|City on a Hill - Writings for Refuge

God is a consuming fire. His throne is a flame of fire, and a river of fire comes out of it. Daniel 7:9-10 “I watched till thrones were put in place, And the Ancient of Days was seated; His garment was white as snow, And the hair of His head was like pure wool. His throne was a fiery flame, Its wheels a burning fire; A fiery stream issued And came forth from before Him. A thousand thousands ministered to Him; Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him. The court was seated, And the books were opened. This is the light source of all creation. Jesus is a burning man. The light of His glory is what makes life happen: John 1:3-5 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. I don't have to settle for the dim light of the sun which barely keeps the mechanics of living functioning. I can choose to present myself to the...

A Tale of Two Cities When most people think of the Book of Revelation, they generally think of the intense judgments outlined in Chapters 6 through 16. We hear of God’s wrath, we look at the condition of the world we live in, the truth of God’s word, and we most-naturally jump to the conclusion that someday God will have had enough of sin and will then wave His hand and begin pouring out wrath on sinners. This is a very mistaken view. Because God gave dominion of the earth to mankind, we have to PARTICIPATE in His process in order for His plan for the earth to happen. The seals, the trumpets, and the bowls of Revelation are a very precise and brilliant plan developed by the Father designed to get everyone to participate, one way or the other. Life is not possible apart from God, and God is unwilling that ANY should perish: 2 Peter 3:9-12 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all...

God's people wrestle and respond. The big things God calls us to require a response. Jesus will never wave His hand and fix everything. He has chosen "process" as an integral part of creation. Process is a part of everything. The mountains erode, the vapor collects off the water, forms a cloud, and rain falls. The ground cleans the water the earth pollutes. The Bible is the story of the brilliant process the Father has selected to fix the garden He made and renew anyone who wants to live there with Him. That process is culminating in a perfect storm of trouble designed to declare, then yell, then scream "now is the time" to decide if you want life forever. The storm isn't an overflow of hate, it is an overflow of love. God's process REQUIRES human participation. It has ALWAYS required human participation. Moses had to say yes and go do the hard thing. Joshua had to say yes and go do the hard thing. David, Daniel, every person called faithful in the Bible...

Those trusted with great callings and promises MUST believe and act in obedience BEFORE they see. Otherwise, that great thing is stripped away and given to another. This is because the weight of the calling and the glory of the promise requires true humility, knowing your place as servant, not as king. Without true humility established BEFORE the promise is realized, the very promise would crush you. God is unwilling to give the weight of these promises to unprepared vessels: John 20:29 Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” Luke 19:20-26 “Then another came, saying, ‘Master, here is your mina, which I have kept put away in a handkerchief. For I feared you, because you are an austere man. You collect what you did not deposit, and reap what you did not sow.’ And he said to him, ‘Out of your own mouth I will judge you, you wicked servant. You knew that I was an austere man, collecting what I did ...

The greatest revival in the Bible is the end time revival. Great awakening has always come in times of great trouble...starting with the first Christian trouble, which was the loss of the bridegroom and the persecution of the first Christians. Revival broke out in Acts 2 with the background of persecution of those first followers emerging at the same time. This has always been the pattern of big "R" revival...trouble on the horizon stirs a remnant to press in, this stirring up of the soul to lay hold of God ALWAYS works. In a time of ease, few do it...so it actually, according to the Bible, requires trouble to make it happen: Isaiah 64:5-7 You meet him who rejoices and does righteousness, Who remembers You in Your ways. You are indeed angry, for we have sinned— In these ways we continue; And we need to be saved. But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away. ...

Philippians 1:12 NKJV But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel Paul was quite a sight to his other preaching friends. He was constantly compelled to explain that the manner of life God had subjected him to was not evidence of failure, but rather evidence of success! Paul did a lot of this sort of explaining. That is because many thought he was "missing it." Many could not understand why Paul chose what he chose. It just happened that he was making choices that benefited not only the church in 100 ad, but also choices that still benefit the church in 2014. God sees much more of the picture than I do. According to every story in the Bible of everyone who ever did anything worth doing, sometimes God calls His true servants to make choices that seem to benefit no one right that moment. At different times, God has called me to choices that seem to benefit no one including me or those I love mo...

"Basis" is the term the tax law uses to refer to the amount of investment a taxpayer has in business assets. When I first started my business, the concept of basis was completely elusive to me. I started my business by quitting my job one day, and starting to build a brand new clientele from scratch the next day. I had nothing except a computer and a phone...both of which I already owned. But for the purpose of actually owning the company and any potential gains that might come from it, I had to have financially measurable "basis". So, I bought some stuff with my own money to invest in my business, and I used my own personal money to establish a bank account. This gave me "basis" in my own company...which came from nothing. The more basis I have in my company, the more I will be able to gain when I eventually sell the asset, or so the accountant has told me...every business owner has to take a risk in investment BEFORE they are sure it is a good one! There...

God has given great dignity to mankind. Because God gave dominion of the earth to mankind, our choices to obey or disobey the leadership of God directly impact the condition of the earth. Adam and Eve's first choice to rebel against God's leadership had terrible and massive implications for God, for their relationship with Him and proximity to Him, and for the earth itself, since they were the appointed stewards of the earth. Genesis 3:17-19 And to the man he said, “Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of you. All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it. It will grow thorns and thistles for you, though you will eat of its grains. By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made. For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return.” The entire creation cannot exist outside of the light of God's glory. God's ...

Mark 3:20-22 Then Jesus went home. Again such a large crowd gathered that Jesus and his disciples had no time to eat. When his family heard about it, they set out to take charge of him, because people were saying, “He's gone mad!” Some teachers of the Law who had come from Jerusalem were saying, “He has Beelzebul in him! It is the chief of the demons who gives him the power to drive them out.” Jesus wasn't crazy, and He wasn't driven by demons. He was simply obeying God. John 5:19 Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner. Jesus laid down the perfection of existence...divine privilege...at the feet of the Father in heaven because He is committed to the Father getting what He called "very good" in Genesis 1:31...God face to face with mankind on earth. God has a brilliant process selected for this to happen which requir...

Truth vs. Fiction Many times, what God is doing, and what God has planned makes no sense to grown adults. This is usually because we have already matured in our own minds. We think we know basic truths that seem like common sense to us. The truth is, though, that we see much less than God does. He is the Father and we are truly His children. The Bible says that God corrects His children. It is a sign of being His child when He changes the way you see the world. There are lots of ways God corrects us, but one way is opening up the truth of the Word to us: II Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, Kids see much less than the parent does. When my son Luke was smaller, he thought ice cream would make a great meal three times a day. He knew he liked ice cream, he knew he felt good when he ate it, and he knew he didn't like green beans. For Luke, it was perfectly rational th...

The Valley of Decision Right now God is “hemming” the earth into the “valley of decision.” This is the final end-time decision for who mankind will trust. God has given great “dignity” to mankind. Our decisions really matter. God is in the middle of a grand rescue operation to restore life. When Adam and Eve ate from the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they died. They didn’t immediately fall over dead, but life, as God defines it, stopped. Mankind was meant to live in the glory of God. God is the light of mankind. Just like a tree needs the light of the sun to live, mankind can only live in the glory of God…the light of His presence. The fire of God. God is a consuming fire. His glory…the light of His presence…is consuming and life giving. This is how God depicted himself to Moses: the burning bush, consuming and giving life. Living lukewarm for God is OFFENSIVE to Him. He is consumed with desire for His creation….to be in the middle of everything He made to be very go...