War Up! ( the Law of Christ)


Okay.  I’m going to do a little war hoopin here.  But you likely haven’t heard this for a while, so you might think I’m being kind of mean.  But on the other side of “takin it right” is all the peace and stability you can handle.

From the day of God’s blessing to Abraham until today, Israel has been in a state of war.  Whatever tiny moments of peace they found in that time, were short lived.  And the ensuing battles became worse and worse.  (I’m including the Holocaust in this.)

In the meantime God sent his only Son, and the battle did nothing more than get really personal.

Today’s church knows virtually nothing about this as a whole.  And this ignorance has given rise to a great influx of Tares. 

Well if you’re willing to listen, there’s a fix for this.  If not, may the will of the Living God be done in the advent of the end.

Look at what Jesus said here.  He came to take away the “National” concept (not that it was ever God’s intention).  But he distinctly replaced it with a personal burden. 

34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. 37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 10) 

I have found this to be blazingly true!  If you love the Lord you will be hated.  And this to the extent that I will push the envelope a little farther:  if you are not hated you might want to do a little pocket check to see if you love the Lord.

See how the war was intended to come home.  But he hasn’t left any one as an orphan.  Not only has he sent the Holy Spirit to help and to guide every individual,  but the law of Moses remains among us as strong as it ever was.  What was spoken in Moses’s day is not removed from anyone. 

Not that we should be legalistic in our approach to God, but the fire of his words ought to live in every one of his people as a great raging holy fire.

One small portion of that entire law is one of the greatest encouragements to man ever to be spoken.  It may ring out rather often from the pulpit.  But it is rarely taken home.  If it was obeyed, we would see an entirely different church.

4 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” (Deuteronomy 6)

Since the war has become a personal issue, by a straightforward challenge from the Living God’s Holy Son, each individual has become his own house. 

Binding God’s laws on your hands does not necessarily mean a bracelet, but that everything our hands find to do should have the marks of our God on it.  Obedience leaves a distinct holy mark.

And if we have the words of the Living God in us, our entire perception will be as if we wore a little case between our eyes which is filled with holy and good words.

As many as we can rally to understand these things, to that extent the church is transformed. 

And I will add this:  If you start to speak with every member of your church as if these things were alive and true, with all expectation that they agreed with you, the tares would not think it a gentle place to live any longer.  The Christian social club would have to disband.  And O the war would come home!

By His Grace

How to Start Your Soul


A few years ago they gave me a tractor to drive that was rather odd.  In order to start it, you had to push two unmarked switches simultaneously while turning the key to start the engine. 

Anyone who was not trained how to start the tractor, could not possibly steal it (unless of course they towed it away).  Fortunately for me, the company wanted me to drive the tractor so they explain the process.

I know a man who is convinced that God has lied.  The man has a certain tendency toward sin.  He has heard what others have said.  They speak about freedom in Christ.  They speak about forgiveness and the power to overcome.  But in his search this man did not find either.  So he assumed that Jesus has lied.

God wants us to live a life of overcoming and freedom.  And he has written a manual as to how we can accomplish that.  But the man I spoke of does not read the manual.  How then can he know?

He refuses to believe the testimony of others.  He refuses to believe there’s something he doesn’t understand.  He cannot start his soul.  So he blames the one who made it.

Now, the way I explained it doesn’t sound reasonable at all.  But it makes perfect sense to this man.  And I will say he is not alone. 

There are millions who have not been able to grasp the freedom of forgiveness and strength to overcome.  Perhaps they are not as bold as this man, in that they do not call God a liar.

But if God has promised the freedom of forgiveness and the strength to overcome, their actions speak louder than their lips.  For they have ceased struggling for what is expected of them.  And they quietly wait their turn to be judged by God.  I really can’t imagine what they’ll tell him.

Let’s sum this article up with what is simple and obvious.  If you want the freedom of forgiveness and the strength to overcome sin, all you have to do is read the Bible and pray.  Yep.  It’s that easy.  (Did I mention you have to believe?  Yes those two unmarked buttons work just like they said they would.)

By His Grace

How Much?


Can you name anything on earth that’s free?  Everything costs something.  Even breathing requires an expense of energy from the lungs.  So, even air is not free.  We pay for it by physical labor.  Someone will say, “It’s a voluntary reflex.  And the energy expended is so small”.  But something is paid, regardless.  Isn’t it?

The Christian will tell you that salvation is free.  Now, I will differ with that.  We must believe that God’s word about himself is true.  That’s an expense of personal security, (at least as we perceive security) isn’t it?  Even salvation costs us something.  And the deeper we travel into Christ’s Holy will, the more we are asked to give up.  The more of our “trustworthy” perception we’re asked to relinquish.

I was going to target this idea to the atheist and such like.  But as I went to the Lord about it, I remembered the faithless Christians I’ve met.  I’m not going to go into an attack here.  But it’s important to make this point to all men, evidently.

If you want salvation from the Holy Lord of Life, you’re going to have to be willing to surrender some portion of your “dearly loved security”.  The more you sacrifice your safety, so that you can rely on God, the more He will grant you faith.  And why wouldn’t this be so?

From the man who is sure there is no God, to the one who thinks Christianity is a social club, you need to understand this.  Nothing on earth is free.  And the cost of Christianity is everything you’ve got.

Just Slow Down


Something keeps playing on my mind lately.  It likely has to do with being a truck driver.  But the implications of this thought extend into absolutely every facet of life.

A truck driver jack knifed his rig on ice one night.  His carless driving, in extreme circumstances cost the life of a mother and her baby girl.  I don’t know the outcome of the court case.  But I can assume that the driver was sent to jail on manslaughter charges, at least.

jackknife

(picture is not of the accident I’m talking about)

 

His life ruined.  The family in tears.  The potential of two lives was in the driver’s hands, though he had no clue until the slide began.

Here’s the really painful part.  The next day, the sun came out.  The temperature went from 15 degrees to 45 degrees, within the space of 12 hours.  Within a day the highway was cleared of all signs of the wreck, except for the bent up guard rail.

The implication to drivers is clear.  Just slow down!

The implication to everyone else is, “Just hang on!”

Are you tempted to steal?  Wait till the urge passes, to move your wicked hands.  Are you plagued by sexual desires?   Count off 12 hours before you make that decision.  And how many other “stupid” decisions would have never happened if we had just waited for the “storm” to pass?

Slowing down may mean getting up from the couch, where temptation stews like a pot on a warm burner.  Honestly, in the power of Christ Jesus, it’s that easy.  Without Christ, however, you’re not likely to even be found reading this post, let alone realize there is a way out of your horrible decisions.

The Three Visions


To Christians:

I want to share with you three items of vision that came to me.  But please bear with me in the following word of caution.

I do not share these things to add to my glory or your plight.  In my estimation, these things are useful to all my brothers.  But they should not be allowed to become a source of superstition.  I know the proclivity of man to misuse everything that comes into his hands.

I had three instances of vision the other night.

As I lay down to sleep, I heard my name called out plainly.  If I were not accustom to spiritual things, I would have thought someone called to me outside my truck.  It was that clear.  Not to mention, that the sound came into my right ear, which was laying on the pillow.

As quickly as my mind could process the hearing of it, I asked out loud, “Who calls me?”  There was no answer.

So I lay waiting for what would come next.  I knew it was not the Lord.  So I waited.

I did not need to wait long.  With my eyes shut, I was startled to see a creature, just a little ways off from me.  He stood behind some darkened trees.  The trees were silhouetted against a darkened, yet glowing, horizon.  And the creature stood just on the other side of the trees.

He was white.  He glowed slightly.  But his glow was not like a light.  He was a magnificent creature.  He had no hair.  But his build did not lack for it.  He was seamlessly built.  He had no clothing.  Yet there was a series of shining rings on his chest.  The rings overlapped.  I thought to myself that the rings were golden.  But in the light provided, I could not be sure.  His body was smooth like white plastic.  His arm, which I could see, was not built like a man’s.  For it had more bulges than the muscles of a man.  (I do not think he was satan.  But what can I say I know.)

He was looking at me intently.  Yet he said nothing.  Soon, he moved to his left, behind the trees, and out of view.  Next, I saw him again, moving past me, near and quickly from right to left.  Yet he did not look at me as he passed.

In all this, I remember first feeling some fear.  But I heard the Lord’s voice say, “Be at peace”.  So I just lay and observed.  He did not come to do harm.  He came to intimidate me.

The next vision came rather quickly behind the second.  I saw two men approaching me down a city sidewalk.  Again, it was night.  The first, I can recall rather vividly.  His face was the color of flesh.  His face was well proportioned, according to a man.  He had a line of beard that traced the underside of his jaw.  But it was cut short.  His jacket was black, and in the fashion of a Nehru jacket.  The collar stood up, quite high, and was embroidered with a golden symbol of curves which interlaced one another, and apparently went all the way around the collar.

The one behind the first was but as a shadow man.  He had the form of a man with a hooded and overly large jacket covering his form.  He followed the first.  And I could not see his face.

They approached without words.  But I could see the eyes of the first intently looking at me.  Again, a startle came over me.  But I remembered the words, “be at peace”.  I simply watched them to see what would happen.

As they drew near, the first turned his face quickly and sharply to the right.  And without a word, they both followed the point of his face and passed me by.

I asked the Lord, when all this had passed, “Who are these?”  His answer opened my mind to an awareness I had not had before.  “They are those who desire to have you.”

I have written these visions, the hearing of my name, the white figure in the trees, and the two who passed me by, so that my brothers might know they are also being watched.

Too often we get caught up in the things of this world.  We think we war against many things that are not of the spiritual realm.  But this series of visions have caused me to be more wary of my soul’s intent.  It has “awaken” me more than ever before.  I pray that it adds to your understanding.  I pray it gives you an uplifted awareness.

Be made aware, again.  We share this creation with other creatures.  But do not fear them.  Simply add to your awareness.  We have been set free for the Holy will of the Christ of God.  He will not lose one of those the Holy Father has placed into his Holy hands.  So be put, as was I, at peace.  But heighten your devotion to the Holy Lord who has purchased us all with His Holy Blood.

Point the Tip Down!


Inspect me in your presence.  Grill me with questions designed to test.  Make me speak of The Faith, and surely, in all my words, I will stumble.

I may not say anything false.  But one or two words are sure to come unexpectedly.  They will not be aligned as you have been told they should.  And you will surely label me a heretic.

Or love me as a brother in Christ.  Love me as God has commanded us both to love one another.  Show me the mercy that God has shown you. 

Let me speak of Our mutual Lord.  Let me confess that he is risen from the dead.  Let me confess that he is seated at the right hand of his Heavenly Father.  Accept my confession that my sins are forgiven.  Inspect my actions as well as my words.  And let that be enough between us.  Then we will be brothers in Christ.

Perhaps the Lord has revealed to you something “different”.  Perhaps you have revealed to your self.  Perhaps the only revelation you have is what you have been taught, or what you have read.  What is that to me?  And what does my understanding have to do with you?  Only let us display our faith in that we love one another in Christ.

There are differences that cannot be accepted.  But let those who know better, speak correction in love.   Call them in that they may divide between us.

There are wolves in sheep’s clothing.  But let them speak of the Holy Lord we serve.  In a very short time their error will be seen.  But a wolf will not receive correction.  And he will not strive to listen.  His words are bent toward devouring.  When you are sure of his pedigree, be diligent to see him go.  But by all means be sure.

Valiant warriors on a field of blood point down their swords for a moment.  “Let us not be so quick to shed blood, simply because a man has a foreign tongue.  But let wisdom and holy custom dictate our response.

Then we can be brothers in Christ.  Then we can stand with confidence.  Then we can praise our God together, while the smell of victory floats across the field.”

A warrior is not easily be perceived as a docile farmer.  A liar cannot tell the truth.  And it should be established that a Christian can not hate.

Tired arms raised by souls of steel. 

Hearts aflame with love. 

Praise to our God who set us free. 

Praise to our Lord above!

By His Grace