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.
Like a monarch butterfly The kingdom of God Looks for a place to land In your heart.
The monarch who matters most is the ever-living, ever-present King Jesus. King Jesus can set you free from the tyranny of your own desires. The monarchy every society needs is not a political king, but the functional kingship of the ever-living, ever-present Jesus.
God wanted to rule as King of ancient Israel, but they preferred a political king. (Human nature hasn’t changed.)When Israel asked for a king so they can “be like all the other nations,” God said, “They have rejected Me as their king.”When the kingdom of God, the city of God, the government of God, are ignored, people look instead to human authority.
If Jesus Christ isn’t enthroned in your heart, you’re outside of the kingdom of God. Crown Him as your King!The Crown in your heart belongs to the ever-living Jesus, yet you have the power to withhold it from Him.Reorient your thinking and behavior to God’s monarchy. Jesus put it this way: “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.”
The invisible King, the ever-living Jesus, is easily dethroned from a human heart. Disloyalty to Him is widespread.O that people would pour out their hearts in love and affection for King Jesus as they did for Queen Elizabeth! He ever lives!
King Jesus is too often treated like King Charles. Although He reigns, we refuse to let Him rule.When churches make a pastor the head of the congregation, they turn Jesus into a mere figurehead instead of the functional Head and living King!If churches were effective at making godly disciples of King Jesus, so many church goers wouldn’t be embracing ungodliness.
I’m a royalist. The ever-living, ever-present Jesus is my King, and He has adopted me as a member of His royal family.
The idea of an earthly monarch is a distraction from the kingdom of God. When the people wanted to make Jesus their political king, He refused. Their “Hosannas” couldn’t distract Him from His mission.
The only one with a divine right to be a king is Jesus!When we neglect to give our loyalty and obedience to the monarchy of Jesus, we reject the kingdom of God.
There’s only room for loyalty to one king in a person’s life. I surrender to the presence, power, and authority of King Jesus.
Make Jesus your King, not self! As much as you love yourself by focusing on and taking care of your own needs and desires, love your neighbor in the same way. Jesus didn’t advocate self-love. How could He? He preached self-denial, taking up your cross, and following Him. Jesus wants us to love others as much as we focus on our own desires and needs. He calls us to shift our focus from self to others.
When one person monopolizes a church mic every week that’s a sermonoply. Giving a pastor mic control causes him to be seen as a college style teacher more than as an approachable, listening, and caring shepherd. The greatest sermon falls far short of the simplest encounter with the living Jesus!
True preaching isn’t a religious professional’s Sunday morning performance. It’s the risen Jesus overflowing from anyone’s heart.I find it sad when the presence of the living Jesus is overshadowed in church by the sound of a sleepy, one-speaker sermon.
Giving one-person an every-Sunday sermonopoly is stressful for them. Adding a title to their name increases their stress.When few people could read and books were rare, giving an educated person a sermonoply made a lot of sense, but not so much today.
I believe that the Sunday sermonopoly prevents us from experiencing much that Jesus wants to do when we meet in His name.The Sunday sermonopoly rarely allows time for Q&A, testimonies, comments, or gifts of the Spirit. It tends to crowd them out.
I’ve always been bored by a sermonopoly. I don’t like hearing the same person speak every week for years.It’s always seemed odd to me that churches full of intelligent people hire one person to monopolize the mic on Sunday morning.If you don’t encounter and interact with the living Jesus, hearing a sermon is just sitting through a religious talk.
Preacher, pass the mic around. Give Christ the opportunity to speak thru other members of His body.When church trains people to just listen to sermonopolies it doesn’t do them a service.The church focus on a sermonopoly proclaims that only one person in a congregation is qualified to speak about God.
Church created a sermonoply controlled by the pastor who often unintentionally trains ordinary people to sit and be silent about Jesus.If Jesus is truly alive and omnipresent, then He can take control of the church mic and lead people to stand up and speak as He prompts them.
If we would break up the preachers’ sermon monopoly, the members of the body of Christ would begin to awaken to their ability to speak for Jesus. Ekklesia (a Spirit-directed meeting of the body of Christ) goes beyond the preacher’s sermonopoly by letting anyone present speak as they are led by God’s Spirit.
If you won’t listen to your conscience, it doesn’t do much good to listen to a preacher.Jesus first! Give Jesus the monopoly in your heart!
I think this quote explains why so many sermons seem lifeless. “My aim is that every sermon series I preach is prepared as though I am teaching a college level course.” –Adam Hamilton
Here’s my tiny part of today’s sermon. For Christ-followers closed doors aren’t disappointments. They’re God’s protection.
When Christians gather To worship God Perhaps the words That are said Can be Spirit-led, More than just read From study notes Or religious quotes Or simply said From the head But flow from the heart With great passion And joyous expression As prompted By the living present Jesus.
God is everywhere No matter where You go today He’s already there.
For me, the city of God is now! The risen Jesus continually thrills me! I love being aware of Jesus’ presence with me throughout the day.
In ekklesia meetings Christians can interact as Spirit-led citizens of the city of God.Church offers people endless preaching and ongoing teaching but not much training on how to listen to and obey the living Jesus.
Fully embracing this little message from the prophet Haggai can wake up the body of Christ. “I am with you, declares the Lord.”
People who follow the invisible authority of “Christ in you” are often seen as rebels by people who think that spiritual authority comes from religious titles. That’s because they are living now in God’s heavenly city.
A forgotten word, Can be rediscovered. A lost concept Can be uncovered. People who’ve been As hard as a rock Can become living stones And let the risen Jesus Build them together as one. Make church ekklesia again!
In church We’re taught What we ought To do. In ekklesia We train To let Jesus reign.
People act irrationally when they look to drugs and alcohol for emotional relief. Yet many of the same people will reject God because He can’t be proven by reasoning.
The rainbow is a call to humbly bow to God’s reign, not an invitation to chase the storm of our own desires. It’s an invitation to live on earth in God’s heavenly city.
I saw the house of the Lord being built today at a Christian conference where the Holy Spirit was allowed to take over the meeting so powerfully that the closing keynote speaker didn’t want to speak so that the Holy Spirit could keep on leading us. That’s what we need to begin to see happen in our institutions called churches.
Jesus wants to build a “heart-to-heart” Spirit-led house with His followers that includes you in it.He is gathering His people, assembling His body, and building His ekklesia. Let’s become surrendered living stones who fully cooperate with Him.
God's True House
It's time to let Jesus build
The house of the Lord,
A habitation for Him,
Made out of "living stones,"
People connected heart-to-heart.
Let's cultivate an environment
Where Jesus can reign supreme
And can override our human need
To have our will be done,
Where no one can steal the show
And everyone present will know
That Jesus, God's risen Son,
Is the only one in control.
Lord "stir up the spirit" of Your people
To begin to work on the house of the Lord.
(Haggai 1:14.)
Search: Beyond Church Ekklesia.Jesus said, “I will build My ekklesia (the participatory town hall meeting in an ancient Greek city),” because He is the foundation of the city “whose architect and builder is God.” The ekklesia is the gathering where Christ-followers can practice transcendent faith and go beyond human order, hierarchy, and religion by learning to be aware of and obey the inner promptings of the Holy Spirit as together they surrender to the direct leadership and Headship of the risen Jesus.
Today I witnessed a famous preacher lay down the religious monologue so that the Holy Spirit wouldn’t be quenched. Jim Cymbala was to be the closing speaker at the New Room Conference 2022 today. The speaker before him gave an altar call to the 2,000+ attendees. The altars filled and people all around the auditorium were pouring their heart out to God with words and tears and praying for one another.
After about a half hour of witnessing the amazing moving of God’s Spirit throughout the auditorium, one of the conference organizers went to the mic and said something like: “Jim Cymbala came to us and said that he didn’t want to stop what the Spirit is doing if it’s alright with us, so we’re going to keep doing what we’ve been doing.” Then the moving of the Spirit continued and even intensified among us.
Perhaps igniting a spiritual awakening is as easy as falling off the religious monologue.Maybe the Sunday monologue has trained many Christians to log off of the Spirit so they can listen to one man.
Instead of throwing another log on the Spirit’s fire, the Sunday monologue often seems to put out the fire.Perhaps we could chop up the Sunday monologue and allow all members of the body of Christ to have something Spirit-prompted to say.
Perhaps the Sunday monologue has become a dead weight that fails to create “doers of the word.” When the Sunday monologue puts Christians asleep, do they sleep like a log? For an alternative to religious monologue, search for: Beyond Church Ekklesia.
Jesus is The Alpha and The Omega. (Those are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet.) Here are Jesus thoughts from A to Z:
Adore Jesus.
Broadcast Jesus.
Celebrate Jesus.
Demonstrate Jesus.
Experience Jesus.
Follow Jesus.
Glorify Jesus.
Honor Jesus.
Interact with Jesus.
Joy in Jesus.
Keep Jesus.
Love Jesus.
Magnify Jesus.
Notice Jesus.
Obey Jesus.
Praise Jesus.
Quote Jesus.
Rely on Jesus.
Seek Jesus.
Trust Jesus.
Unleash Jesus.
Visualize Jesus.
Worship Jesus.
eXalt Jesus.
Yield to Jesus.
Zoom in on Jesus.
The Jesus Alphabet can unscramble your life! Notice the letter J8 in the picture. Eight represents a new beginning. The 8th day is actually the first new day in the following week. Surrender your will to the living Jesus and let Him give you a new beginning today!
To be in A Christian Comfort-zone Is to be Zoned-out By religious Zombieness.
Institutions called churches Seem to lack the ability to Stir up and maintain In the hearts Of their members A spreading fire Of ever-burning desire To follow Jesus. They tend to Make people comfortable And predictable Instead of training them To be vulnerable And bendable To the living Jesus.
Early Christianity was A spontaneous enterprise Driven by the inner fire Of “Christ in you,” Not a weekly Religious exercise.
Christianity was never Intended to be A comfortable bed For religious Sleepy heads.
Christianity! You don’t need to be a zombie about it. “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
Soldiers promptly obey mere human beings they call officers. If they refuse, they’re kicked out, jailed, or in some countries shot. Christian soldiers, however, frequently ignore and/or disobey the commands of the living, resurrected Jesus yet remain in good standing with the institutions called churches. Perhaps that explains the different level of effectiveness between a well-trained army and a church. (If you read the book of Acts, you’ll notice that the institutions we call churches lack the impact of the early Christian meetings.)
When we don’t learn to enjoy interacting with the living Jesus, Christianity becomes dull and obligatory.To believe in Jesus is to trust in and rely on Him, not on self or anyone or anything else.
It’s time for greater than first love Christianity — to love Jesus more than you ever have before. If you check your conscience and turn the notifications on its still small voice will lead you to Jesus. Wake up! Exit zombiness and let the living resurrected Jesus Christ fill you with His awe-filled presence and power.
Every voice in the community of Christ (like every key on a keyboard) has an important sound to make.When one person does most of the talking, church meets like zombies — as a passive audience, not as a living community.
As long as you feel Like you have What you want, You won’t want God to help you.
Reach beyond your pride into the secret treasure chest of humility and brokenness. To reach for God is to exceed your grasp, but it begins to open your heart where He can grasp you. Take a step toward God and see His response.
Don’t just reach for the stars. Reach for their Creator!God is unknowable, beyond the reach of your intellect, yet He is perceptible and experienceable to a hungry, humble heart.An amazing thing about reaching out to God is that you discover that He has been reaching out to you all of your life.
God calls us to walk by His still waters while being led by the inner overflow of His living waters.Reach for God. Step outside of your religious comfort zone and begin to interact with the living Jesus. To repent is to wake up and reach out to God for a reset of your heart. When we lie, we aren’t reaching for truth; we’re wallowing in deception.
If your reach for God doesn’t exceed an intellectual approach, you’ll be limited to a mere mental concept of theology.Reach beyond your understanding of God by opening your heart wide to experience the stunning presence and power of the risen Jesus.
There’s no excuse for not reaching out to God. Only pride and hostility hinder us.You don’t need to think deeply before you reach out to God. Just humble yourself and do it.
If you’re a Christian, don’t just reach for church and religious teaching. Reach into your heart for “Christ in you.”When I reached out to read the Bible for myself, it untaught me much that I had been taught about religion.
Hell? Some popular bookssay it doesn’t exist, but often people who believe that like to use the word Hell in conversation. Don’t take the gamble. Repent and reach out to God.
Human society should value all human life. If a society can support needlessly taking the life of the unborn, it has the potential to support taking the life of the sick, the elderly, or the homeless
If you want to rise To a level Above the devil, Reach out to God With your whole heart And soon you will revel In God’s glorious presence!
Don’t just reach For a goal, Reach into your soul And when you see That it needs To be made whole, Surrender control And reach for The kingdom of God. (Matthew 6:33.)
Humans tend to be led by desires (I want this,) opinions (I think this,) and emotions (I feel this,) instead of by God’s Spirit. Let God make you the master of your desires, not their slave.
To believe is to rely on. When we really believe in Jesus, we will begin to rely on His presence instead of on human programs. Spirit-led worship is liberation, not bondage.
Fear of trusting God’s Spirit causes us to instead rely on human effort, planning, and organization.We should rely on the choreography of God’s Spirit. Although seemingly unplanned it’s a work of glorious preciseness.
If Jesus can communicate with His followers and we are free to obey Him, perhaps we should tear up our programs and let Him be our inner Guide. Until we transcend human effort and begin to be moved and guided by the living Jesus, we’re practicing works-based Christianity.Unless we’re daily relying on the presence and power of the risen Jesus, our Christianity is just another religion.
Jesus is the ignored inner and invisible choreographer, ready to direct and coordinate His followers from within, if we will only let Him. He is the world’s best choreographer, but if we substitute hearing talks about Him for coming together to let Him lead and direct us, we’ll never know the beauty of His choreography.When Christians meet, it would be more powerful if we let Jesus be the choreographer & we all followed His inner leading.
When you’re with a group of friends you’d probably rather they talk with you than about you. I think that’s how Jesus feels. Interact with Him.Worship is much more than hearing a talk about Jesus while ignoring His presence. It’s actively pouring your heart out to Him in passionate adoration.
When a church invites me to worship with them, I want to join them in passionate adoration of the living Jesus, but they want me to sit thru a lecture.Worship isn’t passivity. It’s full engagement in actively expressing adoration and obedience to the risen Jesus.
