Tag Archives: Christ

Through or Into the Flames We Go.

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fire

Image by matthewvenn via Flickr

Making a choice regarding religion is not like buying a new car.  Though there are a myriad of religions and a gaggle of new cars to choose from, there is only one God.  So how can we decide what’s right?  There are a few items for thought regarding religions.  And we will prove ourselves wise if we consider them.

1. God is the creator.  So what is made is not the creator Himself.  We can expect then that any religion which holds creation as greater than God is false.

2. Man is sinful and wicked to the core.  Look at how many times you’ve lied in the last 24 hours.  Either you lied because you wanted something and thought it would be the best way around, or you lied because you weren’t completely up to speed with reality.  But you lied.  Consider how many times you looked at your speedometer and found you were going to fast for the speed zone.  Isn’t this breaking the law?  And don’t all people know that breaking the law is to be imperfect?  Bottom line, you’re not potentially perfect.  You’re full to over flowing with sin.  God does not lie.  So any religion which brings man to the place of potential perfection is false.

3. If God is true and every man a liar.  And if He says that all men will die eternally because of their wickedness.  And if Christianity provides a sacrifice for our sins in Jesus (which it does).  Then the choices get very limited very quickly.

 

You’re not going to find a religion, regardless what they say, which offers the hope of the Lord Jesus.  Cults abound.  False hope is as plentiful as corn dogs at the state fair.  But there is One who is true.  And He has marked out the way in the Bible.  Spurn the Lord Jesus and you will reap a whirlwind of horror.  Embrace Him and you will find the power to hope and live.  We have been given one life.  It’s this one you’re using right now to read this.  There is no other chance to get it right.  The Bible holds the Gospel (good news).  Don’t listen to all the trash in this world.  Go straight to the source.

When you read the Bible you’ll become afraid.  I promise that.  And you’ll be tempted to put it down in a hurry.  But that fear is a recognition that the Holy Fire of God is present in those words.  You have to walk through that fire to find the Lord Jesus.  Live or die.  It’s your choice.

By His Grace.

Lead Them to Life.

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A copy of Barclay’s Amoy translation, opened t...

Image via Wikipedia

I lived my life for the first 30 years with no one to guide me into what is eternally right.  Like most folk, I wandered around doing whatever I pleased.  Some days I would consider righteousness and try to do it.  Other days (most days) I would simply try to gain for myself whatever I could lay my hands on.  Drugs, stealing, lying, and social suicide were my tools of trade.

At 31 I began to read Proverbs.  It’s a very simple-minded approach to the wisdom of God.  It was while reading that little book in the Bible that I began to become familiar with the fact that there is a wisdom beyond what is socially acceptable.  And a couple of years later I had read the entire Bible, found a little church, accepted the Lord, and sat at the feet of a wise elder.

I mention all this to draw attention to something.  Where are those who know the Lord?  Are they making themselves available to someone who is looking for the Lord?  I think of how the world is going insane with sin.  Lies abound.  Greed is the order of the day.  The media holds it’s “church” twenty-four hours a day.  And the world flocks to the “mass” hysteria of waste.  Where are those who know the Lord?

The mainstream church is partially to blame for this lack of mentors in Christ.  They teach a social Gospel lately.  Their Gospel is more in line with an office with a couch.  “If you want victory over this and that, just do this or that.”  Where is the power of God?  Who is dispensing the Glory of God revealed in Jesus?  Where is the Christian who is actually ready to reach out to the sinner with truth, no matter how it will be received?   By “ready” I mean seeking an oportunity.

I present this post for consideration.  I don’t want to offer answers.  I think the questions speak for themselves.  If you’re one of the active lovers of God, then wonderful (and thank you).  If you’re just a pew sitter/sinner, consider what you’ve just read.  Bottom line is: if you don’t like the society you’re living in, remember that shutting up the true Gospel of Christ is key to the problems we’re witnessing today.

By His Grace.

News Flash

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Elephant in the St. Louis Zoo

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An Elephant woke one morning to see a convoy of trucks passing by.  His tiny brain got an idea.  With smiling eyes, he lumbered over to one of the trucks.  His deft trunk reached into the truck and plucked the driver out of his seat.  Then, to the double amazement of the driver, the elephant began to try to get into the driver’s seat.

This is to all men, women and children.  You can imagine yourself as anything you want.  But the nature of our condition determines who we are.  You can call yourself a Pilot.  But unless you actually can and do fly a plane, you’re just fooling yourself.  You can imagine you’re a Chicken, if you wish.  But unless you’re really that small, feathered, beaked, and stupid, you’re still a human.

You can call yourself a Christian.  But unless the Lord causes you to be one, you’re just making noise with your lips.

“Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain.” (Psalms 127:1)

“11For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.  12Now if any man builds on the foundation with
gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13each man’s work will become evident; for the day  will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself  will test the quality of each man’s work. 14If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. 15If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.” (1 Corinthians)

“Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spiritgives birth to spirit.” (John 3: 6)

Go ahead.  Go to church.  And, as is your custom, continue in sin when you leave that place.  You think the sign you hang over your head causes you to be something you’re not?  Remember the Elephant and the Chicken, and the Pilot.  God is deadly serious about His Holy demands for mankind.  Only the wise will continually reach up to Him for that transformation He demands.  No man will find himself justified by his own desire.  Justification and eternal life are from the hand of the Lord.  Open your hard heart.  Drop your pride of life.  Listen to what the Lord has said.  The verdict on all men has already been rendered.  There is no life other than that which the Spirit of God builds in man.  And there will not be one shred of man’s accomplishments which will enter Heaven.  Unless the Lord has accomplished it in you and through you, you have accomplished nothing.  Pride of man is an ememy of God.  The name you give yourself is less than nothing in the eyes of God.

By His Grace.

Righteous Lame.

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broken_foot_2

Image by DaveCube via Flickr

You walk through life and ponder your fate.

By the things that are now in your hand.

And you look round at “yours”, boasting proud of your name.

But have you looked to Heaven’s True land?

“Religion is mine!”  You proclaim with great pomp.

And you boast of your future great fame.

We are sin from the start, and will not mount the stars

Without eating dirt, whence we came.

Consider the Lord and His wonderous fame.

Look long into His Glorious Name!

We are dust from the first.  He is God, so proclaimed.

Render your self “Righteous Lame”.

 

By His Grace.

All the Way.

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Highway

Image by yewenyi via Flickr

You’ve heard it said, “All the way . . .”.  “Pull it all the way out”.  “Take it all the way there”.  The phrase “all the way” indicates completing the task.  In Christianity, we are encouraged to “walk in the way”.  And the two phrases combine to describe the expectations of the Lord for His people.

Walk in the way.  Stay in the way.  And continue until you have reached the end of this way.  Do not let yourself slip to the right or the left.  Do not shrink back from moving forward in the way.  And continue in this manner until you have completed your life.

What is the way?  Listen with all your heart, strength, and soul to what the Lord has instructed His people to be and do.  Read the Bible with a desire to understand.  Pray with earnest honesty to the Lord for help in understanding.  Then practise what you are learning.  Continue in this way for all your life.  It will do you no good to say, “Well, at least I tried a while to follow Your requirements.”  Those who will receive the “Well done, good and faithful servant.”, will be the ones who have applied the Lord’s demands with a continuing effort to please His Holy Will.

Do not let your life become a fool’s work.  Consider both the warnings and the promises.  Consider them all day long and into the night.  Keep your feet from slipping in this world of slick ground.  Corruption abounds.  Don’t let it taint your way.

And a highway will be there;
   it will be called the Way of Holiness;
   it will be for those who walk on that Way.
The unclean will not journey on it;
   wicked fools will not go about on it.

(Isa. 35: 8)

By His Grace.

“i”

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Death

Image by tanakawho via Flickr

If we die tonite, few will cry.

 

We die like dogs; just food for flies.

 

In dirt is where our bodies lie.

 

The bugs and worms, we satisfy.

 

But LIFE demands we testify.

 

Though hopeless masses vent their cry.

 

There’s One who hears and bids, “Come nigh”.

 

“I’m strength enough to change your life.

His name is Jesus.

By His Grace.