Oct | 23 | Luther’s Lavatory

Key Word:- CONSIDER

Title:- Luther’s Lavatory

1 Samuel 24:3 So he came to the sheepfolds by the road, where there was a cave; and Saul went in to attend to his needs. (David and his men were staying in the recesses of the cave.)

 
Luther was apparently candid about his constipation. Suffering from such persistent ‘set backs,’ the great reformer spent many hours in watchful and seated contemplation. It was whilst ‘in cloaca’ (on the toilet) that he grappled with and eventually grasped the wonderful meaning of justification by faith alone. The rest of course is glorious history. My two points today are not a matter of crudity but rather a consideration that:
1) inspiration is by no means confined to the sanctuary and
2) that the grounds of our deliberation, wherever they may be, even ‘in cloaca,’ can become the place of His revelation.

Indeed, our verse today is the beginning of the story of King Saul's visit to the toilet. The Holy Spirit reveals to us, right here in Saul’s toilet, right here in this ordinary and regular event, the gigantic struggle of David with the Sovereignty of God. Imagine that! It is here that God speaks to David in powerful terms. It is of a very sad note that this visit to the bathroom will probably be the last time God speaks to Saul as well. At the very least friends, we should encourage ourselves that God is not barred from speaking in ANY arena of our lives and again, we should also take note, that it is not only the sanctuary that can become a Holy place.

Of course we would agree that God is not confined in His mercy or Self revelation to any building or time slot on a Sunday. This is the truth. It is also the most wonderful fact that we the church are God’s holy building, His awesome dwelling place! Whenever a goodly number of living stones come together it should be with the greatest expectation of mutual ministry! We should meet with God in one another and with Jesus in the middle of it all! We should expect the sparks to fly, the dead to live, the flesh to die! The gathered church should be the most exciting place on the planet. It makes you wonder what’s happened eh?

Like Luther of old, we may find that many of our churches have become destitute, debilitated or dead and subsequently, many of us are suffering from maladies that range from spiritual starvation to spiritual constipation. There’s nothing of any worth going into you and what is of great worth within you, is not being allowed out! We are constipated with rubbish and we are indeed, full of it! There’s a lot that needs to be worked out folks I know, but Luther at least reminds me that it can be done. But how?

Well, Luther’s constipation regularly took him to a not so fragrant place, where inspiration and revelation met and the world was changed forever. Now, I am convinced that in the selfless service of Jesus, we find out who we really are and we discover who He really is. So, how about you? Maybe you should seek a ‘not so fragrant’ place where your gifts and service will be used and where in their use, you will meet with the release of this revelation of who He truly is and who you truly are.

If it’s not working where you are, then you will forgive the metaphor I am sure, in that oftentimes, there is nothing else to do but get up, flush and then move on. Maybe some of you need to do just that?

Listen:- “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less this temple which I have built!” 

Pray: - Living Lord; Speaker of life; God of love. Feed me for I am hungry. Use me in your Kingdom and lead me to a place of service so that, that which You have placed within me may be used to Your glory, in Jesus name I pray, amen.

Oct | 23 | Non Magna Loquimur Sed Vivimus

Dream Word – GOODNESS

Acts 9:36-37 At Joppa there was a certain disciple named Tabitha, which is translated Dorcas. This woman was full of good works and charitable deeds which she did. NKJV.

Non Magna Loquimur Sed Vivimus

And she died.

The death of Dorcas, the old Christian Gazelle, had a profound impact upon the community in which she lived. So much so, that the saints decided that they would go and fetch an apostle to see what could be done! Peter and his entourage later turn up to the room of the deathbed scene, to find it packed with people all ‘a-weeping and a-wailing,’ each one clutching their garment and saying “Look! She made this for me. Sat up all night she did, God bless ‘er.” And another with one hand on Peter's shoulder and the other pointing to the cloak, neatly folded and well cared for she holds in her hand, “Look! She went without food for a week to buy me this, then tailored the cloth to fit my old round shoulders.” And another, then another, all clothed and warm, all pointing and praising, all weeping and watching just what Peter might do for them. So, Peter raises Dorcas from the dead and presents her to them alive. Her most necessary of serving and sewing days apparently still not over. Now I don’t know if Dorcas was happy about this turn of events, but all who loved her and had benefited from her full life of good deeds toward them for the glory of God, well, they were ecstatic!

My mother died two years before I became a Christian. Whilst serving in HMS Collingwood down in Portsmouth I was given the number of a Brigadeer in the Salvation army, a retired old woman whom I had never met. I rang the number, introduced myself and was immediately told “Ah yes, I met your mum before she died and led her to the Lord. Don’t worry, she’s with Jesus now.” I was stunned! How did this happen, how had I not known about it?

The old woman that had given me the number to call was my next door neighbour. A grand old gal called Olive Hinchcliffe, a former tambourine basher herself, Captain I think? My old mum was a hard worker, but bless her heart, she couldn’t sew for toffee, so it was this lady who lived next door to us who had for years, sewn up the holes in my trousers, altered the leg length on my school uniforms, bought me white shirts to wear for school and the most amazing text books at the beginning of each term. For years she had prayed for us and for me especially and for years had drip, drip, drip watered the parched and hard heart of my old mum's soul. When she was dying, the hardness had been so softened over the years that it was easy for Olive to introduce her Brigadeer friend to my mother’s own deathbed scene. Olive Hinchcliffe had never shared the Gospel with me or my mother, but her good works and prayers brought my mum and me both into the Kingdom of the Saviour she loved most dearly and honoured most profoundly.

In Joppa, another old woman, FULL of good works had drip, drip, drip watered the hearts of many people in the city. When Peter arrived and raised her from the dead and shared the source of such power with parched hearts now most thoroughly moistened, the rain of God was absorbed and life sprang anew, the tale of which, was carried far and wide from this great sea port of Joppa.

Two old ladies, Dorcas and Olive. Their motto was ‘Non Magna Loquimer Sed Vivimus’ – 'We do not speak great things but WE LIVE THEM!' What’s your motto tonight?

Listen: - ...and turning to the body he said, "Tabitha, arise." And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter she sat up. Then he gave her his hand and lifted her up; and when he had called the saints and widows, he presented her alive. And it became known throughout all Joppa, and many believed on the Lord. (Acts 9:40-43NKJV)

Pray:- Father, bring such women into our lives and make them honoured in our churches. Father, turn us into such old women we pray, that we might follow their hard working example and not only talk the talk, but more importantly walk the talk as well. In Jesus name I ask it, amen.

Oct | 22 | The Dough Boys & Mary Mallon

Key Word:- CHANGE

Title:- The Dough Boys & Mary Mallon

1 Corinthians 5:6 Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

It has been suggested that the ‘Bonus Marchers’ of 1932 forced the endearing name of ‘Dough Boys’ into disrepute. Several years after the stock market crash that brought on the great depression, thousands upon thousands of homeless veterans camped in Washington to try and gain their promised and long delayed war bonuses paid to them. They were eventually routed and removed from the capital. Though the appearance of the name was well before the early 20th century, the term 'Dough Boys' became the nomenclature of the American soldier during the First World War. In both world wars, there is no doubt that the introduction of the American war machine into endeavours of the Allies led to a rising strength of such proportions, that victory was eventually secured. It seems the dough boys carried the necessary yeast for the growth of victorious success, or to use its ancient name, the American 'Dough Boys' carried the necessary leaven.

Dough girl, ‘Typhoid Mary’ Mallon, was a somewhat healthy carrier of the disease in New York at the beginning of the 21st Century. Though not succumbing to the disease herself, she never the less spread Typhoid wherever she was employed. Caught from her, a number of people died of Typhoid Fever. Despite her eventually knowing she was a carrier, Mary refused to remove herself from society. Finally, Mary Mallon was forcefully isolated from the wider community for over 23 years, until her death on North Brother Island. Her dough girl name of ‘Typhoid Mary’, a knowing spreader of disease and death, is now an infamous term in the English language. Remember this, for our verse today carries a principle of nature which has obvious parallels in the spiritual realm. Here it is, ‘Active ingredients of any kind have the tendency to spread!’

I would broadly describe an active ingredient in the sense of it being: any observed, acquired, felt attitude or action. For example: courage spreads, so does fear! Goodness spreads, so does evil. Excitement and anticipation are contagious, so is depression and so is malaise! See what I mean? “Active ingredients of any kind have the tendency to spread!” For life's sake then, dealing with the general principle we can say this: “Those active ingredients beneficial to the growth of the body need enhancing and those which bring death, need removing.”

The principal is clear. When the ‘Dough Boys’ of despair camp in our capitol, they need to be removed. When our ‘Typhoid Mary’s’ spread disease amongst the body, they need to be isolated. In our verse for tonight, the apostle Paul is encouraging the church in Corinth to do just that. As individuals today, we also need to examine ourselves and deal with ourselves in these areas. What infectious death do we carry with us?

My last word and final counsel today is important. Our attitude in these things needs to be one of grace. Before you let loose the terrible troops and the hard health inspectors upon yourselves or your churches, let there be grace. Where there is sin, let it be repented of. Where there is dysfunction, let it be corrected. Where there is disease, let it be cured, let it be healed. Be firm friends; be specific but let love have its way. Especially with yourself! Yes at the beginning of this day, in Christ’s all forgiving grace, be so serious with your cleansing, that you might be better in the evening, even healed, restored and clean.

Listen:-But the end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers. And above all things have fervent love for one another, for “love will cover a multitude of sins.” 1 Peter 4:7-8 

Pray: - Lord, heal me of all my infectious diseases. Lord, remove from my heart those malcontents that disrupt my very being. Lord let grace flow and be the balm of Gilead to my body and to Your body the church, in Jesus name I pray, amen.

 

Oct | 22 | Of Blow Holes in The Barley Corn

Dream Word – SEE


Ruth 2:2-4 Naomi said to her, "Go ahead, my daughter." So she went out and began to glean in the fields behind the harvesters. As it turned out, she found herself working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelech. Just then Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the harvesters, "The Lord be with you!" NIV

Of Blow Holes in The Barley Corn

I love the Old Testament Book of Ruth and the verses in our text for tonight, are probably my favourites from the whole of the book. Of course, being a lover of God’s deeps, I like these verses in particular, because of the two great whales that break the surface of the crashing waves and spout their presence abroad for all the world to see. Do you see them?

The scene is set for us in the book, when the pleasant Naomi has returned in marred bitterness to her former country, clan and city. Naomi left with her husband and two sons for Moab, just ten years previously. She did so because there was no bread in Bethlehem, yes, there was no bread in ‘the house of bread,’ there was no singing in Judah, ‘the land of praise!’

In those ten years away from her homeland, she lost her husband and two sons to tragic deaths and gained two lovely, but very needy daughters in law, one of whom, despite her best efforts, she could not shake from her dead apron strings and so had to drag her back to Bethlehem, to want, to ridicule, to gossip and to incessant questioning.

It has been rightly said that 'God planted a garden and man created the cities but the devil made the small town!' Here, in the goldfish bowl of Bethlehem, all Naomi’s poverty and despondency, all of her bitter declarations of the hand of the Lord going out against her, could be seen and heard by everyone and oh the gossip my friends, oh the looks, oh the condemnation, oh the accusation, oh the intense intrigue and the consistent observation of this beautiful foreigner called Ruth. My goodness friends, if it wasn’t for the whales of God’s presence, if it wasn’t for the warm mammals of Gods providence, if it wasn’t for these two giants of His goodness breaking the surface of these deep and troubled waters, then all in the story would be nothing but bleak despondency. Thank God for the whales! Do you see them yet?

This story has a good ending though. Ruth the Moabites, shall be loved by Boaz, in whom is great strength, courage, and cash! Yes, Naomi shall at last be blessed, she shall be well taken care of and children shall bounce upon her knee and from this foreign exchange, shall eventually come David the King and Christ the Saviour! At this point in the story, a testimony to God’s greatness and overwhelming and coming goodness, are the whales. Do you see them yet?

Those two whales are called “As it turned out” and ‘Just then.” An even bigger one of these giants, seen mostly spouting amongst the covers of the New Testament, is called “But God!” That’s a special one though, because it can only be seen with the eyes of faith. This particular pair however, called “As it turned out” and ‘Just then,” can be seen quite clearly on the horizon of our lives almost each and every day. Do you see them yet?

Do you know that ‘whale watching’ is akin to hearing the voice of God? Oh yes, when God speaks from the sky, some will recognize it and be both blessed and warmed, others will say it was ‘merely thunder.’ In similar manner, when folks see this pair of whales break the surface of their lives, some will cry mere ‘coincidence’ but those who shall be truly blessed by whales, shall praise the Lord! Yes, they shall raise their sail of faith, they shall prepare their nets for a great catch of fish and hope shall feed the hunger, until the catch comes in.
Whales, don’t you love them? Do you see them yet?

Listen: - So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. Then he went to her, and the Lord enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. The women said to Naomi: "Praise be to the Lord, who this day has not left you without a kinsman-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel! He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth." Then Naomi took the child, laid him in her lap and cared for him. The women living there said, "Naomi has a son." And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David. This, then, is the family line of Perez: Perez was the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, Salmon the father of Boaz, Boaz the father of Obed, Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David. Ruth 4:13-22 NIV

Pray:- Lord tomorrow and always on the horizon of my life, may I see the whales of Your goodness, Your care, Your provision and Your presence, break the surface of all my waiting seas, in Jesus name I pray, amen!

Oct | 21 | From Ruin to Reigning!

Key Word:- POWER

Title:- From Ruin to Reigning!

2 Samuel 10:25
Then Samuel explained to the people the behaviour of royalty, and wrote it in a book and laid it up before the LORD

Saul was Israel’s first ruling monarch. The prophet Samuel moved by the Holy Spirit had to explain to the new king and the people, just how royalty behaves itself including all of its demands, as well as all of its commands, all of its privileges and all of its procedures!

So it is with Christians. Once we come to Jesus, the Holy Spirit takes us and fully immerses us into His body, the church. So much so that we are thoroughly united to Him our Head and are regarded as actually seated with Christ in the heavenlies! Being then fully adopted sons of the Most High God, we should then be living like princes and not like paupers? However, we all know that presently, many of us are in the ruins of poverty and apathy, rather than reigning in the riches and dynamic of His great and glorious grace! We the ignorant, have so much to learn don't we? We the blind, have so much yet to see?

Jesus has ‘loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.’ Revelation 1:5-6  Wonderful! Why then dear friends are so much of heaven's royalty scratching around in the dirt and living like spiritual paupers? Why are the warrior kings of Jesus, those who are, because of Him, MORE THAN CONQUERORS through His love and His blood, slaughtered on the field and manacled in the dirty dungeons of doubting castle? Well, I am convinced that part of the problem is that we have not been taught to live like kings! Or if we have, then we have failed to put these things into practice and consequently we have not been spiritually formed. Consider this friend, that some of the disciplines of the Spirit for our spirit are indeed the basics of: Bible study, prayer, meditation, community, gatherings, joy, etc. All of these, though not an end in themselves, when spiritually practiced, take us to Jesus, who in turn teaches us to behave like royalty and who teaches us to live like kings! Now who wouldn’t want to live like that?

It was years ago when I was training at a local boxing gym that I saw the handwriting on the wall. Literally, there behind the swinging punch bag, daubed on the mouldy plaster were these true words,  “Failure to prepare? Prepare to fail!” Today then friends, look at the writing on your wall and prepare to face your spiritual formation like a boxer preparing for a big fight. Get ready to wage war, get fighting fit and live like warrior kings reigning on the earth! Come on! Get to it!

Listen:- And they sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals; For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, And have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth.” Revelation 5:9-10 

Pray: - Jesus help me! Lift me from my ash heap and teach me to live like Your son; teach me to live like more than a conqueror; teach me to live like a reigning king!

 

Oct | 21 | Nasal Drips

Dream Word – SEE

Ezekiel 8:17,18 And He said to me, "Have you seen this, O son of man? Is it a trivial thing to the house of Judah to commit the abominations which they commit here? For they have filled the land with violence; then they have returned to provoke Me to anger. Indeed they put the branch to their nose. Therefore I also will act in fury. My eye will not spare nor will I have pity; and though they cry in My ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them." NKJV

Nasal Drips

This time of year, this time of leaf changing, this time of chemical release from dying vegetation, always leaves me allergically congested. Subsequently, my nose runs a little, just a little and my sinus’s slowly drain down the back of my throat, trickling tickly-ness into an annoying cough and a constant clearing of the throat. It is annoying and all the throat-clearing makes it sound like I am about to say something very, very important! However all I say is “Excuse me,” to those living on the edge of such expectorant expectancy, which as we all know, can be so very tiring.

Our text for tonight, is about to say something very important, but the exact meaning of that little phrase, ‘put the branch to their nose’ is widely misunderstood amongst the Biblical commentators. In any event friends, whatever it means is an irrelevance really, for the focus of the text is not so much on the heinous practice itself, but rather the response from God to it. Whatever this nasal insult was, it became such a grievous and gross insult, such a putrid and offensive stench to His bitter and outraged heart that it perniciously provoked Him to both an astonishing and outraged anger! Yup, this secret sinning, this ‘putting the branch to the nose,’ this indulgence in idolatrous and outrageous obscenity, caused such a ‘Divine Nasal Drip’ that God coughed Himself to such a fuming fury that He phlegmed out Isreal from His Holy and congested lungs!

Make no mistake about it, the outcome of such coughing fury did result in dire and dreadful decimation, dissolution and desolation of Israel. Indeed, if God Himself had not chosen to save Himself a remnant of those who both sighed and cried at the loathsome state that their nation had gotten itself into, then the apple of God’s eye would surely have lain forever rotting upon the sodden soil.

Tonight I have to tell you that I have seen the secret sins of His leaders and His so-called prophets of today. I have seen the secret sins of God’s people today. I have seen the present indifference of God in their lives, in our lives, in the life of the church at large; it is so bad that it leads me to conclude that God is not watching, indeed that even maybe, there is no God!

If I have seen the secret sin, then make no mistake GOD HAS SEEN IT TOO!

Look! God sees! Look at the land! See the famine, see the disease of man and beast, see the fear, see the war, see the tear. Hear the vines now long since dead, crackle in the fire. Hear the other nations and the foreign cultures, now at home within us, suck the marrow from the dry bones left, see the violation of His law look at the rape of His love, be astonished at the idols now moved from the secret chambers of the heart and paraded high on haughty shoulders! Look! God sees! Look at the land!

I tell you tonight that whatever you, or your nation has put to your nose in the very face of the Lord Christ, shall cause such a fit of righteous coughing, that the very lungs you breathe with shall fill your gasping mouth with death.

Unless the idols are dealt with, the earth in all its fullness and God in all His fury shall turn against us completely.

Listen: - "'Therefore, whore, listen to God's Message: I, God, the Master, say, Because you've been unrestrained in your promiscuity, stripped down for every lover, flaunting your sex, and because of your pornographic idols and all the slaughtered children you offered to them, therefore, because of all this, I'm going to get all your lovers together, all those you've used for your own pleasure, the ones you loved and the ones you loathed. I'll assemble them as a courtroom of spectators around you. In broad daylight I'll strip you naked before them — they'll see what you really look like. Then I'll sentence you to the punishment for an adulterous woman and a murderous woman. I'll give you a taste of my wrath! "'I'll gather all your lovers around you and turn you over to them. They'll tear down your bold brothels and sex shrines. They'll rip off your clothes, take your jewels, and leave you naked and exposed. Then they'll call for a mass meeting. The mob will stone you and hack you to pieces with their swords. They'll burn down your houses. A massive judgment — with all the women watching! "'I'll have put a full stop to your whoring life — no more paying lovers to come to your bed! By then my anger will be played out. My jealousy will subside. "'Because you didn't remember what happened when you were young but made me angry with all this behavior, I'll make you pay for your waywardness. Didn't you just exponentially compound your outrageous obscenities with all your sluttish ways? Ezekiel 16:35-43 from THE MESSAGE

Pray: -Lord tonight we remember our sins. We beg forgiveness for the sins of our nation, its people and its leaders. We ask for mercy regarding the secret sins of Your church in both its leaders and its people. We ask for forgiveness and cleansing for our secret sins, our bad love idols, our kept grievances, festering angers, and unforgiving hearts. Oh, Lord tonight we cast down our idols. Have mercy upon us and restore us we pray, in the mighty name of Jesus, amen.

Oct | 20 | Equilibrium

Key Word:- TRUST

Title:- Equilibrium

1 Timothy 6:6-10 Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

Kurt Wimmer's 2002 film "Equilibrium" starring Christian Bale is a futuristic drama set after WW III where the world government eradicates emotion through the introduction of medication for the masses. With the futuristic drug 'Prozium' shutting down the ability to feel, they then outlaw all emotions and in so doing, world peace is finally secured. It's an interesting proposition.

Equilibrium is defined as a 'state of intellectual or emotional balance.' This of course will lead to 'poise', that is, a calm and unflustered state in the face of opposing or divergent influences. In other words when we have equilibrium, whatever hits us or happens to us, our reaction is zero, or at the very least minimal. We maintain our poise, our inner peace, our equilibrium, we are unshakable and unmoved! Wouldn't we all like to be like that? Ahh 'Grasshopper,' what peace, what power!

The rise of Eastern thought and practice in the wild, wild West, is indicative that people are seeking peace and power over their lives from somewhere, anywhere! However for Hollywood Buddhists, the fast pace of life, the high cost of living, 'keeping up with the Jones's' and the constant persistent powerful pressure to acquire, lead far too many of them into dire and desperate circumstances of anxiety and that includes the rich and famous. The taunting twins of fear of material loss and resultant cultural shame, are in the west, terribly hard taskmasters to avoid. At all costs, we must be materially successful. It would appear that sure serenity is hard to come by even in Hollywood Buddhists!

Even more people have abandoned any hope of seeming cultural success and would settle for some simple material survival. They would just like to pay the credit card bills; they would just like to get out of the plastic trap! However we all know that the West takes no prisoners if you surrender to material failure. So millions of us swim on upstream, in a consistent and desperate attempt to survive these sucking and driving currents of material success. It's all so tiring and the truth of it is that, in less than 100 years from now, the present 6 billion people of the population of planet earth shall all be food for worms. We are walking flesh sacks of good earth fertilizer!

All of this blind chasing and acquiring, takes it's toll on us and any semblance of peace and poise is eaten up by the Anakim of anxiety and the presence of perpetual panic and it's following friend of deep fatigue. This diabolical trio of anxiety, panic and fatigue, are so debilitating, that they are consequently hurried and hidden from, in bottles of various unacceptable and respectable kinds: Whiskey, Wine, Prozac, Lexapro, Cocaine, Smoke, and any dope that's on a rope to hang us out to die. The places we find to hide from the terrible trio are as numerous as they are ultimately, ineffective. The 'Capitalist Christian' response has been to 'Health it and to Wealth' it, to 'Believe it and to Receive it', to 'Name it and then to Claim it'. Just get it while you can, 'cause once you've got it brother, my oh my, you are a blessed and twice blessed man. What a lie friends, what a lie! We are in truth, sacks of fertilizer and food for worms, and don't you dare forget it!

Lack of true peace and serenity in our lives leaves a powerful all consuming black hole at the centre of our being! This is no joke. For I think things have gotten so bad that if there was such a thing as mass medication that did in fact deliver the desired peace and slew the giants of anxiety, panic and deep fatigue, then you would not have to force too many people to take it! Maybe there already exists some mass medication? Maybe the opiate for the masses is no longer false religion, but television? The tantalizing tube that tells us, takes us, tortures us and tempts us with things to be desired and acquired, to foil and fool the fatigue of anxiety and panic into silence and then give us some poisoned relaxation.

What if though, just consider this, what if fatigue, anxiety and panic were in fact our friends? What if rather than suppressing them, we should embrace them? What if rather than quietening them, we should listen to them? What if they were gifts rather than jailers? What if they were eternal electronic alarm bells that were shrieking to us "DANGER" and "WARNING?" What if fatigue was a gift to slow us down and make us think? But no, we don't see them as gifts at all, on the contrary, it seems we would rather remove the batteries from these disturbing devices, rather than question them.

I wonder friend, if you dare today, in your fatigued nightmares of panic and anxiety, turn to the charging tigers and ask them some serious questions? Questions like: Who are you? What do you want? What's wrong with me? What should I do? Why am I so desperately tired? Maybe if we did this, these all devouring beasts we run from would in fact turn into pussy cats and sit upon our thankful laps, purring along with us at our at last, acquired peace, even our heavenly equilibrium? It's worth thinking about don't you think? Well do you? THINK?

Listen:- "I have had a dream, and my spirit is anxious to know the dream." Daniel 2:3b…

"…do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind. For all these things the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knows that you need these things. But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you. Luke 12:29-31

Pray: - Help me Oh great tiger tamer of old to turn and face these three devouring beasts. Grant me the grace of space in time, and the courage to look and ask. Oh God, find me a quiet rock in this running stream, that I might bathe myself in the sunshine of Your love. In Jesus name , amen.

 

Oct | 20 | Angel Delight

Dream Word – CONSIDER

Psalms 8:3-4 When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him? NKJV.

Angel Delight

Ever and always, the Scriptures present the angelic creation as occupying higher realms, as being higher beings possessing higher powers, in every respect their capacities in each and every way, making them more awesome and richer than humanity could ever appear to be!

C.S. Lewis whilst acknowledging our confused and glass darkened senses, gives thanks for such present befuddlement, such witchery of the senses, and then most majestically lays out for us a golden thought tonight. Will you listen:

Far richer they! I know senses’ witchery
Guards us, like air, from heavens too big to see;
Imminant death to man that barb’d sublimity
And dazzling edge of beauty unsheathed would be
Yet here. Within this tiny, charm’d interior,
This parlour of the brain, their Maker shares
With living men some secrets in a privacy
Forever ours, not theirs.
(from the Poem – ‘On Being Human’ - C.S. Lewis )

The angels know of both our design and our direction.

Yes, they are well aware of both our fall and of our coming exaltation and among them all, I wonder if this chatter of the ages, spread to some like cancerous jealousy and caused them to fall and plummet, down to the depths beneath, in all consuming and envious desperation? Even so, what we the redeemed are now and what we shall soon, so very soon become, are for the good angels of the good God, things which they ever and always, both desire and delight to look into, for they understand, that the secrets of redemption which have been planted by the Holy Spirit, like loving seeds in the dead ground of a poor man’s soul, shall at the adoption, even the redemption of our bodies, lead to another Genesis, the like of which is only told of in the longing cries of a groaning creation, presently, all gone wrong.

I wonder if we each have a personal and private inner sanctuary, even in our hearts the very dwelling place of the Most High, a secret place of private audiences with our Father, where we laugh at wondrous love and together sing away our cares, and unwrap His silver secrets in a privacy forever ours, that can be never theirs?

Listen: Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. To them it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven --- things which angels desire to look into. (1 Peter 1:10-12)

Pray:- Dad, do please deliver me from distraction, just for a little bit even, that we together may look deep into Your magnificent midnight, whilst you help me take the wrapping of all the singing and silver secrets of the skies, which tell of the glories yet to come, the glories of that other Genesis. Amen.

Oct | 19 | Just Look at Jepthah

Key Word:- CONSIDER

Title:- Just Look at Jepthah

Proverbs 15:1 A soft answer turns away wrath, But a harsh word stirs up anger.


Guys are particularly prone to this. Let me now set for you a true scene. As a hurting outcast, your ‘stinky’ family now recognize your gifts, talents and abilities and have begged you to lay your life on the line and to deliver them from destruction. They purchase your love with the desperation of their circumstance. You have accepted the offer and have in turn, hazarded both your life and the lives of your followers in gaining what you have longed for all your life, R.E.S.P.E.C.T.

You have just returned from battle. You are tired and weary and to top it all, a vow you made before the conquest concerning your offspring and what you will do if you gain victory, means that on this great day of achieving your goals and winning the war, you have in fact, lost your lovely daughter. She shall not marry; she shall not bear you grandchildren. What should have turned out to be the happiest day of your life, is the most miserable. Now, at this most inappropriate moment (isn’t it always like that?) here they come, the Ephraimites, looking for trouble.

The Ephraimites were powerful and political, but they weren’t at the battle. With caustic, arrogant and unbelievable insensitivity they approach you, drag up the past and your shaky credentials and then have the audacity to say, “Why didn’t you call us to be your allies in the battle! Who do you think you are! We’re going to burn your house down about your head for this!” (Judges 12:1) Now tell me, what would you do guys? I think I know what you would do? You’d smash their faces in! Just look at Jepthah! He did exactly the same and over 42,000 Ephraimites were slain!

It is of note that the judge Gideon, when confronted by the same spirit, in the same problem people, massaged their egos and averted a great slaughter. Judges 8:1,2 reads, ‘Now the men of Ephraim said to him (Gideon), “Why have you done this to us by not calling us when you went to fight with the Midianites?” And they reprimanded him sharply. So he said to them, “What have I done now in comparison with you? Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer? God has delivered into your hands the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb. And what was I able to do in comparison with you?” Then their anger toward him subsided when he said that.

The answer of Gideon does not sit well with most men. We would rather just look at Jepthah’s response and say, “serves you right! Idiots” However, forgetting the unbelievably stupid Ephraimites, who had now taken the dog by the ears, let’s just look a little longer at Jepthah, who in response to these very harsh words, now begins to snarl viciously, reveal his teeth and then bite their lips off! All 42,000 of them in fact. It’s really nasty.

The cause of this unnecessary slaughter is quite simply, a combination of some angry words and a harsh response. It’s as simple as that! Though on a different scale, the frightening truth is that we often re-enact this same scene, in our marriages, families, work places and churches. Indeed, in my own life, without justifying the stupidity and malevolence of others, I look back and often wish I had chosen a softer response to some harsh words. If you have been around a while, you no doubt have the same wishes.

Friends, today, let us give God the past and pray for the redemption of those misplaced words and let us just look a little longer at Jepthah and make sure we do not continue to make the same mistake.

By the way. If there are any energized Ephraimites out there, may I say this to you today?....... “Shut up and grow up !”

Listen:- He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, And he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city. Proverbs 16:32

Pray: - Lord, give me the wisdom and help me seize the opportunity to breathe deeply and at least count to ten before opening my mouth. Make me mightier than Jepthah and a ruler over my own spirit. In Jesus name I pray, amen.

 

Oct | 19 | Building Chantries

Dream Word – HAPPY

Ephesians 5:19 …..speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord….NKJV

Building Chantries

Many evenings, my wife and I take an hour’s walk together. In the Kentucky countryside, past all the entrances to the 'hollers' where the black top ends and amongst the brush and on the green hillsides, which are sometimes speckled with light blue cornflowers, or sometimes freckled with the rich red leaves of disrobing hardwood trees getting ready to go to sleep for winter and the pumpkin orange of the earth’s chubby, child-like cheeks, full of falls fatness at winter's beckoning bedtime, you can see the cold, angle ironed markers, still stuck upright in the dark and bloody ground. These property markers might be in the right legal place, but they are completely out of place amongst the singing beauty, standing rusty and uncamouflaged amongst the foliage, sometimes flagged with pink fluorescent plastic ribbons and all shouting out the various property lines, of a people proud to own a piece of American pie. Yup, personal real estate is especially important in Kentucky. The rusted poles of old angle iron might be more permanent than the old wooden staves previously used, but still rather unsightly.

My hometown, over a thousand years ago, was once an Anglo-Saxon settlement in the center of a meadow called a ‘Lea.’ Records show that some sixty acres of this ‘Lea’ land had alrerady been marked off by wooden staves and designated for a new town area. After the battle of Hastings in 1066, William the Conqueror gave this same area of Staveley, as a victory present to one his warriors. The Normans had finally arrived in my hometown.

The family of that warrior, ‘Ascuit Musard,’ held Staveley for generations until the death of Nicholas Musard, a Roman Catholic priest, who, because he could not legally leave his land to his bastard children, had his property dispersed among his sisters, one of whom married ‘Anker De Frechville, Baron of Crich.’ The Frechville’s left their mark on Staveley in the form of the old and well haunted Hagge farm, Manor house, Rectory and of course, a Chantry, some parts of which date back to the thirteenth century, well before the ownership and sponsorship of the Frechville family.

A Chantry is a private chapel, where a priest sang or chanted psalms for the soul of the founder. The religious rich have always had their spiritual insurance policies, paying those they believed to have the ear of God to intercede on their behalf. A Chantry was such a place, a place of paid private prayer, praise and supplication for the person who had enough in his wallet to make it so.Yet I tell you tonight, that I like the idea of a Chantry. I like the idea of a private place of singing psalms and chanting some choice songs of the spirit.

Today in his devotional ‘My Utmost for His Highest,’ Oswald Chambers, from a speech to Theological students says, “It is not the practical activities that are the strength of this Bible training College – it’s entire strength lies in the fact that here you are immersed in the truths of God to soak in them before Him. You have no idea of where or how God is going to engineer your future circumstances, and no knowledge of what stress and strain is going to be placed on you either at home or abroad. And if you waste your time in over activity, instead of being immersed in the great fundamental truths of God’s redemption, then you will snap when the stress and strain do come.” How true and friends and I am afraid, how descriptive of the modern-day Christian.

I have seen many Christians ‘snap’ and I do not want to be one of them. So tomorrow, I am going to build a room for singing psalms. Tomorrow I am going to pay the price to hear some happy hymns sung in my heart. Tomorrow I am going to set some spiritual songs to some merry music and sing them with my Father. Yes tomorrow, this priest of the most High God is going to build a Chantry in a chamber of his heart and take some time each day thereafter to retreat into it and sing some songs of glory, sing some songs of my redemption, sing some psalms of praise, sing some songs of happy hope!

Tonight then, let us rest underneath His lullaby of love in Jesus and tomorrow let us each build ourselves a Chantry.

Listen: - O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear; And in the night season, and am not silent. But You are holy, Enthroned in the praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted in You; They trusted, and You delivered them. They cried to You, and were delivered; They trusted in You, and were not ashamed. Psalms 22:2-5 NKJV

Pray: -I will sing unto the Lord for He has triumphed gloriously the horse and rider thrown into the sea. The Lord is God and I will praise Him, my Father’s God and I will extol Him!

Oct | 18 | The Big Kahuna

Key Word:- CHOOSE

Title:- The Big Kahuna

Matthew 13:44
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”

 
“Seawards Folly” was finally purchased today in 1867 from the Russians for a mere $7 million. A massive 591,000 square miles of land, this territory twice the size of Texas and equal to nearly a fifth of the continental United States, was acquired by President Andrew Johnson’s Secretary of State, William Seward, who saw the purchase of gigantic Alaska as a chance to cheaply expand the size of the nation. For years, Seaward's critics would ridicule him for purchasing the largest icebox in existence, that is, until the discoveries of vast quantities of gold and oil, proving Alaska to be a seeming untapped and limitless, national treasure trove.

Jesus says today, BUY, BUY, BUY! Buy the field, get the treasure, be the trading merchant who discovers the pearl of great price and sells all that he has to get it. Jesus is clearly saying that when we have Him, for He is the pearl of great price, when we possess the kingdom, for that is the treasure in the field, we have acquired something of inestimable and indescribable value; something exceeding abundantly above and beyond all that we can ask about or think about. This treasure we possess will provide for us an eternal and infinite unfolding income of blessing and adventure, which we cannot begin to properly dream about, for we quite simply do not have the capacity to comprehend our possession!

However, unlike the purchase of Alaska, this acquisition will not be cheap. It will cost you everything you have. Everything! It is the same price tag for one and all. It is the same price tag for the very rich and the very poor, it will cost you everything.

Some of us possess a whole lot more of nothing than other people. Condo’s, commodities, temporal futures, stock holdings, cars, houses, ‘bling bling’ of all kinds, jingly jangly, shiny, glittering, presently all powerful, rust and rot! For that’s the lot of all you’ve got in the end. Naked you came and naked, yes sir, buck, stark staring naked, you shall go. Never the less it is always a continual horror to me regarding the 240 volt, shaking electric life-killing grip these earthly treasures, these expensive ruins, have on many of us. Jesus was right, it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God. In this respect we can say in truth, “blessed are the poor.”

Over 6 billion people are alive on planet earth at the moment. In less than 100 years we shall all be food for worms. Don’t plan for the next 30 years but rather plan for the next 3 trillion. Where are you going to be then and where is everything you love and long for going to be?

Know for sure these two things. Following Jesus, will cost you everything. Following Jesus will gain for you more than you can ever imagine.

Listen:- But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” 1 Corinthians 2:9

Pray: - Blessed Holy Spirit You have revealed, according to our present capacity, a little of what we possess. Through dark glasses we have strained to see Zion, our city of destiny, the city of God. Lord, the rumours we have heard and the writings we have read, excite our little hearts. Today take our lives, take everything we have and are and will be. Take us Lord, and make us Lord, sons of the Living God, possessors of a vast inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled, reserved in heaven for us. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.

 

Oct | 18 | Boondockers

Dream Word – OBEY


Titus 1:5 For this reason I left you in Crete, that you should set in order the things that are lacking, and appoint elders in every city as I commanded you — NKJV

Boondockers


'Boondock' is a word originating in the Tagalog language of the Philippines and originally meaning ‘Mountain.’ This word has been adopted by contemporary culture to mean any remote area, culturally isolated from the rest of culture, forming its own distinctive culture. ‘Boondocks’ is just another word for ‘Country.’

The Country group ‘Little Big Town’ in 2007 released a hit song of the same name. Following the vocal tendencies of the ‘Starland Vocal Band’ unlike most modern bands, they do not have a designated lead singer, but rather each singer takes the lead as is necessary and appropriate.

I think our local churches would harmonize much better if the local leaders stood shoulder to shoulder. I think our local churches would function better if all the King Saul’s, standing head and shoulders above everyone else were reduced somewhat in status. I think churches then maybe would harmonize better and as a real little big town, would function better, would feel less shame, would be proud of one another, would keep hearts alive and souls in shape, fish better together, learn more about living together, learn more about loving and most of all, learn more about Jesus. Yes, if the lead singers were shoulder to shoulder, harmonizing, leading each other, and letting others free into their destinies, then what a revolution our churches would undergo. Oh that our churches would function less like cities with a Mayor to lead them, and more like little big towns with a council of servants to wash their feet and tend their wounds, shepherding them into God’s love.

I am speaking to leaders tonight. Let me ask you, “What are you? A big man on campus or a boondocker?” Beware if you are head and shoulders above anyone else in leadership. Beware if you think you should be!

I am afraid the only correction for this tall condition is either decapitation, or that you big and tall people place your head and shoulders below the knees of the people whose feet you are washing. If you refuse to do this, then watch out big boy, for troubles a-coming and it’s only a matter of when.

Listen: - Your fierceness has deceived you,The pride of your heart,O you who dwell in the clefts of the rock,Who hold the height of the hill!Though you make your nest as high as the eagle,I will bring you down from there," says the Lord. Jeremiah 49:16 NKJV

Pray:- From heaven you came, helpless babe, entered our world, Your glory veiled; not to be served but to serve, and give Your life That we might live. You are our God, the servant king, You calls us now to follow You, to bring our lives as a daily offering, of worship to You, the Servant King. Tonight great king, I enthrone You in my heart, I kneel before Your majesty and don Your apron of servanthood, bowing my head and shoulders beneath the knees of others. Let it be so on the morrow and until the end of time, for Your glory and my growth, amen.

Oct | 17 | Shades of ‘Jesus’

Key Word:- OBEY

Title:- Shades of ‘Jesus’

Proverbs 18:10 The name of the LORD is a strong tower; The righteous run to it and are safe.

A soldier, a peacekeeper, somewhere in a worn torn country, gingerly makes his way through the blackened shell of a now grotesquely, gutted house. The quietness and the too familiar smell hits him as he approaches the cracked open door of the inner room. Rifle at the ready, he slips in and beholds the carnage. Before the small child’s remains, his very being crumples like pressed paper and from his angry mouth slips the words, “Oh Jesus.”

The house seemed empty. Her 50th Birthday and no one had remembered. The children had flown the coop years ago, and were now across country, far, far away, taking care of their own families and business. He had taken their red Coupe, all their savings, found a younger model and after 30 years of marriage, was taking care of the other woman’s family now. No one, it seemed, cared for her. The Sunday school had helped and the pills, some, but there seemed nothing that could take away the pain of returning to an empty house, an empty bed. She flicked the switched and the roar of the word hit her “Surprise!”.  Leaping up from behind the furniture, underneath balloons and banners and falling streamers, were the happy faces of her children, her grandchildren and her dearest friends. Faces full of care, now filled the aching void of her tired mind. She lifted up her hands and pressed her shaking fingers to her cheeks cupping her astonished jaw and out slipped the wondrous words, “Oh Jesus.”

The X rays were not clear. The mass was visible even to the untrained eye. The doctors words echoed in the distance, and seemed to be heard from an unreal and ‘other’ place. “I’m so sorry, we shall do all we can of course but…….” Staring straight ahead, his astonished facial muscles were fixed in unbelief, yet his mouth still moved and out slipped the words again, “Oh Jesus.”

Not far way in another building, a brand new father is given a tiny bundle. His wife lays exhausted, sweaty and smiling on the bed before him, but in the blanket wriggles a new life, full of energy. Things will never be the same again. With two fingers he gently pulls back the blanket and reveals the new pink flesh, the damp black hair and the palest, bluest eyes. He shakes his head and tastes the salty tear that has rolled down his cheek and slipped into the corner of his smile. With a sigh he says, “Oh Jesus.”

To His dearly beloved, to His chosen children; His name alone is prayer poured fourth. The new man, the hidden heart, moved by the Holy One indwelling us, takes His wonderful name and whether birthed upon our lips in anger, in despair, or in happiness, or thankfulness, takes that saving name, and be it from our mountain tops of exultation, or our darkest morgues of mourning, sets it in its many shades of clear and spoken colours; carefully shaping it, into pleading petitions, arrows of thankfulness, cries for mercy, calls for help, courage, clarity, or closeness and gently lays them before the Mighty throne of God most High. “Oh Jesus,” “Oh Jesus,” “Oh Jesus.”

Listen:- Your name is ointment poured forth; …….S.O.S. 1:3b

Pray: - Lord. When words are not enough, let me find Your name alone to be more than enough. Oh Jesus, Oh Jesus, Oh Jesus, amen.

 

Oct | 17 | Of Replacing your dry wall dust with the vigour of Rhino!

Dream Word – DESIRE

Genesis 30:14-16
 Now Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, "Please give me some of your son's mandrakes." But she said to her," Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son's mandrakes also?" And Rachel said, "Therefore he will lie with you tonight for your son's mandrakes." When Jacob came out of the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, "You must come in to me, for I have surely hired you with my son's mandrakes." And he lay with her that night. NKJV

Replacing your dry wall dust with the vigour of a Rhino!

I was in a large food supplement store recently looking for some powerful vitamins and was once again overwhelmed by the choice before me. “Can I help you today?” Says the assistant. So I explain my need and requirement of information to make the right decision and he looks at me with piercing eyes and says, “Well, let me guess, I am pretty sure you are in your fifties so I would recommend…” Astonished I replied, “In my fifties! I might soon be knocking on the mid-century door mate but I’m not there yet!” I was not well pleased.

I became a Christian when I was in my nineteenth year and being nearly in my fifties, (at the time of writing this) I have been walking with God for nearly thirty years and tonight, being such an expert on walking with God, I have been invited to speak at a Presbyterian church about the need for a strong devotional life. I shall of course, be talking about the need for some real spiritual Viagra.
Our text for tonight makes reference to Mandrakes. These are part of the potato family and are also linked to ‘Belladonna’ or, ‘Deadly Nightshade.’ They are referred to as ‘The Devil’s fruit’ or ‘Love Apples’ and the reason for this, is that they are in effect, an aphrodisiac! It is not just for their mild narcotic, aroma therapeutic properties that Mandrakes were sought after, but in heavy doses, the Mandrake can also act as an anesthetic whilst in mild doses, they can, as one old commentator put it, “excite the nerves, act as a stimulant and have power to excite voluptuousness!” Sounds good to me!

So, in our text tonight, Leah, the loser in love to Rachel for the heart attention and associated passion of their husband Jacob, is very simply, trying to get the sexual edge. Leah is trying to use artificial means to no doubt excite both her and Jacob into a such a passionate love making session, that it will in turn, result in babies. You see, Rachel and Leah are locked into a competition of love, through the means of child production. Believe me when I tell you, that this still goes on today.

Old Testament stories present us in the 21st Century with such a foreign cultural context that the stories we read seem so very strange to us. Yet, what an equally strange world we live in! A world where have murdered unwanted children in their tens of millions and yet a world in which conception control coupled with erections out of control, magnifies and increases sexual activity to such an extent, that all the associated terrible transmissions of sexually acquired diseases are multiplied in a mad voluptuous viciousness. Yes, it is a mad, mad, mad, mad world!

Viagra of course is the brand name of one of the latest 21st Century chemical Mandrakes. It’s not cheap though, and so many folks are buying the drug online and/or from cheaper places of production like South America or China. One of the latest drug manufacturing scams of course involves the production of Viagra, in that the “knock off” of the drug, whilst presenting itself in identical packaging, colouring, shape and sizing, is not in fact anywhere near the real deal. Pharmacists have been examining the cheaper product coming into the country to find that not only is not of the same potency and consistency as the more expensive local product, but millions of pills are in fact very simply, nothing but compressed drywall dust! That’s right, what many men thought were Mandrakes, were in fact just dry white plasterboard dust and the only thing the consumption of that material will make solid, is their stools! Hilarious!

The truth is that just about all Christians believe that the only way to maintain a strong devotional life, a close and passionate, long-lasting, life-producing love affair with Jesus, is to get hold of some real spiritual Viagra. Therefore, with this rising demand of desperate and unsatisfied Christians, our Christian bookshop shelves are bending under the weight of all the spiritual motivational potency you could ever imagine and most of our sermons and seminars are really selling the same kind of spiritual Viagra as well. “ Do this for a solid Christian life!” Unfortunately though friends I have to tell you tonight, that it’s all mostly plain old drywall dust. It might all be presented in shiny packaging and brightly coloured covers, it might promise the fulfillment of all your wildest dreams as well but in the end, it’s mostly a load of old drywall dust. Expensive, ineffectual drywall dust. Difficult to digest, difficult to pass and very difficult to flush.

I tell my lovely wife that she is all the Viagra I need. I can think of no greater compliment. I tell Jesus the same. “Show me You glory” I ask Him, “In all Your glorious nakedness my Lord, please reveal Yourself to me for I know that You are all I need.” I tell you, all the religious drywall dust in all the long wide world cannot compete with that! The satisfaction of such a desire is the only thing that will maintain the circle of relationship with God. If you see Him, you will want Him! If you get Him, you will be satisfied.

Do you want to have a strong devotional life even an ever increasing inspirational life? Do you want some potency and power, some strength and solidness put back into you spiritual life? In other words, do you want a more passionate life in Jesus? Then be a Rhino with Him! Yes, pursue desire, pursue satisfaction, pursue real holiness in naked openness, all the time! Real Holiness In Naked Openess. RHINO! See it? Clear your shelves of all your old drywall dust folks and be PASSIONATE about your PURSUANCE of Jesus. Got it?


Listen: - Come, my beloved, Let us go forth to the field; Let us lodge in the villages. Let us get up early to the vineyards; Let us see if the vine has budded, Whether the grape blossoms are open, And the pomegranates are in bloom. There I will give you my love. The mandrakes give off a fragrance, And at our gates are pleasant fruits, All manner, new and old, Which I have laid up for you, my beloved. Song of Solomon 7:11-13 NKJV

Pray: - O God, You are my God; Early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You In a dry and thirsty land Where there is no water. So I have looked for You in the sanctuary, To see Your power and Your glory. Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, My lips shall praise You. Thus I will bless You while I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, And my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips. When I remember You on my bed, I meditate on You in the night watches. Because You have been my help, Therefore in the shadow of Your wings I will rejoice. My soul follows close behind You; Your right hand upholds me. (Psalms 63:1-8 NKJV)

Oct | 16 | Wild but Not Woolly

Key Word:- CHANGE

Title:- Wild but Not Woolly

Isaiah 3:8,9 For Jerusalem stumbled, And Judah is fallen, Because their tongue and their doings Are against the LORD, To provoke the eyes of His glory. The look on their countenance witnesses against them, And they declare their sin as Sodom; They do not hide it. Woe to their soul! For they have brought evil upon themselves.

The most publicly flamboyant of 19th Century homosexuals, Oscar Wilde, was born today in 1854 in Dublin Ireland. From 1895 onwards, his imprisonment for sodomy and subsequent total destruction at the hand of a revengeful Marquis of Queensbury, have made him a figurehead of homosexual persecution and suffering. Christ died for all kinds of sinners including Oscar Wilde, yet God is neither woolly nor silent concerning the sin of sodomy.

Now friends, though I am personally flamboyant, love poetry, chick flicks and weep openly, I am not homosexual. No, I am afraid to say that my sins run far, far deeper. If a gene can be discovered for ‘pride and prejudice’ then maybe I shall feel a little better in being reconciled to my evil twins? Maybe?

My point is this, God will not, He will not reconcile sin with the sinner. His task is Wholeness and Holiness, no less! He will deliver us all, me included, from every evil. Friend, sodomy may not be as evil as my personal stumbling and fallings, but I tell you that homosexuality is also an evil that needs repenting of.

So what to do? We are in the depths of open warfare between the polite and politically correct and the seeming impolite bombastic bigots of a far right conservative evangelicalism. The lines are drawn but what are we to do when many of the churches children have openly confessed and are walking in homosexual sin? What are we to do when some of our most renowned leaders have come ‘out of the closet’ and shaken us to the core in advocating such a lifestyle? What are we to do when society presents us ‘repenters’ as white hooded, pokey hatted, full of hatred, sulphur spitting Bible thumping oh so phoney, homophobic homicidal maniacs? What are you to do, when today you battle with that same sin? Dear friend, what are we to do?

I believe our verse today is dealing with my personal problem of pride. Overtly Jerusalem and Judah had already prophetically fallen, when their inward sin of pride began to be outwardly and unmistakably worn upon their rebellious and hard-nosed faces. Some might say that our society is already well past that stage and is consequently and doomed to destruction. What can we do? From the lips of a ‘repenter’ I wonder if you would all, consider my advice:

Confess your tendency and if needs be, confess your sin. Agree with God concerning your sinful condition, for you know He’s been wrestling with you about this. Ask for God’s gracious forgiveness and humbly receive it, and then finally begin to lay hold of His power, especially as it is expressed in a loving community of fellow ‘repenters’ of every size, shape, colour and background!

This is not easy. He never said it would be. This is a fight, He told us it would be. Yes, that’s what you are to do, it’s what we all are to do and do together. Repent & Fight. We can do it; after all, we’re all in this together.

Listen:- ......if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14-15

Pray: - Have mercy upon us, O God, According to Your loving kindness; According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out our transgressions. Wash us thoroughly from our iniquity, And cleanse us from our sin. For We acknowledge our transgressions, And our sin is always before us. 4 Against You, You only, have we sinned, And done this evil in Your sight — That You may be found just when You speak, And blameless when You judge. Behold, we were brought forth in iniquity, And in sin our mother conceived us. Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, And in the hidden part You will make us to know wisdom. Purge us with hyssop, and we shall be clean; Wash us, and we shall be whiter than snow. Make us hear joy and gladness, That the bones You have broken may rejoice. Hide Your face from our sins, And blot out all our iniquities. Create in us a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within us. Do not cast us away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from us. Restore to us the joy of Your salvation, And uphold us by Your generous Spirit. Then we will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners shall be converted to You. (adapted from Psalm 51:1-13 )
 

Oct | 16 | The Evocations of Bagpipe Music & Other Weird Skirlings

Dream Word – OBEY

Jeremiah 18:15 "Because My people have forgotten Me, They have burned incense to worthless idols. And they have caused themselves to stumble in their ways, From the ancient paths…” NKJV

The Evocations of Bagpipe Music & Other Weird Skirlings

Today, I was again reading one of the best devotionals ever written, Nicholas Albery’s, ‘Poem for the Day.’ I came across a piece by British poet, Louis MacNeice, called ‘Bagpipe Music.’ The poem is most certainly a crashing and crusading, inviting and indicting, cacophony of skirling and moving music! I loved it, I enjoyed it, I was moved by it and read it several times whilst wondering what on earth that it meant!?

One of the wonderful aspects about poetry is its evocative nature. The poem itself might present itself to be so complex and full of colour that even a third and fourth reading may still leave you with the sense that you ‘didn’t get it,’ or you ‘missed the point,’ never the less, it stirred something in you, it revived that something which was almost a remembrance of something else and for a few moments, it hooked you, it took you somewhere into your past, into a memory, into a sound maybe, a smell, a sight, a circumstance and it reminded you, it warned you, it warmed you, it caressed you and maybe even comforted you. Yes, one of the wonderful aspects of poetry, even if you don’t fully understand the totality of the piece itself , is its evocative nature.

Sermons too have an evocative aspect to them. Many times folks have left me in confusion, when coming up to me after a sermon they say, “I really was blessed by that point you made….,” or “It was so helpful when you said….,” or “God really spoke to me when you made reference to….” Yes, it has been confusing because often I wasn’t making that point, or wasn’t speaking on that matter and certainly had made no reference to the thing they thought I had! Yes, though not half as much fun, listening to a sermon is like listening to poetry, in that though the point may be missed, some other new spiritual synaptic pathway is never the less being burrowed into the brain, or more often than not, an old way of remembrance, like an old mine shaft, is being surprisingly opened up again! The new spiritual synaptic pathway will bring all the connectivity of light and life and joy whilst when the latter happens, that is, when old mine shafts are opened up by words, ghosts are released, sometimes weeping, sometimes screaming, sometimes laughing but always, yes always bringing the haunting to a close. This is good, for when a haunting’s over, then the rubbish can be removed, the wells can be unclogged and fresh air allowed to circulate once more in the inner recesses of our being.

Sometimes, often times, in both poetry and in sermons, it’s O.K to miss the point, as long as you let the words do their most wonderful of works. No matter how poor the human messenger, let God do His evocative burrowing, and His sealed mineshaft-revealing.

Listen: - Your words were found, and I ate them, And Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; Jeremiah 15:16 NKJV

Pray:- I am called by Your name, O Lord God of hosts. I did not sit in the assembly of the mockers, nor did I rejoice; No, I sat alone because of Your hand, for You have filled me with indignation. So, why is my pain perpetual and my wound incurable, why does it refuse to be healed? Will You surely be to me like an unreliable stream, like failing waters? No, I know that if I return, then You will bring me back; So Lord, in all Your words, come and stand before me and reveal the hidden shaft and help me take out the precious from the vile, yes, with all your evocative drilling, come burrow in my brain right through to my 'knower', in Jesus name I pray, amen.

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Bagpipe Music

It's no go the merrygoround, it's no go the rickshaw,
All we want is a limousine and a ticket for the peepshow.
Their knickers are made of crepe-de-chine, their shoes are made of python,
Their halls are lined with tiger rugs and their walls with head of bison.

John MacDonald found a corpse, put it under the sofa,
Waited till it came to life and hit it with a poker,
Sold its eyes for souvenirs, sold its blood for whiskey,
Kept its bones for dumbbells to use when he was fifty.

It's no go the Yogi-man, it's no go Blavatsky,
All we want is a bank balance and a bit of skirt in a taxi.

Annie MacDougall went to milk, caught her foot in the heather,
Woke to hear a dance record playing of Old Vienna.
It's no go your maidenheads, it's no go your culture,
All we want is a Dunlop tire and the devil mend the puncture.

The Laird o' Phelps spent Hogmanay declaring he was sober,
Counted his feet to prove the fact and found he had one foot over.
Mrs. Carmichael had her fifth, looked at the job with repulsion,
Said to the midwife "Take it away; I'm through with overproduction."

It's no go the gossip column, it's no go the Ceilidh,
All we want is a mother's help and a sugar-stick for the baby.

Willie Murray cut his thumb, couldn't count the damage,
Took the hide of an Ayrshire cow and used it for a bandage.
His brother caught three hundred cran when the seas were lavish,
Threw the bleeders back in the sea and went upon the parish.

It's no go the Herring Board, it's no go the Bible,
All we want is a packet of fags when our hands are idle.

It's no go the picture palace, it's no go the stadium,
It's no go the country cot with a pot of pink geraniums,
It's no go the Government grants, it's no go the elections,
Sit on your arse for fifty years and hang your hat on a pension.

It's no go my honey love, it's no go my poppet;
Work your hands from day to day, the winds will blow the profit.
The glass is falling hour by hour, the glass will fall forever,
But if you break the bloody glass you won't hold up the weather.

-- Louis MacNeice (British Poet - Northern Ireland - Father - A Rector- Written in 1930's)

Oct | 15 | Upon Naked Knees

Key Word:- CONSIDER

Title:- Upon Naked Knees

Judges 16:4,5 Afterward it happened that he loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. And the lords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, “Entice him, and find out where his great strength lies, and by what means we may overpower him, that we may bind him to afflict him; and every one of us will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.”

It is rumoured that ‘thousands died upon her naked knees.’ Her real name was in fact Margaretha Geertruida Zelle, and her origin was in Holland rather than Malaya. It was her former husband, a Scotsman in the Dutch colonial army, who had taken her to Malaysia with him. Here she picked up her scant knowledge of Indian and Javanese dances. I say ‘scant’ purposefully; for it was her slow, strip tease, that overshadowed her falseness and filled dance halls and opera houses all over Europe with leering and longing men. This cool courtesan had a long catalogue of lovers, including high ranking army officers of all nationalities. Eventually she was accused by the French of revealing details to the enemy regarding the latest battlefield weapon (the tank) and thus causing the death of thousands of soldiers. This ‘eye of the day’, or as she is better known, ‘Mata Hari’, was executed by a French firing squad at Vincennes outside of Paris, today in 1917.

The book of judges contains a catalogue of Israel’s most unusual leaders. Top of my list of ‘You’ve got to be joking’ judges has to be Samson, the skunk of a hunk who single handedly slaughtered the Philistines. Sorek, so named after that particularly dusky red grape grown there, was both Samson’s battle field and playing field. Samson had lots of problems and all of them were women, but it was a delicious and delicate, dusky red lipped Delilah, who became the denizen of his delightful downfall. Now, Mata Hari may have passed on her pillow talk to the enemy but remember, it was high ranking officers that willingly laid their head upon her pillow. So with Samson. Delilah may have been the final temptation but the problem lay totally with him. There are several things of note here in this history.

Firstly, that we are openly confounded as to whom God uses as His instrument of deliverance and leadership! God’s choices are not our choices that’s for sure. Unusual times have always called for most unusual people. I mean Samson, for goodness sake! However, don’t be surprised at who God uses.

Secondly, that God uses imperfect people. Samson had problems that would have kept him in therapy for years! Be honest though friends, that statement must go for every single character we find in the Bible! God’s greatest friends, God's greatest weapons, are often the most imperfect of people. Don’t be surprised at who God uses.

Thirdly, note that Samson’s ‘gifting’ of supernatural strength, took him to the heights, but his sin of self gratification took him and almost destroyed him in the depths. It would appear that there is always some frailty that accompanies greatness. Yet it doesn’t stop God using a person. I tell you, don’t be surprised at who God uses.

Samson had a self gratification problem that manifested itself in particular with women. It’s not a new problem, as every latest leadership scandal clearly shows us. Maybe the greatest lesson we can learn from the Book of Judges regarding supermen like Samson, is to beware of the rise of the same self justifying, self satisfaction, that led to his personal downfall and shame.

Counsellors of fallen leaders will no doubt tell you, that this is the same manifest problem that led to the demise of those they are now attempting to restore! Don’t get too silly about Samson; his problem is writ large in scripture for a very good reason. The justifying of sin is also all of our root problem, and thousands die upon the naked knees of seductive, self satisfaction every single day.

Listen:- “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost?” Luke 9:23-25

Pray: - Lord, forgive me for falling for my own destructive Delilah, whatever it may be, that delivers me to the enemy and blinds my eyes to You. Lord may the access of sinful self to my spiritual house begin to cause a most terrible stench in the depths of my being, that I might be delivered from self satisfying, self justifying sin. Make me stink O God. Make me stink, in Jesus name I pray, amen.