Spiritual Ponderings

Not long ago I got to thinking about the idea of jealousy. This is something that has puzzled me for years and has even caused problems in my own life. People have gotten upset with me because they felt I was not jealous enough and that created tension in some of my relationships – rather the opposite problem from what jealousy usually is expected to cause. But as I pondered on this thing called jealousy, I began to realize that, like so many other words that have been hijacked and transposed from their true meaning, jealousy has been used as a cover-up for a much more sinister attitude that has fallen largely out of use in our common vocabulary. Why is it that sometimes we consider jealousy to be a positive virtue and at other times we view is as something evil or negative? Why do we think that people who are jealous are doing something wrong while at the same time viewing people with suspicion if they do not become jealous at times? I believe that a large part of that reason is ...

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel. (Genesis 3:15) I recently read a statement that got me to thinking about heels. So I decided to look through the Bible and see if there might be something compelling to be found by researching the various times heels might be mentioned in the Word. What I am finding is more than compelling, it is very revealing as well. And what I am seeing is more than just fascinating information but I am sensing truths here about how God wants to really connect with me much deeper at the heart level. First I want to take a look at one of the few references to heels in the Scriptures in the book of Job. This book can be very tricky to navigate if one is not aware that much of the book of Job are thoughts from his friends which are highly unreliable as truths to depend on to reveal what God is really like. In fact, quite the opposite is usually th...

Some years ago I learned that the parable of the debtor at the end of Matthew 18 had a radically different meaning than the typical interpretation that nearly everyone gave to it. The implications were very powerful and very liberating for those who grasped its true meaning. But for some reason it was not until now that I began to apply what I have learned from my new perspective of that story to the other similar places where Jesus talked about ending up in prison. But as this seemed to be pressed into my consciousness recently, I decided to explore the effects of my current realization of what this prison really is to the other passages and now am beginning to see that they had much to add to my understanding. For I now realize that the prison that God talks about is not one that He places us in but is one of our own making. It is a prison walled in by the offenses that we allow to remain in our hearts against others as well as potentially offenses that we have caused others but h...

I am compiling a list of fascinating texts that seem to be stringing together something profound I have not noticed before. It is partly the emerging effect of a number of other insights I have learned over the past few months and their intersections are opening up some new things that make much more sense. Since it will take some time to process this, longer than what I want to wait right now, I am simply going to very briefly outline what I am seeing so far. The prisons that Jesus speaks of in His parables and stories all seem to have something very much in common with the trap of Satan as outlined in the book, The Bait of Satan by John Bevere. This book has gone very far in opening my eyes to see many things in the Bible I never noticed until I understood this as one of the most central issues that prevent most people from really entering into a successful connection with God. What came to my mind not long ago in connection with this is the several references Jesus made to pri...

All that the Lord has said, we will do. (Exodus 19:8; 24:3,7) Really? We smile when we think about how naïve the Israelites must have been when they spoke these words around Mount Sinai after God delivered to them the perfect standard of righteousness in His law. We knowingly remember how in just a few days they were found dancing around a golden calf in a sex-crazed drunken orgy. But then I am quickly sobered when I suddenly realize that I may not be that much different in my own response to God's words to me. Surprise? Am I headed for a drunken orgy of abandonment to wild flings into sin from the place of a pious position of a spiritual leader in the church? How could that be? But there is a very serious warning here that I cannot afford to ignore except at the peril of my own soul. I was reminded of this just a few minutes ago when I sat down and began to peruse over the Sermon on the Mount by Jesus in Matthew 5. I read things about being blessed if I am poor in spirit, ge...

Behold, I have given you authority ... over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you. Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven. (Luke 10:19-20) Upon reading today's selection from My Utmost for His Highest , it is becoming clearer to me that God's government is free of the contamination that comes from the use of force. Because of our counterfeit definitions it is often hard for us to discern many of these clues, but it is here for those who listen to the Spirit speaking to the heart. This is even highlighted a few verses later in Jesus' own words. Authority from heaven's perspective looks and acts very different from authority as perceived and practiced by most people in this world. We are very familiar with the use and abuse of so-called authority by those in power who want to exercise control over those under their charge. But in these verses Jesus makes it very ...

"The sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell beside the road, and it was trampled under foot and the birds of the air ate it up. Other seed fell on rocky soil, and as soon as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. Other seed fell among the thorns; and the thorns grew up with it and choked it out. Other seed fell into the good soil, and grew up, and produced a crop a hundred times as great." As He said these things, He would call out, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." (Luke 8:5-8) When we look at the seeds as representing saints who are commissioned to bear fruit, how does that affect the response of those saints who are cast onto far less productive soil? What if bearing fruit does not look like what we typically think of, like harvesting many souls for God? What if a saint is seemingly abandoned in a place of dishonor, their reputation is blackened and they end up emotionally and even physically destroyed? Is their ...