Tag Archives: failure

Midnight’s Holy Voyager

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I took a ride on the floating vessel.  Yet not my body but my mind.

The ticket to ride was not purchased by any thing I owned.  It was given to me by reason of things that are true.  To whom does the truth belong?

I did not board from a dock made by man’s hands.  But I was transported by holy understanding to the deck of a holy ship.

In the light of a holy night, I was bid to look out across the waves.  The movement of which was like three foot swells.

The color of the water was similar to a silt filled pond.  And from the water came a murmuring, like the sound of many men speaking.

A splashing could be heard to my left.  It was like the sound of a man swimming frantically.

An amazing sight gripped me as I looked to see.  Holy hands were working on a portion of the sea!

In a moment the water was formed into the top of a man’s head.  Little by little the torso appeared.

Then with a touch of a finger, the forming aqua man began to glow.  His appearance became like that of water flesh.

Again and again the splashing occurred around the ship.  At random places an aqua man would appear.

I turned to the one who had picked me to come.  I asked.  “What is happening here?”  He pointed to the starboard side saying, “Watch these two”. 

Side by side two heads were forming.  But when the torso had appeared, one continued to form while the other remained only half.

I saw that the one who finished forming was changing in appearance.  From the top of his head toward his feet the color of the Caribbean Sea replaced the color of man’s fleshly tone.  The stilt of the place from which he was formed was abating back down into the sea.

There was a current in his body which drove the stilt to his feet.  And I saw small frothing at his soles which pulled the stilt back to the sea. 

Soon he stood with a radiant face, praising God for pulling him from the sea.  And he began to walk about in full praise of God showing himself to all the waves.

In his walking he became distant from the ship.  But I distinctly watched him evaporate into a beautiful white cloud of brilliance.

I watched the white cloud rise in the moonlight.  Then with a flash of lightning, he let go his water and ascended with great glory.

My companion tapped me on the shoulder.  “Watch now what becomes of the other.”

I looked back to the sea.  There the other was.  He remained half formed.

On his face was evident tumultuous pain.  It was an unhappy countenance, so vastly different from the joy of the other.

There was a frothing at his base.  Within the space of but a little while,  the half formed aqua man was pulled back to the sea.  In a very short time he was no more.

I marveled at the stillness of the water where he had been.  The difference between the two was an obvious and painful knowledge.

My arms had been resting on the railing as I watched all these things.  In astonishment I laid my head in my hands.  My companion allowed me some time to think.

Then he gently put his arm around my shoulders.  ‘Do you understand what you have seen?”  He whispered in a loving tone.

There were tears forming in my eyes as understanding came to me.  “Yes my lord.”  I said.  “I think I do.”

The tears in my eyes were like those of a chameleon.  One eye was watered with joy.  The other was soaked with sorrow.  One eye was held on the place of great glory.  The other transfixed on demise. 

And shall I mention the eyes of my soul?  Those eyes that cannot lie.  With the compulsion of truth, my soul’s eyes saw my own failure.

Perceiving my turmoil, my companion urged me to look about.  And in various places I saw the great creation taking place.  Some would rise to glory, most would fade to oblivion.

I turned to my companion and asked him, “What makes the difference, my Lord?”  His reply was but three words.  Yet they spoke volumes to my soul.  “Agreement or greed”, was all he spoke.

The next moment I found myself in the special place of prayer.  That holy understanding, only a distant frothing of waves.  But the affect is a useful deluge.  As I consider my service to God.

By His Grace

It’s Still “Today”

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They say, “You are only human”.  As if that saying is some consolation.  As if those words remove the spawn of failure called grief.  We have stabbed ourselves through the heart, what can repair such a fatal wound?

In truth they are trying to show mercy.  But it is for the sake of His Mercy that grief has come.  For this reason “being human” is no consolation at all. 

He has loved us with the most inexpressible love.  And the greatest of our good intentions fall flat, like untuned strings on a well made violin, we have no song to sing.  It is impossible for words alone to give us consolation.  We find ourselves in desperate need of what this world cannot deliver.

But doesn’t He come to us very quickly?  Doesn’t he support our slumping frame?  Doesn’t he urge us to continue regardless our shame?

“This is but today my son.  The entirety of your life has not arrived.  I do not give as the world gives.  Let Me be God.  Let Me judge what is true.”  And so, in a variety of form, the Lord speaks lovingly to his children.

Our faith finds no help from being human.  Our faith finds no help in the consolation from men.  Our faith was forged in the bloody beating of the Holy Lord Jesus.  The raging fires of hell only perfected perfection.  Our consolation is delivered with a Holy kiss from life itself.

Christianity is not a religion.  It is an indescribably beautiful relationship with the Holy and Righteous Son of the Living God.  This is why the peace we have cannot be disturbed or even encouraged by man.

GLORY IS HIS ALONE!

By His Grace

Signs of Time

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A single metal folding chair propped up against the outside of a garage door.  A pile of shoes in a Nazi camp.  Church buildings converted to homes or businesses.  The restless and troubled drunk who used to be a pastor.

These are the signs of things that were, yet are no more.  They speak of activity that was. 

But can we really relegate these things to the past?  For the living God in Christ is witness to everything in our lives.

Let every man be wise and consider.  What is done in the body, lives in the mind of God.  “For in Him we live and move and have our being.”

It is man who considers past tense.  It is man who finds it convenient to forget.  To God, all things are.

By His Grace

Success of Enticements

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The world demands that Christians be demure and live in obscurity.  Look how they threaten.  Look how they isolate and murder our brothers.  Look again, and see how effective their tactics are.

As it was in the beginning, so it is to this day.  There are those who profess allegiance to God in their mind,  but their thoughts are peniless, homeless vagabonds.

Offer them a house, and they gladly receive.  For they have no house of their own.

By His Grace

The Swinging Doors

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I have made a great deal of noise about our calling to holiness.  There is certainly nothing wrong with pressing one another to such a high calling.  And every Christian is called to the highest possible standards.

But I have never preached the gospel to a robot.  It’s not likely I ever will.  The gospel is not made for automated consumption.  The gospel is made to be consumed by frail, and even rebellious, people.

Too much talk, however, about our necessity to gain holiness can leave many with a broken heart and destroyed faith.  Not to mention that many people will simply stop listening,  because they know they cannot, or are not willing to, reach to the greatest of Christianity. 

I cannot retract one article or word in regard to our high calling.  The Lord Himself told us to be holy, even as our Heavenly Father is Holy.  So I cannot retract what the Holy Lord has spoken.

So in view of the audience, which the gospel intends to command, there must be a doorway of relative ease by grace.  Such a doorway does exist.  In fact it is a double swinging door.  That is to say, two doors which can open independently, yet are side by side.  One is made of spirit, the other is made of flesh.

The first door was built by Jesus.  It was hung, and operational at the speaking of these words by Isaiah the prophet: “A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice. . .”.  Christ Jesus, being the full mercy of the living God, is the door of grace.  This is the door made of spirit.

You would think this is enough proof for anyone who is struggling.  But God has supplied a second door, due to the weakness of man. 

Often, in a man’s frightful plight, he needs a human example.  As the little boy was reported to have said to his mother, “Sometimes I need a Jesus with skin on”.

God has supplied the second door through the Apostle Paul.  We will call this one the door made of flesh.

As he worked out his own salvation, he fell upon a place of concern.  Though the desire within him to “become” was great, he found the flesh drawing back his upward momentum.  So he spoke to the people to explain his view.  (Failure visits every man.) 

Because of the grace of God he could continue without interruption.  But continuing did not mean he needed to start over, as some are persuaded is true of their own faith.

He intended to forget what was behind and set his mind firmly on what lay ahead.  But he also understood that if he was trying so very desperately to “accomplish”, what would become of the weaker Christians.  That’s when the Lord gave him a door to hang.

The Apostle Paul’s door of mercy hangs right next to the door of grace.  It simply says this: “Only let us live up to what we have already attained“.

Strive as hard as you can, but let God be God.

A great deal more can be said in regard to this.  But I’ve already used a whole lot of words.

In every job there is the craftsman as well as the apprentice.  Each continues to do what he has learned.  Each one adds daily to what he knows.  There are different levels and skills.  But the craftsmen and the apprentice own the job they are given.

Apply this as you will.  Only learn that God is Holy Love.

By His Grace

Losing the War

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I have made complaint, over and over, as to how the world is plummeting to destruction.  I have said, over and over, it is because they denied the truth of the living God among them.  But this morning, understanding comes, as to the mechanics of this plummeting to destruction.

No doubt this subject requires a rather lengthy book.  But I am forced by the willing restraint of the reader to keep it short.  Keeping it short however, will mean a loss of important trains of thought.  So I will leave it to the reader to fill in the blanks.

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I do as my daddy taught me.  His teaching is like a shadow lurking in my mind.  I listened to him speak.  I watched him act.  I gathered the trains of thought in his mind and made them my own.  So also, was the influence of my mother. 

To some extent, their example remains within me.  No matter how I try to shake it with the truth of God, I cannot completely undo their influence.

This is true of every man and woman.  The better the example of truth, the more readily truth is received when we mature. 

But let us now look to the larger scale of things.  Adam and Eve could have told us what perfection was like.  Not so our parents.  And if the destruction of truth was made apparent in Cain, their son, how much more so is it today?

On and on, through the generations to now, the truth has been obscured and forsaken.  If perfection was squandered within one generation how much more so now?

The miracle of change is not the destruction of society.  (The constant pulling away from what is real) The miracle is that truth even remains at all.   The miracle is that the human race is not destroyed already.

What has prevented complete and catastrophic failure in humanity?  The power of God has restrained destruction among us.  As it is written, “Unless the LORD Almighty had left us some survivors, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah.” (Isaiah 1:9)

The world speaks of truth as it applies to society at the moment.  But God has raised up men and women who know the truth according to Eternity.  They have lived among us and taught what they knew.  Those whom God inspired, listened to them and did likewise.

If we want to know why we continue to fail, it is because of the unseen shadow of lies we were taught as children.  Add to that, our natural proclivity toward rebelion, and destruction will run rampant in our streets.

To whatever degree we find ourselves willing to obey the Living God in Christ Jesus, we will become shining examples of what is true and faultless.  But to whatever extent we agree with man, that truth is relative, we will remain filthy examples of rebellion.  (Of which, by the way, are vastly more than those who teach the truth.)

A man’s response to these things, is determined by his desire to love the living God.  Will he allow himself to be used as an agent of truth; helping to sustain life?  Or will he continue in his fellowship with the agents of destruction?

The Lord Jesus is able to change a man’s perception.  Many things we were taught as children remain.  But they are subdued by His holy words that live within us. 

The choice belongs to every man to accept or reject this message.

I will add this final note.

The world will be destroyed. 

The moment will come when God will send His Holy Son take all of his people from this place.  Along with the absence of these people will be the absence of His Holy Spirit among men; that Great Spirit of influence that saves humanity from utter, and catastrophic failure.

Consider this, if you are willing.  When the Lord returns, this place will plummet to destruction.  Violence, chaos, illicit and immoral behavior, will become the norm, within a day. 

Within 24 hours blood will fill every street.  Hatred and violence will rise as the preeminent behavior of all men.  Add to that, the horrors God has promised to unveil in that time. 

We live as a people under duress.   By compulsion we are forced to grapple with these things.  We want to live.  But by ourselves there is no eternal life in us.  We are only wicked animals waiting to devour one another.

You, like I am, are forced to make a choice.  Receive the Lord Jesus, and obey Him, or die a most hideous death for eternity.  The wicked nature of man has no place in heaven.  And without the restraint of God’s Holy Spirit we are nothing more than wicked animals.  Those who think otherwise are convinced of the lie they were taught as children.

The Lord Jesus will return without notice.  It could be today.  It could be a hundred years from now.  It will certainly be when you die and leave this place. 

We are under duress let’s make a choice.

By His Grace