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.
I’m a spiritual romantic. I keep falling deeper and deeper in love with Jesus. No religion can compare to a spiritual romance with the living Jesus Christ.
My life is a Christ-mance. Ever since I first encountered Jesus He has continually captured and wowed my heart.The ultimate benefit of an open heart is continual awareness of the presence of the living Jesus in the present moment.
A closed heart is like a stagnant pond. A heart that opens to God begins to experience rivers of living water.
Let God roll away the stone from your entombed heart and fill you with His life.If you keep your heart excited about Jesus, you’ll want to spend every moment interacting with Him.Jesus deserves much more than a little “quiet” or “devotional” time during your day. Think about and interact with Him all day long.
Because Christ-followers all have a direct connection with the living Jesus, we’re not dependent on an organizational hierarchy.Christianity isn’t about a particular church. It’s about a particular Savior–the living Jesus as described in the Bible!
When you can’t think of a way out of a difficult situation, turn down your mind. Then open up your heart to God’s inner guidance.The most effective way to connect with other people and with God is to open your heart.
If you will start To reveal your heart You’ll soon discover That people aren’t Very far apart.
Open hearted interaction with people creates beautiful interpersonal connections. Privacy prevents them. Fear of pain or rejection prevents many people from experiencing the daily joys of an open heart.
A closed heart is emotionally blind. When you open your heart, you begin to understand much that’s hidden from your mind.If you think you don’t feel things deeply, that’s because your heart’s on lockdown. Open up and see how deep your feelings go.
To deeply care and to sincerely share requires an open heart. A closed heart can only pretend. Having a closed heart may seem like a safe way to live, but all it really does is keep you in solitary confinement with your own misery.
You can’t receive or give love when your heart is closed. Regardless of the love language people use, a shut-down heart can’t truly understand it.
When I encountered the living Jesus, I opened my heart and began to worship Him like the wise men in the Christmas story.Like the shepherds in Bethlehem, I experienced the glory of God and began to passionately spread the news about Jesus everywhere.Throughout life’s pains and gains I’ve discovered than an open-heart encounters God’s love and comfort everywhere.
The Christmas story invites us all to open our heart to Jesus and to each other, but fear and distraction tell us to keep it closed.Our society trains us to protect our heart not to open it up to others, thus creating much isolation and loneliness.
King Herod in Jerusalem said he wanted to worship Jesus but closed his heart and tried to kill Him.The innkeeper in Bethlehem was too busy and distracted to open His heart and make room for Jesus.
Senior citizens Simeon and Anna had longed to see Jesus all their life. When they met Him, they spoke tender words from their heart.Jesus our Emmanuel is now here to open our hearts and connect us with God and with each other. Surrender your resistance and rejoice.To a closed heart it feels like God is nowhere but an open-heart experiences God as now here!
We humans have the choice to open or close our heart. Openhearted people in the Christmas story got visibly excited about the living Jesus; the closed hearted ignored or resisted Him. Even today it’s easy to spot whose heart is open and whose is closed.
Revelation is communication from the living God. It can be in the form of thoughts, impressions, images, insights, or ideas.Since Jesus first revealed Himself to me, I’ve searched history and discovered the writings of hundreds of people who share my experience and relationship with the risen Christ.
Few Christians are trained to receive direct revelation from God throughout the day–to say “Speak, Lord,” and listen in stillness.The early Christians received revelation of things that eye can’t see and ear can’t hear. (1 Corinthians 2: 9-10) We can too!People hungry to know God seek Him with their whole heart and receive glorious insights. Pray: “Lord, make me hungry for You.”
We can personally interact with Emmanuel (God with us) every day. Here’s an example of how revelation works. Throughout last night the word revelation kept going through my mind. When I woke up this morning, I read a blog that I read daily. The author had used the word revelation (or revealed) at least 7 times.
God is as close and as real as our breathing and just as easily unobserved. It requires courage to receive revelation from God because it often conflicts with our feelings, desires, and opinions.Throughout history people who receive and talk about direct revelation from God that aligns with the Bible have often been persecuted.
Genuine revelation from God is consistent and always aligns with what God revealed in the Bible. False revelation redefines Jesus and departs from who the Bible says He is. Anyone who claims a revelation that contradicts what the Bible says about who Jesus is, has embraced a false revelation.Jesus said, “Beware of false prophets.”
Here’s an example: One large, growing, and aggressive religious group claims that Jesus is the physical offspring of the physical body of the god of planet earth and Mary. Their god was once a man on planet earth and is now only the god of earth. He isn’t the Creator of all that exists. This group is very deceptive. They hide what they really believe about Jesus and pretend that they believe in the same Jesus that the Bible describes.
Let casual/carnal Christianity (including the Christmas season) remind you that God has so much more for us than formal religion has to offer. The risen Jesus is eager to reveal Himself to you. Are you ready and willing?
God wants to reveal And to unveil But we prefer To analyze detail Instead of humbly Following His trail Into life-altering insight.
In this world Of devastation We desperately Need revelation From God.
Decide Not to hide. Open wide Your heart And confide.
Much of our confusion in life comes from the lack of attention we give to the thoughts that pass through our mind directly from Jesus.If you will train yourself to daily notice and obey direct thoughts from Jesus, your life will become an amazing adventure.
God’s Spirit is called the Comforter because He imparts direct thoughts from the living Jesus to help and lead people from within.To be Spirit-led is to be guided and steered from the inside by direct thoughts and impressions from the risen Jesus.
Too often church attendance is seen as a substitute for being Spirit-led. However, just sitting thru church doesn’t earn a “Well done,” form God.
Thoughts from Jesus are much more common than we realize because we spend much of our time being distracted and we neglect to notice them.If you will pay attention to your thinking, you will notice that Jesus inspired thoughts often pass through your mind waiting for you to welcome and receive them.
Since Jesus is risen and ever-present, He puts His thoughts directly into your mind continually nudging you to align with Him.A thought that appears in your mind bringing hope or helpful insight is often a direct thought from Jesus.
Using religious entertainment and/or obligation to gather followers has trivialized Christianity. It discourages people from daily recognizing and following their direct inner thoughts from Jesus.
Direct thoughts from Jesus lovingly warn us when we are headed in the wrong direction.They gently call us to surrender our heart and will to His presence and control.When a direct thought from Jesus is noticed and nurtured it will burn in your heart and fill you with awe!Thoughts we hear in sermons are often sweet, but to notice and embrace direct thoughts from the living Jesus is life-changing!
Direct thoughts from Jesus are frequently ignored or rejected because they conflict with and challenge what we want.It’s important for Christians to learn to recognize and receive the thoughts that the risen Jesus puts in their mind so that they can walk in the Spirit.
Regularly reading the Bible with an open-heart trains people to recognize and receive thoughts from Jesus.Mary and Joseph treasured Jesus and let Him fill their heart with awe and wonder. O that we would do the same!
When people ignore or resist direct thoughts that Jesus puts into their mind, they trivialize Christianity. A Christian with a closed heart has trivialized Christianity.
Form without freedom, programs without power, preaching without passion, sermons without God’s Spirit, ritual without reality, liturgy without life, methodical meetings without supernatural mystery, Biblical analysis without the anointing, and hype instead of humility, are all signs of trivialized Christianity.
Neither trivialized Christianity nor paganism can produce inner peace in a human heart, but the risen Jesus can.Trivialized Christianity, superficial and artificial, distracts people from focusing on the risen Jesus and the thoughts that He deposits in our mind!
A fresh start Without a new heart Will still dart Down old paths.
You can’t mend a Heart With a mental Agenda. Many who are smart Are inwardly torn apart, But Jesus replaced My shattered stone heart With His healing love.
Now Jesus reveals Light that thrills And fills My heart With joy.
Jesus fills my life And my mind With adventures Greater than any I could find On my own.
Inviting Christ to live in me and take over the control of my life has impacted me vastly more than anything else.Christ’s “Advent” happened to me the moment He entered my heart to rule, reign, and remain! Jesus is my Lord and Master.
Jesus cleared my conscience and deleted the load of guilt that pressed on my heart like a weighted quilt. Now I soar with Him. Jesus continually clears out my confusion and produces peace within me.
To make room for Jesus clear out what’s crowding Him out. “Prepare the way of the Lord.”
Sin clouds what’s clear. Aligning our thoughts and behaviors with God clears what’s cloudy.
The more I unclutter The more I hear Jesus utter Words that make My heart flutter.
Unless you Pursue Jesus first, Religious Passivity Will subdue You.
People have a need to be heard. God is always listening but few church services allow any time for ordinary people to be heard.Christianity’s not about people lined up in seated passivity. It’s about active and open heart-to-heart connection.
Christians want to unite around a thing that they can name–a church, a religious ministry, a missional organization, a person’s teaching. But once we identify with a thing, we distinguish ourselves from the Christians who aren’t aligned with our thing and further divide the body of Christ.
Jesus doesn’t want us to simply sit thru a Sunday church show. He wants us to open up and show Him our heart so He can show us His glory.
The closer people are to the risen Jesus, the closer they are to each other. There’s no connection like the Christ connection!
Christianity unity works like a sugar cone. Imagine a sugar cone upside down, surrounded by teeny people trying to connect with one another. What a difficult task that is with the cone separating them. However, when Jesus calls from the top of the cone, “Come unto Me,” the higher the people climb toward Jesus the closer they get to each other.
If you’re heart’s not getting more closely connected to the risen Jesus, it’s slipping farther away from Him. It won’t stay put.Keeping your attention fixed on Jesus is essential. Otherwise, you’ll become spiritually passive and lethargic.
I declare my love! You may not approve of or applaud who I love but that doesn’t mean you hate me. I love the living Jesus!
My thoughts focus on Jesus. My heart adores Him. I linger in His presence and excitedly interact with Jesus throughout the day. I’m OCD: Obsessively Christ Devoted!
Jesus first! He’s the center of my attention. Following and obeying Jesus is my number one priority in life. It causes me to want to spend all my time with Him.
My marriage is about seeking Jesus together with the amazing and adorable wife that He has given me. My friendships are about interacting with Jesus together with the incredible Christ-followers that He has brought into my life. My mission (regardless of my job or employment) is to care about and serve everybody Jesus brings my way and to speak the truth about Him and His kingdom as my heart overflows with His love. He compels me to love and forgive everybody.
Striving to do what Jesus tells me to and asking Him to show me anywhere I’m unaligned with Him, He redirects me where I’m off track. Basking in His mercy and forgiveness causes me to continually seek to surrender to His will in my thoughts, desires, feelings, opinions, and actions. I do my best to avoid anything that distracts me from the awareness of the risen Jesus or quenches His Spirit within me.
When I read what the ancient prophets and His first disciples wrote about Jesus, He makes His words burn in me. Reading the Bible every day with my heart wide open continually fans the flames of love for Jesus.
I say and write what I sense Jesus tells me to. It’s impossible to be quiet about Him! He’s so amazing. He fills me with streaming inner rivers of hope, love, revelation, trust, joy, grace, compassion, peace, self-control, power, and so much more.
Pouring out my heart in verbal adoration to Jesus, I listen to and sing along with deeply moving worship songs about Him. Throughout the day I talk to Jesus in unknown languages that pour out of my heart and make His presence more real to me than the physical surroundings.
At this point in my life, it all started 53 years ago. Reluctantly walking into an informal gathering of passionate Christ-followers who were telling each other about how they had first encountered Jesus, I was suddenly and astonishingly aware of a presence never felt before. In an instant I was changed from deep within. From that moment until now passionately love for Jesus has dominated my heart.
The greatest blessing in my life is to help someone else fall in life-long passionate love for the risen Jesus! If you will begin to consistently talk to Him with an open, honest, and humble heart and observe what happens inside of you, at some point you’ll be suddenly love struck and Jesus will be the One who you love!
It’s popular today to declare who you love. It’s time for Christians to let our words and our lifestyle demonstrate that we love Jesus!
Jesus is the vine, We are the branches. If we don’t stay connected We’ll be mostly unaffected By His presence and power.
Continually upgrade Your connection With Jesus, Refuse to evade His presence. Never let Him fade From your awareness.
Many Christians live like they’re plugged into a powerless religious outlet–uninspired and discouraged. Plug your heart into the risen Jesus!If you’re not experiencing a never-ending inner power flow from the living Jesus, there’s a disconnection somewhere. Be a Jesus clinger!
Powerless Christianity is dangerous. It causes people to believe they’re right with God but doesn’t motivate them to continually surrender the risen Jesus.When the power is out. People don’t need lectures about electricity. They need the power restored. We need the risen Jesus, not religious talks about Him!
Not only is possible to live in heart-to-heart moment-by-moment connection with the risen Jesus, it’s glorious to do so!Learn to connect to the risen Jesus with your heart and to let Him freely stream from within you.
Too many Christians settle for having an occasional little talk with Jesus instead of ongoing, heart-to-heart connection with Him.The formalized Jesus confined to church programs offers little power to change people’s lives, but the risen Jesus is still doing miracles.
Anyone who has ever been troubled by a thought or a feeling knows the power of invisible things. The living Jesus is now invisible but is also omnipotent–all powerful!Unless we intentionally work to cultivate a healthy inner relationship with the risen Jesus our mind and heart will be filled with weeds.
Before “Christ in you” became a reality, the Old Testament gave extremely detailed descriptions of religious ceremonies and formats to be followed. However, now that Christ lives in His followers, the New Testament calls us to be led by His Spirit. Today we’re called to follow the risen Jesus, not detailed religious procedures.
No matter how much we say “Jesus is Lord,” if we won’t let Him take direct control of a church service, we don’t truly believe it.If we won’t trust Jesus to actively lead and direct a church service, do we really trust Him about anything else?
It’s good to have A biblical word view But without a clear view Of the living Jesus Self-righteousness Can fall on us like dew And skew Our faith Until we don’t have a clue And begin to do Ungodly things In the name of God Like the Pharisees did.
Sermons can sprinkle Your mind with spots Of theological information But unless the risen Jesus Connects the dots They’ll just be empty pots.
Praising the eloquence Of a pastor Is easier Than obedience To be the living Jesus.
The New Testament calls Christians the “called out ones.” That’s the literal meaning of the Greek word that is translated as “church” in most English Bibles. Christ-followers are called to no longer be conformed to the cultures of this world but to follow and obey the risen Jesus instead.
We are called out of:
Fear into faith,
Sadness into joy,
Worry into peace,
Hostility into love,
Pride into humility,
Anxiety into patience,
Corruption into purity,
Chaos into self-control,
Rudeness into kindness,
Apathy into compassion,
Rebellion into surrender,
Discouragement into hope,
Wrongdoing into goodness,
Resentment into forgiveness,
Troublemaking into peacemaking.
That Greek word that was translated as church (ekklesia) was also the name of the participatory town hall meeting in ancient Greek cities where the citizens were called to come together to interact with each other and to freely share their concerns about the city. Christ-followers are called out to connect heart-to-heart with each other and to help each other follow the risen Jesus out of earthy systems and structures and into the kingdom (government) of God by learning to be led from within by God’s Spirit.
Christmas and Christians without the living Jesus visibly, presently, and actively working in and through them are like the World Cup without soccer or the Super Bowl without football. They are like a darkened light house.
The Christmas season overflows with decorations and pageantry but rarely has any room for the living Jesus.When Christmas is spelled without a space, Christ is crowded out and not pronounced. Make a space in Christ_mas for the living Jesus.
The Light of the living Jesus dawned about 2,000 years ago. Looking to the birth of Jesus and beyond, the prophet Isaiah wrote: “On those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.” Ever since the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, there’s no reason for humans to live in or to even linger in darkness. Jesus tells his followers, “You are the light of the world.” Paul reminds Christians that “God has shinned in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
People don’t wait until Christmas Day to put up and turn on their Jesus-birth lights. How the hurting people around us need to see Christians who will dazzle them with the brightness of Christ’s light all year long!
Without the active and present working of the living Jesus, Christmas is like a huge puppet show without a puppeteer.In order to let the risen Jesus empower us to be the ever-shinning stadium lights of the kingdom of God we need to go beyond religion and church as usual.
Instead of repeating the same Sunday morning routine until people finally drop out of church, perhaps it would be better to graduate people and send them out with prayer and blessing to live their daily lives all year long in the power and presence of the living Jesus.There are much more effective ways to disciple people and empower them to shine their light than making them dependent on a Sunday sermon.
Free Gas for Your Think Tank -- Short Reflections, Lasting Encouragement 