BeLOnGings

 

Contrary to the common idiom, “The devil is in the details” I believe it is our Dad who is in the details.

The other day I was standing on our back deck. Although we live in a city suburb, at this time of the year the back yard is surrounded with leafy trees and you could imagine yourself in the middle of the BWCA (A 1 million acre “Wilderness” area “Up North” for non-Minnesotan readers)

I was reading about Jacob’s encounter with God at Bethel. I knew Father was reiterating the same promise to me and paused, bowing in worship. As I then looked upwards I saw the cloud formation above. It struck me as the face of God with his long white hair flowing out behind. (Daniel 7:9) The clarity of the profile had faded somewhat by the time I gathered myself and thought of a photo!

Does this mean I am special?

No, I don’t think I am any more special than any other person, but I think I am rather simple – hopefully not naive!

Jesus said, “I praise you Father, Lord off heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to little children.” (Matt.11:22) and later, “Unless you change and become like little children you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt.18:3)

I have never been much of a philosopher, and am not really a concepts person. I like how Jesus asked simple questions, told real life stories, and just talked about His Abba! Now that is something anyone can imitate!

We’re told that God knows our every thought and action. (Psalm 139) Is this knowledge for knowledge’s sake to be stored as cold facts in the mammoth computer called God’s memory? I don’t think so. I believe this is the sort of knowledge that ‘puffs up” in contrast to the love which “builds up.”( 1 Cor.8:1) ) God who is love and is relationship uses this intimate knowledge of us to build His love relationship with each of His children……enhancing our knowing of Him not just about Him, through His wonderfully unique personal interactions and communications with us.

As some of these thoughts were passing through my mind I suddenly heard a thump behind me. I turned and there on the ground was a stunned little bird lying on the deck! He must have flown into our bedroom window and then plummeted to the ground below. I picked him up, held him in my hand and began to sing to him. After a few minutes he seemed to settle and then took off, only to land a few feet away on the deck surround.

We had a few more moments together,………….and then he was gone!

Jesus said, “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? yet not even one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.” (Matt. 10:29-31) 

Let Oswald have the last word:

“The things that make God so dear to us are not so much His great big blessings as the tiny things, because they show His amazing intimacy with us.”

May He help you to increasingly connect the dots in your everyday life that spell out His intimate knowledge and love for you, today and always.

 

 

“Oooooooh The Lord is good to me
And so I thank the Lord
For giving me the food I need
The sun and the rain and the appleseed
The Lord is good to me
Amen Amen Amen Amen Aaaaaamen”

The Johnny Appleseed song is a favorite at our table. John Chapman became an American legend in his own lifetime traveling west planting apple trees, preaching and living a radical gospel as he went. a special friend to the Indians and to the animals.

I remember years ago walking down the street to a neighbor’s house to give him a CD. I was finishing off an apple and as I tossed the core with it’s seeds onto the ground. Father said to me, “You’re a Johnny Appleseed’ I realized I was to sow the seed of God’s word in the form of the  songs He had given me.

Even this week I got a couple of emails one from a brother in Australia saying, “We still sing your songs in our community” and another from a lady in Arizona saying she’d worn out my CDs! What a privilege and honor!

Father also showed me that the even more than my songs, my sons (and daughters) were seeds He would sow in this new world.

Jesus said, “Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” (Jn.12:24)

Job was a religious man at the beginning of the book by his name, but  God did a job on Job and he ended up a spiritual man with a first hand experience of his Dad’s smiling face. “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.” (Job 42:5)

God allowed Job to be wounded in his body, in his pocket book and in his closest human relationships. It was the inevitable journey for all of us, through humility, to intimacy with our Father.  At the end of the story Job was doubly fruitful!!

One of Robin’s permaculture apple tree plants, on the boarder between our house and Ben and Kim’s, surprised us all this year by bearing in it’s third year 9 little Minnesotan originated Honeycrisp apples! (pictured above)

As I pondered this I realized these nine apples represented our family of nine. I recounted how each one of us have been given a unique wound and as we have embraced that wound it has become a gift. Firstly a gift to us shaping who we are and are becoming as children of God and then a gift through us, just as Job at the end of the story, became the gift of an effective intercessor for his friends.

Biting through the hard wounded skin comes the crispness….then the sweetness!

My wound? To see the suffering of my children and so to know our Father’s broken heart for His creation.

As I was running and ruminating over these things this morning, I came across another golf ball message from the Father, Son and Spirit about how through these hard experiences the law of God is being written on our hearts as the new covenant reality – just as was promised in Jeremiah 33:31-34.

 

 

Reinhart means “hardy advice” : – )

 

“To every thing there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven.” (Eccl.3:1)

About four months ago Father spoke to us concerning the Fellowship at Rivendell, “Release and Re-set”

We continued to gather for a few weeks to review what we had learned about the foundation of our fellowship in Christ, and then had a last supper together where I took the loaf of bread representing our local body, gave thanks for it, broke it, and offered it back to the Lord before we shared it with one another and had a lingering time of prayer and blessing before going our separate ways for 7 weeks.

I have a friend who has recently had a life changing encounter with the Lord and brings a fresh ‘unreligious’ mind to his new found faith. When I told him what we had just done he said, “ You did what! – threw the budget out the window! I don’t believe it – but I like it!!”

This isn’t the first time we have been lead to “Let it all go!” Jesus said that we were to seek first the kingdom and that He would build his church. This can difficult for us humans who like to see ‘big’ tangible results. but this kingdom we are to seek, and this love we are to aim for, while being intensely practical are not neccessarily measurable or quantifiable.

The week we were to reassemble our son Robin, who cares for our garden, arrived in with a pile of stones, and then carefully began arranging them to ‘fit together’ into a beautiful garden border. You can see above the subsequent fruitfulness!

The scripture came to mind, “….a time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones together” (Eccl.3:5)

That weekend we had  the first gathering of the new set of “living stones” Father had gathered – some were familiar faces from the former fellowship, some were new faces, but all shared a common heart to, on the unchanging foundation of Christ, go the next stage of the journey together.

It is important for us to understand God’s time cycles and to discern and joyfully embrace each new season of life as we let  go the last.

For us, the season we are now in is characterized by caring for widows. Father sent us 8 ladies who had all recently lost their partners. At the same time he has given us responsibility of caring for windows. After 15 years in this Big Green House there are some major physical restoration projects, including the 88 windows!

Last Saturday a man arrived to give us an estimate for some work. At one point he asked how we had come to move to America.

“God asked us to come.” I replied. His countenance immediately changed and he began sharing his story….a dramatic conversion and a life now dedicated to God.

“I was almost not going o come to this appointment” he said. “I had a difficult morning after my wife and I had a quarrel because I want to be out on the streets doing ministry and she says I need to be more at home with her and the children. I left home crying out to God for an answer…….. Do you have a word for me?”

“Yes” I replied, “You once were THE man. Now your are GOD’s Man…and in this season of life you need to be HER man.” (His name happened to be Mann : – )

I told him how when we first arrived in the US everyone asked us, “What is your ministry?” I didn’t know how to answer that and so I called a friend in Ireland. He and his wife had spent the first year of their married life living with us, having their first child at the same time we were having our fifth!

“What is your ministry?” repeated Keith, “O that’s easy! – YOU are your ministry. It’s who you are in your relationship with God with your wife and with your children. Everything else God does through you flows out of that!”

I suggested to our new friend we pray. The four of us held hands and the Spirit sealed this divine encounter with a kiss!”

“Can I give you a hug brother?” said the burly contractor :- )

I realized caring for the windows had simply given us another opportunity to care for another potential (ministry) widow : – )

Yesterday Robin brought some more stones and added a herb spiral  to our garden.

I recently wrote this poem:

With every passing year,

Each Spring is more hopeful

Each Summer more joyful

Each Autumn more fruitful

Each Winter more truthful.

May we continue to spiral upwards singing as we ascend toward Zion through each new season and cycle.

 

 

Jesus warns, “What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and looses his own soul.” (Matt.16:26)

Clearly our priority in life should not be to accumulate material stuff but to invest in the invisible kingdom by following the invincible King.

In 1993 we received His call like Abram to, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.” (Gen. 12:1) Likely he was, as we were, very comfortable in UlsteR of the Chaldees, but like St. Brendan 1500 years before us, we 9 set sail in our little coracle westward from the Emerald Isle trusting in the God of the winds and the waves to direct us too in our seeking ‘the land of promise’. It was around that time we discovered that the name America may be derived from the Old Gothic meaning ‘kingdom of heaven.’

We had been blessed by my earthly and heavenly fathers with a house in Ireland, so when we sold it we were able to buy one in Minneapolis (which incidentally we had never seen!) and also a van to accommodate the 9 of us. We were left with $40,000.

“Phew” I thought, “A little cushion until we secure a source of income in this new world!”

“Give it away” Father replied. “I want you to trust in me, not in your money.”

Since we gave it away we have managed to pay our bills at the end of every month for the last 23+ years. God has proven true to his promise that if we seek first the kingdom of God all these things (necessary for living) will be added unto us. (Matt.5:33) He has provided in many wonderful and unexpected ways.

Just this week we received the gift of a golden dollar. I had not seen much less stewarded one before! This happened  immediately after (unknown to the giver) we were lead to empty our bank account again to meet another person’s need.

Then there was the ‘gift’ of the dress Hilary found in a thrift store for $5 and “took in” to fit perfectly the unwitting model above : – ) I snapped her as she came into the study while I was writing this blog! God anoints Ulster Scot thriftiness too!

This journey of trusting that God pays for what he orders, and provides where he guides has been a bit of a roller coaster of a learning curve not without it’s hairy moments! I remember when we announced at the end of a conference soon after we arrived that we wanted to give the gift God had given us away for free, a group of ‘vultures’ swopped on our stall and grabbed every last thing, including the display model tee shirts!

It does cost money to record and manufacture CDs and to maintain The Big Green House, however we have been lead to not charge for our services, and to seek to make our music freely available. In this sense we have not personally profited from the songs God has given us or from the retreats we host regularly at our home or from the people we have invited to live with us as part of our household. Like St. Paul I think we can safely say we have “preached the gospel free of charge’ (2 Cor.11:7)

Now wanting to make the music available digitally we’ve realized the simplest thing is to go with the systems that are set up and there is therefore an unavoidable charge, but from day to day we continue to seek to model an approach to Kingdom Economics which believes in a giving and receiving that honors the Christ in one another rather than a buying and selling for self aggrandizement. Inasmuch as we understand this is the nature of our King and His Kingdom we continue to seek to come to this ‘land of promise’ to prophet rather than to profit.

We were beautifully confirmed in these recent steps when a lady from Australia requested our sheet music. I wrote back to say in a few weeks it would be freely available on the website. I said  she could make a donation if she would like to. I thought  she might give $20. She donated $200. I was able to write and encourage her that the $200 gift had exactly covered the cost of the new web site. (Stephen and Abby generously donated their time and expertise as an honoring gift)

We deeply appreciate everyone who over the years has been moved by love and prompted by faith as Father’s channels of provision whether with gifts of money, time, energy or skills to enable us to continue to go wherever we are sent and to receive whomever we are sent with Father’s love in the name of Christ.

P.S. As I was writing this blog I was also on the line with United Airways trying to change Gilbert’s flight to the UK where he will be studying in Glasgow for a semester. As usual there was a lot of, “Sorry for the delay Dr. Kyle. Please stay on the line.” Just as I completed the blog the pleasant Korean sounding lady came back a final time to tell me that the flights would now have one stop instead of two and she would waive the change fee as a one time good will gesture. She then informed me I would also be getting $140 refunded to my credit card for taxes that were now no longer due.

What a Dad we have !!!

 

A few weeks ago when our daughter Abby and husband Stephen were over from Ireland vacationing with us they said they would like to project us into the twenty first century…..and so the new web site that they put together, with the news that our music is now “on Spotify”, has just gone live!

I have to admit I’m a little nervous of a higher profile. The reason is because of the crab in the pot of water phenomena. You remember the story of the crab  put into a pot of room temperature water, which is slowly brought to the boil so that the crab oblivious to the creeping danger, ends up – as DINNER!

When we first arrived in America it hit me like a ton of bricks (or should that be ‘ice’…to continue the crab analogy?) that a principle spirit at work in the culture here (and engulfing the rest of the world) is the spirit of “Show Business” i.e. It’s all about “image” – looking good….. in order to “turn a profit.” I remember a few months later a young man in Holland I was talking to making the off hand comment, “Americans seem so fake”

Sadly we in Christ’s church are not immune from this “Show Business” culture which is why some end up leaving when they see through “the act”.

The opposite of this spirit is “Authentic Love” which Jesus said would charcterise his true disciples. (Jn. 13:34,35) What does that look like? Unsolicited Kindness? Unheralded Helpfulness? (un)Common Decency? Unpretentious brotherhood?

The story in Genesis 24 illustrates it beautifully when Eliezer (the Holy Spirit) on behalf of Abraham (The Father) goes in search of a wife (The bride of Christ- the church) for his son Issac (Jesus). Rebecca demonstrates true altruism as she gives Eliezer a drink and then spontaneously ‘runs’ to draw water for all his camels, totally unaware that there would be any ‘profit’ in it for her. Eliezer concluded he had found “the real deal’

I was in a church service recently when by mistake a commercial for parental software came on the screen. It said, “Parents can track all the ‘devices’ their kids are on” I smiled. Our Father is fully aware of our ‘devices’ and sees through all our religious posturing and pretense which many of us crabs in the pews or at the front are oblivious too, while others who feel “Something’s just not right here!” jump ship, afraid of becoming part of a “religious” stew.

When Jesus was pursued by two of John’s disciples he said, “Come and see where I live!” not “Come and join me on my stage.” He invites us to walk with Him in scrutiny at the most fundamental level of life……come and see what my most intimate relationships are like, how I handle my finances, how I respond when trouble hits, who I am when the crowds have gone home. I ‘m sure Jesus’ three years of this 24/7 open life together with His ragtag bunch of 12 regular blokes made for some honest and amusing dinner conversation! Consider, “When the ten heard about this they were indignant (with the other two)” (Matt.20:24)

We have been clearing out our son’s house because of a bad case of mold. Mold corresponds to Mortality in Leviticus 14. I was ‘cleansing’ one of the stools, thought I had finished and then realized there was a whole other ‘hidden underbelly’ of the stool that also needed  attention. There, attached to the bottom along with the mold, was a piece of paper with some scribbled words in my son’s handwriting ……the forgotten beginnings of another song.

 

“There Goes the Heart of Another Believer”

I was relieved to discover, 

that Christians had only uncovered

half of the truth.

I awoke in a fever

And told the church I couldn’t believe her

And that was the truth

I guess disillusionment is good if it leads to us seeking the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth – a thoroughly clean stool that we can confidently rest the full weight of our faith on!

Hilary and I sometimes listen to an album called “A Perfect World” In the title track there is a line, “transparent, weightless, luminous”

I suppose that is the journey we each need to go on to become part of that perfect world. Firstly to be transparent by coming out from behind our false coverings. I don’t mean letting it all hang out on Facebook…I mean “truthing it in love”(Eph.4:13) with a few others we are genuinely accountable to, who are committed to going with us on the same journey of integrity.

Becoming  transparent with some true friends gives us the help we need to do the real ‘ heart work’. “Let us strip off every weight(less) that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up.”  (Heb.12:1 NLT)

As we do this then our hope is that God’s luminous glory will be revealed at His appointed time through TRUTHFUL and TRUE Sons. (2 Cor. 3:18)

Our website describes this desire as the basis of our “Fellowship at Rivendell.”…..the desire to be thoroughly cleansed, ready when the time comes, to put off Mortality and put on Immortality

Maybe the Beatles were more prophetic than they realized when they sang, “I get high with a little help from my friends”

…….so help US God!

P.S. I came across this confirmatory scripture this week from the Message, “I’m doing the very best I can, and I’m doing it at home, where it counts.” (Ps.101:2)

P.P.S. Oh yes the website address is https://www.paulkyle.org

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE GREAT SATAN is a name that has been coined by some in the Islamic world to describe America. I was pondering if there might be some underlying  truth giving traction to this damming description and was directed to Jesus strong rebuke to Peter, “Get thee behind me Satan”

Peter had just been affirmed by Jesus that he had indeed received a revelation of the Spirit from the Father stating, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Matt.16:16)

Peter’s mistake was that he did not realize that this revelation had come to him entirely as a gift, and so with some confidence in his own ‘brightness’ or ‘rightness’ he immediately steps up to rebuke the Lord when He disclosed that His way would be one of Restriction – suffering and death.

“Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never Lord” he said. This shall never happen to you!”

Jesus turned and said to Peter, ‘Out of my sight Satan! You are a stumbling block to me, you do not have in mind the things of God but the things of men.'” (Matt.16:22,23)

Peter had quickly become an instrument of “Satan”.

Could we say that Jesus is here identifying Satan with a spirit of Expansionism?

Later, on the Mount of Transfiguration Peter in the same spirit says in effect, “Lord it’s a good job we are here….we can stake a claim and build three houses for you!”  Once again he is rebuked for his cocky idea, this time by the Father! (Matt.17:5)

This spirit is so much part of our history as Europeans both on this continent and throughout the world that we think there is nothing wrong with this “expansionist” spirit when as believers we talk about TAKING cities or nations “for God” Have we forgotten the earth is already the Lord’s and the fulness thereof? This spirit becomes “a stumbling block” in the presentation of an authentic gospel.

We’ve been thinning out our books recently and I came across an eye opening one that a Native American friend had given me and had a deep impact years ago. It talks about their forgotten legacy in nutrition and healing, government and architecture. The title says it all:

INDIAN GIVERS: How The Indians of the Americas Transformed the World.

This seems much more akin to the spirit of Jesus, God’s gift to the world, who, as it says in Philippians 2, was in the form of God,  but DID NOT GRASP, GRAB or TAKE equality with God,  but emptied himself taking the form of a servant ……humbling himself to become obedient unto death on a cross.”  Jesus was a GIVER not a TAKER.

As we receive this gift of Jesus (Jn.1:12) and embrace with gratitude rather than resisting in fear His way of personal restriction, the promise is indeed, that His resurrection life will then flow through us.

As our hearts are captured by Him  we are changed from those who have been duped by Satan’s ABILITY to LIE to us  – filling us with that fear of lack that causes us to grab – to those who  know who they are, AS SET forth in the true Word – sons of a giving Father (1 Jn 3:1) and servants of a humble King.(Phil.2)

Thus we are changed from LIE-ABILITIES to AS-SETS in GOD’s work of Transforming, not Taking our world.

 

 

I have a friend who jokingly casts the calories out of the Pizza before digging into double cheese and pepperoni!

We still laugh…….but not so hard now…… as we have grown to realize the lack of integrity in our body of Christ!

The key scripture we cite at our FREEDOM! retreat is 1 Thess. 5:23,24 ” May God himself the God of peace, sanctify (marry) you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept sound at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who  calls you is faithful, and He will do it.”

Yes, “He will do it”, but He also tells us it is our responsibility to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil.2:12) Integrity is about integrating these three parts of our life – spirit, soul and body as having equal value. Our relationship with God comes first then our relationship with others, and then our relationship with this physical world which was declared ‘good’ by God at creation. We are equally responsible for all three.

If we are merely praying for supernatural healing of an arthritic knee in someone who is 350 lbs or for the healing of cancer in someone who will not forgive their mother we are living out of balance and without integrity.

I talked about how Ortho-miracular healing is the result of simply doing the next loving thing, but that needs to be toward God, toward  my neighbor and toward my own body.

The last one is particularly challenging as we now live in a world that has become a toxic sludge through greed empowered by science. 1 million plastic bottles discarded every minute contributing to a plastic island the size of Texas in the Pacific ocean graphically illustrates how dire things have become on the surface of our oceans, the growing Alzheimers epidemic how dire things have become in the depths of our brains.

We are encountering more and more people who are becoming aware of this……..and wanting to talk to us about going this ‘road less travelled’ to take steps to ‘naturally’ heal themselves and others. Steps on the road is a good metaphor as (intense) exercise is also an essential part of this way…….as my old rugby coach used to say, “No Pain, No Gain”

The other night Father lead me to the biblical foundation of Ortho-molecular-miracular healing in Psalm 103:5 (KJV)

“Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”

I believe this refers to what comes out of our mouths in the way of wholesome life-giving confession and conversation and also to do with what goes into our mouths in the way of life- giving ‘real’ food and drink that God has provided in creation.

As we have sought to go ‘Back to Eden” for our health, Father has graciously taught us how to live well in His world with what He has given (like this morning’s breakfast – ‘before and after’ shots above!)

I am glad to report that Hilary and I are in quite good health for our age. Ironically as we have paid the cost in time, money and effort to choose to live this way we have been unable to afford to pay premiums under the “Affordable Care Act”  However we aren’t concerned. It is years since we have felt the need to visit the doctor, and are happy to report that our double blind (faith) clinical trial has proven (to us at least) that Opapacare is far superior to Obamacare.

People who haven’t seen us for a while frequently say, “You don’t look a day older!” Papa’s promise is  even better than  that…...thy youth – renewed like the eagle’s : – ) 

P.S.

As I finished this blog and walked out of the study I noticed a book our grandson Ravi had set on the hall table. His Dad has been training him in healthy living. I’ve mentioned before how George is our heavenly Father’s name (John 15:1 “my Father is – “georgos” The Greek word from which we get the English name George)

Thank you Father for confirming the timeliness of this blog : – )

 

 

P.P. S.

Our (budget) Breakfast smoothie.

Already in the blender: 

Avocado (bought with 47 others at Aldi’s when 89 cents and kept in fridge)

Donated coconut milk (after ‘best before’ date but still OK)

Still to come, from the left:

Raw Milk Kefir (We are a ‘drop off’ point for the farm for this ‘vilified’ healthy drink which cannot be bought retail in Minnesota!)

Chia seeds (Costco bulk)

Dr Mercola’s protein powder (bought on sale)

Organic berries (Costco bulk buy)

Cacao nibs (Thrive market sale – best price)

Pumpkin seeds and Pecan nuts….. both soaked and then dehydrated to improve taste and nutrient absorption.

Oh yes, and the topping? A few Ningxia berries from Young Living

P.P.P.S.

Thank you Barry for writing to ask after last week’s blog “Did you meet them?” meaning Joe and Sue who had called while we were out. Well yes, last Sunday they came to the Twin Cities again and this time we were at home and had a beautiful time of sharing about Joe’s healing, rejoicing crying and praying together.

They brought another story that was a great encouragement. Their son Joey as a ten year old was the one who provoked them to make the long journey to our house. One Sunday on leaving he turned to them and said, “If you had all the money of Donald Trump, you still wouldn’t have the peace that is in that house!” This was years before ‘THE Donald’ had risen to his current political prominence!….and so we eagerly anticipate the coming reign of “THE Prince of Peace”.……for “of the increase of His government and peace – there will be no end!” (Is.9:7)