Monthly Archives: March 2012

Sadness

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Today there is a sadness over me.  People who know me know I am a Christian.  And they know that I am not ashamed to speak of my love for the Lord Jesus.  Yet not one of them comes to ask.  I have taken this sadness to the Lord.   He reminded me that this is the case between man and animal.  Even though a man means no harm to the wild birds, not one will come to him because fear.  This is the fear that was instilled in the animals at the sin of Adam.

Does this mean that the Lord considers the wicked as mere animals?  The answer is yes.  Isn’t this the charge against us all if we remain outside the Lord’s provided salvation in Jesus?  Yes.  There is transformation from animal to man.  But few challenge their own fear.  They know they do not have peace with God.  Yet they encourage one another to remain in fear by making up stories.

Does this knowledge help my sadness?  In an odd way, yes this does help.  Because it defines the reason for the cause.  But the pain of watching them contrive a false sense of security abides.  All the while I am among them and can reveal true security.

They speak of money, knowledge, social position, angel worship, every religious ritual known to man, and entertainment, as if they hold the key to the complete security of eternity; that security which blots out all fear.  Every lie born from the imagination of man receives great praise or even debate.  All the while they purposely ignore the Lord Jesus and His people who hold the Gospel within them.  So this sadness continues, yet is abated a bit.

Sealed Forever

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Jacob Matham’s engraving after Sebastian Vranc...

Jacob Matham’s engraving after Sebastian Vrancx’s The Rich Man at the Table and Lazarus at the Door (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A wicked man was beating a Christian.  Afer he had vented considerable injury to the Christian, so that the Christian was near death, the wicked man suffered a fatal heart attack.  He had allowed his wrath to overtake his heart’s ability to sustain his hatred.   In just a few moments the Christian also died.  Silence was all that remained of them in this place of testing.

The next noise the Christian heard was, “Welcome home My good and faithful servant.  Come share in My Father’s Kingdom.”  But when the wicked man woke he realized that the object of his hatred was now in the company of God.  Full of the same hatred he had at death, he challenged God.  With spit leaking from his lips he screamed, “That one belongs to me!  Give him back!  I am by no means done beating him!  You have no right to what is mine!”

Guess what happened next.

What is the Limit?

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clouds

I was driving back on the last leg of my nightly runs in the dark of 2am.  I had been thinking of where I stood in service to the Lord.   As any other man I wondered if I were serving at the cap of His willingness to give.  It was a sort of accounting one might expect in a business.  “Have we room for more profit?”

I asked Him what was the limit for me, considering my past and the tendency toward a less than whole hearted abandonment to the ministry.  Not that I wouldn’t gladly go to the moon for Him.  But there are obligations to be met and relationships to build already.  That said, let me try to relay the experience and understanding I came away with.  I think it is a very valuable understanding.  It is quite possible that I can’t put it into use as others might.  But I sense some profit for His Kingdom by someone.

It begins with the idea of limits.  What is the limit God has placed on His people?  There is the raising of the dead. Ok.  That would be one limit.  And there is a dedication to consistent and powerful prayer.  That might be another, more private and publically obscure limit.

As I drove I asked and pondered.  I tried to listen to the thoughts that echoed around in my empty head.  Then one thought came rather clearly:

God has told us He has set the limits for the sea.  I’m sure this isn’t some long forgotten statement of God in Genesis.  And there are many times the Lord referred to the sea so as to refer to the mass of humanity.  So I figure He has set limits to what man will accomplish.  But I wasn’t asking about man. I was asking about His people.

Then the concept started to pour in ( no pun intended).  It didn’t come as some other insight has from the Lord.  It was not the tiny whisper I’ve heard before.  It was a train of thoughts passing by.  I’ll use quotes to help describe the process.  But don’t confuse the quotes as if I heard the Lord say these things.

“Consider the clouds.”  I thought about the difference between the clouds.  It came to mind that He has referred to His people as a cloud of witnesses.  This is a vastly different concept.  “What is the limit of a cloud?”  Hmmmm  Now that’s interesting.

Clouds are only limited to the upper atmosphere; that is where we see the tops of the clouds “anvil” out, because they have reached the upper atmosphere where moisture is not allowed to remain.  Up, is the idea.  The sea is limited to the “down”.

Clouds are driven by the wind, not only tossed at the surface as the sea might be.  They go where what is unseen drives them.  Just as His people are driven by the Holy Spirit to accomplish things they would not even know to do without Him.

What, indeed, is the limit of the clouds?  Their only limit is that they retain the rights to the sky.  Fog can obscure the vision thus mobility of man.  But if you stood on a mountain and looked down into a valley filled with fog, the view is radically different.  They become shimmering beauty obscuring the wickedness of man’s destruction of the natural things you are enjoying on the mountain.

So, ok.  I have a different view of potential.  Now I need someone to fill in the blanks.   I read a post on Thomas Watkins’  new blog, (  http://brideinthewilderness.blogspot.com/?view=classic )  They are speaking of just such things.  I have no doubt that such things are quite possibly true.  Jesus did say that His people would do what He was doing and more.  But is has not been my experience to encounter such things personally.  And I know that He has relegated me to carry firewood and water to the citizens of His country who are left at home while the greater brothers and sisters go off to “fight the good fight”.

So, “Hit me folks.”  Gimme some feed back if you have any.  I’m all ears (or eyes in this case).