Then God Said...

But he answered and said to his father, ‘Look! For so many years I have been serving you and I have never neglected a command of yours; and  yet  you have never given me a young goat, so that I might celebrate with my friends;   but when this son of yours came, who has devoured your wealth with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him. -Luke 15:29-30  Jesus tells this story involving a father and his two sons: the younger demands his share of the inheritance before the father is dead, because to him his father was already dead; the older considers himself to be faithful and hard working, which is where we pick up the story.  The older brother comes homes after a long days work and finds out that his father has not only accepted his younger brother back into the home, but he has also thrown him a huge party to celebrate his return, and he wasn't invited. The telling element of the story here is how the older brother responds when he finds out what is going on.  Th

Now when Moses went into the tent of meeting to speak with Him, he heard the voice speaking to him from above the mercy seat that was on the ark of the testimony, from between the two cherubim, so He spoke to him. -  Numbers 7:89 NASB After consecrating himself Moses encountered God.  Once Moses went through extensive instruction from God about administrating the sacrificial system, assigning people for certain functions and roles, then dedicating it to the Lord Moses heard God speak to him from the place where His glory was dwelling. One major thing can be recognized here--consecration. Consecration The call on the nation of Israel and Moses was one of holiness, which would require them to consecrate themselves, or set themselves apart to differentiate themselves as Gods people--this would mean lifestyle changes for them.  Love always costs us something, and we see the same is true here as Israel consecrates themselves it cost them their life (Num 7:1-88). This i

He has not withheld one possibility that was manifested in Jesus from any man, but on the contrary invites mankind to come forth in the dignity and power of sons of God, and to that Christ and in Christ join in the might wonder of the salvation of the world over sin and sickness, and the power of death and darkness and hell...Salvation is a progressive condition. -John G. Lake (1870-1935) John and I agree here that salvation is a continuing experience. I stand believing that for many reasons: God is eternal and we will never see the end of Him, even in heaven; when we look through both Testaments in the Bible we see God continually revealing new things about Himself that the earth had not yet experienced before; God, as our Creator, has made an existence that is still expanding--researching how the universe is still expanding will give clear evidence. So what does this mean for us in our relationship with God? Simple, it means that God has more for us today that we had yesterda

My wife Haley and I recently spent time in the mountains of North Carolina with family due to the passing of her Grandmother (we know her as Granny). Death is a strong thing to wrestle with, even as a Christian. My friend  Matt Dixon  says that we were never made to deal with death; I've known that to be true, but now I am experiencing that to be true--big difference there. However, even in the midst of grief, tragedy, and figuring out what to do next I have found a richness in God that I would not have otherwise, so in a strange sense, there has been a lot of life that is being ministered to my family through this, even though it is accompanied with strange, unusual, and unnatural feelings.  Kris Vallotton  once said, "the best times of our life are in our twilight years." Meaning, the best times we have in our life are experienced in the midst of the thing that takes us all beyond this earth. I've only known Granny since the time Haley and I have been together

God is active in the Dark -Jason Upton Some seasons do not make sense until another season arrives or is completed. It's easy to devalue or degrade the less appealing or the harder seasons in life, and sometimes we can even write them off as countless, but that it not our Father--He is always purposeful and good in our lives. He is also calling us to walk beyond, into the invisible, in those seasons, because there's something greater at work; there's someone greater at work. We may not understand one season of life until another comes, and in those places our faith will lead us into understanding; further, one season of life may not make sense until the beginning or completion of another. God is the God of generations, and He participates with us in every aspect of our life, and He's also a builder who is constructing a masterpiece with our whole lives--some of us, lie our fathers of the faith, may not see this masterpiece come to fruition in our life, but in the