A early morning prayer:

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.

The Longing of the Heart

O God, You are my God;
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.

So I have looked for You in the sanctuary,
To see Your power and Your glory.

Because Your lovingkindness is better than life,
My lips shall praise You.

Thus I will bless You while I live;
I will lift up my hands in Your name.

My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness,
And my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips.

When I remember You on my bed,
I meditate on You in the night watches.

Because You have been my help,
Therefore in the shadow of Your wings I will rejoice.

My soul follows close behind You;
Your right hand upholds me.

~ Psalm 63:1-8 ~

Through the Looking Glass

Press me close to the glass of heaven.
     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.

What is Truth?

     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.
   





    

Being a True Occupier

(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.

The Last Stand

The photographer paused in his tour of his stunning photographs he had recently taken in the Middle East.  One by one I was amazed at the story they told, one after another, singular and profound.  One struck me with awe.  A picture of two men walking arm in arm like a band of brothers obviously strengthened by their enjoined purpose, trekking in unity.  The photo captured in that one moment a slice of time with high import.  At first blush, you might not think this was anything odd.  Two people walking out into the street with laughter on their faces, joy bubbling from their soul. But these were not just any two people:  one was an Arab, one was a Jew.  In today's world to say that is a paradox would be a huge understatement.  Rival enemies.  Centuries of inbred hatreds at odds with the one common element that could stop fear and violence cold and then with utter contempt cast it into outer darkness.  Something that cannot be fully punctuated by articulate speech, but exemplified in the life of one simply poured into another by the rich, sweet nectar of divine fruit of the Spirit of God. 

Love.

I thought to myself, wow, there it is.  Loving one another.  Who would have thought?  Two Middle Eastern friends who individually chose to walk in righteousness refusing to look the other way or shun each other when opposing religious views and conflicts blocked their way.  They held out a hand of genuine respect and love in friendship refusing to give evil even one scintilla of a foothold.  That one friendship embodied an erasure of centuries of bigotry and violence, all held fast in a fragile envelope of righteous love.

Inside I was ecstatic that an Arab and a Jew had decided to take the ultimate life challenge.  To love one another no matter what odds they faced.  But as the evening progressed I was faced with a firmly-held bigotry of my own and, when confronted with it, I was shocked.  I listened as a friend discussed his personal religious beliefs that ran contrary to my own.  I have always had the highest regard for this person and how he challenged me to be rise strong in the Lord.  His passion for the Lord was undeniable.  His fervor to serve God in ways that I knew I had yet to express was infectious.  I hadn't thought I had a religious spirit that rose stiffly in stone-cold arrogant pride, but the Lord graciously exposed it to me -- not to condemn, but that I might repent before Him.  This friend was explaining how he wore "holy garments" (something I didn't know at the time) and that he felt they were no different than a Jewish man wearing a kippah.  Yet, here I was realizing that the way he served the Lord in the denomination of his own choice -- a matter of the heart -- was causing me to lock myself in a prison of my own making.  I had swathed his whole denomination with a battering ram of locked prejudice.  I still disagree with their tenets, but it made me realize that "throwing out the baby with the bath water" is not God's choice at all.  He has a timing for every person.  Each life is different, each holds a diversity of expectations that the Lord has designed for each one.  Singular in beauty and unique.   His ways are not our own and every day is a startling and profound revelation to punctuate that point.

Division runs rampant throughout the globe -- no matter if Jewish, Christian, secular or pagan.  There are sections that decry they are the favored group or they have the market on God's voice or revelation.  God does not look at us as separate groups but only as those who love and serve Him and those that don't.  But even those that don't, who chose to walk another path, He staunchly and adamantly refuses to leave His place where He was left standing.  He remains in His place waiting for that beauty to expand that only He has right to embrace:  the openness of a man's heart. Too often we rush in to try to baptize one another with our beliefs believing that if they live "our way" then they are safe.  Actually, we may block, divert or even tragically abort what God had in mind for that person in our insistence that others walk in our path.  As Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said, "Jesus himself did not try to convert the two thieves on the cross; he waited until one of them turned to him." 

Our hearts are off limits to each other.  We are not allowed to trifle them, stifle them, dominate or challenge with guilt like a sword trying to coerce upon another any cherished dogmatic belief.  Hearts are a precious commodity and the Lord does not take kindly to abuse or bruising of the heart of one another.  He told us the commandments are summed up in this:  love of and to God and love of and to one another.  Not feigned or played in pantomime.  It simply is the way He loves us and that is how we are to treat one another.  

In the parchment of His love He explains this extravagant love.  "Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong.  Let all that you do be done with love."  Prophets, Bible scholars, rabbis, and pundits all point to an impending financial crisis that will cripple the world.  Countries crippled by debt are crumbling into a financial abyss while huge crowds incited by evil hatred and violence gripped in a frenzy the likes of which the world has never seen continue to hold sway in a global court of high treason.  These are times.  Perilous times.  We are not to retreat.  We are to hold fast.  People are betraying one another, headstrong as granite, haughty and proud, yelling demands like brandished swords slashing others with arrogant and brutal words.  People are yearning for what the Lord demands of us.  Love. 

Let me make a bold statement.  I am a American, but I am not defined by my government.  I am defined by the Lord I love and serve.  I passionately love the Lord, but I am not to be segregated by others if my conviction does not match another person's closely-held belief.  Our hearts belong to the Lord and not ourselves.  We are to stand together with the utmost respect and unwavering integrity with that which the Lord provides:  love unsheathed as a weapon of righteousness.  Its cutting edge is  sharp.  It casts out fear and bathes the soul in soothing oil from the robes of God.  And then with a softened hand of grace extended says, I will stand with you.  I will love you.  I will cherish you. 

Standing halfway is not to stand at all.

A good example of this is standing with Israel.  They are God's chosen people.  He has brought them back to their land.  It is their right.  They have fought for it and they have won it with God's miraculous provision.  It was spoken of long ago by the prophets that they will return and they have.  There is growing anti-Semitism in the land.  Its voice cannot be denied because it is rising in volume, aimed once again at the Jews, God's chosen ones.  But it is also aimed dead center at those who love God and have chosen to stand right beside them -- the Christian people.  Not so long ago Christian people refused to speak up when they saw and heard evil rising.  They turned their backs and thought that maybe it would just go away and they could continue with they were doing. 

It cannot happen this time.  We cannot stick our heads in our denominational (or non-denominational or church group) and deny what is going on any longer.  These are end times.  And end times demand extraordinary stances of truth and courage.  We are demanded to love.  Cross our theological borders and stand firmly for righteousness.  Mix our religious beliefs?  Never.  But we can hold hands of love standing together against evil.  Romans 14 puts it this way:  "Who are you to judge another's servant?  To his own master he stands or falls.  Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand.  One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike.  Let each be fully convinced in his own mind.  He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord, and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord He does not observe it ... none of us lives to himself and no one dies to himself.  For if we live, we live to the Lord and if we die, we die to the Lord.  Therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord's."



We cannot let evil run roughshod over our lives, our fortunes or our sacred honor.  Not this time.  Not this year, not next year, nor the year after that.  We will let our voices be heard in loud shouts of love.  We will not have another holocaust.  We will not have ovens at the ready for human bodies for whom God gave His only son.  We are told to walk in shoes of peace.

Recently I read again Corrie TenBoom's story, The Hiding Place.  Corrie's sister Betsie always prayed for everyone, especially the tyrant guards.  Her heart was the heart of God who aches and yearns for all to come to know Him.  It was her one statement that has resonated with millions that still speaks today, "There is no pit so deep that God's love is not deeper still."  Even in the stench of the pit of hell she was able to evoke love to its full extent.  Standards of evil must be rooted out and eradicated by those who have the temerity when having done all to stand have stood for the King.

Today I listened once again to the Hallelujah chorus from Handel's Messiah.  It never fails to bring tears to my eyes.  Every time the refrain is heard my spirit soars as it reaches towards the Creator who made me, the one Who holds my heart in His hand.  It says to me we will worship our precious King.  We will serve Him at all costs.  We will love our fellow man no matter where and who.

"Who will rise up for me against the evildoers?  Who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity?  Unless the Lord had been my help, my soul would soon have settled in silence.  If I say, 'My foot slips,' Your mercy, O Lord, will hold me up.  In the multitude of my anxieties within me, Your comforts delight my soul.  Shall the throne of iniquity, which devises evil by law, have fellowship with You?  They gather together against the life of the righteous and condemn innocent blood.  But the Lord has been my defense and my God the rock of my refuge.  He has brought on them their own iniquity,  and shall cut them off in their own wickedness; the Lord our God shall cut them off."  (Psa. 94:16-23)

This is not the time for petty arguments.  We can either walk in unending strife or in shoes of peace.  This is the time for action.  It's our last stand.  The stand for love.

Dinner with a King: A Royal Invitation

The pencil scratches the paper as the list is made:  eggs, cinnamon, canned pumpkin, sugar, turkey, stuffing, celery.  Each day the list is enlarged as plans are made for a table that will be groaning with the abundance of bounty.  The silver is polished until when looking down at the large platter, you can see yourself as a bad image from carnival mirrors.   Linens are ironed till edges are crisp, ready to snap to attention for those who  have come to dine. 

Invitations are interesting things that evoke polar opposite reactions:  either gladness that a loved one will come or disgust with a desire that it could be tossed in the round file with a heave-ho, such as a "request" to appear for an IRS audit or jury duty that comes right on the very day you expect your guests to arrive.

There's one invitation that is the most coveted of all.  Right in the midst of life at its busiest or worst, when things are flying at us with accelerated speed, truth is rare, lies are the seeming normalcy standard and we think we can't take one more arrogant bully stuffing their anti-God, anti-everything views -- there it is.  An invitation. 

But not just any invitation.  One before you where you didn't expect it.  Right in the middle of your life.  In the center street where all the shouting voices and demanding schedules and vying for your attention intersects.  The traffic light is now solid red.  Everything and everyone has ceased.  Your eyes rest on something in the middle of that intersection.  A table.  A table set with service for two.  A marble table inlaid with solid gold.  Crystal glistening in colors you've never seen.  Ornate silver with filigree etched with your initials.  A glistening white place card in elegant script with your name in exquisite pattern and beauty.  Someone has taken a great deal of effort and outrageous expense to invite you to dine.  But just who and, better yet, why?

He's a king.  But not just any king.  The King of all Kings.  Jesus Himself.  Another king long ago penned a beautiful song about this experience.  He explained that the Lord invited him to dinner.  And obviously he accepted because in his Jewish experience he explained it this way:  He made the dinner.  He poured the wine and then anointed me simply because He loved me.   Because of that,  I will follow Him anywhere.  I live where He lives.  I'll go where He wants to go and do what He wants to do.  I cannot do anything else.  I am smitten by His love.  That's what Psalm 23 is all about.  The essence of a God that pursues us, a heavenly seduction of grace. 

There is a Jewish tradition called Havdalah where a cup of wine runs over onto a saucer underneath.  It symbolizes sufficient enough to fill one's own needs and that of others.  A prayer is given that the expression of hope that life's goodness and bounty will be as abundant as the wine that is being blessed.  In Temple times when the burnt offerings and peace offerings were made an entire container of  wine was poured onto the altar.   It was an offering of thanksgiving, a praise to the Lord of Lords who always provides for our needs and, through us, others.  Kiddush in Hebrew means designation, demarcating a person, place thing or time for a higher purpose.  Also, when a guest is in a home and the host pours wine for the guest if the host wants to show high favor, acceptance and blessing, he will overflow the cup.

The new Thanksgiving season is here.  A time to enjoy family and friends, to be thankful for the bounty the Lord has given.  The harvest time is here.  Many are turning to the Lord in numbers unheard of before.  This is the time when the Lord will appear to all and bring us into His kingdom.   He has done a lot of labor in the harvesting.  But really -- the cream of His crop .... is you.

Be blessed this season.  Embrace His acceptance and love as not just a nice warm fuzzy feeling, but a revelation of the gift of eternal life for you.  He paid an enormous price for you because you are worth that much.  You are a treasure of His heart.  You are worth every stripe, every piece of silver, every abuse and torture He endured.

Look.  His invitation is there.  Right there at your fingertips.  You may have said no before or you may have embraced His offer.  Whichever it is, the time is extremely short.  The call has gone out.  It is a royal invitation.  It cannot be ignored or treated with indifferent procrastination any longer.  It's your choice.

It's time for dinner.