Category Archives: teaching

Love Everybody

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How many times I’ve heard it and knew there was something wrong.  “Love everybody no matter what they’re doing.”

According to sentimental value I would rate that about a 10.  But as far as truth goes I rate that below zero.

Love does not let you stand at the edge of a cliff and smile while you jump to your death.

Love does not ignore the truth of the Living God for the sake of your injured pride.

Love will gladly take your ridicule and hatred, for don’t you already hate the one who sent us.

Love is for life, eternal life.  Love does not cater to the pleasures of sin.

See the bee sitting on my jugular vein.  Wouldn’t the one who loves me brush it off quickly.  Should I despise him because his slap hurt?

God challenges us to love the sinner enough to sacrifice ourselves so that we may wake them up!  No, we can’t all just get along!

Spiritual Kindergarten

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With all the things I have said on here regarding God and his salvation in Jesus, there’s a tanker load of things I haven’t said.  I made sure to close my lips where I knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, pride would stop the receiving.

How I wish the elementary things of Christ where well-received by those who read these writings.  Then I could venture out to speak of the things I have kept hidden.

Perhaps someday before I leave. . .

An Example?

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How many people are there who are wishing they could find someone with bold faith?   Inside them is a Christian just wanting to break out.  But all they’ve seen around them is timidity.  They know they should be publicly bold with their faith in Christ.  But, like it or not, they’re waiting for an example. 

A small spark in a dry field will catch the entire acreage into a blaze.  How dry does our society need to be before we notice imminent catastrophe?

The Sprout of Salvation

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It is not frustrating.  And it is not in vain.

It is frustrating when we perceive the things of God from our own mind and heart.  For then, our work for the Living God seems fruitless.

We speak to our brother about Christ, but he casts us away as if we are insane.  He goes about his business of death with a smile on his face, as if he has just vanquished a foolish enemy.  Calling us names in his mind, heart, and words, he considers us vile and useless.

He happily goes back to his useless gods:  “To these I am familiar.  I understand when they speak about my dreams and ambitions.  They are set concretely by the evidence of History.  This nation or that has relied heavily on the traditions I love so much.  The after life is mysterious.  But these gods give me consolation in my sorrow.  They speak well of my potential.”

With the sleight-of-hand that belongs to death, he throws away our testimony for Christ.  Our words are full of fault in his eyes.  For they give no praise or quarter to man.  The testimony of Christ is foolishness to such people.

I consider this with sober mind.  I want his salvation.  I want to hear the praise of Christ on his lips.  I want to see a changed heart that is willing to learn and love.

But I am caught up in frustration.  The very thing I do not have a right to own.  For salvation does not belong to me.  It is not within my grasp to grant or to take away.  I cannot open the eyes of his heart.  I cannot open his ears that he should hear.  And I cannot manipulate his heart that he should learn to love and to be humble.

Salvation belongs to our God and to the Lamb.  For he dispenses his wisdom from heaven.  What he gives, when he gives, and how he gives, is dictated by eternity.  And he does not speak the Gospel to us in words that can be spoken or perceived by Man. 

God speaks his Gospel to us in the faithfulness that surrounds us.  He speaks in a language that never ceases.  He speaks vast volumes of books in a short and poignant sentence. 

All the while Man looks for the key.  But his hands are not big enough to handle the object of release which God offers from heaven.

What is the summation of this?  I confess I do not know. 

I have spoken to my brother.  I have acted toward him in a godly fashion, full of love and desire to understand.  I have prayed for him consistently.  And I strive, with all I have, to be patient.  Still the sun has not risen in his heart.  And now he has ordered me to stop speaking to him about such things.  In fact, he has vowed to stop speaking to me altogether. The door to him is now slammed shut.

Here I sit, just outside his door, wondering and perplexed.

Let the wisdom of God be the wisdom of God.  What more can I say?  It is not mine to wield the mystery of salvation.  It is simply mine to cast the seeds about, letting the wind of God direct their fall.

I cannot give the Living God counsel.  It is mine simply to be faithful.  In war we can watch as others are killed.  And there is nothing we can do to stop it.  In life, some will live and some will die.  Who are we to say no to the One who has made all things perfectly well?

But I wonder.  What are we learning through all this?  What are we gaining through the loss that is so prevalent about us?  Who are we, as we stand in the midst of a Slaughter?  Hip deep in spiritual blood, what is the value is our life in Christ to those who die?

The answer lies in a language I have never heard.  This puzzle piece fits perfectly in the vast array of God’s glorious eternity.  God is not anxious about such a question.  For he has had the answer long before the world was ever made.

Does this give me peace?  The peace this gives me lives in the place I cannot translate.  For still I am anxious to see Christ appear in my brother.  And doesn’t every Christian feel the same?

Holy Father, we leave these things in your hand for that is where your wisdom has dictated it shall be.  Salvation is yours.  Still we pray in earnest that your love should appear. 

“By Your Grace”, you have taught me.  And I am convinced there is no other answer.  Your strength is Christ Jesus.  Still we beg you to move, yet according to your wisdom.

Mutual Tears?

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The warnings for sin have gone out since man was first made.  Sin is death.  When you have committed sin there will be consequences to follow.

Such consequences as Sin rears up will often charge you with horrifying and utterly devastating sadness.  Eventually, hopefully in this life, you will cry great tears of sadness for the things you have done.

But when you cry because you have broken life’s rule, do not expect others to give you a loving embrace.  You have no right to expect them to cry with you.  Those tears belong to you.  They are not tears of suffering for the name of Christ.  They are not tears a man may cry when unjustly persecuted.  They are tears that you have brought death upon yourself.

Face reality.  Seek strength.  Strive to understand.  All the while, get up on your shaky legs and start walking.

The Lord loves mercy, yes.  But mercy comes in a variety of forms.  Our need may not be as we perceive it.

Value-Driven Truth

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I have not yet parsed the following truth into an edible format.  So please forgive me if it isn’t a cute little saying.  I’ll try to keep this very short, but it’s packed with volumes of understanding.

Pride and education are firmly bound together.

If I try to give free advice to someone, they are not likely to consider it very valuable.  It doesn’t matter how priceless the advice may be.  If it cost them nothing they equate free advice with trivia.  Or perhaps worse, that I’m meddling in their affairs.

On the other hand.  If I make someone pay tuition to sit in a classroom and receive that same advice, they are likely to consider it priceless.  Having said that, I could make someone pay tuition and feed them nothing but lies and they would think it is priceless truth.  Oh wait, that’s what most modern colleges are doing.

If I speak the truth to a stranger, he thinks I am proudly wielding wisdom.  He considers me to full of myself.  If I put that same information in a fortune cookie, the receiver thinks he has found gold.

I’ll say it again and let the reader stew over this.  Pride and education are firmly bound together.

Consider:
The message of Jesus is free to any man who will listen.  He has come to us from heaven and given us heavenly words.  What he gave us is beyond any possible price.  But the world treats his words as if they are useless.  Or at best, they are useful for children only.

If he had charged admission, I suspect the world would treat his words greatly different.  And if the church would charge admission on Sunday mornings, I would guess the pews would be packed full.

You think that’s too much to say?   I don’t.