Men Are Like Trees

I have known a few men that I could not figure out. I got close to them and they seemed to be real in their relationship with God. But the closer I got to them God revealed to me something about the men. There are men without roots in God and there are those who have spent their life deepening their life into God.

Men who have their roots into God have fresh manna overflowing their life. Those who don't have roots simply echo what they have heard from others.

Dear Rod

Dear Rod;

You are a precious son to Me. I love loving you. 

I am going to be rough on you for the next few months. You are going to feel old feelings you knew as a child. You are going to be tempted to think and feel that I am the same as those who hurt you in your childhood. Your heart knows the truth. 

I cannot and will not explain to you now why I am doing these things and allowing these things to happen to you. You will feel lonely and abandoned. In your heart you know the truth but your mind and will and emotions will torment you for a season. 

Do not fake praise Me through this time. I hate fake praise. Learn to be very quiet and let your heart move forward in your chest. Let your tears and your groans speak for you, they will not dishonor My Name. If you move forward your mind to understand or to grasp what you are going through you will dishonor Me with your thoughts and soon your tongue. Be still and wait. Let your heart move forward in your chest. 

Like the heat of summer drives the corn roots deep into the Iowa soil, this season will drive My words deep into your heart. You have learned to trust what you cannot see or understand. Rest in Me. 

I do not delight in your pain. I do delight in you crawling up upon My chest and letting your heart rest on My heart. I do delight in your getting still in your pain to hear My heart beat and whisper your name. I do delight in you hearing My breathing and in every breath hearing of My great love for you. I do delight in your resting upon Me, nothing brings Me greater joy. It grieves me that you have not learned to find your way to My chest, My heart and My breathing but by trouble and pain. You are so easily pleased by the world and its deception and shadows.

Slippery Slope of Sin

Sin comes to us through our mind, our emotions and our will. When the three get together they produce a sense of the Holy Trinity and the three whisper i am. They mimic God's voice because the soul wants to be boss. The soul of itself does not want a God to worship but rather wants control.

When the soul encounters sin it whispers
1. I can handle this.

The soul always assumes the sin will be without consequence or severe cost. The mind calculates the threat of discovery and the emotions place a value on the pleasure of the sin and the will agrees and completes the act.

2. Wrong is easier than getting back to right.

The mind again re-calculates what it would take to get back to being right, i.e. repentance, confessions to offended parties, exposure of sin, path to sin revealed and destroyed. The emotions and mind agree that it is simply best to stay put for now. If it gets too bad, we will repent. And the will agrees.

3. Wrong is right and right is wrong.

Our morality now begins to reprogram our theology. The Holy Spirit within our heart grieves deeply while our mind begins the Romans 1:18 and following process. First our worship is defiled and God turns us over to our own understanding. Second, our intimate relationship with our spouse is let go of by God. And we wander away from His protection, His provision and His design. Our future is gone without His presence and power in our marriage. Then our family and community begins to fall apart. He pulls His hands off our family and we begin to fear our children. Their desires rule them. The community becomes selfish and a generation is lost to evil.

To arise in the morning and order the day through worship keeps the mind and will and emotions from attaching to each other. They serve the heart well when they are kept separate and following the heart. When we disengage our hearts we get into all sorts of trouble. Hearts - full speed ahead.

Women Live by Hope

Gabi married me over thirty three years ago because she believed that her tomorrow with me was better than her yesterday. I am challenged every year to make her birthdays and her Christmas better than the year before. This hope must come out of her faith in God and not in me. I have fallen short and her hope has been dampened in me. But as her faith kicks in and sees Christ standing behind me, He comes through validating her faith and her hope.

I have seen women marry based upon a false hope. A hope their mind, emotions and will have made up. After the wedding, not long after, she comes to God and asks Him to bless her marriage. She did not ask nor need God in the dating relationship because her hope that the man would change was very real to her and she believed in her hope. But it is a false hope. Like those passengers who trusted the Titanic to carry them across the sea some paid for their false hope with their lives.

God is looking for daughters who have a desperate, focused hope in Him. See 1 Peter 3:1-6. Hope must arise out of her faith in her God. He will not acknowledge a hope and a situation that was created out of a false hope and no faith.

God seems to delight in allowing women to be put into situations where they are left without hope and only faith in their God. This testing and proving time proves to be extremely valuable in the future.

CPR What starts your heart?

God is wonderfully desperate to be your CPR. He is very jealous for anything that tries to move or touch our heart.

C = What is your Comfort when you need comfort? Where or to whom do you run? God wants to be the sole one we run to.

P = What is your Portion on this earth? Are you expecting someone to die and leave you something? What is your portion on this earth? Health, wealth? Long life? Love? Children? God wants to be the portion. Does not mean that you cannot enjoy those things but that they must be in order.

R = What is your Refuge? When you are being attacked, hurt where do you run?

It is probably not a good idea to ask yourself these questions. We have a horrible tendency to lie to ourselves. Ask loved ones.