I love to express what I feel called to say. Writing helps me to open up my heart and do that. I hope that what I write helps you in some way. I hope it makes you think, encourages you, or inspires you. If it challenges you or if you disagree, I hope you know that I respect your right to have a different point of view.
Pride attempts to hide The brokenness That it feels inside. Humility sets aside All pretense So it can side With honesty And truth.
Pride is a cover-up, A mask to hide What’s really Going on inside Hurting human hearts.
In order to heal We need to be real And humbly reveal The pain that we feel. When we show anger And arrogance, People resist. When we let them See our pain, They want to assist And help us gain Healing and peace.
Pride isn’t good for mental health because although we may impress others, deep down we know that our boasting is just a sham. Arrogance makes accurate analysis difficult. Pride doesn’t like people to question or doubt its claims. Humility welcomes questions without clouding the air with defensiveness.
When we surrender to inner enemies that try to dominate and control us, we give up our free will and become a puppet to desires.Perhaps the hardest act of humility is to admit to being arrogant and to ask for forgiveness.
Honesty, modesty, and courtesy have become a rarity in a world that urgently needs to face reality with sanity.If you will speak or write from a place of tenderness in your heart, you’ll learn a lot about what’s really going on inside you.
Pride keep us from seeing our sinfulness. Humility allows us to see our great need for God’s mercy and forgiveness.
The risen Jesus asked the aggressive and determined but road weary Saul of Tarsus a simple question: “Why do you persecute Me?” Rather than defending himself and his motives that he believed were righteous, Saul asked Jesus, “Who are You, Lord?” Then Jesus answered Saul’s question and told Saul His name, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. Now get up and go into the city and you will be told what you must do.” Finally, Saul obeyed Jesus at that moment and wholeheartedly followed Him for the rest of His life.
What is Christ’s question for you on your road today? When Jesus interrups your journey and questions your goals and priorities, will you call Him “Lord” and obey Him, not just for a while, but for the rest of your life?
Forcing yourself to obey your own interpretation of the law is blind legalism and can lead you into persecuting Christ and His true followers the way the Pharisees and Saul did. Listening to and obeying the risen Jesus leads to being led by the Spirit and produces a lifestyle overflowing with the gifts and the fruit of the Spirit. If you are a believer, it’s time to go where Christ tells you and “be told what you must do.”
Jesus always asks the right questions. Listen with an open heart and let His questions bring you light! He has questions for you that are powerful and will change your life if you will listen to and answer them.
Too many people want to question the Lord, but they don’t want the Lord to question them. It takes courage to honestly answer God’s questions. The fear of the conscience and the fear of God’s questions are two of humanity’s greatest fears.
Our conscience wants to ask us God’s questions, but too often we’re unwilling to listen and to honestly answer.If you give dishonest answers to God’s questions you will harden your heart and live in deception.The fear of the conscience and the fear of God’s questions are two of humanity’s greatest fears.
God asked the first man and woman, “Where are you?” not because He lost track of them, but because they lost track of Him.Perhaps you’re struggling in life because you are avoiding or rejecting God’s questions.The questions God asks you are the most important questions in life. Try not to ignore them.
All questions that come to your mind aren’t equal. Some are from yourself, some from the devil, and some from God. Discern the source. Those that fill your heart with truth, light, and healing are from God.
Here’s God’s question that mysteriously entered my heart and changed my life: “If you were born a Hindu, what would you be today?” When I honestly answered, “A Hindu,” God asked me, “Why do you think you are a Christian?” and I realized that I only had second-hand faith. That led me to open my heart to truth and to encountering the risen Jesus about two years later. My life has never been the same!
The degree to which open-hearted love for and surrender to Jesus is being expressed through your words and your life is indictive of how much He is impacting you day by day. (“By their fruits you shall know them.”)
The neglect of Christ-followers to openly and publicly express and testify to the mighty workings of God in, through, and around them has led to the false belief among many Christians that God no longer (or rarely) does miracles. “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.” When people daily encounter the risen Jesus and then begin to freely, courageously, and boldly express what He’s doing in them, they spread spiritual fire.
A heart-to-heart encounter with the risen Jesus, a flash of direct revelation in your spirit, can do in an instant what a lifetime of religion can never accomplish! Ask Jesus to express and demonstrate His power, presence, and love in your heart. Then humbly receive what He does!
Faith unfelt
That doesn't melt
The human heart
With daily awareness
Of God's undeserved love
Is a religious sedative
That may settle the nerves
But leaves the soul
Unwhole.It's never been cool
To be a fool
For Christ
And to let Him rule
Your daily life,
But if you let Him
Bring peace
To your inner strife
He will make your
Inner lostness cease!What if God
Simply wants
Your heart
Fully surrendered
To His hands
So He can mold you
Like a potter
Molds his clay
And lead you
By His Spirit
Throughout each day?Let no tormenting thought
Be brought
To your mind
Without having sought
To keep it out
And courageously fought
Against it
Until you've been taught
To never surrender your mind
To any thought
That can bring you
Or others harm.
There are no degrees of rebellion against God. If you’ve ever rebelled against Him in little ways, you’re no better off spiritually than someone who has rebelled against Him in big ways. We all need His mercy, forgiveness, and healing purchased by Jesus on the Cross.
Being a redeemed Christ-follower means that you no longer need to attempt the futile fight of trying to justify or prove yourself to yourself, to other people, or to God. It means that you’ve humbly agreed with God’s diagnosis that you have gone astray and are totally undeserving of HIs love and completely dependent on his mercy, forgiveness, and grace.
The more we believe that we deserve and/or have earned the good things in our life, the less we will be grateful to God for them. Honestly admitting our unworthiness and seeing all the good in and around us as undeserved gifts from God fills us with thanksgiving!
I haven’t earned and don’t deserve anything good. Everything good in my past, present, and future was, is, and will be a completely unmerited gift from God. How merciful He’s been to me!
It’s not wise to be stuck on hindsight when God wants to give you insight. Instead of just looking back look to the risen Jesus now! Unfortunately, Christians tend to focus more on trying to justify themselves through theology instead of learning to rely on and depend on the presence, reality, and mercy of the living Jesus in the present moment.
You can’t go back in time, but you can mend some of the damage you’ve caused in the past and humbly apologize for the rest. Jesus calls that “repentance.” It puts you in the position to receive and live in God’s mercy and forgiveness.
Let any remorse that comes from hindsight be a call to humbly ask for and receive present day forgiveness from God. That’s much more effective than attemping self-forgiveness. Often pray this ancient prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me a sinner.”
If you'll open your heart
To God's innovation
And let Jesus give you
A complete renovation,
You'll want to give Him
A never-ending
Standing ovation!
In The Chromosomes
By Bob Revealin'
How many surgeries
Must a man go thru
Before you can
Call him a woman?
The answer, my friend,
Is in the chromosomes.
The answer is in the chromosomes!
XY never equals XX.Here's a simple scientific fact:
Your birth chromosomes
Either XX or XY
Will stay with you
Till you die.
In the midst of all your troubles, pain, and suffering you have been given an amazing ability — the power to open or to shut down your heart. Choose to open your heart to love and forgiveness not to anger and bitterness. If we would express more kindness, we’d receive more kindness.
If there’s no real free will then there’s no freedom of expression or freedom of choice — only humanity’s AI mindlessly obeying IT. However when I decide to observe and use my conscious mind I’m confronted with constant choices to make. To proclaim freedom of choice but not believe in human free will is hypocritical. There’s no freedom of expression without free will.
God offers a beautiful destiny to all people — a destiny paid for through the blood of Jesus. He has given people the freedom to choose or to reject that beautiful destiny of an eternal loving relationship with Him. God is eternal and “knows the end from the beginning.” His foreknowledge enables Him to foresee human choices before they are made. “God is love” so He hates the choices that people make that separate them from His eternal presence and love. He seeks to draw all people unto Jesus. He has mercy and compassion on all who will choose to humble themselves to receive His mercy and the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross.
To begin to experience the beauty of the best words beautifully arranged, open your heart to notice the thoughts that God expresses within you. Let Jesus make an eternal impression in your heart, and you will ever overflow with glorious expression. Being natural isn’t what it’s puffed up to be. Let the living Jesus lead, train, and empower you to be supernatural! The most important freedom of expression is the expression of “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Let the risen Jesus freely flow from within you!
Open your heart to the fruit of God’s Spirit. It has no harmful side effects — only an amazing sense of blessing and contentment. All who open their heart in surrender to Jesus and trust Him with their lives are empowered to be led by the Spirit. Will you follow? John 1:12/Romans 8:14.
The leadership, presence, vitality, energy, and expressions of the Holy Spirit are essential to genuine Christianity.Christians need to go beyond quoting preachers or expressing our own opinions. We need to speak words prompted by God’s Spirit.
Institutional religion tends to make Christians robotic — following a party line and being unkind to those who disagree.God’s discipline isn’t comfortable but to refuse to accept it is to cut yourself loose from ultimate reality.
My philosophy I don’t have to express Emotions and desires That cause duress And let them oppress My life with stress And compel me to transgress My conscience. I’m free to resist them And to deny them access To my heart And my free will.
I’ve learned An amazing lesson. I can choose to use My freedom of expression To resist and refute Feelings of depression And to refuse To cooperate with them.
Express kindness through All you say and do. Then you will find That you feel kind And people will be kind To you.
When I choose to make My facial expression Match the way I want to feel Eventually I will Begin to feel That way.
To empty your face Of negative expressions And replace Them with hope Helps you And those who Have to look at you.
It takes courage To resist Bad feelings That persist And to insist That your heart Be a place Of purity. Be courageous.
Pride and blame blur truth. Humility and honesty clear it up. To ignore uncomfortable truth is to resist the conviction of the Holy Spirit.
Unless we let God tune our heart and keep it tuned to His will we’ll easily stray into the discord of self-focus.The more I’m aware of God’s splendorous, majestic, and grandiose identity, the less need I feel to identify myself.
Free will! If you don’t want to see what God wants to show you, He’s not going to force you to exit the darkness. To avoid uncomfortable truth is to distance yourself from God.
The more you focus on yourself, the more you blur your vision of God. Every time you make the decision to close down your heart you blur your inner vision.
When we read the Bible with an open, humble, and receptive heart and let the Holy Spirit speak within us God begins to show us His point of view. When reading the Bible makes you uncomfortable you’re on God’s Light track! Keep reading.
The Bible tells the uncomfortable truth about ancient Israel and about contemporary you. They wouldn’t hear it. Will you? To be sick while ignoring the symptoms and dodging the diagnosis isn’t wise. Let the Bible show you the symptoms and the cure for your sin.
Christ-followers are called to align our thinking and behavior with God’s point of view even when it goes against our own opinions, feelings, and desires. The more I cling to my opinions, feelings, and desires, the farther I stray from God’s.
After decades of observing church, I’ve noticed that Sunday messages prepared and delivered by a studious mind seem to lack the power to transform Christians into powerful and effective men and women of God who continually demonstrate the power and presence of the living Jesus in and through their daily life. It’s time to go beyond church as usual!
Pride, guilt, shame, and blame are symptoms of sin. Medicating, blurring, or boasting about the symptoms won’t cure the disease.
To medicate And blur your pain Is to abdicate The opportunity To receive God’s supernatural comfort In the midst of it.
There's more to come,
More peace, more joy,
More freedom
From things that anoy;
More love from above
Descending like a dove.
God's Spirit
Has so much more
To say and do
Inside of you.
Never quit seeking Jesus.
Never stop surrendering
Your will and ability
And embracing
His presence
With humility.It's hard to stand
And obey Christ's command
In a pleasure-seeking land
If you only hear second-hand
Information about Him
Through a preacher's sermons.
Wholeheartedly seek
To hear Jesus speak
And to always be aware
Of His "still, small voice"
And His glorious presence.
Make Christ the essence
Of your daily life!Dare to say to the living Jesus:
“Wash me, cleanse me.”
Admit you’re not “fine.”
Open your heart
And let God’s Light shine
On the things that you hide
And have often denied.
It’s hard to be healed
Unless you let it be revealed
Where you’re hurting.When Christians
Give up the daily search
To know Jesus better
Their faith becomes
Little more than
Going to church.Although few people
Will admit
That they are
Morality-phobic
It's really quite common.
Christianity without Christ’s presence and power is a dried-up flower. Christianity’s so much more than experiencing a one-time flash in your spiritual pan and then attending a weekly religious talk. Because Jesus is living and working in all of His true followers, He doesn’t need a hierarchy or a go-between to communicate with and direct them.
Morality-phobia makes it hard to hear your conscience. Courageously listen to and obey it anyway!To “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” you have to overcome morality-phobia.
It takes courage To open your heart, Courage to let people See you cry, Courage to trust God When you’re hurting And don’t know why But that courage Produces exuberance That you could never buy.
Exuberant living Requires the inner light Of heart-transforming insight That produces true delight, Not outward attempts To disguise the dark night That’s consuming your soul.
A delinquent culture needs exuberant holiness — not outward rule keeping but inner transformation.True transformation is of the heart. Changing a person’s body without healing their hurting heart is just cosmetic.
Aligning your life to feelings and desires that tell you to deny logic and reason is bondage, not transformation.Unless your heart is transformed, your life may look different, but internally you’ll still be the same.
Self-focus kills exuberance. We need a vision beyond self-interest and self-comfort to make life meaningful and joyous.Boasting about desires that torment and control you and seeking people’s approval of them won’t produce transforming inner peace.
To keep your heart always open to the risen Jesus is stay plugged in to the experience of exuberant living.If Christ isn’t producing ever-flowing exuberance inside you, there’s a disconnect somewhere. “Rejoice in the Lord always!”
To let Christ continually expose, forgive, and heal your inner dark spots is to experience the exuberance of supernatural transformation. If Christians aren’t trained to open their heart, speak up, and freely express Christ’s exuberance in church, where will they learn how to do it?
In the Bible the first two people choose human analysis and their own initiative instead of trust in and obedience to God. Not much has changed. Unless we begin to notice and follow the initiatives of God’s Spirit we may embrace religion, but we won’t be led by the Spirit. Christ’s initiatives, His sparks in human hearts, are too often ignored.
If Christ is in you be ever conscious of and guided by His presence. Train yourself to be sensitive to and appreciative of the initiative of God’s Spirit. Learn to let the Holy Spirit continually initiate and motivate your thoughts and behaviors. When we lay down our initiative and fully cooperate with Christ’s, we begin to experience the Lord’s prayer–God’s will being done on earth as it is in Heaven.
Many people have never heard that Jesus wants to initiate hope and healing in their heart, so they gravitate away from Him. Instead courageously open your heart to ponder and meditate on the presence of Jesus. Cooperate with Him so He can initiate and establish His will deep within you. Let the initiative of the Spirit (not your own desires) guide and direct you day by day.
Bravely notice the movement of God within your heart. Then be courageous enough to align yourself with and surrender to His will for you. Religion tends to sedate people. Jesus wants to initiate a supernatural way of life in your heart. Be courageous and let Him.
Resist, refute, and reject anything inside you that tries to hinder your ability to be conscious of and cooperative with the initiative of God’s Spirit. Dare to let the living Jesus initiate and navigate your decisions.
Theology presented in a sermon without the theology of directly encountering the living Jesus is empty words. Many people can’t see the living, daily present Jesus because church has blocked their view.
Until Christians are trained to open our heart and be vulnerable, Christianity will be mostly a head religion. Are you aware of what Jesus wants to initiate in your heart today? Why or why not?
Embracing the messy brokenness Of the way of the Cross In your own life Leads to astonishing connection To the power of Christ’s resurrection Working in you To will and to do What you could never do Without Christ living in you.
Free Gas for Your Think Tank -- Short Reflections, Lasting Encouragement 