Doves, Crows & Jesus

“Pay attention! I am sending you out like sheep among wolves, so be as prudent as snakes and as harmless as doves.” Matt 10:16

A few years ago after an unexpected step into early retirement, I jumped into the world of bird feeding. I have learned a lot from feeding them; their behavior has taught me many things about the nature of God too. Feeding birds has been an enriching and sometimes upsetting window into their world.

I’ve learned that scripture does indeed live and breathe, and as we go through various stages and times of life the scriptures dynamically open up with new meanings that carry us through both good and bad times.

The other day I was standing at my front door watching a small grouping of doves feast on our driveway. I place food there for their safety as we have a large number of local cats in our neighborhood, and the openness seems to curtail lurk-style hunting. As I watched the doves peacefully eating, a group of grackles dropped down and the doves moved slightly away. I was watching closely because the weather had been severe and natural foods short – this is when violence between birds erupts. One grackle who appeared to be more aggressive than most of the others moved in the direction of the doves and he pecked in the direction of the doves (an air peck – much like the human fist in the air). As he neared each one they turned their backs and slowly walked away. He finally lost interest in them and began eating what he saw in front of him. In the backyard where we keep one safflower feeder the doves were eating on the ground and a similar interaction happened but this time they flew away after turning their backs. Matthew 10:16 popped into my mind and I knew the Lord was giving me a lesson. I meditated for days on those doves.

I’ve learned from a few years of bird feeding that when food supplies are low murders happen and it’s always in the pecking order, which is usually based on size and food preferences. The meat-eating birds can always be a danger and they are prone to bullying, especially during stressful times. 

I was personally a bully victim for years because my basic nature is pacifistic and the pacifists always draw the wolves to them. The only time I burst out in violence myself has been in defense against violence but even that had some error in it. I don’t think God wants us to fail to defend ourselves in dire physical conditions yet it could even come to that in these last days – stay and pray or cry out and flee. What I’ve learned from doves is much like another scripture where Jesus told us to turn the other cheek in Matthew 5:38-40. 

• Some dove behaviors I’ve seen that I am applying to being like a dove yet serpent-wise are these: 
•  *When threatened the dove turns its back and sometimes leaves the area. Matt 5:38-40
• *Doves very rarely go it alone, they eat in a specific area together in groups of at least three and up to 30 or so. Hebrews 10:25
• *Doves watch an area closely from a distance first to determine its safety. Matthew 24:42
• *Doves only peck at other doves and no other species (that I’ve seen) and most of this involves mating or factional interactions. Matthew 12:29.
• *Doves can drink water like a man does through a straw. Psalm 110:7
• *Doves are the only birds I’ve seen that defy the pecking order and not only eat with smaller birds but will defer to them at times and give them place. Romans 14:1 Proverbs 22:9
• *Doves are the only birds I’ve seen who will eat with crows. Matthew 9:10-11
• *Doves eat in peace and don’t constantly scan their environment when they go about their daily paces. Philippians 4:7
• *Doves cry when they leave an area in fear. Psalm 61:1-2
• *When doves move to turn they turn nothing less than a 180-degree turn in one smooth movement. Proverbs 4:27

There are doubtless many more observations I could make with appropriate scripture but I’m limiting this to ten at this writing.

I’m seeing more clearly how we are to be like doves! It’s about much more than being seen as simple-minded for doves aren’t simple and neither are the children of God! The world sees us as simple and that alone is the advantage of the serpent. The serpent lies low and you never know his capability. Only the serpent knows if he plans to sleep or to strike. 

I think a huge part of winning souls is to eat with the crows, drink and bathe with the starlings, give place to the sparrows and finches, yet always be wary of the grackles in life who are often flashy, bigger than life, and quite dangerous to hang around with. That’s exactly what our Jesus did during his ministry and it’s what he encouraged us to do too. Love often involves imitation. Let us imitate Christ Jesus, the living God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, and the Lord of Lords! Let us imitate him and be like doves yet as wise as the serpent. 

Shelters

The world gets smaller from the view of my room as world leaders struggle while keeping their insolent power.

And Castro remains sadly, seemingly forever as Qaddafi himself lives on.

Tienanmen Square still burns in my mind.

The foot of power sits on the necks of the sheep as they are loaded to trucks for the slay

and little monsters get bigger and bigger

they rise while the blind still think there is change.

It’s so easy to hug a tree or a bush swinging away in a backyard that is free.

Put yourself in the shoes of your brothers abroad where to speak your mind

is death by the same tree.

The world is getting smaller and so are we, I saw Japan and the wake made us ants, and as I gasped, cried and prayed I realized then it’s more than the simple shrinking.

And they are trying to sell us shelters now, seems a right fit place to drown; I will go down fighting with a knife in my teeth.

No friend of tyranny.

No fan of shelters.

[written 3/14/11]

Second Coming

The world is on fire

I can smell her burning

essences of spice and decay

burning down to the ground

in rotting reverse delay.

People are on fire

while walking in place

full of energy for nothing

like candles in the wind

on a fast match relay.

What do you think will happen

in this world full of the glorious damned

dead men walking around in flesh suits

just like putrid divas

dancing in front of a macabre mirror of self?

This world is alive with vacant eyes

full from feeding on the corpses of the dead

and the dead full with hot expelled air

This place has become but a tomb exposed

in need of awakening

In a second coming.

This was written in 2012, after a dream and more closely matches the world in 2020-23.

When You Have That Craving

Did you know that cravings are usually misdirected cues from your body that you need something?

After years of observing my own body behaviors I finally realized that 99% of the time when I am craving ice cream, it’s actually water that my body needs.

The Israelites that were rescued from Egypt’s slavery were brought from horrific conditions they’d all cried about. [Exodus 2:23] Yet, once they got on their journey they forgot the miracles God had done in their behalf and sinned against God in horrific ways – The number one way they betrayed God was idolatry; idolatry is adultery against God himself.

The children of Israel developed a craving. [Numbers 11:4-6] They demanded meat (flesh) because they craved it; they assumed that what their flesh craved was what was best for them, despite the fact that God was giving them food from heaven itself. No food on earth could have been as good for them as manna!

A craving comes strictly from the flesh itself – the flesh has no spirituality or understanding of its own. The flesh is nothing but earth so the flesh will crave and desire things that only come from the earth, and it inadvertently shuts out the things of heaven as a result.

People who fail God don’t start out with failure in mind – they start out with the fire of God, but they let the cares of this world (the earth, the flesh and cravings) drag them down until the craving gets strong and robs them of all the good things God had in store for them. [Mark 4:19]

We cannot walk a Godly life and constantly give in to cravings for things that have no true value. We cannot overlook the wonderful gifts God injects into our daily life because our flesh is directing our actions.

In Numbers 11:34 it says, “Therefore the place was named Kibroth Hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had craved other food.” Kibroth Hattaavah means “Graves of Desire”.

What we crave is rarely, if EVER what we NEED, cravings are misdirected cues that something is amiss – we need something so our bodies throw out signals, and the flesh brings forth a craving. Let’s face it, our bodies rarely crave the things that are good for us, but quite often the things we crave will cause death as an end result.

The ultimate need of all men is the food from heaven. So, don’t eat ice cream when you can be drinking living water. [John 4:10 7:38]

God is calling you home.

Being backslidden is such a precarious situation. You think in your heart, “Oh, I know God’s mercy, I can go back any time I desire.” But the fact is that when you are backslidden your heart becomes hard and it’s not easy to go back.

When I did go back to the Lord, it took months of reaching to him. I would go to church and just cry and cry and cry. I didn’t know why, but now I do. God was taking my heart of stone and turning it back to the fleshy heart he created in me.

Don’t play with your eternity. At any moment your number could be up.

Behold He Comes

“I have heard the taunting of Moab
And the abusive speech of the sons of Ammon,
With which they have taunted My people
And boasted against their territory.
Therefore, as I live,” declares the Lord of armies,
The God of Israel,
“Moab will assuredly be like Sodom,
And the sons of Ammon like Gomorrah—
Ground overgrown with weeds and full of salt mines,
And a permanent desolation.
The remnant of My people will plunder them,
And the remainder of My nation will inherit them.”

This they will have in return for their arrogance, because they have taunted and boasted against the people of the Lord of armies. The Lord will be terrifying to them, for He will starve all the gods of the earth; and all the coastlands of the nations will bow down to Him, everyone from his own place.

“You also, Ethiopians, will be slain by My sword.”
And He will stretch out His hand against the north
And eliminate Assyria,
And He will make Nineveh a desolation,
Parched like the wilderness.
Flocks will lie down in her midst,
All animals that range in herds;
Both the pelican and the hedgehog
Will spend their nights in the tops of her pillars;
Birds will sing in the window,
Devastation will be on the threshold;
For He has uncovered the cedar work.
This is the presumptuous city
That dwells securely,
Who says in her heart,
“I am, and there is no one besides me.”
How she has become a desolation,
A resting place for animals!
Everyone who passes by her will hiss
And wave his hand in contempt.

Woe to Jerusalem and the Nations

Woe to her who is rebellious and defiled,
The oppressive city!
She obeyed no voice,
She accepted no discipline.
She did not trust in the Lord,
She did not approach her God.
Her leaders within her are roaring lions,
Her judges are wolves at evening;
They have no bones to gnaw in the morning.
Her prophets are insolent, treacherous men;
Her priests have profaned the sanctuary.
They have done violence to the Law.
The Lord is righteous within her;
He will do no injustice.
Every morning He brings His justice to light;
He does not fail.
But the criminal knows no shame.
“I have eliminated nations;
Their corner towers are deserted.
I have laid waste their streets,
With no one passing by;
Their cities have been laid waste,
Without a person, without an inhabitant.
I said, ‘You will certainly revere Me,
You will accept discipline.’
So her dwelling will not be eliminated
In accordance with everything that I have stipulated for her.
Instead, they were eager to corrupt all their deeds.

“Therefore wait for Me,” declares the Lord,
“For the day when I rise up as a witness.
Indeed, My decision is to gather nations,
To assemble kingdoms,
To pour out on them My indignation,
All My burning anger;
For all the earth will be devoured
By the fire of My zeal.
For then I will restore to the peoples pure lips,
So that all of them may call on the name of the Lord,
To serve Him shoulder to shoulder.
From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia
My worshipers, My dispersed ones,
Will bring My offerings.
On that day you will feel no shame
Because of all your deeds
By which you have rebelled against Me;
For then I will remove from your midst
Your proud, arrogant ones,
And you will never again be haughty
On My holy mountain.

A Remnant of Israel

But I will leave among you
A humble and lowly people,
And they will take refuge in the name of the Lord.
The remnant of Israel will do no wrong
And tell no lies,
Nor will a deceitful tongue
Be found in their mouths;
For they will feed and lie down
With no one to frighten them.”

Shout for joy, daughter of Zion!
Shout in triumph, Israel!
Rejoice and triumph with all your heart,
Daughter of Jerusalem!
The Lord has taken away His judgments against you,
He has cleared away your enemies.
The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst;
You will no longer fear disaster.
On that day it will be said to Jerusalem:
“Do not be afraid, Zion;
Do not let your hands fall limp.
The Lord your God is in your midst,
A victorious warrior.
He will rejoice over you with joy,
He will be quiet in His love,
He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.
I will gather those who are worried about the appointed feasts—
They came from you, Zion;
The disgrace of exile is a burden on them.
Behold, I am going to deal at that time
With all your oppressors;
I will save those who limp
And gather the scattered,
And I will turn their shame into praise and fame
In all the earth.
At that time I will bring you in,
Even at the time when I gather you together;
Indeed, I will make you famous and praiseworthy
Among all the peoples of the earth,
When I restore your fortunes before your eyes,”
Says the Lord.

Zephaniah 2:8-3:20

Time Is Running Short

I received the following word from the Lord exactly one year ago. God has been calling to his bride to repent and make herself ready. A storm is coming and unless you are under the mighty wings of God, you will not survive what is to come; it’s coming very soon.

8/1/2021 @8:00 AM

THUS SAITH THE LORD:

You unfaithful people. You call to me with your voices while your hands are bound in iniquity. Your hands full of filth raise up to me as a lie and I will break your bones of iniquity. Your hands full of filthy lucre will be bound and you will be carried away with the wind. FOR KNOW THIS: I came, I saw, I loved. Before the foundations of the very earth I loved you and carved out a path for you in the world I created, but you’re a faithless people and have not only set up unholy altars in the dedicated places, but these unholy altars lie in your homes and in your hearts. You have no place for a HOLY GOD for you do as you think is right, when what is right is written in my HOLY WORD. My word does not come back void and my word will tear across your world as a tempest, a wild wind that is uncontrollable in its sheer power. And as the false words of praise lift from your mouths, a poison will enter the bowels of your very hearts. You have been stricken blind because of your unholy unions, your false gods of money, prosperity and the worship of the flesh. I called to you once, twice and now I will call to you no more. In past times I had pity on you, in past times I held you as a newborn in my arms and I fed you, I nurtured you and overlooked your various and dark iniquities, but no more will I coddle a faithless and blind people. Turn away from your iniquities, your hands are filled with the blood of innocents and your praise is a false and dark monstrosity, a filth in my nostrils and I now blow you out of my presence. With one fell swoop your mighty man made towers of what you call right will fall. Do not be confused: I am a HOLY GOD who demands you worship me in spirit and in truth. As you have cast my word from your hearts, you casted my presence from your very lives and now you are given over to a great sin. REPENT for I come and I bring the heavenly host with me. WHO WILL BE ABLE TO STAND AGAINST ME? You set your fist against my heavens with outpourings of twisted lies. You twist my word, so now, I twist, I churn and I vomit you out. I expect the foul and the gross from those who don’t know me, but for those of you who have known me I expect the full scope of worship in spirit and truth. YOU HAVE PERVERTED MY WORD and sent innocents to an eternal damnation. How ugly will be your end. I come for a bride who is undefiled. REPENT!!! Again I say to the churches REPENT! For to whom much is given, much is required. The longer you hold onto your idols the further I throw you from my being. You cry to me that my heavens are of brass and brass is what you shall have, for it is what you, yourselves have decreed by the placing of idols inside of your hearts where only I should reside. A great storm swirls upon you, engulfs you and sucks you down into the very depths. How sad for you who knew me and will feel the absence of my presence for an eternity. For the punishment of eternity is separation from my being, and you know not how my presence has nurtured your lives. SEE NOW what comes on dark wings. The faithless will consume you for your duplicity, for they see what I see and those who call themselves MY CHURCH have defiled themselves. You are blood-guilty for I called you for a great commission and instead you filled your hands will blood, instead you call attention to yourselves and your false ideas of right and wrong. YOUR WAYS ARE NOT MY WAYS. Repent now my church. Put on dark clothes and mourn for what you have done. TURN AWAY FROM YOUR SINS and I turn, but continue on the path you have chosen and suffer my eternal wrath you faithless and empty church.

II Chronicles 30: 6-9

Shelters

Shelters

The world gets smaller from the view of my room as world leaders struggle while keeping their insolent power

and Castro remains sadly  seemingly forever as Gaddafi himself lives on; Tiananmen Square still burns in my mind.

The foot of power sits on the necks of the sheep as they are loaded to trucks for the slay

and little monsters get bigger and bigger they rise while the blind still think there is change.

It’s so easy to hug a tree or a bush swinging away in a backyard that is free.

Put yourself in the shoes of your brothers abroad where to speak your mind is death by same tree.

The world is getting smaller and so are we, I saw Japan and the wake made us ants, and as I gasped, cried and prayed I realized then it’s more than the simple shrinking.

And they are trying to sell us shelters now, seems a right fit place to drown; I will go down fighting with a knife in my teeth.

no friend of tyranny

No fan of shelters.

[written 3/14/11]

A Craving

Did you know that cravings are usually misdirected cues from your body that you need something?

After years of observing my own body behaviors I finally realized that 99% of the time when I am craving ice cream, it’s actually water that my body needs.

The Israelites that were rescued from Egypt’s slavery were brought from horrific conditions they’d all cried about. [Exodus 2:23] Yet, once they got on their journey they forgot the miracles God had done in their behalf and sinned against God in horrific ways – The number one way they betrayed God was idolatry; idolatry is adultery against God himself.

The children of Israel developed a craving. [Numbers 11:4-6] They demanded meat (flesh) because they craved it; they assumed that what their flesh craved was what was best for them, despite the fact that God was giving them food from heaven itself. No food on earth could have been as good for them as manna!

A craving comes strictly from the flesh itself – the flesh has no spirituality or understanding of its own. The flesh is nothing but earth so the flesh will crave and desire things that only come from the earth, and it inadvertently shuts out the things of heaven as a result.

People who fail God don’t start out with failure in mind – they start out with the fire of God, but they let the cares of this world (the earth, the flesh and cravings) drag them down until the craving gets strong and robs them of all the good things God had in store for them. [Mark 4:19]

We cannot walk a Godly life and constantly give in to cravings for things that have no true value. We cannot overlook the wonderful gifts God injects into our daily life because our flesh is directing our actions.

In Numbers 11:34 it says, “Therefore the place was named Kibroth Hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had craved other food.” Kibroth Hattaavah means “Graves of Desire”.

What we crave is rarely, if EVER what we NEED, cravings are misdirected cues that something is amiss – we need something so our bodies throw out signals, and the flesh brings forth a craving. Let’s face it, our bodies rarely crave the things that are good for us, but quite often the things we crave will cause death as an end result.

The ultimate need of all men is the food from heaven. So, don’t eat ice cream when you can be drinking living water. [John 4:10 7:38]

Where Are You?

“Then they heard the Lord God walking in the garden during the cool part of the day, and the man and his wife hid from the Lord God among the trees in the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said, “Where are you?”

Genesis 3:8-9

I remember an incident that happened when I was growing up. I am the oldest of four children and almost five years senior to my sister who was the second child born to my parents. My sister was a wild little thing and she had a habit of direct rebellion against what my parents expected and then she would run from the discipline and hide somewhere until she thought the storm had passed. She did this from the time she was very young but as her very early teen years approached she worsened in this very bad habit; a habit that infuriated me to no end.

I was not a perfect child by any means, but when the four of us were lined up and asked, “Who did it!?” If I had done it, I admitted my fault, begged forgiveness and always got it. I didn’t always escape a punishment from this act of respect, but my parents always knew that if I said I didn’t do it, that I hadn’t done it. In so many ways I am the polar opposite of my sister.

When I was about 14 or 15 years old my sister did something to one of my younger brothers that outraged my Dad. And my Dad was for the most part a very peaceful and loving man, but he had a temper that when fired up would make all of us children either scatter or cower. I remember that day as my Dad’s voice roared, “RACHEL come here NOW!” Her actions against my brother were cruel and Dad was incensed. I sat on the couch eagerly awaiting the punishment she would receive because I wanted to see justice come on the head of my rebellious little sister. It wasn’t a right attitude, but I was a teenager and had many years ahead of me to learn.

As my Dad called and called her there wasn’t a sound. She was nowhere to be found and after waiting in my spot for about an hour I got bored and went to do other things. My Dad stomped around the house loudly, opening closets and calling her for about an hour, then he sat down in front on the television, got a snack and watched Saturday afternoon westerns as was his tradition.

One hour, two hours and all the way up to five hours my sister didn’t show up. It was as if she’d disappeared into thin air, and finally when it was nearing darkness outside, and the smell of Mom’s cooking wafted through the air Rachel appeared. She was coy, quiet and simply sat down at the table to eat.

I was raging inside.

At dinner my Dad did the usual banter with us children, then he slyly looked at my sister and asked her how her day was. She looked at her plate, mumbled something unintelligible and pushed her food around on her plate. My Dad said nothing more to her. She didn’t get a lecture, no spanking, and no retribution at all! I was so appalled at the entire scenario I didn’t get over it. I mulled it over, fumed in my room and decided that she was the favorite and getting preferential treatment.

I have always been a “WHY” person. I always want to know the why, the mechanism of how things work and once I set my teeth in a subject I don’t let go until I have an answer. I wanted the truth, I wanted my Dad to admit he just loved Rachel more than the rest of us, who always took our punishment for wrong doing. After a few days I mustered up the courage to confront my Dad about the situation and ask my favorite question – why?

“Dad, I need to ask you a question, please don’t get mad.”

“You can ask me anything.” Dad replied. So I poured my heart out to him. I asked him why Rachel never got punishment, not only for the deeds she had done, but for the way she escaped punishment by hiding.

I was shocked when my Dad gave a huge belly laugh at my question. I was too shocked to be upset by this. Dad looked at me with a twinkle in his eye and he asked me which I liked better, being immediately punished and having it over, or being grounded for a week. Of course I chose immediate punishment over anything long-term. Dad gently drew me aside and said these words that I never forgot.

“Joy, I didn’t need to punish your sister for what she did, because she punished herself. You all did what you wanted to on Saturday while she hid in the attic all day. She didn’t get to play, eat or even go to the bathroom while she was hiding in that attic and I knew she was there the entire time.”

He gave a long pause and looked me in the eye.

“Do you see that she DID receive punishment? She punished herself and every time she runs and hides, she is punishing herself. I don’t need to do anything more to her than what she already did to herself.”

My eyes were opened and I realized the impact of what he was saying.

She had punished herself!

How often do we commit a wrong against our Heavenly Father and instead of going to him immediately and saying sorry, we instead hide. We try to stuff the sin into the closet, into the attic or fling it into some old shack behind the horse barn! God knows what we did, and he knows we are hiding. He knows WHERE we are hiding, and he knows we are only hurting our own selves by hiding.

When Adam and Eve sinned, they hid themselves. When God asked Adam “Where are you?” God knew exactly where Adam was, but God wanted Adam to stand up and say, “Here I am, Father. Do with me as you will.”

The punishment came after God clothed them.

God always restores first, then exacts a punishment for sin. But thanks to his mercy and loving kindness he gave us Jesus as a covering for sin. All we have to do is come out of that attic, sit at his table and look him in the eye. All we have to do is confess our sin and he forgives us; then we can eat at his table with our brothers and sisters and bask in the light of HIS mercy and love. He dresses us with the covering of the blood of Christ and that sin is gone forever!

Have you been trying to hide from God? He knows where you are, what you have been through and where He wants you to go. Don’t hide, but throw yourself at the mercy of the Father, because the blood of Jesus covers our sins. In order for Jesus to cover your sin, your sin must first be confessed to him.

“But if we confess our sins, he will forgive our sins, because we can trust God to do what is right. He will cleanse us from all the wrongs we have done.’

I John 1:9

“For our high priest is able to understand our weaknesses. He was tempted in every way that we are, but he did not sin.”

Hebrews 4:15

“God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son so that whoever believes in him may not be lost, but have eternal life.”

John 3:16

“But you are a chosen people, royal priests, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession. You were chosen to tell about the wonderful acts of God, who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”

I Peter 2:9

If you are hiding from God fearing his punishment, instead grasp onto the boundless love He has for you, and enrich your life. Stop punishing yourself and live. God will clothe you and protect you. Read your bible every day, because He IS the word, and his word will transform your life.

You can’t be holy on your own, but you can end up wholly alone if you run from the Father. You need to rely on the Father who loves you more than you could ever possibly imagine to experience what true freedom is.