Tag Archives: eternity

THE Persistent Question

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A persistent question begs entrance to my soul.

Light is the knock of its perfect fingers on my door.

Yet knock it does, and this all day and night.

Answer, O soul of mine!  Answer that your choice might be known.

 

Share with me, the question.

Share an answer according to proof.

Question yourself, as He demands do I.

Let us face eternity, from the wilderness side of the River.

 

Does our faith produce religion or transformation?  Given the question, we all know the right answer.

If all we want is to be acceptable or elevated among men, then let our faith produce a religious man.

But if we have set our mind toward the love of the Father, then let us endure toward transformation.

 

Millions make no choice at all, in regard to either of these.  They ignore the question completely.

They choose, instead, to embrace the things of this world.  To whatever degree their conscience allows.

They make no choice at all.

As if a shadow in the dark, they meld into the variety of ways the world offers each man to live.

But those who have heard of Christian faith make a choice.

 

If Christ Jesus’ death and resurrection mean only religion to a man, that is what he will become.

If He suffered and was Glorified for the sake of transforming all men into His Holy likeness,

Then let the change begin.

If the latter is our choice, then where is the proof?  Are we but misguided religious Christians?

Do we think we will fool the Living God, forever?   He who loves the world, stands at odds with Heaven.

 

This world, and everything in it, will pass away with a fiery blast.  Nothing will remain but what the man has become.

What will we say?  What will we testify; by virtue of what we have become?  Where will we stand?

For, once this world is gone, all that remains will be Holy, Holy, and Holy.

Will we find that we have endured to the death of desire, or succumb to the great lies of this world?

Can you see?

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One man percieves God as hideous monster; full of Holy law and demanding.  Such a man does not know the law of God, he only knows his own hideous sin.  He attributes what he knows to the Holy One.  “Surely God is like me.  He will strike me with death when I die”.

Explain to him that God is love, and out of the fear that is in his heart, he will nod in agreement.  But there is no agreement in his soul.  He keeps on in his way because he sees no hope of any change.  If God is cruel then he is a dead man, even while he lives, and he knows it.

To another man, God is purely love.  In this man’s mind, God throws His own Righteousness and Holiness aside to embrace the sinner.  The man perceives that his sin will be erased by some miraculous working of God. 

But he does not understand his own obligation to do “The Way” of Christ.  He perceives “The Way” is too hard to walk, but he does not consider the power of prayer in Christ Jesus.  This one hungers for acceptance.  He does not hunger for righteousness.

This man thinks he will be granted entry into the perfection of eternity simply because he exists.  Speak to this man of a necessity of holiness and righteousness, and he will count you a fool.

Still another man will perceive that God demands certain rituals from all his worshippers.  This man may have started out in Christianity, by receiving forgiveness for his sins, but he has studied the law of God and has determined to do the law.  This one will add to his worship “a little here and a little there”.  In the end, he becomes far less a Christian then before he began.

Each man holds the perception of God that he has grown to love dearly.  Some hold fear, some hold love, some hold law.  As a man believes so he does.

Each of the above ways is flawed, and will suffer loss.  How very sad, when the answer for wholeness in Christ lay so clearly before us.  If a man will humble himself and pray, God will direct him into what is true.

But men love sin.  Men love pride.  Men love praise.  All three of these, the Holy Most High God abhors.

You can have the perception of God you want.  No one will stop you.  They may try to teach you with all they have, but you will refuse.  You men, as mentioned above, will do as you please regardless the will of God.  The loss is yours.

What more is there to say

That is healthy to say? 

What is written here is true.  

What would you do?

“Yes!”

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God says, “Yes“.  And he has engraved that Holy Word in the Holy Blood of his Holy Son across all creation!

He says “yes” to our desire to live forever.  He says “yes” to everything that is righteous and good.

If we do not live, as if he has said “yes” to us then, by whatever measure we fall short, we call him a liar.  It is established that God cannot lie.  So then who are we to refuse his answer?

He says “yes“, and so there is sure joy toward the promise of eternity.  He says “yes“, and so we become a righteous people in His Holy Christ.

The first is to believe and be set free from all the things that bring failure and shame.  The second is to “become” and overcome sin and temptation.  The first gives us strength to honor his Holy Name and testify with great boldness, even in the face of hatred and ridicule; even in the face of wicked and unholy doubt. 

The second gives our testimony the strongest possible foundation.  This is the strength to stand with glory; that standing which causes men to wonder and marvel.  We become His “yes” before their very face

God has said “yes” in the very suffering and blood of His Holy Son.  He has said “yes” to the destruction of all who do not believe and remain in the filthy death of unbelief.   He has said “yes” to any man who desires righteousness from his Holy Hand, and looks for it earnestly.

How do we dare say no?  Let us combine our knowledge with faith, and rise up to give Him the glory that is rightfully His! 

Let us not be like those who fell, dead forever, in the desert!  Let us be as the example of Stephen, his holy and righteous servant!

Psalm 50

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16 But to the wicked person, God says:

“What right have you to recite my laws
or take my covenant on your lips?
17 You hate my instruction
and cast my words behind you.
18 When you see a thief, you join with him;
you throw in your lot with adulterers.
19 You use your mouth for evil
and harness your tongue to deceit.
20 You sit and testify against your brother
and slander your own mother’s son.
21 When you did these things and I kept silent,
you thought I was exactly like you.
But I now arraign you
and set my accusations before you.
22 “Consider this, you who forget God,
or I will tear you to pieces, with no one to rescue you:
23 Those who sacrifice thank offerings honor me,
and to the blameless I will show my salvation.”

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I will confess before him and before the Great assembly of all men.  The Lord is faultless and true.  The Holy One remains and will never be moved.

How can I make my soul hear His Holy words, which stand as blazing fire against my evil ways?  If I thought I could stand, I find myself guilty.  What shall be said of this fool?

How shall I escape when none have before, nor will?  I say to my soul:

“You know what is right to do.  Appeal to the Holy One for mercy; that he may teach you his way and you will walk in them.  Appeal not once, but a million times.  Wear yourself out before his Holy Face!  Strive to cause a rut with the knees of your begging, in his Holy throne room floor.

Consider the cost, as you have heard him speak.  He will suffer no loss at the demise of the wicked.  For he does not count them among his things.

But you, you soul of a foolish man!  Go and present yourself before the Most High that you may live!  This flesh must die!”

Holy Squalor

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It is no shame for a man to live in the squalor of this world.  Let bugs and dust cover what he owns, it does not decrease his value.  Poverty is, and it takes its toll upon the prosperity of men.

But if a man is ashamed of the Living God and His holy Christ, what squalor surrounds him?  Though he lives in the greatest of splendor here, he is eternally impoverished, and filled to overflowing with shame.  Though he is forced to live as less, while he is here, the one who is ashamed of God while he lives in the shame of this world is impoverished for eternity.

Every man has the possessions he has.  And he has according to the place he has been assigned.  Yet how few reach to the things of promise.  How many accept their position of shame and think highly of themselves?

To this very day shame is harvested in abundance!   Where, among our things, is the prosperity of God?  Where is the strength that gives life?

There are holy kings who live among the bugs and dirt.  There are holy kings who live in rich abundance here.  These will not be ashamed as they stand before the Most High, for they have not been ashamed of him while they lived among their things.

This Day

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What is this day?  What name shall we give it?  Shall we call it Tuesday?  Shall we make a gold plaque and hang it on the wall ascribing numbers to the day; a month a day and a year?

Shall we call it our birthday?  Shall we use it to count down to celebration?  Is it a day to prosper in the things of our desire?  Shall we name the day according to the desire of someone else?  Shall we observe the day as a socially acceptable holiday?  (Understanding that the word “holiday” was originally set to mean holy day.)

This day has no number.  This day has no name that man can pronounce.  This day is void of specific celebration.  This day does not exist separate from all other times. 

Man has said these things are false.  Man has divided time into day and night by compulsion of the nature of things around him.  But before the Holy Lord God Almighty everyday comes without break between.

Name the day as you will, each according to his weakness of understanding.  But let us also strive to give glory to the Most High.  For the Holy One IS.

As we walk in the Spirit, the things that denote this place fade.  We begin to see more clearly, that the labels and understanding of man are insufficient to describe eternity.  Eternity must be lived.

Strive to see.  Strive to desire.  The flesh and this world captivate.  But the Lord has come to set us free. 

God alone can grant what is God’s.  No man has on his own.  May God grant understanding, in the beautiful strength of Jesus his Christ and our Lord.  Amen.