Sea of Glass

On a sea of glass

Though the Heaven’s seem to be brass.. My feet still tread on a sea of glass.. Transparent, illumined, pure, & clear- The Spirit’ revelation burning my ear.. A place of calm, a place of grace, Where no storm or trial can trip my pace- Founded on ancient words and wonders I am overtaken by the waves of wisdom.. Made to ponder on promises past, Revealed in the present, is faith at last! My heart & my soul living free, In the power of Hands, the Humble sees- Meek shall inherit the earth some day, The chosen King, digging the way, Risking on water, a thousand feet deep, Catching pierced Hands, the One who greets .. Greets with a smile, and a sweet deep stare, A look and a glance to the earth that’s rare.. Rare indeed, to the sons who sweat, In turmoil and shame, where glory frets.. And wanes and wants, and cries and tares, At the last sound of adam, the glimmers glare.. Then light breaks through, and gives hope to the day, Where I can swim, where I can play- And laugh and dance, and cry, and sing, And be one with my Savior, my God, and My King.

God Senses........

Think about the human beings five senses.  Think about how human beings were made in God's image and likeness.  According to Genesis 1:26 God said, "Let us make mankind in Our image, in Our likeness.  We were created in God's very own image and likeness!  Think about that.  No, really ponder that for a bit.  The creator of Heaven and Earth, said, all that i have made is good, but there is still something missing from creation.  There was life, plants, trees, animals, and bugs. But there was not the life of God manifesting in a being the way that it would in a human being.  One who was created in the very image of its designer.  One who would bear the likeness of the Creator on earth.  God's very likeness needed an expression in this new created world.  An expression of something or someone for that matter who would be able to taste, touch, see, hear, and smell the way that the Creator was able to.  One who could enjoy the smell of fresh baked bread baking over an oven, or one who could hear the sounds of the birds singing, the ocean waves roaring, and the wind rushing through the seasons of summer.  One who could climb a mountain and see the glory and beauty of a far off sunset, behold the stars at night, and look out over a green, oak laden valley in the fresh spring air.  One who could touch and caress the beauty of a woman's body, and at the same time taste the sweet flavors of a freshly picked apple, or a big red wild juicy strawberry.  We taste, we touch, we smell, we hear, and we see.  We engage in all five of these senses countless times throughout our day.  When we sit down with a good friend for lunch.  When we head off on that hike just before the dawning of the day.  When we take off surfing on a wave and the cool ocean waters hit our face.  When we sit down for a good movie with our family.  So if we enjoy these senses and love to taste, touch, see, hear, and smell and we were made in the very image and likeness of our Creator, then why would we think that the One who made us and fashioned us would not also have these very same senses as an integral part of His very Own nature, personality, and character?  Why do we still see our Creator with His senses dulled down, boring, mute, blind, and deaf.  The scriptures are constantly revealing a God who is just the opposite.  One who is engaged in our lives, hears our prayers, cries, and thoughts.  One who see the secrets of our hearts, the quite acts of our love & devotion, and the hidden deeds of our lives.  One who tastes the agony and pain of our brokenness with his very own tongue that was smashed by angry fists, and One who smells the aroma of our worship and obedience despite our limitation of gravity, trial, temptation, time and space.  He is a Creator who identifies with His very creation in that He became like us- even though we were made like Him.  So next time you are tasting, touching, seeing, hearing, and smelling do so knowing and with the awareness that you were made in the likeness and image of your Creator and that you are manifesting & expressing His very nature, personality, and character.  Do so knowing that He created you with these five senses not to misuse and abuse them, but to enhance, express, & enter in to His likeness and image here on Earth as it is in Heaven. 

"By just being with Me"

Just to be in God's company.  Even if He doesn't say a word.  If all you do is just sit at His feet and be with Him, that alone brings wonders untold.  More is spoken with the glance of an eye or the gesture of a hand.  The big smile on His face speaks more than a thousand words could destroy.  Is this what Jesus meant, when He gently rebuked Martha as she was scurrying around the room?  And said to Mary, there is just One Thing that matters and one thing that will never be taken from you.  To be with Me.  As simple as can be.  I can hear the Lord saying, "By just being with me, battles are won.  Victories conceived.  By just being with Me.  By just being with Me, mountains are moved, and cast into the sea.  By just being with Me.  By just being with Me.  Sickness is healed, diseases dissolved, blind men can see.  By Just being with Me.  By just being with Me.  Your mourning turns into dancing, your tears to joy.  By just being with Me.  By just being with Me.  Fear is removed, shame and guilt cleansed free.  By just being with Me.  By just being with Me.  Your weakness made strong, your poverty turns to wealth.  By just being with Me.  By just being with Me.  Your darkness becomes light, your secrets revealed.  By just being with Me.  By just being with Me.  Your vision enlarged, your purpose set right.  By just being with Me.  By just being with Me.  Your conscience made clear, your ears tuned to a new frequency.  By just being with Me.  By just being with Me.  And all this I do and more, without a word to speak, by just being with Me, by just being with Me.

The King or the Crowd?

But Ittai answered the king and said, “As the LORD lives, and as my lord the king lives, surely in whatever place my lord the king shall be, whether in death or life, even there also your servant will be.” 2 Samuel 15:21

The Backdrop:
Israel is beginning to unravel politically as David's son Absalom instigates a rebellion against his father's kingdom and throne.  Earlier in this narrative you see Absalom drawing a following unto himself and promoting himself to the place of king, judge, and leader to the people of Israel.  Look at this-   It says of Absalom, in verse 6-
"So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel."  The crowds begin to follow Absalom and cheer and shout and declare their allegiance to this self appointed king.  I can hear the words of the Emperor of Rome in the movie the Gladiator, "the crowds are fickle brother."  The crowds were also there when Jesus was put on trial, beaten to a bloody pulp, mocked, and falsely accused.  The same crowds that just a few days before were shouting His praises in the streets of Jerusalem, Hosanna in the Highest!  You see the crowd will always be there, and the crowd will always go after the popular opinion, the new trend, or what looks celebrity.  But then there is someone like Ittai.  Someone who has the heart to follow the King and ignore the crowd.  Even David is telling him to turn around and throw in with the crowd, but Ittai says, no, "even in death or life I am going to follow my King!"    The meaning of Ittai is "the Lord is with me."  This is so prophetic, because those who know the Lord is with them, are completely secure in themselves and thus, have no need to run with the crowd to seek their identity or security in the Kingdom.  They know that the Lord is with them, and that because the Lord is with them, their allegiance and loyalty are centered on the right authority, because their lives are lived from a place of love and devotion to the right King.  The authority that the Lord Himself has ordained and put in place.  In this case, it was not Absalom that the Lord had established on the throne of Israel as King, but David- a man after God's own heart.  Not a man after the heart of the people.  

The crowds always go after outward appearance, the celebrity status, and the person who always has the coolest hair due.  Check out Absalom's MO-

Now in all Israel there was no one who was praised as much as Absalom for his good looks. From the sole of his foot to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him. ²⁶ And when he cut the hair of his head—at the end of every year he cut it because it was heavy on him—when he cut it, he weighed the hair of his head at two hundred shekels according to the king’s standard. 

The Punch Line:
Absalom looked the part.  He even appeared to have what we would call dreadlocks, but I doubt he was rastafari! :)  He had a deep sense of justice, and appeared to have the right heart, but he did not have the heart of Ittai.  I love Ittai because he is one of those unknown characters in the bible that you don't know on a first name basis, and probably forget about because you have a hard time even pronouncing his name to begin with.  But he is mentioned.  And I believe he is mentioned in the story because the God of the scriptures wanted to honor this loyal, devoted, faithful man.  He wanted to show the contrast between the heart of an Absalom, and the heart of an Ittai.  The heart of one who loves the cheer of the crowds or loves the command of the King.  The crowd or the king?  

Prayer: 
Lord, form in me a heart like Ittai's.  A heart that will not go after the fickle crowds, but that will follow my King.  I declare to you my King Yeshua, as Ittai declared to King David "whether in death or life, even there also your servant will be.” 

Giants defy, God defends-

Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God.  The LORD who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”

The Lord chooses imperfect you, to do the perfect.

" The Lord chooses imperfect me, to do the perfect." 

This phrase hit my spirit this morning as I was digging through Romans chapter 8.  This chapter is filled with famous verses like, "There is therefore now no condemnation to the those who are in Christ Jesus."  One of my favorite and I believe personally transforming truths found in the cannon of scriptura. Adoption, by Abba Father, Sonship, setting our minds on the things of the Spirit, and not on the filth of the flesh.  Creation groaning, God's people groaning.The Spirit's intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Man, that's a lot of groaning.  But groaning is not grumbling.  Remember that!  And then knowing that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.  Culminating in the powerful reality that nothing can separate us from this Abba's Father God's love.  So much revelation, wisdom, and truth packed into just one chapter.  As I mull over this sacred text, I hear again, "the Lord chooses imperfect me, to do the perfect"  And then I think of what the word "Perfect" invokes in me.  And it inevitably stirs up the sense of being imperfect.  A place or state of being that is impossible to attain.  Just hearing the word makes me feel imperfect.  Performance, striving to an impossible standard that once I get even close to, I will fail to grasp or fully know.  I start thinking of all of my flaws, weakness and shortcomings.  Or, the instant need to justify myself every time I touch on the imperfect in me with, "Yea Yea, well, I'm not perfect!"  How many times have I had to tell my wife that she didn't marry Mr. Perfect.  Like she needed me to remind her. 

But then something shifts in me, as I hear this word in light of the Holy Spirit's illumination and love, and do a little further mining into what this word "Perfect" really means.  Because you see, to God the word "Perfect" is very different altogether. This is good, listen to the way that biblical scholar Dennis Bratcher breaks down the real meaning of the word Perfect as it pertains to use in the scripture.

 The Hebrew word (tam or tamim) does not carry the meaning of "without flaw" as does the term "perfect" in English.  It normally means complete or mature or healthy (for example, Lev 22:21). That meaning of mature dominates most use of the equivalent Greek term in the New Testament (telos). Something, or someone, can be complete or mature yet not be "without flaw." In fact, it is much easier to be mature and still have flaws, than it is to be without error or without flaw. Many people are mature, but few if any are "without flaw." A six year old can be mature, and still have a lot of growing to do, just like a person can be "holy" and have a lot to learn about spiritual maturity.
It takes me back to Adam, the first man to ever walk the earth, made in the very image and likeness of God.  And because of that pure DNA running through his veins he actually was a perfect being or as we read above, he was a complete, healthy, and mature being.  Of course we know though that something really bad happened that changed perfection to imperfection. Adam listened to his wife!  No, just kidding.  I just wanted to see if you were still tracking with me. 

Fast forward a few thousand years and you hear Jesus saying, " Be perfect, just as your Father in Heaven is perfect."  AHHHHHHHH!  Jesus, how do I do perfect!"  How can I be held to the same standard that God Himself holds Himself to?  How could the Apostle Paul say, "I am the chief of sinners!"  After writing Romans 8?  Do you want to know?  It's because Jesus showed up in Paul's weakness, or imperfections- And perfected His own power in the very places where Paul still had to mature, grow in health, and come into completion.  He knew that The Perfect One, who had a begun a good work in his life, would complete it, or bring it to perfection, full maturity, and health.   Paul knew that God would do the Perfect in His life, because Christ in me the hope of glory was at work.  The perfection of Beauty, the Sinless, Flawless One was doing a perfect work in his imperfect life!  This wasn't just a receive Jesus into your heart and everything will be okay, and you will never have to resist temptation ever again, or you will always be strong, or some name it and claim it type of message.  This was a "God who is the most Perfect Person in the Universe, the most complete, mature, healthy person in the world, is doing something perfect in your life message!  That Christ in you, who is Perfect, is perfecting that which concerns you.  Perfecting His power in your imperfections.  The Perfect one is not intimidated by your imperfections, but rather sees your imperfections as an opportunity to make you a complete, healthy, mature individual.  So next time you see or notice your imperfections, or have to remind your wife that she did not marry Mr. Perfect, take a deep breathe, and simply say, Come Lord Jesus!  Let your perfection's reflection be revealed in me.  Let your perfect love which casts out fear, fill me, and cause me to love perfectly.  Say to yourself, imperfection.. The Perfect One is here, and the Perfect One will complete me, mature me, and make me healthy.  "He is the Rock, His work is perfect."  And I am His workmanship in Christ Jesus, so do your perfect in me Lord!  The End- Or just the Beginning.. :)

The darkness and the light are both alike to You..,.

If I say, "Surely the darkness shall fall on me, even the night shall be light about me; 

 Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, but the night shines as the day;

The darkness and the light are both alike to You. Psalm 139:11-12 

Some days are dark, gloomy, heavy, and sad and some days are full of light and wonder, joy, and brilliance.  But remember that to God both the darkness and the light are alike, in that the Light will always overcome the darkest days of your life, for we walk with the One who dwells in an unapproachable light.  Who said, let light shine our of darkness, and there was light!  Even the darkest days of your light, when your light seems to be but a dim candle fading in the night, or a faint flicker, remember that to God both the darkness and the light are alike, in that He is not intimidated or afraid of the darkness.  The one who lives in you is not afraid of the darkest day or the faintest light, for He had to Himself walk through the valley of the shadow of death, and learn to fear no evil.  He had to face the darkness of the Judean desert night after night for 40 days, knowing that the Light of the world was about to be revealed to the world.  "Even the night shall be light about me."  I wonder if this was a psalm Yeshua meditated upon as He was facing the darkness of night in the Garden of Gethsemane, as the darkness of hell closed in on Him?  He was not afraid of the darkness, for He knew that to God, the night shines as the day.  And though weeping had to endure through the night, surely joy would come in the morning.  David, the King of Israel knew this, and Jesus, the King of Kings, knew it as well.  David hid in dark caves and valleys and yet those dark caves and valleys were where He was made into a king. And not only a King, but a man after God's own Heart.  His character and calling was forged in these dark caverns, where he scribed down this revelation in Psalm 139.

So let us not fear the darkness.  Let us not bow our souls to the dark one.  Let us not pitch a tent in the valley of the shadow, but rather walk through it pressing towards the light of a new dawn.  For though darkness covers the earth and deep darkness the people, we arise and shine, for our light has come and the glory of our God is rising upon us!  

Shalom-

                                                CHRIST IN ME, THE HOPE OF GLORY

A Man, A Community- A Person, A People

When God sets out to raise up a man, His intention is to raise up a community.  When He looks for a person, He is really desiring to create a people.  When God found Moses and raised him up in power, His purpose was to raise up not just a great prophet or an anointed teacher, but to establish and form a people, (the twelve tribes of Israel).  It wasn't just enough for the Lord to raise up a man or a woman in History because His ultimate aim and goal was for a people.  For not just the one, but for the two to become one flesh, to bear His image, glory, and nature in the earth, creating a family, not just a force.  If our lives and ministries do not gather, raise up, or establish community or there is not that family/community building element to what we are and do then I think we need to ask ourselves what are we really doing, or trying to do for that matter. :)