The School of Christ

I recently was sent this book in the mail that really wasn't supposed to be sent to me, but it was needed to send something a bit smaller that came inside its pages. Something of much lesser value than this book.

I looked at the title of the book and was immediately taken back to 1996 when I walked into the newest adventure of my life. I walked into a discipleship training school with Youth With A Mission called The School of Christ DTS.

Something about this title had drawn me from the beginning....what did this mean "the school of Christ"? All I knew was that the Spirit of the living God drew me to this place of learning, to this place of finding who Jesus was for me. I found Him, not in a country, not in a school, but in my heart, in my spirit, in my understanding. I found myself starting a time of learning from Him, just like Matthew 11:29 says "Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me".

What did learning from Jesus mean for me? Little did I know that this time in my life would set the tone for all the years to come. This year I am looking back 16 years to that time and sometimes I wish that pure, 100% focused time would return, but I realize that I have grown in the learning and I am at a different place, I can only but look back and be glad I stepped into that school with Him. I can't go back there and don't have to go back there, it doesn't have to repeat itself, but sometimes those times of beginnings are so special that you want to repeat them, but I look back and I see a trail behind me with footsteps in which I so often see His and mine together and sometimes His alone because I know He carried me through those moments and still sometimes just my footsteps, because it was necessarily for me to walk through some things alone, but never without His strength.

This school of Christ that I started 16 years ago continues, it is never ending, it gets more intense, more deep, more revealing. The longer you study, the more you see, the more you understand, the further you get. Just like the twelve disciples first were in the school of Christ, they were discipled and disciplined and than they were the sent ones and became apostles (The School of Christ by T. Austin Sparks).

Do you remember that day where you stepped into the School of Christ and became a disciple, where you didn't just look at Christ and learned about Him, but that school where you stepped in to submerge yourself into the studies of who He is, where you learned of Him, not about Him. Where Jesus Himself through His Spirit became your teacher, giving you revelation for life.

Walking with Jesus was never meant to be a school about Jesus and filling our minds with information, it was meant to be a school, a learning that we go through and last for as long as needed until we come out on the other side with greater understanding, revelation and will walk according to what He taught us. Where we don't take a paper exam and try to get straight A's, but where every day in school is an exam and we can pass or fail at any given moment. But with our hearts set correctly, with our eyes in the right direction we will pass and not just pass, we will live past the exam, the exam will disappear and what will remain is our hearts, not the right answer in our minds, but the right attitude of our hearts.

I don't want to leave this school.....don't want to stop learning, receiving. Jesus, your school is the best there is, your teachings are life changing, live giving. Give me fresh revelation today, show me something new that I haven't seen yesterday so I can share You in the way that is worthy of who You are, nothing less. If I have to stop and linger on one thing longer than I stop, I study, I sit, I read, I learn from You....

Are you in the school of Christ? Are you a disciple? Followers of Jesus are disciples if they continue to hunger to learn more each day from Him whom they follow. If following Jesus has become something you just do and it has become a routine and you feel you are studying, learning, but doing it just to pass the test, than stop for one moment. Lay down your books, set aside your pencil, stop reading for one moment and ask the Spirit of God to awaken you to His voice, so that the words on the pages, the writings of your pen will come alive in your heart and mind. That is where the revelation comes when as you read and write you see new things about Him, the one you follow....

I am Yours...

Remember this moment? Remember this when you were just born?

Probably not, most of us don't remember. But I do remember when I was born again into the family of God and God Himself held me like that.

Things haven't changed since then, I just don't always realize it or feel that I am lying on His chest, finding rest, finding peace, finding refuge.

But the reality is that He holds us in His arms, He doesn't let us go. I remember this moment with my third little one, she was a few hours old and it felt so wonderful to hold her tight to my chest, and look at her face, so peaceful, so at ease, so hidden in the love of her mommy.
This is the most beautiful thing about following Jesus. We can go to this place of refuge whenever we want, whenever we need it most, we can go. So if today you need to feel like a little baby, GO!!!

Don't hesitate to just put your ear to hear His heartbeat, to feel His breathing. His arms are always open, leave all the things behind you for just one moment. Let your delight be in Him and His delight be in you.

A letter from God in your mailbox

Read this...

Hebrews 3:7-10 “Today if you hear His voice,
⁸ Do not harden your hearts as ^[a]when they provoked Me,
As in the day of trial in the wilderness,
⁹ Where your fathers tried Me by testing Me,
And saw My works for forty years.
¹⁰ “Therefore I was angry with this generation,
And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart,
And they did not know My ways’

What kind of generation are we living in today? What would God say to us today? I believe that this day the Holy Spirit is putting it on my heart to write this verse and He is speaking it to me so clearly.

Let's keep reading...

¹² Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart ^[b]that falls away from the living God. ¹³ But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. ¹⁴ For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end.


How often our hearts "fall away" from the truth of God. We need to fill our minds and hearts with the truth of God TODAY so that do not fall away from it, fall away from believing in the LIVING God.

Then we need to ENCOURAGE one another DAY AFTER DAY.....as long as it is still called TODAY!!

We are not talking about yesterday for it is gone. We are not talking about tomorrow for it is not yet. We are talking about TODAY!!!

We as human beings always tend to look for so many "other" things to fill our day, other things that make us feel hopeful that make us feel secure, when God is clearly saying in His Word "Listen to Me, don't forget about Me, BELIEF in your heart, hold on to Jesus TODAY!! So that we do not fall into sin, fall away from the living God.

I can't express enough with words how much these words are speaking to my own heart. It is like the words are leaping of the pages, have you ever had that?? Well it is happening to me now and I feel so deeply encouraged and exhorted at the same time.

This message to my heart is like a "rush" delivery letter from God's own heart. I feel like He deposited this letter in my mailbox today and I opened it and it is the most wonderful thing my heart could receive today.

So go to your mailbox today and see if the Lord would have a letter for you today, maybe this message is for your also, then praise God. Let's respond to the Lord while reading this. Write Him a letter in return, sing Him a song and send up a fragrant offering to the One that deserves all glory and honor forever, AMEN!!

If we would really respond!!!

You see the world would be covered with the "fire" of God's Spirit if we as believers would really respond to the call of God.

"Therefore GO and make disciples of ALL nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to OBEY everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age".

My heart is once again touched with revelation when I read this scripture. 

Imagine yourself at that very moment in front of Jesus hearing Him say these words to YOU. First of all you are looking at God in human form called "Jesus". If you would stand in front of Him and would have spend 3 years with Him as His disciple you would probably take His words more seriously, but then again how many years have you been walking with Jesus today? Are you taking His words seriously, because these words are spoken to us today and every day when you read His word.

Read again it says "GO". That is an active verb, it takes action from our part to respond. God will not make us move our feet, He is telling us to GO, but it takes initiative on our part to make the step!

Then it says to disciple ALL the nations, ALL peoples, ALL, ALL, ALL.....not half, but ALL!! What part of ALL do we not seem to get as a church? 

Baptizing them, soaking them in the knowledge of who God the Father is, of who God the Son is, of who God the Holy Spirit is.

Teaching them EVERYTHING that Jesus has taught YOU!! What has Jesus taught you today, share it. What has He shown you over the years that you have been a believer in Jesus, share it...what are you waiting for?? Jesus Himself is asking you to teach, what keeps telling you that you can't? If Jesus says it don't you think He also thinks you CAN do this? YES, you can!!

Teaching to OBEY......not teaching to remember or teaching to store knowledge or teaching so that we can become intellectual. NO....teaching people to OBEY EVERYTHING that Jesus has commanded us......

This changes everything doesn't it. Why do we teach? Why do we want to baptize, why do we GO?

So that all may know Jesus and can OBEY ALL that He has commanded us. It is through OBEDIENCE that we see the glory of God. 

If we would really respond to the call to OBEY EVERYTHING, then this world would have been filled with the glory of God already, but we are still trying to understand what really responding means and if it is worth it.

Let me tell you IT IS worth it....there is no doubt, but it will not be worth it if you are doing this for yourself. Living a life to give, to share, to seek to make Jesus known is not what you can get out of it for yourself, but how much Jesus will be glorified and how much we can bless Him by seeing more people brought into His presence!!!

If we would only respond to Him, to what He says....today can be different, dare to respond!!!

Life like a flower....

Water is so important to life isn't it. The flowers without water wouldn't blossom, wouldn't come forth out of the ground and therefore wouldn't be there for us to enjoy. Flowers are such an amazing expression of the beauty of His creation.

Flowers in all colors, shapes and sizes. All with their fragrance, their beauty, their style and all in need of that one thing "water". Where would they be without water, what would they be if they didn't have people to give them meaning.

Some flowers are for making a landscape look so amazing. Other flowers are for inside the house to give color, some flowers are given to say "thank you", than there are flowers that say "I am sorry", flowers that say "I love you", flowers that express wealth and some poverty, flowers that brighten up the room and others are meant to stay outside to color the fields in which they grow.

Flowers, in every form or meaning are created to make something more beautiful, to color creation, to bring life. When there are flowers in the room, the room comes to live. When they don't get water and spread their seeds they die out.

The water we need is not much different to stay alive. I am not talking about "real" water, although for sure we are in need of that as well to stay alive, but the water I am talking about here is the water of life. The water that gives us our meaning, gives us the life we need to spread our wings, to bring forth life.

When I look at a field of flowers such as these, tulips, all the same color, moving around in the wind and bringing forth such beauty and color that it makes the whole landscape change its meaning, it makes me think of us as human beings how we were created with such beauty, such color and fragrance to bring beauty to the creation of the Creator. The One who created heaven and earth put us as His most precious creation onto this earth and when He looked upon us He must have seen such beauty, such color, so much life, so much joy, so much love. Kind of like a flower, but so much deeper, so much more meaning. If creation was already beautiful how much more amazing would we have looked to the Creator when earth was already amazing to look at. We were made in the image of the Creator. Created in His very own likeness. If the Creator could create such beauty out of nothing, such color and diversity, how much more should we celebrate what He created in us.

But we have gone without water, we have looked for water elsewhere, not where the real source is, the Creator Himself. He is the One who knows how much water we really need to grow, to shine, to spread out, to come to fulfillment to our full purpose.

If only we would drink from the fountain, drink from the living water that is Him, Jesus. He is the bread of life, the living water that we need to receive to grow, to shine, to breath. I want my life to bring forth a sweet fragrance like a precious flower, receiving water from my Creator, being filled with the life that is Jesus. He is the life that gives me reason and meaning. Without His life, I wouldn't exist. May our thirst for Living Water be deep, be profound and may we find the source, Jesus, to be the One who fulfills all needs.

Psalm 42  As a deer pants for flowing streams,
    so pants my soul for you, O God.
²  My soul thirsts for God,
    for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?

May the wind of the Spirit blow on us today and find streams of living water that will fill our soul

The door to freedom.....

The door is open, ready to walk through, but sometimes it feels as though it is closed, but the reality is the door is open.


Jesus is the door through which to walk if we want to be free, the door is available, it is open, it is ready to walk through, but for some of us it seems as though the door is closed, we need help.


The Spirit of God came to lead us into all the truth and to show us the way to the Father, through Jesus.


But without the Spirit we will not understand that Jesus is the way, the Truth and the Life.


So we need to ask the Spirit to come, ask the Spirit to reveal Himself to us, to show us the open door. To open our eyes to the open door so we can see it.

Do you see the open door or even though it is open it looks shut to you. Ask the Spirit of God to show you the reality of the door and you will find it is wide open!! The curtain tore from top to bottom when Jesus said on the cross it is done.

"You tore the veil, You make a way, when You said that it was done"

John 14:6
Jesus answered, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Holy Spirit come....

John 14:26 "But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you"

Holy Spirit come to our lives today, we need you because Jesus said we were going to need You.

Come to our lives today as a counselor, a person who gives advice and wisdom in situations where we need it the most.

Come today to our lives in the name of Jesus to be our teacher. Teach us the Truth, Teach us how to learn from our mistakes, teach us to know right from wrong, teach us to walk in the ways of the Lord, teach us to see where we have gone astray, teach us about the ways You have always done things.

Come today to our lives to remind us of all the things Jesus has spoken when He was on this earth. Remind us of the words that Jesus spoke when He taught us how to pray "Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name...."

Remind us today of the words He spoke "I will be with you forever".

Remind us of the works Jesus did, the healing, the casting out of demons, the overcoming of temptation, the preaching of the Kingdom, the sacrifice on the cross, the words that gave us freedom "Father forgive them for they know not what they do, into Your hands Jesus committed His Spirit".

Remind us today that we have been bought with a price, the price that had complete victory over death. It no longer has a hold on us. Today we ask you Holy Spirit to set us FREE!!!

Set us free from ourselves, from our own thinking, from our own doing. We WANT YOU alone, Your truth, Your counsel, Your advice, Your wisdom, Your guidance, Your teaching and YOURS alone!! AMEN

This LOVE is so deep

It is more than I can comprehend and stand with my human mind I am melting because of it. But you know I have been made in His image, so I can understand this LOVE, this incredible feeling of being accepted unconditionally, no limits, no matter how big the mistakes that I have made in my life, He loves me.

The more I seek You, the more I find You. It is time to SEEK.

How many of us are struggling today with feeling unaccepted by the world around us. Friends we thought were friends aren't friends at all. They offer their help, but it seems those were empty words because they are not around when you really need them.

The feeling is real, when people around us let us down, when the world around us doesn't seem to understand, the day I feel I just don't have it together and I feel like I everything I do gets messed up.

Those days are the hardest in this world, the most difficult to really comprehend this Love that He has for me, for you, for us. Can I truly understand and receive it?

I could run away, but He would never leave, He will always stay right by our side.

We can lean on His love for us. Jesus is our only foundation on which we build our lives. All else falls away, but His love has been there before time and will always be there now and for eternity.

The Father loves His children and we can stand His feet, on His foundation so we don't have to do it ourselves.

Reach out today with Your arm to those who can't reach up to where You are. Those whose heart is in pain, trampled upon by others. Those who today feel they don't understand why it can never go right, when will it stop. When will there be rest for my soul?

Matthew 11:29 says "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls"

 

We can find rest with Jesus! He is inviting us to learn from Him, for He is gentle with us and He is humble in heart and He promises that we WILL find rest for our souls!!

Today if you don't have rest, reach out to Jesus, learn from Him. He has rest for us today, in Him alone.

Rest, rest today, call out to Jesus and find rest. Seek today and He promises He will be found. Listen, lean your ear towards Him, it might be softly, it might be loud, in whichever way it will be HE WANTS TO SHARE HIS HEART WITH YOU!!!

Truth and Transformation

I wanted to quickly recommend a book to you by Vishal Mangalwadi and it is called "Truth and Transformation". How when we loose the Truth of God, we will loose our nations. Excellent and necessary to read!!!

As the sun sets...

As the sun sets over the ocean, so your love sets on my heart.

As the sun sets on the horizon, so your faithfulness sets into my mind.

As the suns begins to disappear from the sight of some, so it appears to the sight of others.

As the sun represents your everlasting presence, never ceasing to exist, so your presence will set into the hearts of those who long to experience it.

As the rays of sunshine fall onto my face, so the rays of grace and mercy light up my life. As the rays of sunshine shine light onto every man, so the presence of your life Jesus is ready to shine onto to those who long to live their lives with You and You alone.

If You were not there, where would I be. If You had not died, how could I live. In You alone I find my strength, in You alone I find the reason to be. As the sun goes down every day behind the clouds, behind the ocean's horizon and rises on the other side of globe, so your presence goes and comes and can be seen and felt by those who want to see.

Though the sun is not always to be seen in its magnificent splendor, it is there. Though we don't always SEE your presence, we can know IT IS THERE!!!

Today, Your presence Jesus is real, the warmth of your faithfulness and grace will embrace those in need of You.

May the warmth of the sun fill my heart this very moment, fill my being, light up my face, light up the most challenging things I will have to face. You faced it for us, so in that I stand.  

May Your presence make the ocean of my life shine, shimmer, sparkle, glow as an ocean on which the sun sets and glows a color that no man can describe.

May Your everlasting presence make my face shine, light up in a way that even I can't describe.

As the sun sets, may your presence set into my heart as I lay my head to rest to be filled to overflowing, for Your glory alone!!

Waves of mercy, waves of grace

The waves of His grace, the waves of His mercy never run out, they are new, every day!

Today, whatever you are doing, whatever situation you are in, He knows. He wants to overflow you with the wave of His love and mercy.

Your debt is paid, there is nothing that can separate our heart from His love. In death in life you can be confident and covered by the power of His great love.

Psalms 119:76 says "May your unfailing LOVE be my comfort according to your promise to your servant".


May the waves of your unfailing Love overwhelm this world today, overwhelm my heart, my mind, my soul and rush through my life for strength.

Zephaniah 3:17 says "The Lord your God is with you, He is mighty to save"

 Those who have jumped into the ocean of Gods grace will be swept away by the waves of His mercy. He fill you, wash over you like a powerful strength, giving you what you need to live in His footsteps.


Let the current take you, let the waves of His Spirit move you towards His heart, towards understanding His heart for you. This word is for you the read to receive from Jesus revelation about what He has done for you.


Nothing I do or try to achieve for others to approve will ever be good enough, it will never get enough praise. But with God I never have to do anything to get approval for WHO I AM.

I am approved, accepted, swept away by His love into His arms so that I can rest. Rest from running away, rest from trying so hard, rest from not understanding, rest from giving meaning to things myself.


REST, REST, REST!!!


Matthew 11:28 says "Come to Me (Jesus), all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest"

A life after His

Psalm 25:4-5 
"Show me your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths; guide me in Your truth and teach me; for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.

Living a life after His life. The life of Jesus. He lived for the Glory of His father. He lived to save those He loves. He lived to give us life. He lived to die. He lived to show us the way to His Father, our Father.

In 1996 I made a choice, to live my life to serve Him, make Him known among the nations, share about His life. Since that time I have walked with Him hand in hand through many different circumstances and situations of life. 

I have seen Him uphold me when I could not life myself up. I have seen Him show me the way, when I didn't think there was a path. I have seen Him give me words, when I all I could think of was empty statements. 

He has filled my voids, filled my life with Truth, filled my thoughts with new ideas, wisdom and understanding. He has taken me from where I was, to a deeper place, the place where He is, the place where you can receive pure truth, this place inside your heart.

And still I long for more, still I am desperate for change. Still I ask what Psalm 25 to beautifully describes. Still I ask for Him to show me His ways. Where I dont' see a way, I have come to believe there is a way. 

On this way I have come to believe; on this way He teaches me about a path that I would have never taken; on this way He guides me into the truth of who He is where I believed a lie before. That is the Savior I am talking about.

In Him is my hope, in nobody else, not in myself, not in my circumstances, not in others and not in who I have come to be. 

The hope I profess is in Jesus, the lover of my soul, the Teacher I learn from, the Way I always want to follow, the Truth that erases the lies.