The Substantial Flow

The Substantial Flow
Jason T. Heriford
8.16.9

The fluidity
Of this supernatural
Living water
Moves through me
Like a wave of certainty.
A soul-spring power:
Rich with love,
Clear,
Enchantingly merciful…
Electrically charging…
A jolt to my dead heart.

This moving invisible substance
Takes hold like a solitary flame
To the dry forest of
All my trees of knowledge,
Consuming –
All the useless fruit
I’ve gorged on
Pretending I am a god –
In fire.
Only the Tree of Life
Remains standing,
Invincible and eternal.
The Fire and this Tree
Are the
Same substance.

This unseen substance,
This unstoppable force,
Clings to every molecule of my being;
Pounds its timeless rhythm in my heart;
And I surrender every thought
To it’s liberating lead.

Wholly consumed, I no longer consume.
Totally overtaken, I take nothing for myself.

Perfectly freed from
A prison of my own construction
Built out of the lumber
From the forest of lies,
Now my fruit
Is the produce
Of the perfect seed,
And this mightiest wind
Will blow
And this supernatural material
Will flow
Through the forests I lovingly explore….

May these elements take hold
And grow.
In every forest alight with
This Fiery Wind
This Fluidic Solid of Ineffable Glory.

Real Multi-Attacker Mugging Survival

I am an internal earthquake of emotional and intellectual tectonic shifting caked in a dehydrated quagmire crust of unsuspecting artificial calm.

Then I went to Pt Group, and I got better. Thank God for these men who are my mirrors. These brothers are my reassurance that there is hope for me.

Then I went to the Gateway Men’s Breakfast. I heard Andy Baxter refer to my martial art specialty as ‘Night Fighting’, which was hilarious. Other than confusing Knife Fighting for Night Fighting, Andy did what he does so well….he became a clear, clean vessel for God to communicate to me. I realized how blessed I am in my renewed relationship to my earthly Father, because of my Heavenly Father. I was also challenged by his message and conversations with men empowered by their faith in God’s grace.

Gateway is blanketed in God’s grace!

And the men are the spine of this powerful body!

I want to record the email conversation I had with a former student today, as well. Ken is a Kali Silat student from back in MO. He came to me with a background of martial art skill already, but he claimed to be captivated by my expression of it. He is also a Christ-follower, so his perspective is inspired, which I think our conversation will make clear.

So here’s the skinny:

Ken Murdock

How are u?

Jason Heriford to Ken

Challenged, but joyful.
How are you doing?

Ken Murdock to me

I am blessed. I was mugged a few weeks ago for my iPhone and I am all healed up. There was five of them but I was a faster runner and Anyta was not with me. God saved my but again. The training you gave me helped a lot. Thank u!

Jason Heriford to Ken

Praise God. Hallaluha!
Where were you? Can you give me any details? I understand if you don' want to go any deeper.
How is your beautiful wife?
Are you going to church anywhere? Just curious.

Ken Murdock to me

Church yes but I go to a few just to meet others in Christ!

Walking to my home from the delmar loop I was hit from behind and as I turned around punch drunk was hit a few more times. Then I just started swinging until I could run.
At one point I held on to one guy and was about to throw him into traffic when I heard my grandmothers voice say "Thou shall not kill" and since I had enough training I was able to just run.
I ran out into the street and a cop was in traffic not far away. I ran to his car like it was base in tag.

Jason Heriford to Ken

'Base in Tag'...you are crazy-funny!
That had to be nuts. I'm sorry it happened, but I'm so proud of you I could shout it off the top of Kiliomonjaro!
It also excites me to know that you give the glory to Jesus in this. Thank you so much for sharing. I hope you don't mind if I brag on you some.
PS - and it looks like you got away with your iPhone to boot.

Ken Murdock to me

Yes! Share the story and let your students know running is ok.
A quick mid combat prayer is even better!
The best thing about martial arts is that it gives you options.

Btw I did get away with my phone only bc I did not give into my ego which told me to stand toe to toe with them.
My human ego has always been a challenge for me. God is working on my defects of character.

Be well brother
Yours in Christ


Kenny Murdock

I think there is a lot in this conversation that speaks in different ways to different people, so I felt like sharing.

God Bless,

Jason

Biocentrism - God Did It

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31393080/

Above is a link to a great article about Biocentrism. It states that Life and Consciousness create the universe. There is a statement that one of the only explainations is that 'God did it, but that doesn't explain anything'. Other than this single statement, I believe the theory of Biocentrism is actually evidence that 'God did it'.

And, how do you explain the existence of consciousness and life anyway, if it weren't for God?

Right or Righteous?

Guy asks Keith:

I am a deacon in the church and people tell me I’m a good witness for Christ in our community. But behind closed doors in our family things are often very tense, snippy and hard-headed. There are certain things concerning the roles of husband and wife that I insist of because I was taught that way and I’m not willing to consider changing because I’m standing on principles. How can a Christian give up the principles he was raised on without violating his integrity?

Keith's Response:

  The longer I am involved in the Christian life, the more clearly I see that the beginnings of significant lifelong changes often hinge on seemingly insignificant discoveries and decisions in the intimate arena of personal relationships.

 Some years ago about twelve of us got together to form a small group. We were trying to find out how we could learn to be God’s people away from the church during the week. This was a new adventure that was exciting for most of the group.* The idea was to attempt various experiments in our lives during the week and then report to the group what happened to us. We decided that we would not tell anyone outside the group what we were doing, since some of our experiments (like listening) involved our spouses, children or friends.

 

Our plan was to begin in our families and work outward into the world. During the first week we were to look around, listen in our homes and see what we were doing to bug the people we live with, and then pray about our behavior to see if we could change it. Usually in prayer groups we had looked for those things other people were doing to bother us and then pray for them to change. This is a very different approach.

 

The next week was an interesting one. One member of our group was a lovely, pleasingly plump, white-haired woman, who was very attractive. At the first meeting I remember thinking that Lillian looked almost angelic . . . with a slight twinkle in her eye. She didn’t seem to have any problems and prayed sweet, sincere prayers. Frankly, I wondered how she got in our group. Lillian had not said much so far, but she came into the next meeting like a rodeo rider out of chute four. She was so excited she was practically bubbling over. When I asked the group about the experiment, all Lillian could say was, “You all, it’s the shirts!”

 

All I could think to say was, “Would you like to talk about it?”

 

She went on, “I’m from the old South. And when I got married, my mother told me ‘Don’t you ever iron any man’s shirts. That’s not wives’ work.’ So after the honeymoon, twenty-five years ago, I told my husband I was not going to iron his shirts. He was a struggling student at that time, and we didn’t have very much money, but he had to send his shirts out. After a few years, he developed a rash on his neck and had to wear shirts that required hand ironing. So for sixteen years Bill has been getting up on Saturday mornings and ironing his own shirts—right in front of me—while I fixed breakfast. We were both Christians, but about that time we started going to different churches.”

 

She stopped talking and put her fist against her mouth, and her bosom shook with an involuntary sob. In a moment she went on with tears in her eyes: “This week I discovered that all my guilt and self-hate as a woman, all of the wrangling and separation I’ve caused in our marriage, stem from the fact that I wouldn’t iron Bill’s shirts. I’ve prayed all week, and I don’t know if I can do anything this late to change things for Bill . . . But I’d like for you to pray for me that I will.” And we did.

 

Well, I don’t know what Lillian did at home those next few days, but the following week Bill showed up at the meeting, smiling from ear to ear. And they came to the group together regularly, like two happy kids, until Lillian died suddenly of a stroke a year later. But you know, that couple found each other, found a new kind of life together after twenty-five years.

 

What is that experience worth in terms of changing the world? I don’t know, but watching it happen changed the rest of us in that group somehow. We began to see that the closed doors in our lives and relationships which we have been trying to batter down with argument and reason all these years—that those doors often swing open when we become willing to oil some small rusty hinges and change some little things . . . like the shirts.

 

Indeed, this need of individuals to be right is so great that they are willing to sacrifice themselves, their relationships, and even love for it. This need to be right is also one which produces hostility and cruelty, and causes people to say things that shut them off from communication with both God and man.

Reuel Howe

The Miracle of Dialogue[1]

 

 

Lord, help me to have the courage to look for the little inner walls and fortresses in my relationships, behind which I protect my pride. Forgive me for camouflaging these defenses and calling them “matters of principle” when so often they are only means to keep from having to admit that I have been wrong and wanted to be number one. I guess this is what has always made you so threatening to me. When you expose my self-justifying defenses, I either have to confess them or put you down . . . which is what I guess we tried to do on the Cross. And I still try to put you down when you get close to revealing the motives I have hidden. Help me, Lord, not to cling to my “rights” but to unclench my spiritual fist so that I can be free to follow you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

 

 

Let your attitude to life be that of Christ Jesus himself. For he, who had always been God by nature, did not cling to his privileges as God’s equal, but stripped himself of every advantage by consenting to be a slave . . . and . . . he humbled himself by living a life of utter obedience, to the point of death . . .

Philippians 2:5-8 phillips


* This group and others like it led to the creation of a 13-week experiment called The Edge of Adventure. See course description at www.keithmiller.com.

 

[1] Reuel Howe, The Miracle of Dialogue (Greenwich, Conn.: Seabury Press, 1963), 93





*Would you like to help us reach a few more people? 

If you enjoyed this devotional, forward it on to some of your friends, family, and co-workers.


 

Book of the Month

In the first book Keith wrote, he presents a ground-breaking look at what honesty and openness in our relations with God and each another can involve. He shows how the act of finally acknowledging to ourselves and God our brokenness and imperfections can be the first step to experiencing the intimate love and forgiveness/acceptance of God. Turning to God in this way can begin to transform personal relationships with our families and also begin to free us to accept ourselves and our hidden inner lives - often for the first time. Then, to our surprise we may begin to see God all around us - in our own particular "everyday, ordinary sleeping, eating, going to work, and walking around life" (Romans 12, The Message). Keith's description of the surprise and wonder we often feel when we begin to discover God's purposes in our personal and vocational neighborhoods has made this book a classic. Over two million copies are in print. 




Who Is Keith Miller?

Keith Miller's career as a writer began with the book, The Taste of New Wine, and has continued for over forty years. He has spoken all over the world, leading conferences on subjects such as living one's faith in one's everyday, walking-around life, finding and accomplishing one's unspoken dreams, and the Twelve Steps as a model for Christian spiritual growth.  



Contact Us

We'd love to hear from you! 
Keith Miller
PMB 103, Box 200255
Austin, TX 78720
USA
www.KeithMiller.com

office@keithmiller.com (Email)
512.338.4059 (Fax)

Round Rock, TX is Bat Country

Keith Miller - on Forgiveness

clipped from mail.google.com

Keith Miller's

Weekly Devotional

May 25, 2009

Keith, how can I quit resenting people who have ridiculed me or lied to me, etc.? I can’t seem to shake off resentments—even when I pray and want to let them go.

I’m angry and I go to the Bible to see what Jesus said about forgiving. (That was not a good experience.) Jesus said that what God decides to do about forgiving us is connected directly with our forgiving other people. “You can’t get forgiveness, for instance, without forgiving others. If you refuse to do your part, you cut yourself off from God’s part.” (Mt. 6:14, 15, The Message)

“Forgive him. Even if it’s personal against you and repeated several times through the day and he says ‘I’m sorry. I won’t do it again,’ forgive him.” (Luke 17:3,4 The Message)

My mentor explains to me that it isn’t that God’s being hard-nosed and legalistic; it’s just that when I’m filled with resentment and unforgiveness I am automatically disqualifying myself to receive forgiveness.

www.KeithMiller.com

e2Combatives.com

Dude Fest 2009

clipped from www.gatewaychurch.com

GATEWAY MEN'S RETREAT

DudeFest '09 "Generations" is on! June 19-20th. We are calling all men, young and old, to an epic adventure into the wild. It's Father's Day weekend, so you already have the "all clear"! Register HERE. Email men@gatewaychurch.com for more info.

I'm leading the Trade Group on Knife Defense (a Crisis Neutralization Strategy for Everyday Life) e2Combatives.com