Tag Archives: death

Compare and Decide

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The Seal of the President of the United States...

The Seal of the President of the United States, as was in use in 1894. This seal continued in use until 1945. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The entire world will love you if you settle into your life quietly and without complaint.  While in that mode you’re allowed to steal a little.  After all a man has to survive, doesn’t he?

The entire world will glorify you if you lie just enough to gain advantage over others.  And if you’re a really good liar, they might even make you President of the United States of America.

But most of us are just plain folks.  We settle into a job, raise a family, and die in some obscure condition.  For the most part we will have lived out our lives in obscurity.  Now this is a general truth.  But there is a specific truth that walks right along side the general truth.

The world will hate you with a passion if you take a stand against lies.  The world will confront you if you speak up.  And if you make a case against their ways, they will look for a way to silence you.

It is wise to consider these things.  For we all die having lived the life we did.  Right after that comes the judgment.  Look at this:  We live for what, 50 – 90 years?  What is that compared to eternity?  When you have lived for 9 billion years, will you remember that short 90?  Why not take a stand?  You’re gonna die anyway.  Why not speak up?  What are you afraid of?

Believe!

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English: Man's Sin, and God's Promise; as in G...

Image via Wikipedia

Settle matters with death. Once a man has settled his mind to accept death as that inevitable doorway to eternity, he is free to live the rest of his days without fear of anything.  Then what can be held against you?  The world is caught up in living.  God’s people are not to be that way.  They live dead and do all they can to retain what they can’t keep; even their flesh.  But God’s people have settled it in their mind that Jesus has taken away that fear of death which once held us as prisoners.

We have heard that Jesus will take His people into the peace of His Father.  We have heard that He is even now preparing a beautiful place for those He incites to love Him.  We see the marks within us of obedience to the Father’s Will.  And we firmly believe the promises He has spoken.  Then we believe, without the slightest hesitation, that God is true.  What He has said He is able and willing to do.

How odd these things seemed to me as I first read them.  But after watching His hand bless my life, belief is the only reasonable conclusion to retain.  For now we don’t see Him with our senses.  But there is a Spirit who confirms these things to our hearts.  Don’t ever let anyone teach you anything other than what the Lord has said in the Bible.  Believe, and you will live though you die.

 

What is the answer?

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Clock

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When you went to bed last night, was the day over?  Had the day become history?  And had all the worries of the morning become written down in your experience of reality?  Yes.  These things are true.

It is also true that when we die our life in this bag of flesh will become “over”.  Our testing will have become history.  All our worries will become written down in our experience of reality.  Yet.  All these things are true.

Speak to yourself.  Ask yourself this question out loud:  “Is it too much to ask to obey the Lord for the short years He has given you to live?”  And listen closely to the answer you give yourself.  Your flesh will balk about that.  “I don’t want to obey!  What?  Are you stupid or something?”  What will your soul speak to you as an answer? 

 

By His Grace.

The Swatter is Coming.

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Common house fly (Musca domestica).

Image via Wikipedia

The fly buzzes my head.  And he gives no thought that he is irritating me to violence.  He does not notice as my hand reaches for the fly swatter.  And he takes no notice of how I have dressed myself in patience for his destruction.  I will wait for him to lite in a place of my convenience.  Then I will unleash his end.  What was tethered in patience will become a lightning end.

So it is with the wicked against the Lord.  They give no thought of how irritating they are becoming to the Lord.  They do not notice how their lives are headed toward a place the Lord has established, the place of their destruction.  They speak and rail against Him while they take no notice of how He is dressed in an eternal patience.  They are the ones who count the minutes.  The Lord only counts for the sake of those who number, for eternity has no number of days.  He waits for them to lay down in the dirt; their days spent in rebellion and hatred for His Righteousness.  And then, He unleashes His perfect and Righteous Judgment upon the wicked.

By His Grace.

To Ride the Dark Ride.

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We face the man of darkness.
He stands before the door.
“Through this place you will enter.
Your dress of flesh: no more.”

“I don’t want to enter”, the beg is clearly made.
“I want what I dare to want”.
“Regardless”, speaks he, “You will enter here.”
We are forced to receive his black taunt.

So we go through that forbidden place.
And since we must ride the dark ride.
What shall we do for preparation’s great sake?
For from God’s Great Law we can’t hide.

Open the box, then, and let me peak in.
I’m sure that the contents astounds.
But better received is the thrust of my shame
While I’m dirt and to flesh I am bound.

By His Grace.

Has the Lord Been Here?

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Entrance to the cave

Image via Wikipedia

Every night my tent is pitched at the place my feet arrived.  And I settle down to rest from the noise.  The body seeks that certain death from activity.  And this rest is simply added to the history of many before.  I hope to dream something of interest; not just vague weird shapes.  The night has come.

Every morning I wake to check my camp.  “Has the Lord been here?”  He has come in nights past and left a blessing to that rest.  But none is found this morning.  Yet I take no note of sorrow or disappointment.  For another day has dawned.

The walk is like the masses are camped along a ridge.  And the shape of what lies before us lies vague but daunting beckoning.  “I bid you walk!”  The future thunders with a voice all men hear, “You will walk toward me!”  And we are forced to obey.

I will choose the place my feet will step.  I’m looking for that certain place.  In each day’s journey the Lord has placed a through way.  It might be a bridge, so narrow and spindly that only one may pass at a time.  It might be a hill so high and rugged that it will require every skill I possess.  It might be a dark cave, with only the dim glow of His presence shining from the deep bowels.  It might be a crumbling wall, impenetrable and tall.  Such walls are crumbling with time.  And only those who contain the Spirit of God will see the decay.

Some days are filled with “wait”.  Some are teaming with activity.  Some days are so threatening as to cause us to desire death.  And some days are filled with the blazing heat of God’s presence.  But each day is of its own character.  And the sleep before did not perceive the One who created what we now encounter.

He is God!  He IS!  Forever His will is to be accomplished, regardless man’s willingness to perceive or embrace it.  Look at your way, you people in the land of death.  Look at how your day dawns.  Consider your end and look around you with eyes of understanding.  One more night has escaped your grasp. Though you wished to hold it to your chest, it has evaporated none the less.  Do you really think the day belongs to you?  It will belong to God!  As the night has gone, so will the day.

Eternity is His.  Goodness is His.  Righteous belongs to God alone!  Hatred, ignorance, blindness, doubt, stumbling, and striving are ours.  Yet He is More!  Rise up and look with wisdom at the place you find your soul.  Today is all you have.  And even that is not fully yours.  For our hearts might fail this very day.

 

By His Grace.