Did You Have A Nice Christmas?

As all the Merry Christmas', Happy Holidays and New Years wishes slowly fade away and die the death of yesterday, they are silently and seamlessly being replaced by “did you have a nice Christmas?”

The response is universally the same, “Great! and how about you?” which is then lobbed back like a toss of the football on Christmas Day, with perhaps a thank you or two thrown in, just so we won't seem impolite and can get the last word in, creating the impression that we are one of the most caring human beings living on this earth.

Call me twisted or weird, but have you ever wondered whether we are just being polite and couldn't really care any less how the other persons Christmas really went, or are we conditioned by our culture to offer this automatic response? Either choice disturbs me.

Maybe you never thought about it, but perhaps I just worry about the condition of my spiritual guts too much. I want to know because I seriously want to care deeply about my neighbor without needing some phony, contrived and under duress greeting to prove what's not really true.

Have you ever offered a nice greeting, fully realizing that you could really care less?

I have. Generally speaking I think most of us do care and not only want to seem genuine but actually be genuine. But as the Apostle Paul once said “how to perform, we find not”.

I believe God will honor our honesty and our struggle for true care, concern and compassion for our fellow humans. I believe this to be a life-changer. If we try and just force ourselves to change, nothing much gets done. We try and we try and the harder we try the weirder and meaner we get. But, if we will offer up to God our fears and failures, His all consuming fire will consume these weaknesses like so much kindling, bringing a pleasing aroma up before Him. The result will be our own mount of transfiguration, and our light shining as we were created to, transforming the environment and world around as we have new eyes to see and new ears to hear.

I have now spent some time at Starbucks drinking a latte and musing about this idea and typing these words. Pretty darn comfortable, I know. But this is how I work best and I get to meet all kinds of different people. I find everybody is extremely interesting if you take the time to find out about them.

Just now a bright light of a stranger came walking through the door, looked at me, in the eye and brightly said “the Lord is King!”. Imagine that if you would. He just stepped into this story. The Lord definitely is King. He moved along and ordered his drink, on his way out he stopped by and illustrated this story for me. He stopped and asked me if I was a preacher, and I warily responded “yes” while wondering what manner of greeting this was. He didn't ask me how I was doing or even say Happy New Year. Neal told me he prayed for preachers and he was going to pray for me. He said his mission (my word) was to pray for preachers and has been doing just that for five years. Because he was genuinely concerned about me, it wasn't necessary for him to tell me he cared. Just a few words, the look in his eye and the expression on his face told me his concern was more than heartfelt.

The only way I found out more about him was to ask. Neal used to “cook” Meth with the Hell's angels but got saved and since then has been praying for preachers. Imagine that from drug manufacturer to praying for preachers. Neal was changing the world around him through his genuine concern, care and prayer. I was going to end here but........

Then Joseph (no kidding) walked into my story. Joseph was inconvenient and wanted to tell me all this stuff about the computer I was typing on and I was thinking “I hope he stops before he gets to the flying saucers” I wanted him to stop, he was inconvenient. But he had walked into this story too. I gave myself to him and silently asked God to think and pray through me for Joseph. I listened to his stories until he moved on and I genuinely hope that helped his day and his head.

(Mark 9:42-43) "But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched—

2011, I want to care more and change the world. How about you?

I “sincerely” wish you all a happy and prosperous new year.

Mike Matheson

Are You Paying Attention?

 Do ever have difficulty paying attention, staying on task and not getting distracted. Do you start for the garage dreading to begin that chore that was put off for the last decade and halfway there stop to check your email? Before you know it eight o'clock has turned to twelve and it is time for lunch. I never seem to get distracted from that. A familiar story to way too many of us.

One of those all too common traits that seems to afflict all of us North American human beings. When it comes to car keys, chores and groceries, those O' so very, very necessary elements of our life, that reminds me, Facebook, we seem to work overtime to stay on task, and when we stray it grieves us. But when it comes to the things of God, prayer, quiet time, fellowship etc. they often seem to be left without great concern. It's a matter of what we are paying attention to.

I believe every one of us humans have an attention deficit when it comes to the things of God.We become distracted by a million and one things screaming for our attention, they seem important at the time, but if left undone our life really wouldn't change that much. All the while, there in the background is a “still small voice” jumping up and down in the back row, saying “pick me, pick me”. The still small voice of our conscious, spirit, God Almighty, whatever you choose to call Him, trying to get our attention on the things that really make our life, our soul and the things that will last forever. How is it that we “consistently” fail to pay attention to these eternal things.

I believe we become unwilling to pay the price of admission. I did call it PAY attention.

We really do PAY for what we PAY attention to,we will also be PAID for we PAY attention to. There are tangible and intangible benefits to what we PAY attention to, for the good or the bad.

What are you paying attention to?

There are lots of things provided by God for humans to do all day long, like "sleeping, eating, drinking, making love, playing, praying, working." But, to focus on these "second things" and neglect "first things" such as worshiping and loving God is to be "too easily pleased."

Let me make a statement, since I can't figure out the transition.

Everything is worship.

Everything has to do with worship.
Some ignore that idea, or never thought of it before, but I dare you to dispute it, or propose something that is not related to worship. Changing your tire is worship if you can do it without cussing and throwing the jack handle across the street.
1Corinthians 10:31 Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
“do all to the glory of God.”

The Greek word for worship means to kiss towards. What we kiss towards is where our true affections lay, and it reveals what we are worshiping. What we focus our attentions on is what we are worshiping.

Everything is worship.
.....(Jesus said to Satan) 'you shall worship the LORD your GOD,

and HIM only you shall serve.' "Matthew 4:10

You are PAYING attention here, but are you letting attention pay you...??

John Donne (1656) said we are tenants and renters here but it is God who pays us... His grace mercy and benefits are poured out on each one of us that draws breath. The more attention we pay the more we will be paid for our attention. The things of God will be poured into our life to the degree that we seek them, or pay attention to them.

I am trying to pay attention to the eternal things but there are so many distractions. Even worrying about paying attention and the lack of it in my life is a distraction.

The more I pay attention to God's things, the more it will PAY me.

Galatians 6:7 says: No matter what you believe... You reap what you sow.

NEWS FLASH- Paul the APOSTLE had a hard time paying attention

He blogged about it in Romans

7:12 Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.

GOOD Thing? Agreed??

V13Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not!

MMV (Mike Matheson Version)- It's(the law) just trying to get you to PAY ATTENTION

BUT SIN.....

See also V8,11 Sin tricked him into thinking that the forbidden fruit wasn't so bad after all, that it would bring happiness, and that he could get away with it.

Sin took his attention away from the more profitable things.

It's New Years Eve now- Everyone is making resolutions, few are kept....

Drives me crazy---- How about you?

Welcome to the human race!

By now, if you are listening, you're probably feeling the weight of PAYING attention...

It's easy to start paying attention, much harder to keep it going...

Desire to start isn't the problem...

Desire is merely the catalyst

Desire is synonymous with vision...

We get it! We know what we ought to be, but how to perform we find not (Romans 7:18)

Doing what is right ties me up in knots every day.

I just wanna go play instead of clean my room. You know?

But I like a clean room.

The big QUESTION is, will we yield our life to the LORD? Will we worship with our life?

Everyone wants too, but we think the cost to PAY is too high, so very high we don't even want to think about it, so we ignore the nagging voice and hope it goes away. The cost of ignoring (or ignorance) is much, much higher, and one day at the last judgment, we may all see what could have been if only we would have been willing to pay attention.

1Corinthians 3:13 ....each one's work will become clear; Won't it?

Easy to say, we will yield our life to the Lord, much harder to perform.... Isn't it?

Good News!!!!

The struggle is part of the process to make us into what we should be.

The fight to yield our stubborn wills to God is what builds our faith, fiber and character.

Don't just say I'm going to read more, pray more, go to church more.

Change your desire to I am going to know Him more....

(Matthew 9:21) For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole.

V22 be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour.

She didn't say I better be or do this, she said I have to touch Him

If you don't desire, if desire is dead, pray in desperation that you would........

Psalm 37 in a nutshell says

Do what is right.

Believe that God is faithful.

Be amazed and delighted by everything GOD is and does, even if He seems distant...

Commit to this...

You will fail often but He never will. He will stay after it till we are perfected.

Cling to Christ's work not yours,

THEN

^{(Psalm 37:6)} He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, And your justice as the noonday.

We can have a Year End Bonus IF we will PAY attention,
We will PAY for what we PAY attention to,

but we will also be PAID for what we PAY attention to.

Could be scary or delightful?

Sheep or a Lion?

Would you rather be a sheep or a lion?

It’s in our nature to want to be lions, especially men.

Who would want to be a sheep, with dirty fur and herded around by a shepherd and snipped at by a dog directing our every action? But then again being protected from the lion and the wolf and being lead to food and green pasture is pretty appealing.

I am torn between the two, I want to be a bad a** lion kicking butt and taking names but I want the safety and green grass of the sheep. Although, way too often I get tired of eating vegetables/grass and I just want to tear apart some meat.

The bible speaks of us as the sheep of His pasture ^{Psalm 79:13}  giving thanks and praise for the Shepherd of our souls. But it also speaks of His anger against His sheep ^{Psalm 74:1} for going astray ^{Isaiah 53:6}, and for that God laid all our sin on Jesus at the cross, just to get us back in His pasture, to keep us safe and fed and not feed for wolves and lions.

Throughout the scriptures lions tear and rend and take prey. As a man, I  surely like the prospect of that a lot better than a dirty little lamb. That is what is deep down in my soul, I want to be strong tough and victorious. I want to take prey and not be prey. I want to conquer and not be conquered. I want to win and not lose.

Something in me wants to be my own lion or perhaps my own god and king of my own life. Here is where we can win or lose this game of life. Life is an internal thing lived on the outside. We need to be a sheep on the inside and a lion on the outside, not the reverse which is purely playacting.

There are only two parts of scripture that speak of us and lions in a positive light.  Proverbs 28:1 states that the “righteous” are as bold as a lion. I think if we walk in right relationship with God then we are that tough and bold because we are clean and have no guilt before God. The other is also in Proverbs 30:30 and says that the walk of a lion is majestic.

The key I believe is to have the walk of a lion and the heart of a sheep before God.

Solomon said that a living dog is better than a dead lion ^{Ecclesiastes 9:24}.

Back to the man thing, I don’t want to be a dog either but if that is what it takes to win at this life, bow wow!

Here is the thing where us men screw up, living the life of a lion on the inside and a sheep on the outside. we need to flip that script….. 1 Peter 2:25 (we)… were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. We ultimately need to believe that Jesus has our best interests at heart.

Hebrews 3:10 says we (like sheep) always go astray in our hearts.

Our hearts cry should be the cry of the psalmist in Psalm 119:176 I have wandered away like a lost sheep; come and find me, for I have not forgotten your commands.

Funny thing about the words of God, once they have gotten down in our souls they are very hard to shake.

So would you rather be a living dog and a sheep or a dead lion? If I am going to be lead to peace and pasture and live my life for the King and Shepherd of my soul, I say “bow wow” and bahhhh.

Make me the sheep of Your pasture and seek me when I stray.

All the lions in scripture ended up torn apart and dead. Make me a sheep hearted, bold lion for Jesus and then and only then will I get the desires of my heart ^{Psalm 37:3-6}.

I want to want be God’s lamb with the roar and boldness of a lion. I must keep bringing my straying heart back again to the Shepherd of my soul.

Are You Winning The Game Of Life?

Look down deep in your soul and ask the question, am I winning the game of life?

Many of us live in defeat simply because we have not taken the Prize of Life from the nail scarred hands of Jesus. He tells us He will give us the Victors Crown of Life if we are faithful and endure ^{James 1:12, Revelation 2:10}.

On that cruel wooden cross on Calvary’s hill He has already won the Crown. He went to the “Place of the Skull” ^{Matthew 27:33} and let Himself be brutally tortured, punished and ultimately allowed Himself to be murdered as a sacrifice for our sins. Three days later He rose triumphant from the grave ^{Matthew 28:6} having conquered death, hell and the grave having won the Crown of Life by His faithfulness to the Father and His endurance over 33 years of his life here. He won the Crown, and His intention is that we would wear it living daily in this truth. If we would only wear the crown, we would be happy and at peace, this is winning the game of life.

Why do so many of us continue to live in defeat day after day?

When the truth of the matter is….

When you were stuck in your old sin-dead life, you were incapable of responding to God. God brought you alive—right along with Christ! Think of it! All sins forgiven, ¹⁴ the slate wiped clean, that old arrest warrant canceled and nailed to Christ's Cross. ¹⁵ He stripped all the spiritual tyrants in the universe of their sham authority at the Cross and marched them naked through the streets. ^{Colossians 2:13-17 (MSG)}

The truth of the matter is that only the truth will get you across the finish line.

You can tell yourself as many nice sayings, and read all the books on winning you want,

but in the end, only truth will get you home…..

John 8:32 (NLT) And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Nice saying and many quote it, but we must look at things in context. The verse before it V31 says “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings.”

IF you remain faithful to my teachings. You will KNOW

No one has perfectly adhered to the teachings of Christ, In fact no one can. It’s even hopeless to think that we can “perfectly” adhere to them.

Because of our inability to do this for ourselves Jesus died, so he could drag your stinking, sin-sick carcass’ across the finish line. Then He says you are more than a conqueror ^{Romans 8:37}. A conqueror wins the race through his endurance, training and skill. But, we are more than conquerors even though full of doubts, questions and failings often we can reach out, grab this truth and make it ours.

We will win the game of life if we are persuaded that He is able through His actions and grace alone to make us winners here and now. ^{2 Timothy 1:12}

It’s not some grit your teeth, keep your chin down punch it out life that He intended. But to stand and keep standing, head held high in uncompromising faith in the Champion of our faith and His victory.

…not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives. ^{Col 1:11 (MSG)}

….that old arrest warrant canceled and nailed to Christ's Cross. ¹⁵ He stripped all the spiritual tyrants in the universe of their sham authority at the Cross ^{Colossians 2:14,15}

That old arrest warrant was all the rules, regulations, laws and religious expectations that we could never live up to. Nailed to the cross, cancelled. You shall know the truth and it will make you free! The sham authority the devil uses very effectively to keep God’s saints down and ineffective. He can’t steal your salvation, but if satan can keep you down and ineffective he has been very effective. He has made you sterile, impotent and incapable of reproducing if you won’t wear the Crown of Life that has already been won and is being handed to you for the taking.

With our focus on our failures, foibles and fits, our focus is now off Christ and the Cross where it really belongs.

But, if we could take our focus and place it on Jesus ^{Hebrews 12:2} and grasp this truth, we could stop living in defeat and win this game of life that so many seem to be losing. Everyone dreams of being a winner. Jesus makes the dream come alive.

On Shame and Self Pity

Shame and self pity are two of the Devil’s foremost and effective tricks ^{Eph 6:11}, regrettably efficient in sidelining and separating many good followers of Christ. Understandably, nothing can separate us from the love of God ^{Ro 8:35-36}, and nothing can take us away from Christ ^{Jn 10:28-29}. But we do walk away, perhaps not in belief  but in faith, for belief and faith are too different things. I have held the belief that Jesus saved me from the moment I bowed my knee to Him, confessed and professed Him to be my Lord ^{Phil 2:10-11, Ro 10:8-10}, I have never turned my back on Him. But, oftentimes I have doubted His good intentions and His willingness to deliver me from sickness and trial. When at once, I again have faith in His good intent, willingness to work in my life, and the truth of His promises, my soul and spirit are reinvigorated and life turns from it’s former dull grey to a new dawn. More simply put I have believed since the day I got saved but I have not always had faith or trusted. The two go hand and hand, we believe, have faith and then are saved and believing gets us to heaven, but faith invigorates and fires up the furnace of life in our soul.

            That being said, I believe whoever reads this and is honest within themselves, has experienced the same. Truly this is a troubled life here and the Devil attempts to exploit and take advantage of each and every one of those troubles, trials and failures. If we would NOT be so ignorant of his devices

we would not waste so much time, effort, heartache and pain ^{2 Cor 2:11}.         

            Shame and self pity are two of the Devil’s foremost and effective tricks ^{Eph 6:11}.

Shame Jesus dealt with at the cross. We can believe it or we can have faith in it. Believing will get us to heaven, but trusting and having faith in that fact will undo the heavy burden of guilt and shame, change our life now, and keep us on track serving the Lord.

Shame is something Jesus dealt with at the cross, and if we choose to carry the shame on us, shame on us. We take it away from Christ and negate the effective power of the cross for our lives today. At the same time, we take the focus off of Christ and put it on us essentially trying to make ourselves our savior. When once we take our eyes off ourselves and look unto Jesus the Finisher of our faith ^Heb12:1 everything changes. That is the personally transforming power of the cross. Even Jesus despised the shame that He was put through.

            I guess there is true shame for sins we willfully commit, but there has been a cure for that for nearly 2000 years. If we have that kind of shame, we should come to Jesus confess and repent and He will make us once again shame free. 1 John 1:9 is one of the most glorious passages of scripture, for if we follow it’s advice we will live shame free.

            In the beginning I said shame and pity. Pity looks a lot like shame but is very different. Shame Jesus dealt with at the cross, but self-pity is a cruel idol we make of ourselves and there is a demon behind every idol. We should leave the pitying to God Psalm 103:13 As a father pities his children, So the Lord pities those who fear Him. Take it from our selves and give it to our brothers, and the poor ^{Matt 18:33}.

            Remember what I said in the beginning, these are the Devil’s devices and we don’t have to fall for it. Shouldn’t we rather let God crush him under our feet Romans 16:20?

God is the biggest and also the smallest something in the universe.

Is Holiness felt or does it reveal itself in a still, barely perceptible and most minute voice? God is the biggest and also the smallest something in the universe. God is the Master, Ruler, Maker and upholder of all that we see and even what we cannot see ^{Hebrews 1:3}. God made the mountains and He made the atoms that make up the grain of sand in the mountain. Is it harder for God to make a mountain than a grain of sand? Or does it take Him more time, wait, God made time for us? Does He have to stir Himself up to make a mountain and only blink to make a grain of sand?

            Something inside of us already seems to have the knowledge that these are ridiculous questions, if you have a brain and are living and breathing your God given reason tells you that it must be the same for God, as long as he is God. Thus, God must be the biggest and also the smallest something in the universe. Scientists are continually reaching to smaller and smaller particles of matter, splitting the atom and reaching into it’s core, but God is already there. Astronomers are continually reaching out farther than they ever have. What will they find when they get all the way out? Is there an all the way out? But God is already there.

            But God, is a whole ‘nother subject that I will only touch on here. Take all the problems and questions in the universe, all it’s mysteries and attach “but God” ^{Ephesians 2:4} at the beginning end or middle and it gets either smaller or larger, it cannot stay the same, unchanged or as mysterious for long with those words (I feel another blog post squeezing it’s way out).

            Thus, as we pursue the Holy One ^{See primer in earlier blog posts} we find Him in the large issues, events and problems of our life and also the minutest, most insignificant details. Are the most monumental

concerns and problems of our life more important than the minute? Just as the grains of sand ^{Jeremiah 5:22} and hairs on our head are numbered ^{Matthew 10:30}, so to, the big and the small issues and events of our life.

            If you follow me on this, perhaps each is as important and in another light inconsequential.

Is it our external problems or our soul, our living breathing, acting out, worrying, sinning soul that God is more concerned with? Each are alike to Him. Hence, when we get bent out of shape at His seeming inaction are we not focusing on the large and ignoring the small? When everything is going just ducky, is he working on the minute or the large? Does it mean that God is better, more powerful, more inherently good and active in our lives, when our large problems seem small?

            It seems that the moment I become satisfied or conscious of the change God has wrought in me that he evaporates and a new struggle for the infinitesimally small begins. Troubles begin to plague me, until my attention is once again on Him and not my small, wormy ^{Psalm 22:6}, little world.

            The minute I “feel” more “holy” it seems the trouble begins. The minute I “feel” my problems are too big or too small I have cut God out of the equation. God feels, he made feelings, Jesus had feelings and sorrows and grief ^{Isaiah 53:3}. He cares about our problems big and small ^{Matthew 6:26}.

Am I to stop feeling to be holy as He is holy ^{1 Peter 1:15} , and put on some Halloween mask of pasted on smile? Did He? That may be the most unholy thing we can do.

            Holiness may be to be with Him in the small as well as the BIG. To be affected but maintain not only our composure but our sanity and our search for the High and Lofty ONE ^{Isaiah 57:15}.

Holy begins to shine clear and brilliant when it is stacked up against.....

Holy begins to shine clear and brilliant when it is stacked up against what is not. As I sought out what HOLY is and sought it for my life I knew it was what God was. Paul said to be imitators of God, and try as I might I could not be anything close to His character and grace. Camping with my daughters and grandkids this came screaming at me like a bug on the windshield. My 11 year old granddaughter was acting like eleven year olds act and I was more concerned with my comfort than her peace of mind. I knew this wasn’t holy. Try as I might I could not change this, I could decide to, I could even take a run at it but in the end I was the bug on the windshield. I love my granddaughter and I want to care about her more than my comfort.

            I believe this grief beginning to take hold of me over this issue was in fact the Holy One responding to my cries to know holiness. A. W. Tozer said it well. “God is holy with an absolute holiness that knows no degrees and this He cannot impart to His creatures. But there is a relative and contingent holiness which He shares with angels and seraphim in heaven and with redeemed men on earth. This holiness God can and does impart to His children. He has made it available by the blood of the Lamb.” I ecstatically rejoice that God sees me as perfect  in Jesus Christ.

            If we are going to seriously get involved with God, we need to be careful what we ask for. He takes us at our word, so we would be well not to speak recklessly. At the beginning of the year I told God I would be willing to be anything that He wanted me to be. I would change anything about me that He wanted to change. This may seem easy to you, but I kind of like me and didn’t want to lose me. I had now become willing to lose me in Him. For the sake of going farther into Him than ever. I think this is holy.

            I can’t make myself more holy, I can only strive towards “hating sin and loving righteousness”.

As this becomes my desire He begins to peel the layers back on my life so He can get to the core.

This is what God wants, me as me, not me buried in the muck and the mire of compromise and lethargic pursuit of some bland, boring, colorless, flavorless, inane, lifeless, limp, milquetoast, stale, tasteless, weak, wishy-washy kind of so-called holiness. No man can say “I am holy”, but neither can the words “Be Ye Holy; for I Am Holy” be ignored.

            Hating sin and loving righteousness is not pointed outward, it is pointed inward. One of the things that God has laid bare in me is that conversations with my fellow human beings seem to all be slightly stained with some inward desire to look good or to put the blame for anything on something else besides ME. The moment I need to explain my decision or action I have just violated Jesus saying “let your yes be yes and your no be no”. Justifying ourselves is something we take for granted and have learned to live with and think it a natural thing. In fact, you may be thinking I am crazy, critical or kooky for even bringing this up, but if we would strive to “be holy in all our conduct”. We must begin to consider these things. Immorality, drugs and drink are called the big sins. I think they are just symptoms of much deeper sins that we have painted and dressed up to look acceptable.

The Quest (for the Holy) God Help Us

I am on a quest to know the High and Lofty One ^{Isaiah 57:15} and if he wants me to be Holy, I want to be Holy. I really don’t think he meant for me to never listen to the Allman Brothers Band again, but if He did, I would do it. A.W. Tozer prayed “God help us to make at once such amendment of life as is necessary before we can experience the true meaning of the words “In Thy presence is fullness of joy.”” Rudolph Otto expressed the idea that all persons sense God and he gave what they were sensing the term numinous. “Numinous is a mystery (Latin: mysterium) that is both terrifying (tremendum) and fascinating (fascinans) at the same time.” If you don’t find God or the idea of God at least somewhat fascinating and minimally terrifying, you have never thought deeply about WHO HE might be.

            I have sought God for more than just a definition of holy, and as I have, I find that a new quality comes into my life. Jesus did say “to him who knocks it will be opened “^{Matthew  7:8 (NKJV)}

I have knocked on the door of heaven, and sometimes just stood outside screaming, up at seemingly impenetrable walls, my desire to be as holy as a human being possibly could. I have not asked Him to explain how or why, but I have become willing. If you read my first couple of blog posts you will get a clearer idea of what I mean. Meanwhile, back at the ranch,  I am still on the path and still learning, I would not dare utter the words, “I am Holy” for the only One that can say “I am Holy”, without getting in trouble,  is the One who can say “I AM” and nothing else need be said after that. One of those things I have learned is that holiness seems to be where God intersects with us at the deepest level. Holiness is not attained by swearing you will never do a wrong thing again, holiness is somewhere right underneath the motive for our motives. Holiness is what God Is and Does and we are made in His image.

Holiness is not something to just pass off as incomprehensible and unattainable, neither is it something so distasteful that it should be spit out. Holy is only distasteful and horrifying to our natural selves, ah ha!, this is why it is a spiritual thing more than a rationally realized principle.

            The path to the holy is not clear and marked out, and just up ahead it always seems to turn to the right but never goes full circle. Right at the turn is a low lying cloud just thick enough to obscure what lies ahead. I think just as the Cloud led the children of Israel in the day so the cloud of the unknown beckons us into the Holy.

            Just setting out on the quest for the Holy seems odd and out of step. There is lot’s of talk about seeking God and wanting to live for God, but I get the feeling that the idea of living for God just scratches the itch for most of us, and it just settles there like the family dog sitting on the same rug, in the same house, day after day scratching the same itch cause it just feels so good, but never getting down to the cause of the itch in the first place.

            Perhaps we want our pastors to do it for us, vicariously anointing us with it so we won’t have to actually work for it. Perhaps we are hoping for a burning bush in the desert to speak to us, or for “it” to just magically happen to us one day. Somewhere down in our corrupt little souls part of us wants to believe that if we say enough amens and bob our heads up and down on Sunday then the Spirit like a dove will descend on our heads and pronounce us clean and well pleasing. It will be a cold day in, you know where, before that ever happens. You know it and I know it.- Peace

Ruffled Feathers

Be Ye Holy for I AM Holy ^{Leviticus 19:2 Leviticus 11:44-45 Leviticus 20:7 1 Peter 1:15-16}, is indelibly etched in my mind, and it is there in the Old King James Version, not the NLT, NSRV, NIV, nor even the Message, but the KJV. Somehow when I first got saved and decided to be a disciple of Christ, I heard  “Be Ye Holy for I AM Holy”, with a strong emphasis on the YE, not YOU, but YE. I heard it preached and thereby it became permanently and indelibly imprinted on my mind. It must have been that the first time I heard it, it stuck like an arrow in the thick goo of sin that was my old life, rusting away and infecting all the nasty little corners of my heart, soul and spirit. Well, I say, let it fester and putrefy in there with it’s holy corrosion and eat away at my sinful nature. Corrode in the dictionary means to eat away by degrees as if by gnawing;

            I think the more it ruffles our feathers the more those feathers are out of order. If the word “holy” beckons to you, good, if it terrifies you, stop running, fall down and surrender.

Jesus Missing??

Is it the next slick pitch or evangelism method that will lead people to Christ? Is it our beautiful example of what a Christian is like that will cause them to fall down and confess Christ? Will it be our polished service and sermon with ninety-two different programs for every genre of people? Perhaps if we pass out enough flyers the odds will work in our favor. These things are OK, just OK, but that is where it stops for me. I am not satisfied with passing out flyers.

When I go home and lay my head on the pillow, I don’t have a satisfied, well done good and faithful going on in my head and heart. The song that is playing in my heart is, “is that it?” “is that all there is?” There has to be more to it than this. The bible says the gospel is the power of salvation to all who believe and that is pretty simple. Or is it? I think it goes way deeper than that to the seat of power. We know the Holy Spirit is the Power, and He dwells down deep in a place in us that few of us explore. I think that down there is where the answer lies. Alas, too many of us, and I am often one, don’t live deeply enough. We don’t search out the deep things of God. We don’t look for God on the inside of us because we are too busy looking on the outside. We look at the next church service, the next song, the next Christian mega-event with the famous guy and the funky haircut. So let’s give it a name and call it our motive. What if the power of God works through us as we align ourselves internally with Him? If we are in harmony with God, and the motives of our motive are the same as His. What would be stopping His power working through us in a new and dynamic way?


I was going door to door the other day, and as I knocked and as I spoke, I prayed. I wasn’t only praying for the people on the other side of the door, but I was praying for my stinking motives. As I dug down deep and let God search my heart I realized that my motives didn’t smell to good. Sure, I was doing the work and not many people do, but I was doing it to do it. I didn’t have a burning passion to see these people saved, and If I really looked even farther down in my soul I could see that I was going through the motions of the great commission without it being a part of my being. Jesus said to do it, so I am doing it, plain and simple. I want more than that, and if Jesus lives in me, I believe that I can get to a point and ever beyond where the whole soul and fiber of my being is broken for Him and the lost, the same place where God is, and He is not willing that any should perish ^{2 Peter 3:9}I think this is what Holy is and does.

I am on a quest for that kind of holiness. I will not settle for busy, I want the hidden worshipping life that drives us to unreservedly work for Him, and fills our everyday going about our business work with His presence, power and purpose. To get anywhere near this will take some deep and courageous spiritual surgery. The journey will be tough, narrow and more difficult Matthew 7:13 than any other choice we could make it. It will cost us everything we are and have. But, if God Is, and He Is, we must see the urgency of this most critical need to make every adjustment to our lives that is necessary to experience the true meaning of holiness, and see His power truly manifest in our lives. It is worth it, it is only our reasonable service Romans 12:1. Whatever adjustments are necessary Lord, this is my desire. If we look for God on the inside of us we just may see Him do some mighty things on the outside of us.

To The Unknown God

In the church world or realm there is a lot of talk about prayer, prayers and prayerlessness. There are days of prayer that turn into protests, prayer breakfasts attended by luminaries and the media. There are president’s that pray and people of every faith walk that pray. I am a person that prays, I believe in it, it is a discipline of mine, but the bible talks about earth shaking, fire bringing down, God connected prayer.
I want that kind of prayer, not just the high volume, shout at God and tell Him how to run the universe kind of prayer. Nor, do I want the kind of fluffy, floppy and mushy kind of prayer that seems to go to a god that sits on a cloud stroking his beard looking for the best orators out of the people on this planet, so He can grant their request like some kind of cosmic butler. I want prayer that connects to real and living Almighty God and knows it connected. I don’t want the “I did my duty” kind of prayer, so God can check my name off on some heavenly list, like a grade school teacher checking my homework.
I believe it takes an adjustment in my life, a rearranging of the furniture if you would, to enable a deeper relationship leading to deeper prayer. I think it starts with desire, past the “it would be nice” kind of desire, and into the desire that is willing to go to any lengths to get it. Remember the desire (holy or otherwise) that you had for your first girlfriend, boyfriend or car, you would go to any lengths, spend all your time, go into debt up to your eyeballs, or as Percy Sledge said, “stand out in the rain” to get it or maintain it. I will be the first to admit, that I don’t always feel like that towards the things of God or prayer, and that admission disturbs me. It disturbs me when I read the passion of the writers of the Law, Prophets and the Gospels, and then don’t experience that or even see examples of that to follow in our day and age. I believe that if we were determined not merely in actions but in motives. Oswald Chambers mentioned “ The motive of my motives, the spring of my dreams, must be so right that right deeds will follow naturally.”

This is a “splinter in my mind” driving me on. Call me crazy, but I believe that this kind of transformation, prayer and holiness is possible. Not only possible but attainable, why would the Prophets, Jesus and the Gospel writers pen that if it were not within our reach? They would be madmen, hucksters and, at the very least, hypocrites of the highest order, if we could not actually pray without ceasing, be holy in all our thoughts, intents and motives and have a depth of relationship with God that would take us outside the merely human realm.

Why is it something like holiness and prayer are so shortchanged that all they get is our spare change attention?

No matter how many books are written I do not believe there will ever be three sure steps to the prayer that shakes the earth, or a holiness for spiritual idiots manual. It is something we must search and grope for on a gut level, not knowing how or where. As Paul the apostle spoke so brilliantly to the Athenians on Mars Hill of the altar to the “To an unknown God”. “His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps “feel their way toward Him” and find him—though he is not far from any one of us. Acts 17:27 (NLT)

The Splinter in my Mind

This bog was originally aired here 9/6/10. 

As I reread it I thought of all the life changing things that have gone on since then.

Could it be the result of pursuing the SPLINTER?

After 9/6/10;

March 2011 my wife and I went on a dream trip to New York City to see The Allman Bros Band at Beacon Street theater(my dream not hers).

A grandson, Tobias, was born April 1, 2011 and we began to raise him full time in June of that year.

The same month, I moved on from pastoring, after 11 years, to find what God wanted for/from my life.

Four months later I was diagnosed with Head and Neck Cancer, and went through Chemo and Radiation treatments, losing 40# in the process and eating through a tube in my stomach while curled up semi-permanently on the couch watching endless episodes of you-name-it on History Channel.

My writing gene shut off with the diagnosis, I haven't a clue why, but I'm grateful it returned with my health.

The SPLINTER IN MY MIND did not, shut off.

Jesus told us to be perfect just as our Father in heaven is perfect. Matthew 5:48
Peter quoted the Old Testament verse “Be Holy for I Am Holy” 1 Peter 1:15-16

The word holy is printed on the front of your bible. Did you ever wonder how a book could be holy, no matter whose book it was? Maybe it was placed there by King James to scare the hell out of the huddled masses.

Anyway, this word Holy just wouldn’t leave me alone. Like Morpheus told Neo about the Matrix,

“What you know you can't explain, but you feel it. You've felt it your entire life, that there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad.“

I love God with “all” of my heart. In fact, I have devoted my life to serving Him. I pastor(ed) a somewhat odd collection of saints, we are small, but very cool. I live my life to see people come to know this God who has so freely, extravagantly and sacrificially loved me. I really have no other goals in life but to see the kingdom of God expanded and sinners rescued, at the same time like most of you, I also must struggle to get through this world and make the ends meet somehow. God is a tremendous provider, but that does not exempt me from the struggle and the trial. To carry on this earthly struggle without it overcoming the heavenly struggle is a huge, if not immense challenge that has sidelined more than one saint. As I said, this word and thought from God just won't leave me alone.

“HOLY”

For me it’s one of those things of God that church just can’t satisfy. At church you can learn about it, hear great sermons about it, respond to altar calls in tears, but it seems to end there. Church never can satisfy the itch of what God is really leading us to (Remember the splinter in the mind). This must be worked out between me and God alone in the darkness of a great foggy unknown. 

Many people start down that road with God but very few continue to find out what is past that cloud a hundred yards down. God and church become some kind of panacea to cover the burning need for God without really getting Him. Church, then becomes some kind of anesthetic for the pain caused by that splinter in our mind that keeps beckoning us down the rocky path that we can only see a few yards and a few moments ahead. 

Unfortunately, most choose the safe path, the one with all the road signs marked off, that is well maintained, nice bright street lights to mark the way with Burma shave signs along the way that promise us promotion, success, health and wealth.

     I have decided that I will take the unknown rocky road (not the ice cream). I believe God is in the cloud beckoning us to plunge into Him. He displays his power in the whirlwind and the storm. The billowing clouds are the dust beneath his feet. Nahum 1:3 (NLT)

The God I know that saved my life and rescued me from sin......

The God I know that saved my life and rescued me from sin, the God who loved me enough to kill His very own Son for me, could He possibly want to take from me all those attitudes, actions and ideas that just weren’t “that evil” or “that bad? After all, I’m a pretty good guy. I don’t do drugs or drink anymore, heck, I don’t even smoke cigarettes, chew or cuss. I pay my tithe, I go to church twice a week and I really love God’s word. To the best of my ability (most of the time) I try to live according to God’s revealed truth, not just in an outward show, but with an inward grace and faith, this is my desire.


Nevertheless, this scripture “Be Holy for I Am Holy” 1 Peter 1:15-16 circles my head and my heart like a pack of vultures, ever patient, just waiting for me to drop dead of exhaustion and give up. I wanted to believe that this scripture was one of those largely overstated, exaggerated and impossible directives placed there by the rabbinical writers to make a point; and just between you and me, I wanted to simply leave it that way and never have to really take it out and look at it. You know, like the kinds of things you hope to just “get away with”. For instance, not watering the lawn, fixing the fence, or taking out the garbage. Seriously hoping if you ignore it long enough, maybe your wife will do it and you won’t have to deal with it.

The thought of upping the ante on holiness is something like knowing you should start exercising and lose that extra ten or fifty pounds, you know it’s there, you know it needs to be done, but after all, it’s really not that bad. Is it? You know what I mean, those things that constantly circle around in your head needing to be done, but you know it can wait another week, another month, or even another year.

I believe God is Holy, He is the High and Lofty one that inhabits eternity Isaiah 57:15. But somehow I just couldn’t see Him taking the time to dig into every minute detail of my life and either being pleased or displeased. I thought perhaps there was this wide gray area that I could just dabble in a little bit, just as long as I didn’t live there. After all, we are saved by grace. Right?

Before you write me off as a heretic, or worse yet, a lost little boy, give me a listen you might find it worthwhile. You also might find that just a few layers down I am not much different than you.

“Be Holy for I Am Holy” so said God to Moses and told him to tell the congregation of the children of Israel Leviticus 19:2 Leviticus 11:44-45 Leviticus 20:7

Be Ye Holy for I Am Holy

Leviticus 11:44-45, 19:2, 1 Peter 1:15-16
When you read these verses, does the blood run down your spine or does your mind go numb? Do images of stuffy people in even stuffier dress, God bless them, fill your head? Does the word "holy" fill your heart with dread and bring you thoughts of never having an ounce of fun ever again?

I must admit that every time I heard this verse something switched to off or cruise control in my soul or my spirit I am not really sure which one. I said amen with everyone else in the congregation, my head bobbed up and down in agreement with the pastor as he preached it “hard”. I have even quoted it in some sermons I have preached, but I just couldn’t get my head or heart all the way around the idea of HOLY.
I want to try to not merely understand it, but be it. If God is God and He is, and he says to be Holy, what is stopping me? I have this urge inside of me driving me forward, at any cost, to be what God intended me to be. Completely whole, and completely holy.