Category Archives: Hope

Belief Matters

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What is it to believe in Christ? Is it just being righteous in some kind of religion? Is it just a clean conscience? How am I going to speak the answer I see?

If you believe the Living God has forgiven your sins. If you believe that you will live forever in a perfect body. What kind of joy you should fill your every day? What kind of love would you be pressingly anxious to deliver every moment in this life? I guarantee you it’s not the same joy and love the world talks about. They try to motivate each other all day long, but nothing ever changes does it.  


Look at this. These are just words. And that’s how most people take them. That’s not what they’re intended to be. They are the promise of the Living God in Jesus his honorable, faithful, righteous, and beautiful Son. And it is impossible for God to lie. They are words that are sealed with the blood of Christ, as if a wax seal on the scroll.  


Yes, I talk about God constantly. It’s because of his promise. And I would do it a lot more if I wasn’t shut down every place I turn.  


People say they believe in Jesus. There are a couple of definitions about believing. One definition is believing like a demon, “Yeah, I know God exists. And that doesn’t make me all too happy”. The only thing such a creature ever sees is sorrow and trouble. He thinks all there is to life is sorrow and trouble. He thinks all there is in eternity is sorrow and trouble. He thinks God is nothing more than sorrow and trouble. It’s no surprise that people who believe like the demons struggle in their faith and religion.  


Demons have a religion too you know; avoiding the Son of God if at all possible. They practice absolutely everything but what is good. They are eternally devoted to being utterly useless. And there are billions of people who follow their example.  


The other definition has to do with believing that God cannot lie. If he promised eternal life and forgiveness of sins, it is as if it has already been done. Such a creature lives for one specific purpose: to receive the things of God’s joyfully extended promise. And in the receiving there is a phenomenally generous giving. It’s impossible to shut that kind of person down.   


That’s what a Christian is. It’s got nothing to do with religion. It’s got to do with an enormously thankful heart. It’s got to do with the developing love for the One who has given life.  


Yeah, these are just words. But they are endlessly full of potential. Who will dare to believe? And how can such a believer be afraid of what others will think? Everyone will do what he has purposed in his own heart.  

The Violence of Want

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The door to peace locked.  

For sure.  

And no Man holds the key.  


The door to loss is open wide

By the lack in you and me.  


For hopes are like a falling leaf

From a winter ravaged tree.  


A man rises now to promise peace,

Only fading from view.  

You’ll see.  


Such leaves will fall,

And grow again. 

A trillion hopes will die.  


Why give your dreams 

To someone who

Can’t satisfy you and I?


Wait for God in Christ.  

Be satisfied with “least”.  


Stop pining over what you can’t.  

Call out to He who’s Peace.  

___________________

Futile Response

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The eyes of a man see the things of a man. And from his perspective he is locked forever.  

He will live and breathe, move and die, locked in a futile perspective of hopeless wasting. All the perspective of man can give us is its end result, death. And don’t we see the futility of that perspective being played out as people trying to grapple with the results of the election.  


From gloating to riots, the perspective of man seeks violence.  


All the while, the Mercy of God whispers, “Come to me and see these things from my point of view”.  


Who will stop long enough in the morning to listen to the whisper? Who will let the grace of God massage their mind and heart? The answer is obvious as you see people dance in futility all day long; not many.  


Jesus, the Christ of God, offers release from futility. To know about it is not the same as receiving it. Please take the time to think that through.  


By His Grace.  

The Plead is Challenged 

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Desire lay soft upon the sea.  
Desiring life for you and me.  

Joy abundant thrashes about;

Celebrating what’s come to be.  


The joy dispels as the predators come.  

Each back to his business,

To where he is from.  


Still Desire continues unpraised.  


Praise to the fins.  

Praise to the gills.  

Praise to the waves,

Which for now run still.  


Desire desires to hold and protect.  

But hark to the fishes,

“We consider guile best”.  


Down to the bottom,

Scattered about,

Perplexed, disassembled,

They answer the shout.  


The whisper forgotten.  

Their joy turned to gloom.  

“Better living with trouble 

Than to turn to the groom.”

What is Forgiveness

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Lord Jesus, Holy Father:

That you should be willing to forgive our sins as we forgive others. Such an awesome mountain of failings blown away by a breath from your nostrils. And all we have to do is humbly ask you and receive. Living out a life of thanks in the valley of penetrating knives. Just as you showed us should be done.  


What incredible power to overcome that is; eternally beyond our words to describe. Not only does someone love us, but the very creator of all things!


Spoken at your birth sustained by your righteousness forever: “Peace has come to earth, and goodwill to all men” (paraphrase).


Billions thank you. Recognizing that we can’t thank you enough. And even while we thank you, doesn’t the next failing prepare.    


By your display and patience you are astounding! Ceaseless and endlessly powerful is the love of God for all who call on his Holy name.  

Love is Life

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Two roads diverged, in a vast wilderness. From the womb they went separate directions. Unknown to her, the mother gave birth to a broken heart.  

One was full of love and nurturing, and never ceased to be straight. As soon as it could stagger, the other road turned a crooked difference away.  


Mama and her son.  


From time to time the roads would intersect. But the traveler wore a knapsack full of deviance. Worn and tattered as it was, he had no intention of laying it down.  


When he would come near, mama would speak with every resource she had. “I love you. Come home and love me.”


Sometimes he would stay. But he never could love his mother. Eventually he would go back on his crooked path. Eventually the flood of tears would come to mama.  


Again and again and again and again, sorrow broke her heart.  


The mother died alone. A few decades later, the son also died. Estranged in life, estranged in death, estranged from each other for eternity.  


The horror of this story dragged on for 40 years. And the horror of the story is forever written in stone.  


How many billions of times must this story be written!

……………………………


The point of the story may be hidden from most who read it. If you understood it before now you are one of the very few.  


Nothing can change the will of a man to love. No words, no deeds, no pleading, no promises, no rewards, nothing. If a man will not love willingly he will not love at all.  


And if anyone had told the man, “You should go home and love your mother”, he would’ve been filled with indigence. Isn’t pride lord over deviant hearts?


Isn’t this the plight of our God? So willing to embrace ALL humanity. So deeply craving to be loved, so that he can give Life. But in almost everyone, he is considered a last resort. He’s just a place of warmth, security, familiarity, food, clothing, and trinkets.  


He promises eternal peace to those who love him. But like the man who could not love his mother, greed for the things she would leave him when she died is not the same as love while she was living.  


There are no words I can say. There is no deed I can do. There is nothing outside of a person that can change the will of anyone to love God. We either love him or we don’t. And if we don’t we never will.  


No promise of reward, no threat of destruction, no encouragement from our brothers, nothing. Salvation to glory forever rest in the will of every person. God is willing, are we?


And by this I am struck with amazement, even in myself.  


“Many are called but few are chosen.”