Monthly Archives: January 2012

…and all the pretty flowers fade

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1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
6 And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
7 He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.
Revelation 21:1-7

The beauty of our eternal future. Cast your eyes on heaven for this is God’s revelation to us through John. This earth will fail and fade. The seas that separate the faithful will be gone and we shall dwell not together by heart, but together in His prepared place hand-in-hand. We seek this eternity over all that is temporal as this life is fading. Yet we marvel at the evil that lurks and destroys before our eyes. Fear it not! We are in His arms, in His promise.

The bridegroom tarries no longer. Jesus is with us and we will see Him with all clarity. We are the bride that shall meet our Husband. The great tabernacle first built by Moses at God’s appointed time of teaching, revealing glimpses of our eternity. They wondered then as some wonder now. But, God is with us for eternity.

Our preview was with Jesus’ sojourn and sacrifice. Now it is for all time in God. God is with us.

Our tears of sorrow are no longer as all pain that is the vile sweat of a loathsome enemy is thus perished. We have no longer the worries of right and wrong. All is for righteousness. The old things are put away for all time. We rejoice. Glory is ours as we praise Him face-to-face. His promise. He is Jesus, the Alpha and Omega. He makes all thing new. We drink from the River of Life anew. We are thus eternally replenished. This is God’s promise.

We shall, in our perseverance, overcome all that is placed in our path here on earth. When we overcome, we truly inherit eternity with our Father. Heirs to His will.

..and all pretty flowers fade to ash. They are beautiful, intelligent, compassionate: All for just a season. For God is not with them as they choose the way which seems right to the foolish. We are replenished from our ashen state to His beautiful children. Thus is our purpose.

Fear not the naysayers and disbelievers. The world is a nasty spider web that will easily ensnare outwitted prey. They are of a capacity that looks a little lower than the horizon, shielding the brightness, as we look directly in to the Lord’s Light.

…many are those pretty flowers. Full bloom for a season. Withered the next. Our empty vessels are filled and we count all we are toward the goodness of God. There is not too much we can do. We love, we have mercy, we are compassionate. All of this grows exponentially – asymptotic, without earthly tangent. This is hopeless to the ones who will fade. They forever hurtle into space – never entering heaven. This is the curse of Existentialism. We, conversely, grow without end approaching our God not yet being glorified. It is Jesus who is our spiritual tangent that is our assured hope of heaven.

We never stop giving and we are tireless. As flowers fade, our ashen skin turns to milky white. He makes us new and purified. We desire all things in His will. Pray for the pretty flowers.

Rick Stassi

January 28, 2012

God is speaking

Revised 12/27/12

…our continuous testimony

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Sean Seal

9 But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.
10 And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.
11 Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.
12 But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.
13 Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.
Matthew 25:9-13 ((KJV)

So then there are wise and unwise people within the family of God. For some carry His lamp but it is not fed to provide the fuel to make it light. Instead, the light is dull and faint. The personal character of the unwise is satisfaction in the one testimony of Salvation and the omission of a testimony of Divine relationship. “He who began a good work…”, Paul writes to the Philippians. Began, indeed. “…will continue…”, Paul continues. Our testimony is of our appointments God continually makes for us. As we meet His appointed time, we are blessed and will testify His work in us. It is to edify both Him and the body.

The wise instruct the unwise, in care and compassion, to seek Him for themselves. We cannot do for another what they must do for themselves. Even our omnipotent Lord will not fill a lamp with unrequested oil. He is broken-hearted that their sloth and laziness – a lack of compassion and desire, will ultimately create separation from Him fully. A disinclination to act toward Him will separate us because He will return and the unwise will be off on a quick pursuit to enrich a relationship in a moment that should be nurtured over a lifetime. I do not attempt to talk in the place of our Lord. His mercies and grace remain unseen to me at His seat of judgment, but in the context of these verses, those who put off a living relationship with a most-loving God, will not be remembered at His Seat.

Thus, our pursuit is continual.  We replace the temporal with eternity. We replace happiness and other emotion, with joyousness and true Agape Love. God fills the emptiness in our hearts as we ask Him. He tugs at us continually; the unwise are already satisfied if not apathetic. Our eyes are through eternity. We see beyond our hand. In the dark we will not walk as our lamp burns brightly. If we lie and try to justify and rationalize darkness and light, we will be wrong. It is senseless. For what darkness can ever exist if there is present light? Maybe in a shadow, hiding, as Adam and Eve in the Garden, ashamed in full exposure. God walks to and fro and seeks our face. In the shadows we are hidden. But He knows and He is sorry for the very souls that He loves so much. The unwise are these. They walk in darkness with the rationale of light, they are wrong. Jesus will not remember them. HE will not know them.

Therefore, prepare yourself now. The kingdom of God is at hand. The Bridegroom will return. Do not be out buying oil and miss His return. It is an eternal mistake. Your testimony is continual.

Live through God’s eternal eyes.

Rick Stassi

1/27/2012

…regarding our relationship with God, pray none are foolish.

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Sean Seal

1 Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.
2 And five of them were wise, and five were foolish.
3 They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them:
4 But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.
5 While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.
6 And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.
7 Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.
8 And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out.
Matthew 25:1-8 (KJV)


…regarding our relationship with Jesus Christ, our promise from our Father, and the anointing we have received of the Oil that is the Holy Spirit. We solemnly and keenly read this discourse from our Savior regarding the Kingdom of Heaven. For this discourse is about a bride and bridegroom who, under Jewish custom, are: 1) engaged; 2) betrothed; 3) married. Thus we are likened in parable to this in our walk and pilgrimage to the Celestial City – most high heaven!

The Bridegroom is Our Savior, Jesus Christ with whom we have committed our lives to in love under our repentance and grace of God.  In this commitment is our engagement with Him, commitment to Him, and submitting of all of ourselves to Him

We are betrothed in ceremony first asking with sincerity for Him to intercede in our lives as we repent our sin nature. We begin our sojourn at this point as we are baptized in the Holy Spirit, anointed with His oil, sanctified by the blood of our Savior.

We await our marriage day. We do not know the time nor place of the Bridegroom’s arrival. So, we are prepared always. Some are prepares and some are not. For those who are not, the oil of the Spirit’s anointment is not communal in nature, but maintained by us individually between our self personally with the Father.

So, we prepare. We search our hearts, we commune with God. We pray for others we ask God’s favor over us and others. At the same time we account for our commitment to His authority in our lives through our searching in our desire for obedience.

As we walk we seek knowledge and desire of our sanctification. Who we are is who God made. We need to see our position in our walk for the path can become dark and the light of the lamp will lead those who possess the oil. Without light we stray. Our path is straight but to remain on the straight course, we sail with the wind but are mindful of the rudder that steers. A boat without a rudder is hapless and aimless in its pursuit of a straight direction. We see the Sun setting on the horizon, yet without our rudder, we drift as the current ebbs and flows. We drift. We stray. The place on our head that once was glistening with the shine of fresh oil, our Help, is turning to a matte finish of a spent walk powered in our strength. We need God’s strength.

Our priority, our heart, our walk. All are culminated in Jesus, the Bridegroom, who awaits us at the right hand of God in heaven. Today is a day of inventory. Seek God and ask Him to expose the darkest, deepest parts of your heart. What He exposes, we then know where we need to change. This is preparation: A personal relationship  with God, belief that He will expose our heart as we search and ask Him to take a lighted lamp into the cavernous depths of our hearts. We want to change and continually grow. We encourage the 5 foolish virgins who stray: “Please, God, an anointing anew!” My heart thus prepared. My forehead now glossy with the shine of the sanctifying Oil. We await His return.

Rick Stassi

1/24/2012

who are we?

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Artist: Sean Seal

1 O LORD, our Lord,
How excellent is Your name in all the earth,
Who have set Your glory above the heavens!
2 Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants
You have ordained strength,
Because of Your enemies,
That You may silence the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have ordained,
4 What is man that You are mindful of him,
And the son of man that You visit him?
5 For You have made him a little lower than the angels,
And You have crowned him with glory and honor.
6 You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands;
You have put all things under his feet,
7 All sheep and oxen—
Even the beasts of the field,
8 The birds of the air,
And the fish of the sea
That pass through the paths of the seas.
9 O LORD, our Lord,
How excellent is Your name in all the earth!
Psalm 8

O Lord, our Lord. How we exalt Your name!

We praise Him, glorify Him, and understand our place in His creation. He has given us life and we are aware of who we are and what we are. We are ordained within the will of a loving God. He is the God Whom we seek in supplication. We pour out our hearts to Him. We grow in a personal relationship with Him. We are inferior, but we are superior in this place in creation, in the sense that we are special individually to the most high God. We are special enough to enjoy His personal presence and praise Him as the omnipotent and omniscient God of everything.

Who are we to have this ability set forth by our God? We are thus made in His image for His pleasure, given free will, fail, and given His universal yet personal, grace. His glory is above all He created and we stand in awe of our place within the entirety of all creation. Who are we that should have company the Divine Lord? In this company we are made to use weakness for strength, poverty for richness, death to eternal life. We are but babes, helpless and insecure, made fully useful under His protection and love. We ask in reverence because even as we know Him more, our awe of His focus upon us, His work in us, and His protection over us still brings us to our knees. It is never rhetorical, it is sincere:  Who are we? We never stop feeling the wonder of being engrossed with His imparted love. We need to never lose this awe and continue to ask lest we become complacent. But in asking is only our humility. In our trust is the surety of who we are.

Above all the honor we give Him, the praise for Him , and humility we present Him, He gives us Jesus:

Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! John 1:29

He places all under His feet, For Jesus our Savior was at the beginning and came in perfected flesh to draw man from the inability to grasp and hold the physical Law, to a state of having His spiritual law written within us on our hearts. He crushes the enemy under His heel and defeats death. We fear no more the grave for we have now eternity through the grace of our Lord in Jesus Christ.

So, we praise Him!

Matthew Henry pens regarding Psalm 8:

“It begins and ends with the same acknowledgment of the transcendent excellency of God’s name. It is proposed for proof  that God’s name is excellent in all the earth, and then it is repeated as proved  in the last verse.”

He who is glorified, is thus glorified always. We stand in awe always, we have redemption always  as we place our life in Jesus.  Who are we? We are the sheep of the Shepard. The beloved of creation held gently in His arms. We are His children.

Rick Stassi

1/22/2012

 

 

…eternal perspective and the tiny stream getting there…

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8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
Revelations 1:8 (NKJV)

There is a beginning and there is an end. These are places we cannot know or see in our worldly bodies. These are places that cannot be fully revealed as we exist now. They are places of mystery given to us to ponder, by God. We are enveloped within these places of ethereal time.

We seek to find our path on a road in front of our face that is part of a picture so large and unfathomable, we can only wonder. The wonder is in the eternal nature of God. We spend countless hours in our debates over those things that are on a small path within a large road. We do not see fully left nor right nor ahead, behind. We are only told of such places.

These places. Alpha and Omega.

So, should we fully comprehend the beginning and end? Of what importance is our full comprehension of these things of God’s nature? We struggle to remain on a path of His will daily, therefore why do we concern ourselves for these places unseen and beyond our daily refinement? It is all a matter of edifying our perspective. This is our Christian walk. We are on a hammock between these places: endpoints of eternity.

Infinity has no boundary. However Jesus, we read, has end points, but figurative endpoints. He is infinite and God uses terms to keep us from roaming down impossible roads. He has a purpose.  It is our purpose to view our life and our walk with Him in the perspective of eternity. Our faith keeps us secure in the blankets of this endless time, our trust fortifies our belief in the written word of God. Our prayer is to have God reveal bit-by-bit each segment of this eternal path. The perspective of eternity brings hope. It works through minor daily setbacks and keeps us ever-focused on a path straight, narrow, and toward an eternal God in heaven. Jesus the “ALPHA and OMEGA”.

I like this perspective as it brings purpose to many aspects of His word. All will burn eventually meaning our temporal lives are really only a part of our eternal life and we are investing in this eternal life through our walk today. Do you see why happiness, sadness, and other emotions are temporary? Joy is eternal. Love is eternal. Jesus is eternal and is manifest in Love and Joy through the Spirit that dwells in our heart. We see our relationships and our routines and trials now as part of a refinement in our life rather than a source of angst.

Our happiness wanes to sadness which floats back up into happiness as all the comforts of the world try to sustain. We must see that these places, Alpha and Omega, are the bigger picture of existence: a broader eternal comfort. Evidence of things past, hope for things future. See through the eyes of Creation and heaven. I believe our life with its trials is like a rivulet running down a mountainside. Ever-running over stones amid it’s path. Only stopping when obstacles become too large. But, the stream overcomes obstacles because it is fed from above, upstream. We too are fed from above. We will join the creek and then the river and the sea. There is hope in all things eternal. Jesus, the Alpha and Omega. The Beginning and End. All in-between is our innocent wonderment of a powerful God. We gaze and see Love. The Love is eternal and we are in Eternal comfort. This is our eternal perspective.

Rick Stassi

1/18/12

But Alas at the Wind, the Fool’s Hopeless Grasp

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Paul Scarborough

WHAT GOD HATH PROMISED

God hath not promised skies always blue,
Flower strewn pathways all our lives through;
God hath not promised sun without rain,
Joy without sorrow, peace without pain.
But God hath promised strength for the day,
Rest for the labor, light for the way,
Grace for the trials, help from above
Unfailing sympathy, undying love.
God hath not promised we shall not know
Toil and temptation, trouble and woe;
He hath not told us we shall not bear
Many a burden, many a care.
God hath not promised smooth roads and wide,
Swift, easy travel, needing no guide;
Never a mountain rocky and steep
Never a river turbid and deep.

Annie Johnson Flint

For what is our life in God? Do we seek Utopia and perfection? We who are the faithful do not. I believe we first run out of our own strength and before we wither and fall to compost, we reach out to a hope and dream that there is God and He will help us. So, our reaching hand meets His, and we submit to Jesus. We see a magnificent transformation in our lives. With the care and keenness of our acute listening and seeking of a personal relationship with God, we attain the perspective of eternity. We see life through the eyes of God and we begin to see a path to walk on. His provision.

But on this path the flowers strewn may wither and succumb to brambles and thorns. There are periods of darkness with stones on which we stumble. But straight we walk and we are corrected as we endure our distractions with a focused purpose. His Light.

And we do not see what the foolish  hope for. For if we seek happiness, there is correction. If we seek perfection we see perfecting. He provides the refining process and we endure and learn joy. For clouds will cover the sun and noise will distract from the sweet sound of the harps of angels. Yet we persevere. What drives us? A question asked only by those who foolishly grasp at wind. Flailing and wavering in uncertain surety, and ever stubborn that God is for the weak. Happiness should burst forth and sustain says the world. Happiness is but fleeting and joy endures forever. We see because He is wise.

What we know is there is respite for our labors, but our labors are not for our vanity, but for He who places the tasks before us. His calling to us beckons us to greater heights. But still the ungodly grasp at the wind, ever-wringing hands and gnashing teeth. “What happens when I die?” cries the faithless. “My burdens are too much!” We know because He provides us with all we need and we are perfecting, learning to endure, and finding an unconditional love inherent in Jesus. The fool may never see.

So we walk upon the His path and glance to the left or right. Our eyes catch something, there is a fixation, and we fall. We flail and revisit temptation but in our falling our outstretched hand is met by the right hand God. His righteousness pull us from the Slough of Despond. We are in His arms again. Straight again is the narrow path.

We reach the river wide and swift. With His calling we step into the water. It is cold and deep. Yet He beckons still because we are the faithful. We take a step anew and then again. As the water rises to our face, still we persevere. The deep water dries and the mountain ease their slope and we find our self in the Loving, caring arms of our Savior. He carries us through these times. He sees our struggles and picks us up when we fall. But we are ever-focused.  For God has not promised a flower-strewn pathway in happiness and riches. Not in the context of the unfaithful. His riches and prosperity are seen in His mercy, grace, and love. The flowers of a joyful heart. In His provision,  we grasp His hand.

But alas at the wind, the fool’s hopeless grasp.

Rick Stassi

1/13/2011

Our Genuine Faith, most precious….

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6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials,
7 that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ,
8 whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory,
9 receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls. 1 Peter 1:6-9

Our salvation to be revealed is our sustaining strength, love and joy from God. We may stumble. We may grieve, but we move ever onward toward the Celestial City across the river. The Celestial City is heaven and the river is Jesus who is our Way to heaven. Our various trials are trivialized by the enormity of the promise of salvation. We should not be held captive in any downturn! Our actions and our thoughts that hold us in regress from His way can and will float by unnoticed if we do not let them hold us hostage. Hold dear the things of the Lord that greatly surpass the various downturns in our life. Be cautioned not to trivialize the downturns of others as we can serve as a reminder to them of the greater things to be revealed. Your focus and the manifestation of  God in your life will help others who are still struggling to find a foothold. Help others and O we rejoice!

Gold is precious, even refined by the fire that burns away impurities. The refining part is a great picture of God’s work in us. We are refined daily in His work in us. The impurities of our hearts melt away. Hold on to that picture and hang it on the wall of your heart. However, as precious as gold may be, if we leave the refining metaphor, gold is a precious material that fades away. It is in the genuineness of our faith that surpasses the precious nature of gold. Our faith in is He who is coming, He who is not seen, He who now abides in us. The triune of God.

Receive Him in your life. Be genuine as you sit and ponder the various trials that seem to collect. Ponder and release. They are but obstacles that start to block the clear-path to a one-on-one connection with God. A connection where you can see Him. You look into the eyes of eternity. Your perspective is of a revelation of salvation from Calvary to the place where you now stand. Embrace the totality of His grace.  We are at the receiving end by design, by choice, by our Father whose Name is Hallowed in heaven.  Consecrate us Father.

Believe you will overcome, rest in the things eternal. Do not let even the most precious hold you captive for God wants our fullness of heart. He wants the fullness of our focus. He wants us to know Him, ask Him, speak with Him.

For His power is Divine, His glory eternal, and we rest at His feet washing the feet of the saints in His service because our faith is genuine. Our genuine faith is most precious.

Rick Stassi

1/10/11

 

The Pilgrims of the Dispersion

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1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,
2 Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
4 To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,
5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
1 Peter 1 (KJV)

We are a stranger in this land. We are on a new path and as we walk, one-by-one, we are joined by others who  are strangers too. We strangers are pilgrims on a sojourn through our time and place here to seek, to listen, and to emanate the truth of the Lord. We are in God’s image He had foreknowledge of. He sees before, during, and after. We are in awe of the Lord and walk upon this earth sojourning in reverence of Him. We rest in our reverence. It is the beginning of our wisdom. [a]

The Lord authored our separation from this world. It is the return to our origin of perfection, this path we are on. This way is the core of why we are strangers as the world cannot comprehend. We are set apart from this world as God does a work in us. We left our homes and our old selves, to walk where He guides us with hands of strength, a voice of wisdom, and a heart of love. Work on us! Mold our hearts! We know where we came from and dream of where we go for eternity, but what must we do now? God will show us. We are sanctified by our submission to Jesus, therefore, the Spirit is within.

But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. Acts 1:8

We hold captive this message, Lord, we embrace the Spirit in us. He guides us in our sanctifying process. He does a good work each day. We rest in our sanctity. AMEN.

We are saved by the blood of the unblemished Lamb. Jesus Christ, the Alpha and Omega. We are cradled in time by the eternal endpoints of the Lord and we are safe. We rest in Him. We need not have angst over things to come or things of the past, we must just be pilgrims sojourning in the Light today. The sprinkled blood of Jesus, the Light, is salvation. It heals, protects, and fortifies. I plead it over us pilgrims now! Bless and wash the feet of the sojourners. We are His flock, both the Shepard and the unblemished Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. [b] In Jesus is hope. He died and is resurrected. There is rebirth and restoration in that. We are dispersed from Calvary in our many directions to show this image, to emanate Light, to be joyful in our hope of the Resurrection.  We rest in the Resurrection.

…and through His blood, we are incorruptible.  We cannot be defiled for what force shall overtake He who is infallible, omnipotent, and omniscient? We are pilgrims dispersed: equipped in His very nature and He nor His nature shall abandon us. We rest in His peace.

In the Lord, we shall not fade away but be a powerful presence and witness to Him. Our sojourn is not in vain, but with purpose. We await our inheritance reserved in heaven. We skip no steps in our journey. God sees and places us on our continuous path for His purpose, for our good.

All will see one day as true salvation is revealed and Jesus triumphs in His return. We are at rest in His arms, in His hope, and walking from Calvary to our place of Dispersion, the path God sets for each of us, and we are strangers in this land for the world is confounded. God thank You that the Light, Jesus, will penetrate all confusion and bring Your children home.

We come to be in Your  wonderful light.
O Peace abound each day and night.
Sweet air we breathe exhaling love;
Lord provide from Your throne above.
We seek your face with childlike eyes,
and meet Your guardian gaze in the skies.
Blessed be Your Pilgrims dispersed,
Our time is measured in beautiful verse.
rick

A Discerning Heart

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6 Now these things, brethren, I have figuratively transferred to myself and Apollos for your sakes, that you may learn in us not to think beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up on behalf of one against the other.
7 For who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it? 1 Corinthians 4:6,7 (NKJV)

“These things”,  the word and instruction of judgement, are placed upon the hearts of Paul and Apollos for the purpose of teaching from a point that is separated from the church in Corinth. They teach above rather than from within.

The Lord speaks to us from lofty places, He speaks to us from perfection. Yes, we are sanctified, placed apart from other men, but we are set apart together. We must listen to He who speaks from His heavenly throne. For within ourselves we are toiling  in issues of the flesh, a completing discernment, and a perspective that is in progress. We encourage each other constantly but we speak and teach words like “judgment” carefully and with discernment. We take the care not to separate our authority to places above the others sanctified in God’s name.

We listen to the appointed ones, our Pastors, as they implement their calling. We all implement our calling in the prescribed way that He has designed. So, we listen. But debates from outside of a teaching call, are discernment of Your wisdom, and we take care in these matters. For opinion can easily be mistaken for what is discernment as God’s meaning.  I take care now as I convey His message.

We want to learn from You, Father. We abandon our intellect and our theological positioning to really hear You and to tell others. We are not better, we strive to hear You. It is for the sake of the fellowship of saints in Christ that we tread in conveying Your message carefully. I heed Your advice.

Therefore, God alone will teach. We will discern the teaching of all others through the abiding Spirit. If we teach without His hand upon our hearts, we do the church a disservice. Pray for those who are called to teach us. They must surrender deeply to God and hear Him thoroughly. Listen intently. Listen with the intent of understanding. We seek wisdom and it is in Your word. We have the means of understanding as the Spirit is purposefully our Helper. Draw a keen ear toward the word of a teacher, discern in your heart. Ask questions and seek truth.

We must remember our place. We seek our calling. We should encourage others.

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life…1 John 1:1

There are those who know the Lord, hear Him with clarity, and have eloquence in conveying His message. The enemy has this eloquence, as well. Be aware with discernment what you hear regarding the words of God’s wisdom. Be not deceived but be edified by good teaching of His word. Have a discerning heart – even now.

Rick Stassi

1/6/2012

 

Our burdened Heart, Our Eternal protection

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Valentina Alonso

PSALM 91 (part 2)

7 A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.
8 Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.
9 Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation;
10 There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.
11 For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.
12 They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.
13 Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.
14 Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.
15 He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.
16 With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.

Psalm 91

I believe the Lord, my God. There is protection in Him but we will see the despair of the masses as they fall one-by-one beside us. The grip of death takes its toll on the unwary and those purposely unavailable for a relationship with God. Thousands will fall and they will fall near us. Close to our touch. Our calls are unheard. Our hearts break. We will see the anguish from within our safe place. We shall witness what rewards the deaf and blind shall receive. Not a cruel God’s wrath, but a permanent separation from He who we so intrinsically know, love. desire. Their’s is separation  from Him in life and after life. Pray their anguished screams turn to praise in glory.

We have the compassion to show the anguished world a peace in Jesus Christ:

The light of the righteous rejoiceth: but the lamp of the wicked shall be put out Proverbs 13:9

Our light is made apparent by first our burdened heart for the unsaved, and then our action to emanate that light into the darker places. They will see the image of the Loving God in this light, if they look. Alas they may not and our heart hurts. We are placed where He wants us by a burdened heart, but Jesus holds the reins and is the Source. We know our place and we are glad. For we have repented and made Jesus, the High place, our Master. In Him we dwell and we see eternity.

How then shall evil touch us? He walks in our path for there are those times when our light grows dim and our path is felt step by step until our foot meets a stone and we stumble. He lurks in the darker place where we sometimes are drawn. But evil shall not have us for we are in a Strong-tower, a Fortress of protection. Our stumble now is corrected as we are drawn back to light. His light.

Then His angels watch over us. They keep us on His path. Our strong and stubborn will makes us stray but they are there. You are there Lord for you are perfecting in these times when we are burdened and stumble. In His name we shall crush the beast of the world and thrive. From our eyes of eternity, we are invincible. We are built on His love and we understand the Priority of Life that is Jesus first, then all else, in love. We are by no means last as paradoxically our ability to see the Priority of Life shows us we are, too, first in His eyes. He loves us dearly and we love Him. We place Him first, He protects us always.

We reflect on this Psalm and it is not sad to be burdened. It is a rejoicing song of praise to He that will protect us always.

He calls and I answer. This will shorten the  periods of time when I lapse into a darker place until one day I will see Him, perfected by no works of my own, but by an undying faith and love for God. We shall live in a pilgrimage on earth and move forward in His guidance. Our light emanates brightly as we heed His calling and we shall see the face of Eternity, our Salvation. It is glorious, it is the reward for the righteous, He is Jesus.

Rick Stassi

1/4/12