Monday, January 28, 2013

Over The Shoulder
Jan 28 – 2013

So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. 2 Corinthians 5: 6-9 (ESV).

There is a popular music chart hit song by singer Michael Buble called Home with few of the lines saying this: May be surrounded by A million people I Still feel all alone I just wanna go home and Let me go home I’m just too far from where you are I wanna come home.

Adventuresomeness, yes. That in this scripture verse; Paul uses the synonym courage twice. This way or that we are always on the move. A work commute, a family outing, and many in-betweens; we always want to come home. My children often say after a long car ride when we pull into the drive way: Home sweet home…We have also heard of the saying: Home is where the heart is. So it is dear brethren, that the Church’s heart is set heavenward, our true home. When Christ set eternity into our hearts (Ecc. 3:11) he purposed for every man, woman, and child to long for our Home Sweet Home. Whether Christian or not, everyone in this tent groans to come away from this tent into our heavenly dwelling. Walking can not see it any other way. So how are we at good courage in this? The answer is in the last half of the closing verse: we make it our aim to please him. In pleasing Christ we become whole to know that when we go to and fro here in this earthly vessel, surrounded by a million people yet still feeling alone, that Christ’s Spirit in us restores us far from this tent into His. All this an adventure, home or away, letting us, now ushering us, with good courage to walk into a surround sound home face to face with Jesus: our home sweet home. Yes and Amen!

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Over The Shoulder - The Glorious Dei

…But by means of their suffering, He rescues those who suffer. For He gets their attention through adversity...(Job 36:15 NLT)

“Oh! What a bummer; the slang for prosperous calamity. Attention centers itself on this corner of hard lived survival. The wealthy become wealthier and the street man becomes more like the street: broken, cracked, and stepped on. It’s a commodity trivial to any pursuit of out lasting the shelf date, or the lingering on your personal ‘born on date’. A clutched vice with no rhyme or reason to why it’s even happening at all. Except there is a means; a means of stimulation “to concentrate your attention on the bare essentials, so you will live, and really live...”(Luke 16:9 MSG). For you see, Jesus made us a creature of creativity, not of complacency, in order to heed ourselves to Him. His rescue is the observant direction in which He pulls us out from an enduring of suffering continuously sustained through every adverse circumstance the evil one can throw our way. Our life’s lens cap gets all blurred and out of focus when we have no
suffering in this life, but gets in focus and clear when through our suffering our attention is directed to Him. Christ’s road to the cross was just as clear- He must suffer and suffer He did for us so that now we can live and really live. We live and breathe Him- the absolute essential who secured us a heavenly date; a date without expiration.

To the praise of His glorious grace. Amen.

Over The Shoulder - Finding It

Over The Shoulder

And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. John 6:39

Car keys, sweat shirts, and children’s toys. These we sometimes seek for hours when we can not find them. We simply have lost track of them somewhere along the house. Often times we think of the word loose with anything that comes after first place. The human nature in us sometimes just can’t get it right. But at the right time Jesus reminds us who He is; He should loose nothing and all the Father has given him never ever gets misplaced.

There comes an imagery on the raising up of these un-lost things that even a pet owner may know: a dog burying a bone. That treasure the nose of the dog and its spot, he never forgets on the whereabouts to dig up the back yard does he? Simply put, the Son has buried us with Himself in the grave, only to raise us up on the last day and He knows exactly what spot in the ground to go dig up. The cross has become an X marks the spot of a treasure, that is not only found, but is kept so tight a hold on that it is impossible to misplace. Job 28:23 & 24 says it clearly and manifestly: "God understands the way to it, and he knows its place. For he looks to the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens.

So where is the understanding? Or as the disciples asked, what must we do? In the earthly fashion we adhere to table, makes lists, and organize the shelves so that next time we know where those car keys are. This is not that kind of work though Church. The Son only has the power not to loose the ones He has called. Instead of looking around stop and listen. Hearing is the doing that vacates misplacement, for once you are in the Heavenly Father’s placement, there is no such thing as second place. Death and tyranny have been swallowed up by our Master’s finish. The it is finished on the cross that has no loose ends or lost cause. Jesus has been given the pennant already and it dangles all who have been given to Him. Where do you hang?

Grace and Peace. Amen.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Over The Shoulder

This light and power that now shine within us-is held in perishable containers...2 Corinthians 4:7

Transient vessels mar and taint in this aping amble of life. Identifiable scourging rattles on as our bodies break down, the years become not so tender, or just in any physical debility that is experienced along the way. Why so fractured must mortal ailments be in relation to everything that will go on? Because the light emanates through us as we begin to fall apart. In order for light to shine in the darkness, you have to peer at the believer’s insides. We illuminate the light and glory of Christ from the inside therefore to understand the brightness you have to let everyone see it breaking out. How we show our glorious power is from God and not our own is by the crush. Like some twenty century sci-fi flick that has ray bolting neurons escape from the radio-active man, our spiritual apparatus shares beams from a non-fiction heavenly Lord and so we must live with and oblige the crumbling of our physical selves in order for the light to seep out of our cracks, tears, and bruises. That is why we do not give up and quit. With every blow comes an opportunity for more light to escape. Yes, we face death in body daily; though cling to the renewal of the immeasurable force being charged inside of us. Such quantum energy expounds when this cistern comes a crashing. The trouble and hurt are for your benefit so stay the course under duress and spoil, for this is how you come out of your shell. Yes & Amen.

Monday, May 31, 2010

Over The Shoulder

you became slaves of righteousness. Romans 6:18

Choices arise in captivation. For you become obedient towards whom you serve. Selective service such as this consummates the knock off or the awe. Captive regard steers, with one glance, hostage drive at the heart. We are either enumerated by it or stained forebodingly because of it. How much more would we rather stand in awe? For “You have captivated my heart, my treasure, my bride; you have captivated my heart with one glance of your eyes, with a single jewel of your necklace” Song of Solomon 4:9. Being a slave can often times seem like a distract, heavy and hard toil and a drudge, not accommodating to our cachet but formed on the basis of custody matters, in Him we are captives and accommodated in righteousness because when He ascended on high He took prisoners captive (Psalm 68:18) meaning to un-prison us from what kind of slave we were before. So that the captivation of who we are now lays ground to a holy cessation of amazement whereby we stand captive to such a grace abounded that’s all unrestrained slaves can do. So enslaved I shall be.

To the praise of His glorious grace. Amen.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Over The Shoulder

Fix your thoughts...Philippians 4:8

Fixation renders removal of a position or condition that makes trouble greater than distant. To be in a fix more or less defines a dilemma against change. Either way, fixing is a: to become state. You or what you lay hold of is about to become a different arrangement. This action, however, in the sheep’s life must be an outcome or influence of and from the Sheppard. Why? So that we should be devoted to the extolling of His glorious attributes--we who were the first to fix our hopes on Christ. (1) Yes, the Great Sheppard of the sheep is into this correcting, setting, establishing, and fastening up business. It is only by His fixing us, laying hold of our hearts and minds, that we can in turn fix our thoughts, let alone make repairs to any area of our lives. The Lord knows who to fix and how to fix. The trio of the Father’s will, the Son’s words, and the Spirit’s works are all repair shop antidotes counteracting the effects of poison and disease. Fixing is the only way to be near Him. And Jehovah knows who are His because the one He fixes He brings near to him (Numbers 16:5). Is there any other remedy to something needed or wanted than the supplication of a definite fix from a definite Father. The attention we get and He gives now prepares us for the consistent stability of what comes later; the state of being where nothing needs or has to be fixed. Heaven and your hope of glory are so assembled that even though the distance is great now, Christ’s fix preserves our bearings on a different landmark; reconditioned and restored to what cannot be destroyed and what will no longer need fixed. Hallelujah and Amen.
(1) Ephesians 1:12

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Over The Shoulder

-Lay the gaff-

They that confide in Jehovah are as mount Zion, which cannot be moved; it abideth for ever. (Psalm 125:1)

Relegated destiny places, turns, even churns, yet is locked in. The tools are topsy-turvy and crux that lay the gaff. Such equipment with purpose wrenches and bolts the stanchions of mountains, even the bedrock of Zion. For on the Holy hill confidence is the alarm. They who confide in Jeshua sound like trumpets, though trembling their feet may be, the ground on which they stand cannot be moved. In these chatters, bumps, and brandishes of life we know the love which God has for us, and we confide in it (1 John 4:16). That the eye not lay hold of what is seen, only temporary things, but what is unseen: things of eternity (2 Corinthians 4:18). Be fitted for the composition of a kingdom assigned to you because of these things. So shall your wherewithal now become familiar as you give sense to them in the midnight hours. Rest your soul in deliberation of a higher stand that calls to what you are living with, to make everyday endure abundantly, more evident unto evermore, that which simply cannot be moved.

Selah & Amen