The Egypt Within…

“I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” – Jesus

Can we truly handle the Truth though? That is another question altogether. Only one Person can ask that, really. Our Lord. In His fierce jealousy for communion, He will ask me that very question from time to time.

I have been to Egypt. Twice actually. Well… sort of.

I dreamed about the place, to be perhaps..more accurate.  I’ll be brief here… and perhaps a bit uncharacteristically shallow on emotion (we all need our breathers at times, right?) So…

I was standing outside a large open area, lush and green and enjoying the intense heat baking my skin coupled with a warm offshore breeze. I had a turbin-like covering on my head and I wore the robes and attire of a prince. I strolled along to a large recessed rectangular pool area. One would step down the very steep stairs , look into the water, and see a dozen crocodiles frenzying about in spasmatic gestures. One moment perfectly still, then a lighting fast twitch, then still again.

Peering more intently, I suddenly understood the cause of this type of movement. You see, they were all jostling for position. It was feeding time.  And tiny children were of course, the meal.

I looked up and over to my left to see an Egyptian soldier toss a few more babies into the pool and the frenzy would start all over again. Someone came beside me, looked casually at the event, and asked if I would join them for a walk …

My stomach lurched.  My mind went on tilt and I began to cry and heave. Everything around me faded and all I was aware of was the anguish of utter torment at the loss of these innocent ones. Eternity seemed to pass before me as I shrieked and wailed. At some point, I realized I was doing this in my bed. The turbin I had clawed over my face was now the pillow cover, still tangled about my head.  

In a similar fashion today, the lost are not capable of understanding what they are doing. They are blinded and their hearts are calloused. We, the church, are their only guide, only compass, and only hope.

What are we doing about all this, my dear friends and family?

“You are the salt of the earth: but if the salt has lost its savor, how shall it be salted? it is thereafter good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.” Matt 5:13

It was several days before I could eat again after that “dream.” I can still recall it as if I had just woken up from it moments ago and sat to type.  Something inside me died that day… yet another dirge of sorts. A burning ship filled with the gold and wealth of this world was set aflame on my own personal viking funeral within my heart.

Life became a bit more simple. That tiny suffering left me with a deeper, more passionate longing to see His goodness revealed to His lost. What gave birth was more revelation of… Him.

He is calling His church to pick up His burden, His heart, His love. 

As for me? Well let’s just say that dream has not yet completed the work in me that is required.. but Dad is doing something about that.

There are more “Egypts” to visit. Of that I am quite certain. I also am quite OK with it. It’s the dead, Egypt within; that decrepit carnal-minded man we died to that needs more purging from me. Above all things though, His interactions with His children, however they come, reveal and release something else within… something far greater than any pain we will ever need to endure…

They release His Love.

With this in mind, I submit the following topical study and how it applies to the church in America right now. Be blessed.. and know you are blessed.

RELATED STUDY CLICK HERE Understanding The Times: Revival

Friends Of Esau…

I am staring out the window even as I type.

Out there.. beyond the grey haze of morning glory that has given way to the pseudo-winter looking sky of this mild NY December… is the vast expanse of His children. A creation that can be traced all the way back.

Back to the beginning…

I am thinking about Esau these days. I think on him perhaps more than some. We grew up quoting scriptures such as “Jacob I loved and Esau I hated…” Context and content become a distant priority in light of twisting verses to guard our misguided beliefs and protect our fragile sense of broken identity.

How often does my thinking line up more with this seed of Abraham than the child of “promise”?

We are so quick to ridicule the one who forsook his birthright, but do we really take the time to note that it was a result of a brother who would not share a bowl of food to a starving sibling? What we fail to realize is that the nature of both sons was the same.

Sinful. Fallen. Darkened. Selfish.

We seek our own way. On the surface it may be in the form of despising our spiritual inheritance, despising what His word declares about His child. Or it may be in the form of trying to manipulate our Father, thinking if we reject and resent ourselves enough in the name of “humility” we will cull His favor.. His love.

Either way, we are searching for something we refuse to acknowledge Father has already given us.

We already have all His heart.

“When Esau heard his father’s words, he burst out with a loud and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me—me too, my father!”

We too beg and plead, looking for Father to say He loves us…looking for a confirmation… a blessing.

We get to choose how we will live. Will we exist in the bondage of a heart that stubbornly refuses to accept the goodness of His love? Will we contend with Him even as He is in the midst of us… inside us?

Consider this next time you enter into your worship with your Lord. Consider that all that love you pour out in tears and pain and longing is actually His heart.. His pain…His tears…

…at the thought His child is in reality begging for love… and calling that “worship.”

I look forward to meeting Esau one day. And I trust on that day we’ll exchange embraces. I shall look him deep in the eyes. I know my own will say “I am sorry.” Sorry it took me so long to learn from his own pain.. his suffering… his broken longing.

He is after all… a friend, is he not? Or even now, are our hearts still so hardened?

There can be no exchange of love.. no true friendship, where there is no agreement. It is time to go back. Go back to the beginning. Back to a time when you first felt the love of the One who died for you. Back when the realization of that love is what compelled you to accept Him as your own.

We already have all His heart. How much of ours does He really have?

“…I am your shield, and your exceeding great reward.”