Category Archives: Encouragement

From Fear to Boldness

by

0


I just read the post of a person who is nearly beside themselves because they can’t testify regarding Christ.  Limited circumstances are driving them to desperation.

What an amazing disparity between the timid who will not speak, and those who are consumed with the fire to speak.

In myself I found the following to be true.  As I sat in fear, no strength was given to testify.  But the moment my trembling legs took my mouth to a certain place, strength came.  Boldness is given to those who let their faith loose.  Those who bottle it up will be given nothing but sustenance.

What’s this mean to you?  How can I know?  I know what it means to me, and to those tiny ones of Christ who rise to gargantuan proportion.

By His Grace

Arrival

by

0


Morning comes.

Despite the desire of drunkenness, daylight arrives.

Sleep ends.

Despite the depression of soul, waking dawns.

Sobriety dawns.

Despite the obsession with sin, Souls awake.

Judgment explodes.

Despite the secrets of man, Accounting yells.

Who was ready?

Who was prepared?

Who saw it coming?

Who shouts with joy?

Whose mouth is opened despite his will to keep it shut?

The Hungry Sea Creature

by

0


2061212_370I woke from sleep this morning, from a dream that most would call a nightmare.  A sea creature had taken to land.  It was a creature who had a taste for man.

I was perched on a narrow outcropping of rocks above the surf.  He was perched along a slightly lower place. With confidence, I challenged his right to hunger for the likes of me.

But, to my horrible surprise, he was able to reach toward where my feet stood.  I was in no fear of being caught.  But as he reached, the rocks beneath me began to loosen and fall into the sea, one by one.

“No need to remain in bed”, I thought.  So I got up to start the day.  It has taken two hours for this dream to find meaning.  But the meaning is more threatening than the dream.

The world moves from one moment to another.  What is past is like those rocks which were falling into the sea.  The foundation that saved me from becoming food, was a place I should not have been. Was I where I should be?  Hadn’t I remained too long in a place that was no longer useful?  If I had moved on from there, I would never had seen that creature.  I would not have been vulnerable.  I would never had known what follows.

God leads His people from place to place.  He is always drawing us nearer to His intended goal.  What we can be, in His Holy Power, lay before us.  What we were standing on, becomes a crumbling foundation.  The past is not a firm place to live. Security belongs to today.

The Living God’s protection applies to the moment.  It does not rest in the future, as some believe in the Gospel.  It does not reside in the past, as many waste away their lives in regret or accolade.  He is the NOW.  Remember, His Holy Name is “I AM”.

Receive!

by

0


“The Faith”:

Its fullness stands starkly before all the enemies of God.

Speaking by its presence, “You will never touch me”.

Though the storm may rage around he who abides with in this Faith,

He will sleep in peace.

Though the waves threaten the weakened ones,

The Faith abides in fullness of trust.

Boldness is its radiant marking.

He who has, timidity has become vanquished.

What is the threat that will subdue it?

What threat cast a shadow on the one who owns The Faith?

What is The Faith?

It is that God cannot lie.

He has spoken His Holy promise in flesh and blood.

He has raised Him from the dead by The Faith.

Though they sought to lay hands on him, he walked through their midst.

Yet, when their time of strength was given them, The Faith allowed capture.

Still, The Faith endured; as a lamb is led to the slaughter he did not open his mouth to complain.

The Faith!

What portion do we find ourselves willing to embrace?

Portion, because He is First!

Boldness of The Faith, my brothers!

Receive, do, glorify, accomplish, and become!

It is The Living God’s joy to give.

Receive!

The Living Prayer

by

0


From eternity the oath is spoken.  The Holy Son asks by the ministry he is sent to accomplish.

Every word of every prayer is the fruit of a perfectly earnest life.  By this the Lord Jesus lives the answer to his own prayers.  How shall the eternal Father in Heaven not give his own flawless will?

From the birth of the Son to the holy words spoken, “It is finished”, the Holy Son lives his prayer.

7 I will proclaim the Lord’s decree:

He said to me, “You are my son;
today I have become your father.
8 Ask me,
and I will make the nations your inheritance,
the ends of the earth your possession.
9 You will break them with a rod of iron;
you will dash them to pieces like pottery.”

Often the prayers of men are naught but words.  And in this they take stabbing guesses at the Holy will of the Living God.

But the life of earnest obedience produces effective prayers on its own.  As the fruit tree does not strain to produce what it is made to produce, so the obedient servant of Christ Jesus is made effective.

By His Grace

Blue Christmas

by

0


Throughout the night, the last song I heard playing continues to echo in my mind.  Exhausted as I was, I slept well.  But the power of the song continues.  Even all my dreams were touched by endless sorrow.

I wake with a heavy heart.  For the things I have done in my life will not leave me alone.  This is a picture of the life I lead for decades.  It is a haunting echo of the man I was.

With desperation I realize I need a friend.  I need someone who is not like me.  I need someone whose resources are endless.  I need someone near me who can care.  This is, of course, the Living God in Christ Jesus.

I hide from men as a loner, because I do not want to teach them the things I have done.  If I speak to them face to face, the testimony of myself comes to the surface.

I push the Lord forward before me, between they and I, that they will not assume a wicked life can have any righteousness.

The song is “Blue Christmas”.  I am void of explanation that I should have any joy at all.  The things I have done in my life are death.  My value is to die, and to die, and to die.  If it had not been for the mercy of God, I would be dead already.

This is my testimony before all men, according to the things I have done. 

I know I am not alone.  Everyone of you can testify the same.  If every man is honest with his history, death is all he ever was.  And without the life that God offers, no man has hope.

But isn’t this the reason why I testify so vigorously?  Because the One with endless resource has offered his bloody hands to me.  He teaches me to receive.  He promises me a new song. 

I cannot live in my past, for it is nothing but death.  I cannot live in my present, for memories drown me in sorrow.  And if it were not for the Living God, to come and touch me with compassion, my future is nothing but darkness of death’s promise.

This is what this blog of testimony is all about.  I write that many may have life.  I speak as loudly as I can about the endless resources of God to love you.  I speak as loudly as I can, to educate every man regarding his own worthless life.  Let them perceive the disparity and yearn for health.

God is mercy.  He holds out his hands all day long to every man, woman and child.  “Come, let us reason together.  Though your sins are as scarlet they shall become white as wool”.

Hope!  Precious and vibrant hope!  This is what the Lord offers!  Yet with a heavy sigh, I wonder who can take it.

Who is willing to lay down their precious death?  Who is willing to abandon their regretful memories; their only solace in the dark?  The compensation of man for the nature of what he is.

Yes Christianity requires much.  There is holiness to attain.  But in this work there is life.  We are death.  We are headed to death, and all we have is death. 

All the while God stands.  Life, promise and pure integrity, is held out for any who come and take it.  To die is easy.  For that is what we are.  To live, simply requires laying down death.

This is the new song he gave me, as I sat with heavy heart.  He reminded me of the new song that waits to be sung.  The compassion of God is not a fable.  It is in fact, the endless resource for life.

By His Grace