Good


​Define the word “good”.


Now after you just shot some definition at the word, think about the definition you used.  Did your mind really define the word “good”?  


“Good” isn’t subject to fault.

It doesn’t offer itself to personal opinion.

It doesn’t even wonder whether you are right or wrong.

“Good” is absolute, endless, unwavering, pure, exclusive, wise, dutiful, and all the other words we have to describe perfection.


The next time someone asks how you are, try not to respond “good”.  God alone is Good.  At best, we are in reasonably fair condition considering the circumstances.


The Lord told us to season our conversations with salt.  That means understanding what we say, injecting truth without mercy into our tongue, and making sure people understand that there is good truth to be had.  If we don’t display it, who will.

Three Advantages


​    The ones who love God have three things happen to them.
     They are despised on this Earth while they love the one who made them.  Somehow such open love is considered illicit.
     But when they leave this place they go to be with the one they have loved so dearly.  They are ushered into Eternal Joy with open arms.  For they have proved they love him more than these.
     And the third thing that happens to them is most fascinating.  Their name, their words, their actions, are all rolled onto a pedestal called Legend.
     Man is curious.  He will despise and kill his enemy, then he will raise his enemy to Legendary status.  With the same words he uses to lie, he now tells fanciful stories about this one who is no longer among them.  By this, the work of God’s people is multiplied many-fold.
      In these three things, the love of God is greatly glorified.  See how the wisdom of God works to glorify love, life, righteousness, Justice, compassion, grace, and mercy.  And all these things are in the being of his holy and righteous son Jesus!
So be it.

Marriage


     ​Did you know that the current divorce rate in America is 50%?
     I was thinking this morning about how I want my life to matter.  In the end, I came to the conclusion that I want to bring gifts to the Lord’s wedding.  It didn’t take a heartbeat for my mind to compare gifts at a wedding today with gifts at the wedding of the Lord.  
     People marry for their lifetime, at best.  The Lord’s wedding to his people will be a “once in eternity” event.  Never has it happened before, and never will it happen again.  It would be good to let that sink in.
     With divorce at 50%, what is the value of any gift we might bring to a wedding?  There’s a 50-50 chance they will only be useful in the division of things.  Our token of love might well become a token of division.
     But then it dawned on me, the importance of the Lord’s wedding to his people.  When the Lord marries us, it will be forever without the slightest chance of disillusionment.  What then is the value of the things I bring him on that Holy day?
     How do I bring him gifts?  What can my hands invent that I can bring him in my soul?  The Flesh, and all I can do,  will be nothing  on that day .  Nothing.  What then are these gifts I’m talking about?  Simply put, the gifts we bring the Lord are born of obedience to him today.  We bring honor to his wedding because we have let him do the work in us that brings his Father Glory.
     We know what he wants.  We know who he is.  And we know who he wants us to be.  I’m really not sure I need to say anymore.

In the Blink of an Eye


Have you looked into the coming future of Man?   Do you know about the utter devastation of all wickedness?  Do you know how sure it is?  

At the very moment of Eternity when God lips cease speaking the command, a devastating and eternal blow will be sent to all this darkened the creation.  Like a lightning bolt that strikes a pea, the earth and all this black universe will be no more.
Everything man currently loves will become nothing more than a floating ember of ash.  Absolutely nothing, of even the dust, will remain.  
Heaven will move, taking its rightful place.  This place of testing will be no more.  The joy and righteousness of God will prevail forever.
When this happens it will be as if this place has never existed.  All the things men love will be gone.  And it will happen in the blink of an eye.
It will happen faster than it takes an atheist to remember he has said there is no God.  Have you considered these things with serious and vibrant desire?  Or have you been like so many others?
Lashed to a portion of the ship, the man proclaims there is no storm.  The ship is tossed 45 degrees to the left, then is forced the other direction 90 degrees.  All the while he stupidly proclaims, “There is no storm”.  
It’s easy to see there is no common sense in such a man.  Are you living your life like that?  Or are you letting common sense cause you panic?
Such realization ought to send us to the words of God.  Truly believing this ought to make our fingers tremble as we turn the pages.  Is this the way you see people reacting to this News?
It doesn’t matter how we respond, does it?  It doesn’t matter what comes of us when God puts an end to all the things men have loved. 

Heaven will gain its rightful place, that place that this place of wickedness has consumed for so long.  And it won’t matter whether we believed this or not.
I urge you because I love you, think about this.  If I despised you I would say nothing.   Please let your mind think this through.

What?


​If someone will inherit the things of God in Christ,  why wouldn’t he or she be extremely passionate about the coming promise?  Even if that person’s faith is extremely small, you would think there is an unquenchable joy and yearning for the things of God’s promise.
But if that person truly believes what God has said about his people, how could they possibly resist sharing the joy?
Maybe they don’t understand what God has said.  Maybe they don’t know what God has said.  Both of those can be rectified by reading the New Testament.
But why would anyone who believes these things choose to live like the world lives?!  How could such a joy be pushed down to silence?  How could such a person have so much fun in the ridiculous and useless trivia of this world?  You would think their longing for the place God promises is so intense that none of the things here give them any joy it all.
I’m trying to help everyone see.  And I just don’t understand why they don’t.  I don’t want to infer yucky thoughts toward people.  But I’ll admit I’m running out of excuses.

The Good Die Young


​Some say there is no God.  Others doubt that God cares.  Some think there is a God and that he cares, but they are left to fend for themselves in this place until they reach heaven.
Then can you explain why there is any good in this world at all?  What is it about the world that gives you the impression that good can triumph here?  A bad man succeeds, while a good man is shot down in the street.  And isn’t there a saying among us that the good die young?
The proof that there is a God remains in his faithfulness to deliver survival to a people who despised him so vehemently, and glorify violence and death.  
You think you’re in control of your life?  Think about this:
A man in India, one single man, will do a single task today.  What others have done before him, throughout the world, will dictate what he does today.  Another man in Saudi Arabia will do something today.  He’s single action will reach you or your children sooner or later.  Are you really in control of your life?
People will do what they do.  They will say, or not say, what they want.  A handful will give glory to the Majesty of God among us.  But most will live their entire life giving no glory to God at all.  They may respect him and fear him but they refuse to speak of His Holy name in public.
Yes God cares, in spite of the fact that we don’t.  God is beautiful in Jesus the Christ.  Man is a mucus mold on eternity.  Still God holds out his hand to us.  
18 “Come now, let us settle the matter,”

says the Lord.

“Though your sins are like scarlet,

they shall be as white as snow;

though they are red as crimson,

they shall be like wool.

19 If you are willing and obedient,

you will eat the good things of the land;

20 but if you resist and rebel,

you will be devoured by the sword.”  (Isaiah chapter 1)