Category Archives: teaching

The Reason for Faith’s Necessity

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2 questions:
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1. Why do we need faith?

2. What does the voice of God sound like?

Beginning with the second question:
The voice of God is life.  When the Israelites were released from bondage in Egypt, God displayed his voice in a thunderous noise from the mountain.  But this was for the sake of the people, that they may worship Him and obey.  As he spoke with Moses, however,  he used no such voice.  Rather, God treated Moses as a friend.  (What does that say about those to whom he spoke as a thunderous noise?)

The voice of God requires faith to hear.  God is thoroughly life.  Everything he is, everything he says, everything he does, is life.  Ask yourself then what does life say, what does life sound like, what does life look like, what does life feel like?  Look carefully at the situations and things that come to you. 

Please don’t consider that God is like a man.  The life I am speaking of is Purity, Holiness, Righteousness, Justice, Mercy, and in the end Grace to us through sustaining toward the same things.

He would prefer that we gain his wisdom to perceive with our eyes and ears, mind, heart and strength.  Isn’t this why the first and greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your mind and with all your strength and with all your soul?  Then you will begin to hear his voice.  How do I know this?

Romans 1:20 tells us how we know this.  “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities–his eternal power and divine nature–have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”

(And we have the testimony of those who do hear his voice through faith.  The one who writes this testifies.  And some who read this testify.  The voice of God, one may say, also comes from those who know him.  Perhaps better said, those God knows in Jesus His Holy and Righteous Son.  The people would find advantedge listening to the words of such people, instead of pre-judging them as worthless.)

He speaks to us from what we can say “IS”.  Because life “IS”. 

And we must inject another slice of information here.  God does not demand too much, for he gives us everything we need to accomplish his Holy will in our lives.  To say he does not, is to join with satan in the primary accusation that has caused creation of this place of testing in the first place.  We find the second slice of information in the following scripture.

5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. 6 But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do. (James 1)

Rejecting this promise is a sincerely precarious place to choose to live!  For if we do not receive his wisdom, that God is so willing to give freely, we will surely lack precious gifts. (Even, perhaps, finding death in the end.  For not a single one of those who of those who heard the Thunders from the mountain receive the promise of God.)

Having read this, it is now your responsibility to act.  Though having said that, (it sounds like a threat) the Wonders that God is willing to give to any man is far worth the struggle to suppress our rebelion (That which is crouching at our very door, desiring to have us. But we must master it. [Taken from Genesis 4:7])

Think about this deeply:  we need faith because it will never cease to be necessary.

Go and see if what I have said is true.

P. S.  The voice of God is called Jesus.  Think about that for the rest of your life.

To Desolve an Impasse

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I am so consumed with the things of God and eternal life for all men that I cannot compete in the expectations of the world.  Likewise, however, the world is consumed with its own expectations so that it cannot compete in the things of God.  Thus an impasse.

Because of the lovely blessings of God I cannot go to the world’s ways.  And because of their perverted definition of the word love, the world cannot come to God’s ways.  God’s love constrains me.  Man’s pride constrains them.

One of the rules of man’s pride is civility.  Because of this rule, they retain me in the social position of my birth.  But they have no regard for my open love for The God who is saving me.  I cannot hold this against anyone, for wasn’t I just like them.  But how shall this impasse the broken?

It needs first to be said that the pride of man will find an end in the grave, while the love of God goes on forever.  But this cannot be an acceptable break in the impasse, while God and myself (Because of his love for me) desires so many to be with us in Paradise.

Jesus told us that many are called but few are chosen.  “But no my Lord, they will surely die.  Truly, can nothing more be done to save their souls from your promised destruction?”  Yet does he not desire willing hearts to love him?  Thus the impasse continues.

Speak, lead, display, love, and groom.  Who knows, perhaps they will see and live.  How many of the Israelites that were released from bondage in Egypt entered into the Promised Land?   Though they saw magnificent sights, heard wondrous thundering sounds, ate of Mana, and enjoyed such marvelous blessings, still they all died apart from the promise.  The impasse holds little hope of rending here.

Yet what other hope is there?  The Living God cannot allow rebellion and pride into eternity.  And no member of The Eternity desires that God should forsake purity.  No, rebelion belongs destroyed.  And pride must be crushed, eternally reduced to nothing.

I surmise that the impasse belongs to Man.  It is man who demands to have his own way honored by the Living God.  Yet it is God who sent his only Son to be murdered for the sake of Man’s salvation.  Yes, the impasse belongs to man.

I love my brother’s of Flesh.  I do not want to see them destroyed.  But the choice is not mine, is it.

Since God in me is contemptible by those who know me, it is given to me to write.  Doesn’t familiarity breed contempt?  “We know where this man is from.  We know what a fool he has been.  How can he now think he knows God better than we?  How does he dare presume to teach us!”  And so pride loves contempt in the presence of familiarity.  (and by their contempt they prove they do not know God)

There is so much to say.  But I confess my writing is somewhat curtailed for the lack of apparent audience, why speak if no one listens.  I imagine that I could well have written twice this blog’s volume of words, if only I had perceived that some benefited.   But don’t statistics defy imagination?  Almost seven years of writing have produced a virtual flat-line statistical range.  Perhaps you can see why I have wondered about the productivity of his words in me.

Please don’t misunderstand me, I am not complaining for a lack of audience.  I simply see a lack of inspiration to increase the pace of this work.  Yet isn’t that lack within me.  And isn’t it then my duty to seek out inspiration from my God?

By his grace I will find the strength to write.  For haven’t I determined here that there is no other means to break the impasse?

There is an article I was allowed to write two or three years ago called “The Craftsman”.  No, I haven’t forgotten it’s premise.  It is impossible to forget something that is with you everyday.

Through the Generations

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How many generations will be witness to your response to the call of Christ?  We are not Christians alone, you know.  Whether you believe it or not, they are all watching you.

When you need help, do you know someone in Christ who is dependable for God driven answers?  Why can’t that someone be you?

There are so few who stand as ambassadors of the Lord Jesus.  Wouldn’t it make sense to train yourself to become one of them?

By the time your life is finished the number of ambassadors would have increased by one.  And thousands more will benefit through the generations as you leave your legacy for eternity.

If the world is not thirsty, it’s because they drink wine instead of water.  Think about it.

A Reasonable Response

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When is the last time you read Exodus chapter 19 through 23?   It speaks about the law that God gave to his people.

I know it is said that Christians are not under the law but that they are under the grace of God in Christ Jesus.  But is it enough to be saved.  In all good conscience can you simply receive and give nothing?

If we don’t read the account of God’s desire how can we know what gives him pleasure?

The Ultimate Object Lesson

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Are you ready to get your brain full this morning?

I keep saying that we should “think eternity”.  And I promise that the more you do, the more you will be ready on the spur of the moment to speak about Christ your Lord.  More and more, you will replace the fear of evangelism with an excited desire.

Here’s the ticket for the ride of your life:

Absolutely everything in creation speaks to us of the Son of God.  From a pencil and eraser to the depths of the sea.  Every conversation people have.  Every single thought that goes through our minds.  Everything we love and everything we hate.  Everything we use and everything we are willing to destroy.

If you make it a habit to think about it, the association between the common and the Holy will come to you in a split-second.  The real plus here is that it takes almost no discipline at all.  I guarantee you the Lord is willing to help us understand.

Acts Born of Convenience

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The beginning of a matter is the same as the ending, if indeed the matter is carried through to the end.  This is the nature of a sinful act.  The severity of the sin determines Gods reaction at the onset. 

This is where God has been misunderstood in his judgments against Man’s rebelion. 

We think something is a small matter.  We can’t understand why God has turned his face from us.

See how we don’t understand the nature of Purity, Righteousmess and Holiness. 

To cap this all off, this must be said:  at the beginning of every sin we find that we have conveniently forgotten the laws of God.  This is because we are not the laws of God, but God is.