Tag Archives: eternity

“Happy Birthday”

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My birthday approaches.  But no man will help me celebrate.  No one will notice, for I am not one day older.  They will not perceive my age by white hair or wrinkles.  And few will perceive my age by the words I speak.  Yet the years of man have produced a different soul.

I am 61 years old in the flesh.  But I am about to become only 29 years old in the Lord.  The birthday of my flesh is the twentieth day of a summer month.  I was wise enough to write down the day of my baptism years ago.  The ink says January fifth of 1986.

Now a curious question comes to the front.  Are these years and dates really correct?  There is proof that my flesh came to breathe air on a certain day.  But what about my soul?

Shall I say I made a choice to become a Christian?  The word duress comes to mind.  For if I refused, death remained my only eternal belonging.  I can make absolutely no claim to righteousness before the Living God.  I am His because of His Holy Purposes.

And what of the tiny baby I became?  Who gave that babe a soul?  Who purposed His own desires?  Who provoked me to think like I have become to think?  Doesn’t the Bible tell us we are destined to appear because He determined our days?

What of this thought:  I purposed to become sin.  But He determined my day of eternal birth.  And there is yet a day of completion!  At that moment, I will not have a third birthday.  I will be ushered into an age of dayless eternity.  Who will remember his entry?  By what moment in dispelled time will such beings mark passing years?

For now, nights and days have marked the place I am.  But the day comes when there is no differing shadow.  To this I look forward with a peaceful anxiety.  Then, when the Age to Come appears, “happy birthday” will be a forgotten phrase.

Prove Yourself

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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.

True Pleasure

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If sadness does not accompany us on our waking.  If what is first in our desire, is to be full of joy and laugh.  If we find we can look back at our past with great pride.  If there is no fear within us for the things we love to do.  I submit to every man (Christian or not) , that such a life may not have the Living God within it at all. 

(By using the phrase “may not have”, I mean the odds are 99:1.  For those of you who know nothing about gambling or other games of chance, such odds are not even worth playing.  What sane person loves to play a game he knows he can never win?)

What is pleasurable in the flesh, stands at odds with the desire of the Living God.  There is a joy in the Holy Spirit.  But it is not like the joy of man.  Man is full of joy at what he has.  The Christian is full of joy in The Promise.

There is a history in every Christian that is worthy of peaceful contemplation.  But the world would not recognize it as peaceful.  The world would perceive such a life as a desperate insanity.  For the Christian finds that not one single thought of his own was worthy of thinking.  The Christian’s only moments of sanity, are those places where he obeyed. (And this in direct conflict with the desires of his body)

The Christian may carry a great pride, but it is not for the things he is, nor the things he does or has done.  The Christian’s pride is exclusively in the Lord who has purchased him.  Thus the vibrant testimony, which the world hates, thrives within the man of God.  The man of God will find it impossible to keep his mouth shut.

There is a trembling in fear the man of God owns.  But it is not a fear that restrains.  It is rather a fear that provokes.  It is the very engine of godliness.

The man of God will find that he loves to do the things the world hates.  He will also find that he is full of hatred for the things the world loves.  The people of the world are like a high maintenance woman; they must be entertained 24/7.  But the man of God is full of joy to do the simple things.

To those who stand outside Christianity, I testify that Christianity is not just another religion.  Christianity is always a becoming.  And to those who consider themselves Christians, yet find entertainment their highest priority, I suggest strongly that you reexamine your faith.

While the man of God lives on this earth, he is never at rest.  And the closer we get to the Living God in Christ Jesus, the more dynamic the separation appears.  The closer we get to Him, the less we are in turmoil.  But the journey is easily compared to a bloody and protracted war.  What man can endure such a life on his own?

You can have your life of joy, and peace, and pride.  I would much rather live the life of humiliation before the Living God.  I would rather own no righteousness, than to be full of self praise.

For when I find my own ways abhorrent, then I know I agree with eternal ways of the Holy and Loving God.  And this, my friends, is peace eternal.  This, my friends, is Christianity.

My brothers and sisters in Christ: Check the boxes.  Where has your faith agreed with these things?  Do you find yourself afraid to testify?  Are you fully absorbed in the things the world loves? 

How could you possibly be at peace in godly testimony?  Such a fear testifies that you agree with the world; “Jesus is an embarrassment to you”.

You may think this is a very harsh statement.  But remember that Jesus was not ashamed of his Heavenly Father.  Even to the extreme humiliation of beating and death, he knew he was at war with the things of this world.

Every hero in the Christian faith has lived his life in a desperate war.  If you find yourself living a life of peaceful joy, as you pursue and mingle with those things of the world, how could you possibly be a disciple of Christ?

Any man can call himself anything he pleases.  But there is a line of demarcation.  God himself has drawn the line, in the bloody body of His Holy Son.  And there are far more who straddle that line than those who cross it.

I wrote this to describe the radical difference between Christianity and any other way of life.  But as I came to completion, I began to realize that Christianity has been so watered down that it is almost unrecognizable.

If you consider my last few words to be an attack, you are reading with the glasses of pride, proudly poised on your upturned nose.  The man of God takes instruction where he finds it.  He may not yet be humble, but he knows that is the desired place to live.

I am finished writing this post.  I realize it is not only an instruction, it is also a declaration of war.  So be it.

By His Grace

Arrival

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Morning comes.

Despite the desire of drunkenness, daylight arrives.

Sleep ends.

Despite the depression of soul, waking dawns.

Sobriety dawns.

Despite the obsession with sin, Souls awake.

Judgment explodes.

Despite the secrets of man, Accounting yells.

Who was ready?

Who was prepared?

Who saw it coming?

Who shouts with joy?

Whose mouth is opened despite his will to keep it shut?

Christmas, Eternal

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Today is the day, established by men, to give one another gifts.  They say it is to honor the Holy One of God.

Will you know the nature of the True Gift of God?  Is your soul strong enough to learn?blind

39 Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”

40 Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?”

41 Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.”

How does the “giving” of man, to one another, compare?  The Holy One of God offers the gift of Life.  Will you stash it under green boughs? Will you wrap it in flammable paper?  Will you place the names of the dead within the labels?

What man gives rots, even as he prepares it to be received with joy.  But what God, in Christ Jesus, gives is a growing body of life; pure Light of Holy Life.

Will you pray with humility of soul, at the opening of each gift today?  Will you strive to give proper place to the Holy Gift of God?  Eye entrancing beauty adorns the gifts of men.  But the precious Holy Blood of the Son of God adorns the eternal offer.

(Picture found at: http://gardenofpraise.com/bibcolor.htm)

Righteousness Silenced

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There is a roar in those nations referred to as “advanced”.

A quaking of souls, massed together in humiliation,

Each one buzzes with desire.

Together a thunderous volume of hatred roars.

Against the Holy One they mummer.

For the love of sin they whisper their joy;

Now shouting with their unholy practice.

Do they think the din of unholy noise will not reach Heaven?

Adoring the parade of wicked desire.

Propriety is forced to hide;

That brilliant, lovely, gentle dressing of soul.

“Get away from us!  You have nothing to offer anymore.”

So they turn to perfumes to hide the stench.

They turn to guilded eyes to hide the darkness within.

Rich clothing, consuming of wages gained,

Adorning rotting bodies.

“Propriety is dead!  ‘Proper living’ is useless.

We will celebrate gain!  This we will elevate to holy worship.”

Chaos fills the desire of man.

Unholy things fill his unholy temples.

While the body rises to the strength of proud legs,

His soul slithers on the ground.

As the sharpened blade glints in the sunlight,

So his practices, unholy, glint in the Majesty of God.

As the blade sinks deep to cut off life,

So the practices of unholy men rest on their breast bone.

A tiny shove and life is over.

Let surprise show on their faces.

Let the Holy Lord of Life press truth against the handle.

Let temptation, enticing, lies, and desire,

Be pressed away from Him.

Salvation is offered.

But the One who offers is relegated,

To the shadows of a darkened alley.

Who will dare approach?

Who will brave death to embrace Life?

The Holy One’s promises are eternally true.

One is for death.

The other is for Life.

Rise from your drunken stupor!

You die the Death unrestrained.

How will you stand on that Horrible day for sinners?

What strength will your legs of flesh find,

When He rises to judge?

So be it!

Let your soul slither on the ground!

It is in proper posture already.

For every knee will bow,

Every tongue will confess,

That Jesus, the Christ of God, is King,

Lord,

Master,

Glory,

Honor,

Righteousness,

Faithfulness,

And Truth.

Amen, Amen, Amen!