Are you fully clothed?

So Yesterday (Sunday) was the first day in 4 years that I did not do any type of work for my company on Sunday,   I have to say it has been like ………..  a new type of freedom.

I woke this morning thinking what could I do today?   How about nothing.   So I got up and got in the word.  It was actually a struggle.  Not sure why it just was.   I am glad I pressed in.  It is so easy sometimes to just let the attitude or the world get in the way of the Lord.

I have noticed over the last couple of days that I have felt the lust trying to creep in and I said no!   This always seems to creep in during my prep for Quest which started today.   I am a son and that is a fact and I will walk as a son.   My name is Kevin and the spirit of the Lord is upon me!

 My devotion took me to Romans 12 but the huge word came to me in the last scripture of chapter 13 .

 Romans 13:14  By being fully clothed in Christ makes it impossible for the flesh to even imagine to find any further expression or fulfillment in lust. Jesus is Lord of your life. (1enduo, fully immersed in the consciousness of the Christ-life, as defining you.) So I am reading this over and over where it says “Christ makes it impossible ………..”   this so resonates in my spirit.   Jesus is Lord of my life!

 As I go back and read starting with verse 13:9

 13:9  Love makes it impossible for you to commit adultery, or to kill someone, or to steal from someone, speak evil of anyone, or to covet anything that belongs to someone else. Your only option is to esteem a fellow human with equal value to yourself.

13:10  Everything love does is to the advantage of another; therefore, love is the most complete expression of what the law requires.

13:11  You must understand the urgency and context of time; it is most certainly now the hour to wake up at once out of the hypnotic state of slumber and unbelief. Salvation has come.

13:12  It was night for long enough; the day has arrived. Cease immediately with any action associated with the darkness of ignorance. Clothe yourself in the radiance of light as a soldier would wear his full weaponry. (The night is far spent, 1prokopto, as a smith forges a piece of metal until he has hammered it into its maximum length.)

13:13  Our lives exhibit the kind of conduct consistent with the day, in contrast to the 1parade of the night of intoxicated licentiousness and lust, with all the quarrels and jealousy it ignites. (The word, 1komos, refers to a nocturnal and riotous procession of half drunken and frolicsome fellows who after supper parade through the streets with torches and music in honor of Bacchus or some other deity, and sing and play before houses of male and female friends; hence used generally to describe feasts and drinking parties that are protracted late into the night and indulge in revelry.)

 I find it interesting that I had to hear verse 14 before 9-13 spoke to me

It is like a recipe for freedom.

Then you go back to Romans chapter 12   therefore I urge you brothers in view of God’s mercy,  to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice Holy and pleasing to God.  That would be you Spiritual act of Worship

So the question today is ………. are you fully clothed?

102 days part 2

            So Wednesday the Lord spoke to me about the Sabbath.   So last night  I crawled in bed and I was going to scan through Facebook when I hear Hebrews 4 ……. and in my mind I'm thinking,   what?,   you never tell me to read at night.   So I read it and was stunned.  All of Chapter four is speaking about entering into God's rest.  Not necessarily about the Sabbath but it is so much more than that.

4:3 Faith (not our own works) realizes our entrance into God’s rest (into the result of his completed work). Hear the echo of God’s cry through the ages, “Oh! If only they would enter into my rest.” His rest celebrates perfection. His work is complete; the fall of humanity did not flaw its perfection.

4:10  God’s rest celebrates his finished work; whoever enters into God’s rest immediately abandons his own efforts to compliment what God has already perfected. (The language of the law is “do;” the language of grace is “done.”) 4:11  Let us therefore be prompt to understand and fully appropriate that rest and not fall again into the same trap that snared Israel in unbelief.  The Mirror

So I am still chewing on this.  I have read it like 4 times already.   So I am looking at this and I see where it pertains to me.   Let me explain …….  I joined a leads company when I didn’t need to back in June.  A friend of mine told me yesterday that he didn’t understand why I needed to go work another field when the field I was already working was producing more fruit than I could handle.   Basically what I did was try and improve on what God was already doing.  Grasp what I am saying here …. Trying to improve on what God was already doing.  Like He was not doing enough already so I needed to help Him Hebrews 4:10

102 days part 2

The other part of the story is about a Leads organization I joined back in June.  So I'm going to include an email that I sent this organization yesterday morning when I got home from my men's group..

Hello owner,   so I am going to do my best not to make this spiritual but it is.   I have had a check in my spirit the last month about being involved with your organization. Today I got confirmation two ways that I'm not supposed to be a part of your organization. This morning I heard Holy Spirit say at my men’s group “I never told you to be a part of that lead company.”    They when I got home my wife wanted to know what we had talked about and she normally never inquires.   I told her what I felt like Holy Spirit was telling me and she said “I never thought you were supposed to be on it from the beginning and I asked you why did you sign up without talking to me first?”    I just realized that I had not landed one job this summer anywhere since I been with your organization. All the work that I have received was booked before joining your organization.   I just looked at my estimates and since June 1^st I have done 42 estimates so far this summer and have not landed 1 job.   This is unheard of for me. So I'm asking you to cancel my membership effective today.  I have no doubt your company is going places but lord has me going in a different direction. 

 So having said that I picked up my first job in 3 months last night.  And then two calls this morning for two more jobs.  I realized after I went back to town that it was 40 jobs not 42 and 40 is a very significant number in the bible.

The question for you is this…… are you helping God or staying out of the way?

Radical obedience always precedes the miraculous

102 days

       It has been 102 days since I have written.  It seems like an eternity, but there have been reasons.   The Lord has been dealing with me on several fronts.  Selfishness, Jealousy and I also believe He just wanted me to listen Him.  I have not even had a desire to write.  I even tried the other day and got half way through and just deleted it.   Today it is time and I feel released.   Here is what I was giving today.  I woke this morning at 3:30 and was thinking this can’t be the Lord, but I was wide awake.  Before I could even get the whole thought of “am I supposed to get up?”   I hear   “GET UP”   so I did and got in the word.

“If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath,  from doing your pleasure  on my holy day,  and call the Sabbath a delight  and the holy day of the Lord honorable;  if you honor it, not going your own ways,  or seeking  your own pleasure,  or talking idly;  14  then you shall take delight in the Lord,  and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

  

I hear, Believe and obey   It is so easy to hear and obey but you have to believe!   I have been working on Sunday doing paperwork and estimates to the point of burnout.  Today that changes.   No more on Sunday.  Clear Creek Home Improvements is closed on Sunday.  Period!   What has been taking me 7 days to do will now get done in five or six.   I Believe!!!

As I continue to read I went through 58 thru 59 to the end and then I got this.

59:21 “And as for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the LORD: “My Spirit that is upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouth of your offspring, or out of the mouth of your children's offspring,” says the LORD, “from this time forth and forevermore.” (Isaiah 59:21 ESV)   this is my legacy

Something else.   My name is Kevin and the Spirit of the Lord is upon me.   I am a SON and I am anointed.

I have to remember that I am the steward of Clear Creek Home Improvement’s not the owner.

Selfishness

James 3:16-18  (NLT)
16 For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind.  I am going to Quest to serve May 12th.  This passage came up 19 days ago when I was writing my getting to know you to the staff.  One of the questions asks for a prayer request.  My prayer request on April 12th was about my struggles with Jealousy and selfishness.  Little did I know that this was going to raise its ugly head Tuesday 4/21.  It was ugly….. You see my wife has 4 wonderful relationships.  Three with her kids and one with her sister.  My relationships with my kids are good just not on the same level.  My relationship with my brother is not bad but could be a lot better.  I have tried to speak with him but he is in his on world.  Nothing I can do about that.   There is no bitterness and we get along fine we just don’t talk much.
 The word says you reap what you sow......  Galatians 6:7-9 (NASB) 7 do not be deceived; God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. 9 Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.  Now my kids in Amarillo ……. I have good relationships with them;   I just don’t talk to them as much as I should or my parents for that matter.   So a friend of mine the other day said this ….. “Why can’t you just be happy for your wife?”   I said “what?”   Then it clicked.  I have never been happy for the relationships that my Kelly has with her family.  What an ASS I have been.  I have only been jealous, and then comes the selfishness and the passive aggressive behavior.  Maybe I am selfish first then jealous……..   who knows what comes first.  They are both bad!  
  I have made it so my wife walks around on eggshells at times when she talks to her children or sister.
So just what exactly have I been sowing?   Well it is not good.   Here is what I know.  You reap what you sow and I am tired of the crap that I cause.  So it is time for a change.  Todd White says’  “ I am so free from me I am free from you!”  “Don’t return attitude with attitude!”  Sometimes I feel so close …….. but as you know I am not one to where a mask.   So verse 16 is who I was yesterday.  Today I walk in the promise of verse 17 and 18.

 James 3:17 But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and the fruit of good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere. 18 And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness.[a]

Selfishness crushes Legacy   I have to remember that it is not my world I just live in it.

Unbelief

Unbelief

So ….. it has been awhile.   My office has been in disarray for a while.  In my new shop I have no internet yet.   Ever since my last quest in January I have been spending a lot of time with the Lord in the mornings.  Over an hour every day.  I have been giving lots of nuggets.  Saturday we went and heard Todd White at Catch the Fire DFW 3-21-15 .  Really good.  I heard a couple of things.  One was about the simplicity of the gospel.  2 Cor. 11.3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. KJ The big thing was where he was speaking for himself and saying that for him the simplicity is taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.  I felt like I heard Holy Spirit say that is what your problem has been   you choose not to take some thoughts captive.  You choose sin-consciousness instead of son-consciousness.

I know for me taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ’s works.  I know for me ....... there have been many times that I have deliberately chosen not to take that thought captive for some reason or another.  I believe for the most part 99.9% of the time it is because I don’t believe who God says I am.  UNBELIEF.  I have said many times and probably so have you.  God help me with my unbelief.  When it should be God help me believe who you say I am!

This morning I am reading in Titus chpt 1 when I get to here.  1:15 the truth proves everything to be pure but to those who are contaminated with unbelief in their minds and conscience everything seems to be equally stained with impurity. (Unbelief is to believe a lie about yourselves. [Num 13:33 and 2 Cor 4:4]) 1:16  They might even pretend that they know God by saying a few nice clichés, but when it comes to real life the veneer cracks and the stench is nauseating; the effects of unbelief cannot be camouflaged.  The Mirror

I also heard  Holy Spirit say.  There is no root to the lust it is disobedience,  rebellion.  You choose not to take the thoughts captive,  My greatest time for my veneer cracking is when I am alone.  Not today!

How is your veneer?

Very Powerful

1 Thessalonians  4:3 It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; 4 that each of you should learn to control your own body[a] in a way that is holy and honorable, 5 not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God; 6 and that in this matter no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister.[b] The Lord will punish all those who commit such sins, as we told you and warned you before. 7 For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. 8 Therefore, anyone who rejects this instruction does not reject a human being but God, the very God who gives you his Holy Spirit.  This is a passage that I had memorized like 5 or 6 years ago and as you can tell it packs a punch.   Now let’s go back to last Wednesday and a conversation that I had with one of my dear friends that I do life with.   Most of you know that one of my struggles is lust namely porn.  I had mentioned that I look forward to the day when I do not have to have a filter on my computer anymore.  I also said I would still have the filter on my computer to protect me from unwanted surprises. Let’s just say we will agree to disagree on that.  What that means is I think I should he thinks I shouldn’t. So now it is Thursday morning and during my quite time I feel like I heard that the filters are your computers are what is preventing you’re from getting the freedom that you seek.   That witnessed to my spirit.  So that night my wife logged me in to the computer to block Facebook.  I heard turn off the filter so I did.  I did not tell my wife.  The next day I sent a text message to three of my brothers and they all agreed that I heard correctly and one said “you may have something there.”

Radical obedience always precedes the miraculous!  This time I decided to obey and then seek wise counsel.   I heard correctly.  You see I have four computers and Xbox and a smart phone.  Three have the filter one does not and neither does the Xbox or phone.  I will not look at anything on the unprotected electronics only the ones with the filter.  It is like a game to see if I can get around it.  Now fast forward to Tuesday morning and during my quiet time I felt like I needed to look up the Thessalonians scripture in the mirror version and this is what it said.  The Mirror 4:3 the resolve of God declares you innocent; this announcement frees you from fornication. (The resolve of God is declared in his accomplished redemption of the life of our design in Christ. Fornication is a form of idolatry, which is to be engaged with a distorted image of yourself.   It is to be obsessed with something that you feel you must have in order to complete you. Just like Eve was attracted to eat the fruit of the “I-am-not-tree”.) 4:4 every one of you should take ownership of your bodies with utmost care. The vessel takes its 1 value from the treasure it holds. (The word 1 timay means a valuing by which the price is fixed. See 2 Corinthians 4:7) 4:5 lusting after things with an all-consuming longing is typical of people who do not know how complete they already are in God.

I am free for the first time since August of 2001 I have computers that have no filters on them.   I don’t need them anymore.  I received a revelation from the Lord that I am complete in Him and the lie reveled to me was I needed porn, lust to feel good about myself to feel complete.  Wednesday night I told my wife.   Today there is no desire at all to go down that path of destruction while I sit in front of a computer with no filter.   Now I rely on Holy Spirit to keep me free and not something that is man-made!

Thank you Jesus!     And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.   The first part doesn’t work unless you die to yourself.

I wrote this Wednesday night and then Thursday morning I received this from the Lord. 

Isaiah 61:20 I delight greatly in the Lord;  my soul rejoices in my God for he has clothed me with garments of salvtion and arrayed me in a rob of rightousness, ....................

How is your Heart? Mine was not good.

November 24 was the last time I wrote from the heart.   12/15 doesn’t count.   When does a deceived person know he is deceived?  He does not and most of the time it creeps up on you and you don’t even know it.  You realize you have been deceived when you have revelation.   I feel that is what happened to me.  Luke 24:31 suddenly, their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And at that moment he disappeared!  I feel like this is what has happened.  Let’s go back to the beginning when I got so freaking busy that I gradually stopped my quite time.  You know how it goes.  I will go over that scripture in my head in the truck and I will pray in the truck while I am driving.   Wow that is so intimate!  Then you catch yourself listening to ESPN and not praying at all.   I found myself getting up early and working on my computer and NOT spending time with Him.  I suffered         it was like a slow death but I did not know I was dying.   30 days of prep starts up for quest and I make the assignments for the staff and one of the assignments was me giving the Saturday morning devotion.   First time in three years that I did a devo but I felt like that was the Lord telling me.  (Even when you are deceived the Lord speaks) the 30 days of prep was a real struggle for me.  Every day I didn’t want to go, but I knew I had too.  I knew I was supposed to go.   I knew the Lord had something for me.  When Saturday came around I literally had nothing right up to the time to speak and then it all came together.   I got wrecked and I thought I heard “I miss you”   when I looked in my Bible (I thought that was me saying I miss you to the Lord)  on the bus ride home I heard I miss you Kevin.  During me devo the Lord took me back to 2006 when I went on Dreams and Visions and he said leave you electronics off in the morning until you spend time with me.  Something I have not been doing.

For some time now I have been reading my bible on the computer so I can make the font bigger …. Sounds right but so wrong for me.  That is not what the Lord said.  So since quest I have left my computer off and have spent time with Him every day reading in my PAPER bible.  Every morning I give Him the first fruits of my day.  My heart is being healed.  I have found it is so easy to be lazy and to read my bible on my phone.  Look up scripture on my phone.  That is all good, but in the morning for me it is spending time with Him and not my computer and Him.

Exodus 34:14  You must worship no other gods, for the LORD, whose very name is Jealous, is a God who is jealous about his relationship with you.

So........ How is your Heart?

Ephesians 3 14-21

I memorized a passage on dreams and visions back in 2006 Ephesians 3:14-21 it has been very powerful for me.  Below is the NASB version and below it is the Mirror Bible version which really spoke to me this morning.

14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.  20 Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, 21 to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations [n]forever and ever. Amen.

Here is the version from the mirror bible that really spoke to me about God’s love.

3:14 Overwhelmed by what grace communicates, I bow my knees in awe before the Father. 15 Every family in heaven and on earth originates in him; his is mankind’s family name and he remains the authentic identity of every nation. 16 I desire for you to realize what the Father has always envisaged for you, so that you may know the magnitude of his intent, and be dynamically reinforced in your inner being by the Spirit of God. 17 This will ignite your faith to fully grasp the reality of the indwelling Christ. You are rooted and founded in love. Love is your invisible inner source, just like the root system of a tree and the foundation of a building. 18  Love is your reservoir of super human strength which causes you to see everyone equally sanctified in the context of the limitless extent of love’s breadth and length, and the extremities of its dimensions in depth and height. 19 I desire for you to become intimately acquainted with the love of Christ on the deepest possible level; far beyond the reach of a mere academic, intellectual grasp. Within the scope of this equation God finds the ultimate expression of himself in you. 3:20 we celebrate him who supercharges us powerfully from within. Our biggest request or most amazing dream cannot match the extravagant proportion of his thoughts towards us.

I have spent about 45 minutes reading this over and over.  There is nothing I can add.

Be blessed.

2 Corinthians 7:11

Yesterday around 4:00 I was home by myself watching  football and work on a kitchen sketch on my computer.  When it hit me.  An all-out assault on the visual area of my mind.  The visual rolodex came a live and I got inundated with pornographic images.  It was absolutely overwhelming.  I dwelled and I panicked for several minutes.  Hear me I wanted to go down that road, but I didn’t want to go down that road.   That road is death.  That road hurts my lord, that road hurts my wife.  That road is full of death traps and is a dead end.  So I sent a 911 text to the men I meet with and prayed a short prayer and then opened my kindle to the mirror bible.  Looked at the table contents and felt led to 2 Corinthians 7. 

What happened next was amazing.   7:3 there is no hint of condemnation in my message; I have always maintained that our hearts are joined with you in death and in life. 7:4 I am absolutely persuaded about you and take great pride in you; we are seamlessly one; therefore my joy rises above all sense of claustrophobia. 7:5 when we first arrived in Macedonia we had no chance to relax for a moment; we were literally thronged by trouble; we faced conflict on every side and felt deeply alarmed. 7:6 how wonderful it is to discover God’s comforting closeness when you feel like a bird that cannot rise in flight to escape the fowler; this time God’s closeness was reinforced in the arrival of Titus!  For me the arrival of Titus signifies me taking those thoughts captive and drawing near to Him. 

7:10 To anchor one’s thoughts in God’s thoughts when faced with difficult or painful experiences brings escape from sorrow and leaves one with no regrets; but oh, what a dreadful contrast is the world system (of the law of karma and works) which adds regret upon sorrow! Whereas the one brings such immediate relief, the other seems to be an inescapable deathtrap!  7:11 consider how this very thing that caused you such initial grief has turned your attention to God! It revived an immediate sense of urgency to realize your position in grace; almost like when your arm is twisted and locked behind your back, and your own efforts to clear or save yourselves were completely neutralized. You were greatly alarmed with an intense desire and burning zeal to re-endorse the basis of your righteousness. And so in everything your blameless innocence is vindicated!

The 911 is the subject line in my text that I need prayer and need it now.  It goes to the five men I meet with every week.  I received three texts and two phone calls.  That was awesome!  Thank you Jesus.

Do you have 911 men and women in your life right now?   As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another!

Break my heart for what breaks yours!

I get in my truck to take my daily morning commute this morning to get my caffeine.  While I am driving I am trying to listen to the radio about the election.  Five radio stations and nothing but commercials.  So I turn it off.  I begin to pray about whatever comes to my mind when I hear “what breaks my heart doesn’t break yours.  I think “Nice …….. God’s speaking”     So I am thinking what does that mean?    I immediately start thinking about my sin.  You know …… my lying, my overeating, my lust, my cursing  my my etc. ……. and thinking about my levels of sin.  (You know what I mean sexual sin is so much worse than being a liar or being lazy or being a gossip)  We all know that in the eyes of God sin is sin man gives the scale.  Why are we so quick to confess sexual sin,   when yesterday you just might have sinned by lying, cursing, stealing you know what I mean and didn’t call anyone?

I begin to think about the quest next week and usually what is going on with me tends to manifest on the quest with some of the men.  Right now my sin doesn’t break my heart when in the past it did.  So I tell a little white lie or I lust over something it could be a woman or not, or I curse …. Whatever I think you get the point.  Some days I get convicted and some days I don’t.  When I get home I try to look up “break my heart for what breaks yours.  It is not even scripture!  It is a lyric to the song Hosanna.  This is where I need to be …..  Something that I need / my heart needs to break for what breaks His. 

While looking for this scripture I came across Ezekiel and it floored me.  26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. Ezekiel 36:26-27 esv.  This scripture is as much for me as what I think it has to do with this Quest.

I know for me That God sees me better than I see myself at times.  I know my friends see me better than I see myself sometimes.  So I am a work in progress.  A friend of mine who lost his son four weeks ago said this to me in a text message yesterday after our 30 minute phone conversation.

“Thanks Kevo, you are an inspiration.  That’s why I called you.  Needed that!!!!  Thanks for being a good friend!!!  

That text was like the Lord was speaking to me. 

Be blessed today!

Kevin

Will I surrender?

2:20 Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not “mine,” but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that Gal 2.20 msg

Has that breaking of my independence come? All the rest is religious fraud. The one point to decide is— will I give up? Will I surrender to Jesus Christ, placing no conditions whatsoever as to how the brokenness will come? I must be broken from my own understanding of myself. When I reach that point, immediately the reality of the supernatural identification with Jesus Christ takes place. And the witness of the Spirit of God is unmistakable— “I have been crucified with Christ….”  Oswald chambers

If I refuse to walk in the light as He is in the light, I am the loser.”  Bill Bright, “Circumstances do not contribute to our misery. It’s our lack of understanding of who God is and his wonderful, holy purpose for us that frustrates so many.” He adds, “To surrender yourself totally, irrevocably, without reservation to the living Christ is the greatest privilege man can know.

So I am reading this morning in Matthew chpt 5 about anger and the next thing I know I am back to the topic of dying to myself again!  I read Oswald for the first time since April and he is all about Gal 2:20   I am listening to a song that keeps saying   “leave it all behind and come to the well.”  I click a link on my favorite’s bar that takes me to a blog about surrender and Gal 2:20 By Bill Bright and my last two blogs have been about dying to myself and sin cannot find any expression in a corpse.  Thank you Lord for your continued persistence.  It is easy to believe the obvious but there is something deeper that I am not seeing yet. 

God help me to love you more than myself and your glory more than my life.

So what does dying to yourself look like and are you doing it?

Sin cannot find any expression in a corpse.

I have been reading over this for several days.  Ever since my friend sent it to me.  This morning however it really spoke to me.

Romans 8:10 the revelation of Christ in you declares that your body is as good as dead to sins demands.  Sin cannot find any expression in a corpse.  You co-died together with Him. Yet your spirit is alive because of what righteousness reveals. TMB   Romans 8:10 ^If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is ^[a]alive because of righteousness.  NASB   Sin cannot find any expression in a corpse.    How much more dead can you get?  I guess that means that all people in a cemetery are dead to sin.  I have to admit that is a very good example.    Galatians 2:20 the terms co-crucified and co-alive define me now.  Christ in me and I in Him!  His sacrificial love is evidence of his persuasion of my righteousness!  TMB

As I prepare for another quest where the (we have been in prep over one week) I feel a huge burden to die to myself today.  I see that sin cannot express itself in me if I am the walking dead.  Today I am free

Today my wife is on heart quest so today not only do I die to myself but I must die for her and go to battle for her.

For me ….. I need to start living out the scriptures that I speak about.  Not just speak them to other people but believe them for myself.    Romans 12:1-2 were the 2^nd and 3^rd scriptures I ever memorized and I quote them a lot but have often wondered if I truly live by them.

12:1 Live consistent with who you really are, inspired by the loving kindness of God.   My brothers, the most practical expression of worship is to make your bodies available to him as a living sacrifice; this pleases him more than any religious routine.   He desires to find visible, individual expression in your person. (The word, 1parakaleo, comes from para, a preposition indicating close proximity, a thing proceeding from a sphere of influence, with a suggestion of union of place of residence, to have sprung from its author and giver, originating from, denoting the point from which an action originates, intimate connection; and kaleo, meaning to identify by name, to surname. Jesus introduces the Holy Spirit in the same capacity: parakletos, meaning close companion, kinsman [John 14:16]. The word, 2adelphos, comes from a, as a connective particle, and delphos, meaning womb. Commonly translated as brother. [See Heb 2:11] The word, 3paristemi, means to exhibit, to present. In the context of the New Testament, the sacrificial system no longer involves dead animals, but living people. “You died in his death and are now alive unto God” [Rom 6:11].)

12:2 do not allow current religious tradition to mold you into its pattern of reasoning. Like an inspired artist, give attention to the detail of God’s desire to find expression in you. Become acquainted with perfection. To accommodate yourself to the delight and good pleasure of him will transform your thoughts afresh from within. (The word, aion, is traditionally translated as “do not be conformed to this world.” Actually aion points to a period of time of specific influence. In the context of this writing, Paul refers to the religious traditional influence of his day as euarestos, which is eu, praiseworthy, well done + arestos, meaning to accommodate one’s self to the opinions, desires, and interests of others.) The mirror bible

Die to yourself

Just being real …………..  All week I have had two things going through my mind.   When I quote a scripture to someone do I believe it for myself?  The second one is the lyric I heard, “Worship is more than just a song.” 

When we signed up for this walk with Jesus, we signed up to die.  To die to ourselves,   to be living sacrifices Holy and pleasing to God,

Romans 12-1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship.

Revelation 12.11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.

I hear this scripture quoted all the time but only the first part.  How convenient to leave off the last part about dying to yourself.

I look at these two scriptures and see how they go together.  You have to die to yourself before you can be a living sacrifice

I have to admit that dying to myself is not the simplest thing to do. At times it comes very easy when it is convenient, but what about when it is not?  I got out this old book I have called “Let Go” by Fenelon.  The letters in this book were penned during the 17^th century.  Anyhow when I opened it,   I see the letter titled  “the discovery of death and self.”    I have underlined in the letter “you asked for a remedy, that your problem might be cured.  You don’t need to be cured, you need to be slain!   Then I go back in my journal and I am reading along when I come across the part of my journal where I did a 40 day fast and there it is again the exact same quote.

What needs to die in you today?

Whenever you quote a scripture to someone do you ever think that it doesn’t apply to you?

Cultivate the presence of the Lord

Most of you know I serve on Quest.  I just got back Sunday and once again God showed up and showed off and it was incredible.   Not only for the Questers but also for the staff.  Before I left I received a text message from one of my clients and it said this God has a habit of chasing after leadership too.  Let Him catch you and see what happens.   Well he caught me.  He spoke to me through a friend of mine with this statement.  “Stop trying to create the absence of sin and start cultivating the presence of the Lord.”   I  had to just sit there a minute and actually ask him to repeat it again.  Sometimes I think  (me included) that we focus so hard on trying not to sin that we miss it!  We try to prevent sin instead of just focusing on God more.   There are things that need to be done.  Pray, listen to worship music, study the word and be washed by the word.   If you do all things then it makes it very hard for sin to creep in because your heart is with Him.  Your heart is filled with Him which leaves no room for anything else.  Be blessed today!

…Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. ~ Ephesians 5:25b-27

God tells Moses, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” Exodus 33:14

8 This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may [a]be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will [b]have success.  Joshua 1:8 (NASB)

Have been listening to a song called Clear the Stage which broke me.

A lyric from the song says.

You can sing all you want to

And still get it wrong; 
Oh, worship is more than a song


Jesus speaks to children

Matthew 21:16        Do you hear what these children are saying?" they asked him. "Yes," replied Jesus, "have you never read, 'From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise.'"

We were giving the opportunity to have our grandson this summer for three weeks.  We had so much fun.  We were only supposed to get him for one week.  At the end of the first week he wanted to stay one more so mom said yes.  During this time we figured out he was afraid of the water,  afraid to go swimming.  He is only seven so we new something had happened but did not know what.  He didn't know why either.  At the end of the second week which was a Saturday morning there was a part of me ready for him to go home.  I knew the next week I was going to be super busy.  I heard the Lord say “ you have had missed opportunities you need to keep him for another week”  so I called mom and she said one more week.  That day I told him that if you will ask Jesus He will show you.  He said, “what do you mean?”  Ask Jesus to show you why you are afraid to go swimming.  He said “okay.”   That was Saturday.  so we prayed about this Saturday night and Sunday night and I told him to keep asking until he hears an answer.   ….. Monday morning as we were getting ready to go to work he came up to me and said,  “Pa Pa I know why I am afraid to go swimming.”  I said , “What is it?”  Jesus showed me when I was little that my big cousin through me in the deep end of the pool and I didn’t know how to swim.”  That just broke me.  We get to the job and at this house there is a swimming pool.  We were not there 10 minutes when he asked me if he could go swimming.  I said I thought you were afraid of the water?  “Not anymore!”  he said.   and so he jumped in and went swimming for over an hour and now he has no more fear of the water. 

So I ask you ……… If you have a hurt.  All you have to do is Ask Him and he will show you just like he showed Jeremiah.  Just ask.

Pride

Pride………………………. Need I say more. 

 Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. Prv 16:18.  I have felt pretty good about not walking in pride until Tuesday.   I was at the landfill unloading my trash trailer.  I was in the process of picking up a 36 x 36 broken window.  When I grabbed it I remember thinking to my self “be carefull you don’t want any of these broken shards of glass to fall and cut yourself in the leg.  Then I hear ask Scotty he is five feet away ask him for help,  NOPE I CAN GET IT ON MY OWN!”  All of that in a span of about five seconds. 

Well a shard of glass fell and cut my leg very badly and I got 16 stiches.   I doctored up my leg and went back to the job site.  While I was driving I hear “once again you thought you could do something on your own and once again you were wrong”  That statement took me right back to my struggle that I often have with porn.  I have found over the years that when I struggle the most is when I try to control the urges on my own instead of listening and turning it over to Him.

The other part of the story is I heard the Lord tell me to ask Scotty for help and I ignored Him

Pride and disobedience not a good combo.  Lord thank you for your forgiveness!  Thank you for your mercy for giving us one more day!

Stop Evaluating others

2 Corinthians 5:16 so we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now!

  I was listening to a sermon yesterday morning driving to men’s group when I heard this scripture quoted and it just stopped me in my tracks.  Especially on the heels of what I wrote Saturday.  I have to admit that loving someone the way God sees them for me is not always an easy thing to do.  Case in point, at our sonic we have a gay waiter and I know he is gay, because he flaunts it.  I have not been very nice to him and have been called out by my wife several times.  Over the last three months of Listening to Todd White and understanding what it means to love people regardless of their life style has not been the easiest road travelled.  Loving them in spite of their religion sometimes harder.   I had some missed opportunities with some Jehovah witness’s as well.  I have actually heard ”you don’t see them the way I do”

Yesterday as I am driving I get this vision of the gay guy from my sonic walking out with a sign around his neck that says I am a liar and thief and that is my lifestyle that I choose.  I knew in my heart that I would treat him differently than if the sign said I am a homosexual and that is the lifestyle I choose.   Needless to say I did not feel very good about myself knowing that I would walk in judgment like that.  This is become a very big eye opener for me.  since the last time I was called out I have been back to the sonic and treated him  with the utmost respect and looked at him the way God sees him on the outside.  (my heart is still not right though)

His kindness leads us to repentance and sometimes that kindness is through us to another person.

Romans 2:4  Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?

Make Allowances

Ephesians 4:2 always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love.

So what exactly does that look like?   Does that mean if I get an lgbt waiter that I treat him the same as if I got a straight waiter?   What about a customer?   If I go to someone’s house to do kitchen remodel and when I get there I find out that they are gay.   I know what I would do; I would show them the love of Jesus and work for them.    Just maybe ….. Them seeing me as a follower of Jesus might be the one thing that causes them to question what they are doing.  I don’t have to say anything, just be Jesus with skin on.   I had the question asked me the other day.  What if I was approached to build an abortion clinic?   As I have thought about that question over and over I have come to the conclusion that someone is going to build it.  So for me I pray about it and if He says build it then I build it.  Is abortion against my beliefs …? Yes.  I look at it as an opportunity to pray over it every day during the construction.  Write scriptures on the studs and take opportunities to minister to the leaders.  Who knows what will happen.  Just because it gets built does not mean it will open. 

Someone told me the other day that Jesus did not minister to prostitutes.  He said Jesus looked at them as children of God that had lost their way.   What a concept.   I was once that person.  A child of God that had lost his way.  I did drugs, slept around, viewed pornography, cussed, overate, alcoholic, drug addict need I say more.  I had someone love me to Jesus in spite of me.

So you have a choice today.  Are you going to make an allowance for someone’s fault or you going to be religious?

Mark 12:29-31New Living Translation (NLT)

²⁹ Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. ³⁰ And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’^{[a] 31} The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’^[b] No other commandment is greater than these.”

Are you offended?

Are you offended?    Are you walking in un-forgiveness?     Life would be so much simpler if we would not walk in afence (I spelled it that way on purpose) I heard about a dream.  The man was standing at the edge of this beautiful field.  Down the middle was a fence.  On one side was Jesus and all who loved him.  On the opposite side was the devil and all who loved him.  The man decided to get a better view so he got on the fence and everyone disappeared.   Then the devil appeared and said,   “There you are…. I have been looking all over for you”   the man said, “I love Jesus I am on the fence leave me alone” Satan said “I don’t think so   who do you think OWNS the fence?   Matthew 5:37  But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.   That is why I spelled the word offense as afence.  I think if you are walking in offense then you are on the fence.   You see we as followers of Jesus are not to become offended.  I truly believe if you love Jesus with all of your heart mind and soul and love your neighbor as yourself.    Then it is impossible to become offended.   I did not say you couldn’t get hurt I said offended.   Being offended is a choice with huge ramifications.   What did Jesus say:  Matthew 22:37 Jesus said to him, “‘you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. ³⁸ This is the first and great commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

I want to be so free from me, that I am free from you.   Know what is bad about being offended?   You spew poison from your mouth and it gets on everyone around you.  Especially those closest to you.  When that happens then it is easy for that person to become offended for you. Then you feed off on each other.   Happens all the time.   Remember Pain will always happen, but it is your choice to suffer YOUR CHOICE!

So here is the big question.   Stop right now and ask Holy Spirit.   Am I offended?  Am I offended because something happened to my spouse at work or something?  Am I offended because someone replied to my post on Facebook and it hurt my little feelings so you UN friended them?   I will touch on why I am witting this later.   Let’s just say I had an opportunity to become really offended and I chose not to get offended.                                   

Proverbs 19.11 Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense. 

Matthew 25:40

Matthew 25:40 Then the King will say, ‘I’m telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.’ MSG

Matthew 25:40 “And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’  NLT

It has been a little over five weeks since I was introduced to who Todd White is and his story and ministry.   I have stopped reading my devotions and have been reading Ephesians.  I have been in Ephesians now for five weeks.   There has been a transformation in my heart.  It has been to love people right where they are at.  Not just for the 5.5 days on quest but every day.  If a person is carrying a sign that he is hungry, I give him money.  To me it does not matter if that is his job or if he is lying.   What matters is what my motive is.  The money always comes with a “Jesus loves you and He thinks you are amazing”    I believe that because He loves me.   My world has been turned upside down.  Today I don’t have to say “Father help me with my unbelief!”   I have none today. 

We are supposed to lay hands on people and they get healed.  We all have that power.   I was at a customer’s house the other day and after we were through talking business we started talking Jesus.   Her daughter began to tell me about this depilating disease she has called the suicide disease.  I immediately became uncomfortable in my spirit.   I got hot and sweaty and nervous and tears were welling up.  I knew I was supposed to pray for her healing,   but I didn’t want to.  The thought came what if she doesn’t get healed?  That is the enemy.   I did it anyway and I prayed for her and guess what?  For the first time in my life I knew Jesus was going to heal her right then…. There was no doubt in my mind.   I asked her, how do you feel?   She said, I still hurt and I said give it some time.  What happened though with me was my faith was not shaken because she was not healed right then.  She will be healed in Jesus name.  Her name is Chelsea and the disease that she will be healed form is called trigeminal neuralgia.   Sorry this one is a little longer than usual.

Buy someones lunch today and tell them that Jesus loves them and He thinks there amazing and  see if a door does not get opened.  

Kevin