When we Fly

When we Fly!
James Fuller ©

Pawns of chaos rule their life.
Dark skies lay ahead,
They’ve abandoned the light.
The dreams of our fathers
have been laid to waste.
Their legacy lost,
its disgrace they embrace.

We search for tomorrow
We look to the skies
We long for you Jesus
To see the day
When we Fly.
Give us our wings Lord
So we can Fly

In perversion they’re married
God’s law is ignored,
With they’re sins they’re buried.
Two plowing and grinding
And then there is one,
consumed by the darkness,
their fate won’t be undone.

We search for tomorrow
We look to the skies
We long for you Jesus
To see the day
When we Fly.
Give us our wings Lord
So we can Fly

Baleful hands lead them astray,
blindly they follow,
lost, in their wicked ways.
Under clouds of darkness
lie rainbows of light,
a haven for those
who give Jesus their life!

We search for tomorrow
We look to the skies
We long for you Jesus
To see the day
When we Fly.
Give us our wings Lord
So we can Fly

Obama-nomics

My Dad sent me this in an email today. I thought it was a perfect picture of our government today!

Obama-nomics: It is the month of August; a resort town sits next to the shores of a lake. It is raining, and the little town looks totally deserted. It is tough times, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit.

Suddenly, a rich tourist comes to town. He enters the only hotel, lays a 100 dollar bill on the reception counter, and goes to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one.

The hotel proprietor takes the 100 dollar bill and runs to pay his debt to the butcher.

The Butcher takes the 100 dollar bill, and runs to pay his debt to the pig raiser.

The pig raiser takes the 100 dollar bill, and runs to pay his debt to the supplier of his feed and fuel.

The supplier of feed and fuel takes the 100 dollar bill and runs to pay his debt to the town's prostitute that in these hard times, gave her "services" on credit.

The hooker runs to the hotel, and pays off her debt with the 100 dollar bill to the hotel proprietor to pay for the rooms that she rented when she brought her clients there.

The hotel proprietor then lays the 100 dollar bill back on the counter so that the rich tourist will not suspect anything.

At that moment, the rich tourist comes down after inspecting the rooms, and takes his 100 dollar bill, after saying he did not like any of the rooms, and leaves town.

No one earned anything. However, the whole town is now without debt, and looks to the future with a lot of optimism.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how the United States Government is doing business today.

I wish I knew who to give credit to for writing this… it is classic!

The Beginning… was the End, Part II (The Answer)

For the last few years I have struggled immensely with something. I have pretty much kept it to myself because it felt blasphemous to talk about… and most of the answers I have been given from those in the know, just seemed like double talk or rhetoric.

I think the Bible is pretty clear about Gods plan for us, and the predetermined course He has set this world on since before creation… In other words He had an exact idea of who would do what, where and when right down to the minutest detail before the first grain of sand came into existence. It seemed impossible that we could simultaneously have free will and yet each of us follow the exact course for our lives that He has already predetermined… and for years now this has made no sense to me. I have lived my life just chalking it up as a God thing, and remained eternally grateful that He chose to make me one of His, in spite of myself. But this left me with another attitude that bordered on apathy when it came to prayer. Why pray if He already knows what He is going to do anyway? If the outcome is already predetermined then what is the point! I have wrestled God for answers to this for a very long time now, and recently I have had or He has given me an epiphany of sorts, I am not sure which so I will let you be the judge as to where it came from. But it works for me.

I believe whole heartedly that God has indeed set this world on a preset course of His making… and within the framework of this, still allowed for us to decide for ourselves exactly how we want to live. And when we pray to Him He hears us and answers accordingly. Sometimes we get a “yes” and sometimes we get a “no”, but we still get His ear and an answer. But even though He has already decided thousands of years earlier what the answer would be, it is still an answer that is relevant to us and timed for where we are and what we are doing at that moment in time. TIME is the key. Remember that we exist within time… but He exists outside of time. And if we don’t pray we get the luck of the draw or His divine providence… whichever way you want to view it. Because He still answers us according to what we ask or don’t ask for, when we ask Him.

Look at it this way… when we ask Him for something He is here at this very moment in time ready to do for us according to His will and our desire as His children… but simultaneously He is also still at the beginning of creation, planning for what we would ask for (at this moment) knowing in advance that we would ask, and making a provision in His divine framework so that He can answer our prayer at the precise moment we ask. You could view it as praying to God right here and now while at the same time praying to God at the moment He was creating and setting into motion everything that would be within the complex intricacy of how He wanted the world to run. So He really is answering yours/my prayer right now and He is hearing us right now… while still hearing us thousands of year’s earlier, and making preparation for the prayer you would ask so He could make a provision for the answer.

It sounds a little convoluted because it is… but then so is anything that try’s to answer a question that relates to time and it’s existence, while dealing with a Being that does not exist within time and provide some kind of rational answer as to the how and why of its inner working…

I don’t have a Biblical reference for any of what I have shared here. All I have is an answer that satisfies my yearning for understanding when I had none.

I pray it helps you as it has helped me!

Jim

In the beginning… was the end!

Before the first molecule of creation came to be, before time began, everything that would follow was played out in reverse. God knew the end before He ever made the beginning. And He knew what would take place in between it all, right down to the minutest detail.

Psalm 139:15-16: My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

He has pre-ordained the moments of our lives right down to the places we would live, and call home.

Acts 17:26 From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.

God created time specifically for us, and therefore He lives outside of it. He exists simultaneously from the beginning to the end and every where in between. I once heard it described as watching a parade. We are on the street watching as it passes by. We can only see what is in front of us and what has already passed us by. But God views the parade from above, where He can simultaneously watch the parade from beginning to end.
I think Solomon understood this, and declared it when he wrote: “That which has been is that which will be, and that which has been done is that which will be done. So there is nothing new under the sun.” Ecclesiastes 1:9.

I also think that some in the early church understood this thought of Gods simultaneous existence in time, and thought or hoped that they could convince God by petition to alter history so that their loved ones who had already passed could be prayed for, and by proxy be baptized and saved.

1 Corinthians 15:28-30 When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all. Otherwise, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why then are they baptized for them?

I don’t believe that God would alter the course of history for them, or anyone else! But then, where does that leave us for our present and our future? If the past is indelibly written in stone, then so must be today, as well as our future! If the course of our life is already written, then where is our choice? In some respects (as it relates to His calling us to be His) we have none. In His sovereignty He decided before it all began, who He was going to call to be His children! But in another sense, just because what is already known has been written, does not mean we did not freely choose for ourselves that which we would do. We all have the choice to be who we want, to be His or not. But none of us have the strength to make the right choice, to choose Him above self, without God first choosing us.

John 6:44 "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him…

It is a complete paradox. The Bible tells us that unless He chooses us first, we wouldn’t even pay attention to Him. And if He doesn’t chose us we will first choose ‘self’ over a relationship with Him. Not only that but, not every one He calls will choose Him or be chosen by Him…

Matthew 22:14 "For many are called, but few are chosen."

So what is the point of all of this? The point is simple! That which will be has already been, and that which has been, forcefully leads us to that which will be. The only variable in the whole lot of it is your mindset. Choosing to do that which has been decided already or rebelling against that which you have no choice in anyway. You will either choose to do the will of your Father as His child, anticipating with joy that which He has in store for you. Or do as you will, while God molds circumstance or time to conform you to His will.

The difference between the two is interminable. One leads to a loving relationship with the Father who loves you completely for all eternity, while the other gives you exactly what you choose. An eternity spent outside of that relationship, on your own… just as you willed.

Both, in places that are befitting of your choice.

I finally figured out what’s wrong…

I finally figured out what’s wrong…

What the world has become sickens me. From the continual perversion and sexual undertones that I see on TV, to what takes place in the hearts and lives of leaders that govern the land we live in.

We face a continual stream of meaningless wars; that appear to be more of a political tool for the elite than for any real cause. We would rather fight to be politically correct than fight to win… it all seems so lost. There are so many, many things that are wrong it is impossible to focus on any one travesty and look for its cure. It is like trying to offer aspirin to someone dying of a cancer that has riddled their body.

We truly live in the time when people are lovers of themselves, with a fascination for spiritual things without any interest in substance or truth.

I don’t have a message or want to try and offer a cure… I just want to go home… or see home finally come to me.

God must be sick of it too. It can’t be too far away now!

What Lies Below

I am lost, blind in the darkness of the depths that I have fallen to. The pressure of the deep is all around suffocating me, squeezing out the little air remaining in my lungs, yet still I am alive. My body shivers continually in the absence of warmth, strong currents continue to take me where I fear to go… ever deeper. I came here willingly, and willingly I continue on, passing the point of no return long ago. What lies above… what I left behind; is not worth returning to. It pales in contrast to the promises He made.

In blind faith I dove in to pursue Him, swimming ever deeper in search of the bottom… only to find there is none. Now, I have not the strength to continue swimming, so I fall. Drifting through the silent cold waters of what lies below. I often wonder if He knows I am here, if He even cares… I search in vain finding only the cold silence of the deep. I came here in pursuit of Him; I came here at His word, abandoning all vestiges of my life above; only to become lost as light was swallowed by the depth. As I continue downward I find others along the way returning to the hopelessness of what lies above. I plead with them to hold on a little longer, to stay the course…His course. I offer them hope and encouragement from that which I do not have. But they pay no heed, still they continue upward, returning to certain destruction.
As for me I press on. I will still cling to the promises He has made, overcoming the pain and fear that pursues me. I still believe… and because I believe, for me there is no other choice.

My only desire is to hear Him speak the words; “Well done, thou good and faithful servant!”

I WILL succeed in this endeavor… or die in my failure.

Significant Insignificance

That’s what we are, right? Significantly insignificant! At least that’s how it feels sometimes.

I read in Psalms where David writes in 1 Samuel; “God who am I that you would bring me and my household this far”, and I am mindful of a line in a popular song today that says; “Who am I that you are mindful of me?” There are many times when I sit out on my front step late at night staring at the stars, contemplating the sheer size of the universe and thinking similar thoughts.

In the context of the universe, we are just one of a billion microbes, living on an insignificant grain of sand on a vast beach, with countless of other billions of grains of sand. How is it that the God of all that is, can even find me in the midst of all the microbes scattered among all the other grains of sand, let alone know me by name and love and care for me! But He says He does! Not only does He know my name, but he knows me so intimately that He has numbered the very hairs on my head…

Luke 12:6-7 Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

So even though at times I feel significantly insignificant, God tells me that I am significant to Him. He says that He loves me, and to prove it He laid down His life for me. And, even if I was the only microbe living in the midst of billions of grains of sand… He would still search me out and lay His life down for me, so that we could be together for eternity. And not just for me... it is an open invitation for any one wants to be exclusivly His!

Like the rest of the song says; “I AM A FRIEND OF GODS”, and you can be too!

Do we serve an awesome God or What?