Relational Bridges

 GOD'S WAY Micah 7:18-20 “Who is a God  like You, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of His inheritance? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in steadfast love. He will again have compassion on us; He will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. ” The Scripture above telling of God “passing over” the transgression, the sins of His people remind me of that singular Passover event in Egypt, centuries ago, when God passed over the homes of the Israelites that had the covering of the blood of an innocent lamb painted on the doorpost and lintel of their front doors. Israel deserved the judgment that God visited upon Pharoh and his people for ALL have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory and purpose for humanity. All the Israelites needed to do was to believe God and do what He commanded them to do and they were spared death by God’s grace and covenant mercy. Only God can par...

 GOD'S FLOODS Isaiah 59:19 “So shall they fear the name of the  Lord  from the west, and His glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the  Lord  will lift up a standard against him. In the Hebrew text, you find no commas, and the interpretation of this verse for years seem to indicate that “the flood” is due to the enemy’s actions and power. I would like to suggest a better reading might be, “When the enemy comes in, like a flood the Spirit of the Lord will raise up a standard against him.” Year ago, I worked for the U. S. Geological Survey in the Water Resources division in Austin, TX. I did streamflow measuring and water quality sampling. When it was flooding in central Texas, I was on the road measuring the amount of water flowing under bridges in various locations. Floods are an amazing phenomenon. A stream or riverbed can, over time, become clogged by silt and debris falling into the water from near...

 FISHERS OF MEN Matthew 4:18-20 “While walking by the Sea of Galilee, Jesus saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. 19 And He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Immediately they left their nets and followed Him. ” As a wee lad, I was taught to fish by my maternal Grandfather, Rip Roberts, in the Atchafalaya Swamp outside Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Anyone who has ever fished knows that when you catch a fish, you take it out of the environment that enables them to live. A fish out of water will die to the only life it has ever known. The fish my Pawpaw and I caught ended up on the dinner table.   Many of Jesus’ first disciples were fishermen. They had not continued with their schooling after having studies and memorized the first five Books of the Torah. They had not displayed an aptitude for further study in Hebrew school, so they went to work in the family trade: f...

 GOD'S DESIRES Psalm 37:4 “Delight yourself in the  Lord ,   and He will give you the desires of your heart. ” This passage from God’s Word has been used, abused, and misused for a long time. Some have abused it by saying that “if” we “delight ourselves in the Lord, He will give us whatever our little hearts desires. Some have misused it as some kind of works-formula that if we do this, God is obligated to do that. I don’t think that is what is being revealed by the Lord to us. To “delight ourselves in the Lord” is to have Him be the One thing to which we devote the whole of life to. It is to see Him as the source of all goodness and hope. It is to know Him as Life, itself. It is to believe Him to be Who He says He is: our Good Shepherd, the Lord and giver of Life, our armor for the battle, the power and anointing we need to follow Him and keep in step with the Holy Spirit. Delighting in the Lord indicates the surrender of all we are, all we steward, all ab...

  Wilderness training is something of a rage today. People want to be able to be able to face difficulty and have the training to meet it head-long and still survive and maybe even thrive. There is a more desolate spiritual wilderness, a spiritual warfare going on unseen by human eyes today. Its effects on the human heart, mind and body are immeasurably greater than those of war, famine, or plague. There is a time for everyone to die and then comes judgement. The Word of God makes it clear that the true battle for the life and eternal destiny of human beings is not a physical one. The Apostle Paul clarifies that we do not battle against “flesh and blood” but against principalities and powers, rulers of spiritual wickedness in high places. Satan and all the demons he commands have been committed to the destruction of, the distortion of, the decay of and the deceiving of humanity from the very beginning. The “lie” that is carried in the DNA of every human being is, “You have no...

  When the Scriptures declare that Jesus, being fully human, was without sin, it is making clear that Jesus Christ, the Word of God Incarnate, the Eternal Son of God being conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary had no sin nature unlike every other human being since the “fall” of Adam. Jesus Christ never resisted the Holy Spirit but being filled with the fullness of the Holy Spirit and anointed with Power for His ministry on earth, He lived out the Kingdom of God in the context of a worldly culture that is still broken and distorted by rebellion. The culture of this world is entirely alien to the culture of Heaven, but Jesus Christ, being fully God and fully man lived out and demonstrated that the Kingdom of God is infinitely and eternally greater than the broken “kingdom” of this world. This present world culture is ruled by demonic darkness and evil. That “brokenness” is masked as benevolent when it is nothing but malevolent. When Jesus Christ comes to live...

 WITHOUT GOD - WITHOUT HOPE If you have ears to hear, then listen to the dire warning and verdict of the Prophets of old and the Apostolic witness of the Scriptures. The clarion call is given that you might turn from the folly of this present age that proports to be evolutionary in its vision when it is so blind that the only "light" it claims to possess is impenetrable darkness. God does not want any to perish, but for all to come to their senses and repent, turn from sin and death and return to God by the way He has made possible through Jesus Christ, and Him alone. Heed the warning... The rich without God are on their way to being eternally poor. The celebrities without God are on their way to being endlessly ignored and alone. The powerful without God are on their way to being devoid of strength forever. The beautiful without God are on their way to losing any vestige of comeliness without remedy. The educated without God are on their way to being endlessly empty of any s...

  BEING LOST People seem to bristle at the thought that they are "lost" and need to be found. Truth is, when being "lost", separated from God because of sin and rebellion in many forms, is all a person has ever known, they don't feel "lost" because "lostness" feels normal. It's only when our eyes, ears and hearts are opened by the love and grace of God in Christ Jesus that we realize that we have been lost our whole lives. It's then that we realize that we weren't searching for God, He has searched for us the Good Shepherd to rescue and redeem us so that we no longer be "lost", but found, saved and made citizens of Heaven, no longer strangers, alien to Life and Love.  

 ALL GOOD GIFTS James 1:16-18 “ 16  Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers.   17   Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.   18   Of His own will He brought us forth by the Word of Truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of His creatures. ” Abilities, propensities, talents, and potential for good and great things do not originate in humanity. They are not the product of human effort any more than a baby is responsible for its own conception. True, abilities and giftedness can be developed and enhanced through diligent practice and application, but the ground of any gifting for good comes from God, Himself, alone. People speak of natural talent or what seems to be innate brilliance in some for music, math, art, science, thought, and reason. These things, these good things come from God. That creativity in so ma...

 STOP BELIEVING THE LIE AND BELIEVE THE LOVE. So many people have believed the satanic lie that IF they surrender their lives to God in Christ Jesus that life will become dull, empty, without meaning or purpose. The lie states that they will become one dimensional, lacking a sense of humor, bitter and judgmental, arrogant and self-righteous. It is important to remind us all that Satan is a liar and the father of lies. The truth is, writing our own story as if we somehow have a corner on the truth of who we are as human beings, is what got humanity in the dire straits it’s in today. Sin is never creative; it can never give anyone a grounded sense of meaning or purpose. In fact, it does all it can to distract us from thinking about life deeply, lest we realize that meaning and purpose do not come from somewhere “deep within the human soul”. The truth is that sin in all its varied forms makes human life one dimensional. Sin never fully satisfies. If it did, you’d only have to...

I AM ACTUALLY NOT A BIGOT IF IT'S NOT MY OPINION BUT GOD'S WORD God loves all people but the things that torque, deceive, and mar that image of God given to us, He has no toleration for because it keeps us from what He knows as His best for us. God’s love is jealous for us because He wants His  best for us and His wrath is against anything that would keep us from that Good. Yes, people are free to choose not to let Jesus be Lord of their lives, but demanding that I approve and bless what God states is contrary to His plan for humanity this is what I think is ultimate injustice. I have dear people I love who are gender dysphoric and living a gay lifestyle. I don’t define them by their sin any more than God defines me by sin I struggle with. Actually, my opinion matters very little, but I do believe what God has stated will make for true living and what will reduce a person to mere existence and ultimately numb their souls to become like spiritual lepers where they can no longer...

WHEN WE CANNOT SEE It may be pressing the Word, but I think not. All through Scripture, both Old and New Testaments, we are told by the Lord that “the just shall live by faith.” Our confidence is NOT grounded in what we can see because our external and internal vision has been impaired by brokenness and sin. As Martin Luther wrote in his hymn A Mighty Fortress , “If we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing.’’ If we are going to indeed walk by, live by faith and not by our own “sight”, insight, experience, wisdom resources or strength, then God must teach us another way to live. He tells us plainly through the prophet Isaiah that His ways are not our ways, neither are His thoughts our thoughts. That is why the Apostle Paul writes in Romans 12:2 that our minds must be renewed by the Holy Spirit.   God has given to every follower of Jesus Christ a new heart and a new spirit. The Holy Spirit has become LIFE within us and it is by THAT resurrection Life of Jesu...