Tag Archives: diligence

The Effective Life

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Pack up your television, cell phone, radio, the social circus, and all the gossip you can carry. Make the trip to prayer with all these things. I guarantee you your prayer time will be useless.  

All those things require the senses and the mind of the flesh. But prayer requires your soul alone.  


You can’t navigate a ship if you stay under deck. You’ll certainly drift if you stay in the ship’s lounge watching TV. You have to go topside to use all the navigational equipment. You have to be topside to enjoy the journey. If you wanted to watch TV you could’ve stayed home.  


The same is true with the ship of your body. You have to set your mind on the Spirit of God. The flesh cannot perceive the Spirit of God, but the soul can. You have to use your mind to make a choice.    


You can’t just ask God to come in and teach you. You have to go to the front door, open it, see the Spirit of God face-to-face, and allow him a place to sit in your mind. Then you can hear him. Then you can work with him. Then you can learn from him. It’s only then that the things of Christ get accomplished.  


Now the question comes: what preoccupies your day, the flesh or the soul. If your answer is the flesh then how can you hear the voice of God? And what preoccupies your time of prayer? That’s a much deeper question.  


Drop all your “stuff” and answer the door.  

ATM’s, Modern Idols

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I know I’m not a good writer.  And if I can’t write well about simple things, how can I possibly expect to write well about the best of things.  But I’ve given this a reasonable shot (as meager as my tiny mind seems to be).   I can only hope that the reader will think it through for himself.  

Yes, that was an apology.  Have mercy on yourself.  I’m just a gate.  Walk through me and see if what I write about is true.  If it’s not, you’ve wasted no time at all.  You would’ve spent that time investigating something else that’s just as fruitless.  But what if I write about the best of possible worlds? Then if you don’t investigate, you’ve lost absolutely everything.  

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Standing in front of an ATM, asking it to have mercy, then expecting it to pump out $400 for you, is rather ridiculous. You’re going to walk away confused and broke.  

There are people who have figured it out: Read the directions. Get a job. Start an account. Deposit your money. Ask the bank for a debit card. Then ask how to use the ATM.   Relatively simple.  I’m sure the bank is eager to help you.  


Isn’t false religion and superstition just that ridiculous, when the Lord’s people are so eager to help anyone learn. Not to mention that the Bible is so easy to understand. The Gospel is preached in every corner of the world. And the Lord Jesus himself promises to guide his people into understanding and profitability.  


But don’t be like those people who read the directions on the ATM alone. If you simply stand in front of the bank, you still can’t get what you want. Success requires continual and faithful work,  a face-to-face encounter, and a live agreement.   


Most people think they will wait to the last minute. Somehow they believe all their sins will be forgiven and they will become glorious creatures. How misguided and sad. There’s a life to be led. There are gifts from God to receive. There is glory to be generated for the Lord of Mercy.  


“Without me you can do nothing.”


The Lord may very well have mercy on deathbed confessions, or awareness instilled by imminent death. But think about all the days that are lost in worthlessness forever. Selfishness may gain you what you want. But it gains the Lord nothing. If your life is not fruitful for God, you have nothing, and are nothing.  


“Many are called but few are chosen.”

Penniless for Eternity

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What is mankind like?

He is like a tiny town nestled in the valley of the mountains.  


He plants a vineyard and a crop is yielded.  


He wakes, come the day of the harvest, and excitedly runs to reap his crop.  


He gives no thanks or honor to God. His busy fingers rape the vine, making sure not to leave even a 10th on the ground.  


He and his friends praise one another for the good work they have done. They think they have accomplished the meaning of their life.  


Greatly pleased with their reward, they repeat these things over and over until they lay in the grave.  


When their soul is wakened to give account, even then they are surprised.  


Ever harvesting but never gaining. Ever diligent but the poorest of all creatures.  

The Accused

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There are a lot of misunderstandings and superstitions about the gospel. Most people would make a very poor defense attorney. They balance the truth of Jesus on hearsay and supposition. They condemn him as less than useful without giving due diligence to his laws and words.  

If you were innocent of a crime would you want these kind of people to represent you? If we wouldn’t like that kind of treatment on earth, why do we treat heaven with such contempt?


Curiously enough, it’s these lackluster defense attorneys who will be the ones who land in jail. The one who stands accused by them has been released by the judge of all. In fact, the accused has been pronounced the judge!

“Where’s the Glory!”

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You can’t live with me in the truck.  For one thing, there isn’t room.  You can’t find your daily meal from cans of soup and beans.  The stove and refrigerator would be jealous.  You can’t be isolated from Humanity but for an occasional confrontation here and there.  6 days a week.  Then home, as a stranger.

No!  This place is for me.

But don’t you have your own, your house, your family, your home.  And isn’t THERE, things “Too much for you”?  Don’t those things clamor like tiny chicks noisily begging for worms. 

No time for rest, or your glory will die. 
No time to compare,
“Who has it better than I?”

Should we think that the Glory of Christ in us is limited “someplace else”?  Is it right to think that if you were someone else you could bring him what is Honorable? 

If you did all the things that a day’s work demands.  What would be said of you?  What would be said of your Lord?  What right would you have to speak among the people then?  And wouldn’t your diligence, honorable and true, be speech enough; not only visible but audible in deed?

His Glory stands waiting in your “house”.  Be dressed.  Serve.

Acts Born of Convenience

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The beginning of a matter is the same as the ending, if indeed the matter is carried through to the end.  This is the nature of a sinful act.  The severity of the sin determines Gods reaction at the onset. 

This is where God has been misunderstood in his judgments against Man’s rebelion. 

We think something is a small matter.  We can’t understand why God has turned his face from us.

See how we don’t understand the nature of Purity, Righteousmess and Holiness. 

To cap this all off, this must be said:  at the beginning of every sin we find that we have conveniently forgotten the laws of God.  This is because we are not the laws of God, but God is.