If you love your loved ones, secure your soul.  At your passing from this world they will shed tears of loss.  Do not compound their trouble by causing doubt.  A cruel action indeed!

Give everything you have to secure your place in Christ Jesus.  Then make it known to them so they will not doubt.  That way, when you leave this place. You will leave behind you peace and joy.

By His Grace

Sovereign Father, we give you praise for your astounding wisdom.

You invented this place in all its richness.  It was not, then by your command, it is!  From nothing it has appeared!  And by your Holy wisdom your Son has become king of all.

You cause us to enter this place that we may gather.  But you have set a wall between here and eternity.  Where by, no thing we gather from here can be taken through that wall.

But even more importantly, you are willing to give us the things that can be useful to both this place and your Holy eternity . 

May we learn from your display of Awesome wisdom.  May, by your Son Jesus, we learn to gather the things that last.

All this you have done that you may gather to yourself companions for eternity.  Who can take it all in?  We simply thank you, by virtue of your Holy Son’s faithfulness.

May understanding bless our thanks.

Amen.

By His Grace

By His Grace

Do you think you would do “that” freely if you stood before the throne of the Most High God?  Do you believe that thought would be acceptable as you stood there and let Him inspect your very being?  Has the awe of God’s Holiness struck you like a lightning bolt?  Do you conceive the nature of pure purity?

If you want to grow in Christ then submit everything that you are and have to Him.  Tell Him that you want Him to weed out the things in your life that are not His.  Then stand as strongly as you can as you see things ripped away.  He will take you at your word and begin.

We cannot grow in Christ if we love the things of this world more than service to Him.  Along that vein comes another aspect of great importance.  The Apostle Paul pointed it out in 2nd Corinthians 10:5.  “. . . and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

Among the things we own let us not forget our mind.  Every man is full of thoughts that are inappropriate before the Holy Lord’s throne.  As surely as the Lord is willing to clean up our things, He is also willing to clean up our thoughts.

Listen to what you are thinking.  Not only when you are in prayer but throughout every hour of every day.  Compare it to the gospel of Christ Jesus.  If what you are thinking is not aligned with what you have read, take it to Him.  Let Him inspect it.  Let Him help you get your thoughts under control.

What a man believes determines what he does.  As we allow ourselves to think, so we are.

The man of God can expect to become of “sound mind”.  This is a promise from the Lord.  It is also a sign of fruit from the Holy Spirit.

The purity of the Lord Jesus is far above the purity of man.  Yet He is willing, even anxious, to witness His ways appear within His people.

I have written this for encouragement sake.  We do not need to be like a fish who is left on the sand of the beach.  We no longer need to flounder about without hope.  We are pulled from the sea of men so that we can walk as true men.

Apply these things and you will prove His willingness to love you.

By His Grace

When you accept the Lord Jesus you get a whole lot more than hope.  Though  his promise of heaven is on the horizon, there are promises you can have now.

He will cause you to desire him.  You will desire a clean life.  And with that desire comes his ever present help to guide you.  There is cleanliness among men, then there is cleanliness before the Most High God.

He will teach you his Father’s will.  And you will take note of a change in your prayers.  As your life is cleaned up greater things are shown.  You will experience what has been said, “Who will ascend the hill of the Lord but he who has clean hands and a pure heart.

The greatest reward in this world is to have confidence before the Sovereign God; to know that your prayers are heard.

You will find yourself asking for prayer less and less.  And it will come to you that you are the one who has the ear of the Lord.

We tell you about the beauties of the Lord Jesus.  But if you accept him and work according to His will, you will find yourself giving the same testimony to others without fear.

If you have considered yourself a Christian for a long time and have never experienced these things, you will find that what I have said is true if you will spend more time approaching your Lord.  To be near him is to become like Him; to love him.  The more you are near him and the further away from the world you drift, the more of his beauty you will see.

By His Grace

By His Grace

Were the Lord to act among us and raise the dead they would not believe.  They would say, “It is nothing but an anomaly.  We have seen it before.  Life is unpredictable and we admit we do not understand all things.  But with our little paddles we can restart a dead heart.  With the work of our own hands we can raise the dead.”  By the testimony of their own mouth they condemn the works of their hands.

Listen to the uproar.  “Together we are strong we have no need of God.  United we stand!”  they stand united in a singular revolt against the Most High God.

But there is a day when no one will work.  No secret place left.  No materials to fashion.  No more inventing.  They will stand before the Lord naked and helpless.

They know this for they witnesse death all day long.  But instead of preparing to meet the Holy One they continue the works of their hands, and they will not relent.  The Lord Himself has sent this strong delusion; that they may be thoroughly immersed in their own lies.

They have made a god of their own flesh.  They consider that their way will never fail.  Instead of admitting their ignorance in humility and seeking the help of God, they see it as provocation  to move farther.  Build, invent, contrive and prosper, all of this with arrogant spite for the Holy One.

Everyday, one by one, they are ushered involuntarily into eternity.  Yet those who remain in this place of testing continue their work without regard.   As one cow is slaughtered in the field, so the others keep on eating.

Do not join them!  Use what tools you must according to the requirements placed upon you.  But do not worship the work of man’s hands.  This abomination before God will dissipate in the wind of Fire.  Be wise and consider the outcome of their work.

    “. . . but Moab will be trampled in their land
    as straw is trampled down in the manure.
11 They will stretch out their hands in it,
    as swimmers stretch out their hands to swim.
God will bring down their pride
    despite the cleverness of their hands.
12 He will bring down your high fortified walls
    and lay them low;
he will bring them down to the ground,
    to the very dust.” (Isaiah 25)

By His Grace

Men say that there is good within every man.   All we need is determination and training to bring it out.  The Bible speaks of no such thing.  In fact the Bible says that our greatest good deeds are as filthy rags ( indicating a menstral rag) .  But what the Bible says has no appeal to the pride of man.  Nor does the Holy Lord of life respect the pride of men.

Since they believe that man is basically a good creature, men find themselves looking forward to the manifestation of some evil creature who will do damage to the human race.

My brothers and sisters of flesh, I tell you he is already here.  We belong to him and will do his bidding unless we turn ourselves over to the Lord Jesus Christ.  If you have not received the gift of God in His Holy Son, you will be the ones to usher in your own destruction.

There will be no arrival of evil.  It is already here among you.  You study prophecy to no avail.  You make movies about evil spiritual creatures but to no avail.  You hunt with all your might to explain the evil that you yourself embody, but to no avail.

Until you humble yourself and request God’s salvation, you belong to God’s enemy.

There are likely another million ways to say this.  And, by His grace, I will continue to try.  If you do not believe what I have written or cannot understand my words I will write this again in some other way some other day.

By His Grace

By His Grace