Category Archives: Encouragement

Marked?

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Do we see what we are?  Or is our brain stuck in religion?  Do we hope for the best while we live in the worst?  Or do we actively search for release?

God will give glory to that which is glorious.  How can we possibly let ourselves be deceived?

Kelly Willard sang a song about willingness, “If you don’t have a willing heart ask him to give you one”.  It is wise to answer now.  Do we even ask for help?

The lumps are coming.  Will you take yours today or receive them in full measure at the coming day of revealing?  If we are covered with shame now, it does no good to ignore it.

Decades ago I read a story of a thief who was caught.  When they put the handcuffs on, he asked the sheriff how he knew.  The sheriff gave him a very odd look.  “Son, you have a birthmark that covers half your face!”

Let’s try hard to find a mirror.

Endless Majesty

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I could hold a straight pin in my fingers on one day.  For a moment, I could describe what I perceive.  It is an object for specific use, and has certain provable dimensions.  Then, I could hold that same pin on some other day.  With the Majesty of God within me, I could perceive an entirely different description of that same pin.

Endless is the Majesty of the Living God.  To say His beauty is rich in variation is to speak like a little child; not understanding the fullness of those words.  But here is what He provokes His servant to say this morning.

Will any man or woman dare to say they have understood all things?  Will the sum of your own religion (understanding the meaning of the word, religion) be the true sum of what God is willing to give?  Will “you” be satisfied with such a trivial basket of truth?

Do we perceive that God is endlessly Majestic?  Or do we gladly keep what we have, without desiring what is More?  Will we ignorantly restrict the Living God’s testimony to a world that knows absolutely nothing about the Sovereign One?  How can that be proper.

Yesterday morning, I was considering the saying, “What would Jesus do”.  I could not give that saying the same quality of respect that others have done.  For I perceived it to be more incomplete than true or useful.  A man might perceive that saying as if it were a guess from the history available.  If that is what the saying comes to mean to a man, he will live his “life” with such restraint as to be a useless life.

God IS.  He is not the history of being.  He is the current moment.  He is all moments to come.  And, in the history of moments, He is so richly dispersed with Glory that no one can live long enough to decipher His fullness.  Even with written record of history in the man’s hands.

Is the Majesty of God, that which He holds out to us all, truly summed up in what we have become?  Or is He willing and desirous that we should become something astounding here.  Will we wait for the promised dawn of transformation?  Or are we willing to take what can BE today?

Living Truth

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I see a fearsome mistake that men far too often make.  I see it for two reasons.  First I see the mistake because I saw it in other men.  Then the mistake came to life as I saw it in myself.

The mistake is that any man should think he holds the truth in his own hand.  And the mistake becomes evident when our actions and words do not reflect perfection and purity.

I know that many will not understand this.  They will think that the body of religious words have power in themselves.  But this mistake happens when people forget that the body of religious words are but a shadow of He who is immeasurably pure and brilliantly righteous.

The mistake happens when people look to their own history, or even the history of any other man, and think the truth they perceive can belong to man.

Man, in himself, can never hold the fullness of what is true.  I used the word never and meant it with all the fullness that that means.  Man’s reliance on the Living God’s Holy Son does not cease at our eternal appearance in heaven.

Truth is the Living God himself.  Truth is not a body of evidence among men, whether in word or in deed.  Truth is the Living
Person of Jesus the Christ of God. 

Failure to pray will surely lead us into things that are not completely true.  Failure to humble ourselves before the Majesty of God, will surely cause us to live abundantly in a Body of Lies.

Bubble Butt

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I had a conversation with a man about Bible prophecy.  He is immeasurably more well versed in prophecy that I can hope to accomplish.  The conversation was stimulating, and I walked away full of reverence and desire for God.

On the way back past the man, the Lord prompted me to speak of purity.  I talked to him about how God is so desirous to see holiness come to fruit in every one of his people.  The response was interesting.

I thought I would hear agreement.  His knowledge of Bible prophecy was impeccable.  Instead, I heard subtle references to justification, and excuses. 

I’m not judging the man, I’m looking at all of us.  We might do well in the realm of knowledge, but our application suffers famine.

One thing I felt urged to say stands out in my mind clearly.  You may not think this is a very dignified statement, but it is true none the less:

If a man will do the things of Christ, won’t the Lord tie huge helium balloon to our butt, that we may raise to a place conspicuous usefulness?  And isn’t this the reason why so many Christians live their lives in useless obscurity?

Xanthium species

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burrTemptation sits idle along every path a man might walk.  It does not have the sense to desire you.  It simply remains, deadly and dishonorable.

It waits with senselessness to bring shame to anyone who would stop to admire it.  And when the soul begins to admire sin, dishonor flourishes.

Temptation is no better or worse if a soul drinks its poison.  It is the man, who reals about, blind, drunk, and dying.  Temptation simply sits waiting to be consumed.

Men think of temptation as if it were an enemy.  Temptation is not smart enough to be aggressive.  No.  The enemy is not temptation.  The enemy is folly that is bound up in the desire of the man.

With our desire we dishonor the One who made us.  With our desire we destroy our legacy.  With desire we make the choice to be useless and damaging.  The one who desires temptation is the one who owns his own choice.

Preferred Trophies

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Our list of God given strengths cannot be a list of the things that were.  It is a living list.  Our strengths are no more frozen in time than are we.  Every moment brings a choice; do we wrestle with weakness, or take hold of victory.

The strengths of God are not trophies that we can put on display.  Rather, they are servants waiting to be deployed. 

It is our weaknesses that are dead.  But I see so many put these on display.

Will it be said that we coveted what is not?  Or will it be said that we desired what is?