|City on a Hill - Writings for Refuge

Spiritual boredom is self-fulfilling prophecy. Those who think God is boring, will find Him boring and then begin moving to not be bored...over time, He just becomes more boring as they become more distant.  The main reason the church lacks holiness and power is because we see God as so small, and following Him not as fascinating as what the world offers. We slap His name on our quest for earthly relevance, riches, and power, and then wonder why no one seeks the Lord with zeal. We would rather win Him the world, not realizing we are forfeiting our souls. When we gather bored, when we bring it inside the Body, church becomes just another social gathering with plenty of open space for Satan to roam. We are good at pretending to not be bored, but few of us are just hoping for a few moments to just gaze in the beauty of God together and then let that beauty of humility, self control, generosity... The beauty of holiness... actually lead us to holiness. Psalm 96:5 For all the gods of the pe

Increasing vision is the primary indicator of increasing holiness. Matthew 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God. Having vision of what God is doing isn't Biblically reserved for conference preachers. Having vision is an expectation of everyone following Jesus. How can you follow who you can't see? In Jesus' scathing critique of the Pharisees who rejected him, the one attribute used over and over is "blind." Matthew 23:24 “Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel! Right now, deep darkness is increasing over the world. You need eyes like fire. You need light. You should know what Jesus is doing. You should be getting a more and more clear picture of the hastening moment of His return. What does Jesus want to do in 2020 for you, for your family, for your church, for your city, your country, and the world? These are questions every believer should be able to answer without hesitation. You don't want to solely run on the conferen

John 5:24 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. This is the hope for the world. But, it's important to know that the Biblical concept of belief goes beyond the shallow Americanized definition of believing something.  Jesus defines this in the same teaching: J ohn 5:44 “How can you believe, who receive honor from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God? 45 “Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father; there is one who accuses you—Moses, in whom you trust. 46 “For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me. 47 “But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?” The belief salvation requires is a belief that changes our values and ev entually our behaviors. Believing Jesus exists, or even that He is the Messiah promised to world, is different than believing every word H

I heard the Lord say this am that everything is wound so tight right now. We need to be careful to let Jesus unwind us. Even as we meet together with friends and family, this season can bring an extra measure of anxiety. I saw hearts breaking and people giving up because it seems hopeless. The hopelessness and tension and anxiety doesn't have to be our portion. Jesus came to bring some very specific things to Earth: peace and Goodwill! Luke 2:12 “And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: 14 “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” 15 So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, “Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 And they came with haste and found Mary and Josep

To be saved, we have to turn from our wicked ways. There is no salvation without this turning. 2 Corinthians 3:16 Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. When we turn to the Lord and admit our own righteousness is not enough, then He takes away the veil from our eyes. We see, not only is our righteousness not enough, but that His is more than enough to make us righteous. This, when met with a humble and repentant heart, creates a mourning in our soul to be like the One who is life. When we mourn this lack.... This difference between Jesus and ourselves, He comforts us by making us more like Him. The more we become like Him, the more we see how unlike Him we are... This, over time, causes us to cease

Every single person will eventually be resurrected. Some even early. Daniel 12:2 Many of those whose bodies lie dead and buried will rise up, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting disgrace. Revelation 20:11 And I saw a great white throne and the one sitting on it. The earth and sky fled from his presence, but they found no place to hide. 12 I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before God’s throne. And the books were opened, including the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books. 13 The sea gave up its dead, and death and the grave gave up their dead. And all were judged according to their deeds. 14 Then death and the grave were thrown into the lake of fire. This lake of fire is the second death. 15 And anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire. What matters is what God is saying right now... To you... To do.  Some will be resurrected now. All eventu

The faith the Bible calls us to isn't a faith in outcomes. In fact, it flies in the face of outcomes!  The faith the Bible calls us to is a faith in the character of God and believing what He says, not what we want Him to do. This is clear in the Bible. God ALWAYS does what He says, often in ways we weren't expecting. God is not obligated to do what we think is good. Making faith about God doing what we think is good is actually to make ourselves gods and God a genie. Don't be led by Satan into condemnation for not willing things to happen. Satan 'wills' against God. Many feel unfaithful because they haven't 'willed the good thing to happen.'. This is a false condemnation. You are unfaithful if you don't believe in the goodness, kindness.... The Biblical character... of God and come to Him to abide and find out what He wants and the try to do THAT specific thing He shows you in real time. That is unfaithful.  Many times God wants to wait to do what e

One clear scheme of the enemy is dehumanization. This is a theme I see throughout the pro-Trump Evangelical response to impeachment: that it's the liberals, or the Democrats that are evil and doing the devil's work.  This assertion itself IS the true devil's work!! This is the Biblically stated scheme of the enemy, according to Matthew 24:9-14: Matthew 24:9 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. 10  “And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. 11 “Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. 12 “And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. 13 “But he who endures to the end shall be saved. Satan is trying, very successfully, to get the church to war against itself and the people around it. It isn't "liberals" or "Democrats" that are working to impeach the president. It is people...that God made... Ma

Matthew 17:20 So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. A mustard seed is the most incredible analogy that Jesus could use to describe a level of faith. All of the DNA of the mustard tree is contained in the seed. The blueprints of the tree, everything that makes the tree a tree is ALREADY in the tiniest little seed. The faith a mustard seed has is that it IS a mustard tree. It doesn't believe it is anything other than what it is. Even though they are alive, seeds don't really do anything to be anything else...that's the point! They simply are what they will be...wherever God places them...whatever God gives...whenever God gives...they receive, as they receive, they become. A mustard seed simply stays in its destiny to be a mustard tree....it might not know how, or when, but its destiny

I would be very cautious of any spiritual leader who doesn't consistently testify of the need for repentance ... Specifically, their own personal repentance. Christianity is led by shepherds. Shepherds go first. A person's words reveal their heart. If you are actively going in to holiness, and your heart is actually changing, your words should consistently reflect that. Repentance is the core message of the Gospel, because knowing God is the core message of the Gospel. If I see Him I naturally see how I am not like Him. If I love Him, then I'm not ok being unholy in His presence. There is no good news that is separate from the message that mankind can, and must, change to get ready to meet God face to face. If you can scroll back in a spiritual leader's messages, Twitter feed, fb page, or other social media and not quickly find their own testimony of repentance, follow someone else. They are either currently wandering themselves, or worse, leading you to someone other t

Revelation 18:4 And I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. Jesus wouldn't tell his people to come out of her if his people weren't in her... Mammon = treasure riches (where it is personified and opposed to God) Strong's Definitions: μαμμωνᾶς mammōnâs, mam-mo-nas'; of Chaldee origin (confidence, i.e. wealth, personified); mammonas, i.e. avarice (deified):—mammon. This is the power and strength of Babylon (Chaldee means Babylon) Matthew 6:24“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. "Riches personified". If you serve that, you cannot serve God. The church isn't supposed to co-opt wealth and power. She is actually supposed to be like Jesus who didn't compromise to win a kingdom. The church that compromises Holiness for wealth an

I honestly believe this is a sign of the sixth seal opening... that's how I picture stars falling from the heaven: a large increase in demonic activity on Earth. I could be wrong, but either way, demonic activity on the earth, and even in usually quiet SW Michigan is increasing rapidly.  There have literally been two home invasion hostage situations in the last two weeks. This is unusual for an area like ours. Murder, shootings, and theft are also increasing. The Bible asks the question: 'who can stand?', or 'who can endure?', and answers that question with night and day prayers of repentance (Joel 2, Acts 2, Revelation 7): Revelation 7:14 And I said to him, “Sir, you know.” So he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15 “Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple. And He who sits on the throne will dwell among them. 16 “T

Every time God's people lean on politics to do the lifting of the kingdom, very bad things happen (Some prime examples are: Antiochus Epiphanes coming to power and occupying the Temple Mount, the Crusades, and the Spanish inquisition).  Jesus didn't go to the cross to then put his hope in the right politicians getting elected. If it was simply a matter of getting the right people in the right places, the perfect Son of God wouldn't have had to suffer and die. Jesus isn't infiltrating human governments. He's crushing them. Daniel 2:43-45 As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay. (44) And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. (45) Inasmuch as you saw that the s

One of the enemy's main strategies to get us to despair, and eventually give up pursuing God, is to get us to imagine a future where God's power and love is missing. We call these thoughts 'anxiety.' Anxiety is produced by imagining a future where Jesus' love and power is missing from the picture. This is one of the main reasons God calls us to pray. He already knows what we need. He is in our future before we are. When we pray, we place God in the vision of our future. When we pray we acknowledge He is the one in control of the future. This fills us with vision to see His hand as He keeps us in the future. God wants us to hope in Him... To believe He rewards those who seek Him in their lives. Before you ever started placing Him in your future, He was already there... Providing air, food, water, warmth, and the revelation of Himself (among many other things) so you could want more of His leadership and goodness. The enemy is a liar. God called you way before you sta

If you have an opportunity to spread the Good News, any platform, from being a world famous worship leader or teacher to even one or two of your own children who follow you, and you want to be faithful to the truth, there is one message that encapsulates the Gospel: Repentance If repentance isn't the core of your message, then Jesus' leadership isn't the core of your message. If Jesus' leadership isn't the core of your message, then your message isn't the Gospel. Any 'Gospel' that has been separated from repentance won't save anyone. Jesus is coming to rule. Humanity's freedom, that many love to talk about, is only found in repentance, because Jesus' rule produces it! 'Repent, for the kingdom is at hand.' Jesus is coming to rule. That requires mankind learning to be ruled by someone other than himself. We repent into Jesus' leadership at the expense of our own. Luke 24:46 Then He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was

I usually say "I'm making a spiritual statement, not a political one." At this point I am making both: This is bad politics for Christians. The entire argument is beginning to turn to the 'lunacy of Christians unwilling to objectively consider facts.'. There is a lot of truth to the accusation...on both sides. No one is objectively considering the facts! Christians are supposed to come out of this and love the truth: 2 Thessalonians 2:9 The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, 10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, 12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. The response of 'Christians' thus far is that the other side does the same and that j

The passage from Proverbs 30:5-9 that I quote below is the heart attitude that has victory over the Mark of the Beast. From Genesis to Revelation, God requires his children let him be their daily provider.  Learn this now, while there is time. Great financial shaking is at the door. Strong delusion will lead many currently in the church to compromise because of fear of lack for themselves and their families. Learn gratitude and generosity now by simply telling God you are sorry for not trusting him to provide every day and thankful for what he does provide. This will begin to free your heart! The enemy can't kill what is already dead. If you have already dealt with the money issue in the ways you can today (you can tell by your growing generosity, lack of anxiety over money, and freedom to obey God in the area of money), there is very little foothold for the enemy to get in your heart in the area of money. The mark of the beast is a scheme to financially control the worship of the

John the Baptist 's ministry was one of seeing.  John 1:6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. 8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. John's ministry work was baptism and repentance that flowed from a call to lead people to see. John wasn't preparing people to be found acceptable by God, only Jesus would be able to do that. John's job was preparing people to see and recognize Jesus while everyone around them was rejecting Him. That is why he called people to repent: John 1:25 And they asked him, saying, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” 26 John answered them, saying, “I baptize with water, but there stands One among you whom you do not know. 27 “It is He who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose.” The main part of preparation to see is

Delusion = when anything but the truth become the facts you make your decisions on Simply asserting true things "aren't true" doesn't work. Even if you do it with a condescending scowl, simply ignoring the truth and believing those listening to you are following you because you try to come across as confident is a losing proposition if you are avoiding the truth. Truth will always eventually come out. Jesus is uncovering...bringing to light...the truth. You can tell when people are agreeing with the truth by their willingness to uncover things and stop covering them up. People who love the light come to the light, that their deeds can be clearly seen. People afraid of being exposed avoid the light. One of the main ways they do that is to ridicule the process of bringing things to light.  Truth is unafraid of questions. It will always stand true. False arguments are very fragile. John 3:19-21 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men

There will never be enough signs to make a doubting believer actually believe the truth. I'm not talking about the world. I'm talking about God's people (which includes the grafted-in church). So was Jesus.  Matthew 12:38-45 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, "Teacher, we want to see a sign from You." (39) But He answered and said to them, "An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. (40) For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. (41) The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here. (42) The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear

Jeremiah 20:7  O LORD, You induced me, and I was persuaded; You are stronger than I, and have prevailed. I am in derision daily; Everyone mocks me. 8 For when I spoke, I cried out; I shouted, “Violence and plunder!” Because the word of the LORD was made to me A reproach and a derision daily. 9 Then I said, “I will not make mention of Him, Nor speak anymore in His name.” But His word was in my heart like a burning fire Shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, And I could not. 10 For I heard many mocking: “Fear on every side!” “Report,” they say, “and we will report it!” All my acquaintances watched for my stumbling, saying, “Perhaps he can be induced; Then we will prevail against him, And we will take our revenge on him.” 11 But the LORD is with me as a mighty, awesome One. Therefore my persecutors will stumble, and will not prevail. They will be greatly ashamed, for they will not prosper. Their everlasting confusion will never be forgotten. Confusion is the accusation from

Everyone who tells the truth gets a cross. Eventually, everyone who gets a cross gets a crown. Jeremiah 20:7 O LORD, You induced me, and I was persuaded; You are stronger than I, and have prevailed. I am in derision daily; Everyone mocks me. 8 For when I spoke, I cried out; I shouted, “Violence and plunder!” Because the word of the LORD was made to me A reproach and a derision daily. 9 Then I said, “I will not make mention of Him, Nor speak anymore in His name.” But His word was in my heart like a burning fire Shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, And I could not. 10 For I heard many mocking: “Fear on every side!” “Report,” they say, “and we will report it!” All my acquaintances watched for my stumbling, saying, “Perhaps he can be induced; Then we will prevail against him, And we will take our revenge on him.” 11 But the LORD is with me as a mighty, awesome One. Therefore my persecutors will stumble, and will not prevail. They will be greatly ashamed, for they will not p