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.
Paul told the Corinthian Christians, “Your meetings do more harm than good.’ (1 Corinthians 11:17.) When does a church service do more harm than good? Perhaps . . .
1) When it makes people think they are saved and right with God when they really aren’t. 2) When it rarely calls for deep repentance and instead makes people feel like it’s okay to hold on to their favorite sins. 3) When it quenches the Holy Spirit. 4) When it embraces the values and attitudes of worldly, carnal culture. 5) When it influences people to look to a pastor more than they do to Jesus. 6) When it treats believers as mere cogs in a religious machine and gives them no voice in the meeting. 7) When it is a “form of godliness but denying the power thereof.” 8) When it encourages people feel proud instead of humble.
I read this last night: “I hate, I despise your religious festivals; your assemblies are a stench to Me.” (Amos 5:21.) It made me realize that God doesn’t like every Christian gathering. I felt prompted to post it, and to also quote what Jesus said about that subject, but I thought it might be too controversial, so I didn’t.
Then this morning, I randomly opened my Bible and my eyes immediately saw the words from Jesus that I thought about last night: “A time is coming and now has come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. God is spirit and His worshippers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” (John 4:23:24.)
When we gather for worship is it “in the Spirit and in truth,” or is it as an assembly that is “a stench” to God?”
When life wearies And overwhelms me, A sermon series Full of theories Isn’t enough To feed my soul And make me whole. The risen Jesus is!
Awareness Of swirling awe Opens the way To Experience The incomprehensible God.
You don’t develop a relationship with Jesus by learning information about Him, but by surrendering your heart to Him.When Christianity was turned into a course — a curriculum to be taught by a Sunday classroom-style lecture — it went off course.
“Knowledge puffs up.” When we’re confident that we can explain God, we become proud like the Pharisees.To simplify and systematize God into theology that can be understood by the mind is to step away from His inexpressible glory.
Because God is incomprehensible doesn’t mean that He isn’t real. I would doubt the existence of a God I could understand and explain. God is incomprehensible, but not unexperienceable.
Christianity is Good News — proclamations to experience, not explanations to study. The living Jesus is ever-present to set you free. “Lean not on your own understanding.”To say that everything happened merely by time and chance is to grasp for an excuse to avoid the logical need for a Creator.
We can sense things that we don’t understand (such as love). Don’t reject the awareness of God because you can’t explain Him.God is incomprehensible. If you think you can explain Him, you’re unaware of His glorious majesty. The living Jesus can be pondered and experienced, but He can’t be figured out.
God’s not a subject to “study” as the word is frequently understood in the King James Bible in 2 Timothy 2:15. He’s incomprehensible! In old King James English, “study” didn’t mean to memorize information. It meant to focus on, to think about, to ponder, or to observe as in, “Let me study the plans.”
Christianity isn’t a curriculum, a course, or a classroom lecture to target the mind. It’s a calling to open up your inner most being to the risen Jesus and to “correctly handle” the revelations that God gives to you, “the word of truth.” Christ-followers are called to focus on the risen Jesus and do what He says — to be “led by the Spirit,” not by our own understanding.
“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.” –2 Timothy 2:15 in the NIV Bible.
Love the Lord with all your mind. Go beyond critical thinking and ponder the presence of Jesus until He wondrously blows your mind. To love someone with all your mind doesn’t mean that you continually analyze and learn facts about them. It means you keep them affectionally in your thoughts. Love God that way!
“Me time” isn’t your answer. Time with the living Jesus is.
Jesus is knocking On your heart Seeking you. Let your pride Step aside And give Him Full access.
Beyond my mind, Beyond my heart, Jesus flows From within me Like an electric current, From sensation To demonstration, From faint awareness To gushing joy.
People weren’t made To be like a tin guy. You know why? We have hearts to feel And tears to cry. Be real!
When we’re hollow like a tin man, we feel empty. Be real!
Jesus denounced role players and called them hypocrites. His Beatitudes are the “be-real-itudes.” They’re about being broken enough (“poor in spirit”) to experience radical inner transformation, not about posturing to impress people thru outward role-formation.
The Christian life is about letting God, your gardener, grow and prune you into what you were made to be — a Spirit-led and Christ-empowered model of the image of God, reflecting His will on earth as it is in Heaven. It’s about letting Christ’s redemption and restoration replace all the rebellion in your heart, mind, and lifestyle and return you to the “original glory” of being made in God’s image.
Christianity is about going beyond a pittance of repentance to full, unconditional, and continual surrender of your will to the ever-living Jesus. It’s about raising your focus far beyond merely going to church to the ongoing moment-by-moment surrender of your all to the awareness and reality of “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
Trade self-awareness for Christ-awareness and your happiness level will soar. When Christ-followers gather, they should create an atmosphere where the ever-living Jesus can demonstrate and display His power. When the guy sitting next to you in church is like a tin man, there’s no real fellowship, no matter how good the sermon may be.
Church seems to keep people from being honest and real. You see people yawning, dazed, aimlessly looking around, and even sleeping during the sermon, and then hear them tell the pastor, “Good sermon.” When there’s a greater focus on going to church than on “Christ in you,” church has become an idol.
A weekly meeting Conducted in a particular Religious format Isn’t always the way God wants to work Among His people. He longs To connect them Heart-to-heart To Himself And to each other.
A Sunday morning talk Full of religious theory That you’ve never experienced In your own life Will rarely touch your heart And make you teary Or fill you with joy And make you cheery, But if it goes too long It might make you weary Or even dreary.
God made the first human From the dust of the ground. When we feel ground Into accepting our humility By the grind of daily life, We’re on good ground To experience the blessings Of being “poor in spirit.”
The light of Christ shinning in my heart is so gloriously beautiful, He holds my attention throughout the day. When I surrender to God as humbly as the dust that He made me from, the wind of His Spirit can blow my life to align with His will.
In this world full of amazing things to think about and to do, there’s no need to stay stuck on self-focus.The more I get away from self-awareness the happier I am.When I let Christ-awareness override self-awareness the joy of the Lord overflows from within me. Joy is more than a selfie!
Being a Christ-follower isn’t about getting what you want. It’s about laying down what you want so you can be closer to Jesus. It’s about continually aligning your thoughts, desires, feelings, and behaviors with the risen Jesus. It’s not about religious affiliation.
To be unaligned with God is to be out of sync with happiness. Perhaps the unfulfilled places in your heart need the ever-living Jesus.
The many daily choices That you make Steer your life And determine The direction you take.
People get excited about the virtual experiences of the metaverse. I prefer the transcending experiences of the “Jesus-verse.” Until you have interoperability with the living Jesus, life will feel incomplete.The experience of the “Jesus-verse” is immersive. It surrounds you both externally and internally.
The “Jesus-verse” is so much more than a few words from Scripture. It’s seeing reality from His perspective instead of your own. Beyond the universe and holding it together is the “Jesus-verse.”
The metaverse is pursuing a “continuity of existence” between the physical and virtual worlds. The “Jesus-verse” calls us to experience the continuity of existence between the physical world and the kingdom of God. Jesus wants to give you multi-sensory spiritual experiences and photorealistic inner visions to make you fully aware that you’re in His presence.
The “Jesus-verse” makes Bible events come alive and burn in your heart as if you were physically experiencing them.The Bible uses the terminology of the “Jesus-verse” to transport you beyond the universe into the presence of the risen Christ.
The prefix “meta” means “beyond.” If you want to go beyond the universe and to experience the metaverse, step into the “Jesus-verse.”The suffix “verse” means “the whole story.” Ultimate truth can only be grasped through the “Jesus-verse.”
Physics can never explain the whole story of creation. It takes metaphysics (going beyond physics and human understanding) to experience the reality of the “Jesus-verse.”The “Jesus-verse” empowers people to “look not at the things that are seen but at the things that are unseen.”Step into the “Jesus-verse.” View, experience, and interact with the invisible kingdom of God.
Live a live that’s continually logged into the “Jesus-verse.” Refuse to break connection with His presence. When you’re continually online with Jesus you’ll stay aligned with His will.Closing my eyes, raising my hands, and freely expressing heart-felt adoration to Christ logs me on to the “Jesus-verse.”
The heart-to-heart “Jesus-verse” community far surpasses any “community” that can ever be created in the metaverse.The “Jesus-verse” enables you to invest your time in “Christocurrency” — priceless experiences with the living Jesus and His sold-out followers.Humans can create a metaverse, but only God could’ve made the universe and revealed the supernatural insight of the “Jesus-verse.”
If “Christ in you” Is true about you That means you Are a Christ-carrier And you take The ever-living Jesus Wherever you go.”
When we begin To let the risen Jesus Continually radiate From deep with us And to no longer accommodate The world’s corruption, We’ll experience A glorious disruption, An inner Holy Spirit eruption That will demonstrate Heaven Both within us and around us.
When you choose A direction And doors close That’s not rejection. It’s God’s protection.
Christ-followers are called to live life on earth according to God’s terms and plans, not according to our own. Jesus wants to personally train and empower us to live by His presence and ability, allowing Him to continuously and freely direct us from within, and not to live by our own self-effort.
Instead of trying to understand Him, God wants us to ever trust and rely on His nearness and reality — “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” When you fully and truly believe that you have God’s protection, you feel no need for self-protection.
Let the Bible filter your thoughts, feelings, desires, and culture. The reverse doesn’t work to produce inner peace very well.
Several months ago, God spoke clearly in my heart words that I didn’t want to hear: “Try less; trust more.” I’ve always been a person of great effort and persistence, so it is difficult to lay my energy down and to obey what I’ve been told.
It’s an oxymoron. I find myself trying more to try less when in reality I’m called to die to myself instead of using my own abilities to strive for self-improvement. If I were truly humble, I wouldn’t stress out and mumble and think that my growth is all up to me. Instead, in simple humility, I’d let go, believe, trust, rely on, focus on, and surrender to God’s presence and power in my life.
God wants me to let Him grow the fruit of the Spirit in me, not a spirit of self-reliance. Instead, my impatience choaks out the patience (and other eight dimensions of the fruit of the Spirit) that He wants to grow and develop in me. Lord, help me be Your spiritual garden, not my self-improvement factory.
Here are some more Pensées that are coming to me as I write (in the order that they come):
It’s not easy To receive Truth that you Don’t want To believe.
Heart-felt gratitude grows with the awareness that you receive more than you give — that you’re given more than you earn.
Humans evaluate each other’s choices, opinions, and actions. Instead of demanding that people stop judging us, perhaps we should develop the inner security to lean from and grow thru their judgment.
The thoughts that you receive, welcome, and allow to remain in your mind will eventually grow into feelings and desires.
Grace is the gift to be able to receive what you haven’t earned as your heart overflows with humility and gratitude.
Every single breath is a gift to be grateful for.
Something that grows your inner strength is a much greater gift than something that merely gives you short-term pleasure.
If we take time to look God is as obvious An architect for a skyscraper And an author for a book.
When we ask for what we want with no regard for what we really need, we’re asking for trouble.
When we decide To let our pride Be our inside guide It won’t let us reside In security and peace.
If I continually feel compelled to tell myself that I’m okay, then I’m not.
Thoughts you receive Can quickly deceive Verify their validity Before you believe.
Grace is the undeserved and priceless gift of God’s great mercy and lavish forgiveness that overwhelms and forever changes a human heart.
Learn to receive Wisdom from your wounds And you’ll soon Begin to sing Happy tunes.
If you think that you’re worthy of God’s grace, you’ve received a counterfeit version of it.
Jesus, teach me How to be a field Where the fruit Of the Spirit can flourish.
Abundant fruit Of God’s Spirit Can’t grow Inside me Until I allow Jesus and His Rivers of living water To freely flow And irrigate me From within.
The fruit of God’s Spirit Is a slow grow. It doesn’t come from What you know About God But from letting His presence Continually cultivate and hoe Your heart.
God designed your life to be a fruitful faith farm. Try not to turn it into an overrun weed field. Today, life weeds and forbidden fruit overflow with deceptive appeal, false advertising and misleading marketing. Those who consume them seldom love their after taste and outcomes.
Your life overflows with the fruit of your own doing. If you aren’t happy with it change what you’re doing.
I want to be a fruit basket of God’s Spirit. Then people can “taste and see that the Lord is good.”
Christianity is about “Christ in you.” To experience its fruit in your life it something Christ needs to continually be experienced in your daily life, not just lectured about on Sunday. “The hope of glory” isn’t you in church. It’s “Christ in you.”When God touches your heart, and His tears begin to flow don’t hold back His rivers of living water.
Most of what you find in your personal “produce section” has been produced by your choices and behaviors.It’s the fruit of your actions and reactions.When you plant bad seeds in your life, you’ll grow a lot of bad fruit.However, today’s common nonsense says that you can plant seeds of self-destruction and never have to face their harvest.
Branches loaded with the fruit of God’s spirit bow low. They don’t rise up with pride. Apart from Jesus and His living water, we might grow lemons but we’re unable to produce the fruit of the Spirit.
The further you get from the tree of life, the less good fruit you will have in your heart.Awareness of God is the fruit of observation. Nature and your own inner being reveal His reality.
The fruit of the Christian life is that “Christ is formed in you.” God’s purpose for Christ-followers is that we “be conformed to the image of his Son.” True Christ-followers are the people continually “press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
I’ve noticed that many people who vigorously resist the fruit of being influenced by God, eagerly embrace the fruit of the influence of other people’s destructive behaviors.The fruit having a religious expert lecture you about God is greatly inferior to the fruit of experience Him for yourself.
Self-love goes up and down but God’s love never fails. Which love will you trust? In this spiritually dry world, the fruit of God’s Spirit can be irrigated by reading the Bible with an open humble heart.
To successfully navigate Your way thru life And cultivate Well being You’ll need to subjugate Some of your feelings And desires.
Trees and bushes Are known by What they produce: An apple orchard, A grape vineyard A peach plantation. A blueberry patch, A lemon grove, A Mulberry tree, A tumble weed, A thornbush. What kind are you?
The sun at night Though out of sight Still shines. The same with The Son of God.
Free Gas for Your Think Tank -- Short Reflections, Lasting Encouragement 