Sustained Encouragement

You know, there are a lot of folks out there who are ever willing to share their negative opinions especially when it comes to the creativity of another individual. Sometimes it is meant in a spirit of kindness but often it is just an attempt to crush what they consider worthless.

Here is what I have found to be true about creativity; One mans trash is another mans treasure.

I believe it is of the ultimate importance to teach folks that principle. I also believe that seeking out folks that we can appreciate and encourage can bring light and freedom into this world.

I began to write a little over a year ago. I was having trouble journaling and have never been good with it. Journaling is one of those things that we are “supposed to do” as a Christian to draw us into a deeper relationship with God. I get that, I just have never been into it. I get distracted and just end up blowing it off, right or wrong.

I began to have conversations about journaling with a buddy of mine and he shared some ways that he enjoyed doing it.

Well, I prayed for a break through in this area and that is when the writing started. I am writing several stories mostly to share with my family and friends but I’m finding that these times of writing draw me to a focus that I don’t normally have and He usually begins to speak to me through it.

Now, I shared that writing with my friend because he was genuinely interested and he began to encourage me. He encouraged me daily and participated in the process while doing so. It was that kind of sustained encouragement that has helped make writing a part of my life. Without that encouragement to carry on writing these stories would have languished and faded away a long time ago.

I say; be an encourager. Find someone who you can speak into their life and build them a foundation of encouragement they can build their lives upon.

Epic Excerpt 2:

I was reading along there in Genesis and got hooked on the fact that Enoch was a man that God made a point of treating differently from the rest. Enoch walked with God for over 300 years and was no more because God took him and though they sought him they could not find him for God took him to heaven.

This guy must have been something special! I just couldn't get him off my mind. How could God just leave me hanging like that?

What about Enoch?
What made him so special?
Why did God think so much of him that he just took him to heaven without the shame or pain of death?

So I did what any normal, minimally tech savvy, bonehead would do...........I googled him. Did you know you could google folks who left this world thousands of years ago just as easily as you can any of today's so called personalities?

I have been reading the bible for a long time. I have even read the books that are included in the Catholic version. I did not know that there is an ancient text called The Book of Enoch. It seems that this was a very popular book with the Greek and Ethiopian Churches and there is strong evidence that some of the earliest manuscripts that have been found were written before the time of Christ. (I will leave out the citations so you will have to do your won research if you like). This is backed up by the fact that fragments from both this book and one called The Book of Noah were discovered in the famed "Cave #4" of the dead sea scroll caves.

The accounts of the man and his visions and parables are breath taking. I have been riveted and it has brought a bit of new insight to portions of the old testament. Here is a link so that you can read it if you like. ( http://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/boe/ ) Now this book along with others was cut from the line up of the Bible at the council of Laodesia (sp) as supplemental. I find that a shame.

Check it out.................

Poetry

I dont write poetry all that much but here is little ditty you may enjoy. There is another one posted below if you are into it.

The Changing Cloth

Woolen, worn soft by time and tread,
Walked mile upon mile, dust soaked and dew laden.
Yet clean, pristine, but not by hands labor.

Hem stitched and tassel fringed, fraying just.
Color, and white, and dinge, and spot.
Power, in a breathless flash of endless time and love.

Thoughts of wondrous measure race the expanse
Of this limitless moment.
Movement, electric and soft, vision, clear and long.
New, clean air filling every inch of these sails,
All in a single speck of a moment.

Astounding garment, this changing cloth. This
Woven mystery of transforming flow.
How cause you thus this rift to mend,
And stain you not with shame or woe.

“Who touched me?”

Sound cease and motion halt. Time suspends as the light of truth
Reveals hidden motive.

“Who touched me?!”

Eyes meet in forbidden gaze, unclean and sanctified mingle
As footfall brings distance to a close.

Deep pools of loving kindness spill from the face
Only distance has ‘till now yet seen.
Mercy, beyond reason and piety, limitless and filling.
Recognition of past and present and future and justification
Made complete by sacrifice to come.

Understanding and peace reside at once within,
As physical and spiritual join and align.
No changing cloth a difference made,
But the wearer therein, now in me, abides.

~David Mayo~

Kindness and Gratitude

So my eldest son is in town from the Marine Corps. We are very proud of the decisions he has made for his life so far. He took his girlfriend now fiancee out to dinner to give her a ring and celebrate.They had dressed up; he in his Dress Blues and her in a nice cocktail dress. They went to a very nice restaurant and had a fine meal and enjoyed each other. As they were finishing up the waiter came over and said that they would not be receiving a check because another patron had taken the liberty of paying their bill in gratitude for his service to our country.

God bless America! Their are still folks surviving who are patriots in their hearts. Bless them.

Thank you for being a blessing to those who have sacrificed much for us to be able to live, work, play, and worship the way we choose in the place we live; The United States of America.

Epic Excerpt: Genesis

Going deep here, I often ponder about Gods whole plan for this creation and what it means. I come to the same conclusion every time.

God saw the beginning and the end before He even hovered over the waters and called this world into being.

So he saw the fall and He saw the Pharisees.
He saw His Son hang on a cross to restore His relationship with us.
He saw Rome burn and He saw Masada massacred.
He saw the Jews taken captive and slaughtered by the Nazis.
He saw the oil fields a light in Kuwait.
And He has seen every lifetime that has been and will be.

This thing was not finished when Christ died on the cross and it’s not finished now. There is an out come He has a plan for that was set in motion when He called creation into being. He knew that perfection (The Garden – creation) could not be true perfection for Him and us both without a purification process.

Oh it was perfect when He made it but He desired a relationship with His creation that went beyond Master and servant. He wanted fellowship with His creation (and still does) but to get there, at least for us, there is a process that only begins at the cross.

One day, when the time has fully arrived, we ( The Human Race) will be a part of a perfected creation in true fellowship with Him. That is where our Book ends but I suspect the story continues just as He is eternal.

An Epic Read!

Who reads the Bible anymore? I mean really reads the Bible………..not just a study or a scripture lookup but the kind of cover to cover, epic, You & me God, kind of read that takes you on an odyssey of discovery. I know there are a lot of folks that read the Book all the way through once a year every year on some kind of “Bible in a year” reading plan and there is absolutely nothing wrong with any of those ways that we hide the word in our hearts.

I have been bouncing around from book to book and scripture to scripture for some time now and God is always faithful to illuminate His will and Wisdom in it, but as I had completed a read of Ecclesiastes the other day and began, for no other reason than the fact that I felt led, to read Ezra I started to feel this strong sense for a journey; an epic sense.
I stopped and prayed for a second and began to remember when I was a brand new Christian filled with Gods’ Holy Spirit.

One of the very first things I ever sensed Him saying to me was to open up the bible at Genesis 1:1 and read and don’t stop or skip around until I got through Revelation. This was very difficult because I had all these very well intentioned Christian around telling me I was doing it wrong. “You need to start in Mathew and read the Gospels first,” one would say. Some had other scenarios to transport me to an understanding of this or that. It was hard to stand my ground. I just quit being specific when they would ask if I was reading my Bible.

I had another difficulty later when I got to the lists of all those names in Numbers and else where. I would begin to fall asleep in those sections so I decided just to skip over the names and move on. No such luck. I began to get headaches every time I tried to read past the parts I skipped. I know it may sound silly but it took me 2 whole weeks of fits and starts before I finally got it. I was thinking my eyes were going bad on me, but I prayed about it and God said, “Remember my instructions and be obedient.” I went back and read the parts I had skipped with no problems. How Great God is!

I have read it since but now I am on that epic journey seeking to know only Him in it. I can’t wait to see where He takes me………………………..

The Answer

The Answer By: David Mayo

Stooped in focused silence wrought
With finger bare and wooden stylus
Etched err in shifting sand a map
Or message bound for parts unknown

No comprehensive font or script
Lay dusty in the silent pause
No reproof spoke thus till now
Acknowledged not convicting words

Only thus, the scribe and work
Set forth in patient humble bend
The soil rend to and fro with skill
Then to the point came hidden deed

One by one accuser shrank
In hearts the blade so cleanly pierced
With bloodless stroke so true and swift
Exposed to daylight darkness kept

Wind removed from chest and mouth
The only sound be sandal made
No one remained to sentence pass
No one laid hold of judgment stone

Where do now accusers stand
Whence evidence laid bare their souls
Dear child forgiven you shall pass
Forgiven go and sin no more

Lake Lure N.C.

My favorite place rises ancient every morning. Flameless smoke billows from earth to sky. Ageless granite yeilds to timber and water. Endless beauty awaits around every bend.

What does that look like?

I’m hearing the phrase “what does that look like” over and over as of late as it pertains to how we operate as Christians in this world. What does it look like to mentor, what does it look like to be a citizen of the kingdom of God, what does it look like to love folks, and the list goes on. We were discussing, the other night at home group, why is it that when Christ physically left this earth he gave us authority and power………His authority and power to operate just like he did……….and we aren’t able to do it. The disciple did. Was that Spirit and anointing only for them and their day? That’s not what He said. So why don’t we have that kind of moxie? “What does it look like for us to be able to operate in the authority and power that Christ has given us?”

Then it dawned on me. We keep asking “what does it look like” because we are blinded to it. Generations have passed since men spoke and spirits got out of the way. Every generation has thought better of it and let the world and human nature sneak in and speak in their hearts distracting them and us from the truth. I mean we don’t need to fast and pray and take authority in power of your illness sister the doctors will have it under control in no time. Oh we will pray and maybe even fast but aren’t Doctors God provision and power for our day concerning illness now? Do we even believe that God can heel much less want to heal us or has He just abdicated that place of dominion to men? Now He said that we have every right to tap into His natural (supernatural) anytime because He left with us His authority and power to do so.

“Oh, but brother Dave, you have to be praying in the “will of God” for it to be effectual.” Isn’t it God’s will that His creation be perfected? After all, He created it perfect to begin with; it’s us who screwed it up. Healing is just one example.

So again the question, what does it look like? I think we have to get back to the beginning (to Scripture) and come to and understanding of the truth that allows us to accept that what he did and what he said is real without question. I think looking into the giants of the faith and what they found to be truth and accept it as real will also give us evidence to live by. We have to let our eyes and ears be opened by it so that the eyes of our heart can begin to see how great yet how accessible all that His Kingdom has to offer really is. Want to know His will? Creation perfected. His Kingdom increased. This means you and I and the universe set back into His natural order not our own understanding of natural order. All else will fit in nicely into this file.

Pieces of Time

There are thing in our lives that change us all classified in increments of time; an instant, a second, a moment, one summer, that year. The time is not nearly as important as the cause and the effect. Some of these pieces of time we never dreamed about. Some of them we planned for all our lives. Some fragments were wonderful and magical and some were tragic.

I have had many of these pieces of time, as I am sure you have, all gone now with more to come than the stars in heaven. They sneak back sometime to be made fun of or to seek justice or to reveal their unseen true intent. A smell, a place, a face, a photograph, a name all can create a mini time warp in my mind and heart where fact and fiction collide with narcissism and belief.

For the better or the worse of me these clips have and will change me, sometimes removing and sometime adding little chunks of who I am to my whole existence and to others.

All these little pieces of time have come and gone and come again like a stair; each tread and kick plate a different shape and color yet ever leading onward to take me to that eventual journeys end.

Yet, no matter what dream I follow or what bolt of lighting strikes, I perceive all the orchestration going on in the midst. I can sense the working together of all these events to make me into who and what I am supposed to be. Ever changing, ever growing, creation of a Love that is beyond my ability to reason why.

Is any of this a surprise? Is any of this too great a circumstance or change? Could I choose differently? What a gift we have been given. That all of these pieces of time keep coming and Love keeps changing us.

It must not be about me after all…………..

~David Mayo~

Coffee Cup

I never cared much for archeology though digging up the past seemed like the right thing to do. Sitting here now holding the evidence of time passing, both as fragile and as utilitarian as time; I ponder you as a memorial.

I was forty when they left this world, first one then the other, as if one went on ahead to establish himself and the other followed when word was sent. They traveled mere weeks apart from one another both to the same destination. This would make you slightly older than me as they had you first.

Time has rubbed and worn on us both. We have heard many conversations and witnessed many confrontations. You yellowed and webbed with tiny cracks. Me weathered and wrinkled a little more each day.

I think of their hands; of how they held us both with love and wisdom and the skill of care required to keep us both alive all these many days.

I remember sitting in this very room drinking coco or chocolate milk, as if it were the beverage you were designed to contain, with them; being a part of them as you were when in their hands.

Now we two, once again, join in the game sorting through the lives they spent from start to finish. Who decided that it would be up to us? Who dumped this duty on our table? Alas, we were the ones who stayed. We were the one always around. It fell to us. We had been prepared for it by the very teachers that brought us both to this point in time.

Thank you for being here with me and helping me to remember. Thank you for soothing the pain with the warm, sweet, nectar you have so faithfully held and given all your life.

There will be a new home for you now and new children to fill with memories. And if God wills it, another pair of life times marked, in passing, by younger hands, a table full of memories, and you, this cup.

~David Mayo~

BTW

Please feel free to leave comments and thoughts of your own. All are welcome.

Thanks,

David

Friendship

So I was thinking about friendship, real honest to goodness friendship. Those that are not contrived or of convenience. I have such a friend. One that no matter how long it's been or through what adversity we pick up right where we left off. What a blessing and treasure that kind of relationship is. A kindred spirit.

I am not by nature the kind of person that seeks this out. In fact to my shame I will tend to shy away from the cost of friendship. I can't say that I don't mean to be this way because that is just not true.

There is a cost to true friendship especially for those relationships that are not as natural and easy as the one I have with my best buddy. It costs us a piece of ourselves, our time and maybe even our portion.

I find that even though I shy away from these relationships there is something in my wiring that causes me to long for them at the same time.

I think that we are wired this way because the one who made us is wired this way. I believe He desires that kind of close, easy, relationship with us.

Would that we could desire and pursue the same with Him as well as each other.

My friend is the kind of person that changes me and makes me a better person. He speaks into my life and listens when I speak. He takes pleasure in my joy and rejoices in my encouragement of him.

Kinda sounds a bit like someone else I know...........this I believe is what God also desires.

On the encouragement of my friend Caleb at (Love.Think.Speak. ) Blog I am starting my own. This first post is an allegory I wrote which was sparked by his post called "Fear". Go check it out and thanks for reading.....

So Much Afraid


Through many trials and labors have I made it to my destination. Upon your word I have left the comfort of your golden, fortified, city where peace and truth dwell as light both night and day.

I am here. I now dwell in the enemy’s camp. My only life line, this secret manifesto which I write and your orders upon which I await my opportunity to engage.

It is dark here. A thick, foul, fog obscures everything. Would that it could, it would creep into my very soul to transform from the inside out the perception of my surroundings. I stand in its midst holding my breath against its oozing onslaught.

The ramparts and battlements rise to scrape the very clouds of heaven. I must close my eye at the sight merely to be able to remember any light at all.

Nothing could have prepared me for what I found here. As desolate and decrepit a place as this is I can tell no difference between us. They look the same as we do; in everyway, copies of ourselves missing but one thing. Who can tell with mortal eye friend from foe?

One studies closely the ways of this people and one must know that he is being studied. “Be on your guard,” you said, “You will be in the enemy’s camp, but become not of the enemy.”

I know now the struggle to which your words alluded for the habits of this place seep in through every joint and seam of my armor. Yet I resist. My hope; that the hour of my appointment not tarry. I am so much afraid.

Fear is the cloak we all seem to wear here. This is the camouflage that keeps me undetected. Knowing freedom is just beyond the fog bank grows less and less a help as the time passes.

Come to me thou prey and I shall free you by the death of your fear to the light of truth. Come to me you called and appointed, you chosen of the master. Come to me out of the darkness.

As my very soul becomes inundated, drown by the prevailing current and tide I spot them; the appointed. I lye in wait deteriorating and clinging to hope when the moment arrives.

Has it been too long? Can I now remove this cloak that has woven its self to me?
How can I fulfill the objective now bound by the same chains they wear proudly?
I cannot even begin now to remove it. There is no hope left in me. I close my eyes.

“Bear all!” My mind recalls your words of instruction on the day of my leaving.
“Bear all in the face of fear!” The warm glow of a ridiculous notion begins to flourish in my heart.
“Bear all in the face of fear and the light of truth will bring freedom to the captive!”

As they approach this huddled mass I strip away the cloak, that has now become an iatrical part of my appearance, with all the little bit of strength I have. It tears every stitch and seam. Cloth and binding now unfettered fly to the fog and I stand, bare in the face of fear.

In amazement the captive come drawn to me not by the spectacle of naked shame, but by the light shown forth from the truth that freedom from the cloak of fear has revealed.

David Mayo