Category Archives: Encouragement

I See Your Fear

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I see you everywhere you go.  I do not judge you, but I see the signs of your fear.  You hide behind your things, so sure that no one notices.  But even a man like me see through your charade.

You have become so adept at hiding from truth, that you wouldn’t understand it if it were explained to you.  Why?

You’ve heard the saying, “He’s bought into the things of this world”.  But that isn’t true, is it?  You haven’t bought into anything.  You’re simply afraid.  Why?

You’ve got your music, your favorite  television shows, your job and aspirations.  You have your friends to hide with.  You have all those trophy trinkets you’ve gathered.  And in spite of all these things you don’t know the truth.  Why?

The truth is not hidden.  It’s just that you refuse to look.  It’s so easy to think of yourself as a good person.  But if you stood before God you would know better.

Do you think you will stand the judgment of God without the help of the Lord Jesus?  My friend, you don’t know the living God.  And you don’t know the Lord Jesus.

God is the very truth you are hiding from.  Yet he is a truth that never ceases.  This is why you are afraid of him.  This is why you love lies more than truth.

But you will meet him very soon.  If you hide in this place, where truth is but a shadow, what will become of you when there is no place left to hide and truth is no longer the shadow?

Yes, I see how you push others around to get what you want.  I see how you manipulate truth with lies.  But my friend, you will not push God.  And He will laugh at your attempts to manipulate His truth.

You love your excuses.  Why?  Isn’t it because they help you hide?  In a great variety of ways you say, “I am this way because. . .”  And you fill in the blank with any number of reasons.  Why?

You don’t have to answer to me.  I couldn’t help you if you did.  And what good would your confession be to a mere man?  Your confession would only become another tool to hide behind.

I will tell you this in the form of a warning, but remember I am not judging you.  You’d better get it right with the Holy Lord Jesus.  He’s not that cute fuzzy little teddy bear you’ve heard about.  He is a blazing fire of righteousness.

No one on earth is beyond his willingness to have compassion.  But he absolutely hates lies.  He will put up with your faults if you are willing to learn.  But this offer is only extended while you are still here.

So that brings up the old question.  How long do you have yet to live?  Perhaps 40 years?  Perhaps 10 seconds?  Regardless the time, when you leave this place you are immediately under judgment.

Don’t listen to the liars my friend.  There is no such thing as a good man.  You will not receive eternal life for the good things you think you’ve done.  It’s either His way or death.

And as a passing note, dear friend, it doesn’t matter whether you agree or not.

By His Grace

For Emergency Only

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The godly will endure trouble.  For this trouble, God is righteous to uphold their cause. 

The ungodly and the sinner will also encounter trouble.  But how is it they believe God must help them?  Wouldn’t God be righteous to allow the trouble to provoke them?  Yet his loving mercy is extended even to his enemy.

I read the account in John chapter four, where it speaks of a nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum.  He begged Jesus to come and heal his son.  The Lord replied to him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders you will by no means believe”.

It’s hard to miss the fact that Jesus was not pleased with the request.  But what is it that would have given the Lord pleasure?  The foolish might think the death of the child.  But how could that be so?

God is not a charity.  He is a purposeful engine for godliness.  Though he is merciful to our ignorance, his desire is that we understand.

Let us not be consumed with the things of this world, be they profit, poverty or sickness.  But let us understand the will of God, that we should become godly men and women.

God will take care of us as our needs arise.  Are we willing to endure for His Holy Name’s sake?  Are we willing to let our faith grow?  Or do we demand solution for the things we cannot control?

Shall a servant refuse to serve the king until he is fed?  The good servant will rise on an empty belly and make sure his master is well taken care of before one morsel of bread touches his tongue.  The king will take care of what profits his kingdom.  If that is so among men, isn’t it more so among the things of God? 

What are you using God for?  Let us be truthful and admit that most people use God for some emergency tool.  And to the shame of the church, such expectations live among Christians.

By His Grace

The Coming Winter

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We work so hard among the things of men.  Everyday we add to the calluses of some certain part of our body, produced by the diligence we are expected to employ.  We are tossed into the fray by the expectations of the body.  Have we let a tumult define who we are.

Is it necessary that this tumult consume our thoughts?  Does the body need to dictate who we are?  The reason why we do these things is what is important.  What motivates us?  Doesn’t our motivation depend on the eyes of our soul?  But where are those eyes fixed?

Do we allow our eyes to be fixed on the temporary; those shining little objects offered as if pacifiers?  Or are we diligent to remember the truth that lays before every man?

Everyday is opportunity to remember the coming judgment.  Everyday is opportunity to do the will of our God.  There is a Holy pen in the Holy Hand of the Holy One of God.  Isn’t it wise to provoke it to write our name in the book of life?

Consider this prophecy in the book of Daniel chapter 12:

1“At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people, will arise. There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then.  But at that time your people—everyone whose name is found written in the book—will be delivered.  2 Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.  3 Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars.”

See how pale the things of man become when the judgment is remembered. 

Those who endure winter well are they who have prepared.  There is a brilliantly white winter approaching; a time when the work of man will not be possible.  Now is the time to prepare!  See how the leaves have fallen.  Isn’t the season of God imminent?

By His Grace

Sheep for the Slaughter

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Does a sheep wake in the morning and decide to provoke his wool to grow?  Does he consider man his friend and even a beloved one?  Does he say, “I love the people.  Come wool grow”?  Isn’t it true that the sheep’s, wool which provides for man, grows without the consent of the sheep?

Even the muscles on his bones, which provide meals, grows without the consent of the sheep.  Never once does the sheep consider the boiling water.  He is content to live and to eat.

In Christ we are as sheep for the slaughter.  How many Christians remember this?  Isn’t it true that we love the promise of eternal life, yet despise the nature of who we are called to be?  Haven’t we developed our own religion, labeling it Christianity?  And in this, haven’t we set our own expectations from God?

How quickly and easily the following Scripture is despatched from our memory.  But let us try to remember.

36 “Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were put to death by stoning they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated 38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.”  (Hebrews 11)  All of this because they obeyed the will of the Most High God.

There is such a thing as faulse persecution.  The place where we perceive others are against us, while no one pursues us for the things of God.  By our pride and greedy ownership, they come to take away what we have. 

But have we appropriated what is good from Jesus?  Have we gained so much from his willing hand that we are worthy to endure such great opposition from sinful men?  Or have we simply remembered the good promises, and like ghostly religions we have melded into society?

Now is our day to be as those for whom the world is unworthy.  Who is willing to step forward and claim such a place?  Who is willing to live that they may die?

They will not kill you because you are religious.  They will kill you because you are of God.  It is the truth of God men hate so much.  Sincerely, they couldn’t care less about a religious man.  Such a man may be an irritation,  but the truth of God is abhorred.

Jesus compared us to sheep.  But we should not be like wild sheep, free to roam anywhere they please.  We belong to a certain flock.  And of that flock man it is currently permitted to harvest.

By His Grace

Evangelism

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The day I was born, the day I graduated high school, the days I spent drunk as a youth, the day I accepted Christ Jesus, and every other significant day of my life.

On the days I thought important things happened to me, millions of others experienced their own significant occurrences.  Not a single one of them saw the days I saw.  Yet time moved forward for us all.  The calendar chimed in unison.  But the entirety of humanity saw a richly variegated symphony of experiences.

There is one significant occurrence that should happen to all men.  Every man should be able to say he has accepted Christ Jesus as his Lord.  This is the only common thread we can share for eternity.  How that comes to be is also a richly variegated symphony of experiences.

Now I try to preach about Jesus everywhere I go.  But as I think of the differences with which we all encounter each day, I am struck to remember to let the Lord Jesus speak on his own behalf. 

Who could possibly imagine a single canned gospel delivery for every man?  Each delivery must be tailor-made for the ears that hear it.  What man can possibly do that?

If you plan beforehand what you will say as you testify about Christ, the chances of profitable delivery are significantly diminished.  Bottom line, if we don’t let the Holy Spirit do the will of Christ Jesus in us, we restrict the ears of those who might hear.

Though I cannot condemn the use of gospel tracts, or what is called the Roman Road, it is not wise to dictate what God will say.  Those can only be useful examples.

All the same I suppose it is better to testify than to keep your mouth shut.  Yet to give free rein to God’s lordship over our testimony is best. 

I understand how organized testimonies can help those with a weak faith.  But even as the child grows adept at adult things, I think it is quite possible to overcome fear of delivery.

I have no idea who may benefit from this message.  But I know that the Spirit of God does not dress us in timidity or fear.  True belief in the power of God within us ought to be visible in a boldness, and Godly wisdom. 

While it is true that each of us stands before Christ on our own, it is also true that our opportunity to testify to any one man, may be the slightest of opportunity.  And so we are encouraged to make the most of the situation.

Who can say how God will lead them in any one place.  But let us try to lay aside prepared commercials for the Holy Lord’s testimony.

By His Grace

God Cannot Lie

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The salvation of men is in heaven.  Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Holy Father of Life.  The condemnation of man, for all his wickedness, also is in heaven.  For Jesus is the fulfillment of the law.

In John 3:13 I find something very interesting.  Jesus is speaking to Nicodemus.  And Jesus refers to himself as “the Son of man who is in heaven”. (NKJV)  One might ask, “How can he be in heaven when he sitting here talking to Nicodemus”.  Jesus is in heaven, while speaking to Nicodemus, because he has come from heaven; as if the finger of God has landed on Earth. 

Heaven is not a physical place, as most the people of Earth believe.  It is a matter of belonging and becoming.  It is a state of being, to which a man must be transferred by the power of Christ.

I mention this because it brings to bear something that people conveniently forget.  Though there is a difference between flesh and spirit, there is no difference in belonging.

Those who do not belong to Christ stand condemned already because their condemnation sits with the Holy Father.  And to our great joy, those who receive and obey the grace of God in Christ are already in heaven.  For their salvation sits with the Holy Father.

Those who belong to this world will reap the benefit that is due all wickedness.  Those who humble themselves and believe the message of God in Christ will reap the beautiful promises of life.  For God has seen their hearts, received the confession of their mouth, and has promised them on oath.

It is interesting to me how the wicked apropriate the good promises of God.  By some perverted means, they attribute salvation to themselves with no apparent fruit.  They have a hope, but no proof of it in their soul.  They are from the earth, they are within the earth’s beliefs, and their condemnation waits for them.

While this is true for the wicked who do not believe (toward “The Becoming”),  I often find that those who believe in Christ suffer under confusion and doubt.  So I have stated these things here to give encouragement.

A man belongs to the place he obeys.  And the proof of our belonging is within every man.  The wicked do not strive to obey.  They simply believe with no foundation, or proof, within themselves.  They seek to enter where they do not belong.

But the purchased of Christ will find themselves embroiled in an internal war.  They cannot be at peace in this place, for the Spirit of God lives in them to war against the desires of the flesh.  The war within the Christian should be proof to him that he is already in heaven.  God cannot lie.

There is no war in the wicked.  They war among one another for the sake of selfish greed.  They even go so far as to apropriate what is not theirs from the Holy Throne of the Living God.  But the outcome of the wicked and the outcome of the Christian are sealed forever in Christ the King.  It is impossible for God to lie.

By His Grace