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.
The human brain Isn’t a train To run on a track. It’s a tool To gain Fresh insight.
Light reveals. Darkness hides. Moment by moment We choose sides.
God’s call Isn’t to fake Being good. It’s to let Him remake Our rebellious heart.
Planet earth is a cauldron of rebellion. We humans have chosen to follow our desires instead of God’s.Let God clean the cauldron of your heart. “Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God.”
The Lord God Omnipotent could nip your rebellion in the bud. Instead, He patiently and loving calls for you to freely surrender to His will.
If you try to faithfully obey your conscience, you come to realize that you can’t be truly good by your own effort. Something inside you needs to be changed.
It’s much easier to loudly redefine what we call right than it is to actually do what our conscience says is right.When an idea violates my conscience, no matter how much I love the person who proclaims it, I must kindly disagree.
Sin boils in the cauldron of human hearts, ready to rumble out at any moment. Conscience tries to restrain it but only Jesus can drain it.
The Bible’s full of life-giving words that bring fresh bread to my hungry heart. Light reveals hope. Darkness conceals it.If the fruit and the gifts of the Spirit aren’t actively noticeable in a church service, there might be a sermon but there’s no visible demonstration of the Spirit.
Jesus showed me My sin’s reality And caused me To see Life differently.
To rebel against The absolute Is not astute. You can’t refute And forever mute Reality.
If you want Christ in Christmas, then this holiday season substitute the name of Jesus for the word Christmas. Jesus, all I want for Christmas is a closer relationship with You.” (Think what impact there would be if between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day we heard, read, and said the name of Jesus as much as we do the word Christmas.)
“It’s Jesus time,” instead of “It’s Christmas time.”
“Jesus gifts,” rather than “Christmas gifts.”
“Jesus carols,” instead of “Christmas carols.”
“Jesus season,” instead of “Christmas season.”
“Jesus bells,” instead of “Christmas bells.”
“Jesus giving,” rather than “Christmas giving.”
“Jesus holidays,” instead of “Christmas holidays.”
“Jesus lights,” rather than “Christmas lights.”
“Jesus shopping,” instead of “Christmas shopping.”
“Jesus tree,” rather than “Christmas tree.”
“Jesus cards,” instead of “Christmas cards.”
“Jesus day,” instead of “Christmas Day.”
“I’ll be home for Jesus,” rather than “I’ll be home for Christmas.”
“Happy Jesus’ Birthday,” instead of “Merry Christmas.”
The Bible says there is power in the name of Jesus, however, it never even mentions the word Christmas.
Your heart-cry doesn’t echo in a canyon of inner emptiness. It continually reverberates within you, ever calling you to wake up to deeper reality.
In the recovery community the desperation that leads to freedom and joy is called “hitting bottom.” If you’re desperate, that means you’re still alive. If you’re still alive, then there is still hope.
Desperation is a fork in the road. It offers two options, the hopeful and joyous pursuit of God or the despair of panicked hopelessness.
Desperation as a sign of hopelessness is devastating. Desperation as deep hunger to be closer to God is gloriously life-altering. Let the debris in your life make you desperate for God.The long-term guilt and pain produce by sin should make us so desperate for God’s peace that we avoid its short-term pleasure.
Finite faith (trust in the temporary) will always be disappointing because it can’t ignite an eternal perspective.The more desperate I get for hope, the more I pursue and surrender to Jesus.
To desire the life and light of God, we must be willing to continually behold and pursue His majestic holiness. To hunger and thirst for righteousness is called repentance. It’s an overwhelming desire and ongoing search for God’s deliverance, healing, and holiness. It’s a never-ending inner cry for God to bring justice through mercy, to fix us with His compassion, to free us from our heart’s corruption. It’s to throw overboard every thought, feeling, desire, activity, and possession that in anyway hinders our pursuit of the presence and power of the risen Jesus.
It’s hard to pursue something that you don’t believe is possible. If you’re not aggressively and passionately pursuing the kingdom of God and His righteousness as your first priority, perhaps you don’t really believe the promises of Scripture.
“Love never fails.” It even extends to enemies. Ex-love is a misnomer. Focus on and care about your neighbor the way you focus on and care about yourself.
To gain From your pain Let it make you Ever desperate For God.
God always hears A human heart-cry Even when people deny That He exists.
Christians are called To soar in God’s glory Not to sink In their worry.
If you continually flirt With moral danger, You’ll make yourself A stranger To God.
There’s nowhere to hide When you reside And continually abide In Christ. The rising tide Of His presence Reveals all secrets.
A heart exposed To the light Of Christ Often complains That His light Is too bight And thus retreats Back into the night To keep its secrets Out of sight.
Awe causes the human heart to open like a flower–to abandon privacy for the radiant light of God’s Son. However, as humans, we try to hide our corruption behind what we call “the right of privacy.” That concept was conceived when the first humans tried to hide from God because they feared His light.
Privacy says “keep out”–community says “welcome in.” Clinging to the right of privacy often creates deep loneliness and the fear of being discovered.
When we hide something, we feel compelled to do whatever it takes to keep it hidden and cover up becomes more important than truth.Secret keeping is hard work. Surrendering all to God is power.
Now is the time for intimate holy-awe moments. Every instant is a precious divine gift. The ancient Greeks called it “kairos,” which means the “opportune time.” We need to look beyond “chronos” which is the mere passing of time–the calendar that hangs over our head and coerces us to conform to its chronological commands. Now is the prime time (the “kairos”) to cultivate our heart to be an environment full of aha and awe, overflowing with openness to present moment revelation and adoration–living a life that radiates with God’s Spirit.
Jesus came as Emmanuel–the God-man–so we can live beyond the control of time in a holy now of intimacy with Him that doesn’t fade or pass away. “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Stringing together a day full of holy-awe moments will set you free from the prison of privacy.
Jesus puts out a welcome sign, not a private sign. When we leave our isolation, we can embrace true transformation. We can shift from being driven by desires to being compelled by compassion. We can set aside self-seeking and embrace service to others. When we truly surrender to God, we lose our privacy.
How’s your repentance going? Thank God that He is always wanting to cleanse us and empower us to live a holy life.
Instead of rolling with repentance, Christians (and most people) try hard to avoid it. One reason is that repentance is falsely seen as a once and done thing. Many people think that if they ever repented once then that sets them up for life.
Another reason Christians have trouble repenting is that they have been taught that grace makes repentance unnecessary. They falsely believe that grace works like a medieval Catholic indulgence–that it justifies and excuses their sins in advance with no repentance needed.
Still another reason is pride. It’s very humbling to repent. No one enjoys saying “I’m wrong,” “I’m sorry,” or “Please forgive me.” It never easy to choose to go against our pride and to openly admit that we have sinned and/or are engaged in ongoing sin.
Nevertheless, Jesus first message was repentance. So what are the keys to a lifestyle of repentance?
Surrender: As long as we are holding on to our own will and desires, we’ll be hindered from fully obeying Jesus when He leads us to do something that we don’t want to do. To disobey Jesus is a sin, so we will stay stuck in the sinful cycle of putting our will ahead of God’s will.
Conviction: Until we are aware of our sins, we can’t repent from them. We need to stay attentive to the Holy Spirit working in and through our conscience and let him convict us of (show us) our sinful attitudes, words, behaviors, and failures to obey.
Confession: Until we admit our sins to God, we’ll stay stuck in them. The Bible also says to confess your sins to one another. Once we are convicted of a sin it’s important to bring it into the light. As long you’re unwilling to admit a sin to God you haven’t repented of it.
Contrition: For repentance to be real and effective, it must be from the heart. We must let ourselves be sincerely sorry for our sin and be grieved because of what we’ve said, done, thought, or neglected to do. We must truly want to be forgiven and to change.
Change: True repentance involves taking decisive action to change a sinful thought, behavior, attitude, or unwillingness to obey. God’s forgiveness is free, but to stop a sin is a choice and a battle. It puts us in a humble position to receive God’s mercy and deliverance. “God resist the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Be humble and courageous enough to continually work on putting off your sins.
Accountability: Change without accountability is usually temporary. It’s so easy to quit a sin only to return to it in weeks, days, hours, or even minutes. In order to keep on quitting we need to be absolutely honest with someone who can hold us accountable. The first Someone is God. Every time we’re tempted to fall back into a sin, we need to tell God and when we do fall you need to cry out for His forgiveness and help. It also greatly helps to have a person you trust who you can walk in the light with. When you’re tempted tell that person. When you fall confess to that person. That kind of accountability will help you access the power of supernatural repentance.
Jesus gave up positional authority and became a servant, yet He has more followers than anyone in history.He is at the top of the authority pyramid in the body of Christ. All the rest of us are servants on the bottom rung.
The body of Christ is supposed to be controlled by the risen Jesus not by human leadership structures. When staged, insincere, unheart-felt methods are used in church the power of God stays away. Christians are called to the openness of the Holy Spirit, not to the privacy of religion.
The key to unity among Christ-followers is letting the Spirit be in control. When the body of Christ is entangled with loyalty to various churches it becomes divided and contentious.When Christians from diverse backgrounds gather as Jesus’ Spirit-led town hall meeting unity emerges.
In the body of Christ every believer has a personal and unique relationship with the risen Jesus and needs to be empowered in that relationship, not controlled by human leadership. In the body of Christ, believers should submit to the Headship of Christ and to one another, not to one person positioned above the others in a religious chain of command.
When a church hinders people in their willingness to hear directly from and obey Jesus then something major is wrong.When maintaining church order is more important than obedience to Jesus things are way off track.When institutional authority replaces the leadership of God’s Spirit church begins to function like a business.
Program following Christians listen to Evan Roberts who helped ignite the Great Welsh Revival of 1904. “Why should I teach when the Spirit is teaching? . . . Why should I control the meetings? The meetings control themselves, or rather the Spirit that is in them controls them.”
The more we yield to and cooperate with the control of the Holy Spirit the more fully we experience all the fruit of the Spirit growing in our heart and in our lifestyle and gently changing us from glory to glory. A Spirit-controlled self is God’s free gift to all who will continually surrender their will to Him and allow His gentleness to dispel their rebellion.
Surely there should be more to church than being forever lectured! Let all Christ-followers boldly arise and speak up about Jesus!
Sermons on prayer don’t teach people to pray. Heart-felt demonstrations of prayer do. Sermons on love don’t teach people to love. Heart-felt demonstrations of love do.
The body of Christ
Isn't a place
To showcase
One man's gifting
But should make space
To freely embrace
Spirit-led input
From all.Religion that's routine
Focuses on things
That are seen
And can be
Humanly controlled
But Jesus calls us
To look to and
Be controlled by
His unseen
Presence.
The more I concentrate on Jesus the more I sense His presence and feel His power. The more I focus on and surrender to God’s Spirit the fuller my faith grows and the greater my desire and ability to obey Him.
Inattention to Jesus quenches the Spirit. Concentrate your mind and heart on Jesus. If you let your heart be so attracted to Jesus that you can’t be distracted, you’ll be impacted by His presence every moment.
The Christ-focused zone is much more life enriching than the comfiest comfort zone. Still, it’s easy to ignore Christ’s call to come out of a comfort zone. I find that religious programs, sermons, and liturgy make it difficult to keep my attention on the living, present Jesus.
God is constantly communicating but we miss most of His messages because of our inattention.Being inattentive to the risen Jesus causes Christians to feel a need for religious programs.Try to avoid self-promoting, absent minded, heart-distracted, Christ-ignoring Christianity.
Inattention to Christ in you Leaves you struggling About what to do. Jesus is the answer.
Let us adore The living Jesus And no longer Ignore His presence.
When my heart’s ears Hear the silent sound Of the Spirit My eyes moisten With tears.
Focus me Jesus So I can see Beyond my will And surrender to Christ in me.
Frequently doing these things keeps my attention on Jesus:
Talking to Him,
Reading the Bible with an open heart.
Listening to His still, small voice within me.
Doing what He tells me to do.
Hanging out with people who are thrilled about Him.
Recognizing what He is doing in and around me.
Operating in the gifts of the Spirit.
Praying for other people.
Letting my pain keep me desperate for Him.
Praying in tongues.
Enthusiastically quoting Scriptures from memory.
Avoiding quenching the Spirit.
Praying “The Jesus Prayer.”
Asking Him to show me where I’m off track.
Confessing and repenting.
Pouring out my heart to Him in worship and adoration.
Telling people about Him.
Encouraging and helping people.
Writing about Him.
Praying over people.
Listening to heart-stirring worship music.
Reading heart-touching books about Him.
Gathering with believers to listen to and obey Him together.
Little Jack Horner Went to church And sat in the corner He stayed on his bum Till he felt numb And said, “What a good boy am I.”
Church is too often a form of gathered individualism. People assemble in one place but there’s little openness with each other. The right to privacy (isolation) is a lonely rite.
Religious privacy cares more about what people think than about truth. Jesus told His followers to “shout it from the housetops.” Surely we can learn to speak out and testify in worship gatherings.
Christianity is non-private. Let your heart be tender and open before the Lord and before people.
The Bible doesn’t teach religious privacy. Instead, it says: “Confess your sins to each other.” See James 5:16.Christians need to gather as an intimate community–as close family members, not as a passive audience.
Privacy is disconnection from others. It’s a cover-up word for seclusion and loneliness. When your heart is full of closed doors, there’s no room to let other people in. Dark hearts hide and therefore they remain in their darkness.
Religious privacy isn’t freedom. It’s being alone in your bondage.You need your privacy to stop blocking your heart so that you can open up to heart-felt intimacy and caring community.To experience the beautiful kingdom of Jesus-based intimacy we have to go beyond the roadblock of religious privacy.
The attitude of religious privacy has been the piracy that has stolen Jesus-based spiritual community from the body of Christ.If you think your faith is a private matter, you may have missed the heart of the matter–“carry each other’s burdens.”
Teach a Christian to enjoy sermon-hearing and he’ll become a church attendee. Teach him to hear Jesus and testify about Him and he’ll become a disciple. I love to let the living Jesus invade my privacy and fill me with His presence!
When Christians replace heart-to-heart-intimacy with religious privacy we quench the Holy Spirit.Without genuine Jesus-based spiritual community, a church service is “a form of godliness but denying the power thereof.”
You can’t experience Jesus-based intimacy with others if you’re holding on to religious privacy.All sermon and no testimonies makes church a killjoy. Let everyday people joyously declare how God has answered their prayers.
Jesus is the Light. Religious privacy blocks out the light. Humble openness lets it shine. “Walk in the light.”Here’s what the Bible says about privacy: “There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed or hidden that will not be made known.”
Privacy tends to keep people apart. They chat together but withholding much that is significant they don’t really know each other.
When Christians congregate But hesitate To open up their hearts To one another, They’ve gathered physically But their hearts Are far apart.
Let your heart Out of the religious shed And be led By God’s Spirit.
Instead of learning To inwardly glide And be carried along By God’s Spirit, We’ve learned to hide Our heart from God And from each other.
Christianity is about Cooperation With Jesus Not about a narration About Jesus.
Hearing sermon After sermon Will not make you Firm in The faith. Determine To hear and obey The living Jesus Every day!
If hearing someone recite A sermon Doesn’t ignite Lifechanging insight The preacher took the bite Out of the Gospel. When the early Christians preached They would often incite A riot.
If you believe Be led By the Spirit.
Often what we call A coincidence Is an incidence Of God working.
E. Stanley Jones said: “Jesus was crucified because He wouldn’t conform to a system.” (Jones was an American Methodist missionary to India in the mid-twentieth century.) True freedom in Christ is much more than a system, form, or formula.A conjectural idea about Jesus is nothing like a heart-to-heart relationship with Him.
Systems of self-protection Harden our heart And entangle us In self-bondage. Self-surrender To the living God Makes our heart tender And sets us free To joyfully hear And obey Jesus.
A heart of stone Is a heavy load To try to carry Along life’s road. Hiding behind Our heart’s hardness It’s easy to Block out God’s light And live in inner darkness. We need to continually Surrender our heart And let the risen Jesus Shine brightly inside So we can reflect His glory Like a broken geode That sparkles In God’s tender sunlight.
Hard hearts Look to systems, Forms and formulas. Tender hearts turn To “Christ in you, The hope of glory.”
You can’t prove your consciousness but you know it exists because you continually surrender to and experience it. I can’t prove God but I know He exists because I continually surrender to and experience Him.
To “live by the Spirit” And “not quench the Spirit” Is to fully yield yourself To be carried by the current As the Spirit flows Like inner rivers Alive with the power And presence of God And blows Like a mighty rushing wind From deep within Your surrendered heart.
The more you maintain control The less you’ll be able to roll With the flow of God’s Spirit.
Jesus is everywhere. If you’re unaware Of His presence You’re missing The essence Of Christianity.
You can’t see Jesus With your eye But when you rely On His help With an open heart Hope flows from Within you.
You can’t resist God’s Spirit and be led by the Spirit at the same time. Surrender.
Let go and experience the glorious ride of the Spirit’s inner flow. Step out of the short-lived pleasure of sin and into the ongoing thrill of the Spirit’s flow!
Free Gas for Your Think Tank -- Short Reflections, Lasting Encouragement 