On the World Going Bonkers

Posted on January 7, 2021 by joseph elon lillie under Pastor Wrinkles

Have you noticed that the world has gone bonkers?

I guess the world has always been bonkers…well at least since that Adam and Eve with the tree episode.

Every once in a while though the world just chooses to show its true nature more flamboyantly than others. Now is such a time. This has been a season of “Wowsie-Wowsie-Woo-Woo” to beat the groovy off a hippie poet.

Photo by Polina Tankilevitch on Pexels.com

I guess I should not be much surprised by what is happening in the world. This is what God has been telling people to prepare for… for well a long time. Maybe part of the problem is we really didn’t believe God or His prophets or His Word.We don’t really want to accept that the truths of the end of the Bible are coming to pass before our eyes.

The Christian believers among us want to keep believing that Jesus is coming back to judge the world, but we want it to be painless. We want it to happen. We even say “Even so Lord Jesus come quickly.” We just don’t want anything to do with the process of His coming. We certainly don’t want to admit that there are aspects of our lives which will experience that process of judgment, because we’ve let bits of the world’s bonkers into ourselves.

Bonkers is going to be with us for a little while longer folks. So we had better figure out what to do with it. Here are some suggestions for dealing with bonkers:

Focus on God not the world– worship, pray, read the Word, fellowship with other believers who are focusing on God not the world.
Focus on the mission– God gave us a job to do. We are to reach the people around us with the good news of Jesus Christ. Do your job and stop focusing on things that are not your job.

3. Pray about things and leave the results with God.- Stop telling God how to do His job. Give Him the situations that are vexing you, that are above your pay grade and trust Him to deal with them.

4. Stay in your lane- God has given you an area of influence. Stop pretending its bigger than it is and influence things you actually have authority over. Stop trying to influence things outside your realm of influence. You will only make things worse by involving yourself in things you have no business in.

5. Choose the fruit of the Spirit not the works of the flesh-

The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; ²⁰idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions ²¹and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

²²But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. ²⁴Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. ²⁵Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. ²⁶Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other. Galatians 5: 19-26

IS THERE SOMETHING IN THESE STEPS THAT SPEAKS TO YOU? TELL ME ABOUT IT.

New Directions, Next Steps.

Posted on January 2, 2021 by joseph elon lillie under Pastor Wrinkles

At this time last year I was preparing to visit the Philippines for my son’s wedding.

I had also just embarked on a massive lifestyle change, the seeds of which had been planted in November of 2018. Way back then the Lord had spoken to me about embracing a lifestyle of faith with my finances that would involve me giving up my salary from the church. I did this in November of 2019 and received my final check from the church on Dec. 31st 2019.

I still work for the church as a pastor and as a volunteer.

One of the things the Lord told me in January was that this move to a lifestyle of faith was about a personal shift which was going to take a year to complete. I was launching on a journey. I had the method of travel. I just didn’t know where the walk of faith would lead me.

Here I am one year later and my life has totally changed. I have shifted from a life schedule to a life rhythm. My prayer life has deepened and changed from intercessor to watchman on the wall. I have finished my book. I have learned much more about my office in the church as a prophet. My leadership style flows chiefly from prayer (rather than from a church schedule) and manifests more as a caretaker than as a facilitator.

As 2021 dawns I am posed to take the next steps of this journey: Next steps in ministry; Next steps in publishing my book; Next steps in being the co-owner of the Vicarage; The next steps in my family; The next steps financially.

I don’t know what all of those steps are yet, but I do know they will take me in new directions. I have tried to follow the threads prophetically so I can see my future but they vanish a bit up the road into a bank of fog God has created to keep me on the pathway of slow constant intentional living by faith in the day to day.

Here are the things I know: The world is not done with its troubles just because it is 2021; America is in the cross-hairs; Prosperity is still possible; Faith is more necessary in the days ahead than in the days past; It is time to operate in my God-given authority; God has equipped me with what I need for the road ahead; I need to focus on the step I see not the ones I don’t; It is time to write; It is time to publish; People are more important than programs.

New directions, Next steps. Anything could happen and probably will. Isn’t that exciting?

Good bye 2020! Welcome 2021!

Posted on January 1, 2021 by joseph elon lillie under Pastor Wrinkles, Uncategorized

I don’t think many of us will miss 2020. It was a year of challenges the world has not faced in several generations, and for which we as a global community were woefully unprepared.

Yet I am thankful for 2020 too. First for the fact that it showed us our cultural soft spots. We cannot fix what we do not recognize. I am also thankful for what it has stripped away from my personal life and for what it has stripped away from the church. This year has certainly showed me what was important and what was just so much frivolous packaging.

2020 also had its own beauty. In the forced slowing down of life, many of us learned to watch the birds, to enjoy nature, to watch the sunrise, the sunsets, the moonrise and the stars.

Some of us also learned to prioritize family. We learned to sit on our porches, and tell our stories. We engaged in game nights and learned the Sabbath rhythm of life again. For all that we complained a lot about it because we had become culturally addicted to the race-pace of our corporate existence.

These last few days of 2020, I have not been blogging much because we have had a visitor to the Vicarage. My daughter Melanie is ready any day to give birth to my second grand daughter. Since we are so far away from her and James, we decided to have ‘Lella come and stay with us for the last days of Melanie’s seclusion.

Having ‘Lella with us has been so much fun, but it has been a long time since this house was graced for longer than an overnight by a two-year-old. The schedule of life has changed even if the rhythm has remained. The new priorities have made themselves felt. Things like blogging have been temporarily interrupted by activities like legos, throwing pine cones into the brook and plinking the piano.

Every December I ask God for a word or phrase to base my next year on. Last year my phrase was “shift focus to wonder.” There was wonder in 2020… We were awe struck by the magnitude of destruction a one celled creature could wreak. We were dumbfounded by fires and storms and earthquakes….and all these things have made me wonder, what comes next?

My word for 2021 is “Seperate”.

How can I curse
    those whom God has not cursed?
How can I denounce
    those whom the Lord has not denounced?
⁹From the rocky peaks I see them,
    from the heights I view them.
I see a people who live apart
    and do not consider themselves one of the nations. Nu. 23:8,9

This will be a year of becoming holy, a year of becoming new and different. More change is in the air. New challenges await. Like 2020, 2021 will have its own wonders and its own things to wonder about. That said, I am ready to leave mourning behind and to embrace the beauty of spiritual battle. I am ready to stop being shocked to dumbness by the fresh horrors of the world. I am ready to summon the beauty of God and His creation to the forefront of my life and ministry. I am ready to bring that beauty to fight against all this darkness which has consumed 2020 and to speak forth the FAITH HOPE AND LOVE which remain no matter how the darkness grows. I am ready to be separated from the hopelessness of the world and to become a creature of the Son who brings beauty to the twilight of this age. Good bye 2020. Welcome 2021!

Evening Meditation 12-29-20

Posted on December 29, 2020 by joseph elon lillie under Pastor Wrinkles

²Good people obtain favor from the Lord,
but he condemns those who devise wicked schemes.

³No one can be established through wickedness,
but the righteous cannot be uprooted.

⁴A wife of noble character is her husband’s crown,
but a disgraceful wife is like decay in his bones.

⁵The plans of the righteous are just,
but the advice of the wicked is deceitful.

⁶The words of the wicked lie in wait for blood,
but the speech of the upright rescues them.

⁷The wicked are overthrown and are no more,
but the house of the righteous stands firm.

⁸A person is praised according to their prudence,
and one with a warped mind is despised.

⁹Better to be a nobody and yet have a servant
than pretend to be somebody and have no food.

¹⁰The righteous care for the needs of their animals,
but the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel.

¹¹Those who work their land will have abundant food,
but those who chase fantasies have no sense. PROV. 12:2-11

What are the disadvantages of fame?

Mid Afternoon Meditation 12-29-20

Posted on December 29, 2020 by joseph elon lillie under Pastor Wrinkles