about never giving in

There are times when you want to give up and give in. There are pressures and forces of darkness and evil that twists you and turns you. The power of evil lurks behind you and whispers in your ear while at the same time this same dark power tries to directly crush your spirit with an in-your-face assault. In your dark and lonely moments, when you think you do not have the strength to wage this war, you must remember you have more going for you than you can ever know.

At this minute, as you read these words, Christ Jesus is standing next to you pouring out His spirit of strength, encouragement, and sustaining power upon you. At this very minute, as you read these words, Christ Jesus is calling upon you to hold fast and not give in. For Jesus knows what is just ahead of you. Jesus can see the golden rays of heaven that will someday wrap their splendor around you.

Your crucial battle in these minutes with this present darkness can be won not by your human will but by your simply turning your human will in the direction of God's will. There are many costs to standing firm for Christ. However, there is no cost greater than the cost He paid for each of us upon His Cross. Because He did so much, He knows you can do this little bit of standing firm and never ever giving in?

about calling upon God

Outward appearances can sometimes be deceiving. We are deceived because we think the rich and beautiful are somehow spiritually rich and have inner beauty. We are also deceived when we see the poor who may not be beautiful and we think they are poor in spirit and have no inner beauty. We are deceived when we see people who suffer and believe they have no spiritual riches.

Clearly, receiving the rich blessings of God requires something from us. God requires from us a calling upon His name. This calling upon God is not easy for many people. The calling upon God is not a matter of holding out your hand to God and saying, "gimmee, gimmee, gimmee" like a three-year old child. Calling upon God requires we make direct connection to Him, to His love, to His compassion, and to His caring. When we make the connection and we are in His presence, our hands are not held out seeking our own wants and needs. When we are in His presence, our hands our folded together in prayerful gratitude. From this prayerful gratitude will flow great blessings.

about choosing God's way

Imagine Joseph's torment! At this point in Joseph's life, in this true life story of these two ordinary people, imagine Joseph's torment! Imagine his disappointment! Imagine his hurt! Imagine his anguish! The circumstances or arrangements under which Mary and Joseph came to be engaged are not important. What is most important of all is that we fully understand Joseph deeply loved Mary. If Joseph had not loved Mary deeply he could have cared less about exposing Mary to public disgrace and ridicule. Joseph was an ordinary human being who could not believe the unbelievable until Joseph heard the unbelievable from God. Although Joseph does not know it at this point in the story, God will intervene in Joseph's life. In the deepest hurt of Joseph's life, God will come into Joseph's life and show Joseph the truth. In your life, in your deepest hurt, God will come into your life, show you the truth, and God will touch you and help make the hurt go away. Joseph was considering divorcing Mary.

Joseph had the worldly option of divorce to take care of this terrible moment in Joseph's life. Perhaps in your times of hurt, disappointment, and pain, you also have worldly options to deal with your circumstance. However, in your life, always be open to the godly option, the Christian option, and/or the option God wants for you. In the end, because Joseph was so righteous, God worked through Joseph. In your life, it may seem like all the worldly odds are against you. It may seem to you the worldly option is the best choice at the time for you. However, when you let God work through you, and you choose God's way rather than the world's way, you will prosper under God's love, care, and protection. Choosing God's way may not be easy. Choosing His way may even be painful. But in the end, there is victory and prosperity in Him.

on prayer and postponement

We imagine spirituality to be some big complicated thing. This suits us well because it perpetuates a huge career for the ego and creates lots of industry. In the words of St. Augustine, "Oh Lord, make me chaste...but not just yet." Likewise, we pray for vision, surrender, spiritual understanding, while at the same time we leave little occasion for anything but the perpetuation of spiritual alienation. Religion, with all its promises and systems, is the counterfeit of spirituality. Religion is what happens in the space between the two clauses of St. Augustine's prayer. "Oh Lord, make me chaste"---the first clause expresses a pure and undivided openness to Spirit. The second clause, "...but not just yet"--is the ego's desire to keep itself going as something separate from Spirit.

Our religious systems fill the immeasurable space that lies between these two clauses. Because we can't live with the conscious awareness of our own self-contradiction, we clutter up our lives with so-called spiritual activities, which are really nothing more than human busyness. Religion allows us to perpetuate the lie and still feel good about ourselves as we "earnestly pray" for the truth. It keeps us fully engaged with systems--dogma, doctrine, "practices" and all other kinds of human industry. It enables us to live with ourselves while on one hand we pray for enlightenment, and on the other, we postpone the possibility of its immediacy. If we really wanted enlightenment, we would be enlightened.

about sharing your hope

Every day you have a chance to transform your part of the world. Your part of the world may not be very big. Your part of the world may include only chance meetings with a checkout clerk, a secretary, a pharmacist, one or two people at your job, or only a friend or two. But God expects you to do your part in giving and sharing your hope for the future, for you have the same hope for a future in Christ as did God when He spoke to the prophet Isaiah.

about living by faith

To live by faith is to live the supreme life. To live by sight means we are imprisoned by what we see, feel, touch, and sense. The unseen love of God that is available to us can lift us up, up and away from the things of earth. The relationships gone wrong, the piles of emotional garbage we carry from our past, and the mountains of problems we carry on our back suddenly disappear when we live by faith in love. The "seen" tangibles of life can hurt and destroy us. When we live by faith, the Light of Gods love, and the encompassing comfort of the Holy Spirit brings us back to life as it should be lived…a life lived by faith in love.
2 Corinthians 5:7 We live by faith, not by sight. (NIV)