There is a forecast of snow for tomorrow night. We do not get much snow.

You have to go somewhere to regularly get snow. Same with rain, sun, waves, tornadoes, drought.

When the irregular shows up, local folks are in wonder. They go out to experience it, because it may never manifest there again.

The best manifestation possible is always available. Some have lived their whole lives in the presence of the Holy Spirit, and have never been introduced. They could spend the rest of time lost in wonder, but nobody told them. They know they are missing something, but...

Some have found themselves standing under the spout where the glory comes out, and have stepped out of the deluge because they have things to do. They think they will come back later.

Sometimes they do.

The Glory of God is right here. Taste and see that the Lord is good.

Father, I know that in You there is nothing missing and nothing broken. I know that I walked away after tasting of the heavenly gift. I know that others do as well. I also know that Your Love pours out, and believers are not the only receivers. Thank You for the well of living water. Thank You that your love for us never fails and never falters. Show me how surrender.

Favor

Unmerited favor in the Kingdom of God.

How is it possible to explain what is happening and has happened during this walkabout with Jesus? There is favor like unexpected. It would not be possible to describe the favor. I could not have predicted. Maybe I thought I could have, but in retrospect, no.

The thing is that there is no way to know what excavation, turning over, planting, harvesting is going to happen in a place which was never even recognized as having potential. So there are blossoms, and nothing was expected. There is fruit, where nothing was anticipated.

It makes it impossible to steer, which is really good. Thank you, Father that you make trying to steer useless.

Out

A guy called with an out. Part of my thought after the call, when thinking about the out was, "This is my last chance to get out." Without any delay, the Holy Ghost said, "You are already out."

Without any delay, I agreed. With the Holy Ghost.

I have become aware of how much this walk in the wilderness has effected me, but I had not realized that I was out. I am. Out.

There is nothing about my circumstances that I need to change, or get out of. I am out of my circumstances. They are still here, but I am not in them.

The only time my circumstances touch me is when I touch them, when I reach out to modify them by my personal ability. I am sitting adrift in a small boat on brown water with a steady slap of motion. If I dip my hands in to influence speed or direction, my hands get wet. In the mean time, for this to be worthwhile, I also have to look up to make the effort produce a desired effect. Just reaching in and pulling on the water is fruitless. I might be drawing myself in exactly the wrong direction. If I am willing to simply sit as I have been, the boat will arrive. Even then I am not obligated to look up and see where the journey has taken me.

I do not want to look up. I have found my focus. I have found the reason for my eyes, for my vision. My eyes draw me near to my beloved. And He embraces me.

Father, I trust You. It delights me to my center that I have found the definition of trustworthy.

Kio Stark

Don't have clue how I found and started reading Kio. Two blogs and a website. But I know why. She talks to strangers. and better, she listens to them. Then later she writes about it.

Kio talks to strangers, and strange people. She talks to scared people and she talks to scary people. My best take is that she values what they bring. They are never fodder for a writer.

Evidently she teaches college kids to do the same. And so this thing is perpetuated. Something happens when there is a connection. Without the daring to connect, there is no hope of the power of connecting.

The daring is love. The listening without interrupting is love. The permission to get past "news, sports, weather" is love.

Yup. I wrote about this last night. And now I understand my love for Kio. She is a lover. And the King of Love keeps her supplied with the desire and ability to pull back the curtain and help us see people.

Having read her and browsed her "life-on-display" I am pretty sure she does not go through the curtain that was rent from the top down, and sit on Daddy's lap. I am pretty sure she does not do this daring under the Blood. Yet she is clearly supplied. The life produced is clearly extra-ordinary.

Daddy, please help me to find more lovers and to understand more of how you touch the world through them. Please continue to bless Kio.

Agape

The God whose name is Love, infinite. There is no end to the Agape that He is. He is not eros or phileo. He is the Love that loves the lost and broken, the frightened and hurt, the sick and the poor.

I was really challenged this morning, listening to Morning Edition talk about the people who have found their home with Harry Potter. They came around to mentioning an anthem that credited their victory to love. I had to think about that.

See, I thought that agape only belongs to the Redeemed of Christ. and that the love that the lost had was not from the supernatural fountain, from the cleft rock in the wilderness. Now I am wondering. Certainly, no one is harmed by true love. And this love through lost humanity is always manifest as selflessly as possible in the ways Love manifest in Jesus.

So, Father, help me. Cleanse my vision. Forgive me for judging and despising those who long to love with pure supernatural love without surrendering their vessels for cleansing with Your Blood. Help me to acknowledge Your Love in lost children. Help me to receive Your Love and pour it out into every life I encounter.

Hurts

Aching is part of the Wilderness experience. It is possible to be totally at rest leaning completely on Christ, and ache at the same time. But then I know that the ache is not from any lack I have. It is from seeing some else's hurting.

The rod of Aaron was a long-dead piece of almond wood. There were two things that transformed it into the permanent symbol of God's choice of the Levites and Aaron as their leader. First was the truth that God made a way for the Levites to draw near him and intercede. The second is that, just like the Levites themselves, the rod was very near to God, and transformed by His presence. The result was a rod in the ark to remind Israel of these things. Yet even with this, even chosen Israel chose to avoid drawing near. Chosen Israel chose to avoid the intimacy that will not tolerate sin. It is the same opportunity as always: Choose to be close to God, burned clean and transformed for His Glory, or choose familiarity, distance, and self shaping, self regard.

Come into the light. Chase away the darkness. Be transformed into a new thing, a living thing made alive from a dead thing. A thing transformed for a holy and glorious purpose, far bigger than you can imagine or manage. God, help us to be dissatisfied with religion and a dead life.

Fall Back

It is so easy to switch to "human doing" from "human being." It is the default response. I am refusing today.

See, I should be able to fix my world, right? Wrong. What I can effect is the small stuff. The significant stuff I can not touch. That is really frustrating if my default is doing in response to recognizing a need.

I stepped out of my world this morning and went to a new place, and met some new people. And recognized an ache too big for me to touch. And now I ache for them. Which is what I was made for.

Now I get to crawl back up on my Fathers lap and tell him about what I saw, heard and felt. I am so grateful for my Fathers lap. Otherwise I would just ache, and have no place to go, no one to tell about them.

Their situation is no different than anyone else's. They need to find their way home to Dad, and to the rest that being home provides.

It hurts so bad to know that there is not enough of me, that I am not able to humanly demonstrate to them that there is rest. Pride is screaming because there is a need that I was built to recognize and not be able to do anything about. If I could effect it, it would not be worth effecting. This is the place to get to in learning to pray. Where the only thing I can do is admit my powerlessness and trust my Higher Power. To say, "Daddy, they hurt so much for lacking Your Rest. They scrabble and howl and reach in the rut. Please have mercy on them. Continue to show them your loving kindness. Continue to send your light into their darkness."

It is going to be so cool to see the whole picture. Thanks for making me part of it.

He Restores My Soul

He Restores My Soul.

My unrestored soul is making lots of noise. Heart ache. At a time like this, it makes no difference how good or bad my day was.

So the promise is, that there is a resting place for and from this heart ache. All I have to do is turn toward my place of refuge. I will find not just relief there, but my healing as well.

Wow. There it is. Just like that.

Thank you, Father for your faithfulness.

I am tempted in this process to respond to the world around me. Not what the Spirit reveals of the Kingdom advancing, but just the things that happen around me in the name of anyone but Christ.

I am in training here in the Holy Wild to be entirely about gazing into the face of Love. Life apart from love just serves as contrast, part of the darkness that calls for more light. Whatever happens in the darkness is simply a result of Lovelessness.

I do not need to leave Love to pour Love out where He is needed. In fact, I have to stay leaning on my Beloved so that I am able to pour Love out. Love never fails. Love Wins.

Father, I am your vessel. Fill me or don't fill me. Pour me or don't pour me. Break me or leave me as I am. I do not want to touch what you are doing with any part of my pride. It has to be you. I will cling to you and you will lead me where you want me to be.

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Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms. Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms.

Absolutely worthy of total trust. I do not know what the future holds, but I know Who holds my future.

Deeper and deeper. No worthy answer but Surrender. Free falling becomes soaring. The moment of soaring becomes the only moment that matters. There is the thought that the soaring will stop some time, in some fashion. The greater the focus on the wind beneath, the less the change to a new mode is even considered. There will be a new mode, and a new wind, a new provision for that moment and that circumstance. The promise of love never fails. There is a wind, a breeze for every mode.

Thank you, Father for your Holy Spirit.

Leaning, Learning

I want so bad to make it happen. Not that I am a gogetter. I want to control. Control my emotional pain, even strong emotion that is not pain. This is the legacy. It is what I brought to the dance. I want to be stable. I do not want people disliking me.

But now I have tasted. I know there is rest from the striving. As a result, daily communication gets better. I am more honest. I am able to speak without the filter of control.

It is what I would tell them if I was dead. Because I am dead. Dead in Christ.

I am not going to be alright. Instead, I am alright. I am at rest.

Thanks, Dad.

I got a promise today. I have heard it offered before, but today I am going to respond.

There is something of this world that I am holding on to. I heard that if I would put it down, I would receive something better, from another world, to hold onto...and I would never miss what I had laid down.

God help me. Forgive my little faith.