Jan | 13 | FOUND! The eternal spring of chocolate caramel

WORSHIP

FOUND! The eternal spring of chocolate caramel

John 1:14
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. NKJV

I tell you; draw near to me, and you shall find a field full of shallow grave faults.

God the Father has many adopted sons but only one begotten Son, Jesus Christ the Lord. This same Jesus is the flash in His Fathers eye, who from the light of His own bright eyes, floodlights the darkest corners of the world. The platinum cup of this particular glory which John speaks of here is carried aloft on top of victorious championship shoulders by two easily gripped and exceptionally tactile hands called grace and truth. So tactile in fact, that John says by these handles they beheld Jesus, they took a very close look at Him, watched Him with intriguing gaze, examined Him with growing expectancy, touched Him to see if He was real and solid, to see if He hummed and buzzed with life, to see if He had goodness and power in Him, and then, when they saw the golden white ‘shekinah’ brightness bubble and fizz out of Him with warm inviting delight, like apple bobbin children, they stuck their heads full into the wide top of that golden goblet from on High and sucked up the nectar of all refreshing, and whilst wiping their dripping chops on their satisfied sleeve, looked at one another and said: “Man this is rich; this is enriched indeed! This is fortified food me boys, all packed and full to bursting with the rich chocolate and caramel of grace and truth.” And I tell you friends, never did a mixed and golden cup taste so good.

So, we too when we draw near to Jesus, shall also behold the Father’s glory, even those eternal acres full to bursting with grace and truth.

Jesus is, of course, the fourteen hundred years old answer to the prayer of Moses “Now, show me your glory…”(Exodus 33:18) and, for sure, Moses’ very prayer was answered on the Mount of transfiguration. (Matt 17:1,2). However, it was the daily sojourn of the Son of God among sinful men and women where He showed Himself to be the very embodiment of old Testament mercy and faithfulness, that inexhaustible and living chocolate caramel fountain, full of favor, beneficence, welfare, and loving kindness. Not only revealing sin, but forgiving it! By comparison, the Old Testament shadows of mercy and faithfulness had now ceased to be ghosts and had assumed the solid and full form of grace and truth in Jesus and it is these two things which humanity needs most of all, and it is these two things which formed the scrutinized testimony of those who were with Him. It’s worth reading again, isn’t it?


Listen:- And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14 NKJV

Pray: -  Jesus, we lay hold of You, we grip Your grace and truth and drink deeply of all Your goodness. So forever cover us with the dripping sweetness of your love, that we might taste and be tasted to be found good. Amen and amen.

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Jan | 12 | No stranger on the bus, no slob like one of us

WORSHIP

No stranger on the bus, no slob like one of us

John 1:14
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us .NKJV

Now, here is wonder. The Word did not become flesh and remain in a protected palace surrounded by luxury and sensory satisfaction. The Word did not become flesh and then remain in some high colonnades of the King of ages of earth, looking down like a disconnected Monarch, a thoroughly pale prince, over the planet below Him. No, the Word by becoming flesh did not rem
ain aloof and untouchable, remote and inaccessible, but rather became, without sin, one of us.

He was conceived. He was Womb grown. He was a baby. He was fed at the breast. He was poor. He was homeless. He was a bosom carried refugee. He was an immigrant. He was a toddler. He was home schooled. He was a teenager. He went to school. He learned a trade. He was a man. He was not rich, though he had his own business. He had splinters. He had calluses. He paid taxes. He had accounts. He ate. he drank. He sleapt off His tiredness. He sweat. He used the bathroom. He cried, He laughed, He loved, He ate, He drank, He partied. He had a mom. He had responsibilities, even the responsibility of the elder son. He had aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters, some of whom thought He was quite mad. He had friends. He had enemies. He had women after Him. He knew hunger and thirst. He was a homeless again, He was a traveler. His name was not respectable, indeed, His birth seemed continually questionable. He knew loneliness and betrayal. He knew loss. He knew temptation. He knew silence. He heard the waves and felt the sun and let the salt wind sand his face. He bathed. He talked. He tasted. He touched. He smelt. He looked. He listened. He heard. He worshipped. He beating heart made Him live and in all these human things He was made like us, His brethren. He dwelt among us, yes, He became, without sin, one of us.

However in three great things He differs from us.

First, in Him was no sin. There was in Jesus no sin nature to ghost His steps, no dark matter to incline His heart to evil. In Him was no sin and He did no sin.

Second, He did not die like us. I would propose that Jesus would never have aged. I suggest that He would have remained the perfect thirty three year old forever. I would also suggest that death had no power over His humanity and that He would indeed have lived forever. No, He did not die like us as any consequence of His own sin or any sin nature bequeathed to Him through the first Adam. He had neither! However, Jesus did die and He died a sinners death, yes, He died all sinners deaths. He was the spotless lamb of God upon whom was placed all the sins of the world, and for which He suffered and died.

Thirdly, by His own power, He rose again from the dead. Having paid the full penalty for our sin, death could not hold Him and He therefore rose again victorious from the dead as the conqueror, the last Adam who is the first fruit of the real New World Order, the template of all that we who are in Him shall also become.

By these three difference, The Word became flesh to fulfill the purpose of bringing many sons to glory.


Listen:- For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren, Hebrews 2:10-11 NKJV

Pray: -  O Christ our Savior, the first-fruits of our creation, encourage our hearts today to know that when we see You, we shall be like You. God in heaven, God-man in heaven, wonder of the angels, darling of our hearts, we worship you this day. Amen and amen.

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Jan | 02 | The churches one foundation

WORSHIP

The churches one foundation

John 1:1-2
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. NKJV

Mathew begins the story of God made flesh with His long earthly genealogy. Mark simply calls Jesus, the Son of God and his gospel account as ‘the beginning of good news proclaimed by the prophets of old’. Dr Luke starts his report with the immediate family matters of Jesus and then proceeds through an unfolding of those matters fulfilled before him, the reading of which is like a full prescription from the pharmacy, all ingredients present; all tested and correct, with dosage information attached. Ah but dear John, he, like a fearless and muscular world class cliff diver, brashly discards his crisp and cotton towel at the top of the rocks of eternity, and from those ageless mountains quickly edges himself toward the edge of time, takes one short look and one then big breath and plunges himself down the vortex of infinity making an ismel knife slice on the surface of the waiting waters of the temporal start point of all things material. “In the beginning…”

Before the sharp feet piercing edges of eternity, and before that plunging head first leap, John names the object of his loving discourse: it is, ‘The Word.’ Here then is the chief title of the Son of God; ‘The Word.’ Here is the utterance of the unseen God, the echo that encompasses the immeasurable distances of cold, black, empty space; the inviting whisper at the cold mornings of all our Adulums; the mirror of the Almighty; the mysterious effulgent and blood pumping heart of God the Father made manifest before the makings of His creation; ‘The Word’; The Logos; He who was before the beginning, and was with God as the preeminent presence for the coming creation. ‘The Word’ was ‘with’ God before the creation, ‘from’ God, even ‘in direct and close relation to’ God, indeed, The Word was God.

The doctrine of the Trinity is the centre of the revelation of God. Christianity is Trinitarian and without this doctrine, without the revelation of God the three in one, that great trumpet sound of the meta-narrative of man’s fall and his subsequent redemption through the shed blood of the Son of God, turns into, quite simply, the quiet flatulence of a small child’s little red balloon unexpectedly deflating at the end of the Christmas party; where the jelly was watery; where the ice cream was runny; and Santa’s beard had a cockroach in it whilst his breath smelled of days old booze. If Jesus is not God, nothing of Christianity is right. This is the Word who by the breath of His mouth breathed stars into outer space.(Psalm 33:6) This is the Word who by the breath of His mouth breathed healing into inner space. (Psalm 107:20) This is the Word who signed His name on the patent sheets of a billion different suns. (Psalm 119:89) This is the Word whose voice commands and controls the mighty millennial storms of the weather systems on our red giant neighbor, and then reaches out and touches our wet pink little noses with the delicate cold tenderness of silently falling snow flake. (Psalm 147:15-18). Jesus is not merely the medium of the expression of the Most High, HE IS THE MOST HIGH. “The Word………. was God”. 

Christian; The Trinity is a truth made known in the 66 Books of the Holy Bible and this truth of Jesus being very God has been viciously attacked for two thousand years. This truth shall be attacked again and vehemently so. Never the less, Jesus is God. Bow down and worship Him.

Listen:- And Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name. John 20:28-31 NKJV

Pray: -  Behold the stiller of all storms, the calmer of all seas. The Conqueror of the raging hosts from whom the darkness flees. Captain, Master, Word of God, light of our blood washed ways, with great delight we’ll sing Your praise, through heaven’s endless days. Amen and ame

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Nov | 25 |Tom Wattle & Ringing Bells

Key Word:- WORSHIP

Title:- Tom Wattle & Ringing Bells

Job 39:13-17   “The wings of the ostrich flap joyfully, but they cannot compare with the pinions and feathers of the stork. She lays her eggs on the ground and lets them warm in the sand, unmindful that a foot may crush them, that some wild animal may trample them. She treats her young harshly, as if they were not hers; she cares not that her labor was in vain, for God did not endow her with wisdom or give her a share of good sense.”NIV

 
Since President Lincoln’s appointment of a national day of thanksgiving in 1863, each president since then has issued a Thanksgiving Day proclamation, usually intended to be the fourth Thursday of each November. Unfortunately this has become known as Turkey Day! So let’s take up the theme, for birds are so prominent and emblematic in the history of nations, and biblically so full of reference and instruction, that we cannot fail to get fed!

Writing about America's national bird, the Bald Eagle, the National Wildlife Federation tells of the first American bird controversy concerning the Eagle and the Turkey that arose between Benjamin Franklin and Congress. They write: ‘A year after the Treaty of Paris ended the conflict with Great Britain; Franklin argued that the turkey would have been a more appropriate symbol. “A much more respectable bird and a true native of America,” he pointed out. Franklin conceded that the turkey was “a little vain and silly,” but maintained that it was nonetheless a “bird of courage” that “would not hesitate to attack a grenadier of the British guards who should presume to invade his farm yard with a red coat on.” Congress was not convinced, however.’
So tell me Congress, just what is wrong with having the Turkey as the national emblem? The wild Turkey can fly faster than a horse can gallop! Each Tom's leg, sports such a fearfully sharp spur and then stands so tall, that it looks like it's packing a couple of six shooters. Oh yes, a turkey is armed and extremely dangerous! As for beauty, well, when a flock of wild turkeys take to the skies their iridescent metallic glittering feathers turn the whole sky into a copper dome metallic cloud! Its brave chest bears its own medals of honor, and it’s brightly coloured warlike caruncles, those fleshy masses around the head and neck, are colourfully communicative when agitated or aroused, and that happens even in the ultraviolet range that is invisible to humans! Imagine that! It seems that the majestic turkey has undoubtedly been given a very bad name.

Our verse today is taken from a delightful diatribe of God. Gently, yet forcefully and lovingly upbraiding Job, God sets out the secret and wonderful mysteries of His creation, in which He most certainly takes, what appears to us to be, a sincere and hidden, daily delight. In our text, God refers to the Ostrich, purposefully created by Him to be a bird that does not act like a bird! A bird that is in effect, goofy and clumsy. Imagine that! God says “I didn’t give her the wisdom she should have to adequately take care of her young.” Oh yes, He did say that friend! However, this is no excuse for those human turkeys which we see on the Jerry Springer show!

The point of the passage is this: God made you and though compared to other people you may not be the brightest bulb on the tree; though compared to other people you may not be the biggest bulb in the flower bed; though compared to other people…….. Well, you get my point. God does not make comparisons. You are the way He made you! YES YOU ARE! It is my belief, that in some way pleasing to the Father and most surprising to others, you are gifted to excel. Find it friends! My suspicion is that you shall find it when you search for it in the deep delights of the heart that God gave you. What rings your bell brother, sister? What gives you pleasure and makes you feel His smiling delight? Find it for it is most likely there that you will excel. You see, the thing is, maybe being a bit of a Turkey, is not a bad thing after all!

Listen:- “…for God did not endow her with wisdom or give her a share of good sense. Yet when she spreads her feathers to run, she laughs at horse and rider." Job 39:17-18 NIV

Pray: - Jesus, show me my heart, the new heart placed in me, my true heart, my good heart, my restored heart; then help me to live in it and unpack it's awesome treasures, these wonderful gifts from You, that I might feel and live in Your pleasure. Amen.
 

Nov | 07 | Of Shouts & Trumpets

Key Word:- WORSHIP

Title:- Of Shouts & Trumpets

Joshua 6:5 It shall come to pass, when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, that all the people shall shout with a great shout; then the wall of the city will fall down flat. .
 
As a former submarine sonar operator at the end of the Cold War, I spent long periods of time, listening to and identifying the sound of enemy ships and submarines. I still remember the distinctive and identifying sound signature of Soviet K Class warships: 2 shafts, 4 blades and lots of resonance. You see, the Soviet design of these massive battle cruisers led to a specific structural-acoustic resonance, which produced a kind of ‘singing sound’ in the audible frequency range of humans. ‘Blade resonance’ put a loud and distinct shouting voice to these dangerous behemoths of the past and no doubt upon their detection during the Cold War, caused the loading of many a torpedo tube!

On this day in 1940, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington State, collapsed into the roaring foam of the Puget Sound beneath. The 2,300 foot long suspension bridge, then the third largest in the world, though built to withstand winds of 120 mph, destroyed itself four months after its completion, in moderate winds of just 42mph. Galloping Gertie, as the bridge had become known, finally fell over the fence! Most engineers now agree that the wind began to resonate with the natural frequency of the structure, causing a steady increase in amplitude, until the bridge finally collapsed.

‘Resonance is the property, which most objects have, of vibrating more strongly when exposed to an external force which is itself vibrating at the object's natural frequency. So what? Well in our text for today, some people have suggested that the combined final shouts and trumpets of the army that silently walked for 7 days around Jericho, was an example of God’s sonic weapon, ‘resonating’ down the mighty walls of Jericho!

I have three simple points today.

First of all friends, find out what it is that makes your heart sing, makes it resonate at it’s natural frequency and then amplifies it some. For example, I know that there are particular activities, people, prayers and programmes, and a whole lot more that energize me and fill me with joy and I need to be around that! In this sense we are each tuned to our own particular frequency and find fun, (yes, that is a Christian word), we find fun in operating and living in that area of excitation. We need enough of this to keep us ‘alive’ in our hearts, but not too much to shatter our personhood in selfishness. Think about it and be wise.

Secondly, it is interesting that the Scriptures present sounds which accompany battle, victory, or celebration and festivity. Each sound supremely distinct and each one absolutely necessary. Undoubtedly these sounds, encased in poetic imagery, carry with them accompanying images of purpose. However, I wonder if they do more than pad out the prose? I mean could there be more? I am not talking about some wacky new age crystal vibration humbug here folks, just acknowledging that shouts and songs, tumbrel and trumpet all have a vital, communicative and resonant effect on us and the places we attack.

So let me ask you today friend, what are you listening to? I mean what kind of song is RESONATING in your heart, warming it, soothing it, exciting it, and preparing it for battle? God has put a resident and resonant frequency on your heart and you had better find it friend and live in it. I suppose I am asking you: just what is your shouting voice? Find it.

Lastly, find out what songs and sounds the enemy has robbed you of . Undoubtedly these are the ones he fears the most, for they will bring his strongholds down.

He who has ears to hear; let him hear.

Listen:- For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words. 
1 Thess 4:16-18

Pray: - Come, Thou Fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing Thy grace; Streams of mercy, never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some melodious sonnet, sung by flaming tongues above. Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it, mount of Thy redeeming love.
Oh, singing Saviour, shouting God, give me songs at midnight and shouts in the noon day sun. Amen.

 

Oct | 25 | Non Nobis & Te Deum

Key Word:- WORSHIP

Title:- Non Nobis & Te Deum

Psalm 115:1 Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, But to Your name give glory,

It was today in 1415 when Harry, the young King of England was forced to engage an overwhelmingly massive French army. The Hundred Years War now played itself out on the Field of Agincourt in Northern France. Just eight weeks previously 11,000 English soldiers had laid siege to the town of Harfleur in Normandy. Disease and battle casualties had reduced the English force to no more than 5,000 men. At Agincourt the now exhausted archers, knights and men at arms faced a mighty and fresh French force of 20,000 men.

The restricted battlefield minimized any mounted maneuvering of the French and their heavy horse and armour found them floundering in the rising mud; their over confidence; the secret weapon of the English longbow; the violence of the English abroad, etc and so forth, have all become sources of enquiry as to why on that day, 6,000 French lay dead against 400 Englishmen, amidst one of the most recognized ‘great military victories’.

Henry V after further conquest, would just five years later, be recognized as heir to the French throne and regent of France. At the height of his power Henry would die of camp fever near Paris. The rest, as they say, is history.

Shakespeare, in writing of this great victory, has the bloody King of England marvelling at the overwhelming victory and replying to Captain Fluellen, insisted that the numbers of the French dead may only be reported, providing it be acknowledged that ‘God fought for us.’ To emphasize this thought the King commands the singing of two well known songs: ‘Non Nobis Domine’ and 'Te deum laudamus'; ‘Not unto us be the glory’, and ‘You, God we praise.’

The English had obviously expected defeat at such an overwhelming encounter, so a corresponding overwhelming victory led them to but one conclusion: God fought for them. Acknowledging that the French warrior mystic, Joan of Arc would also come to the same conclusion concerning later French victories over the English, it would be foolish to attribute just whose side God was on, if any! Today that is not my point but rather, my point is this: We must give honour and praise and glory where honour praise and glory are due. We must be sober enough to accept the praise that is rightfully ours and careful enough not to let it puff us up and blow us out! More so though, we must be careful and quick in acknowledging the gracious and intervening hand of God in our lives. Let us be careful not to take what is not ours. For example, have you noticed that beauty, majesty, thunder and lightening all illicit a natural awe to break out upon our lips? For every morning glory and every sunset star is His and everything before, during and after that, which is worthy of any praise should be acknowledged and given thanks for.

While we inhabit space and time we have an opportunity to give glory, that is, acknowledged worth and great honour to our Jesus. We should acknowledge His immense creative and upholding power. We Christians should be increasingly noisy about this and in this, for at the moment the earth grows ever and increasingly quiet about it. This creeping silence from our unthankful world is a sign of a spreading death.

So then friends, amidst the growing graveyard, let on our lips be life! Let’s build some bandstands alongside the tall tombs and sing some happy dancing tunes. Such praise might not only mock the mourners but just might raise the dead! Such praise will give some true perspective. Such praise will lead to revelation. Such praise will testify to truth. Such praise will feed our souls. Such praise will begin to shake the heavens. Such praise will shape and shake the earth once more.

Friends it is time today, to acknowledge and praise the Living God.

Listen:- The dead do not praise the LORD, Nor any who go down into silence. But we will bless the LORD From this time forth and forevermore. Praise the LORD! Psalm 115:17-18

Pray: - Worthy Oh worthy are You Lord. Worthy to be thanked and praised and worshipped and adored. Worthy Oh worthy are You Lord. Worthy to be thanked and praised and worshipped and adored. Singing hallelujah! Lamb upon the throne, we worship and adore You, make Your glory known. Singing hallelujah! Glory to the King! You're more than a conqueror, You're Lord of everything.

Sep | 23 | The Floodlight Of The Father

Dream Word – WORSHIP

Hebrews 1:3 ..who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, NKJV.

The Floodlight Of The Father

Concerning the word ‘brightness’ in our text for tonight, the Greek word ‘apaugasma’ is only ever used here in the New Testament. It literally means an off flash, a solar flare, a glory hole into His holy furnace, a floodlight from the Father’s heart shined on to hopeless humanity, all groping around in the dark, not even struggling to find the light switch. Concerning the glory of God then, Jesus is the ‘brightness’ of that glory on two legs, a tangible and touchable torch of illuminating love. Jesus is God. God, the light of the world made manifest among us and moved into our neighbourhood.

In the darkness of this very night, should you be awoken by strange noises, probably the first thing you reach for is a light, some form of illumination to light your way and show you the danger as well as hopefully frighten away the predator! Jesus is such a light and you need Him, for the strange noises you hear in your spirit are the creakings of your sin and the distant clawing of demons who make ready at a moment’s notice, to come and devour your soul. Yes, you really do need to reach for Jesus the light and let Him safely guide your path and frighten all your predators away. There is no other way to hush the distant clawing and close the mouths of predatory lions. So, get Jesus tonight, yes, ask for the floodlight of God to come and shine in the very centre of your dark, beleaguered being.

Listen: - Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, "I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life." John 8:12 NKJV.

Pray:- Turn on Your light O God, turn on Your light and let all the darkness flee away. Turn on Your light O God, turn on Your light and make safe my bear trapped way. Turn on Your Light O God, turn on Your light and all fear and trepidation sever. Turn on Your Light O God, turn on Your light and drive the darkness back forever. In Jesus name I ask it, amen.

Sep | 05 | The Real Time Lord

Dream Word – WORSHIP

Galatians 4:1-5 Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, does not differ at all from a slave, though he is master of all, but is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father. Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. NKJV 

The Real Time Lord

I started this year of writing behind schedule. Many items in my ‘To Do List’ had begun the year in alarmed and flashing red. It’s September now and I have spent the last nine months playing catch up. I have failed to catch up. Oh most miserable of men!

You see my friends, there are just not enough hours in the day. There is just not enough time to accomplish all that I want to. Motorcycling back to my study this morning from a visit to my Chiropractor, I found myself once again musing on the demands of the rest of the day and my lack of time to service those same demands. I wonder if lack of time has left important things undone in your life and the lack of time you know you will encounter tomorrow, is already tying a knot in your tired little bowels tonight? If so then I pray the next few paragraphs of musing will provide you with some timeless comfort to help you rest tonight in the arms of the Lord of time.

The longest running science fiction series in the world was created and first aired by the BBC in 1963. 'Dr Who,' is the story of an eccentric alien from the now destroyed planet of Gallifrey, an ‘on the run’ Time Lord, wandering through the cosmos in a broken time-machine shaped like a 1950’s Police telephone box! Suffice to say, that as a child of the 1960’s, I too joined the many millions who hid behind the sofa during the scary bits of the T.V. series. A Time Lord in popular folk lore, has been understood then ‘as a being who has time as his slave.’ Imagine that. Imagine time being your slave. Of course this is not the case. On the whole, we are slaves to the manipulation of time. Let me give you a few examples.

The are in fact five kinds of time that I exist in, and I would describe them as follows:-
Scheduled Time. This is time I am slave to. Either my boss, or my diary, my wife or my children, my dentist or my doctor, my congregation and all the demands of my days have required of me to be at a certain place, dressed in a certain way, to complete certain tasks at a certain time. I am a slave to this kind of time. Not obeying the demands of this time will have serious consequences on the enjoyment of other times.

Intended Time. This is the time I intended to arrive at an event; the time I intended to give to preparing that sermon; the time intended to dedicate to that person. Intended time for me is mostly unrealized time; it is fictitious time.

Apologetic Time. This is the time I take saying sorry for not delivering on my intended time. Apologetic time is for me real time, because it is the time I am there at the event, in the groove, with the person actually doing what I intended to do, even if it’s not at the time I intended to do it! It's better than nothing.

Fighting Time. This is the time I spend waiting for other people and other entities to win the battles and make the ways for me to place my feet. This is the time that I spend either butting my head against doors which God has closed or kicking doors that the devil is trying to keep closed. This is fighting time and to someone like me who is, shall we say, not the most patient of individuals, it is bowel-knotting time, it is wasted time, it is frustrated time!

Fullness Time. God does in fact deal only in this kind of time. It is a mystery for me, that all of God’s creation function and fluster in the other four kinds on time, yet God, as the only real ‘Time Lord,’ can breathe easily in our four experiences of time, because He is the Lord of time. This is a mystery. Mysteries can only be observed and experienced, they can never be explained.

We observe from the Scriptures then, that God is the creator of time. Time is under His personal direction and control. God is the transcendent Lord of Time! He is over it, in it, but not subject to what we might deem to be, both the capricious and unrelenting nature of time. God is the bookend at both ends of time! God is the first and the last of time. God is the ether of time in that, He always IS and in is present I AM in which we live and move and have our being! These facts alone, reveal time to be God’s created sphere in which His plans and purposes are actualized and realized. All time then is HIS time.

We slaves of time and its unrelenting onward march, whether it is with us or without us, we subjects of time, live our lives out in the daily and nightly experience of scheduled, intended, apologetic or fighting time. All of this we shall daily affirm in our late evenings, to be frustrating time, foggy time and even life sucking time. As we fall ever rapidly from the top of our three score years and ten, ground zero and its six feet of wet earth, await open-mouthed for all our forthcoming impacts. Yes, to live in these four experiences of time alone, is indeed and quite simply for human kind, an ever-tiring exercise in seeming futility. Somehow, we must begin to see time as His time, we must begin to see time from God’s perspective. We need to see time as the fullness time of the Great Time Lord for at the moment, for too many of us, time has us as its slave.
You see, the eternal framework of time, was allowed by God to hernia like, burst into and become the boundary for space, yes, for time to become even the very habitation of space and all the material reference points of which we are part of in space. The pollution of sin however, within this space-time framework, has fogged and dogged, clogged and bogged our comprehension of time, our apprehension of time, our appreciation of time, leaving us like lost children, and like, well dementia’d men, who have forgotten the whereabouts of their car in the vast parking lot of life, we are troubled and we are confused. When approached and then asked to describe the transport of our desire, we fail miserably to adequately describe the vehicle we are looking for and even if we at some point believe we have discovered it, then the frantic search for keys in every hung-out trouser pocket will only leave us in further heart despair. For we are truly lost in time and greatly troubled by its slavish and troubling presence. So for our sanities sake, somehow we must begin to see time as His time, we must begin to see time from God’s perspective. We need to see time as the fullness time of the Great Time Lord for at the moment, did I tell you this? Time has us as its slave.

Time passes. Listen outside your window tonight, time passes. Unless we can hook our souls on the eternal God and Lord of Time, we shall remain so very troubled. Unless we can have faith in His Fullness Time, then we shall remain so very troubled. Unless we can embrace and testify to the mystery of such Fullness Time, such goodness time, such jubilee-marked, marching of time, such weeping through the night but joy cometh in the morning kind of time, then we shall remain slaves for all of our time in this body and in this world. We must understand God’s Fullness Time and we must see it punctuate our days with goodness.

On your lips tonight and on your tongue in the tingling morning, let this medicinal refrain be heard dancing upon your lips…………

Listen:- But as for me, I trust in You, O Lord; I say, "You are my God." My times are in Your hand; Psalms 31:14-15NKJV

Pray:- Lord, in the fullness of time You sent forth You Son, Jesus Christ our Saviour into the world. Lord of time, you moved an empire to ensure Your Son was birthed in the prophesied place of Bethlehem. Lord of Time, You moved stars, You moved kings, You moved angel forces and a multitude of other magnificent and mundane things, butterfly and angel wings all to fulfill Your most unstoppable will. Lord of time, tomorrow, deliver me from the bondages and mummified bandages of time. In Jesus name I pray, Amen!

Jul | 03 | Caught By God's Great Cat

Dream Word – WORSHIP

John 3:5-8 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” NKJV

Caught by God’s Great Cat

In the wake of the dropping of the second atomic bomb on Japan, at a Manhattan dinner given by the Nobel Prize committee, it was Walter Isaacson in his autobiography on Einstein, who noted that the great, hairy man himself, spoke at that same dinner saying, “Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite had created the award to atone for having invented the most powerful explosives ever known up to his time. Today the physicists who participated on forging the most formidable and dangerous weapons of all times are harassed by equal feelings of responsibility, not to say guilt.”

Driven by fear, guilt and responsibility, it was in May 1946 that Einstein would take up the role of chairman and founder of the ‘The Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists.’ Wikipedia says that the aims of this committee were to ‘warn the public of the dangers associated with the development of nuclear weapons, promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy and ultimately work towards world peace, which was seen as the only way that nuclear weapons would not be used again.’ Einstein in fact established the Committee in the wake of the ‘Szilárd petition’ of 1945, which was presented to the United States President, Mr. Harry S. Truman. This petition was opposing the use of the atomic bomb on moral grounds and was signed by sixty eight scientists who had worked on the Manhattan Project, for you see, a majority of those scientists apparently did not entirely know just what they were creating at the time! Einstein, speaking as Chairman of this committee is quoted again by Isaacson as saying, “Our generation has brought into the world the most revolutionary force since prehistoric man’s discovery of fire. This basic power of the universe cannot be fitted into the outmoded concept of narrow nationalism.”

Now, whatever you think of Einstein’s stance and actions, of his politics and compulsions, of his courage or naivety is irrelevant for my point tonight. Our world is a nuclear world and the bomb cannot be un-invented! However it is the principle stated by Einstein of ‘not being able to fit the most powerful force in the universe into a narrow concept’ that I want you to consider this evening.

The most powerful force ever to have been released into the mess of humanity was the Holy Spirit Himself on the day of Pentecost. Oh yes it was! The narrow concept He has ever since been tried to be forced into, is that of denominationalism. We believers in the Word of God, we holders and interpreters of this truth once delivered to the saints, have never the less fragmented ourselves into (at the very least) a vast multitude of Protestant denominations, all of which have a slightly different flavour, bent and interpretation, on the revelation of God to us. Each of these many denominations, even each of these major protestant ecclesiastical traditions, have tried to take the Holy Spirit and like some narrow nation state, have attempted to dress Him in their flag, to brand Him with their name, to dress Him up in their uniform and drop Him on their enemies in contemptible judgment and haughty exclusiveness.

You cannot capture the wind in a jar and release it where you will. For the wind is wild, beyond taming and vastly unpredictable. All you can do with the wind when it blows is either welcome it, harness it, or shelter from it until it passes. You cannot put a leash around the neck of the wind dear friends and then lead it where you will! For the wind is wild, and beyond taming and vastly unpredictable. So is God the Holy Spirit.

God the Holy Spirit, this Divine Wind if you will, is not on a suicide mission, wildly diving at the decks of our lives to simply crash burn and dissipate, no mate, this Holy God, the most magnificent Holy Spirit is on a life giving mission!

Because we are clever enough to capture the winds that blow around our planet for our own power, purpose and benefit, somehow in a very ignorant and arrogant way, we also assume that we can capture the Divine Wind of God for our own power, purpose and benefit. What floundering fools we are! For the pleasure and mission of God the Holy Spirit is not to be taught, bought, bound or bent to our denominational designs, but in His wildness, to both corner and capture us and then carry us in His smiling teeth, to the waiting feet of Jesus.

This cat-like deliverance of us to the Master are the most Holiest of moments in the universe. I tell you that all of heaven stands still when our mouse-like forms are laid before His waiting feet. God the Holy Spirit is the Great Cat on the prowl and not any man’s dog on a leash.

He Fumbles at your soul
As players at the keys
Before they drop full music on
He stuns you by degrees
Prepares your brittle nature
For the ethereal blow
By fainter hammers further heard,
Then nearer, then so slow
Your breath has time to straighten
Your brain to bubble cool
Deals one imperial thunderbolt
That scalps your naked soul

When winds take forests in their paws
The universe is still.

Divine Possession, by Emily Dickenson 1830-1886

Listen:- After these things I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, on the sea, or on any tree. Rev 7:1-2 NKJV

Pray :- Father put Your Great Cat out tonight! Come O Holy Wind of God and in Your mercy and according to Your own goodness, by the shed blood of Christ my Saviour, come blow through the alleys of my sleeping mind. Come prowl my dark corners and then Great Cat of Christ, come corner me, come tire me out and come stare me into quaking stillness. O let the universe be still this night! Let the sun and stars, the moon and the mountains that tickle the hanging under-belly of the blue lit sky, all be quiet this night. O Holy Spirit, will You please take all my dark forests in Your powerful and pleasant paws, will You nip me, bite me, gently shake me, to a reverential sleep and then dangling from Your delightful and ever smiling jaws, in my dreams, will You carry me off to Jesus and lay me prostrate at His waiting, loving feet that I might be truly blessed once more. Amen.

                                                                                                        

Apr | 09 | Broken Hallelujahs

Dream Word – WORSHIP

2 Samuel 19:7 Now therefore, arise, go out and speak comfort to your servants. For I swear by the Lord, if you do not go out, not one will stay with you this night. And that will be worse for you than all the evil that has befallen you from your youth until now." NKJV

Broken Hallelujahs

The life of David the King typifies for me, a life of ‘Broken Hallelujahs.’

It was poet, writer, singer songwriter, Leonard Cohen that wrote the song ‘Hallelujah,’ later recorded and made most famous by Jeff Buckley, a bi-polar, manic-depressive who, aged just 31 years, accidentally drowned in Wolf River harbour, a tributary of the mighty Mississippi. Interestingly, Buckley’s last recording was a spoken word recording of Edgar Allen Poe’s verse, “Ulalume,” a deep poetic piece about lost love and broken love, whose title sounds very much like “Hallelujah.”

In his piece entitled Hallelujah, the lyrics of the ever despondent Cohen, are full of sex, full of the Bible and full of regretful praise, which is rooted in a resigned brokenness, it is if you will, a song of praise from the despite.

In our text for tonight, all of David’s sinful chickens have begun to come home to roost. Absalom is dead, killed at the hand of Joab who speaks these words of our text for tonight, to a very despondent David, who has withdrawn himself from those people who would be in the end, the means of his redemption. Worst is yet to come for David and in many ways, his Samsonite strength now bears the cracks of the heat of his former adultery. Indeed, the kingdom, though it shall be held together under the golden duct tape reign of Solomon is already showing the fissures of its destruction. Relationships are breaking, hearts and harps and voices, are all broken and growing cold with age and misuse. I am afraid it is what it is and in being so is indeed, most depressing, as David’s days descend into songs of cold and broken Hallelujahs as he clears the mess from the floors of his not so recent but continuing disasters.

Like the sweet singer of Israel, most rebellious hearts can do nothing in their later days but sing broken Hallelujahs. Yet they are most acceptable to God because they are from the land of grace, from the place of despite, and you know friends, all praise from the place of despite, is most pleasing to God above, because it is full of hope and longing, it is full of faith and thankfulness, it is full of expectancy and desire, for it reverberates with repentance and glistens with long, expectant hope.

Listen: - These are the last words of David: "The oracle of David son of Jesse,the oracle of the man exalted by the Most High,the man anointed by the God of Jacob,Israel's singer of songs: "The Spirit of the Lord spoke through me;his word was on my tongue. The God of Israel spoke,the Rock of Israel said to me:'When one rules over men in righteousness,when he rules in the fear of God, he is like the light of morning at sunriseon a cloudless morning,like the brightness after rainthat brings the grass from the earth.' "Is not my house right with God? Has he not made with me an everlasting covenant,arranged and secured in every part? Will he not bring to fruition my salvation and grant me my every desire? But evil men are all to be cast aside like thorns, which are not gathered with the hand. Whoever touches thorns uses a tool of iron or the shaft of a spear;they are burned up where they lie." 2 Samuel 23:1-7 NIV.

Pray:- Lord, you know how continually sorry we are for the wrecks and wreckage of our lives. Yet despite ourselves You have loved us with an everlasting love. Yes, despite our bad choices, You have stuck with us. Despite the weaker voices of our later days, we know that we shall sing a new song in a better place, complete and full of praise to you our King, and all of this shall be, despite ourselves. Thank You Jesus, amen.

Mar | 21 | The Deep Songs of The Spirit

Key Word:- WORSHIP

Title:- The Deep Songs of The Spirit

Psalm 33:1-3 Rejoice in the LORD, O you righteous! For praise from the upright is beautiful. Praise the LORD with the harp; Make melody to Him with an instrument of ten strings. Sing to Him a new song; Play skillfully with a shout of joy.
 
“While we sing the Praises of our God in His Church, we are employed in that part of Worship which of all others is the nearest a-kin to Heaven: and ‘tis pity that this of all others should be performed the worst upon Earth. The Gospel brings us nearer to the heavenly State than all the former Dispensations of God amongst Men: And in these very last Days of the Gospel we are brought almost within sight of the Kingdom of our Lord; yet we are very much unacquainted with the Songs of the New Jerusalem, and unpracticed in the Work of Praise.” So goes the opening paragraph of the preface to the ‘Hymns and Spiritual Songs’ of Isaac Watts (1674-1748)

I have been to too many ‘Praise Meetings’ which, if they are a testimony of what heaven shall be like, make me want to stay on the heavenly train and purposefully miss my stop! If praising God forever and ever in heaven, is like some of those ‘Praise Meetings’ we have found ourselves in on earth, then friends, I’m just not going!

Worship it has been said ‘is not about us’, but about God! I agree with that, but I am not prepared to have that truth as an excuse for the continued pitiful spouting of pious platitudes and numb, dumb choruses hung so much about with limp and lame lyrics that leave people totally unmoved, except for thoughts of sleep and bed. A combination of powerful words, spirit moistened lips and a moved heart, should supernaturally raise the spirit of a man and wing him up to Jesus.

Neither do I think it right that on hearing a few notable chords we should clap our hands in glee and say, “oooh I like this one!” Well if you do then good for you friend, but remember, ‘it’s not about you!” Unfortunately though, most of our postmodern songs are nothing short of mere spiritual masturbation. They are mostly about us and are written with a view to our own emotional stroking.

When the words and the music and our hearts are all in tune, weeping in wonder at what Jesus has done for us, and given to us, then all the world shall come out in droves to hear us, the people of God, praise our Redeemer and I tell you the truth, all of hell, shall in turn, quake in fear to hear us holy ‘Men of Harlech,’ warriors famed in song and story, arrive on the field in glorious praise, singing to Jesus the deep songs of the Spirit, prepared for these last days.

Maybe the call needs to go out for some more warrior poets, sons of the Greater David to take up their pen as well as their sword and reset some deep roots into the Isaacs of old, that once looked toward the coming days of praise. For truly, “in these very last Days of the Gospel we are brought almost within sight of the Kingdom of our Lord; yet we are very much unacquainted with the Songs of the New Jerusalem, and un-practiced in the Work of Praise.”
Tell me friend, how’s that New Song coming along? How’s your praise life today? Have you really felt the darkness tremble just lately? Or are you just singing empty lies?

Listen: - He has put a new song in my mouth — Praise to our God; Many will see it and fear, And will trust in the LORD. Psalm 40:3

Pray: - Many, O LORD my God, are Your wonderful works Which You have done; And Your thoughts toward us Cannot be recounted to You in order; If I would declare and speak of them, They are more than can be numbered. Sacrifice and offering You did not desire; My ears You have opened. Lord, open my lips, And my mouth shall show forth Your praise. (Psalm 40:5-6A & Psalms 51:15 NKJV