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 inclusion of truth and mercy in day-to-day life takes us beyond mere tolerance to genuine love and forgiveness.
Holy Exclusion
Too much inclusion Leads to confusion Of truth and falsehood. It calls wrong right and Says that right is wrong. It's an exclusion Of the freedom to Follow your conscience And an infusion Of pride that rebels Against common sense. Instead of random And blind inclusion Speak the truth in love. Remove from your life Everything God excludes. Holy exclusion Is to clean your heart And align your thoughts And actions with God. (2 Corinthians 10:4-5) The people of God Need to turn away From our wicked ways. (2 Chronicles 5:17)
To keep Jesus as my Lord (1 Corinthians 8:6)) requires the never-ending surrender of all else to Him. (John 20:28) My passion is to keep Christ alone as my cornerstone. Day and night, night and day, I seek to surrender all to Jesus. I fight to tear down and cut down everything within me, every thought, feeling, opinion, and desire, that distracts me from the reality of His ongoing presence, love, and authority in my life. (2 Corinthians 10:5)
The best self-care is to tear down the comfort zones that trap us in habits that ensnare us in self-destructive thoughts, words, desires, feelings, and behaviors. Personal and spiritual growth require that we tear down our comfort zones and reform the “home office” of our heart and our lifestyle.
When we find ourselves living within our comfort zones we are ignoring the uncomfortable verses in the Bible. God the Holy Spirit is working to interrupt and to disrupt our comfort zones. He wants to set us free from being conformed to the world, (Romans 12:2) from tradition, (Mark 7:13) from routine religion, (Mark 7:6), from passivity, (James 1:22) from enjoying the pleasures of sin, (Hebrews 11:25) from quenching the Spirit, (1 Thessalonians 5:19) from the desires of the flesh, (1 John 2:16) from the deceitfulness of riches, Mark 4:19) from pride, (Romans 12:16) from self-righteousness, (Romans 10:3) and from anything else that goes against His will. Will we allow God the Holy Spirit to set us free? If so, when?
Hear God say this to you: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” (Ezekiel 36:26) Then pray this every time you stray away from His perfect will: “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” (Psalm 51:10)
Comfortable Christianity is powerless (2 Timothy 3:5). True Christianity is about divine interventions that confront our comfort zones and lead us into ongoing radical obedience to the living, resurrected Jesus. The body of Christ is far bigger than most Christians realize. No matter how uncomfortable it may be, God wants us to connect heart-to-heart in the Holy Spirit with Christ-followers from various traditions, churches, doctrines, ethnicities, nationalities and races. (John 17:20-21)
War is a great waste. It is built and based On terrible cruelty Yet some people make haste To spread and to taste The hell of its horror.
It’s time to stop spreading the waste of war. It’s time to activate humanity’s great capacity for compassion.
Bombs, missiles, and drones Don’t give a fair fight. Can you hear the moans And the dying groans Of the people whose homes They turned into war zones?
War is the most prejudice and bigoted thing people do. It causes people to want to kill people because of where they were born.
Whether people were born in: Latin America or the USA, Ukraine or Russia, Iran or Israel or Gaza, South or North Korea, Pakistan or India, Twain or China, Or Sudan or Syria Or Myanmar or Ethiopia, Or even at sea, Their lives matter!
War doesn’t kill people. People use war as an excuse to kill people.
War clearly reveals The cruel vanity Of humanity And insanity Of celebrating Our ability To kill and destroy Masses of people With fierce and savage Inhumanity.
I love to consume an invisible food that many people don’t know about. It strengthens me and sustains me and transports me to childlike joy. “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me,” according to Jesus. (John 4:32)
The Bible says: “Pray for one another that you may be healed.” (James 5:16) When I obey that verse and pray an on the spot, out loud prayer over someone I am filled with more nourishment than physical food can ever give me.
Sincere on the spot and in the moment prayers, spoken out loud over people who need encouragement, frequently bring hope and healing to hurting people. It’s an amazing thing to watch hearts open up to God’s presence and to His tender touch. It’s not unusual for tears to come to people’s eyes and for their pained expression to transform into a smile of relief. Their gratitude is often expressed in a hug.
This can happen anywhere to anyone. My wife and I love to see God move on people in response to our Spirit-prompted prayer. We’ve seen it happen to gang members on dangerous city streets, to friends in our living room, to church members in worship services, to addicts in rehabs, to pastors at a New Room Conference, to strangers we met while on a casual walk.
I believe that God wants to use you to pray out loud over people. Will you respond to His call? It’s simple. When you’re talking with someone simply ask: “Is it okay if I pray for you?” Most people will say yes. Many will even put out their hands for you to hold them.
Then take their hands or put you hand on their shoulder and begin to pray. Don’t overthink your prayer. Simply let the words flow from your heart. When I pray for someone like that, I almost immediately begin to feel love for them. Tears frequently come to my eyes, and I know that God the Holy Spirit is working because I’m not that compassionate.
Thanks for reading this. That’s a good a first step, however, to really experience what I’m talking about you need to actually pray out loud over someone. Do it today. Then come back to this post and testify about what happened.
The body of Christ is far bigger than most Christians realize. I love connecting heart-to-heart in the Holy Spirit with Christ-followers from various traditions, churches, doctrines, ethnicities, nationalities and races. Start praying with people and you will begin to experience that kind of connection with other Christians and even a closeness with non-Christians.
I’m living history every day. It’s history that I love to repeat over and over again because it never gets boring. It’s repeatable because it’s the history of a dead man who came back to life and lives forevermore. It’s the history (and present-day reality) of “a dead man named Jesus who Paul claimed was alive.” (Acts 25:19) Paul said that “God raised Him (Jesus) from the dead, and for many days he was seen by those who had traveled with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem. (Acts 13:30-31)
The Bible book of Hebrews says that Jesus lives forever (Hebrews 7:25) and that He is “the same yesterday, today, and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8) For many years I’ve experienced those statements to be true. I’m continually living the history of Jesus that I read in the New Testament. I am daily experiencing Christ living and working in and around me (Colossians 1:27) the way that I read that He worked in the Bible.
Every day Jesus does amazing things in my life. He communicates with me. He shows me things. He guides me. He protects me. He comforts me. He encourages me. He empowers me. He corrects me. He provides for me. He does things for me and for other people that are logically impossible. He continually demonstrates to me that He is alive and actively working today like He did in the Bible. He keeps me living the history of what He did in the 1st century right here, right now, in the 21st century.
I love learning about the historical Jesus. I love even more following and interacting with the present-day Jesus. I love getting to know Him and learning to listen to and obey Him better and better.
A first crush can make a person seem like a miracle. And it’s true. Every single human being is a miracle.
Life is full of miracle moments and supernatural situations, but it is so easy to write them off as coincidences. Contemporary Westernized culture trains people to be highly skeptical of miracles and discourages people from talking about supernatural signs and wonders. Even churches discourage people from talking about present-day miracles.
I believe that most churches have numerous attendees who have experienced amazing miracles, but most of their members think miracles are rare because churches have rarely encouraged (or even allowed) the people who have experienced miracles to testify about them. I’ve experienced several incredible miracles myself and I know many other people who have, but it’s hard to find churches who want to hear about the miracles their members and other people have experienced.
Christians and all people need to talk about the miracles and supernatural situations they have experienced. Belief in miracles gives people hope and in today’s mental health crisis we need hope as much as ever in history.
What miracles have you seen or experienced? Share them in the comments and help give someone hope. A miracle can be a supernatural occurrence, a perfectly timed natural occurrence, a divine healing, a dream, a vision, a revelation, an insight, a conversion, or any type of God encounter.
My faith in Jesus doesn’t depend on human wisdom but on multitudes of actual demonstrations of the power of God. (1 Corinthians 2:4-5) Here are a few miracles I’ve experienced or seen.
I was running across a 4-lane street in Reno, Nevada when something abruptly and completely stopped me. A moment later a car zoomed by me just missing me. That miracle saved my life.
As I heard people testifying about Jesus like He is real, alive, present, and working in today’s world, I was suddenly and powerfully changed from the inside out. I’ve had a passionate love for and desire to continually follow and obey Jesus ever since that moment 55 years ago.
A woman I knew was rushed to the hospital internally bleeding to death from a ruptured ulcer. She had to have an emergency blood transfusion to save her life and was scheduled for emergency surgery. A few friends and I were allowed into ICU to see her. We prayed that God would heal her. Then I prayed that her surgery would go well. A friend said: “We just prayed for her healing. Shouldn’t she have another X-ray before surgery?” She agreed and asked for one. The X-ray came back and showed that the ulcer was gone. Her vital signs all returned to normal. The surgery was canceled, and she was released to go home healthy.
When my daughter was about one year old, I took her car seat out of the back seat and remembered that I had left something in the front seat. So, I set her down on the asphalt just inside the backseat door. I stepped around the backseat door and opened the front door to get what I had left and then closed it. Then I saw the backseat door open, and I absentmindedly slammed it. It closed halfway and then abruptly stopped. Suddenly I remembered that my baby daughter was there, and I was terrified. I fearfully looked around the door and saw that the point at the bottom of the door was touching my daughter’s temple and she wasn’t making a sound. I eased the door away from her and she looked up at me. There was a tiny red prick on her temple where the corner of the door had pricked her skin. I kneeled down and examined her, and she appeared to be fine. She never had any negative effects from that incident and grew up healthy, intelligent, and vibrant. Every time I remember that supernatural moment, I thank God with all my heart.
I appeal to churches everywhere. Train, encourage, and allow people to share their miracles during worship services. Have one or two miracle testimonies every Sunday morning. (Pastors, shorten the sermon if necessary to make the time for the miracle testimonies. You’ll be glad you did!)
There are places that you can visit, live in, and even become a citizen of that are out of this world. Those places aren’t far away in distant countries. They are close at hand. They are places of walking in overwhelming direct personal awareness of the presence and love of the living God. Jesus said: “The kingdom of God is at hand.” Philippians 3:20 says: “Our citizenship is in heaven.” You don’t have to wait until you die to continually experience and live in the kingdom of God.
Bible study leads to Bible knowledge. Ongoing Bible absorption leads to a heart overflowing with love and Spirit-led discipleship. If you will read the Bible with an open humble heart in order to let God interrupt and disrupt your life, He will erupt within you with His power and presence and replace your corrupt heart with a new heart that continually hungers and thirst for Him and His righteousness. He will do great things within you, around you, and through you, if you will surrender to His will and be led by His Spirit throughout each day. Let God rescue you “from the dominion of darkness” and bring you into “the kingdom of the Son He loves.” (Colossians 1:13)
If your heart isn’t wide open to God you’re fighting against Him. You’re resisting the Holy Spirit. Before you can show that you care you have to care. Open your heart to the compassion and encouragement that comes from God. Go beyond the knowledge of Bible stories, Bible characters, and Bible ideas. Step into the place of direct personal ongoing encounter with the God of the Bible.
Faith-talk without faith-dependence is faithlessness.
Belief-profession Is often empty. Belief-reliance Is bold defiance Of all doubt and fear And depending on Jesus being near.
As you read my blog posts you are receiving thoughts into your brain. That’s how media works. Whatever you read, hear, or see is received into your brain and piles up in your memory. All of that accumulates in the memory storage compartments of your brain. From there it programs the subconscious thinking of your mind and little by little determines the condition of your mental health.
Consuming messed up media and it’s messed up programming messes up your mind. That’s why our contemporary culture, awash with negative, unhealthy, and destructive media content, struggles with so many mental health issues.
Think for a moment about your own media consumption. Ponder it for a bit. Do you really want your mental health to look like the things that you watch, read, and listen to? If your answer is no, you better begin to change your media consumption because it is creating the content of your cranium.
Don’t complain about the programming that you have allowed to control your brain or try to ignore it with alcohol, drugs, diversions, and distractions. Instead begin to wash the dark stain and mental strain from your brain. Reprogram your mind and train it to create the wealth of mental health. Discern and reject the stealth of mental and emotional trash that our culture is constantly trying to sneak into your brain.
Seek out positive media. Those parental ratings on movies and TV-shows aren’t meaningless letters and numbers. They are important warnings trying to alert you to the dangers of malicious media malware that will little by little drain the mental health from your brain. If you don’t want your state of mind to consistently look and feel like trash, refuse to watch, listen to, or read rubbish.
Look for and consume all the PH-4:8 content that you can find. “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” (Philippians 4:8)
I can never retreat or retire from a mission that never stops burning in my heart. I’ve experienced something so incredible that I’m constantly compelled to tell people about it and to try to help them experience it to. It is the risen Jesus actively working in and though me and in and through other people.
My employer tried to force me to change what I felt called by God to do and had been allowed and encouraged to do for 10 years. Refusing to retreat caused me to lose my employment, salary, and insurance before I was ready to step down. So now I proclaim, encourage, and advocate what I deeply believe but receive no pay. People think I am retired but I am more fired up about Jesus and His Spirit-led, sermon-free worship gatherings than I have ever been. Experiencing them is life-changing, but there is such stubborn resistance against them.
Christian meetings that allow the spontaneity of the Holy Spirit are very rare. I’ve spent my entire adult life searching for them and or starting them. When I find one, I am filled with wonder and awe at the demonstrated presence and reality of the risen Jesus that I experience there. However, before long various people begin to rise up and work to stop the Holy Spirit’s spontaneity and replace it with human structure and control. I’ve seen that happen time after time. During the last six months I’ve seen a Spirit-led gathering that I was a part of brought under tight human control. It breaks my heart to see God’s Spirit quenched and corralled.
Those meetings don’t need to be large, but they can be. They can also be very small — just you and one other person listening to God the Holy Spirit together and then saying and doing whatever He tells you to. Learn more. Use the search bar at the top right of this page to search my blog for organic church, simple church, Berry Street, or sermon-free church. I have written two books that will guide you to experiencing the Holy Spirit’s spontaneity: Beyond Church and The Joy of Early Christianity.
God’s Spirit leads Another way He doesn’t say Do what’s trending. He is sending You to go by His narrow way.
Free Gas for Your Think Tank -- Fill Your Mind and Your Heart With Hope 