alive in Christ — Warrior of The Presence

Moonrise: The End of Our Dominion Jul 20, 2020 I am a bow on Your hands, Lord. Draw me, lest I rot. Do not overdraw me, Lord. I shall break. Overdraw me, Lord, and who cares if I break. ~Nikos Kazantzakis Listen to me, O…

Renewed by Our Calling Mar 10, 2019 i am to live such that 1,000,000 more might walk fully surrendered to Christ. That they might put on His righteousness. That their joy may be full, and that they might pour the peace they are…

Doxa Mar 1, 2019 I read in a periodical the other day that the fundamental thing is how we think of God. By God Himself, it is not! How God thinks of us is not only more important, but infinitely…

Eternity in A Song Feb 5, 2019 Earth breaks up, time drops away,In flows heaven, with its new day.~Robert Browning (1812-1889) After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to…

Always Remember, And Never Forget Jan 5, 2019 Far too many contemporary scholars try to explain what the Resurrection is: Oh, it’s a myth, it’s a legend, it’s a symbol, it’s a sign that Jesus’ cause goes on, that he’s a great man that…

Love Is Mine. I Own It. Nov 11, 2018 “I loved Sarah, Charles. It was mine, that love. I owned it. Even Sarah didn’t have the right to take it away. I can love whoever I want.” Charles said, “But she thought you were pathetic.”…

Torrent from The Tabernacle Aug 27, 2018 In what strange quarries and stoneyards the stones for the celestial wall are being hewn! Out of the hillsides of humiliated pride; deep in the darkness of crushed despair; in the fretting and dusty atmosphere of…

Death by Incurvatus in Se Aug 23, 2018 Incurvatus in se (Latin for Turned/curved inward on oneself. St. Augustine’s definition of sin.) Sin is, in truth, the hardest of all masters. In its service there is plenty of fair promises, but an utter dearth…

Am I Enough for You? Aug 20, 2018 Whenever our Lord talked about the relation of a disciple to Himself it was in terms of mystical union: “I am the vine , ye are the branches.” We have not paid enough attention to the…

The Bible Is A Weird Book Aug 16, 2018 The Bible is a weird book. There, I’ve got that on tape now! It is though. And I mean that as high praise! … Be patient, I tell preachers. Be patient with the Bible. Don’t run…

Desert Warfare: Winning on The Toughest Battlefields Jul 23, 2018 When Christ formed in us finds free course for all His mind and all His passion; when our eyes are opened to the great purposes of His life in the salvation of the whole world; and…

Deal with It, Or Act It Out – Don’t Fake It, Face It Jun 4, 2018 It is in the dark that God is passing by. The bridge and our lives shake not because God has abandoned, but the exact opposite: God is passing by. God is in the tremors. Dark is…

Is This Worth It? May 27, 2018 There are four questions of value in life… What is sacred? Of what is the spirit made? What is worth living for, and what is worth dying for? The answer to each is same. Only love.…

Demanding Our Healing May 22, 2018 God is our true Friend, who always gives us the counsel and comfort we need. Our danger lies in resisting Him; so it is essential that we acquire the habit of hearkening to His voice, or…

Speaking The Truth in Love May 3, 2018 When we are speaking the truth in love, we are not putting someone down nicely—we are elevating someone brilliantly. We are saying to people, “You don’t need to be doing that because this is who you…

Love-Driven Facts May 1, 2018 You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired…

Walking in The Spirit: The Fools Victory Apr 29, 2018 Meekness is those who have swords and know how to use them, but keep them sheathed, will inherit the world. Meekness is those who have swords and know how to use them, but keep them sheathed,…

Black Saturday: Where Death and Life Meet Mar 31, 2018 It is Saturday We are bewildered We are scared What happened to Him could happen to us We are waiting for what He said but the silence is deafening Doubt-filled fear controls most moments If true,…

G_d Ain’t Got No Dog in The Fight Mar 25, 2018 There’s no shadow You won’t light up Mountain You won’t climb up Coming after me There’s no wall You won’t kick down Lie You won’t tear down Coming after me There’s no shadow You won’t light…

Level 12 Exercise: Fully Mature Son Mar 14, 2018 It is morally impossible to exercise trust in God while there is failure to wait upon Him for guidance and direction. The man who does not learn to wait upon the Lord and have his thoughts…

Treasure in The Junk of Our Lives Feb 21, 2018 When I saw my name on Nancy’s reply and realized I hadn’t received it, I found it in my Junk file. There is a message from God here – you have to continually search your junk…

Draw into The Presence of G_d Feb 7, 2018 I want the presence of God Himself, or I don’t want anything at all to do with religion. ~ AW Tozer But when Christ appeared as a High Priest of the good things that have come,…

Hunger for Righteousness: Born from Death to Self Jan 21, 2018 When the soul by the Holy Spirit comes to know the Mother of God; when in the Holy Spirit the soul becomes kin to the Apostles, the Prophets, and all the Saints and Righteous Ones, then…

Him Alone: Is He Really Enough? Jan 8, 2018 No soul can be really at rest until it has given up all dependence on everything else and has been forced to depend on the Lord alone. As long as our expectation is from other things,…

Eternity’s Echo in Time Jan 7, 2018 Augustine tells of a vision of seeing a little boy at a beach scooping up the ocean thimbleful by thimbleful and emptying it out on the sand. Then he sees an angel who tells him that…

“God Is in Sovereign” – The Breath of A Quintillion Suns Dec 26, 2017 Always be cautious about invoking the “God is in control” card. Of course He is. But, it is His card to play, not ours. Personal responsibility matters. A lot. ~ Makala Barnabas Doulos For we know…

Little Death Bringing Bigger Lives Dec 14, 2017 This is true joy in life, the being used up for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and…

Newly-Cracked Pots Spilling Ancient Oil And Wine Nov 21, 2017 I have always been filled with the fires of the love of a God not old, and now to this has been joined the passion of the love of a young man. That love, dear earth,…

Judgement Day Is Real: And It Is A Harder Day Than We Think Nov 13, 2017 Each man receives his eternal retribution in his immortal soul at the very moment of his death, in a particular judgment that refers his life to Christ: either entrance into the blessedness of heaven-through a purification…

True Adulthood Is Having The Heart of A Child Nov 9, 2017 The Lord greatly loves the repenting sinner and mercifully presses him to His bosom: “Where were you, My child? I was waiting a long time for you.” The Lord calls all to Himself with the voice…

The Pleasure of His Presence: Everything We Have Been Looking For Nov 5, 2017 I regard myself as the most wretched of all men, stinking and covered with sores, and as one who has committed all sorts of crimes against his King. Overcome by remorse, I confess all my wickedness…

A Love Grown Large to Heal The Evil Within Oct 25, 2017 I think one may be quite rid of the old haunting suspicion—which raises its head in every temptation—that there is something else than God—some other country . . . into which He forbids us to trespass—some…

His Way Is Not Our Way: The Unstoppable Holy Spirit Oct 21, 2017 When the soul knows the love of God by the Holy Spirit, then he clearly feels that the Lord is our own Father, the closest, dearest Father, the best. And there is not greater happiness that…

Jesus is The 道 (The Dao, or Way) Oct 20, 2017 There exists a Being undifferentiated and complete, Born before heaven and earth. Tranquil, boundless, Abiding alone and changing not, Encircling everything without exhaustion. Fathomless, it seems to be the Source of all things. I do not…

Jesus: Becoming What We Consume Oct 15, 2017 If we receive the Eucharist worthily, we become what we receive. ~ St. Augustine of Hippo Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. I speak as to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. The cup…

Through Forgiveness into Love Oct 13, 2017 What is perfection in love? Love your enemies in such a way that you would desire to make them your brothers … For so did He love, Who hanging on the Cross, said “Father, forgive them,…

Not Today: Nope Sep 26, 2017 Falsehood – and only falsehood – separates us from God … False thoughts, false words, false feelings, false desires – Behold the aggregate of lies that leads us to non-being, illusion, and rejection of God. ~St.…

Shipwrecked at The Prison Cell’s Open Door Sep 17, 2017 You are free. You just don’t know it yet. ~Francine Rivers For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery… For you were called to…

Out of The Prison, And into The Light Aug 9, 2017 If thou intend not nor seek nothing else but the pleasing of God and the profit of thy neighbor thou shalt have inward liberty. ~Thomas à Kempis (c. 1380-1471) As soon as his master heard the…

Princes of The Kingdom: Living ἐν κηρύγματι May 28, 2017 The deeper we grow in the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the poorer we become – the more we realize that everything in life is a gift. The tenor of our lives becomes one of humble and…

Living in The Spirit Is A Real Thing May 18, 2017 i used to think that passion separated us from the beasts. Now I think that passion separates us from the spiritually dead or dying. ~ John Stack Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking…

G_d Is Bigger May 6, 2017 The enemies of Christ are triumphant, Christianity is a failure, they say, and the church of God herself looks on in pain at the shortcomings in her midst. But lo, at length from the very heart…

The Destiny of Who We Are May 5, 2017 “We know not what we shall be”; but we may be sure we shall be more, not less, than we were on earth. Our natural experiences (sensory, emotional, imaginative) are only like the drawing, like pencilled…

April Storms Bring Eternal Flowers Apr 30, 2017 What then is God? Of the universe he is the final end; as to election, he is salvation; as to himself, he hath knowledge. What is God? Omnipotent will, virtue of highest benevolence, light eternal, reason…

Already Seated Above The Fight Apr 29, 2017 It has come these days with new light and power that the first thing we have to see to as we draw near to God day by day is that our fellowship is with the Father,…

Living The Life of The Dead Mar 12, 2017 There’s a part of you – the born-again part, your spirit – that’s dead to sin. That’s why it bothers you now when you sin. The ‘wilderness’ part of you – your soul – is your…

The Lies of Reputation Feb 20, 2017 Reputation is what men and women think of us. Character is what God and the angels know of us. ~Thomas Paine (1737-1809) Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints…

Eternally Done: The Nature of Our Salvation Feb 17, 2017 So, are you worried about whether G_d has changed His mind about you? Or, are you concerned about the pressing circumstances of life? He hasn’t, and the circumstances (though real) are hardly overwhelming in light of…

Politics Won’t Save Us Jan 24, 2017 I remember once when I had been giving a talk to the R.A.F., an old, hard-bitten officer got up and said, ‘I’ve no use for all that stuff. But, mind you, I’m a religious man too.…

Our Loss to Distraction: Finding What Matters Jan 10, 2017 To feel safe is to stop living in my head and sink down into my heart and feel liked and accepted … not having to hide anymore and distract myself with books, television, movies, ice cream,…

Awakening to Our True Hunger Dec 29, 2016 I came to love You late, O Beauty so ancient and new; I came to love You late. You were within me and I was outside, where I rushed about wildly searching for You like some…

Freedom: Repenting from Smallness Dec 25, 2016 Over your prison cell it is has always said, “CONDEMNED.” “SEPARATED,” eternally, from God. “GUILTY”! And then suddenly, it switches when you realize what Jesus Christ has done. It says, “JUSTIFIED.” It says, “FORGIVEN,” “REDEEMED”!! ……

Living Free among The Captives Aug 21, 2016 The martyr cannot be dishonored… every burned book or house enlightens the world; every suppressed or expunged word reverberates through the earth from side to side.~Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) Behold, I am sending you out as…

Living Large Jul 13, 2016 Here, monks, a disciple dwells pervading one direction with his heart filled with loving-kindness, likewise the second, the third, and the fourth direction; so above, below and around; he dwells pervading the entire world everywhere and…

The End of Heaviness Mar 9, 2016 For those who feel their lives are a grave disappointment to God, it requires enormous trust and reckless, raging confidence to accept that the love of Jesus Christ knows no shadow of alteration or change. When…

Dead Man Loving Feb 16, 2016 We become what we love. When we are fixed and focused on who God is in His essential nature then the presence of His agape love in us sets us free to love in the same…

Three Words to Live by: “I Got You” Dec 10, 2015 Without fear I can acknowledge that the authentic Christian tension is not between life and death, but between life and life.~Brennan Manning This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.…

Moving Off-Center That We Might Find Ourselves Dec 8, 2015 Only in the context of the great encounter with Jesus Christ himself can a real authentic struggle take place. The encounter with Christ does not take place before, after, or beyond the struggle with our false…

Gasping in His Arms Sep 19, 2015 Becoming a little child meant becoming aware that all is gift, that I am helpless and powerless to add a single inch to my spiritual stature. Without the subjective awareness of utter dependence, the personal consciousness…

The Emissary’s Authority Sep 11, 2015 God is not saving the world; it is done. Our business is to get men and women to realize it… How many people have you made homesick for God?~Oswald Chambers (1874-1917) Now the eleven disciples went…