The Call of God Does What Man Can Not!

John 11:43 ~ 
   ". . . with a loud voice, Lazarus come out!"

The Word declared a loud word and called the dead man forth and the dead man walking was dead no more.  But, first . . .

She wept, this Mary, she wept for her lost brother.  And fell at His feet, "Lord, if only You had been here . . ." if only . . . but alas it appeared He had delayed and death had prevailed.  It appeared that Her Lord was too late . . . and she wept. (vs 32)

And so did her Lord, "Jesus, wept." (vs 35)

Jesus wept.  Spirit groaned.  Sighing Spirit.

He loved her, this one, He loved her and her broken alabaster jar.  The one who had washed His feet now lay crumpled, sobbing at His feet.

And Jesus wept.  And He groaned.

Death had been victorious, darkness had fallen or so it appeared . . .

And did He weep at their sorrow or maybe at their unbelief? (vs 11-15,23-25)

"Remove the stone."

"but my Lord, the stench, for he sleeps the dead man's rest for four days, too offensive the stench . . . " Martha cries.  Martha, always practical, the sensible sister.

"Did I not tell you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God!"  (vs40)

Have I not told you?  You just must believe.

And stone is rolled back and we see the death, we see the darkness, if only He had not delayed . . .

Yet even after His supposed delay, He cries out in this way ~
               "Lazarus, come forth!"

And the dead man came walking and dead man was dead no more!

"Loose him, and let him go." (vs 44)  Let him go free.

And he was free, free indeed.

"Our ancient stories, memories of the past, they came and went entirely too fast!"  some would say.

Ancient stories gone away?  . . . or Truth that brings freedom this very day?!

For I hear it, I hear Him say,
    "in death, you will no longer lay!
  Rise out of darkness this very day!"

He cries out in a loud voice, "Come out of darkness, come out of death!  Arise, you sleeper souls, arise!  Loose them, loose them, I say!"

Loose them from what? 
    Well certainly, burial clothes have bondaged them up.

Burial clothes today?  No, I am wrapped in the Gap this day.

Burial clothes of our day would more rightly be displayed this way ~
      greed, materialism, lust, gluttony, drunk on wine rather then the Vine, pornography, did I mention greed?  Well, you know the drill, we are always certain it is a "need." And the laundry list of addictions, sin, iniquity and burial clothes that wrap our very days in darkness is far too long to write.

But burial clothes?  Yes, indeed.

But, Jesus wept and then He called him out of death.

He wept and He called.  And He weeps and He calls.

And Jesus cries forth in a loud voice today, He calls you forth out of darkness and death and, "loose them!"  He says.

We sleeper souls here the cry
   and burial clothes we leave them to lie,
For we heard His gentle sigh,
  followed by His mighty cry,
"Come forth, that your soul may never die!"

What burial clothes bind you?  What has you bound hand and foot?  (vs 44)

He is the same yesterday and today and He called dead man forth that day and He cries out to you this day.

Come forth.  Run forth.  Race forth.  Come forth.

The Wordless Word

Romans 8:26 ~ "For we do not know how to pray as we should; but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words."

Ancient words bore out of a timeless Being, a timeless Existence; He Who groans for me in the wordless depths.

The deep calls unto the deep . . .                                           (Psalm 42:5)

And the kingdom of God within . . .                                     (Luke 17:21)

Within every believer lies the kingdom of God and the Spirit of God quickens the dead man walking and then spirit man begins to hear . . .

the depths within hear a call from on high and the call comes from the wordless depths.  Groanings from the depths of eternity; void of time, void of words.  And the intercession of the Spirit Himself can not be qualified in quantitative limits, it can not be contained in time, nor words.  He groans for His people far too deep to measure and the Deep calls unto your depths . . . beyond the words, beyond the noise, beyond all that we know and all that we can perceive . . . the Deep is calling us home.

And we worry of work and wealth and we whittle our days away in mindless chatter and ungodly worry.

And how do we not see these ancient words ~ the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words!

How do we waste our days and carry about in thoughtless ways rather then plunge head first into the depths of these wordless groanings?

Do we not know?  Do we not care?

Or have we allowed the world and the enemy of our souls to so fill our lives with incessant noise that the quiet call from the wordless depths gets lost in the hustle and the bustle of life?

But, what if?  What if we dive headfirst?  What if we take the plunge?  And daily, hourly live bathed in the Spirit's intercessional groans?  What if we live our days swimming in the wordless depths?  What if?

What would be and who could we be?  And what life could we not touch?

Could we?  Can we?  Will we?

Turn off the noise and take the plunge.

Lord, let it be unto me as Your wordless word says!

I want to race my days and all my ways in Your wordless depths!  Lord, let it be unto me!

Six Words That Would Change the World Forever!!

Another week passes but the words do not flow.  I am waiting.  Waiting.  Waiting for emails from far away lands, waiting on the right van, waiting on break through in young hearts, waiting for words and waiting for bedtime.  But, most of all I am waiting on God ~ waiting on God to hit send on those emails from far away lands, waiting on God to drive our van into our drive, waiting on God to break through and to break into two those young hearts and replace them with a heart entirely new, waiting for His words and resting in His arms as the minutes tick towards sleep.  Waiting on God.

I would rather wait on God for a hundred years a thousand times over, then to take an answer from another.

My will is surrendered unto OBEDIENCE.
    My life is lived as SIMPLICITY.
And I am entirely UNKNOWING, save for the love of Christ.

He has told me to be still, so I wait in obedience.  I do not know, so in simplicity, I wait.  When the answers, the relief will come?  I do not know.  So, I wait, unknowingly.

It is a race of waiting ~ I race out of obedience, I run light and simply, and I race unknowingly (except for the Victor, I do know Him).

And those many years ago, that young woman, a child really, said, "Lord, let it be unto me according to Your word."  (Luke 1:26-38)

And in complete obedience and spoken out of simple love and without a shred of knowing, she said, "Lord, let it be unto me!"  And she did not know, how could she see . . .

that precious child hidden inside would cause a night time flight but yet she said, "Lord, let it be unto me!"

and she did not know that burdened with miraculous life inside,
  that donkey she would be forced to ride,
and Savior baby she would need to hide.

"Lord, let it be unto me!"

And the years would pass, but for this mother they would pass to fast and far too few and she would watch her Son suffer and she would watch her Son KNOWINGLY die and in an instant she would lose a Son yet gain a Savior.

Six words that would change the world forever ~ "Lord, let it be unto me!"

What is He asking you that you need to say too ~ "Lord, let it be unto me!"

Of Running and Riding and Resting and Striving (Part 2)

"For love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared with love in dreams.  Love in dreams is greedy for immediate action, rapidly performed and in the sight of all . . .  But action love is labour and and fortitude . . . "
                                                            ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers of Karamazov

When this action love, this pure love bore out in labour and carried on through fortitude; when this love wells up from our innermost man, when our innermost river flows love from on high then our running is a riding and our striving is a really a resting, a deep resting in the presence of God.

For certainly as we ride as broken bride we are called to put foot to pedal to carry more of the broken bride to meet their heavenly Guide.

It is a mystery I can not rightly fathom but I surely know it to be true that our resting and our waiting upon the Lord gives rise to a powerful striving and the swiftest of running as mighty rivers flow forth with life from His people who wait upon Him.  (John 7:38)

And as we continual ride as His broken bride we also run in His mighty stride.  We are called to ride and we are called to run and the reality of this truth can only be found in the deep abiding presence of Christ and only in that mysterious place, that awesome space, can you run and ride and rest and strive.

For an action love, love of labour and love of fortitude is not a love you and I naturally now for our hearts are deceitful and above all things desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9) so in our resting and our striving this is what we pray ~ "And may the Lord make you (me) increase and abound in love to one another and to all . . . " (1 Thessalonians 3:12).

And in this house and in my heart I surely know and live and breath this truth ~ " . . . for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another." (1 Thessalonians 4:9) for I did not know this pure love, this labour love until I quit my selfish striving and entered into a heavenly resting in the arms of Love.

Please do not misunderstand ~ this action love is birthed out of the heavens and spills over the edge onto to those who are quietly waiting on Him.  This is not a human striving or matter of self control.  In a Christian culture bloated on self help thinking and "we can do it" attitude, we have completely forsaken our first Love (or maybe never knew Him to begin with).  We have turned from a life lived in broken surrender before the Lord and instead are stuffed with all the best that 21st century has to offer.  We take the perfect moment caught on state of the art filming equipment, set to an inspirational sound track, with the perfect lighting and astounding audio and visual effects, played in our stadium seating churches with the optimal temperature setting to please our every whim and the correct density of cushioning under our ever growing self cushioning and a slight tear slides down our cheek and we call it a "Move of the Spirit!"  How about we call it the truth ~ HYPE.  The Holy Spirit is not hype, never has been nor will He ever be, He is ALWAYS about the same purpose ~ to glorify Jesus Christ.  And I have a funny feeling that He is none to concerned about the visual effects, temperature setting in the room or even our superficial concerns.

Listen ~ Facebook hype will not produce action love, love that will stand the test of eternal time.  Nothing will produce this pure love except for a waiting and resting upon the Lord.  The human heart can not produce this well spring of life ~ the Word rightly calls our hearts "a heart of stone" (Ezekiel 36:26) and He graciously takes this rocky heart and replaces it with a heart of flesh.  I do not care how far we have progressed in the 21st century, no one but my heavenly Father above can create in me a clean heart, a real heart.  So, I wait upon the Creator of heaven and earth.  No hype, no feel good, hug-a-bear message.  As we wait upon Him hype gives way to holiness and temporal love gives way to eternal love.

Isaiah 30:15,18
     " . . . In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength . . . Blessed are all those who wait for Him."

Our resting is our salvation and our quietly waiting is our strength to ride and run in this call to action love.

For the believer who rests in the presence of God their labour in Love is their resting in Love.

And they ride and they run and they rest and they strive from the well spring of life that flows from their inner most being.

No hype, just waiting.  No tricks, just Truth.

Of Running and Riding and Resting and Striving (Part 1)

(Please watch . . .)




                                                     
       


I watched him pedaling her through the streets and then I could not stop thinking of him.  I prayed for him and wept for him and then prayed again.  One of those few true souls who will bring a smile to your face and a simultaneous tear to your eye ~ pain and joy intermingling with one another, coexisting as one ~ searing pain giving rise to her sister, abiding joy.

And somehow in that 3:23 minute I had fallen in love.

Love lived out in purity is a rare sight indeed ~ hands calloused with time and toil, layered with love and loyalty.  Calloused hands that gently care for his broken bride. 

"For love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared with love in dreams.  Love in dreams is greedy for immediate action, rapidly performed and in the sight of all . . . But action love is labour and fortitude . . ."

                                                   ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky,  The Brothers of Karamazov

This call to love, this action love is certainly arduous duty.

Action love is surely dreadful and harsh indeed ~ to minute by minute lay calloused hands about a work for a broken bride who has forgotten her goodly groom.  Arduous duty indeed.

Yet another tear slides down my cheek and He silently asks me a question ~ "Why had this pure soul so gripped your soul?"

I do not know.

"This goodly groom who places a lovely crown upon his broken bride ~ this broken bride who does not rightly know that she wears a crown of His royalty.  She can not know, she can not understand, she can not remember as her goodly groom pedals hard and bears the weight of His unknowing bride.  And Godly Groom carries the weight of the world on His broad shoulders and He smiles a smile of pure love for His broken bride and a single tear of pure joy carried on the waters of His pure pain slides down His glorious cheek.  And His unsuspecting bride rides broken, shattered; shattered into pieces that will be made whole by her Godly Groom as He pedals her through the streets.

And in triumphant procession He carries His broken bride made whole by pure love, He carries her ~ His royal bride.  He carries her proudly, victoriously, gently, joyfully and lovingly.

My broken bride, does this not sound familiar to you?"  He silently asks.

Oh yes, of course, now I see ~ this goodly groom and his broken bride ~ this is surely You and me.

And You gently set me before You and lay crown upon my head and You proudly pedal Your broken bride who too, so often forgets her Godly Groom Who bears her weight upon His endless shoulders.  And we ride ~ broken bride and Heavenly Guide ~ we ride.

Run a race today?  Yes, certainly, but maybe my running is rightly named riding and all of my striving is more of a resting as my Godly Groom pedals His broken bride down streets of gold.

So, I ride on.  Who bears the weight of your world?