is at hand - do not look back. Remember Lot’s wife!No man puts his hand to the plow and looks back in My kingdom. Only overcomers can come up here.I am serious! I am telling you the truth - do not look to the right hand nor to the left - do not lean on the arm of flesh or look for a king Saul. But, look unto Me - the Author and Finisher of your faith for I am able to keep you. I am able to show Myself strong on your behalf.

I am exacting judgement - this is the day the prophets have foretold - but you are able to stand in it IF you will stare at Me and not be distracted by the noisesilime pestilence and the arrow that flies by day.This is the time to enter into your closet - into the Secret Place of the Most High. This is the intimacy I have spoken so often to you about - you are called to me and now enter into the Ark of safety and let the ‘Door’ keep you safely inside as ‘I’ close in upon you.

Keep yourself with all diligence for there is no more time for games. Listen carefully to all I speak to your heart and obey to the letter - for my word in your heart and in your mouth will not only make the path safe for you; but, it will give light to those who are following you as you follow Me.Fear not - only believe and be very courageous - for the best is yet to come! My covenant is the key. I am good for My Word - be sure you are hearing My Words and walking in that Light.

Take time to refresh yourself in the Word and in the Spirit. Talk often one to another of My Love and confidence will build among My people.Do NOT look with fear upon all that I am allowing to come upon the earth - only look to Me and all will work together for good.The day of my vengeance will burn as an oven and none can escape it.

But you need fear nothing - for lo I am with you - even to the end of the age.So look up - for your redemption is drawing near - look up and see the fulfillment of the ages and all the prophets have ever spoken - for I am NOT slack concerning my Word and those who know Me will do exploits - for they shall usher in My kingdom with Me in great power and demonstration.

Rejoice! for you have been counted worthy to escape the things that are coming upon the whole world - and your escape is into my very presence - not a running away - but a going over.Even as in the days of Noah - so shall the days of the coming of the Son of man be - I will carry you, as an ark, through the floods of judgement - you shall overcome!Go through -FEAR NOT - we will exceedingly rejoice in the day of the Lord - for I am going to wreck havoc upon the enemy of my people - death, hell and the grave are ready to swallow up the princes of darkness and I, even I, will reign through you and the rest of My obedient sons.

For the manifestation of the sons of God is ready to redeem the earth and set the captives free from the prince of darkness.So now, look unto Me, rejoice and see the arm of the Lord extend in great victory.See Me for I AM all in all and none can stay My hand.

Yesterday is gone, and today is running out. God says, "but will you love me tomorrow..." It's time to wake up!"

THINK ABOUT IT!

Seems Like We Just Met Only Yesterday!

The day we met it was love at first sight. Somehow her hair ribbon got stuck on my lapel flower. Oh well, it could have been worse. She could have stuck that stick in her hand up my nose or something.

Anyway, we started our love affair at a rather young age. She simply loved red bow ties and I was gone for flowers in her hair. It's hard to believe we've been together for 3 days now or has it been 37 years?

I can hardly believe she's almost 4 or is it 3 or is it 43? 53? - whatever? Anyway my cell phone is going off and I've got to check my email before going to bed so I'd better sign off for now. Sure hope she'll let me pull the wagon tomorrow at the park. Last time she was so upset with me for jumping in front of her on the swings that I was sure she wouldn't let me sit next to her on the big seat and drink out of my tippy cup first.

Oh I just realized the kids need to be picked up for their dentist appointment tomorrow after school and my boss is coming to dinner at seven ... or was I supposed to pick up my grand kids? Where has all the time gone?

Happy anniversary honey. It's been worth it all and more. Hey, fix that ribbon in your hair, I just hate when it gets stuck on my lapel.

THINK ABOUT IT!

Get Rid of The Guilt!

My wife was in a real estate meeting yesterday and one of the agents mentioned that he'd been in a workshop setting and the speaker asked if anyone woke up at the same time every night. He said he woke up at 4:29am EVERY day. Of course he tried to go back to sleep.

This intrigued my wife because she has been waking up at the same time too. Her agent friend then told her that the speaker at this scientific workshop said this is a great opportunity.The opportunity is that when you wake up - GET UP!

You may only get up for a short while, but as you wake up and get up take the time to read, pray, meditate or write because this is your optimum moment for your day! Your mind and spirit are at their best.

My wife and I are tuned into a spiritual leader named Chuck Pierce. Many believe he is a modern day prophet and hears from God. Chuck recently said that the acient Jewish people had WATCHMEN who took watches over the cities during the night. He went on to say that God is calling for WATCHMEN (and women) to be spiritually alert to hear what God would say to our spirit in the nightseasons.All sounded kind of wierd. That is until science and religion stood side by side and the possibility of reality hit the scene of my thinking.

So at 4:47 am this morning guess who awoke - wide awake. You got it, and as all through the house not a creature was stirring - but me - I sprung to my feet, but instead of looking for Santa, I was looking to see what might happen next.I wandered into my study and sat at my computer. I then noticed that the little green light on the printer was blinking at me.

That's not unusual because it's suppossed to do that , however, it seldom prints.The printer is new but the computer is old and has suffered at the hands of my kids and their computer software. Unfortunalty it has confussed the paths in my computers brains and most of the time the printer doesn't know what the computer is thinking and won't print.

I literally felt like God was sending me a message in my spirit or my mind - or maybe both. Anyway, MY computer (my brain) had been corupted just yesterday at an outside resturante.

There we were sitting in the warm 90 degree sun light eating toco's when a very good looking woman in a short skirt sat down right in front of us.Of course, not being blind, I noticed she had been blessed by God with very long legs. At that same moment another very attractive young lady in even a shorter skirt sat down at the table across from her. She too had legs, only more of them were visable.

Suddenly, I was sexually alerted and interested in business that was none of mine.I had allowed my heart and mind to go unguarded. What was I guarding? Well, for starters, my marriage. Next, my heart for God, and finally, my own concience.

Now don't get me wrong, I am not dead or blind and the pleasure was real - however, short lived as guilt, condemnation and confussion began to flood my computer (my mind) and my printer (my concience) was going haywire.My solution? Just call it for what it was... I had missed perfection. (some call it sin - but then sin is a bit out of date as a definition or maybe it's really a good definition considering it's a 14th century sports term for archery and missing the bullseye or missing perfection).

Meanwhile, back at my sanity, I was noticing my personal FREEDOM had vanished! I felt this uneasy, confused and guilty feeling. What was I to do since I didn't like this feeling and since I wanted to keep my relationship with my wife and with my God?

Well, the first thing I did was remember a verse or two from the Bible. 1 John chapter 1 says in about verse 7: IF we walk in the light as Jesus is in the light that we can have good relationship with people without wanting to use them, and that the blood Jesus shed at the cross for anyone who would believe it was shed for them, and they could be FREE!FREE is good.

Been there done free. However, at this moment I was not free. So I simply took the Bible as the word of God for me since the very next verses in this reading said to CONFESS my MISSING THE BULLS EYE (or sinning against PERFECTION or God) and that by simply owning up to my failure to be as perfect as God, Jesus would accept His shed blood and my faith in that transaction as my forgiveness and approval before His Father, God.

The proof is in the pudding. I messed up. I decided to own my problem and go one step further, I gave it to Jesus and accepted his shed Blood for my forgiveness with God.Result? No more oppression, depression or confusion and by the way NO MORE CONDEMNATION. I am FREE again. The good news is that He will always be there to encourage me to own my fault and then He will encourage me to give it to Him and be free again.

THINK ABOUT IT!

That's Absurd!

I read something this morning that rocked my boat. It was a promise to me personally IF I would do something that seemed literally IMPOSSIBLE! That promise was and is so BIG that I can't let it go. I find myself saying HOW? It all starts with the concept of 'staying'.

'STAYING' is such a little-BIG word...

To stay in a state of expectancy, to stay in a committed relationship, to stay in a given place for the rest of my life is absurd! at least absurd to my way of thinking. Whose idea was this to STAY anywhere, anyway - anyhow?

A long time ago a fantastic promise was made by the most powerful man who ever walked the planet. He said if I would (or if you would) stay in a state of expectancy, in a committed relationship, in a given place I could ask for ANYTHING and I would have the POWER to receive what I asked.

OK, wait a minute, a lot of people in the past said a lot of things. How much authority and right did this individual have to make such a boast? Would it help to know this person created the universe? Would it help to know this One is the Son of God? Would it help to know that not ONE WORD He ever spoke has failed?

Of course I'm talking about Elvis. NOT! Henry the 8th. NO! Pope what's his name the 23rd. NOPE ! Who cares what anyone but God himself has to say anyway. What if we could KNOW what God had to say to us, to me, to you?

Good News! Jesus Christ came to put a face on God. He came to leave words that would never pass away or go out of date. Best of all He told us where this PLACE is that we must stay to get this promise - this absurd promise!

To my mind the promise He made IS absurd. But what does absurd mean? According to Websters Dictionary it means: ridiculously unreasonable, or incongruous: having no rational or orderly relationship to human life. So when I look out of my filtered mindset I see no possibilities of making good on this promise. How can anyone STAY in a specific place FOREVER?

Once I took the filters off and laid aside my mindsets and opinions it was like the song says, "I can see clearly now". By the way, here's the PLACE Jesus offered and the promise that came with staying there. "But if you stay joined to me and my words remain in you, you may ask any request you like, and it will be granted!"

How do I do that? Oh, here's another version of that same absurd promise: "If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatsoever you will, and it shall be done unto you." OK, but I'm still asking how?

How does anyone stay in a person.... ?

More good news: Jesus is alive and He is in the present - NOW! As a matter of fact He is God's present to me and you right now. All I need to do to stay in Him is to believe He can keep me by His words of promise and THEN cash in on that absurd (to my MIND) promise of asking and receiving ANYTHING that's according to His will. I simply must realize if I stay in Him - I'm finally out of my mind!

Little Anthony and the Imperials had a great song in the 60's called 'GOING OUT OF MY HEAD OVER YOU'. Well, that's absurd! Going out of my head for anyone or anything is absurd. But Jesus is absurd and that's why they crucified Him! He's totally illogical!

PROBLEM! He wouldn't stay dead. He's alive AGAIN because He is God! And His promise is impossible IF I'm going to pull it off by using my head. It's about the heart: the human spirit. Jesus is good for His word IF you're willing to go out of your mind and meet Him with your heart.

THINK ABOUT IT!

Fatal Attraction!

It was beautiful. It was scary. In my imagination it drew me to the edge. I almost couldn't help myself as I crawled past the guard rail to hang my head over the cliffs to see the ice crash against the rocks below. Life has so many beautiful scenes to offer - some scary - some dangerous!

Have you ever wondered why we are crazy dangerous at heart? Why do we tempt fate? It's almost like we can't help ourselves. What draws us to the edges of life? For some it's Everest, for others it's the ocean in a one man boat and for others it's some other unexplainable risk we take to feel alive.

That's it! We want to feel alive! What's the point of being alive if you're numb or asleep or worse yet bored? God is the most dangerous experience you'll ever know. We're talking God NOT religion or the study of God. The Creator is life, life pealed back to the raw nerve. No holds bared. Only the wild at heart dare venture near. Actually, it's a members only club - by invitation only!

Man for centuries has been trying to get in on his own. It's amazing to study world wide religions and the antics of frustrated men. Watching them generate their own fire and then worshipping the gods they invent. Sad, sick and sorrowful.

God, the real God - the ONLY God - has already chosen the players and the positions - it's up to us to let go and follow His lead instead of making our own way and then calling it divinity. What does that mean? It's simple. Jesus said it all in two words: FOLLOW ME!

Dare we let go of the controls and follow Him? Where's he going? He didn't hold anything back, He told us where He was going and even where He came from. He said, "I come from the Father and I am going back to the Father, but I will not leave you or forsake you - Follow Me - I'm going to prepare a place for YOU and if I go I will come again that you may be where I am".

To follow Jesus in this life is a fatal attraction! I can not go where He leads without Him. I can not be in the lead if I am to follow. I am out of control if He is leading and my life is no longer my own if I dare let Him lead. He only requires one thing in the final analysis: Let go of it all and trust Him in each moment of life.

One man put it so profoundly when he said, "the life I live is no longer my life, but the life I now live, I live by the energy force of God himself, and the faith I have is not in my faith alone, but my faith is now in the One who lives inside me."

Who lives INSIDE you besides you? I'll ask you again. Who lives in there with you? Are you alone? Alone seems safer, but it's not living - it's only existing. We were made to be a dwelling place for Deity. If I don't let Him in when I hear His voice I am forced to worship myself. How empty it soon becomes in here. How lonely. How sad to run out of time at the end of my life and know I have nowhere prepared for me to go - but to shrivel up inside of ME and die.

No wonder the thousands of martyrs through out time wouldn't recant as they burned them, stoned them, tortured them demanding they renounce this fatal attraction to this Jesus.
Fatal? Yes, He is dangerous. It costs everything to follow the dangerous One. But it's so worth it all. When you let Him come in - He stays. He takes over. He takes you places you never dreamed possible.

Boring? Not hardly. Dangerous? Sometimes. Would you ever go back to being dead in your self life once you've tasted His life coursing though your veins? NEVER!

Have you heard His voice yet? Do you dare seek HIM? He's calling, can you hear Him? Listen, I can hear it clearly now, "Come Home". We were designed to live dangerously, wildly, fulfilled as He lives out His life in and through us.

The Cross makes more sense when we realize it was a purchase. He was buying us back. Yes back! We were destined to be His from before time. Somehow we were derailed, ripped off, stolen from our OEM (Original Equipment Manufacture).

If you hear Him today, simply surrender! Real life, the one you were destined to live begins when you let your individual desires die to His ownership of you. Can you hear Him calling you home?

THINK ABOUT IT!

Who Are You Really?

Reality requires a rare flavor of humility. When I survey my past and present, I must admit that I have been carried and covered with a grace far beyond my accomplishments and abilities. Have you ever feared you would be found out to be who you know you really are? It's a shattering reality for anyone willing to look inside...but don't look too long or you may just cave into that black hole called self.

Most really don't want to be known by anyone that well!I have yet to know a real 'self made' man or woman. The few extraordinary individuals I have known were gifted, not better, merely gifted. What they ultimately did with those gifts was the real test of true character.

As my life unfolds and races to the end of the track I find a reality that is almost unbearable. I think I see a little clearer now, whereas in days gone by my vision was clouded with my own opinions and pride. Now, as my heroes are old and grey or gone I see that they were just mere men and women who honored their giftings or marketed them.

Those who recognized the Source of their greatness became humble and approachable. Those who believed their own press became difficult to live with after a while. The selfless became the true champions while the self-absorbed became abominable.

What are our gifts really for and why do we possess them? Are we supposed to possess them or give them away? It seems the real gifts are for giving not keeping. The real joys of life are always in the giving more than the receiving. We aren't taking anything with us when we leave, why not see how much we can give away before our time runs out?

Bill Gates seems to have found a joy money can't buy: Giving it away! He has done so well that Warren Buffet has entrusted Gates to steward his fortunes and give them away on his behalf. Could we all be racing to the top of a mountain that really doesn't exist?

Is true happiness really capsulized in the immortal words of Jesus Christ when He said, "Who ever will save His life, will loose it - but whoever looses His life for My sake will save his life."What if Gates and Buffet have discovered the secret of real life? What if Jesus told us the truth when He said, "Whoever helps the least of these my brothers and sisters, does it unto Me".

Could 2 of the richest men on earth be showing us how to move fortunes from this life to the next? Is this what true humility is about? Is giving ourself away the reality we're searching for?We won't ever know their true motives, but Jesus did say we would know a tree by it's fruit.

No one is going to earn ANYTHING from the God of heaven and earth, but I'm convinced He will honor those who honor Him by obeying His Word. What and WHO are you saving your life for these days, these short, fast moving days?

THINK ABOUT IT!

Go West Young Man - Hey, Are You Really Going Now?

"Twenty four hours from Tulsa", so the song went. Fact is, it's been more than 24 little hours since I got into town. Actually, it's been 24 quick years. Showed up with $100 in my pocket and a wife and 4 kids back in Michigan.

That was a long time ago but...That 24 years seems like 24 hours ago. That $100 held me over for a few weeks since I was sleeping on the floor of a complete stranger's apartment. I met him, a fellow book salesman, actually he was my competition. Seems he had some compassion on a fellow book peddler forced into a company transfer Christmas week.

Didn't plan to stay but a few weeks, at least until the Christmas season had passed and the New Year got started. It's hard to find a job day after Christmas, and that's when they said I had to be in California for training if I wanted to stay with the Company.With a new born, 3 little girls, a wife and a mortgage - well, I didn't have a whole lot of options at the time.

So there I was sending my paychecks home and looking for daily miracles. I probably prayed more during that 6 months than I did the whole 2 years I was in and out of Viet Nam. Miracles? I could write a book on miracles!That was 24 years ago - last year we paid off our California home - this year the baby boy moved out to set up housekeeping with his new bride. It's all moving so fast - last week one of my closest friends dropped dead with a heart attack.

Guess I had better savor the moments because it's time to focus on what is REAL. So what is real?The only thing I can figure out to be real are the relationships with my kids and my wife and a handful of special friends. Those special moments in life are when I can stop and realize that they are the true REALITY of my life. They are my fortune, my inheritance, my blessing from God Himself.

Mistakes? Oh I've made a few - but this isn't the time to carry those around - no! it's time to be grateful, to be thankful for life and that I'm still breathing air without the help of a little green bottle and a tube.It's great to be alive!

THINK ABOUT IT!