For as long as I can remember, Christmas time has been one of my favorite times. I fight for it—the joy that the holiday brings.  It isn’t the giving and receiving of gifts; it isn’t the singing and feasting and getting together with family and friends--although I do love those traditions.  It is what the traditions point to that fills me with wonder.

 It is Jesus.  He came.  He came once.  God keeps His promises. He will stop at nothing to redeem us. He came once. By His life, death, and resurrection, we have fellowship with Him now. He’s coming again; Christmas reminds me of so much!

The following poem was inspired by Becky Kelly’s song and video.  You may watch it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=OExXItDyWEY&vq=medium

Worth the Wait

All my life is a waiting game.

I know the secret now . . .
I wait for God’s Grace

To move me
To provide for me
To empower me
To cover me
To break me
To empty me
To fill me
To teach me
To plant me beside the still waters
To equip me
To thrill me
To help me forget
To help me remember
To help me to love
To rescue
To redeem
To resurrect
To reclaim
To rebuild
To tear down
To wipe my tears
To bring me to tears
To raise me up
To make me to fall
To burn a question on my heart
To whisper a dozen answers
To be my treasure
To satisfy the longing that will not go away
To make me hungry
To show me Jesus in the moments
To show me Jesus in others
To show me Jesus in myself
To make me more and more like Him
To love me when I fall so short of His Glory
To be enough,
To be more than enough

All my life is a waiting game.

I wait for the Grace of Almighty God,
My far-reaching Father,
Who reveals Himself to me
in the unfolding of my life
that is leading me to that place--

Eternity . . .
Grace made full,
Joy made full,
Hope made full,
Love made full,
Glory Unspeakable--
Holiness,
His holiness,
Bursting forth like a new day.

Before the foundations of the earth,
He declared His Glory.
From the Divine imagination,
to the speaking of LIFE,
He wrote THE STORY
that includes story upon story upon story--
the interweaving of all our lives into one
GREAT SONG--

The Mighty Fortress
The Rock
The Redeemer
The Lamb Without Blemish
Three Persons in One.
His Story
is written on all our hearts,
His Fingerprint
is on the earth and on our lives.

All of Creation is groaning for His Appearing.
Who can see it?
Who can know this Great Mystery?

Those who wait.
Like those who saw him first,
Tender and hidden,
Holiness-incarnate,
wrapped in swaddling clothes
but heralded by angels.

We watch the skies for a sign,
We search the scriptures for hope.
We are included in the ancient lineage
of those whose hearts
were made ready
to receive the greatest gift of all--
to see Him
to see Him
and bow before Him crying,
“Glory to God in the highest!”

All my life is a waiting game.
every second of it,
every minute detail,
reflects the ancient longing . . .
The Glory of the Grace of God
made known
in all the earth
and in the stillness of my heart
through Christ,
through Christ,
only through Christ!

Even so,
Lord Jesus, come!
Enter the lives of those who call your name
in desperation and in praise.
Reclaim and rebuild our hearts,
filling us with a song
that will welcome you,
You are Everything.

Do you want to know this kind of longing?  Do you want to see Jesus?  If so, the following link was created to help those who are longing for a Savior.

http://faithwritersjesuspage.weebly.com/

Frankie Kemp
Faithwriters
Platinum Member 58927

 
I don't believe in coincidence.  Our God is way too big for mere chance.   I decided that today would be a good day to come back to my webpage and actually add some things to it, since I have been writing a lot here lately.  Imagine my surprise when I log in and find that the last time I "blogged" was exactly--to the day--one year ago. I never posted that blog.  It was only a "draft."  Funny.  That's what my life has felt like the past few years--a lot of rough drafts in need of polishing.  I deleted that "draft," so that I could post today's.

I don't see it as just a coincidence that I have come back to blog a year to the date from my last attempt.  Maybe it isn't a profound moment of deep introspection or a life-altering event. Maybe it isn't anything for me to be shouting, "Hallelujah! about . . .

But maybe it is.  Maybe a chance to smile and soak  for a few all-too-brief-moments in the knowing of how amazing our God is and how He can make the insignificant significant are really the things I ought to be "Hallelujahing" about more often.  

Circumstances in our lives can change in a year's time, but He never does.  Hallelujah!  This is why we have joy and everlasting hope, no matter what happens in our lives.  When you know that the Author and Finisher of your faith is true to His Word, you can "Hallelujah!" about everything. It is true, sometimes I live with that strange disconnect between what I know to be true and what I am feeling in the moment.  Sometimes I don't feel like shouting, "Happy!" This is why His faithfulness is such a treasure!  He turns the world upside down by flipflopping hearts, one person at a time.  Imagine finding myself shouting, "Hallelujah!" when a few moments or weeks or even a year ago I was scraping to find something to shout about. That is what His presence often does in me day in and day out in large and small ways.  

Why am I shouting "happy" today?  Many of my troubles still nag me and new ones have been added, but He has given me something that only He could give.  He has given me joy in Him. I'll take every reminder of this gift I can get, and I am learning how to fight for it when the weight of this world tries to steal it from me. This is what it means, to me, to take up my cross and follow Him.  He's so worth it.  

James 1:17 (ESV) Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.



 


            We are living in a day and time when there are many voices crying out to be heard, and it can be very confusing for those who seek to live by faith in the Son of God.  There are some in this world who say God is a myth and that Jesus was only a man—just a teacher, someone who taught us how to treat our fellow man.  Oh, Friend, he is so much more than that, and we cannot discover who our Savior really is and what He has promised to do in us, through us, and by us until we meet Him where He often speaks the loudest. 

            There is a place we can discover Him in this world that does its best to deny His existence.  We can meet Him in the Word of God.  Yes, it is true.  The Bible is the inspired Word of God to man that reveals the greatest Love story of all.  The Bible is God’s message of His redemption of mankind and all creation through His Son, Jesus.  Therein exists a richness to be uncovered that will bring LIFE to every thirsty, hungering soul.  God speaks--no, God breathes His message to us, and He gives us Grace to unwrap the beauty of the glorious Truth on display within its layers.

            Faith in the Jesus of the Word of God is our “ticket” to understanding what our lives mean and who God is and what His intentions are for us in this life.  The ability to hear what God says in a sea of voices is the most important gift any of us could ever be given, and it comes to us through our faith.  We can hear the Voice of God in an extremely distracting world.  In fact, we are even promised we will hear it.  John 10:27:  “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” Romans 10:17 says, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.”

            How encouraging to those seeking to know what God says in this noisy world to discover that someone did our homework for us.  It began with the God-given vision of one believer, Richard Mull, who set out to outline every passage within the Scripture that exhibits God speaking directly to man.  Little did he know that what he began would result in a brand new publication of the Bible where the color-coding of these passages in the printed text would do so much for so many--in effect, bringing more clarity to us in a world attempting to either deny God’s existence or to completely redefine what can NEVER be redefined by man.  God does speak His Truth in a world whose favorite maxim is (borrowing from Shakespeare) “to thine own self be true.”  In Mull’s words about his efforts to follow through on his vision: “Now you can actually see every time God spoke, every time Jesus spoke, every time an angel spoke on God’s behalf and every passage that talks about God speaking.”

                I invite everyone who is willing and able to explore this beautiful and exciting new ministry of the precious, relevant, life-giving, ageless Word of God to man.  Friends, the surest and most constant way to find our Jesus, who is the very Word of God in the flesh—the One we long for, the Hope of our hearts, the Keeper of our souls, the Provider of our needs, the Promise of victory, the Light of this very dark world—is to hear Him speaking to us through God’s Word.  May we, ever and always, hide that Word in our hearts.  There is GREAT PROMISE in so doing. 

Isaiah 55:11: 

So will My Word be which goes forth from My mouth;
It will not return to Me empty,
Without accomplishing what I desire,
And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.

 

            Want to help promote the reading of God's Word and encourage people to learn how to hear God's voice? Imagine a color coded study Bible and multi-media application highlighting when God speaks to you. Operation Light Force (OLF) is a ministry devoted to equipping people to do what Jesus did, setting captives free, healing and preaching. Richard Mull is the President and Founder of OLF and the General Editor of the God Speaks Bible and many other books and was featured on TV and media. Help us spread the word.

http://godspeaksbible.com/

 

 
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I was late getting flowers out this year.  Because time and finances were allotted to other areas, I had to neglect that little luxury--but God is good, and He has turned that around, in the way He always does so well.  Because summer school has ended and the rains have finally come, I have had time to get out and do some yard work, but I didn't have any flowers for my empty planters--and, I really wanted some flowers!  Funny how something as simple as  vibrant blooms can totally change the look of a scorched yard!

Yesterday, driving home from a workshop in Arkadelphia, I noticed this little hardware store with a huge sign out front, announcing their plants were on sale for 50% off!  Right there . . . right there were my flowers, just waiting for me to bring them home and set them out in my barren planters, which I did promptly and purposefully.  Finally! My front porch looks vibrant and alive.

This morning, reflecting on what just a few blooms will do to lighten perspective . . . The Lord used those blooms to speak to my heart.  Simply enjoying the ease of His Presence, I marveled at the difference in me.  Where did it come from?  Is it a product of something I did . . . something I finally got right? Nope.  Can't be me.  Absolutely, without question, it is NOT a product of anything I did.  Grace--unearned, can't be manufactured or created by me. He whispered a little metaphor to me to help me understand the difference between "doing" and "being." 

Consider a rosebush growing in a desert.  She wants to bloom, so she does everything she can to produce beautiful roses.  She thinks all day long about what it takes to be a beautiful rose bush; she spends her energy and her focus preparing for beautiful blooms, learning all she can about beautiful blooms, working her roots trying to stir up the soil, straining as hard as she can to make rose buds appear--yet she remains a rosebush growing in a desert trying to make herself bloom.

Then the Master Gardener appears, and He touches her leaves and reminds her that she is a royal rosebush.  All she has to do is be who she is and focus on what He does and who He is, not what she can or should be doing.  He brings her living water and specially selected fertilizer.  Then, with tender care and pruning, He begins to work on her.  When she stops thinking so hard about being a rosebush and stops trying so hard to create her own blooms, she realizes that she can rest.  She realizes that she enjoys what the Gardner does and that it is A GOOD THING to be a royal rosebush growing in a desert, with or without blooms.  BUT . . . the more He works on her, the blossoms begin to appear.  Such is the way of the Master Gardener.

Thank you, Jesus!  Thank you for wearing a crown constructed of thorns from this rosebush so that she might bud roses that reflect YOUR GRACE AND BEAUTY!

The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose.  It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice even with joy and singing.  The glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God.
Isaiah 35:1-2

 
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What an amazing God we serve!  He calls us by name and lifts us out of the pit of our own selves and places within us a desire to do exactly what He calls us to do.  As we go, He gives us the abundant joy of knowing Him and being fully committed to a purpose for which we were specifically and wonderfully designed. That’s amazing to me!  What we think we are doing for Him, He’s really doing for us.  That, my friend, is the secret to evangelism.  When we go out and share the Love of God that He has shed abroad in us, what we discover is that we aren’t simply doing it for others or for Him—we are actually accepting the gift that He has freely given to us.  What is evangelism but a blessing and a gift, straight (as my pastor would say) out of the cool part of Heaven?  Think about it.  A Holy God chooses foolish us to go out into the world and be salt and light.  He doesn’t need us, but He chooses to use us, and in the using, He transforms us, giving us everything we are so hungry to find! 

            Another thing that amazes me about God is how He keeps His Word, using everything in our lives to work together to get us to that place where we are willing to believe we are fully equipped and capable of fulfilling His purposes for us.  Funny, we think we’re the ones doing all the work, but it is He who worketh in us both to will and do His good pleasure. In my foolish wanderings, struggling so hard to come into agreement with God about who I am in Him because of Christ in me, He has always proven faithful.

            He led me to an opportunity that I thought was one thing, but that is actually much larger than I—just as He is.  While pursuing a desire to exercise my voice as writer, He led me to a website (www.faithwriters.com), where a writing challenge opened up the way to yet another website (www.ptl.org).  This site, created by The Pocket Testament League, is wholly dedicated to promoting Christ through the distribution of the gospel of John. John said about Jesus:  “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  (John 1:1, KJV) We cannot give people personal belief or salvation, but we can give them Jesus in the form of the Word of God, specifically designed to fit first in our pockets and then in theirs.  True, there is much more to evangelism than simply handing out tracts, but what a great way to begin!  The website itself offers free evangelism training, evangelism tools, and free daily devotionals, but I think the greatest thing it offers is an opportunity to accept a challenge and to take God at His Word—that it NEVER returns void.