“The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.” 1 John 1:17

One interesting thing about living with my wife, a female, is the random popping up of her questions, ideas and motivational material. As a married couple we share time and space. What beauty FILLS that space is HER domain. GETTING it filled is usually mine. But her request to me yesterday must have come from outer space!

The ONLY thing that makes sense is that she must have wanted me to agree that flowers were necessary for the front of the house. This is a foreign thought and would NEVER ‘pop’ into my male brain. But knowing that did not deter her. Laying on her cute, little wifely voice she asked me, “will you come sit and look at something with me and give me your opinion?” KNOWING this was a trap, I proceeded with caution. It turned out that she wanted my opinion on the color, type and arrangement of potted flowers! I laughed!

Desire is a powerful thing, since what I WANT motivates my actions. Since my wife and I are considered ‘one’ in God’s eyes, HER wants need to be clearly conveyed and SOLD to me in order to make them MY wants. That‘s what ‘being one’ is all about! I am ALSO one with God! And HIS desires REMAIN His until I get motivated to make His desires MINE!

Worldly desires are also called the FLESH. God NEVER couples Himself with my flesh, since there is nothing there He desires. The flesh, as a raging, powerful and impulsive motivator, is a dead man walking! God appeals to Himself and HIS gift of eternal life as His replacement motivator for my life. THINKING about it doesn’t count until I ‘DO IT!’ DOING His will get me the prize…HIM!

After I laughed at my wife’s request, I saw it for what it was. She REALLY, REALLY, REALLY wanted flowers in the front of the house. So much so that she invented the craziest way to get what she wanted…by inviting MY opinion INTO her desire! Come to think about it, doesn’t God do precisely the same thing!

Sending a son to die a horrific and tragic death to win fleshy creatures over is MORE than insane! But that is what God did! And why? Because God’s love for me (and you) is EXTRAVAGANTLY insane! But… it shows how far He was willing to go to win me over. He has presented me a crazy deal…”Believe and do what my Son says, and all I Am and have is yours!” Hmmmmm…it’s not a bad plan to consider!

There are new potted flowers in front of our house. NOT because I care about flowers. But because I care about my wife. Even though finding out what SHE wants can be a VERY interesting venture. So now I must ask… hat does God want from ME? Or YOU?

“…I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body…” Psalm 139:15-16

Waking up today after a hard day of labor yesterday, I wasn’t EXPECTING anything. Which, come to think about it, is a gift in itself. But my wife presented me with a ‘present’ she hadn’t planned and one I certainly wasn’t expecting. She blurted out…”Today is April 17^th!” All I could say was…”Yea??? And???” She said, “today is the day our first child was expected to be born!”

It was just like that! Shocking at first…unexpected… and then pondering, remembering, wondering and then…thanksgiving! Today, I was reminded I have a child I’ve never had the joy of holding, raising or knowing. I thought about him in light of what I KNOW about God…MY Father. Because I KNOW…he’s there…WITH Him. And someday I will meet them BOTH.. face to face.

I say ‘him’ because we think he would have been a boy. And he is not alone. We experienced the sorrow of 3 miscarriages among our 4 WONDERFUL children. If you ask us how many kids we have, we say 4. But in the REALITY of HEAVEN, we have 7! The gift of today was to simply smile DEEP within my being, and rejoice in both remembrance AND in anticipation of a GREAT family reunion in Heaven.

If heaven and eternity were to be represented by the oceans of the earth, this life isn’t even a droplet! But what we do, believe, choose and become is the ‘seed’ by which our eternal existence blooms. Jesus came here as an embryo, grew, died and rose again to give dead people ETERNAL and ABUNDANT LIFE. Both here AND in heaven WITH Him. And if you KNOW HIM as your Savior and Lord, and you read and KNOW His Word, there are wonders awaiting we can never even comprehend.

Psalm 139 is about being planned, created and formed for birth, even BEFORE embryo stage. And if you know God like I know God, It can be a WONDERFUL and JOYFUL experience to simply contemplate Who He is… and what life will be like WHEN I am united with Him in Glory. Try THAT when your feeling gloomy!

So call us crazy… but today we are celebrating a birthday for someone we have never even met. But just like we KNOW that our Savior Jesus Christ lives, so we KNOW our unborn child lives as well. And we KNOW that THEY are both OURS! Oh what a Joy it will be to meet and hug them both!

Happy birthday son!   And… thanks for the gift of a smile. 

“The spirits of prophets are subject to the control of prophets. For God is not a God of disorder but of peace – as in all the congregations of the Lord’s people.” 1 Corinthians 14:32-33

Yesterday I turned to my wife and declared a prophecy. According to Deuteronomy 18:22, “If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken.” SOOOOOO! Since my prophecy DID prove true, am I now, officially, a “Prophet?” Maybe I have too much time on my hands!!!!

I heard from several people that the Corona-virus stimulus checks had been direct deposited by the U.S. Government. Being in a mood, I simply blurted out, “I’m sure WE didn’t get one!” Now…call it a feeling or a nudge from the Holy Spirit, but I felt LED to check and see. Opening up my online bank account, I discovered both good and not so good news… apparently I am a Prophet! And I even have the Bible to back my claim!

O.K. Now that was fun. AND FUNNY. But to be clear, I am not freaking out about the stimulus check. I’m sure that if any luck DOES exist, time will prove that it ISN’T on MY side. I’ll probably have to make special arrangement to get ours. Hmmmm…which makes me wonder…does that make us special??

I deliberately avoid watching and reading the news. Even reading the headline of a newspaper gets me riled up like the neighborhood dogs when I drop a spoon on my patio. I try to avoid such triggers. But it is HARD to avoid modern prophets while subscribing to online devotionals. Almost every Christian has a prophetic opinion about this virus. It makes me wonder.

Is what I am thinking, feeling or about to do based upon information from God? Or could it be from fear… or even logical thinking? What I am discovering about myself is that, in my flesh, I could make a darn good news reporter. Because a LOT of what enters my mind as a precursor to action, ISN’T from God. The verse today reveals a warning tucked right into it.

Being a Believer does NOT make me an expert on everything Godly. Often, facts become questionable when Faith is mixed in, requiring even MORE scrutiny to navigate my day to day life. God says that ‘my spirit is in my control!’ In other words…BEFORE I start down the path of crazy, I need to rein in my horses and take a deeper look. It is advisable to use the Word of God, Prayer and even bounce my thoughts off of my wife or another believer BEFORE I DO something that COULD be fine..but still NOT God directed.

I have learned that ‘Faith’ is RARELY black and white. When faced with a FAITH decision, I am RARELY certain that what I am about to do will be 100% correct or work. That is why it is called FAITH. These days, while modern ‘futurists’ are predicting the eminent return of Christ and the end of the world, that still small voice inside is calling me to ‘be still’ and ‘follow Him.’ A directive that sometimes ISN’T so easy to distinguish or easy to follow.

What are you doing, or NOT doing, by Faith! 

“Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on Him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.” John 6:27

As I sit here, my body is at war with my soul. My SOUL is satisfied. My BODY is in rebellion! The place where the 2 converge is a war zone. The battleground, while being fought in the present, is REALLY about the FUTURE! Soul and body are positioning for advantage in the NEXT skirmish. It takes the Spirit to place the flag of the winner! Which will it be?

A few months back my lovely wife started thinking again. What THAT means is, she wasn’t satisfied with things as they were any longer. She wanted a change! She is both a female AND an artist at heart. The combination means that everything visual is temporary! The landscaping we had done about 14 years ago is now passe! So it’s out with the old and in with the new! Which creates WORK!

At my age my BODY resists hard physical labor. But my SOUL knows that’s mostly an excuse to simply be lazy. When ‘cheap’ and ‘macho’ finally met, I made some calls and grabbed my shovel. For the last couple days WE have been shoveling and moving over 5 tons of stone! I say ‘WE’ because I have a wife that isn’t afraid to put her muscles where he mouth is either! This morning, we could hardly wake up or get out of bed! Hence.. the war!

The Body wants ease. The Soul wants pleased. And as the war for supremacy goes on, I am grateful that I have been born again and have ‘The Spirit’ to referee! I love my wife more than I hate sore muscles. Jesus DEMANDS that. So I work. And last night, as we moved toward the end of the project, I finally SAW what SHE had seen in her mind. And I LOVED it! Being a man who hates sweat, it takes motivation to move me. Her name is wife.

The Bible verse today has a very important word that I underlined. The example of my landscaping hopefully shows that it isn’t about money or sweat. It’s about something bigger. God Gave His son a BIG mission He was unable to carry off by Himself. So God helped Him. After Jesus ‘’worked’ to please His Father, a BIGGER plan for life was handed to me as well. Which causes a battle within me that needs to have be resolved! What shall I DO?

If I work for temporal things to please myself, I find that I will never be truly satisfied. It takes something BIGGER than myself to bring my soul real peace and satisfaction. Enter ‘’The Motivator…’ Jesus. I have found that when I follow HIS plan for my life, His promise to GIVE me all the simple stuff I thought was so important, really happens! THEN His Spirit opens me up to a life of joy and peace I would never been able to see before when operating on my own. AND I LIKE IT!

“…you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you…” Jeremiah 29:11-14

The U.S. Government and local authorities have issued “Stay at home” warnings because of ‘our’ war on the Corona Virus. A list of “Essential Activities” was put in writing by our Governor. But what “I” was about to do… wasn’t on it. KNOWING I was rebelling BEFORE I did it, I ALSO knew NOTHING was going to stop me!

The occasion was a party. A mass gathering of 11 people (1 over the legal limit) came together to celebrate Coast Parker. ‘He’ was turning ‘3’ years old on this day! ‘I’ wouldn’t miss it because… Coast Parker is my Grandson! Go ahead and throw me in prison! THIS Birthday, some of the family from both sides got together. It was there that I saw 3 year old Reagan.

I had taken my ‘grand-kid famous’ gumball machine to the party where it IMMEDIATELY became a HIT with Reagan. The bubble gum quickly broke down barriers between us because in no time at all, Reagan walked right up to me, and with a mouthful of bubblegum blurted out…”We’re going to have a baby!” Honored to be part of her inner circle, her dad explained, “she’s fun like that! When she plays hide and seek, she just blurts out, ‘HERE I AM!’” Remembering that…I thought about God.

LOTS of people, both Christian and non-Christians, are playing hide and seek with God right now. Some are glad and some are mad. Some have even left the game without telling God… leaving HIM the option to continue alone, or quit all together! But since I “KNOW” God PERSONALLY, I can tell you a BIG secret about MY heavenly Father…He NEVER quits or gives up His pursuit of YOU! ESPECIALLY when there is a crisis going on.

I’m going to do something I don’t usually do here…and stop now. BEFORE I complete these ‘words’ today. Because ‘IF’ you are wanting to find God, you have enough information to go and seek. I’ll even add this cool devotional site I found when I started looking for an image. It says what I wanted to say… only better! So how about YOU friend… Do YOU wanna play with God? Because He’s waiting for you.

Hide and Seek

“You have laid down precepts that are to be fully obeyed. Oh, that my ways were steadfast in obeying your decrees! Then I would not be put to shame when I consider all your commands. I will praise you with an upright heart as I learn your righteous laws. I will obey your decrees do not utterly forsake me.” Psalm 119:4-8

It is Good Friday.. which is an oxymoron when I stop to think about it. Whoever came up with THAT name? The events of Christ’s suffering were horrific…NOT ‘good.’ And besides, I have a disagreement with lots of people that THIS was ‘that day.’ Since I think He was crucified on Thursday. (what do YOU say? ) But eh.. its all semantics anyway… right?. Until it isn’t.

I was reading Psalm 118 because I got a story that led me to research the notion suggestion that it just MIGHT have been ‘THE HYMN’ that Jesus sang with His disciples as they completed their ‘last supper.’ My eye wondered on… and then fell upon these verses in Psalm 119. ESPECIALLY on verse 5… “Oh, that my ways were steadfast in obeying your decrees!” I am a Believer. I am forgiven. And I STILL often feel this way!

Psalm 119 is a Psalm about God’s Word. The Subject of His ‘written’ Word runs through this longest Psalm. But after reflecting on Holy Week, I sensed the Holy Spirit prodding me in His customary manner… ‘Go on a little farther.. it gets even deeper than that!” So I did… and fell right into it!

John 1:14 says, “ The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.“ Then I would not be put to shame when I consider all your commands. That means the ‘WORD’ in Psalm 119 is NOT just WORDS! The WORD is JESUS! It finally registered that the Bible has NO, ZIP, ZERO way of addressing my FEELINGS in verse Psalm 119:5-6. That is…Until Good Friday!

I am Redeemed. A slave purchased COMPLETELY by the Blood of Jesus Christ. I am signed, sealed and delivered into God’s hand’s and Family, ONCE AND FOR ALL… FOREVER! And NOTHING can snatch me out of His hand. NOTHING! Not time, events, sin or personal failure. Not only that, but guilt and shame, which like to hang around like mosquitoes, have NO, ZIP, ZERO place to STICK or hold on to in my life.

What the LAW could NOT do… JESUS DID! I guess discovered ANOTHER GREAT reason why Good Friday is called ‘good!’ And Like the Hymn question asks… “What can wash away my sin? I can DEFINITIVELY answer what ‘I KNOW’!!! NOTHIN’ BUT THE BLOOD OF JESUS! I think I will add a little dancing in my step today! Cuz after all…God is GOOD EVERY DAY!

P.S. I WAS feeling guilty because we stayed up later than usual and I got up later too.  Thus these words are late… But hey guilt.. GO AWAY! 

“Abstain from every form of evil.” 1 Thessalonians 5:22 ESV

I had to get some supplies at the store, and with the Corona thing going on, it seemed best to go to one place. Normally I would have taken a route that would lead me to 3 stores, where each product and price played a part in selection and self desire. Some products taste better at one store over another. While in another, the price may be cheaper. Now, those unstated rules have slowly broken down. And WITHOUT any due process!

If you haven’t noticed by now, our society is changing. When Corona virus was first broke out, there was a run to any store to buy whatever… and almost at any price. Once stocked up, self-possession seemed to change to self-preservation. I could almost touch the tension as I approached the store.

Most people were wearing masks. And since watching people is a sport for me, it was interesting to watch people! It was almost like we were all were playing tag…avoiding anyone who might be “IT.” Wide circles were made around each other. Talking was not done. The normal 2 entrances to the large store had been narrowed down to 1.. with a watcher posted. Though the sign claimed ‘health reasons,’ I suspected it was more to keep down theft. Times have changed.

I am conflicted. The Bible says to ‘avoid every form of evil.’ And while there have been lots of questions as to what that REALLY means, MY question is, when did ‘people’ become ‘evil?’ And I’m not talking in the ‘sinful’ sense. It seems to me that as ‘proximity’ has become evil, the REAL victim now is ‘Care!’ True compassion and caring for people SEEMS to be quickly becoming ‘socially unacceptable.’ And THAT label of evil is something God NEVER intended.

As a Christian I wrestle with what, where and how I might be the hands and heart of Jesus. I sense a distancing by people who normally never would separate. And I can’t help but wonder if, in light of the Scriptures and Jesus call, it is just me. Be careful to not become hardhearted my friends. In Jesus Great Commission… you and I are still…’IT!’

“He (Jesus) replied: “Watch out that you are not deceived. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and, ‘The time is near.’ Do not follow them.” Luke 21:8

As I have stated before, I am going through the painful process of signing up for Medicare. Since my wife and I turn 65 within 3 months of each other, our mail box has been STUFFED with solicitors promising that THEY have the answer for this time area of my life. I get phone calls, texts and have had 3 folks, unsolicited, walk right up to my door and ring the bell! ALL of which only makes me smell a rat!

Having been and honest salesman, I HATE the dishonest. It is obvious that there is money to be made off the ‘Medicare Supplement’ system, and EVERYONE wants it. What “I” need is someone who can EXPLAIN it to me, plain and clear. What I need is someone to look out for MY best interests. Having just come off Palm Sunday, it is my opinion that Jesus has the same issue!

Just like Moses, God led Jesus across the Jordan River, through Jericho and into what is called Israel, the promised land. The children of Israel plucked 12 stones (see Luke 19:40), one for each tribe, out of the middle of the river and set them up as a memorial to God’s promised deliverance from slavery. All the symbols of the Old Testament should have been CLEAR to the Jews that ‘The King’ was coming.

He came through the Sheep Gate, also called the Golden Gate, on the 10^th of Nissan. The very day that ‘The Lamb’ was to be selected for Passover sacrifice. He then prophetically went right up to the temple (see Psalm 118:27), on a Colt… and the only question Israelites had was… “Who is this?” (Matthew 21:10).

People TODAY still miss the Lamb. Like the solicitors for ‘Medicare Supplements,’ many claim that THEIR way is the only way. The picture above is the perfect example. THIS is a picture of the Sheep Gate today. All sealed up with the ‘Dome of the Rock’ behind and a Muslim cemetery (and a Jewish one) in front. All because Jesus Christ said that He was coming back someday, and through THAT very gate. They forget He said… “I am the door for the sheep!” Bahhhhhh

Here is a website explaining the Sheep Gate shenanigans:

The Story Behind Jerusalem’s Sealed Golden Gate

And for a great video series, watch “Jerusalem, City of Tears City of Hope” on Rightnowmedia.

https://www.rightnowmedia.org/Content/Series/1148

“Cry out with joy, O daughter of Zion! Shout jubilantly, O daughter of Jerusalem! Look—your King is coming; He is righteous and able to save. He comes seated humbly on a donkey, on a colt, a foal of a donkey.” Zechariah 9:9

This last week I had been emailing and testing sources for use during the Covid-19 “Self-Isolation” and “social distancing” recommendations. With lots of time on peoples hands, and not many places to go, it is easy to get bored. So gathering resources from all over, I had been sharing them with everyone on my email list. Last night I discovered I may have been too hasty!

I had recommended a 2 hour long movie made in 1981. called “The Jesus Film Project.” Did you notice 1981? It was created to introduce people, who may not know, about the life of Jesus Christ. Recommending it without seeing it with my own eyes may have been a mistake. Last night We watched it. Well… HALF of it.

Now I’m not saying this film is Biblically or Theologically wrong in any way. In fact, it stuck to the Scriptures very well. It just that… well…lets just say it was great movie with bad acting. In it, Jesus had an English accent and all Bible verses were quoted out of the King James Bible. “What hath God Wrought?” I felt bad for turning it off but I couldn’t handle it anymore. Which led me to think about yesterday…Palm Sunday.

I know some churches have set up live video feeds to broadcast their preacher. I don’t have that technology and, to be honest, I’m not sure I want it…since bad acting would probably scare more people away than reach them. But ‘The Day’… Palm Sunday is VITALLY important as the first day of Holy Week. Here’s why.

In our recent Bible studies about Christmas, The Feasts and The Sacrifices, we have covered this stuff in at church. But I found a link that puts it together VERY well. And yes, I read it! So please forgive me for ‘bad acting’ movie recommendations. But like my wife said, “Thank God it is up to the Holy Spirit to convict people!!! I agree.

Below is a link to a VERY well researched article about Palm Sunday. You can see from the pictures above WHAT journey Jesus made the day he went into Jerusalem, and its significance as prophesied in the Bible. Tomorrow, I will share the shocking facts about WHERE He went in. Enjoy – There is NO acting in this. Please click the link below.

Lamb Selection Day…..