Word of Beard

'"Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored," says the Lord.' Haggai 1:8

Welcome to the first Word of Beard of 2012. Stinkin' Awesome! What better way to kick off new year celebrations with an OT prophetic reminder.

Through the prophet Haggai the Lord is calling the people of Israel to re-focus on re-building His dwelling, the Temple. The temple wasn't simply a static home for YHWH as it was for other pagan gods. YHWH moved where He chose, revealed Himself when and where He wanted and spoke to whom He desired however He desired it - dynamic. The Temple, though vital to His dispensation of Word among the people was yet a structure for a season.

Jump to the Church in 2012. Leave the 'timber' behind and don't worry about traveling to any particular mountain. Instead realize that we, the Church, are the Temple of the Lord. He both statically and dynamically lives amongst us. His dwelling is heaven and yet through the Holy Spirit His home is also within and among you and I, those who genuinely follow Jesus as Lord.

What is it He takes pleasure in? His Holy House.

What honors Him most? His glory in His Temple...His people.

Build His house and He promises to both dwell and move simultaneously.

Guts Falter...

'How long has your gut been around?' I once heard a pastor ask this question in regard to decision making. Particularly those decisions that butt against Truth.

Those heart-felt, gut-confirmed decisions that seem oh so right in the heat of the moment with current information, understanding, knowledge...and yet in acting upon them we in some way, shape or form deny Christ's Truth.

Our guts lead in many areas. From believing we're called to one particular college (seemingly innocent) to claiming that the moral nature of God found in Scripture is outdated. We may become emotionally connected to someone who lives contrary to His Divine Nature (innocent). Yet in our emotion, our empathy, our limited understanding of True Love we follow our gut in place of Truth - we trade Truth for gut. Holy Spirit guidance for gut instinct.

How long has your gut been around? 30 years. My gut has been around a little over 30 years.

...Yet the wisdom of God has guided men and women from the first breath in the Garden, wanderings in the deserts, wars and factions and reunification's, tribes and languages and cultures diverse, centuries and millenia, writings in stone on through digital fingerprints...

My gut may have another 30 years. His Truth has already outlived my gut. The Truth of God never ends or changes or falters. My gut has faltered numerous times. My gut has changed (spiritually and physically). My gut will end. And so will yours.

Our gut, our heart, our seat of emotion and response. It's wickedly selfish one day and compassionate the next. It's overflow may build up or tear down. It allows peace within our inner being and it twists us up with immense anxiety.

Are you following the moral standard formed by your gut? How long has your gut been around.

Or is your gut bowing down to unchanging Truth, the standard of God? It's His 'divine power [that] has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him' (2 Peter 1:3-11). Though imperfectly I truly desire to lay my gut before His throne. It's His divine power that gives life's purpose, direction, knowledge and godliness...not my gut which moves depending on meals, news articles, inspiring songs, confrontational documentaries, abuses in the church, favorite speakers or emotional responses to friends.

In other words, 'Does your Gut Win or does Christ Win out in your decisions and discernment?' What's your gut telling you right this moment? Maybe you need to do the opposite in response.

Word of Beard

'Now this is what the Lord Almighty says, "Give careful thought to your ways..."' Haggai 1:5

The Prophet Isaiah saw Assyrian threat and the fall of the Northern Kingdom. Habbakkuk watched Babylons rise and the coming exile. Jonah spoke against a pagan nation beyond the Lords chosen.

Haggai 'faced in some ways a more trying situation; a time of inertia and apathy when spiritual life had burned low [among Gods people]...' amidst comfort and security in their homeland and a temporarily mild political climate. While politics may raise our blood pressure in our own time I wonder if Gods message through Haggai isn't relevant today.

Are we also less inclined to listen to the Word, discern it's Truth, and act it today. Haggai was called by El-Shaddai - The Lord Almighty - in the midst of this very same corporate attitude - Who among us is called to be the voice of a modern Haggai?

Have you given careful thought to your ways? Inertia and apathy are prowling around like roaring lions...give careful thought.

I believe there's a new generation rising to answer Haggai's challenge.

Read Haggai and Robert Fyalls Bible Speaks Today Commentary

The Day...

Why did it take The Wise Men so long to realize the fulfillment of such a game-changing prophecy. The prophecy about The Prophet. The Priest. The King?

What exactly were these pagan? seer's aware of regarding The Incarnate One?

Had these Eastern mystics studied the Hebrew Prophets?

Had they followed ancient stories of their own tribes? Tales that so happened to line up with Gods handiwork?

What if these Asian prophets had heard the same creation story as the Hebrews? What if the proto-evangelium - the pre-historic news of the One to come - was known throughout the entire Eastern world? Though it was clearly altered by the many nomadic peoples, tribes and nations that distanced themselves from the True God over time.

These magi, according to their study, were fully aware of this cataclysmic event. The coming not only of a divine kingdom to earth but of it's King as well. At least they were aware of something...supernatural.

Maybe it was the long, arduous journey from the East that took years to complete. Mountains and deserts. Warring nations and arrogant kings. Strange tongues and scarce supplies.

Either way, the Dayspring rose in the East and these men were fully aware. Clearly their eyes, minds, yes their guts were awakened to a new life, one worth embarking on such an incredible multi-year ordeal.

This Prophet. This Priest. This King. He is still worth whatever time it takes to realize His eternal significance.

Word of Beard

'To Him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy...' Jude :24

In the previous passages Jude calls believers to personally and corporately Build up their faith, Pray, Keep in Gods love and Wait patiently in Christ.

By living out those admonitions we continue the sanctification process which ultimately is God transforming us. In the midst of our transformation, or metamorphosis, He 'keeps' or protects us from eternally falling into 'the fire' (Jude :23).

Fantastically enough He doesn't just protect us from eternal wretchedness but Christ presents us to our Holy God free of our sinful nature - our stains and blemishes. Ultimately He does this with an everlasting and contagious joy! All creation groans for this joy.

...to those who have been called, loved and kept.

un/Faithfulness...

What does it mean to be faithful?

My gut tells me what it means to be unfaithful more than my heart is able to describe faithfulness at times.

Think about your spouse (if you happen to have one), what would you consider an unfaithful act. Adultery? Flirtation? Deep emotional attachment to one other than you?

What about your vocation. If you are or could be the boss, what would you consider a conflict of interest in the work place or an act of employee unfaithfulness? Taking on a second career that steals time away from your business? A job at a rival company? Simply not doing the work that was agreed upon?

In sports you wouldn't assist the opponent to victory would you?

In your studies you wouldn't falsify your testing would you?

A soldier who trades sides only to fight against their own is a...traitor. Unfaithful right?

A Few Thoughts:
1) Obedience: Simple obedience to what we've given ourselves over to is a physical sign of faithfulness.

2) Integrity: A state of wholeness, particularly the holistic blend of orthodoxy and orthopraxy. An undivided life both internally and externally...this life undoubtedly perpetuates faithfulness and staves off unfaithfulness.

3) Joy: Deep within every one of us is the need to experience joy in what/whom we're called to be faithful to. Joy doesn't equal passion or happiness. In fact joy may come in the dark, painful deserts we experience. When joy is intrinsic faithfulness abounds.

4) Divinity: Gods glory is the root of faithfulness. We exist because of His glory. Faithfulness comes to fruition within the knowledge of His Divine Nature. Without giving ourselves over to someOne greater than us, we may never know holistic faithfulness much less live it out personally.

What does it mean to be faithful? Joyful obedience to the Divine funded by the Spirit. This attitude perpetuates our ability and desire to be faithful, not simply to one-another, but ultimately to the Messiah who was and is and will always be eternally faithful to us.

To Israel at the end of his days Moses said, 'Do not be afraid or terrified because of [worldly forces], for the Lord your God goes with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you.' Deut. 31:6

I am, therefore, He is.

Now, now, now...

'Now, now, now, now, now think about it like this...'

It seems this is what Jesus is saying during much of His three and a half year teaching and touring ministry in the Middle-East. Redefining, clarifying, simplifying and reconciling new realities based on ancient truths about Himself.

The Beatitudes - clarifying the blessed.

Initiating the 'born-again' - this is completely out-of-the-current-box.

Dying to the flesh in order to gain eternal life - completely turning the wisdom of man upside down here.

Oaths, divorce, revenge, adultery and the mind, idolatry and the heart, sabbath and law and...grace.

It's as if Jesus was saying to Israel, 'Now, now, now, now, now think about YHVH this way now.'

The Church must continue in Jesus' footsteps saying, 'Now, now, now...'; readdressing, according to His New Covenant, our habitual attitudes toward our 21'st century version of Christianity.

As a friend always notes, 'be cautious when dealing with ancient boundary stones,' I would echo that most of them need not be removed. Often we simply need to re-examine why they were put there in the first place without altering Jesus' precepts.
'Now, now, now, now, now think about it like this...'

Read Matthews Gospel for a refresher course on thinking anew.