GOD IS LOVE

He loves the intent of my heart

When I turn my gaze to Him

He watches every halting move

That brings me close to Him

He teaches me in patience

The things that I must know

He’s making me a perfect part

Of the Bride He must behold

*     *     *

God is scandalously forgiving

And so must we be

His mercy burns as it destroys shame

He is whole heartedly passionate about us

We consume His thoughts

His love is so compelling it heals us

It strips away all our pretense and restores us

So we can love ourselves, love others and love Him

Therein, in love, we find true happiness

As Christ’s imputed nature emerges

We become what we behold

And we love what we become

We become Him

We are a delicious delight to our Father

A delicious delight!

*     *     *

WE ARE SECURE IN OUR KNOWLEDGE OF WHO HE IS

HE IS RIGIDLY INFLEXIBLE

UNMOVEABLE

CONSTANTLY CONSTANT

LOVE

GOD IS LOVE! 

PILGRIMS

Much of the church today simply doesn’t get Matthew 25:31 – 46 or the many other passages where God outlines His divine agenda for the Spirit led life: Love, Obedience,  Passion  and Sacrifice, are the things that put a twinkle in our loving Daddy’s eyes and bear fruit for His Kingdom.  Now it is clear from John 15 and other passages that without Kingdom fruit one is most likely not on the narrow gated, difficult, sparsely traveled road to eternal life, but on a much broader venue, a teaming interstate filled with happy smiling materially laden people enjoying their best life now.  Ops! I thought our “Blessed Hope” is eternity with our loving Savior... our best life later. The writer of Hebrews had it right referring to the saints as pilgrims: Pilgrims keep their treasures at “home” along with their hearts, and remember as the old hymn so aptly puts it, “This world is not my home, I’m just passing through.” 

SMALL THINGS

Let me live each day

As if the last

With nothing left undone

With no songs to be sung

No kindness in word or deed

Not given in my haste

No expression of love

To those I love

Lost in life’s quick pace

It is after all

These small things

The fragrance of a life well done

God’s color in a stark cold world

The music of a life well sung

I DO

The greatest commandment is to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.  The Pharisees seen this as affective theology, mushy talk, not rational, but all the time Jesus was extending an invitation to a spiritual marriage. This supernatural union is the great mystery revealed in Ephesians 5:22-33 – bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. Our Beloved gave Himself for us. He nourishes and cherishes us, and He wants to cloth us with the glorious splendor of His faultless, blameless and unblemished, holiness. He wants to cloth us with Himself. Our oneness with Him allows God to see us in Christ’s righteousness, the only way a holy God can be approached by a human thingy.  It is most tragic to know everything about God, to be able to pontificate endlessly about Him, but still not know Him -- to know all about the rules of spiritual marriage but never walk down the aisle, never say “I do”, and never submit to His lordship with a love-slave’s heart.  

PEOPLE

Some are humble, some are bold

Some are young, some are old

Some are healthy, some half-dead

Never ever look ahead

Some have plenty, others none

Some are bright, some are dumb

Some just laugh, and others cry

Live and never reason why

Some are heartless, some are kind

Some just loaf, others grind

Some are bored, and some have fun

Ignoring “zero” minus one

Has Christian love grown so cold

Like hidden lamps and salt that’s old

Is Christian faith such a lie

That we who know would let them die

WE ARE

There are no experts, whiz-kids or real know it alls in the fellowship of Christ, in God’s extended family. We are all just adopted nubies, beginners, Followers By Necessity because we have accepted the burning call of His heart, “Follow Me”, and have embarked upon the divine mystery of pursuing our pursuer into the unknown – into Him. We don’t know where we are going or why our life is as it is. We only know Him whom we have believed in, believed into, that He is able to keep us from stumbling and present us faultless – blameless and unblemished – before the God of All. “The Way”, our eternal pathway before God, is pockmarked with adversity, divine opportunities to grow in grace maturing in Spirit – testimonies which when marinated in the Lamb’s blood produce life as we overcome. We are the brotherhood of the meek, we are the army of the humble, we are the church of the expendable, as we follow our Savior outside the camp where our commitment is demonstrated by our sacrifice:

WE ARE DEAD MEN WALKING

WE ARE THE JOY OF GOD IN CHRIST

WE ARE THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD

WE ARE IN THE BELOVED – IN CHRIST

NOTHING ELSE MATTERS

If colors measured grace applied

I would a rainbow be

Splendidly clothed in reds, yellows, blues and greens

Reflecting my Father's great love for me

*  *  *  So  *  *  *

It matters not what this day brings

Rivers of joy, death's painful sting

In You I find my peace, my rest

I'll love You with or without breath

CALLING ALL DOORKEEPERS

Here’s a prophetic word: There is a severe shortage of doorkeepers in heaven. The tremendous popularity of Apostles and Prophets has swelled their ranks creating a glut of staggering magnitude while leaving these humble entry level positions unfilled. Help wanted ads in the Eternal Journal only drew one respondent, a Jewish guy with really scarred feet and hands; He is keeping the door of the gate called Beautiful. Gabriel and Michael are pulling double-shifts trying to man the doors, but it looks like this shortage will stretch well into eternity, given the current trends. Doesn’t anyone just want to be a doorkeeper anymore?