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The youngest of the disciples was John, believed to be the cousin of Jesus. Maybe that’s why the Lord had a special affection for him, the younger little cousin he played with as a child. Scripture refers to him as “the one whom Jesus loved.” In our Lords dying hours on the cross He committed his Mother Mary to John’s care and she lived out her life in his home.  Clearly, it was a special relationship they shared.

Among the other disciples was the gregarious Simon Peter.  A robust fisherman whom Jesus called to be “fishers of men”.  In a pivotal moment when many turned away from following Jesus, he asked his remaining disciples,  “Do you want to go away as well?” It was Peter who responded “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”  Special men that shared an all consuming love and devotion to our Lord.

Despite their unquestionable dedication, scripture states in Mathew 26: 31, there came a time when they all fell away.  Peter who vehemently professed earnest love and commitment assured Jesus, “Even if I have to die with you, I will not deny you.” All the disciples made the same promise. Yet we know how the story ended, that “before the cock crowed” Peter denied him three times. Not only denied him, but vulgarly swore and cursed he had never even met Jesus. (Mathew 26:74)

I have never sworn and cursed, denying the name of our Lord but at different times of my life, my behavior has denied him. Denied his commandments, denied his truth, denied his holiness.  As Simon Peter did, I have also wept bitterly. It is a sobering and humbling experience to discover what lies within the human heart.  Your heart.  But it allows for an embracing of a powerful, transformative truth that the scripture reveals in  John 2:24.  “But Jesus, for his part, did not entrust himself to them, because He knew all people (and understood the superficiality and fickleness of human nature) and He did not need anyone to testify concerning man ( and human nature) for He Himself knew what was in man (in their hearts, in the very core of their being.)- Amp. Bible

He alone solved the greatest problem of our lives: our own nature. He came to bring us the most precious gift one could give. Forgiveness, unconditional love and the power to become like HIM.  In Jesus Christ, at the cross of Calvary, mercy and truth kissed. Compassion poured forth through every drop of his shed blood. Compassion for your sin and pain, compassion for mine.  So what did that do for me?  It resulted in Grace. Undeserved, unmerited, grace. Grace that changed my life. Grace that healed my heart.  I guess that’s why it’s called amazing.

 

 

“Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda which has five roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of of invalids-blind, lame and paralyzed. One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?”  The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed and walk.”  And at once the man was healed and he took up his bed and walked.-John 5:2-9

For centuries archaeologists disputed the existence of an actual pool of Bethesda, stating it was a metaphorical place, until the 19th century when the remains of this pool fitting the description in John’s gospel was discovered.  As with so many other initial contradictions Holy Scripture will always prove true.  The pool of Bethesda was an unsavory place, a depressing place. A place of disease, sickness and shame.  A place where only the most desperate went in the hopes they may possibly be the one to touch the miraculous and leave whole.  The Angel of the Lord would come and stir the waters transforming this place of shame into a Basin of Mercy, albeit only for one.  As one scorned individual was transformed from a shunned member of society to a uniquely special recipient of grace, others laid with little hope. Such was this invalid of thirty-eight years.  I wonder if he secretly held a place of hope in his heart, that against all manner of reason he would somehow one day be healed. Or maybe this was an unselfish man who took actual pleasure in seeing the miraculous touch others. Whether kind or bitterly dejected, one day the gentle Shepherd lovingly looked into his eyes and asked the question only he could provide the answer to, “Do you want to be healed?”

As is so often the case, we seek to have our needs met in diverse places and not the loving eyes of our Savior.  We don’t know him to be the Jesus the Bible describes; the Lover of our souls, our Redeemer, our Healer. Yet still, his penetrating voice of kindness whispers to our heart and asks the question that stirs the water of our soul, “Do you want to be healed?”  As with the invalid at Bethesda’s pool we could respond with an honest heart and divulge our plight to the only one who can truly help us, or we can do as so many have done a thousand times, harden our heart and turn away. Can you count the number of times you dismissed his word? Dismissed his invitation? The sharing of a testimony of grace from a friend or acquaintance? “This is the carpenter’s son, what does he know?” the man at Bethesda could have said. But to the glory of God and the joy of his existence he opened his heart and received more than he could ever have imagined.

I pray today is the day you too position yourself for a touch of the miraculous.  The Lord God according to the nature of who he is, can not disappoint.  “A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not put out…”-Isaiah 42:3 This depressing, dirty place at Bethesda was turned into a House of Mercy because this man embraced the undeserved Grace of our Lord.  He was changed body, soul and spirit. When the waters of your soul are stirred as the waters of Bethesda, do not wait but run to him.  Run while he calls to you for you may not hear his voice again.  Do not miss the precious opportunity to be healed in the deepest part of yourself and to experience the essence of life, the opening of your spiritual eyes, the re-birth of your soul.  Though foolishness to perishing bystanders, it is joy unspeakable to the recipients of his Grace.

Below is a quick blog I wrote end of year 2015, posted January 2016. I was sensing the oncoming season of polarity in our nation and a line being drawn in the sand spiritually.  A season where people would be turning to ones true spiritual DNA, both individually and as a nation.

Now as we approach fall, the sense of polarization and division in our nation has been impossible for any of us to escape. It has been compounded by a brute sense of hostility with an ever deepening racial divide. Even our customary election process has split communities, families and friends and contributed to a heightened state of national dis-ease.

As a Christian, I continue to be impacted by the literal tearing apart of our nation’s values. Those established by our fore-fathers at our country’s inception, which were unashamedly based on scripture with its implied principals. It was out of these beliefs and ideologies our constitution was born.  As I witnessed the White House being covered with colors of the rainbow, celebrating the supreme courts decision to re-define marriage, and the abortion total climbing upwards of 60 million since the passing of roe vs. wade it seems the America I held in my minds eye is swiftly vanishing.

Add to this, the most recent displays celebrated in New York. The erection of the Arch of Triumph, (entrance to the Temple of Baal) in Manhattan’s City Hall park and the image of the Hindu god Kali, god of death and destruction lighting up the New York skyline, projected on the empire state building. It is difficult to ignore the glaring symbolism of these acts and their spiritual underbelly.  For more info on these events check out the following links: https://stream.org/arch-temple-baal-arrives-new-york-city/ and http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/…/articlesh…/48420733.cms

In ancient Israel, Baal was the primary god of the Canaanites, the demonic entity that vied for the allegiance of the nation and ultimately brought the downfall and utter devastation of Israel. The Baal culture, earmarked by sexual perversion, the sacrifice of infants, lust, greed and corruption, resulted not only in the physical devastation of their temple and country, but the disintegration of their society. Baal worship was the path that brought them to a life of servitude as the ones who survived became slaves and exiles in a land ruled by their enemies. Everything they worked so hard for was possessed by the nations that despised them as they wittingly or not spit in the face of the one true God and lost His blessings and protection.

According to an Israeli news report, the  Hebrew Nation Radio made this disturbing connection. “The original arch was built commemorating the Roman victory over Partha. Many of the Parthans were from the remnants of the Ten Tribes of Israel. So the original purpose of this arch was to celebrate victory over the demise of the Northern kingdom, the 10 tribes of the house of Israel, aka Joseph/Ephraim,” wrote Hebrew Nation. “Is that really something that we want to put up in New York?” Apparently it is.

It seems to me glorifying a representation of Baal which brought with it the destruction of a nation highlights a people’s willingness to embrace the values that symbol stands for. Shall we expect the swastika to be proudly displayed next? As we see before our eyes history being re-written in current reports, I am deeply grieved to say it would not shock me.

Repentance is the clarion call and blessed invitation to every form of prosperity known to man, yet it is the dirty word of our age.  It is an offense, an insult.  Repentance. The bridge that safely carries us over troubled waters and the gift that enables us to realign with our divine purpose. The humbling, empowering, liberating paradigm shift that re-unites us with our creator and washes away the burden of shame and guilt. The turning around of one’s direction.  The undeniable heart response of grief and disdain for the sin and failure of our ways and the sheer relief and utter joy of surrender.  It is the current that safely carries us to shore and the treasured compass that brings us home.

There are certain physical properties and laws of nature each of us accept and respect. It is foolish to spit in the wind, dangerous to leap from great heights and reckless to board  your tiny boat as a hurricane is making its way up the coast. And so it is in the unseen world of the spirit. Most assuredly where there is a design, there is a designer, an architect where one finds architecture. This deeply loving architect of our souls exists in holiness and righteousness. He is filled with tender mercies and is ever patient, calling us close in his love and grace.  Yet He too draws a line in the sand.

The gift of repentance He so graciously offers to our nation now, will not always be. History shows us powerful nations who believed they would remain and could not fathom their demise. Sadly few embraced the call to change while the day was young and a bright future still awaited them. As the prophets of old were told, when the hearts of the people grew too hardened, and the deceitfulness of sin too blinding, their wound became incurable.  As they continually refused to repent it actually became more difficult to repent.

Repentance. It is not the affront many perceive it to be, but it is the blessed vehicle that moves the very heart of God on our behalf. To mercy, to restoration and blessing. While the Lord calls to our nation through the prophetic voice of his servants, the clarity of his written word, and the still small voice that whispers in each of our hearts, I earnestly pray we have ears to hear. Having had much to repent of myself, I will tell you it’s life changing. Transforming. I have become quick to embrace its call and rush to it. I have learned the wisdom of genuine repentance can never lead me astray but only lead me closer to the heart of God.

Let us together embrace repentance.  America, America, God has shed its grace on thee.  Now it is time to return to Him.

 

ORIGINAL BLOG published January 2016:

I have no doubt 2016 will prove to be a pivotal year, a crucial year. A year of diminution to ones primary core. A calling to ones true Spiritual DNA to come home. A call to the heavenly kingdom, for many and for others, a call to darkness.

For those who currently remain the un-redeemed remnant of God, the fish not yet caught in the great end time harvest net, the love relationship of their lives await them. The innermost cleansing of their souls via the precious blood of the lamb. The true liberation of their spirits.

The Greek word Epistrepho most eloquently captures this great sense of motion and turn-around, conveying the substance of repentance. However in Hebrew the word Epsitrepho communicates with exquisite nuance the presence of distress that thrusts us toward this whole-hearted rushing home of the spirit. The ache that leads us to his still waters, the sorrow that brings us to our knees, to discover the miraculous.  The mercy hidden beneath the anguish, the beauty covered with ashes. The Oil of Joy for mourning, to discover and to embrace HIM.

As all manner of evil is manifest in ways we have never imagined, the brightness of his Glory is also appearing. Darkness juxtaposed against the light, only to be dispelled. 2016 is the year of turning toward and turning from.  Which call will you heed?  The line in the sand is drawn.