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Reveration Blog

7/1/2022 0 Comments

Inability to See

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​Meditation
John 8:25-27—“Who are You?” they questioned. “Precisely what I’ve been telling you from the very beginning,” Jesus told them. I have many things to say and to judge about you, but the One who sent Me is true, and what I have heard from Him—these things I tell the world.” They did not know He was speaking to them about the Father.

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3/6/2022 0 Comments

Busted

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Ralph wanted to go to the movies with his friends but attending cinemas was not allowed in his church.  So, he concocted a story and asked his mother if she would give him a ride to his friend Harold's house the next day to attend his birthday party. She mentioned they would need to get Harold a birthday gift, but Ralph said he didn’t want any presents. His mother must have known that was strange.  The next night it was pouring rain and Ralph’s mom suggested as they pulled up to a dark house that Harold's party must have been cancelled.  Ralph assured her they were in the back part of the house and ran through the rain to the front door and knocked.  When his buddy opened the door and let him in, Ralph’s mother drove off.  But the night’s adventures were just beginning. ​

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12/22/2021 3 Comments

Four Things God Hates

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​St. Augustine wrote in Augustine Confessions: 
"Thus they hate the truth for the sake of that other thing which they love because they take it for truth. They love truth when it enlightens them, they hate truth when it accuses them. Because they do not wish to be deceived and do wish to deceive, they love truth when it reveals itself, and hate it when it reveals them."
We like genuineness when it suits or helps us, but not so much when it exposes us or shows our wrong motives or conduct. Perhaps that is why there is a Jewish parable that says, “Truth is heavy, so few men carry it.”


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3/22/2021 0 Comments

Baal

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The Israelites were living in mountain hideouts, caves and strongholds to escape the Midianites, Amalekites and Qedemites who frequently attacked them (Judges 6:2,3). Before God would use a young man named Gideon to deliver Israel from these aggressive raiders, He needed to wrest the weakest house in the tribe of Manasseh from their allegiance to Baal. Gideon’s own father and family members were engaged in idol worship.  So an angel of the LORD appeared to him and gave him a mission.

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10/26/2020 1 Comment

Don't Be Exploited

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Alicia listened with rapt attention as Brother Berrie* encouraged his listeners to send as large a gift as possible to his ministry.  She was amazed at the number of people healed by Berrie’s touch and their stirring testimonies.  He was a magnificent speaker and she was certain he carried the blessing of heaven. Berrie told his listeners that by giving to him they would ensure themselves health—no sickness would overcome them. He said that God personally told him that the larger the gift his donors sent him guaranteed them a higher rewarded position in the afterlife because of the impact of his ministry.  Though she was barely managing to keep her home together as a single mom, Alicia eagerly went online and gave $150 hard-earned dollars.

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1 Comment

12/5/2019 0 Comments

Oscar's Vision

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Oscar and Queta
​Oscar, in September of 2003, had a vision where he was on the beach in a messed up condition when someone approached him, took him to the ocean, and began to cleanse him with ocean water.  In the vision he stopped crying and felt an incredible peace.  He asked the person helping him, “Who are you?”  The person replied,  “I’m God.”  Oscar was a 3rd generation atheist on his mother’s side and 4th generation atheist on his father’s side.  His vision began a religious quest in which he sampled Buddhism, Jehovah’s Witnesses and other religions while maintaining his heavy lifestyle of partying and heavy alcohol consumption.  ​

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7/17/2019 2 Comments

These Aren't My Pants!

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I heard a story on the radio recently of a policeman who was searching a man. As he went through his pockets he discovered several bags full of illegal drugs. Before he could say anything, the man gave him an exasperated look and said, “These aren’t my pants!” ​


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3/5/2018

Escaping Deception

Sam Daniels (not his real name) was a diehard Muslim born in Damascus, Syria to a devoted and committed Muslim middle-class family.  Sam in his youth memorized the entire Quran.  He graduated from a university in England as a civil engineer in 1987, and eventually found work in the United States, yet, despite every achievement he accomplished, he never had any lasting satisfaction.  ​

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1/17/2017 0 Comments

Say You're My Sister

Meditation
Genesis 12:10-13—There was a famine in the land, so Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine in the land was severe. When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “Look, I know what a beautiful woman you are. When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’  They will kill me but let you live.  Please say you’re my sister so it will go well for me because of you, and my life will be spared on your account.”
 
The story of Abraham would make a great movie.  Knowing how attractive his wife was and what the Egyptians were like, he was correct in being concerned.  Pharaoh’s 

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6/30/2015

Twitter Lies

​Operation Guardian is an exercise designed for selected Army units to practice search and rescue, decontamination, life-saving skills, convoy movement and set up and tear down of portable equipment.  I had the opportunity to watch my soldiers train in Florida and Georgia.  When I arrived in Ocala my staff briefed me that there were civilians seeking admittance to our training who were spreading reports that the exercise was a staging operation to bring in foreign occupation troops and remove American freedoms.  

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2/15/2014

The Trouble with Lying

​The most pain I have suffered (in terms of damage inflicted by a person) was caused by the lying of someone I trusted. We opened up our home to be used as a rental managed by a friend.  His vision was to help get men who were homeless off the streets. But instead of following the guidelines we established he began lying about what was happening with the residents as well as telling people that we had given him the home.  Ultimately we had to go to court just to get possession of the house.  His betrayal, lies, and the financial and emotional cost to my wife and me generated much suffering.  I realize that compared to what many others throughout the world have suffered this was not so bad.  Even so, it gave me a lasting memory of the harmful impact of lies.
 

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8/7/2013

Gospel of Accommodation

​Imagine if a few influential leaders suggested that traffic lights are too restrictive.  They offend a percentage of drivers who feel trapped and forced to conform to other motorists.  Three-way lights are insensitive to the needs of the color blind and old fashioned.  Either do away with them or give each driver leeway to determine whether to brake or accelerate.  Of course, if this really happened there would be an outcry by safety-minded drivers for the ruckus and accidents that would ensue. 

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4/20/2013

Blockages

​In Judah, around 622 B.C. during the reign of King Josiah, the book of the law was discovered in the temple.  When the king’s court secretary, Shaphan read the law to Josiah, he tore his clothes. He knew God’s anger was stirred against them because their ancestors had disobeyed God’s instructions.  So he sent Hilkiah the high priest (who found the scripture) with some of his court officials to “Go and inquire of the LORD for me, the people, and all Judah about the instruction in this book”(2 Kings 22:13a).  So five men went to the prophetess Huldah in order to hear from the Lord.  She told them of God’s plans for them.  But why couldn’t Hilkiah the high priest explain the message it contained to King Josiah?  Why did he have to go to Huldah?  If my answer is correct it is pretty disturbing.

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7/8/2009

Deception

​Deception is a technique employed by the military on occasion to help win campaigns or to influence the battlefield so that the enemy is confused as to our real intent.  In the battle of Normandy in World War II, a large deception campaign was orchestrated which utilized fake machinery, misleading radio traffic and a mock buildup of troops to confuse the Germans as to the real landing sites where the allied forces would land in France.  Throughout many wars, psychological operations have played a key role in helping influence the enemy and the population of a country where forces operate. For four years I served in a Psychological Operations Company—part of the Army Reserves that works tactically and operationally.    

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5/28/2008 0 Comments

Drifting

​When we navigate with a compass if we don’t keep on line with the precise azimuth, we get off course.  Just walking across uneven land, over hills and through brush will change our direction and can easily cause us to get lost.  I remember as a child in Japan, descending from the top of Mt. Fuji with two other boys.  We left the sure circular path to take a short cut.  But coming down the steep slope, we walked at an angle and ended up far away from our intended destination, lost and separated from the rest of our group.  

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7/12/2007

Genuine

​The doorbell rang and I answered it to find two young men well dressed and eager to speak with me.  They wanted to see if they could visit with us.  So I invited them in and Kathleen provided them something to drink.

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3/23/2007 0 Comments

Vodou

Andre flew from Benin to join our First Cause team in Kenya.  He is wonderful man who served for many years as a pastor before obeying God’s call to venture out in evangelism and a more open-ended ministry. Andre serves as the spiritual advisor to his nation’s president, a God-fearing leader.  As such, God is using him to influence many important officials in his country.  We were very blessed by Andre’s humility, contagious love for God, and the enthusiasm with which he embraced our disciple maker training.  

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4/29/2006 0 Comments

Assumptions

​Kathleen called me on my cell phone.  “Dan, I think Mel was run over . . .”  Mel, short for Melbourne, is our Siamese mix cat well-beloved in the York household.  So on my way home I deviated from the normal route and sure enough, found him lying beside the sidewalk just a block from our home.  I walked down to where he lay and noticed the blood trail running from the center of the road.  I was surprised because Mel is rather skittish and I’d never known him to cross the busy road in front of our home.  I figured something spooked him and he ran out into the road and was hit.

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7/9/2005 0 Comments

Pressure

The top supervisor position in a Brigade I will be commanding opens at the end of the month.  A team of four of us conducted interviews with three job applicants. One of the individuals on the hiring team, Jack,* clearly favored one of the applicants and pressured the rest of us to hire her.  His choice did the best job fielding questions and technically seemed the most competent for the job.  By the end of the interviews the team leaned towards hiring her.  Inwardly I did not feel comfortable selecting her.  It felt like we were rushing to make a hire—squeezed by time and loyalty to select a woman who had served in our organization a long time.  I silently asked God for His help that we would do the right thing.   Instead of immediately offering her the position I gained approval from the other three leaders to conduct a more thorough background check.  

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11/5/2004

Fog

​“There is no sun,” the people cried. “Don’t talk to us about sun. Every day it is the same.   We can see only so far in front, so far above and that’s the way it is.   Life is a mist, soak it up.  What we see is far more important than what we don’t see.  What we believe is beyond us is of no consequence to what we experience. We do what we want to do and we want to be left alone.  When we die we die and so it is better to live for whatever makes us happy.

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Photo used under Creative Commons from Rachel Maxey Miles