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.

What are we full of?

What am I full of today?  What will ooze out on those who I touch?  Wow.  Will I touch anyone today?  How about that.  I can be full of God and be of no particular Kingdom purpose.  Going to visit my sibs this week, so there is a chance there.

Am I still afraid the world will contaminate me?  Is that why I do not live like the King is at home?  Or am I afraid he is really not there?  Or do I really believe in a little god who is not able to save me, much less help them?  Either way, I am not repping the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob when I live this way...and I know better.

So habits and ruts are still in play.  Some days both feet are deep.  Some days maybe I have on foot in and one foot out.  Which can be dreadfully uncomfortable when the two paths diverge.  Which they do.  God has no reason to walk beside my rut.  My rut only leads down.

Father, you say that you restore my soul.  I receive and accept your word today.  Gather us under your wing, like chicks today. Remind us of what home is like.

Help me understand how to stay home and be in the marketplace.  Oh.  You will go to the marketplace with me, and I will be whole in your presence.  Okay.

Stable and Fixed

Disturbing. Applying the adjective gives it power to disturb. Where nothing has the power to disturb except the Holy One. Everything which can be shaken will be shaken. Everything built by the hand of man, everything built upon the foundations of this world can be shaken and will be shaken down. So what is built upon the Rock will stand.

Hunkering down. Establishing a fresh relationship with the overwhelming stability of God, the utter immovability. It helps to get very low to do that. It helps to put hands, even head down on the ground and feel the stability of God contrasted with the trembling of the earth. Meditating on the complete trustworthiness of our Father.

Pneuma moves in a way which removes even the thought of resting anything physical on her. So how then is she dependable? She is never not there. (No offense meant to those who have trouble with attributing femininity to an aspect of God.) She is never not there. The Word of God is clear that Jesus sent the Spirit of God. No word of a departure. The Spirit has taken up residence within me. There is nowhere to go apart from the Spirit of God. When I look to God Who Is Present, now that is the Spirit of God. Here. Now. Right here. Right now.

Seated in heavenly places. That is where you have placed me. Places made heavenly not by fluffy white clouds, naked baby angels and harp music, but made heavenly, NOW, by your fulfilling your own desire to be very near. Nearer than my breath. You have payed the immeasurable price so that there are no obstacles between us. And so here you are, creating my NOW reality. Thank you. It is your will that in all things I am grateful. And so, give thanks.

I was just talking with a friend. He asked me how my day was. I can not remember, but I told him that I got lots done and basically what I put my hand to prospered.

I knew that what I said was true. I just could not remember anything remarkable about the day. Maybe I have stopped looking back. What do you think?

Daddy, am I addicted to the remarkable? Or am I satiated with the sensations of listening for you in the fire and the wind and the storm?

Am I willing to be still and know You are God, without being able to talk about a sensation that validated my belief in you? How un-remarkable can I tolerate? Can I have a day full of your glory without having a glorious experience to write about? Even "plain vanilla" is still a serving of vanilla ice cream, an extraordinary treat that most humans never experience.

What is my testimony? I have heard so many say that they do not have one of those "saved from a life of..." stories. What does it break down to?

I knew I needed God with me, Emmanuel.
I learned that I could.
I did my part.
He did His.
I was with God.

Nope.

I know I need God with me. I know I need me with God.
I learned that I could be with God and God would be with me.
I do my part.
He does His part.
I am with God. I am lost in Him and have no interest in living apart from God.
All of that can be without a sensation to describe, a healing, a miracle.

So the remarkable becomes remarkable because it is extra-ordinary, outside of the ordinary.
So when being in the embrace of the God who loves you without reservation is NOT ORDINARY, it is remarkable. But when the embrace of the MOST HIGH is ORDINARY, it can still be appreciated and acknowledged, without being remarkable. "All" it calls for is a life of thanksgiving.

Thank You, Father, for loving me.

So Easy So Hard So Simple So Complex

The only way to know if the moment to moment decisions are right and wise is the lovely fruit.
But some fruit comes quick and some fruit comes very slow. It seems as though the more precious the fruit, the longer it takes to ripen. Waiting for fruit to ripen takes spirit fruit.

Then Daddy says I should trust him enough to not wait for the fruit. He says waiting for the fruit to ripen is looking back when my hand is on the plow. I am going to be too noisy and miss directions. I am going to be proud and fail to submit. I am going to walk in old ruts and miss new paths of wisdom. I am going to bear withered and stunted fruit.

He says I am going to learn more by pressing in and pressing on than looking back to analyze the character of the fruit and figure out every good and less than good thing that went into producing it. The fruit is important, but the learning to consistently trust the anchor for direction and the desire for intimacy for driving forward power and speed is best.

Wow. Meat. Time to chew. Thanks, Daddy.

Each day brings its opportunities to honor God with decisions or to dishonor Him.
He is worthy of honorable decisions, choices, actions and words. In disregarding God, the service of self is left at the forefront.

The hallmark of life in the Holy Wild is the knowledge of God. There is no gap between living, and knowing the value of the last lived moment. Feedback is immediate, unmistakable and personal. If I have been leaning on the arm of my Beloved, and I begin to pull away as I am distracted from Him by a dead thing and its matching dead place in me, I know NOW that I have sinned. Imagine having your nose filled with the finest perfume, a smell that reminds you that you are home...and then having your nose stuffed full of the scent of death and decay. God did not decide to smell bad. I decided to put my nose where it no longer belongs.

Father, thank You for the indefinable intimacy. Thank you for prayer, the abiding ebb and flow of communication.

Answered Prayer

Trust and shut up. Don't ask for outcomes. Ask for more fruit, patience first if it was not for love.

It is time to find out if desiring intimacy and spiritual fruit outworked as a result are enough. I go into my next work week, for example, with many physical manifestations to ask for. The instruction right now (forever, I am thinking) is to forsake all of that in pursuit of fruit. And only fruit that comes from maintaining connection with the source of life.

Father, forgive us for losing our hunger for fruit. Restore as a reflection of the renewal of our first love, a burning desire for love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, longsuffering and selfcontrol. We can not feed your fruit to the world that we do not have. and the people are starving for living spiritual life.

There Are No Secrets in The Secret Place

When I got to this town six years ago I met a man who loves Jesus and lives to sing praises to God. He found me a copy of an out of print CD recorded by Clint Brown. I think the title is, "Alone." It has the theme that The Lord desires and rewards the attention of one of His children. Though He appreciates that they gather for Him, He appreciates no less the individual attention of a child crawling into His lap.

I have not listened to Pastor Clint's recording for several years, and forgot what I had been missing. That was changed this morning.

My message of the moment is that the music agrees with what I have been writing over the last month or so. Maybe if what I have been writing is not working for you, you might find a more effective connection with the message by listening to this music. When he wrote the music, Pastor Clint was living out here in the Holy Wild.

There is Love longing to embrace the love need that you have. If you think you do not need Love, he will wait anyway, and will hug you and hold you when you do, and you turn to Him.

Thank you, Father for giving me love and teaching me to give it away. Say hello to Jack for me, please.

Poetry

I am not a poet, but my Father is. I am not a song writer or a painter or a play-write. But my Father is. Last night I was surprised by poetry that came from my fingers, so surprised that I posted the line on facebook. It resonated with some friends and they said so.

There is so much in the depths of exploration, in insisting on clinging to the bosom of the King. I don't expect that my Father is making me a poet, but I am sure that His poetry is saturating me as I dream upon His breast. I hope for the day when it is the perfume of His Presence coming from me that brings someone home. And that day I will have been so near to the aroma for so very long that I will not smell it on me, and I will wonder what has drawn them.

One thing have I desired. One thing have I been granted. One thing have I rejoiced in and given thanks for.

Doctrine is Hard To See

The Heart is beating, beating, beating. Right here. I approached and I got swept up in those arms. I got pulled in close. It is a closeness that is never found in human society. There are close approximations. But there is only one Holy Embrace. And it is the very best distraction.

I was trying to think about doctrine, but I got too close. I fell into the gravity well of Love. I was not trying to stay away from my Beloved. I just was not trying to get near. But there I go thinking about doctrine and the divine, and before you know it my head is lifted and there is no resistance. My face is plastered against Him, and he is soaked with my tears. This is the one place that was made for me, so I can rest. This is the safe stable place where nothing is missing. It takes so little effort to enter the presence of the Most High, now that the veil is rent. Now that the blood is spilled.

The really, really cool thing is that He can hold me, and He can hold you. He can hold us both right in the center of His attention, and neither of us is short anything. And neither of us notices the other. Father, you draw me and you catch me. You let me listen to you breathing. Thank you.

Some days I just feel like a gopher, and the worst thing going is Bill Murray

How many times do you hear Kenny Loggins singing, "I'm all right.", and you don't see that happy little gopher dancing for all he is worth. Well, okay, maybe you were not a Caddy Shack fan...

In the Joy of The Lord, there is dancing like David danced as the Presence of God was returned to Jerusalem. Actually, the Lord had never forsaken Jerusalem. There is just an extra something about the Ark.

And while David danced, Mikal scorned. She resented his joy, could not connect with it. Just like the Gopher and the Greenskeeper. This is a Gopher day. Some are dancing in the Joy. Some don't get it. Some have faked happiness for so long that they can not imagine that the Joy is real. This is a Gopher Day. The Son is shining and the way is open for intimacy with the Living God whose name is Love.

This is a Gopher Day...and I'm All Right. Thank you for Joy in Christ, and for Dancing in the Spirit, Father.

20101028

Where is Mom? Just watched a program with a "strong mom" theme. The are everywhere you look, popular, and without societal rejection. Humans like moms, and strong moms.

The thing that I am pointing to is that human stories reflect the God story, His-Story, all of the time. The themes are about good fathers, and about super heroes, redeeming ordinary people from death. And they are about good strong mothers.

It is also not hard to find a TV program featuring a stupid dad (d'oh) dominated by a smart mom. and stories of moms gone bad. Then there are the super heroes who are not very super. Frankly, I believe all of these pictures of failure end up guiding us to the only pictures of perfection.

But part of this stream of thought goes back to last night. I have to deliberately grow nearer to the Holy Spirit. Somehow I think there is momming there. Though at the same time there is momming going on in Fathers lap.

No real destination here. Just a hunger to draw and stay nearer to God, and find all that I need in all that He is. Thank you for the Way.

Teachable is Important

Every misstep comes down to pride. At least for me. Like how it is easy to be teachable toward some, but not all people. I got humble enough yesterday to learn a lesson from someone I struggle with. Today the fruit of that learning was really sweet.

Pride is not only unacceptable, but it also does not work. At least for me. Humility, and its offspring teachable work much better. Now I can thank God for the lesson, and the humility...and I might even thank the teacher. That will be harder. And it also will likely bear more fruit.

One thing is very clear. When I am cuddling with pride, I find it hard to approach my Father. All of this stuff about good outcomes has to be secondary to adoration. Nothing wrong with good outcomes, but good is the enemy of perfect.

Father, I desire perfect intimacy with You. Forgive me for all of the times today that my eyes have turned to idols, that my heart has turned to idols.