Category Archives: Encouragement

Within the Tabernacle

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In this city of holy testing; this town of temptation, there is a tabernacle of God.  This is a place where the children of God; brothers and sisters alike in soul, come to fellowship in what is holy and good.

This tabernacle is placed; built by the Holy Lord Himself, upon the very street where men pass by.  These men, who pass by, go to do their doings; to yearn and follow after the things of sin.

Their passing is a temptation; they pass by without consideration of what lay beyond the Holy door.

Let their passing escape my eyes.  Do not let the sound of their feet reach my ears.  Restrain my eyes from the windows, let them be stained with the exquisite blood of my Lord.

 

Restrain me, O’ Lord of Life!  Place my back to the door.  Present Your Holiness to me.  I will be overcome with awe.  My knees will buckle and I will bow with a sudden falling.

You alone are life.  Those who pass by are of the land of death.  Dress me in Hope, and I will live in the land of the living.

Let the Gold of your Holy Temple instruct my desire.  Let me crave the fullness you have promised.

 

I speak many words before you.  But they are not many because I doubt you hear me.  They are many as I encounter your Holy Law.

I am caused to reach up with vigor.  Zeal consumes me.  Holy zeal provides a hurricane of words.

I am not void, for I am here in your Holy Place.  But hunger, thirst and ceaseless praise attends my heart.

By Your Holy Grace I seek your precious face.  By Your Holy Grace I reach to you.

 

“My Grace is sufficient for you.  For in your weakness my strength is made perfect.”

Then, by all means, let your Holy Wisdom know the limit.  Yet I will crave Your Holy Way.

 

You are God.  You are the Living God.  You are established from ages past, even to forever.  You will never cease, yet I must die to join you where you are.

May Your Holy Will be done forever.  For You alone are Good and True.

By the Holy and complete Sacrifice of Your Holy Son, I speak these things from within the tabernacle You yourself have built.  You have done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.

 

Amen, Amen, and Amen!

The Modern Church

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What will it take?  What will it take to spur the “church” into holy action; this dead and dying mass of men who say they believe in Christ.  What will it take?

Shall we command the Sun to fall from heaven and rest in the palm of our hand?  Would they then believe and do? 

Shall we order the moon to retreat from the world?  Would they repent of their sins and walk in holy steps?

If they will not believe the law of Moses and the faith of Abraham, they will not believe even if the dead should rise before their very eyes.

Will someone please close the door on the ways of this world.  Some foolish men have opened it wide.  The power of the Spirit of God is not first among the things to which the men of God reach.  They reach for the trinkets and baubles which the world loves so dearly.

Entertainment and emotion are the only aspects of men to which they plead.  They have perceived, with wickedness, that this will guide the church, increase its numbers, and solidify salvation for those who attend.

They have allowed themselves to be duped into stupendous loss.  Though their numbers increase, the holiness of God runs absent.  The fire of holy words has been replaced by kind and politically correct.

Naked and shameful they think they are dressed in glory.  They spout great speech, while their members are no different than the world.  Abandonment of the work of men’s hands, is no longer a command.  It is only a pleasant suggestion.  And the members nod with great glee.

“We have torn down the barriers of holiness!  We have destroyed the old ways of faith!  We have overcome the division between the world and God.  We have become what they could not!  Praise to our efforts for we have done what no one else dared do.  We will surely move from this place into great glory!”

So you say.  So you languish.  So you are weak, destitute, naked, and vulnerable to the judgment of God.  What you build will be washed away.

What will it take?

Join Me

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The world loves chaos.  For in the darkness of confusion a lie can go unseen.  There is gain to be had at the expense of another’s life.  And men abound who are drooling at the mouth to take advantage.

These men are not wise.  There is no need to fear them.  They only plot to take away the things of this world. 

Though they plot to overtake, they have no wisdom on which their plot will stand.  They are like dumb animals who simply stare into the woods and wait for prey to appear.  Do not fear them.  Though their plots should even to take your life, have faith!

In the midst of noise and confusion they watch and wait.  This is the epitome of their wisdom.  They bang their drum and flash their lights. They reach to all their tools of wickedness, and with all great expectation of hope.  They are sure they will overcome and destroy.

Let them have their day.  There is one who lies in wait for such.  His tools, to which he reaches for their sake, are Eternal and Holy.  He watches the thicket of men with great knowledge.  Let them have their day.  There is a still small voice which cannot be disturbed by the chaos of men, “Let them have their day.”

Let them stack up their deeds unto heaven!  Let them build and contrive, destroy and consume.  Though they are vigorous and youthful now, they will be not but a puff of dust before the Holy One.  Let them have their day.

Their greedy hand reaches out, and I will spit on it with contempt.  Take what you will from what I have; that which your greedy eye desires.  I have treasures eternal which you know nothing about.  Things you have not seen nor even pondered.

I have seen it myself; how the wicked are destroyed in their way, even as they take the next stride.  I have witnessed judgement fall on them like the darkest of night.  Shame covered them and they had no answer for their lack.  I have seen it even here.

From where does the boldness come that I speak in this place with such surety?  I have seen the folly of man!

The living God, in Christ Jesus His Holy Son, has taught us what is true.  I for one will take these teachings with great abandon.  Join me.

As the Lord lothes those who are faithless, for they do not obey His Word, so I will let the holy hatred of evil rise up in me.  I will count their vigor as the greatest of stench.  And what I have loved before will be replaced by what will last forever.  I will embrace what is Holy.  I will search to follow he who lives forever.

The living God has come among us!  Walk in His Holy way.   Amen!

Faith From Death Alone

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A pathetically struggling Christian is hardly any Christian at all.  While he may still be a Christian, by a margin only God himself can know, his testimony is exceedingly small, if alive at all.

What can he say if he decides to testify?  Will he say, “Jesus saves”, while he dabbles deeply in sin?  What proof does he have that his words are true?  And though a man may believe his words, in three days time no proof will appear.

The hearer may prosper in time, but the testimony of the weakened one will prove to be a block and a wall; a hindrance rather than a help.

I do not say this to shame my weaker brother.  Rather I say this to spur him on.  And I do not say these things without knowledge.  For I lived that fruitless and pathetic life for 20 years or more.

Do you really want to conquer sin?  Do you really want to become profitable for the Holy Lord of life?  Are you willing to confess that being a victim is a very comfortable way to live?  Despite your tears, which only oil your next slide to hell.

The victim rises up toward righteousness then falls back quickly for, “It is too hard.”  So he squanders hours and days filling himself with pleasure.  “I will repent soon and the Lord will take me back.”

Such behavior only produces a kind of faith that raises this one from the dead, over and over and over.  Why do you spend your faith on such a trivial life?  When, if such a faith were applied toward righteousness and obedience, it would conquer the very sin you love so much.

This is what I have found.  This key unlocks the chains of death and folly.  Using my faith to bring Him glory instead of pleasure for me.

There is no excuse for the man who lives swinging precariously between life and death.  For what we practice so we are.  He who practices failure is a failure!  While he who practices righteousness, even to the death, is righteous.

“Salvation belongs to our God and to the lamb!”  Have you read the lyrics to the new song in Revelation?   And have you heard that there is no one righteous but God alone?  Have you read and understood that the Lord Jesus came as the willing proof of God’s desire to save his creation?

Did he come to save us that we may squander our life in pathetic dangling between heaven and hell?  Did he not warn us that those who gamble their eternity in unrighteous, ungodly, unholy, wicked and perverse behavior, will certainly not enter the kingdom of God?

All the while you suffer and struggle, your heavenly Father desires to give you righteousness.  But by the confession of your habits you say he is powerless to save you.  Thus your testimony is worthless.  Your prayers are ineffective and infrequent.  Your faith waxes dead more than alive.  And you have gained no ground worthy of mention.

When you could have so very much, if you simply asked, with earnest and truth filled heart, your hands are thoroughly empty of gifts for the crowned King of glory.

You do not pray for release, you simply pray for a calm in the enticements.  You pray for forgiveness while you secretly plot for your next adventure to wickedness. 

Just how long do you expect the Holy Lord of life to display his patience kindness to you?  Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, your neat little trick of rising from the dead will no longer have any effect.

Pray for wisdom and do not cease.  Pray for understanding and cease your desire to lie to God.  Ask for desire toward righteousness.  Beg him that you may learn to abhor your sins.

Turn from your endless wandering.  Let him open your eyes to see the hideous nature of what you have loved to embrace.

I testify to you that there is such a thing as overcoming sin.  You may say you know that but where is your proof?

Those who humble themselves before God seeking what is absolute and true, and turn from their wicked ways, these find favor with God and receive His righteousness upon them even now! 

To say otherwise makes God out to be a liar.  And it pronounces the victory of Christ as if it is of no effect at all!

Answer yourself for yourself:  who has been the liar and of no effect at all?

DESIRE

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What a man perceives to be good, he does.  Those things he holds precious, he yearns for and grasps to take.  He sleeps and dreams of the good he perceives.  He eats that strength might attend his limbs, in the gaining of his desire.

So it is with the things of this world.  Mention your desire to yourself.  Assess what captures your desire.  Examine yourself to determine what you hold dearest.

Let us not be like the mocking bird.  Let us not mouth great things that are absent from our desire.  But let truth attend your assessment.

Where is God’s desire among your doings?  Where is the desire to be holy and full of Holy promise?  Is it more than the mass of lesser desires of this world?

Perhaps your desire for the things of this world is divided into small desires.  Perhaps it is not that you desire the gold of men.  Perhaps you desire what can be the subtle lie of man; the smaller and less obvious forms of passing lie.  Yet the sum of them amounts to a vast portion of your desire.

Assess with truth.  Present yourself before God and ask for understanding of all your ways.  He will show you.  Will you perceive His showing?  What will come next at your willingness to perceive what is shown?

The Lord Jesus has shown us what to do that we may overcome the things of this world.  He has shown us from where Holy Strength comes.  The strength of God appears upon us as we desire Him.  Ask for desire.  When desire comes, take note.  Ask for more.  You will not love His Holy Laws without the holy desire of God living in you.

Yet if we receive, that which He has desired and yearned to give, we will come to love His Holy Laws with earnest and intense strength.  As we desire we will not desire to cease prayer or obedience.  Desire is KEY.

Enoch knew it.  Abraham lived it.  Noah sweated desire.  Millions now own it.  Billions now rest in His Holy presence because they embraced the desire for what is Holy.

Desire, Holy and full Desire, attended the Lord’s every moment.  It was strong enough to lift Him, full of willingness, to the bloody and horrible enduring of death on a cross.  What a small thing the Lord demands of us:  “Desire Me!”  Especially considering He is able and willing to grant the earnest soul desire.

161  Rulers persecute me without cause,

but my heart trembles at your word.

162  I rejoice in your promise

like one who finds great spoil.

163  I hate and detest falsehood

but I love your law.

164  Seven times a day I praise you

for your righteous laws.

165  Great peace have those who love your law,

and nothing can make them stumble.

166  I wait for your salvation, Lord,

and I follow your commands.

167  I obey your statutes,

for I love them greatly.

168  I obey your precepts and your statutes,

for all my ways are known to you.

(Psalm 119)

Our Singular Purpose

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“From the rising of the Sun to the place where it sets, the name of the Lord is to be praised.” (Psalm 113: 3)

In good times and in bad.  In sickness and in health.  Through riches and poverty.  Through gain and loss.  Till death are we united, The name of the Lord is to be praised.

He has set his way unmovable, he has established from Ancient of Days.  The creatures who were first, and the creatures who are last will encounter the same from the Living God.

There are the multitude who will praise Him; before, now and forever.  To join with them is the promise of the righteous; those who trust in the word of the Lord to the doing of it.

The rebellious will waste away and be no more.  But the living God, and all that is holy, will stand forever.  Praise to the living God in Christ Jesus His Holy Son will remain.  But the wicked will be confounded and lost in their terror.

Let all rise up against me, I will give praise to the Sovereign God through His Holy and Beautiful Son Christ Jesus.

You will do what you do by compulsion, you who despise what is holy.  The taller the Lord’s people stand, the more venomous the hatred of those who hate the Lord.  This also is unmovable in this place of testing.  Why then should we shrink and seek a corner in which we must hide?

Is the Lord hidden in his glorious palace?  Did the Christ of God shirk his calling?  Did he not submit to the Holy will of the Holy One and live?

Is the testimony of the righteous brought to us because they ran to hide from the onslaught of wicked desire?  Have they not lived faithfully for the glory of the Lord who has purchased them and for the testimony which is able to give us strength to testify now?

What will be the saying of those who come after us?  Will they say, “Capitulation has occurred.  The righteous obedience to the living God has been spurned by those who lived that day.”

If there are three who will praise the Lord, regardless their situation, then by all means let it come to be with great exaltation together!  You will not venture to service without me, oh holy brother.  And we will arrive in praise together.

Let our lips praise His name.  Let strength greater than Sampson’s come up on our souls to control the sinful nature.  In word and in deed, let our testimony blaze among men.  Let us fan into flame, blazing flame, the gift of faith and the gift of obedience.  Let a desire to praise Him consume us with holy zeal.

Then a testimony will be written for those who come after.  By this the Lord will provide, even as he has provided for us.  We have an obligation to him.  And in the meeting of this obligation we will have passed down what is ours to give.  We will pass down what is marked indelibly, “GOOD” .

May the name of the Lord be praised for ever!  He is righteous and true, faultless in all his judgment!  Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God Almighty; who was, and is, and is to come!

His appearing blazing fire of righteousness will consume his enemies.  And those who put their trust in the holy Son of God will stand firm forever.

Amen!