pursuing LOVE...and JOY...and WHOLEHEARTEDNESS!

This is the season where we anticipate God's coming to live with men through the birth of Jesus. From the beginning of creation, God has desired intimate relationship with man and woman. He walked with them and talked with them in the cool of the day in Genesis 3. At the end of time, the events of this present age will culminate in God coming to dwell with us on the earth. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them. Revelation 21:3 I have been thinking about what it means to live as though I believe that God is with me. This seems especially important given events like the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting and people experiencing terror and the devastation of grief. It feels important as I talk with people in my office about their pain and suffering and how they can connect with God when their feelings are so inten...

I spend a lot of time with messy people. After all, helping messy people is what I do. But recently, God has been sending me some people who are even messier than usual. And, I haven't responded very well. I don't like being screamed at in my office. I don't really like when other people scream at each other in my office. I don't like hostile clients who insist that they have no problems and everyone else is to blame. I don't like injustice or when people sin against my clients in a gross and habitual manner and they hurt. Mostly, I don't like when these things are happening and I start to feel powerless and completely unable to do anything that will help bring about change. I tell God that I feel overwhelmed and I do not think that I am equipped to handle these kinds of clients. I hear Him respond, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come...

I just listened to an excellent teaching by Mike Bickle from the Zechariah conference at IHOP-KC in September. I strongly encourage you to take an hour and listen to this teaching. http://mikebickle.org/resources/resource/3373?return_url=http%3A%2F%2Fmikebickle.org%2Fresources%2Fseries%2Fzechariah I want to share a few of the words that really impacted me. 5 Say to all the people of the land, and to the priests: "When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months during those seventy years, did you really fast for Me — for Me ? 6 When you eat and when you drink, do you not eat and drink for yourselves ? 7 Should you not have obeyed the words which the LORD proclaimed through the former prophets when Jerusalem and the cities around it were inhabited and prosperous ?" (Zech. 7:4-7) Eat and drink : In both their fasts and feasts they focused on themselves without regard for their relationship with the Lord or His larger purposes for their nation. Whether...