Tag Archives: Christianity

All things Christ

Christianity is Not a Religion

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Detail - Glory of the New Born Christ in prese...

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The foolish look on Christianity as a religion; just a single example of man’s contrivances toward pleasing his version of God.  The wise, those led by the Spirit of God, encounter Christianity with a fearful and understanding heart.  They know that they are approaching the Living God.  And they consider their ways with great trembling; aware that they will certainly give account of their lives to the Lord Most High, Jesus.

I have pity for those who live as foolish men.  I was one of them.  I have pity for those who consider religion simply a contrivance of man.  In one fashion they are correct.  There is but one way to the Father in Heaven.  While there are thousands of religions toward gods who are not gods at all.  The religion of man will worship anything from a rock to a cow, from a snake to a star.  But God calls us to the Holy and consuming fire of “The Faith”.  This faith is not born of the mind of man.  And should not be considered as part of the definition of the word “Religion” which man holds so very dearly (either with a loving embrace or with a drawling hatred).

We serve the Living God through Jesus the Christ.   We are not of those who worship God through a religion.  Our religion is the spawn, or child, of The Faith.  It should never be the other way around.  The Faith is first, as it is given and not contrived.  Religion is our response to this gift.  This is the sum of the dynamics of Christianity.  This is how it works.  Yet man would confuse the issue by reversing the blessing.  They contend that religion spawns faith.  They morph the truth of God in Jesus into something evil.   And this should not surprise us.  For the eye of the evil one sees everything as evil.  While the eye of he who loves truth seeks to envision everything lovely, true, wholesome, and vividly alive.

May God grant insight into what has been said here for everyone who reads these words.  Your soul is at stake in understanding this concept.  We do not believe so that we can be saved.  We are saved so that we will believe.  Faith comes from God so that no man can boast.  And it is because of that gift that we come to believe.

Foster Love for the “I AM”

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English: Scroll of the Psalms

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The end of a man’s life is the greatest point of importance.  Regardless what he has done in his life, what he grasps to do according to the will of God for man is far more important.  We take our lessons from the Lord Jesus in the days of His flesh.  We read the Psalms and see that He loved the law of God more than anything on earth.  And we see that God raised Him up to Great glory because of His love for God’s ways.

This is the sum of our lesson, to learn to love the ways of God more than the things of this earth.  Whether this happens at the beginning of our days, or comes upon us in our last years.  To learn to love God and His law is of the utmost importance in the end.

Strive with regret.  It is appropriate.  But also strive to learn to love God’s ways in that you learn to do them.  In this way our days are ended in a holy striving.

The Tested Stone

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Holiness unto the Lord

Holiness unto the Lord (Photo credit: Leonard John Matthews)

I have come to refer to the world as a “place of testing”.  Once a woman said to me that she didn’t agree with that.  I forget what she offered up as an alternative.  But what matters is that God also sees this as a “place of testing”.  How do I know that?  Isaiah 28:16 refers to Jesus as a “tested stone”.  Where was this Mighty Lord tested?  Why, in this “place of testing”, of course.

The Cleansing Fire of Testing

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Isaiah, as directed by the Spirit of God, said, “See, the Lord has one who is powerful and strong.” (Isa. 28: 2)

In the all the days before Christ’s appearance in flesh the Lord God, God Most High, knew the One who would enter our world to rescue His people.  Since before the foundation of the universe Jesus was known as God’s Right Hand.  All creation was groaning under the oppression of man’s wickedness.  All heaven had put up with the wickedness of a few.  And God knew the end of the story, just as He knows it now.

Take heart, you who moan with the burden of this world’s testings.  We are not removed from His plans.  We are a fruit of Grace.  And what He has promised and known from the beginning He will fulfill!  He is not slow as men count slowness.  He is deliberate and knowing in His ways.  Be patient, therefore, the way is provided.  The path is cleared.  Light marks “The Way” for all who would travel it.  We are being called through a cleansing fire of testing.  Hold your head up and walk like men, like men of God.

English: A scroll of the Book of Isaiah

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I AM

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English: Moses and the Burning Bush, illustrat...

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I have searched out what is true between God and man.  And, from what God has been willing to divulge to man, I understand the reason for life;  To learn to live your life with a reverence and love for God, to do what is right in His Holy eyes, and to refrain from as much evil as you are blessed to refrain from.

I have searched out what is true between God and man.  And from what God has been willing to divulge to man, I understand that our perception of life is not at all what is true.  There is a life more living than we.  This life has been from eternity, is now the same as it was, and will forever be beyond this place of testing.

Man says to himself, “I think.  Therefore I am.”  God has said, “I AM.  Therefore you think.”  The pride of man cannot perceive this truth.  For he thinks to himself that he is the end of his life.  Or that man will be praised for the works he has done in this place of testing.  Yet all his days, the pride of man gives no accounting of the Holy God who was before the first shaft of darkness was created.

Humility, on the other hand, recognizes the plight of our limits.  It keeps in mind the Glory of the Most High God.  And never surrenders to the pride of man.  Humility is prime glory for man.  While pride is the abject loss of glory, humility is the crown on man’s head.

Electrons and Papyrus

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The front side (recto) of Papyrus 1, a New Tes...

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Billions of trees fell.  Buildings were constructed.  Cribs were crafted for the children of the cutters.  Trinkets were carved to sell to men.  And papyrus was done away with when man found a way to make the saw dust receive ink and feather.

Since that day, the advent of paper, trillions of writings have been created.  Since that day billions of pages have been destroyed.  Most of those papers should never have been written, for they contained foolish, limited, evil, and destructive teachings and thoughts.  But we are aware that millions, perhaps billions, of them also contained lovely God born truths.

It’s our turn now.  We have this electronic paper to write on.  The wicked have noticed the value of writings.  Shouldn’t the people of God realize it also?

Blogs of wickedness abound now.  And a few of God’s people have begun their own response.  But there is room for far more of us to speak the truth.  You might not be comfortable with telling the world what you know about Christianity.  But let me give you a helpful kick in the seat of your pants, please.  I won’t put all my leg muscles into that kick.  Open a blog and write a post of what you DO know.  It’s fine to start with something as fundamental as “Jesus loves you.”  I guarantee that as soon as you post that, something else will come to mind.

The world is speaking lies with a very loud voice.  I urge God’s people in Jesus to respond with that beautiful whisper of truth which speaks louder than any man can yell.  Allow me an observation please.  If you don’t speak up, who will?  And how do you know that God hasn’t been willing to give you things to say?  We’re not dead yet.  Why not speak for the One you will stare at lovingly for eternity?  If the Apostles didn’t write, you’d be stumbling far more than you are.  And if we allow the wicked to outweigh our writings, where will those who are seeking the Lord turn?  It’s such a simple thing to write what we know.  So very simple that even a child can do it when it learns to write a letter or two:  “Jesus loves you”.