A Bear of a Time


Psychology only tells you what’s wrong.  It may or may not be able to identify how the wrong got there.  But it has no strength to help you defeat what’s wrong inside of you.

You’re in the woods.  You see the grizzly bear.  You know he sees you.  You know you’re about to die.  What good does all that knowledge have, if you can’t destroy the grizzly bear?  You need a gun, not knowledge.

Christ is the power to overcome your troubles.  He not only knows what’s wrong, and knows how it got there, he knows how to fix you from the inside out. 

Turning to psychology won’t help you.  Turning to religion won’t help you.  Turning to pacifiers of every sort, won’t help you.  Turning to the Living God’s Holy Son in prayer can help you.

By His Grace

Chance and Possibilities


The universe exists as we find it.  The world in which we live offers us accommodating elements.  Perhaps it could have been otherwise.  Being a man who believes that God has created all things, I don’t suggest that there was an alternative outcome.  But, for the sake of those who believe in evolution, I offer the possibility.

The reasoning I just applied to the universe, can also be applied to righteousness.  Why isn’t it okay to murder your neighbor?  Why is lying considered an evil thing?  Why does immorality know any bounds at all?  And if there is nothing after death, why bother to live at all?

One might respond to me, “There are limitations for the sake of the profit of the specie”.  But if life is truly futile, in that every man who dies becomes nothing, why should you care about the profit of this specie?

You will respond to me, “It is proper to show love your neighbor and give respect for what life they do have”.  Who told you that love even exists?  If there is no accountability after death, why should it matter whether we love or not?  And if the only reason you live is that someone will remember your name, what value is it when those who remember you are dead?

Do you see how futile, and ridiculously ignorant, a life lived on the foundation of evolution is? 

If life among men is no more than a glorified animal, then where does the knowledge of perfection come from?  Where does the concept of love originate?  Animals don’t think to provide some eternal testimony of their life.  No, we are not just glorified animals.  We are vastly more.

For the sake of Man’s lack of patience, I will end this writing by simply pointing to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  There you will find these questions.  There you will find the answers.

Every man knows these questions exist.  But how many are willing to search out the answers?  Instead of searching, I find men drawing opinions from their imagination.  What will you do?

By His Grace

After Time Stands Still


Do you believe there is such a thing as a 24 hour day?

Do you believe that seven of them make a week?

How about a month, a year, 10 years, a hundred years, and so on?

Do you believe that there is such a thing as a million years?

Do you believe there is such a thing as a billion years, or even a trillion?

Do you believe there is such a thing as a never ending time, that thing called eternity?

How long do you expect to live?

What’s going to happen to you after you are dead?

Eternity is a smidge bit longer than you will live here, isn’t it?

Do you think it might be good to find out everything you can regarding what happens after death?

How many people do you know that have even looked into this?

If you have studied at length in regard to this life, have you studied at all in regard to Eternity?

Do you think it’s strange that people are so ignorant about such an important issue?

Isn’t it funny how people just accept the popular belief about these things, and don’t bother to look into them themselves?

Those people who are in charge of damage control, often take a close look at the worst case scenario.  By doing this they often avoid the lesser troubles. 

When it comes to the volume of religions on this world, I suggest that you take a look at Christianity.  There you will find much adeu about Hell, or at best complete annihilation. 

What possible scenario could be worse than spending eternity in a place of agony and torment? 

I know there’s a lot of people who would say I am completely insane to even suggest these things.   What if the remote possibility says, “I’m right”?

By His Grace

Religion


Who accomplishes the will of the Living God?  Isn’t that the one who is constantly looking to him for direction?

To what direction should we look, since no man has ever been in heaven?  Doesn’t it require a deep and living friendship with the Holy Son of God?

And how should we be friends with one we cannot see or meet?  Doesn’t it require faith from God?

What faith can a man have in mere words?  It is required that God should give life to those words within us.

Religion by itself, produces nothing but its self.  But the faith that God gives spawns a religion all on its own.

People, you have it backward.  You present your religion is if God should honor it.  But such procedure comes from the imagination of man.  If it is not of God and from God it will be eternally destroyed.

No man can become anything more than his religion dictates.  And how very few even aspire to that.  But religion that is spawned from heaven, aspires toward heaven.  And once a man is caught up in the things of the Living God, he can no longer aspire to less.

The religions of man lean toward pride.  The religion that God grants leans toward complete humility.

We are what we eat.  Bake cow pies if you desire.  I will be satisfied with nothing more than the manna from Heaven.  And this, not from my righteousness, but it is the gift of God, lest any man should boast.

By His Grace

Sayings Worthy of Acceptance


Sayings that are worthy of retention, contemplation, and sharing:

1.  Receiving the Gospel from a man makes the receiver twice blessed.  For you have kissed your sweet brother with an eternal joy, and you have the assurance of sharing that joy together for eternity.

2.  Christ Jesus is first in absolutely everything.  He is not some passing fanciful and ecstatic joy during a worship session.  He is first and comfort even in the most extreme and horrific circumstances.

3.  Rejection of the Gospel does nothing to eternity.  You were dead before you heard it, and you remain dead as you reject it.  The dead are no loss to the Living God.  Pride makes you think you’re something.  Frankly, you’re just not that important.

4.  A Gospel of extortion is no gospel at all.  God does not desire a people who are under duress to serve Him.  The Gospel is free of manipulation.  It does not demand acceptance.  It is a declarative call for free will.  As we love Jesus we will obey.

5.  God is not isolated from anything.  Only the perception of man can isolate one thing from another.  The concept of “Object Permanence” is taught in pediatrics.  Hide a baby’s fingers and watch his face turn to anxiety. 

God owns eternity, for eternity is of God.  Equally, God owns this wicked place of testing.  For every sin is a distortion of eternity.  Just because the hand of God is unseen, doesn’t mean it’s gone

6.  Every man knows he lives a lie.  Ignoring the truth of Christ Jesus does nothing to fix a lie.  Receiving the fullness of the Gospel of Christ, this is the fix. 

7.  Nostalgia brings no permanent joy.  Soon enough, you will be nostalgia for others.

8.  Everything in this world points to Christ Jesus.  For nothing is created here that was not created by him.  And our misuse of his creation does not nullify his signature.

9.  Fear is no excuse for remaining ungodly.  For Christ did not fear to do the will of His Holy Father in heaven.  Fear has to do with unbelief.  As if the one who fears, calls the Holy Son a liar.  What kind of reception should the fearful receive on that Great Day of Judgement?

10.  There is a difference between weakness of flesh and rebellion of soul.  God is able to distinguish between the two.  The one he will comfort and encourage toward boldness.  The other he will dismiss without regret.  The wisdom of God among men gives discernment.

11.  Death brings an eternal seal to every man; what we had become in life, to that we are sealed forever.  It is of the father of lies to speak anything differently.

12.  Let the acceptable threshold of Christianity remain elevated.  The expectation is godliness.  How then shall we set the bar at 0?  Not one man but Christ can reach 100%.  Yet surely there is a number in between, which we can grasp with an iron grip.

There are hundreds more worthwhile sayings.  But these are enough to keep us busy for the remainder of our life.

By His Grace

Toward Easter


Much to my surprise, evidently there is conflict over which day of the week Jesus was crucified.  Ok fine.  But the day does not matter as much as what God has done.

Those who should have known him.  Those who should have been able to embrace him.  These became the instrument of His glory.

It is not ours to hold it against them.  I have often been reminded that men will do what they do.

But as it was true and Joseph’s words, so it is true in Christ.  It was meant for evil, but God has used it for good.

By His Grace