Daily Archives: June 8, 2014

The standard

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The world does as it desires.  Try to restrain it into holiness and it will kill you.  In fact it may kill you just for sport.

But put aside the threat of death.  They only usher you into the Lord’s presence forever.

Regardless their thirst for pleasure and blood, the Soverign God desires their willing love. 

As proof of God’s desire he has dispatched his son among us and glorified him for his obedient love.  And now he has left the Lord’s people among those who hate him.

God is the standard of all things good.  The Lord Jesus goes on record to show us personally what that means.  And now we are left among them to display the standard we are taught to love.

We are urged, all day long, to love the Lord and obey his commands.  But not solely for the purpose of salvation.

We are to love him and obey him for the sake of those who hate him, just as we witness the Lord Jesus do for us.

God the Father is the standard.  The Lord Jesus is the display of that perfect standard.  We to then are to display the obedient standard among those who do not know.

Every time you cut corners in your obedience, you teach others to do the same.  Even disobedience in secret will not remain so. Every time you obey without question, you teach others to do the same.  For no good action can remain hidden.

Let us willingly become part of the standard of God.  Let us live such lives that when they look at us they can see the expectation.  By all means let us teach the righteousness of God according to what we have attained.

And let no man think that if he shrinks back the expectations up on him will be less.  There are souls to save.  There is righteousness to teach.  And class is in session as long as you breathe the air of this world.

Delusion

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The hardest thing I have had to learn is to put away delusion.  I find it is wrapped up in everything I think and do.  It is a false expectation.  It is an untrue belief.  It is a false hope.  A man may think he is something, all the while he is not.

A man may think he has achieved, only to find himself having fallen short.  He may think he has understood, only to be proved wrong by another thought or action.

A man may think he has done a good deed.  But he walks away not understanding what brought the moment to him nor what happens after.

A man may go to prayer believing he is accepted before God.  In his dilution he promises himself many things.  But he walks away unblessed for he lives in a lie.

Men may praise Him, or even express hatred for him.  The delusional mind perceives it wrongly.  For the first, he thinks he is a good man.  For the second, he thinks he is persecuted.  All the while he is no more or less than any man.

Delusion is a lie.  Delusion has everything to do with perception.  The man who perceives himself outside of truth is deluded.

The sinful nature thinks of itself outside of truth.  But the Spirit of God within speak only truth.  It has been the learning to listen correctly that has been the most difficult. 

A man may well be willing to receive a beating for his wayward ways.  But is he earnestly willing to put error away and live in truth?

It has been difficult in my life to grasp the fullness of truth.  It will certainly be that for all men.  For we are raised in lies as children.  We are taught lies as we become adults.  We are expected to compromise.    we expect others to compromise for us.  And because of this expectation, we expect God to compromise for us. And all these boil over into dilution.  The man who lives like that has no right to expect to be blessed in what he does.

Transformation into a son of God is a difficult process for any man to accomplish.  And, in the end, it will require the majesty of God to complete the transformation.  For now we are given to work with diligence.  In the end it is God who will provide the transformation.

One item has been an exceedingly helpful insight in the delusion of sin.  I learned that God is, though  this learning is a constant difficulty.   He may know of the past.  He may know of the future.  But he lives in the now.  God is.

As I live in the now I find the delusion evaporating.  Living in the past is useless.  It has happened, yes.  But the past is not now.  Living with expectations for the future is also useless.  There are things that will happen, yes.  But they are not the now.  We hope in God and this is appropriate.  But we are given things to accomplish now.

The truth of God is.  The truth of God is the sum of what was and what will be.  Letting go of what was and leaving what will be to him, I find myself living in the truth.

Jesus is the perfect reflection of the Father.  Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever.  Circumstances and experiences may change.  But he is truth because he never does.

This cannot be said of us.  For we were born in vile state.  And we must learn to live in what is holy.  The process can be painful, arduous and sporadic.  But if we are to learn to please the Holy Lord of all, we must learn to put away delusion.  That is to say, if we are to learn to be productive members of the family of God, then we must learn to put away dilution.