Tumble your temple so that His can be built

 Over the years I’ve read the Bible in manny different ways. Before I could even read starting out, growing up I was taught it in more of a legalistic way. And once I started reading it for myself there were times I read it for what I could get out of it for myself. Then there were times I read it to imply it to others and many other ways I thought was right. The lesson I learned is this. We all perceive and see things according to the condition of our hearts. Our hearts effect intentions. Intention most always determines outcomes if you look to the very core of it. The hard reality about our hearts is they can be deceitful. Which brings us to a hard reality that we can’t entirely trust our hearts all the time and this is why we need Jesus in most everything but especially when reading our bibles to grow and learn in such a way that honors God and not ourselves. For us to truly get from scripture what God intended us to get we must fully rely on the Holy Sprits discernment to show us. 

   The prayer that changed my life completely and helped me grow the most in relationship with Jesus along side reading the Bible is this prayer. This prayer was deliberate and intentional rite before reading my Bible while reading it on a daily basis intentionally having set time aside for it each day.

   “Jesus I ask that you give me your true discernment of the message in this scripture that I’m about to read, to know rite from wrong, what is of You and what is not. Allow me to get from this scripture what You would have me get and not me making it of my own. Help me to wright it on a tablet of my heart (committing it to memory) and give me the courage to apply it to my life. To You be all the honor and glory forever, amen.”

   Far greater is He then I. The less I become the greater He becomes living in and through me. Knowing this how could I not continually choose to lessen myself for His glory to serve and honor Him who is above all else. No greater honor is there then to lay down my life for the One who gives life and gives it abundantly. I long for the days when I can count it all joy. Yet still manny are his blessings through long suffering if we chose to live with our eyes wide open to see the blessings in spite of having to also see the things we don’t want to see that cause so manny to live with their eyes shut tightly missing sight of all the blessings we live in. Knowing what He has to offer, how can we afford to not live for Jesus, inviting Him into our hearts and confessing him as Lord and Savior. Without it and works in serving we are bankrupt. We have nothing. Without Jesus we don’t even have sight to see that we have nothing. But with Him we gain sight in seeing and perceiving things we never knew before when we didn’t have Christ living in us. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the light.

Brooks Range Bible Camp. Six boys I helped counsel the first week. My heart is full. Two of these young boys asked Jesus to come into their hearts for the first time and I couldn’t be more happy for them!

Be all that He can be

   I long for the days of ultimate peace and understanding, the beauty of the lack there of strife, how perfect and wonderful that must be, Greater is He then any of us, greater does He make us residing within, be not limited to boundaries of your minds and living for ourselves, but live extravagantly with Him in and through us. I’m not here to please man but to live according to His purpose and plan for my life within His ultimate purpose. People say I’m crazy for the things I do. I say they’re crazy for living lives confined to comfortable and ordinary. Nurture, develope, leverage, the God given gifts you’ve been given. Heighten and attune your senses to the things you’ve been made skillful at and grow them to fruitfulness, pleasing and honoring to the One that created all that in you. Live in the blessings you’ve been anointed with and use them honorably. Be all that He can be in you because with Christ you will do far greater things then you ever imagined. I say these things in great love and adoration of our creator because it is from Him that all things have come and will come. He is the great I am, the one that was, is, and is to come.

If you’ve never invited Jesus into your life its not too late if you’re reading this. Ask Jesus to come into your heart now. He will forgive you of your sins if you except him as your Lord and savior and repent from the sins you’ve committed. Jesus has unlimited grace and His grace is readily available for all of us. All we have to do is chose to except it.

Shake it What’s Inside

   As we go through life we go through  experiences that stop us dead in our tracks sometimes and make us realize how much we really do fall short. It’s good to have these moments that bring us down to a point of humbleness where we take a really good look at ourselves to see what’s inside. 

   A key component to grow tho is what comes after that. How well we pick ourselves back up and move forward learning as much as we can from it. There’s absolutely no good to come from staying in a place where we beat ourselves up about where we’ve fallen short. Acknowledge it, be honest with yourself about it and move forward.

   The thing about forgiveness is it’s important that we forgive to maintain a quality of life. There is one person we tend to forget to forgive and for some reason some of us never thought to forgive and that is ourselves. In similar ways to not forgive others there’s simply no good to come from hanging on to un-forgiveness. Sometimes in some ways we think that not forgiving someone has something to do with them not deserving it and us not forgiving is some kind of punishment to them. But the truth is you’re punishing yourself not being free from what ever the thing is that you’re not forgiving for. And when it comes to not forgiving yourself it’s like a double whammy.

   I’ve learned that those that tend to be hard on others are likely twice as hard on themselves whether they acknowledge themselves doing it or not. This makes me think of scripture that talks about being judged according to how we judge others. Could it be that an unforeseen nature within ourselves does that on its own and all we really need to do is start truly being honest with ourselves about ourselves having a personal reality check with ourselves from time to time and forgive ourselves. The results would be something like this. That we wouldn’t be so quick to judge others without understanding first, and we would do the same for ourselves, and with that discover a newfound inner peace and love for ourselves. Also making us better at loving others.

   “Jesus I choose to forgive myself, please help me with my un-forgiveness of myself.”

Thankful for like minded friends to serve alongside.  Andrew (left) from California working on his commercial rating. Kittikoon (right) from Tiland getting ready to take his commercial check ride (prayers appreciated). Kit is serving with Free Burma Rangers.

The Third Of Who We Are

     We live out our lives using only a small portion of the capacity of what our brains are capable of and here’s likely a big part of the reason why. We are made up of Mind Body and Spirit, and most people shy from deeply acknowledging the ladder one. Spirit reveals truth and our spirits connected to the Holy Spirit reveals ultimate truth. The truth about ourselves can be painful and upsetting to face. There are a few things that keep us from even getting a glimpse of this and that is stubbornness, and every form of arrogance as hard as it may be to hear that word. Arrogance in its manny different forms, from silent selfishness to loud and obnoxious, creates a blindness that keeps us, first from seeing that we are even arrogant at all, but most importantly keeps us from seeing the deeper truths about ourselves that keep us from moving forward or growing. Here’s even a small bit of proof for you. So think of a person you know that is evidently arrogant and imagine trying to tell them that they are arrogant. It’s not going to go so well is it? It’s also evident that they, most times aren't aware that they’re arrogant. They’re blind to it.

   Our heart and our very being is a lens through which we see the world and all it’s people in it. Change your heart and you change the way you see the world.  To do this it starts by discovering the hard truths about yourself. To discover the hard truths about yourself that you’ve been blind to we come back to sprit. For this to happen you must make a deeper connection with the Holy Spirit. The deeper the connection with the Holy Sprit the more ultimate truth is revealed to you so that you can work through these things.

  Your level of perception is directly related to your level of intimacy with the Holy Spirit. The closer we are, the more unclouded our mind become, and the more we can use our minds to what they’re capable of. True wisdom is not fit for a person outside of the conviction of the Holy Spirit. God is wisdom and God protects wisdom.

   Knowing these things how can we afford not to submit ourselves in humble adoration to our Lord Christ Jesus. The return on our effort on getting to know Him more is far greater then anything we can work to gain in knowledge or possessions as the world knows it. 

   “God give me eyes to see me the way that You see me. Give me the courage to acknowledge the truths about me and to give those things over to you that I may heal, learn and grow from my new found wisdom though overcoming. You are my strength, and most importantly my Salvation. Through only You I am made pure.”

King Ranch Private Airstrip, taken from Dan’s spot. 

Links in the Chain

  Not the kind of chains that keep us in bondage but links in a family and generations that preserve Christianity and God’s word. We’re all links in the chain somewhere between those that came  before us and those to come after us. Are we strong links or are we weak ones? Are we being salt that preserves God’s word or salt that burns in the wounds of others which makes deep nasty scares? Are we putting pressure on the chain one way or another that could cause breaks and disconnections? Are we being accountable to the convictions of the Holy Spirit, loving, caring, having the best in mind for those we come in contact with and live among? Are we using the sight of how we see others through the perspective that Christ gives us when living inside of us? We cannot hate when we see others through the eyes of the Holy Spirit living in us for we no longer only see the things on the surface but have an understanding of that person and their story and the things that reside deeper within therefore we no longer judge but understand. Once understanding we then can finally fully serve people with truly having their best interests in mind. It is then also that we get a glimpse of how deeply our father loves us and how we are to love others. 

   “Jesus help me to see me the way you see me, and Jesus help me to see others the way that you see them. Amen. “

Hatchers Pass