Don’t versus Belief


Measure how great and sure is the promise of God to save those who trust in His salvation. It is delivered to us in the body of an individual called The Word of God.  

No promise on earth has ever been kept in fullness until it’s completion. Understandably then, doubt continues to plague believers. But God is not like the fallen hearts, minds and souls of Man. He is forever Other. God is Sovereign Life; He answers to no one. Believe.  


Although we already know this, doesn’t our belief suffer loss? Isn’t our loss because we compare Him to the things we witness here? Christian belief then is a Life full of willful action based on trust. That’s how it is said, “Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness”.

Lovely! Lovely! Lovely!


I have never found a Music more lovely than a sad song. It’s not the lyrics they use, it’s the melody that accompanies it. When the soul cries through Music it is exquisitely melodic.  

What melody accompanied the crucifixion of Christ? The fullness of God’s will in all eternity. Death trying to consume heaven.  


Man’s ears are not made to hear it. Even the soul cannot taste it’s fullness. It is the song of God’s victory over unspeakable sorrow.

Safety Is


Written on the ocean on March 2, 2017. But ever so eternally poignant.

The waves beat against the hull of the ship.  

With a silent and determined anger;

With gluttony for autonomy,


They desire “unimpeded”.  


See how the steel says, “No”.  

See how they are forced to go,


Dissipated.  


How the strength of their ruin is utterly devastated.  


How, with present Will

pressed against them, 

they turn to white frothing.

At the majesty they encounter;  

They turn to –

Mere nothing.  


Like they do as the wind whips them up, 

in small measure 

The sea is dotted with purity.  

Yet:

With impassable Will

All is turned back.  


“You will not pass.  

I cannot relent.  

I move through your midst,

My strength never spent.”


Be still!

Cease your work!

Bow to Me!

My people will pass


Speaks The Maker He.  


Move Holy Spirit.  

Move through my soul.  

Be the ship that carries 

The desire of Your own will. 

As it has been from old.  


Be in me the strength of your love.  

Keep me on the

“Inward side.”

Seven Spanish Angels?????


You got to this post across a certain trail. Stop a minute. Pick a rock. Have a seat. Let’s do a little traveling that doesn’t require legs.  

I’ll tell you about the trail that brought me here. I was practicing guitar this morning using YouTube; A little Skip Ewing, a smidgen of Vince Gill, a sliver of Keith urban, and just a dab of Carrie underwood. I just finished “mama’s song”, and looked down at the next few songs. There was Willie Nelson singing “Seven Spanish Angels”.  


In a flash, I was no longer playing guitar. I was transported to this place where you meet me.  


15 minutes of thought can be rolled up in one question. Does Man have a right to play games with the concept of heaven, angels, salvation, death, vengeance, and what is Holy?


It’s kind of sentimental and cute to think that seven Spanish Angels even exist, let alone that they immortalize people just because they die. But is there any possibility that it’s true? Is everyone taken to heaven simply because they lived here on earth? Take a look at what happened to Isaiah. Then tell me what will become of the godless and the sinners of this life.  


1. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2. Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3. And they were calling to one another:


“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;

the whole earth is full of his glory.”


4. At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.


5. “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”


6. Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7. With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.” (chapter 6)


God is HOLY. Everything of heaven is Holy. Angels do not come from Mexico. They are of heaven, where everything is holy.  


Those who live by the gun will die by the gun. And in the end they will be assigned the place of those who murder and are of vengeance.  


I am caused to consider this, how much of my own life is a room of lies filled with stupid and ignorant tapestries that will most assuredly destroyed me? What are you thinking?


Thanks for having a seat. Thanks for listening. May God bless the path you take from here.  

Good Works


There are nice things people do. The kind of things you see praised on the news every day. If this is what a man wants to be, there’s plenty of it to be had (both work and accolades). There is certainly a lot of suffering to mend.  
But if you want to rise above even these good things, if you want to become superhuman, you will need God to set you free and teach you his ways. The good works of man are only the good works of man. But there is something vastly more to be gained.  

See how the camera is used to incite people to good works. But the inspiration of a man of God will not be photographs. And if he is inspired by his fellow man, it is because his fellow man is speaking the words of the living God.  

The good works he does are not inspired by his fellow man. No, he is led and driven by the perfect good will of God. As God invisibly sustains all creation, even the wicked who hate him so desperately, so the man of God will work as if in the shadows. Such a man will be demeaned and misunderstood. Because the God who drives him is demeaned and misunderstood.  

If Christianity is a warm fuzzy, it is then misunderstood. Christianity is the family tradition of the one who voluntarily walked to his death on the cross. It is the family tradition of the one who was despised by all men, simply because he did the will of God.  

If Christianity is an easy and pleasant path, there’s every good chance it is the wrong path. The good works of man may be nice, but they are far short of what God can do in us.  

I have not accomplished hardly anything in Christ. Yet I find the path he has taking me to be thousands of miles above my ability. And as I do his will I am reminded of his glory in Christ Jesus. When I fail to listen to him, I revert to the man I used to be. I simply become a man who has done a few “good” things.  

Look at what Jesus said.  

16 Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me. 17 Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. 18 Whoever speaks on their own does so to gain personal glory, but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him. 19 Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?”

God will give understanding to the one who asks earnestly. The way of God is light years beyond man’s ability to perceive. “you can do nothing without me”, The Lord said.  

Onward.


The religion of a man comes about because he thinks he has found the extent of God’s requirement for him.  How far the man goes in Christ depends on how much he desires to learn.  Doesn’t our obedience to the Living God’s Holy Son depend on our will?

God has in mind for us great things.  He has in mind for us beautiful, holy, righteous, eternal, and glorifying things.  But far too often man settles for some small routine.  He gathers about himself just enough to say, “I have done the Lord’s will.  He is pleased with me”.  Such religions have a veneer of righteousness.  But consider the following.

God is not my co-pilot.  He is the one at the helm.  He owns the ship.  He owns the Sea and the Wind.  He owns the place we are going to.  He owns the place we have come from. 

The religion of man tends to say, “I have pleased God by coming through that door.  I will then go back through that door and return to the place I am”.  How can that be reasonable?  It is so easy to do the things we have learned to do.  Still, the Lord beckons us unto death; death to self and Life to Him.