Monthly Archives: October 2014

Consumed

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I look at myself, and I see the Lord Jesus.  But I don’t see myself in the same light as He.

For He consumed Himself with the Joy of obedience toward His Holy Father’s will.

I, on the other hand, am consumed with the effects of forgiveness, partial obedience, and the consequences of sins (both past and present).

What an odd comparison to find living in my soul.

 

Without question: Jesus Christ, the Holy Lamb of God, is King of all!  Indeed, salvation belongs to our God and to the Lamb.  As it will be sung on that Holy Day, so it is memorized by compulsion today.

The Wasting

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The man who sits and does nothing will surely waste away.  Exercise and learning are necessary parts of our body and mind.  All kinds of diseases and ineptitude come because the man does nothing with his body or mind.

As it is with the body, so it is with the soul.  The soul that is not fed on truth, will surely waste away.  But to whatever extent the soul is fed truth there is a strength that comes.  To whatever extent we listen to the living God in Christ Jesus we become stronger.

A level of righteousness does appear.  A level of ability to restrain sin does appear.  A level of vibrant prayer does appear.  And faith blossoms, if it is continually watered by the Holy Word of God.

Feed the body on wasteful living and it will become useless.  Feed the soul on wasteful lies, and it will become useless.

These are the rules of life that cannot be broken without consequence.

By His Grace

Always On Display

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Everyday I see you.  Yes you are noticed.  Even in the night, with the doors locked and the windows shaded over, you are being watched. 

Every breath and heartbeat is counted, up to its leveling sum; that day when they add up to ceasing.  That day you cannot predict, as you now do your public behavior.

Most of the time you are like a woman dressed in finery, posing for a painting, with a delicate and entrancing smile.  Those who see you gasp with joy at the beauty you represent.  But I have seen you when you think no one is watching.

Then, you are like a ravenous lion; unrestrainable drewl escaping, wild eyed, and hungry to violence for what you desire. 

Then, your entrancing beauty is obscured by your greed.  Your beautiful habits, disheveled by illicit craving.

Yes you have been noticed, as is your compelling want.  Yes you have been seen, but not as you expect.  You rehearsed vigorously but it did you no good.  For every man owns moments of vulnerable appearance.

You disturbed the air with movements unlawful.  You spoke with voiceless words of filthy attitude.  You reached with wide eyed greed to grasp what was not yours.  You gave no thought to prying eyes.

Nothing we do or are is hidden from the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.  For in Him we live and move and have our being.

By His Grace

Hate the Lesson, But Love the Teacher

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Owning a love for God is a result of practise.   And this practise does not practice in mediocrity.  For no sooner does a mediocre practice, produce a “love”, and sin wipes it away.

Love him more than you love all other things.  The other side of the coin, which shows our beginning, says it the same: hate him less than you hate your brother; hate him less than you hate yourself.

A child may love the teacher until he is forced to learn what he does not want to learn.  Then a measure of hatred sprouts up.  With diligence and humility, the child overcomes and continues to learn.  But let him believe his own mind, and he will remain where sin entered in.

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14: 26)

By diligence we practice toward a love for God.  If a man is diligent, he will find himself learning to love the Living God in Christ Jesus.  Mediocrity is an envelope containing hatred.

10 “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4)

By His Grace

Reading the Bible Cannot Save You

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Living a life provided by us, can only lead to an eternity provided by us. “Unless the Lord builds the house the builder builds in vain.”

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“Salvation belongs to our God and to the lamb!”  This will be the song sung by those who arrive in heaven, dressed for eternity.  It will not be sung by those who think they can save themselves.  No work of man can produce the attire necessary to stand before the Living God.  Simple logic brings us to this conclusion.

As an aside: I met a man who told me he had no time for Jesus.  He said he would take his chances in the Judgment Day.  I will give the man this, at least he was being honest with his folly.

The power of God alone can turn a man from fool to wise.  Those who live in truth before the Holy Lord, will cannot lie.  It is impossible to stand before Him and do anything other than tell the truth.  The perfection of God demands it.  How then can the man who trusts in his own strength sing that song?

I do not write this article to make fun of people.  I write this article that everyone may understand.  From the simple to the great, salvation is extended freely.  Yet only those who humble themselves before the Living God, will find it.

39  “You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life.  These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” (John 5)

No righteousness belongs to man.  If a man is able to memorize the entire Bible, it does not save him.  God does not take pride in such a child.  God in his excellent wisdom has reserved His Holy Son alone, that men may be saved.  The song does not say, “Salvation belongs to those who have saved themselves”.

When the Lord Jesus was with his disciples on the mountain, and was transformed before their very eyes, the Holy Father spoke.  Of all the myriad of things the Holy Father could have said, what did he say?  “. . .This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”  (Matthew 17:5)

God did not say,  “Read the Bible and do what it says”.  The Bible is a written and concrete evidence of the covenant of God toward man.  But the Living God, and His strength to save is, found exclusively in his Living, Righteous and Holy Son.

Pride comes when man thinks he owns anything by his own strength.  But salvation comes when all the man has belongs to God. 

If anything is not of God it will not endure the Judgment Day.  Eternity is Holy.  Nothing will ever be in it but that which is God.

There will be no pride in heaven.  There should be no pride among us here.  If a man thinks he is something, he deceives himself and does not understand the truth.

Reading the Bible, alone, cannot save you.  It is necessary that every man should humble himself before the Living God, and receive the power of his Holy Son’s sacrifice and eternal Kingship.

Find a man who knows the Bible through and through, yet does not commune with the Living God in Christ Jesus, and you will find a man who is full (to overflowing) with pride and false humility.  But living in vibrant fellowship with the Living God’s Holy Son, produces humility, by crushing the pride in which a man trusts.

If still you need proof, read the Holy Law that God gave to his people through Moses.  Now for 24 hours, do that law.  You will find yourself falling short within an half hour.

Those who think they can save themselves by memorizing and understanding the Bible, are like those who live by the law.  Not one man can obey it completely.  And every man who tries will die.  Remember what the Apostle Paul said.  “Those who depend on obeying the Law live under a curse. For the scripture says, ‘Whoever does not always obey everything that is written in the book of the Law is under God’s curse!’” (Galatians 3: 10)

May the Living God grant understanding.

By His Grace

Losing the War

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I have made complaint, over and over, as to how the world is plummeting to destruction.  I have said, over and over, it is because they denied the truth of the living God among them.  But this morning, understanding comes, as to the mechanics of this plummeting to destruction.

No doubt this subject requires a rather lengthy book.  But I am forced by the willing restraint of the reader to keep it short.  Keeping it short however, will mean a loss of important trains of thought.  So I will leave it to the reader to fill in the blanks.

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I do as my daddy taught me.  His teaching is like a shadow lurking in my mind.  I listened to him speak.  I watched him act.  I gathered the trains of thought in his mind and made them my own.  So also, was the influence of my mother. 

To some extent, their example remains within me.  No matter how I try to shake it with the truth of God, I cannot completely undo their influence.

This is true of every man and woman.  The better the example of truth, the more readily truth is received when we mature. 

But let us now look to the larger scale of things.  Adam and Eve could have told us what perfection was like.  Not so our parents.  And if the destruction of truth was made apparent in Cain, their son, how much more so is it today?

On and on, through the generations to now, the truth has been obscured and forsaken.  If perfection was squandered within one generation how much more so now?

The miracle of change is not the destruction of society.  (The constant pulling away from what is real) The miracle is that truth even remains at all.   The miracle is that the human race is not destroyed already.

What has prevented complete and catastrophic failure in humanity?  The power of God has restrained destruction among us.  As it is written, “Unless the LORD Almighty had left us some survivors, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah.” (Isaiah 1:9)

The world speaks of truth as it applies to society at the moment.  But God has raised up men and women who know the truth according to Eternity.  They have lived among us and taught what they knew.  Those whom God inspired, listened to them and did likewise.

If we want to know why we continue to fail, it is because of the unseen shadow of lies we were taught as children.  Add to that, our natural proclivity toward rebelion, and destruction will run rampant in our streets.

To whatever degree we find ourselves willing to obey the Living God in Christ Jesus, we will become shining examples of what is true and faultless.  But to whatever extent we agree with man, that truth is relative, we will remain filthy examples of rebellion.  (Of which, by the way, are vastly more than those who teach the truth.)

A man’s response to these things, is determined by his desire to love the living God.  Will he allow himself to be used as an agent of truth; helping to sustain life?  Or will he continue in his fellowship with the agents of destruction?

The Lord Jesus is able to change a man’s perception.  Many things we were taught as children remain.  But they are subdued by His holy words that live within us. 

The choice belongs to every man to accept or reject this message.

I will add this final note.

The world will be destroyed. 

The moment will come when God will send His Holy Son take all of his people from this place.  Along with the absence of these people will be the absence of His Holy Spirit among men; that Great Spirit of influence that saves humanity from utter, and catastrophic failure.

Consider this, if you are willing.  When the Lord returns, this place will plummet to destruction.  Violence, chaos, illicit and immoral behavior, will become the norm, within a day. 

Within 24 hours blood will fill every street.  Hatred and violence will rise as the preeminent behavior of all men.  Add to that, the horrors God has promised to unveil in that time. 

We live as a people under duress.   By compulsion we are forced to grapple with these things.  We want to live.  But by ourselves there is no eternal life in us.  We are only wicked animals waiting to devour one another.

You, like I am, are forced to make a choice.  Receive the Lord Jesus, and obey Him, or die a most hideous death for eternity.  The wicked nature of man has no place in heaven.  And without the restraint of God’s Holy Spirit we are nothing more than wicked animals.  Those who think otherwise are convinced of the lie they were taught as children.

The Lord Jesus will return without notice.  It could be today.  It could be a hundred years from now.  It will certainly be when you die and leave this place. 

We are under duress let’s make a choice.

By His Grace