Tag Archives: Christianity

A Purposeful Tongue Lashing

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How many times do the people of God need to be encouraged before they will take the mantle of the Gospel upon their shoulders?  How easy it is to encourage them to be lax in the things of the Most High God.  They readily embrace social peace.  But war against what is wicked is relegated to a tiny few.

As a child abhores spinach, yet craves the sweetness of sugar, so the people of God have sought peace with the wicked.  And as the sugar will rot the teeth of the child, so this craving for peace has rotted the Church of God.  Where is the healthy mouth?

It is ridiculous to make a call for action for the entire Church.  But let those with understanding mount up for the sake of the Gospel!  To prayer with all of us!  To the things of God, with godly zeal, with every willing man and woman of God!

Let us open our eyes and look around.  Witness the compromise!  Take note of what is unholy.  See how the things of the Glorious Lord Jesus have been brought to such a small affair.  It is considered a trophy to attend church twice a year!  It is considered holy restraint to keep your lips sealed among the wicked!

How near the end of things must it be, that the church has become so complacent?  Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, Valentine’s Day, and so many more, have taken the place of the crucifixion and the resurrection.  And suffering for the name of Christ Jesus has become an abhorrent obsession of a few.

So many Bibles in the world, yet so very few read and understand.  So much time for prayer, yet there is hardly a flake of callus on the knees of God’s people.  So many opportunities to speak out against wickedness, yet you would think Christians are mute; at baptism God rips the tongue out of the man!

If now is not the time to rise up for Christ, tell me when it will come upon us.  What are the signs I should look for, that I might see an explosion of zeal for the Living God’s Christ?  Who, among the children of God, will rise up and embrace the things of Jesus?  And do we need to wait another 7 days for this to happen?  Is it necessary to wait even another 10 minutes!

Who will come and die with Christ?  Who will render his life to prayer, a serious and diligent study of the Word of God, and become an ambassador to the Holy Lord Jesus in this wicked and adulterous place?

Is it true that it takes imprisonment to wake up a soul for Christ?  Will you wait for a house to house search before you commit to a boldness for Christianity?  What are you waiting for?  Define the obstacle so that we can speak of it openly!

Look how foreign these words are among what is called civilized Christians.  So very well dressed on Sunday.  But so putrid against holiness throughout the week. 

The debate among God’s people is not directed at how brightly we should burn.  It is more the focus of what can we get away with.  Where is the holy and burning fire of obedience among Christians today?  Has it not been replaced by wealth, social integration, and dedicated complacency?  Unholy lies dance in our streets!  Children murder one another!  And if one man is caught spreading the Gospel, all Christianity feels vindicated!

Decide for yourself if this is right.  Why should we listen any longer to words of restraint?  Who elected the cowards as our leaders?  Will God not support and catch those who step out from the cowering crowd?  Or has faith in Christ really become such a rare and elusive animal?

I am so tired of watching us hide.  It is sickening to the stomach to see the Glorious Lord Jesus hidden like some abomination among men; as if he had been a rapist, a thief, a murderer, and every other wicked thing!  Do you really think God will honor such purposeful obscurity?

By His Grace

Sayings Worthy of Acceptance

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Sayings that are worthy of retention, contemplation, and sharing:

1.  Receiving the Gospel from a man makes the receiver twice blessed.  For you have kissed your sweet brother with an eternal joy, and you have the assurance of sharing that joy together for eternity.

2.  Christ Jesus is first in absolutely everything.  He is not some passing fanciful and ecstatic joy during a worship session.  He is first and comfort even in the most extreme and horrific circumstances.

3.  Rejection of the Gospel does nothing to eternity.  You were dead before you heard it, and you remain dead as you reject it.  The dead are no loss to the Living God.  Pride makes you think you’re something.  Frankly, you’re just not that important.

4.  A Gospel of extortion is no gospel at all.  God does not desire a people who are under duress to serve Him.  The Gospel is free of manipulation.  It does not demand acceptance.  It is a declarative call for free will.  As we love Jesus we will obey.

5.  God is not isolated from anything.  Only the perception of man can isolate one thing from another.  The concept of “Object Permanence” is taught in pediatrics.  Hide a baby’s fingers and watch his face turn to anxiety. 

God owns eternity, for eternity is of God.  Equally, God owns this wicked place of testing.  For every sin is a distortion of eternity.  Just because the hand of God is unseen, doesn’t mean it’s gone

6.  Every man knows he lives a lie.  Ignoring the truth of Christ Jesus does nothing to fix a lie.  Receiving the fullness of the Gospel of Christ, this is the fix. 

7.  Nostalgia brings no permanent joy.  Soon enough, you will be nostalgia for others.

8.  Everything in this world points to Christ Jesus.  For nothing is created here that was not created by him.  And our misuse of his creation does not nullify his signature.

9.  Fear is no excuse for remaining ungodly.  For Christ did not fear to do the will of His Holy Father in heaven.  Fear has to do with unbelief.  As if the one who fears, calls the Holy Son a liar.  What kind of reception should the fearful receive on that Great Day of Judgement?

10.  There is a difference between weakness of flesh and rebellion of soul.  God is able to distinguish between the two.  The one he will comfort and encourage toward boldness.  The other he will dismiss without regret.  The wisdom of God among men gives discernment.

11.  Death brings an eternal seal to every man; what we had become in life, to that we are sealed forever.  It is of the father of lies to speak anything differently.

12.  Let the acceptable threshold of Christianity remain elevated.  The expectation is godliness.  How then shall we set the bar at 0?  Not one man but Christ can reach 100%.  Yet surely there is a number in between, which we can grasp with an iron grip.

There are hundreds more worthwhile sayings.  But these are enough to keep us busy for the remainder of our life.

By His Grace

Cut to the Chase

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When you go to church on Sunday morning, will you be prepared?  Or will you go with only a partial clue as to why you’re there?

Wishing is useless.  But I wish that in my forties I had known what I know now.  I had all the right knowledge.  I said all the right things.  And everybody thought I really understood.

So no one took me aside, that they might mentor me.  No one challenged my life.  No one asked me to prove the things I was saying.  So I fell flat on my face and squandered a beautiful gift from God.

I will not blame anyone.  They couldn’t possibly have known how shallow my faith really was.  And frankly, out of the hundreds of people I knew, only two had the things I have now.

When you go to church on Sunday, will you be prepared?  Will you go there to worship the Most High God with everything you have?  Or will you worship him with everything he is willing to give?

There is a statement I wish someone had said to me.  “When you worship the Lord, try to percieve the first worship session in heaven.  Then worship the Lord as if you were not here.”

We are so caught up in the things of this world.  We are so caught up in the things called “Church”.  Mistakenly, we think that if we have banded together with men in the name of Jesus, we have fulfilled a proper worship of the Most High God.

There is so much more I could say about this.  But I’ll bet you have many things to say in regard to this also.  And I have learned that it is so much better when we understand these things personally. 

But I will give this a shove in the proper direction.  What we are looking for is the full power of God in a Christian.  Not just the proper words, knowledge, or timely arrival in the proper place

It might be good to ask someone you can trust, to sit you down and grill you about Christianity.  Submit to all their questioning.  Let them either prove what you really have, or show you plainly what you lack.

It doesn’t matter to me how you respond to these things.  Who am I to order anyone around.  But what you stand to lose is a pittance.  There is no profit at all in being incomplete.  What you stand to gain is immeasurable.  What fully profitable things might be accomplished if you fully belong to God?

You could be like me, and wait until you’re 60 to get a partial clue.  Assuming God will be merciful and let you live that long.  Or you could just cut to the chase today.  What could you be in Christ if you gave everything you had to find out?

I thought it might be good to add the following.  Instead of looking for only one man to grill you about your Christian life, perhaps you want to look for a team of three. 

And who knows, in the process of questioning the three may be grilling themselves.  Certainly a profitable circumstance for all.

Humility is the target.  Profitability to Jesus is the cash flow.

By His Grace

Christianity Demands a Choosing

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In everything our God told us, it is our joy to suffer for him.  As he was cast out, so will his disciples be, simply because he spoke what is true.  As we speak what is true, they will treat us like they treated him.

Everything he taught (and by the Holy Spirit of God within us, he still teaches) contains the element of extreme choice.  The teachings of Jesus do not offer mediocrity as an option.  The best examples of this can be found in Matthew chapter 25, and Revelation 3.

Matthew 25 tells us what became of the wicked and lazy servant.  Revelation 3 tells us what became of the Church of Laodicea. 

The world describes joy as happiness, peace, and pleasant prosperity; “Let’s all just get along”.  Christ Jesus describes his disciple’s joy as having the honor to suffer in His Holy name. 

Our joy is hidden in his promise.  The Christian’s joy is not revealed to him as the world defines joy.  For now we die.  But his promise is the eternal joy of eternal life.

As we openly associate ourselves with him, the world will come and try to take away our toys.  They will try, with everything they have, to destroy our right to speak; to mock a life of holiness.  That’s how they treated him.  He has promised, that is how they will treat his disciples.  For that is how they have treated every godly man.  I promise you in Christ, nothing has changed.

Christianity is divided about their response to this.  Some say, “That’s for the prophets only”.  Others say, “This applies to every Christian.  Everyone has to make up their own mind about this. 

10 “We have an altar from which the priests in the Tabernacle have no right to eat. 11 Under the old system, the high priest brought the blood of animals into the Holy Place as a sacrifice for sin, and the bodies of the animals were burned outside the camp. 12 So also Jesus suffered and died outside the city gates to make his people holy by means of his own blood. 13 So let us go out to him, outside the camp, and bear the disgrace he bore. 14 For this world is not our permanent home; we are looking forward to a home yet to come”.  (Hebrews 13 New Living Translation)

It is like humanity to choose the easy path.  It is like Christ to choose the path that leads directly to crucifixion.  But let every man make his own choice.  Only let us be sure that every Christian understands these things.  Teach them well, that they may make an intelligent and willful choice.

By His Grace

From Heaven’s Banks

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What is a desert,

But a place unlivable.

A place where even water

Is forbidden to thrive.

A place where food is:

Quicker than man’s hands,

And acid to the stomach.

A place where a man is:

Destined to die,

And in horrible disarray.

No man passes through

Such a place,

Without desiring the things

Of life.

All this,

Yet God sustains.

The son of unrighteousness beats heavily

Upon the desert of men.

He mocks them

In their plight;

Offering useless promises,

Reminding of delights.

How they make his day pleasant,

To remember roasted pheasant.

While they chew away on cactus,

Malnutrition is their way!

All this,

Yet Christ sustains.

Forced to die and suffer loss;

Of the way of man this is the cost.

Yet there are those who make their way

Fed well by Christ,

And everyday!

You know what I am speaking of,

That healthy banquet from above,

A table in the wilderness

Covered with delicacies of love.

What right-minded man would pass it by?

The jars of water.

The meat is fried.

The succulent fruit from lands afar.

And Holy welcome

From servants of Fire!

But a great traipsing mass

Walks by everyday,

Spurning the offering

Of “The Way“!

Yet of those who sit

And gorge themselves,

How many give him rightful thanks?

By convincing others to come and eat

Of the fruit from Heaven’s banks.

By His Grace

“Made for Profit”

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Companies are not ruled by insane men.  They create a product for the sake of making money.  For instance, they don’t make diapers just so they can store them in a warehouse.  No, they find the parents of poopy babies and advertise their product to them.

No automaker makes cars just so he can warehouse them in some underground bunker.  They selectively advertise their products so they can sell it.  They’re in business to make money folks!

The church is set aside to serve the Living God in the manner of saving souls.  To speak in the vulgarity of man, the church is a business.  The machinery is the people of God.  The output is called godly transformation.  Evangelism: the advertising campaign designed to bring in profit.

But isn’t the church so unlike the reasonable men of the world?  For only in the Christian Church do you see the warehousing of product with no intent to sell!

You know what the problem is?  You don’t believe in your product.

I’ll leave this to stew in your mind.

By His Grace