The knowledge of good and evil

The knowledge of good and evil

 

The apple bitten

Now starts mankind’s upheaval

 The knowing of good and evil

The judging right from wrong

Separating weak from strong

Who are we to measure,

Refuse verses treasure

Valued verses worthless

Deserving of freedom or to be oppressed.

To be cast aside or thrown a life vest

Smaller or bigger transgress

This knowledge of good and evil

To see with eyes before the fall
To see with eyes that know it all

To look and not judge

To extend grace and not begrudge

Oh to love like Christ,

All worth the sacrifice.

The purpose to call out sin

Only so we can begin again

Not to set the scales against

But to allow grace to be dispensed

Lord forgive us our violations

Comparing of others and self-categorizations

Losing sight of God’s declarations

Utilizing human evaluations

 Limiting Jesus’s blood rectification

Holy Spirit teach us your interpretations

How to have true discernment without discrimination.

James 4:12 (ESV) There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?

James 4:11-12 (ESV) Do not speak evil against one another, brothers.[a] The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 

2 Corinthians 5:10  (ESV) For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

Worth/ F.R.E.E. BLOG

http://www.freefromht.org/worth/


This months Blog On Freedom and restoration for everyone enslaved

Worth

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. .( Matthew 10:29-31) 

“Can a woman forget her nursing child, and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, yet I will not forget you” (Isaiah 49:15). 

Unwanted, a burden, another mouth to feed

Left out, fed up, searching for more,

Lies in your head, you’ll never succeed.

Hollywood glamor, MTV hype

Grasping for smoke and mirrors,

Or something telling you you’re worth the fight.

Promises whispered in sultry tone,

New shoes, new identity, his sugar girl.

Trading all that is precious for rhinestone.

Bate, hook and line,

The lure lowered down,

Offered by a sheep covered swine.

Sight can only see right now

To be desired and offered love

Unaware of plans to become his cash cow

The treachery so slow and slick

Showered with attention,

But tomorrow asked to turn trick.

The slippery slope getting slicker still

The rapes and beatings the start

Climbing out like going backwards uphill.

Free will to do only as he pleases

No money, no escape, plenty of fear

Life stolen, tattered to pieces

If only someone were to care

If only, the whisper of hearts

If only there was help from this nightmare.

We all have been designed with eternity set in our hearts, to be part of a larger picture, to be swept up in strong arms, known and loved. And yet somewhere along the way the story gets, fuzzy, cloudy or sometimes ripped away. So many young ladies (and boys too) have become prey to “wolves in sheep’s clothing.” Not all sex trafficking victims stories are as pictured in the poem above but many times it is the most vulnerable that are lured in. We as the body of Christ can be the “someone’s to care”. We are commanded as believers to love the least of these, to set the captives free. And those who are being Sex trafficked are the captives.  So what are we to do, how do we stop a multibillion dollar industry?  We become more aware and stop seeing child Prostitutes and begin to see victims, we begin to use our influence and educate our communities, we reach out to the marginalized, speaking life and hope into the least of these, building relationships that can speak true identity.  Those who foster and adopt with the love of Christ can become a new landing place for many. Working with youth and offering honest hope and relationship can become another landing pad to stopping the vulnerable from sliding into treachery. We the body can become advocates against pornography, an insidious way of life, that has taught our boys to become detached and void of empathy for our girls, we can mentor and come along side our young men and talk about true manhood. But what about the ones it’s “too late “for, the ones who have been lured in and sold a false narrative only to wake up to the realities of being told they are worth less than nothing? We can support local organizations that are currently advocating for victims, we can raise money for safe houses where those that are rescued could go and find help and safety.  We can be on our knee’s praying that sex trafficking is stopped and that our vulnerable youth will know their true worth. We cannot just sit by but must rise up as the church in action.

“Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us” (2 Corinthians 5:20)

Below are some statistics and interesting reads as well as links to places to lend your support for funds for a home here in Berks County PA

https://www.gofundme.com/dashboard-restoration-home

https://www.coablog.org/home/2017/1/19/now-more-than-ever-we-must-declare-that-there-is-no-such-thing-as-a-child-prostitute

  “Studies estimate that at least 60 percent of victims of child sex trafficking come from the child welfare system, and the majority of them have extensive histories of sexual and physical abuse prior to ever being trafficked. Seventy-eight percent of all prostitution arrests are girls, and 52 percent of all juvenile arrests for prostitution are African-American girls. Instead of being recognized as victims of crime and given the services and support necessary to heal from their trauma, these children are neglected, dismissed, ignored, and—in the worst cases—criminalized.”

http://www.wfmz.com/news/berks/reading-man-charged-with-human-trafficking/301514918

https://cseinstitute.org/new-study-shows-food-insecurity-leads-survival-sex-cse-american-teenagers/

http://humantraffickinghotline.org/training-resources/referral-directory

https://northstarinitiative.org/engage/

What is light?

What is light?

Photon, Wave or Particle?

 Energy all around

Only a fraction observable

Where it shines, life abounds

If contained a mighty force

 The power to annihilate

Zero time to earth from heavens courts

Millions of years for man to propagate

Ever present

Eternal in existence

Even darkness cannot circumvent

To Objects, Bending in refraction

Always moving never still

 Impacting our world in micro transactions

Light through all and in everything

To absorb the light and pour it out

 our act of worshipping

My brief study of Light illuminated so much as I connect what light is with the truth that Jesus is Light.

1.     John 1:5 NLT The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.

- Genesis 1:3-5 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

Job 38:24 (ESV)

²⁴ What is the way to the place where the light is distributed,
    or where the east wind is scattered upon the earth?

Psalm 36:9 (ESV)

⁹ For with you is the fountain of life;
    in your light do we see light.

Psalm 74:16  (ESV)

¹⁶ Yours is the day, yours also the night;
    you have established the heavenly lights and the sun.

Psalm 139:12  (ESV)

¹² even the darkness is not dark to you;
    the night is bright as the day,
    for darkness is as light with you.

Isaiah 45:7  (ESV)

⁷ I form light and create darkness;
    I make well-being and create calamity;
    I am the Lord, who does all these things.

John 8:12  (ESV)

I Am the Light of the World, Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Ephesians 5:13  (ESV)

¹³ But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible

Revelation 21:23-24The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. - 

Entering Rest

                           Entering Rest

“

Go past the outer courts

The lambs blood now your passport

Spirit washing all stains away

Escaping hell to pay

To the light and bread

Here your soul fed

Prayer and praise 

Open pathways 

No longer a dividing wall

Hear the sound of his call

Enter into the most holy place

Here meet face to face

To sit with the one enthroned above

To bathe in his grace and love

To find reprieve from the worlds demands

Believing he Is, the only command

Sitting in repose

Confident in approach

Aaron's staff in your hand

Manna and provision to command

Mysteries and all his ways engraved

No longer to laws enslaved

Forever seated to his right

Even after heavenly insight

The walk eternally directed

      The earth to heavenly kingdom subjected

        And in the secret place of the most high

            Given Power and authority to sound the battle cry

To stand the ground by Christ’s blood

    On the serpent we now dare tread

        

     As we rest in all His eternal deeds

 He before the father pleads

We the children of God enter in fullness

And are not kept from his goodness

With assurance the work is done

We can trust all to the son

And enter into rest

Turn Right

Turn Right

Let us learn we don’t need to turn far, in order to turn right.

His righteousness is right in front of us.

Ours to have and to hold into eternity,

Jesus’ righteousness, leaving no spots unturned.

Though we often leave, making left turn after left,

Simply turn right and see he has never left.

When we fail and falter,

We never fall far enough for the father to forget,

His right hand reaching down in compassion.

No need for stacking our stuff to raise ourselves up,

The one seated at his right hand placing us in right standing.

For we stand in the presence of the righteous one

And with The helper we can turn and do what is right.

The spirit within directing right and left, discerning good and evil.

Today let us hold firmly, today we can leave behind the past

Today we are made right again,

As long as it’s today, His mercies made new in our turning.

Let us Seek a righteousness not our own

And let us not turn away

 for the leftover crumbs of this world,

But enter his courts with confidence, believing in the one, who left his heavenly kingdom to make us right.

Romans 10:10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

Philippians 3:9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,

Isaiah 32:37 “And the work of righteousness will be peace, And the service of righteousness, quietness and confidence forever.”

Hebrews 8:8 Now the main point of what we are saying is this: We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, ² and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by a mere human being.

  

Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. ¹⁴ But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

What do I know of lament?

What do I know of lament?

Of what do I understand of suffering?

How do we call witness to a loving God in the face of another’s pain?

Where is mercy when injustice runs rampant?

What does grace mean when you are oppressed

Is it just for the privileged to be blessed?

Oh what do I know of lament?

The earth cries out from the burden of pollution

The waters rail against toxic waste

The bodies of our children pile up in decay

Sickness and cancer abounds

How can we deny the pain all around?

What do I know of lament?

Hatred and love of self is on the rise

“Isms”, places that  divide

Waistlines and wallets fatten

As poverty and hopelessness devour

Trust is twisted as other’s abuse power

What do I know of lament?

 Church’s wounding those all around

The truth of Jesus buried beneath the ache

Cities and countries gobbled up by quakes

Flood waters wreaking devastation

The groaning of all creation

What do we know of lament?

In honest appraisal let us asses,

 All artifice stripped so we can enter in,

In all our ugliness, hurt and pain.

Let us wail and repent

Give voice to our lament

Who knows of lament?

He does…

The one who formed all, waits to hear our cries

The one enthroned above who longs to respond

The one who bent down low to come along side

His arms aching to hold and comfort as we stop pretending its ok.

Jesus the son dying to make the only way

Psalm 22:1-5

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
    Why are you so far from saving me,
    so far from my cries of anguish?
 My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
    by night, but I find no rest.^[b]

Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;
    you are the one Israel praises.^[c]
 In you our ancestors put their trust;
    they trusted and you delivered them.
 To you they cried out and were saved;
    in you they trusted and were not put to shame.

Good Friday prayer

Good Friday Service Prayer

Dear Father in heaven, we thank you for this time to gather and reflect on your promises of redemption ,the hope of reconciliation and gift of eternal life all fulfilled by your son’s bloodshed.

We thank you for the specific point in time that you chose for Jesus to die on the cross and rise again, help us tonight, Holy spirit to  understand that, that one act was not just an Historical moment but is truly an eternal one covering the expanse of all time and space.

Come remind us to lay down all our sins, fears and pride at the cross, where you ,dear Jesus, took them upon yourself, your own flesh and laid them to rest in your broken body.

Teach us how in receiving and believing we are marked by the blood of the Passover lamb,just as Jesus was put to death but overcame the grave. We are now marked to pass from death to life, to worship the lamb into all eternity declaring

“Holy,holy holy is the lamb who was slain, who was and is and is to come.”

Lord give us revelation about where we have denied you and where you want to bring new life this season.

Holy Spirit tonight give us a new perspective, one from the fathers view. Teach us to see what the father see’s and do what the father does and love like the father loves, even as Jesus did, being obedient even unto death. Teach us what your kingdom come your will be done  on Earth as it is in heaven looks like.

Tonight Lord awaken our hearts to worship you in spirit and in truth for your glory and honor.

Amen