Jul | 08 | Real Yeast For The Bread Of Victory

Dream Word – CONFIDENCE

Revelation 1:17, 18 “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.” NKJV.

Real Yeast For The Bread Of Victory

By the summer of 1942, the Allies were in trouble throughout the whole of Europe. The German attack in “Operation Barbarossa” had pushed the Russians far back into their own land and much of western Europe, seemed to be in the full control of the Nazis. In the battle of the Atlantic, German U-boats were having a major effect on the supplying of Britain and the war, which was being fought in the desert of North Africa, was slipping through the Allied hands like the dry desert sand. Indeed, if the Afrika Korps under Rommel had ever got to the Suez, it would have broken the arms of the Allie’s supply routes. The psychological and factual blow of losing the Suez Canal to the Nazis would have been incalculable, especially as this would have given them near enough free access to all the oil in the Middle East.

The bottleneck battle of El Alamein then, was to be the last stand for the Allies in North Africa. Though the leader of the German forces on the ground, Field Marshal Rommel, was much respected by even the Allied forces, the Allies' very own commander, Auchinleck, was not! On top of this, thus far in the war, Winston Churchill being without even one victory to his name,  faced the threat of a vote of ‘no confidence’ in the British parliament. Auchinleck then was speedily replaced with a well tried leader and popular leader. Well, at least popular amongst the troops, if not amongst his peers! The new General was described as being ‘As quick as a ferret and about as likeable!’ Nevertheless, by ensuring the co-operation of all arms at his command, including the air force, coupled with the use of first-class logistical back-up and the issuing of clear-cut orders, the ferret engendered great morale which was the force that turned the war around! Just before the Battle of El Alamein, he met privately with his commanding officers and encouraged and motivated them by saying:-

"Here we will stand and fight.
There will be no further withdrawal. I have orders, that all plans and instruction dealing with further withdrawal are to be burnt, and at once!
The great point to remember is that we’re going to finish with this chap Rommel once and for all, It will be quite easy. There’s no doubt about it,
he’s definitely a nuisance. Therefore we will hit him a crack and finish him."

‘Monty’- 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein.

If you are a leader, then communication, organisation, co-ordination and clarity of objective are vital in achieving any victory. However, all of these vital ingredients of victory, will be like trying to bake bread without yeast if you have not got the ability to inspire the confidence in the achievement of your objective. The Ferret had the ability to inject the yeast of inspiration into his commanding officers and his troops and that my friends, made all the difference in the world! Indeed, it is said that once Monty took charge of his 8th Army, the desert rats, they had hardly no sickness or absenteeism whatsoever. Imagine that!

The last book of the Bible, the Revelation of Jesus Christ, is the yeast that makes the bread of life. Christ’s victory, His majestic Lordship, His all- conquering capacity is clearly and awesomely portrayed before our open ears and open mouths! So, if you are in need of inspiration tonight, inspiration tomorrow and inspiration on your third day, then read the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ and once you’ve done that, read it again! For without this yeast of inspiration, there shall be no rising in your life!

Listen: - Then he said to me, "These words are faithful and true.” And the Lord God of the holy prophets sent His angel to show His servants the things which must shortly take place. “Behold, I am coming quickly! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.” Revelation 22:6-7 NKJV

Pray:- Lord, I ‘knead’ inspiration tonight! So, teach me how to delight myself in Your majestic greatness, for it is in Your magnificent name I ask it, amen.

Jul | 07 | A Standing Ovation

Key Word:- CONSIDER

Title:- A Standing Ovation

1 Samuel 17:38 So Saul clothed David with his armor, and he put a bronze helmet on his head; he also clothed him with a coat of mail. David fastened his sword to his armour and tried to walk, for he had not tested them. And David said to Saul, “I cannot walk with these, for I have not tested them.” So David took them off.

One time when our son left home and went on his travels he left his guitar for us. It was a nice one, an ‘Ovation hard back.’ It stood in the corner against the wall and frankly, didn’t get played at all. I wanted to play but just couldn’t. You see the strings were around a ¼ of an inch from the fret board. Blessed with little fingers, I found pressing them down securely to get the correct note to be a virtual impossibility. When I tried it, it was painful. it sounded awful, I didn’t really enjoy it, and I looked really clumsy. So it was pretty much left alone and had become the wrong kind of ‘Standing Ovation.’ It was good stuff, left lying in a corner, mocking me. Let me ask you this morning, what good stuff do you have that you cannot use correctly or effectively?

It happens a lot doesn’t it? People in the wrong jobs, with beautiful armour, all approaching giants and making a right ‘pigs ear’ of it! It takes a lot of courage to say to failing folks like that, "Friend it’s not working is it?" It takes even more courage to address that observation to ourselves.
The armour might look great on Saul, but only five stones and a sling will do the job in your case. What have you got in your hand that is not working, that is uncomfortable or makes you stumble? Let go of it, put it down, and take up what is truly yours. You can guarantee that you will feel better, move smoother, lighter and be more effective than you ever thought possible.

Stephen, (see Acts 6&7) the first recorded martyr of the Christian church, took to himself the Word of God and the shield of faith and so was enabled to march through the ranks of the religious with mighty signs and wonders, being enabled to dispute so irresistibly with certain of the Jews, that it was like heaving the broad sword of God across their ranks and laying bare their stinking hearts. He died in battle friends, but never the less, died effectively and gloriously, his face bright and happy, gleaming with the reflected glory of God, because he died using that which was his and so received from his mostly seated and admiring Master, a Standing Ovation in heaven.

Maybe getting to heaven just isn’t enough? Maybe how we arrive and are addressed and greeted when we get there should mean so much more to us? Let me ask you today then, “ Just what do you seek in glory?” Think about that O warrior of God, and worrier of hell, what do you seek from the King of Glory? Look! What has He put in your hand today? Use it. It’s mightier than you think.

Listen:- “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” (Acts 7:56)

Pray:- Lord. Grace alone has got me there, and will keep me so. Yet rewards await. Help me to use the    talents you have given me in an effective and pleasing way. Let me discover my gifts and usefulness today God, in Your great name I ask it, amen.

Jul | 07 | Prepared Packages

Dream Word – HOPE

Hosea 14:1, 2 O Israel, return to the Lord your God, For you have stumbled because of your iniquity; Take words with you, and return to the Lord.

Prepared Packages

Last night we went out for a meal with friends. As is our custom in the United Kingdom, we appeared hungry on their doorstep clutching a gift and last night, the gift was wine. On other occasions it might be flowers or even chocolates, no matter really, for the purpose of these gifts is not really to contribute to the meal, no, as these gifts, almost always received with smiles and ‘Aaah, thank you so much’ are often laid aside by the recipients for later and private use! No, these gifts are given to honour the received invitation to dinner, to up front and immediately say to the hosts: ‘Thank you’ and ‘We value this time, this space, this meal and all your careful preparation’.

Now, it isn’t really a problem if you turn up to a dinner invitation without a gift, yet I have observed that such a gift goes a long way in putting the waiting parties at pleasant ease with their long awaited guests, even in oiling the gears of conversation and especially in opening up some smiling dialogue. A prepared package, goes a long way to make a pleasant evening.

Israel had most certainly blown it with God. In the most dreadful of ways, they had betrayed Him and dishonoured Him. Looking at their dire situation, humanly speaking there appeared to be no going back. It was hopeless. Sin had tripped them up and thrown them face down in the mud, where they had then engaged in smiling orgies with their neighbours, openly and fearlessly cavorting even before God’s watching and horrified, hurt and angry face. Humanly speaking, there was no coming back from this.

Yet God here holds out hope of a restored and renewed relationship with Himself, even an invitation to dine again with the offended King of Ages and look, the beginning of that restored and renewed relationship was for Israel to turn up at His door with a gift, with a package, even a package of prepared words.

The right words, at the right time, go a long way in oiling the gears of conversation and especially in opening up some smiling dialogue. Yes, a prepared package of right words goes a long way to ease the hurt of a broken heart and make no mistake about it, God’s heart here, was most thoroughly broken.

Some of you tonight and all of us at some time, will have to go and knock on someone’s most greatly hurt and offended door. Maybe even God’s! When you do, be sure you to take words with you. A gift of words, a prepared package of the right words, for the right time.

Listen: - O Israel, return to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity; Take words with you, and return to the Lord. Say to Him, "Take away all iniquity; Receive us graciously, for we will offer the sacrifices of our lips. Assyria shall not save us, we will not ride on horses, nor will we say anymore to the work of our hands, 'You are our gods.' For in You the fatherless finds mercy." NKJV.

Pray:- Lord, our sinful actions always in the end, seemingly orphan us. Yes, we become bastard children, unkempt, wild, hard and hurt, seeking satisfaction from anything and anyone but You. So, wallowing in our wantonness, our sin is an open sewer for all to see. Please, take away all our stinking sin and receive us undeserving sinners, with Your great and unmerited favour and we shall thank You for it, Yes oh God, we shall sing Your praises for it! For no-one else can save us, especially not our own acquired prestige and power. No, we shall not bow to those damnable liars anymore! We have orphaned ourselves and all we can do is come with these words, placing them at Your gracious feet, waiting for Your most kind response, for we have heard and we believe, that you, the great God and Father of mankind, are merciful to the fatherless. We lay these words at Your most gracious feet then and now wait patiently for Your goodness. Amen.

                                                                                                              

Jul | 06 | Gluttonus Maximus, Big Boys & The Giant Greedy

Key Word:- STRENGTH

Title:- Gluttonus Maximus, Big Boys & The Giant Greedy 

Deuteronomy 21:20-21 And they shall say to the elders of his city, 'This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.'

Gluttonus Maximus was a Roman butcher who kept a small shop on the Appian Way. Famous for his sausages, livers and lambs legs, he never the less died aged just 28 and weighing 412lbs. A nice man, but being lavish and unrestrained, he died of a heart attack from greed and excess. Many of our generation shall follow his direction and demise on our way to Krispee Kreme, Home Town Buffet, TGI Friday, Frisch’s or wherever else we can fill our plates up to the ceiling with weighted excess.

Frisch’s restaurant chain was founded in America nearly one hundred years ago in the city of Cincinnati and of course in 1946, introduced their full 1/2lb beef double decker ‘Big Boy’ onto the market. The big-eyed plastic waiter with red checkered dungarees, has become their national icon for the 'Big Boy' and today the plastic icon and the 'Big Boy Burger' are both on sale behind every Frisch’s counter!

Now let me tell you friends, that I am partial to an ‘all you can eat’ menu, and my Scots blood likes to get more than its money’s worth. So, just the other day, in we went to trawl the breakfast bar. It was a holiday and the place was packed. Those leaving, even though they waddled out of the door, were still getting ‘to go’ bags, or ‘to go’ cups so they could continue munching in the car, (America is a country that walks very little.) Meanwhile, the food that was left behind on the plates, if gathered up, could feed a small African nation! The 'Big Boys' weren’t just on the shelves waiting to be purchased, oh no, they perambulated and bounced alongside numerous big mommas on their way to their third of fourth helping. And where were we? Stuck in up to our elbows with the rest of them, chowing down. It’s got to be said, we’re a fat nation! We’re killing ourselves, and I’m sorry, but it’s a sin.

Now let’s clear some issues out of the way. As a former fitness instructor, I advised a lot of people on their diets and remember meeting a man who had lost 60 lbs in 6 months. “Yup, once the doctor gave me the correct medication for my thyroid,” he remarked, “All my right eating and exercising kicked in and the weight fell off.” Hmmm? It’s obvious that maybe some of us have a medical problem that needs checking out. Every overweight person should first visit the doctor before starting any exercise programme. However, if you check out ok with the doctor friends and you're still fat, then brother, sister, I am afraid that you are simply eating too much. End of story. The Bible calls this gluttony.

If under pressure we continually and habitually turn to drugs, we are classed as an addict. If under pressure we consistently turn to drink we are classed as an alcoholic. If under pressure we continually turn to chocolate or ice-cream or cake, or food in general, then at the most, we are classed as 'a bit of a joke', a silent laugh line in a comedy sketch. However don’t be deceived friends, for in the end it is all rebellion, idolatry, excessiveness and lavishness that leads to slavery and death. Gluttony is all of this, for it is a seeking of satisfaction and comfort in something other than God. I am not innocent, for I am a chocoholic and it is no joke! Ask my dentist. Ask my bank manager.

Look, enjoy your food and even pig out a little sometimes, but if food is overtaking you, overcoming you, eating you up and has become the comforter you turn to in times of trouble, then your excess is a sin that needs repenting of and by now, probably a physical problem that needs attending to. God helps all repentant sinners, and so in this He can help us gluttons as well. Turn to Him when He calls you. If you don’t, then it’s bad manners and you might just end up busting a blood vessel and falling into a pig trough.

Listen:- Your words were found, and I ate them, And Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; For I am called by Your name, O LORD God of hosts. Jeremiah 15:16

Pray:- Jesus I am sorry when I turn to candy and brandy instead of You. O Lord my God, let my soul delight itself in true fatness, because I know You and am always a familiar and open-mouthed at Your most healthy table. Amen.

Jul | 06 | When Amzi Looked Longingly, Over His Trailing Flowered Wall

Dream Word – STRENGTH

Ezekiel 37:1-4 The hand of the Lord came upon me and brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones. Then He caused me to pass by them all around, and behold, there were very many in the open valley; and indeed they were very dry. And He said to me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" I answered, "O Lord God, You know." Again He said to me, "Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, 'O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! NKJV

When Amzi Looked Longingly, Over His Trailing Flowered Wall

Today in 1854, Amzi Clarence Dixon, that is A.C. Dixon, was born on a plantation in Shelby, North Carolina. Amzi and his brother Thomas both followed in their father’s footsteps as Baptist preachers. Whilst the life path of Thomas zigzagged its way in preaching, politics, law and lecturing, it is his writing that is now very far behind the racial acceptances of today. Indeed, Thomas Dixon even advocated white supremacy, especially in the form of the Klu Klux Klan. His brother Amzi on the other hand, was a straight career preacher, a pulpiteer of power and eloquence, a graduate of the Southern Baptist Seminary, even pastoring such famous churches as Moody Bible Church and Spurgeon’s Metropolitan Tabernacle. I am sure having Thomas as a brother was an ever present challenge for old A.C. Dixon! There’s a couple of lessons there for us for sure, but not for tonight. No tonight, I want to suck on some of Amzi’s comments from his sermon entitled ‘The Raising of Dry Bones.’

Regarding Israel of old, decay and disintegration surely did ride on the coat tails of sin. Ezekiel’s vision of a valley of dry bones was truly all that was left of them and that is where Ezekiel dwelt. Amzi says this, ‘The temptation is for us to seek the garden with its flowers rather than the valley with its bones. The prophet also responds when God's hand sets him down in the midst of the bones. Dwelling with the bones is more trying than just going to them on a temporary mission. To have bones for neighbours and companions may not be pleasant. We have a taste for the company of living people. But unless we are ready to respond to the hand of God which would lead us to the bones and make us dwell among them, we are not prepared for the work of raising them to life. The work cannot be done at a distance. The millions who throng the streets, crowd the theatres, drink in saloons and revel in dance halls, shunning the church as they would the pest house, cannot be reached by the pastor in his study making eloquent sermons for his cultured congregation, nor by the Christians who meet in parlours, halls and churches for fellowship and Bible study. Thank God for the men and women who gladly respond to the hand of God leading them to the most sinful and hopeless.’ Amen! I believe this statement of Anzi’s was quite revolutionary for his time and I tell you what, the Southern States of America and in most Southern Baptist Circles down there, his statement is still a revolutionary one today!

We need to preach the Word of God to dry bones and to do this, the hand of the Lord will take us and push us, shake us and place us, right there in the middle of those valleys of dry bones and command, no, demand, that we should preach His word to them. It’s as simple and as scary as that.

So where has God’s powerful hand been leading you today? As for Amzi, despite his powerful message, he was never the less placed in the flower garden’s of cultured congregations and the pansy’d parlours of plump pastor’s wives, yes, Amzi could only preach about such a courageous and honoured placing! I wonder tonight if despite his honoured pulpit, Amzi often stood on his tippy toes and peered over the wall and looked longingly down into the valley of dry bones and wished he had both the bottle and the mettle to be permanently placed amongst them. How about you?

Listen: - Thus says the Lord God to these bones: "Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live. I will put sinews on you and bring flesh upon you, cover you with skin and put breath in you; and you shall live. Then you shall know that I am the Lord." Ezekiel 37:5-6 NKJV

Pray:- Give us the willingness O Lord, to be placed amongst the long gone dead and the faith and courage to speak Your word to them. Allow us then O Lord, the tenacity to stick around to see you rattle them together and put life both on them and in them and all around them dear Jesus. Amen!

Jul | 05 | True Love Builds a Heaven

Key Word:- LOVE

Title:- True Love Builds a Heaven

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

So we need to acknowledge ourselves, and to know ourselves and correctly love ourselves. I believe this is good and Biblically correct. The challenge we have to this appears to be the great paradox which is that 'the purpose of self, is others!' We shall know when we have loved ourselves wrongly, selfishly and dishonourably when 'me', 'my' and 'I,' lie heavily on our lips. Listen to how you speak about yourself today. Who is at the center? Friends remember, “Love does not seeks its own.” It is imperative to love yourself, but not seek your own. Eh? Love yourself, but do not seek your own? Now go and work that one out!

William Blake in his poem 'The Clod and the Pebble' begins by writing:

Love seeketh not itself to please
Nor for itself hath any care
But for another gives its ease
And builds a heaven in hell's despair

Now if your spirit cries within you at this point “Ah that's all very altruistic, all very good for some rich philanthropist, some mad monk in a ‘monkery’, some sacrificial nun working in a slum, but for most of us and for me especially, well it's unrealistic and unattainable." Indeed, if you say, “I need to take care of myself afore I can take care of others, after all charity begins at home” then maybe you are in the grip of selfish self love, for selfish love is always sick love.

Friends, I have seen a government in the grip of a remarkable iron lady put this selfish loving into public practice. Communities have been killed and crippled for decades because of such psychopathic sycophantic selfish love. I think those communities touched by such poison might never recover from such a sick and selfish, self ‘love.’

For us today, the final verse of Blake’s ‘The Clod and Pebble’, aptly sums up the results of such isolated and selfish self loving:

Love seeketh only self to please
To bind another to its delight
Joys in anothers loss of ease
And builds a hell in heavens despite

Be sure today, that the way you love yourself, shall either build a heaven or a hell in other people’s lives. So, who shall you seek to please today? Self or others? Honour yourself. Yes! Love yourself. Yes! But choose carefully friends, choose sacrificially, to not please yourself when loving yourself. Did you ge that? Do not please yourself when loving yourself. Now go work that one out in your life today!

Listen:- “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” Matthew 16:25-26

Pray:-Jesus, this day help me to build heaven in other people’s lives by loving selflessly. Help me to trust You, and in losing myself to You, help me to find myself in You. Amen Lord and amen.

 

Jul | 05 | Cleansing The Corners

Dream Word – HOPE

Exodus 10:21 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, darkness which may even be felt .” NKJV

Cleansing The Corners

I grew up with a great fear of the darkness. As a young boy, up until the age of eleven, I lived in a house which I was convinced was haunted. I still remain somewhat convinced today.

A combination of strange dreams, blue balled lightening appearing and disappearing through the wall on a very stormy night, a consistent malevolent and shadowy apparition in the hallway, the feeling of something hidden in the wardrobe or lurking menacingly underneath my bed and the truly felt clawed scratching on the souls of my feet, all led many times to screaming tears of terror and the desperate running from my place of unrest, to that of my parents bed in the middle of the night. I hated that house and greatly feared the coming on of night.
Since then, I have always been aware of shadows, of ill-lit corners and the seeming darkness lurking therein. It is as though the night and absence of light gives a doorway if you will, or an opportunity even, for malevolence to manifest itself and then wait for the shadows to lengthen, so as to finally grab you, envelope you and drag you down to tortuous hell. In my mind, even today, doors and corners, entrance ways and the cornered gathering points of protective walls, all need my special attention, especially when it’s dark.

My earthly father often spoke to my tears from his own observational pain, when he tried to quiet my haunted shaking, saying “Son the dead can’t hurt you, only the living.” It is not true of course, but that’s for another day. His point then however, was that there was nothing hidden in the shadows, not living and breathing, that could possibly do me harm. Like I said, it is just not true. Suffice to say, that in the seen and unseen worlds, in the physical and the metaphysical, in the material and the spiritual realms, there is often the need for the reclaiming and cleansing of a space that has been cracked and contaminated by a dark intrusion into our space-time that is indeed, make no mistake about it, out to hurt you.

Friend, there are rooms in your spiritual house that are possessed by darkness and when that place is the place where you seek rest, is the place where you seek renewal, is the place where healing should happen, is the place where a conduit should open up to heaven and the angels of God should be seen to ascend and descend with messages from the throne, filling your dreams with morning manna, but the long shadows of darkness now intrude upon it, then great is the trouble in the bed of your heart and great is your fear in the hungry night! For what should be a place of safety and blessing to you, has become a place of watchful tension, a place where the teeth of your soul are set on edge, where your soft souls are taunted and scratched by the toenailed claws of a beast unseen. Yes, your inner sanctum has now become a place of expectant fear in the valley of the shadow of death. So tell me, the place where you sleep tonight, each night, is it a place of blessing for you? Or, is your inner self most haunted there?

It’s time to anoint your dark corners and to say to them, “Let there be light.” It’s time to halt the swampy pooled gathering of dribbling darkness accumulating in your corners and to do this by always bathing them in warm, life coloured light. It’s time to make no place, to make no space for the gathering of darkness. As well as this, it is also time to make all your doorways clean, even to anoint your entrance steps with Holy oil so that those that seeking access whilst carrying a blessing, are met with a warm welcome and a strong amen! Yes, it is also time to protect your doorways, especially against those who might seek to carry through them any false thing, any dark word and deposit it especially into your holy, inner chamber. Yes to those curse carrying beings, may a hard halting hit their forehead and may rebound curses debar them from access through your doors! Make sure your doorways are covered in the blood, anointed with the oil.

I have seen entire cities enveloped in felt darkness. Yes, I have stood above a city, on the top of watching of hills and seen the darkness cloak it like a choking smog. Felt darkness is a terrible thing. If a land and its cities can be covered with such felt nastiness dear friend, then how much more the comparatively tiny inner sanctum of your heart and home?

Tonight, if you are plagued by a fearful and felt darkness, then you have gotten both problems and places that need your good attention. Indeed, you have problems and places that need a shining light, that need THE shining light Himself. Take Jesus to your corners and light them in all-conquering, reclaiming love. Let the Word dwell there in all His fullness.

Listen:- By the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, In Galilee of the Gentiles. The people who walked in darkness Have seen a great light; Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, Upon them a light has shined. Isa 9:1-2 NKJV

Pray:- When You arrive O Lord, angels sing “Glory!” When you arrive O Lord, golden gifts of anointing and sweet-smelling savour are brought by kings from the land of day break. When you arrive O Lord, darkness flees away, healings happen, peace is restored, life and renewal, hope and resurrection all follow hard on the souls of Your mighty stepping feet. O Lord, I give you this dwelling place tonight, this holy bed, this inner sanctum of both my head and of my heart and ask that Your light be ever present here. O Lord, teach me in the morning how to sweep and clean, how to wash and cleanse, how to open and how to close, in Your great name I ask it, amen!

Jul | 04 | Preparations For Midnight

Key Word:- HAPPY

Title:- Preparations For Midnight

Luke 10:17-20 Then the seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.” And He said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Nonetheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.”
 
On this occasion, the disciples returned from their mission with happiness; their conquest complete and victory on their lips. On other occasions, the battle would go hard against them and maybe like John the Baptist they would, in the darkness of the dungeon, have to send an urgent plea to Messiah saying, “Are You really who we thought You were?” Today, out of the silence and darkness of your lives, maybe many of you are asking that very same question. Fear not little flock, Jesus does not want you to be so desperate, despite the heat of battle or the damp of dungeon cells, though at times, we shall undoubtedly feel them both.

Jesus never kept the fact of hardship from his followers. “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” (Matthew 16:24 ). The cross of suffering is a dark place and can be as black as midnight in the noon day sun. So here in today’s text, Jesus prepares His disciples for such a midnight. The battle will ebb and flow, victories will come and go, but “Know this though,” He says, “The enemy is ultimately defeated and you are saved, so, REJOICE because your names are written in heaven.”
“Rejoice because your names are written in heaven.”
“Rejoice because your names are written in heaven.”
“Rejoice because your names are written in heaven.”
“Rejoice because your names are written in heaven.”
“Rejoice because your names are written in heaven.”

Have you got that?

Many times the fact that our names are written in the book of life may not seem good enough to cause us to rejoice, but my brethren, often times it’s really all we have to hang on to. Make sure these words are a nail in a sure place for you today and also that you know where to find that nail when midnight comes, for it’s the only place you shall be able to hang your heavy troubles on and so be able to bring a rejoicing lightness to your oh so stumbling steps once more.

Listen:- Then the multitude rose up together against them; and the magistrates tore off their clothes and commanded them to be beaten with rods. And when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely. Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's chains were loosed. Acts 16:22-26

Pray:- Father, may my happiness be rooted in eternity, may its certain smile shake the earth again and release me from my chains and release those also chained with me. Amen.

Jul | 04 | Independence Day!

Dream Word – RESCUE

Genesis 3:22-24 Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever” -- therefore the LORD God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life. NKJV

Independence Day!

My, oh my! What fireworks we can launch into our skies! What flashes of thunder, what bright dripping rainbows, what crackling, whizzing, popping, whistling colours can we momentarily spread above our heads like a neon lit, dancing Indian war bonnet, thrown up in rejoicing, into the slowly rotating skies! However, beyond this faint and passing flicker of manufactured and expensive, deeply unsatisfying joy, yes, light years beyond the spitting sparkle of earthly celebrations, out there amongst unnamed galaxies, beyond Andromeda, beyond Ambartsumian's Knot, beyond The Bear’s Paw even, God’s fireworks still flash forever greater, and burn forever brighter in the cosmic confidence of an eternal wonder that pleases Him alone.

For thousands of years we have not been allowed to attend this singing show of seraphic sentinels, all bursting and blasting glory across His universe. No, not since we took our independence on that forever fateful day. For since that fall, since that day of independent tragedy, an angel with a flashing, flaming sword, for our protection, has in constance, stood before the gates of the everlasting pleasure park and shouted ‘Stand well back now! Stand well back, for now you will be hurt!”

The sense of loss that lies within us regarding this eternal exclusion is unspeakably profound, for despite our prized and boasted independence, we are so very, very lonely. So much so, that we have tried to reproduce the pleasures of His park in our own fires sexual, our own fires financial and in our own fires successful, only to have found them to be under fueled, burning ever low, always flickering to ember and to ash, in the ever coming cold light of our days.

All forced independence day celebrations from a faithful and loving Father, will leave us feeling forever lonely. A testimony to this is that we rarely, oh so rarely, ever lift our heads to His fireworks forever in the sky, for when we do, we remember, yes we remember our pain. Let me ask you, apart from today my American friends, when was the last time you gazed into His firework-filled heavens? When was the last time you looked up and over, all the fenced out wonders of His fun-filled fields, of His sealed and gated parks of pleasures? When was the last time you allowed the sound of giggling seraphs, the whooping cries of angel glee, of rushing roller coasters filled with chanting cherubim, all shouting 'GLORY!' and then were moved in anticipated excitement when the music of waiting, whizzing Wurlitzers and the hum of hidden, pumping and powerful living engines, all generating light, landed eagerly upon your ears? When was the last time such a looking brought the smell of toffee apples and cotton candy, hot-dogged mustard and buttered pop corn, and allowed them to creep up your nostrils and tickle the taste buds on the back of your tongue making your mouth wet in watered longing?

Tonight, on this much celebrated, but ever lonely independence day of ours, let us turn off the light, draw back the curtains and lie still under our cool cotton sheets. Then, gazing out of the window and up and over the gates of God into His dark night sky, always lit with the wonders of the fireworks of the Father, always proclaiming an eternal Sunday, an everlasting fun day, to those holding a ticket to ride, a ticket to hide, a ticket to ever and always live and abide, in Jesus.....well, as we gaze in wonder, let us open our senses, to the sights and sounds, the smells and light touches of the world beyond us, the world to come, our heavenly home of eternal rejoicing.

If you have your ticket, then you have great cause to look and listen with expectant longing into all the pleasures of God wrapped up in Christ Jesus for you.

LOOK! Gaze beyond the passing thunder flashes of man’s celebrations and peer beyond them into deeper heavens, and allow the lover of expectant hope, to walk hand in hand with your longing and desire, home with you to bed.

Listen:- For we know that the whole creation groans and labours with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance. Rom 8:22-25 NKJV

Pray:- Lord, please forgive us of our days of independence and have mercy on our long lost nights of loneliness. Lord tonight, let me listen to the music of Your spinning spheres. Lord tonight, in my dreams let me look upon Your fantastic fun factory, yes, O my Father, let me gaze again upon Your waiting joys for me, for us, together. Lord tonight, please fill my sleeping senses, with pleasure beyond measure. Lord tonight, take me through Your gates, take me hungry to Your table and give me candied apples, all Your toffee apples of delight. Lord tonight, in Your grace and in Your mercy, for all of us I pray, make the bitter bitten apple, ever sweeter in Your day. In Jesus name I ask it, Amen.

                                                                                                           

Jul | 03 | A’ Loaded for Bayer!

Key Word:- PREPARE

Title:- A’ Loaded for Bayer!

Isaiah 40:3 The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the LORD;

 
It was a passing comment regarding the background study done by a member of a Bible study group. His preparation was so impressive that the Kentucky comment went: “Mayan! He come a loaded for bayer!” For British readers the translation, alluding and implication would read “My goodness, he was so well prepared it was as though he had loaded his hunting rifle with munitions sufficient to fell a grizzly bear.” :-) He wasn't taking any prisoners that's for sure.

Now the point of this marvellous saying is the need for preparation. Sunday morning church services are often a bore for many people, maybe for most of us? We come away from our gatherings often unsatisfied and critical over the message or the man, the worship or the Word, the choir or even the chairs we sat on. We wanted to hear from God, we were desperate for His voice. “Anything God!” We asked in desperation, “Say anything! Be angry, be mad, kiss me or kick me, but O God, don't be silent for another week.” Yet, despite all our pleas we come away empty.

I believe Sunday morning shallowness is primarily due to lack of 'Preparation'. Saturday night we watch a movie, stay up late, eat too much and probably talk too much. Sunday morning comes and we literally get up into the mess of the previous night! We then rush around making ourselves outwardly presentable, throw some unhealthy breakfast in us which you can guarantee is going to sit heavy on our stomach and on our bladder. Indeed, half way through the sermon, getting to the toilet without embarrassing ourselves is going to be the main focus of our attention. Add to this, reluctant children or moody teenagers which you drag out of bed and then drag along to church, and by the time you get in the gathering place you end up feeling as though you've done three good rounds with Mike Tyson already and are wishing someone would throw in the towel.

I am sure you could add a number of other Sunday requirements that I have not put on the list, from lunch preparation to crèche duty. Friends, even today's emerging church will have it no less pressurised in the years to come, despite the 'coolness' (never mind the heresy) that comes with the present laid back and lackadaisical approach to gathering together. Just wait until the kids get a little larger!

My point is this: Expectation is killed by lack of preparation. Our gatherings need to be planned for by us, personally! Our hearts, minds and bodies need to be attended to in such a way that they are primed to both adequately give to and receive from the Lord. Spirituality takes effort, prioritization and planning. Sounds like mostly a matter of logistics doesn't it? Well it is! Let me ask you friend. When you gather together with the Lord's people, are you “A' loaded for bayer”? And you preacher, what are you bringing to the table to serve to your now expectant flock? Instant Mashed Potatoes you bought three years ago served out of a greasy little bag? Maybe some internet ordered pre-packaged drivel? Or have you got some present Oracle from God, prepared lovingly on your knees with some sweated integrity? Both preacher and congregation need to think about that, and in the applying of it, think about what a difference it would make to your often-sad little Sundays if you actually prepared for your encounter with God and came a’l oaded for bayer! PREPARE TO MEET THY GOD! I say again, PREPARE!

Listen:- And Ezra came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king. On the first day of the first month he began his journey from Babylon, and on the first day of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem, according to the good hand of his God upon him. For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the Law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel. Ezra 7:8-10

Pray:- Lord, help me to prepare my upper room that we might eat and drink together. Oh God I pray, let me prepare to receive that which I need. 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.

                                                                                                        

Jul | 02 | Holy Crap!

Key Word:- HAPPY

Title:- Holy Crap!

Psalm 119:11-14 Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You. Blessed are You, O LORD! Teach me Your statutes. With my lips I have declared All the judgments of Your mouth. I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies, As much as in all riches.

I love lounging late in bed on a Saturday morning and watching Italian Chef 'Nick Stellino & His family Kitchen'. One morning, fuzzy faced, fat and flamboyant, overflowing with the pleasure of food and cooking like every good chef, whilst stirring and sprinkling over some delicacy, Nick looks up at the camera and smiles “No ingredients can work unless they're happy!” Happeee Cooking!!!

Joy is such a misunderstood word that for today, allow me friends to lay it aside. Happiness on the other hand is unmistakable and irrefutable for it is crystal clear in its smiling presentation. You know when someone is happy, and it's attractive and it's contagious! Louis Armstrong was right in that, “When you're smiling the whole world smiles with you!” So without being critical, except of myself maybe, could I suggest that happiness is the missing ingredient in our Christian lives and then go a little further, by taking a leaf out of old Nick's book and suggesting that no other ingredient can work without it.

Now, it's true that most of us don't have much to be happy about. Long lost sons, prodigals still profligate despite all of our prayers and pleadings; worries like in an interminable and inner itch being scratched and growled upon even in our dreams; spouses spinning away from God, bills, pills, and milk spills of every kind that we cry over day after day, after all the long day. It's true that life is tough. I’m not minimizing that!

It is also true that God is bigger, better, greater, stronger, and able to do exceedingly more than we can ask or think! We all say amen to that but hey, that's not the problem. We believe all that about God don't we? Of course we do! What we don't believe however, not really, is that He will do these great and magnificent things for us, for me, for you, right now, today!
Friends, God will DO US GOOD. HE WANTS TO DO US GOOD. He wants to show Himself strong on our behalf and that friends, is what we have trouble truly believing and so because of our unbelief, we are stood stiff and upright, arms down by our side, with our lower lip protruding saying “Well let Him then. If it's true, then let Him do good to me. Hmmpph.'……” Oh dear.

Wouldn't you like to be as familiar with happiness as you are with misery? Wouldn’t you like to be as familiar with smiling success as you are with bitter disappointment? Then hoe your corn, pulling out the weeds of unbelief, the weeds of unhealthy thoughts, of unhealthy actions, of unhelpful inputs, of unfamiliarity with the Happy God and then begin to fertilize your crops with the blessedness, the true happiness of the good God, that is yours in Jesus. If happiness was heavenly manure, and we were digging it into the soil of our hearts and of our lives, then maybe we would call it, ‘ Holy Crap!’ and this kind of crap, is something we need a lot more of on our crops cause I tell you friends, we just won't grow up to be juicy and delicious without it! No siree, without Holy Crap none of the ingredients of our life shall ever correctly coalesce.

It might not be in a theological textbook, but 'Happiness' is an attribute of God. So, stop wetting down your soul and dampening down your spirit, put the hose down and have a hoedown dear friend! Today, choose life! Choose happiness.

Listen:-Forget your troubles and just, get happy
You better chase all your cares away.
Sing hallelujah come on, get happy
Get ready for the judgment day.
The sun is shinin' come on, get happy
The Lord is waitin' to take your hand.
Shout hallelujah come on, get happy
We're going to the promised land.
We're headin' cross the river,
Wash your sins away in the tide.
It's all so peaceful on the other side.
Forget your troubles and just, get happy
You better chase all your cares away
Shout hallelujah come on, get happy
Get ready for the judgment day.

Get Happy, Lyrics and Music by Harold Arlen & Ted Koehler

Pray:- Lord, please come fertilize my crops with the manure of happiness. Lord I believe. Help thou my unbelief.

 

Jul | 02 | The Many Legged Vampire

Dream Word – INTEGRITY



Proverbs 15:2 The tongue of the wise uses knowledge rightly, But the mouth of fools pours forth foolishness. NKJV

The Many Legged Vampires

It was early in 2007 when country music star Brad Paisley brought out two very successful songs. The first was. “When I get where I’m going,” a powerful and evocative country music duet with Dolly Parton. The accompanying video produced with this song will move anyone who has lost a loved one to healing tears! In Brad’s second song, he moved from the sublime to the ridiculous by producing a Benny Hill style, multiple double entendre little song, the title of which was simply, ‘Ticks!’ Of which that never to be forgotten chorus says:

"Cause I’d like to see you out in the moonlight
I’d like to kiss you way back in the sticks
I’d like to walk you through a field of wildflowers
And I’d like to check you for ticks!"

What can you say to that!

When living in the hills of Kentucky we were fortunate to have a couple of Killer Cats as our feline protectors! They culled the rodent population and kept us safe in our beds at night both from gangs of marauding mice and malicious moles who invaded our kitchen for food. For this fine work we would allow them to join us on our bed where they purred the night away.

Unfortunately, those fine felines had the tendency to bring onto our beds and consequently into our sheets, some tiny travellers that often attached themselves to their fur. Both my wife and I have discovered these horrible little monsters with their heads buried into the most private parts of our anatomies literally sucking the life out of us. Brad Paisley’s lunatic of a lyric, “I’d like to check you for ticks!” became for us, for a wee while anyway, an absolute necessity.

You see the problem with ticks and black legged ticks especially, is that they can be infected with the bacterium, ‘Borrelia Burgdorferi,’ which in turn, can then be passed on to humans, producing what we know as Lymes disease. This disease is particularly nasty, in that it attacks the joints, heart and nervous system. It’s a deceitful little disease because its symptoms initially manifest themselves as the comparatively harmless flu. Because of this, the serious nature of the bite and its consequences can be easily be ignored, leaving in your body a ticking time bomb which will slowly explode in the years to come. Ticks are nasty little buggers.

What blood sucking accusation, what life draining condemnation, what disease ridden lie, what ticking time bomb, have you gotten into bed with tonight? Nasty!

Why not take a few moments to have the Holy Spirit check you for ticks tonight. Then in quiet confession, in gentle encouragement, in prayerful and driven determination, get the tweezers of the Word of God and grab those little buggers around the middle, rock their little heads out of your skin and then crack them to death between your forgiven little finger nails.

Finally my brethren, no matter how useful your acquaintances, how warm their fellowship, how comforting their presence when they purr the night away, if they are bringing ticks into your bed, THEN THEY JUST HAVE TO GO. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!

Listen:- He who walks with wise men will be wise, But the companion of fools will be destroyed. Prov 13:20 NKJV

Pray: -Lord tonight, check me for ticks. Lord, forgive me for allowing fools into my life and forgive me for being a willing companion to them and their blood-sucking parasites. Give me peace tonight O Lord my God, even though Your cleansing stings me. Lord tomorrow remind me when I awake, to choose to walk with the wise. Lord from now on, my inner chamber is mine and Thine and nothing and no one, shall be allowed between the cleanness of our sheets. I promise You this O Lord, I promise You this, amen.

Jul | 01 | Blue Frog Pie

Key Word:- HAPPY

Title:- Blue Frog Pie

Proverbs 17:22 A merry heart does good, like medicine,

 
Now it goes without saying that “Like one who takes away a garment in cold weather, And like vinegar on soda, is one who sings songs to a heavy heart.” (Proverbs 25:20) We would all agree that someone who would act like that is extremely thoughtless and exceptionally offensive! Yet I feel we are very rarely in danger of committing such a 'faux pas' as singing songs to a heavy heart, for Christians, on the whole, are not marked by the world as being the 'the happy bunch'. Except that is, the much maligned and looked down the nose at 'happy clappy’ type of Christians, you know, the ones that live in ‘never-never land’ and not the real world like you and me! Ha! Who do those silly, happy clappy, strange and wappy, unreal folk think they are? Surely, the Chrsitian should be marked by a profound seriousness? Yes, a seriousness of demeanour that is marked by pious misery. Especially if he's a minister.

You know, unfortunately, there is the Celtic part of me that isn't really content unless it is miserable! Yes, there is a part of me that isn't happy unless it has got something to worry about. Now is that bizarre or what! Because of this, I find a song entitled, 'The Happy Song' by the British Christian band 'Delirious' to be really challenging. I mean challenged in a quite annoyed kind of way, because a part of me is exceptionally offended about the exuberance that this song tries to instigate. Shame on me though! For something very Celtic in me, something very reserved and broody, something cynical and happy to be miserable, rebels and sneers from a haughty vantage point within my spirit upon such a preposterous attempt at a stirring of exuberant emotion. I’m not too worried though, because we all know that a really happy Christian is as rare as 'blue frog pie.' Think about that. It’s the truth and it’s very sad isn’t it?

This brooding melancholy, this satanic cynicism, this damp and critical mess of restrictive emotionaly viscerol fat lining the belly of our spiritual life must be gotten rid of, must be lipo-suctioned out and flushed away down some surgical drain somewhere! We must let a living and righteous hypocrisy begin to poke and stir jubilance from its deep slumber within us and force the dampness in our souls to be actively danced away and friends, even Baptists must do this! Indeed, we must all let our mornings begin with such shouts of joy that they roll back all the glooming clouds that gather so early on our doctrinally correct, rightfully reformed, conservatized and evangelized, oh so unhappy horizons! Go on, shock the neighbours today! Open the windows, take a couple of 'lung-fulls' of air and force yourself to sing some lyrics from the happy song:

I want to shout it out from every rooftop scene
For I know that God is for me not against me
Oh I could sing unending songs of how you saved my soul
Oh how could dance a thousand miles because of you're great love
Oh every body dance!

It’s time to get the neighbors complaining friends and listen to them telling the police that they “Just can't stand it anymore, all that laughing, all that singing, all that earth shaking, wall vibrating, frivolous dancing. Who do those Christians think they are being so blinkin' happy!” 

Unless we spike everyones morning coffee with a tab of Ecstacy, it’s almost impossible to believe it can happen isn’t it? However, why not ask God for faith and vision to believe and act in this way and then, imagine every seminary president and principal, hands raised, boogying down in their study, praising God! Stomping around like 'gooduns'. Imagine what their lessons and discourse would be like after that! Imagine every Christian graveside becoming a graduation event of raucous rejoicing, every pastor refusing to wear black ever again, ripping off white collars of captivity and burning all their 'Des O'Conner' cardigans, banning Jesus sandals and painting their toenails red, whilst leaping like leviathans and bouncing like behemoths, rolling around with such outrageous laughter, that with their giggle machines, now overflowing with such heavenly hilarity, that they can hardly speak with happiness because Jesus, Jesus! Yes, Jesus truly is become their realized Savior, their inseparable friend, their Almighty 'mate' and they know in truth that they are working with Him and He with them, both singing and bringing in His eternal harvest. After all, He did say, “I have called you friends.” Imagine that! “I have called you friends.”

Imagine a happiness that is rooted deeply in the overwhelming experiential knowledge of God as our true friend! Would that make you sing? Would that make you happy, make you merry, make you shout, make you sing and make you dance? I think it should.

Religious people hate making merry, but I tell you friend, spiritual people cannot live without merry making. so let me ask you: Are you sick of church, sick of a denominationally and doctrinally correct Jesus and longing for a slice of blue frog pie? Then start making a merry heart; YES MAKE ONE! Go on, take your medicine today and get the neighbors banging on the wall! Be happy right now beloved of Jesus, be happy! 


Today, choose singing, choose shouting, choose dancing, choose happiness, choose LIFE!

Listen:- Happy are the people whose God is the LORD! Psalm 144:15

Pray:- Lord let Your blessedness arise in me and o’er flow my lips in praise and smiles; miles and miles of smiles! O Sovereign Savior, dancing King, teach me to make war with Your joy and so conquer all my darkness with rooted and well practiced happiness. Amen and Hallelujah!

 

Jul | 01 | Making The Moon Stand Still

Dream Word – PROSPER

Zechariah 14:7 But at evening time it shall happen That it will be light. NKJV

Making The Moon Stand Still

Last night, yes I remember, last night my dreams were plagued with pictures of emptiness. Empty pockets, an empty head with no new ideas, an empty mouth with nothing to say, emptiness, emptiness, all was embarrassing emptiness, for you cannot bless others if you have nothing to give! My dream life last night was full of the sense of running out of resources of every kind.

The previous day had set the scene for my troubling night time, unconscious introspection. Finances were drying up, bills were howling to be paid and the yard sale money I had made that day, was quickly spent. I will not tell you what I bought with the yard sale money, but my wife had remarked that “We didn’t sell our stuff for you to frivol it away.” She was right, I had frivoled away my resources. Last night, yes I remember, last night in my dreams I came up empty, worried and embarrassed.

My male mid-life crisis, has been going on for twenty years now. It started when I reached the age of thirty. What I wouldn’t give to be thirty years of age right now! I look down the coming years and in another twenty years from this point of my journey, I shall be seventy and nearing the undertakers. Like many men my age now, I feel that I have accomplished little of my goals, little of my dreams and the felt destiny of my youth has ended in the so far, pale disappointment of the present. Last night, yes I remember, last night in my dreams I came up empty, worried and embarrassed. Yes it’s all very depressing. Maybe I have indeed, frivoled away my life resources.

However, tonight the moon in my sky is high and bright and I do remember that in a moment Jesus turned water into wine. I like that. That which was natural, plain and tasteless, became full and fruity, rich and robust, abundant in blessing, pleasing in taste, amazing in quality and all, in just a moment of time.
We have our days and they pass too quickly. Yet, God has His days and they last a thousand years! I believe that God can cram one of His days into one of ours! Yes, God can cram a thousand years of age into a single day. I believe that God can cram a thousand years of accomplishment into a day, a thousand years of blessing into a day, a thousand years of fruit into a single day! I believe that God can make us quantum leap into higher orbits of energy, activity, influence and light. More than this, I believe tonight in His moonlight, that He will do it for me. I believe tonight He will do it for you, if you ask Him.

I have often thought that God sheds old people like an oily old snake skin and of necessity, is always taken up with youth, always focusing on the next generation for His plans, always flirting with the younger models, yes, that God, like some lecherous old man, always has His eyes lusting on the possibilities bound up in the emerging generations. I have felt increasingly betrayed by God in this. I was wrong of course, for it is only this present world, this ever-changing culture, this machinery of convenience and consumption that looks so lecherously on the young and so disdainfully on the old. God is not disappointed with age, au contraire, He values it and calls us older folks to look at the promise land from far greater heights than any pimply youth could possibly do, than any big busted beauty would ever dare or want to do. Yes, God values age. He takes note of our callous feet, our scars, our wounds and our greater gasps for breath, especially if it is His breath we are gasping for. God gives hope to aged pilgrims, especially those who have not given up the fight.

Methinks as well, that God disdains the seeming disappointments of our older days and therefore, so should we! For God looks at the years the locust has eaten and says RESTORE! Yes, God looks at the coming evening of our lives and says to us before we sleep tonight, “But at evening time it shall happen, that it will be light.” NKJV Oh, please Lord, let it be so.

May your dreams this moonlit night, be full of hope, be full of expectancy, be full of fruit, be full of light, be full of possibilities, be full of strength, be full of might! May your dreams tonight be FULL of JESUS.

Listen:- Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.” Now there were set there six water pots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece. Jesus said to them, “Fill the water pots with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. And He said to them, “Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast.” And they took it. When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom. And he said to him, “Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now!” This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him. John 2:2-11 NKJV

Pray: -Lord, I believe, Lord I have to believe, Lord I do believe that You have kept the good wine until now. As the coming day is long O Lord, so let my strength be. As the coming day is long O Lord, so let Your light shine. As the coming day is long O Lord, lengthen it still further until I see ALL my dreams stand upright before me. O Lord of the whispering night, this night I command the moon to stand still in my valley of Aijalon until I have revenge upon all the enemies of my purpose, and victory over all my robbing darkness. Tomorrow, I will awake with a sword in my right hand and a trowel in my left and on my lips shall be the shout of victory. Lord I believe, amen!