MIND OF TRUTH

Finely, my 300 th post My first LIFE blog post was on November 30, 2006.  A lot has happened in the past four years.  I've been thinking about what to post for the big 300 and I want to share a warning of sorts. Many of the things I have written are foolish and crazy and you would be foolish to consider one word of it.  The real gospel of Jesus Christ is only for people who are insane and hate their own life. Why would anyone want to loose everything, intentionally put themselves into impossible situations, and wait for a supernatural being to come bail them out?  Who does that and lives to tell about it?  Who wouldn't regret ever making decisions like that? If you like being cast out, misunderstood, beaten down, and walked on, then please go right ahead and obey the Word.  If you like being maligned, rejected, persecuted, and dismissed, then you should follow Christ and you'll get your wish.  Think carefully before you...

Read this in section on "Marriage" in the book "Renovation of the Heart: Putting on the Character of Christ" by Dallas Willard and wanted to share some thoughts on it. "Today there is about a fifty-percent divorce rate in America, and the rate is not much lower for professing Christians. But the problem is not divorce - though divorce generates a set of problems all its own. The problem is that people don't know how to be married. They don't actually get married in many cases, though they go through a legal and possibly a religious ceremony. They are, sad to say, incapable of marriage-the kind of constant, mutual blessing that can make two people in conjugal relationship literally one whole person (Eph 5:22-23). It is not their fault. In their world, how could they know? Who would teach them? This is the soul-searing fact at the heart of our modern sadness." - Dallas Willard (Renovation of the Heart) I believe this mariage dilema is just one of ma...

Photo from Vickibeeching.com What does it take for God's people to truly worship Him?  I am concerned about how little we really worship our amazing, wondrous God.  I put that same concern on my own life.  It feels so difficult many times to break through and cast off all the stuff heaped upon our lives.  Its like we are seeing God through so many barriers and natural filters which give us a completely different picture of who He really is.  It takes time to strip all that away and condition our minds for worship.  It takes discipline, sacrifice, and humility.  It won't happen any other way.  It also requires us to let go of the Sunday morning formula, our own self-serving definitions of worship.  I think worship will be different if we can take our eyes off others and off circumstances, and focus solely on the Lord. I want to be free to worship the Lord.  I want to break off the chains that inhibit me and keep m...

Are you focused? Now is the time for God's people to be focused and intent on the purposes of God. This past month, I've felt God focusing my heart, my mind, and the discernment of my spirit. Too often we fight the difficulties and seemingly impossible circumstances that come our way, but God wants to use those things to sharpen our resolve and mold us to His will. We need to yield to His hand in our lives. I fight the mental battles of fear, doubt, and trust everyday. I get up and prepare myself for battle because I will not succumb. I must rise up and say "no" to self. Early in the morning will I come to Him and present myself as a living sacrifice. I will yield to the examination of His Spirit and I will yield to the corrections and changes that will surely follow. We are in a battle, but more importantly we are on a journey.  I will fight as I walk, as I move closer to Jesus.  I will go where I am sent and do what I must to please my Lord and align the whole of my...

 Photo “Hope” by Rodin Yefymov Trusting God can be a difficult thing to do. If we are going to trust our God, then we must do so ruthlessly. I will not live in a place of fear. I will overcome and even if I walk out into the darkness I will do so boldly. I will not cower back as the enemy vehemently attacks my mind with his lies. I will step forward in spite of his feeble attempts. He cannot overcome the Word of the Most High which is living in my heart. Nothing can disrupt the seal of His Spirit upon my mind. If my God chooses to hide His purposes and plans from me, then I will fight in the dark. I will close my eyes and see by faith according the word He has given me. I will trust and press forward and ignore the warning in my natural mind. I will present my mind to the Holy Spirit to be sacrificed and transformed. I choose His word over all that I see and feel. Even the reality of pressing circumstances will not deter me. Let the mountains present themselves before me - I w...

I saw this picture on msnbc  today which was linking to a news video concerning Pakistanis who are desperate for aid.  My heart breaks for kids like this all over the world who go hungry every day.  I've fed hungry people in India, and its overwhelming to see people desperately grabbing for a bread roll and a small banana.  I want to see the church of Jesus Christ rise up and take the authority given to us by Jesus Christ and intervene in these situations.  We are not on this earth to make it a better place, but to share the good news of Jesus.  When people know Him, we will see better living conditions where all people are loved and treated with respect and dignity.  We can end hunger and poverty and poor drinking water conditions.  My good friend and warrior in the kingdom Suresh Kumar likes to quote William Booth "Give them soup, soap, and salvation".

"When I tried to understand all this, it was oppressive to me till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny" Ps 73:16-17 The "Treasury of David" commentary says: "Until I went into the sanctuary of God.  His mind entered the eternity where God dwells as in a holy place, he left the things of sense for the things invisible, his heart gazed within the veil, he stood where the thrice holy God stands.  Thus he shifted his point of view, and apparent disorder resolved itself into harmony." Are you questioning God?  Do His ways seem unfair and oppressive to you? Do you feel others are prospering while you continue to drift without answers or direction?  Maybe you need to enter into the dwelling place of the Lord, the place where He whispers into the deepest recesses of your heart.  Maybe then your point of view will be shifted and peace will flood into your soul.

David Trotter , a good friend of Harvest India , has been sharing openly and honestly about affair proofing your marriage.  Good advise for anyone no matter where your at in you life and marriage.  His book "Lost + Found: Finding Myself By Getting Lost in an Affair" is now available on Amazon.  Please check it out and pass it on if you can. David offers a couple good steps to take toward nurturing a healthy lifestyle so you won’t be interested in an affair. •Getting physical rest and staying healthy. •Rejuvenating my mind through creative, inspiring experiences. •Connecting with God through meditation and reading. •Choosing to work when it’s time to work…not when it’s time to hang with family. •Sharing openly with my wife about my hopes, dreams, fears, failures, and frustrations. •Setting aside weekly time to date my wife…concentrated time to be together alone. •Cultivating friendships with guys and couples who are life-giving. •Continuing ...

Today I turn 40.  The world says I'm getting older, but I say I'm getting better because I serve the King.  I am one year stronger in Him, and closer to my Lord than ever before.  I will not idley watch the years pass by, but I will grow and overcome and become what He has spoken.  Year after year I will train and prepare myself, and I will see the Kingdom of my God grow and multiply and cover the whole earth.  For those in Christ our life is not a beginning and an end, it is a continual journey moving from glory to glory, from one season to the next, always growing, always learning, always experiencing more and more freedom and fulfillment in Christ.  I will see my family grow and flurish and reach the nations.  I will see my children walk in a spirit of worship and truth and their accomplishments in the Kingdom will far surpass my own.  The King Himself will raise them up and bless them and grant them His limitless...

Pictures from Monticello this summer

I wanted to share this quote which has meant so much me the past several months.  I can't stress enough how much I feel in my spirit that trusting God wholly and completely is becoming more and more critical.  The distinction between those who trust fully in the Lord and those who do not will become very apparent.  The duality of trust and the self reliance that exists in most believers will begin to be exposed.  Life and resource and abundance will flow through a life that is yielded, trusting, and humbled before the Lord. "The way of trust is a movement into obscurity, into the undefined, into ambiguity, not into some predetermined, clearly delineated plan for the future. The next step discloses itself only out of a discernment of God acting in the desert of the present moment. The reality of naked trust is the life of the pilgrim who leaves what is nailed down, obvious, and secure, and walks into the unknown without any rational explanation to justify ...

Every time I see Jesus in my mind, He is standing about twenty yards in front of me.  He looks back at me with such a reassuring, confident smile and He waves for me to come up where He is and then He keeps walking forward.  He does not fear to step out into my unknowns, to approach the raging river, or face the towering mountains before Him.  He has no reservations about leading me through those places.  I pause in fear as I allow my eyes to focus on the natural forces opposing me, but He is not moved.  He is a confident, mighty warrior who has no equal and who cannot be moved.  He sees with the Father's eyes.  His eyes look through the impossible, through every obstacle.  He knows the raging rivers must part before Him and the mighty mountain must bow in His presence.  The Earth shakes at the sound of His mighty voice, yet this man calls to me to walk with Him.  He is infinitely more confident in me that I am in myself. I am a complete...

Many times I feel like Sam in the Lord of the Rings where he stops in the cornfield and declares that if he takes one more step it will be the furthest he has ever gone from the Shire.  Seems like I'm taking a lot of those steps in my life lately.  One thing I'm learning for sure is that you must let go of one thing to grab hold of another.  Sam could not take a journey with Frodo and still remain in the Shire.  He had to make a decision to leave the Shire life, his friends and family, and the routine events of his daily life.  These are critical decisions we must make in life.  Our hesitation or attempts to do both will result in diminished effectiveness and fruitfulness in our life and the lives of others.  Whether your willing to make these decisions depends on your outlook in life.  If you see the world as jesus sees it, then at some point you will need to step out and lay down your life and your wants and needs for others.  G...

I was thinking yesterday what would it be like if we didn't have a church (physical building) to go to every week.  What would we do?  How would we develop spiritually, how would we teach our kids the Bible?  What would it be like if all of a sudden we had to think about it for our selves and take responsiblity for our own spiritual life?  I think many of us would need to dust some cob webs off and stretch some muscles that have not been used in a while.  Could we hear God's voice for ourselves?  If you had a critical life changing decision to make and there was no one to tell you what to do, could you hear the whisper of the Holy Spirit even in the midst of impossible circumstances that don't make any natural sense? Too many of our churches are weak and anemic because the people attending are weak and anemic.  If we are strong in the Lord and our lives are bearing fruit, then the church will be strong and bear fruit.  We have to step ...

In Ps 1:2, David tells us that our delight is to be in the law of the Lord, and in this law we are to meditate day and night.  I won't take the time to go into any depth on this, but I think its safe to say the law or the Word or the scriptures and Jesus are one in the same.  Yes, there is the written Word, but Jesus is the embodyment of the living Word.  What does it mean to meditate on Jesus day and night.  I've been convicted lately about how often I come to Him in prayer with all my bagadge, problems, hurts, and needs.  There is nothing wrong with that because the Word tells us to let our petitions be made known, but it also tells us to cast or cares upon Him.  That means to throw them off at Jesus feet like taking a heavey backpack off.  I'm afraid too often I carry it to him, then carry it back again, then carry it back the next day and so on.  We need to cast our cares upon him and leave them there.  Jesus knows every ...

A very long time ago before all things were created, before the foundations of the world were laid, my God thought of me.  He knew I would need a helper, a companion, and a friend to whom I would give myself to wholly and completely.  He knew how much I would need my beautiful wife so many, many years later He created her and gave me this precious gift.  Today I thank Him for her Birthday!  Today I praise Him for His abundant blessings and the richness of His grace to me.  Today I thank Him for being the eternal center to my marriage.  Today I thank Him that I can love more and give more and cherish my wife more.  Today I thank Him for the mercy and forgiveness He has extended to a man who is unworthy of such a wonderful gift.  Today I give my God honor because He has been a huband to my wife through me just as He promised He would.  Today I ask my Lord to bless my wife and bestow His glory ...

One of the most foundational yet elusive elements of the human existance is freedom.  We were created to be free, but we live in bondage to so many things.  I walked around my neighborhood this morning and thought about how much stuff people accumulate in their life that just adds more complexity and ties them further into the worlds system.  Even people who have discovered that Jesus is our only freedom still struggle to obtain a sense of being truly free.  The bottom line is that freedom requires us to let go of everything else.  Real freedom is falling into the ground like a seed to die so that we can live.  We like to get around that little detail if we can.  We like to setup a life on the back side of the cross and say its just as good as living on the other side of the tomb. Jesus never compromised anything and He never shyed away from His calling.  He went through the cross to get to the resurection so He could make a way for all ...

I love the Word of God.  Not out of expectation or obligation, but because it speak to me and opens my life to truth.  I like to write verses on post-it notes and put them on the wall in front of my study desk.  I was looking at all of them tonight and I thought about how they would mean nothing to me personally if it were not for God's great mercy.  He shares His Word with me and He makes a way for me to live and experience His truth.  I have no right to even speak His name or hope for salvation, but through Jesus Christ, God has drawn near to me and I can draw near to Him.  His Word is alive and I can live in it because God is merciful.  I can know His promises of hope and salvation and grace and kindness and goodness and love are for me.

Seth and I were talking about David and Goliath tonight and he said he thought maybe David had a lot of "What If" questions before he fought Goliath like, "What if I miss, what if he kills me, what if they attack the army of Israel?"  I thought that was a great observation because I'm sure David did have the "What if" question.  What made David victorious though was that he put those questions aside and chose to have faith in His God.  This morning Pastor Steven Sebyala  said "Whatever you fear will capture your mind".  David did not let the fear take control, instread he rested in the peace of His God. What situation does God have you in now?  What has He spoken deep in your heart?  Hold on to that voice and that assurance.  Don't let the "What if" questions of fear come in and dictate your choices.  Our God is able to deliver us and keep us and bring us through to everything He has promised.

John 6:8 Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, spoke up, 9"Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?" I love the story of the feeding of the 5000 especially the boy who gave up his lunch.  This is a powerful story and there is a lot here, but I'll get right to whats been on my mind lately.  So many times we hold tightly to what is in our hands, what we have been given, and what we possess.  So often we don't want to let it go and so many times we don't let go and then the miricle never comes.  We live with the provision and blessing of the Lord, He meets our needs and provides the bread and the fish, but what if?  What if we let go?  What could God do with your life if you surrendered it to the Master.  We all face that "What about me?" question.  How can we let go of everything in our hand and trust?  Any believer would readily say they trust in the Lord...