Apocalypse 2012

Getting ready to ring in the new year...watching old videos from my oldest son's first french toast breakfast which was also his first surfing trip. Then I checked out a video from the 'Our Family is your Family' thanksgiving over at our first church, then as I reflected on Sebastian's baptism this year, I was taken back to the day he was born, his little lip shivering and the fear and excitement and beauty and messiness. Awesome. Bringing forth new life is always a messy ordeal though...ask any mother...and as this year gives birth to the next, I can't help but be filled with hope for what the Lord will do and how my household and my community gets to be a part of it all with Him.

In order to look forward, it’s often wise to first look back and see from where you've come. In 2011, there have been a lot of challenges. Many victories and many failures, and life has emerged victorious from the midst of all of it. I've prayed and cried,yelled and sobbed. I've had dreams and nightmares, visions and darkness, I've heard the Lord's voice and battled with the devil. I've been set on fire and filled to overflowing. I've rejoiced and I've lamented. I've struggled with men and with God, fallen and risen, died and come again to life. I do my best to give God glory through it all because I love my Father and I love my King, Jesus.

I’m still learning how to be a husband, a father and all the other things I’m to be…and to do it all while dying to myself, so that Messiah can live his life through me…I have struggled with what that means, what it looks like and how it manifests on earth as in heaven. Following Jesus, has not been easy for me. It wasn’t easy for him, so i don't expect it to be. I don’t believe he lived the life he did so we don’t have to, but so that we would have the hope, courage and power to follow Him in exactly that life. This means courage and humility, boldness and wisdom, strength and compassion, suffering and conquering and so much more…but in the end…faith, hope and love.

A few things I’ve learned more intimately over the past year for what it’s worth…

God is faithful.

My life has been somewhat formless and void over the last year, it lacked direction, function and order in many areas. I battled with confusion, doubt and demons I knew nothing about…but they were as real as me sitting here typing. One thing is a fact though, evil must be allowed to come out, do their worst and then be dealt with head on. There’s no use dilly-dallying around. You have to get past the surface rubbish… ‘peace, peace’ when there is no peace, stare the horsemen in the face and endure…that’s the Way.

The world is coming to an end…and it starts with us

The way we have done things in the past will not be the way they are done in the future. We are called to be good stewards of God’s good creation, to be image bearers and God has ordained it that he will work through his children to bring his glad, wise order into the world…filling it with Himself. Creation groans for this and we who have the first fruits find ourselves groaning within for the redemption of our bodies. In this hope we were saved. May this be a year where the sons of God are revealed. May we not only walk in the Spirit, but be driven by the Spirit. This past year, as I mentioned, I found there were many things that needed to be brought into order, and there is still more. He is faithful to do it if we are willing to stand in the light, as ugly as that might be at times, he can cleanse and renew centuries and even millennia of wounds by the blood of the Lamb and the power of the Holy Ghost. This is for our good, so that we will not lead lives that are to no effect, that we will not run in vain. This is what he wants for us. It pleases the Father to give us the Kingdom.

Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life

In all creation, there was only one who was worthy to open the truth to us, God’s plan for the redemption of the world. It’s ugly, it’s messy and it’s absolutely beautiful. Messiah Jesus, was the firstborn from the dead so that he might be first in all things. He leads the way. Everything is through him and for him. It is in him that God has summed up the whole cosmos. So if you want to know what God is doing and how he’s doing it, look to the Son. If you want to know what God is like, look to the Son. If you want to know what God wants to do through you, look at what he did through the firstborn of the brethren. Then realize that the same power that created the cosmos, that raised Jesus from the dead, that holds all all things together and sustains all things is at work in you to do it. This is what we were saved for. It will be ugly, it will be messy...nobody wants to hear Revelation 6-20 much less go through it, but 21 and 22 are worth it. There is Life after death.

Pray, listen and walk.