What Little We Have Will Be Taken Away

²⁸ “‘So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. ²⁹ For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. ³⁰ And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ (by Jesus in Matthew 25)

The master took the money from the one talent man and gave it to the man who had the most, because the one with the least wasn't worthy to be trusted with what he'd been given. The one talent man was left behind as the master used those who were willing and able to multiply his assets. Pray for us Christians, that we won't be happy to live contented self-satisfied lives in our new church buildings or our old church buildings, doing a little good here and there, but that we will hunger for all that God wants to do through us and around us. Pray that His presence fills us and travels with us everywhere, that we may multiply the kingdom using the gifts he has placed in our trust.

We cannot bury our gifts in the sand. If we do, we can expect them to be taken and given to one who is available and hungry to steward them. (Matthew 25:29-30) Sometimes we Christians are too like the religious community in Capernum, satisfied with a form of godliness, blessed with knowledge about God, encouraged by our good works, and happy to think we have come a long way from our former selves, even though the unbelievers see little of God's power and love in our lives, while we show little of the grace we've been given. But, Paul said WOE to Capernum because they didn't repent from their ways when they saw the great miracles Jesus did in their city, even saying Sodom had more hope than they did! 

If we are to be the rich man with the ten talents, we must head the advice of Jesus, to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength. We can be religious, self-righteous, church going do-gooders and still not love God. We may know who God is; we may look to him for help; we may tell others about him because we fear hell for them, but LOVING God is the command. How well are we doing that? HOW are we doing that? When you love someone, you feel it, don't you? It brings you joy on the inside that makes you giddy to tell others about how wonderful the one you love is. Is that what your love for God looks like, or mine? If we all had love for God that looked like that, the roofs would crack open when we gathered and the mountains would shake. That's what happened when people who loved Jesus gathered in Acts 4.

We have to take time to stand in awe before the magnificence of God. We can't take His presence or his blessings for granted. We have to crave his presence and understanding of how to steward our gifts, not just our money, but those greater gifts we're supposed to eagerly desire. Those signs and wonders bring wonder among the people. That is what Jesus said would make people like those in Tyre, Sidon, and Sodom repent in sackcloth and ashes. These signs will follow those who believe. "Show me your glory!" Moses cried.He was called a friend of God. Give us that heart Moses had to see the face of God! Learn how to use those gifts. Take the risk of following the Spirit. It IS the gift.  .... or - what we have the opportunity to attain will be given to another who is ready to receive it. 

Created and Recreated

There is no time I would want to run from you, no hurt you cannot handle, no sin that you don't want to restore me from and no pain that you will not lift. You are the glory and the lifter of my head. Thanks for recreating me God. I needed it - and still need it. 


Let me show grace to others every day so that others can see what it's like to know the I AM, the King of Kings, the jealous God who yearns for us all to turn our faces to him. We were created to love You. It hurts you when we don't.. I remember the rainbow. You cried tears of sorrow that we rejected you and it flooded the earth. You created for fellowship and no one said, "I love you." 

I Don't Feel Forgiven - A Conversation With God

Looking over my shoulder,

Remembering.

Clinging to things I want to be free of.

The enemy reminds me of my past and holds me in grief.

I struggle to free myself.

I cry out to God,

But what I believe about myself

Holds me in a grip of guilt.

Open my eyes, Lord!

This can't be how it is.

Never ending guilt and shame.

Unbearable, yet ever present.

Keeping me humble,

I beg for forgiveness.

Again.

Is it like this for everyone?

What Savior leaves me like this?

Forgiven? Really?

I don't feel it.

Come - help me know it!

How do you see me?

New?

But what I did,

it was so ugly.

You can?

You did?

Really?

Open my heart?

Why?

You have a new one for me?

Really?

Well, go ahead.

Take this broken one.

I won't miss it.

I'll try anything.

Letting go….

Surrendering…

Sitting in the silence.

With my tears.

Where are those tissues?

I must have sobbed a few pounds off,

I feel lighter.

No, wait.

Not just lighter...

I think something's happened to me.

Something's different.

Maybe this is joy.

Is that what this is?

Yes.

Did you say something?

I thought I heard something.

You love me.

You love me?

Really?

How?

Don't you remember what I'm like?

You don't?

Really?

You rejoice over me?

I'm what?

Whiter than snow?

Wow. I didn't know.

I've wasted all this time

Misunderstanding.

Jesus did it all.

Really? Done?

I guess I knew.

But I didn't believe.

I'm going to take your word for it.

I feel different.

What's changed?

My perception?

Yes.

You believe.

Where am I?

Where you've always been.

Seated with Christ next to me.

Up there? and here?

How is that.

Hard to explain.

Just believe it.

Live it.

Count on it.

Share it.

You are free.

You are loved.

I don't remember who you were.

I only know who you are.

Mine.

My child.

My bride.

Loved.

Wow.
Father - My Father.. Wow.
Thank you.

Thank you for listening.

For setting me straight.

I am loved.

I am loved.

I AM LOVED…

and free

of it all.

The Rewarder of Those Who Seek Him

God is the rewarder of those who seek Him. Still. Silence only exists where He is  not adored. He cannot resist the cries of His people, His beloved. The Father loves and craves their attention. He is alive and holy in their midst, awakened by the passion of his people. 


"Spare not your hearts," He says to me today, "but give of them joyfully. Let me saturate your mind with who I am and your soul with my love. Stand before me in adoration for I love you and adore you. We are meant to be together and to share every moment. Our hearts are united in one body, yours. Live and breathe the knowledge of My presence within you." 

Groping for the Unknown God

…."in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us." (Acts 17:22-27 NKJV)

"Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: God who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Nor is He worshiped with men's hands, as though He needed every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the ear, and has determined their pre appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope the they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;" 

Do we worship the known, or the unknown? Seek what cannot be seen rather than what is seen easily. Paul's spirit was provoked by what he saw in Athens. The city was given over to idols. The people of Athen's met among the circle of their gods to talk and share ideas, but sat in a circle of emptiness groping for understanding.Their hunger for truth was evident. Among the clouds of darkness and the stronghold of idol worship, Paul saw a glimpse of their hunger for truth, the statue set up just in case they had missed something important. There was a statue erected to "The Unknown God." Paul knew that the Unknown God was tangible in a different way than what they understood. 

The people of Athens worshiped what they could see. They wanted to see and feel their gods. Paul appealed to them on that basis, but revealed that the way to God was to "grope for Him and find Him." It is like reaching for something in the dark and stretching out our hands out to find our way. If we don't do this, we ultimately trip over the things that are in the seen world. Groping in a realm we usually cannot see...this is the way to find the One, the Unknown God, to know Him. If we are not groping to find the God who is near, we will only find what we see in the visible world. It is in the invisible place that the finding occurs. We feel around, not with our hands, but with our spirit and our will, with the hunger that He puts in our hearts. We long to connect, but often try to fill that hunger with food that only brings satisfaction for a short time. What fills our need for connection and fulfillment.

What are the seen idols that distract us from groping for the unseen God: friends, family, shopping, a great cocktail, work? Greater rewards are available amidst all of those distractions. The wonder and joy of His Presence is the balm of the soul and the joy that never ceases. It enables us to see into the unseen when our circumstances look unfavorable, to view it from God's perspective. I love that God is the God who calls things that are not as though they were. (Romans 4:17) The invisible God, the "Unknown God", the I AM is the rewarder of those who seek Him. Grope, reach, stretch, call out and find the God who heals, the God who provides, the God who's name is glory and power, beauty and light. "He is not far from each one of us," although we must hunger and grope to find him. He is near and waits for us to call upon His name.