“We Can Do It”


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No one has to listen long to hear this popular saying, “We can do it.”  That saying has its place in certain things.  When it comes to moving a large rock with poles, the men may say, “We can do it.”  The saying indicates encouragement and determination to do what can be done if we try hard enough.  A new baby can bring that saying from the lips of the husband when they consider the awesome task of raising a child.

But is it appropriate to say that when we encounter problems we know are too large for us?  A man wakes up from the night’s sleep.  After considering the day before him, he has no right to say, “I can do it.”  He has no idea of what lay ahead.  The probability that he can’t do it is far more than the likelihood that he can.  Things happen beyond our control and we are forced at many times to realize that we couldn’t do it.

Billions of people have thought they could whip a problem into shape.  But notice the past tense of that sentence.  By our very nature, we are not designed to handle life alone.  We band together to build a city.  We band together to invent new means to do what we couldn’t do without that invention.  Has anyone asked why?

It’s hard for people today to imagine living life with a simple campfire, tent, and stone tools.  What did those folks do?  How did they cope?  Though they banded together to accomplish more than could be done alone, they were never-the-less helpless in the face of a storm.  Things too large constantly emerge to threaten our lives.  And the saying, “We can do it.”, falls on deaf ears in the aftermath.

We are designed to rely on something larger than ourselves.  That’s who we are.  And even the greatest of our inventions will never thwart sickness, hunger, alienation, and death.  Even our ability to think is sent off into oblivion when we are faced with a series of thoughts necessary to accomplish something large.  We’re “one thought beings”.  That’s a fact that can’t be denied.  Oh, we can manipulate a few thoughts within a minute or two.  But this only gives us the appearance of being able to think more than one thought at a time.  We are quite fragile and helpless, in the sum of things.

Why is this so?  And why is this ignored today?  Liars have emerged to convince us that we can do something that should not be done.  Where this is so very blatant is in society itself.  We are being told that if we want to change the world, “We simply need to try harder.”  Lie!  The entire world is under the rule of Jesus, the King of Kings.  It is He who sets up leaders.  It is He who has created this place of limitations.  And it is He who determines how far man will go and what he will be able to accomplish.

This is the “hole” in our lives that we keep trying to fill with invention.  We were never intended to live independent of His Rule.  But look at how man is striving to replace Him.  Cell phones, TVs, central heating, cars, roads, a fragile economic system, and more.  None of this can do what God can do in a moment.  Yet we continue to try.  God has called all this what it is, “The works of man’s hand.”  And He has promised that godless men will never forsake these works.

Something to consider folks.  I encourage you to give this some thought.

By His Grace.

Outcast from the Outcast.


Perhaps I would be better off to not post this entry.  But it consumes my thoughts on this Christmas eve.  And I consider that nothing I post will find a grand welcome in most homes anyway.  So I’ll post this pondering.

All my life I have had only a tiny handful of friends.  I’ve had many who tried to love me.  But to no avail.  Did their love fall short?   No, I was not lovable.  But what does that mean?

I look and look at society and consider the answer:  What does it mean that I was not lovable enough to retain friends or loved ones?  Does it mean that I am such trash that even the outcast among us would gladly throw me away?  Does it mean that I hate who we are with such a venom that even venomous snakes of men are repulsed at the vicious nature of my heart?  This line of questioning will certainly result in a unfruitful line of answers.  If I question myself along this line, I will most certainly conclude that I am not worthy to breathe the same air as everyone else.  And frankly, this has been my conclusion for decades.  Since I have gained no ground prior to this using these questions, it would be good to seek questions that provide a different group of answers.

How am I different than any other man that I should experience this alienation?  There is nothing about me that you would recognize at first which would provide that answer.  I’m just like you in a variety of ways.  Where the difference appears is in what I hold as important.

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When I voice that “important” information, the result is alienation.  What is the difference?  I am quick to call things as they are.  I don’t monkey around with politically correct speech.   I have found that to do so simply puts off the inevitable games people play.  These games have to do with pride, importance, personal worth, gain, lies, greed, gossip, hatred of anything not “me”, and so very much more.

I’m not saying that I’m a perfect man.  I’m simply not willing to play the games of society.  Why?  Because I learned at an early age that no one wins in the games people play against each other.  Society says that we have to become something important.  And important is always defined by someone else.  If important were defined around a camp fire, we would consider bringing wood, killing something to eat, and providing some kind of shelter as indicators of what is important.  But add invention, and “important” escalates into something far more difficult to grasp and identify.  A man will say to himself, “I have gained what others do not have.  Thus I am important.  And it is important that others recognize me as important.  And those who won’t recognize my importance will suffer by my important hand.”

This is why I am an outcast.  I will not recognize this self made importance as valuable.  It is a lie.  And I won’t give glory to a life led by lying.   I give myself no glory for such behavior.  I certainly won’t give it to others.  Do you realize that even wearing the title of mom or dad can become a lie?  Even such a very reasonable title can become a “right” which demands obedience.  And in society such titles supercede righteous living.  How awesome to think that such a reasonable title can become so corrupt.

I am forced to accept my position in this world.  And it is often saddening to look around and count my friends by looking in the mirror.  But then I realize that even I have not been my best friend.  For I put myself into situations unholy and unrighteous.  Even I can’t trust myself.  Isn’t this why the Lord says to us, “Worship God only.”

Believe it or not, I would love some feedback on this issue.  We are all part of this painting of life in this place of testing.  So we are all vulnerable to the same problem I’ve laid out here on the table to eat.

By His Grace.

The Wings of the “I”


Psychology SymbolYou read our books.  You watched us worship.  You listened to how we talk.  And you watched and mimicked us as we lead our lives.  You said to yourself, “I will become like they are.  I will do and speak the same as they.  Then I will surely have what they have.

You made a science out of relationships.  You analyzed the mind of men and used our teachings to create what you call “normal”.  You said that if men were to follow your teachings they would be good men.

But there is something you have not appropriated to yourself.  You do not have the Lord Jesus among you.  You do not have the prayer of The Faith walking with you during the morning, noon, and night.  You do not have the hope of eternal life.  For you it is enough that you have a working society.  But how long can you possibly think your society will work?

What you have is a mirror of what you perceive in Christians.  It is a reflection.  It is not real.

A Shred of Faith


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There are times, in every Christian’s life, when faith is so very small.  Those moments come and go.  And the reasons for them vary when we look at it from our perspective.  But in times like those, I take heart remembering when simply speaking the word “God” was nearly impossibly difficult.  And it is good to remember what the Lord said, “A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out, till he leads justice to victory.”  (Matthew 12:20)

Take heart!  The Lord knows your name!  And in His promise, He can neither lie nor forsake.  Two other scriptures enter here:

“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”  (Deuteronomy 31:6)

And:

“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”  (Psalm 51:17)

We are told to tear our hearts, not our garments.  If your heart is broken or shrunken before the Most High God, consider that this is a proper situation for a Living Faith.

 

By His Grace.

Slaves to Freedom?


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All men want freedom to do as they please.  And look how we balk and complain when we are forced, by any means, to do something we don’t want to do.  Listen to how many grumble as they are required to end their weekend and serve others on Monday morning.   Listen to them as 5 pm comes nearer.  Listen how they cheer as the moment comes near for them to be released back to their “freedom”.

Billions have lived their entire life chained to the will of others.  We called them slaves and prisoners; the masses of men, women, and children who lived under the horrible hand of someone else’s ideals.  It was the life they knew from birth to death.  Did they complain also?  Of course they did!  But they were not able to gain even one second of freedom more than the one allowed who ruled over their very breath.

It is not acceptable before God to grumble at restrictions placed on you.  It is honorable, however, before God to accept these restrictions with a certain joy; knowing that we are but a short number of years in this place of testing.  I know I speak the truth in this.  Yet I also know I will find myself grumbling today because I am forced to wait for someone else as they push their way in front of me.  How pitiful is man that he should know to do good yet not be able to find the ability to do it.

Christians are those who are learning to submit to the absolute rule of the One who made them.  We serve Jesus because He shows us that He knows what is best.  We love, because He first Loved us and gave His life for us.  He has said, “Whoever would be first will be last”.  And He has said, “”If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.  24  For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.  25  What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self ?” (Luke 9).

Men crave freedom.  Jesus tells us clearly that freedom in Christ Jesus is not the freedom of man.  We are set free, not of submission as a slave, but set free to serve as a slave to righteousness.  So let us consider how to spur ourselves and others into a life of service to the Most High God through the Spirit.  Jesus plainly said to us that He would ask the Father and the Spirit would be sent to His people to guide us into all righteousness.  Are you a willing participant in the things of God through Jesus?  Or are you still looking to be set free, as men count freedom?

Service Remembered.


I thank You Lord, for Herman Wilson.  He is now with You.  But you guided me to his feet when You opened my eyes.  I thank you for what You did within him.  And I thank you for the memories I have of him.  Of all the men I have ever met, he is the one who remains beautiful within me.  I also thank You for his wife Mervine.  What a lovely creature You had made in her.  And I am so very blessed to retain a memory of their service to You.

Lord, You know that Herman gave me this painting many years ago.  But You alone know its value in my heart.  Not even I can know it’s true value.  But when I consider the love Herman and Mervine showed me and my family during those years, I am brought back to a place of sobriety in my walk with You.  So I present this post as a testimony to their service to You.  And I post this picture here to set up a place of memory.  May You receive Glory from their service to all who You brought across their path.

For those of you who love this picture:  http://www.warnersallman.com/about/the-artist/