Holymon, Pokémon (poem)

Listen to audio version here

The game, Pokémon Go!, sends specific GPS coordinates to players around the world who, when they reach these coordinates, encounter virtual characters waiting to be or resist being captured, then players move on in search of their next encounter. Points are accumulated with each capture.

During a recent vacay trek, I encountered and had to sidestep several intensely focused tourists searching for their next Pokémon character. While negotiating both street and sidewalk traffic, they seemed irresponsibly glued to their mobile screens, trying to ensure they would get the right GPS coordinates for their next capture, then move on.

While reflecting, I recalled many innovative ideas in our world have real Biblical roots (e.g., Star Wars), roots that entrepreneurs and developers may not perceive, or even care about. Spiritually disciplined minds, however, easily pick up what our carnal minds miss. Curious? Could there be any similarity between Pokémon Go! and God’s assignments to those of us whom He calls ‘holy’?   

Consider this: Even before creating us, God prepared good works of faith for righteous-minded people to ‘walk in’ (i.e., find, identify and perform).¹ Imagine Him hiding these good works throughout the ages of the earth, and of humanity that would come, works He fully anticipated His spiritually-minded, holy remnant² would ‘walk in(to)’ and perform. Knowing how good and strategic God is, He may have well predetermined not only the works, but also their spiritual, geophysical and age/time coordinates! wOw, such a notion easily trumps measly GPS coordinates! No, we cannot find these works of faith via some man made technology. Only via our regenerated (reborn) spirit, and our minds renewed to His Word and ways will we be able to:

1.    ‘Walk in(to)’ these cloaked coordinates

2.    Perceive opportunities to do a good work of faith

3.    Perform the work with the Grace we received

4.    Glorify God, avoiding satan’s pride trap

Let’s call this… Holymon, Go! ³

Psalm 37:23 affirms the steps of those whom God calls ‘good, just, righteous’ (through faith in His salvation plan) are ordered by The Lord. Yes, our assigned, holy angels are orchestrating our very steps, just as our assigned unholy angels (demons and devils) do their best to counter this orchestration! The operative question is, Who wins?

Like me, have you ever come to opportunities (the cloaked coordinates) to perform a good, righteous work by faith, but did not perform it? Imagine Pokémon Go! players out there searching for their next encounter and capture, seeing the virtual characters on their mobile screens, but not completing the capture. Man, oh man, if only I/we, the righteous, could be as diligent in Holymon Go! as Pokémon Go! players have become around the world. Yeah, I know there are huge differences in terms of time, costs and risks, but the analogy may still be worth considering. What would our lives on earth be like if we were as diligent? And why aren’t we?  Here’s my take. What’s yours?

Love is the single taproot motivator in life. Love manifests itself in its fullness or its absence, which is fear. Indeed, fear is Love - corrupted, like iron that has become rusted and has gradually lost its magnetic properties. Since God is the only revealed source of Love, we can release Love, Himself, only as an expression of our consciousness of Him, and of His loving Grace extended to us. So could a greater Grace-consciousness possibly be the route to tamping down fears that prevent us from ‘walking in(to)’ and performing God’s cloaked good works, works that are designed and reserved for us to perform?

Please join me in praying for an enhanced Grace-consciousness to improve our ‘good works of faith batting average’. As you pray, imagine and ponder this:

A host of angels, holy and evil together,

Performing holy moves, and also those that counter.

All to bring us to our next ‘good works coordinates’,

Then watching, waiting, wondering, they anticipate.

Will you perceive, ponder, and perform it in God’s Grace,

Or bypass it so you can push on in your life’s race?

Then as you stand before Judge Jesus at your life’s end,

Reviewing your good works, will He condemn… or commend?

Good works that in His power we perform,

 Prompt thanksgiving to God, His Word informs.⁴ 
God’s heart is warmed, and our lives are transformed.

But what about those that go… unperformed?

 Holymon, Go!

----------

¹ See: Ephesians 2:10

² See: The Remnant Among Us

³ Mon, an important Jamaican word that can refer to anyone

⁴ See: 2 Corinthians 9:7-15. NB: Good works are NEVER the basis for salvation. Only by Jesus Christ's sacrificial substitution for us can we access God's eternal salvation.

Look, Bless and Break (Poem)

And when He had taken the five loaves and the two fish,

He looked up to heaven, blessed and broke the loaves

and gave them to His disciples to set before them;

and the two fish He divided among them all.

(Mark 6:41)

 

‘Look, bless and break’. Could this be your primary mission,

To fulfill Christ’s great evangelical commission?

And also to help you get over your blockage,

Your Christian brothers and sisters to encourage?

Following my life’s ‘prodigal experience’,

I was ever grateful for God’s deliverance.

Hunkering down with God’s Word was my great yearning,

With not one thought of sharing what I was learning.

After several years operating in this mode,

My yearning to learn began slowly to erode.

God revealed to me the taproot of this creeping problem,

Dispersing His Light on the matter, just like a prism:

'Son,

Without an outflow, a lake quickly becomes stagnant.

My purpose, Son, is not for you to become savant.

As your understanding of My Word you seek to hone,

Remember this, son…

What you’re learning is for you, but not for you alone.’

‘Learn to do what I wrote in Mark chapter 6, verse 41,

And follow the modus operandi of Jesus, My Son.

Look to Heaven, and bless what from Me you receive,

Then break ¹ what I’ve given, so others will believe.’ 

But Lord, I’m NOT qualified, and no one cares to hear,

Anything I am learning in my Christian career!

I haven't ² a degree, formal study or position,

With which to embark on such bold and lofty mission!

After a few years in this wrestling match,

You know who won, pinning me to the mat!

In obedience, I dipped my toe into God’s sharing waters,

And have since become one of His devoted Sharing Warriors.

Sharing His Word with believers and non-believers alike,

Has ignited my own learning, pushing it to a new height!

So now, to you, I offer this word of encouragement:

‘Look, bless and break!’ In this mission, let’s be exuberant!

In our world that’s become totally unhinged,

Because everything Godly has now been fringed,

God’s Word has lost not one iota of its effectiveness!

So ‘Look, bless and break’, then leave the results… 

to His graciousness.

----------

¹ Share

² Nor desire

And Our Tears Flow (Poem)

You number my wanderings;

put my tears in Your bottle;

are they not in Your book?

(Psalm 56:8)

Across our land, like rivers, our tears flow,

As crime and our fears continue to grow.

As flames of violence are fanned,

How much heartache can we withstand?

This senseless loss of life and limb,

Challenging our life’s paradigm.

We have cheapened the value of life,

Increasing our heartaches and our strife.

Police running amok, they are disrespected.

Communities react, feeling unprotected.

Politicians overstretched, trying to bridge the gaps,

As snipers take positions, setting their deadly traps.

Lives dashed on all the rocky cliffs of violence,

Of God’s chastisement and Grace give us cognizance.

Politics, policing, protests and strong hands,

Can’t heal the fissures exposed across our land.

As crime in some areas has been throttled-up,

There’ll be more tears for God’s love to bottle-up.

One day…

At His bottle, we’ll be able to take a look,

And also see how all our tears have stained His book.

Moms, dads, sisters, brothers, children and friends,

Are grief struck from this violence that rends.

Through it all, let us remember that God’s chastisement,

Is followed by Grace, so we can do… more excellent.

Crime and violence come from seeds, this you well know,

Seeds we either planted or allowed, then to grow.

God simply allows what we allow, then we forget the roots.

By Grace, may we find better seeds for crops of...
much better fruits.

Tit-for-Tat (Poem)

Listen to audio version here

From seeds we have planted,

Our lives now are scanted.

In God’s holy face we did spit! 

Now, for our ‘tat’, behold His ‘tit’.

He designed life with a cunning ability to brood,

So things we diligently imagine become heart food.

Then from the heart, life brings out what we’ve stored up.

Then we must deal with this consequential stuff.

Stuff He calls ‘abominations’, we have legalized!

If we are His, and break His laws, we will be chastised.

So don’t think it strange, the crap that’s washed up on our shores.

Crap happens when we move away from what God adores.

May The Lord ‘close’ our eyes so we can see,

Our battle is with our carnality.

Like fish can’t see the ocean or currents that bind,

We’re driven by our emotions and our carnal minds.

Even when we read Scripture and see what it says,

Our ‘Yeah, but…’ mentality takes over, and sways.

Caught up in a whirlwind from which there’s

only one escape:

Let’s digest God’s Word, and throw away carnality’s drape!

The goodness of The Lord should lead to our repentance.*

If that doesn’t work, all that’s left is… The Judge’s sentence.

Friend, America needs your prayers...and so much more.

Either we change our ways,

…or brace for what's in store!

----------

* Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? (Romans 2:4)

America's Spiritual Boomerang (Poem)

Listen to audio version here

To those who are in strife, we call for peace.

To those in poverty, aid we release.

Yet, our calling for peace and giving of alms,

Are GREATLY trumped by our exporting of arms.

Less than one percent (1%) of budgets for aid,¹

GREATLY outstripped by what for arms we’re paid.

We're the largest exporter of arms worldwide!

Only Russia is close to matching our stride.²

With innumerable defense contractors,

Who wouldn’t eschew the arms control detractors?

While closing ranks on the ‘nuclear club’,

We keep our place at the arms selling hub.

Gotta dump the old, make room for the new.

More bang for the buck; more we will accrue.³

With conflicts in our world ever so brute,

Look for our arms very close to their roots.

Dutifully ignoring God’s Law of Reaping and Sowing.

Not connecting world arms sales to home conflicts

that are g-r-o-w-i-n-g.

We’re soooo comfortable, not connecting the dots,

As life on our streets becomes like ‘Gordian knots’!

Deadly deeds America sows abroad,

Will rebound to our shores. Don’t think that’s odd.

As America leads in arming the world to the teeth,I

Rest assured, at home, we will need 

more arms-related wreaths!

The same spirit that arms the world to the teeth,

Also floods arms into our communities.

‘We flood communities with so many guns that

it is easier for a teenager,

To buy a Glock than to get his hands on a computer

or even a book.’ ⁴ How we err!!

 

From the White House, Congress and churches across our land,

Too often we’re called to ‘pay our respects’, as we stand.

In these ubiquitous moments of silence, what should we think?!

Between our arms sales, and life on our streets,

consider the link!

May our defense contractors and policy-makers alike,

Realize their cumulative actions really are seed-like.

Like a spiritual boomerang, their actions come home to roost.

‘Sow to the wind, reap the whirlwind!’ ⁵

That is what I have deduced.

From Jesus we learn living by the sword means dying by it.⁶

Yet hawkishly, we keep our eyes on mounting arms sales profits.

Profits, be as gravel, as God’s judgments on us are unbound,

With every ‘death-by-gun’ body we must bury in the ground!

All across America, many folks 'live' by their guns.

Every gun tragedy becomes a gun-buying season,

Therefore, guns now outnumber our population!!!

Living by fear, it's Godly faith we've forsaken. 

----------

¹ See: Penny on the Dollar: US Foreign Aid is About One Percent of Spending
² The U.S. alone accounts for 31% of the world’s arms exports, and Russia accounts for 27%. (2015). See: 10 Countries That Export the Most Weapons 

³ As technology improvements generate ever more sophisticated and deadly arms, governments and insurgent groups push to upgrade their stockpiles, selling/donating old, but still deadly technology… and the whirlwind grows.

⁴ President Barak Obama, Dallas Police Officer Memorial, 7/12/16. Both legal and illegal arms vendors  catalyze and then serve this demand.
⁵ Hosea 8:7

⁶ See: What does it mean to live by the sword and die by the sword?

Five Echoing Questions (Poem)

Five initial questions, posed to man.

Three answers fumbled, and only one was straight.

If before God you will fall or stand,

Consider answers to questions on your plate.

The first question planted earth’s first seed of doubt.¹

Eve answered, but she added a twist.

Touching the tree?! T’wasn’t what it was about.

Adding this twist, she just couldn’t resist.

In her answer, can you clearly see,

Man’s first sin was not what we think it was.

Distorting God’s Word?! Seriously?

This she did, as we today…just because.

The second question, God calling out to man,

‘Where are you?’ ² Like me, do you get this impression:

T’wasn’t about his location on the land,

But about his place vis-à-vis God’s instruction.

Now the third question, ‘Who told you that you were naked?’ ³

Ummmm…

Why did God immediately focus on the pronoun, who,

Over other ways he could have interrogated?

He knew, as in Heaven, there had been a devilish earth coup!

You see, God designed us all as relational beings,

To learn through relationship with Him and each other.

If listening to devils, with them we’d be agreeing.

Re. the who question, He didn’t pursue it further.

‘Of the one forbidden tree, did you eat?’ ⁴

This direct question Adam simply could not duck!

Sweaty brow and palms from ‘feeling the heat’,

So onto Eve he decided to ‘pass the buck’!

Buck passed, now it’s Eve on God’s ‘hot seat’.

She decided to join in on the ‘blame game’.

She had fallen for the serpent’s cheat.

From then on, with God, nothing would be the same!

These potent questions, with an echoing refrain,

Today, if you stop and listen, you can clearly hear.

‘Has God said…?’, devils still ask you in their disdain.

‘What’s this you have done?’, God whispers in your spirit’s ear.

Curiously…

Our answers are not too dissimilar

From those of our ‘First Couple’ so long ago,

Though Jesus came, us to disencumber,

So God’s Truth from devils’ lies we all would know.

And since He came, there’s now no one to blame.

Sweaty brow and palms from feeling the heat??

No buck to pass! No excuse to exclaim!

Now what’s your game plan when on… God’s hot seat?

---------- 

¹ Genesis 3:1, Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?’

² Genesis 3:9

³ Genesis 3:11

⁴ Genesis 3:13

Stewed and Spewed (Poem)

God’s Word vividly speaks of ‘vomit’ and ‘vomiting.¹

While not my favorite topic, it’s worth my commenting.

The most vivid and vile picture is of Jesus, Himself,

Vomiting out certain people from His church commonwealth.²

It’s amazing, people who believe re. the flood,

Think that God and Jesus are only about Love.

Rejecting the notion that Jesus Christ is God’s Judge,

From their ‘only Love’ notion, they will refuse to budge.

Some believe the church is a safe shelter

From hell’s eternal heat that will swelter.

And once they are in this ‘church safety zone’,

From Jesus, they will never hear a groan.

Thus they live, enjoying their lives, you know the drill,

With so little consciousness of The Father’s will.

Of Him and His will, they know just enough to feel only a little ‘heat’,

Refusing being ‘hot’, ‘cause before their culture, they wish to be ...discrete.

Remaining unwilling to become God’s cultural misfits,

They resist His work to make them into Kingdom retrofits.

Resisting all His work, their hearts and minds to re-sculpture,

They submit to being cultivated by their culture.

My rhyme describes no person or church, in particular,

But believers from all ages who were/are so secular.

So entrenched in their culture, as in it, they’ve been stewed,

Unaware that, from God’s mouth, lukewarmers can be spewed!

Peter warns us, at God’s own house, judgment begins.³

Ezekiel warns us about goats in sheepskins.⁴

Friend, with God,

There’s no benefit to a familiar association.

To Him, pretense is simply another abomination! ⁵

Looking into God’s pretense mirror, does your image become clear?

Please, Sir and Ma’am, do it now… and again; daily into it peer.

Also…

Check your spiritual temperature as you grow old,

For God’s thermometer only reads… hot or cold.

Spiritually Puked, Exclusively “Warmers”

(S.P.E.W.)

(Compare John 3:16 with Revelation 3:16)

----------

¹  Fourteen times!

²  Revelation 3:16

³  1 Peter 4:17

⁴  Ezekiel 9:6. Today, spiritual goats in spiritual sheepskins are people confessing saving faith in Christ, but whose lives belie their confession.

⁵ “And He (Christ) said to them, ‘You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God’”  (Spiritual lukewarmness is so very highly esteemed in our culture.)

Independence Day Ponderings

1 Samuel 15:23 says, For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft.

Throughout human history, we have been rebels or one sort or another! Most of our revolutions have in some way been pulling away from anything perceived as 'godly'. Rarely have we rebelled in support of what God requires and demands of us.

The US was borne out of the spirit of 'rights-seeking' rebellion. Since then, nearly every faction of our burgeoning society has dutifully carried the flag of rights-seeking rebellion against the status quo. Yet we hail this as honorable and progressive, while The Word suggests 'as bad as witchcraft', especially if the rebellion is against God breathed guidance for a peaceful life. 

What is and is not godly rebellion? If God says, 'Honor the king (1 Peter 2:17) and all authorities established by God' (Romans 13:1), was it godly or 'like witchcraft' for the American colonies to rebel against the then king of England, and pursue independence, especially having dispossessed native Americans and Africans of their lands, cultures and lives in such UN-godly ways? Was the 'taxation without representation' argument merely a thin veneer over possibly truer motives to pull away and go our own rebellious way?

Where does The Word of God suggest a constitutional monarchy (as England then had) is better than a monarchy, or a democracy is better than a constitutional monarchy, when God's END RESULT for the final millennium of human history will be an IRON ROD MONARCHY?! (Revelation 19:15)

In light of what The Bible says, does the 'American experience' glorify rebellion, which the prophet Samuel said is as the sin of witchcraft??

What say ye?