By Faith the Sun Rises

Did the sun rise today?

Good. Yahweh is faithful.

So all I have to do is stand in faith on days in which the sun has risen.

Happy New Year

I could not begin to describe what Yahweh has done for me in the year 2012. I see so much more, hear so much more, than I did at the beginning of that year, and I look forward to saying that at the end of this and every year that I abide in Yahweh.

Because with Yahweh, no matter what happens in a year, each one is better than the one before because each one builds upon the last that Yahweh be glorified.

But years are man-made. Time is much more than what man has set down in the calendar. 

Every day is its own. And every week, month, year. I may not know what each one holds, but I know Who holds them. Life by faith. But each lifetime is as a day. And each family lineage like a year. And the existence of all of Creation, One with the Creator, is beyond even that. Eternal and constant. Forever increasing as the Tree of Life grows and grows. 

Clean

You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.  Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. ~John 15:3-4

Yahshua the Word has been spoken to us, cleansed us. And as we abide in Him, we bear fruit. 

Abide—from a, denoting forward motion and bidan “to wait, remain, dwell”, the root of which is bheidh, which originally meant “to command” and “to trust” and is also the root word of FAITH.

Intercession

Intercession--noun. When you hold onto the Word for someone else because they can't or don't know to right now.

Worship

Focus on the Good:

Sometimes in life, people are faced with very difficult things. Things like death of loved ones, illnesses that are said to be incurable, rejection, hatred, fear. These things can seem an ocean of overwhelming ugliness in this world, and it can be easy to think that that is all there is.

People can try to distract themselves from these things with the good things in life. But few people really understand what that is or means. One cannot distract themselves from evil. One cannot look at a good thing that is on the same level as the evil thing and survive it.

We must focus on the good, and the good that we focus on must be far more real than the evil that we see in this world. Deeper than beautiful things like rainbows, puppies, or the kindness of a child. Deeper than nature or songs or poems. Deeper than the most awesome experiences or the most breathtaking views. The good that we focus on must be the ultimate good, the underlying foundational good upon which creation was built. Yahweh Himself.

It's not even things about Him or what He has done for us. It is simply to look deeply, forever, into the eyes of the Father who formed creation by His own Word: Himself. We can never look away.

And then, all we see in creation is simply a reflection of what is in His eyes. But He sees only truth. And the evil and sorrow and malice that can appear so real in this world are suddenly seen for what they are: illusion.

As we walk through illusion, firmly in reality, we can have joy in the midst of sorrows and peace in the midst of pain. And, marvelously, we please Yahweh, for we live in faith.

And our lives become worship to Him.

Relative Size

This is a picture of the Earth. The pale blue dot in the topmost sunbeam. It was taken from a spacecraft 4 billion miles away from Earth at the time.

That small, blue dot is Earth. And on that small blue dot is every human, vast landscape, forest, mountain, ocean, plant, bird, beast, hope, dream, and plan.

And bigger than it all is Yahweh. Bigger than the Earth and everything on it. Bigger than the sunbeams. Bigger than the whole of this picture. Bigger than the universe. And yet not separate from the universe.

We must have faith to see, but we must see to have faith.

Most of the world is looking at things through a pair of binoculars. These are perpetually held up to one’s face and distorting their perception of the world. The problems seem to be much larger and more terrifying than they actually are, and the beauties of this world, which are so much bigger than the ills, cannot be seen at all in their entirety as the binoculars only allow someone to see certain parts of the whole at a time.

But in reality, the whole is much bigger than that piece one can see through the binoculars. Goodness is much greater than pain. And when, by faith, we remove the binocular eyes, we can see truth and judge creation with wisdom and righteousness.  

Decide

Decide is a word that means "to cut off."

So when we decide to believe the Truth, we cut off the lie.

Sometimes it's that simple.