Suggesting A Crown

Something suggesting a crown.  Suggestive of royalty.  A crown.  Suggesting Kingship.  Suggestive of our king.

There is so much in a word.

Corona ~ something suggesting a crown.  (Merriam-Webster)

Look it up.  There is far too much in a word for us to not know what we are dealing with.  A fake.  A faux.  A liar masquerading as a king, our king.  Demanding that the entire world bow in fear, bend a knee in anxiety.  He is a fake, a liar.  A master masquerader.

It is only suggestive of a crown, it is NOT a true crown.  It is NOT our King, we know Who rightly wears the crown.

But, a word does hold much meaning and power when given the authority to hold that power.

The enemy of mankind is yet again, masquerading as a king.  Wearing a faux crown, demanding our knees bend to him and his false kingship.  It is an age old game he has run, routing against man.  He has always attempted to fool man into believing he is more than he is and he often succeeds in the foolish game because we rarely slow to listen to the words actually being spoken.  To stop and pause and determine is this a faux crown or our real Crown speaking?  We are duped because we run too hard and too fast after the things of this world to be able to steady ourselves to hear and receive Truth.  There is a constant bombardment of words, false words being spoken in our world.  Far more fake and faux royalty running about then we would care to believe.  We bend our knee, we cower or grab greedily at the faux crowns about.  We are guilty of both ~ cowering and greedily grasping, depending upon the false words around us.

Our flesh is facing its own mortality and quakes and quivers at every possible threat.  But yet, it is also that very same flesh that grabs greedily at the faux crowns of luxury and leisure.  We run the gamut on allowing ourselves to be drawn in by false words.  Words offering a fake kingship, a false security, a faux universe unto ourselves that we rule and reign.  It is all deception.

2 Corinthians 11:14 ~ " And no wonder, for even Satan masquerades as an angel of light."

Or a king wearing a crown.  Suggesting that he has kingship, that he wears the crown.

He is a liar, a fake.  And he only takes and occupies this faux kingship in our lives when we permit it.  We have to give him the authority that he deceives us into believing that he already has.

And we often give up place to him through words.  Words that we speak and words that we absorb into our being.  Words do have power.  And here is why   ~

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God . . .  And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."  John 1:1,14

All the Goodness of heaven wrapped itself in our feeble flesh and walked beside us and as the power of the cosmos sat and supped with us we began to behold His glory.

The glory of the Word become flesh.  The Word.  Wrapped in our feeble flesh to allow us, enable us to behold His glory.

It was likely something that we were unable to see without the packaging of our feeble flesh ~ too glorious for our frail and fragmented faculties to absorb.  Too glorious to behold without the familiar flesh encasing it.

The glory of the Word become flesh.  It is unthinkable as to what He forsook, what He endured to be wrapped as us.  To allow us, enable us to see more clearly.  And even then it would be years, decades for many to know what they had beheld.  And many who walked and talked with the Word wrapped in our feeble flesh would still never allow themselves to see.

But these years into a few millennias later some of us do see the glory of the Word wrapped in flesh.  But, those very same often miss the tremendous power behind every word spoken, received, read and sent.  And there is so very much buried into the millions of masses of words we hear spoken all around us.  We rarely slow to listen to the words flying around us, to stop and wonder at the meaning of them all.  Which is a travesty and in our present moment in time ~ a global travesty.

The God of the universe tells us His son is the Word and then we carelessly and flippantly throw words around as if they are nothing.  Empty.  We speak and type, we listen and read, we consume words as if they are empty.  Nothing.  Yet, in this barrage of words we feast on the vast majority of words we consume and digest are TOXIC & DEADLY.  And we absorb this toxicity into the very meat and marrow of our bones, into our homes.  All these toxins, all the time.

Proverbs 18:21 ~  "Death and life are in the power of the tongue . . . "

It will be either one or the other.  Death or life.  In the words we consume.  In the words we pour forth.  Death or life.  Words are not a matter of neutrality.  Words have power, words have meaning.

And to the beginning of this all ~ this current word that consumes much of our world ~ it is a fake, a faux.  A father of lies masquerading as a king.  Suggestive of a crown.

We know Whom wears the crown.  It is King Jesus.  The Word became flesh and dwelling among us. Let us put our King in His rightful place and use words wisely and sparingly.  

A World In Respiratory Distress

Again and again ~ I have so many things to say and yet, nothing at all.  But, I will trust that if you have perchance stumbled upon these words it is because He intended you to read them and maybe you might even need them.

What is He saying right now to His people?  To His bride?  Oh, so many terribly, wonderful things and quite a few terribly, terrifying things as well.  And so often as He speaks a shock of terror and wonder runs deep through our veins.  As we listen to the immortal God, our own mortality shakes and quivers under the reality of His tremendous power.  It is a shock of terror to the flesh and a shock of wonder to the spirit.  And quite possibly that is exactly what we need in our present day ~ our flesh to take its rightful place, recognizing its own mortality and to fall in line behind our spirit man.  Flesh no longer tolerated as master of our lives but as servant to the spirit man to enable us to fulfill the work He has determined for our days.  Flesh was never intended to be master of our minutes spent, our days passing.

2 Corinthians 2:14 ~  "Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place."

Truth ~ if we our surrendered to Christ, we are living in complete victory and triumph today.  Not tomorrow or the day after, but today.  We are living, breathing triumph.  Being lead about by the Spirit of God in complete victory.  Now.  Not tomorrow when this crazy corona thing subsides, but now.  Triumphant.  Victorious.  That is the truth.

The question of the hour is are we walking in that truth?  Are we speaking in that truth?  Are we texting and typing in that truth?  Are we thinking in that truth?

Or is our mind caught in a continual news feed of fear?  A social media diet of anxiety?  If we allow it, our flesh will walk us into fear and defeat, for our flesh is facing its own mortality.  Our flesh will pass away.  And if given even an inch, it will grab a mile and then another and then yet, a few more miles.  It will walk many miles in defeat, if we allow it.  

But, our spirit man knows a different way, a different tale.  Our spirit man knows we will live an eternity with God, rejoicing at His feet, dancing through His thrown room for ALL OF TIME!  Our spirit knows that God is taking us by the hand, grasping our sweaty, clammy hands and leading us in victory.  Triumph.  Our flesh will quake and quiver at the thought of its mortality but our spirit rejoices in its complete victory over death, through the cross of Christ.

Even in the midst of crazy corona ~ you my beloved son and daughter of God are TRIUMPHANT.  VICTORIOUS.

Now we must walk in that.

For much of the world around us is dead and dying.  Reeking of the fear and anxiety that grips and chokes our world.  Our world languishes under the stench of the sick and dying and we beloved are "diffusing the fragrance of His knowledge in EVERY PLACE."  We are His fragrance being poured out into the stench of the sick and dying and the very whiff of His knowledge brings the dead back to life!  And every place where our feet step we pour forth triumph and victory.  And the beautiful fragrance of the knowledge of God ~ the very truth that an Immortal God deeply loves us and cherishes us is diffused into every space we occupy.

That is our great calling, that is our purpose, that is the work we were intended to do.  Diffusing the knowledge of God EVERYWHERE and at ALL TIMES through ALL CIRCUMSTANCES.

For we are triumphant EVERWHERE and at ALL TIMES though ALL CIRCUMSTANCES because of the cross of Christ.

We know this truth ~ we are truth bearers.  We carry a gospel in our very hearts that our dying world needs to breathe in.  We are diffusing the breath of God as we go forth into this dying world.  

In a world caught in the very grip of an enemy that steals the breath of humanity, that drains the life blood from the losts' veins one painful drop at a time ~ that very world needs us to breathe forth the very breath of God!  The life giving breath of God.

A disease of the respiratory sort, shortness of breath, can not catch my breath, can not inhale and exhale ~ that reeks of a nasty enemy does it not?  Stealing the breath of humanity away!  Figuratively and literally!  Can not breath in, can not breath out.  Trapped as prisoners in our own homes, terrified of this loss of breath.  Oh, that reeks of a nasty enemy for certain.

But, we beloved carry the very breath of God!  And every place we step He diffuses the very breath of His knowledge!  And the world so desperately needs His life's breath right now!  At this very moment, church breathe His life giving breath out!  Exhale the knowledge of Him to the world around you that is languishing, perishing under this present dark loss of breath!  We can not take a deep breath under the fear and anxiety of it all WITHOUT THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD!  The very knowledge of God sets us free to breathe deep and lungs fill with life giving air!  Church this is our hour to diffuse the knowledge of God into every place!

This is the essence of who we are, the very work we are called to do and we are called for such a time as this!

Do not permit your flesh to worry under its mortality, to walk you into anxiety and fear.  My flesh will die, your flesh will pass away and praise God that it will!  For then we enter into eternity with our Creator, to spend our days in eternal bliss.

Strange Things Are Happening

Life feels terribly strange these days.  For example, I am currently staring out the window watching my dog eat dirt ~ that is terribly strange.  And that I currently can not get online due to a storm here in Nashville, yet I was able to log into my blog to type ~ that is VERY strange.  Or the terribly odd fact that I am typing before I picked up a pencil ~ that feels eerily bizaare.  It all feels quite odd and terribly uncertain.

I feel as a foreigner in my own land ~ one eyes another with suspicion across the empty toilet paper aisle.  Eyeing one another as if that one may be the enemy ~ may be the one that has stolen all of the globe's toilet paper!  Or may be the one that carries this deadly virus and spews it on every unsuspecting soul they can!  It all feels quite bizarre.  Entirely strange.  And absolutely nefarious.

I am a sorjourner in my own land, an outsider in my own Walmart.  Enemy to my fellow man across the sidewalk.

Nefarious for certain.

I have so many things to say, yet nothing at all.  It all feels a bit of a jumbled mess inside and surely outside.  Dogs eating dirt.  Online when Wi-Fi is down.  Mortal enemies over a roll of toilet paper.  Strange, quite strange.  Except for the 'eating dirt dog' ~ that may not be that far out of the realm of her possibility.

But, social distancing, now that is STRANGE.  We have all become a stranger in our own land.  A foreigner in the aisle.  The enemy who hordes ALL THE TOILET PAPER!

And in the spirit of strange I have decided to try to a new and strange thing ~ to write without agonizing over every word.  To post without hours of blood, sweat and tears.  It is not for you, in fact I recommend that you delete this post from your memory.  It is for me.  It feels as if I am righting my world by small degrees to type, it feels a bit of certainty amid global uncertainty, to see words on a page.

And can I just say that we do have an enemy and it is certainly NOT the man or woman who was able to grab the last package of toilet paper or bag of rice.  They are NOT our enemy, they just happen to be a moment quicker than us.  And our enemy is entirely NOT that one we hear cough into their sleeve ~ they are not the enemy people!  Not the enemy.  We have an enemy and the other across the aisle is NOT HIM.

Shall we stop eyeing one another as if we are in mortal combat, a fight to the death as we wonder empty stores?  I say we shall, we do determine to stop staring at another with fear and suspicion.

Ephesians 6:12 ~ "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places."

And then this ~

"For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.  For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ."  2 Corinthians 10:3-5

Money Box (Part 3)

I have started this several times to no avail.  Start.  Stop.  Start.  Stop.  Lay it aside and then pick it up again.  All to no avail.

Worshipping amidst the stench of dead called forth?  Pouring forth the fragrance of the heavenlies when the foulness hung heavy?  It was powerful.

Mary managed to offer a safe space for Lazarus to sup with his Savior ~ to drown out the stench of the sick and dying.

But, there was something else there.  There in that room, amidst the magical worship in the deafening stench.  There was something else there in their midst.  And I kept picking this up, turning it over and around, writing a few lines only to lay pencil aside, again.

Bu, there was something else there in the room that day.  And I think we may not like to hear of it.  I may not like to write of it.

"Why was this fragrant oil not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?  This he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and had the money box; and he used to take what was put in it."   John 12:5-6

There it was, amidst the stench and the magical worship.  There with those supping with their Savior and Mary pouring forth costly oil and fragrance that poured forth freedom from the suffocating stench.  Amidst it all ~ the money box.  And held by a thief.  He was a thief and he continues to this very day as thief.  And he spoke forth what appeared to be reasonable religiosity.  He certainly used the prescribed format ~ giving to the poor etc. etc.  Our comforting vernacular ~ sold to be given and so on and so forth.  And it rings nicely in our religious ears.  Well yes, now that thief mentions it, certainly the worship was wasted (at the feet of Jesus no less!) and should have been sold to be given away, for the thief and liar loves to a appeal to our over practical, carnal thinking.  To ever temporal way of functioning, rarely able to glimpse the eternal and always cemented on crazy globe.  For thief and liar hates pure worship and will work to deceive and manipulate, appealing to our fleshy tendencies to draw us away from our worthiest calling ~ pure and extravagant worship.

Mary had stepped in, just walked right into that deep place.  She poured forth costly oil and worshipped Savior and she called down the heavenlies and that home was filled with fragrance.  That oh so needed, heavenly fragrance.  And the dead called forth supped with Savior, the stench of the sick and dying was squelched with the heavenly fragrance.  Magical worship had won the day.

And there in their midst, the thief and liar called foul at the costly fragrance for he hates pure worship that gives freedom to the sick and dying to sup with Savior.

Should have been given to the poor.

As he sat holding the money box.

There in the room, with the sick and dying and Savior come to save, was the ever present money box.

And liar and thief cries to our carnal ears, "Put it in here!"  Your wealth, your time, your energy, your family, your talents, your everything!  Put it here, into my money box.

And we think of the practicalities of carnal life and we think of payout we can hold in our fleshy fingers.  We struggle to worship into the heavenlies, to pour our time, wealth and energy into that which we can not see.  Can not hold and manipulate in our hands.  We oh so want the dividends our practical minds see in the money box.

Career.  Education.  Programs.  Wealth.  Status.  Retirement.  Leisure and Luxury.  Oh, we can see and taste it and feel it rolling around our fleshy fingers, in our human hands.  That money box looks so appealing to out constantly grasping hands.  Grasping at that which we can hold, manipulate.  It lays just there, just there within our reach.  Just there.  In the liar's lap.  Just there.

But, Mary grasped into the heavenlies.  She reached hands into heaven and brought down that healing fragrance that her brother sat and soaked in as he supped with Savior.  With Jesus.

Panicky liar.  Someone had poured forth quite a large sum into pure worship.  Panicky liar was worried for he grasps the magnitude of the power of pure worship.

Oh, but the poor!  Don't forget about the poor!  Our practical, carnal minds pause at the practicality of the poor.  We can grasp at the practical programs for the poor.  But, pouring forth costly worship with no tangible dividends?  We do struggle here.

And the money box sitting in the liar's hands, grasped in the grimy grip of the eternal thief.  He whispers and screams into our ever need to grip what is ours!  To hold so tight to today.  We want to see payout, hold the dividends.

Education.  Career.  Family.  Talents.  It can be so very hard to pour it out on that which we can not see.  This magical worship.  But, what is the payout?

Panicky liar was panicking for this mere woman had modeled what magical worship can do ~ call down the fragrance of heaven to lay as balm on the stench of the sick and dying.

Mere woman had modeled the magic of calling down His majesty.  In spirit and in truth, she had kept her costly sum from the money box.  She had not fallen into the trap of the practical, subtle serpent.  And the heavenly fragrance squelched the stench.

That ever present money box.  In our lives.  Our homes.  Our churches.

The practical mind puts wealth into retirement, saves for a rainy day rather than saves a soul.

Our talents and time into career, rather then calling down the heavenlies through magical worship.

We can not see the dividend.  Yet.  We do not comprehend the payout.  Here.

But, Mary modeled the truth, when our best, when our brightest is poured into magical worship ~ our God is honored and men are brought into contact with His majesty.  And the ever present, practical money box is finally closed.

Panicky thief can no longer steal that which was given to worship Master.

I do not like this one.  I turned and twisted it around in my mind, mulling it over for months.  For I see that money box in my life.  Money box being filled with that which I ought to give to my Master.  And thief siphons straight from that blasted box!  Siphons straight away and the stench hangs so heavy!  And I flounder and falter under the staleness of the stench for Satan siphons, steals straight away that which would bring the fragrance of heaven straight into my space, into my soul and spirit.

Money box.  Oh, but the practical poor.

And we all stay poor, poor in spirit, poor in soul when we do not pour our best and brightest into pure worship.

The poor will be so greatly served when they are bathed in magical majesty of their Savior.  When they too sit and sup with Savior amidst the costly fragrance of our pure worship.

Do you see the money box there in that room there that day with supping Savior?  Do you see the money box sitting there in your room?  In your home?

Maybe today we finally close and seal money box, maybe today we pour our best into that Whom was always due our worship.

Maybe today.  Let it be Lord.  Let it be.


~


I wrote that over a month ago ~ it is quite strange to read it in light of today's present money box that the world has named the Corona Virus.  Could it be that today, more than ever God's people must determine to pour our absolute best and our very brightest into pure worship.  There are so many sick and dying all about ~ sick with worry and dying under the fear of it all and they so desperately need the fragrance of heaven to squelch the suffocating stench of fear and hysteria.