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My mouth was set for great wings tonight.  And I got what I was hankerin' for.
Is the model where that satisfaction fades away part of the plan?  Does God make me hungry for Him when I need Him? 

But I did not need the chicken wings.

Sure did enjoy them, though.

There seems to be a nearly endless supply of analogs for our relationship with Father.  I suppose at this point we need the analogs, some words and pictures to try and explain and understand it.

So that is what I am doing here.  I am having this relationship that I need to write about, so I am ever looking for ways to express it.

But then there is the fundamental.  It is good.  It is not good like...  It is good, and everything else is somehow good like it.

Gonna chew on that.  The Kingdom of God is like...

Hosanna

Saved.  Rescued.
I have to acknowledge it. It is the actual willful assent to the fact of having been rescued and redeemed that crosses over the threshold.

Thinking about Neil S. and family in Jacksonville.  Great resolve demonstrated daily.  A wonderful example for me.  Not sure I agree with every perspective, but delighted to watch him burn.

So that is the question tonight.  Am I burning with Christ-light.  Is my life in the Kingdom of God drawing anyone to watch me burn, and wonder at the wonder of it?

What is the point?  To light the way.

It is all about the oil.  I can only get it by intimacy.  You provide the spark.  You provide the lifting up.  You can not deny me access.  Thank you for that.  Burn me for your illumination.  Burn me to reveal your Kingdom.

Celebration

Celebration has been misappropriated.  Like nearly everything else.

Celebration is a holy thing that is by and for God.  It is just so easy to celebrate, that it quickly becomes by and for others.

I can not take celebration back.  Like the pastor's wife who wanted to take back the rainbow.

I can celebrate the Kingdom Now.  I can celebrate the majesty of God in me and around me.  I can celebrate the brideishness to be seen.  I can celebrate the victories won out of love, in the midst of the battlefield.

I can celebrate my Father who persists in loving me.  I can celebrate the family in which I have been set.  I can celebrate the oil of joy saturating me and making me functional in the Kingdom.

I celebrate You, Daddy.

Love Manifested in Effectiveness

Wow.  Love manifested in effectiveness.  The very Kingdom of God invading the world of darkness, the world of less than excellent.  All less than excellence is a reflection of the presence of Death and the presence of Pride.  Love manifested as excellence, manifested as effectiveness is the Kingdom, now, pushing back the death and darkness.

So, Father, help me, help us all be good at our jobs.  You put us here right now in this place under this authority for many sub reasons, but above all for your glory.  Help us be effective at our work as an outworking of your love in our lives.  Work love in and through us, for the benefit of our company, our division, our facility, our coworkers.  Break down the blinders on our eyes, our habitual ways of thinking and seeing that are no longer effective.  Clear our ears of old filters that stop us from hearing what is being said today because of what we heard in earlier days.  Pour the oil of your spirit into the bruised and broken places in the very center of each of us, where we have built self defenses, scar tissue that keeps us from moving freely in thought, will and emotion.  Remind us of what joy is like.  Remind us of what it smells like.  Remind us of what it looks like, what it sounds like.  Remind us of when we touched joy.  I want the joy of the Lord to be my strength, our strength.

Thank you.  You are the great God, the high and holy one, who bends low to love us.  Thank you for the oil of joy, your holy spirit.

Trust and Obey

to be happy in Jesus is to trust and obey.

I am a well loved child of the King of Everything. He has been holding my hand today, when I would let him. You know the little ones who have learned to walk. How they shake off that hand. I will do that with my Father. Won't you?

I am so happy that that hand just stays right there.

Today I reached back up before I fell and needed to cry and be picked up and brushed off. Today I shook the hand off, but took it back.

There was someplace I had to walk this evening and I knew that I needed him to walk me through the wilderness. Now all I remember of the journey is that I was with him. I remember his help over the humps, but I do not remember the humps.

Father, I could second guess the work done tonight. While I did it I kept trying to analyse it. But you kept soothing me. Thank you. I trust you with tomorrow. I so want to shine for you.

Consume, Maintain, Create

There is balance missing in my life. How about yours?

Maybe there is no standard, but I know that the mix of these factors that is right for me is not being met. I know simply because I picked up a flute, blew a few notes, strung a few more into a line that started and resolved, and knew that creation was getting short shrift.

Then I looked around and saw how I was habitually maintaining my living space, and knew that that piece was off as well.

That provokes looking at consuming. What surfaces is that consuming is the least about relationships. Sure, consuming uses the creation and maintenance of others, but how much does it require or permit relationship?

Wow. Okay. How much is any of it valid and beneficial when what relationship it has is, at the most, superficial?

Outside of the Kingdom of God, most of relationship is shallow. There is insufficient resource for much more, and fear and the need to protect self make vulnerability, openness, too dangerous.

So I am aching for real relationship. That is what is missing. And I am aching because Christ in me is aching for it. Everyone knows they are missing it, but he drives me toward it. The Kingdom is about relationship if it is about anything. As the Kingdom advances into this world, the imperatives of it become the manifest desires of its citizens.

Well, Father, that's it down to the nub. The Spirit knows your heart and prays your reality into manifestation in this world. I really, really want to ride this wave. Help me to time my paddling and standing.

Doors

I love the doors. A knock comes. A phone rings. Someone writes a note. Someone stops by. The key is the angle of repose. The key is the rested posture. The seat in the embrace of my Father passes through, effortlessly through every holy doorway.

So the key thing to work on, apply love to, is the leaning, the resting, the trusting of God. I will cling to my King. I can only go wrong by doing it myself.

Father, hold me very tight. I trust that if I will refrain from struggling to escape, nothing can take me from your embrace and I will walk in the direction of your kingdom and glory and power. All that is right is you. I hear. I will stay near and keep your scent in my nose.

The Season

I told my friend Dennis that I was in a season of waiting, of depending on supernatural patience.
I am glad he asked how I was, because I had not articulated that answer before he asked.

This could last until the Day of Christ. I want so much for it to be about me and about fulfilling my destiny and calling.

But at the same time I am convinced that waiting on The Lord is my destiny and calling. One thing is certain. And that is that there is only one thing worth investing a life in. The rest is details.

I am reading Atlas Shrugged. So sad, so far.

It would be easy to make real change. Maybe I will just buy great socks. Can't I have comfortable feet while I wait on The Kingdom?

There was conversation today about physical survival when the veneer of civilization crumbles. My question is What will survive the fire of the presence of a HOly God?
Maybe the post apocalypse films are interesting because we all know that this state of life can not continue, and that there is something very big coming. It is just that no one wants to grab onto the truth that what is coming is the Kingdom.

Aching for the Kingdom of Christ, Father. Aching for your majesty, your love to be manifest. All of us aching for your embrace. or terrified of it.

Pre Sneeze

Maybe my sights are set too low. I am mightily pre-sneeze. You know. That terrible place where the sneeze is all loaded, but the release does not come.

I am anticipating. It hurts, it is so acute. There is the most astounding change coming, just on the other side of the sneeze, the release. I am aching with expectation. I think I am being goaded to believe that it is a breakthrough in my life, a stepping off into a new fulfillment of my human potential. Then I realize that it is the ache, the universal ache for the kingdom of God, for the dominion that is ours in Christ. This aching place is my place, the place from which I pray, "Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done in the earth as it is in Heaven."

I can see that in the meantime, staying faithful to my calling is changing my circumstances in the earth. God help me to resist settling for the human kingdom.

God Daddy, it is good to ache for your embrace, for the advancement of your holiness into this place. Thank you for the aching fire.

honor

What an honor to be able to hear and express what I hear. My Daddy has a place for me at his table, and one for you as well. There is no lack of places, only lack of those who will come, even be carried to the table for lack of ability to approach but no lack of will to approach.

In this world there are few enough invitations. Yet the kingdom of God is all about the invitation. And the acceptance.

There is so much that I am not willing to do, though it is right there. There is so much to do and so little doing needed. Just to stand. Like Ruth said. Praise until you worship. Worship until the Glory falls. Stand in the Glory. Stand in the Glory. What else is on that side of the rent veil Glory. What else is in the wilderness, standing in the embrace of Love. Glory. A bath gets cold. A sun rise becomes full day. A poet's song ends brilliantly. Then there is Glory. Stand in the Glory. Leave when you have to. Stay as long as you can. Glory. Get used to it. It burns up chaff.

Father, I want to be less and less chaffy. Or is it chaffish? Thanks for the Glory you have given us to stand in. And endure your kisses.

Money

The poverty spirit is still an old friend. Or is that an enemy.

Easy to blame problems and trials on an evil spirit. Better to say that pride and doubt still have their places in my heart. Any excuse in a storm. The simple fact is that Christ is ready and well able to keep me. And He is able to receive the Glory that is His as a consequence.

Father, it is my desire that the Glory that is yours be rendered to you in spite of my habits of self trust and self rescue. Forgive my rising up. Edify me when and how you will, that will bring You the Honor. Help me to see Your Kingdom advancing and pressing back what can not exist in Your presence.

Frustration

Frustration just may be part of the landscape.
Nope. Frustration is just a marker that there are expectations that are not founded in the Kingdom. There is a day coming when every circumstance is met with Kingdom Joy. I am just not there yet. There is so much freedom. There is so much to be had in the freedom of Kingdom living. Nothing to do but to walk in it. It is in the book. People of the book and the Spirit can find the door to walking in liberty. Healing is full there. Here. Deliverance is complete. Do you come to the Kingdom for deliverance...or do you get delivered to get to the Kingdom. You have a family right to enter into the most secret place before you are clean. Before you are delivered. You can still have your crippled feet and take your place at the Kings table.
Come on. Take it.

Help me, Father. There is so much to eat and so few at the table.

Losing the Precious

Funny what is precious to you when you are nine. My black and white plastic Rat Fink out of a gumball machine was precious. Everybody had at least one, but no one had one like mine. (We all had those little trolls with the big hair, too.) It was that uniqueness that made my RF precious. And I lost my Rat Fink. I was crushed, but there was no one I could tell.

In the Tolkien stories, Gollum calls The Ring his Precious. Of course, it is unique, something like my RF. Irreplacable.

It is no surprise then, to hear Jesus tell the story of the Pearl of Great Price. The idea of a Precious, unique, astounding thing that is worthy of struggle and sacrifice is a story line that runs through human experience. O. Henry wrote the same story in "The Gift of The Magi." Look around for this theme. Tell me what else you find.

It is written about because it is hardwired in us. There is something worth sacrificing for, worth living in a remarkable way for. There are so many hardwired themes.

All Jesus was saying is that The Kingdom is that thing which we were hardwired to seek. The Kingdom of God is The Precious.

But the best thing, the thing that sets The Kingdom apart from every other answer to the question, is that The Precious Kingdom of God CAN NOT BE LOST.

That is the Greatest Story Ever Told. Thank you for giving me a suitable replacement for my plastic rat, Father.

Faith in Christ

Clinging to nothing else is not enough. That just means adrift.

Clinging, leaning all on Christ is enough and all. The Word, the message of good news is that there is a place to lean, it is a place worthy of your trust, and it is the only place to lean on that matters. So that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

What is the purpose of having eternal life? For the healing of the nations. For the manifestation of the Kingdom of God.

Bring the Kingdom of God into your places, and see life, love, flow into Kingdomless corners and hearts. Having eternal life, bear eternal life into the waste places. Only Kingdom people can bring the Kingdom. Only vessels of perfect love can make it available for the removal of fear.

Plenty of nice religions out there for those who need one. Only one place to trust, rest, heal, hope. And then walk out, carrying water to the thirsty.

Daddy, thank you for Your Word of Truth.

Yes

What a joyful day. A day full of Yes.

The really cool thing is the realization that it just keeps getting better. In the Kingdom, a member of the royal family, settled at home, with a place at the table, surrounded by glory, not alone, no longer Fatherless, no longer an orphan. Not going to be kicked out. Welcome to stay. Meeting new family members every day. Building for the future. Resting. Delivered. Free. With access to limitless hope.

Wow.

Satisfaction and Gratitude

The obverse of the coin is gratitude. Our Heavenly Father is the source of perfect satisfaction, in Christ and by His Holy Spirit. He says that His will is our gratitude, our giving thanks in all things.

Receiving the manifest Kingdom and giving Him thanks for it are tandem and inseparable. There is nothing like breathing in Love and breathing out thanksgiving. In fact, there is nothing better, and there is no substitute. It is spiritual respiration. Many other things are excellent and characteristic of the Kingdom of God. But nothing gets done without breathing in the Kingdom and breathing out thanksgiving.

Hallel u jah

I Want To Do This

I look at the stats to see if there are page views. I look to see where when how what is being viewed. I wonder why somebody in South Korea keeps coming back or has subscribed. The connection, and the few comments, are exciting. It feels good.

Maybe I need to fast that stuff for a season to see how much regular writing is driven by that stuff.

Because there is a connection with God here that is unlike any other. Doing this writing, this way gets a big Holy Ghost YES. When I sit down here, it is the most right things get. At least on this side of eternity.

Home. The home I was made for. Right here. Not just later, in heaven.

Daddy, call your children home. Sure, heaven if it is time. But please continue the call I heard that brought my whole heart to rest. There is so much room in Your perfect embrace. Like chicks under Your wing. It is the only way to find the Kingdom path. Once here in the arms of Love, thank You that the path onward never leaves Your embrace.

Delight

What an absolute delight! To find someone who aches at a fundamental level, and say"There is a hope." To be able from long experience to communicate the fact that despair has been utterly defeated, and replaced with a limitless perfect love. This is what the Kingdom life is made of. God, I love this life of love and victory you have established here for your children.

"Please Sir, I want some more."

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How? Why? When?

I do not know how I got here. I do know there was corner to turn, that I was anticipating the corner, that I could not see it until I got there, and that I made the turn when I got to it.

Yup. It was in the pain. In the ache. In the trial. I made the turn because I needed to be moving in a new direction, on a new path, with a new destination somewhere ahead. And I was not alone. The Church was with me. Thank you, Father, for your Church.

I do not wish that pain for anyone. But I do pray that the signs for the exit ramps and entrance ramps will be properly illuminated at just the right times, and that we will all have the humility to give ourselves over to the service of a navigator.

For me the process of getting here took a stripping down to essentials. When everything is heavy, it gets easier to identify things that need to be discarded and abandoned. I do not believe it makes it any easier to release them. That they are no longer worth carrying just becomes clear. Clear as crystal.

So I wake up one day clinging to my King. My hands feel like they have the habit in muscle memory. So I have been clinging long enough to develop the hands for it. Might be like developing hinds feet for high places.

If my hands have developed into hands made by practice to cling to God, it also means that He is faithful to be there to be clung to. He has been within reach every time. He has persisted in being there for the duration of each encounter.

Every other handhold tried has proven to be unavailable and/or made temporary by my depending on it. I have awakened, having forsaken false hopes. Unreliable reeds.

I see new places that promise safety and rest without holiness. But, somehow, my hands are in the habit of clinging where they have never been betrayed.

And it smells so good here, Daddy.

I love being a listener

I was faced with an unusual decision today, and wrestled with it on and off during the day. I was coming up to a point where I was going to have to decide, and needed counsel. So I asked my Heavenly Father what was in it for me if I decided to go to this meeting. Right away, He said, "People. I want to make you a rich man. Rich with people."

See, my rut included staying isolated. The lie said that I did not have much, and what I had people only wanted. The only thing that could happen by being around more people was losing even more of what I did not have enough of.

It is so fascinating how lies are about the true important things, but so much the opposite of the truth. The thing that keeps me poor is not having enough empty people around me to pour Gods love into. The more need there is, the more I can pour...and the more I get refilled with fresh Love. Sure, when all I had to offer was the fullness of my poor humanity, then it was true that I was going to run out when around needy people

The deal is that they are only 'needy' when I have nothing for them. When I am filled to the top, shaken together, pressed down and running over with what is for them anyway, then I never feel any lack when someone needs Love poured out on their lives.

So I am going tomorrow to collect my inheritence, people. Thank you, Father that you have plans for me, that I should prosper in Your Kingdom, and in the manner of Your Kingdom.