[tweetthis]Experience is often a harsh taskmaster. Wisdom is so much easier on the soul…[/tweetthis]
One of my spiritual dads used to say that. I think I listen more to it, appreciate it more now that I have been around the mountain a time or two on a few things. Continue reading A Recipe For Success
What if God did not want us to be successful in the area we thought? What???
That was my shower meditation this morning. (I really need to get a recording unit in the shower for my conversation, not so much my singing…)As I verbalized the words, I felt something shift. Change. I began to see people caught up in their stuff when “right outside the door” was His stuff. The difference? Day and night! Continue reading The Measure Of God? Or Man?
If there is one thing I have figured out about the Lord is He loves a winner. But His method and manner of getting a winner often begins with one who has lost a time or two. Or is too small. Or too weak. But somehow the miracle working power of the Almighty Himself changes a person into a winner. He takes the normal everyday life of a man or woman and supercharges it. Continue reading The Victory Is Mine!
I am a serious history buff. My mom was a dynamic history and English teacher and all her love for history rubbed off on me. My mom did not just “teach”us history, she would “show” us history. She would load us in the family car and drive us to Boston, Philadelphia or Plymouth. She would take us to museums and historic sites. I “lived” history and to this day that is my approach.
My wife got got recently “hooked” on this TV series about treasure hunting in the ocean, turning up sunken ships and submarines and pulling treasure out of them. It is kind of ironic that today I found myself reading this headline. 1,000 Ounces Of Gold Recovered From 1857 Shipwreck. The second I saw the headline, things starting pinging on my “radar”. I knew there was something prophetic, something hidden. I began to do my research. When I saw the headlines, my mind began to to see the recovery of wealth that was coming. Continue reading Uncovering Treasure Is A Sign
My Brother The Runner
Today my brother completed his second marathon. This was the Boston Marathon 2014. I am extremely proud of my little brother David!
His time 5:43:42.
My brother suffered from Viral Myocarditis in 2011. He recovered and was totally healed in a church service in my home fellowship. He subsequently had surgery for a shoulder injury and then a knee that needed healing. He has beat those all. And he decided to run! Continue reading My Brother, The Runner – Boston Marathon 2014
Today while I was preaching in my church family, I was reminded of the spirit of breakthrough. In the old testament there was the story about the breaker or the Lord of break through, Jehovah Perazim.
The scriptures are here in 2 Samuel 5:19-21
…19Then David inquired of the LORD, saying, “Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will You give them into my hand?” And the LORD said to David, “Go up, for I will certainly give the Philistines into your hand.” So David came to Baal-perazim and defeated them there; and he said, “The LORD has broken through my enemies before me like the breakthrough of waters.” Therefore he named that place Baal-perazim.They abandoned their idols there, so David and his men carried them away.… Continue reading Jehovah Perazim Your Break Through
Armed with not much more than a tooth pick he went to war. What would cause a man to defend or to engage in warfare of this sort? Obviously overpowered he won. 600 men dead in his wake.
Sometimes the people you meet will surprise you beyond your wildest imagination.
Judges 3:31 After Ehud came Shamgar son of Anath, who struck down six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad. He too saved Israel. Continue reading Pick Up A Toothpick!
I woke up this morning walking around a store. Not just any store but a store that had opened on Christmas Day. The sellers were not very interested. They had invited me in to help them make some decisions, perhaps even to acquire them.
This was not my first dream of this store or one very similar. Maybe it is how I am wired (Or unwired.) but I like space. I like choice. I like selection. (I have tried selling in niche circumstance but over all I like the broad spectrum approach.)
So here I was in this small store with all these little “nice” pieces but nothing that really excited me. It was pretty. It would look nice in homes or offices. But to me it was chachka. I walked towards the back and as I got towards the back of the store, I got excited. There was more there! A lot more. I offered to purchase from them and did then I went to the back.
Now these men tried to talk me out of it. That “stuff” back there has not value. They wanted me to look at the glittering glass and beautiful pieces. (I love glass, but it has to wow me.)
Three stories came to my mind as I thought about this dream.
- One was the story of Cinderella and how she was treated. But that all changed. Her value became known and was seen in the eyes of another. (For someone here you have “done it all right” but have not been noticed. But God has His eye on you. Soon you will be the Cinderella story.)
- The second was how Samuel approached Jesse to see His sons, directed there by the Lord. Only when he said “do you have another so” did they go retrieve David from the fields. (You have felt that people did not recognize your value or your gift. The key to your coming success is to not be bitter but to be better. Hone your gift and watch.) (Proverbs 18:16)
- And the third was the story of the ugly duckling who one day grew into a beautiful swan. (Never judge your life by a day.)
I walked in that back room and it was huge. A long line of chairs and couches and places of rest were visible. My mind spun as I thought how to get people back here. To the place of comfort. The place of rest. The place of quiet. The place hidden from view.
This morning I thought about lost objects. I have misplaced keys and wallets and such. People always ask “where was the last place you saw it?” Most likely if I knew that I would know where it is! And then I thought people are running around, looking for an old man that was killed on a cross with a Savior who made you His “carbon copy.” He put His nature in you!
So stop looking for the dead!
And once we get beyond all the chachka, the stuff that may have value but is really just window dressing we come to the true meaning of “being in Him.” His rest! His place of intimacy and love.
All the things that so many have embraced as God have just made it hard for those who have not “looked” like that.
The intrinsic value of a person is not found in the externals but what is on the inside. (And yet from the place on the inside comes that which is His expression through you to the outside.)
I suggested to someone the other day that maybe they consider being a model. Immediately I was given all the reasons that they could not do that. Most had to do with their evaluation of what is real. When our “inside” is understood and accepted the outside is just an external view of the goodness inside. (By the way-she is a beautiful young lady.)
In the store the men thought work hard, keep it “looking” good and keep it small. I walked in and I saw rest, expanse and intimacy. (In one of my jewelry stores I ran ads that poo-pooed the glass cases that kept people from the touch and feel of the jewelry.) God wants to be seen, touched, enjoyed.
We have made churches that remind me of mortuaries. People who act like zombies. And families that walk around like the Stepford wives.
Real church sometimes is real messy because it involves real people.
So this holiday season He bids you, “come unto me all of you who are heavy laden and I will give you rest. My yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Frequently I have had the unpleasant task of ripping the blinders off someone’s eyes. That point where they have continued over and over in a process or a relationship. Some may call it a wakeup call.
Wakeup calls come in all forms. They may be the result of a relationship crisis, a critical medical report or a firing from a job. Certainly that is not the “complete” list but that encompasses a lot.
The wakeup call is often founded in faulty thinking or process, misunderstanding of protocol or just plain disastrous choices. Not too long ago my brother was sent to the hospital with viral myocarditis. 2 years later after beating it he ran his first marathon. His wakeup was the hospitalization. His answer was reevaluating health. The results are simply amazing. Continue reading What Was I Thinking?
Have you stopped moving ahead? Have you pulled the “vehicle” to the side to let the “faster, younger, informed” ones pull by? Have you given up because it is too hard, too far, too much or too high? Have you confessed your last confession, declared your last declaration and prayed your last prayer because of fear, hurt or pain are causing you to stop? You might be in better company than you think.
I have noticed a lot of people who have said “I cannot do this ANYMORE!” Children, grandchildren, parents, jobs, friends have just become too much. “I want off this train. Out of this world. Stop the bus!” Many have read the book (The Bible) saw the last chapter and said “we win.” And then thrown it out into the future for “when they get home.” But what about now? Today? It says “we win” today…tomorrow and the next day. How? We change the earth. We cause it to look like heaven. Continue reading Giving Up On Life – Let Me Off!
