Live free

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What happens when we start to believe that our potential is far greater than the fear told you to believe?

What if we dove into the chaos with a divine call to take part in its ordering?

What if we charged up the hill of life with open eyes and a heart full of love for those falling down all around?

Who will be the bearers of light into the darkness?

What happens when we realize the chains of selfishness can be cast down into the dust of death at your feet and picked up in its place; a sword of fire, a blazing light of eternal glory with power over all darkness, doom, and every real moment of the gut-wrenching pain searing your heart?

What oceans are there yet to be sailed?!

What mountains have not yet been climbed or forests remaining untraversed but those in your mind?

Those are the vast vistas within your heart that long to be crossed. Faith beckons you into the unknown with the gentle whisper of our only true loving Father and King.

There is One who is worthy of every drop of your passion! One whose might surpasses your comprehension and whose love is deeper than you’ve yet dared to believe. What shattered mirrors of lies are you satisfied by while conflictedly staring into?

He, yes HE, with a capital H, the Son of God was crushed for our transgressions to set us free from the ghastly grasp of the slowly dying “self” and place within our chests a freshly beating heart, flushed with the Glory reserved for the children of an overwhelmingly good, powerful and infinitely beautiful God.

Call him by his name and let the blood of His selfless brokeness cleanse the tears of yours. The God who designed the universe knows your name and calls you personally into the eternity of His unsurpassed love.

Live free in your new name or die forever.

Consuming Fire

Hatred is the wave of authority residing within all moral creatures that seeks the destruction of that which opposes the purpose of the object of one’s love.

Rejoice not then in the extinguishing of hate, but rather exalt the accuracy and intended function thereof. To avoid righteous hatred is to sacrifice love on the alter of those pathetic idols of complacency, passivity, and self indulgence.

We are to love the Lord our God, then our brother as ourself. And who is your brother, but the man beside you? Love he that is in need, awaiting knowingly or not, the salvation of the Father.

To love requires action; both an uplifting towards its divine function of its object and a tearing down of that which oppresses and perverts. No farmer bears a crop but whom is prepared to tear down the thorns, root out the vermin, burn the thistle and separate the chaff for the furnace.

No grace is worthy of all praise then that saves from less than the consumption of an all powerful hatred let loose, the flames of destruction set in motion. Our God is a consuming fire. Praise his Name, bend to the quaking of His will, for He has such a wave of hatred for the opposition to His love. His eternal love, demonstrated for all to see upon the axis of a cross, is bent towards the progress of your most treasured and intentionally purposed soul into His Kingdom. His pure hatred, unrelenting in its quest to burn away the chains of evil wrapped round your ever burdened shoulders. Lift up the praises of your heart to rejoice at the thought of His Glory. May His fire rage and all become desolate that loves false idols over His law.

Revealed then in the ashes of destruction, an ancient mystery made clear on the bent knee of repentance, the doorway of every wandering souls tormented heart opened for His perfect Love’s embrace.

His Kingdom come, His will having been done.

On Earth as it is in Heaven.

Defy your guilt 

Guilt and shame have a way of pressing on the human heart with an overwhelming weight. They drive a wedge between our true self, the cherished child of the infinitely loving and just God and our broken self-image. 
Guilt has a way of becoming the lens through which we perceive our own value. This isn’t by chance, and its significance is not lost on the enemy. If he can convince us to live out of our guilt then we’re significantly more likely to continue in sin and by doing so, move further away from fulfilling our role in the Kingdom of Heaven.  
When we see ourselves as broken, inept and dirty the continuation of that brokenness seems inevitable and inescapable. 
The only escape is a violent resurgence of a heart bent towards righteousness as the result of a vision of oneself as an heir to glory and the recipient of a victorious lover. 
Through faith, we become the bride of Jesus and He is tearing his way through the forces of darkness in pursuit of YOU. 
Don’t wallow in self-pity, your Savior is taking all the same arrows and He will not be overcome. 
What He has claimed He will receive. You are the passion of the Christ and His wounds were not in vain. 
When we see Jesus as more than a nice man, but as a blood-soaked warrior unwilling to relent in the pursuit of His bride, our guilt dissipates in the eternal light of His all-consuming mercy and grace.

A New Name

Longing to dive deeper into the heavenly void between my ever seeking heart and the expanse of the universe.

To fly again with the exuberance of youth, to swing in the treetops and splash in the rain.

Desperate to belong, to keep up, to walk in stride in love.

The weight of my outcast heart drags me into the cold dark, my own familiar savage hands tie my legs in chains of shame.

Aching to be swept into the infinite, I take hold of the hand that strikes the chord of my conscience.

The strength of a mighty oak, I feel lifted, ascending.

Shake the dust of death off my weary bones and breathe in me, new life, oh Lord.

Like Jacob, I wrestle with what I can not now know.

Grasping and breathless. I won’t let go until He gives me a new name.

As Angels sing and eternity rings, I hear a whisper in my ear.

He calls me “son,” and wipes away a tear.

Choose Love

Loneliness is a gift. 
Like pain when we touch a flame, loneliness reveals our true nature and protects us from the danger of isolation. 
When you feel loneliness, have the courage to allow it to propel you into service and love of others. 
The most significant action we take each day are our decisions about our treatment of others. 
Chose kindness, gentleness, patience, service, devotion and above all else, Love. 
Not the love that seeks pleasure and self gratification, not the love that depends on another’s approval, respect or admiration. 

Allow the light of God to reveal the selfless love he provides that teaches you to choose to pursue what is best for your friend, neighbor, co-worker, cashier, teller, server, and even the old man driving too slow in the passing lane. 
Choose to live in a way that lightens the world of those around you and your life will be a blessing and your heart full. 

This is the Kingdom of Heaven. Where the least is made great, the servant lavished as the master, the repentant made righteous and the humble exhalted. 

Seek forgiveness and find peace in His overwhelmingly sufficient grace. 

The Stranger I Loved the Most


You are the stranger I loved the most.
The answer to a forgotten question. 
The lover I never knew. 
The whisper of silence. 
A beauty chained by an invisible cord. 
A oddly cold kiss. 
An angel from a world apart. 
Oil in my water. 
Fire in my forest. 
Light in the shadows and darkness in the day. 
Our lives seem so impossibly and tragically intertwined. As tho the goodness was all pretense for the pain, fertilizer for the heart. 
You pushed my faith, drove me mad and emptied my pride. 
There resides in me a simpler man,  cleansed through the tortures. 
Seeking still the eternal path, grasping for your hands, knowing they burn. 
I was never your simple answer, nothing in me was your easy road. 
We saw in each other fire, something fierce, untamed and free. 
Maybe we are meant to be or perhaps our hearts are too simply shattered. 
As I remember you, I’ll see a hero. 
Someone fearless, horrified and brave. 
Unsettled and unwilling to be the same. 
Ought not we have more in common than divides? 
Yet, divided we stand and together we fell, our lives a constant paradigm of all that ought not to be. 
Whoever you are, your center is bright. 
Your guilt is forgiven, your future, full of light. 
Stand tall and ride forth, for the King of Kings holds your banner.

His love your eternal glory and the rapturous part of your story. 

Love who you are, dive deep into its mystery. 

Our failures fading as a wisp of your history. 

Broken Glory

Ok, fair warning, I’ve been on meds and stationary for a week with nothing to do but think and reflect. So, with that context in mind, here is my heart today. 😌
The beauty of acknowledging Jesus as God is that as I grow to understand him more, I understand myself and the world around me more. 
The Bible teaches that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom. 
CS Lewis, the British novelist, poet, and academic at both Oxford and Cambridge Universities said that he believed in Christianity the same as he believed that the sun had risen over the eastern horizon, not only because he saw it in the sky but that because of it in the sky, he could clearly see everything else. 
We all have an innate longing for goodness and beauty in ourselves and in those around us. We desire cooperation and enjoyment within our families, communities, work places and the world as a whole. That is our true self; our intended existence. That is the “home” we are constantly seeking and never completely finding. 
We also live everyday under the unquestionable awareness of our failings and shortcomings. The subtle reminders are in every television program, commercial, song and sexual encounter. They provide us a glimpse of what we desire, while reminding us of what we don’t have. 
Jesus connects the two. His overwhelming goodness allows the brokenness of my heart to approach the godliness of his touch without pretending to have it all under control. 
I am broken but I am also intimately connected to perfection. 
I love living in Boulder, but it is unmistakably similar to every other city, it is full of people similar to everyone under the sun. 
People are broken and seeking peace. 
Fall on your face, acknowledge Him as King, repent of your sinfulness and allow him to reveal your true self. The identity you seek is found in the light of his glory.

Silent Night 

Some nights the wind screams;  racing through the forest like a mighty chase of predator after prey, tearing through the tangled branches without regard for subtlety or grace.

Other nights the wind scampers along like a peaceful robin. Simply present, unbecoming and unpretentious. “I’m here and I’m content,” it says.

Still yet other nights the wind disappears altogether, leaving behind a haunting silence, that simple nudge of the unknown, the earth’s soft embrace whispering, “It’s not safe here.”

David found himself easing his way down into a small creek bed lined with briars and wet stones on one of these eerily silent nights. It had been weeks since his last warm bed and pillow, and tonight like hundreds before and seemingly thousands to come, he was looking for lost sheep.

Who are you God? 


Jesus is the breath of life.

The air filling your lungs exists because he has made it that way.

That scent of heaven, draping across your mind.

Jesus is the bread of life.

All that is good, pure and holy is his influence on your existence; the scent of the pine, chirp of the chickadee, breeze on your face and warmth of the fire.

All that soothes your soul is his gentle nudge, his tap on the shoulder and whisper to your soul.

“I am here. I am good.”

In the midst of a world set on leading you towards darkness and  death, God speaks in the beam of a light; that beckoning glow on the horizon of your mind.

An awareness of his presence reminds you what the flowers inherently know, seek the light for in it is life.

The light is where life resides, it is the flow within the tide of the knowledge of good and evil that our conscience either wades against or depends upon.

God is the light, the pull towards the bright end of your existence you are so deeply yearning to discover.

He is the source of your best you, the you within you that will be most content and peaceful.

Let him in.

Betray your self interest and  follow him.

Together We Stand, Divided we…

As our nation becomes more clearly polarized it is important to heed these words; “When you ally yourself with evil, the enemy of your friend becomes the target for your own evil.” Casting aside all personal attacks, those who stand in opposition to Hillary do so based on her political precedent that is starkly contrasted against Judeo-Christian values. Those are not white values, but the values of the Judeo-Christian block of humanity who stands on the law of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as our standard for righteousness. Those moral guideposts led to the Declaration of Independence and the foundation of this nation, they emboldened those who abolished slavery, led the woman’s suffrage movement, fought to end racial discrimination and Jim Crow. We stood against the KKK and arm in arm with the impoverished and under-represented. It was the obedience to and reverence of God which created the society in which unrestrained human creativity led to the automobile, airplane, smallpox vaccine, and the internet. Those of us who held our nose and voted for Trump, do not condone the racist sentiments of the small minority of his supporters, just the same as my dear liberal friends do not stand side by side with the violence in Fergusson, or murder of police officers in Dallas. Regardless of your political leaning, we as decent members of society cannot fall into the pit of lumping our political opponents with the worst ignorant fools on either side. Those whom we can laugh and jest about our different beliefs on fiscal policy or opinions of the best means of providing quality health care to the poor of society must remain our friends. We must remain civil. Debate leads to progress. Division leads to tyranny.