I have been very focused on prospect of the Glory of God descending and resting on a people. This caused me to ponder the record of Solomon’s Temple when the Glory fell. It was obviously very awesome. The direct result was mass floor time (generally a good idea:) on the part of the priests. A day to be remembered; a reference point for all Israel; a formative time in Solomon’s life (understated); a pattern and high water mark. But…there is one thing to keep in mind: this wasn’t really God’s idea. It was more a dream of David; God DID apparently like the dream and cooperated in order to do stuff with His kids.
Fortunately for us, God does have an Idea about His Glory falling. It waited 33 more books to show up. Its found in Acts 2.
Yep, that famous Pentecost thing. What fell? The Burning Love of God. It didn’t leave them plastered to the floor (though there was probably some of that happening) rather, it ACTIVATED them. It was not a solomn bash, but an ulplifting energizer. When the love of God arrives it never comes alone. It always IMMEDIATELY activates faith…..for true faith flows out of love. There was one sound issueing for from this Glory that fell: Party! Couldn’t hide it. The chain continues: Love….Faith….Miracles.
All of that to say: God showed up doing His idea.
In our church in Jacksonville we are positioning ourselves for God’s Idea. You can feel it in the air! It has begun.

I feel as though I were the drunk crawling back home who doesn’t even know how long he has been on a binge! Have I been away from this blog so long? Yes! Oh well, back at last.
Really I have some justification: our church is involved in major transition. New building, new name, new structure, new people new vision. It’s exciting. We find ourselves in the situation where folks say: show me where you are going and I’ll strongly consider going along. Sounds logical and sometimes it might even work. But…..sometimes it doesn’t. Like…”Tell me where you are going Abraham and I just might join you.” or “Okay I’ll go with you Moses, but remember you said three days!” or “But Gabriel…how do I know Elizabeth will have a son?” “Oh shut up Zechariah….shut for nine months actually!”
I guess if we are going in a way we have never gone before, its a little difficult to hand over blueprints of the destination. Enter the walk of faith. Just enought to keep us honest.
Okay, I promise not to be gone so long this time.

As threatened/promised, here are a few thoughts I actually shared last Sunday on this theme. I was recently coming home mid-morning from a small job I had finished. As I drove past a certain church I saw that the marquis announced that there would be service that very morning with an internationally known preacher. I had never heard this fellow live, and so I hustled on home, showered, and put on my dress jeans and jogging shoes. I felt that excitement characteristic of when you know God has rearranged your schedule. I envisioned him calling me out of the crowd and confirming every secret dream, even a few I haven’t had yet, in a mighty prophetic confirmation. Maybe even imparting some great anointing or direction; the paintbrush of imagination had wings on that drive back to the church.
I went in just as the song service began and found an inconspicuous place so that it would have to be God when His man called me out. So, there I was seated with two or three hundred others who were hoping for the exact same thing, I’m sure.
After the singing (the man has not yet appeared to my straining eyes), the ‘associate’ man of God took the mic and welcomed us, announced us, complimented us, testimonied us, taught us, and then begged us for a big offering in the name of being a prosperous people. A 25 minute ‘teaching’ served as the anesthesia to request that we dig deep…..for our own good of course.
After enduring this, and even giving slightly, we were informed that the big man would not come this morning, instead his wife was going to share. I stayed around another 20 minutes while she shared some excellent points stemming from some personal trials they had been through. As it was winding down, I slipped out the back and drove home pensively under the weight of the special anointing that did not fall on me.
This happened a few months ago. Just recently God brought that ‘teaching’ back to me. I realized that though it came through the door of the banquet robed in the guise of a prosperity rep it was in reality a poverty spirit. Pretty harsh? I don’t mean it to be so, but I do want the truth. The truth as I saw it, is that the whole teaching (not to single out these folks because I know they are dynamically used of God) was based on a perceived lack or fear of such for their ministry machine. I don’t use the word ‘machine’ in a negative sense, its just what gets them around the world to touch thousands of lives.
I admit that I have a dream: the church of Jesus on a ministry tour…..not trying to convince the people to give, rather showing them how to do so……giving away bread and fish to 5,000, feeding the congregation and not letting them pick up the tab. Is that too lofty?? Hope not.

I have been wandering about in the hallways of my mind for a couple of months now on the breadth of prosperity. The evil one has sent a loud brassy circus through town over the last years blaring out a prosperity message that is in reality a paltry counterfeit. As is always the case with the scam artist,
this was done because he probably picked up that the posture of heaven was adjusting to break forth with a dawn-fresh south wind of what true prosperity really is. For a brief time, the dirt campaign was partially successful. “Are you a prosperity preacher?” is a quick catagorizer for the narrow of heart, allowing the carefully conjured images to blind spiritual vision.
I sit here this morning, extremely grateful that my Father’s house is a prosperous one. I really AM thankful that this includes material goods (as opposed to ‘bads’). But I am down-right exhuberant that in its deeper essence, prosperity is the prolific thought life of heaven, with a freedom soaked life of emotions riding shotgun. Otherwise known as prosperity of soul. A prosperity message without this as its marrow, is as hollow as junk mail; its the spit laden rantings of a TV salesman for a mega car lot. Speaking of rantings, I think I will continue this for next time. Be blessed.

……with a little help from my friends…said the philosopher (Ringo). My life has been so busy of late that my blog is beginning to mock me. No time, no time. BUT! I will not be foiled. I have friends.
And…the body of Christ is to be a huge composite of friends who supply to each other that which each one needs (another philosopher in a letter to a group of friends in Ephesus). So here’s my contribution this morning: go to Wildoxgib.com and read John’s take on creativity. Cool.

Those words stopped me in my tracks this morning. So much good stuff going on here in Jacksonville and in my own little corner of it. God has been so kind. Tom and Joanne Rowe will be coming in today and ministering here in the church tomorrow. I look forward to spending the evening with them. The church here is rubbing its eyes, blinking and stumbling into the bright light of a new day. It is so exciting! I have an upcoming trip to Mexico City this coming weekend. I have two new grandchildren that just arrived within the last ten days. And then there is the left-handed blessings: the lawn awaits its weekly trim, the house must be made ready for guests, the garage is a mess, vehicles should be washed, did I mention that I haven’t been to the gym for a week?
Oh, and I haven’t done a blog.
BUT…..if I will just stop….and gaze at that love once again. Yeah, I know He died for all, but….He gave himself for ME! When he stepped into the circle of the condemned, my name was on his lips, his eye sought out mine, His spirit whispered into mine: You’re worth it.
I should include at this point, that it was for you also….but, I think I’ll just enjoy the “for me” part awhile longer, thanks.

As least I would like to think so. Kingdom issues have kept me from blogging. But…..several things that have been on the back burner for this little fun time, are drawing nigh unto litter. Alas, the top of the stove is all but hidden back burner to front, running over on surrounding shelves, therefore I must blog.
I believe as we progress on down, or up, God’s unfolding plan for the planet, we will begin to see ever increasing creativity.
After all, He is Creator. He is that prior to Redeemer, Savior, Deliverer, Provider, or Healer. Personal example: I play music. Years ago I would receive songs from the Lord. They were funky and different. Not to be mentioned in the same breath with Amazing Grace or Mighty Fortress mind you, nonetheless, fun and not without statement or purpose. There is even a relic cassette tape somewhere as exhibit A. Then I wandered into a time in which my religion was too serious for such wiftiness.
Well, now I have wondered back out of that maze, and once again find richness in creating, quirky or no. So…..in the future look for my new upcoming cd. I am sure it will be out within ten years. Me and Mac (as in …”Hi I’m a Mac”) plug away as we can out in the Garage with the Band. I plan on doing things like blogging, picking and grinning. It keeps me safe from Lester.
He is very evil, and lurks on the edges of your life. Take a good look at him from the eyes of Shel Silverstein:
Lester’s Magick Wishes
Lester was given a magick wish
By the goblin who lives in the banyan tree
And with his wish he wished for two more wishes
So now instead of just one wish he cleverly had three
And with each one of these
He simply wished for three more wishes
Which gave him three old wishes plus nine new
And with each of these twelve
He slyly wished for three more wishes
Which added up to forty-six:
Or is it fifty-two?
Well anyways he used each wish
To wish for wishes
Till he had
Five billion eight million seventeen thousand thirty-four
And then he spread them on the ground
And clapped his hands and danced around
And skipped and sang and then sat down
And wished for more
And more…and more…they multiplied
While other people smiled and cried
And loved and reached and touched and felt
Lester sat amid his wealth
Stacked mountain high like stacks of gold
Sat and counted…and grew old
Then one Thursday night they found him
Dead…with wishes piled around him
And they counted the lot and found that not
A single one was missing
All shiny and new…here take a few
And think of Lester as you do
In a world of apples and kisses and shoes
He wastes his wishes on wishing………

Home safe again! It is always a marvel to me to be thrown to far corners of the globe and God always gets me back in one piece.
My wife is always happy about the ‘one piece’ part. I just returned from a couple of weeks in Venezuela. The country is in a state of apprehension due to the political landscape. However, most of the time we were focused on another landscape and the politics of a different country. This was a fantastic time of experiencing with a renewed freshness, the God of the Backdoor. I say it like that, because we generally are looking for Him at the front door. Sometimes He will just go ahead and slip in that backdoor and catch us off guard. Just exactly what are we guarding by the way?
I elaborate: visiting four churches, praying for folks, being a general source of inspiration and wisdom, preaching etc. all have a way of catagorizing one as the visiting superhero. It just happens, applicable or no. Those who have hunted that coon may now feel free to allow a wise chuckle to escape from normally pursed lips.
I went into one of the four places thinking I was the teapot (neither short nor stout thanks ….) and they were the cups. Surprise…publish it not in Gath….I was the cup, and they filled me up. One of those once-a-decade deals where you see someone whose life is so smudged with God’s prints that your film gets exposed beyond remedy. When you least expect, something eternal is burned into your hard drive forever. A reference point that the Holy Spirit can return to time and again to reorient our thinking.
A simple man named Eliseo (Elisha in English). Peruvian by birth, closing in on the half century mark, he has lived in Venezuela for the last twenty years. His specialty is (WAS) the restaurant business. He went from busboy to managing exclusive establishments. And God called. No training that puts a piece of paper on the wall. No flash and glitz to draw the seekers.
Nothing that would merit poster boy status. He just carries so much of the kingdom atmosphere, that folks like who they are in his presence. It was wonderful preaching in his church; powerful people. I don’t have it as a priority of things I need to do again. BUT, to have another time of closeness with this man and his wife…..its on the agenda.
I love it when the Father comes in the back door.

Chapter Eleven just made the scene. If you haven’t picked up on this story….ya oughta.

Wow!! I just noticed its been two weeks since I blogalized some thoughts. Well, life has been busy, but that justification is a used vehicle that won’t sell even in Mexico. But, at any rate WE ARE BACK.
Okay let’s see….hmmm…
First…I am excited about an upcoming oportunity: starting June 14 I plan to be with my friend Nelson Castro in his country Venezuela for nine days. Its been several years since I’ve been there, and sense a great anticipation building in me and I believe there also. Not to mention all of the rice and ripe platains I can eat. You may have noticed that there are a few problems these days in that country. That was your cue to pray. Thanks.
Second: I am also excited because the second part of my book Branches Over The Wall is at the printers. I have spent seven years writing the two part story of the life of Joseph (seven years NOT because it is a voluminous encompassing literary Taj Majal, rather because I have done this as a spare-time sanity enema). It should be available shortly.
Lastly…I am worried about the bees. Did you know that they are in big trouble? They are not making ‘bee-lines’ to the hives anymore; which, means no bee dance, which means no communication about flower/pollen orgies, which means no massive hive exodus to pollinate, which means we really do have a problem. Besides the Promised Land having to be renamed as the Land of Milk, it could have incredible wide range affects, not to mention the total bummer for the Hero in Christopher Robin’s forest. Oh, bother.
It seems the culprit is the cell phone. The innundation of signals in the air is making it impossible for the bees to get their communications straight. Imagine the irony of destroying the balance of nature by talking too much.
We worry about Aliens, HIV, Immigrants, Ozone, Florida voting machines, and Transformers taking the world over and destroying our lives. And then only to discover that the sting of death came from a dead bee….selah.