Tag Archives: Christ

“It’s Time to Get Up.”

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English: sleeping Japanese macaques in Kanba f...

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Parents know how hard it is to wake a son or daughter to do the things necessary.  How many times do we try.  How many variations of alarm to we imagine and “give it a whirl”.

An adult knows to set the alarm.  The one who knows that it is his hand that will either feed him at night or fold a while longer in slumber; missing an oportunity to provide.

And once awake, both the child and the adult knows a different place of service.  No longer is that one serving himself in slumber.  Now we learn to serve others by waking.

It is the same with the Lord.  How the child of God likes to sleep in sin.  How neglect of the Holy covers him like a warm blanket.  But what is accomplished?  He speaks to us as we sleep.  “Wake.  It is time to work.”  Again he comes to us to find us sleeping.  Again and again He approaches us unnoticed.  Yet, there is a place where He rightfully demands that we wake.  We are His children.  Perhaps a punishment will rouse the eyelids, arms, and legs to do what needs to be done.

But the mature in Christ know to wake early, pray in the darkness before the dawn explodes with demands.  The alarm is within us now.   And we rise with a willingness.  We wake with joy to serve the One who loved us enough to wake us.

Switch Off the Darkness.

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Gods' Creation

Gods' Creation (Photo credit: Kamoteus (A New Beginning))

I walk through the house in the dark, feeling my way through the halls.  Obviously, when the light is on I walk differently because my eyes receive what they need to help me walk without hesitation.  I drive my truck through the night by turning on the headlights.  I look down at the instruments and am able to read them because they are lit.  The moment I turn off the lights I am bound to have trouble.

It comes to mind that God is Light and in Him is no darkness at all.  Therefore He never stumbles.  What is this light of God?  The light of God is righteousness.  We who serve Him have heard of this.  But I see how we often desire the darkness.  I see how we seek out a shadow so we can ponder a return to the land of Egypt.  We are fooled by remembering how sweet the food was there.  But we forget how destructive was the slavery.  We forget how they forced us to kill our children; all the males of the Israelites were to be killed.

Encourage yourself, as even now I remember these things.  Encourage one another, as even now I do to you.  Let us allow the light to enter in.  Let us turn off the darkness.  Let us not look behind and yearn for what was surely to destroy us.  But let us learn to desire the Life of God, that it might appear stronger within us than the darkness that had covered us.  Recall the following scripture and strive to apply it to our every second of time that will be granted to us in this place of testing.

1 Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children 2and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

3 But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. 4 Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. 5 For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a person is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. 7 Therefore do not be partners with them.  (Ephesians 5)

Father in Heaven, please grant that I should learn what my heart has known.  It is my fingers which placed these letters in that specific order.  I have understood this.  May You grant that I may know it to the doing.  Amen.

Winter Past, Victory Attained!

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English: Yosemite Valley in winter

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The people of God wake to spring in America.   As I sat in the dark to listen to the rain sprinkle life to new born plants, I thought about the winter past.  I thought of how quickly a season passes once it is done.  How odd that the strivings of winter fade to a single picture of either success or failure when Spring moves in.  And at the end of that inspection I find work.  By His Glorious Grace I have worked through Winter to become something more than what I was in the Fall.

How beautiful to find that growth has been logged in my history.  I did not do this.  It is God, because of His beauty, who has done this for me.  And not for me only, but for all who hear with ears not their own.  For those who have been given eyes to see what cannot be seen with the eyes of man.  And for all of us who fight that good fight with a strength that only comes from the One who is absolute strength.

How glorious to remember that God is eternal!  To know that there is no shadow of turning within the God Most High we serve through Jesus.  We rest in knowing that unending seasons will continue because God cannot fail.   Death belongs to sin.  And there is no possibility of God sinning against Himself.

With this I rise to serve.  And I remember this:  There is no fear in love.  For fear has to do with punishment.  And he who fears is not yet made perfect in love.  There is no reason to fear Spring this year.  For I remember that He has granted me sweet memories of holy work within me through the Winter.   May God bless all His children with the same victory, and more.

Amen!

By Hiis Grace.

We Know

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We know when we have passed from death to life.  That is to say, we know when we have entered into His blessing.  We know it by the heart of flesh He gives us.  We know it by the intense desire to do what is good.  We know it by the Spirit He causes to live within us.  For we know that the Spirit of God envies intensely for the Good Things Of God.

If we have entered in, then let us explode with the Lovely things of God!

 

Amen

A Necessary Evil?

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May God grant to the living _ Westminster

There is such a thing as “honor among thieves”.  In full, we can consider all man’s intentions without God to be such.  But there is an honor among the holy.  And this can only be owned by submission to God’s Righteousness.

I mention this because all of us face temptations to gain what is not to be gained.  James put it this way:

13 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. 17 So then, if you know the good you ought to do and don’t do it, you sin. (James 4)

What shall be said regarding this? We who worship the Living God through Jesus MUST strive to be a honorable people.   In the end, we must ask ourselves two questions.  Are we willing to admit that we are chasing after something that should never belong to us?  And are we willing to lay aside this “chasing” in order to do what is right before the Holy eyes of the Father in Heaven?

Since we will give account of all our actions, it is wise to become ready to abandon any evil chase.  This is a hard thing to accomplish.  And sometimes it is a hard thing to know what is purely good and what is called “a necessary evil.”  May God grant us wisdom to know the difference.  But above all, may we be willing to accept loss for the sake of what is pure and good.

Peace Offering from the Trench of War.

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Annamite prison cell

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I have been thinking of how this blog is rather unwelcome to so many.  I’ve thought about the firm stance I take against sin with the words I post.  And I’ve been thinking of how strongly I agree with what God has said regarding the sinfulness and utter wickedness of all man’s desires.  While it is possible to come to many conclusions about this, it’s not really that hard to narrow them down to less than a handful.   I’ve come to a certain conclusion that is quite undeniable.  I suppose, like any man, there are other conclusions to be unveiled as time goes by.  But this one sticks out quite clearly.

If worse comes to worse and Christians are asked to endure the kind of treatment as we did at first in Rome, who would you want to be your cell mate?  Would you want a “nice” person who gets along with everyone, smiles all the time, changes position of crucial issues when the winds of society blow from a different direction, and who has never made up their mind regarding the command, “Be holy, for I am Holy.”?  Or would you want someone who has allowed himself to become a stench in the noses of those who love the wickedness of the world.

I know that my words are often irritating, abrasive, coarse, and without the pleasant tone of two friends who meet for coffee in an upscale restaurant.  But I know who I am.  I know who I must be, because of where I have been and where I see us all heading.  And I know that I am not alone.  Who are you?  Are you ready to endure the test as they were forced to endure in the beginning of the Church?  Are you prepared?   Are you even preparing.  Just questions to provoke introspection with a godly eye.  I make no slanderous remarks about anyone who reads this.  I’m just providing a spark of thought about what is radical vs socially acceptable and pleasing to man.

One thing the readers of my posts don’t know is who I was.  I could make a list that you would have to hide from the children, regarding what I’ve done and who I was before Jesus lifted me into what I am becoming today.  Just accept this:  Short of having actual human blood on my fingers, I have committed every possible sin.  I was outcast from the most wicked among us.  Yes, I was that bad.  Do you expect someone with such a view of humanity to be a soft cuddly little Christian?

Now, I agree with God regarding the wickedness of man.  And, brothers and sisters, I would gladly sit in a putrid filthy cell with you and sing praises to the Lord God, our Great King and Redeemer.  Don’t mistake my demeanor for a lack of love.  There is a love which protects with a violence.  Don’t we call them soldiers?

P. S.

The Lord has shown me what I am in the sight of man and in His sight.  In no way does He degrade me for what was posted here.  But one thing that needs said is this:  This is not a licence to attack without specific cause.  I hear what He has said to me.  And He had sent a Lady of His chosing to confirm this to me.  May He grant me the wisdom to recognize a battle from an oportunity to teach.  Amen.

Amen.