Light in the Darkness

Open Door

Cross Before The Crown

"Meanwhile the cross comes before the crown and tomorrow is a Monday morning. A cleft has opened in the pitiless walls of the world, and we are invited to follow our great Captain inside. The following Him is, of course, the essential point. That being so, it may be asked what practical use there is in the speculations which I have been indulging. I can think of at least one such use.

It may be possible for each to think too much of his own potential glory hereafter; it is hardly possible for him to think too often or too deeply about that of his neighbour. The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbor's glory should be laid on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken.

It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly temped to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you meet, if at all, only in a nightmare.

All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics.

There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations---these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit---immortal horrors or everlasting splendours.

This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously--no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner--no mere tolerance, or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment. Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbour is the holiest object presented to your senses. If he is your Christian neighbour, he is holy in almost the same way, for in him also Christ /vere latitat/---the glorifier and the glorified, Glory Himself, is truly hidden."   C. S. Lewis--The Weight of Glory

Coming Down The Mountain

I love worship!  I am a horrible singer, I don't play an instrument but I love worship!  I haven't always been that way.  In fact for a long time I couldn't figure out what all the hub-bub was about.  I had been raised in a climate of great worship and loved dancing to the music as a kid.  But as a teen you would find me sitting in the back of the service, mouth closed and arms crossed.  Then one day about twelve years ago I was in a worship service in Lausanne, Switzerland. {This was during a year of re-dedication for me. I did a 6 month discipleship school and a 3 month biblical studies course} It was during my first couple weeks there my attitude for worship changed.  During this one particular meeting they had moved all the chairs to the back of the room so that people could dance and really let loose; you know like King David.  However I found a chair in the back and sat in it...so not ready to "let loose", you know like Michal{2 Sam 6:14-16}.

As I sat there I began to ask God why I was not able to worship like everyone else.  Everyone else was just going for it without a care about how they looked or sounded.  Total abandon.  Yet I so wanted to experience what they were experiencing.  Then God spoke very clear and very simple to me.  "I can only fill you to the capacity that you give Me.  I want all of you.  Are you ready to give all of you to get all of Me?"  I thought about that for a minute.  Thought about all the craziness I had been through in my teenage and young adult years.  I knew God was right{as usual}.  I knew I was holding back because of fear and that fear was the enemy keeping me from experiencing God they way I needed to.

So I stood up and began to worship.  First very quiet, hands at my side.  Then I closed my eyes and forgot about everyone around me.  The singing got louder, my arms stretched higher and tears began to flow.  I can't remember the song.  All I remember is that I got louder and louder and began to call out to God in total abandon and total desperation for Him to take ALL of me.  I remember my whole body feeling hot with the fire of God.  And then I dropped to the floor face down.  I couldn't move.  The Spirit of God was so heavy I couldn't even lift my head.  Oh and I was no longer speaking words that I could understand; my worship had turned to tongues.  That had never happened before!  I remember two of the leaders Darlene and Geeta coming over and beginning to pray for me.  Can't remember the actual prayers but I remember hearing "more" and "new" over and over again.

Love Is A Beautiful Thing

{This is part of a letter written in 1967, by my then 24 yr old dad, from the mission fields of the Pacific, home to his parents in the States.}

What Is Truth?

For more information on the documentary "Furious Love" click here.  This movie is a MUST SEE for every Christian!  I've only had my copy for 48 hours and I have watched twice.  So much good, solid, Christ-centered truth in this film.  It will change the way you view the world and hopefully the way you see yourself.

Pharisees, Sadducees and Essenes Oh My! {Part Two}

Click here to read Part One...

"So he answered and said, "'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,' and 'your neighbor as yourself.' "  Luke 10:27


"If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar." 1John 4:20

So in the last post I gave a little mini history of the three religious groups that were around during the time of Jesus.  Now what I want to do is identify the negative spirits that some of them moved in so that we can avoid them in our own lives. First I want to start with the simple concept of loving God and loving neighbor.  Jesus said that there was no other commandment greater than these.  I see no where in Jesus' teaching that these commandments were separated.  They always went together.  In fact the above verse quit plainly tells us that if we do one without the other we are liars.  Lack of the second commandment negates the first...period.  But the religious groups during the time of Jesus had separated them.  Let me explain.

If you only love you neighbor{mankind} and don't love God you are a humanist.  This is what the Sadducees had done.  They had taken God out of the whole picture.  They didn't believe that God was involved in their lives at all, man could do what he pleased, man was his own god.  God had become an abstract, non personal God. They did not believe in the super-natural {angels & demons} at all.  They didn't believe in the afterlife or resurrection.  The Sadducees had swayed more to the philosophical side of things, being the most Hellenized{Greek thinking} of the three groups.  Remember they were the rich and elite and with that sought of began to worship themselves.  When you don't believe that there is a higher power other than yourself, you become your highest power. Their main concern was the material things of this world and how it affected their personal kingdom.  Materialistic Humanism.

Pharisees, Sadducees and Essenes Oh My! {Part 1}

So I had a question the other day as to how I could possibly think that Jesus was tolerant during his time here on earth.  The statement was that Jesus used strong language and did things like knock over the tables of the money changers in the temple.  My response was that if you read through all four gospels you will notice that the only people Jesus ever had strong words for were the religious establishment of the day.  Interestingly enough he had strong reaction to them because they were NOT being tolerant of people. 

So who were the religious establishment of the time of Jesus?  We learn quite a bit about the Pharisees and Sadducees from reading the gospels.  There were also sub-groups such as the scribes, the elders and the zealots.  Finally a group called the Essenes, though not mentioned in the NT the historian Josephus tells that they were around during the time of Jesus.  What I want to look at is the attitude or the spirit in which these groups operated.  It wasn't just what they did legalistically or religiously it was the spirit in which they did it.  So I don't want this post to be against certain groups of people, but against the negative spirit that Jesus seemed to frequently encounter with these groups. These same negative spirits and attitudes are easily found in the Christian church today.  So we need to identify them so that we don't fall into the same mistakes.

Our Job To LOVE

The Voice of God

A dear friend sent me an email yesterday with a video by this man, Graham Cooke.  I had never even heard of him...lol.  I started watching some other videos by him and came across this one.  It was hard for me to hold back the tears while watching.  This video is such a confirmation about what I feel the Lord is speaking right now.  This video is such a confirmation as to what I know personally of the character of God and how He speaks to me.  This is THE MESSAGE the church needs to hear!  This is a message I needed to hear and just at the right time!  Enjoy...

The Real Jesus

One more fantastic post from Dr. Gregory Boyd...

Religion vs Relationship

I don't usually promote specific teachers but this is really good.  I put clip #3 of 5 just to give a little teaser.  The rest of the sermon is on YouTube---Evil of Religion by Greg Boyd.