(As promised, here are the “Art Pieces” From Sunday’s Message “Boosting Your Signal”)
- I am for anything and anyone whose heart is to point people to the living, risen Christ. To desire Him, connect with Him, to experience and promote the riches that are in Him. In knowing Him. Anyone who desires to live in union with Him and to enjoy fellowship and partnership with Him. Those are my mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters and sons and daughters. Anyone who wants Jesus Himself more than anything He can give to us or do for us. I don’t care who he or she is, where she is from, what denomination he represents, what her lifestyle has been or is. If they want Jesus they are family to me! And we’ll figure the rest of it out together as we walk with Him.
- Kneeling on opposite sides of the bed in the dark of the early morning, LaVern and I held hands and prayed together without words. Sharing sentiments with the Lord that needed no verbal expression. Agreeing with each other spirit to spirit to Spirit.
- The Lord inhabits the unfamiliar and the unexpected. He is found in the margins. We see Him in the small windows. He appears in the nuances. A degree to the left. An inch higher. A little deeper. He’s on the little dirt road off the main highway. In the broom closet just around the corner from the main attraction in the museum. Instead of the popular 9 a.m. or 5 p.m., He is 6:20 a.m. and 2:37 p.m. He’s the last place you would look for your lost keys. He stands at the end of the line. He sits in the big arena after everyone has left. He is the last customer just before the store closes. He is not upon the majestic mountain top where few could ever ascend. Instead, He clothed divinity in humanity and hid Himself in ordinariness, walking the dusty streets with stragglers. The best way to find Him is to expect Him when you least expect Him.
- I am trusting in You, Lord. You have heard my requests. You are faithful in all Your ways and kind in all Your deeds. You are blessing me right now. Please boost my reception. Strengthen my signal. Condition my heart to receive Your generous endowments of today. I thank You in advance for all You have prepared for me today. Just as I thank You for investing what I entrusted to You yesterday. I celebrate Your Presence in my life today and praise You for Your glorious splendor that fills heaven and earth. Touch my awareness in a fresh way today. Let my heart rest in eager anticipation of my encounters with You today, for You are the desire of my heart.
- Nobody else may understand me, but You fully understand me. Even beyond my own knowledge of myself. You love the “dressing room” me. That is why, no matter what may be the reasoning or inclination of my flesh, no matter the doubts and fears of my mind, I will always turn to You in my distress. I will come to You in my messiest condition. Even when I am absolutely and inexcusably wrong. Even though I know you are always righteous and just and that You hate wickedness. I know that You know me. I know that you love me. And I entrust “me” to Your care in accordance with Your grace. I glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in my flesh. I boast in nothing but the cross of Christ. I come just as I am without one plea but that Thy blood was shed for me and that Thou bidst me come to Thee.
- A phone call from my old friend Andy. His brother Ralph passed away yesterday after a battle with cancer. He asked for prayer and we talked for a while. Andy has a special needs kids and was sharing how people stare at his son and how it irritates Andy. He said sometimes he just wants to say “What are you staring at?” I told him in God’s eyes we’re ALL special needs kids. The only difference is some are more aware of their neediness than others.
- I am the perfect male specimen. Perfectly designed for the purposes God has for me. (Another view of Psalm 139:14: “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”)
- Thank You for this moment. Right here. Right now. For this “nothing” moment that is actually filled with Your glory, goodness, love and faithfulness to me. Thank You for right now. “I will bless the Lord at all times, His praise shall continually be in my mouth” and in my heart and mind.
- Giving thanks is sort of like a boxer’s jab. It may not look like much, but the cumulative effect takes its toll on the opponent and can often create an opening for a knockout. No matter how intimidating your opposition may be today, keep on jabbing. There is never a time when giving thanks is inappropriate or a waste of time. Don’t underestimate its power.
- Here’s what I want, Lord. This is what I’m after. When I first see You after this life, I want to experience You shaking Your head from side to side, grinning, and pointing at me with affection that says, “There he is!” I want my “unique something-elseness” here on earth, as I seek to know You better, to have an endearing effect on Your heart that will produce that response in You towards me. That’s the specific “flavor” of the old King James translation “Well done thou good and faithful servant” that I desire to receive from You.
- Boy did I pray a PRAYER this morning! You know the kind. The kind that touches your heart to the brink of tears. It was exactly what I wanted to say. It captured my thoughts and feelings and perspective and my very SOUL. And no one was there to hear it or to say “Amen.” No one except the One who understood it better than me. The One who will remember it long after even I have forgotten it. The only One would can do anything about it. Therefore, the audience of the One is the most important audience of all. “Record my lament; list my tears on your scroll– are they not in your record?” (Psalm 56:8).
- Thank You Lord for the love You are giving me when You are not making my life easier, when it isn’t pleasant or exciting or dynamic.
- I really appreciate the way my time alone downstairs ended, with me bowing low before the Lord with gratitude for His craftsmanship of my relationship with Him. This at the end of a time that was not particularly potent, revealing, energizing or refreshing. Yet, in my heart I believe and still believe God’s love and faithfulness to me was in full force and this was part of His ongoing craftsmanship.
- What a pleasant walk this morning. A fall mist shrouding the brilliance of the trees and the exhilarating notion settling over my heart that the Lord and I are in a partnership of building this relationship together, every day. I cannot fully express my gratitude and don’t know what to do with all my joy – except share it.
- I have the sensation that I have hit the lottery. Realizing I am set for life. I keep checking the numbers to see if they are correct and they continue to match. I cannot describe the riches because they are not of this world, and yet they are as real as anything on earth. Only they are better riches because they are forever and I CAN take them with me. They are part of the unsearchable riches of Christ.
- The human experience can be marvelous regardless of our circumstances, it depends on our Host. If it is a self-guided expedition you get what you get. If Christ is the guide, you get Him and all that He is.
- What is most important is not what we are becoming for Christ, but who Christ is becoming to us. We don’t want others to admire us as something special, we want them to see in us an open invitation from Christ.
- God did not create us primarily to accomplish things for Him. He is more than capable of doing everything and anything He desires by Himself, EXCEPT to have a loving, intimate relationship with us. He wants our hearts and our trust not just our service or subservience. He wants to be our heart’s desire as we are His. He wants our confidence not just our conformity. He wants the effervescence of our personality not sterile ritualism. “For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His.” (2 Chronicles 16:9 NASB77). God is not impressed by intelligence or discipline or popularity. What God wants from each of us is something we ALL have to give, regardless of our spiritual “age.”
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