"That which thy fathers bequeathed thee, Earn it anew if thou would'st possess it."

A Celtic Maxim

     In the days of the American Revolution, the Continental Congress, and the founding fathers, there came a surge of resolve and a demand on God and faith that transcended history. They learned what they never had, like liberty, freedom of religion, even self-government. They resolved to buy it with words, sacrifice and blood.

     They did not say, "Please, May we...:" They declared that the things they never had were not in the power of men to give or withhold, but that these things and more are God given for all people.

     They DECLARED. They PROCLAIMED. Then they pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor so that these things that God gives would be secured. And They PRAYED.

     The founding fathers met in congresses, they debated, they argued and they reached consensus without losing heart. These are lessons which we, today's unknown few, must apprehend.

     Our generation is awakening to the legacy won for us by the founding fathers. We see their legacy eroding at an alarming pace. But there is a remedy and it is just in time as we (you and me) rise to our responsibility.

     The slide we have been on has at least three reversible causes: 1. Gratitude for the faith and sacrifice of our founding fathers has eroded, 2. We have been negligent regarding our legacy from the founding fathers,.3. We have been silent.

BUT WE DO HAVE A VOICE!
WE DO HAVE A CAUSE!

     It is not a MOB voice of a vocal majority. Our voice is loud because we live what are for and we back it further with prayer. We are grateful. We are generous. We display God's love by how we live and how we adhere to faith and truth.

     There is a place for you in recovering, protecting and advancing the tenets of our founding principles. Because of your faith life. through the merits of Jesus Christ, you have a voice. What remains is to assume responsibility. What remains is to educate yourself. What remains is firm resolve. And what remains is for us, you and me, to live a life of Christ-like sacrifice.

     We are not alone in forging a unified effort to secure our voice again. The Christian Business Association is offering the fellowship of like-minded business community.

     Mayor Adame of Corpus Christi has been very vocal in calling for agreement that we can rise out of mediocrity and malaise.

     Superintendent of CCISD, D. Scott Elliff, installed a curriculum called Character First in every campus in the district.

     Connie Scott, Representative for Texas District 34, ran for the Texas House of Representatives after wrestling through a season of prayer prompted by heartfelt remorse over crippled righteousness in legislative leadership.

     Gov. Rick Perry of Texas called the Governors of all 50 states to join him and other Christians to a Solemn Assembly marked by confession of sin and willing humility to ask God for cleansing and restoration.

     Blake Farenthold came to Jesus in the middle of his election campaign for Congress, adding fuel to his decision to recover National fidelity to the tenets of our founding fathers and their faith-led and hard won love for God given truths.

     We ARE getting our voice back. Let's cooperate and bond together to help one another live what we advocate.

     Matthew 6 exhorts, "Ask, seek, knock."

     You know what to do. Do it!

     Beginning this February, The Aerie Community is offering a means to educate yourself. See the invitation above.

Christmas is past,
The new year is cast.
It's obvious what lies ahead.
Jesus said we'd face fear
And anger toward those dear,
Unless by the Spirit we're led.          

Jeremiah 33 reveals a way to have perspective on the coming days of our lives as God's People of Promise. Verse 3 is very familiar to many of us; "Call unto me and I will answer thee and show you great and mighty things which you do not know." What follows in the chapter are clues about what to watch for. The things it says to watch for have been seen in the Promised People before, in the former generations. Here are four “now” things about Israel, or the People of the Promise, then and now.: 

1.      You are scattered. I will gather you home.

2.      Your sins are as scarlet. I will wash them white as snow.

3.      I will restore your dignity, your land and your prosperity. There will be the sound of the bride and bridegroom, the sound of thanksgiving and of joy.

4.      I will litter your community, from the hill country to the coastlands, with Godly shepherds to execute justice and righteousness in the land.

God then seals his word with two affirmations. "If you can break my covenant with day and night... you can break this covenant." And, “if you can break my covenant with King David for an everlasting throne, then you can break this covenant."

In a similar way, God tells us what season we are in, what's next and what to watch for. What follows is a list of clues to watch for that is developed further elsewhere on this site and on many others. Knowing something about what to watch for, and how to recognize it will build our faith and help us follow the Holy Spirit.  It will help us to cooperate with God's will and ways and means, and to coordinate with our brothers and sisters so that the image of Jesus is revealed in His Body “by that which every joint supplies” (Eph 4).

• This is the year of Celebration. Our fellowship with the Father and the Son will manifest in music and demonstration of peculiar generosity, gratitude and interpretation by example of the power of God's love for His Bride and for the lost.
• This is the year of the Father and a restoration or renewal of Fatherhood among the People of Promise. God's presence by the Holy Spirit - the welcome we afford Him and the perfecting of our reflexes for how he communicates with us - will progress. Watch for a fellowship of Fathers to shepherd the People of Promise the way a parent fills his house with that which is good.
• This is a year of alignment with God's purposes to experience the revealing of previously masked promises of the end-times prophecies and their manifestations. Watch for individual and group alignment with God's purposes and ways that will assure our participation in His plans.
• This is a year of the manifestation of the presence of the government of the Kingdom of God, a perpetually invisible Kingdom. The believing company of the People of Promise will become more like a nation, such as Israel is a nation.  However, our homeland is not here, but hidden in God. Orderliness, cooperation and unity will mark this government.
• This is a year when men's hearts will fail them for fear. Even Christians will not be able to make it alone, separated from the family of faith. Those who have not come to faith, and live by other philosophies or by intellect and by the law of the jungle, will struggle to keep their edge. The shaking this year will be by God's hand and only that which can't be shaken will stand. That in our lives which has its roots in this world system and its wisdom will be shaken, even for the Christian. But the Christian knows how to call on God for personal deliverance.
• This is a time of God's glory drenching the fellowship of the People of Promise. Reverence as grace gift from Father will touch our fellowship, our musical expression of worship and our submissive in-love relationship with our Father and with our own. However, we risk being like the disciples with Jesus in Samaria: They went after food and missed the revival that happened after Jesus told the woman at the well of her low moral life.

Well, there is probably more, but these are the high points at the moment. Ask God to interpret his message to you rather than assuming you understand all the communication in them. You hear God, too, and it is important for you to hone your communication faculties so you will always know how to find Him when you seek Him. Shalom, authority that destroys chaos and establishes order in your life and circumstance. 

Love alive,
William Word, Jr.

     Two scriptures come to mind in preparing this devotional. Isaiah 58:13 speaks to those whose love and whose fasts reflect The Father’s own ways saying, “Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls. Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.” (NIV)
     Another verse like it follows a familiar messianic passage picking up at Isaiah 61:3 & 4: “and provide for those who grieve in Zion (whose hearts break over conditions) — to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor. ⁴ They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.” (NIV)
     Not long ago when calamities happened to someone’s barn or house or fence, the friends would break away from their own lives to lend a hand. A house or a barn would be raised, a fence would be mended. Food would show up. Kids pitched in. Stores would contribute and extend credit. It was a life exchange and not just a favor to be repaid. People loved their neighbor because they loved their community. They watched each other’s back and maintained peace and order.
     We are not called upon to raise a barn or a house these days, but maybe a dike like in New Orleans. However, it is a good metaphor for other things like volunteer firemen, a mentor for at-risk youth in high school, first response trainees, and volunteer police or caring for the homeless.
     The City of Corpus Christi is welcoming volunteers at four of its senior centers. There is a clean up the litter campaign by Pride Corpus Christi. All of these and more are “house raisings or barn raisings. Many of the non-profit organization’s in town are under staffed and under funded. These are some open doors of opportunity for Kingdom builders.
     What is the cause, though? Why chip in, go out of your way? There is no cause, not even to demonstrate the love of Jesus if our values are in our pockets and our faith in our church membership. Steve Print mentioned a cool term the other day after hearing a conversation around quality of life issues. He looked around the room of friends talking about changing conditions in Corpus Christi and said, “Who, besides the Mayor, in our city is talking about “Quality of Place?”
     The Aerie Community is.

Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour. Matthew 25:13 NIV

You may recognize this quote whifh fome from the end of the story of the ten virgins, 5 wise and 5 foolish. It is a waiting story. Waiting is one of the essential reflexes for faithful followers of Jesus to perfect. We have a God given instinct for waiting just as we do for believing God, trusting God, following God and for loving God and his Bride.

Waiting is not completely perfected in this life but it can be perfected. Psalme 27:13, 14 make a believer's decree from one of the chief believers of our history, King David. "I would have despaired except I "believed" I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the lving. It is good to "wait" on the Lord. Yes, adain I say it is good to "wait" on the Lord"

The ten virgins in Matthew 25 probably resemble us today more thqn we know as do other features of the parable. We are blood bought, cleansed, adopted friends of Jesus and His Bride. But the idea that we could find ourselves excein the dead center of what the Bridegroom is doing at any moment at all should make us tremble.

At midnight, when the doors came open and all things were ready, five of the virgins were NOT ready. That is fifty percent of the party, 50% of the Bride, 50% of US. Worse than unwise,  that is catastrophic.

I am not relating this account to our salvation. I am relating it to something more immediate and relevant to active, quickened believgers and followers of Jesus Christ. We are inclined to be about the Father's business by our new nature in which I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. What that means to me is that I (we) are always included in what Jesus and the Holy Spirit are doing right now to complete the Father's purposes in the earth.

We can know when and where we fit as we actively wait and watch. God knows more about communicating with us and leading us than we will ever know about hearing Him or following Him. But we can follow. J Vernon McGhee, a radio preacher from times past, says that the words "follow Me" occcur 87 times in the new testament.

The Wise Wait and Watch to Follow!

      As humans we have at least five senses; sight,taste, smell, hearing and touch. If you count nalance we may have six senses. For most (but certainly not all) these senses work without training, prompting, or attention.

     The five senses can be augmented by training, prompting and intentional application. They work together symbiotically (interdependently). If one fails the others compensate and work together in a hyper mode.

     The senses work autonomically and serve to cooperate with systematic cooperation with physical life in society.

     In a parallel way we have at least five spiritual reflexes that, once quickened or awakened, work symbiotically to create, establishl and ratify favorable environment conditions when in agreement with Jesusl Christ. Since these reflexes have their highest potential when operating in cooperation and coordination with The Holy Spirit, I will list them in relation to their service to God.

     They are a reflex to believe God for the supernatural, a relex to wait on God (both to tend to that which pleases Him and to actively delay action until timing and gudinance coincide), a reflex to trust God and for the mystery of HIS Lordship, a reflex to follow God by discerning His movements among men, and a reflex to embrace cohesive, bonding fellowship with the Body of Christ and The Holy Spirit. There might be a sixth reflex if you consider active, unselfish love to be a reflex that is awakened or quickened in and through The Father's adoption of us through the merits of Jesus Christ.

     In a departure from the five physical senses and they compensate when one or more fail or never develop, when one of the five reflexes becomes infirm, the others go into hyper mode in order to restore the infirm reflex. This is because of the administration of The Holy Spirit. So in reality the five (or six) reflexes empower the Christian believer to live just like Jesus Christ because we learn to let Him live His life in us.

Proverbs 13:20

He who walks with the wise will become wise. He who walks with fools will come to harm.

Interpretted to be relevant to my walk with The Father and Jesus, this means that I will welcome the wise. Upon reflection more relevance derives from recognition that God has populated my life with wise people. Forming vital, relevant fellowship with them will affect a life exchange where I learn to recognize, adopt and apply wisdom as they have before me. It is not simply that I will learn their wisdom. I will learn their reflexes for the life that is in wisdom because God embedded life in wisdom.

Let me explain further. God has put eternity in our hearts. All of the instincts for living eternity's life are in us because God has endowed us with them through Jesus Christ who lives in my heart. Because His instincts are in me, the capacity to learn the reflexes that His instincts for the life of eternity call up is also resident in me. According to Hebrews 10:24, I learn those reflexes by use or practice. And I must learn them. I learn them thrugh the training that comes from a loving Heavenly Father who has adoped me and Who is rearing me as a beloved son.

So I will and I do "Welcome The Wise."