Monthly Archives: September 2011

Work to Work that Which Lasts.

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English: Coca-Cola-Truck - Freightliner Deutsc...

English: Coca-Cola-Truck – Freightliner Deutsch: Coca-Cola-Truck – Freightliner (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

My job, the thing I do to earn a wage, is to deliver trailers to their proper location and do so in a timely fashion.  A large part of my job is to do my job so that those who employ me gain the highest possible profit for my effort.  This is why they have started the business.  This is why they have employed me.  There are things I can do to accomplish what my employer demands of me.  And I am compelled to struggle against my foolishness to accomplish these things.  If the company finds someone who refuses to help maximize profit, they will fire them.

The same is true of my body, heart, and soul.    God made me.  He placed me in this place of work/profit.  It is my duty to deliver my soul to Him having accepted His commands.  To accept His words of instruction on a moment by moment basis.  To maximize His definition of  profit from His labor within me.  This is my duty in response to the Spirit of God within me.  If I refuse to do His Will I stand in danger of condemnation.

This scripture resounds as a warning:

“7For ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God; 8but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned.” (Hebrews 6: 7)

To work the work of God is a VERY difficult task.  It’s not hard because His demands are too high.  The work is hard because I contain such a vast array of foolishness and sinful tendencies.  The war within me against sin and foolishness is a 24/7 job.  And a scripture comes to mind as I pour out my strength toward what is Good:

“And, “If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?” (1 Peter 4:18).  If those who work by the power of God to accomplish the Glory of God in this world struggle so very intensely, what will happen to those who war to keep a distance between themselves and the Beauty that is God?

Jesus; all the proof I need.

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Yield

Image via Wikipedia

Many chide the Christian because they say, “There is no God”.  I don’t really care what you think of me and the Lord who has proven Himself to me.  Proven?  Absolutely.  Proven!  Here’s your quandary:

If you want proof that the Lord Jesus exists and is the God who made all that is, believe.  As you believe you will receive the proof that the Lord Jesus exists and is the God who made all that is.

During the night there was a loud noise.  I went downstairs to check it out.  Looked around.  Went out to sit on the porch a while and listen.  There was no sign of anything.  I went back in to see if anything had been moved.  Nothing could be found to support the noise I had heard.

People without the “proof” of God would have been on edge.  I wasn’t.  There was a great peace about me.  This is not the man I used to be.  The slightest noise would wake me and every nerve I own would have been on alert.  But there was great peace.  My looking around was more a curiosity than a search for danger.  Why?  Because the Lord Jesus has proven to me that He is the creator of all that is.  And that I belong to Him!  He is enough, within me, to cause me to live at rest no matter the circumstances.

You want proof of what I say?  Then believe.  As you believe and live according to His word, you will begin to recognize the proof I speak of.  If you continue to only chide those who say they have what they call proof, you will remain locked outside the proof you want.

By His Grace.

Matthew 6: 24 (The God and Money Passage)

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A Master Lock brand padlock.

Image via Wikipedia

“You cannot serve two masters”, the Lord said.  In this passage He spoke of the comparison between God and money.  But isn’t it true that it’s not money who sat and listened as He poured out this truth?  Wasn’t it people who had the ears to hear?

So the people, being the ones to whom He spoke were to consider their allegiance to God.  When you strive to have something of this world you are striving in the wrong direction.  That’s the point.  Money just happens to be the primary tool men use to grasp at what they want in this world.

We will become a slave to that which has mastered us.  Much like this pad lock bears the name of its maker.  How appropriate.  I could say that the point is, don’t be locked down by a desire for anything in this world.

Frankly, money is not the object of the passage.  God is the focus of Jesus’ words.  As it was with all His ministry, God the Father was the singular reason He appeared before us.  And God will be the focus of Jesus for eternity.  In that focus He was showing us to abandon all ties to this world and seek after His Father’s will.  If money is something the Father decides you need to have to accomplish His will, you will receive it.  But above all seek His will first!

By His Grace.

Understand What God’s Will is.

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Copperplate by B. Kilian, from: Thomé de Jesus...

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The target of this blog is God the Father through the sacrifice of Jesus.   And often I will write things which bite at the pride of man.   I do not apologize for anything I’ve posted.  Yet it is important to note that I do not hate anyone. 

The Lord teaches His people to hate what is evil and to cling to whatever knowledge of His ways we can accumulate in our soul.  So if you are offended by what I write, what am I supposed to say?  The Lord is Righteous and Pure.  There is nothing on earth with which we can compare His completeness.  And anyone who speaks of the Lord with a focused eye to what is True is going to grate against the pride of man.

On the other hand, I too am a man.  And you can be sure that the turmoil between the pride of man and the Glory that is God resides in my heart too.  It is impossible for me to say I love the Lord in the same way He loves us.  But with all that I can muster I return to Him the measure of love He has been successful to teach me.

This brings me to the following scripture as an aid to explaining what has just been written:

“1Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, 2make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. 3Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; 4do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. 5Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2)

May the Lord give eyes to see for all who desire His will.  Regardless where you find yourself today, the Lord can lead you into far more.  Only turn from the ways of the world and seek His ways.

By His grace.

The World Entices. But God Directs.

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Logo sheet

Image by kaioshin via Flickr

Peachtree lending says, “Life doesn’t wait.  Why should you”?

The Bible says,

31Yet those who wait for the LORD
Will gain new strength;
They will mount up with wings like eagles,
They will run and not get tired,
They will walk and not become weary. (Isaiah 40)

So, Thanks Peachy dude.  I think I’ll just wait for the Lord’s direction and not use my greed to make decisions.  And I’ll  send that same decision to all other logos and pleads for my personal actions.

 

By His Grace.

Help Please. Looking For that Last Lost One.

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Human shadow

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I think there’s only one person in the world who is ashamed of the Lord Jesus.  I haven’t found him or her yet.  I know what I’m looking for though.  It’s that person who will never mouth the name of Jesus in any serious terms.  He or she will laugh at you if you speak about the Bible.  If you approach the group of people he or she hangs around in and mention Jesus, that person will turn beet red and start to fidget.  And I’m looking for that person whose library is full of all kinds of “self-help” books.  But you’d never find a dust line of a Bible.  The person I’m looking for is obviously self righteous.  So it shouldn’t be too hard to spot them.

If you find this person give me a call at 333-333-3333.  Thanks for your time.  Hope we locate that person.   It would be a shame to watch them quiver at the sound of the Father’s voice as He pronounces the sentence of death.  Surely we can all pitch in to help turn this soul from such a death.

by His Grace.