Area:  Passing through Vail, Benson, Wilcox, AZ...Lordsburg, Deming, and into Los Cruces, NM

Ever Onward

Adventure never ends along the highways and by-ways of life. As I pass through different towns, cities, and metropolitan areas…physical, social, and spiritual patterns emerge among those people I meet each day. While walking Arizona…physical conditions included lots of desert, closed businesses, and people of all walks of life caught in the crossfire of their life realities. Social conditions included people of all statures who have encountered recent economic downturns, ethnicities, and elevated crime associated with drug and human trafficking. And spiritual conditions included everything from God’s presence, varied levels of complacency, to wayward depravity.

Common Threads

As I entered New Mexico, I continued to find trends much the same as Arizona with 50-60 % of church buildings locked a vacant when I came to knock on them…the type of welcome I received from warm to detached…and people’s perspectives spinning as individual people do their best to cope with and adjust to quickly changing economic, employment, social, and spiritual conditions around them. Either way…people in general are struggling on most fronts.

Real, Not Pretty

I wish I could paint a nicer picture for you…but, reality is what it is. Some say I am negative because I accurately report what I physically observe. Others say I am critical when I simply tell them what I encounter honestly. And yet, living in a fantasy world does not change reality. No matter how bad a person, public servant, or pastor wants to stick their head in the sand…America’s reality is declining without question.  It's time we all open our eyes to what Jesus said would be true...  You may ask why I choose to focus on such realities. The answer is difficult, but simple. First, how can we hope to overcome what we refuse to see? Second, how can we help others if we leave our head in the clouds, while their world unravels? And third, how will the bride of Jesus Christ (i.e. individuals and church-at-large) ever make herself ready (Revelation 19:7 NIV) to enter the banquet hall at the wedding feast of the Lamb…if she rejects truth, refuses to clean herself up, and expects God to re-write His word to accommodate her sin? God is God…we are not.

Who Said We Would Be Popular

Many oppose my message…that’s okay. However, the hour in which we live is urgent! One must only walk outside and look around, flip through hundreds of channels on TV, or simply sit down and talk to their peers to see rampant complacency, hopelessness, and rebellion running wild across America’s culture. Sure there are good things happening in different places. No, not everyone is adrift. And yet, time is short leaving much work to be done in the transformation of God’s people, ushering the unsaved into the presence of a Loving God, and to be found faithful among God’s wise and faithful servants when He returns.

Loving Others God's Way

Why do I come to you in this tone? Simple. I care about people, their families, their circumstances, and most of all…their eternal destinies. It has been a hard trek thus far as I walk into people’s world for the first time and discover the myriad responses and reactions I receive. This walk is definitely more demanding in many ways, than my prior journey was. Yet, difficulty level does not determine God’s call, one’s authenticity, level of faith, or potential to affect change. Many times…God calls us to do those things that do not make sense in our minds, do not meet with the approval of others, do not glean open support, or actually position us in opposition to the status quo. Why? Because God loves people enough to make them uncomfortable in His merciful effort to bring us to Him. Let to our own nature…we typically destroy ourselves. When we yield to God’s nature…He saves us from ourselves. Why does it surprise people when I report what I observe… Because they overlook what the bible tells us in Matthew 24, 2nd Timothy 3, and 2nd Peter 3 regarding the heart condition of man just prior to His return. Throughout history…it has always been common for wayward people to shoot the messenger in their effort to silence the message. Such is my life… Yet, the world is not my home as I look beyond to my heavenly home. I do not answer to critics for my decisions, views, or activities in life. I answer to the Author of Life…Jesus the Christ.

Wedding Plans

In closing today’s post…I encourage you to remain in the battle, to fight the good fight, and to run the race with perseverance and joy as you step out in faith to give your all to others less fortunate in Jesus’ name. God loves people… He loves you… And, He will remain ever faithful and in love with those who do His bidding. It’s time to do your hair, start picking out flowers, and to figure out what you intend to wear to heaven’s wedding celebration. The armies of the earth have gathered, wedding invitations have been mailed, the door to the banquet hall is beginning to open, and Jesus the Bridegroom is getting dressed… The hour is urgent dear friend… Please hear heaven’s cry!