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An Open Letter To Debbie Fulthorp, D. Min
Dear friend, for as long as I have known you, from my knowledge of your work with Poland, the Book of Hope, Ordination, our meeting in seminary, and everything since, you have been a woman of poise, anointing, and patience with the idiocy that surrounds you.
These blackguards that are calling you out in front of everyone and saying negative garbage, are just that, naysayers on the level of Sanbellat and Tobias. They are beneath your level.
I bless you to keep on doing what you are doing, and to ignore the nonsense barbs of these cretins.
I am so grateful you have tried where many have not even bothered trying.
It is not my goal to embarrass you, but it is my goal to call this junk out when I see it.
They have no business mistreating you, and they cause the ire of many an anointed to be kindled.
You and Brian are my friends, and I am grieved when people mistreat you.
I am glad for your willingness to pursue G-d no matter how painful the process has been.
You, my dear friend, have my unqualified support and endorsement in EVERYTHING you put your hand to, no matter how broken you feel.
So pleased to know you, so glad you are teaching, and so glad to hear you are applying for working for Dr. Castleberry.
Keep it on, girl, and let the cowardly know-nothings fall by the wayside. You are in my prayers, and I hesitate nothing when it comes to blessing your attempts where others would not attempt a thing. Thus far, you have accomplished way more than anything they have ever thought about accomplishing.
And to those who are castigating my precious friends publicly on her page and violating Matthew 18, six ways to Sunday, let this serve as a fair warning, you are doing the Kingdom no favors, and the only Kingdom you are serving is the one that creates and sows discord.
Concerning G-d’s Command to Abram in Genesis 17:1
G-d speaks to Abram, identifies himself as El Shaddai (please try not to get distracted by parsing out that name of G-d, because that name is not the point of this post), and commands something peculiar of Abram at the age of ninety-nine.
“Walk before me, and be blameless…”
Permit me to share an expansion of what I saw concerning that comment.
Translation:
Walk before me in such a way that accusations about your behavior that are untrue, negative, and unworthy of my children could never stick.
Exposition:
How many times do we excuse our behavior by saying we are sinners saved by grace (we are not sinners saved by grace; Bill Gaither’s statement is not biblical and deserves to die a horrible death)? HOW MANY TIMES have we said, it’s okay because Yeshua died for my sins and He forgives me?
How many times have we excused our behavior rather than repenting for it?
Now, am I saying there is condemnation when we sin? Absoutely not. I am very much in alignment with the father heart of G-d.
That said, the voice of our life lived before others and the nonverbal rebuke of lives lived in compromise are both strengthened when we walk in a unblameable fashion. Note: this has nothing to do with the religious spirit. And yes, there are people who will never be satisfied with how we walk and will always find something to critique.
That said, if we walk above board, in the ways of accountability that Father has given us, then we will surely not give them added ammunition against us.
Walk in a fashion that does not incur needless blame. If you are going to walk in a way that incurs blame, make darn sure you are being accused for behavior that is worthy of the testimony and authority Yeshua has put in you.
μηδὲ δίδοτε τόπον τῷ διαβόλῳ.
The Vision of Genesis 15
Gang, consider Genesis 15, and some details thereof. Pasted here for your convenience.
“After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.”But Abram said, “O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?”And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.”And behold, the word of the LORD came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.”And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
And he said to him, “I am the LORD who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.”But he said, “O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess it?”He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half.And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him.Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years.But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age.And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”
When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.”
(Genesis 15:1–17 ESV)
Three things. First, verse 1 claims the message came through a vision. It is possible that Abram was talking to the L-rd for some time in the vision. Those of you that do not believe visions happen, well, Acts 2 says otherwise.
Secondly, the stars were out in verse 5, which can mean that the stars are part of the vision. This excursus reeks of unusual phenomena, if we consider the context, namely, that the sun and other markers of daytime (birds of prey, for example) were out en masse. So, G-d possibly caused time to flow differently such that Abraham saw night, day, and then night again rapidly, or the rest of the story is not told, or this whole interaction was a vision which Abraham saw in sequence, and he operated as though he were entranced.
Thirdly, given a deep sleep fell upon Abram in verse 12, it is possible the vision stopped at verse 9.
Fourthly, sleep came to Abram before dreadful and great darkness. I would call this “dreadful and great darkness” an expression of outer darkness.
Fifthly, even in the midst of scary and assaultive outer darkness, G-d still came and still brought the illumination of revelation, and the light of His beingness to Abram.
Let the reader understand. G-d may allow you to be assaulted and attacked fiercely by hot battle such that you cannot see which way is up, but He will be there present in the midst of the darkest void of light. He will come, and He will shine with His truth, to keep your rudder amidships, and to keep your yaw, pitch, and roll in proper alignment.
He is the L-rd Your Rudder, the L-rd Your Ailerons, the L-rd Your Elevator, and the L-rd Your Stabilizer.
He can flood you with stability, and a thousand sheared enemies shall fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not come nigh thy dwelling (Psalm 91:7).
He is indeed the L-rd Your Smoking Firepot and Flaming Torch, the One Who Passes Between the Pieces and Restores His Cause In You (Genesis 15:17). He will stand in the breach and the division of seas, and the broken tablets, and broken covenant, and He will be the Covenant-Maker (Father), Covenant-Keeper (Son), and the Covenant Restorer (Holy Spirit: Isaiah 58:12).
Welcoming January…..
I have never welcomed a January like this one before….
The fireworks are exploding all around me, and I am so unbelievably in awe of this month. I welcome it and bless it. And though I share a birthday with Benedict Arnold, I will not be marked, nor have I ever been marked, a traitor.
One thing about my design that is fascinating to me among Prophets, is that I am exceptionally loyal.
I have only ever lost 2 or 3 close friendships.
I am deeply grateful as I move toward my brithday, and as I move through a month that features so many excellent births.
Two of those January births that have affected me so much, for better or worse, are my own father, and Arthur Burk.
I am grateful for the impact of these men.
And as I hear the salutes that make all of my fiery and glassy portions of spirit sit and stand on edge, I welcome a year or potential and alignment and fulfillment.
I welcome a Gregorian year of transformation of change.
I welcome a season of change as I yank down a nefarious wall that has blocked part of my design.
I welcome this most blessed of Gregorianally-calendricized time markers.
I welcome the sign and the season and prelude to more hope.
Fiction Prompt, Using My Son’s Vocab Words From Spelling Class
I was mowing my lawn when I heard the brazen crack of a Roman Candle report. My dog, TeeJay, had told me he was wanting to play with some of my choicest toys, in the interest of exploration with matters of inertia and velocity. I took it to understand that he was referring to my Nerf Guns, but did not think he meant my fireworks.
Leaving the lawnmower in the front yard, I raced around to the back yard, and saw TeeJay and Samantha playing with my Zippo and fireworks. There was a partial length of 3/4′ EMT conduit which they had negotiated into the ground about six inches.
TeeJay had assured me there would be no harm in he and Samantha’s time together, though I had some reservations, and so I reluctantly agreed, against any misgivings or reservations.
The problem is, I was not sure if canines playing with explosives were insured under my Homeowner’s Policy with State Farm. I further did not know the potential of dogs left to their own devices. Of course, given my desires to set everyone I know up to succeed and not fail, I was not aware of the magnitude of the canine mischief quotient.
“TEEJAY!” I exlaimed. “WHAT IN THE NAME OF ALL THAT IS GOOD ABOUT PROPER PRINCIPLES ARE YOU DOING?!”
The interrobang was my idea at the end of that exclamatory remark.
“Ummmm…..call it a new invention of mine, master. I was hoping you would appreciate my thinking outside of the box of what can be done with gunpowder.”
Samantha’s face was mildly charred from the ash that blew back from the explosion.
“I can see that, sir,” I replied, “but you nearly gave your sister a full facial with your new invention.”
Noticing a hint of color underneath him, I reached to pick it up, and pulled out a full brochure for the Fort Mill Canine Pytrotechnic Association’s Annual Barn-Burner. Smelling hints of patchouli and sulphur, I realized that he and Samantha had snuck out that night from the new dog houses we had built them a few days ago. TeeJay had begun to grow adept at working with all forms of machinery since he and Samantha had just completed obedience school in Miami with our friend, Emma Golden-Benjamin. The information on the brochure had mentioned Emma’s name, and things her organization had done to empower dogkind to provide a greater social presence, and also contained a great deal of language on how the sundry canine species could garner further appreciation from humanity while also negotiating the culture of shame that has traditionally marked the relationship between man and beast.
Given TeeJay’s and Samantha’s curiosities had been sufficiently nourished by this aspiring and dubiously-reputable organization, with much chagrin, I graciously communicated to them how we could best create a win/win to engage their newfound affinity in a safe manner.
To this judgment of mine they politely averred and covenanted to no more carry on pyrotechnic hobbies behind my back.
I concluded my lecture of my dogs by congratulating them on such a noble thing which they accomplished.
Dinner With The Troops
[wpvideo 6EpWhuPP]
Burning Leaves With My Kids
Because a friend asked to see my burning leaf pile, here it is in part. Some are wet still from last week’s rains.
Prophet/Teacher Combos, When They Care For the People Who Are With Them: Also, Notes On the Window of Reconciliation For December: Destiny
Caring for people is critical when Prophets are at work, and thus a healthy Teacher can help them in that need.
I am reading David McCoullough (Teacher)’s biography of the Wrights and it is astoundingly engaging. I found it at Books-A-Million on the clearance table, for roughly 8 dollars.
I wanted to reproduce one of the vignettes here and then draw a principle, this one from Chapter 5: December 17, 1903. It describes what had happened after they had made their first four flights on Flyer 1.
For the record, December’s window of reconciliation is to Destiny. And the Wrights’ destiny, and the aerospace industry got turbocharged because of the following account.
And also, every single time there is an aerospace dynamic, Prophet and Teacher dynamics are not far behind (“Houston, We Have a Problem.”)
John T. Daniels, a Kitty Kawk native helping the Wrights at the time, was holding their light prototype still while they were standing on the beach, discussing what to do after the fourth flight:
There was talk of going again, of even attempting a flight down the beach to the weather station. But a sudden gust caught the flyer and tossed it along the sand “just like you’ve seen an umbrella turned inside-out and loose in the wind,” remembered John T. Daniels.
Daniels had been standing holding an upright of one of the wings and suddenly found himself caught in the wires and the machine “blowing across the beach, heading for the ocean, landing first on one end and and then the other, rolling over and over, and me getting more tangled up in it all the time’–all 600-plus pounds of the machine, plus Daniels, who weigned over 200 pounds, swept up by the wind as though they weighed nothing at all.
When the machine stopped momentarily, Daniels succeeded in breaking loose. (His escape was miraculous,” Orville later wrote, “as he was in the engine and chains.”) “I wasn’t hurt much. I got a good many bruises and scratches and was so scared I couldn’t walk strainght for a few mintues,” Daniels would say. The brothers “ran up to me, pulled my legs and arms, felt of my ribs and told me there were no bones broken. They looked scared, too.” From that day on Daniels could proudly claim to have survived the first ever airplain wreck.
The Flyer was a total wreck…
Here is the kicker, gang. Instead of being concerned with their plane, which was certainly something to consider, which they probably also considered, at the inception of their work, they demonstrated a choice to make the lives of those that helped them a priority. They didn’t pull him loose carelessly, and then barrel through with another test. Instead, they showed a priority to Daniels.
When a Teacher/Prophet Combo shows a greater value for the dignity of human life than for the work that pertains to their birthright, they unknowingly come into a great portion of their birthright as well: Responsibility for fellow man.
Bill and Dave of Hewlett-Packard (Teacher/Exhorter) understood this concept well, which is why HP took a major leap forward in the early days. They created a safe enviornment for their employees to fail and to excel, and because they showd loyalty to and cared deeply for their employees in numerous different ways, they were rewarded with something most companies can only dream about these days: loyalty.
Gang, when a Prophet embraces the second level of principles, dealing with interpersonal relationships, in his or her business dealings, he will be rewarded with a greater outflow of success. And when he or she and a Teacher work together, not only weaving principles together from the start, but also helping other people out along the way of their journey into their destiny, then a flood of resources and/or revelation and flow will come to them.
This concern for Daniels’ life over the life of their aircraft and life’s work sowed a huge intangible into their future success, and because of that concern, aviation has at its core foundation, a concern for the well-being of others as well as the destination. If we violate that principle of aviation, a principle the Wrights laid, then we stand to reap incredible devastation in this industry.
When you root your work in a concern and a compassion for those around you more than your grand experiment, the L-rd will see to it that your birthright is established and more unmoveable. This is the lesson of what happened with the Wrights: more than just their life’s work, they were concerned about a man who helped them than the wreck of their life’s work. As a result, everything else was turbocharged.
Names of G-d 38
The G-d Who Has a Person Ready For the Job
And the L-rd G-d planted a Garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.
Genesis 2:8
He doesn’t just sit idly by while me make things happen, with detacthed disinterest.
Rather, when we see a job that needs doing, we need to ask G-d who His man or woman is for the job that needs doing.
He has prepared a job for you, and He has or pared you for a specific, satisfying job and problem that you were made to solve.
He made Adam and Eve for the Garden, and made the Garden for them.
He always has a man or a woman that He wants to get ready for the job that needs doing.
The question is, are we looking for a person to fill a slot with no more interest than a widget, or are we looking for THE RIGHT person, either permanently or for a season?
We can let dead-end happen, or we can let transition and movement toward destiny happen.