Category Archives: the gospel

Lessons From Creation

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Will you do as the world demands, “Cast the past away”?
Will you join with them in the frenzy of NEW?

When it comes to explaining the person you are,
What, under heaven, will you do?

Take a lesson from creation.
Abandon that fruitless libation.
Visit that place where your roots dug in deep.
See all your sins . . .
And weep.

Now Look to Him;
The Great Wondrous Dawn!
Look to the place
Where your horror is gone.

What is Christ to us?
The Eternal Great Hope,
Toward which we long.

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What is the heat of summer to me?

The cold of winter cannot freeze.

Winds will blow and threaten me.

Calm presides my royalty.

What sounds I’ve heard.

Nests of little birds.

Moss and bugs to me absurd.

I stand my ground unnerved.

At dawn I wave to light yet born.

Come color me, Eternal Morn.

“Wake with me, sleep to scorn.

And stand your ground with darkness torn!”

Trouble?

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The Christian can get in trouble for saying certain things.  Frankly the Christian is in trouble all the time.

But what does that matter to me?  If they find me sitting in a pile of poop, they’re not likely to pick me up and put me in a pile of poop.  I’ve been in trouble since the day I was born.

I take a certain comfort in that.

The Sad Songs, Sans-Joy

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THE SAD SONGS:

Listen to the pace and the melody of a sad song.  As far as I can tell, I am not educated in music, all the notes are arranged in minor scale.  I suppose there’s a technical name for that, but it escapes my mind.  For it escapes my desire to learn.

It is a melody slow and deliberate.  It is a melody that defies dance.  It is more a melody of atrophic limbs.  It is not a melody that gives our legs that leap you see in those who are presently joyful.  It is far more a malady to our body than a melody.

But the soul.  The soul stands still.  The eyes of the soul are not shut, while its ears listen attentively..  It looks around with longing.  It looks around for eternal hope.  The soul sings along with sighs and groanings, imperceptible to the ears and eyes of man.  And if it could be heard, Man would not understand the sounds.

The response to sad music is in full light of God’s eyes.  No man can see that response.  No one dances lightly down the street to a dirge.  They plod along with careful steps.  Introspection, for a time, is their king.  Balancing their lifeless frame atop helpless hips.

From point A to point B, that is their only need.  Sadly and deliberately, we live in point A.  Point B is too far removed from our perception even in the best of days.  How much farther when trouble attends our every waking moment?

The sad song is not the solution.  It is a manifestation of the symptoms.  Christ is the solution, my friends.  He is the One who watches for the broken hearted.  The joyful often elude his sight, even while they receive his sustaining.

Are you broken hearted?  Then listen to a sad song and let your souls eyes look up.  From the hills comes to Redemption.  Upon the Great Hills is the glistening White Hope.

By His Grace.

Times of Sobriety

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Food for thought:

When life goes well, people feel strong.  But such strength always leads us to a false illusion.  For the bad times do come.  What right then did we have to feel secure?

The wise man remains sober even while he laughs with joy.  The bad times then have no effect on such a man’s perceptions.

But see how the bad times devastate those who live for pleasure and joy.  As if such people have a right be at peace in this world.

Perfect strength is sobriety in Christ, it will not be found anywhere else.

With Perplexity

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“Are those gunshots in the streets?  Was that Ally’s 5 year old boy who was shot in the head tonight?”

Pay no mind to the violence.  Close your ears, close your eyes, close your mind, close your heart.  Go to your place of peace.

“Is that a nameless ignorant girl we see on the corner with a heroin needle in her hand?  Why that’s Bob’s daughter!  What a shame he lost control of his loved ones.”

Pay no mind to the violence.  Close your ears, close your eyes, close your mind, close your heart.  Go to your place of peace.

“What a pleasant place we have created.  What a beautiful place Society has made.  See how evil runs rampant at night, the place where we sleep in peace.  Who needs talk about God in our public squares?  We simply hire a janitor to clean up the blood.”

Pay no mind to the violence.  Close your ears, close your eyes, close your mind, close your heart.  Go to your place of peace.

“Who needs faith in Jesus when we have locks on our doors?  Who needs the power of God’s words among us, when all we need to do is move to the suburbs?  Who needs the miraculous intervention of the Holy One?  We have our laws and ways.  Let the wicked kill each other, we will sleep in peace.”

Come my brothers and sisters.  Count God as dead and useless.  Ignore the coming judgment.  Surely the wicked will find a place to live.  The loss of the Gospel among us in public is no loss at all.  It has proven, in fact, to be our blessing.  Even take notice that the righteous observe a restraining religion.  Who needs the gospel of Christ?”

As you say so it shall be.  As you do, it belongs  entirely to your home.  As you have failed to believe, so you will perceive.  You have chosen to build a paradise through the engine of fear.  You spurn the one who gives you a paradise by the engine of Eternal strength.

So be it.  Let all the nations turn with perplexity to the violence and blood in their streets.  See how they relegate obscurity to the Holy Words of Blazing Eternity.

So be it. 

May your will be done Sovereign Father.  Prepare the place of contest.   Your Holy Son stands ready to deliver your will.  Your Righteous One, prepared to move at a moment’s notice. 

Let them have their way until they are sure you are no more.  Then He will appear to their shock, amazement, and horror. 

The Glory of your Holy ways is from forever to forever.  Rebellion cannot see you.  Let them puzzle their fate.  They choose their own way over yours.  Indeed, let them puzzle their fate.

Amen!

Worthless Powers

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The superstitions of Man are so abundant and deeply rooted that we often live in endless trouble determining what is false and what is true.  The Living God alone is true.  He has glorified his Holy Son as the only source of Truth. 

We say we know this.  How is it then that we continually turn to superstition as a testimony of what is strength?  “I hope luck will be with me.”  “Maybe Fortune will smile on you.”  And I won’t name the kind of so-called gods people use to bless one another.

Why do we beat around the bush?  Why do we call on every “power” but Jesus, when we speak to one another about prayer and the power of God?  Why is the name of the only true God so hideous that we are ashamed to speak it with confidence?  Are we truly afraid that others will laugh at us?  Is that all it takes to make us cower in the dark shadows?

Whose opinion matters?

You are all greater than I.  You are all reasonable and trustworthy people.  You have not done the things I have done.  But add this understanding to the things you do.  Then you will be the people you say you are.