I will take away the judgments against you, and even turn away your enemies; but this will not merely put you in a place of relief at having avoided ruin. I Am not moving all of heaven and earth towards your salvation so you can simply wipe your brow in the end and say, “Whew!”
Read MoreIt’s hard for those of you that live insulated lives in the city and pick your groceries up in tidy packages to get a true sense of the level of calamity being described here. Millions of flying eating machines descend on an area and strip it clean of every living plant fiber. Let that sink in: every living plant fiber. Not only are all grains, vegetables and fruit decimated, but the entire actual food chain suffers as the grass, weeds and even twigs upon which livestock rely are gone. Even in your habitat with the “benefit” of pesticides and satellite imagery (many swarms are large enough to be tracked from space), these creatures are devastating. For the people of Joel’s habitat, the military invasion of a foreign army looks a whole lot better than a locust swarm. Which makes the locusts too good a teaching illustration to pass up…
Read MoreYour dishes may be disposable, but your marriage is not. The woman whose eyes you looked into when you promised to spend the rest of your life with her is not disposable. She is My cherished daughter for whom I require your greatest effort and integrity. That integrity will call for some sacrifice, but that is only an indicator of her great worth. Thoughtless man, it is when you have spent decades side by side with a woman that you can step into the most rare and most fulfilling love levels of all. You are a fool if you discard so great a treasure of true companionship and deep friendship for a vapid, immature playmate who’ll see you as the one who’s too old before too long. Grow up and stop acting like a child.
Read MoreFriend, discipline and sacrifice must be woven into everyday decisions in order to truly and deeply engage in a life of worship that is committed to Me. I’ll never be first in your life if you wait until everything else is taken care of before you decide what to give Me (whether it’s money, time, or heart). These and other ramifications, were We to continue to unravel this vein of issues, all underscore the importance of this matter. What I Am saying through Malachi is to first, make Me first. Then attend to the rest. Test Me on this and see if I do not provide enough for you.
Read MoreThe seemingly routine nature of everyday life clouds the people’s eyes to the remarkable truths on which their (and your!) life is built. You won’t change your routine unless you hear Our call. It’s the foundational start of the steps We Are marking thus far: (1) hear My call; (2) change your routine; and (3) confess your sin and need for Us. The next step takes things to the next level. Let’s take that step together.
Read MoreThere couldn’t be a more real sense of having a fresh start in Jerusalem. Primary reconstruction is complete. The people have had joy practically thrust upon them at the reading of the Law at the first of the month, a truly happy new beginning in stepping back On The Way. Then, they’ve gone straight into the reflection of the Festival of Booths, a timely vehicle designed to make Our children stop and examine all that has come before.[1] Thanks to this input and processing (to borrow images from your habitat), they are uniquely poised and prepared to see this moment as the pivotal juncture in time that it is.
And so it is on the heels of their examining their law, their history and their lives that the people come back together two weeks later.
[1] By now you’ve noticed this “stop and reflect” purpose is embedded in all the festivals; they each have their own theme to explore. Mind your own festivals, and they’ll serve you well, friend.
Read MoreAs you have already discovered, Our word is dense and powerful, and it’s often hard to process or understand it all in a heartbeat. Several huge concepts and detailed provisions are flying by as a great swath of The Owner’s Manual is read aloud by Ezra, and the record notes that several Levites are dispersed amongst the crowd and “instructed the people in the Law while the people were standing there. They read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people understood what was being read.”[1]
There’s no shame in getting a little help from someone who’s already been marinating in Our word a while when you become a student of TOM. In fact, the very nature of its revealing Our transcendence dictates by definition that none of you are going to understand all of it, and all of you can use a boost from someone wiser. And there’s always going to be someone wiser than you. Yes, even you.
[1] Nehemiah 8:7-8
Read MoreThere are few examples as concise and powerful as Nehemiah’s in The Owner’s Manual. In addition to his example of prayerfulness and practicality – not to mention his courageous, confident faith – his ability to enlist, energize and empower others in a task far past his individual capacity shows in quick fashion how to complete a significant mission in a brief period of time. It’s ludicrous to think of Nehemiah (or anyone, for that matter) imagining they could rebuild on their own the walls of anything that could be called a city, even a modest one. The mission to which you are called may be of similar scope, or even greater. Just as We did with and for Nehemiah, We do for you: We Are working similar calls in the hearts of others. One of them may be your Nehemiah and will be issuing a rallying cry to the wall. You may be Nehemiah, however, and are in a unique position of seeing clearly a need while also having the ability to enlist, energize and empower others to come together to stand at the wall and work as a united force. Or perhaps now is the time for a dynamic, collaborative partnership. The point is this: We don’t usually call people to go it alone. Don’t try to do what We’re calling you to by yourself. Ask Us, and We’ll help you find the others. Your call may be to tear down walls or to build bridges; whatever it is, if it is from Us, keep a keen lookout for reinforcements.
Read MoreWe don’t even have to give the story away to underscore Esther’s primary lesson. She is the model of someone who sees a situation, knows the right thing to do, and then asks Us to bless and help her in pursuing that good thing. While doing so, she does not check her mind at the door but uses the gifts and intelligence We’ve given her to adapt to the situation at hand, all the while trusting in Us. Were We to boil all this down to a single turn of phrase, it’d be “faithful chutzpah.” It is no wonder her story has been preserved all these years just so you can read it tonight and learn from her example. She recognizes Our having placed her at a moment of crucial opportunity, a vital juncture “for such a time as this,” (Esther 4:14) and steps out in faith On The Way. So can you.
[1] Esther 4:14
Read MoreWe only mention this particular vision in some detail because it sheds just a tiny bit more light on the role of the accuser, and this quick encounter in Zechariah adds an important element to things. Lest you think We Are allowing the accuser to thwart Our people and Our purposes unchecked, here is an instance where he is clearly at work to bring a halt to something We desire. However strong or important the accuser may think he is, though; with a word from Me, he is gone. That word eventually came for Job too, but even more rapidly for Joshua here in Zechariah’s vision. The accuser may have had a hand in the delays that initially stalled Our temple’s reconstruction, but I’ve essentially just shooed him away. More often than not, his is a game of delaying good, rather than outright preventing it; for when Our people and Our angels speak Our word into a given situation and persevere (as We so often urge you to do), you prevail.
Read MoreWe find Ourselves at the same juncture with you now as We did then with Job. We cannot explain to you in a way that will satisfy you the dynamic web of reasons and causes that result in painful things happening to people who’ve done nothing to deserve them. I can assure you that We take no delight in such things. The purpose of the Job narrative is to explore causality and is not the last word by any means on how things work or how We interact with Our people. It is written throughout The Owner’s Manual (and will be even more so in times to come) that We mourn with those who mourn, and weep with those who weep.
Read MoreI want to be clear that this is not some kind of Voldemort-style superstition. The accuser wouldn’t gain some kind of power upon the mention of his name if it were known, other than the satisfaction of pride at the notoriety. And that’s the point. Though he is quite insulted by it, We Are actually doing him a favor in not feeding the arrogance that is the cause of his downfall. Thus, the (lower case) accuser remains anonymous.
Read MoreDaniel is standing beside the Tigris when a fellow of spectacular appearance shows up out of nowhere, wearing white linen and a gold belt, and looking like he’s made of precious stone shiny as bronze with glowing eyes and a huge, rumbling voice. Let Us call him an angel, for he is. He’s there to convey to Daniel (and those who hear Daniel) the importance of persevering in spite of all the political shenanigans that will come to pass. Human kingdoms of various sorts will rise and fall, but “Blessed is the one who waits” and trusts in Me and My timing through it all. (Daniel 12:12)
Feel free to have a moment for yourself reflecting on how you may have to rectify a consequence left you by someone from a previous generation. Cyrus literally pays the price for Nebuchadnezzar’s burning actions; you may pay the price for your great grandparents’ deeds as well. You certainly are doing so on a larger scale as your generation deals with the consequences of previous generations’ actions in all manner of things: fluorocarbons, greenhouse gasses, resource depletion, for example, to say nothing of genetically modified organisms and other more current forays.
Read MoreOur immediate point is purposely recurrent: We work with you where you are with what you can handle at the time. We always have and always will. Right now, We Are taking another step with regard to humanity’s perception of Us, and of deity in general. The course We’ve been using as an example starts at the leading edge of it all, when We did not tell Abraham that his father’s “gods” didn’t exist; I simply told him to follow Me. I would be his God, have his back, and do something special through him…
Read MoreYour identity and purpose are lost when comfort becomes the greatest goal in your life, when you are reduced to seeing yourself as Just Another person trying to make their way in the world, when you take your eyes off of Us and the great arc of Our walk with you as a person and as a people, just as Israel did. And so, wherever you may find yourself in this moment in terms of your distance from Us, know that We Are not about to leave you there, unless you insist on staying.
Read Morejudgment comes in answer to the pride of Babylon’s kings, who took Our initial blessing as license and entitlement, boasting of their greatness and never acknowledging Ours. Babylonian pride is on circus-like display in Belshazzar’s degrading gulps of wine from Our vessels, and he will drink his shame to its dregs and die that very night. So if you think you’ve seen the handwriting on the wall, be thankful that you haven’t seen the same hand writing on the wall as Belshazzar. You may have a sense of foreboding that something dramatic is going to happen, but in the Babylonian ruler’s case the writing is a portent of the nearing consequence of his insulting, degrading, and prideful conduct. Of course, the sacred vessel We have entrusted to you for safekeeping is your life and all that makes it up: body, mind, spirit. You may think it a bit of a stretch to bring your habits into Our discussion at this point, but listen to the episode and hear Us out.
Read MoreAnd so, in addition to the resurrecting valley of bones, the other major vision cast before and by Ezekiel that speaks purpose into the interim generations in exile is his detailed vision of a new temple. You’ll recall that the noble edifice built by Solomon was torn down. Well, We are still dealing with habitatual thinking that does not yet include the feature of omnipresence in its understanding of Our location. You in the 21st Century have got several more abstract concepts on which to hang your thinking caps.
Read MoreWe Are the source of all the raw materials that make you you – tendons, flesh, skin, breath. That awareness should be your primary orientation, as it’s the primary theme of The Owner’s Manual. The other primary lesson here is that I can bring you back to life. No matter what you’ve done, no matter how low you’ve stooped, however big a mess you’ve made: However dark the dead-end into which you’ve driven yourself or consented for others to take you, however dire the consequences have become to you or even to those you have harmed in your sin, you are not yet a pile of bones. Ezekiel’s vision holds the promise that I can bring you back. I can give you new life. I can resurrect you from the dead, friend, and I can do it before you’re six feet under. (I can do it after that too, and will, but that’s for later.)
Read MoreLamentations is one of the most creative and dramatic entries in all The Owner’s Manual. It’s structure alone is worthy of a dissertation…
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