Directions. Never have been good at them. They're always upside down. You probably never ran into that problem before. My husband laughs when I'm looking at the folded paper with befuddled consternation, takes the map and says, "Oh, yeah, sure. Look. It's right there," as he points to the illusive destination on the map. (It appears to me upside down.)
So the next time the occasion presents itself, I thought I would outsmart the process. It seemed like a fairly good idea at the time. Simply turn it upside down before even beginning to start looking for my destination. Easy peezy. Now the challenge that loomed large was my deciphering words askew while my brain screams to return the fandangled map in its upright position. Still outsmarted by a piece of paper, in resignation I drive to the nearest all-knowing information booth .... a gas station ... where a grease-stained attendant I have never met before is entrusted with attempting to untangle my direction ineptitude.
Gaining directions for life can be quite the same way. Just when you think you have the destination in sight, life is upended and suddenly the way doesn't seem quite as clear, even disorienting. There will be people along the way, those we have never met in our lives, who we entrust with salient guidance to afford safe arrival at the next destination that life demands, sometimes with disastrous results. We didn't know the way and were lost without signs that would lead us safely. Does life always have to be that way? I say, there has to be a better way in life and there is.
A religious group surrounded Jesus one day and asked Him if He would show them a sign from heaven so they could know the times in which they were living. He essentially said, "Come on, you can read the weather report but you don't know how to discern the signs of the times?" There are many today asking the same thing, "What do you think? How much time do you think we have left? What's going on? There's some awfully weird stuff happening. I'm not sure where to turn or how to move forward. Everything seems like it's falling apart." It doesn't seem to matter one's spiritual journey they have taken. The same question remains on everyone's lips. Everyone knows there is something going on and just about to happen, but just what and when?
You know, the disciples of Jesus asked Him the exact thing when He was here. They asked him, "Do you know what signs are? How will we know what's going to happen in the last days and what are we to do?" He answered with great wisdom. Most all of what He said then has now come to pass with pinpoint accuracy. Here's a small current checklist:
1. Don't let people lead you down a weed-filled path with deceptive trickery. (Hum, check. That's a big one. Lots of stuff out there to choose from and most of it is all smoke and mirrors. Hint: don't fall for it, even if it sounds like pie in the sky. If it sounds too good to be true, believe me, it is and frankly isn't from God.)
2. Many will come down the pike trying to say, "I'm it. I'm your messiah, your savior, the one that will save you from the economy, save your taxes, the Government will take care of you, it won't cost you a dime and can even save you from those that don't believe like you, blah, blah.
3. You'll hear rumors of wars, talk of big nuclear wars, and wars that will actually break out and kill many people. Don't be troubled about it. The end is not yet just because of that (well, we're in the midst of that now, I'd say).
4. Nation will rise against nation and there will be terrible things like famines and earthquakes all over the world (that's happening big time!).
5. They will hate you and try to kill you (there are martyrs being killed every day worldwide on an unprecedented scale. The Evin Prison in Iran, the concentration camps in North Korea, the prisons in China, and many more are torturing and killing Christians. There are many here that would like the country "cleansed" of them here in America. Does that remind anyone of Nazi Germany?).
6. Lots of people will be offended (already calling the race card on anything that moves, and the "Me" generation is obnoxiously trying to demand their rights whether they work or not -- mostly not).
7. False prophets will deceive many (false doctrines have infiltrated the church at such an alarming rate it is stunning, but these are precedented days).
Then after all this long litany of upheaval, just like an upside down map, He made this stunning pronouncement that has more hope in it than anything you can read in the New York Times or anywhere, "The one that holds his ground in conflict, bears up against adversity, holds out under stress, stands firm calmly and courageously with energetic resistance to defeat and brave endurance to the very end -- those are the ones that shall be saved. The gospel will be preached everywhere as a witness to everybody and then the end will come." People will hear it. They may not accept it. They'll even deny it, but that doesn't make it any less true. It's the sign. The biggest one ever. The gospel of the kingdom is being sent to nations and peoples all around the world at breakneck speed. In places where proclaiming this message is at the risk of being beheaded, Jesus has been appearing in visions and dreams in addition to satellite images streaking across the expansive heavens proclaiming the only way to salvation.
I don't know about you, but I think we're there. There are signs everywhere. There's distress and stress on every side screaming for our defeat, yelling out fear and doom, blazing out discouragement while evil forces are singing nightly lullabies of depression and suicide.
Yet, in the midst hope burns with mega grace. You can see the light if you look for the signs. The best sign of all is Jesus. He is the way. He is the truth. He is the light. And he is the sign of all signs. Look at His map: the Bible. It will turn your life upside down and you will see things as they are meant to be: in truth, in righteousness, in joy. You will find the way to the heavenly destination.
Ernie Haas sings it best. Be enriched and blessed as you listen to the strains of hope. May this day bring you direction from the map of the Holy Spirit bringing you safely to the Way, the Truth, and the Life ... Jesus Christ.
Books by Bodie and Brock Thoene
Highly Recommended Reading
Excellent Reading ...
Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy
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Couldn't believe it. All ready to enjoy an evening and here it is. Pretty plain to see I wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. Staring at a dashboard that wouldn't respond gave me a sinking feeling of unredemptive tickets and lost free time that doesn't come around all that often. Why do things have to happen at the last minute?
Lifting the hood in a huff to scan the lifeless beast, the embarassing realization rushed to my brain: much to my chagrin, the battery cables were not attached! The battery was "free floating" in its holder without any connection. Disgusted at myself for not having connected it when I switched out batteries the morning before after having been distracted, I quickly attached the cables, hopped in my truck, cranked the keys in the ignition and ... bingo. The truck hummed her energetic response, I took it out of "park" and into "drive" and proceeded out the driveway to an evening of enjoyment.
Keep your connection with the one true living God. The One that can save your soul. Don't leave yourself in park until the weeds of life entrap you into a silence of defeat. There's unrequited love of God out there that compels you to come meet him and enjoy life with Him. There is no one that loves you as much as He does. That's a proven and undeniable fact. You know what? He will help you with anything you need. But He's not pushy. He will never knock you down to be the driver of your life. Your choice to respond is yours and yours alone. Put your full faith and truth in Him and Him alone. The engine is faith, trust is the gas, the pedal is belief in Jesus, the only Son of God. I'd encourage you today: Please don't put your trust in park. Engage and drive to a place called peace.
Early in the morning will I seek you. Penned a long ago in another time, another space. And yet, here today I stop to look out at the stillness of this morning and echo his thoughts. Early in the morning I will seek you. You are Lord and there is no other. How we in the U.S. have lost all meaning of title and respect. In the days of lords and ladies, kings and queens there was an understanding. So much has been lost. Really annihilated in this country trying to escape King George's tyranny and now have exchanged it for another. When we say you, Jesus, are Lord I wonder, do we fathom at all what the depth of that is? I think not. It takes illumination by Your Spirit. That alone will lighten our darkened minds with understanding only You can give regarding cognizant recognition, the inward submission of Your authority, Your absolute kingship submitting to the finality that You alone are supreme ruler of all. Your words are final authority. Lord, make them real to me today. Sometimes I'm so dull of mind. I muddle through with what spiritual superiority I can muster and really it's all huff and puff ending in the realization of my frail mortality leaving yet another dusty trail into the sunset. Your words are powerful. Masterful. Sans debate. We mortals either get pugnacious or exude gooey responses, maybe even stoic ones to that phrase "Jesus is Lord." When uttered with a heart responsive to a whispered embrace, though, its impact is profound.
You are Lord. You are majesty. You are the rightful ruler, my special secret keeper. The one that will never betray me. Ever. How precious is that! Twitter sentences, Facebook blogs, news feedback, political pundits can evoke armchair slingshot judgments but really it all comes down to this. One day everything will stop dead cold.
Every knee will buckle at Your Name. All arguing, bickering, strong-armed convictions or lack thereof will know that You are Lord irrevocably and forever. Your glory has been unfurled like a patriotic banner to express the kingdom of love in its fullness. We celebrate it at Christmas. Well, some do; some think it's all about themselves and the presents but me personally -- Lord, I happen to think it's all about You, Your love on display off the shelf and in living technicolor.
It's sad, Lord. Some walk away intentionally from that love that pursues them every day choosing others to be their lord. Thing is, their lord cannot be compared to you. Dead lords can't love, nor can their memory being passed off as religion be a dead ringer for truth. In short, it's an evil sham.
But your love. Ah, now that is crystal. It's classic. In its purest form without flaw. One can walk away, but never forget this one indisputable fact: that You so loved the world that You gave. And boy, did You give. Gave everything You had. Like Your one and only Son. The one Son that could do everything for mankind. We are pretty dim-witted down here and don't get it half the time. I know you're patient and understanding and for that I personally am thankful. (That's something I need every day and today again, I thank you for it.) All love emanates from the one source: You. Your merciful arms are open wide to all of us who in a momentous epiphany finally pivot around to look right into eyes of Your son, Jesus, the Lord of all. In the midst of a crisis or impending death no one ever cries out for Buddha or some other long-gone spiritual figure. They call out to You. And you always, always hear and answer. You are the one who makes each one of us a thing of beauty. You have made the "inside of the cup" where all the fabric of personality unique in form and substance can be poured out on others to be exactly what you designed it to be: a blessing to others in the earth. Love at its source poured through us in crystal streams to others. Wow, Lord. I crave to be that conduit today.
****
Encouragement: Refresh yourself in the meaning of authoritative and commanding love in Heaven's Love 101. "For God so loved" -- you! And when that seeps into your spirit and by His grace you begin to see just how vast and expansive that love really is, there is no other way to express it but simply "Jesus IS Lord!" Read it in the book of John for yourself. You will be amazed.
Early will I seek You;
My soul thirsts for You;
My flesh longs for You
In a dry and thirsty land
Where there is no water.
To see Your power and Your glory.
My lips shall praise You.
I will lift up my hands in Your name.
And my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips.
I meditate on You in the night watches.
Therefore in the shadow of Your wings I will rejoice.
Your right hand upholds me.
May I peer through prisms of crystalline purity
to see your unfettered glory in fearful majesty
eclipsing every childish cardboard box of religious gaming.
Cause me to see.
To understand Who you are,
To finally perceive with vision and understanding to know why.
Why this day of all days.
The reason.
The joy.
As I gaze -- I am struck by the wonder, the stunning
panoply of heaven:
Angels bow before Your wondrous grace in adoration;
No breathing being on their feet -- face flattened upon the
floors of heaven's halls;
No arrogant pride there dare rise;
No fanciful inattentive flippancy.
Only attentive beings full of thankfulness
at the Royalty of heaven.
Majesty unfurled in expansive, unending skies.
All bowing in worship at the feet of the One
whose awesome Presence sought the one thing
that was the target of His love,
A price for which He would pay anything to obtain:
My heart.
Then I saw it. The immense price tag.
The cancelled receipt.
The final stamp of approval of purchase.
He saw the price for me.
and with joy paid it ...
And made me His very own.
A love story without parallel,
without description.
Through the ages many have tried to retell the story.
It may be unfathomable.
May even be unimaginable or uncomfortable for some,
But entirely and irrevocably true.
All great and powerful!
The Mighty God -- He rose for us all! What a price. What a love. What a Savior!
Once I was blind; now I see. His looking glass revealed the joy of heaven
His magnificent love for us all through the gift paid by the Father's Son
illuminated on an early Sunday morning from an empty tomb.
His name .... is Jesus.
Alleluia.
Ever have a conversation where one person is adamant about their beliefs and are close-minded to anything else? Each person believes in his own heart, "I am right. It's the truth and I'm not backing down!" Makes me think: okay, what really IS truth. Is it only in your own heart by private interpretation or maybe from One higher? If we're all right in our own eyes there is only one result: anarchy, each trying to recreate our own image on another human being and being frustrated and angry when the other does not emulate our private interpretation.
Truth is a revelation, a revealing of something previously unknown. When given to us by God, it can be heart-wrenching, self-deprecating. But God is not a dictator but a loving benevolent Creator who offers mercy. Truth and mercy walk hand in hand. Truth is never used as a sword to impale. Mercy lifts us from the mire of self-illumination and brings us close to the breast of God in unmerited forgiveness, love, and grace. Truth is a door of understanding, a bastion of safety if one will be embraced by its expansive arms. When God's truth bursts through the door of our hearts, it is so we can rise higher in excellence, not brush us off to hell immediately with an off-handed royal edict with a mighty hand.
We need to be transfixed in the glory of God. May I say boldly: let's not participate in the squabbling mire of the mainstream media sandbox. Stop fiddling with mind-paralyzing TV remotes that fritter time into useless fractured bits. The country is in flames. What are you doing about it? What am I? All hands are needed on deck. The watchmen on the wall are called to duty to pray, intercede, and intervene in the affairs of the spiritual warfare all around us. Be armed with the righteousness of Christ, cast off complacency, stand still to be endued by God with power and commissioned by royal decree. It's time to stop grumbling, forsake mockery forged on the steel of vehement, unforgiving evil, and playing Holy Ghost sheriffs deputized to spew opinionated rhetoric.
Anti-semitism has a myriad of forms and the devil frankly doesn't care which one you emulate, just that you stop at his table of evil and bind yourself in chains to the one of your choice. The instructions attached to it are to nurture with chunks of prejudice into the ultimate goal: prayerlessness, unforgiveness (or the preferred "watered-down" version of so-called "dislike") into the hellish air of hate. Once targeted the heart and mind may gravitate to disdain of Jews, Mexicans, Italians, Mormons, Cubans, Muslims, Catholics or any other tribe, denomination or peoples. They don't worship like you. They do not see things like you do. They may not even have the same God. But if you don't nurture and exemplify to others the love of God in your heart that He has so bountifully and without exclusivity given to you, then it smacks right dead-on to be what it is in truth: anti-semitism. Jesus intercedes for all of us -- not just Christians. (See Hebrews 7:25) This spirit of anti-Christ is nauseous to God and something He'll spit out like it were disgusting chewing tobacco.
Prideful so-called Christianity has been the bane of the world's existence. It has exalted an evil banner and imperial standard in spiritual battles that have annihilated millions of people that continues to this day feeding on the blood and flesh of beheaded, strangled, hung, and slaughtered martyrs of those who humbled themselves by the power of mercy, repented before Almighty God, and refused to budge from that freeing, illuminating stance of truth. I hang my head when I hear about these mighty ones of the earth. Would I be as transparent in my beliefs as to lay down my life? I'm all comfortable in my home without resistance. Would I give my life?
The call is strong, loud and insistent and yet -- it is voraciously resisted and staunchly ignored. The clarion call has been sounded. Trumpets are sounding. Do you know which number of trumpet of God we're on now? Would you know in the middle of the day or the darkness of night? He says "the last trump" is when He's coming. I can count the clock chimes in the middle of the night and know what time it is. If I count wrong simply because I only heard half of the chimes ringing the hour, I would oversleep. Same thing in life. Hear the wind words of the Spirit. The sound is out there. You can count it. But if you're not listening, would you know which one it was? "If you would not watch I will come upon you as a thief. You would not know what hour I would come upon you." Pretty straight up, don't you think? If our pride gets in the way it stops our ears.
I call to all (including myself): get our head out of movies, TV and your own private world. Look up! Listen and repent. We Americans are full of ourselves, for the most part. We seem to have a complacent attitude that says, oh, well, you know, the economy and politics, man, we've been through this before. It will straighten out eventually. Everything will be all right. I don't need to be concerned. It's okay. I don't need anything. I'm doing okay.
Let me tell you something. We're not doing okay. It is us -- not someone else that needs to change. It's us, all of us right here at home that need to wake up and change. We don't have everything we need to succeed and be a prosperous nation again. Our national policies are killing and buying the nation and leftists are using disenchanted, frustrated young people to turn uniformed, undiscerning people into lemmings on their way to the sea. Meanwhile, the devil is laughing with scorn and disgust as he personally directs the mob to the doors of hell. Don't become a pawn. A pawn is a mindless, ignorant tool in the hand of the enemy for only his cause; not our own. He knows nothing about truth because he lives in lies. He never dances with mercy; he doesn't know the tune. He hasn't embraced its hand; it's only outstretched to you in private invitation.
There is mercy. Rich and free. Revelation of truth comes with a price and a high one at that: your heart. A heart that is united and thoroughly sold out to do one thing: fear His name. It's not to be divided into strips of this one for God, this one not, this one for God, this one I believe what the left is telling me, this one ... serve God or socialist ideals. Which is it? Choose today who you're going to serve. To ignore is a choice. In the end you will serve one or the other. There is no middle road.
We are blind fools who unwisely think a "greater good cause" is actually positive revolution for change. It's turning our nation into a wretched, miserable, anarchistic society preying upon the poor, revealing nothing but evil in their parade like the emperor with no clothes. Jesus had an answer for all this. "I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire that you may be rich" (it costs you something) "and anoint your eyes with eye salve that you may see" (revelatory hand extended with mercy). "As many as I love" (which is all men -- yep, even Mormons and Muslims and Christians and Catholics) "I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous" (not just mere nauseating, wishy-washy meaningless assent) and repent. (Rev. 3:17-19).
May God help us. Spirit of God reveal Yourself to us. We need you. Without you we descend into chaos. With you we rise into excellence. Let us not try to recreate each other into our image, but that the Spirit of God create You in us that we might show to the world what you prayed so long ago in the tiny country of Israel:
"Sanctify them [purify, consecrate, separate them for Yourself, make them holy] by the Truth; Your Word is Truth. Just as You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And so for their sake and on their behalf I sanctify (dedicate, consecrate) Myself, that they also may be sanctified (dedicated, consecrated, made holy) in the Truth. Neither for these alone do I pray [it is not for their sake only that I make this request], but also for all those who will ever come to believe in (trust in, cling to, rely on) Me through their word and teaching, that they all may be one, [just] as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be one in Us, so that the world may believe and be convinced that You have sent Me. I have given to them the glory and honor which You have given Me, that they may be one [even] as We are one: I in them and You in Me, in order that they may become one and perfectly united, that the world may know and [definitely] recognize that You sent Me and that You have loved them [even] as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also whom You have entrusted to Me [as Your gift to Me] may be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory, which You have given Me [Your love gift to Me]; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. O just and righteous Father, although the world has not known You and has failed to recognize You and has never acknowledged You, I have known You [continually]; and these men understand and know that You have sent Me.
That, my friend, is truth. Let's seek Him together.
(Letters to God, Journal 14, Book 1, 2012)
Lord, you are worthy. What more can I say? Teach me to pray "large prayers," the ones You want me to pray. I'm tired of the "old list" with the same people, places and events that have been davening for months into years ad nauseum. Things are going on down here, Lord. Hard things. Sharp things. Things that spike their poison in our hearts like daggers in the dark. Unsuspecting, but not totally unaware. We hear the roaring lion in the bushes while the night cloaks us in winds of change that certainly didn't bring hope.
I ask for a new dream. A dream that will encapsulate what you desire, what You hope for, what change You yearn for in us -- in me. More than I can imagine. More than I can conceptualize. Others say they want to do this or that in a big dream. Maybe the propensity to dream in divine imaginations has diminished into a miniscule, mono-focused microscopic speck, but it's still there. Blow on it in your laboratory of hearts where strength waxes strong, vision expands into VistaVision with technicolor dreams. For me, hard; for You, nothing in the complex vast structure of the universe. I'm still amazed how You can be so involved in everything in so grand a scale, and yet listen to a only little voice here on earth cocooned within her four walls typing away. Even to listen to my thoughts! Zowies. That's amazing. (And makes me watch my thoughts, thank you.)
But aren't these grand visions supposed to emulate a broadened scope to help humanity? I think I got it today, God, big time. I think I saw your wind words splayed in front of me stained by blood-splattered love with Your elegant, masterful script of grace. It is as vivid as King Belshazzar's feast with the handwriting on the wall, a portent, a warning, yet scripted with lavish love. We're not used to that. Judgment and grace mixed up like chicken salad for dinner. We tend to gravitate to either one or the other. But yet I live in a very troubled world that is on fire. Occupiers, so called, want to take over the world and fashion in their own arrogant world vision which has very little, if any, freedom in it, responsibility, morals in a new work totally devoid of "order."
Our economy, our land, our government, our society is has become corrupt and bankrupt and increasing by the second in a landslide falling into chaos. You know that. I need not remind. But, Lord, I know that in your word there is an answer. This is Your day of repentance and revival, right in the tent of wickedness that abounds in plenty, ignorance is worn as a mantel with pride and arrogance the adornment of choice.
Lord, right here. Right now. Cause me to see Your ways! Charge me with purpose, renewed resolve to accomplish by direct command, divine edicts from Your throne pinpointedly your desires, your will, your heart's passion for others that all can see who You truly are in wonder, beauty and the myriad colors of grace. Your beauty is astounding. Perfect. Multi-faceted in splendor and wonder. Maybe that's vision enough.
Yet Your people -- the ones using Your name, the holy name above all names -- do not fear and reverence You for who You are, have been, and will be. The here and now is skewed by those who do not treasure the lessons from those who have gone before. There's been warning signs before, harbingers of impending doom were sounded with trumpet clarity, silencing the social complacency and religious bigotry stamped with the seal of wickedness with sword-sharp truth. They are sounding once again right now. Lord, will we enter or with a scoff and smirk of defiant arrogance turn away -- yet again? I know you have set expiration dates on complacency, a termination hour of continual rebuffed invitations to embrace Your truth.
You know, the freeway signs? Signs to desired destinations direct one to their exit: 5 miles, 2 miles, 1 mile, this ramp only, last chance. Oh, God! We can either heed the signs of the times or we can continue with the crowds and face a far worse place than You ever desired for us. Some may say I sound fatalistic. I'd say, "Sure, you bet." They might even say this is just trying to write something sensational by some kooky woman with a bent. I'd have to say a resounding no to that. Truth has a death knell but in the midst of it is also a peal of joy. A two-edged sword.
So many think You're out to get them, Father. How sad. It's just straight-up facts that the signs are all around. You sent them. They're not coincidence or "just life," but they're warnings You Yourself sent in your graciousness to hold out a hand of love. Amazing. The signs heeded bring safety; ignoring them is suicidal. You are a royal being, a royal King who will not be denied. Your ways are final. I choose life, Lord. Life and death, blessing and cursing; Lord, I choose You. You're NEVER a dictator. Your kingdom is love.
But Your love is so red hot! Searing! Burn out the selfishness, self-righteousness, and carnal nature of man, Lord. Transform them into a royal son/daughter so filled with You that they are magnets of grace living in shoes of peace showing that through Your joy we're able to walk through any global crisis, criticism of not being "politically correct" and stand in righteousness with the power and might of heaven. Golden gladiators of grace.
quo and head-in-the-sand mentalities and bring sorrow. Yet, the time of our lies is now. Right this minute.
I know what my vision is clearly now. Crystal. I cry out in repentance. I know that no elected official can turn this nation around. No big shot, no charismatic one-minute wonder. Nobody can "fix it." You were abundantly clear in 2 Chron. 7:14. And I know it's not for everybody else I can think of; it's for me. I think I've made up my own version: If my people called by my name (those in covenant with you as in a marriage) will humble themselves and pray ... crave and go after You with crazy passion, stop the idiotic carnal strivings emulating the world and all its desires -- then I KNOW you will do what you said you would do: hear from heaven and heal our land, our nation, our beloved United States of America. It will be healed. That's the answer. Not the polling booth (yet, I thank you for that God-given privilege), not community awareness, programs of how we can go green, not a new governmental bailout (which is really usury and theft, freebies without responsibility), or a new pastor and seven new church programs that are a sure-fire crowd pleaser.
It's to be on our knees -- my knees, Father. I pray that others will join in on the call to repentance making 2012 the year of pleas on the knees. Praying for our country, for the church, His Body, for ourselves corporately and individually that we may be healed inside, outside, our land, and the world. The sign, the call, the clarion sound is being held. I hear it. I have chosen to walk in Your paths, Lord.
I don't want to be challenged that I am tone-deaf. I will accept Your hand outstretched in love. I know I'll be right on key.