To me it feels like a long time since I have written. I hope this entry on the blog finds you well. I pray that each day you are seriously looking for God sightings and ponder how He is working, or wanting to work in your life. God loves you with an everlasting love. Don't you ever forget it, either. Sometimes we tend to forget how real God wants to be in our lives, or that He wants to accomplish great things through us. Sometimes as Christians we can feel like class A screw-ups and end up wondering how God would even want to use "someone like me." The answer to that is really quite simple. He loves us. Within each one of us He has created a masterpiece. Appearance doesn't matter to God. Weight, height, or physical attributes He cares nothing about. Within you He created a masterpiece. Remember, God looks at the heart and only man looks at the appearance. Just think about how even your heart works every second and every minute to keep pumping life into you even as you are reading this. What magnificence God's workmanship is!
Now, if you ever start thinking that God can't use you, that you've messed up too much, just take a look in the Bible and you will see some other class A screw ups. People who messed up only to find God using them in unbelievable ways to further His kingdom. Where do you want to start? Jonah? Peter? Samson? How about David, Solomon and Paul? In those three alone we see an adulterer, one who fell into pagan worship and a murderer. But in those three we also see a great story of redemption. A story of redemption that is no greater and no less than your own. I listed the first six names that came to my mind, but the Bible is full of people who really messed up, who later seemed to overcome insurmountable odds. With God, however, nothing is ever insurmountable and it would be in our best interests to remember that.
So what does God want to do through you that will make you a hero of faith to your children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and beyond? How many times have you thought, "If only I had the faith of those guys in the Bible?" I can almost hear Jesus talking about how the Kingdom of God is near. I've been thinking a lot about that, how the kingdom of God is near, or the kingdom of God is here. So often I see Jesus talking to sinners and telling them that the kingdom is near, or "at hand," but then I see those sinners, just like you and me, submitting to Jesus' ways, His love and suddenly the kingdom is so near that we step right into it. No longer should we operate according to the limitations of this world and what we can see, but to operate according to the invisible and supernatural and the ways of the kingdom.
Today, more than ever God desires for us to live, love, work and play in the ways of His kingdom. Let us "walk by faith and not by sight." In doing so we show the world a different way. We show the world a different way to love and how people need to see that. Stuff is messed up. It's up to us to make stuff right. Instead of wondering why God doesn't do something about the wrongs in life, we need to be thinking about what God wants US to do in order to straighten things out. Hey, we are the ones after-all with the keys to the kingdom. They were given to us. What was it that the Master said? "Whatever YOU bind on earth, I will bind in heaven, and what ever YOU loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." It's like being 16 again and Dad gives you the keys to the car. MMMMMMM. The sky contained no limits then and the possibilities seemed endless. Now with a different set of keys, I'm going out to make a difference. I'm looking to be a man that would be written about in the Bible. I'd like you to come with me.
I've been thinking a lot about that dream that I had a week ago. I sure hope you have read it. If not, please do. After you are done reading here, you can go right into it. It will be the first one listed under the September archives listing. I've been praying into that dream and asking God to reveal to me what everything symbolized. Some have written to me either here, on Face Book, or through email, sharing with me what they believed God is saying about different things. I love that. That dream wasn't just for me and I knew that I couldn't keep it to myself. That dream was for you, too and it's your choice to either scoff at it, or to ponder as to if God is wanting to give us a glimpse. The fast moving sky filled with stars, the bruised woman, the moon and planets, that split second burst of light and energy that did sort of resemble some kind of a ship, but yet somehow I know that the Lion of Judah was involved with that burst. I do believe that God allowed a peek into what is coming, what is beginning to happen and everything in that dream contains impacting significance. I do believe that we are embarking on an unthinkable outpouring of the Holy Spirit and grace as God is once again making an attempt to allow the lost people on this earth to see His revealed Son as the lamb who was slain for the sins of the world. I already know that there is an increase of what we call signs and wonders that are taking place. Much of which is at our fingertips. "Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons." We are to take care of the poor, the widowed and I believe that in today's times that includes one parent families; single moms and single dads. The keys to the kingdom.
Now listen, even though I believe that we are moving into the next phase of the last days, I DON'T want anyone to read into it that I'm saying that the return of Jesus is immediate. Some of my traditional views on Revelation have even changed. I have no idea how much longer it will be and the older I get I wonder even more how everything is going to play out. It's not in our place to try to figure everything out, either. I do know that we are to be ready. We are supposed to help others get ready. There are many who are lost who desperately are in need of the Savior. People need to learn the benefits of living in the kingdom now!!!!!!
Dad didn't give me the keys to the car and tell me to sit around, make them jingle, look at how shiny they were and imagine myself driving. Jesus didn't give us the keys so we could just sit around singing Kum-Ba-Ya, imagining, waiting and wondering how it's all going to come down, how and when He's going to make it all happen. Yes we do need to take time to read, pray and teach. We need to spend more time doing those things than what we sometimes do, but it's also time to get on the move. To create some friction. To be doers and not just hearers. It's time for passion and to let our hearts burn for the things of God. Holiness, righteousness, sanctification.
My friend, you are loved by God with an everlasting love. He has created you in a most magnificent way. He's given you the keys. I'm certain that He's looking for drivers and those who will be fueled by passion for Christ. What say you???
"BE VERY CAREFUL THEN HOW YOU LIVE, NOT AS UNWISE BUT AS WISE, MAKING THE MOST OF EVERY OPPORTUNITY BECAUSE THE DAYS ARE EVIL." (Ephesians 5:15-16)
Starting the car,
Mark S.
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