Soon!!

Psalm 27: 13-14
I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.
Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.



Little Blog Warning: You may think I am a total nut after reading this but that's okay!

I thought Jesus had come for me a few months ago. I was outside praying in my backyard and there was this strangely draped light. The light upon the fence looked to me just like an old fashioned garment. Now, I don’t know just when my brain ran way ahead of the game but I was confident of one thing in that moment: I was being Enoch-ed out of this place. If you know me personally, you are familiar with that Enoch phrase. I am often asking the Lord to take me as he did Enoch - just one day the Old Testament man was gone! No accident. God was pleased and wanted Enoch home in heaven. (see Genesis 5:23-24 & Hebrews 11:5)
I was sure this was my time to be brought 'home'. Shocked, I walked over to the fence where it seemed Jesus was standing and my heart began to pick up a steady, racing pace. “Is this really what I think?” I thought, “Could it be Jesus is here for me!”
By the time I made it to the fence I was beginning to put the obvious pieces together: Today was not my day. It was just a ray of light, cascading down the side of the fence in a very heavenly manner. I was, shall we say, rather disappointed.
That point of the fence has become my new favorite spot when I am down and out. It is as if when I look upon it, my precious Jesus is saying to me, “Soon. I am coming for you soon.”
One thing about tragedy in this life is, ironically enough, it gives us a clearer view of just who Christ is. And when all else is falling down, when everything we have got is suddenly drying up somehow, something deep inside chimes forth, “I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.”
I have felt dead more times than I care to recount. I have prayed for death even more times than I have prayed for the perfect piece of chocolate! Even in my darkest of days, even when I was sure the curtain had closed for the final time, there was a gnawing inside of me that urged, “There has got to be more than this.”
I testify today that there is. And now even in the arena of war, even when my strength is fading and it seems the enemy is gaining on me - even then I am still confident of this: I will see Christ Jesus and all of his goodness soon!
I don’t know among what soldiers you find yourself today. I am unsure of what battle you are currently fighting but this I know: if you “wait for the LORD; are strong, take heart and wait for the LORD,” you will see his goodness in the land of the living.
He will give you your star-lit fence to hold on to. And he will whisper, “Soon. Beloved, I come for you soon.”

Revelation 22:20
He who testifies to these things says, "Yes, I am coming soon."

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

Can't Recommend Voddie Baucham Enough!!!

I believe the Bible because it is…

A reliable collection of historical documents written down by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses that report supernatural events which took place in fulfillment of specific prophecies and claim to be divine rather than human in origin.
(2 Peter 1:16-20, 1 John, Luke, 1 Corinthians 15:1-8- 300 eyewitnesses were still alive at Corinthians written time)

Written on 3 continents, in 3 languages, over 40 authors, 66 books: names, dates, places!
Over 23,000 archeological digs directly related to the Bible; not one historical event has had to be changed
because always proved true!

Every new translation is based on an original transcript. None of this ‘phone game’ theory works!
There are over 6,000 original manuscripts or portions of that are New Testament based. We can get our hands on these documents from AD 120 – last piece of N.T. was written in AD 95!

Julius Caesar – Gallic Wars, only 10 manuscripts,
cannot get our hands on one dated any earlier than 900 years after the original!
5 for Aristotle Poetics dated back to 1400-1500 years after original.
10 for Homer’s Iliad – 2100 years after original.

Example of prophetic accuracy – Psalm 22 was written 1,000 years before Christ’s death.
It describes in intense detail the day of his death and
crucifixion which was not even known in the time of David.

In order to re-write our heavenly history, somehow old monks would’ve had to steal and change 6,000 Greek manuscripts…than change the 2nd and 3rd century translations which were written in three other languages…then change the early church fathers copies (which alone could be used to accurately represent 95% of the Bible!)

Not Scientific? Duh! To be a scientific debate we’d need observable, measurable and repeatable circumstances.
History can’t be proved by science – only proved by the evidentiary method – internal consistency, co-aberration and reliability – which brings me back to my original statement…

{Thanks Voddie Baucham for all of this awesome information!}
Link to Voddie's Book:

http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product?item_no=427880&netp_id=329794&event=ESRCN&item_code=WW

Among the Ashes - Job 2:8

Job 2:8
“Then Job took a broken piece of pottery and scraped himself with it as he sat among the ashes.”



It was a painful morning five autumns ago that has left me changed forever. I remember vividly the day, the colors, where the sun was as I awoke. I remember sounds, textures, the clothes I wore in the following days. I am in the most deepest of places, marked forever. I am in the most secret of places still, in quiet moments, stunned to my core at the change life can take in one single day.
Recently, while reading the book of Job I came across this verse: “Then Job took a broken piece of pottery and scraped himself with it as he sat among the ashes.” I have never felt more ‘forever’ touched by an Old Testament person in my life!
Job. The poor man. Lost his home, his work, all of his accomplished goals, his family, along with them any dreams of seeing their lives blossom as his had up until that fateful day. It left him forever marked, we can be sure.
What strikes me so about this verse is the aftermath picture it paints for us: Job loyal to his God, righteous in his walk, faithful to the end; this very man, sitting among the ashes…picking up a piece of broken pottery and scraping his tired skin. In that moment I wonder what Job remembered about his children? I wonder what Job took in? I need not wonder how Job felt- considering an entire book of the Bible is dedicated to his questions and the Lord’s answers. Job in clear terms speaks, “If my misery could be weighed and my troubles be put on the scales, they would outweigh all the sands of the sea.” How truly devastated this man admittedly was.
Job has taught me sometimes the aftermath of loss can be the most painful of seasons. As a collected group of people we tend to carry ourselves through sorrow and the event of loss. We suck it up. We slap on our game faces. We meet the task before us.
But when the sun has set; when the day is done - how do our hearts handle the aftermath? I ask you today, among what ashes are you sitting? With what broken piece of your former life are you scraping your wounds?
I ask you sincerely will you be as I was and allow ashes to remain hot as fire, burning instead of healing? Or will you in the company of Christ, allow Him to bring beauty from the ashes?
Let us rise up and meet Christ. Let us remain loyal, righteous, faithful. Let us allow His scarred, redeeming hands to mend our broken hearts.
Dear one, if I desire this for you …how much more so must our Maker? This was his heart for Job: restoration. I believe he has long since planned restoration for you as well…

A Lawful Longing

What would you wish for if given the chance to have any wish granted? I wonder as I watch people walk down the street, drive in their cars, eat ice cream – what is their longing deep inside? For what do they hope, wish?

Somehow I believe all wishes really have to do with freedom. We wish for more money because then we will not be slaves to work. We wish for more time because then we will not be so rushed. We wish for vacations because then we can escape the mundane. Notice in every area of wishing the basis is escaping some present “holding me back” mentality.

I have never heard anyone wish or admit they long for more rules or laws. That is until I met David one spring day a long time ago. David, you know him, the man after God’s own heart. Check out his longing in Psalm 119:20!

“My soul is consumed with longing for your laws at
all times.”

Is it possible for us to be consumed with longing for the Lord’s law at all times? Totally intoxicated with Christ’s statues? Completely abandoned to his word and will for our lives? I want this. I want this to be my longing.

Strange thing about David. He wished for more of God’s law upon his heart and just a few verses later in Psalm 119:45 he says,

“I will walk about in freedom, for I have
sought out your precepts.”

Freedom. David longs to be told how to live because like most wishes it brings him freedom. Except this freedom is the real deal. Money runs out; our time here will end; vacations can get rained out, all of our wishes will never be really enough to satisfy our desire for freedom.
Only following the lead of Christ does that. It is for freedom’s sake that Christ has set us free. If that sounds like a bit of a mind bender think it through. We have been set free to live free! Never again do we have to be harnessed to the grips of sin. Free to walk and long for His laws at all times.

While praying this last spring I saw a few of those dandelion weeds turned white that kids ‘wish’ with. You pick the little white puff of a thing up and blow; watching your wish run with the wind. I read in my journal last night an entry about those ‘wishers’ as I call them. My desire for that journal-ed day was to “upon every wisher wish for more of Christ and His precepts.” Freedom to chase more freedom. Living life wide open and care-free before the throne of grace.
David. I believe he was a man after God’s own heart because his longing was rooted in chasing after the heart of God. He was free to pursue Freedom. And wouldn’t you say Freedom set him free?

I want that for us as well.