Psalms 116:1-2  I love the LORD, because he has heard my voice and my supplications. Because he has inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.
     God hears our voices. That is a comforting thought. It is incredible in scope, yet a deeply moving picture of the Creator listening to the created. If God is listening, what should I say? What words will I choose for such an audience? Ironically, what we say is not the emphasis of the passage, but rather the fact that since He is listening. I will talk. It is not what we say, but the fact that we are talking to Him. Go ahead, He is listening.

     When the starting gun sounded, near twelve hundred pairs of feet began running. The exhiliration was astounding... the rush of charging downhill in a pack of humanity. I couldn't believe my speed. I was making time unlike anything I had experienced in practice... and loving it! I was passing lots of people. But, that pace caught up with me fast! I felt the first stitch in my right side, instead of the usual left side. Within another mile, the left side caught up and began to ache with equal force. The surge of adrenilin, the sound of heavy breathers coming up behind me, the playful laughing of friends, the camaradarie of runners calling out encouragement to those following in their footsteps, the glowing candles lighting up the darkened streets, the black night bathing us in the golden glow of the luminary candles, all merged to form the thrill of the race...my first... the Greenville Candlelight 5K run July of 2008.
     As we turned and ran up hill, suddenly there were hands reaching out dixie cups of water to me by someone running at me from the first rest table. We never stopped! We drank half and poured the rest on our arms and face, before tossing the cups to the curb as we continued running. Soon, we could see the family members of runners standing along the main starting street cheering. We kept on running past them, and across the highway where cars were stopped, waiting patiently. It was the summer solstice, June 21st, the first day of summer, the longest day of the year. It was also the longest 3.1 miles of my life. I saw five year old Carly after I passed the two mile point. She was about to fall asleep on her feet. Her Dad lifted her to his shoulder and charged ahead with her, before sitting her back down to allow her to set their pace again. I wondered how he would finish a race carrying her. I ran past them and a few choking, gasping runners.
     Suddenly this incredulous sound of cheering, noisemakers, and applause could be heard before I could even see the finish line crowd. It was a heartstopping spiritual event... running in the dark among fleet feeted runners, realizing I was nearing the finish line and what was happening there. As I came into sight of the finish arch, and saw the screaming faces of the family menbers of racers shouting to me, encouraging me with applause, congratulating me, I saw Travis standing just before the finish line beside the barricade, watching me. I gave him a high five as I ran across the finish line, and collapsed into a chair to remove the timing chip device from my shoelace. That was the highlight of the whole event, seeing the face of my son, my family, watching. He had on my event candlelight 5K tshirt, smiling at me.
     As I sat there retying my shoe, along came Carly with her Dad, both on foot running. Dad had went through so much to make sure his daughter felt the thrill of finishing her first race with him. I was exhausted. Completing a goal that you are unsure of your own ability to complete is an incredible experience. I woke up that morning thinking, "I hope I can finish this 5K run." I crawled into bed that night thinking, "I finished that 5K run!" That's an awesome feeling of reaching a goal. I was pleased. 1, 186 runners completed the race. I placed 564 out of 618 women in all age groups. There were 568 men running as well, but the results are seperated in men's and women's categories. That was just the first. I completed 5 other 5K's since. Right now, I can't run. That bothers me. I can't drop that part of me, the part that learned to love the thrill of running and riding in cycling events around the state. Once you've been there, the desire is not removed surgically on the operating table, regardless of how many surgeries are performed.  It is an embedded recurring dream that keeps me waiting for that next run... that next road bike ride, even though I haven't ridden my bike in forever.
     Our spiritual journey is a run...a challenge like such. Once you've set out on this road, you can't quit. If time allows and death tarrys, you'll come back to God once you've left him...just wait and see. Just as surely as you'll see me running on moonlit streets.

     I heard a message tonight about light and mirrors. Interesting take on how mirrors reflect light infinitely. The reflections just keep on going when you get two mirrors together. I was always entranced by that effect when I was a kid...I still am so much so that I can't get the metaphor off my mind tonight.
     A slinky is one of my favorite toys, and I love to give them as gifts to students. They are like mirrors, prisms, kalidoscopes, and a tuning fork. Think about it. The comparison is striking. They don't all reflect light, but they all reflect. Mirrors and prisms reflect light. (Mirrors also reflect images.) Kalidoscopes reflect colors and light, but the emphasis is on the patterns reflected. A tuning fork reflects sound waves. What do slinkys reflect? Energy. It is a coil toy that reverberates with energy. None of these "toys" require batteries. The tuning fork is still fun in the dark, but the others are useless without light.
     The world we live in is a world shrouded in darkness. Mankind lives so far from the source of light, that we live in an almost eternal night. Yet, even when I am peering into the darkness, the truth of God's words flickers clearly like a candle, or flames across the horizon of my conscience thoughts, and then I close the Bible, and see the dark night. So, I open the pages once again, wishing the words could be absorbed by osmosis while I sleep. Then I wake outside the dark night in some eternal day, to dreams of myrtle trees, mountains of brass, and women with the wind in their wings. I hear a startling whistle and turn to see the four horses of the Revelator: white, red, black, and pale, shaking their mighty heads, charging from Zechariah's mountains of brass across John's island horizon. There somewhere beyond those myrtle trees, I know is a sea of glass.  Behind those tramping hooves of the horsemen, comes the flaming sword of Jesus, and He rides on his white horse.
     Amazingly, the Bible reverberates through the ages, reflecting images and patterns, colors, from ages past to ages future. The Bible tells the end from the beginning, from the beginning to the end. The reflected images keep going back and forth of Jesus, reflected from one testament to the other, just like those mirror images. And, what is our job? We are to reflect the light of Jesus to the world. We are to show our true colors to a dark world....to light up the dark night. 

Exodus 2:1-2  And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi. And the woman conceived, and bore a son: and when she saw him that he was a fine child, she hid him three months.
     God Bless Jochebed! Oh the love of a mother's heart! (We find her name in Numbers 26 by the way.) Giving birth to a child, though not a unique event, just happens to be one of the most meaningful events in a woman's life... to her. Yes, every mother has a child...but, this was her child. No government mandate would stop a mother's love from pounding in her heart. You have to wonder what she was thinking. Breaking the law is really stupid, you know. She was a criminal! She hid a child the government ordered executed. Picture this poor girl, for she had to be still young, with a smile on her face as she held this chubby little baby. Now, she already had a boy and a girl, older children. But, something in her heart refused to reject this child. To look at this silly laughing baby and know she would defy the law to keep him, was easy to understand, if you are a mother.
     Other Hebrew women had seen their children killed. They suffered the grief. They cried and screamed as the child was torn from their arms to be dashed to pieces. Who did Jochebed think she was to hide her baby? Did she think her baby was so special? She had to have suffered the pains of childbirth in silence, without even calling for a midwife. Maybe her husband did the unthinkable and delivered the child himself. I can hear Jochebed crying, grabbing her husband by the arm and pleading that he not call a midwife, because they would kill her child. No, she must deliver this child in silence and hide him today.
     The verse says she saw he was a "goodly" child, probably meaning pretty, or cute. Loveable. But, that describes most every mother's baby, does it not. What made her baby so special? Well, there you have the difference in the saved and the lost.They both know they are lost. But, the Christian decides that regardless of how little they deserve salvation, they want it. The Lost accept that they don't deserve salvation. They won't take it. The Saved found themselves at a place where they would not be denied heaven at any price.
Matthew 11:12  And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.
     Lawbreaker! Just who do you think you are Jochebed? Do you think your baby is so special? We find later that this baby had a speech problem, Moses. But, God spoke from the mouth of Moses. God can speak from a rock. God has spoke in various times and in various ways, you know. (Hebrews 1:1) It doesn't really matter who you are, because God is the one speaking. Dear Jochebed, God will speak. Go ahead. Step out on faith and hide God's promise. Lay little baby Moses down in the bulrushes, and watch God bring him up out of Egypt.
     In this story you see a mother who had no idea, no plan. She was just taking it one day at a time. She only knew she could not allow this good baby to be killed. Each day she hid him, not knowing what else to do. Finally, she knew she could hide him no longer. She had to have a plan. Oh, but God already had a plan waiting for her. Moses would not only be saved, but he would become the salvation of his people. Jochebed couldn't have realized that this had been God's decision all along.  Here she thought she wanted her baby to live, and all along it was God's child. God put that love in her heart for a reason. God would not only sustain the child, but He would make a way of escape, when Jochebed's resources were depleted.
     And, to think, God lets us have a part in His plan...when we will ask for His will. He could do it without our help. But, God chose to use Jochebed and her "good" child. Afterall, God used David and a rock. He could have killed the giant with just the rock. But, David chose to get involved in God's will. David hooked his sling up to God's rock. Just who did he think he was?! Still wet behind the ears, and you think you're going to fight a giant? Sit down boy!
     You see, the problem was that the other men had been there working all the time. David had not been on the battlefield, serving in the war. They saw him as coming fresh out of Father's protecting arms, to criticize their work. Had David seen war, they might ask? Where had David been while they were faithfully serving the country? Here he was catering lunch. But, David had been serving in the sheep fields of his Father.  He was working elsewhere. A job is a job, is it not, when you are in the employ of Dear Old Dad. Somebody has to watch the family business. They must have wondered who David thought he was.
     I never read what becomes of Dear Old Dad and Mom (David's Dad Jessie and Moses' Mom Jochebed.) But, Moses delivered a nation from bondage. David became King of Israel, and his son after him, and Jesus will one day sit on his throne. Imagine, being part of such a great big plan! That's where we find ourselves...right in the middle of God's glorious Kingdom!

Psalms 127:4  As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. 
     Don't marvel at my silence tonight. I have been busy watching one of my arrows shot out of the quiver. He will return the bounty, as I have invested in him mightily. 

     I find myself loving the words John is speaking in the first sentences of the Gospel. I can quote them from memory in English, Spanish, and in Greek. They come to my mind often in any given day. But, do you know who the Logos the Word...is?
Logos: (log' -os) something said, a topic, also reasoning (the mental faculty) or motive; by extension a computation; specially the Divine (when with the article in John;) account, cause, communication...
     The Greek word Logos is usually translated as "Word." But, it hides in Acts 18:14 and in I Peter 3:15. The Last passage is the headline tag I use at the top of my Reason 2 Believe Him website home page: 
 1 Peter 3:15  But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:
     So, as you can see, the same Greek word is translated not only as "word," but as reason...my reason for believing. Now try John 1:1 the other way around...which would still be correctly translated:
In the beginning was the "REASON," and the "REASON" was with God, and the "REASON" was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. John 1:1-5 God is our reason. Yet the darkness couldn't understand the reason.  

     I mentioned the sermon that drew me to the altar titled, Ragman in my blog titled, “The Gospel According to Me.” The sermon moved my heart, but it didn’t move my clenched hands from the back of the chair I grasped in front of me, at least not immediately. I made the decision in that altar call. It just took me 24 hours to let go of the chair. I decided that I would wait till the next night’s altar service, since this one was almost over. Or, at least that was my thinking. I knew I had a hard time moving mentally. It took so long, I knew people were ready to leave. Waiting did give me time to build my courage to walk down the aisle, and I did just as soon as the call was given the next night. I was afraid I wouldn’t have the guts to do it. But, when I began to pray, I saw Jesus and I heard Him speaking to me. He said, “I love you, Vicky… I love you, Vicky… I love you, Vicky…”
     The fortune of the prominent early American Vanderbuilt family was made by an immigrant named Cornelius, in the railroad industry. Vanderbuilt’s fortune was inherited by sons and grandsons, some who invested his fortune in horse breeding and yacht racing. But, sadly, some wasted on drugs and alcohol addictions. Only forty-eight years after his death, one of his direct descendants died penniless. All ten of the mansions his descendants built were torn down within 70 years of his death.
     America has seen both old money and new money fortunes. Whether the fortune is old or new, blood will buy the fortune. My natural father left me a legacy… he left me. When I was two. My mother was pregnant with my middle sister. He abandoned us. My blood is worthless and I have no ancestry to trace. I was born penniless and will die with empty pockets. My only heritage is my Father, the God of the Universe. Aye, but He owns the cattle on a thousand hills. I am investing my fortune wisely, in the hearts of children who are my reversed heritage. I have accumulated close to 1,000 students over the years. In that, I have a rich heritage. I didn’t say they all valued me. I valued them. Or rather, I placed a value on my time with them. It has been said that time is money. Accordingly, I have spent all of mine. I don’t plan to have any time left over “in the bank” so to speak, when I die. You can’t “save” time. You can only waste it or spend it.
     Alexander of Greek fame conquered much of the known world, in his time. He inherited the smaller empire of his Father Phillip…by blood rights as was assumed, by his Father. He purchased the submission of parts of three continents with the blood of the citizens of Thebes and Tyre. Much more blood was shed along the path of conquest, as far south as Egypt, where he was crowned pharaoh and called “the son of God.” (Referring to the Sun-god Ra.) He signed his name, “Lord of Asia.” He also called himself the King of Kings. He purchased these titles, and a claim to divinity and worship, with the blood of the conquered a few centuries before Christ.
     In Alexander’s time, lived three great civilizations; the Greeks who gave us much of our culture, the Romans who gave us the base of our politics and government, and the Jews who gave us God. And, the Jewish race gave us the uniquely Hebrew phenomenon of prophets. Why was the Jewish race so strongly a religious race? The Jews were planning to bring salvation to the world. And, they produced a Messiah. Strange…the fact that they were looking for a Messiah like “Alexander the Great.”
     What they got was Jesus, the Son of God, the King of Kings, the Lord of the whole earth. He bought his empire with blood, His own. Blood, after all, will buy. What did His blood buy? His blood bought back our eternal life, after the curse of death in the garden. The blood of Jesus bought healing from sicknesses and diseases. His blood bought our salvation. The blood Jesus shed on Calvary bought His rights as our Father.
Isaiah 53:8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.      Jesus, a Jew, had no children when He died. This was a tragedy in the mind of the Jew. Jesus considers us His children by blood inheritance. We are generated into his Kingdom from his blood, much like children are generated from their parent’s blood. We are the generation, or descendants of Jesus. That makes us His children. His blood bought our right to be near Jesus.
Ephesians 2:13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off are made near by the blood of Christ.
     One day Jesus will rule the earth as a conqueror of all. He will rule by conquering. He is already conquering through the work of His Kingdom that is being ushered in. He will be Lord of all. Blood after all, will buy. As His children, we are the sons and daughters of a King. I went, in the course of one altar service, from rags to riches. I gave my rags of sin to the Ragman. I took on eternal riches in Christ. My riches are the Glory and Grace of Jesus. Ephesians 1:7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
Ephesians 1:18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what is the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
Ephesians 2:7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 3:8 Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;   
      And, there are more.

     "I AM," said God to Moses. And, that great I AM applies to God's children as well. I AM a Child of God. I belong to Him and that makes Me a daughter of the King. If you have been reading the Gospel According to Me, then this is the sequel for you. 
     Isaiah 43:1  But now thus says the LORD that created you, O Jacob, and he that formed you, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed you, I have called you by your name; you are mine.
     Here we have God saying "YOU ARE." Knowing God means knowing who you are to Him and in Him. You see, nothing that I was before God matters, because it no longer exists. God has forgotten everything. This is why I can know that I am a wonderful creation of God.
     Micah 7:19  ...and you will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.
     Sometimes we feel so far away from the God who came to earth to be nearer to us. That is unneccessary. All it takes to feel His presence is to realize who you are. An important man may be a corporate giant, or a heavyweight champ that men feel small in the presence of, but ironically, when their small daughter enters the room, that giant becomes a gentle Father. And, the smallest daughter will breeze into her dad's office without trepidation or hesitancy. She knows who her Dad is and all of the roles that He plays are nothing like the role of Daddy to her.
     I've heard it said that God has no Grandchildren. That is a profoundly true statement. Do you realize that you came to God on your own two feet. No one else allowed you into His presence, but God Himself was inviting you to come to Him. It's not about who your parents are. It's all about you. Listen to Jesus' words to Nathanael. 
     John 1:48  Nathanael said unto him, Where do you know me? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.
     On the surface, it looked to Nathanael as if He was only there on Philip's call. But, Jesus is letting Nathanael know that He was the originator of the call. Jesus wanted Nathanael to follow Him. Yes, you are God's child because He purposefully invited you into His kingdom. He does that for us each and every one, because he created each of us. He knows us as a father knows His children. All of this makes you special to God. It certainly makes you special to Satan, who is jealous of our position a little lower than the angels, and above the animals; yet we are God's children. Satan can never occupy that spot, he never could. And, now, we will occupy eternity with God, while satan occupies eternity in hell. There is nothing Satan can do to stop our future. Only we have that power. We were created in God's image, and that image entitles us to certain inherited rights of birth. We look just like our Daddy. Everytime Satan sees our faces, he cringes. Yes, I Am special.
     Hold onto the Gospel that holds onto you. You are unique in all of creation, because God made you.

     A Purposeful Minister who lived and died with reason because He loved me; these two elements of my faith are crucial to how I know Jesus. There is no greater revelation than this in the Gospel. Sure, I can find many more words, and I will. But this is the crux of "the Gospel According to Me." First, it matters to me that He did everything He did: healing, feeding, teaching, dying on purpose. Nothing was accidental, but it was all part of Plan A...His plan. He's in charge and it went as He planned. He had a reason for dying. Second, it all hinged on His love for me. Yes, there you have it...it's all about me. Jesus came for ME. And, I love Him because He first loved ME. I did not know how to love until He loved ME. Only through His eyes that were turned in my direction could I see the world reflected enough to turn my gaze from myself. Otherwise I am a sorry creature.
     You see, it is not religion, but a personal thing for ME. I'm not talking about religion per se, but about family. I never had to wonder if I was good enough for God. The sermon that led me to the altar at the age of 14 was titled, "Ragman." The Senior youth Camp Evangelist preached about a God who wanted us no matter how filthy we were. 
Isaiah 64:6  But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. If He had told me Jesus was looking for somebody clean, I would never have gone forward. If he had said I was good enough for Jesus, I would have thought he was lying. I knew what I amounted to, without Jesus. He preached that Jesus came to die for filthy sinners. So, I never have to stop and wonder if God is tired of me. I never have to guess if He thinks he got a bad deal. Instead, I find myself trying hard to make sure He gets something of value out of the deal, simply because I love Him. What can I bring to the table to strike a deal with the God who struck the deal before I arrived at the table? Since that is impossible, I only want to find a gift for Him. There is no gift fit for such a Giver, other than ME. If He gave His all for ME, then I will give Him ME. Your Gospel will be empty if YOU are not in it. 
               Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so,
               Little ones to Him belong, they are weak but He is strong.
               Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so.
                                                                                                                   -my favorite song

     Think of any five verbs to show the action that Jesus performed here on Earth. What comes to mind? I can't hear your answer, so I will brainstorm my own list here. Feel free to stop reading and make your own, for the sake of comparison if you like. Healing, teaching, praying, rebuking, feeding. Ok, that's what comes to mind for me. Did you come up with either of the verbs: sending, directing, commissioning, or organizing? I wouldn't have. I just don't think of Jesus that way. I am so wrapped up in His words and His actions... His teaching and His miracles...that I get this impression He was given a schedule and hauled around on an itenerary like the President or something.
Luke 9:1-2  Then he called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases. And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick.
    Here Jesus is definitely in charge of the itenerary. He is the Missionary Director, the overseer of the flock. He is dispatching the twelve to the twelve tribes of Israel around about Galilee in pairs...preaching teams.
Luke 10:1-3   After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come. Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest. Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves.
     Here He is at it again. he is setting up Missionary Teams, and issuing instructions for teams of evangelists to carry His message out.... to propigate His Gospel to the masses. But, this time He does not tell them they can't preach to the Gentiles, but He sends them to the seventy heathen nations, as the Jews reckoned them, when He commissioned seventy. And, Samaria is representative of the Gentile world. Jesus avoided Samaria during His ministry, passing through quickly, as if He knew He wouldn't get a chance to preach to the Jews, if He didn't take His message to them first. He knew perhaps that the Gentile nations would seize the Gospel like the family pet under the table waiting for a scrap of food from the Master's plate. (The same analogy was actually used once by Jesus.) You see, all it took was one thirsty Samaritian woman at the well to shout His message all over town. Just imagine what they would have done if they had gotten hold of the message sooner! Conjecture on my part here, I know, but think of the possibilities.
     But, back to the actual Scriptures, now. I always think of Jesus teaching and healing. But, I usually imagine the disciples spread His Gospel, like an afterthought to a good idea. When, in reality, that was not only Jesus' plan from the get-go, but He set the ball rolling. He sent them out in pairs to carry his message around the middle east, with full intentions. You see, the next step in this plan was you and I...go therefore into all the world...the Great Commission. It didn't begin there, but with the 12, and then the 70. 
     The idea of ministry to the Gentiles was not original to Paul, or to Peter. No wonder you always see Jesus pictured with His arms outstretched. He called the twelve. He sent the twelve. He is calling us today. Jesus came to Earth with His arms wide open. He was reaching out to the world long before He spread His arms and died on the cross. All that is left for us to do is answer the call...the same call the twelve were given. It is so nice to be in the shelter of those outstretched arms!