Daily Archives: April 19, 2015

Sayings Worthy of Acceptance

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Sayings that are worthy of retention, contemplation, and sharing:

1.  Receiving the Gospel from a man makes the receiver twice blessed.  For you have kissed your sweet brother with an eternal joy, and you have the assurance of sharing that joy together for eternity.

2.  Christ Jesus is first in absolutely everything.  He is not some passing fanciful and ecstatic joy during a worship session.  He is first and comfort even in the most extreme and horrific circumstances.

3.  Rejection of the Gospel does nothing to eternity.  You were dead before you heard it, and you remain dead as you reject it.  The dead are no loss to the Living God.  Pride makes you think you’re something.  Frankly, you’re just not that important.

4.  A Gospel of extortion is no gospel at all.  God does not desire a people who are under duress to serve Him.  The Gospel is free of manipulation.  It does not demand acceptance.  It is a declarative call for free will.  As we love Jesus we will obey.

5.  God is not isolated from anything.  Only the perception of man can isolate one thing from another.  The concept of “Object Permanence” is taught in pediatrics.  Hide a baby’s fingers and watch his face turn to anxiety. 

God owns eternity, for eternity is of God.  Equally, God owns this wicked place of testing.  For every sin is a distortion of eternity.  Just because the hand of God is unseen, doesn’t mean it’s gone

6.  Every man knows he lives a lie.  Ignoring the truth of Christ Jesus does nothing to fix a lie.  Receiving the fullness of the Gospel of Christ, this is the fix. 

7.  Nostalgia brings no permanent joy.  Soon enough, you will be nostalgia for others.

8.  Everything in this world points to Christ Jesus.  For nothing is created here that was not created by him.  And our misuse of his creation does not nullify his signature.

9.  Fear is no excuse for remaining ungodly.  For Christ did not fear to do the will of His Holy Father in heaven.  Fear has to do with unbelief.  As if the one who fears, calls the Holy Son a liar.  What kind of reception should the fearful receive on that Great Day of Judgement?

10.  There is a difference between weakness of flesh and rebellion of soul.  God is able to distinguish between the two.  The one he will comfort and encourage toward boldness.  The other he will dismiss without regret.  The wisdom of God among men gives discernment.

11.  Death brings an eternal seal to every man; what we had become in life, to that we are sealed forever.  It is of the father of lies to speak anything differently.

12.  Let the acceptable threshold of Christianity remain elevated.  The expectation is godliness.  How then shall we set the bar at 0?  Not one man but Christ can reach 100%.  Yet surely there is a number in between, which we can grasp with an iron grip.

There are hundreds more worthwhile sayings.  But these are enough to keep us busy for the remainder of our life.

By His Grace

The Price We Pay

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World War II; the black car pulls into the driveway.  Those who live there know what the messenger brings.  Horror slowly dawns; a son will never come home again.

But the messenger did arrive.  Having arrived, he will certainly deliver the message.

You know me.  I am a messenger from the Holy Lord God Almighty.  I have arrived before your face, and you know the reason why.  Horror slowly dawns on your soul; having arrived, I will not fail to deliver the message.  “Repent or die”.

They did not want to see the black car in their driveway.  They did not want to see the impeccable uniform dismount.  But the soldier will not retreat until he has discharged his duty.  This also, those who live there know.

That is the case for those who deliver bad news.  How much more so for those who deliver the Good News?

What barrier is it for the soldier, that they were not ready to receive him?  What barrier is it to me, that you are not ready to receive me?

By His Grace

Necessary Pain

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In the Gospel of Christ Jesus, I bring you life. 

It is painful by reason of necessity.

For you have not moved your limbs since a little while after you had been born.

Now the Gospel tells you to move your limbs.

It tells you to believe and do.

But in the wickedness of desire you have let your soul become lazy.

Spiritual atrophy belongs to you.

Now the message I bring you is of difficult work.

You must let yourself believe.

Endure the pain or die.

By His Grace

In the Blink of an Eye

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By His Grace

Fear

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Of all the things that man can perceive, there is but one truth.  The Holy Christ of God has given himself for the salvation of every man, woman and child who  ever lived.

As we believe this we are set free of every wicked thing.  We are set free of fear; the greatest enemy of man.  Who can fear anything if he knows he has eternal life? 

Because of fear, men turn to all manner of wicked and abhorrent behavior.  They invent their own religions.  But every religion of man is full from top to bottom with fear.

By fear, men subject one another for the sake of wicked gain.  But it is impossible to subject the one who believes. 

“Christ has died for my sins.  Nothing you can do to me can take that away.  Though my body shake with anxiety for the coming pain,  my soul is that perfect rest.  For when you are finished applying what torture you may envision, I will go and be with he who has died for my sins.  How should I fear?  What can man do to me?  When in comparison, Christ has given me eternal life.”

A Christian believes this and is saved.  Anything less than this is not the fullness of Christ within us.  Anything less than this is worthless religion.

By His Grace

Cut to the Chase

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When you go to church on Sunday morning, will you be prepared?  Or will you go with only a partial clue as to why you’re there?

Wishing is useless.  But I wish that in my forties I had known what I know now.  I had all the right knowledge.  I said all the right things.  And everybody thought I really understood.

So no one took me aside, that they might mentor me.  No one challenged my life.  No one asked me to prove the things I was saying.  So I fell flat on my face and squandered a beautiful gift from God.

I will not blame anyone.  They couldn’t possibly have known how shallow my faith really was.  And frankly, out of the hundreds of people I knew, only two had the things I have now.

When you go to church on Sunday, will you be prepared?  Will you go there to worship the Most High God with everything you have?  Or will you worship him with everything he is willing to give?

There is a statement I wish someone had said to me.  “When you worship the Lord, try to percieve the first worship session in heaven.  Then worship the Lord as if you were not here.”

We are so caught up in the things of this world.  We are so caught up in the things called “Church”.  Mistakenly, we think that if we have banded together with men in the name of Jesus, we have fulfilled a proper worship of the Most High God.

There is so much more I could say about this.  But I’ll bet you have many things to say in regard to this also.  And I have learned that it is so much better when we understand these things personally. 

But I will give this a shove in the proper direction.  What we are looking for is the full power of God in a Christian.  Not just the proper words, knowledge, or timely arrival in the proper place

It might be good to ask someone you can trust, to sit you down and grill you about Christianity.  Submit to all their questioning.  Let them either prove what you really have, or show you plainly what you lack.

It doesn’t matter to me how you respond to these things.  Who am I to order anyone around.  But what you stand to lose is a pittance.  There is no profit at all in being incomplete.  What you stand to gain is immeasurable.  What fully profitable things might be accomplished if you fully belong to God?

You could be like me, and wait until you’re 60 to get a partial clue.  Assuming God will be merciful and let you live that long.  Or you could just cut to the chase today.  What could you be in Christ if you gave everything you had to find out?

I thought it might be good to add the following.  Instead of looking for only one man to grill you about your Christian life, perhaps you want to look for a team of three. 

And who knows, in the process of questioning the three may be grilling themselves.  Certainly a profitable circumstance for all.

Humility is the target.  Profitability to Jesus is the cash flow.

By His Grace