Category Archives: teaching

Two Funnels

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The man said he wanted holiness.  He tried with all his might but to no avail.  Then someone told him, “You cannot have holiness except that it comes from God as a gift”.  So as soon as he could, the man went to prayer.

The gist of his prayer was, “Oh God make me holy (for all the right reasons)”.

The man believed and got up and walked away.  Three hours later he found himself embroiled in ungodly things.  The man was dejected.

Later he found the one who had told him that holiness is a gift from God.  “What you say can’t be true.” the man told him.  “I asked and received, then lost it again.  How could this be?  For I have heard and believed that God’s gifts and his calling are irrevocable.”

The man he was talking to was the pastor of a church whose membership was nearly 200.  The pastor told him that he would give him his answer on Sunday morning.

Come Sunday morning, the man walked into the church.  Placed up front was what looked like a polling booth. Jokingly the man ask the pastor if that were his answer.  The pastor answered, “It soon will be”.

The sermon had to do with honesty and integrity.  And throughout the sermon the preacher rose to creshendo.  All the people were visibly stirred.  Each one was ready to tell the truth unto death.

Then the preacher spoke of the men’s difficulty, without mentioning his name.  He pointed to the little booth and explained what was inside. 

“On the table inside the booth, you will find two upside down funnels.  One is marked man the other is marked God.

Before you leave today, I want everyone of you to walk into that polling booth.  Push a single tiny object into your choice of a funnel.  You will be answering a simple question.  If a man has asked God for holiness, who is at fault when ungodliness arrives, God or man.

By His Grace

Corrective and Punitive Action

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Dear world:

Will you be patient and righteous for a moment?  Will you let a prisoner speak to you? 

You have placed me in chains, I can do you no harm.  But will you entertain the words of this man you have accused and imprisoned?   I ask you no more than that.

By the necessity of survival, you have made laws against such men as I.  And it doesn’t matter if your laws are just.  They are your laws and you enforce them just the same.

So I have been accused and condemned, before the Society of men, as one who does not play well with others.  For the sake of propriety I speak softly among you.  But propriety is the steel you have forged to enclose me in my cell.  But if I must speak to you for the sake of understanding, I must speak to you in the language of propriety.

Propriety is a shifting mechanism; it changes according to the fashion of men in every generation.  And so men like me are forever jailed by your own laws.  You do not seek to rehabilitate me.  Your accusations, condemnation, and imprisonment are sufficient to please you.  The horrors of your prisoners never enter your mind as you celebrate at your feasts.

I do not hold this against you.  You will not change, and it does no good to accuse you.  But I must begin this message with what is true.

You have tattooed my forehead with the word “MEAN“.  And you were not wrong to wield the branding iron.  At first when you accused me I was angry.  And I gathered what truth I could and slung it back at you.  So your accusation was confirmed among you.  And you rightly confined me.  And this according to your own laws.

But in my confinement your accusation has become unfounded.  For since you would not let me be a one with you, in my confinement I searched for what is true.  And I have found Him!

Your own laws of confinement speak of corrective action.  But this is the purpose which you ignore.  For if one who is confined by your laws turns away from violent behavior, you do not accept his change.  You do not offer corrective action!  You simply seek to rid yourselves of what you do not approve.  Anyone who is not profitable to the ways of men is cast away forever.

By this foolish standard you are the ones who are jailed.  And the brand you have placed on my forehead has become my glory.  So I am right in releasing you from any accusation concerning me.  You have meant it for evil, but God has used it for good.

The One I have found, while imprisoned in your social standard, is the pure standard you think your yourselves to be.  He is not limited by death, as are we.  He is not limited by a tidal wave of lies.  He is the absolute truth.  And he teaches all his people to be bold among you.  Thus I have written this message.

He is the standard by which every man will be judged.  For he has walked among us with perfection.  And God the Father has placed Him eternally as FIRST.

While I have been imprisoned, he has come to set me free.  Even while your bars of social standard are placed squarely between you and I.  I range freely in the open space of forgiveness and love.  And from this place I warn you.  Your ways which you hold in such high esteem are wrong.

Were I to gather a crowd of a million people, and speak these things to your face, you would no longer desire to jail me from your celebrations.  You would, in fact, desire to kill me.  Even as the men of a generation, which saw the Christ walk among them, murdered the Holy One of God.

You would see a man who is just like you.  And this man would proclaim that you are wicked and worthless, as one.  I do not make the proclamation on my own.  I speak only what the Living God has said.

Yes I am a man like you.  Yes I was trained in the volume of your lies.  Yes I was violent toward you, both in word and in deed.  For you yourselves trained me!

But the Christ has come to set us free!  And any who believe this message, can have this freedom.  We need not be chained in the volume of teaching that is a lie, any longer. 

I stand boldly and tell you, “Man can become holy”.  I stand boldly and proclaim that we need no longer to live as liars.  God is willing to teach us what is true and faultless.  And his teaching is full of power to overcome the lies of this place.

Most of you will balk at this message.  For you love the volume of lies more than you love the volume of truth.  And you will not put up with one who calls your ways wicked.  But I will call your ways wicked just the same.

I was mean when I did your will.  Now you count me mean when I do His will.  You see how your corrective action is at fault.

But I have not written this for the sake of meanness.  And I have not straightened my back before you as an act of defiance.  I have appeared before you as one who is not ashamed or afraid any longer.  And it is love that straightens my spine.

Love makes me turn around.  I had been kneeling before the One who is love.  With awareness of what he has done for me, I have remembered the people from which I came.  I have returned without fear to give you this message of truth.  God will see, how many of you respond.

These words belong to God.  They are only mine, in that he has given them to me.  Yet they are not mine, for I give them to you.  I have come as a messenger and nothing more.

By His Grace

Luck

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Luck is for the faithless.

Among the blessed of Christ there is no such thing.

Luck is for the godless.

Among the godly, Christ is all.

Keep your hope that good things might happen,

All you who hold yourselves as gods.

For Christ is sovereign,

All in all,

For those to whom he has been revealed.

Contrary to popular opinion, there is no such thing as luck.

By His Grace

The Nature of Temptation

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What have I learned about temptation that is worthy of writing?  So much is written on the subject.  I did not dare write about it until I had something more to offer.

I have learned about its true nature.  It is not just an unwise choice, born of rebellion against God.  And it is not a single action. 

It always starts as something small.  It never comes upon us in its full-blown nature.  In this it is rightly called an enticement.

Among men there are things of beauty.  Among men there are things that can rightfully be desired under the right circumstances, and within a proper limit.  But the enticement of temptation will draw you a little farther.

Consider the beauty of woman.  Along with desire for wealth, her beauty rates very high in the failure of man.  What does temptation whisper, as it begins its routine enticements?  Doesn’t it make remark in regard to the things of our perceptions?

We say yes.  She is beautiful.  Then temptation agrees, adding an observation of your desire.  The enticement has begun.

Temptation whispers to you that lust is only natural.  By now you are ready to agree.

But as the foolish man enters in, temptation does not keep quiet.  He adds more shame upon shame.  By now you are not only too weak to resist, you encourage him to speak.  Pathetically, by now you consider temptation as an honorable teacher.

Before a short while is done abominable things have crossed your filthy heart.  Temptation does not end with enticement.  It takes a man or woman to the classroom of filthy thoughts and actions.  And when physical satisfaction has been found, it laughs at you!

Now temptation does what it is renowned to do.  Its strip you of pride, and rubs your face with all that is filthy.  You are a disgrace before God.  You are a disgrace before the Holy Angels.  You are a disgrace before all humanity.  You are a disgrace to yourself!  The only one who is pleased by your stupid choice is temptation.

Worse upon worse, temptation now knows your weakness!

Take note in all these things, I did not call temptation the devil.  The book of James tells us that we are tempted and drawn away by our own desires.  Yes he is called the tempter.  But we, my friends, are the ones pointedly to be blamed.

I have used the example of woman.  But I do not blame her singly.  It is the most pervasive temptation among man.  But it by no means stands alone.  Everything that draws us away from what is good and pure is sin.

To some it is lying.  To another is money.  To one it is gluttony.  To someone else it is self-abasement in any form.  And temptation will testify, “The myriad is large”!

Temptation knows your weakness.  Be honest with yourself, my friend, so do you!

I tell you a truth.  You will not overcome the things that tempt you from within.  Try as you might you will not find the strength.  You are bound like a prisoner to repeat your filthy ways.

The only one who can free us is Jesus the Christ of God.  And I do not say so with the slightest sliver of shame.  I testify to you that overcoming temptation is quite possible.  But you will not overcome if you do not call out to him.

Eternity will be purged.  Did you know that?  Once this place is done, this place of temptation and testing, nothing that is sin will ever find life.  If you needed provocation to consider resisting temptation, let eternal death sink into your mind.

Those who desire righteousness will seek His Holy face.  Those who are content to be filthy will never raise their eyes.  Death will cover them forever.  And no one will say, “Sweet dreams”.

By His Grace

“I Am God”

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Peace, every human wants it.  But not a single one is capable of grasping it.

In the struggle for peace:

Some try to fill their lives with their desire; amassing to themselves all manner of trinkets.  With what commerce they own they purchase peace.

Some use anger to control the world around them; driving others away, lest desires clash.

Many turn to drunkenness, sexual immorality, and drugs; subduing their perception of reality lest they perceive anxiety (Peace eluding them once more).

Most turn to a form of religion; encasing themselves in a structure of belief in God mixed with social righteousness.  They find they have the acceptance of man, but they are still void of the acceptance of God.  Peace eludes them even while they reach to grab.

Still a few turn to a life of obscure devotion to an obscure god; wasting away with self abuse for the sake of the god they make in their mind.  The fruit of the peace they seek is death itself.  A wasting death, void of peace, and filled with anxiety.

There is nothing on the face of this planet, nor all creation, that can give peace.  If man makes it, or has anything to do with its production, it is immediately laced with chaos.  The very peace they seek is wasted by their own efforts to attain or produce it.

True peace must come from a place of perfect Peace and Truth.  This entire creation is but a shadow of that place.  At our very best we can only manipulate lies to form what we call truth.  Because of that, anxiety is king over all humanity.

It is written in the Bible, “Then they will know that I am God”.  I never really grasped the full meaning of that until now.  Yet by the very definition of Truth, can I say I have grasped its entirety?  (I write this while I am on the earth.  I have not yet arrived in heaven.)

God the Father, His Holy Son, and the Holy Spirit; these are Peace.  They are from eternity and they are life.  They alone are Truth, for the Father alone is Truth. 

Peace is given not contrived.  Unless we receive what He offers, we will have no peace at all.

And let a man rebel against God’s commands, while he is in the process of receiving, he will find peace removed from him by degree.  With the stark difference in his soul, the man will perceive the words, “Then they will know that I am God”.  (Let the reader understand, I am writing this from experience not conjecture.)

Anything that is extended can be retracted or cut off.  Anything that is given can be removed.  For the one who has given is more blessed than he who receives. 

It is fortunate for the Christian, that what he has received is regulated by perfect loving wisdom.  The very purpose of the regulation is to “draw” the Christian to Truth. 

If this article provokes anything, let it be this:  anyone who is drawn to Truth must go where Truth lives.  God alone is True. 

It is in this drawing that we begin to understand the words, “Then they will know that I am God”.  If you seek Truth, with diligent and humble heart, you will come to understand those words.

Read what God said through Ezekiel.  “I will turn you around and drag you along. I will bring you from the far north and send you against the mountains of Israel.  [He who struggles with God.]  I will strike your bow from your left hand and make your arrows drop from your right hand.” (39: 2,3) 

God himself will lead us to himself, and this through Christ Jesus His Holy and Righteous Son.  Anyone who is drawn to God will lose his own perception of truth.  In its place, Christ Jesus becomes King.  Progressively, chaos is decimated.

It is not possible for man to manufacture his own peace.  But True Peace comes with a price.  The cost of redemption has been paid.  But the cost of Truth is very steep.  A man is forced to pay everything he has. 

Who, among God’s people, is willing to pay that price?  I suggest to you there is not a single one.  But it is God who comes to us all to give what we are neither willing or able to pay.

God provides the place where understanding of these things is far more than academic.  It gets quite personal!  Isn’t that what he means when he says, “Then they will know that I am God”.

By His Grace

Throwing Relatives in the Trash

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Examples that truth is absolute abound.  But men examine these things in their imagination, which is full of dream like ambition.  And so millions walk away believing there is no truth to be known.  Truth is as relative as their perspective; endlessly millions, even in one person.

Let’s begin.  Create two piles of thought in your mind.  In one pile are the things you can trust, let’s consider them (for the time being) as truth.  The other pile will contain the things you know are lies.  Over time, if you are diligent, you will find that you have thrown lies to the pile of truth and truth to the pile of lies.  The life of habitual sorting is necessary.

Many would give up on this before they start.  They think to themselves, “This will take six lifetimes to accomplish”.  If a man must rely entirely on his own mind to do this task, then yes it will take forever.  But you will find that God is willing to intervene in your confusion.  Simply begin.  And help has already arrived.  One might even say that this article helps you before you begin these things.

Faith to believe is given by God himself.  All he’s looking for is a willingness to begin.  Then he looks for a diligence to continue.  If you will display that, he will reveal more.

But this task of defining truth and lies can be an extremely painful experience.  This is why so very few enter in.  Sadly, the diligence people display in trying to define what is true is similar to New Year’s resolutions; swept aside in a matter of days.

By His Grace