|City on a Hill - Writings for Refuge

No one is born a good person or innocent. If we were, we wouldn't need a savior, but we do. Clearly, just by witnessing the state of the world in 2019, we need a savior. We could disagree on who or what will save the world, but on the current path, the world is in trouble. I believe Jesus is the savior, not because I think He is going to change everyone else, but because He is literally changing me. The person I am in 2019 is very different than the person I was in 2009, and even more so, the person I was in 1999. I can say with clarity that Jesus has humbled me, taken me out of my self centeredness, focused me on learning to love others by drawing near to the source of love. He has taught me patience and self control. I still have a race to run, but I am on my way. I wasn't born this way. You don't have to hang out with very many two-year-olds to see mankind doesn't come out selfless and humble. We come out demanding our own way, mostly self focused... Our own little g

Malachi 3:16 Then those who feared the LORD spoke to one another, And the LORD listened and heard them; So a book of remembrance was written before Him For those who fear the LORD And who meditate on His name. 17“They shall be Mine,” says the LORD of hosts, “On the day that I make them My jewels. And I will spare them As a man spares his own son who serves him.” 18 Then you shall again discern Between the righteous and the wicked, Between one who serves God And one who does not serve Him. God is listening to what we complain about, what we pray about, what we spend our time actually thinking about and expressing. Based on these conversations He is determining whether or not judgment will help you. For this reason, open verbal repentance will spare you otherwise much worse judgment. This is in the Old and New Testament. It really is. 2 Peter 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt

You can either live your life believing or doubting... hoping or despairing. The circumstances of life are still going to come your way. If I see my life through the lens of faith, then I see the circumstances I face are training me... Sent by God ... To teach me to simply have hope in Him no matter what the day looks like. I can spend my days in dread of the future, despair over my present, and regret over my past,  OR I can choose to believe that God is turning it all around and working it for my good. To die without hope would be the worst possible outcome, because it would mean that I spent days that could have been hopeful in gloom and doubt. Not only may my future be the awful wreck I'm tempted to imagine, but all the days leading to it would be filled with that looming darkness! That is darkness compounded!! Hope lifts my heart TODAY outside of the circumstances today. It lives beyond present circumstance. It doesn't wait to see how things work out. It simply embraces th

Luke 9:23Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. 24“For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. 25“For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? 26“For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels. 27“But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the kingdom of God.” Following Jesus is hard on the flesh. That means what I am naturally inclined to think success looks like is really the opposite of true success. But this is the catch: Eventually, if I stay in obedience to Jesus' value system, the actual success I will enjoy will surpass what I could have enjoyed by "shortcutting" Jesus' true message. Right now, mostly becau

Much of the frustration in life comes from trying to establish ourselves in ways that are contrary to why God made man. In the Garden of Eden, God put mankind in His perfect place to establish them as rulers and tenders over creation forever.  Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 And God said, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall

The value system of Jesus' kingdom is not the same as the world's value system. The Church gets in to trouble when we try to understand Christian realities, authority, and power in terms of worldly values. In the world, the most powerful are the most honored and their positions seem desireable. In the value system of heaven, the most powerful are the least honored by the world, even to a cross, and their position seems foolish to everyone except the other "fools." The modern Church is mostly worldly. No one disputes this. She is called to "come out of Babylon." So, when I see the Church centering around power, gifting, or fame, I have to realize that this is likely a distraction to the values Jesus has for leadership. This is what Paul talks about in 1 Cor 1-4. I don't want to impose the world's values of false power and strength on the Church. I want to see rightly. Celebrity church is denounced in 1 Cor 1: 1 Cor 1:12 Some of you are saying, “I am a