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.
If everything about you is already known in the places that matter the most, why try to hide things from anybody? That’s a lesson I learned very early in life, and that realization has caused me to be radically open and honest.
For example, if a drug dealer finds out that the police and the FBI have a list of all his customers and records about all his transactions over the past several years, there’s no need to hide what he has been doing. Since the facts are all already known in the places that matter the most, he can be completely honest.
As a small child living in a non-religious home, I had a strong awareness of God. (Later I became an agnostic and finally a passionate Christ-follower.) As a young child, I realized that God already knew everything about me (all the details of my life).
I have always had a rational mind, so I began to think that if God (the most important Being in existence) already knows everything about me, there is no need for me to hide things from anybody else. Living openly and honestly over the years has given me great inner peace. (Hiding stuff from people takes a lot of work, frustration, and deception.)
When God gets your full attention, He will lead you beyond your good intentions into the center of His will.Too many Christians are oppressed and obsessed by blame and anger. Let it go. “Bless those who curse you.” “Love your enemies.”
Humans need invisible food in order to keep hope alive. Burgers and fries (and even broccoli and carrots) don’t offer enough nourishment for people to thrive. For inner healing and mental health, we need to daily dine on the encouragement of inner peace, joy, and kindness. We all need the nourishment of faith, hope, and love.
One day Christ’s disciples were concerned that He wasn’t eating. He told them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” He was talking about feeding on the Spirit of God. “O taste and see that the Lord is good.” (See John 4:31-33.)
God told Moses that His name is I AM. I AM is the Almighty, the eternal Creator of all that exists. He is directly communicating with people today and calling us to exit our self-effort and self-focused lifestyle and to continually give our all to Him.
Jesus (Emmanuel–I AM with us) said: “My sheep hear My voice.” To be “led by the Spirit” we must hear and obey the voice (the inner promptings) of “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
Jesus is the fire that burns within the heart of His surrendered followers and empowers and directs them through the inner flames of His Spirit. Will we “walk in the Spirit” or will we quench the Spirit and live by our human thoughts, feelings, and desires? I AM is calling you. Will you go where He sends you and say what He tells you to?
Seeing the Holy Spirit work is as easy as 1-2-3.
1) Gather with a small group of people who want to directly hear from the risen Jesus.
2) Have everyone present listen to Jesus and notice what He says or does in her or his own heart.
3) Let each person say and/or do whatever Jesus prompts him or her to say and/or do.
If you do these things, you will experience the risen Jesus working in and through the people present in deeply heart-touching ways as the Holy Spirit directly leads the meeting.
I used to be self-righteous, thinking I deserved God’s approval. Now I run away from self-righteousness every day so that I can rely on God’s mercy instead of my own goodness.
Self-righteousness hardens the human heart. It tries to boost itself by blaming others. Self-righteousness is based on pride, true righteousness on humility. Self-righteousness likes to advertise its self-proclaimed virtues.
The self-righteous are too proud to see or to admit when they are wrong. If you always think you are right, you are self-righteous.
Self-righteousness is a trap. Humbly asking for forgiveness leads to freedom. Self-righteousness is the weapon of the insecure.
Self-righteousness enjoys seeing itself as better than other people. It over looks its own faults and exaggerates the faults of others. It sees kindness as weakness. It withholds compassion.
Self-righteousness has no need for the risen present Jesus. It’s satisfied with a distant religious Jesus.
Self-righteousness keeps people from fully experience the mercy, forgiveness, and grace of God. It’s a terrible deception. The Bible says, “There is none righteous, no not one.” Self-righteousness blocks personal and spiritual growth.
“The greatest enemy to human souls is the self-righteous spirit.” –Charles Spurgeon
With you/in you/through you
Christ is called Emmanuel, God with us! Jesus has Sent His Spirit To now live in And to lead His followers From within: “Christ in you, The hope of glory.” Stir up the gift That is in you. Refuse to Quench the Spirit. Let His presence Overflow From your heart Day and night.
Self-deception is rampant. I want to look beyond myself and my pride so I can discover truth (whether I like it or not). I want to live in reality, not in self-righteousness. Am I a leader? I don’t know. What do you think?
In contemporary society’s heavy fog of constantly spotlighted feelings, opinions, desires, distortion, deception, cravings, and confusion, many people arrogantly claim that they are right and anybody who disagrees with them is wrong. They think that they are good people but that the people who see things differently than they do are bad people. Let’s get real.
There is some good and there is some evil in every individual person (including you). It’s easy to see the evil in people who you see as a threat, but all that does is increase your fear. Instead, first begin to recognize, attack, and overcome the roots of the evil fog in yourself. Then you can begin to see the good in your opponents and to love your enemies so that they can see the good in you.
Anger intensifies day after day. It grows into fear and insecurity. It sees people as threats. It morphs into hostility and a desire for retaliation. Anger justifies itself. It ignores logic and rationality. It inspires insults and accusations. It makes feelings and opinions more important than reality. It can suddenly lead to violence — even to angry mob violence.
That’s why the Bible says, “In your anger do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.” When anger is carried overnight it gets stronger. Imagine how it grows if carried over months, years, and decades. If you are angry, don’t be its slave. Obey the Bible. Get rid of your anger before sunset tonight. Then you will be able to see things much more clearly.
Anger distorts truth. Without truth we are slaves to falsehood. Break free from anger’s bondage. “The truth will set you free.” Humbly seek it.
“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” –Henry David Thoreau
Quiet desperation leads people into anxiety, accusation, anger, and an abundance of mental health issues. It annihilates inner peace.
I believe that God is calling people (of all ages) who are burning with His inner fire to help bring His people out of the pain, pride, and political dominance of Egypt and into the peace of the kingdom (direct heart-to-heart government) of God. To do this we need to demonstrate the presence, power, reality, character, and love of God in our daily lives.
The early Christians “turned the world upside down” by doing things Christ’s way instead of following their own thoughts, feelings, desires, and opinions. They had the faith and humility to rely on spiritual weapons instead of on human anger and/or physical weapons. Are we willing to do the same?
The biggest problem in America (and other countries) is our divisiveness. We have to share our country with people we disagree with. If we continue to demonize and to try to dominate each other, we will blow America apart. Then no group or party will have what they want, and we’ll all continue to suffer from (and escalate) chaos and violence.
If we love America and don’t want to destroy it, it is essential that we begin to find ways to work together so that we can “ensure domestic tranquility” (peace with one another) and all of us get part (but not all) of what we want. When a presidential debate looks like two angry and scared children pulling on the same stuffed animal, the future is dim for America.
It’s time for God’s people to turn away from the worldly Egyptian-style weapons of self-righteous divisiveness, arrogant accusation, and continual blame. It’s time to show kindness and compassion to the people we disagree with. It’s time we start “speaking the truth in love.” Jesus meant it when He told His followers to “Love your enemies,” and to “Bless those who curse you.” If you are unwilling to do what Jesus said, are you truly a Christ-follower?
The Bible warns us of misinformation and disinformation. The Bible calls it deception and this world is filled with it. I love Jesus and do my best to follow and obey Him moment-by-moment, but I can easily be deceived by the cunning of the devil and of human beings. I’m sure there are many times in your life when you (like me) have been deceived and tricked into false self-destructive attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. We all have. (Even now, none of us fully knows the truth because “we see through a glass darkly.”)
We need to listen to and believe the Bible and the Holy Spirit, not to our own supposed ability to know if something is true or false, (or right or wrong). The Bible calls that “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” Eating from that prideful tree messed up Adam and Eve. And it messes up all of their descendants as well.
Whatever your age, be a peacemaker (both within your own heart and in your nation and the world). (I believe that the term “elder” in the Bible doesn’t refer to a church office. I believe that it refers to senior citizens of the kingdom of God who passionately and humbly love, follow, and obey the risen Jesus day after day.) Young or old or in between, will you be one of those people?
I don’t like to go barefooted. I like to keep my shoes on. However, sometimes I need to take off my shoes so that I can clean my feet and so that I can put on even better shoes.
God called to Moses from a burning bush. He told Moses to take off his shoes because he was standing on holy ground.
Jesus told His disciples to take off their shoes and then He washed their feet. Today God’s not looking for holy places but for holy feet attached to people who have been made holy by the blood of the Lamb and by the indwelling presence of the risen Jesus — people who will daily be led by the Spirit. Their feet bring demonstrations of the good news of “Christ in you, the hope of glory,” everywhere they go.
Take off your shoes. Step out of the prideful human ways of walking. Go beyond routine religion. Put the Gospel of peace on your feet and begin to walk supernaturally in the Spirit.
If a church is just presenting information about Jesus and not training the members of the congregation to daily listen to Him and walk in His shoes, it isn’t fully proclaiming and demonstrating the Good News of walking in the Spirit. It’s time for a shoe change!
If people aren’t trained to turn on the faucet and regularly drink the water, it does little good to teach them the details about the plumbing. (If churches don’t train people to open up and experience Christ’s living water day and night, merely teaching them the details of the Gospel won’t impact their life very much.)
As I watched a preacher, filled with passion for Jesus, talking about the Bible in front of a stone-faced congregation, I wished that he would lead the people into experiencing and expressing life-changing passion for the living Jesus instead of just excitedly sharing information about Him. Information about Jesus will be little applied and even forgotten, but experiencing “Christ in you,” burning like a never-ending fire, will empower people to continually spread His presence, power, and love to everyone they meet.
Preaching with passion and trying to get Christ’s living water to flow from the heart of people in a church service is like preaching to a shut-down faucet and trying to get water to flow. I’ve tried that many hundreds of times and it’s not very effective (preaching to a passive congregation, not to a literal faucet).
To get water to flow from a faucet you have to turn it on and open it up. To get Christ’s living water to flow from people’s heart you have to train them to open up their heart and stop blocking Christ’s inner rivers. Then you have to give them opportunities to open up in the meeting and speak from the Spirit as the risen Jesus prompts them until person after person begins to open their heart and let the Spirit lead them to humbly and honestly do what Jesus tells them to.
Preaching to people who are passively parked in church pews (or chairs) is like trying to steer a car that is parked in a garage. No matter how hard you steer, you won’t change its direction. The Bible never says, “Sit and hear a talk about the goodness of God.” It says, “O taste and see that the Lord is good.”
Church is one man On a platform Trying to inform People about God. The Gospel is Jesus the Christ Working to transform People from within. “Christ in you, The hope of glory.”
The sound That creates Holy ground Is the sound Of God’s voice. Open your heart. Hear His word. Let Him confound You with awe Till you abound With the fruit Of His Spirit.
The personality trait of being passively settled into the cozy zone of a comfortable life is a red flag. A life caught up in daily routine misses out on the excitement and adventure of an inspired existence. A man named Moses spent 40 years in a desert land going through the daily routine of tending the sheep that belonged to his father-in-law. Then one day he bumped into a burning bush.
Moses encountered God through that bush blazing with flames that weren’t harming it. Moses’ encounter with that supernaturally burning bush connected him heart-to-heart with the living God and empowered him to zoom with zeal and zest far beyond his zone of comfort and to change the world (in spite of his fears, mistakes, and insecurities).
Jesus sent the Holy Spirit as a flame so that people could encounter His glorious presence through His fire that has now come to burn in the heart of each one of His fully surrendered followers. Will you keep stirring up the Spirit’s fire within you? Will you refuse to quench or to let God’s inner flame go out?
Instead of constantly choosing to stay in (and defend) your comfort zone will you stop zigzagging and begin to daily follow the trail that the risen Jesus is blazing for you into the unknown? It’s time for ordinary Christians to burst into flame with supernatural fire that never goes out.
Jesus is the answer! There’s no other Savior than Him.
Make the decision To do the things That will cause you To love Jesus More and more.
Ask Jesus To search your heart And show you Everything That’s keeping you From getting Closer to Him Day by day. Then lay it all down And let Him burn it At His cross.
Keep your heart Continually aware Of Christ’s presence. Always do What He prompts You to do.
Keep a two way Conversation Going with Jesus All the time. Talking to Jesus And listening To what He says Will stoke your heart With more and more Love for Him.
Read the Bible Every day With an open heart. Let the words Burn deep within you Like a roaring fire.
Find and hang out with (And read books by) People who are More excited About Jesus Than you are.
Talk about how much Your love Jesus And your love for Him Will grow and grow.
Self-absorption Is disproportion. It’s a distortion And a contortion Of reality.
Self-absorption is a house of hazy smoke and twisted mirrors that drastically distorts reality through the lenses of human pride.It hardens your heart, shuts down your mind, and fills your mouth with arrogance.
To be self-absorbed is to be trapped with the one person who can do you the most harm.Self-absorption is like a sponge. It quickly soaks up the dirty dishwater of self-obsessed desires.
Consumerism cultivates and captivates people in the chaotic cravings of self-absorption. Then they try to buy their way into happiness.
People with a self-absorbed swag often try to gag other people and intimidate them into silence. We humans like to compare ourselves to others, but our pride won’t let us do it fairly. We’re usually far too self-absorbed to take the time to compassionately find out what’s really going on in the heart and mind of other people.
If your opinions matter, then other people’s opinions also matter. Listen, kindly discuss, and try to persuade, but refuse to let your self-absorption cause you to be rude to people who disagree with you.
Let the risen Jesus gently squeeze the self-absorption out of you. Then He can fill you with His presence and reality.
When church is seen as a business, leaders are chosen based on their influence, human abilities, social status, or financial situation rather than on their character, brokenness, and humility before God. Does going to church keep you excited about, obedient to, and absorbed with the living Jesus all week long? If not, perhaps something is missing.
Be reliant On Jesus And compliant With His will. Know the thrill Of seeing That He’s real!
To discover the reality of the ideal sometimes we have to tramp through the desert. The worst wilderness, the most disturbing desert, is in the human heart. That is the lonely place where we are tempted to follow our desires instead of God’s, to misuse Scripture for our self-focused benefit, and to worship the devil by recklessly pursuing worldly pleasure and power. See Matthew 4:1-11.
Jesus wants your heart. The wilderness in your heart is the place where you can find “the mountain of God” — “Christ in you, the hope of glory,” and cultivate the fruit of His Spirit to grow and prosper within you. We humans desperately need inner discernment so that we can recognize the difference between the fruit of the Spirit and the deception of the devil who “disguises himself as an angel of light,” and whose servants are disguised as “servants of righteousness.” See 2 Corinthians 11:14-15.
Here is a guide to discernment — a map to the mountain of God. Whatever:
* Diminishes love, * Dismantles joy, * Deletes inner peace, * Disrupts patience, * Dumps kindness, * Drives out goodness, * Destroys faithfulness, * Denounces gentleness, * Dismantles self-control, Isn’t the fruit of God’s Spirit.
Christ burning in your heart and speaking from His fire within you will illuminate your steps and empower you to follow and obey Him throughout each day and to continually demonstrate the reality of the inner mountain of God. Stir up the gift of the Holy Spirit if He lives within you. Quench not the Spirit. Be always looking unto Jesus. Behold the Lamb of God. Make your heart and life an altar where the fire of God ever burns.
The geography of the human heart is confusing. It’s mega-dimensional. We need the living Jesus to be our inner Guide to healing and spiritual growth. He calls to all, “Follow Me.” Will you continually listen to His still, small voice within you and then say and do what He tells you to?
Open wide your heart, Let the living Jesus lead you through the spiritual topography of your inner desert to the Mountain of God. Without 𝓙esus as the active, literal Head and director of meetings of His body on earth, Christianity is decapitated and looks like this; “__esus,” or this; “_______ianity.” It’s time for Christians to begin to let the living 𝓙esus direct us from within our heart.
If Christ is in you, you are a house of God, a temple of the Holy Spirit. Be an open house. Refuse to allow wrongful thoughts, feelings, and desires to hide and work inside of you. Walk humbly in the light of the risen Jesus.
Does going to church keep you excited about and obedient to Jesus all week long? If not, perhaps something is missing.
Instead of making A nation great The political Blame-game will make People learn to hate.
Words that are unkind Pollute the mind And the heart Of those who say them And those who hear them. It’s better to find Ways to say Words that are aligned With encouragement, Hope and optimism.
Hope is found by looking beyond political blame. I don’t want politicians to fight for me. I want them to set aside ideology and work together to make our country better. Perhaps our nation would be greater if Americans would see each other as fellow citizens with differing political views and not as opposing sides.
People like to use the argument that Jesus got angry to try to justify their anger and abusive language. The Bible says “Be angry and sin not. Don’t let the sun go down on your wrath.” I see many people on Facebook who say they are Christians but repeatedly hold on to their anger and insult people day after day. They seem to have allowed anger and rudeness to take control of their life.
If Christ is in you, you are a house of God, a temple of the Holy Spirit. Be an open house. Refuse to allow wrongful thoughts, feelings, and desires to hide and work inside of you. Walk humbly in the light.
Free Gas for Your Think Tank -- Fill Your Mind and Your Heart With Hope 