Category Archives: Encouragement

Dignity

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No one digs a grave for the broken rotting tree. 

Exposing its inward parts, it lays exposed for all to see.

Though it gave shelter and shade, and a break from the troubling winds, dignity in its trouble escapes its mortal grasp.

Gone unnoticed all its hundred years, it goes unnoticed by the caring hands of its benefactors.

How long has this been true for man?  Like a cow shot among the herd, the rest go about eating and drinking as if their fellow had never been.

Are we but animals?  Are we not designed to live in God’s image?

Then where is mercy?  Where is godly compassion?  Where is patience among the days expectations?  Where is dignity if we gather it only for ourselves?

Is this indeed, what Christ showed us?

Shall we honor a man only to cover him in dirt?  Or at best, shall we attribute sayings to the things he did among us?  Or will he carry testimony that a few cared deeply?  Deeply enough to give what no one can take.

Dignity is a living cause.  Many take it upon themselves to receive such from others.  But you cannot snatch dignity from the air.  If it is contrived it is apparent and useless.  Dignity must be given, and that by humble hands.

Define Accomplishment

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They say:
I’m a good dancer.
I know how to make lots of money.
I can do cartwheels.
I know how to drive fast.
I know all the fashions.
I know why everything works.
I can predict a storm.
I know human nature.

They say, an endless bevy of useless accomplishments.  For certainly age and death will come to take them all away.

Can they say:
I know how to dance with the Living God in the Gospel of His Holy and Righteous Son.
I know how to trust that God is in control, no matter what comes to me, no matter my expectations, no matter my understanding.

Can they say: death and old age cannot rip away from me the hope that is displayed in every corner of my life!

Can they say they see Christ in you?

NOW

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Such an intriguing problem I see with people.  Being so greatly familiar with regret, they dwell on it everyday.  At the same time they set their eyes, with anxious hearts, toward the things they desire.  All the while they minimize the Now.

“I hate who I was and what became of my behavior.”  So they say in their hearts.  Full of remorse for their failings, they look with great hope to a better man or woman tomorrow.

How hard it is to put away the past regrets.  How easy it is to dream of a better future.  How utterly profitable to live the moment under the rule of the Living God’s Holy Son.

Fatal Education

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I saw the M & M’s display in a store.  The little M & M’s dude was dressed up like a rabbit.  What am I supposed to think?

I talked to the clerk.  I mentioned that the celebration of Easter is about someone special who was raised from the grave.  She happily agreed, and the conversation began.

My summation to her was a question.  “If this is the state of affairs today, what will it be in 30 years?”  And in retrospect, I remember the Lord saying, when the Son of man returns will he even find faith on the earth.

Driving down the road, I thought about the complexities of religions.  I came to that train of thought because most people will tell you there are too many opinions and not enough facts.  They refuse to investigate because they think there is no hope of conquest.

Well let me answer.

In the field of religions someone has to be wrong.  Someone has to be lying whether they know it or not.  And in all the field of Religious Studies someone has to be right.  Whether they KNOW it or not.

But using the excuse regarding opinions, people decide there is no use in chasing down the facts.  There’s too much confusion, they will say.  That’s an education that will turn out to be fatal.

A man says he doesn’t go to college because he has no need for the things they teach.  But he is educated enough to make that choice.  He has attended some sort of education that made him believe college is worthless.  His rejection of college is not necessarily fatal.  But in everything we decide, there is an inevitable outcome.

But let a man use that same premise to disregard the Living God’s Holy Son, and he commits a fatal education to himself.

Teach your children what you want.  Remain blind and ignorant all your days.  Excuse yourself from of education because there are so many variations.  Yet the Living God owns all things and will call every man to account.

He is willing to guide anyone who will humble themselves to receive.  And of all the things men strive to learn, there is nothing more important than the shape and texture of eternity.

An education of excuses.  Is this what you want for your children?  So be it.

Spring Eternal

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Spring will soon come to the Northern Hemisphere.  And if the Beautiful Lord tarries we will see all the grandeur that is new life here.  In this I speak of new leaves, flowers, babies a plenty, and a comforting season.

And if the Lord moves to close the window of opportunity in this place, His people will see a Spring that never ceases.  Everything dressed in eternal splendor, that is the place of his promise.  The joy of lambs leaping, and all beautiful things.  Hearts that never cease to be glad.

Having said that, I consider what His moving means.  How glorious things will be Life (Eternal reality) for so many; the sure promise of God unveiled to his people.

But I consider the meaning of his moving for those who have despised His rule.  A winter of fire forever.  A place where Spring is no longer spoken.  A place where the warm rain is tears falling down.  A place where hope is never realized.  A place where impossibility is king.  A place where ownership means shame.  A place of horror and oppressive fear.  As surely as they have chosen, alienation from the Living God’s beauty, is theirs forever.  If they have suffered in this place, rejecting God’s offer of Help in Christ, how much more will they suffer for having despised the Grace of God?  I have no right to speak of God’s promised Eternal Spring, without exposing his promise of destruction.

In my mind I meant to write this article exposing the beauty of God’s glorious Spring, as opposed to the glory of Man’s work.  But I got caught up in his promise, for good and for shame.

What is of God is obvious.  What is a Man is likewise.  For I know that he has said that we are without excuse.  So perhaps it is perfectly reasonable that my mind was turned to the glory of God’s wise and righteous judgement with pure justice.

I wish I had the words that would turn every soul for the love of God in his good will to save us all.  Then I would have no need to speak of the promise regarding destruction.  Then I would be full of joy that could be shared to the prosperity of all who could hear.  But the word wish is proper.

God will grant eyes and ears to those who will humble themselves and seek His Holy Face.  He has promised to lead all such people to his Holy Christ .There is a righteousness that is given.  That is the righteousness that belongs to the Christian.

Let this be enough for this place of writing.  By what I have written, I am not full of joy.  For a vast number  will see destruction.  This is not my opinion or speculation, it is the word of the Living God’s Holy Son. 

The Living God has promised to give strength to those who begin and continue to call out for mercy.   Please do so, that you too may taste the joy that is Spring Eternal.

Righteous Cadence

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Doesn’t language have a lilt?  The damsel in her joy shows it best.

Each according to the place he was born, bears the music of his words.

Every language of Man has a place of musical beauty; the place where his voice like a song.

Each according to the place he was born, bears the music of his words.

Janis Joplin, it was said, had a voice that sounded like many.  But I heard her noise, it was more a noise born of chaos to destruction.  That musical lilt I could do well without.

“His voice was like that of many waters.”  Like the place from which he was born, pure and full of beautiful music.

Undertones of peace and joy are the foundation of every sound.  Truth and purity radiate from his tongue.  The lilt of heaven embracing his commands.

The noise of Man is all we’ve heard.  But wait for the sound of the Lord!  Even if we fail to understand the meaning of his words, we would soon faint and swoon at the sound of his voice.

Glory, Glory, Glory is the Holy Son of the Living God!