Poem - Life's Pilgrimage

O Lord, our lives are like a priest's pilgrimage,
Some will refuse to go,
Others do not know we have left,
We must invite them on the journey!
And in the end, we will see you in your Glory!

James the Apostle's Ossuary

Last night I was watching 60 Minutes on CBS. They had a story about an ossuary that was found and put on display. The link below will take you to the article on cbsnews.com:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/12/17/60minutes/main661815.shtml

An ossuary is a sort of coffin that contains the bones of the deceased. This ossuary was particularly interesting because of its inscription that read, "James son of Joseph, brother of Jesus". I have to admit that when I heard that, I became very excited. Think of it, what a thing to have a real life piece of history directly connected to Jesus! So excited that I called my girlfriend to tell her. When I got back to the show, they were talking about the rest of the issues that had been raised about the ossuary and the controversy surounding it.

Long story short, there is evidence that not everything about the ossuary is on the up and up. Bottom line: nobody knows for sure.

So today, all I have is more questions than answers such as:
1. Where is the Lord's hand in all of this? Is He involved at all?
2. Should Christians get excited about this?
3. Does getting excited and perhaps later disappointed, show our lack of faith?
4. Should we as Christians believe that we don't need this sort of thing brought to light because we have enought faith anyway?
5. Should we as Christians eagerly expect for such treasures to be revealed and then rejoice when they are?
6. What is the source of these types of controversies? God? Satan? or Man?

I'll stop here since I don't have any answers or insight. Only questions.

The Holy Spirit - The "Spiritual" side of Christianity

This has been burning in my craw lately so I figured I better speek out on it. It strikes me that a great many Christians neglect the third face/side/person (whatever you want to call it) in the Holy Trinity - the Holy Spirit. Our salvation does not end when we receive Jesus and turn our lives over to Him. Our salvation only begins at this point. When we recieve Jesus, we also recieve the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a real undeniable force that lives within us believers. It leads us into ALL trueth. The Holy Spirit is the tangeable aspect of God that changes our very nature and turns us into true children of God. It will convict you of your sin, change your heart and mind and empower you. Are you changing for the better? Are you being convicted of your sin? Are you being "called out" by God on a regular basis? Do you feel the Holy Spirit within you? Daily?? If you are questioning whether or not the Holy Spirit has taken up residence in you, you may want to rethink where you are going on your Christian walk. If you don't feel His presence you may want to check into why it is absent. I don't mean to confuse those of you who truely feel the presence of God on a regular basis, since he does indeed withdraw from us on occassion. But as the Bible says, we are to be filled daily with the Holy Spirit.

Why do I raise this issue, you ask? I fear that many of us Christians are not embracing the spiritual aspect of being a Christian. I'm just not going to dance around this issue: embracing the Holy Spirit is essential in your maturity! Get baptised in the Holy Spirit! It is a real experience - I'M NOT KIDDING!! Get this into your mind: Jesus WILL "baptis" you in the Holy Spirit if you ask for it and seek it out. It may not be the same way I was baptised, everyone I've heard from seems to have a slightly different story about how they were baptised. Some kinds of churches practice it also. But believe me, when it happens you'll know it! And things will be different from there on out. Don't get caught up in the semantics! Seek out a believer you personally trust to lay hands on you, or seek out a church you feel comfortable in that offers the service. Someone will probably have to put their hands on you so don't get freaked out. But I've also heard of people getting baptised in the shower too. God does what He wants to .. go figure.

If you are questioning whether or not the Holy Spirit is in you, its probably not *working* within you - then you have some seeking to do.

Yes, the spiritual aspect of *fellowship* with God can be a little scary/intimidating/daunting/freaky (take your pick) at times, but I ask you how else are you going to change your ways? How are you going to change your destructive behavior patterns? How many times have you tried to change some aspect of your behavior only to drop right back into that same old pattern? Tried counseling? Tried self help (books, tapes, God knows what)? I'll bet some of you out there reading this feel helpless to defeat your demons. Guess what??! Yep, you have a 24 hour Counselor available (and He doesn't charge and arm and a leg - just your soul). The Holy Spirit will show you were your sin is, why you keep sining, tell you its bad to sin, and show you how to stop. And even better, He'll begin working on your heart and mind to change you from the *inside* out. I can tell you personally its amazing to see.

What can you expect from the Holy Spirit you ask?
Expect Him to expose your sin. This is kind of like you consience going into over drive.
Expect a nearly constant account for your thinking.
Expect personalized instruction from Jesus
Expect an increase in your faith
Expect to be held accountable
Expect to learn more about the God who loves you - dearly.
Expect to feel His joy, excitement, enthusiasm, optimism - all about little old you!
Expect to laugh with Him and cry with Him
Expect your prayers to become more focused, pointed and effective
Expect to have your heart broken at times
Expect to see God's 100% faithfulness working in your life
Expect a life experience that very closely matches the life of Jesus
Expect the unexpected!

I could go on and on, but hopefully by now you get my point. When the Holy Spirit is *living* in you, are are *living* with the *living* God - sharing in his joy, pain, sorrow, love, etc. And experiencing what He is experiencing.

Seek out the Holy Spirit, and welcome Him when He knocks. Invite Him in to stay!

Repent!!!

I don't know about you. But when I here that word my stomach turns sour. Well, as it turns out, repenting is not *exactly* what I originally thought it was. I used to think that repenting meant to get down on your face and wail, cry, and sob bitterly and just generally feel really, really guilty. I am learning that to repent actuallly means to turn away from your sin and turn towards God. Whew! That sounds a lot easier than I thought!

The Lord spoke to me last night as I was brushing my teeth. He explained what it meant to "walk in constant repentance". He said that every time some thought enters your head, that you must turn away from it and turn to Me ("Me" being Jesus of course). This concept, I believe is very much in keeping with 2 Corinthians 10:5 which in the NKJV translation says

"casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, "

The part of "bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ" is the section to focus on here. I think the Lord was saying that in order to bring every thought into the obedience of Christ, we must be constantly repenting in our minds. Repenting in the sense of turning away from evil thoughts and focusing on God. I think this can be done any number of different ways. Thanking God for the good things, asking for His help in forgiving someone, confessing a thought to God and asking Him to set you straight, admitting a fault that you have that you see in someone else, doing something kind for someone else and any number of other things can help you "walk in constant repentance". Remember that if you are doing something God approves of, that action takes away from the time you have to do something that He does not approve of.

So backing up ...
He gave me this Word last night. Then this morning I asked him to help me practice it today. As soon as I asked Him for this help, something very interesting happened spiritually. It was like I hit upon something that He has been really wanting me to learn and do. I feel His very strong presense. So close infact that it felt like we were face to face. As I stated many times before, it was wonderful indeed. - Lord I LOVE YOU!!! THANK-YOU VERY MUCH!!!

OK, so back down to earth now ;-) And wouldn't you know it, He gave me some tests today to "help" me out. There are some things that just get under my skin. Guess what! Yep, He threw them at me today.

Did I succeed in walking in repentance you ask? Yes and no. The first fast pitch I think I hit hard enough to get on base. Asking for His help proved useful. Ask for help - get some help - simple. The second pitch He through at me, I swung and hit but it was a foul ball. In other words, the first challeng today I did "good enough". The second challenge I at least tried to repent from my attidute but it wasn't as easy as the first - basically because I didn't allow Him to help me as much.

Oh well. I'll try again tomorrow.

The Rock

Sometimes when its seems like you've really dug a hole for youself, just remember that it might just be the Lord's way of getting you down to bedrock. Amen.