...Mighty Messenger...

... a message only has as much authority as the one who sends it...

... knowing my humble position as a chosen and adopted VESSEL allows for the very message entrusted into my care to bear weight and carry authority; the posture that was purposefully intended for all messengers alike. As quickly as the focal point shifts and plays away from "sender" to "messenger," all the quicker the diminishing of authority of the message that is held; God's precious, life-giving words that you harbor. The message itself dissipates in the wind; withering like parched, moisture starved pedals in the unforgiving sun; it loses the very power in which it was conceived and pinned; finding itself lost in translation; long forgotten due to the inclusion of "self" and it's message.

... who's words are you carrying mighty, messenger boy??? Bring to remembrance that you have been graced with authority by the the ONE who has authorship of ALL authority.... the ONE who sent you forth into all nations holding high His banner of salvation.

... carry His words well...

Matthew 28:18-19; Luke 24:47

"the forgetful"

... God tattoo them on our hearts; not for the mere purpose of becoming a life raft for our flailing appendages to cling to, but ever more, to be a recoil that smashes the Alzheimer's that attempts to rob us from the very traces of your touch; fragments of your miracles in, and throughout the eternal narrative that has included us thus far. Oh, how we have forgotten the morning; the intimate beckoning and wooing of our Christ; the groom that cherishes every breath that is expelled; every unspoken dialogue of the heart that dissipates in the shifting wind.

...Night has arrived and we have become enamored; paralyzed by the kaleidoscope of lights and sounds.

...Tattoo your miracles upon our hearts; measures in time where Heaven penetrated the very fabric of Earth and all its human finality. Tattoo us Jesus, so that when you call out to us to climb overboard; scaling the exterior of our vessels of comfort and buoyancy; we will lower ourselves onto the water's surface with boldness and courage; standing tall above the wind blown fetch of life and it's plans to level and to afflict the Called and the Chosen. We WILL gaze into your eyes; familiar eyes that have been carved into impressionable memories from Heavenly intervening long ago.

... We fix our eyes, and turn our hearts toward You... and You faithfully reach out and grab the hands of the doubtful and the frightened.

*Matthew 14*

"I am..."

... solitude knocks on the sliding glass window; beckoning me to quietly slip away from the race being run by the world within the dusty corridors of our home. Everything within me knows, and whispers of communion with Christ. Perched upon a rustic deck composed of rotting wood and rusty nails, I deny myself the imagery of nature itself and the assaults of my unrelenting thought process; quieting my muscles of the tension they hold with every breath that is taken in. Prayer is conceived...

... I thank Him for His goodness; how evident His grace and mercy become within the heart crushing fact that He allows, and yearns for me to ask of Him; petitioning the desires of my needy heart; and affords me the choice to dwell in the shadow of His Holy presence. Like the sun’s flames torching the dawn’s horizon, I render the requests congregating on the forefront of my heart and soul. I ask God to speak to me in the quiet recesses of my heart; asking to be privileged enough to hear His soft, gentle voice, and, tangibly feel His fatherly, love within a sweet embrace; wrapping His arms around me to calm every storm that has battered the shoreline of my heart; resuscitating the palpitation of a heart that has given up and slipped away.

As the words surface from the uncharted places of the abyss, I ask God to transform ALL that is me; every shard and fiber; to reveal Himself and His furious love; to encourage and carry; to guide and to equip; to bless and to favor; to cry and to mourn WITH me; to be close..... And, as my words and the prayers of my Spirit begin to cease, I hear a faint whisper say...

.... I am...

The Adoption

An adoption process has been set into motion; a communion with what is not perceived and with what is graciously received by the external party. There is an importance in harboring that which others receive from us; regardless and void of our own perception and emotions that are conjured up from that proclaimed theory. Yes, discernment must be firmly clung to in relation to this personal adoption before giving yourself the green light to accelerate forward into new territory.

In the closing of this latest season, I feel that I have had to step out in faith into new roles; waters that have been unexplored and uncharted until these present moments; the expanding and broadening of my faith, intimacy, and total effectiveness; a depth that God alone is leading me to. These "positions" that others have defined and characterized me with possessing have been, at the very least, stretches for me; positions and titles that I would have never fathomed to give myself, but, have been wonderful series of self discoveries and God given revelations. By quickly adopting these banners of "pastor, father, big brother, leader, peace bringer, etc" I have been able to hone in and be more purposeful in my interaction with others; meeting the needs well beyond those just at the water's surface. When you quickly marry these defining adjectives, courage and boldness soon follow; seeing the feasibility of the impossible growing as your faith takes on greater capacity; firsthand testimonies of God's marvelous power at work through you as you step out into the inconvenient and unfamiliar. God is quick to fill and encourage in these fresh moments of obedience and selflessness. What I had perceived could never have been outworked in me, has been unfolding magically before me; mindsets being eradicated and rebuilt.

...It is wild how starkly different the renderings can be of yourself; at the mercy of others and their steady brush strokes. Maybe, just maybe, it is healthy to know the three renderings; my own, my peers, and, MY GOD's.

Casting on the Other Side

I am speaking from a place that is familiar, only because I am walking IN it at this juncture in time; yet it in truth, it IS a place of unfamiliarity... casting my net on the other side of the boat.

In John 21, Peter, as well as Thomas, James, John, Nathaniel, and two other undisclosed disciples, find themselves in the very same predicament that I stand in at this moment. These highly skilled and overqualified fisherman had been up all night long throwing nets, and by dawn’s arrival, had caught no fish to speak of. And with the dawn came Jesus; a word beckoning them to a new level of faith. From one hundred yards away, Jesus, giving no word of persuasion, rather a blatant command, told them to cast their nets on the other side of the boat. And from that faith-filled cast a blessing would be yielded.... and was.

What an uncomfortable place to be. You find Peter and his mates being told how to do their jobs from a stranger on the beach; who we only find out later is Jesus. What if the left side of the boat is all they had ever known; what if throwing with their left arm was more comfortable and more efficient than throwing with their right. Maybe taking the net to the other side was actually a rather large thing to ask of them; a pain staking task to be exact; maybe in that fact, they had to take up the anchor and reposition the boat to do so. And to be honest, would 20 feet the other direction really make a huge difference??? But to Jesus, this faithful response meant everything; and Peter and his boys voluntarily chose to venture into unfamiliar territory; a place where pride and fear cannot go; a place of great blessing, as well as stretching.

This makes me think about my own approach to Christ; how we approach others; our dreams....

Peter’s heart’s desire was to catch those fish. Intimate encounters with Jesus is my fish; what I am casting my net for. And maybe your hearts desire is to see lives miraculously changed by the Savior of the world; a longing we ALL have stitched within our being. But, has our approach found itself residing in a place of familiarity; hanging out on the comfortable side of the boat??? Like Peter, Jesus wants to fulfill the deepest desires of our hearts. But the question is, are we willing to walk away from comfort to receive blessing; a blessing extending far beyond what we originally conjured up in our minds.

Sometimes we have to allow Jesus to walk us to the other side of the boat to receive that blessing; a place of unfamiliarity and discomfort. But in this shift, not only will lives be transformed, but intimacy with our creator will find new depths.

Be bold and step out in faith.

John 21:1-14

Walking Forward from Now

... I have found, and have received salvation in Christ; nothing in this world can satisfy that which has ALREADY been satisfied in Him. So as I walk forward to eternity, i need not seek anything else; the most precious gift is already in my possession. Amen.

....keeping a foot on the break

... one tiny, cultural observation has been brought to my attention as of late; in regards to Aussie drivers, pedestrians do NOT have the right away. They in no shape or form decrease their speed or break for you as you prayerfully step from the curb in total commitment for the other side. Nope, they do not, and I am quite uncertain at this juncture in time if they would stop at all. It's hard to fathom what it would actually take to get them to abandon themselves for a moment; to be inconvenienced for a brief moment in time to yeild to the lives walking before them ....

.... I had a thought today... how many divine appointed "God moments" do we miss every day because we fail to remove our foot from the gas pedal in our own lives; denying them the right to inconvenience us away from our own personal agendas. What will it take for us to be open to yielding to those hurting around us; people longing for YOU to utter the name Jesus into their expectant ears; yearning for YOU to give them Jesus in the very flesh that you have wrapped around your bones; the filling of a lifetime's worth of holes and cracks that have marked the very definition of their existence.

.... also a word for myself, maybe we should drive through life with a little more pressure applied to the break pedal; being prepared and WILLING to abandon our planned out lives to share the love of Christ; finding joy in the opportunities God gives us to yeild to other's needs and wants.... being that this IS God's will for our own lives.

... God give us the eyes to see your children around us...