Write down the revelation...

An invitation arrived in the mail. It was addressed to me: You are cordially invited to the presence of the King for a garden party. Of course, I was delighted to go and I planned to wear my best dress, to honour the King. On the appointed day, I arrived to the meadow. The sun was bright and the temperature was exactly as I like it. I saw the King in the distance, waiting at a table. I walked across the field of grass and wild flowers, the colours magnified and exaggerated by the sun. As I approached the table, I saw the King was none other than my Beloved and he beckoned me to sit. Others milled about and at once I knew who they were, although we had never met. They were from stories of old and though they seemed to know me, they did not speak or cause my attention to stray from the face of my Beloved, the King. We sat down and tea was served. It was like gold and I wondered how it would taste. It was hot and sweetened with honey. I wanted to drink and have some more. My Belove

You want to know something? We are all different. I know that intellectually but sometimes I become confused and I ask God, “Why am I not like that person, or this person?” The Lord reminds me of the mix match of apostles he chose – sensitive, brash, blue collar, white collar, strong in finances, strong in encouragement, ones who like to lead, and others who like to work behind the scenes. We are not supposed to replicate each other; we should complement each other for the glory of God. We’re in a battle. Some of us know better than others, how intense the battle is. Each side of the battle has soldiers, commanders and battle equipment. This week on Kingdom Bloggers , we’re describing how God has designed us to fit into the overall battle strategy of the Lord. Which one of is a battle strategist? Who is a sniper? Read along for the week and offer your insights about who you are in the battle.

At house church this week, during corporate worship the leader invited us each to sing (or speak) our own words of praise and worship to the Lord. I began to tell the Lord if I would gather all the beautiful jewels in the world and bring them to him as a token of my love for him it would not be enough. Without missing a beat I heard him say to my spirit the value of all the jewels in the world were not equal to the value of his love for me. The ferocity of his love for me, particularly in that moment, took my breath away. I am so loved by the Father and I love because he first loved me. I am my Father’s favourite and I know, without a doubt, you are his favourite, too; not only does he love you, he likes you too. Last year during a weekend outreach at a large carnival and local fair, more than 300 people came to our tent because of the sign that offered ‘Free Spiritual Reading’. The Bible says God’s thoughts toward us are as numerous as the grains of sand on the sea and by workin

When you have many decisions to make, how much time do you spend listening to God for the answer? If I’m honest with myself, a lot of the time I spend with God is spent by my talking and filling in the space, and then after getting nothing but silence from the other end, I make my own decisions. It’s not the most effective way to achieve a peaceful decision. Sometimes things work out but often I create needless toil and effort than if I had waited a little longer to hear clearly from God. Fortunately for me (and anyone else who can relate to making rash decisions on their own), Jesus models a different way. Mark 1:35-38 offers an example of how Jesus made decisions – by solitary prayer to listen to the Father and seek his direction from him. If we back up even earlier, we learn from Jesus he understood the importance of by-passing his natural decision-making abilities and rely on the spiritual direction from the Father. In Matthew 4:4 , Jesus responds to temptation by saying we r

I have good parents –my mom and my dad. Are they perfect? No, but who I am today is a direct [positive] result of how I was raised. At Father’s day last year, I wrote a post called, 5 Ways my Dad Taught me about my Father . It’s one of my favourite posts I’ve written because I love to honour my parents for the way I was raised. Not everyone has a good family background and you might say your parents never did anything right. If that’s true for you, read along this week as the Kingdom Bloggers each write and honour our parents for the things they did right. By reading with us, our collective prayer for our readers is the Lord will reveal ways your mom or dad did a good thing for you, so you can also give thanks and honour them for even the smallest action. Ephesians 6:2-3, Honor your father and mother - which is the first commandment with a promise - so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.

I’m certain reading the Bible is not supposed to feel like condemnation (conviction, yes but condemnation, no) but on my current reading of the gospel of Mark, that is exactly how I feel – condemned and accused. Mark 1:17-18, 20 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” At once they [Simon & his brother, Andrew] left their nets and followed him... Without delay he called them and they [James & his brother, John] left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him. I’ve been impacted by this before because there are markings in my bible surrounding the words I’ve emphasized above. It appears Jesus appeared to them immediately returning to Galilee after his temptation in the desert and neither set of brothers asked questions but dropped everything, literally at their feet, to follow Jesus. No doubt you and I have heard messages at one time or another about following Jesus without any further delay. It’s great in theory but 1