Vanderbilt University College of Arts and Science (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The headline reads, “Vanderbilt Says Christian Club Can’t Require Leaders to be Devout Christians.” Ok. Shall we tell Vanderbilt that they have no right to retain only competent teachers? Shall we tell them that they must retain a few useless drunks in teaching positions? After all fair is fair.
Father Ford in the fire truck (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
A dead body cannot be responsible. Neither can a fool be responsible. It is even hard for a righteous man to be responsible. Why? In answer, let me take responsible apart: Response Able.
God has given gifts to men for the sake of His Holy name. He has given forgiveness for sins. What is our response? Do we dress ourselves with ability to respond? Or do we take His Glorious gift for granted. He has spoken in the gathering of wickedness. He has danced a Holy dance in a body for all to see. He endured this place of testing without sin. And God has granted Him, (Jesus) Glory, Joy, Eternal Life as the Ruler of all.
I look at the ability of Jesus to respond to His Father as He walked in this utter black world of decayed souls. And I am amazed that He performed perfectly! He did not cave to the words and actions of man. He desired only to be available to the will of His Father. And He shunned all proposals to capitulate with the enemies of His Father. He made Himself able to respond to the will of God. He is perfectly Responsible to God, the Father of all Life and Righteousness.
With that in mind, I ask again, are we individually able to respond to the Grace given us? Are we responsible Christians? I write this with a severe anger at the sinful nature within me. I remember what was spoken, and will not be taken out of the way, “Hate what is evil and cling to what is good.” This is what is asked of us. And it is not an unjust request. For He gives us the power to over come. What will be our response? Are we able to be willing to work?
We retain men who have learned to put out fires. If they are not responsible, what is the possibility that they can carry out the charge that has been laid upon them? God has retained us through the sacrifice of His Holy Son. Are we responsible?
An Inconvient Truth (Photo credit: yuan2003)
Allow me to speak as one who has been accepted by Jesus. I am a Christian who has been a horrible sinner. Drinking, drugs, profanity, blasphemy, immorality, and every other kind of sin were the banner of my life. I don’t say this to brag at the amount of change in my life. What I mean is that I don’t say that as a badge of some sort. It is not to my honor that I lived like that for over 30 years. And it is of no credit to me that it took nearly 50 years of living to come to terms with the Lord Jesus. I speak of these things to show you that I know what it is to live in wickedness. Now I am going to speak as the man who God has caused to inhabit this bag of blood. And it is to the wicked I will render these words. You who have also came from that kind of life and now find yourselves blessed by the presence of God will know what I am about to say is true.
What will you do, sinner and foolish men, you who now walk as if there is no accounting? What will you do when you are older and find that those you have trashed along the way begin to die? What will you say? There is an accounting here in the flesh. It will fall on you with great noise in your soul as you watch opportunity to make things right evaporate before your very eyes. You who divorced the mother of your children, what will you do when she dies before you do? What will you feel as you realize that your hope of making things right between you is absolutely and forever gone?
You who have abandoned the children you have fathered, what will you do when one of them dies before you do? What will you cry that will make it right between you? There is an accounting to be had even before the judgment of God. I can testify to you that you will weep like a little child. Ache in your heart will overwhelm you. And you will be left with nothing to say, no where to go, nothing to do that will be useful.
This post is a warning that sin has consequences. If you are wise you will listen to what I have said. I do not speak as one who supposes these things. I have tasted them and warn you as one of you who has become full of hope in Jesus. Yet that plague of regret enters my life uninvited. I do not weep as you will weep if you continue on your path of wickedness and rebellion before God. But weep I do, none-the-less.
I urge you to do all you can to make things right now. I tell you a truth. A moment is coming toward you with earnest speed in which you will loathe who you are. Now is the time to rise up and find courage. Or you can simply wait long enough. And you will surely see that what I say here is true.
By His Grace.
Television set for Wikipedia userbox icons, or other things. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
It is a shame, the wickedness of man. When the veil is torn apart and man stands before the Most High God every shame of man will be exposed. Oh how they will wish they had spent their lives searching after the things of God.
But there is an even greater shame today. There are a people who have been bought by the evil one. They put themselves on the block to be bought, taught, and sold into slavery. Who are these? They are the ones who will tell a man of God that they have no time to better themselves in the things of God. Yet these are the same ones who will spend 5 hours a day watching television.
It is to their great and utter ruin that they allow their precious days to pass like this in this place of testing. They allow themselves to learn the items of wickedness to a fine honed edge. But they spend no time learning about the things of God.
They have become pawns of wickedness. They are traded and laughed at all day long by those who hold them in a trance of blindness. “Buy this. Act like this. Desire this. Endure this. Teach your children this. Embrace this life of useless wickedness, for I command you who waste your time here to learn from me.” And they will indeed buy, act, desire, endure, teach and embrace every wicked and utter abomination set before them.
Woe to those who crave the things of this world and make no preparation for the coming visit from the Holy One of Israel! Woe to them. For they have set themselves apart for evil and made no attempt to please the One who made them. Do they really think they will receive a rich welcome into His presence?
Bow and arrow (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
In the days when arrows were the prime weapon of armies I’m sure there were warriors who could recognize the sound of a launch before the arrow got to them. They would walk into battle listening for that special sound. Then they had trained themselves to duck or dodge left or right before they had time to think about it. It was a learned skill that kept them alive through many encounters. And it must have frustrated the Bowman to watch his target avoid his attack.
This is a skill that can be mastered by the Christian. It is quite possible to “hear” the launch of attacks from the evil one long before they reach us. But we must learn to “listen” with all our might. We must pay attention to what is happening NOW. And we must learn to retreat into the power of the Holy Spirit quickly, even automatically.
Teddy Bear (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
There is an entering into Christianity much as there are “entering ins” in the world around us. We enter into kindergarten and experience a whole new world of knowledge and honing of abilities. In Christianity, I guess, we could liken this to the favored verbal acceptance of Christ Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
There is an entering in that happens when we move into the school system between grades 1 and 12. Every year we are expected to grow in knowledge and ability. And in Christianity, again I guess, this would equate with the body of knowledge taught in what is called the Church today. These are basic truths that can be found in writing. In school we call them text books. In the Church we refer to the Bible, hymns, and other literature that surround the Christian with appropriate knowledge. Each of these have their supported values in season. But I propose that there are two more enter ins that should happen to every Christian.
After grade 12 some go on to college. Others move directly into the work force. But regardless their choice, they are not faced with a rather loud slap in the face. “No more learning the basics. Now you learn how to apply what you learned before.”
One of the entering ins that are obvious is that of entering into the peace of God after the judgment. We know that will be an eternal entering. And those whose names were found in the Lamb’s book of life will never again exit His presence. The other “entering in” is rarely considered in the Church today. It has to do with a certain undeniable confidence we gain before the Lord. It is the place where faith and hope turn into a kind of knowing. We are no longer tossed about like styrofoam on a wildly tossed sea. We become settled in the matters of forgiveness, holiness, obedience, and love.
I urge you to look into this for yourself. I know it is real. And there are times when I experience this for myself. But it comes and goes according to our understanding of His love toward us. We are no longer called servants then, but we are refered to as brothers. For a servant does not know his master’s business. But a brother is part of the family and is heir to what is yet to be unveiled by the Father.
There is another reason to seek out the truth in this matter: “Now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming.” (1 John 2:28) Have you given much thought of what you will do when you see Him face to face? Remember what the prophet Isaiah said? Such a sturdy servant of the Lord, and yet he could not stand. “”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.” (Isaiah 6:5)
Let’s get sober here! Don’t listen to those who paint the Lord Jesus as a big cuddly teddy bear.
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