In every generation the the greatest challenge is to be awake to the state of the social society of the day, to see the condition of the culture we are born and steeped in from birth. The great challenge is to see the conditions and atrocities of our generation as it will be seen for generations to come. But as a man once said "All that evil has to do to perpetuate is for good people to do nothing." This is what heroes are made of. Those men and women we hail as heroic of our history were not those who simply lifted up there heads from the crowd to see the issues in there day, they were those who gave legs to their convictions and took a stand.
it is a drunkenness, a delusion, its when we are so caught up in our interests and the issues of our lives we do not see the dark cloud that is over us and our generation. Like the fish doesn't know it is in water so we being born into our generation have the idea of normality with our state. Is there a moral plumb line that stretches through every generation by which we can lay hold and judge our current condition or are we simply prey to ever changing morals handed to us by whatever the current trend in our society deems fitting? There is an everlasting kingdom reigning above the kingdoms of men that finds its evidences in our hearts as we dream of a utopia of peace of unity, this dream is the evidence of things not seen it is the clarion call of our origin and history, it is 'The Kingdom of God'. "On earth as it is in heaven' Jesus instructed His followers to pray.
From the God who wrote destiny in the human heart there is in each of us a word from heaven, a summons to the hills of our world.

This present darkness. As real and true as the Kingdom of God there is established in our world a kingdom of darkness. A host of principles and ideologies propagated to billions beneath its sway to keep the minds of the people dark and their understanding from grasping the truth of God and our destiny in Him.

to be continued in part 2.....

so many people
so many cars
so many voices jumping out at me
and I took it all in
I internalized it all
I let it go down deep
till fish hooks grabbed me from the inside
til the voices of the masses followed me home
and wouldnt let me lie down
and would let me sleep
and wouldnt let me rest
I listened to every one of you i gave you my time
when Im with Him im on fire when Im with you im burnt out
so many long nights
so many long drives
Im longing just to know how long this goes on
Im running through this valley just dying to rest
spinning places
spinning faces
long stares and nightmares
and Im coming to the door
moved in such a way i could never imagine
I fought for the life thats inside of my soul
I fought day and night
fighting in the darkness I was never alone
tortured and broken may back on the ground
and eternity came flooding in, in the agony of beauty
in a rocky heart
in terrifying gentleness in a jagged soul
He poured in like a wind burning and shattering
something took ahold of me I cant control
theres something in his presence theres something in His power
ripping into time, i cant control whats inside
lifted up onto my feet I opened my eyes
to see the shattered peices of this dark reality come crashing around me

the cross, a faithful companion

We must never speak for ourselves to be faithful witness' (the greek word for witness is martyr). But to speak for God and all ourSELF to be offered up as sheep to the slaughter. Being found not in our own righetousness, defending ourself but instead seeking only the glory of God. Considering ourself of no reputation and worthy of nothing greater than to die for Jesus, sharing in His suffering, becoming like Him in His death on the cross as he said "forgive them Father they know not what they do." Like the chinese Christians when asked how they felt towards their persecution they joyously answered "Why should I be upset? This is the way of the cross." count it all joy when you fall into vaious trials. There is no place in following Jesus for discouragement. Through this light momentary affliction God is working an eternal weight of glory. So let us trust our spirit, soul and body to the care of the one who ordered the galaxies, thate HE will perfect what concerns us and all the sooner if we take our hands off. So to Him be the glory and the honor who in His grace has allowed us to be treasure chests carrying the life of Christ within us. Though they beat the and attack the vessel it only causes the life of Christ to pour out of us all the more.
So in my death I see life. He is an expert shepard who expertly drives His nails (Ecc12:11). A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. Do not dispise the discipline of the Lord. Do not dispise the cross. In the cross, in the cross be my glory forever. It bekons you again. Why wait another day? Get on the cross, share it with Jesus and today you can be with Him in paradise. let me be found upon the cross when my saviour returns. And may my resistance to self, my resistance to self governance be unto the death and may it be as wheat falling to the ground. Every lost dream, every lost ambition, every forfeited pleasure of sin be a seed. let it be a sweet smelling aroma to God. True love is the giving up of your life for another.
May my shame be to your glory Jesus, as yours has been to mine. "You are my freinds because you have been with me in my trials." how deep the riches of the glory of the wisdom of God.

So I'll cherish the old rugged cross,
till my trophies at last I lay down;
I will cling to the old rugged cross,
and exchange it some day for a crown.

burning bridges

Im still digging through my purpose and digging through my past
trying to find the meaning inside my past
trying to find something like a railing in the mist
something to guide me back to all the love that I missed
was it inside me all this time
this yearning at last
its wonderful in its mystery its following me all the time
how much longer can I wait in a thursday night
Im listening for the starts when im walking in the light
drove down these roads so many times before what am I looking for?
like a little kid sitting in the lost and found
in a land before time where it all began
Im laying down all I was to see up higher
trying to understand the meaning of these scribbling words
like God just creeps in under every verb
I got pushed over the fence like a shooting star
now im crawling up hills just to hold your hand

the glory

A new veiw

I'm sitting on the plane looking out the window and I glance over at my open bible. Psalm 33; "The Lord looks down from heaven,
He sees all the children of men.
From where He sits enthroned He looks out
on all the inhabitants of the earth.
He who fashioned the hearts of them all and observes their deeds."

I stare out the window at tiny squares of land, highways as thin as hair, and tiny specks of houses so small they fade into the tapestry of the landscape and fade off into the horizon. I think of how small, how tiny they are and the tiny little lives they contain and the tiny little problems in those lives. how small and insignificant they look from up here.
As tears roll down my cheeks I hear in my heart the words; "God so loved the world...."
this world? this tiny world I see out my window? more tears....
"that He gave..." I pause on that thought, He loved the world so much that He gave, but what did He give? a handout? A quick fix? a few dollars like we toss to a beggar without a second glace to ease our own guilt?
"God so loved the world He gave..." then it drops into my heart like a thud; "He gave His only begotten son". I taste the salt now from my tears and it makes me wonder if all the oceans in the world are nothing more than the tears of God crying out for this world, a world that for the most part ignores Him...and yet "He gave..."

Why did God whisper to an elderly lady :" I will never leave you"
Why did God supernaturally put fillings in my landladies teeth?
Why did God help a struggling teenage girl stay clean for a month as I heard her proudly pronounce at church?
Its these little drops, these messages that come down to us from The Lord and Hes saying
"I see you and I care"

What is glory anyway, i hear that word allot lately. Well i have a definition for it: God showing his character.

God loves, God gives

"For God so loved the world, he gave His only begotten son that whomever believes in Him may not die but have everlasting life." John 3:16

freedom

You sick and dead world look what you did to me. you promise me freedom but you gave me a cage. You painted a smile on my face and stuck a knife in my back. You promise me freedom and you promised me fun, you dead world your steeling the children and you eat them alive. You dead world how could you? When I was young and volnurable you raped my mind with vulgur language pornography and violence.You made me hate my body and hate my face until I changed my image and ran after your styles so I could finally look at myself in the mirror.you told me I would find some releif when I smoked your drugs and drank from your drinks, but you used it to drain every bit of childish joy from my heart until I couldnt feel anything but numbness without a drink or a smoke.You made me feel so worthless, you told me God didnt care, you told me He was far away or hiding in a church or that He didnt even exist.


But then I saw this man on a cross. Who was he dying for my heart asked. Could it be me that he was suffering for? That broken cowardly insecure me I spend my whole life trying to hide away deep inside of me, that broken me I never let anyone see? He looked at me from that cross and as our eyes met I knew it. This God I spent my entire life hating and ignoring was dying for me...and all this pain and insecurity, all the sin and pain this world had caused me died with Him. And then like a flood in one moment of time all my innocence I had lost came pouring back into me. Like waking up from a bad dream it was all gone I was pure again from the inside out and all my baggage was gone. Then I looked up to see this man, He was no longer on the cross but was standing right in front of me. I saw Him for the first time this God I had never known. He put His arms around me and finally I felt the love and acceptance I always longed for and I never want to leave His arms again.

Who the son sets free is free indeed. No going back to Babylon now. Children of promise turn your eyes to Zion and keep on walking, your salvation draweth near.