Category Archives: warnings

The Circus Has Come to Town

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A big brick building partially complete.  I saw it across the street at an intersection.  Brightly colored banners advertised the coming sensation.  This great wonder of the world would be ready for open doors in the fall of 2016!  OH BOY!

Fun, education, community, love, entertainment and activities.  Are you ready for this folks?  It’s going to be what they’ll call a church.

No more need to be ashamed of Jesus.  A place where you’ll be proud to bring your friends.  They might even supply a pool hall in the basement (Maybe, possibly, likely).

No need to suffer for the name of Christ.  Lots of food.  Lots of laughter.  Beautiful people everywhere.  Amazing music.  Dazzling light show during the sermon.  Lots of pictures to look at.  No doubt they’ll be recruiting actors.  (Understand the meaning of the word actor)

As I saw it, and thought about it, I realized that somewhere in the world someone was being beheaded for Christ.  A church building was still smoldering.  Someone was being driven out of the city because they were Christian.  Someone was beaten nearly to death for their love of Christ.  Someone was starving in a putrid cell.  Someone was crying wrenching tears because their child had been taken from them.  And all this for the name of Jesus.

And you want to build an entertainment center?

The still small Voice reminded me that such men will stand shoulder-to-shoulder with those Christians of the first-century.  They will need to explain why they turned the blood of their Christian Brothers into a circus.

And you want to entertain them into Christ?  Is that right?

“There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. 36 Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— 38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.” (Hebrews chapter 11)

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.

The Now.

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A man doesn’t look at his watch to see what time it was.  His watch can only tell him what time it is.  It doesn’t tell him what time it’s going to be.  It tells him what time it is.  You can’t lay hold of the past.  And you can’t lay hold of the future.

Regret reminds him of what time it was.  Perhaps we regret that we cannot have the good times we had.  Or we may regret that we have destroyed joy, for ourselves or others.

What is regret but a knowledge of what is right.  A knowledge of appropriate restraint.  Truth restrains us in “the now”.  You’re not going back my friend.  And as you reach the future you bring the old man with you.  What you did back then, you are doing now. You need a change of heart, not a change of time.

We may look at the past desiring some pleasant time.  Or we may look at the past, regretting abject folly.  But we can only do this looking from “the now”.  The man who lives in Nostalgia does not know what time it is.  Regrettably, this is to his constant loss.

Nostalgia will always be beyond our grasp.  But regret can happily thrive in our house.  All the while, truth says something imperative.  “I am here.  Come live with me.  I am here to offer you life.”

It is impossible to fix a misdeed.  The best we can possibly do is offer reparation.  And the cost of repair is vastly more than a man’s resources will ever afford.  You can’t undo anything, whether good or bad!

Man thinks that by paying for his horrible mistakes, he becomes a righteous man.  Perhaps he thinks if he regrets his past enough, there is some reparation made.  As if suffering  produces anything of value.  But no action on our part undoes the death we have born.

Christ Jesus is in the now.  No matter what clock you look at, there is the Lord holding out his hand to help stop the engine of regret.  Will you reach out and take his help?

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One thing I will say about regret, it is a useful tool.  It teaches humility.  And in an odd way, it gives validity to the warnings we offer to those who are as blind as we. 

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The man who climbs out of an open cesspool is happy to warn those who are walking toward disrepair.  Blinded by the darkness of their mind, they stagger toward loss.  And isn’t such a man rather frantic as he tries to help his brother?

Their response doesn’t matter.  It doesn’t matter if they hate him.  It doesn’t matter if they give him some superficial glory.  He knows from experience they are about to encounter regret.  He busies himself to remind his brother of the now.

Christ is in the now.   And he alone is The Living pure truth.  Listen to him.  His wisdom and strength are ever-present.

As the blind are walking toward the pit.  As they are falling into it.  As the shock of their disrepair dawns on their dull minds.  As they thrash about to release themselves from their present aberration.  As their hands lay hold of solid ground.  As they pull themselves out, covered with stench.  And as they sit perplexed on the edge of the pit, wondering what to do next, or how they could possibly have been so stupid.

Christ is in the now.

Christ is in the now.

He is not just a historical figure.  He is the now.

If you have freed yourself from a certain pit, I promise you, without Christ there’s another one waiting just in front of you.

Answer to yourself, what time is it?

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The usefulness of this post depends entirely on the reaction of those who read it.

Fatal Education

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I saw the M & M’s display in a store.  The little M & M’s dude was dressed up like a rabbit.  What am I supposed to think?

I talked to the clerk.  I mentioned that the celebration of Easter is about someone special who was raised from the grave.  She happily agreed, and the conversation began.

My summation to her was a question.  “If this is the state of affairs today, what will it be in 30 years?”  And in retrospect, I remember the Lord saying, when the Son of man returns will he even find faith on the earth.

Driving down the road, I thought about the complexities of religions.  I came to that train of thought because most people will tell you there are too many opinions and not enough facts.  They refuse to investigate because they think there is no hope of conquest.

Well let me answer.

In the field of religions someone has to be wrong.  Someone has to be lying whether they know it or not.  And in all the field of Religious Studies someone has to be right.  Whether they KNOW it or not.

But using the excuse regarding opinions, people decide there is no use in chasing down the facts.  There’s too much confusion, they will say.  That’s an education that will turn out to be fatal.

A man says he doesn’t go to college because he has no need for the things they teach.  But he is educated enough to make that choice.  He has attended some sort of education that made him believe college is worthless.  His rejection of college is not necessarily fatal.  But in everything we decide, there is an inevitable outcome.

But let a man use that same premise to disregard the Living God’s Holy Son, and he commits a fatal education to himself.

Teach your children what you want.  Remain blind and ignorant all your days.  Excuse yourself from of education because there are so many variations.  Yet the Living God owns all things and will call every man to account.

He is willing to guide anyone who will humble themselves to receive.  And of all the things men strive to learn, there is nothing more important than the shape and texture of eternity.

An education of excuses.  Is this what you want for your children?  So be it.

Spring Eternal

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Spring will soon come to the Northern Hemisphere.  And if the Beautiful Lord tarries we will see all the grandeur that is new life here.  In this I speak of new leaves, flowers, babies a plenty, and a comforting season.

And if the Lord moves to close the window of opportunity in this place, His people will see a Spring that never ceases.  Everything dressed in eternal splendor, that is the place of his promise.  The joy of lambs leaping, and all beautiful things.  Hearts that never cease to be glad.

Having said that, I consider what His moving means.  How glorious things will be Life (Eternal reality) for so many; the sure promise of God unveiled to his people.

But I consider the meaning of his moving for those who have despised His rule.  A winter of fire forever.  A place where Spring is no longer spoken.  A place where the warm rain is tears falling down.  A place where hope is never realized.  A place where impossibility is king.  A place where ownership means shame.  A place of horror and oppressive fear.  As surely as they have chosen, alienation from the Living God’s beauty, is theirs forever.  If they have suffered in this place, rejecting God’s offer of Help in Christ, how much more will they suffer for having despised the Grace of God?  I have no right to speak of God’s promised Eternal Spring, without exposing his promise of destruction.

In my mind I meant to write this article exposing the beauty of God’s glorious Spring, as opposed to the glory of Man’s work.  But I got caught up in his promise, for good and for shame.

What is of God is obvious.  What is a Man is likewise.  For I know that he has said that we are without excuse.  So perhaps it is perfectly reasonable that my mind was turned to the glory of God’s wise and righteous judgement with pure justice.

I wish I had the words that would turn every soul for the love of God in his good will to save us all.  Then I would have no need to speak of the promise regarding destruction.  Then I would be full of joy that could be shared to the prosperity of all who could hear.  But the word wish is proper.

God will grant eyes and ears to those who will humble themselves and seek His Holy Face.  He has promised to lead all such people to his Holy Christ .There is a righteousness that is given.  That is the righteousness that belongs to the Christian.

Let this be enough for this place of writing.  By what I have written, I am not full of joy.  For a vast number  will see destruction.  This is not my opinion or speculation, it is the word of the Living God’s Holy Son. 

The Living God has promised to give strength to those who begin and continue to call out for mercy.   Please do so, that you too may taste the joy that is Spring Eternal.

The Singular Miracle

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The gospel is minimized to the best of Man’s ability.  Within the days of Man, all the chores of the flesh take precedent.  And today so very many even actively campaigning against miraculous work of God.

Blind, blind and blind are all the people.  Who has considered The amazing puzzle.  Who sees the Christ of God for what He is?

It is not as though the Christ suffered periodically among God’s enemies;  as if once every 30 billion years the Holy Word of God must enter a creation that despises him, and be crucified for their unholy sake.  The precious miracle of God has blossomed; the Son of God has been sacrificed.  But who sees it as it is?

From Adam until now billions of men have come and gone.  Yet only a handful have understood.

In his excellent Holy wisdom, the Living God has made this place of testing.  It’s a done deal folks, and we’re living in that moment.  The Eternal God has performed his eternal task.  Even while we rested in Oblivion.  And even while I write this, that particular oblivion continues.

The reaping is next.  The final word will be spoken and all the souls of men will appear before the Living God.  Still men minimize the grand work of God to create this place.

The illusion of the temporary is that powerful.  Days come and go, and the mind of man is captured by the things that are not eternal.  How easily we push aside the reality of eternity.  “I’ll consider eternity when I get there.” Perhaps many even blame our limitations and use them as excuses.

This is not written to make people feel guilty.  It is some faulty and meager attempt charge our minds according to the truth of God in Christ.

See the gospel for what it is.  God’s Holy Son has been tested and found worthy to be granted exceedingly great Glory.  Once and for all he has become Master by the test he endured among us.  For eternity he had not been glorified.  But now for eternity he has!

Wake and consider these things.  We do not live in a place that will continue forever.  And at the sum of our days we will appear for the reward that belongs to us for the sake of our doings.  Where does the Holy strength of God rest in our minds?

By the wisdom of God we are not “just passing through”.  We live our days inside eternity.  Today IS forever.  Christ Jesus is glorified.  Once and for all eternity has done an unspeakably beautiful work.