The Light from Fire

One night on the way home, I felt the burdens of this world upon my shoulders and I needed to go to my place to talk to God. After letting Iirai know that I needed to stop by the park, I became anxious to hear what the Lord was going to tell me. We parked the car and I headed to my little bench on Mission Bay that looks out into the water.

As I opened in prayer, the Lord asked me to sit still and just listen and wait. As I sat in His presence, His peace came over me. And over to the right was a family setting up a little bonfire.

They placed the wood palettes nicely in it's spot and arranged some old newspapers on the base. The kids took a little stick with a flame on the end of it and slowly touched the strategically placed newspaper rolls. Quickly the fire spread through the wood and joy filled the air. Warmth suddenly embraced me as the area that was once filled with darkness was now filled with light.

As I listened, I could hear the crackling of the wood, nails, and old newspaper all working together to fuel the fire...

You see the Lord showed me what must happen in our Christian walk and why it is necessary...

The nails and the wood represent His nailing to the wooden cross. Through what He did at calvary, we now have an opportunity for a relastionship with the living God. Through the nails and wood, He can start shaping us and building us. He can start using us to do work in humility and to serve.

I never really thought much of the palette before, but now I noticed they were used for many things. To carry different loads and to help get the job done. Always staying on the bottom not trying to be noticed and often kicked around, chipped, and stepped on.

But even then, they are often looked for and made to be useful. And when the time is right, they are used to provide light and joy. They are gathered together and put to the test.

The old newspaper symoblizes the old news of our lives. Those scars and burdens that keep coming back and won't seem to go away are the articles on these old reports.

God places them strategically and touches us with His flame. The trials come and we start to feel the burn. But as we endure, we notice that people around us start to come together. They start to feel the warmth of Christ as it continues to burn. The light gets brighter as the old things burn away.

God uses us to shine His light and His warmth allot of times, through trials. Not just after the fires have subsided, but during the trials. If we hold on to the Lord during the times that seem hopeless and we feel like everything is just burning away, He will shine bright and we won't even notice the people gathering to feel the warmth and light of the Lord.

Praise God and may He bless all of you.

The old clothes and shoes

When I moved into Iirai's place, she threw away all my socks and most of my white hanes shirts because they had so many holes in them and allot of stains. I knew it was something that needed to be done so I would be presentable in someone else's house or the workplace, but I guess I was just lazy to do so. Getting rid of old clothes and getting new ones is not only good in the physical realm, but is necessary in our Christian walk.

The Word of God tells us that when we become reborn, we put off the old person and put on the new. We do away with the old, worn out self, and the Spirit of God gives us a new self. We are new creatures in Christ.

You see our old selves worn out with dirt, holes, and wrinkles from all the hard work. In our old lives, we were always trying to keep up with the world and it's pleasures. Always trying to make ourselves happy and known.

Now that we are reborn, Jesus gives us a new wardrobe. This clothing should be worn at all times to be presentable to those around us. This wardrobe includes kindness, peace, gentleness, mercy, forgiveness, all wrapped up in love. It even comes with new shoes of peace to walk in God's grace and to go spread the gospel of Christ. What's amazing about these clothes is that they never get old. They may get dirty every now and then, but they are washable and cannot stain.

Every morning we should wear the things that the Lord has given to us. But we have to start with Jesus. We have to speak to Him first thing in the morning. And it's not just a matter of thanking Him for the morning and providing for your breakfast. We should aslo ask Him to clothe us with new clothes to be presentable to the world. And as we walk in all these new, presentable clothes, people will start do notice. The time may come when someone will ask you where you got your shirt of patience, love, or grace. It's then, when you take the oppurtunity to share with them, who the Designer is and what He's all about...

Continuing the race...

Yes, i am finally writing once again which is something God has wanted me to do for a long time. Praise God for the brothers and sisters keeping me accountable to doing the things I say I'm going to do. Convictions from the Spirit are always a reminder that He is sanctifying us.

First, I would like to praise God for the beautiful wedding that He planned out for us. Also for the beautiful wife He has given me which I totally do not deserve. The wedding was so amazing because it glorified Jesus! We pray for strength and guidance to continue to glorify Him as one flesh and we pray that those of you who are married will do the same.

There's so much I want to write and I'm going to get the parables together once again.

Let's begin...