Category Archives: teaching

The First and Basic Truth

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I am sorry for you, men of the world, for you willingly reject the authority of man in the things of God.  God Himself has chosen to speak through men.  But you cannot stand such a glorious authority.

You gladly give authority to other men for lesser things.  Frankly because you know you can tear these men down at will.

You can restrain the men you elevate, by the strength of popularity, financial subsistence, or even by death.  But any man sent by God Himself rises above your filthy hands.  And for this you despise such men.

I am sorry for you because you dismiss the possibility of eternal life.  All the while you elevate the liars and the hypocrites to the places of honor.  I am sorry for you, because you will continue to do this until these things are taken away from you.

I am sorry for you, because you do not know the beauty of the things you dispatch so willingly.  By this proud strength, you think you have freedom.  But this proud strength restrains you as slaves to unrighteousness.

I write this to the men who are of today.  But you are no different from the generations who have passed before you.

I do not say this to accuse you, but to expose what keeps you blind.

Every man gives account of his own life.  Do you desire freedom?  Do you desire eternal life?  Or do you find yourself content to live a life of slavery to everything that is false?

It is an easy thing to live in lies, for we are, by our nature, liars.  Even forced by the nature of things around us to live a great lie.

And we are lazy slugs.  Desiring peace and tranquility, we strain to retain our own wickedness.  Our soul knows, that if we are wicked, the Lord will be kept far away.  To our shame, we call this peace.

But our soul also knows that we will be caught up to Him, regardless our state of affairs.  Yet men prefer to live in ignorance.

The Lord has established His Holy way from forever.  But every man is born in this place of time and wickedness.  Before he learns to speak, man is taught the authority of pride.

Are you willing to learn the authority of humility?  Are you willing to entertain the Holy Fire of the truth of God?  Every man will certainly entertain it on that great day of judgement.  But the gospel has been sent to us that we might escape The Horrible Flame.

This Gospel has been handed from God to man once and for all, and this by the Holy wisdom of God; that he may test the heart of every man.

There is a question written in the fabric of creation, and every man can read it clearly.  “Will you humble yourself and seek the face of He who is Holy, Holy and Holy?  Or you will you retain the freedom to be proud?

You will gladly accept the authority given to a man by the schools of men; that machine of men which produces liars.  Plumbers, electricians, doctors, psychologists, lawyers, and every occupation of man, receives your respect.  Are you willing to listen to those who are the product of the eternal Holy Spirit of God?

You reject them because they are taught in a school which you are not allowed to control.  Wouldn’t it make sense that such men are more reliable than those who are taught for the sake of financial gain or pride?

Are you willing to receive the painful transition from wickedness to righteousness, before the painful and horrible Day of God arrives?  Are you willing to entertain eternal truth?

The lies you currently embrace are death.  Are you even willing to embrace that first and basic truth?

By His Grace

True Pleasure

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If sadness does not accompany us on our waking.  If what is first in our desire, is to be full of joy and laugh.  If we find we can look back at our past with great pride.  If there is no fear within us for the things we love to do.  I submit to every man (Christian or not) , that such a life may not have the Living God within it at all. 

(By using the phrase “may not have”, I mean the odds are 99:1.  For those of you who know nothing about gambling or other games of chance, such odds are not even worth playing.  What sane person loves to play a game he knows he can never win?)

What is pleasurable in the flesh, stands at odds with the desire of the Living God.  There is a joy in the Holy Spirit.  But it is not like the joy of man.  Man is full of joy at what he has.  The Christian is full of joy in The Promise.

There is a history in every Christian that is worthy of peaceful contemplation.  But the world would not recognize it as peaceful.  The world would perceive such a life as a desperate insanity.  For the Christian finds that not one single thought of his own was worthy of thinking.  The Christian’s only moments of sanity, are those places where he obeyed. (And this in direct conflict with the desires of his body)

The Christian may carry a great pride, but it is not for the things he is, nor the things he does or has done.  The Christian’s pride is exclusively in the Lord who has purchased him.  Thus the vibrant testimony, which the world hates, thrives within the man of God.  The man of God will find it impossible to keep his mouth shut.

There is a trembling in fear the man of God owns.  But it is not a fear that restrains.  It is rather a fear that provokes.  It is the very engine of godliness.

The man of God will find that he loves to do the things the world hates.  He will also find that he is full of hatred for the things the world loves.  The people of the world are like a high maintenance woman; they must be entertained 24/7.  But the man of God is full of joy to do the simple things.

To those who stand outside Christianity, I testify that Christianity is not just another religion.  Christianity is always a becoming.  And to those who consider themselves Christians, yet find entertainment their highest priority, I suggest strongly that you reexamine your faith.

While the man of God lives on this earth, he is never at rest.  And the closer we get to the Living God in Christ Jesus, the more dynamic the separation appears.  The closer we get to Him, the less we are in turmoil.  But the journey is easily compared to a bloody and protracted war.  What man can endure such a life on his own?

You can have your life of joy, and peace, and pride.  I would much rather live the life of humiliation before the Living God.  I would rather own no righteousness, than to be full of self praise.

For when I find my own ways abhorrent, then I know I agree with eternal ways of the Holy and Loving God.  And this, my friends, is peace eternal.  This, my friends, is Christianity.

My brothers and sisters in Christ: Check the boxes.  Where has your faith agreed with these things?  Do you find yourself afraid to testify?  Are you fully absorbed in the things the world loves? 

How could you possibly be at peace in godly testimony?  Such a fear testifies that you agree with the world; “Jesus is an embarrassment to you”.

You may think this is a very harsh statement.  But remember that Jesus was not ashamed of his Heavenly Father.  Even to the extreme humiliation of beating and death, he knew he was at war with the things of this world.

Every hero in the Christian faith has lived his life in a desperate war.  If you find yourself living a life of peaceful joy, as you pursue and mingle with those things of the world, how could you possibly be a disciple of Christ?

Any man can call himself anything he pleases.  But there is a line of demarcation.  God himself has drawn the line, in the bloody body of His Holy Son.  And there are far more who straddle that line than those who cross it.

I wrote this to describe the radical difference between Christianity and any other way of life.  But as I came to completion, I began to realize that Christianity has been so watered down that it is almost unrecognizable.

If you consider my last few words to be an attack, you are reading with the glasses of pride, proudly poised on your upturned nose.  The man of God takes instruction where he finds it.  He may not yet be humble, but he knows that is the desired place to live.

I am finished writing this post.  I realize it is not only an instruction, it is also a declaration of war.  So be it.

By His Grace

“I’m a Man!”

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With every thought.  With every action.  With every word he speaks.  Man proclaims, “I am a man”.

With pride of accomplished adulthood, man stands.  As if there is something to be proud about, by the simple doings of expectations.

How many perceive the shame of man?  How many are able or willing to perceive the length, width, height, and depth that is God?  With such a perception, man is no more than a tiny baby.

Wisdom escapes man; holy wisdom from ancient of ages escapes man.  The doings of God that were done endless years before the creation of Adam.  Where is this wisdom among man?  How small is every man?

With every prayer.  With every desire.  With every movement of soul and body.  The man of God seeks the will of God.

Where is the boasting pride of man before God’s Holy Throne?  Such things are not even allowed entrance.

Hard Questions

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Why don’t we ask each other the hard questions?:  Why are we so timid when it comes to confrontation?  How can the answer be any other than fear?

“If I confront him about this, there’ll be friction.”

Why?  Because of pride.  It lives and breathes within every man with the ferocity of a wild beast.  Wake him and you will certainly incure abuse.

What’s the fix?  Stop coddling each other!  Learn to take it on the chin.  Learn to deliver Life to your brother, regardless the cost.  Learn to listen to wisdom!

The Lord will help you deliver the punching questions with humility.  If they retaliate, you earn the right to say you have been persecuted for Truth’s sake.

Who do you fear the most?  The Living God, or man?

What more needs to be said here?  I’ve asked the hard question.  What’s your response?  I didn’t couch this in “PC”, because I want you to see how strongly bound, in each of us, Pride really is.

Why isn’t humility and a teachable spirit bound more tightly?

Two Lions

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The forgiveness of Christ is the ultimate power for life.  If a man’s sins are forgiven, his conscience is cleaned.  Where then is regret?
Where then is fear? 
Where then is strength to live? 
What kind of joy should this one own? 
What kind of man should he be able to become?

Are you willing to dissect this truth with me?  Are you willing to be free of regret?
Are you willing to become fearless?
Are you willing to become endlessly strong?
Are you willing to be full of joy?
Are you willing to become a child of the Living God?

It may be that you have said yes to all these.  But if these are not a part of your life, have you asked why?  And if you asked, were you able to endure the answer?

These things are true for the one who is forgiven.  Why then are they not true for you?

I don’t mean to attack you or to judge.  I simply asked the question that everyone in Christ is asking.  “If the forgiveness of Christ is real, then why do I struggle so?”

You believe the things of the gospel.  But the problem is application to you.  At your best moment, and full of generosity, you perceive that forgiveness is available to every man.  But in your personal practice, that application comes and goes.  It gives you strength and leaves.  Why does it leave?  If it leaves, have you pondered why it even comes at all?

If Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever, why not you?  Why can’t you have that familiar strength all the time?

The answer, whether we like it or not, is diligence.  When we are strong in Christ, by His forgiveness, it is because we have taken time to assess our situation.  It is because we fail to sit quietly and make assessment, that we falter and lose our strength.  Isn’t this so?

Then it takes a strong man to receive the things of Christ.  It takes one who is dedicated purely to living the truth.  As a man is lazy in the things of Christ, so his faith will lack.  We could call such a soul, a sluggard.  Couldn’t we?

Proverbs 26 addresses this very clearly.
13. A sluggard says, “There’s a lion in the road,
a fierce lion roaming the streets!”

Yes there’s a lion roaming the streets.  And for this the sluggard keeps his door shut.

But hear this truth!  There is also a lion in your own house.

The Lion of Judah roams the streets seeking earnest hearts.  While the lion who devours, lives among your things.  The One is fearsome and free.  The other is domesticated and emaciated.

As you can understand, let me say this:  Get off your couch, open the door, and walk in the streets.  If you have faith, prove it to yourself.  Become diligent.

The domesticated one will not go with you, he will remain emaciated and sleeping on the couch. 

But you!  Go out into the street and call for Him.  The Lion of Judah is free and full of fire.  Yet you know you do not fear him.  You fear your own weakness.

You know he can take away your weakness and give you strength.  You know he can decimate your regret.  You know he can make you fearless.  You know he can give you the fullness of life.

Then the choice is yours.  Remain with your pet domesticated and emaciated lion,  or go out in the street and live.

If I say to you, “I live in the street”, I would be a liar.  For I wake in my house just like you.  But he teaches me to walk past the couch and go outside.  As honestly as I can, I tell you, this takes great strength.

But my brothers and sisters, it is so sincerely worth it!  In my past, laziness has destroyed me.  But as I listen to him, I retain diligence.  This truth he teaches me, is the same for all men.

By His Grace

Gifts of the Spirit

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The one who makes a personal art of the things he knows he can do, can be referred to as an artisan.
                      ~
There are men who make worthy pots and pans.  Men who paint, and men who “stand” and speak of what is true.

There are gifts that are inherent from the teachings we endure.  They come to us by virtue of our parents, peers and more.

But a singular gift is sent from above to everyone the Lord will love.  For the Glory of His Majesty, His Christ; the Worthy One and Free.
                     ~
At the beginning of my walk in Christ, I used a talent that seemed to emerge from nowhere.  I kept it to myself, for it was very useful.  I spoke to the Lord with paper and ink, writing my thoughts and writing possible responses.  I came to perceive the wisdom of God in the responses that were chosen.

No one saw those early writings.  I don’t know what became of them.  And perhaps it doesn’t matter.  For, little by little, I became because of them.

He had gifted me to become a scribe; to write down the things I encountered that belong to Him.  Not that I am above my brothers, for my writings are ramblings and small.  I have read the things that belong to masters of the same gift.

This is an awareness of my own journey.  But every child of God receives something uniquely special.

The Apostle Paul said this to his spiritual son Timothy:
6 “For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 7 For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.”

Had men laid their hands on me, and spoke of the gift that is in me, I would have known to fan it into flame.  But no mention was made, for no one knew.

Decades later, I began to perceive a gift to relate the things of God.  His wisdom is given freely to anyone who asks and believes.  There is nothing special about this man.

There is nothing special about you.  But the Lord of life has seen fit to give such gifts to every one of his children. 

The purposes of his giving are hidden and woven into the fabric which spans the boundary between heaven and earth.  Your gift is exclusively for His Majesty. 
I say this with a desire for the deepest of encouragement; that every child of God may know he has a distinct purpose.

Examine what you do (if you do not yet know what gift is yours).  Look at what you love to accomplish, those things that bring the Lord praise.

Try to forget for a moment those things which you see others accomplish.  Though your gift may be similar, it will be unique.

And be careful as you listen to those who may advise you.  As it was for me, the decades between, it may not be for all.  But I suspicion that if man can manipulated it, or direct another along his way, the result is too close to man’s hands.

Read all the “how-to” books you want.  In sum, they will say no more than this.  You will find yourself still requiring an answer.

Many assume that the wisdom of man can direct them in the wisdom of God.  If you search far enough you will find this fallacy a lie.  Yet many embrace the traditions of society.  There they remain, the rest of their life, lacking.

What can be faned into flame, that already rages among men?  How is the richly variegated wisdom of God glorified, if everyone is the same?  And how many of His gifts have fallen to the dust unused and unnoticed.  Ask yourself: “Should that case belong to me?”

By His Grace