Welcome

If you have stumbled here by accident let me first insist that there really are no accidents in life. If however, you came on your own free will then please by all means open your hearts and your minds to the "New Wine" that God has prepared for you!

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

The journey



 There’s joy in a journey. With each step we take we get closer to our final destination. A journey of a thousand miles begins with just one first step where we move forward by putting one foot in front of the other. 

Our mode of travel determines what the landscape around us will look like and how close we are to it. It’s in these details that our joy can be discovered. After liftoff, astronauts watch as their landscape shrinks and the vastness of space envelopes them in a canvass of black velvet while anxious loved ones look up and wonder what it might be like to float in outer space. 

Back on Terra Firma a college dropout decides that a higher education is not right for her and begins walking from Santa Barbara to Baja in search of something she just can’t put her finger on. She manages walking ten to fifteen miles a day and is amazed at the amount of wildlife that surrounds her and how many parents stop to ask if she is “OK?” She discovers the road is a hard place to survive but she’s young and the excitement in the adventure calls and begs her to continue on down to the border. 

Its six fifty-seven Wednesday night and nobody has arrived yet for the bible study as the pastor opens the door to the building. He knows that he will never fill a stadium, large sanctuary or even the room inside but he faithfully prepares and shows up to minister. He knows that the eight to twelve people who come to hear God’s word are important to the Father so he continues to labor for his crown of glory. 

Its one-thirty a.m. as Kitty wipes the bar top down and announces “last call” to a crowd of locals who gather every night to drown their hurts and sorrows.  They feel better after a couple drinks and find solace in the relationships they have made over the years. It’s a place where everybody knows their names and they always feel welcomed to join the ongoing conversation that fills the atmosphere.

As important as our destination is, it is not as important as the places we pass and the people we meet along the way. We were never meant to walk alone. God created us to fellowship with Him. We were made in His image and formed with the desire to live with Him in a community where we can learn and grow along side of each other.

Someone once said that there is a “God” shaped hole in our DNA and that we have a desire to fill while we are alive. This desire to fill it is what drives the young girl to walk to Mexico, the pastor to open the church and calls hurting souls to local pubs and taverns. The thing is, the hole can only be filled in a meaningful way by God. 

There is so much joy in the journey if we will only pause along the way to look at the landscape around us. There is so much beauty in nature and especially the people God has created. But like rough rocks in a river, whose edges are sharp, we are sometimes hard to walk with. It’s only as the river of life rolls and tumbles us down towards our destination do we finally become smooth, polished and a thing of beauty.

God loves us; He isn’t angry with us and isn’t interested in punishing us. Actually it’s our own selves that do the punishing. God created us with this hole so that we would desire to find and fill it with only Him. Our problem is that there are so many distractions, wrong turns and pitfalls that we often lose our joy and sight of our destination.

Have you ever wondered why Jesus once said that whenever two or more are gathered in His name that He is in their midst? You might be thinking “I thought He was with me when I was all alone?” yes, but you can’t have a community of believers in a room of just one. 

So this journey that we are on is not only about our destination but more about the opportunities available to meet, help and get to know our neighbors. It’s about coming to the table that Jesus has prepared for us and taking part in His communion.  

  “And the Spirit and the bride say ‘Come!’ And let him who hears say ‘Come!’ And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take of the river of life freely."


Tuesday, May 16, 2017

The whale is moving



Have you ever felt really alone? Like you were of no consequence to anyone or that your life was completely purposeless? Like old flavorless salt on the verge of being thrown out or a light bulb whose filament now only produces a dim glow. It’s a worthless feeling of hopelessness and desperation where it seems that even God has turned his back on you.

Twenty-seven hundred years ago there was a prophet of God who was feeling like his life lacked purpose. One day God spoke to Jonah sending him to deliver a message to one of Israel’s most feared and hated enemies, the Assyrians. “Arise, and go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.” But, unfortunately, Jonah disobeyed God by running away in the exact opposite direction of Nineveh.

While sleeping in the lower levels of a wooden ship that was headed for Tarshish God sent a mighty storm to turn Jonah around. Eventually, the sailors had no choice but to throw the wayward prophet overboard which calmed the storm immediately. While Jonah is being engulfed by the sea, God prepared a great fish to swallow him. With all hope gone, while trapped in the belly of the fish Jonah cries out to the Lord for help.

It’s often during these times of trial and tribulation when we remember God and cry out for His help. These dark valleys are often lonely times when we have no sensation of God in our lives; it’s as if He has abandoned us. For Jonah, the belly of the fish was dank, dark, full of half eaten mackerel, plankton and reeking, rotting shark fins. Seaweed landed on his shoulders and wrapped around his neck like the regalia of a great undersea king. But make no mistake about it, the belly of the fish was a lonely place where Jonah had no sensation of movement or sense of where he was going.

Many times in my own life I have also felt lonely and abandoned by God. Usually it happens when I’m in a stressful place, when I have made some bad decisions and don’t yet have the answers. The feeling of loneliness, of being abandoned by others and especially God is one of the worst places someone can find themselves.

As Jonah sat motionless in the belly of the fish, not knowing where he was headed, he took the first step and cried out to God for help. Even though the prophet was feeling like his situation was not improving the fish eventually arrived back at the place where he had started. After being deposited up on the shore, Jonah reluctantly goes to the Nineveh and completes the task God had asked him to do.

Many times in my own life I have felt alone and that the presence of God was not near me. Whether it’s a family issue, work related or just feeling blue the feeling of being alone in the world is not of God. For He walks with us, and holds us up in those dark hours before the morning light begins to stream over the distant hills. He is our hope, strength and the author as well as finisher of our salvation. There is no where I can hide from His love and no where I can go to escape His presence.

God usually is busy carrying us in those times when we feel abandoned and lonely. Our faith is usually pretty weak but His grip is as strong as an infinite amount of power. He is healer; He is our friend and is not at all upset, angry or even mad at us. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Doesn’t that sounds more like a father who would do anything to save his children?

His name is salvation. He is our strong tower that we run into. We have nothing to fear for the love of God can protect us from anything evil and will break any chain that binds us. He came to set the captives free and guide us into eternity.

So remember, God is always in control, directing the man or woman of God to go in the right direction. Our destination is an eternity with our King, our Lord and our God and a guaranteed inheritance. So the next time you feel lonely or that God has abandoned you remember the story of Jonah and cry out to God, believing and trusting that He is with you knowing that the whale is moving!

Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Home again



“Jeshua is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” stated Uriel as he turned towards the bright light.

Maria desperately tried to see through the bright light that was streaming in through the tunnel. The warmth was rolling over her in waves again as she began to catch wonderful fragrances of honeysuckle, night blooming jasmine and something that smelled like orange blossoms mixed with roses. As she neared the portico’s exit she heard a beautiful sound. It was a powerful noise like she was standing under a magnificent churning waterfall.

The sound intensified as she walked out from the tunnel’s portico. It was choral music Maria had been hearing but it wasn’t just a single song but a myriad of distinctly different melodies harmonically intertwined around each other phasing in and out as it filled the atmosphere around her. The words were all about praise and thanksgiving to the Lamb and the Father who reigned forever and ever.

Maria was startled to see a city laid out around this park that went on as far as her eyes could see. The streets were made of a translucent gold and glowed with each step she took. People walked, talked and played in the large park like area that filled her view while others reclined on balconies perched on the back sides of these beautiful buildings overlooking the park’s perimeter. The city was almost indescribable as there was so much detail in the ornately handcrafted exteriors. 

The park meandered around patches of pin oaks, aspen, blue spruce and groves of magnificent redwoods that towered over the pines and oaks. A wide river of pure living water, crystal clear glacier blue flowed through the center of the park and from its banks grew a variety of fruit trees. The tree of life grew in the center of the city street and on both sides of the river. The leaves on this tree were for the healing of all nations that were represented in the Holy City.

Maria stood amazed as she became aware that someone was walking directly towards her. The figure’s   robe fell loosely to his sandals but was tightly girded around his chest by a golden band. She knew who it was while he was still a ways off, he was the Lamb of God, Jeshua in Hebrew or as the Greeks called him Jesus Christ. As he walked closer, Maria saw that his head and hair were white as newly fallen snow and his eyes burned like the fiery topaz she had seen at the gate. Then he spoke.

“Welcome Maria, well done my good and faithful servant, enter into your rest!” said Jesus with a smile that would have made the Cheshire cat a little jealous. 

Maria fainted and dropped to her knees. Uriel was already lying in a prostrate face to the ground position as the mighty voice of Jesus roared, rolled and tumbled with the force of a mighty river crashing over a waterfall. When she got up her courage to look back at the Lord she noticed the wounds still fresh in his wrists and feet. 

“Come take my hand Maria for I have something to show you.” said the Lord as Maria trembling reached out to hold his hand.

As she touched Jesus, immediately her surroundings began to stretch, swirl and after she had blinked her eyes she noticed that they were standing in front of a beautiful several storied house that was snuggled on the edge of a beautiful country lake. 

“I have been working on this for you, would you like to see the inside?” said Jesus as he reached for the handle on the front door.

Maria couldn’t believe her eyes as she walked into the house as many of her favorite things she remembered from her childhood filled the space.  A large wooden spinning wheel full of home spun yarn, a brick fireplace with the miniature bronze horse statues that her mother had collected sat on the mantel.  Jesus took Marias’ hand and instantly she was in her bedroom. Her wooden four posted bed with her favorite quilt her grandmother had made looked brand new and was folded on the edge of the bed. On the nightstand sat her old fashioned red alarm clock and her green plaid diary she had kept as a young girl. She had lost the key and hadn’t been able to continue writing in it but now the key was there in the lock.

“But how, how did you make all of this, Lord. And where does it all end?” asked Maria.
“With God all things are possible!  Heaven gets bigger the further you go in, there is no end.” smiled the Lord.