Category Archives: Place of Testing

Humility Wins, Hands Down

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The humble man in Christ Jesus may suffer a great deal of loss.

But the proud man, who fends for himself, suffers no loss at all.

The true Christian will be compensated beyond his wildest imagination.

But the godless man will die with the things which now protect him.

Define loss and gain, as you perceive them.  Consider what is written above.  Then redefine loss and gain.

When you have read this far you have lost that much more time.  How much more time will you squander, o’ godless man of self?  The door to your life has closed a fraction more as you read these words, which you are likely to dismiss.

Dear Christian brothers and sisters:

Entice loss to come up on you, even as our spiritual siblings before, enticed the wild beasts.  Let the glory of our Lord Christ Jesus excel!  He will certainly not withhold his hand from reward.

We suffer but a little while.  Then the glory of the Living God explodes upon our soul, and it will never recede.  How insignificant this time will become; as we have willingly suffered for his Great and Majestic Glory.
         ____________

While you, godless men
and women,  continue in your willing blindness.  The Holy Lord stands ready to give you eyes to see, a mind to understand, and a heart that is willing to obey.  But you will have none of it.

Each man decides for himself.  Will he humble himself and pray, and seek the Lord’s Holy Face, and read his Holy words, and strive with all his mind, strength and soul to learn?  Or will he count all these blessed words as if they are less than trash?

15 “And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24)

Shake the trees with your great in majestic strength, O’ Living God in Christ!  Send your righteousness upon all men.  Inspect them, Father in Heaven,
even as they live dead among the dead.  Rise up and judge your enemy.  Bring a close to this great place of testing. 

Let the righteous remain
righteous.  Let the wicked remain wicked.  Let all who seek Your mercy find it in vast abundance.  But let all who hate you now be put to utter shame on that great day when you stand to judge the world.

In Christ Jesus, the Holy Son of God, amen.

By His Grace

Noahetic Promise

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A man sat in the early morning darkness.  The stars lit his face with imperceptible glow.

The chained dog, below the man’s perch, barked at something imperceptible.

Standing, the man spoke to the dog, “What do you see?”

At that the dog ceased its barking and a vague tail could be perceived to wag.

 

With a kind word.  With a peaceful heart, wisdom shut the mouth full of teeth.

What the dog perceived, moved with stealth into the obscurity from which it came.

The dog settled quietly to wait for another perception of breech to his domain.

And the man sat to marvel:

“The promise to Noah has come to me.  My sin is stronger than the teeth of my adversaries.”

“Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. 2The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands. 3Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.”  (Genesis 9:)

 

So, we have victory over that which comes against us; even the stubbornness of our folly among the things of this world, even the strength of our faith in eternity, even the Promises of the Holy One.

So, the testimony of God’s majesty moves among the men of this place of testing.  So, we are without excuse.  For the very things of our standing are plainly visible to all who will desire to perceive them.  So, will all men be void of excuse!

If even this lowly and vile excuse of a Christian can see these things and understand, how much more so the righteous of God among us?  I was not, am not, and have little.  Any man can become far more than I, and this by the Grace of God in Christ Jesus His Holy Son.

Answer this question:  Why do you marvel at such things?  Why do they not swim about with gladness within your very own soul?

The Search

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I am not an accomplished professor of all things.  There are vastly more things I do not know than what I do possess.  I am not a smart man, as men would call one smart.  I am vastly more a fool, than wise and elderly.

The time I have left, to be among the things of this world, is far less than the years I have already seen.  And my time to become what men speak of a “special” is passing quickly.  If it has not passed already.

But I will impart what I have learned.  Perhaps there is benefit to some.

I have examined the world from the perspective of sin, and found it utterly lacking.  In the way of sin, I have walked more vigorously than most.  And so I can testify with surety.  Life is not there.

I have examined other religions from a distance, as I sought release from my pathetic state.  I did not have time, nor inclination to immerse myself in their teachings.  To do so would have required pledging myself.  I did not possess such earnest intent.  Nor would time allow.

But every religion established by man is full of fault and worthless tripe.  None of them held sufficient truth to remedy my plight.  They said “do”, but I could not.  Therefore life is not found among them.

I examined the law of God and found it true.  I speak of the law of God as found in the Holy Bible, not as men say is the law of God.

I found the law of God in the Holy Scriptures to be founded on eternity.  But one does not need read far, to realize the Holy Law of the Living God is more than man can accomplish.

In the law of God I found life.  But by the law I found I was put to death.  At last my struggle is over.  But what should I do, am I to die?  Is that the summation of this struggle?  I still had desire to live.  So though law of God is life, I found myself dead in its reading.

Now I will testify of what I have found. 

There is one who has fulfilled the law of God on behalf of all men.  He is willing to enter a man’s sin and drive it out.

Now this is life!  All he asks is that I am willing.  Having searched what is, of course I am willing.

I have proof in my soul that he has come and made drastic change.  I have proof in this testimony that he is true and able to save.  I find that I believe.  So I proudly wear that name.  I find myself doing the things I thought were too hard for a man.

If I had last words, these would be it.  Search for all you will, you will not find anything greater than Christ Jesus.  He is Life!

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!

Who are you?

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Who can say he would do such if certain things happened to him?  To make words is easy.  Fools do it all day long.  But who among us knows of what they are made before the test is given?  And even as a test begins upon us we have not yet seen the fullness of our nature.

Were your mate to have a stroke and lay in a bed for 10 years.  Could you endure?  What would you do?  As the question is presented, your mind answers.  But you cannot say for sure.  Your answer would arrive at the end of the 10 years.

Life as you now know it will end.  Plans you had together will not just deteriorate or be placed on hold, they will evaporate into nothing in the flash of a moment.  And you will become embroiled in a horrible test.

Should you be caught up in some stupidity and find yourself in jail for 20 years, what would you do?  Again, the answer comes at the end of 20 years.  What we say before the test is complete is but speculation.  It is not even to calculated guesstimate.  Proof alone can rightly answer.

We know what is right.  We know what the word valor means.  We know the meaning of weakness and strength.  But we do not know of what we are made until we are tested.

No man can fully be called faithful to Christ until he arrives before the Holy One; this place of testing left behind forever.  Until then we fall on our knees and beg for mercy that we may endure everyday.  To consider yourself a faithful Christian now is to prepare a room for pride.

Who knows what tomorrow brings?  Who knows what will happen before the sun sets?  What we are is what we have done.  The sum of our history is a test.  As you look at what you have done, who are you?  We are living answers.

“That’s Mine!”

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What man of us has come from eternity?  Has he been before and said to himself, “I will now become a man.”  No.  We are created from what we do not understand.  We appear, and cannot explain how we came to be.  Nor can a man say, “I will return to what I knew when I die.”

This is true an indisputable.  Though a man may say he is of another life he cannot explain how he came to be in the first place.  No man has come from eternity.

I speak this way understanding that there is One who has appeared among us from eternity.  He has known heaven for he was there in the beginning, and has returned victoriously rich in all the things of God.  And when he spoke to us he spoke of things he knew.  But no other man is capable of such a thing. 

But now listen to how we speak.  We say “This is mine.”  “This is my boat.”  Or the poor man may say, “This is my coat.”  What a man means when he says such things makes all the difference.

Does he mean the thing is identified with his name?  Does he mean it is not in the hands of another man?  Then he is just and righteous in what he says.

But if a man says something is his and intends that people should respect his belongings (as if he has created his things on his own), then he is wickedly mistaken.  At best, we are only caretakers of all that is in our hands.  Only He who is from eternity owns all.

As a man perceives, so he does.  If a man perceives his belongings as truly belonging to him, he will pursue all he has with great greed.  He will call it his own, without regard to God or others.  He will erect a fortress around it.  And he will murder anyone who lays a hand on what is his.  His waking hours will be alert without ceasing.  His sleep will be fitful regardless what alarms he may set.  And he will wear anxiousness as if clothing, all the days of his life.

But the man who perceives the truth will save himself from untold anguish.  All belongs to God.  Nothing belongs to man, for he is made from nothing.  And to nothing, he and all he owns returns.

What he has had has been a test of his heart.  That is something.  For when he leaves this place his soul will appear before God to be assessed.  Judgment will be made, and the man will receive what is rightfully his. Even while he lives assessment is made without his knowledge or ascent.  Do men really think they will give counsel to the Most High God?

The wise among men consider these things.  And if they arrive at the truth they no longer lock their doors.  All their days are filled with peace.  For they know all belongs to God. 

The sleep of the wise is peaceful and full of tranquility.  When they eat they eat with joy; they are not concerned with their next meal, for they know that God will provide.  When they reached for what is in their trust they are not concerned of its demise.

All belongs to God.  He, in his great wisdom, has created us and will sustain us.  Think about it.  If a man will take care of what he thinks is his, how much more will God perfectly protect that which his perfect nature has made?

The wise give him his honorable do and live in peace.  Those who perceive this place of testing otherwise have no peace at all.