...as nigh in our minds....

 If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same suffering that we suffer.  Our hope for you is unshaken; for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.

1 Corinthians 1:7

I would not trouble you with our torment unto death at Caesar Philippi, but rather edify you to your own good purpose; rejoice furthermore as we live to contest again for the cause of Christ, and the message of the power of Christ crucified.  For we glory in tribulation, and as we know of these things, its a narrow turn-around time so often, such that we must go forward boldly, and with the crowing of the cocks and the milking of the cows.

Lamented our very lives in Caesar Philippi, we did, but it was for the cause of Christ, and a case for mercy.

As ever, the Kingdom is at hand--God's glory as nigh in our minds as our senses, and in our hearts, we sit near the throne and plead the cause Kingdom and ongoing mercy.

The cause of Christ is what some call the "constant regeneration" or the constant "generation" of Christ, Christ being manifested within us through our attitudes, our prayers, our own plea of mercy and the hands we extend to the cause of peace.

Forget not the parakleton, the helper sent by Christ: the Holy Spirit; let love abound.  Indeed, with such a peace and joy in our hearts, we could fret only for the cause of the peace and joy of those in the diaspora.  If they knew this love, peace and joy would manifest within them, and so much, if the world were not obviously better, it would be at least quieter, and happier.

God and storm; storm and God.

A clear manifestation of God's glory, or just a nuisance?

Lord forbid I was ever so disconnected from nature!  I was on the porch before daylight listening to the light mist of rainfall.  It was pleasant, and soft wind, in my area, at the halfway point between Myrtle Beach SC and Charlotte NC, and also equally so between Columbia, SC and Fayetteville NC.

Such clear manifestations seem, at once, neither good nor evil, seeming to stymie mankind's notions of good and evil, and here, the corn just coming up around the 12 inch mark: in some respects, the storm did our area a world of good.  I've also got potted Marigolds that needed some of that natural moisture.

In the War of 1812, as British troops assaulted the capitol and set fire to some of the most important buildings in the land, including the White House, they were met with overnight hurricane force winds, and then they just left, missing so much of their invasion force thanks to the storm.

Its almost God whispering, and at His own ends, which transcends good and evil as we know it, and in terms of theology, the believer assumes that God is purely good, such as purely light, or purely truth, with the theologists linking all three things together in orientation towards the Godhead.  Or at least, those latter two things, light and truth, are how the humans manifest, how the humans put the Creator into perspective, and then further, live the message.

in Him is no darkness...

if we live the word, we are the light...

There is a silence before the storms: something of atmospheric pressure, cloud cover, and the birds having fled.  In that silence, that's our prayer time, come what may Oh Lord, come what may.

 

God ahead, not behind.

"Early twentieth century biologists realized that biological systems are open, autopoietic (self-organizing), complex and emergent, revealing one long truth:  life seeks more life.  God is ahead of us, not behind us, and if we refuse the reality of a self-involving God, we risk everything."   -Center For Christogenesis

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the week's prayers.

"The universe from the beginning has been in constant motion, a constant, "workaholic" bundle of energy in which vast fields of energy connecting across cosmic spaces continuously form, a hyper-energetic mass of bursting mind-like stuff, spewing molecules into the atmosphere with the creativity of an artist."  

-Ilia Delio(Christogenesis.org)

The United States experienced a nervous hiccup with the Balloon Crises last week, while Turkey and Syria experienced a massive earthquake.  Could we remember those who are made to suffer?  Can we spare a prayer for the downcast?

We speak sometimes of the "perseverance of the saints", which is taken to mean all kinds of things, from contending for the faith, to Eternal Security to who knows what.  Let us hope that the downtrodden just keep heart during their difficult hour.

Delio's words about the robust energies of the universe perhaps enthrall us, but we should also never forget that we are part of that energetic universe.  Therefore, we are energetic, too, no matter the circumstance, as we press forward.

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But more importantly remember international aid organizations like the Red Cross during this time.

Fog rising like dead souls, confusion and sin dissipating into thin air: A metaphorical Christogenic reading of fog lifting.

This is a bit of a far-fetched metaphorical reading of scripture, inspired in part by Neville Goddard's interpretations and Ilia Delio's Christogenesis initiatives.

The gas hand in my truck.

I was praying, hoping, petitioning God Himself that I would have enough gas in my truck yesterday to get back and forth to work.  On the way there, I was tying myself in knots, in my own thoughts, going back and forth on the matter, whether to just turn around, or press on.

All along the way, Hwy 9, the farmland in Dillon and Marlboro counties in South Carolina, part of the so-called "Cotton Trail", flat land, between the piedmont and the sea, very well-watered and fertile, great for growing cotton every year.

The fog was rising.

I was thinking: I could see the sun through the remnant of the fog, and thought, not the Sun but the Son.

Christ was the solar body, burning off the fog of sin and doubt, and metaphorically, fog can easily be equated to doubt, and more thinly to sin, an obscuring force between ourselves and Christ.

That fog was all the prior dead souls coming up, the dead souls and the doubts, dead souls rising into the air, vaporous, going to dissipate into thin air on the ascent to heaven.

Doubts dissipating, too.

Sin dissipating.

Every obscuring force between ourselves and the Lord coming to some sort of evaporation, leaving behind clarity.

A perfect clarity, just as perfect as the Perfect Law of Liberty, to rest in God's will.

For my own part, it was like God was telling me just to continue my drive to work, as planned.  Not that it had the endorsement of God, but maybe that it was better than the alternatives, it was, if not God's outright enumerated plan for me, then it was closer to His will than was turning around and going home.

Under the Perfect Law of Liberty, we look for the will of God to help guide us, we loosen ourselves in our daily walks, to wait for His guidance.  This loosening of our schedules and self-imposed time tables is the Liberty of choosing the Father's will.  And more importantly, the Father's will slots us into perfection and harmony with everyone else.

Everyone wins when we all go to the Father's will.

But that clarity then, that perfect brilliant orb sitting high in the sky: the Sun, the promise of the Son returned.

Oswald Chambers on ministry, plus the Center for Christogenesis

 

 

Unless we have the right purpose intellectually in our minds and lovingly in our hearts, we will very quickly be diverted from being useful to God. We are not workers for God by choice. Many people deliberately choose to be workers, but they have no purpose of God’s almighty grace or His mighty Word in them. Paul’s whole heart, mind, and soul were consumed with the great purpose of what Jesus Christ came to do, and he never lost sight of that one thing. -Oswald Chambers

 let us not be too ready to condemn Jonah, for we may be more guilty than he. Surely the world today is passing through a fearful storm and souls all about us are in peril of their lives. -anonymous