Archive for May, 2007

31
May

Thoughts from Colorado #6 - Up to Pray

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Categories: Colorado

“In these days Jesus went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God.” - Luke 6:12

Going up to the mountain isn’t easy. The air is thinner in the high altitude, the climb is steep, and the way rocky. The path isn’t often smooth ahead, and you must often have the proper gear to climb on up. A trip up the mountain isn’t demanded of anyone, but it is required for those who long to experience the breath-taking views and feeling of victory that accompanies the summit!

The Lord doesn’t demand that we go up the mountain. He will meet with us wherever we are, but He invites us to go higher, deeper, onward, and upward! His presence is always both satisfying and instigating. It’s satiating and hunger-inducing. To taste and see that He is good is to invite us higher. So, in counting the cost of climbing, how do we do it?

1) The Gifts of Righteousness and Purity: We can not approach the Holy place of the Lord without being washed in the blood of the Lamb. This is a free gift, but unattainable for the self-righteous. Secondly, continually going to the Lord and asking for a fresh spirit of purity “washes our feet” as we journey through this life.

2) Hunger and Thirst: In the natural, a person must eat and drink to have the strength to climb a mountain. As he goes, he must continually feed himself to make it. In the spiritual, it is the reverse: we are hungry on the bottom and filled at the top.  Hunger, the inner feeling of desire for God - His presence, His power, more of Him!

3) A Roadmap: Taking the scriptures before the Lord, and asking, seeking, and knocking. Jesus said “to you [meaning those who followed after him asking questions] it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt 13:11) What is the Spirit of God igniting in your heart? Ask Him about it. Whatever topic, desire, character, aspect of God and His ways, all is open for us to ask, seek, and knock concerning. We can also do this by writing, reading, and praying these thoughts into greater revelational development.

4) The Tour Guide: The Holy Spirit: Pray that the Holy Spirit will fill you and take you higher and deeper into Jesus. Worshipping Jesus (Eph 5) and reading the Word outloud even when we don’t feel it, stirs Him within us and then trust His leadership and walk forward!

5) Group Climbing: True Fellowship: Let the Lord deepen (or lessen certain) relationships so that you may go higher and higher into Him. As we get weary, fall, or become apathetic, we have others who inspire and encourage us onwards towards all that is truly life!

Those are just a few helps that have helped me as I climb. Sometimes, the great huge mountain before us is intimidating, but the biggest help of all is that God Himself has invited us! Without this sure promise, and the pleasure set before us in His love, we would not have the confidence to climb. Praise God for His steadfast, encouraging, and inviting love!

30
May

Thoughts from Colorado #5 - Mountain of Friendship

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Categories: Colorado

Who may climb the mountain of the Lord? Who may be stand in His holy place?
Only those whose hands and hearts are pure, who do not worship idols or swear by falsehood. - Psalm 24:1

The mountain is the place of true instruction and the giving of the pure Word of God. Moses was given the Law on the mountain, but not outside of encounter. It was in the midst of feasting in the glory of the Lord at the table of the Lord, seeing glimpses of His glory alongside the taking of the bread of God, the Word of God. (Exodus 32-34)

Friendship was experienced, and the heart (Word) was shared. Can we expect to partake of the same if friendship with God isn’t developed in our own lives? Thank the Lord, He is the pursuer of this friendship, this intimate partnership, the invitation of the Beloved is ever before us.

We, now, have the Word of God, the Bible, written before us. Can we then take it, making interpretation and application of it simply because it is complete before us in a canon? Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for taking the scriptures alone without engaging Him with and through them.  (John 5:38-39)

Just as Moses was given the Bread or Word of God on the mountain, we too are invited to partake of the Word of God, the Bread of Life, Jesus the Christ on the mountain. He pursues us in our lowliness that we might seek Him in His exaltedness. He cleanses us by giving Himself unto death and burial in the earth, that He might enable us to climb up the mountain and experience Him ultimately in heaven. Oh, this humble servant, this lovesick King!

We can limit salvation’s purpose and dishonor Jesus’ passion by not taking advantage of His gifts, righteousness and purity, the tools necessary to scale the mountain. Why yet abide in the valley of decision when we have, in Him, what is necessary to taste the fruit of glory on the mountain? Why walk by what we can see with our own eyes and understanding when we are invited to come up higher and see what and how He sees?

“Come up here! And I will show you….” (Rev. 4:1-2) Lord have mercy on theology based outside encounter. Lord have mercy on vision from lower than Your Holy mountain. “Get up to the mountain!”, says the Lord!

“Everyone who asks receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And the door is opened to everyone who knocks.” (Matt. 7:8)

29
May

Thoughts from Colorado #4 - Look Up

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Categories: Colorado

“I lift my eyes up, unto the mountains. Where does my help come from? My help comes from You, Maker of Heaven and Earth.” - Psalm 121:1-2

The mountain first and foremost is the place of encounter. To find the Lord as He is and be utterly shocked by Him. To be brought to trembling before His awesome majesty and shudder before the whisper of His power. To feel the energizing fear of the Lord tantalizing you as your soul cries out for the eternal life you’ve spoke of a million times more than you’ve ever really tasted.

It is an encounter with Life itself. To be before the Lord on the mountain is to have your insides rent and your outsides feel like insides. It both satiates and invites your longing, creating within you a desire to cry out in ways you can’t fathom how. Fire, power, thunder, and gentleness all in the same feeling. Your core treads carefully as it jumps in and out of itself toward what it was created for.

All fades away. All melts away as much as we let it. We draw near, utterly unworthy but daring not to think on that or anything less than what is above, terrible, and beautiful. It is on that place of earth, between earth and sky, on that mountain, where everything comes into unbelievable clarity. It is this God, utterly indescribable and impossibly kind, that brings humility in His wisdom, and leaves us undone yet unashamed in our naivete.

Words like love, power, glory, and salvation take on new meaning and fuller definition, making the previous meanings seem like shadows.

Being closer to heaven physically and spiritually, on the earth and yet above it - we realize that it is this God, Jesus, who has created all things. The mountain is a pivotal place of revelation concerning the relationship between heavenly and earthly things, giving perspective, vision, and focus. All issuing forth from the God-Man Jesus, in whom God has purposed to join heaven and earth together.

Lord have mercy on theology based outside encounter. Lord have mercy on vision from lower than Your Holy mountain. “Get up to the mountain!”, says the Lord!

28
May

Thoughts from Colorado #3 - The Mountains

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Categories: Colorado

Here I am, in Colorado at the end of May - absolutely loving it. Somehow, up here in the mountains, I really feel closer to the Lord. Last year I thought this was somehow just getting away from the norm, breathing the fresh air of a different spiritual climate. Although I think this is surely true, this year I find myself drawn into all that is “the mountain” and why God chose to create it.

After all, mountains are very important in scripture, used many times in various contexts, scenarios, and situations. I’m going to be studying some about “the mountaintop” this week and invite you to join me as you wish. Obviously, the mountain is geographically closer to heaven, but then again “the kingdom of heaven”, Jesus said, “is within us.” (Luke 17:21)

There is always much talk about “valleys” and why we go through them. We go through much discussion and study about the meaning of these times in our lives, and necessarily so. But I fear that perhaps, in the midst of this, the mountain is relegated to “that other time that is good”. Ironically, I believe a good study of the mountain (as a season as well as prophetic symbol) would actually help us gain perspective about the valley.

Perhaps we should meditate on the valley from the mountain as well as the mountain from the valley. In Joel, God calls His people to “get up to the mountain” that they might gain His perspective and His word for the hour. He wants them fully gripped with His heart, and He chooses the mountain to be the physical place for that encounter.

Expect more on this in the next few days, and as always, your feedback is greatly appreciated!

19
May

True Spirituality: Weakness as Strength

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Categories: True ______

The deeply spiritual man is first deeply aware of his own need and therefore is deeply humble. In a world that abhors neediness and educates, legislates, and prospers its’ people to be “independent” and less and less a burden on others, the spiritual man realizes that his weakness and need is insurmountable on his own, and requires divine help.

This is where the true seeker is born - an encounter with his own need drives him to seek and search for the One who can fill his need, quench his thirst, and satisfy his deepest longings. Sometimes after turning to the right and left, after every vain thing this world has to offer, the man turns to find he is in fact wretched, miserable, poor, and naked without the divine. He must find the divine!

It is a rare treasure to find this on the earth, and I pray less so in the church, one who understands that he is in fact “poor in spirit”. Jesus, the divine answer to the enigma of our need, blesses those with ultimate strength - “the Kingdom of Heaven”. (Matt 5:3)

While at a worship service back home in Katy recently, I had the strange feeling during a worship song that I was being watched. I was closing my eyes, attempting to really connect with God, and at that moment feeling very weak and in need of the Lord’s touch.

I opened my eyes to see if anyone was looking at me, finding no one, but realizing that many around me were merely “basking” in the worship service, sitting down comfortably enjoying the melody of the song, arm around their loved one, quietly whispering to those around them and chuckling. Not really engaging with God - but being here was enough right?

I looked around again, and I saw at least two ladies near me with medication half-way sticking out of their purses. Again, I was struck by our real weakness. But who, in that moment, was casting themselves before the answer to their need, and who was merely surpressing it with attending a “religous activity”? Surely medication isn’t wrong, but is it the first solution we turn to?

I closed my eyes again, realizing again a measure of my own deep neediness. And what a gift it was - for only then did I turn my gaze toward the One with all power, strength, wisdom, and true, pure, unadulterated love for me! Oh, worship just naturally flowed. Perhaps someone was actually looking over at me thinking - “Wow, that guy is really spiritual. Look how into it he is, really singing with his hands out like that - truly a solid Christian!”

Solid? More like broken. Really spiritual? Sure, if really spiritual is realizing my low place before Him alongside His great dream to fulfill me with Him. True strength isn’t strength, for our so called strength keeps us from true strength - weakness. True weakness is strength, and the poor in spirit will inherit the Kingdom of Heaven forever and ever.

18
May

True Trust: Who is the Most Able?

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Categories: True ______

Jesus is called the “True and Faithful Witness” (Rev. 19:11), so whatever He says, and whatever He portrays is ultimate truth and ultimate reality. This is not only because He sees the end from the beginning, but because He alone has the power to ultimately determine the end. Who is the most able? Who has the most power in the universe? Then let us put our trust in Him.

He alone is worthy of our trust. God the Father Himself only trust One man to release the end of days upon the earth. In Revelation 5, only one is found worthy to open the scroll that leads to God’s ultimate desire unleashed on the earth. He alone is worthy to “open the seal” that releases the End of Days on earth. No other man, philosophy, or institution can bring that about.

Only the One who started the work is able to be faithful to complete it. Therefore, our trust is not a “jumping off a cliff” type of faith, but the most logical and truly rational kind of trust. Jesus will be faithful, as He was in creation, in His life on earth, His place on the throne now, and His ability to govern and sovereignly lead the earth, and those who choose Him, to their ultimate destiny.

Truly, a blind faith is to trust in what has not been already proven. Truly, the “jumping off a cliff” kind of faith is the kind that relies on some unproven man or philosophy that has no roots in ultimate reality. Even the most amazing philoshophies and religions of man can’t hold a candle to the One who was raised from the dead!

And therefore our trust in that man guarantees our resurrection from the dead, and life eternal. Surely it is not “proof” that keeps man from believing, but His own desire to be an ultimate reality unto himself, unproven, untrustworthy, and blind. We do not have a blind faith, we have a faith that is as sure as the foundation it is based upon - Jesus Christ.

16
May

True Wisdom: A View from the End

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Categories: True ______

It is wisdom to trust in God. It is not folly. It is ultimate reality. God is the greatest reality that this world has, will, or could ever know. It is the blinding of that true reality that is Satan’s greatest weapon and desire.

It is wisdom to trust in God, not only because of the benefits of today, although that is justification enough, but it is wisdom to trust in God because of the end. In a world that defines wisdom based upon what works, what stands, and what matters in the temporary now, we must call aloud about the end! The Church must help navigate the world into the purest wisdom there is - especially as the end comes nearer and nearer.

Wisdom is knowing the end from the beginning. If the world knew the end now, they would live differently. The world lives by what “seems right” now, or what will be best according to what they can foresee. However, if they knew the One who has seen the end from the beginning, it would be utter foolishness not to follow His lead.

Unfortunately, the world will not go this way unless the Church does it first. We as the Church must continually resist the temptation to define our reality based on our point of view, even as Christians. Our neglect to receive and internalize God’s Word about the end paralyzes us to our own limited view. “We see dimly…” - but the Lord knows fully. This is why we require the “spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in the knowledge of Him”. (Ephesians 1:16-17) This is not merely knowing Him, but knowing what He knows. And He knows the end from the beginning! He is Wisdom!

Hindsight is always 20/20. Jesus has the luxury of 20/20 viewpoint on all sides and dimensions of history. And that same Jesus is in love with us, His beloved church, wanting to “catch us up” into His eternal viewpoint and give us wisdom on how to live today.

Oh, intimacy with God! Not merely the requirement before moving onward and outward, but the necessary mountaintop that we might continually live in the wisdom of the eternal perspective of Jesus. Lord, catch us up into true reality!