Category Archives: Encouragement

Ceaseless Strength of Condemnation

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If the full pressure of all my sins were to bear down upon my worthless soul, I would never be able to rise again.  The strength of my bones would turn to vaporous dust.  The muscles that could move them, would become like gelatin mud.

My eyes would see nothing but blackness and horror.  And peace?  Peace would stand eternally far from me.  My mouth would lay open, gasping for life, but no life can enter in.  The weight bears down with endless pressure , the weight of all my sins.

If this is the case of one who is sure the Holy Lord will save him, what is the case of those who do not believe?

The hope of Christ lifts that incredible burden from me; as if a fallen slab of stone is stopped from crushing me flat.  It is held in place and poised above me by the magnificent strength of he who lives forever.  And the promise of he who cannot lie, will never let it fall.

Oh, come to Jesus!  Seek his beautiful face while the Day is upon you to choose!  For the day will soon come when all your sins will fall upon you with great intent.  You will be crushed!  There will be no one to help you!  And you will never rise again.

By His Grace

A Bear of a Time

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Psychology only tells you what’s wrong.  It may or may not be able to identify how the wrong got there.  But it has no strength to help you defeat what’s wrong inside of you.

You’re in the woods.  You see the grizzly bear.  You know he sees you.  You know you’re about to die.  What good does all that knowledge have, if you can’t destroy the grizzly bear?  You need a gun, not knowledge.

Christ is the power to overcome your troubles.  He not only knows what’s wrong, and knows how it got there, he knows how to fix you from the inside out. 

Turning to psychology won’t help you.  Turning to religion won’t help you.  Turning to pacifiers of every sort, won’t help you.  Turning to the Living God’s Holy Son in prayer can help you.

By His Grace

To My Siblings

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The herald stands in the city gate. 

His voice trembles and cracks at the wounds he bears for all to see. 

Sometimes reduced to a whisper for the constant use of his voice. 

Perchance one will stop to hear, of the thousands who pass him by.

He speaks of wounds, but they are not his. 

He speaks of great injury, but can blame no one. 

He speaks of a great calling, but who can hear? 

Who will bend his wicked head to lend a deafened ear?

Still he stands, without flinching. 

Still he proclaims despite the abuse. 

If one will hear, he has a brother. 

Though forsaken even by his mother , it’s a sibling he seeks.

What wounds do we bear that dare compare to the Holy marks on God? 

What trials do we face , as we work out The Faith, as we stand there all alone? 

It is to God we live. 

For the sake of Life and others. 

It is to “we” we are sent. 

Rest your head in peace, you who believe in the promise of God. 

The war will continue in the morning.

When morning comes you will take your place in the city gate. 

But now rest and know that He is God.

By His Grace

Grace

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“When you ascended on high, you took many captives; you received gifts from people, even from the rebellious– that you, LORD God, might dwell there.” (Psalm 68:18)

If you want hope for every day and night of the rest of your life , look at what it says.  “. . . even from the rebellious”.

Jesus lives to save. 

The house of the righteous man is clean and prepared for a visitation of the Holy One.  While the house of the rebellious is infested with tiny crawling venomous snakes.

Faith has cleaned the house of the righteous.  That same faith, drops the rebellious to their knees. 

With Regal Splendor, the Living God’s Holy Son comes to the house of each.  And he is received, in each house, by a flow of tears. 

Everything the righteous man has belongs to this wonderous person, Jesus.  Everything the rebellious one wants, is in the hands of he who is willing to come among his filthy things.

Both of them fall on their face in awe.  Both of them marvel at the Majestic mercy of the Righteous One.  Both of them give the only thing they have left; willing praise to the One who can save their souls.

Burdened with limitations, each one knows they can reach no higher than their skin.  But see how it is God who moves to embrace.

10 As it is written:

“There is no one righteous, not even one;
11 there is no one who understands;
there is no one who seeks God.
12 All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one.”
13 “Their throats are open graves;
their tongues practice deceit.”
“The poison of vipers is on their lips.”
14 “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 ruin and misery mark their ways,
17 and the way of peace they do not know.”
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (Romans 3)

This is the nature of our plight.  The righteous man knows these things and lives because he receives from the Living God – that great mercy God has promised.  The rebellious man looks up with pleading, for he knows the same things.

One has.  The other has hopes to attain.  The Apostles walked with the Lord daily.  The man of the tombs was forced to remain.  Yet all of them testified to the willing love of the Living God’s Holy Son.

Who will bring to God the only thing he has to give?  Who will believe this message and live?  Who will offer thanks for the inexpressible gift of God, Grace?

By His Grace

War and Peace

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Peace, peace?

All my days are thankfully rude; that they may keep alive in me the necessity for holy conversion.

Go seek peace, if that is your desire.  I will rather to enter the war of Christ against myself.  That He may bestow upon me (come that immeasurable day) PEACE which escapes me now.

By His Grace

The Promise of Hope

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The promise of God, to those who love him and worship his Holy Son, is eternal life.  Think about it; Eternal Life!

His promise brings to us something that is thoroughly beyond our understanding.  Yet those who believe this, become transformed by the power behind that very thought.

Do you believe?  Have you taken the time to let it sink in?  Do you wake every morning and go to sleep every night, considering the beauty of his promise?

While God’s people consider this with all their might, the world worships zombies, movies about dinosaurs, sex, sports, money, all the trinkets of life, relationships among men, status, and the works of their own hands.  All of these doings done with death looming in their future, and trouble along their way.

Such a vast chasm of living between those who believe and those who refuse! 

As I ponder this I am shocked to realize that the percentage of those who believe compared to those who do not is less than one percent.  And even of that one percent, I find doubt.  Among this number there are many who cannot find the will to continue in that belief.

All he asks is that we believe he cannot lie. 

When we stand before him, will today provide regret?  Or will we bend our will to believe?

By His Grace