Field of Dreams

From time to time, I have been asked to try to explain what it is like to see through the eyes of the heart. As those who have truly seen know, spiritual sight is necessary to walk in love. Without it, we stumble around blindly in darkness. Seeing is a difficult thing to explain in words. Metaphors, I have found, are often helpful to facilitating understanding

One of the metaphors I use to try to explain spiritual sight is from the movie "Field of Dreams." If you have seen the movie, you may recall that Ray's brother-in-law thought Ray was insane to build a baseball field in a Iowa corn field. Ray heard a voice and that voice guided him along the way. He ignored his brother-in-law's advice and built the field - with lights no less. Lo and behold, professional baseball players from the past showed up from nowhere and began playing.

Ray and his wife had no problems seeing the baseball players. Neither did their daughter or other people. Try as he might, when Ray's brother-in-law looked out at the field, all he saw was an empty baseball diamond in a cornfield. Things became desperate for Ray and his family farm when his brother-in-law suggested they sell the farm due to financial difficulties.

It was during a game, as Ray's brother-in-law was getting very agitated about tearing down the field and filing for bankruptcy, that heaven intervened. Ray's daughter was eating a hot dog and fell off the back of the bleacher. Her little face turned blue.

One of the baseball players - Moonlight Graham - saw what was happening and approached the little girl. As soon as Moonlight left the field to look at the little girl, he was transformed back into a physician - Dr. Graham. Doc Graham examined Ray's daughter, popped the hot dog out of her throat, and told everybody she was going to be just fine. Doc Graham saved the day. Without his assistance, the beloved little girl may have died.

As everybody was celebrating Doc Graham's assistance, Ray's brother-in-law looked out at the baseball field and said, "Hey, where did all these baseball players come from?" It took a near death experience of a loved one for him to see the players. But see he eventually did. As soon as the brother-in-law saw, his whole heart changed. He told Ray it would crazy to tear the field down. It was a special thing. It should be preserved and even promoted so others could enjoy old-time baseball. All Ray and his family could do was smile and share hugs of love.

And so it is with seeing Christ. There comes a time in our lives when various events result in the eyes of our heart being opened. It may take years, even decades. But when the time comes, everything changes, akin to the experience of Ray's brother-in-law. Through the darkness, we see light - powerful light.

Until the eyes of the heart are opened, we are spiritually blind. We can read the Scriptures over and over again, and even be able to recite them from memory, but never know their true meaning. Put differently, the Bible is a closed book to those who are spiritually blind. When the eyes of the heart are opened, the Scriptures become light and we no longer see a book. We see a magnificent Being - Christ - who is Love.

May the eyes of your heart be opened to see Love.

Agape,
Steve

Love: The Crown Jewel

I wanted to share a short blog post with you this morning from our sister blog, Love Light Life.

Here's the link:

http://lovelightlifeorg.wordpress.com/2009/06/30/love-the-crown-jewel/

I hope you find it illuminating.

Agape,
Steve

Two Years and Counting

Just a short notice today to Sweetbird blog readers that, at the Lord's request, I will be taking a short break from posting new blogs. I have been doing a great deal of blogging over the past 3 months - far more than I thought I would write given my current medical condition! - and the days ahead will be one of reflection and deeper meditation.

In the meantime, there are plenty of blog posts for readers to view. There's also my new book "I Am Love" for those who are interested in learning more about the mighty power of revelation in changing hearts. To read the book, click on the link below:

http://www.sweetbirdmusic.com/documents/IAmLove-RevelationandMeditation-WebLayout.pdf

I should also mention we are celebrating our 2 year anniversary of blogging on the Sweetbird website. We began this journey back on June 30, 2007. June 30 is a special day for me. It is the day of my dad's passing. The love that poured out of my dad's heart during his time here on earth was incredible, and that love is alive and well in my heart.

I'm not sure when blogging will resume. That will be up to the Spirit. Needless to say, I look forward to that day.

Thanks for your support over the years and for listening to the music - Love's music.

May this blog continue to be a source of light to you.

Agape,
Steve

The Beauty of Seeing Love

Here's a meditation on love for you today inspired by T. Austin-Sparks. May it be light to you. Sparks says:

"Paul had not decided to come into Christianity, to turn from one religion to another. Paul had not decided to accept certain teaching about Jesus Christ. It was not because some people had persuaded him to become a Christian. It was none of those things. And it was none of the many other things that call some people to become Christians. Paul saw Jesus Christ. For him the beginning was not a religion or a teaching, it was a Person. Later on, he put it in this way. "It pleased God to reveal His Son in me" (Gal. 1:15,16). He had a very personal encounter with Jesus Christ; it was very personal."

From the beginning, it was not a religion or a teaching - it was a Person. And who is that Person? It is Love - the most powerful Being in the universe, a Being that knows no death, no darkness and no destruction. Sin, beloved, is not wrong doing, as many think. It is rather wrong being. It is possessing the wrong heart - a heart that has not love. The heart is the totality of what we are. Religious hearts are sinful hearts. Jesus railed against such hearts. I encourage you to meditate deeply on Matthew 23.

When we first enter the world, we are naturally not equipped with hearts capable of walking in love. They must be transformed through the Cross. The Cross is Love's will, as distinct from our wills. Adam and many that followed in his footsteps couldn't walk in love. That's THE major problem for the Lord. He desires for all of us to walk in love (Ephesians 5:1-2). The inability or lack of desire of many people to walk in love explains why we have seen so much death, darkness and destruction in the world. Put simply, Adam had the wrong heart. Walking in love - in the Light, as it were - requires a special heart. It requires a heart of Christ. Adam is sin. Christ is love. Adam is darkness, Christ is light. Adam is death. Christ is life.The difference between Adam and Christ is night and day.

It is wonderful to read Paul's letters and see what an incredible job Love did transforming his heart. Every single letter Paul wrote radiated love. Saul of Tarsus was a devout religious man, but he had not love. Saul, as a Pharisee, could have never written those letters of love. It took Aother Heart to do that task - the heart of the Holy Spirit. When the eyes of our heart are opened, we see love and our hearts radiate love. Love becomes preeminent in our lives and the Spirit guides our hearts. Paul's life is proof of this truth. Saul's heart was filled with darkness and hatred. Paul's heart was filled with light and love. Repentance means a change of heart - one from darkness to light, from death to life, from hatred to love. Revelation - seeing Love - is the gateway to repentance. Oh, the mighty power associated with revelation!

Note what Sparks says about Paul. He didn't make a decision to become a Christian, or to turn to another religion called "Christianity." He had not decided to accept "correct teaching" about Christ. There weren't a group of Christians that persuaded Paul to stop being a religious Pharisee. No. Paul saw Christ. God chose to reveal Himself to Paul. The revelation he had set him free to walk in love. And that's precisely what he did for the rest of his life.

When Paul wrote to the Corinthians, the Spirit said much through his heart. But when it was time to get down to the foundation of Christ, the Spirit through Paul said:

"And now let me show you the most excellent way."

What followed was what we know today as 1 Corinthians 13, the most beautiful description of love ever recorded on the planet. Love is, indeed, the most excellent way. It is the greatest (1 Corinthians 13:13).

Oh, the mighty power of revelation to change a heart filled with darkness to one that radiates brilliant light that is Love.

Love, Light and Life are what God desires for our hearts.

May you know the most excellent way.

Agape,
Steve

Listen to love
http://www.sweetbirdmusic.com/

The Basis of This Dispensation

Here's a short meditation inspired by T. Austin-Sparks. May it be great light to you. Sparks says (caps included in original):

"So what does this source of Paul's apostleship mean for us? It means that the basic reality of this dispensation is a personal, direct encounter with Jesus Christ. I want to repeat that. It is perhaps the most important thing out of which everything else will come. The basic reality of the dispensation in which we live is a personal direct encounter with Jesus Christ. It is personal between Christ and ourselves personally. It is direct because it is not through man. It is not through a priest or any other kind of intermediary. It is not through a ritual; it is not through a system; and it is not through man. It is directly between Christ and ourselves. We shall fail in the very purpose of this dispensation, unless we can say, 'that is how it is with us.' The method in which it happens may differ between Paul's experience and ours, but every one of us individually must be able to say: 'I have met Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ has met me directly. Men may have helped, but I did not receive it from men. I did not even receive it from those great men in Jerusalem. I did not receive it from the great representatives of Christianity. I received it personally and directly from the Lord.'

What a searching thing that is! How that will find us out. It just raises some questions. How did we get what we have got? How did I get my Christianity? How did I get what I have got? How did it come to me? Did it come to me by thinking it out? I reasoned out this matter of Christian life, and I came to certain intellectual conclusions, in comparing it with all other things I saw that this was the best thing, so that in my mind I decided that this thing is right. Is it just an intellectual conclusion? Is that how I got it? Is that the ground on which I stand? Or, did it come to me by the impact of some strong personality? Some teacher, or some leader, with a very forceful personality and I came under the impact of that personality. So I received it through a man's strong personality. Is that the ground on which you stand? Was it through the persuasion of other people? They said you ought to come to Christ, and they kept on saying that, and at last I yielded to them, I gave way to their persuasion, and so I profess Christianity, and I got baptized, and that is the ground on which I stand.

How did we get what we got? That is going to decide everything for the future. Sooner or later the stresses of life will come upon our position. The Lord will allow our position to be tried in the fires. And His object in so doing will be to find out exactly what we are resting upon. So Paul said, "I received it not from men, nor from a man. Peter may have been a very important man, but I did not get it from Peter. James may have been the Lord's Own brother in the flesh, and he ought to know, but I did not receive it from James. John was a very loving devoted disciple, he was one of the first three, but I did not get it from John. These men gave me nothing. I RECEIVED IT BY DIRECT REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST. That is the basis of this dispensation. That is the basis of true spiritual Christianity. And that is the great distinguishing mark between a legal system and a spiritual life."

There is nothing more illuminating, beloved, than receiving a revelation of Christ directly from Heaven. To see the Son is to experience the majesty of the Lord's grace. Revelation enables hearts to see what God sees.

May God reveal His Son to you.

Agape,
Steve

Open Hearts

Here's a little meditation inspired by T. Austin-Sparks. May it be light to you. Sparks says:

"We make the Christian life far too complicated - projecting our mentalities and our arguments, our contentions, and our demands for explanation, and what-not - and we are standing in our own light as we do so. The Lord cannot get on; that is all rubbish in the way. He needs a heart that is simple, in this sense, that there is nothing argumentative, querulous, awkward, about it. It is an open heart.

The trouble with so many of us is that we are so slow in our submission, our surrender, our giving way, our letting go. We will argue; we will demand an explanation. We go round and round this eternal circle, getting nowhere, because we will not let go - we just will not let go; and so we come back to the point from which we started a thousand times."

We should all realize that everything of the spiritual realm comes down to a matter of having the eyes of our hearts opened so that we may see Love. Until the eyes of the heart are opened, we stumble around blindly in darkness. There is no substitute for seeing. Revelation is the gateway to Love.

The act of seeing requires a special kind of heart - an open heart, as Sparks calls it. There is a fragment of Scripture that I have meditated on deeply in the past. It is from Matthew 5:

"Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God." (Matthew 5:8)

Pure hearts see Love. They are blessed. Sparks notes that the trouble with so many hearts is that they are not pure and not open. Closed hearts have a difficult time surrendering, giving up their way, and letting go. Reason, will and desire - elements of the soul - get in the way of the Spirit. As long as the soul is the driving force of the heart, it is impossible to walk in love.

May you find the strength to let go and possess a pure heart.

Agape,
Steve

Transformed by Love

Here's a little mediation today inspired by T. Austin-Sparks. May it be light to you. Sparks says:

"Now the first thing to note about this, which is, of course, so helpful and encouraging, is where the apostle finishes this statement, 'as by the Spirit Who is the Lord' (II Corinthians 3:18). With all that we know about the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Person and the work of the Holy Spirit, all the effects of the Spirit's advent and indwelling, let us recognize this as supreme: The inclusive work of the Holy Spirit, in all His manifold activities, is one thing - to reproduce the Lord Jesus in a people. When you pray about the Holy Spirit, and you speak about the Holy Spirit, remember that. The Holy Spirit's supreme and comprehensive object is to reproduce the Lord Jesus, in His character, His personality, His perfected manhood or humanity, in a people.

The real test of a Spirit-governed life lies here: the progressive increase of the character of Christ. If we are going to meet one another as really Spirit-governed men and women, what we must meet in one another is the Lord Jesus; and that must be, not just today, not just in one time of our lives, but going on, going on all the time."

The Holy Spirit's objective is to transform us to what the Lord is - Love. You might ask, what is Love? What will be the result if I allow the Spirit to transform my heart. What will my heart look like? Here's the answer:

You will possess a heart that is:

"kind; does not envy; does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked (that is, is slow to anger), thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." (1 Cor. 13:4-7)

That, beloved, describes God's heart - the heart of Christ! I've been meditating on the heart of Christ for many years now and I still haven't reached the depths of it. It seemingly knows no bounds! It's the greatest heart in the universe (1 Corinthians 13:13).

The Spirit always guides hearts into Christ. Always! The Spirit is love. We are nothing without the Spirit.

May you possess a heart of Christ.

Agape,
Steve


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