ADJECTIVES AND NOUNS

By Jonno

 

Jesus healed many people during His ministry on earth.  He healed many cripples, paralytics, blind, and demon possessed. Many of these people had no source of income other than begging on the streets of the villages or towns that they resided in.  Some would go to the city gates to gain a better chance at a visiting stranger’s charity and good will.  Here is one well-known example:

 

³⁵ As Jesus approached Jericho, a blind beggar was sitting beside the road. ³⁶ When he heard the noise of a crowd going past, he asked what was happening. ³⁷ They told him that Jesus the Nazarene was going by. ³⁸ So he began shouting, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” (Luke 18 NLT)

 

The text identifies the man as a “blind beggar” suggesting that he was visually impaired, some say he was blind since birth, and that his profession or vocation or social status was that of a beggar. 

 

Deconstructing this man’s identity a bit further we see that the word blind is an adjective, a word that describes another, for the word beggar, a noun: defined as one that begs; especially: a person who lives by asking for gifts, a pauper, a panhandler.  If the adjective of the noun is removed, the noun still exists; which is to say, the man was a beggar whether or not he had the condition of blindness or not. 

 

We know that Jesus healed the man of his condition of blindness; what about the identity of the man as that of being a beggar?  After a negative exchange with an unsupportive crowd, who probably knew him well, offering pennies when convenient, the man is approached by Jesus:

 

⁴¹ “What do you want me to do for you?”

   “Lord,” he said, “I want to see!”

 ⁴² And Jesus said, “All right, receive your sight! Your faith has healed you.”

⁴³ Instantly the man could see, and he followed Jesus, praising God. And all who saw it praised God, too. (Luke 18 NLT)

 

His blindness turned to praise, so much so that the previously unsupportive crowd began to praise the Lord as well.  The blind man’s response was that he followed Jesus and praised God, and infecting others to praise Him along the way.

 

Here are the questions: what about the man’s vocation?  What about his livelihood? The man was no longer qualified to beg because his condition for begging was removed by divine healing.  Did the healing eliminate all possibilities of income?  Was the healing accompanied by vocational skills that would afford him the opportunity to make a living outside of begging?

 

The man’s must have had aspirations and passions burning within him.  The man was created to be something in the kingdom of God, and his life was planned long before the foundation of the earth was laid.  The answer to all of these questions is simply “I don’t know.”  Although the scriptures don’t give the remainder of the man’s life story, here’s what we do know: he followed Jesus and he praised God.

 

When life serves you a disability or an unfair advantage, remember that life itself is something that God created.  Life serves the purpose of God.  Because sin, outside of God’s original design, is in the world, there are disadvantage and disabilities that we all struggle with.  The truth is that God wants to restore each one of us back to His original design for us.  The aspirations, passions, and dreams that we see in our innermost being are God-breathed.

 

The first step is to follow Jesus.  Give your life to the one who paid for yours with His life. He loves you (John 3:16). He wants to remove a few of your adjectives.

 

The next step is the praise God.  God inhabits your praise (Psalm 22:3).  Praising God is a non-stop activity drawing the presence of God continually (Psalm 34:1).

 

The third step is to pursue your passions, aspirations, and dreams with purpose.  Realize that your condition and label that you’ve lived with all your life may very well be contrary to who and what God has preordained for you to be (Jeremiah 1:4-5).  You are the noun that God declares that you are.  It’s bubbling inside you.  Just begin to declare it over your own life. 

 

You have been defined.

 

 Copyright ©2010

CROSS-EYED

By Jonno

 

“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God [1 Cor 1:18].”

 

When we survey the cross and what it stands for, it seems baffling that an object used as an instrument of an excruciatingly painful execution is universally recognized as a symbol of the love of God through the death of His Son, Jesus Christ. 

 

Jesus Christ crossed over in His message to the people, steering away from the rigidity of the Law, and into a relationship with the grace of God. 

 

The blood-soaked splintering crossbeam that levels with the horizon, that took the blacksmiths crudely pointed nails, that stretched the already severely beaten body of a man named Jesus of Nazareth to the point of full exposure, reaches from east to west, and speaks of the distance that we ought to go to plant and water the seeds of the Gospel, and the extent of sharing the undying love of our Heavenly Father.

 

The ominously towering post running vertically from subterranean terra firma, reaching to the sky and Heavenward, causes one to look within him or herself, analyzing through the eyes of conviction, yet feeling the pardoning nail scarred hand of the Master, speaks of the love that God has for all of humanity, even a humanity who would usurp authority and strive to become gods, and the extreme measure that He took to ensure that the way back to Him was lighted by Word, who is Christ Jesus.

 

We are now able to look cross-eyed at one another in the love of our Lord and forgive others, love others, share the Gospel with others, help others, seek the best for others, and build up others, all because of the power that flows from message of the cross of Christ. 

 

The message is cross-cultural and cross-generational. It spans across color lines and the racial divide, across gang turf lines, across social-economic lines, across borderlines of countries, and across dysfunctional family thresholds. 

 

Like honeybees, we are to cross-pollinate the message of the cross to the flowering fields.

Like lawyers, we are to cross-examine others not with guilt, but with the love of Christ; not to condemn, rather become the extension of grace and mercy.

Like an examiner, we are to cross-reference to understand that every person regardless of race, gender, creed, culture, age, financial standing, educational background, or pedigree needs a Savior, who is Jesus Christ. 

 

The message of the cross IS the power of God, and on this truth we can stand.

 

Copyright © 2010 Jonno

The Moving Up-Words

 

IDENTITY CRISIS

By Jonno

 

God called Gideon a "mighty warrior" [Jdg 6:12]. God called Jeremiah a "prophet to the nations" [Jer 1:5].  Before Gideon and Jeremiah assumed the roles of warrior and prophet they both told God whom they thought they were.  They gave God disqualifiers for themselves in hopes that the Lord would pass their assignments on to someone else whom they felt were more qualified. 

 

Many of us suffer today because we have not assumed the identity that our Heavenly Father wrote out for us.  Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 1:4(NIV), “Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.”  Another translation says that God, in Christ, chose us “before the foundations of the world”.

 

There was purpose God for you to be conceived and release you to the world on the day of your birth rather than in any other time period.  Your time is now.

 

There is the identity in God that He scribed deep in your heart, in your spirit, that is longing to emerge from the depths of your life.  Beloved, the sad thing is that more of us have succumbed to the crisis called “identity theft”.

 

From birth the sin nature has taken a free ride in attempts to derail the God-plan and destroy our identity.  That’s why you had the childhood that you had. That’s why you suffered some of the things that you suffered. That’s why someone touched you inappropriately. That’s why they called you names out of your name. That’s why the lies were told about you and others believed them.  All these things played as agents in a tactical scheme to steal your identity.  

 

Jesus said [John 10:10(NKJV)], “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”

 

The enemy of your destiny wants to succeed at stealing your identity in Christ, killing the purposed role in the kingdom of God, and destroying any pathway that would lead you to discovering who you really are and what you’re really about through the Holy Spirit.

 

Both Gideon and Jeremiah thought less of themselves, however the Lord thought so much more of them. God thinks so much more of you than you think of yourself. He has placed an ocean of potential within you, which can only be navigated by His Holy Spirit.  

 

Jesus did come to explain who you are and what your role is in the kingdom of God.  That is the “life more abundantly”.  Imagine for a moment: you fulfilling your God-written destiny, on point and on purpose for the kingdom of God, knowing full well who you are in Christ Jesus. 

 

God had to prove to Gideon and Jeremiah that they were everything that He created them to be.  I encourage you to passionately pursue the promise of your purpose and to seek in the Lord your true identity. 

 

Your purpose and identity declare from within you, “I can do everything through Him who gives me strength. [Phil 4:13]”

 

Copyright 2010© 

By Jonno

 

I helped my 9-year-old daughter with her school project. The project was to construct a pushcart much like the hotdog or coffee vendors would use on the streets of a major city. There were parameters and instructions detailing the size limitations, suggestions for materials, and criteria for the wheels with axels.  Also, the pushcart was to have a slogan.  All these things lead to her achieving a good grade.

 

God told Joshua (1:8) concerning the laws and commandments handed him by Moses, “Study this Book of the Law continually. Meditate on it day and night so you may be sure to obey all that is written in it. Only then will you succeed.” 

 

There’s something that happens when we follow instructions to the letter.  We succeed. 

 

I remember growing up my Mom would give us “moi”.  I know, “What on earth is a moi?”  Glad you asked.  Moi is a Chinese salted and preserved plum.  A whole plum, seed and all, would be salted and dried until absolutely no moisture was left.   We would pop them in our mouths and eat the dried fruit.  After all the fruit was gone, we would suck on the seed because the flavor was yet in the seed.

 

Here’s where I’m going with all of this.  There is so much emphasis on success in the world.  There is so much pressure to succeed in life.  There is so much focus on becoming a successful this or that, and those who have achieved the levels of loftiness have self-help books to guide you through the course that they have endured. 

 

God has planted within each of us a seed to suck on.  That seed is called identity.  The Lord told Joshua to study the “Revelation of the Law” and to “never allow it to depart from” his mouth because this was explaining the purpose for Joshua and the people whom he would lead.  

 

God then commanded Joshua to “be strong and courageous.”  In other words, “Joshua, you be the conduit of My strength and the picture of My power.  I will be strong through you, and you will be courageous in Me.”  That was Joshua’s identity.  His purpose was to lead through the identity that God gave him.        

 

Joshua followed the Lord’s commands.  He executed the directions properly and led effectively through his identity in God, and in turn succeeded. 

 

He didn’t suck seed taste the flavor of the success of the Lord purpose.  He succeeded.   Many of us suck the seed of the flavor of the purpose of God, but fail to execute effectively because of the lack of the Word of God. 

 

Do we truly want to succeed and fulfill purpose in life?  We must seek God intensively through His Word and through prayer to find our identity in Him.

 

There is purpose in the pushcart.  Follow the instructions because He wants to position you for success. 

 

Copyright ©2010

By Jonno

I was lying in bed this morning and my spirit began to receive this download. I saw myself preaching to a semi-large congregation sharing the Word. God began to speak through me, as my notes were tucked aside. I began to share this word.

I shared how God has called fathers to be the covering for their families, to be the “house-band” or what we call “husband”. He would empower men to step into their roles as the priest of their homes if they would allow Him to be their Father. He would show them individually what it is to be a father by being Father to them. This is how God sees men.

I shared how the lost would be drawn to Him, but we, the Church, universally would put aside the traditions and formalities that have caused it to become less than what He intended it to be.

Then God showed me the letter “C” being injected into words like Cross, Cover, Christ, Crucified, and others. I continued to preach that unsaved people must know God, not for who we’ve made Him up to be in our own minds, but in a real way, which is in relationship through Jesus Christ.

“He died on a Cross to Cover their sins. You can gain aCCess to God through the Crucified Christ. All you need to do is aCCept this Crucified Christ into your hearts and He will Come in, Create in you something new, Challenge you to live aCCording to His plan, and Connect you with others.”

“When Christ steps in to your situation, when it looked like it was all “over”, He becomes the “Cover”. He overshadows your situation with His favor and grace.”

When I fully awoke, I began to thank and praise God. I said, “Father, Your timing is perfect. In You all things hold together. I see Your words, and I will say what You say.” Then, this scripture came to mind.

Isaiah 37:32 NLT For a remnant of my people will spread out from Jerusalem, a group of survivors from Mount Zion. The passion of the LORD Almighty will make this happen!

God is passionate about you, the remnant. Go and preach Christ crucified.
I believe that Father is passionate about the passion that He placed inside of you to worship Him through your talent, gifting, and ability.

December 29, 2009
Jonno © 2009

By Jonno

 

I believe that we are overcomers.  The Bible says, “They overcame him (the devil) by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony [Rev 12:11].”  Allow me to share a testimony.  Hopefully this will help you.

 

A well-intentioned friend forwarded me a chart displaying the “ABCs of Genuine Happiness”. The chart itself has a soothing yellow background, and each of the listed items are beaming from the curve of the sun as sunbeams.  The list starts out with, “Accept your reality.”  Next, “Be present. Be Bold.”  That was followed by, “Create something exciting.” 

 

I’m going to skip down to, “Hug often. Help others.” 

 

There are many positives, even wholesome things on the list.  I scanned thoroughly through the list, and found it missing the One element.  Jesus Christ was missing.  

 

Oh, when you got to “P” it lists, “Pray. Paint. Play an instrument.”

 

Not bash the sincere gesture of my friend, but in order to find out more about the origin of such a chart.  I didn’t have to search very long.  I was lead to another page which was titled, “Universal/Global Love,Light,Peace & Infinate Abundance For Earth...”  It was a long name.  Of course it was linked to a New Age cult.

 

Of course, I had to reply.  My response basically contained research of the word “happiness”, which does not appear in the King James Version of the Bible.  The word “happy” appears 28 times and typically relates to the result of something good happening such as a blessing.

 

I went on in my response about “JOY”.  I explained that joy is a fruit of the Spirit of God, and how, when Christ is in your life, you can have this joy present even though times are tough.  I went on exposing the New Age cult, and explained how cults will always attempt to seduce and draw people in by attractions that are less than what God gives freely.  I explained that there is so much more in God through Jesus Christ.

 

Then came the responses to my response.  Some agreed with. Others basically were more from the “co-exist” “all religions are good if they work for you” crowd. 

 

One response in particular caught my eye:

“Got it Jonno. Points well taken. But you do know some people think Christianity is a cult lol! Ask an Orthodox Jew how they feel about Christians~a break away from Judaism. I just find religion in a historical sense interesting. My faith is Christian. It works for me; but I have friends that are Hindu, Bahai, Budhist and it works for them as well. 

 

Christians historically may have also been know to cause some wars, problems etc. Perhaps in general with most organized Religions. But our message should be less of fundamentalism and more of Christ and his message of who we are to be in the world~Light!”

 

This was my reply:

Here's the thing.  Matthew 7:22 Jesus said, "Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' 23Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'"

 

The "Holy Crusades" are an example of Christ's name being used in vain.  Many were slaughtered in His name. Even more subtly, many ministries today are leading folks astray from the Truth of God's word for profit or greed.  Many ministries deliver a watered down version of the Truth of God's word. 

 

The Truth is Christ. Christ said, "You are the light of the world [Matt 5:14]."

 

The problem exists when "church-folk" fill up a building that they call "the church" to "have church".  Christians are called to BE the church, not merely have church.  I go out to “have” a turkey sandwich, or “have” a good day.  The Church must BE what it is suppose to BE: that is The Bride of Christ.  Christians are called to be the "light of the world", and not the light of the church. Many ministries and individuals have gotten so far away from their pre-ordained purpose. 

 

John 4:23 says, "Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth for the Father seeks such to worship Him." 

 

The Father is looking for those, the remnant, who will wholeheartedly seek after doing His will, fulfilling His purpose, and carrying out His plan.  It's not enough to say, "I'm a Christian" and live any kind of way.  "But I'm a good person."  There are a lot of "good persons" who will fall short of Heaven's reward because they have not truly committed their lives to a God who loves them, in spite of themselves. 

 

Peel back the layers of tradition, legalism, and religiosity.  Find the God who loves, the Christ who died and has risen for you, and the Holy Spirit who encourages, empowers, and engages you.

 

I share this in love.

~Jonno

 

 

I encourage you not to adopt every well-intended email or post in your inbox or on your social network site.  If you dig a little deeper you will find what or who is behind it all.  There is a craftiness lurking about seeking to subtly steal your purpose, kill your passion, and destroy the plan of God. 

 

I encourage you to run all things through the filter of the Word of God to challenge them.  Too many “good” things might ultimately kill you. 

 

I encourage you to be bold in the Word of God.  You are the living testament of Christ who has saved you.  Make a righteous stand for Him. 

 

Amen.

Copyright © 2009

A TRUE STORY ABOUT TRUST
By Jonno

Bishop Joseph Garlington's spiritual son and Minister of Music, Clarence Grant, gave me a blue plastic tumbler. It was his favorite cup. It didn't matter whether the beverage was hot or cold. He would always go to use this cup. His mother-in-law had thrown away the other three cups in the four-cup set, and this one too was destined for the trash.

I was at Clarence's home and we were praying in his kitchen. His mother-in-law asked if it were alright if she anointed me. I said, "Of course it's alright." She already had oil in hand. Clarence began to weep.

After the anointing, Clarence began to share. He said, "Jonno, God sees you as being very special and reliable. He trusts you. He knows that He can go to use you, and you won't let Him down. You are like this cup." He meant his blue cup.

He continued, "Whenever I'm thirsty, I reach for this cup. I could take out any other vessel from the cupboard, but I choose this one. The others will do the job just fine, but this one," clutching and embracing the cup, "is my cup." He handed it to me. "God wants me to give you this cup to remind you who you are."

Does God trust you with the ministry that He’s place in your hands? If not, why not?

Isaiah 37:32 For a remnant of my people will spread out from Jerusalem, a group of survivors from Mount Zion. The passion of the LORD Almighty will make this happen!

God wants those whom He trusts, whose hearts are fully committed to Him, to begin to spread, to move, to flow. The passion of the Lord will accomplish His will all over the earth. The ardor, fervor, the great intensity and warmth of the Lord will burn in the hearts of His people whom He trusts.

If God trusts you, He trusts you.

Job 22:28[AMP] says, “You shall also decide and decree a thing, and it shall be established for you; and the light [of God's favor] shall shine upon your ways.”

If God trusts you, say what He has put in your mouth to decree. Make a God-statement (not just a good statement).

By Jonno

“I lift up my eyes to the hills – where does my help come from?” Psalm 121:1NIV

I like how Eugene Peterson translates this passage in The Message.

"I look up to the mountains; does my strength come from mountains? No, my strength comes from God, who made heaven, and earth, and mountains." [Ps 121:1-2 MSG]  

The answer for the help we need is not housed in the hills, nor is the answer the hills themselves.  In the day that this passage was written, the hills were considered “high places” where the worship of Baal, Asherah, Molech, and other gods took place.  They were the big gods of that day. 

Our problem is not recognizing that we have problems. Our problem is that we look for the solution in the places that the world dictates we should look. Stop looking in the wrong places for your help. When the world is looking to the next big thing to save the day, that's when we know we need a God who is bigger than the "big thing".

-When the planet is focused on "going green" in order to save itself, this is when we need a God who is bigger.

-When economic stimulus packages are passed to hopefully save the financial status of our standard of living, we need a God who is bigger.

-When those in charge of our health-care care more about making money than the actual health of the people, we need a God who is bigger.

-When society deems the outcome of the hit reality show more important than reality itself, we need a God who is bigger. 

-When there is a forceful disagreement about the right to life and the right to choose, this is truly when we need a God who is bigger.

Here's the answer: "I lift up my eyes to you, to you whose throne is in heaven."  [Ps 123:1]

I encourage you to lift your eyes to the Lord.  He is bigger, greater, larger, and better than you can think or imagine.  How ever big the capacity of your knowledge of God is, He is bigger still. 

His ways are higher than our ways.

His thoughts are higher than our thoughts.

He works all things together for our good.

He takes the foolish things to confound the wise.

The foolishness of God is wiser than mans’ wisdom. 

The fool would say “there is no god”.

Look to God. He’s bigger.

Need I say more?