Oh Please Wake Up!

99% of the news, all sports and entertainment are ultimately meaningless. Ponder these words: "Consider what preoccupies you. What frightens you. What drives you. What you cling to and what you pursue. And ask yourself if you’ve ever truly felt satisfied and fulfilled for more than a few moments. The things of the world cannot bring lasting peace. They were not intended to." Vaneetha Randall Amusement is at its root "a" meaning NOT and "Muse" meaning THINK DEEPLY.

Now WHO would ultimately be the beneficiary of "amusement"?
Ding, ding, ding...Satan!

My brother committed suicide last month.
Choosing to cut your own life short. Short of the goal. Short of its full meaning and depth and life.
Choosing to invite death in, overwhelmed by despair, drowning in it so that HOPE is a distant, unattainable thing.

Divorce, disappointment, watching someone you love die, feeling like you never want to be a burden, but totally missing that although there was an aspect of "burden" there was an overwhelming aspect of LIFE and LOVE and HOPE.

Blinded to hope, just long enough to pull the stupid trigger on a stupid gun.

I want to live my life as the beloved of the most Loving being in the universe. I want to crush the lies of the liar, and expose his pathetic, fragile, pussy of a kingdom for what it is!

I am loved by the everlasting Father, Creator and Lord of Lords. His faithful love is the only reality there is!

Serve you

Speaking the truth in love.
Being patient and gentle, and understanding that God has taken many years to work some truth into me.  Sharing and then backing off and giving God time to work by His Spirit.
About two weeks ago, God impressed these words on my heart,
"Stop doing what seems right."
Out of love or concern I would act or write or send gifts and no visible good came of it. 
It takes humility to "wait on the Lord" before you act.
It takes humility to listen to another persons point of view until you really hear what they are saying.
It takes humility to be heard.  Arrogance is a universal turn off.
Oh God work in us the delight You feel in bending low to serve.

The Church is not Israel

I have a dog named, Max.
I have promised to always take care of Max.
If Max gives me a hard time or does not live up to what I think a dog should do, that doesn't change anything.
If I choose to give Max away because he disappointed me and then I get a new dog and I name that dog, Max, I have broken my promise to take care of "original Max".
There is no way around it, the new dog was given the old name, but that does not change the bottom line.
I broke my promise.
I can't be trusted.
I am not faithful.

God has a chosen people, a chosen land and a chosen place to put His Throne.
The Jewish people, the land of Israel, and Jerusalem are these choices of His.

If you subscribe to a thinking that the church is the new Israel, then
God broke His promise
God can't be trusted.
God is not faithful.

Do you see how important this is?  This is not a side issue.

He who keeps Israel

Psalm 121:1  I will lift up my eyes to the mountains;
From where shall my help come?
² My help comes from the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth.
³ He will not allow your foot to slip;
He who keeps you will not slumber.
⁴ Behold, He who keeps Israel
Will neither slumber nor sleep.

⁵ The Lord is your keeper;
The Lord is your shade on your right hand.
⁶ The sun will not smite you by day,
Nor the moon by night.
⁷ The Lord will protect you from all evil;
He will keep your soul.
⁸ The Lord will guard your going out and your coming in
From this time forth and forever.

Maybe it is time to understand that "He who keeps Israel" will always keep her, and the safest place to be is humbly "in Israel" who is being kept by her faithful and true King.

The making of a new thing, under a new name (church) is not needed, and the inherent elevating of the new thing over the old thing is subtle and yet deadly.  Humility is a powerful offensive weapon in the kingdom of God.  Arrogance in any form is the precursor to a fall, every time. 

We are disciples of the Way, followers of the Messiah, the anointed King of Israel.  Paul, Peter, John, none of them rejected the people of God, the temple, or the feasts.  The book of Revelation is tied to the prophets and story of God from the very beginning. 

Oh if only we could see, and repent.