Our fellowship's theme song, from the movie "Oliver" -

Consider yourself 

Consider yourself        at home

Consider yourself        one of the family

We've taken to you       so strong 

It's clear      we're        going to get along

Consider yourself        well in

Consider yourself        part of the furniture 

There isn't a lot       to spare

Who cares? Whatever we've got we share!

If it should chance to be

We should see

Some harder days

Empty larder days

Why grouse? 

There's always a chance we'll meet

Somebody 

To foot the bill 

Then the drinks are on the house!

Consider yourself        our mate!

We don't want to have        no fuss

For after some consideration        we can state -

Consider yourself        one of us!

 Sail into the unknown  -

explore uncharted seas

Go somewhere you've never gone,

won't you please,    with me?

The vastness of God we've yet to see,

though sometimes we glimpse eternity 

out of the corner of our eye,

in the back of our mind, 

Somewhere on the outer edge of what we perceive  -

we  catch a glimpse of what could be...

If we'd only take His hand,

   and     follow our daddy,

         that mirage-like, distant land

would be seen clearly  - 

We'll find our oasis wherever his face is....

Oh where our Father will take us!

Beyond time or space or any boundary. 

Man can grasp with his understanding, 

beyond all we can ask or think -

beyond all imagining,

to the place where God is the only limit

on who we are, and what we can do,

For we are made in His image  and likeness 

(not the other way around)

         .....and He is beyond human comprehension, 

but the parts of us we call "spiŕit" and "soul

have no boundaries 

for neither does he

whom we are invited to know.

      "Nothing is impossible "

            for those who believe. 

God is grander, greater,  

       than all we can ask, or think.

Eph:3:20

 I remember 

young (er)

tentative 

just getting to know each other 

exploring the moment 

and each other's psychs

feeling each other's feelings 

meeting my mother for the first of four times

and my GG - the only time

Who thought getting married and immediately going on a road trip was a good idea?

If we're still married after a week in a car together,  we'll always be married. 

All we really have in common is  - 

we both have lips

(and Christ).

And we love to read cheap fiction paperbacks. 

And we like to travel (not always together).

Hey - we're a little slow in here tonight!

Bob Evan's Pot roast sandwich-  what a delight!

Experiencing new experiences with you - is nice!

Guess what I'm trying to say is  - I'm glad you're my wife!

 We completely become what we completely believe.  Example:

Before I moved to South Korea at the tender age of 45, I did not believe I was handsome.  I did not think I was ugly either. I though I was average looking,  but a funny thing happened in Korea - something I never expected would happen,  an interesting side-effect: for the first time in my life people began to tell me I'm handsome.  A lot of people.  My students.  Strangers in public.  Over and over, just about every week. Guess what? I began to believe them. Then what happened still amazes me today - I became handsome! I'm much better looking now than when I arrived in Korea 14 years ago. Did I change or did the way I see myself change? I think it's both! As I believed what was said about me -  i became what I believed. For some people this happens with negative results.  They're told they're a failure. They're told they'll never amount to anything.  They're told they're ugly. And they believe it and they become what they believe!

Listen -  we do not believe with our minds. We know with our minds but we believe with our hearts - 

"For with the heart man believes unto righteousness" " If you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in your heart" Remember: "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks" and "confession is made unto salvation " So, we have what we confess but we cofess what we believe.  If you believe you are His bride, you will become what you believe and your tongue will speak it forth -  prophecy it, in other words, and you will create the you you believe you are. It doesn't matter what your circumstances look like - "for we walk by faith, not by sight". Will you believe what God says to you and about you? Not just in a vague, impersonal way. Oh sure -  God says to everyone his plans are to prosper them, he doesn't really mean me. He means my pastor up there or that rich family that comes to church every week in a Jaguar. 

This is another reason prophecy is vital to each one of us -  personal prophecy encourages, edifies and helps each one of us to believe.  He is interested and deeply cares for each one of us personally.  Who's report will you believe? Will you believe Satan's version of you or God's? Remember  - you completely become what you completely believe- you also partially become what you partially believe.  So go all in -  Love the Lord thy God with ALL your heart and believe Him with ALL your heart. Rich Mullins puts it like this  -

"I believe what I believe is what makes me what I am.

I did not make it, no it is making me,

It is the very truth of God and not the invention of any man"

Part Two

 

I've been pondering this thought for many years -  Can a "Christian" truly be Christian if he is never baptized in the Holy Spirit? Many "Christian " denominations outright deny the "baptism of the Spirit" and preach and teach against it. They deny tongues,  prophecy, The gifts -  really anything spiritual, except the "born-again" doctrine, which I know cannot happen without the Holy Spirit.  How can "these signs" follow a believer who isn't baptized in the Holy Ghost? 

"In my name they shall cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues,  they shall take up serpents,  and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover".

Those who refuse to be baptized into the Holy Ghost are preaching and displaying a powerless Gospel.  They accept Christ but not the Spirit with whom He's anointed. They invite Christ in but deny the Holy Spirit entry, and no, we are not automatically baptized in the Spirit when we are born-again.  It is a separate,  distinct experience.  "he that believes AND IS baptized".  Paul came across a group of believers who had never been baptized in the Spirit,  so he promptly laid hands on them and baptized them in the Holy Ghost.  

"He that believes on Me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit,  which they that believe on Him SHOULD RECEIVE; for the Holy Ghost was not yet given"

"And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of Truth whom the world cannot receive ". Do you see it? We are given the Spirit so that we may Abide with him forever! Eternal life comes from the presence of the Father - by his Spirit! Believe AND be baptized! Without the Holy Spirit we cannot live forever! Many denominations are full of "nice people" who blithely go about their entire lives without ever experiencing the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit abiding in them. 

"Nevertheless I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you, but if I depart I will send him unto you".

Could it be that when we ask Christ into our hearts -  we should be asking the Spirit to live within us too? Can we ask Jesus into our hearts without also inviting the Holy Spirit? Can a gospel be preached that lifts up the name of Jesus but denies his presence,  his very Spirit? Can someone "believe on Jesus Christ" and yet not believe on the Holy Spirit of promise?

We must have these three bear witness in us -  that we are indeed his - "And there are three that bear witness in earth,  the Spirit,  and the water, and tje blood"  Without any one of the three -  we are dead and not alive. We must have air, water and blood to live. And these three are essential forvour eternal life- "there are three that bear record in HEAVEN- The Father, The Word, and the Holy Ghost". On earth as it is in Heaven! 

John's baptism was in water, Jesus' was in the Spirit.  One baptizes our flesh for an outward display of an inward commitment. The other baptizes our spirit for an inward display of an outward confession. We cannot confess the real Christ -  the one full of authority and power,  without the Holy Spirit.  Men can confess a dead Christ  - a powerless Christ-  a past-tense Christ who is not relevant or alive today, but they cannot confess the real Christ of Scripture,  without the Holy Spirit-  living and breathing within them, daily. Amen.

"And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit "

"Follow after love AND desire spiritual gifts"

"Quench not The Spirit"

"Despise not prophecying " "but if all prophecy "

"For to one is given by THE SPIRIT.....to another by the SAME SPIRIT"

 The world is made for natural creatures -  for flesh, for nature. So, disembodied spirits are out of place here. It's unnatural to be here without a body, without flesh to dwell in. Remember the curse God put on Satan -  "because you have done this, you are cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field, upon thy belly shall you go, and dust shall you eat all the days of your life".

"Eating dust" means Satan and all his demons, crave flesh -  they lust for it endlessly.  Anyone they influence also ends up lusting -  endlessly lusting,  for flesh. Their own above all else but also others. The lust of the flesh consumes their lives. The demons Jesus cast out of the man of the tombs, craved flesh so badly they begged Jesus to allow them to enter a herd of swine. Fallen spirits are addicted to fallen flesh. When we become a " new creation" in Christ Jesus -  demons will flee from the presence of Christ: but we must be filled with the Holy Spirit for the demons to stay away. Fallen flesh has no defence against fallen spirits, indeed, they are not even aware of them. One of Satan's most successful strategies is to convince people he doesn't exist. A Christian's only defense is to give his flesh to the Lord -  to make it "holy ground " -  by inviting the Holy Spirit to inhabit  soil (dust) Satan and his cohorts used to eat. Satan, and his own, whether demons, devils or human spirits -  eat "flesh" all their days: they consume fleshly desires and lusts. Christians too "eat flesh" -  but we eat Jesus' flesh. Every time we take communion we're reminded of this. We survive as saints on His flesh, not our own. In other words, we no longer consume fleshly lusts and desires (and are no longer consumed by them) rather, we consume Christ's love -  his fruit. We are motivated by his desires -  we give and not take, we bless and not curse, we love and not hate. 

We become righteous (flesh) and no longer unrighteous (flesh). Remember Mark 16:16? "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved". All my life i thought Jesus was speaking of water baptism. I personally love the ceremony of water baptism. The symbolusm. The public witness, but i always had a nagging question  - wow Lord, You sure put an incredible emphasis on water baptism.  I mean, if someone believes the Gospel but somehow doesn't get baptized before they die, they won't be saved? God has opened my eyes to this truth: Jesus is referring to the baptism of the Spirit -  not water baptism alone.

"And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, upon whom you shall see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost ". 

Part two next

 The Lord suddenly spoke to me the other day. He opened the eyes of my understanding once again.  He showed me there's a difference between loving someone and being in love with them. Many love Me, he said, but they're not in love with Me. The difference is enormous.  Many love Me for what I do, did, or will do for them, but to be in love with Me is to want me for me - for who I am, not what I can do. He ponted out, he's not condemning those who love Him, indeed,  they are accepted in the beloved. Loving Him for what He can do, will do for us is a perfect response.  It's just that those in love with me give me their very lives in sacrifice....they love me with all their hearts, regardless of outward circumstances. These sing to me the song of songs, these have an undivided passion for me that burns hotter as the day of my return approaches. These abide in my secret place, and will behold me face to face forever. 

 I find it odd that in Tennis  - zero is not called "zero", or "nil", or "nothing" -  it's  called "love".

In Christianity,  when there's nothing of us left, when we empty ourselves of "self", when there's no pride, no agendas of our own, hidden or otherwise, when we truly "die daily" -  this is love! In it's purest form! Because love always involves sacrifice.  Remember what Jesus said? Greater love has no man than this - that he lay down his life...for a friend.  Who is our best friend we'll ever have? The Lord himself! If we lose (give up) this life for his sake, we'll find true life and riches, not the fleeting,  temporary life the world devotes itself to (self). 

So remember that,  next time you're called to sacrifice- more of yourself,  be it your time, money, or a thing (car or favorite tie). Love isn't love till you give it away.