|City on a Hill - Writings for Refuge

Reading Lamentations this am. The Lord said this was on his heart. Jesus said there is a time of trouble coming worse than this: Lamentations 2:19 “Arise, cry out in the night, At the beginning of the watches; Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord. Lift your hands toward Him For the life of your young children, Who faint from hunger at the head of every street.” 20“See, O LORD, and consider! To whom have You done this? Should the women eat their offspring, The children they have cuddled? Should the priest and prophet be slain In the sanctuary of the Lord? 21“Young and old lie On the ground in the streets; My virgins and my young men Have fallen by the sword; You have slain them in the day of Your anger, You have slaughtered and not pitied. 22“You have invited as to a feast day The terrors that surround me. In the day of the LORD’s anger There was no refugee or survivor. Those whom I have borne and brought up My enemies have destroyed.” Jeremiah then goes on to say

If I just listen for things I already agree with, I will never learn and mature. To increase in wisdom I have to be willing to hear things I didn't already know and change what I believe as more information becomes available. Just gathering with people isn't the same as growing with them. The Bible calls believers to become a body together. The way the body grows, according to the Bible, is by unity from the inside out.  Luke 17:20Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; 21“nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.” This means I need to commit to the local to eventually get the global. If I can't commit to the small, I will never find unity in the large. The local church is where unity will be born, according to the Bible.  This is because the kingdom emerges from the inside out. This is why the apostles started

The narrow road of the Gospel is that I need to be perfect, but I can't be perfect + Jesus paid for my perfection, but he won't force it on me...he will do none of it without my agreement. This leaves me in a very vulnerable reality....I need something I don't have and must ask the one who has it...who paid for me to have it all in every part of my thinking, emotions, and will. He will perfect me if I give Him access to every part of my heart. This takes time and testing. It takes time to see how and where I haven't let God in. This is love... or two people becoming one over time. Faith = believing he gives perfection to me over time if I simply ask for it like I actually need it. Like it's required. It is: Matthew 5:48 “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect. Faith doesn't get hung up on the impossibility of what is required...it believes He does the impossible if I give Him what is required for Him to work: my full agreement.

Isaiah 56:7 NKJV — Even them I will bring to My holy mountain, And make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices Will be accepted on My altar; For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.” The 'house of prayer' or the place of night and day prayer to music, isn't about the music, it's about the prayer. The point of a 'house of prayer for all nations' is that all nations would get saved, not entertained. If the place of prayer isn't mostly a place of repentance, then it misses the mark...it's not the one the Bible upholds. When Jesus is coming, there is a very specific command: Matthew 3:7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8“Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, 9“and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to ra

The reason we miss seeing prophetic fulfillment is because we assume we can see it without God's help...with fact rather than faith. This is the root of the fallacy: We can't see anything without God's help...not even this screen. Sight is a miracle from beginning to end. If we would simply ask God to show us His Son returning we would see so much more. Most don't, but you will never know without that simple request being made often. Matthew 13:13 Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. Right now many are careening into delusion because they simply can't see the obvious. Jesus is returning MUCH sooner than most imagine. Pre-trib or post-trib doesn't matter if you are unable to discern the trib part....as in the days of Noah. 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be sa

The reason we miss seeing prophetic fulfillment is because we assume we can see it without God's help...with fact rather than faith. This is the root of the fallacy: We can't see anything without God's help...not even this screen. Sight is a miracle from beginning to end. If we would simply ask God to show us His Son returning we would see so much more. Most don't, but you will never know without that simple request being made often. Matthew 13:13 Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. Right now many are careening into delusion because they simply can't see the obvious. Jesus is returning MUCH sooner than most imagine. Pre-trib or post-trib doesn't matter if you are unable to discern the trib part....as in the days of Noah. 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be sa

If I look for ways to get a break from the pursuit of God, checking with Him to make sure it's ok , I'm going the wrong way. I will eventually draw back if my life is pointed in this direction. He will always say 'yes' to that question, btw, because it's what a person asking that question truly wants. God won't 'make' anyone pursue Him because that would violate love. This question..."is it ok with you God if I do this thing that isn't pursuing you?" ... is like asking God "how far can I go away from you and still be all yours?" This is a self-focused question, and not one good for a marriage. If I go the other way, I am pointed to a satisfied eternity. Asking God how close I can come to Him, how much more I can give Him and how much more of myself I can die to is the way to satisfaction. This is the direction to life, because God is the source of life. I get less burned out going harder after God!! The flesh wars against this wis

The point of following Jesus is sanctification... being set apart from all those that don't want His leadership by learning to follow His leadership more and more closely. This is what it means to be saved: to follow Jesus out of a world culture that erroneously thinks it can live apart from the leadership of the one who is life. As part of this sanctification, or setting apart, we learn the heart of the One who made man. Sanctification teaches me God's heart. God has a heart for man. Not just for the people that have said 'yes' to His leadership, but for all people. In fact, God so loved the world that He made a way for the world to come out of its own culture and be reconnected back to God. That process requires sanctification...being set apart. The set apart, or sanctification is primary. Others following it...others being saved...is secondary. Primary is loving God. Secondary is loving people. There is a Spiritual reason for this: God knows how to