Category Archives: Encouragement

The spike of peace

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Our life can be considered as traveling upon a flat line.  What lay to the left is yet to come.  What lay to the right is written and sealed.  But the spike upon the line is the “now”.

What is to come is not.  What lays behind is done.  Only the moment should be of any serious consideration.  The faith of the future and the faith of the past squeeze together and cause us to be.

There is peace in the faith of what is to come.  For he who promises cannot lie.  There is peace in the faith of what is behind.  For the mercy of God in Christ covers us with beautiful righteousness.

So it is right to say as follows:

“I have peace regarding what comes for God is faithful and supplies.  I have peace regarding what has been for God is faithful to forgive.”

How then should we live in any anxiety?  The promises are sure.  Strength to sustain us is present.  And he has shed His Holy Blood as proof of our forgiveness. (Not only so, but he who believes in the forgiveness of Christ also gains a clean conscience)   How then shall we walk in anxiety?

This should be the aim and desire of every man and woman in Christ.  God has caused things to be in this way, so that his Glory maybe known for eternity. 

But if we live in dreams, desire, greed and anxiety about the future, how does that bring glory to God?  And if we quake and shake and cry and moan for the wicked things we’ve done, how does this bring glory to the Holy blood of Christ?

But if we live in peace, understanding, knowledge of truth, and trust, then we live in the place that God has desired for all men to live. Then a man lives in eternity. Then he is prepared to receive the good things God desires to give. Then the man becomes.

Practice trust.  The righteousness of God covers us.  And we know that his righteousness is Holy true.

Closed covers

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The words of the Bible are powerful and true.  They are living words that are able to lead you to the living God in Christ Jesus.  But their power is nullified if the covers of the book remain closed.

If, Then

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* If we have received the love of God in Christ Jesus. 

* If there is the slightest hope that we will live eternally in the presence of God. 

* If there is a transformation within us after we have accepted the promise of the gospel. 

* If there is a fear of the holiness of God within us.

* If the love of God provokes us to give thanks.

* If we have enjoyed the fellowship of the body of Christ. 

* If we have read any portion of the Bible and understand it fluently.

Then is it proper to let fear keep us from sharing with those who do not have these things?

Is, Was, Will Be

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When I wrote these words they were my “now”.  When you read these words they appeared before you in your “now”.   But as each word “was” written or read, it is no longer “now”.  Each word became what was.  That sounds like gibberish.  But it speaks of something vastly important. 

We may remember but we cannot re-live.  It is only give unto man that he may live in what is.  Why then do we all struggle so hard to live in what was?  And how do we know that our memory is clear?  How do we know that we remember with fullness of understanding?

Who can change what has been done?  We may do again so that we may rectify what we found wrong.  But that does not change what has been done.  It only “does” again.

The past and the future are equally beyond our grasp.  In our memories we are helpless.  And the future looms as darkness.  Man is utterly helpless.

God in His wisdom created time; moments of “IS” come and go relentlessly.  Like a singular spike in an eternal line of doing.  Who has ears to hear this?  Who is willing to understand?

If a man has peace in what was it is because God has had mercy and forgiven.  If a man is not afraid of what is coming it is because he trusts the promise of the Holy One.

Anxiety lives just behind us and just in front.  But true peace is found in what is.  As long as we strive to live in what we remember we will face anxiety.  As long as we brace ourselves for what comes next anxiety dresses us as a garment.  But peace is found in faith alone.

The name of the sovereign God is “I am that I am”.  He alone owns what was.  And He does with it what pleases Him.  He alone owns what will be.  And He alone does what pleases Him to do.  Why then do his people live looking backward or straining forward?

Since we cannot change what was, we are forced to either live in anxiety or receive His peace.  And since we cannot know what comes we are forced either to live in anxiety or to receive His peace.  Both require faith.

God is.  Therefore if we follow him we must also live in what is.  To do otherwise only brings doubt.  And if that is the case he is right to refer to us as “ye of little faith”.

Leave what was in the hands of he who is.  Likewise leave what will be in the hands of he who is.  Strive only to do in faith.  In this you will find immeasurable peace.  In this you will come to understand that his burden upon you is light indeed.

Who can decipher the deeds he has done according to what is true?  And who has known the mind of God that he is sure of what will happen next?  If we are that tiny then why do we not believe?

God alone gives true understanding of these things.  Philosophers and poets have given their whole life to understand these things and to write them.  But those who are in Christ Jesus find themselves living them effortlessly.

Let the world work with their hands to provide what will be.  Their folly is evident.  Let the world build their filthy temple on the foundation of what was.  They build on nothing.  But let God’s people understand.  We do not build at all.  We trust in the Sovereign Lord.  His name is Christ Jesus.

Spiritual smell

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15 “For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. 16 To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. And who is equal to such a task?” (2nd Corinthians chapter 2)

The last sentence is more then the previous.   Christ Jesus will be all in all; to those who are willing and those who are not.

Persuasion from heaven

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A man cannot expect to persuade the men of the city by going out into the desert to preach to rocks.  Who would hear him that they may understand?

And if the man himself is not persuaded, he only testifies without knowledge.  He will only persuade to the sum of what he has.

But if a man has been to the desert to be persuaded, then what he has is more than the sum of men.

Such a man will find himself driven to the city to bear what he has received.  And the strength of his persuasion will persuade.

What he has received will not be hidden.  His understanding will mark his persuasion with fire.  Without effort or false intent he will speak living words. 

Let the people of the Lord Jesus cease persuading until they have gone out into the desert to be persuaded themselves.  Let us go and receive the best of heaven.  Why waste time persuading with what is the best of men?

May the Living God grant understanding.