|City on a Hill - Writings for Refuge

The United States is rushing towards a "fiscal cliff" of some magnitude, but much more importantly, the world is rushing toward the "valley of decision." In the Bible there are three transitional generations: the generation of the first covenant with God (Moses' generation), the generation of the New Covenant (the generation of the book of Acts) and the generation of the renewal of all things (the generation that sees Jesus' return). The first two transitional generations are a matter of fact. We see their stories in the Bible, and we see their mark on the world around us. These two generations completely changed the world they were born into. The Bible says the third transitional generation will see the power of the first two combined, and then multiplied at a global level. Jesus and the prophets gave us the signs to look for, and since 1948 these signs have been occurring with more and more frequency and intensity. Jesus said when you see all these things

Psalm 47:1 Oh, clap your hands, all you peoples! Shout to God with the voice of triumph! 2 For the Lord Most High is awesome; He is a great King over all the earth. 3 He will subdue the peoples under us, And the nations under our feet. How I approach life really matters. The attitude I face each day with REALLY matters to God. Psalm 47 states why: shout to God with a voice of Triumph, for HE is awesome. God IS going to accomplish everything that is in His heart to accomplish. He rules over all. The victory is already decided and decisive...it was written before the foundation of the world. The Bible says your part in the victory story of God with Man...the victory story of Emmanuel...was written before the foundation of the world as well. Because of free will...because of love...you get to choose to what degree you share in the victory of Emmanuel. God says: approach everything with the shout of the truth. Shouting with a voice of triumph over whatever I am facing today isn't like

If I want to agree with Jesus about a particular issue, the best place for me to see His heart is in His words in the Gospel, and then the look at the attitudes and actions of the men that knew Him...saw Him face to face, and poured out the rest of their lives at His feet. As we see trouble unfold on the earth, many have a "wait and see" attitude about recognizing the times we live in as the "last days." The bible has SO much information concerning the events surrounding the return of Jesus, and what His people should do to prepare. The fate of our geographic locations literally hinges on God's people being in agreement with Him as He unfolds His plans to drive evil off the planet. However, the vast majority of the church doesn't want to be fanatical or sound the alarm too early. Better to wait and see...or is it? Look at what the "disciple whom Jesus loved" said more than 1900 years ago: 1 John 2:18 Little children, it is the last hour; and as you

Psalm 25:12 Who is the man that fears the Lord? Him shall He teach in the way He chooses. 13 He himself shall dwell in prosperity, And his descendants shall inherit the earth. 14 The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him, And He will show them His covenant. 15 My eyes are ever toward the Lord, For He shall pluck my feet out of the net. Psalm 25 says there is one condition to being assured of safety: the fear of the Lord. Those who fear the Lord lack no good thing, for out of this one attitude of the mind: to please God at the cost of the approval of everyone else, flows every good and right thought. God wants to be our treasure. Jesus said when I really figure out what it means to know Him, this is how I would feel: Matthew 13:45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, 46 who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it. Because of this reality, the enemy is constantly placing substitute treasure bef

God isn't worried or afraid, hoping one of His people comes through to save the day. He isn't watching world events unfold, waiting for the right moment to intervene...He isn't trading blows with the devil, back and forth winning, then in retreat. No! God is executing a plan written from the foundation of the world. A plan, that in His love, includes me and includes you if we will simply say yes to Him. For many, there is a yes in our heart, but a spirit of doubt whispers weakness in our ears. We see progress, we see the Lord's faithfulness, we tell others how to be confident in His love...but do we allow it to actually penetrate our heart. Do we go to Him for a new measure of confidence in His love?! It is one thing to say the words that are true, and entirely another to stand on them. Jesus asked His disciples once "who do you say I am?" I believe right now He is asking the same question of those who are His. Those with sincere hearts, those who seek Him out

Jesus said the entire kingdom of heaven has been available to anyone hungry for it since the time of John the baptist. Jesus said that John's preaching marked a shift in the history of the created order. He described it like this: Matthew 11:10 For this is he of whom it is written: ‘Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, Who will prepare Your way before You.’ 11 “Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. 12 And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. 13 For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. Jesus said that the prophets and the law prophesied until John. What He was saying was that the law and the prophet's statements dictated what mankind could see as available in the kingdom. The law, while good at demonstrating our shortcomings, is weak for reveali

Psalm 67:4 Oh, let the nations be glad and sing for joy! For You shall judge the people righteously, And govern the nations on earth. Selah 5 Let the peoples praise You, O God; Let all the peoples praise You. 6 Then the earth shall yield her increase; God, our own God, shall bless us. When God made the earth and put the first man on it, as described in Genesis 1, He called it "very good." He created Adam and Eve, and all of mankind to be with Him. He lived with man face to face, and men were charged with having dominion over the earth. Governing it in partnership with God, subduing it, and unlocking the potential of what God had placed in it. The Bible says God does not change. What He called very good in the garden still is very good to Him. In the 7,000, or so, years that have followed Adam's rebellion, we have seen the brokenness of man's fall and its effect on creation (war, pollution, famine, self-interested power), but we have also seen the carrying out of God&#

Psalm 43:3 Oh, send out Your light and Your truth! Let them lead me; Let them bring me to Your holy hill And to Your tabernacle. 4 Then I will go to the altar of God, To God my exceeding joy; And on the harp I will praise You, O God, my God. God's light and truth emanate from His throne. God dwells in unapproachable bright light. His holiness, or wholly-other-than-ness is so bright. The light from the uncreated God shines brightly in creation. God's words of truth, like thunder, and His light, filter through the emerald rainbow of mercy, and the intense red desire of His heart for me is communicated through the light He touches my heart with. This is the picture of His light He authored in Revelation 4. His light is designed with purpose. His truth has a specific desire. To lead me closer to where He dwells. He saw me when He made Adam in the garden. He made me, and all who would choose Him, to be with Him. God with man is the theme of Genesis, the theme of the Gospels, and the

In the face of eternity, our natural lives of 70 or 80 years is incredibly short. For most of our lives, It seems long to us, only because of our immaturity. The older I get, the shorter life as I know it seems! When I was a teenager, years passed by like decades. Now,it seems like years go by much more quickly. According to the Bible, my natural life, and the choices I make in it, have consequences in my eternal experience. The choices I make in the 70 or 80 years (or maybe much shorter) I live in the age of "believing without seeing" are promised by God to effect my eternal glory. Salvation is a free gift, yet if I want more experience of God, it is up to me to open the door for God to give me more. God does not force people into a relationship with Him, nor does He force us into a deeper relationship with Him. He will not open the door of our hearts. He will generally not cause us to experience Him more without an invitation. He has already chosen to give us the full measu

Until recently, I had many traditional ways of thinking about Jesus' return and the end of the age (end-times). Many ideas I once had were handed down to me by family or denominations,but they were not based in the clarity of the Word. Well-meaning people who loved Jesus believed them because they heard them from someone else they trusted. Until recently, I had never taken the time to find out if the Bible was clear on this very important issue. The Bible was not written in code, but was written in a simple and straight-forward way. God gave the Word to all men. The vast majority of people throughout history have been uneducated. The Bible is clear and straightforward. It says what it means and means what it says. Where symbolism is intended, the Bible states it. When Jesus spoke in parables, the Bible states it. A dream is called a dream and a vision a vision. Because of tradition, many have very wrong ideas about Jesus' return. Although there are 150 chapters in the Bible tha

Psalm 43:2 For You are the God of my strength... Nothing God calls me to be can be achieved simply from within me. Determination cannot produce holiness in my life, neither can discipline. Meditation won't produce lasting peace, and no temporary pleasure will produce lasting joy in a heart made for eternity...in fact, no good thing like patience, peace, love, joy, etc. Can be produced in a full measure apart from God. Psalm 43 declares He "is the God of our strength." This means He is the source of power in our lives to produce every desirable result. Our natural fallen mind set, which is fueled by lies from the enemy, is that it is up to us to live up to God's holy standard. The implication in this wrong thinking is that when we fall short, we have failed God somehow. This is a lie. God assignment to you and to me is to learn to draw near to Him, to give Him our agreement (our willingness), and to learn to draw on Him for the rest. As we behold who He is, we become m

If God is my source and my reward, nothing on earth can touch me, but I can still greatly affect earth for God. Assignments will come and go, prominence and status is supposed to ebb and flow, but God remains interested in ME through it all. I am the dream of His heart, and so are you! He made us to be with Him. The entire story of redemption is a picture of His continued reach for us. He made me to be with Him. Whatever amazing or mundane challenge He places before me is designed to draw me close, if I will agree with Him. The enemy will always try to pull my eyes from this. He wants to refocus me on self, but greater is God, who is in me, than the enemy who is in the world! If I will simply reach for God, and ask Him to make Himself the dream of my heart, my source and my reward, and resist the self-pull of the enemy and my flesh, nothing can stop me. Nothing can keep me from realizing the dream. I want to be in pursuit of the one who loves me most, holds my future in His hands, and

Zechariah 4:10 Do not despise these small beginnings, for the LORD rejoices to see the work begin, to see the plumb line in Zerubbabel's hand." There is a principle in the Bible that dramatically affects how much heavenly power touches me and you on earth. Learning to walk in agreement with this principle will increase the amount of actual power I walk in. It is this: those who are faithful with a little are given much more. The Bible is FULL of stories of broken men and women, just like me and you, experiencing God's very real power and changing impossible situations on earth. Moses holding his staff out over the water in faith to part the Red Sea and striking a rock to make water come out of it in the desert. Elijah striking the Jordan river with his jacket to make it part. Elisha raising a boy from the dead, Daniel knowing other people's dreams and vision, not to mention knowing the meaning of them. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego surviving a fiery furnace that kill

Genesis 18:32 Then he said, “Let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak but once more: Suppose ten should be found there?” And He said, “I will not destroy it for the sake of ten.” 33 So the Lord went His way as soon as He had finished speaking with Abraham; and Abraham returned to his place. God is just and loving. God doesn't suspend His love to execute justice, and He doesn't ignore justice to demonstrate love. His love and His justice are two sides of the same coin. If He didn't judge evil, like He did in Sodom (Genesis 18, above) His love wouldn't be perfect. The Bible says there is a time coming where planet earth will see judgment on a global level. As darkness increases, we will see evil flourish. God eventually gives mankind what it wants, and unfortunately a good portion of mankind wants its own way. The fullness of man's heart apart from God is evil. This is what happened in Sodom, Ninevah, Tyre, Egypt, Babylon, Jerusalem...there is a long list of cities

1 Corinthians 12:27 Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually. 28 And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? 30 Do all have gifts of healings? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? 31 But earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way. What do I contend for? God has been revealing to me that I have a "low view" of church. I have a low view of what is possible, permissible, and desirable for myself, and the group of people I chase after Him with. In my mind, I have convinced myself that change takes a long time, people are given specific and mostly vaguely powerful gifts, and someday He is going to wave His hand and everything will change. God says this is a sadly low view of church. He has promised me that

The Bible says heaven is coming to earth. When Jesus returns, we aren't going up, heaven is coming down. If you have trusted Jesus as your savior and given leadership of your life to Him, then you have some real estate in an eternal city called "the New Jerusalem." This city is where the people you love that have gone before you actually live right now. Don't be tempted to think it is symbolic, the actual measurements of the city are in the Bible...and it is huge: 1,500 miles high, 1,500 miles wide, and 1,500 miles tall. It is big enough for everyone in God's family to live comfortably: Revelation 21:10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, 11 having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal. 12 Also she had a great and high wall with twelve gates, and twelve angels at the gates, and names written

God sets the times and the seasons. I often hear people who mistakenly say there is no time with God, or that God doesn't see time like we do. That is simply not true! God is the author of time. The Bible is full of descriptions of times He has set on earth, and in heaven. The time really matters! I want to agree with God about the time that I live in. I want to know how He sees the time. I want to pray: please tell me what time you say it is, God. We live in the most intense season of human history. The increase in natural disasters is so dramatic, even before Sandy, insurers were raising rates to account for the unprecedented rising cost of covering natural disasters ( http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSL5E8LHMK120121017… ). Unprecedented is a term you are hearing in the news more and more often. Unprecedented violence, disaster, financial and political situations. This is the indication of a time set in heaven and described in the Bible over the last several thousand years. G

Revelation 22:12 "Look, I am coming soon, bringing my reward with me to repay all people according to their deeds. Do I really believe that I am made for eternity? What I choose reflects what I really believe. I have heard it said that if you want to know what you really believe, look at your calendar and your checkbook, they don't lie! Thankfully, the truth is not quite so black and white. The human heart is so complex. I DO believe that I am eternal, but I often don't make choices for eternity. The truth is, I am immature in my thinking and understanding of what my Father knows and sees. Thankfully, God knew this about the billions of hearts He made to know Him, and, like any good parent, He gives us direction and tools to grow up, to mature to His world view. Isn't that the job of a father? To lead the immature ones that they love, so that they see the world in a way that is accurate, and teach them to make choices that will help them for the rest of their lives?! G

We live in the most blessed and intense time of human history. If you believe the Bible is accurate, then from now until Jesus returns, darkness is going to increase, but so is the light! Living in the light will become more and more important, as world events become more and more intense. God has a long history of taking His people into the promised future He has for them. I believe this generation, those on the earth right now, will witness the greatest transition promised to mankind: the return of Jesus, and the establishment of His kingdom on earth...but the process of this happening, as described in the books of the prophets, as described by Jesus, the apostles, and finally as revealed in the book of Revelation, is one that is promised to be very intense. Every earthly thing man is tempted to trust in will be shaken. This earth was formed by the words that came from Jesus' mouth. He owns everything that is in it: the land, the sea, the animals, the people, the resources, and t

1 John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. God IS love, but love is not God. Not every movement claiming to be loving is in agreement with God. This is a very important distinction to make. Many have come in the name of love. The 60's were the epitome of "love" apart from God. The decay of the fabric of our society resulted in ways we still pay dearly for. Often times, what we call love is outside, or separate from, obedience to God. But God is love. He is the author, and the finisher, of love. Love apart from God is simply unsustainable. God is the light of love that shines on this planet. Attempting to shine love while shading it from God and all the truth that comes with Him is simply doomed to fail.

I have heard a lot of talk lately about holiness and the need to turn back to God. As the world is shaken, hearts are awakening to the need for a solution. Turning back to God is, in fact, the solution. But holiness and righteousness present a problem: how does one who is unholy become holy, or how does one who is unrighteous become righteous? The answer is so simple it is nearly ignored: we ask God for more hunger and thirst for Him! The apostle Paul said this so well, but the connection, as a far as I can tell, is rarely made. Listen to what Paul said: Romans 7:14 So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin. 15 I don't really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don't do it. Instead, I do what I hate. 16 But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. 17 So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. 18 And

Psalm 37:34 Wait on the LORD and keep His way... Strength rises as we wait on the Lord. Encounter happens if we wait on the Lord. Circumstance changes if we wait on the Lord. Joy increases as we wait on the Lord. Throughout the Bible we hear of wars won, dead raised, sick healed, oceans split...all from waiting on the Lord. This is part of our relationship with God. He desires us to wait on Him. God invented relationships. He didn't learn anything about them from us, we learned everything about them from Him. God doesn't ask us to do anything in our relationship with Him that He didn't do first. The enemy often times whispers in our ear that God requires a lot from us, and that He doesn't notice what we do. This is a lie, God desires for us to be with Him, to choose a relationship with Him. He is equally invested in doing whatever He calls us to do. He waits on us. Whenever I am willing to quiet my heart and direct my attention to God, I find He has been waiting on me.