The Plead is Challenged 


Desire lay soft upon the sea.  
Desiring life for you and me.  

Joy abundant thrashes about;

Celebrating what’s come to be.  


The joy dispels as the predators come.  

Each back to his business,

To where he is from.  


Still Desire continues unpraised.  


Praise to the fins.  

Praise to the gills.  

Praise to the waves,

Which for now run still.  


Desire desires to hold and protect.  

But hark to the fishes,

“We consider guile best”.  


Down to the bottom,

Scattered about,

Perplexed, disassembled,

They answer the shout.  


The whisper forgotten.  

Their joy turned to gloom.  

“Better living with trouble 

Than to turn to the groom.”

The Answer


Weasels wuzzle
Beehives buzzle
Life’s a puzzle

That’s why you need Jesus

No Easy Task


Provoking thought of the “Day”:

At the risk of offending millions, (How is that a surprise from me?):
I do not need the counsel of people.  But I ABSOLUTELY need the counsel of God.

People’s advise may or may not be right.  God’s is never wrong.

But here’s where people often have difficulty.  They turn to people before they turn to God for the advise they need so desperately.  When we do that we’re likely to get a handful of opinion mixed in varying degrees with “truth”.  Isn’t that where gossip comes from?

And here’s the offence.  I have found that people don’t go to God for His advise, simply because it’s easier to ask someone else.  It’s so easy to rely on the things of this world.  It’s no easy task to trust in faith.

The Process of Christianity


There is a lot of confusion regarding Christianity.  Granted, there is outright hatred for anything that belongs to God.  But there are also many who simply don’t understand.  I write this for the latter.  The former will remain beyond my reach.

Christianity is not a religion in itself.  Christianity spawns, or gives life to, true understanding.  It is undeniable that there are many corrupt variations of Christianity.  But the one with an honorable heart will divide lie and fiction from truth.

The process of becoming a Christian, for the most part, takes a rather predictable course.  There are great variations in means, but the mile markers are not hard to to denote.  Let us begin.

The man recognizes his lack of ability to conquer the onslaught against him.  This world is full of chaos and unknown difficulties.  Added to the physical violence he perceives, comes and almost subconscious awareness of perfection. 

With an earnest chasing after wisdom, the man begins to perceive the vast nature of perfection.  If anxiety was provoked by the chaos of this world, the nature of perfection compounds the man’s concerns.  The man has reached a milestone of understanding.  Now he is ready to encounter the next mile marker.

As his years slip by, death becomes more real.  When he was young, death was only some imaginary trouble.  But now, with the same chasing of wisdom, the man begins to examine his own end. 

Futility looms heavily over the path he knows he must walk.  How deep the chasm of his futile life becomes, especially while he has begun to examine the nature of perfection.  One aspect of perfection rises very tall;  “If there is life, why is there any death at all?”

At this mile marker the man is forced to make a choice.  Will he resign himself to obvious oblivion, or will he seek that perfection he is coming to desire?  Wisdom says, There really is no choice son”.

This is the very place where many fall away to pleasure; “Let us eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die”.  But a few will press on, for they know there is something more to be had.   Exactly how they know this, they cannot explain yet.  But it is these few who will proceed to the next milestone.

Again, the man is faced with a choice; should he swallow his own observations and simply join the crowd, or does he dare to step away from others?   Though his soul cannot agree with them, the temptation of his body is to remain included with humanity.

It is exceedingly difficult for anyone to say that God began a work in a man’s life at a certain place.  But regardless when it happened, there is a marked difference which a man can perceive.  Such a man does not think like the masses, and he knows it.  This sliver of knowledge is found as the man approaches the next milestone.  Metaphorically speaking, that awareness shoves the man through the door.

It is the diligent, honorable, and earnest heart that decides to encounter the obvious best solution.  Nothing has changed regarding his futile life.  His death still looms vibrantly before him.  And the nature of perfection has more clarity than ever before.  Whether others perceive these things or not, the brave will enter in.  Welcome to isolation.

Now God moves to introduce perfection.  The Holy law of God is introduced to the man.  Here many perceive the height of expectation, and run back to the crowd for solace.  But the man with an earnest and true heart will kneel before the Living God in prayer. 

The standard of perfection is too much for him to bear.  But so is the futility of his life.  With no place to turn, he has dropped to his knees to seek mercy.  “If God is real, he says to himself, “he will show himself to me now.  I have encountered the absolute impasse.”

The man has examined his life and found fault.  The man has examined the world and found the same.  But with his earnest heart, he cannot find fault with the laws of God.  Now the specter of his death is set ablaze with a Holy Fire.  There are no more choices left for him to take.

The only possible choice, to avoid the inevitable, is to turn away from this search completely.  But with all he has invested, that is no choice at all.  Willingly, the man rises to his spiritual feet and walks into a firestorm of the unknown.

His faith has come alive, but not for no reason.  The mutual work between the man and God has produced obvious conclusions.  It is time for God to make an eternal choice; at this point it is righteous to introduce the man to the Holy Son of God, Jesus.

The man has reached the first milestone of heaven.  he has become a Christian.  After this, there are thousands markers more to attain. 

But it is at this place where I will cease this writing.  This sessation comes, because beyond this place, the predictability of the man’s encounters with spiritual milestones belongs to the invisible God.  Where God will take this man is absolutely unknown.  What service the man will supply for the Holy Son of the Living God, is up to God to decide.

Beyond this milestone, the choices of the man matter very little.  It is the intent of the Living God that will drive the man from here on out.

I have written this for the sake of those who argue against Christianity by the use of the human experience alone.  To some degree, the human experience begins the search.  But our experience on this earth is not capable of grasping the fullness of God’s Grace, or will.

I know there will be arguments against these things I have written.  But there will also be honest questions.  I publish this, willing to receive either.

I have not written this to challenge secular mindsets.  And I cannot say that what I have written is a blueprint for every man.  But I have written this that it might be seen, there is a relatively logical progression to be taken between the mind of a worldly man and the mind of a Christian.

I will finish this writing with the following thought.  True Christianity is not a product of any man’s personal choice.  It is produced by a mutual willingness between God and his people.  Christianity is a living experience in which the truth of eternity is revealed, to whatever extent the Living God is willing to reveal it.

With what relative innocence I can muster, I have written this without a desire to judge, chastise, pigeonhole, or destroy.  There are battles to be had.  But let this stand as an offer for peace.  The Spirit of God within me is quite capable of waging wars of words and ideas.  But such things will present themselves when they do.

May God grant understanding to anyone who reads these things.  For without his help, no understanding will rise to the surface.

By His Grace

Befuddled Buffoons


image

Does anybody remember this guy?  What a beautifully befuddled buffoon.  Of all the characters on Green Acres he was always my favorite.  Maybe that’s because I’m a lot like him.

I never was a seriously smart man.  And I was caught up in some kind of weird third dimension.  Every time I thought I knew what I was talking about, another tidbit of truth would cross my mind, leading me down some obscure path.  And people always had that pained look on their face when I talked.

The character, Hank Kimball, just had this beautiful way of questioning everything he ever said.  Truth was his worst enemy.  Or was it?  Actually, Hank was the only reliable one on the entire show.  You could always count on him for confusion.

It appeared like he didn’t know anything.  But he was full of information!  His only difficulty was, he couldn’t get past truth.

I have learned that the more intense our scrutiny of truth, the more debatable the things of this world become.  And at some point, for self-preservation, we sort of beg out of human encounters.   Conversation with others gets really uncomfortable.  Most folks don’t question what they say.  But I always did!

God’s truth has really settled into my heart.  So that finally, I’m pretty sure of what I believe.  But it wasn’t always that way.  And the memory of my fragile mind plagues me.  Frankly it’s about the only fear I have left.

This is why I’m not a public speaker.  This is why I love to write instead.  I might get excited about a post and upload it way too early, leaving all kinds of errors in spelling or punctuation, but at least I can be sure of my intent.

Are you a Hank Kimball?  Then why not settle on the truth of God?  The world is so full of contradictions.  By now I’m sure you’ve been driven near crazy.  But by prayer and Bible reading you can become very sure of what you know.

God is the perfect solution for every human being.  Even more so for the Hank Kimballs of this world.

By His Grace

Prove Yourself


We all assess by what we perceive.  What people do and say means a great deal.   Such things tell everyone who they belong to.

I assess the world by the people who belong to its constructs.  Are you a good representative of the world’s expectations?  Do you believe all the hype about what “righteousness” and mercy are?  Do you perform the appropriate hypocrisy demanded by the life you choose to lead?

There are only two camps in all creation and heaven.  One is of satan.  The other belongs to Jesus, the Christ of God.  If you belong to the world, then do the things of satan.  Show your allegiance diligently.

Why should I not expect this from you?  You readily expect holiness, pure righteousness, uncompromising mercy, and godly love from Christians.  Why do you think expectations are only one-sided?

Teach me what the world believes.  Show your true colors.  But you don’t.  You hide behind all kinds of shifting beliefs.  Who can nail down what the world believes?  Who can point at satan’s kingdom and say, “That’s what he believes forever”?

But what the Lord Jesus is, remains plainly seen.  You chide us because we don’t perform according to your expectations.  What is that to us?  You don’t even know what’s expected from you.

I challenge the entire world to prove what’s true among all men.  Remove the Holy Law of God, and prove what’s true to me.  You won’t be able to do it.  You’ll find yourself full of doubt before you begin to speak.

Why don’t you stop pointing your wagging finger at Christians, and consider your own beliefs?  You’ll find hopelessness, but isn’t that why you currently despise those who seek after the Holiness of God?  Your ways are hopeless.

The only thing you can rely on is chaos.  And you’ve been taught to thrive within that construct.

The Gospel remains among you.  Seek it out.  Take a long and hard look into it.  Expose your very soul to its teachings.  There you’ll find the truth you are currently missing.