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.
Some people win The lottery But much money And a long term Spending spree Is not able To set them free. True freedom comes Another way.
Let Jesus saturate Your mind and your heart. And fill you with wonder. As you ruminate And constantly ponder His glorious presence– The Living Word of God!
Hear Jesus. Know Jesus. Love Jesus. Serve Jesus.
To hear Jesus Is inner peace He makes the storms Within you cease.
To know Jesus Is true friendship, The ultimate Relationship.
To love Jesus Is pure romance. Open your heart And take a chance.
To serve Jesus Makes life worthwhile. And meaningful Mile after mile.
Devouring the Bible With great delight Clearly shows me Christ’s brilliant light.
Go beyond the explanation Of religious information. Tell others how you Experienced Christ And thus illustrate His reality. Help others To experience Christ And thus demonstrate His reality.
The most effective Way to teach Isn’t to preach Or to lecture. It’s to illustrate And to demonstrate The reality of What you’re teaching.
In the troubled and stressed-out culture where I live, I look for inner peace. I love to read books and articles that point me to God’s peace.
The peace of God can’t be taught. It’s beyond human understanding. Therefore, to truly experience God’s peace you must “lean not on your own understanding” and “in all your ways acknowledge Him.” (Proverbs 3:5) You can be able to quote every Bible verse about peace and know what dozens of preachers, theologians, and commentaries say about each verse, yet still not experience God’s peace.
Because it’s supernatural, the peace of God can’t be experienced through reasoning, study, or analysis. The peace of God is “in Christ.” It can’t be taught but it can be caught and maintained by “Christ in you.” It’s part of the fruit of the Spirit that the risen Jesus produces when He is allowed to live in, rule, and reign as the Absolute Lord and Master of your heart and mind.
To experience the peace of God, talk to Jesus in every situation throughout each day and fully surrender your life and desires to Him. Express your cares and concerns to Him and continually thank Him for the gift of His glorious presence in you and with you. Let Christ continually guard and guide your heart and mind.
Let your heart be strangely warmed. The way to “taste and see that the Lord is good,” (Psalm 34:8) is to open your heart and begin to ponder His presence and reality. The entire Book of Psalms is about pondering God. Ponder and absorb His beauty.
When people are trained to regularly ponder, drink in, and absorb the presence of the living Jesus, the life transforming power of the Holy Spirit begins to flow from within them like rivers of living water. (John 7:37-39.) Pondering prayer focuses on the presence of God and pays close attention to His inner promptings.
Marvel at the marvel of God. Regularly focus on, consider, contemplate, and ponder how His creation produces awe, amazement, and astonishment. Then you will eventually develop an ongoing awareness of the breathtaking beauty of being alive. True Christian worship wows people with the presence of the risen Jesus Christ. The early Christ-followers were “filled with awe.” (Acts 2:43)
Theology approaches the Bible with mental analysis and treats it as mainly religious information. Inspiration ponders the Bible with the heart and soaks it in as the lifegiving word of God. (2 Timothy 3:16) Perpetually ponder “the mystery of godliness.” (1 Timothy 3:16)
“The kingdom of God is at hand.” (Matthew 3:2) If Christ-followers would meet to ponder the presence of the risen Jesus and then to obey His inner promptings the kingdom of God would show up in their midst. Without faith, people will neglect to ponder the presence of Jesus and will choose to ignore His inner promptings.
Don’t just take notes on a sermon. Take notes on and ponder your own thinking. Look closely and you might just find the voice of God speaking within you.
The Spirit-led ponderings of ordinary Christ-followers are powerful. Unfortunately, they have been trained to ignore their ponderings and revelations and instead to put their faith in the words of a preacher.
Christian, ponder! Refuse to settle into lukewarmness. Everyday hit the pause button and ponder the beauty of life for a while. Ponder how you can live better and get better results from your life. When I ponder the mystery of my consciousness of the world around me, I am captured by awe of my Creator.
Ponder to cultivate Christ’s inner peace: 1) Notice the thoughts that come to your mind, 2) Reject the harmful ones, 3) Ignore the mediocre ones, 4) Embrace the helpful ones, and 5) Treasure the inspiring ones.
When you’re thinking in a box you’ve clipped the wings that empower you ponder the things that cause your heart to soar. “Wait on the Lord” and “mount up with wings as eagles.” (Isaiah 40:31)
Pondering goes beyond what and examines why. To neglect to ponder is to abandon your God-given responsibility to make wise choices.
Don’t panic, ponder. Trust in Jesus. Let Him prompt you. Train yourself to Be a responder To His Spirit. Be faithful To live under His direct Headship.
Perhaps our purpose As people Is to ponder And absorb Life’s wonder.
Neglecting to ponder The significance And purpose Off your existence Makes it easy to squander Your life.
Ponder the effect Of your thoughts. Notice what they Do to you. Then select And collect The ones that have The best effect On you And reject Deflect And eject The harmful ones.
Creativity Identifies Ideas And keeps insight In sight.
The more you ponder, The less you’ll wander Aimlessly.
I once found a book that uncovers my deception when I read it with an open heart. Reading that book is like standing in the shower and letting very hot water run over your aching back. It hurts but if feels good. Despite the pain, reading that book (and also books by people who have allowed that book to burn in their heart) feels so good that I enjoy doing it in my leisure time.
That book is the Bible. I’ve read it over and over for far too many hours to count and it still brightly shines truth in my heart and “is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” (2 Timothy 3:16)
Devouring the Bible will gradually and gently show you any deception in your heart. It’s the app that will direct you to the best life has to offer, if you’ll humbly read and obey it.
Treasure truth. Deposit it in your heart. Truth is the currency of mental wealth. Deception is disrespect for the truth. What you gain by deception will collapse your conscience and hold you in bondage to lies.
When deception is defended as “free expression” instead of pointed out as a lie, a culture loses both truth and trust and crumbles into chaos. If you repeat unsubstantiated statements, there’s a good chance that you’re spreading lies. Accusations without accuracy and proof are frequently the free expression of falsehood. Speak from solid evidence not from mere allegations. Spreading other people’s lies (even if you believe them to be true) is dishonesty.
Deception is more popular than truth. Truth telling requires the hard work of honesty, courage, and humility, but deceiving people is quick and easy.
Deception distorts the difference between fact and fake. If people have deceived you, it’s because you have trusted them when they didn’t deserve your trust.
Unchecked feelings, desires, and opinions lead people and nations into great deception. When truth is twisted into ropes of deception and tangled up in passionately believed lies a society ignores and defies compassion, honesty, logic, conscience, and common sense.
To distort the truth or to outright lie to try to get what you want is to abandon reality and to undermine your conscience. It is to put your trust in deception and deceivers. Where there’s deception there’s a denial of reality. It’s a sin to twist, spin, and distort the truth. The book tells me: “Do not lie to one another.”
“Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools that don’t have brains enough to be honest.” –Benjamin Franklin (A Founding Father of the USA)
To build on a foundation of deception is to build on something that won’t last. The Founding Fathers of the USA created “checks and balances” between the three parts of government so that deception could be exposed and minimized. To ignore, resist, or attempt to override those “check and balances” is to wade into shark infested waters. No individual or political party is 100% free from deception. We all need “checks and balances.”
The reception Of deception Distorts your Perception Of reality.
To deceive Is to cause People To believe Lies.
To betray The truth Is to embrace Moral decay.
Deceivers Who are Overachievers Can lead multitudes Astray.
Nothing can be closer to me than the attraction of insights and “ahas” because they occur within me–inside of my heart and mind. So many of them come to me that it’s hard to visit with all of them. Occasionally I let some slip away or overlook them. Nonetheless, I continually hunger and thirst for more of God’s glorious revelations to my heart.
Christians like to misquote half of a biblical statement. “Eye hasn’t seen and ear hasn’t heard what God has prepared for those who love Him.” However, they almost always leave off the ending: “But God has revealed it to us.” Christianity is all about divine revelation that comes directly from the living God to your heart.
Behold the Lamb of God! Hear His voice! Physical eyes and ears can’t see or hear Him. Instead, look and listen to the invisible One (Hebrews 11:27), “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Surrender your heart to God the Father’s supernatural revelation so that He can begin to change you deep within (from glory to glory) into His very own image.
Take the veil of darkness off of your face. Humbly and continually ask God to shine and to brighten His light of revelation inside your heart (2 Corinthians 4:6).
Religion is based on scripted sights and sounds, but a relationship with Christ (Colossians 1:27) relies on direct heart-to-heart revelation from God the Father (Matthew 16:17) and the ongoing leading of the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:14). It’s true that things that God has prepared for the people who love Him can’t be seen by the human eye, heard by the natural ear, or conceived by logical thinking, but God reveals them to humble, spiritually hungry people through the supernatural presence of His Spirit. (1 Corinthians 2:9-10) Refuse to settle for less.
Fight (1 Timothy 6:12) the pride (James 4:6) of your fallen human nature. Cast it down (2 Corinthians 10:5) and throw it aside. Humble yourself (1 Peter 5:6) so that you can prepare the way of the Lord Jesus Christ (Luke 3:4-6) in your heart and make room for God the Holy Spirit to freely flow out of your innermost being with the glorious rivers (John 7:38) of God the Father’s supernatural revelation.
(When churches focus on what the human eye can see, what the physical ear can hear, and what the logical mind can conceive, instead of on proclaiming the invisible Lordship of the risen Jesus and demonstrating the presence, reality and revelation of the kingdom of God, we’re living in a dark age. When the words on our lips aren’t in sync with our heart, that’s hypocrisy. See Matthew 15:8.)
Sincerely say these words from your heart to the risen Jesus Christ:
“Lord Jesus, I sincerely invite You to come and live in me and to take full control of my life. I will notice what You say to me in and through my conscience. I will listen for Your voice in my heart. I will obey Your inner nudgings and promptings. Anytime I ignore You or stray from You, please remind me and draw me back. Thank You for coming into my heart, showing me that You are real, and empowering me to daily follow and obey You.”
Smile: I don’t wait until I’m having fun to smile. Smiling itself is fun.
Consume hope: I search for and devour positive, hope-filled media.
Absorb nature: I stroll and ponder its beauty, inspiration, and glory.
Be kind: I interact heart-to-heart with people as I show them kindness.
Surrender to God’s grace: I walk and talk with the risen Jesus through the grace that he purchased for me by His blood.
Grace gives All the glory, All the credit, All the merit, For ever and ever To Jesus!
Grace is released according to God’s power “that is at work within us.” (Ephesians 3:20) It is unmerited access to a personal relationship of ongoing alignment with God through the risen Jesus.
Grace isn’t a one-time transactional prayer that’s prayed to God so that we can be excused for our behaviors and protected from their consequences. It’s not a powerless “form of godliness.” (2 Timothy 3:5) It freely empowers us to live by God’s will instead of by our own will.
The grace of God Doesn’t justify Or defend our sin. It changes us From deep within!
Trying to justify and defend our sin “falls short of the grace of God.” (Hebrews 12:15) Anyone who thinks that he deserves God’s grace doesn’t understand it. The kingdom of God is no meritocracy. Only one human has ever deserved access to God the Father–that is Jesus the God-man.
To live in God’s grace, we have to let go of our self-righteous pride and deceptive belief that we deserve God’s favor, so that we can humbly admit the truth that we are completely undeserving of His grace. “God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.” (James 4:6)
Grace and truth go together. “Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” (John 1:17) Let the grace and truth purchased by the blood of Jesus continually overflow from deep within you. (Colossians 1:6)
We humans need “the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness” (not a little dab) so that we can reign in life (not just in Heaven) through radical surrender and total submission to the presence, authority, and will of Jesus Christ living in and through us. (Romans 5:17) “For if by the trespass of the one (Adam), death reigned through the one; so much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ.”
Grace and sin don’t mix! “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” (Romans 6:1-2) Grace requires for a person “not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think.” (Romans 12:3)
Grace produces work! “But by the grace of God I am what I am. His grace which was bestowed on me was not futile, but I worked more than all of them; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” (1 Corinthians 15:10)
Be aligned with Christ, not alienated from Him! “You are alienated from Christ, you who desire to be justified by the law. You have fallen away from grace.” (Galatians 5:4)
Grace is given by the working of God’s power. Let His power freely and continually work within you to keep you charged with His presence and make you into a servant. “I was made a servant, according to the gift of that grace of God which was given me according to the working of his power.” (Ephesians 3:7)
Dare to have a long unscripted conversation with God. Let Him show you one thing that will make your life better. You’ll be glad you did!
God’s plans, not mine; Let me align With His will And be a branch On Christ’s vine Overflowing With new wine So I can live By His design, Not mine, And Christ in me Can be my hope, My powerline, And my future.
Let Christ wake up Your conscience And empower You to live up To His plans.
True Christianity’s About Christ on the scene Leading with His presence, Not religious routine, A sage up on a stage, Or a man on a screen.
It’s bad to be mean spirited. Be Christ-spirited instead. “Love your enemies, bless those who curse you.” Lord, help me jump wholeheartedly into your will!When deceiving and insulting become popular the foundations of society crumble. How we all need to be trained by God!
Christianity has pulled the wool over the eyes of God’s sheep and put them in tightly controlled sheep pens where they can’t see that they all carry the power and presence of the Lion of the tribe of Judah within them (“Christ in you, the hope of glory,”). They’re blinded to the fact that they are all called and all empowered to continually demonstrate and proclaim Christ’s presence and reality. Christian leaders, please let God’s sheep out their religious pens!
“To the one who overcomes, I will give the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone inscribed with a new name. known only to the one who receives it.” (Revelation 2:17) “Those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.” (Romans 8:14) Jesus calls to me in an inner place far beyond mere words and prompts me to follow the unscripted leading of His Spirit as a child of God.
“Wherever two or three (or more) gather” to “hear what the Spirit is saying,” and to all “be led by the Spirit,” Jesus begins to function as the living Head of His body. He prompts and nudges people by their intimate new name. To grow strong in the Lord regularly meet with some Jesus-lovers and follow the unscripted leading of the Spirit.
Experience Unscripted Christianity
Say what the Spirit is saying. Do what the Spirit is doing. Live out the living Word of God As it comes from the mouth of God. Let Christ engrave it on your heart And display it in your actions Making you a wellspring of His living water.
Perhaps it’s not enough to gather to only hear the word of God. Perhaps Christians also need to gather to say and do the word of God as the Spirit prompts them. (James 1:22 & Romans 8:14)
Is there a church service anywhere that will allow even one unprogrammed moment? Can Christians get off the Sunday morning script for at least a quick breath of the experiential reality of Holy Spirit’s presence? When I was a teenager attending a Presbyterian church, they did allow a spontaneous moment. It was a tiny period of silent prayer. We were permitted (for thirty seconds or so) to mentally pray our own prayers (and think our own thoughts) instead of just being trapped in the rigidity of routine religion.
A church service that allows unscripted moments is very hard to find. I love to gather with Christians to all “draw near to God” (James 4:8) without a program. A beautiful thing begins to happen. Together we begin to see, hear, and experience the Holy Spirit directly taking the lead and we realize that “This is that spoken of,” in the Bible.” (Acts 2:16)
When Peter preached in the Bible he made the declaration, “This is that spoken by the prophet Joel,” as he explained the unprogrammed energy, power, and excitement that was overflowing from the gathered Christ-followers. Nowadays preachers act like that was that, and that now Christians are supposed to gather not to make Spirit-led biblical declarations, but merely to listen to their sermon.
Is this that? (See Acts 2:16.) I don’t believe that this that we call church attendance is the same thing as that relationship with the risen Jesus that the first Christians had. What JD described is much closer to biblical experience than just passively hearing the Word.
God gives us fresh fruit but by the time people get through with it we’ve often turned it into a can of fruit cocktail. God gives us His Spirit, but we too often replace the Spirit with programmed religion.
The greatest nation on earth is the kingdom of God. It always has been and always will be great. Everyone is invited to become a citizen of this eternally great nation by fully surrendering their heart and life to the direct authority, Lordship, and Headship of King Jesus. Its patriots love their enemies, do good to those who hate them, bless those who curse them, and pray for those who mistreat them. (Luke 6:27-28)
The nation whose God is the Lord is called the kingdom of God. Its citizens are “from every nation, tribe, people and language.” (Revelation 7:9) God has rescued them from the dominion of darkness and brought “into the kingdom of the Son He loves.” (Colossians 1:13) They are empowered by the Holy Spirit to “say Jesus is Lord,” (1 Corinthians 12:3) and to demonstrate His power.” (1 Corinthians 2:4) They “worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.” (Philippians 3:3 NKJ) They rely on the Lord as they “wait in hope,” for Him. (Psalm 33:20) They rejoice with “inexpressible and glorious joy.” (1 Peter 1:8)
When people gather to let Christ be the literal Head, Jesus takes the wheel and begins to steer the meeting by nudging and prompting people. That’s the setting where people can learn to hear and obey the risen King of Kings and to actually be the Spirit-led body of Christ.
Human nations rise and fall but the kingdom of God never needs to be made great again. It’s always great! “Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; His greatness no one can fathom.” (Psalm 145:3)
Jesus consistently proclaimed the kingdom of God. He once used the ancient Greek’s name for their town hall meeting (where any citizen present could speak up) to describe what He was building — “ekklesia.” However, over time the kingdom (direct government) of God was replaced by institutionalized church, formalized traditions, and religious programs.
If the kingdom of God isn’t the only ruler of your heart you’re trusting in the wrong nation. Jesus first! Refuse to live a life distracted by human kingdoms and earthly concerns. “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” (Matthew 6:33)
“If you have not chosen the kingdom of God, it will make in the end no difference what you have chosen instead.” –William Law
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