Blessed Poverty

Matthew 5:1-3 "1 And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him:2 And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

The state of being impoverished has less to do with what one actually has and more to do with what one thinks he needs. This is why those who have little in the way of possessions yet are happy and fulfilled are actually richer than some with multiple millions who "just need a little bit more". It's the hunger for more that reveals the attitude of poverty, and rarely is it considered a virtue. That is, until it comes to the things of the Spirit.

It is vital that we live with a hunger for God. A constant awareness that we haven't seen it all. An appetite to see what He has hidden for us, not from us. That no matter how much we learn, that we always remain a student of the Spirit, living with the awareness that there is more. Never become so much of an expert that you stop pursuing that which you haven't experienced. To those who will pursue what they have not yet tasted of His presence, the Kingdom belongs.

(See and study Jeremiah 5:1. That the hunger of one man seeking after the Spirit of God releases grace over a city. Also, John is "in the Spirit" in Rev 1:10, yet in Rev 4:1-2 he answers a call to step deeper "in the Spirit". Jesus releases the presence of the Holy Spirit in John 20 when He breathes upon the disciples. But in Acts 1 He invites those disciples to go to the upper room and wait for the baptism of the power of the Holy Spirit. 500 see Him and hear the invitation, but only 120 respond. The presence of the Holy Spirit is constant, but the power of the Holy Spirit is unique and belongs to the hungry.

To grow your appetite for God, rein in Your scattered attention and set your affection on things above. When you turn your heart of affection upon Him and His presence, your hunger increases and you position yourself for the more that your heart longs for.)

Loving People to Life

Matthew 18:15 "If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother.16 "But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed.17 "If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector."

This portion of verses has often been used to justify the excommunication of those who don't make it through the gauntlet of confrontation. If they remain unrepentant they are to be treated like a "Gentile and tax collector" which at a glance seems to indicate that Jesus is giving us a license to excommunicate the unrepentant.

That is until you look at how He treated Gentiles and tax collectors, and if we are to be as He is, then unrepentant people are to be anything but hated. The short, tree climbing tax collector, Zacchaeus, was Jesus choice of dinner guest when He went to his town. And Matthew, the tax collector, got a personal invitation by Jesus to join His personal ministry team. When the Holy Spirit came upon the Apostle Paul, he was called to go to the Gentiles, and Peter's view of the Gentiles was dramatically corrected by a vision of things formerly considered unclean by law.

Bottom line, if you confront someone, and they remain unrepentant, love them more. Their condition is an indication that they're in need of the very thing that human nature wants to withdraw. And God help you if you use this verse to justify it. If you do, you missed the point.

fumbling toward emptiness

2 Samuel 6:16 Then it happened as the ark of the Lord came into the city of David that Michal the daughter of Saul looked out of the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart.

The final verse of this chapter reveals that David's wife was barren all the days of her life from this point on. This verse hints at the cause.

I believe one of the fastest ways to reach spiritual barrenness is to despise the worship of another.

Let your heart be guarded against the snare of quiet rebellion stirred up by the outward expression of a believer who is as free in worship as you secretly wish you were.

A Motivation For Hunger

Jeremiah 5:1 "Roam to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem,
And look now and take note.
And seek in her open squares,
If you can find a man,
If there is one who does justice, who seeks truth,
Then I will pardon her.

Its easy to read Jeremiah 5 and walk away with an absolute belief in the nature of God expressed in wrath and anger. But only if you skim vs 1. This unreasonable radical grace is the foundation upon which the rest of the chapter is built. When you apply the New Testament revelation of the identity of Truth it becomes even more hopeful.

Truth is not a concept, idea, or philosophy. Truth is a Person. Jesus is the Truth, and the Holy Spirit is said to guide us into all truth. So with the New Testament revelation of Truth, re-read Jeremiah 5:1 like this. "Run through the streets of (your city) and see if you can find one person who is hungry for the Holy Spirit of God, and I (God) will release grace over this city."

Consider that your hunger for God might have just bought another day of grace for your city.

Forgiving Yourself

Matthew 6:14 "For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you."

People find it hard to release to others what they themselves are not worthy of. Bitterness thrives within a heart unwilling to receive grace. What you extend to others you release to yourself. When you release grace you agree with Christ. When you forgive others you forgive yourself. (See also Matt 7:1-3)

Heaven's Declaration, Your Reality

Revelation 5:13 And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, "To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever."

When the Spirit of Jesus Christ resurrected came to live in you, He brought with Him every word declared in agreement with the Father's heart in Heaven and on earth. The common application of "to Him who sits on the throne and unto the Lamb..." is assumed to be The Father and Jesus and rightly so. But you're included as well. If that rubs you the wrong way, read Rev 3:21 and let this sink in deep.

Heaven's declaration is your identity and reality. When you come into agreement with how Heaven sees you, earth will respond by saying amen to what Heaven already knows. That you have been empowered with Christ to disciple nations.

Listening

Deeply listening is praising another with your silence.

The Sara Show

Created, edited, and uploaded entirely on the iPhone 4.

Europe - Paris/Rome

We recently took a trip to Europe that had three destinations. France, Italy, and Albania. The Albania portion of the trip was the longest and was the "work" portion of the adventure. This video features the Paris and Rome sections as they were very personal to our familly. It's with relunctance I leak a trip vid, because most of the time, watching someone else's travel video is as much fun as wearing your underwear backwards. I hope that won't be the case here.

We actually went on this trip intending to take only pictures and not to do a video as we are prone to do. At least as I am prone to do. I can get obsessive with a shot, taking valuable time on the go filming and editing the perfect scene as I see it in my head. So to spare the rest of the crew a series of idiosyncratic events I decided to stick with still pics on my cellphone and journal entries as a record of the days. But my son didn't get that memo, and captured a series of poignant images on his LG Optimus cell phone. Rather than let them collect dust on a memory card in an end table drawer, I thought it best to try to see if we could somehow capture the Spirit of the trip. Recently turned on to and moved by a band called Future of Forestry, I decided to set some of the clips to a selection of their songs.

For those of you who know us, and what I love to do, this is a long time coming. I haven't edited anything in quite a while. It's not for lack of love, mind you, but rather lack of time and inspiration. One trip to Paris and voila, inspired. I pray it somehow gives you a sense of the wonder we felt as group of family and friends embarked upon a truly live altering excursion into the world of beauty, rekindled love, exquisite cuisine, and a gentle awareness of God and His heart for people.

Thanks for reading, and for watching, and for coming along.

Random thoughts...

Who God is to you is Who He will be through you, whether judge or lover, the revelation you live under is what you will reflect.

You will always miss what you're not looking for.

We will label whatever we do not love.

To love someone, be a servant. When you wash the feet of another, you discover why they walk the way they do.

L'aventure de L'amour

It's been awhile since I've written but it's not for lack of material to communicate. It's more like an overload of material that feels lacking in focus. Ever feel like someone with all of the pieces to the puzzle but somehow you've misplaced the box with the picture on it? Yeah, like that.

The trip to Paris was amazing. Specifically, the vow renewal. Two very beautiful things happened that had the supernatural smile of God on them. It was around 31 degrees when we stood in front of Notre Dame to read what we had written. We stood, faced each other, were ready to go, and the bells started ringing. Very loud, very beautiful, very cool. But it wasn't at the top or bottom of the hour. By the clock, there was no reason they should have rung. But they did, and it was wonderful. The second thing was, when Traci started to read what she had written it suddenly got warmer. Warm enough to notice and warm enough to be comfortable. But when we were finished and we walked away from that spot, it was cold again. Like it had gotten warm in a radius of about 10 feet. I carried her over the threshold of Notre Dame where we then sat and listened to the silence of the cathedral. The kids walked to the top but we stayed inside and talked. Later we had a carousel ride in the rain, a walk on the banks of the Siene, went to the top of the Arc of Triumph, danced beneath the sparkling lights of the Eiffel Tower, and had an all around magical experience. So good, so God.

Rome was spectacular, and the food in both countries was good enough to cry over. I'm not sure how I'll cope with American cuisine after this trip. I know some have an affinity toward Rome, but Paris felt like home to me, to us. In Rome, I felt like a tourist, which isn't bad. We only had two days to spend there so the first night (which was very cold) we spend getting lost in the alleys and backstreets, turning the corner to be greeted with a colossal cathedral or fountain, each one more spectacular than the last. Wandering into these places where a handful of people were scattered around praying in the dimly lit caverns of art and worship was surreal and awesome. I would live in Paris and visit Italy often I think. We saw the usual Roman postcard montage, the Coliseum, the Vatican, St Peters, Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, and ruins upon ruins. It was Eat, Pray, Love as it ought to be.

Now we're in Albania. It's the wild west here. A living example of what happens when a country attempts to embrace both Communism and Islam at the same time. But God is stirring this nation. Much more to write about that, but I'm out of time.

Travel on

It's been awhile since I've written but it's not for lack of material to communicate. It's more like an overload of material that feels lacking in focus. Ever feel like someone with all of the pieces to the puzzle but somehow you've misplaced the box with the picture on it? Yeah, like that.

The trip to Paris was amazing. Specifically, the vow renewal. Two very beautiful things happened that had the supernatural smile of God on them. It was around 31 degrees when we stood in front of Notre Dame to read what we had written. We stood, faced each other, were ready to go, and the bells started ringing. Very loud, very beautiful, very cool. But it wasn't at the top or bottom of the hour. By the clock, there was no reason they should have rung. But they did, and it was wonderful. The second thing was, when Traci started to read what she had written it suddenly got warmer. Warm enough to notice and warm enough to be comfortable. But when we were finished and we walked away from that spot, it was cold again. Like it had gotten warm in a radius of about 10 feet. I carried her over the threshold of Notre Dame where we then sat and listened to the silence of the cathedral. The kids walked to the top but we stayed inside and talked. Later we had a carousel ride in the rain, a walk on the banks of the Siene, went to the top of the Arc of Triumph, danced beneath the sparkling lights of the Eiffel Tower, and had an all around magical experience. So good, so God.

Rome was spectacular, and the food in both countries was good enough to cry over. I'm not sure how I'll cope with American cuisine after this trip. I know some have an affinity toward Rome, but Paris felt like home to me, to us. In Rome, I felt like a tourist, which isn't bad. We only had two days to spend there so the first night (which was very cold) we spend getting lost in the alleys and backstreets, turning the corner to be greeted with a colossal cathedral or fountain, each one more spectacular than the last. Wandering into these places where a handful of people were scattered around praying in the dimly lit caverns of art and worship was surreal and awesome. I would live in Paris and visit Italy often I think. We saw the usual Roman postcard montage, the Coliseum, the Vatican, St Peters, Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, and ruins upon ruins. It was Eat, Pray, Love as it ought to be.

Now we're in Albania. It's the wild west here. A living example of what happens when a country attempts to embrace both Communism and Islam at the same time. But God is stirriing this nation. Much more to write about that, but I'm out of time.

So We Finally Get To Paris

Twenty years ago, I proposed to my childhood sweetheart, Traci. We were 18 and 19 when we got married. I remember the euphoria of being so blissfully in love that the rest of the world and the people in it seemed like extras in our movie. We wanted to go to Paris for our honeymoon, but only got as far as New Braunfels, TX. It didn't matter, because we would be going on our five year anniversary, then our ten, then our.... and it never happened. Until now.

The past three years have been the most challenging of our lives. As I write this, my son walks in the room fumbling around for something he left here. My daughter comes in and leaps onto the foot of the bed with a tenderly authoritative, "Hey ol chum." And Traci walks in from the bathroom and smiles at me. That smile, for me, represents life. It injects creative energy into my slumbering heart. Her head tilts and her eyes grin. I have always loved her, but today it's different. Her love has walked, carried, and occasionally dragged me through the darkest moments of my life. She has seen my darkness, and she loves me still. And I'm compelled to know, to understand, to wonder, if I haven't touched the tangible grace of God in her goodness. Don't get me wrong. She can be tough and beautiful as mahogany, with a fire that is ninja fierce inside of her. But she absolutely fights for love. And she has lived, spoken, held, breathed, sang, written, and carried the kindness and heart of God. In watching her care for children, cry over the hurting, and give to those in need, I love God more. If I spend the rest of my life loving her back, I will still die a debtor to her.

So it's with that 18 year old's euphoric bliss that I am taking her to Paris, France in less than 36 hrs. We (the whole family) will be together, at the top of the Eifel Tower, getting lost in the alleys, eating pastries in a bistro, having coffee by a fountain, and renewing our vows on the steps of Notre Dame. That's the tradition. The kings would say their vows on the steps and cross the threshold to solidify their covenant. There have been more than a few times in my life where I felt like a pauper. She refuses to let me be anything other than a king. It's all she sees, and when I see what she sees, the favor on my life increases. Tonight, my family is together, my wife is beside me, and our awareness of the presence of Love is greater than it's been in twenty years of marriage. After 20 years of humming "So We Never Got To Paris", I guess this weekend I'm going to get to stop.

"Seek My Face"

Sitting at home tonight, quiet peace, silence and solitude, pondering the invitation of Jesus, "Seek My face." Putting pencil to paper to try to capture the face of Christ is something I have long avoided, until tonight, and this is what emerged. Completely original, completely from the eye of mind and heart. I'm rarely so moved while drawing. I only wish I had filmed it.

While sorrow is not compassion, I think there's often an element of sorrow in compassion. Just as remorse is not repentance, but there is an element of remorse within repentance. Compassion is the focused gaze from the eyes of Grace just before you are taken by the hand and led out into joy. It is a Love that empowers your freedom. This piece contains, in a gently nuanced symmetry of microexpression, so many emotions that reflect the nature of the purity, grace, and goodness of a holy God who is more familiar with us than we would care to admit. And He loves...

Passeggiata

I'm not sure what it is about taking a walk in the afternoon sun. When my feet move, my thoughts move too. There aren't a lot of problems that can't be solved in the process of a long walk. It's like that place between sleep and awake, the place where dreams appear to have a measure of possibility and fresh meditations make their way to the head of a long line of routine thoughts. When I can't put my finger on a solution, I put my feet to the earth, and in time, the path becomes clear.


Now shall I walk
or shall I ride?
"Ride," Pleasure said:
"Walk," Joy replied.
~W.H. Davies

"Everywhere is within walking distance, if you have enough time." Steven Wright