God Desires (even) Me

Song of Songs 7:10 I belong to my beloved, and his desire is for me.

How long will it take for me to realize that God really desires me?! After all, I belong to Him, so why not?! Why not realize this glorious reality? Is it pride? Is it guilt? Is it a feeling of unworthiness? Is it that sense that God is so big and I am so miniscule that He should even give me a second thought? But He does! (Psalm 8:3-4 – “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?”)

You see, if you re-read all of those questions, there is a thread theme. Me. It’s amazing how I can turn even His furious love for me against me because of me! How idiotic! How ironic! How “I!” Self-effacement and the feelings expressed are just those; selfish feelings of deception that would lure me away from the intimacy that my Savior longs for. The only One I should be seeing (and others seeing in me as well) is Christ. If I truly “clothe myself with Christ” (Romans 13:14), the only reality of what I should see is Him. Not a mask. Not a costume. Not some false religious garb. Rather a consummation. A filling with the Holy Spirit so powerful that the most religious and the most irreligious of people will see Christ in me, the hope of glory.

It’s usually during those dark times when those questions are asked. When is seems like the Light is dim, when prayers are stale, when faith seems somehow muted, and when no matter how hard I try to climb the ladder to a right relationship with Him, I keep falling off. But God doesn’t want me to climb. Climbing will just weary me. Climbing is just being religious. He just wants me to rest. Rest in Him. The only place He wants me to climb is on His lap to a place of safety, as a trusting son would climb upon his father’s lap. The Father longs for me to see His Son, by His Spirit, in me. Fully engaged. Fully intimate. “Look me in the eyes”, he says. Hear me when I say, “My desire is for you…you are mine.” And now, with tears, as I look in His eyes, I begin to understand what is perfect trust, peace, grace, mercy, unconditional love, protection, care, nurturing, and everything I truly need to persevere in this crazy life…this crazy world.

Now I see, I truly “belong to my beloved.”

October 22, 2017 - Door of God's Mercy

“But when we accept ownership of our powerlessness and helplessness, when we acknowledge that we are paupers at the door of God’s mercy, then God can make something beautiful out of us.” Brennan Manning

Jesus said in Matthew 5:3, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Desperate. Thirsty. Hungry. I doubt many of us want to be paupers at anyone’s door. But to be the pauper at the door of God’s mercy is the soul who cries out, “I need a Savior!” Not just once when one comes to a Jesus moment in life; but in every waking, redeeming moment. God is a redeeming God with every breath we take and offers mercy with every screwup we make. But pride keeps us away from His door. It’s the old “I can do this my way, thank you very much.” We don’t want to admit our poverty. Yet in all our poverty are His riches.

If we are desperate for peace, clarity, and direction; He will grant them. If we are thirsty for life, fullness, joy, love and grace; they are all within our reach. If we are hungry for truth, intimacy, mercy, faith, integrity, and esteem, He will graciously fill all those needs and desires. But first we must come to Him as paupers, empty of self to be filled with the Spirit. Then, imagine what it will be like when God opens that door of mercy?! Only beauty awaits. After all, Jesus turned all earthly values upside down. The spiritually poverty stricken, filled with the richness of His presence, are the ones for whom those doors to the Kingdom of Heaven are opened even now!

The End Will Come (But not the way some idiots teach!)

C'mon Man!

For all of those who have been teaching that Saturday, September 23, would have been tbe the end of the world, please stop with the idiocy! Wake up call fellas! Jesus said that the Gospel must be preached before the end, “And the Good News about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, so that all nations will hear it; AND THEN THE END WILL COME.” Matthew 24:14

Why don’t these so-called “prophets and numerologists read contextually?!! There’s a long way to go before the end ever happens because there’s a huge challenge that’s in front of the Christian community.

And that challenge is Unreached People Groups. According to Global Frontier Missions, here is the definition of the challenges:

[Unreached People Group (UPG)] or [Least Reached People Group]: an identifiable group of people distinguished by a distinct culture, language, or social class who lack a community of Christians able to evangelize the rest of the people group without outside help. The only opportunity for the people group to hear about salvation is through an “external witness.” Most missiologists consider 2% of the population becoming Christ followers as the “tipping point” at which the group is generally considered “reached” with the Gospel.

[Unengaged Unreached People Group (UUPG)]: According to Finishing the Task, there are 1510 remaining unengaged, unreached people groups numbering over 46 million souls that are still beyond the reach of the Gospel. These 1510 ethnic groups are perhaps the neediest of the needy as they are unengaged, which means that no church, no missionary, no mission agency…no one has yet taken responsibility to tell them about Jesus Christ.

Obviously, this will take some time. So PLEASE, don’t be swayed by anyone who ever teaches that the end will come on a specific day or hour. Even Jesus said, “However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows.” Matthew 24:36

God help us to be passionate about sharing The Gospel of Jesus! And may we be the answer to our own prayers.

Check out these two videos (and a UPG List at the bottom of the page) that will help your understanding of the challenge and false claims of the idiots:

What is a UPG?

Unreached People Groups - The Christian's Call

UPG LIST

Unorganize Religion

“Organized religion has domesticated the crucified Lord of glory, turned him into a tame theological symbol. Theological symbols do not sweat blood in the night.” Brennan Manning 

I need to add a disclaimer to this quote. There are many churches that “get it right” when living out the mandate of the Gospel. They are preaching and teaching God’s Word with unction. They are reaching out to the poor and outcasts. They are loving and sacrificing for each other, holding themselves in non-judgmental accountability. In Ephesians 3, Paul sets to establish the purpose of the church (note: not what we know today as “organized religion.”)

“His (God’s) intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Ephesians 3:10-11) 

The church is supposed to be displaying the manifold wisdom of God…according to His eternal purpose! Wow…have oh so many missed the boat! Somewhere along history, much of organized religion has sterilized the Gospel and made people look more at what they think the truth of religion is really all about. What happens is they get weighed down in legalism, tradition, rules of man, judging others, and even Phariseeism. Some organized religions blind people to the wonder, glory, reckless love, and grace of our resurrected Lord Jesus! Let’s not be a people who have succumbed to “tame theological symbols,” but rather people who live exciting, imperfect, vulnerable, Spirit-filled lives radically in love with the Savior who cries out, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” (John 7) We need to let those rivers flow and splash on anyone with whom we have contact. So, organized religionists…drink up!

2017 A Happy and Blessed New Year!

December 31, 2016

Isaiah 43:19 – “For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.”

Here’s a cool promise for 2017. Some of us have been through hard times in 2016…a sort of wilderness experience, where we lost our focus or felt like God was hiding from us. He wasn’t! Some may feel like 2016 was a dry wasteland, like your life has been a waste; your soul was dry and God seemed far away; you feel like you added nothing to and have nothing to show for 2016. Give your 2016 an “It’s a Wonderful Life” perspective and you will be encouraged…even in the worst of times!

Don’t believe the 2016 lies! Believe that God is the God of new things! The God of second chances! Believe that He will make a pathway through the wilderness in 2017...that He will lead and guide you with a renewed purpose. Believe that He will create rivers in the dry wasteland. We just have to stay in the flow of His Spirit…the Rivers of His Spirit, sit back in the raft, and allow Him to take us wherever the will of His Spirit flows!

A year ago, I could have said all that I just wrote about 2015. And in 2016 I watched God work in my life to fulfill these promises in Isaiah. Desire an endless depth of intimacy with Jesus, have a ruthless trust, and watch Him do amazing things in your life in 2017. I pray He will!

Pile Drivers of Life

December 30, 2016

Florida State Road 87 is what I drive to work every day. It is currently under construction and that includes about a one mile Yellow River Bridge expansion. (I know…it’s really called Yellow River Bridge and it wasn’t built by I.P. Daily!!)

I have been fascinated to watch the bridge expansion develop. They position these huge concrete support beams (up to 75 feet high) into the river by a crane that sits on a barge. Then the beams are pounded into the river about 30-40 (maybe more) feet deep by a pile driver. The other day as I was driving by, I heard the sound of that pile driver pounding against a beam as it was driving it into the riverbed. It was a booming noise.

Then I thought about the “pile drivers” in life.

Sometimes I feel like that beam getting pounded into the muck and mire of life. There seems to be no end. The pain is excruciating. And then the pounding stops. Little did I know that God was using that pounding to not only plunge me into a deeper relationship with Him, but to prepare me to be the bridge that supports those on their journey who need to get to the “other side” safely. Not unlike Simon and Garfunkel’s song, “Bridge Over Troubled Waters,” I will lay me down to support that “bridge.” Don't fear the pounding! We must always be willing to support others on their journey. Thanks to those who have been my support through the years!