Author: Terry Wil Robinson

Learn about me at jonahzsong.blog.

Unstained by the World

“Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” (James 1:27 NASB)

Unstained: unblemished, without spot. In the Greek it is Aspilos, used as an external blemishes, of being examined and nothing found to base a claim against.

On a trip north across the state of Wyoming, I was stopped at a commercial vehicle inspection station on the northern leg before entering Montana. The inspector requested me to bring all documentation into the office for her to check. She checked my commercial driver license, medical certificate, truck registration, trailer registration, bill of laden for the load I was transporting, and finally my log book. Everything was in order. Then she looked carefully at eight days of logging my time. She checked the time I entered Wyoming, where I registered at the southern inspection station the day before. She looked at my entries of the times and places I stopped, where I stayed for the night, where I ate breakfast. Finally she said, “I just can’t find anything wrong.” She hesitated a moment, made another check, saying she would take another look to see if she could find anything. I felt relieved when finally she hit the computer button that finished the report and printed a copy for me that contained the words “No Violations Found.”

The inspector could find no cause to cite me for a violation. My paperwork was unspotted, unblemished. Not only did I not have to pay a fine for some error in my paperwork, but my company pays $25.00 (USD) for a “No Violation” report.

A commercial driver license comes with the obligation to accomplish certain tasks, such as keeping paperwork in a prescribed manner. At some time in our lives we accepted eternal life through Messiah Y’shuaJesus. The author of Hebrews wrote:

“Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to G-d an acceptable service with reverence and awe.” (Hebrews 12:28 NASB)

So then, our lives are offered to G-d. What type of life should we offer? Unblemished! Unspotted! “When a man offers a sacrifice of peace offerings to the LORD to fulfill a special vow or for a freewill offering, of the herd or of the flock, it must be perfect to be accepted; there shall be no defect in it.” (Leviticus 22:21 NASB)

We have one another and the Spirit of G-d to bring this about. We act. And if we act wrongly, our brothers and sisters of the Gospel, and the Holy Spirit, are charged with helping us. We confess and turn from our blemishes. This is an act of having our feet washed. Y’shua washed our lives at the time of our salvation, now we need only our feet washed as we walk in the dust of our journey.

Thank You, Lord, for Your mercy toward us. Enable us to live an unblemished, abundant life. Amen

Lord Bless, Keep, Shine. . .

There are No Walls, only Sign Posts

“. . . but satan hindered us.” (1Thes 2:18)

In an email I mentioned something about coming to believe there are no walls, only sign posts. When I think about this a bit, I get a mental picture of a person banging his or her head against a wall, then looking at me and saying “So, what’s this I’m hitting?” I might answer, “Well, yes, I suppose it looks like a wall. It’s really a sign. Really.”

In Daniel chapter five, we are told of the handwriting that appears on the wall as a King Belshazzar’s feast. The King is terrified. None of the King’s men are able to translate it. In comes Daniel, again. It is from this story that we get the expression “See the Handwriting on the Wall.”

So, first we must see the handwriting on the wall. In my earlier mental picture, the man or woman must stop banging against the wall and read the writing upon it. And every wall has some writing on it. If it’s not readily apparent, as in Daniel, perhaps the fingers of a man’s hand will appear to write the message. And we ought pray that it is the Hand of the Lord that writes His words on the wall.

While seeing is believing, it doesn’t mean that we understand the writing, does it? In the case of the terrified King Belshazzar, the Lord used Daniel to translate the words on the wall. In the case of each of us, too, the Lord must reveal His word to us, translating the message into a language from which we can make meaning.

The great evangelist to the Gentiles, the Apostle Paul, wrote to the Thessalonians that he wanted to come to them (1Thes 2:18) time and again. Was Paul banging against a wall. Paul says, “satan hindered us.” Eventually Paul’s group “thought it good to be left in Athens alone, and sent Timothy. . .” to establish and encourage the Thessalonians in their faith. (1Thes 3:2)

If it seems that I bang against a wall, if it seems as though no sign of direction appears from the mystical hand of the Lord, might I not take heart from Paul’s own words about his head banging. In perseverance we will receive a word from G-d, we will not only see the handwriting on the wall, we will understand it too.

It occurs to me that walls are signs and also boundaries that direct us along a pre-assigned course, a destiny. As boundaries, they may not even be visible, as in one of Paul’s adventures, recounted by Luke in Acts 16:6,7: “Now when they had gone through Pyrygia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. After they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them.” We aren’t told how the Spirit prevented their preaching. But later we are told that they were directed to Macedonia to preach there.

There is one other example of a wall/sign/boundary that might be helpful to think about. Paul, himself, put up a wall to his own freedom. He’d wanted for some time to visit Rome. On his way to Jerusalem, it was prophesied that he’d be bound and imprisoned if he continued on his journey to Jerusalem, and indeed, once there, we was jailed. While in prison, he appealed to Caesar. (Acts 25:11). At his trial nothing was found to hold him. “This man might have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar.” (Acts 26:32) So Paul was sent to Caesar, in Rome. Paul got a free ride to the place he wanted to visit, to evangelize, and along the way evangelized onboard the ship and in Malta after the shipwreck. I suppose it wasn’t exactly first-class ticket and accommodations, but some great things did happen along the way.

Walls, both invisible and invisible, provide a channel to guide us along in our life. Exciting isn’t it? The Creator of the Universe, Creator of us all, loves us enough to save us from ourselves and guide us in our new, abundant, resurrected lives. And in all this He takes pleasure in us. What a journey. How awesome is our G-d!

Lord Bless, Keep, Shine. . .

Established in Holiness

“And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you: To the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.” (1 Thessalonians 3:12-13 KJV)

Prayer time. Set out ‘reminder’ cards. Open Bible. This scripture 1 Thessalonians 3:12-13. The cards remind of specific people for whom I desire to pray. The open Bible represents the scripture as Truth in the prayer. This particular book and the scripture that jumped out of the page deals with Paul’s words to the church at Thessoliki. The Bible subtitle is “Prayer for the Church.” Seems appropriate.

Two sets of keys words are in this prayer: 1) “may the Lord make you to increase and abound in love toward one another and toward all; and 2) “in order to establish your hearts blameless in holiness.”
Is Paul is saying for our hearts to be blameless and established in holiness, we have a prerequisite that is love toward one another and toward all? Perhaps. Perhaps this blameless holiness is beyond salvation by faith in Messiah. But isn’t that the trap some have fallen into, then Messiah’s sacrifice isn’t enough to save, but we must do something else beyond that to establish holiness?

In looking at the subtitle, “Prayer for the Church,” it is directed to the body of believers, not to a single person. Individuals are blameless in Messiah through their faith in Messiah. But a church is established in holiness, blameless, through its demonstration of love toward its own and those outside its body, its congregation.

Church members, together as one body of Messiah, are to love one another while also loving all people. The demonstration of this love is what will bring the heart of the church into blameless holiness. I believe this is what makes a vibrant, healthy, joyful fellowship of believers. It is in such a group that the Spirit of G-d is able to work in individual believers and flow outside the confines of that group, drawing others into the flow of divine love and power.

It seems to me such a church needs no membership drive, doesn’t need to preach and teach on giving and tithing, and doesn’t have to beg for help from its members to help at various social functions. Such a church, established in a blameless holiness, has bonds between believers and things just happen; the Spirit, like the conductor of a symphony, works to make the body alive.

Lord Bless, Keep, Shine. . .

Walking, Growing, Becoming

English: U.S. Forest Service fire lookout towe...
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“For I was very glad when brethren came and testified to your truth, that is, how you are walking in truth.” (3 John 1:3 NASB)

“Be it ours today, O gracious Spirit, to be ruled and governed by thy divine authority, so that nothing false or sinful may reign in our hearts, lest it extend its malignant influence to our daily walk among men.”—Charles H. Spurgeon

Walking in the truth. I continue to be fascinated by this topic, returning often.

Spurgeon also wrote, “Truth must enter the soul, penetrate and saturate it, or else it is of no value.”

I’ve also been reading “The Pursuit of Man,” by A.W. Tozer. He speaks of the two “Christians” in our churches. On one side are the common Christians that believe and do nothing more. They believe but are not changed. On the other side is the Christian that believes in his/her heart, responds, and is changed. He/she becomes truly a new creature.

It seems clear from the Scriptures that, after we accept the initial offer of salvation, we are saved from eternal condemnation. However, it is equally clear from the Scriptures that once we are saved we must become a new creation. New wine is put into new wine skins—containers that will expand without bursting. So then, we are saints in Y’shuaJesus now, in the eternal scheme, but still we are becoming saints while we remain on Earth. It’s a process of being transformed, and it continues until we leave Earth to be with Y’shuaJesus or He comes to Earth to reign. For only then will we truly be complete.

The process of being transformed is a bit like an ascent up a spiral stairway. Let me illustrate.

Many years ago, while maintaining communications systems for the U.S. Forest Service, I climbed lookout towers. On many towers the stairway led up one level to a platform, reversed direction, and led upward to the next platform. This continued sometimes over a hundred feet (thirty or so meters). As I would ascend, I’d see tree-covered mountains in the distance. At each level, I’d see farther than I could see at the previous level.

Consider our lives as ascents with many levels where we view the landscape in a different way. Consider those towers upon which I climbed and reversed direction at each level. When looking forward, I’d see the landscape in a particular direction only on every other platform. If I take the tower illustration and apply it to my live, which has often felt as though I’ve changed direction, I begin to understand that it still ascends higher and higher, offering me a better view, a better vantage point.

Thinking about ascents can be applied to all aspects of our lives in Messiah. Take reading the Bible, for instance. We read from the Books of Moses, those of the prophets, the Psalms, the Gospels, the letters of the Apostles. They are not novels we read once and put on the shelf; they are living Words that we read and reread as we ascent the tower of our lives. We read. We walk. We read again. We gain new insight from each reading as we are able to see farther on the landscape of our lives.

Y’shuaJesus is the Truth. May we walk His way.

“Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.” (Jude 1:24-25 NASB)

Lord Bless, Keep, Shine. . .

“And into whatever city you enter. . .”

“And into whatever city you enter, and they do not receive you, going out into the streets say, ‘Even the dust of your city which clings to us, we wipe off against you. Yet be sure of this, that the kingdom of God has come near you.’ “ (Luke 10:10-11 MKJV)

G-d’s Reporters

We, as followers of MessiahJesus, have a responsibility to assess our present world, reporting what we see, hear, feel, as we move through it. We do this reporting in our prayer, in our time with our Lord.

In this particular scripture passage, the disciples are sent out to the villages as laborers in G-d’s harvest. If they are received, they are to heal the sick and say, “The kingdom of G-d has come near you!” But if they are not received, they are to leave, wiping off the clinging dust as they depart and “The kingdom of G-d has come near you!” becomes writing on their graves.

Why is this so? Are we judges of the people of this world? We are children of G-d, citizens of His kingdom. We are like advance scouts, probing territory that one day will be G-d’s kingdom. We are reporters. We are not the warriors who wage relentless battles against the people of this world. We do rage in the Name of Messiah against the powers in dark places, but not against the people of this world. We do mark the people who respond to us, as a gardener who tends his field would mark the plants that require additional care so that they might produce their fruit. Perhaps we won’t return to that plant, but others may follow who will be able to give other nurturing.

This is our gift: that we have been nurtured, and we are able to nurture others. We receive. We give. We are blessed. We bless. And to woe us if we do not receive; woe to those who do not receive us!

Matthew Henry comments:

“Christ’s ministers go into all the world, to say, in Christ’s name, ‘Peace be to you.’ First, we are to propose peace to all, to preach peace by Jesus Christ, to proclaim the gospel of peace, the covenant of peace, peace on earth, and to invite the children of men to come and take the benefit of it. Secondly, we are to pray for peace to all. We must earnestly desire the salvation of the souls of those we preach to, and offer up those desires to God in prayer; and it may be well to let them know that we do thus pray for them, and bless them in the name of the Lord.”

“The general rule which Christ would go by, as to those to whom he sent his ministers: He will reckon himself treated according as they treated his ministers, (Luke 10:16). What is done to the ambassador is done, as it were, to the prince that sends him. [1.] “He that hearest you, and regardeth what you say, heareth me, and herein doeth me honour. But,” [2.] “He that despiseth you doth in effect despise me, and shall be reckoned with as having put an affront upon me; nay, he despiseth him that sent me.” Note, those who contemn the Christian religion do in effect put a slight upon natural religion, which it is perfective of. And they who despise the faithful ministers of Christ, who, though they do not hate and persecute them, yet think meanly of them, look scornfully upon them, and turn their backs upon their ministry, will be reckoned with as despisers of God and Christ.”

Thank You, LORD, for the opportunity to live our lives among Your people, those who know You, and those who do not yet. Thank You for letting us report our findings to You, and to respond to Your Spirit in all that we do and say. Grant us boldness to speak Your Word when You desire, and the wisdom to hold fast our tongue at Your command.

Lord Bless, Keep, Shine. . .

Way of the Cross or Ffordd y Groes

Monasterboice, West cross
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Way of the Cross: Die Daily; Rise Daily

“. . . unless a grain . . . dies. . .” (John 12:24)

I’ve said this before, but it really has been such a blessing to drive across America. I’ve seen and experienced many things. Most dramatic is the cross, and how I’ve changed in my view of it. It has taken 80,000 miles/125,000 km to develop a love for this incredible symbol of our relationship with our Messiah, our Savior, Y’shuaJesus.

I’ve seen crosses on the sides of mountains, atop church steeples, on the sides of churches, on houses, on advertising billboards, and even on trucks and cars. The tallest crosses I’ve ever seen, perhaps 300 feet/100 meters, are being placed in strategically visible places across America by a non-profit organization. In a country with modern Sodom on one coast and modern Gomorra on another, we have crosses nearly everywhere in between.

Let me briefly share how I viewed the cross before my trucking/evangelistic odyssey. Years ago, in a museum, I stared long and even photographed a sculpture of a First-Century victim being crucified. He we as suspended upon a pole. I’d heard before the talk of the cross as an vision of Constantine. I knew about the Egyptian life sign, which is a form of a cross. Most damaging to my view of the traditional cross is the translation of the Greek word for cross:

σταυρός stow-ros,’ a stake or post (as set upright), that is, (specifically) a pole or cross (as an instrument of capital punishment); figuratively exposure to death, that is, self denial; by implication the atonement of Christ: – cross.

Oh, to be sure I valued the Celtic cross, being Welsh-American and proud of my heritage. But as a symbol of Christianity I choose the sign of the fish. Its origin is with the persecuted First-Century church. It seemed to speak of faith. Yet seeing the traditional Twenty-First Century cross displayed across America, I am reaching toward it as a truer symbol of faith. The symbol is now universally recognized as Christian, universally identified with our Messiah. In fact, I’ve heard the symbol of the cross is offensive to many of the American “churches” who have fallen away from Christ as the only way to G-d. It is considered horrid by some for it symbolizes death.

Death. Precisely the point. We are to accept the death of our old way of living, believing, being. We are to accept a new life in Messiah. Thank You Lord, for the old way really wasn’t working anyway.

So the cross is not just a symbol of death, but of life. Following death on the cross, Y’shuaJesus rose to a resurrected life. We, too, baptized in His death, rise to new life. We are to life a resurrected life. We are here, on Earth, in old bodies, but our soul is resurrected. Our true life is a resurrected life.

The cross, then, is a symbol of overcoming death, of rising from the ashes of the fire and living beyond reproach, beyond approach by the enemy of G-d. If we are, as I’ve heard us described, a broken people, we better view ourselves as once broken, now mended by the Holy Spirit living within. Like a China teacup shattered upon a stone pathway, G-d puts us back together and holds us that way. We are His people. We have our new life in Him.

In my kindled love for the symbol of the cross, I look for it upon churches that I pass. I notice it more, and pray more for those institutions and people who display it. My pray is us all to live the way of the cross. To live the powerful new life the cross symbolizes.

Lord Bless, Keep, Shine. . .

The Righteous are Bold as a Lion

“The wicked flee when no man pursues; but the righteous are bold as a lion.”
(Proverbs 28:1 MKJV)

In Daniel chapter three we learn of Daniel’s disobedient friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They had the audacity to defy King Nebuchadnezzar, to disregard the command to fall down before the gold image which the king had set up (v.7). When singled out and given the opportunity to do as commanded, they said to the king, “O, King Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to return a word to you on this matter. If it is so that our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, then He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods nor worship the golden image which you have set up” (Daniel 3:16-18 MKJV).

Now there’s bold. Like so many of our Biblical heroes, Daniels friends are almost larger than life. Bold. Moses faced the Pharaoh. Bold. David faced the giant. Bold. Deborah (Judges 4:4) a prophetess and judge of Israel battled against the enemies of G-d.

From where comes this boldness? A boldness from our G-d came to all these men and women, these Biblical heroes. It is a boldness that grew within them. It was nurtured like a mother would nurture her infant. G-d, as our Father, nurtured the boldness throughout their lives. They were once young, but they grew.

When thinking of King David, we need to remember he was once a small boy tending a herd of sheep. Remember that he learned to sling rocks to drive away the natural enemies of his sheep. Remember that he spent hours in the evening, alone and on watch, gazing at G-d’s handiwork in the sky—the splendor of the evening stars. He learned to trust G-d and what G-d had taught him. He spent hours praising G-d. He developed a relationship with G-d. David was bold, after being nurtured by G-d.
We, too, can be bold. But h0w? The Proverb says “the righteous are bold as a lion.” I don’t feel righteous. I’m just me, struggling to stay afloat in the waves of life’s sea, a stormy sea.

From where comes this righteousness? Let’s look at Abraham. “And he believed in the LORD. And He counted it to him for righteousness”(Genesis 15:6 MKJV). But that was Abraham, another larger-than-life hero of the Bible. Abraham, like David, was nurtured by G-d, raised to believe. The writer of the letter to the Hebrews, inspired by G-d, tells us to look “to Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2 MKJV).

Think about this: 1) Our boldness comes from our faith, which comes to us from Y’shuaJesus. 2) Our righteousness comes from our faith, which comes to us from Y’shuaJesus.

And our faith grows daily as we submit to our Heavenly Father, the mediation of His Son, our Savior Y’shuaJesus, through His Holy Spirit. Our faith is nurtured with loving care through that which we experience, through the many situations into which we are placed. We grow in faith. Like a child learning to walk, we crawl, we stand, we stumble forward, we fall, we rise again. It is a process. G-d nurtures our faith.

Lord Bless, Keep, Shine. . .

Search Me. . .

“Search me, O G-d, and know my heart.”
Psalm 139:23

We’ve considered the cost, agreed to it, and are building the house of our lives upon The Rock. As we build, we continue to work with G-d that our building is soundly constructed. The Lord tells us through the writer of the letter to the Hebrews (ch. 6 v.9), there are things that accompany salvation. We must carefully work these things out with our Lord, in fear and trembling. “For every tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from a bramble bush.” (Luke 6:44 MKJV)

We ought also look at Eph. 4:11,12, and consider that this house doesn’t need to look like all the other houses in the community of the Lord. Each of us receives different gifts­—gifts for building up the church of our Lord Y’shuaJesus. In one sense we are responsible for the life we build, the life we build. But in another sense we are not only for ourselves; gifts we are given we use to help build another’s house. Perhaps I excel in building the frame of the house while you are best with the exterior. Can we not aid one another?

As we build this new house upon the rock, we must continue removing old things, things left from our old house, our old life. We ask our Lord to search us and know our hearts. Our Lord will show us areas of sin in need of repentance.
Bacteria that remains in a wound is like old sin that remains within us. Last winter I slipped on the ice in a parking lot. My knee was cut. I cleaned it and covered it. The surface healed, but beneath a festering began as the bacteria left behind grew. Eventually it erupted.

We are warned against a root of bitterness. Sin, left beneath the surface, erupts when we are least able to control ourselves. We sin again.

We move away from our old life, building a new life upon the foundation our Lord gives us in His word. We need to think, and think hard on “what manner of persons we ought to be. . .” (2 Peter 3:11). The writer M. Scott Peck, M.D., wrote that one of the great probles of our time is the lack of good thinking. We need to meditate upon the Word of our Lord, asking how we apply His Word to the lives we are building, the lives He wants to build in us.

The old buildinga and the new buildings of our lives are spoken of in Paul’s letter to the Galatians:

“For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary to one another; lest whatever you may will, these things you do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law. Now the works of the flesh are clearly revealed, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lustfulness, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, fightings, jealousies, angers, rivalries, divisions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkennesses, revelings, and things like these; of which I tell you before, as I also said before, that they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control; against such things there is no law. But those belonging to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become glory-seeking, provoking one another, envying one another.” (Galatians 5:17-26 MKJV)

We are not building this new house alone. G-d is building it with us, as we yield to Him, receive Him, know Him.

May our Lord continue shed His light into our lives, revealing our hearts, cleansing us from sin, that we might be build into holy dwelling places for G-d on Earth until the Lord returns.

Lord Bless, Keep, Shine upon and through you all.

Peace of the Lord this and all seasons as we watch, wait, grow in Messiah’s Love.

Created to Worship

“Rejoice in the LORD, O ye righteous: for praise is comely for the upright. Praise the LORD with harp: sing unto him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings. Sing unto him a new song; play skilfully with a loud noise. For the word of the LORD is right; and all his works are done in truth. He loveth righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the goodness of the LORD.” Psalm 33:1-5

If we are “true-born believers,” as Matthew Henry calls the Saints of the Lord, then we are also “upright.” If we are upright, then praise is comely for us. Comely? It means that praise becomes us, it is fitting for us. Praise goes hand in hand with rejoicing. We rejoice not in the successes of this Earthly existence, and not despite failures and trials, either. We rejoice in the Lord, as Apostle Paul exhorted us to do. “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.”(Romans 12:12) It’s an attitude of looking upward, to Heaven, to our Father. We rejoice, not in what G-d gives us, but in Who He is.

When we rejoice in the LORD, when we offer praise for what He has done, we soon must move toward seeing Him and praising Him for who He is. This, then, is worship, true worship. Read Psalm 95:

O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also. The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land. O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker. For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work.Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways: Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.

Once we rejoice, we offer praise, we worship, and we hear in this psalm the voice of the LORD our G-d.

Lord, help us rejoice in You, praising all you have done, praising You for Who You are; help us worship You. Amen.

Lord Bless, Keep, Shine. . .

What did You and Adam talk about, LORD?

“Now out of the ground the LORD God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.” (Genesis 2:19 ESV)

It’s been well over twenty years ago now that I met Rocky. No, not the fictitious fighter and movie character portrayed by Sylvester Stalone. Rocky owned a small barber shop in Northern California. Rocky’s love for the Lord shined in his eyes as he would excitedly talk to me about his conversations with the Lord. One day he told me how he’d asked Him what He and Adam talked about when they walked together in the Garden of Eden.

What a beautiful question. “What did You and Adam talk about, LORD?” I’ve thought about it many times over the years since I last saw Rocky. By now I’m sure G-d has declared to Rocky all about His conversations with Adam. What a wonderful fellowship G-d had with Adam. It is this fellowship, I think, that Rocky desired to emulate. Like King David, who cried his desire to even be a doorkeeper in the Heavenly Temple, because it would be so much better than anything on Earth.

Our Father, Lord Y’shuaJesus, Holy Spirit. One G-d and Lord Who created us and desires this fellowship with us, too. Charles H. Spurgeon wrote “Let us note that Christ delights to think upon his Church, and to look upon her beauty. As the bird returneth often to its nest, and as the wayfarer hastens to his home, so doth the mind continually pursue the object of its choice. We cannot look too often upon that face which we love; we desire always to have our precious things in our sight.”

Like Rocky, we can begin with a question like “What did You and Adam talk about, LORD?” The answer isn’t as important as the conversation we will have if we just begin. Father G-d wants to be with us daily. He wants to be with us in our waking, in our mundane tasks, through our happiness and our sorrows. He desires us in our evenings and our nightly rests. Through The Son, He speaks through the Words He spoke recorded by His chosen Apostles, which we read daily. Through The Holy Spirit He wants to reveal Himself to us throughout our days and our nights. Through The Spirit He wants to guide us if we will allow Him to give us eyes to see and ears to hear.

We must respond in kind. We must desire G-d in His Oneness, in His Holiness.

Thank You, LORD, for desiring us, and opening our eyes that we might desire You.

“. . . Lord Jesus Christ . . . who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.” (1 Timothy 6:14-16 ESV)

Lord Bless, Keep, Shine. . .