Love IS the Wonder

Whoever said that a straightened hand was more dramatic than a healed heart anyway? – “Blessed Child” by Ted Dekker

Psalms 105:2 NIV
Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonders. (pala)

Psalm 106:7 KJV
Our fathers understood not thy wonders (pala) in Egypt; They remembered not the multitude of thy mercies; But provoked him at the sea, even at the Red sea.

What are His wonders?
– Checed (lovingkindness no matter what!)
– Mercy
– Grace
– Salvation
– Sonship

We are:
– Reconciled
– Seated
– Righteous
– Sanctified
– Redeemed
– Complete
– Light
– Glorified

Our sins are:
– Forgotten
– Judged by the Blood
– Payed for by Christ taking our place.


This is the simplicity of the Cross and the power in it!

There is no other message I preach.

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Week 27 

Week 27 Like a Child 
At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them.

And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.”  Matthew 18:1-5

He says what He means and He means what He says
“Be like a child full of wonder and praise.”
Skipping or tripping we grab hold as we stand
With Him looking round for the Kingdom’s at hand.

Crayola takes me back…  Anyone that knows me knows this might have been a hard project for me. I love to draw, I’ve been doing it for a long time, so to let go and draw imperfectly like a child was a struggle. It was also an object lesson on childlikeness. I have habits, patterns, muscle memory, and generally all adult expectations that need to be laid aside. To actually be childlike I have to let go of all of that and trust that the crayon will produce my mental image.

Week 20 

Week 20 What Defies Earthly Eyes

Mt 13:13; Is 6:1-10  & Psalm 46

Matthew 13:11-17
Jesus replied, “Because the knowledge of the SECRETS of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. This is why I speak to them in parables: 
Though SEEING, they do not see; though HEARING, they do not hear or understand. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah (6:1-10) 

‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; 
you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. 
For this people’s heart has become calloused; 
they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. 
Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts 
and turn, and I would heal them.’ 

But blessed are your eyes because they SEE, and your ears because they HEAR

What am I supposed to hear? What am I supposed to see? Hear and perceive that the mystery of the Kingdom of Heaven is in our midst.

I cannot focus on the Kingdom and it’s Truth and focus on the things of this world. The things I place my identity in reveal the kingdom I hold dearest.

Through our re-birth, we, the once-blind, have been given the ability to perceive with the eyes of our hearts. The once-deaf hear and comprehend. 

Though circumstances look bleak, as I become still and focus on the Lord, I will not be anxious or afraid of what my eyes see. There is another reality full of safety, peace and rest, the reality in which God is with me even now.

Psalm 46
God is my refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Though the earth should change and though the mountains be shaken and slip into the heart of the seas, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its roaring, there is no need to worry. I will instead be still and SEE with understanding that He is God. He will be exalted among the nations! He will be exalted in the earth. The LORD of hosts is with me now; The God of Jacob is our stronghold [our refuge, our high tower]. Selah.

Week 19 

Week 19 The Tale of Two Kingdoms 
What if I said eternal life is a dimension, not a destination in time or space. Would that be upsetting?  

For so long I believed it was a destination, but now that I have studied the Scriptures concerning eternal life, I realize it is actually living outside of time, as my Father does.  

Jesus prayed with the understanding that eternal life is simply to have a relationship with God and Himself. If that is so, eternity began for me at the moment I came to know Jesus. And the Kingdom is actually within me as Jesus Himself claimed. His Kingdom comes now on earth as in heaven.

Yet this Kingdom of eternal life cannot be seen with my eyes, but with my spirit. I need new sight. As the psalmist says, where can you get away from His Spirit and Presence? Is there any corner that God isn’t present? Colossians says that Jesus is before all things, and holds everything together.

So I need vision correction, to see with spiritual eyes. Then instead of chaos, I can see His order; storms – peace; death – life, kingdoms of this world – kingdom of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, which is in my midst.

If you wear those cheap 3D glasses and gaze into the words on the page long enough, the Kingdom of Heaven will float out of the page. Just see.


Luke 17:20-21
Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you (within you.)”


Declaration 3.
    “Your journey now is to see who you truly are, for you are the light of the world, the son or the daughter of your Father, a new creature flowing with more beauty and power than you have dared imagine possible. “

Week 18

Week 18 The Tale of Two Kingdoms   

I have always loved going to the beach and building sand castles. Every time I made one, I would make it more elaborate than the one before. Thankfully my identity was not in what I built, nor the sand from which it came. Because I knew sooner or later the wave would come, and the castle would be gone. 
    It was perfectly acceptable for me to be proud of that castle and enjoy its beauty. But it would not be acceptable for me to have a temper tantrum every time a structure was destroyed. 
   If I look past the kingdom of the world and see myself in God’s kingdom, the things of earth grow strangely dim in the light of the eternal. My earthly judgment of situations, good or bad, suddenly have no weight, for I see only the intent of a good, good, Father. 
When I choose to see His kingdom on earth, I will always be standing safely on the rock when storms come.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is SEEN IS TEMPORARY, but what is UNSEEN IS ETERNAL.

What kingdom exists inside of you and around you at this very moment? One that is unseen with earthly eyes.

There are two kingdoms:
One flows with peace and power and love, and one is darkened by condemnation and judgment.
One is eternal but not seen with our eyes, and one is temporal and passes away, yet visible to our earthly eyes.
One aligns with God, and one aligns with our fleshly desires. 

Similarly, there are two selves for you to contend with:
The new self knows the father and abides in His realm even now, while the old self clings to this world of flesh and bone through relationships with everything else that is temporal.

Two kingdoms and two identities. In each case, Jesus’ teaching is clear: the flesh must be surrendered to see and experience the spirit. You cannot serve two masters. We look not at things that are seen, but at the things that are unseen; for the things that are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Week 17 

Week 17 Daughter of my Father 
My Father thinks about me all the time. According to Psalm 139, He made me as one of His most wonderful works. I am His beautiful poetry, an original tapestry, and He thinks I am incredible.

I, Your poetry
A tapestry of Glory
This Work makes You smile.

Haiku: Japanese for ‘cutting,’ a major form of Japanese verse, written in 17 syllables divided into 3 lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables, and employing highly evocative allusions and comparisons.

Washi Tape: Japanese (wa) paper (shi) — it literally means Japanese paper tape. Before it became the pretty patterned tape we now know and love, washi was simply known as a durable Japanese paper made from the strong natural fibers of native Japanese trees and plants.

Psalm 139:13-18
For you created my inmost being; 
you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; 
your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 
My frame was not hidden from you 
when I was made in the secret place, 
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. 
Your eyes saw my unformed body; 
all the days ordained for me were written in your book 
before one of them came to be. 
How precious to me are your thoughts, God! 
How vast is the sum of them! 
Were I to count them, 
they would outnumber the grains of sand— 
when I awake, I am still with you.

Week 14 

Week 14  The Great Mystery

Jn 14:15-24.    If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”
Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.”

The Lord showed me a lovely example of my place in the mystery of oneness through a set of matryoshka dolls. You know, those lovely Russian nesting dolls?
Two years ago I drew this in my Bible, but today I have a better revelation of it.

The outer figure of these dolls contains increasingly smaller versions of itself within itself. Apparently, it is essential that the full set of dolls be made from one piece of wood because of the characteristics of the wood are unique. If you use different pieces of wood the doll will not fit together properly!

Now, I can visualize Jesus in the Father and the Father in Him. Jesus is the second doll within the First, made of the same wood as the first. I too am in the Father because I am in Jesus, while the Father (wood) is in me. And finally, Holy Spirit, the Father’s mind and heart, dwells in me because Jesus returned to the Father. 

We are one as He is one. When I rest within Him, wherever He goes, I go. When I am separated from the set, He is still in me for I am of the same wood. I cannot be separated from His love, He CANNOT leave me or forsake me. Wow! I love this revelation.

   

2017

Jesus said He is the Way. He is the Truth. He is the Life.
This challenge will explore the Way of Christ by first understanding the Truth of who God is and who we are to Him. Where did you come from? Who, exactly, is your Father? All else hinges on what we believe about our Father and our image before Him.

Then we will prepare to walk in the Way by seeing who we are and surrendering any other identity. Without sight we can only fumble in the darkness.

Last we will see how to apply His Word of power to this Life in order to bring life to this dry-bone world. The purpose of this year long journey is to fully live in the Kingdom of Heaven while we are on earth.

I hope you will journal with me on the journey to open the treasures of God and His kingdom come and His will be done on earth as it is now in heaven.

We will be following the declarations from “The Forgotten Way” by Ted Dekker and Bill Vanderbush

5 Declarations

THE TRUTH

1. God is infinitely good, far more loving and gentle to his children than any earthly mother or father imaginable. God is infinitely complete; nothing can threaten or disturb Him. Nothing can be taken away from Him, making him less than complete, or added toHim  who is already complete.

2. You are remade in the likeness and glory of your Father, finite yet already complete in union with Yeshua (Jesus), you in Him and He in you, risen with Him and seated in heavenly places. Nothing can separate you from His love.

THE WAY

3. Your journey now is to see who you truly are, for you are the light of the world, the son or the daughter of your Father, a new creature flowing with more beauty and power than you dared imagined possible.

4. You will only see who you are thus be who you are as you surrender your attachment to all other identities, which are like gods of the lesser power that block your vision of your true identity and keep you in darkness.

THE LIFE

5. Love, joy, and peace are the manifestation of your true identity and the Father’s realm, on earth as in heaven through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Week 42

Week 42 Blessed is the Nation…
2 Chronicles 6 and 7:12-16
7:12…the Lord appeared to him at night and said: “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple for sacrifices. 
13 When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, 
14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 
15 Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place.
16 I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.

We all probably have 2 Chr 7:14 memorized and hopefully we pray as it says. But I guess I’ve never really paid attention to the context of God’s conditional promise. 

In chapter 6 Solomon has finished God’s temple and prays a long prayer for God’s blessing and favor over the temple, asks the Lord to make it a place of answered prayer, and an abiding place for God’s presence. But most of the prayer asks God to make the temple a HIGH SUPREME COURT full of His justice and mercy, and healing, especially in the case of national sins.

A few months back the Lord gave me a fresh understanding of myself as His temple (See the theme for February.) So, reading verses 7:12-16 with that perspective adds a personal aspect to this prayer. When I take anything to the Lord in prayer, I am in essence bringing it to his temple where He has promised to hear my petitions. He promises His Name, eyes and heart will always hear my case. The Great advocate will always be pleading before the court on my behalf.

Knowing the power available in this temple, look at verse 14 again. ‘If my people’… people can be translated Nation. 

“IF My Nation, who has declared ‘In God we Trust’, would humble themselves in their temple, and intercede, advocating for the Nation, and seek an audience with the true Judge of the Highest Supreme Court, and repent by turning away from the path of destruction, THEN I will hear their case, pardon them and bring the land back into balance.” Selah.

It’s never too late. There is no higher court. Appeal to Heaven.